Top 10 Medical Conspiracies That Turned Out To Be TRUE

In 2011, news leaked that the CIA had planned to create fake vaccination drives with the aid of doctor Shakil Afridi. The spy group believed the infamous Osama bin Laden was hiding in a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. So, they sent Afridi and medics to the area to offer free vaccinations for hepatitis B. But instead of providing the full dosage, the staff were meant to take DNA from the patients to see if bin Laden or his family were there and then order a capture. However, this concept allegedly failed. Regardless, this caused massive issues in the area since locals became untrusting of legitimate vaccine programs, potentially putting thousands of lives at stake.

Looking back, the notion of prohibition was a ridiculous idea. After all, if people want something, they’ll find a way to get it. However, no one expected the government to go this far. In 1926, people began noticing that alcohol made by bootleggers was regularly causing serious illnesses and even ending lives. As it turned out, authorities were behind it. They had ordered that industrial alcohol, which bootleggers stole and used, would be tainted with toxins such as methanol. The plan was to instill fear in potential drinkers that they could become ill. But it, of course, didn’t work. By the end of prohibition, it’s estimated that at least 10,000 people perished to this careless concept.

While the Soviet Union had Operation Osoaviakhim, the US had Operation Paperclip, previously known as Operation Overcast. After the defeat of Germany in World War II, the US brought in around 1,600 scientists to use their knowledge. However, many of them were members and leaders of the fascist regime. When murmurs about this secret project were reported in 1946, people were uncomfortable. One recruit that helped the US with medical science was Walter Schreiber, a doctor, and general in the German army, who worked on preemptive measures against biological weapons during the war. He was also accused of conducting horrific human experiments, which he denied. Schreiber left Paperclip in 1952 and relocated to Argentina.

People wouldn’t lie about health issues to make money, would they? Nowadays, the New England Journal of Medicine requires proof that researchers don’t have conflicts of interest in their papers. But back in 1967, those checks weren’t present, and the sugar industry took advantage. An article by Harvard nutrition employees Dr. Fredrick Stare and Mark Hegsted aimed to blame cholesterol and fat in a diet for the cause of heart disease, not the sweet stuff. In 2016, it was discovered by Dr. Cristin Kearns that the duo was funded by the Sugar Research Foundation at the cost of $6,500 at the time, around $49,000 today, and thus, turning the sucrose companies into billion-dollar industries.

A silent weapon that can induce a heart attack doesn’t sound like real life, instead confined to the pages of a spy novel or blockbuster film. Except it exists, and that’s terrifying. Old-school CIA was involved in some of the most ambitious and bonkers plots possible. During the Church Committee in 1975, where the agency was being examined for abuse of power, the heart attack weapon was showcased to the room. It was devised to fire a frozen dart formed of a shellfish toxin noiselessly that could induce a cardiac arrest in the target before melting away and removing all evidence beyond a small skin prick. The weapon then vanished from public viewing and hasn’t been seen since.

Today, we know that smoking isn’t great for us and can cause various diseases and cancers. But we could’ve found this out decades earlier if the tobacco industry didn’t conspire to hide the truth. In 1950, studies began showing the link between smoking and ill health. Straight away, tobacco firms went into damage control. The Tobacco Institute released statements that criticized papers highlighting the issue and promoted the practice of smoking. In 2011, researchers from UCLA discovered the industry had known about cancer-causing particles in tobacco since 1959. Yet they hid that from the public. Known as polonium-210, the radioactive material could’ve been removed by producers, but they chose not to and instead lied about it. Yikes.

In 1932, US medical services started a study for then-incurable syphilis in Tuskegee, Alabama. Sounds reasonable. Instead, it became one of the biggest misuses of ethics in the States. 399 Black men with the disease and a control group of 201 were put in the program that lasted until 1972. Participants were told they would get treatment for their “bad blood,” yet received placebos instead, even though penicillin had existed since 1947. The experimenters wanted to document what happened to people with untreated syphilis. Unsurprisingly, terrible things occur, such as mental illnesses and passing away. In the 60s, researcher Peter Buxton tried to stop the disturbing study, but the authorities refused. So, he went to the press, forcing the grim experiment to finish.

One famous conspiracy theory is that “Big Pharma” is causing diseases to charge people when they need treatment. Sounds absurd. People aren’t like supervillains from comic books… right? Wrong. In the early 1980s, Cutter Biological, a subsidiary of Bayer, was making medicine for hemophiliacs for blood clotting. Unfortunately, they used a tainted protein that spread HIV and AIDS to patients. In 1984, the company found a safe alternative and administered that instead… at least in the US and Europe. Then, the company had a load of dangerous medicine they couldn’t use. But they found a way. Discovered in 2003, Bayer had sold it in Asia and Latin America, spreading the disease through an unsuspecting populace. The company has since paid hundreds of millions in lawsuits.

If there was a category for the biggest misnomer in history, Project SUNSHINE would be in the running for the imaginary prize. In 1955, the US Atomic Energy Commission devised this program to monitor the effects of nuclear fallout from atomic testing on the human body. The problem was they needed samples. They either stole or made deals in Europe and Australia to take most young bodies, or parts of them, without the permission of the next of kin. Altogether, around 1,500 subjects were forcefully added to the Project. Some parents weren’t even able to dress their passed-away children for funerals to hide the terrible deed. In 1995, the morbid study was publicly discovered.

If you weren’t already wary of the CIA, you will be in a moment. In 1953, the agency created Project MKUltra to find a way to control human behavior with drugs and psychological torment. Essentially, they wanted to brainwash people. The CIA conducted experiments in the US and Canada, often in hospitals and prisons. One infamous example had the CIA using LSD to see what that did to participants' willpower. Some folk willingly signed up for the experiments, but many did not. Regardless, there were cases of subjects perishing or experiencing lifelong mental trauma from the study. Project MKUltra ended in 1973. After being leaked to the press, the experiment became publicly disclosed during the Church Committee in 75.