Out where the deer and the antelope play, corn-fed Oklahomans are poisoning themselves with enough of the horse dewormer, ivermectin, for a full-sized horse.
Common sense from the internet tells them that the veterinary medication found in agricultural and tractor supply stores can fight COVID-19. Months ago, common sense from the internet told them COVID-19 itself was a hoax.
Dr. Jason McElyea tells KFOR in Oklahoma City, “There’s a reason you have to have a doctor to get a prescription for this stuff, because it can be dangerous.”
McElyea offers discouraging words, “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.” *
But the skies are not cloudy all day.
Real America™ is now Dadaesque.
A friend found the following Facebook ad this week:
After noting “the monetize-everything-you-have economy has gone nuts,” he added, “It is a smaller step from ‘store someone’s vehicle’ to ‘be someone’s vehicle’ than you think.”
And after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week, unsettlingly closer for women. Because the court allowed Texas to effectively end access to abortion services in the state by outsourcing enforcement of its ban on abortion after six weeks to bounty-hunting vigilantes (Digby):
This law’s novel approach to enforcement, essentially removing the state and using what amounts to vigilantes and bounty hunters (under the promise of $10,000 for every abortion aider and abettor they bag) is essentially a form of legal secession from the U.S. Constitution. By removing the state and putting this into the realm of civil law, they can circumvent Americans’ constitutional rights by making them impossible to exercise.
But at least aiding and abetting Lyft and Uber drivers in Texas have nothing to fear. The same scandal-ridden, gig-economy firms that fought to avoid paying drivers minimum wage and benefits will “cover all the legal fees of any of their drivers who are sued under Texas’s restrictive new abortion law,” NPR reports.
Dante Atkins, principal at communications firm Atkins Strategies, tweeted perhaps the most succinct assessment of the situation in Texas: Texas Republicans are a vigilante bounty hunter death cult.
Who will be the first to the box office with the movie, Dennis Hartley?
Atkins’s title is perhaps a bit long for a marquee. But maybe not too long for an extremist folk song in the style of the offspring of an Oklahoma native.
The Texas forced-birth, vigilante bounty hunter, death cult, anti-immigrant movement, and all you got to do to join is to sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar.
With no feeling.
* UPDATE (as of 12:21 EDT):
Northeastern Hospital System Sequoyah has since issued the following statement:
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.
Nevertheless, ivermectin poison control calls are also being reported in AL, FL, GA, KS, KY, MN, TX, WI, and Australia. Not all calls to poison control centers represent actual poisonings.
(h/t RL)