Andrew Moulden: Even More Quackery

I have discussed Andy Moulden at few times in the past (see here and here), but considering the number of visits these pages receive in any given week I felt it was my moral obligation to share a bit more about Mr. Moulden and his "miracle treatments". 

The following information was taken directly from Moulden's "brainguard" website before he took it down (or perhaps before he was forced to take it down).

Originally found at: http://brainguardmd.com/ (website no longer available):

Due to the overwhelming response to our services, we will not be able to offer these services for free anymore. There are certain costs associated with diagnosing people who have neurological damage, and we need to be able to cover these expenses. For those that have already received our services please comment on our Brain Blog, so others know that we know the who what why and when your child has been affected.

Sorry for the inconvenience
Dr Andrew Moulden BA, MA, MD, PhD

As you may already know if you have read the previous posts about Moulden, his "services" include performing diagnoses on patients based upon a cursory review of photographs and/or videotape.  Now I'm not suggesting that anyone should work for free, but if you are going to charge for a service, it stands to reason the service you are charging for should be legitimate, and diagnosing neurological disorders from afar based upon nothing other than a photograph is far from legitimate.  Is there really any wonder why Moulden was shut down?

It gets even better however.  Care to take a guess on what Moulden was charging for his "services"?  Fear not as there is no need to guess.  Moulden actually disclosed the fees right on his website:

$416 for the basic analysis of 2 videos and 4 photos, i.e a form email reply.

Forensic Proof Causation
Limited Medical review and direct phone contact, history with an M.D.
$2500 CDN

Help FIX My Vaccine Injured Brain
Limited Medical review and direct phone contact, history with an M.D.
- If we don't help "fix" the problem you don't pay
- Includes before/after scanning and assessment to document and quantify intervention success.
- Voluntary services 100% Biocompatible (no synthetic drugs)!
$5000 CDN

EMERGENCY BrainGuard Scanning
Continuous Streaming Video BrainGuard Scanning
$10,000 CDN

So basically the fees range from a bit over $400 for Moulden to glance at a child's pictures or video, to $10,000 Canadian to perform an "EMERGENCY" BrainGuard Scan.  You know that must be worth it though, because he took the time to ensure the term "EMERGENCY" was written in all caps.

I have to wonder how many people fell for this little sales pitch and how much money Moulden actually made before he was shut down by the Canadian government.  It seems not only is he using unconfirmed diagnostic tools that he appears to have invented himself, and that he is diagnosing children with ailments he has also invented himself, but it also seems as if he was attempting to practice medicine without a license. 

Of course the fun doesn't end there.  On top of the fees disclosed above, Moulden was also engaging in what can only be described as a real-estate scam.  Moulden was pushing people from his website to buy what he labeled an "AMassNetwork IMAM-12 membership".  This additional membership was required before any BrainGuard services could be ordered, so I assume the cost for this membership would be in addition to the costs disclosed above.  The only place to get the membership was at another one of Moulden's websites (http://www.amassnetwork.com/ which like his other websites is no longer available) however I was unable to locate any information on what this membeship would cost.

Moulden did however share this little gem:

IMAM-12 membership entitles you for up to 1% (buy/sell) off real estate sales brokers fees across more than 40 countries (this equates to $3000 on a 300,000 property).

I would love to explain the relationship between neurological disorders, snakeoil medical treatments, and discounts on real estate broker fees.... but honestly I have no idea what the connection would be.  This would equate to a Cardiologist telling you that if you undergo a cardiac stress test in their office you will be entitled to $8 off an oil change at any Toyota dealership.  There just isn't any relation between the two offers and any self proclaimed "doctor" who uses such sales gimicks should be ashamed of themselves.

Then again, if these people were capable of shame, websites and unscientific claims such as these wouldn't exist in the first place.

Natural News: Another Website For Quacks

Recently, Mr. Hubbs thought it prudent to leave the following comment on an earlier blog post:

"[...] My site receives thousands of views per day world wide [sic]. My site pages are now even referenced to on Natural News, the second largest read alternative medicine and information website existing. Even the stupidity of your blog is referenced to on the N.N. page below. Check it out. How the medical monopoly hides inconvenient vaccine truths Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034012_vacinations_dangers.html" [...]  ~Lowell Hubbs

I had to laugh that NaturalNews couldn't even spell "vaccinations" properly in their URL (which tells us how knowledgeable on the subject matter they really are) but beyond that there are a few interesting points here.  Whether or not Mr. Hubbs cute little conspiracy theorist website gets "thousands of views" on a daily basis is doubtful... unless of course you count Mr. Hubbs own visits.  The reality of the matter is the traffic rank on Mr. Hubbs' website is 4,799,934.  To put that in perspective, the traffic rank for icanhascheezburger.com (a website primarily devoted to funny pictures of cats) is 2,711... which means there are approximately 4.8 million websites more popular that Mr. Hubbs' website, but yet less popular than random pictures of cats. 

Better yet, the ranking for cdc.gov is 3,014 which means there are only 4,796,920 websites standing between the CDC website, and Mr. Hubbs' website.  Heck even zapatopi.net (the aluminum / tinfoil hat wiki page) has a ranking of 539,607 which means there are only 4,260,327 websites less popular than tinfoil hats but yet more popular than Mr. Hubbs' website.  Yes... a website which is meant to be a joke and pokes fun at conspiracy theorists is ranked over four million pages higher than an actual conspiracy theorist.  Sort of puts things in perspective now doesn't it?  Oh and in the off chance you are curious, NaturalNews.com receives about half as many hits per month as a website devoted to photoshopped pictures of cats.  Seriously.

Not that website rankings really mean anything of course.  First you need to realize that search engines can (and often do) skew rankings do to how they catalog specific pages and how the automated bots perform searches.  Second, even if a website is "popular" it doesn't mean it is being visited by unique people.  It can be a handful of people (or bots) who cycle the page hundreds of times a day.  Third, popularity doesn't equal influence.  Websites that are controversial (or dare I say it)... even ignorant and silly tend to get hits out of morbid curiosity.  That doesn't mean they are influential.  One has to keep in mind the website devoted to two girls and one cup received millions upon million upon millions of hits... that doesn't mean people are going to repeat that practice at home.  (If you don't know what 2Girls1Cup is... be warned you do NOT want to google it and find out).

Hell even that stupid Rebecca Black "Friday" song received more than 175 Million hits.  Yes... over one hundred and seventy five MILLION views of that one single YouTube video.  Yet that video is well known to have exponentially more "dislikes" than "likes" which tells us one thing: Popularity does not equal agreement, (in fact even suggesting there is a link is a common appeal to popularity logical fallacy) and sometimes when something is popular it is merely because people are curious what all the fuss is about.

So, beyond the actual popularity (or lack thereof) what is the point of Mr. Hubbs?  He seems to be proud of himself that his website was linked in an article which is posted to NaturalNews.com... but is that anything to actually be proud of?

Truth be told ANYONE can write an article and have it posted to NaturalNews.com by filling out a simple form.  NaturalNews is a pseudoscience aggregating site and provided the article is written with an anti-science and pro-alternative medicine slant, it will most certainly be published.  There is no requirement that articles be fully sourced nor are there are any requirements the author even be a journalist.  Heck, NaturalNews even admits they don't provide editing services so the authors are pretty much on their own.  Mr. Hubbs himself can actually write and submit articles to them and they may even be published (assuming Mr. Hubbs can perform a basic spelling and grammar check before submission which could be his downfall).  There is no check of credentials, no verification of identify, and no attempt to determine conflict of interest.  The only requirement is that the author has a Google adsense account so they can collect ad revenue.  Red flag number one.

Is this how a reputable "news" website operates?  No.  Is this how a website operates when they are only concerned over aggregating biased materials in order to drive traffic to their website and in turn sell all types of advertisements, nutritional supplements, books, newsletters, gadgets and other alternative medicine swag?  You bet.  Red flag number two.

Did I mention that NaturalNews.com is NOT recognized as a non-profit in the US?  You read that right... they can claim to be non-profit all day long, but legally speaking they are not and the IRS does not recognize them as non-profit.  They can (and likely do) make millions from the sales of various supplements and gadgets most of which have never undergone any testing to prove efficacy.  This is part of the explanation for the disclaimers found throughout their website which remind you their products are "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease".  Red flag number three.

So this brings us to the actual article that Mr. Hubbs cited.  I'd love to tell you a bit about the author, but "PF Louis" doesn't provide us with any background information about him or her.  In fact there is no byline information and nothing can be found on the NaturalNews website telling us about this particular author.  Red flag number four.

So aside from the 25-30 graphic advertisements shown in and around this article and ignoring the numerous unrelated links trying to get you to visit other quack websites (which in turn drives ad revenue based upon click-through rates) the article itself really doesn't contain any actual reporting.  It starts off by repeating a couple of quotes taken out of context, and inserts some opinions... but where is the actual reporting?

Of course what vaccine conspiracy article would be complete without an accusation that the CIA is helping "Big Pharma" control the media?  For good measure, Louis goes on to speak about the Rockefeller conspiracy (something Mr. Hubbs has been known to jabber on about quite often), and then Louis goes on to mention the Wakefield incident.... conveniently ignoring the fact that Wakefield was found guilty of fraud or that he fabricated patient records as well as glossing over the fact that Wakefield had a vested financial interest tied to the idea that vaccines can be harmful.  Oh how soon we forget... or in this case - ignore.

All of the above is interesting of course, albeit predictable considering we have seen this same pattern of grouping together various conspiracy theories, accusations, and opinions and presenting them as "journalism", but Louis is just getting warmed up.  Louis uses the last few paragraphs of this 'article' to bring up Andrew Moulden.  Note that Louis doesn't say "Dr. Moulden", but instead references him as "Canadian medical scientist Andrew Moulden, PhD".  Could that be because Moulden has no license to practice medicine?  Could it be because Moulden has no actual expertise in the fields of study surrounding vaccines or autism?  Or could it be because the terms "medical scientist" seem harmless enough to cover the work of someone that has never had a single one of this theories proven or even published in a peer-reviewed journal of any type?

I can't really say, but this is where Louis lack of credibility really shines.  He doesn't cite Moulden's work to validate his theories.  He doesn't cite scientific research nor does he reference the work of others to validate any of Moulden's views.  Instead, Louis claims that any doubt about Moulden's work shall be cast aside because (are you ready for this?) Moulden was listed as a "Quack of the Day" on this very blog.

Yes... you read that correctly.

This is what is so amazingly comical about so many of these alternative medicine bloggers and self-proclaimed "citizen journalists".  They don't even understand the basic premise of journalistic integrity and instead they spout off opinion that they don't even attempt to support with evidence.  Louis actually believes because I wrote a blog post about Andrew Moulden, that it somehow means Moulden must be credible.  I know... I can't exactly wrap my head around that type of logic either and it is nothing more than a guilt by association logical fallacy, but I'm flattered that my blog seems to be so darn influential within the NaturalNews community that I'm single handedly able to sway opinions.

Of course Louis couldn't be bothered to link to the blog posts of mine which he cites because that would be objective journalism, and not only is Louis incapable of journalism... it is obvious he/she is incapable of remaining objective as well.  Instead, the search of my site lead Louis to Mr. Hubbs, and it was a match made in heaven.  So I suppose if you are actually honest about the situation you would agree that if anything Mr. Hubbs should be thanking me for allowing him the recognition he so desperately was seeking, because without this humble little blog, Louis would never have found Mr. Hubbs silly website. 

Am I the only one who sees the irony here? 

I should thank good old PF though.  I noticed a spike in my blog traffic a bit over a week ago all based upon common search terms (various versions of "Andrew Moulden" and "Quack" etc) and I honestly had no idea what was causing it until Mr. Hubbs was so kind as to show me this "article".  So kudos to you PF... you not only directed a few of your fellow vaccine conspiracy theorists to Mr. Hubbs website, but you diverted a few of them my direction as well.  Of course more importantly, PF has shown the true colors of NaturalNews and how don't appear to care about facts or the quality of their content... only the quantity.

Lowell Hubbs: Making Friends Wherever He Goes

If you waste more than two minutes of your life interacting with Lowell Hubbs you will soon realize that he believes he is some sort of messenger or warrior of truth.  In fact, many of Mr. Hubbs various usernames involve some form of these terms including the names "TruthStorm", "TruthEducation", and "Anti Vax Warrior" among others.  Although Mr. Hubbs has no formal training to education in any medical, scientific, or related field, and although he has never participated in or contributed to any clinical studies or research papers, he still feels he is the only person on the planet who has a grasp on subjects like vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and the root cause of cancer.

Therefore, it stands to reason that someone of Mr. Hubbs' "character" would feel the need to spread his vast amount of knowledge (sarcasm intended) to others at any opportunity he can find.  Most recently, Mr. Hubbs has discovered the commentary site Huffington Post which is well known for publishing articles by Jenny McCarthy along with any other anti-vaccine claptrap they can find.  Because of the well known viewpoints of the website, one would think Mr. Hubbs would fit right in - yet that hasn't been the case.

Rest assured Mr. Hubbs did go out of his way to post on any anti-vaccine story he could find and he offered some fantastic quotes that tell us more about him.  My personal favorite was the following which was posted by Mr. Hubbs in late February:

Yes you read that correctly.  Mr. Hubbs actually made a statement  complaining others haven't review his "work", as if to suggest he has actually produced something that could be considered "work".  Apparently in the disturbed mind of Lowell Hubbs, collecting links to anti-vaccine websites mixed in with the occasional YouTube video or quote from someone who claims there is a link between vaccines and autism and dumping all of this nonsense onto your own website (essentially doing nothing more than aggregating the data from multiple sources into one) is the equivalent of producing an end result... or in his simple terms it equates to "work".

Aside from the sheer nonsense involved in this line of thinking, as it turns out even in an anti-vaccine stronghold such as HuffPo, Mr. Hubbs was still seen as a moron and the comments posted in reference to his identified flaws in his logic as well as mocked him for his lack of understanding of the issues.  True to form, Mr. Hubbs immediately jumped on the defensive and resorted to his standard tactic of claiming "nothing would be enough" and that he has adequate proof for his claims (even though he is never actually able to provide it from the unbiased sources he pretends exist).

In fact as he so often does, Mr. Hubbs fired of no less than a dozen different comments on that one very same article all in defense of his anti-vaccine stance and including references to Andrew Wakefield, Andy Moulden, the misconception that the Amish don't suffer from autism, and even statements about Jenny McCarthy's son having his autism "cured" by biomedical treatment (even though doctors have openly stated McCarthy's son never had autism in the first place).

Even in one of the most well known anti-vaccine commentary sites on the Internet, Mr. Hubbs nonsense was simply too silly to ignore and soon enough there were other posters coming out of the woodwork to challenge his claims and show him for what he is... a vaccine conspiracy theorist with no education or training and a complete misunderstanding of the issues.

Obviously this upset Mr. Hubbs greatly which resulted in him lashing out as his critics rather than offering legitimate science to support his views.  Ignoring the fact that Mr. Hubbs seems to direct the same language and tired lines at anyone and everyone who doesn't agree with him (as has been displayed within the comments on this very blog countless times), in the end even the people at HuffPo couldn't deal with his idiocy and Mr. Hubbs found his account removed and his right to comment suspended within one month of originally registering.  In fact, if you search for Mr. Hubbs' profile today it cannot be found as it no longer exists.  Case in point:

So if a person is so far off the logic scale that their anti-vaccine rhetoric cannot even be welcomed in an anti-vaccine stronghold, what does that tell us?  How can someone actually get themselves kicked off of a website known for promoting the concept of vaccines being harmful in under a month?  The fact is, even those who have doubts about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines don't want to be associated with a conspiracy theorist nor do they want to deal with someone who is unable to debate a topic on a rational level without resorting to red herrings, ad hominems, or practically every other logical fallacy known to man.

Perhaps one day Mr. Hubbs will learn, but I wouldn't count on it.  I would be willing to bet he has already registered a new username on HuffPo with the hopes that he can slip through the moderators and start his process all over again.  Instead of objectively looking at the reasons on why his messages haven't been so well received, or instead of trying to address his flaws and present his information in a well thought out, articulate, and polite manner, Mr. Hubbs will simply blame those around him for trying to suppress his message and once again return to his pattern of labeling those around him as "sheeple" and "uninformed".

As Alanis Morisette once said:  Isn't it ironic?

Update 03/27/11:  Mr. Hubbs has responded and claims nobody suspended or removed his account.  Instead he claims he removed the account himself because he "did not care to have [his] facebook picture and account exposed on the google listing for that article".  I really don't know if I follow that logic since a Google search of "Lowell Hubbs" will still return links to numerous anti-vaccination websites (this very blog is listed as the top three results by the way) including references to Wakefield, and Mr. Hubbs own website lists the same sad excuses and attempted statements in defense of Wakefield, so I'm not sure what pulling his Huffington Post account down would actually accomplish when the same statements are found elsewhere.

Also, Mr. Hubbs has never been the type to actually walk away from a debate, as we have seen countless times before he just continues to cut and paste, cut and paste, cut and paste time and time again and the only reason he ever stops is when the forum or article he is commenting on is closed or removed.  However, in the interest of full disclosure I felt it was necessary to at least offer Mr. Hubbs' version of events even if I'm not totally convinced he is being honest about the situation.

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).

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.