Denialism Can Be Illegal!

You’ve probably heard that Wesley Snipes received the maximum sentence for not paying his taxes–3 years based on 3 misdemeanor violations. His “advisors,” tax fraud denialists with crackpot legal theories received 10 for conspiring to defraud the government of tax revenue:

Snipes’ co-defendants in the case,Lake County anti-tax guru Eddie Ray Kahn, 64, and tax preparer Douglas P. Rosile, 59, face up to 10 years in prison. Both were convicted of conspiracy and tax fraud for their work with American Rights Litigators and Guiding Light of God Ministries, two Lake County-based “tax-fraud” mills.

Now it’s official–Gary Null, HIV Denialist and Crank

Apparently, Gary is now a documentary filmmaker, and officially an HIV Denialist. What a pity. So many people like him. It’s a shame he has to go from being wrong to being wrong and dangerous.

Check out this beauty from his website (edited for space):

Documentary filmmaker (sic) and health expert Gary Null (sic-er), Ph.D.(sic trifecta!), features never before seen footage from around the world, especially in Africa, in his new film “AIDS, Inc.”. This is the first film on AIDS to bring together the most compelling arguments of dissident scientists, physicians and public health advocates.

In “AIDS, Inc.”, Dr. Null shows how greed and corruption have prevented any real progress in fighting the epidemic and its underlying causes. The film challenges the notion that AIDS or HIV is an African monkey virus that is spread sexually and can be “treated” with harmful drugs. It considers the common underlying conditions of the epidemic, such as malnutrition, unclean water, poverty, illness such as TB, malaria and dysentery, and poor lifestyle choices.

Help give a voice to over 4,000 dissident scientists, physicians and public health advocates, and redirect the war on AIDS. We offer letters which can be adapted and sent to your legislators. Please be sure to include your name and address on the letters.

Vey is meir! Gevalt, gevalt! I mean, the coffee enemas were kind of funny, the hydrogen peroxide was just plain stupid, and the chelation therapy was kind of sad. This is downright dangerous.

In “AIDS, Inc. Dr. (sic) Null shows how greed and corruption have prevented any real progress in fighting the epidemic and its underlying causes. The film challenges the notion that AIDS or HIV is an African monkey virus that is spread sexually and can be “treated” with harmful drugs.

HIV Denialism is a huge topic, which has been addressed at my old place a few times, and here quite often.

This should really be the final straw in the discrediting of Null. Any PBS station that still uses his infomercials during their pledge drives should stop. If they don’t, viewers should consider sending their money to some other worthy cause, and tell the station why.

World Malaria Day

buttonThe World Health Organization has declared today World Malaria Day. Why “World Malaria Day”?

World Malaria Day is an opportunity for malaria-free countries to learn about the devastating consequences of the disease and for new donors to join a global partnership against malaria.

World-wide there are about a million deaths yearly from malaria, mostly in young children. Here in the States, we almost never see malaria. That wasn’t always true. When Franklin Roosevelt founded the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933, malaria affected about 30% of the population in the TVA region. With the use of pesticides and drainage of wetlands, malaria was effectively eliminated in the U.S. by 1951. DDT was used extensively—it was sprayed judiciously, on the interior walls of rural houses, and not-so judiciously on breeding grounds. DDT can be a very effective tool to combat malaria. When malarial mosquitoes bite, they then rest on the interior wall of the victim’s house. It takes only a small amount of DDT on the wall to kill these mosquitoes. (DDT later became an environmental disaster when it was used in a non-judicious fashion on crops. For more on the interesting and controversial topic of malaria and DDT, see this).

A very effective and affordable tool to prevent and control malaria is the insecticide-treated bed net. These nets have actually been shown to decrease all-cause mortality where they have been studied.

Malaria is nasty. Healthy adults who contract it often suffer terrible relapsing fevers. But many victims, especially children and pregnant women, suffer much more severe disease, including cerebral malaria, severe hemolytic anemia, liver and kidney failure, and death.

Several years ago, I admitted a businessman to the hospital. He was terribly ill—fevers, jaundice, kidney failure, low blood pressure. He reported having traveled to West Africa on business, and he did not take malarial prophylaxis. He had classic “blackwater fever“. It took all the resources of a modern American intensive care unit to pull him through, and just barely. Imagine the same patient thousands of times over in Africa.

World Malaria Day is an opportunity for those of us in the malaria-free world to learn about how to help stop one of the worlds largest killers of children. Link it, blog it, make some noise.

GM foods cause delusions

Here at denialism blog, we’ve written a bit about so-called Morgellons syndrome. Every once in a while, when I tire of sanity, I scan the news for more Morgellons madness, and when it comes to madness, Mike Adams never disappoints.

In his latest foray into paranoid idiocy, he tries to link this non-existent illness to genetically modified (GM) foods. And what abuses of logic does he use to create this connection?

He starts with the classic “begging the question“. The entire first section of his article simply assumes that Morgellons exists as some sort of unique pathology. On what does he base his assumption? On two things: anecdotal reports, and the fact that it is being studied by the CDC (at the urging of “interest groups”). The CDC study has not been completed, and there is still no reason to think that Morgellons is anything other than delusions of parasitosis in a shiny new polyester suit. That doesn’t stop him from creating broad, unsupported connections.

He quotes a noted fake expert, Randy Wymore, who has spent a great deal of time studying Morgellons—at least, he says he has. He hasn’t really published anything to support his claims. Then he quotes many un-notable people who have supposedly analyzed Morgellons “fibers”—-this has never been done systematically and published. All that exists is anecdotal reports of individual “researchers”. According to some of these folks, they have found Agrobacterium DNA in these fibers.

And then he stops.

Because I’m not a paranoid conspiracy theorist, I had to look this up. Apparently, Agrobacterium is a favorite bugaboo of the wackier wing of the anti-GM food movement.

This is a pretty classic piece. In trying to link two somewhat wacky ideas, a crank uses smoke and mirrors to distract from the fact that he has no logical argument. But the reason to look for logical fallacies in an argument is not to immediately invalidate an idea—it is to evaluate whether or not a particular argument is prima facie invalid. Might there be a link between this new form of delusional parasitosis and GM foods? Sure, I suppose it’s not beyond the realm of the possible. The point is that his reasoning does not support his assertion.

When reading about assertions that seem a little strange, it pays to parse the argument for logical fallacies and denialist tactics.

That is, if you are interested in the truth.

Vox Day’s Crazy Dad Threatens Judge’s Life

Dude. If you thought Vox Day (the guy with the minge haircut) was crazy, check out what his crazy dad has been up too since he fast captured last year:

The trial of millionaire tax protester Robert Beale turned bizarre even before jury selection began Monday as the prosecutor announced the arrest of four of Beale’s supporters for conspiring with Beale to disrupt the proceedings and intimidate the judge.

“God … wants me to take the judge out, that’s what he wants me to do,” Beale allegedly told his common-law wife, according to a new criminal complaint filed against him and the four associates.

“Once I take down Ann Montgomery, no judge in the whole court will have anything to do with me,” Beale said in a tape-recorded phone call from jail.

Beale is a “member/leader” of what’s known among certain groups as an extra-judicial “Common Law Court” in Ramsey County. The lengthy title of this specific “court” indicates a religious undercurrent, including a reference to “a superior court for the People, original jurisdiction under Almighty Yahweh exclusive jurisdiction in and for confederation-government United States of America.”

These are the guys behind world nut daily folks, just in case you were wondering why it’s such a source of insanity.

And what’s with people not paying their taxes? Wesley Snipe fell for this nonsense conspiracy that the income tax is illegal as well. People, pay your taxes! I’ve heard about this nonsense before that the amendment was never ratified, yada yada. It’s constitutional, if you don’t pay your taxes you will go to jail, get over it.

H/T Theresa.

Al Qaeda is apparently irritated by 9/11 conspiracy cranks too

Here’s one of the more amusing news stories I’ve seen. Apparently Al Qaeda is irritated with Ahmadinejad’s 9/11 conspiracy theories. It turns out the people who committed the atrocity are quite proud of it, and don’t want people to forget it.

Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a new audiotape Tuesday accusing Shiite Iran of spreading a conspiracy theory about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks to discredit the power of the Sunni terrorist network.

Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy, has stepped up his denunciations of Iran in recent messages in part to depict al-Qaida as the Arabs’ top defense against the Persian nation’s rising power in the Middle East.

The increasing enmity toward Iran is a notable change of rhetoric from al-Zawahri, who in the past rarely mentioned the country — apparently in a hopes he would be able to forge some sort of understanding with Tehran based on their common rivalry with the United States. Iran has long sought to distance itself from al-Qaida.

One questioner asked about the theory that has circulated in the Middle East and elsewhere that Israel was behind the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Al-Zawahri accused Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television of starting the rumor. “The purpose of this lie is clear — (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it,” he said.

“Iran’s aim here is also clear — to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he added. Iran cooperated with the United States in the 2001 U.S. assault on Afghanistan that toppled al-Qaida’s allies, the Taliban.

Al-Qaida has previously claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Maybe next time we can ask them about what they think of the 9/11 troofer movement.

Update – Life imitates parody:


9/11 Conspiracy Theories ‘Ridiculous,’ Al Qaeda Says

My favorite line is “Talking to you is like talking to a goat!”

Thank’s SIS

Do I have clients or patients?

One of my duties involves teaching nurse practitioner students. Nursing is quite different from medicine, and many of the linguistic markers of nursing differ significantly from medicine. As more physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners enter the primary care world there will be a bit of a culture clash. For instance, my NP students often refer to a physical exam as an “assessment”, a misnomer which I do not allow them to use with me. Assessments come after you have spoken to and examined a patient. Another difference is in the common use of “client” in referring to patients. This debate seems to have originated in the late 80s or early 90s, and perhaps in psychiatry, but it spread rapidly. Its growth also coincided with the growth of HMOs and other managed care.

Language means something beyond the words themselves, and what we call the people we care for matters.

A patient is literally a “sufferer”, whereas a client is more literally a “customer” (although its roots in Latin refer to a much more specific relationship).

There are some pretty serious implications to calling a patient a “client”. A patient is someone who is suffering, and to whom we have an obligation to help. We are expected to put their needs above our own as much as is possible.

A client is a customer. We provide a service, they pay a fee.

As paternalism receded in favor of autonomy as a medico-ethical value, many felt that “client” somehow empowered a patient—as they were paying for a service they were on more equal footing with the doctor. As a patient, a doctor is “acting” upon them, rather than partnering with them.

What a load of bullshit.

The first day of my pathology class, Dr. Alexander Templeton looked at us and asked, “Why does a patient come to see you? Come on, don’t be shy. Tell us. Why do they come to see you?” After a few answers taking jabs at common illnesses, he shouted, “No, no, no! They hurt and they want you to make them feel better!”

If someone is a client, I have no obligation to make them feel better. If they come to me a gallbladder problem, my obligation is to order the correct tests, make the correct referrals, and collect my fee. If someone is my patient, I’m obliged to do all of that, plus try to make them feel better.

There have been a few small studies that polled patient to find their preference, but I don’t think this helps—it isn’t a matter of democracy, but humanity.

The authors of these studies listed some important disadvantages to “client”, some of which are:

• Denial that the person has an illness or that certain
treatments (e.g., drug therapy for schizophrenia) may
be important in helping a sick person.
• Denial of access to the sick role, from a failure to
recognize that society allows sick people or patients
certain rights to be cared for, and even denial of access
to these rights.
• Lack of protection (by the use of the term “client”
per se) against the power and dependency that can
exist in a doctor-patient relationship.
• Lack of recognition of the importance of the doctor-
patient relationship and its confidentiality.
• Lack of the special elements of care and compassion
implicit in the term “patient.”

In this tug between paternalism, autonomy, and language, it is important to remember one fact: a patient comes to you for help, and as a doctor or a nurse, you are obliged to help them. Sure, you can’t (and shouldn’t) work for free, but between “client” and not working for free, there is a lot of ground. The most generous spin I can put on this is that a patient is a special subset of client, but that doesn’t work for me. There just isn’t the same compassion in a doctor-client relationship as their is in a doctor-patient relationship.

I never see clients, only patients, and that’s the way I’m going to keep teaching it.

__________
Peter C. Wing, MB, ChB. Patient or client? If in doubt, ask. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 1997;157:287-9.

Domestic violence is bad for your health

ResearchBlogging.orgA new study this month in The Lancet examined the health impact of domestic violence (of women by men). This was a very large WHO-funded study looking at multiple physical and mental health problems in abused vs. non-abused women. This is necessarily an observational study, but appears to be well done, and included a large and diverse sample of women.

A few findings are worth a specific mention.

First, intimate partner violence is very common across cultures, with numbers ranging from 15-71% of women who had ever been partnered with a man.

Next, mental health problems, which were self-reported using standardized measures, were much more common in abused women.

Finally, physical injury, including loss of consciousness, as a result of intimate partner violence was very common (about 22-80% of respondants).

It is impossible to entirely prove causation rather than correlation in this type of study, but the authors have done a good job trying to parse this out in the discussion section.

In their own words:

…violence is not only a substantial health problem by virtue of its direct effects, such as injury and mortality, but also…might contribute to the overall burden of disease as a risk factor for several other serious health problems. The extent to which the associations between partner violence and reported ill health in women are consistent across sites both within and between countries in striking. This observation suggests that experiences of physical or sexual violence, or both, by a partner are associated with increased odds of reports of poor physical and mental health, irrespective of where a woman might live, her cultural or racial background, or the extent to which violence might be tolerated or accepted in her society or by herself. In addition to being a breach of human rights, the high prevalence of partner violence and its associations with poor health–including implied costs in terms of health expenditures and human suffering–highlight the urgent need to address partner violence in national and global health-sector policies and programmes.

This is not the first study done on domestic violence, but the size and quality of the study are a damning. One of the biggest public health problems in the world is domestic violence. They correctly frame this as a human rights issue. If half the human population is suffering mental and physical ill health due to preventable actions by members of the other half, we are doing something terribly wrong.

Despite the lessons of the holocaust, genocides continue. But we recognize them as genocides, and sometimes we actually do the right thing. This study screams out for action. The health and welfare of half the human population is at risk due to violence in their own home. Even if we can’t eradicate domestic violence, we can elevate it to the level of malaria, AIDS, and genocide as one the world’s most urgent public health problems.
_______________
Ellsberg, M., Jansen, H., et al, . (2008). Intimate partner violence and women\’s physical and mental health in the WHO multi-country study on women\’s health and domestic violence: an observational study. The Lancet, 371(9619), 1165-1172.

Expelled as Holocaust denial

I’ve been reluctant to write about Expelled from the perspective of their abuse of the memory of the Holocaust. Ever since I learned that they were going to recycle the ludicrous Darwin-caused-Hitler argument I’ve been sending out emails to asking other experts their take on whether or not it constitutes a serious affront. Now reading Orac’s coverage of Art Caplan’s review of Expelled I think it’s something that needs to be discussed.

Let’s start with very clear statements of fact that are at issue here.

1) The Holocaust was a direct result of racism and anti-Semitic hatred that existed througout Europe for centuries. This was the motivation, this is clear and obvious to non-Holocaust denier.

2) The statement that the Holocaust sprung from the scientific theory of natural selection is absurd, Orac again does the best job of tearing this one apart. Hitler never once mentioned Darwin, rather Koch and Pasteur seemed his scientists of choice in his rhetoric against the Jewish people.

Previously the ADL has attacked those who have made this comparison. Why they have been quiet this time is inexplicable. I’ve sent them multiple missives asking for a similar reply to Expelled but no reply has been forthcoming. This is unfortunate. But I think their previous argument abotu D. James Kennedy’s use of the Holocaust to attack Darwin stands:

:”This is an outrageous and shoddy attempt by D. James Kennedy to trivialize the horrors of the Holocaust. Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people. Trivializing the Holocaust comes from either ignorance at best or, at worst, a mendacious attempt to score political points in the culture war on the backs of six million Jewish victims and others who died at the hands of the Nazis.

So I’m left with the following observations. Stein and the makers of this film have ignored the factual inaccuracy of their claims about Hitler and the Holocaust to present a false-history of how these events happened. They have attempted to score political points against science by shifting the blame for the Holocaust from the racism of the Nazis to an English scientist.

Does this constitute Holocaust denial? It certainly is denialism – it is the promotion of false history to attack science. It also includes the denial of a specific and important facet of the history of the Holocaust – that European racism is what facilitated the Nazi campaign of extermination against the Jews. While it doesn’t minimize the number of victims, or deny the actual events like more classic Holocaust denial, what does one call it when one lies about the reason for the Holocaust? Without the specific anti-Semitic intent I’m not entirely sure this qualifies.

I don’t know. We should ask experts like Deborah Lipstadt what they think. I do know one thing for sure. It is despicable.