Germ theory denialism is the belief that germs do not cause infectious disease, and that the germ theory of disease is wrong. It usually involves arguing that Louis Pasteur's model of infectious disease was wrong, and that Antoine Béchamp's was right. One of the first movements to deny the germ theory was the Sanitary Movement, which was nevertheless central in developing America's public health infrastructure. One well-known advocate of this form of denialism is Bill Maher, who has claimed that Pasteur recanted germ theory on his deathbed. Shikha Dalmia, writing in The Washington Examiner, referred to Maher as a "germ theory denier" after he made these comments on Real Time with Bill Maher on March 4, 2007. However, in response to criticism of his views, Maher said, on the October 16, 2009 episode of his show, that he accepted microorganisms as the cause of some disease, but expressed skepticism about other topics in medicine, such as vaccination. Similarly, the following month, Maher wrote that he "understand[s] germ theory," but that he still thought that "Western medicine ignores too much [sic] the fact that the terrain in which bacteria can thrive is crucial and often controllable, which shouldn't even be controversial." Harriet Hall published an article in Skeptic where she describes her experience arguing with germ theory denialists.
An opposite kind of pseudoscience is the belief that germs cause all diseases, including ones like cancer, which the preponderance of evidence indicates are not caused by microorganisms. That belief was promoted by Hulda Regehr Clark in her book The Cure for all Cancers.
References
External links
- Germ theory denialism: A major strain in “alt-med†thought, David Gorski
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