Speaker 1: All right, so I got tricked by a Trumpist. Then I'm going to tell you
about it. And I think this is really instructive and and informative. So
last week, when we were taking live calls on the Friday show, I got a call from a guy who says,
I used to be a moderator for The Donald. The Donald. That's the underscore. Donald
was one of the most toxic pro-Trump subreddits on the website Reddit until it got banned,
the entire thing was banned for just constant disinformation and violating, you know, all
sorts of terms of service of Reddit. And during that call, this Trumpist moderator said to me,
Hey, David, you know, now they are promoting the use of misoprostol for abortions and it's just as
unproven as ivermectin. So isn't there a double standard on social media? And here's exactly what
he said and how I responded to it. Let's go next to let's go to Rick from Illinois. Rick, welcome.
Speaker 2: Hi, David. Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 4: So I was the top model of the Donald on Reddit for years until just before it was banned
and with Elan buying Twitter. Do you think that there will be a general shift in policy
for the tech places? I'm towards allowing themes like medical misinformation, such as ivermectin
and what Vice's motherboard did yesterday with tweeting out my sole pro store for abortion pills.
Speaker 1: What I didn't see the what's the vice thing? Tell me about that.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So they tweeted out from their motherboard account that misoprostol,
which is a horse medicine to treat ulcers for horses, can be used for abortion pills.
Speaker 1: Oh, I see that now. Yeah. Okay, so let's go step by step first. I actually discussed
this with Coleman Hughes in an already recorded, but not yet released podcast episode with him.
I actually don't think that Elon Musk taking over Twitter if it happens, remember,
it's still not been approved. And I think it may not be, but we'll wait and see. I don't think it's
going to do anything mindblowing on Twitter, per se. I think maybe some people will be unbanned,
maybe not. I don't know that he is widely going to be involved in content moderation. So I'm kind
of I'm not making any big judgments about what's going to change on Twitter. Let's first wait and
see if the buyout actually happens. And then we'll kind of think about that part in terms of I mean,
listen, I don't know much about this misoprostol thing, but I also don't know whether this is
an approved off label use or not. I don't know anything about it. But let me just say right now,
all of this stuff said it should be subject to the same scrutiny, whether it's being promoted
by left or right, I think it all should be subjected to the exact same terms of service.
Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: That's good. So I responded
in principle because I didn't know anything about misoprostol. I just hadn't heard it.
I hadn't heard about it up until this point. And I said, well, if the circumstances are the same,
if misoprostol is really to abortion, what ivermectin is to COVID,
if they really are equivalent, then it should be handled the same by social media. But it turns out
that the Trumpist either lied to me or just was ignorant himself because a bunch of doctors and
pharmacists emailed me and said, David, you got tricked. There is no similarity between ivermectin
and misoprostol. Let's look at some of these emails that I got. Here's the first one.
I'm a medical doctor. Family medicine is part of my job. I delivered babies for seven years. I just
watched your interview with the ex of the Donald moderator. Misoprostol, more commonly called
cytotec in the US, is an extremely commonly used drugs in humans. We use it to help induce labor
and can be used to cause an abortion in the first trimester by dilating the cervix
and allowing the product of conception to fall out. I've never performed an abortion,
so my knowledge based on that is limited. But I've used cytotec to induce labor hundreds of
times. To compare it to ivermectin is a mistake. That's one medical doctor. Another medical doctor
wrote in. Hi, David, huge fan. Listening to the Friday, Collins wanted to share that misoprostol
is indeed approved for human use. Has the US brand named Cyberattack. So it's either Cytotec or
Zyrtec. There's disagreement on that. But clearly we're talking about the same medication used by
OB-GYNs for inducing a miscarriage slash abortion used to help women pass a partial miscarriage,
used to induce labor during the third trimester, and also used for prevention of NSAID induced
ulcers. His idea that it's a horse medicine and not a human one is not true. It is used for both,
as is ivermectin. I am an internal medicine physician so I don't personally use it. Often an
obstetrician could provide more details about when and how they use it. I have prescribed it
to patients for ulcer prevention. That's Doctor Isaac. And then a pharmacist wrote in who said,
You recently took a call from a former the Donald moderator who mischaracterizes misoprostol as a
horse medicine to treat ulcer for horses and not approved for humans. In an attempt to liken its
promotion to that of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID. Misoprostol is both FDA approved for
human use and indicated as an abortion drug and has been proven to be both safe and efficacious
for this indication. The same can't be said for Ivermectin and the treatment of COVID.
While I can't in good consciousness recommend or promote people taking a prescription strength
drug absent supervision of a licensed medical professional. This equivalency is patently false
and misleading. That's Kyle, the pharmacist. So, listen, you tricked me. The Donald.
MODERATOR Maybe. I mean, maybe the guy knew that it was a false equivalency.
But, you know, the the important things here is, okay, ivermectin, sometimes used in horses,
sometimes used in humans. Misoprostol, sometimes used in animals, sometimes used in humans.
Ivermectin. Not okay to use for COVID based on a randomized controlled trials. Misoprostol
regularly used as an abortion drug in humans. So not the same thing. And this is why. You know.
I said, and this is why we should never go beyond what we know. And so when the ivermectin people
started with the Ivermectin stuff, it wouldn't have been right for me to say it doesn't work for
COVID. It will never be shown to work for COVID. Maybe it does, and it hasn't been shown yet. Maybe
someday it will be shown to work for COVID. What I knew at the time was we don't have any good
science right now that says Ivermectin works for COVID. And so let's be thoughtful when we
make a claim that it's actually not going further than what we know at the time. On the other hand,
when it comes to something like misoprostol, which I knew nothing about, I responded and said,
I don't know a thing about that. In particular, if the circumstances are the same as
Ivermectin, then it should be handled in the same way by social media companies. It turned
out later it is not at all the same thing. So hopefully an instructive moment for all of us.