Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D., It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; other news items; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; research tips; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making. The Digest’s primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips. Items posted to this archive may be updated when relevant information becomes available. To subscribe, click here.
Surgeon General calls for actions against health misinformation. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy has issued a 22-page advisory recommending actions that can be taken to curb the spread of health misinformation. The advice is for individuals, families, communities, educators, educational institutions, health professionals, health organizations, journalists, media organization, technology platforms, researchers, research institutions, funders, foundations, and governments. [Confronting health misinformation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on building a healthy information environment, 2021] At a July 15 news briefing at the White House, Murthy stated:
Today, I issued a Surgeon General’s advisory on the dangers of health misinformation. Surgeon General advisories are reserved for urgent public health threats. And while those threats have often been related to what we eat, drink and smoke, today, we live in a world where misinformation poses an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health. Health misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information about health, according to the best evidence at the time. And while it often appears innocuous on social media apps and retail sites or search engines, the truth is that misinformation takes away our freedom to make informed decisions about our health and the health of our loved ones. During the COVID-19 pandemic, health misinformation has led people to resist wearing masks in high-risk settings. It’s led them to turn down proven treatments and to choose not to get vaccinated. This has led to avoidable illnesses and death. Simply put, health information has cost us lives. Modern technology companies have enabled misinformation to poison our information environment with little accountability to their users. They’ve allowed people to intentionally spread misinformation, what we call disinformation, to have extraordinary reach. They’ve designed product features such as like buttons that reward us for sharing emotionally charged content, not accurate content. And their algorithms tend to give us more of what we click on, pulling us deeper and deeper into a well of misinformation. Now we need an all-of-society approach to fight misinformation. And that’s why this advisory that I issued today has recommendations for everyone. [Associated Press. Tech companies ‘enabled misinformation,’ Surgeon General says. The New York Times, July 15, 2021]
The advisory recommends a focus on these areas of action to start:
- In partnership with trusted local leaders, equip Americans with the tools to identify misinformation, make informed choices about what information they share, and address health misinformation in their communities.
- Expand research that deepens our understanding of health misinformation, including how it spreads and evolves, how and why it impacts people, who is most susceptible, and which strategies are most effective in addressing it.
- Implement product design and policy changes on technology platforms to slow the spread of misinformation.
- Invest in longer-term efforts such as media, science, digital, data, health-literacy programs and training for health practitioners, journalists, librarians, and others to build resilience against health misinformation.
- Convene federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, private, nonprofit, and research partners to explore the impact of health misinformation, identify best practices to prevent and address it, issue recommendations, and find common ground on difficult questions, including appropriate legal and regulatory measures that address health misinformation while protecting user privacy and freedom of expression.
Fake COVID-19 immunization and vaccination card peddler arrested. Juli A. Mazi, 41, of Napa, California, has been arrested and charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of making false statements related to health-care matters. It is the first federal prosecution related to bogus COVID-19 immunization using homeopathy and fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination record cards. [Woman arrested for fake COVID-19 immunization and vaccination card scheme. U.S. Department of Justice News Release, July 14, 2021] According to the criminal complaint:
- Mazi is licensed as a naturopath in California.
- Mazi engaged in a fraudulent scheme involving the sale of “homeoprophylaxis immunizations” and fabricating vaccine record cards to falsely make it appear that the customer had received government-authorized vaccines.
- Mazi used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to expand her pre-existing immunization scheme by fraudulently offering and selling homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets, via interstate wire, that she fraudulently claimed would provide “lifelong immunity to COVID-19.”
- Mazi offered homeoprophylaxis immunizations for childhood illnesses that she falsely claimed would satisfy the State of California’s immunization requirement for California schools. She also provided immunization cards for parents to submit to California schools.
- To further conceal and disguise the scheme to minimize the risk of detection, Mazi wrote or told customers to write on vaccine cards that Mazi had administered a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Moderna.
- Mazi told customers that the pellets contained a “very minute amount of this [COVID-19] disease” that could result in “infectious symptoms” of COVID-19 or “automatically flag the immune system’s attention, inducing immunity.”
- To encourage customers to purchase her pellets instead of receiving FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines from medical providers, Mazi falsely and fraudulently claimed that the FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines contain “toxic ingredients.”
- The federal investigation was launched in April 2021 after an individual submitted a complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General hotline stating that family members had purchased COVID-19 homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets from Mazi.
Licensed naturopathic doctors in California are authorized to administer vaccines, but the products Mazi sold were not real vaccines. Quackwatch has additional information about the case.
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