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"Plague of Corruption" , a book review by Matthew Romans

Dr. Judy Mikovits, together with attorney and science teacher Kent Heckenlively, have written a fascinating new book called "Plague of Corruption." The authors give their take on the current state of scientific research, and what its relationship with both the government and the pharmaceutical industry mean for us.

Dr. Mikovits is a very respected researcher who spent twenty years working at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and has co-authored more than fifty peer-reviewed scientific papers. Before her work at NCI, she spent two years working for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, and after she left NCI she worked for several years as the Research Director at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Mikovits has a PhD in Biochemistry from George Washington University. Mr. Heckenlively is the founding editor of Age of Autism.

Dr. Mikovits has worked closely for over thirty years with Dr. Frank Ruscetti, who is one of the founding fathers of the field of human retrovirology. She did her doctoral thesis on HIV, and in fact defended her thesis a week after basketball star Magic Johnson was diagnosed with the virus. She correctly predicted that not only would Johnson not die of AIDS, he would never develop the disease, and that the antiretroviral drugs he had started taking would silence the activity of the virus. A retrovirus (which is what HIV is) is a type of RNA (ribonucleic acid) that inserts a copy of its genome into the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) of a host cell that it invades. They can lay dormant for years before an immune response triggers action. This is what happens when you are given a vaccine. A vaccine works by "training the immune system to recognize and combat pathogens."

The authors suggest science has been corrupted by jealousy, politics, and the growing influence of the pharmaceutical industry. This is contrary to how Dr. Mikovits has always looked at science. She says, "...I always figured a scientist was like an umpire in a baseball game, calling balls and strikes as he sees them."

The pharmaceutical industry holds great power, and stands to make large amounts of money from vaccines. However, not everyone is so enthusiastic. To quote the authors again, "What you do with a vaccination is you temporarily cripple a part of the immune system, as resources are diverted from protecting against other viruses to target the virus from the vaccine." This is magnified when multiple vaccines are given. Vaccines are grown in animal tissues, and it's unknown what viruses and pathogens are being transferred while receiving the vaccine. In addition to that, chemicals can be found in vaccines such as mercury, formaldehyde, aluminum, and polysorbate 80.

Through their research, Dr. Mikovits and Dr Ruscetti were able to isolate a recently discovered retrovirus known as XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus). This retrovirus has been associated with prostate cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, autism, and possibly Alzheimer's disease. XMRV has been found in vaccines. A paper detailing their findings was published in the journal Science in October 2009. The doctors were pressured to retract their published findings, but they refused. Dr. Mikovits was later arrested and held in custody for five days without being charged with a crime. The police searched her house from top to bottom in order to find her research notebooks. Charges were never filed, and no trial was held. In fact, no prosecutor ever even looked at the facts of the case. She was eventually fired from her job at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute and forced to declare bankruptcy. Fortunately, Dr. Mikovits was able to rebuild her career and started a successful consulting firm with her mentor Dr. Ruscetti. Through all of this, she has remained an outspoken critic of the current state of public health, but is optimistic for the future.

Regardless of where you stand on the safety and efficacy of vaccines, this book is an important examination of the relationship between science, politics, and the pharmaceutical industry. It's important to never stop asking questions, and to never believe that we have all the answers. If we keep an open mind and explore theories and ideas from a variety of sources, we can learn a great deal about how to keep ourselves healthy and vital for many years to come. Education never stops.

Posted July 09, 2020 by Matthew Romans