William T. Jarvis

For other people named William Jarvis, see William Jarvis.

William Tyler Jarvis (October 19, 1935 – March 1, 2016) was an American health educator and skeptic.

Biography

Jarvis graduated from University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Duluth and Kent State University. In 1973, he obtained a PhD in health education from the University of Oregon.^[1] He was professor of preventive medicine at Loma Linda University.^[2][3]

In 1976, Jarvis cofounded the National Council Against Health Fraud and was president from 1977 until his retirement in 2000. He was an adviser to the American Council on Science and Health.^[2] He was a noted critic of alternative medicine and was known for exposing quackery.^[2] He described chiropractic as "the most significant nonscientific health-care delivery system in the United States."^[1]

Jarvis was a scientific consultant for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a charter member of the Council for Scientific Medicine.^[1]

Publications

• Quackery and You (1983)
• Food: Facts and Fallacies from A-Z (1985)
• The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America (1993) [with Stephen Barrett]^[4]
• Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions with PowerWeb: Health and Human Performance (2001) [with Stephen Barrett]