Mike claims that he was suffering from COVID-19 and felt his breathing becoming more difficult. He didn't want to visit the Veterans Affairs hospital close to his home where he was worried that doctors might place him on a ventilator. He knew that they wouldn't prescribe him the drug he wanted, ivermectin.
Mike, a 48-year old teacher and disabled veteran from New York, contacted Americas Frontline Doctors in July. This group he had been following via social media. AFLD is a prominent promoter of ivermectin as a safe and effective treatment to COVID-19. Mike claims that he paid $90 to the group for a telemedicine consultation with a doctor who would prescribe the drug.
He waited anxiously for the consultation a week later. He claims that he did not receive any response to his calls or emails to AFLD. He finally called his bank to report the fraudulent charge. TIME spoke to Mike in an interview. He said that he didn't even offer an apology. This is insane. This organization does not help anyone except their pockets.
As donors and customers raise doubts about AFLD, similar stories have flooded antivaccine forums and messaging platforms in the last weeks. According to the group, it is a non-partisan group made up of medical professionals. It was founded as a right-wing political group and has been spreading misinformation ever since. Although its name suggests that it is composed of doctors on the frontlines, it is not clear how many members have ever treated patients with COVID-19.
The group's followers don't have all the answers to AFLD questions. It is difficult to determine how many people are employed by the group, how much money it takes in and how they have spent that money. This is partly because the non-profit has not filed required disclosures. The state recently dropped the organization's charitable status from pending active to pending inactive after it failed to file its Arizona annual report.
TIME's investigation revealed that hundreds of AFLD donors and customers have accused the group, along with a promise of prescriptions for ivermectin (which medical authorities do not recommend) of promising them and failing to deliver once a fee was paid. Customers claimed that they were charged for consultations that never took place. Some customers claimed they were connected with digital pharmacies, which offered cheap medication at outrageous prices up to $700. TIME reviewed more than 3,000 messages and found that many people reported their COVID-19 symptoms getting worse while waiting for a miracle drug.
My mom was admitted to the hospital by Covid. One user posted Aug. 12 on Telegram's groups channel. AFLDS hasn't returned her calls or messages and she's been charged $500.
Americas Frontline Doctors was founded last year by Dr. Simone Gold of Los Angeles, who was later detained during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. It has been a hub for medical conspiracy theories that are popular in right-wing circles. This political project was created to support Trump's economic reopening push. It has gone through many changes, from encouraging skepticism regarding COVID-19 to launching an RV tour to denounce medical cancel culture and launch a national RV trip to denounce medical censorship.
With the increase in COVID-19 mandates from employers and the rise of ivermectin, the group's profile has skyrocketed. AFLDs Telegram channels now have more than 160,000 members. According to SemRush's analysis, its website traffic has quadrupled in April. The company also estimates that it had nearly half a billion visitors in July. Experts say that AFLDs popularity has risen to the level of mainstream websites like TikTok and Instagram. This makes it a major source of medical disinformation, which erodes public trust and hampers efforts to control the pandemic.
They are the 21st-century digital snake-oil salesmen. Irwin Redlener is a Columbia University physician and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness. Ivermectin is a particularly dangerous example.
Americas Frontline Doctors refused to comment on the story. Moderators on Telegram blamed user error for the ivermectin delay and promised refunds to customers who do not receive their consultations with the doctors they paid for. Dr. Gold, founder of the group, was not reached through her lawyer.
Federal authorities are taking action against telemedicine programs that promote coronavirus. Nearly 400 warning letters were sent by the Federal Trade Commission to individuals and groups marketing false COVID-19 treatments. One missive was sent in April. It instructed a Texas medical practice that it must stop promoting ivermectin, or they will face severe fines. The federal COVID-19 Consumer Protect Act, which was passed earlier this year, makes it illegal to advertise that a product can cure, prevent, or treat COVID-19.
Despite warnings from the FDA about the dangers associated with misusing ivermectin in order to prevent or treat COVID-19, anti-vaccine groups have been very interested in the drug. TIME has heard from pharmacists and doctors that they have seen a rise in ivermectin prescriptions through telemedicine and patients requesting it as an alternative for COVID-19 vaccines. Telegram chats reveal that many people who are unable to get prescriptions through groups such as AFLD, or find it too costly, have resorted instead to purchasing an alternative feed store product for livestock use. Telegram chats show members advising one another on the proper dosages. According to Mississippi health officials, 70% of the recent poison control center calls were related to people who had ingested ivermectin intended for livestock.
On Aug. 4, 2021, a nurse examines a patient in ICU Covid-19 at NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital Jonesboro, Ark. Houston CofieldBloomberg/Getty Images
Ivermectin is a craze that reflects the worst elements of the post Trump conservative movement. It combines political profiteering with disinformation and conspiratorial thinking at an important point in the pandemic. AFLD capitalized on the perfect storm of all you needed to have a large number of people susceptible to vaccine Misinformation, according to Kolina Koltai (a researcher at the University of Washington who studies the antivaccine movement). America's Frontline Doctors excel at what they do. Many people find the idea of doctors fighting against the system appealing.
Coordinated political efforts
A small group of doctors gathered on the steps at the Supreme Court to hold a news conference on July 27, 2020. The President Donald Trump was urging governors to reopen their state, and conservatives were growing increasingly frustrated by lockdown measures. White lab coats with the AFLD logo embroidery were worn by doctors who recited a series of White House talking points. The doctors claimed that the lockdowns had a greater mental impact than the virus, that hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment and that masks were unnecessary. This was contradicted by U.S. officials.
The main medical community did not pay attention to this group, but it was to point out that the doctors who made false statements lacked the expertise and knowledge to comment. According to MedPage Today (a peer-reviewed medical news website), there was no evidence that any doctor who spoke that day had ever treated severe cases of the virus. None of the doctors were experts in infectious diseases or had worked in ICUs during the pandemic. One of the most well-known was known for his bizarre religious beliefs. He tweeted that America needed to be delivered from demonsperm, claiming that people were becoming ill after having sex in dreams with witches and demons. Ophthalmologists were two of the top doctors, but only one was still licensed.
The creation of AFLD was a concerted political effort that took months to achieve. The Council for National Policy (CNP), an underground network of conservative activists, was the one who created the group. CNP members complained during a May 11 call that was leaked by the Center for Media and Democracy. The call was about Trump's handling of the pandemic. They claimed that the group needed its own medical professionals to spread their message in light of data that showed two-thirds of Americans are wary about restarting the economy.
Nancy Schulze, a Republican activist and married to a former Pennsylvania congressman said that there is a group of doctors who are strongly pro-Trump. They have been preparing for war in the campaign on healthcare. These doctors could be activated to participate in this conversation right now.
Eight days later conservative groups published a letter signed in large part by 500 doctors calling the lockdowns a mass causality event. It was signed by Dr. Simone Gold who is a licensed emergency-room doctor and a Stanford-educated attorney. He was working as an independent contractor at a Bakersfield hospital. Ten weeks later, Gold was seen standing on the steps at the Supreme Court as founder of AFLD. He was Rep. Ralph Norman from South Carolina, who thanked the white-coated doctors for telling the truth.
Although few people attended, the video of the conference became viral because it was retweeted and shared by Trump. This earned some members of the group access to Vice President Mike Pence. It was later removed by social media platforms for spreading misinformation. However, Gold and the other members of the group made rounds on conservative media outlets, including Fox News, Alex Jones, and Pat Robertson.
The group has been positioned as the best alternative medical source for COVID-19 skepticals since then. The message of the group has evolved to reflect current times. Gold initially downplayed how severe the virus was. In a May 2020 video she stated that everyone was acting as though there was a major medical crisis. The death toll from COVID-19 had surpassed 100,000. I'm not sure it was front-page news. But, Gold said that the real problem is that our constitutional rights are being violated right and left.
The group claimed that there was a conspiracy against an effective treatment to the pandemic that was ravaging the world. A video taken by Alex Jones NewsWars captured Mark McDonald, a member of AFLD and a child psychiatrist, saying that if all Americans had access hydroxychloroquine, then the pandemic would end in 30 days. Soon, the group teamed up with Jerome Corsi, a right-wing conspiracy theorist, to sell prescriptions for the medication. Trump claimed that he used it as a preventive measure.
Promoting COVID-19 fictions could prove to be profitable, as it turned out. AFLD created a slick website that was purchased by Tea Party Patriots. They also had an email list with loyal supporters who were urged to donate. Emails to supporters asking for urgent donations to help Gold withstand the brutal attacks of the enemies of free speech and Gold's arrest for taking part in the Jan. 6 rebellion raised over $400,000 to fund Gold's legal defense.
The group announced a national RV trip in the spring 2021. VIP tickets were sold for a meet and greet with Gold at $1,000. According to AFLD Telegram channels they often cancelled scheduled appearances, leaving many people without work or driving for hours. Many of us registered, but we did not receive any cancellation notice or information. One Cleveland supporter was disappointed when the tour didn't arrive on June 22. AFLD moderators meanwhile urged supporters to donate what they can each month so that these events would continue.
The group had shifted from hydroxychloroquine to anti-vaccine content. AFLD claimed that the Covid-19 vaccines weren't effective in treating or preventing the disease and had already killed 45,000 Americans. The group compared lockdown tactics to Communist tactics of 1950s and urged supporters of the group to call their legislators to demand that they introduce a Vaccine Bill of Rightsversions of these which quickly popped up in Wyoming and Kansas, Missouri and Minnesota, as well as boilerplate by AFLD.
As the Delta variant spread across the U.S., and people started reporting on themselves or their families falling ill in AFLDs forums, the group began heavily promoting ivermectin.
I feel cheated.
Ivermectin was first popularized in December 2020 when Dr. Pierre Kory (a Wisconsin pulmonary care specialist) testified about the drug to a Senate panel. Ron Johnson, an ally of Donald Trump, also discussed alternative treatment options to COVID-19.
Dr. Pierre Kory was a witness at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing entitled Early Outpatient Care: An Essential Part a COVID-19 Solutions, Part II in Dirksen Building, Dec. 8, 2020. Tom WilliamsCQ Roll Call/Getty Images
This anti-parasite drug is often used for horses and is approved to treat certain parasitic bugs in humans. The FDA states that the drug is not an antiviral medicine and it does not have any evidence of effectiveness in treating or preventing Covid-19. Overdoses can cause vomiting, allergic reactions and seizures, as well as coma and death.
TIME spoke to two pharmacists who said that they were concerned by an unusual increase in ivermectin prescriptions received from telemedicine doctors over the past few weeks. One Maine pharmacist said that they call it the second coming hydroxychloroquine. He noted that prescriptions had been received from quack telehealth doctors in Texas, Florida and Illinois. My pharmacist friend and I are baffled by the idea that people will not receive a vaccine that is safe and effective. However, they will be given a dose of ivermectin based on their weight according to equine veterinarian guidelines.
AFLD is a top organization that directs customers to de-worming medications as a coronavirus remedy via social media. People looking for Covid-19 medicine should click the button labeled "Contact a doctor" and pay $90 to schedule a consultation. This link will take customers to Speak With An MD. Here they'll be asked for payment information. They'll then be contacted by a frontline doctor within a few days. Patients with serious illnesses will be given priority. Speak with an MD is described by the group as a telemedicine platform with hundreds of AFLDS-trained doctors.
Encore Telemedicine is the actual service, which connects patients with teledoctors who can write prescriptions. According to the web portal and posts made by AFLD staffers, Encore Telemedicine is the actual service. According to the business registration, it seems to have been operated out of a suburban Georgia golf club since 2015. (Encores CEO didn't respond to requests for comment.
Encore Telemedicine orders are sent to Ravkoo. This is a digital pharmacy located in Auburndale, Florida. The address listed online looks like a crumbling white structure near a strip mall. Ravkoo should either mail or call the medicine into a local pharmacy. Ravkoo's owner did not respond to our requests for comment. According to AFLD customer comments, the cost of the medicine is added to the consultation fee. It can vary widely from $70 up to $700.
It is not clear how much Americas Frontline Doctors receives from each patient referral. On AFLD's website, the service is advertised at $90. A direct telemedicine consultation through Speak With An MD costs only $59.99. This is a $30 difference. AFLD declined comment to say whether they get any financial benefits from the referral.
Since at least last autumn, AFLD has used this system to sell hydroxychloroquine. Customers frustrated with the situation claim that the network has been overwhelmed recently by an increase in demand for ivermectin.
There are many questions on the Telegram channels of these groups. Many claim they paid for a consultation, but never received a phone call from a doctor. Some claim they were given ivermectin, but never received it. Others claim they were misinformed or received incorrect medications. Customers claimed that they paid for the consultation and drugs. However, their local pharmacies refused to fill the prescription as ivermectin was not approved to treat COVID-19. These people all reported that Ravkoo, Encore Telemedicine, and AFLD did not respond to their repeated emails and calls.
The arrangement is often called a fraud by many users. There are no prescriptions for the drugs. I have not heard back from their pharmacy. Telegram Aug. 1 user expressed disappointment. But they took my money. It was definitely a scam. Another customer complained the same day: Tell us how vaccine producers are making a fortune off of us. It seems like you're doing well for yourself.
TIME was told by another user that she paid $90 but never received a doctor consultation. However, she did receive a call from a pharmacy which charged her an additional $100. I haven't heard anything. The user would only give her first name Denise, and she said that she felt scammed.
Others who had been promised that they would speak to AFLDs-trained doctors were disappointed when the doctor demanded that they get the vaccine during a paid telephone consultation. One woman wrote that her daughters' telemedicine doctor had advised her to get vaccinated and also prescribed ivermectin. They didn't push the vaccines severely disappointed me, I felt.
TIME reviewed dozens of messages from sick relatives, many of which were asking for AFLDs to take their cases to the next level. Chynthia, a woman named Chynthia had paid $90 for the service. She stated that she hadn't been called back. Please help! My husband is ill. He seems to have difficulty breathing.
Some have begun to question the motives of the groups as the confusion mounts. Vinod, a user, told TIME that he was a monthly donor to AFLD. However, he needed to contact his credit card company to stop fraudulent charges and request a replacement card. This would prevent additional fees from accruing.
Telegram Moderators for the AFLDs group acknowledged that they were overwhelmed with the demand. However, they blamed the CDC for blocking ivermectin. They insisted that once the physician fees are paid, this is operationally out of AFLDs control because of HIPPA.
The whole anti-vax movement is a multi-level marketing campaign.
AFLDs reach has been expanded by the wider anti-vaccine community's acceptance of ivermectin. TIME reviewed more than a dozen TikTok accounts and found that many young people (some teens) are promoting AFLD as a COVID-19 treatment. It has done wonders for my health and it kicked Covids arse," said one user, who shared six videos of her recovery using the hashtag #novaccine. She also recommended others to get ivermectin via AFLD.
Dr. Siyab Panthwar, a Tulane cardiology fellow, has been using TikTok to dispel misinformation about Ivermectin. Dr. Panhwar says that some doctors push this and that it is harmful to the community. [AFLD] states on their website that they will review you history, but I call B.S. This does not require a physical exam. There is no physical examination. Panhwar says that the anti-vax movement is a multi-level marketing campaign.
Protesters opposing COVID-19 and the mask mandates demonstrated near Santa Fe's state Capitol, N.M., on Aug. 20, 2021. Cedar AttanasioAP
None of these factors are slowing down AFLDs movement. As school-masking and vaccine mandates are fought more frequently, AFLD has established Citizen Corps chapters in nearly every state. They have Telegrams channels and host public events like a Texas meeting which attracted 80 people to hear about side effects of vaccines. It made a video showing children igniting their masks and singing We Are The World at the White Coat Summit held in July to mark its first anniversary.
AFLD has gained significant publicity for claiming to be a legal resource for those who want to defy employer mandates to be vaccinated or tested. AFLD used its legal eagle team to raise funds. However, some donors claim that this promise has not been fulfilled. Carlos, a Telegram user, stated that he had submitted numerous forms and emails to legal help. He is still waiting for a response from legal eagle. I am about to be fired and need legal assistance.
AFLD advice and information led to several supporters claiming they were violating employer mandates for vaccines. Jeffery, a user who posted Aug. 20, in response to a group video promising to fight vaccine mandates at court, said that he hoped you guys were right. I am about to lose my 20-year career, my pension, and my livelihood due to not taking the shot. One user, Cathy, posted July 6: "I am losing hope." Just spoke to a lawyer who said that the proof from Frontline Doctors was a conspiracy theory.
Customers who have trusted the group often become desperate in their pleas. Is anyone aware of the time it takes for Americas Frontline Doctors to respond to requests for Covid medication? A user asked. She said that she was pregnant and experiencing chest pains and shortness in breath due to the virus. It seems that I won't hear from them at my most desperate time.
One man wrote in Telegram on Aug. 17 that he had waited for AFLD for several weeks before they cancelled his consultation for ivermectin. He wrote that he wished they hadn't, as my wife is now in the ICU. She would have been fine if I had given her the medication.
Reporting by Alejandro de la Garza and Simmone Shah.
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