How did David Geier – who along with his father Mark Geier – conducted fraudulent research on how vaccines caused autism and enriched themselves by selling an autism “cure”, get appointed to the state of Maryland’s autism commission?
David Geier and Mark Geier are the state of Maryland’s answer to Andrew Wakefield. Like Wakefield, the Geiers have had their credentials as scientists shredded and have had paper retracted because of their bogus claims that vaccines and mercury preservative cause autism. Like Wakefield, the Geiers have made a bundle peddling snake oil diagnostics and dangerous treatments to kids with autism. In the Geier’s case it was injecting autistic children with Lupron, a drug used to perform chemical castration on sex offenders and reduce hormone levels to treat prostate cancer.
In my book Tabloid Medicine I noted that the Geiers deliberately manipulated data about vaccine safety to show a link between more shots and more autism and then went on to sell themselves as expert witnesses in vaccine liability cases and as the inventors of a new battery of tests and treatments for diagnosing and treating autism. I build on the work of others, including Kathleen Seidel who, as put together a blockbuster 16-part series on her website, neurodiversity.com. Similarly, in 2009, the Chicago Tribune ran a series that shone attention on the Geiers’ work, including “Miracle drug called junk science“ by Trine Tsouderos, “Autism treatments: Risky alternative therapies have little basis in science,” by Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan.
The Geiers's sordid history was already in plain sight before Wakefield was finally exposed as a fraud as well as a fear monger by Brian Deer in his three part investigative series Secrets of the MMR scare.
So when David Geier submitted his application to be named to the Maryland Commission on Autism how was it that no one raised a question or objected until Mark Geier’s medical license was suspended the state’s Board of Physicians?
Or more to the point: How did David Geier get the nod in the first place? As a “diagnostician” no less?
As the Baltimore Sun’s Meredith Cohn dryly observed: “It's not clear what specific element of his application won the seat on the panel, on which 60 people requested positions. Neither he nor his father has made political contributions, according to state data. And court records show that at one time, the family business owed more than $500 in back taxes to the state, which it was ordered to pay.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-doctor-suspension-20110505,0,7283787.story
Here’s a clue: The Geiers did have their association with John L. Young, MD.
Who is Dr. Young and why might he be connected to David Geier’s appointment?
In 2009, Dr. Young “was the President of the Montgomery County Medical Society, the largest component medical society in Maryland. From 2007 to 2009, he was asked by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to serve as a Commissioner for the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission, and in 2009, was appointed by Governor O'Malley to serve on the Board of Regents for the University System of Maryland.”
That information is taken from the website of ASD Centers, which the Geiers set up to peddle Lupron and other dangerous and disproven autism treatments. That’s because John L. Young, MD -- founded in 2008 -- along with Mark Geier -- ASD Centers.
http://www.autismtreatmentclinics.com/Staff.html
And there’s more: The Geiers set up an Institutional Review Board (IRBs are established to review the impact of clinical research on human subjects) to approve their own research, conducted by ASD Centers of course. The IRB called the Institute for Chronic Illnesses turned out to be Mark Geier’s home.
More problematic, John Young was a ‘co-investigator’ with Mark and David Geier in their Lupron research.
Even worse, Young was also a member of the IRB.
http://www.neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/98/
There’s more: “Dr. Young is Dr. Geier’s business partner in Genetic Consultants of Maryland and Genetic Consultants of Virginia; he, Dr. Geier and various business entities were codefendants in a 1994 medical malpractice lawsuit. He is also a newly-minted DAN! practitioner. According to his ARI listing, Dr. Young completed an eight hour training at the May 24-28 2006 DAN! conference in Washington, DC. Treatments he offers include antifungal pharmaceuticals and nutriceuticals, chelation, antiviral medications, and Lupron injections.)”
If I were the media, the state’s Board of Physicians or Governor O’Malley I might want to have a conversation with Dr. Young. I would ask him if he was involved with appointing David Geier. It might be interesting to find out what role he might have had in not bringing to light the Geiers’ past abuses to the Governor and the Board of Physicians.
