More trouble for Mary Talley Bowden

A new scathing complaint filed with the Texas Medical Board

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Houston Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, has made herself a household name during the pandemic as a contrarian doctor willing to spread seemingly any lie for the far-right anti-vax movement - and her own profit. Originally a member of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), she was - until recently - listed as a clinical advisor for Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) favorite ivermectin-for-COVID peddling physician group the Frontline Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) on their website. Ivermectin is not approved or authorized by the FDA for the treatment of COVID-19, however, groups like FLCCC claim benefits to the “off label” prescribing of ivermectin for COVID. The selling of ivermectin for COVID is predatory as multiple rigorous clinical trials showing ivermectin has no role in the prevention or treatment of the virus. Not that it has stopped bad actors like Bowden from promoting it for long-COVID, other viruses, and even cancers.

Bowden had previously left a comment on our May 2022 post “Mapping the Defeat the Mandates Sponsors” claiming to be part of the hydroxychloroquine physician group America’s Frontline Doctors, though she corrected this in a July 2022 STATNews piece, claiming that AFLDS was a typo and she had meant AAPS. Notably, AAPS is not listed on our map.

As the final report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis included both the AAPS and AFLDS, and AFLDS is a creation of the far-right Council for National Policy and Tea Party Patriots, it doesn’t matter who she is in with anymore. What matters is her unprofessional conduct, disgrace to the professional practice of medicine, and disastrous consequences she’s created for her fellow citizens and the public at large. 

Bowden has aligned herself with the most extreme fringes of far-right politics including in an August 4^th, 2022 interview published on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Info Wars. She has exhibited some of the most unhinged and disgusting betrayals of medical ethics and professional behavior and has an insatiable vengeance. Instead of admitting to her lies and their deadly consequences, Bowden looks for enemies to blame for her mounting troubles. The woman has grifted enough to afford a mirror.

Bowden and her online troll farm effectively coerced the grassroots physician advocacy group No License for Disinformation (NLFD), which supported and played a role in the passage of California law AB2098, into closing down in October 2022 due to safety concerns. Along with others in the anti-vaccine community, Bowden effectively silenced her detractors, something she and her colleagues often cynically complain is happening to them. After Bowden put out the tweet seen below in June 2022, NLFD was deluged with online harassment and death threats, including calls for “Nuremberg 2.0” and pictures of gallows and nooses. 

Per her own report, in June 2022 Bowden hired a private investigator to investigate NLFD. The result was a lengthy article she published on Substack falsely claiming NLFD had received $17 million from Bill Gates merely due to NLFDs fiscal sponsorship while awaiting their federal designation of non-profit status. Any reasonable person would have double checked that information before publishing such falsehoods. In truth and in fact, NLFD was a money losing operation, and received only small dollar donations from individuals supporting their work. Although NLFD dissolved over 6 months ago, Bowden continues to obsessively tweet about the organization as recently as May 14^th 2023, falsely insinuating that NLFD was helmed by Nobel Peace Prize nominee and top enemy of the anti-vax movement Dr. Peter Hotez. Hotez was not at all involved with NLFD. Bowden’s sloppiness is only exceeded in her arrogance.

More recently, she’s been after Shots Heard, a group to help protect those attacked by anti-vaxxers like herself, and Team Halo, the United Nations Verified program to counter the deadly COVID disinformation she spreads online. She has been tweeting with former nurse Nicole Sirotek of the pro-ivermectin American Frontline Nurses about members of these groups and the duo have gone crying to the Falun gong cult-tied Epoch Times about their supposed victimhood.

Bowden and Sirotek have worked together in the past, with Bowden appearing on AFLN’s podcast where they discussed the lawsuits they’ve been working on - in Bowden’s case against pharmacist Savannah Malm who made TikToks about her and in Sitorek’s case against nurse practitioner Tyler Kuhk who organized to remove her from her Nevada Board of Nursing position. While both women have sent their adversaries threatening cease and desist letters and have harassed them online, neither have sued.

In the absences of factual data to back up their movement, legal thuggery has been their last defense but it is failing them. Bowden’s defamation case against her old hospital was thrown out. Many of her contrarian colleagues have had their lawsuits dropped. While these efforts have been successful in slowing journalism about them it has not stopped it from happening.

Bowden’s actions are catching up with her and her ability to outrun consequences appears to be coming to an end. Many complaints have been lodged against her and while she refused a deal from the Texas Medical Board in February that would have allowed her to retain her license, a new complaint against her filed last month is absolutely scathing. It meticulously describes her violations of state statutes, includes details that were not previously disclosed, and threatens her with license revocation.

We have provided it in full below and recommend comparing it against the letter sent to AFLDS’s Dr. Ryan Cole, a colleague with whom Bowden has worked and traveled. Like Cole, she prescribed medication without proper assessment of patients, retaliates explosively, and has engaged with extremism. Both Cole and AFLDS have lawsuits against them, malpractice and wrongful death respectively. For the safety of the public, these are not the people who should be trusted to be doctors. We know the risks and we know that they are just too “great” to let this continue.