Some Fresno residents use a livestock drug to self-treat COVID. That is so ridiculous

Imagine sitting down to a dinner of hay, oats and other grains meant to feed horses and cattle.

Ridiculous, right?

Yet many Americans — including here in Fresno and Tulare counties — are risking their personal health by trying to treat COVID symptoms with a drug meant to rid livestock of worms.

It is called ivermectin, and the drug, while great for getting parasitic worms out of livestock, has shown no benefit to humans suffering from the coronavirus.

Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim public health officer, said using livestock medications is risky because the amounts prescribed for a 1,000-pound animal are much larger than what a typical 150-pound human adult would need.

And that would assume ivermectin would work on COVID, which has not been shown in any of the trials that have been done, The New York Times reported.

However, ivermectin poisoning is a real. Symptoms include vomiting, nausea and seizures.

Vohra said a person who puts faith in such an unproven treatment also harms him or herself by delaying “care that could actually help them, like monoclonal antibody treatment that can neutralize the virus.”

The Food and Drug Administration summed it up nicely in a recent tweet: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

Vaccines, masks

The Times reports that social media groups on Facebook and Reddit spread the misinformation about ivermectin, which itself reflects the broader disease afflicting American culture.

Vohra calls it the “infodemic.”

Before there was ivermectin, there was hydroxychloroquine, another “miracle” COVID cure that was proven useless. And then-President Trump infamously touted bleach as a possibility to get rid of the virus.

Vohra said in a recent briefing that the “information pandemic” has layers of symptoms much like the virus.

There are doubts about the effectiveness of masks and social distancing. There are fears about COVID vaccines, despite the FDA giving its approval. And people don’t want to believe that hospitals are as jammed with patients as the medical directors say they are.

“That constellation of symptoms is a sign that someone has been infected by viral misinformation,” Vohra added. “I feel sorry for them. I wish I had a vaccine for that and a cure for that. But really it’s up to everyone to protect themselves and inoculate themselves with the truth.”

Livestock medicine

The message is not getting through very well in the central San Joaquin Valley. In Fresno County, nearly 48% of residents remain unvaccinated more than a year after the pandemic began.

In Tulare County, that total is 55.4%. Kings County is the worst, with 62.6% unvaccinated.

That compares to a new statewide total released on Monday that showed more than 80% of Californians have at least one dose of the vaccine.

It is past time for Valley residents to do two things:

▪ Stop giving credence to quack solutions to COVID infections. Only tested, medically sound answers should be depended upon.

▪ Do believe the science behind the vaccines. With FDA approval having come last week, there is now no remaining reason to doubt their safety or effectiveness.

Vohra shared his encounters with unvaccinated people who get the coronavirus and then have to come to a hospital because they can no longer breathe.

“Some of the last words they say before they get intubated (on a ventilator) are ‘I really wish I’d gotten that vaccine. I don’t wish this on anyone.’”

Don’t be that person. Don’t be ridiculous trying a medicine meant for horses and cattle. Get the shot.