THE MEDIA FELL FOR A VIRAL HOAX ABOUT IVERMECTIN OVERDOSES STRAINING RURAL HOSPITALS:

If McElyea has been claiming that ivermectin overdoses are overwhelming Oklahoma hospitals, it’s not actually evident from the quotes he provided. KFOR appears to be responsible for this spin. This means, of course, that if the national media outlets had called the doctor or the hospitals, they would have easily uncovered the error. Instead, they unthinkingly spread it.

It is vital for the media to communicate correct information to the public about ivermectin. While the drug is not only used for de-worming horses and is in fact prescribed to humans, overdoses can cause nasty side effects. Moreover, it’s viability as a COVID-19 cure is highly disputed. As Reason‘s Ronald Bailey noted in a recent article, there’s little evidence that ivermectin is an effective treatment for the virus. Reporters should make crystal clear that the best way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic is mass vaccination. But communicating wrong information about ivermectin overdoses works against this goal, as it is likely to convince vaccine skeptics that their skepticism is justified.

Many in the mainstream media have vigorously condemned COVID-19 misinformation, and called for social media sites to reduce its spread. But pandemic-related misinformation is not confined to the far-right fringes—readers can also encounter it in the pages of Rolling Stone as well as The New York Times. The Associated Press recently reported that 70 percent of calls to Mississippi’s poison hotline were from people who had taken ivermectin. This was an error: The actual figure was 2 percent.

More here: Two Questions About the Rolling Stone Story.