After an Anti-Vaccine Figure Dies Suddenly, Conspiracy Theories Abound

Dr. Rashid Buttar, an osteopathic physician who spent years promoting vaccine and COVID conspiracy theories and a well-known figure in the suspicion-tinged world of “medical freedom,” died at home of undisclosed causes on May 18, 2023, according to a statement attributed to his family and shared widely online. 

Since the news was shared by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, another major anti-vaccine figure, by major conspiracist David Icke, and on the far-right site Gateway Pundit, among other places, Buttar’s unexpected death has been used by his fellow travelers in the anti-vaccination world to promote a variety of conspiracy theories, old and new. His death is being used, broadly, to re-stoke the very old and truly baseless claim that “holistic” doctors who oppose the mainstream medical establishment are being killed by mysterious forces. More specifically, Buttar himself recently claimed that he was “poisoned” after being interviewed on CNN in 2021. He also told fellow anti-vaccine figures that he suffered a stroke in February of this year, which he appeared to blame on vaccine “shedding”—something COVID vaccines do not and cannot do. 

Buttar was one of the so-called “Disinformation Dozen,” a designation created by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in 2021 for individuals it said were responsible for the widest spread of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter. (While this was meant to shame social media sites for allowing the spread of such virulent misinformation, most members of the Disinformation Dozen took the designation as a badge of honor. For some, like Buttar, it arguably raised their public profile even further.) The news of his death prompted admiring tributes from other anti-vaccine and health freedom figures, as well as, often in the same breath, conspiracy theories about who was responsible for it. (Buttar’s family has not disclosed his cause of death publicly, and it’s unclear who would even speak on their behalf.)  

It’s become common for vaccine skeptics and medical conspiracy theorists to claim that anyone who dies unexpectedly was killed, in some form or fashion, by a COVID vaccine. (These claims have become so common that they spurred a viral and controversial documentary.) With Buttar, naturally, his friends and fellow travelers chose a slightly different track, since Buttar was of course not vaccinated. 

Sayer Ji, the founder of a well-known site called Green Med Info that often shares medical misinformation and vaccine suspicion, published a tribute to Buttar on Sunday, writing “he helped make this world a safer, better place for us all through his good works.” Ji then instantly claimed that “questions” surrounded Buttar’s death, writing: 

Erin Elizabeth, another major player in the world of health conspiracy theorists, wrote on Twitter that Buttar had died “hours after” claiming that he was poisoned following a CNN interview. (She also remixed the claim for TikTok, where it has been viewed over 30,000 times.) The CNN interview took place in 2021, as part of a story about the Disinformation Dozen. 

Buttar was interviewed last week by Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, a religious and conspiratorial broadcaster who is a former host of the 700 Club’s Canada edition. In that interview, Buttar said, “I went through a very difficult personal health challenge” and said he was in the ICU, adding, “I had been poisoned with 200 times the amount of what’s in the vaccine.” He was, he said, “actually, intentionally poisoned,” and claimed that “part of it” was “right after that CNN interview.” 

Elizabeth then tweeted, “I will be adding our friend, colleague and one of the 12 of us who endured so much to the holistic doctor death list of mysterious deaths. Rest in peace Dr. Rashid Buttar.” 

It appears that Buttar had a litany of health issues in recent months. He previously aired a webinar in December 2022 saying that he was septic, had pneumonia, and had swelling in his legs, lungs and heart, but claimed he was “feeling better than I have in a long time” and rejected speculation from his followers that he was dying. He called himself “the most censored doctor on the planet,” and speculated that his travails were sent to him by God to help him spread his message. 

Besides his claims about vaccines, Buttar had a long and checkered career in promoting ineffective and dangerous treatments for a variety of illnesses, often through his medical practice, the grandiosely-titled Centers for Advanced Medicine. In 2009, he entered into a consent order with the North Carolina medical board over two separate sets of allegations. He was accused of treating cancer patients with a variety of useless treatments, including intravenous vitamins and chelation therapy; in its complaint, the medical board wrote that the costs for these treatments “at times ranged in the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of dollars.” 

“Not only would Dr. Buttar order and have administered unproven and ineffectual therapies for Patients A, B and C in an attempt to drive up his billings, he would also order numerous tests and lab work for these patients that had no rational, medical relationship to the Patients' cancer diagnosis,” the complaint added. “Moreover, many tests and lab work that were ordered by Dr. Buttar were never adequately justified in the medical records of the patients, were never linked to the patients' diagnoses or clinical condition, and in some instances never interpreted.” According to the complaint, one patient wrote Buttar a check for $6,700 shortly before dying; when his widow canceled the check, reasoning that the treatments had been, in the words of the complaint, “useless,” Buttar referred the patient’s account to a collections agency. 

In a separate incident also cited by the medical board, Buttar was accused of diagnosing a child with autism with “heavy metal toxicity,” despite never having examined the child in person, and prescribing transdermal DMPS (dimercapto-propane sulphonate), a controversial and wholly ineffective autism “treatment.”

Medical board records show that Buttar was officially reprimanded, but his license to practice was not revoked, and was active up until he died. In 2021, records show, he was formally reprimanded again, in two more unrelated cases. In the first, he was accused of failing to adequately document the “supportive” treatment he was providing to a cancer patient. In the second, he was accused of “unprofessional conduct” relating to another patient, a minor child; the complaint alleged that Buttar and the child’s parent had “engaged in a personal relationship” while he was treating the child. Buttar also received at least one warning letter from the FDA concerning products he was formulating and marketing at the time. 

The announcement of his death attributed to Buttar’s family said that he was a retired major in the U.S. Army, and had served in the 5th Special Forces group and the 101st Airborne division; the announcement also said he is survived by three adult children.