TOLEDO, Ohio — There's a new bill in the Ohio House that may change how COVID-19 is treated.
It's House Bill 631, and it would require health departments across the state to "promote and increase the distribution of" COVID-19 treatments that haven't been approved by the FDA. That includes Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine.
WTOL 11 spoke to the Vice President of Health and Safety for ProMedica, Dr. Brian Kaminski.
Kaminski says while he can understand why people would rush to unproven treatments in the early days of the pandemic when information about COVID-19 was limited, he simply can't fathom why politicians would push the drugs now after years of testing has proven they are completely ineffective as treatments for the virus.
The text of the bill states its purpose is to "promote alternative drugs and therapies for the treatment of COVID-19."
Kaminski says not only are there a host of vaccines and medications already available that have been proven to be effective, but he also says Invermectin's own manufacturer, Merck, warns their product is not supposed to be used to treat the virus and could have side effects when taken improperly.
Kaminski says the idea of health departments promoting and distributing medicines for a purpose not approved by the FDA or any medical boards will likely reduce the quality of Ohio's health outcomes.
"Just the notion of introducing medications that do not demonstrate that efficacy bring us a step backwards. Our hope is that we can continue doing what we have been doing in prescribing drugs that we know that work and that don't create more confusion," Kaminski said.
We reached out to the main sponsor of the bill and the Toled-Lucas County Health Department for comment but did not receive a response at the time of this writing.