U.S. Government ‘Cartel’ Paid CVS, Walgreens Billions to Reject Ivermectin Prescriptions, Push COVID Shots

John-Michael Dumais

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children's Health Defense's News & Views Website.

A “cartel” led by the U.S. government allegedly bribed large pharmacy chains like Walgreens and CVS with billions of dollars in contracts to promote COVID-19 vaccines and not fill prescriptions for ivermectin.

Dr. James Thorp and attorney Maggie Thorp on Monday published an article in America Out Loud News exposing the government’s scheme to suppress the Nobel prize-winning drug using some of the nearly $200 billion in “provider relief funds” allocated to hospitals and pharmacies during the pandemic.

The article highlights the controversy surrounding ivermectin, a drug that was “baselessly maligned” by the government, media and medical establishment despite its demonstrated efficacy against COVID-19.

The authors noted former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo’s recent disclosure that he was taking ivermectin for long COVID — or for his COVID-19 vaccine injury, which he implied but didn’t confirm.

Cuomo admitted, “We were given bad information about ivermectin,” and asked, “The real question is, why?”

While Cuomo fell short of taking responsibility for his role in quashing the drug and shaming vaccine refusers, his reversal on ivermectin sparked a new round of debate about the broad conspiracy to suppress effective and inexpensive therapeutics during the pandemic.

https://t.co/AgSNkAy4Rm

To see other Publications by Maggie Thorp JD and Jim Thorp MD Published on the America Out Loud News platform check us out here below. You want to see the systemic corruption and FRAUD in every sector of our society in the last four years? Check it… pic.twitter.com/H91jR7XiRl

— James Thorp MD (@jathorpmfm) May 20, 2024

The Thorps’ exposé comes as Steve Kirsch shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) today that California healthcare facilities and other organizations received a total of $9.2 billion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Provider Relief Fund to “push the jabs on everyone.”

Pharmacies ‘brazen in their refusal to fill ivermectin prescriptions’

In their article, the Thorps quoted Dr. Pierre Kory’s book, “The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic,” describing the suppression of therapeutics occurring at the height of the pandemic.

“In the wake of the global horse-dewormer propaganda campaign, hospitals started pulling ivermectin from their pharmacies,” Kory wrote.

Kory, a pulmonologist and co-founder and president emeritus of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, described hospital health systems threatening to fire employees if they prescribed the drug and pharmacies becoming “even more brazen in their refusal to fill ivermectin prescriptions.”

Some of these same pharmacies claim they are still prohibited from filling ivermectin prescriptions as a COVID-19 treatment, according to the Thorps.

According to Kory, the results of over 100 trials show that ivermectin could have effectively treated the virus and saved countless lives.

Paying pharmacies not to fill ivermectin prescriptions was only one element of a multi-prong strategy that included threats against doctors, ranging from shaming to loss of hospital access.

The Thorps cited the case of Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, who had her hospital privileges suspended for speaking out about her success treating patients with ivermectin.

Despite the suppression of ivermectin, credible sources reported U.S. Congress members in 2021 were taking the drug for COVID-19.

Never forget that members of Congress, their staffers, and family members were taking ivermectin in 2021 and stayed out of the hospital while the FDA and the media smeared ivermectin as “horse dewormer” and attacked anyone who publicized ivermectin as a cheap, safe, and effective… https://t.co/hJhmEW0RHk

— David Hamilton, School Board Trustee (@Hamilton4TX) May 21, 2024

‘Trusted’ sources chose ‘profit over people’

CVS and Walgreens are the two largest pharmacies in the U.S., with nearly 18,000 locations between them.

One contract from 2022 shows CVS potentially receiving over $2.1 billion for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program called ICATT, or “Increasing Community Access to Testing for COVID-19,” that funded more than 19,000 testing sites targeting the uninsured and underinsured.

Walgreens, another recipient of provider relief funds, in 2022 ran a “public relations propaganda piece” featuring a trusted “Walgreens healthcare supervisor” expressing his “big relief” at finally being able to give his 3-year-old daughter a COVID-19 shot.

The Thorps also cited examples of these pharmacies running propaganda pieces featuring high-profile figures — like then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci and then-director of the CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky — receiving their COVID-19 boosters at Walgreens and CVS locations.

.@CDCDirector Rochelle Walensky visited a CVS Pharmacy today to get her bivalent COVID-19 booster. The bivalent vaccine provides added protection against COVID-19 and the Omicron variant and is available at CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide. https://t.co/wXDZYrmMyd pic.twitter.com/BQojEnRpl4

— CVS Health (@CVSHealth) September 22, 2022

The Thorps suggested that if the public became aware of ivermectin’s potential effectiveness against COVID-19, the market for the government’s mRNA vaccines might have collapsed, jeopardizing the prospective profits of the “medical-industrial complex.”

“Why in the world would any supplier want to promote or prescribe a cheap and readily available drug — like Ivermectin — if doing so would throw a wrench into potential billion-dollar cash-cow contracts with the federal government?” they asked.

“The U.S. government targeted and paid off ‘trusted’ sources to purposefully spoon-feed bad and even dangerous information to everyday Americans,” they wrote. “These ‘trusted’ sources chose profits over people.”

The article contains links to government contracting sites and other sources for those who want to do their own research.

Investigation ‘likely to be far darker’ than most could imagine

As more information comes to light about the potential efficacy of ivermectin and the alleged financial incentives that may have influenced the actions of major pharmacies, the Thorps called for accountability and further investigation.

However, they cautioned against half-hearted efforts to take responsibility, citing The New York Times’ recent article about COVID-19 vaccine injuries as an attempt to “admit mistakes were made and play dumb while trying to frame the human carnage as limited.”

However, they warned that what an investigation would uncover is “likely to be far darker and run far deeper than most Americans want to imagine.”

John-Michael Dumais

John-Michael Dumais is a news editor for The Defender. He has been a writer and community organizer on a variety of issues, including the death penalty, war, health freedom and all things related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children's Health Defense's News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.