🧵 A 75-year-old woman became entangled in COVID conspiracy theories.
After she got infected, she rejected effective treatments and sought out black market drugs instead. Doctors say that decision contributed to her death. npr.org/sections/healt…
After she got infected, she rejected effective treatments and sought out black market drugs instead. Doctors say that decision contributed to her death. npr.org/sections/healt…
For Americans who don't trust the medical establishment, there's a network of fringe medical doctors, natural healers and internet personalities ready to push unproven cures for COVID. And a shady black market where you can buy them.
The array of alternative COVID treatments is vast. Some offer kosher multivitamins, others suggest more radical interventions, such as drinking your own urine.
But one drug in particular has become the center of many alternative therapies: ivermectin.
But one drug in particular has become the center of many alternative therapies: ivermectin.
Originally used to treat parasitic worms, ivermectin has developed an enormous following over the course of the pandemic especially in politically conservative circles. That's, in part, because of a small cadre of licensed doctors who promote it as an alternative to vaccination.
Rigorous studies show ivermectin is far from miraculous. The drug was studied early in the pandemic as a potential treatment for COVID, but it hasn't panned out.
Everyone from the American Medical Association to the FDA tells doctors not to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.
Everyone from the American Medical Association to the FDA tells doctors not to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.
Timothy Mackey is a professor at the University of California, San Diego who studies online pharmacies. He says ivermectin promoters have spent months hyping the drug.
"They're creating demand and this demand is being circulated in all these different online groups," he says.
"They're creating demand and this demand is being circulated in all these different online groups," he says.
After she fell ill with COVID, the 75-year-old-woman named Stephanie went looking for ivermectin. A friend gave her the name of a woman in Jacksonville, Fla., who was willing to sell it to her along with some other unproven COVID drugs. Stephanie's order totaled $390.
Her daughter, Laurie was worried as her became sicker and sicker. She was worried that she had invested so much in the mail-order pills.
She asked where the pills came from, was it a doctor?
Her mother said, yes a doctor.
It was not a doctor. It was a "quantum healer."
She asked where the pills came from, was it a doctor?
Her mother said, yes a doctor.
It was not a doctor. It was a "quantum healer."
Read more of the story here
npr.org/sections/healt…
npr.org/sections/healt…
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