There are a number of issues as mentioned in that link above. They include:
For the actual science, several of the studies they include in their metastudy are problematic, including papers that haven’t passed peer review yet, animal papers, the almost certainly fraudulent one out of Egypt that’s been driving a lot of this nonsense, etc.
In lieu of actual research, they rely on the Nobel credentials of the drug’s inventors, which is not automatically disqualifying but a bad sign
Several of the authors have at times expressed skepticism of COVID vaccines, support for HCQ, one is big with the FLCCC folks, etc
This is an already old tactic that creationists and climate change deniers use.
This is how it begins: Proponents of a fringe or non-mainstream scientific viewpoint seek added credibility. They’re sick of being taunted for having few (if any) peer reviewed publications in their favor. Fed up, they decide to do something about it.
These “skeptics” find what they consider to be a weak point in the mainstream theory and critique it. Not by conducting original research; they simply review previous work. Then they find a little-known, not particularly influential journal where an editor sympathetic to their viewpoint hangs his hat.
They get their paper through the peer review process and into print. They publicize the hell out of it. Activists get excited by the study, which has considerable political implications.
Before long, mainstream scientists catch on to what’s happening. They shake their heads. Some slam the article and the journal that published it, questioning the review process and the editor’s ideological leanings. In published critiques, they tear the paper to scientific shreds.
Embarrassed, the journal’s publisher backs away from the work. But it’s too late for that. The press has gotten involved, and though the work in question has been discredited in the world of science, partisans who favor its conclusions for ideological reasons will champion it for years to come.
The scientific waters are muddied. The damage is done.
The disturbing thing is to see that most of the ones using that tactic are nowadays from the conservative side, and if one wonders if ignorance is expensive…
Our present free educational institutions are of the highest value to the State. The maintenance of them involves a great expense and much care, but it is a wise outlay. Knowledge is less expensive than ignorance. Ignorance is a dangerous and costly factor under any form of government, and under a republican, destructive.
OK, so the inventors of Ivermectin won a Nobel Prize for it. I didn’t know that. But they won the Nobel Prize for inventing an antiparasitic medication. Nobody disputes that Ivermectin is good for treating worm infestations. They didn’t get the Nobel Prize for inventing an antiviral medication, because they didn’t do that.
Just the fact that anyone thinks that’s relevant is damning.
A medically important group are the parasitic worms (helminths), which are estimated to afflict one third of the world’s population and are particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Central and South America. River Blindness and Lymphatic Filariasis are two diseases caused by parasitic worms. As the name implies, River Blindness (Onchocerciasis) ultimately leads to blindness, because of chronic inflammation in the cornea. Lymphatic Filariasis, afflicting more than 100 million people, causes chronic swelling and leads to life-long stigmatizing and disabling clinical symptoms, including Elephantiasis (Lymphedema) and Scrotal Hydrocele
This is why the SD is essential … I didn’t know that Elephantiasis and Scrotal Hydrocele were endemic in the GOP dominated districts. Nobody wants to be stigmatized.
If you’re going to randomly pick a drug and pretend it treats COVID, why not something easier to find like a statin? Maybe we could reduce cholesterol levels at least.
I do get this, kinda, but there are so many other fairly easily and legally get for free. Why not rabies? The plague came from bats and bats carry rabies so lets all go to the feed store and buy rabies shots (which are legal and easy to come by in cattle country). Rabies shots are even marginally useful for people who might contact a rabid raccoon. I say marginally because I know that the shots are only effective when administered correctly.
For those who are shot adverse, just break the vial open over a glass of orange juice and enjoy.
Actually in the 80s/90s at the Wistar Institute there was research into delivering rabies vaccine in oral bait. Baits were dropped by helicopter, vaccinating wildlife.
I guess I’m just confused about how the crazies landed on this particular unrelated drug as their “solution” to the covid problem. It seems so random. Why not a paprika and soy sauce mix?
The idea that ivermectin could be a coronavirus treatment began gaining steam in the spring of 2020, when Australian researchers observed that the medicine killed the virus in a laboratory setting.
