The Treatment of Viral Diseases
The Treatment of Viral Diseases: Has the
Truth Been Suppressed for Decades?
Lee D. Merritt , M.D.
Since I started medical school in 1976, until 2020, I have
heard the dogma that viral diseases are not treatable (with
some exceptions such as antivirals for HIV/AIDS), certainly
not with antimicrobials. My older son, a newly minted general
surgeon, was educated much more recently, but with the same
misunderstanding. Since viral diseases are not treatable, our
only weapon is vaccination. A friend who spent his life as an
academic university physician retiring in 2016 had never heard
this fact either.
As the “pandemic” broke out, I constantly watched and read
online publications. After reading about the Chinese, Indian,
and Korean use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an antimalarial
agent, against coronavirus, within an hour I found more than
20 scientific papers, written in the last 40 years on the use of
lysosomotropic agents—specifically chloroquine—to treat
viruses. Like Rip Van Winkle, I suddenly awoke, after decades, to
a completely new medical reality.
For example, “numerous investigations have reported
in vitro antiviral activity of AZ [azithromycin] against viral
pathogens with 50% inhibitory concentrations ranging from ~
1–6 μM, with the exception of H1N1 influenza,” write Damle et al.1
They state that in vitro evidence suggests that AZ has antiviral
properties at concentrations that are physiologically achievable
with doses used to treat bacterial infections in the lung.
Intracellular sequestration of AZ may prevent viral replication.
AZ is being used against COVID-19, with the generally stated
rationale being its antibacterial or antiinflammatory activity.
Antibiotics used in Lyme disease, including tetracyclines,
macrolides, metronidazole, and ciprofloxacin, may have activity
against a number of viruses.2
How could all our medical education “overlook” this basic
science?
It may be difficult for non-physicians to appreciate the
magnitude of this world-shaking scientific omission—and
probable cover-up. It is the pharmaceutical equivalent of being
told for 40 years the world is flat—only to have it conclusively
exposed overnight to be round. This idea that viruses—like
the current pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus—can be killed by
commonly used drugs—antibiotics, antimalarial, or antiparasitic
agents—profoundly changes the practice of medicine.
Influenza
The scientific paper that first got me thinking about a
potential motive to hide this data concerns the in vitro inhibition
of human influenza A virus replication by chloroquine (CQ).3
It was published in 2006. This paper and others, including
one published in 2005 about the effectiveness of CQ against
SARS-CoV-1, the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome,4
show CQ, from which HCQ is derived, to be extremely effective
against some viruses.
Given the supposed concern of health officials over deaths
by influenza, why was the research into CQ not pursued?
Consider that the entire $69 billion-per-year vaccine industry
is based on “preventing” viral diseases that are otherwise
“untreatable”—like viral influenza A, measles, etc. If a cheap
and effective treatment is available for these illnesses, the
entire vaccine industry crashes down like a house of cards.
Until the coronavirus pandemic, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been a non-stop
advertisement for vaccines—especially the influenza vaccine.
We are constantly told in the news and commercials to
“Get your flu vaccine!” because of the risk of death from the
seasonal influenza virus.
According to the CDC, 80,000 people died in the U.S.
last year from the flu. That itself is a lie. In truth, actual viral
influenza accounts for only a fraction of those deaths. The
CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) once reported real
numbers of influenza cases—and most people assume they
still do. But they actually report ILI or “influenza like illness,”
and in the past they added the caveat that only 4–7 percent of
ILI was influenza—the rest were other respiratory viruses. So,
when they say 80,000 people died, only about 6,000 actually
had viral influenza.5-10
Previously, in tables of ILI deaths, a small box at the bottom
would tell you the percentage of ILI that is influenza. The
CDC no longer does that, and currently, looking at multiple
yearly reports, I am unable to determine the percentage of
ILI that is true influenza from the CDC website. This distortion
by reporting big scary numbers began when the flu vaccine
became profitable through the use of adjuvants and “soft
mandates”—i.e. pushing hospitals and police forces and other
professions to vaccinate their staff to “protect the public.”
Of course, the flu vaccine only works against flu—not other
causes of ILI.
Treatment vs. Vaccination in Other Viral Diseases
Vaccinating the entire nation against influenza to prevent
6,000 deaths is hard to justify, but the bigger lie is even worse.
Based on the currently available science, it is probable that
treatment with HCQ in patients with severe influenza and
ILI could have saved millions of Americans from dying. And
people within the inner circle of pharmaceutical research must
have known this. Pharmaceutical firms employ thousands of
virologists and infectious disease experts. Are we to believe
they failed to read and pursue the relevant viral research? And,
this is not just about influenza and SARS-CoV-2, but hepatitis,
viral meningitis, equine encephalitis, shingles, human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), possibly leukemia, and other
deadly known viral diseases. Were deaths from such viral
diseases, over decades, an acceptable price for $69 billion in
yearly vaccine profits?
Vaccination began with smallpox, then polio. Then
vaccination programs expanded to childhood viral illnesses,
including usually benign ones such as mumps. Influenza then
became the big vaccine target.
Along the way, teaching the immunology of communicable
diseases to medical and nursing students got distorted. Most
physicians today don’t learn that the mortality of childhood
Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 25 Number 3 Fall 2020 79
diseases in well-nourished, unvaccinated, First-World children
was negligible prior to the advent of vaccines.11 Nor do they
understand the big difference between vaccine immunity and
disease-acquired immunity. After recovery from measles or
the flu or mumps or any other common viral illness, a person
walks away with full-spectrum cellular and humoral immunity.
The immune system is specifically and generally strengthened
against a multitude of future diseases in ways we do not fully
understand. Vaccine researchers concentrate on producing an
antibody response, which is a very incomplete form of immunity.
12 Even repeated doses of such vaccines do not produce the
true macrophage-mediated tissue immunity that is lifelong and
usually fully protective against repeat disease exposure.
Worse yet, in some cases, vaccine-based immunity can
worsen disease outcomes. With SARS and other illnesses
caused by RNA viruses, vaccination has increased the risk
of dying from a subsequent exposure to the virus. This is
the result of “immune enhancement,” wherein the vaccine-
produced antibodies actually hide the virus particles from the
host’s immune system killer cells.13-15 Rapid viral replication
ensues causing fatal overwhelming disease. Cellular immunity
from natural infection, on the other hand, is the kind of
immunity that can save you from serious diseases like this
novel coronavirus or the 1918 influenza.
Vaccination is not a panacea. It was once the last resort to
the treatment of disease. In the age of huge vaccine profit it
has become the first choice for every disease.
COVID-19 and the War against Hydroxychloroquine
This begins to explain the uproar about HCQ. Never have
I seen such political brawling over a legal pharmaceutical.
When the current pandemic was starting to kill Americans
in significant numbers, President Trump identified HCQ and
azithromycin as having excellent cure potential. Around the
world, doctors were speaking and writing about the great
cure rate of COVID when these drugs were given early.16-24
Sick patients from all over the world recounted having nearly
immediate turn-around of the symptoms once they were
started on the regimen. State Rep. Karen Whitsett, a Michigan
Democrat, credits President Trump for saving her life by
advocating for the use of HCQ.25
To my knowledge, neither governors nor boards of
pharmacy have ever outlawed any legal drug—not even
opioids like Oxycontin that cause about 30,000 deaths a
year. But when it comes to HCQ and CQ, governors, medical
boards, and boards of pharmacy in most states have either
outlawed or limited the use of HCQ or threatened doctors
with licensing board scrutiny.26 Medical leaders from the CDC
and National Institutes of Health (NIH) said HCQ might not
work and proclaimed that we needed more study—ignoring
the multiple scientific and position papers being published
daily that demonstrate the benefit of HCQ.27
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and head of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) of
the NIH, has discouraged use of HCQ for COVID-19, but praised
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) treatment with HCQ
in 2013.28-31 In 2006 the CDC’s own research showed CQ to work
against coronavirus in SARS-CoV-1, yet their current guidelines
recommend against “high-dose use,” and does not discuss the
low-dose regimens in use around the world.32-33 Note also
that on Apr 28, 2020, Dr. Fauci touted the positive findings for
remdesivir, even though no randomized controlled studies
have been completed. Why is he so strongly promoting the
$3,600 remdesiver and almost totally ignoring the $20 HCQ
regimen, other than to say the latter is of “unproven benefit”?
Media acted in lockstep with corrupt politicians. They
said HCQ was experimental. Not so—it has been around for
decades, and approved by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). Then, they claimed it was illegal for doctors to use
HCQ off label. Wrong again. Nearly every doctor, every day,
uses a drug “off label,” because, once FDA approved, drugs
are not re-studied to add every potential benefit. And now
scientific literature “hit pieces” against antimalarial drugs
are being published and quoted. A recent Los Angeles Times
headline, “Malaria drugs fail to help in coronavirus studies,”
sensationalized a misleading study.34 This study, done
in Brazil, prescribed toxic, even lethal doses to very sick
patients late in the disease when it was almost certain to be
of no benefit.35 The methodology was severely criticized by
Brazilian scientists,36 and alleged ethical violations are under
investigation by Brazilian authorities.37
Since CQ and HCQ work by stopping viral replication,
they can prevent viral damage to the heart, lungs, and other
organs. However, they cannot improve organ damage that has
occurred. While the Brazilian paper correctly reported that CQ
did not change outcomes, this was a classic study designed
to fail.
Since the 1950s, HCQ has been used for a variety of
problems including a 1960 trial for angina pectoris based on the
observation that HCQ reduced sludging due to agglutinated
red blood cells in patients with vascular diseases.38 While
subsequent results in angina patients were reportedly negative,
HCQ seems to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular diseases
in rheumatic patients. In addition to its antiinflammatory
properties, HCQ reduces cholesterol levels and the risk of Type
2 diabetes, and also has anti-platelet effects. In 2017, the OXI
study was designed to determine whether treatment with HCQ,
as compared with placebo, would reduce recurrent events
among myocardial infarction patients.39
Millions have been treated with HCQ for malaria, and it is
commonly given in long-term high-dose treatment of patients
with rheumatologic disorders. Until now, the drug has been
distributed with only a minor mention of the potential for
cardiac arrhythmia. While other side effects are categorized as
“very common,”“common,” or “rare,” cardiac issues are infrequent
enough to be noted under “unknown frequency.” The Sanofi
patient safety handout for Plaquenil states, “Heart problems or
failure, cardiomyopathy, an enlarged or weak heart can occur
if you take Plaquenil for long periods of time…” People with
SARS-CoV-2 generally require only 5–14 days of treatment. So,
why did the FDA only now issue a very public warning against
the use of HCQ—citing cardiac rhythm issues?40-42
Is There a Political Cover-up?
In the investigation of any political cover up, the question
“Who knew what, when?” must be asked. Reference papers
discussing CQ/HCQ and viruses, from all over the world, go
back at least to 1982.43 And there was much interest dating
even into the 1970s about lysomotropic agents, i.e. chemicals
that are selectively taken up into the lysosomes—the cellular
organelle in which HCQ inhibits viral replication.44-46
Speculating about the possible motives for hiding such a
powerful weapon against viral illness during this pandemic,
some might suggest a “deep state” take-down of America. Or
one could focus on conflicts of interest, suggesting that lead
spokesman Dr. Fauci is an integral part of a vaccine coalition.
80 Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 25 Number 3 Fall 2020
Specifically, the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) is a
collaboration of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and
Dr. Fauci’s NIAID. Dr. Fauci was also named to the Leadership
Council of the “Decade of Vaccines” Council.47 Although it is
difficult to pin down all the financial details, we know that large
sums of money are flowing from the Gates Foundation to and
around NIAID projects, such as the 2019 partnership for “genebased
therapies against AIDS and Sickle Cell Disease, to which
Gates contributed $100 million.48 Also, the Gates Foundation
has contributed $2.24 Billion to the “Global Fund,” of which Dr.
Deborah Birx, frequently at the White House panel discussing
COVID-19 policy, is a board member.49
The recent congressional bill H.R. 6074 in the 116th
Congress to develop drugs and vaccines for coronavirus is a
$3.1 billion windfall for drug companies, and also includes
$8.36 million to Dr. Fauci’s NIAID for “training.”50 Moderna—
one of the Gates-funded companies that is working on a
coronavirus vaccine, is in partnership with NIAID51 and getting
special treatment. Moderna was allowed to bypass standard
long-term animal drug testing, and roll out mRNA-1273
vaccine trials on humans on Feb 24 at the NIH, within months
of the genetic decoding of the virus. Moderna’s chief medical
adviser, Tal Zaks, states, “I don’t think proving this in an animal
model is on the critical path to getting this to a clinical trial.”52
And on May 2020, after NIH fast tracked Moderna’s vaccine
human trials, Tal Zaks exercised stock options, selling 125,044
units of MRNA stock for $1,526,787.53
None of this, however, explains the 40 years of medical
misinformation and suppression of the pharmaceutical truth.
To have covered up the knowledge for four decades that
viruses could potentially be treated by antimicrobials required
extensive effort:
• Censorship. It is likely that some scientists were never
published again after authoring one paper on the antiviral
benefits of CQ.
• Buying silence of news media. This is evident from the
blackout across the political news spectrum concerning
vaccine adverse effects. Pharmaceutical manufacturers
provide the most lucrative advertising for both written
and broadcast news programs.
• Misdirection. For years, pharmacology professors in
medical schools have perpetuated lies of omission.
• Lies by drug companies. Merck was caught publishing its
own “peer reviewed” journal to promote its drugs.54
• Regulatory capture. “Big Pharma” essentially owns the
FDA by being its biggest funder and employing more
than 58 percent of the FDA’s upper-level regulators and
administrators either before or after their tenure.55,56
• Research funding. Big Pharma is the major funder of
nearly all “independent” drug research, and there is no
incentive to research cheap/ less profitable solutions.
Implications
The COVID-19 pandemic is calling attention to the
potential for treating viral diseases with currently available
drugs, and exposing long-available but ignored research.
The implications of all this are very disturbing. Where have
the virologists been, and the CDC “experts” who claim to care
about influenza deaths? Has the burgeoning nearly trillion-
dollar vaccine industry been built at the expense of patients’
lives? Disregarding the sizeable database of vaccine injuries,
and the controversy about the long-term danger of vaccines to
the immune system, if HCQ or other drugs could have treated
viral illnesses cheaply and effectively, there was never a need
for vaccines to begin with. As the WHO reportedly admitted, as
recorded in a currently unavailable YouTube video from 2019
Vaccine Safety Summit, the “front line is becoming wobbly”—
meaning doctors are less and less convinced that vaccines are
safe and desirable.
Boris Yeltsin, as he was surrounded by Soviet troops on
the steps of Moscow’s Dom pravitelstva Rossii Federatsii (the
Russian White House), opined, “You can sit on a throne of
bayonets, but you cannot sit on it for long.” It took 70 years
for the truth about the murderous and corrupt Soviet regime
to break through the propaganda, but when the masses
of people understood, they tore down the Berlin wall. The
wall of silence and coercion that has propped up a corrupt,
and yes murderous, vaccine industry will hopefully now be
dismantled by everyday physicians and patients who have
awakened to the “biggest lie,” and are beginning to say, “Yes,
Virginia, antibiotics and other antimicrobials do treat viruses.”
Lee D. Merritt, M.D., practices orthopaedic surgery and anti-aging medicine
in Omaha, Nebraska, and is a past president of AAPS. Contact: loganpod@
gmail.com.
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