Thank you for this. You have so nicely refuted several of the pieces of misinformation that I have been trying to combat against for a while. For further reference to those who would benefit from English language sources, here is the link to the PMDA’s English language site detailing what is currently approved for Covid. I keep this open and just refresh it to see if there are any changes.
Once again, Japan has violated the Nuremberg Code by not procuring other methods of recovery and prevention such as IVT. I wouldn't expect anyone to take medical advice from a guy who gets his news from Salty Cracker, but then again, maybe I would. I have had nothing but the sniffles in the past three years. Here is what I do or have done:
1) turn of the TV
2) remove the mask
3) don't get the hokey pokey
4) exercise and eat right
5) laugh as much as possible
You do not have to watch a movie to do number 5. Just go outside. It's replete with comedy: guys wearing two masks, a guy alone in his car wearing a mask, people moving to other train cars when they see my unmasked face, smokers pulling their mask back up after finishing their cigarettes, a woman doing a complete pivot while walking to avoid face-to-face contact (the COVID Shuffle)...
6) Don't support businesses that require their customers and staffs to wear the face diapers. Here's a site:
I don't know who is saying widespread. The hypothesis is more began using it. I don't see any data on how many were using it before or after so any assertion either way seems tenuous. As for the idea IVM will not be used widely without government OK, I cant comment. How are you defining widely though?
People are rather clever. If Doctors wont prescribe patients may order online from abroad. A black market may then be established.
If Doctors meet obstacles for prescribing IVM for COVID and they want to help their patient (not all do) , they may then dx one of the many approved uses for IVM with little risk of being caught.
Both of these have occurred in US when people became aware and IVM increased by 24x. Maybe Japans different
I'd define "widely" as the majority of medical institutions using it. But that's nowhere near the case.
Dr Nagao, who I mention in my post, recently wrote a blog post titled "Doctors don't know Ivermectin". In it, he mentioned various reasons most Japanese doctors neither know nor care about IVM. It should be machine translatable.
The argument has been; “Look at Japan! The Japanese are doing it right! They have STOPPED Covid in its tracks with IVM.” I have been shocked each time I read this or some one says it on Quora, where I used to try to convince people about what is going on here before I found Substack. My parents asked me if it is true as it has been widely reported in the States that IVM is responsible for Japan’s low covid death count. IVM proponents in the States and elsewhere seem to believe this based upon a video of the MD from Tokyo and graphs based upon government provided data.
The parameters of the argument are flawed in many ways starting with the framing if it. The argument is, “IVM is NOT used in the US but IS used in Japan, thus the difference in death count.” The truth is IVM is used in both the US and Japan and the difference in numbers of covid deaths are likely due to a list of other factors that we have mush more information on than we do for how many people are buying IVM on their own.
Through preparing for discussion classes here, I have learned that it is well nigh impossible to compare any two countries on just about any subject. Before we can even begin to do so, we have to ensure the same scales are used and they rarely are. This holds true for everything covid related.
IVM for COVID is off-label use. Unless rabid governments were attacking IVM use as in the West, doctors would use it without any further central regulatory action. For example in India, the central government recommended IVM but only some states recommended it. Other states were using it even before central government recommendation.
Many major Japanese hospitals were using ivermectin. Fukushima Medical University, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Yokohama Municipal Citizen's Hospital and Osaka Habikino Medical Center, all use ivermectin.
The keyword here is "widespread". I mention in my post that a small number of doctors and medical institutions use IVM, but the vast majority don't because they follow official guidelines. Unless the government authorises it, the medical associations won't recommend it either. I know plenty of people who've had Covid, but none of them got IVM. The only people who think IVM is widely used in Japan don't live in Japan.
Why is government authorization or medial association recommendation needed?
How would some large medical institutions use it if government authorization/medical association recommendation were needed? If a quick medical literature search turned up 4 major hospitals using it, seems "widespread" to me ...
"Why is government authorization or medial association recommendation needed?" Because it's Japan. It's similar with masks. There has never been a legal requirement to wear masks outside, but the vast majority of Japanese have been wearing masks outside for 2.5 years because the government and media ask them to. But a small percentage can think for themselves and don't wear masks. And only a small number of medical institutions use IVM.
I mention Dr Nagao in my post. He also blogs, and last month wrote a post titled "Doctors don't know Ivermectin" in which he lists various reasons most Japanese doctors don't know or care about IVM. IVM's widespread use in Japan would certainly be news to him.
Because that is the way it is Japan, with just about everything. No official recommendation means, “Do not use.” As the OP has said, (Me too, BTW.) there is no law requiring masks be worn, yet they have been for over 2 1/2 years. Companies require masks, school’s (private and public) require them, sport event venues, concert venues and retail businesses all require masks on nothing more than government recommendation and social pressure. Same holds for medical treatment.
Public Health Authorities can’t dictate or prevent the prescription of an approved drug off-label in the US. Their authorization is not required. Pretty sure its the same in Japan, but maybe I am wrong.
In the US, authorization by the FDA allows the release of drugs like HCQ and IVM from the National Stockpile in an Emergency, it does mean it permits its use by Doctors (and lack of authorization does not forbid its use).
Indeed, the NIH COVID treatment Protocol as of January 2021 , following a convincing meeting with Dr Kory, changed its recommendation from
“Against” to “not for or against”. Meaning its totally up to the Doctor.
What still held its use back in US is many hospitals forbid its use by its employee Doctors because they were given financial incentives to use Remdesivir and due to misguided fear they would lose their liability under the PREP ACT for using a drug not specifically authorized by the FDA. Also, chain pharmacies who were getting rich administering the vaccines and now prescribing Paxlovid refused to fill prescriptions written by physicians, no doubt under pressure by the FDA who was doing everything it could to discourage its use.
As for Japan, Ozaki brought to the attention of Doctors and Patients that there was an option beyond waiting to turn blue and being rushed to hospital to be put on a Ventilator. I believe Doctors in Japan have the same ability to prescribe drugs off-label, and no doubt many were requested to do so by patients.
Without seeing prescription data its hard to refute the hypothesis that more Doctors prescribed IVM after Ozaki spoke out
I'm sure more did, but "more" doesn't mean "widespread" when so few were using it in the first place. In Japan, no medication will be used widely unless the government gives the OK. The only people who think IVM is widely used in Japan are people who don't live in Japan.
Japan is not the US. It is against the law to play around with an idiot phone while driving, yet a great many drivers do so. No law existed that make mask wearing mandatory, yet most people were them and from personal experience, increasing numbers of retail business require them of customers.
Back in mid 2020, I asked a colleague who is an infectious disease infection control expert why he was wearing a mask. His eyes widened to the proverbial saucer size until I explained that I had certification for respirator use and knew they could not perform the task currently assigned them. His eyes returned to normal size and in English, the first time I have heard him speak in any language other than his native Japanese, he said, “It’s political.” Reverting to his native language, he explained that all in his filed knew that the measure we were/are told to take are meaningless. Yet, no one can safely speak out against them. I could not learn what would happen, his only response was a peculiar gesture of a fist at the end of a bent wrist to the top of the head that is used to indicate when a n action goes against social norms here/
It easy for me to understand than that the same is at work for doctors who would other wise be open to prescribe IVM.
If I may promote my own Substack here, I have posted some of the rules we are to follow at med schools in Japan. Please read those and ask yourself if doctors operating under such nonsense are likely to go against what their colleagues expect. BTW, I am the only unmasked individual on campus, on the now rare occasion I am there.
Its more or less the same in Taiwan, at least in hospitals. Those with their own clinics I imagine not so much so long as they can get reimbursed from the National Health Insurance plan.
People in Taiwan don't like to question Public Health Policies except when it comes to smoking
The problem in Taiwan unlike Japan is nobody in authority came out and challenged the official position. As such many people and Doctors didn't know there were options at that time. The people in Japan heard from one of their High Priests of Medicine. Thats a big difference IMO.
I imagine there are work arounds for Doctors who feel inhibited, especially for their relatives, friends. You may dx one of many minor diseases for which its use is approved. Testing is often skipped in lieu of a Doctors “judgement” especially for minor ailments like head lice.
Also many drugs in Taiwan, despite being technically prescription only, even aspirin, are sold OTC. I only tried once here but was told they didn't have it, but don’t know if thats true everywhere. Maybe Japan is more strict
In Japan I imagine people can order IVM from abroad for personal use w/o anyone knowing. Not sure how strict Japan is in allowing these shipments. Taiwan is pretty strict, even many vitamins are hard to import by mail.
As for masks they are mandated in Taiwan, People have to know by now they don't work but they still go along (heavy fine for not doing so). Taiwan still has almost 50K cases a day (over 300K cases/d and 300 deaths/day adjusted for Japans population)
I do not know that the Doctors In question could be considered “high priest”s of medicine in Japan. Some big names in medicine in the past have spoken out various aspects of the crazed response there. They have had to endure medical licensing reviews with some having actually lost their license, others “just” fired a/o cancelled. With so few speaking out for IVMs use, I would not expect any movement on it. However, I would hope that MDs would indeed know of treatment options whether or not the government was involved. That is (Was?) part of their training, knowing how to treat based upon how a medication worked. Knowing how medications work should lead Drs. To recognize other options. Just another in a long list of failings on the part of medicine that seem to be pretty much global, and at the same time. Food for thought, perhaps.
Just as most in the US still seem to not know anything at all about the different counting scales used in counting covid cases and deaths in the US and abroad nor that Pfizer just testified in a European government hearing that it did not test their shot against transmission, I doubt very many people in Japan know about any doctors in Japan advocating for IVN’s use against Covid. Totally different subject, but I think it will serve as an example of how something can be reported upon in Japan yet almost completely unknown here. Years ago now, there was a case of mass drugging of university coeds by the male members of a university tennis club. The amount given to the girls was so much that it caused a number of them to collapse on the street on the group’s way to another location. Why were they mowing to this other location? Well, it weren’t to have tea. The girls were lucky in that they passed out on the street and not ant this second venue. As I teach at a women’s school, I use this as an example of why they need to be careful. Very very few know of it. Only one of my students at the time of the incident was aware of it, her mother running across it on Social media. It WAS reported on TV, but only one (I am told, if there were more, I am not aware.) TV station, a minor one, ran the story. I have the news story and screen shots. But NHK nor any of the other big, national broadcasters covered it. The screen shots are shocking to see. College aged woman sprawled out all over the place with the guys “escorting” them and police just standing around doing a lot of nothing. Years later most students still do not know of it. Japan is “Safety country!”. I would not be surprised if less than 5% of the Japanese population has any idea about the IVN debate. To be fair, I also would not be surprised if many did, but it would be impossible to get the numbers on the amounts purchased privately from abroad and shipped in.
There are no government imposed penalties for not wearing masks, yet most still wear them. They have become accustomed to them and just as with many in the US, will wear them until the day they die.
Thank you for this. You have so nicely refuted several of the pieces of misinformation that I have been trying to combat against for a while. For further reference to those who would benefit from English language sources, here is the link to the PMDA’s English language site detailing what is currently approved for Covid. I keep this open and just refresh it to see if there are any changes.
Thanks. BTW, can you post the PMDA link again? It's not in your comment.
DOH!
https://www.pmda.go.jp/english/about-pmda/0002.html
Great. Thanks. I've updated the post to add the link at the end of the first paragraph.
Great, thanks.
Once again, Japan has violated the Nuremberg Code by not procuring other methods of recovery and prevention such as IVT. I wouldn't expect anyone to take medical advice from a guy who gets his news from Salty Cracker, but then again, maybe I would. I have had nothing but the sniffles in the past three years. Here is what I do or have done:
1) turn of the TV
2) remove the mask
3) don't get the hokey pokey
4) exercise and eat right
5) laugh as much as possible
You do not have to watch a movie to do number 5. Just go outside. It's replete with comedy: guys wearing two masks, a guy alone in his car wearing a mask, people moving to other train cars when they see my unmasked face, smokers pulling their mask back up after finishing their cigarettes, a woman doing a complete pivot while walking to avoid face-to-face contact (the COVID Shuffle)...
6) Don't support businesses that require their customers and staffs to wear the face diapers. Here's a site:
https://www.nomaskshop.com/
7) Avoid Covidians at all costs,
I don't know who is saying widespread. The hypothesis is more began using it. I don't see any data on how many were using it before or after so any assertion either way seems tenuous. As for the idea IVM will not be used widely without government OK, I cant comment. How are you defining widely though?
People are rather clever. If Doctors wont prescribe patients may order online from abroad. A black market may then be established.
If Doctors meet obstacles for prescribing IVM for COVID and they want to help their patient (not all do) , they may then dx one of the many approved uses for IVM with little risk of being caught.
Both of these have occurred in US when people became aware and IVM increased by 24x. Maybe Japans different
I'd define "widely" as the majority of medical institutions using it. But that's nowhere near the case.
Dr Nagao, who I mention in my post, recently wrote a blog post titled "Doctors don't know Ivermectin". In it, he mentioned various reasons most Japanese doctors neither know nor care about IVM. It should be machine translatable.
http://blog.drnagao.com/2022/09/post-8059.html
The argument has been; “Look at Japan! The Japanese are doing it right! They have STOPPED Covid in its tracks with IVM.” I have been shocked each time I read this or some one says it on Quora, where I used to try to convince people about what is going on here before I found Substack. My parents asked me if it is true as it has been widely reported in the States that IVM is responsible for Japan’s low covid death count. IVM proponents in the States and elsewhere seem to believe this based upon a video of the MD from Tokyo and graphs based upon government provided data.
The parameters of the argument are flawed in many ways starting with the framing if it. The argument is, “IVM is NOT used in the US but IS used in Japan, thus the difference in death count.” The truth is IVM is used in both the US and Japan and the difference in numbers of covid deaths are likely due to a list of other factors that we have mush more information on than we do for how many people are buying IVM on their own.
Through preparing for discussion classes here, I have learned that it is well nigh impossible to compare any two countries on just about any subject. Before we can even begin to do so, we have to ensure the same scales are used and they rarely are. This holds true for everything covid related.
IVM for COVID is off-label use. Unless rabid governments were attacking IVM use as in the West, doctors would use it without any further central regulatory action. For example in India, the central government recommended IVM but only some states recommended it. Other states were using it even before central government recommendation.
True, but none of that applies to Japan. Japan is Japan and the Japanese are happy to do things the Japanese way.
Many major Japanese hospitals were using ivermectin. Fukushima Medical University, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Yokohama Municipal Citizen's Hospital and Osaka Habikino Medical Center, all use ivermectin.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/pmc/articles/PMC7925270/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33867266/
https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC8612813
https://europepmc.org/article/MED/34023221
https://vinuarumugham.substack.com/p/four-major-crimes-enabled-the-covid
The keyword here is "widespread". I mention in my post that a small number of doctors and medical institutions use IVM, but the vast majority don't because they follow official guidelines. Unless the government authorises it, the medical associations won't recommend it either. I know plenty of people who've had Covid, but none of them got IVM. The only people who think IVM is widely used in Japan don't live in Japan.
Why is government authorization or medial association recommendation needed?
How would some large medical institutions use it if government authorization/medical association recommendation were needed? If a quick medical literature search turned up 4 major hospitals using it, seems "widespread" to me ...
"Why is government authorization or medial association recommendation needed?" Because it's Japan. It's similar with masks. There has never been a legal requirement to wear masks outside, but the vast majority of Japanese have been wearing masks outside for 2.5 years because the government and media ask them to. But a small percentage can think for themselves and don't wear masks. And only a small number of medical institutions use IVM.
I mention Dr Nagao in my post. He also blogs, and last month wrote a post titled "Doctors don't know Ivermectin" in which he lists various reasons most Japanese doctors don't know or care about IVM. IVM's widespread use in Japan would certainly be news to him.
http://blog.drnagao.com/2022/09/post-8059.html
Because that is the way it is Japan, with just about everything. No official recommendation means, “Do not use.” As the OP has said, (Me too, BTW.) there is no law requiring masks be worn, yet they have been for over 2 1/2 years. Companies require masks, school’s (private and public) require them, sport event venues, concert venues and retail businesses all require masks on nothing more than government recommendation and social pressure. Same holds for medical treatment.
There are doctors in the US too who have been providing it for their patients.
Public Health Authorities can’t dictate or prevent the prescription of an approved drug off-label in the US. Their authorization is not required. Pretty sure its the same in Japan, but maybe I am wrong.
In the US, authorization by the FDA allows the release of drugs like HCQ and IVM from the National Stockpile in an Emergency, it does mean it permits its use by Doctors (and lack of authorization does not forbid its use).
Indeed, the NIH COVID treatment Protocol as of January 2021 , following a convincing meeting with Dr Kory, changed its recommendation from
“Against” to “not for or against”. Meaning its totally up to the Doctor.
What still held its use back in US is many hospitals forbid its use by its employee Doctors because they were given financial incentives to use Remdesivir and due to misguided fear they would lose their liability under the PREP ACT for using a drug not specifically authorized by the FDA. Also, chain pharmacies who were getting rich administering the vaccines and now prescribing Paxlovid refused to fill prescriptions written by physicians, no doubt under pressure by the FDA who was doing everything it could to discourage its use.
As for Japan, Ozaki brought to the attention of Doctors and Patients that there was an option beyond waiting to turn blue and being rushed to hospital to be put on a Ventilator. I believe Doctors in Japan have the same ability to prescribe drugs off-label, and no doubt many were requested to do so by patients.
Without seeing prescription data its hard to refute the hypothesis that more Doctors prescribed IVM after Ozaki spoke out
I'm sure more did, but "more" doesn't mean "widespread" when so few were using it in the first place. In Japan, no medication will be used widely unless the government gives the OK. The only people who think IVM is widely used in Japan are people who don't live in Japan.
“it does mean it permits its use by Doctors (and lack of authorization does not forbid its use).”
Meant “ it does not mean”
Japan is not the US. It is against the law to play around with an idiot phone while driving, yet a great many drivers do so. No law existed that make mask wearing mandatory, yet most people were them and from personal experience, increasing numbers of retail business require them of customers.
Back in mid 2020, I asked a colleague who is an infectious disease infection control expert why he was wearing a mask. His eyes widened to the proverbial saucer size until I explained that I had certification for respirator use and knew they could not perform the task currently assigned them. His eyes returned to normal size and in English, the first time I have heard him speak in any language other than his native Japanese, he said, “It’s political.” Reverting to his native language, he explained that all in his filed knew that the measure we were/are told to take are meaningless. Yet, no one can safely speak out against them. I could not learn what would happen, his only response was a peculiar gesture of a fist at the end of a bent wrist to the top of the head that is used to indicate when a n action goes against social norms here/
It easy for me to understand than that the same is at work for doctors who would other wise be open to prescribe IVM.
If I may promote my own Substack here, I have posted some of the rules we are to follow at med schools in Japan. Please read those and ask yourself if doctors operating under such nonsense are likely to go against what their colleagues expect. BTW, I am the only unmasked individual on campus, on the now rare occasion I am there.
Its more or less the same in Taiwan, at least in hospitals. Those with their own clinics I imagine not so much so long as they can get reimbursed from the National Health Insurance plan.
People in Taiwan don't like to question Public Health Policies except when it comes to smoking
The problem in Taiwan unlike Japan is nobody in authority came out and challenged the official position. As such many people and Doctors didn't know there were options at that time. The people in Japan heard from one of their High Priests of Medicine. Thats a big difference IMO.
I imagine there are work arounds for Doctors who feel inhibited, especially for their relatives, friends. You may dx one of many minor diseases for which its use is approved. Testing is often skipped in lieu of a Doctors “judgement” especially for minor ailments like head lice.
Also many drugs in Taiwan, despite being technically prescription only, even aspirin, are sold OTC. I only tried once here but was told they didn't have it, but don’t know if thats true everywhere. Maybe Japan is more strict
In Japan I imagine people can order IVM from abroad for personal use w/o anyone knowing. Not sure how strict Japan is in allowing these shipments. Taiwan is pretty strict, even many vitamins are hard to import by mail.
As for masks they are mandated in Taiwan, People have to know by now they don't work but they still go along (heavy fine for not doing so). Taiwan still has almost 50K cases a day (over 300K cases/d and 300 deaths/day adjusted for Japans population)
I do not know that the Doctors In question could be considered “high priest”s of medicine in Japan. Some big names in medicine in the past have spoken out various aspects of the crazed response there. They have had to endure medical licensing reviews with some having actually lost their license, others “just” fired a/o cancelled. With so few speaking out for IVMs use, I would not expect any movement on it. However, I would hope that MDs would indeed know of treatment options whether or not the government was involved. That is (Was?) part of their training, knowing how to treat based upon how a medication worked. Knowing how medications work should lead Drs. To recognize other options. Just another in a long list of failings on the part of medicine that seem to be pretty much global, and at the same time. Food for thought, perhaps.
Just as most in the US still seem to not know anything at all about the different counting scales used in counting covid cases and deaths in the US and abroad nor that Pfizer just testified in a European government hearing that it did not test their shot against transmission, I doubt very many people in Japan know about any doctors in Japan advocating for IVN’s use against Covid. Totally different subject, but I think it will serve as an example of how something can be reported upon in Japan yet almost completely unknown here. Years ago now, there was a case of mass drugging of university coeds by the male members of a university tennis club. The amount given to the girls was so much that it caused a number of them to collapse on the street on the group’s way to another location. Why were they mowing to this other location? Well, it weren’t to have tea. The girls were lucky in that they passed out on the street and not ant this second venue. As I teach at a women’s school, I use this as an example of why they need to be careful. Very very few know of it. Only one of my students at the time of the incident was aware of it, her mother running across it on Social media. It WAS reported on TV, but only one (I am told, if there were more, I am not aware.) TV station, a minor one, ran the story. I have the news story and screen shots. But NHK nor any of the other big, national broadcasters covered it. The screen shots are shocking to see. College aged woman sprawled out all over the place with the guys “escorting” them and police just standing around doing a lot of nothing. Years later most students still do not know of it. Japan is “Safety country!”. I would not be surprised if less than 5% of the Japanese population has any idea about the IVN debate. To be fair, I also would not be surprised if many did, but it would be impossible to get the numbers on the amounts purchased privately from abroad and shipped in.
There are no government imposed penalties for not wearing masks, yet most still wear them. They have become accustomed to them and just as with many in the US, will wear them until the day they die.
The sad thing is, the masked are already dead.
Many certainly are, hopefully some can be saved.