- Sep 4, 2005
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Though it's not getting much attention, some countries are rolling back the restrictions they had on off-label prescribing of Ivermectin (the prescription drug at the center of a lot of controversy from 2021-2022). (the US removed a lot of the restrictions in late 2022 without much fanfare)
I think that whole situation was handled rather poorly. While there were no studies showing that it was particularly effective against covid, I think efforts to limit all off-label prescribing (as well convince a large segment of the population that it was somehow only a veterinary medicine) was rather short sighted.
It still was useful for things like rosacea, head lice, and certain parasitic infections and some doctors regularly used it off label (with success) for various dermatological conditions.
I think creating a stigma around a drug that's useful for other things probably wasn't the right way to go. With regards to covid, I think they also made a mistake by purposely constructing studies later in the game with the clear intent of "proving that it doesn't work".
The right approach would've been to not call it a horse dewormer and to do an honest clinical trial to show that it was a sub-par therapeutic compared to monoclonal antibodies, instead, I think they strengthened some people's resolve in trying to defend it as a covid treatment by not being honest in their approach to discourage it. Now when a dermatologist prescribes it for something legit, some people are going to falsely assume their doctor is a quack.
