Asshole Makes Up Lies About Non-Existent Cancer "Cure", Social Networks Notice

We've all seen it circulating on social networks and in spam e-mails for at least a decade. Someone made up a story about how researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada supposedly came up with a "cure" for cancer and "no one notices", because "big pharma" and the "evil capitalists" want to keep it all hush-hush.


Unfortunately, this load of crap gets revealed as a hoax, people forget about it, then it gets regurgitated into social networks full of those who've never seen it before every six months or so. The title of the status update is usually:


"Scientist Cures Cancer, No One Takes Notice"


SERIOUSLY???


First of all, if there were a "cure" for cancer, it would take far more than big pharma or capitalism to squelch it. I'll leave you to think about that for a minute.






(Insert Jeopardy theme song here.)






Done? Ok. Now on to the next point.


SECONDLY, there will never be such a thing as "a" cure for "cancer". There is no such thing as "just cancer". Cancer is a CATEGORY that various FORMS of cancers (malformed cells) fall under, but the illness that kills folks with "cancer" is far more specific. You don't die of "cancer" in general, but of "lung cancer" specifically, or breast cancer, or whatever type of cancer you have.


It's also important to understand that there are many different causes for cancer. Some causes involve bacteria and/or viruses. Others involve genetics and hormones, like breast cancers, including estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.


In other words, ANY time you see ANYTHING that says "cure for cancer", you can pretty much write it off as bullshit. Only an idiot constructing a hoax for personal or political reasons would EVER use such general language when making a claim for such a cure.


Furthermore, a true "cure" for cancer requires FAR more than simply killing all of the cancer cells in the cancer patient's body, which is what this "cure" claims to do. A "cure" would require the actual cause of the growth of those cancer cells to be identified and destroyed. The Human Papilloma Virus (H.P.V.) is known to cause cervical cancer in women, penile cancer in men, and anal, oral, and other cancers in all genders. Killing all of the cancer cells will not cure cancer. It will treat it, but a cure would require killing the virus that caused it to start with, and that is not something easily done. (Just ask anyone who has engaged in unprotected oral, anal, or vaginal sex and has contracted H.P.V.-induced cancer. Imagine having to have your tongue and/or part of your face removed.)


But lets look at the claim: supposedly there is a treatment in the form of a drug that scientists at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have come up with that "cures" cancer. Years ago when this ridiculous claim started circulating, I was working in a private think tank run by a philanthropist who is very active in the skeptic community. We spent a lot of time investigating outrageous claims, and we all instantly knew it was a load of crap, but it's always fun to de-construct the bullshit to see how manipulative these people truly are when coming up with their lies.


A visit to the web site of said University of Alberta at Edmonton, Canada, showed absolutely NO mention of this claim. Interesting, considering how universities typically shout any successes of their students and/or research departments from the rooftops so they can get more funding. Lest you think they were just being cautious before "releasing" such groundbreaking research, you should know that another visit to the same web site still shows NO mention of any such claim years later.


Those who construct hoaxes usually use references to impressive-sounding sources in other countries, because they know that you'll assume there is no easy way to verify it and just take their word for it. Luckily, the internet has grown since this scam began and it is now very easy to verify these things.


There are some impressive-looking drawings and in-depth explanations of how this all supposedly works, and there is some truth to the ideas presented as a possible treatment for various cancers, but not a cure.


Further investigation showed that the original article was written by an individual with a politically-motivated agenda around the time that the universal health care issue became a hot topic. The goal of this fraud was clearly to convince as many people as possible that a) capitalism is at the root of the current health care "crisis" and b) the only solution is to pass a universal health care bill so the evil capitalists will no longer be able to withhold the cure for cancer.



The problem is, we do not have a capitalism-based health care system. Our health care system is a CORPORATISM-based system. In capitalist systems, there is ONE price paid by ALL customers (with perhaps some small discounts to wholesale buyers and coupon-holders or wholesale club members). In our current system, the hospitals and "big pharma" charge DIFFERENT prices to different customers. In other words, they discriminate against you based on who is paying for your health care. If you are paying for it yourself, you will pay 400 to 500 percent MORE for your health care than the U.S. government or an H.M.O. or other organization are charged. This is NOT capitalism, and the prices have NOTHING to do with supply, demand, OR the cost of providing care, but rather, with the government dictating to the health care industry what they will pay and leaving the rest of us to pay a ridiculously high price. That's not capitalism at work, it's not even socialism. It's corporatism, or government-sponsored price-gouging.


And before you ask me why "bulk" purchasing power of the government shouldn't allow them to get a discount for taxpayer supported medical care, you need to remember that it is not possible to perform 10,000 heart catheterizations simultaneously in order to save money. Each one must still be done one at a time, each patient is still seen one at a time, the services are rendered in the same way at the same cost for all, and should be billed at the same cost for all. Why should you or I have to pay 400 or 500 times the fair market value of the services we are receiving just because we are paying for it ourselves? Even if it WERE possible for a surgeon to perform tens of thousands of heart catheterizations simultaneously in order to save money, bulk purchasing power does not justify a 400 or 500 percent "discount", nor does it justify a 400 or 500 percent increased charge to those who are not purchasing in bulk when it does not cost 400 or 500 percent more to provide the services to those individuals.


To put it in perspective, it's like going to the grocery store and finding that you must pay $1,600-$2,000 for a gallon of milk if you are paying for it yourself.


Imagine if you couldn't afford the $1,600-$2,000 for a gallon of milk, and were then forced into joining a government-sponsored plan or a private "discount club" in order to get your milk at a fair price, but you are not allowed to buy as much as you want. Instead, the company that takes your money tells you how much you are allowed to buy, and then tells you how much you must pay for it. The organization also tells the store how much they are allowed to sell you, and the store is not allowed to charge you a higher price even if the cost of providing the milk goes up. You lose, because you are not allowed to buy any more than the rationed allotment of milk, which creates a black market, where others purchase the milk they do not want or need and sell it at a ridiculously high price of $500 per gallon, albeit a lower price than those who must pay $1,600 - $2,000 for their milk. The store is also in danger of going bankrupt, since they are not able to raise prices, even if something happens in the economy (higher fuel costs for transporting the milk to their stores, resulting in higher wholesale costs and a loss instead of a profit from selling the milk at the artificially regulated lower price, for example). Now NOBODY can buy milk.


Allowing the government to take all of your money under the guise of providing "universal milk" to all Americans to solve this problem makes us less likely to be able to get milk at all, since those who provide the milk for sale will have no control over the prices they charge for their milk and no ability to correct for increased (or even decreased) production and transportation costs.


In case you're wondering, the health care black market would result in all the good doctors charging very high fees to the wealthy and only serving the wealthy, while the government-controlled doctors struggle through their day, unable to adequately care for their patients with ever-increasing limits on what they can do since the government calls the shots on what tests they are allowed to run, etc. Oh, and I should also mention that they get to tell you what medical procedures you are REQUIRED TO UNDERGO in order to receive your allotment of health care. This means you MUST receive ALL vaccines, regardless of whether they are proven safe and regardless of whether your physician believes they are necessary and/or safe for you, the patient. (There are many who are not able to receive vaccines due to autoimmune issues like Lupus, MS, etc.) It also means that you may be required to undergo hysterectomy and/or vasectomy if you want access to your health care allotment, since doing so can reduce the burden on the government-run health care organization. That may seem unlikely, but if you look back on all of the things we're seeing now that we never thought we'd see before, not so much. It's a short step away when you dictate what patients can/can not do and must/must not do in order to receive medical care. Is that really a power you want to give to the same government that is bankrupting social security? The same government that puts peace-loving nuns in prison?


If you think it's a great idea, just ask anyone in a country with government-run health care. I have, and it's why I'm not falling for the load of bull we're being sold today.


Perhaps the biggest fraud of all is the idea we're being sold that there are people in this country who don't have access to medical care. I do not have insurance, and for several years had little to no income. Since I am single and do not have children, I do not qualify for any state-provided health care assistance where I live. How, you may ask, does someone with a chronic illness like myself manage to stay alive and relatively healthy? Well, there are these organizations called "non-profits", and they provide health care on a sliding scale to those who have little or no income. This means that you are still able to receive health care, and pay based on your income.


These organizations are funded in part by government grants, but the government does not dictate to them what tests they are allowed to run or what services they are allowed/not allowed required/not required to provide to their patients.


I know of no state in this country that does not provide access to medical care for children of low or no-income families.


If you have H.I.V. or cancer, you are NOT refused care in this country, but you are instead directed to an indigent care hospital. In many states that is usually a university-run hospital, where many say they receive superior care because it is provided by an academic or "teaching" hospital, which often has more innovative treatments available.


I have a family member who is a medical doctor, and he has expressed to me that he believes universal health care (or at least the health reform bill that has been proposed most recently) would provide needed medical services to low and no-income folks at a lower cost to taxpayers than the current system does so. That may be true on an individual basis, but when you add tens of millions more patients to the system who were previously covered under private insurance, I'm not so sure. Remember, we're talking about providing health care to EVERYONE at taxpayer expense.


Here's the bottom line: whether you are a government cheerleader, a freedom-fighting libertarian, or somewhere in between, I think we can all agree that those who create fraudulent "news" stories in order to convince the gullible among us that "capitalism is bad" and "government-run anything is good", are the lowest form of bottom-feeding scum.


I lost my father to brain cancer when he was 38, and most of us have lost someone very close to us to cancer. To think that there are those (I met one just today) who are reading these lies and developing false hope that they may be able to save loved ones based on such manipulative crap is disgusting and thoroughly DESPICABLE.


Not only is it cruel, it discredits the political agenda which these frauds are trying to promote. After all, if it's really that great, why do you have to lie to us to sell it?


'Nuff said.


A.