A leaked recording of a May 11 conference call held with right-wing operatives and a staffer from the Trump re-election campaign discussed recruiting “extremely pro-Trump” doctors to go on GOP television and prescribe opening the economy as quickly as possible without waiting for the guidelines proposed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Fox News went all in.

Now, you’d think Fox News, which downplayed the virus and told people to go out and ignore the danger, would be a wee bit less stupid. Fox News has relentlessly been pushing that it’s time for all the lockdowns to end and for everyone to go back to work. That is, for everyone but Fox News:

In a memo to employees Friday, the Fox Corporation announced workers will be told to telework for at least another month, CNN reported…. The date could be pushed back even further, according to CNN.

Yet Fox News is hellbent on pushing the narrative that the lockdown isn’t necessary, and have even featured a number of doctors on their shows to support their narrative. These include two Bakersfield doctors with dubious COVID test conclusions using “ludicrous” methods according to an infectious disease modeling expert.

Dr. El-Sadr of Columbia University said it is “totally irresponsible” for physicians to tout information that isn’t anchored in evidence or science, and that it’s dangerous to give contradictory messages to the public. The Trump campaign communications director responded that that wasn’t his concern.

And the scheme continues. On May 21, Fox News published a letter, signed off by several Trumpy doctors, penned by a Dr. Simone Gold. Gold is a serious Trumper, and the letter to DJT is ever so slightly over the top. She says millions of casualties will occur, but will be called “alcoholism”, “unplanned pregnancy”, “despair” etc. She lists four anecdotal incidents that prove her point, and gushes on Trump that in no way sounds like a stunt. The story is featured on Fox’s main page.

Here is the letter:

A Doctor a Day Letter – Signed by Fox News on Scribd

What a brilliant physician-researcher-communicator, as she describes herself as.

So who is Dr. Simone Gold?

The first signature on the letter was Dr. Simone Gold, an emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles who is listed as a member of the Save Our Country Coalition on the group’s website. She has recently appeared on conservative talk radio and podcast programs to advocate for the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that Trump says he is taking because he believes it can prevent COVID-19 even though his own administration has warned it can have deadly side effects. Gold said she has prescribed the drug to two of her patients with good results. The Food and Drug Administration warned health professionals last month that the drug should not be used to treat COVID-19 outside of hospital or research settings due to sometimes fatal side effects.

If you want to see the type of doctor that she is, then please, go visit her website. She caters to “exclusive clientele”, and yet she can’t seem to afford a better web page. (White text on light gold—interesting choice.) She discusses the focus on “concierge medicine,” and charges a handsome fee for her services. However, she promises that she “reads the latest research, consults with the foremost experts, and examines the scientific literature, all with an eye toward fixing her client’s exact problem” to provide “high quality CEO-level information.”

Based on that lower grade-level letter, do you think she reads the latest research and consults with experts? I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Personally, if I am to pay a sky-high fee to a “concierge” doctor, I’d expect them to at least base their findings on scientific data. If I discovered that my doctor was more dedicated to justifying the reckless behavior of a malignant narcissist who doesn’t care if he endangers millions of people, or follows a cult leader who is into injecting disinfectant into people, I’d likely spend my money elsewhere.

But that’s just me.