Barbara O'Neill

Barbara O'Neill is an Australian alternative health promoter who has presented herself as a naturopath, nutritionist, and health educator for more than two decades. She and her husband Michael O'Neill — founder of the anti-vaccination Informed Medical Options Party — operated Misty Mountain Lifestyle Retreat in New South Wales, where retreat packages ranged from A$2,450 to A$8,800 per booking. O'Neill never completed recognised professional training in any health discipline.

Despite lacking qualifications, O'Neill lectured widely in Australia and internationally, making a range of claims about cancer, infant feeding, vaccination, and antibiotic use that health authorities described as medically dangerous. Her talks portrayed cancer as a fungal condition curable with bicarbonate of soda, discouraged group B strep antibiotic prophylaxis in pregnancy, and promoted anti-vaccine narratives.

Following multiple complaints from both the public and health professionals, the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission investigated O'Neill and on 24 September 2019 issued a permanent prohibition order barring her from providing any health services or health education in any capacity, paid or unpaid. The HCCC found she had breached five clauses of the Code of Conduct for Unregistered Health Practitioners and posed an ongoing risk to public health and safety.

The prohibition order did not remove O'Neill from the internet. Her lecture videos — many recorded before the ban — continued to circulate widely on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms, and AI-generated deepfake videos mimicking her likeness subsequently spread further misinformation. In 2025 the Australian Skeptics awarded her the Bent Spoon award for the most preposterous pseudoscientific content of the year.

“Cancer is a fungus that can be treated with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) injections, claiming a 90% success rate”

Cancer is not a fungus. No credible clinical evidence supports sodium bicarbonate injections as a cancer treatment. This claim originates from the thoroughly debunked work of Tullio Simoncini. Promoting it in place of real cancer treatment can be lethal.

“Pregnant women do not need antibiotics for group B streptococcal infection because 'no baby has ever died from Strep B catching out of birth'”

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists reports that 14% of newborns who contract early-onset group B streptococcal infection die. Advising mothers to forgo prophylactic antibiotics directly endangers newborn lives.

“Vaccines are dangerous and unnecessary, and the body can heal all disease through natural methods including fasting, diet, and herbal remedies”

Vaccine safety is established by decades of clinical research. The claim that natural methods can replace evidence-based medicine for serious diseases such as cancer and infectious illness is unproven and dangerous, particularly for vulnerable individuals including infants and immunocompromised patients.