Sen. Ron Johnson sends letter criticizing health officials as biased against COVID remedies like anti-parasitic ivermectin
Bill Glauber
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson continued to beat the drum this week for the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as an early treatment for COVID-19 despite warnings from public health experts that it is unproven as a remedy and can be dangerous in large doses.
On Tuesday, the Oshkosh Republican sent another letter to top health officials, contending that "public health officials have not only ignored potential early treatments, but at times seem to have participated in an aggressive campaign against the use of specific early treatment options."
Twenty-one of Johnson's Republican colleagues signed the letter, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Tom Tiffany, who represents Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District.
U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas also signed on.
The letter was sent to Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Anthony Fauci, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Rochelle Walensky, Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Dr. Janet Woodcock, Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
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In the letter, Johnson referenced a clinical trial that is being conducted by the National Institutes of Health into ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment but contended federal agencies have "already demonstrated ... strong biases."
In August, the FDA issued a blunt warning for people not to use ivermectin to treat COVID-19. The warning came amid reports that an increasing number of people in Mississippi and Louisiana were self-medicating with ivermectin intended for livestock.
In a tweet from its account, the FDA said: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."
Johnson wrote, the FDA's "mocking of ivermectin, conflating a widely-available human drug that was the basis for Nobel prize winning research, with its veterinary version, has cast doubt over the integrity of this study’s eventual results."
Johnson asked the officials to provide information to "better understand your agency’s positions regarding early treatments for COVID-19."
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