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Consumer Health Digest #22-48
December 18, 2022
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/william-m-london., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D
http://www.quackwatch.org/10Bio/bio.html. It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; news reports; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making. Its primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips.
To subscribe, click here
http://lists.quackwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/chd_lists.quackwatch.org###
Vaccination distrust becoming mainstream among RepublicansAccording to a December 2022 KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/poll-finding/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-december-2022:
28% of adults nationally now say rather than requiring children to have vaccinations for measles, mumps, and rubella to attend public school, their parents should have the choice. This is up from 16% in a 2019 Pew Research Center poll conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among parents, opposition to requiring those childhood vaccines now stands at 35%, up from 23% in 2019.
Overall, 71% say healthy children should be required to get vaccines to attend public schools, down from 82% in 2019.
88% of those identifying as Democrat or leaning Democrat support requiring vaccines for public school students, little changed from 2019 (86%).
44% of those identifying as Republican or leaning Republican now say parents should be able to opt out of those childhood vaccines, up from 20% in 2019.
[More than 4 in 10 Republicans and a third of parents now oppose schools requiring children to get vaccinated for measles and other illness, up since the COVID-19 pandemic began
https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/press-release/more-than-4-in-10-republicans-and-a-third-of-parents-now-oppose-schools-requiring-children-to-get-vaccinated-for-measles-and-other-illness-up-since-the-covid-19-pandemic-began/. Kaiser Family Foundation news release, Dec 16, 2022]
Capitalizing on and contributing to growing wariness of vaccination among Republicans, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced he:
(a) wants Florida’s Supreme Court to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate crimes and wrongdoings the pharmaceutical industry may have committed against Floridians, and
(b) will establish a Public Health Integrity Committee to be chaired by State Surgeon General and Department of Health Secretary Joseph Ladapo
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-state-of-florida-spreads-antivaccine-disinformation-disguised-as-an-epidemiological-study/, after holding a roundtable discussing purported adverse events of mRNA vaccines.
[Sexton, CJ. Gov. DeSantis calls for grand jury to investigate COVID-19 vaccines and possible fraudulent claims
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/576083-gov-desantis-calls-for-grand-jury-to-investigate-covid-19-vaccines-and-possible-fraudulent-claims/. Florida Politics, Dec 13, 2022]
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told NBC News the onslaught of vaccine disinformation
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/struggling-anti-vaccination-groups-enjoyed-pandemic-windfall-rcna14402continues to put young children at risk for preventable death and disease.
[Edwards E. Vaccine misinformation one of the biggest public health threats, CDC director says
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-director-warns-vaccine-misinformation-public-health-threat-rcna61245. NBC News, Dec 16, 2022]
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Zoltan Rona agrees to no longer practice medicineOn November 4, 2022 the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal concluded
https://doctors.cpso.on.ca/DoctorDetails/Rona-Zoltan---Peter/0025401-30224that Dr. Zoltan Peter Rona had
(a) failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession in his care of a patient and
(b) engaged in disgraceful, dishonorable or unprofessional conduct in relation to his communications about the COVID-19 pandemic and related issues.
The Tribunal ordered Rona to:
(a) attend before the panel to be reprimanded, and
(b) pay the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario costs of $6,000 by December 5, 2022.
Rona signed an undertaking in which he agreed to resign from the College and not apply or re-apply for registration as a physician to practice medicine in Ontario or any other jurisdiction.
The full decision
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onpsdt/doc/2022/2022onpsdt45/2022onpsdt45.htmldescribed Rona as a general practitioner with “a solo practice in Thornhill, comprised of 90% complementary medicine and 10% management.” The decision addresses Rona’s management of a patient (Patient A) and use of social media.
Patient A complained Rona ignored his chronic nosebleeds, elevated blood pressure, and poor kidney functioning, which ultimately led to a hospital admission due to a hypertensive emergency and kidney failure requiring dialysis. Instead of referring the patient to an appropriate specialist, Rona recommended costly and unproven diagnostic tests. He recommended supplements including nattokinase
https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/nattokinase, though no clear rationale for it was provided in the chart. The patient’s nosebleeds developed after taking nattokinase, but Rona failed to connect the nosebleeds to the nattokinase even though bleeding is the product’s primary and most serious potential side effect. The Tribunal found:
*** Dr. Rona breached his duty to identify an acute presentation, failed to gauge the severity of Patient A’s medical problems and did not appropriately counsel him on the possible consequences of not immediately pursuing standard medical treatment. Dr. Rona overlooked indicators of an acute problem, including vital signs, lab abnormalities and Patient A’s adverse reactions to the treatment he had recommended. Though a reasonable complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) physician would have delayed or deferred the provision of any alternative treatments until the patient was medically stable, Dr. Rona failed to do so. All of this fell below what would be reasonably expected of a competent CAM physician. As such, Dr. Rona failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession in relation to his care and treatment of Patient A.
*** Rona was also found to have used social media to:
(a) minimize the seriousness of COVID-19,
(b) suggest the vaccines developed to protect against the virus were unsafe and did more harm than good,
(c) deny the effectiveness of public health measures in reducing the spread of COVID-19,
(d) promote unproven treatments,
(e) cite questionable sources around the issue of vaccine efficacy, (e) suggest the public was being scammed by medical experts and public officials,
(f) make anti-Asian tweets about Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, and
(g) call Dr. Anthony Fauci a “murderer” and a “liar. ”
Rona continues to operate a website that promotes health misinformation and selling supplements for a wide variety of health problems.\
###
Suspended acupuncturist to be disciplined for blood-lettingThe Discipline Committee Panel of the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of British Columbia has determined
https://www.ctcma.bc.ca/public-protection/public-notification/2022-11-17-su-lan-mary-lee/Su Lan (Mary) Lee engaged in professional misconduct by:
*** breaching a consent order she signed with the College in 2012
https://www.ctcma.bc.ca/public-protection/public-notification/2012-02-27-su-lan-mary-lee/*** by continuing to provide blood-letting
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/acupuncture-and-modern-bloodletting/to two patients after agreeing not to do so
*** failing to keep proper clinical records for two patients
*** engaging in the unauthorized practice of traditional Chinese medicine and/or acupuncture while her registration was suspended
https://www.ctcma.bc.ca/public-protection/public-notification/2021-11-04-su-lan-mary-lee/Lee’s registration was suspended in 2021 for:
(a) violating the 2012 consent order,
(b) placing blood waste and other bodily fluids in her household trash, which put at risk the health of others who may contract serious diseases from such biomedical waste,
(c) failing to hygienically dispose of used acupuncture needles,
(d) knowingly providing false information to the Inspector regarding her disposal of cups and other used items, and
(e) failing to keep proper clinical records. The penalties and costs for Lee’s misconduct have not yet been decided.
[Lindsay B. Acupuncturist performed blood-letting despite being banned from procedure, B.C. college says
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-acupuncturist-committed-misconduct-by-doing-blood-letting-while-banned-college-says-1.6688065. CBC News, Dec 16, 2022]
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Tijuana doctor charged with manslaughter for cosmetic surgery deathA doctor identified by reporters as Jesús Manuel Báez López has been charged in a Tijuana courtroom with manslaughter due to malpractice and negligence in the January 2021 death of 38-year-old Keuana Weaver, a mother of two from Long Beach, California. Weaver died on the operating table at Art Siluette Aesthetic Surgery while undergoing liposuction and a tummy tuck. The doctor was also charged for not having the necessary certification as a plastic surgeon to perform such cosmetic procedures under Baja California law. In April 2015, Mexico’s Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks shut down Clínica Santa Fe Medical Group (a cosmetic surgery clinic Báez previously operated) and nine other clinics for “failing to meet the minimum requirements to operate legally.”
Prosecutors argued:
(a) a document explaining the risks of the cosmetic procedures was in Spanish, which was not Weaver’s primary language, and
(b) Weaver’s signature was missing from key documents. Weaver’s death is reportedly under investigation by the FBI
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/story/2021-08-17/fbi-cosmetic-surgery-death-tijuanaU.S. residents often seek low-cost medical care, including cosmetic procedures, in Tijuana, where officials have developed a medical tourism industry generating revenues of more than $1.7 billion annually.
[Riggins A, Mendoza A. Tijuana doctor charged in cosmetic-surgery death of Long Beach woman
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-12-10/tijuana-doctor-charged-cosmetic-surgery-death. Los Angeles Times, Dec 10, 2022]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections at several Tijuana hospitals since 2018.
[Pseudomonas aeruginosa
https://www.cdc.gov/hai/outbreaks/pseudomonas-aeruginosa.html. CDC Outbreak and Patient Notifications, February 2021 update]
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At-home COVID-19 testing guide publishedThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided a step-by-step guide to help consumers decide when and how many times to test for COVID-19, what their test results mean, and what they should do next.
[Understanding at-home OTC COVID-19 antigen diagnostic test results
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/understanding-home-otc-covid-19-antigen-diagnostic-test-resultsFDA, Dec 14, 2022]
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Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Consumer Advocate
7 Birchtree Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Telephone: (919) 533-6009
http://www.quackwatch.org (health fraud and quackery)
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