World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) Secretary-General Richard Brown delivered a keynote address at the CLEVELAND CENTENARY CELEBRATION at Cleveland University in Kansas City as the school celebrated its 100th anniversary this past weekend. According to Brown his Keynote included: "setting out the vision, mission and principles of the WFC and the global status of chiropractic". He also took part in a panel discussion where he, Dr Scott Haldeman and Dr Sherry McAllister responded to questions from Dr. Cleveland about developments and innovation in the profession.

Given Cleveland's rich history in regards to vertebral subluxation chiropractors have been shocked to see that the WFC was given such prominence at their Centennial. Cleveland is a PLATINUM Sponsor and PARTNER with the WFC despite the WFC's derogatory stance on the practice of managing vertebral subluxation and the WFC's embrace of vaccination, the COVID narrative and all things allopathy. 

Brown is a past President of the British Chiropractic Association and has stated his and the BCA’s support for prescriptive drug rights for chiropractors as well. During COVID he has promoted the use of the mandated and experimental vaccine stating: "No one is safe until everyone is safe" and pushing the false notion that "the vaccine protects you and those around you". Under his leadership at the WFC the organization led the charge on the false narrative that chiropractic does not have a clinically beneficial effect on the immune system and that chiropractors should not make such claims.

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In response to physiotherapists and podiatrists in England being given the right to prescribe drugs such as anti-inflammatories and painkillers BCA President Richard Brown stated:

“This decision will provide significant benefits for patients and complement the care they are able to receive from physiotherapists and podiatrists. It will also reduce the need for patients to return to their GPs for their medication”.

The BCA statement continued:

“The BCA, which is committed to improving quality and enhancing patient choice in the provision of musculoskeletal services, has already made representation to the statutory regulator, the General Chiropractic Council for the chiropractic profession to acquire prescribing rights and supports on-going dialogue to achieve this objective."

Brown admittedly had “argued that the scope of practice for chiropractors should not be restricted and that an opportunity for the profession to compete with its physiotherapy colleagues in the competitive marketplace of musculoskeletal services would be strengthened by permitting limited prescribing of drugs.”

At the WFC’s 2011 Congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brown defended his view in a debate with other leaders in the profession making representations to the General Chiropractic Council, maintaining “that the declared view of the membership of the UK’s largest national association should be acted upon.”

No Fan of Subluxation Centered Chiropractors

In addition to his support for drug rights, Brown is also a harsh critic of subluxation centered chiropractors.

In a paper published in Chiropractic & Manual Therapies in 2012 Brown referred to such chiropractors as “one trick ponies”:

“For chiropractic to gain credibility, we must also accept that we cannot simply be one-trick ponies. Claims by some chiropractors that we should not be diagnosticians but merely the correctors of vertebral subluxation perpetuate the myth that consulting a chiropractor will invariably involve lengthy programmes of spinal manipulation.”

The notion that subluxation centered chiropractors all recommend “lengthy programmes” is a recurring theme in Brown’s writing. In a presentation at the WFC Conference in 2013, Brown refers to these chiropractors as “evangelists” practicing what he refers to as “pseudo-religious systems”:

“There must be no place in our modern evidence-based era for evangelists who treat the profession as a cult and deride anyone who disagrees.”

“We must eradicate from the profession those peddling pseudo-religious systems of so-called care, who prey on the vulnerable and coerce them into financially crippling extended care contracts.”

It is not known what, if any, organized group of chiropractors Brown is referring to but certainly the International Chiropractors Association, which is a dues paying member of the WFC, supports pre-payment plans for subluxation correction.

Brown also seems to have a disdain for high volume practitioners. In the same issue of Chiropractic & Manual Therapies Brown states:

“Perhaps first and foremost, there is a clear need to promote a consistent message. It is a matter of great regret that chiropractic’s identity is often blurred and the good work done by a hard working majority can very quickly be undone by a damaging minority of evangelists who preach a message of high volume, practitioner-centered practice building.”

Is he referring to ICA members who see high volume and assist their patients with pre-paid plans of care to reduce or correct subluxation?