Lettre de mobilisation et de soutien pour le Dr Jackie Stone du Zimbabwe
Seule la lettre de cet appel à l'aide a été reproduite ici et avec des modifications de présentation liées à des problèmes de mise en page . Le texte complet des documents (54 pages) se trouve à partir du lien ci-dessus . Une traduction automatique en français est possible ici: tinyurl.com/yuf6n38m
Dr. Eleftherios Gkioulekas
Professor of Mathematics
Undergraduate Program Coordinator
The University of Texas -- Rio Grande Valley
School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences
1201 West University Drive
Edinburg, TX 78539-2909
April 7, 2022
To Whom It May Concern,
We are writing to express our strongest support and admiration for Dr. Jackie Stone.
We were very shocked to learn that Dr. Stone is facing a court trial and possible imprisonment for treating COVID-19 patients with early outpatient treatment protocols, based on a combination of safe and effective medications. Some of us have had COVID-19 ourselves, during the last two years, and were successfully treated with protocols very similar to the ones used by Dr. Stone.
We find it particularly disturbing thatalthough the Zimbabwe government has been supportive of Zimbabwe medical doctors that use ivermectin,both for treatment and prophylaxis against COVID-19, that the persecution of Dr. Stone was initiated by
foreigners, which raises the question of whether their interests are aligned with those of the people of Zimbabwe.
We have the highest respect for all medical doctors that independently discovered successful treatmentprotocols against COVID-19, including but not limited to Dr. Didier Raoult1, Dr. Vladimir Zelenko2, Dr.Shankara Chetty3, Dr. Paul Marik4, and Dr. Peter McCullough5, and all medical doctors, which includes Dr. Jackie Stone and her colleagues that have adopted the latest research into their practice and saved countless lives by doing so. We are particularly impressed with Dr. Stone's discovery about incorporating nebulized colloidal silver into her treatment protocol, in addition to ivermectin and the other medications that are recommended by the McCullough protocol5. Dr. Stone has worked very hard to present her findings to her colleagues in Zimbabwe so they can also help their patients recover from COVID-19, and she has co-authored a very interesting manuscript6 with colleagues from South Africa and the United States, that has been submitted for publication in a research journal.
We are very concerned that the persecution of Dr. Stone will intimidate other medical doctors in Zimbabwe into not treating their patients in accordance with the currently published scientific findings, and will stifle efforts towards new innovations and discoveries for treating COVID-19
For the remainder of this letter, I would like to share with you several scientific observations.
First of all, the notion that treatment protocols should be built by establishing the efficacy of each drug separately, and assembling them one at a time, is a flawed research strategy. COVID 19 is a multifaceted tri-phasic disease consisting of a viral replication phase, an inflammatory pneumonia phase, and a
thromboembolic phase5.
Consequently, research has to first focus on validating the efficacy of treatment protocols that use multiple drugs in combination, since this is what is actually going to be used in practice to treat patients.
Clinical trials that test a single drug monotherapy against a placebo should be regarded with extreme caution, especially when there is a failure to establish a statistically significant signal of benefit, because evidence of efficacy or lack of efficacy of a single drug do not necessarily extrapolate to using several drugs in combination7. This point is further amplified, when there is an algorithmic overlay governing which drug should be used and when, based on the individual patient's medical history and ongoing response to treatment.
As one example, Dr. Brian Procter, here in Texas, published the outcomes of his treatment protocol, which used combinations of hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, zinc, azithromycin, doxycycline, budesonide,folate, thiamine, and IV fluids, in two sequential publications8. Out of a total 869 high-risk patients that
received treatment 2 deaths were reported, corresponding to 0.2% mortality rate .
A separate statistical analysis9 shows that if the expected mortality rate for that type of high-risk patient cohort (age>50, or with comorbidities, or presenting with shortness of breath) is expected to be any number that is higher than 0.84% then there is statistically significant efficacy in the overall treatment protocol. Using CDC data10,the corresponding mortality rate, without early outpatient treatment, for a high-risk patient cohort, defined using Dr. Procter's selection criteria, certainly exceeds 2.26%.
Just using this very conservative lower bound indicates at least a ten-fold improvement in mortality rate reduction.
About ivermectin specifically, it is known that it has 20 known mechanisms of action against COVID-1911.
This alone is sufficient to justify physicians prescribing this medication off-label to treat COVID-19, given the excellent safety record of the medication. A recent review12 of the research literature, including previous meta-analysis studies of ivermectin, shows that there is a clear signal of efficacy against COVID-19, and disentangles some of the controversies in the literature. Most notable is a recently published study13 that has shown that, with a small cohort of severely ill patients, who refused hospitalization in spite of severe symptomatic presentation and severe hypoxia, a new innovative protocol based on a combination therapy of ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc, vitamin C, and vitamin D3, over a period of 10 days, prevented hospitalization and death and resulted in improved oxygen levels, within 24 hours of onset of treatment.
Dr. Stone's paper6 is particularly interesting to us, because it has independently replicated this finding.
We are well aware that news reporters and some public health officials are misinterpreting the findings of the TOGETHER ivermectin clinical trial. We would like you to consider a private communication by Dr.Ed Mills the Principal Investigator of the TOGETHER trial, to one of our colleagues that has been made
publicly available by Steve Kirsch 14, with Dr. Mills's permission.
The relevant quote, concerning theTOGETHER ivermectin clinical trial is as follows:
“I don’t understand the psychology of the ivermectin advocates. They fail to see the positive in this study and just focus on it not being overwhelmingly positive. I actually think it is quite positive. I presented this a couple weeks ago at the NIH Collaboratory Rounds and, if they listened, I advocate that actually, there is a clear signal that IVM works in COVID patients, just that our study didn’t achieve significance.
In particular, there was a 17% reduction in hospitalizations that would be significant if more patients were added. I really don’t view our study as negative and, also in that talk, you will hear me retract previous statements where I had been previously negative. I think if we had continued randomizing a few hundred more patients, it would have likely been significant.”
We should also emphasize that the dose used in the TOGETHER trial was too small, given for smaller duration than recommended by the McCullough protocol, and given too late in the illness. At that late stage,the more important interventions are those that address the inflammatory COVID-19 pneumonia and the
thromboembolic phase of the COVID-19 disease, which require the use of several other drugs inn combination with ivermectin.
We are also well aware of the international political situation, where certain private interests are opposed to the use of early outpatient treatment of COVID-19 with cheap repurposed medications, in order to promote private profit and political agendas at the expense of human lives.
A paper by Muchielli15 and another paper by Hatfill16 provide some partial insight into these political machinations.
More relevant however is the fact that in the United States there are successful efforts to resist the attacks on early treatment. Most notable is the legal opinion17 of the Attorney General of the State of Nebraska, dated October 14, 2021, who supported the right of American doctors in the State of Nebraska to treat COVID-19 patients using ivermectin and/or hydroxychloroquine, based on a very detailed review of the medical research literature. Furthermore, in the State of Kansas, the standard of care for COVID-19 is early treatment with FDA approved medications regardless of their labeled uses. This was communicated by State Senator Dr. Mark. B. Steffen on March 15, 2022.
Both documents are attached to this letter.
We are convinced that the science is on the side of Dr. Stone. We remain hopeful that Dr. Stone will be exonerated. Her persecution is entirely undeserved for a medical doctor of her experience and caliber. Herefforts and ingenuity have saved countless lives, and she should be commended, appreciated, and recognized for her efforts. The people of Zimbabwe deserve the same early outpatient treatment options that are available to the American people in the United States. We admire Dr. Stone's commitment, tenacity, resilience, courage, and hard work to ensure that the people of Zimbabwe can access the same treatments that have been sought out by members of the United States Congress and used by many Americans throughout the pandemic .
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Eleftherios Gkioulekas
ps: The opinions expressed are my own and not those of my institution.
1 M. Million, J-C. Lagier, H. Tissot-DuPont, I. Ravaux, C. Dhiver, C. Tomei, N Cassir, L. DeLorme, S. Cortaredona,S. Gentile, E. Jouve, A. Giraud-Gatineau, H. Chaudet, L. Camoin-Jau, P. Colson, P. Gautret, P-E. Fournier, B.Maille, J-C. Deharo, P. Habert, J-Y. Gaubert, A. Jacquier, S. Honore, K. Guillon-Lorvellec, Y. Obadia, P. Parola, P. Brouqui, D. Raoult, IHU COVID-19 Task Force. "Early Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin in 10,429 COVID-19 Outpatients: A Monocentric Retrospective Cohort Study", Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine 22 (2021), 1063-1072
2 M. Scholz, R. Derwand, V. Zelenko. "COVID-19 outpatients - early risk-stratified treatment with zinc plus low dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: a retrospective case series study", International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents 56 (2020), 106214
3 S. Chetty, "Elucidating the pathogenesis and Rx of COVID reveals a missing element", Modern Medicine 45 (5)(2020), 28-31
4 P.E. Marik, P. Kory, J. Varon, J. Iglesias, and G.U. Meduri, "MATH+ protocol for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection: the scientific rationale", Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy 19(2) (2021), 129-135.
5 P.A. McCullough, P.E. Alexander, R. Armstrong, C. Arvinte, A.F. Bain, R.P. Bartlett, R.L. Berkowitz, A.C. Berry, T.J. Borody, J.H. Brewer, A.M. Brufsky, T. Clarke, R. Derwand, A. Eck, J. Eck, R.A. Eisner, G.C. Fareed, A.Farella, S.N.S. Fonseca, C.E. Geyer, Jr., R.S. Gonnering, K.E. Graves, K.B.V. Gross, S. Hazan, K.S. Held, H.Thomas Hight, S. Immanuel, M.M. Jacobs, J.A. Ladapo, L.H. Lee, J. Littell, I. Lozano, H.S. Mangat, B. Marble, J.E McKinnon, L.D. Merritt, J.M. Orient, R. Oskoui, D.C. Pompan, B.C. Procter, C. Prodromos, J.C. Rajter, J-J. Rajter, C. V.S. Ram, S.S. Rios, H.A. Risch, M.J.A. Robb, M. Rutherford, M. Scholz, M.M. Singleton, J.A. Tumlin, B.M.Tyson, R.G. Urso, K. Victory, E.L. Vliet, C.M. Wax, A.G. Wolkoff, V. Wooll, V. Zelenko. "Multifaceted highly
targeted sequential multidrug treatment of early ambulatory high-risk SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19)",Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine 21 (4) (2020), 517-530
6 J.C. Stone, P. Ndarukwa, D.E. Scheim, B.M. Dancis, J. Dancis, M.G. Gill, C. Aldous. "Rapid increase of SpO2 on room air for 34 severe COVID-19 patients after ivermectin-based combination treatment: 55-62% normalization within 12-24 hours", preprint, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1048271/v1
7 H.A. Risch. "Early Outpatient Treatment of Symptomatic, High-Risk Covid-19 Patients that Should be Ramped-Up Immediately as Key to the Pandemic Crisis", American Journal of Epidemiology 189 (2020), 1218-1226
8 B.C. Procter, C. Ross, V. Pickard, E. Smith, C. Hanson, P.A. McCullough. "Clinical outcomes after early ambulatory multidrug therapy for high-risk SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infection", Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine 21 (4) (2020), 611-614
B.C. Procter, C. Ross, V. Pickard, E. Smith, C. Hanson, P.A. McCullough, "Early Ambulatory Multidrug Therapy Reduces Hospitalization and Death in High-Risk Patients with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)", International Journal of Innovative Research in Medical Science 6 (2021), 219-221
9 E. Gkioulekas, P.A. McCullough, V. Zelenko: "Frequentist and Bayesian analysis methods for case series data and application to early outpatient COVID-19 treatment case series", submitted to Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine, https://doi.org/10.22541/au.164745391.17821933/v1
10 CDC, "Estimated COVID-19 Burden", retrieved on 11/16/2021 from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html
11 A.K. Zaidi and P. Dehgani-Mobaraki. The mechanisms of action of ivermectin against SARS-CoV-2-an extensive review. The Journal of Antibiotics, 75(2), 60-71, 2022.
12 A.D.Santin, D.E.Scheim, P.A.McCullough, M.Yagisawa, T.J.Borody. "Ivermectin: a multifaceted drug of Nobel prize-honoured distinction with indicated efficacy against a new global scourge, COVID-19", New Microbes andNew Infections 43 (2021), 100924
13 S. Hazan, S. Dave, A.W. Gunaratne, S. Dolai, R.L. Clancy, P.A. McCullough, T.J. Borody, "Effectiveness of ivermectin-based multidrug therapy in severely hypoxic, ambulatory COVID-19 patients", Future Microbiol.,https://doi.org/10.2217/fmb-2022-0014
14 S. Kirch, "Whoops! The TOGETHER Trial actually showed that ivermectin worked.", April 2022, https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/did-the-together-study-show-that
15 L. Mucchielli. "Behind the French controversy over the medical treatment of Covid-19: The role of the drug,industry", Journal of Sociology 56 (2020), 736-744
16 S. Hatfill. "The Intentional Destruction of the National Pandemic Plan", Journal of the American Physicians and Surgeons 26 (2021), 74-76
17 https://ago.nebraska.gov/sites/ago.nebraska.gov/files/do
Website: https://faculty.utrgv.edu/eleftherios.gkioulekas/
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