Dr. Syed Haider has treated more than 4,000 COVID-19-positive patients so far during the pandemic. Just five ended up going to a hospital, and none have died.
The doctor said his preferred treatments include many off-label medications along with vitamins and supplements.
Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic that has had mixed results against COVID-19 in clinical trials and isn’t advised by the Food and Drug Administration to treat the disease. Fluvoxamine is an antidepressant that’s gaining popularity for use against COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial that has shown some success in treating the disease. Quercetin is a plant pigment that’s not widely known yet as a treatment for COVID-19.
Haider has also recommended flax seed oil.
“One really easy thing that anyone can do is just follow the directions on a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, you can get this at the store, can dilute it down to 1 percent swish swish it through your nose, or swish it through your mouth and drip it into your nose or use a neti pot to rinse out your nose. And it’s not uncomfortable, it shouldn’t be burning, if it’s burning, you would want to dilute it a little bit more, and that kills the virus on contact,” he said.
The agency recommends using Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill, known as paxlovid; Merck’s pill, called molnupiravir; GlaxoSmithKline’s monoclonal antibody treatment, sotrovimab; or Gilead Sciences’s remdesivir, administered through IV over multiple days.
The recommendations stem from studies that demonstrate the therapeutics’ effectiveness, the agency said.
Haider, however, doesn’t agree with the remdesivir recommendation, noting it’s never received an endorsement from the World Health Organization and that it has the side effect of causing kidney failure.
The virus that causes COVID-19, he said, is “very, very easily treatable” if early treatment is done with off-label drugs, Haider stressed.
He advises people get prepared ahead of time.
While Omicron often manifests as a bad cold, even some people who are considered at low-risk of developing severe disease will end up with severe cases, the doctor said. Additionally, emerging data indicate that the protection provided by both vaccination and natural immunity isn’t as good against Omicron, emphasizing the need to be ready.