TUCSON, Ariz., March 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Although “off-label” use of drugs approved for a different indication is routine in medical practice, there was an early, aggressive campaign against such use for COVID-19, writes infectious disease specialist Wendell W. Hoffman, M.D., in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Less than two months after former President Donald Trump called hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin possibly “the greatest game changer in the history of medicine” (Mar 19, 2020), Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University said, “The nail has virtually been put in the coffin of hydroxychloroquine” (May 11, 2020).

Just before the death-knell announcement, Dr. Hoffman notes, substantial evidence favoring early use of HCQ had been submitted for publication by Dr. Harvey Risch of Yale.

Dr. Anthony Fauci declared in congressional testimony on July 31, 2020, that evidence for benefit of HCQ was “flawed.”

“‘Flawed’ set the stage to arbitrarily omit favorable evidence, and ‘follow the science’ became follow the leader,” writes Dr. Hoffman. “In fact, all evidence is inherently flawed.”

Dr. Hoffman points out how inconsistencies and double standards reveal the FDA’s hypocrisy regarding HCQ and ivermectin (IVM). No concerns were raised over use of HCQ without electrocardiographic screening in patients with lupus or rheumatoid arthritis; steroid use in hospitalized COVID patients; or use of drugs indicated for diabetes, addiction, or autonomic dysfunction in patients with long COVID.

Paxlovid, he writes, has not been shown to be effective in hospitalized COVID patients, whereas the “flawed” study of HCQ demonstrated a greater than 60 percent benefit in reducing mortality.

“There is in fact a corpus of knowledge about the use of HCQ, IVM, and other off-label drugs, for example, at c19hcq.org, c19IVM.org18, and earlycovidcare.org,” Dr. Hoffman states. “Groups of scientists have relentlessly catalogued and updated results of every study (including both early and late treatment use) on HCQ and other orphaned medications such as IVM, since February 2020.”

Evidence for HCQ is “hidden in plain sight,” he concludes. “Evidentiary justice demands a full hearing. The great hypocrisy against early-use HCQ/IVM will put the nail in the coffin of trust.”

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.

Contact: Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, janeorientmd@gmail.com

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