Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) has signed a bill that makes ivermectin, an antiviral drug that has been found to be an effective early treatment for COVID-19, available in the state without a prescription.
Lee signed SB 2188, approved by the State Senate, 66-20, and the State House, 22-6, which authorizes a pharmacist to provide ivermectin to patients 18 years of age or older, “pursuant to a valid collaborative pharmacy practice agreement containing a non-patient-specific prescriptive order and standardized procedures developed and executed by one or more authorized prescribers.”
Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry and litigation firm, noted about the legislation:
That means that adults can explain their symptoms to the pharmacist, fill out a sheet listing any preexisting conditions and other medications they are taking, and the pharmacist can determine the right dosage.
According to the website c19ivermectin.com, 82 studies from 815 scientists, involving 129,808 patients in 27 countries, have shown statistically significant improvement when ivermectin is used to treat COVID-19 in “mortality, ventilation, ICU, hospitalization, recovery, cases, and viral clearance.”
And they should add other meds. The idea I have to lose time and pay a doctor in order to get something as silly (but important) like antibiotics, is plain dumb. Back in Venezuela (when they actually had medicines) most medications were over the counter. You got a prescription in paper because the doctor worried you’d forgot and request the wrong medication or dosage. Narcotics however were restricted and you needed to get a “purple” prescription which had watermarks and had individual serial numbers per page assigned to the doctor. Our home always had a supply of Ampicillin, Carbagal (which was an antidiarrheic with atropine) and an antiparasitic which we regularly gave to our dogs besides whatever regular medication my folks would take as per doctor’s orders. Nothing required an order from a medical practitioner to be dispensed.
I believe that the excuse of people overusing a medication are overblown. Yes, some idiots will do it, but that should not last long as it will correct itself soon enough via Darwin’s Consequences. This “overprotection” of my body and health is simply not warranted and very possibly just a business deal for the pharmaceutical and medical community. How many medications you know started prescription only and now are available over the counter?
Not to be contrary, but, I guess I will be anyhow.
My favorite argument in favor of prescriptions, is Azithromycin. It has a black box warning ref QT interval prolongation (cardiac conduction changes, can lead to arrhythmias, and/or arrest). This risk is particularly great when combined with other QT prolonging meds, such as Diflucan (used for yeast infections)
Given the widespread belief in Azithromycin’s universal therapeutic efficacy (“Doc, it cured my last cold/flu/stuffy nose/lycanthropy attack!”), I am confident that a nontrivial number of folks will combine the two (or discover New! Improved! malign drug interactions, and croak themselves.
I suppose that there is a case to be made that this result will lead to a net improvement in humanity’s average IQ, but, I consider bereaved survivors in my calculus, as well.
YMMV.
Lycanthropy? I thought that was best treated with colloidal silver, even at the risk of contracting Smurf’s Syndrome.
(Azithromycin. Azithromycin. Trying to think of something involving zithers and mice. That Third Man-ish episode of Pinky and the Brain? Or, wait. A-zithro-mycin, that’d be mice without zithers, wouldn’t it?)
Unfortunately, if memory serves, the reason we have some strains of TB that resist everything shorty of a 3 kiloton nuke is because of people not following directions with prescriptions for antibiotics, or because the strain developed in a place where antibiotics are OTC and people stopped taking them too early (‘didn’t like the side effects’ is a common complaint, or so I was told by a doc in Atlanta.) So I’m not really in favor – at this time – of making antibiotics OTC.
I live on a farm and have Ivermectin horse paste on hand for the horses….lots of it. As in I likely won’t run out for a few years.
I’m glad I had stocked up on it because I paid about $3/tube before the rona was even a thing. I see it went up as high as $40/tube. Good lawd!
When it became apparent the stuff works for the rona, I started taking it once a month.
Still do as it likely works for the common cold as well.
Same shit that you pay a hell of a lot more for at the pharmacy.
A tube will last me about 6 months.
I just take a big syringe and squeeze it into gel caps…down the hatch.
The stuff tastes like bitter ass so that’s my remedy for not having to taste it.
I haven’t died yet.