The Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM)
has been in operation for about three years now. Starting up a new office
is never easy, but anyone would have a right to be dismayed that OAM has
not yet evaluated a single alternative treatment. Whatever the reasons,
for 1 1/2 million Americans, whatever OAM does will come too late: they
are the ones who have died of cancer during this period. For them and their
families no excuses will suffice.
We greet the appointment of a new director of OAM, Lt. Col. Wayne Jonas,
M.D., with guarded enthusiasm. Wayne has an excellent background. He received
his MD degree from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem,
NC and currently heads a fellowship training program at the Walter Reed
Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. He also has directed health
promotion projects and has had a long-term interest in various alternative
medicine techniques, such as homeopathy, electro-acupuncture, nutrition,
Quigong and radionics.
While many friends of OAM supported a different candidate, most were
genuinely happy when Wayne's appointment was announced. Why then "guarded"
enthusiasm?
We wonder if Wayne will be able to do what his predecessors were unable
to do? We hope so, and hope to work with him to bring about those much-sought
fair evaluations.
But there is an entrenched opposition to evaluating alternative treatments.
Certain people have spent decades condemning cancer alternatives. Test Gerson!
Test Burzynski! Test IAT! By all means. But what happens if these much maligned
treatments work? Where does that leave the quackbusters, with their tedious
rants about "questionable" and "unproven" treatments?
Truth is, Wayne is going to need all the support he can muster if he intends
to take on the quackbusters.
