Dr. Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko, the man who discovered and implemented the early treatment for COVID-19, died June 30 at the age of 48. He was diagnosed with a rare form of terminal cancer in early 2018 and fought the righteous fight till the end.
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1973, when it was part of the Soviet Union, Zev and his family immigrated to the United States in 1977 and settled in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. He attended Hofstra University, where he earned a B.S. in chemistry and then went on to medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Zev was a family doctor in the Orthodox Jewish community of Rockland County. When the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020 and began to hit his patients, the virus was exacting a deadly death toll; 21 percent of patients were hospitalized, and 88 percent of patients on ventilators died. There were no effective protocols or treatments to fight the virus in its early stages — or at least this was the accepted mainstream narrative at that time.
Zelenko was determined to keep his COVID-19 patients from having to enter a hospital, where death was a statistical certainty. He did his homework, which every doctor should have done, but few did. Through an exhaustive search of the medical literature, good fortune and divine intervention (by his account), he discovered a treatment. By combining hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), zinc, azithromycin, steroids and other over-the-counter drugs, he created what has come to be known as the “Zelenko Protocol.” The key to the protocol was early intervention to treat the disease on a cellular level before it could break loose and develop into a full-blown respiratory storm.
Zev went on to treat approximately 7,500 patients using his protocol with Samsonian success, losing only three patients. He was nominated along with other courageous doctors for the Nobel Prize in recognition of his groundbreaking treatment and outspoken advocacy on behalf of patients.
However, no good deed goes unpunished. Zev faced ridicule, condemnation and censorship for taking an intrepid stand against the prevailing orthodoxy. Politicians, health officials — those so-called experts — and the legacy media attempted to deny the efficacy of the Zelenko Protocol and its simple, low-cost treatment path. Numerous studies were constructed to deliberately hide the effectiveness of using HCQ and (later) ivermectin in conjunction with other drugs.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo forbade the use of HCQ in treating patients; so did other politicians. Social media platforms joined the effort to silence Zelenko and anyone who even talked about the use of HCQ and/or ivermectin. Zev was famously banned from Twitter in late 2020 for advocating his protocol.
Absolutely nothing deterred Zev, so he discovered that the natural supplement quercetin served the same function as HCQ in catalyzing zinc to attack the developing virus in the cell. Quercetin wasn’t as effective as HCQ, but it did the job necessary. Zev said, “You don’t go to war with the army you wish you had. You go to war with the army you’ve got.”
Zev continued his research until his death and was an outspoken critic of the mass mRNA vaccination campaign. He was critical of the illogical and ill-conceived drive to vaccinate children against COVID-19, given that there is no medical justification and children are at practically no risk from the disease. He characterized the vaccination policy as “child sacrifice.”
He asked, “Why, then, was there a choreographed, orchestrated media campaign and political campaign to marginalize and vilify these drugs to scare people and deprive them of hope? Why?” He concluded, “I am not a conspiracy theorist, but a conspiracy realist. I came to the realization that the success of my treatment protocol — which saves lives — posed a major financial threat to an all-powerful group of people whose interests were served by hospital-centered protocols that increased deaths.”
In Zev’s final message from his hospital bed, he warned that the World Health Organization has evil motives and has been attempting to encroach on the freedom, independence and liberty of nations worldwide:
“Resist their evil agenda and fear campaigns, lockdown campaigns, isolation campaigns, dehumanizing mask campaigns,” he wrote. “They will keep sending wave after wave of fear until we resolve to kick out the evil from within. Denounce the false gods of technology, science, the gods of corrupt government, of money, fame and return with our hearts to our True Creator.”
He is survived by his wife, Rinat, their two children, Shira and Liba, and six children from a previous marriage: Levi Yitzchok, Esther Tova, Eta Devorah, Nochum Dovid, Shmuel Nosson Yaakov, Menachem Mendel. Also still living are his parents, Aaron and Leah, and his brother, Ephraim.
Zev announced shortly before he died the formation of the Z Freedom Foundation, dedicated to continuing his critical work. His memoirs, Zelenko: How to Decapitate the Serpent, will be available later this year.
Zelenko often referred to his cancer as a gift from God. “My cancer is what prepared me for the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said. “Without it, I would not have developed my passion for searching for answers that others said couldn’t be found, and without it I could not have held to the persecution and ridicule I received for daring to treat patients. I have looked death in the eye, and I have been made ready to meet God. I fear nothing on this earth.”
