Cedar Hills man ordered to stop selling silver products as coronavirus cure
A federal judge has ordered a Utah man to stop selling silver-based products as a cure for COVID-19. U.S. District Judge David Barlow issued a temporary restraining order against Gordon Pedersen of Cedar Hills and his companies, My Doctor Suggests LLC and GP Silver LLC. The order follows a civil complaint filed in Salt Lake City against Pedersen, 60, by U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber.
“The civil complaint alleges that the defendants are fraudulently promoting and selling various silver products for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19,” according to a statement from Huber’s office. “The defendants have made a wide variety of false and misleading claims touting silver products as a preventative for COVID-19, including that having silver in the bloodstream will ‘usher’ any coronavirus out of the body and that ‘it has been proven that alkaline structured silver will destroy all forms of viruses, (and) it will protect people from the coronavirus.’”
The complaints said that Pederson has “promoted silver products as a treatment for various diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia” since about 2014. His products are sold under various brands, such as Silver Solution, Silver Gel, Silver Soap and Silver Lozenge. Earlier this year, Pedersen and My Doctor Suggests started claiming that the silver products also cured COVID-19.
“Gordon Pedersen falsely claims that My Doctor Suggests silver products can destroy coronavirus, and remove it from the body, assuring the user will never get COVID-19,” the complaint said.
Although Pederson refers to himself as a doctor and often gives his sales pitch in a white coat with a stethoscope around his shoulders, he does not hold a doctor of medicine degree and is not licensed as a medical provider in the state of Utah, the complaint says.
Prosecutors reminded consumers, “There is no recognized cure for COVID-19, and no drug product has been proven safe and effective for the prevention, treatment or cure of COVID-19.”
The federal court has also frozen all of Pedersen’s and his companies’ assets. A hearing on the preliminary injunction is scheduled for May 12. Meanwhile, the My Doctor Suggests website has gone offline.