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Quacks & quackery
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HealthFraud groups
[Quackwatch (originally Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, Inc.)
is an AMA shill that took over from the
Coordinating Conference on Health Information (CCHI) and the
AMA's
propaganda department called the Committee on Quackery when it had to disband
ref: Lisa. It only promotes and defends Allopathic
medicine while attacking non-Allopathic. Obvious really, but it has been
very effective, eg the Allopaths on Wikipedia add links to
Quackwatch or similar Skeptic organisations all the time, to snipe at someone eg
Viera Scheibner.
Its pages are an excellent document as to the propaganda and mind set of
the AMA, see their pages on
Escharotics or vaccine deaths for
example.
Dr Barrett is a psychiatrist.]
Web: quackwatch.com http://www.chirobase.org/ http://www.naturowatch.org/ (with Kimball C. Atwood, IV, MD.)
See: The Assault On Medical Freedom - by P. Joseph Lisa c 1994 Fluoride the Aging Factor by John Yiamouyiannis (Chapt 17)
http://www.quackpotwatch.org The "quackbuster" operation is a conspiracy. It is a propaganda enterprise, one part crackpot, two parts evil. It's sole purpose is to discredit, and suppress, in an "anything goes" attack mode, what is wrongfully named "Alternative Medicine." It has declared war on reality. The conspirators are acting in the interests of, and are being paid, directly and indirectly, by the "conventional" medical-industrial complex.
Quackwatch (Operated by Stephen Barrett, M.D.) affiliate of the National Council Against Health Fraud. National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) http://www.hcrc.org/ncahf/ncahf.html Committee For The Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) http://www.csicop.org/ (CSICOP Fellow--Dr Barrett) Magazine---Skeptical Inquirer
Dr Victor Herbert, Stephen Barrett and William Jarvis are on the Scientific Board of the American Council on Science and Health. Founded in 1978, this organisation is funded solely by the large pharmaceutical and chemical companies, the AMA and industry supported Foundations.
Barrett vs Rosenthal in November, 2006,
why Wikipedia is a crap source of medical and other info and edited by drug industry camp followers
Quotes
"Several of the professional societies endorsed our group and donated money
to help the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, Inc. The medical
society allowed us to use its office equipment until we obtained our own.
....By working "undercover" using assumed names and box numbers, we've gotten
all sorts of information and publications other groups, like the medical
societies, haven't been able to lay their hands on.
....Really, we're a bunch of guerrillas - we're not a large group, there are
about 40 members, but we're the only such group in the country."
---Barrett (Ref: The Assault On Medical Freedom - by P. Joseph Lisa c 1994)
A glimpse into his character can be gained through his habitual use of words to mean their exact opposite. For example, in an article entitled "Poison Mongers," Dr. Barrett refers to people who are trying to stop the addition of fluoride, a poison, to the water supply as poison-mongers. Now a monger is one who sells something, e.g. a fishmonger is a person who sells fish. Therefore, it is quite evident that a poison-monger is a person who sells poison. Thus, one opposed to having fluoride added to the water supply is exactly the opposite of a poison-monger. The word usage of Dr. Barrett is comparable to the process called "Newspeak" described in George Orwell's 1984, where what is true becomes false and what is false becomes true. Who is Stephen Barrett? by Dr. John Yiamouyiannis
As a matter of fact, the name of the group ended up being the American Oral
Health Institute, incorporated in the state of Ohio on February 19, 1985 as a
not-for-profit corporation. In 1985 and 1988, this organization came out with
the first and second editions of a book, titled Abuse of the Scientific
Literature in an Antifluoridation Pamphlet (ASLAP), edited by Coleen A.
Wulf, Karen F. Hughes, Kathleen G. Smith, and Michael W. Easley. The
215-page second edition of this book attacked the 1982, 1983, 1986, and 1988
editions of a very well referenced Question and Answer pamphlet titled
Lifesavers Guide to Fluoridation by Dr. Yiamouyiannis that was
effectively being used to fight fluoridation.
The preparation of this book was a collaborative effort of 18 federal and
state health officials who were promoting fluoridation. Those with an asterisk
after their name were invited to or attended the University of Michigan on
August 9-10, 1983 symposium discussed above. There was not a single scientist
among them: 10 were dental hygienists (Colleen A. Wulf*, Karen F. Hughes*,
Kathleen G. Smith*, Linda S. Crossett*, Elizabeth King, Sharon Pierce, Ruth
Nowjak-Raymer, Beverly Wargo, Geraldine Wirthman, and Karen Zinner), 2 were
dentists (Michael Easley* and Elizabeth Bernard), 5 had degrees in public
relations, education, psychology, or public health (James Collins*, Taimi M.
Carnahan*, Claire Gelband, Judy Harvey, and Helen S. Hill), and one had no
college degree at all (John Small*). The person who wrote the introduction was a
psychiatrist (Stephen Barrett). . .Fluoride the Aging Factor by John Yiamouyiannis
The following are Dr. Stephen Barrett's own words, published in the AMA News
on August 25, 1975, describing the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health
Fraud. This was five years after it was incorporated.
Several of the professional societies endorsed our group and donated money
to help the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, Inc. The medical
society allowed us to use its office equipment until we obtained our own.
....By working "undercover" using assumed names and box numbers, we've gotten
all sorts of information and publications other groups, like the medical
societies, haven't been able to lay their hands on.
....Really, we're a bunch of guerrillas - we're not a large group, there are
about 40 members, but we're the only such group in the country.
Here we have, in Barrett's own words, the apparent link between organized
medicine and his group's operation. Although he didn't name the specific
"professional societies" that endorsed and donated money to his group, he
did state that such organizations as medical, dental, osteopathic, and
pharmaceutical groups did help him set up his operation."
Another piece of the puzzle came to light in the minutes of the May 4, 1973,
meeting of the Coordinating Conference on Health Information. Lois Smith
reported, "Dr. Steven Barrett, psychiatrist, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, is
writing a book entitled The Deadly Deceivers, covering all phases of quackery."
Doyl Taylor was quick to add that "Dr. Barrett is zealously opposed to
medical quackery," and Taylor suggested that members of the CCHI cooperate
with Dr. Barrett in his quest to attack "quackery." Barrett's specialty was
attacking chiropractic, and, as the AMA News pointed out, Barrett's group
was instrumental in helping to defeat legislation "requiring chiropractic
coverage under Blue Shield."
This was one of the many connections between Barrett and members of the CCHI
that have been uncovered over the years. However, this was the first
[italics] published [end italics] link that I could find. As will be seen
later, Barrett's relationship with the governmental members (U.S. FDA, FTC,
and U.S. Postal Service) continues even today.
His group was touted by the AMA News as providing the media with "one of the
country's most complete clearinghouses of information on quackery.""
The Assault On Medical Freedom - by P. Joseph Lisa
External links
Mark S. Probert
QuackWatchWatch ... Who will watch the watchers?
