Bearly Newsworthy: You Can't Cure Cancer with a Juice Fast and Powdered Hope
From vaccine sceptics to wellness culture woo-woo, The media's lack of responsibility on spreading potentially deadly health misinformation is scary, writes the Bear
In a world saturated with breaking news and political turmoil, it’s easy to miss a quieter but equally urgent crisis: the unchecked spread of health misinformation. While the headlines scream about war, scandal, economic chaos, and whatever new drama the United States has cooked up, another threat is quietly blooming in the background – and it’s one the media is far too happy to water.
I was reminded of this while watching Apple Cider Vinegar, a Netflix series dramatising the spectacular rise, and equally spectacular fall of Belle Gibson, a wellness influencer who dupes the world with a lie about curing her terminal cancer through positivity and clean eating. The show is based on real events, and while the character is fictional, the story is one that has become far too familiar.
It’s a perfect storm: a charismatic figure, a feel-good miracle story, and a media landscape hungry for clicks, desperate for hope, and apparently allergic to fact-checking. Apple backed her app. Penguin published her book. Cosmopolitan handed her an award. And only after the story began to crumble did anyone stop to ask – “wait just one second, is any of this true?”
And this is far from an isolated case. Over and over, grifters and pseudo-experts push pseudoscience and profit from fear, while media outlets – either eager for traffic or terrified of being called biased – give them the oxygen they need to thrive. We've seen this happen before: climate denial dressed up as debate, anti-vaccine rhetoric legitimised as "just asking questions," conspiracy theorists paraded as edgy contrarians. It's happening again, in public health – and this time, it's personal.
The Media’s Role in Legitimising Misinformation
The media’s obsession with ‘balance’ has led to some truly baffling decisions - like the time CNN invited anti-vaccine cardiologist Jack Wolfson to debate an emergency medicine physician about childhood immunisations, as if pseudoscience deserved equal footing with evidence-based medicine. It’s the intellectual equivalent of asking a flat earther to co-host the weather.
Outlets like the BBC, ITV, and Sky have given airtime to vaccine sceptics while at the same time, social media accelerates the spread, with figures like Dr Joseph Mercola - who has made millions selling ‘natural’ cures - pumping out misinformation unchecked, like a snake oil factory with broadband.
The UK media’s handling of Andrew Wakefield’s fraudulent vaccine study was, some would say, the textbook example. Even after being struck off the GMC, his baseless claims were amplified, fuelling paranoia and driving down MMR vaccine uptake. The result? A resurgence of measles outbreaks – a disease that should have been a footnote in the history books.
The COVID-19 pandemic made things worse. The Daily Mail handed column inches to lockdown sceptics and vaccine conspiracists. GB News became an open mic night for anti-vaxxers. BBC Radio 4’s Today programme invited Sunetra Gupta to promote the widely discredited ‘herd immunity’ approach, giving it unwarranted legitimacy. And let’s not forget ivermectin – the miracle cure that wasn’t. The right-wing flogged it anyway, like it was the elixir of life.
Time and again, the media has acted as an enabler, failing to hold dangerous voices accountable. This isn’t just a lapse in judgement – it’s a public health risk.
How Wellness Culture Fuels Misinformation
But it’s not just the hard news outlets. Wellness culture, once the domain of yoga mats and bath salts, has grown into a multi-billion-pound empire built on fear, pseudoscience, and aesthetically pleasing nonsense.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop has promoted everything from jade eggs (no, don’t put them there) to detox diets and vampire facials. Instead of being treated as health fraud – and health risk – Goop is indulged as ‘quirky’ lifestyle advice, as though pelvic crystal rituals with a side of bacterial infections are just another cheeky self-care tip.
Influencers peddling alternative medicine now have enormous platforms. Andrew Wakefield remains influential despite being professionally disgraced. Joe Rogan regularly gives airtime to quack doctors. ‘Biohacking’ influencers push everything from extreme fasting to unregulated stem cell injections.
The rise of ‘clean living’ has spiralled into a diet culture fever dream. From untested gut-health regimens to dangerous eating plans, the line between health and harm is increasingly blurry – and profitable.
Women’s health is especially vulnerable. ‘Natural fertility’ influencers demonise contraception, home birth misinformation spreads unchecked, and myths about the HPV vaccine continue to deter uptake. Far-right magazines legitimise these claims, giving pseudoscience the same column space as actual medical advice. It’s not just misleading – it’s deadly.
The Deadly Consequences of Misinformation
And no, I’m sad to say, the consequences aren’t theoretical.
Vaccine uptake is down. Measles is back. Polio has resurfaced. COVID denialism prolonged the pandemic, discouraged booster uptake, and put vulnerable people at risk.
Beyond infectious disease, misinformation kills in subtler but no less tragic ways. Cancer patients reject proven treatments for juice fasts and powdered hope. Jessica Ainscough, an Australian wellness blogger, also portrayed as “Milla” in Apple Cider Vinegar, refused treatment for a rare cancer in favour of ‘natural healing.’ She died at 30, but not before convincing thousands to follow her lead.
In the UK, patients have died after rejecting chemotherapy in favour of miracle cures they found online. The spread of pseudoscience has led to unregulated IV drips, liver-damaging ‘parasite cleanses,’ and diabetics abandoning insulin after being convinced they can reverse their condition with cinnamon and positive thinking.
Mental health misinformation isn’t faring much better. TikTok is a breeding ground for self-diagnosis, where ADHD, autism, and even dissociative identity disorder are handed out like personality quizzes. Meanwhile, fasting and dopamine detox trends masquerade as self-improvement while fuelling eating disorders and anxiety.
We are not just dealing with misinformation. We are dealing with preventable suffering, with unnecessary deaths, and with a media landscape that too often shrugs and says, "Well, it's just another perspective."
Time for the Media to Take Responsibility
Enough with the false balance. Not all perspectives are equal, and not every quack deserves a platform.
News organisations must establish and enforce stricter health reporting guidelines. Medical claims should be fact-checked before publication or broadcast. Conspiracy theorists should not be treated as contrarian commentators – they should be called what they are.
Regulators need to get serious. Ofcom and other watchdogs must introduce real consequences for media outlets spreading health misinformation. Social media platforms must be held accountable for amplifying pseudoscience. Algorithmic transparency and meaningful enforcement are long overdue.
Public health bodies must also step up. We need well-funded, engaging campaigns that make truth go viral before the lies do. Trusted community voices – especially those outside traditional institutions – should be empowered to debunk false claims early and often.
The alternative? A future where trust in medicine collapses, preventable diseases spread, and public health unravels in a fog of snake oil and spin.
The media has a choice: be part of the cure or stay part of the problem. But let’s be frank, this isn’t just about bad journalism anymore. It’s about life and death. And the cost of getting it wrong is too high to keep shrugging it off.
The Bear, also known as Iratus Ursus Major (Big Angry Bear), is the author of Bear Necessities of Politics and Power: Decoding the Chaos of Modern Politics, One Ideology at a Time. (Byline Supplement readers can buy the book with a discount of 10% by entering the code HURRY10 at the Great British Bookshop checkout.)