Under My Skin

Fake medical news: The black salve and the black arts


 


Josie’s story was similar to Jake’s: A famous European doctor. Somebody’s living room.

“He had me lie on the floor,” she recalled, “and he put on some kind of salve. It burned horribly. I was screaming in pain. He washed it off, but it still burned for a long time. This is what it left,” she said, pointing to denting and discoloration on her cheeks and upper lip. She remembered the man’s name.

It took just a few clicks to find him. He wasn’t a licensed doctor and had fled his home country ahead of fraud charges for illegal and harmful practice.

I couldn’t offer Josie much, beyond advising her to avoid getting treated on living room floors by strange practitioners with painful salves.

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