Taking advantage of people desperate for miracle cures


Coincidences abound. A couple of weeks I was talking about Jonathan Miller and the next day I learned that he had died. Then just a few of days ago, I mentioned Alan Keyes’s name because he was the source of the so-called ‘crazification factor’, the size of the population that votes on the basis of tribal loyalty over everything else. I casually wondered what had happened to him. He used to constantly run as a Republican for federal elected offices the US senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004, as well as the presidency in 1996, 2000, and 2008. He is a conservative Christian, fiercely anti-abortion and anti-gay and was a birther to boot.

I just learned that Keyes is still around but rather than running for this or that office, he is now promoting some bleach-based liquid as a cure for all manner of ailments.

They promote bleach as a miracle cure and distribute it to children in developing countries. And now they have a prominent conservative pundit propping up their network.

The “Miracle Mineral Solution” (“MMS”) movement falsely claims a dangerous chlorine dioxide cocktail can cure almost any illness, from autism to infertility. A new addition to the Facebook-fueled movement is IAMtv, a conservative web-based channel fronted by Alan Keyes, former diplomat and adviser to President Ronald Reagan who appears in pro-MMS broadcasts with bottles of MMS from a dubious bleach “church” featured prominently on his desk. IAMtv figures even claim Keyes is helping the network spread its mission from Uganda to the halls of power in the U.S..

MMS has found a growing fanbase, often among people skeptical of modern medicine or desperate for miracle cures. Meanwhile, its champions are trying to make the concoction mainstream.

There is nothing miraculous about Miracle Mineral Solution. It’s poison. As the Food and Drug Administration warned in an August statement, the solution is “a powerful bleaching agent.”

“Miracle Mineral Solution has not been approved by the FDA for any use, but these products continue to be promoted on social media as a remedy for treating autism, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and flu, among other conditions,” the FDA noted. “However, the solution, when mixed, develops into a dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.”

Many MMS recipients are children. A popular health hoax claims MMS can cure autism, leading to a disturbing phenomenon of parents attempting to feed kids chlorine dioxide, or give them MMS enemas or baths. The NBC investigation revealed that chlorine dioxide poisoning sent an autistic 6-year-old to the hospital with liver poisoning in 2017.

It is unconscionable for people to take advantage of the desperation of the parents of autistic children by feeding them with anti-science propaganda in order to sell them dangerous products.

Comments

  1. johnson catman says

    It is unconscionable for people to take advantage of the desperation of the parents of autistic children by feeding them with anti-science propaganda in order to sell them dangerous products.

    It should be criminally prosecuted as assault with intent to cause bodily harm.

  2. jrkrideau says

    Oops, that “cooks” should have read “crooks”. I know lots of cooks who use bleach but they do not serve it to the customer.

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