Rolling Stone’s Story About Oklahoma ERs Being Overwhelmed With Ivermectin Overdoses Is Being Debunked

Rolling Stone magazine is playing defense Monday after its story about rural Oklahoma hospitals being overrun by ivermectin overdoses and preventing gunshot victims from getting medical attention is being debunked. Dr. Jason McElyea told KFOR that emergency rooms were reportedly “so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times” getting medical attention because Oklahoma residents were overdosing on horse de-wormer medication.

And that was all Rolling Stone needed to serve up a big fat plate of red meat to the blue checkmark nation just waiting to run with a story about how gunshot victims in RURAL Oklahoma couldn’t get medical attention. And the culprit was those pesky anti-vaxxers who are taking ivermectin!

Blue checkmarks…mount up!

And they did. In droves. All the usual suspects were in. Rachel Maddow Nation was ride or die on this story.

And plenty of actual bad actors got involved in pushing this one, too. I don’t know how @DrEricDing hasn’t been kicked off of Twitter by now. He’s a bottomless well of misinformation. pic.twitter.com/8FA6ABNTTu

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) September 5, 2021

Well, over the weekend, one hospital, NHS Sequoyah, released a statement saying that not only has it not been overrun by those pesky ivermectin ODs, but the hospital “also has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin. This includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdoses.”

The hospital added in its statement that Dr. McElyea hasn’t worked in the Sequoyah hospital in over two months. “All patients who have visited our emergency room have received medical attention as appropriate. Our hospital has not had to turn away any patients seeking emergency care,” Sequoyah’s communications team stated.

Ahh, but that’s ONE HOSPITAL…what about the others? Surely they’re being overrun by people ODing on this horse dewormer. It has to be true because Dr. McElyea said so. 

According to KOTV in Tulsa, the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information received 12 ivermectin calls in August. The poison control people added that there are currently 13 patients related to ivermectin.

THIRTEEN. There are 77 Oklahoma counties. Oklahoma has 165 hospitals spread out across the state.

Now, is it possible that all 13 patients were piled into one Oklahoma hospital and Dr. McElyea just happened to be in that one emergency room and all of a sudden there were multiple gunshot victims being dumped off at that exact hospital?

Uh, it’s not likely. I’ll need to see further evidence here from Dr. Mc because his story of hospitals being overrun doesn’t jive with what the state’s poison control people are stating.

“Since the beginning of May, we’ve received reports of 11 people being exposed to ivermectin. Most developed relatively minor symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness, though there’s the potential for more serious effects including low blood pressure and seizures with an overdose, as well as interactions with medications such as blood thinners,” Scott Schaeffer, managing director of the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information, told Oklahoma Health on August 26.

You may notice how Schaeffer didn’t mention anything about hospitals being overrun. He didn’t issue some crazy plea to the public, stating how gunshot victims aren’t being seen because of ivermectin overdoses.

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone and the blue checkmark brigade are going to stick to this story even with the data out there to prove that it’s absolute nonsense.

I spoke with Scott Schaeffer, head of the @OKPoisonCenter, who says their poison control hotline has fielded 10 calls from Oklahomans taking livestock dewormer in an attempt to treat or prevent COVID-19. He urges folks not to do that.https://t.co/NiVeZxIxrd

— Chris Polansky (@ChrisKPolansky) August 23, 2021