Rolling Stone magazine ignited a firestorm of criticism this weekend after pushing a false report claiming ivermectin overdose patients were overwhelming Oklahoma hospitals.
In the original article, Rolling Stone cited testimonies from Dr. Jason McElyea, who told KFOR that overdoses of ivermectin – a popular and yet-t0-be proven alternative treatment for the coronavirus – were causing an overflow in rural Oklahoma hospitals.
“The ERs are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated,” McElyea said, as reported by Rolling Stone.
“All of their ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any, that’s it,” added McElyea. “If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”
McElyea said that overdose patients experienced such side effects as nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, cramping, and even blindness.
“The scariest one that I’ve heard of and seen is people coming in with vision loss,” the doctor told the outlet.
Multiple media outlets, from The Guardian to Rachel Maddow to the BBC, ran with the story, all of them proclaiming how medicine used to treat horses has threatened to crash Oklahoma’s healthcare system. Just one problem: the story was completely false.
According to the Northeastern Health System Sequoyah, a hospital McElyea was listed as being affiliated with, the doctor is not a current employee and there have been no patients “due to complications related to taking ivermectin.” Per a statement on the NHS Sequoyah’s website:
Although Dr. Jason McElyea is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he is affiliated with a medical staffing group that provides coverage for our emergency room.
With that said, Dr. McElyea has not worked at our Sallisaw location in over 2 months.
NHS Sequoyah has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin. This includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose.
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.
We want to reassure our community that our staff is working hard to provide quality healthcare to all patients. We appreciate the opportunity to clarify this issue and as always, we value our community’s support.
Continue reading: Breitbart.com
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