The Philippines is currently undergoing one of the longest lockdowns in the world due to COVID with ever increasing debt and economic collapse. With the ever growing tensions for almost 2 years, is it really a small virus that is keeping people at bay from normal or could it be some other factors and players that may either present itself as incompetent or malevolent. These series will be divided into 4 different parts as this series will explore the COVID psychosis.
The censorship and suppression of science and scientific debate has been rampant throughout this lockdown period in treating COVID-19 and has been both a nationwide and global crisis. In a situation such as this, one would expect that our public officials and health care workers to be open to any treatments possible for the betterment of health and ending this crisis but unfortunately that is not the case as different treatments especially the early treatments have been suppressed either incompetently or malevolently both globally and nationally.
Hydroxychloroquine mixed with Politics
One drug that has been getting the attention early on during the COVID lockdown was hydroxychloroquine. Early on in the lockdown in 2020, US President at that time Donald Trump has talked about the drug towards the media as possible treatment in combating COVID as he heard reports from several medical doctors that it worked in treating COVID patients. Ever since he has talked about the drug, mainstream news outlets and major health institutions backlashing Trump (Figure 1) on the drug as this drug was unproven and has questionable effectiveness causing mass confusion and hysteria towards the public about this topic. This influence reached as well in the Philippines as the Department of Health (DOH) stopped the hydroxychloroquine trials under the orders of the World Health Organization (WHO) and resumed it after the go-signal from WHO due to the underlying issues the drug presents according to the WHO.
With all the backlash being questionable and unproven however, hydroxychloroquine does have 65 year history of being a safe and effective drug and was even approved by the United Stated Food and Drug Administration (FDA) without limitation meaning that doctors can prescribe it even if the drug is off-label. The drug itself is listed in the WHO’s list of essential medicines in preventing and treating malaria and the drug has been distributed globally for that cause.
In regards to it being used to treat COVID, the drug has 32 early treatment studies with a decently good success rate at 64% with 31 studies showing success and only 1 study showing harm (Figure 2). In addition to this, the drug can even be much more effective with a good combination of treatments which may include zinc and Zithromax in both prophylaxis and early treatment. As of January 16, 2022, hydroxychloroquine has over 300 studies from over 4,000 scientists being treated in over 50 countries in combating COVID with different doctors and physicians using different combinations of this drug and other drugs and supplements that can benefit the patient.
We may not for certain as to why hydroxychloroquine had immense backlash early in the lockdown. But plenty point to the reason of politics as plenty of attacks of this drug specifically at Trump causing polarization in the American political landscape as at that time the 2020 elections were coming up. In the Philippines, why have the local DOH, FDA, and most government officials have not been very vocal about this drug and the cocktail of treatments. It could have probably be because the 2022 Philippine elections are on the horizon who truly knows.
The Ivermectin Debacle
Early 2021 with the vaccines having a slow rollout from the government, other alternative treatments were starting to trend much in order to combat the lockdowns. One of these treatments is this non-patented drug in Ivermectin. Ivermectin is a non-patented drug that was discovered as human treatment by a Japanese biochemist in Satoshi Omura in collaboration with MERCK scientist William Campbell in 1978. It was initially used as an anti-parasitic drug which initiated in the early 1980s and is used to treat different tropical diseases. It is famous in treating against onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. The drug has been distributed over 3.7 billion times globally and it showed very minimal risk making it one of the most extremely safest drugs created and got a Nobel Prize in 2015. This drug first initiated attention in a US Senate testimony in Dec 2020 by Dr. Pierre Kory President of the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care (FLCCC) Alliance as him and the FLCCC treated plenty of critical COVID patients and were saved by early treatment of ivermectin and other combination of medications and supplements. Unfortunately, Kory and the FLCCC gotten backlash from mainstream press with the likes of AP News, BBC, New York Times. The National Health Institute (NIH) headed by Anthony Fauci who are in charge in treating COVID-19 patients treat during these lockdowns have not considered nor added ivermectin as possible treatment in their recommendations (Figure 6). Ivermectin as of January 14, 2022 has 92 peer reviewed studies and counting with 30+ randomized controlled trials and 75 studies comparing treatment and control groups (Figure 3) and is a drug that is used together with other treatments including Vitamin C, D3, fluvoxamine, melatonin, and many more combinations to treat early COVID patients. The FLCCC Alliance have different and versatile treatment protocols for COVID can be found in their website from early to late treatment.
In the Philippines, Dr. Allan Landrito has gotten attention in saving and treating over 100,000+ COVID patients and counting with his different protocols which includes Ivermectin and other treatments which includes the likes of vitamin C & D3. He also does Zoom meeting consultations twice a week for free open to everyone. He is also part of the local grassroots group Concerned Doctors and Citizens of the Phippines (CDCPH) in working behind their I-Protect protocols for early treatment which includes ivermectin and other medications and supplements to avoid hospitalization.
With all of this however, back in March 2021 he was targeted by the local Philippine FDA for dispensing Ivermectin due to it being unregistered (Figure 3). However in his Senate hearing, Landrito explained his case in that he followed the law and submitted his requirements towards the FDA for an Emergency Used Authorization and the FDA neglected his requirements commenting that his requirements are not clear enough. This showed a case of red-taping towards Dr. Landrito and this was caught by the attention of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) as they stated that the FDA must be pro-active in assisting Landrito in the ivermectin applications and will be keeping an eye on other possible medications and treatments that aid in the COVID crisis.
The FDA has also released a statement in regards to ivermectin around March 2021 (Figure 4) as they stated that they do not recommend ivermectin in treating COVID-19 as it did not reduce mortality or improve other clinical outcomes. As the FDA made this case, the issue with this is the fact that the FDA has only cited 5 studies regarding ivermectin and ignoring the other 20-30+ studies of ivermectin that time and having a balanced judgment on it. What is strange as well is the fact that ivermectin has a history of being strongly part of the Philippine Drug Formulary by the Department of Health for a while and in fact is listed as an essential medicine and these were approved by both heads of the DOH and FDA in Francisco Duque and Eric Domingo respectively (Figure 5).
With the studies of ivermectin doubling since March 2021, the FDA and the Deparment of Health in the Philippines (DOH) still follow similar guidelines to this day as when the of quarantines in March 2020 with just isolation and quarantine for 2 weeks without any basis or studies as to of the figures of the origin of 2 weeks. Importantly, the FDA and DOH are ignoring the fact of early treatment of patients such as ivermectin and other medications and supplements in avoiding hospitalization which can help in the COVID crisis even more and possibly ending this.
The Remdesivir Saga & COVID Protocols
In treating COVID-19 one of the drugs that sparked controversy is the anti-viral drug remdesivir. Anthony Fauci and the National Institute of Health (NIH) recommended its use of this Non-FDA approved drug in order to treat COVID-19 patients with its previous history of it being used as an anti-viral famously with the likes of ebola. The drug was approved early on by the head of the National Anthony Fauci early on April 2020 under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). At the White House meeting with at that time US President Donald Trump, Fauci was optimistic towards Donald Trump regarding the results stating "The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery." Fauci and the NIH would include remdesivir in the panel’s recommendations in treating COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized (Figure 6). This started the spark around the drug and the local FDA of the Philippines would later on accept this under Compassionate Special Permit in treating COVID-19 patients.
However there were issues regarding the use of remdesivir as it has a history of causing fatal side-effects on patients. A relevant randomized, controlled trial study of remdesivir in Africa on ebola that was quoted by Fauci himself and NIH showed that remdesivir was pulled out of the study together with ZMapp due to their high death rate as remdesivir showed an approximate 53% death rate in the study (Figure 7).
Another notable study of the compassionate use of remdesivir in severe COVID-19 patients (Figure 8) which was a funded study by company making the drug itself in Gilead Sciences showed that 23% of the total patients were reported to have serious side effects from the drug and these side-effects include the likes of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and acute kidney injury which are coincidentally the signs of dying COVID patients and the causes of death of the so-called COVID victims. And on top of that, 8% of the patients in the study had to discontinue the use of remdesivir due to it worsening the patient’s condition.
With all of these findings, these raised plenty of red flags in regards to the use of remdesivir. These red flags include why have Fauci and the NIH until this day still use remdesivir to treat hospitalized patients and why the high charge of remdesivir which is charged to up to $3,000 US Dollars on a patient. Similar problems can be addressed in the Philippines as to why the local DOH, FDA, and several hospitals are not speaking up properly about the issue of remdesivir as even the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly advices to stop the use of remdesivir. Overpricing is also an issue which can go as high as P25,000 in treating a patient while cheap and effective alternatives such as ivermectin is as low as P30-50 per tablet with ivermectin being only taken 1-2x a week due to its effectiveness. Several politicians also raised and filed such concern such as Congressmen Dante Marcoleta and Mike Defensor together with lawyer Atty. Larry Gadon.
In addition to the issues that remdesivir has presented, this leads to issues regarding treatment of COVID patients and most especially in hospitals and this raises a question on whether most of the COVID patients truly passed due to COVID or medical negligence. In early April 2021, a PhilHealth circular document signed by DOH head Francisco Duque circulated nationwide and has even reached to mainstream personalities such as Raffy Tulfo. This circular document PHilHealth circular no. 2020-0009 (Figure 9) states that if a patient has PhilHealth insurance card and the patient has declared to have COVID by the hospital, the patient will be benefitted by PhilHealth with a lofty depending on the severity of the case. The price may range starting from around P44,000 with mild pneumonia to as high P786,000 with critical pneumonia. This raises the issue of profit over patient as this opens up the possibilities of hospitals doing possible shady schemes in order to get high payment from PhilHealth which may include declaring the person having COVID falsely. One particular incident proved this case as there was a case of a grandmother in Palawan who passed away around March 2021 and she was declared a COVID death. Her family afterwards started making complaints towards their hospital in Palawan regarding the lucrative price of their hospital bill as they were charged over P780,000(Figure 9). They were wondering also why they had to pay an exorbitant amount of over P230, 000 on professional fees to their assigned doctor who treated their grandmother. It never made sense until you compare the hospital bill with PhilHealth Circular 2020-009. The family of the grandmother stated that their grandmother had PhilHealth insurance and was diagnosed with COVID-19 and Pneumonia Stage 4 (C19IP4). In addition, the price in the circular aligned with the hospital bill of the grandmother at P786, 384 which is a bigger proof that the PhilHealth circular is a corrupt scheme that cares about money and profits over serving the people and giving the proper treatments and this was further addressed by Raffy Tulfo a few days after this incident was released on the first week of April 2021.
The Rise of Molnupiravir
News were spreading as MERCK was on the way in making a drug that can combat COVID and this drug is what we all know as molnupravir. This drug is a Phase 3 experimental drug from MERCK and was approved by the US FDA under EUA. The drug would later on get the go-signal in the local Philippine FDA for EUA use as well last December 2021. Ever since its popularity rose nationally especially with the rising cases entering the New Year causing most areas in the Philippines to go under Alert Level 3. Government officials and politicians have been strongly advocating this drug’s use with the likes of Mayor Isko Moreno and Vice-President Leni Robredo (Figure 11).
However concerns also are rising in regards to the safety of molnupiravir. The India Council for Health (ICRH) has recently issued concerns in regards to this experimental drug. They found that the US FDA approved this drug based on only 3% moderate reduction of COVID based on 1,433 patients. They also found concerns that the drug may cause both short and long-term risks such teratogenicity which may birth defects, mutagenicity which may lead to damage in one’s genes such as cancer, and cartilage damage which can damage the muscles. Expert pharmacologist and pathologist Dr. David Wiseman, who had connections and knowledge behind the US FDA Committee approval process of the drug, presented the committee presentation. He presented and stated in summary that the drug has genotoxicity in that it may cause damage to one’s DNA/RNA and mutagenic agents that may cause mutation which may possibly lead to cancer (Figure 12) although the long-term effects are still yet to be known.
With the risks stated, the question now lies as to why the local DOH and FDA have not pushed through and addressed these concerns which may affect thousands to possibly even millions of Filipinos? Why do Isko Moreno, Leni Robredo, or any other government officials promoting this drug stay silent about the risks? Are they pressured not to release such information or is it simply they just want to make a good impression upon the Filipino masses as both are aspiring Presidential candidates?
So What Now?
Now knowing that early treatments have been suppressed by bureaucrats, public health officials, and the medical establishment for a while, one would wonder how many COVID deaths would have been prevented. Dr. Peter McCullogh who is one of the most certified cardiologist with over 1000 publications and 600 citations which includes COVID-19 treatment stated that 85% of the COVID deaths would have been prevented if the patient was given early and proper treatment which include the likes of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. With 5.54 million supposed deaths from COVID worldwide and over 50,000 deaths in the Philippines as of January 16, 2022 it seems demoralizing as to how many of these lives including our loved ones would have been saved if there was not any manipulation and suppression and that there would be open discussions with experts on as to how to handle this crisis.
With this in mind, questions arise in people’s heads. Why would FDA and DOH suppress early and affordable treatment? Would my loved ones who supposedly passed of COVID be here today? How many people are still foreign to this information? Why have our public officials like Isko Moreno, Leni Robredo and others have not been open to early treatment and having discussions with local grassroots groups such as Dr. Landrito and CDCPH and implementing their protocols that saved countless numbers of lives and are asking for their voices be heard? Is this truly a pandemic since COVID can be easily treatable with cheap and early treatment and having a 98-99% survival rate on top cheap and early everyday treatment? With all of these questions and knowing this information, it is up for you to conclude and decide.
- Written by Code Black
Abella has been consistent in his anti mandatory vax stance. In a couple of interviews including the last one by Comelec, he even went as far as mentioning the vax rollout related death surge. You should see the look on Ed Linggao’s face. It was gold. Sad that the vaccine free community did not back this guy up.
An additional to knowledge and Yes this is really business and politically motivated...and Yes to ivermectin we'vee been using this in the family 6 months ago and it's really effective... Thank you DinigPH for your program. God Bless!