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Geier family

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Against allopathy
Alternative medicine
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Clinically unproven
Woo-meisters

Mark Robin Geier (1948–) and David A. Geier[note 1] are a couple of vultures[note 2] father-son team of American anti-vaccine advocates who specialize in quack cures for autism.

The Geiers are perhaps best known for their truly bizarre theories regarding androgens and mercury. In 2004, Geier advanced a hypothesis that testosterone increases the potency of mercury.[2] This led the Geiers to invent and patent a therapy regimen of chelation and Lupron,[3] an anti-androgen. Lupron is normally only given to children who show signs of precocious puberty,[4] so what the Geiers suggested was way off-label.[note 3] Their solution? Declare that all the children in their studies had precocious puberty.[5]

This regimen is, to put it mildly, controversial among actual scientists in relevant fields.[6] Fortunately, as of 2009 they no longer have access to Lupron.[7]

As of early May 2011, the Geiers' controversial "therapy" has been found to be a concern by the Maryland State Board of Physicians.[8] Fortunately, they have also decided that Mark Geier's therapies pose such a threat to children with autism that he was stripped of his medical license.[9] David Geier, his son, is not and has never been a doctor of any kind, and in the same case was charged with practising medicine without a license.[10]

In 2025, David Geier was appointed by the Trump administration to oversee a government study on vaccines and autism.[11]

Publications[edit]

  • Geier DA, Geier MR (2004): "A comparative evaluation of the effects of MMR immunization and mercury doses from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines on the population prevalence of autism",[12] Medical Science Monitor

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Not to be confused with the orthopedic surgeon David Geir, who is not antivax[1]
  2. "Geier" is German for "vulture" and the behavior of these two practically forces this association upon any German-speaker and the unfortunate birds who are dragged into this.
  3. Not to mention incredibly unethical.

References[edit]