September 4, 2021

NPR reports that poison-control centers saw a 245 percent jump in ivermectin exposure calls from July to August. The same day, The Guardian runs the claim of an Oklahoma doctor, Jason McElyea, that ivermectin overdoses were so clogging rural emergency rooms that gunshot victims had to wait for care. A hospital he had worked with later says it treated no ivermectin overdoses and had not seen him in months, and the widely shared story collapses.

Mask enforcement produces its own contradictions. A Florida chiropractor is reported to have signed more than 500 student mask exemptions, about a third of those filed in one county, while Michigan’s attorney general is photographed maskless against the CDC guidance she promotes. A Washington Post–ABC poll finds workers split on mandates and Biden’s ratings sagging as virus fears rise. The Times of London, separately, details how U.S. money funded the Wuhan lab that worked with dangerous viruses.