The 'truly bonkers story' of how feed-store ivermectin went dangerously viral

"A lot of people have asked me this week: Where did this ivermectin obsession come from?" NBC News' Ben Collins tweeted Thursday. "Who could possibly benefit from it? Most importantly, why did my antivaxx aunt start eating horse goo from the tractor store?" The answers, he said, is a "truly bonkers story" involving a group called America's Frontline Doctors (AFLD), an affiliated website over-promising ivermectin prescriptions, a Florida online pharmacy, and frustrated vaccine opponents who end up eating paste meant for deworming horses and cattle to try and fight COVID-19.
The CDC and FDA have issued separate warnings in the past week against ingesting ivermectin to fight COVID-19.
The human version of ivermectin, "originally introduced as a veterinary drug for livestock animals in the late-1970s," is generally safe in low doses and "useful in combating certain human diseases caused by parasites," though not viruses, NBC News reports. Interest in ivermectin as a COVID treatment started in late 2020 but remained "reasonably low until July." That's about when AFLD began promoting ivermectin among anti-vaccination groups.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
AFLD "describes itself as a 'non-partisan' group of medical professionals," Time reported Thursday. "But it originated as a right-wing political organization," founded to support former President Donald Trump's push to dial back pandemic mitigation measures. AFLD later found promoting alternative COVID-19 treatments profitable, and it's now a "leading purveyor of medical disinformation" in the anti-vaccination world, Time adds.
"They're the 21st century, digital version of snake-oil salesmen," Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, tells Time. "And in the case of ivermectin, it's extremely dangerous."
"In recent weeks, a variety of conservative figures and anti-vaccination activists have embraced the drug," NBC News reports. "Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson have mentioned it. Phil Valentine, the conservative radio host who died from COVID-19 this week, also turned to ivermectin after his diagnosis and urged his listeners to do the same. (He later encouraged listeners to get vaccinated.)"
"First it was hydroxychloroquine, then it was bleach, powerful lights, now it's horse dewormer?" Seth Meyers sighed on Thursday's Late Night. "I'm honestly terrified to imagine what's next. One day we're going to wake up and Brian Kilmeade's gonna be telling people who can cure COVID by eating kibble and sleeping in a bed of kitty litter."
Read more about the ivermectin problem at Time and NBC News.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
The sneaking rise of whooping cough
Under the Radar The measles outbreak isn't the only one to worry about
By Theara Coleman, The Week US
-
RFK Jr. visits Texas as 2nd child dies from measles
Speed Read An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease continues to grow following a decade of no recorded US measles deaths
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study finds
Speed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Measles outbreak spreads, as does RFK Jr.'s influence
Speed Read The outbreak centered in Texas has grown to at least three states and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promoting unproven treatments
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Five years on: How Covid changed everything
Feature We seem to have collectively forgotten Covid’s horrors, but they have completely reshaped politics
By The Week US
-
RFK Jr. offers alternative remedies as measles spreads
Speed Read Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. makes unsupported claims about containing the spread as vaccine skepticism grows
By Peter Weber, The Week US
-
Texas outbreak brings 1st US measles death since 2015
Speed read The outbreak is concentrated in a 'close-knit, undervaccinated' Mennonite community in rural Gaines County
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US
-
Mystery illness spreading in Congo rapidly kills dozens
Speed Read The World Health Organization said 53 people have died in an outbreak that originated in a village where three children ate a bat carcass
By Peter Weber, The Week US