TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas Sen. Richard Hilderbrand weaved through a packed room in the Kansas Statehouse Tuesday morning.
The Galena Republican could barely make it 10 steps without someone in the crowd of dozens stopping to express anger or appreciation. They had come to push lawmakers for legislation forcing pharmacists to provide ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to COVID-19 patients if asked by a doctor.
The legislation bars the Kansas Board of Healing Arts from punishing physicians who prescribe ivermectin, a drug commonly used as a livestock dewormer, or hydroxychloroquine, usually prescribed for autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. It also requires Kansas pharmacists to fill those prescriptions, regardless of their professional judgment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, has warned against the use of both drugs as a COVID-19 therapy. They haven't been proven to be effective against the disease and can be dangerous when used improperly.
Hildebrand said the bill puts the power where it belongs, in the hands of doctors.
"We're supporting the medical professionals," he said. "They're the ones being told they can't prescribe it."
Hilderbrand said he wants to begin moving the legislation toward the Senate floor next week. It is the latest in a string of actions by the Senate Public Health Committee and Legislature challenging top public health officials over how best to treat COVID-19.
On Wednesday the committee heard from patients and family members who believed they'd been saved by ivermectin. Also speaking were doctors who said they'd been barred from prescribing it or were unable to get a script filled despite their judgment that it was needed.
During the meeting Sen. Mark Steffen, a physician who acknowledged he's prescribed ivermectin for COVID-19, revealed he was being investigated by the state licensing board.
The bill has drawn unusually strong criticism from the state's medical establishment, concerned that politicians will continue to insert themselves into decisions about treatment.
"You can write the medicine today, we often write for off-label uses when we think we have enough evidence," University of Kansas Hospital Chief Medical Officer Steve Stites said in an interview. "I don't struggle with that and I don't struggle with a pharmacist who says while I'm not going to fill that because usually I call the pharmacist we work through it together."
"What's the next thing we're going to have to write and not be able to say we're not going to fill? Eventually when you substitute enough judgment of medical professionals, medical professionals say 'why am I operating in a state where the Legislature wants to tell me how to prescribe my therapies.'"
In a call of 18 Chief Medical Officers across Kansas and the Kansas City area Wednesday morning hospital officials slammed the proposal as an unwelcome intrusion on the discretion of pharmacists.
"I'm baffled at the intrusion into practicing medicine," said Robert Freelove, CMO at Salina Regional Health Center. "That's a pretty slippery slope to a pretty dangerous place ... I'm a little bit baffled by the thought process of trying to legislate health care to that level."
Jennifer Scrimscher at Lawrence Memorial Hospital said it removed a critical "safety net" for patients by pulling away pharmacists' discretion in filling scripts.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman, an Olathe Republican, said he'd consider the bill if it reached his chamber but had his concerns.
"I'd have some liability concerns," Ryckmans said. "I believe in the doctor's wisdom to treat his patients."
This is not the first time the Legislature, and members of the Public Health and Welfare Committee, have used their platform to promote beliefs in conflict with COVID-19 guidance from the nation's top public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA.
Steffen and Sen. Mark Thompson, both on the committee, have built reputations promoting misinformation about the pandemic —arguing that masks are not effective at reducing the spread of the virus and casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Both were early supporters of last year's special session that resulted in a bill granting sweeping exemptions to federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Public health advocates at the time worried the broad anti-vaccine rhetoric would empower a longstanding movement to remove all vaccine requirements, such as regularly scheduled childhood vaccinations.
Last week, members of the committee peppered Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Janet Stanek with questions about the agency's stance on ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and criticized her for public service announcements that told Kansans the COVID-19 vaccine is safe.
"Part of your job is educating people about vaccinations. Thre's been no disclaimers about the dangers of vaccinations," Thompson said. "There's no effort by your agency to at least put a seed of doubt in people's mind."
And more could come. Last year lawmakers introduced a bill that would require physicians to provide ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to patients if asked. The bill hasn't been acted on but is in the Senate Judiciary committee. During November's special session, a coalition of lawmakers, including Steffen and Thomson, introduced a bill providing for sweeping vaccine exemptions and banning a wide range of public health protocols.
Sen. Pat Pettey, a Kansas City Democrat on the committee, called it the "camel nose under the tent" to more legislation inserting politics into health care.
"We are, in the legislature, are often giving a lot of air and time to fringe and not an equal time to scientifically based information when it comes to health care," she said. "It gives them a very large voice. It makes it look like they are representing the larger body of Kansans."
