Simone Gold

Simone Melissa Gold is a physician, lawyer, author, and, more than anything else, an anti-COVID quack. She is the founder of America's Frontline Doctors, an organization of fellow quacks that have railed against the many measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19, while supporting the use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.
Oh, and she also participated in the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.
==Quackery and crankery==
Gold has regularly promoted hydroxychloroquine as a "safe" alternatives to COVID vaccines, despite evidence that it is ineffective as a COVID-19 treatment and can carry significant risks. She most notably held a press conference called the "White Coat Summit" extolling the alleged positives of hydroxychloroquine. The press conference was co-sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and was broadcast by Breitbart, because of course it was. Gold has also supported the use of ivermectinBREAKING: Missouri Governor Mike Parson has signed legislation that will prevent state licensing boards from punishing physicians who prescribe Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. This is a tremendous victory for medical freedom. by Simone Gold (3:01 PM · Jun 9, 2022) Twitter (archived from June 10, 2022). for COVID despite it being shown to be ineffective.Effect of Early Treatment with Ivermectin among Patients with Covid-19 by Gilmar Reis et al. (2022) The New England Journal of Medicine 386:1721-1731. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2115869.
She is also against face masks and think they are unnecessary and unhelpful. 
Gold has alleged that the United States Government experimented on black people to test the general safety of vaccines.
Gold was a speaker at AMPFest, a pro-Trump event held in Miami in October 2020. She spoke at an event for donors to the Council for National Policy in November of the same year, and in December she was part of a summit hosted by Turning Point USA. 
In April 2021, Gold appeared at the "Health and Freedom Conference" at Rhema Bible Church in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, along with speakers including actor Jim Caviezel, Mike Lindell, and L. Lin Wood. Gold and America's Frontline Doctors held an RV tour across the US in May 2021, called the "Uncensored Truth Tour". On the tour, Gold held an event at Legacy Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which drew hundreds of guests.
America’s Frontline Doctors and three other antivax and COVID denialist group profited and expanded enormously during the COVID-19 pandemic.Tax records reveal the lucrative world of covid misinformation by Lauren Weber (February 21, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST) The Washington Post. The three other groups were Del Bigtree's Informed Consent Action Network, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Children’s Health Defense.
==2021 U.S. Capitol riot==
On January 5, 2021, Gold spoke at a rally in Washington D.C. to a crowd of people gathering in the city for the following day's "Stop the Steal" rally. She criticized the COVID-19 vaccines, said that the COVID-19 was non-fatal, and made additional unfounded claims about the vaccines. She told supporters, "If you don't want to take an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine, you must not allow yourself to be coerced!" Gold was scheduled to speak the at the Rally for Health Freedom on January 6 but the rally was cancelled before her speech. She then joined the crowd of insurrectionists and illegally entered the Capitol building, along with America's Frontline Doctors Communications Director John Strand. Gold and Strand were seen on video footage "in the middle of a crowd attempting to push past law enforcement officials to get inside." She then gave the speech she had planned to give at the rally in the rotunda of the Capitol building. Gold said that she spent approximately 20 minutes in the Capitol.
Gold and Strand were later identified by FBI wanted images from the event circulated on social media. Gold was arrested at her home in Beverly Hills, California on January 18 on five charges including entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct. Gold admitted entering the Capitol building, saying that she did not know it was illegal to do so and that she did not witness any violence, saying "where I was, was incredibly peaceful." She said: "I do regret being there," because she was concerned that the controversy would detract from her (controversial) work with America's Frontline Doctors. In April 2021, Gold told Ted Nugent in an interview that "20 FBI agents" had come to arrest her and that she had been placed on the No Fly List.
In February 2022, she pleaded guilty to knowingly and unlawfully "entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds," which is a Class A misdemeanor. Gold was sentenced to 90 days in jail for the misdemeanor, but she was excoriated by the judge for fundraising $430,000 for her legal defense. Gold's lawyer said that her legal expenses were no where near that amount, implying that it was grifting.Anti-vaccine doctor sentenced to prison for Jan. 6 trespassing: A federal judge criticized Simone Gold for using her legal woes to raise $430,000 for herself and her organization. by Spencer S. Hsu (June 16, 2022 at 2:29 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
==Grifting==
In early November 2022, America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) sued Gold, alleging that Gold used the group's charitable funds to buy a $3.6 million mansion for herself and her boyfriend, three cars for personal use, and other charges to the charity, including expenses for a personal security officer, a housekeeper, private plane flights, and other personal lifestyle expenses. According to the lawsuit, other AFLDS leaders, already suspicious of Gold's usage of funds, hired a "forensic auditor" to do a deep dive into the organization's financials while Gold was in prison and discovered the irregularities. "Internal Strife at America's Frontline Doctors: Simone Gold Accused of Misusing $$$" by Cheryl Clark, MedPage Today, 2022 November 7"Right-wing doctor group led by anti-vaccine insurrectionist implodes in scandal" by Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 2022 November 15
==Christian nationalism and internalized discrimination==
Gold was raised Jewish and active in the Jewish community until 2010. Since that time, Gold has relied on associating with far-right Christians and Christian nationalists to promote her quackery, including Matt Shea, who has written a manifesto that non-Christian males should be killed unless they submit to Biblical law.Right-wing roadshow promotes Christian nationalism before midterms by Annie Gowen (October 23, 2022 at 4:23 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
==Reception==
Unsurprisingly, Gold has few friends in the non-quack medical community. Various legitimate medical experts, ranging from former CDC executives to college professors, have denounced her as a "toxic purveyor of misinformation" who shows "a willful ignorance of science and the scientific method.""'Wilful ignorance': doctor who joined Capitol attack condemned for Covid falsehoods" by Peter Stone, Guardian, 2021 January 22 Others have called for her to have her medical license revoked, but so far this has not happened."Simone Gold Accused by California Medical Board" by Cheryl Clark, MedPage Today, 2023 February 13
==References==
Category:2021 U.S. Capitol riot
Category:Alternative medicine promoters
Category:Anti-vaccination movement
Category:Authors
Category:Christians
Category:COVID-19 denialists
Category:Internalized discrimination
Category:Internet kooks
Category:Jews
Category:Lawyers
Category:Physicians
Category:Pseudoscience promoters
Category:Right-wing activists
Category:Shysters
Category:Tea Party