Why it’s okay for Rolling Stone to write false stories about a drug called Ivermectin

_{Denyse O'Leary

September 8, 2021

Culture, Intelligent Design, Media, Science}

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Barry Arrington wrote an interesting post on Rolling Stone’s latest debacle: Ridiculous claims about Ivermectin overdoses.

Followed up at the page by commenters discussing the earlier self-satisfied media claims that the Wuhan lab leak was a crackpot theory.

The Wuhan lab leak is today’s Chernobyl.

It’s all a perfect illustration of what sold-out media incompetence can do.

Readers, they don’t need you. And you don’t need them. We all have the internet.

Ivermectin probably usually works, used as directed. Whether that is convenient to Big Pharma or not. Something happened at the Wuhan Level 4 virus lab. Whether that is convenient to the Chinese Communist Party or not.

But much that happens in media today is not about what happened. It’s about Hot Hair and Big Lipstick posing as news.

One thing to see is that Big Media wants the Chinese market, which it can only get by telling people the stories the CCP wants them to hear.

Increasingly, more and more of the real stories will be provided by independent media. We are more important than we ever used to be. – Denyse O’Leary

See also: Update on COVID-19 origins In January, Dr. Peter Ben Embarek said it was “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 came from a lab accident. He has since begun to walk back those claims.

And any story from Uncommon Descent

Comments

Bob O'H:
What, ET, Invermectin (sic) isn’t used for de-worming horses?
Yes, it is. You didn't seem to know that it is also approved for use in humans. Now you are backpedaling because you were caught spewing nonsense.ET_{September 11, 2021
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B, we all know the tainted intent of that 1/4 truth mischaracterisation. Yep, not even a half truth. Do you want to find yourself with negative credibility? Just keep on pushing that sort of agit prop stunt. KFkairosfocus_{September 11, 2021
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What, ET, Invermectin isn't used for de-worming horses?Bob O'H_{September 11, 2021
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Bob O'H:
River blindness is caused by a parasitic worm, which is very different from a virus.
YOU said it was for deworming horses. Both KF and I have refuted that nonsense. So don't try to move the goalpost.ET_{September 10, 2021
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The FDA approval for the vaccines can only be maintained *if there exists no other treatments at all*. This is the reason as to why they attack/besmirch/ignore vitamin D, Zinc, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin and so on.Origenes_{September 10, 2021
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The FDA approval for emergency use of the vaccines can only be maintained *if there are no other treatments in existence at all*. That's why they attack/besmirch/ignore Vitamin D, Zinc, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin and so on.Origenes_{September 10, 2021
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KF Sorry to hear that. 2021 has been a hard one for me, too. ESEugeneS_{September 10, 2021
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PS: Again, kindly examine the point by point response to the WHO hit job, then follow the money trail on how suddenly Pfizer is rolling out its bright shiny new pill and is saying oh yes we need both pills and jabs to get on top of this pandemic. Development lead time shows they knew that all along but hid behind the veil of attacking IVM etc. That cost us being a year behind the curve of pandemic crisis. Needlessly. PPS: I clip at a key point, on dosage tied concommitant variation, one of the strongest marks of causality:
Two ?awed lines of analysis by the WHO appear to account for this inconsistent result: 1) The WHO arbitrarily and severely limited the extent and diversity of study designs considered (e.g., retrospective observational controlled trials (OCT), prospective OCTs, epidemiological, quasi-randomized, randomized, placebo-controlled, etc.). 2) The WHO mischaracterized the overall quality of the trial data to undermine the included studies . . . . Key Ivermectin Trial Data Excluded from Analysis 1) The WHO excluded all “quasi-randomized” RCTs from consideration (two excluded trials with over 200 patients that reported reductions in mortality). 2) The WHO excluded all RCTs where ivermectin was compared to or given with other medications. Two such trials with over 750 patients reported reductions in mortality. 3) The WHO excluded from consideration 7 of the 23 available ivermectin RCT results. Such irregularities skewed the proper assessment of important outcomes in at least the following ways: a) Mortality Assessment i) WHO Review: Excluded multiple RCTs such that only 31 total trials deaths occurred; despite this artificially meager sample, an estimate of up to a 91% reduction in the risk of death was found. 1 ii) Compared to the BIRD Review: Included 13 RCTs with 107 deaths observed and found a 2.5% mortality with ivermectin vs. 8.9% in controls; estimated reduction in risk of death=68%; highly statistically signi?cant, (p=.007). b) Assessment of Impacts on Viral Clearance i) WHO Review: 6 RCTs, 625 patients. The Panel avoided mention of the important ?nding of a strong dose-response in regard to this outcome. ii) This action in (i) is indefensible given that their Unitaid research team found that among 13 RCTs, 10 of the 13 reported statistically signi?cant reductions in time to viral clearance, with larger reductions with multiday dosing than single-day, consistent with a profound dose-response relationship. 2 c) Adverse E?ects i) WHO: Only included 3 RCTs studying this outcome. Although no statistical signi?cance was found, the slight imbalance in this limited sample allowed the panel to repeatedly document concerns for “harm” with ivermectin treatment. ii) Compare (a) to the WHO's prior safety analysis in their 2018 Application for Inclusion of Ivermectin onto Essential Medicines List for Indication of Scabies: (1) “Over one billion doses have been given in large-scale prevention programs.” (2) “Adverse events associated with ivermectin treatment. are primarily minor and transient.” 3 4) The WHO excluded all RCTs studying the prevention of COVID-19 with ivermectin, without supporting rationale. Three RCTs including almost 800 patients found an over 90% reduction in the risk of infection when ivermectin is taken preventively. 4 5) The WHO excluded observational controlled trials (OCT), with 14 studies of ivermectin. These included thousands of patients, including those employing propensity matching, a technique shown to lead to similar accuracy as RCTs. a) One large, propensity-matched OCT from the US found that ivermectin treatment was associated with a large decrease in mortality. b) A summary analysis of the combined data from the 14 available ivermectin OCTs found a large and statistically signi?cant decrease in mortality. 6) The WHO excluded numerous published and posted epidemiologic studies, despite requesting and receiving a presentation of the results from one leading epidemiologic research team. These studies found: a) In numerous cities and regions with population-wide ivermectin distribution campaigns, large decreases in both excess deaths and COVID-19 case fatality rates were measured immediately following the campaigns. b) Countries with pre-existing ivermectin prophylaxis campaigns against parasites demonstrate significantly lower COVID-19 case counts and deaths compared to neighboring countries without such campaigns.
And more. Simply what happened in Mexico, Peru, India, etc is decisive. Ivermectin credibly works and is a highly safe drug. However it is past patent and is repurposed, so it falls into a longstanding fight over evidence and professional responsibility.kairosfocus_{September 10, 2021
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B, the main point on river blindness is to answer an outrageous propaganda distortion: since c 1987/8, IVM has been successfully, effectively and safely been used on humans, 3.7 billion doses. Nobel prize winning work. Where, in fact on investigation, it seems the flooded hospitals claim has little warrant, per follow up; we are seeing a typical agit prop atrocity story designed to reinforce polarisation, the Oklahoma incident is especially clear on this. I did see comments by people who, having been improperly locked out from physician prescription, have used veterinary formulations, it seems even horse deworming paste tubes come with a 50 lb increment scale, so that the up to 0.2 to 0.4 mg/kg live body weight criterion can be used, i.e. there is awareness of dosage, I of course wonder about flawed policies that lead to such jury rigging. Second, it is commonplace for drugs developed and issued for one purpose to be found to have other useful effects, indeed in the US it is estimated something like 1/5 of all prescriptions are off label. That can be because a key effect [-cluster?] is affecting core metabolic processes in the cell, where the biochemical architecture of life has many in-common aspects that go across kingdoms. There is a reason so much of our genetic code overlaps with kangaroos, goldfish, bananas, corn etc. Or, it can be because of other effects that happen to be useful. IVM was initially developed for veterinary use in early 80's, but then went human within a decade, horse dewormer is a half truth based big lie; with accessibility of evidence on the point, the big media folks who pushed this have therefore utterly shattered their credibility, revealing themselves to be unprofessional, unethical and driven by obvious biases and agendas. With LIFE on the table. Their credibility for cause is kaput. Such a strawman tactic stunt cannot be let stand. Further to which, over the past decade or so IVM has been seen to have a fairly wide spectrum of antiviral action, anti-inflammatory action, and even hints at anti cancer action. This can be seen by taking cumulative empirical evidence seriously, rather than imposing selective hyperskeptical bias driven gold standard dismissiveness. In which context as I noted, WHO has been sharply corrected for cause and the pattern of evidence in Mexico, Peru, India, Slovakia, Indonesia etc shows presence/absence effects and concommitant variation, etc, fitting in with cumulative evidence patterns. As for you can't prove cause observationally, you cannot prove anything to deductive certainty empirically, however we can have plausible models and properly infer to best current explanation. Where, given bounded rationality, costs/benefits of delay on demand of "better" evidence, linked ethical duty to decide and act in good time guided by prudence [not some arbitrarily imposed standard of certainty] we have to accept adequate but not perfect warrant, indeed, that is a core element of scientific investigation and many other fields of responsible praxis. In the case of IVM, there is reason to allow off label use for prophylaxis, treatment of early stage infection and even as a component of addressing the dangerous inflammatory phase, even so called long covid. Of course as part of protocols on the table and part of credibly synergistic cocktails. KFkairosfocus_{September 10, 2021
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B and others thanks for well wishes, however, massive psychological pain is inherently part of what I have faced, sudden onset. I will try to contribute, but that is going to be a challenge. KF PS: LCD, Gordon.kairosfocus_{September 10, 2021
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kf @ 7 - I hope you can navigate your way through your troubles without too much pain. Take care of yourself first - we'll still be here when you get back.
Start with, Nobel Prize largely for taming river blindness, in HUMANS, and with a stellar safety profile across 3.7 billion doses.
River blindness is caused by a parasitic worm, which is very different from a virus. And yes, medical doses can be safe, but the worry here is that people are not taking it under medical supervision, and instead are using a version meant for horses without the necessary knowledge to correct for body mass. In addition, there is no reliable evidence that it works: the meta-analyses that have looked at this have found no evidence for an effect, but also suggest that the quality of evidence is low. There are some large high-quality trials being run, so of course things may change.Bob O'H_{September 10, 2021
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These reports are not the result of incompetence or political bias, they are created at the wishes of the globalist rich. The reporters are merely puppets for the owners. You know the golden rule: the man with the gold rules. Apparently the globalist rich have maxed out their war profits and are going after a global vaccine. If you ever wonder why CNN doesn't care about profits it is because they are an indoctrination tool of the global rich.Peter_{September 9, 2021
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Wow. The swamp finally proves it is filled with gossiping cowards. They attack KF for correcting Bob O'H, who said that ivermectin was used for deworming horses. stevestory is so stupid he thinks that humans and horses are the same species. Or he is so stupid that he didn't understand that KF was correcting Bob's BS. Thank you, retired physicist, for proving that you are a mental midget and imp who deserves to be banned for UD. My apologies but those losers are reading this thread but are too pathological to follow along. So they have to lie about KF and then attack the lie. That is pathetic, even for them.ET_{September 9, 2021
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Kairosfocus, So very sorry to hear about your getting hit with a life crisis! I'll be praying for you to be filled with peace! kindest regards and blessings, QueriusQuerius_{September 9, 2021
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Kairosfocus Folks, passing by, working my way through a sudden onset life crisis. Have to be low profile for a time, I’ve been hit hard.
That's a good sign for your soul. What is your baptism name?Lieutenant Commander Data_{September 9, 2021
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I don't believe in arguments like that they are doing it for the money. To lie about Ivermectin. It is just craziness. Mental illness has rapidly increased. All over there are reports of high percentages of people at Harvard, and in all colleges, of students with anxiety / depression etc. That was before the covid pandemic already. The root cause of it, is that academics does not acknowledge the subjective part of reality anymore. It makes people incapable to deal with emotions, because emotions are subjective. Things are on track to get worse and worse. Also many religious do not accept the subjective part of reality anymore. Instead asserting their religion is all objective, and factual. I can only predict, it will turn out to be a catastrophy.mohammadnursyamsu_{September 9, 2021
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SA “Also Biden discussed withdrawal with the President of Afghanistan and told him to work to change the public perception that the Taliban was a threat to take over. That got no coverage.” “If there are any Americans left we will STAY until we get them out” Joe Biden to ABC , a lie. “No one has been killed KNOCK a on wood” a few days later 13 service members were blown up. Joe’s strategy is “knock on wood” pathetic. Where is the media on his lies? No where to be found. Vividvividbleau_{September 9, 2021
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Also Biden discussed withdrawal with the President of Afghanistan and told him to work to change the public perception that the Taliban was a threat to take over. That got no coverage.
See Biden’s their guy , they must protect him because they must protect themselves.
They distorted the news and manipulated public opinion to get him elected.Silver Asiatic_{September 9, 2021
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Denyse “But much that happens in media today is not about what happened. It’s about Hot Hair and Big Lipstick posing as news” I wish that was the extent of it. Even though many people get their information from internet sources it remains that the vast swath of the people get their news from ABC, NBC,CBS and CNN. These so called news outlets are nothing more than propaganda machines for the left,i think of them as the American Pravda. Their motto should be “If we don’t report it it never happened” given the broad audience they reach this motto becomes reality. How evil and mendacious are these so called News outlets here are just a few of many lies they have perpetrated to their audience. 1) Four years promoting the Russia hoax which was nothing more than one lie after another. 2) The character assasination of Brett Cavanaugh. 3) Nicholas Sandman. 4)Hunter Biden 5)Joe Biden’s ties to China , Biden is a compromised president. The Chines have so much trash on this guy. This fact alone explains his actions he is a compromised President. 6) The origination of the Corona virus More recently , The intercept report on gain of function research, not one second was spent on this report by NBC, ABC, CBS. The harassment of a black man by a white woman wearing a gorilla mask. If this would have been someone who was black and ideologically pure this would be receiving wall to wall coverage with a town hall as a bonus. How biased and corrupt are the media? Remember when Trump walked slowly down the wet ramp at Westpoint? The media spent 22 minutes of coverage questioning Trumps mental and physical fitness. when Biden fell down 3 times!! Going up the steps to Air Force 1 they spent a whopping 22 seconds. No Denyse its much more sinister than spewing hot air. It is a deliberate , purposeful and persistent goal to lie, cheat and steal in adherence to their master the leftist in the Democrat party.The media is truly the enemy of the people They are already giving cover to Biden on his disastrous, inane , criminal actions in Afghanistan. See Biden’s their guy , they must protect him because they must protect themselves. Vividvividbleau_{September 9, 2021
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Learn how to read, Bob. Thanks for all the laughs.ET_{September 9, 2021
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Folks, passing by, working my way through a sudden onset life crisis. Have to be low profile for a time, I've been hit hard. I note, some time ago I pointed to self-evident first duties of reason, starting with truth, right reason, prudence [including warrant]. This is where we go when power centres disregard such. Cicero got it right. Next, IVM, Bob, is far more than horse parasite treatments, AS IS ABSOLUTELY READILY AND INDISPUTABLY ASCERTAINABLE. Start with, Nobel Prize largely for taming river blindness, in HUMANS, and with a stellar safety profile across 3.7 billion doses. The atrocity tale and lies about hospitals filled with fools in the Bible Belt chowing down on horse size doses are ludicrous, Goebbels level psyop games designed to taint and stigmatise with what is tantamount to blood libel. Those who pushed this have for cause NEGATIVE credibility. Default, if they say X the real issue should be which form of not-X is true. Educated people willing to ride on it are enablers of dirty agit prop and owe a bigtime apology at outset. Next, there is adequate, abundant and decisive evidence on dose-response concommitant variation for individuals, study frames and populations. At doses in range to 0.2 to 0.4 milligrams per kilo body weight; long established safe levels. Comparable to prior uses since the late 80's. If you want to push the WHO-CDC etc line, I point to a point by point correction here, which shows that we clearly have regulatory capture and utter dishonesty driving inexcusable bias and academic/pro hit jobs. All with the taint of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ driving it. Up to and including the locking in of big ticket placebo studies as a gold standard used to selectively brush aside clearly adequate but inconvenient warrant. And now that Pfizer's CEO is promoting his shiny new pill for treatment, which had to be under development all along, we hear how pills plus vaxxes are likely the ticket. The evidence is, IVM was there better part of a year ago and should have been acknowledged. I am sick to my stomach. Also now that documentation of gain of function research offshoring is in documents dug out, we need to ponder false in material part, plausibly false in all. Dr Fauci et al, I am looking at you. KFkairosfocus_{September 9, 2021
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Jerry
Denyse has made it big time
That was great to see. She should be as famous a Canadian as Mark Steyn.
... chides me for diagnosing our present woes but not proposing solutions.
That is the best critique - so necessary and it goes for all of the commentators. They're complaining about problems we have understood for decades. As if it's a big surprise that enemies of culture are acting like enemies. Please come up with some solutions, then try to implement them, then track your progress -- we'll see how successful you are. But people prefer to be entertained by news on "how bad it is - and it's getting worse". That keeps them paralyzed and enemies keep winning when they really should have been defeated long ago.Silver Asiatic_{September 9, 2021
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ET - it's axiomatic that what happens in cell culture may not predict clinical effectiveness.
Stop being such a dick, Bob.
Thanks for the laugh.Bob O'H_{September 9, 2021
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Wow. Ivermectin isn't just for deworming horses. The NIH reports Ivermectin has been shown to inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures.. True, the amount you have to allegedly take should be a warning, but the drug should be part of a cocktail that includes zinc, vitamins C and especially D, quercetin and melatonin, at a minimum. These studies that focus on only ONE of the recommended cocktail are totally biased and wrong. Stop being such a dick, Bob.ET_{September 8, 2021
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Ivermectin probably usually works, used as directed.
True. But the present discussion of it is not about de-worming horses.
Whether that is convenient to Big Pharma or not.
Seeing as it's made by Big Pharma, you'd expect them to be quite happy if it was used more.Bob O'H_{September 8, 2021
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Denyse has made it big time
Denyse O'Leary, whom I always read with great interest in our Comments section, chides me for diagnosing our present woes but not proposing solutions.
A truth meter for the world. https://www.steynonline.com/11669/defeat-and-dishonestyjerry_{September 8, 2021
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The new Big Lie is the Anti-Truth. It’s not just a lie, it’s the opposite of the truth. https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/crits-are-terrible-judges/#comment-736912jerry_{September 8, 2021
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