A Colorado Republican held an online campaign event with a doctor who spreads coronavirus conspiracy theories.
GOP congressional candidate Steve House held a virtual campaign event Tuesday afternoon on Facebook with Dr. Colleen “Kelly” Victory to discuss the coronavirus pandemic with about a dozen participants, reported the Denver Post.
“I do not believe that the general public should be wearing masks,” Victory told participants, contradicting public health officials.
House and Victory promoted the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine touted by President Donald Trump as a treatment for coronavirus, but public health experts -- including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who Victory has called an idiot who should be criminally prosecuted -- have warned its effectiveness was not established and may be harmful for some patients.
“It’s very, very safe," Victory said during the House event. "Given the risk for COVID in certain populations…why would we not try this very simple, very inexpensive (drug)?”
Victory, who claims exaggerated ties to Harvard University, has inaccurately told her Twitter followers that COVID-19 has a similar mortality rate to the flu, and falsely claimed Saturday that no one in Colorado had been intubated due to the coronavirus.
“Churches should absolutely be open! And so should everything else,” Victory tweeted March 21. “Isolate and protect the small percentage of people who are truly at risk and let the masses be exposed and therefore DEVELOP IMMUNITY!”
The Steamboat Springs physician also has spread theories that Democrats conspired to close down businesses and schools to hurt Trump's re-election chances and warned that Democrats intended to steal the election through vote-by-mail measures.
Victory claims to be a member of Harvard’s National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, but a university spokeswoman told the newspaper the doctor went through a 10-day program a decade ago and briefly served on its leadership council a few years ago.
