Let's see the latest lawsuit from America's Frontline Doctors... Bizarre lawsuit against Pentagon claims vaccines are made with antifreeze: 'What form of alchemy has FDA discovered?' https://www.rawstory.com/lt-col-theresa-long/ The right-wing medical group that's been pushing horse paste and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for COVID-19 is now suing the Pentagon to block its vaccine mandate. The lawsuit brought by lawyers working with America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) isn't likely to overturn Defense secretary Lloyd Austin's order requiring coronavirus vaccines for active-duty service members, 95 percent of whom have already had at least one shot, and its claims are based on a number of false and easily debunked falsehoods about the shots, reported The Daily Beast. "I cannot discern what form of alchemy Pfizer and the FDA have discovered that would make antifreeze into a healthful cure to the human body," reads an affidavit filed as part of the suit by Lt. Col. Theresa M. Long, who serves as the brigade surgeon for the Army's 1st Aviation Brigade. The lieutenant colonel hasn't appeared on a primetime Fox News program yet, as a handful of other anti-vaxx field-grade officers have, but her bogus claims have been promoted by AFLDS and Overstock CEO and election conspiracy theorist Patrick Byrne. "Long's affidavit traffics in a number of false and easily disproved anti-COVID vaccine talking points," The Daily Beast reported. "In particular, she singles out the presence of a small amount (.5 micrograms) of polyethylene glycol, which she calls 'a derivative of ethylene oxide' — a key ingredient in antifreeze — in the Pfizer vaccine to insinuate that the jab is somehow dangerous." Those claims have become popular among anti-vaxxers, but health officials point out that polyethylene glycol isn't the active ingredient in antifreeze, but is commonly found in over-the-counter products like laxatives. Long's affidavit also falsely claims 13,000 deaths have been linked to COVID-19 vaccines, based on unverified reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, and recommends the military instead treat infected troops with, among other medications, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin -- neither of which have been proven as coronavirus therapies.
If you didn't do the research yourself, you don't know anything... all you can do is decide whose information/opinions to accept. In this case, IMV, the choice is either "The Establishments' Official Policy" (that is, if you get sick stay home until you can no longer breathe. Then go to the hospital for high-volume oxygen.. when that doesn't work, go on a ventilator... when that doesn't work, go to the morgue) or the myriad of doctors who don't go along with the establishment for one reason or another... and who recommend EARLY TREATMENT.
How a group with right-wing ties duped tens of thousands of Americans into buying COVID-19 drugs that don't work https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-frontline-doctors-sells-disproven-covid-drugs-2021-9 It has referred people to a telemedicine site to procure those treatments for a fee. Its patients may have spent $6.7 million for medical advice and $8.5 million for prescriptions,The Intercept reported. For more than a year, a group called America's Frontline Doctors has been stoking the flames of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The organization refers to itself as a nonprofit that advocates for physicians and patients. In reality, it has been instrumental in promoting disproven, often dangerous COVID-19 treatments, then referring people to a telemedicine site where they can procure those treatments following a consultation. According to hacked data recently obtained by The Intercept, America's Frontline Doctors referred 255,000 people to the telemedicine site SpeakWithAnMD from July to September. During that period, around 72,000 people paid for $90 phone consultations, plus some additional $60 follow-ups. That math suggests that patients spent more than $6.7 million for medical advice from SpeakWithAnMD alone, The Intercept estimated. After their consults, SpeakWithAnMD's physicians prescribe drugs like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine — falsely labeled as COVID-19 treatments — through a parent company called Encore Telemedicine. Encore sends orders to a digital pharmacy, Ravkoo, which either ships the drugs directly to patients or calls the orders into their local pharmacy. The total cost of those prescriptions has reached at least $8.5 million, according to records of 340,000 prescriptions filled by Ravkoo from November 2020 to September 2021. That breaks down to $4.7 million for ivermectin, $2.4 million for azithromycin, $1.2 million for hydroxychloroquine, $175,000 for zinc, and $52,000 for vitamin C. Ravkoo CEO Alpesh Patel told The Intercept that his company stopped doing business with SpeakWithAnMD and America's Frontline Doctors at the end of August. The hacked data, however, suggests that Ravkoo filled hundreds of prescriptions for America's Frontline Doctors in September. "We don't control who sends us business," Patel said. "Let's put it that way. We don't have formal contracts with particular companies." In some cases, patients paid for SpeakWithAnMD consults but never received a phone call from a physician, TIME reported last month. In other cases, TIME found, some people were charged hundreds of dollars for drugs that never arrived. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University, recently told CNN that the service is "praying on people who are desperate, trying to sell them junk when they're in dire straits." (More at above url)
Chiropractors should not really be considered doctors. These chumps are effectively nothing more than massage therapists. And currently many chiropractors are pushing endless Covid misinformation -- some even directing people to the AFLD-related websites so they can earn commissions from fake Covid cures. Anti-vaccine chiropractors rising force of misinformation https://apnews.com/article/anti-vir...sinformation-02b347767b45cab1d6d532be03c57529 The flashy postcard, covered with images of syringes, beckoned people to attend Vax-Con ’21 to learn “the uncensored truth” about COVID-19 vaccines. Participants traveled from around the country to a Wisconsin Dells resort for a sold-out convention that was, in fact, a sea of misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and the pandemic. The featured speaker was the anti-vaccine activist who appeared in the 2020 movie “Plandemic,” which pushed false COVID-19 stories into the mainstream. One session after another discussed bogus claims about the health dangers of mask wearing and vaccines. The convention was organized by members of a profession that has become a major purveyor of vaccine misinformation during the pandemic: chiropractors. At a time when the surgeon general says misinformation has become an urgent threat to public health, an investigation by The Associated Press found a vocal and influential group of chiropractors has been capitalizing on the pandemic by sowing fear and mistrust of vaccines. They have touted their supplements as alternatives to vaccines, written doctor’s notes to allow patients to get out of mask and immunization mandates, donated large sums of money to anti-vaccine organizations and sold anti-vaccine ads on Facebook and Instagram, the AP discovered. One chiropractor gave thousands of dollars to a Super PAC that hosted an anti-vaccine, pro-Donald Trump rally near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. They have also been the leading force behind anti-vaccine events like the one in Wisconsin, where hundreds of chiropractors from across the U.S. shelled out $299 or more to attend. The AP found chiropractors were allowed to earn continuing education credits to maintain their licenses in at least 10 states. Public health advocates are alarmed by the number of chiropractors who have hitched themselves to the anti-vaccine movement and used their public prominence and sheen of medical expertise to undermine the nation’s response to a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 700,000 Americans. “People trust them. They trust their authority, but they also feel like they’re a nice alternative to traditional medicine,” said Erica DeWald of Vaccinate Your Family, who tracks figures in the anti-vaccine movement. “Mainstream medicine will refer people out to a chiropractor not knowing that they could be exposed to misinformation. You go because your back hurts, and then suddenly you don’t want to vaccinate your kids.” The purveyors of vaccine misinformation represent a small but vocal minority of the nation’s 70,000 chiropractors, many of whom advocate for vaccines. In some places, chiropractors have helped organize vaccine clinics or been authorized to give COVID-19 shots. And chiropractic is not the only health care profession whose members have been associated with COVID-19 misinformation: Some medical doctors have spread dangerous falsehoods about vaccines, a problem so concerning that the national group representing state medical boards warned in July that doctors who push vaccine disinformation could have their licenses revoked. But the pandemic gave a new platform to a faction of chiropractors who had been stirring up anti-vaccine misinformation long before COVID-19 arrived, driven by interpretations of 19th century chiropractic beliefs that medicine interferes with the body’s natural flow of energy. Chiropractic was founded in 1895 by D.D. Palmer, a “magnetic healer” who argued that most disease was a result of misaligned vertebrae. Its early leaders rejected the use of surgery and drugs, as well as the idea that germs cause disease. Instead, they believed the body has an innate intelligence, and the power to heal itself if it is functioning properly, and that chiropractic care can help it do that. This led many to reject vaccines -- even though vaccines are not within their scope of practice. Instead, they treat conditions through spine and musculoskeletal adjustments, as well as exercise and nutritional counseling. A 2015 Gallup survey found an estimated 33.5 million adults had seen a chiropractor in the previous 12 months. ___ Even before the pandemic, many chiropractors became active in the so-called “health freedom” movement, advocating in state legislatures from Massachusetts to South Dakota to allow more people to skip vaccinations. Since 2019, the AP found, chiropractors and chiropractor-backed groups have worked to influence vaccine-related legislation and policy in at least 24 states. For example, an organization started by a chiropractor and a co-owner of a chiropractic business takes credit for torpedoing a New Jersey bill in early 2020 that would have ended the state’s religious exemption for vaccines. Then the pandemic hit, creating new avenues for profit. The first complaint the Federal Trade Commission filed under the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act was in April against a Missouri chiropractor. It alleges he falsely advertised that “vaccines do not stop the spread of the virus,” but that supplements he sold for $24 per bottle plus $9.95 shipping did. He says he did not advertise his supplements that way and is fighting the allegations in court. Nebraska chiropractor Ben Tapper landed on the “Disinformation Dozen,” a list compiled by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which says he is among the small group of people responsible for nearly two-thirds of anti-vaccine content online. Tapper went viral with posts downplaying the dangers of COVID-19, criticizing “Big Pharma,” and stoking fears of the vaccine. Tapper said he has been called a “quack” and lost patients, and that Venmo and PayPal seized his accounts. In his view, the public is being told that they need a vaccine to be healthy, which he doesn’t believe is true. He said vaccines have no place in what he calls the “wellness and prevention paradigm.” “We’re trying to defend our rights,” Tapper told AP, when asked why so many chiropractors are involved in the anti-vaccine movement. “We’re defending our scope of practice.” Another chiropractor, who has frequently appeared on the right-wing show operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to sell supplements, was also a donor to an organization that was behind the anti-vaccine demonstration on Jan. 6. It’s unclear how widespread anti-vaccine sentiment is in the ranks of chiropractors, but there are some clues. Stephen Perle, a professor at the University of Bridgeport School of Chiropractic, recently surveyed thousands of chiropractors across the United States. He said his and other surveys show that less than 20% of chiropractors have “unorthodox” views, such as opposition to vaccines. Perle called that group an “exceedingly vocal, engaged minority.” AP could find no national numbers of vaccination rates among chiropractors, but Oregon tracks vaccine uptake among all licensed health providers, and the numbers show chiropractors and their assistants are by far the least likely to be vaccinated -- and far less than the general public. Just 58% of licensed chiropractors and 55% of chiropractic assistants in Oregon were vaccinated as of Sept. 5. That’s compared to 96% of dentists, 92% of MDs, 83% of registered nurses, 68% of naturopathic physicians, and 75% of the general public. Full Coverage: Misinformation Vaccines save millions of lives around the world by preventing diseases such as measles and flu, and they have shown to be overwhelmingly effective in reducing hospitalization and death from COVID-19. More than 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the U.S. alone -- and hundreds of millions more worldwide -- and serious side effects are exceedingly rare. But dozens of chiropractors spread doubt on their own websites about vaccines, including those for COVID-19. One chiropractor in North Carolina says people who get flu shots are “poisoning themselves.” A patient testimonial on the website of a chiropractor in Georgia proclaims, “Dr. Lou has taught me how toxic shots and vaccinations are.” Another, for a chiropractor in Pennsylvania, says that in less than two months of treatments, “the vaccination against contracting diphtheria (that was given to me as a child over 50 years ago) had been expelled from my body!” A chiropractor in Hollywood warns of the “dangers and unfortunately the EVIL associated with the new covid-19 vaccine.” A Michigan chiropractor, Kyle McKamey, tells patients on a pediatric intake form “If you would like information regarding the dangers of vaccines and how to refuse them, let us know!” The line is punctuated by a smiley face emoji. McKamey offered to write notes exempting people from vaccine and mask mandates, and said even if they weren’t a patient, they could become one and get a note, according to a Facebook post spotted by the ABC affiliate in South Bend, Indiana. He wrote in the post that “as a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic, I have the same authority” as a medical doctor to write exemption notes. McCamey did not return messages seeking comment. The AP also found some chiropractors were selling anti-vaccine ads on Facebook and Instagram, including one in California who pushed a link to a disinformation-filled video series about vaccines that AP previously reported has paid out millions to affiliates who helped sell the product. ___ The pandemic has also led to huge fundraising opportunities for chiropractors and anti-vaccine groups. On the West Coast, a chiropractic seminar and expo called Cal Jam, run by chiropractor Billy DeMoss, said in 2019 it raised a half-million dollars for a group led by one of the world’s most prominent anti-vaccine activists, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Photographs posted online show DeMoss and others presenting Kennedy with a giant check for $500,000. The check’s signature line read “Chiropractic Rebels.” The amount represents a huge portion of Children’s Health Defense’s 2019 revenues, about one-sixth of the nearly $3 million it raised that year, according to the group’s tax forms. In the weeks and months that followed the chiropractors’ fundraiser, Kennedy traveled around the U.S., including to Connecticut, California and New York, to lobby or sue over vaccine policies. This summer, DeMoss and Children’s Health Defense raised another $45,000, DeMoss said in an Instagram post, adding that he and Kennedy “have graced many stages together and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars” for Kennedy’s organization. Children’s Health Defense is a ubiquitous source of false and misleading information about vaccines, and Kennedy has been banned on Instagram and was also labeled a member of the “Disinformation Dozen.” DeMoss and Cal Jam did not respond to emails seeking more information about the donations. Laura Bono of Children’s Health Defense said the group does not make donor information public. Another group, Stand for Health Freedom, was co-founded in 2019 by another member of the “Disinformation Dozen,” Sayer Ji, along with chiropractor, Joel Bohemier, and Leah Wilson, who co-owns a chiropractic business in Indiana with her chiropractor husband. Stand for Health Freedom says it has an estimated reach of 1 million “advocates,” and it takes credit for killing the 2020 New Jersey bill on religious exemption for vaccines. The group’s website says that in just one week, more than 80,000 emails were sent to New Jersey lawmakers through its portal. In a video presentation earlier this year at the Health Freedom Summit, an online conference populated with anti-vaccine figures, Wilson said another round of advocacy resulted in 30,000 more emails to lawmakers. “We heard numerous times from these elected officials that they’ve never had such an outpouring of communication coming into their inboxes and coming through their phone lines as they did with this specific issue,” Wilson said. The group, which has not filed as a lobbying organization in any state, is currently pushing people to send messages opposing vaccine mandates to lawmakers in states including Iowa and South Dakota, and says it has gathered more than 126,000 signatures on a petition to oppose vaccine mandates for air travel. Wilson said during an appearance at an anti-vaccine event on Sept. 19 in Indianapolis that over the past month, “120,000 new advocates had taken action through Stand for Health Freedom.” The group reported nearly $200,000 in revenue in 2020, an amount Bohemier said in an email came from “advocate donations.” New Jersey Senate Democratic President Steve Sweeney told AP that he was concerned some chiropractors were running afoul of the state’s truth-in-advertising law because they’re spreading anti-vaccine misinformation. “Chiropractors are violating the law and giving medical advice, and the ones that are found to violate the law should have their licenses stripped from them,” he said. “They’re not medical doctors, and they’re giving advice as if they’re experts and they’re not.” ___ In Wisconsin, Vax-Con was not just a way to spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. It was a way to make money. Tickets cost $299 for chiropractors who were members of the event’s organizer, The Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin, and $129 for chiropractic technicians. Nonmember chiropractors paid $399. Georgia-based Life University, which bills itself as the world’s largest single-campus chiropractic university, acted as Vax-Con’s sponsor and vouched for the program as “viable postgraduate materials” in a letter to state regulators. For its role, the school was paid $35 per attendee, according to its president, Robert Scott. Brian Wussow, a chiropractor and vice president of the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin, later told a state Senate committee that more than 400 chiropractors and 100 chiropractic technicians from Minnesota, South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas attended. “In fact, the demand for this CE program was so great the numbers do not reflect the actual interest to attend, but the capacity of the room at the hotel,” he said, according to written testimony. Based on ticket prices, the event would have generated revenue of at least $130,000. Offering continuing education courses is so lucrative that the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin has been pushing the Legislature to allow it to sponsor such courses directly, without going through a provider such as Life University. Wussow contended Vax-Con’s program was not against vaccines. But that was not supported by a review of some of the course materials found by the AP on the Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin website. The featured speaker, “Plandemic’s” Judy Mikovits, for example, included a number of false and unsupported claims in her 34-page presentation, including that vaccines drive pandemics and that vaccines and masks contribute to the development of chronic disease. Life University President Scott told AP that 10 states have accepted the Vax-Con program for continuing education credit. Brian Castrucci, CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which advocates for public health, was appalled that chiropractors were earning continuing education credit to attend Vax-Con. “When you are a licensed professional and you are spreading misinformation, should you maintain your license?” Castrucci said. “When chiropractors and physicians and medical professionals and elected leaders and social media start spreading disinformation, where are people to go for information? Where are people to go for facts?” James Damrow, a third-generation chiropractor in Janesville, Wisconsin, has been practicing for 29 years and served as a member of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Examining Board for three. When Vax-Con sought approval to have its session count as continuing education credit for chiropractors, Damrow allowed it, but with an explicit reminder that it was meant for information only and advice on vaccines falls outside the scope of practice for chiropractors. “I wasn’t happy with the name of the course, but when I looked into the materials, it was fairly well-referenced, peer-reviewed science, so I felt like it was good information that was something that would be OK for the doctor to know,” Damrow said. “My preference would have been to call it something different, a little less controversial.” Damrow said he did not investigate the background of the speakers. He said chiropractors were being unfairly cast as anti-science and “that’s not accurate.” As recently as October 2020, the International Chiropractors Association carried what it called a “formal policy statement” on its website, saying the group “questions the wisdom of mass vaccination programs” and opposes compulsory vaccine programs which infringe upon “freedom of choice.” The statement has since been removed but could be found in the Internet Archive. Beth Clay, executive director of the International Chiropractors Association, said in an email that the group “takes no official position” on vaccines, but when asked whether its formal policy statement had been rescinded, she replied that it “technically” remained official. The group’s policy statements were scheduled to be reviewed in the next 18 months, she said. Clay has been an anti-vaccine activist for decades, DeWald said. In articles for the website of Kennedy’s group in 2019, she downplayed the danger of measles and pushed a link between vaccines and autism, a claim that is unsupported by science and has been widely debunked. Meanwhile, the American Chiropractic Association, a larger and more mainstream chiropractic group, adopted a new position statement on vaccines in June that does not take a position for or against them. The aftershocks of Vax-Con continue in Wisconsin. One of the highest-ranking Democrats in the state pulled support for a bill that would have benefited Vax-Con’s organizers by allowing them to sponsor events that count as continuing education credits. More mainstream chiropractors are worried about what impact the meeting and its anti-vaccine message will have on the profession. John Murray, executive director of the Wisconsin Chiropractic Association, which had nothing to do with Vax-Con, said he couldn’t understand why the state examining board approved continuing education credits for the event, given that vaccinations aren’t in the scope of practice for chiropractors. “The way the program was marketed and the lineup of pretty much publicly avowed anti-vaxxers, any pretense of an objective treatment of the topic I think is laughable,” Murray said. For Murray, whose group took a neutral position on recommending vaccinations, there is a clear danger when chiropractors stray from their service offering spinal adjustments. Vax-Con, he said, was an example of a small group of chiropractors who are pushing the envelope, and diminishing the credibility of the profession. The Chiropractic Society of Wisconsin has recently held a series of “Health Freedom Revivals” around the state, with featured speakers including Tapper and DeMoss. One recent Sunday alongside a lake in a public park, participants paid $20 per ticket to hear speakers talk about “health freedom” and the risks of vaccines. The agenda also included some other decidedly chiropractic touches, including participants joining in group stretching exercises. ___ Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin. Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey. Associated Press writers Casey Smith and Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.
Those lawsuits against hospitals across the country demanding that patients be treated with Ivermectin... they all come from one lawyer and are associated with "America's Frontline Doctors". And yes, this Ivermectin push is all a scheme to make money. AFLD has earned at least $6.5 million already. The conservative group using the courts to push ivermectin on COVID patients The ivermectin craze is being fueled by medical front groups with ties to right-wing dark money https://www.salon.com/2021/10/16/th...ng-the-courts-to-push-ivermectin-on-patients/
Let's see the latest grift that "America's Frontline Doctors" and other anti-vax scammers are up to now... get your vaccine "detox bath". Of course, the "detox bath" includes chemicals which are dangerous to your health. Anti-Vaxxers’ New Grift: Useless ‘Detox’ Baths for the Reluctantly Vaccinated https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-...hs-for-those-reluctantly-vaccinated-for-covid Anti-Vaxxers Are Trying to 'Undo' Their Vaccines by Bathing in Borax https://www.menshealth.com/health/a38237415/borax-detox-bath-undo-vaccine/ Covid vaccine holdouts are caving to mandates — then scrambling to 'undo' their shots https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/covid-vaccine-mandates-push-holdouts-get-shot-detox-rcna4859
Let's see what "America's Frontline Doctors" are up to when they aren't grifting fake cures. Oh... they are stalking and intimidating medical workers and officials. Anti-vaccine group targets California’s medical director https://apnews.com/article/coronavi...-jerry-brown-e1a662b7acb7e7bb3e7a5b212dc60dd7 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The president of California’s medical board, which issues medical licenses and disciplines doctors, says a group of anti-vaccine activists stalked her at home and followed her to her office — where four men confronted her in a dark parking garage in what she described as a terrifying experience. Kristina Lawson, a former mayor of Walnut Creek who was appointed to the board by former Gov. Jerry Brown, said in social media on Wednesday she grew concerned Monday after she noticed the people in a white SUV parked near her home and saw someone flying a drone over her house. “They watched my daughter drive herself to school and watched me walk out of my house, get in my car, and take my two kids to school,” she wrote in a Tweet. The white SUV then followed her to work and parked “head-to-head” with her car in a parking garage, she said. Lawson said that when she left the office building and entered the parking garage later that evening, four men jumped out of the SUV with cameras and recording equipment and confronted her. Lawson contacted Walnut Creek Police, who later told her the men told officers they wanted to interview her. “Instead, they ambushed me in a dark parking garage when they suspected I would be alone,” she wrote on social media. She said the people identified themselves as representing America’s Frontline Doctors and had not contacted the state medical board or her workplace to request to speak with her. Led by Simone Gold, a Beverly Hills doctor who was arrested during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, America’s Frontline Doctors criticizes the COVID-19 vaccine and has been widely discredited for spreading disinformation about the coronavirus and unproven treatments. “I was concerned when I saw someone flying a drone over my house and saw a mysterious white truck parked outside my home. Later that day, my concern turned to terror,” she said in a statement. Lawson added: “I arrived in the dark parking garage behind my office and experienced four men unexpectedly rush towards me, jumping out of the same white truck that had been parked outside my house. I then realized that these four men had been surreptitiously stalking me.” Lawson said she decided to go public with what happened to her “to shed light on these reprehensible, unacceptable tactics of intimidation” “But like other Californians who believe in both science and fair play, I will not be intimidated,” she added. Walnut Creek Police spokeswoman Lt. Holley Connors said in a statement that a man claiming to be “a state detective from Georgia” called a police dispatcher on Monday and said that he was conducting “surveillance” in San Miguel, an unincorporated area near Walnut Creek.
America’s Frontline Doctors Plans to Open Clinics as California Medical Board Investigates Founder The “disinformation doctors” are expanding, even as Congress and state medical boards scrutinize the operation and the group’s founder, Simone Gold. https://theintercept.com/2021/12/20/americas-frontline-doctors-covid-clinics/
Let's see what America's Frontline Doctors have been up to recently... Trump’s Favorite ‘Demon Sperm’ Doc Now Suggests Praying the COVID Vax Away https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump...m-doc-now-suggests-praying-the-covid-vax-away Stella Immanuel, the eccentric “demon sperm” doctor who was embraced and defended by ex-president Donald Trump for her evidence-free claims about curing COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine, is back with another outlandish claim. This time, at a right-wing gathering over the weekend, Immanuel theorized that one can pray away the effects of the COVID-19 vaccination. “Every time we have prayed for people that have taken the vaccine because it is Luciferian,” she said at megachurch pastor Clay Clark’s ReAwaken America Tour stop in Arizona. “And the mention of the name of Jesus, every knee bows.” Immanuel further floated the idea of prayer reversing the effects of a vaccine merely with the utterance of Jesus’ name. “Each time we pray for people that have taken the vax, something, there is a reaction. A needle poke, the hands start shaking, and we cast this stuff out of people,” the Houston-based pediatrician added, while implying that the vaccine is the “devil” which one “must come at” with “the name of Jesus.”
Let's see the latest news about "America's Frontline Doctors" pushing Ivermectin. What a bottle of ivermectin reveals about the shadowy world of COVID telemedicine https://www.npr.org/sections/health...-about-the-shadowy-world-of-covid-telemedicin Just before Christmas, a right-wing journalist named Ben Bergquam became seriously ill with COVID-19. "My Christmas gift was losing my [sense of] taste and smell and having a 105-degree fever, and just feeling like garbage," Bergquam said in a Facebook video that he shot as he lay in a California hospital. "It's scary. When you can't breathe, it's not a fun place to be," he said. Bergquam told his audience he wasn't vaccinated, despite having had childhood asthma, a potentially dangerous underlying condition. Instead, he held up a bottle of the drug ivermectin. Almost all doctors do not recommend taking ivermectin for COVID, but many individuals on the political right believe that it works. The details revealed in Bergquam's video provide a rare view into the prescription of an unproven COVID-19 therapy. Data shows that prescriptions for drugs like ivermectin have surged in the pandemic, but patient-doctor confidentiality often obscures exactly who is handing out the drugs. Bergquam's testimonial provides new and troubling details about a small group of physicians who are willing to eschew the best COVID-19 treatments and provide alternative therapies made popular by disinformation — for a price. Ivermectin is usually prescribed to treat parasitic worms, and the best medical evidence to date shows that it doesn't work against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, American Medical Association and two pharmaceutical societies all discourage prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19, and many doctors and hospitals will not give it to patients who are seeking treatment. But fueled by conspiracy theories about vaccine safety and alternative treatments, many on the political right incorrectly believe ivermectin is a secret cure-all for COVID. As millions of Americans fell ill with COVID last summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported ivermectin prescriptions were at 24 times pre-pandemic levels. The agency says prescriptions again rose during the latest omicron surge. A significant number of these prescriptions come from a small minority of doctors who are willing to write them, often using telemedicine to do so, according to Kolina Koltai, a misinformation researcher at the University of Washington. The same doctors frequently promote anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. "They're profiting off misinformation, using their medical expertise as currency," she says. A look into the world of unproven COVID treatments Bergquam told his audience he got his ivermectin from a group known as America's Frontline Doctors. Their leader, Dr. Simone Gold, is currently facing multiple charges related to her role in the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She is well known for spreading anti-vaccine propaganda, and she also tells audiences across the country to give her a call for prescriptions of unproven drugs like ivermectin. Her group charges $90 for the call, and Koltai believes the prescriptions are among its primary sources of income. "I would reckon that telehealth and telemedicine is one of the major income-generating streams for America's Frontline Doctors," she says. Last year, online publication The Intercept published a story based on hacked documents, which showed that the group was potentially making millions by selling thousands of prescriptions (Gold denies that story in public speeches, saying that the hack did not occur). In his video, Bergquam thanked the doctors repeatedly for prescribing him ivermectin. In doing so, he revealed the name of the licensed doctor writing the prescription: Kathleen Ann Cullen. Cullen, 54, is based out of Florida and has a troubling professional history. She spent most of last year under investigation by the state of Alabama, which eventually revoked her medical license in November, two months before Berquam entered the hospital. The cause was her involvement in a separate telemedicine company, according to E. Wilson Hunter, general counsel at the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners. (Article has PDF of Alabama's order revoking Cullen's license) "She was working with a telemedicine company and was utilizing her medical license to further their ability to generate billable events, without actually providing health care to the patients," he says. In other words, Cullen was ordering a battery of expensive genetic tests remotely, without ever seeing or speaking to the patients she was testing. It was so bad, Hunter says, that she was ordering prostate cancer screenings for female patients, who do not have prostates. The company Cullen was working for at the time was called Bronson Medical LLC. It no longer has a functioning website, and its owner pleaded guilty in 2020 to federal health care fraud charges. When the Alabama board confronted Cullen, she failed to produce patient records. "At the hearing, she knew nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, understood nothing and did not take responsibility for her actions," Hunter says. These are not the only blemishes on her record. Cullen's medical license in Kansas was suspended for failure to pay fees. And her American Board of Internal Medicine certification has lapsed (the board declined to say when the lapse occurred). In pandemic, dubious prescriptions continue Despite these problems, Cullen still has active medical licenses in North Carolina and Florida. It appears she is now using those medical licenses to prescribe ivermectin on behalf of America's Frontline Doctors. "Where's the accountability in all of that?" says Ashley Bartholomew, a nurse with No License For Disinformation, a group of medical professionals who are trying to force medical boards to take action in cases like these. Bartholomew was the first to notice Cullen's name on the bottle. She said the entire video made her nervous because Ben Bergquam appeared to be bringing in his own outside medication to a hospital setting. "Is the nurse aware he's also taking these prescribed medications from this doctor in Florida while he's a hospitalized patient? And is his team of doctors aware? And is the pharmacy aware?" she asks. Even if they were, she worries the video — which has 23,000 views on Facebook — will encourage others to bring in outside meds, increasing their risk for complications. NPR contacted Bergquam, Cullen and America's Frontline Doctors, and none provided comment for this article. As for the states where Cullen still holds a license, public records show the Florida Department of Health has filed two administrative complaints, but her license is listed as clear and active on their website. The department did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The North Carolina Medical Board meanwhile would not confirm whether an investigation was underway, but Brian Blankenship, the board's deputy general counsel, says that investigations take time: "State Agencies have to give people due process rights based on evidence," he says. "How many patients have to suffer?" Cullen's case is somewhat unusual. The Federation of State Medical Boards says its data show that 94% of doctors have licenses in just one or two states. The federation runs a database that helps notify states when disciplinary action is taken. "Within a day after cataloging and categorizing the disciplinary order, we'll share with other states and territories," says Humayun Chaudhry, the federation's president. But often states must conduct their own, sometimes lengthy investigations. To streamline that process, Chaudhry says his organization is encouraging states to adopt a new Interstate Medical Licensure Compact that, when signed into law, would allow states to see when investigations are started against a physician. Although it would apply only for physicians who seek licensure through the compact. For Ashley Bartholomew, the nurse fighting disinformation, this case shows just how broken America's medical licensing apparatus is. Cullen has already lost her license for poor telehealth practices, and yet, a tangle of state medical boards, laws and procedures continues to allow her to write prescriptions for questionable treatments. "How many patients have to suffer from disinformation," Bartholomew asks, "until we actually have action?"