I'm writing about that whole ivermectin-overdoses-crowding-hospitals thing, and boy oh boy did the media screw up with this one.
My report: reason.com/2021/09/06/ive…
A local news channel wrote a story saying ivermectin overdoses were straining Oklahoma hospitals, and then Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and others re-wrote it with no additional reporting. It was substantially wrong. Here's what happened.
Rolling Stone's article does not inspire a great deal of confidence that the magazine could locate Oklahoma on a map (image was of people in winter coats), let alone say something profound about its rural hospitals' current capacities.
It's not clear how vast the overcrowding problem is, but it is likely due to covid cases not poison cases. There were 500 reported ivermectin overdoses reported in the country this month. Oklahoma's 7-day covid hospitalization rate is 1,500. Clearly that's the problem!
The source for the poisonings-causing-hospital-strain statement appears to be a doctor, Jason McElyea. But here's the very, very important thing: At no point does he ever actually making this claim. KFOR, the local news site, just made it up. reason.com/2021/09/06/ive…
I reviewed all of McElyea's quotes, and he doesn't actually connect hospital overcrowding and ivermectin overdoses. As far as I can tell, this spin is supplied entirely by the local journalist, Katelyn Ogle (who did not respond to a request for comment).
I think this is instructive. A local journalist wanted to tell a story about ivermectin overdoses straining hospitals, cherry picked some quotes, and then the mainstream media ran wild with it.
Pandemic misinformation is not confined to the far-right fringes. You can encounter it on your local TV station, and in the pages of magazines and newspapers. reason.com/2021/09/06/ive…
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