At a Dec 8 hearing, the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee heard testimony about currently available, safe, and affordable treatments for both prophylaxis and treatment for COVID-19, reports Physicians for Civil Defense. The primary focus was on the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin.
Nearly 4 billion doses of ivermectin have been used worldwide, said critical care specialist Jean-Jacques Rajter of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., mostly to control serious parasitic diseases in Africa. It was serendipitously found to benefit nursing home patients exposed to COVID, who were being treated for scabies. A meta-analysis of 21 studies has shown ivermectin to be beneficial in early disease, late disease, and both pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis.
Dr. Rajter said that as yet no major large-scale randomized controlled trials have been completed, because it has been extremely difficult to obtain funding. Dr. Pierre Kory of St Luke’s Aurora Medical Center stated: “Seemingly the only research and treatment focus that we have observed on a national scale is with novel or high-cost pharmaceutically engineered products such as remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies, tocilizumab, with all such therapies costing thousands of dollars.”
Dr. Kory noted that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not updated its Aug 27 guideline that recommends against using ivermectin in COVID-19 outside a clinical trial—despite consistent, large benefits. Meanwhile, “people are dying at unacceptable and untold rates.”
Dr. Kory noted that it is difficult to disseminate information to the American public. All his attempts have been censored on social media. Graphical data and 88 references were supplied to the Committee and are publicly available with his written testimony. Dr. Kory also presented at a press conference in Houston.
Democrats boycotted the hearing except for an opening statement by ranking member Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who accused witnesses of “attacking science” before any said a word, and then left.
The federal response to this deadly disease, which she described as “therapeutic nihilism,” is “shocking and unprecedented,” stated Physicians for Civil Defense president Jane M. Orient, M.D.