Fairfax
County School Board Member, County Board
Candidate Co-Founder of Quack,
Anti-Vaxxer Group
by:
lowkell
Fri
Apr 10, 2015 at 17:30:00 PM EDT
WHY HASN'T THE LOCAL MEDIA REPORTED ANY OF THIS?
The race to succeed Gerry Hyland (D) as Fairfax
County Supervisor from the Mt. Vernon magisterial district is off and running,
and there are four Democrats in the field. I don't support anyone in this race
as of yet (and may never), but I've started looking into the candidates, one of
whom is Fairfax County School Board member Dan Storck. According to Storck's
website, he is "Co-Founder and Managing Member, National Integrated Health
Associates." What is National Integrated Health Associates, you ask? I had
never heard of it before (and barely knew a thing about its "co-founder
and managing member," Dan Storck), so I checked its website. Here's what I
found.
*The company claims to be "leaders in holistic
integrative medicine and biological dentistry." Sounds innocuous enough,
but start poking around the website, and you quickly get a different
impression.
*In fact, these folks are vociferous
"anti-vaxxers," who among other things tie vaccination to autism. See
their page on vaccinations for more on this dangerous pseudo-science. Note
that, according to the Centers for Disease Control, "There is no link
between vaccines and autism." Period. Also, just for emphasis,
"Vaccine ingredients do not cause autism."
*Despite the overwhelming benefit to humanity of
vaccines, and the pandemics that would occur (which would kill untold numbers
of people) if we stopped vaccinating people, the National Integrated Health
Associates website states, "We support the National Vaccine Information
Center (NVIC) effort and their accumulated expertise and information about
vaccinations - the risks and benefits of vaccinations."
*The "National Vaccine Information
Center," as this article in Slate explains:
...is a group that has an official-sounding name,
one that might make you think their message is trustworthy.
Except, not so much. Or at all. Or really just the
opposite.
NVIC is an antivax group, plain and simple. Despite
hugely overwhelming tsunami-level amounts of evidence showing no link between
vaccines and autism, they still think there is one. They go on and on about
"vaccine injuries", yet actual severe side effects from vaccines are
very rare, especially when you realize that many millions of vaccines are given
every year. The NVIC relies on anecdotes of injuries as evidence, but that's
very dangerous thinking. Stories and personal observations are a good place to
start-it's how you might notice a connection between two things-but it's not
where you end. You must apply rigorous testing to your ideas, so that you can
make sure you're not seeing a connection where none exists.
Not good.
*Even worse: on the National Integrated Health
Associates website, there's a page of links to all kinds of dangerous,
pseudo-scientific nonsense. For instance, a document entitled "Seeking to
understand: ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder)" argues absurdly that
"only you can be your child's best doctor." No, sorry, that's what
all those years of Medical School are for, and why we go to the doctor for
diagnosis and treatment, not to Dr. Mom or Dr. Dad.
*The National Integrated Health Associates website
further claims, outrageously: "welfare moms and school systems get extra
money for medicating their kids - what a system!" Whoa -- "welfare
moms?" The whole vaccination thing is a way for school systems and
"welfare moms" to get money? Is this a bad joke?
*The website also asserts, completely falsely, that
"Autism, ADHD, allergies and asthma (4 A's) and all the other brain
disorders are due to neuro-immune dys-function due to too much neurotoxins and
the inability of the child to adequately detox or remove these harmful
toxins." It explicitly blames, again completely falsely, the "rapid
rise in the vaccination schedules for infants in the last 30 years" for
everything from autism to allergies to "leaky gut" to "Lyme,
Candida, Herpes virus, Strep, staph, tetanus botulinum, mycotoxins from mold
and others." Alrighty then...
*One of the National Integrated Health Associates'
doctors was disciplined by the Maryland State Board of Physicians for having
"incompetently managed 12 significantly ill patients." This same
doctor previously had been "convicted and sentenced to two years'
probation for marketing an unapproved medical device in interstate
commerce." In addition, he "signed a consent agreement with the
Maryland board under which he admitted to practicing medicine without a license
and would pay a $15,000 fine." Oh, and New York State suspended this guy's
license for basically being a total quack, practicing something called
"orthomolecular medicine," which his website claimed (falsely) were
"effective against ADD & ADHD; aging and longevity; alcohol and drug
problems; allergies; Alzheimer's; arthritis; asthma; immune and autoimmune
disorders; cancer; chronic cardiovascular problems and risk factor screening;
chronic fatigue; chronic illness; chronic pain; depression; detoxification;
diabetes; fibromyalgia; heart and vascular disease; heavy metal toxicity;
hormonal problems; intestinal problems; lifestyle health issues; men's health
problems; mental health problems; migraine; neurological disorders;
osteoporosis; Parkinson's disease; sinusitis; smoking; sports nutritional
medicine; and women's health problem." Craaaazy stuff.
We could go on all day here, but the bottom line is
clear: the National Integrated Health Associates, co-founded and managed by
Fairfax County School Board member (and current County Board candidate) Dan
Storck, is a quack organization which strongly promotes dangerous
"anti-vaxxer" pseudoscience. Why "dangerous?" Because, obviously, failure to vaccinate
children makes not just the unvaccinated children more vulnerable to
potentially life-threatening diseases, but also other people (e.g., older
people whose immunity might be compromised for whatever reason) as well. As
this article puts it: "An epidemic of vaccination skepticism - largely
based on unfounded and discredited anti-vaccine beliefs - has contributed to
the growing public health crisis."
So here's the thing: Dan Storck is entitled to
whatever beliefs he wants to hold, but for a member of the school board in
Virginia's largest county to be peddling this dangerous, anti-vaccination
pseudoscience seems to be relevant information that parents and voters might
want to be aware of. In talking to people yesterday and today, what I'm hearing
is that the public has NOT been aware of Dan Storck's anti-vaccination views.
Perhaps if they had known, they might have reelected him anyway, but the issue
apparently never came up, so we'll never know.
Anyway, now Storck's seeking a promotion to the
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and it seems like voters should have this
information before they go to the polls this June to select their Democratic
nominee (Storck or one of the other Democratic candidates - Tim Sargeant, Jack
Dobbyn and Candice Bennett) for this position. At that time, voters can make an
informed decision as to who they want representing them on the Fairfax County
Board, possibly for many years to come...
P.S. Also note that Storck's company believes herbs
can cure Lyme Disease, that fluoridated water is heinous, that mandatory
vaccines may violate your civil liberties, that wearing a bra or putting on
deoderant can cause breast cancer, that kids with cancer shouldn't get
chemotherapy, that women shouldn't get mammograms because they are worthless
(they link to this article), that measles is "transmitted by the
vaccinated," and...ok, I think you get the idea.
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