South Americans used Facebook groups to share images and stories of using toxic bleach to treat COVID-19 and cancer after misinformation swept the continent
REUTERS/Danilo Balderrama
- A controversial group is spreading misinformation about the bleach chlorine dioxide.
- Using Facebook, advocates claimed it can fight COVID-19 and also cancer.
- The movement has found fertile ground in Latin America, despite efforts to stop it.
- After being contacted by Insider, Facebook said it would remove the groups.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
A network of Facebook pages and groups in South America helped fuel the popularity of a dangerous chemical marketed as a cure for COVID-19, an Insider investigation found.
The pages are linked to an alternative medicine advocate from Germany, Andreas Kalcker, who has promoted the substance chlorine dioxide, also known as Miracle Mineral Solution, or MMS.
Advocates of the substance have long claimed it is a cure to almost any medical condition, including types of cancer. Their influence has been supercharged by the coronavirus pandemic, and nowhere more than in South America.
Chlorine dioxide is an industrial substance often used to treat paper products, but its promoters claim it has miraculous powers. They say, groundlessly, that the findings are being suppressed.
Facebook groups overflow with stories of taking bleach
A snapshot into how extensively the misinformation has impacted South America can be found in a network of Facebook groups. They are linked to the Bolivian group Comusav (Coalición Mundial Salud y Vida), a collection of renegade medics who promote chlorine dioxide.
After being shown evidence of what was posted in the groups, Facebook shut many of them down, citing its policies against COVID-19 misinformation.
On the pages, people share stories and advice on using the substance to treat illnesses including COVID-19.
One image appears to show an elderly man in Colombia, described as a colon cancer patient, being treated with a solution of chlorine dioxide.
Another apparently shows an elderly woman in Mexico after being treated with the bleach by a woman who claims to be associated with Comusav.
The images were shared with Insider by Fiona O'Leary, an activist who has long campaigned to raise awareness of the bogus medical use of bleach.
In the groups, people asked Comusav representatives advice for using chlorine dioxide to treat illnesses including COVID-19, pneumonia, stomach upsets, heart disease and cancer. One asked how to treat animals using the substance.
In some groups, Comusav representatives offered paid "consultations" on how to use the bleach.
Public health organizations have issued warnings in response to the rise of chlorine dioxide. They include the Pan American Health Organization, the US Food and Drug Administration, and Spain's leading medical regulator, the Organización Médica Colegial de España.
They say that there is no evidence that the substance is effective as a treatment for COVID-19 or any illness and condition, and that if taken in large doses can be fatal. But it has done little to stifle its popularity.
The bleach has been linked to hospitalizations and deaths in Bolivia, while in Argentina authorities have opened an investigation into Kalcker following the deaths of a five-year-old boy and a man of 50 who took the bleach.
Insider last year revealed the role Kalcker and Comusav played in popularizing the substance in Bolivia, where the substance has found favor with the recently-elected government.
Using Facebook, the group has spread beyond Bolivia, making its influence felt across South America.
Its pages boasted tens of thousands of users in countries including Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina and Ecuador.
One group for users in Mexico, seen by Insider, had 45,000 members.
Comusav in a statement to Insider claimed that the bleach treatment works, which is contested by medical authorities like the FDA, which says it is toxic and that there is no evidence it is effective as a treatment for any illness.
Though Facebook has introduced a number of policies that it says has reduced the ability of users to spread medical misinformation, advocates were still able to use the platform.
Before their removal, the groups existed in the open, and users made no attempt to conceal their activities and beliefs.
Dr Patricia Callisperis is a pediatrician in La Paz, Bolivia, and a founding member of Comusav. In an emailed statement to Insider she defended promoting the substance.
"We should all human beings fight for the truth, I can't understand why they want to hide one of the most important discoveries in medicine in the last 100 years," Callisperis wrote.
She said that Comusav's Facebook pages were "dedicated to informing people" and "if there are hundreds of other groups in Latin America I am happy, more beings will be aware that there is a solution for many diseases."
Kalcker in response to Insider's request for comment on the Facebook activity did not give a direct answer.
Instead he referred to Mexican millionaire Pedro Luis Martín Bringas, who has also advocated for chlorine dioxide, and offered a large reward to anyone who can convice him that it has killed anybody. (The substance's toxicity has long been established by medical authorities like the FDA.)
Kalcker said: "I'm perfectly convinced that you can understand that I'm a very busy individual and would certainly appreciate not being bothered any more until that scientific toxicity documentation comes forth and the reward is effectively claimed."
A Facebook spokesperson told Insider that the platform removed Comusav's pages and groups on the site after they were flagged by Insider.
"We have removed accounts, Pages, and Groups related to an organization called Comusav for violating our regulated goods and harmful misinformation policies. We have over 35,000 people dedicated to keep our community safe, a task particularly important during the COVID19 pandemic" said the spokesperson.
The majority of pages had indeed been removed as of Wednesday, but Insider found some smaller ones still active.
Dr Fernando Patiño Sarcinelli is an oncologist in La Paz, Bolivia. He has spoken out against the use of chlorine dioxide. He told Insider that misinformation about the substance spread on Facebook was worsening the crisis for doctors struggling to treat a second wave of COVID-19 patients.
"There were many cases that [where the treatment of patients] was complicated by using the drug - and many patients who are taking the drugs [chlorine dioxide] are postponing and not getting medical treatment under the false belief it is an effective treatment," he said.
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