Your questions, answered "In 1996, the FDA certified ivermectin as a treatment for parasites... It has been given over 3.7 billion times. There have been over 50 studies done on the efficacy of ivermectin to treat covid-19, which vaccines do not do. Why is the FDA not certifying ivermectin as a drug to use for reducing deaths, transmission and long-term effects of covid-19?" — Jim in Ohio By the frame of your question I'm inferring you are supportive of ivermectin as a covid-19 therapy. If that's true, my answer may not be what you want to hear. But this is not a big pharma conspiracy or my gut feeling – I wish ivermectin or some other pill existed as a covid-19 cure-all. Ivermectin isn't that, based on the evidence. You are correct the vaccines are designed to prevent covid-19, especially severe disease and hospitalization. They are not treatments for after an infection occurs. Yes, ivermectin is a commonly used anti-parasitic in humans. And, yes, it has also been studied as a possible covid-19 treatment. (To avoid any confusion: The anti-parasitic form researched in covid-19 patients is not the same as the livestock version of ivermectin, which is a product designed to de-worm massive animals.) But studying something, even dozens of times, is a far cry from an endorsement. You asked why the Food and Drug Administration or other leading health organizations have not certified ivermectin as a covid-19 treatment. The answers are in the results of the best ivermectin studies. Simply put: The available data do not support this. That's why doctors do not want you to use ivermectin to treat covid-19. That's why Merck, which makes ivermectin, does not want you to use it to treat covid-19. And that's why federal agencies do not want you to use it to treat covid-19. In fact, the FDA is campaigning against this with slogans such as "You are not a horse." One way researchers and doctors evaluate evidence is through what's called a systematic review, which synthesizes the results of many studies to come to as robust a conclusion as possible. A Cochrane review, one such comprehensive medical analysis, looked at the results of more than a dozen ivermectin studies. As two authors of that study, Maria Popp and Stephanie Weibel, who are researchers at Germany's University Hospital of Würzburg, wrote in a joint email to The Washington Post, "Current evidence does not support using ivermectin for treating or preventing of covid-19, unless they are part of well-designed randomized trials." There is a "lack of good quality evidence on efficacy and safety of ivermectin," they said, because the study pool they reviewed "consists mainly of small randomized trials with overall limited quality regarding study design, conduct and reporting." Their review will be updated as more study results are available. Bottom line – unless you're a participant in a clinical study, don't take ivermectin for covid-19. We are not helpless. Masks work. Vaccines are a great preventive. Please consider getting shots if you have not. And if you do get sick, there is a therapy supported by data, if given early enough in the course of a coronavirus infection: That treatment is a monoclonal antibody cocktail, which you can read more about here. | 
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