COVID-19 vaccine mandate critic faces child abuse charges over ivermectin
Jan. 18—CONCORD — A leading opponent of COVID-19 vaccine mandates said the state's child protection agency is trying to take custody of the youngest of his four children because he gave him ivermectin to treat the virus.
Former state Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, said two police officers and staff with the Division of Children Youth and Families showed up at his door Dec. 9 with an order seeking custody of Hoell's children.
The order has since been limited to Hoell's 13-year-old son.
This came hours after Hoell said he had told a nurse practitioner that when his entire family got COVID-19 in mid-November, he gave them a treatment regimen that included ivermectin, a medication neither the state of New Hampshire nor the Centers for Disease Control recommends for treatment of the virus.
The family recovered from COVID by Thanksgiving, according to Hoell.
Then on Dec. 4, Hoell said he called the state's poison control hotline, concerned that his youngest son had taken too much Tylenol.
After taking his son to the hospital, Hoell said all tests showed his son hadn't overdosed on the pain medication.
Those tests also showed no liver dysfunction or other symptoms that would suggest toxic use of ivermectin, Hoell said.
"My son was completely fine, and they sent him home. Yet a short time later, I'm accused of giving him a toxic dose. The ivermectin was long out of his system and had nothing to do with his later symptoms," Hoell said.
"What bothers me most is while families like mine are harassed by DCYF, other real abuse cases have been totally mishandled with tragic, fatal results."
Jake Leon, public information officer with the Department of Health and Human Services, said the state cannot comment on any pending child custody matter.
He did say the agency wouldn't consider use of this drug to be child abuse if a doctor prescribed it.
"Use of a prescription medication as recommended by a licensed physician would not constitute child abuse or neglect," he said.
Hoell is one of the founders of Reopen NH, a group that formed after the pandemic to oppose vaccine mandates and many of the emergency actions taken by Gov. Chris Sununu to try to control the spread of COVID-19.
"I want to go on the record as calling the DCYF a terrorist organization," Hoell said. "This has clearly been a political witch hunt."
$35K for Hoell's defense
Hoell's supporters have raised more than $35,000 through a website to help offset his costs to fight the DCYF petition.
"Sadly, the hysteria concerning ivermectin is just scratching the surface of medical misdiagnosis and corruption since the start of the pandemic," said Andrew Manuse, chairman of Rebuild N.H. in his plea for financial support.
"With their actions in JR's case and so many others, medical practitioners have created a complete breach of trust with the public that previously held them in high esteem."
A follow-up hearing on Hoell's custody case is scheduled this week in Concord District Court.
The HHS spokesman stressed that the agency continues to warn New Hampshire families they can't recommend using ivermectin to treat the virus.
"Ivermectin is a medication that is currently approved by the FDA for use in treating parasitic worm infections. It is not authorized or approved for use to treat COVID-19 because clinical trials have not overall shown that ivermectin is an effective treatment for people with COVID-19 or that ivermectin can prevent COVID-19 after an exposure," Leon said in a statement.
"COVID-19 medical treatment guidelines from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) also do not recommend, or recommend against, the use of ivermectin as treatment for COVID-19 because of insufficient evidence from clinical trials that there is benefit, or that benefit outweighs the potential for harm, from using this medication."
Hoell said the experience has left him determined to call for DCYF reform.
"They are spending an enormous amount of resources on a case that has no merit," Hoell said.
