Douglas Sayer Ji (born October 10, 1972) is the founder of alternative medicine portal GreenMedInfo, a website known for promoting various

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

publications. He was identified in 2020 as one of the largest promoters of COVID-19 misinformation on social media.

Background

The son of a biochemist, Ji obtained a BA in philosophy from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1995. He went on to manage an organic food market in

Bonita Springs, Florida (beautiful), eng, beautiful springs , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Bonita_Beach.JPG , imagesize = 250x200px , image_caption = Bonita Beach , image_flag ...

, after working with camps and facilities for troubled youths. He developed an interest for

Zen Buddhism Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

during that period, but stopped short of joining the movement. He is the former editor of the defunct ''International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine'' and a member of the advisory board and a former vice-president of the National Health Federation, a lobby group opposing government regulation of alternative health practitioners and supplements retailers. Ji became popular promoting common alternative medicine beliefs, such as enthusiasm for ancient healing practices and the claim that the appearance of some foods is meant to indicate which organ of the human body they are meant to treat. While he earlier had invited his readers to be suspicious of governments, health authorities and pharmaceutical companies, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Ji joined other proponents of alternative medicine in embracing conspiracy theories about allegedly oppressive global organizations. He was married to Kelly Brogan from 2019 to 2022, living in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. Ji denies being an anti-vaccination activist, but consistently shares false or misleading messages about vaccine safety and efficacy. He lives in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

GreenMedInfo

Ji's website, GreenMedInfo, was founded in 2008. It allows users to search articles from the research portal

PubMed PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health maintain the ...

on alternative medicine topics. However, tests made in 2019 by the McGill Organization for Science and Society showed only articles appearing to indicate positive results for alternative medicine treatments are displayed as search results through GreenMedInfo, ignoring the large number of research papers denying the effectiveness of alternative medicine. The website also presents unreliable health and nutrition information, as well as common conspiracy theories, as facts, notably about the efficacy of vaccination. It has been noted for a lack of neutrality and curated toward those papers that confirm his pronouncements and away from those that undermine his pronouncements. "A colossal exercise in cherry picking." Using web browsing data collected between 2016 and 2019, one study found that GreenMedInfo was a top site for vaccine-skeptical information. As of 2021, annual subscription plans to GreenMedInfo range from $75 to $850. In 2019, the website claimed some one million views per month.

Social media disinformation

The Center for Countering Digital Hate identified Ji as one of twelve individuals promoting most of the misinformation that can be found online about vaccines, along with his spouse (at the time) Kelly Brogan,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954) is an American environmental lawyer and author known for promoting anti-vaccine propaganda and conspiracy theories. Kennedy is a son of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of President ...

, Christiane Northrup, Ty and Charlene Bollinger, and supplement giant Joseph Mercola. He promotes anti-vaccination videos sold by Ty and Charlene Bollinger and receives a commission whenever his referrals result in a sale, a practice known as affiliate marketing. He used this network of affiliates to help Brogan expand her own audience. The couple often appeared together in videos promoting their respective products and workshops, presenting their relationship in spiritual terms, such as "Our Spiral Path". Ji falsely claimed on Facebook that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine killed more people than the virus itself. Like Brogan, he also discouraged the public from using

face mask The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human Personal identity, identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental d ...

s to limit the spread of the virus. Other information presented by Ji and GreenMedInfo has been flagged as false or misleading. In 2020, both

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

removed GreenMedInfo from their platform as part of their efforts to limit the spread of misinformation about COVID-19. Pinterest had already banned Ji in 2018. Ji participated to an online fundraising event to support the presidential campaign of

The round table, held June 27, 2023, brought together several prominent anti-vaccination activists, such as Mikki Willis,

Del Bigtree Del Matthew Bigtree is an American television and film producer as well as CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network. He produced the film '' Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe'', based on the discredited opinions of ...

Charles Eisenstein Charles Eisenstein (born 1967) is an American public speaker and author. His work covers a wide range of topics, including the history of human civilization, economics, spirituality, and the ecology movement. Key themes explored include anti-c ...

Sherri Tenpenny Sherri J. Tenpenny is an American anti-vaccination activist and conspiracy theorist who supports the disproven hypothesis that vaccines cause autism. An osteopathic physician, she is the author of four books opposing vaccination. A 2015 lect ...

and Joe Mercola. He has since distanced himself from Kennedy, disagreeing with his stance on the

Israel–Hamas war An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place chiefly in and around the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. On that day, Palestinian militant groups launched 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, a surp ...

List of publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ji, Sayer 1972 births Living people American health activists American anti-vaccination activists Alternative medicine activists American conspiracy theorists COVID-19 conspiracy theorists

Background

GreenMedInfo

Social media disinformation

List of publications

See also

References