Ivermectin has been a hot subject for the past several months of these grueling COVID times. There’s a lot of opinions on it, but I’ve seen very little objective analysis. It has fallen into the culture war bucket and hyper partisan nature of our discourse where you’re either 100% for it or the complete opposite. I’ll do my best to be as objective as possible with my assessment of it.
Medication has multiple uses
Many medications have several different uses. For example, Prazosin is used to address hypertension, but also helps with nightmares from PTSD. Clomid is approved for female infertility but also helps with male fertility. Provigil is used for sleep disorders, some studies show it can help with depression. Viagra is known for helping with the obvious (tee hee) ED, but it also can help with hypertension and heart failure.
Medicine can be more than just good for different uses within humans, too. Many medications are used in both humans and animals. Antibiotics like amoxicillin, antidepressants like Prozac and pain medications can be used both humans and animals. Humans take an anti-inflammatory drug meloxicam in pill form, but dogs take it as a liquid over their food.
This is nothing new, it’s an extremely common and basic idea that medications have multiple uses within humans and also have the ability to be used in animals for either the same or different treatments. To disbelieve this is to not “trust the science.”
Ivermectin’s multiple uses
Ivermectin has been taken by some people as a way of treating COVID once they catch it. Many on the political left have simplified this as “horse paste” or “livestock dewormer” which is an uncharitable interpretation of what Ivermectin is. That’d be like saying if a human takes penicillin then they’re taking a “goat antibiotic.” Although it has famously helped humans survive and heal from infections, it can also be used in animals. So, is it a “goat antibiotic?” Sure. But that framing lacks all nuance, is overly simplistic, and is framing it in a way to make our political opponents look stupid.
Ivermectin does have legitimate uses like treating people with conditions caused by parasitic worms and external parasites like head lice. Close to 4 billion doses have been administered worldwide to humans in the past 30 years. It has even won a Nobel Peace Prize for its quality. This doesn’t mean it’s helpful for COVID, but it does mean it’s an established drug for humans, so don’t dismiss it completely as if it’s only a horse paste dewormer.
Ivermectin could possibly help with COVID, but as of right now, the FDA and CDC have stated there is insufficient evidence to say whether it’s helpful or not. This both means that we can’t say for certain that it doesn’t, but we can’t say for certain that it does. To take a position one way or the other strongly and with certainty is actually “not believing in science” which is something that both sides love to throw around when convenient. Some liberals have taken the position that you’d have to be a moron to take Ivermectin for COVID, and some conservatives have taken the position that it’s a life saving, pandemic ending, amazing drug. Both are premature and wrong because we do not have enough information.
Because we don’t have concrete evidence, I think it’s silly to take it right now in lieu of other actual proven treatments. GET VACCINATED INSTEAD. However, it isn’t completely ridiculous to think that it could potentially help treat COVID symptoms. There’s endless examples throughout medical history where we thought something was either bad/insufficient, but turned out to be good. Can anyone guarantee this wouldn’t happen for Ivermectin? No. Again, to say otherwise is rejecting science.
When dealing with a deadly disease, even if you take something that doesn’t help effectively, that might not be a bad thing. (Heck, the placebo effect is a real thing.) And because of this, my position is that it’s absolutely silly to take it instead of other proven treatments or preventative measures like the vaccine, but at the end of the day, it’s not completely ridiculous to take the human version of Ivermectin, prescribed by a doctor, to address COVID, in addition to the vaccine.
Human vs Animal is a big distinction
That last sentence above is an important distinction. Although I support people talking to their doctors and getting a human version of Ivermectin prescribed to them, I do agree that going to your local animal store and getting the animal version, which is a much higher dosage in paste form, is stupid as hell. I agree, that it is mock-worthy. I have joked about eating horse paste and I’ll continue to do so. Especially when you combine this with the idea that the people doing this are against the ingredients in the COVID vaccine, all while not knowing what’s actually in them.
“I don’t trust that scientifically proven vaccine taken by a billion people, but this horse paste version of Ivermectin is guaranteed to work!” is a nonsensical mentality. It’s complete culture war nonsense to “own the libs.”
A layman’s video
The video below is by a layman (YouTuber Rebecca Watson) who put together an assessment very similar to mine, but in video form. It has all the same basic concepts. This is a solid video if you want something raw and main-stream-accessible to share.
Get vaccinated. Take Ivermectin prescribed by a doctor if you wish.
Capacity Boost 