Last month, Dr. Simone Gold stood before a crowd at a conservative church in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and delivered a talk riddled with misinformation. She told people to avoid vaccination against the coronavirus. As an alternative, she pushed drugs that have not been proven effective at treating COVID-19 — drugs that she also offered to prescribe to the audience in exchange for $90 telehealth appointments.
"Don't text me when you've gotten a positive test; I don't want to hear it," she said to the gathering. "I've told you ahead of time to get the medicines. It can take a week because we're so swamped."
Almost everything Gold said in her 45-minute talk was contrary to
the best science and medical standards of care for treating COVID-19. But there was one thing she said that was at least partially true: "I am an emergency physician."
NPR found that Gold's emergency medicine certification lapsed in December of last year, but she still is, as she claims, a licensed physician in the state of California (her license lists her professional address as a UPS shipping store in Beverly Hills).