Newsmax TV host and Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Wayne Allyn Root has been dangerously suggesting to people that if they get the coronavirus, they should take doses of an “alkaline structured silver” product he endorses because it supposedly “kills [the] virus” and can “save your life.” Root is recommending products from Dr. Gordon Pedersen, who has claimed that his version of silver can “protect people from the Coronavirus" and help people suffering from it "recover more quickly.”

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes, “There is currently no vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus.” When it comes to taking silver, the National Institute of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states: “Scientific evidence doesn’t support the use of colloidal silver dietary supplements for any disease or condition.” It adds that “silver has no known function or benefits in the body when taken by mouth” and “silver is not a nutritionally essential mineral or a useful dietary supplement.”

The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission have sent warning letters to companies for promoting silver products “that claim to treat or prevent COVID-19.” New York Attorney General Letitia James has also called on Alex Jones to “immediately cease and desist selling and marketing products as a treatment or cure for the coronavirus.”

Root is the host of The Wayne Allyn Root Show on Newsmax TV. He also hosts a radio show for USA Radio Network and writes a column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He has a long history of pushing right-wing conspiracy theories and lies. Root is a supporter of President Donald Trump, who has quoted Root on Twitter and endorsed his 2015 book.

On his March 11 Newsmax program, Root downplayed concerns about coronavirus, claiming that the coronavirus is “no different than the flu” (it is different) and the pandemic is a “media creation.” He ended his program by stating, “‘My Doctor Suggests’ message is next. You fear coronavirus, here’s a very important message now.”

Newsmax then aired an ad for MyDoctorSuggests.com featuring Gordon Pedersen, who claims to have an “all-natural solution” that “destroys” things like “viruses.” Pedersen said he’s “taken the old inferior silver of the past -- we called it colloidal silver -- and I’ve made it into a structured alkaline form.” (The advertisement also touted a promo code specific to Root.)

Pedersen runs My Doctor Suggests, a Utah-based company whose “flagship product is a next generation therapeutic silver solution.” Its website claims that “Pedersen is the global leading authority of Silver and has dedicated 25 years to researching and developing the safest, natural forms of silver and the benefits for the body.” It sells numerous products related to his “alkaline structured silver,” including silver gels, soaps, lozenges, and liquids.

My Doctor Suggests has a list of 83 ailments that his products can supposedly be used against, including chicken pox, influenza, and kidney and liver disease. The company has even said that its products could be used in place of childhood vaccines.

Root is a prominent endorser of both “alkaline structured silver” and Pedersen. He filmed a video “testimonial” for Pedersen and has a long endorsement on MyDoctorSuggests.com. During a video uploaded on December 31, 2019, Root said he drinks the silver solution “all day long like I’m an alcoholic drinking booze. I love it. I’m addicted to it.”

He has also taken to Twitter to endorse alkaline silver. He tweeted on March 9 that if he ever got coronavirus, he’d use “massive doses of alkaline structured silver. Kills virus and inexpensive”: