The three-term Wisconsin lawmaker has a history of questioning vaccines.
Public health officials react to CDC’s new vaccine language
Public health officials are outraged by new language on the CDC website suggesting vaccines can cause autism.
As Americans’ trust in public health institutions wanes, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is under fire for promoting a book promoting unsubstantiated medical theories that bleach can treat autism and other illnesses.
Johnson cites a quote from the jacket of “The War on Chlorine Dioxide,” a book he co-authored with Dr. Pierre Colley, a controversial physician and pulmonologist who gained national attention during the COVID-19 pandemic by advocating the off-label use of ineffective “magic bullet” treatments.
The American Board of Internal Medicine will revoke Colley’s board certification in 2024, which prevents him from practicing medicine at large hospitals or academic institutions. However, he still has his medical license.
But that didn’t stop Mr Johnson, who has been accused of spreading misinformation in the past, from supporting the doctor’s discredited claims that chlorine dioxide, a chemical used in disinfection and bleaching, can help treat autism, coronavirus, cancer and many other illnesses.
In the cover blurb, the three-term senator calls Cory’s book “a moving story of corruption and courage that opens your eyes and asks serious questions.”
In a statement to ProPublica, which first reported the book’s quote, Johnson acknowledged that he approved of the statement.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson regularly questions the usefulness of vaccines and told reporters earlier this year that many childhood diseases such as measles could be eradicated through improved sanitation.
During the pandemic, he called Cory as an expert witness to at least two Senate hearings in 2020, where he advocated for Americans to take the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
In response to testimony at the time, a group of medical and scientific experts said: “We are facing a barrage of dangerous misinformation that ignores the evidence and ignores the scientific process, undermining the public response and faith in science.”
Voter trust in CDC, other agencies begins to decline
Mr. Johnson’s endorsement of the book and its author comes at a time of significant conflict in the United States with public health, particularly with the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently revised the vaccine safety section of its website to refute decades of scientific evidence showing vaccines are safe and cast doubt on its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism.
There is now evidence that trust in federal health agencies such as the CDC has declined since the Trump administration returned to power.
An Ipsos survey released in October found that 54% of respondents said they trust Ipsos, down from 60% in June 2024 and 66% in December 2024. The same goes for the Food and Drug Administration, where 60% of respondents said they trusted it in December, down from 52% today, according to the survey.
contribution: craig gilbert
