Fake medical news, if it can be the breeding ground for good jokes during friendly dinners, it sometimes turns out to be more tragic, sometimes going so far as to cost the lives of those who subscribed to it. By denying Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) to indulge in therapies not proven by science, whether current and popular on the networks or secular and spiritualist, hundreds of people take risks with their health. And these risks are far from being “ fake » …
When fake news wants to be the sirens of alternative medicine
Steve Jobs, upon learning of his early pancreatic cancer, initially refused surgery. According to his biographer, he did not wish “ that his body be open, violated in this way “. He then believed in “ thought magical »the act of obtaining something through the force of the mind.1He then turned to acupuncture and spiritualism, tried macrobiotics, an unconventional restrictive diet taken from Zen Buddhism.. After nine months, pushed by those around him, he finally accepted the surgical procedure. Operators notice that the tumor has spread to surrounding tissues, sealing the prognosis. He dies SO quickly at the age of 56.
On the same oncological theme, we can also cite the famous Bob Marley. In 1977 he was diagnosed with a melanoma located in his right big toe, initially localized and potentially curable by excision of the toe. His Rastafari religious belief does not allow him to be amputated. He then followed alternative therapies until his cancer metastasized to the brain, lungs and stomach. He died in 1981, at the age of 36.2
https://www.whatsupdoc-lemag.fr/magazine/67
The Quebec singer Bernard Lachance, for his part, is not only known for having participated in the Oprah Winfrey Show. He is also on social networks as a follower of conspiracy theories against the pharmaceutical industry. HIV positive, he suddenly stopped his triple therapy to replace it with three liters of salt water daily, following the recommendations of Hugues Holleville, osteopath “ psycho-energetic “. According to him, this “ marine plasma ”, could be used to treat all immune cures including tumors. He died in 2021 from severe HIV-related bacteremia, in an advanced state of cachexia, at the age of 46.3
Pierre Brémond d’Ars is a general practitioner in Malakoff and president of the No Fake Med collective since 2021, which campaigns against fake news in health. A large proportion of those involved in the collective, who are not only caregivers, decide to get involved after their loved ones or patients have lost their lives after following alternative medicine advice. Dr. Brémond d’Ars tries to understand this phenomenon: “ When you are told you have cancer, it is not necessarily easy to accept chemotherapy with all the risks it entails. And if there is someone nearby who is friendly and available, with a story that appeals to you because it reinforces personal beliefs, telling you that there is another hope that traditional medicine does not recognize, the temptation can be big. There is an asymmetry both in terms of availability of the caregiver and the arduousness of the care. The most annoying thing is when this leads to stopping medication, delaying a diagnosis or sometimes even dying from an illness that could have been taken care of much earlier, but also when the care relationship is likened to a relationship influence which can lead to sectarian excesses. »
Public health emergencies: the breeding ground for conspiracy theories
History shows us that epidemics have been fertile ground for the most absurd fake news in recent decades.
It was during the Covid 19 pandemic that Bernard Lachance became radicalized, linking the two diseases as “ fraudulent, criminal pandemics scripted by the same actors, the same institutions » … But this “ history » is not isolated: in August 2020, twelve researchers published in the scientific journal American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene a titanic task: the identification of 2,311 fake news linked to the coronavirus published in 25 languages and in 87 countries, of which 89% were only rumors, 7.8% theories considered conspiracy and 3.5% a rejection pure and simple reality.4 If you can find ludicrous or even comical information there, such as “ sea lettuce can prevent coronavirus infection » or even « drinking urine and cow dung can cure coronavirus ”, others are much less so.
Only one of these false information, the incitement to the consumption of methanol to disinfect the body and kill the virus, was notably one of the most deadly. It caused the death of 800 people and the hospitalization of 5,876 others, while 60 people developed complete blindness!5
Before Covid, the AIDS epidemic revealed the same abuses. When it was discovered in 1983, during the Cold War, the virus became a KGB propaganda weapon which led people to believe that HIV was created in a laboratory, by an American military program. A large disinformation campaign is being carried out, as far as South Africa. The government encourages alternative medicine, fueling the vertical transmission of HIV in communities: the cost is estimated at more than 300,000 lives.6
From reluctance to vaccinate to rejection by health institutions; explanation and understanding as keys to resolution
Fake news will therefore call into question both treatments and research but also the role of public health institutions.
Thus, in 1998, the English researcher Andrew Wakefield published in “ The Lancet » a truncated study, revealing a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism syndrome. Despite its denunciation and the immediate publication of numerous contrary results, the study was taken up in the media around the world: a movement of distrust in the face of this vaccine appeared, leading to a significant drop in vaccination coverage. France then experienced a measles epidemic which affected more than 25,000 people between 2008 and 2015, causing more than 5,000 hospitalizations and around twenty deaths, even though the disease had almost disappeared.7
And if the groups anti-vax » (for anti-vaccination), are not new, the Covid pandemic has seen them clearly strengthen. According to Dr. Brémond d’Ars: “ The traditional anti-vax movement has seized the Covid vaccine, to rely on a questioning of vaccination in general, but also a global questioning of the State and society, using fear against technology that is new or recent and once people become afraid, it is extremely difficult to regain their trust. »
In fact, healthcare providers found it urgent to react through different means and networks. The RIPOSTE cell (acronym) of INSERM frequently publishes on its Détox Channel, and stands up to false information, we find in particular that “ No, fasting does not help fight cancer ».8
This is also the case for the collective NoFakeMedand Dr Brémond d’Ars explains to us: “ It’s about regaining confidence through in-depth, long-term work, by working on teaching the collective spirit. We, the actors of science-based medicine, do not manipulate beliefs but knowledge, and wanting to erase beliefs through science is a losing battle. The solution is to defuse certain mechanisms where the belief becomes totalitarian, by continuing to listen to the patient, understand why he is interested in it, and put in place warning signs together. »
So that never again belief against science is synonymous with dire destiny.
