Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism Calls on Dr McCullough
Defamation, insinuation, and innuendo from Jeff Kelly Lowenstein not very "collaborative"
By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
I have given thousands of audio and video interviews over the course of my career. Many of them are later published on FOCAL POINTS for our readers. Written interviews, however, give an opportunity for you to see the interaction real time. Without prior notice, Jeff Kelly Lowenstein at the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ) sent me this email where I answered him point by point. CCIJ is supported by organizations like the Open Society Foundations—which is listed as a donor to the CCIJ—who frequently align with the globalist, pro-establishment, and technocratic agendas that the Gates Foundation also aggressively promotes.
Lowenstein
1. What is your comment to people who say that falsely claim Ivermectin as a cure for COVID, that you falsely claim that a medical study supports your assertions and that the study falsely claims that, when tested on African subjects,Ivermectin cured everyone in the trial group of COVID?
McCullough
No single drug was necessary nor sufficient to treat ambulatory high-risk COVID-19. The acute viral illness in my view was not “cured” with a single drug. The components of the McCullough Protocol, of which ivermectin was a choice by the doctor and patient, demonstrated signals of benefit and acceptable safety early in the pandemic. When used in combination, they helped lessen the intensity, severity, and duration of symptoms, and by that mechanism, reduced the risk of hospitalization and death. The McCullough Protocol was adopted by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons A Guide to Home-Based COVID Treatment. AAPS is a physician-led, evidence-based, consensus driven organization. The principles used in the McCullough Protocol are credited with saving tens of millions of lives and sparing hundreds of millions of hospitalizations, many during the period before vaccination.
The study that best demonstrated the impact of ivermectin was the ICON Study published in CHEST during 2020 before the virus mutated to milder strains and natural immunity settled in the population. In ICON, controlling for confounders, acute COVID-19 mortality was significantly lower in the ivermectin group (13.3% vs 24.5%; OR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.22-0.99; P < .05), an 11.2% (95% CI, 0.38%-22.1%) absolute risk reduction, with a number needed to treat of 8.9 (95% CI, 4.5-263). The current running measure of effect size for ivermectin is a 47% reduction in mortality from 53 studies. In medical practice, I have used all the available antivirals and among that group I found the monoclonal antibodies most effective. Restricted to orals, ivermectin was the best. Overall I believe the drug class that had the biggest impact in the McCullough Protocol keeping seniors alive and out of hospital was corticosteroids. Keep in mind a young presumably healthy person like you in 2020 would receive NO treatment according to this standard of care.
Lowenstein
2. Was the American Board of Internal Medicine’s revocation of your certifications for internal medicine and cardiovascular disease because of your statements about COVID, including your assertions about Ivermectin, a fair one? If not, why not?
McCullough
I was awarded Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) 1991 and Cardiovascular Diseases 1997 candidate #136084 maintaining certification through November 11, 2024, when I voluntarily resigned with all rights reserved by legal notification and signed certified letter to ABIM. My resignation letter was accepted by ABIM CEO Dr Furman McDonald c/o Ganae Powell certified article #70221670000174699230. ABIM bylaws do not allow revocation of certification after resignation. The dispute with ABIM did not involve ivermectin.
I am board-certified by the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons Certification NBPAS ID: N57647 in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases, March 1, 2024 valid through March 31, 2028. My bibliography which includes numerous peer-reviewed scientific contributions over the course of the pandemic is kept at the National Center for Biotechnology Information
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/peter.mccullough.1/bibliography/public/
Lowenstein
3. What is your comment about the lawsuit filed by Baylor Scott & White against you for misrepresenting your affiliation with the medical institution while promulgating COVID vaccination falsehoods? Was there a settlement in the case?
McCullough
The lawsuit was meritless and never advanced to discovery, deposition, or trial. It was dismissed by the judge with prejudice meaning it cannot be revisited again.
Lowenstein
4. Did your time as a doctor on staff at Baylor Scott & White end while you were making public statements about vaccinations? What is your comment about the timing of these two sets of events?
McCullough
My first public statements about COVID-19 vaccines were in the Texas Senate under oath in March, 2021, while I was employed at Baylor. I remained on active medical staff until 2023. I was the only Texas physician with senior academic rank, a substantial publication track record, and medical authority called to testify on the crisis.
Lowenstein
4. What is your comment about the relationship between your anti-vaccination views and the decision by other major Texas medical institutions like Baylor University Medical Center, Baylor Heart and Vascular Institute, and the Baylor Research Institute to sever ties with you?
McCullough
I personally have been accepting of vaccines taking 69 doses over the course of my lifetime. I did not take a COVID-19 vaccine. The Baylor organizations mentioned like many hospitals had COVID-19 vaccine mandates, however they honored medical and religious exemptions without the burden of routine testing. Because the COVID-19 vaccines can have lethal side effects and numerous authors in the peer-reviewed literature believe the risks far outweigh theoretical benefits, mandates are banned in Texas.
Lowenstein
6. What is your comment about the retraction because of “considerable discrepancies” of the article you co-wrote on risks associated with using a drug combination including the anti-malarial medication hydroxychloroquine as a way to treat Covid was published in 2024?
McCullough
Numerous retractions of fully peer-reviewed, contracted, copyrighted, and published manuscripts have occurred violating the Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines rules for retraction. These go against where applicable, contract law and certainly are a breach of publication ethics. If adversarial readers or more powerful entities such as bio-pharmaceutical companies or non-for-profit organizations put pressure on an editor, journal, or publisher to retract a valid paper, the journal should invite the dissenting voices to write letters to the editor so the proper scientific discourse can occur in public for the readers. Dr. Didier Raoult, senior author of numerous cutting-edge reports during the pandemic, has been especially targeted and has responded by filing criminal charges.
Retractions of valuable papers shedding light on early treatment and vaccine safety/lack of efficacy has biased the literature towards a false impression that the illness is unassailable and that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. The Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism should be concerned about this new and dangerous form of scientific censorship.
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Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
President, McCullough Foundation
References
Center For Collaborative Investigative Journalism
Rajter JC, Sherman MS, Fatteh N, Vogel F, Sacks J, Rajter JJ. Use of Ivermectin Is Associated With Lower Mortality in Hospitalized Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019: The Ivermectin in COVID Nineteen Study. Chest. 2021 Jan;159(1):85-92. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2020.10.009. Epub 2020 Oct 13. PMID: 33065103; PMCID: PMC7550891.
McCullough PA, Kelly RJ, Ruocco G, Lerma E, Tumlin J, Wheelan KR, Katz N, Lepor NE, Vijay K, Carter H, Singh B, McCullough SP, Bhambi BK, Palazzuoli A, De Ferrari GM, Milligan GP, Safder T, Tecson KM, Wang DD, McKinnon JE, O’Neill WW, Zervos M, Risch HA. Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection. Am J Med. 2021 Jan;134(1):16-22. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.07.003. Epub 2020 Aug 7. PMID: 32771461; PMCID: PMC7410805.
McCullough PA, Alexander PE, Armstrong R, Arvinte C, Bain AF, Bartlett RP, Berkowitz RL, Berry AC, Borody TJ, Brewer JH, Brufsky AM, Clarke T, Derwand R, Eck A, Eck J, Eisner RA, Fareed GC, Farella A, Fonseca SNS, Geyer CE Jr, Gonnering RS, Graves KE, Gross KBV, Hazan S, Held KS, Hight HT, Immanuel S, Jacobs MM, Ladapo JA, Lee LH, Littell J, Lozano I, Mangat HS, Marble B, McKinnon JE, Merritt LD, Orient JM, Oskoui R, Pompan DC, Procter BC, Prodromos C, Rajter JC, Rajter JJ, Ram CVS, Rios SS, Risch HA, Robb MJA, Rutherford M, Scholz M, Singleton MM, Tumlin JA, Tyson BM, Urso RG, Victory K, Vliet EL, Wax CM, Wolkoff AG, Wooll V, Zelenko V. Multifaceted highly targeted sequential multidrug treatment of early ambulatory high-risk SARS-CoV-2 infection (COVID-19). Rev Cardiovasc Med. 2020 Dec 30;21(4):517-530. doi: 10.31083/j.rcm.2020.04.264. PMID: 33387997.
Hulscher N, Bowden M T., McCullough P A. Review of Calls for Market Removal of COVID-19 Vaccines Intensify: Risks Far Outweigh Theoretical Benefits. Science, Public Health Policy and the Law. 2025 Jan 28; v6.2019-2025 https://publichealthpolicyjournal.com/review-of-calls-for-market-removal-of-covid-19-vaccines-intensify-risks-far-outweigh-theoretical-benefits/
Well replied Dr. McCullough! We'll now wait for them to "tell a fair and accurate story" as they stated to you.