An AFLDS Issue Brief for Patients, Policymakers and Physicians
STATEMENT OF POSITION One of the greatest tragedies as well as most significant errors made by the government in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been the repeated and intentional effort to limit the use of preventative and prophylactic medications to help reduce the impact of the virus. Uneven COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration, and justifiable vaccine skepticism due to its unprecedented speed, provides additional impetus for employing safe repurposed anti-infective therapies that have been time-tested and are widely available.One such therapy is the antiparasitic drug Ivermectin, a member of the World Health Organization’s “Model List of Essential Medicines.”America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) has been recommending Ivermectin as a safe and effective COVID-19 therapy for many months. We do not suggest that Ivermectin is a cure for COVID-19 or can absolutely prevent an individual from contracting the virus. However, in study after study, Ivermectin has been associated with improved health outcomes in both COVID-symptomatic patients and those using the drug as a preventive therapy. AFLDS supports the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approving Ivermectin and other early treatments for “off-label” or repurposed use to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.We strongly condemn the ongoing attempts by Big Tech as well as elements in the mainstream media and political establishment to limit access to information about Ivermectin’s benefits. We support efforts to provide unfiltered and uncensored information to patients and physicians so that Americans can make informed decisions about their healthcare needs.
IVERMECTIN’S VIABILITY AS COVID THERAPY Many studies have consistently attested to the viability of Ivermectin’s use in treating COVID-infected patients. There is parallel evidence to also recommend the drug’s use as a preventative. For example, Dr. Pierre Kory, in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on December 8, 2020, pointed to positive findings of an October 2020 clinical study in Argentina which tested the effectiveness of Ivermectin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The randomized clinical trial (RCT) found that Ivermectin inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Eight-hundred healthcare workers were administered Ivermectin as a preventative medication and none contracted SARS-CoV-2.Among the additional 400 healthcare workers that were not treated with Ivermectin, 237 individuals, or 58% of the group, were infected with the virus. “These are statistically significant, large magnitude results if you take ivermectin. It is proving to be a wonder drug and it is critical for its use in this disease,” Dr. Kory said of the study.Moreover, in the 19 randomized control trials published to date, Ivermectin use resulted in positive effects, including decreased time of virus shedding, length of hospital stays, as well as lower mortality. Among all 37 published studies using Ivermectin either as early treatment or prophylaxis, 100% reported positive results, with prophylaxis showing 90% improvement in the experimental groups. “Prophylaxis” refers to taking a regular regimen of medication before becoming sick.Even in a recent limited study published in The Lancet, researchers found “a reduction in the self-reported anosmia/hyposmia and a (non-statistically significant) tendency to lower viral loads and lower IgG titers which presumably reflect milder disease” and “The positive signal found in this pilot together with emerging evidence from animal models and other clinical trials warrants the conduction of larger trials using ivermectin for the early treatment of COVID-19.”
MEDICAL CANCEL CULTURE THREATENS HEALTH OUTCOMES FOR MILLIONS AFLDS is troubled by the collusion between public and private interests from the scientific-tech-medical establishment to censor information concerning the viability of Ivermectin as a safe and effective COVID treatment. This medical cancel culture, in which politically influential segments of our society silence their critics using legally dubious means, erodes basic trust in our institutions and deprives everyday citizens of the information they need to form decisions about public questions.A recent decision on the part of YouTube to remove two videos of expert testimony before the US Senate is part of a disturbing trend in which Big Tech firms act as commissars to suppress information they alone interpret as harmful to the public interest. This is wrong, and AFLDS condemns in the strongest terms censorship of Ivermectin and other early-treatment information. Facebook has just rolled out new policy terms for its users related to the pandemic and experimental COVID vaccines, stating that “We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups and accounts that violate these rules, and we’ll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks. Groups, Pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether.” These actions and others reducing access to timely medical information ought to immediately be reversed.
CONCLUSION AFLDS supports making Ivermectin available to a greater share of patients and physicians as an early treatment and/or prophylaxis. We urge the FDA, CDC, and policymakers to approve the drug nationwide for use against COVID-19. We also advocate additional study of the drug’s efficacy for other patient cohorts, especially through RCTs, in order to test its long-term indication for hospitalized and other severely infected individuals.Given its overwhelming potential as an anti-viral therapy, information about Ivermectin – as well as data about other early-treatment candidates such as hydroxychloroquine – must remain freely accessible by the public without fear of government censorship and media reprisals. America’s Frontline Doctors is dedicated to the open exchange of independent, health-related information so that patients are free to make their own treatment decisions.