Kentucky lawmakers offer conspiracy theories, debunked claims during COVID special session
In a widely celebrated move, the first of three COVID-19 vaccines in use — the Pfizer-BioNTech — won final approval in August from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
But Rep. Danny Bentley, a pharmacist and Russell Republican, is not convinced — publicly expressing doubt Tuesday on the first day of a special legislative session to deal with Kentucky’s COVID-19 crisis.
“There’s been some reports … that that’s a bait and switch by the FDA and it’s really not approved,” said Bentley, citing an online conspiracy theory.
Having wrested away emergency powers from Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, the Republican-controlled General Assembly now finds itself in charge of a major public health crisis that has led to more than 605,000 infections and 7,900 deaths in Kentucky from COVID-19.
And this week’s special session — called by Beshear to address “the most dangerous time we’ve experienced this entire pandemic” — has reflected unusual views by some lawmakers as they flex their authority to address it.
Legislators have questioned the value of masks and vaccines urged by public health officials, wrongly attributed thousands of deaths to COVID-19 vaccines and proposed access to unproven treatments.
One lawmaker spoke up to defend people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, even though the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated as the more contagious delta variant spreads throughout Kentucky.
“There is a section of our population that is not comfortable with the vaccine at this point in time,” said Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester. “We’ve got to give people time to make decisions about their own bodies.”
Health advocates watching as hospitals become overwhelmed with record numbers of COVID-19 patients — nearly all unvaccinated — expressed alarm at some of the public comments by lawmakers.
“I don’t think they have an understanding of what’s going to stop the virus,” said Dr. Kevin Kavanagh, a retired Somerset physician and chairman of the patient advocacy group Healthwatch USA.
Kavanagh noted few lawmakers are wearing masks during the current legislative session even though public health guidelines recommend them for indoor spaces.
“This is a very dangerous message to send during this surge,” he said.
Dr. Peter Hasselbacher, a retired physician and medical professor who publishes periodic reports about COVID-19 in Kentucky on his blog Kentucky Health Policy Institute, said some lawmakers seem uninformed about COVID-19.
‘It’s non-medical. It’s non-scientific,” he said. “This is pop epidemiology.”
Among comments this week by lawmakers:
An accurate database?
Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, asked why the state is ignoring thousands of deaths supposedly linked to the COVID-19 vaccine, citing a federal website, the Vaccine Adverse Reporting System (VAERS).
“When we talk about the benefits, I would like for there also to be the risks,” she said. “This is an accurate database.”
Experts says such claims about VAERS and the COVID-19 vaccine, though commonly made, are wrong and a misuse of a government clearinghouse which collects reports on all adverse reactions to vaccines.
“Statements that imply that deaths following vaccination equate to deaths caused by vaccination are scientifically inaccurate, misleading and irresponsible,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Immunization Safety Office, told USA TODAY.
Kavanagh said Tate’s reliance on VAERS is misplaced.
“Just in Kentucky, we’ve had almost 8,000 deaths from COVID-19,” he said. “I know of many people who have lost loved ones. I don’t know anybody who died from the vaccine.”
‘Numbers don’t lie’
Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg, said Wednesday vaccines and masks — the top precautions against COVID-19 recommended by public health experts — have failed.
“Those are the only solutions we have had for a year, and look where we are — worse than ever,” said Southworth, who has filed a measure asking that employees of health facilities be allowed to opt out of mandatory COVID-19 vaccines.
Southworth’s comments prompted a response from Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Taylor Mill, who cited recent numbers from St. Elizabeth Healthcare in his Northern Kentucky region showing that the vast majority of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
“The numbers don’t lie,” McDaniel said. “The vaccine works, and we need to take it.”
Another Southworth proposal would allow patients under treatment for COVID-19 to choose medications not authorized by the hospital. That follows a court fight in Ohio where a judge ruled a hospital couldn’t be forced to administer Ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient.
Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic worm treatment commonly used for livestock, and is recommended by the FDA to treat some parasitic infections in humans. It is not authorized to treat COVID-19, but social media reports promoting it have prompted an increase in calls to poison control centers around the country including Kentucky.
Southworth’s proposal doesn’t mention a specific drug but said COVID-19 patients should have the right “to have a hospital honor and administer his or her choice of medications.”
‘Look at the truth’
Some of the disputed comments about COVID-19 came during a meeting Tuesday of the House Health and Family Services Committee, which was considering House Bill 2, a broad measure to end state-wide mask mandates and address medical staffing and COVID-19 testing, vaccination and treatment.
That’s where Bentley, who also has questioned the value of masks in preventing transmission of COVID-19, disputed the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine during an exchange with Dr. Steven Stack, the state public health commissioner.
Bentley’s suggestion of a vaccine “bait and switch” left Stack briefly at a loss.
“I don’t quite know how to respond to that,” Stack said. “It is fully approved.”
Bentley’s suggestion tapped into a conspiracy theory circulating among vaccine skeptics on social media that the vaccine hadn’t actually been approved, in part because Pfizer gave the newly approved drug the brand name “Comirnaty.”
Conspiracy theorists also have seized on the fact that the FDA has not yet given full approval for the Pfizer vaccine to those under 16. The emergency use authorization still applies to those 12-15, with Pfizer the only vaccine approved for children.
Two other drugs, the Moderna two-shot and the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines, are allowed under an FDA emergency use authorization while they await final approval.
Bentley, who as a pharmacist said he has administered vaccines, remained unconvinced about the one for COVID-19.
“Something just isn’t right about this, that we continue with a vaccine that is against our safety and efficacy in this country,” he said.
Some claims at the meeting were too much for Rep. Steve Sheldon, also a pharmacist, who issued an appeal to “common sense.”
“My big concern coming into these meetings is when some of the misinformation we talk about out in the public finds its way into committees,” said Sheldon, R-Bowling Green.
The surge in COVID-19 cases is largely a “disease of the unvaccinated,” said Sheldon, who said he has administered thousands of COVID-19 vaccines.
“As a health care provider, I want to encourage folks to take a look at the truth,” Sheldon said. “The numbers don’t lie.”
And he pointed out that the VAERS system is open to anyone who wants to report an adverse reaction of a vaccine and is not designed to reflect actual statistics.
“Anybody can put information in there,” he said.
As for the vaccine, “Here we are today, instead of celebrating it, we’re going in a different direction,” he said.
‘Down the tubes’
Rep. Tom Burch, a Louisville Democrat, and at 90, the longest serving member of the General Assembly, also spoke up, saying he is old enough to remember an era when households in his neighborhood posted quarantine signs for diseases such as measles and chickenpox, now preventable with vaccines.
After the polio vaccine came out in the 1950s, “people were lined up for blocks to get it” — yet people today are opposed to vaccines and wearing masks to try to stop COVID-19, he said.
“There are simple things we should be willing to do that prevent spread of this virus,” he said.
And Burch questioned whether the legislature is equipped to manage the COVID-19 crisis.
“We don’t have one scientist in the whole legislature that I know of that can call the shots for us,” he said. “We’re in this together and we’ll go down the tubes together.”
Reach Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4228. Find her on Twitter at @d_yetter. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/subscribe.
