Desperation, Science, Charlatans and Alternative Treatments

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Dr. Paul Thomas, a prominent anti-vaccine pediatrician in Oregon, had his license suspended Dec. 3 on an emergency basis after the state's medical board found evidence he had violated standard medical practices related to vaccines.

The Oregon Medical Board took the unusual step after reviewing evidence that alleged Thomas guided his patients away from getting the standard course of childhood vaccinations—and that patients suffered vaccine-preventable diseases possibly as a result.

"The Board has determined from the evidence available at this time that Licensee's continued practice of medicine would pose an immediate danger to the public and to his patients," the board's order of emergency suspension states. 'Therefore, it is necessary to immediately suspend his license to practice medicine. To do otherwise would subject Licensee's patients to the serious risk of harm while this case remains under investigation."

A mother requested vaccines that Thomas did not have on hand, and he tried to dissuade her from getting her child vaccinated.

Dr. Thomas "asked her how awful she would feel if Patient A [her child] got autism and she could have prevented it," the order states.

But the medical board also reviewed troubling new allegations that Thomas appeared to push parents not to accept vaccines, including the rotavirus vaccine, and that several of his unvaccinated patients were hospitalized after not getting the vaccine.

That included 10-month-old twins who "were suffering from severe dehydration and serum electrolyte abnormalities and required five days of hospitalization (April 25-30, 2019)," according to the medical board order.

Possibly even more alarming was this statement, by the mother of the twins: "Patient G and Patient H's mother stated during hospitalization that she thought her children had received rotavirus vaccine." That raises the question of whether Dr. Thomas was withholding vaccines that parents wanted or assumed their children were getting. (The medical board order does not address that question.)

The board also took issue with his alleged decision to study his patient's immune response to the measles mumps rubella vaccine.

In so doing, he ordered antibody tests of 905 patients, and the order suggests the tests ordered between 2002 and 2015 were unnecessary. But more troubling were the findings he made and apparently did not act on: that 122 of his patients did not have sufficient antibodies, including 90 of the patients who had not had a second vaccine that is part of the standard vaccination schedule.

Thomas also was a doctor of a high-profile patient who contracted tetanus on a farm and spent two months in an intensive care unit, WW reported in 2019. But the medical board order includes a new detail: that he apparently saw the patient for follow-up care. "Licensee's notes documented a referral to a homeopath, recommendation of fish oil supplements, and 'phosphatidyl seine [an apparent supplement],'" the order states.

Bleach enemas, restrictive diets, and potentially toxic pills are among the dangerous and debunked “therapies” that parents of children with autism have been sold.

The bleach – “Miracle Mineral Supplement” – was sold on an entirely baseless claim that intestinal parasites cause autism. Last year, the Therapeutic Goods Administration banned the advertising and sale of MMS after its makers also started claiming it was a cure for coronavirus.

MMS may be gone, but there are still dozens of useless therapies being peddled. Some, such as chelation, are potentially deadly pills, injections or suppositories. Others, including strict diets and homeopathic or chiropractic treatments, are just a waste of time.

Advocates say a “shadow industry” has grown in the gulf between autism diagnosis and treatment – an industry that is selling false hope to desperate parents.

Andrew Whitehouse, professor of autism at the Telethon Kids Institute and the research strategy director at the Autism Co-operative Research Centre, says the autism sector should “absolutely expect and only accept the same standards that we accept for other areas of health and medicine”.

“And at the moment we don’t do that,” he says. “The autism sector has had an acceptance of a shadow industry for many years with very poor evidence or no evidence whatsoever.

There are things like hyperbaric oxygen therapies, dietary therapies like camel milk, gluten-free diets … special milkshakes. All of this stuff is nonsense.”

Whitehouse does not blame parents, but a regulatory system that allows non-evidence-based therapies to be offered not just privately, but through the public system – while not offering the support that parents actually need.

“For public money, there’s no debate. It cannot and should not be spent on interventions with no evidence. Families need to be protected at a very vulnerable time in their lives.”

The National Disability Insurance Agency commissioned the Autism CRC to review the evidence for 111 interventions for children aged up to 12 years. It found, for example, moderate evidence for early intensive behavioural intervention. If done properly, speech, psychological and occupational therapy can help, as can social skills training.

But there’s hardly any evidence for auditory integration therapy, and only low-quality evidence for music therapy.

Whitehouse has been reporting on his study to the Senate’s select committee on autism. The inquiry was set up by Liberal senator Hollie Hughes, whose son was diagnosed with autism a decade ago. She says parents “are desperate” to make sure their children get the best help possible, but that children who need a lot of help might need up to 40 hours a week, and that’s expensive.

That means there’s a market for other sorts of therapies.

“Swimming with dolphins might be very nice but it won’t help with autism,” she says.

“Equine therapy might be nice … but it won’t teach children how to use speech and communicate.”

Hughes says there can be long delays in diagnosis, because many doctors don’t recognise autistic traits. Sometimes GPs will blame deafness for a lack of speech or non-responsiveness. Once there is a referral to a specialist, there can be more delays – particularly if money or access is a barrier.

Autism is not like other conditions. It’s complicated.

Autism Awareness Australia chief executive Nicole Rogerson agrees that the delays in the system lead to parents seeking other answers. “And”, she says, “you get the paediatric wait-and-see … they’ll tell you to come back in six months.” She says even though people with autism make up the biggest cohort in the national disability insurance scheme (about 30 per cent), the overall system gets bogged down between state and federal government.

“In that space where people are waiting for a diagnosis, or they get a diagnosis then there’s a massive waiting list for intervention, it’s in that place where parents are most vulnerable to snake-oil salesmen,” Rogerson says.

“They flourish. They flourish in the NDIS system as well.”

Many parents (mostly mothers, and mostly anonymous) have written in with very different stories about their children’s challenges and abilities, but with very similar stories about frustrations with the system.

Those with autism (again, mostly anonymous) sometimes rail against the system, but more often rail against the stigma. They talk about their isolation, about being abused, bullied, misunderstood. They talk about a world that won’t flex to let them in.

One 11-year-old writes that he really loves “science, Pokemon, otters (and other wild animals), Lego, and Harry Potter”.

“I am a Cub Scout and I like volunteering for community and environmental causes,’’ he says. “I want to go to university (to) be a biologist, zookeeper, ranger, or vet when I grow up.

“I get bullied a lot at school because I am autistic. I have been hit, threatened, sworn at, and excluded from playing because I am different. Someone even stole my hat and put it in the toilet and put poo on it. I don’t get invited to parties that the rest of the class get invited to because ‘I act weird’.”

There are adults who write about the struggle to get work because people just don’t “get” them, or won’t do simple things such as understand and accommodate sensory differences.

Then there are those who would prefer to be called “autistic people”, instead of “people with autism”. The language, like the therapies, are contested.

Others focus on autistic abilities, instead of challenges. There’s Rhett Ellis, an “autistic entrepreneur” from Brisbane who says Australia could emulate Israel and build a “an Australian cybersecurity autistic military base”.

And the charismatic Clay Lewis, 19.

“I love my girlfriend and hanging out with my mates,’’ he says. “I love playing simulated car-racing games and I can tell you everything you need to know about supercars and Formula One.

“I have my own bin-cleaning business and I’ve been trading now for four years, which is pretty amazing. The NDIS has bad funding and a lack of vision, which could see my business closing down. It won’t happen, but, still, it really upsets me.

“I want to have my own business, as it suits my autistic needs. I can be very funny and cheeky to my customers. I tell a lot of jokes– I just give everyone a laugh – and the community loves me. That’s all I’ve got

Whitehouse says the nub of the matter is that because autism is such a diverse experience, it makes each stage of diagnosis, therapy, and lifelong support more complicated, and the way to address those delays is through making sure the system is bolstered every step of the way.

“What we’re looking at is the range of human experience so our job as clinicians, policymakers, and members of the community is to draw out the beauty of the autism experience and to maximise the potential of individuals across the lifespan,” he says.

“Autism is as diverse as humanity itself.”

A federal grand jury in Miami has indicted a Florida man and his three sons for fraudulently marketing and selling a toxic industrial bleach as a supposed cure for Covid-19, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, autism, malaria, hepatitis, Parkinson’s, herpes, HIV/Aids, and a range of other medical disorders.

According to the indictment, Mark Grenon, 62, and his sons Jonathan Grenon, 34, Jordan Grenon, 26, and Joseph Grenon, 32, all of Bradenton, “manufactured, promoted, and sold the chemical solution that ingested orally became chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleach typically used for industrial water treatment or bleaching textiles, pulp, and paper.”.

The indictment says the Grenons sold tens of thousands of bottles of “Miracle Mineral Solution” (MMS) nationwide, claiming it could treat, prevent and cure Covid-19. The indictment alleges that the Grenons received more than $1m.

The US Food and Drug Administration has not approved MMS for treatment of Covid-19 or any other use and has warned that drinking the solution is the same as drinking bleach and could cause dangerous side effects. “including severe vomiting, diarrhea and life-threatening low blood pressure”.

According to Guardian reporting, in April last year Mark Grenon wrote to then president Donald Trump to promote industrial bleach as “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”.

At a subsequent White House briefing, and to the visible astonishment of experts, Trump said disinfectant “knocks [the coronavirus] out in a minute. One minute!”

He went on to ask: “Is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”

Trump walked back the idea amid widespread alarm and as Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of disinfectants Lysol and Dettol, warned: “Under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body.”

Trump claimed to have been “asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, just to see what would happen”.

The Grenons are alleged to have sold their bleach solution under the guise of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, a pseudo-charitable business they are accused of creating to side-step regulation and prosecution.

The business’s own websites describe it as a “non-religious church”. Mark Grenon has acknowledged that Genesis “has nothing to do with religion” and has said he set up the organisation to “legalise the use of MMS” and avoid “going to jail”.

The government has also charged the Grenons with criminal contempt, for allegedly violating civil court orders to stop distribution of MMS, and for allegedly threatening a presiding judge and warning that if the government tried to prevent distribution they would “pick up guns” and instigate “a Waco”.

That was a reference to an event in 1993 in which more than 70 people died during a raid by federal and state authorities on a cult in Texas.

According to the indictment, a search by federal authorities at the Bradenton home of Jonathan Grenon seized dozens of drums containing nearly 10,000lb of sodium chlorite powder, thousands of bottles of MMS and loaded firearms including a pump-action shotgun concealed in a custom-made violin case.

If convicted on charges of conspiracy and criminal contempt, the Grenons could face life imprisonment.

Mark and Joseph Grenon are presently in Colombia, the government said. Jonathan and Jordan Grenon are in US custody. They were due to be arraigned on Monday.

At least ketamine is fun. What benefits does bleach provide?

The belief and use of bleach as a “miracle” cure for COVID-19 and other serious afflictions is growing as a movement.

Last month, the Justice Department indicted Florida man Mark Grenon, as well as his three adult sons, for reportedly promoting chlorine dioxide, a type of bleach, as a cure for COVID-19 and other illnesses.

According to the indictment, Grenon has been selling the toxic bleach through a church he helped found known as Genesis II, calling the substance MMS, or "Miracle Mineral Solution." The bleach is typically used to treat wood products and can be fatal if consumed in high quantities.

Genesis II and its marketing of MMS is gaining most of its traction in Latin America, prompting warnings from the Pan American Health Organization and individual health ministries in nations including Bolivia that it has no medical benefits and can be fatal when ingested.

In March, COMUSAV, a self-described alternative health group, held a conference on the medical use of chlorine dioxide in Bolivia.

According to Vice News, Peru’s congress launched an investigation into the use of bleach as a cure to COVID-19 in May.

In Mexico, people from actors to army officers are promoting the miracle uses of bleach.

Meanwhile, in Argentina, one TV host drank bleach mid-segment live last August.

I really wish someone would do an article on what it is about their autistic children all these parents hate so much.

Nasty stuff Ketamine, also a party drug, many have lost their bladders to it & spend the rest of their lives having to urinate a bag.

Nasty stuff Ketamine, also a party drug, many have lost their bladders to it & spend the rest of their lives having to urinate a bag.

LUTS improved after cessation of ketamine use in 81 (83.5%) abusers.

Messages posted to a Telegram group run by Kerri Rivera, a pseudo-medical expert who advocates for the use of a dangerous bleach solution to “cure” autism and other serious illnesses, say she’s being criminally charged as a result of advice she gave to a parent. A person who said they were speaking on Rivera’s behalf posted a message, ostensibly written from her perspective, to her Telegram group on July 21; the message said that her home was raided by police on July 13 and that she is accused of causing bodily harm to a child whose parent she advised on Telegram. It also called the claim that she’d harmed the child “impossible.”

Rivera is a longtime advocate for the use of chlorine dioxide, a substance that, when mixed with citric acid, forms a powerful and dangerous bleaching agent. She has falsely claimed it can “cure” autism and, more recently, suggested it can treat COVID-19. (Chlorine dioxide is also marketed under the name Miracle Mineral Solution, or MMS, most infamously by the Genesis II Church in Florida, run by a man named Mark Grenon. Grenon and three of his sons were recently indicted on charges related to their sale of MMS.)

Journalists and activists monitoring Rivera’s activities believe she moved several years ago to Bremerhaven, Germany. Bremerhaven police declined to comment on the reported raid, writing, “Unfortunately, we are not allowed to give you any information about individual persons for reasons of data protection“

The Telegram message attributed to Rivera said, “I am not allowed freedom of speech,” then seemed to suggest that Rivera had been fined or criminally investigated previously. “I created a 3 minute video in January of 2020,” it read, “sharing hope and healing with anyone who would be interested. That led to a 150,000usd [sic] case. Obviously ‘they’ want to shut me up. After receiving a letter from the government that the case is over only five weeks ago. On July 13, 2021 at 6 am a team of 11-14 police invaded our home and ransaked [sic] it as if I were a drug dealer. They took supplements and all of the electronics from computers to cell phones. Once gone, we were left with a search warrant and confusion.”

Rivera, formerly a Chicago real estate agent, began advocating for the use of chlorine dioxide as a bogus autism cure and in 2015 was banned from marketing her treatments in Illinois; she was subpoenaed after presenting at AutismOne, a yearly anti-vaccine conference usually held in the Chicago suburbs. By that time, she was already living in Mexico, but she’s believed to have relocated to Germany about two years ago. Over the years, she began marketing a variety of dubious supplements and products, which she’s eagerly adapted for the COVID-19 era. In September 2020, she received a warning letter from the FDA saying some of her products “misleadingly represented them as safe and/or effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.”

Two activists, Fiona O’Leary and Melissa Eaton, both say they reported Rivera to German authorities. Eaton, a U.S.-based activist who’s gone undercover in Facebook groups where parents are discussing giving their kids chlorine dioxide, told Motherboard that she reported Rivera to German police and consumer protection agencies.

“This is incredible,” O’Leary said. She’s an Irish advocate for autistic people who’s frequently campaigned against Rivera and other chlorine dioxide and MMS peddlers for the better part of a decade. She says that she reported Rivera to investigators in Bremerhaven two years ago, and that the Telegram case Rivera appears to be referencing is one that she alerted German authorities to at the time. O’Leary is autistic herself, as are some of her five children. Campaigning against Rivera and people like her, she said, “has been eight years of my life.” In 2019, O’Leary says, she received a letter from a German lawyer, identifying themselves as representing Rivera and her husband, threatening to sue O’Leary for disclosing “both personal and private data of our clients as well as wrong allegations about them.” (O’Leary provided screenshots of the letter to Motherboard.) “I told them to go to hell,” O’Leary recalls, “and I never heard back.”

The message on Telegram indicated Rivera recently appeared before a judge.

Rivera has operated two Telegram groups devoted to giving bogus health advice, one in Spanish and one in English (the Spanish-language group focuses more heavily on the supposed benefits of a ketogenic diet, with only occasional mentions of MMS). In the English-language group, as group members demanded to know why Rivera wasn’t responding to their messages, an administrator named Leon Edwards repeated on Saturday and Sunday that Rivera had been raided by police and that her computers and phone had been taken. (Edwards is a UK-based promoter of chlorine dioxide who was the subject of an exposé by the BBC in 2015, and has been linked to Genesis II Church.)

Edwards also wrote in the Telegram group that Rivera had taken down a web page for a book she’s sold for years that promotes chlorine dioxide as an autism cure. “Kerri was advised to take down the book page,”

I hope she gets jail,” O’Leary told Motherboard by phone. She paused for a moment, then broke into tears. “And I hope she thinks during that time about what she’s done to people like my children.”

Nasty stuff Ketamine, also a party drug, many have lost their bladders to it & spend the rest of their lives having to urinate a bag.