Stella Immanuel, a physician on the centre of a controversy over unproven and probably harmful claims that an anti-malaria drug can deal with Covid-19, isn’t any stranger to conspiracy theories.

Fb and Twitter have taken down the viral video by which she seems, saying it violates their insurance policies about misinformation – however not earlier than it was retweeted by Donald Trump and considered one of his sons.

The US president defended himself, saying he discovered Dr Immanuel, who was born in Cameroon and relies within the Texan metropolis of Houston, “very spectacular”.

“She mentioned that she had great success with a whole bunch of various sufferers, I believed her voice was an vital voice however I do know nothing about her,” he mentioned on Tuesday.

Dr Immanuel, who can also be a Christian pastor, gave a speech on the steps of the US Supreme Court docket in Washington, captured in a video first printed by right-wing web site Breitbart on Monday.

Together with different medics from a group known as America’s Frontline Docs, she mentioned that People had been being denied a potential remedy for Covid-19.

“No one must get sick. This virus has a remedy – it’s known as hydroxychloroquine, I’ve handled over 350 sufferers and not had one dying,” mentioned Dr Immanuel.

Regardless of some early research elevating hopes that the drug could possibly be used to remedy coronavirus, one subsequent bigger scale trial has proven it’s not efficient as a remedy.

The World Well being Group (WHO) has halted its trials, saying it does not cut back dying charges in sufferers with coronavirus.

Final month, the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) cautioned in opposition to utilizing the drug to deal with coronavirus sufferers, following studies of “severe coronary heart rhythm issues” and different well being points.

And Dr Anthony Fauci, a main member of the White Home coronavirus activity drive, has reiterated these views.

“We all know that each single good research – and by good research I imply randomised management research by which the information are agency and plausible – has proven that hydroxychloroquine will not be efficient within the remedy of Covid-19,” he informed the BBC on Wednesday.

However Dr Immanuel has insisted taking hydroxychloroquine will not be dangerous as a result of it’s extensively taken in her dwelling nation of Cameroon, the place malaria is endemic.

Witches and demons

Born in 1965, Dr Immanuel graduated with a medical diploma from the College of Calabar in neighbouring Nigeria – and has a legitimate physician’s licence, in keeping with the web site of the Texas Medical Board.

She can also be a pastor and the founding father of Hearth Energy Ministries in Houston, a platform she has used to advertise different conspiracies concerning the medical occupation.

Her sermons can be found on a YouTube account arrange in 2009.

5 years in the past, she alleged that alien DNA was being utilized in medical therapies, and that scientists had been cooking up a vaccine to stop folks from being spiritual.

A few of her different claims embrace blaming medical situations on witches and demons – a widespread sufficient perception amongst some evangelical Christians – although she says they’ve intercourse with folks in a dream world.

“They flip into a girl and then they sleep with the person and gather his sperm… then they flip into the person and they sleep with a man and deposit the sperm and reproduce extra of themselves,” she mentioned throughout a sermon in 2013.

One other problem that Dr Immanuel targets is homosexual marriage, saying it can lead to adults marrying youngsters, in keeping with the Day by day Beast.

She additionally gives a prayer to take away a generational curse, initially acquired from an ancestor, however transmitted by placenta, the information web site’s profile of her says.

‘Jesus will shut Fb’

In her newest video posted on Twitter on Tuesday, she asks sufferers she says she has cured of Covid-19 to return ahead.

“In the event you do not converse up we’re getting trashed,” she says, encouraging them to make use of a hashtag once they publish their video messages.

Her tweet has had greater than 27,000 retweets.

After Fb took down the America’s Frontline Docs’ video on Tuesday, she declared that Jesus Christ would destroy the social media large’s servers if her movies weren’t restored to the platform.

Fb has not reported an interruption on its companies.

Who’re America’s Frontline Docs?

It is a assortment of physicians crucial of the scientific consensus across the Covid-19 pandemic. The occasion on Monday was backed by the Tea Get together Patriots, a conservative organisation searching for to re-elect President Trump.

The medical doctors consider neither masks nor shutdowns are essential to struggle the unfold of coronavirus.

The group’s founder, Simone Gold, organised a letter to Mr Trump calling for an finish to lockdown measures in Could.

Contributors had been inspired to hunt out interviews with social media influencers, as this was decided to be one of the simplest ways to succeed in People.

Ralph Norman, a Republican member of the Home of Representatives, was standing alongside the medical doctors once they delivered their information convention.

The controversy has been more and more dividing People alongside political strains, with proponents of hydroxychloroquine pointing to President Trump’s help of it whereas accusing critics of protecting up its potential effectiveness.