Hilary's Desk

No mumps jab? Stay home: school

Hilary Butler - Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Yesterday, we were greeted by the headline “No mumps jab? Stay home: school”. This morning, we were greeted by the TVNZ headline, “Watch: Down goes another! All Blacks lose Ardie Savea to third case of mumps on end-of-year tour” We hear that a third, fully vaccinated All Black catches mumps. Seemingly the isolation of the previous case did nothing for transmission, and neither did the v...

The Seduction of Satire.

Hilary Butler - Sunday, January 22, 2017

The Onion, which calls itself “America’s finest news source”, filled space with another vitriol variant on Mike Pence today. “What Hilary? You don’t like satire? It’s just words Hilary. Humour makes the world go around didn’t you know?” What I know is that death and life are in the power of words, and those who love words, w...

Just Trust Us....

Hilary Butler - Thursday, July 18, 2013

Part One: Words from Memory Lane. Part Two: Who controls the rhetoric? Part Three: The name of the game. Part Four: The get out of jail card. Part Five: Blaming Muggins. Part Six: Reforming Nocebo. The solution for the medical system? It’s pretty simple really. If you aren't allowed to "deceive" people, to research what happens when they are deceived,&nb...

The name of the game.

Hilary Butler - Sunday, July 14, 2013

Part One: Words from Memory Lane. Part Two: Who controls the rhetoric? The Scientist’s article “Worried Sick” confirms that nocebo and placebo are a primary drivers in medical practice, by their statement: “In places like primary care, people are swimming in placebo and nocebo effects.” Placebo is defined as: “a usually pharmacologically inert preparation prescribed more for ...

Flu vaccine causes the flu.

Hilary Butler - Tuesday, June 25, 2013

But not the "actual flu" mind you. The one that everyone thinks is the flu when it's not the flu. Now, let's be precise. The Herald yesterday had this bizarre piece (pdf) which treads new ground. For once, we are told a bit of truth. Very selective truth. "Thankfully, there is still very little actual influenza circulating in the community, although we are seeing other respi...

Never bite the hand that feeds you...

Hilary Butler - Friday, May 31, 2013

On Monday, Jamie Morton, who calls himself a science reporter, penned an article called, “Your winter flu will count this year”.Jamie Morton’s twitter account, described himself as a, “Scribbler at NZ Herald. Enjoys irrelevant music and coffeehousing. Dislikes Nazis and any concept of a NZ celebrity culture. Views are his own.” Quite what qualifies him as being &l...

Part Two: What the Herald on Sunday should have shown readers

Hilary Butler - Friday, March 15, 2013

How many people died from flu in Auckland in 2012? According to Shivers data:. A child could understand this stunning graphic, yet Chloe didn’t bother to use it. Even a mug can see why she avoided this like the plague. One death from Flu in Auckland doesn't sell papers - no drama, no story. I repeat: Out of 9 deaths of Serious Acute Respiratory (SA...

World's first Orwell "Truth Department" award goes to....

Hilary Butler - Saturday, May 21, 2011

.... the editor of the Waikato Times. Seriously, there isn't one, but if there was one, I'd award it to him for unethically butchered a letter of mine, to make it read the opposite of what I meant.Perhaps this is the new trend to dissuade thinkers from voicing opinions! I mean, if you KNOW something you write will be completely butchered and made unrecognizably, ...

Secret documents show benzos cause brain damage.

Hilary Butler - Monday, November 08, 2010

Today was yet another embarrassing day for the "love a quick fix" medical system. The Sunday Independant in the UK revealed that secret documents marked "closed until 2014", showed that in 1982, the Medical Research Council was warned that benzodiazepines, which were marketted as "completely harmless", could cause brain shrinkage, and brain damage. The Department of Health, ver...

Starship Doctors slammed

Hilary Butler - Sunday, October 31, 2010

In the Sunday Star Times today, Judge David McNaughton delivered a swift message to Starship doctors about predictive and substandard medical care, and the presumption of guilt without good cause. The Judge found Famaile Lino not guilty of abusing his six month old child after Starship jumped to conclusions, and robustly defended their own preconceived mindsets. The L...

Twenty-five years plus is quite a long time....

Hilary Butler - Saturday, October 02, 2010

(By Peter Butler) Especially when it's been spent dealing with issues and systems governed by engrained mindsets, and heavily influenced by huge vested interests more interested in profits, than making available all of the facts ...without restriction; or providing customized care to unique individuals, rather than trying to fit everyone into their "one-size-fits-all" moulds. Health and...

Pertussis epidemic? Or Media induced malady?.

Hilary Butler - Thursday, September 23, 2010

What epidemic? "Numbers have been on the rise since June this year, but they really spiked up in August," said Dr Alison Roberts, of the Ministry of Health' ... Hiding behind the word "epidemic", as a scare tactic, Alison Roberts continues: "We have been expecting an epidemic around now. New Zealand has a whooping cough epidemic every four to five years, and the last one started in 1999." ...

A Blessing or a "Curse"?

Hilary Butler - Wednesday, September 22, 2010

By Peter Butler. Here is the follow up to “VOICES AND CHOICES”. I make no apology for returning to a topic which I believe is absolutely crucial in everybody’s lifestyle. Most of us would agree that the ability to exercise freedom of choice is a fundamental human right. It plays a big part in our uniqueness (See “Facts many People Prefer to Ignore”) but it ...

Voices and choices
by Peter Butler

Hilary Butler - Wednesday, September 22, 2010

When I wrote our home education curriculum it incorporated what I consider an essential foundation stone. A lifestyle must surely include the integration of every aspect of daily living. You cannot put different issues into little boxes with an appropriate label, and then apply differing standards and values to their implementation. To do so will produce inconsistencies, double standards and hy...

Professor Hemila shocks Sciblogs into silence.

Hilary Butler - Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Professor Hemila quite rightly asks sciblogs why they blethered on about mice and cancer instead of actually DOING a literature review on vitamin C and Pneumonia.... Did Sciblogs... actually put their brains into gear? Professor Hemila's Finnish website is the BEST place on internet to find early and more recent published medical information...

Facts many people prefer to ignore.

Hilary Butler - Tuesday, September 07, 2010

(Written by Peter) How easy it is to fail to heed the significance of essential facts. The seriousness of this causes me to return once against to a statement I have made on many occasions especially when I have been talking to people. Setting aside all the complexities that seem to permeate the screeds of material dealing with this theme, let me identify it in a very simple straightforward st...

On the matter of Dr Anthony J Morris.

Hilary Butler - Saturday, September 04, 2010

On the matter of Dr Anthony J Morris, my verdict on the research skills of the non-skeptics is quite simple. I have known Dr Morris personally since 1984, so can say straight up, that PALMD, the practicising internist from the Great Lakes region of the USA, (PALMD's vitriole, pdf'd and uploaded here - just in case he tries to ever deny he said this) has research skills as useless as a mate o...

Non-Evidence based medicine, Part one.

Hilary Butler - Friday, September 03, 2010

A friend of mine, has not long got out of hospital with her fully breastfed baby. She didn’t actually “want” to be in there but the doctor noted a mild fever, and instantly got “fever phobia” and insisted she go to hospital. ESPECIALLY as the baby wasn’t vaccinated. The mother had been quite content with dealing with it herself, but her mother saw the baby an...

Skeptics Part Three: Living Proof.

Hilary Butler - Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Where are the skeptics, when it comes to looking at the “responsibility” of using intravenous vitamin C in serious illness? Where you’d predict them to be. Shoring up the medical system like good little marionettes. My thoughts on IV vitamin C in serious illness are here. For anyone wanting to know more about the science in terms of recently published books, I&rsquo...