NIH is still unsure whether fluvoxamine should be used to treat COVID

More evidence of corruption at the NIH. I couldn't find a scientist that would be willing to defend the NIH's recommendation in a recorded interview.

The NIH recently acknowledged that fluvoxamine completed a Phase 3 study showing it works that was published in the Lancet Global Health. The study noted that “there was one death in the fluvoxamine group and 12 in the placebo group for the per-protocol population (OR 0·09; 95% CI 0·01–0·47).”

In plain English, if you started the drug early (shortly after symptoms) and you took at least 80% of the doses you were told to take (which means you stopped caffeine and alcohol which would impact compliance), you reduced chance of death by an astonishing factor of 12X.

I wasn’t surprised by this. I was very involved with the study David Seftel did at Golden Gate fields and there everyone who got the drug returned to normal within a few days, a far cry from the group who refused the drug who ended up hospitalized or dead. Everyone who worked at the racetrack could see the astonishing difference. So this wasn’t a case of observer bias. And it was the sick people who opted for the drug. So there the bias worked against the drug and it still was amazing.

The NIH basically dismissed the fluvoxamine study as I predicted they would saying that the per-protocol analysis was arbitrary and other excuses. In short, a lot of mumbo jumbo. They left their recommendation of fluvoxamine at NEUTRAL.

I asked some scientists who worked on the fluvoxamine studies what they thought of the NIH analysis and they said it was “disappointing.” I asked if I could interview them on the record where I could ask them questions and the answer was no, just like I expected. Basically, if they spoke out against the NIH, no more NIH grants for them ever again.

At least a few people weren’t afraid of expressing their displeasure (Clayton Fox, Marty Makary, and Jeffrey Klausner).

Can you see the difference between fluvoxamine and placebo? The NIH cannot.

Have a look. This is a figure from the Lancet paper (Phase 3 fluvoxamine trial). The NIH basically looked at this and couldn’t figure out whether the drug works at all. To them, the placebo and fluvoxamine are identical. No signal there.

Can you see the difference between wearing a mask and not wearing a mask? The NIH can!

Consider masks by contrast. The CDC has advised everyone to wear a mask. Here is what the highly acclaimed Bangladesh mask study showed for purple cloth masks:

According to the CDC that’s a HUGE beneficial effect of masks vs. the control (no mask).

The NIH and CDC are corrupt: No early treatment will work unless it is from a major drug company using a proprietary drug

Any rational, thinking person would say based on the data, masks don’t work at all while fluvoxamine is highly effective.

But we aren’t dealing with rational, thinking people who make decisions based on the science. We are dealing with people who are told what result is desired and then they make the writeups match the objective.

The highest level of evidence-based medicine says it works

There is now a pre-print of a systematic review and meta-analysis (the highest level of evidence-based medicine) which concluded: “Under a variety of assumptions, fluvoxamine shows a high probability of preventing hospitalization in outpatients with COVID-19.”

But hey, nobody uses evidence-based medicine anymore (even though they say they do).

IDSA says fluvoxamine should ONLY be used in a clinical trial

The IDSA fluvoxamine analysis makes it clear why fluvoxamine is dangerous to use: it had a positive effect in every category just like all the other studies. But it could be a fluke, so better to be safe and not use it.

Look at the Effect / Absolute column. For every outcome they looked at, there were fewer adverse events if you took fluvoxamine.

And viral clearance is NOT the mechanism of action of fluvoxamine. Fluvoxamine is all about control of inflammation not faster viral clearance. So the fire burns for the same amount of time, it’s just nothing get destroyed if you start the drug early.

And the harms section made this crystal clear: there was no evidence that fluvoxamine harmed anyone.

Harms

The risk of serious adverse events in patients receiving fluvoxamine was not greater than those not receiving fluvoxamine (RR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.59, 1.12; low CoE).

In short, all benefits, no harms. So DO NOT USE. Get it? I don’t. That’s why I’m not a real scientist.

Johns Hopkins has incorporated fluvoxamine in their COVID treatment guidelines

Even though the NIH can’t interpret science correctly, there are a few medical schools who are actually driven by science.

Johns Hopkins has incorporated fluvoxamine in their treatment guidelines.

Ontario becomes the first province to list fluvoxamine as a COVID-19 treatment to consider

Ontario has become the first province to list fluvoxamine as a treatment doctors can “consider” for patients with a mild COVID-19 infection.

The reality: EVERY patient with COVID should get fluvoxamine ASAP

Fluvoxamine at 50mg twice a day for 14 days is a very well-tolerated drug (as long as you avoid caffeine and alcohol) for the treatment of COVID infections. It works best when it is given early, as soon as symptoms start.

Sadly, doctors and public health officials refuse to instruct patients to seek early treatment. Instead, a patient is far more likely to only call their doctor when symptoms get worse, and at that point, it is much harder to treat successfully. I hear of these cases over and over.

Our biggest enemy is not the virus: it is the NIH and public health officials

The reason we have so many people hospitalized and dead from COVID is due to our inept response. COVID is very treatable with repurposed drugs. There was never a need for lockdowns, masking, social distancing, mandates, etc. We knew in March of 2020 treatments that worked.

Show me a city, county, state, or country which successfully adopts the simple advice “if you get COVID, start an early treatment protocol ASAP including fluvoxamine, ivermectin, etc” and I will show you empty hospitals and morgues from COVID cases.

No vaccine required (it’s not helpful as my regular readers all know).

For more info

For more about fluvoxamine (and other SSRIs that work), see my dedicated article on fluvoxamine.