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Books that promise remedies for autism through potentially dangerous therapies have been quietly removed from Amazon over the past week.
The deletions follow a presentation in Wired magazine this week that showed Amazon selling dozens of titles claiming to cure the disease of a lifetime with camel milk nostrums to yoga and veganism.
On Thursday morning, Kerry Rivera, Cure the Symptoms of Autism, which advocates dosing autistic children with a bleach-like substance, chlorine dioxide, was no longer available at the online giant. The Autism Research Institute says that chlorine dioxide, dubbed by its followers "the miracle mineral solution," "has side effects known to cause serious damage."
Another book cited in the Wired article, Fight Autism and Win, has also been removed from Amazon. He advocates a process known as chelation, which involves using a dose of chemicals to remove heavy metals from the body. This treatment is not approved for autism and can be dangerous: in 2005, a five-year-old boy died as a result of chelation therapy.
The Miracle Mineral Supplement of the 21st Century, the inventor of "Miracle Mineral Solution" Jim Humble, is also no longer on sale on Amazon.com.
Anti-vaccination activist Larry Cook, founder of Stop Mandatory Vaccination, highlighted the removal of books in a publication on Facebook, claiming that "Amazonian censorship had begun" and urging readers to "stock up on books and on DVD now. " . He shared a screen shot, allegedly from Amazon, in which the bookseller stated that the subject of Rivera's book was "in violation of our content guidelines".
Amazon has been contacted for a comment. He confirmed to NBC News that he had removed the books, but did not want to say if this was part of a broader effort to clean the site.
Media giants are increasingly criticized for their role in amplifying the anti-vaccine movement. Facebook banned last week the broadcast of advertisements containing incorrect information on vaccines. Cook's videos were demonetized by YouTube in February, and the Daily Beast reported Tuesday that Facebook had removed Cook's ads, whose "showcase" Amazon directs readers to books including The Unvaccinated Child and Vaccine Illusion.
Following last week's revelation in The Guardian, that Amazon appears to be helping nonprofit anti-vaccine organizations in the United States through its charitable arm, the AmazonSmile Foundation.
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