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

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/19/ [login to see] /doubting-mainstream-medicine-covid-patients-find-dangerous-advice-and-pills-onli
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.

Laurie remembers what her mother used to tell her about the COVID vaccines: "Everybody who got vaccinated is going to die." (NPR is only using family members' first names to protect them from online harassment.)