Monday I wrote about the fact that some big name progressives on Twitter, including Rachel Maddow, were spreading a local news story which claimed hospitals in Oklahoma were being flooded with patients who’d taken ivermectin and were experiencing serious side effects. The same story was picked up by left wing outlets including Rolling Stone.

It turned out that story wasn’t accurate. One hospital said they hadn’t seen any ivermectin patients and another hospital said they’d only seen a “handful.” It turned out that the local news outlet may have misunderstood the doctor who told them Oklahoma emergency rooms were full of COVID patients and that some people taking ivermectin had wound up in the hospital. But the doctor wasn’t necessarily saying ivermectin patients were filling up the ERs. Lots of people on the left ran with the story without looking into the facts because they liked the sound of it.

The fact that the story wasn’t true as promoted got some attention on Twitter so you might imagine that people, especially those on the left who got fooled once this week, would be primed to avoid making the same mistake. You could almost say they’d been inoculated to this particular strain of fake news.

Alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Because two days later another dubious ivermectin story popped up at another local news outlet and once again, people on the left are gleefully sharing it without actually looking at it. Here’s the story (note: the original appeared at KTSM El Paso but they have deleted their tweet).

Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds https://t.co/Z82sMtAMOj

— KFOR (@kfor) September 8, 2021

In any case, lots of people on the left thought this was just hilarious:

god i hope it's true LOL. h/t @sydneyelainexo https://t.co/8sYa9NtPa0

— Kim TallBear (@KimTallBear) September 9, 2021

This guys is from Project Lincoln:

Natural selection. https://t.co/ERUdYsJhgF

— RC Di Mezzo (@rcdimezzo) September 9, 2021

It’s just a long list of people making the same joke:

See if you people will just chillax these problems will sort themselves out in time. Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds | WFLA https://t.co/FMVmkjFeT9

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) September 9, 2021

Actor Dave Bautista (I think this is his real account, it has 1.4 million followers):

We can only hope that this is true. 🙏🏼Spare us from the next generation of assholes.
Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, 2011 Nigerian study finds | WFLA https://t.co/a0jBnc8zhO

— Vaxxed AF! #TeamPfizer Poor Kid Chasing Dreams. (@DaveBautista) September 9, 2021

On and on it goes:

We need as many Republican men as possible to use this product.

America needs it!

Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds | WFLA https://t.co/UQ4K44wlOO

— The True American (@TheTrueAmerica5) September 9, 2021

Fans of Darwinian theory will be relieved to learn that 85% of men who ingest Ivermectin become sterile.

Essentially, this means that unbridled stupidity won’t be passed on to future generations as a trait by the utter morons who drink sheep dewormer.https://t.co/IkYyzF6ABA

— Dr. David A. Lustig (@drdave1999) September 9, 2021

Ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds

Well the good thing about them taking this drug 85% of them won't be reproducing and teaching offspring to be dumb. https://t.co/EvzaBb2HPt

— Jody Larose 🌊 💉💉🌈🏈🇺🇲 (@Netmeetme) September 9, 2021

As you’ve probably guessed by now, it turns out they should have looked at this a little closer before trying to use it to dunk on people. It turns out the study in question is from 2011 and involved a very small number of people (less than 40) who took ivermectin for 11 months to cure river blindness which is caused by a parasite. This doctor created a TikTok video about the study which notes it doesn’t really seem applicable to a lot of other situations.

@dr.eric.bReply to @vagabond_dreams #covid #covid19 #pandemic #mask #vaccine #fyp #facts♬ original sound – Eric

Daniel Dale, a fact-checker for CNN, also pointed out the FDA released a statement saying infertility is not a known side-effect of ivermectin. Dale also adds (2nd tweet below) that the original story has been retracted:

The bad-journalism story about ivermectin making 85% of men go sterile, which went viral days after that other bad-journalism story about ivermectin went viral, has been retracted. https://t.co/G8CKRUrciB pic.twitter.com/oeZqz3OlwL

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 9, 2021

If you look at any of the sites that hosted this story, there is now a correction which reads:

A national story regarding Ivermectin and a study regarding its effect on men’s reproductive health that KTSM published, has been removed from our website.

Concerns over the scientific research methods, the veracity of the original, peer-reviewed report and public statements by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) saying that infertility is not a known side effect of Ivermectin all led to our editorial decision to remove the story.

So there you have it. Progressives have fallen for two false or misleading pieces about ivermectin in the span of one week. I’d like to think they’ve finally learned their lesson but my guess is there could be another story out tomorrow and the same people will leap forward to share it without bothering to see if it makes any sense. In their desire to own the cons for clicks they wind up making fools of themselves.