Chiropractic and antivax: Two quacky tastes that taste quacky together

[SidDithers]

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2013/08/22/chiropractic-and-antivax-two-quacky-tastes-that-taste-quacky-together/

Chiropractic is supposed to be the “respectable” face of “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM). At least, that’s what chiropractors want you to think. After all, chiropractors are licensed in all 50 states and thus their specialty has the imprimatur of the state to make it appear legitimate. Unfortunately, chiropractors are, as I have said so many times before, physical therapists with delusions of grandeur—and poorly trained as physical therapists at that. They just can’t restrict themselves to the musculoskeletal system and can’t resist pontificating about and treating systemic illnesses that they should have no part in treating, such as allergies, asthma, diabetes, and many more. They also have a strong tendency to be militantly antivaccine, although there is a small contingent that is not. The vaccination-friendly (or at least vaccination-agnostic) group of chiropractors appears to be depressingly small, however.

Consistent with this, a few days ago I saw a notice on the website of arguably the oldest antivaccine group in the US still in existence, the Orwellian-named National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA), which was founded by Dr. Larry Webster and represents doctors of chiropractic caring for children. Leaving aside for the moment the horrific shiver that ran down my spine to learn that there is actually an organization called the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association, I got an even more horrific shiver to see the actual notice on the NVIC website:

The International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA), which was founded by Dr. Larry Webster and represents doctors of chiropractic caring for children, has supported NVIC’s mission to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to protect informed consent rights for more than two decades. ICPA’s 2013 issue of Pathways to Family Wellness magazine features an article written by Barbara Loe Fisher on “The Moral Right to Religious and Conscientious Belief Exemptions to Vaccination.”

Lovely. Just lovely. The ICPA is featuring an article by the grande dame of the antivaccine movement in the US, Barbara Loe Fisher, the woman who arguably was key in the 1980s to founding what evolved into the antivaccine movement we know it and detest it today. It goes way beyond that, though. Curious about what sorts of things the ICPA is saying about vaccinations, I moseyed on over to the ICPA website and the website of the Pathways to Family Wellness magazine and took a look.

It didn’t take me long to find Barbara Loe Fisher’s article, Opting Out: The Moral Right to Religious and Conscientious Belief Exemptions to Vaccination, although it appears not to be available online yet. I can predict what it probably says, because it’ll be the same thing Fisher has been doing for years and the same thing the antivaccine movement has been doing for years: Using and misusing religious and philosophical exemptions because of their antivaccine fears rather than any real philosophical objection to vaccines other than, “I think they cause autism.” Sadly, it looks as though Fisher has been a multiple contributor to the IPCA magazine, having published three articles before this one:

Pediatric chiropractic?

Sid

[Orrex]

1. Why are you so upset about this?

I'm guessing that you need your subluxations rotated or something.





K/R

[onestepforward]

2. I have to disagree with the chiropractors are "physical therapists

with delusions of grandeur." These are two different fields who have a history of legal battles between them.

Chiropractors should never be treating illnesses such as diabetes, etc., but many do to make money.

[hobbit709]

4. My neighbor believes anything her bone popper quack tells her without seeing a real MD.

[FirstLight]

3. so I guess you don't wanna hear anything

from those who may actually support these views?

[LWolf]

5. I am so grateful

that my chiropractor was able to resolve the tingling, and the shooting pains that my neurologist told me resulted from "nerve damage" in an accident. The neurologist told me there was no treatment, and that it might heal eventually, or not.

The chiropractor had me feeling better in a week, and the symptoms of that damage were gone in 3, never to return. It's been 12 years.

All without trying to usurp the authority of my regular doctor.

[840high]

6. After my car

accident - the only relief I got was from a chiro.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. If it was not for two very skilled and highly ethical chiropractors I'd not be able to get around

at all. Neither has anything to do with 'anti vaxx' nor would they advocate such crap. I feel sorry for folks who would treat all issues with pills and surgeries when those are not the best choices just like I feel sorry for those who would not use pills and surgeries when they are the best choices. Both groups are equally ignorant.

[panader0]

8. I'm 62 and have been a bricklayer since I was 20.

When my back goes out I am painfully immobilized. My trusty chiropractor can fix me up in 15 minutes for $35.
I wish I could go more often. I've known people who have had back surgeries, disks fused, etc., and they are never the same.