More on ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and the entire problem of early treatments: A general response to reader comments

Schloss Muskau in the Oberlausitz, roughly where your far-flung correspondent currently finds himself.

My review of Robert F. Kennedy’s The Real Anthony Fauci has understandably provoked many critical comments from readers who are disappointed about my views on the promise and suppression of early treatments. That’s fine. I’m far less interested in convincing anybody that a given drug does or doesn’t work against Covid, than I am in convincing everybody that letting medical bureaucrats try to solve a problem like Covid, whether their solutions work or not, is a very bad idea. Still, some of you have raised various interesting questions that I think deserve a response.

1. Practicing physicians with direct experience treating Covid patients found ivermectin/ hydroxychloroquine/ something else to be especially effective. That’s great, and as I said, physicians should be given wide latitude to treat diseases as they see fit in consultation with their patients. The problem is that almost nobody ever dies of Covid. The vast majority of people – even sick and vulnerable people – ultimately recover, and this is the most fundamental and important reason why everything that has happened since 2020 is so ridiculous.