Gerald E. Harmon, M.D.
President, American Medical Association
AMA Plaza
330 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 39300
Chicago, IL 60611-5885
Dear Dr. Harmon:
The AMA has taken the startling and unprecedented position that American physicians should immediately stop prescribing, and pharmacists should stop honoring their prescriptions for ivermectin for COVID-19 patients. The AMA is thus contradicting the professional judgment of a very large number of physicians, who are writing about 88,000 prescriptions per week. It also contradicts the Chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, Haruo Ozaki, who recommended that all doctors in Japan immediately begin using Ivermectin to treat COVID.
AMA claims that ivermectin is dangerous and ineffective despite the safe prescription of billions of doses since 1981, and the mostly favorable results of 63 controlled studies in COVID-19.
AMA does not specify any recommended early treatments, but simply urges face masks, distancing, and vaccination.
Our members would appreciate clarification of the AMA’s stand on the following questions:
- What are the criteria for advocating that pharmacists override the judgment of fully qualified physicians who are responsible for individual patients?
- What are the criteria for forbidding off-label use of long-approved drugs, which constitute at least 20 percent of all prescriptions?
- On what basis does AMA demand use only within a clinical trial for ivermectin, but call for virtually universal vaccination outside of controlled trials, despite FDA warnings of potential cardiac damage in healthy young patients, and no information about long-term effects?
We believe that these questions get to the heart of issues of physician and patient autonomy, as well as scientific principles such as the need for a control group in experiments.
We look forward to your response.
Sincerely yours,
Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director
