Louisiana state Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, is sponsoring legislation that will make it easier for people to purchase ivermectin, a questionable drug.(Photo courtesy of Facebook).

Louisiana’s Republican public officials haven’t stopped complaining about former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ handling of the COVID pandemic since he left office. Edwards’ actions actually saved many lives, but that has been conveniently overlooked in GOP efforts to promote some of their own weird plans.

State Sen. Michael “Big Mike” Fesi of Houma, for example, is sponsoring Senate Bill 19 that would authorize pharmacists in Louisiana to dispense the ivermectin drug without requiring a prescription from a patient’s physician. The Advocate reported that ivermectin is a powerful anti-parasitic drug approved to treat specific infections in humans and was widely used in animals, particularly horses and livestock.

Why is Fesi sponsoring such a potentially dangerous drug?

“We were misled during the COVID era, and that’s where all this comes from,” Fesi said. “As a free people, I know we can make our own decisions on what we want to do.”

Yes, but shouldn’t a doctor have to prescribe a drug as dangerous as this one?

Unfortunately, Dr. Ralph Abraham, the state’s surgeon general, doesn’t think so. He said a lot of people are getting the drug from veterinary supply stores.

Abraham said, “I can pretty much assure you if you asked 10 of your friends, one or two of them are probably taking ivermectin on a periodic or a daily basis.”

No surprises there since the drug has seen a surge in off-label use due to internet-fueled claims that it can treat a number of conditions or even cure cancer. The newspaper said actor Mel Gibson in January said on “The Joe Rogan Podcast” that three friends with Stage 4 cancer got better after taking ivermectin and fenbendazole.

Why anyone would take Gibson or Rogan’s medical advice is their mistake.

The drug is effective against parasites and its developers won the Nobel Prize in 2015. However, large studies have shown no significant benefit for COVID treatment, and ongoing research on its potential role in cancer remains preliminary. The Advocate said experts caution that early promise in preclinical trials rarely translates into effective therapies in humans.

OK, here are some of those experts:

Dr. Jon Mizrahi said he now fields requests for ivermectin constantly in his New Orleans practice as a cancer specialist. He said his gastrointestinal cancer patients began asking for it during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over two weeks this spring, he said more than half of his new patients asked about the drug. Some hoped to combine it with chemotherapy. Others planned to take ivermectin instead. They had problems.

Two patients had to delay chemotherapy because ivermectin elevated their liver enzymes. One patient,  newly diagnosed with late-stage cancer, wanted to try ivermectin before chemo or radiation. Two months later, that person’s cancer had gotten significantly worse.

The newspaper said Mizrahi is one of dozens of cancer specialists in Louisiana raising concerns about Fesi’s bill. In a letter signed by 40-plus providers and the Cancer Advocacy Group of Louisiana and Louisiana Oncology Society, opponents of the bill emphasized that standard cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy are grounded in rigorous clinical trials, while ivermectin lacks research.

Dr. Mary Maluccio, a surgical oncologist specializing in rare cancers in New Orleans, said she hears about ivermectin upward of a dozen times a week. Two of her patients died of liver failure after adding ivermectin to their regimen without informing the care team. The patients had cancers requiring aggressive chemotherapy that put their livers at risk anyway — but Maluccio suspects ivermectin contributed to the swift pace of decline.

The newspaper said for many cancer patients, experimenting with holistic remedies — green tea, turmeric, smoothies — is a way to feel some control. Maluccio said she doesn’t fault them for it. But ivermectin, she said, isn’t just a harmless add-on.

For patients facing advanced or rare cancers, the desire to try anything can be understandable, Maluccio said. But it becomes difficult to treat cancer with proven methods if a drug without known interactions is added to the mix, or there is no protocol for how taking it might impact surgery.

It’s extremely difficult to understand how 28 of Louisiana’s 39 state senators voted for Fesi’s bill, and four of them represent this corner of the state. I’m sticking with my physicians, not those who, like Abraham, are touting ivermectin as some kind of wonder drug.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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