Horse de-wormer ineffective against COVID

Bella Lee, Staff writer

First bleach, then fish tank cleaner, now horse de-wormer?

And yet, people are still concerned about what’s in the COVID vaccine.

That’s right. In the most recent uninformed attempt to treat COVID, individuals are choosing to take Ivermectin, a horse and cow de-wormer, as an ineffective, and even harmful, form of protection against the virus.

The FDA even came out on Twitter with a statement saying, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

While Ivermectin is approved for use (not for COVID) in both humans and animals, animal dosages are often much higher than what humans can handle. In a statewide alert, the Mississippi Poison Control Center mentioned that over 70% of calls made were from individuals that had taken Ivermectin from livestock supply centers.

“There are approved uses for Ivermectin in both people and animals,” said epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers in a statement.

“Patients should be advised to not take any medications intended to treat animals and should be instructed to only take Ivermectin as prescribed by their physician.”

This is not the first time that misinformation has been spread about what can be used to prevent the spread of COVID. The first time this happened was last year, when former President Donald Trump jokingly suggested small dosages of bleach to combat the disease.

This was a dangerous comment to make, as some individuals took this seriously, especially in the midst of mass confusion about what should and shouldn’t be done to protect oneself from the virus.

Fish tank cleaner was also something that many attempted to consume to protect themselves from COVID. However, the most prominent false treatment that most are aware of is hydroxychloroquine, commonly used to treat malaria. While this is fortunately a human medication, it was, yet again, ineffective in stopping COVID infections.

As the CDC has recommended for the past year and a half, the best solution to stopping the spread of COVID is wearing a mask (especially if you’re not fully vaccinated), closely monitoring one’s own health for symptoms and social distancing.

It is also crucial that we wash our hands on a regular basis or use hand sanitizer that is no less than 70% alcohol when there are no sinks around. Remember, hand-washing is most effective when you wash under warm water with soap for at least twenty seconds.

At the time of this writing, there have been nearly 680,000 deaths in the United States from COVID. We need to do everything we can to mitigate the spread and ultimately eliminate COVID for good.

However, it is important to follow science-based and expert-recommended preventions and treatments instead of ingesting horse de-wormer to prevent COVID.