By Hank Campbell | September 28th 2025

Hank Campbell

Information freedom is a good thing but there is no question it has been weaponized. Many scientists have been ruined by activists and their trade groups who use Freedom of Information Act rules to find a sentence in correspondence with corporations or trade groups, remove it from context, and claim science is a corporate conspiracy. Then they publish it thanks to politically aligned schools like UC San Fransisco, where Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, will help any attorney wanting to sue companies.

Other activists have used information freedom and technological savvy for decades to spread rumors that a common weedkiller can cause cancer, bees are dying, and vaccines cause autism.

Given such rampant disinformation, often funded by trial lawyers hoping to sue - Predatorts - it is no surprise that 93% of patients to misinformation or disinformation about cancer treatments. Misinformation, often for profit, is so common even in prominent corporate media that doctors should assume patients have heard or read it, even if they did not search for it as true believers. Myths, misconceptions, unproven treatments, and disproven treatments are everywhere and it is impossible to know if some of it crept into brains and caused an issue, the way vaccines-cause-autism nonsense spread from left-wing science deniers of the 1990s-2020 to right-wing this decade.

The authors of a new paper argue doctors should adopt an “information prescription” to steer patients to sources of evidence-based information, though all of them have worrying instances where politics have manipulated reason. The American Cancer Society pivoted from settled science that cigarette smoking causes cancer to nonsense like that nicotine does. Their nutrition guidelines are aspirational wellness fad lingo rather than evidence-based. The American Academy of Pediatrics claims walking to school is bad for kids and that diet soda gives children diabetes. No science involved. None.

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So concern about second-hand disinformation is warranted but government did not suddenly become anti-science thanks to a Republican in the White House; we have criticized IARC, FDA, and the CDC, plus two other groups in the National Institutes of Health because they ignored science to promote an agenda. It is worse with Robert Kennedy running HHS, but not dramatically different. The Obama administration had the same concerns about preservatives that the Trump one does today.

Social media can help. If your physician is anti-gun and pro-juice cleanse and can't resist preaching both your source is one, whereas social media provides diversity. Unless their algorithm sees you searched for Topic Z - the CDC and AAP's manufactured teen vaping epidemic, for example - and decides you love Topic Z so they send a firehose of Topic Z. You aren't wrong if you suddenly worry your teen is a Nicotine Zombie.

Belief that Vitamin C cures colds has been around since the 1970s and claims that bees are dying have been around since the 2000s, they are not going anywhere as long as people can raise money with deception but when it comes to a serious issue like cancer, people are already scared. Doctors can proactively mitigate that but doing the science version of 'you didn't offend God and he gave you cancer' discussions.

It is actually good that people are educating themselves. If you go to a mechanic and say your ODB II code says P2096 and he tells you that you shouldn't do your own diagnostic, it probably isn't an O2 sensor like Google says, you need a new transmission mechatronic (yes, Foreign Autohaus did tell me that), go to a different mechanic. But special diets, supplements, and mind-body holistic mumbo-jumbo aren't costing you money, they are costing you your life. As Apple co-founder Steve Jobs learned.

Do most people who feel like alternatives to medicine are valid discuss that with their doctors? They do not. In modern government-controlled healthcare, most doctors are in a hurry, and it is understandable why, but patients who feel like they are imposing or will be told they are stupid for asking questions won't.

Unless they are smoking, obese, or alcohol drinkers the chances they 'did anything wrong' are negligible. Let's hope that academics and doctors suddenly standing up for science now that Republicans say what Democrats said for decades maintain that vigilance when their allies want AAP to promote Organic Food and other nonsense that aligns with political beliefs.