Category: Ineffective Drugs

“Covid Kit” – Profit Over People

Monica Piccinini

16 Feb 2022

What is the real motivation behind the staggering number of worldwide corporations, organisations, physicians and politicians, still promoting unproven drugs against Covid-19?

Perhaps one single word may be sufficient enough to describe the reason behind this misinformation machine: profit!

Despite the international scientific community advising against the use of several medications, including hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, invermectin, nitazoxanide, azitromycin, and corticosteroids, against Covid-19, some organisations, physicians and politicians continue to promote the use of these drugs as an early treatment against SARS-CoV-2 infection in many parts of the world.

As the world was hit by a pandemic in 2020, many doors were open to fraud, manipulation and the spread of misinformation.

We must go back to the 70s and remind ourselves about the MMR autism fraud, driven by British doctor and anti-vax activist Andrew Wakefield, as a perfect example.

Wakefield’s intention, similar to some of the recent Covid-19 drug promoters, was financially driven, as he planned on developing a replacement vaccine for MMR as well as testing kits that would let doctors diagnose “autistic entercolitis”, with potential annual revenues of over USD 44 million.

Wakefield now lives in the US and has become a misinformation powerhouse receiving millions from wealthy donors.

The Questionable Drugs

Cloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are medications authorised to treat malaria and some autoimmune diseases. The US National Institute of Health, NIH, advises against the use of these drugs for both outpatient treatment as well as prophylaxis of Covid-19.

According to the European Medicines Agency, and The Lancet, both drugs are known to potentially cause heart rhythm problems, including ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and death, especially if combined with the antibiotic azithromycin.

The FDA made an announcement as early as July 2020 reviewing the safety issues with the use of both hydroxycloroquine and chloroquine when treating hospitalised patients with Covid-19, including reports of serious heart rhythm problems, blood and lymph systems disorders, kidney injuries, and liver problems and failure.

The side effects of these medications may not only affect the heart, liver and kidneys, but also cause cutaneous adverse reactions and cell damage leading to seizures.

Invermectin is another drug being promoted as an early treatment of Covid-19 in some countries. According to guidelines published by the FDA in December 2021, invermectin is only approved, at very specific doses, for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms, head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.

Some organisations in the US and Brazil, backed up by physicians and politicians, continue with the promotion of these unproven drugs against Covid-19.

The FLCC Alliance (Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care), and “Physicians for Life” released a protocol, translated in various languages, promoting invermectin, with the support of the BIRD Group (the British Invermectin Recommendation Development).

The FLCC Alliance website is filled with a vast amount of content, including articles, videos, graphs, webinars, testimonials, FAQ’s, public statements, a book club as well as a link to a donations and store page, all trying to convince the population of the effectiveness of these unproven drugs against Covid-19.

A popular promoter of these drugs is Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok, an exiled Chinese billionaire who owns G News (Guo Media) and co-founded GTV Media Group with Steve Bannon in 2020.

Guo is anti-vax and one of the key orchestrators of the misinformation network also promoting the use of unproven Covid-19 treatments, such as invermectin, artemisin, hydrochloroquine, dexamethasone, and oxytetracycline, amongst other medications.

How It All Started

Donald Trump was perhaps the one who initiated promoting these drugs as soon as the pandemic hit in 2020. The “Father” of chloroquine was born.

Soon after, Brazil’s president and Trump’s long lasting loyal admirer, Jair Bolsonaro, followed Trump’s footsteps when he visited him at Mar-O-Lago in March 2020. Since then, the sale of these drugs has skyrocketed in Brazil.

“When the first obstacle emerged, Covid-19, it became obvious that the government’s objective was not a technical solution for the problem, but rather a political one. Political work to induce people not to believe in the disease and return to work, transforming Brazil into total chaos, and that was not in line with my principles”, said Brazil’s former health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, when I spoke with him in February 2021. Bolsonaro sacked Mandetta in April 2020, after he refused to promote chloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment.

Drugs from the “Covid Kit” continue to be prescribed, even after the World Health Organisation, WHO, declared their ineffectiveness against Covid-19 in October 2020.

Bolsonaro’s government has spent millions of dollars producing, purchasing and promoting drugs such as ivermectin, chloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, as well as anticoagulants, painkillers and vitamins. Brazil’s ministry of health, along with a large number of doctors, endorsed the use of these drugs to treat Covid-19, even though they have no proof to be effective.

According to the Lancet, one in every four individuals in Brazil has taken drugs from the “Covid Kit”, including through self-medication. Data from “DETECTCoV-19” study showed that the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 50% higher among those who self-medicated as prophylaxis for Covid-19.

On January 21, 2022, Brazil’s ministry of health released a report, signed by the Secretary of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs in Health, Helio Angotti Neto, stating that hydroxychloroquine was effective on fighting Covid-19, not the vaccine. On February 04, a group of doctors filed an appeal against the report.

The Brazilian Society of Virology, SBV, made the following statement on January 22, 2022, soon after the ministry of health released their report:

“In the third year of the pandemic, much has been learned, and there is no longer room for frivolous and unfounded insistence, such as the insistence on therapies based on the replacement of the aforementioned drugs. These conclusions, which disapprove of the use of the so-called “Covid Kit” to treat the infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID19, were definitively presented by Brazilian medical experts who formed a working group to analyze the impact of its use for the treatment of the disease on screen”.

According to data from a survey carried out by Globo, notifications of adverse effects caused by the “Covid Kit” drugs increased 558% in 2020, compared to the previous year.

A popular organisation promoting the use of the “Covid Kit” against Covid-19 in Brazil is the platform “Physicians for Life” or “Medicos pela Vida Covid-19”, containing a staggering number of videos promoting the “Covid Kit” and opposing the Covid-19 vaccine.

On their website, “Medicos pela Vida Covid-19” state that their objective is to “treat people affected by covid-19 early, in order to prevent them from being hospitalised, intubated and at risk of death”. They even have doctors available over the phone and on WhatsApp offering prescriptions for these drugs.

The pandemic has exacerbated cracks that already existed in our society, where a few players are given an open platform to spread their rhetoric and misinformation, misleading individuals to use unproven drugs against Covid-19. The bill is often paid at a very high cost, their own health, and sometimes, their lives.

The question we must ask ourselves, how cheap has life become?

Brazil’s Looming Covid-19 Mutant Storm

Monica Piccinini

26 Apr 2021

Brazil’s tragic and growing covid-19 death toll is second only to the United States, according to Our World in Data, with the total number of lives lost to covid-19 close to 400,000. In terms of confirmed cases, Brazil ranks third globally, only behind the USA and India. 

Brazil faces the perfect storm of a unique combination of mutations and a Covid-19 denier President.

President Jair Bolsonaro criticized governors who took restrictive measures to try to contain the spread of the covid-19 in Brazil.

“The time is coming for Brazil to give a new cry for independence. Because we cannot admit that some pseudo-governors want to impose the dictatorship among you using the virus to subdue you, ” he said at an event in Bahia this week.

Bolsonaro has refused to promote mask wearing, defended the use of ineffective drugs such as chloroquine and invermectin.  He has rejected lockdown and self-distancing measures in order to curb the spread of the virus and failing to develop vaccination strategy in the country.

This has led to a health system that is totally overwhelmed. In many areas, ICU beds are no longer available and many people have died waiting days and even a week for a bed. There are so many dead that they are not being prepared properly for burial.

The situation in Brazil is beyond desperate, without a solution in sight and with no apparent desire from federal government to address the issues.  Hospitals are overcrowded and at their limits, with ICU bed occupancy rate having reached its limits across all major states.

It has been recorded the death of a large number of patients who never managed to get an ICU bed, having waited for days on end. One example was mother and daughter in Espírito Santo, both died waiting for an ICU bed for about a week, and this is not an isolated incident.

In Amapá, the exchange of bodies have been reported, as the system is currently unable to cope, leaving families traumatised.  “A room where they simply throw the bodies, because there isn’t even a morgue, all thrown together with the hospital waste, without any preparation. The patient dies, they take him to that room. As it stands, they only take the body and put it in the coffin, ”described the nephew of a victim who died on March 16. 

Brazil’s rampant and uncontrollable increase in infections has worried many experts, researchers and scientists across the world, with the sudden appearance of new strains of the virus, including the one identified recently in Belo Horizonte, which has 18 unknown mutations and similarities with more contagious variants from South Africa, the UK and Manaus.

“Brazil has its doors open to the virus and its mutations. Mutations are expected, as they happen in a random way and are the result of a bigger viral circulation.” Jesem Orellana, researcher and epidemiologist from Fiocruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation) explained. “The Federal Government has made countless mistakes, including the lack of governance with no experience of public health and health emergencies and the fact they did not take adequate precautions to contain the virus and made no effort to set out an efficient vaccination plan.”

Fiocruz mentioned that hospital supplies are at a critical level, and health professionals are physically and emotionally exhausted. The current context not only compromises care for cases Covid-19, but also other diseases and conditions, in addition to favor the increase in lack of health care, contributing to for excess mortality.

The scenes at hospitals in Brazil are catastrophic and it could get much worse, with intubation drugs running out in at least 30% of private hospitals across the country. Some hospitals are now having to dilute these drugs in order to make them last. Without these “intubation kits”, the risks involved when removing patients from respiratory support equipment increase considerably, it can be extremely painful and cause further health complications to the patients.

Another serious concern is the death rate amongst children and babies in Brazil. According to the Ministry of Health, between Feb 2020 and March 2021, 852 children up to the age of 9 years old and 518 babies under 1 year old died due to covid-19, but these are conservative numbers due to underreporting, as some doctors are still reluctant to test young children, with general concept that the virus does not affect the younger population.  

Doctor Fatima Marinho, who is also a senior adviser to the international health NGO Vital Strategies, estimates that the virus in fact killed 2,060 children under nine years old, including 1,302 babies.

Hospital Tacchini in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul, reported that in March there was a sharp increase of covid-19 critical patients admitted to their hospital, reaching 160% occupancy in their adult ICU.

When Tacchini was asked about the hospital’s biggest challenge, it pointed out to the management of “intubation kit”. With the scarcity of analgesics, sedatives and neuromuscular blockers in the Brazilian market, the hospital had to import these drugs directly. However, delivery of the cargo is not scheduled until May 15.  So far, they have been supplied with purchases in the national market in very small quantities and sporadic cargo sent by the federal government and distributed by the state government.

So far, none of the 2,000 professionals working at Tacchini Hospital have died from Covid-19 so far, this may be due to very strict measures being adopted by the hospital.

As for immunisation, Fiocruz researchers mentioned that Brazil is still far from the values ​​necessary for the country to have a situation of control. Vaccination in Brazil continues to advance, as the doses are made available. The country has vaccinated 13% of the population over 18 years old with the first dose and 3.68% with the second dose. Researchers from Fiocruz believe that only a national lockdown, with a minimum duration of two weeks, is capable of containing the progress of covid-19 in Brazil.

“There is a need for convergence and integration of the different powers of the Brazilian State (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary), as well as the different levels of government (municipal, state and federal), with the participation of companies, institutions and civil society organisations (of local to national level) to face this very critical and serious moment of the pandemic ”, Fiocruz researchers warn.

Attempts have been made by local governors and mayors in order to contain the spread of the virus by promoting social-distancing, mask-wearing and even local lockdowns.  However, their efforts are thwarted as any actions that restrict the movement of people can only happen if decreed by Bolsonaro, with approval of Congress.

Bolsonaro called governors as “poor” and “petty”, for defending measures in order to contain covid-19. “There is no way for you to live without a job and without an economy. And the mediocre ones lack this vision. São Paulo is a state that has suffered a lot from this”. “We hope that everything will return to normal as soon as possible. Only in this way can Brazil walk on its own legs”, he added.

On April 14, OAB, the Brazilian Bar Association, concluded that the president committed a crime of responsibility, which would lead to an impeachment process, as well as the complaint of a crime against humanity before the International Criminal Court.

Time will tell if the political hierarchy in Brazil have any appetite to remove Bolsonaro.  In the meantime, Brazilians continue to pay a very high price, their own lives, for Bolsonaro’s populist denialistic leadership style. Lessons have not been learned, as he continues to dismiss the pain and the suffering of his own people and ignore the increasing death toll, as the world watches by.