I’ve been meaning to put Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science on the blogroll for some time now. Goldacre is the author of a great book called (wait for it) Bad Science. The book is based on the articles he has written as a columnist for the Guardian over recent years. One chapter, however, was not published because Goldacre was enjoined against publishing it by a lawsuit. That suit has now collapsed and Goldacre, feeling rather chagrined that he had not been able to include it, has released the chapter under a Creative Common license so that anyone can read it for free. This will be especially welcome news to those who bought Bad Science and can now complete their reading experience at no extra cost.

And what a chapter it is. I wish this chapter had been published as a stand-alone article in a magazine with the circulation of National Geographic or Time magazine. It is, I believe, the most important essay that will be published this year by anyone, anywhere. I could be wrong, but the chances of there being two such essays seems remote.

You can find Goldacre’s piece here: Matthias Rust Rath: steal this chapter. Read it to the very end. While the first two-thirds is shocking enough, the information isn’t new; it’s just especially well presented. But the submission to the International Criminal Court shows just how deep and savage a psychopathology is at work here — a psychopathology that is supported by at least one national government responsible for 48 million citizens and, it appears, the vast, cheering majority of the alternative health sector.

Goldacre’s subject is not a massacre exactly, and politically it is a very different beast, but by lives lost it’s the equivalent of 4,700 Sharpeville massacres. And counting.

Tags: aids, bad science, ben goldacre, hiv, lawsuit, matthias rust, south africa, vitamins