#783: Suzanne Humphries

Suzanne Humphries is a nephrologist turned vocal proponent of pseudoscience, woo, and worse. She has been involved with the International Medical Council on Vaccination, a front group for anti-vaccinationism, and has written several blog posts and done several podcasts and interviews (e.g. for NaturalNews) insinuating that kidney failure is caused by vaccines. The fact that she is a medical doctor does not mean that she know how science or evidence works, however, and – as expected – her evidence is purely anecdotal; in fact, her reasoning is entirely based on “feeling” the vaccines’s role in kidney disease, which just goes to display in full her complete lack of training in, expertise or understanding of any relevant field of immunology. You see, not only are vaccines unnatural, they are “disease matter”, which, I suppose, is a compelling point for anyone who swears by the laws of medieval alchemy.

Humphreys has also asserted her adoption of homeopathy, after extensive studies. She does not even try to link homeopathy to reality, instead adopting fullblown vitalism, claiming that homeopathy works by fixing energy flows in the body. In fact, she claims that homeopathy is a “more advanced system” than evidence-based modern medicine, and that the latter tends to exacerbate the forces that drive chronic illness. Therefore, according to Humphries, people should limit their medical care only to homeopaths, chiropractors, and osteopaths. And of course, modern doctors are deliberately suppressing effective alternative cures because they are all in on a conspiracy funded by Big Pharma. (Yes, that post was published on the pile of quackery website Medical Voices.)

To top it off, she attempts to combine her anti-vax claims and pseudobullshit with religious fluffery to argue that the Bible and Koran are opposed to vaccination. That’s the level she’s pitched at.