In The Politics of Autism, I discuss autism quackery. One particularly dangerous "cure" involves bleach. Lately, the quacks hawking a bleach solution have rebranded it as a cure for coronavirus.
A man has been arrested in the US after an Irish woman alerted police that he was making and selling a bogus Covid-19 treatment.
Activist Fiona O’Leary informed cops in Las Vegas, Nevada, who lifted Elias Daniel Beltran Suarez over his scam on Monday.
Officials said his product posed “significant risks to patient health” after uncovering his makeshift chemical lab to create his bleaching agent treatment.
He claimed it could cure autism, cancer and Covid-19.
He is now facing the charge of acting as a medical practitioner without a licence.
Glenn Puit at The Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Police said the Las Vegas investigation started when an online sleuth who described herself as “a campaigner against dangerous pseudoscience” came across Suarez on the online portal Telegram under a group user name Comusav.com. The woman identified herself to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday as Fiona O’Leary of Cork, Ireland.
In a phone interview, O’Leary said she has three children who have autism, and she learned years ago that chlorine dioxide was being peddled by fake doctors and pseudo-scientists to desperate parents of autistic children. She referred to the sellers of chlorine dioxide as “bleachers” who engage in “dangerous quackery.”
“Someone reached out to me telling me they were giving bleach to autistic children,” O’Leary said. “I thought they were mad.”
O’Leary said chlorine dioxide also is sold as a cure for cancer. She said she works tirelessly to out those who sell chlorine dioxide and report them to law enforcement. She said the treatment is especially popular in Latin America.
