Tomasz Rezydent, a doctor associated with Bolesławiec and the author of the books “Invisible Front” and “The Fight for Breath,” which describe the coronavirus pandemic from the perspective of a COVID hospital employee, addressed a new trend promoted online on his Facebook profile. It concerns eating fly agaric mushrooms:

I thought I had put the subject of fly agarics behind me. After my last post about the death cap, but apparently not.

Today, the red fly agaric takes center stage—why?

Because, for some incomprehensible reason, the Internet has gone crazy and patoinfluencers are beginning to promote eating red fly agaric. Yes, you heard that right—someone is encouraging others to eat a poisonous mushroom, creating an aura of mystery, concealed health benefits and a pharmaceutical-company conspiracy. Such things do not happen without a reason, and I think someone is trying either to make money from it or to gain popularity.

And he immediately adds:

So I ask: why is nobody punishing influencers who encourage people to eat a poisonous mushroom?

Why is nobody prosecuting shamans and quacks who cause many people’s deaths by encouraging them to take poisons or undergo certain harmful therapies? I do not understand.

I believe that this kind of mass promotion of dangerous things should be penalized.

And adds regretfully: – What will happen next? Drinking Domestos for health? Swallowing batteries? Because deliberately infecting others with an infectious disease for which vaccines are available has happened, and there have been fatalities (as last year during the COVID pandemic).

He also strongly emphasizes that “the medical community clearly speaks out against this type of harmful practice”:

The red fly agaric can easily be confused with the panther cap, and there have been fatal cases after consuming it.

This is my own digression: just the day before yesterday, during a shift, I spoke with an emergency-department doctor who recalled that several years ago he had a night shift during which a couple intoxicated by panther caps (according to a mycological examination) were brought in. Their condition was deteriorating, both needed intubation, and they were transferred to intensive care units at other hospitals—and their further fate is unknown.

He warns that tinkering with psychedelics “ends badly,” while appealing for caution and urging people not to give in to such trends.

Tomasz Rezydent on the fly agaric trend

Doctors are not the only ones warning about fly agarics

In an article with the telling title “The trend of eating red fly agarics. Stupidity that can end tragically”, the wyborcza.pl website reports:

Internet celebrities are encouraging people to eat red fly agarics. The online trade in dried versions of these mushrooms is thriving. (...)

– I warn against such ideas. It is stupidity that can end tragically – says Wiesław Kamiński, a well-known mycologist and author of books about mushrooms. In his opinion, the trade in dried fly agarics should be prosecuted. – In Poland, trade is permitted only in mushrooms with a certificate, and no mycologist would issue a certificate for poisonous mushrooms – the mycologist recalls.

What do you think? We invite you to join the discussion.