Pete Evans is no stranger to controversy. Over the last few years, he has had cookbooks pulled for potentially placing babies at risk, was fined by the Therapeutic Goods Administration for promoting an unproven “Bio-Charger” device and faced growing public criticism for his views on health, Covid, vaccinations and politics.
On Sunday, the criticism reached a fever pitch after he posted a cartoon featuring a Black Sun symbol. The symbol is also known as a sonnerad and is a recognised hate symbol, due to its association with Nazi ideology. Evans apologised to people who “misinterpreted” the cartoon, but not before the consequences began to unfold.
The public outcry and calls for major companies to cut ties with Evans was swift and by Monday afternoon his publisher, Pan Macmillan, issued a statement saying it was finalising its relationship with him. A slew of retailers including Dymocks, Woolworths and House have since followed suit, stating they would no longer sell Evans’ cookbooks, cookware or food products. Channel Ten has reportedly let Evans go from its upcoming season of reality show “I’m A Celebrity”. In modern parlance, Evans has been well and truly cancelled.
Many are grateful to finally see some of Evans’ reach diminished and consequences faced. But it’s worth asking at this point, given his previous activities – why did it take so long?
While his love of the paleo diet might be chalked up to a simple difference of opinion, his more recent opinions on Covid have been especially abhorrent to many, given that 1.3 million people worldwide have died of the potentially fatal disease.
Evans is not alone. In modern times, celebrities and influencers routinely stray from their day jobs as actors, TV personalities, sports stars or social media darlings to become self-appointed authorities on health and wellness, joining a multibillion-dollar industry. Gwyneth Paltrow, and her wellness super-machine Goop, are often criticised for their promotion of pseudoscience, some of which is expensive and unnecessary at best, and potentially dangerous at worst. The “healer” known as the Medical Medium, who is not a doctor but gets his medical advice from ghosts and has been promoted on Goop, boasts millions of followers and is a celebrity in his own right. He promotes celery juice as a “powerful and miraculous healing remedy”. The Kardashians have often come under fire for sharing potentially dangerous weight loss tips and diet plans to their millions of followers.
We’re inundated with health advice from people who have plenty of fame, but not much education, wisdom or scruples in some cases.
Despite criticisms and importantly, despite evidence that the advice that many of these people offer has no evidence base, or is downright dangerous, it is nearly impossible to stop them from sharing their opinion and influencing many. As is the case with Evans, it takes years of bad and dangerous advice before something is finally done to remedy the issue and even then, it takes one dramatic event before they are held to account. In many cases, celebrity wellness influencers just continue to grow their platforms or their brands despite the fact that we know that leaving misinformation unchecked has the potential for real and genuine harms to the community.
It is well overdue for us to examine just how far we let these influential people go before we intervene. We need to stop waiting for someone to finally say something truly awful before we stop featuring them on TV, stocking their products or selling their books. Rather than amusement, or tabloid fodder, celebrity misinformation must be called what it really is; dangerous.
It should not require a final act of something deeply offensive for publishers, broadcasters, retailers even us as consumers to cut ties with people who may endanger their followers. Because while we wait for that one act that prompts finally cancelling celebrity charlatans, the damage has already been done. We might chalk the events of the last few days as a win for science, but the same people who have finally cut ties with Evans are the same who turned a blind eye for many years. It’s time to do better.
• Dr Nikki Stamp is a cardiothoracic surgeon, author of Can You Die of a Broken Heart and TV presenter
