Milo Yiannopoulos One of Many Right-Wingers Treating COVID With Livestock Meds

Milo Yiannopoulos, a British far-right political commentator, public speaker, and writer—known also for his 2017 proclamation of being “ex-gay,” among an abundance of white supremacist rhetoric—announced that he has COVID-19, also sharing an image of himself using Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug meant for livestock that the FDA has warned Americans against using for treatment of COVID-19.

The saga began when Right Wing Watch posted images from Yiannopoulos’ chat stream, sharing a photo of his positive COVID-19 test result. He followed it, continuing to dish out rhetoric that COVID is flu-adjacent and not that serious, and his case is the exception, writing, “Most of you got the normal ‘it’s just flu’ rona last year and most of you didn’t even know you had it, but I don’t have any friends and don’t leave the house so I only just got the deadly super spreader version from vaccinated people and let me tell you THIS IS NOT FUN.”

He confirmed he was experiencing symptoms of dizziness, headaches, aches, and sensitivity throughout his body, chills, foggy-headedness, nausea, a painful cough, and “mucho” mucus. He also noted he lost the ability to taste and smell, and he was experiencing enough trouble breathing that it took him a conscious effort to do so.

Following an on-and-off, 48-hour rest period, he implied he had injected himself with Ivermectin, usually intended to kill parasites in cows and pigs.

It appears that Milo Yiannopoulos has COVID. pic.twitter.com/N2iEc7IgNV

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) August 28, 2021

The FDA and CDC have both warned the public against using Ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. Merck, a company that manufactures Ivermectin, also said there is “no meaningful evidence for clinical activity or efficacy in patients with COVID-19.”

Despite the multiple warnings from professional agencies against the practice, the medication has increasingly become a DIY COVID-19 cure, or preventative measure, among right-wing conservatives and anti-vaxxers. It’s reached a point that some stores and pharmacies are beginning to run low on items containing Ivermectin, with more businesses asking for proof that buyers actually own livestock. There has also been an uptick in calls to poison control hotlines regarding potential overdoses.

The FDA responded to Ivermectin’s increase in popularity, as a dangerous and ineffective alternative to the vaccine, stating bluntly in a tweet: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021

Despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, CNN reports that Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham have all pushed the use of Ivermectin. The conversation echoes a similar, conservative-heavy obsession from earlier in the pandemic surrounding hydroxychloroquine, a malaria medication that then-President Trump pushed consistently as a preventative COVID-19 treatment.

We’ll see how Yiannopoulos deals with his self-treatment, but for folks who are, justifiably, cautious about using a livestock parasite killer and potentially poisoning themselves, might we recommend instead seeking out a vaccination site.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Thomas Fedra