This is a transcript and video of Dr. Pierre Kory’s powerful and lifesaving testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on December 8, 2020. He discussed COVID treatments using ivermectin in “Early Outpatient Treatment: An Essential Part of a COVID-19 Solution.” Dr. Kory founded Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.

Watch Hearing Testimony

Transcript:

Senator, thank you. And thank you for holding this hearing.

I just want to start out—I didn't think I'd have to say this—but I want to register my offense at the ranking member's opening statement. I was discredited as a politician. I am a physician and a man of science. I have done nothing, nothing but commit myself to scientific truth and the care of patients. And to hear that I'm here because of a political angle, I am not a politician, I'm a physician.

I want to start out by saying that I'm not speaking as an individual, I'm speaking on behalf of the organization that I am a part of. We are a group of some of the most highly published physicians in the world. We have near 2,000 peer reviewed publications among us, led by -- Professor Paul Marik, who is our intellectual leader.

We came together early on in the pandemic and all we have sought is to review the world's literature on every facet of this disease trying to develop effective protocols. You just mentioned that I was here in May and I touted, I wouldn't say touted, I recommended that it was critical that we use Corticosteroids in this disease when all the national and international health care organizations said “We cannot use those.”

That turned out to be a life-saving recommendation.

I am here again today with a new recommendation. In the last nine months in our review of all of the literature as a group, again we are some of the most highly published physicians in our specialty and the world. We have done nothing but try to figure out how to identify a repurposed and available drug to treat this illness.

We have now come to the conclusion, after nine months, and I have to point out, I am severely troubled by the fact that the NIH, the FDA and the CDC, I do not know of any task force that was assigned or compiled to review repurposed drugs in an attempt to treat this disease. Everything has been about novel and/or expensive pharmaceutically engineered drugs, things like Tocilizumab, and Remdesivir and monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. We have hundreds of years of medicine development. -- We are expert in all the medicines we use and I do not know of a task force that has been focused on repurposed drugs.

I will tell you that my group and our organization, I will say that we have filled that void. -- That is all we have done is focus on the things we know and things we do. And I'm here to tell you, Dr. Rider -- he has one study of the many that I want to talk about, and I want to talk about that we have a solution to this crisis.

There is a drug that is proving to be of miraculous impact, and when I say miracle, I do not use that term lightly and I don't want to be sensationalized when I say that. That's a scientific recommendation based on mountains of data that's emerged in the last three months.

When I am told—and I just had to hear this in the opening sentence—that we are touting things that are not FDA or NIH recommended, let me be clear. The NIH—their recommendation on ivermectin to not use it outside of controlled trials—is from August 27th. We are now in December. This is three to four months later.

Mountains of data have emerged from -- many centers and countries around the world, showing the miraculous effectiveness of ivermectin. It basically obliterates transmission of this virus. If you take it, you will not get sick.

I want to briefly summarize the data, my manuscript again published by some of the most -- we have contributed more to the medical knowledge of our specialty, in our careers, than anyone else can claim as a group. And our manuscript—which was posted on medicine preprint server—details all of this evidence.

I want to briefly summarize it. Number one, we have evidence that it is effective, not only in prophylaxis, in the prevention, if you take it you will not get sick. We just came across a trial last night from Argentina, by the lead investigator of ivermectin. They prophylaxed 800 health care workers, not one got sick. In the 400 they didn't prophylax, 58% got sick; 237 of those 400 got sick.

If you take it, you will not get sick. It has immense and potent antiviral activity. We know that from the first study.

It has made the bench to the bedside. Prophylax: we now have four large randomized control trials totaling over 1,500 patients, each trial showing that as a prophylaxis agent, it is immensely effective, you will not get sick. You will be protected from getting ill if you take it.

In early outpatient treatment, we have three randomized control trials and multiple observations, as well as case series showing if you take ivermectin, the need for hospitalization, and death, will decrease.

The most profound evidence we have is in the hospitalized patients. We have four randomized control trials there, multiple observation trials all showing the same thing, you will not die, or you will die at much, much, much lower rates, statistically significant, large magnitude results if you take ivermectin.

It's proving to be a wonder drug.

It has already won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2015 for impacts on global health in the eradication of parasitic diseases. It is proving to be an immensely powerful anti-viral and anti-inflammatory agent. It is critical for its use in this disease. We, again, stand by our manuscript, it is a scientific manuscript it’s been submitted for peer review, but please recognize that peer review takes time. It takes months, we do not have months. We have 100,000 patients in the hospital right now dying.

I'm a lung specialist. I'm an ICU specialist. I've cared for more dying COVID patients than anyone can imagine. They're dying because they can't breathe. They can't breathe. They're on high oxygen delivery devices, noninvasive ventilators and/or sedated and paralyzed and attached to mechanical ventilators that breathe for them. And I watch them every day. They die.

By the time they get to me in the ICU, they're already dying, they’re almost impossible to recover. Early treatment is key. We need to offload the hospitals, we are tired. I can't keep doing this. If you look at my manuscript, [his voice breaks with emotion at this point] and if I have to go back to work next week, any further deaths are going to be needless deaths, and I cannot be traumatized by that. I cannot keep caring for patients when I know that they could have been saved with earlier treatment and that drug that will treat them and prevent the hospitalization is ivermectin. -- I am here today, I am calling to action, the NIH, their last recommendation was August 27th. August 27th!

I want to be clear. I am not here as a politician, or a dramatist, or sensationalizing what I am recommending. I am going to be very clear and very simple, all I ask is for the NIH to review our data that we've compiled of all of the emerging data. We have almost 30 studies, everyone is reliably and reproducibly positive showing the dramatic impacts of ivermectin.

Please, I am just asking that they review our manuscript. It is a serious manuscript, by serious highly experienced physicians and researchers. -- I cannot call on more credibility than we have, we're not just a random doctor who's saying we have a cure. I don't want to say I have a cure. I'm just asking, review our data. We have immense amounts of data to show that ivermectin must be implemented, and implemented now.

Senator, the last thing I want to say, is … you know who's dying here? It's our African-American and Latino and elderly. It's some of the most disadvantaged and impoverished members of our society. They are dying at higher rates than anyone else. It's the most -- severe discrepancy I have seen in my medical career and we are responsible to protect those disadvantaged members. We have a special duty to provide countermeasures.

The mount of evidence to show that ivermectin is life-saving and protective is so immense and the drug is so safe, my colleagues have talked about it, it must be instituted and implemented. I am asking the NIH to review our data and come up with the recommendations for society.

Thank you.

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