Simply hours after the information broke of billionaire Elon Musk's $44bn buy of Twitter, ivermectin, the anti-parasitic drug touted as a doable remedy for COVID-19, is as soon as once more trending on the social media platform.

Ivermectin was the sixth hottest subject on Twitter within the U.S. on Tuesday afternoon, with greater than 46,000 tweets, suggesting that many customers have been below the impression that the time period had been beforehand censored on the platform.

The Tesla founder, the world's richest particular person, has mentioned his buy of Twitter was motivated by his dedication to selling free speech. Musk and others have criticized Twitter for its content material moderation insurance policies.

"Ivermectin, ivermectin, ivermectin...simply checking," tweeted one consumer, with one other posting, "Can I tweet the phrase ivermectin now? Is it lastly acceptable?"

An Ivermectin supporter in Brazil
A supporter of President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro holds a big field of field of Ivermectin, utilized by many individuals deal with COVID-19, throughout a protest organized to point out assist to his authorities on Might 15, 2021 in Brasilia.

In truth, the identify of the remedy has by no means been banned, though it has been simply considered one of numerous popularly cited remedies for COVID-19 that has remained controversial all through the worldwide pandemic.

There have been no large-scale research displaying that the drug is efficient towards coronavirus, or provides any substantial well being advantages in treating a COVID-19 an infection.

Coronavirus Controversy

Initially utilized in veterinary medication to deal with heartworm, ivermectin tablets for people can be utilized for intestinal parasites, in addition to for pores and skin situations comparable to rosacea, in line with the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA).

The FDA notes on its web site nonetheless that it "has not approved or accredited ivermectin to be used in stopping or treating COVID-19 in people or animals," occurring to state that enormous doses of the drug could be harmful.

A research of 490 Malaysian COVID-19 inpatients printed within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation in February discovered that remedy with ivermectin throughout early sickness didn't stop development to extreme illness.

The World Well being Group (WHO) additionally says the proof for utilizing ivermectin to deal with COVID-19 is "inconclusive" and advises that the drug solely be utilized in scientific trials.

The drug has nonetheless been touted by many supporters of former President Donald Trump, with many taking to Twitter once more on Tuesday to advertise.

Trump himself has been a proponent of numerous different unproven remedies for the coronavirus, together with hydroxychloroquine, a drugs used to deal with malaria and autoimmune illness.

The WHO discovered that in additional than 30 scientific trials of greater than 10,000 COVID-19 sufferers the drug failed to cut back mortality, and will trigger numerous severe uncomfortable side effects if used to deal with the virus.