An Oregon doctor has had his medical license revoked after he boasted that he and his staff were not wearing face masks amid the ongoing pandemic.
As reported by NBC News, the doctor boasted about not wearing masks after he dismissed Covid-19 as nothing more than a "common cold".
Steven LaTulippe made the dismissive comments at a "Stop the Steal" rally in support of Donald Trump on November 7 outside the State Capitol in Salem.
"I want to expose what I call 'corona mania,'" LaTulippe said in a video, which was later posted on YouTube by the political group Multnomah County Republicans.
LaTulippe dismisses the virus at the rally in the video below:"I hate to tell you this. I might scare you, but I and my staff, none of us, once wore a mask in my clinic," LaTulippe told the cheering crowd.
Now, less than a month on from these comments, the Oregon Medical Board has issued an emergency suspension after online records showed that LaTulippe "engaged in unprofessional conduct or dishonorable conduct."
According to the order, the doctor and his staff not only refused to wear masks, but they "[urged] persons who [entered] the clinic wearing masks to remove their masks."
The medical board ruled that LaTulippe "constitutes an immediate danger to the public, and presents a serious danger to the public health and safety."
LaTulippe, who was granted his medical license in 2000, has now been banned from practicing medicine anywhere in Oregon.
LaTulippe said in a previous interview with NBC that the guidance advising people to wear masks when interacting with people outside their household stems from "bad science".
"I have absolutely zero problems with infectivity, and I have completely successful treatments, so I ask, 'What is the problem?' Why would I be demonized if I know what I'm doing?" he said.
"I'm very interested in sound medical practice, and I'm interested in good science," he added. "And when science and medicine become perverted with corrupt politics, then I'm up for a fight, and that's what made me go to that rally and say what I said."
These comments are in a direct contraction of a November 20 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which states that several studies across various settings have "confirmed the benefit of universal masking in community-level analyses."