As misinformation about preventives, treatments and cures for COVID-19 continues to spread, healthcare workers increasingly feel unsafe.
Ashley Carvalho, MD, working in Boise, Idaho, told KTVB7 she was threatened by a COVID-19 patient's family after refusing to use ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat them. As she recommended approved treatments, the patient's family got more frustrated, with one member telling her, "I have a lot of ways to get people to do something, and they're all sitting in my gun safe at home."
Dr. Carvalho said, "It was really difficult in the sense of the confrontation with that family, but it was also heightened by the fact the patient was so uncomfortable, so distressed right in that moment."
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said they know about the rising concerns for the welfare and safety of healthcare professionals. Dave Jeppsen, the director of the department, told KTVB7, "It's disheartening to hear that our healthcare workers have moved from feeling like heroes to feeling at risk."