Doubting mainstream medicine, COVID patients find dangerous advice and pills online

Ivermectin has developed an enormous following over the course of the pandemic – in part because of a small cadre of fringe doctors who promote it as an alternative to COVID vaccines, despite early studies which didn't support it as a treatment.

When Stephanie caught COVID-19 just before Thanksgiving of last year, her daughter Laurie suggested that she get help.

“She was really not feeling well, and I was like, ‘Just go to the doctor,'” Laurie recalls.

But Stephanie, who was 75 at the time, didn’t go. A few years before, she had been sucked into a world of online conspiracy theories — far-fetched ideas like one claiming John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive. With the pandemic, it got worse. She became deeply distrustful of the medical system.