COVID-19: Fear, quackery, false representations and the law.

Fear, anxiety and even paranoia can proliferate during a pandemic. Such conditions, even when subclinical, tend to be a product of personal and predispositional factors, as well as shared cultural influences, including religious, literary, film, and gaming, all of which can lead to emotional and less than rational responses. They can render people vulnerable to engage in implausible conspiracy theories about the causes of illness and governmental responses to it. They can also lead people to give credence to simplistic and unscientific misrepresentations about medications and devices which are claimed to prevent, treat or cure disease. In turn such vulnerability creates predatory opportunities for the unscrupulous. This article notes the eruption of quackery during the 1889-1892 Russian Flu and the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu and the emergence during 2020 of spurious claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies consumer protection strategies and interventions formulated during the 2020 pandemic. Using examples from the United States, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom, it argues that during a pandemic there is a need for three responses by government to the risks posed by conspiracy theories and false representations: calm, scientifically-based messaging from public health authorities; cease and desist warnings directed toward those making extravagant or inappropriate claims; and the taking of assertive and well publicised legal action against individuals and entities that make false representations in order to protect consumers rendered vulnerable by their emotional responses to the phenomenology of the pandemic.

Estudio exploratorio de los bulos difundidos por WhatsApp en España para prevenir o curar la COVID-19 / Exploratory study of the hoaxes spread through WhatsApp in Spain to prevent or cure COVID-19

OBJETIVO: Examinar las características de los bulos difundidos por WhatsApp en España durante el confinamiento por la pandemia de COVID-19 e identificar qué tipo de sustancias se promovieron para su ingesta o uso. MÉTODO: Se habilitó un número de teléfono para recibir bulos por WhatsApp. Se recibieron 2353 mensajes, de los que se identificaron y validaron 584 bulos distintos, entre el 18 de marzo y el 18 de abril de 2020. De los 584 bulos, se seleccionó una submuestra de 126 relacionados con el objeto de estudio y se aplicó una ficha de análisis de contenido con 14 campos de registro. Además, se extrajeron las medias y medianas de los campos cuantitativos. RESULTADOS: La mayor parte de los mensajes fueron cadenas de texto (39%) y vídeos (30%). En la mayoría, el sujeto se presentaba como personal médico (36,5%) o como persona anónima (30,9%). Los vídeos tuvieron una duración de entre 2' 40" y 18' 18", mientras que los audios fueron de entre 1' 35" y 7' 48". Con respecto al sexo, se apreció una gran diferencia: el 45,2% de los protagonistas fueron hombres, frente al 13,5% de mujeres; el 41,3% no era identificable. CONCLUSIONES: Uno de cada cinco bulos recibidos fue sobre prevención o curación del coronavirus, argumentados sobre el principio de autoridad médica y básicamente promoviendo el uso y consumo de sustancias de origen natural

OBJECTIVE: To review the hoaxes' characteristics spread through WhatsApp in Spain during COVID-19 lockdown and identify what kind of substances were promoted for consumption or application. METHOD: A phone number was activated to receive hoaxes via WhatsApp. A total of 2353 messages were collected, and among those 584 different hoaxes were identified and validated, between March 18 and April 18, 2020. From these 584 hoaxes, a sub-sample of 126 was selected, exclusively related to the object of study, and a content analysis table with fourteen registration fields was applied. Besides, the averages and medians of the quantitative fields were extracted. RESULTS: Most of the messages received were texts (39%) and videos (30%). In the majority, the acting subject was presented as medical personnel (36.5%) or as an anonymous person (30.9%). The videos lasted between 2' 40" and 18' 18", while the audios ranged between 1' 35" and 7' 48". Regarding the gender of the informant, there was a significant difference, with 45.2% being male, and 13.5%, female and 41.3% non-identifiable. CONCLUSIONS: One out of five false health claims received was about prevention or cure of the coronavirus, based on the principle of medical authority, and basically promoting the use and consumption of substances of natural origin

For a honest Maghreb care system. Systematic Review of the International Literature on Corruption in the Health care System.

INTRODUCTION: Corruption in the health care system is a universal phenomenon, putting at risk the health of populations. The purpose of this work was to synthesize the international literature on corruption in the health sector. METHODS: This is a systematic review of literature dealing with articles on health corruption practices, published between July 2008 and June 2018, via two search engines: PubMed and Google Scholar. The extracted data were narratively summarized in three major areas: defining the concept of corruption in health, its typology / manifestations and anti-corruption interventions. RESULTS: A total of 23 articles were selected for final analysis. The articles that defined health corruption shared two key aspects: "abuse of power" and "benefit". The main types of corruption were "abuse of therapeutic indication", followed by "bribes" and "falsification". The anti-corruption interventions were synthesized into seven types: creation of an independent multi-interventional agency, support for scientific research, law enforcement, awareness raising, detection, reporting and institutional commitment. CONCLUSION: Based on the use of power, corruption in health is a complex phenomenon whose struggle requires a specific and contextualized strategy integrating information, detection and punishment.

[Panaceas disseminated over the Internet and vulnerable patients: how to check a market of illusions?]. / Panacéias disseminadas pela Internet e pacientes vulneráveis: como conter um mercado de ilusões?

This article discusses the proliferation of medical quackery and fraud appearing and disappearing daily on the Internet. The customers of these scams, made vulnerable by disease or the prospect of death, use the Internet to buy products that would probably be ignored in other contexts. This vulnerability is linked to strenuous physical demands that compromise the ability to make decisions. The attempt to control the phenomenon of fraud as strictly rational, without taking into account the vulnerability of consumers who have little to lose and not considering their demands for comprehensive care, can lead to disappointing results, since these nostrums seem to be filling the gaps left by health care structures that have been insensitive to the immaterial nature of human fears.

Panacéias disseminadas pela Internet e pacientes vulneráveis: como conter um mercado de ilusões? / Panaceas disseminated over the Internet and vulnerable patients: how to check a market of illusions?

O presente artigo discute a proliferação de curas e terapias fraudulentas que surgem e evanescem cotidianamente na Internet. A clientela dessas fraudes, vulnerabilizada pela doença e pela perspectiva da morte, utiliza a Internet para adquirir produtos que seriam possivelmente ignorados em outros contextos. Tal vulnerabilidade se liga a contingências físicas desgastantes que comprometem a capacidade de decisão. A tentativa de controlar o fenômeno das fraudes de forma estritamente racional, sem levar em conta a vulnerabilidade desse consumidor que pouco tem a perder e sem considerar suas demandas de integralidade, pode conduzir a resultados desapontadores, já que as panacéias parecem estar preenchendo os lapsos deixados por estruturas assistenciais que têm sido insensíveis à imaterialidade dos medos humanos.

This article discusses the proliferation of medical quackery and fraud appearing and disappearing daily on the Internet. The customers of these scams, made vulnerable by disease or the prospect of death, use the Internet to buy products that would probably be ignored in other contexts. This vulnerability is linked to strenuous physical demands that compromise the ability to make decisions. The attempt to control the phenomenon of fraud as strictly rational, without taking into account the vulnerability of consumers who have little to lose and not considering their demands for comprehensive care, can lead to disappointing results, since these nostrums seem to be filling the gaps left by health care structures that have been insensitive to the immaterial nature of human fears.

[Quack medicine--a continual problem in Polish rural communities. Illnes occurring within the musculo-sceletal system]. / Znachorstwo--wciaz aktualny problem polskiej wsi. Na podstawie doswiadczen w chorobach narzadu ruchu.

The work presents the results of a survey that was conducted amongst the inhabitants of the parish of Dabrowa Tarnowska concerning quack medical practices noted in the treatment of the musculo-sceletal system, as well as comments on the subject of the harm caused by the application of folk remedies. Within the group of those surveyed a startling 79% evaluated this form of treatment as satisfactory despite the appearance later of many medical complications.

The association of health-care use and hepatitis C virus infection in a random sample of urban slum community residents in southern India.

To determine whether health-care use was associated with prevalent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in Chennai, India, 1,947 adults from 30 slum communities were randomly selected to be interviewed about parenteral and sexual risks for HCV infection and to provide biological specimens for HCV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing. Prevalent HCV infection was detected in 2.4% of non-injection drug using (IDU) participants. Controlling for other associated factors, and excluding IDU, men who used informal health-care providers were five times as likely to be HCV infected as those who did not use informal providers (Adjusted Odds Ratio, AOR = 5.83; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.57, 21.6), a finding not detected in women. More research is needed to determine the extent to which HCV infection is associated with reuse of contaminated injection equipment in health-care settings in developing countries.

Quackery: the National Council Against Health Fraud perspective.

Quackery is the promotion of false and unproven health schemes for a profit. It is rooted in the traditions of marketplace. Scientific thinking and standards of conduct underlie professionalism and consumer protection law. At the present time, commercialism has overwhelmed professionalism in the marketing of alternative remedies. Neither patients nor legitimate businesses that adhere to the standards of science and consumer protection are well served by a double standard.