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The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked an endless stream of wild conspiracy-mongering and misinformation, and one of the latest bits of quackery to bubble up from the fetid depths of the internet is a claim by an anti-vaccine osteopathic doctor that bathing in a concoction that includes baking soda and Borax can “detox” the body and undo the vaccine.
Before we go any further, we’ll go ahead and spoil the ending: it is absolutely impossible to undo a vaccine and this alleged “detox” bath is potentially dangerous. Please don’t try this at home, or anywhere, at any time, whatsoever, period. It’s a very bad idea.
NBC investigative reporter Ben Collins reported on a widely-circulated TikTok video posted by Carrie Madej, whom he describes as “an osteopathic internal medicine doctor who has propagated a variety of debunked theories about the Covid vaccines and posted to Twitter about a variety of other conspiracy theories, including QAnon.”
Madej’s video had been removed by TikTok, Collins
Her “detox” bath instructions included several ingredients that were “mostly not harmful,” wrote Collins, but “the supposed benefits attached to them are entirely fictional,” seeming to draw inspiration from similar false claims that have circulated for years among anti-vaccine online communities about substances that can remove “toxins” from the body.
Among Madej’s bonkers claims were that baking soda and Epsom salts would provide a “radiation detox” from the vaccine and Bentonite clay (a common ingredient in face masks) would cause a “major pull of poison” from the the body.
The cherry on top of this lunacy sundae, however, might be Madej’s claim that a cup of Borax would “take nanotechnologies out of you.” In previous podcasts and videos, Madej had claimed that Covid-19 vaccines contained a “liquified computing system” and were a “gateway to transhumanism.”
It shouldn’t need to be said, but “liquefied computers” are not a thing, and the vaccines do not contain any sort of nanotechnology. PolitiFact checked out Madej’s “liquified computer” claims and rated them as “Pants on Fire” (along with other ridiculousness about “tentacle-like, spider-like” parasites she claimed were in the vaccines). Borax is a cleaning agent
Moreover, none of these ingredients would remove or reverse a vaccination — because nothing can. “Once you’re injected, the lifesaving vaccination process has already begun,” said virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen. “You can’t unring a bell. It’s just not physically possible.”