A San Diego doctor who boasted he had a miracle cure for COVID-19, at the height of the pandemic and before vaccines were available, has been sentenced to 30 days in prison and a year of home confinement.
Jennings Staley pleaded guilty last year to offering people a “miracle cure” in March and April 2020 as they isolated while the pandemic was at its zenith.
His “miracle cure” was hydroxychloroquine, often prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and to treat malaria, reports The Washington Post. The drug was repeatedly touted by Donald Trump, in the early days of COVID-19, as a “game changer”. Trump’s endorsement caused demand for the drug to spike, leading to shortages and ultimately affecting those who needed it for non-COVID health problems.
Studies later found hydroxychloroquine was not effective treatment for COVID and did not prevent people from becoming sick
In mass-marketing emails from his business, Staley said the drug was included in his coronavirus “treatment kits,” despite the medication becoming increasingly scarce. He told an undercover federal agent he planned to smuggle in a barrel of hydroxychloroquine powder through a Chinese supplier.
Federal agents began investigating Staley after concerned customers alerted the FBI to his marketing emails.
The COVID treatment kit came with a 30-day “concierge medical experience”, intravenous drips, access to medical hyperbaric oxygen (at an extra fee), and prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and anti-anxiety medications.
The doctor claimed hydroxychloroquine was a “magic bullet” and an “amazing cure” that would keep someone immune from COVID for at least six weeks.
Staley was charged in mid-April 2020 and pleaded guilty in July 2021. As part of his sentencing, he had to pay a $10,000 fine and hand over “more than 4,500 tablets of various pharmaceutical drugs, multiple bags of empty pill capsules, and a manual capsule-filling machine”.
His licence has been suspended.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
WHO expert panel strongly advises against use of hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19
Hydroxychloroquine fails to prevent COVID-19 in health care workers — US/Canada trial
Yale professor criticised by peers over advocacy of hydroxychloroquine
WHO discontinues hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir treatment arms for COVID-19