No License for Disinformation

Funded by the Panorama Global, the deBeaumont Foundation, and Bill Gates

Well-funded organizations such as No License for Disinformation have emerged to suppress physicians like myself from speaking the truth.

I hired a private investigator to research this organization and am sharing their report. The next step will be FOIA requests to the organizations backing NLFD.

Help us fight back by publicizing this information far and wide.

NO LICENSE FOR DISINFORMATION

From their website:

WHO WE ARE: No License For Disinformation (NLFD) is a non-partisan grassroots coalition of Americans who came together in an effort to protect patients, loved ones, and the public at large from the harmful and dangerous effects of medical disinformation.

We are physicians and nurses who have experienced the worst of the pandemic.

We are parents and family members concerned for the health and safety of our loved ones.

We are disability advocates whose communities have been adversely impacted by disinformation

“We are building a coalition of physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, disability advocates, parents, and concerned citizens who understand the threat and consequences of this dangerous disinformation and empowering them to speak out against physicians who abuse their status and platforms to spread disinformation, and speak up and call on the medical boards to hold these physicians accountable according to existing consumer protection laws and state statutes.”

Our Team:

DR. NICK SAWYER MD, MBA, FACEP

Nick is a board certified emergency medicine physician practicing in a busy level 1 trauma center and teaching hospital in Sacramento, California. He pursued a combined MD/MBA at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine to better understand the business of medicine and apply that knowledge to work towards a more equitable, patient-centered healthcare system. He teaches residents and medical students clinical emergency medicine, health policy and about the intersection of business and the US healthcare system. In April 2020, at the height of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Sawyer responded to the New York Health + Hospitals call for help and spent 2 weeks volunteering in a 40 bed coronavirus ICU at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York City - the hardest hit hospital in the nation at the time. Following that eye opening experience, Dr. Sawyer has become increasingly concerned about the damage created by physicians spreading COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine disinformation.

ABBY MAHLER

Abby is a photographer by trade, with a BA in Conflict Resolution and Human Behavior from Bennington College, based in Los Angeles, CA. In March 2020, they, like hundreds of thousands of others, were unable to fill their prescription for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), which they take for lupus and Sjogren’s syndrome. Distraught and alarmed by the lack of urgency this crisis-level ongoing shortage for disabled people seemed to garner, Abby began speaking out on behalf of herself and her fellow autoimmune patients. HCQ shortages are devastating for the chronic conditions they treat, leaving patients in far more vulnerable positions– with unstable illness, on harder drugs that immunocompromise more acutely, in and out of hospitals– without it. She has shared these stories with LA’s local NBC affiliate, journalist Robert Evans, as well as BuzzfeedNews after building a substantial following on TikTok, where they create content tracing the complex path HCQ took to become a focal tool of medical populism and disinformation, while keeping the focus on the harm inflicted– directly and indirectly– on chronically ill and disabled people.

This TikToker Takes Hydroxychloroquine For Lupus And Wants You To Know The Facts (buzzfeednews.com)

TAYLOR NICHOLS MD

Taylor is an emergency medicine physician in Northern California. He attended the University of Michigan where he earned a degree in Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Sciences. He attended medical school at UC Davis School of Medicine and completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at UCSF-San Francisco General Hospital. He completed a Fellowship in Health Policy and Advocacy at UC Davis Medical Center, where the first case of community transmission of COVID was confirmed during his time as a fellow. He helped coordinate development and distribution of PPE in the region during the initial stage of the pandemic, and has been on the front lines of treating patients with COVID through the entire pandemic. As someone knowledgeable about health systems and policy, as well as the social and political determinants of health, he has seen the ways in which the pandemic has strained health care systems and clinicians across the country at all levels of care and how different communities have had disparate experiences throughout this pandemic.

ASHLEY BARTHOLOMEW BSN, RN

Ashley is a nurse and healthcare advocate with over 10 years’ experience in PACU, OR, Urgent Care, Oncology, and Ambulatory clinics. With a unique background in the United States Air Force, her career in healthcare began as a dental technician and was followed by obtaining her LPN in 2009, ADN in 2011, and BSN in 2016. She is currently continuing her education in graduate school for Masters of Science in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner.

Her advocacy work was sparked in October 2020 when she was redeployed unexpectedly to the Covid ICU. There, she cared for a patient who in denial of the severity of the pandemic. As the only non-intubated patient on the unit who could speak, she explained to him how lucky he was, while showing compassion and authenticity on her last day on the job. The patient’s viewpoint of Covid had completely changed by the time he left the ICU. This powerful story was shared on Twitter and quickly went viral. Since then, Ashley has built an impressive following on social media, and made over 20 national and international media and print appearances including MSNBC live with Craig Melvin, Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, World News Tonight, NPR, The New York Times, Global News Canada, Forbes, The Poynter Institute ‘Fight the Infodemic PSA’ campaign, NBC News Now with Savannah Sellers, and others. She has been a guest on several podcasts, and her story was written in Last Best Hope by George Packer. She is passionate about nurses being active in social media, patient advocacy, and fighting disinformation.

Works in El Paso hospital

No License for Disinformation is financially backed by Panorama Global - a nonprofit receiving funding from Bill Gates

Located in Seattle, Washington

Total revenue of company in 2016 - $339,724

Total revenue of company in 2019 - $17,741,156

Contributors’ names and addresses are blank in 2017 990 Form

Total contributions: $700,000, $10,000, $1,022,584, etc….

Contributors and amount given listed in 2019 tax form are RESTRICTED

One of their executives, Jacqueline Payne, was shown to have contributed $5,113 in Political Contributions for 2020 (Pramila for Congress, Democrat and Warren for President, Democrat)

Independent Contractors

Panorama Global’s five highest compensated independent contractors that received more than $100,000 of compensation from the organization in 2020.

Propper Daley LLC – Communications ($225,000)

Panorama Strategy – Cost Sharing Agreement ($327,557)

Kyne Communications LLC – Communications ($732,943)

Sidewalk Synergies Pty Ltd – Consulting ($256,000)

Stanford Center for Health Education – Consulting ($179,925)

Panorama Global Tax Form Research

Description of the organization’s mission or most significant activities: “Panorama Global works on a range of issues affecting the planet, people and productivity. It focuses on unifying people and resources to tackle the most audacious development and health challenges of our time.”

Panorama Global - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $800,000 in April 2021

Panorama Global - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Suzie Carroll (listed in 2017 Form as Secr/Treas, listed in 2018 and 2019 Forms as Chief of Staff, listed in 2020 Form as VP Scalable Sol.)

• Still works as Vice President of the company since January 2020

• Excellence in Government Fellowship – Partnership for Public Service – In 2015, Selected to represent the BBG in the Excellence in Government Fellows (EIG) program. EIG is run by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service which works to revitalize the federal government by transforming the way government works and inspiring a new generation to serve. The EIG program focuses on building strong public-sector leadership and management, driven by innovation and focused on results.

• Peace Corps Distinguished Service Award – Peace Corps Director in August 2012 – In recognition of achieving the highest standards of excellence in service to the Peace Corps.

Cora Abigail Faylor (listed in 2017 Form as Treas/VP Prog, listed in 2018 Form as Vice President)

• “I am a senior communications leader with comprehensive experience across executive communications and thought leadership, crisis communications, content development, partner engagement, and reputation management. I have advised world-class corporations, associations, NGOs, foundations, and private philanthropists, with the right balance of strategic thinking and implementation know-how to achieve business, advocacy, and communications goals. I am skilled in building relationships, engaging audiences, creating dialogue, translating data to insights, and operating in fast-paced environments. I am an experienced team builder who creates high-performing, happy teams to support organizational growth. Additionally, I am well-versed in national and international markets having worked from Seattle, WA, USA; London, UK, and multiple countries in West Africa.”

Kimble Snyder – Program Director (listed in 2018 Form)

• As a highly engaged and results-driven leader, I am passionate about creating fusion between people and teams to help orchestrate change and accelerate business growth. I have 10 years of experience spanning government affairs, technology, and event management in both the public and private sectors. Throughout my career I have become recognized as an effective communicator and an integral team member who can leverage diverse perspectives and bring together stakeholders at all levels to solve complex challenges.

• My strong communications background has allowed me to excel when developing public-private partnerships, and I have leveraged my interpersonal skills to forge common ground that helps enhance business opportunities and expand awareness. Since 2019, I have gained experience working in the open-source software industry. In this capacity, I served as a senior leader through a post-merger integration to guide the transition of Microsoft’s engineering organization of 900+ employees from Microsoft to GitHub. This is where I developed a people-focused attitude critical to creating a cohesive culture between two organizations.

• For the early part of my career, I gained extensive experience in government relations with an emphasis in operations management, public policy, and event coordination. I was responsible for staff management and organization of large-scale events of up to 13,000 attendees for high-level officials in the White House. This experience helped me develop a meticulous approach for setting a strategic vision and leading teams to work toward common goals.

• I believe my multi-faceted background equips me with the ability to connect communities with executive leaders, and executive leaders with stakeholders, to support change and form new pathways that allows everyone to find common ground.

• No longer works for the company

Jacqueline Payne – ED Sponsored Pro (listed in 2018 and 219 Forms)

• Jackie Payne is a lawyer and policy advocate with 20 years of experience working to advance gender justice. She brings an intersectional and cross-movement lens to her work.

• Jackie Payne began her career in South Africa working on issues related to gender equity, women's health, and economic justice. In 1997, Jackie became staff attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. Driven by a desire for systemic change, Jackie joined the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund in Washington, D.C., where she partnered with community-based organizations to address the gendered-roots of poverty in America and chaired the National Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

• In 2003, Jackie was recruited by Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) to run its 50-state advocacy program. In this role, she collaborated with the 100+ affiliates to build capacity for effective advocacy. In 2006, Jackie was promoted to lead PPFA's federal and state policy work as Director of Government Relations.

• In 2009, Jackie signed on to design and run an 80-million dollar movement building initiative with the NoVo Foundation. Jackie partnered with experts in leadership and organizational development, movement building, and gender and racial justice to support leaders’ efforts to strengthen the movement to end violence against girls and women in the U.S.

• Following the 2016 election, Jackie felt called to understand, connect with, and engage women voters as a powerful force for change. She left MEV to launch this effort in 2018 and after18 months of deep listening built a civic empowerment program to support more women to vote their values and help create an America that works for everybody.

• Jackie received her B.A. from the University of Illinois and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She is a trustee of the Patsy Takemoto Mink Foundation and on the Board of PAI. Jackie and her husband Jonah are happily raising two amazing little people.

Gabrielle Fitzgerald – Founder and CEO

• Gabrielle Fitzgerald bio (panoramaglobal.org)

• “Gabrielle created Panorama as a platform for social change that partners with visionary leaders and organizations to solve pressing global problems. Since its founding in 2017, Panorama has managed nearly $40M through strategic partnerships, collaborative funds, and fiscal sponsorships and brought much-needed attention and investment on a range of underfunded areas, including pandemic preparedness, human rights, gender parity, and adolescent mental health.”

April Matson – Comm Prog Officer (listed in 2018 Form)

• No longer works for the company

• Currently works as the Director of Marketing and Communications for Museum of Glass

Peter McDermott – Director (listed in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Forms)

• Peter McDermott is currently Director, Fajara Associates, a bespoke International Development and Global Health Consultancy Company. Previously he served as Managing Director and Executive Director, Global Health at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). He currently serves on CIFF’s Programme Investment Committee, Chairs GSK/ViiV HealthCare’s Positive Action for Children Board, is a Trustee of Panorama a non-profit Action Tank and provides pro bono support to numerous global health and development start-ups. He joined CIFF in 2007 following over 22 years in the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Prior to joining UNICEF, he worked as Health Planner in the Ministry of Health, Banjul, Gambia for the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) the precursor to DFID. He also worked in Nigeria and in Bihar, India.

• Peter received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) from York University in England and a Master of Science (MSc) degree from the London School of Economics. He also holds a state registered nurse qualification (SRN) from St. George’s Hospital, England. He is a Founder of Health Unlimited, a UK based NGO, now called Health Poverty Action.

Ellen Agler – Director (listed in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Forms)

• Ellen serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the END Fund, working to see an end of the suffering caused by five neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affecting 1.5 billion people. The END Fund actively supports NTD programs with dozens of partners in more than 25 countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

• Previously, she served as Operation Smile’s Senior Vice President for International Programs, managing programs to provide comprehensive care to children with cleft lips and cleft palates in over 60 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She led Operation Smile’s global public policy, collaboration and advocacy efforts to promote essential surgery as an integral component of global health policy and programming. Ellen worked on “health as a bridge to peace” initiatives bringing together Israeli and Palestinian surgeons and organizing medical programs in partnership with government, civil society and guerilla groups in conflict zones in Colombia.

• Ellen currently serves on the board of the Legatum Institute, a London-based think tank that promotes policies that lift people from poverty to prosperity. She serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Security Advisory Board and Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases Stakeholders Working Group.

Peter Small – Director (listed in 2017 and 2018 990 Forms)

• No longer works for the company

• Dr. Small's current focus is acoustic epidemiology with a specific emphasis on cough. This builds on his background as a global health leader combining expertise in clinical infectious diseases, academic research, product development and innovative health delivery. Extensive experience in situational assessment, strategic thinking, interdisciplinary team building, program management, resource mobilization and partner relations. Having spent roughly a decade as a physician at UCSF, a scientist at Stanford and a product developer at Gates Foundation, Dr. Small is now focused on integrating innovative technology into health systems to improve delivery of care.

• Works as the Founding Director of the Department of Health at Stony Brook University currently

• In 2019 tax form was reported to have been given $210, 713 for consulting services…

Awa Marie Coll Seck – Director (listed in 2017, 2018 and 2019 990 Forms)

• No longer works for the company

• Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck was appointed the Chair of the National Committee of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative on 08 April 2019. Formerly a Minister of State to the President of the Republic of Senegal from September 2017 to April 2019, Minister of Health and Prevention (2001 to 2003), and Minister of Health and Social Action (2012 to 2017) of the Republic of Senegal.

Angela Romei – Program Director (listed in 2017 Form)

• What We Learned from Talking with U.S. Employers About Paid Leave (panoramaglobal.org)

• No longer works for the company

• How to advocate for paid leave - Ladies Get Paid

• Works for Mitek Systems – Software Development Company

• Introduced the program of Paid Leave for businesses and continues to fight for this cause for all businesses today

Steven Berthel – Sponsor Proj. Lead (listed in 2019 Form)

• Not listed in 2020 tax form but on his linked in he is a TBDA Medicinal Chemistry Lead and Program Manager with Panorama Global currently

Ned Harvey – Director (listed in 2019 and 2020 Forms)

• Ned is co-founder of Digital Gaia, a new venture which combines advances in digital technologies, cognitive science, and the power of tokenomics to inform impact investment in climate and environmental solutions. Ned oversees the business and commercial aspects of Digital Gaia and leads the development of decentralized financial (DeFi) solutions to mobilize $trillions in investment into entirely new financial asset classes valued in Natural Capital.

Celina Schocken – Sponsored Proj. ED (listed in 2019 Form)

• No longer works for the company

• “Senior health leader advising organizations on innovation, technology adoption, business strategy, program scale up and service delivery in low-resource settings. I bring extensive operations, management, strategy, innovations and business development experience, along with significant experience working in developing countries and emerging markets.”

Linley Kirkwood – Director, Grants, Contracts & Compliance (listed in 2020 Form)

• Linley Kirkwood is the Director of Grants, Contracts & Compliance at Panorama Global. In her role, she oversees the organization’s portfolio of grants and contracts and manages other legal, risk management, and governance issues.

David Friedman – Vice President, Finance & Operations (listed in 2020 Form)

• As Vice President of Finance & Operations, David oversees the development and execution of Panorama’s finance, operations and Workplace Experience team. He is responsible for enabling the organization with the right financial and operational data to build infrastructure and systems, implement new tools and resources, and optimize decision making at all levels. Additionally, he is focused on facilitating Panorama to attract highly qualified talent and supporting employees and partners to deliver their best work while continuing to build Panorama’s collaborative and adaptive culture.

• Prior to joining Panorama, David served as CFO of Water.org, an international development nonprofit that empowers people with access to safe water and sanitation through affordable financing. He also has over 20 years of experience working in automotive industry management across the U.S. and Asia, serving as global CFO of Mazda Motor Corporation and earlier holding CFO positions within Ford Motor Company.

PUBLICITY ON DR. BOWDEN

When Physicians Spread Unscientific Information About COVID-19 | Public Health | JAMA | JAMA Network

• “Only state medical boards, not any other professional organizations and not the specialty boards that certify physicians, can grant, suspend, or revoke medical licenses, “the most important piece of paper a physician ever gets,” FSMB President and Chief Executive Officer Humayun Chaudhry, DO, said in an interview. State medical boards typically do not make public ongoing investigations.”

• “Traditionally, state medical boards, which predate the internet and social media by decades, have focused on disciplining physicians whose actions caused harm to patients under their care, not to people the physicians have never met who follow them on social media, Chaudhry noted. Boards do not have the resources to scour the internet to find physicians who make false COVID-19 claims and instead depend on members of the public to file complaints about them, he said.”

• “Each case is different, and each board handles complaints differently, depending on the size of their staff and state laws. “We recognize that there are gray areas in medicine,” but even so, whatever physicians claim must be grounded in science, Chaudhry said.”

• “The FSMB has not yet compiled 2021 data, but state medical boards disciplined fewer physicians overall in 2020, the pandemic’s first year, than in 2019. In 2020, among the more than 1 million licensed physicians in the US, state medical boards took disciplinary action against 7112 physicians, compared with 8166 in 2019, according to data supplied by the FSMB. The organization did not provide the reasons physicians were disciplined, including whether any of these actions involved the spread of unscientific information.”

• “Nick Sawyer, MD, MBA, a Sacramento, California, emergency medicine physician, became so frustrated with what he viewed as state medical boards’ inaction over physicians spreading COVID-19 falsehoods that in September he created a nonprofit organization, No License for Disinformation, to get the word out.”

• “Mary Talley Bowden, MD, is a Houston physician accused of promoting antiscience views about COVID-19. Bowden, a board-certified otolaryngologist, was suspended in November 2021 by Houston Methodist Hospital for “spreading dangerous misinformation” about COVID-19, including touting ivermectin. Bowden, who had not admitted any patients to the hospital, resigned shortly after.

• Bowden accused hospitals of hiding what percentage of their COVID-19 patients have been vaccinated, and on January 18, 2022, she sued Houston Methodist in Harris County District Court to obtain that information as well as financial data. “I have no agenda. I have been transparent from the beginning,” Bowden told JAMA. On January 10, 2022, she had tweeted to her more than 50 000 followers (by late January Bowden had more than 70 000 followers) that she “could think of no medically valid reason for anyone to get the vaccine now.” Two weeks later, that tweet had been retweeted more than 1500 times.”

No License for Disinformation is also backed by the De Beaumont Foundation

Located in Bethesda, Maryland

From their website:

Our Mission: Our mission is to advance policy, build partnerships, and strengthen public health to create communities where people can achieve their best possible health.

Our Vision: Our vision is a nation where every person in every community has the opportunity to achieve their best possible health.

Our Focus: Founded in 1998, the de Beaumont Foundation creates and invests in bold solutions that improve the health of communities across the country. We believe that every person should have the opportunity to achieve their best health, regardless of where they live. We focus on improving health at the community level by investing in tools, partnerships, policies, and the public health workforce. When Americans say “health,” they often mean healthcare or health insurance — not community health. Our nation spends more on healthcare than any other developed country, but we rank below comparable countries in nearly every indicator, including life expectancy, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, lung disease, and alcohol- and drug-related deaths. Healthcare that focuses on individuals after they’ve become sick falls short because it doesn’t address the many social and economic factors that influence health. In comparison to healthcare, public health is underfunded and undervalued, and our goal is to help close that gap by investing in lasting solutions to improve health.

What We Do:

• Policy: We advance policies that improve community health, so that current and future generations can benefit from changes enacted by today’s leaders.

• Partnerships: We build partnerships, often among unlikely allies, so that leaders can achieve the shared goal of creating healthier communities.

• People: We create practical solutions that strengthen the public health system and workforce, so that professionals are equipped to make their communities healthier.

Core Beliefs:

• Every person in every community should have the opportunity to obtain their best possible health.

• Health is more than healthcare. We approach our work with the knowledge that many factors influence health.

• Policy is one of the most powerful and effective tools to achieve lasting change and create optimal conditions for health.

• Local approaches and practical solutions are vital to achieving broad, lasting change.

• To make communities healthier, we need strong state and local health departments and a thriving public health workforce.

Our Philanthropy: The Foundation is not a traditional grant-making organization, and we do not accept unsolicited grant proposals. We have a focused portfolio of initiatives designed to build healthier communities where people have the opportunity to achieve their best possible health.

• We invest in areas where our assets will have the greatest influence and impact.

• We are more than a funder. We are hands-on, we create programs, and we stay involved with our partners and initiatives.

• We use research and engage stakeholders to assess gaps, then apply practical tools to address unmet needs.

• We use entrepreneurial problem-solving to design solutions and test them for viability, improving the body of practical evidence for the public health field.

• We invest in measurable, replicable, scalable projects that have the potential for systemic impact.

• Our projects integrate into existing systems to improve the health of communities.

Staff:

• Office of the CEO

  • Brian C. Castrucci – President & Chief Executive Officer

  • Ariel C. Moyer – Chief Operating Officer

  • Jamila M. Porter – Chief of Staff

  • Kim A. Harris – Executive Assistant in the Office of the CEO

• Program Team

  • Brittany Giles-Cantrell – Senior Program Officer

  • Joe Gibson – Informatics Advisor, Senior Project Director for the MADE for Health Justice Project

  • Maddie Kapur – Program Officer

  • Zamir M. Brown – Senior Program Associate

  • Grace Castillo – Program Associate

• Finance and Operations Team

  • Christine Kudrav James – Senior Director of Operations

  • Mawupemor Kofi Alorzuke – Senior Finance and Grants Manager

  • Robyn Spincic – Operations and Grants Manager

• Communications Team

  • Mark R. Miller – Vice President of Communications

  • Julia Haskins – Communications Associate

  • Natalie Mulloy – Communications Associate

• Research, Evaluation and Learning Team

  • Rachel Hare Bork – Senior Research and Evaluation Officer

  • Morial Gendelman – Senior Research Associate

  • Kay Schaffer – Research Associate

• Big Cities Health Coalition Team

  • Chrissie Juliano – Executive Director, Big Cities Health Coalition

  • Lonias Gilmore- Director of Health Equity and Social Justice, Big Cities Health Coalition

  • Elizabeth Green – Communications Director, Big Cities Health Coalition

  • Lauren Talley – Program Assistant, CityHealth and Big Cities Health Coalition

  • Portia Williams – Public Health Associate, Big Cities Health Coalition

• Build Health Challenge Team

  • Emily Yu- Executive Director, BUILD Health Challenge

  • Melissa Monbouquette – Deputy Director, BUILD Health Challenge

• CityHealth Team

  • Katrina Forrest – Co-Executive Director, CityHealth

  • Catherine D. Patterson – Co-Executive Director, CityHealth

  • Akeem Anderson – Government Affairs Director, CityHealth

  • Tom Martin - Director of Communications, CityHealth

  • Kate Conquest – Program Associate, CityHealth

Board:

• James B. Sprague, MD, Chairman

• Brien M. O’Brien, Vice Chair

• Leroy M. Parker, MD, Treasurer

• Richard M. Burnes, Jr., MBA, Investment Committee Chair

• Sir Murray Brennan, GNZM, MD, FACS, Director

• Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, FAPA, Director

• Cara McCarthy Hutchins, Director

• Clarion E. Johnson, MD, Director

• Carol H. Massoni, Director

• John M. Stevens, Director

• Gregory R. Wagner, MD, Director

• Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH, MA, Ex-Officio Member

• IN MEMORY: Edmund B. Cabot, MD, Founding Member
  

Our History: The de Beaumont Foundation was created in 1998 by Pierre S. (Pete) de Beaumont, the founder of the Brookstone Company, with the broad purpose to relieve human suffering. Mr. de Beaumont wanted the Foundation to have a broad mandate and supported a concentration on public health, where he thought his resources could make the biggest impact. He gave the Board of Directors ultimate discretion in the choice of funding priorities. Mr. de Beaumont was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from Harvard University in 1938, he began a successful career as a mechanical engineer with Packard Motor Car Co. (where he was granted several patents) and General Motors. During World War II, he served as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Following the war, he continued his engineering career at Apex Electrical Manufacturing Company and Bostic. In 1965, Mr. de Beaumont and his wife, Mary Deland (Robbins), founded the Brookstone Company. Initially a mail order catalogue, it grew to become a successful chain of retail stores before they retired in 1980 and sold the company to the Quaker Oats Company. The Foundation was fully funded upon Mr. de Beaumont’s death in December 2010.

“DISINFORMATION DOCTORS LICENSED TO MISLEAD”

AVA Report Template (debeaumont.org)

Written by Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH – President and Chief Executive Officer of de Beaumont Foundation and Nick Sawyer, MD, MBA, FACEP – Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician and Executive Director of No License for Disinformation

Foreword: “Most members of the public assume that any licensed doctor will provide them with appropriate, up-to-date, and evidence-based medical care. To wear the white coat, physicians take an oath to do no harm and to practice medicine in accordance with the highest ethical standards. In adhering to that oath, physicians have worked for years to earn and maintain the public’s trust – a level of trust rated higher than most other professionals. An AP-NORC poll revealed that seven in 10 Americans trust their doctors “to do what’s right for them and their families [3].” During the COVID-19 pandemic, polling has consistently found that Americans consider their doctors the most credible source of information about the virus. However, during this ongoing public health emergency that has claimed more than 5 million lives globally, a small minority of physicians have exploited the credibility that comes with their medical licenses to disseminate disinformation to the public. Their lies, distortions, and baseless conspiracy theories have caused unnecessary suffering and death and are prolonging the pandemic. Throughout the country, state medical boards have the responsibility to uphold medical standards and the authority to issue, renew, suspend, or revoke medical licenses. With severe consequences, state medical boards have failed to uphold that trust. Not only have most boards failed to suspend or revoke licenses, but many have rubber-stamped renewals for doctors who are in clear violation of medical standards, which allows them to do more harm with no questions asked.”

“Misinformation, or the propagation of false rumors, represents one dimension of the problem. Its subset, deliberately deceptive disinformation, is another. Misinformation is a public health crisis, and “disinformation doctors” are making it worse. Physicians and other medical professionals who spread disinformation are violating their professional oath, tarnishing the reputation of the medical field, and putting lives at risk.”

“This impacts not only patients with COVID-19, but all who seek care [4]. Nationwide, COVID-19 hotspots have overwhelmed hospital capacity, which in some cases has led to rationing of care [5]. Under these demanding conditions, there have been unprecedented levels of burnout among healthcare workers [6] and hospitals are facing critical nursing shortages [7].”

“This report documents the urgent need for state medical boards to investigate physicians who are publicly and intentionally spreading false information. The examples in this report are just a small sample, but they have an outsized impact in distorting public perceptions of the pandemic.”

“State medical boards and other governing bodies must step in to protect patients, the public, and healthcare workers, and to help end the pandemic.”