War on Ivermectin

1. A Doctor's Transformation and Awakening

Old Pierre believed that the elite, esteemed medical journals represented the best of scientific thought and study.

Pre-Covid naivete. The author, Dr. Pierre Kory, describes his pre-pandemic self as a conventional, trusting physician who believed implicitly in the integrity of top medical journals, government agencies, and the healthcare system. He followed standard protocols and viewed alternative therapies with skepticism.

Personal health crises. His first clashes with the medical system came through personal family health battles, particularly his daughter's struggle with PANS/PANDAS, which exposed him to the system's ignorance and resistance to novel or poorly understood conditions. This experience began to chip away at his unquestioning trust.

The pandemic's impact. The arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent chaotic, often illogical, and rapidly changing medical response served as the ultimate catalyst, forcing him to question deeply held beliefs and leading to a profound transformation in his understanding of the system's true nature.

2. Early Successes Met with System Resistance

I would argue that today, the obsession with using CVP to guide fluid resuscitation has largely (but not completely) been abandoned.

Pioneering critical care. Dr. Kory highlights his earlier career successes in challenging established, yet flawed, critical care practices, such as the reliance on Central Venous Pressure (CVP) measurements, influenced by mentors like Dr. Paul Marik. This demonstrated his capacity for critical thinking and challenging the status quo based on evidence.

Vitamin C in sepsis. His experience with Dr. Marik's HAT protocol (Hydrocortisone, Ascorbic acid, Thiamine) for sepsis was transformative, showing dramatic, life-saving results in critically ill patients, including unprecedented reductions in mortality rates at Dr. Marik's hospital. This firsthand observation of a repurposed therapy's power was a pivotal moment.

Institutional pushback. Despite compelling clinical results and supporting data (including unsolicited Medicare data), advocating for the widespread adoption of the HAT protocol within academic medical centers faced significant resistance, revealing an institutional inertia and skepticism towards non-traditional therapies, foreshadowing later battles.

3. Founding the FLCCC: A Rebel Alliance

The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts, and that is exponentially true with the FLCCC.

A shared purpose. As COVID-19 spread, Dr. Kory connected with like-minded critical care physicians and researchers, including Dr. Paul Marik, Dr. Joe Varon, and others, who shared a belief that the disease could be effectively treated with existing, repurposed therapies, contrary to the prevailing "supportive care only" approach.

Formation and protocols. This group quickly formalized as the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), pooling their knowledge and clinical experience to develop treatment protocols like MATH+ (later I-MATH+), which included corticosteroids, vitamin C, and anticoagulants, showing promising results in hospitalized patients.

Early challenges. Despite the expertise of its members and the apparent success of their protocols, the FLCCC faced immediate challenges in gaining recognition from mainstream media and health authorities, who demanded large, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) before considering their recommendations, a hurdle difficult to overcome quickly or ethically.

4. Ivermectin: A Potential Pandemic Solution Emerges

Ivermectin was not only a broad antiparasitic but also a broad antiviral? This wasn’t huge; it was monumental.

Discovery and early evidence. In late 2020, the FLCCC's attention turned to ivermectin, a Nobel Prize-winning antiparasitic drug with a long history of safety and widespread use. Early in-vitro studies and small clinical trials began to suggest remarkable efficacy against SARS-CoV-2.

Compelling data. Data analyses, particularly from real-world distribution programs in places like Peru, showed astonishing reductions in COVID-19 cases and deaths following the introduction of ivermectin, suggesting it could be a game-changer for ending the pandemic.

A "wonder drug" ignored. Despite the accumulating evidence of ivermectin's potential as a safe, inexpensive, and effective treatment and preventative, the drug was met with immediate skepticism and resistance from health authorities and the pharmaceutical industry, setting the stage for a major conflict.

5. Global Health Agencies Lead Suppression Efforts

Andy Hill, Andrew Owen, Dominique Costagiola, and their Pharma and BMGF sponsors destroyed ivermectin at the global level.

WHO's conflicted analysis. Dr. Kory details the alarming manipulation of scientific evidence by researchers associated with global health agencies like the WHO and Unitaid (funded by BMGF). A key meta-analysis by Dr. Andrew Hill, initially showing overwhelming benefits of ivermectin, had its conclusions altered to downplay efficacy.

Undermining evidence. This altered analysis, influenced by individuals with significant conflicts of interest tied to pharmaceutical companies producing competing products (like Dr. Andrew Owen and Dominique Costagliola), was then used by the WHO to issue a recommendation against ivermectin use outside of clinical trials.

Ignoring positive data. The WHO and other agencies systematically ignored the vast body of positive evidence, including numerous clinical trials and real-world data from successful ivermectin distribution programs, effectively burying the potential of a life-saving drug on a global scale.

6. Counterfeit Trials Fuel the Disinformation Narrative

The most devastating maneuver was the first one, commissioning studies biased towards predetermined results.

"Designed to fail" studies. A key tactic in the war on ivermectin involved commissioning large, seemingly "rigorous" clinical trials ("The Big Six") that were deliberately designed with methodological flaws biased towards predetermined negative results.

Common fraudulent tactics: These trials employed numerous deceptive strategies to obscure ivermectin's efficacy, including:

• Not excluding participants already taking ivermectin in placebo groups.
• Using insufficient dosing or arbitrary weight limits.
• Administering the drug too late in the disease course.
• Changing study protocols and endpoints mid-trial.

Ignoring the obvious. Despite these manipulations, many of these trials still showed some benefit for ivermectin, but the differences were engineered to fall below the threshold of "statistical significance," allowing the authors and media to falsely conclude the drug was ineffective.

7. Journal Censorship Silences Positive Evidence

It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.

The Editorial Mafia. High-impact medical journals, dubbed the "Editorial Mafia," played a critical role in suppressing positive ivermectin research by refusing to publish studies showing efficacy, even those that passed peer review, or by arbitrarily retracting published positive studies based on flimsy or fabricated grounds.

Blocking dissemination. This censorship extended beyond peer-reviewed journals to preprint servers, where studies were blocked from being posted, and even to social media platforms, which removed content discussing ivermectin, effectively preventing the dissemination of inconvenient scientific findings.

Undermining trust. This systematic suppression of evidence, coupled with the simultaneous promotion of flawed or fraudulent negative studies, severely eroded trust in scientific institutions and medical authorities among those who witnessed the blatant manipulation.

8. The "Horse Dewormer" Propaganda Campaign

“You’re not a horse,” debuted on August 21, 2021, with a tweet by the FDA...

A coordinated smear. Faced with rising ivermectin prescriptions, a massive, coordinated propaganda campaign was launched, spearheaded by the FDA and CDC, using the derogatory and misleading phrase "horse dewormer" to discredit the drug and discourage its use in humans.

Fabricated safety concerns. This campaign included issuing health advisories based on minimal or misrepresented data regarding ivermectin-related calls to poison control centers, falsely suggesting widespread severe illness from human use.

Media amplification. Mainstream media and late-night talk shows eagerly amplified the "horse dewormer" narrative, ridiculing those who used or advocated for ivermectin and ignoring the fact that the human version, prescribed by doctors, was being discussed.

9. Legal Battles Challenge Hospital and Pharmacy Authority

Ralph’s crusade began with an eighty-year-old woman named Judy Smentkiewicz, who’d been hospitalized on New Year’s Day of 2021 and was in a coma.

Fighting for access. As hospitals and pharmacies increasingly refused to provide ivermectin, families of dying patients turned to legal action, suing hospitals to force them to administer the drug based on physician prescriptions or court orders.

Ralph Lorigo's crusade. Attorney Ralph Lorigo became a key figure in this fight, winning numerous court orders compelling hospitals to provide ivermectin, often resulting in rapid and dramatic patient recoveries, starkly contrasting with the high mortality rates in cases where access was denied.

Hospital resistance tactics. Hospitals employed various tactics to obstruct court orders, including delaying appeals, claiming no physician was willing to prescribe, or alleging nurses refused to administer the drug, highlighting the intense institutional pressure against ivermectin use.

10. Global Successes Erased from History

What happened in Uttar Pradesh was the sole result of the integrity and actions of one man, Yogi Adityanath.

Uttar Pradesh's achievement. The state of Uttar Pradesh in India, with a population of 231 million, achieved a remarkable public health success by implementing a widespread "test-track-isolate-treat" program that included early treatment with ivermectin, leading to a precipitous drop in COVID-19 cases and deaths during the Delta wave.

Ignoring the cause. Despite this astonishing success in effectively eradicating the virus within its borders, global health agencies (like the WHO) and mainstream media systematically ignored the role of ivermectin in UP's program, instead falsely attributing the success solely to testing, surveillance, or later, vaccination efforts.

Suppression of evidence. This deliberate omission and misattribution served to bury one of the most compelling real-world examples of ivermectin's effectiveness, preventing other regions from learning from UP's successful strategy.

11. The Heavy Personal and Professional Costs

It was Covid career casualty number two for yours truly.

Job losses and threats. Advocating for early treatment and questioning the dominant narrative came at a significant personal and professional cost for Dr. Kory and many colleagues, including losing jobs, facing threats to medical licenses, and being ostracized by the medical community.

Targeted attacks. Physicians who spoke out were subjected to relentless "blitz" campaigns, including public smear campaigns, false accusations of misconduct or fraud, and harassment through medical boards and professional organizations.

Financial and emotional toll. Beyond career impacts, the constant pressure, attacks, and witnessing needless suffering took a heavy toll on personal lives, health, and relationships, although many found strength and community within the network of fellow "Dissidents."

12. The Broader War: Pharma Corruption and Disinformation

It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.

Systemic corruption. The experiences with ivermectin and other repurposed drugs revealed a deep-seated, systemic corruption within the medical industrial complex, where pharmaceutical industry influence has captured regulatory agencies, academic institutions, medical journals, and media outlets.

Disinformation tactics. The war on ivermectin employed a playbook of disinformation tactics ("the fake," "the fix," "the blitz," "the diversion," "the screen") used by industries to suppress inconvenient science, demonstrating that the suppression of effective, low-cost therapies is not unique to COVID-19.

A call to awaken. The author concludes that this pervasive corruption has created a crisis of trust in medical science and institutions, urging readers to recognize the manipulation and become active in demanding integrity and transparency in healthcare.

Last updated: May 23, 2025