Andrew Moulden

Andrew Moulden talking about his favorite thing, his vast career as a perpetual student

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“”A DAM MAD MD I AM

—Andrew Moulden

Andrew Moulden (c. 1964-2013) was a Canadian quack who pushed an extreme form of anti-vaccine woo, claiming that vaccines as the causes of most illnesses and disabilities, including autism.

In addition to his anti-vaccine ideology (which is frequently too extreme even for other anti-vaxers) Andrew Moulden was a germ-theory denialist, a conspiracy crank, a 9/11 truther, a failed politician, and a snake-oil salesman offering an Internet-based magical procedure to uncover the true causes of everything from shaken-baby syndrome and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) to dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Moulden claimed several academic degrees, including a medical degree, but he was not licensed to practice medicine anywhere. In fact, there were apparently restraining orders to keep him out of major medical conferences — according to him, anyway.

Voice in the wilderness or crackpot?

Moulden was a denier of the germ theory of disease, and in its place has concocted his own theory for the causes of all illness that only he has discovered. Moulden claims that his "marathon academic efforts have culminated in discoveries that, upon my disclosures, will change our knowledge of neurophysiology, medicine, and brain and behavioral disorders, in profound ways that will immediately end much human pain and suffering globally." The great secret? Apparently, all disease was caused by white blood cells "clumping." Vaccines cause white blood cells to clump. Therefore, vaccines cause all illness. Quod erat demonstrandum.

Counter to his claim to be the sole source of this finding, Moulden said that the "truth" has been known for a long time and was discovered by Rudolf Virchow in the mid-19^th century. Virchow was the first person to propose that pulmonary thromboembolism was caused by a blood clot. Moulden merely took the singular case proposed by Virchow and makes the logical leap that if it was true of one disease then all disease must be based on blood clots. At this point, it should be obvious why Andrew Moulden was not licensed to practice medicine.

Moulden blamed all disease on blood clots, and then claimed all blood clots are caused by white cells reacting to the injection of vaccines. How disease existed prior to the use of vaccines, or how disease emerges in people who have not received vaccines was not elucidated in Moulden's all-encompassing, earth-shattering theories. Most likely the answer is some form of ingestion of toxins from somewhere, at sometime.

Science, peer review and a persecution complex

Moulden had very little use for science or the scientific method; he said that "science can never replace common sense and your own powers of direct observation." He has also rejected peer review or substantial clinical trials of his ideas or inventions, discounting the whole thing as an exercise in futility and claiming limited resources make it not worth bothering with. This complete reliance on anecdotal evidence, and refusal to submit his ideas to any sort of scrutiny, makes them an ideal example of pseudoscience.

He instead chose to take his ideas straight to the public and the courts. For several years after announcing his discovery of the true cause of disease, Moulden promised to release all the studies, all the information, all the mechanisms at a late 2008 anti-vaccine conference in China. Apparently it fizzled, because now the only way to get this information is to buy his four-DVD box set and comic books. Moulden has also attempted to file various briefs in the vaccine courts and to file criminal complaints against drug companies in Canada.

As with all quacks, Moulden had a highly developed persecution complex. He made all the classic cliché comparisons of himself to Galileo and Christopher Columbus, who, according to Moulden, proved the world was round. Moulden claimed to have submitted several screeds as manuscripts to university publishers and had them denied. He also claims that he managed to use lawsuit threats to force the universities to at least receive his manuscript, but that it is merely "collecting dust".

He also apparently turned dangerous against the medical community. Moulden said with great pride that he had been physically removed from medical facilities, and has a restraining order that prevents him from getting anywhere near major medical conferences.

Save your baby from SIDS, over the internet!

Moulden claimed to have a cutting-edge "medical imaging" system that can detect the early stages of just about every disease imaginable.

Playing on people's fears and vulnerability, Moulden pushed the idea that he can diagnose Sudden Infant Death Syndrome before it happened. The truly miraculous part of Moulden's system is that this can all be done using only photographs or video. He has applied it to the faces of celebrities and their children to make various diagnoses, and now offers it over the internet to the public at large. Simply upload your videos or pictures, and a crack team will use this amazing machine to provide quick and easy diagnoses. In the event that something bad is found, you can have a live consultation!

In addition to his internet diagnostic system, Moulden pushed more standard fare, such as DVDs that contain all his "secrets", and even glossy pamphlets which look like anti-vax Jack Chick tracts. He also has a system to help people to "legally" avoid any vaccine requirements for their children.

Building credibility one letter at a time

Since Andrew Moulden had no medical experience and was not licensed to practice medicine, his credibility took a pretty big hit. In order to counter this, Moulden loved to pile up as many letters after his name as possible. It appears that was been a perpetual student of sorts, getting a degree and then moving onto another university to get another degree, rather than putting any of them to use. Moulden even included his BA after his name in his signature and on his websites. When he spoke about his credentials and why people should take him seriously, he emphasized such things as his GPA and the amount of funding he got in his program of study. You would think this "alphabet soup" style of credibility was an odd way to promote oneself to people who think the medical industry and all doctors are out to get them.

Failed political career

With a list of conspiracy theories a mile long, Andrew Moulden attempted to become Canada's Ron Paul by taking over the Canadian Action Party and running for a parliamentary seat in Ontario in 2008. Moulden's Canadian Action Party was Canada's answer to the crazy wing of the US Libertarian party. The Canadian Action Party theorizes that 9/11 was a government conspiracy, that the North American Union is intended to dissolve all sovereignty, and that Big Brother is out to get us. Out of about 42,000 votes in his district, Moulden managed an impressive 201.

In November of 2009, Moulden resigned from his position as the head of CAP and aligned his support with the even smaller "Christian Heritage Party".. With such a bright political career ahead of him, Moulden might have been able to abandon the quack medicine shtick he was living off now.

Death and purported mental illness

On November 4^th, 2013 Andrew Moulden died. An individual reported to be his sister posted a Facebook message stating that "My brother was Bipolar and it was consuming his life. Drew committed suicide on Monday."