Household accused of promoting bleach as a COVID-19 treatment

April 26, 2021 – A family in Florida was accused of selling tens of thousands of bottles of bleach as a “miracle cure” for coronavirus and other diseases.

Mark Grenon, 62, and his sons Jonathan, 34, Jordan, 26, and Joseph, 32, were charged with fraud and civil violation of ceasing sales of the bottles, according to federal court figures filed Friday.

They marketed the bottles as “Miracle Mineral Solution” or MMS, which contained a sodium chlorite solution that they were supposed to mix with an acidic activator to make chlorine dioxide or bleach. In 2019, the FDA issued a warning not to drink Miracle Mineral Solution or similar sodium chlorite products, which can be fatal and are typically used for industrial water treatment.

“Drinking any of these chlorine dioxide products can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration,” the FDA wrote. “Some product labels claim that vomiting and diarrhea are common after taking the product. In fact, they claim that such reactions are proof that the product works. This claim is wrong. “

The family created the solution in a back yard shed in Bradenton and sold it under the guise of a church called the Genesis II Church for Health and Healing, which they created in 2010 to avoid government regulations. The solution was marketed as a cure for cancer, autism, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, malaria, hepatitis, herpes, HIV and AIDS, and other disorders and diseases.

After they began marketing the solution as a COVID-19 cure in March 2020, the family’s revenue rose from $ 32,000 per month to $ 123,000 per month, according to court documents. They sold more than 28,000 bottles which grossed them more than $ 1 million.

In April 2020, the US filed a civil case against the family to prevent them from spreading the solution, according to court documents. But the defendants continued to distribute the bottles, threatening that if the government enforced court orders and stopped the distribution, they would “pick up guns” and instigate “a Waco,” court documents say