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Comment by dmschulman | Hacker News Reader

"Alternative treatment" implies an unapproved, off-label use. Maybe you meant "promising therapeutic" or something along those lines? Throwing around the term "alternative" is dicey, especially in a world where people take advice about COVID vaccines and "alternative treatments" from podcasts hosted by former comedians.

Once enough studies have been done, this off-label use for fluvoxamine will likely be blessed by the agencies that regulate these sorts of things and at that point it will become an approved treatment for long COVID symptoms. Most things spoken of as "alternative treatments" don't even get to the first stage of this process (since they can't be substantiated with evidence).

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First define the terms, therapeutic and treatment have effectively the same meanings.

https://www.askdifference.com/therapy-vs-treatment/

Joe rogan explained what his doc gave him. He’s also had multiple doctors and researchers on his show providing information regarding treatments they are attempting. Frankly, Ivermectin and the like have more research than the vaccine, they’ve been deployed for longer and at least passed phase 1 trials, which the vaccine has not (only preliminary results).

https://www.modernatx.com/covid19vaccine-eua/providers/clini...

In terms of “off-label” drugs, the FDA approval process is there to protect against liability. Effectively, the government accepts some liability and in return medical companies get some protections. It’s highly likely you’ve taken drugs “off label” yourself.

https://www.goodrx.com/healthcare-access/medication-educatio...

Thus far, this research is promising. Similar to other treatments / therapeutics to covid19, and it has a known risk profile. Making it a potentially better alternative to the standard approach (stay hydrated if infected and vaccinate ahead of time if possible)

>In terms of “off-label” drugs, the FDA approval process is there to protect against liability. Effectively, the government accepts some liability and in return medical companies get some protections. It’s highly likely you’ve taken drugs “off label” yourself.

Off label drug use/ approval isn't about government liability. As far as I know, it has none. The noteworthy exception is the vaccine's, where the government has a special injury compensation fund, but I wouldn't call this liability . It IS about manufacturer liability, and insurance reimbursement.

> Ivermectin and the like have more research than the vaccine

That's very very unlikely. Even considering the Nobel prize for it. Simply because the sheer scale of the pandemic.

There are more vaccines in development and use against COVID than there are Ivermectin clinical trials in total.

> they’ve been deployed for longer and at least passed phase 1 trials, which the vaccine has not (only preliminary results).

That doesn't mean they are not safe. The phase 1 trials run to 2022 Nov, because there's a long follow up period.

Nothing can guarantee that there's not some mysterious missed interaction. It's probability is low and getting lower day-by-day. This tail risk is just not that important for safety. It makes very little sense to emphasize this, because we also don't know the long term interaction of Ivermectin and COVID-19.

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