‘These f–kers are crazy’: San Antonio state senator blasts GOP colleagues for legalizing ivermectin

AUSTIN — In an expletive-filled Instagram post on Wednesday, Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez accused his Republican colleagues of being out of their minds for passing a bill that will allow horse dewormer ivermectin to be sold over the counter at Texas pharmacies.

“It is incredible that this shit is actually happening right now in the Texas Senate, but that’s your Republican Party at work,” said Gutierrez, a former San Antonio councilman who’s gained a reputation as one of the chamber’s most outspoken Democrats. “That’s what’s happening in Texas: these fuckers are crazy.”

The Senate passed House Bill 25 Wednesday on a 20-6 vote. The proposal would allow the unproven, non-FDA approved horse dewormer to be sold at pharmacies statewide.

During the pandemic, members of the right-wing blogosphere praised the drug as a COVID-19 cure-all and alleged the “deep state” and powerful members of the medical establishment were eager to suppress its availability. President Donald Trump even promoted the de-wormer paste despite there being no medical evidence that it’s effective at treating COVID.

During a Wednesday press conference alongside Trump-appointed U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters he plans to sign the bill, authored by State Rep. Joanne Shofner, R-Nacogdoches.

Earlier this month, Abbott made expanding the availability of ivermectin one of his agenda items for the second special legislative session. Despite his apparently enthusiasm for making the horse drug available to humans, the governor didn’t spend much time at Wednesday’s presser elaborating why he made it a top priority.

“What it takes to get a bill added after the original call is to show that you have the support in both the House and Senate to get it passed, and that’s what Rep. Shofner did,” Abbott said.

While the governor appears ready to green-light HB 25, Gutierrez warned his Instagram followers that the legislation poses a danger to public health.

“Don’t anybody do this,” Gutierrez said. “Read up on it. It’s very dangerous for human beings to take this shit.”

Despite the lack of medical literature supporting ivermectin’s use to treat COVID in humans, HHS Secretary Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who holds no medical degree, was thrilled with Texas’s decision to make the drug available to the masses.

“Whenever we tell doctors that their job is to no longer treat that patient, but to treat all society, that’s when we get this kind of medical tyranny that is brutal and savage and merciless and lethal, and we need to return our medical profession to obligation, not serving state interests or political agendas, but to treating and healing their patients,” Kennedy said.

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This article appears in Aug 21 – Sep 2, 2025.