Calling ivermectin a “horse dewormer” is the lowest form of intellectual discourse - political meme warfare using pejorative labels. It says more about those who repeat the phrase blindly. Ivermectin is a Nobel prize winning drug that has had incredibly surprising applications. I haven’t looked into it much, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone determined it had some application with COVID. Even if it isn’t very effective, it might provide an imperfect benefit with limited downside, which is all we get from the various vaccines out there anyways. But really what is wrong with people speculating about drugs, discussing them, and making choices on their own about their health and what risks they are comfortable with?

Ultimately the ivermectin controversy is less about ivermectin itself and more about other problems in modern western society that have been laid bare by the pandemic. It’s about uncivil discourse (“horse dewormer”). Its about bad reporting and a failing journalism industry that veered too far into manufacturing narratives. It’s about blindly trusting authorities. It’s about whether speculation and free thought is allowed. It’s about collectivism versus individualism. It’s about groupthink and tribalism. It’s about censorship, for example YouTube censoring videos of the Nobel prize winner discussing ivermectin (https://reclaimthenet.org/youtube-censors-dr-satoshi-omura-i...).

We have seen other similar situations throughout the pandemic, like with early speculation about COVID’s existence, whether it could transmit between humans (WHO said it can’t in late Jan 2020!), about masks, about the lab leak theory, and now this.

PS: many left-leaning pharmacists are openly discussing on social media how they can arbitrarily deny doctors’ prescriptions for ivermectin and other drugs that have become politically charged (example: https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/comments/p8zq68/what_are_y...). That may be why some patients are seeking out veterinary doses, which may then be leading to ODs.