Like an annoying foot fungus that just refuses to die, these quacks, armchair experts, so-called health gurus, and, yes, even doctors (interject a sad sigh at this point) have continued to issue dire warnings about the end of humanity.

We aren’t going to all perish from Covid of course (they will all tell you it actually doesn’t exist) but from the vaccines and evil Orwellian plots hatched by mad scientists and power-hungry politicians hell-bent on re-ordering the world. It is mass genocide or at best genetic re-engineering of the species, according to their siren song.

Clearly pissed that their Netflix subscriptions have lapsed, these individuals have taken it on themselves to weave their own tales of fantasy and fiction. Each new ‘series’ has its own plotline, villains, and heroes, and of course, is set in their version of a dystopian world. The same place most of us currently consider home.

The pitfall of calling tomorrow

If you’re trying to establish yourself as a seer of the future, you’re best suited to picking your predictions for a time that postdates your demise. The turn of the century, remember the impending global meltdown, and 2012 with those pesky Mayans and their calenders, just two classics that spring to mind.

Unless you’re onto a sure thing, outliving your predictions generally tends to be awkward and it’s been no different for our intrepid group of Covid naysayers and end-of-world scriptwriters. One by one, their predictions have come to naught. Nada. Nothing. Their predictions have exposed them for the true fraudsters and charlatans they really are.

Hindsight really is a bitch and in this instance, a highly effective antifungal. Rember the foot fungus analogy?

So just how have these con artists been proven wanting by the passage of time? We investigated a few of our older friends that we fact-checked months ago. It’s interesting to note how in many instances the original claims (ain’t digital history a bitch) made by many of these individuals have been subtly refined over time to accommodate for that annoying little thing called being horribly wrong.

Geert Van Den Bossche

You can read our original article on Van den Bossche here. In a simplified nutshell, Van Den Bossche’s pitch was based on selling us his version of a vaccine (the grift) after convincing us that mainstream vaccines (the competition) were going to cause a mutated virus that would end humanity. So, nearly a year later, or eighteen months on, in the case of trial candidates, where are we?

Aside from racking up an impressive amount of internet traffic from gullible and trusting souls seeking an explanation for their pandemic-induced misery, Van Den Bossche’s theory has so far proven completely unfounded. Despite having half the human population (that’s how many are now vaccinated) as incubators, Van Den Bosch’s killer virus appears to have gone golfing.

Perhaps he’d be better placed if he joined it.

Reiner Fuellmich

The punchline to possibly the worst legal joke ever constructed, Fuellmich propelled himself into popular conspiracy culture in early 2021. His rise was meteoric and his fanbase legion. We called bullshit early and have paid the price ever since, receiving literally thousands of comments and emails wishing us well (not really).

Fuellmich wanted, and we assume still does until the next best thing comes along, to sue the world for the SARS-CoV2 virus, claiming it didn’t really exist, Covid, according to Fuellmich wasn’t dangerous and lockdowns and mask had somehow managed to elevate themselves from effective countermeasures against a viral pandemic to crimes against humanity.

Not even the unfortunate Geneva Convention could escape Fuellmichs manic ambitions as he invoked ludicrously inappropriate responses to what he claimed were atrocities against humanity. You can see, of course, how people would lap this stuff up and why he’s developed such a devout following. People want a scapegoat to pin their misery on and who better than the large faceless behemoth we call modern society and all its appendages.

Eight months later and our intrepid attorney has made zero forward progress, mired as he is in the conspiracy circuit, his followers proving that the worshippers really do define the cult. Associate yourself with the chaff and the swine will feed.

Time has already eroded this deluded German’s fairytale and the lasting legacy of Fuellmich will undoubtedly be as the world’s most audacious and ambitious legal fraudster of all time. He really has raised the bar (pun intended).

America’s Frontline Doctors

I’ve included these grifters as a simple example of training wheels. They are by no means in the class of Fuellmich or Van Den Bossche, as their motives and narrative are simplistic and as transparent as daylight, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous and as doctors, sworn to uphold the best interest of their patients, their actions are reprehensible.

Essentially, the group is a collection of morally bankrupt doctors who have clubbed together to fleece the public during the pandemic by selling them unproven treatments.

They aren’t alone and there are other similar groups that operate, but this group is perhaps most prominent on social media, thanks to its more than dubious membership, which includes the January 6 revolutionary, Dr. Simone Gold, currently under FBI investigation.

Their claims are simplistic – Buy Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin from us online. It works to cure Covid and the government and the media don’t want you to know about it. They have partnered with an equally unethical pharmaceutical supplier called Ravkoo Pharmacy and the two parties grift their merry way through the pandemic, fleecing gullible and vulnerable patients online.

Sadly, many bought into their lies, but time has exposed just how dodgy their business model is, false claims aside. You can read the reviews here from dissatisfied customers who lose their money and never receive anything.

In terms of their actual claims about these drugs treating Covid we now know beyond a reasonable doubt, they don’t help. Here’s the latest on Ivermectin and how we’ve been fooled into thinking the drug has benefits against Covid.

How have vaccine fairy tales faired?

Elon Musk is advertising for vaccinated astronauts with cellphones to man his Mars mission. Apparently, the vaccines boost reception.

Complete nonsense of course, but believed by many. People have, over the course of the pandemic proven themselves more than capable of believing in pretty much anything, no matter how ‘out there’ it sounds, and much of what floats about in the conspiracy ecosphere really is ‘out there’. Way out. The fact that much of this nonsense has been amplified by seemingly sane medical professionals doesn’t help.

In no particular order, here are some of the insane theories that have proven to be completely unfounded over time. Keep in mind we’ve just vaccinated half the world’s population.

• the vaccines will magnetize your body (this actually sounds useful)
• the vaccines contain trackers that allow the government to monitor your movement
• The vaccines interact with 5G cell towers
• We are all going to turn into genetically modified lizards
• The vaccine will render all women sterile (arguably not a bad thing if you consider the stupidity above)

My most recent favorite comes from a doctor, Ben Marble, whose license to practice was revoked in one state in 2012 and he has now resumed his less than illustrious career in Florida (where else).

Where to start. Aside from the fact Twitter clearly isn’t policing anti-vax posts aggressively enough, a simple observation. “All Americans” would, I assume include almost every race-based classification of humanity that exists on the planet. Ergo, everyone will die. It’s this kind of stupidity that almost beggars belief. Who would set about wiping out the entire human species? Doesnt really leave you with anyone to exploit, does it?

Does Marble think the virus does a nationality check first, weighs its intended victim, and then checks for skin color? Do you hear that knocking at the door doctor? It’s the men with the white coats and they’ve got a cozy, padded 3 x 3 waiting just for you.

Not one, in other words, NONE of the ridiculous claims made over the vaccines have come to fruition, despite them being administered in billions, and yet, people still choose to believe they pose a risk to us. People still choose to believe the virus does not pose a threat.

I’ll leave you with a very succinct line I saw recently on a Twitter profile.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗’𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘…

Apparently, hindsight is equally useless.

The post Calling Tomorrow. Has Time Proven Covid Quacks and Conspiracy Theorists Right or Wrong? appeared first on Medika Life.

In particular, organizations like America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), known for spreading their unscientific rhetoric attacking both treatments for Covid and questioning the efficacy of Covid vaccines. Their unproven ‘Covid treatments’, focusing on Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and other drugs have undoubtedly led to people dying from Covid.

That’s all about to change as long overdue legislation is being rolled out across the medical industry. Legislation that is focused on holding medical professionals accountable for their views. It’s never been okay to offer advice that jeopardizes the lives of patients you’ve taken an oath to protect.

New legislation now means that medical boards can respond in a meaningful way to complaints, even stripping these questionable practitioners of their licenses to practice. It’s long overdue and the industry as a whole will welcome the steps taken to protect the public against misinformation.

The process however relies on the public being made aware of their rights and their recourse to filing complaints against practitioners who do not honor medicine’s primary directive.

primum non nocere — first do no harm

Equally important to this process is making the public aware of scientific evidence-based medical opinion that is both trustworthy and easily accessed. Part of this process involves educating patients against potential risks and AFLDS poses a potentially life-threatening risk to the patients it claims to help.

To be clear, there are no approved “treatments’ for Covid aside from the vaccines which massively reduce the risk of developing life-threatening Covid. To place your trust in any ‘treatment regimes’ is to place your life at risk.

Who is AFLDS?

Essentially set up by a group of doctors, including Dr. Stella Immanuelle and Simone Gold, who can only be described as quacks, the group rose to prominence in mid-2020, feeding off the fear of the Covid pandemic to “sell” their Covid treatments to trusting and unsuspecting members of the public.

Their founder, Dr. Simone Gold, who is currently under investigation for her role in the January 6 insurrection in the Capitol, where she was captured on film, is outspoken and controversial. She frequents popular conspiracy channels and has been instrumental in spreading false and misleading information about Covid vaccines.

To understand why this group of medical professionals would want to create distrust in the public mind, you need to understand how they profit from the disinformation they spread. AFLDS is nothing more than a glorified multi-channel direct selling scheme. The fact that their patients’ lives may be forfeit has not given them pause.

Patients are offered an online consultation for $90 and can then request prescriptions, for amongst others, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and whatever other concoction of vitamins and drugs are available. These prescriptions are then filled by online pharmacies like Ravkoo, which partners with AFLDS to enable this ‘pill mill’.

Aside from the dangers posed to patients who follow AFLDS’s ‘Covid treatment regime’, AFLDS’ sales practices simply enable the irresponsible and unjustified prescription of many drugs that lead to addiction and pharmaceutical abuse.

AFLDS’ marketing campaign appeals to the conservative right-wing elements who have bought into the conspiracy theories surround both covid and the vaccines. It is the same group of unvaccinated people now stricken with the Delta variant, who currently occupy over 95% of the bed space in hospitals.

AFLDS has been selling them snake oil rather than vaccines. Many of these patients will die as a result.

Medika Life receives daily feedback from patients about the articles we’ve run on this group, many confirming the illegitimacy of AFLDS. The comment below is taken from a recent article we published highlighting AFLDS’ practices.

Quacks! I booked & paid for a doctor consultation on 08/03/2021. THEY NEVER CALLED ME, billed me $90.00 & have not returned my multiple emails to them. THEY ARE A SCAM!

Aside from the financial losses suffered by many of their patients, the health risk they pose to the general public is where the real concern lies. The welcome change in legislation will now ensure AFLDS’ future is short-lived and that participating professionals are sanctioned to the full extent of the law.

If you need to report a medical professional in your area, you need to contact the particular State licensing authority where the doctor involved practices. The link below will provide you with contact details for your particular state and you can also check the current status of the doctor you are reporting.

Most medical boards post validated complaints publically to allow other patients to respond. Boards will also make note of doctors under investigation. You can use the following link to check a doctor’s credentials and ensure you are reporting them to the correct medical board.

The post America’s Frontline Doctors Face Long Overdue Medical and Legal Censure appeared first on Medika Life.

In terms of context, our publication, Medika Life, deals on a daily basis with medical con artists, quacks, and dishonest individuals seeking to exploit the health concerns of a very vulnerable sector of our population. We apply a label to these individuals, that of Predatory Health Practitioner (PHP). These individuals prey on the weak, the vulnerable, and the uneducated for the purposes of self-enrichment. They are a global phenomenon but in the US they have embedded themselves within the Republican Party.

It is an impossibility in modern medicine to separate politics and healthcare. The two are intrinsically linked, bound by staggering sums of money, kickbacks, favors, and good old-fashioned sell-outs orchestrated by skilled lobbyists, who in turn, are bankrolled by large medical conglomerates.

The predatory practitioners we’ll meet below have taken this system and given it a digital upgrade. While commercialism of their quackery matters, there are also other factors at play, influenced by alliances they have formed. Links to QAnon, white supremacist groups, and conspiracy theorists offer a window into a depraved world where any and every tool is fair game in a propaganda war with ambitious designs.

Destabilizing established medical practice, depriving racial minorities of access to care through medical misinformation and fear, furthering their political careers, creating a platform of supporters from whom they can draw funding, and other twisted agendas all meld together under the unified blanket of the radicalized Republican.

We write about these quacks and con artists at length, exposing them one at a time and it has become glaringly obvious that their base of operations resides firmly within the GOP. The graphic below reads like a rogues gallery of Republican radicals and PHP’s. They are now so embedded as to appear a part of the GOP and they’re feted by the party loyalists like long-lost war heroes.

Here then the shocking truth of what really lies behind Covid misinformation in America and how these propaganda tools are being used to frighten racial minorities away from healthcare.

The Health&Freedom conference poster that speaks volumes

Take a really close look. Do you see the connection and the propaganda? It’s glaringly obvious, linking the concept of health to freedom and creating the perception that somehow healthcare is under threat in America. Don’t trust “the man” and don’t trust his medicine. Notice the choice of colors? Remind you of anyone? While we cannot disagree that personal freedoms are under attack, that’s old news. They’ve been under attack since they were handed out to us. Attaching these attacks to healthcare, however, is a recent tactic. One that’s taken center stage during the pandemic.

We’ll show how the Predatory Health elements, QAnon, White supremacists, and conspiracy theorists are now managing a Republican sanctioned attack on American healthcare. Strange bedfellows that have found comfort in their twisted views of society. You can argue till you’re blue in the face but the poster above spells it out more clearly than any article or confession ever could.

If you are a contributing member to the Republican party you are in effect funding racism, medical misinformation, and contributing to the attempted destruction of the American healthcare system by elements that have taken over your party and are eroding it from the inside out.

These are the same people who stormed your Capitol building. They are insurrectionists, con artists, and die-hard racists intent on dismantling healthcare, democracy, and any other form of rational democratic governance in America. The last item on the itinerary for their meeting was a public mask-burning event. You, as a GOP member, are aware of these elements unless you’ve been living in a cave, and by choosing to look away, you allow them to continue with their agendas, to grow, and to thrive.

Let’s examine a few of the faces on this poster.

Dr. Simone Gold — Political Affiliation, Republican

Photographed in the Capitol building among other insurrectionists, she is part of a countrywide network of quacks and a pharmacy chain, Ravkoo Pharmacy, trying to profit from the pandemic by selling unproven medication to people who they’ve frightened off the vaccine, She is a despicable example of an educated person who takes advantage of a vulnerable community, using her knowledge to incite fear and then profit by selling her “remedy”. You can read our damning expose of her scam here.

Dr. Christiane Northrup — Political Affiliation, Republican

Once feted by Oprah Winfrey, this doyen of women’s health has sunken into the slippery quagmire of conspiracies and medical misinformation, adopting causes like the dangers of 5G, criticizing vaccine safety, and sowing distrust in peoples minds with regards to the pandemic, vaccines and the dangers of the coronavirus. She is featured on Medika’s Quack Scale and you can read our detailed list of the medical misinformation she sells online.

Andrew Wakefield — Political Affiliation, Republican

We’ve avoided the use of the term doctor here, as this individual was stripped of his medical credentials by the British General Medical Council for manipulating data in a now famed fake paper on vaccines and their supposed link to autism. In addition, it was shown how he performed unsanctioned medical procedures on children and sought to profit by providing his own alternative vaccine, in the place of the MMR vaccine he was attempting to discredit. He’s a firm favorite now in Republican circles, meeting with Trump and other high-ranking members in the party. Shamed and disgraced in his home country, he’s now found a new home and continues to spread health misinformation. You can read our article on his disgraced past and form your own opinion.

Mike Lindell— Political Affiliation, Republican

This slick con artist and CEO of MyPillow was another favorite under the Trump term, invited into the inner sanctum of the Whitehouse where he attempted to sell his covid quackery to the President. Medika published an article in December of 2020, examing Lindell’s involvement with the fake covid cure, Oleandrin, he tried to sell to the Whitehouse. His recent ban on Twitter for promoting election fraud lies has led him to attempt to set up his own social media platform.

Lin Wood — Political Affiliation, Republican

Wood has continued to push numerous baseless conspiracy theories that the presidential election was fraudulent, which led Twitter to suspend his account. The State Bar of Georgia investigated two complaints filed against him and ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and he is the current subject of investigation for alleged voter fraud. His links to QAnon are evident and on public display.

Sidney Powell — Political Affiliation, Republican

Powell was banned by Twitter on January 8, 2021, for promoting the QAnon voter fraud conspiracy theory in the 2020 US elections. She has promoted personalities and slogans associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. Powell alleges that a secret international cabal involving communists, “globalists”, George Soros, Hugo Chávez, the Clinton Foundation, the CIA, and thousands of Democratic and Republican officials — including Trump ally and Georgia governor Brian Kemp — used voting machines to transfer millions of votes away from Trump to Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Her unsubstantiated claims rapidly became an embarrassment to Trump’s legal defense (among which she numbered) and Rudy Giuliani and issued a November 22 statement that Powell was “practicing law on her own” and was not (or was no longer) a part of the Trump legal team. The President however still kept in contact with her. In the meanwhile, she’s received a $100,000 bill From Wisconsin, as the Governor demands legal fees over her election lawsuit.

Richard Bartlett — Political Affiliation, Republican

Most famously known for going public with budesonide (an inhaled steroid) as a cure for Covid in July of 2020, this doctor made various unfounded and unverified claims relating to the efficacy of the steroid in treating and curing patients with Covid. Hi suggestion to part of Japan, Singapore, and Asia had avoided deaths because of their use of budesonide was without basis and although this steroid may offer some relief to patients with covid it is a very far cry from a cure. As far as his claims to treating patients, at the point he went public, he’d treated two patients with budesonide, via remote health platforms. They were using other medications and suffered from additional medical conditions. Hardly what you’d call a clinical trial or hard evidence. Bartlett also suggested that a vaccine isn’t needed if inhaled budesonide is being widely used. After advancing the baseless claim about Taiwan’s wide adoption of the steroid, he stated:

“Taiwan, 24 million people, they don’t need to wait for a vaccine — they don’t have a problem that you should vaccinate 24 million people for.”

We could go through almost every name that appears on this poster and their stories would echo with an all-too-familiar ring. Voices tainted with conspiracy, racist bias, misinformation, and dystopian views promoted with the single intent of destabilizing America and its healthcare platform. We have identified some of the key motivators that drive these individuals.

• Financial self-enrichment and personal aggrandizement are key drivers for many of the individuals featured above. There are huge sums of money to be made and instant stardom awaits among a growing fan base.
• Racial agendas focused on restoring white supremacy to America. This is achieved by actively discrediting coronavirus vaccines and suggesting the virus carries no risk. The most at-risk populations suffer the most. There is sufficient data to show the success of their strategy among African-American and Hispanic communities and to encourage them to further action.
• Political gain, within the rapidly expanding base of support enjoyed by these groups, with aspirations for higher office and the associated perks.

Don’t make the mistake of dismissing these individuals as crazy kooks and conspiracy head cases and hope they’ll fade quietly away. They’ve struck a chord with a significant number of Americans who claim allegiance to the Republican party. They are intelligent, willful, and manipulative and these three traits combined with an intent to do harm to achieve their own goals make them extremely dangerous.

Does this mean the Republican party is essentially a racist institute populated by white supremacists and QAnon collaborators? No, Not yet, but left untended, the disease will consume the patient.

Alternatively, the larger portion of the GOP can begin a much-needed purge of the insidious cancer that is festering in its bosom, but I would encourage urgency as you don’t have much time left. The clock is ticking and you’re no longer just risking your own party’s stability by not acting. but the future of America as a whole. That fragile balance of opinion that has served democracy so well for generations, an evenly balanced two-party system, is under threat. We’ve provided you with the poster, now it’s up to you.

The post How Republican Radicals Are Weaponizing Healthcare in America appeared first on Medika Life.

If you’re not sure how our Quack Scale works, click here for a detailed explanation

Qualification: Wakefield studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School (now Imperial College School of Medicine), fully qualifying in 1981. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985.

Current Licensing Status: In 2010 Wakefield was permanently stripped of his right to practice medicine in the United Kingdom by the British General Medical Council

Resident: USA

Existing Complaints: None. Wakefield fortunately no longer practices medicine and is not licensed in the US

Website: None

Corruption and deceit exposed

Andrew Wakefield is the disgraced British doctor who fabricated evidence, published in the respected medical journal The Lancet in 1998, to make a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism in young children, triggering a worldwide panic about the safety of vaccination. To explain this in more depth, I’ll reference large sections of an article written by Decca Aitkenhead of the Weekend Australian. You can access the full article here and it is an excellent read, providing insight into Wakefield’s personality and motivations.

The falsified paper

Wakefield claimed that, by an uncanny coincidence, 12 unrelated sets of parents from all over the country had independently brought their child to see him. According to the paper, parent after parent had told him a ­chillingly similar story: within 14 days — and in some cases within hours — of receiving the MMR vaccine, their hitherto developmentally normal child was displaying symptoms of severe autism. The truth of what actually transpired was vastly different from Wakefield’s initial claims.

What Wakefield had concealed from his ­colleagues, including co-authors of the paper, was that these parents had been referred to him by a personal injury lawyer with whom he was secretly working. Wakefield was essentially running a ­litigation factory at the Royal Free, fabricating ­evidence for a class-action suit against the MMR vaccine. He was receiving a fortune in funding for his “research” from the lawyer, thanks to the Legal Aid Board. And he stood to profit from his research’s conclusion that separate jabs for measles, mumps, and rubella were a safer alternative to the combined MMR, since he was busy patenting his own single-shot measles vaccine.

Most of this information would have remained hidden and Wakefield may very well have escaped detection had it not been for a journalist, Brian Deer, who smelled a rat and pursued Wakefield remorselessly. Wakefield then made a strategic blunder deciding to sue Deer unsuccessfully, for libel. In the end, this action proved his undoing. The court case gave Deer access to the confidential records of the patients involved and it was easily determined that some of the children had indeed displayed symptoms long before they were vaccinated and in some cases, months after.

The Charismatic Conman

To understand how Wakefield could survive the consequences of public embarrassment and humiliation and thrive in the face of his self-inflicted adversity, it’s worthwhile understanding the man himself. He is as charismatic as he is deceptive and his charms have stood him in good stead, allowing him to call on the support of women in various roles throughout his life. His game plan of painting himself as the victim of institutional crucifixion has paid handsome dividends, enabling him to mislead one person after another.

Among the supportive donors who encouraged Wakefield’s US revival after his flight from the UK, Chicago lawyer ­Elizabeth Birt, who raised the money for him to start a new life and sponsored his US visa, wealthy horsewoman Troylyn Ball, and Jane Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical family; Ball and Johnson set him up in a $280,000-a-year job created just for him. In November 2017, at an anti-vaccine event in Florida, Wakefield was introduced to Elle Macpherson. The rest, as they say, is history.

Wakefield has turned himself into vaccine medicine’s self-styled martyr claiming he was silenced by the British establishment for exposing the “truth”. Its been a massively successful strategy. The 63-year-old conman is now feted by conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers alike. He was a guest at ­Donald Trump’s inauguration ball and enjoys close relationships with Robert F Kennedy Jnr, Del Bigtree, and the autism anti-vaxxer, Polly Tommey, one of his first ‘disciples’.

For a far more detailed analysis of Wakefield’s life, click here

Why Wakefield lost his medical license

After a painfully thorough three-year investigation, the British General Medical Council (GMC) uncovered shocking aspects of Wakefield’s abuse of his medical credentials and position that left them in no doubt as to their course of action. Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice medicine in the United Kingdom.

Charges leveled at Wakefiled suggested he;

• Was being paid to conduct the study by solicitors representing parents who believed their children had been harmed by MMR
• Ordered investigations “without the requisite pediatric qualifications” including colonoscopies, colon biopsies and lumbar punctures (“spinal taps”) on his research subjects without the approval of his department’s ethics board and contrary to the children’s clinical interests, when these diagnostic tests were not indicated by the children’s symptoms or medical history.
• Act[ed] dishonestly and irresponsibly in failing to disclose … how patients were recruited for the study
• Conduct[ed] the study on a basis not approved by the hospital’s ethics committee.
• Purchased blood samples — for £5 each — from children present at his son’s birthday party, which Wakefield joked about in a later presentation.
• Showed callous disregard for any distress or pain the children might suffer

On 28 January 2010, the GMC ruled against Wakefield on all issues, stating that he had “failed in his duties as a responsible consultant”, acted against the interests of his patients, and “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in his controversial research. On 24 May 2010, he was struck off the United Kingdom medical register. It was the harshest sanction that the GMC could impose, and effectively ended his career as a doctor. In announcing the ruling, the GMC said that Wakefield had;

 “brought the medical profession into disrepute,” and no sanction short of erasing his name from the register was appropriate for the “serious and wide-ranging findings” of misconduct

On the money front

• In December 2006, Deer released records obtained from the Legal Services Commission, showing that it had paid £435,643 in undisclosed fees to Wakefield for the purpose of building a case against the MMR vaccine. Those payments, The Sunday Times reported, had begun two years before the publication of Wakefield’s fraudulent paper inThe Lancet. Wakefield had failed to disclose these payments.
• Wakefield applied for a patent on a single-jab measles vaccine before his campaign against the MMR vaccine, raising questions about his motives. Deer discovered this application, despite assurances from Wakefield’s attorneys that no such application was lodged.
• Wakefield also, according to court documents, improperly or dishonestly lent his reputation to the International Child DevelopmentResource Centre, which promoted to very vulnerable parents expensive products for whose efficacy (as he knew or should have known) there was no scientific evidence. No mention is made of money here, but it was clearly a quid pro quo arrangement.

Experimenting on vulnerable children

This is perhaps the most repulsive part of Wakefield’s past and points to an individual with complete disregard for human life, someone woefully unsuited to a career in medicine or in any field relating to public health.

• An extension of his project caused life-threatening complications in one child, who received substantial compensation in an out-of-court settlement. You can read the full article here, written by Rachel Ellis Ellis and published 10 December 2007. “£500,000 for boy left fighting for life after being used as MMR guinea pig”
• As mentioned, evidence he himself validated emerged that he had “bought blood” at £5 a turn from children attending his son’s birthday party.
• Other instances exist of unsanctioned procedures he performed, these can readily be googled.

Dishonest or deluded?

Without a doubt, calculatingly dishonest. The level of manipulation and fraud involved with Wakefield’s fictitious paper are a clear indicator he was under no illusions induced by poor research but wilfully intended to support his own preconceived narrative for personal gain. A few of the lies identified in the paper included the following.

• Three of nine children reported with regressive autism did not have autism diagnosed at all. Only one child clearly had regressive autism; 
• Despite the paper claiming that all 12 children were “previously normal”, five had documented preexisting developmental concerns; 
• Some children were reported to have experienced first behavioral symptoms within days of MMR, but the records documented these as starting some months after vaccination; 
• In nine cases, unremarkable colonic histopathology results — noting no or minimal fluctuations in inflammatory cell populations — were changed after a medical school “research review” to “non-specific colitis”; 
• The parents of eight children were reported as blaming MMR, but 11 families made this allegation at the hospital. The exclusion of three allegations — all giving times to onset of problems in months — helped to create the appearance of a 14-day temporal link; 
• Patients were recruited through anti-MMR campaigners, and the study was commissioned and funded for planned litigation.

In a statement from British Medical Journal (BMJ) editors, this conclusion;

A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was gross. Moreover, although the scale of the GMC’s 217 day hearing precluded additional charges focused directly on the fraud, the panel found him guilty of dishonesty concerning the study’s admissions criteria, its funding by the Legal Aid Board, and his statements about it afterwards.

Deer also further reported, based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that Wakefield — in partnership with the father of one of the boys in the study — had planned to launch a venture on the back of an MMR vaccination scare that would profit from new medical tests and “litigation driven testing”.

Wakefield predicted he “could make more than $43 million a year from diagnostic kits” for the new condition, autistic enterocolitis, he was set upon creating. According to Deer’s report in BMJ, the ventures, Immunospecifics Biotechnologies Ltd and Carmel Healthcare Ltd — named after Wakefield’s wife — failed after Wakefield’s superiors at University College London’s medical school gave him a two-page letter stating the following;

We remain concerned about a possible serious conflict of interest between your academic employment by UCL, and your involvement with Carmel … This concern arose originally because the company’s business plan appears to depend on premature, scientifically unjustified publication of results, which do not conform to the rigorous academic and scientific standards that are generally expected

It is impossible to come away from all this damning evidence without forming the following opinion. Far from being a victim of ‘establishment ire’ as Wakefield would have you believe, it is clear that he is in fact exactly the opposite.

Andrew Wakefield is a cold, calculating con artist with a medical degree. He willfully misled the public, has endangered thousands of children’s lives by casting doubt on vaccines, and has manipulated his environment and everyone in his immediate sphere of influence for his own personal, financial gain. As unpleasant a person as one could hope to cross paths with and we owe Brian Deer a great deal of gratitude for the copious time and effort he has invested in exposing the real Andrew Wakefield.

To those who choose to associate with Wakefield, I would urge caution. The truth has a nasty habit of turning on those who choose to ignore it and if you’re sitting around the pool sipping martini’s with Mr. Wakefield, you’ve chosen to ignore it or you are simply no better than he.

Vaxxed, or ‘How to profit from deception’

Assert something over and over in public and it must be true, even if it is glaringly apparent it isn’t. It’s a page right out of Donald Trump’s playbook and a tactic Wakefield has combined with his charismatic personality. Had he been born in America, Wakefield could very well have ended up on the next Republican ticket, such is the extent of his ability to deflect, obfuscate and manipulate the truth for his own personal and financial gain.

Vaxxed, released in 2016 was Wakefield’s first attempt to take things up a notch, having built a circle of relative protection around himself in his adopted homeland. He turned to Polly Tommey, one of his most devout disciples and fervent supporters, to appear in the video. She had followed closely on Wakefield’s heels, abandoning the UK for American soil and by no small coincidence, was also located in Texas. Tommey was ably supported in the movie by fellow anti-vaxxers, a complete list is shown below.

Vaxxed is a pseudoscience propaganda documentary film alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The film was supposed to debut at the Tribeca Film festival but was withdrawn by the festival organizers. Indiewire said in a review of the film at the time;

“Wakefield doesn’t just have a dog in this fight; he is the dog”

The film was produced by Autism Media Channel, of which Wakefield is a director. Unsurprisingly, Del Bigtree was listed as a producer. After the film was dropped from the Tribeca Film Festival, it was picked up for distribution by Cinema Libre. The film premiered at the Angelika Film Center in New York City on April 1, 2016 to an audience of “a few dozen. There are multiple reliable online resources that discredit the movie, highlighting the obvious deception and bare-faced lies it offers by way of storyline. You can read more on that here and here.

Perhaps the best reason not to watch this propaganda rubbish is best encapsulated by this fantastic ani-flyer produced by Dawn Pederson and shown below. You can download this as a PDF here. Vaxxed should be seen for exactly what it is. A pathetic attempt by Wakefield to revive his failing fortunes and his stooges and lackeys that assist him so willingly will live to regret it. Ask his previous research assistants.

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Brian Deer for his tireless efforts to ensure the truth about Andrew Wakefield was revealed. He has released a book on the sordid case entitled ‘The Doctor who fooled the world’. Brian’s website can be found here

Andrew Wakefield’s images are all used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, and increase public health knowledge.

The post Andrew Wakefield, the ultimate medical con on Medika’s Quack Scale appeared first on Medika Life.

World renown vaccine specialist, Geert Vanden Bossche, gave a groundbreaking interview this week risking his reputation and his career by bravely speaking out against administration of #Covid19 vaccines. In what may be one of the most important stories ever covered by The Highwire, the vaccine developer shared his extreme concerns about these vaccines in particular and why we may be on track to creating a global immunity catastrophe.

We aren’t going to bother linking to the “brave, reputation-risking” Vanden Bossche article. If you want to waste your time reading it, you can always find it on his 12-day old Twitter account, if it hasn’t been suspended by now, or on one of the many channels promoting anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theories, just scroll down to A for Alien-Abductions and Anti-Vaxxers.

Vanden Bossche has gone to great lengths to explain to us in his opening statement that he is definitely not anti-vaccine. No sir, not in a month of Sundays. Not little old me. Our response? Thou doth protest too much. Here’s an exert of just how much he in fact protests.

I am all but an antivaxxer. As a scientist I do not usually appeal to any platform of this kind to make a stand on vaccine-related topics. As a dedicated virologist and vaccine expert I only make an exception when health authorities allow vaccines to be administered in ways that threaten public health, most certainly when scientific evidence is being ignored. The present extremely critical situation forces me to spread this emergency call. As the unprecedented extent of human intervention in the Covid-19- pandemic is now at risk of resulting in a global catastrophe without equal, this call cannot sound loudly and strongly enough.

As stated, I am not against vaccination. On the contrary, I can assure you that each of the current vaccines have been designed, developed and manufactured by brilliant and competent scientists. However, this type of prophylactic vaccines are completely inappropriate, and even highly dangerous, when used in mass vaccination campaigns during a viral pandemic. Vaccinologists, scientists and clinicians are blinded by the positive short-term effects in individual patents, but don’t seem to bother about the disastrous consequences for global health. Unless I am scientifically proven wrong, it is difficult to understand how current human interventions will prevent circulating variants from turning into a wild monster.

Racing against the clock, I am completing my scientfic manuscript, the publication of which is, unfortunately, likely to come too late given the ever increasing threat from rapidly spreading, highly infectious variants. This is why I decided to already post a summary of my findings as well as my keynote speech at the recent Vaccine Summit in Ohio on LinkedIn. Last Monday, I provided international health organizations, including the WHO, with my analysis of the current pandemic as based on scientifically informed insights in the immune biology of Covid-19.

Sadly for Vanden Bossche, this is an all too familiar tactic employed by almost every single critic of the covid vaccine and laughably, even some anti-vaxxers. In fact, his whole concept looks and sounds suspiciously plagiarized. Perhaps Dr.Hooman Noorchashm might consider legal action if he doesn’t have his hands too full right now.

Take these points raised by David Gorski on his blog, in an article that thoroughly eviscerates our European “expert”.

Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche has not published his concerns in the scientific literature. Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche bases his concerns not on data, but theoretical “basic science” concerns about immunology. Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche has sounded his “warning” to various health authorities. Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche has taken to social media to air his concerns, and his message has been enthusiastically embraced by anti-vaxxers:

Vanden Bossche has published a scant amount of work, and tellingly he chooses predatory publishers like Longdom, owner of the Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination. It’s a dubious publication at best and is listed as predatory on Beals List. Longdom Publishing enjoys no credibility as a medical publisher, and articles are not peer-reviewed or exposed to scrutiny. 

Why not choose recognized and peer-reviewed journals to publish into? Well, if the work you’re publishing is dubious, not based on evidence but rather wild conjecture you’ve formulated in your own mind and not scientifically tested in the real world, well then Predatory publications are the way to go, followed by the hugely reliable, science-based platform of social media and the anti-vaxxer vlog circuit.

Here is an open question to Vanden Bossche. If you’re so eager not to be perceived as an anti-vaxxer why have you climbed into bed with them, why do you align yourself with people like Bigtree, Wakefield, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jnr, who actively seek to undermine the science of vaccines? I’m really interested to know? Are they simply using you and you’re too stupid to see it or was their bus the only one that stopped to pick you up? I suspect the latter.

I’ve decided to opt for a different approach on this article and will, instead of trying to disassemble the fictional ramblings of Vanden Bossche, allow others, more knowledgable in the field, to step into the breach. Many experts (real ones) have already taken the article to pieces, explaining in scientific (real science) terms why Vanden Bossche is deluded. 

There another reason for this approach. Vanden Bossche bases his claims on well-established and accepted vaccine science. He is intimately familiar with his topic and if you wish to understand exactly why his statements and warnings are completely fanciful, you will need a far more detailed explanation than we are able to provide here. Fortunately, very qualified individuals have stepped forward and provided exact and specific deconstructions of his fanciful theories. Here then, in no particular order

Dr. Zubin Damania provides a fantastic video with a simplified explanation of why Vanden Bossche is wrong. If you’re not that technically inclined, this video will provide a far clearer understanding than the articles listed below which focus on the specifics of vaccines.

Geert Vanden Bossche is to COVID-19 vaccines as Andrew Wakefield is to MMR

An essential read by respectfulinsolence.com, well written and referenced, for those looking to understand the more technical flaws in Vanden Bossche’s theories. The article also highlights how Vanden Bossche has borrowed and plagiarized his concepts from well-known anti-vaxxers and other vaccine skeptics.

Addressing Geert Vanden Bossche’s Claims

A detailed deconstruction offered by Edward Nirenberg. Orac describes this article fittingly as Nirenberg’s demolition of Vanden Bossche’s nonsense about “innate immunity,”. Definitely for the more technically minded, the arguments posed by Nirenberg conclusively bury Vanden Bossche.

Who is Geert Vanden Bossche?

Still think Vanden Bossche is a renowned vaccine expert? This article will expose him for who he really is. Discover the real Vanden Bossche in this article on Vaxopedia by Vincent Iannelli, MD. If you were wondering why you’d never heard about Vanden Bossche before today, this article will put you dead to rights.

The final word

Is Vanden Bossche merely deluded, or simply misguided in his interpretation of vaccine science. His level of education and experience in the field tend to suggest another agenda, as does his regurgitation of existing vaccine rhetoric, notably those offered by Andrew Wakefield and Hooman Noorchashm. He is rebranding their narratives for his own agenda, but what is that agenda?

Wakefield, if you didn’t know, is the disgraced and disavowed author of a retracted, fraudulent paper on MMR vaccines, supposedly linking autism to the MMR vaccine. Despite the best efforts of many, Wakefield continues to seek the spotlight and frequently pens misleading drivel. He has become one of the roach poster-boys for anti-vaxxers.

On the topic of grift, let’s turn to another article that seeks to expose Vanden Bossche’s not-so-hidden agenda.

In an article published in the Defender, Rosemary Frei, MSc, outlines what she says are “a few of the dozens of clues” suggesting that Bossche’s argument “is a continuation of the overall COVID deception.” There be gold in them thar hills!

There’s abundant evidence that Vanden Bossche has a not-so-hidden agenda. For example, just before the three-minute mark in the video interview of Vanden Bossche by McMillan, Vanden Bossche indicates he’s a long-time vaccine developer. He adds he’s now focusing on vaccines that “educate the immune system in ways that are to some extent more efficient than we do right now with our conventional vaccines.” Clearly he’s got significant conflicts of interest. Therefore he has zero credibility when it comes to advising the public or anyone else about how to avoid negative effects of mass vaccination.

We’ll accord the honors of the closing paragraph to David Gorski, who echoes our sentiments on Vanden Bossche.

You know what? I think that grifters recognize fellow grifters, and Frei recognized that Dr. Vanden Bossche is stoking fear of existing COVID-19 vaccines to produce a sales rationale for his own NK-based vaccine, just as Andrew Wakefield stoked fear of the MMR in order to support his own measles vaccine. Grifters of a feather, and all that, and, of course, grifters gonna grift. Always.

UPDATE: May 8, 2021, We’ve added a new piece on Geert Vanden Bossche’s disinformation campaign. You can read the article here

The post Fact-Checking Geert Vanden Bossche. Cashing in on Covid Misinformation appeared first on Medika Life.

If you’re not sure how our Quack Scale works, click here for a detailed explanation

Qualification: Medical, Osteopathic, or Podiatric School, University Of Colorado Health Sciences Center School Of Medicine – Denver CO. Graduated: 2002. Internal Medicine,MD – Charlottesville, VA USA, Residency Completed: 2005. Bush is currently certified in only one discipline, that of Internal Medicine: Hospice & Palliative Medicine.

Current Licensing Status: Licenced to practice in Virginia by the Virginia Medical Board, License# 0101239018. You can check his current status here

Resident: Charlottesville , VA

Existing Complaints: None listed in a professional capacity.

Website: zachbushmd.com, intrinsichealthseries.com, farmersfootprint.us, ionbiome.com, themclinic.com

What happens when you cross alt-Health, traditional medicine, Deepak, and Yoda? You end up with someone like Zach Bush, MD. He is the poster boy for Predatory Health and with a string of medical qualifications behind him and a very carefully managed public profile,

Bush appears at first glance to be squeaky clean, a real medical messiah, but looks can, as we all know, be deceptive. Dig a little deeper and the real picture behind a slick, well oiled, and carefully orchestrated marketing machine emerges. One designed with a singular purpose. To enrich Zach Bush.

His website offers little gems of new-age “Deepak Chopra like nonsense-statements”, pseudoscience mixed in with traditional medicine, and his range of natural (of course) products and alternate therapies. The lines below are taken directly from his site on a page where he discusses Covid’s impact on the world.

May this respiratory virus that now shares space and time with us teach us of the grave mistakes we have made in disconnecting from our nature and warring against the foundation of the microbiome. If we choose to learn from, rather than fear, this virus, it can reveal the source of our chronic disease epidemics that are the real threat to our species.

The page also just happens to feature a range of cleverly identified products designed to boost your immune system. The insinuation is clear. Covid is a virus-like influenza and these products will help you combat it. Here is how he phrases the sales pitch.

 I’ve included below a series of Lifestyle Cornerstones to integrate into your everyday practices, particularly during respiratory risk seasons, as well as the regimen that I recommend for those feeling the need for more health resources during this time.

Bush has become prominent in Autism circles, touting his theories of gut health as the root cause of autism and offering his products as a treatment. Although the idea of the gut’s involvement in autism is under serious investigation there is, as yet no hard scientific evidence to validate his claims. Bush possesses none or he would most definitely be sharing it. At the Autism One conference in Chicago in 2016, Bush made this statement;

Bush explained, using slides of the gut viewed through a microscope as visual aids, how his plant-derived mineral supplement, RESTORE ($49.95 for a one-month supply), strengthens cell membranes in the gut to keep toxins from leaking out. Bush told the parents in the audience that he was “excited to just be a piece of your puzzle” in the parents’ quest to “rebirth that child into a state of health.” 

Bush isn’t the only doctor that’s cashing in on the gullibility of the public and their desire for new-age hocus pocus, but he is by far the slickest. It’s what makes him so appealing, so believable and so dangerous. He is well aware of where the line is, drawn by the FDA in shifting sand, and he ensures he doesn’t step over it. He now regularly shares platforms with proponents of Covid conspiracies and his views on the coronavirus are dangerous.

Bush’s video interviews on Covid, featured on LondonReal, are accompanied by trailers of the movie Plandemic, a falsified load of pseudoscience and nonsense that is now banned from numerous platforms. These associations confirm his position as quackery’s new poster boy. If you’ve got the money, Zach Bush has the answers. Look deep into his eyes and suspend belief.

Let’s examine the claims published on his website about autism. The following quote is lifted directly from his site’s page on the topic.

Autism spectrum disorder has risen in prevalence from 1 in 5000 children in 1975 to 1 in 36 children in 2016, and the rate has been doubling every 3-4 years in the last decade in the US.

And the rate has been doubling every 3-4 years in the last decade in the US. We are on target to experience 1 in 3 children with Autism by 2035, just 16 years away

Complete and utter lies and fabrication, designed to instill fear in you and make you want the solutions and products he sells. It’s textbook deception, practiced by quacks and charlatans across the globe. I hereby issue a direct challenge to Bush to produce statistical data to verify this claim. He cannot.

The only reason there has been an increase in autism diagnosis over the last few years (and Bush is well aware of this) is that guidelines for diagnosing the condition were relaxed. Resultantly, many more people were reclassified as having autism. Deception, misdirection, and lies. Which cup is the ball in! Here’s a screenshot, just in case the page is whitewashed.

Zach Bush uses a mix of science, pseudoscience, and untruths (lies) couched in new age terminology to fool his victims into purchasing his products and seminars. He is a health predator, no matter how you dress him up, and he is an embarrassment to traditional medicine and the healthcare profession in general.

If you have a serious medical condition or are feeling unwell, you need to seek advice from reputable and established practitioners of evidence-based medicine. There is no harm in seeking alternate treatments to supplement a medical regime of treatments if this is done in careful conjunction, and with the knowledge of, your healthcare provider. In and of their own, alternate treatments aren’t going to cure you, and believing they will, can cost you your life.

Supporting Articles

Articles critical of Bush are hard to come by, buried below his domination of Google searches on the topic of, well, Zach Bush. His newly employed marketing agents (2019) have done him proud. It is also a clear indication of how alt-Health now dominates Google’s pages and how simple it is to manipulate appearances. You simply flood the market with new articles.

Publication – C-Ville: Author Melissa Angell, on June 28, 2016. Missing doctors: Patient seeks records after clinic closes Verdict: The caption on the photo gives an indication of how long Bush has been at his game, and how he has refined his earlier techniques.

Dr. Zachary Bush, right, opened alternative clinic Revolution Health Center in Scottsville. Dr. Martin Katz was a partner there, and both told their patients: “You have the power to heal yourself.”

John Robinson

Publication – Provocative Change Works: Author Nick Kemp, July 29, 2020. Open letter to Michael Hall by Richard Bolstad. Verdict: Bush is a quack, uttering pseudoscientific nonsense.

this stuff by Zach Bush is just wacky.“Bush ruined what could have been an interesting talk when he said that microRNA can be transmitted by breathing. He claimed that you can literally go to the gym, do nothing except breathe in the microRNA that others exhale, and benefit because your cells think they worked out. And, in case that wasn’t enough of a stretch, he described how consuming microRNA from “bored” corn grown in a field with “tens of thousands of corn plants” makes us afraid of diversity and directly contributes to racism and mass shootings.”

Publication – Chad Hayes MD: Author Chad Hayes on March 4, 2017. Citations Needed: The curious “science” of integrative medicine. Verdict: A clinical dissection of the rubbish Bush spews by a medical doctor who practices pediatrics. An excellent article well worth reading and many of the other charlatans we highlight are included in this breakdown of a Conference Hayes attended called, “Get Your Life Back NOW!” held in Orlando, FL in 2017, at which Bush spoke.

In addition to poorly executed science, there were a lot of “facts” tossed out at the conference that left me wondering if the speakers were being intentionally dishonest, or if they were just really, really wrong. Chief among these offenders was Zach Bush, MD, who runs the M Clinic and “Intrinsic Health” center in Charlottesville, VA and sells the RESTORE line of supplements.

Bush, who seems to have some difficulty understanding basic concepts of genetics and mathematics, informed the audience that “genetically speaking, humans are pathetically simple.” His rationale for this was that humans have 20,000 genes, while fungi have 2 trillion. I’ll admit my initial ignorance; although 2 trillion seemed high, I didn’t really know how many genes fungi have. But it wasn’t hard to look up. Gene sequencing reveals that fungal genomes are similar in size to our own, at around 10,000-25,000 genes. But what are eight orders of magnitude among friends? Actual numbers aside, Bush further argued that “if microorganisms were the enemy, we’d be dead.” Which of course, many of our species are, having been unable to overcome infections from a dazzling array of microorganisms.

He then told us how amazing it is that the DNA repair enzyme “travels near the speed of light.” Unfortunately, this is even less true. DNA polymerases responsible for DNA repair travel along DNA strands at approximately 10-20 nucleotides per second, each of which is approximately 0.6 nanometers in length. Being as generous as I can, that comes out to 12 nanometers/second. And in that same second, a photon of light travels 300 million meters, or 25,000,000,000,000,000 times farther than the DNA repair enzyme.

Further revealing his ignorance about genetics, Bush informed us that while “scientists call 99% of DNA ‘junk,’” that simply can’t be correct because “there’s no waste in nature.” Bush asserts that what geneticists refer to as “junk DNA” actually codes for microRNA, small strands of RNA that regulate how our genes are expressed. While microRNA does actually exist, and the roles it plays are fascinating, it makes up a relatively small percentage of our genetic code, about 1-5%.

But then, Bush ruined what could have been an interesting talk when he said that microRNA can be transmitted by breathing. He claimed that you can literally go to the gym, do nothing except breathe in the microRNA that others exhale, and benefit because your cells think they worked out. And, in case that wasn’t enough of a stretch, he described how consuming microRNA from “bored” corn grown in a field with “tens of thousands of corn plants” makes us afraid of diversity and directly contributes to racism and mass shootings.

Publication – Fueled by Science: Author Chana Davis, PhD, 2019. Dear Scientific American. Vegetables are Not Toxic. Down with Fake News. Verdict: A damning condemnation of yet more pseudoscience Bush managed to get published in Scientific American. Bush was asked to redraft the article after this complaint. The original still stands and you can compare the misleading statements Bush presents as fact.

Rather than sticking to legitimate scientific sources (e.g. peer-reviewed scientific publications and meta-analyses by national organizations) the authors turn to a food author, a health product pushing salesman (Dr. Zach Bush) and pseudoscience haven Planetary Health (check it out if you want a smoothie that can cure Ebola!).

Zach Bush, MD, images are all used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, and increase public health knowledge.

The post Zach Bush, MD on Medika’s Quack Scale appeared first on Medika Life.

These confidence tricksters, which is essentially what they are, motivations aside, set about creating a web of intricate, supportive lies for their concepts or products and one of their go-to tools over the last decade has become the open-access model of predatory journals.

Unlike the con that may cost you a few dollars and a sheepish grin when you recount the tale to friends, these cons can and do occasionally exact the ultimate price. Your life.

Medika Life is developing a repository of quacks and questionable, sometimes life-threatening products and devices. As the EIC, I am intimately involved in the project and over the course of the last few weeks, a clear, if highly disturbing, modus operandi has emerged for many of these medical charlatans.

To create trust among both laypeople and professionals, these con’s turn to predatory journals. These ‘scientific’ publications have become their very lifeblood and sustain everything from highly questionable new drugs to bogus medical devices, and yes, questionable papers are often co-authored by medical or scientific colleagues whose motivation will remain, for the moment, irrelevant.

The scale of fraud and deception being committed on both the public and the medical/scientific sector is mind-numbing as more and more quacks and snake oil sellers realize the potential of these predatory publications. By now you’re wondering perhaps as to the exact nature of the beast I have been describing. Allow me to explain in detail.

Sharks in the water

There are many established, and reliable journals, publishers of medical and scientific papers, authored by ethical students and professionals in their chosen fields. With numerous disciplines that each require specific knowledge, this community of publications numbers in the thousands. Science, as we all know, is a vast and complex subject.

These publications serve essentially as validatory mechanisms that rely on a system of peer review. They use other specialists in the same field to rigorously check and question the contents of any submitted paper. Rejection rates are high, and those that make it through this rigorous review process are rewarded with publication.

It is an old and time-honored system that has served the industry incredibly well. It’s effective. It weeds out fraud or points to errors in logic and research that the author/s may not have been aware of. In short, if a publisher accepts a paper, it’s a guarantee of sorts that the materials contained are both plausible, possible, and properly researched. It is validation by your peers and it means a lot in the industry. Or it used to.

As with all things, this time has now passed, thanks in no small part to the age of the internet. A large percentage of scientific publications are no longer reliable. The industry has been fundamentally changed by the introduction of open access (OA). Fraudsters and less than ethical companies and players have entered the market with profit as their only motivation.

You can now publish a paper in many predatory journals without concern for the annoyance of peer review. All you need to do is pay to get your paper published, and thousands upon thousands of authors take advantage of this on a daily basis. You can then reference your published ‘scientific’ article on pigs flying and roadrunners living underwater.

Do this multiple times across multiple journals, attend a conference or two, offered by the same journals, and suddenly you appear to the layman, and apparently a large percentage of the scientific community, to be credible.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The serene pond that previously represented the scientific publishing community is now a shark-infested, turbulent sea of deceit and deception. The phrase predatory publication was coined to describe these sharks, whose primary goal is not the rigorous monitoring and dissemination of reliable scientific knowledge, but rather money. A pay to publish club. Checks and reviews be damned. It’s a free for all that many take advantage of.

This feeding frenzy is partly fuelled by the scientific community itself. It keeps pushing new swimmers into the water. Your reputation in your profession is broadly determined by the number of papers you have published or co-authored. The more, the better your chances of promotion, peer recognition, etc, etc. It is, in this author’s opinion, a flawed system that encourages deception and deceit and powers predatory journals.

The consequences for Science and Medicine

Before we explore these publications in more depth and I will provide numerous names and resources to enable readers to make their own evaluations of these, let’s examine why this matters so much.

It all boils down to one simple thing. Trust. It’s the biggest asset enjoyed by both science and medicine and any mechanism that eroded that trust needs to be addressed, and aggressively so.

In case you’ve forgotten, the anti-vaxers trace their origins to a 1998 paper published in The Lancet by a now-disgraced British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, and 12 of his colleagues. Despite the paper having been proven to be fraudulent and subsequently retracted, for 12 years it stood. After years of criticism and proper peer review, the Lancet retracted the paper. Wakefield was exposed as a liar, having manipulated data used in the research, but the damage was done. Vaccines have been under attack ever since.

The Lancet is a highly prestigious and respected journal. It values its reputation and goes to great lengths to ensure the validity of the papers it publishes. If Wakefield was able to intentionally evade, even if only temporarily, their quality control mechanisms in 1998, how much more simple in 2020 with a smorgasbord of dodgy and cash to publish journals touting for business.

The irony of anti-vaxers using a paper from journals they claim to distrust to justify more attacks on the same industry is apparently lost on these misdirected souls, but that isn’t the point. They are laypeople who have been misled by a paper that was published in a respected medical journal. The author managed to fool his colleagues and in this instance, the process of peer review failed. Trust was eroded and we know in this instance what the ramifications were.

We are at a point, in a pandemic ravaged world, where trust has become a watchword and the lack of credibility enjoyed by the scientific community is gravely worrying. We are in large part to blame for this sad state of affairs.

Regulatory bodies and watchdogs have been slow to keep pace with the internet and how it has fundamentally changed the face of scientific publishing. Sadly, fraudsters on both ends of the scale, both published and publishers, have been quick to exploit the lack of regulation and literal free for all created by the worldwide web.

If we are to restore credibility in the eyes of the public, we need to clean house. Aggressively. What the scientific community does, matters, and at no point in its entire history has this become more evident than now. Covid has brought this truth home to roost.

You cannot help the public or engage with them in a meaningful way if they no longer perceive you to be reliable.

And that my friends, is why this matters so much. Why the list of companies I will highlight below need to be policed, monitored, and potentially closed if found wanting. They are a blight on the scientific landscape, insidious cancers that will destroy an old and robust patient, that was, until a few years ago, the picture of health.

OA and the birth of Predatory Journals

In principle, Open Access or OA is a good thing. Its goal is to make scientific papers more accessible. In particular, developing countries struggle to access and publish papers, costs are often restrictive, and writing one paper may require accessing thirty others in a diverse range of journals.

This process costs money and undoubtedly, OA has addressed this issue by improving access. Sadly, the very market OA sought to help is now one of the primary targets of the predatory journals.

This exceptionally lucid article on the Open Access topic from the Association of College and Research Libraries describes the problems in more depth. Entitled Beyond Beall’s List: Better understanding predatory publishers, the article is well worth reading and offers a very fair assessment of the OA model, considering the authors are supportive of the model.

Charging a fee is not itself a marker of a predatory publisher: many reputable OA journals use APCs to cover costs, especially in fields where research is often funded by grants. (Many subscription-based journals also charge authors fees, sometimes per page or illustration.) However, predatory journals are primarily fee-collecting operations — they exist for that purpose and only incidentally publish articles, generally without rigorous peer review, despite claims to the contrary.

The name Jeffrey Beall has become synonymous with predatory journals. In the last decade, Beall became the self-appointed guardian of published literature and a vocal campaigner against predatory journals. His now-infamous Blacklist (discontinued in 2017) even made it into the NYT and became a go-to resource for those wishing to filter out the scammers from legitimate publications.

Unfortunately, Beall’s tendency to link OA to predatory publishers has tarnished, unfairly so, the reputation of Open Access and it is the main reason I have tried to avoid the use of the terms together in this article. The concept of OA remains sound, it is the execution that has to date been flawed and it will now require a serious overhaul to regain credibility. Identifying and rooting out predatory journals from the global pool of scientific publishers is key to this process.

Beall was a firm and outspoken advocate of Elsevier. The quote below is lifted directly from Elsevier’s page on pricing and APC (Article Publishing Charges) and is an indicator of their adoption of Open Access.

Where an author has chosen to publish open access, which typically involves the upfront payment of an article publishing charge (APC), we will also make their article immediately and freely available upon publication on Science Direct, in perpetuity, with the author’s chosen user license attached to it. Elsevier’s APC prices are set on a per journal basis, fees range between c$150 and c$6000 US Dollars excluding tax, with prices clearly displayed on our APC price list and on journal homepages.

The Hustlers and the Watchdogs

There are a few key indicators of a journal’s acceptance and recognition within the scientific community that do not rely on Bealls List. They are important tools in sifting through the dregs to find legitimate publications. Here in no particular order are three points of reference. The first two have been guilty of accepting errant journals in the past, but are more rigorous now in vetting applicants, in particular, DOAJ.

The Directory of Open Access Journals is a watchdog that focuses on producing a trusted list or Whitelist of non-predatory publications. The CRLN article says the following about their quality control.

At the basic level, a journal must be chiefly scholarly; make the content immediately available (i.e., no embargoes); provide quality control through an editor, editorial board, and peer review; have a registered International Standard Serial Number (ISSN); and exercise transparency about APCs. Journals that meet additional requirements, such as providing external archiving and creating persistent links, are recognized with the DOAJ Seal. DOAJ receives an assist from the ISSN Centre, which in 2014 added language reserving the right to deny ISSNs to publishers that provide misleading information.

Next up is the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association. Again, according to CRLN

Members must apply and pledge to adhere to a code of conduct that disallows any form of predatory behavior. OASPA has made errors in vetting applicants, though: it admitted some publishers that it later had to reject (e.g., Dove Medical Press).

Private individuals, similarly driven to rid the industry of charlatans, have also created websites that identify charlatans and fraudulent or predatory journals head-on. Sarah Beaubien and Max Eckard have created a rubric of sorts called Open Access Journal Quality Indicators to assist authors in identifying reliable journals. This list is worthwhile repeating and is shown in full below.

POSITIVE INDICATORS

• Scope of the journal is well-defined and clearly stated
• Journal’s primary audience is researchers/practitioners
• Editor, editorial board are recognized experts in the field
• Journal is affiliated with or sponsored by an established scholarly society or academic institution
• Articles are within the scope of the journal and meet the standards of the discipline
• Any fees or charges for publishing in the journal are easily found on the journal website and clearly explained
• Articles have DOIs (Digital Object Identifier, e.g., doi:10.1111/j.1742–9544.2011.00054.x)
• Journal clearly indicates rights for use and re-use of content at article level (e.g., Creative Commons CC BY license)
• Journal has an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number, e.g., 1234–5678)
• Publisher is a member of Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association
• Journal is registered in Ulrichsweb.com, Global Serials Directory
• Journal is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals
• Journal is included in subject databases and/or indexes

NEGATIVE INDICATORS

• Journal website is difficult to locate or identify
• Publisher “About” information is absent on the journal’s website
• Publisher direct marketing (i.e., spamming) or other advertising is obtrusive
• Instructions to authors information is not available
• Information on peer review and copyright is absent or unclear on the journal website
• Journal scope statement is absent or extremely vague
• No information is provided about the publisher, or the information provided does not clearly indicate a relationship to a mission to disseminate research content
• Repeat lead authors in same issue
• Publisher has a negative reputation (e.g., documented examples in Chronicle of Higher Education, listservs, etc.)

It may be worthwhile adding two more telling aspects for identifying a predatory journal. Business registered to mailboxes with foreign owners is a clear indicator accompanied by a noticeable absence of information on the parent or company that clearly identifies who you are dealing with.

A cursory check on the editors and editorial staff will often expose non-existent individuals, qualifications, or people who are not even aware of the fact they have been added to the pages of the journal.

Two additional open resources that list actual journals and publishers known to be predatory can be found here. This link will take you to the homepage listing of actual predatory journals. If it’s publishers you’re interested in they offer this resource on a separate page. You can simply tweet to notify them of any journal that does not appear on their comprehensive list.

Now we’ve dealt with a few of the self-imposed industry regulators, let’s examine the big players in the predatory journal market.

The Hustlers

Let me introduce you to OMICS and its subsidiary company called Pulsus. Omics acquired the Candian based Pulsus Group in 2016 and has rapidly established itself as the king of the hill when it comes to predatory journals. Based in India with offices in the UK and Canada, the company aggressively pursues authors and couples its publications with an aggressive conference schedule to extend their “sales” beyond simple publication.

According to a Wikipedia entry on the company;

OMICS Publishing Group is a predatory publisher of open access academic journals. It started publishing its first journal in 2008. By 2015, it claimed over 700 journals, although about half of them were defunct. Its subsidiaries include iMedPub LTD and Conference Series LLC LTD. Other organizations linked to OMICS are EuroSciCon Ltd, Allied Academies, Trade Science Inc, and Meetings International.

OMICS is a slick, well-oiled machine built to intentionally exploit the Open Access model of publishing within the scientific community for the purposes of financial gain. This fact was acknowledged by the US Courts when they handed down a fine to OMICS International in excess of $50 million in 2019 for misleading practices.

This was after the U.S. National Institutes of Health sent a cease-and-desist letter to OMICS in 2013, demanding it to discontinue with false claims of affiliation with U.S. government entities or employees.

According to an article in the Scientist, which covered the 2019 case;

US District of Nevada Judge Gloria M. Navarro has ordered OMICS International to pay the US government fines to the amount of over $50 million, according to a court report released March 29.

OMICS is a publisher and conference organizer, and has been reported to engage in predatory publishing. According to the OMICS website, they publish over 700 journals and organize over 3,000 conferences globally. Topics covered include medicine, pharma, engineering, science, technology, and business.

OMICS also claims to have over 50,000 leading experts as editors for their journals. Scientists who were listed have reported they never received manuscripts to review or were not aware of their names being on the editors list, Ars Technicareports.

“I am neither on the rolls of OMICS nor am I the editor of any of those journals. I didn’t even know that they were using my name on their website. In fact, my affiliation on the site is not accurate. It was possibly lifted from the cover of one of my earlier books,” Rajesh Malhotra of AIIMS-Delhi tells Indian Express.

Pulsus, who owns and runs various journals, enjoyed a relatively reasonable reputation prior to being bought out by OMICS. It has since degenerated into a model that replicates the business practices of OMICS. I checked in on some of the publications, and as a simple example, chose this English journal based in the UK, (according to a mailbox address) called the International Journal of Clinical Skills (IJOCS).

It is a textbook example of a predatory journal, you don’t even need to look into the journal, just follow their Twitter feed or peruse their articles. A list of Editors and editorial staff has been made available and I have reached out to each individual member to confirm their association with the journal. Further evidence is provided by their APC page which states the following completely unethical bull.

If authors wish to retract their paper after 7 days of submission, he/she will be labelled to pay 50% of the total expenses on their article as a fee for withdrawal charges. Since, the publication process requires input of Editors, Reviewers, Associate Managing Editors, Editorial Assistants, Content Writers, Editorial Managing System & other online tracking system to ensure that the published article is of good quality and is in its best possible form.

Sorry, but isn’t that purpose behind the APC charge you levy upfront on the authors? Charging authors to edit or remove papers from a journal is unethical and not conducive to encouraging the correction of errors after publication. It is a commonly employed tactic of a predatory journal.

Similarly, the Scopus registration they boast on their front page is no longer valid. Here is the Scopus report on the journal. Yet more bull.

International Journal of Clinical Skills

• Scopus coverage years: from 2012 to 2013, from 2016 to 2017(coverage discontinued in Scopus)
• Publisher: SkillsClinic Ltd.
• ISSN:1753–0431E-ISSN:1753–044X

It is important to remember that many of the current predatory journals were once well-respected publications that have been bought out to simply exploit their reputations and these journals may retain a semblance of respectability for some time. It’s a thin veneer and although organizations like SCOPUS may have terminated the journal, other organizations may be slower to respond to the change in ownership and ethics.

An imposing mountain

That’s probably the easiest way to refer to the problem. How many publications are we talking about? To get an idea of the scale of the problem, here are two lists of the journals operated by Pulsus and OMICS respectively. The lists are maintained by Wikipedia and cumulatively total well over 800 journals.

OMICS has added a new trick to the predatory repertoire in the form of conferences. In addition to publishing journals, OMICS also organizes conferences. In 2017, about 3,000 such conferences were organized. The conference arm makes up about 60% of OMICS’ revenue.

A Bloomberg News investigation in 2017 noted a tendency of pharmaceutical companies to publish in these journals, which might have stemmed from a self-interest in skipping rigorous review procedures. They were also the major sponsors of OMICS conferences.

Where to now?

I don’t have to point out the obvious dangers posed by OMICS and other predatory journals and publishers out there. Danger to public health and danger to the professions in general. How much of the disinformation spread during the covid pandemic was and still is being enabled by these confidence tricksters?

The public is most susceptible to this sea of misinformation and often, the information is designed and published specifically to mislead them about a product, service, or idea. It is the most dangerous and destructive marketing tool we could have unleashed on the scientific community and an unwary public at a time when we can least afford it.

Stopping it now from within the industry appears to be forlorn hope and regulation may be the only alternative. If the FDA can sanction companies and businesses for misrepresenting information about Covid, they may not be too far off entering the fray. Whatever happens, let’s hope it is timeous.

In the meantime, do what you can to rid us of these insidious journals. Use common sense when selecting a journal to publish into, take due care for the future, your reputation, and your credibility as an ethical member of the scientific community. Report the tricksters when you cross their path. Electing to use these less restrictive journals now could well prove to be career-changing in the future, and not in a good way.

The post How OMICS and Other Predatory Publishers Enable Scientific Fraudsters appeared first on Medika Life.

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Qualification:  Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, 1993

Current Licensing Status: Humphries is licensed to practice in the state of Maine. She is ABMS Board Member certified in Internal Medicine. Her license is valid.
MD15655, and expires 05/31/2022

Resident: Bangor, Maine (as per licence)

Existing Complaints: None noted as public record

Website: None listed

Another doctor who has abandoned the world of science-based medicine for lala land. Humphries is a prominent figure in anti-vaccine circles and her 2013 book entitled ‘Dissolving Illusions’ may as well have been entitled ‘Ignoring Science’. It is a case study in the manipulation of existing scientific doctrine to support the author’s fraudulent and misleading claims regarding vaccination. She is dangerous and her deranged and unsubstantiated opinions have no place in modern medicine. Her opinions, writings, and advice, both medical and otherwise should be avoided.

Humphries enjoys strong ties to the disgraced doctor, Andrew Wakefield, and has drifted away from her formal medical training to embrace the world of homeopathy, vitalism and pseudo-science, much of which she supports with an active disinformation campaign of distorted science. She is very vocal on platforms like Youtube and enjoys large support within fringe health circles. She is also involved with the Medical Council on Vaccination, a front group for vaccine hysteria.

Like all the quacks and con-artists we list, Humphreys is able to use her limited and specific medical knowledge to confuse and mislead the public. Her views and support of anti-vaccine groups make her particularly dangerous. To form a clear opinion of just how misguided and lost Dr. Humphries has become, we recommend reading the accompanying articles below.

Supporting Articles

Publication – RationalWiki: Author: by Publication on Dec 20, 2019. Suzanne Humphries Verdict: She has also attempted to combine anti-vax sentiment with poorly-thought-out religious gobbledygook (i.e., lies purportedly based on scripture) in an effort to convince somebody that the Bible and Koran are opposed to vaccination. Pull the other leg, please.

She promotes mystical powers of Vitamin C, calling it “the basis of life,”^[10] and asserts it magically “neutralizes any toxins in the blood.”^[10] Additionally, she woefully misunderstands or willfully misrepresents research to support her ideas. In an article on whooping cough, she states that lethargy in chronically ill people is commonly due to Vitamin C deficiency, citing a paper on the antioxidative properties of Vitamin C in the mitochondria as her only evidence. In the same article, she asserts Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is caused by Vitamin C deficiency, yet her sole evidence is a paper which found carnitine supplementation prevented mitochondrial abnormalities in rats with Vitamin C deficiency

Publication – Science Blogs: Author oracknows on February 16, 2011 – Dr. Suzanne Humphries and the International Medical Council on Vaccination: Antivaccine to the core Verdict: A real anti-vaxxer and as you can see from the date on the article, she’s been at it for a while. A wonderful rebuttal of Humphries’ claims to be speaking from a position of authority and knowledge.

So let me get this straight. Vaccines have never been tested for long term complications? What about all those studies the looked for and failed to find links between vaccines and autism, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, and many other conditions? Oh, wait. Dr. Humphries put the word “truly” in there. So she’s conceding that vaccines are safe based on the science thus far. She just thinks they aren’t “truly” safe, whatever that means. (Note also how she’s simply using a variant of the word “truth”; she’s clearly all about The Truth–big T–than she is about science.) Actually, I rather suspect the word “truly” means whatever Humphries wants to mean, the better to shift goalposts as more studies verifying the safety of vaccines roll in.

Publication – Medium: Author Isabella B., Dec 22, 2014. Why Dr. Suzanne Humphries, an anti-vaccine activist, is lying to you about measles. Verdict: Vaccinate or don’t vaccinate. But please don’t base your decision on the writings of this extremist.

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Qualification: Emergency Medicine

Current Licensing Status: Dr. Edgar Suter is licensed to practice by the state board in Arizona (28552). If not Renewed, the License expires 08/13/2022.

Resident: San Tan Valley, Arizona, his practice address is registered as Vibrant Health, 4900 N Scottsdale Rd, Ste 2400, Scottsdale AZ 85251

Existing Complaints: FDA Letter dated 18 Nov 2020. FTC Letter dated 18 Nov 2020. 2016 action by California’s Medical Board which led to Suter surrendering his medical license in California. Follow the link for the details.

Website: vibranthealthcare.org

Dr. Edgar Suter is an interesting case. He is well educated and can therefore not offer any defense against the claims lodged by the FDA and FTC in relation to unproven treatments he sells and the claims he makes relating to these products and treatments. He would know full well that he has stepped over a line, repeatedly and there can only one motivator for his actions. He is seeking to benefit financially from the sale of unsafe, unproven, and unlicensed products he portrays as medicines and treatments. By doing so, his practice, his business, and his reputation are forfeit and he is now firmly established as a quack.

As this is a new complaint, we will deal specifically with the complaints filed against him rather than seeking out other web resources. The accusations are serious and potentially crippling to his practice and credibility. If you are currently engaged in treatment or considering treatment from this practitioner or practice, we strongly urge you to seek a reliable, honest second opinion.

Although Suter has been engaged for years in selling these questionable treatments, his latest claims relating to their efficacy against Covid-19 prompted the FDA to act against him. In a letter dated 18 Nov 2020, various complaints were issued against Suter, his website, and the social media channels his practice uses to advertise its quackery. The subject of the complaint: Unapproved and Misbranded Products Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

This isnt Suter’s first brush with authorities. He has a history of misleading the public and using illegal shortcuts to profit. In 2016 he had to surrender his medical license in California as part of a legal case brought against him. You can read the details of the action brought against him by the California Medical Board here and verify his license status in California here. His business, called 420 Wellness Today, was selling medical marijuana.

Current FDA Complaint

The following extracts are lifted directly from the FDA Complaint. They offer a damning picture of the doctor and his methods.

The FDA has observed that you offer an umbilical cord derived cellular product in the United States to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19^[1] in people.

Your umbilical cord derived cellular product is an unapproved new drug under section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), 21 U.S.C. § 355.  Furthermore, this product is a misbranded drug under section 502 of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. § 352.  It is a prohibited act under section 301(k) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. § 331(k) to do any act with respect to a drug, if such act is done while the drug is held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce and results in the drug being misbranded.

As described below, you offer a product for sale that is intended to mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure COVID-19 in people.  We request that you take immediate action to cease the marketing or sale of any such unlicensed, unapproved, and unauthorized products for the mitigation, prevention, treatment, diagnosis, or cure of COVID-19.

Not only was the doctor offering an illegal, unlicensed product or “medicine”, he was also making outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about the products, all in the name of boosting sales. See the following example from his Facebook page.

“How can we improve our odds of staying healthy and fighting off Coronavirus? Shelley Blanzy of Vibrant Health Care speaks with Dr. Edgar Suter regarding prevention and treatment options that are now available….Please call…to schedule a consultation with Dr. Suter.” A video accompanies this post in which Dr. Suter states, “We saw that mesenchymal stem cells, stem cells, can be helpful in even bringing people back from the brink of death . . . as far gone as on the respirator very near death who have had infusions intravenously of stem cells and have come back without lung damage, without organ system damage…I’m of the belief that…stem cell infusions intravenously…can help fortify us so that we’re less likely to get and less likely to succumb to this COVID-19 pandemic.” [www.facebook.com/vibranthealthcare]

.

and this post, off his website.

“According to Edgar Suter, MD who has performed hundreds of successful stem cell therapy treatments, the anti-inflammatory and healing properties of stem cells can help patients form a formidable barrier against the virus. This is especially true for patients who are less equipped to fight off infections due to a weaker immune system, other illnesses or aging. Per Dr. Suter, fortifying the lungs’’ [sic] with umbilical cord tissue that contains millions of potent stem cells is a great way for patients to boost their ability to fight off virus and other related illnesses.” [www.vibranthealthcare.org/blog/can-stemcell-therapy-help-patients-with-coronavirus]

Not satisfied with trying to con the victims of Covid-19, his wild and outlandish claims also stretch to a whole host of other diseases, such as diabetes, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, lupus, inflammatory bile disease, and asthma. His exploitation of these vulnerable groups through the unsubstantiated claims he makes, is in our opinion, unforgivable and not befitting the conduct of a reputable doctor.

On your website, you have a page dedicated to autoimmune diseases (including lupus, Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease), and you claim:

Your Vibrant Health Care specialist injects flowable allograft containing stem cells from donated umbilical cord tissue into the affected areas of the body. At Vibrant Health Care, we see our patients show great improvements in their symptoms after the treatment.”

These are statements from a con-artist and charlatan, trying to sell you his expensive brand of snake oil. The only thing that’s going to be rejuvenated after your interaction with Dr. Suter is his bank account. Avoid and seek honest, alternate medical advice.

Dr. Edgar Suter’s images are all used in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, commonly known as “fair use law”. This material is distributed without profit with the intent to provide commentary, review, education, and increase public health knowledge.

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Qualification: A Diploma issued by Trinity School of Natural Health

Current Licensing Status: Sherrill Sellman is not board certified by any recognized certification board. Furthermore, while she takes great pains not to disclose her address anywhere on her website, she is reportedly in Tulsa, OK. Sellman is not licensed to practice any form of medicine by the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. Sellman is a graduate of the Trinity School of Natural Health which offers online programs. The school is not accredited by any accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. She is a fraud and con artist.

Resident: Burlington, MA (According to FDA complaint)

Existing Complaints: FDA Warning issued. June 1, 2020. New York Attorney Generals Office Cease and Desist Notice, March 11, 2020. Pulaski Circuit Court, Arkansas, Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, June 2020

Website: drsherrillsellman..com

The popup on the bottom of this quack’s website pretty much sums it up in a sentence. “Dr. Sherrill is constantly giving discounts on products. A good idea is to check and Share the Love with your friends and family.” Not only will Sherril Sellman discount her snake oil and fake products, but she would also like you to spread the poison around, particularly to trusting friends and family. Nothing like a little quackery networking.

Sellman has been formally warned by the FDA to remove her Covid quackery from her website. She has been encouraging gullible members of the public to purchase Colloidal Silver and “nano-silver” as a cure-all for Covid. FACT: Collodial Silver does not cure or offer protection against Covid-19. Sherrill Sellman is lying to you so she can sell you her products which she hypes up with false and misleading claims. It’s that simple. Her website is also listed on our Rotten Retailers List

Avoid her advice and avoid any of her products. She is motivated by profit and does not enjoy the necessary medical expertise to make the claims and statements she makes relating to health. A quack of the highest order.

Supporting Articles

Publication – Truth in Advertising: Author: by Publication on June 20. Dr Sherrill Sellman Verdict: Caught dead to rights, Sellman had no choice other than to remove all her misleading claims

On March 11, the New York Attorney General’s office ordered Sellman to “immediately cease and desist from making misleading claims” following a guest appearance on the Jim Bakker Show in which she affirmed that the host’s Silver Solution supplement could potentially “eliminate” the coronavirus “within 12 hours.” (Eight days earlier, Bakker received his own cease-and-desist letter from the attorney general. Six weeks after the segment aired on Feb. 12, Bakker announced in a video that he was suspending sales of Silver Solution.)

Publication – Center for Science in the Public Interest: Letter dispatched by Dr. Peter Lurie, Executive Director on Feb 20, 2020, to FTC and FDA, Verdict: Given the nature of the public health threat posed by the coronavirus and the attendant public concern, we urge immediate action by both agencies to halt this fraud on the public.

One example of such an exchange referring to Silver Solution occurred in a 2/12/2020 episode entitled “A Close Look at What’s Not Being Said About the Coronavirus (Day 1)” (at 41:50), following a long discussion of the risks of the coronavirus.3 The conversation occurred between Bakker and contributor Sherrill Sellman, while an advertisement and 1-800 number for buying the product was displayed across the bottom of the screen:

Publication – The Washington Post: Author Meagan Flynn on March 11, 2020. A disgraced televangelist promoted an alleged cure to coronavirus. Missouri is now suing him Verdict: Sellman conspired with televangelist Jim Bakker to mislead the public

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