Category: Health Fraud

It rises again! Bleach as an “early treatment” alternative to vaccines and a cure for COVID-19
Bleach...it had to be...bleach. Again. This time around, it's being used to treat COVID-19, because of course it is. MMS is a slasher quackery. No matter how often it appears to have died, it always returns for another installment in its quackery franchise.

Medical Misinformation Falsely Links a Serious Infection to Leftover Chinese Food
A young man contracted a dangerous infection that was newsworthy, because it could have been prevented by a safe vaccine, but it had absolutely nothing to do with leftover Chinese food despite what is being promoted by a viral YouTube video and several news articles.

FTC targets physicians’ COVID claims with cease-and-desist letters
The FTC recently announced it had issued 20 more cease-and-desist demands to physicians and others claiming their products and services prevent or treat COVID-19 without sufficient scientific backing. Unfortunately, this has not stopped many of the targets from making other bogus health claims.

Department of Justice prioritizes prosecution of clinical trial fraud, but systemic reform is needed
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced it is aggressively pursuing clinical trial fraud, where unethical players create fictional trial participants, steal the drugs under study, and fabricate results. But systemic reform of the clinical drug trial system is needed to halt those who endanger public safety with bogus trials.

Everything old is new again
Since the pandemic hit, I've frequently said things like, "Everything old is new again", referring to the antivaccine movement in the age of COVID-19. As 2022 dawned, I thought I'd expand a bit on what I mean. Is there a term for déjà vu, but what I'm seeing now is amplified a thousand-fold? Proponents of science-based medicine have been warning us for...

Detox: What “They” Don’t Want You To Know
Before you start your New Year’s detox, here's a tip that will save you time, money, and possibly your health.

Radioactive 5G Pendants
Authorities had to warn the public not to use radioactive products to protect against harmless 5G.

BOO: Or how “magic dirt” became a MLM miracle cure scam for COVID-19
"BOO" stands for Black Oxygen Organics, a "cure" for COVID-19 that got the attention of regulators last week. Basically, it's dirt billed by its believers as "magic dirt" that sells for $110 a bag (plus shipping) through a multilevel marketing sales model. What can this latest COVID cure tell us about the relationship between alternative medicine and COVID-19 denial?

The Dawning of Friends of Science in Medicine (FSM)
For over 10 years, Friends of Science in Medicine has been fighting quackery, fraud, and pseudoscience in Australia.

How we got here with political and health misinformation: The case of “Hacker X” and Mike Adams
Ars Technica recently published a story about Hacker X, who helped Mike Adams expand his online empire of health fraud into an empire of fake news and political disinformation, thus intertwining health and political misinformation into the deadly combination we see now.