Politifact: Who are the doctors in the viral hydroxychloroquine video?

Despite social media platforms’ efforts to remove it, millions of people have seen a viral video of doctors making false and misleading claims about the coronavirus pandemic.

Breitbart, a conservative news outlet, published the 40-plus-minute-long video on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on July 27. It’s a live stream of a Washington, D.C., press conference organized by the Tea Party Patriots, a conservative group backed by Republican donors. Rep. Ralph Norman. R-S.C., attended the event.

The video went viral after it was widely shared in Facebook groups for anti-vaxxers and people against face masks. Other groups dedicated to conspiracy theories like QAnon further amplified the video. Eventually, public figures like President Donald Trump and Madonna shared it with millions of social media followers.

"There was a group of doctors yesterday, a large group that were put on the internet. For some reason, the internet wanted to take them down and took them off," Trump said during a July 28 press conference. "I don’t know why. I think they’re very respected doctors."

Social media platforms removed the video because it contains several claims that run counter to official recommendations from public health officials. But who are the doctors who made them? PolitiFact investigated.

The physicians in the video are associated with a group called America’s Frontline Doctors, which advocates against official narratives of the coronavirus pandemic. The group, whose now-defunct website was registered on July 16, was in Washington for a "White Coat Summit," after which some of the doctors met with Vice President Mike Pence.

All of the physicians we fact-checked have a history of making unproven, conspiratorial or bizarre medical claims.

Dr. Stella Immanuel is a Houston-based primary care physician and minister. In the video, she claimed that the coronavirus "has a cure."

"It is called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax," Immanuel said. "I know you people want to talk about a mask. Hello? You don’t need a mask. There is a cure."

We rated that False — and Immanuel has a track record of making unproven medical claims, such as believing in alien DNA.

Immanuel has a Texas medical license with specialties in pediatrics and emergency medicine. She says she has been practicing medicine in the United States or Canada for 24 years. She received her medical degree in Nigeria.

Immanuel operates a clinic in a strip mall next to her church, Firepower Ministries. In sermons published on YouTube and articles on the church’s now-defunct website, first unearthed by the Daily Beast, Immanuel makes several outlandish medical claims.

Among them: Medical problems like cysts are caused by sex with "spirit husbands" and "spirit wives," DNA from aliens is being used in medicine and scientists are developing vaccines to prevent people from being religious.

More recently, Immanuel has doubled down on hydroxychloroquine, which is not a proven treatment (or cure) for COVID-19.

"If you have taken hydroxychloroquine and you have been cured, it’s time to speak up," she said in a July 28 Facebook video.

Dr. Dan Erickson is a California-based osteopath who co-owns an urgent care clinic. In the video, he claimed that state lockdowns have little effect on the coronavirus fatality rate.

"So this measured approach I’m talking about isn’t made up. It’s going on in Sweden, and their deaths are about 564 per million. UK, full lockdown, 600 deaths per million," he said. "So we’re seeing that the lockdowns aren’t decreasing significantly the number of deaths per million."

We found that those numbers are in the ballpark, but they’re cherry-picked. And Erickson has a history of making misleading and unproven claims about the coronavirus.

In May, Erickson appeared with Dr. Artin Massihi, co-owner of Accelerated Urgent Care, in another viral video called "Plandemic," which is filled with conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic. In it, they claimed that stay-at-home orders and face masks are not necessary because they weaken your immune system. The doctors made similar assertions in an April press conference and on Fox News.

In a joint statement, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine condemned Erickson and Massihi’s claims, saying that they "strongly advise against using any statements of Drs. Erickson and Massihi as a basis for policy and decision making."

We reached you to Accelerated Urgent Care for a comment, but we haven’t heard back.

Dr. Simone Gold is the founder of America’s Frontline Doctors and a Los Angeles-based physician. In the video, she made misleading claims about hydroxychloroquine prescriptions and coronavirus case numbers.

"We’re here because we feel as though the American people have not heard from all of the expertise that’s out there all across our country," Gold said at the start of the press conference.

According to the Medical Board of California, Gold holds an active medical license. She specializes in emergency medicine and general practice. She graduated from Rosalind Franklin University’s Chicago Medical School in 1989.

For the past few months, Gold has been involved in a drive aimed at mobilizing doctors that believe states should reopen faster. The Save Our Country Coalition, which seeks to raise millions of dollars, is backed by advocates linked to several conservative organizations, including the FreedomWorks Foundation and the Tea Party Patriots, according to the Guardian.

As part of that effort, hundreds of physicians sent an open letter to Trump in late May that called state shutdowns "a mass casualty incident" — despite evidence that suggests stay-at-home orders prevented new coronavirus cases and deaths. Gold was the first signature on the letter.

Gold has also appeared on conservative talk radio and podcast programs, during which she has advocated for the use of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 patients. She has donated to several Republican causes in the past, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Gold told the Associated Press that she started to speak out about the pandemic because there is "no scientific basis that the average American should be concerned" about COVID-19. (Public health experts say otherwise.)

> “According to Dr. Zelenko it worked and all patients recovered. The catch is that it should be taken as soon as the virus has hit you before it goes on to do any other damage.”

Dr. Zelenko provides an excellent analogy that most everyone can understand.

First SARS-COV-2 = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - CoronaVIRUS - 2

COVID-18 = Coronavirus INFECTIOUS DISEASE - 19

VIRUS vs. DISEASE

News reporters are saying people ‘tested positive for COVID-19’; NO!

You don’t test positive for the DISEASE. You test positive for the VIRUS and most that test positive for the VIRUS never develop the DISEASE.

The DISEASE COVID-19 is ‘diagnosed’, not ‘tested’.

Most people have the VIRUS but don’t know it. Such people will develop antibodies naturally and never know they are infected. Their immune systems are strong enough to handle the Coronavirus and the virus infection never progresses to a disease state (COVID).

Hospitalizations:
There are two general categories of hospitalizations with COVID-19.
1. Go to hospital as soon as symptoms appear - no wait.
2. Go to hospital after waiting too long.

There are other hospitalizations:
* Sick with other things but get tested with positive result or have family member or friend with positive VIRUS (not necessarily DISEASE). Then such sick people are labeled,, branded as having COVID-19 even though it’s false. Lots of variations on this mixing things up.

COVID-19 progresses to pneumonia like symptoms, difficulty breathing, pneumocytes fill up with fluids induced by cytokine response, cytokine storm; pneumocytes start to fill up and patient starts to suffocate, can’t breath.

Now to Dr. Zelenko’s analogy:

COVID is like a FIRE of a home.

For those that get to the ER right away, the fire is small and easy to put out, minimal damage, patients recover within 24 hors as if nothing ever happened.

For those that wait too long, the fire is out of control, an entire fire department will not be able to save the home. In this case, a patient may survive but with severe lung damage. Many die.

Obviously, HCQ + Zn + Zpak will have mixed results for hospitalized patients depending on how fast they got to the hospital.

The doctors who are now speaking out (and there have been dozens over the last couple months just not broadcast, news suppressed), their patients called them, and the doctors got them to the ER FAST! And that made the difference, the recovery rates are very high.

Now, those that are asymptomatic, don’t know they have anything, they take HCQ + Zinc as prevention, as prophylaxis (Zpak not necessary because no symptoms). These people may or may not have the VIRUS but they never get the DISEASE, the COVID-19.

Therefore, the pandemic can be over in a month if the general population were to take HCQ + Zinc for prevention.

Another Zelenko analogy:

HCQ = gun
Zinc = bullet

If progressing to COVID-19, then:

Azithromycin (Zpak) = bullet-proof vest

to stave off bacterial pneumonia.

Is Zinc necessary? In general yes.

If a person drinks red wine with meals, or eats a lot of seafood, especially shell fish, those dietary items are loaded with Zinc, so the Zinc levels in their blood plasma are high enough without needing Zinc Sulfate or Zinc picolinate supplement.

But to be sure, everyone should take a Zinc supplement.

Dr. Zelenko recommends if you are in an area where a ban is placed on HCQ (crime against humanity), then substitute Quercetin which does not require a prescription.

But HCQ is the best because it has two actions:

1, It opens small pores (channels) on the cell surface to allow Zinc to get inside the cell where it blocks the SARS-COV-2 from replicating (multiplying). Quercetin does this as well, both are known as Zinc ionophores.

2. But HCQ also binds with the ACE2 receptor that the SARS-COV-2 uses to enter into the cell, the HCQ closes the door on the virus.

Summarized:
1. HCQ gets the Zinc into the cell to stop the virus from multiplying
2. HCQ closes the door on the virus reentering the cell.

If a patient can’t get HCQ because it’s banned (crime against humanity) and they take Quercetin as a substitute, they will survive if started early but will take longer to recover because the virus gets stopped by the Zinc but gets flushed back out into the blood where it reenters cells because the ACE2 door (receptor) is still open. HCQ shuts this door but Quercetin does not, so it takes longer using Quercetin to rid the body of the Coronavirus through elimination in the urine.

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