Anti-vaccine chiropractors 16

The Chiropractic Board of Australia has had enough:

“We will not tolerate registered chiropractors giving misleading or unbalanced advice to patients, or providing advice or care that is not in the patient’s best interests,” chairman Phillip Donato said.

Dr Donato said chiropractors should only provide evidence-based treatment and anyone with concerns should report them. [Sydney Morning Herald August 9 2013]

Mr Michael Miller is a chiropractor who conducts his business at Tamborine Mountain Chiropractic. He advised me via email that he is not a member of the Chiropractors’ Association of Australia; but, in my opinion he is more than amply qualified to slide right into their ranks.

Here he shares one of the latest anti-vaccine lies to circulate throughout the internet. He believes the CDC is hiding information regarding the SV-40 Polio vaccine contamination (which happened over 50 years ago), because the CDC removed that particular page, which is no longer relevant, from its site:

Tamb 1 CDC conspiracy SV40I mean, I can sympathise with the guy. Really, I can. WHAT ELSE ARE THEY HIDING FROM US IF THEY ARE WILLING TO HIDE THIS? It is an outrage.

Oh. No wait. No it’s not. The information is freely available. Lots of it:

CDC SV 40 search resultsDo the Amish get autism? Why, yes they do. This is really, really bad. DRINK:

Tamb 2 autism Amish vaccinesArtificial vaccines will suppress your immune response, unlike chiropractic which won’t, or something:

Tamb 3 flu vax will suppress natural immune responseThe German Homeopath! DRINK:

Tamb 4 Page German homeopath surveyBrave Mr Wakefield fighting the good fight, on Mercola:

Tamb 5 Page brave WakefieldIs it true that the Vitamin K shot is dangerous? Well, of course not. It actually saves lives. This story is from Queensland, where Miller plies his trade. It features a dead baby. The mother followed the type of advice provided here, by Miller:

Tamb 6 Page high risk of Vit KProof that vaccines didn’t save us? From uber-crank, anti-vaccine blog Gene’s Green Book? Dude:

Tamb 7 Page gene's green book vaccines didn't sabe usWhat does this even mean?

Tamb 9 pic artificial immunityThis last one is from a Facebook conversation where Miller allows honesty to creep through. He admits that he “shuns” vaccines, due to a vaccine injury. He also maintains that he will continue to provide his version of immunisation information to his customers, despite the CBA declaration to the contrary, only 3 days earlier:

I would never presume to tell a patient what to do with their child’s health but I will at least provide them with information for them to make an informed decision…

Tamb 10 vaccine refuser. Diseases in decline before vaccines etc

Usually when anti-vaccinationists claim to be the victim of a vaccine injury I tend to take it with a grain of salt, due to the over-abundance of crying wolf. But, in this case, I think he may be on to something. Miller appears to suffer from a chronic, if not terminal, case of Dunning-Kruger Syndrome.

Go hard, CBA. This guy is mocking you.

About reasonable hank

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31 Responses to Anti-vaccine chiropractors 16

  1. Reasonable Chiro says:

    More nonsense rantings exposed. Hank, you are doing a great job with your blog (although I feel it’s like shooting fish in a barrel! They are making it too easy!). What comes to mind, though, is it then your duty to directly report these people to the registration board to protect the public from such nonsense? All registration boards don’t have funding for policing officers but are compelled to investigate any complaint received.

    • I haven’t had time to think about the next step, RC. I’m lazily hoping someone will take the next step so I don’t have to. Maybe I should just set up an auto email to the CBA.

    • Reasonable Chiro, I like the cut of your jib. Perhaps you’d like to become involved in this blog as a guest author: theroguechiropractor.wordpress.com
      Hopefully Hank allows it past the mod. 🙂

      • Reasonable Chiro says:

        Thanks, Rogue. See in my reply to Andy below. I may drop in to your blog occasionally but as I said, I’m actually a bit worn out by the constant flare-ups of dumbarsedness (copyrighted by me!) of sections of my profession. Mostly just lay low and struggle along trying to do the best by my patients using evidence based, scientific methods to restore normal spinal joint function.

    • Andy says:

      “All registration boards don’t have funding for policing officers…”

      And yet, strangely, some random guy on the internet can do it for free in his spare time.

      The regulator could surely find the culprits if they wanted to. As you say, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. And it’s not exactly been a secret, for a long time, that the chiropractic industry has an anti-vax problem.

      • Reasonable Chiro says:

        Hi Andy. I agree but the board can only act on complaints and notifications. Rogue, your jib is also cut quite well. I have in the past “dobbed in” breaches of board regulations and even directly (kindly?) suggested to other chiros that their websites contain hogwash and testimonials. It can involve some further communication and confirmation with the board and these days I am too old and lazy to enter into it all. However, I continue to be frustrates and infuriated by the loonies in my profession that can’t see that holding onto old, unsubstantiated beliefs is what is stopping the acceptance of chiropractic as a key part of the health care network. It’s not an overarching alternative to medical care.

  2. Reasonable Chiro says:

    Well, that could work. I really think they all need to be identified to the CBA and have their deliberate (and/or deluded) spreading of misinformation penalised!

  3. Sue says:

    How is it that chiros, who claim to be trained in the science of the immune system, can spout this stuff? My immune system’s reaction to the vaccines I have received has been entirely NATURAL – I react to antigens to produce a NATURAL immune response. It’s the antigens that are weakened, not the body’s natural response to them.

    Reasonable Chiro – is there something different about chiro immunology? How do these people come to these sorts of misunderstandings?

    • Sue I’ll field this. Immunology is immunology. It is just the understanding of it that’s different. I have university level understanding of immunology, which I would hope would be similar to anyone that has studied medical science.
      I don’t understand “chiro” immunology, but maybe that’s because I haven’t attended a weekend seminar where I learn not only how to boost immunity, but also build my practice with “spizz” (TM).

    • AnotherReasonableChiro says:

      Such misrepresentation is the product of a somewhat perfect storm of several factors:
      1. the classic ‘little bit of knowledge’ syndrome and not being able to grasp the depth of ones own ignorance
      2. a professional siege mentality – feeling ostracised , misunderstood and slandered thus feeling entitled to strike back at the critic’s legitamacy
      3. the narcisstic personality that wants status, authority and followers
      4. a sprinkling of ‘true believerism’ often triggered by over-interpretation of a (possibly genuine) personal experience
      5. groupthink – nothing is is more validating than having a charismatic ‘celebrity’ speaker tell a ramped up room full of believers that they are RIGHT

      Interestingly there has been some research into this problem in the US and a recent commentary by Dana Lawrence of the Palmer College of Chiropractic (Topics in Integrative Health Care [ISSN 2158-4222] – VOL 3(4)) gives some insights. For example: a study at Canadian Memorial Chiro College showed a significant difference in the attitude of students between first and fourth year of their study ( this was a cross -sectional not longitudinal study). The level of those actively against vaccination grew through the course of the curriculum, from 4.5% in the first year, to nearly 30% by the 4th year and a corollary finding being that those students who relied upon formal information sources about vaccination tended to be more supportive toward immunization, while those who relied upon informal sources (i.e., anti-vaccination speakers) were more distrustful.

      It would seem to suggest that the first step must be for the regulatory body (CBA) to enforce its stronger stance on individuals (and associations) for dispersing misleading material or supporting discredited speakers.

      • Reasonable Chiro says:

        Welcome to the debate ARC.

      • Sue says:

        Thanks for the reply, ARC. What I still don’t get is how students who have studied immunology don’t find a cognitive dissonance between what they have learned in the medical sciences and what they learn in chiro, and don’t challenge the paradigms they are being taught by their chiro teachers. How did you survive the same training scheme and emerge with rational ideas?

      • Sue,
        We don’t learn that from our chiro teachers at uni.
        This crap gets drummed into new grads as soon as they find an associate position with an older (usually, more established chiropractor.
        This senior chiropractor will hammer home the importance of:
        * Wellness (apparently med docs aren’t interested in their patients being well, just pumping them with drugs. & surgery. Only chiros are interested in health)
        * subluxation – despite what you were taught at uni, subluxation is real & chiropractors are the only people trained to detect them
        * x rays – required for detection of subluxation and subluxation related spinal degeneration
        * scheduling – keep them coming even after their pain has subsided. Regular wellness checks
        * family practice – get parents to get kids checked & adjusted
        * techniques – whatever safe manipulative (Adjustive) techniques you were taught at uni, forget them. Use these ones because I use them & they rock.

        I hope this has cleared a few things up for you Sue.

      • Sue,
        For a little more about what I mentioned, please read this in-depth analysis from Clay Jones at Science Based Medicine.

        http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/chiropractic-practice-building-a-doctors-confession-and-the-report-of-findings/

        RC

  4. Dr. Michael Miller Doctor of Chiropractic (USA) says:

    Well, lets see, you asked me for information on what Association I belong to and when I told you you don’t bother to include those that I am a member of. You don’t bother to share what you want the information for even after I ask.
    You don’t bother to do your due diligence as to how long I’ve been in practice, (in Queensland or other locations) In QLD 2 years this month, so the posts from 2010 aren’t attributable to me. You don’t bother to ask how was I injured by vaccines. You just continue to spout the straight party line of vaccines are safe and effective. Let me quote Eli Lilly the founder of Lilly Pharmaceuticals to you (it’s an old quote so I’m sure you won’t think that it is still relevant) “It’s not a drug if it doesn’t have a side effect, and there are no side effects only unwanted effects”. Vaccines have saved countless lives but they have also cost people their lives. I want people to make an informed decision with all of the information that is available. It seems as if you and those on the push vaccines at all cost side want to silence all opposition. You’re doing a good job so far. Now I have removed all information from my office and in the process of removing it from our office Facebook page too. Who will be there to explain the risks? Do GP’s hand the prescription inserts to their patients and say here read this before I give your child a needle? Nope. Do they review potential side effects with them prior to giving them a needle? No. As the vaccinate at any cause crusade goes on I am reminded of the poem:
    “First they came for the communists,
    and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

    Then they came for the socialists,
    and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.

    Then they came for the trade unionists,
    and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

    Then they came for me,
    and there was no one left to speak for me”
    This poem by Martin Niemöller was in response to the sloth of the German Intellectuals leading up to WWII and the “solution”.

    I hope that you never experience what a vaccine injury is like in your life. I have in mine and in more patients over the years than I care to think about. You are succeeding in your attempt to silence us but will you admit you were wrong if/when you are proven to be? My bet is based on your bias that you will continue to stick your head in the sand and a needle in your arm.

    • You are glorious. I’m modding your nutbaggery through because I want the CBA to see it. I don’t usually mod this level of crazy through, as a policy.

      “you asked me for information on what Association I belong to”
      – I asked you about CAA and ASRF. You were neither. The rest is irrelevant.

      “I want people to make an informed decision with all of the information that is available”
      – See, that’s what got you into this pickle in the first place.

      “the posts from 2010 aren’t attributable to me”
      – Yes, they are. They are on your business’s page. In any case, the two top ones are from your nutty Facebook profile, as opposed to the nutty Facebook page.

      You claim vaccine injuries. Unfortunately, I don’t believe you. You are immune to accuracy in regards to immunisation information.

      First they came for the chiropractors. Not really. You’ve been getting away with this bullshit for too long.

    • Andy says:

      Who will be there to explain the risks? Do GP’s hand the prescription inserts to their patients and say here read this before I give your child a needle? Nope. Do they review potential side effects with them prior to giving them a needle?

      Bridges collapse sometimes. People die. Yet, who is there to explain the risks of crossing a bridge? Do city engineers hand out schematics and load-bearing data and say read this before you cross? Nope. Do they warn travellers of the potential risks before each and every crossing? Nope.

      Do you ever cross bridges Michael? Knowing they pose a significant risk, do you advise your clients against crossing them, or at least tell them to educate themselves about the risks? Do YOU even know the statistical risk they pose? Would it not be safer to swim across a river, or run across a highway, rather than risk a bridge collapsing while you’re on it?

      • wzrd1 says:

        I vaguely recall that from a class I took, way back in the stone age or so.
        A risk analysis on crossing bridges vs swimming across the waterway.

        As for inoculations, I recall clearly our physician handing us handouts on the vaccine to be administered to our children. Indeed, I remember a thicker handout and set of forms when our children were asked to take part in the, new at the time, varicella vaccine.
        They participated and we, much later, figured out which one got the placebo, as she contracted chickenpox in her teens. Her sister did not. Both shared a bedroom in our small house.

        Doesn’t Australia have physicians give information sheets to parents?

  5. Dr. Michael Miller Doctor of Chiropractic (USA) says:

    Tamborine Mountain Chiropractic
    April 23, 2010
    via Body Brilliant: Over 45 children hospitalised after adverse reactions to a Flu Vaccine in Western Australia. When will we learn that health doesn’t come from a needle?! It comes from within.

    I also found it interesting that you didn’t bother to include a screen shot of this on our Facebook page. Guess it didn’t fit into your preconceived ideas. Yet there it is in reality, black & white and government approved for you!
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/risk-to-children–csl-recalls-flu-vaccine-20100603-x2cp.html
    or how about this in 2012
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9645544/Thousand-of-flu-vaccines-recalled.html
    or this?
    http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/news/latest-news/urgent-recall-of-bcg-vax
    Remember, any drug that has been recalled by the TGA in Australia or the FDA in the USA was first declared to be safe and effective.

    • You are not very good at this. This series is about identifying examples of anti-vaccination misinformation being spread by chiropractors such as yourself.

      The problems with that Fluvax are well known, and factual. Why on Earth would I include factual events as examples of anti-vaccination charlatanry, such as that practiced by you?

      • wzrd1 says:

        “Why on Earth would I include factual events as examples of anti-vaccination charlatanry, such as that practiced by you?”

        Why, to prove to one and all that the broken clock of the Chiropractor has the potential for being right twice per day.
        Charlatans are exempt from Wheaton’s Law. 🙂

  6. And you know what alerted the authorities to the issue with the CSL fluvax in WA? An adverse event reporting system. You know, the type of system that anti vaccine promulgators keep telling people doesn’t exist. The type of system that some chiros are resisting.

    No one, and I repeat: no one who supports vaccination will ever say vaccines are 100% safe. We know they are not. We also know that the severe adverse events and death are extremely rare. But we still monitor for them. And when things like what happened in WA occur authorities step in and take action.

    • Annette Bannon says:

      Michael,
      No drug is 100% safe or works on every one, no secrets, fact.

      There is ongoing pharmacovilance in post marketing of drugs, and Pharma companies are the biggest contributor of alerts to the TGA. Anyone who works for Pharma are highly trained in the expectation of TGA requirments in our reporting system in Australia.

      Any health professional, patient, member of the public can contact the TGA if they believe a AE has occured, even if the AE is an already known side effect.

      What has disturbed me is the “too hard” attitude of the Chiropractors governing body on Adverse Events Reporting. It doesn’t happen, yet Chiropractors say their treatment is safe and effective. How would you know? No monitoring of flaws in the practice and un wanted patient outcomes, which appear to be swept under the carpet.

      There is much work that needs to happen in Chiropractor world.

      You want to be taken seriously, clean up your act.

      http://www.tga.gov.au/hp/msu-2013-02.htm

      http://www.tga.gov.au/safety/australian-pharmacovigilance-sponsors.htm

      • wzrd1 says:

        I get e-mails from the US FDA on a regular basis, highly regular, about manufacturer reported adverse effects. I get less frequent e-mails from the US FDA on clinically reported adverse effects, as the majority of the clinical adverse effects are reported to both the manufacturer and the FDA. The drug manufacturers tend to react to new, concerning data faster than the FDA, so a new warning is proposed and the FDA guides it from then on and releases it. (A bit oversimplified in the actual process, but it’s the general way that the process usually works.)

        Meanwhile, I recall when a chiropractor kept manipulating my father’s neck after a car accident, ignoring the hell out of his upcoming carotid artery stripping surgery.
        My father’s surgeon and physician were both beyond mortified. Well, actually, enraged.

  7. @advodiaboli says:

    “Artificial immunity”? As in that thing that altered our species health status for the unimaginable better? Ah yes – heard of it.

    Really though. Such opportunistic, meaningless verisimilitude is just straight out deplorable cognitive bias. Really.

  8. wzrd1 says:

    “The Chiropractic Board of Australia has had enough:

    “We will not tolerate registered chiropractors giving misleading or unbalanced advice to patients, or providing advice or care that is not in the patient’s best interests,” chairman Phillip Donato said.

    Dr Donato said chiropractors should only provide evidence-based treatment and anyone with concerns should report them. [Sydney Morning Herald August 9 2013]”

    I say that the proof is in the pudding. Has the board sanctioned *any* of their professionals for violation of their policy?
    Or is this yet another example of ignored policy, rather like how the US Government did not torture prisoners.
    They had contractors do it.

    If all that they do is give lip service to valid concerns, it’s time for government oversight, since the government and people can no longer trust them to police their own ranks.

    • Andy says:

      The government aren’t much better at it.

      Sell someone a dodgy driveway and there’ll be all sorts of public warnings, possibly police action and maybe some prosecutions. But sell someone a pretend treatment or remedy and you’re pretty much home free so long as you don’t try and empty their bank account in the process.

      Or so it seems.

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