The Real Victims

Mr. Shiny Shorts (NOT a victim)

I was thinking about innocent victims the other day and it seems very clear that vaccination conspiracy theorists like Mr Hubbs don't really care about others.  They would rather get their way regardless of how much science and evidence exists that prove that vaccines do far, far more good than harm.  They could care less about the millions of lives saved by vaccines, or the millions of humans who are protected from contracting diseases each and every year.

One only has to examine the published data from the World Health Organization (WHO) to clearly see those countries who have the highest rates of vaccination have a much lower infant mortality rates than those counties who have much lower vaccination rates.  Case in point, if you were to compare the US, Sweden, and Norway with countries like Niger, Nigeria, and Somalia here is what you would find:

United States:
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 7
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 8

Sweden:
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 2
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 3

Norway:
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 3
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 4

Chad:
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births):  124
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births):  209

Nigeria:
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 96
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 186

Somalia:
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 119
Under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births): 200

Obviously vaccines are not the only determining factor when it comes to infant mortality.  There are other factors such as access to clean water and quality medical care as well as adequate supplies of food.  However if you examine the numbers you will find a direct correlation between vaccinations and child mortality rates regardless of these other factors.

If you really take the time to examine the numbers - no matter what countries you examine, the trends are clear.  Those countries who vaccinate the greatest portion of their population have fewer children dying while those countries who have not had as much success in vaccinating their populations have many more children dying each and every year from preventable diseases like measles (which according to the 2008 figures killed 164,000 people globally).

Think of that - 164,000 people dying from a disease we have a known and proven vaccine to prevent.  450 deaths every single day simply because our vaccination rates are not where they need to be worldwide.  However there is some good news - measles vaccination programs have reduced deaths 78% from 2000 to 2008 worldwide.  Those are indisputable facts and prove that higher vaccination rates lead to fewer deaths, yet people like Lowell Hubbs still refuse to accept these facts and act as if the WHO, UNICEF, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Red Cross, and dozens of other agencies are all in on some vast conspiracy to push vaccines for the sake of personal profit.

Perhaps even more shocking than the number of children who die from measles is the number of children who contract measles but don't die.  It is estimated that between 1%- 5% of those children with measles die from complications from the disease, which tells us that 95%-99% recover and live.  That equates to over 16,000,000 children who contract measles each and ever year.  That is 16 million children that have to suffer in pain while their bodies fight against the virus.  Apparently in the mind of a vaccine conspiracy theorist like Lowell Hubbs, 16 million children suffering for two to three weeks is much better than those same 16 million children receiving a single dose of the measles vaccine.

So let me ask: Are those 164,000 children who die from the measles the true victims, or is it the children who receive vaccines in countries such as the US?  Is it the millions of other children who contracted measles but didn't die, or is it people like Lowell Hubbs who pretend to understand issues of medicine even though he has never set foot in a research lab or taken so much as a remedial biology or immunology course in any college or university worldwide?

It seems clear when you really examine the facts, people like Mr. Hubbs don't care about these people at all.  They might claim to care and they might pretend that what drives their insanity is a desire to protect others, but the truth is Mr. Hubbs and his ilk are only interested in one thing and one thing alone.  They wish to ban all vaccines - and by doing so they wish to prevent people from making informed decisions on their own. 

The antivaxxers would be more than happy to see millions of children die each and ever year if it meant there were no vaccines, because in their minds vaccines are responsible for autism.  Aside from the fact that is zero scientific evidence to support this theory, and although there never has been any scientific evidence to support such a theory,  even if it were true antivaxxers like Mr. Hubbs would have us believe millions of dead children are better than a few thousand with autism, even though the vast majority of children who fall within the autism spectrum go on to lead relatively normal or near-normal lives.

Yea that makes sense.  Sounds like a great trade off... provided you or your children aren't the ones suffering.  These types are arguments are always easy for the antivaxxers to make when they realize they have already been vaccinated so they are safe from the diseases they wish to push onto the world's populace.

With all of this said, there is another smaller group who suffers negative impacts from anything and everything Mr. Hubbs stands for, and that group includes other people who just so happen to share the name "Lowell Hubbs".  Imagine sharing a name with a prolific vaccination conspiracy theorist who spends dozens upon dozens of hours each and every week writing on blogs and forums and websites and discussion groups all about various conspiracy theories. 

Imaging interviewing for a job only to have the potential employer type your name into Google and see all of this quackery associated with your name.  Imagine people emailing you or calling you and asking if you are the nutcase on the Internet who believes all vaccines are harmful or that science should be determined based upon wild theory or fabricated evidence or perhaps even nothing more than a strong opinion?

There are a lot of victims here, but I dare say anyone who shares the name Lowell Hubbs is harmed (at least on an emotional and psychological level) as much as anyone who has ever suffered from a disease treated or eradicated by a vaccine.

But Lowell Kevin Hubbs from Sioux Falls, South Dakota doesn't care about anyone else.  He merely cares about himself and meeting his goal of convincing the rest of the world to believe what he believes.  Because in the mind of a crazed conspiracy theorist, collateral damage or side effects imposed upon others just doesn't matter.  The end goal is a complete and total eradication of anything and everything related to vaccinations - innocent victims and anyone else who gets in the way be damned.

Mr. Hubbs Thoughts on 9/11

As we have discussed in the past, Mr. Hubbs doesn't limit his conspiracy theories to vaccines alone.  Whether it be questioning whether the United States ever landed on the moon, or believing fluoride in drinking water is somehow contributing to a veritable laundry list of medical conditions as well as lowering IQs, Mr. Hubbs is a known proven fan of pretty much any conspiracy theory known to man.

So it should come as no surprise that Mr. Hubbs is also a believer that 9/11 was not the result of terrorists hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings, but rather an inside job caused by bombs inside of the buildings meant to make it look like a terrorist plot.

Now I fully realize that it is hard to believe a second hand source stating what Mr. Hubbs believes, so lets go ahead and just post Mr. Hubbs very own works taken directly from one of his blog pages: 

9/11: Total Proof That Bombs Were Planted In The Buildings!

I am the author of www.lowellsfacts.com One of the most in your face BIG Pharma and anti-vaccination sites you can find! Find me also on youtube. I have seen attempts and execution of email hacks; and attempts to be and get me shut down; being banned from the property and services of a major local hospital; (wrongfully).

This country is controlled by a small but powerful covert group of people worldwide; not all is known but additionally theres [sic] is a connection the WHO, the Rockefelller [sic] Foundation, and the main world banks. Ask George Bush and Dick Cheney, they belong to his highest posts? Find out where Dick Cheney was on 9-11, and what he was doing; easily available information by net general search on the issue of 9-11. There is a small government within our government; even Osama Binladen [sic] knows that. Does it also bother anyone that Blg. #7 fell that day and no plane hit it, and that our gov't has not answered to that?? Go to Youtube.com and view the many videos on 9-11.

There is alot [sic] of proof there were bombs that went off in the basements of those towers on 9-11, and that it has been covered up. Do you know Bushs [sic] brother worked (prior to 9-11), in the twin towers. Why was any of Osama Binladins [sic] family immediately flow out of the country, after 9-11. When you look at pictures of the massive lower level construction of the twin towers, you know there is no way one plane could take that down, and were actually designed to withstand a direct hit by more than one plane. Learn what actually these offices were on the floors directly hit by the planes; and what was wanted destroyed. How could previous to 9-11, 52 accidently [sic] off course planes, be diverted by military fighter jets safely back to an airport, yet two jumbo jets on 9-11 got through while our jets were way out east in the ocean looking for suspected incoming Russian missles [sic]. Our jets and intelligence were entirely fooled by Dick Cheneys, [sic] (at the controls), war games simulations going on that day. Even many of the survivor families now support further investigation... and now!

Enter The New World Order. Dont [sic]think it won't happen. From what I am reading this will not be nor come from our own military but mostly troops from foreign soil. The small armed groups that revolt will not stand a chance; in fact if guns are found you may be shot or interned. Your choice may be comply or go out in a hail of bullets blaze of glory; maybe you can kill a few. ~Lowell Hubbs

So there you have it from the man himself.  Pretty hard to argue he isn't a gigantic conspiracy theorist at this point considering he wrote this himself and published it on his very own site.  Whether it be some crazy ramblings about Dick Cheney and George Bush, accusations about Russian Missiles, or idiotic theories about the WHO and the Rockefeller Foundation, it all adds up to a solid 997 on the 1000 point crazy scale.  Truth be told, it would appear Mr. Hubbs it only a few short points away from living the remainder of his days in a padded room for his own safety - or perhaps more accurately for the safety of others?

Aside from the absolute nonsense in the quoted text above, there are a few other interesting tidbits as well.  First, Mr. Hubbs admits to being "banned from the property and services of a major local hospital".  Just to clear up any confusion on what Lowell Hubbs means by "a major local hospital" this relates to Sanford Health, their main campus, their satellite clinics, and essentially all of their facilities in the entire Sioux Falls area.  So what would lead a multi-billion dollar healthcare system to ban a man from their campus and to refuse to allow him to receive (non-life threatening) treatment from their facilities?

I do know some detail, but my source has asked me politely to refrain from posting it for the fear it could reveal his or her identity.  All I can say is that Mr. Hubbs was asked to leave several times before it got to the point they had to officially ban him from their property.  Security is aware of who he is and aside from receiving emergency treatment he is not to so much as set foot upon their property or try to engage any of their employees.  You can use your imagination on what type of actions a person has to do in order to get banned, or maybe Mr. Hubbs will be so kind as to leave a comment below and try to explain his side of the story (doubtful).

Second, and perhaps even more disturbing than his belief in practically every conspiracy theory ever known, is Mr. Hubbs recommendation that people "go out in a hail of bullets blaze of glory" and the quote suggesting people can "kill a few".

Anyone wish to take a bet on whether or not Mr. Hubbs is already on some type of a watch list for his craziness?  Perhaps I should place a call to Special Agent Matthew Miller here in Sioux Falls before it is too late... because I for one don't want to read a story one day about a madman who went on a rampage at a local hospital only to find out I had my fears long before it ever happened.  Then again I'm 99% certain Special Agent Miller is already fully aware of Mr. Hubbs and his diatribes against any and all things related to the medical or scientific communities, as well as the United States government.

In recent days we have witnessed first hand what one crazed man with an obviously troubled mind can do if given access to a weapon, and although the known felon Mr. Hubbs would in theory be banned from owning firearms due to his criminal record, there is nothing to say he couldn't find other illegal ways of obtaining them, because if we have learned anything about Lowell Hubbs it is that he doesn't exactly feel the laws apply to him.  This is what troubles me most, because it is clear based upon Mr. Hubbs words and his actions that he is not afraid of either engaging in violence, or at the very least inciting violence against others, which is almost as dangerous.

Historically people with troubled or fractured minds such as Mr. Hubbs are ignored until it is too late, but what if one day something triggers him to act and an innocent person or persons is harmed as a result.  This is somewhat of a moral dilemma for me because if I do report Mr. Hubbs and nothing comes from it he will simply believe that the government and everyone else is against him which might actually contribute even more to his delusional behavior.  However if I fail to report him and he creates a name for himself by harming others or performing some other random act of violence, will I hold myself personally responsible for not acting?

The fact is there have been several people personally threatened by Mr. Hubbs when he has his viewpoints challenged with facts, and I'm not the first one to question whether or not he is the type of person to back up his threats with action.  Unfortunately in the world we live in you can never really be too safe, so it goes without saying that I recommend people stay away from Mr. Hubbs as you never know what might set off his erratic behavior. 

The only question is, should we assume he is really all talk and is harmless, or should we assume he could very well be the next Jared Loughner?  The warning signs are all there, so will this be a case of preemptive action, or a case where neighbors are quoted by news media as saying "he was always quiet and kept to himself, so we really didn't know him" after a tragedy occurs and people are searching for answers. 

Feel free to provide your opinions in the comment area below.  If you wish to not have your comment published, please indicate it as such within the message and I will ensure it is kept private.

An Analysis of the Lowell Hubbs "Counter-Blog"

Ok I'll admit it - after I received a message from a contributor about one of Lowell Hubbs' responses to one of my previous posts, curiosity got the best of me so I decided to look with my own eyes.  Obviously I am not about to spend hours upon hours reading every link and sentence Mr. Hubbs has provided as 98% of it is merely cut and pasted from his website or other websites from known antivaxxers, but I did spend a couple of minutes looking at it to get an idea of the content and the structure.

Here is what I found within a single one of Mr. Hubbs ramblings:

• Number of embedded URLs found within the post: 168  (Yes really... 168)
• Number of YouTube Videos presented as if they are "fact": 2
• Number of images used (several in direct violation of copyright protections): 9
• Number of references to Mercola websites: 13
• Number of references to Lowell's own blog as if it is a legitimate source: 5
• Number of statements or URLS obtained via his "University of Google" education: hundreds
• Number of references to the known and proven conspiracy theorist library whale.to: 7
• Number of references to a web.mac.com personal blog: 4
• Number of references directly to "Dr" Tenpenny's online supplement store: 1
• Number of references to biased (non-scientific) websites such as ageofautism and natural news: Too many to count
• Number of references to peer-reviewed scientific studies, published medical journals, or other mutually accepted sources of scientific and medical material anywhere on the planet which show a link between vaccines and autism, the MMR vaccine and autism, thimerosol and autism, or any combination of the above:  0
• Once again showing that Mr. Hubbs has zero knowledge of the scientific method, a complete misunderstanding of the concept of burden of proof, a lack of the ability to rely upon proven science, the inability to formulate a post without feeling the need to continually refer to previously discredited "experts" and a very strong overusage of websites, blogs, and known fellow anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist source material with an obvious complete and total misunderstanding of what he is actually reading:  PRICELESS

Aside from the fact that Mr. Hubbs is still trying to use sites like whale.to to make a point even though it has been 100% discredited in every scientific circle on the planet, and aside from the fact that Mr. Hubbs is still attempting to defend the 100% discredited Andy Wakefield, and aside from the fact that Mr. Hubbs relies upon himself as a source when he quotes his very own website (which leads to even more links and unsupported blogs, which in turn lead you back to some of the very own sites he listed originally), and aside form the fact the Mr. Hubbs actually has pasted the same information more than once because he can't even figure out how to cut and paste properly, the simple reality is that to anyone who doesn't go by the name Lowell Hubbs, that entire blog is a total trainwreck which actually only serves to harm the antivaxxer movement. 

As it seems, not only is Mr. Hubbs not taken seriously by the medical or scientific community at large, but as it seems he isn't even taken seriously by the primary anti-vaxxers.  That is like a group of skunks ignoring and avoiding one single skunk because they all think he smells bad.  This lack of credibility on Mr. Hubbs' part is why not a single one of the "established anti-vaxxers" has ever associated themselves with Mr. Hubbs even though he proclaims to have "one of the best anti vaccination sites on the planet" and has admittedly spending countless hours and "all of his available time" performing "research" via google and typing letters to the editor, posting on chat boards, posting comments on medical blogs etc, etc.

The bottom line is even when Mr. Hubbs does reference a real study or a legitimate table found on a reputable unbiased website, he doesn't have the knowledge to interpret the data properly therefore he makes up (or likely repeats) the incorrrect conclusions about the data, or in many cases merely makes statements that have no bearing on nor any relation to the information presented.  It goes without saying that if a single blog post has to contain well over 160 links to other websites and blogs, that the author of the post is unable to actually formulate his own thoughts, do his own research, or publish a well thought-out and well argued blog post.

Mr. Hubbs has a long way to go when it comes to matters of science, but it would appear he also has just as long of a way to go when it comes to matter of writing, debate, and basic logic.  A word of advice to all of you reading this: If you are still school age, please stay in school.  If you are older and have kids - please ensure they stay in school, because we can see in Mr. Hubbs what happens when you are a poor student and make poor decisions, and clearly that is NOT the type of future you want for yourself or anyone you may care about.

There is some good news to come from Mr. Hubbs continual ramblings however.  It shows people just how unstable and insane the anti-vaxxers are, which in turn leads them to real doctors, real science, and real medicine, which in turn helps keep vaccinations numbers up, and preventable diseases down. 

Thanks Mr. Hubbs!

Andrew Moulden: Still a Quack

A frequent contributor to this blog sent me a message which was commenting upon one of the statements Mr. Hubbs wrote on his website. Apparently Mr. Hubbs was trying to develop some type of a "response" to my expose on Andrew Moulden, so he provided the following quote:

"Your statement that he took 8 years to try and complete a residency, that only qualified for 3 years, is total bullshit. Where and how can you verify that crap. Dr. Moulden is a brilliant man, and was in the top of his class." ~ Lowell Hubbs

I'm not sure how far I can dumb this down so someone like Mr. Hubbs can understand it, but I'll give it a shot. I provided the specific link which proves the fact that Moulden tried for eight years to finish his residency and never did, but apprently Mr. Hubbs is incapable of actually reading the source material that is presented to him. The fact Moulden never finished his residency is not in dispute even by Moulden himself, yet here we have the vaccine conspiracy theorist Mr. Hubbs try to claim it isn't true.

The simple truth is anyone can examine the certification in the link I provided in the original post (or since Mr. Hubbs is likely too ignorant to go back and look, he can also find it right HERE). That information is directly from The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (as I mentioned in the original post), which is where Moulden attempted to complete his postgraduate work (he attended both the University of Ottawa as well as the University of Toronto - both of which are verified on the website referenced above). Since the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is the one and only licensing body in the entire province of Ontario, if it isn't listed on their website it just didn't happen no matter how bad Mr. Hubbs or Mr. Moulden wish it to be true.

Why do I suddenly feel like I am going to have to teach a remedial geography lesson to Mr. Hubbs before he understands all of this?

Note to Mr. Hubbs: Ottowa and Toronto are both cities in the Canadian province of Ontario. (I probably shouldn't assume that you understand Canada is the country directly to the North of the US, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that one) A province is much like a state here in the US, but the difference is there are only 10 provinces (and three territories) rather than 50 states. Because of this, and because both Toronto and Ottowa (where Moulden attended his post-graduate universities) are in Ontario, Moulden's post-graduate results would be found in The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario website, and since it shows his failure to complete an actual residency... well you do the math.

In any case these facts are not in dispute which is why Moulden has never been able to practice medicine, and why he is never going to be taken seriously. He is a drop-out who couldn't even complete a basic five year residency program when given eight years to do so. In fact he couldn't even make it beyond the first three years when given eight years to do so (please note Mr. Hubbs that he started his residency in June 2000 and by June 2008 he was still working on his third year of residency - you do the math), and as such he has no license to diagnose or treat a patient either in the US or Canada.

These are facts. These are provable facts. These facts are not in dispute. Now if Mr. Hubbs or any other anti-vaxxer wishes to claim otherwise, it is their duty to provide some hard facts to support their statements (which we all know they cannot do).

The whole lack of a medical license is what got Moulden into trouble for his "BrainGuard" con-game, so if the man really wants to help people the first step would be to actually obtain a license to practice medicine. Granted the only residency he was even attempting to complete was in psychiatry rather than neurology or immunology or any other related field, but we will go ahead and gloss over that minor detail since he never finished it in the first place.

I guess there is no money to be made by spending years at a teaching hospital however, so like all the good little snakeoil salesman before him, Moulden figured out it was much more profitable to give seminars and produce DVDs or sell nutritional supplements to idiots who can't even verify credentials when they are put directly in front of their faces.

Either that or he wasn't smart enough to actually complete the residency. Take your pick Mr. Hubbs, because those are really the only two options.

This is why it is impossible to ever teach Mr. Hubbs anything, because he refuses to acknowledge facts even when they are presented to him in black and white. This is also why Mr. Hubbs will remain nothing other than a vaccine conspiracy theorist - because not only does he like to ignore indisputable facts that are given to him, but he even goes so far as to make up wild stories about hackers, hitmen, and other "powers that be" who are forcing people like Moulden to run for cover, but yet he is never able to provide so much as one single piece of evidence to support those wild claims.

As to Mr. Hubbs comment about Moulden being "in the top of his class", this is yet another parroted statement that comes from the lips of Moulden himself, yet there is zero evidence that this is factual. Thus if Mr. Hubbs wishes to actually run around making such a claim, it is his duty to support it with evidence. I have discussed his reliance upon argument from ignorance in the past, but something tells me Mr. Hubbs probably lacks the intelligence to understand what his is doing is nothing more than rehashing logical fallacies time and time again.

The bottom line is that it is never acceptable to merely repeat a statement of another without any supporting evidence as that is hearsay. It is also never acceptable to expect someone to "disprove" or "refute" something unless you are able to actually prove it in the first place. I could easily say that the planet Neptune contains a delicious peanut butter center and then tell Mr. Hubbs that it is true because he can't prove me wrong, but thankfully for anyone who understands logical fallacies and the rules of debate (not to mention basic scientific theory and common sense) that form of argument simply will not suffice.

Granted for a "cut and paste" google educated expert like Mr. Hubbs, if you took away his ability to rely upon hearsay or unsubstantiated rumors or his heavy dependence upon logical fallacies he wouldn't have a whole lot left to talk about, so I don't expect anything to change in the near future.

Maybe that brain-damage Mr. Hubbs admitted to in the past makes it impossible for him to understand such simple concepts, but if that is the case I highly recommend he shy away from operating an automobile or any heavy machinery and stick to riding a bike... maybe one of those bikes that has a nice tray on the back where you could haul groceries or library books rather than a car (because we all know Mr. Hubbs history behind the wheel of an automobile).

Journal: Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Was Fraud

I'm not sure we have room for any additional nails in this coffin, and I have covered this story in the past here and here, but once again we find yet another study which proves that Andrew Wakefield and his fabricated science is nothing short of blatant fraud.

Read on:

Journal: Study linking vaccine to autism was fraud

LONDON – The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.

The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.

A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

Deer's article was paid for by the Sunday Times of London and Britain's Channel 4 television network. It was published online Thursday in the medical journal, BMJ.

In an accompanying editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee and colleagues called Wakefield's study "an elaborate fraud." They said Wakefield's work in other journals should be examined to see if it should be retracted.

Last May, Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice medicine in Britain. Many other published studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism.

But measles has surged since Wakefield's paper was published and there are sporadic outbreaks in Europe and the U.S. In 2008, measles was deemed endemic in England and Wales.

Online: http://www.bmj.com

Now there are a few very key facts related to this story that bear repeating.  First, we know now - 13 years after this study was originally published, that Wakefield's science was not only shoddy, but outright fraudulent.  That said, it should not come as a surprise to anyone to learn that vaccine conspiracy theorists like Mr. Hubbs are still professing Wakefield's innocence and claiming the original study was accurate.  They claim Wakefield's conclusions were sound and that he is merely being picked on for daring to question the medical establishment.

However, as time has shown us, even though the rates of MMR vaccination have dropped significantly since Wakefield originally perpetuated his fraud onto the innocent public, the rates of autism have gone relatively unchanged.  In fact according to recent data, rates of autism have actually INCREASED during this period which is the exact inverse of what Wakefield, Mr. Hubbs, and all other anti-vaxxers would want us to believe.

However, during this same period of time we have seen numerous outbreaks of measles.  The World Health Organization (WHO), has stated that more than 20 million people worldwide are affected by measles each year and it is the single leading cause of vaccine-preventable deaths among young children, resulting in 164,000 deaths globally in 2008.  Therefore, by publishing his fraudulent study, Andrew Wakefield has actually led to increase risk, and thus increased number of deaths, of children that are no longer being vaccinated. 

Thankfully Wakefield's fraud has had very little impact within the US, therefore for the most part due to the continual usage of the MMR vaccine within our population, we have not seen major outbreaks across the nation.  However in the United Kingdom where people followed Wakefield's work more closely (and where his study effectively went unchallenged the first few years after publication), they have actually witnessed outbreaks in both England and Wales. There was also the first measles related deathreported in the UK in over 14 years, and it was due to a young boy being unprotected from the measles virus because he did not receive the MMR vaccine. 

So even though we have not witnessed a decrease in the rates of autism (as Wakefield would have us believe would be the case with fewer children receiving the MMR vaccine) we have seen outbreaks of measles which have been proven to lead to death.  The lesson we can take from this is that not only do the actions of the anti-vaxxers not actually solve the autism issue, but in fact they lead to higher rates of viral infections which can result in pain, long-term side effects, and even loss of life.

So what does Mr. Hubbs think of all this?  Well according to his most recent statements, and in spite of the mountain of evidence which has proven Wakefield to be nothing short of a charlatan, Mr. Hubbs still supports Wakefield 100% and even continues to post information about Wakefield's study on his silly website.  In fact, Mr. Hubbs has even signed an online letter of support for Wakefield and he continues to make excuses in a vain attempt to paint Wakefield as the victim.

Sorry Mr. Hubbs, but the real victims are those children who are now suffering due to their parents (unsubstantiated) fears of having autistic children which due in large part to the fraud that is one Andrew Wakefield, led them to bypass the proven safety which comes along with the MMR vaccine.  The real victims are those 164,000 humans who die each year from measles which equates to 450 deaths each and every day or 18 deaths every hour! 

Wakefield himself is not and has never been a victim, but the damage he has done will last decades, and for that we have no one to blame other than Wakefield himself and his loyal troop of ignorant followers such as Mr. Hubbs who overlook science and instead believe this is all some vast conspiracy to protect profits of the drug companies.

Is it any wonder that Mr. Hubbs and his fellow anti-vaxxers have never been able to come up with one single peer-reviewed study which has proven there is even a remote link between autism and the MMR vaccine?  They have a lot of excuses, but at the end of the day they are still left with zero science.

So this leads us to the next point - the fact that Wakefield actually doctored information and altered facts about his patients.  Wakefield even went so far as to make claims about these children which have now been proven to be factually incorrect such as his claim that the children were "normal" prior to receiving the MMR vaccine (whereas in reality at least five of the 12 children referenced had documented developmental problems).

This is the type of person that Mr. Hubbs considers to be an expert... a man which has been proven to falsify data, to manipulate findings, to change information, to distort historical fact, and even one who engaged in unethical behavior by paying children at a birthday party $5 to take samples of their blood.  This is a man who has had his license to practice medicine revoked, his studies retracted, and who has been found of numerous ethical violations and professional misconduct.

The problem here is that Mr. Hubbs' standard list of excuses won't work here.  The fact is Wakefield did originally publish his work, so the conspiracy theory employed by Mr. Hubbs that nobody is ever allowed to publish work which calls into question actions taken by drug companies, "big pharma", or mainstream medicine has been proven to be factually incorrect.

Even though the study has since been proven to be nothing more than a fraud, the simple truth is for over a decade Wakefield's study was published and available, which proves that anyone can publish a study if they actually take the time to perform the research (or in Wakefield's case take the time to fabricate and manipulate the research).  This minor fact seems to go a long way to call into question why Mr. Hubbs' other laundry list of "experts" have never bothered to publish any of their nonsense, but that is an issue we have addressed previously (and likely will do so again in the future).

Another common excuse from the convoluted mind of Mr. Hubbs is that drug companies or medical agencies such as the CDC, FDA, or AMA seek to destroy anyone who dares speak out against them.  However, once again we see this excuse has more holes in it than a box of Cheerios.  First, the particular article cited above was paid for not by a drug company nor a medical agency, but actually by a newspaper (the Sunday Times of London) as well as a television channel (Britain's Channel 4).  Thus unless Mr. Hubbs wishes to add investigative journalists and media outlets to his list of people who are in on this vast conspiracy, there really isn't anything to this one.

The facts continue to pile up against Wakefield, and against conspiracy theorists like Mr. Hubbs, although perhaps the most damning statements and admission of guilt comes from Mr. Hubbs himself:

"noone [sic] said anything about that the [...] studies PROVED a vaccine link to autism.” ~Lowell Hubbs

Therein lies the problem.  While Mr. Hubbs is out there attempting to defend snakeoil salesman and ethically challenged "experts", he ignores the true goal of science which is to find proof.  This all just goes to show that in a mind of a conspiracy theorist it isn't important to determine fact or to discover the truth.  No - in the mind of a conspiracy theorist the one and only true goal is to challenge authority and deny reality.

Is it any wonder why anti-vaxxers like Mr. Hubbs can never be taken seriously?

Quack of the Day: "Dr" Andrew Moulden

Andrew Moulden is a pretty common name tossed around within vaccine conspiracy circles, and Mr. Hubbs is no exception. Again and again, Mr. Hubbs cites the work (I dare not use the term research to describe it) of Mr. Moulden and even though Moulden has yet to actually prove any of his claims, that really doesn't matter in the mind of a medical conspiracy theorist.

So who is this Moulden guy and why is he so important? Why is he so frequently cited by Mr. Hubbs and other vaccine conspiracy theorists alongside Sherri Tenpenny, Andrew Wakefield, Russell Blaylock, or the ever-present references to the infamous whale.to website?

Well the short version is that Moulden claims he knows the root cause of autism, which as a coincidence just so happens to be related to vaccines. He also used his websites (the now defunct www.brainguardmd.com, www.AMassNetwork.com, www.JustGetUsIn.com, and www.brain-guard.com among numerous others) to sell nutritional supplements, pamplets, DVDs, and tickets to his various seminars.

Where have we heard this story before?

Of course reality soon caught up with Moulden and people started looking beyond the clever marketing, the scare tactics, and the silly YouTube videos. This resulted in Moulden pulling his website which was likely a result of investigations into his claims which found them totally without merit, and due in part because he was using his website to sell diagnoses of brain disorders remotely. The basic premise was Moulden would ask people to send in videos (or sometimes just photographs) of their children looking at the camera, and based upon eye movements he would diagnose what is wrong with them... for a hefty fee of course. He called this idiocy his "BrainGuard" process, and in order to even submit a video or photographs he required people to hold a "AMassNetwork IMAN-12" membership - which required a paid fee as well.

Not only did Moulden profess he could diagnose autism or brain disorders via photographs, he even went so far as to claim he could diagnose "some learning and language disabilities" from seeing photographs alone! Even to a layperson this is simply unbelievable as a photograph doesn't tell you anything about the cognitive abilities of a person, but of course to a vaccine conspiracy theorist such as Mr. Hubbs it all makes perfect sense.

Granted anyone who has ever had a photograph taken where they were purposefully crossing their eyes or making a funny face I guess this would be enough to convince Moulden that they have a brain disorder - but back here on the real world where actual diagnoses takes more than a photograph this type of snakeoil simply will not do. Now I fully realize it is hard to believe that anyone (even a self-proclaimed expert such as Moulden) would actually make such wild claims, but thankfully we have his own words to quote to remove any doubt:

"...we are able to diagnose vaccine injury (including autism and aspergers and Gulf War Syndrome and Gardasil adversity and some learning and language disabilities..from photos alone - conformed by video.. and we are right, on the photos alone, 80% of teh [sic] time..add the video - we hit >95% to 100% accuracy)." ~Andrew Moulden

And taken directly from his website (before it was removed) is the entire sales pitch:

"BrainGuard provides digital video and photograph based "video microscopy" to monitor and assess for clinically silent brain damage that causes, or has caused, neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, autism-spectrum, pervasive developmental disorders, Asperger's syndrome, sudden infant death, infantile paralysis, Post vaccine syndromes (Gulf War syndrome, Guillain Barre syndrome, cognitive impairment...), seizure disorders, ischemic strokes, specific learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorders.

AMassNetwork IMAN-12 Membership available at (www.AMassNetwork.com). You must have an AMassNetwork membership subscription in order Access/receive BrainGuard services and solutions.

Brain damage, especially vaccine and infectious disease induced brain damage, is clinically silent. Our proprietary techniques and technologies provide the means and methods to assess and monitor the integrity of the central nervous system from birth to adulthood with a non-invasive, cost-efficient, home based, video/photo solution for monitoring the integrity of the human brain across neurodevelopment.

There are three steps:

Capture a 30 second video clip of the BrainGuard client - full face in view, eyes open, awake, alert, and responding/attending to the videographer.

Login or Register with BrainGuardMD.com

Follow instructions on how to upload your video/pictures to our secure servers.

What Comes Next:

We will process your submissions and inform, via email to your "IMAM-12" account the results of your BrainGuard scan(s). If we detect the MASS response (a medical emergency) one of our staff will contact you directly with what to do next.

If you are looking for proof causation of vaccine induced brain damage (including autism, Gulf War syndrome, Wrongful death, brain impairment...) - BrainGuard can provide these services and all inquiries."

Now obviously you couldn't make this up even if you were skilled at sarcasm, but this is word for word what Moulden had on his website. So basically Moulden claims he can diagnose a veritable plethora of brain disorders via photographs and/or video without so much as a basic collection of vitals, any medical history whatsoever, or even the most basic of basic interviews or clinical exams... and this is the type of guy the anti-vaccine crowd wants to use as a trusted expert?

Of course charging hundreds or even thousands of dollars to diagnose a medical condition via the Internet is only one part of the scam. Once the "patient" was diagnosed by Moulden as suffering from Moulden Anoxia Spectrum Syndromes or "M.A.S.S" (obviously a term invented by Moulden to serve as a catch-all for anything and everything that he found suspect), he would then sell them his miracle "Brainguard" formula for the low-low price of $47.00 for a one month supply - plus shipping and handling of course.

There is only one major problem here. Not a single one of Moulden's theories or techniques was ever proven. Not only that, but his miracle "Brainguard" supplements were just that... nutritional supplements. They were not pharmeceuticals or legitimate medicine and they even had to carry a disclaimer on them that they weren't intended to treat or cure or prevent any disease etc, thus Moulden himself even understood they were nothing but snakeoil because he never bothered to even attempt to publish a single peer-reviewed paper nor did he ever perform a single clinical trial in any attempt to back up his claims or provide support to this theories.

Now obviously if you are a fellow vaccine conspiracy theorist like Mr. Hubbs you will continue to defend Moulden's work and claim that the FDA or CDC or AMA or whatever other three lettered medical body is corrupt and has done what it can to silence Moulden. The only problem with that is that Moulden himself is Canadian, and as such the US government and American medical governing bodies don't have any control over Moulden's claims unless he tries to practice medicine in the US.

This just goes to show that a quack in America is a quack in any other part of the world as well, even when they are far outside the jurisdiction of the American government.  However even with all of this said, even with the above mentioned facts that cannot be disputed, the biggest problem with Andrew Moulden is probably the fact that the man doesn't hold a license to practice medicine, and thus any attempt by him to diagnose patients (either in person or via the Internet) would be illegal.

I know it can be confusing as Mr. Hubbs and other vaccination conspiracy theorists continually refer to Moulden as "Dr. Moulden", but the truth is Moulden doesn't hold an actual license to practice medicine in either Canada or the US (or anywhere else for that matter).  Moulden does hold a doctorate that much is true, but his PhD is actually in psychology.  He earned that degree in 1999 and then claims to have earned his "doctor of medicine" degree a year later from an entirely different school atlhough that seems highly suspect and is unverified.

The fact is, Moulden never finished his residency program (which was in psychiatry not any field related to vaccines by the way), and he has NEVER been licensed to practice medicine - anywhere.  Don't take my word for it though, just read it directly from The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (the one and only official medical licensing body of Ontario) which clearly shows he attempted to get through a residency program, but after eight years of trying he was only able to reach the third year (the residency requires five years to complete), so he must have finally given up and decided there was more money to be made by selling DVDs and speaking at seminars than there was by actually practicing legitimate medicine.

So having a medical degree or being able to call yourself a doctor just isn't enough.  Earning a PhD does grant you the right to call yourself a doctor, but someone who fails to complete an actual medical residency program is no more able to treat patients or prescribe treatments as someone who earned their PhD in Economics or History.  Although in reality you might have better luck getting medical advice from a doctor of history rather than someone like Moulden who pretends to be a legitimate doctor.

When you boil it all down and examine the facts, Moulden is just like all of the other "experts" that are all too often cited by antivaxxers like Mr. Hubbs.  He is a great pitchman and tells a good story, and he does have a certain way of convincing people to buy his products (the Billy Mays of the vaccine world if you will) but at the end of the day when you peel back the curtain there not only is no science to support it, but you find the velvet curtain is actually just cheap polyester... an imitation meant to look like the real thing from afar.

Will any of this stop ignorant vaccine conspiracy theorists like Mr. Hubbs from continuing to cite "Dr. Moulden" on their blogs and websites?  Probably not, because if I have learned anything about these types of people it is that even when they are proven wrong and even after you have discredited every single one of their claims or experts, they still refuse to acknowledge the world around them.  We have seen it with "Dr" Tenpenny, we have seen it with "Dr" Wakefield, we have seen it with "Dr" Moulden, and I'm sure we will see it many times in the future as well.

Say what you will about people like Mr. Hubbs, but it is more than obvious that he is a very slow learner.