A licensed nurse practitioner who works as a doTerra distributor on the side has been fined $15,000 for making false marketing claims about COVID-19.
On January 5, 2023, the DOJ sued Eliza Johnson Bacot in a civil court.
Bacot lives in Georgia with her husband, Benton Bacot, and they are both Diamond rank distributors for doterra.
The “The Organic South” brand is how Bacot promotes her doTerra business.
As the DOJ has said;
(Bacot) has said that some essential oils and supplements made by doTERRA (“doTERRA Products”) can help prevent or treat COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019).
In a January 2022 doTerra Zoom webinar, Bacot, who called herself a “nurse practitioner and certified wellness practitioner,” recommended doTerra protocols for “COVID positive” and “COVID long-haul syndrome.”
Lifelong Vitality is something we always talk about. We talk about this because the Alpha CRS has parts that help fix damaged cells.
We’ve also added more turmeric. Omega fatty acids are very important for the long run, so this basic piece can’t be left out. That person has to start it or keep going if they’ve already been on it.
So, think about it like this. We’re still in an inflammatory state, so we’re still doing some of the same things we do for COVID-positive. Dr. Lisa told you about it.
The cytokine storm is started by the body, and the systems that are supposed to stop it don’t do so.
So, turmeric is a very important ingredient. And I would say that if your symptoms are really bad, you can take a bit more turmeric. Remember, though, that our turmeric is different.
People tell me all the time, “Eliza, I got some turmeric from CVS the other day, I’m good.” That is an extract of curcumin.
In a dual-chamber capsule, the essential oil of turmeric is mixed with the turmeric. This makes the bioavailability seven times greater, which means that seven times as much is available to your cells.
So the old standard dose of 1,000 milligrams of turmeric won’t work. You really do need those capsules, and you need two. If you weigh more than 160 pounds, I would say you could take up to three or four per day. Again, we’re trying to get rid of this swelling.
DDR Prime Softgels are very important because they contain frankincense, lemongrass, summer savory, and thyme, all of which help balance the inflammatory system. Frankincense is especially good for this.
And thank goodness for the softgels, because when you have a long haul, you probably don’t want to make a veggie cap.
So, it’s really, really easy. We suggest taking two DDR Prime Softgels every day to keep that going.
Now, I forgot to mention something very important: when you’re starting out and really meeting the criteria for the long haul, we want you to do the protocols for acute COVID for seven days if you haven’t already. Okay?
So, go back to what we said above about what you need to do if COVID is positive. Do those things for seven days, almost like a warm-up to calm the inflammation, and then start this.
Two DDR Prime Softgels. Also, keep taking two On Guard Softgels, which are important.
Cinnamon, cloves, and all of these other things are very, very important. It also has melissa and oregano, which have been shown to help with COVID, post-inflammatory response, and viral replication by a number of good studies.
We are also still giving 5–10 milligrams of melatonin every night. We know that people with long-term COVID syndrome have problems with their hormone systems, so giving them melatonin is a good way to fix this.
I was working with a client whose main problem was that she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t get to sleep at all. It took ten milligrams of melatonin, two Serenity Softgels, and two Copaiba Softgels, but that was her trick. She finally fell asleep, and because the body repairs itself while you sleep, she started to feel better.
Now, we’re also going to add Zendocrine Complex, which you don’t see here. We’ll give you two capsules and two softgels twice a day, so two in the morning and two at night. This is for both, because you need both a herbal complex and an essential oil complex.
The oils like tangerine and cilantro in the essential oil complex and softgel are very, very important because they help the body get rid of toxins and also heal.
In another January 2022 doTerra webinar, Bacot said that she was a nurse practitioner with 17 years of experience in both medical and CVICU.
Bacot told people who watched the webinar that she wanted to
give you some tools that will help your body take care of this disease process, because your body is fully capable of doing so.
We just want to see people where they can be ready. So don’t wait to order a lot of these things until the last minute or until you need them, because, as you know, if COVID-19 hits your house and you’re like “click, send, buy, whatever” on your supplements, it’s too late.
So you should have all of these things ready to go in your house to make sure you are ready for anything.
Bacot told the audience not to post any of the information she gave on social media.
Bacot, on the other hand, spread false information about COVID-19 on social media to market doTerra.
Late in January 2022, the Defendant put up an Instagram post with a short video of her walking toward the camera with a basket of doTERRA Products.
The video was accompanied by the words, “When the C [green microbe emoji] hits your house and you’re not scared… Because you know that being ready and having the right tools is the key!”
A few weeks ago, it was our turn to ride the [green microbe emoji] merry-go-round.
My husband likes to make jokes about how my budget for supplements is more than a year’s worth of college tuition… When I had all the tools to help us get better, he didn’t complain.
Here’s what I did to help myself and my family get better quickly by giving our bodies and immune systems what they needed to do the real work.
… Onguard softgels 4 times a day… DDR prime 2 every day… Turmeric capsules with two chambers, 3 per day…
Made sure to take my Life Long Vitality pack daily dose… 4 probiotics from PB Assist… Two softgels of copaiba every night… @symphonyofthecells protocol for infectious and inflammatory diseases twice a day…
As the DOJ has said;
At this time, there is no published report of a well-controlled human clinical study that shows that any of the above-mentioned doTERRA Products treat, prevent, reduce the risk or severity of, or cure COVID-19; treat, prevent, reduce the risk or severity of, or cure long-haul COVID-19; or reduce inflammation or other supposedly bad effects of COVID-19 vaccines.
The FTC asked the DOJ to bring a case against Bacot because the FTC Act and the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act were broken by Bacot.
Instead of fighting the DOJ’s lawsuit and showing that doTerra’s products had anything to do with COVID-19 and its symptoms, Bacot settled the case on January 23.
The Complaint says that Defendant engaged in unfair or deceptive acts or practices in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 45(a), and spread false advertisements in or affecting commerce in order to get people to buy doTERRA supplements and essential oil products, or that were likely to get people to buy them, in violation of Section 12 of the FTC Act.
As part of Bacot’s settlement, she agreed to
- a ban on making COVID-19 claims about doTerra’s products
- ; a ban on making COVID-19 representations about doTerra’s products unless she had “competent and reliable scientific evidence substantiating that the representation is true”;
- a ban on making any health-related claims about doTerra’s products, again unless “competent and reliable scientific evidence” is provided to back up the claim;
- and the preservation of any underlying and supporting data of any clinical tests done before
- The DOJ’s case was over by the end of the same day, January 23, after Bacot’s settlement was filed.
The part of Bacot’s behavior that bothers me the most is that she abused her position as a respected doctor.
In a doTerra marketing video released in September 2018, Bacot says she quit nursing because she “couldn’t watch people die anymore.”
In the video, Bacot gives the strong impression that doTerra essential oils help keep “preventable diseases” away.
Emily Wright, who works for doTerra, put the video on her Facebook page.
Bacot’s comments on the video post show that she may have tried to get her patients to use doTerra’s products.
Bacot says that she is a “Acute Care Nurse Practitioner at Emory University Hospital” on her Facebook page.
It’s not clear if Emory University Hospital has taken action against Bacot.
The DOJ and FTC are going after three doTerra COVID-19 fraud defendants. Eliza Bacot is one of them.
Lauren Busch and Dr. Tina Wong are both doTerra distributors who made false claims about COVID-19 to sell the product.
Both ended the lawsuits that had been filed against them earlier this month.
In 2020, doTerra was one of ten MLM companies that the FTC warned about with a COVID-19.
