I have written a few times in the past about one of the most powerful, and richest, promoters of pseudoscience in the world, Joseph Mercola. More often, I have written about his veterinarian accomplice, Dr. Karen Becker. For many years, Dr. Becker promoted a wide range of unscientific ideas and products in collaboration with Mercola’s online empire. Recently, they have apparently parted ways, though it sounds as if this was not Dr. Becker’s choice.
After 15 years of seamless collaboration and communication…the new executive leadership insisted I sign a non-disclosure agreement…When I hesitated and questioned this…they stopped paying me…
Due to professional, ethical, moral, and spiritual differences, I have no choice but to no longer associate with Mercola.com…I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had through Dr. Mercola and his former executive staff to forward my mission…
In her statement, Dr. Becker referenced some information uncovered by journalists about both changes in the management of Mercola’s empire and also the role a self-professed “channeler” has in advising him. Apparently, Mercola has gotten too crazy (or at least too publicly crazy) for Dr. Becker, though presumably she didn’t know this when she was still collaborating him and before he stopped paying her and shut down her YouTube channel.
Jonathan Jarry at the McGill University Office for Science and Society has done the painful but important work of wading through numerous video recordings of Mercola and his supernatural advisor, and he has provided some terrifying revelations. I have included the full video at the end of this post, but here is one especially disturbing moment:
Current events, especially in the U.S., are stark reminders that proponents of alternative medicine and opponents of science-based medicine are not always merely misguided or harmless. They can be quite bizarre and frankly dangerous. This danger only rarely comes from the kind of violence Mercola proposes. More often, it comes from discouraging the use of truly safe and effective medical care, from vaccines to antibiotics, and from the use of frequently ineffective, and sometimes outright harmful alternatives.
Dr. Becker is clearly not deranged. As I have said many, many times, she is undoubtedly a smart and caring person committed to her beliefs about what is best for companion animals. She is also, however, just as genuinely committed to mistaken beliefs about science and medicine which can cause harm. And she has participated, much more indirectly and cautiously than Mercola, in the demonization of science-based medicine and veterinarians who promote it, while decrying the criticism she receives.
She characterizes cancer therapy in this way-
So, we’re waiting until these animals get cancer and then we have to talk about cutting it out, poisoning it out with chemotherapy, or burning it out with radiation.
Referring to, among other things, pet food, parasite prevention, and vaccines, she has said,
the two big sources of toxins for pets in North America come from the immediate home environment and the veterinarian.
and also
Vaccinosis is a problem only holistic veterinarians seem willing to acknowledge…Since the introduction of dog and cat vaccines, the traditional view of their use has been that they are safe and can be given as frequently as once or twice a year. This approach, tragically, has caused a tremendous amount of suffering for millions of pets.
She feeds the myth of vets as part of a malign industry that profits off of illness and so is not truly motivated to keep pets well:
many traditionally trained DVMs practice ‘reactive’ veterinary medicine. This means they don’t have much to offer pets unless and until they’re good and sick…
And she holds mystical, unscientific views such as this:
Animals innately know what they need to heal themselves. Wild animals have access to Nature’s pharmacy, but our pets don’t. As doctors we dictate what medicine our patients will receive and at what dose. But we often prescribe incorrectly, with disastrous results.
While being certainly much more sane and reasonable than Mercola, Dr. Becker has been his ally for many years, and they have shared a world view that portrays most veterinarians as misguided, misinformed, and even outright dangerous to the health of pets. I am glad she hasn’t taken the next step into madness Mercola has, calling for the “destruction” of the veterinary profession, and that she has parted company with his organization. However, she is not entirely without responsibility for feeding less blatant but still harmful myths along the road to this destination.
Pseudoscience and attacks on science, however nicely packaged, damage the health of our pets and make work and life much harder for the majority of vets committed to scientific medicine. While Dr. Becker and her colleagues will undoubtedly continue to suggest that my criticism of their work is unkind and hurtful, this is disingenuous when so much of what they do is based on attacking science-based veterinary medicine and undermining public confidence in veterinarians.
A fundamental principle of science and skepticism is that substantive criticism of ideas is the only path to weeding out the false and ineffective and bringing humanity closer to a truer, and more useful understanding of nature. We should always be kind and respectful to persons, but attacking their bad ideas is not the same as attacking them personally. As Tom Nichols has put it,
Americans no longer distinguish the phrase “you’re wrong” from the phrase “you’re stupid.” To disagree is to disrespect. To correct another is to insult. And to refuse to acknowledge all views as worthy of consideration, no matter how fantastic or inane they are, is to be closed-minded.
Shifting the focus from ideas to persons is not simply counterproductive, it can lead to the kind of dark places Dr. Mercola has clearly reached, where passionate disagreement about what is true becomes hatred and intolerance of those with whom we disagree.
However, this cannot lead to acceptance or tolerance of harmful beliefs and ideas or we will be forever trapped in a world of conflicting opinions with no solid basis for productive action. Science has drastically improved the lives and health of humans and our animal companions, and the current ascendancy of those who deny this, even when they are not manifestly insane as individuals, hams us and our pets.
Now, more than ever, it is necessary to advocate vigorously for science and the scientific approach to health. We should do so constructively and civility, but we cannot surrender to the rising tide of health practices based on anecdote and opinion, conspiracy and personal faith, mysticism and pseudoscience.
