The Modern Bloodletting Problem

The Real Truth About Vaccines

A post from the Independent Medical Alliance is a great reminder about how we have a modern bloodletting problem.

“George Washington died in 1799 after undergoing treatment protocols his doctors fully trusted. Dr. Joseph Varon asks which of today’s confident treatments will look just as wrong.”

The Treatment Was Worse Than the Disease

Not surprisingly, though, they totally miss the point about just which of today’s treatments can be compared to bloodletting…

The Modern Bloodletting Problem

But first, let’s talk about bloodletting.

Typically associated with leeches, bloodletting was a commonly prescribed medical treatment for at least 2,000 years!

As you can see in this photoprint by Abraham Bosse from 1633, bloodletting often involved the use of cutting instruments instead of leeches, which became popular in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Why bloodletting?

“To appreciate the rationale for bloodletting one must first understand the paradigm of disease 2300 years ago in the time of Hippocrates (~460–370 BC). He believed that existence was represented by the four basic elements—earth, air, fire, and water—which in humans were related to the four basic humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile.”

The history of bloodletting

Well, way back then, they thought that if you were sick, it meant that you had an imbalance in one of your four basic humors. And bloodletting, along with purging, was a way to remove excess humors and get you back in balance.

Of course, it didn’t really work.

But then why did they continue to think it did work and continue to prescribe it?

Mostly because they didn’t have any better options, but also for of all of the same reasons that folks now believe in alternative treatments, including that:

• people often have short-lived, transient conditions that can often get better on their own

• confirmation bias

• the treatment was reinforced by medical authority

Again, these are the same reasons you might think your treatment worked after visiting a chiropractor, homeopath, or acupuncturist, etc.

The Modern Day Bloodletters

So which of today’s confident treatments will look just as wrong and can be compared to bloodletting?

That’s right!

Many of the non-standard treatments pushed for COVID patients, including:

• ivermectin

• hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine

• azithromycin

• fluvoxamine

Ineffective treatments that often kept COVID patients from pursuing treatments that actually did work and from getting vaccinated and protected.

Ineffective treatments pushed by organizations like the Independent Medical Alliance - formerly known as the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC).

Ineffective treatments that are now also being pushed as more natural treatments for cancer!