Steven Hotze is a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist who has been trying to capitalize on the COVID-19 pandemic by selling “immune paks” that can supposedly prevent and combat the coronavirus. The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission recently sent a warning letter to Hotze for fraudulently marketing his products as a COVID-19 preventative. 

Hotze is also a Republican power broker who in past months has tried to disenfranchise voters and unsuccessfully prove Democratic voter fraud. As part of his efforts, Hotze hired Mark Anthony Aguirre, a former Houston police captain who was later arrested and charged with assaulting an air conditioner repairman who Aguirre falsely thought was carrying 750,000 fraudulent ballots in his truck. 

Hotze is the CEO and founder of Hotze Health & Wellness Center and regularly appears as a supposed medical expert in right-wing media. He has frequently pushed coronavirus misinformation, including claiming that the virus is “not very contagious” and “much ado about nothing.” 

Even though he has dismissed the coronavirus, Hotze has still attempted to profit from it by selling “immune paks” marketed around the coronavirus through his Hotze Vitamins website. Media Matters previously reported in March that he launched “Dr Hotze’s Immune Pak with Vitamins A, B, C, D, and Zinc” and suggested that his vitamins could help “prevent" people from getting the coronavirus. Media Matters also reported in August that Hotze started selling back-to-school “immune” packages for children that can supposedly “help combat any virus.” 

The FDA and the FTC sent a warning letter to Hotze on December 2 stating that he has been violating federal regulations by “misleadingly” representing his products “as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.” The agencies then listed numerous examples from Hotze’s website and social media accounts. His case has not been closed, according to a listing on the FDA’s website. 

Media Matters has documented numerous grifters that have pushed bogus coronavirus treatments, preventatives, and cures, and several of them have received government scrutiny. 

In addition to pushing medical misinformation, Hotze is a QAnon conspiracy theorist and an anti-LGBTQ bigot.