The Infectious Myth

Infectious Myth – Blogging Paxil Hell with Bob Fiddaman – 03.15.16

David interviews Bob Fiddaman, a survivor of a Paxil (called Seroxat in the UK, where he lives) prescription. He talks about why he was persuaded to ignore his less than ideal life situation and accept a medical diagnosis, and how Paxil put him in a state where he didn’t care about anything. When he decided he’d had enough, he discovered that withdrawal was hell. Afterwards, instead of walking away, he set up a blog (http://fiddaman.blogspot.com) where he has tackled the manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, and other manufacturers of similar drugs, with humor, for about 10 years. Finally he describes a British lawsuit over the addictive nature of this SSRI anti-depressant.

Bob’s blog, and links to news items, can be found at: http://theinfectiousmyth.com/PRN-TIM/93.php

Infectious Myth – Dirty Electricity with Sam Milham – 03.08.16

In Episode 92 David discusses the theory of Sam Milham that it is electricity, not chemicals, that is the cause of the so-called “Diseases of civilization”, such as diabetes, heart disease and degenerative neurological conditions like MS and ALS. It is certainly true that electricity has expanded as these diseases have grown, but David wants to know why chemicals in our food, air, water, medicines and so on, aren’t a more plausible cause.

Infectious Myth – Alan Cassels on Selling Sickness and Disease Mongering – 03.01.16

In episode 91 David Crowe interviews Alan Cassels, a Canadian drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria, who has authored several books, and many papers and also television documentaries. He is very interested in the promotion of drugs, particularly what he calls Selling Sickness or Disease Mongering, which happens when a drug companies, and people influenced by them, create a new illness, or promote greater ‘awareness’ of a minor condition, by exaggerating its impact, and the effectiveness of the drugs that you’re likely to be prescribed if you “see your doctor” as illness advertisements always tell you to do.

Alan believes in the power of Evidence Based Medicine, and therefore supports the Cochrane Institute, which is where one of my previous guests, Peter Gotzsche works. While not perfect, it is not so influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, and therefore produces relatively unbiased recommendations.

You can learn more about this week’s guests’s work at http://AlanCassels.com

Infectious Myth – Zika Myths with Jim West – 02.23.16

Jim West discusses Zika virus with David Crowe. How the story of the virus originated. Why a virus that was never blamed for anything other than mild symptoms before was suddenly blamed for microcephaly in infants. What is microcephaly, how frequent is it normally and how is it that pesticides, vaccines and GMO mosquitoes not being considered as possible causes? You will learn a whole lot more about Zika in this episode compared with listening to or reading the fear-mongering and misdirections of the mainstream media and mainstream public health organizations like W.H.O.

“Erratum: Jim West referred to a monkey being kept in an environment of 104F. Actually it was the monkey’s body temperature. 104F is the upper range of the normal body temperature for this species, so was not even a fever.”

Infectious Myth – A Titanic Conspiracy with John Hamer – 02.16.16

Most people believe that the Titanic sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage, after hitting an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, en-route to New York City. This show’s guest, John Hamer, doesn’t believe this, at least the part about it being the Titanic. In fact, he’s written a book about it, “Titanic’s Last Secret”. And another one about the sister ship, “RMS Olympic”. The former being fictional, and the latter being non-fiction – the facts as John Hamer sees them. John also connects the sinking of the Titanic (or maybe the Olympic) to the creation of the US Federal Reserve Bank, a private monopoly on the creation of public money.

Infectious Myth – The War on Men with Suzanne Venker – 02.09.16

Suzanne Venker is an author and feminist critic, i.e. critic of feminism. She has written “The War on Men”, “The Two-Income Trap” and “The Flipside of Feminism”, cowritten with Phyllis Schlafly. They talk about the feminist movement, whether women are better or worse off now, about violence, and about sexual consent. David ends with a comment about Episode 87 and Eugenics. You can find out more about Suzanne Venker at: http://suzannevenker.com

Infectious Myth – Holy Hormones with Leslie Carol Botha – 02.02.16

David discusses women’s hormonal cycles with Leslie Carol Botha of “Holy Hormones”, and her belief that we shouldn’t be messing with the cycle through the use of chemical birth control, for example. They also discuss the HPV vaccine, another important issue for women. At the end of the issue David gives a few thoughts on the Zika virus.

For more information on Botha’s work, see her website: http://holyhormones.com

The original Zika virus paper can be viewed at: http://davidcrowe.ca/SciHealthEnv/papers/10889-ZikaVirusIsolationSerology.pdf

The European CDC report on Zika and birth defects is at: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/Publications/zika-microcephaly-Brazil-rapid-risk-assessment-Nov-2015.pdf

Infectious Myth – “Open Media with David Christopher”? – 01.26.16

In Episode 86, David Crowe interviews David Christopher of OpenMedia.ca about a variety of media issues, including net neutrality, government warrantless eavesdropping on everyone’s communications, media ownership concentration, and how the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will negatively affect internet users. OpenMedia.ca is similar to the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) in the United States, and many of the issues are similar.

Since the interview is relatively short, and David (Crowe) didn’t manage to get into the important media issue of freedom of speech, on the internet, or elsewhere, he continues by discussing it. The backlash against a white human rights journalist who photoshopped her face into different races and cultured. The irony of jargon of people who claim to be excluded actually excluding others from participating in discussions. Why the “Je suis Charlie Hebdou” activists are very selective about what kind of speech they rally to protect.

Finally, David addresses some environmental issues: Are tens of thousands of coal jobs more important than neurological coal pollutants? Can milk contaminated with pesticides cause Parkinson’s? What’s happening with the water in Flint, Michigan?

The resources David references can be found at: http://theinfectiousmyth.com/PRN-TIM/86.php

Infectious Myth – Vaccination Policy in the UK with Christina England – 01.12.16

In Episode 85 David discusses with Christina England, the findings of her book entitled, “Vaccination Policy and the UK Government: The Untold Truth” which she co-authored with University of British Columbia Senior Research Fellow Lucija Tomljenovic

This interview, drawing on the materials in the book, describes how serious vaccine adverse events, especially death, have often been blamed on parents in England, often using the concept of “Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy” with Christina England (Shaken Baby Syndrome is also discussed in her new book book). Parents are accused of either imaging the symptoms in their child, or of creating them by abuse or poisoning. Christine describes how these ideas were promoted by prominent doctors Roy Meadows, who invented the term Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy,  and also David Southall, and these ideas are still current, despite serious findings by medical institutions against both and many reversals of criminal convictions. She also describes how people fought back, including herself and psychologist Lisa Blakemore-Brown. Despite progress, many parents and other caregivers are still in jail, some serving life without parole, despite the fact that others were eventually released.

You can find out more about the book Christina England co-authored at: http://www.ageofautism.com/2015/12/new-book-vaccination-policy-and-the-uk-government-the-untold-truth.html

Infectious Myth – Canada’s Indigenous Genocide with James Daschuk – 01.05.16

In Episode 84 David discusses the genocide of indigenous people in Canada with James Daschuk, an associate professor in the faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada. Despite Canada’s reputation as a polite and kind society, its treatment of its native population is as shocking as in other colonizing nations. Recently Canada has completed an investigation into its residential schools, which were used to destroy native culture under the guise of providing a standard education, and that resulted in physical and sexual abuse, opportunities for biomedical experimentation, and even starvation. This led to the destruction of native families and a continuing cycle of dysfunctional families, alcoholism, drug abuse and imprisonment. Canada is also about to start an investigation into the shocking number of women, mostly indigenous, mostly poor, often drug addicts or sex workers, who disappeared without authorities bothering to search for them. The most notorious of these was the case of Robert Pickton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pickton), who confessed to killing 49 women in the Vancouver area. Finally, David and James delve into the history of the colonization of the prairies, the broken treaties, and the Indian Act that relegated natives to a child-like legal status, that James describes as apartheid.

You can find out more by reading Daschuk’s 2013 book “Clearing the Plains” that was a surprise bestseller in Canada and has won several awards: http://www.uofrpress.ca/publications/Clearing-The-Plains   

Another surprise bestseller is the book of recollections of an elderly Cree man about growing up in a residential school, recommended by Daschuk: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/residential-school-survivors-memoir-details-decade-of-utter-cruelty/article23556082/

An article on biomedical experiments in the 1940s and 1950s that took advantage of the under-nourishment at residential schools, and even prolonged it, can be found at: https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/histoire_sociale_social_history/v046/46.91.mosby.html