“Doctor” Bob

By: Myles Power Edited by: Hannah

I was recently sent a video by one of my subscribers of an interview with a man calling himself 'Dr Bob'. In the video, Dr Bob (who from now on I am just going to just call Bob) was very critical of vaccinations. The video was full of the same old misinformed claims: that natural immunity is better than vaccine-induced immunity; that vaccinations contain the element mercury; that there might be a link between vaccinations and autism. However, unlike other, similar videos of doctors being critical of vaccinations, it became very clear, very early on, that Bob did not know what he was talking about; not just about vaccinations, but about basic scientific terminology.

"In the human body, when we have vaccines, or when we have antibodies that are made, it is made in our body to fight an organism and it's permanent. When they vaccinate a human being today, they use particles and the real issue is what are they using as the base, part of this whole agar and all this growing substance, which is mercury and egg whites and all that, and aluminium, that can be quite toxic to the system." - Bob

 

I don't know anyone who would refer to vaccines as containing 'particles' without qualifying it. Particles of what, Bob? What size? How are they dangerous? It reminds me of being 15 again, in my GCSE science class - trying to sound clever in front my teacher by using as many scientific words as I could and using them incorrectly. Bob then goes on to talk about trace amounts of a substance in the vaccinations, as if they where the main ingredient. He incorrectly lists elemental mercury and aluminium as ingredients and seems unaware that the mercury containing preservative thiomersal is no longer in vaccinations. He says that "aluminium can be quite toxic to the system", when nothing could be further from the truth - aluminium is remarkably nontoxic. Bob also makes some very bizarre claims throughout his video, which include: the claim that if girls have the option of getting the cervical cancer jab, it will promote sex outside of wedlock; that Coeliac disease (an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine) is caused by vaccinations affecting glands in your neck; that you should stay away from sugar, because it compromises the immune system. I became very sceptical of Bob's qualifications and medical knowledge, so I decided to find out more about him.

After a quick Google search I discovered that Bob has an extensive library of videos on YouTube, with a large proportion of them named “Ask Dr Bob”. I decided to watch one of these videos, in which Bob answers medical questions, sent to him by his followers. What is remarkable is it that the vast majority of his answers include using products from his website. He also makes further interesting and bizarre claims that I believe no one with a medical or scientific background would have made. He believes, without evidence, that the American government are releasing dangerous clouds into the environment that are preventing rain. He then implies (again, without one scrap of evidence whatsoever) that the clouds were radioactive and began to talk about chlorella (a product sold on his website) being used to protect against radiation. He also states that GM goods are potentially harmful and should be avoided at all costs (again, without evidence).

My suspicions about Bob’s qualifications and knowledge grew when I visited his website, which is potentially dangerously entitled “The Drugless Doctor”. I clicked on the ‘About’ section and was surprised to see that none of Bob’s credentials are listed.  At this point I decided to contact Bob via his Facebook page and ask, among other things, what his qualifications are (full transcript here). To my surprise, he replied quickly. Apparently he has not one doctorate, but two! One is in Chiropractic from the National University of Health Science and the second is in Natural Health from Clayton College.

Chiropractic is an alternative medicine where you can apparently diagnose, treat and prevent multiple problems by cracking someone’s bones. These people actually believe that not having your spine clicked interferes with your ‘innate intelligence’, aka body’s natural healing mechanism. They believe that all diseases originate from ‘spinal dysfunctions’. The concept is so ridiculous I would not know where to start. The practice is also potentially dangerous. Chiropractors also promote clicking the bones of children, whose bones are not yet fully formed. Anyone who believes in this should not be giving medical advice on vaccinations, autism, coeliac disease, etc. We then come to Bob’s other ‘doctorate’ in Natural health from Clayton College. This college is now closed, but was non-accredited, and was the same diploma mill from which Gillian McKeith got her ‘doctorate’. Some of the programs once on offer at the college include a degree in holistic health, and wellness and holistic nutrition. They also offer doctorates in naturopathy, iridology and herbalism. Even if you had real doctorates in these subjects, here in the real world, they’re useless. You might as well have doctorates in pixies and fairies for all the use they are.

I decided to challenge Bob about his lack of medical qualifications and asked if he feels someone as unqualified as himself should be giving out medical advice. I also asked him to provide links to the peer-reviewed research which support his anti-GM food claims, as well as his research on chlorella. His response was to remove my comments from his public Facebook wall under a video called Ask Dr Bob. By doing this, Bob has shown that his whole business can’t stand up to the most basic of criticism and the only way he can continue as “Dr” Bob is to silence those who believe he is doing harm and intentionally misleading people.

In closing, I would like to give my own medical advice to people who are reading this, which I think is better than anything Bob has said; If you have a hangover, drink some water. For everything else, get advice from a real doctor.