In April, prominent members of the anti-vaccine/medical contrarian movement descended upon Atlanta for a conference called “Honest Medicine: Redefining Health.” It was the fourth annual gathering of the Independent Medical Alliance (IMA) – formerly called Front Line Covid–19 Critical Care (FLCCC) Alliance and best known for its promotion of ivermectin as a cure for Covid – which is closely allied with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
While IMA did not list the conference’s high-powered, politically tied partners on its website, their names were displayed at the event itself, according to one attendee (see photo below). In addition to more predictable partners like Children’s Health Defense (CHD), the anti-vaccine mega charity Kennedy founded and ran until 2023, and the Brownstone Institute, the libertarian outfit created by pushers of the herd-immunity-through-mass-infection Covid strategy favored by the first Trump administration, the inclusion of The Heritage Foundation, the far-right think tank behind the Project 2025 blueprint Trump appears to be following verbatim in his second term, was a surprise.
IMA’s ties to CHD and the Brownstone Institute are well established. Children’s Health Defense has promoted FLCCC doctors and co-founders Paul Marik and Pierre Kory on multiple occasions. The Brownstone Institute hosted Marik at its own conference last year and lists the group as among its friends on its website alongside the far-right Falun Gong-tied media outlets The Epoch Times and NTD (New Tang Dynasty TV). However, the new partnership with Heritage is illustrative of the increasing political power the group has achieved despite the proven failure of its “miracle drug” against Covid in multiple large studies and the loss of board certifications of its co-founders for spreading misinformation.
The FLCCC was the second politically aligned physician group to emerge in 2020 pushing an “early treatment” drug as MAGA followers sought to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic and fought to reopen businesses and schools before a vaccine was available. The first group, America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), peddled the Trump-endorsed antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), and was born out of a partnership between Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, the Tea Party Patriots, and the Council for National Policy. Following the failure of HCQ as a viable treatment for Covid, the FLCCC broke onto the political scene thanks to Kory’s pro-ivermectin testimony at a December 2020 Senate hearing hosted by Senator Ron Johnson (R–WI), a key Trump ally who had promoted the use of HCQ well after its efficacy had been disproven.
Like AFLDS, the FLCCC went on to disparage the mRNA Covid vaccines that became more widely available once President Biden took office. A couple of AFLDS alums spoke at the IMA conference, including Ryan Cole, a doctor who has faced medical board punishment for inappropriately prescribing ivermectin and now serves as part of IMA’s international fellowship program, which claims to “champion medical freedom, ethical practices, and scientific integrity.”
The Heritage Foundation has also embraced ivermectin. Last year the think tank published an article titled “FDA Expert: FDA Was Wrong About Ivermectin, Other Covid Treatments.” The “expert” in question was David Gortler, a pharmacist and Heritage senior researcher who testified last year before the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in support of doctors who prescribed the anti-parasitic as a treatment for Covid. In addition, after his appearance before the subcommittee Gortler wrote a lengthy article for the Brownstone Institute, where he served as a fellow in 2023, in support of ivermectin.
Like the FLCCC, Brownstone, CHD, and MAGA at large, Heritage opposed Covid vaccine mandates and even filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration challenging its vaccination requirement. The foundation’s partnership with IMA comes as the group has renamed and launched new initiatives in line with Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement and the broader MAGA agenda. Shortly after the rebrand, which followed Trump’s nomination of Kennedy as health secretary, the group paid for truck billboards in Washington, D.C., in support of RFK Jr.’s confirmation.
Since the rebrand, IMA has launched its own medical periodical, the Journal of Independent Medicine, which published a piece in its second and most recent issue focused on rising rates of autism. This comes as Kennedy has launched a new “investigation” into the cause of autism, which he has long — and falsely — claimed to be connected to vaccines. As health secretary, he has ramped up his accusations that mainstream medical journals are “corrupt” and has floated the idea of preventing government employees from publishing their research in these journals.
Conference Underscores Right-Wing Connections
The first panel at the Atlanta conference celebrated the launch of IMA’s own 501(c)4 advocacy arm, which includes individuals who served in the HHS during Trump 1.0 and are ready to work closely with and in support of the Trump/Kennedy agenda during this iteration of the department.
The event also featured a panel focused on a culture war issue weaponized by the far right: gender. While never a key component of Kennedy’s agenda, now that he has joined the MAGA movement he has promoted anti-transgender theories — and his friends at IMA have followed suit. The second day of the conference included a panel discussion on “The Medical Case Against Transitioning Children,” which featured vehemently anti-trans, right-wing media personality James Lindsay along with three IMA fellows. In early June, IMA posted a webinar on X hosted by Cole and titled “The Medical Case Against Transitioning Minors.”
In mid June, Kennedy cemented another tie between IMA, HHS, and Heritage by selecting notorious anti-vaxxer and IMA senior advisor Robert Malone to join his new Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The doctor, whose foundation helped sponsor Project 2025, has spearheaded the effort to organize against the World Health Organization (WHO) and its attempts to pass a pandemic treaty — a contentious move supported by both Kennedy and Heritage prior to Trump’s January executive order to withdraw the U.S. from this essential global health partnership.
While the FLCCC has often been dismissed as a fringe group, it has always been highly partisan and politicized and has only accrued increasing influence by pushing right-wing misinformation and rhetoric on health-related topics beyond ivermectin and Covid vaccines. With Kennedy now leading HHS — and with the apparent backing of Heritage — the latest iteration of this disinformation-peddling group is well positioned to become a significant player in the politically motivated implosion of our public health infrastructure.
Who funds the Independent Medical Alliance?
IMA states on its donor page that it “brings together medical professionals across many specialties committed to a compassionate, transparent, and just healthcare environment for all,” and its new journal touts “No Big Pharma Influence.” That rhetoric and purported commitment to transparency rings hollow in light of its practices and unwillingness to disclose its donors.
Since its inception as the FLCCC in 2020, IMA has disclosed over $17.2 million in revenue to the IRS. Of that, the Center of Media and Democracy (CMD) has identified the source of $5.3 million through an examination of hundreds of IRS filings. However, nearly two thirds of the disclosed grants came from donor advised funds, which are utilized by donors to mask their actual identities.
IMA’s top identifiable source of revenue is the National Christian Charitable Foundation, which has given it $1.1 million (2020–23). This donor-advised fund is a favorite of members of the Christian Right and also happens to be the top known source of revenue for Heritage, which has funneled $23.3 million to the think tank in the past decade (2013–23), according to CMD’s calculations.
The largest known donor to IMA is the Carter Family Foundation, which gave $429,648 (2021–23). The CEO of the foundation, Diana Clarke-Carter, founded the Minnesota-based Summit Mortgage Corporation with her husband and in 2024 contributed $9,377 to RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign.
The legally active anti-vax group Informed Consent Action Network, which is run by long-time Kennedy ally Del Bigtree, also gave a notable donation of $210,000 in 2022. Bigtree served as the communications director for Kennedy’s aborted presidential campaign, was part of his MAHA transition team, and has more recently led MAHA Action (a nonprofit) and the MAHA Alliance (a political action committee).
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