Anakalusugan Rep. Mike Defensor today asked the Department of Health (DOH) not to run after doctors who prescribed the experimental Covid-19 drug ivermectin to poor people who needed it.
“It is seldom that I ask for help and support for my advocacies and beliefs. As a public official, I have accepted the fact that I am ‘fair game’ and people may attack me and I just I have to roll with the punches and hope that my arguments will come to light,” Defensor said in a social media post.
“But our doctors do not deserve this! They have put their names and practice on the line for the love of our people and nation. They didn’t have to do that. They could have remained quiet and towed the line. They spoke and they acted knowing that silence will lead to the death of our people. They were just being true to their Hippocratic oath!” He said.
He was referring to physicians who wrote prescriptions for ivermectin during the his and Sagip Rep. Rodante Marcoleta’s “community pan-three” project in Quezon City on Thursday.
Based on news reports, the DOH has said the prescriptions were improperly written.
Defensor said if there was any irregularity in his and Marcoleta’s project, it is they who are accountable for it.
“If there was anything wrong with our distribution of this Covid-19 wonder drug ivermectin, we are the ones answerable, not our volunteer doctors and other medical practitioners who just wanted to help our poor people,” he said.
He said the poor wanted access to inexpensive therapeutic to fight Covid-19 “because the drugs the DOH and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are promoting are for the rich.”
“Remdesivir, for instance, costs from P12,000 to P48,000 per vial, and you need two vials a day. On the other hand, ivermectin costs only P35 per tablet, and only one tablet is needed daily. The DOH and FDA are allowing the use of remdesivir, while cracking down on ivermectin. Their bias is for the rich and against the poor,” he added.
(Press Release)
