Dr. Simone Gold, a prominent anti-vaccine doctor who founded a group notorious for peddling COVID-19 misinformation, pleaded guilty on Thursday to joining the insurrectionists who violently attacked the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
The founder of America's Frontline Doctors, Gold, has cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine and promoted treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
Gold entered a restricted area around the Capitol on January 6 and joined a mob outside the East Rotunda door. She stood in front of the officer as he was dragged to the ground. She entered the Rotunda with rioters and began giving a speech against vaccine mandates and government-imposed lockdowns. Multiple law enforcement officers had to intervene before Gold stopped her speech.
In an interview published in The Washington Post days later on January 12, Gold said that she regretted going into the Capitol because it could distract from her work, but that it was not a riot.
AdvertisementThe maximum sentence for the offense she pled guilty to is six months. Her sentencing is on June 16. According to the Associated Press, the communications director for the organization has pleaded not guilty to charges. His trial is scheduled to start in July.
The most prominent groups to spread misinformation are the AFLDS. According to a September 2021 report by the Intercept, the organization SpeakWithAnMD.com has made at least $6 million by offering online consultations that involve writing off-label prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and chair of the House Subcommittee on the Coronaviruses Crisis, announced an investigation into the matter a month after that report. Clyburn wrote a letter to Gold.
I am deeply concerned that AFLDS is profiting from its deliberate spread of misinformation about the coronavirus. AFLDS’s promotion of falsehoods about coronavirus, questionable treatments, and vaccines is dangerous and may be putting American lives at risk and setting back our nation’s efforts to end the pandemic.
Gold has used her medical credentials to spread misinformation. She told the Post last year that she was no longer a doctor. She was fired from her jobs as an emergency room physician for two hospitals after she participated in a July 2020 event in which she and other doctors spread misinformation. The event made headlines for including a woman with a history of blaming diseases on demons. The Tea Party group supported the event and it was streamed by the conservative media outlet.
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