Kansas COVID-19

The bill would legalize the prescription of off-label COVID medications like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and mandate child care facilities and K-12 public schools to accept — without inquiry or scrutiny — the religious objection of parents or guardians to vaccination of their children.

A Kansas Senate committee quickly advanced a plan to protect doctors who prescribe unproven COVID treatments and let parents claim religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements.

Last spring, Kansas lawmakers passed a new law restricting remote learning to no more than 40 hours per year for an individual student. The measure was a message to districts: Kids should be in school, in person.

Many hospitals and clinics are still infusing the costly treatments — often charging hundreds of dollars a session — that public health officials now say are almost certainly useless.

Health experts in Kansas and Missouri said hospitals may soon have to institute crisis standards designed for catastrophic public health events.

Kansas hospital and public health leaders urged Gov. Laura Kelly to take action, citing the wave of health workers sidelined by COVID-19 and the influx of seriously ill patients.

As COVID cases surge, local hospitals are getting calls from as far away as Michigan and Texas seeking beds for patients. But Kansas has its own crisis to deal with.

Former Kansas Health Secretary Lee Norman says politics hindered the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Lawmakers used a one-day special session to approve the bill to allow no-questions-asked exemptions to vaccine requirements and fine Kansas businesses that don't comply.

It appears to be the first time that Kansas lawmakers have called themselves back into special session using a petition.