They want us to forget, but we shouldn't

i never said it!

Jazz Shaw, Hot Air: Medical field is erasing its own COVID-era history

The Lancet journal (which dubs itself as “The best science for better lives”) was described as having used “fraudulent research” when it concluded that hydroxychloroquine “caused an increased risk of heart arrhythmia and even death” in COVID patients. The World Health Organization used those findings as a justification to shut down their research into what turned out to be a very effective medication for treating COVID and the media lectured us endlessly about the dangers it posed, particularly after Trump endorsed it.

Another paper from the University of Manchester that has since disappeared reported that COVID “was associated with vertigo, hearing loss, and tinnitus.” They later admitted that this is not the case. The author of the paper apparently had no research to draw on, but since viruses such as measles, mumps, and meningitis can cause auditory damage, she said “it was reasonable to assume” that COVID would do so also. I see. So policy was being made based on assumption.

And then there was the whole Ivermectin debacle. (Also endorsed by Trump initially.)

I recommend reading all of Shaw’s post, but I’ll add my own two cents here on ivermectin just because it offers such a perfect example of how the drug industry and the FDA responded to COVID — ie, cheap drugs need not apply.

Ivermectin is a drug that’s used around the world to fight malaria and all sorts of other bad diseases, particularly in Africa, and in fact, there was a hypothesis put forward in the medical field, until it was quashed by our Science Masters, that the very low COVID death rate in Africa could be attributed to the widespread administration of the drug. That didn't stop the FDA and its media lackeys from dismissing the drug and ridiculing its users.

BioMed Central says this about the drug’s safety:

Hundreds of millions of people have received ivermectin every year in campaigns against onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis with excellent safety profile. It is also an endectocide, a drug capable of killing mosquitoes feeding on treated subjects.

And in 2017, pre-COVID, The Journal of Antibiotics wrote this glowing tribute to the drug:

Abstract

Over the past decade, the global scientific community have begun to recognize the unmatched value of an extraordinary drug, ivermectin, that originates from a single microbe unearthed from soil in Japan. Work on ivermectin has seen its discoverer, Satoshi Ōmura, of Tokyo’s prestigious Kitasato Institute, receive the 2014 Gairdner Global Health Award and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he shared with a collaborating partner in the discovery and development of the drug, William Campbell of Merck & Co. Incorporated. Today, ivermectin is continuing to surprise and excite scientists, offering more and more promise to help improve global public health by treating a diverse range of diseases, with its unexpected potential as an antibacterial, antiviral and anti-cancer agent being particularly extraordinary.

Introduction

The unique and extraordinary microorganism that produces the avermectins (from which ivermectin is derived) was discovered by Ōmura in 1973 (Figure 1). It was sent to Merck laboratories to be run through a specialized screen for anthelmintics in 1974 and the avermectins were found and named in 1975. The safer and more effective derivative, ivermectin, was subsequently commercialized, entering the veterinary, agricultural and aquaculture markets in 1981. The drug’s potential in human health was confirmed a few years later and it was registered in 1987 and immediately provided free of charge (branded as Mectizan)—‘as much as needed for as long as needed’—with the goal of helping to control Onchocerciasis (also known as River Blindness) among poverty-stricken populations throughout the tropics. Uses of donated ivermectin to tackle other so-called ‘neglected tropical diseases’ soon followed, while commercially available products were introduced for the treatment of other human diseases.

Today, ivermectin remains a relatively unknown drug, although few, if any, other drugs can rival ivermectin for its beneficial impact on human health and welfare. Ivermectin is a broad-spectrum anti-parasitic agent, primarily deployed to combat parasitic worms in veterinary and human medicine. This unprecedented compound has mainly been used in humans as an oral medication for treating filarial diseases but is also effective against other worm-related infections and diseases, plus several parasite-induced epidermal parasitic skin diseases, as well as insect infestations. It is approved for human use in several countries, ostensibly to treat Onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis (also known as Elephantiasis), strongyloidiasis and/or scabies and, very recently, to combat head lice. However, health workers are increasingly utilizing it in an unsanctioned manner to treat a diverse range of other diseases, as shown in Appendix 1.

The past: unmatched successes

Perhaps more than any other drug, ivermectin is a drug for the world’s poor. For most of this century, some 250 million people have been taking it annually to combat two of the world’s most devastating, disfiguring, debilitating and stigma-inducing diseases, Onchocerciasis and Lymphatic filariasis. Most of the recipients live in remote, rural, desperately under-resourced communities in developing countries and have virtually no access to even the most rudimentary of medical interventions. Moreover, all the treatments have been made available free of charge thanks to the unprecedented drug donation program.

…..

… Registered for human use in 1987, ivermectin was immediately donated as Mectizan tablets to be used solely to control Onchocerciasis, a skin disfiguring and blinding disease caused by infection with the filarial worm Onchocerca volvulus, which afflicted millions of poor families throughout the tropics. Some 20–40 million people were infected prior to the launch of large-scale control interventions, with around 200 million more at risk of infection.18, 19, 20 Human infection has been tackled in endemic areas through annual or semi-annual mass drug administration of ivermectin and only 21–22 million people (almost exclusively in Africa) remain infected with O. volvulus.21

Since the prodigious drug donation operation began, 1.5 billion treatments have been approved. Latest figures show that an estimated 186.6 million people worldwide are still in need of treatment, with over 112.7 million people being treated yearly, predominantly in Africa.22 Actual treatments declined in 2014/2015 due to the planned closure of the highly successful and innovative African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control and a subsequent delay before the more comprehensive replacement, the Expanded Special Project for the Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa, became established and operational, plus deferment of some treatments until 2016.

The African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control was created in 1995 to establish community-directed treatment with ivermectin to control Onchocerciasis as a public health problem in African nations that represented 80% of the global disease burden. For long the sole agent used in control efforts, ivermectin has been so successful that the goal has now switched from disease control to worldwide disease elimination. For most afflicted countries, nationwide Onchocerciasis elimination is within reach and there is hope that the global elimination target of 2025 will be achieved.23 Latest models indicate that if the 2025 target (or sooner) is to be achieved, 1.15 billion more treatments will be required,24 assuming that the absence of drug resistance continues.

In the mid-1990s, ivermectin was found to be an excellent treatment for Lymphatic filariasis, leading to the donation program being extended to cover this disease in areas where it co-exists with Onchocerciasis (Figure 4). In 2015, almost 374 million people required ivermectin for Lymphatic filariasis, with 176.5 million being treated.25 In 2015, 120.7 million ivermectin treatments were approved for Lymphatic filariasis, an accumulated 1.2 billion treatments being authorized since the drug donation program was extended to cover the second disease in 1998.26