JIM TREACHER: No, Emergency Rooms Aren’t Filling Up with People OD’ing on Horse Paste.

You’d think our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters at Rolling Stone would’ve learned their lesson after propagating that UVA gang-rape hoax back in 2014. That was a story based on the account of one person, and it went through layers of editors and fact-checkers without anybody noticing that the story didn’t add up. Now they’re at it again.2

And, also, in addition to that: You should get vaccinated. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, you should only take drugs prescribed by a doctor. An overwhelming majority of Americans are doing one or the other. There’s not a plague of horse-paste ODs, no matter what Rolling Stone and Rachel Maddow might claim.

A week ago you’d never heard of ivermectin, and a week from now you’ll have forgotten it exists. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: By the time I learn enough about a breaking news story to realize I don’t care, it turns out to be bull$#!+ anyway.

This all started when Joe Rogan got COVID and didn’t die even though he isn’t vaccinated, right? He said his doctor prescribed ivermectin, and then that instantly became “Joe Rogan takes horse medicine.” From there, it was a short trip to “People who probably listen to Joe Rogan are OD’ing on horse drugs.” It doesn’t need to be true, it just needs to make you feel superior to the people you hate.

As Kevin Williamson writes, “These stories don’t get published because nobody knows how to prevent that from happening — these stories get published because nobody cares, because these stories serve the purposes of a particular narrow cultural agenda and flatter the prejudices of a particular narrow set of educated and generally affluent American professionals.”