Unmasking COVID-19 Deceptions
Dr. Peter McCullough is globally recognized for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing expert advice when few other doctors would publicly stand for the truth.
Coauthor of The Courage to Face COVID-19, he advocates for patient well-being over governmental, pharmaceutical, or deep state interests.
Note: this is a 4-part series. In Part I, we will get to know Dr. Peter McCullough, learning of his impressive career in medicine, and the importance of his intellectual courage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MA: Iโm so honored to have you here, Dr. McCullough. Could you give us a little background about yourself?
PM: Sure, Iโm delighted. Itโs great to be with you. Iโm Dr. Peter McCullough, a practicing internist and cardiologist in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Iโve been in practice now for decades and am also trained in epidemiology. It turns out thatโs an important discipline to have experience in during these pandemic years.
MA: What motivated you to take such an active role in the pandemic response, and how did your experience in epidemiology influence your approach?
PM: For the last five years, Iโve taken a lead in pandemic response, focusing on what we should do to care for those who have gotten sick with COVID-19 and how we should respond. Iโve advised both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate and testified multiple times. You know, Michael, itโs interestingโthroughout the pandemic, our public health agencies had no Q&A sessions, no town hall meetings, and the medical schools closed their doors. People have had questions theyโve wanted answered for years now.
MA: You displayed tremendous courage as one of the few doctors who did not comply with the sanctioned COVID-19 pandemic responses. How can others, especially those who are fearful, make decisions that exhibit such bravery in these trying times?
PM: Weโre talking about intellectual courage here. Bullets are not flying; buildings are not crumbling. Weโre not scrambling for our lives. But weโve been in this intellectual struggle, of, can we actually face whatโs going on? Or do we want to put our heads in the sand? I think many were especially fearful when their jobs were on the line.
MA: Can you share a specific example of a time when you faced significant backlash for your stance?
PM: When it came down to it, many people said, โSomething is going on. I donโt fully understand it. But boy, if I stand up and say something, I may lose my job.โ Suddenly that job became a real tether for them. Iโm so envious of people who are self-employed. They didnโt have to abide by their employerโs wishes. Were you self-employed through this yourself?
MA: Thankfully, yes.
PM: So, Iโm so envious. You never had the specter of some large corporation trying to force you to do something against your will. You were fortunate. Those who are independent contractors or self-employed had more options. But can you imagine if you were in the Screen Actors Guild?
MA: It would have been very difficult with my livelihood on the line. Considering the importance of public opinion and the potential backlash even self-employed individuals may face for being outspoken, what advice do you have for those wanting to take a public stand now?
PM: Letโs just talk about courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the ability to overcome that fear. Thatโs what weโve learned in this pandemicโthe ability to overcome fear or uncertainty is not that common. Itโs just not.
I never considered myself particularly courageous. Iโve never gone skydiving or done anything physically amazing. I was an academic, a Professor of Medicine. I did what I was supposed to do throughout my career.
Certainly, I made mistakesโwe all do. But there was no checkbox for courage in college, medical school, graduate school, residency, or fellowship, like, โAre you particularly courageous?โ No. And I think there are checkboxes for policemen, firemen, or people in the military, where it really does take courage to throw yourself into a burning building to try to rescue somebody, or it takes guts to jump out of an air transport plane.
Iโm not sure I could do that. Iโm a doctor but I think what Iโve always had in the course of my career is intellectual courage.
MA: How did you navigate the opposition from your peers during your early research and what kept you motivated?
PM: Iโll give you an example. When I was trying to find my way in cardiology research, I was making observations that kidney disease was influencing cardiovascular disease, atherosclerosis, and heart failure. And I remember that with my first observations, people would say, โNo. Now thatโs just confounding. They just have more diabetes and hypertension.โ
I said, โNo, I think itโs actually related to the kidneys themselves.โ And they said, โNo, that canโt be the case.โ Finally, I said, โWait a minute. How do these people know thatโs not the case? Letโs investigate.โ So, I really launched my career going against the mainstream narrative of cardiovascular epidemiology at the time and it led to many discoveries.
For instance, the kidneys produce a series of hormones that speak to the heart. A seminal paper I published as a senior author explained exactly that. It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and other top journals. That was a triumphโit was as good as you can perform in my field in terms of a breakthrough. And it was an in vitro diagnostic breakthrough.
Back then the naysayers said, โNo, we donโt need a test to help us with this.โ I went lecturing across the globe on this matter. That took intellectual courage.
MA: Did you have any mentors or influences who helped shape your approach to medicine, fostering such intellectual courage?
PM: I do give credit to a mentor: Dr. William OโNeill. When I was a fellow, he was going up against a different narrative. At the time, the most dangerous heart attack was called an ST segment elevation myocardial infarction, and the standard of care was to give an expensive Big Pharma drug called TPA. The company promoting this was Genentech. They were in bed with the Cleveland Clinic, and the Chief of Cardiology, Eric Topol, had a deal where he was getting stock certificates every time doctors prescribed TPA.
MA: What specific lessons from your mentor were most impactful in your approach to handling the COVID-19 pandemic?
PM: Back when I was at another hospital, Dr. William OโNeill, who previously supervised Eric Topol at University of Michigan, recruited me and others. We formed this kind of dream team in cardiology. We set out to successfully demonstrate it was better to get catheters up in the heart and open up the blood vessels. Thatโs called primary angioplasty. We went up against Genentech as a ragtag team of community hospitals and we prevailed. We published paper after paper.
We changed care in the United States after that because we refused to do what everyone else said. Eventually, the Genentech product died out. Nobody used it. A brand-new revolution began in cardiology. Then sure enough, when COVID started, I proposed we treat patients early to prevent hospitalization and death, something that should be so simple to everyone. But the orthodoxy tried to shut us down. They said, โNo. donโt touch this illness.โ
MA: You mentioned being brave doesnโt mean proceeding without fear. Rather, itโs being able to summon courage despite feeling fearful. Youโre essentially pushing through it. Is that correct?
PM: Thatโs true. It also takes confidence. Look at the film Braveheart. Mel Gibson plays the Sottish warrior William Wallace who leads the charge to free his country from English tyranny. Heโs confident. Iโve always considered myself a very confident person. Itโs just in my makeup. Years ago I was blessed to have dinner with Larry King, the famous interviewer, before he died. I asked him, โHow could you interview Brezhnev and all these heads of state around the world?โ
He said, โPeter, I was born confident. When I was a little kid in New York City, I was always the most confident kid on the block.โ So, Larry King was also inherently confident. Iโd characterize myself as inherently confident in my approach, my analytics, and my principles. In medicine, of course, we rely on scientific principles as well as strong evidence and data.
Iโve made hundreds and hundreds of media appearances over the last five years. People have repeatedly said, โDr. McCullough always cites his information.โ Thatโs because Iโve had the discipline to commit things to memory.
MA: How did all that confidence and preparation help you in your media appearances and congressional testimonies?
PM: I testified in the US House of Representatives on January 12, 2024, just a few days after Dr. Anthony Fauci was there before the same committee. They grilled me for hours. All along, I cited paper after paper Iโd committed to memory. Iโd practice beforehand. Iโd get up in the morning and Iโd practice. I donโt have a photographic memory.
Itโs just that I work hard. At one point, I did get a chance to ask the committee something. โListen,โ I said. โIโve been at this for hours now, citing dozens and dozens of papers. You just had Dr. Anthony Fauci in this chamber. I bet he didnโt cite a single paper.โ They said, โYouโre correct, Dr. McCullough. He couldnโt cite a single paper supporting his statements.โ
MA: Thatโs so frustrating. Especially since Dr. Fauci was all but deified by the legacy media.
PM: Dr. Scott Atlas wrote the book A Plague Upon Our House, had face-to-face interactions with Fauci for months. Scott said Fauci did not know the studies he should have been citing, nor did he know the data. According to Scott, Fauci was so incompetent, he couldnโt even pronounce long medical words. At times he was almost worse than a medical student.
MA: Again, thatโs disheartening, especially since so many people in legacy media and our politicians still revere him as the definitive COVID expert.
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