There is yet another media scare story regarding the drug Ivermectin, and yet again it has fallen apart. This marks the third time in as little as a week that the media has failed when it comes to this particular drug.
This is not to say that anyone need to be in a big rush to take the human version of Ivermectin to treat COVID 19 – that is a decision that only you and your doctor can make – but there is no question that the way this drug has been covered by the press has been a disaster.
The latest failure is coming from KTSM, and they cited a 2011 study from Nigeria that noted the small and questionable claim that Ivermectin causes male infertility in 85% of men. Just a day after the original article was published, the outlet actually retracted the story and and included an editor’s note on the piece:
FOR THE RECORD: A national story regarding Ivermectin and a study regarding its effect on men’s reproductive health that KTSM published, has been removed from our website.
Concerns over the scientific research methods, the veracity of the original, peer-reviewed report and public statements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying that infertility is not a known side effect of Ivermectin all led to our editorial decision to remove the story.
This is the third time in as little as a week that the media has published a narrative regarding Ivermectin that was totally false immediately after some people had said that it would help treat COVID-19. While the efficacy of Ivermectin in regards to COVID-19 isn’t entirely clear, there are plenty of reasons for Ivermectin to be prescribed to humans for several different reasons. Naturally, the liberals claim that this drug has been used in higher doses to deworm livestock, and they would be right. Of course, these same liberals claim that we are backwards and rushing to a tractor or farm supply store instead of being treated by the doctor.
This comes from last week where the Associated Press had to add an embarrassing correction to an article that had initially claimed that 70% of the calls to a Mississippi Poison Control Center were in regards to Ivermectin ingestion. However, the reality is that only 2% of these calls were about Ivermectin, and there were 70% of those calls were about ingesting the veterinary version of the drug. Thus, only a total of 1.4% of these were in regards to Ivermectin poisoning at all!
Here’s the correction:
In an article published Aug. 23, 2021, about people taking livestock medicine to try to treat coronavirus, The Associated Press erroneously reported based on information provided by the Mississippi Department of Health that 70% of recent calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center were from people who had ingested ivermectin to try to treat COVID-19. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Wednesday the number of calls to poison control about ivermectin was about 2%. He said of the calls that were about ivermectin, 70% were by people who had ingested the veterinary version of the medicine.
Following the correction from the AP, there were numerous outlets that were reporting that the Oklahoma hospitals had been so overwhelmed by patients overdosing on Ivermectin that they were forcing gunshot victims to wait to be seen by emergency room doctors. This story was based on quotes from JUST ONE doctor, Jason McElyea, and he has come back later and said that his words were taken out of context, and the original interview makes it appear that he was referring to emergency room congestion. However, while he mentioned that it was a possibility that McElyea was one cause, there was no occasion in that interview at all where he mentioned that it was the main cause as reported.
There was one hospital in eastern Oklahoma that said that McElyea had not worked there in at least several months and they had not seen any patients who had overdosed on Ivermectin.