New Hampshire bill aims to make ivermectin available over the counter

by Yudi Sherman

A new piece of legislation being put forward in New Hampshire is making waves with its proposition to make ivermectin more accessible. House Bill 1022, co-sponsored by Rep. Leah Cushman, would allow pharmacists to sell ivermectin to anyone with a standing order, even without a prescription from a doctor.

The bill would require that pharmacists document the sale of ivermectin in the patient’s medical record as well as any screening that was performed, and “include a plan for evaluating and treating adverse events.” The bill would also require that the patient be presented with "standardized information sheet written in plain language".

The bill is still in committee and would be put to a vote on the House floor in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, the House committee heard opposing arguments for and against the bill.

Ivermectin gained international attention last year as a potential cure for early COVID-19. While this has been confirmed and tested by medical experts globally, it has been hotly contested by the mainstream media, who have been persistently trying to discredit ivermectin as “horse de-wormer". These media outlets deliberately omit the fact that there is a version of ivermectin that is made for humans.

As one example, CNN mocked podcast host Joe Rogan for taking ivermectin when he contracted COVID-19, saying that he was taking “horse de-wormer". CNN did not mention that Rogan was prescribed the human version of ivermectin by his doctor to treat COVID-19 and recovered within 5 days.

In October 2021, Rogan confronted CNN contributor and medical expert Sanjay Gupta on The Joe Rogan Experience, asking Gupta: “Do you think that’s a problem, that your news network lies?”

Rogan went on to say, “It’s a lie. It’s a lie on a news network. And it’s a lie, that’s a willing, that’s that’s a lie that they’re conscious of, this is not a mistake.”

“Yeah,” Gupta responded.

While the mainstream media have also rushed to discredit the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 by citing pushback from certain medical experts, they purposefully leave out that ivermectin is recommended to treat early COVID-19, but not in later stages.

But ivermectin is not the only cure that the media are trying to spin as ineffective. When former President Donald Trump recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for early COVID-19 in 2020, it sent news outlets into a frenzy in which they made a concerted effort to dissuade COVID-19 patients from taking the drug, despite the recommendations of most medical experts.

Such prominent medical experts include America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) Founder Dr. Simone Gold, who hired a law firm on her dime to draft an executive order to be given to then-President Trump, which would designate HCQ as a non-prescriptive drug, thereby offering a cure to patients with early COVID-19.

Dr. Gold also had a one-on-one meeting with then-Vice President Mike Pence in July 2020, which lasted for about 70 minutes. In that meeting, which was attended by five other doctors and two of Pence’s aides, Gold gave the vice president her in-depth medical opinion regarding HCQ and her recommendation for its use to treat COVID-19. Gold gave the vice president the drafted executive order to pass on to the president.

However, when that executive order was not passed on to the president, Gold persisted and filed a citizen’s petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2020 to make HCQ available as an over-the-counter (OTC) drug. The petition had the full support of America’s Frontline Doctors and the Association of Medical Physicians and Surgeons.

“In summary, the requirement for a prescription to obtain HCQ hurts the health of all Americans by posing an unnecessary obstacle to the prompt, effective use of this important therapy,” Dr. Gold notes in her declaration. “This requirement directly contributes to the COVID-19 epidemic...no medical reason exists to maintain prescription status of HCQ, as professional intervention is not necessary to ensure safe and correct use.” 

As of this writing, the petition is still pending with the FDA.