Michael Hiltzik: Ivermectin, another bogus COVID treatment, becomes a darling of conspiracy-mongers
Amid all the confounding features of the COVID-19 pandemic, one stands out: We have vaccines of established efficacy against the disease that millions of Americans have shunned for partisan reasons, and nostrums of obvious ineffectiveness that millions of people prefer.
The quintessential model for the latter — a supposed COVID-19 treatment promoted by prominent politicians and medical commentators that proved to be useless — is the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine.
That drug has pretty much fallen off the front pages, but it has been supplanted by another treatment claimed to be spectacularly effective despite an utter lack of scientific evidence.
The rather horrifying reality is that there have been enormous numbers of people treated with ivermectin largely based on a trial that ... should never have been used for any treatment decisions anyway.
Say hello to ivermectin.
