Pharmacists continue to refuse prescriptions for ivermectin, raising ethical concerns

The continued refusal of pharmacists across the country to fill prescriptions for controversial COVID-19 drugs has raised questions about medical autonomy and who is ultimately in control of patient care, according to a prominent doctor.

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a practitioner and founder of the Coalition of Health Freedom, told The Epoch Times that many pharmacists across the country still refuse to fill prescriptions for ivermectin issued to patients for the treatment of COVID, despite the statements of the Food and Drug Administration. (FDA) affirming this right to physicians.

“This has to come to an end. By telling my patients what drugs they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license,” said Dr. Bowden. “They have no responsibility for it, but they are allowed to dictate patient care.”

“I see it every day. Enough is enough,” Dr. Bowden added.

Ivermectin has been around for decades, but became the center of controversy in 2020 after medical opinion was divided over its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID. Afterward, many pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for the drug.

In 2023, the issue had reached a courtroom when on August 8 a lawyer representing the confirmed by the FDA that doctors were free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID.

“The FDA explicitly recognizes that physicians have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” Ashley Cheung Honold, a Justice Department attorney representing the FDA, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit .

The government attorney made the statement in defense of the FDA’s repeated calls for people not to take ivermectin for COVID. The FDA on August 21, 2021 wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, everyone. Stop it.”

On August 17, the FDA issued a clarification, this time stating that while it had approved ivermectin for certain uses in humans and animals, it had issued no statement affirming the drug’s safety or effectiveness for treating COVID. However, the agency reiterated that it would be left up to individual doctors whether or not to prescribe the medication for the treatment of COVID.

“Healthcare professionals generally may choose to prescribe an approved human drug for an unapproved use when they determine that the unapproved use is medically appropriate for an individual patient,” the FDA said.

The National Institutes of Health’s COVID-19 treatment guidelines recommend against using ivermectin for the treatment of COVID, citing an alleged lack of evidence to support its effectiveness. Other studies have found ivermectin to be effective.

Dr. Bowden, who is one of three plaintiffs in the case, had hoped the FDA’s recognition would have put an end to the pharmacist’s over-the-counter objections. However, earlier this week another of his patients he had been treating was refused service. Complicating the situation, the patient was elderly and could not easily access other options, and in the time it took to find a pharmacy that would honor the prescription, the patient’s health began to deteriorate, according to Dr. Bowden.

“It’s hard to believe, but pharmacists are still blocking these potentially life-saving drugs,” Dr Bowden said. “The pharmacist did not speak to the patient and will not know whether the patient lives or dies, but he was in control of his care.”

Dr. Bowden believes that in most cases, individual pharmacists are not to blame and are often following the orders of corporate management. However, he claims to have seen examples where pharmacists prevented their patients from receiving their medicines as a result of their own “personal agenda”.

“It’s an outrage. I would have thought we were beyond that, but it just keeps happening,” Dr. Bowden said.

If this new power goes unchecked, it could lead to a slippery slope that diminishes patient rights, according to Dr Bowden.

“Before COVID, a pharmacist had never received a prescription. This is a new phenomenon and it must end. This goes beyond their role and is a dangerous trend,” said Dr. Bowden.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), believes widespread denial of ivermectin may have led to untold deaths from COVID.

“Physicians that I’ve been dealing with and talking to for years believe that probably hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives because they were denied early treatment and denied because the FDA sabotaged , for example, ivermectin,” said Mr. Johnson told FOX News on Aug. 11.

“We’re going down a very dangerous path, but it’s a path that’s being charted and planned by an elite group of people who want to take full control of our lives, and that’s what they’re doing little by little,” he said. added