Ohio judge orders hospital to treat patient with ivermectin despite warnings

An Ohio judge has ordered a local hospital to treat a patient with ivermectin despite warnings from medical officials that it shouldn’t be used against COVID-19, ABC affiliate WCPO reported.

In a court document last week, Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard said that doctors at the West Chester Hospital should treat patient Jeffery Smith with the drug. 

Smith, 51, will start receiving the 30mg of ivermectin for three weeks, according to WCPO. 

Smith’s wife, Julie Smith, brought the case after her husband was placed on a ventilator after spending 19 days hospitalized with COVID-19. Smith asked Fred Wagshul, an Ohio physician who has advocated for the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, to prescribe her husband the drug treatment, but staff at the hospital refused to administer Wagshul’s prescription.

Ivermectin is a drug commonly used as a livestock dewormer, though it has also been used to treat parasitic diseases in humans. Recently, it has been embraced by some as a possible treatment for the coronavirus, even though both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have warned against it. 

The FDA issued a statement on Thursday warning medical officials against using the ivermectin as a possible treatment for COVID-19. 

The agency has approved the usage of the drug for patients that have intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, conditions that are caused by parasitic worms, according to their statement. 

“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the FDA wrote in a tweet.

You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021

In an interview with Ohio Capital-Journal newspaper, Wagshul blasted the CDC and FDA for opposing the use of ivermectin. 

“If we were a country looking at another country allowing those [COVID-19] deaths daily … we would have been screaming, ‘Genocide!’” Wagshul told the newspaper.