She’s a doctor, anti-vaxxer, and, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a “conspiracy theorist” who tries to “spread myths and lies about Covid vaccines.” Now Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has invited her to share her thoughts on a coronavirus vaccine with the Senate.
Dr Jane Orient is not just any former anti-vaccine activist, however. She heads the very conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), an organization that has become the absolute right’s go-to source for a conservative twist on everything from vaccines, masks, Obamacare and hydroxychloroquine to whether Hillary Clinton was “neurologically disabled” during the 2016 campaign.
Orient is the only paid adviser listed in the 2018 IRS filings for the American Health Legal Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the AAPS that takes legal action, and she is expected to appear before the Senate committee on Tuesday. to talk about early outpatient treatment during COVID. -19 pandemic. the New York Times was the first to report on his next testimony.
Orient, who received his medical degree from Columbia University, spoke at length with The Daily Beast in a telephone interview on Monday.
“The aim is to raise questions about the role of government in removing or discouraging or banning drugs long approved for early outpatient treatment of the virus,” Orient said of his testimony. “The media went viral and said if you take that bad drug [hydroxychloroquine] you can die and go blind. And yet, the evidence indicates that it acts as a protective measure.
She added: “The vaccine has definitely been rushed. The manufacturers, the government, just the people… are desperate. “
His remarks come as states across the country work to contain increasingly severe infection, hospitalization and death rates, and the federal government tries to build confidence in the expected COVID-19 vaccine. start distribution next week.
“If we didn’t obstruct, there would be so much less pressure on the vaccine and we wouldn’t need to cut corners on vaccine testing,” Orient said.
Some of the government’s top scientists, including Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease specialist who will become President-elect Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, have previously said that the trials have “consistently” shown the hydroxychloroquine was “not effective” in treating coronavirus infections and the drug may pose a significant risk if prescribed in the wrong setting. Orient has insisted that these fears are exaggerated.
“One hundred thousand people may have died needlessly [during the pandemic]Said Orient. “There are all these postures that we need to be scientific. Well, there are about 70 years of information on the safety of hydroxychloroquine. And there have been a large number of studies done that may not meet the high standards of high-control trials, but show some benefit of hydroxychloroquine in early disease along with zinc.
Orient, without evidence, has accused doctors of stopping the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients in part because of Trump’s promotion of the drug as a possible therapy in treating the virus.
“[Trump] wasn’t exactly touting it… he was mentioning it as a possible game-changer and people opposed just because he said so, ”Orient said. “So now doctors are telling patients we are not treating COVID. We’ll give you a test and if it’s positive lock yourself in a room and call 911 if you can’t breathe. “” The patients are sick and die needlessly. “
True, health officials working on the federal government’s response to COVID-19 say many hospitals have stopped using hydroxychloroquine because the drug was not effective in treating COVID-19 patients. But Orient insisted that the widespread doctors’ reprimand of the drug is linked not only to President Trump’s public remarks, but also to a broader conspiracy of medical industry opportunists, including some of the drug industry. those of the federal government.
“One could make the observation that there are huge financial interests involved here in the sale of the new drug Remdesivir or the new vaccines which should be rushed into production,” Orient said. “Some of these companies hope to make $ 15 billion in profit. There are also conflicts of interest in federal bureaucracies, with consultants, grants, new job opportunities, stock options. The CDC makes a lot of money from vaccines. The conflicts of interest of CDCs are old. “
AAPS has a long history of circulating risky and downright dangerous theories, particularly on the issue of vaccines. The website claims it doesn’t oppose vaccines, but the site has consistently pushed anti-vaxxers to misrepresent a non-existent link between vaccines and childhood autism.
In 2006, the internal journal of the AAPS, the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, published a study by Dr Mark Geier and his son, David, claiming to show that autism rates fell after drug companies removed mercury preservatives from their products. At the time, Dr Geier was working as a professional witness in vaccine-related lawsuits and had run into judges and a court criticizing him for acting as a witness “in areas for which he did not. has no training, expertise or experience ”.
In 2012, Maryland health officials revoked his medical license after an investigation by Chicago Tribune discovered that Geier and his son were promoting a hormone inhibitor used for chemical castration in sex offenders as a treatment for children with autism.
But even as scientists and academic journals have completely debunked anti-vaccine studies claiming a link to autism, AAPS has stuck to the discredited theory. In a 2016 article on immunization, the AAPS claimed that “there are hundreds of reports of children who have stopped looking each other in the eye and lost their language skills shortly after receiving MMR. And quoted Orient as saying that it “is not unreasonable to suspect that MMR is one” of the causes. increased rates of autism diagnosis in children.
In the months leading up to the announcement of a COVID-19 vaccine, the AAPS cast doubt on the value of the masks – widely cited by public health authorities as crucial in mitigating the coronavirus.
In an October opinion piece, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, whose condition has suffered one of the world’s worst coronavirus death rates, cited a “backgrounder” from the ‘AAPS to raise questions about the effectiveness of masks against the virus. The Mask Facts page highlighted research that falsely claimed mask use “will not be effective in preventing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2” and will make schools “a threatening environment. and dangerous ”which could produce“ psychological damage in children ”.
When President Trump began championing the use of the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 wonder drug, the AAPS, like many conservative organizations, took up the drug as a cause. The group has filed a lawsuit against the FDA for restricting the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients and applauded Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz who criticized the restrictions on the ‘agency.
Before the pandemic, AAPS reliably championed conservative health causes – fighting the affordable care law, tobacco taxes, Medicare and Medicaid – and criticized Democratic presidential candidates as former President Barack Obama (for using “neurolinguistic programming” in speeches) and Hillary Clinton (whom Dr. Orient concluded could be “neurologically disabled” during the 2016 campaign, according to Breitbart).
Over the years, the AAPS has maintained close relationships with Republican members of Congress who have promoted its work and invited staff to testify at Congressional hearings. Senator Rand Paul, Homeland Security Committee Member, Orient Will Appear Before, is not only a fan of AAPS, he has been a member for decades.
The appreciation is not shared by Senate Democrats, including Schumer, who called the Orient’s invitation to testify “downright dangerous and one of the last things Senate Republicans should be doing right now” , according to Times.
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