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Open in TheBrain

homeopathic alt med

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6 22 i am expand from trad to wellness BS

great grift temptation medicine = science but also corp pharma GMO (mercola as poster boy sellout?)

no doubt much hucksterism in FDA does not regulate supplements (a couple of bad ones they had to go after, diet stuff?)

but "skeptics" like to make their bones on it, then can shill for GMO's (and/or mercola oz etc sell supplements, so good opportunity to Mirror COI attacks)

sense about sci (and skeptic mag guy? hank campbell made bones on attacking homeopathy but can't fight back

Disinformation abounds in the wellness community. How one anti-vax influencer broke free | PBS News

By —

Leah Nagy

TranscriptAudio

Some influencers in wellness communities are using their platform to promote conspiracy theories. We examine the social media phenomenon that's having a real-world impact. Stephanie Sy takes a closer look at how one mother was pulled into this world of disinformation and how she got out.

Read the Full Transcript

Tonight, we examine a social media phenomenon that's having a real-world impact. Some influencers in wellness communities are using their platform to promote conspiracy theories.

Stephanie Sy takes a closer look at how one mother was pulled into this world of disinformation and how she got out.

In her home yoga studio in Topanga Canyon, west of Los Angeles, Seane Corn can breathe deeply and tune out the noise.

But when she logs on to her Instagram, it's impossible to avoid it. A yoga instructor for nearly 30 years, Corn has more than 100,000 Instagram followers. but,a few years ago, she began noticing a dark change in tone on her social media.

I started to receive a lot of information from my friends just via text, online, sending me all this propaganda, Pizzagate and their talk of drinking the blood of children.

The look of the posts blended in with the other content on her feed.

They'd be beautifully curated, the font, the colors, the layout, the photography.

Corn saw that those carefully curated facades were being used to peddle conspiracy theories about the COVID vaccine and QAnon, the belief that child sex traffickers and pedophiles have infiltrated the government and that President Trump was sent to stop them.

What's more, QAnon's online recruiters were specifically co-opting yoga language.

You bring up this yogic idea of, I can't be free unless my community is free.

Yes.

QAnon's motto is, where we go one, we go all.

Mm-hmm. And when I first heard that statement, it caught me in my throat. They also talk about the Great Awakening and the Great Reset. Language like this is also very much in alignment with spiritual principles. We are here to wake up.

And this was other yoga teachers and wellness influencers?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Was it the majority of them?

If I was just to look at my tight-knit group of colleagues, 50/50.

Fifty percent of your inner circle of wellness teachers and influencers believe that Donald Trump was sent here for cosmic good?

Yes, I would have to say.

Derek Beres, Co-Host, "Conspirituality": OK, let me hit record.

Derek Beres is a co-host of the podcast "Conspirituality," which examines why the wellness industry is such fertile ground for counternarratives.

The intersection between the New Age and the right-wing conspiratorial thinking, I believe, is rooted in individualism. America is an individualist culture. Everything we produce and promote is all about the sovereignty of the self, and sovereignty is one of those words that crosses over between those two communities.

And it intensified during the pandemic.

So you start looking on Instagram, and then there's your favorite yoga instructor talking about child sex trafficking, and 5G causing cancer, and the vaccine that's coming is going to give you cancer or is going to kill you.

And some people looked in horror, but some people were like, wait a second, I'm going to go this route and explore this and do my research.

That phrase, "Do your own research," is rampant on anti-vaccine forums, as well as QAnon spaces. The research often leads people to what the Center for Countering Digital Hate calls the Disinformation Dozen, responsible for some 65 percent of all vaccine disinformation spread online.

They have reached tens of millions of users.

Hi. This is Dr. Mercola, helping you take control of your health.

They include Dr. Joseph Mercola, who peddles dietary supplements to his 3.6 million followers, and has claimed that hydrogen peroxide can cure COVID-19, Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopath physician who claims that wearing a mask has negative health effects, and Sayer Ji, who runs a popular alternative health Web site and shares false claims, like that the Pfizer vaccine has killed more elderly people than COVID-19.

Heather Simpson spent years under the influence of the Disinformation Dozen. She recalls how she was drawn in.

It all started when I kind of looked into the wellness community when I was trying to get pregnant, and it was like ads started popping up for anti-vaccine issues. It was like one and the same. Like, look up wellness stuff, anti-vax stuff pops up.

Simpson soon found herself watching videos about the dangers of vaccines and approached her doctor.

He was like: "You're not one of those crazy anti-vaxxers, are you?" and like conversation dead.

All of the, I feel, gaslighting by the medical community and then them just brushing me away, like, was completely opposite from what I would find on the Internet with the holistic world. They welcomed me.

Conspiracy theories gain traction when people lose trust in institutions. Alternative theories take root, espoused by authentic and relatable influencers masquerading as truth-tellers, says researcher Stephanie Baker.

Dr. Stephanie Alice Baker, University of London: Really, what's at play here, rather than social media being the cause of this kind of anti-vaccine sentiment, is that, actually, social media creates the conditions for these trust relationships and for intimacy to be fostered to a different degree.

We have got to move away from seeing misinformation as an information problem to really seeing it as a relationship problem.

Baker has examined how social media influencers may manipulate mothers like Simpson.

What we have found is that a lot of that content was dedicated towards actually specifically targeting mothers, and trying to encourage them to refuse vaccination, and really playing on this idea that a mother's intuition is superior to the abstract professional knowledge.

Mother Heather Simpson soon became an influencer herself.

Looking back, I feel like I got reported enough for misinformation that Facebook could have and perhaps should have taken that stuff down. But it was racking up so many comments and just user engagement that, why would they?

She had discovered the magic formula that makes so many wellness influencers rich. Social media algorithms are known to push more provocative content, because it increases engagement, great for the social media companies, and for people selling false promises.

Almost everyone in the wellness community that I knew was involved in a multilevel marketing company. A lot of them are stay-at-home moms or single moms. Some of them are making $20,000 a month at this point. Some are making $100,000. And so, naturally, I fell into that.

And so I sold a product that claimed basically to detox your body.

At the time, Simpson saw the scheme as a way to gain financial freedom from her husband, whom she's now separated from.

I was just doing anything I could just to get out, just be independent and be strong for my daughter and do everything I could to make an income and get out there and get out — out of there.

Simpson eventually grew disillusioned with the wellness community, a feeling that only increased during the pandemic, and led her to publicly denounce the persona she'd cultivated.

I realized, if you're not 100 percent brainwashed, you're not — yes, you are the enemy.

COVID hit the next month, and they changed their tune to: Don't mask me. I have freedom.

And I was like: Why not? Just wear a mask. Like, it could save an entire life.

She's now not only fully vaccinated. She runs a group encouraging others to get the COVID vaccine.

Seane Corn is also fighting against the tide of conspiracy theories that have gripped her yoga community, but it hasn't been easy to take a stand. When she posted a statement against QAnon, the backlash came quick.

The vitriol was intense. The messages that I received privately were definitely violent.

Her tactic for helping fellow yogis find their way back from the conspiracy brink goes back to a basic yogic principle, engaging the student in their own healing.

I want to ask questions. Like, tell me more. Why do you believe that? And then see if we can get to the root, because the root is always going to come down to fear.

It's a process, she says, and, like the practice of yoga, a slow one.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

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an 6 22

When the COVID-19 pandemic was at its worst in 2020 and 2021, a combination of far-right conspiracy theorists, Christian nationalists and so-called “wellness influencers” added to the death count by pushing bogus, unscientific “cures” and falsely claiming that the lifesaving vaccines being offered by Moderna, Pfizer and others were dangerous. But COVID-19, although still highly infectious, hasn’t been in the headlines as much in recent months — and some fake “wellness influencers” and conspiracy theorists, according to Daily Beast reporter Cécile Simmons, have turned their attention to monkeypox.

“Though little is understood about the mysterious outbreaks of the monkeypox virus in Europe and North America,” Simmons reports in an article published by the Beast on June 15, “scientists agree on one thing: It’s nothing like COVID. But that doesn’t seem to have stopped some influencers in the alternative health and wellness community from repurposing COVID misinformation and using this new public health crisis to further their own agendas.”

Simmons adds, “In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, alt-health and wellness online influencers — from yoga teachers to fitness instructors — became some of the most active propagators of conspiracy theories about COVID-19. With cases now on the decline in much of the West — thanks in no small part to widespread vaccination campaigns — monkeypox has provided new material to rehash the narratives that brought these influencers attention in the early days of COVID, including claims that monkeypox is a plot engineered by global elites to profit from diseases and restrict individual freedoms.”

One of the conspiracy theorists who promoted dangerously false information about COVID-19 during the worst parts of the pandemic was anti-vaxxer Sayer Ji,founder of the alternative medicine website GreenMedInfo.com. In 2022, Simmons reports, Ji has turned his attention to monkeypox.

“Sayer Ji has dedicated his social media channels to making repeated unproven claims about nightmarish vaccine side effects, including death, and that COVID vaccination is a plot masterminded by big pharma and ‘the global government,’” Simmons explains. “And now, with monkeypox on the rise, Sayer Ji has taken to his Telegram channel and Twitter to spread ludicrous claims that monkeypox is the mainstream media’s way of covering up side-effects caused by COVID vaccines to his roughly 50,000 and 11.5k followers, respectively. His Telegram channel includes multiple posts claiming that cases of monkeypox have coincided with the purchase of vaccines by the U.S., among other bizarre theories.”

Another “wellness” influencer/conspiracy theorist pushing wacky claims about monkeypox is Hiighhopess,who, according to Simmons, “recently used her Instagram stories to describe monkeypox as a profiteering ploy manufactured by Bill Gates, and shared claims that the U.S. government is stockpiling vaccines and planning to impose vaccination against monkeypox.”

During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Simmons notes, Hiighhopess, an anti-vaxxer, “used her Instagram channel to share anti-vaccine and anti-mask content, including posts depicting vaccination as a plot by elites to manipulate the public into submission.”

“This repurposing of the COVID playbook by alternative health and wellness gurus should come as no surprise,” Simmons observes. “COVID has provided a blueprint for conspiracy theories, allowing influencers to develop broad-ranging anti-elite and anti-institutional narratives that can be adapted to emerging public health crises.It has also allowed conspiracy-spreaders to use various techniques, including decontextualizing scientific data and cherry-picking facts to give themselves a veneer of credibility.”

Homeopathy is a thriving industry not just in the U.K., but around the globe. The European market has grown 60 percent over a decade. According to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control, about 3.3 million Americans spent $2.9 billion on homeopathic remedies in 2007.

The practice enjoys its biggest popularity in India, where it is officially recognized by the government as one of its national systems of medicine, and regulated by the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. India is home to the largest number of homeopathic practitioners in the world and has the most colleges in homeopathic education.

While India remains a homeopathy stronghold, other national governments have come out strongly against it. In addition to the recent moves by the U.K. Parliament, Australia’s top body for medical research, the National Health and Medical Research Council, came out against homeopathy with a report issued earlier this year. “Based on the assessment of the evidence of effectiveness of homeopathy, NHMRC concludes that there are no health conditions for which there is reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective,” the council wrote. It added a stern warning: “People who choose homeopathy may put their health at risk if they reject or delay treatments for which there is good evidence for safety and effectiveness.”

”We need governments around the world to recognize the dangers of promoting homeopathy for life-threatening illnesses,” said Robert Hagan, a biomolecular scientist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Hagan is a member of the Voice of Young Science Network, a group of young researchers concerned that the use and promotion of homeopathy in the developing world is putting lives at risk. The group is part of Sense About Science, a charity that educates the public about evidence-based science. In 2009, VYSN sent a letter to the World Health Organization urging the body to issue a statement condeming the promotion of homeopathy for the treatment of serious diseases. The letter states:

We are calling on the WHO to condemn the promotion of homeopathy for treating TB, infant diarrhea, influenza, malaria and HIV. Homeopathy does not protect people from, or treat, these diseases. Those of us working with the most rural and impoverished people of the world already struggle to deliver the medical help that is needed. When homeopathy stands in place of effective treatment, lives are lost.

WHO responded with a warning that people with serious conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments.

Paula Ross, chief executive of the Society of Homeopaths, agreed with the concerns about promoting homeopathy remedies for TB, malaria or HIV and AIDS. But she said, "This is just another poorly wrapped attempt to discredit homeopathy by Sense About Science."

"The irony is that in their efforts to promote evidence in medicine, they have failed to do their own homework,” said Ross. "There is a strong and growing evidence base for homeopathy and most notably, this also includes childhood diarrhea."

Sara Eames, president of the U.K.’s Faculty of Homeopathy, said it “seems reasonable to consider what beneficial role homeopathy could play” as possible treatments for serious disease. “What is needed is further research and investment into homeopathy."

The British government disagrees with Eames’ assessment. The U.K.’s announcement of the possible national ban, made in November, comes nearly six years after the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee published a damning 2010 report that said homeopathic remedies performed no better than placebos, adding that the practice was based on principles that are "scientifically implausible."

The report concludes:

The Government's position on homeopathy is confused. On the one hand, it accepts that homeopathy is a placebo treatment. This is an evidence-based view. On the other hand, it funds homeopathy on the NHS without taking a view on the ethics of providing placebo treatments. We argue that this undermines the relationship between NHS doctors and their patients, reduces real patient choice and puts patients' health at risk. The Government should stop allowing the funding of homeopathy on the NHS.

We conclude that placebos should not be routinely prescribed on the NHS. The funding of homeopathic hospitals — hospitals that specialise in the administration of placebos — should not continue, and NHS doctors should not refer patients to homeopaths.

The report came on the heels of an editorial published in the Journal of Medical Ethics by David Martin Shaw of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. In it, he outlined five potential unethical effects of homeopathy:

  1. Patients may seek homeopathic remedies instead of, rather than as well as, traditional medicine
  2. It is ethically dubious to spend NHS funds on treatment that has no evidence base
  3. Homeopathy can involve deceiving the patient; indeed, if the only effect is placebo, it is probable that deception is essential to the practice of homeopathy
  4. Support for homeopathy could weaken patient confidence in the NHS, and in science and medicine more generally
  5. Funding homeopathy distracts attention from the fact that there are other complementary therapies that are efficacious

There is another ethical issue: In the U.K., there is no legal regulation of homeopathic practitioners. “This means that anyone can practice as a homeopath, even if they have no qualifications or experience,” notes the NHS.

The NHS website lists several common conditions that are commonly treated with homeopathy, including asthma, high blood pressure, ear infections, hay fever, allergies, dermatitis, arthritis and mental health conditions, such as depression, stress and anxiety.

“There is no good quality evidence that homeopathy is an effective treatment for these or any other health conditions,” says the NHS. “Some practitioners also claim that homeopathy can prevent malaria or other diseases. There is no evidence to support this and no scientifically plausible way that homeopathy can prevent diseases.”

Sense About Science has been monitoring public perceptions of homeopathy. In its written submission to the parliamentary report, it said homeopathic remedies are "often confused with herbal medicine (and, related to this, that people were often unaware of the mystical belief in water memory and in 'like cures like' on which it is based).”

Importantly, they said people assumed that because a homeopathic remedy is supplied by the NHS, it “must be effective” and “there must be something in it.”

But there’s another, more pressing issue that has brought this possible ban to the foreground: the national budget. In an interview last year, U.K. health secretary Jeremy Hunt, responding to a question about spending on homeopathy, said, "When resources are tight, we have to follow the scientific evidence and spend the NHS's money on what works."