Republican lawmakers in Ohio want to force doctors in the state to offer disproven drug “treatments” for COVID-19 to their patients, and to punish them financially if they refuse to do so.
House Bill 631, the COVID-19 Health Care Professional-Patient Relationship Protection Act, is sponsored by state Rep. Kris Jordan (R) and co-sponsored by state Rep. Ron Ferguson (R). The bill would require local boards of health to “promote and increase distribution” of four drugs to treat coronavirus — including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, two drugs that it has been definitively proven do not work against the virus.
“This is securing that right for an individual to make, with consultation with their health care provider, the best decision for their health care plan,” Ferguson said of the bill. “More options, better health care. That’s what people are always looking for in the healthcare space.”
The bill comes after a Cincinnati hospital refused to treat a patient with ivermectin when he and his family requested it. When his wife sued following his death, the judge sided with the hospital, finding that the drug would have provided no value in helping save the man’s life.
According to the language of the bill, Ohio doctors would be required to promote the drugs as being “effective or deemed beneficial” for patients to use in the treatment of coronavirus. Doctors would also be forbidden from suppressing the promotion of the drugs, or limiting their patients’ access to them, and could be punished through lawsuits for doing so.
Numerous studies have debunked claims that either hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, or ivermectin, a deworming medication typically used on farm animals, have any benefit in treating COVID-19.
A National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical trial in 2020 found “no clinical benefit” to using hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus, for example. And a study examining the use of ivermectin that was published late last month demonstrated that the drug also had no effect in treating COVID-19.
In spite of these drugs having no positive effect in the treatment against or prevention of coronavirus, they have remained popular among far right groups who still refuse to get vaccinated, thanks in large part to disinformation from former President Donald Trump.
Trump pushed for the use of hydroxychloroquine as a method of treatment early in the pandemic. When studies began pointing out that use of the drug was ineffective for COVID treatment, Trump dismissed their findings by calling them “Trump enemy” statements.
Trump took hydroxychloroquine, reportedly as a preventative against coronavirus, up to at least May of 2020. When he contracted coronavirus in the fall of that year, his treatment regimen did not include the use of the drug, nor of any other disproven method.
Angry, shocked, overwhelmed? Take action: Support independent media.
We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
As we undertake this life-sustaining work, we appeal for your support. Please, if you find value in what we do, join our community of sustainers by making a monthly or one-time gift.