Ivermectin is not a newly-discovered drug. There were hundereds of millions of courses administered world wide (it even got a Nobel prize). It has been used for decades. [1]

The only unknown right now is the long term effect of ivermectin in patients with covid. It seems to me that it's the same unknown as with the vaccines. You don't have a clinical trial for effects of the vaccines after 5 years, do you? Why don't we wait for it, just to make sure? And it's even worse for the mRNA vaccines, which have not been around for decades and only got the emergency authorization.

Btw the emergency authorization can only be granted by the FDA if there are no alternatives. [2]

> For FDA to issue an EUA, there must be no adequate, approved, and available alternative to the candidate product for diagnosing, preventing, or treating the disease or condition.

I'm not sure if "approved" (as a treatment for covid) would have applied to Ivermectin at the time the EUA was granted but it's not like there were trials to decide that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin#Cost [2] https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidan...