#628: Michael J. Dochniak & Denise H. Dunn

Michael J. Dochniak and Denise H. Dunn are antivaxxers. Indeed, they belong to the fluffy murkiness of the fringes of the already rabidly moronic antivaxx movement. In particular, they are the authors of Vaccine Delivery and Autism (The Latex Connection) (do take a look the comments in that link, in which Dochniak himself shows up; continued here), in which they blame “the latex rubber often used in vaccine packaging and delivery systems,” for what they perceive as an increase in autism rates). The guiding idea is that the dismal failure of previous attempts to link autism to vaccines cannot possibly mean that vaccines are off the hook – the antivaxxers have invested too much in that hypothesis, so instead of rejecting it they need to look for a different kind of connection, and Dochniak’s and Dunn’s attempts are among the desperate results (no, they have no independent evidence for the link).

According to the blurb on the book Dochniak and Dunn are leading experts in the etiology of allergy-induced regressive autism. This is apparently granted them in virtue of having written a book together before called Allergies and Autism, not because they have any real expertise in any related field (Dochniak does point out that he has a publication in the pseudojournal Medical Hypotheses, though, as if that should count for anything). Their work is reviewed here, here, and here, and summed up by commenter Lawrence as “a guess, inside an idea, wrapped in a layer of ‘no evidence.’” Apparently the authors cite Schopenhauer’s infamous (though possibly spuriously attributed), idiotic quote “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” That quote alone should be ample evidence that we are dealing with some serious pseudoscience. And apparently that quote is pretty much all they have to back up their hypothesis.

Diagnosis: Crackpottery, through and through.

#597: Jake Crosby

Groomed as the Wonder Boy of the Age of Autism blog network (yes, Jenny McCarthy, J.B. Handley and the rest), Jake Crosby is, as you’d expect, a hardcore anti-vaccinationist and denialist, as well as a denialist about his own denialism – Crosby denies that he is anti-vaccine. He just thinks vaccines cause autism and that there is a conspiracy to hide this fact, and that vaccines should probably be avoided, which he asserts is not the same thing as denialism.

Crosby’s favorite gambit is the Big Pharma shill by association; everyone who disagrees with him is obviously part of a conspiracy (involving Big Pharma, the CDC or the FDA) – and anyone who knows anyone with a connection to those institutions is automatically wrong, regardless of what evidence, science, data, observation, reason or reality says. They also persecute him (though the most notable part in that last link is Ginger Taylor’s absolutely astonishing comment), so that’s why he is justified in trying to get his critics silenced or fired. Another popular claim of Crosby’s, that Dr. David Lewis (not that David Lewis) exonerated AndrewWakefield and his fraudulent research, is rebutted here.

A third technique popular with Jake Crosby is slaughtering strawmen. When this technique is combined with conspiracy theories and general ignorance, the results can often be rather staggering. Then, of course, Crosby dons his tinfoil hat and connects HIV with the polio vaccine used in Africa 50 years ago (irrevocably refuted); the purpose being of course to avoid engaging with any real science and real ethical concerns in his crusade against vaccines.

Crosby has even reached whale.to, though I won’t link to it (search for it yourself if you need to) for his marvelous conspiracy theories developed in order to discredit the idea that autism rates have not risen the last couple of decades (e.g. here) – primarily, and as expected, through a guilt by association claim. It is really a perfect game – anyone who has done research on the topic is by that very fact biased and their research must therefore be disregarded (unless it agrees with the conclusion Crosby has already convinced himself is correct). After all, given the always existing possible appeals to conspiracies, no amount of science would convince Crosby that vaccines don’t cause autism, something he has pretty much admitted himself (along with – you guessed it – conspiracy theories and ad hominem arguments (real ad hominem fallacies; that is, such as dismissing scientific studies he doesn’t like by name calling without identifying any flaws in them); also discussed here).

The Crosby story has recently taken a fascinating turn, however. Brought up as he was with persecution complexes and pseudoscience, it may come as little surprise that the fledgling conspiracy theorist has turned on his own masters and found a new outlet on the Bolen Report, where he has published various conversations and email exchanges with other luminaries of the antivaxx movement. Why this turn of events? Well, apparently his former masters just aren’t sufficiently conspiracy minded for Crosby anymore, and – having realized where Crosby was going – they didn’t let him testify before Congress during Dan Burton’s last antivaxx hearing (SafeMinds’ Communications Committee Chair, Kate Weisman, even suggested that Crosby “walk the halls”). SafeMinds’ response to Crosby’s allegations is actually pretty hilarious and feeble (as it had to be, given that Crosby was using precisely the types of arguments against SafeMinds that SafeMinds is using to dismiss science). The ensuing war is covered in three parts here; here; and here. The development didn’t prevent him from appearing at the annual quackfest AutismOne 2013 to teach you how to become a more effective advocate for pseudoscience and denialism; there is a report concerning his scheduled session here (though it is said that he subsequently boycotted the event, presumably not because he had a flash of reason).

Diagnosis: As Age of Autism’s resident conspiracy theorist Crosby was actually not without detrimental influence on civilization. Recent developments seem to have blunted his impact a little as he has deteriorated to his true position as a resident of the whale.to segment, but I won’t write him off quite yet.

#558: Rebecca Lee Carley

Honorable mention to Orson Scott Card for his not entirely scholarly understanding of evolution and his call for armed revolution if gay marriage were to be legalized (though in fairness some commentators failed to explain the context of the screed).

Rebecca Lee Carley is fortunately less famous and influential. She makes up for that in terms of levels of sheer crazy. Carley is a former MD and anti-vaccination activist whose licence to practise medicine in the state of New York was revoked in March 2004 as a result of general unhingedness (in fact, she was found ”guilty of practicing while impaired by a mental disability and having a psychiatric condition which impairs her ability to practice medicine;” more here and here) – though she is still cited as an authority among the more batshit antivaxxers. According to herself, Carley doesn’t need that license anyways, and the whole system of licenses and doctors and Big Pharmas is just a conspiracy against her ability to treat cancer.

Her claims about vaccines are the usual ones; vaccines cause autism, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and shaken baby syndrome (and Carley gives you ”personal stories of vaccine damage” to back up her claims). You can read her essay ”The True Weapons Of Mass Destruction Causing VIDS (Vaccine Induced Diseases) An Epidemic Of Genocide” on whale.to (no link). It is spectacularly insane, and includes (plenty of) deranged claims such as ”Bechamp proved that Louis Pasteur's ’germ theory’ of disease was incorrect due to this ability of organisms to transform and mutate based on the body's internal terrain (as Pasteur admitted on his deathbed).” Interestingly, on her website Carley also offers a phone number that you can call to get advice on how to reverse your disease with natural remedies, and she doesn’t even ”need to see you in person,” an admission that suggests that Carley may be semi-aware of the quality of her advice. Discussed here, with some interesting highlights from her problems with the Medical Board. One supporter, Arnold Gore, has his own take on that medical license thing on whale.to.

Diagnosis: The scary thing is that she still got plenty of people willing to listen to here, despite the incoherent insanity and combination of megalomania and paranoia being rather obvious.

#550: Wendy Callahan

Wendy Callahan is Co-Director of Vaccination Liberation and director of the Florida chapter of Vaccine Information and Liberation. She also runs a website, Vaccine Information, which contains the whole gamut of antivaxx insanity, from links to hardcore woo (such as homeopathy) to posters labeled “pharmageddon”). She is on the record calling parents who vaccinate “child abusers,” claiming that “you can't poison yourself into health,” and arguing, concerning the constituents of vaccines that “these ingredients don't belong in a vaccine. They belong in a Satanic ritual.”

Callahan is most famous for her less than flattering appearance on Penn & Teller, an installment that also featured one Carl Buzz, who claims that, cancer didn’t exist before around 1945 (which to him, as opposed to reality, was when vaccines were introduced), despite the fact that e.g. radical mastectomy for breast cancer was developed in the 19^th century.

Diagnosis: Batshit loon; crazy and dangerous.

#543: Dan Burton

A.k.a. Congress’s greatest friend of woo.

Danny Lee ”Dan” Burton was, until recently, the U.S. Representative (R) for Indiana's 5th congressional district, and previously the 6th district, serving from 1983 to 2013.

Burton has been a staunch critic of what he terms the failure of government to determine the cause of the alleged current autism epidemic. In 2000 Burton chaired a congressional hearing on the link between vaccines and autism, implying that his grandson's autistic behavior was caused by receiving nine shots in one day and in general promoting Wakefield’s fraudulent research (there’s a nice analysis here), pressuring the NIH to launch a five-year, $30 million study of chelation therapy for cardiovascular disease. Burton has been ardently involved in antivaxx promotion and its associated battle against reality since then; he is an ally of Nicholas Gonzalez, and a staunch defender of NCCAM – indeed, Burton is so friendly to all things woo and denialism in medicine that he has managed to acquire a substantial folder at Quackwatch for himself. He was for instance behind the highly unethical TACT trial and legendary for bullying Richard Klausner, the former director of the National Cancer Institute, to eventually cave in to pressure generated by Burton’s insane opinions about medicine; similarly with Claude Lenfant, former director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Fortunately Burton stepped down in 2013, but ensuring before leaving that his retirement would be heralded by a last flourish of deranged insanity, in the form of a new ”vaccine hearing”, for which he invited such luminaries of the denialist side as Mark Blaxill and Bob Wright. That farce is summed up here. It looks like the person to assume the reins of antivaxx insanity in his absence is the already legendarily monstrous Darrell Issa, who has already established himself as an opponent of HIV/AIDS promotion by passing a bill to rescind funding of grants to such research efforts because he viewed them as being spent on “foreign alcoholics and prostitutes.”  

In addition to his antivaxx promotion, Burton was also instrumental in promoting the Vince Foster conspiracy theory against Clinton, and responsible for launching an actual investigation. Then there is, of course, the usual problems with stuff ordinary people may call”corruption”, which takes on an extra dimension given Burton’s instigation of an investigation into possible Democratic Party campaign finance abuse; the committee, and Burton's leadership, were labeled a ”farce”, a ”travesty”, a ”parody”, and ”its own cartoon, a joke, and a deserved embarrassment” – and was also related to this and this. The entry would not be complete without mentioning his celebrated display of ignorance regarding geography (and history), sort of to complement his absolute ignorance of all things medical.

Burton has also been awarded with an honorary degree from Robert Bradford’s unaccredited school of woo, which is not really an honor reasonable people would like to be bestowed upon them.

Diagnosis: The combination of reconstructionist crazy and New Age woo is not particularly charming, but Burton has actually possessed the power to be able to cause harm in both areas. Though he might be, to an extent at least, neutralized by now, he must be considered sort of a legend in the annals of all things wrong and stupid.