March 25, 2022 | By TrialSite Staff | Photo Image | Senate Passes Medical Freedom Bill Allowing Ivermectin Use in Kansas
“In what turned out to be a late-night marathon, the Kansas Senate barely passed, 21 to 16, a bill known as the Off-Label Drug Bill just before 1:30 am. Called HB 2280, the bill now passed by the House and Senate, not only allows for the prescribing and dispensing of off-label drugs such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 but also requires child care facilities and schools to grant religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination requirements without the need for an inquiry into the sincerity of the particular person’s individual belief.
In what is undoubtedly a victory for what has become known as the medical freedom movement in America, Kansas senators passed a bill that allows doctors to prescribe ivermectin and even hydroxychloroquine without fear of reprisal from health board investigations.
Last month, TrialSite covered that Kansas represented the battleground in the ivermectin war across the heartlands of the nation, as the cause for early treatment using repurposed drugs has been picked up primarily in conservative, Republican-led interior states.
Led by State Senator Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, an anesthesiologist who prescribes the drug to his patients, the proposed law becomes a safe harbor for like-minded physicians. Ivermectin is in use all over the state and has gone underground.
As reported by Jason Tidd writing for the Topeka Capital-Journal, even the state’s deeply religious Mennonite community has been known to use the drug. In one example, an 80-year-old pastor and his wife who happens to be a retired nurse dole the drug out to their church-going community.
Senator Hutchinson declared, “Thousands of Kansans and hundreds of thousands of Americans have died because of this propaganda that shut down early treatment.””