The danger was not that the medicine itself, but the fact that it was a) unproven to have any effect, b) often taken in horse doses causing nasty side effects (because horse medicine if often good enough for human consumption, even if it's not held to the same standard) and above all c) seen as an alternative to proper measures like vaccination, masks, the whole ordeal.
It's a pretty good way to get rid of parasites, but the association with COVID caused a lot of problems.
The part "b)" about horse dewormer overdoses have been confirmed to be fake news long ago so I think don't need to dwell on that too much. I still don't know whether ivermectin is effective or not though. If it's not then I still don't understand what's the big deal. Why does it have to be smeared so hard.
And this whole "c)" thing. That's the most disturbing part to me. That's basically like religious fundamentalism to me. I just can't wrap my head around it. Why should vaccination be the only acceptable way to treat COVID and that we shouldn't even consider the alternatives as if they were some kind of heresies? I just don't understand. To me it seems like the vaccine fundamentalists are more interested in obedience than science. In science we need opposing views and this obviously means that some of those views will be proven to be false, but if you try to effectively SUPPRESS those opposing views then you can't call it science anymore. Also, there's always a good chance that the mainstream view can be false. I mean, just like with religions but that's one of those worm cans that only make people mad if we pop it open.
My whole life I was taught that trying to cure seasonal flu with vaccine is silly because the flu mutates too fast and it just leads to an endless loop of seasonal vaccines. Then covid happens and suddenly I should forget everything I knew about vaccines even though with the talk about all these booster shots it only makes it seems like the old knowledge makes more sense than this new knowledge. My brain refuses to accept this nonsense, I can't help it.
You tried very hard to ignore the points he was making.
> Why should vaccination be the only acceptable way to treat COVID
It's not a treatment. Vaccines are prevention. We have treatments. Ivermectin isn't one of them.
> In science we need opposing views
That sounds so childish. We don't need "views" in science. We need results that people can trust.
You have my permission to try and prove ivermectin is effective. So far everyone trying has failed. That's not a view. It's fact.
> trying to cure seasonal flu with vaccine is silly
It's not. We can get rid of seasonal flu if we try hard enough.
> To me it seems like the vaccine fundamentalists are more interested in obedience than science.
"vaccine fundamentalists" suggests to me a complete disingenuous argument.
We know how to prevent covid. We know how to eradicate covid. We have watched countries do just that. Even if we don't do the things those places do, we can reduce the death count here.
But with small-minded attitudes like yours, that simply is never going to happen.
>It's not a treatment. Vaccines are prevention. We have treatments. Ivermectin isn't one of them.
I'm not an expert on medicine and I admit I have no idea what I'm talking about but are you trying to make some kind of a point here or are you just arguing about semantics?
>You have my permission to try and prove ivermectin is effective. So far everyone trying has failed.
No I'm not qualified for that. This is why I gave you a link about COVID nasal sprays that have ivermectin in them and asked whether they're bullshit or not. Enlighten me if you can or don't reply.
>It's not. We can get rid of seasonal flu if we try hard enough.
I'm too pessimistic to fall for that kind of wishful thinking.
>But with small-minded attitudes like yours, that simply is never going to happen.
Come on. You don't want me to be open-minded. You want me to be small-minded with you. To align my views with yours. Open-mindedness requires you to accept opposing view points. What even makes me small-minded exactly? I'm not against vaccines and I'm not against ivermectin. I'm merely baffled by the anti-ivermectin narrative and the totalitarian vaccine campaigns that leave no other options except mandatory vaccines. I may be ignorant and I may be wrong but I'm certainly not small-minded.
> My whole life I was taught that trying to cure seasonal flu with vaccine is silly because the flu mutates too fast and it just leads to an endless loop of seasonal vaccines.
You've been taught wrong. First, the vaccines don't "cure" flu and nobody claims they do. Second, in many countries they are recommended yearly for people at risk, like elderly people.
It's true flu has newer strains each year and the vaccine must be changed, but the rest of what you were taught was not correct.
Of course! The problem is that when laypeople buy veterinary doses (because you can't get a package of human pills for a decent price), it's very easy to underestimate the effective concentration of the medicine. There's also a risk that the material the effective ingredient is wrapped in (flavouring, gelling agents, etc.) doesn't go down well with the human body, or that the higher concentration has an effect on the human body.
If you compensate for the body weight and ensure that the gel agent the animal medicine comes in doesn't have any adverse effects on the human body (it probably doesn't) then consuming animal medicine can be an excellent way to treat parasitic infections if you're awfully poor and don't qualify for any insurance. Consuming any chemical not made for human consumption is dangerous, but if you don't have another option, it's better than doing nothing.
People ridicule the whole horse dewormer story, but it's no secret that people around the world have turned to animal medicine out of necessity due to prices of medication.
It's a pretty good way to get rid of parasites, but the association with COVID caused a lot of problems.