Chef Pete Evans criticised for trying to sell $15,000 light device to fight coronavirus

Peak medical groups have criticised the Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans for suggesting that a $15,000 “subtle energy platform” could be used to treat coronavirus, saying such claims are baseless, ill-informed and dangerous.

Evans, a television host and paleo diet enthusiast who has previously promoted anti-vaccination ideas, was selling the BioCharger NG Subtle Energy Platform – dismissed by the Australian Medical Association as a “fancy light machine” – for $14,990 on his website.

Evans’ ad said the machine was a “subtle energy revitalisation platform”.

“Four transmitted energies stimulate and invigorate the entire body to optimise and improve potential health, wellness, and athletic performance,” the ad says.

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In a livestream video, Evans, judge on Channel Seven’s My Kitchen Rules, said the BioCharger “is a pretty amazing tool that will take you down some a rabbit holes and it will take me an hour or two to explain it”.

He said the machine had “a thousand different recipes and a couple on there for Wuhan coronavirus”.

Covid-19 has so far infected more than 1.6 million people globally and killed 95,000. It has ground economies to a halt all over the world and has the potential to force hundreds of millions into poverty.

There is no evidence that it can be treated or cured by coloured lights.

Evans has since pulled the advertisement down.

The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Harry Nespolo told Guardian Australia that several months ago he had said Evans should “leave vaccinations alone”.

“Well, he should also steer well clear of peddling devices which he claims use ‘subtle energy’ to counter COVID-19. He just needs to stop it right now.

“It is a reality that many people look up to Mr Evans in his roles as a popular chef and television host. I once again urge him to book an appointment with his local GP to learn about the damage he is doing on social media.”

The Australian Medical Association said of Evans: “This guy just doesn’t get it. Pete Evans is trying to sell a $15,000 fancy light machine to vulnerable and frightened people to protect them against Covid-19. He is not a doctor. He is not a scientist. He is a chef.”

At the peak of last year’s measles epidemic in Samoa, Evans posted a picture of himself with the anti-vaccine campaigner Robert F Kennedy Jr, citing the “the important work he is doing”.

Kennedy, son of Senator Robert Kennedy and nephew of the former US president John F Kennedy, is the founder of Children’s Health Defence, which bankrolls anti-vaccination advertisements and misinformation on Facebook.

In 2017 doctors felt compelled to condemn Evans’s documentary The Magic Pill, which claimed that following his paleo diet guidelines for five weeks could drastically reduce symptoms of diabetes, cancer and autism.

The AMA said Evans’s claims were “silly” and “harmful”.

Guardian Australia has approached Evans for comment.