The Surgisphere papers were not "null" results. They found significantly higher risk of death after HCQ treatment, based on what turned out to be highly flawed data. The problem was with the original dataset. (Not to be outdone, the Surgisphere folks also contributed their data to a preprint which purported to show horse dewormer^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H ivermectin could be a successful SARS-CoV2 treatment).
You are not being truthful, labeling ivermectin only a "horse dewormer". Ivermectin is used as an antiparasitic drug also for people. And not only as a dewormer, but also against lice and mites.
Indeed. One of the most disheartening things about the covid pandemic has been seeing how many people are willing to propagate the most egregious health-related misinformation, such as that ivermectin is only or primarily a horse dewormer or that it is dangerous, as long as it identifies them with the desired faction. Such depravity should not have come as a surprise to me, but it did.
I've taken ivermectin—for parasites, not for covid. I wonder how many people will die of parasitic infections or more toxic antihelminthics and acaricides in the next few years because they or their neighbors refused to take ivermectin after they heard it was a dangerous veterinary-only drug from unscrupulous liars during the covid pandemic.
Scott Alexander had a long post on ivermectin-related papers. He noticed that some of the papers that purported a positive effect came from developing countries that have a bigger parasitic problem than the rich world.
Could it be that ivermectin helped third world patients with undetected worm infestation get rid of it and thus improved their covid-19 outcomes?
