Headache and fatigue

1. In New Mexico, two people died after taking a deworming drug for horses and other livestock to treat COVID-19.^[2]
2. The FDA received multiple reports of patients who required medical support and hospitalization after self-medicating with Ivermectin intended for horses.^[3]
3. There was a significant increase in calls to poison control centers due to misuse of Ivermectin. Texas saw a 550% spike in poison control calls due to people ingesting horse and cow dewormer.^[4]
4. People poisoned themselves with the horse-deworming version to thwart COVID-19, resulting in an uptick in calls to poison control centers.^[5]

1. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Virology Journal evaluated the efficacy of Ivermectin for COVID-19 patients based on current peer-reviewed RCTs. The study concluded that Ivermectin did not have any significant effect on outcomes of COVID-19 patients.^[6]
2. A Cochrane meta-analysis of 11 eligible trials examining the efficacy of Ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 published through April 2022 concluded that Ivermectin has no beneficial effect for people with COVID-19.^[7]
3. An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) concluded that taking 400 mcg/kg Ivermectin for three days, when compared with a placebo, did not significantly improve the chances for a patient with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 to avoid hospitalization.^[8]
4. A study published on News Medical concluded that in COVID-19 outpatients with mild or moderate illness, Ivermectin use for three days at a dose of 400 μg/kg showed no significant improvement in the time to sustained recovery compared to those who received placebos.^[9]

Public interest in ivermectin ballooned following Joe Rogan’s podcasts. “On a national level Rogan’s podcast was a tipping point,” said Keenan Chen, an investigative researcher with First Draft News, an organization that tracks misinformation. (Rogan, who has previously expressed hesitancy to vaccines, announced in September he had contracted Covid-19. He claimed to be taking ivermectin among several other treatments.)

In June 2019, Kennedy and his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, visited Samoa, a trip Kennedy later wrote was arranged by Edwin Tamasese, a Samoan local anti-vaccine influencer.
Vaccine rates had plummeted after two children died in 2018 from a measles vaccine that a nurse had incorrectly mixed with a muscle relaxant. The government suspended the vaccine program for months. By the time Kennedy arrived, health authorities were trying to get back on track.
He was treated as a distinguished guest, traveling in a government vehicle, meeting with the prime minister and, according to Kennedy, many health officials and the health minister.
He also met with anti-vaccine activists, including Tamasese and another well-known influencer, Taylor Winterstein, who posted a photograph of herself and Kennedy on her Instagram.
“The past few days have been profoundly monumental for me, my family and for this movement to date,” she wrote, adding hashtags including #investigatebeforeyouvaccinate.
A few months later, a measles epidemic broke out in Samoa, killing 83 people, mostly infants and children in a population of about 200,000.
Public health officials said at the time that anti-vaccine misinformation had made the nation vulnerable.
The crisis of low vaccination rates and skepticism created an environment that was “ripe for the picking for someone like RFK to come in and in assist with the promotion of those views,” said Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist from New Zealand who worked on the effort to build back trust in the measles vaccine in Samoa.
Petousis-Harris recalled that local and regional anti-vaccine activists took their cues from Kennedy, whom she said “sits at the top of the food chain as a disinformation source.”
“They amplified the fear and mistrust, which resulted in the amplification of the epidemic and an increased number of children dying. Children were being brought for care too late,” she said.