So, I read a little into the history of this to inform myself. To state that history, I must mention some groups with political affiliations for people to understand the course of events.
There was a study, because early in the pandemic, they studied everything as a possible treatment. No problem there. It got a positive result that ivermectin worked against covid, but the statistics of the study were really weak, so that the result didn't really count.
There was another study, which looked like it had much better statistics... until you look at the data, and it starts looking very much like that data was fraudulently fabricated. But, it was a study, with positive results.
Then comes the bit that drove the popularity of ivermectin as a covid treatment. A group called "America's Frontline Doctors," founded by Simone Gold1, started pushing an untested cocktail containing hydrocychlorquine. They held a press conference hosted and funded by a group called the American Tea Party Patriots, in which one of their main speakers was Stella Immanuel2.
Later in the pandemic, they set up a website called SpeakWithAnMD, which provided telehealth medical consultations (for $90 + cost of drugs) - the workflow to get to a consultation started with the question of which drug you wanted - hydroxychlorquine or ivermectin...
1. Simone Gold is politically active, and was arrested for entering the Capitol building on Jan 6.
2. Stella Immanuel is a doctor who has claimed gynecological problems come from having sex dreams of incubi and succubi. She has claimed space alien DNA is used in medical treatments, that reptilian spirits and extraterrestrials run the US government, that the Illuminati are using witches to destroy the world though Harry Potter and Hannah Montana, and that scientists are creating a vaccine to stop people from being religious.
There was another study, which looked like it had much better statistics... until you look at the data, and it starts looking very much like that data was fraudulently fabricated. But, it was a study, with positive results.
Then comes the bit that drove the popularity of ivermectin as a covid treatment. A group called "America's Frontline Doctors," founded by Simone Gold1, started pushing an untested cocktail containing hydrocychlorquine. They held a press conference hosted and funded by a group called the American Tea Party Patriots, in which one of their main speakers was Stella Immanuel2.
Later in the pandemic, they set up a website called SpeakWithAnMD, which provided telehealth medical consultations (for $90 + cost of drugs) - the workflow to get to a consultation started with the question of which drug you wanted - hydroxychlorquine or ivermectin...
1. Simone Gold is politically active, and was arrested for entering the Capitol building on Jan 6.
2. Stella Immanuel is a doctor who has claimed gynecological problems come from having sex dreams of incubi and succubi. She has claimed space alien DNA is used in medical treatments, that reptilian spirits and extraterrestrials run the US government, that the Illuminati are using witches to destroy the world though Harry Potter and Hannah Montana, and that scientists are creating a vaccine to stop people from being religious.
So, in a nutshell, for the general population, the mindset comes from the fact that someone they trust (because they match in political leanings) is telling them this is good for them, and everyone else is lying.
