Once again, I find myself not having posted new content in a while after having said that I had hoped to get back to regular posting soon. The reasons are numerous and boil down to some bad things having happened in my life over the last few weeks that have taken up a lot of my time to deal with, but you don’t need to know all that. Ironically, though, sometimes when I see something happen relevant to my blogging, particularly when it’s an update to a story that I’ve been writing about for something like two years now, it shakes me out of my torpor. Who knows? It might even be enough to prod me to get back to regular life (and maybe even blogging), especially now that things appear to have stabilized again. So it was when, last week, I noticed that the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) had finally reached the end of a process that had been to this point pathetically slow and revoked the board certifications of two of the biggest quacks to have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, Drs. Pierre Kory and Paul Marik. It’s even shown up in articles in medical news outlets like Medscape:
A story by Lauren Weber and McKenzie Beard was also published in The Washington Post earlier this week, and here’s what happened:
The American Board of Internal Medicine revoked the certifications of Pierre Kory and Paul Marik, two physicians known for continuing to promote ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication, as a treatment for covid long after the medical community found it to be ineffective.
The two men co-founded the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, which experts say spread misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
The Board’s website listed both men’s certifications as “revoked” within the past week. That effectively prevents them from practicing at large hospitals and academic institutions.
While the separate telehealth group that Kory leads states on its website that Kory and another medical provider at the practice have received complaints against their medical credentials, there are no disciplinary actions listed against him in Wisconsin, New York or California, states where Kory is licensed to practice medicine. Marik’s medical license in Virginia expired in 2022, according to the state’s Department of Health Professions.
As I said, better way late than never. Indeed, when I saw this story and others like it, my first thought was: How long has it been since I wrote about the ABIM and these quacks? A quick search showed me that it was a year ago, on August 14, 2023, when I noted: The ABIM acted against COVID-19 antivax quacks…or did it? The reason that I phrased the title that was was because, at the time, Kory, Marik, and their allies in the COVID-19 quackosphere were loudly lamenting that the ABIM was going to revoke their board certifications and ranting about how “corrupt” the ABIM supposedly was. Indeed, here’s a representative report from Anna Merlan:
And, of course, the usual suspects were jumping on the “Persecution!” bandwagon:
Conveniently enough, this provides me an opportunity to remind you that Drs. Marik and Kory are co-founders of the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), a conspiracy-mongering medical pseudo-professional organization that promoted what were at the time unproven—but have since been disproven—treatments for COVID-19, namely hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The FLCCC has since—shall we say?—evolved to become rabidly antivax and promote more general quackery common before the pandemic, such as cancer quackery, vitamin D quackery, and even anti-statin fear mongering. Currently, having lost all professional standing, both do nothing but indulge in grifting under the mantle of the FLCCC and use legal bullying tactics to intimidate critics who call them out for that into silence, such as Allison Neitzel. You might remember how they sued Dr. Neitzel to silence her and ultimately forced her to “apologize,” having observed that she was a young physician fresh out of medical school and therefore without the financial resources that would be required to defend against such legal thuggery, even siccing conspiracy-mongering “journalists” like Paul Thacker on her to falsely claim that, because Dr. Neitzel never got a state medical license, her billing herself as a “physician” was supposedly a lie. As Dr. Neitzel and many others pointed out to the ever haplessly clueless hack conspiracy theorist, it was not, because medical licensure is not a requirement for one to be able to call oneself a physician. Having graduated from medical school is, and Dr. Neitzel did that.
Let’s just say that it is very satisfying to see these particularly odious quacks get their comeuppance, however late. Let’s also just say that one advantage of not being all over this story as soon as it broke earlier in the week is that I get to observe the tears of Marik, Kory, and their admirers, starting with the quacks themselves, who promptly issued a statement on the FLCCC website entitled American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Punishes Doctors Advocating for Early COVID Treatment and Debating COVID-19 Vaccine Safety by Revoking Board Certifications, complete with a video of Marik and Kory “discussing” the ABIM decision. Their complaints, of course, are entirely predictable to anyone who’s ever seen the reactions of quacks to being disciplined by any professional body, be it a state medical board or a certifying board like ABIM, consequences that quacks like Kory and Marik suffer far too seldom. That’s right! They portray themselves as “brave maverick doctors” who are really and truly evidence-based but are being “persecuted” by “consensus-driven” medical authorities. Here’s just a taste:
“True progress in medicine depends on the free exchange of ideas and the courage to challenge established norms,” said Dr. Paul Marik. “Without open scientific debate, we risk losing the opportunity to discover better treatments, such as proven repurposed drugs for new viruses, and to provide the best patient care and save lives. It’s essential that we continue to discuss and debate all perspectives if we are to uphold the integrity of our profession.”
This is not just about the certifications of Drs. Marik and Kory—this is a broader fight for the future of healthcare, where physicians can practice medicine based on science and conscience, without undue interference or fear of retribution. The decision by the ABIM is not only an attack on the professional integrity of these doctors but also a direct threat to the freedom of medical practitioners around the world.
“The FLCCC Alliance firmly believes that the essence of medical science lies in the open dialog and exchange of ideas and the rigorous debate of differing perspectives,” said President and Chief Medical Officer FLCCC Alliance Dr. Joseph Varon. “However, the actions of the ABIM reflect a troubling trend towards censoring any opinions that challenge the status quo, thereby stifling innovation and harming the doctor-patient relationship.”
Longtime readers of this blog will immediately recognized that this rhetoric is the very same rhetoric that quacks have used for literally decades. Close your eyes, and you can envision almost exactly the same statement coming from cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski, antivax quacks like Paul Thomas, Mark Geier, Bob Sears, Rashid Buttar, or any number of other quacks whom I’ve discussed during the last two decades, including many pre-pandemic quacks. Basically, COVID-19 quacks have predictably copied the same rhetoric that quacks always use when criticized or disciplined by authorities like the ABIM:
- Appeals to “open debate” and the “free exchange of ideas”
- Crying “Censorship!” and that they are being “silenced”
- Portraying the criticism or discipline as an attack on “medical freedom”
- Falsely claiming that their quackery is “evidence-based”
- Claiming to be defending the “doctor-patient relationship”
Basically…
Unsurprisingly, another prominent COVID-19 quack, namely Dr. William Makis, inventor of the false entity known as “turbo cancer” supposedly caused by COVID-19 vaccines, jumped into the fray, ranting, Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Paul Marik have their American Board of Internal Medicine certifications revoked – this is a very bad sign, we may soon be locked down with another Pandemic. and republishing a post by Michael Nevradakis from—where else?—Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s antivax organization Children’s Health Defense calling the ABIM action “medical warfare” and “medical lawfare.” I laughed at that last phrase, given that the ABIM is not a state medical board or federal entity regulating medicine; it is an entirely private organization that certifies that physicians meet a certain level of training, knowledge, and expertise to be certified in their specialties, its purview being internal medicine and its subspecialties (e.g., cardiology, oncology, critical care medicine, etc.).
Admittedly, if you as a physician don’t have in addition to your valid state medical license a valid, up-to-date board certification in a recognized medical specialty, you will find it very difficult to practice in a large hospital or, perhaps even more importantly for most physicians, to be accepted as a provider by various health insurance plans. In large urban areas, for all practical purposes you will be unlikely to be able to practice at all without board certification. However, none of this applies to either Dr. Marik, whose license to practice medicine expired in 2022, thus rendering his board certification status moot as far as practicing medicine, or Dr. Kory, who has now devoted his entire practice to cash (or credit card)-on-the-barrelhead FLCCC quackery, making it irrelevant to him whether he is eligible to be reimbursed by health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid for his “services,” such as they are.
Indeed, quacks who have lost their board certification even tend to admit as much, that the loss doesn’t materially affect them. What does gall them, however, is this, as Nevradakis notes about Dr. Meryl Nass (who lost her state medical license for her COVID-19 quackery and misinformation) and Dr. Kory:
Marik and Nass outlined the difficulties of practicing medicine without certification.
“It doesn’t affect us directly, but it affects us indirectly because we’re being accused of committing offenses that are just not true,” Marik said. “The indirect impact to our reputation … it’s a slap in the face, basically, for all the hard work we’ve done.”
Accusing the ABIM of being part of the “medical-industrial complex,” Marik said, “They seem more interested in making money than in protecting physicians. There have been a number of lawsuits against ABIM, so they don’t have the best of reputations. But unfortunately, they are the main certifying organization in the U.S., so they have enormous power and leverage.”
“If I get my license back — a big if, without board certification, I would have great difficulty getting hospital privileges and collecting insurance reimbursements. In other words, I would be unemployable, though I could potentially work on my own if patients paid me directly,” Nass said.
This is exactly what quacks do, though. They set up a clinic where they see patients and charge them high fees for their services, not to mention also to purchase their supplements and other snake oil. Lack of board certification doesn’t affect them at all. Sometimes even a lack of a medical license doesn’t either. Andrew Wakefield, for example, famously ran Thoughtful House, an antivax autism quack clinic, for years. He couldn’t see patients himself, but he oversaw the treatments there provided by quacks who worked for the clinic.
The funny thing is, it is actually true that the ABIM has been credibly accused by legitimate non-quack doctors of being more interested in milking board certification and its now extensive “maintenance of certification” requirements for profit, to the point where there has been a real groundswell of criticism of some of the more onerous requirements dating back years. However, none of that has anything to do with what the ABIM has decided with respect to quacks like Kory and Marik. If anything, the ABIM let these two quacks off the hook for far too long and continues to do so for numerous other quacks, not just COVID-19 quacks.
In the end, of course, much of the outrage over the ABIM’s long overdue decision is performative. The decision won’t materially affect the activities of Kory or Marik much, if at all. Marik can still associate himself with FLCCC, and Kory can still sell whatever COVID-19 quackery he wants, as long as he maintains his state medical license. That’s not to say that there is no value in the ABIM’s action; there most certainly is. If there weren’t, you wouldn’t see Kory, Marik, and their allies expressing such outrage over it. As Marik says in the quote above, it hurts their reputations, at least outside of quack circles. On the other hand, his crocodile tears rather amuse me, given that, inside quack circles at least, his loss of ABIM certification will burnish his reputation as a “brave maverick” who stood up to The Man and “suffered” for it.
6 replies on “Better late than never, the ABIM finally revokes two board certifications”
Would have been nice to revoke cerifications of Ladapo and McCullough as well.
Hey, enough of the Ivermectin-bashing! I know a guy who took it and got all better!
He had an intestinal parasite. That is the on-label use. It is, of course, useless against COVID-19.
Speaking of turbo cancer, our local (Kalamazoo) station featured a full measure segment with (disgraced) reporter Cheryl Atkinson on turbo cancer. Dr. Nathan Goodyear (medical doctor, an alternative treatment homeopath, and integrative oncologist) was the “expert” interviewed. I believe you’ve mentioned him before.
Sinclair owned stations are the worst.
In other news,,,,,
RFKjr may drop out and support Trump ( quelle surprise) who may give him a post in his administration. MSN
As Secretary of Mindless Drivel? Dept of Mis-information?
NIH Director.
It’s about time. Although, well after the horses have left the barn, the horses died, the barn collapsed and a new barn was built in its place.
Unfortunately, people like Kory and Marik are made invincible by their profoundly idiotic audience and their enablers in the “enlightened centrist” media.
We can soon expect that this “censorship” will be leveraged into a grievance tour, because this is just proof that they are providing information that “they don’t want you to know”.