August 9, 2019, Washington Post reporter Lena H. Sun asked to interview me for an article she was writing about me. I was unable to accept due to speaking engagements, but I did respond to a series of questions in writing.
Considering Sun and the Washington Post’s history of publishing articles in favor of industry, I decided to publish all of the questions and my answers in full, to avoid misrepresentation. Toward the end of this article, you will find correspondence to Sun in its entirety.
In my August response, I also confronted Sun about The Washington Post's concerted efforts to "dig up dirt" on me and my company, as well as her failure to publish a correction to a vaccine story in which she made a false claim.
Nearly four months later, on December 2, 2019, I was contacted yet again by the Washington Post, asking me to answer additional questions. Oddly enough, we were already in receipt of the article with a publication date of November 15, 2019.1
These additional questions were disingenuous as they claim they had published a draft of the article, and they are now going to republish a fresh hit piece they've been putting together since August for the second time. I did not answer these additional questions, but will address the implications of some of them here.
The Washington Post reporters are really concerned with how much money I make selling vitamins, which is ironic considering the owner of Washington Post has admitted to selling and profiting off of FAKE supplements!
They’re also trying to portray the success of my website and my financial support of nonprofit health advocates such as the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) as having “fueled the largest measles outbreak in the United States in nearly 30 years,” calling the partnership between Mercola.com and NVIC “a new strategy for the anti-vaccine movement that is especially dangerous.”2
I have been asked many times to sell my website, which I’ve been told is worth over $100 million. I will never sell, and I’ve donated about $2 million of the revenue from this website each year to nonprofits committed to changing the landscape to make it easier for you to lead a healthier life.
The donations are more than the income they reported in the article. You can find these organizations at the bottom of each webpage.
Fighting Pharma Earns Hit Piece at Bezos WaPo
In her November 15, 2019, article Sun writes:3
“Mercola.com, a top destination for those seeking information on vaccines, has amassed Mercola a fortune through selling products that he falsely claims are viable alternatives to vaccines.
For instance, the site encourages consumers to take Vitamin D … which he sells, rather than get vaccinated against the flu … For instance, in a video Mercola posted on YouTube last September during flu season, he falsely said vaccines can lead to ‘death and permanent neurological complications.’
He went on to promote ‘far more effective less expensive and less risky alternatives’ like Vitamin D supplements … While many people do have a deficiency in Vitamin D, which is needed for strong bones, it is not a substitute for the seasonal flu vaccine.”
Clearly, Sun should know better, I’m simply reporting on published science — studies that are freely available to anyone with a computer and online access. Other major media outlets have reported these findings as well.
For example, February 16, 2017, BBC News reported4 the findings of a study5 published in the British Medical Journal, showing vitamin D outperforms flu vaccines. As reported by BBC News:6
“Overall, the study said one person would be spared infection for every 33 taking vitamin D supplements. That is more effective than flu vaccination, which needs to treat 40 to prevent one case,7 although flu is far more serious than the common cold.”
A 2018 Cochrane review,8 which looked at 52 clinical trials investigating the efficacy of vaccines to prevent influenza in healthy adults, concluded 71 people would have to be vaccinated to avoid a single case of influenza.
Considering the number needed to treat (NNT) for vitamin D is 33, compared to the flu vaccine, which is somewhere between 40 and 71, saying that vitamin D is a viable alternative to flu vaccine is an accurate and truthful statement. Furthermore, I never mentioned anything about my products.
Other studies have come to similar conclusions. For example, a randomized, double-blind 2010 study9 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that “vitamin D(3) supplementation during the winter may reduce the incidence of influenza A, especially in specific subgroups of schoolchildren.” According to the authors, “Influenza A occurred in 18 of 167 (10.8%) children in the vitamin D(3) group compared with 31 of 167 (18.6%) children in the placebo group.”
Meanwhile, other studies have shown there’s no evidence that flu vaccination is an effective choice, let alone the best one. For example, a 2010 review10 by the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews — which included 75 studies looking at vaccines’ ability to prevent influenza in the elderly — concluded that “The available evidence is of poor quality and provides no guidance regarding the safety, efficacy or effectiveness of influenza vaccines for people aged 65 years or older.”
Vaccines Can Cause Serious Harm
More egregious, however, is Sun’s statement that I “falsely said vaccines can lead to ‘death and permanent neurological complications.’” That is NOT a false statement, and I can prove that a hundred times over. That vaccines can cause neurological damage is an indisputable and irrefutable FACT:
• The “Adverse Events Associated With Childhood Vaccines: Evidence Bearing on Causality,” chapter 3: Neurologic Disorders, which is published by the U.S. Institute of Medicine’s Vaccine Safety Committee, states:11
“Acute demyelinating disease of the central and peripheral nervous systems can follow vital and some bacterial infections and can complicate the administration of inactivated antiviral vaccines.
The acute monophasic central nervous system disease is variably known as postvaccinal encephalomyelitis, postinfectious encephalomyelitis, or acute disseminated encephalomyelitis ( ADEM).
The peripheral nervous system complication is known as postinfectious neuritis, acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuritis, or the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and is characterized by the rapid onset of flaccid motor weakness with depression of tendon reflexes and inflammatory demyelination of peripheral nerves …
ADEM is characterized by acute depression of consciousness and multifocal neurologic findings that usually occur a few days or weeks following vaccine administration or virus-like disease. It is characterized pathologically by diffuse foci of perivenular inflammation and demyelination that are most prominent in the white matter of the brain and spinal cord.”
• Encephalopathy (brain disease, brain damage or brain malfunction) or encephalitis (brain inflammation) are listed on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program’s Vaccine Injury Table12 as covered conditions, and vaccine injured patients have received compensation from the U.S. vaccine court for neurological damage.
• The package insert for the MMR II vaccine13 clearly states that encephalitis and encephalopathy have been reported following MMR II vaccination and is a possible side effect of the vaccine. Ditto for Afluria, an inactivated influenza vaccine,14 the Flulaval quadrivalent vaccine,15 Fluzone16 and others.
• Death is also a possible outcome according to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program,17 and payments have been made to families who have lost loved ones to lethal vaccine side effects.
• Research18 published in 2004 found that the mortality rate among infants vaccinated with a single dose of DTP (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine doubled over the six months following vaccination, and the mortality rate more than quadrupled after the second and third dose.
This research was led by Dr. Peter Aaby, a Novo Nordisk Prize winner for distinguished research on measles and measles vaccination. Aaby has published no less than 35 papers, all questioning the safety of the DTP vaccine.
So, tell me — just how is my warning that vaccines can lead to death and permanent neurological complications a falsehood? It’s clearly and provably not a false statement, and anyone can verify this for themselves.
Will WaPo Try to Pin Samoan Measles Outbreak on Mercola.com?
Among the questions included in the Washington Post’s December email was a request for a comment on the measles outbreak in Samoa. I do not have a following in Samoa, have never been to Samoa or talked with anyone in Samoa — but medical errors and lifestyle factors do kill people there too.
As reported by The Vaccine Reaction on December 6, 2019:19
“A total of 2,194 cases of measles have been reported in Samoa this year. The government has declared a state of emergency and closed all schools, including the nation’s only university. Samoan health authorities are developing plans to implement compulsory MMR (mumps, measles, rubella) vaccinations on Nov. 25, 2019 …
Dr. Leausa Toleafoa Take Naseri … estimated that 66 percent of the country’s population of 200,000 people has been vaccinated against measles. The relatively low rate of vaccination in Samoa has been cited by that country’s Ministry of Health as the main reason for the … deaths.”
Malnutrition is a significant risk factor for child mortality, and Samoa has high rates of malnutrition.21,22 It’s not a big leap to suggest that malnourished children will be at greater risk of death from measles. Samoa suspended their vaccination program after the two infant deaths immediately after MMR vaccination, these deaths have sparked extreme distrust in Samoa - don't blame others for the primary source of mistrust.
Vitamin A Deficiency Plays a Key Role in Measles
Samoa also has high rates of vitamin A deficiency, which the CDC points out “has been associated with severe cases of measles in children.”23 According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 16% of preschoolers have vitamin A deficiency, which indicates “vitamin A is lacking in the daily diet” of Samoan infants and children.24
The 2017 FAO report25 “Dietary Patterns of Households in Samoa” also illustrates just how pervasive vitamin A deficiency and insufficiency is across the Samoan islands.
A 1993 paper26 in the American Journal of Pediatrics highlighted the usefulness of vitamin A in the treatment of measles, noting that “Several recent investigations have indicated that vitamin A treatment of children with measles in developing countries has been associated with reductions in morbidity and mortality.” According to a December 1, 2019 report by RZN:27
“Anti-vaccination groups are sending boxes of vitamins to Samoa, but critics are bristling at their influence as the government struggles to raise vaccination rates …
The shipments are being received by a Samoan businessman, Edwin Tamasese, who opposes the use of paracetamol and antibiotics for measles patients. He said the vitamins are working.
‘We're having really good success, like in 16 hours we're having kids that are lying there looking like they're going to pass away, and they are weak, but then they get up and start drinking, and start to eat.’
The World Health Organization (WHO) says Vitamin A deficiency is a recognized risk factor for severe measles, and in New Zealand doses are recommended for all children hospitalized with the disease … More than 200 boxes of the vitamins have been sent to Samoa so far, from countries like the United States.”
Severe Complications That Can Result From Measles
Sepsis is one of the most dangerous complications from measles, I’ve written many articles regarding the latest developments of a significantly more effective treatment using Vitamin C, Vitamin B1 and hydrocortisone intravenously. This could be a life-saving treatment for the most serious cases of measles.
Samoan Parents Scared After Deadly MMR Debacle
There’s also the fact that MMR vaccine actually killed two infants within minutes in 2018, which led many parents to avoid vaccination. At the time, Naseri, director general of health, temporarily halted the vaccination program so that a thorough investigation could take place.28
Is it any wonder people might be skittish about vaccinating their babies after news of near-instantaneous death? If anything, this tragedy supports my warning that vaccines have risks, and those risks come in many forms.
Some people are more susceptible to vaccine damage due to genetic factors, others due to environmental influences. Vaccine batches can be faulty or contaminated. Then, of course, there’s the human element of health professionals making horrific mistakes. As reported by Stuff:29
“While the country's immunization rates have never been high, a reluctance to get vaccinated has been blamed on an incident in 2018 when two babies died after they were administered botched MMR vaccines.
Two nurses pleaded guilty to negligence causing manslaughter after one mixed the MMR vaccine with expired muscle relaxant anaesthetic instead of water. The concoction stopped the babies' hearts within minutes. Both nurses were jailed this year for five years.”
Washington Post Promotes Industry Propaganda
As noted in an August 6, 2019, HuffPost article30 by Paul Thacker, media reporters and columnists are routinely enlisted, groomed and secretly used to disseminate industry propaganda, and Sun’s reporting bears many of the hallmarks and talking points of the vaccine industry. Her questions to me have them as well.
In his article,31 Thacker highlights another Washington Post columnist, Tamar Haspel, whose blogs and articles consistently favor the GMO industry and chemical agriculture.
Haspel has also become a voice for GMO Answers (an industry front group created by Monsanto’s PR firm, Ketchum). Not surprisingly, there’s now evidence suggesting Haspel works rather closely with Monsanto and Ketchum. According to Thacker:
“For many who have been suspicious of Haspel’s relationship with agrichemical giants, the documents are further evidence that she’s too close to the industry she writes about and that her prominent column at The Washington Post provides a perch to spread misleading information about agriculture and the food we eat.
The War on Health Freedom Is Heating Up
I’ve been publishing articles about the dangers of social engineering and data collection by the largest monopolies for several years. Facebook, Google and Amazon are engaged in a dangerous attempt to control the masses through massive data collection, surveillance and censorship.
These technology tyrants are working overtime to prevent access to information that contradicts their world view and ultimate goal, driven by greed, conquest and insatiable lust for control.
While the justifications given for the current censorship on holistic health in general and vaccine safety in particular is that of “public safety,” one must question the rationale behind blocking first-hand testimony of vaccine damage, and bullying and maligning of victims of medical harm rather than supporting them and investigating the causes that allow for harms to occur on such vast scales.
Between the current online censorship and the exponential advancement of artificial intelligence, our ability to think independently is under immediate threat. Social engineering tactics are employed from every angle — the manipulation and control of a significant portion of the global population is occurring right before our very eyes.
There is a reason that data has become the world’s most valuable resource, exceeding the value of oil.32 As reported by The Economist in 2017,33 Amazon captures 50 cents of every dollar Americans spend online, while Google and Facebook between them “accounted for almost all the revenue growth in digital advertising in America” in 2016.
Facebook alone makes billions by tracking every click, image, word and GPS location of its users and then selling that information to anyone willing to pay. Google, meanwhile, has infiltrated virtually every nook and cranny of our lives.
By taking over schools, it now has the means to start its extensive data harvesting right from childhood, building the most extensive personality profiles of a generation ever conceived.
And, while current censorship and social engineering efforts are focused primarily on eliminating voices that are critical of vaccines, it would be foolish and naïve in the extreme to believe it will end there.
Ultimately, the end goal is total control — they will tell you what you need, be it a vaccine, a medication, a toxic food or any other goods or services, and you are to comply, handing over your mind, body and cash, no questions asked.
Surveillance and social manipulation through censorship and “curated content” are all required for such a nonviolent yet hostile takeover to work, and all of them are currently in play, right before our eyes, behind our backs.
Big Brother Joins Big Tec In ‘Surveillance Valley’
As reported by NBC News34 August 8, 2019, Amazon is now “developing high-tech surveillance tools” for the U.S. police force, saying it “has a duty to help police, defense and intelligence agencies.”
While there are benefits, there are also hidden drawbacks and side effects of such partnerships, the most obvious one being the expansion of government’s ability to surveil Americans without just cause.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos also bought The Washington Post in 2013.35 Now, what could the owner of a massive monopoly, who has no newspaper experience, want with a newspaper?
Considering the power of collecting data and controlling information at the scale that this surveillance allows, logic will tell you that when you combine mass data collection capabilities with a massive media empire, you develop the synergistic ability to protect and further your goal — whatever it might be, from moment to moment.
Google and Facebook follow the same model — they collect data, control information and use artificial intelligence for social engineering purposes.
I’ve been the target of hit pieces pushing industry propaganda for a long time, and I’ve been talking about the dangers of these technofascists for years.
We are now looking at the “endgame” for the continued existence of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and not only your ability but also your very right to take control of your health. All of these basic human rights of autonomy and self-determination are under attack, and unless we defend them with everything we’ve got, we may well lose them all.
What follows are my August responses to Sun’s questions (all verbatim) for her Washington Post article, starting with my commentary on her attempts to extract information from former Mercola.com employees.
Confronting Sun About Dirt Digging and False Statements
Before I answer your questions, I have a comment to make: We’ve received disturbing communications from former employees informing us of your attempts to solicit negative opinions and confidential business data from them. If you are interested in seeing the true culture at Mercola.com, the following video was recently produced by some of my employees to celebrate our 22nd anniversary.
Furthermore, in an October 25, 2017, story you published false information about vaccines and whooping cough, which you stated does not occur in communities with high rates of immunization. We duly sent you a correction. Your response, oddly, was to delete the false information but, to our knowledge, you did not issue a correction.
If you did publish a correction and we missed it, please advise.
This type of journalistic error being covered up and your repeated questions containing false claims and attacks on others supporting informed consent principles demonstrates a reckless disregard of the truth and adherence to fair journalism standards which include presenting opposing views and different perspectives.
Some of the claims you make about me and my company are not remotely true.
• You claim that I state “my products are better than vaccines.” If such a statement is indeed found on my website, why don’t you provide the link? To allege that I claim “my products are better than vaccines,” is false, and demonstrates a reckless disregard of the truth.
• You claim I “tell[s] people not to get vaccinated and to take Vitamin D instead.” That statement is twice false: I do not tell people not to get vaccinated, and I do not say to take vitamin D instead of getting vaccinated. Making either claim in any article you publish would demonstrate a reckless disregard for the truth.
• You infer that I make big profits by taking on unpopular positions and getting attacked by critics. I donate a significant amount of sales to nonprofit groups — none of it earmarked — to advance individual and public health by encouraging people to take control of their health and defend their freedom to do that.
Consumers have enormous power if they have the knowledge and freedom to wield it, and I urge everyone to make informed choices that improve their health and decrease their need to rely on pharmaceutical products or medical interventions that have real risks and cause tens of thousands of deaths each year, not just in this country but in countries around the world.
The Washington Post Q & A
Question: Tell us your story, how you got into medicine and natural health.
Answer: As a child I always dreamed of becoming an astronaut and began my academic studies in an engineering program before changing my major to pre-med. I graduated from Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1982 and became board certified in family medicine in 1985 before starting my own practice. I answer this question in more detail in this short video.
Question: How many products do you sell and how would you categorize them? What are your most popular products? Why are your products better than vaccines, as you say on your web site?
Answer: There are more than 100 different products at shop.mercola.com that include vitamins and supplements, organic fruit and vegetable powders, biodynamic foods, Alaskan seafood, grass fed beef, organic cotton clothing and pet products.
Please provide the reference regarding the claim that “my products are better than vaccines.” That is a blatantly false and defamatory statement.
If you are referring to this video recorded by Dr. Joe Prendergast, he explains why he believes vitamin D is more powerful than any vaccine. I cannot find anything that resembles your false accusation.
Question: How has your business evolved? What were you selling in the 90s, mid-2000s, and later? How much do [sic] your businesses make? In the natural health space, how big of a player are you?
Answer: I started my website in the late 1990’s to share health information with my patients and their families. For the first three years of running the site, I supported the cost entirely from my medical practice alone and sold no products.
I eventually realized that did not scale well as the site grew in popularity. The only realistic options were to either charge for a subscription for the information, accept advertising, or sell my own products.
Subscribers wanted free information, and I didn’t want to advertise products and businesses that I didn’t trust or believe in — so, I formulated, tested and sold my own brand of products to support the website.
I have around 175 employees. It is a fairly small business in comparison to the companies that make up a majority of the nutraceutical space.
Question: Do you still practice medicine/see patients and if not, when did you stop practicing medicine?
Answer: I stopped seeing patients in 2009 so I could concentrate my time on publishing my research. Instead of helping tens of thousands of people in my office, I could help hundreds of millions of people nationally and internationally. My website is now published in 12 languages.
Question: How would you characterize your position on vaccines and how has it evolved, if at all?
Answer: I believe very strongly in the principle of informed consent and am deeply concerned about the enormous amounts of money spent by pharmaceutical companies to lobby federal and state legislatures. The deep conflicts of interest that exist because of public-private business partnerships between drug company giants and federal health agencies has created a revolving door that is progressively eroding consumer safety.
I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all-cradle-to-grave mandated use of liability-free vaccines because it violates individual freedoms and eliminates health care choices. I think medical policies that rely almost exclusively on indiscriminate use of prescription drugs and vaccines by children and adults does not protect individual or public health.
The revolving door between top government health officials and pharmaceutical companies is particularly disturbing. Gottlieb goes to Pfizer, Gerberding goes to Merck – the list goes on and on.
The CDC itself deceives the public by presenting disclaimers that erroneously claim no financial conflicts of interest while receiving millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies.
The pharmaceutical choices we make must remain free from any legally mandated social penalties. The pharmaceutical and pesticide industries operate essentially in the same way as criminal organizations exploiting people for financial gain.
The mass media is quite friendly to industry talking points and very protective of its advertisers and advertising money.
The pharmaceutical companies spend billions of dollars every year advertising through media.
Question: We understand that you reached out to Barbara Loe Fisher around 2007/2008 to work with her. What prompted you to do so? Tax records show you've given around $400,000 a year to the National Vaccine Information Center — why did you decide to do this and what do you see as the benefit for Mercola.com?
Answer: I personally reached out to NVIC over a decade ago because they produce accurate, referenced information and are completely aligned with my philosophical beliefs.
I can strongly assure you that being an adversary to powerful industries is not a positive for a business like mine, being targeted with major discrediting campaigns and the leveraging of regulatory agencies, which is just a small part of the cost required to engage in these battles.
Question: Tax records also show you fund the Organic Consumer Association and others. Can you tell us why you decided to fund these groups. Can you also tell us more about what the Health Liberty Coalition does and why you founded it?
Answer: I support the Organic Consumers Association because of their dedication to improving food and agriculture. Good health requires good food, but we’ve polluted most of the earth’s water and depleted much of the soils. Agriculture consolidation and control is threatening the very existence of farmers, and the fertilizer / pesticide treadmill the current processed food business depends on is toxic and unsustainable.
The pesticide industry is increasingly damaging our health and deceiving people, extending their tentacles into scientific journals and media.
A Washington Post columnist’s relationship has recently been uncovered as part of a strategic relationship for the agrichemical business.
Regeneration International is an initiative I support through the OCA.
All of the organizations I support can be found in the footer of my website. They are all dedicated to protecting individual rights, the environment and improving health by helping eliminate barriers that industry and government have created to achieve optimal health. All contributions are in the form of unrestricted grants. I believe in the mission of these organizations and ask for nothing in return.
Health Liberty was started as a way for non-profits working to empower people with information to network and share knowledge. There is massive social engineering occurring, especially by the technofascists of Silicon Valley — and I believe that everything that can be done should be done to empower individuals to take control of their health.
Question: Has NVIC helped your business? If so, what are the examples?
Answer: As stated previously, for more than a decade I have financially supported the work of the National Vaccine Information Center, a charitable organization founded by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982 to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education.
I believe in their mission and their strong defense of civil liberties and human rights, including the human right to exercise informed consent to medical procedures or use of pharmaceutical products like vaccines that have risks. The information they publish is well researched and helps people make educated vaccine decisions, which is what everyone should be doing.
Publicly supporting non-profits like NVIC that are being attacked by the media for criticizing drug companies, government health agencies and medical trade associations for not doing their jobs when it comes to protecting children’s health does not help my business, but it is the right thing to do.
Question: You tell people not to get vaccinated and to take Vitamin D instead. But you also sell Vitamin D. How can people trust your motives and your credibility?
Answer: I tell people to become informed and make their own decisions. I personally would never take the influenza vaccine. Getting a flu shot every year can make some people more susceptible to influenza-like illness caused by other respiratory viral infections, as well as increase risks for influenza. In addition, the effectiveness of influenza vaccine has been less than 50% during the past decade.
Epidemiology of respiratory viral infections in children enrolled in a study of influenza vaccine effectiveness.
Increased risk of noninfluenza respiratory virus infections associated with receipt of inactivated influenza vaccine
Annual Vaccination against influenza Virus hampers Development of Virus-Specific CD8+ T Cell Immunity in Children
Difference in immune response in vaccinated and unvaccinated Swedish individuals after the 2009 influenza pandemic.
CDC Seasonal Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Studies
I get my vitamin D from controlled exposure to the sun, as I tell everyone to do, because a vitamin D supplement is inferior to natural sunshine. However, especially for people who live in northern latitudes, vitamin D supplements can help maintain appropriate vitamin D levels.
Optimizing your vitamin D levels to between 40-60 ng/ml is one of the best ways to improve immune system function.
Nearly every year the flu vaccine is promoted for the elderly as a life-saving drug and yet every year it is a failure for those most vulnerable to influenza
Flu vaccine injury is one of the most widely reported vaccine injuries, including in the federal vaccine injury compensation program that has awarded more than $4 billion to vaccine injured children and adults since 1988. It should be noted that the manufacturers of flu vaccine, like the manufacturers of all vaccines licensed, recommended and mandated in the U.S., do not have any liability in civil court when a child or adult suffers a vaccine reaction that can permanently damage health or even cause death.
You can read more about my position on influenza vaccines here:
Who can people trust? It’s up to each one of us to decide who to trust and what to do about how we want to stay well. That is the point — people should have the freedom to choose.
Question: How do you respond to critics saying that you’re profiting off of bad medical advice?
Answer: It takes decades before what is criticized today becomes standard treatment of care in the future. I’ve been criticized for my positions on artificial sweeteners, appropriate sunshine exposure, excessive mammograms, glyphosate, ketogenic diets, EMF’s, cholesterol, eggs, statins, Vioxx — the list goes on and on. Over time, my positions have been proven correct more often than not.
The practice of medicine must change. Many current medical policies and practices are undergoing scrutiny by both the public and critics inside the medical profession and will eventually be discarded, but the pharmaceutical industry will continue to work to silence the critics through smear campaigns and financial lobbying to convince legislators that nothing should change so they can protect market share.
My intent is to empower individuals to take back their health. I defend freedom and autonomy. I believe that people should be allowed to identify and access simple, inexpensive and safe alternatives to the conventional medical system, which is contributing to the premature death of millions and is causing needless pain and suffering in great part because multinational corporations want to increase their revenues.
It has been my experience and observation that these multinational corporations and oligarchs will do everything in their power to control the people, control the food, the medicine and government programs so they can also control the money.
Question: State and federal regulators have warned you about false and misleading claims on your web site about your products. How do you respond to those charges?
Answer: The warning related to thermography was based on political pressure from the vastly oversold, multibillion- dollar mammography industry. I’ve been talking about this for nearly two decades. This fact has become more widely recognized.
The FTC settlement regarding my views on UVB health benefits was based on criticisms and political pressure from the American Academy of Dermatology and a position taken by a dermatologist Surgeon General, who had developed an action plan targeting UVB advocates. The AAD and Surgeon General are wrong and provide dangerous advice by saying there is no safe level of sun exposure for any skin type.
I believe it is a grave error for the American Academy of Dermatology to recommend that people completely avoid sunshine because UVB is instrumental to producing vitamin D. There is a large industry that directs everyone of all skin tones to avoid the sun — yet indoor workers end up with the most skin cancers because of this complete misunderstanding of the importance of responsible UVB exposure.
Others are beginning to recognize this mistaken advice as well.
Question: We noticed you have moved your foundation and your businesses to Florida. What's the reason for that? We also noticed you've created a new foundation called the Mangrove Pines Farm Foundation — can you tell us about that and your plans for it?
Answer: I moved the business to Florida because it offered the opportunity for a better lifestyle fit for the company. Avoiding Chicago‘s harsh winters has significant advantages for health, and the state of Illinois has serious financial problems that make it a very challenging environment for small and medium-sized businesses.
The Mangrove Pines Farm Foundation is in development and will become an educational nonprofit to teach people how to grow their own food regeneratively, without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.