Remember when America’s Frontline Doctors popped up with people dressed up as doctors in a video outside the Supreme Court? Those were the heady days when Trump and a group of quack doctors were preaching that the COVID pandemic was nothing to worry about. All you had to do was take toxic hydroxychloroquine and you would be fine—if you got malaria that is.
When vaccines started to arrive on the scene, these same doctors started spreading disinformation about them and advocating for a “vaccine bill of rights.”
Anti-vaxxers loved this troop of clowns because they had “doctor” labels and lab coats. But what is the real picture? Simple. They are selling COVID “medical services.”
First we need to back up and examine a bit more closely who and what “America’s Frontline Doctors” really are.
According to Wikipedia, “America’s Frontline Doctors is an American right-wing political organization. Affiliated with Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin and publicly led by Simone Gold, the group is opposed to measures intended to control the COVID-19 pandemic, such as business closures, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination.”
Their own website states, “America’s Frontline Doctors is the nation’s premier Civil Liberties Organization. Our mission is to provide We The People with independent information from the world’s top experts in medicine and law so you can be empowered with facts, protect your health, and exert your inalienable and Constitutionally guaranteed rights.”
Their leader Simone Gold just pled guilty in Federal court to a charge related to her direct participation in the January 6th Insurrection and will be sentenced to prison.
But AFLD has a line of business to keep the doors open: selling prescriptions for Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), Ivermectin, and other COVID-19 “medications.”
Here’s the deal. You go to their website, click and pay them $90 and a “doctor” will call you in 2-7 days (due to overwhelming demand) to discuss your case and get you your prescription.
The 2-7 days part is interesting. Kind of along the lines of “We will give immediate service no matter how long it takes.” The real problem is probably finding actual doctors to do the prescribing.
On April 26, Medpage Today reported:
A physician who was prescribing ivermectin through the America’s Frontline Doctors’ telemedicine platform no longer holds an active medical license in any state.
Licenses for Kathleen Ann Cullen, MD, of Seminole, Florida, are now labeled “delinquent” in Florida and “inactive” in North Carolina, according to a search of state board websites.
Cullen’s license had been revoked by Alabama and Kansas last year, but her status in the two other states had allowed her to continue seeing patients via telemedicine through America’s Frontline Doctors. Each virtual appointment cost $90 each, according to NPR, and would often involve providing prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to patients with COVID-19. Neither drug has been authorized by the FDA to treat the disease, and data have shown that neither offer medical benefits as a COVID-19 treatment.
It is interesting to note that in the mission statement for America’s Frontline Quacks is a quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush who had been a leading voice for the American Revolution and physician to George Washington. What is omitted from their site is that Benjamin Rush is also known as the “father of American psychiatry” and an advocate of torture of the mentally ill.
According to the National Institutes of Health, “Dr. Benjamin Rush believed that mental diseases were caused by irritation of the blood vessels in the brain. His treatment methods included bleeding, purging, hot and cold baths, and mercury…” He also invented a restraint system called a “tranquilizer” chair in which a patient would be bound with some sort of blinding helmet placed over their head.
An earlier article we published raised the question as to whether anti-vaxxers were driving up healthcare profits. It costs a LOT more money to treat sick people than it does to vaccinate health folk for prevention. America’s Frontline Doctors are trying to profit from COVID but through the fear and disinformation that they are actively creating.
Another right-wing website late last year crowed that AFLD was going to start opening their own clinics. That may be hard to do since it is still against the law to practice medicine without a license—or from prison, where their leader is clearly headed.
