The Infectious Myth

Infectious Myth - Do we care about the deaths of others? With John Tirman - 07/22/14

In Episode 22 David talks with John Tirman, scholar and author of the 2011 book, “The Deaths of others: The fate of civilians in America’s wars”. This book attempts to quantify the number of civilians killed during recent major American wars – Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Tirman discusses the evidence that allow approximation of the vast scale of these deaths, by bombing, ancillary violence, the destruction of infrastructure, starvation, shooting by soldiers and a myriad of other causes. He discusses how household surveys can provide the most accurate information. In Iraq this estimated 600,000 Iraqi deaths (the majority civilian) by 2006.

 

Tirman also discusses the indifference of the American population to civilian deaths in these wars, and the resistance of pro-war forces inside and out of government to admit that any inordinate number of deaths occurs. Often there is a technique of focusing on minor flaws in the research, and trying to draw attention away from the big picture.

 

For more information on John Tirman, including the other books that he has written, see: http://www.johntirman.com.

The Infectious Myth - State Crimes Against Democracy - 07/15/14

In episode 21 of “The Infectious Myth” David’s guest is Lance deHaven-Smith and the subject is SCAD, “State Crimes Against Democracy”, a term that our guest developed to avoid the conversation ending term “Conspiracy Theory”.

Most of this discussion centers on events in American politics that were SCADs, probably were, or might have been. The Kennedy assassinations, foreign policy surprises that changed the results of the 1968 and 1980 elections, the conspiracy to go to war in Iraq knowing that the public statements about WMDs were false, and so on.

Lance has criticized a paper by Washington insider Cass Sunstein that recommends that the US government use “cognitive infiltration” to destabilize people who believe that their own government (or a clique within their government) is conspiring to do bad things, or has done bad things. Knowing about the massive spying of the NSA and other agencies, combined with research about how to manipulate people online, causes great concern.

The best antidote to any conspiracy is fresh air. They rely on plotting in back rooms, out of the site of public. Being aware that there are such conspiracies helps people recognize the sign. Perhaps people are increasingly coming into a group discussion sowing discord, and when one goes away, another person comes along, and this could be a sign. But, the good thing is that when people are determined and committed the best planned SCAD can turn into a bungled Bay of Pigs or Watergate breakin.

Infectious Myth - Drug and Label Free Schoolchildren - 07/08/14

In Episode 20 David talks with Sheila Matthews, co-founder of http://ablechild.org, an organization dedicated ensuring that American children can go to school free of coercion to take psychotropic drugs, and free of mental illness labels, such as ADHD. Sheila has lobbied against the increasing tendency of schools to try to diagnose children within a model that ensures that the large number diagnosed will be routed to psychiatrists and put on drugs. She had success with a Connecticut law that prohibited school officials from recommending drugs and with an FDA decision to put black box labels on anti-depressants warning of violent and suicidal behavior.

 

The massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school, in Sheila’s home state of Connecticut, is one example of the association between a tragic event and a young man on psychiatric drugs. Sheila has investigated and is troubled by some missing information. Why are Adam Lanza’s medical records not available. Why are the contents of an envelope addressed to the school children not public? Why is the DNA on that envelope not of Adam Lanza but of an unidentified convicted criminal? Why has the information on two GPS devices found in his car and home not been made public? Did Lanza go anywhere else, such as a mental health clinic, around that time?

 

This is a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion.

Infectious Myth - Dr. Henry Bauer Talks About the Science We Can’t Talk about - 07/01/14

In Episode 19 of “The Infectious Myth” David talks with Dr. Henry Bauer, a chemist and former dean at Virginia Tech, about the same subject as last week – the science we’re not supposed to talk about.

 

Leading off with a lengthy comment from a guest about episode 18’s discussion with Simon Silver, David and Henry talk about science that was censored and then  proven right, science that is probably wrong but worth discussing, and the importance of discussing theories that have been rejected, so that science students can understand the logic behind the acceptance of modern scientific theories.

 

David and Henry discuss many of the flaws of modern science, such as a dismissal of ideas that come from outside the credentialed scientific community, a stubbornness to accept new ideas, and an excessive division of the world into black versus white.

You can find out more about Dr. Bauer's fascinating explorations throughout the world of science at: http://henryhbauer.homestead.com

Infectious Myth - Simon Silver and Science that is “Beyond the Fringe” - 06/24/14

In Episode 18 of “The Infectious Myth” David discusses science that Dr. Simon Silver of the University of Illinois at Chicago believes is “beyond the fringe” and should not be published or funded. He put forward these ideas in a recent review article in the journal “Microbiology Letters” entitled, “Beyond the fringe: when science moves from innovative to nonsense”.

 

Dr. Silver describes 5 examples of what he considers science so obviously bad that the journal and peer reviewers should have recognized this, but failed to do. David brings up the other side of the equation, if we suppress science because we think it is ridiculous, we will probably also suppress innovative ideas. And, in fact, Dr. Silver agrees that some of his own most innovative ideas were rejected from publication, and there is already a higher risk of an innovative paper getting rejected than something that is more mundane.

 

The discussion is wide ranging, including a discussion of Lamarckian inheritance versus epigenetics, the influence of Lysenko on Russian genetics, Continental Drift, the effectiveness of the Peer Review process for grants and publication, and finally the AIDS scientists Gallo, Duesberg and Montagnier.

David Healy and Pharmageddon - 06/17/14

Dr. David Healy (http://davidhealy.org) is an insider to the psychiatric drug business, a psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist, as well as a scientist and author. Yet this did not stop him from pursuing the problem of  suicidal (and violent) behavior caused by SSRI antidepressants many years ago. His criticisms, and his appearances as an expert witness in trials of violent acts occurring after the prescription of these drugs, did not earn him any friends within the major pharmaceutical companies, which are making billions of dollars from these drugs, but somehow he managed to survive without his career being totally destroyed.

 

The two Davids talk about some of the most shocking parts of his 2012 book, “Pharmageddon” (http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520270985), such as his claim that anti-depressants are about as useful as alcohol in combatting depression and are very similar to the over-the-counter anti-histamines, and that if the drugs weren't prescribed, people would probably stop taking them before they get to the point of no return. They discuss some of the ways that the pharmaceutical companies can bias clinical trials, by spinning negative trials into positive, by publishing only the trials that have positive results, and more darkly, possibly criminally, suppressing or manipulating data to avoid a negative finding against a drug (such an elevated risk of suicide or birth defects).

 

Dr. Healy holds surprising views on medicine, feeling that Evidence Based Medicine, Randomized Clinical Trials and Prescription-only medicines were only well-intentioned, but have all backfired.

 

People can push back against the system by using his website, http://wp.rxisk.org, to find out about adverse events on drugs they are being prescribed, and even to report adverse events, much more easily than directly through official channels. He feels that a patient that goes to a doctor with evidence about adverse events is much more likely to have an adult conversation about the best drug to use, or even whether a drug is needed.

Infectious Myth - Positive Hell with Joan Shenton - 06/11/14

David talks with veteran film maker Joan Shenton about her new joint product with Andi Reiss, “Positive Hell” (http://immunity.org.uk), about a group of Spanish HIV-positives, who have either never taken AIDS drugs or took them only for a short time. All were severe IV drug addicts or, in the case of their medical advisor, Dr. Manuel Garrido, a severe alcoholic. All of them conquered their addiction, and reclaimed their health, eventually rejecting their AIDS diagnosis.

 

The interviews in this new video include a woman who went on to get married and have a child with her new husband. Despite more than two decades of unprotected sex, he is still HIV-negative.

 

The story of Dr. Garrido is interesting because he is not just the medical advisor, but he has lived his advice, as he is also HIV-positive, and has also declined AIDS drugs.

 

This should be the kind of hopeful story that will rock the world. But the experience of Joan Shenton shows that this will be difficult. Her career as a successful medical documentary producer was destroyed in the early 1990s after a documentary first won a major award and then was the subject of a “Star Chamber” investigation.

 

Joan is the instigator of the Immune Resource Foundation website (http://immunity.org.uk) that has a huge archive of critical AIDS documentaries and other video footage. Also with Andi Reiss she recently co-produced the film “Positively False: Birth of a Heresy” (http://positivelyfalsemovie.com) and is republishing her book this year, also called “Positively False”.

The Infectious Myth - Looking back, looking forward - 06/03/14

In Episode 15 of “The Infectious Myth” David reviews the first 14 episodes of this show, reviewing what the major points of the guests were, and what this tells us about science in general, and other aspects of our society. David also reviews ideas for future shows. He thanked, sardonically, the many censors in the world, without whom David’s guests would probably be too busy with the mainstream media to come on to “The Infectious Myth”. Expect many more interesting guests in the future.

Infectious Myth - We can’t trust our eyes - 05/28/14

Everybody who has studied biology even at a high school level has seen pictures of the internal structure of a cell or other microscopic biological bodies, such as viruses. Many of the structures we see have names, like endoplasmic reticulum or golgi apparatus. And we learn about the probable function of these structures. Researchers study them, drugs are planned based on the impact on them. Diseases are studied based on the difference between microscope pictures of healthy versus diseased cells.

 

This episode’s guest, Dr. Harold Hillman has been saying for a long time, since at least 1970, that what we are seeing is only an artifact of the process of killing the cell so that it can be observed under a light microscope or electron microscope. It is possible to observe living cells under a light microscope, but very often cells are “fixed” (killed), dehydrated, colored and suffer other indignities that can drastically change what is seen.

 

Dr. Hillman makes two major observations that drew him to his conclusions. First, in living tissues, structures move around, and the network of fibers that supposedly provides structure to the cell is smaller than the size of the objects that move around. Secondly, structures always seem to have the same orientation under the microscope, which is impossible. They should have a random orientation. The apparent thickness of spherical objects, such as membranes, should vary with the angle of the cut. Consequently he believes that much of what we see under a microscope is false.

 

Fundamentally he believes that valid observations can only be taken from living systems, preferably whole organisms. Even cell culture systems introduce many anomalies and observations from them producing structures and behaviors that cannot necessarily be extrapolated to living organisms.

 

Dr. Hillman’s ideas are potentially revolutionary but he also talks about the wall of silence he has experienced from both major journals, that most often reject his papers without explanation, and from leading scientists whose work is based on what is seen under microscopes, who refuse to talk to him.

 

This censorship of radical ideas is unfortunately common in science, and belies the myth that scientists are always open to new ideas.

 

For more information about the work of this scientist, see: http://harold-hillman.com

Infectious Myth - Marian Tompson, Breastfeeding Rebel - 05/16/14

Marian Tompson was a rebel against formula feeding in 1956 when she co-founded La Leche League and became its first president. Anyone associated with La Leche League or breastfeeding promotion knows this. Fewer know that she rebelled against the advice that HIV-positive mothers should not breastfeed, in the late 1990s, when she founded http://AnotherLook.org to take another look at the evidence against breastfeeding, that turned out to be shockingly thin. She was also a rebel against other aspects of childbirth and child rearing, such as birth without anesthetics and birth at home.

 

Marian Tompson recently co-wrote her autobiography, “Passionate Journey”, even though her journey is far from over, she is still running Another Look and is back on the board of La Leche League, apart from spending time with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Listen to this interview with a remarkable woman.