A prominent user of ivermectin died earlier this month and many following his practice are starting to experience brutal side effects, but administrators have denied that it’s due to the medicine.
According to reports, Rhode Island native Danny Lemoi was a widely-known anti-vaxxer who regularly touted the use of ivermectin as the creator of a Telegram group, Dirt Road Discussions. Hours after posting the self-deprecating message “HAPPY FRIDAY ALL YOU POISONOUS HORSE PASTE EATING SURVIVORS !!!” on March 7th, Lemoi died. The 50-year-old heavy machine operator’s family didn’t publicly state his cause of death.
Administrators for Dirt Road Discussions addressed Lemoi’s death, alleging that it was “a family history of heart disease and chronic stress” that led to his death before concluding: “We understand that this is going to raise questions for those who were following him.” Lemoi had actually been taking the veterinary form of ivermectin since 2012 and said on a podcast in November it was after he was diagnosed with Lyme disease and he felt that it “regenerated” his heart muscle and stopped taking all other medicine. The group administrators would also claim that “all of his other organs were unremarkable,” but offered no further comment to press inquiries about that claim.
Others in the group who had been following his “protocols” have expressed that they’re experiencing heavy side effects from ivermectin use. “I’m 4 months now and all hell’s breaking loose, all pain has hit my waist down with sciatic, shin splints, restless leg syndrome, tight sore calves & it feels like some pain in the bones,” one user reported. Lemoi had previously cited side effects that others would experience as “herxing”, which is the short form of the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction (JHR), a phenomenon of an increase in non-specific symptoms that do occur in those who begin antibiotic treatments.
The Food and Drug Administration has consistently warned people to not take the veterinary form of ivermectin slated for horses due to the concentration of the medicine for larger animals. “Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans,” it states. The FDA has also shown that ivermectin for humans, which is primarily used to treat infections that cause river blindness, has been shown to be ineffective in combatting cases of COVID-19.