Bret and Heather 80th DarkHorse Podcast Livestream: What Covid Reveals About our Leaders

In this 80th in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we discuss the state of the world through an evolutionary lens. In this episode, we once again discuss the “lab leak” hypothesis for the origins of SARS-CoV2, as this week a letter published in Science has helped it gain yet more credibility in mainstream scientific circles. We then discuss ivermectin, a decades-old drug with a well-established history of efficacy against many human pathogens. What is its mechanism of action? What do Covid case rates in Africa, against a background of on-going prophylactic use of ivermectin for other conditions, suggest about its possible efficacy against Covid? Is it safe for children? Also, what does the FDA require of a new drug or treatment to grant Emergency Use Authorization? Does Merck have an opinion on the matter? How about the media? Finally, we discuss cicadas: when they’re coming back, why they do what they do, and why you’re lucky you’re not infected by Cordyceps fungus.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Bloom et al 2021. Investigate the origins of COVID-19. Science 372(6543): 694. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6543/694.1

Jacobsen, R. 2021. Top researchers are calling for a real investigation into the origin of covid-19. MIT Technology Review, May 13, 2021. https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/05/13/1024866/investigation-covid-origin-wuhan-china-lab-biologists-letter/

DarkHorseLive episode 61, in which we first discussed ivermectin at some length: https://youtu.be/KfbBvvPVFdw

Saha, J.K. and Raihan, M.J., 2021. The binding mechanism of ivermectin and levosalbutamol with spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Structural Chemistry, 1-8: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11224-021-01776-0

Kaur, H., Shekhar, N., Sharma, S., Sarma, P., Prakash, A. and Medhi, B., 2021. Ivermectin as a potential drug for treatment of COVID-19: an in-sync review with clinical and computational attributes. Pharmacological Reports, 1-14: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43440-020-00195-y

Hellwig, M.D. and Maia, A., 2021. A COVID-19 prophylaxis? Lower incidence associated with prophylactic administration of ivermectin. International journal of antimicrobial agents, 57(1): 106248: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924857920304684

Guerrero, R., Bravo, L.E., Muñoz, E., Ardila, E.K.G. and Guerrero, E., 2020. COVID-19: The Ivermectin African Enigma. Colombia Médica, 51(4). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33795896/

Levy, M., Martin, L., Bursztejn, A.C., Chiaverini, C., Miquel, J., Mahé, E., Maruani, A., Boralevi, F. and Groupe de Recherche de la Société F ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxTODvTNHlw