QUIET REVERSALS
A pair of revelations have surfaced relating to the pandemic. I didn't catch these being widely reported when they took place many months ago, they did not land anywhere in my news feeds, and neither were being shared or commented on by anyone I know. Instead, I accidentally stumbled upon one of these long after the fact and then the other while looking for more information about the first.
DP (DURING PANDEMIC)
In 2021, the US FDA was posting messages on social media and their website (such as “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”) telling the public to avoid Ivermectin as a preventative or curative for COVID. This, as it turns out, was the most viral communication in the agency’s history. In part, they and others in similar roles were responding to Joe Rogan. He had just shared that he got COVID and, in the absence of any good treatment options, his doctor prescribed effectively everything they could think of to combat the illness. They "immediately threw the kitchen sink at it," the podcaster admitted. Those treatments included: a vitamin drip, monoclonal antibodies, and getting dosed with azithromycin, Prednisone, and Ivermectin.
The press lapped that up. NPR published that Rogan's "methods included taking ivermectin, a deworming veterinary drug that is formulated for use in cows and horses." They left out that the most viewed, highest earning man in media, and a health nut, wasn't running an uninformed and potentially lethal medical experiment on himself but was prescribed the above after consulting with his doctor. The Guardian offered similar reporting, implying that Rogan (who is worth more than entire media outlets, has access to just about anyone in the world, and regularly sits down with recognized medical experts brought in for comment and advice by these same outlets) was self-treating with veterinary drugs. (That stupid error was later amended to be only slightly less fraudulent.) The folks at CNN had a lot of fun with this, too. Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon both spent a lot of airtime talking about and mocking the dangerous morons of America. They chided those “taking a drug given to livestock as an anti-parasitic.” They even cited a state health authority issuing a warning that “Animal drugs are highly concentrated for large animals and can be highly toxic in humans.” A more famous clip has the two going back and forth:
