Showing posts with label profiteers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label profiteers. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Harold E. Buttram, MD

image source
http://www.vitals.com/doctors/Dr_Harold_Buttram/profile
In 2004, Arthur Allen interviewed Harold Buttram in the course of writing Allen's book Vaccine.

 Born in 1925 (+/- 2 years) Buttram grew up in Oklahoma, and although his family was "suspicious of medicine", he graduated from the University of Oklahoma Medical School following his military service during WWII.

Despite being educated in the post-Flexner era, Buttram's medical philosophy was distinctly nineteenth-century in character. The explanation for his is that early in his medical career, Buttram came under the influence of the physician and Rosicrucian Fraternity leader Reuben Swinburne Clymer (1878-1966), especially through Clymer's 1957 book, The Age of Treason: The Carefully and Deliberately Planned Methods Developed By the Vicious Element of Humanity for the Mental Deterioration and Moral Debasement of the Mass As a Means to Their Enslavement

Arthur Allen wrote,
The book's thesis is that birth control, polio vaccine, mood-altering drugs [such as the benzodiazepenes and other anxiolytics] hormones, and racial miscegenation are the tools of a Satanic plot to undermine Anglo-Saxon America.
Clymer and his protégé  Buttram found vaccines to be particularly vile, in use by the "enemies of God and mankind" to destroy children's minds and moral sense (The "vicious element of humanity", according to Clymer, consists but is not limited to,  Jews, Negroes who do not know their place, and Communists).

Most of Buttram's medical career was spent at institutions associated with Clymer's original clinic in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, treating conditions not recognized in mainstream medicine such as "adrenal fatigue", and using unusual treatments for recognized disorders, such as chelation for heart or circulatory ailments.  (Buttram has not renewed his medical license since 2008, when he would have been in his early 80s.)

Buttram also published a number of works through the Rosicrucian publishing house, Humanitarian, including Vaccinations and Immune Malfunction.  In this and other works, Buttram claimed (without evidence) that immunizations are the root cause of such conditions as  autism, Crohn's disease, ADHD, and many other health problems.  In summary, Buttram claimed
  • The actual benefits of many vaccinations are  not as good as advertised.
  • Vaccinations induce a transient depression of immune dysfunction.
  • Vaccines may permanently change immune response in negative ways
  • Many problems linked to vaccinations have not been disclosed to the public
  • Vaccines may induce genetic mutation
  • Vaccinations may contribute to the development of other diseases or dysfunctional states.
Late in his career, Buttram became a paid legal expert witness for the defense in a number of shaken-baby prosecutions, the most notorious of which was the case of Alan Yurko, going so far as to co-author Vaccines And Genetic Mutation with Yurko (and Susan Kreider RN) while Yurko was in prison for murdering his baby.  According to Allen, Buttram testified for the defense in upwards of 60 trials, which would have been a rather nice source of income for a physician in his late 60s and early 70s.  According to Buttram himself, he never testified for the prosecution, which I believe is telling. I believe Buttram worked most frequently with attorney Toni Blake, who continues to provide services to defendants accused of injuring or murdering infants.

Back to Yurko.  On  February 3, 2001, Peter Bowditch of the (Australian) The Millenium Project wrote,
I want you to think about a dead baby. This baby was ten weeks old when he died. The autopsy revealed bleeding around the brain, in the eyes and in the spinal column. There were bruises on the sides of his head. Another thing that the autopsy showed was four broken ribs. These fractures had started to heal, and therefore indicated a pattern of physical abuse prior to the date of death. The father admitted to holding the baby by his feet and hitting him shortly before he died. I now want to you to form an opinion of the father. If you are the sort of person who opposes vaccination, you would see this man as a hero. You would see him as a martyr to the cause and would try to get him released from prison. In a breathtaking demonstration of what it can mean to believe that the end justifies the means, the anti-vaccination liars have adopted Alan Yurko as a symbol that they can use to frighten parents into refusing vaccination for their children. 
Bowditch then directed readers to the essay, Shaken Baby Syndrome or Vaccine Induced Encephalitis: The Story of Baby Alan, written by  Harold E. Buttram, M.D. & F. Edward Yazbak, M.D. (link in sources, below).

Buttram was (I believe) a founding editor of Medical Veritas ("the journal in truth in health science"), a founding member of the International Medical Council on Vaccination (another anti-vaccine interest group),  and a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a far-rightwing medical group that has an anti-vaccine agenda and publishes the Journal of the American Physicians and Surgeons (JPANDS), which was the house organ for the notorious Geiers, père et fils.

So, Buttram's anti-vaccine status:
  1. Claiming that all vaccines are unsafe and ineffective Yes
  2. Claiming better sanitation and nutrition account for the 20th century decline in vaccine-preventable diseases Yes
  3. Claiming that vaccines cause diseases and conditions such as autism, asthma, SIDS, or shaken baby syndrome Yes
  4. Claiming that anecdotal evidence is superior to scientific evidence; rejecting science and epidemiology Yes
  5. Cherry picking and misrepresenting the evidence Yes
  6. Using  logical fallacies without shame in arguing Yes
  7. Conspiracy mongering Yes
  8. Silencing criticism (especially by deleting online material), rather than responding to it Maybe or Undetermined
  9. (If in business) Profiting from the sale of products and services that spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about vaccines, or products and services that are said to be superior to vaccines and conventional medicine in preventing disease Yes
Score: 
8/9

 Summary:
Harold Buttram, although little cited today, was an important (if deluded) figure in the 20th and 21st century anti-vaccination movement.

 Sources
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Thursday, January 9, 2014

Rebecca Lee Carley

Image Source
http://www.donotlink.com/dVn
To me, Rebecca Lee Carley (née Roczen) is one of the saddest figures in the anti-vaccine movement.  A woman of considerable ability early in her career, she seems to have slipped into significant untreated mental illness in her late thirties, after graduating from medical school.  The anti-vaccine movement has taken advantage of her MD to use this very ill woman as an authority, to promote their ill-founded ideas.

Carley first developed expertise in fetal echocardiography, and then attended medical school. Carley earned her medical degree in 1987, and from 1987-1991 was a surgical resident.  At some point during her residency, Carley developed the idea that vaccines were dangerous.   After leaving her surgical residency before the end of the program, Carley was briefly a resident in Physical and
Rehabilitation Medicine at Nassau University Medical Center in 1993.  The director of the program had significant reservations about Carley's "emotional stability".   Carley appears not to have worked in the medical field in any capacity (other than self-employment) since the early 1990s.

Carley's only child was born in 1996, following several rounds of fertility treatment.  Carley was 42 at the time of her son's birth.  She separated from her husband shortly after the child's birth.

In 1997, Carley began broadcasting a public-access television program “What’s Ailing America?”, covering such topics as "vaccine induced diseases, police corruption and corruption in the courts."According to Carley, on of the reasons for the demise of her marriage was that her husband was offended by her broadcasts.  In June 1999 Carley and her husband were sharing custody and there was a dispute. Rebecca Carley felt that her son had been sexually abused by his father, while in his father's care.  The State of New York investigated, and exonerated the father.

Subsequently the boy was placed in foster care for several months. Rebecca Carley could only see her son during supervised visitation at the courthouse, during which Carley exhibited quite provocative behavior.  Following the finalization of the Carley divorce in 2000, Carley's son was returned to the custody of his father.  As best I can ascertain, Carley's son has not had any contact with his mother since 2003.

Beginning in 1999, Carley developed a Grand Scheme of the cause of all disease -- vaccines are a major culprit, as well as other "toxins".  The two alternatives are death by allopathy, or a return to wellness by using Carley's "Hippocrates Systems".


Image Source
http://www.donotlink.com/dVM





















I am not sure I can do justice to the Gish Gallop of atni-vaccine claims in the chart developed by Carley, below.  Suffice it to say that not one is evidence-based.

Image Source:
http://www.donotlink.com/dVN

















But fear not, Rebecca Carley has developed the "Hippocrates Protocol" to heal what ails you. Yes, the one pseudoscience to rule them all, homeopathy; plus colloidial silver and other questionable "therapies".

Image Source
http://www.donotlink.com/dVO


















Carley also claims to have the following expertise:

Image Source
http://www.donotlink.com/dVP











EXPERT WITNESS QUALIFICATION BY COURTS

Vaccine Induced Diseases (VIDS)
Child Sex Abuse
Child Physical Abuse
Post traumatic Stress disorder secondary to Legal Abuse
Expert in Vaccinology as per NYS Department of Health

After a search of legal databases,  I found no evidence for such Carley to be an expert witness in any legal proceeding.

Of course, the "vaccine induced diseases" is a figment of Carley's imagination. Her truncated training in general surgery over two decades ago would not prepare her to be an expert witness in pediatric abuse, either physical or sexual.  Her complete lack of training in psychiatry would also make her claim to expert witness status in PTSD quite silly.  And of course, a court doesn't declare a person an expert in vaccinology; one's peers do.

Here is a list of Carley's publications since 1995:


“Inoculations:  the True Weapons of Mass Destruction”, April, 2005.  On:  CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/od/ophr/cdcra/comments.htm .

“Inoculations: the True Weapons of Mass Destruction causing Vaccine Induced Diseases (An Epidemic of Genocide) NOT published in any medical journal (as it would be a conflict of interest for the pharmaceutically controlled medical profession to admit they are creating disease).  However, this article has been published on thousands of websites, and many “alternative medicine” publications.

“Response Of Rebecca Carley, MD to CDC’s Public Health Protection Research Guide 2006-2014”, submitted Jan 2006.  According to the CDC, public comments will be “posted in near future” (still waiting for that to happen; the internal link to my document on the CDC site which initially existed for CDC affiliates to respond to it has since been disabled by the CDC after 100 pages of comments were submitted which were unable to refute the contents of said paper).



Image Source
http://www.donotlink.com/dVP







Anti-vaccine checklist: how does Carley score?
  1. Claiming that all vaccines are unsafe and ineffective Yes
  2. Claiming better sanitation and nutrition account for the 20th century decline in vaccine-preventable diseases  Maybe or Undetermined
  3. Claiming that vaccines cause diseases and conditions such as autism, asthma, SIDS, or shaken baby syndrome Yes
  4. Claiming that anecdotal evidence is superior to scientific evidence; rejecting science and epidemiology Yes
  5. Cherry picking and misrepresenting the evidence Yes
  6. Using  logical fallacies without shame in arguing Yes
  7. Conspiracy mongering Yes
  8. Silencing criticism (especially by deleting online material), rather than responding to it Yes
  9. (If in business) Profiting from the sale of products and services that spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about vaccines, or products and services that are said to be superior to vaccines and conventional medicine in preventing disease Yes
Score
8/9

 Summary:
I was under the misapprehension that Carley's mental issues had become obvious even to the anti-vaccine movement.

However, to my surprise Carley was quoted today as an authority.

Text:

There is no dispute over whether or not mercury is a neurotoxin and that it can have a disastrous effect on brain development. A court qualified expert on vaccine induced disease, Dr Carley says that “Mercury is 1000 times more toxic than lead and is second only to uranium as the most toxic metal.” While mercury is present in multiple forms and comes from a vast number of sources it does not mean that autism or another pervasive developmental disorder cannot be exacerbated by the mercury in vaccines. The mercury emissions from massive coal burning operations in China can also contribute as this is now affecting the United States. This goes further to suggest what an enormously complicated issue autism is.
(This is not the time or the place to discuss the shortcomings of the article, or the fitness of the author,  Lara Stielow, whose previous employment was as a home health aide.)

Carley's value to the anti-vaccination movement is her M.D. degree; her willingness to profess qualifications she does not possess; and her support of others in the anti-vaccination movement.


 Disambiguation:
There is another Rebecca Carley in health care, who is an assistant clinical professor of nursing at the University of Rhode Island.  There is even a slight physical resemblance. This page is not about Professor Carley.

 Sources:
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Friday, January 3, 2014

Tedd Koren, DC

Image Source
http://www.donotlink.com/dBC
For my money, Tedd Koren is one of the most effective propagandists for the anti-vaccine movement.  But he is barely on the radar of the skeptical movement.

To the best of my knowledge, none of his published materials have ever been debunked nor have his many false and exaggerated claims

Tedd Koren is a 1977 graduate of the Sherman College of Chiropractic (a member of the second graduating class of that institution) in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

From 1977-1988, he was primarily in private practice as a chiropractor, in and around Philadelphia, PA.

Beginning in 1987, he founded Koren Publications, and began publishing "patient information packages" for chiropractors, including leaflets, booklets, books, and videos.(Koren earned a BA in communications from the University of Miami.) Among these materials were (and are) anti-vaccine screeds, designed to alarm parents into refusing vaccination, and larger packages for chiropractors to use to scare patients away from vaccination and into chiropractic care.

On January 10, 1995, Koren received a seven-page letter from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), requiring that he substantiate claims made in materials published and distributed by Koren Publications, including claims about chiropractic and infectious disease, and claims about the dangers of vaccination.

Sadly, the FTC eventually dropped the investigation, allowing Koren to continue to market such gems as


In addition to the widely reproduced posters (samples below).

Anti-Vaccine Checklist: How Does Koren Score? (a person or organization is anti-vaccine if he or she exhibits at least three of the following points.
  1. Claiming that all vaccines are unsafe and ineffective Yes
  2. Claiming better sanitation and nutrition account for the 20th century decline in vaccine-preventable diseases Yes
  3. Claiming that vaccines cause diseases and conditions such as autism, asthma, SIDS, or shaken baby syndrome Yes
  4. Claiming that anecdotal evidence is superior to scientific evidence; rejecting science and epidemiology 
  5. Cherry picking and misrepresenting the evidence Yes
  6. Using  logical fallacies without shame in arguing Yes
  7. Conspiracy mongering Yes
  8. Silencing criticism (especially by deleting online material), rather than responding to it
  9. (If in business) Profiting from the sale of products and services that spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about vaccines, or products and services that are said to be superior to vaccines and conventional medicine in preventing disease Yes
Score:
8/9.
Summary

 I believe that Tedd Koren is one of the most influential people in the anti-vaccine movement, because of the reach and ubiquity of his publications.

Image source
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=247x26631















Image Source, Koren Publications,
http://www.donotlink.com/dBUhttp://www.donotlink.com/dBU

Image Source:
http://www.donotlink.com/dCy












































The skeptical movement and anti-vaccination propaganda
Source: http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/1361-my-skeptic-elevator-pitch.html












Sources

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