FACT CHECK: "Ramaswamy’s misleading COVID attack ads on Acton omit his own pandemic advocacy"

Yesterday, Cleveland.com published a fact check of Ramaswamy’s attack ads on Dr. Acton, calling them “misleading” and underscoring that Governor DeWine “has repeatedly undercut GOP attacks against Acton over the state’s COVID policies by claiming he alone was responsible for them.”

The fact check highlights that Ramaswamy himself advocated for “mandatory antibody testing” and “creating a national registry to segregate those” based on immunity status, served as “an adviser on COVID issues to then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted,” and “spent $70,000 on lobbying the federal government” on issues related to COVID‑19 drug development.

READ: Ramaswamy’s misleading COVID attack ads on Acton omit his own pandemic advocacy

• While Acton was indeed a key player in Ohio’s COVID policies, Ramaswamy’s campaign overstates her involvement in the decision by top Ohio Republicans to postpone Ohio’s March 2020 primary election.

• The ads also don’t mention that the Columbus-area entrepreneur advocated during the coronavirus crisis for measures like a national immunity registry, nor that he was an adviser on COVID issues to then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

• The Ramaswamy campaign ad refers to a health order Acton signed on March 16, 2020, closing polling places for Ohio’s primary election the following day, effectively postponing the election.

• But while Acton signed the order, the decision to call off the March 17 primary – which ended up being held April 28 – was made by top Republican statewide elected officials, including Gov. Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, with help from then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and then-Attorney General Dave Yost.

• DeWine told WCMH-TV in April that he ordered Acton to sign the directive closing polling places. “I ultimately thought if I did not make that decision, people were going to die,” the governor told the TV station.

• The business closure orders were lifted in phases in mid-May, when Acton became increasingly sidelined in favor of “working groups” that advised DeWine on when to reopen various sectors of the economy, schools, and other key parts of daily life. Acton resigned as health director the following month.

• DeWine has repeatedly undercut GOP attacks against Acton over the state’s COVID policies by claiming he alone was responsible for them. “They were my decisions, so no one should blame someone else if they don’t like it,” the governor told reporters last December. “The buck stops with me.”

• Ramaswamy, meanwhile, stated in a 2021 op-ed that he served in 2020 as an informal COVID adviser to Republican Jon Husted, now a U.S. senator running to keep his seat this fall.

• At the time, Ramaswamy was CEO of Roivant Sciences, a New York-based biotech firm that was developing a potential COVID-19 treatment called gimsilumab (which was ultimately found to show no significant benefit). Roivant disclosures show it spent $70,000 on lobbying the federal government in 2020 and early 2021 on issues related to COVID‑19 drug development and approval.

• During an April 2020 podcast appearance, Ramaswamy called for mandatory antibody testing, then creating a national registry to segregate those who either already had coronavirus or had a natural immunity so they can “go back to normal life” without having to follow COVID rules.

• A Roivant subsidiary also worked to create a national registry of coronavirus patients by pooling medical records from health-care technology companies and other sources, the Wall Street Journal reported in March of 2020.

• Ramaswamy left Roivant in early 2023 to focus on his presidential campaign. A Wikipedia editor later stated that Ramaswamy paid him to remove a reference to his service on Ohio’s “COVID-19 Response Team” from his Wikipedia page.

• Ramaswamy told the Associated Press in May that his coronavirus position was “nuanced” and that both his time advising Husted and his support for a COVID registry involved “getting the economy going again.”