Fighting Misinformation
Lots of misinformation bubbling up lately. Here is the science you can use to dismiss a few of them…
Ivermectin.
This is an anti-parasitic medication, which MAY have the ability to reduce COVID19 mortality. A recent study, called ICON, pulled medical records from patients in four Florida hospitals: 172 COVID patients treated with Ivermectin and 107 treated without. Scientists found that mortality decreased among patients with Ivermectin. HOWEVER, the patients that got Ivermectin were also more likely to get steroids too, which we know helps fight COVID19. So, we aren’t sure if people were less likely to die because of steroids or because of ivermectin. There has also been one test tube study and two small randomized control trials (Egypt and Iraq). Ivermectin is definitely something to watch, but we certainly don’t have enough evidence to change COVID19 treatment. Don’t start taking your pet’s ivermectin prescription. We need stronger, larger studies.
65+ with comorbidities in vaccine trials.
Many people have asked (or stated) that vaccine trials didn’t include anyone that was 65+ with comorbidities. I’m not sure where this misinformation budded from because this is 100% incorrect. Not even close to being true. Both Moderna and Pfizer included patients 65+ with comorbidities (see Tables attached) and vaccines worked swimmingly well. In Pfizer, vaccine efficacy was 91.7% among those aged 65+ with a comorbidity.
No asymptomatic spread.
Anti-lockdown warriors have recently used a JAMA publication to justify no asymptomatic spread. This scientific article was a meta-analysis; an incredibly strong study that pools previous studies (I’ve posted on this type of study before, search my blog for “meta-analysis” for more info). Briefly, the article combined 54 previous studies to assess secondary attack rates (how often an infected person infects others at home). The misinformation budded from a sub-analysis of only 4 studies, which found secondary attack rates was lower among asymptomatic people compared to non-asymptomatic people in households. This is much different than stating that there is no asymptomatic transmission in the community.
Hope this helps!
Love, YLE
Data Sources…
Ivermectin: ICON study: https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(20)34898-4/fulltext; Iraq study: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.26.20219345v1; Egypt study: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-100956/v1; In vitro study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32251768/
65+ with comorbidities: Moderna Phase III: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389; Pfizer Phase III: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577?query=featured_home
Asymptomatic JAMA article: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774102