#2815: Katherine Erlich

Pretty sure this is the right one.

 

Katherine Erlich is a Michigan-based “holistic pediatrician”. And as so many pseudoscientifically oriented quacks who label themselves ‘holistic’, Erlich is antivaccine. Indeed, Erlich is so pseudoscientifically oriented and anti-vaccine that she credulously promotes an online survey marketed at anti-vaccine parents on their opinions of vaccines (conducted by anonymous trolls affiliated with something called the Progressive Health Consortium, which was endorsed by Rashid Buttar) as some sort of evidence that vaccines are dangerous. Despite being obviously delusional, Erlich was nevertheless recruited as some sort of expert witness by the resident antivaxx loon in the Michigan State legislature at the time, Tom Hooker, to testify in favor of his proposed bill HB 5126 that would make it easier to obtain nonmedical vaccine exemptions.

 

Now, Erlich is, in fact, a board-certified pediatrician, but that does, of course, not mean that the advice and treatment regimes she offers at Healing the Whole Child are reality-based. Now, according to herself, she “takes a practical and individualized approach to pediatric care that focuses on the principles of health, wellness, and the safe resolution of illness”, which, of course, all pediatricians do, but for Erlich, that’s not really what ‘holistic’ approach means (even though it’s what she claims it means):‘holistic’ means that she integrates what she calls ‘natural methods’, which is code for woo, into what she offers. And Erlich promotes a wide range of woo, including homeopathy; her website also features a section called ‘Health Tips’, which requires registering and which features a Quack Miranda Warning. Moreover, Erlich is co-author of Super Nutrition for Babies, which is, among other things, a pseudoscientific guide to ‘toxins’ and which has been endorsed by e.g. Natasha Campbell-McBride and the Weston Price Foundation, which really should tell you everything you need to know.

 

Diagnosis: Yes, she endorses it all, as long as it can be marketed with a ‘wellness’ or ‘natural’ tag (so: anything) – unless, of course, it is something that is actually beneficial to your health, like vaccines. Erlich doesn’t endorse that. Stay away from this one, and even more importantly: keep your kids away.