Oregon doctor suspended his license after saying he and his staff did not wear masks



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The Oregon Medical Council suspended the license of an Oregon doctor who said he refused to wear a mask in his clinic while encouraging others not to wear masks.

Dr Steven LaTulippe told a pro-Trump rally in November that neither he nor his staff wore masks when working at their clinic in Dallas, Oregon. This violates a state order requiring healthcare workers to wear face masks in healthcare settings.

Members of the medical council voted Thursday night to immediately suspend LaTulippe’s license. According to a statement posted on the Oregon Medical Board website, the suspension was pronounced “due to the council’s concern for the safety and well-being of the licensee’s current and future patients.”

The indefinite suspension prevents LaTulippe from practicing medicine anywhere in the state. LaTuilippe ran a family medicine clinic called South View Medical Arts in Dallas, Ore.

His anti-mask comments came during a “Stop the Steal” campaign rally in Salem on November 7. The video was posted to YouTube by the Multnomah County Republican Party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc_Qv5plZ3I

“Me and my staff, none of us, not once, wore a mask in my clinic,” LaTulippe said at the rally. He also encouraged others not to wear masks, saying people should “take off the mask of shame”.

The statements contradict the advice of state, federal and private medical experts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federation of State Medical Boards urge healthcare professionals to always wear face masks inside healthcare facilities.

In an updated report in late November, the CDC reiterated that several studies have shown that the widespread use of sheet masks controls the spread of COVID-19.

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

LaTuilppe did not respond to a phone call Friday morning asking for his reaction to the suspension. He also declined to give an interview when KGW broke the story earlier this week.

He has publicly stated that he has treated around 80 patients for COVID-19, but mistakenly equated the virus with “the common cold.”

Despite his public statements urging people not to wear masks, LaTulippe told NBC News he is asking patients who have suspected cases of COVID-19 to wear a mask in his clinic. He said he treated them after other patients left for the day and in a disinfected back room before and after use.

– This article was originally posted by KGW, one of more than a dozen news organizations across the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus epidemic to help educate Oregon about this evolving health issue.

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