Texas anti-vax doctor calls for Covid shots to be scrapped, claiming vitamins are better than vaccines

Paediatrician made a series of misleading claims during a TV debate

A Texas paediatrician has called for the Covid-19 vaccine to be recalled, and said prescribing vitamins is a more effective way to end the pandemic than vaccinating people against it.

Anti-vaccination doctor Angelina Farella made the remarks, along with a series of misleading comments about the virus and its treatment, on Newsmax on Thursday. She appeared alongside Dr William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who is pro-vaccine, reports Mediaite .

Discussing how to beat the virus, Dr Schaffner said: “If the unvaccinated people would just line up and get vaccinated, we could turn this off in a couple of months.”

Dr Farella responded with the suggestion that Covid-19 patients aren’t being treated for the virus, saying: “You know how you fight a pandemic, and you know how you fight disease? You treat it. What don’t we try treating early? Why don’t we do that? This is the first time ever that we don’t have guidelines. Where are the guidelines from Mayo Clinic. Where are the guidelines from [Johns] Hopkins? Where are the guidelines from your esteemed place, Dr. Schaffner? Where are they? What are we supposed to do? Why are we not treating these patients?”

She then listed some drugs, along with vitamin D and zinc, which she said could treat the disease.

“We can use all kinds of things to treat this virus,” said Dr Farella. “But you know what? There has been an absolute blackout on what primary care physicians can do to treat and these patients well. That’s how you crush a pandemic. Not by vaccinating.”

The treatment guidelines that Dr Farella said don’t exist are in fact easily accessible online, including from The Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, reports Mediaite.

And although Dr Farella asked, “Why don’t we try treating early?” Dr Schaffner’s hospital, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, uses monoclonal antibodies as an early treatment for Covid-19 – details are also easily accessible on the centre’s website.

It’s not the first time Dr Farella has made untrue claims about Covid-19. In May she testified before a Texas State Senate committee, stating that “we have in excess of 4,000 deaths and this [vaccine] has not been pulled yet,” indicating  the vaccine had been the cause of deaths. This was not the case. Since the vaccines were rolled out to the oldest and most vulnerable Americans first, it was to be expected that some of them died in the months after receiving the vaccine.

Dr Farella is a member of right-wing medical group America’s Frontline Doctors, which is known for making dubious medical claims. The organisation famously held a press conference in front of the Supreme Court in July of last year during which members claimed neither masks nor shutdowns were needed to fight the pandemic.

A video of the press conference that began circulating on social media was removed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Twitter told The Washington Post that it was “in violation of our covid-19 misinformation policy”.

One member of the group has professed to believe in alien DNA and demon sperm. Its leader is an anti-vax physician who was arrested for entering the Capitol on January 6.