Our book chapter on ivermectin has been published

and there is plenty of more good stuff in the book

I am pleased to report that our book chapter on ivermectin, that was co-authored with Professor Colleen Aldous and Dr. Phillip Oldfield, has been published in a book titled "Controversies in the pandemic" by Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers. The book can be purchased from the publisher's website, or through the available distributors indexed by Google Books. The book features a foreword by Dr. Randeep Guleria, the former director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. Because of the critical implications of the reported research on public health policy, United States Senator Ron Johnson and Robert F Kennedy, Jr both agreed to contribute additional forewords to the book. A preprint of our book chapter is available from UTRGV Scholarworks.

Our book chapter begins with a brief review of the history of the discovery of ivermectin by Professor Satoshi Omura, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, and explains in detail its mechanisms of action against COVID-19. What makes ivermectin particularly remarkable is that it targets all stages of the COVID-19 disease, including viral replication, the hyperinflammatory response to the toxic spike protein from both live and disabled viral particles, and the propensity of the spike protein to promote blood clots via glycan bindings between the spike protein and the sialoglycoproteins on the surface of red blood cells. Our chapter continues with an extensive review of the available clinical evidence in support of the efficacy of ivermectin against COVID-19, particularly when it is Incorporated in multidrug protocols. We conclude with a discussion of the propaganda against ivermectin that has been deployed by government agencies and certain corrupted private interests, which included the persecution by licensing and certification boards of medical doctors who have incorporated ivermectin and their treatment protocols. We also discuss the possibility of constructing a treatment protocol against Ebola by combining ivermectin and nebulized nanosilver as part of a broader multi-drug approach and explain why a vaccine approach to the illness is unlikely to succeed. The perspective presented by our book chapter complements well the extensive review papers on ivermectin and its applicability towards treating COVID-19 by Professor Satoshi Omura and colleagues.

It is very strange timing that I am writing this report on August 16, 2024. It was only a few days ago when the American Board of Internal Medicine announced that they revoked the certification for both Dr. Paul Marik and Dr. Pierre Kory, over their public statements concerning ivermectin. Both are brilliant medical doctors with a distinguished academic career and publication record. Furthermore, Dr. Paul Marik was one of the editors of the book that published our book chapter. More importantly, I remember well that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Dr. Paul Marik and colleagues were the only academic research group that were actively publishing monthly reports with narrative reviews of the emerging research literature on COVID-19, based on which they made evolving recommendations for treatment protocols that were updated on a month-to-month basis. Although there were a few other research groups investigating COVID-19 at the time, Dr. Marik and colleagues were doing a meticulous job formulating treatment protocols based on detailed literature narrative reviews, and continuously updating them as the pandemic progressed. In doing so, they have inadvertently shined a bright light on the ineptness and incompetence of our government agencies and the dereliction of duty exhibited by the overwhelming majority of academic institutions, that did not step up to do a comparable job on recommending emergency treatment protocols.

Our book chapter contains the following excerpt that is directly relevant to this current development:

The development of medical science must follow the scientific method, the core principle of which is that the sole judge of scientific truth is experiment, and more broadly the accumulated available empirical evidence, not the WHO, not the FDA, not the EMA, not the TNI, not the medical boards, not the news agencies, not social media companies, not governments. New fundamental discoveries often begin from a single practicing doctor formulating a hypothesis based on direct empirical observations from his efforts to save patients, combined with experience, inspiration, and insight. Article 37 of the 2013 Helsinki declaration codifies the ethics of the role of medical doctors in scientific discovery by stating that: "In the treatment of an individual patient, where proven interventions do not exist or other known interventions have been ineffective, the physician, after seeking expert advice, with informed consent from the patient or a legally authorised representative, may use an unproven intervention if in the physician's judgement it offers hope of saving life, re-establishing health or alleviating suffering. This intervention should subsequently be made the object of research, designed to evaluate its safety and efficacy. In all cases, new information must be recorded and, where appropriate, made publicly available."

New discoveries that begin with the sole practicing doctor, are then investigated, developed and published by academic scientists, and then public health agencies like the WHO, FDA, CDC, and others periodically evaluate and conduct systematic reviews of the resulting research literature, and news agencies may report the most impactful results to the general public. With scientific knowledge flowing from the practicing doctor, to academics, and then to the large public health agencies, it is a logical fallacy of circular reasoning for the public health agencies to accuse the practicing doctor or the academic researcher of disseminating misinformation, when the latter bring forth new scientific findings that are backed by the empirical evidence that conflict with the currently accepted consensus promulgated by the agencies. Just as it is unscientific for medical boards to give higher weight to the current scientific consensus or to opinions of public health organizations, when reviewing doctors whose diverging practices are backed by the empirical outcomes of their efforts. If doctors and academic researchers are not allowed to explore, communicate, and discover, under the ethical conditions of article 37 of the 2013 Helsinki Declaration, then the scientific method of discovery itself is disrupted, at the cost of increased suffering, hospitalization, and death.

To conclude, once you have a chance to review the table of contents, it will become apparent that the book includes a very diverse and interesting collection of book chapters by leading authors and that it will be an excellent addition to your library.

References

1.      C. Aldous, E. Gkioulekas, P. Oldfield, "Ivermectin", In: "Controversies in the Pandemic" (editors: J. Varon, P.E. Marik, M. Rendell, J. Iglesias, C. de Souza, P. Prabhudesai), Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers, New Delhi, India, 2024

2.      E. Gkioulekas, M. Rendell, H. Risch, R.B. Stricker: "An open letter to the American Board of Medical Specialties and the Federation of State Medical Boards: the destruction of member Boards' credibility", Journal of the American Physicians and Surgeons 27 (3) (2022), 65-68

3.      M. Yagisawa, P.J. Foster, H. Hanaki, S. Omura, "Global Trends in clinical studies of ivermectin in COVID-19", The Japanese Journal of Antibiotics 74 (1) (2021), 44-95

4.      M. Yagisawa, P.J. Foster, H. Hanaki, S. Omura, "Global Trends in clinical studies of ivermectin in COVID-19. Part 2", The Japanese Journal of Antibiotics 77 (1) (2024), 45-92

Book Table of Contents

Section 1: Controversies

Zahra Sethna, Paul E Marik: "The Totality of Evidence"

Johannes Scherling, Anouschka Foltz: "COVID-19 Censorship in the European Union: The Example of Austria"

Andrew C Berry: "COVID-19, Hydroxychloroquine, Politics, and Scientific Author Political Party Donation History-What could Possibly Go Wrong?"

Claudia Chaufan: ""You are not a Horse": Medicalization, Social Control, and Academic Discourse in the COVID-19 Era"

Abha Mahashur, Prahlad Prabhudesai: "Origin of COVID Pandemic: A Natural Calamity or Manmade Adventure"

Bineet Ahluwalia, Jalil Parkar: "Origins of COVID through the Indian Context"

Patrick Berche: "Gain-of-function and Origin of COVID-19"

Patrick Berche: "The Enigma of the 1889 Russian Flu Pandemic: A Coronavirus?"

Section 2: Nonpharmacologic interventions

Christine Filippone: "The Use of Masks in the Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission"

Ivan Fan-Ngai Hung: "Managing COVID-19 in Hong Kong: Lessons from SARS 2003 and Effective Strategies for Control"

Elaine Cardoso, Noah Fine, Michael Glogauer, Francis Johnson, Michael Goldberg, Lorne M Golub, Howard C Tenenbaum: "COVID-19 and Dentistry"

Tanvir Hussain, Aishan Patil: "The Evolving Role of Simulation in Surgical Training"

Bridgene Bonner: "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nursing"

Rajeev Jayadevan: "Immunology in COVID-19"

Carlos Valladeres, Jose Iglesias: "The Experience in the Making of COVID-19 Vaccines"

Marian P Laderoute: "Controversies Concerning the Immunology of the COVID-19 Adaptive Immunity Vaccines"

Suneela Garg, Shekhar Grover, Tanu Anand, Arvind Garg: "The COVID-19 Vaccine"

Section 3: Special issue of interest

Kavitha Natarajan: "The Art of Living"

Prahlad Prabhudesai, Nafeesath, Swapnil Chopade, Abha Mahashur: "Computed Tomography Thorax in COVID Management: A Rightfully Used or Misused Tool?"

Aishan Patil, Konstantinos Giannopolos, Tanvir Hussain: "Surgical Education and Training during the COVID-19 Pandemic"

Section 4: Therapies

Adriana Luzariaga, Jose Iglesias: "The Need to Revisit Hydroxychloroquine in Early Treatment Strategies of COVID-19"

Colleen Aldous, Eleftherios Gkioulekas, Philip Oldfield: "Ivermectin"

David E Scheim, Paola Vottero, Alessandro D Santin, Allen G Hirsh: "Sialylated Glycan Bindings from SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein to Blood and Endothelial Cells Govern the Severe Morbidities of COVID-19"

Priyaranjan Kata, Jose Iglesias: "Antivirals"

Francesco Salton, Marco Confalonieri, Gianfranco Umberto Meduri: "Glucocorticoids in Viral Pneumonia and COVID-19"

Jagan Mohan Rao Vanjarapu, Jose Iglesias: "Therapeutic Effects of Fluvoxamine in the Management of COVID-19"

Marc Rendell: "Randomized Placebo Controlled Trials in the COVID Era: A Question of Faith?"

Section 5: Complications

Ruchi S Raval, Nihal Sriramaneni, Sumul N Raval: "An Update on the Relationship between SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and its Neurological Manifestations"

Rajesh Mohan: "Myocarditis: COVID-19 and COVID-19 Vaccines"

Dan McDyer: "Injuries from the SARS CoV-2 Vaccines"

Christopher de Souza, Rosemarie de Souza: "Tracheostomy during COVID-19 Pandemic; To Do or Not To Do"

Anish Patil: "Telemedicine for Medical Students-Lessons Learnt from the Pandemic"

Ronald Neil Kostoff: "Censorship of the Biomedical Literature during the COVID-19 Era"