Isn’t one reason that docs aren’t willing to prescribe HCQ and Ivermectin is that they put themselves at risk of being sued?
Lawyers know that the FDA etc doesn’t consider these meds effective and they are watching like vultures for any doctor brave enough to prescribe them. If anyone dies on it you know what will happen. I guess Congress or maybe an executive order could give docs and hospitals protection from these lawsuits but that hasn’t happened.
I don't think so.
I treated >150 hospitalized patients with HCQ +/- azithromycin in 2020 and I didn't think twice about being sued. I've reviewed the ivermectin data and if I believed it was helpful I would prescribe it, as well.
One of the salient points in the argument presented to the court was that Ivermectin is FDA approved. The physician (Balbona) got his ass handed to him by not understanding what FDA approval meant — specifically that Ivermectin is approved for parasite infection. The transcript further demonstrates that he is advocating for supratherapeutic doses but acknowledges that he is not aware of what FDA approval really means.
As for me, no, it is not that I will be sued — it is that the literature is equivocal on ivermectin (the meta analysis is proffered an not refuted that it is unclear what benefit ivermectin is) and that in every aspect monoclonals are superior to anything else. It would be against my oath to prescribe something I knew was inferior when I can arrange for the best treatment possible
Balbona took a hell of a beating on cross — and in such exposed the fallacies of the arguments parroted daily on this website by the other side.