In an ongoing national debate about doctors prescribing ivermectin as an early treatment for Covid-19, Kansas lawmakers are moving forward with a bill to defund investigations into physicians who prescribe the controversial drug. The legislation supports State Senator Mark Steffen, an anesthesiologist, who has prescribed ivermectin to patients. Steffen has been under investigation by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts for a year for writing prescriptions for the disputed medication. He hopes those probes will be a thing of the past.
This bill is not unique to Kansas. Last month, Virginia killed a similar bill in committee. Comparable legislation is also in the works in Iowa, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Indiana. Opposition and favor of ivermectin legislation usually fall along party lines. Republicans are in favor, and Democrats are opposed.
The current Kansas bill, which would deny doctor oversite is raising “ethical flags.” The measure may eliminate scrutiny of Steffen’s actions and is being criticized by Common Cause, a group that promotes government accountability. “Legislators are not elected to represent themselves. They are elected to represent the people that elected them,” a spokesperson of Common Cause said, adding “self-interested legislation has no place in American democracy.” Steffen says the legislation has nothing to do with him but a belief that off-label medications, like ivermectin, which are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are lifesaving. Representative Jason Probst, a Democrat, has called Steffen’s actions regarding the legislation “ethically dubious”.
Senator Steffen has been consistent with his advocacy of ivermectin. The drug continues to be politically divisive and has been labeled an “anti-vaxxer” issue. Nationally, the medication has become the dividing line between the two dominant political parties in the United States. Once called a “miracle drug,” ivermectin has been used to cure river blindness, scabies, and even head lice. Opponents of the generic medication and the FDA have called the drug a “horse de-wormer” because veterinarians do use it in different formulations and dosages to treat animals. Doctors have lost jobs for prescribing ivermectin to treat covid, and conservatives in the elected officials see a political advantage in advocating for use of the drug. Physicians favoring the medication have called it “cheap and safe.” TrialSite has chronicled the COVID-19 research starting in April 2020 when University of Monash scientists saw that in a cell culture, the drug absolutely zapped SARS-CoV-2. The level and extent of research in ivermectin, including approximately three dozen randomized controlled trials, has been suppressed by U.S. media. On the other hand, a couple of high-profile ivermectin studies failed to show any efficacy. One study in Egypt included questionable, possibly manipulated data. Yet hit pieces have followed, such as a well-known reporter from the Los Angeles Times who was called out by the TrialSite.
Further complicating the political divide is the fact health insurance companies have paid for ivermectin prescriptions. However, since the FDA warned against usage of the medication, many druggists are refusing to fill ivermectin prescriptions. The one-time “miracle drug” has now turned into a political lightning rod.