The Krebiozen Hoax by Matthew C. Ehrlich
The “cure” for cancer remains elusive, even as treatments have dramatically improved. In the late 1940s a pair of dodgy characters claimed they discovered the cure, an injection called Krebiozen. And like the alleged remedies for Covid in the pandemic’s early days, some physicians signed on for Krebiozen while most denounced it. One of the dupes was prominent, physiologist Andrew Ivy, once called “the conscience of U.S. science.”
With The Krebiozen Hoax, Matthew C. Ehrlich delves into a forgotten but instructive case of malpractice by a representative of the medical establishment, boosted by public delusion. The drug’s doubtful inventors were from Yugoslavia by way of Argentina. They claimed their new serum could cure cancer. There was skepticism among medical professionals when they introduced Krebiozen in the late ‘40s, but Ivy, speaking carefully, called it “an important step” toward a cancer cure. Because of media attention, the public clamored for Krebiozen despite objections from the American Medical Association.
Ehrlich is concerned with parallels to the present day, where millions of people embrace quackery or unproven assertions over scientifically grounded medicine, aided by the occasional outlier or scientist speaking outside their field of specialization and grandstanding politicians casting doubt on the FDA and other public health institutions. As late as the 1960s, pro-Krebiozen protestors besieged the FDA demanding the serum’s approval.
Get The Krebiozen Hoax at Amazon here.
Paid link
