This is a public peer review of Scott Alexander’s essay on ivermectin. You can find an index containing all the articles in this series here. Scott’s Political Takeaway I’ve thought long and hard about how to address the story with the alien brain implant that Scott puts forward in his “Political Takeaway” section. On one level, it’s hard to respond with much at all, because Scott fundamentally misunderstands vaccine skepticism. As can be seen by this section, his model is that the skeptics fundamentally don’t understand how these vaccines—or perhaps any vaccines—work.
The most significant conclusion from the Covid debacle is that people need to have the freedom to investigate information and debate ideas.
Whether or not a particular therapy is effective, in the long arc of history, is relatively unimportant. If an individual is convinced that something crazy like ingesting peanut butter is wonderfully effective there is little justice in stopping them.
On the other hand if drug companies along with the political establishment scare the public and manipulate the system to outlaw well-tested drugs like ivermectin, mandate magical injections and then vilify open debate – well then we have a problem.
The problem becomes more serious when the blueprint for controlling discourse is employed in other situations like for instance when authorities edge countries into waging wars, particularly ones that might end in a nuclear conflagration.
If that happens it will be too late to learn from our collective mistakes.
There is this billionnaire that convinces gouvernements to attack the asteroid with a brand new technology, great on theory but never peer-reviewed (= ARN Vax), leaving aside an old but reliable technology (=IVM, HCQ, VitD…).
The brand new technology never tested not only fails miserably, but makes the matter worse.
(Caprio, seducted at first, realises the whole plan is unwise and is one of the few scientists who speaks out…)
Hey Alexandros. My Book, "Heroes and Villains: The COVID-19 Book of Lists" is out and available at heroesandvillainsbooks.com Like I mentioned before, you're ranked in a couple of categories. I'd love it if you felt interested in doing a Substack on it. We could do a video or audio interview if you're interested. Reid
I would argue that a logical shortcut exists around S.A.'s sophistry, one backed with evidence and biological understanding far more certain than any for mRNA vaccines. The shortcut simply points out that raising a population's mean Vitamin D titer to 50-60 ng/ml and daily nasopharyngeal lavage with an anti-viral solution would have quashed the pandemic within weeks. The personal testimonial linked here, also cites some of the evidence for efficacy of povidone-iodine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8653488/#:~:text=This%20happened%20because%20a%20single,years%20has%20been%20almost%20cured. There is even evidence that lavage with saline works. HEPA air filtering in public indoor spaces was a third easy option. My dentist installed filtration in his clinic in 2020, but then he's a perfectionist in everything he does.
Given the availability of multiple simple ways of protecting the vast majority of people, the real political takeaway is that mRNA vaccines were pushed for nefarious purposes, at least for pharma profits, or perhaps something much worse.
You made your point quite loud, clear, and thorough. Scott now promised to answer this winter but made it a condition that you're finished. I am really curious how he will reply, and there is a some hope he will have the integrity admit that there is something very fishy around the ivermectin saga. That would be a giant boon. So put a seal on the review!
That said, continue writing about other stuff because I do like your style and zeal and your meticulous eye for detail. You got dragged in this ivermectin drama but there is lots of stuff out there that could use sunlight.
Fantastic story telling. I would really like a sequel to know what happens to the QuakeAnons and whether ZeeDog eventually joins them.
The most significant conclusion from the Covid debacle is that people need to have the freedom to investigate information and debate ideas.
Whether or not a particular therapy is effective, in the long arc of history, is relatively unimportant. If an individual is convinced that something crazy like ingesting peanut butter is wonderfully effective there is little justice in stopping them.
On the other hand if drug companies along with the political establishment scare the public and manipulate the system to outlaw well-tested drugs like ivermectin, mandate magical injections and then vilify open debate – well then we have a problem.
The problem becomes more serious when the blueprint for controlling discourse is employed in other situations like for instance when authorities edge countries into waging wars, particularly ones that might end in a nuclear conflagration.
If that happens it will be too late to learn from our collective mistakes.
Thanks ! Have you seen don’t look up ?
There is this billionnaire that convinces gouvernements to attack the asteroid with a brand new technology, great on theory but never peer-reviewed (= ARN Vax), leaving aside an old but reliable technology (=IVM, HCQ, VitD…).
The brand new technology never tested not only fails miserably, but makes the matter worse.
(Caprio, seducted at first, realises the whole plan is unwise and is one of the few scientists who speaks out…)
A related paper I love is by Dr. Huemer -- In Praise of Passivity: https://spot.colorado.edu/~huemer/papers/passivity.htm
Hey Alexandros. My Book, "Heroes and Villains: The COVID-19 Book of Lists" is out and available at heroesandvillainsbooks.com Like I mentioned before, you're ranked in a couple of categories. I'd love it if you felt interested in doing a Substack on it. We could do a video or audio interview if you're interested. Reid
I would argue that a logical shortcut exists around S.A.'s sophistry, one backed with evidence and biological understanding far more certain than any for mRNA vaccines. The shortcut simply points out that raising a population's mean Vitamin D titer to 50-60 ng/ml and daily nasopharyngeal lavage with an anti-viral solution would have quashed the pandemic within weeks. The personal testimonial linked here, also cites some of the evidence for efficacy of povidone-iodine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8653488/#:~:text=This%20happened%20because%20a%20single,years%20has%20been%20almost%20cured. There is even evidence that lavage with saline works. HEPA air filtering in public indoor spaces was a third easy option. My dentist installed filtration in his clinic in 2020, but then he's a perfectionist in everything he does.
Given the availability of multiple simple ways of protecting the vast majority of people, the real political takeaway is that mRNA vaccines were pushed for nefarious purposes, at least for pharma profits, or perhaps something much worse.
To be perfectly frank, the argument fails because it's fucking insulting to any skeptic with a functioning brain.
He, stop the series! :-)
You made your point quite loud, clear, and thorough. Scott now promised to answer this winter but made it a condition that you're finished. I am really curious how he will reply, and there is a some hope he will have the integrity admit that there is something very fishy around the ivermectin saga. That would be a giant boon. So put a seal on the review!
That said, continue writing about other stuff because I do like your style and zeal and your meticulous eye for detail. You got dragged in this ivermectin drama but there is lots of stuff out there that could use sunlight.