THE DOCTOR WILL SUE YOU NOW

by

Ben Goldacre

This is an extract from

BAD SCIENCE by Ben Goldacre

Published by Harper Perennial 2009. You are free to copy it, paste it, bake it, reprint it, read it aloud, as long as you don t change it ! including this bit ! so that people kno" they can find more ideas for free at """.badscience.net

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The Doctor Will Sue You Now

This chapter did not appear in the original edition of this book, because for fifteen months leading up to $eptember 200( the ,itamin)pill entrepreneur 5atthias 6ath "as suing me personally, and the Guardian, for libel. This strategy brought only mixed success. 7or all that nutritionists may fantasise in public that any critic is someho" a pa"n of big pharma, in pri,ate they "ould do "ell to remember that, like many my age "ho "ork in the public sector, # don t o"n a flat. The Guardian generously paid for the la"yers, and in $eptember 200( 6ath dropped his case, "hich had cost in excess of 8900,000 to defend. 6ath has paid 8220,000 already, and the rest "ill hopefully follo". &obody "ill e,er repay me for the endless meetings, the time off "ork, or the days spent poring o,er tables filled "ith endlessly cross)referenced court documents. :n this last point there is, ho"e,er, one small consolation, and # "ill spell it out as a cautionary tale3 # no" kno" more about 5atthias 6ath than almost any other person ali,e. 5y notes, references and "itness statements, boxed up in the room "here # am sitting right no", make a pile as tall as the man himself, and "hat # "ill "rite here is only a tiny fraction of the fuller story that is "aiting to be told about him. This chapter, # should also mention, is a,ailable free online for anyone "ho "ishes to see it. 5atthias 6ath takes us rudely outside the contained, almost academic distance of this book. 7or the most part "e ,e been interested in the intellectual and cultural conse;uences of bad science, the made)up facts in national ne"spapers, dubious academic practices in uni,ersities, some foolish pill)peddling, and so on. %ut "hat happens if "e take these sleights of hand, these pill)marketing techni;ues, and transplant them out of our decadent /estern context into a situation "here things really matter< #n an ideal "orld this "ould be only a thought experiment. -#.$ is the opposite of anecdote. T"enty)fi,e million people ha,e died from it already, three million in the last year alone, and 900,000 of those deaths "ere children. #n $outh -frica it kills 000,000 people e,ery year3 that s eight hundred people e,ery day, or one e,ery t"o minutes. This one country has =.0 million people "ho are H#> positi,e, including 00 per cent of all pregnant "omen. There are ?.2 million -#.$ orphans under the age of se,enteen. 5ost chillingly of all, this disaster has appeared suddenly, and "hile "e "ere "atching3 in ?990, @ust ? per cent of adults in $outh -frica "ere H#> positi,e. Ten years later, the figure had risen to 29 per cent. #t s hard to mount an emotional response to ra" numbers, but on one thing # think "e "ould agree. #f you "ere to "alk into a situation "ith that much death, misery and disease, you "ould be ,ery careful to make sure that you kne" "hat you "ere talking about. 7or the reasons you are about to read, #

suspect that 5atthias 6ath missed the mark. This man, "e should be clear, is our responsibility. %orn and raised in Aermany, 6ath "as the head of +ardio,ascular 6esearch at the 2inus Pauling #nstitute in Palo -lto in +alifornia, and e,en then he had a tendency to"ards grand gestures, publishing a paper in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine in ?992 titled B- 1nified Theory of Human +ardio,ascular .isease 2eading the /ay to the -bolition of this .isease as a +ause for Human 5ortality . The unified theory "as high)dose ,itamins. He first de,eloped a po"er base from sales in Curope, selling his pills "ith tactics that "ill be ,ery familiar to you from the rest of this book, albeit slightly more aggressi,e. #n the 1D, his ad,erts claimed that B90 per cent of patients recei,ing chemotherapy for cancer die "ithin months of starting treatment , and suggested that three million li,es could be sa,ed if cancer patients stopped being treated by con,entional medicine. The pharmaceutical industry "as deliberately letting people die for financial gain, he explained. +ancer treatments "ere Bpoisonous compounds "ith Bnot e,en one effecti,e treatment . The decision to embark on treatment for cancer can be the most difficult that an indi,idual or a family "ill e,er take, representing a close balance bet"een "ell)documented benefits and e;ually "ell)documented side)effects. -d,erts like these might play especially strongly on your conscience if your mother has @ust lost all her hair to chemotherapy, for example, in the hope of staying ali,e @ust long enough to see your son speak. There "as some limited regulatory response in Curope, but it "as generally as "eak as that faced by the other characters in this book. The -d,ertising $tandards -uthority criticised one of his ad,erts in the 1D, but that is essentially all they are able to do. 6ath "as ordered by a %erlin court to stop claiming that his ,itamins could cure cancer, or face a E290,000 fine. %ut sales "ere strong, and 5atthias 6ath still has many supporters in Curope, as you "ill shortly see. He "alked into $outh -frica "ith all the acclaim, self)confidence and "ealth he had amassed as a successful ,itamin)pill entrepreneur in Curope and -merica, and began to take out full)page ad,erts in ne"spapers. BThe ans"er to the -#.$ epidemic is here, he proclaimed. -nti)retro,iral drugs "ere poisonous, and a conspiracy to kill patients and make money. B$top -#.$ Aenocide by the .rugs +artel said one headline. B/hy should $outh -fricans continue to be poisoned "ith -FT< There is a natural ans"er to -#.$. The ans"er came in the form of ,itamin pills. B5ulti,itamin treatment is more effecti,e than any toxic -#.$ drug. B5ulti,itamins cut the risk of de,eloping -#.$ in half. 6ath s company ran clinics reflecting these ideas, and in 2009 he decided to run a trial of his ,itamins in a to"nship near +ape To"n called Dhayelitsha, gi,ing his o"n formulation, >ita+ell, to people "ith ad,anced -#.$. #n 200( this trial "as declared illegal by the +ape High +ourt of $outh -frica. -lthough 6ath

says that none of his participants had been on anti)retro,iral drugs, some relati,es ha,e gi,en statements saying that they "ere, and "ere acti,ely told to stop using them. Tragically,5atthias 6ath had taken these ideas to exactly the right place. Thabo 5beki, the President of $outh -frica at the time, "as "ell kno"n as an B-#.$ dissident , and to international horror, "hile people died at the rate of one e,ery t"o minutes in his country, he ga,e credence and support to the claims of a small band of campaigners "ho ,ariously claim that -#.$ does not exist, that it is not caused by H#>, that anti)retro,iral medication does more harm than good, and so on. -t ,arious times during the peak of the -#.$ epidemic in $outh -frica their go,ernment argued that H#> is not the cause of -#.$, and that anti)retro,iral drugs are not useful for patients. They refused to roll out proper treatment programmes, they refused to accept free donations of drugs, and they refused to accept grant money from the Alobal 7und to buy drugs. :ne study estimates that if the $outh -frican national go,ernment had used anti)retro,iral drugs for pre,ention and treatment at the same rate as the /estern +ape pro,ince G"hich defied national policy on the issueH, around ?'?,000 ne" H#> infections and 0*0,000 deaths could ha,e been pre,ented bet"een ?999 and 200'. -nother study estimates that bet"een 2000 and 2009 there "ere 000,000 unnecessary deaths, 2.2 million person years lost, and 09,000 babies unnecessarily born "ith H#> because of the failure to implement a cheap and simple mother)to)child)transmission pre,ention program. %et"een one and three doses of an -6> drug can reduce transmission dramatically. The cost is negligible. #t "as not a,ailable. #nterestingly, 5atthias 6ath s colleague and employee, a $outh -frican barrister named -nthony %rink, takes the credit for introducing Thabo 5beki to many of these ideas. %rink stumbled on the B-#.$ dissident material in the mid)?990s, and after much surfing and reading, became con,inced that it must be right. #n ?999 he "rote an article about -FT in a Iohannesburg ne"spaper titled Ba medicine from hell . This led to a public exchange "ith a leading ,irologist. %rink contacted 5beki, sending him copies of the debate, and "as "elcomed as an expert. This is a chilling testament to the danger of ele,ating cranks by engaging "ith them. #n his initial letter of moti,ation for employment to 5atthias 6ath, %rink described himself as B$outh -frica s leading -#.$ dissident, best kno"n for my "histle)blo"ing exposJ of the toxicity and inefficacy of -#.$ drugs, and for my political acti,ism in this regard, "hich caused President 5beki and Health 5inister .r Tshabalala)5simang to repudiate the drugs in ?999 . #n 2000, the no" infamous #nternational -#.$ +onference took place in .urban. 5beki s presidential ad,isory panel beforehand "as packed "ith B-#.$ dissidents , including Peter .uesberg and .a,id 6asnick. :n the first day, 6asnick suggested that all H#> testing should be banned on principle,

and that $outh -frica should stop screening supplies of blood for H#>. B#f # had the po"er to outla" the H#> antibody test, he said, B# "ould do it across the board. /hen -frican physicians ga,e testimony about the drastic change -#.$ had caused in their clinics and hospitals, 6asnick said he had not seen Bany e,idence of an -#.$ catastrophe. The media "ere not allo"ed in, but one reporter from the Village Voice "as present. Peter .uesberg, he said, Bga,e a presentation so remo,ed from -frican medical reality that it left se,eral local doctors shaking their heads . #t "asn t -#.$ that "as killing babies and children, said the dissidents3 it "as the anti)retro,iral medication. President 5beki sent a letter to "orld leaders comparing the struggle of the B-#.$ dissidents to the struggle against apartheid. The Washington Post described the reaction at the /hite House3 B$o stunned "ere some officials by the letter s tone and timing ! during final preparations for Iuly s conference in .urban ! that at least t"o of them, according to diplomatic sources, felt obliged to check "hether it "as genuine. Hundreds of delegates "alked out of 5beki s address to the conference in disgust, but many more described themsel,es as daKed and confused. :,er 9,000 researchers and acti,ists around the "orld signed up to the .urban .eclaration, a document that specifically addressed and repudiated the claims and concerns ! at least the more moderate ones ! of the B-#.$ dissidents . $pecifically, it addressed the charge that people "ere simply dying of po,erty3
The e,idence that -#.$ is caused by H#>)? or H#>)2 is clearcut, exhausti,e and unambiguous L -s "ith any other chronic infection, ,arious co)factors play a role in determining the risk of disease. Persons "ho are malnourished, "ho already suffer other infections or "ho are older, tend to be more susceptible to the rapid de,elopment of -#.$ follo"ing H#> infection. Ho"e,er, none of these factors "eaken the scientific e,idence that H#> is the sole cause of -#.$ L 5other)to)child transmission can be reduced by half or more by short courses of anti,iral drugs L /hat "orks best in one country may not be appropriate in another. %ut to tackle the disease, e,eryone must first understand that H#> is the enemy. 6esearch, not myths, "ill lead to the de,elopment of more effecti,e and cheaper treatments.

#t did them no good. 1ntil 2000 the $outh -frican go,ernment refused, as a matter of principle, to roll out proper antiretro,iral medication programmes, and e,en then the process "as half)hearted. This madness "as only o,erturned after a massi,e campaign by grassroots organisations such as the Treatment -ction +ampaign, but e,en after the -&+ cabinet ,oted to allo" medication to be gi,en, there "as still resistance. #n mid)2009, at least (9 per cent of H#>)positi,e people "ho needed anti)retro,iral drugs "ere still refused them. That s around a million people. This resistance, of course, "ent deeper than @ust one manM much of it came from 5beki s Health 5inister,5anto Tshabalala) 5simang. -n ardent critic of medical drugs for H#>, she "ould cheerfully go on tele,ision to talk up their dangers, talk do"n their benefits, and became irritable and e,asi,e "hen

asked ho" many patients "ere recei,ing effecti,e treatment. $he declared in 2009 that she "ould not be Bpressured into meeting the target of three million patients on anti)retro,iral medication, that people had ignored the importance of nutrition, and that she "ould continue to "arn patients of the sideeffects of anti)retro,irals, saying3 B/e ha,e been ,indicated in this regard./e are "hat "e eat. #t s an eerily familiar catchphrase. Tshabalala)5simang has also gone on record to praise the "ork of 5atthias 6ath, and refused to in,estigate his acti,ities. 5ost @oyfully of all, she is a staunch ad,ocate of the kind of "eekend glossy)magaKine)style nutritionism that "ill by no" be ,ery familiar to you. The remedies she ad,ocates for -#.$ are beetroot, garlic, lemons and -frican potatoes. - fairly typical ;uote, from the Health 5inister in a country "here eight hundred people die e,ery day from -#.$, is this3 B6a" garlic and a skin of the lemon ! not only do they gi,e you a beautiful face and skin but they also protect you from disease. $outh -frica s stand at the 200= /orld -#.$ +onference in Toronto "as described by delegates as the Bsalad stall . #t consisted of some garlic, some beetroot, the -frican potato, and assorted other ,egetables. $ome boxes of anti)retro,iral drugs "ere added later, but they "ere reportedly borro"ed at the last minute from other conference delegates. -lternati,e therapists like to suggest that their treatments and ideas ha,e not been sufficiently researched. -s you no" kno", this is often untrue, and in the case of the Health 5inister s fa,oured ,egetables, research had indeed been done, "ith results that "ere far from promising. #nter,ie"ed on $-%+ about this, Tshabalala)5simang ga,e the kind of responses you d expect to hear at any &orth 2ondon dinner)party discussion of alternati,e therapies. 7irst she "as asked about "ork from the 1ni,ersity of $tellenbosch "hich suggested that her chosen plant, the -frican potato, might be acti,ely dangerous for people on -#.$ drugs. :ne study on -frican potato in H#> had to be terminated prematurely, because the patients "ho recei,ed the plant extract de,eloped se,ere bone)marro" suppression and a drop in their +.* cell count ! "hich is a bad thing ! after eight "eeks. :n top of this, "hen extract from the same ,egetable "as gi,en to cats "ith 7eline #mmunodeficiency >irus, they succumbed to full)blo"n 7eline -#.$ faster than their non)treated controls. -frican potato does not look like a good bet. Tshabalala)5simang disagreed3 the researchers should go back to the dra"ing board, and Bin,estigate properly . /hy< %ecause H#>)positi,e people "ho used -frican potato had sho"n impro,ement, and they had said so themsel,es. #f a person says he or she is feeling better, should this be disputed, she demanded to kno", merely because it had not been pro,ed scientifically< B/hen a person says she or he is feeling better, # must say N&o, # don t think you are feeling betterO< N# must rather go and do science on youO< -sked "hether there should

be a scientific basis to her ,ie"s, she replied3 B/hose science< -nd there, perhaps, is a clue, if not exoneration. This is a continent that has been brutally exploited by the de,eloped "orld, first by empire, and then by globalised capital. +onspiracy theories about -#.$ and /estern medicine are not entirely absurd in this context. The pharmaceutical industry has indeed been caught performing drug trials in -frica "hich "ould be impossible any"here in the de,eloped "orld. 5any find it suspicious that black -fricans seem to be the biggest ,ictims of -#.$, and point to the biological "arfare programmes set up by the apartheid go,ernmentsM there ha,e also been suspicions that the scientific discourse of H#>4-#.$ might be a de,ice, a Tro@an horse for spreading e,en more exploitati,e /estern political and economic agendas around a problem that is simply one of po,erty. -nd these are ne" countries, for "hich independence and self)rule are recent de,elopments, "hich are struggling to find their commercial feet and true cultural identity after centuries of colonisation. Traditional medicine represents an important link "ith an autonomous pastM besides "hich, anti)retro,iral medications ha,e been unnecessarily ! offensi,ely, absurdly ! expensi,e, and until mo,es to challenge this became partially successful, many -fricans "ere effecti,ely denied access to medical treatment as a result. #t s ,ery easy for us to feel smug, and to forget that "e all ha,e our o"n strange cultural idiosyncrasies "hich pre,ent us from taking up sensible public)health programmes. 7or examples,"e don t e,en ha,e to look as far as 556. There is a good e,idence base, for example, to sho" that needle)exchange programmes reduce the spread of H#>, but this strategy has been re@ected time and again in fa,our of BIust say no. .e,elopment charities funded by 1$ +hristian groups refuse to engage "ith birth control, and any suggestion of abortion, e,en in countries "here being in control of your o"n fertility could mean the difference bet"een success and failure in life, is met "ith a cold, pious stare. These impractical moral principles are so deeply entrenched that Pepfar, the 1$ Presidential Cmergency Plan for -#.$ 6elief, has insisted that e,ery recipient of international aid money must sign a declaration expressly promising not to ha,e any in,ol,ement "ith sex "orkers. /e mustn t appear insensiti,e to the +hristian ,alue system, but it seems to me that engaging sex "orkers is almost the cornerstone of any effecti,e -#.$ policy3 commercial sex is fre;uently the B,ector of transmission , and sex "orkers a ,ery high)risk populationM but there are also more subtle issues at stake. #f you secure the legal rights of prostitutes to be free from ,iolence and discrimination, you empo"er them to demand uni,ersal condom use, and that "ay you can pre,ent H#> from being spread into the "hole community. This is "here science meets culture. %ut perhaps e,en to your o"n friends and neighbours, in "hate,er suburban idyll has become your home, the moral principle of abstinence from sex and drugs is more important than people dying of -#.$M and perhaps, then, they

are no less irrational than Thabo 5beki. $o this "as the situation into "hich the ,itamin)pill entrepreneur 5atthias 6ath inserted himself, prominently and expensi,ely, "ith the "ealth he had amassed from Curope and -merica, exploiting anti)colonial anxieties "ith no sense of irony, although he "as a "hite man offering pills made in a factory abroad. His ad,erts and clinics "ere a tremendous success. He began to tout indi,idual patients as e,idence of the benefits that could come from ,itamin pills ! although in reality some of his most famous success stories ha,e died of -#.$. /hen asked about the deaths of 6ath s star patients, Health 5inister Tshabalala)5simang replied3 B#t doesn t necessarily mean that if # am taking antibiotics and # die, that # died of antibiotics. $he is not alone3 $outh -frica s politicians ha,e consistently refused to step in, 6ath claims the support of the go,ernment, and its most senior figures ha,e refused to distance themsel,es from his operations or to criticise his acti,ities. Tshabalala) 5simang has gone on the record to state that the 6ath 7oundation Bare not undermining the go,ernment s position. #f anything, they are supporting it. #n 2009, exasperated by go,ernment inaction, a group of ?99 leading medical practitioners in $outh -frica signed an open letter to the health authorities of the /estern +ape, pleading for action on the 6ath 7oundation. B:ur patients are being inundated "ith propaganda encouraging them to stop life)sa,ing medicine, it said. B5any of us ha,e had experiences "ith H#>infected patients "ho ha,e had their health compromised by stopping their anti)retro,irals due to the acti,ities of this 7oundation. 6ath s ad,erts continue unabated. He e,en claimed that his acti,ities "ere endorsed by huge lists of sponsors and affiliates including the /orld Health :rganiKation, 1&#+C7 and 1&-#.$. -ll ha,e issued statements flatly denouncing his claims and acti,ities. The man certainly has chutKpah. His ad,erts are also rich "ith detailed scientific claims. #t "ould be "rong of us to neglect the science in this story, so "e should follo" some through, specifically those "hich focused on a Har,ard study in TanKania. He described this research in full)page ad,ertisements, some of "hich ha,e appeared in the New York Times and the Herald Tribune. He refers to these paid ad,erts, # should mention, as if he had recei,ed flattering ne"s co,erage in the same papers. -ny"ay, this research sho"ed that multi,itamin supplements can be beneficial in a de,eloping "orld population "ith -#.$3 there s no problem "ith that result, and there are plenty of reasons to think that ,itamins might ha,e some benefit for a sick and fre;uently malnourished population. The researchers enrolled ?,0'( H#>)positi,e pregnant "omen and randomly assigned them to ha,e either a ,itamin supplement or placebo. &otice once again, if you "ill, that this is another large, "ell)conducted, publicly funded trial of ,itamins, conducted by mainstream scientists, contrary to the claims of nutritionists that such studies do not exist.

The "omen "ere follo"ed up for se,eral years, and at the end of the study, 29 per cent of those on ,itamins "ere se,erely ill or dead, compared "ith 0? per cent of those on placebo. There "as also a statistically significant benefit in +.* cell count Ga measure of H#> acti,ityH and ,iral loads. These results "ere in no sense dramatic ! and they cannot be compared to the demonstrable life)sa,ing benefits of anti)retro,irals ! but they did sho" that impro,ed diet, or cheap generic ,itamin pills, could represent a simple and relati,ely inexpensi,e "ay to marginally delay the need to start H#> medication in some patients. #n the hands of 6ath, this study became e,idence that ,itamin pills are superior to medication in the treatment of H#>4-#.$, that anti)retro,iral therapies Bse,erely damage all cells in the body ! including "hite blood cells , and "orse, that they "ere Bthereby not impro,ing but rather "orsening immune deficiencies and expanding the -#.$ epidemic . The researchers from the Har,ard $chool of Public Health "ere so horrified that they put together a press release setting out their support for medication, and stating starkly, "ith unambiguous clarity, that 5atthias 6ath had misrepresented their findings. 5edia regulators failed to act. To outsiders the story is baffling and terrifying. The 1nited &ations has condemned 6ath s ad,erts as B"rong and misleading . BThis guy is killing people by luring them "ith unrecognised treatment "ithout any scientific e,idence, said Cric Aoemaere, head of 5Jdecins sans 7rontiPres $-, a man "ho pioneered anti)retro,iral therapy in $outh -frica. 6ath sued him. #t s not @ust 5$7 "ho 6ath has gone after. He has also brought time)consuming, expensi,e, stalled or failed cases against a professor of -#.$ research, critics in the media and others. His most heinous campaign has been against the Treatment -ction +ampaign. 7or many years this has been the key organisation campaigning for access to anti)retro,iral medication in $outh -frica, and it has been fighting a "ar on four fronts. 7irstly, it campaigns against its o"n go,ernment, trying to compel it to roll out treatment programmes for the population. $econdly, it fights against the pharmaceutical industry, "hich claims that it needs to charge full price for its products in de,eloping countries in order to pay for research and de,elopment of ne" drugs ! although, as "e shall see, out of its Q990 billion global annual re,enue, the pharmaceutical industry spends t"ice as much on promotion and admin as it does on research and de,elopment. Thirdly, it is a grassroots organisation, made up largely of black "omen from to"nships "ho do important pre,ention and treatment)literacy "ork on the ground, ensuring that people kno" "hat is a,ailable, and ho" to protect themsel,es. 2astly, it fights against people "ho promote the type of information peddled by 5atthias 6ath and his like. 6ath has taken it upon himself to launch a massi,e campaign against this group. He distributes ad,ertising material

against them, saying BTreatment -ction +ampaign medicines are killing you and B$top -#.$ genocide by the drug cartel , claiming ! as you "ill guess by no" ! that there is an international conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies intent on prolonging the -#.$ crisis in the interests of their o"n profits by gi,ing medication that makes people "orse. T-+ must be a part of this, goes the reasoning, because it criticises 5atthias 6ath. Iust like me "riting on Patrick Holford or Aillian 5cDeith, T-+ is perfectly in fa,our of good diet and nutrition. %ut in 6ath s promotional literature it is a front for the pharmaceutical industry, a BTro@an horse and a Brunning dog . T-+ has made a full disclosure of its funding and acti,ities, sho"ing no such connection3 6ath presented no e,idence to the contrary, and has e,en lost a court case o,er the issue, but "ill not let it lie. #n fact he presents the loss of this court case as if it "as a ,ictory. The founder of T-+ is a man called Fackie -chmat, and he is the closest thing # ha,e to a hero. He is $outh -frican, and coloured, by the nomenclature of the apartheid system in "hich he gre" up.-t the age of fourteen he tried to burn do"n his school, and you might ha,e done the same in similar circumstances. He has been arrested and imprisoned under $outh -frica s ,iolent, brutal "hite regime, "ith all that entailed. He is also gay, and H#>)positi,e, and he refused to take anti)retro,iral medication until it "as "idely a,ailable to all on the public health system, e,en "hen he "as dying of -#.$, e,en "hen he "as personally implored to sa,e himself by &elson 5andela, a public supporter of anti)retro,iral medication and -chmat s "ork. -nd no", at last, "e come to the lo"est point of this "hole story, not merely for 5atthias 6ath s mo,ement, but for the alternati,e therapy mo,ement around the "orld as a "hole. #n 200', "ith a huge public flourish, to great media co,erage, 6ath s former employee -nthony %rink filed a formal complaint against Fackie -chmat, the head of the T-+. %iKarrely, he filed this complaint "ith the #nternational +riminal +ourt at The Hague, accusing -chmat of genocide for successfully campaigning to get access to H#> drugs for the people of $outh -frica. #t s hard to explain @ust ho" influential the B-#.$ dissidents are in $outh -frica. %rink is a barrister, a man "ith important friends, and his accusations "ere reported in the national ne"s media ! and in some corners of the /estern gay press ! as a serious ne"s story. # do not belie,e that any one of those @our) nalists "ho reported on it can possibly ha,e read %rink s indictment to the end. # ha,e. The first fifty)se,en pages present familiar anti)medication and B-#.$)dissident material. %ut then, on page fifty)eight, this Bindictment document suddenly deteriorates into something altogether more ,icious and unhinged, as %rink sets out "hat he belie,es "ould be an appropriate punishment for Fackie.

%ecause # do not "ish to be accused of selecti,e editing, # "ill no" reproduce for you that entire section, unedited, so you can see and feel it for yourself.
A RO RIATE CRI!INAL SANCTION #n ,ie" of the scale and gra,ity of -chmat s crime and his direct personal criminal culpability for Bthe deaths of thousands of people , to ;uote his o"n "ords, it is respectfully submitted that the #nternational +riminal +ourt ought to impose on him the highest sentence pro,ided by -rticle ''.?GbH of the 6ome $tatute, namely to permanent confinement in a small "hite steel and concrete cage, bright fluorescent light on all the time to keep an eye on him, his "arders putting him out only to "ork e,ery day in the prison garden to culti,ate nutrient)rich ,egetables, including "hen it s raining. #n order for him to repay his debt to society, "ith the -6>s he claims to take administered daily under close medical "atch at the full prescribed dose, morning noon and night, "ithout interruption, to pre,ent him faking that he s being treatment compliant, pushed if necessary do"n his forced)open gullet "ith a finger, or, if he bites, kicks and screams too much, dripped into his arm after he s been restrained on a gurney "ith cable ties around his ankles, "rists and neck, until he gi,es up the ghost on them, so as to eradicate this foulest, most loathsome, unscrupulous and male,olent blight on the human race, "ho has plagued and poisoned the people of $outh -frica, mostly black, mostly poor, for nearly a decade no", since the day he and his T-+ first hit the scene. $igned at +ape To"n, $outh -frica, on ? Ianuary 200' Anthon" Brin#

The document "as described by the 6ath 7oundation as Bentirely ,alid and long o,erdue . This story isn t about 5atthias 6ath, or -nthony %rink, or Fackie -chmat, or e,en $outh -frica. #t is about the culture of ho" ideas "ork, and ho" that can break do"n..octors criticise other doctors, academics criticise academics, politicians criticise politicians3 that s normal and healthy, it s ho" ideas impro,e. 5atthias 6ath is an alternati,e therapist, made in Curope.He is e,ery bit the same as the %ritish operators that "e ha,e seen in this book. He is from their "orld. .espite the extremes of this case, not one single alternati,e therapist or nutritionist, any"here in the "orld, has stood up to criticise any single aspect of the acti,ities of 5atthias 6ath and his colleagues. #n fact, far from it3 he continues to be fRted to this day. # ha,e sat in true astonishment and "atched leading figures of the 1D s alternati,e therapy mo,ement applaud 5atthias 6ath at a public lecture G# ha,e it on ,ideo, @ust in case there s any doubtH. &atural health organisations continue to defend 6ath. Homeopaths mailouts continue to promote his "ork. The %ritish -ssociation of &utritional Therapists has been in,ited to comment by bloggers, but declined. 5ost, "hen challenged, "ill dissemble. B:h, they say, B# don t really kno" much about it. &ot one person "ill step for"ard and dissent. The alternati,e therapy mo,ement as a "hole has demonstrated itself to be so dangerously, systemically incapable of critical self)appraisal that it cannot step up e,en in a case like that of 6ath3 in that count # include tens of thousands of practitioners, "riters, administrators and more. This is ho" ideas go

badly "rong. #n the conclusion to this book, "ritten before # "as able to include this chapter, # "ill argue that the biggest dangers posed by the material "e ha,e co,ered are cultural and intellectual. # may be mistaken.