Mark Robin Geier | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 3, 1948 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | George Washington University |
| Spouse | Anne E. Geier (1970-2014) [1] |
| Children | David Geier |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | The effect of prodaryotic genes in eukaryotes (1973) |
Mark Robin Geier (born 1948) is an American former physician and controversial professional witness who testified in more than 90 cases regarding allegations of injury or illness caused by vaccines. [2] [3] Since 2011, Geier's medical license has been suspended or revoked in every state in which he was licensed over concerns about his autism treatments and his misrepresentation of his credentials to the Maryland Board of Health, where he falsely claimed to be a board-certified geneticist and epidemiologist. [4]
Mark and his son David are frequently cited by proponents of the now-discredited claim that vaccines cause autism. Geier's credibility as an expert witness has been questioned in 10 court cases. [5] In 2003, a judge ruled that Geier presented himself as an expert witness in "areas for which he has no training, expertise and experience." [2] In other cases in which Geier has testified, judges have labeled his testimony "intellectually dishonest," "not reliable" and "wholly unqualified." [2] Another judge wrote that Geier "may be clever, but he is not credible." [6]
Geier's scientific work has also been criticized; when the Institute of Medicine reviewed vaccine safety in 2004, it dismissed Geier's work as seriously flawed, "uninterpretable", and marred by incorrect use of scientific terms. [2] In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics criticized one of Geier's studies, which claimed a link between vaccines and autism, as containing "numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements." [7] In January 2007, a paper by the Geiers was retracted by the journal Autoimmunity Reviews. [3] New Scientist reported that the supposed institutional review board (IRB) that Geier claimed approved his experiments with autistic children was located at Geier's business address and included Geier, his son and wife, a business partner of Geier's, and a plaintiff's lawyer involved in vaccine litigation. [8] The Maryland State Board of Physicians referred to it as a "sham IRB" that did not meet the requirements of state or federal law. [4]
Geier worked at the Laboratory of General and Comparative Biochemistry, National Institutes of Health in the 1970s and 1980s as a student researcher (1969–1970), research geneticist (1971–1973), staff fellow (1973–1974), on the professional staff (1974–1978), and as a guest worker (1980–1982). He has been examining vaccine safety issues since then. [2] He is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics. [9]
He is currently a self-employed geneticist and along with his son David, he operates several organizations from his private address in Maryland, including the Institute for Chronic Illness and the Genetic Centers of America. [3] As a professional witness he has testified in more than 90 vaccine cases, in support of the view that there is a clear link between thiomersal and autism. [2] His credibility as an expert witness has been criticized during many proceedings before the Special Masters. [10] In a 2010 decision, the presiding legal authority wrote, "In summary, I conclude that all of the Geier epidemiologic studies are not reliable, and cannot be accorded any weight." [11]
Geier and his son have published several speculative articles about a possible link between autism spectrum disorders and vaccines that contain thimerosal, generating some controversy. [12] The American Academy of Pediatrics dispute the conclusion of the Geiers' paper claiming a correlation between thimerosal and autism, and criticized it for "numerous conceptual and scientific flaws, omissions of fact, inaccuracies, and misstatements". [7]
The Geiers were granted access to the Vaccine Safety Datalink records, [13] but the National Immunization Program found that "during the first visit the researchers conducted unapproved analysis on their datasets and on the second visit attempted to carry out unapproved analyses but did not complete this attempt. This analysis, had it been completed, could have increased the risk of a confidentiality breach. Before leaving, the researchers renamed files for removal which were not allowed to be removed. Had it gone undetected, this would have constituted a breach of the rules about confidentiality." [13]
The Geiers have developed a protocol for treating autism that uses the drug Lupron, which acts as chemical castration. Mark Geier has called Lupron "the miracle drug" and the Geiers have marketed the protocol across the U.S. [14] The Geiers filed three U.S. patent applications on the use of Lupron in combination with chelation therapy as a treatment protocol for autism based on the hypothesis that "testosterone mercury" along with low levels of glutathione blocks the conversion of DHEA to DHEA-S and therefore raises androgens which in turn further lower glutathione levels, ultimately providing a connection between autism, mercury exposure, and hyperandrogenism, specifically precocious puberty. [15] [16] [17]
According to expert pediatric endocrinologists, the Lupron protocol for autism is supported only by junk science. [14] The reaction of mercury and testosterone which the therapy is intended to treat is actually based on a protocol used to create testosterone crystals for use in X-ray crystallography rather than a physiological process that occurs in the human body. [18] Although Abbott Laboratories sells Lupron in the U.S. and cooperated with the Geiers in one of the patent applications, it is no longer pursuing work with them, citing the nonexistence of scientific evidence to justify further research. [19]
When treating an autistic child, the Geiers order several dozen lab tests, costing $12,000: if at least one testosterone-related result is abnormal, the Geiers consider Lupron treatments, using 10 times the daily dose ordinarily used to treat precocious puberty. The therapy costs approximately $5,000 per month. The Geiers recommend starting treatment on children as young as possible, and say that some need treatment through adulthood. [14]
Geier has been qualified as an expert witness in Federal Court [20] and has been accepted as an expert witness in approximately 100 hearings for parents seeking compensation from the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for alleged vaccine injuries to their children. In 10 of these cases, "Dr. Geier's opinion testimony has either been excluded or accorded little or no weight based upon a determination that he was testifying beyond his expertise." [21] [22]
On April 27, 2011, the Maryland State Board of Physicians suspended Geier's medical license as an "emergency action", saying he "endangers autistic children and exploits their parents by administering to the children a treatment protocol that has a known substantial risk of serious harm and which is neither consistent with evidence-based medicine nor generally accepted in the relevant scientific community." [23] The board ruled that Geier misdiagnosed patients, diagnosed patients without sufficient tests, and recommended risky treatments without fully explaining the risks to the parents. They also ruled that he misrepresented his credentials, including during an interview with the board. Geier's lawyer, Joseph A. Schwartz III said the basis of the complaint was a "bona fide dispute over therapy", and hoped for a fair hearing to challenge the board's accusations. [24]
The suspension was reaffirmed in May 2011, [25] and upheld on appeal in March 2012, after a full evidentiary hearing before the Office of Administrative Hearings in Maryland. [26] Geier's licenses to practice medicine in the states of Washington, [27] Virginia [28] and California [29] were suspended as well. In June 2012, Geier was charged with violation of the Maryland suspension by continuing to practice medicine without a license. [30] In August 2012, Geier's license was formally revoked by the Maryland State Board of Physicians. [31] On 5 November 2012, the Missouri Medical board and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation revoked Geier's license, both citing action taken by the Maryland State Board of Physicians. [32] On April 12, 2013, Geier's last medical license in the United States was revoked by the state medical board of Hawaii. [33]
In 2011, his son David was charged by the Maryland State Board of Physicians with practicing as a licensed physician when he only has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology, [34] and was fined $10,000 in July 2012. [32]
On December 21, 2012, a lawsuit was filed against the Maryland State Board of Physicians by Anne Geier. The claim made in the case 371761-V was that a cease and desist order filed by the Maryland State Board of Physicians against Mark Geier, for prescribing medicine to his family after his license was suspended, was posted publicly on the Board's website disclosing their private medical information. The decision of the Board was upheld on appeal. [35]
Geier and his late wife Anne were the only doubles team to achieve a grand slam in the history of the United States Tennis Association's Mid-Atlantic Section division, as of their induction into the division's Hall of Fame in 2007. [36] Their only son David is also an avid tennis player. [37] Anne died of metastatic melanoma at age 67 in 2014. [1]
bona fide dispute over therapy
upheld the suspension on appeal
subsequently suspended as well
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating the body's adaptive immunity, they help prevent sickness from an infectious disease. When a sufficiently large percentage of a population has been vaccinated, herd immunity results. Herd immunity protects those who may be immunocompromised and cannot get a vaccine because even a weakened version would harm them. The effectiveness of vaccination has been widely studied and verified. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the elimination of diseases such as polio and tetanus from much of the world. However, some diseases, such as measles outbreaks in America, have seen rising cases due to relatively low vaccination rates in the 2010s – attributed, in part, to vaccine hesitancy. According to the World Health Organization, vaccination prevents 3.5–5 million deaths per year.
Thiomersal (INN), or thimerosal, also sold under the name merthiolate is an organomercury compound. It is a well-established antiseptic and antifungal agent.
Joseph Michael Mercola is an American alternative medicine proponent, osteopathic physician, and Internet business personality. He markets largely unproven dietary supplements and medical devices. On his website, Mercola and colleagues advocate unproven and pseudoscientific alternative health notions including homeopathy and opposition to vaccination. These positions have received persistent criticism. Mercola is a member of several alternative medicine organizations as well as the political advocacy group Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which promotes scientifically discredited views about medicine and disease. He is the author of two books.
The thiomersal vaccine controversy centers around public concerns and debates over the safety of thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines, with some fearing it could cause neurological disorders such as autism, despite extensive scientific research showing no credible evidence linking thiomersal to such conditions.
Arthur Krigsman is a pediatrician and gastroenterologist best known for his controversial research in which he attempted to prove that the MMR vaccine caused diseases, especially autism. He specializes in the evaluation and treatment of gastrointestinal pathology in children with autism spectrum disorders, and has written in support of the diagnosis he calls autistic enterocolitis. The original study that tied the MMR vaccine to autism and GI complaints conducted by one of Krigsman's associates has been found to be fraudulent, and the diagnosis of "autistic enterocolitis" has not been accepted by the medical community.
The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in state or federal civil courts, but instead must be heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, sitting without a jury.
Claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism have been extensively investigated and found to be false. The link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, characterised as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". The fraudulent research paper, authored by discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield and published in The Lancet, falsely claimed the vaccine was linked to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. The paper was retracted in 2010 but is still cited by anti-vaccine activists.
Andrew Jeremy Wakefield is a British fraudster, discredited academic, anti-vaccine activist, and former physician.
Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure is a 2008 book by Paul Offit, a vaccine expert and chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The book focuses on the controversy surrounding the now discredited link between vaccines and autism. The scientific consensus is that no convincing scientific evidence supports these claims, and a 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years".
Kent Holtorf is an American physician and entrepreneur practicing in Los Angeles, California. He is a board examiner of the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine (ABAAM), which is not recognized by established medical organizations. He is the founder and medical director of Holtorf Medical Group, a practice with five centers that offer treatment for conditions including fibromyalgia, adrenal fatigue, complex endocrine dysfunction, hypothyroidism, age management, chronic fatigue syndrome, low libido, chronic Lyme disease, migraines, PMS, perimenopause and menopause. His practice focuses on alternative therapies that are not recognised as effective. He has been criticized in the media for his controversial views on topics like bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and vaccines.
Kathleen Seidel is an American researcher and weblog publisher from Peterborough, New Hampshire, best known for investigations and writing on autism. Her inquiries into the work and conduct of Mark Geier and his son David Geier regarding chelation therapy and a hormone-altering drug called Lupron, led to medical board actions in multiple states that suspended Mark Geier from medical practice, and caused David Geier to be arraigned for allegedly practising medicine without a license.
Robert William Sears, known as Dr. Bob, is an American pediatrician from Capistrano Beach, California, noted for his unorthodox and dangerous views on childhood vaccination. While Sears acknowledges the efficacy of vaccines—for instance, he supports the claim that Chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, polio, diphtheria have all disappeared because of vaccines—he has proposed alternative vaccination schedules that depart from accepted medical recommendations. His proposals have enjoyed celebrity endorsement but are not supported by medical evidence and have contributed to dangerous under-vaccination in the national child population. While he denies being anti-vaccine, Sears has been described by many as anti-vaccine and as a vaccine delayer.
Michelle Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, also known as Cedillo, was a court case involving the family of Michelle Cedillo, an autistic girl whose parents sued the United States government because they believed that her autism was caused by her receipt of both the measles-mumps-and-rubella vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines. The case was a part of the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, where petitioners were required to present three test cases for each proposed mechanism by which vaccines had, according to them, caused their children's autism; Cedillo was the first such case for the MMR-and-thimerosal hypothesis.
Jeffrey A. Brent is a medical toxicologist who is a distinguished clinical professor of medicine and emergency medicine at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine. In addition, he is a professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. He is also the past president of the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, was editor in chief of the journal Toxicological Reviews, and was a member of the board of directors of the American College of Medical Toxicology. Previously, most of Brent's research focused on the use of fomepizole as a treatment for both methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning, and he led a trial of this drug which resulted in the FDA approving it in December 1997. Currently, Brent serves as Director of the Toxicology Investigators Consortium, an NIH and FDA supported multi center research and surveillance group. Brent is also a senior editor of "Critical Care Toxicology: Diagnosis and Management of the Critically Poisoned Patient," originally published in 2005, and now in its second edition, which was published in 2017.
Hurair Vasken Aposhian was a Ph.D. toxicologist and an emeritus professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Arizona, a post he held beginning in 1975. He is also a former professor of pharmacology at the medical school at said university. He received his bachelor's degree in chemistry, at Brown University, 1948. He received a master's degree and a PhD in physiological chemistry at the University of Rochester, where he published some scientific studies about the synthesis of isoalloxazine ring-containing compounds. He did a postdoctoral with Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg in the department of biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has done sabbatical scholar-in-residence at MIT and at the University of California at San Diego. He is best known for his pioneering work on Succimer and Unithiol in the treatment of arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metals leading to FDA approval of succimer in childhood lead poisoning at levels over 40 ug/dl. Previous posts he had held include at Vanderbilt, Tufts University, and the University of Maryland. His views about mercury in vaccines and in dental amalgams go against the consensus of the medical community and are controversial.
Trine Tsouderos is a journalist who formerly wrote for the Chicago Tribune, beginning in 2003, prior to which she wrote for People, the Tennessean, and the Wilson Daily Times. In 2013, Tsouderos joined PwC's healthcare think tank, Health Research Institute, as a director; in 2021, she was named leader of the institute and also began working as a consultant working on COVID and influenza vaccine projects with pharmaceutical companies. Tsouderos also was co-creator and co-host of PwC's healthcare podcast, Next in Health, and recorded nearly 80 episodes. In 2022, Tsouderos left PwC to work on a master's degree in the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
James R. Laidler is an American anesthesiologist in Portland, Oregon, who is known both for his activism for, and later his opposition to, alternative autism therapies.
James B. Adams is a President's Professor at Arizona State University, where he directs the autism/Asperger's research program, though he originally taught chemical and materials engineering there. Adams also holds a post at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. He is also the president of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix, the co-chair of the Autism Research Institute's scientific advisory committee, and has received the Autism Service Award from the Greater Phoenix chapter of the Autism Society of America. He has been featured on Dateline NBC, and received a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award from President George Bush in 1996.
Mayer Eisenstein was an American pediatrician and family physician known for his opposition to vaccines. He was also known for promoting the use of Lupron as a treatment for autism, a practice originally developed by Mark Geier which has been heavily criticized. He founded and ran the Homefirst practice in suburban Chicago in 1973, and ran it until he died in 2014. Homefirst was known for providing physician-attended home births. In the 1990s, he attended John Marshall Law School along with his son, Jeremy.
Extensive investigation into vaccines and autism has shown that there is no relationship between the two, causal or otherwise, and that vaccine ingredients do not cause autism. Vaccinologist Peter Hotez researched the growth of the false claim and concluded that its spread originated with Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent 1998 paper, with no prior paper supporting a link.
