CITIZENS NEWS

AP forced to issue correction on fake news about ivermectin

By newseditors // 2021-09-11

The Associated Press was forced to issue a correction after it falsely claimed that 70 per cent of calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center were about people ingesting ivermectin to treat COVID-19. (Article by Paul Joseph Watson republished from Infowars.com) The actual number was 2 per cent. Whoops! From the AP: “In an article published Aug. 23, 2021, about people taking livestock medicine to try to treat coronavirus, The Associated Press erroneously reported based on information provided by the Mississippi Department of Health that 70% of recent calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center were from people who had ingested ivermectin to try to treat COVID-19. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Wednesday the number of calls to poison control about ivermectin was about 2%. He said of the calls that were about ivermectin, 70% were by people who had ingested the veterinary version of the medicine.” As Chris Menahan notes, NPR also amplified the fake news, reporting that, “The department said that at least 70% of recent calls to the state poison control center were related to people who ingested a version of the drug that is formulated to treat parasites in cows and horses.” NPR has yet to issue a retraction of the fake story, which was circulated countless times, while the retraction will only be seen by a fraction of those who read the original. https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1434538877642027015 Over the weekend, Rolling Stone faced massive humiliation after it asserted that there were so many patients “overdosing” on ivermectin that Oklahoma hospitals were being “overwhelmed” and gunshot victims were going untreated. They were forced into an embarrassing walk back after the Northeastern Hospital System Sequoyah issued a statement clarifying that it “has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin,” which “includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose.” Once again, the original story went viral while the revelation that it was fake news largely only trended in conservative news circles. The Rolling Stone article appeared to be part of an effort to smear podcast host Joe Rogan, who said he had used ivermectin as part of a cocktail of treatments to successfully fight off a COVID-19 infection. Read more at: Infowars.com

mainstream media propaganda hoax Fact Check Social media fake news journalism pandemic disinfo AP covid-19 ivermectin