Doctors Face Disciplinary Action for COVID-19 Treatments

Physicians prescribing ivermectin and other off-label treatments to patients afflicted with COVID-19 are under investigation and facing other forms of disciplinary action in several states, including Arkansas, Minnesota, and Virginia.

Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), since March 2021, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), since August 2021, have warned against the use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin in treating patients for COVID-19. This has led hospitals and other local health care systems to ban ivermectin for use in COVID-19 patients. Doctors who persist in prescribing ivermectin face serious repercussions.

Physicians Under Fire

Physicians have been penalized in a variety of ways for treating their patients for COVID-19 with ivermectin, numerous news reports confirm.

Paul Marik, M.D., who served as professor of medicine and chief pulmonary and critical care medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), was suspended from his privileges at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for 14 days in December for advocating ivermectin. On January 4, Marik resigned his position at EVMS to devote more attention to the Front-Line Critical Care Alliance (FLCCA), a group he helped found.

The Arkansas Medical Board launched an investigation in August of Robert Karas, M.D., who provides services to the Madison County jail, after it was revealed that he had prescribed ivermectin to 531 high-risk inmates over 40. Karas is also being sued by four of the inmates he treated.

Scott Jensen, M.D. is undergoing his fifth investigation by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice, which is seeking the medical records of the patients to whom he has prescribed ivermectin.

One state is providing legal protection to doctors whose treatment of COVID-19 patients strays from federal guidance. In October, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson issued a legal opinion saying his office will not seek disciplinary action against physicians who prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine as off-label medicines to treat or prevent COVID-19 if they are not engaging in any misconduct.

‘One of the Safest Drugs in History’

  The government’s hostility to ivermectin is astounding, says Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, which co-publishes Health Care News.

“It is shocking to see physicians threatened for prescribing one of the safest drugs in history, available over the counter in many countries, which has been used by hundreds of millions of people and saved millions of lives,” said Orient.

“Although its primary use has been as an antiparasitic, it also has antiviral properties plus other mechanisms of action that likely benefit COVID patients at later stages of the disease,” said Orient. “Like all drugs, it has potential side effects, particularly in overdose. But unlike with Tylenol and other common drugs that generate thousands of calls to poison control centers, every single call about ivermectin probably generated a news article even if the patient was unharmed—as in most cases.”

What has happened with ivermectin, with its potential benefit and record of safety, amounts to a coverup by health agencies, says Orient.

“Is it because much more expensive drugs—Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s molnupiravir—are becoming available?” asked Orient. “And because [ivermectin] might be preferred to the extremely profitable genetically engineered vaccines, or might have kept them from getting an emergency use authorization (EUA)?”

Under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, an EUA can be issued to a new drug or treatment when “there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives.”

 “How can anyone justify paying hospitals $7,000 to give remdesivir—or bullying patients into taking it, when there is scant evidence of benefit and very serious adverse effects, especially renal failure,” said Orient. “Medical ethics are being turned on their head.”.

Freedom of Speech

Because many physicians have not only prescribed ivermectin but have also spoken out in favor of its use, the effort to discipline them raises serious issues of free speech, says Craig Rucker, president of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).

“In his Farewell Address in January 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned of the dangers of giving the government too much power in determining science policy,” said Rucker.  “Once government officials had adopted certain views on science policy and disbursed research funds accordingly, the federal bureaucracy had a stake in those policies, irrespective of their merit. Dissenting opinions were not welcome and were liable to be suppressed.”

This is now happening with COVID-19, says Rucker.

“Vaccines and boosters are preferred to readily available, and often cheaper, treatments. Doctors know more about the needs of their patients than bureaucrats ever will, but that accounts for little when the government runs the show,” said Rucker.

“The media often has lent a helping hand in demonizing contrarian voices,” said Rucker. “An open and informed exchange of medical views is not something we want to suppress. Yet this is exactly what has happened under COVID. This is the same pattern we have seen in the debate over climate change. Those who the reining orthodoxy are branded ‘climate deniers,’” said Rucker. “Ike was right.”