A spike in marketing?

Is alarmism necessary in the marketing of help against the spike protein?

During the era of vaccine mandates, Julie Ponesse came to prominence as the philosophy professor who chose—for reasons that were presented as highly principled—to not take the vaccine and to ultimately part ways as a result with her job at Huron College, Western University.

Ponesse can now be found, among other places, under the “Important/Medical ethics” link at the bottom of the website of The Wellness Company with the title Director of Medical Ethics.

I became aware of The Wellness Company through their advertising of a bottle of pills called “Spike Support Formula” that is described by them as follows:

“Get back to that pre-COVID feeling.

Vaccinated or not, toxic spike proteins pose a long-term threat to your health.

This revolutionary Spike Support Formula is the only product that contains nattokinase and dandelion root, researched to block and dissolve spike proteins inside your body.

Buy daily Spike Support and protect you and your family against the effects of COVID, vaccines, and shedding.

Top Recommendation by Health Consumer's Nattokinase.com!

From

$65.99

/ Members $54.99”

I am writing this commentary without any professional knowledge of medicine or alternative medicine. I have no way to scientifically assess the claims made about the Spike Support Formula, which may indeed be a great product. But from a subjective, non-expert point of reading advertising critically, focusing on the language and the rhetoric used to persuade, I feel skeptical.

What am I to make of the assertion that spike proteins pose a long-term threat to my health and to the health of others?  How can I assess this claim?  And how can I possibly assess the claim that, even if I were to accept that the possibility of long-term threat exists, a charge of $65.99 on my next credit card bill (and many more bills to come) is the solution?  If the vaccine was experimental, isn’t this product experimental as well?  After all, how well established and proven is our knowledge of the effects of the spike protein and how to respond to those effects?  

If there is anything that can be learned from the COVID era, is that non-specific and non-time-limited claims that come from “high above” and that present themselves as supported by research can in fact in certain cases be exaggerated or misleading.  It is precisely in the fear-rich soil of encouraging the feeling that we should do whatever we can to protect ourselves and others against a strongly worded threat that the vaccine mandates were able to take root—and erode liberty.

Importantly, the Wellness company is not forcing anybody to consume their product.  It also seems unlikely that the pill’s combination of selenium, black sativa extract, Irish sea moss powder, green tea extract, nottokinase and dandelion extract (as listed on their website) would do any harm.  As such, this product cannot be compared to the vaccines, which were practically impossible to avoid for many people who needed to stay employed or who found it very difficult to not conform to societal norms—and which did cause harm to some people.

However, it should be remembered that most people who took the vaccine did not do so simply because they could not afford to lose their jobs and were therefore practically forced into uninformed “consent.”  Most people were likely genuinely persuaded to do “the right thing” to protect themselves and others by rhetoric that likely exaggerated risk and overemphasized the knowledge, wisdom and ethical integrity of authority figures and of scientific studies.  Many people also participated (and in some cases likely enjoyed participating) in a culture that demonized “unvaccinated” individuals as posing ongoing and significant threat to the health of those around them.   

One does not need to read beyond the first two customer reviews of the Spike Support Formula on The Wellness Company’s website to notice a strange mirroring effect—giving voice to  concerns that the vaccine and vaccinated people (and COVID itself, being accused of being a bioweapon) pose a perpetual threat to others:

“. . . . I bought Dr. VanDe Water’s product specifically because I knew I’d be working in the company of ‘vaccinated’ folks.  And I’m familiar with the shedding phenomenon.  I’ll continue taking this product for the rest of my life.  It’s given me peace of mind knowing I’m protecting myself not only at my place of employment, but from any other exposure I may come in contact with” [part of a review by Debbie B, Verified Buyer, United States, 03/09/2023]

“Product came as packed and excellent shipping time for someone I know taking the jab and had COVId.  COVId is a bioweapon and causes blood clotting so this product helps immensely to help stop the clotting formation from synthetic foreign protein.  Praying for justice against this immense crimes against humanity.  Thank you Dr Peter McCullough and all those committed to alternative health care options and supplements.  Very grateful and thankful.” [Kelly T. Verified Buyer, United States, 02/14/2023]

[Read on July 12, 2023, on which date there were196 reviews with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.]

We have just come through an era in which we were told there is a severe and unknown threat that requires the use of an experimental treatment that is of unknown efficacy.  Now we are told there is another severe and unknown threat that requires the use of an alternative treatment (would that treatment also not be experimental and of unknown efficacy?). In both cases, the goal is to protect ourselves and those around us from the unknown biological threat—as well as from people who made choices that are understood to be misguided.

It is hard to know where the truth lies.  And it is hard to decide whether to reach for my credit card and to eagerly await the arrival of the mail truck that will deliver the promise of peace of mind in a box for me and for my loved ones—or that will deliver another bottle to add to our stress-inducing bathroom-cabinet clutter and another line to our overburdened credit-card bill. Right now, I actually feel that one of the best things I can do for my health is to tidy up my home and to limit the accumulation of discretionary expenses on my upcoming credit-card bill.

Should I be worried about the spike protein?  I do not know—but at this point in time I do not feel imminently threatened by the spike protein, and I do not feel that vaccinated people (of whom I am one) are like miasma—the allegedly poisoned air that medieval people believed caused the transmission of the bubonic plague. Even though I feel that the COVID vaccine mandates were misguided and harmful, I have no interest in participating in a tit-for-tat rhetorical battle between the “vaccinated” and the “unvaccinated” in which each side accuses the other of posing a health risk to humanity. 

As mortal human beings, we are all threatened by something that will eventually get us—and until then we can expect to be harassed by many troubles, both passing and chronic.  This is likely the explanation for most health problems and other imperfections. But our life on this earth is best served by managing our anxiety—and our money—prudently.  In this context, I resent the apparent attempt to persuade me that my peace of mind will be best served by buying a certain box of pills for me and for my loved ones, ideally for the rest of my life.  Liberty and bodily autonomy are best served when we exercise restraint when it comes to telling other people that they are threatened and that they must do something to protect themselves—unless we are literally saving them from an obvious and visible threat.  The mechanisms of conformity and excessive trust in authority are not exclusive to large-scale public health or other government platforms.  These dynamics can exist in many smaller contexts that do not have the power to coerce society as a whole but that can nevertheless exercise a great deal of influence on people who chose to step into a certain orbit and who might find it difficult to escape its gravitational pull.

The dynamics of advertising and consumer choice in the free market are a healthy part of liberty—and an important part of liberty is also to think about advertising materials and about the endorsers of products critically and to make our own choices.   

During the COVID era, some of the ethical principles that should govern evidence-based persuasion went missing in action—and there are lasting lessons that can be learned about the dangers of fear-based persuasion.

In And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic, Randy Shilts describes how, in the early years of AIDS, the natural medicine business responded to the well-justified fear of the deadly virus:

“A vague awareness of something horrible had seized the collective gay consciousness by this summer [of 1982]. . . . Businessmen were able to deal with the trend, even if politicians were not. The advertisements amounted to a blitz in the gay newspapers for astronomically priced vitamin packets called HIM—Health and Immunity for Men. The packets contained “natural vitamins, minerals and herbs for the sexually active male.” The unique HIM formula, the advertising promised, helped in “maximizing the immune system to fight infection” and “maintaining sexual vitality and potency.” The advertisements didn’t come out and say, “Eat these vitamins and you won’t die a miserable death,” but that clearly was the exploitive intention as the vitamin packs became hot-sellers in gay neighborhoods across the country. The sewers of Manhattan and San Francisco flowed with the most vitamin-rich urine in the nation, even as gay men trooped off to the baths, convinced that if there was really something dangerous in the business, their leaders would warn them. They were all in this together.” (182-3)

Source: Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On. St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Neither COVID nor the vaccine can be compared to AIDS—but Shilts’s insightful analysis of “exploitive intention” should not be far from mind when human beings, fear of the unknown and the desire for money or for power in the hear and now come into play.

Source for image: https://www.pexels.com/search/credit%20card%20hesitation/