When it came to Covid treatments, AFLDS promoted the internet flavor of the day, first jumping on the Hydroxychloroquine bandwagon and then adding Ivermectin to their shopping cart of Covid wonders. As long as people were unsure how to treat their Covid symptoms, AFLDS preyed on them, exploiting their fear and lack of knowledge. As soon as I saw Dr. Pierre’s involvement, it piqued my interest, and I decided to dig a little deeper.

Sure enough, there’s a shop!

You can visit the good doctor at his premises in Westlake Village in California if your Botox is flat-lining, or you can visit his website, which, of course, features a shop. Hand-picked products the good doctor assures you are essential to that glowing complexion. He is, as I mentioned, a dermatologist.

I knew his website would contain a shop. It’s a hallmark of the type of “medical” professionals that exploit their positions of trust with their patients to monetize their practices. No big surprise there and while Dr Pierre may in fact be an excellent dermatologist (I have no issue with him practicing his specialty), he is no virologist and definitely not a pharmacologist. In short, he has absolutely no business going around on the internet making ridiculous claims about using medicines off-label.

I cannot speak to the doctor’s motivation in risking his practice by joining AFLDS. His degree indicates a certain level of intelligence and therefore one can only assume his motives are purely financial as his background would be sufficient for him to be able to scientifically evaluate the claims he makes as being false. Ergo, there is financial motivation or grift in the advice he offers.

In the video above, he also employs a typical disinformation tactic of quoting the world Health Organization (WHO) and then attaching a statement as if to attribute it to the WHO. To be clear, the WHO does not endorse either Ivermectin or Suramin as medicines to treat or prevent Covid. Dr Pierre also has claimed that receiving the Covid 19 vaccine will void your life insurance citing a debunked court case in “France, and claims that the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) said that life insurance policies may deny payment for people who die from Covid-19 vaccines.” But, there is no ACLI and there was no French court case.

Either way, the good doctor talks out of his hat. Neither Ivermectin nor Suramin will protect you against developing Covid. Please don’t waste your hard-earned cash buying off-label medicines from AFLDS, spend that money on fresh food and get some exercise. Remember, if you are at risk from Covid, please do get vaccinated. If you are uncertain if you are in an at-risk category, you can read this advice which clearly lays out which diseases and conditions place you at risk.

For stepping out of his professional lane and offering medical advice based on opinion rather than proven medical fact, promoting disinformation surrounding the pandemic, and associating with known grifters, Dr. Pierre has the ignominy of joining our celebrated list of quacks. If it walks like a duck…

The post Another AFLDS Quack, Meet Dr. Peterson Pierre appeared first on Medika Life.

In particular, organizations like America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), known for spreading their unscientific rhetoric attacking both treatments for Covid and questioning the efficacy of Covid vaccines. Their unproven ‘Covid treatments’, focusing on Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and other drugs have undoubtedly led to people dying from Covid.

That’s all about to change as long overdue legislation is being rolled out across the medical industry. Legislation that is focused on holding medical professionals accountable for their views. It’s never been okay to offer advice that jeopardizes the lives of patients you’ve taken an oath to protect.

New legislation now means that medical boards can respond in a meaningful way to complaints, even stripping these questionable practitioners of their licenses to practice. It’s long overdue and the industry as a whole will welcome the steps taken to protect the public against misinformation.

The process however relies on the public being made aware of their rights and their recourse to filing complaints against practitioners who do not honor medicine’s primary directive.

primum non nocere — first do no harm

Equally important to this process is making the public aware of scientific evidence-based medical opinion that is both trustworthy and easily accessed. Part of this process involves educating patients against potential risks and AFLDS poses a potentially life-threatening risk to the patients it claims to help.

To be clear, there are no approved “treatments’ for Covid aside from the vaccines which massively reduce the risk of developing life-threatening Covid. To place your trust in any ‘treatment regimes’ is to place your life at risk.

Who is AFLDS?

Essentially set up by a group of doctors, including Dr. Stella Immanuelle and Simone Gold, who can only be described as quacks, the group rose to prominence in mid-2020, feeding off the fear of the Covid pandemic to “sell” their Covid treatments to trusting and unsuspecting members of the public.

Their founder, Dr. Simone Gold, who is currently under investigation for her role in the January 6 insurrection in the Capitol, where she was captured on film, is outspoken and controversial. She frequents popular conspiracy channels and has been instrumental in spreading false and misleading information about Covid vaccines.

To understand why this group of medical professionals would want to create distrust in the public mind, you need to understand how they profit from the disinformation they spread. AFLDS is nothing more than a glorified multi-channel direct selling scheme. The fact that their patients’ lives may be forfeit has not given them pause.

Patients are offered an online consultation for $90 and can then request prescriptions, for amongst others, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and whatever other concoction of vitamins and drugs are available. These prescriptions are then filled by online pharmacies like Ravkoo, which partners with AFLDS to enable this ‘pill mill’.

Aside from the dangers posed to patients who follow AFLDS’s ‘Covid treatment regime’, AFLDS’ sales practices simply enable the irresponsible and unjustified prescription of many drugs that lead to addiction and pharmaceutical abuse.

AFLDS’ marketing campaign appeals to the conservative right-wing elements who have bought into the conspiracy theories surround both covid and the vaccines. It is the same group of unvaccinated people now stricken with the Delta variant, who currently occupy over 95% of the bed space in hospitals.

AFLDS has been selling them snake oil rather than vaccines. Many of these patients will die as a result.

Medika Life receives daily feedback from patients about the articles we’ve run on this group, many confirming the illegitimacy of AFLDS. The comment below is taken from a recent article we published highlighting AFLDS’ practices.

Quacks! I booked & paid for a doctor consultation on 08/03/2021. THEY NEVER CALLED ME, billed me $90.00 & have not returned my multiple emails to them. THEY ARE A SCAM!

Aside from the financial losses suffered by many of their patients, the health risk they pose to the general public is where the real concern lies. The welcome change in legislation will now ensure AFLDS’ future is short-lived and that participating professionals are sanctioned to the full extent of the law.

If you need to report a medical professional in your area, you need to contact the particular State licensing authority where the doctor involved practices. The link below will provide you with contact details for your particular state and you can also check the current status of the doctor you are reporting.

Most medical boards post validated complaints publically to allow other patients to respond. Boards will also make note of doctors under investigation. You can use the following link to check a doctor’s credentials and ensure you are reporting them to the correct medical board.

The post America’s Frontline Doctors Face Long Overdue Medical and Legal Censure appeared first on Medika Life.

Others do recognize the existence and the seriousness of Covid-19 but spread misinformation, blatant anti-science concepts, and some frankly conspiratorial theories about the virus’ origin, treatment, and why the vaccines are dangerous, at best. 

Here are just a few minor and, in a few cases, hilarious examples of misinformation followed by surveys of conspiracy theories and then the more serious and concerning anti-science and conspiracy concepts.

Breathing in steam or saltwater will kill the virus in your nose. Smelling sesame seeds cures COVID-19. Sea lettuce prevents COVID-19. Holding your breath for ten seconds is a good test to see if you are sick with COVID-19. One of the best stories is that Russian President Vladimir Putin released 500 lions onto the streets of Moscow to keep people indoors. Fortunately or unfortunately, none of these are true or correct.

Misinformation during a serious event is common, and conspiracy theories arise during times of stress. A few surveys are illustrative.

Investigators at the University of Basel in Switzerland surveyed 1,684 participants in July 2020 regarding conspiracy theories. The surveyors gave a list of presumed Covid-19 conspiracy theories such as “Big Pharma created coronavirus to profit from the vaccines.” Ten percent agreed strongly with at least one of the presented theories. Another twenty percent agreed sightly or moderately with at least one theory; seventy percent agreed with none. 

“Most popular were statements suggesting that the virus was man-made, or that the official explanation of the cause of the virus was questionable.” [The concept that the virus might have been released by accident from the Wuhan Virology Institute, once debunked by many scientists and the media, is being reconsidered intensively by the U.S. government as a legitimate possibility.] The ten percent tended to be younger, were more stressed, had more extreme political views, and had a lower educational level.

A Pew Research Foundation survey in June 2020 found that five percent of Americans believed then that the pandemic was created intentionally by powerful people, and another 20% believed this was likely true. Of those with a high school or less education, 48% thought it was definitely or probably true compared to 24% of college graduates and 18% with a graduate degree. Republicans were more likely to ascribe to this theory than Democrats, as were Blacks compared to whites and Hispanics.

A Cornell University study of media misinformation in late September 2020 examined the results from an analysis gleaned from 38 million English language Covid-19 articles between Jan1 and May 26, 2020. 1.1 million news articles (nearly 3% of all Covid-19 articles) “disseminated, amplified or repeated misinformation.” Only 16% indicated any evidence of “fact-checking” suggesting that “the majority of misinformation is conveyed by the media without question or correction.” The five most prevalent topics were “miracle cures,” “deep state,” a Democratic party hoax, the Wuhan laboratory as the source of an intentional bio-weapon thesis, and related to Bill Gates, such as implanting a chip with a vaccine shot.

Why do these beliefs develop? When big problems are leading to prolonged stress, we need big explanations. The concept that the pandemic originated from bats or the wet markets in Wuhan City, China is not psychologically satisfying. It is much more satisfying to believe that a person, a group, or a country created it with an underlying nefarious purpose — the “deep state.” [This, of course, is a different belief than that the virus was accidentally released.]

Over the summer and fall, friends asked me to look at two lengthy videos they had received, wondering if the information therein was accurate. Each was a talk given by an apparently respected physician. Each was an excellent presenter, seemed reasonable and expert, and both were very effective at sowing doubt about accepted science. 

One commented early in her presentation that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was “not an infectious disease doctor.” “He is an immunologist.” She also said that she fell asleep at a lecture he gave when she was an intern. Each of these was meant to undermine Dr. Fauci’s credibility. 

Dr. Fauci, however, is very well trained in infectious diseases and has been involved with them his entire career. Yes, his research uses immunologic techniques, but these are focused on understanding infectious diseases. As to her falling asleep, she was a surgical intern, and the lecture occurred early in the morning. 

My supposition — she was tired from being up much of the night, and probably a talk about infectious disease immunology was not of perceived great relevance to this particular surgical intern.

She suggested that the name of the virus was inappropriate. She said to call it “the Wuhan virus” or the “China virus.” She compared these names to “German” measles, “Middle East Respiratory-distress Syndrome” (MERS), and “Lyme” disease. Without saying it directly, she was implying that the virus was released from the laboratory.

 She did not say that most infections, e.g., polio, pneumococcal pneumonia, meningococcal meningitis, etc., do not use a place name for identification. The actual name assigned by the World Health Organization to this virus is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related CoronaVirus-2 or SARS-CoV-2. The disease name, COVID-19, is from the words Corona Virus Infectious Disease 2019. 

For those who believe that China or a laboratory in China released the virus intentionally, it is understandable that they would like to see the terms “Wuhan virus” or “China virus” used.

Another claim was that masks do little to protect the acquisition of the virus. She presented apparently solid scientific evidence that masks do not entirely prevent the passage of viruses. It is undoubtedly true that masks are not perfect and that some, such as the N95 masks, are better than a simple mask of sheeting. 

Nevertheless, masks are the best method to prevent airborne spread, especially when both parties wear them. But the clear implication of her explanation was that masks are not effective and therefore not necessary.

Certainly not limited to these two speakers is the belief that hydroxychloroquine is safe and effective for treating Covid-19. There was a lot of initial enthusiasm for this drug due to a French study that showed a reduction in the concentration of virus in nasal swabs of infected patients when treated with hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, for five days. 

Hydroxychloroquine is inexpensive, is generally safe, and has been widely used for decades, so it was promptly hailed as a potentially beneficial drug to use for COVID-19, including by President Trump. 

The FDA gave emergency use authorization in March 2020. There were, however, no clinical trials at the time that had proven for or against its efficacy. Nevertheless, many physicians and some infectious disease associations recommended hydroxychloroquine at least until further information became available. 

Soon an article was published in the Lancet, a highly regarded medical journal based in the United Kingdom and authored by well-respected academic physicians. It reported data collected by an analytics firm from 96,032 patient records from 700 hospitals over six continents. The report stated that, based on this review, hydroxychloroquine was not only ineffective but was dangerous. This information shot across the world in no time. 

Not appreciated then, yet noted in retrospect, the analytic firm that conducted the analysis was relatively small with few employees, had a non-existent track record, and would not let the authors or anyone else view the underlying data. Yet, it had somehow obtained presumably reliable patient-level data when regulators in most countries prohibit access to such protected healthcare information. 

The authors who had used this material were roundly criticized for inadequate attention to these basics. They were contrite, and the paper was withdrawn. Unfortunately, mainly based on this article, the World Health Organization and others had already stopped ongoing scientific trials of hydroxychloroquine.

Despite the back and forth, eventually, multiple clinical trials were completed, some looking at treating hospitalized patients, some looking at treating patients who had very early symptoms, and some looking at preventing disease in high-risk populations. None showed much if any value and the FDA has rescinded its emergency use authorization. Nevertheless, some still claim its effectiveness.

Another drug, ivermectin, has been suggested by many as effective and safe for preventing or treating Covid-19. Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic drug that has been highly effective in treating river blindness in Africa and a diarrheal disease caused by strongyloidiasis. It is cheap, it is effective, and it is generally safe. It has been used for decades, and the World Health Organization classifies it as one of the twenty essential medications. So why consider it in COVID-19? Because in cell culture, it reduced virus counts by 99+%. But in clinical use, there has been minimal information. 

The most intriguing observation comes from India. Amid a rapid increase in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths across the country in April and early May 2021, yet with only a few percentage of individuals yet vaccinated, ivermectin was made generally available by the government to all at no cost. How many took it is unknown, but temporally the case counts began to fall precipitously. Whether this drop was related to the widespread use of ivermectin is unknown.

This presumed impact of ivermectin contrasts with a randomized clinical trial comparing placebo to ivermectin to treat mild Covid-19 (See graphic above.). Those who received ivermectin had resolution of symptoms, on average, by day ten compared to day 12 for placebo, not a statistically significant difference. 

The jury on ivermectin is still out, but the true believers have offered the India observations as solid evidence that ivermectin is effective. The Indian Health Ministry, as of June 7, 2021, has, however, reversed its recommendation for using ivermectin. I think the final answer is still pending.

Let us move on to vaccination. One of the frequent anti-vaxxer claims is that the mRNA vaccines are unsafe. Why? Because “it will mess with my DNA” or “it is used as a chip for tracking me.” In actual fact, the messenger RNA does not get into the cell nucleus where the DNA resides, so it is not possible for it to interfere with or to change a person’s DNA. And the concept of a chip is just, well, interesting. Since the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an active vaccine advocate and study funder, some conflate this with Microsoft and from there to an embedded chip. 

Despite the science to the contrary, many do not trust it or the scientists. They feel, and present powerfully, that the mRNA vaccines are unsafe. The lead image of this article is of a person holding a sign which says, “this is a planned global power grab — the mRNA vaccine will kill millions more than CVI.” 

Individuals like this will not accept the carefully developed science as reviewed on this CDC link entitled “Science Brief: COVID-19 Vaccines and Vaccination.”

Many concerns have been raised for women of childbearing age. Are the vaccines safe during pregnancy? Can they cause infertility? The large, prospective randomized clinical trials from which the FDA decided to authorize them for emergency use did not include pregnant women. This is standard practice until a drug or vaccine is determined to be safe in the general population. 

However, it is also essential to be aware that pregnant women are at substantially higher risk for severe COVID-19, namely hospitalization, intensive care, or even death. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 21, 2021, the CDC reports there have been no added risks reported to those pregnant individuals vaccinated since the new vaccines from Pfizer/BTN and Moderna became available. The Centers for Disease Control now recommends that pregnant women should be vaccinated.

Vaccines will likely be available for children as young as 2 years of age by September or soon thereafter. This will raise substantial anxiety among parents, especially mothers, who will be bombarded with anti-vax propaganda. Parents only want the best for their children but with the knowledge that kids usually do not get seriously infected and since the vaccines are new and testing will have only recently been completed, it is no wonder that anxiety will be high for many.

One of the more vocal anti-vaxxers, anti-masking, advocates for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin is Dr. Simone Gold, an emergency medicine physician in the Los Angeles area. She started an organization called “America’s Frontline Doctors.” She gave a talk in Washington, D.C., which was videotaped and quickly went “viral.” Pun intended. Among her claims are that vaccines can produce infertility in normal women. That totally misrepresents facts. There is no evidence that vaccines can cause infertility, but it is out there, and many people are concerned as a result. 

Another one of her claims is that the vaccines are “experimental.” This is an interesting statement given that they were authorized by the FDA only after considerable data analysis, publishing the data on their website, a review by an outside group of experts, and then given emergency use authorization. She also said that since the FDA is collecting adverse event data that if you get vaccinated, then you are “participating in an experiment and don’t even realize it.” She is implying there must be some concern or why bother to collect this information. It is unfortunate because the FDA collects adverse event data on every vaccine and every drug continuously into the future. This data collection continually proves itself very useful. 

For example, this surveillance methodology, both by European regulators and the FDA, quickly detected the unusual blood clotting disorder with reduced platelet counts was detected with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. These blood clots are very rare, but they are real and serious. As a result of their recognition, appropriate warnings have be given. 

Another example often touted as a reason not to be vaccinated is the later development of Bell’s Palsy or temporary paralysis of one of the facial muscles after vaccination. However, when evaluated over time in vast numbers of those who had been and those who had not been vaccinated, Bell’s Palsy does rarely occur, but no more frequently in the vaccinated than in the general population.

In Dr. Gold’s video, she gave recommendations for the vaccines and for therapy. She indicated that vaccines should be “prohibited” for those between the ages of 20–50. They should “probably be prohibited” for those between the ages of 50–70. For those over the age of 70, it would probably be better to take hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin. For nursing home residents, it should be a case-by-case decision. She firmly espoused the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. It is of interest that on January 6, 2021 videos of the United States Capitol insurrection showed Dr. Simone inside with a megaphone. She has since been arrested by the FBI and indicted by the Justice Department.

So-called “influencers” on social media with their large followings are sometimes the most effective purveyors of misinformation. A recent article on Medium by Mathew Remski discussed what he calls “Reverse Contagion Anxiety.” He writes that social media influencers are “turning the vaccine into a virus” and claiming that the vaccine sheds a virus or something that can harm others nearby.

What happens when these misrepresentations and misinformation create enough concern? Perhaps the most glaring is the possibility of losing one’s job if vaccinated! The Centner Academy in Miami which teaches grades K through eight is warning its teachers not to be vaccinated. In an article in Science magazine, April 26, 2021, “Florida private school threatens jobs of teachers who seek COVID-19 vaccines.” A letter was written by Leila Centner, co-founder of the academy, which was sent to teachers. “It is our policy, to the extent possible, not to employ anyone who has taken the experimental COVID-19 injection until further information is known…It is in the best interest of the children to protect them from the unknown implications of being in close proximity for the day with a teacher who has very recently taken the COVID-19 injection.” (My italics).

Ms. Centner wrote the following to explain the academy’s decision. “Tens of thousands of women all over the world have recently been reporting adverse reproductive issues simply from being in close proximity with those who have received any one of the COVID-19 injections, for example, irregular menses, bleeding, miscarriages, post-menopausal hemorrhaging, and amenorrhea (complete loss of menstruation).”

This is a telling example of what can happen when the anti-vaxxers create enough concern to sway otherwise intelligent people that the vaccines are unsafe. The National Institutes of Health has stated that “there is no evidence that individuals vaccinated for COVID-19 can transmit the viruses to others or that vaccination of one person can have negative health effects on others.” The CDC has a detailed review entitled “Myths and Facts Regarding Covid-19 Vaccines,” but unfortunately, this and the NIH statement will not be enough to convince those genuinely concerned. The Centner Academy has not altered its vaccine approach.

What is needed? These types of misinformation, anti-science theories, and conspiracy theories have become extremely common at a time of great crisis, stress, and frustration for everyone. In that setting, people can be led into thinking that at least some of this misinformation is valid. 

What we all need is to learn to think critically using tools such as careful analysis, open-mindedness, and problem-solving. Schools need to teach critical thinking at all levels, and the media needs to utilize it in reporting and support it. 

Another key is for reporters and their editors to insist upon primary data before accepting some statement as fact. All too often, when a claim is made, the reference is to a speech or an article that in turn is based on someone else’s paper or statement, etc. but following it back leads nowhere. 

As readers, listeners, or viewers of the media, we need to be able to assume the reporter did his or her job of finding the actual primary source and its credibility. Unfortunately, that is commonly not the case.

The post COVID-19 Misinformation, Anti-Science, and Conspiracies Theories appeared first on Medika Life.

Dr. Simone Gold (a term very loosely applied) is a particularly nasty and manipulative founding member of this quack Kabal that now plans to go “on the road”. One wonders whether the logic is that they’ll be harder to arrest if they’re on the move continuously. Gold was recently sought by the FBI to answer questions on what she was doing reading speeches in the Capitol building on the 6th of January alongside other seditionists and rioters, so she’s probably best placed to answer this question. They might also consider rebranding as Doctors on the Run, just a suggestion.

Gold was subsequently arrested and charged and her questioning of vaccine safety was underscored the day before the Capitol attack, when she urged a rally near the White House not to take FDA-approved vaccines, labeling them “an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine” and telling the crowd not to let themselves be “coerced”.

Gold is a product and creation of the Christian right Council for National Policy (CNP), paid and instructed to spread medical misinformation that supported the Trump agenda. We’ll refrain from using the term commonly associated with women who sell their services for money, but there are few instances where its use would be more applicable.

Simone Gold and her cronies may seem to suggest in their “cute” press release that they’re setting off down the long and dusty road with Toto, Tinman, and the Cowardly lion to save Oz, but the truth is they’re the actual precursor for the villagers and their pitchforks. America’s Frontline Quacks are purveyors of gasoline and matches and their RV is marketing directly to the gullible villagers. Ask yourself honestly what really concerned, motivated and compassionate doctors would be doing if they wanted to change the world.

It’s called Unicef or Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders), not an RV cruise around the Republican-dominated states spreading further vaccine mistrust and disrupting consumer confidence in American healthcare. America’s Frontline Doctors are a subversive carnival sideshow with bottles of Snake Oil they’d like to sell you and Simone Gold is the dancing, singing monkey that fronts the show. I do hope Dr. Stella Immanuel will be joining them. The thought of evil spirits being exorcised on stage adds tremendous viewer appeal and in my humble opinion would definitely sell seats.

America’s Frontline Doctors are a cheap commercialized version of the old traveling medicine man, and he used to sell cocaine as a cure-all, lest you forget. If its. not hydroxychloroquine and vaccine misinformation they’re peddling, it will be something else. It’s easy to tell when they’re lying. Their lips move.

You can read their ridiculous press release here, which would more aptly have been entitled, “the Circus is in town” than their Republican-themed The Uncensored Truth Tour. By no small coincidence the tour is kicking off with a Southern Leg. Color us surprised. We’d recommend lodging complaints with individual state medical boards about the continued actions of these faux doctors that disrespect and abuse their qualifications for profit and at the expense of public health.

Now, all we’re left to wonder about is what defense Simone Gold is going to offer for her part in the January 6 assault on the Capitol. As “Foxitiss” has already been taken, perhaps she can go with an overdose of hydroxychloroquine as a defense. There is of course always the fallback of one of Dr. Imannuel’s wayward spirits. If you can blame Fox, then pretty much all bets are off.

We’d also recommend avoiding any of the Public Relations companies mentioned in the release, notably Empire Solutions, that continue to enable and promote America’s Frontline Doctors unless of course, your brand prefers the company of seditionists and con artists.

The post Simone Gold and America’s Frontline Con Artists Launch a Road Trip appeared first on Medika Life.

They are doing all this for money and they need to be stopped.

We are not referring to the healthcare heroes on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic, but a group of medical misfits that have appropriated the name America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLD), as a moniker for their motley band of quacks and con artists. They are extremely dangerous, with ties to radical conservative extremists, witchcraft, paranoia, conspiracies, and do not possess a shred of actual experience dealing with Covid patients on the frontlines of the pandemic. They are, in short, frauds, exploiting a pandemic for their own financial gain.

They are, and we are ashamed to admit it, doctors. Doctors, however, in name only and that is the intent of this article. If, like so many of us, you would like to see the end of their orchestrated campaign of covid misinformation and attacks on the covid vaccine, join us in deplatforming their social media, reporting them to their individual medical boards, and filing reports with the Department of Justice. They are an affront to the medical profession and a danger to public health.

Their website blatantly tries to combat official Covid-19 advice and destroy public confidence in the covid vaccines for reasons we will explain below. Here is a screenshot from their website where they refer to the vaccines as experimental. This is a false and misleading statement.

They continue to spread advice about hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid despite this having been publically disproven by open studies conducted under the auspices of the World Health Organization and other medical boards. They continue to question the efficacy of masks, thereby encouraging the spread of the virus. Their actions will lead to trusting members of the public accepting their advice and people will die as a result of severe Covid-19. It could be someone close to you.

If you want to protect vulnerable members of your community, register your outrage by contacting the links in the footer of this article or reporting the individual doctors to their relevant medical boards (shown below each doctor listed below).

If you don’t think they pose a risk, then have a look at their petition to stop the covid vaccines. If they were to have their way, your grandparents, parents, and at-risk sectors of our community would be facing Covid-19 without the benefit of a vaccine. Still, think they aren’t dangerous?

Incidentally, no one is enforcing the covid vaccine. That is patently untrue and under the American constitution, you cannot be forced into taking a vaccine. It remains a personal choice.

Their website displays a whole range of supposed “hydroxychloroquine home treatments” for Covid-19, the suggestion a clear one. You can treat Covid-19 at home. This is untrue, not based on any verifiable clinical data and in flagrant breach of the FDA’s policy of advertising cures or treatments for Covid-19. The following screenshot is again taken from their website, in the event they should remove it.

To be clear, there are no home treatments for Covid-19. If you suspect you have contracted the coronavirus, please quarantine and if you are in an at-risk category, dial 9-1-1 and seek immediate medical help.

Why all the effort?

Great question and as will all these cons, profit is at the heart of the sales pitch. In this instance, it wasn’t even very well hidden. Initially, politics and Trump’s agenda to reopen America provided funding and impetus for this group. With those agenda’s now behind them, the business has been repurposed for profit.

Convince the American public you have the cure for Covid-19 in the form of hydroxychloroquine and then proceed to supply it to them through your network of unethical doctors, who are only too happy to write out prescriptions that a complicit pharmacy then fills.

The players in this not so elaborate con are as follows. America’s Frontline Doctors, Ravkoo Pharmacy and Speakwithanmd.com

Here’s how the chain works, not that it’s important, but it will provide a roadmap for the FDA and DOJ to follow. I encourage any journalists who want to explore and expose existing relationships between these entities to investigate further.

Step 1: American Frontline Doctors – The marketing arm

They discredit conventional Covid-19 treatments and scare people off the vaccine in favor of hydroxychloroquine, which as we all know, isn’t that simple to get hold of anymore. They achieve this with a concerted campaign of misinformation and pseudoscientific materials published on their website and spread through social media. They become visible, they become political and they become radical. At the top of their site is a link to purchase hydroxychloroquine, which takes you to this page.

Step 2: Speakwithanmd.com – Distribution

You cant shift your product, which, annoyingly, requires a prescription, without the necessary paperwork. How do you address this across numerous states? Easy, you hook up with an online service that allows your network of doctors to prescribe to their heart’s delight, state by state. Possibly the cleverest bit of the con. You can see the network on this page and I suspect having a look at the prescriptions issued by these doctors would make for fascinating reading.

Here’s what their page says about America’s Frontline Doctors on Speakwithanmd;

• America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) are available in every state. Physician Consult Fee is $90. We see patients between 7 am and 9 pm and we will try hard to see you on the day you contact us but it could be the next day.

• Through telemedicine we can offer convenient and affordable healthcare services to patients. Telemedicine is an excellent option for nonemergency situations, including prophylactic (preventive) and early (home) treatment of COVID-19.

• Our physicians are hydroxychloroquine knowledgeable and fully aware of the science and data regarding its safety and efficacy.

Step 3: Ravkoo Pharmacy – Fulfillment

Linked on their page on Speakwithanmd.com is Ravkoo Pharmacy. Officially, according to America’s Frontline Doctors, partnered with them to ensure all the scripts are quickly filled and dispatched. We have reached out to the Ravkoo CEO, Alpesh Patel for comment regarding their association with AFLD, but have not, at the time of publication, received a response.

Cutting the head off the snake

Let’s start with the originator or founder of AFLD, Dr. Simone Gold. Her most recent claim to fame is a photograph of her in the Capitol building, surrounded by her fellow protestors, after having forcibly gained entry. Her statement that she did not know it was illegal to enter the building should be seen for what it is. Complete bullshit.

She is a trained Stanford lawyer. Ignorance, claimed or otherwise, is not acceptable as a legal defense. You lie, Ms. Gold, and you should be locked up, along with your other seditious conspirators.

Simone Gold, MD, JD, is a board-certified emergency physician in Los Angeles, California. You can view her current status here. She graduated from Chicago Medical School before attending Stanford University Law School to earn her Juris Doctorate degree. Impressed? Well, don’t be. We all know education is not a prerequisite for either common sense, morals, or ethics, none of which Ms. Gold appears to possess.

Her California medical license includes her unverified claim that she is involved in patient care 30-39 hours per week and indicates a practice location in Hesperia, a bedroom community of about 100,000 at the edge of the Mojave Desert. Efforts to determine where specifically she may practice were unsuccessful.

Any platform offering medical advice alongside the sale of the founder’s book and featuring prominent “donate” buttons all over the site is by definition, highly suspect. The strapline Gold uses to advertise their site “Empowering patients and physicians with independent, evidence-based medicine.” is laughable. There is no hard evidence-based medicine taking place in their deluded world.

The quotes Gold references from reputable sources are taken out of context or reflect earlier views, now scientifically repudiated. No sane doctor or medical student would waste five minutes on the journals or papers she uses to justify her flawed agenda. Simply put, Dr. Simone Gold and her band of merry co-conspirators are trying to pull the wool over your eyes for personal financial gain. She is trying to mislead you and is, in effect, threatening your life and the lives of others.

To clarify just how radical her medical views are, let’s take an excerpt from one of her websites, where she responds to a comment on an article she wrote on maks.

then, given these big neocons’ vaccination programs intentionally spreading sterility (as well as thimerosol-caused autism, & even the very diseases being vaccinated against, esp. measles & polio);

Perhaps, Ms. Gold, you would care to explain why that anti-vaccine stance doesn’t quite gel with your comments on your petition website. Here they are, in case you’ve forgotten making them.

SMD & AFLDS is NOT “anti-vaxx” or in any other form to be considered or mislabeled as disapproving of established, reputable vaccines when taken voluntarily without coercion. 

Gold first rose to notoriety when she appeared in a viral video touting hydroxychloroquine back in July of 2020. She was accompanied by Stella Immanuel, MD (we exposed Immanuel’s quackery/witchcraft here), James Todaro, MD, Bob Hamilton, MD,Dan Erickson, DO, Richard Urso, MD and Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD.

In a later article from the Washington Spectator exposing more lies about the media face of Simone Gold and the Republican-backed politics and people enabling her, Emergency physician Nick Sawyer, disturbed by the implications for medical practitioners that Gold and the AFLD poses, had this to say.

The America’s Frontline Doctors campaign, he says, “violates two of the primary principles of medical ethics. Medical ethics has four major principles: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice. As hydroxychloroquine offers no clinical benefit and may be harmful, it violates the first two tenets. Further, their statements place actual frontline physicians treating patients with Covid-19 in conflict with patients’ right to autonomy.

To have Simone Gold’s medical license investigated, you will need to place a formal complaint with California’s medical licensing authority. This link will take you directly to the Califonia Medical Board’s page for filing a complaint online. Gold is not acting in the interest of public health and her outspoken views and advice on the coronavirus, masks, social distancing, lockdowns, and the covid vaccine are not in keeping with her profession’s very clear overriding mandate – First do no harm.

Report Gold and America’s Frontline Doctors directly to the Department of Justice by following this link. The page contains information and telephone numbers or you can call directly on COVID-19 Fraud Hotline: 1-888-C19-WDPA.

Here is information on the other medical voices that have lent support to Gold and enabled her reach online and on Social Media. They are, in Medika’s opinion, incidental and Gold is the driving force behind AFLD.

James Todaro, MD

Todaro, an ophthalmologist based in Michigan who is no longer practicing, graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2014. His medical license, which was classified as “educational limited” in Michigan, expired in 2019. According to his LinkedIn profile, Todaro has not practiced medicine since 2018. He co-founded an investment fund called Blocktown Capital.

Bob Hamilton, MD

Hamilton, a pediatrician and school liaison with America’s Frontline Doctors, has been practicing in Santa Monica, California — home to his private practice, Pacific Ocean Pediatrics — for more than 30 years. He has hospital privileges at Providence-St. John’s Health Center and the UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center. He has been vocal in suggesting schools re-open, citing no risk to children from Covid-19

Dan Erickson, DO

Erickson is the co-owner of Accelerated Urgent Care in Bakersfield, California. He is a former emergency physician, according to reports, who was featured on national television in late April after he claimed data his center had collected showed that COVID was more widespread and less harmful than reported in medical journals.

The American College of Emergency Physicians and American Academy of Emergency Medicine issued a joint statement condemning Erickson’s claims, calling them “reckless and untested musings” that are “inconsistent with current science and epidemiology regarding COVID-19.”

Richard Urso, MD

Urso is an ophthalmologist at Houston Eye Associates in Bellaire, Texas, who has been touting HCQ for COVID-19. He told Fox News host Laura Ingraham earlier this month that he has been working with the drug for 30 years and has never had a patient with a heart issue.

He also said during that interview that HCQ was “safer than Tylenol, aspirin, Motrin.” In 2003, Urso paid a $1,500 fine to resolve allegations that he didn’t provide a narrative of medical records to an attorney for a patient’s personal injury lawsuit.

Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD

Ladapo is a physician and health policy researcher at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, according to his UCLA profile. His primary research interests include diagnostic technology cost-effectiveness and decreasing cardiovascular disease population burden. He is also an adjunct professor of population health at New York University-Langone, a spokesperson confirmed and sees patients at Langone Medical Center.

He has cared for COVID patients at UCLA, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial in early April, though that could not be confirmed (a UCLA Medicine spokesperson declined to answer questions and said Ladapo declined to comment). On the Supreme Court steps, he said nothing about treating COVID-19 patients himself.

Simone Gold, MD, images are all used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, and increase public health knowledge.

Still don’t get it?

If you still don’t believe that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine are sold to you as part of an elaborate medical scam. please read this article on why we just can’t say at this point which treatments are actually useful in reducing deaths.

The post Exposing America’s Frontline Doctors and Their Financial Empire Built on Hydroxychloroquine appeared first on Medika Life.