Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo told Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) Thursday that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were effective against COVID-19 ― echoing falsehoods that persisted at the peak of the pandemic. (Watch the video below.)
Both conservative-backed drugs sparked controversy as the global health crisis raged and both were deemed ineffective treatments for the virus by several prominent studies.
But Bartiromo, during a segment about former White House expert Dr. Anthony Fauci’s handling of the outbreak, brought them up as if “in a time warp,” one critic on Twitter wrote.
“There were also all these lies about the emergency authorization,” Bartiromo said. “They needed the emergency authorization to get the vaccines down everybody’s throats, but in order to do that, they had to prove there was nothing else on the market that could actually treat COVID. We all know ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine were effective, weren’t they?”
Fox News and its business news channel took heavy flak for promoting vaccine conspiracy theories and unproven medicines, but Bartiromo seemed undeterred in reviving them.
“Criminal gaslighting,” another Twitter user sniped.
Paul’s assertion about the effectiveness of natural immunity after an infection has gained credence, but the shots are still preferable “given the risks of COVID,” especially for the unvaccinated, NBC News noted.
Here are more tweets about Bartiromo’s comments.