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You may want to quit horsin’ around now, Saskatchewan — ivermectin isn’t a joke.
That’s the word from Chris Clark, the associate dean academic at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine.
“Nobody under any circumstances should ever dose themselves or a family member with a veterinary pharmaceutical. It says so right on the label. They have not been tested; they have not been proven. They may be absolutely dangerous,” Clark said Tuesday.
Clark, also an associate professor in large animal medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, said talks picked up within the last 48 hours about the drug, thought by some to cure them of COVID-19. He said he hasn’t heard of any instances in Saskatchewan of people actually using the drug but has in other places in Western Canada.
On Aug. 26, the Saskatchewan Health Authority warned the public of the use of ivermectin on its social media accounts.
These are the FACTS about Ivermectin:
it's a drug used to treat/prevent parasites in animals
— Saskatchewan Health Authority (@SaskHealth) August 26, 2021
650 CKOM reached out to the health authority Tuesday, asking if there were any cases of individuals in Saskatchewan taking the drug. The SHA hadn’t responded by the time of publication.
Clark said ivermectin has been used in livestock for more than 30 years. It’s an anti-parasite drug, used on horses, cattle, sheep and pigs.
It’s used to clear out intestinal parasites and treatment of some skin parasites, according to Clark.
“The key point here is … it’s designed for animals that weigh 500 kilograms. That’s way, way more than a human. It’s also designed to be absorbed into those animals in a different way that has nothing to do with human physiology,” he explained.
“You should only ever use human-licensed, over-the-counter medication or drugs that are prescribed by your physician.”
Clark said he did some research into the drug to better understand why people feel the need to try the livestock parasite-eater.
“In the early days of COVID, they were looking at viral infections in cells in the labs, and they were trying a whole series of different products — just to see if anything looked like it might work,” he said. “In that lab setting, they did try ivermectin.
“There was a question as to if they saw some improvements. They’ve since done further studies and have not found it does any good, whatsoever.”
Could the drug cause death? Clark said if the wrong product was used in the wrong concentration, it could.
“I’ve heard through the grapevine there are literally people in hospital in Western Canada right now (after use of the drug),” he said.
The college has now temporarily stopped the sale of the product unless it receives a vet prescription.
When Clark was asked what he would say to someone debating taking the drug, he was blunt in his answer.
“The label on ivermectin says, ‘Do not use in humans.’ And that drug company spent millions of dollars testing and proving that product works effectively in animals,” he said. “Trust the drug companies (and) millions of dollars in expertise over something someone said on Facebook.”