This week saw the unfortunate passing of Vice President Joe Biden s son Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer. What happened to Beau, who was just 46 years old, is a sad reminder of just how far we are from having effective treatments for many deadly cancers, in particular brain cancer.
It however is not a sad reminder for everyone. For those who oppose superfluous things like logic and reason, Beau s untimely passing is a golden opportunity to remind everyone that Monsanto is killing us all. The person who always seems to be out in front of this quack-pack is Mike Adams, who wrote (and we won t dignify his piece or his site with a link) shortly after Beau s death that chemotherapy and glyphosate (obviously) killed him.
Thankfully, popular science writer and surgical oncologist Dr. David Gorski fought back. Orac, Dr. Gorski s pseudonym on scienceblogs.com, expertly dissected Adam s lunacy in his unique style.
He begins by noting that Adams feasts on moments when those in the public eye have the audacity to forgo natural treatments and opt for chemotherapy: I cannot abide the way he (Adams) spits on the grave of people who died of cancer, people like Tony Snow, Patrick Swayze, Elizabeth Edwards, and Farrah Fawcett. Every time, his MO is the same. He claims that it wasn t the cancer that killed, but rather the chemotherapy, to which he often adds a faux-plaintive, regretful, If only [insert name of dead celebrity] had used natural treatments she would still be alive today. Whenever he can, Adams likes to find a photo of the celebrity who died taken not long before death, when inevitably that celebrity, ravaged by cancer, appears shockingly emaciated (as Patrick Swayze did) and use for shock value to blame the celebrity s condition on the chemotherapy, rather than the real cause, the cancer.
Dr. Gorski then points out that Adams has a surprising skill for having amnesia of what happens when public figure do opt for natural treatments: If I were equally despicable, I d plaster a picture of Robin Gibb just before he died up on this post. Gibbs, as you might recall, used naturopathy to battle his cancer and died anyway. Before the end, he looked almost as bad as Patrick Swayze did. Unfortunately, that s what advanced stage cancer looks like.
After a poignant discussion on the state of brain cancer and chemotherapy drugs and side effects, Gorski offers this of Adam s agenda: in other words, there are no stories about Beau Biden pursuing cancer quackery, which is as it should be; that is, unless you re Mike Adams. Of course, if Beau Biden had pursued those therapies, unfortunately he d be just as dead, and that wouldn t do for Adams propaganda. It s better for Adams that Biden stuck to conventional treatments, so that he can falsely claim it was the chemotherapy that caused Biden s tumor to come roaring back after a year and a half, which is, unfortunately well within the usual time frame when brain tumors recur if they re going to recur.
Finally, Dr. Gorski discusses Adam s feelings that glyphosate caused Beau s cancer. After reminding readers that an IRAC designation does not make something carcinogenic, Dr. Gorski highlights Adam s brutally insensitive and absurd attack of Joe Biden for causing his son s cancer: we do know for a fact that Joe Biden is another pro-Monsanto sellout of the Democratic party who supports the mass poisoning of America with cancer-causing chemicals as long as people like himself are kept in positions of political power.
Orac s response to these comments: Stay classy, Mike. Stay classy.
He then closes with: Yes, there s nothing like accusing the grieving father who just lost his son of having helped cause that cancer. Even if the claim is utterly unsupported BS, it s still hurtful and shameful. Near the end of his little rant, Adams bolds a message of, Shame on all you politicians in Washington, when it is Adams who should be ashamed.