"While this drug is best known as a horse de-wormer, it is also used to treat humans for a variety of conditions and many medications are used to treat conditions they were not originally intended to treat. Viagra is a famous example of this. As such, the idea of re-purposing a medication is not itself foolish. But there are obvious problems with taking ivermectin to treat COVID."
"T he most obvious one is that there is not a good reason to believe that the drug is effective; people would be better off seeking established treatment. Another problem is the matter of dosing as the drug can have serious side-effects even at the correct dosage. Since I am not a medical doctor, my main concern is not with the medical aspects of the drug, but with epistemology."
"Those who were most likely to use the drug were people in areas hit hard by COVID and subject to anti-vaccine and anti-mask messages from politicians and pundits. These two factors are related: when people do not get vaccinated and do not take precautions against infection, then they are more likely to get infected. This is why there was such a clear correlation between COVID infection rates"
Many Americans who avoided COVID vaccination self-medicated with ivermectin, a drug known as a veterinary de-wormer that is also used in humans and sometimes repurposed for other conditions. There was not a good reason to believe ivermectin was effective against COVID, and dosing carries risk of serious side effects even at correct dosages. The main concern is epistemological: why people believed in its efficacy despite lack of credible evidence. Uptake concentrated in areas hit hard by COVID and exposed to anti-vaccine and anti-mask messages. Political rejection of expertise and performative opposition to liberal public-health measures helped drive use of unproven treatments.
Read at A Philosopher's Blog
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