New Hampshire lawmakers urged not to override Sununu on ivermectin bill

Wikimedia Commons/TajPharmaImages

Ivermectin was touted by some as a home remedy for COVID-19 during the pandemic. It has also become a political flashpoint in the debate over treatment for the virus.

By Christian Wade | The Center Square

Public health groups are urging New Hampshire lawmakers to sustain Gov. Chris Sununu’s veto of a bill authorizing pharmacists to dispense the drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19 without a prescription.

The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the bill in the previous session allowing pharmacists to make the anti-parasitic drug available via standing order as part of an effort to expand the availability of the medicine.

Ivermectin was touted by some as a home remedy for COVID-19 during the pandemic. It has also become a political flashpoint in the debate over treatment for the virus.

But Sununu vetoed the bill when it reached his desk, arguing that the medicine hasn’t been evaluated by the FDA to ensure that it is safe to treat the coronavirus.

Lawmakers are expected to return to session briefly in September to consider a number of veto overrides, including the ivermectin bill, and public health groups are making the case to lawmakers not to override Sununu’s objections.

In a statement, the New Hampshire Nurse Practitioner Association said it “strongly supports” Sununu’s veto and said lawmakers “should listen to the experts” who have raised serious concerns about authorizing standing orders to distribute the anti-parasitic drug.

The association also criticized lawmakers for including a provision in the bill creating a commission to study the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, even as it is being distributed as an over-the-counter medicine, which it said would be “a waste of resources” for the state.

“This could be very aptly called “putting the horse before the cart” because ivermectin is most commonly used as a dewormer for horses,” the group said.

In his veto message, Sununu pointed out that there are only four situations in which pharmacists can dispense medication without a prescription – smoking cessation, contraception, substance use disorder, and treatment for sexual assault. He said all of those medications “have gone through rigorous reviews and vetting” to ensure they are safe.

“All drugs and medications should be subject to that same rigorous process if they are to be dispensed by standing order,” Sununu wrote. “Further, regardless of this veto, Ivermectin remains available for individuals if prescribed by their doctor.”

Critics have pointed out that there are approved treatments for COVID-19 available, such as the antiviral drugs Paxlovid and molnupiravir.

Other public health groups including the American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists say they “strongly oppose” the ordering, prescribing, or dispensing of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19, until clinical trials are conducted.

The National Institutes of Health said in a recent advisory to clinicians that “there is insufficient evidence” for federal health officials “to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.”

“Results from adequately powered, well-designed, and well-conducted clinical trials are needed to provide more specific, evidence-based guidance on the role of ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19,” the federal agency said.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/TajPharmaImages

7 thoughts on “New Hampshire lawmakers urged not to override Sununu on ivermectin bill

  1. So the big question the excuse raises is: Why are we well over 2 and a half years into COVID and the FDA has not yet done clinical trials on Ivermectin? And that is a major reason why that excuse holds no water.

  2. The best way to look at this situation is to take a look at what it’s revealing.

    They say this entire scam was “to save us”, but they they only want to save people in the way that benefits all the power, control and money grubbers.

    If they really wanted to save us, they’d be telling the population to take some zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D- and then lose some weight and take a walk.
    The people that have gotten very sick have been depleted of Vitamin D.
    Think about our lifestyle now in this country, then look at the crap food supply we have and then ask yourself why so many people are not only sick but also not in good places mentally.
    Holistic healthcare professionals have been shouting all of this out for decades now.

  3. IVM is one of the few drugs which has been awarded it’s own Nobel Prize. In this case for curing River Blindness which was rampant in parts of Africa. Curiously, these areas where IVM is used as a prophylactic have some of lowest Covid infections in the world.

    A new peer-reviewed study found that regular use of ivermectin reduced the risk of dying from COVID-19 by 92%.

    The peer-reviewed study was published on Wednesday by the online medical journal Cureus. The study was conducted on a strictly controlled population of 88,012 people from the city of Itajaí in Brazil.

    See https://www.theblaze.com/news/ivermectin-covid-treatment-new-study

    At one point the FDA advocated for re-purposing drugs during an emergency. However in the case of the Covid vaccines, the emergency was used to provide the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the manufacturers. This was essentially a Get-Out-Of-Jail card which absolved them of any liability for the experimental drug. The EUA is only given if there is no other drug available, which is why IVM and HCQ were never considered or given flimsy excuses as to why they could not be used.

    There are more than few small pharmacies which will fill a IVM or HCQ prescription. And there are more than a few doctors who will write one. See https://covid19criticalcare.com/ for a list of providers and pharmacies.

    You don’t need to wait for the politicians to pull their heads out of their butts.

  4. No one makes much on IVM so it’s not gonna be made available. That it’s safe and works unlike Remdesevir or Paxlovid is irrelevant as those make certain people lots of bucks! Just follow the money…….

  5. Ivermectin has been widely used in India and one area of Mexico with outstanding results. The reason it first was tried for a treatment against Covid because the areas in Africa where Ivermectin is taken daily to prevent parasites there were low Covid rates.
    I think these people fighting the use would rather see people sick and dying for some perverse reason. Ivermectin is very safe so if people take it and it doesn’t work what is lost? I wonder how many opposed to its use is informing people that daily doses of D3 is a good preventative?

  6. It doesn’t matter because the pharmacies refuse to carry Ivermectin. I called three pharmacies in New Hampshire to check to see if the drug was in stock and was told by each organization that their corporate offices will not stock Ivermectin. So it really doesn’t matter if the law is repealed or not.

  7. To hell with the “experts”. There is more than enough “anecdotal evidence” that Ivermectin is safe and effective against the clovid.
    To deny its availability with such prejudice and malice says all that anybody needs to know about the gubner of new hamster, and the so-called “public health” authorities.
    By public health, they mean death.
    Kind of like the Twilight Zone episode, the aliens offering help “to serve man”…it was a cookbook.
    They want us dead.

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