Posting comments full of disinformation while complaining of the same is disingenuous (to put it mildly). 1. Molnupiravir and ivermectin are NOT similar chemically. 2. They do NOT have the same mechanism of action. 3. Molnupiravir is NOT the only antiviral nucleoside analog - remdesivir, fapipiravir and a few others belong to the same group, all of them tried as a treatment of Covid-19. 4. Merck is NOT the only pharma company developing antiviral drugs with this type of activity (inhibitors of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase). A connection with ivermectin exists only in your imagination. And no, I'm not associated in any way with Merck or any other pharmaceutical company or any company working on Covid-19 treatment.

Now to ivermectin. There are 7 studies on prophylactic use of ivermectin, all of them small and therefore subject to various biases. All reported favorable results with ivermectin vs control, but all used different protocols (doses, frequency, duration, combination with other drugs, reported outcomes). Carvallo study - the darling of ivermectin crowd - actually used a combination of weekly ivermectin with a nasal spray of carrageenan. Without control groups that had only ivermectin or only carrageenan. As it was pointed out repeatedly (and should be obvious to anyone with scientific background), that's a terrible study design. You never know what worked - ivermectin or carrageenan or both. It's even worse with mild COVID cases - half of about 10 studies found no difference between ivermectin and control. Again, with the caveat that all of them were small, poorly designed, used completely different protocols, and are pretty much useless in terms of development of a treatment protocol. The only reliable data on ivermectin is in the treatment of severe cases in hospital setting, where it is clearly beneficial. There are no published studies on ivermectin efficacy in "long Covid" treatment, but both for severe cases and for "long Covid" doctors will readily prescribe it as a compassionate use drug.

So, to summarize... There is no conspiracy between doctors, CDC and pharma companies to prevent people from accessing a cheap life-saving treatment. Ivermectin will be prescribed to you if its use is justified (like in the case of severe or "long" Covid). There is no advantage to ivermectin as compared to vaccination, and there is no reason for people to start dosing themselves with ivermectin as an alternative to vaccines. Especially since ivermectin - like any other wide-spectrum anti-parasitic drug - is not without problems. It's been learned from many decades of using ivermectin in tropical countries (look up "Mectizan Donation Program") that it is associated with higher rate of asthma and skin allergies, like eczema and atopic dermatitis. Especially in children. And repeated treatment with ivermectin induces resistance in helminths (worms). Remember, ivermectin is not only a "horse dewormer", it's also a safe and cheap dewormer of other farm animals. Last thing you want to do is start using it indiscriminately, like antibiotics were used in the past. Anybody wants to pay a premium for their food? Or go back to the time when all meats had to be cooked through and through, until nearly inedible, to avoid helminth infection?