In her Dec. 23 WorldNetDaily column fearmongering about the then-upcoming coronavirus vaccines, Jane Orient — the dubious doc from the fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons — concluded, “For more information on protecting yourself, see “A Home-Based Guide to COVID Treatment.” For a variety of treatment protocols and physician resources, see c19protocols.com.”
The former is a free PDF booklet you have to give up your email address to get; we’re not in a hurry to do that, given Orient’s and the AAPS’ history of promoting conspiracy theories and dubious treatments for coronavirus.
But what is c19protocols.com? It’s simply a list of links to various alleged treatments.But the fact that the third link involves a protocol from Vladimir Zelenko — an AAPS-promoted doctor who got notoriety early in the pandemic for pushing hydroxychloroquine despite lacking documentation for his claims — does not inspire confidence. The website also links to America’s Frontline Doctors, a right-wing group known for pushing dubious treatments despite its members lacking experience treating COVID-19 patients.
The website itself is a one-page generic-looking WordPress design, and there’s no indication of who runs it — which also doesn’t inspire confidence in its contents. But a look at the WHOIS information for the domain name indicates that it’s run by Orient’s AAPS. It’s strange that the AAPS wouldn’t put its name on this website, and it makes one wonder what they’re trying to hide by keep it somewhat secret. It’s especially ironic given that Orient has written a column, published Dec. 30 by WND, attacking health authorities for putting out “fake news” and “scaremongering,” adding that “Public health authorities are very worried about loss of public trust.”
If that sort of obliqueness sounds familiar, it is. We’ve written about websites such as c19study.com (which c19protocols.com links to) and HCQTrial.com, which are completely anonymous websites — their owners have been hidden on WHOIS — pushing dubious claims and pseudoscience. It’s been speculated that AAPS also runs those websites, given that Orient and other AAPS-linked writers have touted them.
Orient has continued this lack of transparency in her WND columns. In her Jan. 11 column, Orient declared that “Lack of early treatments for which there is substantial and growing evidence may cause more than 100,000 needless deaths,” in which she linked to c19protocols.com and c19study.com without disclosing the links between them and her AAPS. She unironically added, “Those who are for protecting human lives are against censorship, central planning and unfettered, unaccountable government – and for freedom and individual rights.”
In her Jan. 13 column, Orient fearmongered again about coronavirus vaccines, declaring them to be “not a magic bullet.” She again linked to c19protocols.com, this time in a bullet list at the end of her column along with the AAPS “Home-Based Guide to COVID Treatment.”
In her Jan. 18 column, Orient wrote about the mutating coronavirus and touted how “Re-purposed old drugs – ivermectin and antimalarials such as hydroxychloroquine – act by mechanisms that do not depend on a stable virus.” In addition to linking to c19protocols.com and the AAPS guide, she also linked to a article from something called Physicians for Civil Defense — which, as we’ve noted, is little more than a blog run by Orient.
Orient devoted her Feb. 12 column to attacking mask mandates, insisting that “natural immunity, sensible precautions and early treatment” make more sense (which conveniently ignores the fact that a significant amount of coronavirus cases are spread by asymptomatic carriers). In her bullet list at the end of the column, Orient promoted not only c19protocols.com, the AAPS guide and Physicians for Civil Defense, but also websites touting vitamin D and zinc as treatments — apparently run by the same anonymous folks behind the other COVID-related operations.
Orient seems more interested in making political arguments and pushing anonymous arguments than genuinely trying to help people. That just makes her look even more dubious and untrustworthy.