satire
I suppose we all heard that DONALD TRUMP has recently turned his genius towards the film industry. Specifically, he wrote:
“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”
Well done Donnie!
After this decisive move, the hero of the mentally challenged announced another, even more far-reaching and long-awaited measure:
“TARIFFS ON RATIONAL THOUGHT”
On his patform ‘UNTRUTH ASOCIAL’, Trump proclaimed:
Rational thinking in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw scientists and other experts away from the United States. Universities and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated and pseudo-science is thriving as a result. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing all my government Departments and other relevant bodies of the US administration, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all RATIONAL THOUGHTS coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT SCIENCE MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!
Trump’s latest move earned criticism as soon as it became public. Democrats pointed out that it was Trump himself who had driven US scientists to seek employment outside their home country. A spokesperson of the Whit House responded with merely a two-word-statement:
FAKE NEWS!
Yes, it’s CAW again!
How best should we celebrate?
- I could show you how often we had to discuss the harm chiropractic does to patients.
- I could tell you about the contraproductive advice chiropractors tend to issue to anyone who wants to hear it.
- I could list the fatalities chiropractic manipulations have caused.
- I could write about the unethical transgressions many chiropractors commit.
- I could elaborate on the financial fraud some chiropractors are involved in.
- I could write about the dishonest cherry-picking that chiropractors like to engage in.
But that would not be nice, and they would say that I have an axe to grind, a chip on my shoulder, that I am incompetent, don’t know what I am writing about, in the pocket of BIG PHARMA, etc.
So, I decided to celebrate the CAW by reporting on a chiropractic success story, a type of article that chiropractors like: a case report of a patient cured by chiropractic treatments.
Chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been the leading cause of disability globally for the past few decades, resulting in decreased quality of life physically and emotionally. This case report is, according to its authors, important in the medical literature to add to studies reporting successful conservative treatment of CLBP and chronic neck pain (CNP). Triage, diagnosis, and understanding of economical and conservative therapeutics can, the authors stress, benefit patients; providers as well as institutions and third party payors benefit from improved outcomes.
A 39-year old male presented with severe CLBP who had experienced no long-term success with prior chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy (SMT). After symptoms began to worsen in spite of receiving SMT, the patient sought treatment for his pain, abnormal spine alignment, and poor sagittal alignment at a local spine facility. History and physical examination demonstrated altered spine and postural alignment including significant forward head posture and reduced cervical and lumbar lordosis and coronal plane abnormalities. Treatment consisted of a multi-modal regimen focused on strengthening postural muscles, specific spine manipulation directed toward abnormal full-spine alignment, and specific Mirror Image traction aiming to improve spine integrity by realigning the spine toward a more normal position. The treatment consisted of 36 treatments over three months. All original tests and outcome measures were repeated following care.
Objective and subjective outcome measures, patient-reported outcomes, and radiographic mensuration demonstrated improvement at the conclusion of treatment and maintained at 1-year follow-up re-examination.
The authors concluded that this is case demonstrates that the CBP orthopedic chiropractic treatment approach may represent an effective method to treat abnormal spinal alignment and posture. This study adds to the literature regarding conservative methods of treating spine pain and spinal disorders.
What, you are NOT impressed?
- You even claim that the patient’s symptoms worsend despite long-term SMT?
- You insist that such a case poves nothing and certainly does not justify the conclusion?
- You point out that one of the authors is a compensated researcher for CBP Non-Profit, Inc., while another one is a compensated consultant and researcher for Chiropractic BioPhysics, NonProfit, Inc. and one is the CEO of Chiropractic BioPhysics® (CBP®)?
- And you note that this paper was funded by Chiropractic BioPhysics?
Let me tell you this: you are a spoilt sport! We are, after all, in the realm of chiropractic research where things are different. What is normally called promotion florishes here as research, and the rules of science, ethics or even common sense are suspended.
Homeopaths regularly claim that the main reason why homeopathy is not accepted in science or responsible healthcare must be that science is not sufficiently advanced to understand how it works. According to Indian researchers, this obstacle has now been removed: they claim to have found the mechanism by which homeopathy works:
The outcome of the research done during 64 years has revealed that homeopathic potencies are specifically structured water preserved by ethanol. The primary target of homeopathic potencies is structured water in the living body. A potency is capable of converting the water structure in the living body into a different form. The converted water structure interacts with proteins suspended in water in the living body. Water structures in different organs of living organisms are different from each other. Water structures in the entire body of an organisms are interconnected by hydrogen bonded network. Any change at one location due to application of homeopathic potencies brings about rearrangement of the entire hydrogen bonded network of water in the whole body. In this way the effect of a potency spreads throughout the body including the affected organ without actual movement of the molecules of the potentized drug. A well selected homeopathic potency restores health by changing the water structures favorably in the affected organ or part of the body.
The autors concluded that “the phyco-chemical basis of homeopathic potencies are activated specifically structured water. The specificity has been conferred on the potencies by the original drugs, and mechanical agitation applied during the preparation of the potencies has provided activation. Homeopathic potencies are capable of changing the water structure in the living body. Water structures in the entire body of a living organism is not uniform. Different organs / tissues have different water structures. Water structures undergo a change in living tissues during stress / disease. A well selected remedy would change water structures of different tissues in the living body briefly, but its specific action manifests itself in the diseased tissue. The right remedy targets the diseased tissue because it is selected on the basis of the symptoms of the concerned papient. A remedy dropped on the tongue / mouth of a patient would reach the target not by itself, but by changing the hydrogen bonded network of the structured water in the living body. While the primary target of homeopathic potencies is water, the secondary target is protein suspended in the water structures. A changed water structure influences the conformation and function of the protein. Homeopathic potencies act on the binding sites of a protein. Here the potencies serve as ligands. Ordinary water also serves as a ligand in a non-specific way. Homeopathic potency is structured water which is capable of binding a protein in a specific way.”
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I am so glad that, after over 200 years of uncertainty, this is all ceared up. All that is left to do now is to
- firstly show that these concepts have any bearing on reality,
- and secondly demonstrate that homeopathic remedies cause health benefit that differ from placebo.
In other words, this [and all other similarly far-fetched] speculations about the mode of action of homeopathy leave us exactly where Hahnemann left it more than 200 years ago when he proclaimed in his ‘Organon’ that homeopathy’s “actions must be called spirit-like”.
Amelia RANDALL is the owner and director of “MYSTIC PSYCHIC LIMITED“. She sells psychic readings and used to advertise on a porn site. On her website, she informs us:
My psychic abilities have grown as the years have gone by. I love my gifts as it means I can assist many people on their day to day lives. I have been a part of an international psychic line for years, but it is now time that I focus on my own psychic and spiritual business. I do psychic readings with and without tarot cards and Angel Harmony readings. I also do numerology forecasts and am learning astrology. Candle Magic is also something I like to do. Every Christmas I do a spell of hope at an alter that I make, for anyone who needs a moments inspiration. I have had a life of many revelations and I am sure there are more to come, but if I can offer some assurance to my children, it will be; there are many people out there willing to give you the chance to shine if you want it enough.
Amelia Randall is also the Interim Branch Chairman of the right-wing ‘Reform Party’ UK in Herne Bay and Sandwich. In her role as a politician, she states:
When it comes to local politics, Reform UK do not have us under a whip. This means that we can do what is right for our own constituency. I know that I will never be able to please everybody all of the time, but I promise that I will always listen to both sides of an opinion, be open minded and where possible attempt to even find a mutual middle ground that could benefit as many people as possible. There are definitely a few things that I am passionate about on a local level and will strive to get on top of: Affordable Housing – I know what it is like to not be able to afford a decent home and to worry about homelessness. Saving our agricultural land – It is basic common sense that we need farmland as much as we need houses. There is no point in building more and more houses and then not being able to feed the population, because we have built on our agricultural land. Support Networks – I have spoken to residents who would like more support within the community and especially if there was some new form of pandemic. Sewage In Our Seas – We cannot say we are proud of our beaches while there is sewage being pumped into the seas. As a coastal town, our beaches attract tourism so we rely on them and what they have to offer. There are many more issues that we need to look into including potholes, rubbish, job opportunities, safety on our streets and of course our event venues. Having lived in Thanet since I was 13 years old and bringing my boys up here, I have seen first-hand how much things have changed. Leaving school at a young age myself, I have had many jobs locally in restaurants and cafes, insurance, office management and I currently work from home.
Being quite a spiritual person, I am very open minded, non-judgemental and I love motivating people with quotes or creativity.
Ms Randall recently posted a memory on Facebook of her campaigning in London for Reform UK during the 2024 London elections, with the added caption: “A year ago! My first street stall canvassing experience. I think my 4yr plan should be to move nearer to London, find work in greater London and then stand in the London Assembly Elections. I just have to prove to my boys that Hertfordshire is a great place with more opportunities and better than Kent!” Whereupon Labour’s County Council candidate for Birchington, Laurie Hudson, commented: “Ignoring his voters in Clacton while pursuing political stardom elsewhere might work for her boss Nigel Farage, but it beggars belief that Reform UK’s council candidate in Birchington has admitted she wants to dump Thanet for a political career in London at the earliest opportunity. Voters in Thanet need to know that those they elect on 1 May will not just serve for the full term but will stand up for the action that is needed to revitalise our high streets, tackle crime and antisocial behaviour, and fix our pothole-riddled roads. Given Amelia Randall’s open admission that has she has no intention of sticking around for the next four years, it’s clear that only a vote for Labour in the May local elections can deliver the fresh start Thanet desperately needs.”
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I have to admit that I am confused.
As Amelia Randall is such a gifted psychic – a person who is able to know what will happen in the future – she surely already knows:
- where she will be in 4 years;
- that the Reform Party is not going anywhere;
- that her ability as a politician is embarrassingly limited.
But perhaps I am wrong!
Perhaps she is a fraud as a psychic???
PS
In any case, it does not need a psychic to predict that I will never vote for any party led by or associated with Nigel Farage.
Prof Dr Sucharit Bhakdi is one of the most far-reaching disinformation disseminators of the COVID pandemic. He spread numerous bogus claims about the dangers of COVID vaccines and put forward scientifically untenable theories.
- Writing an open Letter in March 2020 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding the “socio-economic consequences of the drastic containment measures which are currently being applied in large parts of Europe”
- Posting videos on YouTube claiming, for example, that the government was overreacting because the virus posed no more threat than influenza, and that any COVID-19 vaccine would be “pointless”.
- Participation in May 2020 in the writing of a “position paper of the BMI” by an employee of the German crisis management department. The Federal Ministry distanced itself from the position, calling the paper a “private opinion” circulating on official letterhead, and released the chief government councilor Stephan Kohn from duty.
- He is the co-author of Corona, False Alarm? Facts and Figures (2020), German: (‘Corona Fehlalarm?’) ISBN 978-3-99060-191-4 and Corona Unmasked. Neue Daten, Zahlen, Hintergründe. (Goldegg, Berlin/Wien 2021, ISBN 978-3-99060-231-7. An earlier book of his was published in 2016, Schreckgespenst Infektionen – Mythen, Wahn und Wirklichkeit (tr. “Bogeyman Infections – Myths, Delusions and Reality”) ISBN 978-3-903090-66-8. He published these books together with his wife, Karina Reiss, a biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.
- Describing Germany in December 2020 as a “health dictatorship”, saying he wanted to emigrate to Thailand because of this.
Now Bhakdi seems to have changed his tune: ‘There were few side effects’ he recently said during an interview. A remarkable admission, considering that Bhakdi had previously warned of literally millions of injured and dead people, destroyed immune systems and a ‘horror without end’ caused by the mRNA vaccines.
Bhakdi’s statement about the paucity of adverse effects is, of course, right – in fact, it might be one of the very few of his statements that are correct. Current figures from the Paul Ehrlich Institute confirm the safety of the COVID vaccines: with 65 million people vaccinated and around 182 million vaccine doses administered in Germany, only 573 vaccine injuries were noted. This corresponds to an incidence of around 0.00088 %. In contrast, it has been calculated that COVID vaccinations have saved about 166,000 lives in Germany alone.
So, how does Bhakdi explain the contradiction of first insisting on the danger of the vaccinations and now admitting that “there were few side-effects”? In the interview, he claims that the vast majority of doses administered had no effect whatsoever because they had rapidly lost their activity. He explains that, in most cases, the mRNA in the vaccines did not enter the body due to unstable packaging. Therefore the expected side effects did not materialise. An obviously fictitious explanation that is scientifically untenable and clearly a desperate excuse. When asked how someone can tell that she received an inactive vaccine, he replied that, if you did not fall ill after the vaccination, the dose you received was inactive.
I think Bhakdi deserves all the high honors that were bestowed on him. He deserves them not because he ever was right or truthful or honest about the danger of COVID vaccination. No! He deserves them for his ingenuity in finding yet another lie that enables him to bring all his previous lies (COVID vaccinations are frightfully dangerous) in line with reality (COVID vaccinations harmed almost nobody).
Yes, sometimes two lies can result in the truth:
there were indeed few side-effects!
King Charles is, as we all know, one of the world’s most subborn (i.e. despite convincing evidence) supporter of homeopathy:
- After managing to get osteopathy and chiropractic regulated by statute, Charles had planned to do the same with homeopathy. Jonathan Dimbleby wrote in 1995: “It is now hoped that a Homeopathy Bill will be laid before the House in 1995 or 1996”
- Charles advocates homeopathy not just for humans but also for animals. Farmers in the UK, for instance, are being taught how to treat their livestock with homeopathy “by kind permission of His Royal Highness, The Prince Of Wales”
- Ainsworth, the UK homeopathic pharmacy, carries Charles’ royal warrant.
- Charles often supports homeopathic events with his presence and speeches. For instance, he opened the Glasgow Homeopathic hospital.
- The Smallwood report commissioned by Charles concluded that millions of pounds could be saved, if only the NHS used more homeopathy.
- The College of Medicine and Integrated Medicine of which Charles is a patron regularly promotes homeopathy.
- Charles regularly lobbied politicians urging them to make more homeopathy available via the NHS.
- In 2019, the Faculty of Homeopathy announced that His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales had accepted to become Patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy.
About a year ago, it was announced that the King is suffering from cancer. Since then, his illness is almost a daily subject of news and speculation. From what we hear, Charles is coping famously and well on the way to recovery (at least that is what I sincerely hope). Many who discuss the subject of Charles’ cancer are convinced that his relatively good health can only have one reason:
HOMEOPATHY
They are convinced that his treatment plan is prominently or even exclusively based on homeopathy. Here are some statements that I recently picked up on ‘X’:
- King Charles cured his cancer with herbal remedies & homeopathy & didn’t shed a hair like his DIL, if true they had cancer
- King Charles uses homeopathy. Is for his cancer in Bangalore.
- He hasn’t been sick at all ,he uses homeopathy and nobody that uses homeopathy will die of cancer .Was all to push a cancer so called vax ,like the other so called vaccines !!William unfortunately is more of the same ,and also Charles isn’t king !!
- Homeopathy . It is the only guaranteed cure for Cancer and majority of chronic illnesses worldwide proved. Although sneared at by our guilty House of Lords Health Committee. HRH King Charles was the patron of Homeopathic council for many many years, why is that ?
- King Charles has cancer diagnosis and elects to use natural remedy and Kate Middleton has cancer and opts for chemotherapy. I think that is weird. I understand the monarchy has always sought homeopathy as a first route for treatment and pharmaceutical as a last resort.
- Told my mom i think I have bone cancer and now shes making me eat onions is this the homeopathy stuff that king charles guy is doing
- As an Avid Homeopathy Enthusiast King Charles now has the superpower to cure cancer.
Similar hints can be found in articles about Charles’ cancer, e.g.: King Charles is likely using an “oxygen tent” and his proclivity for homeopathic remedies to help him battle cancer. Some also argue that Dr. Michael Dixon, who two years ago has been appointed as the HEAD OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL HOUSEHOLD, would have seen to Charles’ treatment being homeopathic in nature.
But all of this is pure speculation!
The question clearly is whether there is any reliable evidence.
I have done my best to find some … and I failed (if a reader knows more, please let me know). To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence that Charles’ cancer is being treated with homeopathy. Contrary to the many who assume that he is being cured by a homeopath, I have always felt this to be most unlikely. I am sure that Charles receives the very best conventional treatments that scientific medicine has to offer.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is coming out with so much stupidity, ignorance and quackery that it is getting difficult to keep up. A recent article reported that he touted two particular medications that have not been shown to work as first-line treatments for measles:
- the steroid budesonide,
- the antibiotic clarithromycin.
Kennedy claimed on X that the medications had been instrumental in treating around 300 children in Texas, and told Fox News that doctors prescribing them had seen “very, very good results.”
Consequently, families in Texas have turned to questionable remedies — in some cases, also prompted by the recommendation of two Texas doctors, Dr. Ben Edwards and Dr. Richard Bartlett. Kennedy called Edwards and Bartlett “extraordinary healers” who have “treated and healed” hundreds of children with budesonide and clarithromycin, sharing a photo of himself and the doctors with three Mennonite families whose children had become ill. Two of the families had each recently lost a daughter to measles: 6-year-old Kayley Fehr died in February and 8-year-old Daisy Hildebrand died last week. Neither child was vaccinated.
Edwards, a conventionally trained doctor who has shifted to promoting natural remedies and prayer, has been operating a makeshift clinic in Seminole, offering children these unproven treatments — including, according to a video posted by an anti-vaccine group, while he said he was sick with measles. Edwards has allied himself with the anti-vaccine movement in recent months, hosting influencers and activists on his podcast, including Andrew Wakefield.
“There is no evidence to support the use of either aerosolized budesonide or clarithromycin for treatment of children with measles,” said Dr. Adam Ratner, a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Prescribing treatments that have not been vetted in clinical trials amounts to experimenting on patients, added Dr. Susan McLellan, a professor in the infectious diseases division at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
During the measles outbreak, both Edwards and Bartlett have each warned of risks associated with the MMR vaccine: Edwards claimed, falsely, that it causes “potentially” hundreds of deaths a year and Bartlett has said that the complications caused by measles, including brain swelling and pneumonia, can also be caused by the vaccine. In reality, the MMR vaccine, which is only given to children with healthy immune systems, has been overwhelmingly safe since its approval more than five decades ago, and has saved an estimated 94 million lives worldwide.
Public health experts said touting these medications as first-line treatments sends the wrong message. “By mentioning such treatments without that context, RFK Jr. continues to distract away from the prevention measure that incontrovertibly works — the vaccine,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
A national public health organization is calling for RFK Jr. to resign citing “implicit and explicit bias and complete disregard for science.” Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said in a statement that concerns raised during Kennedy’s confirmation hearing last month have been realized, followed by massive reductions in staff at key health agencies.
What’s next? I aslk myself.
Perhaps homeopathy as a savior of the US healthcare system?
Watch this space.
The hallmark of the Trump administration is the discrepancy between its appointees’ responsibilities and their qualifications/competence for their jobs. A well-known anti-vaccine activist assigned the job of reviewing the supposed link between vaccination and autism is a recent case in point. The Washington Post reported that David Geier has been nominated for a study on possible links between immunizations and autism. Retraction Watch recently dedicated an article to Geier pointing out that he has a long history of promoting the debunked claim of a link between vaccines and autism. In 2011, the Maryland State Board of Physicians even had to disciplin Geier for practicing medicine without a license!
The Trump administration has also announced that it will prioritize replicating medical research. At least 20 percent of the NIH budget will now be directed towards replication efforts. But studies of a link between vaccines and autism have failed to find a connection time and time again. “We have already done that many times over. It wastes valuable resources to revisit the same question instead of using them to address critical health challenges,” commented David Higgins, a practicing pediatrician and health services researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “Re-examining settled questions that have already been repeated, replicated, and tested many times is not healthy skepticism; it’s cynicism and science denial.”
The news of the HHS study comes as measles cases in Texas increase, and further outbreaks have been reported in numerous other states, while Kennedy has downplayed the role of vaccination. As of 27 March, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed 483 measles cases in the US this year. This is the highest number of infections since 2019, when there were more than 1200 confirmed cases. The CDC is aware of more potential measles cases but is waiting for confirmation before including them in the case count.
David Geier and his father Mark Geier, MD, are known for several discredited studies claiming that thimerosal, a preservative containing low levels of ethylmercury used in some vaccines, increased the risk of autism. But Thimerosal has been reduced or eliminated from vaccines for decades, and all vaccines recommended for children 6 and younger are available in formulations that do not contain thimerosalopens in a new tab or window.
“The [Geier] studies were poorly done; they were full of confounding variables,” commented Paul Offit, MD, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The American Academy of Pediatrics warned that it contained “numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements,” and failed to show a connection between thimerosal and autism.
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They say that, if you elect a clown, you’ll get a circus. So, to make the farce complete, why does RFKJr not recruit our friend Andrew Wakefield to the team of clowns, jesters and illusionists?
Guest post by Ken McLeod
O’Neill has graced these pages several times. Now we report on the developing conflict between her and the Seventh Day Adventist Church she uses to facilitate her lecture tours.
The General Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, the top governing body for the SDA worldwide, has issued a statement calling banned naturopath Barbara O’Neill “disingenuous”, referring to the “questionable nature” of her teachings. Signed by Fred Hardinge, the General Conference’s nutrition and lifestyle specialist, says “it [the Conference] is not able to recommend her as a speaker for churches or any gatherings”.[1]
O’Neil was made the subject of a Permanent Prohibition Order in 2019 by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission, which found that she provided dangerous advice to vulnerable patients, that she did not have any qualifications in a health-related field, and that she failed to meet the expected standards of unregistered health professionals. [2]
That action stopped her from conducting her health seminars in Australia, so she has taken her business overseas. She has toured the world, conducting her health ‘lectures’ for the more credulous and naïve.[3]
At first her lecture tours were arranged via the Seventh Day Adventist Church community, and one interview refers to her program as “her ministry” several times.[4] Over time the Church leadership has become more concerned about the health misinformation that O’Neill provided to their congregants in that ‘ministry’.[5]
The General Conference statement was made public in the SDA newspaper The Fulcrum on 4 February 2025. The paper listed the SDA’s history of their concerns about O’Neill and reprinted a report to the General Conference by Hardinge.[6]
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church states “We encourage responsible immunisation/vaccination and have no religious or faith-based reason not to encourage our adherents to responsibly participate in protective and preventive immunisation programs. We value the health and safety of the population, which includes the maintenance of ‘herd immunity.” [7] O’Neill is an anti-vaxxer.
However, the statement does not mean that O’Neil is banned from SDA facilities. It says: “We are not the conscience of the individual church member and recognise individual choices.”
One insider told us that the General Conference has some authority, but it is not set in stone as would be a Catholic Church ex-cathedra ruling. SDA congregations could still invite her, but it becomes less likely because the local conferences will keep an eye on them, especially if they’re intending on having her speak in the church itself. “Adventists are very gullible when it comes to this kind of thing”, they said.
At first, Barbara O’Neill’s main venue was Living Springs Retreat in Alabama. Recordings of some of her recent seminars appear on their website but all they say now is “Please Note: We Occasionally Host Programs With Barbara O’Neill But She Is Not Here.” [8]
O’Neill’s current events program is quite packed and, at time of writing, included five lecture series at SDA venues in the USA and 19 at non-SDA venues.[9] Some of those non-SDA venues are linked to SDA churches. Queries were sent to each church asking if they intended to ignore the General Conference’s ‘recommendation’ but did not receive a response.
This is opening a schism of sorts within the Church, with some churches hosting her lectures, overtly or covertly.
Most of the 826 comments (so far) following The Fulcrum’s article are bitterly opposed to the General Conference’s statement and supportive of O’Neill, with posts like “Is the GC getting money from big pharma” and “Recommendations such as this from conference level and higher, means ‘uninvitable’ or, you know, risk losing your church building. It’s called soft power and our leaders are experts in that. This whole saga is nothing more than an attack on our God-given health message.” The phrase “Big Pharma” appears eight times.
O’Neill and her husband Michael have conducted interviews with supporters and attacked the General Conference. In one of seven video interviews that we found on YouTube, Barbara O’Neill says: “Honestly, just even writing this letter and distributing it to conferences and churches, this is not following the counsel of Jesus. … God is moving, and in the background, my beloved church is attacking the very work that God ordained me to do.”
Following that, the SDA magazine ‘Adventist Today’ ran another article on 14 March 2025 headlined ‘Defying General Conference Advice: Amazing Facts Promotes Aussie Health Crackpot Barbara O’Neill’[10] attacking her while naming and shaming the SDA broadcaster “Amazing Facts’ and the recalcitrant Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church. (Amazing Facts is an SDA broadcaster ‘with multiple television and radio programs on hundreds of media outlets around the world.’ [11])
It seems that there is a real campaign going on within the Church to jettison her. Good.
References
1 SDA magazine The Fulcrum https://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2025/2/4/the-gc-takes-a-stand-against-barbara-oneill
2 https://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/decisions-orders/public-statements-and-warnings/public-statement-and-statement-of-decision-in-relation-to-in-relation-to-mrs-barbara-o-neill
3 For example https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/controversial-wellness-coach-barbara-oneill-set-to-host-talk-in-ireland-this-month/a1781099169.html
4 Belt Of Truth Live Ep 30 February 2025 https://www.youtube.com/live/A8-LJUMQP_I
5 https://atoday.org/whos-protecting-adventists-from-misinformation-part-2-health-quackery/
6 https://www.fulcrum7.com/news/2025/2/4/the-gc-takes-a-stand-against-barbara-oneill
7 https://gc.adventist.org/official-statements/immunization/
8 https://www.livingspringsretreat.com/june-training-with-barbara-oneill?rq=Barbara%20o%27neill
9 https://officialbarbaraoneill.com/pages/events
10 https://atoday.org/amazing-facts-endorses-health-crackpot-barbara-oneill/
11 https://www.amazingfacts.org/about-us/our-story
In 1993, I was appointed Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter. After settling in, I started to wonder what a suitable initial research project would be. Someone alerted me to some funds made available by the University for small projects – if I remember corretly, the amount was less that £30 000. Apparently, the grant was to be unbeaurocratic and, as I was newly appointed and everyone was wondering what I might get up to, I decided to go for it.
I sat down and recycled an idea that I had long wanted to test by never quite has the time to realize: a simple clinical trial where patients suffering from a common, benign condition [I think I chose insomnia] would be randomized into two groups. Both groups would be treated with a mild sleeping aid [I think I chose valarian]. The only difference between the two groups was that
- the experimental group would get an empathetic consultation, while
- the control group would get a normal one.
Thus the aim of the trial was to see whether empathy would impact on the outcome. My plan was that the prescribing clinician would be trained such that he/she could behave either normally or empathetically at will.
After I had submitted the proposal it was ‘peer reviewed’ by University staff. As it happened, my reviewer was John Tooke – he later became professor and medical director of the medical school at Exeter and later again moved to London and became the ‘Head of the School of Life & Medical Sciences’ at UCL but, at the time, he was just a doctor in the local hospital (if you are interested, there is more about Tooke in my memoir). Tooke’s assessment of my proposal was, to put it mildly, not positive and, of course, I never did get the funding. His critique explained that in the English language we call it ‘sympathy’ and not ’empathy’.
So, the study outlined above never got done, and every time I hear the word ’empathy’, I am reminded of this little anecdote. Like, for instance, a few days ago when I read that Elon Musk in his infinite wisdom had pronounced that: “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy”
I have to admit: this thought scares me!
The question I ask myself is this: to what extent does a neglect of emapthy contribute to the professional success of some people?
In any case, I am jolly glad that in the English language does have a word ’empathy’. I am even more profoundly glad that many people I know do have empathy. And I agree with Hannah Arendt who once wrote that “The death of human emapthy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism”
PS
sympathy = (an expression of) understanding and care for someone else’s suffering
