Vaccines · Accountability
Martyrs? Read the Anti-Vax Rap Sheet
Which anti-vaccine doctors, nurses, practitioners and activists in Canada and the United States have actually been charged, convicted or disciplined — what for, and what it cost them. And the far longer list of famous names who have never faced anything at all.
If you want to do something about it
Every penalty on this page started with somebody filing a complaint.
A doctor, nurse or naturopath's conduct goes to their provincial college (in the US, the state medical board). A product sold with false claims goes to Health Canada and the Competition Bureau, and fraud to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Our complaints page has the addresses, phone numbers and forms, and how to write a complaint that gets acted on.
Outside Canada? Where to report health fraud in the US, UK, Australia, NZ and the EU →
The anti-vaccine movement likes to present its leaders as martyrs persecuted for their opinions. The record shows something different. The people who were actually punished were, almost without exception, punished for conduct: writing medical exemptions that didn't meet the standard, selling fake vaccination cards, treating children negligently, refusing to cooperate with their own regulator, practising without a licence, or breaking the law at protests. Opinions alone rarely cost anyone anything — which is why the movement's most influential voices appear only in the box at the bottom of this page.
Criminal charged in criminal or quasi-criminal court
Regulatory licensing college, medical board or specialty board
Civil injunction, civil penalty or contempt
Unresolved dropped, withdrawn or still pending
Canada
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| Who | Type | What it was about | Outcome and penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark TrozziMD, Ontario (emergency medicine) | Regulatory | Promoting baseless COVID-19 conspiracy theories, discouraging public-health measures, issuing vaccine exemptions below the standard of practice, and an incomplete response to the College's document requests. The Tribunal found misconduct, incompetence and that he was ungovernable (Oct 2023). | Licence revoked 25 Jan 2024; reprimand; $94,960 costs. Appeal dismissed by the Divisional Court, 1 Nov 2024 (2024 ONSC 6096). |
| Patrick PhillipsMD, Englehart / Kirkland Lake, Ont. | Regulatory | Social-media posts against COVID-19 vaccines (Aug 2020 – Sept 2021), fake exemption letters, trying to block testing of an exposed 10-month-old, posting a colleague's private letter that led to online harassment of that doctor, and obstructing the investigation. Pleaded no contest. | Licence revoked 6 June 2023, with a reprimand. Earlier barred from issuing vaccine, mask and testing exemptions (Sept 2021). |
| Rochagné KilianMD, Owen Sound, Ont. | Regulatory | Barred from issuing COVID-19 exemptions and suspended on an interim basis in 2021. The 2025 Tribunal finding was for failing to respond to the College and failing to cooperate with its investigation, found disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional. | Reprimand; 12-month suspension from 23 Oct 2025; ethics courses before returning; $36,295 costs. |
| Viliam (William) Makisformer MD, Alberta | Civil | Has held no active Alberta licence since February 2019, but continued to present himself online as a doctor and to give cancer-treatment advice, while promoting the “turbo cancer” COVID-vaccine claim. Sued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. | Found in contempt of court and given a permanent injunction, 4 Mar 2026 (2026 ABKB 159): must stop using protected titles or giving cancer advice, on threat of arrest. The court stressed the case is about practising without a licence, not about ivermectin. Leave to appeal denied, 17 June 2026 (2026 ABCA 198). Alberta contempt and his Florida licence → |
| Kristen NagleRN, London, Ont.; Canadian Frontline Nurses | Criminal | Organised anti-lockdown rallies and spoke at the Washington rally on 6 January 2021; fired “with cause” by London Health Sciences Centre. Charged for attending a church service that broke the gathering limit. | Convicted under the Reopening Ontario Act; $10,000 fine (2021). Cautioned by the College of Nurses of Ontario over pandemic misinformation. |
| Tamara Lich & Chris Barber“Freedom Convoy” organisers, Ottawa 2022 | Criminal | Leading the weeks-long occupation of downtown Ottawa against vaccine mandates. Anti-mandate rather than strictly anti-vaccine, but the movement's best-known Canadian prosecution. | Convicted of mischief; 18-month conditional sentences (house arrest, then curfew), Oct 2025. Lich's term reduced for time already served in jail. |
| Artur PawlowskiCalgary street pastor | Criminal | A speech urging protesters at the 2022 Coutts, Alta., border blockade against COVID-19 measures to keep blocking the crossing. | Convicted on two blockade-related charges including mischief; 60 days in jail (Sept 2023). Conviction upheld by the Alberta Court of Appeal, Oct 2024. |
| Charles HoffeMD, Lytton, B.C. | Unresolved | Cited for misleading, incorrect or inflammatory public statements about COVID-19 vaccines (e.g. calling them “lethal”). | Case dropped by the B.C. College in Feb 2025 after years of delay, according to his lawyer; no finding either way. Hoffe's supporters now call him “vindicated.” |
| Stephen MalthouseMD, Denman Island, B.C. | Unresolved | Alleged to have signed vaccine and mask exemption forms he knew were false and to have used his status to get around public-health orders. | Suspended on an interim basis since March 2022 to protect the public. No final decision found. Dropped as a B.C. Conservative candidate in 2024. |
| Daniel Nagaseformer MD, B.C. / Alberta | Unresolved | Cited by the B.C. College for promoting ivermectin and attacking COVID-19 vaccines in a December 2021 speech in front of effigies of political figures hanging from nooses. | Resigned his B.C. licence before the citation was issued; hearing outcome not published. His own $66.6-million lawsuit was thrown out of court in 2023. |
United States
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| Who | Type | What it was about | Outcome and penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juli Mazinaturopath, Napa, Calif. | Criminal | One of the first federal criminal fraud prosecutions over fake COVID-19 vaccination cards. She sold homeoprophylaxis pellets as “immunization” and filled out CDC cards to make it look as though customers had received a real vaccine. | Pleaded guilty to wire fraud and false statements related to health care; 33 months in federal prison (sentenced 2022). |
| Simone GoldMD, founder of America's Frontline Doctors | Criminal | Entered the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 and gave a speech inside against COVID-19 measures and vaccines. | Pleaded guilty to entering a restricted building; 60 days in prison, 12 months supervised release, $9,500 fine (June 2022). Pardoned 20 Jan 2025. Separately sued by her own organisation over alleged misuse of its funds. Our Simone Gold file → |
| Michael Kirk Moore Jr.plastic surgeon, Utah | Unresolved | Federally charged with destroying about $28,000 worth of COVID-19 vaccine, giving children saline shots instead, and selling fake vaccination cards. Faced up to 35 years. | Charges dismissed 12 July 2025 on the direct order of Attorney General Pam Bondi, before a verdict. |
| Eric Neputechiropractor, St. Louis | Civil | The first case under the federal COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act. Advertised that his vitamin D and zinc products treated or prevented COVID-19 and protected as well as or better than vaccines. | Permanent injunction and $80,000 civil penalty (Aug 2023); his company Quickwork LLC hit with a $1 million penalty, mostly suspended for inability to pay. |
| Paul ThomasMD, pediatrician, Portland, Ore. | Regulatory | Author of The Vaccine-Friendly Plan. The board found he linked vaccines to autism with a patient's mother, failed to report pertussis in unvaccinated children, failed to send a sick 10-week-old to hospital, and committed gross negligence. | Emergency licence suspension 4 Dec 2020 as an “immediate danger to the public”; surrendered his licence 6 Oct 2022. What the board found → |
| Kenneth StollerMD, pediatrician, California | Regulatory | Wrote improper medical vaccine exemptions for at least 10 children (2016–18), usually for families he did not treat, based on commercial DNA tests, charging hundreds of dollars each. | Licence revoked by the Medical Board of California, effective March 2021. Has since moved to Montana and sued the CDC. What the judge found → |
| Bob SearsMD, pediatrician, Orange County, Calif. | Regulatory | Author of The Vaccine Book and its “alternative schedule.” Wrongfully exempted a toddler from all childhood vaccinations. | Probation (2018): 40 hours a year of medical education plus an ethics course, practice monitor, and barred from supervising PAs and nurse practitioners. |
| Sherri TenpennyDO, Ohio | Regulatory | Told state legislators in 2021 that COVID-19 vaccines magnetize people. The suspension itself was for refusing to cooperate with the State Medical Board's investigation. | Licence suspended Aug 2023; reinstated Apr 2024 after agreeing to a $3,000 fine. |
| Thomas CowanMD, San Francisco | Regulatory | Promoter of the claim that 5G networks cause COVID-19 and that viruses do not cause disease. Already on five-year board probation since 2017 for prescribing unapproved drugs to a breast-cancer patient. | Surrendered his licence 7 Dec 2020 (made public Feb 2021). |
| Peter McCullough, Pierre Kory & Paul MarikMDs, internal medicine | Regulatory | Leading promoters of ivermectin and of claims that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous. | Board certifications revoked by the American Board of Internal Medicine (Kory and Marik by Aug 2024; McCullough's two by Jan 2025). Not a licence action: all three could still practise where licensed. |
A pattern worth noticing. In both countries, the people who lost their licences were caught on conduct regulators could prove from records: exemptions, patient care, and refusing to answer the regulator. The two most serious US criminal cases involved fake vaccination cards, and one of those was dropped by a new administration before trial. In Canada, the British Columbia cases show how often a slow college process ends with a resignation, an indefinite interim order or a withdrawn citation instead of a decision. See Self-regulation is a Canada-wide problem.
Never charged: the movement's biggest names
The people who did the most to build the modern anti-vaccine movement have, with one partial exception, faced no criminal charge or licence penalty anywhere in North America.
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — founder of Children's Health Defense, now US Secretary of Health and Human Services. Never charged or disciplined. See his vaccine record.
- Del Bigtree — producer of Vaxxed, head of ICAN. Never charged.
- Joseph Mercola — osteopath and supplement seller. Received an FDA warning letter in February 2021 for marketing products as COVID-19 treatments; no charges.
- Andrew Wakefield — struck off the UK medical register in 2010 after the General Medical Council found serious professional misconduct in his MMR research. Never licensed or charged in the US, where he has lived and worked since.
How this list was built: it is limited to people whose anti-vaccine activity was central to the case and whose outcome could be confirmed from a regulator's register, a court decision or mainstream reporting. Lawsuits that anti-vaccine figures brought and lost are covered separately. Corrections are welcome and will be posted.
Sources
- Trozzi: CPSO public register (penalty order 24 Jan 2024; Divisional Court, 1 Nov 2024); Wise Health Law, “Conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic results in licence revocation.”
- Phillips: CTV Northern Ontario, 7 June 2023; ThoroldToday / Village Media, June 2023.
- Kilian: CPSO Dialogue, “Tribunal outcomes,” December 2025; CTV London, Nov 2021.
- Makis: CPSA, “Statement: William (Viliam) Makis not licensed to practise medicine in Alberta” (posted 11 Mar 2026, updated Sept 2026); College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta v Makis, 2026 ABKB 159; 2026 ABCA 198; Mathews Dinsdale summary; Canadian Lawyer.
- Nagle: CTV London, “Former LHSC nurse fined $10K after violating Reopening Ontario Act” (2021); CBC News, Jan 2022.
- Lich & Barber: Canadian Press / Global News, 7 Oct 2025.
- Pawlowski: CTV Calgary, Sept 2023; CTV / Global News on the Alberta Court of Appeal ruling, Oct 2024.
- Hoffe: Western Standard, 6 Feb 2025; CBC News on the original citation.
- Malthouse: CPSBC, “Interim order re: Dr. Stephen Craig Malthouse,” 28 Mar 2022; Canadian Press, Mar 2024.
- Nagase: CPSBC, “Citation re: Dr. Daniel Yoshio Nagase”; CBC News, 2022 and 2023.
- Mazi: US Department of Justice; CBS San Francisco; edzardernst.com, Dec 2022.
- Gold: NBC News, 16 June 2022; Wikipedia, “Simone Gold” and “Pardon of January 6 defendants.”
- Moore: STAT, 12 July 2025; Deseret News, 12 July 2025.
- Nepute: US Department of Justice, press release 3 Aug 2023.
- Thomas: Oregon Medical Board orders (4 Dec 2020; 6 Oct 2022), as compiled by lymescience.org; Willamette Week, Dec 2020.
- Stoller: Medical Board of California revocation order (2021); Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 2025.
- Sears: WGBH / NPR, 3 July 2018; Quackwatch.
- Tenpenny: News 5 Cleveland / AP, May 2024; Science-Based Medicine, Aug 2023.
- Cowan: CalMatters, Feb 2021.
- McCullough, Kory, Marik: PulmCCM, Aug 2024; MedPage Today, 2 Jan 2025 (via Wikipedia, “Peter A. McCullough”).
- Wakefield: UK General Medical Council Fitness to Practise Panel decision, 24 May 2010.
- Mercola: Law360, “FDA Tells Osteopath To Stop Marketing Fake COVID-19 Cures,” Feb 2021.