The Right Chemistry: Beware of these examples of COVID quackery
No, the COVID-19 vaccine isn't part of a “global ritual” to “inject experimental nanobots and chemi-kills into our bodies to alter our DNA."
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Actor Woody Harrelson cheers on claims that 5G technology is somehow linked to COVID-19. Steve Bannon, hardly a model of healthy living, recommends warding off viral infections by using a nebulizer two or three times a day with a mix of saline and hydrogen peroxide, swallowing one-third of a teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt, and downing large doses of zinc, vitamin D and probiotics. Then there is Gwyneth Paltrow, who treats her lingering COVID-19 symptoms with a “keto and plant-based” diet involving fasting until 11 a.m. every day, “lots of coconut aminos” and sugar-free kombucha and kimchi, along with Madame Ovary supplements, which — surprise, surprise — she sells.
It should not come as a shock that there is no evidence for any of this purported wisdom, since celebrity status does not confer scientific know-how. But when properly educated physicians spread unscientific drivel, that is a different story. One with potentially dangerous consequences.
Let’s start with osteopathic physician Dr. Joe Mercola, honoured by the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate as the No. 1 misinformant. Mercola has a long history of confrontation with the FDA and has received numerous warning letters for selling products without supporting evidence. The latest one directed him to immediately cease the sale of “unapproved and unauthorized products for the mitigation, prevention, treatment, diagnosis or cure of COVID-19,” citing false claims made about Mercola’s “Liposomal Vitamin C,” “Liposomal Vitamin D3 and “Quercetin and Pterostilbene Advanced.”
In the past, Mercola has received similar warnings about his “Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil,” which claimed to benefit Crohn’s patients and reduce the risk of heart disease. He was also taken to task about his claim that “Vibrant Health Research Chlorella XP … helps to virtually eliminate your risk of developing cancer in the future.” Mercola has also claimed that his tanning beds reduce the risk of cancer and that metal coils in mattresses act “like an antenna, attracting and amplifying whatever radiation might be zipping through your bedroom.” All this pales in the face of his recent crusade against COVID vaccines.
To support his attack on the jab, Mercola dredges up comments from a number of other doctors who have been widely castigated by mainstream scientists. Dr. Vladimir Zelenko’s claim of having successfully treated thousands of COVID-19 patients using hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc sulphate has been widely disputed. Mercola has said he and Zelenko discussed “the very distinct possibility that everyone who receives the COVID jab may die from complications in the next two to three years.”
Dr. Richard Fleming, nonsensically labelled the “father of modern nuclear cardiology,” has been convicted of two felonies under U.S. federal law for fraud, but nevertheless is another beacon of truth for Mercola. Fleming believes the vaccines are bioweapons that lead to an increase in Alzheimer’s symptoms and cause “prion” disease. Prions are the type of protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally and were found to be the cause of mad cow disease. There is zero evidence that vaccines have anything to do with prions.
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is another osteopathic doctor revered by Mercola. She believes that vaccinated people infect others — “they don’t get COVID symptoms that we typically recognize as COVID (but) they get bleeding, they get blood clots, they get headaches, they get heart disease.” Tenpenny promotes the idea that microchips in vaccines communicate with 5G cell towers and that vaccines magnetize people so that they can “stick a key on their forehead or spoons and forks all over and they can stick because now we think there is a metal piece to that.” At least she hasn’t claimed the spoons end up being bent after the magnetizing experience. But I know some gullible minds have been bent.
I’ve saved the “best” for last. Dr. Steven Hotze is a rabidly anti-gay, anti-vaccine, QAnon-promoting physician who runs the Hotze Health and Wellness Center in Houston. He is also the CEO of the Liberty Center for God and Country, a political organization that claims the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a “global ritual” to “inject experimental nanobots and chemi-kills into our bodies to alter our DNA using artificial-intelligence technology to turn us into zombie-like, controlled masses and weapons of war.” He makes Mercola look like a good guy.
According to Hotze, COVID vaccines are an experimental gene therapy “manufactured using cells derived from human babies that were aborted in the 1970s.” Flagrant nonsense. He also claims that in the first month of use, the vaccines caused thousands of cases of anaphylactic shock. Codswallop. Data show at most five cases per million injections. Hotze also linked the death of baseball great Hank Aaron to the COVID vaccine — an allegation supported by Robert Kennedy Jr., another anti-vax sage. Aaron was vaccinated, but there is absolutely no reason to link his death to the vaccine. At the age of 86, he was well past the average life expectancy.
Like Mercola, Hotze has also recently been told by the FDA to immediately correct violations, including his promotion of products such as “Dr. Hotze’s Kids Immune Pak” that claim to offer protection against the coronavirus. Previously, Hotze had been challenged for claiming his line of bioidentical hormones prevents cancer, and that birth control pills make women less attractive to men. Wow!
How scientifically educated individuals can go off the rails in this fashion is difficult to explain. Self-delusion, quest for fame, prospects of financial gain, suspect upbringing, a knee-jerk mistrust of established science, and the inability to accept being wrong come to mind. Hotze’s slogan for the vaccines is “Just say no,” purloined from Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign. I think I will also pilfer it. When it comes to buying into the misinformation and disinformation being spread by the sagacious pundits I’ve mentioned, just say no!
Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University’s Office for Science & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.
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