The Summary
- Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, promoted a supplement company that claims to help people “detox” from Covid vaccines.
- The company is one of many that trade on unfounded anti-vaccine beliefs.
- Covid vaccines have overwhelmingly been shown to be safe, and no supplement has been found to alleviate side effects.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, promoted a supplement line this year that purports without evidence to help people “detox” from Covid vaccines.
Patel plugged the supplements in posts on Truth Social — the social media platform owned by Trump Media & Technology Group — in February and April.
“Mrna detox, reverse the vaxx n get healthy,” he wrote in one post, tagging the company Warrior Essentials and linking to its website. “Spike the Vax, order this homerun kit to rid your body of the harms of the vax,” he wrote in another. It is not clear whether the posts were paid promotions; they were not labeled as such.
Warrior Essentials sells what it calls a “Spike Protein Detox Protocol,” a set of up to three supplements that it claims, without evidence, will “undo the damage from the spike protein,” a component of the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna prompt the body to produce and fight an altered version of the protein to train the immune system.
Warrior Essentials is one of many companies that trade on unfounded theories about the dangers of vaccines, which have proliferated in the alt-right social media landscape since the pandemic — ideas that are not backed by science.
Patel, who was chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller during the Trump administration, is among Trump’s most vocal supporters. He has leveraged his association with Trump to sell books and merchandise. Patel received $120,000 per year as an independent contractor with Trump Media & Technology Group, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in June, as part of a contract that ended in March.
As FBI director, Patel would oversee more than 37,000 employees at the nation’s top law enforcement agency and a requested annual budget of roughly $11.3 billion.
A representative for Patel did not respond to a request for comment; neither did the Trump transition team.
Warrior Essentials told NBC News that it was “proud to have Kash Patel as a supporter and advocate.”
“While the so-called ‘experts’ who ignored vaccine injuries and pushed failed policies scramble to defend their narratives, we deliver real, science-backed solutions that have already helped thousands reclaim their health,” the company said.
Warrior Essentials says that its “detox protocol” “promotes the body’s own internal cellular regeneration process” and can remove toxins from cells, repair circulatory health and restore DNA stability. None of those claims are supported by scientific research, according to two medical experts.
“They can’t say with confidence that their product is going to do what it is that they intend it to do,” said Dr. C. Michael White, head of the pharmacy practice department at the University of Connecticut.
In the vast majority of people, spike proteins leave the body within a few weeks of a vaccine’s being administered. Like other vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Covid shots are safe, and serious side effects are rare.
What’s more, the experts said there is no evidence that Warrior Essentials’ supplements are effective at reducing vaccine side effects — which are mostly mild or moderate and tend to resolve quickly. No supplements have been found to do that.
Dietary supplements do not require FDA approval before they are sold, so their manufacturers have more leeway than producers of foods or drugs when it comes to health claims. Although the FDA can issue warnings and mandate recalls, it does not have the resources to track or assess every supplement available to customers.
“I tell my patients that any claim on a supplement bottle is a yellow flag,” said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.
He added that although some people have legitimate questions about vaccine side effects, a lack of regulation in the supplement industry allows some makers to take advantage of consumers by selling unproven products.
“The polarization of America and also the suspicion of science and medicine drive a lot of interest and attention into supplements,” Cohen said.
The couple who founded Warrior Essentials, Dave and Nancy Flynn, have said their son was injured by childhood vaccines in 2006, even though hundreds of large studies show that routine childhood immunizations are safe and protect kids from serious disease.
The Flynns have spread misinformation about Covid vaccines, including false claims that they alter people’s DNA and shed toxic substances that linger in the body.
The chief medical adviser for Warrior Essentials, Dr. George Fareed, is a senior fellow at the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, a group that promotes disproven treatments for Covid like the antiparasitic drug ivermectin. Neither Fareed nor the alliance responded to requests for comment.
A single bottle of the “detox” supplement containing 60 capsules (30 two-pill servings) is listed for $75 on the Warrior Essentials website. The set of three supplements marketed together as the full regimen sells for $150. The site suggests taking the pills for three to 12 months.
A list of ingredients on the Warrior Essentials site says the supplements contain a blend of enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, minerals and plant extracts — including chromium, magnesium, zinc and vitamin D. While some of those ingredients on their own may have health benefits, White said, it is impossible to tell whether they are useful — let alone safe — in this context. A blend of ingredients may have different effects from a single vitamin or mineral, he said.
Patel joins a group of vaccine opponents whom Trump plans to nominate to top government posts. Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founded a prominent anti-vaccine activist group and falsely said in a 2013 speech that a nebulous group of people, including vaccine scientists, were involved in a conspiracy to hide vaccines as the cause of autism and “should be in jail.”
Trump’s choice to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Dave Weldon, has also been an outspoken critic of the agency’s vaccine program.
Others — including Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Trump’s choice for surgeon general, and Dr. Martin Makary, whom Trump wants to lead the FDA — have expressed skepticism or opposition to vaccine mandates, though not necessarily to the shots themselves.
Kennedy has also promised to end what he called the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of vitamins and supplements.
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