THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R)
Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R) wants to reform the rules of end-of-life medical care so that more cancer patients can simply flush out their disease using baking soda. Fiore, who is also CEO of a healthcare company, told listeners to her weekly radio show on Saturday, that she will soon introduce a “terminally ill bill,” to allow more non-FDA-approved treatments for those diagnosed as having terminal illnesses. As first reported by Jon Ralston, Fiore told listeners: “If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a pic line into your body and we’re flushing, let’s say, salt water, sodium cardonate [sic], through that line, and flushing out the fungus… These are some procedures that are not FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive, cost-effective.”
There’s a pronounced difference between spectacularly ill-informed and dangerously stupid, and it would seem Fiore has managed to highlight that difference. You’d think the CEO of a healthcare company would have a better grasp of the realities of cancer…or at the very least not be willing to spread lies and disinformation that could prove to be dangerous to cancer patients. (And I’m not at all certain I want to know her views on vaccinating children.)
That her unscientific quackery has been thoroughly debunked and dismissed should hardly come as a surprise. That it’s someone with Fiore’s background spreading the disinformation and falsehoods is truly disturbing. Cancer is not just a fungus that can be washed out of the body. Were that to be true, there would be many more people walking the Earth today, free of cancer, instead of being six feet under. There would have been no need for the billions upon billions spent on cancer research. Drug companies wouldn’t be the multi-billion dollar behemoths they are today. Baking soda companies would be.
No matter how I try to wrap my head around her theory, there’s just no way to camouflage the insipid simplicity with which she explains away problems that have baffled oncologists and cancers researchers for generations. To seriously believe that cancer is a fungus that can expunged from the body using baking soda is…well, I just don’t have the words to adequately capture how dangerously ignorant that sort of belief is. That she’s a Republican state legislator seems unsurprising given the quality (or lack thereof) of so many in today’s GOP.
I’m all for expanding the regimen of treatments available to treat cancer, but doesn’t it make sense to limit those treatments to those with a basis in reality? You know, something that scientific research has borne out the validity of? Without that, aren’t we running the risk of giving false hope to those suffering from cancer? Don’t those afflicted with cancer deserve real hope instead of quackery and ignorance from someone unable to recognize just how dangerously ignorant her theory is.
Welcome to our new idiocracy.
