A story reported by a local news channel in Oklahoma that victims of overdoses of an anti-parasite drug overwhelmed a rural hospital swept into the national media but turned out to be bogus. The Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and the New York Daily News were among those running the story about the drug ivermectin, promoted as a Covid-19 treatment by those opposing vaccines. Reason, September 6, 2021, by Robby Soave)
Conn Carroll of the Washington Examiner, September 5, 2021, wrote that a closer examination of the story would have revealed that the hospital in question had not treated anyone with an ivermectin overdose or turned away any patients. Carrolll said the story was a prime example of why Republican trust in the national media had dropped to 35 percent, according to a recent survey.
Alex Shephard, The New Republic, September 7, 2021, wrote that there were no attempts to verify the story by contacting hospital officials or local politicians and even after the real story emerged, news sources were slow to make corrections. As Rachel Maddow refused to removed the story from a tweet she sent out to her followers, it is clear, says Shephard, that false news is not limited to Trump and his followers.