Bad MD Files · California · Reprimanded 2024
Dr. Simone Gold: From the Capitol Rotunda to a California Reprimand
An emergency physician and lawyer who founded America's Frontline Doctors, put hydroxychloroquine on millions of screens in July 2020, urged a crowd not to get vaccinated the day before January 6, then walked into the Capitol and gave a speech in the rotunda. She went to prison, was pardoned, was sued by her own organization over its money, and was publicly reprimanded by California's medical board. Florida licensed her four days before her sentence began.
July 2020: the video on the Capitol steps
On 27 July 2020 Gold led a group of physicians in white coats at a news conference on the steps of the US Supreme Court, calling itself America's Frontline Doctors. The most quoted speaker, Houston physician Stella Immanuel, said hydroxychloroquine was a cure for COVID-19 and that masks were unnecessary. The video was viewed millions of times, shared by President Trump, and removed by Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for misinformation. Gold's group went on to promote hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin for COVID-19 and to campaign against vaccines and mandates.
Both drugs were then tested properly. Hydroxychloroquine showed no benefit in the RECOVERY and WHO Solidarity trials in 2020; ivermectin showed none in TOGETHER, ACTIV-6 and PRINCIPLE. See I prescribed ivermectin. This isn't that.
Among the speakers at an AFLDS event that July was Joseph Ladapo, who the following year became Florida's Surgeon General. His record, and Immanuel's, are in the Ladapo record.
5 and 6 January 2021
On 5 January 2021 Gold told a rally in Washington not to get vaccinated. On 6 January she entered the Capitol with the crowd and gave a speech in the rotunda. She was arrested later that month. In March 2022 she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour, entering and remaining in a restricted building, and on 16 June 2022 she was sentenced to 60 days in prison, 12 months' supervised release and a $9,500 fine. She served her sentence. On 20 January 2025 she was among the January 6 defendants pardoned by President Trump.
Her own organization sues her
On 4 November 2022 the chair of the AFLDS board sued Gold in federal court in Florida. The complaint alleged that, without board approval, she had used the charity's money for a $3.6 million house in Naples, three vehicles, household staff and about $50,000 a month on its credit cards. These were allegations, and they were never tested: the suit was reportedly dismissed by a federal judge in December 2022, and Gold countersued the board members in early 2023. The fullest accounts of the dismissal come from AFLDS and outlets aligned with Gold, so the grounds are not stated here; the docket is in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
AFLDS also faced a lawsuit over the February 2022 death of Jeremy Parker, 52, a Nevada man who obtained hydroxychloroquine through a telehealth referral listed on the AFLDS website (Estate of Jeremy Parker v. Medina Culver, D.O., Washoe County, Nevada, CV23-00219). AFLDS denied prescribing it. According to an AFLDS-affiliated outlet, the court later dismissed the claims against AFLDS with prejudice, finding among other things that Nevada law did not support holding it liable for the referral.
The Medical Board of California
The Medical Board of California brought an accusation against Gold's licence (G 70224) over her January 6 conviction. Its investigators sought five years' probation, the minimum its own disciplinary guidelines recommend for this kind of offence. The administrative law judge declined, citing her clean record since she was first licensed in 1990, and recommended a public reprimand instead. The reprimand took effect on 2 February 2024, with orders to complete ethics and professionalism courses and to pay $26,739 in the board's costs.
A reprimand is the lightest public discipline a board can impose. But it is a finding, it is on her public record, and it is why she is in the Bad MD Files.
Florida, 2026: a clean record and a mailbox
Florida's own licence verification, checked on 27 October 2026, shows Gold's licence (ME158237) as “Clear/Active”, first issued on 22 July 2022 and renewed to 31 January 2028. Under “Discipline on File” it says No; under “Public Complaint”, No. See the Florida licence record (PDF).
Her address of record is 8805 Tamiami Trail #139, Naples, in a retail plaza anchored by Publix, CVS and Ace Hardware. Unit 139 is a UPS Store: the address the State of Florida holds for this physician is a rented mailbox, not a medical office.
Her practice is online. GoldCare's own website, captured on 27 October 2026, says it has “10,000+ members” in “all 50 states” and more than 200 “vetted independent clinicians,” “hand-picked and vetted by Dr. Gold's team,” described as “medical and naturopathic, as equals.” Clinical services are provided by “GoldCare Doctors P.C. (or an affiliated state professional corporation)”; GoldCare Health & Wellness, Inc. runs the business. Gold describes it as “the model I use for my own care.”
| What GoldCare sells | What it says | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Membership | “The key to the whole system”; 30-day free trial | $17/month or $169/year; family +$12/month |
| Doctor visits | Pay as you go, “you set the length” | From $60; monthly visit add-ons $50–$90 |
| Med-Packs | “Vetted medications at your door, ready before you need them” | Not shown on the pages captured |
| “Covid Pack” (reported) | Includes ivermectin | $245–$295 |
| “Hantavirus Acute Viral Treatment” and “Premium Acute Viral Treatment” packs (reported) | Each includes ivermectin | $300 each |
| GoldCare Insurance | “Limited-benefit accident & illness plan” issued by GoldCare Benefits, Inc.; “Not ACA-compliant major medical insurance” | From $195/month |
| The GoldCare Store | Beta glucan, “Scalar Dietary Iodine,” grounding mats, immune “blends,” tallow skincare, and books including The Plot Against the Kids: A True Covid Story | Beta glucan cream $286 CAD |
The contents and prices of the ivermectin packs come from a report published on 10 October 2026; the Med-Pack product pages themselves sit behind the membership login. In 2022, GoldCare's membership was reported at $1,000 a year; it is now advertised at $17 a month, with the doctors paid by the visit.
GoldCare's blog has carried a post titled “From Fighting Parasites to Conquering Cancer: The Ivermectin Journey,” inviting readers to “discover the surprising potential of ivermectin in fighting cancer.” No clinical trial has shown that ivermectin treats cancer in people, and the large COVID-19 trials — TOGETHER, ACTIV-6, PRINCIPLE — found no benefit there either. A drug pack named and priced in advance for a disease is a product, not a prescription written for a patient after an examination. Membership and consultation prices were first reported by WUSF in 2022 and may have changed. When WLRN asked Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch to look at GoldCare in 2022, he concluded: “I do not believe its offerings are worthwhile.”
QuackeryWatch has asked the Florida Department of Health to review her licence on these points and on the California reprimand.
On the AAPS stage
In September 2024, seven months after the reprimand, Gold spoke at the annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons on “Physician Censorship & Solutions for a New ‘Old-fashioned’ way to Practice Medicine.” Ladapo was on the same programme. So were Jay Bhattacharya, who became director of the NIH six months later, and Robert Malone, later vice-chair of the CDC's vaccine committee. See The Not Ready for Prime-Time Players.
Why it matters in Canada
America's Frontline Doctors was the model for Canadian groups that sold the same drugs and the same message here; see Ira Bernstein and the Canadian Covid Care Alliance and Global Frontline Nurses, who also stood on the Capitol steps on 6 January. The question Gold's case raises for Canadian colleges is the one California answered slowly: what a licensing body should do when a physician's public conduct, rather than her bedside care, is the problem.
Related on QuackeryWatch
Sources
- “Simone Gold.” Wikipedia, consulted 27 October 2026.
- “Doctor Who Joined Capitol Attacks Leads a Far-Right Campaign Against Covid-19 Vaccine.” The Intercept, 14 January 2021.
- “Doctor, Lawyer, Insurrectionist: The Radicalization of Simone Gold.” Mother Jones, 6 May 2021.
- New York Times, 4 March 2022.
- “Dr. Simone Gold, leading anti-vax figure, sentenced for storming Capitol on Jan. 6.” ABC News, 16 June 2022.
- “The anti-vax founder of America's Frontline Doctors now has a license to practice in Florida.” WUSF, 18 August 2022.
- “Internal Strife at America's Frontline Doctors: Simone Gold Accused of Misusing $$$.” MedPage Today, 7 November 2022; and Ars Technica, November 2022.
- “Simone Gold Reprimanded by California's Medical Board.” MedPage Today, 5 February 2024; Medical Board of California, decision and order, public reprimand, 2024.
- “Dr. Simone Gold: Nevada Court Dismisses AFLDS Wrongful Death Suit With Prejudice.” BrokenTruth.TV (AFLDS-affiliated), 11 May 2026; and reports of the December 2022 dismissal of the AFLDS suit against Gold, including NeedToKnow.news.
- AP, January 2025, on the January 6 pardons.
- Florida Department of Health, Division of Medical Quality Assurance. License verification, Simone Gold, ME158237, data as of 27 October 2026 (PDF, QuackeryWatch archive).
- “The anti-vax founder of America's Frontline Doctors now has a license to practice in Florida.” WLRN, 23 August 2022.
- GoldCare, “Join GoldCare's Healthcare Revolution for $17/Month” and “The GoldCare Store,” goldcare.com, captured 27 October 2026 (QuackeryWatch archive).
- “The Breathtaking Grift of Dr. Simone Gold.” Paging America, 10 October 2026.
- AAPS 81st annual meeting programme, September 2024.
Allegations in the AFLDS lawsuit and the Nevada lawsuit are identified as allegations. A presidential pardon does not undo a state licensing decision. Corrections are welcome and are recorded on the page.