fourth-largest purchaser nationwide of anti-vaccination ads on Facebook<\/a> \u2014 declined to answer questions for this report.<\/p>\nSo who is Sherri Tenpenny?<\/h2>\n Most Ohioans had probably never heard of Tenpenny before video of her June 8 testimony went viral.<\/p>\n
In anti-vaccination corners of the internet, however, she\u2019s something of a celebrity doctor.<\/p>\n
She is close with Alex Jones,\u00a0a conspiracy theorist and media figure who is\u00a0facing libel lawsuits after claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting that left 20 young children and six adults dead at a Connecticut school was a \u201cgiant hoax.\u201d\u00a0The two have been friends for 20 years, they both said in a\u00a0recent interview on Jones\u2019 show.<\/p>\n
On a recent episode of her podcast, Tenpenny interviewed pillow magnate Mike Lindell, who is among the loudest backers of former President Donald Trump\u2019s lie that the 2020 election was rigged. Lindell and his company are also facing libel suits related to these claims.<\/p>\n
While Tenpenny has repeated\u00a0similar claims\u00a0of election fraud, her primary focus is vaccines and wrongfully depicting them as dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cVaccines are now, and people, listen to this closely, always have been a method of mass destruction, a method of depopulation,\u201d she claimed\u00a0earlier in 2021.<\/p>\n
Tenpenny\u2019s anti-vaccine activism has generated multiple related revenue streams for her. She hosted a \u201cboot camp\u201d this year for $623, training people to convince others to refrain from vaccination. In May, she\u00a0hosted a live streaming training event\u00a0to explain the \u201c20 mechanisms of injury from the shots\u201d \u2014 platinum package tickets went for $199. Her 2008 book, \u201cSaying No to Vaccines: A Resource Guide for all Ages,\u201d is\u00a0available on Amazon for\u00a0$877.95, one of several similar titles she has authored.<\/p>\n
Despite this work, Tenpenny does not follow acceptable scientific methodology, her testimony is \u201cunreliable\u201d and she is \u201cunqualified\u201d to address vaccine injury, according to Special Master Richard Abell, appointed by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.<\/p>\n
Abell made these remarks in a 2010\u00a0ruling that blocked Tenpenny\u2019s testimony\u00a0on behalf of a man who alleged a hepatitis B vaccination gave him Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare side effect of vaccination.<\/p>\n
The legal standard, he wrote, calls on judges to presume admissibility of testimony of an expert witness. However, he found her methodology \u201cso divergent from the scientific method as to be nonsensical and confusing,\u201d prompting his ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer ideas on vaccine injury have not been exposed to any critical analysis of those in the relevant field, let alone peer-reviewed medical journals,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no way to ascertain whether Dr. Tenpenny\u2019s opinion is credibly accepted by those who would know; there are only the patent defects in her report that militate for the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tenpenny did not respond to repeated phone calls.<\/p>\n
Who is Tom Renz?<\/h2>\n After Tenpenny wrapped up her testimony on June 8, Fremont attorney Tom Renz addressed the committee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Renz obtained his law license shortly before the pandemic began and his legal career has since wrapped around it. (He says he previously\u00a0clerked for an Indiana Supreme Court justice but doesn\u2019t remember when.)<\/p>\n
He is currently representing clients in COVID-19 related lawsuits against:<\/p>\n
\nMaine Gov. Janet Mills\u00a0and related health officials<\/li>\n Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear\u00a0and related health officials<\/li>\n New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham\u00a0and related health officials<\/li>\n The\u00a0U.S. Department of Health and Human Services<\/li>\n Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra<\/li>\n Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine\u00a0and related health officials (for the second time).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe lawsuits are sprawling, some stretching over 100 pages, and are rife with claims that the COVID-19 death count is \u201cinflated,\u201d that asymptomatic spread of disease is a \u201cfallacy,\u201d that masks don\u2019t work and a deluge of other inaccurate and often debunked claims.<\/p>\n
No cases have yet received any significant rulings. U.S. District Judge James Carr\u00a0described the first lawsuit against DeWine\u00a0as\u00a0\u201ca jumble of alleged facts, conclusory and speculative assertions, personal and third-party allegations, opinions, and articles of dubious provenance and admissibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renz\u00a0withdrew the lawsuit\u00a0and has since filed a similar case that awaits a ruling. Ohio Stands Up, a citizens group that acts as plaintiffs in the cases, created a crowdsourced legal fund to pay Renz and his partner, Robert Gargasz. The\u00a0fund has raised nearly $140,000\u00a0since it launched around September 2020.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Renz testified before a separate committee regarding a pandemic-related bill. YouTube ultimately removed footage of the hearing from its site for\u00a0violating its COVID-19 misinformation policy.<\/p>\n
Renz didn\u2019t respond to an email.<\/p>\n
Ohio Stands Up recently posted on Facebook a flier for an August fundraiser: \u201cAn Evening With Dr. Sherri Tenpenny and Attorney Thomas Renz.\u201d Tickets cost $75.<\/p>\n
___https:\/\/www.cincinnati.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2021\/07\/14\/story-behind-ohio-doctor-sherri-tenpenny-magnetic-anti-vaccine-testimony\/7966660002\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She says vaccines make you magnetized. This West Chester lawmaker invited her testimony, chair says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}