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Joint statement issued by national physicians’ groups calls local doctors' statement "reckless and untested musings"

Posted at 9:41 PM, Apr 27, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-28 14:48:30-04

A joint statement issued Monday by two national physicians’ groups is rebuking two local doctors for statements they made last week regarding an end to stay-at-home orders and other restrictions. The statement called their remarks, "reckless and untested musings."

The statement was in reference to statements made by Dr. Daniel Erickson and Dr. Artin Messihi of Accelerated Urgent Care. It went on to say, "As owners of local urgent care clinics, it appears these two individuals are releasing biased, non-peer reviewed data to advance their personal financial interests without regard for the public’s health.

COVID-19 misinformation is widespread and dangerous. Members of AAEM and ACEP are first-hand witnesses to the human toll that COVID-19 is taking on our communities. AAEM and ACEP strongly advise against using any statements of Drs. Erickson and Messihi as a basis for policy and decision making."

This statement coming the same day that YouTube pulled a 23ABC video recording of Drs. Erickson and Messihi speaking. The video was one of two part of the press conference uploaded to YouTube. 23ABC has appealed to YouTube to have the video re-uploaded.

Drs. Erickson and Messihi's video press briefing received over 5.46 million views on YouTube before it was pulled. The doctors offered remarks pushing for the California shelter-in-place order to be lifted. The two say they have their own statistics that show COVID-19 is similar to the flu.