Feds order Alex Jones to stop selling phony coronavirus cures
Federal officials are admonishing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for peddling phony cures for the coronavirus. Jones, a conspiracy theorist who runs the InfoWars website, was ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to stop making unfounded health claims about products like the "Superblue Silver Immune Gargle."
The agencies said their reviews of InfoWars.com in recent weeks found several products for sale, such as "SuperSilver Whitening Toothpaste," that the FDA and FTC said were unlawfully depicted as helping prevent, treat or cure COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The agencies on Thursday ordered Jones to "immediately cease making all such claims."
It's illegal to advertise products as a treatment or cure for human disease without reliable scientific evidence, which currently does not exist when for the pandemic that has killed more than 16,600 Americans.
The warning comes a month after the agencies told televangelist Jim Bakker to stop claiming his silver potions could cure the coronavirus, as well as a separate threat of legal action against Jones by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Jones claimed on his radio show in early March that his Silverblue toothpaste "kills the whole SARS-corona family at point-blank range," according to a news release issued by James, who ordered Jones to immediately refrain from selling the toothpaste and other products as cures.
"As the coronavirus continues to pose serious risks to public health, Alex Jones has spewed outright lies and has profited off of New Yorkers' anxieties," James, a Democrat, said in a statement. "Mr. Jones's public platform has not only given him a microphone to shout inflammatory rhetoric, but his latest mistruths are incredibly dangerous."
Infowars did not return a request for comment.
There are no FDA-approved vaccines or drugs to treat or prevent COVID-19, and there is no scientific proof that alternative remedies can stop or cure the illness, according to the National Institutes of Health. Colloidal silver liquid containing silver particles can, in fact, be dangerous to your health, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
