So you think Ivermectin works.
You studied the data, you’ve read all the medical studies you could find, you’ve seen hours of YouTube videos where doctors swear by the drug, and you’ve even spent days (or weeks) researching on your on. Finally you conclude, that the data suggest Ivermectin is an effective treatment against COVID-19.
Great news, you’re being inquisitive, skeptical and data driven, all good qualities to have in 2021.
But…
There’s a small problem.
None of the Government ‘experts’ seem to share your conclusion.
Governments Experts Say they’re inconclusive
We know Malaysia is currently conducting it’s own trials, and to date the results have been inconclusive, which means Ivermectin is still not authorized for treating COVID-19. (link)
We also know US FDA has not authorized the use of the drug for COVID-19. (link)
The EU medicines agency has also advised against it’s use. (link)
Add in Singapore, who have conducted a study themselves, they found no evidence of it’s efficacy — concluding that “No statistically significant differences in Covid-19 infection rates were observed between those who took vitamin C versus ivermectin” (link)
Taiwan, who’ve complained that the Chinese Government were preventing them from getting access to vaccines (and thus have a huge incentive to find a non-vaccine solution), also has advised against using the drug.(link)
And finally India, a country most to benefit from the use of a cheap drug to treat COVID, have also released new guidelines to stop the use of Ivermectin, of course state governments seem to be still prescribing them. (link)
So how is it, that the Government experts, all of whom are better trained at scientific research than yourself, looked at the same data as you — and come to a different conclusion.
There can only be two reasons, incompetence or malice.
It can’t be incompetence, after each Government Health agency would have the cumulative experience of dozens if not hundreds of experts, each of which spent decades in this field. You’re not egotistical enough to believe that your 3 days of YouTube would beat that.
So it must be malice — it must be Big Pharma conspiracy.
Conspiracy
That’s obvious right, Ivermectin is cheap and effective, and governments are refusing to authorize the drug because Big Pharma is pressuring them to consume the expensive vaccines instead.
There is no money to be made from a drug that cost pennies, at least not while more expensive vaccines are available.
First of all, no one company has a monopoly on the drug, and both Astra-Zeneca and Johnson & Johnson are selling their vaccines at cost. And while it was estimated that Pfizer made $900 million in profit from the vaccine last quarter, we live in a country where the Prime Minister got a $700 million gift from a Saudi prince, there’s just not enough money to bribe everyone here.
But let’s assume you’re right, and there is a conspiracy, let’s dig deeper.
What do you actually believe in when you say Big Pharma is controlling governments.
You believe the Malaysian government is intentionally letting people die in order to help big pharma. After all, if Ivermectin was effective as you believe, maybe our death rate wouldn’t be as high as it is. Accusing a government of incompetence and corruption is one thing, accusing it of recklessly endangering the lives of its citizens is another altogether.
But again, let’s assume you’re right.
After all, single government conspiracies exists — like Russian Doping of Olympic Athletes, but a global conspiracy, across multiple governments, all agreeing to kill their own citizens in the name of big-pharma, is unprecedented. Clearly, this is the news-story of the century (if not millennium).
Unfortunately, there’s something else we have to account for. How does one keep a conspiracy this large (and this evil) a secret — at some point, somebody would have blown the whistle, and Edward Snowden of the Big Pharma, where are they?
You’re accusing strong-man politicians like Modi of being corrupt.
You’re accusing famously clean governments like Singapore of being corrupt.
You’re accusing multiple countries, all from different ideological backgrounds of colluding on something evil — when they have no history of colluding on anything.
And you’re making all these accusations simultaneously!
And here my dear friends, is where you belief starts to really hit a wall. Conspiracies that are this evil and large, exists only in James Bond movies.
Well James Bond and flat-earthers.
Parallels with a flat earth
Flat earthers believe that the world is flat, and that NASA is heading is global conspiracy of tricking the world into believing it’s a sphere. All 71 space agencies (about 14 of whom have actually launched something into space) are lying. These include the governments of the US, Russia, China, Japan, India etc.
Ivermectin folks believe that Ivermectin works, and that The WHO is heading is global conspiracy of tricking the world into believing only vaccines work on COVID. All Government Health agencies (most of whom don’t even produce vaccines) are lying. These include the governments of Malaysia, US, EU, Taiwan, Singapore, India etc.
You might accuse me of being a bit unfair, because pro-ivermectin doesn’t quite mean anti-vaccine.
Except it does. The same way, Flat earthers must believe that NASA is lying, Ivermectin proponents must believe that the Health Ministries are lying.
After all, if this is a Global Conspiracy by Big Pharma, why trust the Vaccines from Big Pharma? Once you’ve convinced yourself Ivermectin works and there is a conspiracy, it’s a logical conclusion that the Vaccines are part of that conspiracy.
Here’s the biggest danger of Ivermectin, it’s not the drug itself but what happens when you mix Big Pharma conspiracy with the YouTube algorithm — you inevitably get Vaccine hesistancy.
And no where is this clearer than on YouTube.
Youtube
The biggest Ivermectin pusher on my YouTube feed is Bret Weinstein, of the Darkhorse Podcast. Bret’s one of the original ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ members, so depending on where you stand politically you might have differing opinions about him.
Put them aside though for now.
Bret started out with questioning the “Lab Leak Hypothesis”, which is a valid question. That’s a “single government” conspiracy, something in the realm of possibility,
He then slowly turned on the Ivermectin news — and now his videos are actually discouraging folks from taking the vaccine, including one with the supposed founder of mRNA citing that spike protein is cytotoxic.
I can hear the Weinstein fans cry out loud, that Bret is merely ‘questioning’ the truth. But based on the comments of his videos, it’s hard not to think of him as a beacon for which anti-vaccine groups huddle under.
Here’s just a snippet of the wonderful comments you’d find on his latest video on Youtube:
It’s one thing to question the origin of COVID-19, another to say that I believe Ivermectin works, and something entirely more dangerous to believe that Vaccines are a conspiracy by governments and big pharma.
Bret and wife, firmly belief that part of the reason Ivermectin isn’t used, is because the FDA needed a reason to provide an emergency authorization for the vaccine — which they wouldn’t have obtained if there were a ‘cure’ like Ivermectin.
Ivermectin may work, but as it stands right now, it requires such a deep level of conspiracy theory to support it, that it’s actually turning people off getting vaccinated and doing the right thing.
And it’s not a crazy American thing either, this craziness exists in Malaysia as well. Here’s snippets from this Astro Awani report of Ivermectin:
Here’s a video from Jason Leong addressing Ivermectin usage, and even there you can see Vaccine hesitancy linked to Ivermectin.
IVERMECTIN = CONSPIRACY
If you believe in Ivermectin as a cure — you’re almost certainly believing in a conspiracy.
It’s this erosion of trust in general scientific consensus that makes this so dangerous. What happens when we need booster shots of Vaccines, or a totally different vaccine for a new strain, what will the uptake of that vaccine be like if nobody trusts Government Health agencies anymore — and they all jump on this Ivermectin bandwagon.
I’m not saying the drug doesn’t work — after all, the best we can say is ‘inconclusive’. But there’s belief in the absence of proof (it’s called faith) — and there’s conspiracy, and right now, a strong belief in the drug leads to conspiracy.