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Gender: Male
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Age: 101
Sign: Scorpio
City: Tarzana, Los Angeles, California
State: California
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SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2008 (2:59 AM)

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Bad Medicine

(I'm feeling angry)

I've noticed over the last couple of years that whacko conspiracy theories are on
the rise. I'm not sure if this has been happening even longer that I've been
aware, or we really are entering a new era of pseudo science and sloppy thinking.
An incident that happened this evening might have pushed me over the edge and I
feel the desire, no scratch that, I felt the need to vent.
I work in Hollywood, and I live about an hour away via subway and bus. Quite often
I meet the same people at the bus terminal in North Hollywood and I'm fairly
chatty with a few of them. Even in a city like Los Angeles, where people seem to
wear their self-absorption as a badge of honor, having a 'funny accent' is a major
advantage if you want to start up a conversation with a total stranger.
So, there's this girl who I chat with probably more often that not. She's a smart
person with what sounds like a good job. She seems well informed (especially, I
have to say, for an American) about world affairs and, like me, detests labels
like 'liberal' even though we both probably fall into that category politically.
This girl, let's call her 'Angela' - not her real name, lives with her
boyfriend. I'm not sure how old she is, I'd guess she's in her late twenties. I
know her guy is around my age from previous conversations. They've been together
almost two years.
The first conversation we ever had, largely concerning a trip she took to Europe
in her late teens, her boyfriend came up in conversation. It felt like she'd
awkwardly shoehorned him, to be honest. I suspect now, as I did then, that she was
doing so as a kind of "Just so you know, I'm spoken for" shorthand. That's okay, I
've never hit on a complete stranger on a bus before (well okay, maybe once...)
and I have no intention of starting now I'm a decrepit, curmudgeonly old fucker.
What was clear, however, was how much affection she has for her guy. She seems
totally, completely smitten with him. Which, y'know, is a wonderful thing.
So, today we were talking about health insurance and how messed up the US system
is. She's well aware of the ridiculous 'black pr' that >ahem!< 'Socialised
medicine' gets in this country and that's where the conversation seemed to be
going. Then, however, she said something along the lines of this:
"It's terrible that he (her bf) can't get proper medical insurance because he's
HIV Positive".
And, I'm slightly ashamed to say, I truly didn't know what to say to that. Sure,
I've known HIV+ people but this just came out of nowhere. Good for her, though,
that she clearly doesn't feel a stigma attached to this illness. Having said that,
it took me a moment to reply with something along the lines of "Well, it's not a
death sentence any more with all these antiviral medications and stuff." That's
when the conversation took a turn for the alarming.
You see, her guy is a self-proclaimed AIDS Dissident. Not only that, he'd
convinced Angela - by presenting her with the 'evidence' - to be the same thing.
I've heard of this crackpot, dangerous movement before but today was the first
time I'd spoken with someone who'd blindfolded them self to the overwhelming fact
that HIV is the cause of AIDS.
I'm not going to get into the details of the AIDS denial movement here. Like all of the subject I'm going to touch on in this rant, there are plenty of reputable journals, books and websites that'll give you the full, sorry story. Enough to say that the scientific consensus that HIV causes AIDS is backed by overwhelming evidence and no amount of wishful thinking and outdated research is going to change that.
The leading journal of AIDS denialists used to be the magazine
Continuum....until all of it's editors died of AIDS related illness'. Thabo
Mbeki, the South African president, is also a supporter of these fruitcakes and
his outspoken, misinformed opinions have done more to help spread the disease
across the African continent than anyone's save the Pope.
So, being the intrepid skeptic I am, I asked Angela why she and her boyfriend
think the way they do. She, somewhat sheepishly, told me that they've been having
sex for eighteen months and she's not contracted HIV (she gets regular checkups,
however, so I guess her faith in AIDS dissent isn't that strong.) I really,
really wanted to ask her at what point her bf told her he's HIV+, but even I have
limits to how impertinent I'll allow myself to come across.
I also wanted to tell her to read some good, scientific literature on the subject.
She's a smart woman so I know she's capable of comprehending the truth. >Skeptical Inquirer magazine and Dr. Steven
Novella's p=27">Neurologica blog have both had excellent, informed articles in recent
months on the subject aimed at the layperson.
But you know what? People like Angela don't want to know the truth.
Intelligent, educated people sometimes want easy answers and reassuring half-
truths rather than harsh, cold, scientific facts. I get that, I really do, but at
the expense of your health or, possibly, your life?
There's as much of a gulf between the creationist who believes in the literal
truth of ancient scribblings and the mother of a down syndrome baby who thinks a
measles vaccine was responsible as there are similarities in their reasoning. It's
far easier to sit back and say 'God did it, Science knows nothing',in the first
instance, as "Science did it, I can't blame God for this." in the latter. But
believing in the garden of Eden probably isn't going to result in anyone's death.
Having douchbags like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey on daytime moronfests like
The View (Which hardly has a track record for hard scientific fact.... what
shape is the Earth again?) spouting uninformed nonsense about the harmful effects
of childhood vaccines can have a knock-on effect. Enough people start believing
that crap and the next flu outbreak could become an epidemic and the next epidemic
could become a pandemic. This isn't science fiction, but the supposed correlation
between autism and vaccines certainly is.
Then there's the horrible misnomer of 'Alternative medicine'. 'Alternative to
medicine' is a more accurate description. Frankly, if you still believe
acupuncture works or chiropractic can cure illness you just haven't been keeping
up. Placebo effects aside, the only thing you're going to get from these 'natural
remedies' is financially poorer. And that goes triple for homeopathy - possibly
the most absurd one of the lot.
And yet, and yet, and yet.... so many people would rather believe that taking a
watered down version of what ails them will be more effective than a proven,
tested medication. That sticking needles in 'chi points' will cure their cancer
when chemotherapy has failed because...well, a centuries old remedy from Asia must
have something to it, mustn't it? On top of that, we all know 'Big Pharma'
is involved in a vast conspiracy to keep the real cures away from us until
it's milked all the profits from selling sugar pills, and harmful ones at that.
The sad irony is that 'alternative medicine' (sic) itself has become the big
industry run by the cynical and foisted upon the naive. Snake oil shysters like
the abominable Kevin Trudeau come at the desperate from one direction with their
useless, but expensive, curealls. In the other direction, just as determined to
part the foolish or the hopeless from their cash, is Rhonda Byrne and her, frankly
just plain fucking stupid, philosophy of attraction The Secret.
Assorted mediums, pychics, conspiracy theorists and other whackos are there too,
all determined to get a piece of that lucrative pie. I'm not suggesting all of
these people are motivated by filthy lucre, of course. Some people are simply
misinformed themselves, some I'm sure have their hearts in the right places. That,
however, doesn't stop the damage they do. Damage to individuals and damage to
their society in general.
Imagine a time when that vast inter-corporate cabal 'Big Pharma' stops funding
research into cancer cures because, hey, it's an expensive enterprise and they can
make much more money just selling 'natural remedies'. Those remedies don't
actually do anything, but they're flying off the shelves and that makes the Eli
Lilly shareholders very happy. Already some of the major pharmaceutical companies
are producing lines of 'alternative cures' - not because they're effective, but
exactly due to their popularity. One would like to think the profits from these
endevors were being ploughed back into real scientific research, but if you
believe that maybe I can interest you in these magic crystals I have here?
You can call it 'alternative', you can call it 'complimentary' but it's the
furthest thing to medicine, and there's plenty of evidence to support this.
Another personal anecdote. Back in the bad old days I spent some time,
willingly, in a psychiatric ward in a Houston hospital (I'd slashed my wrists, and
taken an unhealthy dose of lithium for added dramatic effect). Attending various
'group therapy' sessions was mandatory and, although it was never anything more
taxing than beadwork or karaoke, it broke up the monotony of watching Court TV and
flirting with other mental patients.
During one therapy sesh. we had a (presumably qualified) staff member come discuss
our medications with us. When it came to my turn I simply pointed out that I
didn't feel my particular medication (Fluoxatine AKA Prozac at that time) was
particularly effective for me. Rather than proposing I speak with my doctor about
trying alternative meds she suggested that maybe I needed my 'Chakras aligning'. I
was quite taken aback, but only for a moment. When I realised she wasn't being a
smart arse holding back was no longer an option. I layed into her with such a
barrage of vitriol and disdain that she actually looked like she was going to
burst into tears. And I've never regretted that. This was a, supposed,
professional in a scientific institute - and a teaching hospital at that -
suggesting that a patient with a psychological illness look to,
effectively, witchdoctory for assistance. Telling her, in simple if harsh words so
that hopefully something got through, that she was unprofessional and should
really reconsider her career decision felt more like a duty than a choice. Sad to
say, the next session she was at it again, citing notorious bullshit festival
What The Bleep Do We Know? as a source of reliable information on hidden
human ability.
Okay, so it's quite a good anecdote (IMHO) but nothing more. Except, how often is
this stuff happening in hospitals across the country. How many doctors tell
patients with serious cases of pneumonia to 'pray to god' to help them get better
(I know of at least one example, yeah - me again!). Alternatives to proven
healthcare are already making huge leaps in popularity in both North America and
Western Europe, how long before they begin to surpass it?
This lazy, non-rational thinking is like a hydra. We cut off the head of 9/11
conspiracy theory, hopefully for good, and AIDS denial grows in its place. We take
our vorpal blade and snicker-snack the hollow skull of creationism and here comes
the ugly mug of Intelligent Design.
But we shouldn't give up the fight. We can't. We have to hope that our 'candle in
the dark' will eventually be bright enough to send that hydra scurrying back into
it's dark pit of ignorance. Because the lives of people like Angela might depend
on it.

Category: Life

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