Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
A new study has found that three drugs, including the antiparasitic ivermectin, had no significant effects in treating low oxygen levels or preventing ER visits, hospitalization or death due to COVID-19.
The research, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, compared the effectiveness of the Type 2 diabetes medication metformin, low-dose fluvoxamine, which is an antidepressant, and ivermectin as possible treatments against COVID-19 and long-term symptoms.
"None of the three medications that were evaluated prevented the occurrence of hypoxemia, an emergency department visit, hospitalization, or death associated with COVID-19," the study says.
While the researchers say metformin may offer possible benefits in preventing ER visits, hospitalization and death, the results aren't definitive without other studies.
Of all three drugs analyzed, ivermectin has received the most attention during the COVID-19 pandemic as a possible treatment for the disease.
While the drug has proven to be an effective antiparasitic medication, with its discoverers sharing a Nobel Prize in 2015, results have been mixed on whether it can treat COVID-19.
Some research has found ivermectin effective in a laboratory setting, but the researchers behind the latest New England Journal of Medicine study point out that some studies involved levels of ivermectin 50 to 100 times those achievable in humans.
After reports that some people were using a veterinary version of ivermectin, Health Canada issued an advisory in August 2021 asking people to not use either the animal or human versions of the drug.
A total of 1,323 adults, all of whom qualified as being either overweight or obese, participated in the recent study.
Participants received two types of pills for either three or 14 days, depending on the drugs.
The pills were randomly assigned to patients in one of six ways: metformin plus fluvoxamine; metformin plus ivermectin; metformin plus a placebo; fluvoxamine and a placebo; ivermectin and a placebo; or two placebos.
The median age of the patients was 46 and 56 per cent were female, of whom 6.1 per cent were pregnant.
Volunteers must have enrolled within three days after receiving a positive COVID-19 test, and had symptoms within seven days of being randomized for the drug treatments. Fifty-two per cent of participants were vaccinated.
The researchers say the study was limited because it only included patients who were overweight or obese, and only a few of them were Black or Latinx.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres and other alerts have been issued for six Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa on Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.