NewsWorldAmericas

Anti-vax ‘vigilantes’ urge Covid patients to avoid hospitals and try home
cures

   ‘Vigilante medicine’, where traditional medicine is shunned in favour
--
   with Kamala Harris
   Leer en Español

   Anti-vax groups are telling Covid patients to avoid hospitals and
   extract sick family members from intensive care units, as part of an
   intensifying disinformation campaign being spread via Facebook and
   encrypted messaging apps.
--
   viewed by NBC News.

   Doctors treating Covid patients say they are increasingly having to
   deal with assaults and threats of violence from anti-vaxxers, with
   incidents reported in Texas, Georgia, Idaho and Massachusetts in recent
   weeks.

Recommended

     * ‘Please get your vaccine’: YouTuber hits out at anti-vaxx movement
       as he dies of Covid
     * Gisele Bundchen defends Doutzen Kroes’ anti-vaxx post
     * Anti-vaxx US radio host who mocked AIDS victims dies of Covid-19
       complications

   According to posts viewed by NBC News, members of anti-vax Facebook
   groups are offering instructions on how to get family members removed
   from hospital by insisting they be transferred to hospice care, and
   have recorded videos of apparently successful extractions that have
--

   They convince members the only way to treat patients suffering from
   severe Covi symptoms is to self-medicate with ivermectin, a horse
   dewormer which has become popular in anti-vax circles.

   When that doesn’t work they recommend potentially even more dangerous
   treatments such as gargling iodine or taking hydrogen peroxide, forcing
--
     allergies, and COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/PT8ZaAFbUi
     — AAFA National (@AAFANational) September 21, 2021

   The more dangerous at-home treatments are part of what anti-vaxxers
   call the “protocol”, which is being shared through Facebook and on the
   encrypted messaging app Telegram.

--

   Dr Nerurkar described “vigilante medicine” as “medicine being practised
   by laypeople who are reading groups created by other laypeople in echo
   chambers and silos that, likely, someone in the anti-vax movement is
   profiting from.

   Doctors are increasingly fearful for their safety after a wave of
--

Recommended

     * Anti-vaxxers storm Burger King in New York City
     * Model sparks outrage by revealing she’s forced to wear fat suit for
       plus-sized ads
     * Woman survives five days trapped in freezing car wreck by licking
--
   ivermectin.

   Social media companies have attempted to crack down on Covid
   misinformation being spread on their platforms, but anti-vax groups are
   getting around the restrictions by using innocuous-sounding codewords
   such as “dance parties”.

--

More about

   anti-vaxxersvigilantesConspiracy TheoriesHospitalsCovid

Join our new commenting forum

--
   and see their replies
   [spinner_on_white.gif] Comments

1/1Anti-vax ‘vigilantes’ urge Covid patients to avoid hospitals

   (BUTTON)

Anti-vax ‘vigilantes’ urge Covid patients to avoid hospitals

   Anti-vaxxers are instructing people how to get family members out of
   hospital

   AFP via Getty Images