Anyone who has a baseline knowledge of medicine would call it a dewormer. It's pretty much the standard one. I feel like the fact that so many people don't have a mental compartment for a basic medical term like that nowadays really has a lot to do with how much trouble we've had controlling this virus. Of course an mRNA vaccine is scary to someone who doesn't know what mRNA is.
We're never going to escape this cycle without better science education.
Right, but in all the contexts I've heard it, it's not just a "dewormer", it's a "horse dewormer". That's technically true, but it's also FDA approved for human consumption. Making fun of people for consuming "horse dewormer" is like making fun of people for consuming "horse tranquilizer" for their depression[1].
There’s more to the ivermectin story than having anti-parasitic properties, even though that’s how it became famous. It also appears to have anti-viral properties [1]. And there have been 60+ studies showing its efficacy [2]. Just because it has anti-parasitic properties doesn't mean it couldn't also block biological pathways in viral infections as well.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016635422...
FWIW researching it is good and should be encouraged but most quality clinical trials so far like NCT04429711 and NCT04391127 haven't been very promising. Those which do show a statistically significant result have been flawed in one way or another. Hopefully when the Principle Trial reports people will get over it one way or another, but it's not looking promising. It may help somewhat at best, but it's no miracle cure.
Come on, nobody calls it that, ketamine is generally known by the epithets:
"Date rape drug"
also
"Drug used to murder Elijah McClain"
"Horse dewormer" is as accurate as it can possibly be. It is also used extensively as a cow dewormer and pet dewormer. People are going to veterinarian and pet shops to buy paste sold to deworm horses and cows to take it themselves. They are not taking drugs produced for human consumption. They are going with the animal products designed and sold to give to animals.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/more-people-are-pois...
Calling it a dewormer in this context is a lie of omission.
But salicylic acid is also used in skin care products like wart remover.
Here's a wart remover product for dogs and horses, which contains salicylic acid as an active ingredient: https://www.chewy.com/creative-science-wartsoff-wart-dog/dp/...
If, the next time you have a fever, you reach for the dog/horse wart remover... I'm gonna call that "dog wart remover" regardless of the fact that it contains an ingredient that is used to treat fevers in _humans_
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[0]: https://twitter.com/us_fda/status/1429050070243192839
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/health/covid-ivermectin-p...
I'll agree that it is misleading to call it horse paste, but if you call it a de-wormer, that doesn't sound a lot better to me. It's not an anti-viral, and the only "promise" it has shown is equivalent to the promise shown by a handgun fired at a petri dish a la xkcd.
But then he got Covid and announced he was taking a medicine that some people think might help, but hasn't been proved.
Now there's all the talk about horse paste or whatever but I feel like we all skipped over a step where there's a group of people who have taken a conspiratorial approach now leaping on an unproven medicine, which just seems odd. So they've always believed in Covid, but pretended not to?
And I feel like I'm going crazy but didn't this already happen with some other drug, that people thought might be really helpful but turned out not to be?
Is it the lockdowns they don't like, the vaccines? Why is jumping on unproven meds so popular in certain circles?
Regarding Right-wing distrust: The vaccine is new tech (and I mean fundamentally new, not just another flu vaccine). This means that unlike previous vaccines, it's safety profile wasn't nearly as well understood. It's efficacy is pretty well characterized. Conversely, Ivermectin isn't just horse dewormer, it's used in humans too. It has a known safety profile, and had early research dramatic report a 90% reduction in death (the one that was later retracted). Remember, not believing in vaccines doesn't make covid go away, so you've got a chunk of people desperate for an alternative solution. So they see this "known element" and reported efficacy and think that it'll be an alternative to the vaccine.
The previous case was Hydroxy chloroquinine, and I have quite a bit of spite for both sides of that argument then too.
It's got a picture of a horse and PASTE in a big font. But, yes, like sibling post, it's used derisively for people who won't get a free vaccine known to reduce death 10x+ but will get random shit radio hosts tell them to try.
Anyway, there's no reason ivermectin couldn't be used to treat breakthrough cases in people who have taken the vaccine as well. So it's something that could help everyone.
So, at best, people take a sane dose and it has no effect whatsoever as covid is not an intestinal worm. At worst, they take too much and it makes them more ill. There are indeed people hospitalised for it, whether that's a global, national, local or non-issue I can't say but that any unnecessarily sick person in the context of a pandemic takes another bed away is pretty obvious.
Whatever fits the narrative I guess…