Interview with Dr. Eric Nepute
by The American Chiropractor
St. Louis-based chiropractor Dr. Eric Nepute owns Quickwork LLC, which marketed and sold Wellness Warrior vitamin supplements. In April 2021, the Department of Justice filed a case against Dr. Nepute based on a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). At the forefront of the complaint, the commission alleged Dr. Nepute violated the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act while marketing Wellness Warrior zinc and vitamin D supplements. It marked the first time charges were filed in violation of the newly created act. In the following interview, Dr. Eric Nepute (EN) shares his side of the story with The American Chiropractor (TAC).
TAC: What charges are alleged in the FTC’s case against you?
EN: I have always been a very outspoken advocate for the freedom to choose, the first amendment right to freedom of speech, and informed choice as well as informed consent. In April 2021, I was the first doctor charged in a civil case against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). They have falsely accused me of utilizing fear as a way to drive profits for my businesses. This is a completely false claim, and we are fighting the federal government back at every opportunity we have.
They have falsely accused me of saying that if you take vitamin D, you do not need to take a vaccine. I never said that. Additionally, they have said that I made unsubstantiated claims that it is beneficial to take vitamin D and zinc to help prevent flu-like symptoms and other respiratory illnesses. We have clearly proven with the science and our medical experts that we are correct with every claim we have made.
There has been a concerted and concentrated effort to silence and suppress information that goes against the narrative that the only thing you can do to help protect yourself against this virus is to take a vaccine. When they cannot stop the message, they try to attack the messenger. That is clearly what has happened in this case.
TAC: Can you provide any details about how the charges came about and were filed? Has your state’s chiropractic board been involved in any way?
EN: In the complaint that was filed against us, the Federal Trade Commission made a very big deal about how many people actually saw the information we shared, but not so much about the information.
Additionally, I have successfully defended my license from accusations over the past 12 months. The major complaint that the governing boards had, again, was not necessarily that what I said was outside of the scope of my practice, but the concern was about the number of people hearing me say it. We thought this was a remarkably interesting statement. Why is it anybody’s business or concern how many people hear the message about health and wellness unless there is some type of concerted effort to suppress the information? I will let you be the judge of that.
In December 2020, President Donald Trump signed an over 5,000-page omnibus bill to grant federal assistance in the COVID relief bill. One and a half paragraphs in the omnibus bill talk about the consumer COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act. It states that if any entity or individual tries to profit during the time of a pandemic by utilizing fear or false advertising, the FTC has the power to enforce this brand-new ruling.
TAC: Because the government has filed these charges, does that mean they are criminal?
EN: This is a civil case, not a criminal case. The federal government originally came after me for over $8 million in penalties and fines. But once we pushed back against them, they tried to settle the case with an “amicable dissolution” of the charges.
TAC: So the FTC and DOJ have attempted to settle out of court? What were the terms?
EN: The federal government wanted me to sign a permanent gag order that I would never talk about the case, and that I would also not talk about any of the scientific or medical research that we provided to them or that we talked about on social media publicly again. They literally asked a doctor not to share information that could help reduce suffering on our planet. Additionally, they were going to give me a fine just so they could save face and justify the millions of dollars they’ve spent in taxpayers’ money suing me.
We respectfully declined their call. My attorney brought up the point that if we signed it and walked away, they could drag my name through the mud once again and never give me the opportunity to tell my story of what truly happened. We said “no.”
We made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FTC to find out where the complaints originally came from. They sent us a very redacted and distasteful response that did not show any information about the origins of the complaint. We still do not know our accusers and were denied our rights for the opportunity to know. We were told by the FTC that they would only send us limited information on the case. Our legal team is very concerned about this. We feel that the federal government should be spending the taxpayers’ money in a more beneficial way than worrying about a doctor trying to help his community by making recommendations for vitamins and a healthy lifestyle.
About Dr. Nepute
Dr. Eric Nepute grew up in a tiny town in central Illinois. He often jokes that there were more pigs than people in his hometown. He first became interested in the human body as a small child and knew he wanted to be a doctor early. He studied nutrition and participated in bodybuilding and athletics his entire life. Dr. Nepute pursued his athletic and academic career with an amazing opportunity to play college football. He was a premedical major during his college career, emphasizing sports medicine, athletic training, and human biology while playing on the football team. In 2000, Dr. Nepute's life changed forever when he suffered a career-ending injury during a collegiate football game.
Dr. Nepute already had been accepted into Northwestern University's medical school, where he was excited to learn about becoming an orthopedic surgeon. However, Dr. Nepute had suffered a cervical spine injury resulting in multiple disc herniations and the inability to use his right arm and most of the right side of his body. After being spine-boarded and sent to the hospital, the neurologist told him that he would never play sports again and might never fully gain strength and mobility of his arm. Dr. Nepute was devastated. Everything he worked for had been seemingly altered course. Dr. Nepute felt at that time that God must have had a different plan for his life.
During his rehabilitation, Dr. Nepute went to see a chiropractor that was his friend's father to treat the injury. After just three adjustments, his pain was gone. In addition, he started to regain mobility in his arm and shoulder; this was his chiropractic miracle.
After some deep prayers and soul-searching, Dr. Nepute decided to go to school to become a chiropractor. To him, chiropractic answered many more questions about why someone would have problems instead of just treating the symptoms.
Today, Dr. Nepute currently owns and operates more than a dozen successful, fully integrated wellness centers across the country where patients can genuinely find and understand the underlying causes of their health issues. Dr. Nepute has developed a system where chiropractors, medical doctors, naturopaths, psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other healthcare practitioners work together to improve a patient's health outcomes. Additionally, Dr. Nepute trains doctors across the globe on using a natural, integrated approach to seek the cause of a health problem. He has helped integrate systems in over 50 doctors' offices across the country. Dr. Nepute is also part-owner of two molecular laboratory testing facilities; involved in multiple surgical centers across the country; owns a nutritional manufacturing and distribution business, and has worked with hospitals and clinics across the country.
TAC: How have you responded to the FTC and DOJ? Were you able to take any actions in your defense?
EN: We pushed back. We filed sanctions against the FTC and DOJ asking the courts to dismiss any financial charges against the case. We will hear the court’s ruling on this in August. The courts are so jam-packed with lawsuits right now, the laws of justice are moving slower than ever.
Additionally, the FTC and DOJ have taken action against a few other companies trying to claim that they also violated the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act. Most notably, on April 22, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9 to 0 against the FTC and DOJ in a similar case with an insurance company selling COVID bonds. The FTC issued a $1.8 billion fine against them that the U.S. Supreme Court said was a governmental overreach. Given this information, we are extremely confident that not only will we win this case, but also we will help set a precedent that this will not happen again to doctors.
TAC: So much happened last year, can you tell us more about your experiences in 2020. Can you share anything about what you believe occurred in 2020 to lead to the complaint?
EN: At the beginning of 2020, we realized that something wasn’t right. One of my business partners and I agreed that we would administer over 130,000 PCR tests in the greater St. Louis, Missouri area, and we would do it for free. I had calls with several local health department officials and local hospital affiliates in early 2020, offering these tests to help understand what was going on in our city with COVID. Our conversations were completely halted when the health department told us that they were not interested in us doing these tests because they wanted to have the amplification cycles of the test run at a new CDC-approved increased threshold cycle. We now know that amplification test cycles over 30 are going to show false positives, even according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
We had several videos go viral talking about the topic of COVID-19, immune system improvement, and getting healthy. Some of these videos had more than 20 million views, and one of them had over 50 million views.
Additionally, I was asked to start traveling across the country to help people understand what they can do to improve their health. At the time of this article, I have spoken at over 50 different venues in front of hundreds of thousands of people and to tens of millions of people online. When we do our talks, we have doctors, scientists, lawyers, politicians, and people from all walks of life come to discuss health, freedom, religion, and how to stop the tyranny that’s happening in the world.
I have also been blessed to be interviewed on over 250 radio stations and on 25 television stations across the globe talking about what we can do to improve health, the benefits of chiropractic care, and the importance of a strong, healthy immune system.
I am reminded of one of my mentors who taught me years ago that when you’re leading the pack, you’re the first to get shot at and the last to get praised. I want to make it truly clear that I am not doing any of this for my own personal gain. I am doing this because of my belief in what is right. I believe that every man, woman, and child has the God-given right to the pursuit of happiness, health, and their own way of life.
"I am doing this because of my belief in what is right..."
TAC: How has this case affected you personally? How has the healthcare community around you reacted?
EN: I have currently spent over $250,000 of my own money defending myself against the federal government. And let’s make no bones about it, we are winning, and we will win in the end. I think it is interesting that you find your true friends and true allies when you’re under stress. I’ve been blown away by the support from the medical world, as well as the majority of the chiropractic world. Some of the most recognized names in the profession have reached out to me to ask how they can help me win this case. Many of them have said this case has just as powerful ramifications as the Wilk suit did for our profession in the past.
I want to make this especially important point. The federal government came after me because I am a chiropractor. “Well, this guy is a chiropractor. It’s low hanging-fruit.”
Telling the truth about health and wellness. Giving hope to people who are hopeless. I will defend the sacred truth of chiropractic and natural healing at all costs.
TAC: Have you taken any other actions outside of the case? How does this change your opinion of the security of individual rights for expression and of choice considering health preferences?
EN: As a doctor of chiropractic, I have now met with over 13 state governors, hundreds of state and federal lawmakers, and hundreds of thousands of people across the country who are very concerned about the suppression of information and censorship. We are working with lawmakers, businesses, and other organizations to make sure doctors have the ability to take care of their patients and not be afraid of censorship and punishment based on their own ideals.
We have been very blessed that individuals like Mike Lindel and a few others have stepped up to help support us in our efforts in defending this very important right of freedom. Also, through this amazing organization, I have started a crowdfunding program to help fight this legal battle. I am honored to see that thousands of Americans have contributed to this, and hundreds of doctors have personally written to me and sent us financial contributions to help defend the freedom of our rights.
It is a very slippery slope that we are on right now, regardless of your political affiliations or personal opinions on this matter. The fact is that the federal government is trying to suppress and censor doctors from practicing within their scope of practice and help improve the quality of the health of their community. We all took a sacred oath to do no harm and to help our community. The federal government has overreached its authority, and it’s time that we stand up for what is rightfully ours. One of my favorite books in the Bible is the book of Ephesians, when it says that after you put on the entire armor of God and there is nothing left to do but stand, you stand. I appreciate every one of you standing by me and supporting this movement. Everything is at stake, including your future and your freedom.
To learn more, you can follow Dr. Nepute at stopmedicaltyranny.com.
