Texas doctor who promoted ivermectin as COVID treatment suspended from hospital

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A doctor was temporarily suspended from a Texas hospital on Friday for promoting anti-parasitic drug ivermectin as a COVID treatment on Twitter.

Dr Mary Bowden, an ear, nose throat doctor at Houston Methodist Hospital, had recently joined the staff before she had her privileges revoked.

She had posted a series of pro-ivermectin tweets on her social media and also slammed the vaccine mandate.

'Ivermectin might not be as deadly as everyone said it was,' she had tweeted on November 10. 'Speak up!'

The drug ivermectin has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a useful treatment method for COVID and have even warned about the dangers of consuming it.

Texas doctor Mary Bowden was suspended from her position at Houston Methodist Hospital after promoting anti-parasitical drug ivermectin as a COVID treatment method on Twitter

Bowden had posted a string of pro-ivermectin tweets 

She also slammed the vaccine mandate and said she would only treat the unvaccinated at her personal practice 

In response to the tweets, Houston Methodist Hospital released a statement to confirm that they did not share the same views as Bowden.

'Dr. Mary Bowden, who recently joined the medical staff at Houston Methodist Hospital, is using her social media accounts to express her personal and political opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine and treatment,' it said on Twitter.

'These opinions, which are harmful to the community, do not reflect reliable medical evidence or the values of Houston Methodist, where we have treated more than 25,000 COVID-19 inpatients, and where all our employees and physicians are vaccinated to protect our patients.'

Bowden had reportedly claimed that the hospital was turning away unvaccinated patients in her emails, according to the Houston Chronicle. 

She also runs her own practice and said she will 'only accept new patients who are unvaccinated because they are being marginalized' and also said 'all the data I have collected suggests that the vaccine is not working.'

The hospital has since denied these claims and said that they do not turn away unvaccinated patients.

They did, however, require their staff to be vaccinated by June 7.

The Houston Methodist Hospital denied claims that they turned away unvaccinated patients 

In an online statement, the hospital called Bowden's posts 'harmful' and said she was spreading 'misinformation' that was not based in science

Since the announcement of the mandate in April, 153 workers have either resigned or been terminated for not receiving the vaccine.

Bowden was not one of them as she complied with the hospital's request and is fully vaccinated.

Her lawyer Steve Mitby said that his client Bowden was not against the vaccine and that she had treated over 2,000 COVID patients, according to the Washington Post.

'Like many Americans, Dr. Bowden believes that people should have a choice and believes that all people, regardless of vaccine status, should have access to the same high quality health care,' Mitby said. 

In relation to her treatment methods, Mitby said that his client mixes monoclonal antibodies with 'certain experimental drug treatments.'

'Her early treatment methods work and are saving lives,' he added.

'If America had more doctors like Dr. Bowden, COVID outcomes would be much better.'

This is not the first time Bowden has been in hot water over the ivermectin drug.

Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Burleston, a city 15 miles from Fort Worth, was sued by the wife of Tarrant County Sheriff's Office Deputy Jason Jones - who was hospitalized for over a month due to COVID - after they were denied a prescription for ivermectin. 

The deputy's wife wanted Bowden to administer the drug who had been posting pictures on Twitter of staff members who declined to give it to Jones.

'(E)ven if Mr. Jones had a legal right to take ivermectin, there is no authority … that such a ‘right’ compels a physician or health care provider to administer it to him,' the hospital said in court documents.

Ivermectin has been primarily used for animal consumption, specifically for livestock.

Human use of the drug has been approved by the FDA, however, for parasitical infections and skin diseases. 

Ivermectin is primarily used for animal consumption, specifically livestock, as well as for human use relating to parasitical infections and skin diseases

An overdose of ivermectin can cause severe effects in humans ranging from gastrointestinal issues to seizures, and even death. 

Bowden is also not the first medical professional to advertise the use of ivermectin as a COVID treatment method.

The Washington Medical Commission had announced the suspension of physician's assistant Scott Miller in October after promoting ivermectin as a 'cure' for COVID.

He was accused of prescribing the drug to at least one patient without adequate examination. 

Miller had been caught allegedly administering the drug after the WMC had adopted a COVID-19 Misinformation Position Statement, stating that they would discipline workers who were offering treatment advice that was not compliant to that of solid medical research.      

Top Ivermectin expert says the drug does not treat COVID-19

Dr. Timothy Geary, one of the world's foremost experts of Ivermectin, says the drug does not have any effectiveness fighting viruses.

Geary, who is the Research Chair in Parasite Biotechnology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, says that the 2020 study which spawned much of the Ivermectin-craze is not being correctly read.

Dr Timothy Geary (pictured) is one of the top experts on ivermectin and has researched the drug for  over a decade

He told DailyMail.com that the study did show that Ivermectin could inhibit the replication of COVID-19 virus cells, which is what many are reading from the study that makes them believe the drug has virus killing properties.

Geary explained, though, that the concentration of the drug used in the study were so high that it could not be used for treatment in a human, and would likely cause an overdose.

'In that study they showed that in cell cultures, Ivermectin could inhibit [Covid] replication, but the concentrations required for that effect were in a range called the micromolar range - very high concentrations relative to what you would find in the plasma of a treated person or an animal, which would be 20 to 50 times lower.'

He does not see too much harm in people using the drug in human-sized doses, though, as Geary assures that it is safe for consumption.

It is safe to use in doses of around 200 micrograms, and even people who are using it to incorrectly treat Covid are unlikely to suffer any major symptoms.

'There's no significant toxicity from those doses,' Geary says.

He also mentioned that the drug has been used billions of times in between humans and animals, and has never shown any ability to combat viruses outside of the laboratory.

The typical Ivermectin prescribed by doctors com in pill form in small doses

But many Americans are facing problems with Ivermectin because they are not using the versions of the drug prescribed by doctors.

Instead, many are finding their own over-the-counter solutions, most notably going to local feed stores and buying medicine meant for horses, cows and sheep.

Prescribed versions of the drug come in pill form, while these versions are liquid.

The dosages are also much larger, meant for an animal that can weigh over 1,000 pounds, not a person that can weight less than one-fifth of that.

Taking doses too large can cause a person to have nausea, body pains, diarrhea limb swelling and other serious side effects.

In more serious cases, a person could overdose and suffer severe damage to their central nervous system, and potentially even die.