Maui Senator: County State Health Director Should Be Fired

Hawaii’s senior medical adviser for Maui County has come under fire after reports he recommended the use of the livestock drug ivermectin and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat Covid-19 as an alternative to vaccines approved by the federal government.

Now, a Maui state senator has said she will ask Maui District Health Officer Dr Lorrin Pang to resign or be fired in a Senate sitting Thursday.

State Senator Rosalyn Baker said she also called the Hawaii Medical Board on Wednesday and asked them to revoke her medical license.

“This is the district health worker located on my island,” Baker said. “And if he recommends people take things that the FDA has declared potentially fatal if you ingest them, and which aren’t effective at treating Covid-19, then he shouldn’t be practicing medicine.” He should not represent the Department of Health. It shouldn’t be parked in Maui.

In a prepared statement, Hawaii Department of Health Director Libby Char strongly condemned the disinformation perpetuated by Pang and a group he co-founded called The Pono Coalition for Informed Consent. But the ministry did not want to say what Pang’s behavior means for his job.

In a report published in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Wednesday, Pang confirmed his support for the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat Covid. But he said he did not agree with all the views taken by the coalition he helped create. Some of these views include unsubstantiated or disproved claims that Covid vaccines can cause miscarriages and reproductive health issues.

Pang could not be reached for comment on Wednesday evening.

Ivermectin is a drug commonly used to deworm large farm animals, such as cows and horses. It is less commonly prescribed to people in limited doses as a parasitic treatment.

Hydroxychloroquine is approved to treat malaria, as well as rheumatoid arthritis and certain autoimmune diseases.

Both drugs have been widely discredited for their use in combating the effects of a Covid infection, although non-medical online communities and conservative news sites are still promoting them. The United States Food and Drug Administration has warned that the drugs can cause serious harm or death if misused.

In a statement released Wednesday night, Char highlighted the spread of the virus in Hawaii and its toll on residents, as well as the deaths of more than 500 people.

“The Pono Coalition for Informed Consent is spreading misinformation about these life-saving vaccines,” Char said. “It’s dangerous. The Coalition is proliferating misinformation about the severity of the disease and the safety of vaccines.

She stressed that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin should not be used to treat Covid-19 and that their use can cause serious harm.

The amplification of misinformation surrounding treatment and prevention of Covid by a state health official comes at a time when the delta variant is leading to an increase in infections in Hawaii and overwhelming the state’s hospital system.

Hawaii reported eight new coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total since the pandemic began early last year to 573.

The state also recorded 625 new cases, including 376 in Oahu, 100 on the Big Island, 96 in Maui, 39 in Kauai, two each in Lanai and Molokai and 10 that were diagnosed out of state. In total, Hawaii has recorded 57,747 cases of the coronavirus.

The statewide vaccination rate, meanwhile, climbed to 62.3%.

Maui Mayor Michael Victorino on Wednesday condemned the use of drugs not approved by the FDA to prevent or treat Covid, and warned that following Pang’s stray could be dangerous or fatal.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green, an emergency room doctor on the island of Hawaii, said he was upset by Pang’s statements that deviate from the principles of the global medical community.

“I am deeply concerned about what the Maui district health worker said and spoke to him personally (Wednesday) expressing these concerns because we need to follow the science and support the science,” Green said.

Inoculation is the safest and most effective tool to prevent serious illness or death from Covid-19, experts say.

Hawaii health officials said this week they hoped that full approval by federal regulators of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine would push more people to overcome their hesitation about the vaccine and increase levels of disease. inoculation in the middle of the wave that overwhelms some local hospitals.

The approval replaces the emergency use authorization granted by the FDA last December, raising the US government’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine to the same level as common vaccines against diseases such as influenza or chickenpox.

The highly contagious delta variant now accounts for 93% of recent cases of Covid in the islands, according to the new variant report released last week. Health officials say community transmission is responsible for the latest wave.

Civil Beat coverage of Maui County is funded in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.