“Inside 731 Farm Store in Burleson, Matt Meredith has taped up a warning from the FDA about ivermectin. ‘Not for human consumption. It says it on the bottle,’ Meredith said. ‘It’s for deworming cattle, deworming horses.’ Many people have started taking it to treat or prevent COVID-19, despite an FDA warning. The North Texas Poison Center reports they’ve received 52 poisoning calls for ivermectin this year, compared to six through August of last year. The numbers are increasing, too. Sixteen of the 52 calls this year have been in August. In August of 2020, Texas received two reports about ivermectin poisoning statewide. This August, they’ve received 55. Last year, the state received 23 ivermectin reports from January through August.”

“This year, there have been 150, an increase of 552%. There is a human version of the product, but it’s not approved to treat COVID-19, because there’s no clear evidence from any major study that it helps. The poison center will now ask people where they bought it and which formula. Fox News hosts have pushed the drug as an effective treatment for COVID-19. A non-peer reviewed study that appeared to show a strong benefit was retracted, because of issues with plagiarism and manipulated data. Phil Valentine, a conservative radio host in Tennessee, had told his audience he found a doctor to prescribe him ivermectin. Valentine later died of COVID-19. His brother said the host regretted not being a strong advocate for vaccination” WFAA reports.

Texas isn’t the only state where Gullible MAGA-billies who “did their own research” by reading articles on Facebook are getting sick. The exact same thing is happening in other backwards red states like Arkansas and Alabama. Authoritarian movements frequently accuse those outside the movement of being “brainwashed” and “not knowing the real truth”, while simultaneously requiring absolute unanimity of thought among their followers. It’s really becoming interesting how the modern day GOP is like a huge real-time experiment in fascist ideology, and Trump supporters are providing modern examples of principles and behaviors that were described by fascism researchers in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.