Ohio Senate Wants To Force Hospitals To Give Patients Their Horse Dewormer On Demand
Still? Still, we're doing this?
This week, the Ohio state Senate passed a bill that will require hospitals to administer Ivermectin and other “requested” treatments to patients whether their doctors think that’s a good idea or not.
This is because, despite all available evidence to the contrary, many conservatives maintain a sincerely held belief that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine treat or cure COVID-19, despite the fact that all available evidence says they do not.
As bad as that sounds, it’s actually an improvement upon the previous version of the bill — it allows exceptions for pharmacists who have “moral, ethical, religious, or science-backed objections” or situations where the patients have a history of allergies or contraindications like epilepsy, meningitis, or trypanosomiasis.
If no one at the hospital will administer it, the hospital will be required to give “admitting privileges” to another doctor who will. It’s not clear what they should do if they can’t find a doctor who is shady enough to do it.
Testifying in favor of the bill were non-doctors who were convinced that their loved ones died because they were not given Ivermectin, and testifying against were, you know, actual doctors, medical groups, and pharmacists. It does not appear as though any medical experts testified in favor of it.
All Democrats and a few Republicans voted against the bill, but it ended up passing and now heads back to the state House.
I will admit that I can’t quite get it up to care about the specific instance of adults (adults!) getting their Ivermectin. I just don’t. I can’t. There are too many people not getting any healthcare at all for me to get it together to care about these dipshits taking something that could cause “peeing or pooping that you can’t control” (pardon the vulgarity but that is a direct quote from WebMD) despite the fact that it’s not going to do anything for them.
As long as the only doctors that are held responsible for it are the ones who want to administer it, and people can’t sue for malpractice if they take it and have a seizure (also a side effect, according to WebMD), of course.
But the problem, really, is what it could ultimately lead to — which is patients being able to demand treatments and medicines they don’t need and that their doctor recommends against. Given the amount of health woo out there and the tendency of people to self-diagnose themselves through Dr. Google, sometimes with diseases that do not even actually exist, this could end poorly.
Case in point! Reality star Brandi Glanville (no, you don’t need to know who she is) announced this week that she has spent $70,000 and lost several teeth trying to get rid of a parasite she claims lives in her face and moves around all the time. In an interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” she said she’s been treated with weeks of antibiotics, Ivermectin, and (you guessed it!) Hydroxychloroquine, but to no avail! The problem is … that’s not really a thing. Plastic surgeon Dr. Terry Dubrow of “Botched” and also of being married to Heather Dubrow said that it’s most likely a microorganism from all of the injections she’s had and that she needs to get it taken care of right away, possibly by him!
Why am I telling you about Brandi Glanville’s face parasite that you were probably very happy not knowing anything about? Because while people should be free to be stupid, doctors should not be allowed to take advantage of that by prescribing them meds or operations that they don’t need and that could actually be harmful. Additionally, what the hell is the point of a prescription anyway, if people can just prescribe things to themselves? If I were, godforbid, hospitalized with COVID or something else, should I be allowed to say that I believe morphine is the only thing that will cure me? When does it end?
It’s bad enough out there already, and laws like this don’t ultimately help patients, they hurt them.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
>> If I were, godforbid, hospitalized with COVID or something else, should I be allowed to say that I believe morphine is the only thing that will cure me? When does it end? <<
𝐈𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬.
What if my sincerely held belief is that I suffer from "peat insufficiency" which can only be cured with single-malt highland scotch?