Get Out and Vote

This morning, I headed out the door early to make sure I could get to my polling place before the doors opened and ensure I wouldn't have to wait in line very long to vote. This election is very important, and not just because of the presidential race. Senate and House races can have a very, very big impact on where this country goes and how we interact with the rest of the world. And don't slouch on the local stuff, either. What you decide at your city or state level can work its way up the chain. Be smart. Get informed. But most importantly, vote!

Edited to add: If you are having trouble at the polling place and someone is keeping you from voting or in any way getting in the way of your right to vote, report them to the Department of Justice. On Twitter @TheJusticeDept. Call 1-800-253-3931 or go to their website.

Mark Geier On His Last Leg

Dr. Mark Robin Geier, about whom I've written about quite a bit, just can't get a break. Geier is the physician who, after reading a single lab study showing that mercury binds with testosterone when in a hot benzene environment (blogger Prometheus has a good write-up of this), thought that this explained how to treat autism. At the time Geier and his son, David (who has gotten in trouble for pretending to be a doctor), latched onto the two ideas that the mercury in thimerosal and testosterone played a role in autism causation. The former is now discredited, after numerous studies comparing autism rates in children who received thimerosal-containing vaccines and those who did not, as well as failed court cases based on this idea. The latter does have some validity to it, but only insofar as the fetus is exposed to high concentrations of testosterone in the womb. The way Geier, père et fils, decided they could treat autism based on this study that bears no resemblance to the environment of the human body, was to use the chemical castrating drug Lupron to lower testosterone levels in kids, followed by dosing with chelating drugs to remove mercury.

It was this treatment protocol that got the Geiers into trouble, first in Maryland. Dr. Geier was found to have been misdiagnosing autistic children with precocious puberty so he could get insurance companies to pay for his treatment, which also happens to be in violation of FDA regulations. Lupron is not approved by the FDA for use in the treatment of autism, so his spurious precocious puberty diagnoses got around this, as well. At any rate, this protocol, among other problems with how he ran his clinic, resulted in his license being suspended. The investigation also turned up that his son, David, practiced medicine without a license by making diagnoses and prescribing various tests and procedures to patients. The original suspension led to nearly every other state in which Mark Geier was licensed to suspend his licenses. Then in September and October ofearlier this year, Maryland, Indiana and Washington went beyond suspension and permanently revoked his license. Hawaii, Illinois and Missouri, however, have been dragging their feet.

Until now.

Demystifying Vaccine Ingredients - MSG

Telling people what a product contains can be a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it introduces transparency and empowers people to learn more about the products they use or plan to use. On the other, most people have absolutely no clue what those ingredients do or why they're used. This often leads to gross misunderstanding and misplaced fear. We see this frequently with packaged foods. Any ingredient that is hard to pronounce or sounds all chemically is viewed askance. This is compounded when it comes to medicinal drugs, which use the isolated, purified substance that performs a very specific function; the unpurified origins frequently contain hundreds or thousands of other chemicals that may lead to unwanted effects (e.g., compare asiprin to raw willow bark or digoxin to whole foxglove).

Vaccines are a very prominent example of this fear of chemicals (and just to get this out of the way, everything in the world is some chemical or combination of chemicals). Earlier this year, I wrote about one vaccine ingredient, formaldehyde, in an effort to clear up why and how it is used in vaccines, as well as showing that the amounts found in vaccines are safe. Just the Vax and Science-Based Medicine also have good write-ups on the preservative. Recently, someone asked me about another ingredient: monosodium glutamate (MSG).

A Candid Interview with Age of Unreason Minister of Truth Nancy Bashful

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Age of Unreason's Minister of Truth, Nancy Bashful. I knocked on the door of her suburban home, glancing off to the gardens to my right as the smell of manure from nearby farms wafted through the air. I was greeted by this middle aged midwestern mother with her short, bottle blonde hair. I couldn't tell whether the smug, self-satisfied smirk was her natural expression or one she put on for my benefit.

Ms. Bashful welcomed me in and led me to a well-worn sofa, the kind that sort of swallows you in and threatens to show you just where missing nickels and stale Chex Mix go. She settled herself at a small desk that sported a dusty Dell Inspiron, its cooling fan wheezing like an asthmatic in an iron lung. A television in the corner blared QVC, gaudy paste jewelry and kitschy porcelain figurines parading across the screen. She lowered the volume and turned toward me, keeping one eye on her monitor's strobing screen.

Making a Lancet Replica

This post is going to be a bit of a departure from my usual writing. You'll be spared my ramblings about vaccines, law, ethics and censorship. Instead, I thought I would put up a post documenting how I went about making a prop for my Halloween costume this year. Hopefully I won't give away too much about what my costume is going to be before it's time to be revealed.

Fleam

Lancet

A good costume is more than just the clothes you wear or a mask. It's also important to pay attention to the details. What kind of props are you going to add on? How accurate are you going to be? What materials are you going to use? For my costume, I really wanted to add on a lancet or fleam, devices that were once used for bloodletting, the belief being that bleeding a patient would balance the humours and heal them of whatever disease they happened to have. In nearly every instance, this was pure nonsense, and frequently dangerous, sometimes fatally so. At any rate, I had a couple options: buy one or make my own. Real lancets were hard to find, fleams a bit easier, and both were rather more than I wanted to spend.

Based on the pictures I was able to find, fleams seemed a bit too complex for me. Not only did I not have the metalworking skills they seemed to required, I just didn't have the tools. The lancet looked much easier, though I did need to do a bit more research on how to add a handle. Some quick googling on how to put handles on knives and I was ready to start. A quick run to the local big box hardware store, then time to get to work.

Parents' School Vaccination Lawsuit in WV Dismissed

This year has seen quite a bit of anti-vaccine sabre rattling when it comes to state laws and rules around school vaccinations. We saw Vermont trying to strengthen public health by eliminating philosophical exemptions, which was met by a fact-challenged tirade from a homeopath. That aspect failed, but requirements were put into place that parents review educational materials and attest to understanding the risks their decisions have not only for their kids, but for the community at large. In California, a bill was introduced requiring that parents get a signed statement from a health care provider indicating that the provider discussed the risks and benefits of vaccination (and vaccine refusal) with parents before a philosophical exemption will be granted. That bill was signed into law, despite anti-vaccine activists erroneously claiming that it violated and removed parental choice, revealing that they really are not in favor of informed consent. There had also been another bill that California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed that would have required clinic employees to get the flu vaccine or take other reasonable precautions to minimize the risks of influenza in a health care setting. That bill (SB1318) is back with the Senate for consideration of the governor's veto.

And then there was the activity in West Virginia back in August. When I was launching my series of Vaccine Preventable Disease Wanted Posters, I mentioned in passing that a group of parents were suing the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) over a new requirement that 7th graders and high school seniors get a Tdap booster and meningococcal vaccine. Well, there's been a new development with that.

Debating Physician-Assisted Suicide in Massachusetts

It's election season. And you know what that means: lots of vague generalities that sound like they mean something, ad hominem attacks, creativity with facts and annoying ad after annoying ad. Oh, and topics that get people really worked up, causing people to heatedly argue with each other, often to the point of intense anger. Many of these really are not worth fighting about and, regardless of the outcome, have little, if any, significance. Others, however, really are important and worth resolving and involve difficult ethical issues.

In Massachusetts, one such ethical conundrum is on the ballot: physician-assisted suicide.

Washington Joins Indiana and Maryland in Revoking Mark Geier's License

 Washington has become the third state to permanently revoke Dr. Mark Geier's medical license. This comes shortly after Maryland finally revoked Geier's licence. The Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission had ordered Geier and/or his attorney to appear and to produce certain documents. They did not do so in the time frame specified, so by default, Geier has lost his case.

The Commission ordered (M2012-377) on October 4, 2012, that Mark Geier's license to practice medicine in the state of Washington is permanently revoked. He is ordered to hand over all licenses within 10 days and is fined $5,000, payable within 30 days.

Meanwhile, Missouri, Illinois and Hawaii have yet to do anything to stop this man from preying on autistic children in their jurisdictions. This is, however, very welcome news.
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Related Posts:

• Mark Geier's License Revoked - And It's About Damn Time!
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 7
• The Fall of the Geiers Continues Apace
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 6
• Complaint Filed Against Dr. Mark Geier in Florida
• Mark Geier Ordered to Stop Practicing Medicine
• Map of Mark Geier Medical Licenses
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Supsended - Part 5
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 4
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 3
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended - Part 2
• Charges Levied Against Mark and David Geier
• URGENT: Please Call the Maryland State Board of Physicians About David Geier
• A Close Look at David Geier
• Mark "Castrate 'Em" Geier's License Suspended

Rob Schneider's Hellish Nonsense

Thursday night, I mentioned that Rob Schneider was going to be on Salt Lake City's KXRK morning radio show Radio From Hell to promote his stand-up show Friday night at Wiseguys West Valley City. I joined Skepchick's Elyse Anders in urging people to contact the station if they had a call-in segment during the interview. Orac also put the word out about this appearance.

Well, I was fortunate enough to find time to listen to the show Friday morning via their internet live stream. As noted by Elyse, Schneider had been on the show before, shamelessly spouting a bunch of tired, well-worn anti-vaccine lies and myths. This morning, he was a bit late showing up at the studio, which I don't blame him for; it was early, he mentioned he only had about 3 hours sleep, and we don't know what his travel and traffic situation was.  The hosts, led by Bill Allred, pondered whether they should just rerun the clip (mp3 hosted at Skepchick) from the last time he was on.

At any rate, he finally showed up to sit down for a chat...

Robbing the Airways of Intelligent Thoughts

Just a brief post to let you all know that Elyse over at Skepchick has an action alert out. Tomorrow, October 5, at 7am MDT (9am EDT), the new Jenny McCarthy of the anti-vaccine movement, Rob Schneider, will be on radio KXRK, Radio X96 in Salt Lake City, probably to promote his comedy show playing at Wiseguys West Valley City the same evening.

I call him the new Jenny McCarthy because, well, he is a celebrity of similar stature who has latched on to the anti-vaccine movement, spouting much of the same, easily refuted nonsense, like this:

Click here to find out why Rob's question is dumb.

He recently spoke out against California's bill AB2109 at a failed rally on the California state house steps (the bill was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on September 30), which would help to ensure parents are fully informed about vaccines before they make a decision to put their child and community at increased risk of disease by opting out of school immunization requirements.

At any rate, if you are in the area or have time to listen online, give the station a call with some comments or questions for Rob. Elyse provides some links to help inform you, but here are a some more:

• One Size Fits All Vaccination
• My series of vaccine-preventable disease wanted posters
• Praying, in Vain, for Exemption
• Demystifying Vaccine Ingredients - Formaldehyde
• Pertussis Toxin, Aiding and Abetting Influenza
• Disease Burdens More Then Just the Patient
• Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated - Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4
• I'm Not Anti-Vax, I'm Pro-Safe Vaccine

Also check out Just the Vax, Shot of Prevention and History of Vaccines.