#2633: Daniel Cameron

Chronic lyme is not a real disease, and long-term antibiotics are not an appropriate treatment (indeed, it is a very, very inappropriate treatment). But a number of people wrongly believe that chronic lyme exists and, moreover, that they themselves suffer from it. That creates a potential market for cures, and for vultures to swoop in – and sure enough: A number of “lyme literate” doctors have popped up on lists distributed in conspiracy theory media the last few years, offering various kinds of magic, pseudoscience and non-science-based remedies for chronic lyme, including Daniel Cameron. Cameron is a practitioner in Mt. Kisco, NY, and a real MD: according to his website, he is also “a nationally recognized leader for his expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.” Well, he is indeed recognized in certain woo- and conspiracy groups; his star among board-certified infectious disease doctors and other experts is significantly dimmer.

 

Indeed, Cameron is a former president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), an organization that has developed their own guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of “chronic Lyme,” based on pseudo-evidence accepted exclusively by themselves, and which offers courses on how to become “Lyme literate”. In fact, Cameron is the lead author of both the original ILADS guidelines and its 2014 update, and has testified before several state legislatures to achieve measures that would protect “Lyme literate” doctors from being subject to the professional misconduct measures they obviously deserve to be subject to. Cameron also makes presentations and infomercials to Lyme support groups. He has also written articles promoting the idea that  “chronic Lyme” exists, and recommending long-term antibiotics as a treatment, to be published in bottom-feeder and borderline fake journals such as Medical Hypotheses. Despite the evidence, and professional agreements on those who actually study it, he also offers his treatment regimes as treatment to people in vulnerable situations.

 

“But doesn’t his practices amount to medical misconduct?” you may ask. Why, yes, it does, and Cameron has certaintly been disciplined by boards for professional medical misconduct, primarily for his failure to properly diagnose or follow up – but rather offer inadequate treatment – to people who were not, in fact, suffering from chronic Lyme. To his fans, however, such elitist cancellation attempts just cements his reputation as a brave maverick doctor willing to stand up to the system (which, notably, can’t included Big Pharma, given that Big Pharma obviously stands to benefit from Cameron-style advice and treatment regimes.)

 

Diagnosis: Few topics illustrate the problem of fake diagnoses and pseudoscience better than chronic Lyme nonsense, and Daniel Cameron isn’t merely an example of but a leader in the scam that is ILADs and chronic Lyme treatment. A real threat to civilization.

 

Hat-tip: Jann Bellamy@Sciencebasedmedicine

#2632: Erika Calihan

Erika Calihan is a random woman whom former Kentucky governor Matt Bevin for some reason (Bevin called her a “good friend”) appointed to a state government position. Calihan, being a lunatic dingbat and conspiracy theorist, promptly used the opportunity to scour facebook for nonsense related to the 2019 election that Bevin lost, primarily various conspiracy theories and fake news alleging massive election fraud – conspiracy theories that Matt Bevin went on to repeat in public. The claims included for instance references – without a shred of evidence, of course – to “thousands of absentee ballots that were illegally counted”, people allegedly being “incorrectly turned away” at the polls, “a number of [voting] machines that didn’t work properly”, and ballots being stored in open boxes.

 

Calihan subsequently appointed herself Executive Director of her own astroturf group Citizens for Election Integrity (basically herself and one Kris Stuebs), and became, as such, the de facto leader of the Kentucky gubernatorial election conspiracy activists (in addition to Bevin himself, of course): “We’re newly formed because we heard all the charges just like everybody else,” said Calihan about the group, neglecting to mention that all the allegations came from herself. She demurred when reporters asked for specific evidence, but the group did circulate a press release touting an event in Frankfort where they would present purported evidence (mostly rumors, footage from CNN that the group claims is “video evidence” of “manipulation” at electronic voting booths, and purported irregularities in vote totals reported on county websites). When they failed to provide any actual evidence, Calihan explained that “We’re just two moms” (herself and Stuebs). She didn’t admit to being wrong, of course.

 

Together with Bevin, Calihan predictably went on to become a semi-professional COVID-19 restriction protestor and heckler.

 

Diagnosis: Insane conspiracy theorist. Yeah, she’s done and gone, but she’s also strikingly representative of a certain segment of the population.

#2631: Roland & Lennell Caldwell

Roland Caldwell is a pastor affiliated with the fundamentalist Burnette Baptist Church (also a TV channel). Lennell Caldwell is too, and we assume (but can’t verify) that there is some relationship between them – Lennell Caldwell apparently enjoys the position of “Apostle” with the church (as well as being a pastor at First Baptist World Changer International.) Neither of them likes gay people.

 

So the Caldwells, joining forces with e.g. Stacy Swimp, reacted stupidly to the 2014 Michigan ruling that the state’s denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples was unconstitutional, and claimed that civil rights should not be upheld by the courts if doing so conflicts with the opinions of the majority – where “majority” doesn’t mean majority, of course (if it did, there would be no criticism of the ruling), but in line with what the Caldwells happen to think. As for proponents of same-sex marriage, Roland Caldwell made his position clear: “You are my enemy! Anybody that’s an enemy of God is an enemy of mine. And now the fight is on!”

 

Roland and Lennell were apparently behind organizing pastors and churches in Michigan to protest the aforementioned ruling, the goal apparently being to “send a message that there are yet still pastors in the city and state who stand by both our Michigan Constitution and our Judeo Christian values,” according to Lennell Caldwell. (Of course, they did explicitly not stand by the Constitution. Details.)

 

Diagnosis: So yeah, there are a lot of these around, but although the Caldwells are hardly major forces in the fundie deranged wingnut movement, they’re incredibly silly and hateful, and worth mentioning just in case anyone should ever run into them.

#2630: Cherie Calbom

a.k.a. “The Juice Lady”

 

Juicing, according to its proponents, is the process of removing toxins from the body by consuming only juice for days in a row – preferably by using an expensive juicing machine to prepare the product, since effective New Age magic transmutation rituals require class-exclusive and gentrification-typed spell components. (It also removes all fiber; who needs fiber?). The idea, like all other detox ideas, is utter nonsense, of course.

 

But juicing has a significant number of fans and proponents, such as Cherie Calbom, self-declared “The Juice Lady”, who also claims to be “America’s most trusted nutritionalist”, whatever that means. Her evidence, to the extent that she feels the need to provide any, consists primarily of anecdotes, often involving herself, such as when she rid her body of “a tumor the size of golf ball” after consuming nothing but juice for five days – an achievment that, if it at all indicates anything that actually happened, ought to convince you never ever to take advice from her on absolutely anything.

 

Calbom has written a number of books, many of which are concerned with weight loss, such as The Coconut Diet: The Secret Ingredient For Effortless Weight Loss (with one John Calbom). The books contain absolutely nothing of value to anyone but instead a plethora of questionable health claims, and some of them aren’t completely innocuous, especially those made in her series The Juice Lady’s Remedies for …, which includes at least “Asthma and Allergies” and “Stress and Adrenal Fatigue”. Needless to say, juicing has absolutely no beneficial effect on real diseases, nor will it help remedy the conditions people interpret in light of fad fake diseases either. Among her more disconcerting titles, you’ll also find The Complete Cancer Cleanse: A Proven Program to Detoxify and Renew Body, Mind, and Spirit (with Michael Mahaffey and John Calbom again) – note that the authors are careful to merely suggest but not outright claim that their suggestions actually have any effect on cancer whatsoever; there are good reasons for that. (Despite Calbom’s complete lack of knowledge or understanding of cancer, some altmed crazies, like Judy Seeger, apparently take the title of her rant to indicate that she is something of a cancer expert). Among her titles are also some attempts to branch out into new territories, such as “Souping: The New Juicing”.

 

Calbom apparently holds a a Master of Science degree in whole foods nutrition from Bastyr University, which is not anything to be proud of.

 

Diagnosis: Complete and utter tripe, quackery and nonsense. But there is a rich market for this kind gentrified bullshit, and we admit that Calbom has figured out how to exploit it.

#2629: Joetta Calabrese

Joetta Calabrese is a homeopath, and as homeopaths are wont to do, she offers terrible advice on a range of issues. Ebola, for instance: According to Calabrese, “in the case of Ebola, no conventional treatment or vaccine is available. Fortunately for us, homeopathy has great renown for its healing ability in epidemics.” Homeopathy has no benefit for anything whatsoever, and insofar as that is reasonably well known, the statement might technically count as true, though not for the reasons Calabrese imagines it to be. She offers a range of what she considers to be treatment options, though – “remedies” homeopaths would push, without evidence of efficacy, for other diseases that, to Calabrese’s mind (to the extent that it’s there), “match this symptom picture” (homeopathy, of course, is all about symptoms) – all of which consist of water soaked into sugar pills. And, to repeat, Calabrese seems to believe these things, if her website is any indication. She also has a book, The Survivalist Guide to Homeopathy, which suggests she might be into other nonsense than medical nonsense as well.

 

Diagnosis: Completely delusional. If you suffer from anything, you’re better off trusting random chance selections of remedies than the advice of Joetta Calabrese. A significant threat to her surroundings.

 

Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence

#2628: Dan Calabrese

Dan Calabrese is a serious wingnut, conspiracy theorist, and editor-in-chief of the North Star Writers Group, which was operative a decade or so ago. Calabrese went on to be editor-in-chief of Herman Cain’s Best of Cain website, a position he used to promote various anti-gay nonsense and general wingnuttery. According to Calabrese, gay rights advocates and websites like OKCupid are promoting fascism and Bolshevism while acting just like The Borg of Star Trek: “This movement is evil. The gay movement understands something. They understand that in order for their movement to ultimately succeed, they need to turn the entire culture into a mindless army of obedient adherents like the Borg on Star Trek.” The occasion was the CEO of Mozilla stepping down after being revealed to donate to a campaign to repeal marriage equality in California in 2014. What it has to do with Bolshevism is unexplained but obvious enough. It’s instructive, however, to note that Calabrese thinks trying to get people to agree with him means turning them into a “mindless army of obedient adherents”. Don’t agree with Calabrese is the obvious lesson here.

 

Calabrese has weighed in on a number of equality-related issues, however. When Burger King launched an LGBT pride themed burger at one San Francisco location, Calabrese complained that when he was eating lunch, he didn’t want to “be thinking about is dude-on-dude action.” It’s unclear why he would, but he desperately yelled at Burger King that “You’re the ones who are making it an issue, not me.” But that’s incorrect; it’s Calabrese who makes it an issue because he can’t stop thinking about dude-on-dude action. “I don’t remember the last time adulterers, murderers or drunk drivers convinced a burger chain to name a product after them,” he lamented, because gay people are exactly like murderers and drunk drivers.

 

And that happened at the same time then-President Obama ensured he would keep gay people “in a state of demonic oppression” since he backed efforts to curtail the practice of conversion therapy on minors. Homosexuality is “demonic” and a gay person is in need of “a deliverance minister [who] can help him to get rid of the evil spirit.” Obama, by extension, is a phony Christian.

 

He was also, in 2014, appalled that Michigan Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer chose to pick Lisa Brown to be his running mate, since Brown in 2012 mentioned the word “vagina” in a House floor speech against an anti-choice bill. That’s a word no civilized person would use for a body part (at least unless it’s prefaced by ‘grabbed’, we suspect), and to Calabrese, Brown will forever be the “Vagina Woman” (it is, in other words, OK to use the word as a slur, but not to refer to a body part – you see the difference?)

 

Meanwhile, activists working to reform marijuana laws are “idiotic” and “dumb”. They are dumb primarily because they overlook “the spiritual implications of this issue”, namely that smoking marijuana “invites demonic infestation” and “puts a person at serious risk of demonic attack”. You see, “strident marijuana activists” have turned marijuana into their “god” and thereby given themselves “over to the spiritual enemies of God.” So there. Dumb.

 

Calabrese was also one of the main proponents of the Hilary Clinton shoe truther conspiracy theory. It’s not his only Clinton conspiracy. His ability to assess information is, in general, questionable.

 

Diagnosis: “Everyone who disagrees with me is possessed by demons!” is not a good starting point, but Calabrese starts and ends up there. Idiotic. Dumb.

#2627: Marco Cáceres de Iorio

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is an old beast among anti-vaccine groups, and one of the most unhinged – yes, it is Barbara Loe Fisher’s group. The Vaccine Reaction (TVR) is a house organ of the NVIC, and one that continues to spew out antivaccine propaganda covering every anti-vaccine PRATT and trope we have encountered (the VAERS database, anyone?), applying no discernible judgment as long as their claims, accusations and conspiracy theories might resonate with their audiences. Marco Cáceres is the editor of TVR, and seems to have written most of their articles.

 

According to Cáceres and the TVR, the numbers of people who “have been sickened or injured by the toxins in our environment, foods, and pharmaceutical products” (i.e. vaccines) is enormous and on the rise. They know this because they have already decided that it is the case, and will do anything to make the evidence fit the hypothesis, regardless of what medical science might say. Indeed, a central ploy of the TVR is, unsurprisingly, to try to spin virtually any medical event of note to concern vaccines, even when they really know it doesn’t. So when former Senator José Peralta died of sepsis at 47, Cáceres rushed to point out that the CDC admits that the flu vaccine can cause allergic reactions. He didn’t say outright that Peralta was killed by the flu vaccine, of course. Sepsis is, after all, not an allergic reaction. But you get no prize for answering the question “If Peralta died of sepsis, why did Cáceres bring up allergic reactions to the flu vaccine?”

 

And on the other hand, one can always go disease denialism. When the zika virus led to an increase in incidence of microcephaly in Brazil (thus suggesting a market for, you know, a zika virus vaccine), Cáceres was quick to lament how viruses are always the easy scapegoat (and “the same thoroughly unscientific mentality has been disseminated widely with regard to bacteria, disease, and fever”) – after all, viruses are natural: “we carry lots of viruses within us all the time, and they don’t harm us in the least bit. And some of them actually do good things for us,” says Cáceres, as if it were remotely relevant to the issue. But it is important to remember that germ theory denialism often lurks right beneath the surface in antivaccine thought.

 

And oh, is he (and antivaccine activists in general) persecuted! And in his post “Internet Trolls Attack Anyone Resisting Vaccine Party Line” he connects the dots: it’s the shills! All those social media friends and people showing up to tell you that vaccines are safe and effective: they are either backed by shadowy pharma-financed people or rely on information that originates with a small number of shills – apparently using a number of aliases to make you think there are more of them than there are. And one of the notable things about these nasty fellows is how mean they are – they resort to slander and personal insults [i.e. correct people like Cáceres using the mean and offensive technique of appeal to evidence], and when you do that, it shows that you have lost. No, Cáceres didn’t grasp the irony of his claim. But conspiracies are, unsurprisingly, strong with Cáceres, and with them comes the right to dismiss any research or evidence on the basis of perceiving ulterior motives: For instance, Cáceres could easily dismiss research on antivax media by noting that the lead author of a study was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health – in other words, the author was interested in public health and thus clearly not a disinterested party.

 

Diagnosis: One of the really central producers of antivaccine propaganda, and as such a serious threat to human health an well-being. Dangerous.