I feel slightly dumb to be so exasperated by a subject so fundamentally stupid. Stupid in every way, from every direction, from everyone who puts their stupid fingers to their stupid phones or their stupid keyboards to make a stupid post or comment about it, stupid self included. But the fact remains, I am exasperated by the DISCOURSE around ivermectin as it relates to COVID-19, and I have been for quite some time now.

Here is what is happening, in case I come back to read this in a few years and need to be reminded of the underlying details: There is a global pandemic because of a coronavirus—it is a bummer. A number of surprisingly effective vaccines were developed in record time to help bring an end to the pandemic. Lots of people were happy to get the vaccine, but something like twenty percent of people are not interested for various reasons, many of which are pretty dumb. Some people think, for unclear reasons, that taking a drug called ivermectin will either help prevent them from getting the coronavirus or help them recover from the virus once they’ve come down with it. National health authorities do not recommend taking the drug ivermectin as a coronavirus preventative or treatment.

Just what the hell is ivermectin good for, then, if not coronavirus? A lot, actually! From the helpful Wikipedia entry about the drug:

Ivermectin is a medication that is used to treat parasite infestations. In humans, this includes head lice, scabies, river blindness (onchocerciasis), strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, ascariasis, and lymphatic filariasis. In veterinary medicine, it is used to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis, among other indications.
…
Ivermectin was introduced in 1981. Half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Campbell and Ōmura for discovering avermectin, "the derivatives of which have radically lowered the incidence of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, as well as showing efficacy against an expanding number of other parasitic diseases".

By 1986, ivermectin was registered for use in 46 countries and was administered massively to cattle, sheep and other animals. Ivermectin was approved for human use in 1988. Ivermectin earned the title of "wonder drug" for the treatment of nematodes and arthropod parasites. Ivermectin has been used safely by hundreds of millions of people to treat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis.

What else is happening, according to various reports, is that a non-zero number of people are apparently going to farm supply stores and buying the version of ivermectin that is intended for horses as deworming medication with the intention of ingesting it themselves. That’s what they’re saying they’re doing on Facebook and Reddit, anyway, though it must be said that a lot of those groups look very much to be started by, and dominated by, people who are not being serious, but rather “having a laugh.” Either way, certainly some non-zero number of people are taking horse medication because they think it will help them with regard to the coronavirus, one way or another.

What else is happening, according to various reports—and also according to my very own co-host at 26:30 of this episode of our excellent podcast—is that some actual doctors are in fact prescribing ivermectin-for-humans to their human patients, since ivermectin has been proven safe for humans for thirty years, and apparently these doctors think it might help, or at least couldn’t hurt.

I take no position on the efficacy of ivermectin as it relates to coronavirus, because I don’t have the first fucking clue how any of that works, because I am not a scientist or a doctor, but a blowhard with his own personal brand website and associated blog and podcast. If I had to guess, my guess would be that ivermectin is not useful in the prevention or treatment of coronavirus, because I have not been convinced by anyone talking about its efficacy on podcasts, nor have I read anything that made me think it would help, and I will not ask my doctor about getting some if I end up coming down with the virus.

But—and here is where the exasperation comes in—I absolutely cannot stand the way ivermectin is being talked about in the national press and on (mostly Media-)Twitter. They have used the alleged fact that some non-zero number of people are buying and ingesting the horse-deworming version of the drug available at cattle feed stores to unfailingly and nearly exclusively describe anyone who talks about ivermectin in relation to coronavirus as someone pushing horse meds on people, and to claim that anyone who takes or talks about taking ivermectin is taking horse deworming medication. What I will refer to as the DON’T TAKE HORSE PASTE, DUMMY Discourse reached its dual peaks with this tweet from the official US FDA Twitter account, and daffy podcasting dude Joe Rogan’s announcement a week-plus later that he had contracted the coronavirus, and was treating it with a number of different things, including but not limited to the dread ivermectin.

When Joe Rogan—who, it must be said, has been in significantly less than perfect lock-step with the general consensus on coronavirus, the vaccines, and treatment—announced his diagnosis and personal treatment plan, every media outlet you can imagine had something to say about it. And it was all the same thing—Joe Rogan is taking fucking horse medicine like a complete dope.

From the NPR write-up: “His methods included taking ivermectin, a deworming veterinary drug that is formulated for use in cows and horses.”

From the New York Times: “Mr. Rogan also said he had received a “vitamin drip” as well as ivermectin, a drug primarily used as a veterinary deworming agent.”

Washington Post: “After his diagnosis, he said he “immediately threw the kitchen sink” at the virus, and listed a litany of therapeutics and treatments he tried, including ivermectin, a medicine used to kill parasites in animals and humans but best known as a horse dewormer.”

“Best known as a horse dewormer?” Gee! I wonder how that could have happened!

Slate: “Instead, there was nothing but the same familiar frustration to be found in his explanation that one of the medicines he took to combat his infection was ivermectin, the horse dewormer that has gained credence in certain circles as a COVID-19 treatment explicitly because every credible medical authority that it has absolutely no value as a COVID-19 treatment.”

Hollywood Reporter video:

NBC News: “Podcast host Joe Rogan told his millions of followers Wednesday that he has Covid-19 and used ivermectin, a drug typically used on livestock that health experts have urged the public to avoid.”

USA Today, first in the headline: “Joe Rogan tests positive for COVID, says he's taking unapproved deworming drug ivermectin” And then in the body: “To treat his symptoms, which Rogan said only caused duress for one day on Sunday, the 54-year-old who isn't vaccinated turned to deworming medicine ivermectin, among other unproven treatments.”

CBS News: “Ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug commonly used in livestock, is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID.”

Vulture: “He lists several different medicines he took to combat his symptoms, including ivermectin, a.k.a. a horse dewormer the FDA has warned the public against taking to combat COVID.”

Hollywood Reporter again: “Joe Rogan Says He Tested Positive for COVID-19, Takes Unproven Horse Dewormer”

Rolling Stone: “‘Crazy Times’: Joe Rogan Got Covid and Ate a Cocktail of Meds Including a Horse Dewormer”

Sky News: “Rogan added that he was on a "vitamin drip" and the animal deworming agent ivermectin, which has not been approved for use to treat COVID-19 by the US Food And Drug Administration.”

The Hill: “Ivermectin is typically used for parasitic infections in animals such as horses and cows, and the FDA has warned the public against using it to treat COVID-19.”

Gizmodo offers a relatively straightforward take on the story, going further than a lot of the above outlets in explaining that there is, in fact, a normal human version of the drug that has normal human applications—but still concludes their write-up with this: “Get vaccinated, if you haven’t already. It’s a smarter move than the horse paste.”

There are, uhh, a lot more. Just about every single one of the write-ups includes the word “ivermectin” in the headline, and an explanation that ivermectin is cattle deworming medication. Some of the articles at least also explain that the drug also has human applications and is often prescribed to humans. Some of them are even quite responsible—both CNN and the BBC reported in a much more straightforward “just the facts, no horses or cows” kinda way. CNN: “In Wednesday's video, Rogan said he took several medications after his diagnosis, including the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, the use of which has become popular among fringe and anti-vaccine communities, and which US health officials have strongly advised against.” And the BBC: “"We immediately threw the kitchen sink at it, all kinds of meds," he said, listing a string of medicines including the deworming drug ivermectin, which health experts say has yet to prove effective against Covid.”

You’ll note that Joe Rogan did not say that he went down to the Tractor Supply store for a tube of apple-flavored horse-dewormer, but that did not prevent the overwhelming majority of the media to proclaim that he had done something just like that. So it’s not provably true, at this point, that Rogan is ingesting cattle medication. Call me crazy, but my guess is that the dude who’s worth something like $100 million is probably getting his ivermectin in the form that is made for humans, and it is being prescribed to him by his doctor. Ivermectin has been prescribed to hundreds of millions of people to treat lice, scabies, and river blindness. It won its discoverers a gosh darn Nobel prize! Does that mean it helps with COVID? No! But he probably got it from a fucking doctor, because people with unlimited means get whatever they want, including and maybe especially from doctors! Maybe that doctor is a quack. I don’t know!

I wouldn't take ivermectin as a coronavirus treatment, and doubly so not without the advice of a doctor. And of course no human should ingest cattle medicine, regardless. But this consistent push across (most) media to insist IVERMECTIN IS HORSE PASTE, DUMMY has struck me as weirdly propagandistic. Perhaps motivated by the good—we’d rather people not take horsey meds—but only resulting in more tribal disconnect. That there's no scientific indication that ivermectin will help with COVID-19 doesn't make telling weird half-truths about it any more justifiable, especially since weird half-truths only reinforce the reflexive mistrust so many (perhaps misled) people already have.

I sincerely don't understand how it is in the public interest to near-unfailingly call a medication that has been prescribed to hundreds of millions of humans "horse paste" because a non-zero number of people in Facebook groups are claiming to be ingesting that version of it. But that’s just my naivete talking—this doesn’t have anything to do with the public interest—this has to do with the maintenance of the culture war. The whole IVERMECTIN IS HORSE PASTE, DUMMY Discourse is just a useless circle-jerk superiority display by a media that wants nothing more than an opportunity to hold the rubes who don’t properly respect them in utter contempt. And because it’s an easy joke. And because they can all make it. High-five!

This should not be understood as a defense of Rogan or anybody else doing baseless, or mostly baseless, theorizing—conspiracy and otherwise—with regard to pushing unscientific coronavirus information. I just have a strong preference for confronting reality as it actually is, rather than framing it in a way that conveniently dismisses one “side” or another. Rogan isn’t taking horse paste. He doesn’t have to be taking horse paste for him to be wrong. You can just describe what it is he’s actually doing, and people will be better off for knowing the truth, as close as you can get to it.

Saying "Rogan is taking horse dewormer" over and over again when he most assuredly is actually taking a drug prescribed to him by a physician made and dosed for human use means more people are going to take the fucking horse dewormer, not fewer. The wider media has exposed many, many millions more people to the idea that one can take horse-deworming paste for coronavirus than Joe Rogan ever could have—even if that was what he said, which he demonstrably did not! Saying “Rogan probably got a prescription for the anti-parasitic drug from his doctor, as some doctors have been prescribing the river-blindness drug despite no evidence and against FDA recommendations” means that maybe more people will ask their doctor about the drug, but fewer will believe there’s a miracle cure at the farm animal vet store.

It’s not at all the same, of course—water is good for you, works on thirst, plants; anti-parasitic ivermectin, even the one for people, likely does not work on your coronavirus—but the IVERMECTIN IS HORSE PASTE, DUMMY stuff reminds me of the great BRAWNDO vs. Water divide in our inevitable and (somehow) much dumber future, as presented by Mike Judge in Idiocracy.

“Just the other day, I had a headache. I didn’t feel like taking any of the common over the counter drugs, though, because I like to see if I can beat mild headaches without them so I don’t develop a tolerance for the drugs, or an over-reliance on them. So what I did was, I drank a giant glass of water. You know, water—that stuff in the toilet that we mix with our excretory waste for easy disposal. And my headache got better!”

Just tell the truth! We don’t need any of the smug superiority dressed up in “just watching out for the rubes” to figure out that taking cattle meds is dumb and bad. And, yeah, sure, obviously—don’t take the horse paste, dummy.