Right Wing Watch: FDA and FTC Order Jim Bakker to ‘Immediately Cease’ Making False Claims That His Silver Solution Kills the Coronavirus (3/9)
Right Wing Watch: Jim Bakker Decries ‘Warfare’ That Has Forced Him to Stop Lying About His Silver Solution (3/24)
Wayne Allyn Root
Root is a columnist and host. He has endorsed an “alkaline structured silver” product from Gordon Pedersen and his company My Doctor Suggests. Root used his now-defunct Newsmax TV program and his Twitter account to tout Pedersen’s silver for people who are concerned about COVID-19.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has ordered Root “to immediately cease and desist from making misleading claims.” He lost his Las Vegas Review-Journal column due, in part, to his silver promotions.
Following Media Matters' reporting, the Department of Justice announced on April 29 that the “U.S. District Court for the District of Utah issued a temporary restraining order against defendants Gordon Pedersen of Cedar Hills, Utah, and his companies, My Doctor Suggests LLC and GP Silver LLC. The civil complaint alleges that the defendants are fraudulently promoting and selling various silver products for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19.”
Newsmax host Wayne Allyn Root endorses scammy silver product which can supposedly “kill” coronavirus and “save your life” (3/17)
New York AG calls on Newsmax's Wayne Allyn Root to “cease and desist from making misleading claims” regarding coronavirus and silver product (3/21)
Following Media Matters' reporting, US District Court issues temporary restraining order against coronavirus silver scammer (4/29)
Newsmax
Newsmax is a media company which produces an online publication, an array of subscription newsletters, and the cable channel Newsmax TV (which previously carried Root’s program). Newsmax’s health division has been trying to get subscriber money by selling a book claiming to offer “3 powerful secrets to never getting sick again,” including ways to ward off the coronavirus. The outlet also emailed readers claiming that “the worst thing” they could do regarding the coronavirus outbreak is to “get a vaccine when it becomes available” because vaccines are supposedly “a scam.”
Newsmax later distanced itself from the vaccine email, stating that “this marketing material was inadvertently published and it does not reflect the views of Newsmax.”
Newsmax is telling its older-leaning audience to avoid a future coronavirus vaccine and instead give it money for something “far more effective” (3/10)
Newsmax says that if you give it money, you can learn “secrets” to “never getting sick,” including from the coronavirus (3/13)
Steven Hotze
Hotze is an anti-LGBTQ Republican who heads a health and wellness center and has appeared on numerous programs to downplay the coronavirus, including on Fox News. Even though he has dismissed the threat of the virus, Hotze has used it to grift his audience by selling an expensive “Immune Pak” and has suggested that his vitamins could help “prevent" people from getting the coronavirus.
Right-wing media coronavirus expert is a QAnon supporter who suggested the “deep state” orchestrated the pandemic (3/25)
Balance of Nature and Kevin McCullough
Balance of Nature is a supplement company that heavily advertises on conservative radio programs and enlists radio hosts like Kevin McCullough, a conservative commentator with a New York radio show and a frequent guest on Fox News, to endorse its product. The supplement has been pitched to listeners as being the “only” and “best” defense against the virus, and also as a treatment against it when the first signs of symptoms occur.
A supplement company is using conservative radio to market itself as a coronavirus defense and treatment (4/1)
Truth in Advertising: TINA.org reports Balance of Nature’s coronavirus claims to FDA, FTC (4/15)
HoneyColony
HoneyColony is an online magazine and store headed by conspiracy theorist Maryam Henein. It has been trying to sell pricey colloidal silver products by falsely claiming that they can prevent the coronavirus. Its Facebook page, which includes false coronavirus treatment claims, has over 100,000 followers.
On May 4, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission sent a letter to the company stating that they found that HoneyColony was selling products that “are intended to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19 in people. Based on our review, these products are unapproved new drugs sold in violation of section 505(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.”
An online “health” magazine with over 100,000 Facebook followers is selling colloidal silver as a coronavirus preventative (4/3)
FDA and FTC send warning letter to conspiracy theory site HoneyColony for peddling fraudulent coronavirus preventatives (5/6)
Dustin Nemos’ RedPill Living
Dustin Nemos is a conspiracy theorist and grifter who co-wrote the book QAnon: An Invitation to The Great Awakening, which became a bestseller on Amazon last year. He started the online store RedPill Living, which featured a colloidal silver “super concentrate” that purported to treat and cure the coronavirus. The store went offline after Media Matters contacted e-commerce platform Shopify for comment. It is now back online through a different platform. The store’s references to the coronavirus on its silver pages have been removed.
A QAnon grifter was selling colloidal silver as a supposed coronavirus treatment and cure (4/8)
The Silver Edge
The Silver Edge is a colloidal silver company that is run by author and writer Steve Barwick. The company sells a “micro-particle colloidal silver generator” and has claimed that “colloidal silver beats coronavirus.” New York Attorney General Letitia James sent Barwick a cease and desist order on March 11 regarding his deceptive practices and false advertising.
State of New York Office of the Attorney General: Re: Cease and Desist Notification (3/11)
Live Longer Labs and Sarah Westall
Live Longer Labs is a self-described “life extension” company that has been promoting a line of carbon 60 supplements as a coronavirus “defense” and a way to “significantly” reduce your chance of getting infected. Sarah Westall, a YouTube conspiracy theorist with over 100,000 subscribers, has helped the company by advertising the product as a way to “protect yourself from coronavirus” and “a full-blown solution.”
A “life extension” company is partnering with a QAnon YouTuber to sell supposed coronavirus “defense” supplements (4/15)
Tom Paladino’s Scalar Light
Tom Paladino is a quack who has over 120,000 Facebook followers and appears as a supposed healing expert on podcasts and radio shows. He founded a bogus healing technique called Scalar Light and has told people that he can prevent numerous health problems, including cancer. He has shifted his grift to the coronavirus by telling people that he can easily “break apart,” “eradicate,” and “destroy” the virus in people if they sign up for his “healing” sessions.
A quack with over 120,000 Facebook followers claims he can “destroy the coronavirus” with client-submitted photos and light energy (5/4)
Gabriel Cousens
Gabriel Cousens is an author who runs the Tree of Life Center US, an Arizona company that offers programs and sells supplements. He has been peddling various products through his online store as part of a “coronavirus prevention protocol” and has claimed that those supplements, which include colloidal silver, can “kill” and “destroy the virus.”
A supposed “healing” expert with a disreputable history has been touting a “coronavirus prevention protocol” (5/12)
Rima E. Laibow
Rima E. Laibow is an Arizona-based doctor, commentator, and conspiracy theorist. She scammed people in 2014 by selling her brand of nano-silver as a cure for the Ebola virus. She’s now fraudulently selling that product as a solution to the coronavirus pandemic, claiming it's for “anyone interested in not being a statistic in this pandemic” and that it can support “your cell membrane that is your last line of defense against the COVID virus.”*
A conspiracy theorist who scammed people with a fake Ebola virus cure is now selling silver as a coronavirus solution (5/14)
David Wolfe
David Wolfe is a quack author whose Facebook page has over 12 million followers. He sells “coated silver” through a website run by his company Chaga Inc., which is registered in Hawaii. He’s been falsely claiming that people who take his silver can gain “immunity” against the coronavirus.
Author David Wolfe, who has millions of social media followers, is selling “coated silver” as a way to gain coronavirus “immunity” (5/18)
*CORRECTION (6/1): This sentence has been changed. It previously stated: “She’s now fraudulently selling that product as a solution to the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that it’s ‘your last line of defense’ and for ‘anyone interested in not being a statistic in this pandemic.’”
