Littell has been board-certified since 1990 but learned in a letter from The American Board of Family Medicine on March 16 that his credentials were being rescinded. The ABFM charged Littell with willfully providing what the group calls "false, inaccurate and misleading statements constituting health misinformation and disinformation" to the public, mostly through social media platforms, regarding COVID-19 and the vaccines.
The news website The Floridian printed the letter from ABFM in late March.
Littell has been critical of hospitals for their rush to admit patients rather than pursue outpatient treatments during the pandemic. He was a proponent of the drugs Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine in some cases.
As a board-certified physician, Littell was able to enter hospital emergency rooms and suggest home treatments he deemed appropriate for some patients who were soon to be admitted.
"Patients were trapped. I walked into ERs. I'd send this one home, or I'd arrange oxygen for this one. They couldn't get Ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine or any of that good stuff in the hospital," Littell said on an American Family Radio podcast last week.
Littell's certification has been reinstated while his case winds through an appeals process he describes as "political." The next step is the ABFM's professionalism committee in May.
Plans past the appeal process
"We're not overly optimistic we're going to be successful because the letters they've sent to us are just so replete with the lies, the narrative that you've all heard. So if that's not successful, we've mounted a legal campaign," Littell told podcast host Sandy Rios.
The family physician says too many hospitals and doctors were overly concerned with being in "lock step" with the Centers for Disease Control in their COVID response.
While he deals with the fallout for offering alternative care methods, Littell fears too many strong-willed young people are being turned away from the medical career path. "We have gotten to a time in our country where young men and women who aspire to be doctors, even at the point of going into pre-med programs in college, have been selected against," he described.
According to Littell, some pre-med students are being told "you're not a good fit" in the medical profession "because you have a conscience, because you see right from wrong too clearly."
"This is not natural selection; this is artificial selection," he added.
This type of scrutiny, he continued, has been a strategy for many years to deal with a variety of social issues.
"There has been a predetermined plan over decades now to wean out positions of conscience – and they've been doing it worse than ever of late, especially with the transgender issues, pro-life issues and other issues of the day," Littell said.
An Army veteran honored with the Meritorious Service Medal, Littell's family practice is based in Kissimmee, Florida. He's been the president of his county medical association, chief of staff at a local hospital and has served on the faculty of the University of Central Florida School of Medicine.
DeSantis reaches out
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis – who has been credited by some for following "real science" during the pandemic – reached out to Littell in the early days of the pandemic for his opinion on wearing masks. DeSantis had seen Littell's YouTube video entitled "Taking the Mask Off of COVID-19." The video was later taken down.
"He [the governor] asked me a lot about that. I think it was a fairly effective presentation at that time as to what was happening in our country. That was a tactic that was used to kind of disarm people in the medical profession and to get parents to become compliant with incredibly evil directives," he said.
Littrell, with his future certification in doubt, has continued to push hard for his beliefs when given the opportunity.
Recently, he was removed by security from the board meeting of a Sarasota hospital. The meeting had been called to address the hospital's COVID response.
"People really implored me to be there because to this day I'm one of the few, probably I'm the only doctor in our group of COVID-aware physicians, who was providing hospital care as well as outpatient care to people with these symptoms," he said.
Littell described a board room filled with hospital supporters that caused speaking time for himself and others to be reduced. He was removed after approaching a board member during the meeting to request to speak again.
Ultimately Littell did most of his speaking to a television reporter on the sidewalk.
