Cancer Incidence Death Rates Continue to Drop

I recently read an article and an associated report that I found very interesting. One of the rather shocking statistics from the report is that from 1990 through 2008, death rates from cancer fell almost 23 percent for men and around 15 percent for women. It is estimated this has resulted in over one million lives saved.

The senior author of the report is Dr. Ahmedin Jemal who is vice president for surveillance research at the American Cancer Society (ACS). Dr. Jemal stated these reductions "largely reflect improvements in prevention, early detection and treatment."

Although the actual incidence rate for cancer has changed very little, it seems modern medicine is making great advances in treatment which is allowing cancer patients to live longer lives. I won't go so far as to say anyone with cancer is ever fully "cured" although we do know cancer can go into remission for years, decades, or perhaps a lifetime.

The interesting thing is that although the death rates for cancer continue to drop, we continue to see alternative medicine proponents such as Mr. Hubbs claim the exact opposite. They seem to think modern medicine is part of the problem rather than the solution, and they tend to believe there are unknown doctors and experts out there who can fully cure cancer with up to a 100% success rate.

Granted people can claim whatever they wish, but the real science proves that modern medicine is getting better at treating cancer, better at diagnosing cancer, and better at prolonging lives - while the conspiracy theorists and snakeoil salesman are never able to support their claims with any peer-reviewed science to independent validations.

So whether it be claims about baking soda curing cancer, or extracting substances from urine, or some miracle, super-secret biomedical treatment, they all talk a big talk, but they never produce any evidence to support they are honestly able to cure (or even treat) cancer like they claim.  Aside from other alternative medicine proponents echoing the same lines to one another and repeating the same cliches time and time again, we never seem to see any legitimate data to support their claims... even after years of being promised a report is "just around the corner" or that a study will be published "soon".

In the end, it is statistics like those within this report that show us that real doctors, hospitals, and researchers are making a difference each and every day - and they are on the right path.

Read the full article over at MSN Health (via HealthDay): Cancer Incidence, Death Rates Continue to Drop: Report, and you can find the original report on the American Cancer Society website.

Lowell Hubbs Caught Lying Yet Again

Recently, during one of his many rants claiming that "hackers" were responsible for messing with his blogger account, Mr. Hubbs repeated his claims about mystery blog posts randomly appearing on this blog.  He has mentioned this type of thing in the past, and Hubbs has a well known history of accusing "black hat hackers" of manipulating websites, hacking his email and mobile phone, and even installing "undetectable video cameras" to monitor his every move.

Thus, when Mr. Hubbs makes such a claim I file it in the mental recycle bin since I'm fairly certain these mystery hackers exist nowhere outside of Mr. Hubbs' own perverted mind.  That said, during one of his latest rants, I mentioned it might be a good idea for Mr. Hubbs to capture a screenshot of these supposed shenanigans so he could actually have some proof to support his claims.  In response to my statement, a few short days later I had this comment waiting for me from none other than Mr. Hubbs himself:

"I have a screen shot picture of your blogs latest findings. It may be there by use of an external hack script because it comes and goes, however that is unknown. The previous to this changed images were derogatory in your direction; this one being the opposite. My blogger account was hacked into about 2 pm today Sunday so will not be using that to reply, just in case they are in your account. If you have any replies that use my blogger account after that time today, you may be well advised that it was not me. http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m547/Wildman4402/blogImage.jpg" ~Lowell Hubbs

In case you are curious, here is the image that Mr. Hubbs hosted in his photobucket account:

To a casual observer this would seem pretty amazing.  Mr. Hubbs clearly has a screenshot of this very blog with not only a portion of a blog post which has never been published here, but also a completely new blog title which includes a splash of profanity.  However, if you look beyond the surface, Mr. Hubbs' story starts to fall apart.

First, there are a few things that scream "red flag" on this little image.  If you look at the blog shown on this image and compare it to the template currently in use on this blog you will note a number of differences.  Text locations are different and fonts seem to vary.  Another strange issue is that within the image Mr. Hubbs provided, the blogger bar that appears at the top of all blogger blogs is somehow not present.  Are we to believe that these "hackers" somehow decided they didn't want that bar to appear and therefore removed it? 

The background image is also clipped resulting in one of the birds losing its head even though the scrollbar appears to be at the top of the page.  So is this merely a horrible cut and paste hack job, or is Mr. Hubbs trying to hide something?

Then there are the fine details.  What about that dotted line around the blog post?  That doesn't match the real blog.  The title text of Mr. Hubbs' version includes the semicolon directly after the last name "Hubbs" rather than a space between the two.  There is excess space between the title and the subtitle areas.  The post title is shown in black text rather than the red which is part of the real blog template.  The font sizes vary between the two.  Then there is the fact that the only blog post seen (we can only see the title) shows a posted date on the very same date that Mr. Hubbs captured the screenshot and the same day he left his comment.

Taken a step further, we can see the telltale signs of someone who lacks any grammatical knowledge including the overuse of exclamation points.  We see run-on sentences and misspelled words and a sentence structure which mirrors the broken and fractured writing style of Mr. Hubbs himself.

I also find it interesting that if you glance at the taskbar you will notice a blue and white icon which shows an active application.  That same icon appears on the right hand side of the screen in a tab, as well as in the system tray near the clock.  So what is that application you might ask?  It is called "TeamViewer" and the presence of the TeamViewer application suggests Mr. Hubbs is either controlling another remote computer, or he is allowing his computer to be remote controlled. 

Sort of makes you wonder if Mr. Hubbs is trying to cover his tracks now doesn't it?  Perhaps he isn't capable of actually editing screenshots himself so he asked a friend to help - either way you must admit it seems a bit suspicious.

Add to the fact that the RSS feed for this blog doesn't show any new blog posts on November 20th.  This includes the RSS feed itself, and a RSS viewer that doesn't allow content removal... meaning if there was a blog post added to this blog I would surely have a record of it.  I suppose those "black hat hackers" must have hacked my RSS readers and RSS feed too right?  Not likely.

I note I didn't receive an alert that any content was added to the blog like I normally would, I didn't get a notification a new post was added, I never witnessed any of these mysterious changes to the template layout, I didn't even get an email about the new post... all things that would have occurred if a new post was actually added to this blog, and all things Mr. Hubbs couldn't fake since he doesn't have my contact information.

Am I really supposed to believe that someone would hack this blog, add content, totally change the entire blog template including titles, subtitles, fonts, sizes, colors, text placements etc... and then quickly remove all of the changes before I happen to notice?  Does that seem at all logical?

However the best part is that when Mr. Hubbs created this little image and then pasted it on top of the actual blog page in order to make it appear it was hosted on this blog he made one very fatal error.  He forgot to change the tab on his browser window to match the fabricated blog title he pasted in the window - and these two items cannot be unlinked within blogger, thus if the title doesn't match the browser tab... the image is a FAKE. 

If you look closely, you will note the URL shown in the browser bar is the actual URL to this blog and the title of the tab is the original (correct) blog title... right down to the space before and after the colon, yet Mr. Hubbs failed to modify the tab to match the title he created on the blog page itself, which proves once again that Mr. Hubbs will resort to blatant lies and fabrication in support of his agenda.

The saddest part of Mr. Hubbs little fraud here is that he actually had to create that blog page on one of his blogs just long enough to publish it and capture a screenshot.  That means he not only wrote those things about himself, but he actually published them!  I have to ask... what type of demented soul writes those types of things about himself and takes the time to cut and paste a fake image together just so he can try and make it appear his crazy stories have some merit?  It sort of reminds me of Rathergate, but not nearly as well done.

Sorry Mr. Hubbs - it was a nice effort... but once again you've been busted and proven to be a liar and a complete fraud.  When will you learn?

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.

Quack of the Day: Jenny McCarthy

Just remember... she wants to be known for her brain.

If anyone has spent more than ten minutes researching autism, they are bound to come across Jenny McCarthy during their searches.  It isn't because McCarthy is influential or educated.  It isn't because she has done research on the subject nor is it because she has contributed to the field of knowledge that surrounds autism.  Rather the reason McCarthy's name seems to go hand in hand with autism is because she is a celebrity... and as such that gives her access to people like Oprah Winfrey or Larry King, and it also allows her to get her "story" published in People magazine or various supermarket tabloids.

The reality is if McCarthy wasn't a famous Playboy Playmate or B-list actress, nobody would bother to listen, but because she is rather well known, that (for whatever reason) has convinced certain media figures that her story is worth repeating.

So what is the story she is so willing to tell?  Well essentially McCarthy claims vaccines cause autism and these same vaccines in turn harmed her son Evan.  She also claims she was able to reverse Evan's condition and "cure" his autism via a mixture of good old fashioned hard work, truckloads of love, and some miracle biomedical treatments.  Of course McCarthy has zero scientific evidence to support her theory that vaccines cause autism, and in fact when she originally published her book and started going around the country trying to convince others that she was more knowledgeable on the subject than any of the thousands of doctors and scientists who work in the field every day.... there were no less than ten different published studies that had tried to examine the supposed link between vaccines and autism and not a single one of them had ever found even so much as a casual link.

Oh well... science really isn't that important right?  Surely a former Playmate knows more about complex scientific subjects like vaccines than those who spend their entire careers studying them.  We should just accept the fact that McCarthy is right and that all of the experts are simply out of touch.

The irony in this entire situation is that Jenny McCarthy is very much anti-science, yet science is responsible for her most famous assets (her silicone enhanced chesticles).  So apparently she trusts science when it comes to such important matters as enlarging her breasts, but science goes out the door when it comes to her son.  Check.

It is probably worth noting that many experts believe that Evan was actually misdiagnosed in the first place and that he never actually had autism.  As it turns out, some of Evan's initial symptoms were tied to seizures he experienced, and after those seizures were treated his condition improved.  It has been stated that Evan's symptoms were actually more reflective of Landau-Kleffner Syndrome rather than autism and therefore any "cure" that Jenny McCarthy claims to have used has nothing to do with autism.  Other doctors have even suggested Evan had no medical condition at all and was merely developmentally delayed in comparison to his peers.

No matter what McCarthy seems to believe, it seems rather odd that her miracle cure hasn't translated so well.  We don't hear of hundreds or even thousands of autistic kids being cured, so it would seem slightly odd that her magic only happened to apply to her son and nobody else.  So aside from scaring parents away from vaccines, what else has Jenny McCarthy done with all of her anti-vaccination crusading? Go to this website to find out and read the sources...it is very interesting.

Jenny McCarthy Body Count

The basic premise is that as of the time this post was written, McCarthy has indirectly led to the deaths of 738 children which could have been prevented with proper vaccinations, and she has indirectly led to over 85,000 children contracting preventable diseases.  And in all that time what is the number of autism diagnoses scientifically linked to vaccinations???

ZERO.

Yes.... ZERO.

These are the ramifications when people ignore science, and while Jenny McCarthy could have chose to use her celebrity status to educate people about vaccinations and/or to help parents of autistic children come to grips with the diagnoses, she instead decided it was better to scare parents based upon personal opinion which has no scientific backing whatsoever.  Amazing.

More Broken Promises From Lowell Hubbs

About a month ago (October 14, 2011 7:48 PM to be specific), Lowell Hubbs left the following comment on a previous blog post:

"Watch me get bailed out next week on a million dollar bail, if you think nothings [sic] true! Keep watchin [sic] the news."  ~ Lowell Hubbs

Well, I must say I was curious, but once again it appears to have been just another broken promise from Mr. Hubbs as nothing ever came to fruition and to the best of my knowledge Mr. Hubbs has not been in the news lately.

I'm not sure what he thought was going to happen or if he was planning on a major crime spree, but perhaps even more comical than Mr. Hubbs' growing list of broken promises is the fact he somehow feels he is capable of finding the financial resources to get bailed out when the bail itself is a million bucks. Seriously? I'm pretty sure a $1,000 bond would be out of his range, so how he feels he can come up with seven figures is beyond me.

Hey maybe I'm wrong... maybe meat packing plants pay better than I thought?

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.

Louis Pasteur: Driven By Purpose Rather Than Profit

Mr. Hubbs is the type of person who believes anyone who is associated with vaccines is somehow evil and they are all merely driven by profits rather than purpose. I have shown in the past how this logic is fatally flawed, but obviously a vaccine conspiracy theorist like Mr. Hubbs is not easily convinced.

The reality is, most of the great vaccine discoveries throughout history came not from the desire to profit, but from the desire to improve the human condition and from the desire to make the world a better and safer place for us all. I have previously discussed how Jonas Salk released his polio vaccine to the public without first seeking to patent it or profit from it because he was drive by purpose, but Salk isn’t the only one.

Louis Pasteur's work was driven by such a purpose as well. Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist who is probably best known for the process of pasteurization, and he is often referred to as the “father” of germ theory. He was one of the first people to suggest to doctors that they bother to sterilize their instruments and actually wash their hands before and after performing surgery on patients which directly led to a significant decrease in the amount of surgery-related infections. (Don’t bother explaining this concept to Mr. Hubbs however as he doesn’t believe in the germ theory and therefore thinks it is just all a big coincidence).

That said, Pasteur’s discoveries didn’t stop with germ theory or pasteurization and he worked tirelessly on a number of different vaccines. At one point he was developing a vaccine for rabies as the disease was responsible for killing thousands of people each year. He had tested his vaccine on rabbits, and was prepared to test it upon himself just as a nine year old boy named Joseph Meister was attacked by a rabid dog.

Meister’s mother pleaded with Pasteur to test the vaccine on her son and although Pasteur himself was not a licensed physician at the time, he put his personal reputation and career at risk in order to attempt to save Joseph’s life. Thankfully, Joseph’s inoculation against rabies was successful and he never contracted the disease, and thus a functional rabies vaccine was officially discovered.

This foundation laid the groundwork for other work on vaccines, and Pasteur himself became known as nothing short of a hero due to his work. Decades later, Pasteur was asked what he would like to be etched upon his tombstone… and as legend has it he asked for only three words: “Joseph Meister Lived!”.

To think a man who helped shape the future of vaccine science, the man known as the father of germ theory, and the man who has been known for numerous discoveries that have saved countless lives was never concerned with his reputation… but rather when he had to boil it all down the only thing he cared about was saving this one young boy.

Does that sound like someone who is only concerned with profit, or does it sound like someone who was driven by purpose? The answer seems clear, and that thought process is not unique to only Pasteur. In fact right this very moment in time there are thousands upon thousands of doctors and scientists and researchers toiling away in their labs and offices and hospitals and clinics and even homes in search of the next big discovery that will make its mark on mankind.

Are we really to believe that all of these people are only concerned with wealth and profit? Are we really to believe there is some vast conspiracy at play which actually results in more people getting sick just so a few select companies can sell some medications or vaccines? I suppose there are differing theories on the subject, but to suggest that tens of thousands of doctors and researchers are all involved in some massive manipulation of the scientific process is nothing short of a conspiracy theory… so is it really any wonder why Mr. Hubbs has earned the label of “vaccine conspiracy theorist”?

Yea… I didn’t think so either.

More Accusations of Hacking

We have discussed Lowell Hubbs' propensity to cry wolf and accuse "black hat hackers" of manipulating his computer or websites in the past even though he never seems to have any evidence to support his claims, but here is yet another example of the nonsense that come from the mind of Mr. Hubbs:

"Here is how bad they want to shut my information shut down. 9:30 pm 3-2 My computer I was working on at the time, went blank screen, lost all the tabs; and reverted back to the administrative log in screen; access blocked. Guess where the IP address was traced back to? Gannet Broadcasting/ The Argus Leader. They even hacked my earlier email account and sent all my personal emails to FEMA, and the FBI; attempting to get me shut down for spamming the gov't." ~ Lowell Hubbs

So yea... when Lowell Hubbs has problems with his computer, he automatically blames it upon mystery "hackers" and even goes so far as to claim a local newspaper is to blame.

Sure thing Lowell - that makes perfect sense.  So a large publishing company with hundreds of employees is taking the time to personally reach out and fiddle with your computer while still allowing you - a man with very little technical knowledge and even less common sense - to identify their IP address.  This is the same large publishing company which has been known to actually print several of your letters to the editor, and the same large publishing company which has allowed you to not only post on their forums, but has allowed you to post under multiple usernames hundreds upon hundreds of times even going so far as to post under multiple names defending yourself as you pretend to be different people.

Yea... that is surely more likely that lets say... you just being a paranoid conspiracy theorist with a persecution complex who just happens to have problems with his computer from time to time.

Funny how even after months and months of Mr. Hubbs claiming to have all of this proof of people hacking him and after months and months of him making accusations about illegal activity ranging from stalking to harassing to illegal wiretaps, fraud, sexual misconduct, and even homicide/murder... Mr. Hubbs has never shown us any evidence that any of these crimes have ever actually been committed.  No police reports, no evidence that anyone has ever been arrested or charged with a crime, no follow-up to support his claims that he has evidence, or corroboration to his claims that government agencies like the FBI are investigating or that his "people" or "lawyers" have taken action.

Just more conspiracy theories and bold faced lies.  I wish I could say I expected more, but sadly this is just par for the course for Lowell Hubbs.

Lowell Hubbs: Quote of the Day

Every now and then, one of the comments Mr. Hubbs sends in is actually entertaining.  Most are filled with nonsense and chalk full of ramblings of a madman, but every now and then he says something which really makes you stop and think.  This is one of those times...

"Whats the problem Costner, you can read English. Do you not understand the most basic of common sense?"  ~Lowell Hubbs

I honestly don't even know what to say to this.  I guess I could just admit that yes... I can actually read English, but apparently Mr. Hubbs isn't much good with writing it.

Common sense?  Yea... not one of Mr. Hubbs' strong suits.  Yet he is the type of person who considers himself an expert on vaccines and science.  I guess that's one way to go.  Granted even if I overlook the errors in grammar to get down to the point which I believe Mr. Hubbs is trying to make, it still doesn't change anything.

The problem with Mr. Hubbs' logic is that "common sense" does not dictate fact nor does it influence scientific discovery.  Anecdotal evidence is just that... anecdotal.  For example if someone sees a child start developing symptoms of a learning disorder or sees them have a seizure, they may think it was because that child was given a vaccine a few weeks or months earlier because in their mind there were no other possible causes.  However that requires them to ignore million of other environmental and genetic causes.

I can understand how vaccines get the blame over something like genetics.  After all - parents don't want to think it could be their very own genes that led to a medical condition in their child.  Because of this, they look everywhere else around them in an effort to place blame elsewhere and if that just so happens to fall upon vaccines that makes them feel better.

The problem is, there is no science to support these viewpoints.  Not only are cases of autism or other medical conditions nearly identical in unvaccinated populations, but there is not a single piece of peer-reviewed science published anywhere nor is there a single study which has ever reached the conclusion that vaccines cause autism. 

Perhaps even more telling is that there has never been any peer-reviewed or reputable science that even suggested vaccines cause autism.  Ever.  Mr. Hubbs knows this, his fellow anti-vaccination friends know this, and the legitimate medical community knows this, which is why antivaxxers continue to try to move the goal posts and shift the debate time and time again as they attempt to ignore the fact their opinions have never been verified, validated, or even found to have any merit whatsoever.

So why are all of these parents so convinced that vaccines cause autism, and why are vaccine conspiracy theorists so sure that vaccines are harmful?  Well a lot of it boils down to them being ignorant to the scientific method, but much of it also happens to be due to them relying upon anecdotal evidence.  Since many cases of autism seem to be diagnosed during the ages of two and three, and because that time frame also seems to coincide with when parents are giving their children vaccines they (for whatever reason) feel vaccines are to blame.

They don't care they science doesn't support their viewpoint.  They don't care about the mounting evidence that reflects a strong genetic component to autism.  They don't care that they can't prove their theory or that unvaccinated children can still get autism.  They don't care about any of these things because they will tell you "they just know" vaccines are responsible, and no amount of science or research is going to be enough to convince them otherwise because their conclusions are based upon (you guessed it) "common sense".

Unfortunately for Mr. Hubbs and other vaccine conspiracy theorists like him, scientific fact has never been, and will never be determined by what one person believes is "common sense".  Instead, scientific theories are tested and replicated.  Hypothesis are validated or challenged.  Research is verified and reproduced.

This is why the anti-vaccination crowd will never be successful and why they will never be taken seriously, because instead of them wishing to find the truth they would much rather dabble in what they perceive as "common sense".  The ironic part is that anti-vaxxers don't seem to have any common sense... yet they put an enourmous amount of faith in it while ignoring everything else.

Vaccine Ingredients: What You Should Know

Most vaccination conspiracy theorists have a habit of tossing out random statements to try and paint vaccines as harmful, even when it is blatantly obvious they have no idea what they are talking about and Lowell Hubbs is no exception.  They make statements about aluminum being in vaccines and how harmful it must be or they rail on against formaldehyde being found in vaccines (even in trace amounts).  In the past, they have gone out of their way to blame mercury for various neurological disorders up and and including autism although now that mercury has been pulled out of all childhood vaccines and even though the rates of autism have remained unchanged... they have suddenly swept that little gem under the rug as they shifted focus elsewhere.

Throughout all of these discussions, one point kept rising to the surface about all of the ingredients that anti-vaxxers complain about, and that is the fact that they don't appear to know what these ingredients actually do or why they are found in vaccines.  Instead, they simply read on one of their many anti-vaxxer websites that these ingredients are harmful, and the nonsense began to take hold.  They never actually bother to research the ingredients to determine why they are included or what function they hold.  They never even bother to determine at what quantities they can be found or how much of these ingredients are already found in the human body even before a single vaccine is administered.

Admittedly, telling someone you are going to inject them with aluminum or formaldehyde seems like a bad idea at face value, but once you know the facts about these ingredients it is an entirely different story.  In fact, most people may not even understand that the human body already contains chemicals such as formaldehyde even if that person has never had a vaccination in their life.  Also, vaccine conspiracy theorists try to suggest aluminum may be responsible for all types of neurological disorders or other medical issues, yet they have zero evidence to support that viewpoint.  I chalk these views up to simple ignorance about what aluminum really is and how the body reacts to it, but in the mind of a vaccine conspiracy theorist any form of metal has no reason to exist in the human body apparently.

I can only assume that vaccine conspiracy theorists conveniently ignore that the human body includes trace amounts of various metals and in fact relies upon these elements for proper function.  Take zinc for example.  Zinc is used for protein synthesis, it contributes to would healing, it contributes to a strong immune system, it has been found to help with memory, and even contributes to skeletal growth.  Then you have iron which is required for the production of hemoglobin and myoglobin. 

Next you have copper.  Copper is required to help regulate blood pressure and helps with nerve function.  Chromium enhances the action of insulin as well as assists with carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism.  Magnesium helps maintain a strong immune system, helps maintain muscle and nerve function, and contributes to energy metabolism and protein synthesis.

As you can clearly see, the human body contains a various amount of metals and numerous other trace minerals.  In fact, the human body already contains trace amounts of aluminum, mercury, and even lead.  They key point here is that it is important to know and understand what levels are acceptable, and what levels could result in toxicity.  Any mineral including those mentioned here can be harmful to the human body if they are found in excessive quantities.  Obviously we all know iron is essential for many bodily functions, but if someone has excessive amounts of iron in their blood it can result in numerous side effects including weight loss, shortness of breath, nausea, and fatigue. 

The phrase "all good things in moderation" comes to mind here.  Given in proper amounts, most minerals will not be harmful to humans, but obviously if excessive amounts are ingested there can and will be side effects.

Because of the common misunderstanding of what various vaccine ingredients are capable of, it seems some education is in order - and the following PDF file from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Vaccine Education Center does a fabulous job of explaining some of the basics in layman's terms that even the most prolific anti-vaxxer should be able to understand.

Of course the PDF also includes references for those who are interested in learning even more about the science behind vaccines and although most anti-vaxxers tend to ignore anything which requires independent research, some others might find those articles interesting as well.  It is a good read, and something everyone who has any interest in vaccine ingredients should take the time to review.

Vaccine Ingredients: What you should know