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KS Sen. Mark Steffen sends letters to physicians on COVID-19

Steve ScottApril 6, 2022

Virus Outbreak Kansas Vaccine Mandate — Fellow Kansas state senators and Senate staffers confer with Sen. Alicia Straub, R-Ellinwood, at her desk, during a break in a debate on proposals aimed at financially protecting workers who refuse to comply with federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Monday, Nov. 22, 2021, at the Statehouse, in Topeka, Kan. The others in the photo are, clockwise from the left, Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover; Senate Secretary Corey Carnahan; Masterson chief of operations Chase Blasi; Sen. Dennis Pyle, R-Hiawatha, and Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson. (AP Photo/Andy Tsubasa Field)

(AP) — A Kansas physician-legislator who has acknowledged that he is under investigation by the state medical board after supporting the deworming drug ivermectin is instructing doctors on COVID-19 treatment in a letter.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Kansas Sen. Mark Steffen sent a letter on official Senate stationery to health care providers telling them that the way COVID-19 patients are treated has changed and that they will be shielded from Board of Healing Arts “interference.”

The Hutchinson Republican cites the recent Senate passage of a measure that specifically authorizes doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, among other drugs, to treat COVID-19.

But the proposal remains bogged down in negotiations with the House.