Rolling Stone magazine has been called out for publishing an inaccurate story Saturday about hospitals in Oklahoma being overrun by Ivermectin overdoses.
The Rolling Stone story reported that the number of Ivermectin drug overdoses have so overwhelmed hospitals that gunshot victims have been unable to get medical treatment. Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug that has a human version but is more commonly used for deworming livestock.
In an interview with local Southeastern Oklahoma station KFOR, a rural Oklahoma physician Dr. Jason McElyea spread many of the same falsehoods.
“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,” he said.“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,” said Dr. McElyea. “If there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call.”
In response to that interview and the Rolling Stone piece, the Northeastern Health System (NHS) – Sequoyah released a statement claiming Dr. Jason McElyea “is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah”, he also hasn’t worked at that hospital in over two months nor have they treated any patients for Ivermectin overdoses. (RELATED: CDC Report: Less Than 1% of Kids’ Hospitalizations For COVID-19 Resulted In Death In Last Year)
Rolling Stone publishes article claiming ER in Oklahoma is full because of people self-dosing Ivermectin. Hospital says the doctor Rolling Stone quoted hasn’t worked there in two months & they haven’t had any IVM patients in the ER anyway. https://t.co/wYGS9eE9c5 pic.twitter.com/1BVcQyEWm3
— Katie Herzog (@kittypurrzog) September 5, 2021
This isn’t the first time Rolling Stone has published provably false stories. In 2014, the magazine published an article filled with allegations from student Jackie Coakley, who at the time attended the University of Virginia, claiming Coakley had been gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity party. In 2016, the Rolling Stone and the author of the article were forced by a jury to pay $3 million in damages.