Doctors who have been panned on the mainland for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic are set to headline a Saturday march on Maui opposing COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.
The speakers include Robert Malone, who claims to be the inventor of the mRNA vaccines. Malone indeed played a role in developing the vaccine technology, according to an article in Nature, a science journal, but so did hundreds of other researchers over several decades. Malone, an infectious disease researcher and medical doctor, has attracted criticism during the pandemic for spreading fear about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and casting doubt on their efficacy.
The event, dubbed “Mandate Free Maui Unity March and Rally,” has also enlisted two doctors who are members of America’s Frontline Doctors, a network of fringe health care providers who have made millions of dollars off of prescribing ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as online consultations, according to recent reporting by The Intercept. The two drugs have not been proved effective for the treatment of COVID-19. The group, with right-wing political ties, was formed early in the pandemic, and has been accused of putting people sick with COVID-19 at greater risk as they wait days for consultations with telemedicine doctors who are prescribing bogus treatments.
Also in the speakers lineup is Dr. Ryan Cole, a pathologist from Idaho who has called the COVID-19 vaccines “fake.” Two of Idaho’s leading medical experts this week asked the Idaho Board of Medicine to investigate Cole for refusing to “use accepted and documented medical practices and vaccination and instead prescribing Ivermectin,” according to KTVB, an NBC affiliate in Boise, Idaho.
Dr. Richard Urso, a Houston-area ophthalmologist, who has been listed as a science liaison to America’s Frontline Doctors, is also set to speak at the event.
Cole and Urso didn’t respond to interview requests. Dr. Simone Gold, who founded America’s Frontline Doctors and was arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, referred the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s interview request for this story to the organization’s media contact, who did not respond. Malone was traveling to Hawaii on Thursday and unavailable for an interview.
State Sen. Rosalyn Baker, who represents Maui and is co-chairwoman of the Senate Heath Committee, called America’s Frontline Doctors “scary” and said that the rally was unfortunate as the island tries to recover and get back to normal by getting more people vaccinated.
“I’m sorry that they have gotten some foothold on Maui, because it really is not helpful,” said Baker.
Maui County has the lowest vaccination rate in the state, with 63% of the total population vaccinated, about 9 percentage points below that of Oahu.
Kolina Koltai, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, researches how misinformation spreads on social networking sites and digital communities. She said America’s Frontline Doctors has been successful at leveraging members’ credentials to go against the scientific consensus.
“They really emerged on the scene under this guise of ‘we are sort of these renegade doctors who are really out to advocate for your health and against the mainstream medical establishment,’ which I think is an appealing narrative to a lot of people,” said Koltai.
Koltai said it’s hard to discern whether the members of the organization are true believers in what they are promoting. But she said that “there is obviously a huge financial component to misinformation.”
The rally is being organized, in part, by a local group called the Pono Coalition for Informed Consent, which has come under fire from the state Department of Health for “spreading misinformation about lifesaving vaccines” and the severity of the disease. Malone is listed as a co-chairman of the group’s advisory council.
Bruce Douglas, a co-founder of the coalition, said criticism of the rally’s speakers was “unfair and untrue.”
“We have doctors here, medical doctors, who want to educate (on) the missing information,” he said, referencing early treatment options for COVID-19. Douglas said that in addition to ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, early treatment can include vitamins and inhalers.
The rally organizers are pushing for an end to all COVID-19 mandates.
The rally planned for Saturday has been scaled back after Maui County Mayor Michael Victorino denied the organizers a permit for tents, food and entertainment on county property, saying the organizers didn’t submit their application within a 30-day required window. But the march itself will be allowed to proceed, he said.
“I fully support the Constitutional right to assemble to exercise freedom of speech. Maui County will not stop the march or the demonstration that is planned for Saturday,” said Victorino in a statement. But Victorino also criticized the rally promoters, describing them as a “tiny, but vocal minority.”
We “know that misleading health information drives COVID-19 denial, exacerbates vaccine hesitancy, and generates false hope in unapproved therapeutics,” said Victorino in a statement. “Such intentional misinformation places some of our most vulnerable residents at risk and undermines public health.”
The state Department of Health on Thursday reported six new coronavirus-related deaths and 164 new infections statewide, bringing the state’s fatalities since the start of the pandemic to 857 people.
