Episode #61 Deep Dive – Ivermectin: The Beef Tallow of Medicine
A deep dive into this week's episode of Paging America
››› Ivermectin touted as a cure for cancer, diabetes, and MORE!
Use of Ivermectin to treat viruses and other diseases hasn’t gone away and in Tennessee, pharmacies sell a high-potency version without a prescription:
The drug is now marketed and sold across the state in roadside shops and small-town strip malls with little oversight from health authorities. Highway billboards advertise ivermectin as “Available Without a Prescription in Tennessee!” while dozens of pharmacies offer highly concentrated pills, sometimes at 10 or 20 times the potency of a standard tablet. [...]
After a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship earlier this year, unproven claims that ivermectin is effective against the virus have been spread by some popular social media accounts [...]
Some pharmacy websites now offer the drug as a treatment for covid, “long haul vax symptoms,” diabetes, or cancer — despite no evidence of its effectiveness for those purposes — while the new law largely gives pharmacists immunity from lawsuits or professional sanctions related to ivermectin.
John Mafi, a UCLA internal medicine physician who has studied the rise of ivermectin among cancer patients, worries it will lure people away from proven treatments. He co-authored a new study identifying a sharp increase in prescribing rates for ivermectin and another antiparasitic drug, particularly in the South. The rise followed a January 2025 episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in which actor Mel Gibson claimed ivermectin and other drugs cured three friends with stage 4 cancer.
“It’s going back to 19th-century quack science,” Mafi said about off-label use of ivermectin. “It is alarming that I’m seeing this really unproven therapy being touted to so many potentially vulnerable Americans.”
Dr. Mafi told ABC News that Ivermectin can actually be dangerous. "In very high doses, it can lead to seizure or coma," he said. "In extremely high doses, even death, although that's rare.
››› Speaking of Tennessee…
The Washington Post reports that Tennessee is going to restrict medical aid for critically ill undocumented children:
Families in Tennessee with critically ill or severely disabled children who are undocumented are being asked to make a difficult choice: leave the state program that pays for lifesaving medication and treatment or stay and have their child reported to immigration authorities.
The program, Children’s Special Services, funds low-income families who have exhausted all other options to cover costs for their sick children — helping pay for ventilators, wheelchairs or feeding tubes, for example, or for expensive drugs and emergency treatments.
Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill this spring that requires state and local agencies to verify whether anyone receiving a public benefit is in the country legally. If not, the government must report them to the Centralized Immigration Enforcement Division, a state agency created in 2025 that oversees collaboration with federal immigration authorities. [...]
“This is life and death for very, very many of these kids,” said Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, a health care advocacy organization.
››› Health care will rule the midterms
A new AXIOS poll shows that nearly half of Americans will support candidates in November who supported reinstating enhanced ACA subsidies:
Majorities of Americans say they’re more likely to vote for candidates in November who support ideas to lower their health costs, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index.
Their support for ideas across the political spectrum — from renewing Affordable Care Act subsidies to expanding direct sales of prescription drugs — shows the power of voters’ demands for relief.
The big picture: Health care policy was pivotal in the 2018 and 2022 midterms. The economy impacts every election.
This year, they’re converging into a demand for health care affordability as consumers seek relief anywhere to offset high prices for gas, groceries and other basic needs. [...]
More than 6 in 10 respondents say they support direct-to-consumer drug sales that could reduce some out-of-pocket costs. Roughly the same proportion back reinstating the enhanced ACA subsidies that Congress allowed to expire at the end of last year.
A new report from Protect Our Care shows that the number of people enrolled in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans fell by more than 5 million in the last 12 months. In addition, new data from the West Health-Gallup Affordability Index shows only about half of U.S. adults could afford their healthcare and had access to quality care last year.
››› ALL federal grants are about to be politicized by the Trump administration
Federal support of scientific research, under a merit system, has made the United States the world’s leader in medical breakthroughs and technology. That leadership is now under threat. A new federal policy would give political appointees authority to decide which research gets funded — based on ideology rather than scientific merit — and would constrain scientists’ ability to publish and share their findings. The proposed rules will limit the scope and quality of U.S. science and diminish its capacity to improve all our lives. [...]
A new federal policy proposed by the administration…would give political appointees power to make final decisions on grant awards. Under the proposed rules, grants would go to projects that “demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities” — as determined by administration officials. The changes are spelled out in a 412-page memo from the Office of Management and Budget…The document contains rules that would profoundly undermine the quality and quantity of scientific discovery in the U.S.
These changes would apply to every federal grant issued across every agency, including funding for medical and public health research, health clinics, and much more. As former NIH Program Official Elizabeth Ginexi points out, “The regulation being rewritten here…is not the science grants regulation. It is the universal legal framework governing every federal grant to every recipient across every agency in the federal government. When OMB rewrites it, they are rewriting the rules for all of it.”
Democrats are pushing back vigorously. “The damage of this obvious power grab by political leadership in the Trump Administration threatens to inflict severe harm on the nation’s biomedical research enterprise by usurping the critical role of scientific experts in the approval and funding of grants at NIH,” Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote in a letter to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya.
If you’d like to learn more and then submit a comment to OMB before this rule is finalized, you can do so by clicking HERE. Be sure to submit your comment before the July 13th 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time deadline.
Links for a deeper dive on Episode #61
KFF Health News: Tennessee Pharmacies Sell Potent Ivermectin, Led by Anti-Vaccine Doctor Who’s Taken ‘Bucketloads’
ABC News: Some cancer patients turn to ivermectin despite lack of evidence it works for that purpose
The Washington Post: Tennessee to restrict medical aid for critically ill undocumented children
AXIOS: Axios-Ipsos poll: Health affordability is shaping the midterms
Protect Our Care report: Over Five Million Americans Lost Coverage In the Year Following TrumpGOP Health Care Cuts
AP: How many Americans can afford high-quality healthcare? A new poll finds the number has fallen
The Seattle Times: New federal rules threaten to obstruct scientific research
Defend Public Health’s OMB Rule Background Document is HERE
Elizabeth Ginexi: Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Elizabeth Ginexi: What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB-2026-0034)
Elizabeth Ginexi: This new OMB Rule Is Bigger Than Science. Much Bigger.
Submit Public Comment: Don’t Politicize Grant-Making & Health Care Dollars
Health Affairs: HHS Finalizes Sweeping Marketplace Changes (Part 2): OBBBA Implementation, Eligibility Verification, And More
Charles Gaba’s Substack is HERE
Charles Gaba on BlueSky
Charles Gaba on X