TREATING COVID WITH URINE ISN'T CHRISTOPHER KEY'S FIRST SCAM

I'm sure you've seen this story:

Anti-COVID-19 “Vaccine Police” leader Christopher Key has a new quarter-baked conspiracy theory for his anti-vax followers to use to cure themselves of COVID-19: Drink their own urine. “The antidote that we have seen now, and we have tons and tons of research, is urine therapy. OK, and I know to a lot of you this sounds crazy, but guys, God’s given us everything we need,” Key said in a video posted over the weekend on his Telegram account after being released from jail over a trespassing charge. “This has been around for centuries,” he added. “When I tell you this, please take it with a grain of salt,” the anti-vaccine advocate warned while saying people might now think he is “cray cray.” “Now drink urine!” he continued. “This vaccine is the worst bioweapon I have ever seen,” he concluded. “I drink my own urine!”

Key is from Alabama. The Birmingham-based Bhamwiki has information on Key's long history of scamming.

Key graduated from Fultondale High School and studied kinesiology and exercise physiology at the University of Alabama. He was impressed as a young man by the career of Lynn Kenny who claimed to be able to cure cancer and AIDS with ray beams.

Key ... partnered with Mitch Ross in S.W.A.T.S. Fitness and Performance (an acronym for 'Sports with Alternatives to Steroids").... The company marketed unproven products for performance enhancement and rapid healing to college and professional athletes. Its flagship was a "deer antler spray" which Key claimed contained a natural form of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), the synthetic form of which was banned by the NCAA.

A January 2013 feature story in Sports Illustrated detailed S.W.A.T.S' history of misleading claims and its extensive relationships with athletes desperate for performance enhancers that wouldn't get them in trouble with their leagues. Notably, the story detailed a gathering with several members of 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide football team at the New Orleans Marriott just before the 2012 BCS National Championship game.

That Sports Illustrated story is here. Key told University of Alabama players that they needed his company's products because otherwise they were going to be physically depleted during the game by -- wait for it -- the energy generated by all the spectators' cellphones. (And this was before 5G!)

On the two nights before the Jan. 9, 2012, BCS national championship game, a handful of Alabama players in crimson and gray sweats made their way to room 612 in the New Orleans Marriott....

The room belonged to Christopher Key, who was in town to demonstrate the wares of S.W.A.T.S. -- Sports with Alternatives to Steroids.... Key began by telling the players that there would be thousands of cellphones in the Superdome the following night and that frequencies from those phones would be swirling through their bodies. "They're going to affect you guys very negatively," Key said rapidly and with a twang. "We figured out a way to manipulate that so that you aren't affected ... [to] give you strength, give you balance, give you flexibility and help with pain."

... Key passed out his remedy for the frequencies: stickers, which he calls chips, bearing holograms of a pyramid. Key told the players that on game day they should place the chips on three acupuncture points -- one on the inside of each wrist before they tape their arms ... and one over the heart.

... Key also showed the players gallon jugs of "negatively charged" water, which he claimed would afford them better hydration because it adheres like a magnet to the body's cells. Then he held up a canister containing a powder additive, to be mixed in water or juice, that he said had put muscle mass on a woman who was in a coma, and an oscillating "beam ray" lightbulb that could "knock out" the swine flu virus in 90 minutes. Finally, he pulled out a bottle of deer-antler spray (which also comes in pill form).

As Bhamwiki explains, this was not a viable long-term business model:

In September 2013 Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange filed a civil complaint against S.W.A.T.S., alleging at least 264 violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. After a preliminary hearing on September 5, Judge Caryll Privett issued a restraining order against the business, which was raided by the Jefferson County Attorney General and Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and its assets turned over to a court-appointed receiver.

If you're running a business so shady that a Republican AG in a deep-red state sics the law on you, you must be something really bad.

But this is America, so, of course, Key is able to get on with his life's work, which now includes intimidation. Bhamwiki picks up the story:

Since losing his business, Key has worked as a mover while continuing to promote unproven medical treatments and devices under the names "Health Management Systems" and "Keys 2 Life". He has also shared numerous anti-government claims and references to alleged conspiracies, including false claims about vaccines, on social media. In 2019 he began appearing with a badge around his neck and an embroidered polo shirt reading "Vaccine Police". During the COVID-19 pandemic he has appeared at public meetings to protest against mask orders and vaccine mandates. While unemployed he has raised tens of thousands of dollars through crowdfunding platforms, part of which he has used to pay for billboards with false claims about vaccines and other political messages alongside links [to] his website.

Key was removed from a meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Education, afterward claiming his appearance as a "victory". He later berated Whole Foods employees regarding mask requirements at the store's Cahaba Village Plaza location, resulting in a trespassing charge. When he appeared at Mountain Brook Municipal Court to enter a plea, he instead mocked the judge and was forcibly removed.

Key was invited to appear at an organized anti-vaccination rally on August 14 outside of Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri. He used the platform to make false accusations against vaccine developers and public health officials. He addressed a board meeting of Springfield Public Schools and picketed pharmacies. On August 16 he and a group entered a Wal-Mart store in Springfield and shouted threats at pharmacy staff who had been administering vaccinations, including a false statement that they could be put to death under the "Nuremburg Code".... After leaving, he proceeded to other pharmacies in the area to berate workers. The next morning he confronted CoxHealth CEO Steven D. Edwards in a parking lot, accusing him of "crimes against humanity".

On December 22, Key told Tulsa, Oklahoma-based business coach Clay Clark that he would confront Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and place him under citizens' arrest on February 7 if he continued to promote COVID vaccinations.

Key's plan was to harass multiple pro-vaccine government officials around the country, a plan he announced in a video in which he showed off multiple weapons, including a flamethrower.

Bhamwiki says:

Key was scheduled to appear in Jefferson County Circuit Court on January 4, 2022 to enter a plea on charges of 3rd degree criminal trespass from the April confrontation at Whole Foods. He was not allowed to enter the courtroom or address the judge because he refused to wear a face covering. Instead he was ordered held for contempt and booked into the Jefferson County Jail.

And when he was released, he made the urine video. He's nothing if not persistent. And he'll never lack for suckers in this country, at least as long as he stays out of jail.