Oregon Medical Board suspends license for doctor who refused to wear mask

The Oregon Medical Board recently suspended a local doctor’s license after he admitted to not wearing a mask while practicing.

Steven LaTulippe stated during a pro-Trump rally in November that neither he nor his staff wore masks at the Dallas, Ore., clinic where they saw patients, an action that goes against the state’s order that requires health care professionals to wear face coverings in health care settings.

On Thursday evening, members of the medical board voted to suspend LaTulippe’s medical license “due to the board’s concern for the safety and welfare of licensee’s current and future patients,” according to the Oregon Medical Board website.

“I and my staff, none of us, not once, wore a mask in my clinic,” LaTulippe said at the rally.

He continued, saying that other people should not wear masks either.

“I petition all of you to take off the mask of shame. It is a mask that is just designed to control you,” he said.

Under the suspension, LaTulippe is banned from practicing medicine anywhere in the state. His family practice clinic, South View Medical Arts, has reportedly been closed following the board’s actions, according to KGW.

Despite his claims that he and his staff did not wear masks, LaTulippe said that he did require COVID-19 patients he treated to wear face coverings, KGW reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released an advisory urging the “universal use of face masks” in an effort to battle the coronavirus pandemic. It warned that the U.S. has “entered a phase of high-level transmission.”