Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
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HEALTH

The Claim

Pseudoscientific treatments are prevalent in modern society and pose a significant public threat.

The Short Version

The claim is largely accurate. Multiple peer-reviewed studies, WHO data, and medical authority declarations confirm that unproven and pseudoscientific health practices are widespread — with documented harms including hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths from HIV denialism and billions in excess healthcare costs from vaccine hesitancy. However, the claim slightly overstates the case: commonly cited prevalence figures measure broad complementary/alternative medicine use, which includes some evidence-supported practices, not exclusively pseudoscientific treatments.

Caveats

  • Prevalence statistics often cited (e.g., 99% lifetime TCAM use, 38% U.S. adult CAM use) measure all complementary and alternative medicine, not specifically pseudoscientific treatments — some CAM practices have evidence support.
  • The most dramatic harm examples (343,000 HIV denialism deaths, $2 billion vaccine hesitancy costs) are real but represent specific extreme cases, not a comprehensive measure of total harm from pseudoscientific treatments across society.
  • Regulatory gaps identified by WHO (102 of 133 member states lacking adequate frameworks) indicate vulnerability to harm but do not directly quantify the actual harm occurring in those countries.

The Receipts

  1. Traditional medicine

    World Health Organization (WHO)

  2. Lifetime prevalence of questionable health behaviors and their psychological roots: A preregistered nationally representative survey - PMC

    PMC

  3. The Old, the New, and the Unknown: Consumer Protection Enforcement Activity in Health Care — EnforceMintz

    EnforceMintz

  4. Infodemics and health misinformation: a systematic review of reviews - PMC

    PMC - NIH

  5. Baseless Claims and Pseudoscience in Health and Wellness: A Call to Action for the Sports, Exercise, and Nutrition-Science Community - PubMed

    PubMed

  6. Pseudoscience in medicine: cautionary recommendations

    PubMed Central (PMC) - NIH

  7. Pseudoscience is More Dangerous Than Coronavirus Pandemic

    PubMed Central (PMC)

  8. The Prevalence, Quality, and Persuasiveness of Evidence-Based Medicine in Complementary and Alternative Medicine

    PubMed Central (PMC)

  9. Viewpoint: Wellness pseudoscience activists are rewriting U.S. health policy

    Viewpoint: Wellness pseudoscience activists are rewriting U.S. health policy

  10. “It Works for Me”: Pseudotherapy Use is Associated With Trust in Their Efficacy Rather Than Belief in Their Scientific Validity - PMC

    PMC

+ 17 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Pseudoscientific Treatments