Missouri lawmakers seek to gag pharmacists on ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine

Telling patients about dangers related to certain medications would be forbidden if Gov. Mike Parson signs H.B. 2149 into law. A state board would also be barred from taking action against physicians who prescribe them.
A bill passed by the Missouri legislature this past session prohibits pharmacists from telling patients about dangers related to certain medications — specifically, ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets.

If signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, House Bill 2149 would prevent pharmacists from questioning physicians or patients about the two medications, both sometimes used to treat COVID-19 despite having no FDA clearance for that use.

“I think it will have a chilling effect on pharmacists’ decision-making,” said Liz Chiarello, an associate professor of sociology at St. Louis University. “It's a slap in the face to pharmacists who have been so critical to keeping us safe during COVID, and I think it's a slippery slope. It opens up the opportunity to carve out medications that we do and don't like … allowing these shifting political winds to affect the kinds of care that we receive as patients.”

The bill would also bar the Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts from taking action against health care providers who dispense or prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine sulfate.

On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, Chiarello argued that pharmacists serve as a critical check and balance for physicians. Pharmacists have a duty, she added, to speak up when they have the sense that a certain medication may not be the best fit for a patient.

“Legally, ethically, professionally, pharmacists should be asking those kinds of questions,” she said. “So it's very strange to remove it to excise it around a particular set of drugs.”