America's Frontline Doctors

America's Frontline Doctors is an anti-vaxxer, pro-hydroxychloroquine collective of medical practitioners that emerged during the Covid-19 crisis. It is closely tied to the conservative American Tea Party Patriots Action organization. The group gained notoriety in July 2020, when the far-right website Breitbart posted a live video featuring a group of doctors dressed in white coats outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. In the rambling video lasting more than 40 minutes America's Frontline Doctors claimed that the anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine was a cure for Covid-19, that masks don't work, and that lockdown was unnecessary.

The video was viewed more than 24 million times in the U.S. before being removed from Facebook, YouTube and X for spreading false information.

Among the personalities featured:

• Simone Gold: Active in conservative political circles in the United States, the Fox News network contributor, close to the Tea Party Patriots, defends the idea that lockdown measures will cause more deaths than the virus itself.
• Stella Immanuel: A Texas paediatrician and pastor, Immanuel has a medical degree from the University of Calabar in Nigeria and a medical license valid in the United States, according to the Texas Medical Board website. In a 2015 video, she asserts that the leaders of the United States are “reptilian spirits”, “half human, half alien”. In sermons available on her website and YouTube channel, she claims that many gynaecological diseases are caused by “spirits” who are said to have sex with patients, or that alien DNA is used to treat patients
• James Todaro: A medical ophthalmologist graduate, he has since transitioned into promoting the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Todaro is also credited with playing a leading role in promoting hydroxychloroquine from the start of the pandemic.
• Dan Erickson: A California emergency physician who has been defending the idea that the novel coronavirus is less harmful than the flu or what is reported in medical journals. This led him to be challenged by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), who accused him of using biased data.  In addition, Erickson promotes the Swedish model and the so-called herd immunity strategy, comparing the mortality rate in Sweden with that of the United Kingdom (forgetting to mention that the latter had first followed the mass immunity strategy, before changing policy in favor of lockdown of its population). He does acknowledge that “some of its Nordic neighbors have fewer deaths, for various reasons that I won't go into today", thus omitting to mention the strict lockdown rules put in place from the start in Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Source: Snopes 

(Last updated on 12/12/2023)