Nigerian-born doctor, Stella Immanuel has made an impassioned plea advocating the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19.

A video of her arguments in support of the controversial treatment has gone viral and has been viewed over 13 million times on Facebook and YouTube, but both platforms have taken down the video.

Regardless, the video is being shared relentlessly on WhatsApp, Twitter, Messenger, and other messaging platforms.

Stella Immanuel is part of a team of Medical professionals who attended America’s Frontline Doctors Summit in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on Monday, July 27.

Many doctors took the opportunity to address the media and the U.S. public about the country’s fight against Covid-19 and a few, including Dr. Stella Immanuel, spoke out against the current accepted virus treatment and the need to wear masks.

Video of Immanuel speaking quickly went viral as she talked about her experience treating Covid-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine and her belief in its effectiveness.

This position is in contrast to the safety issues raised by the FDA, who cautioned against using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients. The NIH adopted a similar position and halted its clinical trial of the drug, finding that it provided no benefits.

A longer video showing the press conference is available here. Oliver Darcy, a CNN reporter, shared that the video was removed from Facebook after gaining over 13 million views.

He quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying, “We’ve removed this video for sharing false information about cures and treatments for Covid-19. We’re showing messages in News Feed to people who have reacted to, commented on or shared harmful Covid-19-related misinformation that we have removed, connecting them to myths debunked by the WHO.”

Darcy also later confirmed that the video was removed by YouTube for violating its community guidelines.

The America’s Frontline Doctors Summit is taking place on July 27 and 28 and its goal is to dispel the “massive disinformation campaign” about COVID-19 going on in the U.S., according to its website. It was organized by the Tea Party Patriots, who described the event as: “Physicians from around the country address the American people about Covid-19 and the importance of reopening schools and our society.”

According to her Facebook, Dr. Immanuel is based in Houston, Texas, and is a physician at Rehoboth Medical Center in Houston. She is also a deliverance minister and founder of Fire Power Ministries. In the video above from the summit, Immanuel says, “In the past few months, after taking in over 350 patients, we have not lost one. Not a diabetic, not somebody with high blood pressure, not somebody with asthma, not an old person. We’ve not lost one patient.”

She then says that in addition to this, she and her staff at the clinic and “many doctors that I know” are on hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure. She says the medication works as a preventative drug, and despite seeing around a dozen patients each day and only wearing a surgical mask, none of them have gotten sick.

She says, “I came here to Washington, D.C. to say: America, nobody needs to die.” Immanuel says it’s upsetting to see people struggling to breathe and thinking that COVID-19 is a “death sentence.” She then says, “I hug them, and I tell them that it’s going to be okay you’re going to leave. And we treat them, and they leave. None have died.

She goes on to claim that it’s “fake science” to say hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work. “This virus has a cure,” she says. “It is called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and zithromax.” Immanuel also says that no one needs masks or to shut down schools because there is a cure.

This is not the first time Immanuel has made these claims about hydroxychloroquine. She has posted about using the drug to treat COVID-19 in the past few months. Her pinned tweet from July 17 reads, “I refuse to be chained by fake science. I have successfully treated over 250 COVID patients with HCQ, zpack and zinc. No deaths. All these double blinded studies sponsored by big Phama is fake science.”

On April 27, she posted her support of President Donald Trump.

Hydroxychloroquine works if given early. President Trump we are with you. Many of us doctors know it and have used it. Don’t stop speaking up for us. @realDonaldTrump @MarkMeadows @TuckerCarlson @IngrahamAngle @DonaldJTrumpJr @POTUS @VP @GovMikeHuckabee @PastorBroden

— Stella Immanuel MD (@stella_immanuel) April 27, 2020 On July 27, Donald Trump Jr. shared a clip of Immanuel speaking at the summit, writing that it’s a “must watch.”

Hydroxychloroquine has been a controversial treatment option for Covid-19 since the pandemic began and the FDA withdrew it in June.

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug that’s historically been used to treat malaria but since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the drug has also generated interest as a preventative measure and as a treatment. However, despite early interest in the drug and President Trump calling it a “game changer” and saying he takes it regularly, use of the drug has become controversial due to its possible side effects.

In March, the FDA granted the drug “emergency use” authorization to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients, but then issued a subsequent warning about the risk of using it outside of a hospital or clinical trial. This warning was due to “reports of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety issues, including blood and lymph system disorders, kidney injuries, and liver problems and failure.” In June, the FDA withdrew the drug and said it found that there was no benefit to using the drug in preventing or treating Covid-19.

The World Health Organization also halted its trial of the drug in early July, saying it found “little or no reduction” when comparing the hydroxychloroquine treatment to regular patient care.