Kenai Peninsula District Mayor Promotes Rejected Treatment Against COVID-19

KENAI – An Alaska district mayor, who claims he is not a medical professional, has promoted a discredited treatment for COVID-19, aimed more at farm animals.

Kenai Peninsula District Mayor Charlie Pierce has publicly supported the use of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug to deworm, the Clarion Peninsula reported Wednesday.

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

Pierce has advocated for drug use twice, first at the district meeting last week and Monday during a radio program on KSRM.

“What I am asking for is that … the worldview of the various treatments that are being investigated and that are contemplated outside of vaccines and including them be seen from a more open perspective,” he said during the program. “Let the doctors experiment, perhaps, with some things that the Food and Drug Administration has not signed.”

Pierce said ivermectin is “a very cheap drug” and encouraged listeners to research more about the drug.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved ivermectin in both humans and animals for some parasitic worms and for head lice and skin conditions. The FDA has not approved its use to treat or prevent COVID-19 in humans.

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

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

Nor did she respond to an email sent by the AP asking how she knew how to talk about the drug, why she promotes it if she is not a medical professional, and whether she would feel responsible if someone got sick or, worse, took it. Nor did he respond if he was vaccinated or if he encouraged people in the district, which has the fourth worst vaccination rate in the state among municipalities, to get vaccinated.

The district has a population of about 59,000, according to the U.S. Census, with the total number of cases accumulated at 6,153. There are currently 56 cases and 24 of these people are hospitalized. The 11 hospital beds in the intensive care unit are occupied.

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

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

The ivermectin paste label on Kenai Feed said it is meant to treat a horse up to 1,250 pounds. Another product said it is 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 explains to 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 depends on them,” he said.

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

“Seriously, vaccines are how we treat viruses,” he said.

Ivermectin can be dangerous to humans if used incorrectly, Cutchins said. “The doses people are trying to recommend are very, very high,” he said.