#2904: Greg Glaser & the Physicians for Informed Consent

Physicians for Informed Consent (PIC) is an antivaccine group of physicians that specializes in discouraging vaccination, framing their objectives –misleadingly – as being a matter of “informed consent”. Despite being a fringe group (like the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) or America’s Frontline Doctors – there’s quite a bit of overlap in terms of membership), however, PIC is rather influential, insofar as many of its members are, in fact, physicians and medical professionals – in 2019, they almost got Peter Gøtzsche to speak at one of their antivaccine symposia before he recognized the damage it would do to his already frayed credibility.

 

As for “informed consent”, the PIC means that parents should be exposed to antivaccine misinformation that overstates the risks and underestimate the effectiveness of vaccines, in order to ensure that they are properly frightened into making the bad choice that PIC wants them to make. For instance, in their educational materials on the MMR vaccine, the PIC states that “the chance of dying from measles was 1 in 10,000 or 0.01%”, which is less than a tenth of the actual rate established by thorough research – so how did PIC arrive at their figure? By assuming that “nearly 90% of measles cases are benign and therefore not reported to the CDC”. They do not cite sources … but even if they are right, the actual number of kids dying would remain unchanged – if the official numbers were 1 000 000 kids getting the measles during an outbreak and 2000 dying, the PIC would jump in and say that in reality, 10 000 000 kids got measles of which 2000 died: measles is just even more contagious and widespread than expected and the risk of death or hospitalization for an unvaccinated kid remains the same … which to a person with normal reasoning skill would be all the more reason to get the vaccine. PIC does not embody reasoning skills. For the record, there has been no reported death due to the MMR vaccine – which would also spare you a long list of serious and common complications from measles. PIC, by contrast, supplies documents indicating a range of mythical risks associated with the MMR vaccine (such as claiming that it leads to seizures) harvested from various conspiracy outlets that they, for good measure, say are “peer-reviewed”, meaning presumably that more than one antivaccine activist has endorsed the source (their sources are not independently peer reviewed or published in any kind of reputable journal).

 

Greg Glaser is the general counsel for PIC – Glaser is, as such, a “vaccine rights attorney” (not a medical professional) in California with a litigation and transactional law background. And as Glaser tells his backstory: “After my daughter’s first round of injections, the experience forced me to open my eyes and actually research the matter. I found a suspicious list of vaccine ingredients, and an absolute certainty of widespread, under-reported vaccine injury across our population [a misleading claim at best]. Seeing my nephew suffer after the MMR vaccine also prompted me to research holistic ways to detox from vaccine injury.” Yes, he diagnosed his own child with vaccine injury (though he is notably vague about it). And yes, he thinks you can, and should, do a vaccine detox. A holistic detox. You should not.

 

Otherwise, Glaser’s website is stuffed with the usual antivaccine (and Covid) pseudoscience, misinformation and conspiracy theories you usually find on antivaccine sites and which Glaser has found in sources like the National Vaccine Information Center and other members of PIC. He was also involved in lawsuits against California’s school vaccine mandate, and with fellow antivaccine lawyer Ray Flores, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of Joy Garner, leader of the antivaccine group ‘The Control Group’ (the name is supposed to convey the delusion that all vaccines are experimental and that the unvaccinated constitute the control group), against then-president Trump since he was allegedly ultimately responsible for the California school vaccine mandate that Garner, Glaser and Flores thought was unconstitutional, a case that must be considered baseless and delusional – as confirmed by the courts – even by antivaccine conspiracy theory standards.

 

Indeed, in 2020, Glaser and Garner were also behind a “survey” called ‘The Control Group Pilot Study’ designed to “prove” that the unvaccinated are healthier than vaccinated people (they aren’t), which even antivaxx organizations seem to have recognized as being pretty worthless – it is discussed here). Basically, the “study” was a (yet another) survey advertised on various anti-vaccine sites (you had to request a paper version) asking people frequenting those sites simply about what chronic diseases they have and their vaccination status – Glaser and Garner didn’t even control for age, weight, or any other demographic factors. That’s it … except for some random-capitalization rantings about the evils of Common Core mathematics, the corruption of science, and the VAERS database. (Garner’s defense against potential criticism concerning lack of scientific rigor is worth quoting: “I see some people think the survey’s not ‘scientific’ enough. But the real point here is: According to WHO’s definition of ‘science’ do you claim this? If you’re looking for The Control Group to fall in lock-step with the sort of ‘science’ pharma has to offer you, we’re not you’re huckleberry” – in particular, the study is “NOT being conducted for publication in a pharma-funded medical journal”, it “IS being conducted based upon the Federal Rules of Evidence for submission under a particular branch of law” and though it “is possible that the results could be skewed by some people, but this happens with ALL surveys [yes … but good science at least attempts to reduce bias], and we already have so many participants willing to identify themselves, (and even testify in court) that we will be able to show these affects are only minimal in our study” [that’s … not the issue]; also, they were “using PAPER hard-copy documents, and those are REALLY tough to fake”.)

 

As for Glaser’s group, PIC, we have encountered them before through the group’s founder Shira Miller, who, although she is educated as a physician, currently runs an Integrative Center for Health and Wellness specializing in “anti-aging” medicine and holistic “medicine”. But it might be informative to use this opportunity to do a relatively comprehensive rundown of their leadership group, which in addition to Glaser and Miller includes:

 

-       Douglas Mackenzie, MD, Director and Treasurer (California), a plastic surgeon and member of AAPS (he’ll get his own entry later)

-       Cammy Benton, Founding Director (North Carolina)

-       Yoshi Rahm, DO (California), who is, predictably, also “board certified in holistic and integrative medicine”.

-       Joyce Drayton, MD (Georgia)

-       Paul Thomas, MD (though note), Founding Member (and one of the movers and shakers in the antivaccine movement) (Oregon)

-       Ilona French, Community Director (California), who has no discernible medical background but was ostensibly associate editor of a medical journal, Dialysis and Transplantation, for which the closest google hit is an entry on Jeffrey Beall’s list of potentially predatory journals

-       Semi-legendary antivaccine champion Gary Goldman, “independent computer scientist” and Computer Science Advisor (Mississippi)

-       Legendary antivaccine activist and “false authority” Tetyana Obukhanych

-       Jane Orient, MD (Arizona). No, seriously!

-       Tiffany Baer, MD (California), well-known in California antivaxx circles for being willing to write medical vaccine exemptions (she works at the same clinic as Kelly Sutton, see below)

-       Michelle Veneziano, DO, Founding Member (California), who has long questioned the safety of vaccines: When investigating, she “discovered many studies that questioned their safety; I also found that these studies are not easily located in the medical literature.” Well, there is a good reason for that; people like Veneziano go for “there must be a conspiracy afoot” instead.

-       Antivaccine movement leader and pseudoscience producer Christopher Shaw, PhD neurobiology (Canada)

-       Tawny Buettner, Nurse Advisor (California) and organizer of a 2021 rally outside her employer Rady Children’s Hospital to protest a state mandate requiring health workers to be vaccinated against COVID if they are to work with vulnerable groups

-       Robert Krakow, P.D., Advisor (New York)

-       Sandy Reider, MD (Vermont)

-       Philip Incao, MD (Colorado) (deceased), a germ theory denialist who was also into HIV denialism.

-       Kenneth Stoller, MD, Hyperbarics Advisor (!) (New Mexico). One of the practitioners placed under investigation by the Medical Board of California for writing bogus medical vaccine exemptions in 2019.

-       Jacques Simon, Esq. (New York), another lawyer, and one who apparently likes to advise doctors on how to write medical vaccine exemptions in California.

-       Nikki Leeds, Outreach Director (California); no discernible medical background

-       Edmond Sarraf, MD, Founding Member (California), affiliated with the Southern California Integrative Wellness Center and who has “an open philosophy about vaccines”

-       LeTrinh Hoang, DO, Founding Member (California), who runs a practice offering “holistic, integrative pediatrics” combining homeopathy and osteopathy, and is coauthor with Lauren Feder of The Parents' Concise Guide to Childhood Vaccinations (not recommended)

-       Pejman Katiraei, DO, Founding Member (California)

-       Kelly Sutton, MD and specialist in anthroposophic “medicine”, Founding Member (California). One of the practitioners placed under investigation by the Medical Board of California for writing bogus medical vaccine exemptions in 2019.

-       Stuart Fischbein, MD, Founding Member (California), who has had some troubles with the California Medical Board

-       Debra Gambrell, DO, Founding Member (California), another anthroposophical medicine practitioner and star of Ty Bollinger’s antivaccine conspiracy propaganda series The Truth About Vaccines.

-       Jonathan Wright, MD and holistic practitioner (quack), Founding Member (Washington)

-       Robert Rowen, MD (and “integrative physician”), Founding Member (California)

-       Bob Sears, MD, Founding Member (California). One of the practitioners placed under investigation by the Medical Board of California for writing bogus medical vaccine exemptions in 2019.

 

Diagnosis: Yet another group that could, at first glance, come across as consisting of people with something worthwhile to say … but you don’t need to dig much to start to discern the insanity of the antivaccine clown troupe that is the PIC. They undeniably have some influence, however.

#2903: Jen Glantz

Jen Glantz is a professional bridesmaid (founder of the business Bridesmaid for Hire), and a fluffy, empty, lightweight influencer and promoter of anti-vaccine-adjacent nonsense about the flu shot. Glantz, of course, have no knowledge of, understanding of, or background in any parts of medicine, but in 2019, she nevertheless published an article “I Refuse to Get a Flu Shot, and I Won’t Apologize For It”, which is instructive for its illustration of the myths, fallacies, misunderstandings, fears and failures of reasoning that presumably often draw people into antivaccine beliefs. One of her reasons for rejecting the flu shot was that the 2019 flu vaccine “only has a 17 perfect effectiveness against the strain known as H3N2”, a claim Glantz clearly doesn’t understand (and which is also inaccurate). Another reason was side effects, which are rare and mild and incredibly vastly rarer and milder than the side effects of the flu. Yet another, and more important reason, was toxins; Glantz was concerned about vaccine ingredients, including (in particular) formaldehyde; “I would like to avoid any and all toxins when I can”, said Glantz, unaware – of course – that the dose makes the poison, that the human body produces millions of times more formaldehyde every day than would be received in any vaccine, or that apples contain some million times more formaldehyde than vaccines. But the main reason, of course, is pseudoreligious: vaccines are unnatural: “Staying healthy during flu season is my priority [it isn’t, but assessing likelihoods and consequences isn’t Glantz’s strong suit], but I’ve just chosen to do that the natural way. Instead of injecting myself with toxins, I do things like practice good hygiene, take lots of vitamins and natural supplements [which aren’t remotely going to help], and rely on my body and it’s strength to fight off any unwanted bacteria.” Bacteria, viruses … whatever. This has nothing to do with facts or accuracy.

 

Diagnosis: Glantz is presumably a rather typical influencer: She is stupid, ignorant and poor at reasoning, but supremely confident in her views and supremely willing to take on any fact or expert if it doesn’t gel with her branding. And her influence probably isn’t negligible.

 

Hat-tip: Michael Simpson @ Skepticalraptor

#2902: Eric Gladen

Eric Gladen is the founder of the organization the Children’s Health Defense; yes, that would be RFK jr.’s organization, which is one of the most influential disseminators of anti-vaccine misinformation in North America. The group was founded as the World Mercury Project in 2007, with RFK assuming the chair in 2015, primarily to promote the utterly debunked myth that thimerosal in vaccines cause autism, but the group has later branched out into other conspiracy theory mongering, such as campaigns against water fluoridation, pesticides, paracetamol, aluminum, and wireless communications.

 

And though his organization has gradually downplayed the mercury scare bit of their anti-vaccine nonsense (since thimerosal has been absent from childhoold vaccines for some 25 years now), conspiracy mongering about mercury was always Gladen’s thing; his personal history as an antivaccine activist is detailed in Trace Amounts (2014), one of a significant number of anti-vaccine propaganda screeds that were originally marketed as ‘documentaries’ (of sorts), for which Gladen himself was one of its directors (the other was one Shiloh Levine). According to the movie (brief review here), Gladen at one point suffered from sudden and unexplained health issues, used the Internet to do his own research, and concluded that he suffered from mercury poisoning. Then he created a timeline according to which – ‘surprisingly’ – his symptoms started immediately after a tetanus shot that contained thimerosal. So Gladen did more Internet searching and convinced himself that thimerosal could cause his symptoms, chose a specific chelation protocol and found a doctor willing to administer it, against all scientifically grounded advice, whereupon his symptoms temporarily (but only temporarily) improved. He also concluded that his symptoms resemble autism (in reality, of course, mercury poisoning symptoms do not resemble autism), and off we go. At no point did he or his doctor actually verify that the mercury poisoning diagnosis was correct, of course. But based on his own internet searching, Gladen anyways arrived at what he took to be confirmation that vaccines are the cause of a largely mythical autism epidemic and decided to make a movie. Along the way, the movie weaves in a large number of anti-vaccine talking points (and carefully circumvents the massive amount of evidence against his hypothesis) – many of them discussed here  – and conspiracy theories (in particular the CDC whistleblower conspiracy) ,and we are subjected to the appearance of a number of familiar quacks, grifters and antivaccine conspiracy theorists, such as the Geiers and Boyd Haley.

 

The movie nevertheless gained a bit of traction after having been aggressively marketed – through what the movie’s publicist, Jenni Weinman Voake, describes as a “handful” of influencer-oriented, salon-style screenings held at private homes – and was subsequently heavily promoted by deranged conspiracy theorists like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (of course), Jim Carrey, Ed Begley, Jr., Danny Masterson, Cindy Crawford, and Bob Sears – the CHD has a substantial budget for these kinds of things. It was, for instance, heavily used by RFK in his lobbying efforts targeting Oregon lawmakers who could influence Oregon Senate Bill 442, which sought to remove personal belief exemptions from vaccination requirements. Gladen himself is a recurring feature at various antivaccine misinformation and lobbying events, though doesn’t seem to be among the most flamboyant ones.

 

Diagnosis: Though perhaps not among the most familiar names in the antivaccine horror clown circus, Gladen is a loon’s loon and has been instrumental in constructing and developing one of the most immediate and serious threats to civilization. A hideous piece of rot.

#2901: David Givens & the creationists in the Kentucky state legislature

Ah, state legislatures. David P. Givens has served in the Kentucky Senate (9^th District) since 2009 and is apparently President pro tempore of the Kentucky Senate. Givens is a creationist. Back in 2012, Givens was one of the legislators who questioned the Kentucky standards for public education, in particular the standards regarding evolution. “I would hope that creationism is presented as a theory in the classroom, in a science classroom, alongside evolution,” said Givens, apparently unaware (or unconcerned) that creationism is not a scientific theory or that it is unconstitutional to teach religious doctrine as science in American public schools. In particular, Givens had a gripe with ACT testing (ACT being the company that prepared Kentucky’s state testing program): “We’re simply saying to the ACT people we don’t want what is a theory to be taught as a fact in such a way it may damage students’ ability to do critical thinking.” That this is indeed Givens’s concern is contradicted by the fact that he wants creationism taught, but then, Givens wouldn’t be able to recognize critical thinking if his life depended on it.

 

He wasn’t alone, of course. Fellow committee member Ben Waide didn’t want evolution to be part of biology standards at all: “The theory of evolution is a theory, and essentially the theory of evolution is not science – Darwin made it up. […] Under the most rudimentary, basic scientific examination, the theory of evolution has never stood up to scientific scrutiny.” Waide didn’t expand on what he thought ‘rudimentary, basic scientific examination’ might involve.

 

Diagnosis: He’s still there, and he is still presumably a creationist and a flaming moron – yet we suspect he is no longer even the craziest person in the Kentucky state legislature. So it goes.