Indigenous Australians is targeted

Last week, as case numbers in the Covid-ravaged regional New South Wales town of Wilcannia soared, a broadcaster at the local radio station, Brendon Adams, received an offer in an email.

It said a prominent Sydney doctor wanted to help the town’s largely Aboriginal population by treating them with a drug that, the sender promised, would “get rid of Covid and prevent them from contracting it again”.

The drug was ivermectin. The email Adams received came from a Queensland man named John Huntley, who claimed the prominent doctor was “willing to work with your local doctor in treating the whole town with the Ivermectin regime to get rid of covid and prevent them from contracting it again”.

An anti-parasitic drug typically used in animals and humans to treat river blindness, scabies and roundworm infections, ivermectin has become a flashpoint in the Covid culture war.

Despite explicit warnings from regulators such as the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration that there is “insufficient evidence” ivermectin works as a treatment for Covid-19 and accordingly should not be used, the drug has been pushed heavily by rightwing media such as Fox News in the US.

More recently the debate over the drug has found its way to Australia, where it has been spruiked by conservative commentators and the former Liberal party MP Craig Kelly.

The town of Wilcannia

In Wilcannia, where Covid cases reached 109 on Wednesday, or 14.5% of the population, the appearance of individuals pushing the use of ivermectin prompted an outburst of anger from Adams, who accused the sender of taking advantage of a community where people were already sick, confused and scared.

The use of ivermectin to treat Covid has become of increasing concern to health authorities. Last week, it’s been revealed that Australian pharmacists have reported an increasing number of people presenting with prescriptions for the drug while refusing to say what it would be used for.