children
The alkaline diet is based on the disproven belief that shifting the body’s acidity levels can cure diseases or “detoxify” the body. It is often claimed to offer a cure for a range of conditions, e.g.:
- Cancer
- Heart disease
- Low energy levels
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Osteoarthritis
The diet is also promoted to prevent diseases such as:
- kidney stones,
- urinary tract infections.
Yet, none of these claims are supported by sound evidence. In fact, the diet is not just nonsense, it also is dangerous!
An Arizona couple is facing possible prison time after their parenting practices, shaped by online misinformation about medical care and nutrition, left their 5-month-old child dead and three other children suffering from chronic malnutrition. The couple followed the dangerous and debunked alkaline diet − and imposed it on their kids.
According to a 2024 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, most Americans encounter false health information online, and many are unsure whether it is accurate. Nearly 70% of doctors polled said they think patient trust declined from 2020 to 2022. Therefore, it’s all the more crucial people understand how to distinguish fact from fiction when it comes to their health. Amongst other things, people should also make sure their health protocols and diets are not clouded by politics or ideology.
“Misinformation isn’t a point of view; it does actual harm,” commented Brian Castrucci, president of the de Beaumont Foundation. “It’s hurting physicians. It’s hurting medical practice. And it’s hurting the American public.”
The pattern of harm can be traced back to an extreme version of the “alkaline diet” which the couple imposed on their children. In addition, they combined this with a growing distrust of medical care. The couple told investigators they relied on online videos and posts that warned against vaccines, infant medical treatments and even common medicines such as Tylenol. Moreover, they also avoided taking the children to doctor visits, limiting outside contact.
The children’s diet entailed eating vegetables, fruit and plant-based milks − with almost no protein, fats or fortified foods crucial for overall health. The parents interpreted the children’s rapid weight loss as evidence the diet was working and removing toxins, rather than a sign of medical crisis. “We chose this diet for good health,” Stanley told the court.
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When I encounter stories like this, I almost despair of the ignorance and naivety of some people. Then I realize how important the job of fighting dangerous misinformation is
… and I continue my work with renewed enthusiasm.
Two days ago, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) published an announcement; here are its ‘key points’:
- The claim “vaccines do not cause autism” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.
- Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities.
- HHS has launched a comprehensive assessment of the causes of autism, including investigations on plausible biologic mechanisms and potential causal links.
In the announcement proper, they make the following argument:
The rise in autism prevalence since the 1980s correlates with the rise in the number of vaccines given to infants. Though the cause of autism is likely to be multi-factorial, the scientific foundation to rule out one potential contributor entirely has not been established. For example, one study found that aluminum adjuvants in vaccines had the highest statistical correlation with the rise in autism prevalence among numerous suspected environmental causes…
I am concerned with all the many other relationships that have not been adequately investigated, presumably because of powerful interests from influential organisations. Here are just three examples.:
- It is well known that the consumption of ice cream correlates with death from drowning. How many people have to die until the government finally stops the BIG ICE CREAM lobby?
- Similarly, it is a fact that the more margarine is consumed, the higher the divorce rate in Maine. How many marriages will have to break up, until BIG MARGERINE is finally stopped?
- Finally, it is well known that the rate of chocolate consumption correlates within a country with the number of Nobel Prizes that country is awarded. How long do we have to wait until chocolate consumption becomes mandatory to boost the cognitive function of our children?
I am convinced that these three examples – there are plenty more, if you only do your research as well as RFKJr clearly does – are at least as important and just as plausible as the one currently tackled by the CDC. Therefore I urge the CDC to speed up their research and go after all the red herrings they can possibly find.
PS
In my experience, there are some readers who are intellectually too limited to identify satire. Let me therefore make it clear that THIS POST IS SATIRE!
PPS
There has been wide-spread condemnation of the CDC announcement, e.g.:
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): The president of the AAP called the change “false information” and asserted that the updated page was promoting a harmful myth. The organization emphasized that over 40 high-quality studies involving more than 5.6 million people have clearly and unambiguously concluded that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
- Scientific Integrity and Public Trust: Public health experts and former CDC officials argued that the revision was “reckless and harmful,” had “no scientific rationale,” and was driven by “politics” rather than science. They warned that the move would sow doubt in routine childhood immunizations and undermine public trust in the CDC as a credible scientific voice.
- Lack of Scientific Review: Critics noted that the updated content did not cite any new research and appeared to have been implemented without the normal scientific clearance process involving career scientists at the CDC.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated that circumcised boys have double the rate of autism. He thus suggested this is “highly likely” because they are given Tylenol for pain after the procedure. His claim references this 2015 study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine:
Objective: Based on converging observations in animal, clinical and ecological studies, we hypothesised a possible impact of ritual circumcision on the subsequent risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in young boys.
Design: National, register-based cohort study.
Setting: Denmark.
Participants: A total of 342,877 boys born between 1994 and 2003 and followed in the age span 0-9 years between 1994 and 2013.
Main outcome measures: Information about cohort members’ ritual circumcisions, confounders and ASD outcomes, as well as two supplementary outcomes, hyperkinetic disorder and asthma, was obtained from national registers. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) associated with foreskin status were obtained using Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.
Results: With a total of 4986 ASD cases, our study showed that regardless of cultural background circumcised boys were more likely than intact boys to develop ASD before age 10 years (HR = 1.46; 95% CI: 1.11-1.93). Risk was particularly high for infantile autism before age five years (HR = 2.06; 95% CI: 1.36-3.13). Circumcised boys in non-Muslim families were also more likely to develop hyperkinetic disorder (HR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.11-2.96). Associations with asthma were consistently inconspicuous (HR = 0.96; 95% CI: 0.84-1.10).
Conclusions: We confirmed our hypothesis that boys who undergo ritual circumcision may run a greater risk of developing ASD. This finding, and the unexpected observation of an increased risk of hyperactivity disorder among circumcised boys in non-Muslim families, need attention, particularly because data limitations most likely rendered our HR estimates conservative. Considering the widespread practice of non-therapeutic circumcision in infancy and childhood around the world, confirmatory studies should be given priority.
In other words, the study found that circumcised boys were more likely to be diagnosed with autism compared to others in the group. Kennedy asserts that the post-circumcision use of Tylenol is the causal factor, relating it to his broader, unproven theory that acetaminophen use in early childhood is linked to autism.
Yet, every 1st-year medical student would point out that the study demonstrated only a correlation, not a causation, between circumcision and autism. Critically, the researchers involved in the original Denmark study stated that they had no data on the use of painkillers or anesthetics during the procedure, meaning they could not address whether Tylenol was involved in the observed correlation.
Other subsequent, more rigorous studies have found no evidence to support a link between either circumcision or Tylenol use and autism. Numerous health organizations, including the Autism Society of America, have criticized Kennedy’s theorie as being unproven, misleading, and not based on scientific evidence.
PS
Mr Kennedy, if you are reading this (which would surprise me), here are a few further, well-documented correlations that you might find worthy of your pseudo-research interest:
- The per capita consumption of margarine is highly correlated with the divorce rate in Maine.
- There’s a strong correlation between the number of people who drowned by falling into a pool and the number of films in which Nicolas Cage has appeared.
- The number of doctoral degrees awarded in civil engineering correlates with the per capita consumption of mozzarella cheese.
- The amount of cheese consumed strongly correlates with the number of people who have died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets.
- The revenue generated by arcades is correlated with the number of computer science doctorates awarded.
- The per capita consumption of sour cream correlates with the number of motorcycle deaths in the U.S.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER.
Consider the case of a women who is 3 months pregnant and develops a high and persistent fever (by no means a rare event). Her doctor diagnoses a strep throat and treats her with antibiotics. For lowering her temperature, he would normally have advised paracetamol (acetaminophen). After this was pronounced prohibitively dangerous, he has 3 options:
- Give no medicine for the fever.
- Give Aspirin.
- Give ibuprofen.
What are the risks involved in these three options?
1. Give no medicine for the fever
High or sustained fever, especially in the first trimester (which the patient is nearing the end of or just finished), has been associated with an increased risk of certain birth defects, including neural tube defects, heart defects, and cleft lip/palate.
2. Give Aspirin
The use of Aspirin during pregnancy, especially at higher doses (not the low dose often used for preeclampsia prevention), carries the following risks:
- Higher doses of aspirin during early pregnancy raise the risk of pregnancy loss and congenital defects.
- Higher doses of aspirin are also associated with premature closure of the ductus arteriosus (a fetal heart vessel), fetal kidney problems, and increased bleeding risk for both mother and baby.
Low-dose aspirin is considered safe but may not affect the fever.
3. Give Ibuprofen
- Some studies suggest an increased risk of miscarriage, if taken around conception or over a long period, though evidence is conflicting.
- Ibuprofen is contraindicated in the third trimester (after 28 weeks) due to the risk of fetal renal dysfunction, premature closure of the ductus arteriosus or inhibition of uterine contractions.
What are the consequences?
One can extrapolate that an adherence to a “no paracetamol” policy to treat fever in pregnancy would likely have the following effects in the US:
- Over a thousand additional severe birth defects per year that might have been prevented by safely treating a high fever, especially in the first trimester.
- Many thousands of additional cases of preterm labor/delivery caused by untreated maternal fever later in pregnancy.
- A significant increase in the use of the riskier medicines such as ibuprofen or Aspirin which are associated with fetal risks, leading to hundreds of new cases of fetal kidney and cardiac issues.
In other words, persuading pregnant women to forgo the safest, most effective fever reducer would cause thousands of severe, preventable fetal adverse outcomes per year. This would far outweigh the unproven or even disproven risk of autism from short-term, appropriate paracetamol use.
As predicted in my post yesterday, Donald Trump, Mehmet Oz and Robert F Kennedy Jr made an announcement on Monday at the White House, advising pregnant women to avoid taking paracetamol and claiming that it heightens the risk of autism. As pointed out in yesterday’s post, this assertion is not based on reliable evidence.
Specifically, like a trio of charlatans, they misled the public by claiming that the use of paracetamol during pregnancy is linked to autism and that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be advising doctors to minimize its use. Also as predicted, they promoted leucovorin as an autism treatment, a claim equally not supported by reliable evidence. Finally, Trump repeated long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.
Several medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Academy of Pediatrics, swiftly condemned these statements as “irresponsible” and not backed by sound scientific evidence. They emphasized that a causal link between paracetamol and autism has not been established. New York University bioethicist Art Caplan said it was “the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recycling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies, and dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority.” Health regulators in other countries, such as the UK and Australia, also reiterated their guidance that paracetamol is safe for use during pregnancy. The overwhelming consensus among the global scientific community is that paracetamol remains the safest pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed. Untreated pain and fever during pregnancy can pose more significant risks to both the mother and the unborn baby.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is of course well-known for making millions by promoting every form of quackery on the planet, discussed the decision to have government health programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) cover the cost of leucovorin, i.e. folinic acid, for the treatment of autism. He stated that this move would ensure access to the drug for millions of children and that he expected private insurance companies to follow suit. Yet, the use of leucovorin for autism is considered highly controversial, as pointed out in yesterday’s post. It is not widely accepted by the scientific community and, if effective at all, can work only for a small sub-set of autistic patients. Even for them, it is not a cure and would only be helpful for certain symptoms.
So, why mislead the public in this way?
One reason could be that the company, “iHerb” for which Mehmet Oz is “Global Advisor & Stakeholder”, sells no less than 4 supplements with a version of leucovorin. The announcement from the White House and the administration’s push for the drug therefore raise serious questions and concerns about conflicts of interest and corruption.
Trump said it more than once, for instance here, that on Monday [today] he will announce the true cause of autism: “I think we found an answer to autism. How about that? Autism. Tomorrow, we’re going to be talking in the Oval Office and the White House about autism, how it happens, so we won’t let it happen anymore. And how to get at least somewhat better when you have it so that parents can help their child, their beautiful child,” Trump said. Elsewhere he and his minons claimed that it will be based on the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted. It was also hinted that the cause will NOT be a vaccine!
So what will it be?
There have been multiple reports that Trump will claim that paracetamol taken during pregnancy causes autism.
And it gets better: it is being speculated that they also have identified a cure: leucovorin! This drug is essentiall folinic acid; Medline lists over 20 papers suggesting it might be helpful for children with autism. For example, one RCT showed that the change in CARS score was higher in the folinic acid group (3.6 ± 0.8) compared to the placebo group (2.4 ± 0.7, p < 0.001). The theory behind using leucovorin for autism is that some individuals with the condition have a metabolic abnormality called cerebral folate deficiency. In these cases, the brain has low levels of folate (a crucial nutrient for brain development) despite normal folate levels in the rest of the body. This can be caused by the immune system producing antibodies that block the transport of folate into the brain. Leucovorin, a form of folate, can bypass this blockage and help restore folate levels in the brain. However, the claim that leucovorin cures autism is unfounded. There merely is promising, albeit limited, evidence to suggest that it may be an effective treatment for specific symptoms in a subgroup of individuals with autism who have an underlying folate metabolism abnormality.
The paracetamol claim aligns with a recent review by Mount Sinai and Harvard researchers that suggested a possible link between prenatal acetaminophen use and an increased risk of autism and ADHD. Its authors found an increased risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes following prenatal APAP exposure. Further studies are urgently needed with; precise indication of use and exposure assessment of use both in utero and in early life. Given the current findings, pregnant women should be cautioned against indiscriminate use of APAP. These results have substantial public health implications. Officials might therefore plan to advise pregnant women to avoid using the drug in pregnancy.
Yet, there is contradicting evidence too: a large sibling study from Drexel University and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet published in April 2024, for example, found no evidence to support a causal link between the drug’s use during pregnancy and an increased risk of autism. And just days ago, Japanese and US authors concluded that although PS-matched analyses indicated small increases in risk, sensitivity analyses suggested that unmeasured confounding, misclassification and other biases may partially explain these associations.
So, whatever Trump’s big announcement will claim, it might neither be conclusive nor new nor innovative. But it will certainly be a big show trying to highlight the achievements of his administration.
I for one advise caution: the claim that paracetamol causes autism is not supported by a scientific consensus. While some studies have shown an association, others, including large-scale and more reliable sibling studies, have cast doubt on a direct causal link, suggesting that other underlying factors may be at play. I might remind Trump, RFKJr and his team of pseudoscientists of two things:
CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION
and
REAL SCIENCE RELIES ON RIGOROUS RESEARCH AND NOT ON POLITICAL THEATRE
The assassination of Charlie Kirk must be unreservedly condemned, and I would like to do this herewith. What followed this terrible event is, however, pathetic, to put it mildly.
I am sure that, before the fatal shooting, most people – I included – did not know much about Charlie. I had to look up what he stood for and what his agenda and opinions were. I was not impressed. Specifically on health related matters, I asked AI to provide me with a list of some of his key quotes. Here it is:
| Quote | Date / Event | Full Text / Context | Notes / Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Children are being treated like ‘lab rats’ for the COVID-19 vaccine.” | Oct. 27, 2021, The Charlie Kirk Show | “This is a guy who’s voting to approve the vaccine to be used on your children. ‘We’re never going to be able to learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it. That’s the way it goes.’ So this is the equivalent … to treating your children like lab rats … Your children are going to be experimented on.” | Kirk argues that vaccine safety is unproven for children and implies children are being used in experiments. Media Matters |
| “Take the red pill on the vaccine.” | June 24, 2021, The Charlie Kirk Show | “We have gone right into the fray about whether or not vaccines should be mandatory. The answer is no. But why is it that our leaders are so intent on pushing vaccines towards young people … If you go down the rabbit hole and you take the red pill on the vaccine, you will have your eyes opened.” | He uses “red pill” metaphor to suggest uncovering truth, often conspiratorial framing. Media Matters |
| Against vaccine mandates / passports / medical apartheid | mid-2021 | “At Turning Point USA we are going to give everything we have to make sure that students are not going to have to live in a medical apartheid because they don’t want to get the vaccine.” Also: “It’s almost this apartheid-style open-air hostage situation, like oh you can have your freedom back if you get the jab.” | He equates mandates / requiring vaccination with segregation or coercion. Media Matters |
| On masking and vaccine mandates leading to loss of other freedoms | July 16, 2021, The Charlie Kirk Show | “If they can make you put a mask on, they’ll take your guns. They can make you take a vaccine, they control your children.” | This links mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and perceived overreach in authority. Media Matters |
| “You will never live in a society … and you won’t have a single gun death … it’s worth it.” | April 2023, after a mass shooting (Christian Covenant School in Nashville) | “You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death,” … “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment … That is a prudent deal.” | Although this is more about gun violence / rights than vaccines, it’s often grouped in health-related because of mortality implications. Firstpost+3mint+3Newsweek+3 |
| On being unvaccinated as the “natural state.” | Sept. 13, 2021, TPUSA Live Now | “By the way, you know you’re born unvaccinated. It’s kind of like the natural state.” | He frames unvaccinated status as a baseline or normative condition. Media Matters |
| On immune health / supplements etc. | In a transcript of “My Conversation with Dr. Pierre Kory and Dr. Chris Martenson” | “…the way you get past an infectious disease is you get plenty of rest. You make sure you’re not stressed out … your vitamin D levels are adequate. … Also want to make sure you have appropriate levels of serum, zinc and selenium … What we now know … these work really, really well.” | He’s endorsing non-vaccine measures (nutrition, immune health) as important. Charlie Kirk |
| Questioning booster pushes / vaccine pushes “despite data” | 2023, interview with Florida’s Surgeon General (Ladapo) | Kirk: “What is driving them to push the boosters despite data and shows that they can actually be harmful?” | Here he’s giving voice to concerns about booster vaccine safety/effectiveness. Human Events |
[From what I can see, his opinions on many other issues that are outside my area of expertise were even worse.]
To turn Charlie Kirk into a hero, icon, visionary etc. is just ridiculous, in my view. Yes, for a range of reasons, I am sorry that he got shot – just as sorry as for the numerous further violent death in the US. Gun violence has to stop; but so should the absurd theatre around this man’s death.
Aaron Siri, the personal lawyer/adviser of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recently presented to the US Senate the unpublished (and thus not peer-reviewed) “Henry Ford Health System Analysis“. With a sample size of 18,468, the study is the largest vaccinated versus unvaccinated birth cohort study ever conducted in the US. Children were tracked from birth over a 10-year period, and their data were drawn from medical records. The frequencies of several common illnesses during the observation period were compared between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated goups.
The findings imply that vaccinated children have dramatically higher rates of common, chronic conditions than unvaccinated children. As could be expected, the news spread instantly and the worldwide anti-vaxx community was triumphant. Their long-held belief that vaccinations are detrimental to the health of children had finally been confirmed!
But it took only hours before serious doubts about the reliability of the data emerged. It was soon demonstrated that the study is full of fundamental errors, inconsistencies and findings that do not stand up under even the slightest scrutiny. Crucially, it did not show an association between vaccines and autism, which is, as we all know, the main claim of anti-vaxers.
The most obvious methodological problem with the study is detection bias. This occurs in case control studies when one group gets examined more frequently than the other. This must almost inevitably lead to more diagnoses regardless of actual disease rates. In the study, vaccinated children had substantially more health care visits than unvaccinated kids. In such a situation, conditions requiring clinical evaluation to diagnose — for instance, ADHD, learning disorders, speech delays, ear infections — will inevitably be recorded more often in the group that was investigated regularly than in the group that consulted physicians less frquently.
An example might explain: There was a 6-8-fold increase in ear infections among vaccinated children. This is highly unlikely to be a true result; it can, however, be explained by detection bias. Children who rarely sees a clinician will not have “otitis media” coded in their record, even if they have had ear pain. In other words, the study repeatedly conflates absence of diagnosis with absence of disease.
Another example: there were almost no cases of common conditions like ADHD and learning disabilities among the group of unvaccinated children. Yet, such a finding is an impossibility. Epidemiological data prove that these conditions affect roughly 11% and 9% of children, respectively. This can only mean that these illnesses went undiagnosed and unrecorded in unvaccinated children who rarely consulted a doctor.
As any first year Phd student should spot such fundamental flaws and overt inconcistencies, it is a huge embarrassment that RFKJr, his minions and the entire cult of anti-vaxx failed to spot and discuss them. They thoroughly invalidate the entire study as well as its conclusions.
For the world of anti-vaxx, the study presents a further big probem: if they accept its findings, they must also accept another of its results: there is no link between vaccination and autism. Will they now try to pretend that those findings that suit their ideology are real, while others that contradict their delusions are not?
If this study shows anything of value at all, it is this: peer-review is an indispensible process in science. Without it pseudo-science can far too easily masquarade as science. We all deserve better than a farcical political theater to mislead the public presented by malignant pseudo-scientists and ignorant anti-vaccination clowns. We deserve rigorous science and reliable results that approach the truth as closely as possible. The “Henry Ford Health System Analysis” had remained unpublished for a very good reason: it is misleading trash that makes RFKJr and his minions the laughing stock of the world of science.
The result of all this, I am afraid, is rather concerning: consumers are getting more and more confused, and the discussions about vaccines get less and less rational. As an example for the latter, let me quote a comment on ‘X’ by Dr Aseem Malhotra (yes, the guy who I have repeatedly blogged about and who recently claimed that COVID vaccines cause cancer): “Is it time to arrest all those using the term ‘anti – vaxxer’ because it’s a term of abuse, especially when used to describe someone vaccine injured, or has lost a relative or a child because of it ? It’s absolutely disgusting.”
There is now an embarraassing amount of examples of RFKJr’s behavior, actions and public statements that can only be described by using the term hubris:
Despite his denials, Kennedy is a die hard vaccine sceptic as well as an anti-vaccine activist. He is spreading dangerous and deadly conspiracies, and his actions go repeatedly against the scientific consensus. His policies are based on myths and pseudoscience and a blatant disregard for science and evidence-based public health.
Kennedy has implemented a sweeping overhaul of US vaccine policy, and is accused of reckless mismanagement and administrative incompetence that has led to chaos and disorganization inside and outside of his department. This includes reducing staff at federal agencies and promoting a reorganization of HHS that can only weaken the US’s ability to address future health problems.
The firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez and the subsequent resignations of other senior CDC officials are a direct result of their refusal to rubber-stamp his ideological anti-vaccine agenda and unscientific and dangerous demands. One official, Demetre Daskalakis, resigned with a warning that the “ideological agenda” which is being pushed by Kennedy “will result in death and disability.”
Kennedy’s actions seem to be driven by a desire to please a political base. They reveal a complete disregard for science and a judgmental view of public health and science. In other words, he is weaponizing public health for political gain.
Most recently, Kennedy stated disgusting confidence: “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like. I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today…and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges…and I know that’s not how our children are supposed to look.” This, of course, is complete, utter and embarrassing nonsense. It might even be funny (in that it highlights his incompetence) but sadly it foremost is, like so many of his statements, extremely dangerous. A man who thinks like this must not be near a health department; much rather he should be in a straight jacket.
I am hardly alone with my criticism. Here are but a few comments from prominent people related to Kennedy’s recent statement on “mitochondrial challenges” that I picked up yesterday on ‘X’:
- The man is a lying grifter who is doing grave harm.
- Medicine and public health have added three decades to the human lifespan. Vaccination alone produced 40% of the reduction in child deaths. And now a disturbed and unqualified man driven by crackpot theories is destroying the foundations of this work, including CDC.
- Every. Single. Time RFK tries to pontificate on health and medicine he spouts absolute gibberish that crumbles with a 30sec Google search. This is what happens when you form views based on social media nonsense and pure quackery. Anyone with internet access can see through it.
- We now are facing the greatest threat to public health in the USA since it became a country. The spillover will task the entire world and will become the major threat to global public health.
- Non-doctor, non-medically trained weirdo RFK Jr. says he can medically diagnose kids just by looking at them.
- Wtf is a Mitochondrial challenged face? Unless he’s in the prednisone ward, how is he seeing so much inflammation too? Is the worm seeing?
- RFK Jr uses long scientific sounding words and talks very confidently. He is therefore able to convince many that he knows what he is talking about. But to actual experts it’s very obvious he hasn’t got a clue. A sophisticated and successful con man.
- RFKjr is the leading cause of threats to global health security.
- Who’s the most dangerous cabinet member? RFK Jr Tulsi Gabbard Kash Patel Pete Hegseth I go for RFK Jr with Tulsi a close second.
- Ex-heroin addict with a parasitic brain worm, zero medical degrees, zero background in healthcare, or any formal scientific training thinks he can diagnose children just by looking at them??? This is insane. This man is going to LITERALLY kill us.
- The non-doctor is diagnosing children from 30 meters distance with fake diseases and invented psychological conditions that have no basis in reality. He does get credit for cramming a remarkable amount of stupidity into the fewest amount of words possible.
- Excuse me, @SenBillCassidy, perhaps now is the time to stand up, say you were wrong to confirm this crank, and advocate for his removal.
- RFK JR: “I’m looking at kids…and I see they are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, inflammation—you can tell from their faces” Me: I’m looking at the HHS Secretary and I see an anti science crank who doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about.
The national and international outrage is enorm – rightly so! – and many of us have called for Kennedy’s resignation. Sadly, he is allowed to continue displaying his disgusting hubris unabated. We will all feel its effects soon.
US medical professionals, pleaase stop this lunatic!
On this blog, we have repeatedly discussed BLEACH and several of the individuals promoting it (who I called ‘BLEACH BOYS’) as a cure for just about everything, e.g.:
- Beware of the ‘Bleach Boys’ – hydrogen peroxide and chlorine dioxide
- Anti-vaxxer jailed for selling bleach (MMS) as a cure for Covid-19
- Miracle Mineral Supplement (MMS): accidental ingestion by an infant
- Selling bleach as ‘miracle’ cure (MMS): Father and three sons are going to prison
- Selling bleach solution as ‘miracle’ cure? No, it’s a dangerous ‘snake oil’!
- A well-known opponent of vaccination has died of COVID after self-treatment with MMS
- MMS-salesman Andreas Kalcker has been arrested in Argentina
The US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. mentioned bleach, i.e. chlorine dioxide, during his Senate confirmation hearing. Specifically, he referenced chlorine dioxide while praising Trump for “looking at all of the different remedies” for Covid, using it as an example of the open-mindedness that Kennedy characterized as a “demonstration of leadership”. It has been reported that this encouraged those advocating the use of bleach solution (also known as Miracle Mineral Solution, Chlorine Dioxide Solution, Water Purification Solution, and God’s Detox) as a panacea, and influencers are now pushing to get bleach approved as a mainstream treatment. “We are thrilled that RFK Jr. is in charge,” said Michelle Herman, who sells a nasal spray containing chlorine dioxide. Apparently she already discussed the topic with Kennedy.
“The bleachers are back, making connections with powerful people, reaching RFK and Trump,” says Fiona O’Leary, an Ireland-based activist who has spent years trying to highlight the dangers of toxic bleach solutions being sold as an autism cure. “Bleachers want RFK to approve chlorine dioxide as a treatment for autism, cancer, and other conditions. It is like watching a horror show.”
Days after the confirmation hearing, Pierre Kory claimed on a podcast that Kennedy had called him to discuss the use of bleach ahead of the hearing: “Bobby thought they were going to come after him on that. So I basically told Bobby what the real story was on it.” Kennedy has praised Kory on social media, calling him a “brave dissident doctor” and “honest, brave, and sincere.”
Herman says that she met Kennedy in October 2023: “I was honored to meet him in late 2023 and was able to talk with him for about 30 minutes. I shared that, very similar to the war on ivermectin, the war on chlorine dioxide was the same story … He listened intently, indicated he was not familiar with it, but was nonetheless very intrigued and asked for more information.”
One of the most notorious figures within the bleaching community, Mark Grenon, was sentenced to a stint in federal prison in 2023 alongside three of his sons for selling bleach as a cure for Covid. A self-styled archbishop of the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, Grenon was released from prison in September 2024, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. While Grenon initially told a supporter on Facebook that he was “not allowed” to become part of groups promoting chlorine dioxide, he has appeared on numerous podcasts and livestreams in recent months to promote the use of bleach. An individual with the username Mark_Grenon is also now listed as an administrator of Oates’ Chlorine Dioxide Testimonies Telegram group, which has more than 30,000 members.
In one question-and-answer session hosted on Zoom related to “curing” cancer with chlorine dioxide, Grenon said that chlorine dioxide is “growing worldwide.” In another recent online interview, Grenon claimed a member of his church treated a 4-month-old baby with liver cancer by soaking them in a bath of water topped up with 100 drops of chlorine dioxide. Last month, Grenon attended the Truth Seekers conference at Trump’s resort, which was filled with bleach enthusiasts and antisemitic conspiracy theorists. Grenon was pictured at the event alongside Herman and Oates as well as Kerri Rivera, who has long promoted chlorine dioxide as a treatment for autism. Rivera has been living in Mexico in recent years; previously, German authorities investigated accusations that she had caused bodily harm to a child, though no charges were ultimately filed.
Andreas Kalcker, another bleach activist, was also at the conference. Kalcker was charged by authorities in Argentina in 2021 following the death of a 5-year-old boy whose parents gave him Kalcker’s chlorine dioxide solution with the belief that it would ward off Covid. In an interview published recently on Rumble, Kalcker said he once met Kennedy at the AutismOne conference in Chicago in 2013 where they were both speakers.
For years, a central aim of some chlorine dioxide advocates has been to remove a key warning about chlorine dioxide issued by the US Food and Drug Administration in August 2019, during Trump’s first term in office. It was viewed as a significant block to more widespread adoption of the treatment by doctors. “The solution,” the news release read, “when mixed, develops into a dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.”
“RFK has to rescind that FDA warning against chlorine dioxide,” said Herman during a March livestream on Rumble, an alternative video sharing platform. “That’s what stops everybody in their tracks. Every doctor, no matter how much guts they have, they see that warning and they get nervous, they get scared … that’s got to be rescinded.”
The FDA warning was last live on the agency’s site on May 15, according to an archived version of the site available on the Internet Archive. Proponents of the toxic solution view the removal of the warning as a victory. “I was genuinely surprised, and as someone from China, I couldn’t imagine our own government quietly removing a public warning without any announcement,” said Xuewu Liu, who promotes the treatment of cancerous tumors by directly injecting them with chlorine dioxide. “This quiet removal won’t immediately change everything, but it opens a door.”
While the removal of the warning is a huge boon for those promoting the toxic bleach solution, it is just the first step in a push to make chlorine dioxide a mainstream treatment. In her livestream interview in March, Herman said she suggested that someone hold a “Make America Healthy Again roundtable” to discuss chlorine dioxide, while getting the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research into chlorine dioxide and setting standards for the toxic solution. “We know that there is awareness and support for repurposed drugs and what are termed ‘alternative’ therapies, and we hope that the restraints and prosecutions will cease,” said Herman. “Will they outright approve these therapies? We just don’t know. More realistically, they will hopefully encourage further evaluations towards such approvals.”
