TUCSON, Ariz., Oct. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Americans, even one who is as carefully shielded as the President of the United States, continue to be infected with COVID-19. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons issued the following statement:
“Early treatment of COVID-19, before it progresses to the stage of respiratory failure and damage to multiple organs, is critical to prevent hospitalization and death. We now understand much more about the disease, including the role of the ‘cytokine storm’—the over-reaction of the body’s immune system—and of blood clots, tiny and large.
“Containment measures as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot eradicate the virus or help a person who is already infected.
“We must choose to treat NOW, based on the experience of frontline physicians informed by the scientific literature, rather than deny early treatment until the results of randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) are available.
“Under the direction of Dr. Anthony Fauci 40 years ago, we tried the second method early in the AIDS epidemic. Patients were dying of pneumocystis pneumonia, which can be successfully treated with cheap, safe sulfa drugs. In 1987, activists pleaded with Dr Fauci to issue guidance that suggested prophylactic treatment with Bactrim. Efficacy had been shown in transplant patients in 1977. Dr. Fauci refused, insisting on the “gold standard” of RCTs. Since the National Institutes of Health refused to fund trials, activists raised the money themselves. By the time the results were ready, 2 years later, 17,000 patients had died needlessly. Since efforts to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine have so far failed, the standard of care is now pre-exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP).
“Today, Dr. Fauci still refuses to consider early or prophylactic use of long-approved drugs for COVID-19. These include hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, azithromycin, and doxycycline, together with zinc and vitamin D, to reduce viral replication, then inhaled (budesonide) or oral (prednisone) corticosteroids and colchicine to reduce inflammation. Published protocols developed at Baylor University and by Dr. Vladimir Zelenko have been extensively used with excellent results.
“These drugs could become available immediately to all Americans, not just political leaders, but are being blocked because of negativism by Dr. Fauci and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The cost is 100,000 needless deaths from COVID-19, plus the collateral damage from shutting down economic activity and medical care for other illnesses.
“Practicing physicians need to be in charge of patient care, not a few influential bureaucrats.”
AAPS has represented physicians of all specialties in all states since 1943. The AAPS motto is omnia pro aegroto, meaning everything for the patient.