The Summary
- Kash Patel, Trump s pick for FBI director, promoted a supplement company that claims to help people detox from Covid vaccines.
- The company is one of many that trade on unfounded anti-vaccine beliefs.
- Covid vaccines have overwhelmingly been shown to be safe, and no supplement has been found to alleviate side effects.
This year, Kash Patel, the FBI director nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, advertised a line of supplements that make unsubstantiated claims to aid in detoxification after the COVID vaccine.
In February and April, Patel promoted the supplements in posts on Trump Media & Technology Group’s social media platform, Truth Social.
He tagged Warrior Essentials and included a link to their website in one post that read, “Mrna detox, reverse the vaxx n get healthy.” In another, he said, “Spike the Vax, order this homerun kit to rid your body of the harms of the vax.” Since the posts were not identified as paid promotions, it is unclear if they were.
Warrior Essentials offers a product called the Spike Protein Detox Protocol, which consists of up to three supplements that the company says, without proof, would reverse the harm caused by the coronavirus’s spike protein. In order to train the immune system, Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines cause the body to manufacture and combat a modified form of the protein.
Warrior Essentials is one of many businesses that profit on irrational, scientifically unsupported claims regarding the risks of vaccines, which have become increasingly prevalent in alt-right social media since the outbreak.
One of Trump’s most outspoken supporters is Patel, who served as acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller’s chief of staff during the Trump administration. He has sold books and souvenirs by using his connection to Trump. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission report in June, Patel earned $120,000 annually as an independent contractor for Trump Media & Technology Group under a contract that expired in March.
In his role as director of the FBI, Patel would be in charge of approximately 37,000 workers at the leading law enforcement organization in the country and a proposed $11.3 billion yearly budget.
A request for comment from the Trump transition team and Patel’s representative was not answered.
Warrior Essentials expressed their pride in having Kash Patel as an advocate and supporter to NBC News.
We provide practical, scientifically supported solutions that have already assisted thousands of people in regaining their health, the company stated, while the so-called experts who disregarded vaccination damage and promoted failed policies rush to defend their positions.
According to Warrior Essentials, their detox program may eliminate toxins from cells, restore DNA stability, and support the body’s natural internal cellular regeneration process. Two medical specialists say there is no scientific evidence to back any of those statements.
According to Dr. C. Michael White, chairman of the University of Connecticut’s pharmacy practice department, they cannot be certain that their product will accomplish the goals they have for it.
After receiving a vaccination, spike proteins typically leave the body a few weeks later in most people. Covid vaccinations are safe, and severe adverse effects are uncommon, much like other vaccines that have received FDA approval.
Furthermore, according to the specialists, there is no proof that Warrior Essentials supplements will lessen the side effects of vaccines, which are typically mild to moderate and go away quickly. We haven’t identified any supplements that do that.
When it comes to health claims, makers of dietary supplements have greater discretion than those of food or pharmaceutical companies because they are not subject to FDA approval prior to sale. The FDA lacks the capacity to monitor or evaluate every supplement that is sold to consumers, despite having the authority to issue warnings and order recalls.
“Any claim on a supplement bottle is a red flag,” Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, told his patients.
He went on to say that while some individuals have valid concerns about the adverse effects of vaccines, the supplement sector is unregulated, which enables certain manufacturers to exploit customers by marketing untested goods.
According to Cohen, there is a lot of interest in and focus on supplements because of America’s divisiveness and mistrust of science and medicine.
Although hundreds of major studies demonstrate that normal childhood immunizations are safe and protect children from serious disease, Dave and Nancy Flynn, the couple who started Warrior Essentials, have stated that their son was harmed by childhood vaccines in 2006.
The Flynns have disseminated misleading information on COVID vaccines, such as the idea that they change a person’s DNA and release harmful chemicals that remain in the body.
Dr. George Fareed, Warrior Essentials’ principal medical consultant, is a senior fellow at the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, an organization that advocates for unproven Covid treatments like as the antiparasitic medication ivermectin. Requests for comment were not answered by Fareed or the alliance.
On the Warrior Essentials website, a single bottle of the detox supplement with 60 capsules (30 two-pill dosages) costs $75. The three supplements that are sold as part of a complete program cost $150. According to the website, the tablets should be used for three to twelve months.
According to the Warrior Essentials website’s ingredient list, the supplements include a combination of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and plant extracts, such as zinc, chromium, magnesium, and vitamin D. According to White, it is impossible to determine whether any of those components are safe or helpful in this particular situation, even though they might have health benefits when taken alone. According to him, the effects of a combination of components can differ from those of a single vitamin or mineral.
Patel is one of the anti-vaccine candidates Trump intends to appoint to important federal positions.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choice for secretary of health and human services, started a well-known anti-vaccine activist group and made a false claim in a 2013 speech that a vague group of people, including vaccine scientists, conspired to conceal vaccines as the cause of autism and ought to be imprisoned.
Dr. Dave Weldon, Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has likewise publicly criticized the organization’s vaccination program.
Others, such as Dr. Martin Makary, Trump’s nominee to head the FDA, and Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Trump’s pick for surgeon general, have voiced doubts or opposition to vaccine requirements, albeit not necessarily to the doses themselves.
Kennedy also pledged to stop the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of supplements and vitamins.
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