A group of doctors in white coats was the big news last week and for those of you living under a rock, I am referring to some press conferences in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. They featured a racially mixed group of about 10 people dressed in white lab coats.
All of them — who were doctors of one sort or another — gave their names and that of their workplaces, making it easy for anyone to check them out. Their plaint? The anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a proven tool in treatment of COVID-19 and there’s something rotten in Denmark when you can’t even post a video on social media about it.
But did you see much reporting examining their arguments?
No, you heard about “demon sperm” and “alien DNA.”
It didn’t take long before Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were treating the event as akin to anti-vaxxer screed. Censors at all three platforms were working overtime to get this presser erased. Certain media managed to get a look-see at these medics, and what did they concentrate on in their reports?
Their religious views, of course.
Especially the religion of the one black woman in the crowd. We’ll get back to that shortly. First, some background from the New York Times, which was in quite a swivet about the whole thing.
In a video posted Monday online, a group of people calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” and wearing white medical coats spoke against the backdrop of the Supreme Court in Washington, sharing misleading claims about the virus, including that hydroxychloroquine was an effective coronavirus treatment and that masks did not slow the spread of the virus.
The video did not appear to be anything special. But within six hours, President Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. had tweeted versions of it, and the right-wing news site Breitbart had shared it. It went viral, shared largely through Facebook groups dedicated to anti-vaccination movements and conspiracy theories such as QAnon, racking up tens of millions of views. Multiple versions of the video were uploaded to YouTube, and links were shared through Twitter.
Well, surely the public can’t be allowed to see that, right?
… The video had been designed specifically to appeal to internet conspiracists and conservatives eager to see the economy reopen, with a setting and characters to lend authenticity. It showed that even as social media companies have sped up response time to remove dangerous virus misinformation within hours of its posting, people have continued to find new ways around the platforms’ safeguards.
Safeguards against what? The First Amendment? Oh, that’s right. These Big Tech giants are private companies, not public utilities.
The Daily Beast is a good example of many outlets that went after the most colorful of the speakers because of her religious beliefs, not her medical expertise.
A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video.
Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s medical expertise, though, they should consider other medical claims Immanuel has made — including those about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams.
The latter sort of demon is called an incubus for those who want to know.
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.
Looks like whoever planned that press conference should have done some background checks before inviting their guests.
But I can guess what was in their minds. Immanuel and one other speaker were black. All the rest were white. In today’s climate, they needed a diverse line-up. The Daily Beast goes on:
Immanuel is a registered physician in Texas, according to a Texas Medical Board database, and operates a medical clinic out of a strip mall next to her church, Firepower Ministries. ..
In sermons posted on YouTube and articles on her website, Immanuel claims that medical issues like endometriosis, cysts, infertility, and impotence are caused by sex with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives” — a phenomenon Immanuel describes essentially as witches and demons having sex with people in a dreamworld.
By the way, she is linked to the Fire Power Ministries Christian Resource Center, for those seeking this group’s actual name.
Other outlets had a field day with Immanuel’s weird doctrines — something that happens all the time when the press attempts to cover Pentecostal believers (the fastest growing faith expression in the world today). It often helps to ask Pentecostal and charismatic believers for some biblical material linked to the colorful language that they use, seeking some context that many readers will understand. Pope Francis, for example, has frequently addressed issues linked to evil, demons and Satan.
But back to this media event. I can imagine the chagrin the rest of the doctors — who were risking their careers by appearing there — must have felt.
The story is not yet over about Immanuel. On Monday, the Houston Chronicle said the local medical board started going after her.
In an apparent warning shot at Dr. Stella Immanuel, the Texas agency that regulates the practice of medicine has advised physicians it can take action against those who promise a cure for COVID-19. …
The statement represented an unusually quick response by a state medical board to a public event. Immanuel was not specifically mentioned, but the statement noted “a widely published claim of a ‘cure’ for COVID-19” in the past week.
In a previous story, the Chronicle went into a bit more detail on Immanuel’s religious doctrines. The reporters didn’t hide their thoughts about the woman.
Outside her office Thursday, Immanuel confirmed her eccentric beliefs.
“Yes, I’m a demon buster. Yes, demons sleep with people,” said Immanuel. “Yes, if you pray for them they get better.” …
Some of the videos on Immanuel’s YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages hint at her medical background. In a March 26 video, she appeared to be at her medical practice while singing, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” altering the lyrics to pray for doctors and nurses.
Other videos on her personal pages show her praying outside of her clinic with a megaphone, especially after the death of longtime Houston resident George Floyd and the protests that followed. On June 20, she shared a video that equated Black Lives Matter founders with Marxists.
Once again, it’s crucial for journalists to attempt to separate Black Lives Matter — the organization — from the wider movement, including many black churches, that embraces that slogan. The BLM organization includes leaders who openly embrace Marxism.
Immanuel was definitely low-hanging fruit here. But check into her Twitter feed. She didn’t take this stuff lying down and she definitely fights back.
One of the few outlets that actually looked at the other nine medics, MedPageToday.com, also noted some of their religious and political affiliations and various side businesses. They were called out by some in the comments section for doing so.
But MedPage coverage looked positively dove-like compared to the character assassination in Politifact, a site run by the Poynter Institute that claimed all 10 of the doctors each have a history of “unproven, conspiratorial or bizarre medical claims.”
But Politifact only discussed three of the ten. As I read through that story, it was clear that for any doctor to disagree with the official line on COVID-19, they were making “unproven” claims. There are no debates, you see, about medical issues linked to this still mysterious virus.
Dr. Simone Gold’s biggest sin seemed to be that she associates with right-wing groups and has donated to Republican causes such as the campaign of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Whoa — wait a minute. Collins is not a conservative. Does anyone at Politifact realize this?
If you want to see more videos of these doctors so you can decide for yourself, start with this link.
One associated religion angle to all this occurred after Twitter forced Donald Trump Jr. to remove the Frontline doctors video from his feed. Twitter also deleted the president’s tweets about the video.
The New York Post reported how some Israelis had a problem with this.
A Twitter spokeswoman has defended the company’s decision to block and restrict tweets from President Trump but not those of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei which call for genocide of the Israeli people.
The reason? Because the Iranian dictator’s tweets pass as “commentary on political issues of the day” while Trump’s could “inspire harm,” Twitter claims.
During a hearing on antisemitism in front of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem, lawmakers grilled a Twitter representative over why the platform was policing missives from Trump, but not other world leaders such as Khamenei calling Israel “a cancerous growth.”
So now we have demon sperm and anti-Semitism and Twitter censorship.
Religion is the hidden background music, here. This might be a topic worthy of some additional reporting on what these people actually believe — with these doctors explaining their beliefs.