Covid 35, Dr. Rafael Castillo letter to HPAAC

This was shared by Doc Raffy Castillo to CDC PH, posted in the group's fb page, shared also in many Viber groups. Doc Raffy is among the most prominent cardiologists in the country. I was there at Brgy. Matandang Balara, QC, event last April 29. I was surprised at the huge number of media people who attended, aside from the locals and Brgy residents who came. I attach three photos I took that day, below.
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5 May, 2021

Dr. TONY DANS
Spokesperson
Healthcare Professionals Alliance Against Covid 9 (HPAAC)

Dear Tony, Warm greetings.

I feel saddened to read your statement today, as well as separate but similarly worded statements from the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) and the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP).

This letter is not a complaint but a firm request that HAACP and its member medical organizations, the PMA and PCP, immediately correct the disinformation or misinformation created by your respective advisories that doctors prescribing Ivermectin off-label for Covid-19 outside the compassionate special permit (CSP) are violating the law and may be sanctioned for such act. In effect, you were categorically stating that there is no other legally allowed authorization for the prescription of ivermectin except through the CSP pathway.

May I cite Director-General Eric Domingo’s clarification in various media interviews on this subject that there is no FDA policy prohibiting Ivermectin prescription off-label, with the prescription served by licensed compounding pharmacies. These interviews in print and broadcast media can be easily accessed online.

Quite a number of doctors exercising their right to prescribe a drug they believe to be beneficial to their patients have been unduly threatened by the half-accurate statements and advisories of the HPAAC, PMA and PCP.

Not only were the doctors’ and patients’ rights violated, but your separate unfairly harsh statements have caused them and their families undue anxiety and distress of possible license revocation or criminal prosecution.

Your statement likewise generated a malicious imputation that the medical volunteers including myself who participated in the charity medical mission at Matandang Balara, Quezon City last week (April 29, Thursday) committed an illegal act of disseminating Ivermectin. This is not only an utter show of disrespect to colleagues in the medical profession, but a serious attack on the reputation and integrity of the medical volunteers involved.

You were not even there to witness the kind of service we gave all who sought our assistance face-to-face, not in the comfort, convenience and protection of a telemedicine app. We rendered our service willingly, gladly and wholeheartedly. How many of you and your colleagues will be willing to render free face-to-face consultation in a Covid- infested area?

You know very well that I, an elderly high-risk Covid survivor, would not have risked my health getting another infection if I and the other medical volunteers didn’t strongly believe that we’re doing something that is more important than our own personal safety. Did you and your colleagues in HPAAC, PMA and PCP think of that even for a single moment? Instead, your statements made us appear as irresponsible medical practitioners, prescribing medicines that are unsafe for the public, and we may be compromising their safety and welfare.

The medical volunteers and the other organizers of the QC medical mission seek no recognition for what we have done, but to be subjected to the kind of humiliation and rebuke which your statements have caused us, attacks the very foundation of our society where mutual respect is a fundamental value.

We are truly saddened because your serious imputations on our reputation and integrity could have been easily prevented with a little due diligence of finding out the true facts, instead of relying on malicious fake news. With simple web browsing, you should have updated yourselves of the FDA circular of April 13, 2021, signed by FDA Deputy Director-General Oscar Gutierrez, Jr. who emphasized that ivermectin is “authorized” by the FDA. This means it cannot be considered an illegal drug.

Various newspapers reported it also prominently (FDA: No policy prohibiting Ivermectin, https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2021/04/14/fda-no-policy-prohibiting-ivermectin/) 

In several other FDA advisories, the FDA also reiterated that doctors are allowed to prescribe Ivermectin off-label for Covid-19. In several media interviews, Director- General Eric Domingo, also affirmed it, that the FDA does not have a policy banning or prohibiting Ivermectin prescription or consumption within the provisions they have set for either CSP in hospitalized patients, and for off-label prescribing by doctors for ambulatory patients or out-patients.

In the April 13 statement, FDA Deputy Director-General Gutierrez, Jr. emphasized that Ivermectin is “authorized” by the FDA. This means it cannot be considered an illegal drug.

The statement further advised that pharmacists, who hold valid licenses, can compound Ivermectin and dispense compounded drug preparations “upon a written order” of a doctor for patients seen by the doctor. All of these requirements were complied with during the QC medical mission.

Despite the serious actual and moral damages that your statements have caused the medical volunteers in the QC medical mission, and all who prescribe Ivermectin off-label for their patients, we hold no rancor in our hearts.

But we demand that the HPAAC, PMA and PCP immediately correct, within 72 hours from receipt of this letter, the disinformation you had caused and apologize for having unduly violated the rights of the medical volunteers and caused actual and moral damages on them.

If you fail to correct the injustice you had caused the medical volunteers and other Ivermectin advocates within 72 hours, then we shall be compelled to exhaust all possible legal remedies to seek redress for this grave injustice.

We pray that you be guided properly.

Wishing you the love and peace only Jesus can provide,

Sincerely yours,

Rafael R. Castillo, MD, MBA, FPCP, FPCC, FESC, ISHF

Cc: Department of Health,
Professional Regulations Commission,
Philippine Food and Drug Administration,
Philippine Medical Association,
Philippine College of Physicians,
Concerned Doctors and Citizen of the Philippines,
Matandang Balara, QC Medical Mission Organizing Committee
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See also:
Covid 27, Dr. Rafael Castillo on vaccine, Ivermectin, and lifting the lockdown, March 24, 2021
Covid 32, Continuing economic damage of indefinite lockdown, April 23, 2021 
Covid 33, CDC PH statement on lifting the lockdown, April 28, 2021 
Covid 34, Drs. Romy Quijano and Iggy Agbayani on IVM, May 05, 2021.