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Peter Andrew McCullough (/məˈkʌlə/; born (1962-12-29)December 29, 1962) is an American cardiologist and professor at Texas Christian University & University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine. He is formerly Vice Chief of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas and professor at Texas A&M University. He is editor-in-chief of the journals Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine and Cardiorenal Medicine. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McCullough advocated for early treatment and dissented from the recommendations of government public health agencies.

Early life and education

Peter Andrew McCullough was born in Buffalo, New York, on December 29, 1962. He earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University in 1984, and his medical degree as an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1988. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, a cardiology fellowship in 1991, and practiced internal medicine in Grayling, Michigan, for two years before enrolling in the University of Michigan School of Public Health, earning a master of public health (MPH) degree in 1994.

Career

After receiving his MPH, McCullough was a cardiovascular fellow at William Beaumont Hospital in the Detroit, Michigan, metropolitan area until 1997. He then worked successively at the Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute in Detroit until 2000, served as Section Chief of Cardiology of the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, and returned to William Beaumont Hospital where he worked from 2002 to 2010. He spent the next four years as Chief Academic and Scientific officer of the St. John Providence Health System, Detroit, before joining the Baylor University Medical Center in 2014. McCullough entered into a confidential separation agreement with Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in February 2021. In July Baylor sued McCullough to stop him from associating himself with Baylor.

McCullough is a founder and current president of the Cardio Renal Society of America and co-editor-in-chief of the Society's journal, Cardiorenal Medicine and editor of the journal Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. He has conducted several studies on running and heart disease, and co-described the term Phidippides cardiomyopathy, a heart condition found in some high endurance athletes. Other research has included the relationship between heart disease and kidney disease and risk factors for heart disease. He is a member of the conservative-leaning non-profit advocacy group Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, McCullough advocated for early treatment including hydroxychloroquine, criticized the response of the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, and dissented from public health recommendations.

Early outpatient treatment advocacy

In the absence of sufficient evidence of effectiveness, the National Institutes of Health made no recommendations for early, at-home, out-patient treatment for COVID-19, a situation McCullough described as "therapeutic nihilism" and tried to address. In April, 2020, McCullough lead a study of the antimalarial medication hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 for the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center. The urgency of the public health crisis justified compromises on best practices in medical research, McCullough told The Wall Street Journal. In July, after major studies found hydroxychloroquine was ineffective against COVID-19 and the Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization (EUA), McCullough supported a second EUA.

McCullough, Harvey Risch of the Yale School of Public Health, and co-authors published an observational study proposing an early outpatient treatment regimen for COVID-19 in August 2020 in the American Journal of Medicine. Based on previous evidence, the article made recommendations for treating ambulatory COVID-19 patients, but presented no new evidence. The article was shared on social media, mainly by groups which had previously published COVID-19 misinformation, in posts falsely interpreting the publication as an endorsement of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. The Ministry of Health of Brazil endorsed the article on its website, contributing to a severe COVID-19 misinformation problem in Brazil. The article was criticized in letters to the editors; the editors responded that the article included some "hopeful speculations...What seemed reasonable last summer based on laboratory experiments has subsequently been shown to be untrue."

McCullough and Risch were two of three witnesses called by committee chair Senator Ron Johnson to testify before a United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on COVID-19 treatments held in November 2020. McCullough testified in support of social distancing, vaccination, and treatments, including hydroxychloroquine. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, called to testify by the ranking member, said the "clear consensus in the medical and scientific community, based on overwhelming evidence" is that hydroxychloroquine is ineffective as a treatment for COVID-19. McCullough said Jha was promoting misinformation and Jha’s opposition to the drug was "reckless and dangerous for the nation." Jha responded on The New York Times opinion page, "By elevating witnesses who sound smart but endorse unfounded therapies, we risk jeopardizing a century’s work of medical progress."

COVID-19 misinformation

McCullough testified before a committee of the Texas Senate in March 2021, posted to YouTube by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, in which he made false claims about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines, including that person under 50 years of age and survivors do not need the vaccine and that there is no evidence of asymptomatic spread.

McCullough gave an interview in May 2021, posted on Rumble, in which he made claims about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines which were "inaccurate, misleading and/or unsupported by evidence," including that survivors cannot be re-infected and so do not require vaccination and that the vaccine is dangerous.

In an interview on the Fox News program Tucker Carlson Tonight in May 2021, McCullough falsely claimed that hydroxychloroquine is effective for treating COVID-19. McCullough later made appearances on the Fox News program The Ingraham Angle; McCullough contradicted public health recommendations, for example when asked about the aggressive spread of COVID-19 among children, by suggesting that healthy persons under 30 had no need for a vaccine, and when asked about the relative merits of vaccination-induced immunity versus "natural" (survivor) immunity, by disputing the necessity of vaccinations to achieve herd immunity.

References

1. "Peter McCullough, MD, for CKD Population Screening". Renal & Urology News. May 15, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2021 – via YouTube.
2. "Dr. Peter A. McCullough MD". U.S. News & World Report.
3. "Peter Andrew McCullough". Texas Christian University & University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine.
4. ^ Rutherford, Fiona (April 1, 2021). "Trump-Touted Drug Lives On as Covid Therapy Despite Trial Flops". Bloomberg News.
5. ^ McCullough, Peter Andrew; Roberts, William Clifford (December 1, 2014). "Peter Andrew McCullough, MD, MPH: An Interview With the Editor". The American Journal of Cardiology. 114 (11): 1772–1785. doi:10.1016/j.amjcard.2014.08.034.
6. ^ "Biography: Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH". www.cardiometabolichealth.org.
7. "Baylor health sues COVID-19 vaccine skeptic and demands Dallas doctor stop using its name". The Dallas Morning News. July 30, 2021.
8. Fox 4 staff (July 30, 2021). "Baylor Scott & White sues COVID-19 vaccine skeptic Dallas doctor, demands he stop using its name". Dallas, Texas. Fox News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. "Board of Directors". Cardio Renal Society of America.
10. "Cardiorenal Medicine Editorial Board". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
11. Simons, Margaret (February 21, 2021). "Melbourne doctors under review for promoting discredited Covid treatment". The Guardian. Australia.
12. "Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine Editorial board". rcm.imrpress.com. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
13. Baker, Sam (February 2, 2018). "Running Is A Healthy Form Of Cardio, But Heart Issues Can Still Arise". KERA News. Retrieved July 28, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
14. Gavrilova, E. A.; Churganov, O. A.; Belodedova, M. D. (2021). "Autopsy-Negative Cardiac Death in Sports and Its Causes". Human Physiology. 47 (2): 232–236. doi:10.1134/S0362119721010047. ISSN 0362-1197.
15. Gabrielli, Luigi; Sitges, Marta; Chiong, Mario; Jalil, Jorge; Ocaranza, María; Llevaneras, Silvana; Herrera, Sebastian; Fernandez, Rodrigo; Saavedra, Rodrigo; Yañez, Fernando; Vergara, Luis (October 21, 2018). "Potential adverse cardiac remodelling in highly trained athletes: still unknown clinical significance". European Journal of Sport Science. 18 (9): 1288–1297. doi:10.1080/17461391.2018.1484174. ISSN 1746-1391.
16. Neegaard, Lauran (June 26, 2007). "Study links heart, kidney ailments". The Bryan-College Station Eagle. The Associated Press.
17. Kirkey, Sharon (September 22, 2008). "Obesity brings on heart attacks 12 years earlier". The Vancouver Sun. p. A.1.
18. ^ Holmes, Jack (July 8, 2021). "Fox News Is Moving From 'Just Asking Questions' to Full-On Anti-Vax Crapola". Esquire.
19. ^ McGinley, Laurie; Dawsey, Josh (July 10, 2020). "Touting criticized study, White House presses FDA to authorize hydroxychloroquine — again". The Washington Post.
20. ^ Iati, Marisa (November 20, 2020). "Senate holds hearing on hydroxychloroquine, despite no evidence it works against covid-19". The Washington Post.
21. ^ Banet, Rémi (April 9, 2021). "US cardiologist makes false claims about Covid-19 vaccination". Agence France-Presse.
22. ^ Teoh, Flora, ed. (June 4, 2021). "Vaccines are a safer alternative for acquiring immunity compared to natural infection and COVID-19 survivors benefit from getting vaccinated, contrary to claims by Peter McCullough". Health Feedback.
23. ^ Ecarma, Caleb (July 8, 2021). "The Right-Wing Vaccine Rebellion Has Arrived on Campus". Vanity Fair. One Fox News medical expert, Peter McCullough, M.D., went so far as to steal the Joe Rogan argument, asserting on Wednesday that no college-age person in America should receive the COVID-19 vaccine. "Overall, the equation is very unfavorable for vaccination of anyone below age 30," he said during an appearance on Laura Ingraham's program Wednesday night. "Unless we really have a compelling case, no one under age 30 should receive any one of these vaccines."
24. McCullough, Peter A. (May 1, 2021). "Letter: The Reply". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (5): 343-344. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.01.011.
25. "Cardiologist accuses medical establishment of 'therapeutic nihilism'". The Ingraham Angle. Fox News. December 9, 2020.
26. ^ Johnson, Ron R.; Peters, Gary C.; McCullough, Peter A.; Risch, Harvey; Fareed, George C.; Jha, Ashish K. (November 19, 2020). Early Outpatient Treatment: An Essential Part of a COVID-19 Solution (meeting and video conference) (video). Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
27. ^ McCullough, Peter (November 19, 2020). "Dr. McCullough Senate Testimony" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
28. Burton, Thomas M; Hopkins, Jared S. (April 25, 2020). "FDA Warns of Danger From Virus Treatment". The Wall Street Journal. p. A.1. Preliminary research justifies deploying the drugs to treat mild coronavirus patients, before they require hospitalization, said Peter McCullough, a cardiologist at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas, which is studying hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic in health-care workers. "We have to make some decisions now," he said.
29. Roland, Denise; Hopkins, Jared S. (April 29, 2020). "The Coronavirus Pandemic: Pandemic Complicates Drug, Vaccine Search". The Wall Street Journal. p. A.8. Companies and researchers are also wrestling with how to balance testing experimental medicines as quickly as possible without sacrificing scientific rigor in clinical trials. For some studies, that means departing from the best standard for assessing a drug's safety and efficacy: measuring how one group of patients getting the drug fares against a control group receiving either the standard therapy or a placebo. A seven-week trial evaluating hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic didn't wait the typical two months to manufacture a placebo in order to investigate as quickly as possible the antimalarial's safety and efficacy, said Peter McCullough, a cardiologist who is leading the trial at the Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas. Instead, subjects who get the drug aren't randomly selected, and the normal control group will receive standard treatment, Dr. McCullough said.
30. ^ Reuters Staff (March 2, 2021). "Fact Check: The American Journal of Medicine has not endorsed hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19". Reuters. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
31. ^ Carballo-Carbajal, Iria, ed. (February 3, 2021). "The American Journal of Medicine didn't recommend hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19; scientific evidence doesn't show hydroxychloroquine is effective against COVID-19". Health Feedback.
32. "Misleading claim circulates that US medical journal endorsed hydroxychloroquine as Covid treatment". Australia. Agence France-Presse. February 11, 2021.
33. Machado Silva, Heslley. "The Brazilian Scientific Denialism Through The American Journal of Medicine". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (4): 415–416. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.01.003.
34. ^ Alpert, Joseph S.; Simon, Harvey B. (February 17, 2021). "The American Journal of Medicine Responds". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (4): 417. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.02.001. PMC 7889015. PMID 33609529.
35. Korman, Tony M.; McMahon, James H. (February 23, 2021). "Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): A Comment". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (3): 220–221. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.08.044. PMC 7901364. PMID 33637180. McCullough et al propose a treatment algorithm for early outpatient treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is not supported by evidence.
36. Chander Chianga, Kate; Gupta, Ajay (April 19, 2021). "Aspirin Resistance in Obese and Elderly Patients with COVID-19?". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (4): 297. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2020.09.006. PMC 8054641. PMID 33888223. We suggest caution in relying on low-dose aspirin as chemoprophylaxis or treatment for immunothrombosis in COVID-19, especially in patients who are obese or elderly.
37. Weissmann, Leonardo; Naime Barbosa, Alexandre; Scarpellini, Bruno; Diament, Décio; Alexandrino Medeiros, Eduardo; Urbano Silva, Estevão; Mirna Loro Morejón, Karen; Rosalba Domingos Oliveira, Priscila; Silveira Bello Stucchi, Raquel; Porto Medeiros, Roseane; Cimerman, Sérgio; Constant Vergara, Tânia Regina; Arns Cunha, Clóvis (May 4, 2021). "Comments on the Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Treatment of COVID-19". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (5): 341–342. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.01.004. PMC 8095727. PMID 33962707. Studies based only on pathophysiology are not adequate to prove the benefit of drug intervention...it is essential to follow the best scientific evidence and the principles of bioethics.
38. Diaz Olmos, Rodrigo; Lopes Roque, Felício (May 4, 2021). "Unproven Therapy Algorithms for Early SARS-CoV-2 Infection Are Dangerous". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (5): 345. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.01.009. PMC 8095967. PMID 33962709. ...the article ... has many important drawbacks.
39. Shamy, Michel; Dewar, Brian (June 25, 2021). "Concerning Pathophysiology and Justifying Clinical Trials". The American Journal of Medicine. 134 (7): 439. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2021.02.022. PMC 8229556. PMID 34183149. ...we disagree with both the specific assertion that hydroxychloroquine should be used for early outpatient treatment based on its biological plausibility, and the broader philosophical point that in the absence of trials for a specific population, we should defer to mechanistic reasoning rather than extrapolating from the results of existing trials.
40. Spicuzza, Mary; Fauber, John; Boulton, Guy (November 20, 2020). "'What he is doing is outrageous': Doctors slam Sen. Ron Johnson over hearing on COVID-19 treatments". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
41. Jha, Ashish (November 24, 2020). "The Snake-Oil Salesmen of the Senate". The New York Times.
42. Hargis, Cydney; Geonzon, Jasmine; Taaffe, Gideon (July 20, 2021). "Right-wing media is an echo chamber of anti-vaccine messaging". Media Matters for America. During the July 7 edition of Fox News' Ingraham Angle, guest and cardiologist Peter McCullough said "no one under the age of 30 should receive any one of these vaccines" citing the risk of rare health complications following one or both injections.
43. Blake, Aaron (July 19, 2021). "Vaccine doubters' strange fixation with Israel". The Washington Post. A cardiologist on Fox News pointed to Israel's data while claiming "the delta variant really is not ... protected at all by the vaccines," and said, "There is no reason right now — no clinical reason to go get vaccinated."
44. Woodward, Alex (July 20, 2021). "Fox News hosts railed against 'vaccine passports' – the company requires one to return to work without a mask". The Independent. A programme hosted by Laura Ingraham – who recently hosted a guest who falsely claimed that there is "no clinical reason to go get vaccinated"

External links

• Peter A. McCullough publications indexed by Google Scholar
• Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH, FACC professional biography at the American College of Cardiology (Archived 2021-03-30 at the Wayback Machine)
• Peter A McCullough professional biography at the US Cardiology Review
• Class of 1988: Medical School alumnus Peter A. McCullough, M.D., M.P.H. alumnus biography at University of Texas Southwestern
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• 1962 births
• Living people
• University of Michigan alumni
• Anti-vaccination activists
• 20th-century American physicians
• 21st-century American physicians
• American cardiologists
• Baylor University faculty
• Baylor University alumni
• University of Washington alumni