TREATMENT
CLAIM: Ivermectin, for parasites, and hydroxychloroquine, for malaria, are effective treatments for covid-19.
WHO SAID IT: At legislative meetings earlier this month, Bentley and Stubblefield said the drugs could have been used for early intervention to save covid-19 patients in Arkansas and that physicians and Arkansans have seen great results with them.
FACT CHECK: These claims are unproven. Kimberly Haverstick, assistant director of pharmacy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said there is not sufficient evidence to show that ivermectin benefits humans being treated for covid-19, and that health organizations now have enough information on hydroxychloroquine not to recommend it.
She said that there have been a number of studies over the past year trying to find out whether ivermectin benefits covid-19 patients, but the problem with many of them is the quality of data and concerns about the lack of peer review.
“A lot of the studies were really small in sample sizes,” Haverstick said. “Also, a lot of them were more observational rather than being randomized and controlled. … You can’t really pinpoint in a study like that, was it the ivermectin or was it maybe something else that they were already also taking, were there other factors, was it in a patient who might have recovered anyway on their own without further treatment?”
She added that the studies were highly variable as to the dosage, dosage form, the time point in therapy when the treatment was administered and the severity of the patient’s illness, so it wasn’t possible to definitively link a patient’s outcome to the drug. Laboratory studies of ivermectin did show some slowing of viral replication, she said, but it’s not clear whether that translates to clinical benefit in a patient.
The World Health Organization advised in March that ivermectin only be used within clinical trials, and the FDA advises against using it to treat covid-19.
John Vinson, CEO of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, said Thursday that “it is far safer for a patient to talk to his or her doctor and health care team about covid-19 treatment and prevention than to take any medication in a way that is not intended.” Ivermectin is used to treat parasitic worms and external parasites in humans and heartworm disease and certain parasites in animals, Vinson said. The products intended for animals are different from the products intended for humans, and high doses of the more concentrated version can be toxic for humans. Haverstick said early studies on hydroxychloroquine that took place around March and April of 2020 showed a possible benefit but problems with data quality are similar to the studies on ivermectin, and later studies showed the net effect was detrimental.
CLAIM: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved the vaccines.
WHO SAID IT: In reference to suggesting ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as covid-19 treatments, Bentley said Aug. 4 that “the FDA’s not approved all of them but neither have they approved vaccinations.”
FACT CHECK: The three covid-19 vaccines available in Arkansas are being administered under the FDA’s emergency-use authority. Though it does not yet have full approval from the FDA, Haverstick said the emergency authorization means there have already been large studies done on the vaccines’ safety and efficacy.
The steps between emergency-use authority and full approval include things like packaging, marketing materials and commercials, she said.
So the emergency-use authorization designation does not mean studies haven’t been done, Haverstick said.
“There have, and in addition to the studies that were done before the authorization, we now have lots of data to look at and people who have received the vaccine, and that’s different than with ivermectin; we have data for what it’s used for as an anti-parasitic agent. That doesn’t really translate well to treating covid,” she said.