Ivermectin, HCQ advocate Harvey Risch officially named chair of President's Cancer Panel

The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday officially announced the appointment of Dr. Harvey Risch as chairman of the President's Cancer Panel.

The professor emeritus and senior research scientist in epidemiology at Yale's public health and medical schools was an early proponent of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin in COVID-19 treatment.

The panel is part of the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute and monitors the National Cancer Program's development and execution of its activities, while also reporting to the president on progress, efficacy, and opportunities for improvement in fighting cancer, according to HHS.

It emphasized Risch has "dedicated his career to studying cancer etiology, prevention, early diagnosis, and epidemiological methods," with research on "ovarian cancer, pancreas cancer, lung cancer, bladder cancer, esophageal and stomach cancer, and cancers related to the use of oral contraceptives and noncontraceptive estrogens."

It's not clear why HHS waited 11 days after Risch himself said President Trump had appointed him as chair of the panel, which his Yale profile says happened in November, but it came less than two hours after WIRED magazine noted Risch wasn't listed on the panel's website.

The feds' announcement doesn't mention Risch's best-known positions on medical issues, namely COVID treatment and his criticism of the Biden administration's COVID policies and data integrity. HHS didn't immediately answer a query to explain the timing of the announcement.

WIRED emphasized that Risch has "speculated about whether there is a connection between Covid-19 vaccines and 'turbo cancer' in young people" and that he's chief epidemiologist for The Wellness Company, which sells ivermectin.

“I am thankful for the opportunity President Trump has given me to transform cancer prevention in the United States,” Risch said in a statement.

“We are sitting on the treasure trove of knowledge necessary to demystify the causes of cancer, and we can use that knowledge to help Americans live fuller, freer lives,"he said. "Cancer does not have to loom over the American people as an unknowable specter.”

In his role as chairman, Risch plans to accelerate American innovations in cancer prevention while increasing the public’s awareness of reproductive, dietary, occupational, environmental, and immune system-related factors that influence cancer etiology.

“Dr. Risch brings the expertise and resolve needed to identify the root causes of cancer in America,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in a statement. “He will push this work forward, confront the factors driving cancer rates, and provide the public with science they can trust."

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said, “The field of cancer prevention is only 75 years old. Great developments in our understanding of this subject should not shock us — they should be expected."