Labrador quit Boise-area health board. New nominee has disputed views on vaccines, Covid

The Ada County Commission nominated a chiropractor with unorthodox views about medicine to join the local public health board, after Attorney General Raúl Labrador resigned in August.

The commission on Tuesday unanimously recommended that Greg Ferch, a former legislator, join the Central District Health Board. Ferch will need approval from the other local counties — Boise, Elmore and Valley counties — before he can be confirmed to the board.

Ferch, a Boise Republican, was elected in 2020 to represent District 21, in Southeast Meridian and far Southwest Boise, in the Idaho House. In 2022, after redistricting, he lost in the District 22 Republican primary to incumbent John Vander Woude, who has served in the Legislature for a decade.

Ferch is a precinct committeeman for the Ada County Republican Party and has previously served as a chairman and first vice chairman of the county party. He served 11 years as an Army medic, according to a resume. He is a 1991 veteran of Operation Desert Storm.

He is also a longtime property manager. In 2021 he introduced a bill that would have nullified Boise’s efforts to cap rental-fee applications for prospective tenants at $30, according to the Idaho Press. The bill did not pass.

Ferch’s views on COVID-19 vaccinations, Vitamin D

In a March 2022 video interview with Miste Karlfeldt, the director Health Freedom Idaho, an anti-vaccination group, Ferch advocated for “nutritional holistic health care.”

“People are going to choose what they do,” he said. “If they choose to get the vaccination or wear a mask, I agree that they have the right to do that. I may not agree that the science shows that someone should do that, but if they reconcile it in their own head that that’s what they want to do, fine.”

He said he has been “modeling and so forth a lot of the stuff” supported by Ryan Cole, a health district board member and pathologist who has spread misinformation about the pandemic, including that the COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous.

While serving in the Legislature, Ferch advocated for Vitamin D as a preventative against severe infection.

“I know it’s vogue to say the science is settled nowadays, but when it comes to viral disease pathology, Vitamin D levels in humans is directly related to the morbidity and mortality of COVID,” he said, adding that the science is “overwhelming.”

“Where would we need to get to to start educating our population on how to mitigate and improve their own health such that we can preserve our hospital capacity?” he said.

According to the National Institutes of Health, evidence that Vitamin D provides protection against infection or improves outcomes is “lacking.” The institutes note that recent studies linking Vitamin D to better COVID-19 outcomes have “significant limitations, such as small sample sizes or a lack of randomization and/or blinding.”

Ferch did not immediately return a request for comment.

The 4 candidates passed over

Other candidates included Teri L. Ahrens, John Lee Brown, Kelley A. Curtis and Lynn Laird, county spokesperson Elizabeth Duncan told the Idaho Statesman.

Curtis is a vice president and chief pharmacy officer at St. Luke’s Health System, according to her application to the county. Brown is a retired veterinarian, Laird is a psychologist, and Ahrens works for Interim Healthcare of Idaho, a home care provider.

The criteria commissioners expected of applicants included knowledge of the health district, knowledge of participating on boards and knowledge of budgets and financing, Duncan said.

“I think Greg Ferch meets all of the qualifications that we are looking for,” Commissioner Ryan Davidson said Tuesday, adding that Ferch served on the House Health and Welfare Committee in the Statehouse.

Commissioner Tom Dayley said the commission solicited applications from the public and interviewed candidates. About 50 people sent emails to the commission about the appointment, according to a presentation at the meeting.

Labrador replaced Diana Lachiondo, a former Democratic county commissioner, on the health board in 2021.

The board is responsible for protecting public health, and Labrador was a controversial appointment, as he opposed promoting masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized the health district’s support of guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2021, the County Commission appointed Cole to the board. The Washington Medical Commission has pursued disciplinary charges against him over his medical license in the neighboring state.

There are seven board members, three of whom represent Ada County. Jane Young, a family nurse practitioner, is Ada County’s third representative.

Idaho has seven public health districts, established by state law. Each districts represents multliple counties and is responsible for protecting the health of residents. The districts are responsible for restaurant and child-care center inspections, and they operate health clinics.

If appointed, Ferch’s term would end in 2025.

In a biography submitted to the county, Ferch said he has “accumulated thousands of hours in science, nutrition, health and wellness-related continuing education and self-study.”

Recent legislation has given counties more power over health districts. Dayley said Tuesday that Ada County contributes the “lion’s share” of the health district’s budget because of its population, but that the county’s nomination has to be approved by the other health districts.

“We don’t support that idea,“ Dayley said. “We’ve asked the Legislature to change that.”