A doctor falsely told lawmakers vaccines magnetize
people: ‘They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks.’
By
June 9, 2021 at 6:18 a.m. CDT
1460
Sherri
Tenpenny, a Cleveland-based doctor invited as an expert witness Tuesday to a
hearing in the Ohio House, had a grave warning for legislators about coronavirus vaccines.
The
anti-vaccination advocate known for spreading unfounded claims falsely
told legislators that the drugs could leave people
“magnetized.”
“I’m
sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the Internet of people who have had
these shots and now they’re magnetized,” Tenpenny said. “They can put a key on their
forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can
stick, because now we think that there’s a metal piece to that.”
Her baseless remarks —
which also suggested that vaccines “interface” with 5G cellular towers — didn’t
elicit strong pushback from legislators, who were listening to testimony in
favor of a bill that would prevent businesses or the government from requiring
proof of vaccination.
Instead,
some GOP representatives thanked Tenpenny for testifying in front of the Ohio
House Health Committee, with one praising a podcast she hosts as “enlightening
in terms of thinking.”
“What
an honor to have you here,” said Rep. Jennifer L. Gross (R), a nurse who
co-sponsored the bill and in a previous meeting compared businesses that require vaccinations to the
Holocaust.
Tenpenny’s
testimony, which has since gone viral, came a day after the Ohio
Department of Health hosted a news conference where doctors
dispelled vaccine misinformation. As a significant number of Republicans
continue to resist the vaccines, GOP lawmakers in
Ohio have pushed back against Gov.
Mike DeWine’s campaign to increase the state’s vaccination numbers through
efforts including a $1 million lottery.
More
than 41 percent of Ohioans are fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. In
the past week, the state’s 7-day average vaccination rate has fallen 17
percent.
Tenpenny,
an osteopathic
doctor and the author of “Saying No to Vaccines,” told The Post
that she stands by her testimony, which included other false claims, including
that more than 5,000 people had died in the United States as a
result of the vaccines. (In fact, The Post’s Fact Checker recently reported, no
deaths in the United States have been proved to be a result of the coronavirus
vaccines.)
“I do
believe greatly that people should have a choice on what gets injected to their
bodies because once you have injected it you can’t uninject it,” Tenpenny told
The Post.
At the
Tuesday meeting, Tenpenny also claimed the vaccines somehow connected to 5G, a
next-generation technology that has been at the center of many coronavirus
conspiracy theories.
“There’s
been people who have long suspected that there’s been some sort of an
interface, ‘yet to be defined’ interface, between what’s being injected in
these shots and all of the 5G towers,” she said — a claim roundly rejected by experts.
Although
most lawmakers refrained from asking Tenpenny questions about her sources of
information and credentials during her Tuesday testimony, some did attempt to
push back.
“Of the
five-and-a-half million Ohioans who have gotten the covid-19 vaccine shot
through today or the last six months, how many do you believe have been killed
by that shot?” asked Rep. Brian Stewart (R).
“So, I
don’t know,” Tenpenny replied.
