Bryan Ardis: There’s a cheap, effective and APPROVED drug for COVID-19

Dr Bryan Ardis

NIH approves Ivermectin

Dr. Bryan Ardis tells his viewers that there is a cheap and effective drug approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that can treat a Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) infection: ivermectin.

Ardis shares a document from the NIH website showing ivermectin as one of the three drugs in a chart titled “Characteristics of Antiviral Agents that are Approved or Under Evaluation for the Treatment of COVID-19.” The other drugs in the chart are remdesivir and nitazoxanide.

“It is an extremely important chart. Everybody needs to have it,” says Ardis in The Dr. Ardis Show on Brighteon.TV.

If you have a loved one battling COVID-19 at a hospital, Ardis says you can take a copy of that chart and show the doctors that ivermectin is an approved drug to treat the disease. “You will save the life of your loved ones and can hold the hospitals accountable to the doses – the doctors can’t tell you they don’t know how to use that drug, the NIH tells you how to use that drug,” Ardis points out.

That chart could have saved the life of Veronica Wolski, a known patriot from Chicago who died from COVID-19 at AMITA Health Resurrection Medical Center. According to her friend, Nancy Ross, Wolski had been asking the hospital for ivermectin but her requests had been repeatedly denied.

Remdesivir is an antiviral medication that targets a range of viruses. Coronaviruses have genomes made up of ribonucleic acid (RNA). Remdesivir interferes with one of the key enzymes the virus needs to replicate RNA, preventing the virus from multiplying.

However, many patients who received remdesivir have developed multiple organ failure and/or acute kidney failure. Those severe adverse effects are actually listed in the NIH chart.

Ardis shares another document that can help explain why hospitals prefer treating COVID-19 patients with remdesivir. This chart, titled New COVID-19 Treatments Add-On Payment (NCTAP), is from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website.

Through the NCTAP, the Medicare program provides an enhanced payment for eligible inpatient cases that use certain new products with current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval or emergency use authorization to treat COVID-19. The only drug that falls under that category is remdesivir.

That enhanced payment refers to a 20 percent bonus payout given to hospitals for all COVID-19 patients they select to treat with remdesivir over any other drug.

“They are actually bribing the hospitals and the doctors to select remdesivir,” says Ardis, noting that the CMS is currently paying out $2,400 for a five-day treatment of remdesivir. Meaning, hospitals are getting $480 extra for every patient they put under the remdesivir protocol.

For the sake of comparison, ivermectin is less than $2 per tablet.

For the uninitiated, the only treatment for the disease approved by the FDA involves remdesivir. It is approved for use in adults and children at least 12 years old who weigh at least 88 pounds (40 kilograms).

Ivermectin proven safe and effective

Severe adverse effects, bribery and huge difference in price aside, Ardis says remdesivir is simply not as effective as ivermectin in treating COVID-19 patients. “Ivermectin is proven safe and effective. It has never killed anybody or caused acute renal failure. This is a very much approved drug.”

On June 1, the Desert Review reported that ivermectin significantly reduced the COVID-19 infections in Delhi, India, which has a population of over 30 million.

Delhi health authorities began treating patients with ivermectin on April 20. At the time, it was dealing with nearly 30,000 new cases daily. By the end of May, COVID-19 cases in the metropolitan area plummeted to less than 1,000 new cases per day. (Related: Widespread ivermectin use has caused a 97% drop in coronavirus cases in Delhi, India.)

WHO not sold on remdesivir

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a conditional recommendation against the use of remdesivir in hospitalized patients, regardless of disease severity, as there is no evidence that remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in patients.

The recommendation is part of a living guideline on clinical care for COVID-19. It has been developed by an international guideline development group, which includes 28 clinical care experts, four patient-partners and one ethicist.

Budesonide more effective than remdesivir

Budesonide is another more effective and less risky treatment for COVID-19 compared to remdesivir.

Researchers at the University of Oxford have found that early treatment of inhaled budesonide reduced the need for urgent care and hospitalization in people with COVID-19 by as much as 90 percent. The study has also found that inhaled budesonide given to patients with COVID-19 within seven days of symptoms reduces recovery time.

Participants allocated the budesonide inhaler has had a quicker resolution of fever, symptoms and fewer persistent symptoms after 28 days. The study has also demonstrated that there’s a reduction in persistent symptoms in those who received budesonide.

Doctors have prescribed budesonide for more than 20 years as preventive medicine for asthmatics. Dr. Richard Bartlett, a strong proponent of the drug, has written a paper with case reports describing favorable outcomes for two of his patients with the regimen. A lab study in the U.S. has also shown that budesonide inhibited the ability of a coronavirus to replicate and inflame the airways.

Watch the Sept. 29 episode of The Dr. Ardis Show here:

You can catch new episodes of The Dr. Ardis Show with Dr. Bryan Ardis every Wednesday at 10-11 a.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Guidelines from the NIH. National Institute for Health

Treatment Guide

https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/tables/table-2e/

Table 2e. Characteristics of Antiviral Agents That Are Approved or Under Evaluation for the Treatment of COVID-19

“Remdesivir is not a good option”

Last Updated: July 08, 2021

Dosing Regimens *The doses listed here are for approved indications or from reported experiences or clinical trials.*	Adverse Events	Monitoring Parameters	Drug-Drug Interaction Potential	Comments and Links to Clinical Trials
Remdesivir
The doses and indications listed below come from the FDA product information. Please see Therapeutic Management of Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 for the Panel’s recommendations on when to use RDV. For Hospitalized Adults and Children (Aged ≥12 Years and Weighing ≥40 kg) For Patients Who Are Not Mechanically Ventilated and/or on ECMO: RDV 200 mg IVa on Day 1, then RDV 100 mg IV on Days 2–5 For patients who do not show clinical improvement after 5 days of therapy, treatment may be extended to up to 10 days. For Mechanically Ventilated Patients and/or Patients on ECMO: RDV 200 mg IVa on Day 1, then RDV 100 mg IV on Days 2–10 Suggested Dose in EUAb for Hospitalized Children For Patients Weighing 3.5 kg to <40 kg: RDV 5 mg/kg IVa on Day 1, then RDV 2.5 mg/kg IV once daily starting on Day 2 For patients who are not mechanically ventilated and/or on ECMO, the duration is 5 days. If patients have not shown clinical improvement after 5 days, treatment may be extended to up to 10 days. For mechanically ventilated patients and/or patients on ECMO, the recommended treatment duration is 10 days. For Patients Aged <12 Years and Weighing ≥40 kg: Same dose as for adults	Nausea ALT and AST elevations Hypersensitivity Increases in prothrombin time Drug vehicle is SBECD, which has been associated with renal and liver toxicity. SBECD accumulation may occur in patients with moderate or severe renal impairment. Each 100 mg vial of RDV lyophilized powder contains 3 g of SBECD, and each 100 mg/20 mL vial of RDV solution contains 6 g of SBECD. Clinicians may consider preferentially using the lyophilized powder formulation (which contains less SBECD) in patients with renal impairment.	Infusion reactions Renal function and hepatic function should be monitored before and during treatment as clinically indicated. In the FDA product information, RDV is not recommended when eGFR is <30 mL/min. See the Remdesivir section for a discussion on using RDV in people with renal insufficiency. RDV may need to be discontinued if ALT level increases to >10 times ULN and should be discontinued if there is an increase in ALT level and signs or symptoms of liver inflammation are observed.1	Clinical drug-drug interaction studies of RDV have not been conducted. In vitro, RDV is a substrate of CYP3A4, OATP1B1, and P-gp and an inhibitor of CYP3A4, OATP1B1, OATP1B3, and MATE1.1 Minimal to no reduction in RDV exposure is expected when RDV is coadministered with dexamethasone (Gilead Sciences, written communication, July 2020). CQ or HCQ may decrease the antiviral activity of RDV; coadministration of these drugs is not recommended.1 No significant interaction is expected between RDV and oseltamivir or baloxavir (Gilead Sciences, personal and written communications, August and September 2020).	RDV should be administered in a hospital or a health care setting that can provide a similar level of care to an inpatient hospital. RDV is approved by the FDA for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adult and pediatric patients (aged ≥12 years and weighing ≥40 kg). An EUAb is available for hospitalized pediatric patients weighing 3.5 kg to <40 kg or aged <12 years and weighing ≥3.5 kg. A list of clinical trials is available here: Remdesivir
Ivermectin
Adults: The dose most commonly used in clinical trials is IVM 0.2–0.6 mg/kg PO given as a single dose or as a once-daily dose for up to 5 days.	Generally well tolerated Dizziness Pruritis GI effects (e.g., nausea, diarrhea) Neurological AEs have been reported when IVM has been used to treat parasitic diseases, but it is not clear whether these AEs were caused by IVM or the underlying conditions.	Monitor for potential AEs.	Minor CYP3A4 substrate P-gp substrate	Generally given on an empty stomach with water; however, administering IVM with food increases its bioavailability.2 A list of clinical trials is available here: Ivermectin
Nitazoxanide
Adults: Doses reported in COVID-19 studies range from NTZ 500 mg PO 3 times daily to 4 times daily.3,4 Higher doses are being studied (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT04746183). Doses used for antiprotozoal indications range from NTZ 500 mg to 1 g PO twice daily.	Generally well tolerated Abdominal pain Diarrhea Headache Nausea Vomiting Urine discoloration Ocular discoloration (rare)	Monitor for potential AEs.	Drug-drug interactions may occur if NTZ is administered concurrently with other highly plasma protein-bound drugs due to competition for binding sites.5 If NTZ is coadministered with other highly protein-bound drugs with narrow therapeutic indices, monitor the patient for AEs.	NTZ should be taken with food. The oral suspension is not bioequivalent to the tablet formulation. A list of clinical trials is available here: Nitazoxanide
a Infuse over 30–120 minutes. b The FDA EUA permits the emergency use of RDV for the treatment of suspected COVID-19 or laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized pediatric patients weighing 3.5 kg to <40 kg or aged <12 years and weighing ≥3.5 kg.6 Key: AE = adverse event; ALT = alanine transaminase; AST = aspartate aminotransferase; CQ = chloroquine; CYP = cytochrome P450; ECMO = extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; eGFR = estimated glomerular filtration rate; EUA = Emergency Use Authorization; FDA = Food and Drug Administration; GI = gastrointestinal; HCQ = hydroxychloroquine; IV = intravenous; IVM = ivermectin; LPV/RTV = lopinavir/ritonavir; MATE = multidrug and toxin extrusion protein; NTZ = nitazoxanide; OATP = organic anion transporter polypeptide; the Panel = the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel; P-gp = P-glycoprotein; PO = orally; RDV = remdesivir; SBECD = sulfobutylether-beta-cyclodextrin; ULN = upper limit of normal