Joseph Mercola, D.O., an osteopathic physician, is a promoter of alternative medicine. From Wikipedia: "On his website, he advocates dietary and lifestyle approaches to health. He criticizes many of the practices of mainstream medicine and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), particularly vaccination and the frequent use of prescription drugs and surgery to treat diseases." He also peddles health foods and other products on his website.
The other day, Kay sent out the following e-mail to her correspondents: Fascinating information, particularly near the end when he discusses possibility that this outbreak came from vaccines contaminated with bio-weapons. Also, reasons why Tamiflu is bad choice of treatment is interesting.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/29/Swine-Flu.aspx
The essence of Kay’s e-mail was an article from his website, "Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic – Fact or Fiction?," which was a long dissertation on the swine flu. I was going to reproduce it in this blog until I came to his diatribe against flu shots and his mentioning of conspiracy theories on the spread of diseases. It seems to me that Mercola, a peddler of health products, uses his quarrels with traditional medicine to disseminate some foolish and risky health information.
I cannot conceive of a plot on the part of the government, big pharma or traditional medicine to advocate the use of vaccines that will cripple or kill the very young and the elderly of this country. And in these litigious times, no doctors' offices, grocery stores or drug stores would dare to give dangerous flu shots to anyone.
Unlike the Daily Dose article by W. C. Douglas, M.D., which downplayed the concerns over the severity of the swine flu (see my blog, "Dissenting Assessment of the Swine Flu" [4-29-09]), Mercol's crusade against vaccines is downright dangerous because it threatens the public's health.
My response to Kay's e-mail follows. It led to a debate between Kay, Brenda and me.
EDITOR: I was going to blog this until I found out that Dr. Joseph Mercola may possibly be a fraud. He is a peddler of natural health products and has made a fortune from his alternative medicine gimmick.
I would consider him to be extremely dangerous in that he advocates that no one should get any flu shots. That's pure crap! I cannot believe that all the leading health professionals are conspiring to do us in by encouraging all of us, especially the very young and the elderly, to get those annual flu shots.
If you've got Mercola.com on your "favorites" list, I strongly recommend that you delete it.
KAY: This is a matter of whether one buys into traditional medicine or not. Some do; some don't. And the debate could go on forever, no way in sight to "prove" who's right.
Most of those in the mailing above have profound respect for the use of other-than-pharmaceuticals, of vitamins, minerals, supplements and alternative medicine. Most in the mailing above have learned to sift through the claims of traditional and non-traditional medicine for what works. That includes any claims Mercola makes.
Mercola is one of many at both ends of health/wellness who eschew flu shots, as well as many other vaccines such as the newest wonder Gardasil. Your choice as to where you place your faith.
There are many authorities on both sides of the spectrum who feel flu vaccines worse than questionable. My own traditional physician (wish he were still practicing here) explained years ago why he wouldn't give me one, the danger of having them.
(Editor’s Note: Kay goes on to list the TV shows Mercola has been interviewed on and a bunch of his notable credentials.)
BRENDA: Fortunately or unfortunately these ARE the facts.
Dallas and Ft Worth have 60K each students home for a week and many event cancellations for 'swine flu' and NO cases of it.
Borders cannot be controlled per Homeland Security people I know because they were not set up to provide safety/security as we were sold past 8 years.
It is another song/dance politically to take our minds off what is really happening in Mexico (druglords and all) and imminent wars errupting in Pakistan and Korea and our failing economy day by day.
I was in both Denton and Dallas yesterday and lines a mile long at Health Depts for Tamiflu (leftover) free shots that media eludes to 'protecting' people so they line up; ER rooms are busier than ever 'precautionary' only or 'panic' as we have 'doc in the boxes' (Rapid Med) on every corner so while we panic on our safety we do not have to deal with our economy/world issues...it IS working as designed.
EDITOR: I am not impressed with Mercola's credentials. Our prisons are full of people with impeccable credentials. And some of those were also interviewed on various TV shows before it was discovered that they were crooks. I'm not calling Mercola a crook, but his main interest lies in selling his and other products he peddles. That's how he makes his living.
Back to my main point. Mercola is extremely dangerous when he recommends that all of us should not get flu shots.
BRENDA: Yet to find enough research on Mercola; yet, is it not odd that NO pharmacists or physicians we know take the flu shot or let their families? Yes, I have asked all that I go to and yes, they will not say do not do it because their office gives the shots so I do find this odd.
EDITOR: The physicians and pharmacists you know may not take the flu shots and may not let their families take them , but I'll bet that if you were able to survey 100 of these professionals you will find the overwhelming majority of them taking the flu shots and having their families do so too.
And common sense tells me that if flu shots were anywhere near as harmful as Mercola claims, doctors, ever fearful of malpractice suits, would not be giving the shots or having their nurses give them to their patients.
(Editor’s Note: Following the posting of this blog, I received some further comments.)
KAY: Why do you edit comments? You left out:
You just have to research and see what makes sense to you, separate the wheat from the chaff. Meanwhile, remember that traditional doctors for years called Semmelweiss a fraud and a quack.
I don't feel , by the way, it's particularly ethical for you to blog an e-mail string I started. Done, however.
EDITOR: I apologize for leaving out any of your comments. I did not do so intentionally.
I don’t consider blogging an e-mail that you sent to a group of people as being unethical. Your e-mail of Mercol.com was sure to be forwarded to more people and they in turn would also forward it. Had you sent me an exclusively personal e-mail, blogging it without your permission would have been unethical. Furthermore, nobody in cyberspace will be able to identify you because I used only first names in this debate.
Although you sent this latest e-mail to me exclusively, I am, nevertheless, including it in this blog because your comments deserve to be heard. I am also including Brenda’s further comments because they are part of this debate.
BRENDA: Personally, I feel a larger picture is going on and all this swine flu crap is the usual DC political 'distraction' to world issues they would rather not have the media focus upon at this time.
Good info here and yes there are a ton of 'scam' artists out to make a buck; YET, we often forget than our own government HAS scammed us ALL on a daily basis for THEIR AGENDA......it is no different just hard for us to believe they could have an agenda against the people they represent - do you think 'silver does not cross their palms' for ALL that they choose to do 'in our best interest'?
No comments:
Post a Comment