By Jefferey Jaxen

The year was 1999. Merck’s new drug Vioxx had just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

At the time, Vioxx was part of a relatively new class of painkiller drugs, but there were early warnings it likely caused an increased risk of heart attacks. 

A cross section of doctors and researchers were leery and hesitant…you could call them ‘anti-Vioxxers.’ Their caution was well-deserved, as the drug ended up being linked to causing an extra 140,000 heart attacks in the U.S. before it was voluntary withdrawn by Merck in 2004. 

It was a tragedy, but the big story behind the 140,000 dead was how Merck treated dissenting doctors and the medical community who didn’t openly fall in line with their new drug. 

As early as 1999, Merck made a “hit list” of doctors who criticized Vioxx. Thanks to testimony and discovery in a Vioxx class action case in Australia, the world learned of a Merck blacklist, emailed between employees. It contained doctors’ names with the labels “neutralize,” “neutralized” or “discredit” next to them. Emails also showed company execs complaining about doctors who disliked using Vioxx. 

One email said: “We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live…”

Fast-forward to today. The original inventor of the mRNA vaccine’s core platform technology, Dr. Robert Malone, took to Twitter with this message:

I am going to speak bluntly. Physicians who speak out are being actively hunted via medical boards and the press. They are trying to delegitimize and pick us off one by one. This is not a conspiracy theory – this is a fact. Please wake up. This is happening globally.

What was Dr. Malone’s crime? Cautioning that there are potentially serious risks to rushed-to-market Covid vaccines and that they have not been adequately tested. He also called for early treatment to help keep people out of the hospital, among other points. 

Dr. Peter McCullough is recognized internationally as a leading figure in the study of chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular risk. He also has more than 1,000 publications to his name and over 500 citations in the National Library of Medicine. Dr. McCullough was brought to tears during a recent presentation. Why? 

Because government edicts, gleefully accepted by doctors, healthcare systems and even pharmacies, have denied early treatment for Covid patients that have repeatedly proven effective. The results have been countless, avoidable deaths. Dr. McCullough, a rare doctor’s doctor still holding the once-sacred Hippocratic Oath in high regard, spoke on what he knew as truth recently. Watch Here

Both Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine have been synonymous with two things during the Covid pandemic response: early, effective treatment and sustained media and public heath disinformation campaigns to discredit them both. 

A crescendo was hit as Ivermectin reached breakaway speeds to escape the media’s spin. At 63 trials encompassing over 47,000 patients, Ivermectin has shown improvements in several key Covid outcomes such as early and late treatment as well as mortality.

India’s government recommended the use of Ivermectin, and the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh has been one of its largest users.

Its government and health body has recommended and made available Ivermectin as an early home treatment for family contacts. The state government recently announced that 33 districts in Uttar Pradesh are now Covid-free, while the overall positivity rate is less than 0.01 percent.

This is Ivermectin’s checkmate vs. corporate media. The word was out. So collectively, a [ridiculous] talking point was born and parroted rapidly: Ivermectin is a horse drug and is unsafe. 

This claim, too, was quickly turned into a joke at the expense of corporate media. Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan announced he had Covid and was taking—among other early treatment protocols—Ivermectin. The media attack dogs got unlashed and tried to transform Rogan into the poster boy for uneducated, dumb dudes taking dangerous horse drugs. 

Leading the charge to discredit both the common anti-parasite drug and Rogan was CNN…the same network which houses Sanjay Gupta.

Fortunately for the world, CNN’s lead medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta agreed to venture away from his cushy teleprompter world to have an open conversation on Rogan’s podcast. The humiliating meme-worthy event is now approaching a ‘Streisand Effect-type historical moment. 

Now back to disgruntled doctors. Against the backdrop of sustained street protests against government vaccination mandates and digital medical passports, a physician’s declaration was born on September 2021 in Rome, Italy.   

Like the Great Barrington Declaration before it (currently closing in on one million signatures), the Rome Declaration had its hands on a pulse. Already chalking up over 12,000 signatures of doctors and scientists around the world, the Rome Declaration is a pro-human, pro-healing Hippocratic Oath-boasting set of statements. They’ve been codified in stone for the betterment of a world rapidly fading into a medical-industrial gatekeeping dictatorship supported by Big Tech censorship overlay. 

The Declaration states:

“…thousands of physicians are being prevented from providing treatment to their patients, as a result of barriers put up by pharmacies, hospitals, and public health agencies, rendering the vast majority of healthcare providers helpless to protect their patients in the face of disease.  Physicians are now advising their patients to simply go home (allowing the virus to replicate) and return when their disease worsens, resulting in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary patient deaths, due to failure-to-treat; 

WHEREAS, this is not medicine. This is not care. These policies may actually constitute crimes against humanity.

Perhaps some are already listening. Nebraska’s Attorney General has just given the green light for the medical community to all use of off-label Ivermectin (and hydroxychloroquine) to Covid patients. 

Is the tide is turning? Can the medical community, with the assistance of several brave individuals holding a line of truth at often great personal sacrifice, find their soul again?

Jefferey Jaxen

Jefferey Jaxen is a health journalist and featured in his weekly segment, ’The Jaxen Report’, on The HighWire. As an investigative journalist, researcher, and compelling writer, Jefferey serves as Lead editor of The HighWire News and Opinion Team.