COVID Truthers’ New Low: Getting Followers to Yank Relatives From ICUs

Anti-vaxxers have adopted a new conspiracy theory, telling followers that doctors and nurses dealing with the surge of COVID among the unvaccinated are purposefully withholding miracle treatments. On Facebook groups, followers are encouraging each other to pull relatives from ICUs or withhold sending them to ERs and instead self-medicate with unproven drugs like ivermectin, according to posts reviewed by NBC News. Anti-vaxxers have shared instructions for getting someone released from the hospital and shared videos of people doing it successfully. As some followers have realized ivermectin is not effective at treating COVID, they’ve turned to bizarre and dangerous experiments like gargling iodine and inhaling hydrogen peroxide, NBC reports.