Actual US President Tweets Video Of Dr. Demon Slayer Pitching COVID-19 Miracle ‘Cure’

This isn’t funny anymore. People will die.

We're barely a week into Donald Trump's supposed “pivot" where he'd start taking the coronavirus seriously like a regular Louis Pasteur, and President Snake Oil is back to pushing sketchy, quick-fix COVID-19 cures. Get this man out of the White House and onto a late night informercial set.

It's hard to express just how well and truly fucked we are when the president of the United States retweets a video of a doctor promoting anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as "a cure for COVID." It's not a cure for COVID-19. It'll never be a cure for COVID-19. It's not even a good dessert topping. 

What is effective against the coronavirus are masks, and the president could remind his supporters to stop whining and wear the damn things instead of sharing videos where so-called doctors claim masks are a big hoax. These doctors are less reputable than “Doom" and “Octopus."

Trump's idiot son — no, not Eric, the other one, Donald Jr. — actually got suspended from Twitter after he tweeted the video Monday to his 5.3 million followers.

Trump Jr. rates the video as a “must watch" that is “so different from the narrative that everyone is running with." Anyone unfortunate enough to watch this video would've seen Houston Doctor Stella Immanuel on the steps of the Supreme Court at Monday's "White Coat Summit." They apparently let someone in a blue coat stand behind Immanuel, but that's just one of many problems with the medical rigor of those assembled.

This is how Immanuel introduced herself in the video that both Trump and son saw fit to share.

I'm Dr Stella Immanuel. I'm a primary care physician in Houston, Texas. I went to medical school in West Africa, Nigeria, where I took care of malaria patients, treated them with hydroxychloroquineand stuff like that.So I'm used to these medications.

Who wouldn't trust a doctor who treats them with a specific anti-malarial drug plus extra vague, bonus “stuff like that"? Immanuel claims that hydroxychloroquine is so effective at treating COVID-19 — it's not — that you don't need a stupid mask on your face.

IMMANUEL: Hello, you don't need a mask. There is a cure.

There is no cure. Masks are cheaper than hydroxychloroquine, which doesn't work, and have no longterm side effects. I'd rather wear a mask and look like the superhero Vigilante than potentially experience dizziness, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and vomiting, plus unknown longterm neurological effects if I don't actually die from COVID-19 after spreading it to my loved ones.

On her Facebook page, Immanuel describes herself as a "Physician, Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Deliverance Minister, God's battle axe and weapon of war." Yikes. I'm wary of doctors who are also “entrepreneurs." I think doctors should focus on keeping up to date with the latest medical journals and not have side hustles selling me homemade jewelry.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the country's leading infectious disease experts, but Republicans don't like him because he won't let them go to bars or play baseball. Immanuel is significantly less accomplished than Dr. Fauci. She runs a medical clinic out of a strip mall next to her church, Firepower Ministries. She claims Congress is run by “reptilians" and aliens, and while it might seem a stretch to consider Ted Cruz human, this just isn't true.

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.

In fairness, you probably can't prove a person hasn't had sex in their dreams with demons and witches (both at nce or consecutively?). Immnauel openly supports the president and has frequently shared nonsense on social media about hydroxychloroquine, including this gem on May 21:

I treat patients with covid19 and Hydroxychloroquine with zinc works. They get better in 24 hours. I have not lost a patient yet. My family and I take it for prevention. Many doctors and nurses take it.

Sweet Christ. This is the quack who rightwing media and the goddamn president are embracing during a public health crisis.

The “White Coat Summit" stunt was reportedly organized by the right-wing Tea Party Patriots, which itself is backed by wealthy Republican donors. Breitbart News, the Tea Party Patriots, and America's Frontline Doctors — a collection of anti-science boobs — pushed the video across most social media platforms. Because Facebook doesn't bother fact checking content prior to publication,14 million peoplehad watched the video before it was removed last night. Google removed the video from Breitbart's YouTube Channel.

Twitter blocked the video this morning after God knows how many people saw it. Free speech doesn't mean that private companies can post lies and then pull the misleading content after they've maximized engagement and clicks for several hours. Twitter removed Trump's retweets of the video and put Trump Jr. in Twitter jail for a measly 12 hours. Conservatives cried “censorship!" because no rules should ever apply to them.

The president also retweeted this conspiracy theorist gobbledegook.

This press conference of doctors had 14 million views on Facebook today. FB took it down shortly after a NYTimes re… https: //t.co/bMlGgw6cp0

— Robby Starbuck (@Robby Starbuck) 1595904908.0 

While Bill Barr testifies before the House about the looming threat of Antifa, a deliberate, ongoing misinformation campaign will harm, perhaps fatally, more people than any protest in Portland. This is Trump's America, and the stupidity is lethal.

[ The Daily Beast / Washington Post / Heavy.com ]

 Stephen Robinson on  Twitter.  

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