Apparently, it is now not only legal, but commendable, in Utah for a licensed professional to destroy government property and to accept payments in return for providing false documentation.
That is the logical conclusion to draw from the order last week from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to drop the criminal charges against a Midvale plastic surgeon.
Dr. Michael Kirk Moore had been indicted by a federal grand jury for a scheme that allegedly involved selling phony COVID vaccine cards and destroying nearly 2,000 doses of COVID vaccine. The trial had begun when Bondi ordered the case closed.
This decision by the nation’s top law enforcement officer undermines the rule of law and the reputation of the entire medical profession.
It should now fall to Utah officials to examine the case and, if they find the allegations to be sustained, at the very least suspend or revoke Moore’s license to practice medicine.
Applying Bondi’s thinking to other parts of our society, it would be acceptable to peddle false passports, phony Green Cards, imitation driver licenses, cooked-up property deeds and bogus birth certificates under the theory that such documents are instruments of government oppression and that those who provide false versions are somehow “heroes.”
Explain just what is Utah conservative about that. Show us how you can run a state, a nation, an economy where official documents are suspect and professionals are not held to follow the ethics of their callings.
Moore ran a practice that used to be called the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah — since renamed Freedom Wellness. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah charged him and others with allegedly running a scam serving people who wanted to prove they had received the recommended COVID vaccinations, so that they could enter hospitals, schools and other places that required them, even though they had not actually done so.
According to the indictment, Moore and his associates sold phony vaccine cards for $50 a pop and, in several cases, injected children with a saline solution rather than real vaccine, at the request of their parents, so that the children would think, and be able to tell others, that they had been vaccinated.
What kind of parents would lie to their own children about whether they had been protected from a deadly global pandemic? And have those children innocently spread that falsehood so that they could continue to go to school or to other places where they might be in danger or endanger others?
What kind of doctor would seek to profit by participating in such a scheme?
In what Bizzaro World would public officials support such behavior?
Moore’s cause, to one degree or another, has been backed by worthies ranging from the speaker of Utah’s House of Representatives and other members of the House, the state’s senior U.S. Senator and the federal secretary of health and human services.
It’s as if being a criminal, bleeding the beast of the federal government, is a badge of honor among Republican politicians these days.
Supporting a scheme to undermine the COVID vaccination will only make the next epidemic, perhaps the growing number of measles cases, that much more difficult to fight.
If Moore did not actually do the things the U.S. Attorney had accused him of doing, a proper state investigation would be an opportunity for him to clear his name.
If Moore did do those things, the best way to restore the public’s faith in their institutions and the medical profession would be for the state to make it clear that his behavior was unacceptable and that people who behave that way have no business practicing medicine in Utah.
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