Remember SaneVax?
Before I encountered SaneVax, I hadn't realized that anti-vaccine groups specialized, at least not to this degree. Oh, sure, I remember that Generation Rescue used to specialize in fear mongering about mercury in vaccines, at least before it changed its tune to "too many, too soon." However, SaneVax takes anti-vaccine specialization to another level with its laser-like focus on the HPV vaccine as the source of all evil.
Most recently, SaneVax made a name for itself with a gambit so outrageously stupid, so unrelentingly brain dead, that it amazed even me, and I've seen a lot of outrageously stupid and brain-dead anti-vaccine silliness. I'm referring to their amazingly hilarious outrage at having found HPV DNA in Gardasil. The problem, though, is that it wasn't really entirely clear that SaneVax had found anything of the sort. If it had, it was a rather meaningless discovery and didn't prove that Merck was lying. The most generous interpretation of SaneVax's "finding" was that perhaps the pathologist who had been working to detect HPV DNA in Gardasil had actually managed to find a much more sensitive method of PCR that managed to detect HPV DNA that couldn't be detected before. The less charitable (and more likely to be accurate) interpretation is that it was all a false positive or due to a problem with technique. PCR is, after all, very sensitive, and the sort of nested PCR that was apparently used to produce SaneVax's astounding revelation is even more sensitive than standard PCR.
In any case, the man behind this fear mongering--or at least the man working with SaneVax to provide it the material to use to engage in such fear mongering--is a pathologist named Dr. Sin Hang Lee. Apparently, Dr. Lee has also been having problems. Lots of problems. So many problems that SaneVax has decided to try to help him out. Last week, SaneVax issued a press release complaining that Dr. Lee is being "persecuted" for his association with the organization:
Because of studies submitted to the FDA prior to approval of HPV vaccines indicating there was a substantial increase in pre-cancerous lesions for those who had already been exposed to vaccine-relevant genotypes of HPV before they were injected with Gardasil® or Cervarix®, Dr. Lee agreed to offer his cutting edge technology HPV genotyping test to medical consumers throughout the United States to protect those who were considering HPV vaccination so they could avoid that potential risk. The decision was announced to the public via a BusinessWire Press Release on 20 September 2010.In the fall of 2010, without Dr. Lee's knowledge or having an opportunity to defend himself, the newly appointed Chairperson of the Pathology Department at Milford Hospital informed the hospital's credentialing committee that she was not recommending for approval or supporting Dr. Lee's application for renewal of his medical staff privileges. For those who do not know, medical staff privileges at a hospital are a major asset to a medical doctor and they establish the relationship that permits among other things, the doctor to practice at a particular hospital. When medical staff privileges at a hospital are revoked or not renewed, the doctor no longer has permission to practice at the hospital or use its facilities. The non-renewal of the medical staff privileges, may also adversely affect the doctor's license to practice medicine. In Dr. Lee's case, the non-renewal of his medical staff privileges at Milford Hospital is under appeal.
Although Dr. Lee still maintains his medical staff privileges during the appeal, his position as director of the laboratory was summarily terminated along with his employment relationship at Milford Hospital on December 13, 2010 and he has been prevented from using the hospital's laboratory to continue his testing and research there ever since that time. A lawsuit addressing the wrongful termination claim has been brought against the Milford Hospital.
Well, isn't that interesting? Funny how SaneVax didn't mention this when it issued its previous press release announcing that it had found HPV DNA in Gardasil. That was only a month or so ago, and apparently Dr. Lee had been canned as the director of the diagnostic laboratory at Milford Hospital over 9 months prior. Interesting. At least I think it is. Certainly, one wonders why SaneVax has issued this press release now, rather than back in December, when Dr. Lee lost his leadership position. In any case, it's a rough world out there; if a new chair comes in, not so infrequently, a major housecleaning will occur shortly thereafter, as the new chair tries to put a mark on the place and take the department in a different direction.
Personally, if I were taking over a department and I found someone like Dr. Lee consorting with a loony anti-vaccine group like SaneVax and publishing dubious papers designed to cause unjustified fear of the vaccine, I'd can his ass too. No apologies. Such dubious science would not be tolerated in any department I ran, which makes me think that this new pathology chair is a person after my own heart.
SaneVax concludes:
It is the belief of the SANE Vax team that Dr. Lee has come under fire because of his association with and support for the SANE Vax mission. Therefore, the SANE Vax Board of Directors is beginning a campaign to let those in charge of deciding Dr. Lee's fate know that we, along with medical consumers around the world, support Dr. Lee.
I certainly hope that the reason Dr. Lee has come under fire is because of his association with and support for the SaneVax mission. A hospital based on providing the best science-baed health care to patients should not continue to employ physicians who support anti-vaccine propaganda groups like SaneVax.
So what is SaneVax doing to support Dr. Lee? It's urging a letter-writing campaign, with canned text that reads:
I am contacting you to ask that you take immediate steps to reinstate Dr. Sin Hang Lee as director of the Milford Medical Laboratory, an affiliate of Milford Hospital
in Milford, Connecticut, and grant him the resources he needs to continue contamination analysis and testing of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, and the adverse reactions reported by young women who have been given this vaccine.Access to these resources by Dr. Lee will allow him to continue his research, test the numerous samples of Gardasil that have already been sent to him for analysis and allow him to complete a report he has been commissioned to submit on his findings with S.A.N.E. Vax Inc., a consumer watchdog organization monitoring patient reaction to the Gardasil vaccine.
I believe anything less than full reinstatement of Dr. Lee's former status will effectively deprive medical consumers around the world of information critical to their ability to make an informed choice with respect to HPV vaccinations.
Two can play this game. My suggestion? I suggest that the science-based community start a letter-writing campaign to the same three people. Send them this link, along with a letter of approval? If the cranks can play this game, so can we.
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"A man after my heart"
The chair is a woman.
Anyway, here's another fun vaccine-related thing I found on WantToKnow.info:
http://www.wanttoknow.info/health/funvax_fundamentalist_vaccine
All I can say is... I hope it's true. LOL.
Thank you Mank - I was cringing when I saw the "his" and "man" (that may have to do with the fact that I am in the middle of a huge review exercise and we are asked not to mention gender, or, more likely, with the fact that I am a woman and resent the "automatic" assumption that a head of dept is male.
And yes, this could not have happened to a nicer guy.
Mank, that is a wonderful find. A true treasurehouse of conspiracy nutjobbery. I thank you for the joy it has brought me this dreary morn.
Orac, you naughty boy, your male privilege is showing when you write "man after my own heart". Tuck it away at once. Otherwise: great post. I love it when a karma comes together (chews on cigar)
"if a new chair comes in, not so infrequently, a major housecleaning will occur shortly thereafter"
It can't be just that. Sure, a new chair might encourage some department members to look for work elsewhere. But revocation of privileges can't be done without cause. Usually the hospital is quiet about the reason, but there has to be some substantive reason.
The reason could be as simple as Dr. Lee abusing his position as director of the laboratory to run these non-validated tests. Or perhaps he spend hospital money doing these tests. That would be my first guess, but obviously I have no inside knowledge.
Oh look! It says here right on the label!
Access to these resources by Dr. Lee will allow him to continue his research, test the numerous samples of Gardasil that have already been sent to him for analysis and allow him to complete a report he has been commissioned to submit on his findings with S.A.N.E. Vax Inc., a consumer watchdog organization monitoring patient reaction to the Gardasil vaccine.
They think the hospital should give Dr Lee his job back so he can use its resources to perform non-hospital work that a non-hospital customer has paid him for?
That's gonna be persuasive.
Someone commenting under the previous article (a Mr. Pink, I believe) said that the aluminum adjuvant binding to the DNA prevented it from being detected by normal PCR tests. If this is indeed what Dr. Lee is claiming, then he might also be claiming that there's lots of DNA in Gardasil, but it's invisible to everyone's tests but his own. You'd think that if prevented the DNA from being detected by PCR it would also prevent it from being expressed by any cells it made it's way into, but Mr. Pink responded that, for all we know, there might be some unknown biochemical process in cells that removes the adjuvant from the DNA, so just to be safe we ought to have HPV vaccines tested with Dr. Lee's proprietary test.
Like perhaps he was actually trying to prevent a patient from being vaccinated?
Isn't news speculation fun? LOL
Aside from the possibility of misused hospital resources, Dr Lee should be anxious to share his methods in the advancement of science, right? If he really has a new PCR protocol, it only makes good moral and scientific sense for him to share and push for replication by an independent lab.
Our own letter writing campaign might be a good idea. Or, we could just let the S.A.N.E. Vax folks do the work for us. I mean really, I don't think their canned letter will be received quite the way they think it will. Even if you disregard the fact that they are an anti-science organization, asking to reinstate someone for the sole reason of having that person do work that has nothing to do with the person's job responsibilities, is probably not the best approach to take. They are basically saying, "Hey, you need to reinstate this guy so he can keep doing work for us on your time and budget."
Matthew: " invisible to everyone's tests but his own"
Doesn't that just say it all? This theme is so rife amongst woo-meisters and pseudo-scientists: they have special abilities, methods, or products that trump consensus every time. Whether they portray themselves as Brave Maverick-y Scientific Revolutionaries Throwing Off the Chains of Institutional Oppression or hint at powers "not of this earth". i.e. spirit, god, or psi ( not aliens- altho' with this crowd,I wouldn't be surprised in the least) they know *better*.
Well, sometimes people DO come up with tests that can measure things prior tests can't. Of course, when it's legitimate, they then proceed to publish the work and everyone can reproduce it.
It's not the "I can do things others can't" that's the real signature of a pseudoscientist. It's "I can do things others can't [i]and I won't tell you how I do it[/i]."
Exactly! A relevant example is the testing done on the Rotavirus vaccines and PCV. It was replicated and published, you know, Da Man's way.
I mentioned this SaneVax campaign on yesterday's blog. I actually found their press release on the AoA website, where the "key" people they are targeting are provided:
If you wish to join us to show your support for Dr. Lee and his ability to continue his much needed research, please take a few minutes to send the following three emails to the authorities in charge of determining Dr. Leeâs fate:
#1 Dr. Joe Pellacia, President and CEO, Milford Medical Hospital
#2 Commissioner Jewel Mullen, Connecticut Department of Public Health
#3 Mr. George Jepsen, Attorney General State of Connecticut
I'm undecided if I will pursue these individuals as I believe that the folks at SaneVax and at AoA will do a "great job" of "convincing" these three individuals of the merits of keeping Lee out of Milford Hospital.
I also posted on Orac's prior blog about the Lyme Disease PCR serum blood test that was developed by Dr. Lee and available through a mail order request. Now that's something I really know about. Testing for the presence of the Lyme bacterium via a serum PCR test is not considered a valid test...not accepted by the CDC to meet the surveillance case definition and is considered just as invalid as the bogus Lyme urine antigen test.
Richard Blumenthal the former Attorney General in the State of Connecticut misused his office and bought charges against the IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America) to force them to change their treatment guidelines which is the gold standard for treating physicians and the basis of the CDC surveillance case criteria. Blumenthal was appeasing the self labeled "Lymies" and their LLMDs (Lyme Literate Medical Doctors) in order to get health insurance coverage for extensive IV treatment for "chronic Lyme disease". The IDSA eventually prevailed...their "gold standard" treatment guideline remain the same and the CDC case criteria still does not accept PCR serum blood tests as valid.
I'm positive that the three people targeted by SaneVax and AoA for a deluge of letters and emails are aware of this Lyme disease PCR serum test brouhaha and how the IDSA treatment guidelines remain the gold standard and the CDC case surveillance definition is unchanged.
Go to the AoA website to see the collective paranoia of the posters there...they are a hoot.
The whole Anti-Vax movement baffles me. I recently came across a great site called The Jenny McCarthy Body Count http://jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html It's definitely worth a look although, the site contains several VERY disturbing pictures of unvaccinated children who are afflicted with the diseases that could have been prevented had they only been inocculated. These pictures are not on the home page and when the link is chosen, it gives you ample warning of what you're about to see. There's a brief anti-vaccine history as well as the current vaccine schedule. I consider it part of my job as a mother to protect my girls against known dangers and preventable diseases falls squarely in that catagory.
@ Verik: The IAC (Immunization Action Coalition) has a complete "Image Library" of people afflicted with vaccine-preventable diseases. It is not for the faint of heart, but does provide actual pictures of kids and adults who were not vaccinated against these diseases:
IAC Image Library
Sorry for not linking the site, but you can "google" it.
Good for you for getting your girls fully immunized.
(While I'm speaking more in general terms about *personality*)- woo-meisters seem to want it both ways- recognition by the general public without following the general rules that apply to regular people. Thus, applying to journals run by the Man ( the Establishment) isn't necessary, they'll have "their own" journals. Replication of result? Pshaw, says AW! Fits in with Narcissism as a personality style. A prof over at UConn dubs many pseudo-scientists** being so entitled.
**( HIV/AIDS denialists).
Something way funnier is the beastality, I mean immunology Dr., at the CDC
@jen,
Point? Or pointless as usual.
Jen - creeps working for the CDC does not invalidate everything they've said. Really. Does that Pam Am guy being arrested for something similar mean airplanes can't really fly?
"Something way funnier is the beastality, I mean immunology Dr., at the CDC"
Jen, if you are going to post a pointless comment...please learn how to spell bestiality. Let me re-edit that sentence for you:
Something way funnier are the comments at AoA...including the comment about Dr. Lee being "Wakefielded" by the hospital.
Jen, is that something like being "swiftboated"? Or is it indicative of the collective paranoia and collective sub-par intelligence of your colleagues?
Run along now Jen...and make certain you send those letters and bombard the hospital CEO, the Commissioner of Health and the Attorney General with emails.
Also jen, to add to lilady's urging: When you send all those letters, don't forget the caps-lock. Ir really expresses your outrage so well.
In short, Orac doesn't argue that Gardasil actually contain HPV DNA does he?
Because it doesn't. Given how its made, the only "viral" DNA it could have are fragments of the structural genes they cloned into yeast.
So it would be missing the parts required to replicate and actually cause an infection. But then you still don't actually know what an infection is.
Careful CG, Thingy has "super sercret knowledge" that she'll use to tell you what's what! The same kind that Dr. Lee apparently has, you know, alchemy.
Please do not feed the troll.
Slightly OT, but it's depressing to think about how mean-spirited or ignorant (or both) some people have be to refuse their daughters protection from cervical cancer and the other cancers that this vaccine protects them from.
The argument about the vaccine "promoting promiscuity" is just about as low as even a wingnut could sink. Hopefully at least some of those girls will wake up and get the shots when they turn 18, assuming that some other vaccine-preventable disease doesn't get them first.
Please do not feed the delusional disease-promoting troll.
Wonderful example of an ad hominem attack.
CG,
And those "fragments of the structural gene cloned into yeast" you are referring to is the HPV DNA itself, yes or no?
So you wouldn't call it an infection unless it's replicating, yes or no?
Please do not feed delusional disease-promoting troll.
To give you an idea of how repugnant Th1Th2 is, check this thread out: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/06/the_cost_of_the_anti-vaccine_…. Short version: She diagnoses a death from whooping cough as iatrogenic based entirely on a single short video clip. Her entire reasoning seems to be built on a pathological hatred of doctors.
CG shame on you :)
No point in trying to engage with Thing, its clearly deranged and terminally stupid, the damn thing can't even get a joke.
Please do not feed the delusional disease promoting troll.
@ Valerie: The anti-vax crowd is infamous for their stand on all vaccines and incredibly stupid. Small wonder then why Dr. Lee will be added to their rogues gallery of heroes, which is populated by the notorious Andrew Wakefield and the Geier father-son tag team who "treat" kids with autism by chemically castrating them.
This has "Barbara Streisand" written all over it... And I like it.
So Dr.Lee won't divulge his secret method. How about the "HPV DNA" PCR sequences? Anyone sighted those anywhere? Any reason Dr.Lee wouldn't put the sequences of these PCR products out there for all to see?
Just like a simple yes or diseases can do you.
I said I am very predictable. From so is done. No loitering allowed. Haha.
@Sauceress
He's FOS? He made the whole thing up? Even he cannot replicate the same results twice? Take your pick.
I'll take the first, second and third options.
I've sent my thank you note to the administration at Milford.
@GC:
Oh, wow I didn't know that. Okay, that makes it pointless to look for any DNA/RNA in Gardasil.
@Sauceress:
A defender of Dr. Lee in the previous post, a Mr. Pink, offered the possibility that his company which developed it wants to protect it's intellectual property, just like any other medical company, but whatever he uses to do the tests is not patentable, so the only way to protect his intellectual property is to keep it a secret. However, given that his company sells tests to detect HPV genetic material in the blood of girls who got Gardasil, when Gardasil can't contain the genes necessary for replication, makes it a lot more likely that he made the hole thing up.
#25 CG
Indeed.
..and the following is from Norma Erickson, President SANE Vax Inc. to the FDA.
It's lifted from a post at Sane vax titled:
âSANE Vax to FDA: Recombinant HPV DNA found in multiple samples of Gardasilâ
#42
Mathew Cline
However the actual sequences of the PCR products say nothing of the specific protocol used to obtain them.
Thought I'd post this
http://www.robertscottbell.com/government/april-boden-uncovers-big-phar…
Here's an excerpt
But is HPV truly an STD? It occurs in some 80 percent of the human population. It is a harmless wart virus that does not â I repeat â does not âcause cervical cancer,â despite what the pharma propaganda machine tells the sleep-walking public. According to even the mainstreamâs statistics, close to 99 percent of women who ever have the âvirus,â never get the disease! Howâs that for âproof of causation?â
The reality is this: HPV is an entirely common nothing of a virus, which like most âvirusesâ is expressed under cellular stress, and which is suppressed or made completely inactive in a healthy, well-regulated cell.
Cells which are nurtured and fed essential nutrients, like essential fatty acids, selenium and glutathione regularly stop the expression of âviruses.â Cells which are dysregulated, starved for nutrients and intoxicated by chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals and neurotoxins often express viruses. We encourage viral expression in bodies which are starved and abused. And letâs stop to note that the very chemicals and agents which damage cells are precisely those which constitute vaccines!
But the once âhippyâ Governor isnât interested in nutrition, or cellular health, or even that long-forgotten concept of âchoiceâ that Liberals claim to care for with such passion. No, he wants children to be able to âopt inâ to eugenic âscienceâ programs that would make Goebbels blush with pride. Now ten-year-olds can be propagandized at school with the anxiety-provoking lie that they have to be afraid of getting genital cancer from something that almost everybody in the world has at one time or another.
It gets better
But what does âHIV reportingâ have to do with Autism? Or even Gardasil? The answer is â California is broke, and in order to make up its endless budget shortfall, it is selling its children into pharmaceutical slavery.
Hereâs how it works. Beyond asking for Gardasil, children in California can receive handfuls of the FDAâs most deadly drug - AZT â for another phony diagnosis â that of âHIV positive.â
AZT is a bone-killing, blood-suppressing, liver-destroying drug, recycled as a failed chemotherapy agent into the gay community in the late 1980s. It was given to gay men who were told they were âHIV positive,â but it did not help. The shameful and oft-hidden reality is that the death toll attributed to âHIVâ in the 1990s was a direct result of AZT. Hundreds of thousands of gay men took high doses of the drug, though they were not sick, and died a short, agonizing death as a direct result.
Off topic, and with no evidence.
Sorry, I didn't read carefully. Seriously, there are people who believe that?
Seeing as a virus has no metabolism of its own and so needs to hijack the cellular structure and metabolism of a host cell in order to translate its viral genes and replicate...
Still I'm sure Robert Scott Bell's ignorant little rant sounds, not only feasable, but unquestionable to the ill informed and the gullible.
I mean really, I don't think their canned letter will be received quite the way they think it will. Even if you disregard the fact that they are an anti-science organization, asking to reinstate someone for the sole reason of having that person do work that has nothing to do with the person's job responsibilities, is probably not the best approach to take.
wedding dresses...we are not interested in your spam.
Robert Scott Bell has his own reality which is totally devoid of rational thought. To think this dumbbell is one of the favorites of Libertarians and the Tea Baggers is a chilling thought.
BTW, I caught last night's Republican debate and it was the best show in town between Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, none of whom has an understanding of the economy, the national debt and the tax structure. I can't wait for the SNL spoof on all the candidates.
I don't think it's possible to spoof the Tea Baggers. I keep wondering if one of them will decide that fire is good and natural to life, and if a little is good, a lot is better! Why else would governments spend large amounts of money on fire departments if only to keep down the masses?
Who the hell decided to call them tea baggers? Do the tea baggers refer to themselves as tea baggers?? Do they friggin know what tea bagging is ???
Sorry laughing too much, I keep seeing Mitt Romney flopping his balls on a sleeping Rick Perrys forehead but then Romney is not a tea bagger, or is he? Sarah Palin is though. Yep that mental picture is even funnier. US politics is hilarious.
As well as in in in bodies which are not starved and abused. Pretty much a description of anti-vaxxers. This one case where taking a quote out context improves things.
@ delurked: Thank you for clarifying what "tea bagging" is...however I didn't using the "verb" but the "noun" to describe a political movement.
As you know, the original Boston Tea Party was a revolt against the oppressive tea tax imposed upon American colonists by the British parliament.
This contemporary "Tea Party" movement had its genesis on February 19, 2009 when CNBC's Rick Santelli went on a rant while on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before that day's opening of the stock market. I happened to have the TV on and actually saw it in real time and it is available to view on You Tube:
CNBC's Rick Santelli Chicago Tea Party
This particular video is very popular amongst far-to-the-right Republicans and their Heritage Foundation think tank.
Thereafter, local protests in the Red states started appearing and the protesters stapled tea bags on their hats. So in reply to your question:
Who the hell decided to call them tea baggers? Do the tea baggers refer to themselves as tea baggers? The answer is they used tea bags to define their "movement" and they first referred to themselves as the "Tea Party".
(I suspect that few or none of the members of the Tea Party know what tea bagging is.)
"Wedding dresses" is a bot, so doesn't care.
Finding "HPV DNA" in the vaccine is not that surprising and should not raise eyebrows per se. It is after all a vaccine made using recombinant DNA technology. Therefore, finding fragments of the genes that encode the proteins in the vaccine is quite possible, if one uses sensitive enough methods.
The point, though, is that gene fragments does not equal infectious virus. That point of course is lost on the antivax crowd.
@54 lilady
If I'm remembering correctly, Tea Party members initially often referred to themselves as "teabaggers", partly because the early movement sometimes wore tea bags on their hats, or mailed tea bags to target politicians. Then the word got out about the other meaning, and suddenly they got all huffy about it. I think you're right that few know what that meaning is, but most of them now know it's "something bad!"