Why was the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19 demonized?

Before vaccines were available for the treatment of Covid-19, doctors used their experience and intuition, and tried commonly available drugs for treatment. Indian physicians had found ivermectin to be effective, on an observational basis. The drug had been proven to be effective against viruses, such as dengue and Zikar viruses in the past.

Remember, at the time the world was in a panic and didn’t really know what the real characteristics of SARS CoV 2 were. There was much guesswork and experimentation in treatment.

However, very quickly into the pandemic there was a media onslaught against ivermectin across the world. Ivermectin was portrayed as a horse medicine by the BBC and other corporate media outlets. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also inferred the same, pointing out the potential dangers of using ivermectin.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia the Ministry of Health (MOH) had forbidden doctors to use the drug to treat Covid-19, at a time there was no prescribed drug to treat Covid at the time. The MOH even sent letters to medical supply wholesalers to stop importuning the drug into Malaysia. The right of doctors to treat their patients in the best way they saw fit was taken away by the state.

This leads to the question why ivermectin was withheld as a medicine of last resort, at a time when there was a medical emergency.

In the first nine months of 2020, there were no prescribed treatments for Covid-19. The newly developed vaccines were not available for most of 2020 in Malaysia.

Ivermectin was a medicine worthy of trying as it had been proven to be effective against single strain RNA viruses such as Dengue, Zika Virus, Yellow Fever, and others.  With over 2.5 billion doses administrated to human patients over the last 30 years, ivermectin had an excellent safety profile. The 2015 Nobel Prize was awarded to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura for their discoveries using ivermectin as a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites. The drug, now with its patent elapsed is used for a host of ‘off label’ applications.

The World Health Organization had listed ivermectin as one of the essential medicines for humans.

One strongly suspects that ivermectin stood in the way of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Pfizer’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines. In order for these products to be given EUA, there must be a sound medical necessity, and no adequate, approved, and available alternatives to the candidate products for the diagnosing, preventing, or treating a disease or condition.

Putting this in short; with ivermectin as an acceptable treatment or Covid-19, there would be no reason for the mRNA vaccines to be granted EUA.

The big question here is why didn’t the MOH and other health authorities around the world allow the parallel development of the two approaches to handling Covid-19; prevention and treatment? World health authorities put all their eggs in one basket: vaccines.

The MOH funded a study based upon a few questionable parameters, concluding the use of ivermectin was ineffective. This study contradicts the results of other studies on ivermectin in other countries. This really puts a question mark over the integrity of Malaysian research in the light of conflicting results overseas.

A number of studies are now emerging showing that ivermectin is in fact effective in treating Covid-19.

A landmark court ruling in the US has forced the US FDA to reverse its stance on doctors prescribing ivermectin for Covid-19. The Court of Appeals ruling on August 8 now recognizes the authority of medical practitioners to prescribe ivermectin to treat Covid. This precedent now reinforces the right of doctors to prescribe a drug for ‘off label’ use, as has been the case for decades. This reverses the FDA’s attack on doctors prescribing ivermectin during the Covid pandemic. This follows the Australian Therapeutic Goods Authority (TGA) ending the ban on prescribing ivermectin for ‘off label’ use in treating Covid-19 last May. The TGA had placed a ban on doctors prescribing ivermectin for Covid-19 treatment in 2021.

Dr Mike Magee, former physician spokesman for Pfizer, said in his book Code Blue: Inside America's Medical Industrial Complex,  published in 2019;

“Cosy relationships and generous gratuities have demonstrated a remarkable ability to corrupt even those we would instinctively put on the side of the angels, including members of the biomedical research community, deans of medical schools, directors of continuing medical education programs, officers at the NIH and FDA, and even seemingly altruistic patient advocacy organisations like the American Cancer Society”.

There needs to be a Royal Commission to look into this policy failure of health authorities. Unnecessary lives were lost because of it. Those who were responsible must be made accountable.