4 ms·

I'm shocked by Eben Byers death, related in the article, and all that radioactive quackery. Homeopathy (to name one) today is a joke compared to what we've don

• DanBC 13y ago
  > I hope there's no equivalent nowadays. Quackery isn't quite as bad as radioactive toothpaste or heroin syrup to calm the baby, but it's still pretty bad. People with HIV are told to stop taking "poisonous" ARV meds, and to drink a concoction of lemon juice, garlic, ginger, etc. This isn't some obscure quack either, it's the president of a country, and the health minister of that country. When the deputy health minister spoke out she was sacked. (http://www.irinnews.org/report/73679/south-africa-deputy-health-minister-sacked-for-doing-her-job http://www.irinnews.org/report/73679/south-africa-deputy-hea...) Matthias Rath is, in my opinion, the embodiment of evil. His scams have killed very many people. (http://www.irinnews.org/report/83497/south-africa-final-chapter-in-rath-saga http://www.irinnews.org/report/83497/south-africa-final-chap...) People talk about the evils of big pharma, and that they're only in it for the money. Pharma does have many problems, but the solution isn't to go to the greedy quacks selling vitamins as a cure for all cancer or a cure for AIDs/HIV. And Rath made a lot of money from selling vitamins. Here's another snake oil "cure" for HIV/AIDS. (http://www.irinnews.org/report/94679/africa-snake-oil-salesmen-and-dodgy-hiv-cures http://www.irinnews.org/report/94679/africa-snake-oil-salesm...) There are many examples from the developed world too. I link to the African stories because the statistics were just so mind-boggling when HIV/AIDS was at its worst.