regulation
The US resurgence of measles in 2026 serves as a stark, data-driven refutation of the anti-vaccine rhetoric championed by quacks like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. For years, vaccine antagonists have framed immunisations as a matter of personal autonomy, minimizing the societal dangers of declining rates. Yet, public health is not governed by ideology, but by biology. The realities of 2026 – marked by over 2,000 confirmed measles cases across 40 US jurisdictions – demonstrate that when charlatans undermine trust in medical science, the real-world consequence is the return of preventable, highly contagious and dangerous diseases.
The core flaw in RFK Jr.’s rhetoric, it seems to me, is the failure to understand that vaccine protection is a collective barrier, not just an individual shield. Measles is one of the most infectious viruses known to humanity, requiring a high community vaccination threshold of 95% to maintain herd immunity. When coverage drops below this line, the virus easily finds pathways to spread. Because of sustained anti-vaccine sentiment, US kindergarten MMR coverage dropped from 95.2% in 2019–2020 to a dangerous 92.5% by the 2024–2025 school year. This decline left roughly 286,000 children unprotected, effectively dismantling the wall that kept measles at bay for decades.
Furthermore, public health crises thrive on localized vulnerability. While national averages can mask the severity of the issue, anti-vaccine messaging often clusters within specific communities, creating relatively dense pockets of under-vaccinated populations. When measles enters these communities, it does not remain isolated; it triggers rapid, localized outbreaks where almost all of cases are tied directly to these transmission clusters.
Beyond its well-known immediate dangers, a measles infection inflicts severe, long-term damage on the human body by causing a phenomenon known as immune amnesia. The measles virus actively targets and destroys memory T and B cells, the specialized white blood cells responsible for remembering past pathogens. A single measles infection can wipe out 11% to 73% of a person’s preexisting antibodies, effectively erasing the body’s immunological memory. While the patient develops immunity to measles itself, their defense system is left “flying blind” against other entirely unrelated viruses and bacteria they had previously beaten or been vaccinated against. This induced state of generalized immunosuppression typically lasts from two to five years, leaving recovered individuals dramatically more vulnerable to secondary, life-threatening infections long after the initial measles rash has cleared.
Ultimately, the current measles spikein the US illustrates that US public health control is being sabotaged. When prominent morons like RFK Jr. weaponize anti-vax delusions and distort clinical data, they do not simply foster debate, they actively erode the herd immunity threshold. The current US outbreak proves that the protection wall has thinned below the critical margin of safety. Far from being under control, measles has found a resurgence precisely because the rhetoric of figures like RFK Jr. has opened the door for a dangerous, preventable virus to reclaim its ground in and beyond the US.
The death of Kristian Trend, a forty-year-old spiritual wellness coach who collapsed and died following a “Kambo” cleansing ritual in Leicester, serves as a sobering cautionary tale about the extremes of the modern alternative health movement. Having overcome a severe battle with cancer in his twenties, Trend dedicated his life to holistic wellness, meditation, and nutrition, documenting his journey under the moniker “Kristian The Feel Good Guy.”
Kambo, a waxy substance secreted by the giant leaf frog of the Amazon basin, has traditionally been utilized by indigenous tribes for its intense physiological properties. Its translation into Western “detox” circles strips away its cultural context, replacing it with pseudoscientific promises of physical rejuvenation and mental clarity. The actual ceremony is an agonizing physical ordeal: participants consume massive quantities of water before facilitators inflict superficial burns on their skin, applying the frog toxin directly to the open wounds. This practice triggers a violent systemic shock characterized by soaring heart rates, dramatic blood pressure fluctuations, severe vomiting, and acute diarrhea. Though proponents mistake this intense physical trauma for a purgative cleansing process, medical experts confirm there is no empirical evidence supporting these purported benefits.
In reality, the toll of Kambo can be lethal. Over the past decade, the substance has been increasingly linked to severe health crises, including liver failure, acute heart attacks, and sudden death. This compounding medical evidence has led nations like Australia, Brazil, and Chile to implement strict bans on the substance. Trend’s death is believed to mark the first documented Kambo fatality in the UK.
In the wake of this tragedy, Trend’s mother, Angie, has channelled her grief into calling for an immediate UK ban on Kambo to prevent further loss of life. Her public appeal emphasizes the vulnerability of individuals who, like her son, fall victim of pseudoscience and seek deeper spiritual connection and bodily purity, yet find themselves exposed to unregulated, highly toxic substances under the guise of “self-care.”
Following my post about the decline in homeopathy-use in Europe, several people dismissed it by saying something like this: Who cares about Europe? Across the globe, homeopathy is state-funded in a majority of countries!!!
This is NOT correct. A correct description of the situation would be that homeopathy is currently state-funded or reimbursed in a minority of countries. In most other countries, it is paid out of pocket or covered only by private insurance. Yes, homeopathy is integrated into national health systems in some countries, explicitly listing Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, Pakistan, and Switzerland, but this is NOT the global norm.
The counter-argument by homeopathy-fans is this: The states that support homeopathy tend to be very large (e.g. India and Brazil). Therefore, the majority of the world population has access to state-sponsored homeopathy.
This statement seems to be false as well. It is true, of course, that India alone accounts for about 18% of the world’s population, and India does publicly support homeopathy through its health system and the Ministry of AYUSH. But the claim that, for the majority of the world population, homeopathy is state-funded is not based on good evidence. Most of the world’s population lives outside the small number of countries where homeopathy is publicly reimbursed or embedded in state systems.
Even with India included, the evidence available here does not justify a world-population majority claim. The publicly supported/reimbursed countries are still a rather small group, and, as far as I can see, they constitute neither most countries nor most of humanity. In several large countries homeopathy-use exists without state funding or with only private coverage, which weakens any global majority argument. Should someone nevertheless claim that “the majority of the world population has access to state-sponsored homeopathy”, I would ask him or her to show me the evidence for the claim. As far as I can see, it does not exist.
A more accurate statement would therefore be the following:
A substantial share of the world’s population lives in countries where homeopathy has some level of state support, mainly because of India, but there is no good evidence to prove that this amounts to a majority of the world population.
Trump and his allies have produced many claims that experts have flagged as false, misleading, or dangerously unscientific. Below is a (probably incomplete) selection:
- In April 2020, Trump suggested during a press briefing that scientists explore whether injecting or “bringing disinfectant inside the body” could treat COVID‑19. Medical experts immediately warned that this would be dangerous or lethal.
- At the same briefing, he also floated the idea of “hitting the body with a very powerful light,” including using UV light inside the body to kill the virus, a suggestion that clinicians stressed had no scientific basis and could be harmful.
- Throughout 2020, Trump repeatedly claimed the virus would “just disappear” like a “miracle,” even as case counts and deaths surged.
- He heavily promoted hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” long after clinical trials had shown it to be ineffective against COVID‑19 and associated with serious adverse effects.
- In February 2020, Trump claimed the number of COVID‑19 cases in the US would soon be “down to close to zero.”
- Trump frequently claimed that COVID‑19 was “just like the flu,” despite the fact that its mortality rate and impact on health systems were substantially higher.
- In late 2025 and early 2026, the Trump administration falsely claimed that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was linked to a much higher risk of autism, despite the lack of clear evidence and warnings from experts that this messaging was misleading.
- The administration also promoted leucovorin as a treatment for autism, a claim that has little robust evidence and is not supported by mainstream medical guidelines.
- Following the appointment of RFK Jr. to HHS in late 2024, federal vaccine guidance was rolled back in several areas, including flu recommendations for some groups and changes to how RSV and other vaccines were positioned. This created confusion and encouraged a further “decoupling” of some state health policies from traditional CDC guidance.
- Trump has claimed that the noise from wind turbines causes cancer, a statement that has no credible scientific basis.
- Trump has claimed that sea levels will rise by only “1/8 of an inch over the next 200 to 300 years,” contradicting widely accepted projections that show substantially higher rise even over the next 30 years along US coasts.
- Trump has also claimed that the human body is like a battery with a finite amount of energy, and that exercise is harmful because it “depletes” that energy, a view that runs counter to mainstream physiology and public‑health guidance.
- Trump claimed that drinking fizzy diet soda “kills cancer cells” because the drinks kill grass when spilt, implying they might do the same to cancer inside the body.
- In 2026, Dr. Mehmet Oz, as head of CMS, falsely claimed that 5 million New Yorkers were using Medicaid personal‑care services—nearly 75% of all enrolees—when the actual figure is far lower.
- RFK Jr. has spent decades claiming that thimerosal, a mercury‑based preservative in some vaccines, causes autism. Thimerosal was removed from nearly all childhood vaccines in 2001 as a precaution, yet autism rates continued to rise, and large studies have found no causal link.
- RFK Jr. frequently claims that no vaccines have ever been tested against a true saline placebo. In fact, many vaccines have been tested against saline placebos in clinical trials, and others were tested against earlier versions or standard care, in line with evolving ethical standards.
- RFK Jr. pushed for the removal of fluoride from all US water systems, falsely labelling it an “industrial waste” and a key cause of lower IQ, bone fractures, and cancer, despite the bulk of evidence supporting its safety and dental benefits at standard levels.
- RFK Jr. has also falsely claimed that polyunsaturated fats such as canola or soybean oil are toxic and the primary driver of obesity and inflammation in America, a view that contradicts large‑scale dietary and epidemiological data.
- RFK Jr. has falsely claimed that WiFi causes “leaky brain” and that 5G is a tool for mass surveillance and causes cancer, assertions that have no support from mainstream science.
- RFK Jr. has become an advocate for the federal legalisation of raw milk, downplaying the risks of Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. Yet pasteurization remains a cornerstone of public‑health measures to prevent foodborne illness.
- RFK Jr. has wrongly suggested a link between the use of SSRIs and the rise in mass shootings, a claim not supported by credible data.
- Janette Nesheiwat (JN), a Fox News contributor and Trump’s nominee for US Surgeon General, withdrew her nomination in May 2025 following allegations that she had significantly misrepresented her credentials. Her official bio and LinkedIn profile claimed she received her medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; in fact she attended the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in St. Maarten.
- JN repeatedly described herself as “double board‑certified,” but investigators found verified certification only in family medicine.
- Casey Means (CM), Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, is a Stanford‑educated physician who left surgical residency before completion and whose medical license has been inactive since 2019. She has not practiced clinical medicine in years and has limited experience overseeing large‑scale public‑health systems.
- CM has built a profile as a health‑tech entrepreneur and co‑founder of Levels, promoting “functional medicine” and the MAHA movement.
- CM has made strong claims that continuous glucose monitoring and metabolic optimization can prevent or “cure” a wide range of modern diseases, a view that overstates the evidence and oversimplifies complex chronic conditions.
As indicated in the title of this post: if you waant to say healthy, it is wise to ignore the incompetent president and his equally incompetent cronies.
The Nazi’s endorsement of homeopathy during the Third Reich was a complex fusion of pseudo-science, ideology and pragmatic policy. Homeopathy was deemed to align ideologically with National Socialism’s völkisch worldview and, foremost, it was considered to be practical:
- It had pure German (“Aryan”) origins.
- It was considered to be natural.
- It was inexpensive.
- It was abundantly available.
- It was deemed to be harmless.
Several top Nazis also promoted “New German Healing” (Neue Deutsche Heilkunde), which integrated natural therapies like homeopathy into healthcare emphasizing racial purity, folk traditions, and self-reliance. Conventional medicine (“Schulmedizin”) was derided as “Jewish medicine” (verjudete Medizin), tainted by Jewish physicians who were disproportionately represented in German academia and practice. By purging Jews – over 5,000 doctors were expelled by 1935 – the Nazis created a vacuum which they filled with “Aryan” alternatives, e.g. the “Heilpraktiker” framing homeopathy as a proud German invention free from “internationalist” or capitalist pharmaceutical dependencies.
Pragmatic motives amplified this support. Homeopathy was inexpensive, used mostly locally available materials and promised self-sufficiency amid wartime shortages of synthetic drugs. Heinrich Himmler championed it personally, funding research and integrating it into SS clinics; Rudolf Hess, the “Deputy of the Führer”, was also a vocal advocate. The regime licensed homeopathic training, established research institutes, and started a most comprehensive research program of homeopathy. In one of the darkest chapters, the SS conducted experiments at the Dachau concentration camp to test homeopathic treatments for various conditions. Authors from the era celebrated homeopathy as compatible with Nazi racial hygiene, linking it to family doctors fostering generational health.
However, the outcomes were far from what homeopaths had hoped for. The Donner Report on the Nazi’s large research program of 1941–1943 revealed “wholly negative” findings: homeopathic remedies failed catastrophically. Official evaluations deemed it ineffective for epidemics, leading to its sidelining in military hospitals by 1943. After the war, German homeopaths suppressed these findings by making the documents disappear.
Yet the Nazi legacy endures. Nazi promotion entrenched homeopathy in German culture, at least partly explaining its persistence today. This contributed to vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19, as historical distrust of “allopathic” medicine (like “Schulmedizin, a derogatory term created by Hahnemann) lingered.
The Third Reich history of homeopathy highlights how pseudo-science tends to thrive under authoritarianism, masking inefficacy with nationalism, dogma or untruths. While the Nazis tolerated homeopathy for ideological purity, its empirical failure exposed the regime’s bankruptcy.
The parallels to what is currently happening to healthcare in the US are difficult to overlook.
I have repeatedly warned that Trump and his cronies are systematically destroying science and medicine in the US and beyond. Recently, I looked into Medline to see what other experts are publishing on this issue. I did not expect to find much and was surprised that a plethora of articles are now available that discuss the issues from vastly different perspectives. Here are the Medline-listed papers published in 2026 that include an abstract:
A reduction in U.S. foreign aid under the “America First” policy of President Donald Trump, who took office in 2025, has significantly impacted global health. As the world’s largest provider of foreign aid, the U.S. has frozen development aid to evaluate its alignment with national interests. This has led to the termination of numerous international health programs, including those addressing malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, and polio, and has caused funding shortages for non-profit and international organizations like GAVI and the World Bank. Projections indicate dire consequences. According to USAID, a potential 18 million additional malaria cases and 166,000 deaths could occur annually. Paralytic polio cases are expected to increase by 200,000 per year, and new tuberculosis cases could rise by 10.7 million by 2030. Recent studies estimate that new HIV infections and between 770,000 and 2.93 million HIV-related deaths from 2025 to 2030. This crisis presents an opportunity for the global community to rethink its approach to aid. Other forms of financing, such as private sector investment, CSR activities, and innovative mechanisms like the Global Fund, could fill the gap left by reduced ODA. The article also stresses the importance of strengthening governance in recipient countries, promoting self-reliance, and fostering international collaboration through shared data platforms and multilateral programs. Ultimately, the document argues that providing foreign aid is not just a moral obligation, but is also in the national security and economic interest of donor countries, including the United States.
A Science analysis shows more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s in the federal government left or lost their jobs after President Donald Trump took office.
Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential election of Donald Trump, prejudice toward groups targeted during his campaign (e.g., Asian Americans, Mexicans) become more acceptable. By contrast, both Trump and Clinton voters reported less prejudice of their own. We conducted a 2024 conceptual replication, measuring perceived norms of prejudice and own-prejudice toward 128 groups, both before (N = 362) and after (N = 261) the U.S. election. We separately measured the negativity of Trump’s campaign rhetoric toward these groups (N = 188). Levels of prejudice and perceived norms of prejudice acceptability were mostly stable pre-/post-election, but Trump’s negative rhetoric predicted an increase in perceived acceptability of prejudice among targeted groups (replicating the 2016 results), and a rise in self-reported prejudice in the same groups post-election (reversing the 2016 results). Despite changes in the sociopolitical context between elections, the election of a leading politician who campaigned on prejudice was again associated with increases in the acceptability of prejudice.
The withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) raises crucial questions about its future as the governing international organization for health. The executive order on withdrawal was one of President Donald Trump’s first acts in his second term. Because the United States is WHO’s biggest funder and most powerful state backer, withdrawal could indicate an existential threat. However, almost simultaneously member states passed a new international Pandemic Agreement expanding WHO’s authority. How should these conflicting signals be understood? Analyzing WHO’s decline in a context of broader US and geopolitical shifts, the authors find that withdrawal is the outcome of the end to broader political orders of neoliberal internationalism on which WHO depended for legitimacy rather than idiosyncratic Trump politics. WHO’s reliance on certain international norms and power structures leave it compromised. US normative and institutional shifts are far more difficult for WHO to navigate than in past political eras. Therefore, international relations research suggests that avoiding catastrophic impacts depends on reform actions by WHO officials, other member states, and US actors. States and others in the United States will face harm from WHO decline, and the authors suggest that US actors have legal standing to challenge withdrawal. Complacency and inaction may be WHO’s biggest risk.
Throughout the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, his administration has taken swift action to undermine the role that government health agencies play in the health policy-making process. This article makes the case that the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine government health agencies’ regulatory authority reflect a dislike and distrust of the people who serve in key civil service roles. It also provides evidence that efforts to roll back regulatory authority are part of a long-standing political strategy to cater to public dislike and distrust of scientific, medical, and academic experts. While the public could provide policy makers with an incentive to protect public health agencies and the people who staff them, recent public opinion research shows that many Americans simply do not know or do not care enough about the Trump administration’s actions to call for their elected officials to stop them. This article concludes by offering several health communication strategies and directions for future research (the “science of standing up for science”) that might inspire public concern about efforts to roll back government health agencies’ regulatory authority and might motivate people to show support for the civil servants who staff those agencies.
This paper focuses on how, during his second mandate, far-right leader Donald Trump tells a story of his nation as having been disrespected in the recent past by national elites and global ones, while the leader and their close circle have the mission to repair that status as part of United States foreign policy (i.e. respect for the status of the US). When narrating a better future, Trump travels to a remote national past to show the possibility of reinstating US stature in the international. While constructing that better future, Trump also starts to unfold a foreign policy story of success to cement the brighter future in a retrospective way given this future has purportedly been previously lived in a more remote national past. Relied on here is symbolic interactionist role theory, strategic narrative analysis and the notion of ‘heartland’ from populism scholarship; this paper also contributes to the study of narratives of roles and populism in the field of foreign policy analysis by engaging with the IR notion of ‘status’. Taking an interpretative analysis approach, this case study shows how far-right leaders like Trump can conceive and play the status or master role of their states in foreign policy via strategic narratives.
On the one hand, it is encouraging that the Trump-inflicted damage is being noticed and that there is strong opposition to Trump’s various actions. On the other hand, it is depressing to realise how deep and far-reaching the damage has already become
In the ever-evolving farce of populist politics, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has launched yet another crusade, this time to expand access to a group of “natural” peptides that the FDA previously restricted because of safety concerns and inadequate human data. In 2026, that campaign acquired fresh momentum: Kennedy publicly urged the FDA to restore access to roughly 14 of the previously restricted peptides, and reports in late March indicated that the agency was expected to loosen some of those restrictions, though no final rule had yet been published.
Peptides — short chains of amino acids — have become the darlings of the “biohacking” crowd, praised as a fountain of youth and marketed for everything from rapid fat loss to cognitive enhancement. The compounds at the center of this controversy are largely those the FDA placed in Category 2, meaning bulk drug substances that raise significant safety concerns or lack sufficient data to support compounding. That classification effectively bars compounding pharmacies from making them for routine use unless the regulatory status changes.
Among the best-known substances in the dispute are the following:
- BPC-157: Often marketed as the “Body Protection Compound,” it is promoted for gut and tendon repair. The FDA’s concern has centered on the absence of adequate human safety data and unresolved safety questions.
- Thymosin Beta-4 (TB-500): Promoted for injury recovery. It has been flagged because of concerns about growth-related effects and the lack of a proper human evidence base.
- GHK-Cu: Used in some cosmetic products in topical form, but the injectable version has been controversial because of impurity risks and limited safety information.
- CJC-1295: Marketed for growth-hormone stimulation, with safety concerns tied to its endocrine effects and broader cardiovascular uncertainty.
- Ipamorelin: Another growth-hormone-related peptide, restricted because of unresolved safety and manufacturing concerns.
- Ibutamoren (MK-677): Often sold as a “SARM” alternative, though it is not one, and has raised concerns about metabolic and long-term safety.
- AOD-9604: A fragment of human growth hormone marketed for fat loss, but without a robust clinical safety record.
- Dihexa: Promoted for cognitive repair and Alzheimer’s-related claims, despite a lack of adequate human clinical evidence.
- Selank and Semax: Russian-developed nootropics marketed for anxiety and focus, but not supported by the kind of regulatory review expected for routine therapeutic use.
- Melanotan II: Known as the “Barbie drug,” used for tanning and libido, and associated with serious adverse-effect concerns.
- PT-141 (Bremelanotide): An approved version exists as Vyleesi, but compounded versions have raised concerns about dose consistency and safety.
Kennedy has framed the FDA’s crackdown as a kind of conspiracy by “Big Pharma” against so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). In reality, the agency’s restrictions were driven by the absence of convincing clinical data and, in some cases, by serious safety concerns. His push to reopen access presents itself as “liberating” healthcare, but it risks bypassing the very safeguards designed to keep experimental or poorly studied substances from being marketed as remedies.
Many of these compounds are produced in gray-market labs or loosely regulated compounding settings, where contamination and purity problems are a real concern. Peptides are biologically active signaling molecules, not harmless wellness supplements, and altering those signals can produce unpredictable effects, including effects on tumor growth, metabolism, blood pressure, and other systems. And the appeal to “naturalness” is a classic fallacy: a substance being naturally derived says nothing about whether it is safe, effective, or appropriate for widespread use.
The most troubling part of this campaign is the message behind it: distrust expert regulation, trust ideological certainty instead. Kennedy has turned a complex issue of drug safety and compounding oversight into a culture-war emblem. By pushing for broad access to experimental compounds without the normal evidentiary standards, he is not modernizing medicine; he is reviving the logic of patent-medicine quackery, where the promise of a cure mattered more than proof, and where the cure was often more dangerous than the disease.
The ‘Smallwood Report‘, entitled “The Role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the NHS” was published in October 2005. It recommended greater integration of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) into the UK’s National Health Service and to address “effectiveness gaps” in treating chronic and psychosocial conditions, claiming potential cost savings.
Its core recommendations were:
- NICE assessment: Urged Health Ministers to task the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) with a full review of the cost-effectiveness of therapies like acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, herbal medicine, and homeopathy.
- Targeted applications: Suggested these SCAM options for lower back pain (manipulative therapies over conventional), asthma (homeopathy), common colds (echinacea), and other chronic issues where orthodox medicine falls short, potentially reducing absenteeism and NHS costs by hundreds of millions.
- Implementation steps: Promote GP referrals to SCAM, target deprived communities, prioritize research on cost-effectiveness/safety, address regulatory barriers, and use case studies showing reduced GP visits and secondary care savings.
At the time, I called its evidence “grossly misleading,” citing ignored Cochrane reviews showing no superiority for most of the claims. Many critics agreed with me, and the Lancet editor Richard Horton famoulsy called it “dangerous nonsense”.
As the recommendations were pure BS, it is comforting to note that – 20 years later – they have been largely ignored.
NICE assessments:
NICE has issued selective endorsements—e.g., acupuncture and manipulative therapies for low back pain—but stopped short of broad SCAM evaluations, often citing “insufficient evidence” or requiring further trials, directly countering the report’s call for comprehensive cost-effectiveness reviews. No large-scale NICE program emerged to validate the report’s claimed savings (hundreds of millions annually), and guidelines frequently dismiss or deprioritize unproven modalities like homeopathy.
NHS integration status:
- Limited GP referrals: Sporadic pilots exist (e.g., acupuncture in some pain clinics, osteopathy/chiropractic for musculoskeletal issues), often GP-led and adjunctive, but not systematic; social prescribing now favors mindfulness over traditional SCAM.
- Funding barriers: Most Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) classify SCAM as “low priority” absent robust evidence, funding only exceptional cases in palliative or pain management pathways; many services closed due to austerity post-2010.
- No deprived-community focus: The report’s equity push for high-need areas saw negligible uptake, with barriers like clinician resistance and regulatory hurdles persisting.
The report’s optimistic case studies (e.g., Glastonbury) proved anecdotal and unscaled, undermined by critiques highlighting flawed evidence (e.g., ignored Cochrane reviews). Today, NHS policy emphasizes evidence-based conventional care, with SCAM relegated to private or niche settings – realization sits at ~10-20% for endorsed therapies, 0% for broader vision.
In other words, ignoring the report has saved the NHS many millions. More importantly, it has prevented UK evidence-based healthcare from getting watered down by ineffective therapies.
Could that also have happened without my loud protests (e.g. here and here) at the time?
Nobody can know for sure?
But when I feel a little bit down, I tell myself that I had an important role in saving the UK millions!
On 1 April 1933, just two months after seizing power, the Nazis launched a nationwide assault on Jewish life: a state-sponsored boycott of Jewish businesses. This was the first visible step on a path towards genocide and marked a critical turning point, transforming antisemitism from the fringes of political rhetoric into an official instrument of government policy.
The Nazis carefully staged the boycott to appear as a “defensive” action. It was presented as a response to alleged “atrocity propaganda” from abroad. In reality, the event was a calculated display of antisemitism, designed both to humiliate Jewish citizens and to gauge the reaction of the broader German public.
The tactics employed were deliberately intimidating. Nazi supporters and SS members positioned themselves outside Jewish-owned shops, department stores, and professional offices such as those of doctors and lawyers. Antisemitic slogans were painted across windows, and customers were physically discouraged or outright prevented from entering.
Public response to the boycott was mixed. While many Germans remained passive observers or avoided involvement out of fear, a notable number simply ignored the Nazi presence and continued their business as usual. As a result, the boycott was not an unqualified economic success for the regime.
Yet its psychological impact was profound. Regardless of uneven public participation, the boycott sent a clear and devastating message to Jewish Germans: the state would no longer protect them. The absence of police intervention made it evident that hostility and even violence against Jews now carried official approval.
Modern context
The recent global rise in antisemitism is striking. In the United States, for example, 9,354 antisemitic incidents were recorded in 2024, a 344% increase over five years. Antisemitism, at its core, follows the logic of racism: it assumes that a particular group possesses inherent, unchangeable traits that render it dangerous. By constructing a hierarchy of human value and targeting Jews as a “race” to be excluded or suppressed, it functions as a systemic form of racial prejudice.
In this context, some contemporary developments raise broader questions about how state power is perceived and experienced. Current immigration enforcement practices in the United States, particularly those carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have been described by critics as creating an atmosphere of heightened fear among certain communities. Increased arrests and detentions, as well as reports of disproportionate impacts on specific groups, have contributed to these concerns.
It is important to stress that these developments are not equivalent to the policies of Nazi Germany, which were part of a systematic and escalating program of persecution that culminated in genocide. However, historical cases such as the 1933 boycott can still serve as analytical reference points. They illustrate how state actions – especially when highly visible and selectively enforced – can influence whether particular groups feel protected by the law or exposed to it.
Rather than drawing direct comparisons, the value of this history lies in identifying patterns: the use of public intimidation, the testing of social boundaries, and the gradual normalization of exclusionary practices. These dynamics can occur in very different political systems and with very different outcomes, but they remain useful for critical reflection.
The events of April 1933 should therefore function as a warning about how quickly legal and social norms can shift when discrimination becomes embedded in state policy and practice. They underscore the importance of maintaining clear legal protections, institutional accountability, and public scrutiny, particularly when policies disproportionately affect identifiable groups. History can illuminate how certain mechanisms operate, and why vigilance remains necessary.
As well as making such unsubstantiated claims, Meduņecka failed to mention that she was being paid to promote them. “After PTAC’s repeated invitations to perform voluntary actions, the person has not taken measures to ensure that the commercial practices implemented by themselves comply with the requirements of regulatory acts. At the same time, the person has not cooperated with the institution in the administrative process,” PTAC noted. Therefore, the PTAC concluded that the violation was significant, especially taking into account Meduņecka’s status as the owner and true beneficiary of a company called SIA “Smartlife”.
“When assessing the offense committed by the individual, PTAC has taken into account the offense’s scope, nature, duration, impact on the legal interests of consumers (especially vulnerable groups of society – children and their parents, people with oncological diseases), the role of the person in the violation and the circumstances of the violation analyzed in the decision,” PTAC said.
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There have, of course, been several other cases where “influencers” or wellness personalities were sanctioned for false or unsubstantiated health claims, especially when they also failed to disclose paid promotion, e.g.:
- Belle Gibson (Australia) was fined A$410,000 after falsely claiming she had cured brain cancer through diet and alternative therapies, a case that became one of the best-known influencer health fraud stories.
- Teami (US) was targeted by the FTC in a settlement over detox tea promotion: the company used influencers who made false health claims and failed to disclose their paid relationship, and the settlement included a $1 million payment.
- France’s DGCCRF has cracked down on influencers promoting supplements and “health” products with misleading claims; the watchdog said false claims and concealed advertising can lead to fines of up to €300,000 and prison terms in serious cases.
- Turkey’s Advertising Board has fined influencers for supplement promotions that implied medical or health benefits without authorization, including cases where the posts suggested stress, anxiety, or insomnia relief.
- UK: the ASA has repeatedly sanctioned influencers for misleading health or weight-loss claims, including a 2024 ruling involving Katie Price and The Skinny Food Co.
The recurring issues are usually:
- false or unsubstantiated health claims,
- disguised advertising, and promotion of products,
- targeting vulnerable audiences such as people with serious illnesses or parents of children.
The above cases are laudable; yet they are extremely rare exceptions. In view of the plethora of false health claims made by “influencers” and considering the risks of such activities, these pubishments are far too seldom. If you ask me, the authorities should be adequately staffed to persue each case swiftly and punishments should such that they can act as an effective deterrant.
So, why do our governments not get their acts together? Surely, this cannot be a question of money, as the fines would even bring in a tidy profit! Could it be that the “wellness industry” is rich and influential enough to prevent large-scale punitive actions? Could it be that our governments do not appreciate the damage false health claims cause to people’s finances and health? Or could it be that they simply don’t care?
