Monday, November 3, 2014

#1198: Sherri Tenpenny


Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopath who doesn’t appear to practice medicine in any recognizable way anymore, is an abysmally crazy promoter of woo, antivaxx views and conspiracy theories. Her website presents her as “one of the country’s most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians regarding the impact of vaccines on health,” but Tenpenny has no relevant educational background or expertise (e.g. on infectious disease or immunology), and has published no research on any related topic. There is a good and compact portrait of her and her expertise here.

She runs the Tenpenny Integrative Medical Center, and is the author of Saying No to Vaccines, where she argues against vaccines by relying on, well, conspiracy theories, gut feelings and pseudoscience – it earned Tenpenny her own whale.to page and landed her an interview on Alex Jones’s PrisonPlanet (where she presented her conspiracy theories about the swine flu). She is also on the board of the crank antivaxx organization Medical Voices Vaccine Information Center, which does its best to challenge whale.to for trustworthiness on things medical (and publishes her stuff), prominent member of the Canary party, and on the advisory board for the Holistic Moms Network, which is possibly the place you should get your medical advice. She is, of course, also a mainstay at the annual quackfest conference Autism One.

Tenpenny is even a a germ theory denialist; according to Tenpenny disease seems to be due to toxins that damage the body, and the germs subsequently take advantage of the toxin-damaged tissues – she has even been caught quoting the well-debunked lie that Pasteur recanted his germ theory on his death bed, no less.

Tenpenny’s lack of understanding of how evidence in science works (e.g. that looking at all the evidence trumps judiciously selecting whatever superficially seems to support your belief) or the distinction between correlation and causation is brilliantly displayed in her post “Vaccines and the Blue Foot Syndrome”, discussed (in context) here, which seems to suggest that the anecdotes gathered by antivaxxers for causal claims refuted by controlled studies, shows that it is scientists who don’t understand evidence.

Crankmaster Christiane Northrup has been caught quoting Sherri Tenpenny in her rants against vaccines, calling Tenpenny “the foremost medical expert in vaccine safety”. Mike Adams is a fan as well, calling Tenpenny “a brilliant, science-minded researcher with a lot to teach the world about vaccines and immunology.”

Diagnosis: Extreme crackpot, and it is pretty scary to see how she is repeatedly treated as if she were some kind of expert in the fields, and as if her rants contained any reality-reflecting insights. Very, very dangerous. 

18 comments:

  1. And a very well deserved recognition in this prestigious publication. Congratulations on receiving this award, "Doctor." You will go down in the annals of infamy.

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  2. Now maybe the blog followers, that think that blogs qualify as a great source will see Tenpenny for the quack she is.

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  3. Dr. Tenpenny has more knowledge of vaccines than most peopled do. The reason is that her son was damaged from vaccines. She pushes hard for safety and research and points out the flaws in the FDA and CDC and conflicts of interest. She wants safer vaccines. The vax makers have ZERO liability, so they can rush testing and offer a unsafe product with no risk. That is the main issue. If YOU think vaccines are safe, then god help you.

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    1. She has knowledge of vaccines because her son was "supposedly" damaged by them? Those are her credentials? In that case I have unbeatable knowledge of the motor vehicle industry because I was once knocked off my bicycle by a vehicle. Get real.

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    2. No better researcher out there than a mama bear whose cub was injured by something. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. VACCINES DO INJORE AND NOT ALL VACCINES ARE BAD BUT MANY HAVE ADJUVANTS THAT COULD BE REPLACED WITH SAFER ONES THAT DO NOT DAMAGE DNA AND KILL

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    3. I thought your first sentence was sarcasm, but then you went all crazy in caps lock lol

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    4. "mama bear" researchers followed up by an ALL CAPS rant that includes "INJORE"?

      Tenpenny admits she doesn't know how to do research. Sorry.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pByYy2uhIIU

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    5. Emily Hart, you don't know about Sterling Hill. She knows what she's talking about. It is clear that you don't.

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  4. Vioxx killed 100s thousands worldwide and 60,000 in the US alone, yet the drug company defended it and kept it on the market when the evidence was clear. The drug industry has been fined BILLIONS for fraud, yet you take their word on vaccines. There are tons of studies by scientists, virologists, immuolgists, PhDs that say vaccines are not safe but it's standard practice to attack the messenger and not make the vaccines safer.

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    1. I'd explain to you that this is a red herring at best, but I know that even if you knew what a red herring was (which is highly doubtful) you would ignore the fact that you made one and start off on come unfalsifiable conspiracy theory.

      "There are tons of studies by scientists, virologists, immuolgists, PhDs that say vaccines are not safe...."

      No, there is Ginger Taylor's debunked list, in which the very first study listed does not support her claim.

      I can promise you that your life will get better when you stop adhering to derp.

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    2. "Tons of studies" please link to ONE study in a peer-reviewed journal that claims vaccines are unsafe.

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    3. Vioxx killed 60,000 globally from heart attack before it was recalled. Re-read that last word.

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  5. I have no desire to be rude to people who fear vaccines. Their fears are palpable and I have no wish to make someone more fearful.

    I simply suggest that they 'independently' look at the evidence - all of it. Don't just read some bloggers interpretation of it.

    To those who are wary of vaccinations I would say, you are just as capable of understanding the evidence as any blogger (Often more so. You want to know the truth. Bloggers often, simply crave attention.)

    To those who would whisper in your ear that you should ignore this advice because I am clearly in the pay of pharmaceutical companies, I would simply note that scores of some of the most successful vaccines in history were developed just a few miles from where I live, in Scotland, in hospitals, by doctors and researchers who received only their salaries for their efforts. The vaccines and the knowledge of how to manufacture them was then given away for free, over and over again. No pharmaceutical companies involved at any stage. Some US developed vaccines have also been developed this way.

    Why did they do work so hard to develop these vaccines with no benefit to themselves? Because they were of benefit to people who were in distress, in severe pain, and whose lives were blighted or even ended prematurely by the illness.

    Do the research - yourself. It isn't hard.

    p.s. I live under the constant protection of a Universal Health Service called the NHS. which runs the very hospitals and research facilities which developed many of the vaccines. Under this system, my family's vaccination are free. The NHS does not manufacture them in bulk. It leaves the pharmaceutical industry to do that. However, it does create such large orders that bulk discounting dominates contracts. Put plainly, here in Europe, each vaccine earns the pharmaceutical industry pennies in profit.

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  6. One of the biggest anti-vaxxer lies is that vaccine makers "have ZERO liability". This is completely false. In the USA you can file a claim for vaccine injuries in a special "Vaccine Court" established by federal law in 1986. The court is funded by vaccine makers via a special tax or assessment on every vaccination. If you don't like the ruling of the Vaccine Court, you can then sue vaccine manufacturers directly in regular civil court. You can also skip the Vaccine Court and sue vaccine makers directly in civil court if, for example, you claim they committed fraud or deliberately misrepresentation of the safety and efficacy of vaccines. This law applies only in the USA, and vaccine makers can be held liable in numerous other countries. The entire anti-vax movement is built on easily debunked lies like this. For more evidence of the falsehood of this claim, do a quick and simple Google search for "vaccine class action" and note all the class action lawsuits that have been filed against vaccine makers in US civil courts.

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    1. You cannot sue manufacturers, National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program handles any lawsuits. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 lead to the creation of VICP which has paid out over $4.5 billion. There's a $250,000 cap on cases, do the math. A CDC Dr has confessed to destroying data that proved the DPT vaxx caused Autism. Big Pharma is the biggest lobby in DC, by far. Pharma pays offs, discredits or eliminates those who speak out against them.

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    2. @Scarlet,

      "You cannot sue manufacturers" is a lie. Stop spreading lies. Nobody outside your trailer park is going to believe something this damned ignorant.
      https://www.legalscoops.com/5-famous-class-action-lawsuits-against-pharma-companies/

      "CDC doctor confessed" is another lie, stop spreading lies.

      Do just a small amount of primary research and stop spreading the crap your friends and social media circle tell you.

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3906284/

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  7. Who gives you the right to make your assessments? You seem to keep your personal info hidden. I would say you are a loon.

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  8. Yet Poland has the same set of vaccines as the US and has only 3 children out of 10,000 with autism vs. the US's 222.

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/676354/autism-rate-among-children-select-countries-worldwide/

    Poland's mandatory vaccination schedule includes 11 mandatory vaccines, against tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococci, measles, mumps and rubella.

    Additionally, the US has a higher mental illness rate than most of the rest of the world.

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030507080958.htm

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/10/why-more-americans-suffer-from-mental-disorders-than-anyone-else/246035/

    Substance abuse in the US is also higher than most - there is some science linking substance abuse to birth defects, mental illness and the higher rate of suicide.

    https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/may/mental-health-conditions-substance-use-comparing-us-other-countries?_ga=2.52033517.577517810.1622014298-1846635315.1622014298

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/21774277_Autism_and_development_abnormalities_in_children_with_prenatal_cocain_exposure

    https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/using-marijuana-pregnancy-may-heighten-baby-s-risk-autism-n1236306

    https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/child-adolescent-psychiatry/prenatal-exposure-to-opiates-illicit-substances-associated-with-adhd-autism-in-offspring/

    Medicine is not the issue. Lunatics telling others to avoid medicine is a much issue.

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