One of the most outspoken and venomous anti-subluxation zealots in the chiropractic profession, Michael Simone DC, has just penned a RESOLUTION adopted by the rabid anti-subluxation special interest West Hartford Group (WHG) that mirrors much of what the American Chiropractic Association and its new brand has been promoting. In addition to being President of the West Hartford Group, Simone sits on the Colorado Board of chiropractic in judgment of other chiropractors and is past Chairman of the Board of the American Chiropractic Association.
Simone has stated publicly that chiropractors who practice in a vitalistic subluxation model should be ELIMINATED, that vitalism was discredited long ago and that chiropractors should prescribe drugs.
The RESOLUTION passed by the Board of Directors of the WHG includes nine items including calling upon the profession to acknowledge the chiropractic vertebral subluxation complex theory as historical in value and not evidence-informed.
This follows a similar pattern as events in the United Kingdom, Australia and now Canada where subluxation deniers are simply lying in order to advance their agenda to marginalize and eliminate the practice of managing vertebral subluxation.
The Resolution also calls for the usual suspects in chiropractic birth control including a Bachelors degree prior to matriculation into chiropractic college along with an admissions test.
In addition, Simone and his colleagues want mandatory training in pharmacology added to school curriculums to support their goal of prescriptive drug rights for chiropractors.
And of course what Resolution by a band of subluxation deniers would be complete without banning x-ray for use in subluxation analysis.
That's in there too.
While these deniers might be shrugged off as just a bunch of fringe lunatics, the facts are that they are being used to advance a larger agenda that involves moving the profession closer to the allopathic model that so many in the profession believe will bring them acceptance and third party pay.
So it doesn't matter that the nonsense they spread is false.
For example, Simone recently stated that surface electromyography is not supported by any valid scientific evidence in an ACA email publication.
This statement alone shows his deep seated ignorance of the very things he is opining on.
Christopher Kent DC, JD, perhaps the foremost expert on surface EMG in chiropractic, responded:
"In a PUBMED search, there are currently 1095 papers using 'surface electromyography reliability.' 572 papers using 'surface electromyography validity.' 83,181 using 'surface electromyography' alone. No valid scientific evidence?"
The real issue for the Deniers like Simone is that what they do in practice actually has little to no objectivity, validity or reliability. These folks generally palpate the spine to look for stuck joints and employ a host of other orthopedic and neurological exams that have not been shown to be objective, valid or reliable.
What the Deniers are good at is the propagation of illogical fallacies, semantic pathologies and epistemic trespassing. All of which they use to pepper the internet with their obfuscations.
What's worse is that they control a couple of "peer reviewed" research journals where they sit on the Editorial Boards and act as authors on submitted papers that perpetuate their dogma. Then they use those papers when testifying against other chiropractors in regulatory board actions and malpractice cases.
Case in point: Colorado
In Colorado, where Simone serves on the Colorado Board of Chiropractic, their board adopted RULE 15 and are recently making attempts to it in order to make it easier to go after chiropractors who manage verterbral subluxation. Basically, if chiropractors are using any procedures or tests that the Board deems experimental, investigational or invalid they want to force chiropractors to tell patients this and to have them signed informed consents to that effect.
When you see on the same day that RULE 15 is being revised that Simone is lying to the American Chiropractic Association about the scientific validity of surface EMG, a test used by many chiropractors managing verterbal subluxation, it becomes crystal clear what his motives are.
CLICK HERE for a copy of the West Hartford Group's Anti-Subluxation Resolution
