| NEWS | Horse of a Different Cure People around Phoenix are poisoning themselves with horse dewormer in an attempt to treat Covid. BY KATYA SCHWENK I t began months ago: Customers started walking into the Western Ranchman, the north Phoenix ranch supply store, and asking for tubes of ivermectin. The drug is a staple at animal feed from rushing to get the drug, though, as Covid cases continue to climb. Some phar- macists have relented to the demand: Na- tionwide, ivermectin is now being prescribed twenty-five times more fre- quently than it was before the pandemic. And, when the drug’s believers can’t obtain prescriptions for the human-approved Via Facebook stores. It’s a dewormer, used to treat para- sites in horses. But these customers weren’t giving it to horses. “They were saying, ‘Oh, I’m taking it for Covid,’” says Amy Jonson, who works at the store. Over the past few weeks, more custom- ers than ever are buying the drug from the Western Ranchman, Jonson says. It’s one of multiple animal feed stores in the Phoe- nix area that told Phoenix New Times that they have been flooded with requests for ivermectin from customers who are con- vinced, wrongly, that taking horse de- wormer will stave off the virus. Theories that ivermectin can cure or treat Covid-19 have been running rampant on social media and on right-wing news for months. There is no solid evidence, though, that the drug is effective in treating the virus. The World Health Organization, the CDC, and the FDA have all warned against its use for Covid-19, outside of clini- cal trials — whether that’s the apple-fla- vored ivermectin paste for horses, the “pour-on” version for cows, or the pre- scription pill formulation for humans. The warnings haven’t stopped people Western Ranchman can’t keep the stuff in stock. form, some are resorting to taking ivermec- tin that is made for horses and cows. The Western Ranchman sells three dif- ferent brands of ivermectin, all of which are for horses. They have all been cleaned off the shelves. “We are totally sold out,” Jonson told New Times. Even their suppliers have run out of ivermectin, Jonson said, which was un- usual. A staff member at the Mesa animal sup- ply store Premier Feed and Pet also told New Times that the store had seen a dra- matic spike in ivermectin sales. A new case came in this past Friday; by Monday, it was all gone. “We can’t even keep it on the shelf right now,” said the staff member, who re- quested not to be identified in order to dis- cuss the situation. The demand for ivermectin has become a “real problem” for Premier Feed and Pet, the employee said, which is now con- cerned about its own liability in >> p 16 11 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 9TH – SEPT 15TH, 2021
