Wellness warning
Gwyneth Paltrow ‘a health risk’
The head of the NHS has attacked Gwyneth Paltrow for ‘‘peddling dubious ‘wellness’ products’’ as he warns against ‘‘quacks, charlatans and cranks’’.
Sir Simon Stevens took aim in a lecture yesterday at the ‘‘dubious wellness products’’ being promoted by celebrities on the internet, and said fake news was putting people’s health at risk.
The chief executive of NHS England singled out Paltrow’s brand Goop for promoting treatments that carry ‘‘considerable risks to health’’.
The firm set up by the Hollywood actress has promoted jade eggs to be placed in the vagina, while its TV series sees her trying ‘‘vampire facials’’ that use a person’s blood mixed with hyaluronic acid.
Stevens accused the ‘‘wellness industry’’ and celebrities involved in it of exploiting their customers’ health and wasting their money.
He said: ‘‘While the term fake news makes most people think about politics, people’s natural concern for their health, and particularly about that of their loved ones, makes this particularly fertile ground for quacks, charlatans and cranks.’’
In the lecture, at Oxford University’s Sheldonian Theatre, he suggested celebrities had become the new ‘‘snake-oil salesmen’’, peddling dubious products online, highlighting a US$75 (NZ$115) scented candle promoted by the actress called ‘‘This Smells Like My Vagina’’.
He said: ‘‘Fresh from controversies over jade eggs and unusually scented candles, Goop has just popped up with a new TV series, in which Gwyneth Paltrow and her team test vampire facials and back a ‘bodyworker’ who claims to cure both acute psychological trauma and side effects by simply moving his hands two inches above a customer’s body,’’ he said.
He continued: ‘‘Gwyneth Paltrow’s brand peddles psychic vampire repellent; says ‘chemical sunscreen is a bad idea’; and promotes colonic irrigation and DIY coffee enema machines, despite them carrying considerable risks to health and NHS advice clearly stating there is ‘no scientific evidence to suggest there are any health benefits associated with colonic irrigation’.’’
He accused the wellness industry of exploiting people’s health concerns, by putting fake news online, which was risking the health of consumers, and wasting their money.
Stevens added: ‘‘While fake news used to travel by word of mouth – and later the Caxton press – we all know that lies and misinformation can now be round the world at the touch of a button before the truth has reached for its socks, never mind got its boots on. Myths and misinformation have been put on steroids by the availability of misleading claims online.’’
Stevens said Russian social media bots and anti-vaccination lies have undermined public faith in life-saving vaccines and spawned current health burdens. He said this was fuelling a sharp rise in cases of mumps in Britain – from 1000 cases in 2018 to about 5000 cases last year
Half of those affected in 2019 had not been vaccinated. Stevens said half such cases were among those born in the years after Andrew Wakefield’s discredited research made a false link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
‘‘Anti-vax lies have spawned health burdens being borne by children and parents in 2020,’’ he warned. ‘‘Half of the cases were in people who are in the so-called ‘Wakefield generation’, born at the turn of the century, and who originally missed out on the vital MMR jab as a result of widespread disinformation.’’
Last year, the UK lost its measles elimination status. At the time, the World Health Organisation said misinformation about vaccines was as contagious and dangerous as the diseases it helps to spread.
Twitter last year introduced a new tool that means anyone searching for terms associated with anti-vaccine stories will instead see a link to an NHS page, debunking such myths.
– Telegraph Group