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Way back in 2008 [1] there was a guy on reddit who said he went to China and got stem cell therapy and went from being a paraplegic to not being one. Everyone

Way back in 2008 [1] there was a guy on reddit who said he went to China and got stem cell therapy and went from being a paraplegic to not being one. Everyone in the thread refused to believe him. They did this recently in an experimental procedure in America and suddenly, it's reality. There's something really deep in American culture that says that all medical breakthroughs must occur in the United States or they're frauds. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/k1hts/i_am_a_28yr_old_american_who_went_to_china_to https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/k1hts/i_am_a_28yr_old...

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
It's the same mindset that leads to people repeatedly blaming the pilots in the recent 737 MAX crashes in spite of all of the available evidence. They were foreign, so they must have been inadequately trained and experienced compared to American pilots, right?
thedailymail 8y ago
I don't think it's just Americans, and in the case you cite, people were completely justified in their skepticism. The reddit account was apparently created for that single AMA post and had no activity before or since. The company he allegedly went to, Beike Biotech, was notorious at the time for using various forms of astroturf and deceptive advertising to promote its unproven stem cell treatments by testimonial, a problem that is rife in stem cell marketing. The Chinese government ended up cracking down on domestic cell therapy clinics in 2015 after years of ineffective enfprcement measures, which would be a very unlikely thing to do if it had faith that local hopsitals had developed an effective treatment for spinal cord injury.
- narrator 8y ago
  They are still around: https://beikebiotech.com https://beikebiotech.com https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=54341823 https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.a... They've been around since 2005 and have a large network of clinics. You'd think they would have got shut down by now if they were a scam like Theranos. Any sources on them being a scam?

SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago

It's the same mindset that leads to people repeatedly blaming the pilots in the recent 737 MAX crashes in spite of all of the available evidence. They were foreign, so they must have been inadequately trained and experienced compared to American pilots, right?

thedailymail 8y ago

I don't think it's just Americans, and in the case you cite, people were completely justified in their skepticism. The reddit account was apparently created for that single AMA post and had no activity before or since. The company he allegedly went to, Beike Biotech, was notorious at the time for using various forms of astroturf and deceptive advertising to promote its unproven stem cell treatments by testimonial, a problem that is rife in stem cell marketing. The Chinese government ended up cracking down on domestic cell therapy clinics in 2015 after years of ineffective enfprcement measures, which would be a very unlikely thing to do if it had faith that local hopsitals had developed an effective treatment for spinal cord injury.

narrator 8y ago
They are still around: https://beikebiotech.com https://beikebiotech.com https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=54341823 https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.a... They've been around since 2005 and have a large network of clinics. You'd think they would have got shut down by now if they were a scam like Theranos. Any sources on them being a scam?