WND Adds To Its COVID Misinformer Army

Joel Hirschhorn uses his WorldNetDaily platform to lobby for dubious coronavirus treatments and to carry out a bizarre vendetta against Anthony Fauci.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 7/19/2021

Joel Hirschhorn

Nevertheless, the bio also describes him as "a member of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons" -- the fringe-right medical organization that has been most recently devoted to spreading misinformation about coronavirus. On that measure, Hirschhorn fits right into the AAPS' conspiratorial mindset.

ConWebWatch has previously documented Hirschhorn's bizarre attempt to "indict" top governmental expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, based on a "grand jury"empaneled in his fevered brain, on various counts involving opposing the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus, despite the fact there's little credible evidence that it works. Hirschhorn ranted in a Nov. 11 column:

Hard to believe, but very few Americans have doctors who are using a safe, proven protocol for early home/outpatient treatment for those with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result. If they had, some 180,000 deaths could have been prevented so far.

How could this happen? Two main reasons. First, The National Institutes of Health have not sanctioned any treatment for home/outpatient use – but only treatment promoted for hospital use. Second, the Food and Drug Administration does not approve of the use of the key cheap, safe and generic drug used in the U.S. since 1955, namely hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).

Hirschhorn cites the usual dubious suspects in support of his argument: Harvey Risch, Vladimir Zelenko, and the bogus HCQ statistics assembled anonymously and touted by the AAPS. And as befits a guy who put Anthony Fauci before an imaginary"grand jury," Hirschhorn ranted that "The media-hyped meme that Fauci is a trusted expert is nonsense."

Hirschhorn returned on Nov. 24 to complain that "The leftist press has totally ignored the hearing and the main messages delivered by senators and distinguished doctors who testified." He attacked the sole opposition (and, thus pro-science) expert, Dr. Ashish Jha, as a "shill" for Democrats, accused Fauci of "malpractice," then proclaimed: "The big reveal of the hearing was that Democrats have no interest in expanding access to proven home treatments for COVID and saving lives. Right now, leftist Democrat politics are causing tens of thousands of preventable COVID deaths. All those who voted for Biden should know that Democrats are a fundamental cause of the rising numbers of COVID hospitalizations and deaths."

In March, Hirschhorn got WND to publish an excerpt from his new book, "Pandemic Blunder," which is also a screed against Fauci for failing to buy into the right-wing hype over dubious medications like hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus. He conspiratorially declared:

This book does more than describe the pandemic blunder, particularly in terms of the influence of Dr. Anthony Fauci. It can help Americans protect their lives by not being victimized by disinformation and propaganda from leftist media. Pandemic management has failed because of corrupt forces aiming to make billions of dollars from expensive medicines and vaccines. There has been widespread dereliction of duty on the part of many local, state and federal government officials.

Hirschhorn went on to cite what he claimed were "credible sources" on the alleged efficacy of hydroxychloroquine. They include Simone Gold of another fringe group, America's Frontline Doctors -- of which Hirschhorn is also a member -- and who we last saw taking part in the Capitol riot; and Zelenko again.

Hirschhorn then sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the Media Research Center:

The first thing is to depend on information from “conservative” sources and avoid paying attention to COVID information from leftist, mainstream sources. In the former category are shows on Fox News, especially Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. There are a multitude of conservative websites, many of which have been identified in the previous parts of this book. Of particular note are websites that have published pandemic articles by this author; they include WND.com, lifesitenews.com, globalresearch.ca, unz.com, opednews.com, nolanchart.com. Another important website is americasvoice.news, which airs the Steve Bannon War Room show that has often given reliable information on the pandemic.

For data on the pandemic for the U.S. and other nations, there is worldometers.info/coronavirus/.

Perhaps more importantly, ignore and discount COVID information that amounts to disinformation and propaganda on all the major leftist media, including the Washington Post and New York Times, as well as CNN and MSNBC. Stay away completely from social media for reliable information. ...

Hirschhorn then went on to rant against studies showing that HCQ and ivermectin -- another dubious medication embraced by the likes of WND and AAPS -- are ineffective and, thus, interfere with his activism (and, presumably, his current income stream):

Briefly, here are some points to remember if you hear about or read for yourself medical studies that conclude that HCQ or IVM is unsafe and ineffective.

Many such studies have used these drugs too late in the process of COVID infection. Mostly such studies have wrongly used what should be considered valid early treatment for hospitalized patients whose infection has progressed beyond the early virus replication stage. Although there have been many studies showing HCQ or IVM effective for hospitalized patients, the key is whether those patients were given the medicines early enough to be effective. But the majority of negative studies on HCQ or IVM gave the medicines too late to be effective.

In some other negative studies, the dosages of HCQ or IVM have been too high, or generally inconsistent with what positive studies have used successfully. Another shortcoming of many negative studies is that there was no use of zinc. Often negative studies include very small numbers of participants using the tested drug.

He added, "A website particularly useful for getting information on prophylaxis is COVID19criticalcare.com. It tends to focus on the use of IVM rather than HCQ." This website is operated by something called the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, which was formed to push unapproved treatments like ivermectin and HCQ.

In other words, if you've read Hirschhorn's rantings at WND, it seems you've pretty much already read his book.

The rants continue

In his April 6 column, Hirschhorn was still pushing hydroxychloroquine and promoting the latest alleged research of Vladimir Zelenko, a doctor who was one of the early touters of hydroxychloroquine (and, thus, touted by WND), insisting that he used "real world evidence" to achieve his dubious findings. He went on to insist that "In my recent book, 'Pandemic Blunder,' I used RWE to conclude that 70 to 80% of COVID deaths could have – and still can be – prevented by using the cheap and effective protocols."

Hirschhorn whined further on this subject in his April 16 column:

In our pandemic world, the battle between good and evil boils down to this: advocates for wide use of cheap and effective early home COVID treatment vs. stronger forces pushing contagion controls and vaccines. Herein I will explain why the home-treatment movement has had little impact in that battle.

It is sinful that people infected by COVID are still requiring hospitalization and some dying. Early home treatment has been used by relatively few doctors, explaining why 70 to 80% of COVID deaths, over 300,000 Americans, have not been prevented. As I detail in Pandemic Blunder," a massive amount of Real World Evidence, sanctioned by the 2016 federal Cures Act, supports this life-saving pandemic solution. It should have been a major national positive news meme. A pandemic solution, however, was not what powerful forces wanted to tell the public.

Unforunately, entities supporting the early home treatment solution to COVID have not cooperated and united to have the strength necessary to combat unified, collusive mainstream media, political and medical establishment powers.

The latter have prevailed in propagating propaganda, endlessly giving the public negative information, promoting fear. The public is showered with negative data on numbers of cases, hospitalizations, deaths and inadequate vaccine doses.

The negative paradigm has intentionally killed medical freedom to act quickly to help infected patients. Instead, powerful forces have favored freedom-killing contagion controls like lockdowns, school closings and mask mandating as well as expensive medicines for hospitalized victims and experimental vaccines (still lacking FDA approval) that the vast majority of people do not need.

And it wouldn't be Hirschhorn rant if he wasn't bashing Fauci:

In the final analysis, one person deserves the most credit for the limited success of the early home COVID treatment movement: Fauci. He skipped right over early medical actions to keep pushing contagion controls, expensive drugs for hospitalized patients and now vaccines.

Just days ago, Fauci said he would have been horrified if he knew a year ago that 500,000 Americans would eventually lose their lives to COVID-19. (Interestingly, the real number is over 560,000 deaths.) He has never taken responsibility for blocking early home treatments that could have saved most of those lives. It seems that doing so does not weigh on his conscience. The leftist media will continue to make him a pandemic hero. What a lie that is.

It's clear that wide use of the cure protocols requires unity and cooperation to stand any chance of success against Fauci and his allies.

How can WND be considered a trustworthy source of information when it publishes inaccurate, conspiratorially minded columnists like Hirschhorn?

Hirschhorn indulged in even more Fauci-bashing in his May 14 column, which began by pushing hydroxychloroquine and moved quickly into Fauci Derangement Syndrome:

Many months passed between the time COVID treatments were blocked and COVID vaccines became available. Again, call this the "Fauci kill zone." This is assuming the vaccines actually save lives. Those data are not yet available. But what we do know is that use of the early treatment protocols could have prevented at least 70 to 80% of COVID deaths, as documented in "Pandemic Blunder." Well over 400,000 lives were lost unnecessarily in the Fauci kill zone, and even more from the indirect lives lost because of government actions, like lockdowns.

With all the mismanagement, there is just as much a disinformation pandemic as a viral one. This "false" pandemic based on the political goal of creating public fear ruined the American economy destabilized society and inflicted enormous pain and suffering.

[...]

The disastrous actions of Fauci are contrary to all these traditional concepts and responsibilities. Americans should ask:

How can we believe that our entire medical and public health system, facing a most historic lethal pandemic, failed us in such a profound way?
"
How could our government not protect our lives by standing in the way of frontline doctors taking the earliest possible action to address potentially devastating COVID impacts?

But that is exactly what has happened.

For his May 26 column, Hirschhorn went into full conspiracy mode:

Starting in early 2020, powerful people, government agencies and private sector entities coalesced around a pandemic strategy. Evil globalists were active behind the scene as the world was mesmerized by a wildly spreading viral pandemic. This strategy was never explicitly and publicly described. It could not be … because it was sinful.

It explicitly accepted that millions of people would die until the strategy could be fully implemented. Loss of lives was necessary to ensure that trillions of dollars would eventually be made – a classic case of profits over people. The pandemic was seen as a marketing bonanza for big drug companies, a global financial opportunity of epic historic proportions. Public health was sacrificed at the altar of corporate greed.

The most charitable interpretation of the strategy is that vaccine proponents envisioned a life-saving pandemic solution eventually. But the race to invent and produce COVID vaccines, as we now know, did not produce thoroughly tested and safe vaccines. Now we have unsafe experimental vaccines. And the truth about them must be hidden from public view. Otherwise, the truth would cause the collapse of the entire public health pandemic effort. Faith in governments would melt away as the public realized they were akin to guinea pigs in a vast global experiment.

Hirschhorn also wrote, "Dr. Joseph Mercola said the vaccine actually is gene editing, which impairs your body's natural immune response." One: Mercola is a quack who's into even more bogus conspiracy theories than Hirschhorn is, and two: the mRNA coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna do not edit your genes.

He also asserted:

Israel has been praised for having the highest vaccination rate per capita in the world. The Israeli People's Committee reported in April that there have been 1,000-1,100 deaths in proximity to COVID vaccination and a total of 2,066 adverse events. Noted was the absence of media coverage of the ill effects of vaccination. The report concluded: "Never has a vaccine injured so many!" Note that the population in Israel approaches just 9 million, making the level of vaccine negative impacts very significant.

As a fact-checker found, the Israeli People's Committee does not do legitimate medical research, and the report itself states that it "should not be relied upon for medical or other purposes, and it certainly does not contain any medical recommendation."

That would have been a big warning sign for Hirschhorn, but pushing conspiracy theories is more important to him than telling the truth.

Hirschhorn served up even more Fauci-bashing in his June 21 column:

Recently, a physician in India made this fascinating observation: "In the 1985-86 edition of 'Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine' [a highly recommended book for students in medical school], Dr. Fauci wrote that HCQ worked as an anti-viral agent despite being an anti-malarial drug. There was no COVID-19 back then. HCQ's anti-viral properties were known."

Did Fauci forget what he knew 35 years ago? He had no hesitancy in ignoring a mountain of evidence for the effectiveness of HCQ against the COVID virus. Maybe that can be explained by the fact so ignored by big media that Fauci is not a trained virologist. As a loyal friend of the drug industry, he has shown no skill in following any science that conflicts with that industry's interests.

This reference to such an early work explains why physicians in Europe and the U.S. in the early months of 2020, when the pandemic was just exploding, thought to use hydroxychloroquine. Dr. Vladimir Zelenko in New York became famous for his cocktail based on HCQ that worked to safely cure his mostly elderly patients hit with the COVID virus. In France, Dr. Didier Raoult was one of the earliest to discover its usefulness. He treated over 1,000 patients with azithromycin and hydroxychloroquine, and almost 99% recovered.

Again, Zelenko's methods were questionable and poorly documented. But who is Didier Raoult? Well, he published a study touting hydroxycholoroquine early in the pandemic that President Trump latched onto. Soon after, however, other scientists raised questions about how it was conducted and other ethical issues, which resulted in revelations about Raoult's own dubious scientific background, which resulted in him facing disciplinary action over the study. Which, ultimately, resulted in Raoult suing one of the scientific whistleblowers for exposing his shoddy research while he and his supporters doxxed her online. So: the kind of person Hirschhorn would trust, which means the rest of us shouldn't.

Nevertheless, Hirschhorn went on to rant:

To sum up, the preponderance of all the medical evidence has always been that HCQ worked to safely and cheaply treat and prevent COVID. Yet big media refuse to admit this, as does Fauci. Anyone who says otherwise is a pandemic liar who belongs in hydroxy hell, because so many American deaths – over 500,000 – and so much suffering could have been prevented. The American public deserves the truth. When more people know the truth, maybe the judicial system will prosecute those responsible for so many deaths, especially Fauci.

In his July 5 column, Hirschhorn touted a "citizen petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop the full approval of COVID vaccines until many serious concerns and issues are genuinely addressed," adding: "There has been no significant coverage of this historic petition by mainstream and corporate social media. This cancel action is itself as remarkable as the petition itself. This is a concerted effort to keep the public uninformed about the many problems with the COVID vaccines. Any person who spends the time to peruse the 20-page petition would most likely have a very negative view of the vaccines."

Which, of course, is Hirschhorn's goal. He went on to tout how "the biggest name on the list of signatories is the esteemed Dr. Peter McCullough of Baylor University. He has been very outspoken and honest about many pandemic issues. He has said that, considering the high numbers of deaths and serious health impacts associated with taking the vaccines, FDA should do what it has done in the past when new medicines and vaccines had high negative impacts. Take them off the market." But McCullough is a major misinformer about the vaccines (and WND lets him do so without question), falsely portraying that deaths and other adverse effects to a government reporting system as indisputable evidence of the effects to the vaccines; in fact, no deaths have been linked to any COVID vaccine. Hirschhorn then engaged in his usual whining:

People who have not fallen victim to the endless propaganda of the political, big media and public health systems promoting COVID vaccine jabs may not be willing to seriously examine the medical and scientific details of the petition. The problem is cognitive dissonance. Too many people will not easily resolve their propaganda-induced positive views of the vaccines with the medical and science details in the petition. But that is what must happen. People must temper their fear of COVID infection with awareness that vaccines are now experimental and have not been sufficiently proved safe for all users.

The potential frustration and fear if the vaccines were deemed insufficiently safe could be mitigated by advocating for early home/outpatient treatment and preventive use of a number of cheap, safe and fully approved generic medicines.
He's just mad people are listening to the truth instead of his propaganda. And WND is irresponsible for giving him space for a column that is apparently not fact-checked.