Rand Paul and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

[KingOrfeo]

He has been a member since 1990 and boasts of using a lot of AAPS literature in his speeches.

SourceWatch on the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons:

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a group of conservative activist doctors who oppose the 2010 health care reform law, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."[1] Members of the group also believe that President Obama may have hypnotized voters and that climate legislation is a threat to human health. Some of the group's former leaders were members of the John Birch Society. Mother Jones wrote of the group, "Yet despite the lab coats and the official-sounding name, the docs of the AAPS are hardly part of mainstream medical society. Think Glenn Beck with an MD."[2]

<snip>

False leprosy claim
The Spring 2005 edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons contained an article[4] by Madeleine Cosman, headlined "Illegal Aliens and American Medicine," claiming, "Suddenly, in the past three years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy," citing a 2003 article in the New York Times as a reference. Among news outlets repeating this claim were WorldNetDaily[5] and CNN anchor Lou Dobbs. In fact, the 7,000 number in the Times article was an apparent reference to all then-current cases of leprosy in the U.S.; according to the National Hansen's Disease Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there have been just 431 reported cases of Hansen's disease (leprosy) over the "past three years."[6]


Political contributions
Donations to political candidates by the AAPS' political action committee in 2000 and 2004 skewed rightward, with donations given to candidates registered as Republican, Libertarian or with the Constitution Party.[7][8]


Positions on health issues
Mother Jones, discussing AAPS's journal (called the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons), writes,

The publication's archives present a kind of alternate-universe scientific world, in which abortion causes breast cancer and vaccines cause autism, but HIV does not cause AIDS. Cutting carbon emissions represents a grave threat to global health (because environmental regulation would make people poorer and, consequently, sicker) ... The organization opposes some of the most accepted practices in health care, including mandatory vaccine regulations. Peer review, a long-standing hospital practice that helps doctors learn from and prevent errors, is viewed as the source of great injustice by AAPS, which fights attempts to micromanage doctors with such bureaucratic nuisances as medical evidence about what works and what doesn't. Computers, too, are an ominous threat. The organization has resisted the use of electronic medical records—which, naturally, represents an attempt by the government to acquire masses of private information about American citizens. (AAPS' executive director claims to keep all her patient notes in longhand.)[9]

Doctors for Disaster Preparedness
The website for the group Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) is registered to Jeremy Snavely of AAPS. [10] DDP and AAPS also share the same mailing address, in Tucson, Arizona. [11] [12]

DDP is skeptical of climate change, as the title of their web page on the subject suggests: "Ozone hole, Global warming, and other Environmental Scares." [13]

Presented just in case there was any doubt that Rand Paul is a crank.

Contards arriving to bash SourceWatch in 3 . . . 2 . . .

 

[KRCummings]

Was there any doubt to begin with?
It doesn't change anything. He can and has said anything he wants and nobody cares except his opponents.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Was there any doubt to begin with?
It doesn't change anything. He can and has said anything he wants and nobody cares except his opponents.

Ayuh. The polls have Paul leading Conway 49%-47%.

Apparently, the sun is the only thing that shines bright in that ol' Kentucky home.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Also of interest:

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS), until 2003 named the Medical Sentinel,[33][34] is the journal of the association. Its mission statement includes "… a commitment to publishing scholarly articles in defense of the practice of private medicine, the pursuit of integrity in medical research … Political correctness, dogmatism and orthodoxy will be challenged with logical reasoning, valid data and the scientific method." The publication policy of the journal states that articles are subject to a double-blind peer-review process.[35]

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is not listed in the major literature databases of MEDLINE/PubMed[36] nor the Web of Science.[37] Articles and commentaries published in the journal have argued:

* that abortion causes preterm birth later in life, and thus birth defects such as cerebral palsy to future children born to women with a history of abortion,[38]

* that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are unconstitutional,[39]

* that "humanists" have conspired to replace the "creation religion of Jehovah" with evolution,[40]

* that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not caused global warming,[41]

* that HIV does not cause AIDS,[42][43]

* that the "gay male lifestyle" shortens life expectancy by 20 years.[44]

A series of articles by pro-life authors published in the journal argued for the existence of a link between abortion and breast cancer.[45][46] Such a link has been rejected by the U.S. National Cancer Institute,[47] the American Cancer Society,[48] and the World Health Organization, among other major medical bodies.[49]

A 2003 paper published in the journal, claiming that vaccination was harmful, was criticized for poor methodology, lack of scientific rigor, and outright errors by the World Health Organization[50] and the American Academy of Pediatrics.[51] A National Public Radio piece mentioned inaccurate information published in the Journal and wrote: "The journal itself is not considered a leading publication, as it's put out by an advocacy group that opposes most government involvement in medical care."[52]

Quackwatch lists JPandS as an untrustworthy, non-recommended periodical.[53] An editorial in Chemical & Engineering News by editor-in-chief Rudy Baum described JPandS as a "purveyor of utter nonsense."[54] Investigative journalist Brian Deer wrote that the journal is the "house magazine of a right-wing American fringe group [AAPS]" and "is barely credible as an independent forum."[55]

So -- is Senator Doctor Paul gonna be an anti-vaxer?