Population & Family Health

Restoring Ivermectin’s Good Name: PopTalks Separates the Junk from the Science

Millions of people recently encountered ivermectin on the Joe Rogan Experience(link is external and opens in a new window), when guest Mel Gibson declared that the drug cures Stage IV cancer — despite no proven clinical role(link is external and opens in a new window)for the drug in cancer treatment.

How did we get to these unsupported claims(link is external and opens in a new window), when just ten years ago the drug earned its creators a Nobel Prize(link is external and opens in a new window)? Blame a toxic stew of junk science, social media amplification, a global pandemic, and the all-too-human desire for miracles.

Dr. Carlos Chaccour(link is external and opens in a new window), lead author of exciting new work on ivermectin in malaria prevention, joined our own Dr. Patrick Kachuron October 8, 2025 for a PopTalks discussion exploring the science and pseudoscience surrounding ivermectin. They examined the past, present, and future of this fascinating drug: how we got here, and how we can break free of myth and misinformation.

Ivermectin’s Early Years: Science Tackles Skepticism  

Ivermectin has transformed lives worldwide(link is external and opens in a new window)by treating parasitic infections like river blindness. Now, thanks to work by Chaccour and others, we find that it holds tremendous potential for malaria control(link is external and opens in a new window).

But it faced skepticism from the very beginning. When studies of this veterinary drug in humans in the 1970s showed it had potential to eliminate parasite-driven river blindness, “there was massive distrust by academics, saying this will never work, no need for excitement,” Chaccour said. “Thank God they were wrong.”

The effort not only proved successful, it laid the groundwork for cross-national public health coalitions, and programs to control River Blindness successfully provided ivermectin (also known as Mectizan) to whole communities. “Today, this unprecedented drug donation is helping to eliminate transmission of the disease — an unfathomable concept when Merck first donated Mectizan,” according to the company’s Mectizan Donation Program(link is external and opens in a new window).

Ivermectin Now: Misinformation Fills a Vacuum

Clinical trial after clinical trial paved the way for Ivermectin’s acceptance and adoption. Today, however, a general-purpose Google search for “Merck Ivermectin clinical trials” yields results led by articles on COVID-19.

“The medical community wasn’t on the same page during the pandemic,” Kachur noted as he and Chaccour broke down some of the lowlights:

Traditional means of challenging misinformation — like writing a letter to an academic journal — weren’t fast enough to keep up. “That created more confusion,” Chaccour said, “with the public thinking, ‘They don’t even agree—how can we trust them?’”

Doubts and discrepancies couldn’t stop flawed research from inflicting real-world repercussions. In the crisis of a global pandemic, countries were eager for treatments they could deploy right away, and some nations, including Peru and Bolivia(link is external and opens in a new window), made ivermectin part of their national COVID policies.

Meanwhile, familiarity with ivermectin for veterinary medicine, coupled with misinformation on social media and limited access to healthcare, led to dangerous, off-label use in rural areas across the Western Hemisphere.

Not only did this endanger the people taking ivermectin, it “caused moral hazard,” Chaccour and Kachur emphasized. With ivermectin popping up in discussions of COVID treatments, people started to believe they didn’t need vaccines to stay safe. “Do Not Use Ivermectin Intended for Animals as Treatment for COVID-19 in Humans,” authorities like the State of Michigan(link is external and opens in a new window)were forced to declare.

Today, even with widespread public debunking of false claims, and sound science backing ivermectin only for treating tropical diseases, misinformation about the drug persists. As states expand over-the-counter access(link is external and opens in a new window), patients are requesting it for the wrong reasons. “No, the FDA did not 'quietly approve' ivermectin as COVID-19 treatment,” Duke Health(link is external and opens in a new window)bluntly declares. Even more dangerously, over the long term, an ivermectin cancer innovation fund(link is external and opens in a new window)in Florida is channeling $60 million of scarce research funding into unwarranted testing.

Getting Ivermectin Back on Track

We need ivermectin. But “how do we move on from the political?” asked Kachur.

  • Engage with empathy and without judgement—“why do you think this?” rather than “please, you’re not a horse,” in Chaccour’s words.
  • Be aware of the broader context “especially when dealing with unscrupulous adversaries. People are listening in and hearing that conversation and forming their own opinions,” said Kachur.
  • Bring good detective work to emerging research and newly published studies. “If none make sense individually, then collectively they don’t make sense,” Chaccour noted.
  • On a global level, decolonize public health messaging and action by “generating evidence and guidance and letting countries decide.”

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In the full conversation, Chaccour and Kachur lamented clinical trial research getting lost in a cyclone and joked about “their shared ancestry” and Kachur’s first impressions of Chaccour as a junior advisee.

“We were charged to help instill confidence in new candidates, and I thought, this is definitely one confident guy.” That confidence, he said, is sorely needed to navigate the setbacks facing global public health and champion the bold approaches required to move forward in areas like malaria treatment.  

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