Oregon doctor and staff refuse to wear masks during pandemic, calling Covid a ‘common cold’

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IMAGE: Dr. Steven LaTulippe’s office (Google maps)

An Oregon doctor said in a recently released video that staff at his clinic did not wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic and called Covid-19 a “common cold.”

Doctor Steven LaTulippe made the comments on Nov. 7 during a “Stop the Steal” rally in support of President Donald Trump in Salem to a group gathered outside the State Capitol.

“I want to expose what I call corona mania,” says LaTulippe in a video shared on YouTube by the Multnomah County Republicans political group and first reported by NBC affiliate KGW from Portland.

“I want you to know that I never closed during the entire Covid season. … I hate to tell you this, I could scare you, but me and my staff, neither of us wore a mask in my clinic, “He continued as the crowd cheered. “And how many problems have we had in our clinic because of that? Zero. Absolutely none.”

LaTulippe, owner of South View Medical Arts in Dallas, southwest of Portland, said he has treated nearly 80 patients with Covid-19. Before taking the microphone, he was introduced as a doctor who was going to talk about “Covid myths”.

“We were completely duped, and I want you to know that this is madness and that the purpose was only to silence the American people. It is a threat to your freedom, a threat to our Constitution. ask everyone, take off the mask of shame, ”said LaTulippe.

“It’s a mask that’s just designed to control and stop you,” he said, calling the virus, which has killed more than 271,000 people in the United States, a “cold virus”.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, LaTulippe doubled down on his anti-mask stance, saying he disagreed with wearing masks because he believed “there was bad science behind it.”

“I have absolutely no infectivity problem, and I have totally effective treatments, so I ask, ‘What’s the problem?’ Why would I be demonized if I know what I’m doing? ” he said.

“I have a very rigid protocol around the virus and influenza season in my clinic, and it has been working very well for me for years,” he continued. “I have never seen any of my staff or myself get sick.”

In a Nov. 20 report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said seven studies conducted in various settings “confirmed the value of universal masking in community-level analyzes.”

“Each scan has shown that, following the guidelines of organizational and political leaders for universal masking, new infections have declined dramatically,” the CDC said.

Although LaTulippe refuses to wear a mask, he said he asks patients who believe they have Covid-19 or who are showing symptoms of the virus to wear them.

He sees them at the end of the day after all of his other patients have left and treats them in a back room that is disinfected before and after they leave.

“I am very interested in solid medical practice and I am interested in good science,” he said. “And when science and medicine become perverted by corrupt politics, then I’m ready to fight, and that’s what made me go to this rally and say what I said.”

His comments contradict an executive order from Governor Kate Brown that requires medical professionals to wear face masks at all times in health units, with a few exceptions, according to KGW.

The CDC and the Federation of State Medical Boards also said that healthcare workers should wear masks to help prevent the spread of the virus.

The Oregon Medical Council said it could not comment on specific cases, but said in a statement Wednesday that failure to follow state orders and guidelines could result in disciplinary action.

The council’s website showed no action against LaTulippe.

“Unprofessional conduct includes, but is not limited to, conduct that endangers or could endanger the health or safety of the public. This includes failure to comply with a decree issued by the governor or failure to comply with guidelines from a public body applicable at the time and location the licensee practices medicine, ”the council said in his statement.