In a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden recounts her experience in the trenches during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 While she has saved thousands of lives, the establishment vilified her by refusing to use treatments they endorsed. I encourage you to watch the entire episode, as it’s an eye-opening story of what went on behind the scenes.
Early Testing and Treatment Save Lives
According to Bowden, early pandemic testing delays were severe, often lasting up to two weeks. These delays allowed the virus more time to spread, exacerbating illness and overwhelming health care systems.
• Quick testing helps the appropriate patients — Bowden contributed to widespread testing by adopting saliva-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, dramatically reducing waiting times to just 24 hours:
“I was already working with a lab for patients with chronic sinusitis, they were doing a PCR testing for chronic sinusitis. So, tests for bacterial and fungal infections of the sinuses. It’s called Microgen DX, and they came out with a saliva test for COVID.
So, we were able to get the results back the next day. So, I started offering that and my little clinic exploded …”
• Doctors still helped whenever they could — Even if patients already had a full-blown infection, Bowden was still bound by her oath to help treat them with whatever tools were available:
“I also had patients come in that were really sick in the second week. And that, that was such a learning experience for me because, you know, normally, if somebody walked into my office with an oxygen saturation in the low 80s, I would call an ambulance. But I had patients who were refusing to go to the hospital, and I had to give them the option to possibly die in my office, which is scary, but we saved them.”
• Monoclonal antibodies worked — Simply put, monoclonal antibodies are lab-grown antibodies2 designed to stimulate your immune system. Bowden recounts how they “worked very well” for her patients, and she would notice improvement the following day.
• Early treatment increases survival outcomes — Bowden says that patients coming in during the beginning phases of the disease helped improve their chances of full recovery:
“[O]nce I knew it was safe, then I started using [ivermectin] and found it worked … All in all, I treated well over 6,000 patients and everybody that got early treatment stayed out of the hospital.”
What Happens When Doctors Speak Out Against the Narrative
Bowden personally encountered severe side effects of the COVID-19 jab while treating patients. But when she spoke out, she was met with vehement opposition:
• More and more athletes are dying due to myocarditis — In 2023, I wrote about how athletes suddenly experiencing heart attacks when the shots were rolled out. Now, the situation has gotten worse, Bowden says:
“So, it used to be 29 per year. Now it’s 290 per year, [a] growth [of] 10 times … And I worry about these kids because myocarditis, the primary symptom is chest pain. But if you’ve got a kid who’s not even speaking yet, you have no idea if they have myocarditis, and myocarditis can leave a permanent scar on the heart and then lead to a lifelong increased risk of sudden cardiac death and we have no idea if these kids have been affected.”
• The government schemed to hit ivermectin — In addition to the rollout of the shots, Bowden believes there was a concerted effort by different parties to suppress ivermectin:
“[T]he Federation of State Medical Boards, which is this private entity — they’re actually located in Texas — who oversees all the state medical boards, they sent out a directive to all the state medical boards concerning ivermectin, concerning misinformation, and basically encouraging the medical boards to go after doctors like myself.”
• Opposition will have a hard time prosecuting lifesavers — While Bowden has been maligned, she is proud of what she did to help patients. In turn, her attackers have no leverage because in the end, she saved lives:
“They can’t find an expert witness to testify against me. There have been three continuances. They finally were awarded summary judgment against me. So, they’ve decided I’m guilty. And now I’m waiting for my punishment. There was a hearing about a month ago to find out what they’re going to find me with and that sort of thing. And I’m just waiting on that, but I do plan on appealing.”
Going deeper into the censorship angle, Bowden shares that the big players are working together to bring down cheap, effective treatments for patients suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic:
• Money was involved in propaganda and censorship — Bowden recounts that all the pieces moved very quickly at the start of the pandemic to usher in the shots as the primary solution:
“If you look at the timing, in March, the government put out the big information on ivermectin and why you should not take it for COVID. They put that on the FDA ‘s website. At the same time, they launched COVID-19 Community Corps, and this was April 1st, 2021.
This was an $11.5 billion slush fund to feed out propaganda and censor people. And the day that they launched the COVID-19 Community Corps was the same day that Houston Methodist, which is where I had privileges, mandated the COVID shots for all their employees, and they were the first in the country.”
• The government purposefully made it hard for doctors to do their jobs — This led to the suppression of effective treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies. Bowden said she didn’t even use ivermectin until the government took over distribution of monoclonal antibodies. After that, it became increasingly difficult to get them.
Were Hospital Protocols Helping or Hurting Patients?
Early pandemic hospital protocols often used ventilators aggressively and universally, regardless of patient-specific needs, frequently worsening outcomes for many individuals:
• Ventilators were forced on patients — Despite leading to worsened pulmonary function, hospitals still put patients on ventilators:
“You don’t look at a number to put somebody on a ventilator. And unfortunately, the people in the hospital didn’t learn. They didn’t experiment in that fashion. They just went by this protocol and automatically put people on ventilators. They also didn’t give people breathing treatments. They thought that breathing treatments would spread the virus.”
• Hospitals were indiscriminately harming patients — During the height of the pandemic, Bowden recounts that hospitals were essentially euthanizing patients to make room for others:
“They’ll justify giving morphine because they’ll say, ‘Oh, well, they’re struggling to breathe.’ Well, guess what? Morphine actually depresses your drive to breathe. Like this one case I remember, this patient, he was sick, he looked like he was dying, but they just pushed morphine. He had no pain. They do a pain score, so zero to 10.
This guy had zero pain. And then they pushed insulin to drop his sugar, and his glucose was fine. And then he died three minutes later … I reviewed this chart and turned him in the medical board. Nothing. They didn’t do anything.”
• Profits over lives — In the end, Bowden believes that greed ultimately won out, with the COVID shots linked to the deaths of countless people:
“[W]e have hard facts showing it should be pulled off the market. I mean, any other product would have been pulled a long time ago. If this were an antibiotic and we’d seen all the carnage from an antibiotic, it would have been yanked off long ago. It should have been yanked off in the first month. There’s no other explanation than there’s just fraud, there’s corruption, there’s ego, there’s money. But it’s not science.”
Medical Freedom Is Constantly Under Threat
Recent victories for medical freedom, such as Idaho’s ban on jab mandates,3 demonstrate growing support for patient autonomy. Yet powerful medical organizations remain opposed to broad reforms.
• More like-minded politicians are needed — Bowden formed the Americans for Health Freedom to increasingly influence policy discussions, advocating strongly for the restoration and protection of medical freedoms:
“I started an organization called Americans for Health Freedom to try to find the politicians with moral courage to simply state that the COVID shot should be pulled off the market. It has been slow-growing, but we are up to 252 politicians who will go on record just to state that these shots should be pulled off the market.”
• Politicians have been bought — Rogan and Bowden agree that money has caused many politicians to stay quiet about the efficacy and safety of the shots, most likely because of Big Pharma’s bribery:
“[T]hese politicians are not getting these shots anymore and they’re not giving them to their kids, and yet they’re fine just staying quiet and not saying anything. They’re fine letting their constituents get these shots when we know all the complications, we know that it doesn’t work.
We know that the risk far outweighs the benefit, and the politicians are staying quiet. So, our goal is to support the ones who will speak up and get them more power.”
• Organizations continue to suppress free speech — Bowden frequently clashed with mainstream medical experts during the pandemic. She called out the Texas Medical Association, saying:
“They are anti-free speech for physicians. They are pro-mandate. They’ve gone after me, and they have a tight control over the people in our House and State. So, I just think we need to be careful. I mean, you saw it during the pandemic and the economy of our state is dominated by health, and people don’t realize that. They just think oil, but health is a huge dominating factor in our economy and, you saw what they did to me, what they’re still doing to me.”
The Best Ways to Protect Yourself
Despite the assault on physicians and patient medical freedom, Bowden hasn’t given up. Things are looking up, and she hopes that the new Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, “will save us all.” In the meantime, there are things you can do to protect yourself against the ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants, as well as other diseases by boosting your immune system.
As noted in Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s interview with Tucker Carlson, your immune system is everything, especially against chronic diseases. However, many people have compromised immune function nowadays due to getting the shot. To rebuild your resilience, here are my recommendations:
1. Prioritize sleep — Ensure you’re getting at least seven to nine hours of high-quality sleep every night. Sleep is when your body heals and rejuvenates. Lack of proper sleep weakens your immune system and increases inflammation. But that’s not all — you also need to consider sleep quality. For simple, actionable fixes that will help you get the rest you need, read “Subtle Signs You Are Not Getting Enough Sleep.”
2. Dietary adjustments — Your diet plays a huge role in your overall health. If you’re eating unhealthy foods, it’s time to change. Limit ultraprocessed foods, refined sugar, and linoleic acid (LA), which is an inflammatory polyunsaturated fat (PUF). Focus instead on healthy carbohydrates to optimize your metabolic health and reduce immune-damaging inflammation.
3. Sunlight exposure — In a previous article, I noted that vitamin D from sunlight exposure helps prevent respiratory infections. I recommend you get daily sunlight exposure at solar noon, but only after you’ve been off vegetable oils for two to six months.
4. Add C15:0 fat to your diet — In relation to the point above, did you know that after you eat enough LA, it becomes embedded in your skin? Once it’s exposed to sunlight, inflammatory metabolites are produced, leading to increased risk of chronic disease and inflammation.
Taking 250 milligrams of pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) daily may help shorten the time it takes for your skin to safely interact with sunlight again, but emerging research suggests much larger doses may be even better.
The logic behind this strategy is to push out the existing LA from your tissues, replacing them with healthier fat. If you simply followed a low-LA diet, it would take two to three years for the strategy to work. But if you add C15:0, the LA clearance significantly shortens to 12 to 18 months. To understand this strategy in more detail, read “The Skin Microbiome Secret to Sun Protection and Radiant Health.”
5. Manage your stress — Chronic stress weakens your immune response due to elevated cortisol levels. Engage in daily stress-relief activities like meditation, deep breathing exercises, gentle yoga, or simply spending more time in nature. For more information, read “Key Strategies to Reduce Your Cortisol Levels.”
6. Don’t get the COVID shot — Given concerns raised by Bowden about serious side effects, opting out of the COVID jab and focusing instead on natural strategies to boost your immunity provides a safer, more effective approach.
If you or a loved one has already gotten the jab, I recommend you go over the I-RECOVER program by the Independent Medical Alliance (IMA), formerly known as the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). It provides extensive information about how to treat long COVID4 and post-jab injuries.5
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About the Doctors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Q: What was Bowden’s approach to COVID-19 testing and early treatment?
A: Bowden emphasized that early testing and intervention were crucial in saving lives during the pandemic. She implemented saliva-based PCR testing with a 24-hour turnaround, enabling faster diagnosis compared to the then-common two-week delays. She treated patients with monoclonal antibodies and ivermectin, and that early intervention kept thousands out of the hospital.
Q: Why did Bowden face backlash from the medical establishment?
A: Bowden publicly challenged the mainstream COVID-19 treatment protocols, questioned the shot safety, and promoted off-label use of ivermectin. As a result, she was targeted by medical boards and hospital administrators who allegedly acted on federal directives to suppress dissent. She claims that propaganda, financial incentives, and censorship motivated the backlash, not science.
Q: How did hospital protocols during the pandemic impact patient outcomes, according to Bowden?
A: Bowden criticized hospitals for over-reliance on ventilators, often administered without patient-specific evaluation. She alleges that some institutions essentially euthanized patients through unnecessary morphine and insulin use, and even withheld supportive care like breathing treatments. She argues that these decisions were driven by protocols, profit motives, and flawed incentives — not patient welfare.
Q: What role does Bowden believe government and pharmaceutical interests played in shaping the pandemic response?
A: She asserts there was a coordinated effort to suppress effective, low-cost treatments like ivermectin in favor of shot mandates. She points to initiatives like the $11.5 billion COVID-19 Community Corps, claiming it was used to spread propaganda and enforce censorship, while pharmaceutical interests influenced both policy and the public’s perception.
Q: What is Bowden’s stance on medical freedom and jab mandates today?
A: Bowden founded Americans for Health Freedom, an organization aimed at supporting politicians who oppose COVID-19 shot mandates and advocate for medical autonomy. She celebrates moves like Idaho’s decision on mandates and criticizes institutions like the Texas Medical Association for suppressing physician free speech.
Test Your Knowledge with Today’s Quiz!
Take today’s quiz to see how much you’ve learned from yesterday’s Mercola.com article.
By age 17, what health issue might boys face from consuming sugary drinks daily during childhood?
