Allen Gahl wanted doctors at Aurora Medical Center in Summit, Wisconsin to give ivermectin to his uncle, who was on a ventilator and depending on Gahl for his medical decisions. But the conservative-controlled court decided 6-1 on Tuesday that the hospital could not be forced to dispense medication not approved by its doctors.
Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, which is not involved in the case, says that was probably the right decision.
"I think it's a very touchy issue to require a hospital to be forced to administer a certain medication," he begins. "Should the courts actually get involved in micromanaging what kind of medication they should deliver?"
He adds, though, that there is a sensible way forward.
"The lawsuit shouldn't be that the hospital is forced to give a certain medication of the patient's choice, but that the hospital should allow the patient to select their own medical doctor to come in and prescribe them some medicine or some form of treatment," the attorney suggests.
The Wisconsin lawsuit is one of dozens filed across the country seeking to force hospitals to administer ivermectin for COVID-19. In this case, Gahl did go to a doctor outside the hospital for a prescription for ivermectin, but the hospital said the drug did not meet their standards and refused to administer it.
The Waukesha County Circuit Court initially ordered hospital staff to give John Zingsheim, Gahl's uncle, the drug but later modified its decision to say Gahl would have to provide the drug and a doctor to administer it. An appeals court overturned that decision after the hospital's attorneys argued a judge could not force a medical provider to give treatment they had determined to be substandard.
Staver says there is still a strong and unjust bias against ivermectin, which the medical community and the press still smear as a veterinary drug "also approved for human use to fight parasites and certain skin conditions."
"Ivermectin, out of all the medications for COVID, is the most researched drug bar none," Staver argues. "There's really nothing that even comes close to that in second place."
Even so, those on the Left maintain the "misinformation/disinformation, if you will," against it. So the battle for scientific integrity continues.
