Professor Eli Schwartz of the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, which is revered as one of the top hospitals in the world, is reporting positive outcomes after he conducted a study on ivermectin's effectiveness in treating COVID.
Schwartz, whose medical experience includes fighting dengue and ebola outbreaks and starting the Travel Medicine and Tropical Disease Institute at Sheba, was also assigned by Israel's Defense Ministry to find a medical solution to COVID.
"Since Ivermectin is one of the drugs that we are using in daily life in the Tropical Institute, I knew it. I know the safety profile of it," Schwartz said, as per CBN News. "And since there were some hints of in-vitro studies, which show the efficacy specifically, even against COVID-19, we decided to go for it."
This is what led to Schwartz conducting a 10-month clinical trial on ivermectin. He explained that the Israeli study was a double-blind, randomized controlled trial, which he described as "the best method that you are doing studies. The conclusion? Ivermectin "really has antiviral activities."
Ivermectin's development dates back to 1987 and since then it has provided a low cost solution to those who suffered from insidious parasitical diseases such as River Blindness and Elephantiasis. This characteristic led Schwartz to believe that it was effective in dealing with parasites. In 2015, the developers of ivermectin won a Nobel Prize for medicine. Schwartz's study in Israel made headlines when he proved that ivermectin was also anti-viral.
"This is the first drug to show antiviral activity. And then, I think, there's a good reason to continue with a much more thorough investigation to see, for example, whether people who are at high risk, may not deteriorate to be hospitalized, to be mechanically ventilated, or to death," Schwartz said.
Schwartz's clinical study on ivermectin's effectiveness in beating COVID showed that on the fourth day, 86% of his patients who took ivermectin recovered. On the sixth day, up to 94% had recovered. This led the Israeli doctor to conclude, "Ivermectin decreased faster the viral load, and also sterilized the culture much better compared to the placebo."
But despite this, the mainstream media is fighting to keep ivermectin's successes under wraps. A recently published article on the Scientific American warned, "Fringe Doctors' Groups Promote Ivermectin for COVID despite a Lack of Evidence" despite having scientific evidence showing otherwise. They have vilified the drug, adding that according to a poll, "56% of people who believe ivermectin is effective against COVID either do not plan to get vaccinated or are unsure about the vaccine."
But more and more doctors are prescribing it, as in September there were as much as 88,000 prescriptions made in just one week, compared to a 3,600 weekly average in 2019. Schwartz said that while he does see the vaccine as an "international solution" to COVID, ivermectin can "reduce the magnitude of the pandemic in the meantime" in places where the vaccine is not readily available.
He also pushed for more research into how ivermectin can help fight the pandemic in order for it to be approved as a treatment for COVID, especially in countries where the vaccine is not yet available or has a shortage.
