I recently came across this editorial from the NEJM. I find it extremely relevant to the many discussions we have about so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) we have on this blog. I, therefore, take the liberty to copy a small section of it here without further comment, and encourage everyone to read the full paper:
…expertise and authority are increasingly seen as means for elites to establish and support existing hierarchies. There is, of course, some substance to this argument: although orthodox doctors may believe that their dominance and privilege are attributable to the rigor of the methods they use and that other schools of medicine were vanquished because of the superior results achieved by science-based practice, another version of the story sees the suppression of other approaches to healing (e.g., naturopathy, homeopathy, or chiropractic) as the result of ruthless actions by the American Medical Association and other forms of organized medicine. These critiques aren’t new; as Lewis Grossman writes in Choose Your Medicine, “medical freedom” arguments have long been used to oppose institutions intended to protect consumers, such as medical licensure and the FDA.3 The difference today is that the antiexpertise perspective has moved into the mainstream. With Google and Amazon having created a world in which people can frictionlessly obtain both information and nearly any product they want, it’s not hard to portray expert gatekeepers as barriers to patients’ ability to exercise choice.
Perhaps the most substantial threat to expertise is that members of the public are coming to believe that facts don’t exist — that all facts are political and therefore a matter of opinion. This mindset is fundamentally incompatible with the scientific practice of medicine, which depends on a shared commitment to backing up hypotheses with empirical evidence. Indeed, modern medicine owes much of its privileged position to a broad acceptance that the methods it uses can be relied on to make medical choices that are likely to do more good than harm.
A 1902 Supreme Court case, American School of Magnetic Healing v. McAnnulty, offers an instructive example of what could happen if all medical facts were seen as purely matters of opinion. The American School of Magnetic Healing in Nevada, Missouri, received 3000 pieces of mail every day, largely consisting of checks, money orders, and cash to purchase the healing services that the school advertised in newspapers throughout the United States. Patients who sent payments were instructed to lie down at a specified time wherever they were, and the healers at the magnetic school would, from Nevada, channel the healing energy of the universe into their bodies to heal them.3 The Post Office Department (which predated the Postal Service) concluded that this practice was a fraudulent operation using the mail and, after a hearing conducted by the postmaster general, stopped delivering mail to the school. The school sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court, which found in its favor.
Writing for the Court, Justice Rufus Peckham essentially rejected the existence of medical facts. “Just exactly to what extent the mental condition affects the body,” he wrote, “no one can accurately and definitely say.… Because the [school] might or did claim to be able to effect cures by reason of working upon and affecting the mental powers of the individual… who can say that it is a fraud?… Those who might deny the existence or virtue of the remedy would only differ in opinion from those who assert it. There is no exact standard of absolute truth by which to prove the assertion false and a fraud.”4 Although this decision was never expressly overruled, both Congress and the courts have since rejected the premise that the efficacy of treatments is purely a matter of opinion.
Differences of opinion within medicine are necessary for progress, and both licensing and certifying boards must therefore be careful to leave room for the expression of divergent views. Moreover, there is ongoing debate regarding the extent to which free-speech protections cover professional speech. But despite the existence of divergent views and areas for legitimate debate, there are some opinions that have been so thoroughly repudiated by existing evidence as to be considered definitively wrong.5 Constructive debates are possible only within a shared epistemic framework and with a commitment to the idea of verifiable facts. It’s incumbent on licensing and certifying boards to defend the existence of facts and to give the public a way to know when practitioners are making claims that are incompatible with reality.
When it comes to disciplining doctors, boards haven’t always lived up to public expectations — but that’s not a reason they should fall short yet again, especially during a lethal pandemic. Although there are many gray areas in medicine, some propositions are objectively wrong. For example, when a licensed physician insists that viruses don’t cause disease or that Covid-19 vaccines magnetize people or connect them to cell towers, professional bodies must be able to take action in support of fact- and evidence-based practice.
The public relies on the medical profession in times of grievous vulnerability and need. For the profession to earn and maintain the public’s trust — along with the privileges associated with the status of being licensed practitioners — medical boards must be able to differentiate practitioners who are providing fact-based advice from those who are not.
44 Responses to Threats to medical expertise
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Galen was forced to flee Rome because his scientific method was getting results contrary to the then medical orthodoxy.
Likewise today, doctors who dared to practice early treatment for covid-19 (instead of the wait at home until you turn blue, narrative) have been deplatformed, banned and censored that ultimately backfired when the “safe and effective” message turns out to be false, as country after country (including the UK) backs away quietly by no longer forcing the “jabs” on anyone under 50.
what a fine display of the galileo gambit! [https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Galileo_gambit]
MANY THANKS
But science was on Galileo’s side, not on the side of the church.
Likewise science is not on the side of the “jabs”, quite the opposite:
https://openvaers.com/covid-data
are you really THAT thick?
The “thickness” of the messenger is irrelevant. Only the evidence matters:
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/sars-cov-wiv?utm_source=substack
Yes I belive so. Enough said.
…and this:
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/what-killed-over-24-people-at-the?utm_source=substack
But it’s not just the “jab”, it’s all vaccines:
https://icandecide.org/press-release/cdc-and-nih-unable-to-provide-a-single-study-to-support-the-safety-of-injecting-aluminum-adjuvants-despite-its-widespread-use-in-childhood-vaccines/
Enen SNL are broadcasting the truth:
https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1629753381249224704?utm_source=substack
It’s all over:
https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/excess-mortality-goes-mainstream?utm_source=substack
Hey Robert, did you get a day off from the Lord Vetinari ward of the municipal lunatic asylum today and they allowed you access to the internet again so you can spread your friends conspiracy theories? 😀
@Old Bob
substack … bitchute … Steve Kirsch … Robert Malone … OpenVaers ..
Are you just trying to troll us, or do you really believe the insane crap that you are dumping here?
There’s more, don’t forget Trump and his lab-leak conspiracy theory… debunked by MSM but now confirmed by the FBI etc.
How about Anne Tessier? She apologizes for mandates here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBSppvX6MwM
@Old Bob
You’re not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, now are you? You appear to be confusing mainstream media with scientists. And mentioning Trump in one sentence with the word ‘theory’ really doesn’t make things any better.
The scientific consensus was (and still is) that most likely, the Covid-19 coronavirus made the jump from animals to humans(*) – but also that this is not conclusive.
The FBI’s speculation about laboratory origins is also just that: speculation, with no real evidence at all.
As long as the Chinese government refuses to allow any foreign parties to carry out an in-depth investigation, we’ll probably never know for certain.
Mainstream media simply reports any news about this – both scientists’ position AND (now) the FBI’s position. Your deluge of crap doesn’t play any significant role in this, and is best ignored.
*: Much like scientists now fear that the current bird flu virus may successfully make the transition to humans. And yes, when that happens, no doubt the legions of imbeciles currently busy with Covid conspiracies and pro-death activism will then turn their twitching eyes and frothing brains towards that new threat, once again spreading their by now familiar nonsense and wild, unfounded accusations towards scientists, governments and generally anyone who tries to deal with things in a sensible way.
Testimony from Dr Martin Makary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Makary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9H0PrXjPbM
And Edward Dowd:
https://vigilantfox.substack.com/p/excess-mortality-goes-mainstream?utm_source=substack
@Old Bob
… is just another pro-death idiot without any relevant education spreading lies about vaccines.
Yes, there were (and partly are) excess deaths. No, those excess deaths are not linked to vaccines in any way. Or actually, they are, in that vaccinated people are slightly LESS likely to die than unvaccinated people.
Most excess deaths in 2021 and 2022 correlated with Covid-19 peaks; the rest can’t be readily explained yet, but research is under way. The most likely causes are long-term effects from Covid-19 infection and postponed healthcare.
No, Ed Dowd is a financial analyst. I have not read his book, but each page is referenced. He does not opine, he only reports data because that is his field.
The America Online CEO explained that starting in the 3rd quarter of 2021, excess mortality was 40% and considering that 10% was a one-in-two-hundred-year-event (or 3 sigma), 40% was catastrophic.
No wonder Pfizer fought ICAN in the courts to try to keep its data secret for 75 years – it *knew*!
@Old Bob
No, Ed Dowd is an idiot, just like Steve Kirsch, because in all their arrogance and delusions of grandeur these people think that being good with financial figures automatically qualifies them as an expert on epidemiological data as well.
I’m also quite good with numbers – but I DON’T rely on any ‘analysis’ of my own to make conclusions about vaccine efficacy and side effects, simply because epidemiology and immunology are fields of expertise of which I only have cursory knowledge. So I look at the scientific consensus and the actual scientific research data – and that consensus and research says that vaccines do not harm people in any significant way. This same scientific consensus also explains in detail the many ways in which people such as Dowd and Kirsch are wrong.
As the fella said “People only learn from experience and most don’t even learn from that.”
Robert Malone took two shots until it nearlly killed him, then he decided not to take anymore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYaLgeEBgaU
@Old Bob
As you’ve been told at least a dozen times. Malone promotes misinformation about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Aubrey Marcus is the founder of Onnit, a globally disruptive brand based on a holistic health philosophy he calls Total Human Optimization.”
My translation: Aubrey Marcus promotes b*llshit and sells SCAM. He is a snake oil salesman who is amused that guys like you fall for him.
And another point: Anyone can claim anything on YT. Where are Malone’s proofs for his claims?
1 “As you’ve been told…” – rules for me…
2 “…Where are Malone’s proofs…” – none for thee.
@Old Bob
1 “As you’ve been told…” – rules for me…
We have shown you the evidence and sources that Malone is lying and deliberately twists the truth to look better. But you studiously ignore them, because otherwise your conspiracy worldview would be destroyed.
2 “…Where are Malone’s proofs…” – none for thee.
Wrong. Either you keep changing the rules as they suit you, or you are playing pigeon chess: You knock the pieces over, crap on the board, and fly back to your flock to claim victory.
“Overall, we rate OpenVAERS Right Biased based on editorial positions that advocate for conservative vaccine hesitancy. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting based on taking unvetted data from VAERS literally and promoting misleading information based on the data.” https://bityl.co/HSnI Quack quack.
Also, for folks looking for reliable fact-checking sites, look here: https://bit.ly/34OF36l
Fact-Check this:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/J198HBz0PDdg/
Fact-Check this:
https://icandecide.org/press-release/cdc-admits-it-has-no-data-to-support-recommending-covid-19-booster-shots-for-12-to-49-year-olds/
His what?
https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/four-humours-galenic-medicine
The victors write the history.
Galenic medicine was the dominant medicine in Europe for over 1,500 years. Why do you think the establishment interests behind it eventually lost?
Because the “established interests behind it” switched to oil-based pharmaceuticals, propagandizing that vaccine-induced-immunity was superior to naturally-induced-immunity?!?!:
https://thehighwire.com/videos/natural-immunity-to-covid-proven-superior-to-vaccine-immunity/
Before finally admitting that nature knows best and here we are, after billions of years, thanks to natural-immunity – phew!
Bob
That natural immunity worked really well with smallpox didn’t it. And all the other diseases which also mysteriously disappeared when the relevant vaccines came along.
No, the defeat of smallpox started in the UK in 1885 when the borough-council (in Birmingham IIRC) defied the State-mandated-smallpox-vaccine (an unhealthy method of passing it through each child IIRC) because of violent public backlash because it *spread* the disease it was supposed to suppress, the borough council refused to continue this in favor of isolating the infected, from the general public.
This worked so well that other boroughs adopted it and together with modern sanitation small declined steadily in the UK from then on to vanish in the mid 20th century. See here (especially the photographs of the living conditions from those times):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dissolving-Illusions-Disease-Vaccines-Forgotten/dp/1480216895/ref=sr_1_2?crid=10N3E9U60BJT5&keywords=dissolving+illusions+humphries&qid=1678091688&s=books&sprefix=disolving+illusions+humphries%2Cstripbooks%2C137&sr=1-2
Your spectacular and wilful ignorance is quite headshaking, Bob
Curious how the disease was eradicated across the globe without those same improvements in sanitation.
Also curious how sanitation was able to prevent the spread of an airborne virus.
Also curious how loads of other viral diseases were virtually eliminated following the introduction of appropriate vaccines. All those improvements in sanitation, Bob. At all those different times.
Take your head out of your arse, Bob. You’re only making a fool of yourself with this wilful cognitive dissonance. Your attempts to contort reality to make it conform to your delusions make flat-earthers look rational by comparison.
@Old Bob
Here’s a critique of Humphries’ book: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/wrong-about-polio-a-review-of-suzanne-humphries-md-and-roman-bystrianyks-dissolving-illusions-part-1-the-long-version/
Not that I have the illusion that you will stop spreading the pro-death lies and nonsense promulgated by people like this, but once again it demonstrates how medical expertise (immunology, epidemiology) is threatened by people who don’t really know what they’re talking about, but proclaim their untruths all the louder for that.
I just spotted the weakness in your reference. The first sentence is:
“Note that I refer often to Wikipedia articles.”
Wikipedia may be true for inanimate objects, but anybody who challenges the Narrative is written out of history e.g. Robert Malone, see the two wayback machine screenshots in this link (at 3:40 and 5:10):
https://ricochet.com/991489/the-wayback-machine-and-the-rewriting-of-history/
At 3:40
“The mRNA vaccine page on June 14th we can see that under the History section of the wikipedia page, on the wayback machine, we can see that (3:50 – see screen shot):
“In 1989 Robert W Malone… Then in 1990 Jon A Wolff, Robert Malone… The first mRNA experiments where carried out by P Feigner, Jon Wolff, G Rhodes, R W Malone…”
“Fast forward five days later and two days after the podcast and the entry has been changed and his name removed to downplay his involvement…” (5:10 see screenshot):
“In 1989 researchers at the Salk Institute… In 1990 the university of Wisconsin…”
@Old Bob
… is a vastly more reliable source than all the idiots trotted out by you taken together.
… is yet another example of someone who routinely spreads misinformation, lies and nonsense.
Anyway, I’m not going to waste any more time on the heaps of manure that you spread – the stink is getting rather bad.
Trying to Matt-Handcock me and everyone else does not work anymore:
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/the-astonishingly-un-astonishing?utm_source=substack
Why the need to resort to “wayback machine screenshots” when the material that has been “written out of history” is still clearly visible on Wikipedia, via the page history that it hasn’t been written out of?
Nope, your paranoid conspiracy theory doesn’t fit the timeline, because the humoural theory fell out of favour too early.
Try again.
…and even in the current version of the page, Malone’s work is still cited. They’re obviously not very good at writing people out of history.
The good news is that Malone is NOT responsible for the covid mRNA vaccines, others can take credit/blame for that. However, regardless of who is responsible, he is a knowledgeable source on the subject, he holds patents in his name on mRNA research. That makes him an expert witness.
This should help explain everything:
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1633548023417413640
It shows how deep down the rabbit hole of delusion you’ve fallen. Sad.
@Old Bob
Thanks for that informative clip, I hadn’t seen that as yet. It’s no surprise that most of the “conspiracy theories” about the pandemic have turned into conspiracy fact. More to come, I’m certain of that.
Rob Schneider is pretty effective on this week’s theHighWire (episode 310: Funny Business)…
The communists don’t do laughter, that’s why they are so sore.