Anti-vaccine chiropractors 49

The Chiropractic Board of Australia has had enough:

The Chiropractic Board of Australia cracks down to protect the public.

The Chiropractic Board of Australia is cracking down on chiropractors who step outside their primary role as healthcare practitioners and provide treatment that puts the public at risk.

To protect public safety, the Board has:

– ordered practitioners to remove all anti-vaccination material from their websites and clinics
– removed several courses from the list of approved CPD programs, and
– introduced random audits of practitioner compliance with the Board’s registration standards. [Media Release August 8 2013]

There is a business comprised of successful business people in Victoria, called Life Chiropractic Port Melbourne. They are so successful they would like to work their way into your business, all free of charge, of course:

Our purpose is to empower, educate and inspire our community in such a way that it brings about a paradigm shift in how they view their health and live their life. We are beginning with a series of FREE workshops within the local community (workplace, sporting clubs, social groups, schools.)
Although there is more information out there than ever before, there is also great confusion about what it takes to be healthy. Drs Angus, Tony and Kirby have spent thousands of hours researching what it takes to get well and stay well.

You have met one of the business people before, in #5:

Tony Rose is a member of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia, and a board member of the Australian Spinal Research Foundation. Rose practices his business at Life Chiropractic in Port Melbourne. Here is Rose’s section on the ASRF site (he’s the one a couple of photos above Nimrod Weiner, the guy removed from the CAA NSW board because of his anti-vaccinationism):

Rose is/was also a member of the vile anti-vaccination lobby group, the Australian Vaccination Network.

Kirby Collins is a businesswoman who is also, as expected, a member of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia. We’re expecting big things of her.

Angus Pyke is the most successful of the three business people listed. He has given a TEDx talk, in Byron Bay (ikr?); and he has appeared on The Circle (ikr?):

I’ll let Pyke describe himself to you some more:

Dr Angus Pyke Chiropractor of the Year!!

Angus is the owner and director of Life Chiropractic Port Melbourne Chiropractic.    He graduated from the prestigious 5 year RMIT course with three Alumni excellence awards.  In his 13 years at Port Melbourne Chiropractic Angus has been trusted to care  for Olympic gold medallists, industry leaders, new born babies and everyone in between.  Angus is a sought after corporate health consultant and speaker. Angus’s passion is wellness education and his life is devoted towards unleashing human potential. Angus was an executive member of the Chiropractors Association 2000 – 2011 and was the president of the Victorian branch between 2007 and  2011.  When not helping people get well Angus’s other passion is spending time with  his  two children…

Wow! The CAA members, in all states, are really getting their money’s worth. Pyke left out the part about being a member of the screeching anti-vaccine harpies, the Australian Vaccination Network. Why is that?

Before I get to the main example I want to point out this recent example from Pyke’s Facebook page:

Oh, this is good.

I’m actually quite disappointed with myself, as I have never clicked on the link for that trailer. I should have done it long ago – before #1 – as it is an almost mandatory post on chiropractic Facebook pages. When you watch the trailer, this is what you see:

Get informed baby, with Wakefield, on Infowars.

It’s a joke, right? These three people, who claim to have done “thousands of hours researching what it takes to get well and stay well”, link to this gobshite, with a straight face, and tell you to “get informed”.

Okay, that was pretty bad. Remember, two of these business people are/were senior board members of Australian chiropractic associations. Unfortunately, we have seen that this is a regular occurrence. What else has Pyke got for us?

Well. This. It is a newsletter from Life Chiropractic Port Melbourne. I’ll include the full address:

http://portmelbournechiropractic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Vaccinations.pdf

And just so we’re clear who put their name to this anti-vaccine newsletter: Pyke and Collins (Parisio has left to manipulate babies elsewhere).

Let’s be clear about the intent of this newsletter. It is presented as an epic battle for your immunological soul, between immunisation and chiropractic; and, basically, chiropractic wins because anecdotal story about 1918 flu pandemic. And SIDS, autism, and death. Here are some choice excerpts, including a complete misrepresentation of the VAERS website:

First, people who are injected with vaccines can actually get sick from them! There is an entire website dedicated to the adverse effects related to vaccines – which receives approxi­mately 30,000 submissions annually.¹ Some of the more serious reports they receive include: allergic reactions, fevers, seizures, or even death.²  

Second, there appears to be an increase in a number of other child­hood diseases since the inception of national vaccination programs. Reports have linked the use of mercury-laden vaccines with a significant increase in the number of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism?^3,4  Other diseases, like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, typically uncommon in people less than ten years of age, appear to be substantially higher in children vaccinated for measles than in un-vaccinated children.⁵  Even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a devastating and mysterious condition resulting in millions of deaths in North America, has been associated with the DPT vaccination: in one alarming study, two-thirds of those infants who died from SIDS had received their pertussis vaccine, with 26% dying within 3 days after their shots -and 13% within the first 24 hours!⁶

This part is great. Watch the sleight of hand as he calmly bulldozes mortality data into morbidity data. Smooth as silk. Randi would be proud:

Third, is it really effective? When we look at the death rates from many of the diseases that vaccinations have been developed for, we see that there was already a steady and significant decline before the vaccination was introduced on a massive scale.⁷  Also, when we compare numbers in the U.K. between certain diseases (measles) to others that have never been vaccinated for (scurvy), the steady decline is very similar, suggesting that vaccination is not the only reason for the eradication of these diseases,⁷  and if an outbreak of measles occurs in highly vaccinated populations, those fully vaccinated children can still contract the disease! In one recent report of an outbreak in the US, there were 9 laboratory-confirmed cases of measles, out of which 7 were vaccinated previously for the disease.⁸ 

What can you do to save the children from death and autism by vaccines? Well, chiropractic, of course:

HOW CAN CHIROPRATIC [sic] HELP INSTEAD?

The immunity-boosting powers of chiropractic have often been demon­strated, with the most impressive of these documented by Walter Rhodes in his account of the influenza epidemic of 1918 in North America.⁹

Chiropractic is an all-natural health care solution that bases its entire philosophy on helping to improve the body’s innate ability to heal itself. Chiropractors accomplish this feat by removing irritation and interference in the nervous system caused by vertebral subluxations – thus allowing for proper regulation and control of all systems in the body, including the immune system.

And how can you weave your way through the briar bush of the vaccine debate? Why, you consult your chiropractor, naturally:

Vaccinations – the benefits versus the risks – is a difficult subject faced by every parent. We recommend you do your own research, including a more thorough discussion about this topic with your Chiropractor, so that you get all the help you need to decide what is best for your child.

And what would any anti-vaccination information be without a disclaimer? Nothing!

Disclaimer: Information contained in the Wellness Express™ newsletter is for educational and general purposes only and is designed to assist you in making informed decisions about your health. Any information contained herein is not intended to substitute advice from your physician or other healthcare professional

And, just for your delectation, here are the references to that mess. I knew you’d want to see them:

You’re making Baby Jesus cry.

I hope the CBA takes this one seriously. These guys are seen as leaders of the profession. They are nothing of the sort. They should all be de-registered.

Thanks to Peter Bowditch for doing some sort of guru magic, the likes of which I do not understand, to transfer the newsletter text into a usable format; and to my ten year old daughter for reading out the execrable newsletter, getting almost every word correct, while I edited messy bits.