A judge in Ohio on Monday said a hospital can’t be forced to give ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient, a reversal of a previous order. The wife of Jeffrey Smith, a 51-year-old being treated in West Chester Hospital since mid-July, did not provide “clear and convincing evidence” to support her lawsuit against the hospital, Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Oster Jr. ruled. Julie Smith, the wife, sued last month, arguing that the hospital should administer ivermectin to her husband because it was prescribed by a doctor, Dr. Fred Wagshul. Doing so has “minimal downside and side effects,” she said in the lawsuit. The hospital refused, despite Julie Smith offering to sign a release that would have absolved the hospital from any liability in administering the medicine. Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard ruled recently that the hospital must give 30 milligrams a day to Jeffrey Smith, who was on …