A Key West doctor who participated in a Florida anti-vaccination summit now has COVID

Seven doctors who gathered at a COVID anti-vaccination summit in Florida to tout the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin and other alternative measures for preventing the transmission of the coronavirus now have contracted COVID-19, The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.

One of the doctors — Dr. Bruce Boros — is from the Florida Keys.

Boros, of Key West, told the Miami Herald in September 2020 that he had been giving ivermectin — commonly used as a dewormer for cows, horses and other livestock — to COVID patients.

“It stopped them from the downward slide they were on,” Boros said at the time.

The Florida Summit on COVID, held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala on Nov. 6, drew doctors from around the country, according to Newsweek.

At the summit, Boros reportedly said that he and his wife had been on ivermectin for 16 months. “I have never felt healthier in my life,” The Daily Beast reported.

Now, according to news reports, Boros, a 71-year-old cardiologist, is “seriously ill” at his Key West home, according to the Beast.

Miami Herald calls to his office went unanswered.

The November summit was held to discuss “the vaccines, natural immunity in those who previously had the virus, vaccine mandates and related topics,” according to The Gainesville Sun.

Summit organizer, Dr. John Littell, told The Daily Beast that Boros was one of seven who had tested positive or developed COVID symptoms “within days of the conference” that drew about 900 participants.

Littell added he believed those who got ill already had been exposed before the summit and that it was not a superspreader event, according to The Daily Beast.

Boros’ last Facebook post was on Nov. 12. In it, Boros, who owns and operates the Keys’ three Advanced Urgent Care clinics, goes on a tear against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health for promoting the current COVID vaccines such as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

“Big Pharma is making BILLIONS on poison jabs! They don’t care to track bad outcomes for jabs because they don’t want their financial gravy train disrupted. Nobody has the money to fight them. Finally. DO NOT JAB CHILDREN!” he posted. “REJECT AUTHORITARIAN MEDICINE.”

When COVID first hit the island chain Boros stressed mask wearing, social distancing, highway checkpoints and the closing of airports in Key West and Marathon and marinas to keep tourists off the Keys, the Herald reported in April 2020.

Medical researchers weren’t sold on his passion for ivermectin, however.

The National Institutes of Health’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel recommended against using ivermectin, first approved as an anti-parasitic drug in 1975, to treat COVID outside of clinical trials.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted on its website in September 2021 that the use of ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 is “not authorized or approved for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.”

The FDA added that ivermectin is approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.

“Currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19,” the FDA said in its posting. “Clinical trials assessing ivermectin tablets for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in people are ongoing.”