Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Podcasts
    • Stuck in the Middle With You ↗
    • Madang with Grace Ji-Sun Kim ↗
    • Highest Power: Church + State ↗
    • Non-Disclosure: The Silenced Stories of Kanakuk Kamps Survivors ↗
    • Change-making Conversations ↗
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Associated Baptist Press Foundation
    • Planned Giving
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

Stella Immanuel is campaigning to join RFK Jr.’s team at HHS

NewsMark Wingfield  |  November 18, 2024

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. isn’t the only anti-vaxxer potentially headed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if President-elect Donald Trump gets his way. He could be bringing with him one of the most notorious anti-science doctors of the COVID era: Stella Immanuel.

In 2020, as coronavirus swept the world, the Cameroonian-born doctor made international headlines with comments about certain medical conditions being the result of “evil deposits” from demonic spirits often referred to as spirit spouses. She went on to become an advocate of hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID — against scientific evidence.

Today she brags that in 2021, she wrote 69,000 prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine and 32,000 prescriptions for ivermectin.

Hydroxychloroquine is a medication normally prescribed to treat malaria. The FDA issued multiple warnings about this medication being used off-label to treat COVID, saying its use had not been proved “safe and effective.”

Ivermectin is an anti-viral drug for humans and animals. The FDA also declared it unsafe and ineffective to use in treatment of COVID.

Stella Immanuel, in a screenshot from the viral video promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus.

Nevertheless, Immanuel continued to tout the effectiveness of both medications. She calls herself “the nation’s top prescriber of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.”

Now, she says, she’s been “nominated” to join RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” team.

She sent out a news release that said: “In the wake of President Trump’s stunning victory, I have been nominated to join the Trump administration in the Dept. of Health and Human services team as part of the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ effort lead by RFK Jr! This is a great honor and I humbly ask for your vote.

“President Trump & RFK Jr. are looking to remake health in America and remove the corrupt interests that have turned our health care system into a sick care model. If chosen, I look forward to doing everything I can to see that our health care system focuses on a holistic approach to health that begins with clean food, clean water and clean air.”

The news release speaks repeatedly of urging her followers to “vote” for her to join the HHS team. Those “vote” buttons lead to an RFK Jr. website where the prospective secretary of Health and Human Services is taking open nominations for people to serve on his team. She appears among hundreds of nominees.

Her news release also identifies Immanuel as “a minister of the gospel” and says: “As a prayer and deliverance minister she is known as a warrior in the Kingdom, Gods’ warrior princess, Gods’ battle axe, and a sniper in the kingdom of God. Dr. Stella is the founder of Fire Power Ministries.”

In a book, Let America Live, Immanuel says she “exposes the dark spiritual agenda … behind the medical community’s opposition to hydroxychloroquine as a COVID treatment and the vaccination push.”

Immanuel is not new to the far-right political scene. In 2022, she was part of the ReAwaken America tour featuring Michael Flynn and Eric Trump and a cast of Christian nationalist speakers who spread lies about the 2020 election, COVID-19 vaccines and January 6. She was listed among far-right celebrities such Charlie Kirk, RFK Jr., Mike Lindell, Roger Stone, Sidney Powell, Greg Locke, Jackson Lahmeyer, Alex Jones and Ken Paxton.

 

Related articles:

In ‘demon sperm’ theology, the problem is not the demons | Analysis by Aaron Coyle-Carr

Pastors send out a mobile billboard to warn Virginia Beach residents of this weekend’s ReAwaken America Tour

White Christian nationalists and Black Americans find common ground in vaccine wariness while some pastors try to set a positive example

Share this:

  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky
  • More
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram
  • Share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
Tags:RFK Jr.Trump AdministrationStella ImmanuelcovidHHSvaccine deniersDepartment of Health and Human Services
More by
Mark Wingfield
  • This BNG series of articles on Christianity and democracy will lead toward the July 4 celebration of America’s 250th birthday. The series has been curated by Carol McEntyre, senior minister at First Baptist Church of Greenville, S.C.

    • What is democracy?
    • The church as school for democracy
    • Democracy as the practice of loving our neighbors
    • Democracy and religious freedom

  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • Check out our podcasts

     

     

    Stuck in the Middle
    With You

     

    Madang
    With Grace Ji-Sun Kim

     

     

    Highest Power
    Church+State

     

     

    Non-Disclosure:
    The Silenced Stories
    of Kanakuk Kamps Survivors

     

    Change-making
    Conversations

     

     

  • Politics • Faith • Resistance: by Greg Garrett

    BNG interview series on the state of faith, politics and resistance in our nation.

    See also Greg’s series on Politics, Faith and Mission

     

  • Featured

    • Republicans push through more unregulated funding for ICE and CBP

      News

    • Trump admin defying court order on immigration access

      News

    • What was there left to argue?

      Opinion

    • Beauty, ashes and the Southern Baptist Convention

      Analysis


    Curated

    • Religious Freedom Faces Growing Pressures Worldwide

      Religious Freedom Faces Growing Pressures Worldwide

    • Pope Leo tells human traffickers to ‘repent’ or face God’s judgment

      Pope Leo tells human traffickers to ‘repent’ or face God’s judgment

    • Pilgrims and Holy Wars at the World Cup

      Pilgrims and Holy Wars at the World Cup

    • Working for Justice in the World: FaithWorks Recognized as a Racial Justice Trailblazer

      Working for Justice in the World: FaithWorks Recognized as a Racial Justice Trailblazer

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2026 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS
    • 129