this is the ivermectin story – not ivermectin, but how it’s just a plug-and-play monetized industry that is driven by forces vastly larger than a bunch of dopes with facebook poisoning eating horse paste. until this becomes the narrative there will be dozens more ivermectin sagas https://t.co/l8yU5X5j0e
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 13, 2021
… NBC News’ Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny last month detailed a scheme to cash in on people who want ivermectin, but can’t get a prescription from a responsible medical practitioner. SpeakWithAnMD.com, they reported, is a telemedicine website touted on anti-vaccination social media communities for serving as a pill mill for ivermectin. The website offers consultations for $90; asks prospective patients whether they are seeking ivermectin, the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, or another medication; and promises same-day delivery of prescribed drugs through an online pharmacy.
The telemedicine website has ties to the broader right-wing infrastructure, NBC News further reported. It partners with America’s Frontline Doctors, a fringe-right medical organization that regularly promotes COVID-19 misinformation and has drawn sympathetic coverage from Fox News and other right-wing outlets. (That group’s founder, Dr. Simone Gold, was arrested after storming the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 insurrection and charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct.)
This grift relies on three elements. First, demand for ivermectin is expanding due to its promotion by right-wing and contrarian media personalities and on social media platforms. Second, legitimate supply is limited because responsible doctors don’t want to give their patients a drug that the Food and Drug Administration and the drug’s manufacturer, among others, do not recommend as a treatment for COVID-19. And third, the drug is generally safe with proper dosing, limiting liability for the grifters. The marks are separated from their money but are otherwise fine — unless they actually have or get COVID-19 and thought that ivermectin was a substitute for the vaccines or more proven therapeutics…
that the covid vaccines are so remarkably effective at their job at a price point of *free* is a terrifying threat to the right wing miracle cure economy
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 13, 2021
and *this* and not any other excuse given is the reason for the full frontal assault on any initiatives that encourages or requires the vaccine. it’s not about medicine or “rights” in the least – it’s about maintaining a literal death grip on the snake oil market
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 13, 2021
The tweeter known as Kilgore Trout and reporter Matt Gertz have sung this duet before…
an honest accounting of the saga would fully explain that it’s been chugging along in the background as a kook treatment for over a year, displaced hydroxycloroquine as king of designer covid treatments once the hydroxy bubble burst, & these pundits are way late to the game https://t.co/2jVSuflu4U
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 8, 2021
again, there’s a get-rich-quick mlm scheme at the heart of this thing consisting of a bunch of teledoc’s pushing scripts on a pills-for-pay system. not everyone promoting it has a cut of the action. there are a lot of clueless rubes just hoping to find their angle https://t.co/Gw1jNS2hmQ
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 8, 2021
they accomplish nothing therapeutically unless you have one of the obscure conditions they’re intended to treat, but they won’t kill your ass dead, and you need to pony up cash for a script to get them. normal docs won’t write those scripts, so presto! teledoc market
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 8, 2021
the scheme engineers rely on the cheerleading (but non-invested) pundits to keep the hype train running. if you remove that element of kayfabe controversy, the juice fizzles out and the ordinary joes stop shoveling money at the snake oil
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 8, 2021
dana loesch is not sitting around eating gelatinized beet residue. ben shapiro is not popping homeopathic caffeine pills. laura ingraham is not taking hydroxycloroquine, and tucker carlson is not sucking down ivermectin. that’s for their idiot audiences.
— kilgore trout, joe rogan took horse dewormer (@KT_So_It_Goes) September 8, 2021
Gin & Tonic
Do I even want to know what gelatinized beet residue is?
Chetan Murthy
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, it’s not so disgusting …. the really disgusting part is the spokesmodel:
https://www.mic.com/articles/188316/nra-spokesperson-dana-loesch-is-also-the-face-of-superbeets-a-beet-juice-supplement
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: I like beets, and prefer to eat them in their natural state.
Poe Larity
The only thing that’s missing is the Flavor-Aid.
The question for future is who isn’t in a suicide cult?
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: isn’t it just overcooked beets?
you mean I could be selling my home culinary experiments for BIG CASH and sticking it to Uncle Joe at the same time?
(off to get 200 lbs of raw carrots, a bottle of aspirin, and some expired sriracha – ivermectin ain’t got nothing on what I’m about to
cash in onsell to god-fearing’Muricans!!)The Oracle of Solace
It can be hard to know who are the cons and who are the marks. I knew a man who fell for the constitutional-trust income-tax-evasion scam; he later became a Libertarian Party candidate for president.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic:
Borscht jello.
Oklahomo
There was a post earlier today in the Herman Cain
eAwards that the stupid fuckers are drinking Betadine now.Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
Last week, a friend and I were joking about investing in flea collars and then starting rumors on Facebook and Twitter that flea collars are the SECRET NEW MIRACLE CURE that Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know about!!!!1!! eleven!!!1!!
lofgren
Why can’t these teledocs just sell weed like a decent person?
prostratedragon
Not sure I see the pyramid aspect of a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, but the hype and the push that those who don’t get with the program are somehow wrong are certainly there. And of course the bottom line that people are parted from their money with no or potentially negative value in exchange.
Watched the LuLaRich doc on Prime last night, so I’m filled with fresh disgust about these things. The show is must-see for these times. Four episodes of about 50 minutes each, so it can be finished during a free trial period (to which one might add The Underground Railroad). Those with a sensitivity to sulfur might have to hang on tight during the first couple of minutes, but most of the rest emphasizes the ordinary folks who at some level are the victims, plus some experts who have been studying the company.
The Dangerman
@Oklahomo: I heard gargling with Betadine and also heard the makers of Betadine released a statement saying “stop being assholes”.
is there a reason all of these miracle cures probably cause uncontrollable diarrhea? Aren’t the Koch’s the TP kings?
HumboldtBlue
You can go to a dozen local sites and get a free vaccine, but no, instead it’s off the quackery.
I understand there is no bottom, but this is still rather disheartening.
RaflW
@HumboldtBlue: Yeah, I find the sheer number of rubes to be the difficult part. A movie like Paper Moon wouldn’t have been much fun without marks to con (plus its fiction).
But seeing the sweeping of stupidity these days is distressing.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
And the beet goes on.
;)
dmsilev
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): I still think leeches will be the next big thing.
Oklahomo
@The Dangerman: The Kochs have their grubby hands in everything. I think the biggest reason all these quack cures give people the shits is because it’s stuff you shouldn’t be ingesting.
NotMax
@dmsilev
Replace the eyeballs with leeches and you might be on to something.
:)
prostratedragon
@The Dangerman: Sometimes things do turn out to be realll simple.
kindness
I wish this was just crazy talk but look at their marks. Those people frothed at any utterance Trump made, no matter how dumb. They deserve each other but we deserve none of them.
Yutsano
Borscht?
Another Scott
I honestly hadn’t made that connection, but it’s obviously true as part of the story. Wonkette has talked about the Blue Silver stuff too. There’s an awful lot of snake oil stuff out there, and has been for centuries, but it usually doesn’t get pushed and talked about by the MSM as much as hydroxythisandthat and ivermectin. There’s more to the story.
Follow the money, indeed.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who once had his skin turn yellow-orange from eating too many carrots (a pound+ a day for weeks), so that’s probably not a good alternative.”)
Chetan Murthy
@Yutsano: Goddamn, that’s the stuff! I make a moderately tasty cold kosher borscht, but boy howdy, I’d love to find a better recipe. I haven’t been to the B&H Dairy on 2nd Ave below St. Mark’s Place since … 2014, but damn I miss their borscht.
Gin & Tonic
@Yutsano: Indeed.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Instant Pot borscht.
Gin & Tonic
@Chetan Murthy: Veselka, two blocks up, is better. If you’re feeling extra-ambitious you can try their recipe (hint: *not* kosher.) Stage was excellent too, but they are unfortunately history.
Chetan Murthy
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t remember if I had it there. But my fave (in the late 90s, sigh sigh) was the B&H. I also liked going to KK’s on 1st Ave for sunday brunch: 4 different kinds of borscht! Yum!
Oh, sigh. I can’t find any borscht worthy of the name here: there was a place in an international food court in the financial district, but really …. it was only edible, not really tasty.
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: I’ll try this recipe next time (like, this w/e). But it’s a hot borscht, not a cold one, and the one I really miss is cold borscht.
Kent
There have been two back to back events in my lifetime that more than anything else have revealed to me what we are as a country, and what many of my family and co-workers are actually made of.
Donald Trump
Covid
Basically you can learn all you really need to know about someone by gauging their reaction to either Covid or Donald Trump.
TallTom
@NotMax:
I see what you did there…
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Aussie burger with the lot!
Classic Aussie Recipes
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
Care to share the tale?
Another Scott
@mrmoshpotato: I was taking my lunch into work and took a lot of carrots as part of it. Tasty, crunchy, cheap, and good for you, filling. In moderation… Then I noticed my skin changing color.
It’s a thing.
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-eating-too-many-carrots-turn-your-skin-orange/
HTH! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Chetan Murthy
Wonder if it would work as well cold if
1) Leave out the potatoes entirely and instead double up on the cabbage.
2) Set aside about a quarter of the cooked beets before adding the rest at the end.
3) Hit the cooked soup and beets with an immersion blender.
5) Stir in the reserved cooked shredded beets.
.
Poe Larity
I’m concerned. Do we need to start a Right Wing Radio Talk Show host death watch?
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: This is the one I’ve been making. The B&H’s cold borscht doesn’t have potatoes, nor cabbage, and it’s kosher dairy.
https://www.kosher.com/recipe/borscht-4798
montanareddog
@Another Scott: Hooda thunk that John Boehner and TFG eat a lot of carrots?
Brachiator
I think it is going too far to try to twist this craziness into some kind of organized grift.
For one thing, a con artist usually wants the suckers to live so that they can be worked on for a long time. But anti vaxx denialism is a death cult and a drain on the economy.
Also, right wing nut jobs just ain’t all that smart.
Quack remedies have been around for centuries. The political aspects are just a nasty bonus.
Also, anti vaxx is a global thing. Opportunities for all kinds of cranks to get a piece of the action.
HumboldtBlue
Here’s a magpie and a dog. They’re cute.
NotMax
Memory jogged as to coming across this years ago –
18th century fried beets.
mrmoshpotato
@Poe Larity: You mean watching them die? (Because I don’t think anything will get through to some of these “It’s a hoax!” idiots. No thanks!
Dan B
@The Dangerman: I dispute your convoluted theory about the connection between ivermectin causing massive diarrhea and the Koch TP empire. Their soft toilet paper doesn’t stand a chance against projectile intestinal lining discharge, obviously.
But would you fill me in with some more details if your hypothesis. I’m curious.
// if not obvious.
Dan B
@Another Scott: You were the Yellow Peril?
And all this time I thought it was… Nevermind. Not much thinking occurring in this commentary.
Dan B
@Another Scott: Rumor has it that too many tomatoes results is warm pink skin and carrots plus tomatoes realizes orange. Why doesn’t too much chocolate and coffee give me a tan?
Comrade Colette
@Chetan Murthy:
Cinderella Bakery on Balboa doesn’t do it for you? My niece tried their borscht this weekend and said it was pretty good. Even if it’s not so great, the mushroom piroshki is worth the trip out there.
Full disclosure, I’m indifferent to borscht (although I love beets in other guises) so I can’t judge for myself.
KSinMA
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for the link. That recipe looks amazing!
Chetan Murthy
@Comrade Colette: Oh yeah, I’ve been there! Like their …. blinichkis (sp?) And also the pastries! Yum! But I didn’t think their borscht was really worth the trip. But the other stuff … ohhh yeah.
KSinMA
@HumboldtBlue: Very.
Sloane Ranger
@Another Scott:
Aren’t you in the UK? If so you might remember a thing a few years back with Sunny Delight (an otange drink packed with additives) which had the same effect. It may be me not niticing, but I haven’t seen it in shops recently.
Sloane Ranger
@Gin & Tonic:
Are beets what we in the UK call beetroots? If so, I agree, or sometimes lightly pickled so the earthy taste still comes through. Unfortunately, here in the UK we tend to pickle the living daylights out of them so all you can taste is vinegar. Baby beets are best.
mrmoshpotato
Yes.
VeniceRiley
I’m for driving these ghouls into the sea. But, short of that, I want them for Ed to read r/nursing posts and comments aloud on all their nutjob channels.
Barry
@The Dangerman: “is there a reason all of these miracle cures probably cause uncontrollable diarrhea? Aren’t the Koch’s the TP kings?”
It’s a purge; people sh*t their guts out and assumed that it’s toxins leaving their bodies.
lowtechcyclist
I’ve had borscht in Russia, and once was enough.
It wasn’t awful, but it was along the lines of what people will eat if there aren’t a lot of alternatives.
Uncle Cosmo
No doubt one of those additives is/was beta carotene, which is supposed to be beneficial at the same time it orangifies anything it gets near.
There useta be a Russian fast-food joint in downtown Prague named The Arbat. I stopped in for a bite in summer 1990: a couple of (what would now be called) sausage sliders and borshcht, which looked like a stainless-steel bowl of Pepto-Bismol®. When I dipped a spoon in I discovered that the bottom half was vegetables (cabbage etc.). As fast food went, it wasn’t half bad, & I would happily have gone back, but when I returned a couple of years later the joint was gone with the wind (of change).
(FWIW In early September 2001, I ate shchi on Raekoja Plats in Tallinn and then solyanka in a Russian restaurant in Riga, and enjoyed them both. That’s the sum total of my exposure to Rycckii cuisine.)
Miss Bianca
@HumboldtBlue: Yes, they are!
J R in WV
Had borscht at the Russian Tea Room… along with a ton of other traditional Russian foods. It was not memorably great, but was also not terrible. Will try this recipe mentioned above. I see there is no garlic? Is it a real soup? no garlic!!! unreal…
jame
@Gin & Tonic: as god intended
@Gin & Tonic: “eat beets in their natural state “
Black Adder’s religious aunt “as God intended”