Are Hungarian medical authorities barring doctors from prescribing ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, even though it's known to be effective? No, that's not true: Medical science has never verified that the antiparasitic drug helps alleviate COVID-19 symptoms and has never approved it as an alternative to vaccination. Clinical trials on ivermectin's potential for combatting COVID-19 infection have so far proven inconclusive.
The claim appeared in a Hungarian-language video on TikTok on June 3, 2023, under the caption "Did you know??" It showed a man being interviewed in a studio, where he said:
There is a drug that, in and of itself, calls into question the authorization for any kind of vaccine, since if there is a drug that heals -- and ivermectin, which has treated approximately 4 billion people worldwide, is among them, and it is banned in Hungary up to the present day. (All translations by Lead Stories.)
Here is a screenshot from the video taken at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri July 7 10:05:02 2023 UTC)
Ivermectin is a medication available in Hungary for treating parasitic infections in animals and certain skin conditions in humans. During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, anti-vaxxers began claiming ivermectin pills could help people combat COVID-19 disease without conclusive proof.
Hungary's medical regulator, the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYÉI), issued the following warning on December 7, 2020:
The current human medicinal indication of ivermectin concerns the treatment of certain parasitic infections... OGYÉI does not recommend that anyone use it in a manner that deviates from the original indication! At the moment, there is no statistically proven, fact-based data that would unequivocally support that the expected benefits of the drug outweigh the risks. OGYÉI has not yet tested oral preparations containing ivermectin and has not approved their use for COVID-19, so it urges everyone to exercise a high degree of caution in the matter. Further clinical trials on ivermectin will be needed to determine whether its efficacy against COVID-19 infection is adequate, as well as the safety of its application.
In an article published on December 10, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stressed that taking ivermectin for unapproved indications can be dangerous:
Even the levels of ivermectin for approved human uses can interact with other medications, like blood-thinners. You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death.
It's not as if medical researchers ignore ivermectin's potential for helping people recover from COVID-19. In June 2021, a team of scientists led by Britain's University of Oxford announced they were investigating the drug in the Platform Randomised Trial of Treatments in the Community for Epidemic and Pandemic Illnesses (PRINCIPLE) program. As of March 30, 2023, the researchers reported that ivermectin was "still being studied."
The U.S. National Institutes of Health's database of clinical trials also lists numerous international investigations into ivermectin's effectiveness against COVID-19 infection.
