On July 27, 2020, Dr. Simone Gold stood on the steps of the United States Supreme Court for the first time, flanked by physicians in white coats. They called themselves America’s Frontline Doctors, and their message was simple: early COVID treatments were being blocked, lockdowns were harming Americans, and public health was being controlled by bureaucrats and billionaires. Their press conference went viral, viewed more than 20 million times in just 24 hours before being scrubbed from the internet.

This past month, Dr. Gold returned to the same steps to mark the five-year anniversary. But this time, her appearance carried the weight of a battle the government waged against her that lasted half a decade.

In the years after her viral debut, Dr. Gold was subjected to what she calls selective persecution. The FBI raided her home. She says she was perp-walked and shackled, and treated like “El Chapo.” She served 45 days in federal prison for entering the Capitol building on January 6 for 20 minutes, a misdemeanor. And the California Medical Board launched an aggressive effort to revoke her medical license, which Dr. Gold believes was intended to silence her views on early treatment protocols like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. She spent $250,000 of her own money defending her license.

“This politically motivated case was never about medical ethics,” Dr. Gold told IW Features. “It was about silencing physicians who dared to speak the truth.”

The pressure campaign against her wasn’t limited to courtroom proceedings. In an unusual move, Kristina D. Lawson, J.D., president of the Medical Board of California, wrote a four-page letter to the federal judge overseeing Dr. Gold’s sentencing for January 6. In the letter, Lawson claimed that Dr. Gold and her organization, America’s Frontline Doctors, had subjected her to a campaign of harassment intended to intimidate her and undermine the authority of the California Medical Board. She argued that Gold’s public actions and rhetoric posed a danger to public trust in the medical profession, and she implied that those behaviors should factor into Gold’s sentencing.

Lawson called Dr. Gold’s actions “dangerous,” but the real danger was the silencing of dissent at a time when open scientific debate was most needed. Dr. Gold spoke out about treatments like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, both of which have been safely used for decades. Dr. Gold told IW Features that she was not prescribing those medications to any patients, rather she was exercising her right to free speech.  Meanwhile, public health agencies pushed brand-new mRNA vaccines with no long-term safety data and actively denied the existence of natural immunity.

A vocal critic of Kristina Lawson, Dr. Simone Gold says the California Medical Board’s disciplinary actions against her were politically driven and violated her First Amendment rights. In 2024, the Board ordered her to take an ethics course as part of a formal reprimand. Dr. Gold told IW Features she offered to teach the course instead, a suggestion that did not sit well with Lawson, who had previously called her dangerous and, according to Dr. Gold, was acting out of revenge for being publicly criticized.

On July 22, 2025, just days before the anniversary of her first appearance on the Supreme Court steps, a California judge vacated the Board’s official reprimand. It was a major First Amendment victory and a rebuke to the officials who had tried to take her down.

“Five years ago today, a group of physicians in white coats stood on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court and declared war on medical tyranny,” said Dr. Gold. “And we were punished for it. Silenced, censored, investigated, and attacked. But we never stopped fighting, and we’re still standing.”

For Dr. Gold, the return to the Supreme Court was more than symbolic. It was a message to the world that she is still here, still standing, and still willing to speak out. When IW Features asked how she was able to endure prison and attempts to destroy her career, in her life, she said it is important to always have a “North Star,” and she said she simply could not have made it without faith in God. She could not have lived with herself, she said, had she remained silent about early treatments she believed saved lives and couldn’t tolerate injustice. 

That sense of moral clarity comes, in part, from her family history. Her father was a Holocaust survivor, and Dr. Gold believes that legacy has shaped how she views her responsibilities in life.

“California tried to take everything from me,” she said. “But they failed. The truth still matters, and I am not going anywhere.”