A doctor deployed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s former anti-vaccine advocacy group to cast doubt on recent measles deaths was responsible for the death of one of his patients, according to a recent federal court ruling. The law that Kory successfully cited to win immunity has long been a target of Kennedy’s old group.
Dr. Pierre Kory, a former critical care physician, became famous amid the pandemic for promoting the anti-parasitic ivermectin as a COVID-19 cure despite high-quality research debunking its efficacy against the disease. One of the co-founders of the pro-ivermectin Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, he became a fixture on the political right at the peak of the pandemic, but was eventually stripped of his board certifications for spreading misinformation.
Kory is a longtime Kennedy ally. The secretary has praised the doctor as “honest, brave, and sincere,” and hosted him at a health policy roundtable at the launch of his failed presidential campaign. Both men were speakers at the “Rescue the Republic” rally in Washington, D.C. ahead of the 2024 election. Kory appeared alongside CHD president Mary Holland.
Since leaving the FLCCC (now the Independent Medical Alliance and a major player in the MAHA space), Kory has primarily been appearing with Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vax advocacy group previously led by Kennedy. Kory has become a favorite alternative “expert” for the organization as it seeks to muddy the waters around the measles outbreaks cropping up across the country, which have proven to be a political headache for its former leader.
Last year, at the behest of CHD, Kory reviewed the medical records of two unvaccinated Texas girl who died from the virus. The group had obtained the records from the girls’ parents. Kory’s conclusion, which CHD has promoted, was that the deaths were caused by hospital error and malpractice, not the virus.
Last month, Kory himself escaped a brush with professional liability. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that he had immunity from claims of negligence, wrongful death, lack of informed consent, and violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act in a lawsuit brought by the family of a former COVID patient who died in 2022 as a result of a drug Kory prescribed.
The suit goes back to 2021 when Kory was offering a telehealth service to treat COVID patients with novel treatments—including ivermectin. One of those patients was an elderly Connecticut man, Edward James Waters, who had contacted Kory in late November of that year. Waters had recently suffered a gout flare-up for which he had been prescribed the corticosteroid prednisone, which carries a risk of peptic ulcers.
According to the background of the case, Kory knew about the treatment, but prescribed Waters even more prednisone along with ivermectin and other drugs. Kory’s treatment plan was similar to a COVID protocol he and his FLCCC founding members outlined in a paper retracted the month Waters came down with the viral disease.
Soon after starting treatment, Waters was hospitalized with shortness of breath and given more corticosteroids along with a proton pump inhibitor to counteract the impact on his stomach.
Upon his release, Kory prescribed even more prednisone without reviewing the details of Waters’ hospitalization and treatment, and without a supplemental proton pump inhibitor. Less than two weeks later, Waters was hospitalized with a ruptured ulcer and died from multiple organ failure.
In the wake of Waters’ death, his estate sued, alleging that Kory had been negligent in prescribing prednisone. Kory sought a dismissal of the case, arguing that his conduct had been covered under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act.
Passed in 2005, the law provides a broad liability shield to licensed health professionals and drug manufacturers for “covered countermeasures” amid public health emergencies. The notable exception in the law’s protection is willful misconduct.
While the court found that the law did protect Kory as a licensed physician prescribing a covered countermeasure in a pandemic, it ultimately agreed with the allegation against him.
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“Today, we hold that there is ‘a causal relationship’ between Kory’s prescription of prednisone and Waters’s death, and thus, the allegations are sufficient to trigger the PREP Act’s immunity provision,” the decision read.
“My client is very pleased with the court’s decision,” one of Kory’s attorneys insisted last month after the decision, noting that the doctor denied causing his patient’s death.
Ironically, anti-vaxxers—and CHD specifically—have railed against the PREP Act, warning that it would create a permissive structure for medical negligence. Two months before the ruling came down, the group posted on X : “The PREP Act provides liability protection for: ✅ the U.S. government ✅ a manufacturer ✅ a distributor ✅ a program planner ✅ one who administers, or dispenses such countermeasures…Wait, why does the PREP Act seem to protect everyone, except for ‘WE THE PEOPLE?’”
CHD president Mary Holland, had previously claimed that the law was providing a financial incentive for hastily made, unsafe vaccines in a co-authored March 2020 op-ed.
“In light of the immunity from liability guaranteed by the PREP Act during declared emergencies, fast-tracked vaccines are a sweetheart deal for both biopharma and government,” the piece read.
So far, CHD has not addressed Kory’s PREP Act legal win. Though another Kennedy-allied website, TrialSite News, has highlighted the issue the selective embrace of the PREP Act causes for the anti-vax movement.
Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco, told Important Context that the court got Waters’ case wrong.
“This ruling essentially tells people that if they’re treated for COVID-19 with anything—however implausible it is as a COVID-19 treatment—and something happens, or the treatment is negligent, they’re on their own,” Reiss warned. “They cannot sue the provider. It’s not, in my view, required under the PREP declaration, and it’s a bad result.”
Reiss warned that the judges interpreted the liability shield too broadly, noting that the FDA does not recommend the treatments Kory prescribed for COVID, “and giving providers immunity essentially says that someone selling MMS—industrial strength bleach—or black salve for COVID-19 would also be immune.”
“Also, it’s extremely cynical for someone like Kory, who criticized liability protections for vaccines, to then turn around and use them to avoid responsibility for treating people,” Reiss added.
Walker Bragman is a journalist and the co-founder of the Accountability Journalism Institute. Find Walker on Substack
A version of this article was originally posted at Important Context and is reposted here with permission. Any reposting should credit both the GLP and original article.
