Fake doctor falsely claims he has coronavirus cure and a 2003 Olympic medal, feds say
Gordon Pedersen told televangelist Jim Bakker in 2011 that 51% of Americans would die from the bird flu within four months — but his “silver solution” would protect them.
Now he’s peddling it as a cure for the coronavirus, prosecutors say.
A federal judge ordered Pedersen — who claims to have “four doctor’s degrees” and a Bronze medal from the “2003 Utah Winter Games” — to stop promoting his silver products as a treatment for COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday in a news release.
He does not have a doctorate in medicine and is not a licensed physician in Utah, according to a federal complaint. The Winter Olympics in Utah were also held in 2002.
Silver “isn’t considered safe or effective,” has no known purpose in the human body and is not considered an essential mineral — despite what some sellers claim, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“Even in a time of great uncertainty, there are at least two unchanging realities. There are those who would unlawfully exploit our vulnerabilities, and there are those who will hold such parties accountable,” U.S. Attorney John W. Huber said in the release.
‘Usher’ out the coronavirus
According to the complaint, Pedersen started lauding his silver products as a treatment for COVID-19 on Jan. 30 in a YouTube video in which he claimed having silver in his bloodstream would “usher” the coronavirus out of his body.
“Because the Coronavirus is a virus and it has been proven that Alkaline Structured Silver will destroy all forms of viruses, it will help protect people from the Coronavirus,” he said in a Feb. 3 press release.
Pedersen also claimed a silver lozenge would give 25 minutes of “silver protection” from viruses and said he went to France and Italy on a cruise during the pandemic because he was so confident in the protection silver supposedly offers, the complaint states.
“I’ve been in all these tough areas and I’ve been drinking the liquid silver, I’ve been using the gel on my hands, I put the liquid in my [Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)] machine… Isn’t that kind of a ventilator? Isn’t that what they’re kind of doing right now when people get really really sick?” he said in a March 31 YouTube video.
The silver products listed for sale on his “My Doctor Suggests” website — which has since been taken down — ran for anywhere from $20 for a 16-ounce mouthwash to $299 for a one-gallon jug of silver solution.
In a temporary restraining order filed Tuesday, a federal judge in Utah barred Pedersen from further promoting the product as a cure or treatment for any disease — including COVID-19 — until a hearing on May 12.
All of Pedersen’s assets have also been temporarily frozen, according to the Justice Department.
Ties to Jim Bakker
Bakker is accused of touting a similar cure in February, the Kansas City Star reported.
During a Feb. 12 episode of The Jim Bakker Show, his guest Sherill Sellman said Silver Solution would not only kill the coronavirus but “has been proven by the government that it has the ability to kill every pathogen it has ever been tested on including SARS and HIV,” according to the Star.
It’s not the first time.
In a 2011 episode featuring Pedersen, Bakker claimed daily usage of silver could help prevent swine and bird Flu.
“Silver does what God created it to do and your body is pre-programed to utilize its healing properties,” Pedersen said during the show. “For that reason, you can have protection, prevention and all these benefits that God has put into the silver. Science just discovers it.”
Bakker called Pedersen “our dear friend” while promoting silver solution “love gifts” costing viewers anywhere from $100 to $900. The “starter kit” also included Pedersen’s book “A Fighting Chance: How to Win the War Against Virus and Bacteria with Silver.”
Bakker is now asking for donations to save his ministry from bankruptcy after credit card companies cut him off for selling his “silver solution” as a cure for the coronavirus, McClatchy News reported.
