By Modesto P. Sa-onoy
The case of Judith Smentkiewicz who got well with Ivermectin as narrated yesterday, has spark more interests about this drug. I have written several articles citing experts and practitioners who swear by its efficacy, but governments continue to ignore the evidence and refuse to give their approval. Worse those who even suggest the treatment using this drug were harassed and threatened with sanction.
Reacting to the report about a court decision, the US federal agency admits in its website that, “While there are approved uses for Ivermectin in people and animals, it is not approved for the prevention or treatment of Covid-19. You should not take any medicine to treat or prevent Covid-19 unless it has been prescribed to you by your health care provider and acquired from a legitimate source. Additional testing is needed to determine whether Ivermectin might be appropriate to prevent or treat coronavirus or Covid-19.”
Some doctors however feel the government should act much more quickly to approve Ivermectin as a treatment for the virus that has killed nearly 400,000 Americans.
Dr. Pierre Kory, who heads an association of critical care doctors, testified before Congress in December, asking federal agencies to prevent “needless deaths” by speeding up its testing and research on Ivermectin. I had quoted excerpts from his testimony but nothing happened.
There are many others who testified in favour of Ivermectin but as the saying goes to those who refuse to believe no proof is sufficient. That is a grave tragedy because while they refuse to take a step, thousands are dying, the thousands that could have been saved, even if only a third of the number. As the family of Judith Smentkiewicz rightly observed, desperate situations require desperate measures.
Indeed, L. E. Mallette, M.D., Ph.D. commented on this issue when the news came out. “Pardon me, but guidelines are just that: guidelines. They are not laws. The standard of care is not dictated by guidelines. If the physician has a reasonable basis for off-label use of an agent (and so documents in the medical record) they are practicing to the standard of care. When the available data, even if not yet perfect, suggest likely benefit with essentially no risk and with low cost, off-label use of the agent is EASY TO DEFEND. To refuse to use such a medication in a dire situation would be HARD TO DEFEND.
“The wise physician would document this well in the chart and explain it to the patient and family. There are, she noted, evolving evidence and guidelines around Ivermectin.”
While the United States and many others, like the Philippines are focused on the supposed vaccine, their people depressed and dying, economies collapsing and national treasuries emptying, a small republic decided to take a historic step and approved Ivermectin.
The news from TrialSite flashed all over the world last week and stunned many governments say that “Slovakia Republic’s Minister of Health has formerly registered Ivermectin as an approved prophylaxis and treatment for SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind Covid-19.”
The doctors received the breaking news of the authorization that they could proceed with formally authorized prescriptions both in hospitals and outpatient.
“On January 26, Health Minister Marek Krajci granted a permit for the unregistered drug as the drug has already been in use on a compassionate basis over the past half year” the news continued.
TrialSite interviewed Ondrej Halgas, a researcher from University of Toronto and originally from Slovakia. Halgas has been actively involved with a network organizing and lobbying for the drug’s approval during the pandemic. Slovakia is a landlocked Eastern European nation that nation of 5.4 million people.
TrialSite said that “the mortality rate in nursing homes in Germany is about 25% to 30%. After treating about 100 residents with Ivermectin, that rate in one case series apparently went down to about 5%—a huge difference. This isn’t the result of a formal study but represents more real world data points.” The use of Ivermectin in Germany is tolerated and not curtailed.
Slovakia will have no more urgent need for the expensive and ethically questionable vaccine, made from body parts of murdered unborn children. I’ll discuss this later.
We continued on February 18 with more countries considering Ivermectin for treatment.
