Bret Weinstein on health: what the evidence says · JRE #2198
SUBJECT: HEALTH
The short answer
Weinstein claims ivermectin's Nobel Prize was for its use in humans generally, implying media mocked it despite that Nobel-recognized human-medicine status. William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura shared half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering avermectin/ivermectin as a therapy against roundworm parasites, credited with nearly eliminating river blindness (onchocerciasis) and radically reducing lymphatic filariasis, primarily in low-income countries.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
when what they did on CNN and all those networks when they were talking and calling it horse dewormer, despite the fact that it had won the Nobel Prize for use in humans.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura shared half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering avermectin/ivermectin as a therapy against roundworm parasites, credited with nearly eliminating river blindness (onchocerciasis) and radically reducing lymphatic filariasis, primarily in low-income countries. The prize citation and subsequent commentary describe this as recognition of ivermectin's antiparasitic efficacy in both animals and humans, not a general endorsement of the drug's use in humans across all conditions. Ivermectin is not FDA-approved and is not recommended by infectious-disease authorities for preventing or treating COVID-19, a viral illness unrelated to the parasitic diseases the prize recognized; the animal-formulation horse dewormer label used by some media, while an incomplete framing, was not factually false since higher-dose veterinary ivermectin products do exist and were what some people were taking. Fact-checking organizations rate the underlying Nobel claim as technically true but conclude that invoking it to argue ivermectin should treat COVID-19 misrepresents what the award was actually for.