But research in the laboratory conducted on cell cultures is quite different than actually testing it on human beings. In a journal article reviewing the laboratory research, Momekov concluded that the doses of ivermectin used in the laboratories were too large to be used safely in humans.
"That was a theory that has been completely disproven because every clinical trial shows dramatic effects at standard dosing, the doses that you use for parasites," said Kory.
"The expectations that at the usual doses of ivermectin will behave like an antiviral [in humans] is a theory that is still to be validated in the clinic," replied Momekov.
There have been 11 randomized controlled trials, often considered the gold standard for medical research, of ivermectin’s effect on COVID-19, although only two have been peer reviewed. Some of them seem to have produced impressive results.
One randomized controlled trial in Egypt examined family members of patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. A dose of ivermectin was given to family members twice, on the day of the positive test and one week later. After a two-week follow-up, just over 7% of family members given ivermectin had COVID-19 symptoms versus 58% of those not given the drug.
Other trials have shown that ivermectin works to reduce symptoms in people who have been infected with COVID-19. A study in Iraq, for example, found that among both inpatients and outpatients, those who took ivermectin had their recovery time cut by an average of seven days.
Yet Momekov says that much of this research has serious flaws.
"Most of the randomized controlled trials analyzed by Dr. Kory and colleagues are of small sample sizes," Momekov said. "Trials with small sizes … do not compensate for the need of adequate, robust, randomized controlled trials."
Small sample sizes can lead to biased outcomes, and none of the randomized controlled trials referenced by the FLCCC Alliance have a sample size of more than 400. One has only 62.
Momekov also criticized the FLCCC Alliance for citing "observational" studies, ones that are not randomized controlled trials, to make its case.
Some of those studies have some serious methodological problems. For example, one study in Bangladesh had no control group. Another study in Iraq included 87 patients, only 16 of whom received ivermectin.
Kory, though, is unmoved.
"That’s a very common criticism that I see as physicians assess evidence," said Kory. "Modern physicians are taught to be very, very skeptical — and I’m not saying that is wrong … But there is so much skepticism around claims about new drugs that when you present really compelling data, the first response I see is that 'it’s uncontrolled, not large enough, study design is inadequate.'"
In response to Kory’s testimony, Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Rand Paul of Kentucky sent a letter last Thursday to the National Institutes of Health "to request that federal government expedite its review of early COVID-19 treatment options. Current NIH guidelines do not recommend treatment until patients are sick enough to require hospitalization — at which point, treatment is often too late." One of the treatment options mentioned was ivermectin.
But Momekov thinks expediting ivermectin is a mistake.
“At present, ivermectin should not be used as [a] COVID-19 treatment except in clinical trials, approved by an ethical commission, and with informed consent of the patient,” he said.
So Georgi Momekov, a faculty member in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, doesn’t like Ivermectin for a host of reasons.
Where and how did they find this objector? He’s a “faculty member” — it doesn’t say “professor.” He’s in the Department of Pharmacology, apparently not a researcher in virology. Is his university a major medical research establishment? He is making all the same Fauci /NIH / CDC arguments that the studies are too small or weren’t conducted properly.
Who is this guy and why is he really rejecting Ivermectin?
This strikes me as really peculiar.