The Wellness Company ads promise to “Make Care Great Again” by hawking MAGA’s failed miracle cures.
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For most Americans, the ivermectin-for-COVID-19 craze — promoted by MAGA politicians, discredited doctors, and Joe Rogan — was a strange chapter of the pandemic from which they’ve happily moved on.
But as those following far-right politics know, the deworming medication — which has no efficacy against COVID-19 — has latched onto the MAGA movement like, dare I say, a parasite.
REPORTER: I've spoken with some economists about your tariff proposals and they say they don't see how it won't make items cost more–
TRUMP: I don't need Congress, but they'll approve it. I'll have the right to impose them myself if they don't. pic.twitter.com/YuRHvzCkE3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 23, 2024
Advertisements for “contagion kits” containing ivermectin as well as hydroxychloroquine, the Donald Trump-promoted first pandemic miracle cure, have been frequent fixtures on the conservative Right Side Broadcasting Network, which streams Trump’s rallies and campaign events. The ads were recently featured on RSBN’s broadcast of Trump’s deeply unsettling Madison Square Garden event.
JD Vance: "I've got the easiest job in American politics. All I've gotta do is remind people what life was like when Donald Trump was president." pic.twitter.com/ez3U1axssC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 27, 2024
The website included in these ads, MakeCareGreatAgain.com, routes to a page on the website of The Wellness Company, which hawks the kits as well as supplements, and features disgraced doctors-turned-right-wing-stars like anti-vax cardiologist Peter McCullough in its leadership circle.
MakeCareGreatAgain.com — not to be confused with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” partnership with Trump — features the tag line “healthcare without the propaganda” above information for the $299 kits. This is ironic for various reasons, including previous promotion of the kits by far-right influencer Lauren Chen of the Tenet Media Russian influencer funding scandal.
Additionally, as discussed in previous WhoWhatWhy reporting, the owner of The Wellness Company is also behind Vigilant News Network (VNN) — which publishes medical and political articles of extremely questionable caliber, aggregating from sources like Kennedy’s anti-vax Children’s Health Defense and the far-right conspiracy-oriented website Gateway Pundit.
A recent CBC News exposé on The Wellness Company’s Canadian founder Foster Coulson discussed his array of businesses — including VNN, a dating site for the unvaccinated, and a coffee company marketed as “anti-woke” — and their promotion by bankrupt Sandy Hook conspiracist Alex Jones, accused human trafficker Andrew Tate, disgraced Trump confidant Laura Loomer, and Donald Trump Jr.
Following the release of the damning reporting, Coulson responded on Twitter/X, saying, “Hard to believe standing up for basic human rights and freedoms is so polarizing,” which is quite clearly not what he and his business portfolio are doing.
As the CBC reported, Coulson’s descent from Canadian aviation heir to MAGA salesman began via an introduction to the late Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, who promoted hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 and got the ear of then-President Trump early in the pandemic. As previous WhoWhatWhy reporting examined, the initial group to promote hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, America’s Frontline Doctors, was created in a partnership with the 2020 Trump campaign after the former president began touting the drug as a pandemic “game changer” in March 2020.
As with Coulson, hydroxychloroquine appears to have been the MAGA entry point for both McCullough, The Wellness Company’s “chief scientific officer,” and Dr. Harvey Risch, the company’s “chief epidemiologist.” Risch and McCullough appeared at a November 2020 hearing hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) promoting “early treatment” with the anti-malarial for COVID-19. A Johnson-hosted hearing the following month introduced ivermectin for the virus.
Coulson has used the work of The Wellness Company’s doctors with Congress as validation, despite the fact that Johnson’s hearings and panels have been repeatedly discredited for spreading misinformation. Risch and McCullough were featured in a 2022 report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis regarding efforts of Trump insiders — including Johnson — to push hydroxychloroquine after it had proven ineffective against COVID-19 in June 2020.
And, as previously discussed, McCullough leveraged a concerning past as an editor of a cardiology journal to produce pro-ivermectin and pro-hydroxychloroquine papers. He managed to co-publish a hydroxychloroquine-for-COVID-19 paper as recently as last year, though it has been flagged with an expression of concern. In January, he co-published an article in a low-tier journal about COVID-19 vaccine harms, which was retracted the following month.
The cardiologist has made wild claims about supposed dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines, going so far as to accuse those who have pushed the life-saving shots of “a crime against humanity” and “mass negligent homicide.”
Thanks to the vaccine hysteria that people like McCullough induced, an estimated 232,000 Americans died preventable unvaccinated COVID-19 deaths. Quality research into COVID-19 vaccine side effects has shown harm to be exceedingly rare, and the science behind The Wellness Company’s McCullough-backed vaccine detox supplements has been debunked.
McCullough has capitalized on more tragedy, using the recent hurricanes that hit the southeastern US as an opportunity to hawk The Wellness Company’s offerings. The “health freedom” company previously attempted to use the train derailment in East Palestine, OH, for marketing last year.
Despite having received notice from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) that his board certifications were to be revoked, McCullough still holds active certifications. The ABIM, it should be noted, has revoked board certifications for the physicians who founded the original ivermectin-for-COVID-19 group, the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). While FLCCC members are not involved with The Wellness Company, VNN features on its website a handful of “guest posts” from the Alliance, which continues to tout the drug for COVID-19.
As the CBC reporting notes, The Wellness Company’s operation in Coulson’s native Canada was shut down last fall by Health Canada, the Canadian equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for “selling and advertising unauthorized natural health products and manufacturing health products without the required licenses.”
In the US, the supplement market is largely unregulated, with minimal oversight, and The Wellness Company continues on with its business and advertising — and maintains its place in MAGA world.
