BIRD was established in 2021 in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Its focus was to evaluate and disseminate emerging information on a safe, low cost, effective treatment and prophylaxis medicine for Covid-19: ivermectin.

BIRD came about when independent WHO guideline methodologist, Dr. Tess Lawrie, prepared a systematic review and meta-analysis in December 202o, after receiving Dr Pierre Kory’s (at the time) unpublished review on ivermectin, and upon hearing his clinician’s testimony to the US Senate.

On Wednesday, the 13th of January, 2021, Dr. Lawrie presented the evidence from her rapid review and meta-analysis on ivermectin to a group of 20 individuals from the USA, Belgium, South Africa and the UK, including 13 clinicians and medical researchers, and seven public/consumer/media representatives.  

She called this meeting the British Ivermectin Recommendation Development (BIRD) meeting based on the naming conventions for similar guideline development meetings convened for her work with the WHO.

The consensus emerging from this initial BIRD meeting was that the evidence showing that ivermectin reduced the risk of death from Covid-19 was extremely compelling. The group agreed that news about the likely benefits of this safe and well-established medicine for Covid-19 needed to be communicated to the authorities.

A further BIRD group meeting was held a month later on 20th February 2021. This time it was attended by over 60 experts from around the world. Evaluating the updated evidence on ivermectin for Covid-19, using the standard procedures for guideline development as described in the World Health Organization Handbook for Guideline Development, they made a firm recommendation in favour of using ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 symptoms.

The BIRD Proceedings and Recommendation document was widely disseminated to government health authorities and international health agencies thereafter.

In April 2021, BIRD hosted the first Covid-19 conference called the International Ivermectin for Covid Conference. It featured talks and discussions from world-class medical researchers, frontline medics and data analysts. The event, assembled in just 10 days in light of the urgency of the Covid-19 situation due to the unprecedented roll out of experimental Covid-19 vaccines, encouraged common sense, good science, and medical ethics to prevail.

An expert comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis on ivermectin was finally published in June 2021 in the American Journal of Therapeutics. In 2025, this article was ranked among the top 10 most referenced article out of more than 26 million tracked scientific articles.