A doctor derided mask wearing. His medical license has been suspended.
Deriding mask-wearing, Steven LaTulippe has touted his credentials as a “practicing physician.” Last month, he urged Trump supporters gathered in Salem, Ore., to “take off the mask of shame” — though hardly a covered face was in sight — and said proudly, to claps and cheers, that none of his clinic staff wore the simple accessories shown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“And how many problems did we have in our clinic from that?” he asked. “Zero! Absolutely none.”
LaTulippe’s license to practice medicine has now been suspended.
Explaining the suspension in a written order Friday, the Oregon Medical Board said LaTulippe’s disdain for public health measures went far beyond staff going maskless. The Dallas, Ore.-based doctor not only fails to take basic precautions, the board said, but “actively promotes transmission of the virus within the extended community” by his poor example. The board alleges that LaTulippe regularly misinforms patients — especially elderly ones and children — with warnings that mask-wearing is “very dangerous” and can lead to serious health issues.
LaTulippe’s conduct “is contrary to medical ethics and does or might constitute a danger to the health or safety of the public,” the board’s suspension order states.It accuses him of “gross negligence.”
The Washington Post could not immediately reach LaTulippe for comment Saturday evening.
The state board’s catalogue of concerns begins with LaTulippe’s alleged July advice to a patient. According to the board, LaTulippe told the patient that wearing masks does not prevent the spread of the coronavirus and instructed against isolating because exposure to other people would give the patient immunity to covid-19.
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The person was “terminated as a patient” a few weeks later, the board says, after questioning LaTulippe’s advice.
LaTulippe also urged people entering his clinic to remove their masks, according to the state board, and directed people to a YouTube video with misinformation. The board dismisses the doctor’s reported claims that masks will harm people by increasing their levels of carbon dioxide: “The amount of carbon dioxide re-breathed within a mask is trivial,” the order for license suspension states.
A board investigator who visited LaTulippe’s clinic Wednesday found not only a lack of masks but also no coronavirus screening measures such as temperature-taking and no hand sanitizer in the waiting area, according to the order. A notice told visitors about carbon dioxide toxicity “warning signs,” it says.
Many scientific studies have found that new infections fell notably after leaders instructed people to consistently wear masks. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Senate in September that masks are “the most important, powerful public health tool we have” for combating the pandemic.
LaTulippe has defended his positions in public, telling NBC News in a recent interview that he believes there is “bad science” behind mask-wearing recommendations. Speaking at last month’s Salem gathering of Trump supporters — who had rallied around false claims of a stolen election — LaTulippe said he wants to expose “corona mania” and claimed that coronavirus has “been with us forever.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/12/05/doctor-steven-latulippe-license-suspended/