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Dr. Ryan Cole named head of medical & scientific affairs at Independent Medical Alliance.Two founders lost board certification for promoting ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.Cole faced prior license restrictions in Washington state over COVID-19 misinformation.
Garden City pathologist and Central District Health board member Dr. Ryan Cole has been appointed to a senior leadership position in the Independent Medical Alliance.
The organization, formerly the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, is a small group of physicians that, like Cole, promoted ivermectin and other unproven COVID-19 treatments during the pandemic. Cole was named head of medical and scientific affairs at the alliance, according to a news release March 5.
In October 2021, the Idaho Medical Association filed a Board of Medicine complaint against Cole, noting that he prescribed ivermectin, an antiparasitic medication, to patients with COVID-19, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
“Our primary concern is that he says he has treated patients ‘from Florida to California’ by refusing to use accepted and documented medical practices and vaccination and instead prescribing ivermectin,” the complaint said. “We believe his practice … does more harm than good. It should be stopped.”
The release from the Independent Medical Alliance praised Cole for rebelling against mainstream medical guidance.
“He is a physician who follows the data wherever it leads, even when it means standing firm against the medical status quo,” Dr. Joseph Varon, the group’s president and chief medical officer, said in the release. “Dr. Cole was among the first physicians in America to sound the alarm about COVID-19 vaccines causing myocarditis and other serious cardiac complications. He stood firm when others refused to acknowledge the data.”
Dr. Ryan Cole, a pathologist who owned a medical laboratory in Garden City, addresses the White Coat Summit of the group America’s Frontline Doctors in 2021 in San Antonio, Texas.
Some cases of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, were observed in young men after they received a second dose of an mRNA vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that such cases are rare and that most patients saw their symptoms resolve by the time they were discharged from the hospital.
The subject came up at a local Southwest District Health meeting in October 2024, where board members in Caldwell voted narrowly to stop administering the COVID-19 vaccine at the health district’s clinics after a handful of anti-vaccine doctors, among them Cole, video-called in to give presentations claiming that the vaccine does more harm than good. Major health organizations worldwide such as the CDC, World Health Organization and the Amercan Heart Association have said the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccine far outweigh its risks.
The move meant that residents who wanted to pay to receive the vaccine at clinics operated by the health district could no longer do so. (The then-updated shots cost about $200 out of pocket, but the health district was able to buy doses at a discount and offer it to uninsured residents for less.)
In Cole’s new role at the Independent Medical Alliance, he’ll be able to guide the group’s scientific communication initiatives, according to the group’s release.
“Medicine must return to science grounded in real-world clinical data and the sacred doctor-patient relationship,” Cole said in the release. “In this new role, I look forward to helping translate frontline clinical evidence into responsible education, meaningful research collaboration, and policy solutions that improve patient outcomes and restore the trust in healthcare.”
Cole narrowly secured the votes needed to become the only physician on the Boise-area Central District Health board in 2021. The board directs Idaho’s largest regional public health district.
He previously ran an independent medical laboratory in Garden City called Cole Diagnostics, but it closed in December 2022. Cole had founded the laboratory in 2004. Express Lab, an Idaho company, now provides laboratory services at the former location.
The Independent Medical Alliance was founded by several physicians including Paul Marik and Pierre Kory, who both had their certifications revoked by the American Board of Internal Medicine in August 2024 for promoting ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 long after the medical community found it to be ineffective.
In January 2024, the Washington Medical Commission restricted Cole’s medical license in Washington state after state regulators concluded that he willfully spread disinformation about COVID-19.
He also accidentally let his Idaho license lapse for 65 days over summer 2024. It was later reactivated.
Cole did not respond to calls or emails requesting comment.
Idaho Statesman
Angela Palermo covers business and public health for the Idaho Statesman. She grew up in Hagerman and graduated from the University of Idaho, where she studied journalism and business. Angela previously covered education for the Lewiston Tribune and Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
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