Japanese conglomerate Kowa Co. Ltd., a trading and pharmaceuticals company, announced on Monday that the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin showed an "antiviral effect" against COVID's Omicron variant and other coronavirus variants in a joint non-clinical research effort. The Japanese company has been working with Tokyo's Kitasato University to test ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID.
According to The Epoch Times, the Japanese company said that ivermectin has the "ame antiviral effect" on all "mutant strains," including COVID's Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants. It explained that ivermectin works to suppress the invasion of the virus and also prevents its replication.
"[Ivermectin] is expected to be applied as a therapeutic drug (tablet) for all new coronavirus infectious diseases," Kowa Co. Ltd.'s report said. For over 30 years, the World Health Organization has used ivermectin to treat parasitic infections. The Kowa report also cited volunteers in African countries who distributed the ivermectin and found that it had been extremely effective in treating COVID.
In the U.S. however, ivermectin interestingly continues to be shunned by health authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has not approved its use specifically as a treatment for COVID despite it being used in humans to treat parasitic infections. The continued denial comes amid reports of ivermectin's effectiveness against COVID, either as prophylaxis or as early treatment. Ivermectin, although maligned by mainstream media and avoided by federal agencies, has been proven effective by different countries.
The FDA has also refused to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) asking for details about any reports of side effects linked to the use of ivermectin in treating COVID, while publicly denouncing its used for that purpose.
However, families with COVID patients who are desperate to find a cure for their loved ones are resorting to secretly using ivermectin as a last resort to save their COVID-stricken patients. Several studies showed that all or part of 22 countries all over the world have approved the use of ivermectin as a COVID treatment. But Japan has not yet approved ivermectin as a COVID treatment.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a new bill in New Hampshire has been proposed to make it the first state in America make ivermectin part of the approved COVID treatment and offer it as an over the counter accessible medicine. Republican Rep. Leah Cushman, who is also a registered nurse, told The Epoch Times of her proposed bill HB 3005, "I have absolutely no doubt lives will be saved if human grade ivermectin was available to COVID patients."
Dr. Paul Marik, the co-founder of the physician-comprised advocacy group Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, underscored how ivermectin is approved as a COVID treatment in up to 79 countries. He argued that the drug is "one of the safest drugs on the face of this planet" and that "somehow Japanese people, Indian people, Brazilian people can tolerate it safely, but it's toxic in Americans. You have to be kidding."
Dr. Marik was forced to resign from his job at the Eastern Virginia Medical School over legal challenges about the use of ivermectin as a COVID treatment. In the U.K, actor Laurence Fox, who is also a vaccine skeptic and anti-lockdown campaigner said he got infected with COVID and is being treated with ivermectin, The Guardian reported.
"In other news, felt shivery and crap yesterday. Turns out I have been visited by Lord Covid at last and have the Omnicold (if the LFT is to be believed!)," Fox wrote on Twitter alongside a picture of a positive lateral flow test. "On the #Ivermectin, saline nasal rinse, quercetin, paracetamol and ibuprofen. More man flu than Wu-flu at the moment."
