What are experts saying about miracle drugs?

So…does Ivermectin actually work against Covid-19? When there are doctors of medicine debating on whether or not a drug works against a virus, we non-medical experts suffer. Fake news was easier to handle, but conflicting expert opinions spread by attention-hungry reposters? Good luck to us.

We can only hope that the experts work together to figure out an answer, while the government hopefully figures out how to manage the pandemic other than by imposing punishments and making announcements. In the meantime, for us nonmedical experts, maybe it’s best to hold off spreading unverified information while the experts themselves are still uncertain about what’s going on.

In the early days of the pandemic, there was a surge of conflicting opinions on which side of the surgical mask should face outside—blue, white, or either side? There was a shortage of surgical masks back then, so many of us just stuck with N95 or cloth masks. Eventually, when the strange debate was over, we all just decided that the blue side would face out.

Then there were debates on whether or not cloth masks, copper masks, and face shields actually worked against the virus, where each side had its own science to back up its respective arguments. Until today, these debates remain fully unsettled, although mostly, they have become irrelevant since these masks are worn anyway and face shields are mandatory, and more importantly, we have a new issue to distract ourselves with: Ivermectin.

It’s easy to say, “Just do your own research.” But a quick Google search of ‘Does Ivermectin work against Covid-19’ reveals conflicting answers from news outlets, government agencies, and science journals. What are we supposed to believe when the reliable sources themselves debate on science, which is supposed to have a relative degree of certainty?

Several experts claim that the drug Ivermectin worked on their own patients, while others claim that it does not work, and others reserve their opinions after more clinical trials are conducted someday. To add to the confusion, the FDA has granted compassionate special permits for the use of the drug on Covid-19 patients, but it is still illegal to distribute and market the drug. Meanwhile, there’s a whole other group claiming that this whole debate is a distraction to shift our focus away from the incompetence of those in charge, considering the thousands of new cases daily and the endless ECQ/ MECQ/GCQ/ETC. that have become difficult to distinguish from one another. With all this, what are we supposed to believe?

The situation is worsened when these debates reach those desperate for a cure or worse, for attention. Unverified “facts” and opinions flood group chats with claims from alleged foreign experts, web sites with strange domain names, and unnamed people who “got this message from another group chat.” Maybe these reposters mean well, but the result? Patients trying out the drug, business people taking advantage of the demand, and unprepared and confused officials punishing those distributing the drug mostly because they aren’t quite sure what else to do. Meanwhile, random people argue about the drug in comments sections using sources without links for further reading or no source at all, where all these debates really just argue on the basis of ad hominem and who has the better grammar. Over a year into this pandemic and it’s the fake news era all over again, except fake news was verifiable, while this whole medical debate has our experts clawing at each other’s throats. It’s amazing that we have time for this, all things considered.

It’s okay to say, “I don’t know enough about the issue to form an opinion” especially when we’re not experts in the first place. It’s also okay to change opinions upon learning new information. More importantly, it’s important to fact check long messages from unverified sources, especially when the message involves drugs that go inside people’s bodies. If the claim isn’t backed up, why share in the first place? If you’re unsure, why add to the confusion? The mask and face shield debates were relatively safer since at the end of the day everyone still agreed that at least a mask was necessary; there’s still protection there. But when it comes to drugs that are swallowed, we can’t just recklessly spread arguments and claims and non-expert opinions.

We can only hope that the experts work together to figure out an answer, while the government hopefully figures out how to manage the pandemic other than by imposing punishments and making announcements. In the meantime, for us non-medical experts, maybe it’s best to hold off spreading unverified information while the experts themselves are still uncertain about what’s going on.