Arlington spa stops promoting coronavirus treatment after warning from Texas officials
An Arlington wellness clinic has removed all references to the possible prevention, treatment or cure of the coronavirus on its social media after the Federal Trade Commission and Texas Attorney General’s Office warned the business to stop such promotions.
In response to the warning, Resurgence Medical Spa posted that the business never intended to harm or scam patients in regards to whether its vitamin C intravenous infusions could prevent or cure COVID-19.
“Our primary concern has always been and remains to be the health and wellness of our community,” according to spa’s Facebook post. “Any sort of references we used related to COVID 19 and our IV infusions were focused on overall immune boosting and/or reports we were seeing from the mainstream media as to the positive effects high dose vitamin C was having on COVID patients.”
The business’s post also noted, “As further explanation, we never claimed to prevent or cure COVID 19, we were very careful to use wording like ‘may/could/can help’ or ‘may/could/can prevent.’”
Officials with Resurgence Medical Spa said they removed all such references on April 3.
The state attorney general had sent the clinic a letter on April 3, warning them their claims were a direct violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices and federal consumer protection law.
The letter stated that the clinic had posted claims on Facebook and Instagram that the vitamin C infusions at a cost of $99 can prevent, reduce symptoms and treat COVID 19.
According to the CDC, there is no current vaccine to prevent the disease, and there is no specific treatment for it. The best way to prevent the illness is to avoid being exposed to it, according to the letter.
The letter also noted anyone scamming the elderly can face a civil penalty of up to $250,000.
Officials at the attorney general’s office noted the current declaration was effective across Texas and under the state’s consumer protection statutes, it was illegal for someone to take advantage of a disaster declaration by engaging in deceptive trade practices.
“We apologize for any sort of confusion our social media posts may have caused,” Resurgence officials posted on their Facebook page.
Any Texan who believes they have encountered deceptive trade practices should call the Office of the Attorney General’s toll-free complaint line at 800-621-0508 for file a complaint online.
