Veterans and Remdesivir – Operation Mis-Informed Consent: ‘You Can’t Meaningfully Consent to Something if You’re Not Given Accurate Information’

There are heightened concerns about the informed consent form service members and veterans may have signed to participate in a clinical trial using remdesivir to treat COVID-19.

“Are you a service member or veteran who participated in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command’s (USAMRDC) clinical trial NCT04302766 for the treatment of COVID-19 with remdesivir (GS-5734™)? Are you a spouse or family member of a service member or veteran who participated in the trial? Are you in possession of the Informed Consent Form?”

Service members and veterans, or their family members, are being encouraged to reach out if they were affected by the use of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 between 2020 and 2021. Click here to tell your story.

First published by the Gateway Pundit on October 4, 2024, The Remdesivir Papers reveals evidence that 64 percent of service members and veterans whose deaths were attributed to COVID-19 were also administered remdesivir.

The author of the report continues to be troubled by the Informed Consent Form given to service members and veterans at the start of U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command’s (USAMRDC) clinical trial NCT04302766. The Gateway spoke to attorney R. Davis Younts to address some of these concerns.

The retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former judge advocate general (JAG) officer described the form “in its most fundamental sense” as a contract. “I would certainly argue that from a legal standpoint, all the same principles [of a contract] are going to apply,” he explained.

“According to the principles of contract law,” Younts said, “it’s basically an agreement between two people coming together on something.” For him, honesty is the key issue to “the benefit of the bargain.” In laymen’s terms, both sides of the agreement are ensured they are receiving what they intended to receive without deception.

Speaking more specifically about the form provided by USAMRDC, Younts offered his thoughts about the following statement that can be found in Section 6.1 of the form:

“Remdesivir has also been given to Ebola survivors in West Africa and to people with Ebola virus disease. Some of these people had side effects.”

Considering that The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reported, in May 2019, the use of remdesivir resulted in the highest mortality rate among participants in a trial of four investigational therapies for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Younts said, “this informed consent is very misleading.” Ninety-three out of 175 (53.1 percent) patient deaths occurred in the group taking remdesivir.

According to Younts, “the whole point of informed consent—with all of the laws and litigation behind it—is that you should have the freedom and opportunity to make to make informed decisions regarding your health care.” He added that “you can’t meaningfully consent to something if you’re not given accurate information.”

For him, considering the number of deaths reported by NEJM in 2019, the statement that “some people had side effects” is “deeply troubling, [as] there is a lot of deception there.”

In addition, Section 7 of the USAMRDC’s Informed Consent Form for clinical trial NCT04302766 also offered that “at best, the website will include a summary of the results.” To the contrary, no results have been posted to the site. “They didn’t honor the contract,” Younts argued. “For a medical provider, pharmaceutical company, doctor, military treatment facility, or anyone else to say they’re going to offer the results and then not provide them is a clear failure on their part to satisfy a condition of the contract.”

Multiple email inquiries regarding these concerns were sent to the military treatment facilities involved. A FOIA request was also filed with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) on September 24. The request has been assigned a case number with an estimated completion date of January 10, 2024.

In addition, on September 27, a congressional inquiry from Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) was sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, copying the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, USAMRDC Commanding General Maj. Gen. Paula C. Lodi and others.