The rise of the ivermectin cult is one of the most nonsensical storylines — in a sea of nonsensical storylines — to emerge during the pandemic. Even now, as Covid begins to become a less dominant force in our lives, the ivermectin bunkum continues.
There have been several recent large, well-done, clinical trials, including one published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, that definitively show, according to one of the study’s authors, “there’s really no sign of any benefit.”
But this growing body of it-doesn’t-work evidence hasn’t stopped ivermectin champions from championing. “RETRACT PAPER @NEJM NOW!!!!!” an anti-vaccine physician posted on Twitter a few days after the study was published. In her view it is a “CRIMINAL PAPER” that is “PROMOTING MURDER.” (All caps and exclamation marks in original, of course.) ...
Unfortunately, a large part of the ivermectin “debate” has been severely polluted by fraudulent and poorly done studies. Many of the papers that suggested a possible benefit have been retracted or found to be fundamentally flawed. But the damage has been done. These studies live on as unkillable Zombie Papers that feed the “ivermectin works!” mythology.
And why do they live on? Because ivermectin very quickly became not about science but about ideology and in-group signaling. It was pushed by a variety of right-wing voices, Covid contrarians, QAnon backers and, even, state actors, such as China and Russia, to promote information chaos in support of many agendas, both personal (e.g., profiting from the sale of ivermectin) and ideological (e.g., fostering distrust in national political and public health institutions).
Indeed, the degree to which ivermectin discourse and decision-making are tied to ideology, as opposed to science, borders on the absurd. A study by the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, for example, found that 75 percent of people who get their news from very conservative news sources would recommend ivermectin to someone exposed to Covid. Only 35 percent of those who get their news from the legacy media would do the same. ...
A poll last year by YouGov found that most Republicans who have heard about ivermectin “believe it could be effective, despite FDA warnings about its danger.” And a study this year found that as a result of the misinformation and hype, ivermectin prescribing volume rose by an astounding 964 percent in 2020. Such prescribing was significantly higher in counties that voted Republican. The higher the Republican vote, the higher the ivermectin use. ...
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