Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson received a request for clarification from Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services CEO, Dannette Smith regarding the prescribing of drugs for off label use, specifically, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin.

She wanted the AG’s office to determine whether doctors could face legal action or be subject to other forms of discipline if they prescribed the meds for COVID treatment.

AG Peterson’s response was unequivocal. He found no “clear and convincing evidence that a physician who first obtains informed consent and then utilizes Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 violates the UCA (Nebraska’s Uniform Credential Act).”

The AG further referenced exhaustive research and case studies on the drugs in question, relating to both their long history of safe use and their clearly established therapeutic benefits against COVID-19 infections when used properly.

In a bracing episode of clear thinking and rational expression, the AG took his position one step further, calling out the seemingly orchestrated campaigns against the use of these drugs, in some cases by those who once held the patents for them.

“After receiving your question and conducting our investigation, we have found significant controversy and suspect information about potential COVID-19 treatments. A striking example features one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals–the Lancet. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lancet published a paper denouncing hydroxychloroquine as dangerous. Yet the reported statistics were so flawed that journalists and outside researchers immediately began raising concerns. Then after one of the authors refused to provide the analyzed data, the paper was retracted, but not before many countries stopped using hydroxychloroquine and trials were cancelled or interrupted. The Lancet’s own editor in chief admitted that the paper was a “fabrication, “a monumental fraud,” and “a shocking example of research misconduct in the middle of a global health emergency.”

In an admirable act of straightforward speech, the AG made it clear he had little confidence in the frequently conflicting, and rarely justified pronouncements of the detractors regarding the use of these well-known and trusted medications. He outlined the available evidence for the use of both drugs as both treatment and preventative saying -

“Moving beyond ivermectin’s role as a prophylaxis, other studies have demonstrated its potential as a COVID-19 treatment. The Mahmud study–a CT that explored ivermectin as an early treatment for 363 individuals–concluded that “patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection treated with ivermectin plus doxycycline recovered earlier, were less likely to progress to more serious disease, and were more likely to be COVID-19 negative on day 14. And Niaee’s research team found that ivermectin can help even hospitalized patients. That group conducted a “randomized, double-
blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter clinical trial” with 180 hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19. They concluded that ivermectin “reduces the rate of mortality and duration of hospitalization in adult COVID-19 patients,” and the improvement of other clinical parameters showed that the ivermectin, with a wide margin of safety, had a high therapeutic effect on COVID-19.”

He concludes this section with a direct statement.

“We find that the available data does not justify filing disciplinary actions against physicians simply because they prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to prevent or treat COVID-19.”

Our esteemed Attorney General didn’t stop there however. As an effective lawyer should, he presented a complete argument, examining more than just the potential benefits (and very low risks!) of prescribing these drugs; he also gave voice to possible motives behind the unsupported and unfair disinformation campaigns employed against these drugs.

Among others, the AG specifically called out the pharmaceutical company, Merck (which once held the patent on Ivermectin) for their apparently deliberate disparaging of their own drug (for which patent protection has expired, meaning Merck no longer makes any real money from it) to better position their latest offerings - both drug and vaccine related - for market domination.

The Office of the AG writes -

“Why would ivermectin’s original patent holder go out of its way to question this medicine by creating the impression that it might not be safe? There are at least two plausible reasons. First, ivermectin is no longer under patent, so Merck does not profit from it anymore. That likely explains why Merck declined to “conduct clinical trials” on ivermectin and COVID-19 when given the chance.

Second, Merck has a significant financial interest in the medical profession rejecting ivermectin as an early treatment for COVID-19. “The U.S. government has agreed to pay [Merck] about $1.2 billion for 1.7 million courses of its experimental COVID-19 treatment, if it is proven to work in an ongoing large trial and authorized by U.S. regulators.”

That treatment, known as “molnupiravir, aims to stop COVID-19 from progressing and can be given early in the course of the disease.” On October 1, 2021, Merck announced that preliminary studies indicate that molnupiravir “reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half,” and that same day its stock price “jumped as much as 12.3%.” Thus, if low-cost ivermectin works better than–or even the same as-molnupiravir, that could cost Merck billions of dollars.”

The opinion runs to 48 pages, complete with extensive citations and links to the original data cited. It is one of the most comprehensive summations of profit-driven malfeasance on the part of pharmaceutical companies, public medicine officials and their media allies that I have read coming from an official government source.

We’ve spent the last year and a half being told the evidence of our eyes is not to be trusted, nor are the conclusions we’ve drawn from reasoned analysis and research. We owe a debt of gratitude to our Nebraska Attorney General for standing up for his fellow citizens. Because of AG Peterson’s courageous act, lives will be saved. We are grateful.

You may download and read the entire opinion at this link.

https://ago.nebraska.gov/opinions/prescription-ivermectin-or-hydroxychloroquine-label-medicines-prevention-or-treatment-covid