Anecdotal: I have a pilot friend that lives in Mexico. Two in his household contracted Covid19. The two were immediately put on an Ivermectin/Azithromycin regime. 5 days later, both had recovered.
One has to wonder how many lives could have been saved with this cheap, widely available drug.
It was poo-pooed in the media and in follow the science circles but it clearly has worked around the world if administered early in the infection.
So...was it that Big Pharma wouldn't make billions? Or was it to ensure that Trump was ridiculed? Or was it to ensure millions of mail in ballots would be counted?
WHY would this not be tried? What plausible reason for not trying a cheap, tested, well tolerated drug that has worked in many, many instances?
Ivermectin does have some interesting properties, but it is not an antiviral. It helps combat replication of viral genetic material (as well as other material) by clogging up some pathways in the intracellular response. I wouldn't get my hopes up with it.
Per the actual research;
"However, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies suggest that achieving the plasma concentrations necessary for the antiviral efficacy detected in vitro would
require administration of doses up to 100-fold higher than those approved for use in humans.8,9 Even though ivermectin appears to accumulate in the lung tissue
, predicted systemic plasma and lung tissue concentrations are much lower than 2 µM, the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.10,11"
It may have some effect, but you're not really stopping the spread if all you're doing is inhibiting replication. Viral shedding is still happening, which means the infected person is still able to spread it. And, if it takes a 100x recommended safe dose to actually stop the virus, you are really messing with fire. But, I expect that this response based in science will go over like a fart in a windstorm, because you already have per-conceived notions on this.
I'm not saying it isn't worth studying, especially in concert with other therapeutics. But, it's not getting us back to normality.