186: Lawrence Huntoon (and the AAPS)

Former president of the rightwing and aggressively woo-friendly
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), which is listed by Quackwatch and well-known to be highly political and largely insane (they use Andy Schlafly as legal counsel). Its members include Ron and Rand Paul, and Russell Blaylock. The association has fought to ban the morning-after pill, mandatory vaccinationsocialized healthcare, and the shaken baby syndrome (it’s rather the vaccines that kill children). Its journal, the ‘Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons’ (JPANDS), is not considered a scientifically valid, peer-reviewed journal for inclusion in major scientific databases, and has been listed by Quackwatch as "Fundamentally Flawed". Among articles printed are justifications for petitions against global warming, papers by the Geiers, papers on HIV denialism and the original bizarre and discredited idea (the methodology was ridiculous) of linking abortion to breast cancer, by one Patrick S. Carrol. The organization and journal is superbly described here, and ripped apart here.

Dr. Huntoon describes peer review boards which review complaints against doctors as “an insidious and spreading evil which threatens to destroy not only the integrity of the medical profession but quality care for all patients”. He is also quoted as claiming that “Inescapably, the herd is a force to be reckoned with in all of our professional lives. We must be prepared to travel with it or alongside it, to one degree or another, without being trampled or singled out for extermination. And, for those few physicians who still believe in individual-based medicine practiced according to the principles of Hippocrates, and in watching out for one another when one of our own is attacked, fortunately we have the AAPS. We are a fellowship of "different doctors," and the distinction is apparent.”

Indeed. And Huntoon, predictably, follows it up immediately with the Galileo gambit.

Diagnosis: Paranoid wingnut and crackpot. The organization is also involved in the promotion of serious woo and dangerous treatments, and must be considered quite dangerous, regardless of the impact they may or may not have.