Ivermectin's merchants in the dock

At long last, some not so light touch regulation of misinformation mongers....

Pandemic management was, and will be made more difficult, particularly in the USA, by high-profile doctors who became celebrities, turned their back on science and ethics to forge new and lucrative careers spreading misinformation, reverse educating patients and causing harm.

Pierre Kory and Paul Malik are two prominent doctors at the frontline of publicising misinformation on vaccines.  They lead the FLCCC (Frontline Critical Care Alliance), a prominent organisation which promoted Ivermectin and a host of other evidence free medicines for COVID19 (and the next pandemic no doubt). At last, they have had their board certification for Internal medicine removed.

FLCCC merchandise - not big on modesty!

Consequences

This means they will certainly not be “Front Line” or involved in ‘Critical Care’ again; the ruling means they can no longer work in a hospital and will not be funded by Insurance companies. So, while it’s not the same as being struck off the GMC register in the UK, (which they would be) it’s still a signifiant punishment for doctors who have spread such blatant disinformation when protection against COVID19 was needed the most. They can still practice medicine in their own clinics if they maintain state level licenses, so I don’t think it goes far enough, but it’s something. But….

Victimhood pays

As usual, this action leads to classic antivaxx claims of:

• victimhood and persecution

• suppression of open debate and the free flow of ideas,

• censorship and the denial of free speech

• medical freedom is under attack

• they are only protecting the ‘doctor-patient’ relationship.

• that those prosecuting them are a part of the medico-industrial complex, in the pocket of Big Pharma, or paid by Bill Gates.

The kudos enhances their status on the right wing social media circuits as the little guys under attack and will make lots of money from speaker fees, books, appearances and set up their own lucrative clinics for a regular income.

$$$$$$$$$

Kory had already set up a lucrative private clinic where people pay to have their vaccine injuries, real or imagined ‘treated’ as well as Flu and RSV infections. They will also ‘help’ people they have scared with spike protein fear-mongering which are no longer in your system, give advice about weight and diet and an assortment of other maladies all at the prices below.

This clip from their website shows that its not cheap:

​“Initial care for long-haul COVID or vaccine injury includes an initial 60 minute video visit, and two 30 minute follow up video visits during a four month time frame. Skilled support via messaging and phone calls is provided by our nursing team during that time.

Cost is $1950 for NPs [new patients] and $2350 for Dr. Kory”.

That equates to about $1,000/hr. Why would anyone want to waste so much money is a question that I find so interesting. Thats for another day.

Marik too has also gone AWOL from the world of real medicine. He has branched off into full blown quackery with a dangerous book on repurposed drugs for cancer, whose main title is “Cancer Care”. Now deciding to be a oncologist, even though he spent much of his real career in respiratory disease and sepsis, his claim that 95% of chemotherapy is ‘palliative” is dangerous to anyone who may believe it and much to the angst of real oncologists.

More than once I have seen the effect of delays in diagnosis and treatment in cancer treatment who are taken in by such dangerous nonsense. That is comes from a doctor is beyond the pale.

Same as its always been

Peter McCullough, another celebrity antivaxxer has set up the “Wellness Company” which will sell you a pack called the “Contagion Emergency Pack” containing Ivermectin and other drugs he has touted as cheap and safe alternatives to vaccination for a whopping $325. Incredibly, it seems you can order this just by clicking a few buttons, no questions asked.

There are echoes too from the godfather of antivaccination - Andrew Wakefield. He was struck off by the GMC for gross misbehaviour after fraudulently linking MMR vaccines to autism. When the judgement was handed down, he was already in the USA grabbing an immediate celebrity status in antivax circles.

He set up a clinic nauseatingly called “Thoughtful House” where useless treatments would remove significant amounts of cash from desperate parents with autistic children conned into believing his ‘cures’. Even they had to remove him, drop any mention of his name and have morphed into offering dubious various psychological therapies for Autism.  

Nonetheless, his celebrity status in antivaccine circles continued. He went on to direct a film called “Vaxxed” produced by Del Bigtree who produced the equally nonsensical Vaxxed 2 with who else but RFK jr. It’s hard to find out how many people watched this nonsense, but it’s likely to be many millions.

On and on

So, this won’t be the end of the Ivermectin story, it will bubble away as a part of pandemic folklore, continue to be a cash cow for those who can reasonably be called Quacks, be touted as a cause celebre for the uptight alt -right and will, no doubt, resurface when the next pandemic comes along.

Nevertheless, the loss of the certification matters in this sense. It means that American doctors who want to work in or have access to hospitals and be funded by insurance companies will have to be very careful before jumping on the pseudoscience bandwagon.

Loudly proclaiming individual opinions represent the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth and that anyone disagreeing with them is lying, in cahoots with Big Pharma or just brainwashed carries a risk to your career. As it should.

Don’t be fooled

For anyone who was tempted by Ivermectin or fell for its allure, then look carefully at the research again, think critically and please have respect for consensus in science which defines the best current thinking and rightly marginalises those who believe they are right and everyone else is wrong.