Dr. Scott Jensen for Minnesota Governor

Leah (L): Hello, I am Leah Wilson, executive director and co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom, a growing international movement in the U.S and Canada and we are committed, here at Stand for Health Freedom, to supporting policies and policymakers,, and other elected officials that stand to strengthen your right to choose how you care for your own body and how you care for the health of your children,, and that is why we are here today with Dr. Scott Jensen talking about his upcoming race for Minnesota Governor. Thank you so much, Dr. Jensen, for joining me.

Jensen (J): Thank you, Leah for having me. Obviously, this is a critically important topic and it’s going to drive a lot of discussion for the next 12 months, so I really appreciate your commitment to it.

L: Yes and Dr. Scott Jensen is a physician, practice owner, family medical physician. He also is a former state Senator in Minnesota and now he has taken the leap to run for governor in the great state of Minnesota. So, let’s just dive right in and tell us how you made the decision to be in the position you are today of deciding to run for the governor of Minnesota.

J: Leah, 25 times in a row, conservatives have lost statewide elections in Minnesota. It’s been a long time since we’ve won. I think people are powerfully engaged on that specific issue alone. We’re seeing the devastation that’s come from that, we’re seeing our public safety in Minnesota absolutely in a critical state. Thankfully, the Minneapolis Police Department was not defunded last night in the local election. But nevertheless, we’re seeing people disrespect the work that the policemen do. Police officers don’t know what they’re going to encounter when they begin a shift. Incarceration has to be used as a deterrent for criminals, particularly felons, intent on doing harm- violent harm- to others or their property. We’re seeing kids not being provided with a foundational education that might allow them to dream dreams and then go fulfill those dreams. Instead, they’re being indoctrinated, they’re being treated like Play-Doh, and they’re being shaped and molded into something that someone wants. This is so wrong. We need to fund our kids and give them choices, not continue to pander to broken institutions. And at some level, we have to ask ourselves: Without integrity of our elections, how can people feel that we have fair, honest and trustworthy elections? And this is a huge issue. If you put all those issues together, and you intersect them with the notion of health freedom, you really have a critical situation and that’s why 2022 is going to be so powerfully important to each and every American and I’m talking whether you’re on the right or left side of the political spectrum or in the middle. The bottom line is, if you don’t have health freedom, if you don’t get to choose how your body is physically treated, what is important to you as you champion your own healthcare, if we don’t have those things, we don’t have much because at that point in time we become pawns, we become pawns to a state government that says, “We’ll decide that,” and we can’t let that happen. I honestly think that a lot of what drove last night’s election results had to do not just with parents- especially moms concerned about the education for their kids- it had to do with a deeper moral fiber within all these parents and that had to do with freedom and parental rights and the same freedom that allows parents to be involved with what their children are being taught, that same freedom drives and allows parents to decide how their children receive health care interventions, what their children need. I think that health freedom and parental freedom to choose for their children and education freedom, I think they’re interwoven into something that’s incredibly important.

L: Yes, the fabric of American values, right, and so as it relates to health freedom, in particular, as a practicing physician, do you endorse any of the medical mandates that we are seeing today and have these policies affected your doctor-patient relationship?

J: That’s a big question. I don’t endorse any of these government-imposed mandates. I have railed against them. Whether we’re talking mask mandates for a 4-year-old or whether we’re talking a vaccine mandate or a de facto mandate or a passport, these things are immoral. I find it compelling that about 16, 18 months ago we had just the beginnings of this conversation when we talked about: Do we treat people who have had Covid and recovered, do we treat them with any special privilege? Because there was no vaccine on the horizon, at that time, and the answer was a resounding, “No.” It would be unethical to give people who had had Covid-19 and recovered and had antibodies and were presumably substantially immune to Covid-19. It would be unethical to give them special privileges. *chuckles* How we have changed. Now, it’s absolutely flipped. It blows my mind. So, in a word, immoral is what I think of these mandates. Now there was a second part of your question and if you don’t mind, Leah, I’m gonna ask you to state that again because I want to make sure I answer that with a little bit of precision.

L: Yes, and have these policies affected or influenced the dynamic of your own doctor-patient relationship in any way?

J: It’s a complicated question. There’s probably 3 dynamics that it has absolutely influenced. The first one would be the dynamic of the patient within him or herself. They come in, not feeling comfortable, not feeling empowered, they, oftentimes, come into the doctor’s office feeling a little bit abandoned, a little bit betrayed by the medical profession so, right away, they’re either defensive or closed down. Then the dynamic of the patient-doctor relationship has to be considered and that’s a powerful impact because it’s almost as if the trust and advocacy that we have been sharing for the previous 10 years has been thrown out the window and I have to rebuild it. That takes time, and that means that sometimes we don’t have as much time to deal with, maybe, the critical issue of congestive heart failure or emphysema or asthma because we’ve got to rebuild a relationship. That compromises the quality of our healthcare, the quality of the healthcare that the patient receives and then there’s another dynamic and that’s the dynamic after the visit, particularly in regard to the physician or the caregiver. We don’t feel as good about what we’re doing. Doctors, in many situations, are retiring early, cutting back on their workload, sometimes considering suicide, sometimes committing suicide, more than ever being on anti-depressants. Doctors don’t feel as good about what they’re doing because the notion about being called to something incredibly important has been undercut. Now, doctors are feeling conflicted internally. At some level, I think a lot of doctors realize they’re not serving their patients. They’re serving Big Government or Big Pharma, maybe Big Tech, maybe it’s Big Insurance, maybe it’s their employer who mandates that the patient be plugged into some sort of algorithm and that’s how we care for patients- not with heart and soul but with arbitrary algorithms. So, I think, physicians are more conflicted and we’re certainly, as a profession, more divided than I’ve ever seen. These are powerful dynamics that have been fractured that nobody seems to want to talk about. You can say these are collateral damages to a lot of the policies have been put in place regarding Covid but, regardless of how you characterize it, the fact of the matter is physicians are conflicted, patients are feeling abandoned, and the medical profession is fractured.

L: Wow, yes. Those are a lot of things that you don’t think about and coming from a doctor who has been known to put the patient first and has written at great lengths on this very issue, it means a lot to hear that from you and in terms of your race for governor, what is your position on the issue of medical mandates as a public policy?

J: I would absolutely prohibit vaccine mandates, therapeutic mandates but I think I would go further than that. In the process of campaigning to be the next governor, I need to tell Minnesotans, Americans and people around the globe what has happened to me. When I dared to speak a narrative that was, perhaps, outside the lines of the conventional Legacy Media narrative, I thought that people would take me at my words and say, “Gee, Dr. Jensen’s got concerns about how death certificates are being revised in regard to the traditional rules and regulations. I wasn’t respected or offered the chance to advise someone how they might change what they had done because I was concerned that the changes were going to contribute to a distortion and a corruption of the value of the data, I was absolutely demonized. I was fact checked more times than I can count, I went from a respected professor at the medical school and a “Family Doctor of the Year” to being the most investigated doctor in Minnesota. 5 times now, the Board of Medical Practice has come after my license and Leah, I don’t care how strong anyone is, you can’t have this happen to you without feeling absolutely crushed at some level. It’s affected my wife, my children, there’ve been more tears than I want to share, that’s what happened and, yet I’m not gonna back down. A vaccine mandate is immoral. And parents get to choose for their kids.

L: Yes, and you still show up and you still even used, before we started the interview, the word, “invigorated” by the opportunity at hand during this, dare I say, war time. You know, how fractured we are as a nation and the decisions that we are facing- that we haven’t faced in decades so, we thank you for being a doctor that continues to show up and continues to champion patient-first policies and citizen-first policies- people-first policies. Would there- our advocates are always wondering- so the men and women that take action on the Stand for Health Freedom, Calls to Action and within our movement- is there anything that would cause you, as a candidate, to switch your issue stance from pro-patient, pro-informed consent to “This is what the public health now needs, that we must force something upon an individual?” Is there anything that would cause that switch in your stance on the issue?

J: Nothing. The fact of the matter is, I helped several senators and representatives in the Minnesota legislature write a bill that would create Minnesota as a health freedom sanctuary state. We need to do that. I don’t think we should have to; I think the protections are already there in the Constitution, but it seems that they must be highlighted. We must redouble our efforts. We saw Dr. Benjamin Rush, in the 1770s, speak to the need for health freedom amendment and we saw President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961, make a comment- something to the effect that there may come a day where our public policies are held captive to a scientific and technological elite, and I think we’re living through that right now. We desperately need to have our rights protected and there is nothing- there is nothing- that would cause me to think that “Big Brother Government” gets to decide how we live our individual lives. I’m gonna say it again, Leah- that’s immoral.

L: Wow, and I like how you said, “We already have these rights, they are grounded in our constitutional liberties; however, at this juncture when our civil rights, our human rights are being trampled on, they need to be highlighted and reaffirmed.” So, Minnesota should be thankful to have you, cheering for them, fighting for them to become a health freedom sanctuary state. Let’s move on to-

J: And Leah, to that point- that point Leah, if I could just interrupt, I apologize- I would just say- Minnesota and all states across the land owe a debt of gratitude to the parents and especially the moms- the “Mama Bears”- for being so powerfully and critically and brilliantly engaged- not just in Virginia, but in Minnesota and many other states. I thank my creator that these folks have risen up over the last 6-12 months recognizing that Critical Race Theory is racist in and of itself, that it needs to be banned, that it gets in the way of parents being able to do their job. Parents don’t sign up to co-parent with the state government. “Big Brother,” get the heck out of our lives.

L: Yes, that’s right. Let’s hear about your new book that’s coming out, entitled, “What the Heck is Going On? We are Being Played,” because everything I listen to you saying is that you are for transparency, for actual solid science, that you are for informed consent, putting the patient first and putting the doctor-patient relationship in its proper place, also, so tell us about what inspired you to write this book- about “What the Heck is Going On.”

J: Well, I have been concerned about the role of Big Pharma, Big Tech and Big Government and the intersection of their three incestuous interests for decades and I wrote a book 5 years ago called, “Relationship Matters,” and I was concerned, then, that we’re seeing a fracturing of the patient-doctor relationship and it will lead to no good. Well now I think Covid has put a bright light on this, and I think- I sat back at one point and I said, “What the heck is going on? We are being played. We’re being played through fear, through an absolute undercutting of informed consent. Informed consent isn’t happening. My stars! We’re being bullied and forced into doing things that we don’t ethically feel we should do.” We’ve had nurses and teachers and healthcare workers who 15 months ago were hailed as heroes and now they’re treated as zeros because they won’t violate their core convictions. We are being played. We’re having factoids exaggerating, we’re seeing accusations thrown out blindly, we’re seeing everything done possible to stoke the power of fear. What does that do? That paralyzes people’s ability to think independently. It’s astonishing and I think we’re all wondering, “How could this happen so fast?” Never again. We have got to take the lessons from this time, and we have to imprint them- not just on our minds and souls, but on our constitution in a very real and explicative way.

L: So, would that be the goal of your book? Is that- we never get played like this again, that people know the truth, that they can see exactly how this story played out and step forward in a way that doesn’t allow this to happen again?

J: Yes, I think that the goal of the book is if you’re engaging on a 5 level, on a scale of 1-10, I want you at a 9. If you’re engaging at a 9, I want you at a 10 and if you’re at a 10, somehow, get to 11 but we all need to ramp it up because we are being played. And I’m trying to point out, in the book, the intrinsic dangers, the intrinsic lies, the untruths, the falsehoods, the- when you get a big bill that you didn’t expect and you thought you’d been admitted to the hospital but instead, you’d been put into a status “observation,” that allowed the insurance company and the hospital to potentially interface differently. What that meant, is the patient pays more, perhaps insurance pays less, perhaps the hospital collects more- this is what’s been happening. Patients have been confused and confounded for decades. Covid-19 has done us 1 small favor, and that’s put a bright, shining light on the fact that we are being played and we have got to- we’ve got to rise up and say, “No more.”

L: Wow, so the goal is to mobilize people so we can- we share that goal here at Stand for Health Freedom is that we not only want to bring information to the masses but give them something that they can do about it, that they can carry a quality message into every area of their community and make a difference with their own voice. So, that’s pretty awesome. How can we follow the release of the book and how can we follow your campaign for governor of Minnesota?

J: Well, thank you, Leah. In terms of the release of the book, I’m almost embarrassed to say that we have been, if you will, slowed down by the fractured supply chains. Right now, the publishing of a book has been elongated by a substantial amount. So, we were hoping to have it out by Thanksgiving, but the fact of the matter is it’ll probably be out in the first half of 2022. In terms of following our campaign, I’m asking people to go to drscottjensen.com, which is our website. We’ve made every effort to be as transparent as possible. My wife and I, when we decided to run for governor, said, “We are going to cha- we are going to speak truth to power, regardless of how challenging and frightening that may be. We will resist groupthink. We will be unflinching in the face of ridicule. We will speak for all Minnesotans, and we will trailblaze the issues because, quite frankly, our career politicians, in so many situations, aren’t cutting it. They deflect and they demonstrate cowardice, instead of the courage to run and have a hard, courageous, candid conversation with our constituents, with parents. So, I would love for people to go to D-R-S-C-O-T-T-J-E-N-S-E-N dot com. If they would like to join in, we have drscottjensen.com/jointhefight and they can join in and be delegates for us, but we are all in and your word, a few moments ago, Leah, is a powerful word. It’s not enough just to engage the issue. We have to mobilize, we have to mobilize our energies, and we got to get off the sidelines and get on the field of battle and do some blocking and tackling.

L: It’s powerful to hear from candidates like you who are taking everything we’re hearing in the mainstream media and talking straight back to it with our own story, our own narrative, our own goals and ambitions for our children and for this country. So, thank you so much for the effort and energy that you are pouring into this race and into helping your patients and now, the American public. So please do- go to the comments and click on drscottjensen.com and get plugged into his race so that you can support it in any way that you can and watch for other Pro-Health Freedom candidates in your state for governor, for lawmaker, for county commissioner, you know at every level there are seats that need people supporting our rights to choose how we care for our bodies and how we care for our children. Thank you so much, Dr. Jensen. We’ll be in touch.

J: Thank you, Leah.