Prominent nutritionist Dr. David Katz rails against the anti-vax movement in latest Huff Post column — why then does he associate with “cult-like” anti-vaxxers?
Via “Flu, Light, And Truth: FLUx et Veritas,” by Dr. David L. Katz, The Huffington Post, October 7, 2016:
This is just the right time for an annual booster of light and truth regarding the perennial menace of the flu, and our best defenses against it.
That we need such a booster at all is testimony to several things. First, the truth about flu recedes readily into the shadows of denial, conspiracy theories, and anti-scientific New Age nonsense. A bit of light is just the right disinfectant…
…We have recent evidence of what has been an obvious, advancing, and to those of us in public health, alarming trend over recent years: vaccine complacency, and vaccine opposition. The latest news on that front is survey research indicating that a high number of millennials don’t plan to immunize their children…
…In case you are among the many dubious about flu vaccination specifically, and immunization in general, I will address it bluntly…The flu vaccine does not cause the flu – ever. It can’t because the vaccine does not contain a virus, just proteins.
Earlier this year, I blogged a series of original reports about the International Meta-Medicine Association (IMMA), an LA-based integrative medicine organisation that promotes a bizarre philosophy of disease based on the widely discredited theories of the notorious Ryke Geerd Hamer, a German ex-doctor implicated in the deaths of numerous cancer patients.
Like Hamer – who claims that vaccines are a Jewish conspiracy to implant genocidal “death chips” into the bodies of non-Jews – IMMA promotes a radical anti-vaccination agenda, as per this January 15, 2013 snippet of an article from IMMA’s official website (originally published in Natural News):
[H]ere’s the dirty little secret the vaccine industry doesn’t want you to know: Most people getting the flu right now are the same people who were vaccinated with the flu shot.
[The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] refuses to release any statistics on this, of course, because then the total hoax of the flu shot would be exposed. But I’ve been making phone calls to a large network of friends and professional contacts, and they’re all telling me the same thing: Of the people they know who are getting sick, about two-thirds routinely get flu shots!¹
Incredibly, Katz has maintained a years-long relationship with IMMA.
As I reported in July (click here to read), in 2013 Katz gave a recorded talk via Skype at the “Be Meta-Healthy Online World Summit,” an IMMA event timed to coincide with the launch of the organisation’s online university, Meta-Health University (MHU) – which lists Katz as a faculty member in its 2015 programme.
As per this April 29, 2013 e-mail from IMMA founder Johannes Fisslinger, Katz was offered 50% commission on all sales of his talk:
From: META-Health, Johannes R. Fisslinger <johannes@meta-health.org>
To: davkatz7@gmail.com <davkatz7@gmail.com>; Helen B. Day <helen.day@yalegriffinprc.org>; david.katz@yale.edu <david.katz@yale.edu>
Subject: Fwd: Featured Speaker at Integrative Medicine Online Global Summit
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:03:59 +0000Dear Dr. Katz,
would you please join us as featured speaker at our November Integrative Medicine Online Summit. We would pre-record via phone, so your time commitment is only about 45-60 minutes.
Presenters will be Bruce Lipton, Dean Ornish, Dr. Jonas (Samueli Institute), John Robbins and other Integrative Medicine and Meta-Health experts.
The Online Summit will be for FREE and we expect over 100,000 people attending.
I am personally such a big fan of your work and hope you join us in our mission to move Integrative Medicine and a new healing paradigm forward.
Warm regards,
Johannes R. Fisslinger
http://www.fisslinger.com
yogamonth.org
meta-health.org
310 928 6638
PS: Attendees can purchase digital downloads or DVD sets and we can offer you as a summit partner 50% commission for all your sales (which will be sustantial). [sic]
However, when I asked Katz if he profited from the “substantial” sales of his talk, he accused me of harassment.
Almost three months later, Katz has seemingly made no effort to disassociate from IMMA. Why? One possible answer presents itself in a recent article by Crossfit’s Russ Greene, who details Katz’s flavourful history of peddling junk nutrition science while shilling for huge corporations like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Chobani.
Katz has managed to live two lives, one as a paid junk-food apologist, the other as an independent source for public health information. But what makes his story more remarkable is that he successfully played both roles under a single name. And the media and government failed to adequately vet him for conflicts of interest, all the while promoting his work to the unknowing public. Thanks to the CDC, US taxpayers provided the “core funds” for Katz’s research.
Logically and physically, only one Dr. David Katz can exist. His public health persona may be a facade, but the million-plus he has accepted from junk food companies remains a matter of fact.
¹Via nhs.uk: “Studies have shown that the flu jab does work and will help prevent you getting the flu. It won’t stop all flu viruses and the level of protection may vary between people, so it’s not a 100% guarantee that you’ll be flu-free, but if you do get flu after vaccination it’s likely to be milder and shorter-lived than it would otherwise have been.”
See also: “Freunde von Meta-Medicine,” my July 25, 2016 item about IMMA’s relationship with Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. David Katz.
Shooting the Messenger 