Down with the masks! Ten prominent Covid skeptics - five years ago and now

 Material updated ↓ 

March 11, 2020 WHO announcedthat the outbreak of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19), recorded in China several months earlier, has become a pandemic. Her victims steel more than 7 million people, total got sick at least 770 million. Although in May 2023 many media reported that the WHO had declared the end of the pandemic, in fact the organization only lowered threat level. On her website, she continues to keep statistics on people infected, hospitalized and dead - even when masks have ceased to be a part of our everyday life.

At the same time, an infodemic swept the world: people tried to find out, explain and tell others why their lives had changed so dramatically, how to behave and how long this could last. The volume of information on the topic was enormous, and much of it turned out to be unreliable. The data concerned the origin of the coronavirus, methods of prevention and treatment, and later vaccination. Six months later, WHO and other world organizations warnedthat the infodemic threatens the most important gains in health care, and neglect of safety measures motivated by misinformation is delaying the end of the pandemic.

Among those who spread fake news and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus were numerous activists and artists, as well as doctors and scientists, who supported the disinformation with their own authority. After five years of the pandemic, “Verified” recalls ten celebrities - adherents of Covid-skepticism, who have become especially popular among the Russian-speaking audience, and tells whether their views have changed over the past five years.

Content

• Nikita Mikhalkov, director
• Luc Montagnier, virologist
• Alexander Redko, doctor
• Robert Kennedy Jr., lawyer and politician
• Maria Shukshina, actress
• Valentin Katasonov, economist
• Robert Malone, biologist
• Galina Chervonskaya, biologist
• Pavel Vorobyov, doctor
• Igor Gundarov, doctor

Nikita Mikhalkov, director

Coming from a famous dynasty, owner Oscar, the head of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia and the Moscow International Film Festival is known as one of the main Russian pro-government speakers. In 2011, Mikhalkov began sharing his socio-political views not only on television or in the press, but also through new media - he started blog in LiveJournal, and later page on VKontakte. The most successful was his YouTube channel “Besogon TV”, where the director regularly posted videos with his thoughts on various topics. Some videos were subsequently broadcast on the Rossiya 24 and Spas TV channels.

In his program, Mikhalkov actively covered the coronavirus pandemic. The widest public response was caused by release “Besogon TV” from May 1, 2020 “Who has the state in their pocket.” In this video, Mikhalkov made a number of statements: about the man-made nature of the coronavirus, the plans of billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates to reduce the population of the planet through mass chipping through vaccination, turning people into controlled robots, the deliberate introduction of social isolation and distance learning to suppress the will of a person in order to create digital dependence, etc. However, the artificial nature of the coronavirus is still not provenGates is nothing like that didn't plan, chips in vaccines No, and requirements to maintain social isolation, as well as to work or study remotely, were lifted after they were no longer medically necessary. 

For these and similar statements, Mikhalkov was nominated for the anti-prize “Honorary Academician VRAL”, which is awarded to popularizers of pseudoscience by the portal “Anthropogenesis.ru” and the educational foundation “Evolution”. Although the director did not receive an award, the organizers awarded him a special prize “Vroskar” with the wording “for extraordinary directorial and acting talent aimed at disseminating crazy ideas.”

Despite criticism of COVID-19 vaccines, in the spring of 2021 Mikhalkov took root. “I can say from my own experience that I got vaccinated because I realized that I was losing my vigilance: I was walking, I was communicating. I began to catch myself forgetting my mask,” he explained to reporters. Nevertheless, the director continued to accuse vaccines of causing harm to health. For example, responsibility for the death of Alexei Navalny in a colony in February 2024 Mikhalkov assigned on the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which the politician allegedly received during treatment in Germany in 2020–2021 and which provoked blood clot formation, as well as the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who lobbied for the purchase of the drug. At the beginning of 2024, Mikhalkov’s YouTube channel blocked “for numerous violations regarding discriminatory speech,” but the program continued to air on author's website and Russian streaming platforms.

Luc Montagnier, virologist

Future Nobel Prize winner in physiology or medicine was born in 1932. After graduating from the Sorbonne, he worked at the Institute of Virology in Glasgow, and then headed the laboratory of viral oncology at the Pasteur Institute, where he began to study the connection between retroviruses and cancer. In 1983, Montagnier and other researchers isolated the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This is exactly what opening in 2008 brought the scientist and his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi the Nobel Prize.

Around the same time, Montagnier began to actively promote a series anti-scientific ideas. So, in 2009 he presented at the conference, a method for diagnosing infections through radio wave signals of DNA in water, as well as technology for reproducing DNA using the quantum fingerprint method (essentially similar to homeopathy). After the publication of an article on this topic, Montagnier spoke in defense of his colleague Jacques Benveniste and his anti-scientific water memory concept. Scientist also I was surethat autism is associated with some kind of infection of the central nervous system, and proposed treating it with many years of antibiotics. Despite many years of studying HIV, Montagnier began to do groundless statements that strong immunity capable defeat this virus yourself in a few weeks.

During the pandemic, the scientist became supporter hypotheses about the artificial origin of the coronavirus (it has not been proven, but is not completely ruled out) and supported a variety of conspiracy narratives about COVID-19 and vaccination against it. In particular, Montagnier claimedthat the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine causes prion diseases. Many conspiracy theorists, which tried to prove one or another theories, regularly paid attention opponents to the fact that their arguments are shared by a world-famous virologist. However, as far as is known, Montagnier did not study coronaviruses in detail.

It is significant that some of Montagnier’s anti-scientific statements attributed unjustified - for example, the theory that vaccination of people who have already been ill will supposedly lead to an antibody-dependent increase in infection in their bodies and lethal exodus within two years. Their posts Social network users often talk about this topic accompanied various fragments from Montagnier's video interview with subtitles in national languages. However, the subtitles did not correspond to what the scientist actually said there. Also on social networks spread a quote attributed to Montagnier that all those revaccinated against coronavirus were infected with HIV. However, despite his controversial views, the virologist did not say such things.

Montagnier died on February 8, 2022, at the age of 89, while anti-Covid restrictions were still in place in most Western countries.

Alexander Redko, doctor

On Redko's personal website it saysthat he is a surgeon of the highest category with 37 years of experience. In 1974, Redko graduated from the Altai Medical Institute, was assigned to Barnaul, but then moved to Leningrad. In the 1990s, in parallel with his medical career, he built a bureaucratic career: for a year he headed the health care committee in the St. Petersburg government, then for eight years he sat in the city Legislative Assembly, where he was chairman of the specialized commission, and also led the St. Petersburg Professional Association of Medical Workers for more than 30 years. Redko also has the title of professor - however, not at a medical or biological university, but at the St. Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics (it is noteworthy that, judging by his personal website, the doctor held this position until 2016, although the university stopped existed four years earlier).

Although in biographies Rarely on the same site it is said that he defended two doctoral dissertations, “Verified” did not find any traces of these works in catalog Russian State Library (RSL). Redko himself noted that his first dissertation (on public health and healthcare) was classified. However, co-founder of the “Dissernet” community and scientific consultant of “Verified” Andrei Rostovtsev explained: even in this case, the RSL catalog would have included the abstract and protocol of the dissertation defense. 

Also in Redko's biography reportedthat he is the author of more than 200 scientific papers. In the database of the Russian Science Citation Index for a physician total 29 publications, and only three of them were published before 2004 inclusive (the rest were mostly published during the pandemic). This amount is clearly not enough even for admission to defend his doctoral dissertation, which, according to Redko’s personal website, took place in 2003.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Redko spread many Covid-skeptical and anti-vaxxer myths:

• “After vaccination, a person becomes carrier of infection. Therefore, he is obliged to wear a mask without fail, since he exudes the virus” (none of the developed coronavirus vaccines are live vaccines, that is, does not contain contains a live virus, therefore a person cannot “exude” it after vaccination);
• "[Vaccinated] will get sick twice as often as before vaccination, and get sick more severely. Look at the example of Israel: they have increased mortality (twice!) and morbidity” (this forecast is based on incorrect statistics: according to data Israeli Ministry of Health, the vaccine is very effective in terms of morbidity, severe disease, hospitalization and mortality);
• "Immunity After vaccination, no one guarantees you: the third phase of testing [of the Sputnik V vaccine] has not been carried out. That is, they actually tell you that you are a participant in the experiment” (Redko said this almost three months after publications scientific article with interim results of the third phase of testing).

Unlike Mikhalkov, Redko can boast of an award from the organizers of the anti-award “Honorary Academician VRAL”, which the physician received in 2021 for spreading vaccination myths. This kind of "confession" didn't hurt in 2022, he will join the medical expert council of the commission on social policy and healthcare of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. 

In recent months, Redko appears as expert on the air of various bloggers, where he still talks about dangers vaccines, and also 5G towers, which, according to him, increase blood pressure, cause confusion, memory problems and changes in the blood (that's all not true). The doctor also broadcasts a video popular among Russian propagandists. myth that it was not without reason that Western countries organized numerous bacteriological laboratories in countries bordering Russia.

Robert Kennedy Jr., lawyer and politician

If in Russia one of the leaders of Covid-skepticism was a representative of a famous artistic dynasty, then in the United States he (absolutely predictably) became a scion of perhaps the main political clan of the country. Robert Kennedy Jr. is the son of Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy. After studies At Harvard University, the London School of Economics and the University of Virginia, he began to build a legal career: in 1983 he became an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, but just six months later he was accused of storage heroin and fired. While performing public works, Kennedy Jr. became interested in environmental law, in which he subsequently achieved great success. In 1999, Time magazine named the lawyer environmental hero of the planet for leading the campaign to restore the Hudson River ecosystem.

However, in the mid-2000s, Kennedy Jr.'s career took an unexpected turn when he began promoting theories that contradicted the scientific consensus. Lawyer told, that in 2005 several women met him, whose children, according to them, faced various diseases after vaccination. They turned to Kennedy Jr. because he was then studying the pollution of water bodies with mercury and called thiomersal, a mercury-containing compound that is part of some vaccines, potentially dangerous. “Vaccines were pretty far from my area of ​​expertise. I have always been for vaccination. I vaccinated all my children and got a flu shot every year. But I was impressed by these women,” Kennedy explained. 

Immersed in the topic, he became familiar with the publications of the British Andrew Wakefield - several years earlier, he published an article in the authoritative scientific journal The Lancet proving the connection between the measles, rubella and mumps vaccine and the development of autism. However, later the article was withdrawn — it turned out that the author falsified data and received money from lawyers for families linking vaccinations and autism spectrum disorders. In addition, shortly before the publication of the article, Wakefield submitted a patent application for his own, safer, in his opinion, mono-vaccine against measles. Impressed by the work of the Briton, Kennedy Jr. promote his position, and at the end of 2019 even statedthat monuments to Wakefield will be erected in the future.

In 2015, Kennedy Jr. led Children's Health Defense, an organization that promoted (and continues to spread) alternative views on public health. In particular, she became one of the main customers of anti-vaccination advertising on Facebook* in 2018–2019. During the pandemic, the organization has become one of the largest spreaders of misinformation about the coronavirus, and its income, generated mainly through donations, grew up, according to journalists’ calculations, eight times.

During the pandemic, Kennedy Jr. continued to spread unproven statements about the dangers of vaccination, now directing his criticism to COVID-19 vaccines. Already in April 2020, he and Wakefield took part in an online conference about the dangers of using vaccines against coronavirus (the drugs themselves have not even reached clinical trials yet). In addition to his “classic” warnings, Kennedy clearly hinted that vaccination against COVID-19 can be fatal, claimedthat flu vaccines increase the risk of getting coronavirus by 36% (no evidence of this No), And insisted on the unsafety of vaccinations for pregnant women (although vaccines have been tested and found to be safe, and infection during pregnancy poses risks not only to the mother, but also to the fetus).

In 2024, Kennedy Jr. announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States as an independent candidate, but two and a half months before the election came out from the race and urged supporters to vote for Donald Trump. After the latter's victory, Kennedy Jr. was nominated for the post of US Secretary of Health and Human Services. During preliminary hearings in the Senate, he assured congressmen that he is not against vaccines, and renounced part of his beliefs. In particular, the future minister said: he never said that not a single vaccine could be called safe and effective. But CNN fact checkers remind us of a video from 2023 where the politician literally says this phrase. Kennedy Jr. did not deny that signed petition against COVID-19 vaccines, but explained his decision by listening to the opinions of unnamed experts, according to whom the vaccines in question are not suitable for young children. On the one hand, at the hearing, the politician renounced his statements that pesticides lead teenagers to want to make a transgender transition, but on the other hand, confirmed his point of view that Lyme disease is a man-made biological weapon (this is not true). Kennedy Jr. also denied that his activities could have provoked a measles outbreak in Samoa in 2019, although, as suggest experts, it was the activist’s visit and his rhetoric that contributed to the extremely low level of infant and child immunization in this state.

Apparently, for the first time in US history, a person known for his skepticism towards evidence-based medicine has headed the agency responsible for health care.

Maria Shukshina, actress

A more than 20-year career in cinema and a decade and a half on television as the host of the “Wait for Me” program provided Shukshin with sufficient media capital to become one of the most famous Russian distributors of fakes and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and especially vaccination in 2020. However, she was not previously known as a supporter of the anti-vaccination movement.

The artist largely looked at the pandemic itself from a religious perspective. “All Russian believers see in modern events the fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecy of St. John the Theologian. We have read the Bible and we cannot help but see this. “All this is happening before our eyes, we are sounding the alarm, our hearts bleed for where our children will live,” spoke she is in July 2020.

One of Shukshina’s favorite expressions in recent years has been the phrase “digital concentration camp” - it is mentioned more than 30 times in the actress’s Telegram channel alone. According to her opinion, vaccination, QR codes and other government measures to combat the pandemic brought to the fact that “the stupid-headed pricked herd... voluntarily transferred itself to the category of goods, numbers in the system, and showed these non-humans who want to be masters of the world that the majority agree to life in an electronic concentration camp, where every step of the digitized pricked one will be allowed or not allowed by a computer.” Shukshina insisted: a vaccinated person cannot remain free. Actress of her like-minded people collected on round tables, which were widely covered on anti-vaxxer resources.

She also took part in the dissemination of several very popular fakes: about defeat vaccination enforcement policies" in The Lancet, about solution Israeli rabbinical court on the “deadly danger” of vaccines, about severe complications in tens of thousands of people vaccinated with Sputnik V in Argentina, about opportunity become infected with prion diseases through vaccination, uselessness vaccination of children, etc.

In November 2021, the chief doctors of 11 Russian hospitals, including hospital No. 40 in Kommunarka, wrote an open letter to opponents of coronavirus vaccination, among whom was Shukshina. Doctors invited them to visit the red zones of hospitals, including intensive care units and pathology departments, and see patients with COVID-19 with their own eyes. Actress answered to an invitation on his Instagram: “We are not against the vaccination process, but the procedure for its implementation, and on this side 80% of the Russian population (according to data Levada Center**, in August 2021, about a third of Russians were not ready to be vaccinated with any coronavirus vaccine. — Approx. ed.). Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t fit everyone on an excursion in the red zone. We are not against the vaccine, but against participation in the experiment of an unstudied vaccine.” Soon YouTube blocked actress’s channel for the systematic spread of misinformation.

In 2025, Shukshina still continues to scare her subscribers with the future digital concentration camp, criticizes use of vaccines and reposts Kennedy Jr.'s statements. At the same time, the artist, who actually stopped acting in films, is actively speaks out in support of the Kremlin’s foreign policy, writes denunciations, denounces “unreliable” colleagues and calls for a fight not only with the West, which instills values ​​alien to Russia, but also with internal enemies.

Valentin Katasonov, economist

If Montagnier’s statements supported medical and biological conspiracy theories, then Katasonov played a similar role for socio-political conspiracy theories around the pandemic. After graduation from MGIMO in 1972, and defended first his candidate's and then his doctoral dissertation, the economist worked in the UN, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank, and also headed one of the departments of his alma mater for ten years. At the same time, Katasonov conducted research, published books and articles. In the early 2010s, the focus of his publications shifted towards conspiratorial criticism of the global financial system, which he calls an instrument of the world behind the scenes.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended the way people live all over the world, has become a fruitful time for the development of Katasonov’s ideas. In particular, he called coronavirus is a special operation and a smokescreen, allegedly organized by the world behind the scenes, which has existed for many centuries. According to the scientist, during information pandemic nation states will be able to destroy, and a world government will come in their place. Five years after the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be stated that this prophecy has not come true.

Also Katasonov linked pandemic since conspiracy theories the theory of the golden billion: “The owners of money strive to send billions to the next world. People. Citizens of all countries of the world, including even those who are usually classified as the golden billion. Ultimately, there should be only one billion people left on the planet. <…> And this billion can hardly be called gold. There will be only one million in gold, yesterday’s masters of money, and from now on the masters of the world. And the remaining 999 million will work for them.” 

However, Katasonov also entered the field of non-core fakes. For example, he spoke: “Together with a nanovaccine, a subminiature microchip, which is a nanosubstance, can be launched into the human body. A person who agrees to be vaccinated will not even know that a nanochip has been implanted into him at the same time.” Katasonov made this statement in March 2020, long before the start of vaccination. Not a single vaccine approved for use months later has nanochips. not contained. 

In the fall of 2021, when vaccination was already underway, Katasonov stated about nearly 14,000 Americans who have died from the drug. He cited data from the VAERS system, which tracks reports of vaccine side effects in the United States. But the scientist manipulated the data: by that time, the system received There are approximately 8,000 reported deaths of Americans who were vaccinated, but there is no evidence that they died because of the vaccine.

Despite the criticism, Katasonov continues to spread conspiracy theories. He still talks about the plans of the world behind the scenes to reduce the planet's population as soon as possible, but stopped connect this desire with the pandemic, as I did before. In February 2025, Katasonov stated, that Trump's ally, billionaire Elon Musk, allegedly discovered documents confirming that the Americans did not land on the moon, and NASA falsified the evidence. However, Musk himself does not believe in the so-called lunar conspiracy, and the video that was distributed among conspiracy theorists and on which Katasonov relies was torn out from the context.

Robert Malone, biologist

The American researcher positions himself as the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, which took advantage including the developers of some drugs against coronavirus. Indeed, at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, Malone, working at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, spent a series of important experiments: for example, he demonstrated how liposome-protected mRNA could be transferred into cultured cells to trigger protein synthesis. In 1990, scientist became co-author of a paper showing that it is possible to synthesize mRNA in the laboratory to produce desired proteins. Malone is the author of more than ten patents and numerous scientific publications with a high level of citations. At the same time, the scientific community notes: While Malone's contribution to the creation of mRNA vaccine technology is undeniable, it was the result of the work of hundreds of researchers over decades. 

In early 2020, even before the WHO declared a pandemic, Malone started testing heartburn remedy famotidine as a potential drug for the treatment of coronavirus infection. Already in April, Alchem ​​Laboratories, Malone's employer and manufacturer of the injectable form of famotidine, received a multimillion-dollar contract from the US authorities for additional research. Although this drug was not found to be effective against COVID-19 either then or later, such a stir arose around it in the United States that the drug temporarily disappeared from pharmacy shelves.

Also Malone promoted treatment of coronavirus using ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug for animals. It has been approved or even recommended for treatment of COVID-19 in India, South Africa and many Latin American countries. However, already in 2021, many studies that formed the basis of these decisions and testified to the effectiveness of the drug, were recognized unreliable, and some - even falsified. However, this did not stop Malone tell about the effectiveness of ivermectin in the future. 

Malone also argued that:

• spike protein, used, for example, in the Sputnik V and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, has cytotoxicity, that is, it is capable of damaging the cells of the body (in fact, it cannot fit in into the human genome, as well as influence for the production of other proteins in the body);
• after using the vaccine arises effect called antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (scientists of such cases not recorded);
• WHO announcedthat it is important to wear masks because none of the vaccines prevent infection (Malone misrepresented the recommendation that the WHO released in the summer of 2021 amid the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant—so contagious that even fully vaccinated people are wise to continue wearing masks and continue to take precautions to prevent the spread of infection).

For these and similar remarks, Malone's Twitter account (now X), which had over 500,000 followers, was blocked December 29, 2021. After this doctor invited first on Joe Rogan's podcast, which counts one of the most popular in the world, and then on show Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Malone did not miss the opportunity to share his position with such a wide audience, including reinforcing your words with false statements. The researcher's blog was restored almost a year later, when the platform, bought by billionaire Elon Musk, revised moderation rules.

Recently, Malone has been active promotes ideas outlined by him and his wife in their book Psychological Warfare: Establishing a New World Order. In his concept, a conspiracy theorist links the fight against the spread of disinformation, which online platforms have intensified during the pandemic, the development of IT and the psychological weapons developed by the intelligence services of the US, UK and other countries that can manipulate public opinion. Recording of a lecture Malone gave on this topic in August 2024, collected Almost 2 million views on YouTube.

Galina Chervonskaya, biologist

Chervonskaya began her scientific career in the middle of the last century; she worked for many years at the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology named after. N. F. Gamaleya (it was there that the Sputnik V vaccine was developed), published in peer-reviewed journals more than 20 scientific articles (mainly in experimental virology and under the maiden name of Sovetova), defended candidate's dissertation. Since the late 1980s, she essentially ended her academic career, switching to popularization work. Then Chervonskaya started actively perform against mass vaccination and over time became the main figure of the anti-vaccination movement in the post-Soviet space.

Chervonskaya’s authority in this environment, as in the case of the persons described above, was facilitated by her scientific background. Moreover, she was not just a physician or biologist, but directly studied viruses. However, fact checkers couldn't find evidence that Chervonskaya has a medical education and that she participated in research on the effects of vaccines on the human body. Moreover, reports about her doctorate and professorship are also not confirmed by official sources (but she has There is anti-award “Honorary Academician of VRAL” for 2020).

Chervonskaya popularizes many conspiracy narratives about vaccination: she actively spreads claims about the connection BCG vaccines with the tuberculosis epidemic, influence vaccines for infertility, side effects DTP vaccines (against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus). She also stands on anti-scientific position that children who have not received a single dose of vaccine before the age of five independently develop a unique natural defense against disease.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Chervonskaya insistedthat those who have had this infection develop lifelong immunity. But, as subsequent events showed, this is not true: the same person could have contracted the coronavirus several times. Trying to prove the dangers of coronavirus vaccines, supporters of conspiracy theories used Chervonskaya’s numerous theses against other vaccines.

Despite Chervonskaya’s anti-scientific position, Media still invite her as expert. Some excerpts from her interview go viral on social networks and in 2025. The biologist continues to conduct seminars for parents, combining anti-vaccination rhetoric with criticism of pharmaceutical companies. Chervonskaya's books are available on large trading platforms.

Pavel Vorobyov, doctor

Vorobyov - representative medical dynasty. After graduation First Moscow Medical Institute named after. I. M. Sechenov he provided assistance to victims and liquidators of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986, and two years later - to victims of the Spitak earthquake in Armenia. There, the doctor used an innovative method of combating crash syndrome (toxicosis arising due to prolonged ischemia of soft tissues compressed by debris). Vorobyov's method - plasmapheresis in combination with heparin administration and plasma transfusion - significantly reduced mortality and completely avoided amputations in victims. This development formed the basis of his doctoral dissertation, which the physician defended in 1997.

Since then Vorobyov promotes plasmapheresis method for the treatment of burns, therapy for septic shock, antiphospholipid syndrome and other conditions. The doctor was among those who offered This method is also used to combat COVID-19. In 2020, patients with coronavirus treated using plasmapheresis in leading Russian hospitals and in other countries, although a Cochrane review released in spring 2021 assertsthat convalescent plasma does not provide benefit in treating people with moderate to severe COVID-19. 

Until 2021, Vorobyov’s statements about the coronavirus generally did not contradict the scientific consensus. He admitted the need for quarantine, recommended avoiding public places, noted that there is no specific treatment, reminded of the need to ventilate the premises and strengthen the immune system to reduce the risk of infection. At that time, Vorobyov was quite neutral spoke out even about forced vaccination, emphasizingthat vaccines need to be carefully tested. Moreover, even then he expressed concern about post-Covid syndrome and one of the first warnedthat artificial ventilation of the lungs in patients with COVID-19 is by no means panacea, as many then expected, and the use of a ventilator should be postponed as long as possible.

But in the second year of the pandemic, the vector of the doctor’s public statements changed dramatically. The professor’s main target was vaccination as such, and the Sputnik V vaccine in particular. For example, Vorobyov spoke, that the coronavirus vaccine is a genetically modified virus, “on which a piece of another virus is implanted, all this is injected into the blood, the virus enters the cell, there it multiplies, there it begins to release some kind of Covid particles, which then cause the appearance of antibodies.” Actually a virus can't reproduce in a human cell after it has been processed for use in a vaccine. Vorobyov brought and another argument: “[Vaccination is] actually an insertion into the genome, because we introduce genetic material - RNA. We have a reverse transcriptase mechanism that reads the RNA and translates it into DNA. And this can be integrated into both the mitochondrial genome and the cell genome.” However, firstly, mRNA vaccines against coronavirus have not been registered in Russia, and secondly, scientists unknown examples of this theoretically possible reactions. Anyway, how clarified discoverer of the reverse transcriptase gene David Baltimore, fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will not lead to the formation of infectious material.

In addition to the coronavirus vaccine, Vorobyov took up arms and to others: he considers only vaccination against polio necessary, while, for example, vaccines against measles and pneumococcus are downright dangerous. The first of them, according to the doctor, gives too short an immune response and creates a sense of false security. The second protects against some pathogens, but gives the green light to more dangerous diseases: “People will still develop pneumonia. But if they are vaccinated against pneumococcus, then their inflammation will be caused by streptococcus or staphylococcus. These are more dangerous inflammations, they are more severe, and in many cases they are fatal.” However, as WHO emphasizes, even in the case measles, and in case pneumococcus Vaccination is the most effective method of prevention.

Back in 2020, the physician founded his private clinic, the Pavel Vorobyov Medical Bureau. There he is promotes The author’s method of treating coronavirus infection, in particular, recommends taking prophylactic doses of oral anticoagulants from the very beginning of the disease. This choice is not accidental: Vorobyov is now convinced that COVID-19 is actually not a virus, but vasculitis (vascular inflammation, which is accompanied by disseminated intravascular coagulation). In addition to therapy for coronavirus, acute respiratory viral infections and acute respiratory infections, the clinic provide consultations and support in the treatment of many other diseases. On the website to be specifiedthat all specialists offer only an information service for an expert assessment of symptoms and the development of tactics for further diagnosis and treatment, and information assistance, according to the law, is not a medical service. 

Vorobyov also heads the scientific journal “Clinical gerontology", serves on the board Moscow Scientific Society of Therapists and to the editorial board of the magazine "Advances in gerontology"

Igor Gundarov, doctor

Until 2020, Gundarov, although participated in controversial socio-political projects (like the project of a harmonious state in the teachings of Jesus Christ about the “Kingdom of God” on earth), in the core area he did not show himself as an adherent of conspiracy theories. In 1991 he defended doctoral dissertation, in 1994 he became a professor at the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education. He also led laboratory at one of the research centers of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, was the chief researcher at the research institute at the Moscow Medical Academy. I. M. Sechenova, expert on demography of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

In the spring of 2020 Gundarov statedthat the real danger of COVID-19 is small, and the statistics of morbidity and mortality in Russia are allegedly inflated by his colleagues who receive additional payments for each identified patient. The doctor also criticized measures to combat the spread of the pandemic, calling them criminal and worsening public health. In particular, he said that isolating people over 65 is stupid. Instead, Gundarov offered “go out into the sun”, since the virus will disappear in a few minutes when exposed to sunlight. From the status of a Covid-denier, he is actively disowned, emphasizing that the very existence of the virus is recognized. 

Summer 2021 Gundarov stated, which is proud of the low level of vaccination in Russia and that the number of reported deaths from coronavirus is 100 times, or even more, higher than the actual number of deaths from this disease. In addition, he insisted that it is prohibited to get vaccinated during an epidemic (as explained "Verified", this is not true). Then Gundarov announced holding a tribunal to “deal” with the distributors of any information about the coronavirus, but it never took place. 

Even in 2022 Gundarov insistedthat the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has not yet been isolated in its pure form, therefore, according to him, any testing for infection is inaccurate. This is despite the fact that the complete genetic sequence of the virus was published back in January 2020.

But in general, Gundarov made almost no specific anti-scientific statements, preferring express unfounded doubts about the statistics - both the incidence of coronavirus and mortality from it. He also actively promoted the idea that various political forces would use COVID-19 to further their own interests (and at the same time regularly criticized Russian leadership). Also the doctor more than once called the Sputnik V vaccine is unfinished - according to him opinion, a qualitative test of its safety and effectiveness has never been carried out.

In the last three years, Gundarov has been quite active comments in the media it is no longer a pandemic, but a Russian “special operation” against Ukraine. Although in general taking a pro-Kremlin position, in 2024 Gundarov allowed ourselves, rather sharply criticizing the authorities: “What price are we willing to pay for success in a “special military operation”? <…> Should the price be demographic or not? Why aren't they telling us the death toll? From whom are they hiding? They know everything there, down to one soldier. From whom are they hiding from us? <…> Children are not made with a finger. Everyone who makes children ends up in the steppes near Kherson.”

For more than four years Gundarov heads the public organization he created for the protection of human rights, health and well-being BOSEP. Its official website offers assistance in a variety of areas: from assistance in disputes with developers and consumer protection to the ability to anonymously complain about corruption. Gundarov also teaches at the University of Natural Sciences and Humanities. This organization based in 2022, offers a variety of continuing education courses: from state and municipal administration to sports massage, from military journalism to mining. Gundarov heads the department there valeology and social medicine.

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**The Russian Ministry of Justice considers Levada Center a “foreign agent.”

Update March 12, 2025: From the section about Igor Gundarov, the phrase that he spread conspiracy theories regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was removed. It contained an incorrect link. The previous version can be found at link.