Madonna and Dr. Stella Immanuel
Oh, Madonna, what a ride you’ve taken us in recent months. One second you’re donating 100,000 surgical masks to jails and prisons, they next you’re sharing weird bathtub takes on COVID-19 and paying tribute to George Floyd in the cringiest way possible. Now, you’ve gone and stepped in it again by circulating a video from a fringe group called America’s Frontline Doctors — and getting censored in the process.
In case you missed it (and hopefully you did), on Monday a handful of “doctors” stood on the steps of the US Capitol to deliver a press conference touting the largely unproven effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment or cure. Right-wing news organization Breitbart was the only outlet to livestream the hastily organized event, which quickly drew criticism for misinformation and shady authenticity. The event was put on by Tea Party Patriots, a right-wing nonprofit that’s been vocally against lockdown measures to curb the pandemic. Wearing white coats like costumes and calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors,” the group only registered their website two weeks ago.
One of those doctors was Dr. Stella Immanuel. In the clip, she claimed, “We don’t need masks. There is a cure;” questioned published research as “fake science;” and called any health professional unwilling to prescribe hydroxychloroquine “good Nazis.” She’s also a minister that practices medicine out of the Fire Power Ministries Christian Resource Center in Houston. Videos of her sermons and articles on her website claims infertility is caused by having sex with witches and demons in the dreamworld; abortion, gay marriage, and kids’ toys are part of an Illuminati plan to end civilization; and DNA extracted from space aliens is used in modern medicine.
This is the woman whom Madonna put front and center on her Instagram. Not only that, but the pop singer captioned her post saying, “This woman is my hero.” The full post read,
“The Truth will set us all Free! But some people dont want to hear the truth. Especially the people in power who stand to make money from this long drawn out search for a vaccine Which has been proven and has been available for months. They would rather let fear control them and let the rich get richer and the poor and sick get sicker. This woman is my hero 🙏🏼 Thank you Stella Immanuel.”
In a move that has unwillingly but predictably emboldened those who believe the misinformation presented by Dr. Immanuel and the other “Frontline Doctors,” social media sites have been yanking the video left and right. Donald Trump Jr. even received a 12-hour ban from Twitter for sharing the video, which violates policies against spreading dangerous misinformation. (His papa POTUS retweeted the vid, of course.) Madonna wasn’t immune to the valid censorship, as Instagram slapped a “False Information” warning on her post.
Presumably, Madge had to have known this would happen, as she shared her post around 9:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, well after Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other sites had begun restricting the video. See her censored post below. Update: Madonna has deleted her Instagram post.
Oh, and wear a mask. Look, we even have some cool ones you can buy at the Consequence of Sound store that also support MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Madonna has deleted this IG post https://t.co/7G9HzsxGTy
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 29, 2020