Feds Crack Down On ‘Nano Silver’ Covid Treatment–Only The Latest Unproven Cure
Topline
A New Jersey-based company has been ordered to stop distributing a product containing traces of silver it touted as a cure for Covid-19, in the latest legal action against unproven Covid cures, which have been recklessly touted since the start of the pandemic.
Quack Covid cures have been a problem essentially since the pandemic started.
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Key Facts
The company, called Natural Solutions Foundation, had promoted a “nano silver” product it misbranded as a drug, according to the DOJ.
The Justice Department sued the company in November over the misbranding, which led to a settlement and Natural Solutions Foundation agreeing to operate under a federal consent decree, ordering it to issue a recall for its “nano silver” products and destroy all in its possession.
Legal action against unproven cures began in March 2020, when a Los Angeles man named Keith Lawrence Middlebrook solicited investments from his 2.4 million Instagram followers after making pills he falsely claimed could treat Covid.
Conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones also were among the first to push fake cures, leading to the federal government ordering Jones to stop marketing a line of toothpaste and gargle products as a Covid treatment.
Several treatments have been promoted as “miracle” cures, including one pushed by a Florida family last year that turned out to just be toxic bleach, which they sold through a quasi-religious entity called the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing to try to avoid government regulation.
In India, a Hindu spiritual leader promoted an unproven treatment called Coronil during the country’s Covid surge in the spring of 2021, leading to a massive spike in Google searches for Coronil pills despite not being an effective treatment.
Crucial Quote
“Marketing unproven products as treatments for COVID-19 endangers public health and violates the law,” said Brian M. Boynton, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
Tangent
Reports of Americans drinking bleach and other household cleaning products soared during 2020, with former President Donald Trump notably suggesting at an April 2020 news conference that injecting disinfectants could be a potential treatment. Trump also took a regimen of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug ultimately proven to be ineffective at treating or preventing Covid-19, in the spring of 2020. In July 2021, a California-based doctor pleaded guilty to an importation contrary to law charge after smuggling hydroxychloroquine into the U.S. for his “miracle,” “one hundred percent” cure.
Key Background
Unproven and often dangerous products marketed as Covid treatments have been a problem essentially through the entire pandemic, leading to numerous arrests and indictments. More recently, there have been instances of unscientific, homeopathic treatments being pushed as a stand-in for Covid-19 vaccines—an idea Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers apparently bought into before missing a game due to Covid last month. Rodgers repeatedly claimed he was immunized against Covid-19, but it was later revealed he was unvaccinated and received a homeopathic treatment.
Contra
Federally authorized Covid treatments are now hitting the market. Last week, the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization for antiviral pills from the drug companies Merck and Pfizer.
Further Reading
Search Interest In Coronil—A False Covid Cure—Soars In India As Pandemic Rages (Forbes)
Florida Family Charged With Marketing ‘Miracle’ Coronavirus Cure That Was Textile Bleach (Forbes)
Some Americans Are Tragically Still Drinking Bleach As A Coronavirus ‘Cure’ (Forbes)
Trump Says He’s Taking Hydroxychloroquine Despite An NIH Advisory Against It (Forbes)
Doctor Pleads Guilty To Pushing Covid ‘Miracle Cure’ And Hydroxychloroquine Smuggling Scheme (Forbes)
California Woman Arrested For Making Fake Vaccine Cards, Justice Department Says (Forbes)
FDA Authorizes Merck’s Antiviral Pill For Emergency Use (Forbes)
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