by ROBERT W MALONE MD, MS at rwmalonemd.substack.com
Fifth Generation Warfare, weaponization of public health, shoddy peer review, and shoddy journalism
My friend and respected colleague Jeff Childers did a nice job summarizing the main-stream and alternate media fear porn surrounding one recent case of leprosy (Hansen’s disease) in Florida. This case was written up and published as a case study by a recently graduated medical student/trainee in a CDC-affiliated medical journal last week. I wanted to just cross post his otherwise excellent Substack article, but… Jeff is one hell of an attorney. However, by his own admission, he is not a physician or a scientist, and he got just some important details wrong regarding the science and medicine. But his calling attention to the ginned up fear porn is super important and for that, I acknowledge his great work.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is extremely rare in the USA. Using the official CDC tracker, there is no evidence that the disease is becoming more widespread anywhere in the USA. Here are the facts about the disease from the CDC website:
Even the UK “Guardian” gets into the act, regurgitating the same fear porn found in earlier articles with some minor edits.
Getting to the Facts.
First off, there is no “surge” of Leprosy cases in central Florida, greater Florida state, or the USA in general.
From the Florida Health Department website:
Do these numbers looks like a crisis? Nope!
Here are the numbers of cases in the USA for the past decade:
So, two hundred people get leprosy in the USA a year, each of which take years to develop into anything serious, and is an entirely curable disease with drug treatment. Again, this is not a disease that deserves front page headlines for a week! In contrast, another mycobacterium-associated disease, tuberculosis, and in particular multi-drug resistant tuberculosis certainly merits attention. But last time I checked, TB is a major problem in major urban areas like Chicago. But that apparently does not fit with the political agenda which is in play in Florida. Cutting to the chase, to my eyes what we have going on here is yet another case of weaponizing public health by corporate media and various politicos to support an agenda, compounded by what can only be termed gross reporter incompetence.
What started all of this? An article titled “Case Report of Leprosy in Central Florida, USA, 2022” launched this whole mess.
This case report was published in the journal of Emerging Infectious Disease. The authors are not affiliated with the CDC. The Emerging Infectious Disease is a peer-reviewed, monthly peer reviewed journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is a publication from a medical trainee in a scientific journal, not a policy statement from the CDC. Big difference. This journal does not offer guidance from the CDC. In that article, the authors state their opinion that:
read more