Rashid Buttar

Rashid Ali Buttar (born January 20, 1966) is an American conspiracy theorist, anti-vaccine proponent, and an osteopathy practitioner from Charlotte, North Carolina.[1] He is known for his controversial use of chelation therapy for numerous conditions, including autism and cancer.[2] He has twice been reprimanded by the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners for unprofessional conduct[3][4] and cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for illegal marketing of unapproved and adulterated drugs.[5][6][7]

Background

The son of Pakistani parents,[8] Buttar was born in London in 1966. He immigrated with his parents to the U.S. at the age of 9 and grew up in rural Rosebud, MO. He attended Washington University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology and religion, and then earned his degree in osteopathy from University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines, IA. According to his website, he worked as a surgeon with the U.S. Army for several years but did not complete his surgical residency.[9]

Buttar claims to be board certified by several entities,[10] all of which are listed as "questionable organizations" by Quackwatch including the American Academy of Preventative Medicine, American Academy of Integrative Medicine, and American College for Advancement in Medicine; the latter's primary purpose being the promotion of chelation therapy.[11]

In 1998, Buttar launched and served as medical director for Medical Spa and Rejuvenation Center, a provider of massage services, in Huntsville, NC.[12]

In 2007, Buttar was brought before the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners, accused of unprofessional conduct for providing "ineffectual therapies" to four cancer patients. Three of those patients later died.[13][14][15] Following public hearings in 2008, the panel recommended that Buttar's license "be suspended indefinitely" and that he be prohibited from treating children or patients with cancer, but stayed the decision, ultimately giving Buttar a formal reprimand in 2010 while allowing him to continue to practice.[16][3][17]

Buttar has been criticized for his use of chelation therapies,[2] such as topical cream containing chelators to treat children with autism, and for his use of intravenous hydrogen peroxide and EDTA to treat cancer.[5][18] He came to public attention in 2009 when he alleged to have successfully used chelation therapy to treat Desiree Jennings, a Washington Redskins cheerleading ambassador who had made dubious claims about suffering from dystonia and losing her ability to walk or talk normally after receiving a flu shot.[2][19][20][21][22] Reporting on the case, Discover described Buttar as a "a prominent anti-vaccine doctor who treats 'vaccine damage' cases".

In July 2009, Buttar and his wife Debbie achieved the rank of "blue diamond" within the distributor network of the multi-level marketing company Monavie, which sold an acai-based beverage until going into foreclosure in 2015.[23]

In April 2010, the FDA sent Buttar a warning letter for illegally marketing unapproved topical creams as drugs via his websites, YouTube videos, and radio appearances.[5][6] FDA inspections also revealed that Buttar's company, V-SAB Medical Labs, had not complied with good manufacturing practices and that its products were "adulterated" according to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.[7]

In 2011, as a result of the disciplinary action in North Carolina, the Hawaii Medical Board denied Buttar a medical license.[24]

In 2019, the North Carolina Medical Board disciplined Buttar after receiving two complaints. In one case, a physician was worried that Buttar's treatment of a cancer patient hindered appropriate treatment and increased the patient's pain and suffering. In the other case, Buttar admitted that his personal relationship with the parent of a young patient constituted a boundary violation. Buttar and the Medical Board settled the complaints in a Consent Order that included a reprimand and a requirement to take courses in ethics and record keeping. Buttar acknowledged that his conduct constituted "unprofessional conduct including, but not limited to, departure from or the failure to conform to the ethics of the profession." Additionally, regarding the cancer patient, Buttar acknowledged that his documentation of care "failed to conform to the standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice".[4]

COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation
See also: Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic

During the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic, a series of videos featuring Buttar were posted to YouTube by the fake news website[25][26] Next News Network, in which Buttar advanced a conspiracy theory claiming that NIAID director Anthony Fauci's research helped create COVID-19, as well as numerous other false claims, such as that 5G cell phone networks and "chemtrails" cause COVID-19.[27][14][28] YouTube removed the video a week after it was posted, replacing it with a message saying, "This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines."[28]

Book

In 2010, Rashid Buttar published an alternative medicine book titled "The 9 Steps to Keep the Doctor Away: Simple Actions to Shift Your Body and Mind to Optimum Health for Greater Longevity".[29]

gollark: It's quite dodecahedral to go around trying to assign even simple (pairs of) numbers to the Evil People™.
gollark: I feel as if you have are reading too much into numbers which may be, you know, basically random.
gollark: That's... just an ebay listing.
gollark: > This absolute MAD LAD is wasting £20 just to make a joke about black crime statistics???
gollark: <@!665722810630406202> > how much are you willing to spend on new ones?I was just mentioning them because they seemed to spontaneously make quiet beeping noises, which was mildly weird. It seems to have stopped now. I'm not really looking to buy new headphones. Or, well, I actually was looking at getting a headset with a usable microphone thing, but that's unrelated.

See also

References
  1. Turvill, William (6 May 2020). "Youtube conspiracy theory videos removed after Press Gazette probe". Press Gazette. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  2. Avila, Jim (23 July 2010). "Medical Mystery or Hoax: Did Cheerleader Fake a Muscle Disorder?". ABC News. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  3. "Medical board reprimands Mecklenburg doctor of osteopathy", (March 26, 2010) WCNC. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  4. "Consent Order, In re Rashid Ali Buttar" (PDF). North Carolina Medical Board. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  5. Szabo, Liz (18 June 2013). "Book raises alarms about alternative medicine". USA Today. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  6. "FDA Warning Letter to Rashid Buttar, D.O. (13-ATL-15)". Casewatch. Department of Health and Human Services. November 25, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  7. "FDA Warns Boehringer, V-SAB Of Manufacturing Practice Violations". Bloomberg Law. May 21, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  8. Karen Garloch (14 January 2008), "Complaints hit doctor's treatments for cancer", The Hour. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  9. "Who Is Dr. Buttar to Make Such Promises?". Build a Successful Life. Rashid A. Buttar. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  10. "Rashid A. Buttar CV" (PDF). drbuttar.com. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  11. Barrett, Stephen. "Questionable Organizations: An Overview". Quackwatch. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  12. "Business Digest: Medical Spa and Rejuvenation Center". The Charlotte Observer. July 27, 2008. pp. 19N. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  13. Fitzpatrick, Michael (2008). Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion. Routledge. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9781134058983.
  14. Breland, Ali (April 15, 2020). "Wellness Influencers Are Spreading QAnon Conspiracies About the Coronavirus". Mother Jones. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  15. "Transcript of hearing before the North Carolina Medical Board in the matter of Rashid Ali Buttar, D.O." (PDF). Quackwatch. April 23, 2008. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  16. Garloch, Karen. (April 25, 2008). "Medical panel: Restrict doctor", The Charlotte Observor. Archived from the original on May 7, 2008.
  17. "Huntersville doctor accepts reprimand, keeps unorthodox work" (March 31, 2010). WBTV. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  18. Atwood KC; Woeckner E; Baratz RS; Sampson WI (May 13, 2008). "Why the NIH Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) should be abandoned". Medscape J Med. 10 (5): 115. PMC 2438277. PMID 18596934.
  19. Hamblin, James (17 September 2014). "There Is No "Alternative Medicine"". The Atlantic. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  20. "The Needle and the Damage (Not) Done". Discover. November 9, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  21. "Real? A Hoax? Or Something Else? Did A Flu Shot Cause Woman To Get Dystonia? To Be Broadcast Thursday, February 4th". Inside Edition. February 4, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  22. "Flu Shot Woman". Inside Edition. February 4, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  23. "MonaVie's Newest Blue Diamonds—Dr. Rashid and Debbie Buttar". Monavie LLC. July 21, 2009. Archived from the original on December 6, 2009. Retrieved May 2, 2020.
  24. "Licensee Information, Rashid Ali Buttar". North Carolina Medical Board. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  25. Lewis, Paul (February 2, 2018). "'Fiction is outperforming reality': how YouTube's algorithm distorts truth". The Guardian. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  26. Timberg, Craig (November 24, 2016). "Russian propaganda effort helped spread 'fake news' during election, experts say". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  27. Cook, Jesselyn (April 7, 2020). "A Toxic 'Infodemic': The Viral Spread Of COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories". Huffington Post. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  28. Kaplan, Alex (April 20, 2020). "YouTube took down a coronavirus conspiracy theory video for violating its rules, but it's making money through ads on reuploads". Media Matters for America. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  29. Buttar, Rashid (2010). The 9 Steps to Keep the Doctor Away: Simple Actions to Shift Your Body and Mind to Optimum Health for Greater Longevity. Lake Tahoe, NV: GMEC Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9794302-3-7. OCLC 1158459389.
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