The battle against COVID may be over, but the war on medicine rages on. Too many practicing physicians have been targeted by medical authorities for making treatment decisions based on training and expertise, rather than blindly taking orders from the bureaucrats in Washington. Pushing conformity in medicine only hurts patients, and it needs to stop.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to see how this can happen without a regime change in D.C. Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration used the pandemic to usher in an unprecedented era of government power over health care decisions. When Fauci finally stepped down in December, many of us hoped this disastrous campaign would come to an end. But those hopes were dashed with the appointment of Jeanne Marrazzo as his successor to head the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The new boss might be even worse. A giddy Marrazzo described getting a COVID-19 vaccine as, “a lot like Christmas when I was a kid!”
Here's the new Dr. Fauci, Jeanne Marrazzo, giddy with anticipation of her first vaccine shot: "It felt a lot like Christmas when i was a kid!" selfies all around! pic.twitter.com/ES8fsL9kVT
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) August 2, 2023
She has also heralded Fauci for his “commitment to advancing science.” And Fauci predictably praised Marrazzo’s selection, assuring that she would “stick with data and facts” and warning that she will likely face “antagonism on the part of people with extreme views.”
That’s rich. While Marrazzo basks in the adulation of a fawning media, doctors doing the hard work on the frontlines are under attack. In the latest broadside, Dr. Paul Marik and I, cofounders of the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) just received a letter from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) threatening to revoke our medical certifications for spreading what the committee considers “false or inaccurate medical information.” Apparently, the vast amounts of published peer-reviewed, clinical, and observational data that we use to treat patients are not based on “consensus driven scientific evidence.”
Independent thinking has formed the foundation of medicine for a thousand years. Physicians apply the scientific method, test different approaches to heal patients, build on what works and ignore what doesn’t. And even when scientific insights are widely upheld, challenging of established beliefs has led to innumerable scientific advances throughout history. “Consensus driven scientific evidence” is a false notion whipped up during the pandemic to cudgel the regime’s political opponents — and it has been largely successful.
Our story is a telling case study, which I cover in detail in my new book, “The War on Ivermectin.” In December 2020, just a few weeks after I voted for Biden, I was invited to testify before a Senate Homeland Security Committee on early treatment of COVID-19 to discuss my experience treating patients with ivermectin and other repurposed, generic medicines. Two days later, the Associated Press ignored all the data I provided them, instead publishing a hit piece on ivermectin at a time when dozens of studies and health ministries around the world confirmed its efficacy. The video of my Senate appearance garnered 8 million views before YouTube removed it.
In the years since, endless attacks have been leveled at the FLCCC and me personally. Media hit jobs branded studied medical advice as “fringe,” “quack,” or “Right-wing” — despite the fact that at the time, I had been a lifelong Democrat voter. Newswire services refused to distribute our press releases. Our social media posts were removed, and our accounts were repeatedly suspended. PayPal refused to process our donations. Shopify denied sales of our branded clothing for donations. Medium, LinkedIn, and Vimeo shut down our channels.
The ABIM is only the latest organization to pile on, perpetuating the myth that ivermectin is dangerous without critically examining the scientific and clinical evidence. In its statement, the committee cited an NPR story that was later corrected for falsely claiming the drug was causing a surge in emergency room admittance. It also made false claims that ivermectin could be “fatal” while never mentioning the 99 controlled trials – 46 of them randomized controlled trials – that showed ivermectin is highly effective in treating COVID-19 with little to no reported side effects. These trials include over 130,000 patients successfully treated with no severe side effects, consistent with the World Health Organization’s finding that ivermectin ranks higher in safety than Tylenol or aspirin.
Guess who chairs the ABIM’s Council and Infectious Disease Specialty Board? None other than Dr. Marrazzo. Now, as the head of NIAID, she oversees a $6.3 billion dollar budget and will exert massive influence over policies that can impact every facet of our lives.
This is the world Fauci created, and this is the torch Marrazzo will carry forward. Our medical agencies desperately need an overhaul, and our professional societies need to be stripped of their newly created physician oversight powers. Doctors should be independent, fearless, and fact-based.
Pierre Kory, M.D., is president and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and the author of “The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic”.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.