Cristina Cuomo, the wife of journalist Chris Cuomo, who had been setting progressive hearts aflutter with his jovial sort-of interviews with his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, before contracting COVID-19, has also tested positive for coronavirus.

Nothing surprising there. What is shocking is that she is founder of The Purist, a "wellness" (read: rich white people) brand which promotes woo like homeopathy, "energy medicine" and "oxygenated herbs" as how you prevent disease. And yet she got the disease anyway.

That has not stopped her and him from promoting all of the above plus marijuana oil, Peruvian tree bark and hemp. They think tinctures, organic food, and supplements FDA does not bother to validate because they are ridiculous will help.

None of those are medicine. They are not even alternative medicine or complementary medicine or integrative medicine or whatever folk medicine has rebranded itself as these days. The only thing missing is perineum sunning.

Is is any wonder that weeks later he is still sick? 



In the interview with the Extra celebrity television show above she throws in the 'food is medicine' trope that we have been hearing about for years, while never answering the awkward question 'if food is medicine instead of just being food, why do healthy people need it?'

While there is nothing harmful in their beliefs in rubbish, they have money to burn, they are doing a disservice to the public who should not be wasting money on pseudoscience, because it is only beneficial in the way that Zicam is; buy it and you feel like you did something while you wait.

She must know it doesn't really work because she drops in the "integrative" term and admits she is giving him actual cold and allergy pills along with her nonsense. Why not play Belgian Symphonic Death Metal too? That could also be an "adjunct" to real medicine.

Cuomo cites Linda Lancaster, a Naturopath and Homeopath who nonetheless calls herself "Dr."(2) and makes supernatural claims like that "light harmonics" will change our energy and prevent disease, as will goat milk cleanses. She tells fellow woo believers the pretend Doctor created a "formula for those who had already contracted the virus, by adding antivirals. The main one is andrograghis—a Chinese herb used for flu and viruses; the formula also includes olive leaf—which is antiviral and antifungal—and now oil of oregano.”


Here, buy these placebos and you may feel like you did something while you wait out COVID-19.

She says Cuomo also takes cannabidiol, which has never been shown to do anything, but claims Chris swears by it now.

If any of that were really preventative, how did Cristina get the disease?  The reason is because it's all nonsense. 

She runs an obscure website for fellow rich people, so whatever. Yet Chris is a journalist and his employer wants their brand to be taken seriously. None of us can do anything about the weird cosmic beliefs of our families but by indulging them, we are doing a huge disservice to the public. And in this case, to the credibility of science.

NOTES:

(1) Yes, $100 million of your tax dollars that should go toward science instead goes toward showing us each year that acupuncture still doesn't work.

(2) I bought a Ph.D. in Theoretical Phys Ed as a joke one time, so I can call myself Dr. with just as much credibility.