...the gift that keeps on giving...
The Doctor Promoting Fake COVID Cures Also Thinks Demon Sex Causes Endometriosis
BY HEMANT MEHTA
patheos.com
JULY 28, 2020
Conservative media outlets, and Donald Trump, have spent the past couple of days pushing a video in which a group of doctors promote dangerous conspiracies about COVID-19 during an event funded by right-wing donors. The star of that video, which has now been deleted from Facebook and Twitter (but only after finding millions of viewers) was Stella Immanuel.
Immanuel says in the video that she successfully used hydroxychloroquine to treat patients… even though no credible study has found the drug to be useful in dealing with COVID. She also says face masks are unnecessary.
But the Daily Beast notes that Immanuel says a lot of things that ought to be ignored…
Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches.
She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.
She may be a doctor, but she’s not a scientist, and she’s certainly not capable of critical thinking.
She’s also rabidly anti-gay, saying that “practicing and celebrating [homosexuality] will take you to hell”She also said yesterday that Facebook would be destroyed by God if the video wasn’t restored. (Facebook is doing just fine as of this writing.)
You have to wonder why the same people who are so quick to reject the advice of scientists who study infectious diseases for a living are so quick to accept the claims of a random primary care physician who isn’t a specialist in this area. Or you don’t have to wonder. Conspiracy theorists will always embrace anybody who says what they want to hear, regardless of that person’s lack of qualifications.
But it’s one thing when random internet trolls promote utter nonsense that also happens to be harmful. It’s another when conservative “news” sites promote the video as if it’s worth hearing. And it’s downright irresponsible when the president is suggesting people should take her seriously. But what else would you expect from the sort of people who continue to back the Republican Party?