Restaurant Under Investigation For Allegedly Promoting Unapproved Drugs For COVID-19 On Facebook Page

A Pennsylvania restaurant is under investigation after multiple complaints stated that its social media page is being used to promote the use of unapproved COVID-19 medications.

Christine Mason, the restaurant owner's daughter, has been accused of using the Facebook page of Taste of Sicily to connect people to a physician who could prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for people with COVID-19, PennLive reported.

Mason said in a Facebook Live on Jan. 26 that she's about to share "life-saving information" and even asked the viewers to "read between the lines." She also said her advice is for people with what she called the "C-word."

"If you guys know anybody who is sick and who needs 'I' or 'H' ... we now have a resource... This place is shipping it for free," Mason told her viewers. Those who responded to her video referred to the medications as "ivermectin" and "hydroxychloroquine."

Ivermectin, primarily a horse dewormer, is an antiparasitic drug used to treat infestations in humans including head lice, scabies and river blindness. Hydroxychloroquine, on the other hand, is used to prevent and cure malaria. Though both drugs are not approved by authorities for COVID-19 treatment, many people have been promoting their use to those who caught the virus.

Palmyra Police Chief Andrew Winters said Wednesday that they have received multiple complaints about Mason misusing the page to push unapproved drugs for COVID-19 treatment and the case has been referred to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office.

"Police indicated they received complaints, and a preliminary investigation showed allegations of misconduct which potentially spanned multiple counties," Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graff said, as per NBC News.

Mason has also been accused of promoting the use of ivermectin in a TikTok video in which she appeared with a man who claimed that using the drug saved his life.

Though Mason has not worked at Taste of Sicily since last summer, she is still the one in charge of managing the restaurant's Facebook page. However, she announced Wednesday that she would move to another site that's well-known among right-wing supporters and anti-vaxxers so she would no longer be "censored."

This is not the first time the restaurant has been involved in a controversy. It previously hit the headlines for defying the COVID-19 restrictions put forth by the governor during the beginning of the pandemic.