#2915: Beatrice Golomb

Beatrice Golomb is professor of medicine at UC San Diego and head of the Golomb Research Group, which is “currently working with Gulf War Veterans, as well as with people experiencing side effects from fluoroquinolone antibiotics, statin cholesterol lowering medications, radiofrequency radiation (and other non-ionizing radiation) – e.g., from cell towers or smart meters, and persons affected by the toxin release following the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio”. Now, Golomb does undoubtedly have a real research background, and has received legitimate attention for her work on Gulf War illnesses and syndromes (which we don’t feel qualified to assess). She is, however, perhaps even more famous for being one of the main proponents of the mystery microwave weapon hypothesis about the cause of the “mystery illness” afflicting American and Canadian diplomats in Cuba and China (the Havana syndrome), claiming that the symptoms “strongly match known effects of pulsed radiofrequency/microwave electromagnetic (RF/MW) radiation”. That hypothesis does not have significant support in the scientific community, but it is hardly surprising that Golomb immediately plumped for that one: Golomb is a proponent of electromagnetic hypersensitivity and the discredited idea that cell phone radiation causes cancer and all sorts of illnesses – in fact, Golomb is on the “scientific advisory board” of the group Physicians for Safe Technology, one of the main proponents of that idea and associated conspiracy theories – and the mystery microwave weapon hypothesis would be a flashy way of drawing attention and motivate public support (blame China and/or Russia!) for the idea; indeed, Golomb herself is clear that “her research draws attention to a larger population of people who are affected by similar health problems” due to cell phones, smart meters and other types of radiation. She was also a signatory to a letter urging the FDA to retract their thorough report on radiofrequency radiation and cancer because they, the signatories, didn’t like the conclusions.

 

Now, we haven’t really attempted to compile any kind of comprehensive CV for Golomb. She does sometimes say reasonable-sounding things about various issues, but her name also has a remarkable tendency to pop up in different contexts where pseudoscience is promulgated. She is a go-to authority not just for Covid-is-caused-by-5G conspiracy theorists (she should, in fairness, probably not be blamed for that) but for statin denialists. And although one should be careful with assigning guilt by association, constantly being caught in the company of and carrying out joint efforts with people like David Perlmutter, Stephen Sinatra and Devra Davis is not a good look. Back in 2012, Golomb also received some media attention for her claim that eating chocolate more frequently is associated with a lower BMI – though the study authors were careful to mention “correlation”, they were nevertheless quick to emphasize that  “the association could be causal” – based on one of the most laughably shoddy studies ever conducted.

 

Diagnosis: A bit unclear, but she has been and is involved in a lot of pseudoscience- and conspiracy-theory-adjacent nonsense, and although she is hardly a star of the woo and pseudoscience circuses, her name pops up in such contexts with pretty remarkable frequency.