The law was a relatively popular bill when it moved through its final steps in the state legislature last week. Lawmakers almost described ivermectin as a magical mystery drug; they seemed to both believe it could cure COVID-19 and that its effects on the virus need to be studied further.

A controversial drug

Ivermectin wasn't well known or often used inside the United States until the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, it was a groundbreaking anti-parasite drug.

Ivermectin was originally discovered as a bacterial culture in dirt samples by a Japanese biochemist. This was in the mid-70s, and it was a major scientific breakthrough, winning the scientist the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Initially, ivermectin was used on animals, but in the 1980s it was approved for human use. Ivermectin is still used worldwide to help people infected by parasitic worms or head lice.

The science connecting it to COVID-19 is dubious. Health agencies in the US, the UK and the EU have been pretty consistent that the drug does not cure or help with COVID. A BBC investigation looked into the studies of the drug on COVID, finding a third of the studies had major fraud while the other two-thirds were determined to not prove anything.

There are doctors who dispute this, but they are on the fringes of the medical community. There is a group called Independent Medical Alliance that advocates for the use of the drug.

The Arkansas law

The sponsors of the legislation were Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, and Rep. Mary Bentley, R-Perryville. Clark even brought with him what looked like a yellow and red can of ivermectin to a committee meeting. It's unclear whether his can actually contained the drug.

One argument they made is that ivermectin is not as deadly as other over-the-counter drugs. In a sense this is true, but ibuprofen and acetaminophen have very low rates of overdose deaths, and generally people who have died from taking too much ibuprofen did so intentionally. Far fewer people have died from ivermectin, but it's far less commonly used.

In committee, Clark brought up a National Institutes of Health statistic that said 55 people died from the COVID vaccine. The data is more complicated; the NIH specifies 17 of those deaths were later ruled out as being caused by the vaccine. That leaves us with about 30 that were either "possibly" or "probably" caused by the vaccine. This is out of the over 270 million people in America who got the shot, which has been proven to be safe and effective by reputable medical organizations.