Back Away From "America's Frontline Doctors" - 2021-02-06
Back Away From "America's Frontline Doctors" February 6, 2021,
Not a day goes by without a video being forwarded to me accompanied by the question, "Is this true?" Invariably the answer is "um..no..there is no evidence," and that usually ends the discussion. Sometimes, though, I can discern that a video has legs because I get the "Is this true?" query several times a day. An example of this is a recent epic, dripping with pseudoscience, produced by Dr. Lee Merritt an American orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Merritt may be a fine orthopedic surgeon, but when it comes to the science of COVID-19, she is a bumbling neophyte.
Suspicion is immediately aroused when Merritt is identified as a member of "America's Frontline Doctors," a handful of conspiracy-minded physicians that include luminaries such as Dr. Stella Immanuel who alleges that alien DNA is being used in medical treatments and that researchers are working on a vaccine to prevent people from becoming religious. She also believes in a conspiracy by the "Illuminati" to destroy the world with abortion, gay marriage, and of all things, children's toys. As far as gynecological diseases go, they can be caused by having sex with witches and demons that appear in dreams.
Then we have the founder of "America's Frontline Doctors," Dr. Simone Gold, who was arrested for taking part in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. She has a sordid history of attacking Dr. Fauci's sound scientific advice and claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are "experimental biological agents." She warns people not to be "coerced" into taking them. Lockdowns, this guru maintains, have mental health effects that are more harmful than those caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which according to her, are minimal. Dr. Gold trots out the usual nonsensical trope about 99% of infections by the virus being harmless. While it is true that most infected people experience mild or moderate symptoms, roughly 10-15% progress to serious disease and about 5% become critically ill. In some cases, symptoms can linger for months, maybe even years.