Review of Evidence Demonstrating Efficacy of Ivermectin-Treatment of Covid-19

I've been very surprised by the knee-jerk reactions from so many supposedly-educated corners against any discussion of potential treatments that are not "Get Vaxxed".

The nuance is not there - vaccines are generally safe in the short term for most demographics, and seem to be very effective from severe Covid, so do get vaxxed if you can. However, nobody knows what any long-term effects may be of the vaccines, so it's understandable that many people are hesitant (but not necessarily totally dissuaded).

There is a huge spectrum from "the government is trying to microchip me" to "vaccines are great all the time every time". Most people fall in the middle, and it's really strange and wrong to condemn anyone who does pause to consider things before agreeing to take a newly released pharmaceutical.

There is understandable interest in other therapeutics that might be effective, and we do ourselves a disservice to not openly discuss them. "People are too stupid to understand so let's not let them have the information" has never historically worked as a matter of policy.

"Meta-analyses based on 18 randomized controlled treatment trials of ivermectin in COVID-19 have found large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance."

While I appreciate the drive to find more effective agents to treating COVID, we don't have anything approved and widely available that's more than mildly effective.

So get vaccinated.

I see Facebook anti-vax campaigns latch onto a new miracle cure every few months to convince themselves that the vaccine isn't worth getting.

The truth is, it's unlikely we will ever have a treatment anywhere near as effective as the vaccine. With how effective the vaccines are in preventing severe illness, there's little money or reason to persue other options.

Historically, viruses with effective vaccines rarely if ever have good treatments developed afterwards. And if we do, like with several flu drugs, the virus develops complete resistance rapidly. So don't count on it. Get vaccinated.