Hospitalized COVID Denier Whose Calls for Ivermectin Became QAnon Crusade Dies

 A hospitalized COVID-19 denier whose attempts to be treated with deworming drug ivermectin inspired a far-right harassment campaign against her hospital died early Monday, sparking cries among QAnon conspiracy theorists that she had been the victim of “medical murder.” Before her COVID-19 diagnosis, Veronica Wolski was a prominent Illinois booster of the QAnon conspiracy theory who recorded herself hanging pro-QAnon banners over bridges and flouting mask laws in stores, once declaring, “I have never once worn a mask.”

After she was hospitalized in Chicago two weeks ago with COVID-19, Wolski’s supporters in QAnon and other far-right groups besieged the medical center with hundreds of phone calls and even some death threats, demanding that she receive ivermectin, whose effectiveness as a COVID-19 treatment is unproven. Top QAnon leaders like former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn embraced her cause, with pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood calling the hospital and demanding she receive ivermectin shortly before Wolski’s death. On Monday morning, Wood announced in a post on social networking app Telegram that Wolski had died shortly after midnight and called her death a “medical murder,” urging his followers to “go to war.” AMITA Health, which runs the hospital where Wolski died, did not respond to an immediate request for comment.