The Pandemic's Worst Woman: Dr. Christiane Northrup

[progressoid]

How Oprah and PBS helped her become a pseudoscience superstar and why she needs to lose her board certification

Dr. Jen Gunter

...

These lies about the vaccine didn’t go mainstream because people did their own research. What has happened was the exact opposite. They were exposed to disinformation by what they thought were credible sources, and it stuck, effectively blocking accurate content that happened to show up second. That is what propaganda does. It is important to note that it can take just being exposed to incorrect information once to believe in it.

Where does this anti vaccine propaganda related to fertility and pregnancy come from? Much of it has been touched in some way, either created or amplified, by Dr. Christiane Northrup.

Northrup isn’t some minor league player recently called up from selling butterbur infusions to play in the disinformation big leagues. She is the original women’s health Doyenne of Disinformation. She is a board-certified OB/GYN, which she is sure to mention at the start of almost every video, with a massive reach on Facebook. For a long time she was active on Instagram, but she was recently banned from for spreading disinformation.

How did Northrup get such a national, and even international, voice? She has written several best selling books, including Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom. But her rise to the stratosphere came via Oprah, at least 12 appearances, and eight PBS specials. The dual authority of Oprah and PBS is something to behold. Oprah makes you a household name and PBS makes people believe you have been vetted by academia.

Since the early days of the pandemic, instead of using her platform to support evidence-based care, Northrup has been waging a war against science. She has called for maskless freedom rallies, promoted anti vaccine propaganda, and used phrases to signal her allegiance with QAnon, the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory group that believes, among other things, that some democrats eat babies.

...https://vajenda.substack.com/p/the-pandemics-worst-woman-dr-christiane?

[Maru Kitteh]

1. Thanks for this article!

[hlthe2b]

2. It has probably been two decades since I've followed her at all

I find that incredibly sad because long ago she pioneered some much-needed changes in the OB/GYN field--not afraid to use some of the advances from European literature to shake up some of the very male-dominated (at the time) and highly dogmatic field.

Celebrity, like power corrupts it seems...

[musette_sf]

4. I too appreciated her work in the past

but I wrote to her a few weeks ago to tell her (1) I know who you are and you've done SOME good work, and (2) the anti-vax and anti-mask nonsense is reprehensible, especially coming from a physician who many trust.

She never acknowledged the message. I thought she would at least be accountable enough to reply, but nothing. Says a lot about her.

[Ilsa]

5. I agree completely.

Once upon a time, she was rational and sensitive and helped bring about change. Now she's gone looney.

[Scrivener7]

6. Me too. This is very disappointing.

[Haggard Celine]

3. Fat Bastard was a Democrat!

[link:

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[Comfortably_Numb]

7. Didn't "Dr. Oz" have to retract some bullshit that he spewed on, I believe , Fox?

Another tv doc with a legion of followers. At least he admitted he was wrong. That’s something, I guess.

[progressoid]

8. Oprah has a histor of promoting junk science

One of the worst, IMHO, was giving Jenny McCarthy airtime to spread woo about vaccines and autism.

MCCARTHY: First thing I did — Google. I put in autism. And I started my research.

WINFREY: Thank God for Google.

MCCARTHY: I’m telling you.

WINFREY: Thank God for Google.

MCCARTHY: The University of Google is where I got my degree from. ... And I put in autism and something came up that changed my life, that led me on this road to recovery, which said autism — it was in the corner of the screen — is reversible and treatable. And I said, What?! That has to be an ad for a hocus-pocus thing, because if autism is reversible and treatable, well, then it would be on Oprah.

[Initech]

9. This is why I absolutely loathe Oprah.

Because of her promotion of this anti-science garbage. Ugh.

[Comfortably_Numb]

10. Thanks for that horrifying narrative... the university of google.

I fear for our collective future.

[Delphinus]

12. Wow!

Eww ... McCarthy says it right there - "The University of Google" - jeezus.

[Kali]

11. so glad I don't have teevee

never heard of this quack, good article