B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
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.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.