About the Authors

Dr. Peter McCullough is an internist, cardiologist, and epidemiologist who has been a leader in the medical response to COVID-19. In August of 2020 he published “Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection” in the American Journal of Medicine. This paper presented the first synthesis of sequenced multidrug treatment of ambulatory patients infected with the virus, and was subsequently updated in Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers on the infection, and has commented extensively on the medical response in The Hill, America Out Loud, ABC, Fox News, OAN, Newsmax, Victory Channel, and a multitude of independent media outlets. He has testified on several occasions in the U.S. Senate and before several State Senate and Congressional Committees.

Dr. McCullough’s message to lawmakers and the media has always been the urgent necessity to treat high-risk patients to help them avoid hospitalization and death. His conviction has been guided by his Hippocratic Oath to treat the sick to the best of his ability and judgment. Unfortunately, his work on early treatment was not welcomed by public health authorities or by the medical center at which he held a ranking position. The latter severed his long-term physician employment. Later he was also stripped of professorships at Texas A & M and Texas Christian University/University of North Texas Schools of Medicine, and removed from multiple pharmaceutical, National Institutes of Health, and medical society positions. All of these punitive actions were taken without courtesy communications or due process. He was later sued by his former institution for a temporary restraining order to effectively silence him in the media. 

In spite of suffering these penalties, Dr. McCullough has continued his academic and clinical efforts in combating SARS-CoV-2, for which he has reviewed thousands of reports, and participated in several scientific congresses. He is now among the world’s foremost experts on COVID-19. He lives with his wife in Dallas.

John Leake studied history and philosophy with Sir Roger Scruton at Boston University. He then went to Vienna, Austria on a graduate school scholarship and ended up living in the city for over a decade, working as a freelance writer and translator. His first book, Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer (Sarah Crichton Books, FSG) was a New York Times Sunday Book Review “Editors’ Choice,” a Men’s Vogue “Best Book of 2007,” and the inspiration of The Infernal Comedy, starring John Malkovich.

His second book, Cold a Long Time: An Alpine Mystery, was winner of the 2012 Independent Publisher Award. The German translation, Eiskalter Tod, published by the Residenz Verlag was a bestseller in Austria. His investigative work for the Jack Unterweger, Duncan MacPherson, and Angelika Foeger stories has been the subject of numerous television documentaries produced by A&E Biography, Discovery, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Fifth Estate,” and the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Am Schauplatz Gericht.

In March 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 started to spread in the United States, he perceived that the pandemic response was illogical at best, and possibly criminal. He found it especially suspicious how quickly public health officials dismissed repurposed medications such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. In November of 2020, he watched a video of Dr. Peter McCullough’s U.S. Senate testimony about early treatment. He sensed from this performance that Dr. McCullough was likely to lead the way in developing a more rational, honest, and humane response to the crisis. He made contact with McCullough in Dallas, Texas, where both authors live, and together they wrote "The Courage to Face COVID-19."

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