by Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn
\nNOQ Report<\/p>\n
Fighting the pandemic, our top public health officials need the humility to learn from other countries.\u00a0 The constantly lauded Anthony Fauci should recognize what the national government of India, facing a major surge in COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths had the courage to do.\u00a0 Considering that Americans are still suffering and dying from COVID, the US should finally do what India did.\u00a0 Follow the science.\u00a0 Make cheap, effective generic medicines available to cure and prevent COVID.<\/p>\n
Over the past year a huge amount of real world data and accounts from frontline doctors pleading for the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin have been ignored.\u00a0 The whole story of how early home\/outpatient treatments based on generics saves lives is told in Pandemic Blunder<\/a>.\u00a0 In the history of medicine there has not been such a struggle to help people that has largely failed because of government resistance.\u00a0 With Fauci calling the shots, the US government has bet everything on much hated and mostly ineffective contagion controls, such as masking and lockdowns, and vaccines.<\/p>\n Never ignore the wisdom of following the money.\u00a0 Recently, Pfizer announced it expected 2021 sales of its COVID vaccine to reach a record-setting $26 billion, making it the biggest selling pharmaceutical product in the world.\u00a0 Add many billions more from the other vaccine producers.\u00a0 There was no financial incentive to promote wide use of the cheap generics.\u00a0 Look back at past months and over 580,000 American deaths and incalculable pain and suffering.\u00a0 As we approach 600,000 COVID deaths did the US really use the smartest pandemic management strategy?<\/p>\n India is a kind of mystery.\u00a0 Note that India has 28 states and a 1.4 billion population.\u00a0 Until recently India was praised for winning the battle against COVID.\u00a0 What was the basis for praise?\u00a0 There was widespread use of the two generic medicines pushed by some India states.<\/p>\n Also, in early 2020 the national government distributed<\/a> over 100 million pills of hydroxychloroquine, promoting use for healthcare workers and household contacts of confirmed COVID cases, but not the general population.<\/p>\n As recently as February 2021 a headline<\/a> was \u201cIs India the new success story of coronavirus pandemic?\u201d\u00a0 This was observed: \u201cBased solely on facts, it\u2019s safe to say that India is now emerging as a success story in fighting COVID-19, far from \u2018bungling\u2019 the pandemic response.\u201d\u00a0 Also noted was that India was on track to be the second largest vaccine producer, just behind the US.\u00a0 It looked as if the pandemic in India was nearly over.\u00a0 In the preceding months there had been many reports on the successful use of ivermectin to cure and prevent COVID, as it replaced hydroxychloroquine that had previously been used successfully.<\/p>\n Moreover, it was reported<\/a> that with sharp sales increases in 2020 5 billion pills of zinc, vitamin C and other supplements had been used as \u201cpeople rushed to buy these pills to protect against the fast spreading Covid-19.\u201d\u00a0 This too has happened in the US.<\/p>\n Less than three months later, on May 1, a headline<\/a> was \u201cIndia sets pandemic record with more than 400,000 new cases.\u201d\u00a0 The sub-headline was \u201cAnthony Fauci, the Biden administration\u2019s chief medical adviser, says the situation is like a war.\u201d\u00a0 Ignoring considerable evidence that lockdowns have more costs than benefits, Fauci as fearmonger-in-chief advised a nationwide shutdown.\u00a0 Like all the bad-news stories, there was no solid explanation of why India had transformed from a big success to a calamity.\u00a0 There was speculation about insufficient vaccinations, large gatherings and possible new variants of the COVID virus.\u00a0 But no attention to whether use of cheap generics was replaced by vaccine optimism.<\/p>\n This is the India mystery: What happened in just a few months to go from pandemic success to disaster?\u00a0 The answer lies in what the India government did recently.<\/p>\n Jerri Lynn reported<\/a> on May 2 \u201cthe huge uncontrolled wave of infections hitting India is having all sorts of implications for the Modi government.\u00a0 In its desperation to regain control of the virus, India\u2019s government quietly changed<\/a> its treatment guidelines last week. \u00a0The new guidelines include the option of prescribing two repurposed medicines for mild Covid patients: budesonide and ivermectin.\u00a0 The former is an inhaled steroid that has been shown to reduce the time to recovery and need for urgent medical care.\u201d<\/p>\n Also noted was that \u201cUttar Pradesh (UP) [the largest state in the India union with 220 million people] did more than treat 300,000 mild cases at home through 2020; it also opted to use ivermectin to prevent infection. \u00a0COVID response teams began taking the drug and they did not catch the illness. \u00a0UP then had contacts of COVID patients take it, with similar success. \u201c<\/p>\n The bad news: \u201cYet UP\u2019s remarkable success at controlling the virus did not inform national policy \u2014 at least not until now. \u00a0The Indian Council of Medical Research declined in October<\/a> to recommend ivermectin nationwide, citing, like so many health regulators, the need for more data. \u00a0But all that changed last week as India became the biggest country on the planet to adopt nationwide use of ivermectin against Covid-19.\u201d\u00a0 We have enough data.<\/p>\n A February 2021 research study<\/a> that used ivermectin for prevention in 2020 found for nearly 4,000 India health care workers it \u201creduces the risk of COVID-19 infection by 83% in the following month. \u00a0Safe, effective, and low-cost chemoprophylaxis have relevance in the containment of pandemic alongside vaccine.\u201d\u00a0 What worked for healthcare workers could work for the general population.\u00a0 And a new comprehensive review of data<\/a> concluded that ivermectin \u201cshould be globally and systematically deployed in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.\u201d\u00a0 One of the authors stressed that by using ivermectin widely \u201cwe can end this pandemic once and for all,\u201d<\/p>\n Media coverage of the India surge is bleak, with no attention to the generics issue.\u00a0 Accounting for population, the data for cases is over seven times worse in the US, and deaths are 30 times worse (though under counting of India deaths seems likely).<\/p>\n The India pandemic mystery is explained by this: With a huge financial payoff looming from COVID vaccine production, some of which was exported, India ignored cheap generics and bet everything on vaccines, despite the enormous difficulty of quickly vaccinating much of the 1.4 billion population.\u00a0 People may have also stopped using supplements that increase immunity.<\/p>\n Facing reality, the central government yielded and recognized previous success of generics.\u00a0 If they are made easily available they could work and pandemic statistics should greatly improve.<\/p>\n Fauci, please learn from India.\u00a0 Belatedly restore medical freedom and remove the blocks to using cheap generics.\u00a0 Stop betting everything on experimental COVID vaccines not yet approved by the FDA that millions of Americans should not be compelled to take.\u00a0 Millions have effective immunity from past COVID infection and millions more are young and healthy with no significant COVID risk.<\/p>\n Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn, as a full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, directed a medical research program between the colleges of engineering and medicine. At the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors Association, he directed major health-related studies. He has testified at over 50 U.S. Senate and House hearings and authored hundreds of articles in journals and on websites, plus op-ed articles in major newspapers. He has been an executive volunteer at a major hospital for more than 10 years. His newest book is <\/em>PandemicBlunder<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
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