Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor promotes debunked treatment for COVID-19

KENAI – An Alaska Borough mayor, who says he is not a medical professional, has promoted a debunked treatment for COVID-19 that is more for farm animals.

Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce has publicly supported the use of ivermectin, an antiparasitic dewormer drug, the Peninsula Clarion reported on Wednesday.

Livestock supply stores in the borough, south of Anchorage, have received numerous inquiries about the drug in recent weeks.

Pierce has twice defended the use of the drug, first at the borough meeting last week and Monday on a radio show on KSRM.

“What I’m asking is that the… worldview of the different treatments that are researched and looked at outside of and including vaccinations be viewed from a more open perspective,” he said at the time. of the show. “Let doctors maybe experiment with some things that haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.”

Pierce said ivermectin is “a very inexpensive drug” and encouraged listeners to continue their research on the drug.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved ivermectin in humans and animals for certain parasitic worms and for head lice and skin conditions. The FDA has not approved its use in the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 in humans.

“The use of any treatment for COVID-19 that is not approved or cleared by the FDA, unless it is part of a clinical trial, can cause serious harm,” the FDA said in a drug warning.

Pierce did not return calls to Clarion or the Associated Press.

He also did not respond to an email sent by the AP asking him how he heard about the drug, why he was promoting it if he was not a medical professional and if he was. would feel responsible if someone got sick or got worse while taking it. He also did not respond if he was vaccinated or if he encouraged residents of the arrondissement, which has the fourth-worst vaccination rate in the state among the arrondissements, to get vaccinated.

The borough has a population of nearly 59,000, according to the US census, with a cumulative total number of cases at 6,153. There are currently 56 cases, and 24 of those people are hospitalized. The 11 hospital beds in the intensive care units are occupied.

Sarah Donchi, owner of Kenai Feed and Supply, said she has received many questions about the types of ivermectin she carries. Although she tells them it is only for animal use, she said “people are buying it anyway.”

[As covid-19 surges, some people are ingesting an unproven livestock dewormer]

The label of Kenai Feed Ivermectin Paste states that it is intended to treat a horse weighing up to 1250 pounds. Another product said it was intended to treat cows weighing up to 550 pounds.

Cad-Re Feed employees in Soldotna also receive inquiries about ivermectin “almost daily,” co-owner Shawn Taplin told Clarion.

Taplin tells customers that ivermectin is a drug he orders from a veterinary supply company, but they still buy it. “What they choose to do with it is up to them,” he said.

The study of ivermectin as a COVID-19 drug has been mostly abandoned, according to Dr. Coleman Cutchins, state pharmacist at the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services.

“Really, vaccines are the way we treat viruses,” he said.

Ivermectin can be dangerous to humans if misused, Cutchins said. “The doses that people are trying to recommend are really, really high,” he said.