Dr. John M. Livingston is the medical policy advisor for the Idaho Freedom Foundation. Each week he expounds about medicine and philosophy via several articles in the Gem State Patriot News. One of his latest, on June 26, 2022, is titled Experts – Judgement – Wisdom. (He doesn’t proofread his writing, so in the third paragraph he refers to influenza as ‘seasonal flue.’) His fourth paragraph begins by quoting from an article by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock at Surgical Neurology International on April 22, 2022 titled COVID UPDATE: What is the truth? Dr. Livingston provides us with a PubMed Central link to the full text from that article, from the National Library of Medicine - but he mistakenly says it is from The National Library of Science.
Is Dr. Blaylock a credible source about medicine in general? Heck no! Back on April 10, 2013 there is a web page about Blaylock at the Encyclopedia of American Loons. That’s a very bad sign! Also, Joe Schwarcz of the McGill Office for Science and Society has an article about Russell Blaylock’s various rants on March 20, 2017 titled Seems neurosurgeons are not immune to neuroses. At Skeptical Raptor on May 30, 2022 there is another article titled Peer-reviewed journal publishes COVID-29 denier editorial filled with lies. And on May 19, 2022 Dr. David Gorski tweeted about that Blaylock editorial article:
“It's Russell Blaylock. He was an all-purpose medical crank (antivax, HIV/AIDS denier, cancer quack, etc.) decades ago; so of course he turned #COVID19 crank. It was inevitable. The article is indeed a ‘greatest hits’ of antivax and #COVID19 conspiracy theories.”
At Science-Based Medicine (a credible source) on June 29, 2020 there is yet another article by David Gorski titled Misinformation and disinformation about facemasks and COVID-19. His discussion of Myth #4: Masks concentrate the virus (if you have it) and make you sicker debunks an article at Technocracy News on May 11, 2020 by Dr. Blaylock. I certainly am not going to spend $55 for an annual subscription to The Blaylock Wellness Report.
The next-to-last paragraph of Dr. Livingston’s article begins:
“The most dangerous experts are those who venture outside their own field. I once knew a neurosurgeon who thought he was an expert enough mechanic to work on his own Mercedes. He wasn’t wise enough to know what he didn’t know. He ended up buying a new BMW.”
Well, Dr. Blaylock was a neurosurgeon, but has written books like Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients, The Liver Cure, Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life, Excitotoxins – The Taste That Kills, and Dr. Blaylock’s Prescriptions for Natural Health.
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