If you don’t know the story of Dr. Geier and his son (heretofore referred to as “The Father and the Son”), you can read this excellent wrap-up of the history of these two. It boils down to this: They chemically castrated autistic children to “treat” those children’s autism. It’s really such a horrible thing that the state of Maryland’s medical board suspended the license of the father and filed charges against the son for practicing medicine without a license (making it look like he was a clinician). That was back in 2011. The date is important, and you’ll see why in a little bit.
When you go to school at the George Washington University School of Public Health, you are required to do a practicum (professional experience) at a site that is relevant to public health when you’re getting a master of public health (MPH) degree. A few friends of mine have gone there, and they did their practicums at DC DOH, at Maryland DOH, in Virginia, at hospitals, community clinics… Somewhere where they could learn about public health practice.
One particular individual, someone we refer to as “the kid”, did his practicum with – you guessed it – the Father and the Son. Well, okay, maybe just the Father, as the Father has been revealed to be the practicum site preceptor for the kid. A major university in the heart of the nations’ capital, one which has graduated some pretty great epidemiologists and public health practitioners, one that is up there in terms of public health research and practice, one that charges students a ton of money for a good quality education, approved a physician whose license was suspended in 2011 and revoked since to be the site preceptor for the kid.
Whether the kid knew that the Father and the Son were in hot water legally is up for discussion. One thing we know for sure, the kid knew what the Father and the Son were doing to autistic kids. He has blogged about it and defended it in different media. This is disturbing in many, many ways. Here we have an anti-vaccine, conspiracy theory-believing, public health professional (because he has the MPH, whether or not we like it) who knew what these guys were doing to autistic kids and still chose to do his “public health culminating experience” under the Father’s supervision.
To quote a friend, “WTF?”
I think somebody dropped the ball and did not do the kid a favor. The faculty at GWU should have reviewed the Father’s qualifications to be a site preceptor and not allowed the kid to do his culminating experience there. He should have gone to a place where actual public health is practiced, not what can be best described as “quackery”.
It is no surprise to me that the kid has been defending the work of the Father and Son.
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The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services is still investigating the claims in this article.
However, your article gives the impression that Mark Geier was teaching or advising a GW student who was doing a practicum at SPHHS. In fact, Mark Geier was facilitating the use of a non-GW database the student used while doing his/her research, which was not part of a practicum. The student in question was being supervised by a faculty member at the university and the student’s contact with Mark Geier was limited mainly to accessing the information in this database.
GW School of Public Health
Office of Communications
Thank you for your comment. I see that you commented the same exact thing on the post at Autism News Beat (http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/2241). Is my blog post exactly the same as ANBs? The only thing I reported was what ANB reported and the back story of the quackery in which the Geiers engaged. Mark Geier was identified to the writer at ANB as the student’s site preceptor. I verified that with ANB, and ANB provided me with proof.
Yes, the Geiers prescribed Lupron for girls in their teens. One that I heard about was 16.
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The kid may have the certification but he doesn’t have the education. Allowing Papa Geier to be his precept hasn’t done anything for the education part either. The kid is very fond of COIs for others but I don’t recall that he ever mentioned his with The Father and Son when writing his “investigative” posts defending the duo. He also has some other glaring COIs that he seems to be holding back as well.
You have to admit though, it would be fun to see the kid defend any thesis he cobbles together.
The kid may have the certification but he doesn’t have the education. Allowing Papa Geier to be his precept hasn’t done anything for the education part either. The kid is very fond of COIs for others but I don’t recall that he ever mentioned his with The Father and Son when writing his “investigative” posts defending the duo. He also has some other glaring COIs that he seems to be holding back as well.
Papa and Baby Geier chemically castrated young autistic children of both sexes. They developed a “theory” about mercury toxicity associated with Thimerosal (which was used as a preservative in multi-dose vials of vaccines) causing autism.
Dr. David Gorsk blogged about the Geiers’ bogus “treatment of autism”, via chemical castration/IV chelation, more than four years ago:
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/chemical-castration-for-autism-after-three-years-the-mainstream-media-finally-notices/
This assignment of a disgraced and discredited former medical doctor whose license was suspended or revoked in every State where he set up “autism treatment clinics” to supervise and mentor an MPH-Epidemiology candidate, has got to be the most outrageous academic failure, that I have heard of, in a number of years.
During my tenure as a public health nurse, employed by a large suburban health department, dozens of MPH and MD/MPH candidates were assigned to extended rotations within the various divisions of the Department. They worked alongside doctors and nurses investigating cases, clusters and outbreaks of every communicable disease (not just the handful of vaccine-preventable-diseases). The candidates rotated into our seven public health clinics, into our public health laboratory, partnered with our sanitarians during restaurant inspections and while they were investigating suspect or confirmed food-borne illnesses. They were in the field with outreach workers assigned to our STD/HIV partner notification/testing units and with nurses and outreach workers assigned to our TB Control unit. Those activities are appropriate for MPH candidates…not an assignment to a quack doctor who has had his medical license revoked.
Shameful.
With cases like this, one has to ponder the worthiness of national based medical licensing, such as the UK has.
Rather than have 50 states worth of victims, the victim list is substantially shorter, as the license is revoked for cause nationally.
In this case, I suspect he’d have a hard time parading about some other nation’s version of Texas, as we are singular in the possession of such a place as Texas.
Let us all get the theory of the malpracticing professional correct now.
Chemically castrating children treats autism?
So, do they also do that to female autistic patients? Or do they simply practice eugenics upon males exclusively?
I think they did apply that to girls, too, if I remember correctly.
You remembered correctly. Girls as old as 16.