My last post was about how the antivaccine movement has so easily allied itself with the network of COVID-19 deniers, antimaskers, and even QAnon conspiracy theorists, which makes it appropriate, albeit depressing, to take note of an event occurring in my own state that reflects that confluence. It’s called Into the Light: Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020, and it’s taking place in Grand Rapids on Saturday morning. Its speaker lineup is a veritable who’s who of the antivaccine movement in Michigan:
This led a Michigan resident to note, thus setting me off:
As I perused the list of speakers for Into the Light, there were names I recognized, and names that I did not. For example, the keynote speaker is Dr. David Brownstein, whom I’ve discussed a number of times, beginning in 2016 when he tussled online with Dr. Peter Lipson, an internist and primary care doctor in the area who used to be on ScienceBlogs with me back in the day. Dr. Brownstein’s complaint? It was the announcement of age-appropriate vaccine requirements by a Jewish sleepover summer camp in Michigan stating, ““No child, camper, staff, artist in residence, volunteer, doctor, nurse, and their families will be allowed to come to camp without documentation of complete immunization according to the policy.” That requirement set Dr. Brownstein off, and he laid down a heapin’ helpin’ of antivaccine misinformation, including the “toxins gambit” in response, leading to Dr. Lipson to call him out on it.
I next encountered Dr. Brownstein throwing a temper tantrum at how difficult it was to recertify for his family practice boards. Basically, he was very unhappy about how it was all about “drugs, drugs, and more drugs” (and vaccines), all the while complaining about how none of the questions were about “nutritional therapies,” “natural treatments,” or the rest of the sort of quackery that he offers, such as acupuncture, emotional freedom technique, intravenous vitamin and minerals, elimination diets, and more. After that, it was off to the races, with Dr. Brownstein spewing all sorts of antivaccine misinformation about the shingles vaccine, keynoting antivaccine conferences around Michigan, and attacking the New York Times for a pro-vaccine editorial. So, basically, Dr. Brownstein is the Michigan equivalent of antivaccine physicians like Drs. Lawrence Palevsky, Sherri Tenpenny, Andrew Wakefield, and Dr. Mark Geier. He’s basically the Big Kahuna of antivaxxers in southeast Michigan, maybe of the whole state.
Unsurprisingly, like so many antivaxxers, of late Dr. Brownstein has pivoted to COVID-19 pseudoscience and quackery. Indeed, back in May he was warned by the FTC (here’s the warning letter) to stop advertising his “treatment protocols of Vitamins A, C & D, as well as nutritional IV’s, iodine, ozone and nebulization to support the immune system with respect to Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19).” As a result, he’s been discussing his “Plan B,” which was removed from his website, and now is moving on to “Plan C.” Basically, it’s some sort of “study” that was clearly put together in order to get past the part of the letter that warned:
It is unlawful under the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 41 et seq., to advertise that a product or service can prevent, treat, or cure human disease unless you possess competent and reliable scientific evidence, including, when appropriate, well-controlled human clinical studies, substantiating that the claims are true at the time they are made. For COVID-19, no such study is currently known to exist for the products or services identified above. Thus, any Coronavirus-related prevention or treatment claims regarding such products or services are not supported by competent and reliable scientific evidence. You must immediately cease making all such claims.
Apparently, he managed to get a crappy observational study published in a journal:
The abstract itself is singularly unimpressive and, in fact, isn’t even a study but rather published as an editorial citing an article by antivaccine “scientist” James Lyons-Weiler. (No wonder I couldn’t find an entry for the study on ClinicalTrials.gov!) The study was retrospective, not randomized, not blinded (much less double blinded), and involved all manner of quackery, including oral vitamins A, C, D, and iodine given to 107 subjects (99%), with intravenous solutions of hydrogen peroxide and Vitamin C were given to 32 (30%) and 37 (35%) subjects, 37 patients (35%) of the cohort receiving intramuscular ozone, and a nebulized hydrogen peroxide/saline mixture, with Lugol’s iodine used by 91 (85%). This is about as quacky as it gets. Brownstein claims that 100% of the 107 patients treated recovered, with a high degree of rapid symptomatic improvement. This is the very definition of an utterly uninformative study, even less informative that Didier Raoult’s awful studies.
The speaker who also caught my eye is Katherine Henry. As noted above, Henry is a lawyer who argued a a case brought before the Michigan Supreme Court against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s use of emergency powers to enforce mask mandates, shut down or restrict businesses at high risk of spreading COVID-19, and a range of other mitigation measures enforced in the name of public health. Unfortunately, the suit was successful, and on Friday the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Whitmer’s use of emergency powers had exceeded the Michigan constitution. I’m not going to comment on the legality of the ruling, although it’s hard not to point out that in Michigan Supreme Court Justices are elected and that the ruling was 4-3 along partisan lines and that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services still has powers to make sure that at least some of the mitigation measures ordered by Gov. Whitmer don’t lapse when the ruling goes into effect on October 23.
The point is that Henry, who will be speaking in front of antivaxxers at the Into the Light rally, is a died-in-the-wool COVID-19 denier and crank. Indeed, after the ruling, immediately did this:
The attorney who fought Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency orders before the Michigan Supreme Court is urging residents to “burn your masks.”
Despite overwhelming evidence that masks help curtail the spread of the deadly and highly contagious coronavirus, attorney Katherine Henry is encouraging Michigan residents to destroy their masks and ignore social-distancing measures, despite mounting death tolls.
The court’s decision on Friday “means burn your masks right now if you didn’t already,” she said.
“Open your gym and movie theater and open whatever business you have,” Henry told Fox 2. “Go and frequent whatever business you like to go to. If you have a church that’s limited your services because of how you’re reading the (executive orders), forget that. All of those executive orders, based on COVID-19 circumstances, from 2020, they’re out, they’re gone, they’re done.”
To say that such statements are irresponsible is a massive understatement Although it is unclear just how antivaccine Katherine Henry is, what is clear is that she is fine addressing an antivaccine rally about her COVID-19 crankery claiming that masks don’t work and mask mandates are an affront to freedom. Also, one can’t help that she lists prominent antivaccine organizations in this entry, including Michigan for Vaccine Choice and Physicians for Informed Consent or that the latter organization features a link to her website on its website as part of their Coalition for Informed Consent. If Katherine Henry isn’t antivax herself (it’s not entirely clear if she is), she obviously falsely conflates the antivaccine movement with a movement for “freedom,” which is the way that antivaxxers camouflage their antiscience leanings under the guise of “freedom” and “choice.” So she’s speaking at Into the Light.
What’s depressing, of course, is that the Michigan Republican Party and Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey know full well with whom they’re getting in bed:
As I’ve mentioned in various places, the Michigan Republican Party has been playing footsie with anti-lockdown protesters (including the ones who brought firearms into the statehouse in April, although in fairness Sen. Shirkey later denounced them), antimaskers like Katherine Henry, COVID-19 cranks, denialisms, and grifters, and, yes, antivaxxers (including Del Bigtree).
I’m not familiar with as many of the other Into the Light speakers, but one caught my attention, someone named Christina Parks, PhD. She’s listed as a molecular and cellular biologist who received her PhD from my alma mater, the University of Michigan, in 1999. It says nothing about her more recent research, but notes that her graduate work was carried out studying cytokine signaling. Of note, I don’t see any mention of where she works now, whether she is faculty anywhere or what she is doing, and, because her name is not uncommon, I had a bit of trouble finding out much about her using Google. Clearly, her profile as an antivaxxer isn’t that high. However, it’s clear from the blurb about her that she is:
Dr. Parks has been in the spotlight recently for her outspoken resistance to the “racial bias” narrative being pushed by Michigan’s Governor Whitmer and her Executive Branch. She advocates for doctors to focus on known epigenetic differences in the African American population that are causing them to be more susceptible to COVID-19. Dr. Parks is a passionate advocate for scientific and medical freedom. She has called out the media for their concerted misinformation campaign regarding hydroxychloroquine and its use to prevent and treat COVID-19, as well as their silencing of doctors and scientists who have dared tell the truth. Dr. Parks has been closely following the science around the world on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 as well as on the development of fast-tracked SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
So many code words here: “medical freedom,” “scientific freedom,” the “origin” of SARS-CoV-2, the last of which implies that she buys into the conspiracy theory that coronavirus was either engineered in a laboratory or intentionally released as part of a “plandemic.” Also, she clearly clings to the now discredited drug hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, which is truly the Black Knight of COVID-19 treatments. This amuses me given how it’s become quite clear that the drug doesn’t work, no matter how much astroturf groups try to claim the it does, and, even more amusingly, how President Trump hasn’t even taken the drug to treat his COVID-19, leading to hilarity on Twitter, as Dr. Stella Immanuel, she of the “demon sperm” as a cause of disease fame, was quite unhappy:
So what has Dr. Parks been doing? All I could find this, which suggests that the answer is: Not much. To quote a bit:
Hello, my name is Christina Parks. I received my Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from University of Michigan in 1999. During my years in graduate school, I realized that I had a passion for education and working with young people. At that time, I decided that I would rather pursue a career in education rather than continue on in research. After a short stint editing High School Biology textbooks in Texas, I got married and was coaxed back to Michigan. In 2003, I went back to school and received my Teaching Certification from Grand Valley University (2004). I taught a variety of Biology and Chemistry courses at Hesperia High School for 5 years while enjoying gardening, horse-back riding and skydiving with my husband. In 2009, we adopted a brother-sister pair from Ethiopia and I came home to care for and homeschool them. Although I still grow a large garden, my children are my primary “hobby” now! My son Sam is now 18 and is preparing to go to college. Wow! Where did the time go? Over the last 11 years, our family has been challenged by my daughter Tess’ special needs and blessed by her sweet, ebullient personality. She is now 11 years old and is attending public school. She currently communicates using sign language.
As a teacher, I am extremely passionate about opening the eyes of my students to the intricacy and majesty of God’s creation. Hopefully, with a little encouragement, your student will be as excited about learning science as I am about teaching it.
So she’s a high school teacher, who hasn’t done any research in over 20 years. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that! It’d be great if more PhD scientists went into teaching science, as it is indeed a noble calling. However, I also can’t help but note that Dr. Parks (and Into the Light) are clearly using her PhD to imply that she is a molecular biologist. So she was—twenty years ago—and she isn’t even a teacher any more, having left her job to do homeschooling. Basically, hers is an appeal to false authority. Does her training two decades ago make her more knowledgeable than the average Joe about molecular biology and science? Sure. However, her knowledge is likely highly out of date. Molecular biology in 1999 was very different than it is in 2020, and I can say from personal experience that it’s very hard to stay abreast of the developments even as a scientist doing research in the field, much less after having been out of the field a long time and not even in a high school.
So what we have here in Michigan is yet another example of how the antivaccine movement has so easily become part of the broader conspiracy movement that includes, most prominently right now, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists and pseudoscientists, anti-lockdown protesters, and antimaskers—even QAnon cranks. It’s sad to see it happening in my state in this Into the Light antivaccine event, but it’s not surprising. This sort of alliance is happening everywhere, because, as I’ve said many times before, antivaccine views are based on variations of a conspiracy theory.
71 replies on “Into the Light Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 grifters gather in Michigan”
Christina Parks seems to another Theresa Deisher, only with more melanin and less ambition. Though now with kids being older she may follow the same path to some kind of dubious fame.
Also, without the laboratory to generate crappy studies to “support” her antivax claims.
Freedom advocates/ righties who have been portraying masks as an affront to their g-d-given liberty may have had an impact even in NYC ( that bastion of liberal elitism/ groupthink/ lockstep authoritarianism) because although the overall positivity rate and Rt have declined extremely well – and re-openings have been proceeding- following the holidays, clusters have emerged where people congregated in large gatherings and didn’t rely upon masks…
SO
the city and state have inaugurated zones ( red/ orange/ yellow) that will close non-essential businesses and schools for 2 weeks or limit most activities based upon proximity to a cluster of infection. A few of these zones have positivity rates of over 8% ( all over 3%): they mostly occur in Brooklyn, Queens, Orange and Rockland in and around Orthodox enclaves UNFORTUNATELY which may give the prejudiced an unwarranted excuse to display their hatred.
In light of Trump’s illness and his history of cavalier masklessness, I can only hope that MOST people will learn something.,
-btw- the alties I survey persist even more adamantly against the tyranny of masks.
So, I’m not a scientist, but Dr. Brownstein seems to be testing at least five different things there without a control group. Let’s say something in that cocktail can help with Covid-19, which we can’t tell from that small a sample with no control; is there any way to know which?
As to the lawsuit, the short version is that it addressed two different laws giving emergency authority. One was interpreted – correctly, I think, on its content – to only authorize one period of emergency declaration, requiring legislative approval afterwards. The problem is the political setup preventing legislative approval.
The more problematic ruling is the second one, which found delegation of power unconstitutionally broad. Non-delegation has been used in states (less federal courts) to strike down broad delegations before, but it’s a tricky claim – even more so for emergency powers. And the problem here is that it’s a constitutional barrier: just passing the law again wouldn’t solve it.
I will point out that some of the measures the governor put in place will likely stand through other sources of authorities, even past the 21 days until this is in power, and that there is a legislative fix available – the legislature can pass narrow statutes delegating the governor the authority to order masks or closures – the question is whether there is political will to do that.
@ Dorit
Yep. Reminds me of another infamous quacky French study, somewhere in 2012 (it was about rats and mazes – I mean maize). Also:
I would certainly would hope so, that they get ZERO DEATHS while treating 107 patients. The death rate of Covid19 being around 0.1 to 1%, just getting two deaths in this group could be a sign of either great unluckiness or an actual dangerous treatment being used.
And while I may be overly cynical in this, I suspect the people at highest risk of death from Covid-19 – people who are elderly, or have comorbidities – would not be turning to Dr. Brownstein, who seems to have somewhat of a boutique practice, for their care. So his population is likely at the low-risk end of the Covid-19 curve.
I just checked our Public health Unit stats. Since March, 2020 with a population of ~ 200,000, we have had 156 cases, currently 21 active, no hospitalizations and no deaths.
Dr. Brownstein is not even in the running.
Yep, in a group of 107 people with COVID-19, particularly if they tend to be younger and healthier, on average you’d expect 0-1 deaths, although 2 wouldn’t be outside the bell-shaped curve. Start to get three or four deaths, and that’s really bad. the bottom line is that zero deaths out of 107 would be more likely than not for a group not at high risk of death from COVID-19.
Dr. Brownstein’s not testing anything. He’s basing his potion on a bunch of out of context studies, like the evidence that nasal zinc might kill cold viruses or the controversial use of vitamin C infusions for acute respiratory disease.
What these all have in common is real but low quality evidence, allowing him to play the brave maverick doctor.
It’s highly unlikely that the legislature will pass such measures as long as the governor is a Democrat and the legislature is controlled by Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey has been playing footsie with the COVID-19 deniers, lockdown protesters, and antivaxxers, too.
Nondelegation is a feature, not a bug, of right wing jurisprudence. It’s part of a strategy to destroy (or at least greatly weaken) the regulatory state by eliminating the ability of the legislature to delegate power to regulatory agencies, which can then formulate rules. It’s designed to hobble or destroy agencies like the EPA, FDA, etc, by constraining the scope of their regulatory power so much that they basically can’t do anything without legislative approval.
classy post .. geeze
They may be winning the war! Despite Oracs valuant efforts. I am officially despondent.
The only place Brownstein could get that POS “study” published was of course in James Lying Wailer’s “journal” Science, Public Health Policy and the Law. Not even fit for toilet paper.
Dr. Peter Hotez last year (pre-COVID) used a 3-cog diagram (https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc6546443) of how the anti-vaccine moving was propelling itself along: The political arm and the media arm reinforced each other while the political and media arms also countered the science community. I think a 4th cog is needed–call it the pseudoscience arm that also counters actual vaccine science as well as bolstering the media empire and the political arm. Wakefield was 1st generation pseudoscientist and got busted. Now we have quack physicians like Browstein and Paul Thomas being the 2nd generation, clevely abetted by Lying Wailer and his fake journal. Of note Lying Wailer just got another (his 3rd) anti-aluminum paper published (not in his journal…sadly in one by Elsevier which clearly stinks at peer review) claiming that infants behind on vaccines (due to the pandemic) will somehow be toxic in aluminum 100% of the time during the catch up interval on the CDC schedule. That’s all pure bullsh*t because pediatricians don’t see any signs of aluminum toxicity in infants/todders/children on the CDC schedule. Nonetheless, anti-vaxxers slurp it up and he crowdfunds the extra fee to bring these articles out from the journal’s paywall.
I’d use the analogy that the anti-vax movement has become metastatic, and not in a way that will be easy to clear out.
Think of the poor tree which gave its pulp to make the paper. It has died in vain.
It actually appears this is a strictly electronic “journal”, so only bandwidth, charge carriers, capacitances and hard drive space are being wasted. FYI, he is the pathetic editorial board: a regular who’s who of vaccine lies, misinformation and fraudulent research.
the pathetic editorial board
That is quite a collection of fools and fraudsters in one place. How many retracted papers are required to join?
The anti–vaccine cartel is assisted by social media ( despite their well publicised effort
to control misinformation) which benefit from adverts:
The Lancet / Digital Oct 2020 outlines and links to an article illustrating how they function in great detail- it’s worth a look
Metastatic ? Or MANY super spreading events?.:
Articles:
The on-line anti-vaccine movement in the age of COVID-19
links to CCDH report about social media
@ Denice–that’s a really well done analysis of anti-vax online presence (and rather depressing, too).
Professor Dolores J. Cahill
Oh boy that’s” the Irish politician/ scientist whose speeches have been featured frequently on Null’s woo-fest
Chis Hickie says, “That’s all pure bullsh*t because pediatricians don’t see any signs of aluminum toxicity in infants/todders/children on the CDC schedule.”
And this is because you (and most other pediatricians) don’t look for or recognize it or won’t even consider the possibility.
Btw, how’s business these days?
There is more aluminium in one banana than in the entire childhood vaccine schedule. THAT is why paediatricians don’t bother looking for it.
Um…aluminum toxicity would be anemia and osteomalacia. That’s not happening with the current or any previous vaccine schedules. You anti-vaxxer can’t grok that you can’t be selectively toxic from a substance (with the selection being whatever you folk feel like pulling out of your backside). Business will pick back up. Trust me, the disease wins over you morons and always will.
@ Chris Hickie,
“That’s all pure bullsh*t because pediatricians don’t see any signs of aluminum toxicity in infants/todders/children on the CDC schedule.”
Given you only see the actual child for just a few billable minutes; there is quite a bit you don’t “see”.
How many children utd on the CDC schedule have you tested for aluminum & how many unvaccinated children have you tested for aluminum; and what is the difference between the groups?
Soooo, the people that you and Natalie see for health care do not charge for their services? Just wondering since the two of you aways throw in something about fees in a way that implies something nefarious about real doctors. What a pathetic way to attempt an argument–or even an insult.
@ brainmatterz:
You’re right AND anti-vax trolls currently on RI lecture doctors about toxicity and treatments openly!
Even I ( not an MD) know why toxicity might be suspected and investigated so why wouldn’t Dr Chris?
Drs Orac, Chris, Bacon and Yeti are too kind .
If no clinical signs, no reason to test. FYI Christine, why isn’t Dr. Paul Thomas, the mighty ant-vax aluminun “expert” not checking aluminum levels in his patients if he’s so willing to put his name on an incredibly horribly theoretical paper claiming aluminum in vaccines is so toxic to children? Answer: because Thomas knows aluminun in vaccines doesn’t actually reach toxicity levels in infants/children/adults/EVERYONE.
Christine Kincaid- how do you propose to feed these children while conducting your proposed trial for the effects of aluminium contained in the vaccine? It seems that aluminium is contained naturally in a wide variety of foodstuffs that have had no previous contact with aluminium utensils, which can of course increase further the concentration in food-far beyond anything like the minimal concentrations in vaccines!
“Too many drugs on the FP boards!!” That’s rich.
Intramuscular ozone injections sound incredibly painful.
I fail to see what “freedom” is found in having your body used as a virus production factory. It doesn’t sound very “free” at all.
Maybe they meant “free-range”?
“It doesn’t sound very “free” at all.”
Neither is being tethered to a job you hate because you cannot afford to lose the health care benefits. But that along with being a vector for a certain virus for some weird “herd immunity” is what some weird people call “herd immunity.” Which is a pure fantasy.
So when did being politically right wing become synonymous with the term “death squad”?
@ Chris
Ouch.
In other countries, quite a few times already, in history.
A few times with the political left wing, too, to be complete. Although at some point I stop making a distinction. Comparing the height of piles of corpses is not my thing.
In the USA… Ah, there have been a few close calls already. Or some outright cases.
But speaking of a politically right wing squad, a group of a dozen patriotic freedom fighters organized in a well-regulated militia just got busted by the FBi for planning to kidnap Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer.
“So when did being politically right wing become synonymous with the term “death squad”?”
For all the male, property-owning WASPs out there, pretty recently. For the rest of us I’m starting to feel like it’s been a long, long time. Longer than my lifetime, that’s for sure.
Work Will Make You Free::
https://youtu.be/388_K5dF4HE?t=977
“Brownstein claims that 100% of the 107 patients treated recovered, with a high degree of rapid symptomatic improvement.”
Wow. By contrast, Provasic (the wonder heart drug in “The Fugitive”) was only “remarkably effective”.
Wonder if Brownstein”s regimen also has “no side effects whatsoever”.
Half a clue, half a clue,
Half a clue onward,
All in the valley of VPD
Rode the half hundred.
“Forward, the Into-the-light Brigade!
Charge for the syringes!” he said.
Into the valley of VPD
Rode the half hundred.
“Forward, the Into-the-light Brigade!”
Was there a quack dismayed?
Not though the anti-vaxxer knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of VPD,
Rode the half hundred.
Syringes to right of them,
Syringes to left of them,
Syringes in front of them
Injected and ingested;
Stormed at with shot and pill,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of VPD,
Into the mouth of well
Rode the half hundred.
Flashed all their screeds bare,
Flashed as they burned on air
Braying at the nurses there,
Charging at science, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the vaccine-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Doctors and Nurses
Reeled from the screeching kooks
Dismayed and astounded.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the half hundred.
Syringes to right of them,
Syringes to left of them,
Syringes behind them
Injected and ingested;
Stormed at with shot and pill,
While kook and quack fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of VPD,
Back from the mouth of well,
All that was left of them,
Left of half hundred.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Into-the-light Brigade,
Ignoble half hundred!
Applause! Applause! Take a bow for that most excellent pastiche of a poem!
Sadly, no call from the Nobel committee. I’d even be willing to share the prize with Tennison. He wrote more than one version of the poem so what’s one more to give it a modern flavor.
I have an old Tennison book of prems from the 1800’s. It has a weird velvety kinda cover, he had a weird foot, and I learned more about lotus and gay love than any person should.
@rs and Tim
TennYson
3/5 It did not make me want to dance to it. It was better than the 2/5 I gave this farcicle reinactment:
Alphred was… bicurious. Could have been shock from his lecherous ‘wife’.
My apologies for the cliché, but that event features more quacks than a duck farm …
[…] Into the Light Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020: Michigan antivaxxers and COVID-19 grifters gather […]
I learnt about Kristen Meghan on the debunking forum Metabunk ; her speciality is apparently chemtrails.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/kristen-meghan-former-us-air-force-whistle-blower.1066/
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/jim-babb-kristen-meghan-chemtrails-debate-at-porcfest.3889/
Apparently, he managed to get a crappy observational study published in a journal:
Calling “Science, Public Health Policy & the Law” a “journal” is stretching things a little. It’s James Lyons-Weiler’s latest antivax website.
@ Orac:
My sympathies to you and your fellow/ sister Michiganders in light of revelations about a plot to kidnap your governor and put her on trial… and blow things up.
Holy crap!
Michigan AG: ” This may be the tip of the iceberg”
”Michael Null, William Null and Molitor were arraigned Thursday before Antrim County Magistrate Jessica Allmand. The Nulls* are being held in lieu of $250,000 bail, and Molitor is being held in lieu of $250,000 or 10%.”
http://clickondetroit.com/news/local/2020/10/08/view-mugshots-for-13-people-charged-after-fbi-uncovers-plot-to-kidnap-michigan-gov-whitmer/
*any relation to you-know-who? 😀
Molitor? For a minute I thought that the Nulls were being charged along side a prince of Hell.
AFAIK, the Great Prevaricator has only a daughter and grand daughter BUT he’s from WV so you never know, they could be related..
Interestingly, Adams who often advocates for guns, freedom and revolution is silent about the situation emerging in Michigan.
@NumberWang null, null, null, Pray for death.
https://youtu.be/x38P1xYZGik?t=1
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/07/1009664/trumps-antibody-treatment-was-tested-using-cells-from-an-abortion/
“Oops, my ba…God told me it was alright just for me because reasons.”
“QAnon followers are ignoring or explaining away the fact that Trump’s COVID “cure” was developed with fetal tissue, something they’ve said is evil.”
“So he’s extracting some sort of elixir from the cells of ‘children,’” tweeted podcast host David Waldman, “and using it to restore his health and create a euphoric feeling and high energy levels?”
“Bafflement, denial, or (less commonly) claiming that Trump taking the drug is a ‘red pill’ designed to raise awareness about how fetal stem cells are used in research…
“They got him on adrenochrome and he’s now fully part of the system of the beast, if not became the antichrist after 3 days.”
“More mainstream right-wing outlets are also attempting to “correct” the record on the antibody cocktail, mainly by baldly lying about it.” (LoL)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ayk5p/qanon-fans-try-to-explain-why-trump-took-a-drug-developed-with-fetal-tissue
In Brownstein’s full article (which you can find linked on the page with the abstract, to which Orac linked), is the statement “All patients gave fully informed consent for in-tegrative medical management of their condition.” This is the full description of informed consent – nothing about consenting to each of the varied treatment agents. Intravenous peroxide and intramuscular ozone seem to me as therapies that would definitely require specific consent. There’s also nothing about IRB oversight, which is required even for retrospective reviews.
@ David–Thank you for pointing this out (no IRB review). Just to make this even more pathetic, Browstein is on the “Distinguished Advisory Board” to a group called “The Alliance for Human Research Protection” which claims they are a national network of lay people and professionals who are committed to upholding the humanitarian values and ethical standards of medicine enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.” as well as “Advancing Voluntary, Informed Consent to Medical Intervention”. (https://ahrp.org/advisory-board/)
The advisory board is another who’s who of anti-vaccine quacks and other pseudoscience loons.
It didn’t take long for NN to clarify what’s really going on in Michigan:
“FBI stages FAKE terror plot against Michigan Governor
to divert attention away from BLM, Antifa, Russia gate”
Because self obsessed people with guns would never think of forcing their opinions onto others….
BTW…
What is a P.h.D?
I know it may be a typo, but you wonder with this crowd.
P. h. D. – Pilled Higher and Deeper?
[…] Respectful Insolence: Into the Light Vaccine Injury Awareness Walk 2020: Antivaxxers and COVID-19 grifters gather in Michi… […]
@ Chris Hickie,
"If no clinical signs, no reason to test."
So because vaccinated children do not present with symptoms related to aluminum poisoning in adult dialysis patients; that means they have “no clinical signs”? This is very simple; you don’t HAVE any evidence showing that aluminum levels in vaccinated children are similar to aluminum levels in unvaccinated children. You CAN’T say with any certainty; that the aluminum levels in neurotypical children are similar to the aluminum levels in autistic children. And actually, studies show that autistic children DO have high aluminum levels:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282653742_Assessment_of_Hair_Aluminum_Lead_and_Mercury_in_a_Sample_of_Autistic_Egyptian_Children_Environmental_Risk_Factors_of_Heavy_Metals_in_Autism
https://todayspractitioner.com/autism/aluminum-and-autism-is-there-a-link/#.X4FTgIjYrrc
All that you can really say; is that vaccinated children don’t present with the same clinical signs as chronically ill, adult dialysis patients with aluminum poisoning.
@ Brainmatterz,
"Soooo, the people that you and Natalie see for health care do not charge for their services? Just wondering since the two of you aways throw in something about fees in a way that
implies something nefarious about real doctors."
Comprehension helps. When I said “billable minutes” I was referring to the amount of time a doctor has to observe a child. It’s not long enough to observe vaccine injury. They should be be paid for their time but they won’t be there at 2 am when TSHTF & the child starts arching their back & shrieking. Or stops breathing. Pediatricians who say “I have never seen …” regarding vaccine injury should really stop & recall exactly how long they actually see their patients after vaccination. Usually, the exam is done, the order for the vaccines given to the nurse & the doctor is with another patient when the vaccines are given & then mom packs up baby & leaves. The pediatrician won’t see the child for another couple of months. Of course they don’t “see vaccine injury”; they leave. Baby goes home.
That’s not how it works, Christine.
Every medical procedure has some risk. If clear signs of aluminium poisoning are not there, it is not only a waste of time and money to treat a patient for aluminium poisoning, it is potentially harmful.
From your first link:
“On examining the relationship between environmental risk factors and toxic heavy metals levels among cases we found the following: there was a significant relation between fish consumption in the patient and the mercury levels; also the nearby gasoline stations affected the lead levels, while aluminum pans usage increased aluminum level in the studied autistic patients”
“In conclusion, there were higher levels of the heavy metals mercury, lead, and aluminum in the hair of children with autism in comparison to controls; these high levels were statistically positively correlated with some risk factors as heavy fish consumption during pregnancy, maternal smoking, and usage of anti-D and aluminum pans; however these levels were not correlated with autism severity.”
Vaccines were not mentioned, but aluminium pans were.
Second link was from a journalist. If reporting is correct, there were no control group. You should give PubMed citation,
Aluminium concentration in foods is here:
https://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2190-4715-23-37/tables/3
There’s irony in Christine sniffing about how “comprehension helps”, when she evidently doesn’t know the difference between clinical signs and symptoms. Symptoms are subjective, i.e. pain or fatigue. Signs are objective features such as a rash or lab abnormality.
While some studies found higher metal concentrations in autistic children, others have not. For instance there’s the published research of Albizzati et al in 2012:
“The metals analysed were Lead, mercury, cadmium and aluminium, since their build-up may give both neurological and psychiatric symptoms.
Results: The comparison of the mean values of the concentrations between the groups, performed with ANOVA test, has shown no statistically relevant differences.
Conclusion: There wasn’t correlation between autism and heavy metal concentration.”
Other studies have come to similar conclusions.
Add in the fact that there’s poor correlation between metal levels and the clinical features of autism, and a lack of benefit to chelation therapy, and the metals hypothesis as it relates to autism rests on very shaky ground. Even if aluminum exposure was somehow correlated, environmental exposure from other sources dwarfs the amounts found in aluminum adjuvanted vaccines.
Antivaxers will never admit this.
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