One would not know from the media silence, but there was significant positive news about the successes of early COVID treatment at the Senate hearings, chaired by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), “Early Outpatient Treatment: An Essential Part of a COVID-19 Solution,” Part I on November 19 and Part II on December 8.
The extraordinary clinical trial data presented in both hearings showed marked reductions in hospitalizations and deaths with combined outpatient treatment with anti-infective/anti-virals, immune-modulating drugs, and anticoagulants plus vitamin D, zinc, vitamin C and other nutraceuticals. This could have been a huge lift to the spirits of the American people, who have been living locked down in fear for most of 2020. But no media outlet except C-Span bothered to cover it.
The expert witnesses were nine stellar frontline physician-scientists representing medical centers across the U.S., who have collectively treated several thousand COVID patients and who have published more than 2,000 peer-reviewed medical studies over their careers: Dr. Peter McCullough, cardiologist and epidemiologist, vice chair of internal medicine at the Baylor University and professor of medicine at Texas A&M University; Dr. Harvey Risch, professor of epidemiology at Yale University; Dr. George Fareed, medical director of the Pioneers Health Center in Brawley, Calif.; Dr. Ramin Oskoui, cardiologist and 2015 physician of the year at Sibley Memorial Hospital; Dr. Jean-Jacques Rajter, pulmonary medicine specialist at Broward Health Medical Center; Dr. Pierre Kory, pulmonary medicine/critical care specialist at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center and member of the Frontline Covid Critical Care Coalition; Dr. Armand Balboni, CEO of Appili Therapeutics; Dr. Jane Orient, executive director, Association of American Physicians & Surgeons; Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.
I was shocked to see the professional and personal attacks on dedicated physicians of such depth of knowledge and breadth of experience. Their diversity of medical specialties and the enormous numbers of patients they had successfully treated contrasted sharply with the inexperience of the one self-described “COVID expert,” Dr. Jha, academic dean of the Brown University School of Public health, who was called by Democrats. Dr. Jha had to admit that he had never treated a single COVID patient or produced a single published, peer-reviewed medical article on the COVID illness. As documented in his appointment announcement at Brown University, Dr. Jha receives funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is aggressively pushing mass vaccination as the primary solution for COVID.
The Democrat Minority Leader on the committee spoke only to the minority witness and did not ask a single question of the nine experts who had actually treated COVID patients and were involved in clinical studies, including randomized controlled clinical trials, on COVID. His remarks attempted to deflect the focus of the hearing from early treatment—which could save thousands of lives and reduce the burden on hospitals—to rehash the failed lockdowns and mask mandates for contagion control methods in effect since February.
Never before have the combined force of the FDA, NIH, and CDC totally aligned against implementation of the earliest treatment possible for an illness, particularly a viral illness. All of our efforts in medicine, especially viral illness, have always been focused on the earliest diagnosis and treatment. For the NIH, in its October 9 guidelines, to recommend NO treatment at all unless the patient was critically ill and needed to be hospitalized and on oxygen, is particularly egregious and unconscionable.
These “delay until critically ill” policies have made no sense, have been dangerously wrong, and have cost more than 275,000 American lives—one of the highest death rates per million population of any country in the world, despite our expensive medications and sophisticated medical facilities.
Dozens of more impoverished countries, with far less sophisticated medical infrastructure, have death rates per million that are ten times lower than the U.S. These countries implemented the same early treatment approaches presented in the two Senate hearings and outlined in the free eBooklet for patients, available at www.CovidPatientGuide.com, published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Many Americans have legitimate questions about the novel vaccines being so heavily promoted. Even if the vaccines live up to their promise and do not prove to have unacceptable long-term side effects, thousands are dying NOW. Bureaucrats ignore the fact that vaccines do not help people already sick with COVID. Sick patients need immediate combination prescription medications –which frontline physicians have been courageously doing since February, in spite of political, bureaucratic, and media opposition and intimidation.
It is past time for the media and elected officials pushing the vaccine agenda to admit their failures to educate the public about other treatment options that have been successful worldwide since March.
The true gift to the American people for this Christmas-Hanukkah season, would be to widely publicize the successful early treatments, allow patients the freedom to choose one’s treatment, all Americans the freedom to choose to assemble, worship, work again and enjoy life. The early treatment options Senator Johnson so courageously showcased in his two Senate hearings would indeed offer Americans a gift of hope, and a return to our core freedoms.
Dr. Vliet has practiced medicine independent of insurance contracts that interfere with patient-physician relationships and decision-making. Dr. Vliet focus is medical freedom and free market approaches to healthcare. Dr. Vliet is the founder of Vive Life Center and Hormone Health Strategies with medical practices in Tucson AZ and Dallas TX. Dr. Vliet is a 2014 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient for her national and international educational efforts in health, wellness, and endocrine aging in men and women. Dr. Vliet is the recipient of Voice of Women Award from Arizona Foundation for Women.
Dr. Vliet’s consumer health books include: It’s My Ovaries, Stupid; Screaming To Be Heard: Hormonal Connections Women Suspect– And Doctors STILL Ignore; Women, Weight and Hormones; The Savvy Woman’s Guide to PCOS, The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Great Strength, and Stamina.
Dr. Vliet is a past Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a member of the AAPS Editorial Writing Team on healthcare reform, and a member of International Menopause Society and the International Society for The Study of the Aging Male (ISSAM).