THE DOCTOR WILL

SUE YOU NOW

by Ben Goldacre
This is an extract from
BAD SCIENCE by Ben Goldacre
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The Doctor Will Sue You Now
This chapter did not appear in the original edition of this book,
because for fifteen months leading up to $eptember 200( the
,itamin)pill entrepreneur 5atthias 6ath "as suing me personally,
and the Guardian, for libel. This strategy brought only
mixed success. 7or all that nutritionists may fantasise in public
that any critic is someho" a pa"n of big pharma, in pri,ate they
"ould do "ell to remember that, like many my age "ho "ork in
the public sector, # dont o"n a flat. The Guardian generously
paid for the la"yers, and in $eptember 200( 6ath dropped his
case, "hich had cost in excess of 8900,000 to defend. 6ath has
paid 8220,000 already, and the rest "ill hopefully follo".
&obody "ill e,er repay me for the endless meetings, the time
off "ork, or the days spent poring o,er tables filled "ith
endlessly cross)referenced court documents.
:n this last point there is, ho"e,er, one small consolation,
and # "ill spell it out as a cautionary tale3 # no" kno" more
about 5atthias 6ath than almost any other person ali,e. 5y
notes, references and "itness statements, boxed up in the room
"here # am sitting right no", make a pile as tall as the man
himself, and "hat # "ill "rite here is only a tiny fraction of the
fuller story that is "aiting to be told about him. This chapter, #
should also mention, is a,ailable free online for anyone "ho
"ishes to see it.
5atthias 6ath takes us rudely outside the contained, almost
academic distance of this book. 7or the most part "e,e been
interested in the intellectual and cultural conse;uences of bad
science, the made)up facts in national ne"spapers, dubious
academic practices in uni,ersities, some foolish pill)peddling,
and so on. %ut "hat happens if "e take these sleights of hand,
these pill)marketing techni;ues, and transplant them out of
our decadent /estern context into a situation "here things
really matter<
#n an ideal "orld this "ould be only a thought experiment.
-#.$ is the opposite of anecdote. T"enty)fi,e million people
ha,e died from it already, three million in the last year alone,
and 900,000 of those deaths "ere children. #n $outh -frica it
kills 000,000 people e,ery year3 thats eight hundred people
e,ery day, or one e,ery t"o minutes. This one country has =.0
million people "ho are H#> positi,e, including 00 per cent of
all pregnant "omen. There are ?.2 million -#.$ orphans under
the age of se,enteen. 5ost chillingly of all, this disaster has
appeared suddenly, and "hile "e "ere "atching3 in ?990, @ust ?
per cent of adults in $outh -frica "ere H#> positi,e. Ten years
later, the figure had risen to 29 per cent.
#ts hard to mount an emotional response to ra" numbers,
but on one thing # think "e "ould agree. #f you "ere to "alk
into a situation "ith that much death, misery and disease, you
"ould be ,ery careful to make sure that you kne" "hat you
"ere talking about. 7or the reasons you are about to read, #
suspect that 5atthias 6ath missed the mark.
This man, "e should be clear, is our responsibility. %orn and
raised in Aermany, 6ath "as the head of +ardio,ascular
6esearch at the 2inus Pauling #nstitute in Palo -lto in +alifornia,
and e,en then he had a tendency to"ards grand gestures,
publishing a paper in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
in ?992 titled B- 1nified Theory of Human +ardio,ascular
.isease 2eading the /ay to the -bolition of this .isease as a
+ause for Human 5ortality. The unified theory "as high)dose
,itamins.
He first de,eloped a po"er base from sales in Curope, selling
his pills "ith tactics that "ill be ,ery familiar to you from the
rest of this book, albeit slightly more aggressi,e. #n the 1D, his
ad,erts claimed that B90 per cent of patients recei,ing
chemotherapy for cancer die "ithin months of starting treatment,
and suggested that three million li,es could be sa,ed if
cancer patients stopped being treated by con,entional medicine.
The pharmaceutical industry "as deliberately letting
people die for financial gain, he explained. +ancer treatments
"ere Bpoisonous compounds "ith Bnot e,en one effecti,e treatment.
The decision to embark on treatment for cancer can be the
most difficult that an indi,idual or a family "ill e,er take, representing
a close balance bet"een "ell)documented benefits and
e;ually "ell)documented side)effects. -d,erts like these might
play especially strongly on your conscience if your mother has
@ust lost all her hair to chemotherapy, for example, in the hope
of staying ali,e @ust long enough to see your son speak.
There "as some limited regulatory response in Curope, but it
"as generally as "eak as that faced by the other characters in
this book. The -d,ertising $tandards -uthority criticised one of
his ad,erts in the 1D, but that is essentially all they are able to
do. 6ath "as ordered by a %erlin court to stop claiming that his
,itamins could cure cancer, or face a 290,000 fine.
%ut sales "ere strong, and 5atthias 6ath still has many
supporters in Curope, as you "ill shortly see. He "alked into
$outh -frica "ith all the acclaim, self)confidence and "ealth he
had amassed as a successful ,itamin)pill entrepreneur in
Curope and -merica, and began to take out full)page ad,erts in
ne"spapers.
BThe ans"er to the -#.$ epidemic is here, he proclaimed.
-nti)retro,iral drugs "ere poisonous, and a conspiracy to kill
patients and make money. B$top -#.$ Aenocide by the .rugs
+artel said one headline. B/hy should $outh -fricans continue
to be poisoned "ith -ET< There is a natural ans"er to -#.$.
The ans"er came in the form of ,itamin pills. B5ulti,itamin
treatment is more effecti,e than any toxic -#.$ drug.B5ulti,itamins
cut the risk of de,eloping -#.$ in half.
6aths company ran clinics reflecting these ideas, and in 2009
he decided to run a trial of his ,itamins in a to"nship near +ape
To"n called Dhayelitsha, gi,ing his o"n formulation, >ita+ell,
to people "ith ad,anced -#.$. #n 200( this trial "as declared
illegal by the +ape High +ourt of $outh -frica. -lthough 6ath
says that none of his participants had been on anti)retro,iral
drugs, some relati,es ha,e gi,en statements saying that they
"ere, and "ere acti,ely told to stop using them.
Tragically,5atthias 6ath had taken these ideas to exactly the
right place. Thabo 5beki, the President of $outh -frica at the
time, "as "ell kno"n as an B-#.$ dissident, and to international
horror, "hile people died at the rate of one e,ery t"o minutes
in his country, he ga,e credence and support to the claims of a
small band of campaigners "ho ,ariously claim that -#.$ does
not exist, that it is not caused by H#>, that anti)retro,iral
medication does more harm than good, and so on.
-t ,arious times during the peak of the -#.$ epidemic in
$outh -frica their go,ernment argued that H#> is not the cause
of -#.$, and that anti)retro,iral drugs are not useful for
patients. They refused to roll out proper treatment programmes,
they refused to accept free donations of drugs, and they refused
to accept grant money from the Alobal 7und to buy drugs.
:ne study estimates that if the $outh -frican national
go,ernment had used anti)retro,iral drugs for pre,ention and
treatment at the same rate as the /estern +ape pro,ince F"hich
defied national policy on the issueG, around ?'?,000 ne" H#>
infections and 0*0,000 deaths could ha,e been pre,ented
bet"een ?999 and 200'. -nother study estimates that bet"een
2000 and 2009 there "ere 000,000 unnecessary deaths, 2.2
million person years lost, and 09,000 babies unnecessarily born
"ith H#> because of the failure to implement a cheap and
simple mother)to)child)transmission pre,ention program.
%et"een one and three doses of an -6> drug can reduce transmission
dramatically. The cost is negligible. #t "as not a,ailable.
#nterestingly, 5atthias 6aths colleague and employee, a
$outh -frican barrister named -nthony %rink, takes the credit
for introducing Thabo 5beki to many of these ideas. %rink
stumbled on the B-#.$ dissident material in the mid)?990s,
and after much surfing and reading, became con,inced that it
must be right. #n ?999 he "rote an article about -ET in a
Hohannesburg ne"spaper titled Ba medicine from hell. This led
to a public exchange "ith a leading ,irologist. %rink contacted
5beki, sending him copies of the debate, and "as "elcomed as
an expert. This is a chilling testament to the danger of ele,ating
cranks by engaging "ith them.
#n his initial letter of moti,ation for employment to 5atthias
6ath, %rink described himself as B$outh -fricas leading -#.$
dissident, best kno"n for my "histle)blo"ing exposI of the
toxicity and inefficacy of -#.$ drugs, and for my political
acti,ism in this regard, "hich caused President 5beki and
Health 5inister .r Tshabalala)5simang to repudiate the drugs
in ?999.
#n 2000, the no" infamous #nternational -#.$ +onference
took place in .urban. 5bekis presidential ad,isory panel
beforehand "as packed "ith B-#.$ dissidents, including Peter
.uesberg and .a,id 6asnick. :n the first day, 6asnick
suggested that all H#> testing should be banned on principle,
and that $outh -frica should stop screening supplies of blood
for H#>. B#f # had the po"er to outla" the H#> antibody test, he
said, B# "ould do it across the board./hen -frican physicians
ga,e testimony about the drastic change -#.$ had caused in
their clinics and hospitals, 6asnick said he had not seen Bany
e,idence of an -#.$ catastrophe. The media "ere not allo"ed
in, but one reporter from the Village Voice "as present. Peter
.uesberg, he said, Bga,e a presentation so remo,ed from -frican
medical reality that it left se,eral local doctors shaking their
heads. #t "asnt -#.$ that "as killing babies and children, said
the dissidents3 it "as the anti)retro,iral medication.
President 5beki sent a letter to "orld leaders comparing the
struggle of the B-#.$ dissidents to the struggle against apartheid.
The Washington Post described the reaction at the /hite House3
B$o stunned "ere some officials by the letters tone and timing !
during final preparations for Hulys conference in .urban ! that
at least t"o of them, according to diplomatic sources, felt
obliged to check "hether it "as genuine.Hundreds of delegates
"alked out of 5bekis address to the conference in disgust, but
many more described themsel,es as daJed and confused. :,er
9,000 researchers and acti,ists around the "orld signed up to
the .urban .eclaration, a document that specifically addressed
and repudiated the claims and concerns ! at least the more
moderate ones ! of the B-#.$ dissidents. $pecifically, it
addressed the charge that people "ere simply dying of po,erty3
The e,idence that -#.$ is caused by H#>)? or H#>)2 is clearcut,
exhausti,e and unambiguous K -s "ith any other chronic
infection, ,arious co)factors play a role in determining the risk
of disease. Persons "ho are malnourished, "ho already suffer
other infections or "ho are older, tend to be more susceptible to
the rapid de,elopment of -#.$ follo"ing H#> infection.
Ho"e,er, none of these factors "eaken the scientific e,idence
that H#> is the sole cause of -#.$ K 5other)to)child transmission
can be reduced by half or more by short courses of anti,iral
drugs K /hat "orks best in one country may not be
appropriate in another. %ut to tackle the disease, e,eryone must
first understand that H#> is the enemy. 6esearch, not myths,
"ill lead to the de,elopment of more effecti,e and cheaper
treatments.
#t did them no good. 1ntil 2000 the $outh -frican go,ernment
refused, as a matter of principle, to roll out proper antiretro,iral
medication programmes, and e,en then the process
"as half)hearted. This madness "as only o,erturned after a
massi,e campaign by grassroots organisations such as the
Treatment -ction +ampaign, but e,en after the -&+ cabinet
,oted to allo" medication to be gi,en, there "as still resistance.
#n mid)2009, at least (9 per cent of H#>)positi,e people "ho
needed anti)retro,iral drugs "ere still refused them. Thats
around a million people.
This resistance, of course, "ent deeper than @ust one manL
much of it came from 5bekis Health 5inister,5anto Tshabalala)
5simang. -n ardent critic of medical drugs for H#>, she
"ould cheerfully go on tele,ision to talk up their dangers, talk
do"n their benefits, and became irritable and e,asi,e "hen
asked ho" many patients "ere recei,ing effecti,e treatment.
$he declared in 2009 that she "ould not be Bpressured into
meeting the target of three million patients on anti)retro,iral
medication, that people had ignored the importance of nutrition,
and that she "ould continue to "arn patients of the sideeffects
of anti)retro,irals, saying3 B/e ha,e been ,indicated in
this regard./e are "hat "e eat.
#ts an eerily familiar catchphrase. Tshabalala)5simang has
also gone on record to praise the "ork of 5atthias 6ath, and
refused to in,estigate his acti,ities. 5ost @oyfully of all, she is a
staunch ad,ocate of the kind of "eekend glossy)magaJine)style
nutritionism that "ill by no" be ,ery familiar to you.
The remedies she ad,ocates for -#.$ are beetroot, garlic,
lemons and -frican potatoes. - fairly typical ;uote, from the
Health 5inister in a country "here eight hundred people die
e,ery day from -#.$, is this3 B6a" garlic and a skin of the
lemon ! not only do they gi,e you a beautiful face and skin but
they also protect you from disease. $outh -fricas stand at the
200= /orld -#.$ +onference in Toronto "as described by
delegates as the Bsalad stall. #t consisted of some garlic, some
beetroot, the -frican potato, and assorted other ,egetables.
$ome boxes of anti)retro,iral drugs "ere added later, but they
"ere reportedly borro"ed at the last minute from other
conference delegates.
-lternati,e therapists like to suggest that their treatments
and ideas ha,e not been sufficiently researched. -s you no"
kno", this is often untrue, and in the case of the Health 5inisters
fa,oured ,egetables, research had indeed been done, "ith
results that "ere far from promising. #nter,ie"ed on $-%+
about this, Tshabalala)5simang ga,e the kind of responses
youd expect to hear at any &orth 2ondon dinner)party discussion
of alternati,e therapies.
7irst she "as asked about "ork from the 1ni,ersity of $tellenbosch
"hich suggested that her chosen plant, the -frican
potato, might be acti,ely dangerous for people on -#.$ drugs.
:ne study on -frican potato in H#> had to be terminated
prematurely, because the patients "ho recei,ed the plant extract
de,eloped se,ere bone)marro" suppression and a drop in their
+.* cell count ! "hich is a bad thing ! after eight "eeks. :n
top of this, "hen extract from the same ,egetable "as gi,en to
cats "ith 7eline #mmunodeficiency >irus, they succumbed to
full)blo"n 7eline -#.$ faster than their non)treated controls.
-frican potato does not look like a good bet.
Tshabalala)5simang disagreed3 the researchers should go
back to the dra"ing board, and Bin,estigate properly. /hy<
%ecause H#>)positi,e people "ho used -frican potato had
sho"n impro,ement, and they had said so themsel,es. #f a
person says he or she is feeling better, should this be disputed,
she demanded to kno", merely because it had not been pro,ed
scientifically< B/hen a person says she or he is feeling better, #
must say M&o, # dont think you are feeling betterN< M# must
rather go and do science on youN< -sked "hether there should
be a scientific basis to her ,ie"s, she replied3 B/hose science<
-nd there, perhaps, is a clue, if not exoneration. This is a continent
that has been brutally exploited by the de,eloped "orld, first
by empire, and then by globalised capital. +onspiracy theories
about -#.$ and /estern medicine are not entirely absurd in this
context. The pharmaceutical industry has indeed been caught
performing drug trials in -frica "hich "ould be impossible
any"here in the de,eloped "orld. 5any find it suspicious that
black -fricans seem to be the biggest ,ictims of -#.$, and point
to the biological "arfare programmes set up by the apartheid
go,ernmentsL there ha,e also been suspicions that the scientific
discourse of H#>4-#.$ might be a de,ice, a Tro@an horse for
spreading e,en more exploitati,e /estern political and economic
agendas around a problem that is simply one of po,erty.
-nd these are ne" countries, for "hich independence and
self)rule are recent de,elopments, "hich are struggling to find
their commercial feet and true cultural identity after centuries
of colonisation. Traditional medicine represents an important
link "ith an autonomous pastL besides "hich, anti)retro,iral
medications ha,e been unnecessarily ! offensi,ely, absurdly !
expensi,e, and until mo,es to challenge this became partially
successful, many -fricans "ere effecti,ely denied access to
medical treatment as a result.
#ts ,ery easy for us to feel smug, and to forget that "e all ha,e
our o"n strange cultural idiosyncrasies "hich pre,ent us from
taking up sensible public)health programmes. 7or examples,"e
dont e,en ha,e to look as far as 556. There is a good e,idence
base, for example, to sho" that needle)exchange programmes
reduce the spread of H#>, but this strategy has been re@ected
time and again in fa,our of BHust say no. .e,elopment charities
funded by 1$ +hristian groups refuse to engage "ith birth
control, and any suggestion of abortion, e,en in countries
"here being in control of your o"n fertility could mean the
difference bet"een success and failure in life, is met "ith a cold,
pious stare. These impractical moral principles are so deeply
entrenched that Pepfar, the 1$ Presidential Cmergency Plan for
-#.$ 6elief, has insisted that e,ery recipient of international
aid money must sign a declaration expressly promising not to
ha,e any in,ol,ement "ith sex "orkers.
/e mustnt appear insensiti,e to the +hristian ,alue system,
but it seems to me that engaging sex "orkers is almost the
cornerstone of any effecti,e -#.$ policy3 commercial sex is
fre;uently the B,ector of transmission, and sex "orkers a ,ery
high)risk populationL but there are also more subtle issues at
stake. #f you secure the legal rights of prostitutes to be free from
,iolence and discrimination, you empo"er them to demand
uni,ersal condom use, and that "ay you can pre,ent H#> from
being spread into the "hole community. This is "here science
meets culture. %ut perhaps e,en to your o"n friends and neighbours,
in "hate,er suburban idyll has become your home, the
moral principle of abstinence from sex and drugs is more
important than people dying of -#.$L and perhaps, then, they
are no less irrational than Thabo 5beki.
$o this "as the situation into "hich the ,itamin)pill entrepreneur
5atthias 6ath inserted himself, prominently and expensi,ely,
"ith the "ealth he had amassed from Curope and -merica,
exploiting anti)colonial anxieties "ith no sense of irony,
although he "as a "hite man offering pills made in a factory
abroad. His ad,erts and clinics "ere a tremendous success. He
began to tout indi,idual patients as e,idence of the benefits that
could come from ,itamin pills ! although in reality some of his
most famous success stories ha,e died of -#.$. /hen
asked about the deaths of 6aths star patients, Health 5inister
Tshabalala)5simang replied3 B#t doesnt necessarily mean that if #
am taking antibiotics and # die, that # died of antibiotics.
$he is not alone3 $outh -fricas politicians ha,e consistently
refused to step in, 6ath claims the support of the go,ernment,
and its most senior figures ha,e refused to distance themsel,es
from his operations or to criticise his acti,ities. Tshabalala)
5simang has gone on the record to state that the 6ath 7oundation
Bare not undermining the go,ernments position. #f
anything, they are supporting it.
#n 2009, exasperated by go,ernment inaction, a group of ?99
leading medical practitioners in $outh -frica signed an open
letter to the health authorities of the /estern +ape, pleading for
action on the 6ath 7oundation. B:ur patients are being inundated
"ith propaganda encouraging them to stop life)sa,ing
medicine, it said. B5any of us ha,e had experiences "ith H#>infected
patients "ho ha,e had their health compromised by
stopping their anti)retro,irals due to the acti,ities of this 7oundation.
6aths ad,erts continue unabated. He e,en claimed that his
acti,ities "ere endorsed by huge lists of sponsors and affiliates
including the /orld Health :rganiJation, 1&#+C7 and
1&-#.$. -ll ha,e issued statements flatly denouncing his
claims and acti,ities. The man certainly has chutJpah.
His ad,erts are also rich "ith detailed scientific claims. #t
"ould be "rong of us to neglect the science in this story, so "e
should follo" some through, specifically those "hich focused
on a Har,ard study in TanJania. He described this research in
full)page ad,ertisements, some of "hich ha,e appeared in the
New York Times and the Herald Tribune. He refers to these paid
ad,erts, # should mention, as if he had recei,ed flattering ne"s
co,erage in the same papers. -ny"ay, this research sho"ed that
multi,itamin supplements can be beneficial in a de,eloping
"orld population "ith -#.$3 theres no problem "ith that
result, and there are plenty of reasons to think that ,itamins
might ha,e some benefit for a sick and fre;uently malnourished
population.
The researchers enrolled ?,0'( H#>)positi,e pregnant
"omen and randomly assigned them to ha,e either a ,itamin
supplement or placebo. &otice once again, if you "ill, that this
is another large, "ell)conducted, publicly funded trial of ,itamins,
conducted by mainstream scientists, contrary to the
claims of nutritionists that such studies do not exist.
The "omen "ere follo"ed up for se,eral years, and at the end
of the study, 29 per cent of those on ,itamins "ere se,erely ill or
dead, compared "ith 0? per cent of those on placebo. There "as
also a statistically significant benefit in +.* cell count Fa measure
of H#> acti,ityG and ,iral loads. These results "ere in no sense
dramatic ! and they cannot be compared to the demonstrable
life)sa,ing benefits of anti)retro,irals ! but they did sho" that
impro,ed diet, or cheap generic ,itamin pills, could represent a
simple and relati,ely inexpensi,e "ay to marginally delay the
need to start H#> medication in some patients.
#n the hands of 6ath, this study became e,idence that
,itamin pills are superior to medication in the treatment of
H#>4-#.$, that anti)retro,iral therapies Bse,erely damage all
cells in the body ! including "hite blood cells, and "orse, that
they "ere Bthereby not impro,ing but rather "orsening
immune deficiencies and expanding the -#.$ epidemic. The
researchers from the Har,ard $chool of Public Health "ere so
horrified that they put together a press release setting out their
support for medication, and stating starkly, "ith unambiguous
clarity, that 5atthias 6ath had misrepresented their findings.
5edia regulators failed to act.
To outsiders the story is baffling and terrifying. The 1nited
&ations has condemned 6aths ad,erts as B"rong and misleading.
BThis guy is killing people by luring them "ith unrecognised
treatment "ithout any scientific e,idence, said Cric
Aoemaere, head of 5Idecins sans 7rontiOres $-, a man "ho
pioneered anti)retro,iral therapy in $outh -frica. 6ath sued
him.
#ts not @ust 5$7 "ho 6ath has gone after. He has also
brought time)consuming, expensi,e, stalled or failed cases
against a professor of -#.$ research, critics in the media and
others.
His most heinous campaign has been against the Treatment
-ction +ampaign. 7or many years this has been the key organisation
campaigning for access to anti)retro,iral medication in
$outh -frica, and it has been fighting a "ar on four fronts.
7irstly, it campaigns against its o"n go,ernment, trying to
compel it to roll out treatment programmes for the population.
$econdly, it fights against the pharmaceutical industry, "hich
claims that it needs to charge full price for its products in de,eloping
countries in order to pay for research and de,elopment of
ne" drugs ! although, as "e shall see, out of its P990 billion
global annual re,enue, the pharmaceutical industry spends
t"ice as much on promotion and admin as it does on research
and de,elopment. Thirdly, it is a grassroots organisation, made
up largely of black "omen from to"nships "ho do important
pre,ention and treatment)literacy "ork on the ground, ensuring
that people kno" "hat is a,ailable, and ho" to protect
themsel,es. 2astly, it fights against people "ho promote the
type of information peddled by 5atthias 6ath and his like.
6ath has taken it upon himself to launch a massi,e
campaign against this group. He distributes ad,ertising material
against them, saying BTreatment -ction +ampaign medicines
are killing you and B$top -#.$ genocide by the drug
cartel, claiming ! as you "ill guess by no" ! that there is an
international conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies intent
on prolonging the -#.$ crisis in the interests of their o"n
profits by gi,ing medication that makes people "orse. T-+
must be a part of this, goes the reasoning, because it criticises
5atthias 6ath. Hust like me "riting on Patrick Holford or
Aillian 5cDeith, T-+ is perfectly in fa,our of good diet and
nutrition. %ut in 6aths promotional literature it is a front for
the pharmaceutical industry, a BTro@an horse and a Brunning
dog. T-+ has made a full disclosure of its funding and acti,ities,
sho"ing no such connection3 6ath presented no e,idence
to the contrary, and has e,en lost a court case o,er the issue,
but "ill not let it lie. #n fact he presents the loss of this court
case as if it "as a ,ictory.
The founder of T-+ is a man called Eackie -chmat, and he
is the closest thing # ha,e to a hero. He is $outh -frican, and
coloured, by the nomenclature of the apartheid system in
"hich he gre" up.-t the age of fourteen he tried to burn do"n
his school, and you might ha,e done the same in similar
circumstances. He has been arrested and imprisoned under
$outh -fricas ,iolent, brutal "hite regime, "ith all that
entailed. He is also gay, and H#>)positi,e, and he refused to
take anti)retro,iral medication until it "as "idely a,ailable to
all on the public health system, e,en "hen he "as dying of
-#.$, e,en "hen he "as personally implored to sa,e himself
by &elson 5andela, a public supporter of anti)retro,iral
medication and -chmats "ork.
-nd no", at last, "e come to the lo"est point of this "hole
story, not merely for 5atthias 6aths mo,ement, but for the
alternati,e therapy mo,ement around the "orld as a "hole. #n
200', "ith a huge public flourish, to great media co,erage,
6aths former employee -nthony %rink filed a formal
complaint against Eackie -chmat, the head of the T-+.
%iJarrely, he filed this complaint "ith the #nternational +riminal
+ourt at The Hague, accusing -chmat of genocide for
successfully campaigning to get access to H#> drugs for the
people of $outh -frica.
#ts hard to explain @ust ho" influential the B-#.$ dissidents
are in $outh -frica. %rink is a barrister, a man "ith important
friends, and his accusations "ere reported in the national ne"s
media ! and in some corners of the /estern gay press ! as a
serious ne"s story. # do not belie,e that any one of those @our)
nalists "ho reported on it can possibly ha,e read %rinks indictment
to the end.
# ha,e.
The first fifty)se,en pages present familiar anti)medication
and B-#.$)dissident material. %ut then, on page fifty)eight, this
Bindictment document suddenly deteriorates into something
altogether more ,icious and unhinged, as %rink sets out "hat
he belie,es "ould be an appropriate punishment for Eackie.
%ecause # do not "ish to be accused of selecti,e editing, # "ill
no" reproduce for you that entire section, unedited, so you can
see and feel it for yourself.
APPROPRIATE CRIMINAL SANCTION
In view of the scale and gravity of Achmats crime and his direct
personal criminal culpability for the deaths of thousands of
people, to quote his own words, it is respectfully submitted
that the International Criminal Court ought to impose on him the
highest sentence provided by Article 77.!b" of the #ome
$tatute, namely to permanent confinement in a small white
steel and concrete cage, bright fluorescent light on all the time
to %eep an eye on him, his warders putting him out only to wor%
every day in the prison garden to cultivate nutrient&rich vegetables,
including when its raining. In order for him to repay his
debt to society, with the A#'s he claims to ta%e administered
daily under close medical watch at the full prescribed dose,
morning noon and night, without interruption, to prevent him
fa%ing that hes being treatment compliant, pushed if necessary
down his forced&open gullet with a finger, or, if he bites, %ic%s
and screams too much, dripped into his arm after hes been
restrained on a gurney with cable ties around his an%les, wrists
and nec%, until he gives up the ghost on them, so as to eradicate
this foulest, most loathsome, unscrupulous and malevolent
blight on the human race, who has plagued and poisoned
the people of $outh Africa, mostly blac%, mostly poor, for nearly
a decade now, since the day he and his (AC first hit the scene.
$igned at Cape (own, $outh Africa, on )anuary *++7
Anthony Brink
The document "as described by the 6ath 7oundation as
Bentirely ,alid and long o,erdue.
This story isnt about 5atthias 6ath, or -nthony %rink, or
Eackie -chmat, or e,en $outh -frica. #t is about the culture of
ho" ideas "ork, and ho" that can break do"n..octors criticise
other doctors, academics criticise academics, politicians criticise
politicians3 thats normal and healthy, its ho" ideas
impro,e. 5atthias 6ath is an alternati,e therapist, made in
Curope.He is e,ery bit the same as the %ritish operators that "e
ha,e seen in this book. He is from their "orld.
.espite the extremes of this case, not one single alternati,e
therapist or nutritionist, any"here in the "orld, has stood up
to criticise any single aspect of the acti,ities of 5atthias 6ath
and his colleagues. #n fact, far from it3 he continues to be fQted
to this day. # ha,e sat in true astonishment and "atched leading
figures of the 1Ds alternati,e therapy mo,ement applaud
5atthias 6ath at a public lecture F# ha,e it on ,ideo, @ust in case
theres any doubtG. &atural health organisations continue to
defend 6ath. Homeopaths mailouts continue to promote his
"ork. The %ritish -ssociation of &utritional Therapists has
been in,ited to comment by bloggers, but declined. 5ost,
"hen challenged, "ill dissemble. B:h, they say, B# dont really
kno" much about it. &ot one person "ill step for"ard and
dissent.
The alternati,e therapy mo,ement as a "hole has demonstrated
itself to be so dangerously, systemically incapable of critical
self)appraisal that it cannot step up e,en in a case like that
of 6ath3 in that count # include tens of thousands of practitioners,
"riters, administrators and more. This is ho" ideas go
badly "rong. #n the conclusion to this book, "ritten before #
"as able to include this chapter, # "ill argue that the biggest
dangers posed by the material "e ha,e co,ered are cultural and
intellectual.
# may be mistaken.