Stella Immanuel Highest U.S. Prescriber of Ivermectin and HCQ

MEDPAGE TODAY ^ | March 2, 2023 | Amanda D'Ambrosio

[nickcarraway]

Controversial physician has doled out tens of thousands of scripts for both drugs

Stella Immanuel, MD, was the nation's top prescriber of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin over the past 2 years, a MedPage Today analysis of prescription data has found.

In 2021, Immanuel wrote just over 69,000 prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine -- vastly above the average of 43 prescriptions in the database MedPage Today reviewed. Rheumatologists, who prescribe hydroxychloroquine for autoimmune diseases, wrote 561 hydroxychloroquine prescriptions, on average, that year.

Immanuel also wrote almost 32,000 prescriptions for ivermectin in 2021, well above the average of 15.

Although her prescribing declined in 2022, Immanuel remained the highest prescriber of both medications in the U.S. last year, writing 30,996 prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and 16,085 prescriptions for ivermectin.

As for 2020, data were only available for the second half of the year, but for those 6 months, Immanuel was the highest prescriber of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, at nearly 10,000 and 1,500 ivermectin prescriptions, respectively.

The figures come from an analysis of data from Symphony Health, which tracks U.S. prescription data by analyzing claims from both commercial and federal sources.

While the database does not provide the specific indication for which the drugs were prescribed, sources believe that based on Immanuel's telemedicine operation, they were likely doled out for COVID-19 treatment and prevention.

"It verges on malpractice," Adrian Hernandez, MD, vice dean and executive director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina, said of Immanuel's prescribing practices. "Prescribing a drug that has zero benefits [in COVID-19], and potential harm, is not what we should be doing in medical practice."

Michael Abrams, MPH, PhD, a senior researcher at watchdog group Public Citizen, said the prescribing figures "seem excessive, and plausibly irresponsible."

The numbers "seem to point to substantial rogue and potentially dangerous prescribing of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as treatments or prophylactics for COVID," Abrams said.

Immanuel said in an email to MedPage Today that the prescriptions were written "both in clinic and under the umbrella of our telemedicine service and all the doctors working for me." She also stated that her "legal team will be contacting [MedPage Today] if there was any negative backlash as a result of this unnecessary disclosure of information."

Enabled Through Telemedicine?

It's unclear how, exactly, Immanuel achieved such a high volume of prescribing, but she does run a telemedicine operation through her website, DrStellaMD.com.

On its homepage, visitors can click a button to "register to get Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin via a telemedicine consultation with one of [sic] licensed physicians or nurse practitioners."

Once patients fill out the online request form, those seeking hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as prophylaxis will receive a text message, phone call, or email depending on their medical history, the website states. Sick patients, however, require a phone call.

The website then offers something of a disclaimer: "Remember that these are controversial treatment protocols used off label so do your research before you sign up," it states.

Patients can choose from a list of options based on their condition: COVID treatment with symptoms, COVID prevention, drug refill, or general treatment. There's an option for new or existing patients.

When MedPage Today browsed the online clinic, a pop-up message stated that all prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin would be paid for on the website and shipped directly by mom-and-pop pharmacies, as mainstream pharmacies were pushing back on filling the scripts.

Abrams warned that online prescribers are "a general concern these days."

"Despite highly questionable diagnostic and treatment-plan quality, online prescribers are increasingly steering consumers to remedies that may be wrong or even dangerous," Abrams said.

In 2021, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis launched an investigationopens in a new tab or window into another COVID-related telemedicine companyopens in a new tab or window, SpeakWithAnMD.com. The site was affiliated with America's Frontline Doctors, a controversial group whose founder, Simone Gold, MD, JD, served time in prisonopens in a new tab or window for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The subcommittee accused the operationopens in a new tab or window of profiting off of COVID-19 misinformation. A final report, however, was never issued, and is unlikely to come now that a new Congress is in session.

Dangerous Prescribing

During the pandemic, controversial groups touted hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as "miracle" cures for COVID-19, even though studyopens in a new tab or window after studyopens in a new tab or window has consistently shown both to be ineffective for treating or protecting against the disease.

Hernandez, who was one of the principal investigators in the ACTIV-6 trialopens in a new tab or window that examined repurposed medicines for COVID, said that while both hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are relatively safe drugs, there's an "opportunity cost" to prescribing them for COVID patients.

Since safe and effective prophylactics such as vaccines and treatments such as antivirals exist, clinicians can harm patients by using these ineffective alternatives, Hernandez said.

Beyond a lack of efficacy and an opportunity cost, experts told MedPage Today that the volume of prescriptions Immanuel logged seems too high to afford quality care to patients.

Andrea Sikora, PharmD, associate professor of clinical and administrative pharmacy at the University of Georgia in Augusta, said it would be "difficult to know a patient well enough to make a nuanced decision about the risks and benefits of any prescription drug."

Information about a patient's medical history, their labs, or even their COVID test results may not be possible to obtain when prescribing at such a volume, Sikora said.

Medical Board Action

The Texas Medical Board previously took action against Immanuel for failing to provide informed consent to a patient who received a hydroxychloroquine prescription from her.

On Oct. 15, 2021, the board issued a "remedial planopens in a new tab or window" in which Immanuel was to submit her informed consent plan to the board for all off-label treatments she provides.

But on Jan. 4, 2022, the remedial plan was terminated "due to completion of all requirements," according to the website of the Texas Medical Board.

In addition to Texas, Immanuel holds active licenses in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Michigan. None of those states list the Texas action in their databases.

A Powerful Platform

Immanuel initially made headlines in July 2020 when she spoke at a rallyopens in a new tab or window held on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court organized by America's Frontline Doctors. She claimed to have treated 350 patients with hydroxychloroquine at that point, and none had died.

Since then, Immanuel has ridden a wave of COVID-related infamy. In addition to telemedicine, her website includes a marketplace for supplements to fight against COVID and mpox, a place to click to "receive prayers for the jab," and bookings for a religious retreat at her Bethel Revival Ranch.

Immanuel also runs the Fire Power Ministries, which features her sermons on its Facebook page. She also runs a brick-and-mortar clinic, Rehoboth Medical Center, in Houston.

Immanuel was banned from Twitter during the pandemic, but after Elon Musk took over the platform and scrapped its COVID misinformation policy late last year, Twitter reinstated Immanuel's account.

"Finally my personal account is restored after two years being suspended for saying Hydroxychloroquine works," Immanuel tweeted in January. She added that she would continue to tweet from the account for Fire Power Ministries, which is verified on Twitter.

"Covid is completely treatable and preventable," Immanuel tweeted from her ministry account late last year. Adding that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin work early, she encouraged patients to "get it in your medicine cabinet now" and "don't wait till you are sick."

[gas_dr]

Ah yes another drone out of the 1gal clown car who simply can’t refute (or comprehend) what I said but replies with Pavlovian accuracy

[gas_dr]

And I am glad you wondered where I went. I haven’t thought a thing of you. I wonder what that means?

[DejaJude]

Who told the pharmacy to limit it and why?

[grey_whiskers]

It won the Nobel prize as an anti parasitic. There is no question it is safe.

This is not true of the clot shots. *MIC DROP*.

[grey_whiskers]

And I note you don’t bother with the cash in the barrel head business she is making coin on. Of course cult like following droves the cash (see L Ron Hubbard).

I bought my Ivermectin at ...I can't remember, might've been Tractor Supply Company.

[grey_whiskers]

As I said good for her. She is making a mint by playing the part of PT Barnum. And we all know what he thought of his clients. She thinks the same.

PT Barnum was in the entertainment business.

Way to stick up for real doctors, gassy.

And have you talked to her, or alternatively, have her on Project Veritas hidden camera, saying she thinks her clients are suckers?

Or are you...what's that word you keep bandying about, wrt people on FR?

Oh yeah. Slandering or libeling her?

Troll.

[TTFX]

The only price was her ethics.

- - - - - - -

She made available for people something that is available over the counter in many countries.

[jonrick46]

I would forgive Stella Immanuel for fulfilling prescriptions over the telephone for Ivermectin and HCQ if she were also mailing our Viagra at a price less than $4 a pill.

[gas_dr]

If I am slandering or libeling anyone or would be her clients. If would have thought you could process information. However, truth is an absolute defense do either slander or libel (because it is written word it is libel since you seem to.not know)

The rest of your post makes little sense. Wrt? As you told me a couple say’s ago you are becoming unhinged. Can’t even speak English? Take a break. Do enjoy Gods beautiful evening. It will do you wonders.

Blessings.

[WASCWatch]

The Real reason the Texas Medical Board dropped its case against her was because she wasn’t take any shit from them. They wanted to do a Zoom hearing and she said if there was going to be a hearing, it would have to be in person and that she’d rip them a new one. They didn’t dare to give her that opportunity. Don’t even think she hired an attorney.

[Fresh Wind]

I wonder how many lives she has saved?

[Jane Long]

Speaking of lackeys….

Pfizer CEO. cornered, at Davos….what an evil coward…

Avi Yemini

@OzraeliAvi
·

This video has now been BANNED on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

The WEF wants it scrubbed, and their lackeys are happy to oblige.

Thank you @elonmusk for not caving.

7.3M views and counting.

The public want answers

https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1616712413587415041?s=20

[Jane Long]

Great point. Sounds like he’s just another coward, in the hospital/medical systems.

[Jane Long]

I wonder how much coin all of the Pfizer pflackeys have made, with these horrid shots, on the backs of US taxpayers, and, folks who voluntarily took the jabs (based on what their docs/govt told them), or, worse....were forced to.

Pure. Evil.

[grey_whiskers]

If I am slandering or libeling anyone or would be her clients.

She is making a mint by playing the part of PT Barnum. And we all know what he thought of his clients. She thinks the same.

That's a statement about her, not her clients.

If would have thought you could process information.

"I" and "f" are not adjacent on the keypad. Since I don't believe you're typing while wearing oven mitts, I'll say autocorrect together with not checking before hitting *send*.

However, truth is an absolute defense do either slander or libel (because it is written word it is libel since you seem to.not know)

I know the difference; I just wanted to cover the bases in case you were verbally railing about her to people you know in person as well.

The rest of your post makes little sense. Wrt?

You already covered most my post, albeit out of order. I didn't see much left for you to be saying it made little sense.

As you told me a couple say’s ago you are becoming unhinged.

"A couple of say's ago?" Are you letting ChatGPT write your replies? You're not being a Good Bing, as the saying goes.

Can’t even speak English? Take a break. Do enjoy Gods beautiful evening. It will do you wonders.

I'm not the one who just posted a screen of typos.

Troll.

[chuck allen]

“Of note here telemedicine was emails and phone calls. Never seeing a patient even on video links.”

As I mentioned to you the other day, how many millions lined up in parking lots across this Country and took the vax from teams of nurses with nary a Dr in sight? Millions? I’ll bet more than this Dr presricbed. Who made money on that?

[grey_whiskers]

Figure 3. If you plot excess mortality on a percentage basis over baseline for that age group, you find that the 0-44 age group has an excess mortality increase that is difficult to explain if it isn’t the COVID vaccine. Not only is it elevated, but it remains elevated. This is problematic because COVID comes in waves and it disproportionally affects the elderly. So something is killing young people and it started at the same time they rolled out the boosters in Australia. I wonder what it could be?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

As opposed to those who charge $125 for a bolus of saline water? Or $1000 + for a weekend consultation in an emergency room and tell their “patients” to go home and take asprin?

[Does so]

Good to see you back.

Any comment on Ivermectin used to treat the entire Indian state of Uttar Pradesh?

[DugwayDuke]

nickcarraway wrote:
Source?

Here’s one. There are multiple. Try Google.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-believes-in-alien-dna-demon-sperm-and-hydroxychloroquine

Here’s another one:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53579773

The woman is a kook.