I think the tin from Mike Adams’ tinfoil hat may be leaking into his brain and causing some damage. Adams, the so called “Health Ranger” of naturalnews.com (aka woo central) has had some particularly nutty and disturbing posts lately. The first was a rant he went on against skeptics after he was disqualified from the shorty awards (an award for twitter) in which it was discovered that a lot of his votes were invalid. I won’t be talking about that post since Steven Novella has already addressed it at length, but it was basically just a string of straw man arguments. On a side note, I often wonder how Dr. Novella has the time to blog so much (three blogs I think), in addition to hosting and editing the SGU podcast, and running the new Institute for Science in Medicine. And that’s all in addition to being a neurologist. If I found out that at night he dresses up like a bat and fights crime I would not be surprised. To all of the people out there who want to attack skeptics, you had better make sure you get your ducks in a row and try to stick with valid arguments, otherwise Dr. Novella will take a sledgehammer to your post and when he is done smashing all of the logical fallacies in it, the only thing left will be the punctuation. Anyway, on to the other article from the lone ranger of crazy.

The post I am referring to was quite offensive in that it featured a cartoon that was in very bad taste. I do not want to post the cartoon here on this site, since I am quite disgusted by it, nor do I think it should be taken down from his site. After all, I value freedom of speech. But that works both ways, and I have that same freedom to criticize it as well. The cartoon portrays a frightening doctor who looks like some kind of  super villain. He is holding an AK-47 rifle that says “Merck” on it and is loaded with 36 shots, which are supposed to represent the shots in the CDC vaccine schedule. On the side of the cartoon the evil doctor is seen shooting the kids. So with this cartoon, Mike Adams is basically saying that doctors are poisoning kids with vaccines. I actually don’t have to infer that, he states it in the accompanying article. You know, I really wish I had some decent photoshop skills. If I did, I would create my own version of the comic that was much more accurate. I would make the doctor look nice, and give him a smiling face. I would change the “Merck” label on the gun to “Science”  and show him using the needles to shoot the various diseases that the vaccines protect against. I for one am glad that these vaccines are available so that my kids never have to experience any of those horrible diseases.

In his post, Adams gets some simple statistics about the rate of mumps cases among vaccinated kids wrong. Those claims have been addressed over at Skeptico and The Skeptic Detective. I am left to wonder why Adams makes such demonstrably false claims. Either he does not know how to do math, or he is twisting the statistics to fit what he wants to believe. If it’s the former then he is just stupid, but if it’s the latter then he is just a conspiracy nut who bases everything on ideology rather that science. And his whole ideology is a based on the “all natural” logical fallacy, which is particularly silly. I have already written about why all natural is nonsense, but based on statements Adams makes is the above mentioned article, it is also quite hypocritical. Adams makes the following claim:

Most modern vaccinations are, of course, a form of chemical violence against children. If they were all formulated without chemical preservatives (like thimerosal) and dangerous adjuvants (which can harm the nervous system), that might be a different story. But far too many of today’s vaccines are chemical concoctions that are entirely unnatural to the human body. To force them into the bodies of innocent children is an act of medical violence.

First of all, thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines due to scare mongering cranks like Mike Adams, and the aduvants he mentions are designed to make the vaccine actually work better. But pointing that out will make little difference. Even though thimerosal has been removed, people like Adams still claim that it is in vaccines. And the problem that they have is that it contains mercury, which is all natural…I’m confused. But on to his claim that vaccines are “chemical concoctions.” I have news for you Mike, everything is a chemical concoction. Water is a chemical concoction, and so is air. Everything that exists is our universe is make of chemicals. What would be a good example? Hmmm…let’s see. I know, how about the colloidal silver that Adams sells on his website. Hey health ranger, if you are so concerned about chemical concoctions, then why do you sell them on your site? You bash “Big Pharma” for selling dangerous drugs, and yet you sell a product (colloidal silver) that can do this to people:

What exactly is natural about this? It sure doesn’t look natural to me, unless these people intend to audition for the next Avatar movie. He claims to care about people’s health, and yet he sells this colloidal silver crap by the gallon. Of course, colloidal silver does not work, but for only $296.99 a gallon, the health ranger will sell you a product that will make you look like a giant blueberry, but don’t worry folks, it’s all natural. The other element to this hypocrisy is that fact that Adams and those like him just love to bash the big pharmaceutical companies because (gasp!) they make profits off of their drugs. And what about the drugs he sells on his  site? Is he giving them away for free? No, he is charging people almost $300 for a gallon of water with some silver in it, and that is just one of many woo woo products he sells.  I would say that the pharmaceutical companies are generally much more ethical than he is because at least they have to prove their drugs work before the government will let them sell them to the public.

Herbs are drugs, they can absolutely have a medicinal effect. A great example of this is the wonder drug that everyone knows, Aspirin. The compound it is derived from comes willow bark. Pharmaceutical companies get drugs from natural compounds all the time. So why does the health ranger only sell products on his site that are mostly useless? Because he and those like him are paranoid conspiracy theorists that think the government is out to get them. Just look at the articles on his site. There are links to everything from 9/11 conspiracy theories to how the government is trying to poison us all with fluoridated water. It’s safe to say that if one of the herbs on his site was found to have a real beneficial effect in a proper double blind trial, approved by the FDA, and purified and sold in proper doses by a pharmaceutical company, Mike Adams would stop supporting and selling that herb. He will basically just do the opposite of what the government says.

Now look, I am not saying that our government and all pharmaceutical companies are perfect and do no wrong. There are many cases of unethical behavior by both of them. But this idea that they are out to get us all so they can keep us all sick for profit is just plain crazy. The FDA was created for a reason. They are there to make sure that people can’t sell products and claim they will cure you of something unless there is real scientific evidence to back up their claims. The pharmaceutical companies are out to make money and so are the supplement manufacturers who make alternative products. The fact that they are out to make money does not make either of them evil. The difference between them is evidence. Trust science, it is a candle in the dark. It has nearly doubled our life expectancy in just the last century. Thanks to vaccines created by it we are now safe from horrible diseases like diphtheria, polio, pertussis, and many more. As for the health ranger, don’t worry about the tin leaking into your head from your tinfoil hat Mike, after all, it’s all natural.