New guidance on vaccine boosters; legislators want OK for Ivermectin prescriptions

The rules for coping with COVID-19 have changed again after federal authorities on Friday recommended authorization of vaccine booster doses for people 65 and over and others at high risk.
A local legislator has signed on to an effort to change the rules even more, allowing for the wider use of Ivermectin as a COVID treatment.
In Friday’s Louisiana Office of Public Health report, 42 new St. Mary COVID-19 were reported in the 48 hours ending at midday Friday. That raises the pandemic case count to 8,197.
Another COVID-related death was reported in the parish, raising the pandemic toll to 205. Fifty-eight St. Mary COVID deaths have been reported since Aug. 1.
Statewide, 2,182 new cases and 52 deaths were reported Friday for the previous 24 hours.
The number of COVID-positive people in Louisiana hospitals continues to fall after peaking at more than 3,000 last month.
The number of hospitalizations was at 1,367 Friday, down 154 since Wednesday.
Also Friday, an advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended emergency use authorization for a booster dose of vaccine for people 65 and over and those at risk of severe COVID cases.
“Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19. We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week,” White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz said.
The panel had rejected an application to OK booster doses of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for everyone 16 and older six months after their vaccination takes effect.
There is a debate among public health professionals about whether the emphasis should be on booster doses or on encouraging unvaccinated people to get their shots.
The vaccination rate in St. Mary Parish is just less than 35%, according to the Office of Public Health. The state rate is about 44%.
Also Friday, a group of state legislators, including state Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, were quoted in a press release urging Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Department of Health to allow Medicaid prescriptions written to treat COVID-19.
A department memorandum forbids the filling of Medicaid prescriptions for Ivermectin for COVID treatment.
The press release says Ivermectin has been approved for human use and is administered to immigrant refugees as an anti-parasitic.
“How can it be that Ivermectin is being prescribed for illegal refugees but not for Louisiana citizens?” the press release said.
The legislators who sent a letter to the department and the governor Sept. 13 are identified as Amedee, Kathy Edmonston, Dottie Horton and Valarie Hodges.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that while oral doses of Ivermectin are approved for treatment of some parasitic conditions, the drug has not been approved as a treatment for COVID-19, and there are no data showing Ivermectin is effective as a COVID treatment.
The CDC also expressed concern about a rising number of poison center calls related to misuse of Ivermectin. The CDC saw a four-fold increase in Ivermectin outpatient prescriptions from early July, and a five-fold increase in poison center calls due to Ivermectin in July over pre-pandemic levels.