The public health establishment follows a philosophy of medicine that serves corporate interests

Bad philosophy has disastrous consequences; there are better ways forward

I. The ghost of positivism in American public health

In 2018, I presented my research on autism during a poster session at the 3,000-person American Public Health Association (APHA) annual meeting in San Diego.

What was striking — from the opening plenary through all of the talks and posters — is that nearly everyone there was a positivist. Positivism is the belief that ‘there is an objective truth that can be known, the data are the data, and the evidence speaks for itself.’

The APHA’s near-universal acceptance of positivism was a surprise to me because I had spent the previous four years reading about the history and philosophy of medicine in my Ph.D. program and almost no one who actually studies those topics is a positivist. Positivism is dead and has been for over a century. The introduction of quantum mechanics in the early 1900s — with its concepts of entanglement, superposition, and observer effects — overturned the certainty of Newtonian physics. Thomas Kuhn demolished what remained of positivism with The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962 by demonstrating that subjectivity runs throughout the scientific endeavor.

People who study the history and philosophy of medicine (like Helen Longino) recognize that our knowledge of the universe is always imperfect, limited by our senses (what if the truth lies outside of our ability to observe it?), and that everyone inevitably brings all sorts of biases to the interpretation of data. Subjectivity, unfortunately, is inseparable from science because the observer is always a part of that which is observed. Thus proper science begins with a disclosure of one’s philosophy of science, a discussion about the “lenses” one brings to the interpretation of the data, and a description of the steps one has taken to address biases and other limitations (even though such efforts will always be incomplete).

The APHA does not appear to be aware of any of this. At the 2018 conference, speaker after speaker pledged that they followed The Science™️ — there was no inkling whatsoever that there are different approaches to the philosophy of science and medicine.

In 2019, I gave a talk at the APHA annual meeting in Philadelphia on how positivism is dead and why we should use a political economy approach to interpreting data (with a focus on identifying and limiting financial conflicts of interest that corrupt research results).

Then, in 2020, the APHA engaged in crimes against humanity as part of the Covid response and they have been the shock troops of the iatrogenocide ever since.

Bad philosophy has disastrous consequences.

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II. The public health establishment follows a philosophy of medicine that serves corporate interests

If humanity is going to survive, we urgently need to re-start the conversation about the history and philosophy of medicine. The WHO, NIH, FDA, CDC, AMA, AAP, ACOG, APHA, BMGF, Wellcome Trust, etc. are engaged in iatrogenocide. One reason the members of these institutions get everything wrong is because they are following a shallow, corporate, junk science philosophy of medicine.

Let’s unpack this a bit. I’ll start by defining key terms:

“Ontology investigates what types of entities exist, how they are grouped into categories, and how they are related to one another.”

“Epistemology is the philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge.” Put simply: how do we determine if something is “true”?

Praxis [action, practice]: Your day-to-day actions based on your ontology and epistemology. How you show up in the world.

Okay so let’s apply those definitions to our current crisis.

The WHO, NIH, FDA, CDC, AMA, AAP, ACOG, APHA, BMGF, Wellcome Trust, etc….

What is their ontology?

• Humans are soulless, programmable machines no different from a computer.

• The mind is superior to the body.

• The world consists of rulers and peasants. The rulers are subjects that make decisions, the peasants are objects to be acted upon.

• Viruses, bacteria, and “defective genes” are trying to kill us. The purpose of science is to control nature.

What is their epistemology?

• The laws of the material world can be determined through the sciences — physics, chemistry, biology, etc.

• Scientists, those employed by the scientists (consultants and such), and those who employ the scientists (Pharma, hedge funds, international agencies, etc.) are the only people who know what’s true.

• If the public health establishment puts out a press release it’s true by virtue of fact that these people are The Science.™️

• The word “vaccine” on the outside of any vial transmogrifies the contents into something life-giving because The Science™️ says so.

• Anyone who questions The Science™️ is therefore “anti-science” and obviously wrong.

What is their praxis?

• Centralize everything.

• Elites in Geneva should make all medical decisions. Because elites are the best people we should have One World Government, headquartered in Geneva (with annual trips to Davos to service the billionaires).

• The peasants should sit down, shut up, know their place, take their vaccines, and die because that’s the natural order of the world.

Taken together, these beliefs serve to amplify their power and wealth. The results have been disastrous for humanity — skyrocketing rates of chronic disease, the release of gain-of-function viruses to create profitable pandemics, the deaths of millions of people, the destruction of democratic societies, and the most extreme transfer of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in history. The scientific method (that traditionally emphasized humility, curiosity, and rigorous debate) has been replaced with a fascist ideology of centralized power and groupthink.

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III. An alternative philosophy of medicine

One of the things that makes the medical freedom movement great is that we do NOT agree on everything. We are radically decentralized and believe in the sovereignty of individuals to think for themselves and make their own decisions. So what I propose below is one of many possible alternative philosophies of medicine. Rather than try to put words in anyone’s mouth, I will just define my own philosophy of medicine. And I look forward to reading your descriptions of your philosophy of medicine in the comments below.

What is my ontology?

• Every body is unique and different.

• Humans are not machines.

• Medicine is an art as well as a science.

• Personalized N-of-1 medicine is a fundamental human right.

• One-size-fits-all medicine is savagery and barbarism.

• Vaccines are corporate junk science; they have never been shown to be safe or effective.

What is my epistemology?

• No one has perfect knowledge.

• Science is never settled.

• In theory, science is “the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world….” In practice, science has become captured and corrupted by capital and almost nothing coming from these institutions or corporations is “true” or “valid” in the traditional sense of those words. I would welcome a return to Mertonian norms of science.

• Intuition is a perfectly valid way of knowing; it has served humanity well for thousands of years.

What is my praxis?

• Medicine must be decentralized to prevent capture by industry.

• The sovereignty of the individual to make all medical decisions is absolute.

• Follow the money. Any financial conflicts of interest no matter how small change research outcomes.

• Science and medicine are reflections of power. That power must be vested in individuals and families, not government or institutions.

• Corrupt institutions can rarely be reformed, usually they need to be abolished or replaced.

I humbly posit that a shift from the dominant corporate philosophy of medicine to something along the lines of what I have described as an alternative is necessary for humanity to survive the current crisis.

Now I turn the conversation over to you — how do you describe your philosophy of medicine?

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Blessings to the warriors. 🙌

Prayers for everyone fighting to stop the iatrogenocide. 🙏

Huzzah for those who are building the parallel society our hearts know is possible. ✊

In the comments, please share your philosophy of medicine.

I think that I’m doing something unique and valuable with my Substack. If you agree and are able, I hope that you will become a paid subscriber today. 🙏

As always, I welcome any corrections.

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