GcMAF defender Amanda Jewell returned to Facebook despite the ban

• Amanda Mary Jewell, a Briton operating from Ecuador, reappeared on Facebook a few months after being banned.
• Jewell was promoting the unlicensed drug GcMAF, claiming without evidence that it could cure diseases like cancer and autism.
• Facebook previously deleted her after a Business Insider investigation, but she returned under a pseudonym and founded a new group that grew to nearly 1,500 members.
• Business Insider has established that her pseudonym – MaryJayne Watts – and Jewell are in fact the same person, although Jewell has subsequently denied knowing Watts.
• In an email exchange in July, Jewell, as Watts, recommended that a woman spend more than $ 12,000 on GcMAF to help with severe lung cancer.
• When Facebook was alerted again to its activities, Watts’ page and the group were deleted.
• In a message to Business Insider, Jewell denied selling GcMAF or breaking the law in any way.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

A woman who used Facebook to advertise an unlicensed drug as a miracle cure returned to the platform after being banned.

Amanda Mary Jewell, a British woman operating in Ecuador, was able to replenish some of her audience for the substance, called GcMAF, despite previous action against her.

It was deleted again after Business Insider alerted Facebook.

Jewell has made miraculous claims about the properties of GcMAF, claiming that it can cure cancer and autism. In fact, it has no proven medical use, and US and UK regulators have told Business Insider people shouldn’t be using it.

Some people who have used it have reported painful side effects, according to evidence from a trial of the drug in the UK.

Business Insider wrote about Jewell’s activities in October 2019, when she ran a closed group called GcMAF Oracle with some 7,000 members and had a personal account under her real name.

Facebook deleted the two after Business Insider pointed out that they had violated the platform’s policies prohibiting medical disinformation.

However, in the months that followed, Jewell reappeared on Facebook under the pseudonym MaryJayne Watts.

She also ran another group, this time called The Healing Oracle. Before its closure, it had at least 1,470 members and was also used to promote GcMAF, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Facebook

A Business Insider investigation established that Watts and Jewell are the same person. Watts’ profile photo was a picture of Jewell, and his posts described life in Ecuador, where Jewell is based.

A woman who identified herself as Jewell responded to an issue given to Business Insider for Watts. Their group names and shared content were also almost identical there.

Jewell first answered questions about the Healing Oracle group and confirmed that she was a director before hanging up.

However, in response to later questions about the Watts alias, Jewell replied, “I don’t know the Watts woman.”

When Business Insider highlighted the Healing Oracle group on Facebook, it deleted the group, along with the MaryJayne Watts profile.

After the pages closed, an associate, Martin Buckwell, posted from the Watts account that “his return to Facebook was short-lived and his profile deleted once again.” His account was subsequently withdrawn as well.

“Email for a private conversation”

While live, an article from the Healing Oracle Group said, “If anyone is interested in immunotherapy, including GcMAF and medical marujuana, please let us know.”

It was published by Buckwell, also a group administrator.

“I am,” replied an Australian father, explaining how his partner’s breast cancer had spread to his lungs.

The man has been asked to e-mail “Mary” – the alias – for a “private conversation.”

Meanwhile, Jewell was making medically questionable claims, seeking to back them up with articles from a website, also called Healing Oracle. Jewell herself has no known medical qualifications.

One said: “Here is just one example of how GcMAF cured the rarest of cancers.”

Another said: “It works amazingly well with autism.” It was linked to an article claiming that a boy with severe autism acquired the ability to speak within days of taking the drug.

Facebook

Fiona O’Leary, an autism activist in Ireland, said she had reported the group to Facebook twice before – in May and earlier this month – but the group remained live.

Fake medicine flourishes in pandemic

O’Leary – who has campaigned against medical disinformation for years – said the groups have grown faster during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many cancer patients have seen their regular treatments interrupted as health services diverted their efforts to fight the coronavirus, leading more people to seek unproven treatments.

O’Leary said, “We’ve seen a huge increase in pseudoscience over the past six months because of COVID – which has leaked into these groups for cancer, because these people want to hurry up and get better.”

The Cancer Research UK charity said patients may be particularly vulnerable to unproven therapies they read online.

Martin Ledwick, the group’s head nurse, told Business Insider: “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Emma Dalmayne – another activist – messaged Jewell under a pseudonym. Dalmayne shared messages with Business Insider, including GcMAF price lists and payment and shipping details for the drug Jewell emailed him.

A $ 12,000 class, made in Bulgaria

In the exchange, Dalmayne posed as a patient with lung cancer. Jewell advised her to purchase $ 12,000 worth of GcMAF vials from a Bulgarian supplier, to be injected over a three month period.

Jewell said a patient with stage 4 cancer would have to purchase 36 vials at a cost of € 290 each (about $ 340). The total cost, according to a price list sent by Jewell to Dalmayne, would be € 10,440 or $ 12,300.

Courtesy of Emma Dalmayne

The emails also contain instructions for paying a company called Vigor Life, with bank details at Smolyan, a Bulgarian ski resort near the Greek-Bulgarian border where Jewell once ran a hotel.

Business Insider attempted to contact Vigor Life, but could not find any evidence of a company with that name in Bulgaria.

Jewell’s relationship with GcMAF suppliers is unclear. In her statement to Business Insider, she denied selling the drugs.

Drug Regulators Say: Don’t Use GcMAF

The drug, whose full name is the GC protein-derived macrophage activating factor, is not approved by the UK regulator MHRA or the FDA in the US.

This means that it is illegal to market it as a medicine in both countries.

“GcMAF products can present a significant risk to human health and [we] recommend people not to use them, ”said an MHRA spokeswoman.

“In general, a company must first prove that its pharmaceutical product is safe and effective before it can be marketed,” said Jeremy Kahn, an FDA spokesperson.

British businessman David Noakes, the most prominent drug lawyer, was jailed for 15 months in 2018 for, among other things, the manufacture of GcMAF. He is also awaiting trial in France.

Claims against Noakes included marketing the treatment as a “cure” for cancer, making more than $ 10 million from its sale.

During his trial, the court heard that some of his GcMAF clients complained of side effects, including headaches, nausea and abdominal pain – one of which required multiple trips to the hospital.

Facebook’s response

Business Insider reported on Jewell’s latest Facebook account and group, as well as posts from Buckwell’s account.

The personal profiles and the group were then deleted.

“We do not allow the sale of non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs on Facebook,” a company spokesperson said.

“We have deleted the group and taken action on the accounts brought to our attention,” Facebook added.

During a WhatsApp call, a woman answering a number from MaryJane Watts confirmed that she was Jewell. She denied that the Healing Oracle group was owned by her, but confirmed to be an administrator.

She also said that she was not aware of the deletion of her personal account from the platform, before hanging up.

In a subsequent message, she wrote: “I am not selling any product from any group. Just as I am not wanted for any crime in any country.” She then wrote to deny knowing Watts and then stopped responding to Business Insider messages.

Business Insider has reached out to Buckwell for comment, but has yet to receive a response.