Here is another article where Dr. Ugarte is featured.

The trial Dr. Ugarte mentions in this article has been formally registered. The trial write-up is here.

The most stunning statement in this article is that ivermectin can reduce fatalities six-fold, i.e. one-sixth as many deaths. Alas, no data.

Second place stunning:"85% of the patients who received ivermectin, showed negative PCR" 48 hours after receiving the drug. FANTASTIC! But no data.

The trial is supposed to be completed on December 1.

This is the google-translated English from the original Spanish.

Title: Dr. Ugarte explains promising antiparasitic [ivermectin] treatment that is tested at the Indisa Clinic

Ivermectin is also an antiviral, as evidenced by the 59 studies returned when you search for"ivermectin antiviral" on PubMed.

The article:

In the scientific race to find a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, Chilean scientists have not lagged behind. Within this group is Dr. Sebastián Ugarte , known by the media for his participation in the morning"Good morning everyone" on TVN, where he clarifies doubts about the coronavirus.

Ugarte, head of the Critical Patients Service of the Indisa Clinic, is trying, together with other experts from that facility and the Andrés Bello University, to treat infected patients by supplying them with ivermectin, an antiparasitic commonly used in the treatment of pediculosis and rosacea.

Cellular studies by scientists at Moash University (Melbourne, Australia) proved in vitro tests that this drug was able to stop almost 99.8% the reproduction of the virus in human cells after 48 hours.

With this background, Ugarte and his team launched in early April to test the effects of the remedy. They already have more than 55 patients and the tests have been extended until the last weeks of May.

Dr. Alam's announcement of his success with ivermectin + doxycicline said that 60/60 patients were cured!

"We developed a protocol and presented it to the scientific committee of the Indisa Clinic. The committee had to review it and give it the go-ahead; they presented corrections, observations, and so the days passed. When we had their approval, we presented it to the scientific ethics committee of the Andrés Bello University. We approved the study and there we began to treat the patients. We treated them with ivermectin on the first day of hospitalization. They all had severe illnesses, they were hospitalized in critical beds, which is what I handling, and were serious or even more serious,"says the specialist.

I like this description of the process. Why do trials take so long? The bureaucratic process is one reason why. No doubt it is necessary.

Ugarte continues:"What did we see? 48 hours after giving ivermectin, we measured a new PCR to the patients to see if they continued to eliminate viruses or not. We know that they could have destroyed the virus and still eliminate a little more , because you see that there are virus fragments that people eliminate, even if they are not infectious, but we still measured at 48 hours and, surprise, 85% of the patients who received ivermectin, showed negative PCR. In addition, this was associated with the decrease in mortality, improvement in blood oxygenation, etc."

48 hours! Reminiscent of the Monash 48 hours study!

Low cost

Approved for use in humans more than 40 years ago as an antiparasitic, endorsed by organisms by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, USA) and the World Health Organization, Dr. Sebastián Ugarte describes ivermectin as a drug with low adverse effects. It is in all countries, its use is safe and inexpensive (approximately $ 5,000 the dose per person)."It is not experimental. It is free of patents, so it can be manufactured as generic without paying a higher price. It is readily available and well tolerated in the usual doses, which are 200 micrograms per kilo. This was what was administered in the patients with confirmed Covid-19 orally, in capsules and droplets."

AFAIK ivermectin is only FDA-approved for animals. Articles never mention that. Oddly, the CDC recommends ivermectin for ingestion by humans (not the animal form of the drug) for the treatment of scabies -- while noting that this use is not FDA-approved.

The doctor clarifies that the results of his study are preliminary, but he points out that they were reported to the health authorities: its eventual use in patients with coronavirus could decrease the mortality rate by up to six times if it is given as soon as the diagnosis is made."It is not a drug to be given almost at the end of the disease when the patient is already serious. Ideally, it should be given altiro, it is hardly diagnosed. And if it is given when a person is already connected to mechanical ventilation, the mortality rate decreases to three", comments on the drug that in Bolivia was already included in the list of drugs to stop Covid-19.

Decrease mortality by up to six times! That's a terrific result. I wish the doctor presented data about that. Instead we have to wait for the trial report, apparently, expected on December 1. Too bad. Maybe there will be articles about interim results?

#Antiviral efficacy Luis Quiñones, director of the Laboratory of Chemical Carcinogenesis and Pharmacogenetics of the Department of Basic Clinical Oncology of the Faculty of Medicine of the U. de Chile, confirms that there is scientific evidence of the effectiveness of ivermectin as an antiviral.

"It has been tested in other pathologies; for example, it was tested in vitro and in patients with HIV. It was suggested that its mechanism of action inhibits an enzyme called integrase, which in the case of HIV prevents the virus from entering the cell. Maybe in this case it is something new and it also happens in this disease, to make an analogy. And as Dr. Ugarte says, the sooner we treat it, the better."

Again, evidence please? This chart has about 70 MDs who use ivermectin to treat covid19. It shows that 57% think ivermectin is Extremely or Very Effective and another 36% think it is Moderately Effective -- in the ICU. Only 7% do not think it is effective in the ICU.

There is evidence (or at least there are theoretical reasons to believe) that ivermectin calms the cytocine storm that is a late-stage phenomenon.

Quiñones calls for a cautious wait for the results of clinical studies; not only for its effectiveness, but also for any possible adverse effects."An antiparasitic is a pesticide. Pesticides, in general, are elements that must be handled with great care, because although they sometimes do not have immediate side effects, they often have long-term side effects," he warns. These effects could include gastrointestinal problems (nausea, vomiting) and teratogenesis (fetal malformations). The other side-effects noted in MDAs boils down to a few uncomfortable days.

Teratogenesis has been demonstrated in rats. If memory serves, in Mass Drug Adminstrations of ivermectin in campaigns to fight river blindness and filariasis, pregnant women are not given the drug.

Edit: This Lancent article says:

Currently women are told not to take ivermectin if pregnant based on their last menstrual period; however, many women might not know if they are pregnant and about 15% of pregnant women in MDA programmes inadvertently take ivermectin, primarily in their first trimester.

MDAs distribute ivermectin to 540 million people annually, which is bound to include millions (about 6 million American women get pregnant each year) of pregnant women who don't know they are pregnant. There are not reports of MDA-related birth defects, so I infer that teratogenesis is not a problem with ivermectin.

Here is a good discussion of ivermectin safety, citing two excellent studies.

Jaime Labarca, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Catholic University, agrees."When you want to test the effectiveness of a drug more strongly, you have to do interventional studies, in which you do not know who is receiving the drug and who is receiving the placebo. The use of ivermectin has to be confirmed with studies of this nature to so compare Dr. Ugarte's is promising, but it is observational: it describes how a group or person reacted to a certain drug, and it must be confirmed with another type of study. It is necessary to compare if at the same time the patient who received the other remedy or he did not receive the remedy, the same thing happened to him,"he specifies.

This might be a problem with translating the article to English."interventional" should be"double blind".

The point about observational studies is spot on.

"Ivermectin is a drug that can be useful, but this needs to be confirmed with these studies, which have a methodology that allows us to confirm the findings with more certainty," he concludes.

And they proceeded to start a formal study! :)

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English text : In the scientific race to find a vaccine or treatment for Covid-19, Chilean scientists have not lagged behind. Within this group is Dr. Sebastián Ugarte , known by the media for his participation in the morning "Good morning everyone" on TVN, where he clarifies doubts about the coronavirus. Ugarte, head of the Critical Patients Service of the Indisa Clinic, is trying, together with other experts from that facility and the Andrés Bello University, to treat infected patients by supplying them with ivermectin, an antiparasitic commonly used in the treatment of pediculosis and rosacea. Cellular studies by scientists at Moash University (Melbourne, Australia) proved in vitro tests that this drug was able to stop almost 99.8% the reproduction of the virus in human cells after 48 hours. With this background, Ugarte and his team launched in early April to test the effects of the remedy. They already have more than 55 patients and the tests have been extended until the last weeks of May. "We developed a protocol and presented it to the scientific committee of the Indisa Clinic. The committee had to review it and give it the go-ahead; they presented corrections, observations, and so the days passed. When we had their approval, we presented it to the scientific ethics committee of the Andrés Bello University. We approved the study and there we began to treat the patients. We treated them with ivermectin on the first day of hospitalization. They all had severe illnesses, they were hospitalized in critical beds, which is what I handling, and were serious or even more serious, "says the specialist. Ugarte continues: "What did we see? 48 hours after giving ivermectin, we measured a new PCR to the patients to see if they continued to eliminate viruses or not. We know that they could have destroyed the virus and still eliminate a little more Because you see that there are virus fragments that people eliminate, even if they are not infectious, but we still measured after 48 hours and, surprise, 85% of the patients who received ivermectin, showed negative PCR. In addition, this was associated with the decrease in mortality, improvement in blood oxygenation, etc. " Low cost Approved for use in humans more than 40 years ago as an antiparasitic, endorsed by organisms by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, USA) and the World Health Organization, Dr. Sebastián Ugarte describes ivermectin as a drug with low adverse effects. It is in all countries, its use is safe and inexpensive (approximately $ 5,000 per person). "It is not experimental. It is free of patents, so it can be manufactured as generic without paying a higher price. It is readily available and well tolerated in the usual doses, which are 200 micrograms per kilo. This was what was administered in the patients with confirmed Covid-19 orally, in capsules and droplets. " The doctor clarifies that the results of his study are preliminary, but he points out that they were reported to the health authorities: its eventual use in patients with coronavirus could decrease the mortality rate by up to six times if it is given as soon as the diagnosis is made. "It is not a medicine to be given almost at the end of the disease when the patient is already serious. The ideal is to give it altiro, it is hardly diagnosed. And if it is given when a person is already connected to mechanical ventilation, the mortality rate decreases to three ", comments on the drug that in Bolivia was already included in the list of drugs to stop Covid-19. Antiviral efficacy Luis Quiñones, director of the Laboratory of Chemical Carcinogenesis and Pharmacogenetics of the Department of Basic Clinical Oncology of the Faculty of Medicine of the U. de Chile, confirms that there is scientific evidence of the effectiveness of ivermectin as an antiviral. "It has been tested in other pathologies; for example, it was tested in vitro and in patients with HIV. It was suggested that its mechanism of action inhibits an enzyme called integrase, which in the case of HIV prevents the virus from entering the cell. Maybe in this case it is something new and it also happens in this disease, to make an analogy. And as Dr. Ugarte says, the sooner we treat it, the better. " Quiñones calls for a cautious wait for the results of clinical studies; not only for its effectiveness, but also for any possible adverse effects. "An antiparasitic is a pesticide. Pesticides, in general, are elements that must be handled with great care, because although they sometimes do not have immediate side effects, they often have long-term side effects," he warns. These effects could include gastrointestinal problems (nausea, vomiting) and teratogenesis (fetal malformations). Jaime Labarca, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Catholic University, agrees. "When you want to test the effectiveness of a drug more strongly, you have to do interventional studies, in which you do not know who is receiving the drug and who is receiving the placebo. The use of ivermectin has to be confirmed with studies of this nature to so compare Dr. Ugarte's is promising, but it is observational: it describes how a group or person reacted to a certain drug, and it has to be confirmed with another type of study. You have to compare if at the same time the patient who received the other remedy or he did not receive the remedy, the same thing happened to him, "he specifies. "Ivermectin is a drug that can be useful, but this requires confirmation with these studies, which have a methodology that allows the findings to be confirmed with more certainty," he concludes.

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