Thomas Goetz

And I think her experience shows how hard this is to figure out.

She had COVID, she took ivermectin, and she got better.

She believes ivermectin worked for her, and she has reason to.

As Dr. Boulware explained, sometimes it just works that way.

But there is a difference between experience and evidence.

And during a global crisis, it can be really difficult to let the science play out.

To me, COVID was just a heartbreaking time, not just because of the million people in the US who died of the virus or the 7 million who died worldwide.

What breaks my heart six years later is how COVID broke the trust between government and the citizens government should serve.

between science and the people science is trying to help, between public health and the public.

COVID was certainly not the only factor at work.

But man, did it do a doozy on the trust people put in each other and in our institutions.

It made it difficult for all of us to know who can we count on, who can we put our faith in.

In February 2021, Merck, that's the company that discovered ivermectin, they put out a statement saying that their scientists had reviewed all available research.

And they found that they identified, quote, no meaningful evidence for clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease.

And this was Merck.

They stood to make a lot of money if ivermectin did work.

And then in September 2021, there was a statement from the American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists Association, quote, strongly opposing the ordering, prescribing, or dispensing of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19 outside of a clinical trial, unquote.

Not only did they say it wasn't helpful, but that ivermectin was demonstrated to be harmful to patients.

But for those who had already lost faith in the medical establishment, this was probably just more fuel added to the fire of distrust.

They wanted their medical freedom to do their own research and make their own choices.