Dr. Zelenko attended Capitol Trump rally and hoped to avoid “too much collateral damage”
Zelenko in March. Image by Bryan Derballa
By Molly Boigon January 7, 2021
A Hasidic doctor who rose to national prominence for pushing an unproven remedy for coronavirus was at the Washington, D.C. rally on Wednesday that turned into a mob that invaded the Capitol.
Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, the architect of a drug regimen that includes hydroxychloroquine, was asked by an unknown interviewer about his thoughts on the Proud Boys, the misogynistic and anti-immigrant group with an antisemitic wing that was told to “stand by” by President Donald Trump during a 2020 debate.
“I support anyone who is willing to help people and maintain liberty and spread truth, so if the Proud Boys are doing that, then I would support them,” he said in a video posted to Twitter. “I don’t support violence; I don’t support tactics that may lead to bigotry and so on, but I do support freedom-loving patriots that are willing to stand up for the liberties of this country.”
Apparently Dr. Zelenko, the Hasidic doctor who promoted HQC, was at the rally yesterday. pic.twitter.com/lBHhE9MHqm
— Shira Hanau (@shirahanau) January 7, 2021
“Hopefully, we could suppress the evil in the right way that doesn’t cause too much collateral damage,” he added.
Among the believers in the unsubstantiated “Zelenko protocol” is Trump himself, who said he was taking hydroxychloroquine last May.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Pennsylvania Jewish groups condemn ‘genocide’ slogan on Gisele Fetterman’s charity
-
Fast Forward A Republican senator called Chuck Schumer ‘Fuhrer’
-
Fast Forward The Ben of Ben & Jerry’s is asking Unilever to let his ice cream brand go
-
Fast Forward 80 years after Auschwitz, kosher food will be sold in its town of Oświęcim
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Pennsylvania Jewish groups condemn ‘genocide’ slogan on Gisele Fetterman’s charity
-
Fast Forward A Republican senator called Chuck Schumer ‘Fuhrer’
-
Fast Forward The Ben of Ben & Jerry’s is asking Unilever to let his ice cream brand go
-
Fast Forward 80 years after Auschwitz, kosher food will be sold in its town of Oświęcim
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.