Walmart is facing a new lawsuit after a pharmacist in Albert Lea, Minnesota, refused to fill a prescription for ivermectin to treat a Marine vet and his wife, both of whom were suffering with COVID-19.
The Marine, Bill Salier, shared his story the “Steve Deace Show” on BlazeTV Monday. Salier told Deace that out of desperation, he ended up purchasing the “pony paste” from the feed supply store, and they both almost immediately got better.
Salier, 53, told Deace that he began feeling sick on Oct. 1, and tested positive for COVID-19 a few days later. After his diagnosis, Salier said he attempted to receive monoclonal antibody treatments through the Minnesota Resource Allocation, but his requests were ignored.
“We never so much as heard a word back, not even in acknowledgement that the requests had been put in,” he said.
Salier said he then went to a clinic that had one monoclonal treatment, but they were saving it for a more severe case. He said he asked for ivermectin, but the clinic refused to treat him with it because the FDA has not cleared the use of the drug for treatment of COVID.
Generally, doctors in the U.S. have followed the government’s recommendations on ivermectin, and have shunned it as a treatment for COVID-19 patients.
Groups like the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and America’s Frontline Doctors, on the other hand, have championed the Nobel-prize winning drug as an effective at treatment for COVID-19.
With Deace’s help, Salier said he found a doctor who would treat him and his wife. After a teleconference call, he said, the doctor prescribed ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and some other drugs for them to take. The doctor said that Salier’s case had deteriorated to the point where he would have to be hospitalized within 48 hours without a serious intervention.
Salier said his prescription was sent to his local Walmart in Albert Lea, Minnesota, but the pharmacist refused to fill it.
“This pharmacist contacted my wife, telling her that he would not fill it. My wife stated that he did not have the right to stand between our physician’s prescription and the patent, he asserted that he did have that right and he refused to do so,” Salier said.
The Marine vet said that their physician later called the Walmart pharmacy to insist that the script be filled, but the pharmacist refused, and hung up on him.
“We were faced with either continuing to suffer and quite possibly ending up in the hospital where you have—I don’t know—a 50/50 chance of coming out,” he told Deace, explaining that they were forced to turn to their local farm store, and purchase the horse paste, which is the same compound as the human pharmaceutical (with a few non-toxic additives like apple flavoring), but dosed for horses.
“I was forced with this decision and I was either going to lay there, suffer, and be at life’s peril of losing my time with my family, or I was going to eat that horse paste. And down the hatch it went,” Salier said. His wife, he added, “was forced into the same option.”
Salier told Deace that “within eight hours” he was feeling better. “I started to feel the turnaround in my body,” he said, adding, “it turned her (his wife) around within six hours.”
People who resort to using the veterinary version of the drug generally know to convert the dosage to one that is appropriate for human consumption. Horse medication that contains Ivermectin and additional deworming agents are reportedly not safe for human consumption in any dosage.
Salier confirmed to American Greatness that he and his wife reduced the dosage, and took the pony paste for a week. He added that they were finally able to get a prescription through a pharmacy in Florida, but because demand was so high, they didn’t get the prescription until today.
“In the end, the option was forced on us by the refusal to fill the prescription,” he said. “We had to gamble on the pony paste or gamble that I would survive what I was going through. We prayed, and put the paste in the applesauce, and down the hatch,” he added. “I thank God for that decision.”
After being forced to take livestock medicine to treat his COVID, the Marine is on the warpath.
“If you ever wanted to find out what it is to punch a Marine in the face and what type of response you’re gonna get, well, America, you’re about to see the type of response that you get. Because if you take on me and my family, and you stand between our physician and the health care that they have prescribed to me as a life-saving thing — in my opinion that is what it did — then you have got a fight on your hands and I am coming for that fight,” he told Deace.
Salier reiterated to American Greatness why he felt called to fight the giant corporation.
“I believe with all my heart that when our liberties and decisions for our own lives are stripped from us, our answer must be NO,” he said. “I will not stand for this.”
Salier has partnered with We the Patriots USA, a nonprofit organization that defends civil liberties, to raise money for his federal lawsuit against the pharmacist and Walmart.
Brian Festa, an attorney with We the Patriots USA, told Deace that it was “abhorrent” for the Walmart pharmacist to “play God” with the Saliers’ lives.
He pointed out that even the FDA acknowledges there are times when it is appropriate for health care providers to prescribe repurposed drugs. It’s actually a fairly common practice.
“So, this is talking about off-label usage. This has been done for years,” Festa said. “We’re talking about a drug, ivermectin, that was part of a treatment protocol that won the Nobel Prize in 2015 as an anti-parasitic for malaria. This is FDA-approved, it’s been used for decades as an anti-parasitic, and now you’re suddenly telling us in 2021 that it’s unsafe because it’s being used for off-label usage? Which again, is so common in the practice of medicine.”
Festa added that the pharmacist “had absolutely no right to tell Bill and his wife that he was not going to fill this prescription” and that Walmart should be held accountable for denying the Saliers access to a potentially lifesaving drug.
We the Patriots USA announced on its website on Tuesday that it had raised enough money to proceed with the lawsuit.
“Thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters and the listeners on The Steve Deace Show, we are proud to announce that we have fully funded a lawsuit on behalf of Bill Salier, a retired Marine who was refused ivermectin at a Walmart pharmacy in Minnesota when he fell seriously ill with the covid bioweapon.” the group stated. “We fully support Bill in his fight against the covid fascists, and that’s why We The Patriots USA committed $25,000 to Bill’s lawsuit even before we launched yesterday’s fundraising campaign. After all, Bill served his country honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps. It’s time we fought for him!”