As the title says, the dude still has videos on youtube attacking, smearing and insulting this group and its members, so what gives?
2 Likes
He’s a really damaged person with a low self esteem that builds himself up by abusing another vulnerable group. It’s toxic and sad but also dangerous because he’s providing bad information to his followers in order to boost his own fragile self esteem. I don’t know if he actually believes what he’s saying and he’s stupid or he’s just really evil, but there are unfortunately bad people in the world that do harm while convincing themselves that they’re doing something important.
2 Likes
We decided to take down the thread because Kevin messaged moderators about it, as it contained links to a website he was pursuing defamation action against. Whether or not the claims being made there were true wasn’t up for us to decide and we’d rather err on the side of legal caution.
It’s also best to ignore him. His videos have practically zero influence on whether we make progress or not and our collective energy is better spent elsewhere (e.g. fundraising, speaking on the PFSN YouTube channel, volunteering, etc). He’s personally used my image as the cover for one of his deranged rants and I could really care less. His opinion about this issue should mean very little to anyone.
6 Likes
Nobody with any influence in the medical field will assign any value to what somebody like him says but he is misinforming a sizable group of people and people are continuing to get injured after trusting his opinion about the safety profile of finasteride.
Not everybody cares about that but I do care that he’s dangerously continuing to mislead his audience in exchange for some random internet attention.
Sounds like he can dish it out but when it comes back to him, he can’t take it in return. If he was that confident in his message, he wouldn’t have any problem with people disagreeing with him. He’s a fraud, he knows it.
1 Like
I hope all the more that the Kiel study and the genome study will start successfully and that a genetic predisposition, a biomarker and an epigenetic pathomechanism can be determined that can no longer be refuted and the way to the recognition of the post-finasterid syndrome as a clear complication of finasteride use is no longer refutable. It hurts with that definite physical, sexual, and mental response after stopping finsateride just to be recognized as a depressive. One big US wide press campaign like Trump is taking finasteride, they know how dangerous that can be and the public worldwide would be warned. I too would have been warned and would have thrown the finasteride sample pack and the chairs through my urologist’s practice. Anyone who gets information on the internet and recognizes the dangers of finasteride is more likely to be deterred by these sick lunatics like Kevin Mann. The problem is that the long-term side effects are concealed on the package insert and played down in language. On the Internet, even google warns of finasteride side effects as the top search result. That and the many videos is the right way.
6 Likes
You certainly have more tolerance than I do. I guess that I correctly assumed that he threatened to sue over the article link.
Using your face on one of his videos is pretty messed up though. I shouldn’t be surprised that he would stoop that low. Pretty sure just reporting the video would get it taken down pretty quickly if he is using your face without permission in a derogatory way
1 Like
Sadly, I have to disagree about his influence though. A number of people on here, have said that they listened to him before using fin. His misinformation may very well have contributed to PFS cases.
On the bright side, the pfsnetwork has done a wonderful job in raising awareness which I applaud.
Also, more popular “manosphere” youtube channels, like Anabolic doc, MPMD and Leo, have stated very clearly that yes, PFS is very real. The tide is definitely turning
3 Likes
Sorry, you are right, he does have influence over people considering taking the drug. I meant to say that in terms of us making progress towards viable therapeutic treatments at scale, meaningful awareness, regulatory action, etc, these type of characters have very little influence.
We’re in a strange situation where unfortunately, despite thousands of self-reports indicating a problem, greater regulatory action will not occur until there is a causal link between the drug and the disease. And until the disease is recognised and there’s greater warnings for potential users, there’s limited ways we can counter the influence of this kind of misinformation.
I agree the tide is also turning. I can’t imagine an outlet like Haaretz covering PFS so thoroughly even just a few years ago.
4 Likes
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this over the past few months since the unfortunate FDA decision and I think it was a combination of corruption, incompetence, and lack of resources that prevented them from making the right decision. With respect to mechanistic and empirical evidence, we are pretty good in terms of proving PFS but it will definitively help as the messaging and science become more simple and clear over time.
Pretty certain the official at the FDA was overwhelmed with the request and didn’t know what to do so he handed it over to Merck or Organon to provide a response for them. Some of the comments seemed very unlikely to have come from the FDA.
Maybe would have been more likely to succeed if the petition were more concise but I thought it was appropriately very thorough and should have been successful if the process were legitimate. the bar for us to gain recognition is really absurdly high but we will get there in time.
1 Like
Kevin Mann had a big influence on me starting Finasteride. He gives people on the edge of starting reassurance that it is safe. He is convincing in his argument, particularly towards those concerned about hair loss, it’s what they want to hear. I’m not sure I would have started Finasteride, had I not discovered his channel.
Just like me. He destroyed my life…
Part of me thinks he is deranged in his own right (but that would be too optimistic), and the other part thinks he’s a pharma hitman/patsy bought with dark money. There’s a shitload hinging on the PR of finasteride.
Many of you are too young to remember the TV commercials for Propecia. It didn’t take long for it to be a huge marketing success, doctors bought in, and it glided for years after with no need for commercials, etc…until the bad reports/lawsuits started piling up and being forced to change their warning label.
Then, they cooked up the Hims/Keeps marketing strategy to obscure their nasty little pill’s name. So I wouldn’t for a moment think these bastards are above hiring a small army of online confederates to attack us.
Just saying…If I had a platform, I wouldn’t take his shit lying down.
3 Likes
This is a good point. When I first heard about fin, I was somewhat shocked as to why every single man on the planet wasn’t taking this “miracle” drug. Minoxidil is sold out in the open and it doesn’t even do much, so how could something that basically cures baldness and costs nothing, NOT be in every man’s medicine cabinet?. They clearly have been forced to find more quiet ways to market it.
As far as ol’ Kevin goes (I know you’re reading this too, wierdo), I’m also not sure what to think. The hit piece written on him shows that he indeed is pretty deranged. Still, his obsession with pushing fin to youngsters, commenting on PFS victim videos and “debunking” PFS and this network seems like it’s a bit more than just a hobby.
1 Like
I do think Kevin, if that is even his real name, is responsible for the injuries caused by misinforming ppl who end up on this forum
I also think that if he wants to serve as a credible and public source of information then people should know that he was affiliated with Neo-Nazism in the past which I think he has clearly admitted
I don’t think that should be a stain on his character for the rest of his life but he does not appear to have redeemed himself and could stand to gain a bit of humility to offset his dangerous narcissism
Kevin Mann is such a pathetic loser. We should ignore him and focus on what’s in our control. Awareness and research. By focusing on our agenda we ensure that buffoon’s legacy will be the shill of a poisonous shitty drug.
8 Likes
100%
2 Likes
His videos and Hairliculously’s are part of what convinced me to restart at 0.25mg almost immediately after a 1yr+ complete and stable recovery from 1mg. That was two years ago. Of course I experienced the same sides even more rapidly, forcing me to quit within two months. Unfortunately, however, it took over twice as long to recover the second time, and even then, unlike the first time, this “recovery” is unstable. Two years of my life, gone. Had I never restarted at the lower dose, I’m confident that I would be an even better version of myself cognitively and sexually today. Now, only time will tell if I can still become that person, years later than I would have.
He is the most dangerous man on the internet. He is the biggest threat to this project by far. You guys can brush him off and allow him to restart his youtube channel and even delete a thread where he was exposed.
You obviously underestimating his influence. Without him, I would have never taken that poison as I was fully aware of the side effects and even read this forum before taking my first pill. I even had researched a lot of cases of PFS on pubmed but Kevin Mann’s rhetoric and his meth like (probably is) speech speed makes him seem like an authority. When you search PFS on youtube a lot of his videos pop out first. He single handedly can discredit this whole movement. I found myself convinced by his arguments thinking pfs is only for lunatics…partly because everyone wants reassurance. Most people want to hear that the drug is good and they will save their hair forever.
2 Likes
This honestly describes the whole online hairloss community.
(To be clear, I’m not including PFS forums. I mean the toxic cesspits like r/tressless)
4 Likes