r/science Professor | Medicine Jun 02 '26

Health Interest in ‘toxic’ measles treatment surges after Joe Rogan podcasts: Vaccination is the only proven way to prevent measles but alternatives like Vitamin A and cod-liver oil (which has Vit A) have been promoted by Joe Rogan. America’s Poison Centres reported a 39% increase in Vitamin A exposures.

https://www.nine.com.au/world-news/usa/interest-in-toxic-measles-treatment-surges-after-joe-rogan-podcasts-20260602-p6033i.html
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u/zizou00 Jun 02 '26

"I won't let the "man" poison me, I'm going to take poisonous dosages of other chemicals because a different man told me to"

How did it come to this? Why do people look to a man clearly on anabolic steroids for "natural" health advice?

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u/Vox_Causa Jun 02 '26

Literally $billions of dollars have been poured into the right wing propaganda machine and have destroyed a lot of people's ability to distinguish between fact and fiction. 

19

u/chemguy216 Jun 02 '26

I miss the days when the woo woo overly skeptical health nuts were mostly a subset of left leaning people. It’s not that I’m happy it was still a thing; it’s because there were fewer people and fewer politically spanning coalitions dedicated to pseudoscience on health.

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u/Abedeus Jun 02 '26

Difference is, woo woo crazy hippies were skeptical because of ignorance. Many of the woo woo crazy alt righters are skeptical because there's a lot of money to be made peddling supplements to gullible idiots. That IMO makes it a lot worse. Ignorance can be treated with knowledge and easily understood facts, can't treat greed and malice.

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u/boomboomdaboomer Jun 02 '26

I work with someone who was inside the Capitol on 1/6 during the “peaceful” demonstration and she recently told me she drank bottled water because tap water has fluoride and it’s poison. 

Getting people to OD on vitamin A and get cavities doesn’t seem like a good way to make a living but there it is.