Replies to post #426454 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[newmedman]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-misinformation-group-americas-frontline-doctors-implodes-over-dr-simone-golds-extravagant-spending?ref=author

Dr. Simone Gold is one of America’s foremost purveyors of bogus COVID cures. She’s used the money on a mansion, private jet trips, and her underwear-model boyfriend.

America’s foremost purveyors of bogus COVID cures. She’s used the money on a mansion, private jet trips, and her underwear-model boyfriend.

Will Sommer
Politics Reporter
Updated Nov. 14, 2022 10:32AM ET / Published Nov. 14, 2022 4:52AM ET

mpi34/MediaPunch/IPX via AP

Listen to article13 minutes
When employees at leading COVID pseudoscience group America’s Frontline Doctors tried to log in to work last week, they found themselves locked out of their email accounts. The nonprofit quickly fell into factions, with employees holding rival Zoom meetings to plot who would take over the group.

The organization’s exiled founder, Dr. Simone Gold, tried unsuccessfully to gain access to a private Zoom call, only to find herself stuck in a waiting room. In internal emails, the group’s accountant worried about who could still access the $7 million locked in its bank accounts.

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The war for the right’s most prominent COVID quack group—and the millions of dollars it has raised through relentless fundraising and prescriptions for bogus coronavirus cures—had begun.

For months, AFLDS has been split between its board and Gold, the group’s charismatic founder and convicted Capitol rioter, over an internal audit into Gold’s personal spending. That dispute spilled into the open on Nov. 5, when the board sued Gold to try and force her to stop representing the organization, in a lawsuit first reported by Vice News. Now the lawsuit’s outcome could determine the fate of the group driving much of the medical disinformation on the pro-Trump right.

AFLDS is tearing itself apart in a fight over what Gold’s rivals describe as her extravagant spending using the group’s funds. The alleged purchases include $100,000 on a single private jet trip and $50,000 a month in Gold’s personal expenses. Much of the controversy has centered on AFLDS’s purchase of a $3.6 million mansion in Naples, Florida., where Gold lives with her boyfriend: a much younger underwear model and fellow Capitol rioter.

Gold isn’t backing down, penning threatening emails to board members and describing herself, alternately, as a “popular folk hero,” a “rainmaker,” and an avenging “lioness.”

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“It’s really a mess, and I’m really sorry that it’s come to this,” said Richard Mack, an AFLDS board member and far-right former Arizona sheriff.

As AFLDS’s leadership squabbles, the group’s rank-and-file employees are struggling to fulfill the organization’s basic functions, like connecting their supporters with prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. In the end, AFLDS staffers are able to do just one thing, according to a signed affidavit filed in court recently: cancel their fans’ donations.

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“None of us really know what’s going on, and pretty much we’ve all lost the ability to do our jobs,” said Amanda Kaiser-Johnston, an AFLDS employee who was locked out of her email account amid the feud and has been accused by her coworkers of being a “spy” for one faction.

Gold declined a request for comment. AFLDS’s board referred media requests to its lawsuit and a press release.

The group’s potential demise marks a drastic low after its pandemic high. A Los Angeles emergency-room doctor, Gold shot to fame in the MAGA movement during 2020 after she started prescribing hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug some on the right wrongly embraced as a COVID cure.

Gold teamed up with other doctors with controversial takes on the virus to create America’s Frontline Doctors as a nonprofit. As the Trump administration looked for a quick fix to the pandemic in mid-2020, Gold organized her doctors into a “White Coat Summit”—a widely covered press conference in Washington that earned them a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. The event was only slightly marred when The Daily Beast reported that the event’s breakout star, Dr. Stella Immanuel, also believed that dream-sex with demons could cause dangerous medical conditions.


Dr. Simone Gold speaks to a large crowd during a Frontline Doctor's Uncensored Truth Tour event in 2021.
John Clanton/Tulsa World via AP
AFLDS received at least $10 million in donations, and millions more by facilitating prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. But Gold derailed her path to right-wing stardom when she entered the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot with John Strand, an underwear model roughly twenty years her junior who had become her boyfriend and an AFLDS employee. According to prosecutors, Gold stood by as a police officer was attacked by rioters, opting not to use her medical training to help the man.

Gold was arrested a few weeks after the riot and charged with disorderly conduct and other criminal charges. As her legal case loomed in February 2022, Gold—according to emails and affidavits the board’s lawyers have added to the court record—resigned her position on the AFLDS board. Joey Gilbert—a former professional boxer turned Nevada lawyer who was once suspended from the sport after testing positive for steroids and amphetamines—was voted onto the board.

According to the board’s lawsuit, Gold tried to negotiate a position as a fundraising consultant for the organization with a hefty $1.5 million signing bonus and $600,000 annual salary. Gold ultimately agreed to stay on as a consultant—though it’s not clear what financial deal she received.

Michael Thatcher, the CEO of charity evaluator Charity Navigator, told The Daily Beast that Gold’s proposed payment would likely be unusually lucrative, considering the amount of money controlled by AFLDS.

“That sounds like a high amount, particularly for a consultant,” Thatcher said.

Almost as soon as she resigned, according to Gold’s detractors, she began attempting to control the organization. Her replacement as AFLDS’s executive director resigned herself just a month later, after being what AFLDS operations director Kristine Lutzo described in an affidavit as “visibly shaken due to receiving hateful emails from Gold.” In Lutzo’s telling, Gold also tried to give a sizable raise to her boyfriend, proposing that Lutzo cut another doctor’s annual pay in half from $144,000, with the extra $72,000 given to Strand.

He declined to comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit.

“It’s really a mess, and I’m really sorry that it’s come to this.”
— AFLDS board member and far-right ex-Arizona sheriff Richard Mack
Soon after that, Lutzo herself resigned, later saying in her affidavit that she quit because she believed “criminal activity was happening financially.”

Gold ultimately pleaded guilty to one of her riot charges in June, and was sentenced to 60 days of incarceration. When she emerged from a federal prison in Miami this September, she was touted as a hero. As hard-right Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) welcomed her outside the facility, Gold made a heart sign with her hands.

“I’m back!” Gold declared, before knocking out dozens of push-ups in front of her cheering fans.

Gold soon returned to the conservative media and speaking circuit. In October, she appeared at one pro-Trump conference introduced to the words of Queen’s “We Are the Champions" (“I’ve done my sentence / but committed no crime.”). Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn called her “absolutely brilliant.”

But the good feelings from Gold’s homecoming were short-lived. Soon after she left prison, Gilbert took her aside. While Gold was gone, AFLDS’s board had launched an internal audit of her spending before she resigned from the group.

Gold had benefited substantially from her position as a self-proclaimed “doctor-warrior,” according to AFLDS’s board. In November 2021, they claim she used AFLDS funds to purchase a $3.6 million, 3,300 square foot mansion in Naples, Florida, complete with a swimming pool.

While the board claims Gold didn’t have permission to make the purchase, a supporter of Gold provided The Daily Beast with meeting minutes that purport to show a recommendation to buy a Florida house “not as a headquarters (sic), but as an investment.” The minutes don’t list the specific house in Naples or a specific price. On corporate papers, the company that owns the Naples home lists its address as Gilbert’s Nevada office, which Gold’s supporters claim is proof that Gilbert and other board members knew about the mansion purchase.

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Thatcher, the Charity Navigator CEO, said it’s unusual for a nonprofit that isn’t involved in housing to buy a house as an “investment.”

“Nonprofits are traditionally quite conservative,” Thatcher said. “It’s more about preserving capital, it’s not about trying to make a killing because the market’s hot.”

The audit investigated other expenses, including the purchase of three vehicles in Florida and Gold’s alleged spending of roughly $50,000 a month on personal expenses—including $5,600 a month on house cleaning. The board also alleges that Strand, who is awaiting sentencing in his Capitol riot case, spent roughly $15,000 a month on his own expenses.

The board has also cited Gold’s use of private jets, claiming that she spent as much as $100,000 on one trip without authorization. An ally of Gold’s provided The Daily Beast with a picture of Gilbert on a private jet with Strand, in an attempt to show that Gilbert knew about the expenses.

AFLDS also alleges that Gold is diverting the nonprofit’s resources for a business of her own. In addition to AFLDS, Gold has launched a medical “private membership association,” a concept popular with some on the right based on the theory that it can be used to skirt laws governing medical or insurance practices. Dubbed “Goldcare,” members of Gold’s new company rely on a complex token system to purchase their medical care.

“I believe that GoldCare would be a poor investment,” one skeptical reviewer who inspected the company’s plans wrote.

AFLDS claims Gold has been using the organization’s Naples mansion to house Goldcare employees, and diverting employees paid by AFLDS to work on her side project.

Gold has accused Gilbert of committing his own financial malfeasance, but declined to offer examples.

In October, Gold began to demand that Gilbert and the other remaining board members, former sheriff Richard Mack and pastor Jurgen Matthesius, resign. In a furious Oct. 12 email to the three men, she threatened to unleash her fanbase on them unless they stopped “murdering” AFLDS. In the email, Gold described herself as a “popular folk-hero” and compared herself to a vengeful lion.

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“Just as the mother lioness will not let her baby lion be murdered, neither will I,” Gold wrote, according to an exhibit filed in the lawsuit.

The board members refused to resign, and the fight over AFLDS escalated. In an Oct. 15 email, the group’s accountant discussed who could access the group’s bank accounts, writing that they contained at least $7.3 million.

The fight reached a new intensity in November. Gold and her supporters within AFLDS began harassing employees to hand over the organization’s online accounts, according to affidavits filed by the board’s lawyers. In one November email, an AFLDS employee described how Gold had seized control of the nonprofit’s Microsoft email accounts. Gossip ran wild, with low-level employees stunned that leaders like Gold had been paid what one staffer called in an affidavit “absurd amounts of money.”

Another employee wrote in an affidavit that Gold had been pressuring her to hand over the password to the group’s 175,000-follower Telegram account, urging her to be on the side of “righteousness.” For now, Gold appears to control AFLDS’s website, which bears a press release accusing Gilbert of embezzlement.

The same employee alleged that right-wing activist Michael Coudrey, who has worked in the past with “Stop the Steal” figure Ali Alexander, had aligned himself with Gold and was “harassing me daily” for internal information that would help Gold’s camp. Coudrey declined to comment.

Amanda Kaiser-Johnston, one of the AFLDS employees who was cut off from her email, described the last week as “complete insanity,” saying AFLDS had become completely dysfunctional.

The AFLDS board failed to win an emergency court injunction blocking Gold from representing the nonprofit. They’ll try again at a court hearing later this week. For now, though, AFLDS’s role as the right’s leading pseudoscience medical group appears to be through.

“Their part in this bigger fight is probably done,” Kaiser-Johnston said.

[fuagf]

The YouTubers who blew the whistle on an anti-vax plot

"Agree. Exposing America’s Frontline Doctors and Their Financial Empire Built on Hydroxychloroquine"

Published 25 July 2021


[Graphic composite image using the web page for Fazze - with options for "bloggers" and "advertisers". There are the profiles of
superheroes in heroic poses with social media company logos on their their chests. To the left is a needle reaching into a
vaccine bottle. The whole picture is coloured in red.]

By Charlie Haynes and Flora Carmichael
BBC Trending

A mysterious marketing agency secretly offered to pay social media stars to spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines. Their plan failed when the influencers went public about the attempt to recruit them.

"It started with an email" says Mirko Drotschmann, a German YouTuber and journalist.

Mirko normally ignores offers from brands asking him to advertise their products to his more than 1.5 million subscribers. But the sponsorship offer he received in May this year was unlike any other.

An influencer marketing agency called Fazze offered to pay him to promote what it said was leaked information that suggested the death rate among people who had the Pfizer vaccine was almost three times that of the AstraZeneca jab.

The information provided wasn't true.

It quickly became apparent to Mirko that he was being asked to spread disinformation to undermine public confidence in vaccines in the middle of a pandemic.

"I was shocked," says Mirko "then I was curious, what's behind all that?"


Mirko Drotschmann was offered money to spread disinformation on his social media accounts Mirko Drotschmann

In France, science YouTuber Léo Grasset received a similar offer. The agency offered him 2000 euros if he would take part. Fazze said it was acting for a client who wished to remain anonymous.

"That's a huge red flag" says Léo.

Both Léo and Mirko were appalled by the false claims.

They pretended to be interested in order to try to find out more and were provided with detailed instructions about what they should say in their videos.

In stilted English, the brief instructed them to "Act like you have the passion and interest in this topic."


Léo Grasset was horrified by the attempt to recruit him Léo Grasset

It told them not to mention the video had a sponsor - and instead pretend they were spontaneously giving advice out of concern for their viewers.

Social media platforms have rules that ban not disclosing that content is sponsored. In France and Germany it's also illegal.

Fazze's brief told influencers to share a story in French newspaper Le Monde about a data leak from the European Medicines Agency.

The story was genuine, but didn't include anything about vaccine deaths. But in this context it would give the false impression that the death rate statistics had come from the leak.

The data the influencers were asked to share had actually been cobbled together from different sources and taken out of context.

It presented the numbers of people who had died in several countries some time after receiving different Covid vaccines. But just because someone dies after having a vaccine doesn't mean they died because they had the vaccine. They could have been killed in a car accident.

In the countries the statistics were from, greater numbers of people had received the Pfizer vaccine at that time, so a higher number of people dying after having a Pfizer jab was to be expected.

"If you don't have any scientific training, you could just say, 'oh, there are these numbers, they are really different. So there must be a link.' But you can make any spurious correlation as you want really," Léo says.

The influencers were also provided with a list of links to share - dubious articles which all used the same set of figures that supposedly showed the Pfzer vaccine was dangerous.

When Léo and Mirko exposed the Fazze campaign on Twitter all the articles, except the Le Monde story, disappeared from the web.

Read the full conversation on Twitter

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter

By any measure the disinformation campaign was bungled.

Since Léo and Mirko blew the whistle at least four other influencers in France and Germany have gone public to reveal they also rejected Fazze's attempts to recruit them.

But German journalist, Daniel Laufer, has identified two influencers who may have taken up the offer.

Indian YouTuber Ashkar Techy usually makes jokey videos about cars and dating and Brazilian prankster Everson Zoio, has more than three million Instagram followers.

Each of them posted uncharacteristic videos in which they pushed the same message as the Fazze campaign and shared the fake news links from the agency's brief. Both had also participated in previous Fazze promotions.

After Daniel Laufer contacted them, Everson Zoio and Ashkar Techy removed their videos but didn't answer his questions. The BBC tried to contact both influencers, but they didn't respond.


Ashkar Techy shared the dubious data in his video Ashkar Techy

We tried emailing the people who approached Mirko and Léo. The emails bounced back, not from Fazze, but from the domain of a company called AdNow.

Fazze is a part of AdNow, which is a digital marketing company, registered in both Russia and the UK.

The BBC has made multiple attempts to contact AdNow by phone, email and even a letter couriered to their Moscow headquarters, but they have not responded.

Eventually we managed to contact Ewan Tolladay, one of two directors of the British arm of AdNow - who lives in Durham.

Mr Tolladay said he had very little to do with Fazze - which he said was a joint venture between his fellow director - a Russian man called Stanislav Fesenko - and another person whose identity he didn't know.

He said that he hadn't been a part of the disinformation campaign. He said he hadn't even known Fazze had taken on the contract before the story broke. He couldn't enlighten us on who the mystery client was.

He said that in light of the scandal "we are doing the responsible thing and shutting down AdNow here in the UK". He said Fazze was also being shut down.

We have tried to get Mr Fesenko to talk to us but had no success.

Both the French and German authorities have launched investigations into Fazze's approaches to influencers.

But the identity of the agency's mystery client remains unclear.

There has been speculation about the Russian connections to this scandal and the interests of the Russian state in promoting its own vaccine - Sputnik V.

* Covid vaccine safety: How does a vaccine get approved?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-55281633

* The volunteers using 'honeypot' groups to fight anti-vax propaganda
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-57051691

* Sputnik V: How Russia's Covid vaccine is dividing Europe
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56735931

Omid Nouripour, the foreign policy spokesman for the German Green party has suggested looking to Moscow for the motivation behind the Fazze campaign.

He said: "Bad-mouthing vaccines in the West undermines trust in our democracies and is supposed to increase trust in Russia's vaccines, and there is only one side that benefits and that is the Kremlin."

But in a statement the Russian embassy in London said: "We treat Covid-19 as a global threat and, thus, are not interested in undermining global efforts in the fight against it, with vaccinating people with the Pfizer vaccine as one of the ways to cope with the virus."

While Fazze's campaign was a flop, Léo Grasset believes it won't be the last attempt to use the power of social influencers to spread disinformation.

"If you want to manipulate public opinion, especially for young people, you don't go to TV" says French YouTuber Léo Grasset.

"Just spend the same money on TikTok creators, YouTube creators. The whole ecosystem is perfectly built for maximum efficiency of disinformation right now."

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57928647

[fuagf]

Airlines have not cancelled flights because of vaccinations.

"Agree. Exposing America’s Frontline Doctors and Their Financial Empire Built on Hydroxychloroquine
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170161589 "

Frontline Doctors Library, as of December 1, 2022

stated on December 30, 2021 in a Facebook post:

Vaccines are why flights have been shut down worldwide.
true false

Coronavirus Facebook posts


Travelers wait in a check-in line at Miami International Airport, Monday, Dec. 27, 2021. Thousands of flights worldwide were canceled or
delayed due to airline staffing shortages stemming from the rapid spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19. (AP)

By Jill Terreri Ramos January 3, 2022

No, vaccines are not why flights have been canceled

If Your Time is short

* Airlines said bad weather and staff shortages due to COVID-19 infections were to blame for flight cancellations. 

See the sources for this fact-check

Are vaccines to blame for the cancellations of thousands of flights around the world? 

In short, no.  

A Facebook user posted a video .. https://facebook.com/watch/?v=276751207850624 .. of a vaccine critic speaking at a conservative conference about the use of vaccines by pilots, and wrote a caption: "why the flights have been shut down worldwide." The caption included the hashtag "just say no" along with an emoji of a needle. 

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook. ..
https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536?helpref=related ) 

Thousands of flights have been canceled in the United States and around the world .. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/02/economy/holiday-flight-cancellations/index.html .. in recent weeks, but not because COVID-19 vaccines are making pilots sick.

Airlines report that COVID-19 infections among their staff members and wintry weather are to blame. 

SkyWest, which canceled hundreds of flights over the December holidays, told USA Today .. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/12/27/flights-canceled-delayed-monday/9022357002/ .. that its cancellations were the result of bad weather and an increase in coronavirus cases and quarantines among its crew members. 

USA Today reported on Dec. 27 .. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/airline-news/2021/12/27/flights-canceled-delayed-monday/9022357002/ .. that Southwest blamed its cancellations on weather challenges, and Delta said its cancellations were due to a combination of weather and the virus. 

Featured Fact-check
Instagram posts
stated on November 2, 2022 in Instagram post
Julie Powell died from the COVID-19 vaccine.
false
By Michael Majchrowicz • November 2, 2022
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/nov/02/instagram-posts/julie-powell-died-cardiac-arrest-her-husband-said/

JetBlue told the Washington Post .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/12/29/omicron-weather-flight-cancellations/ , in an article published on Dec. 29, that its operations were affected by rising coronavirus caseloads, and that it was reducing its schedule through the first two weeks of January.

And despite the claim in the video caption that the cancellations are linked to vaccines, there’s nothing in the actual video itself that supports the claim. 

The video is from a broadcast of Real America’s Voice, and was filmed in Phoenix, Ariz. It appears to have been recorded on Dec. 20, 2021 ..

"There's a number of pilots out there who are fearful to come forward and speak"

Pilot Greg Pearson share's the story of his rapid onset atrial fibrillation after getting vaccinated against #COVID19.

Get Real News➡️https://t.co/Yvs2pSjssg pic.twitter.com/Ya6Ho3dOnX

— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) December 20, 2021

, in a Turning Point USA conference event involving pilots. In it, Leigh Dundas, a lawyer .. https://americasfrontlinedoctors5.com/legal_team/leigh/ .. who works with America’s Frontline Doctors, which has spread misinformation .. https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/sep/22/licensed-doctors-spread-covid-misinformation-cons/ .. about the virus, recounted what she said were adverse reactions from the COVID-19 vaccines and their impacts on commercial airline pilots. She relayed information from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, a database maintained by the federal government that contains unconfirmed reports of adverse events following vaccination — data that is frequently misused by vaccine critics to spread misinformation.

[Insert: What are the strengths and limitations of VAERS?
February, 2021 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=161879991]  

She also mentioned cases of vaccinated pilots who became sick on the job. PolitiFact looked at .. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/13/blog-posting/no-vaccinated-delta-pilot-didnt-die-mid-flight-and/ .. a case in October — a claim that a vaccinated pilot died mid-flight and forced an emergency landing — and found no evidence of an emergency landing or a dead pilot. In November, USA Today fact-checked claims .. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/11/04/fact-check-no-evidence-vaccinated-pilots-dying-during-flights/6236189001/ .. that vaccinated pilots were dying during flights and found them to be false. 

The Federal Aviation Administration told USA Today that it had seen no evidence of aircraft accidents or pilot incapacitation caused by any complications associated with the vaccines.  

Our ruling

A Facebook post claimed that flights were shut down worldwide because pilots have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and have experienced severe negative reactions. 

There is no evidence that flights are being canceled around the world because pilots have experienced adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines. Airlines have said that wintry weather and coronavirus infections among their staff members have resulted in canceled flights. 

We rate this claim False. 

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/03/facebook-posts/no-vaccines-are-not-why-flights-have-been-canceled/

See also:

The discredited doctor hailed by the anti-vaccine movement - [Andrew Wakefield]
[...]What follows is a roller-coaster ride. Wakefield’s findings were questioned in an interdisciplinary meeting at England’s Royal College of Surgeons in 1998, although it took a further 12 years for him to be stripped of his licence to practise. Deer has reported indefatigably throughout, including on Wakefield’s move to the United States, where he convinced an ever-expanding list of benefactors to support his various ventures. Among them was two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro — who has spoken up for the 2016 film Vaxxed made by Wakefield and producer Del Bigtree.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170577332

To marry Mitcovit to RFK Jr. First bit posted here .. Yep. She has quite a history.
Surprise too, lol, there was money involved. Just as with the Frontline Doctors
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170556661

Yep. She has quite a history. Surprise too, lol, there was money involved. Just as with the Frontline Doctors
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170555471

The YouTubers who blew the whistle on an anti-vax plot
"Agree. Exposing America’s Frontline Doctors and Their Financial Empire Built on Hydroxychloroquine"
[...]A mysterious marketing agency secretly offered to pay social media stars to spread disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines. Their plan failed when the influencers went public about the attempt to recruit them.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170546790

How 'America's Frontline Doctors' Sold Access to Bogus COVID-19 Treatments—and Left Patients in the Lurch
[...]“My mom has now been admitted to the hospital with Covid,” one user wrote Aug. 12 on the group’s channel on the messaging app Telegram. “AFLDS has not returned a call or message to her and they’ve taken over $500 out of her account!”
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=165840703

Clamoring for ivermectin, some turn to a pro-Trump telemedicine website
"Homebrew, The medical world overwhelmingly says there is no high quality data to date which would justify CDC approval of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid. The studies most relied on so far by those pushing for approval have all been under the microscope...
[...]When users visit the telemedicine website SpeakWithAnMD.com, they are immediately hit with a warning: “Due to overwhelming demand, we are experiencing longer than usual wait times.”
P - The demand is for ivermectin, a drug primarily used to deworm animals that has become the latest false cure for Covid-19. And the website, in partnership with the organization America’s Frontline Doctors, whose founder stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, has become well-known in the Facebook groups and Reddit communities where anti-vaccination sentiment thrives.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=165759492

Zardiw, dropdeadfred, Ivermectin: why a potential COVID treatment isn’t recommended for use
August, 2021 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=165699356

Frontline Doctors Library

[fuagf]

A vaccine scientist’s discredited claims have bolstered a movement of misinformation

"Agree. Exposing America’s Frontline Doctors and Their Financial Empire Built on Hydroxychloroquine"

--
Related:
Malone is a butthurt, disgraced little piece of human...
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=166089037

Malone was full of...
[...]Malone, a physician who bills himself as having played a key role in creation of mRNA vaccines, is a prominent skeptic of the coronavirus vaccines that have been crafted using the technology. Shortly after the Food and Drug Administration fully authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, he appeared on a program hosted by Stephen K. Bannon, a one-time adviser to former president Donald Trump, and claimed that the full authorization was a bait-and-switch game played by the FDA.
P - “One again the mainstream media has lied to you,” he said. “Sorry to say that. I know it’s a shock to this viewership.”
P - In essence, his argument was that the approved vaccine would no longer have liability protections so Pfizer would simply keep distributing in the United States the product that had been authorized for emergency use.
P - A similar claim was made by Robert F. Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine campaigner.
“Licensed adult vaccines, including the new Comirnaty, do not enjoy any liability shield,” Kennedy wrote with a co-author in an Aug. 24 post. “Just as with Ford’s exploding Pinto, or Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, people injured by the Comirnaty vaccine could sue for damages. And because adults injured by the vaccine will be able to show that the manufacturer knew of the problems with the product, jury awards could be astronomical. Pfizer is therefore unlikely to allow any American to take a Comirnaty vaccine until it can somehow arrange immunity for this product.”
P - These claims are false, based on a misunderstanding of the law, as Malone acknowledged after we contacted him.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=166088903
--

By Timothy Bella
January 24, 2022 at 11:51 a.m. EST


Robert Malone speaks during a rally after a D.C. march opposing coronavirus mandates on Jan. 23.
(Tom Brenner/Reuters)

As Robert Malone stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before thousands of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate demonstrators .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/23/dc-anti-vaccine-rally-mandates-protest/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2 .. Sunday, the medical doctor and infectious-disease researcher repeated the falsehoods that have garnered him legions of followers.

“Regarding the genetic covid vaccines, the science is settled,” he said in a 15-minute speech that referenced the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. “They are not working.”

The misinformation .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/21/cdc-studies-booster-shots-omicron/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5 .. came two days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its first studies based on real-world data showing that coronavirus vaccines provide strong protection against hospitalization from the rapidly spreading omicron variant.

Malone, who said .. https://twitter.com/VeraMBergen/status/1485323408233611265 .. the coronavirus “should never have been politicized,” was met with roaring applause.

“You tell ’em, doc!” one man shouted.

VIDEO - Thousands march in D.C. against coronavirus vaccine mandates 1:21
Thousands of people protesting coronavirus vaccine mandates marched from the
Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial on Jan. 23. (Video: Reuters)

Malone, who bills himself as having played a key role in the creation of mRNA vaccines, has emerged as one of the most controversial voices of the movement against coronavirus vaccines and health mandates. His claims and suggestions have been discredited and denounced by medical professionals as not only wrong, but also dangerous. Twitter barred him for violating the platform’s coronavirus misinformation policy, but he has found platforms elsewhere — recently appearing on an episode of Joe Rogan’s wildly popular podcast, which averages 11 million listeners per episode.

That show — along with guest spots on Fox News programming hosted by Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham — has thrust the 62-year-old into the limelight at a crucial time of the pandemic, when unvaccinated patients continue to fill ICU wards.

Critics say Malone’s story highlights the peril of offering an enormous platform to someone who once complained about being “written out of history” and is now finding celebrity.

“There is a huge market for misinformation,” said Jay Van Bavel, an assistant professor of psychology and neural science at New York University who has studied conspiracy theories and misinformation. “The way he’s framed in the conspiracy-theory world is that he’s a courageous whistleblower rather than someone who is spreading misinformation — and it’s only enhancing his profile.”

A former colleague of Malone’s, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly without fear of recrimination, said that while Malone is “a brilliant scientist who has a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge about vaccines,” there is reason to be concerned about how his newfound stardom could be a public health risk.

“I don’t feel what he’s doing and saying is in the right context or necessarily very helpful,” the former co-worker said. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there’s a risk we’re all facing when he’s not accurately representing the information.”

[ Anti-vaccine activists march in D.C. — a city that mandates covid vaccines — to protest mandates
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/23/dc-anti-vaccine-rally-mandates-protest/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_21 ]

Malone had a following before his “Joe Rogan Experience” interview that was released Dec. 31 — but that show introduced him to an even wider audience. On it, he promoted an unfounded theory called “mass-formation psychosis,” telling Rogan that a “third of the population [is] basically being hypnotized” into believing what the mainstream media and Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert and chief medical adviser to President Biden, report on the vaccines. Malone went on to compare the country’s pandemic policies to Nazi Germany.

His remarks drew massive attention — and outrage.

“To claim that choosing not to get a vaccine and not being able to go to a movie theater is in any way comparable to Jewish people being targeted and murdered, it blows my mind,” said Jonathan Laxton, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba who signed a letter .. https://spotifyopenletter.wordpress.com/2022/01/10/an-open-letter-to-spotify/ .. from 270 medical professionals to Spotify this month demanding that the company do more to prevent the spread of false covid-19 information. “He devalued the impact of the Holocaust.”

Van Bavel added: “He used a pseudoscience term and millions of people downloaded the episode — and it took on a life of its own, even though there is no evidence supporting it.”

[ Doctors call out Spotify for letting Joe Rogan spread ‘false and societally harmful’ covid-19 claims
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/14/joe-rogan-spotify-doctors-covid-misinformation/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_28 ]

Malone declined to be interviewed for this story, saying he would “not be able to support” The Washington Post’s request. He did not provide further explanation. Neither Rogan’s publicist nor a Spotify spokesperson immediately replied to requests for comment. A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment.

One person who has stood by Malone: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist who also spoke .. https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1485338127442984960 .. at Sunday’s march. In a statement to The Post, Kennedy described media reports on Malone promoting misinformation as a “euphemism for any assertion that departs from government orthodoxies [whether] true or not.”

“In my experience, Malone’s statements are measured and scrupulously sourced,” he said. “I know him well enough to know that he would quickly and publicly correct any statement shown to be untrue.”

Colleagues and critics alike have acknowledged Malone’s impressive credentials in a career spanning more than three decades. Among those accomplishments was serving as CEO and founder of a company contracted by the U.S. government in 2016 to assist in the development of a treatment for the Zika virus. But his former co-worker told The Post that he is also known for his headstrong demeanor, often unwilling to change his stance on a position over the years, even if the science said the opposite.

“Like anything else in life, it can be a huge strength,” the former colleague said, “but that can also create blind spots.”


Malone in his barn on July 22, 2020, in Madison, Va. (Steve Helber/Associated Press)

Malone has long billed himself as the inventor of mRNA vaccines, but the history behind the development is more complicated. When he was a graduate student in biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego in the late 1980s, Malone injected DNA and RNA into mice cells. He co-wrote papers in 1989 and 1990 that said such an injection of fatty droplets into a living organism could bring about new proteins — and possibly “provide alternative approaches to vaccine development” for human cells, researchers wrote.

Nature magazine .. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w .. reported that Malone’s experiments drew on the work of other researchers, and dozens of companies and academic labs would soon formulate the building blocks for mRNA vaccines. Malone’s work offered some of the steppingstones toward decades of innovations from hundreds of researchers that would eventually give way to the mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine administered to millions of people worldwide, according to Nature.

Malone has been public about saying his early work on mRNA vaccines has been overlooked in favor of those who have been declared mRNA pioneers for working on later advancements. Even though two of his papers were the first reference in a 2019 paper .. https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8628303/file/8628317 .. about the history of mRNA vaccines, Malone told Nature, “I’ve been written out of history.”

[ Stressed hospitals are asking workers with covid to return — even if they may be infectious
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/23/hospital-workers-covid-isolation-cdc/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_42 ]

One of those people who has received recognition for work in mRNA vaccines is biochemist Katalin Karikó, who the New York Times .. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/health/coronavirus-mrna-kariko.html .. said was among the many who “helped shield the world from the coronavirus.” Karikó shared with the Atlantic .. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/robert-malone-vaccine-inventor-vaccine-skeptic/619734/ .. an email Malone sent her that accused the biochemist of inflating her accomplishments: “This is not going to end well.” Malone told the magazine in August that the message was not meant as a threat. Karikó declined to comment.

When Malone said he was infected with the coronavirus in February 2020, he said he turned to famotidine, the main ingredient in the over-the-counter heartburn medicine Pepcid, as a treatment. Malone, who at the time was the chief medical officer for the Florida-based pharmaceutical company Alchem Laboratories, took to his LinkedIn page to report how he had figured out the appropriate dose and became “the first to take the drug to treat my own case.”

The Trump administration funded a $21 million study of famotidine in April 2020 that was to be done by Alchem and Northwell Health, a New York health-care provider, despite a lack of data or published studies showing it could be effective against the virus. Malone resigned from Alchem the week the company got the contract, complaining to the Associated Press .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/trump-admin-21m-gambit-for-pepcid-as-a-covid-remedy-fizzles/2020/07/23/84ab4aa0-cd08-11ea-99b0-8426e26d203b_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_47 .. of a difficult work environment. The study eventually fizzled out amid allegations of conflicts of interest and scientific misconduct. Officials with Alchem and Northwell declined to comment.

Malone said he hoped getting vaccinated would alleviate the long-term symptoms he suffered. But he told the Atlantic that the Moderna injections made his symptoms worse, echoing similar claims from mandate opponents such as musician Eric Clapton .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/07/22/eric-clapton-vaccine-shows/?itid=lk_inline_manual_48 . Since then, Malone’s objections surrounding the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been mostly about the expedited approval process, as well as the government’s system to track adverse reactions from those who have been vaccinated.

[ Fact Checker: The false claim that the fully approved Pfizer vaccine lacks liability protection
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/30/false-claim-that-fully-approved-pfizer-vaccine-lacks-liability-protection/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_49 ]

He published his criticisms of the vaccines and mandates on Twitter, building a following of more than 440,000 users — and a reach that extended far beyond the platform. At an Ohio school board meeting in August, a man who introduced himself as a doctor shared several misleading claims about the vaccines, including that Malone had said no one should ever take the vaccines.
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While skeptical of the shots, Malone told the AP in August that he has never stated that coronavirus vaccines should not be administered. His comments have shifted against vaccines more in recent months. Malone argued Sunday that the omicron variant “is destroying the approved narrative that the vaccines are safe and effective,” ignoring last week’s CDC notice that vaccine boosters were preventing serious illness .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/21/cdc-studies-booster-shots-omicron/?itid=lk_inline_manual_53 .. from the omicron variant of the coronavirus, which causes the disease covid-19. He also discouraged people from getting vaccinated and pushed instead for natural immunity, which, as emergency physician Leana S. Wen wrote .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/31/covid-19-recovery-vaccination-natural-immunity/?itid=lk_inline_manual_103&itid=lk_inline_manual_53 .. for The Post in August, is dangerous.

[ What to know about the omicron variant
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/23/hospital-workers-covid-isolation-cdc/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_54 ]

It didn’t stop there. A Canadian study suggesting a high rate of heart inflammation after people were given coronavirus vaccines was retracted .. https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-19-vaccine-study-error-anti-vaxxers-1.6188806 .. by the study’s authors in September because of a significant mathematical error, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Despite the major inaccuracy, screenshots of the preprint study spread among the anti-vaccine community. Among those who shared it was Malone, who got a huge response to the tweet but did not take it down, even though many noted that the study had been retracted.

Timothy Caulfield, the Canada research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, said Malone injecting himself into a conversation with the kind of credentials he has, and “cherry-picking rotten data,” was “a worst-case scenario.”

“You have this individual who has all these credentials and this history in the biomedical world, so that looks impressive. And he’s referencing a study that, on the face of it, may look impressive. But you don’t know that the study is fraudulent,” Caulfield said, adding that Malone has “weaponized bad research.”

In November, Malone shared a deceptive video to his Twitter followers that falsely linked athlete deaths to coronavirus shots. The video suggested that coronavirus vaccination killed Jake West, a 17-year-old Indiana high school football player who died of sudden cardiac arrest. But the vaccine played no role in West’s death. The teen died of an undiagnosed heart condition in 2013.

Malone tweeted the video with three words about vaccination: “Safe and effective?” He deleted the tweet about the same time he received a cease-and-desist letter from West’s family, according to the AP, and later noted to his followers that he didn’t know the video had been “doctored.”

Twitter permanently suspended him in December; the next day, Rogan published his interview with Malone that pushed the vaccine scientist to stardom.

Rogan’s episode drew immediate backlash, but Malone found support from Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.), who entered .. https://nehls.house.gov/posts/joe-rogan-experience-1757-dr-robert-malone-md-full-transcript .. a full transcript of the interview into the Congressional Record. At Sunday’s march, numerous Malone followers were in the audience, including Rachel Gillert, who carried a sign reading, “Do you have mass-formation psychosis?”

“It seems like a lot of people saw his side of this issue for the first time when he did his interview with Joe Rogan,” said Gillert, 31, of Richmond. “It definitely seems like he’s made a big impact.”

Critics such as Laxton are frustrated with how Malone has been embraced as a credible ally against vaccines and mandates: “He’s put himself exactly where he wants to be. I don’t think you’re going to dissuade too many people from not following him.”

Daniel Kotzin, 52, who flew in from Denver with his two young children to attend Sunday’s march, said Malone’s interview with Rogan, as well as his credentials, have “galvanized” parents who are against vaccinating their children.

“Dr. Malone has risked his reputation and career to stand up for what’s right and true,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe Malone was promoting misinformation. “Everything he does is done in the best interest for people as a whole.”

After Malone concluded his speech by urging parents to not comply with coronavirus mandates, he received one of the largest ovations of the day, and many yelled, “Thank you!”

With his increased profile in recent weeks, some are calling on him to take a step back and reflect on the damage his misinformation is causing.

“Given the polarization that exists in our world, I don’t think what he’s doing is helping,” said Malone’s former colleague. “That’s what I would ask him right now: ‘Do you think this is helping?’”

VIDEO - How to identify— and avoid— misinformation tactics in the wellness community 3:56
Wellness influencers’ nature-based approach to health may steer followers away from factual information.
Lydia Greene broke out of that echo chamber. (Video: Blair Guild, Allie Caren/The Washington Post)

Read more:

Teacher arrested after allegedly giving teen a coronavirus vaccine
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/04/science-teacher-covid-vaccine/?itid=lk_inline_manual_71

Covid patient dies at a hospital weeks after his wife sued another to keep him on a ventilator
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/23/ventilator-lawsuit-death/?itid=lk_inline_manual_72

How to use at-home covid tests and where to find them
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2021/12/23/how-to-get-a-home-test/?itid=lk_inline_manual_73

Timothy Bella is a staff writer and editor for the General Assignment team, focusing on national news. His work
has appeared in outlets such as Esquire, the Atlantic, New York magazine and the Undefeated. Twitter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/24/robert-malone-vaccine-misinformation-rogan-mandates/