ֱ

Simone Gold's Group Sues to Stop COVID Shots for Kids

— Founder of America's Frontline Doctors is awaiting trial for her role in Jan. 6 Capitol storming

MedpageToday
A photo of some members of America’s Frontline Doctors

America's Frontline Doctors, the controversial group whose leader was arrested for her role in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, has sued HHS to halt COVID-19 vaccinations in children.

Last Friday, the group and several other physicians, lawyers, and parents filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in a U.S. District Court in northern Alabama against HHS and Xavier Becerra, who leads the department, to stop the agency from expanding its emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine to kids under 16.

In the from AFLDS -- as it calls itself -- is a wide swath of allegations, including that COVID-19 poses "zero risk" of death to kids in this age group, and that the "experimental injections" are riskier than the disease itself for kids.

"We doctors are pro-vaccine, but this is not a vaccine," AFLDS founder Simone Gold, MD, JD, said in a . "This is an experimental biological agent whose harms are well documented (although suppressed and censored) and growing rapidly, and we will not support using America's children as guinea pigs."

Among the 11 plaintiffs are two physicians: Scott Jensen, MD, of Minnesota, and Steven Roth, MD, of Alabama.

Jensen, a family medicine physician, is a former Minnesota state legislator and is running to be the state's next governor. He faced complaints to the state medical board last year after making allegations that Minnesota health officials were inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths. The board in July.

"Given that the statistical chance of death for children ages 0 to 16 is 0%, Dr. Jensen believes it would be reckless to subject anyone in that age group to the experimental COVID-19 vaccine. To recommend something that he considers reckless would violate his oath as a doctor and place him in an untenable position," the petition states.

Roth is an emergency medicine physician in Mobile, Alabama, with no apparent ties to state politics. "Dr. Roth has not seen a COVID-19 patient in many months, but he is currently seeing many patients who come to the emergency department as post-COVID-19 injection patients," the petition states. "All of these patients came in with COVID-19 like symptoms that occurred within 48 hours of the injection. All these patients required hospital admission. Several of these patients progressed to death, caused by the vaccine."

While she's not a party to the lawsuit, Angelina Farella, MD, a pediatrician in Webster, Texas, is quoted in a on the litigation as its pediatric medical director, making claims about vaccine-related deaths, "and they're still talking about giving this to our kids," she said in that statement.

America's Frontline Doctors first made headlines last July after a video of the group, staged in front of the Supreme Court, went viral with the help of a retweet from former President Donald Trump. In the video, about 10 physicians, dressed in white coats, endorsed several talking points, from hydroxychloroquine's efficacy to the mental health toll of lockdowns being worse than the virus itself.

The group subsequently pivoted to sowing doubts about the COVID-19 vaccines, emphasizing that the vaccines were "experimental" because they had an emergency use authorization rather than full FDA approval.

In late January, Gold was arrested for participating in the Capitol storming. There's photo and video evidence of Gold to rioters inside the building.

, Gold is awaiting trial on the criminal charges against her -- but she's not just standing idly by for her court date. Earlier this month, America's Frontline Doctors to "combat COVID-19 medical censorship and cancel culture."

The tour, titled "The Uncensored Truth: Physicians and Patients Standing Up for Science, Freedom and Common Sense," launched in Phoenix on May 10 and includes stops in New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.

  • author['full_name']

    Kristina Fiore leads ֱ’s enterprise & investigative reporting team. She’s been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com.