ChiroWatch - Takes aim at Winchester
who shoots himself in the foot
Who is Jeff Winchester? Is he the same person who just a few
years ago studied basic science at one of Canada's finest institutions
of higher learning, and who then applied and graduated from the Canadian
Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) ? Or is he the one and same Jeff
Winchester who erected a permanent sign on the outside of his office on
Bridgeport Rd., one of Waterloo, Ontario's busiest highways.
If he is Dr. Jeff,
he assumes that it his God-given right to misinform the public on many
public health issues, and despite public criticism, he continues to
spout his anti-scientific jargon from his pulpit.
For instance, in 1997 his sign said that meningitis shots were not necessary
during the Waterloo area meningococcal meningitis epidemic that killed
2 and crippled many more. He appeared on local TV and radio shows and was
featured in the K-W Record because of his sermon from the chiropractic
mount.
During that epidemic we at Healthwatcher.net set up a special "Meningitis
hotline" to pay our respects to those who died. It was a public
education campaign that served the community. Instead, what did Winchester
do, but to spew forth strange idiologies, and pseudoscience to support
his faith.
He has continued his misinformation campaign from time to time about
other health issues. Complaints have been filed and yet nothing has seemed
to silence him.
Are there guidelines in the Provincial Health Act that can restrict
what a licensed health care professional can say in public? Obviously not.
They are protected under the freedom of speech laws, that allow us to criticize
them. But laws can't legislate common sense.
If I were to yell FIRE in a crowded theatre, I would be held responsible
for the panic and mayhem that would surely follow?
The best way to deal with the Jeff Winchesters of the world is to expose
their views to public scrutiny. We can do our best if we ask him to explain
what the "innate intelligence" that he refers to really means.
I would assume that according to Winchester, chiropractic colleges should
teach that the Black Plague, AIDS, and breast cancer are the results of
the world's "innate stupidity". It doesn't make any sense, unless
of course it is the work of the "devil".
Those who don't believe in the religious fervor of some chiropractors
are "victims" and will "suffer" the consequences. It
sounds like a page out of the hymnal of a fundamentalist religious cult
to me.
Some publicly funded schools teach that there is a heaven and a hell
in religious instruction classes. Some churches teach that the main role
of their parishioners is to go out and extole the virtues of their faith
in all corners of the world.
The cult of Winchester's brand of chiropractic hangs signs out to warn
that if you get a meningitis shot, you will be branded a heretic, you will
be excommunicated, and you will suffer the consequences for not listening
to the ravings of a God-given wonder, called Dr. Jeff.
The cult of chiropractic, as some see it, is based on something that
can not be proved. It is based on faith in the fact that subluxation of
the spine is the cause of all illness, and it is taught at the Canadian
Memorial Chiropractic College in Toronto. That college has offered York
University more than $25 million to move there and teach their theories
as a health discipline.
Pediatric chiropractic zealots, like Jeff Winchester, may be trained
at York University, with your tax money to spew forth religion clothed
in pseudo-science. It would like putting up a monument to Scientology on
the grounds of York University. Both are unscientific, and potentially
dangerous to public health.
At the present time, a for-profit pediatric chiropractic group from
the U.S. is teaching people like Jeff Winchester to manipulate the public,
while they manipulate pregnant mothers and newborns. The Novatel Hotel
in Etobicoke holds expensive weekend courses for Canadian chiropractors
to teach them how to promote pediatric chiropractic.
I invite the public to continue the debate about pediatric chiropractic
with their own doctors. Ask them what they think about it. Collect information,
and you decide whether Jeff Winchester, and his friends in the cult of
pediatric chiropractic are right, and whether you, after digesting his
claims, are willing to entrust your pregnant wife's, or newborn's care
to him, and to his friends.
On the other, if you find that your own chiropractor has objections
to what Jeff Winchester has to say, ask them to speak out, and tell their
community that Jeff Winchester is an anathema, a boil, a loose cog, who
serves no purpose, except to play games with the lives and hopes of intelligent
people who live in our community, and who trust our medical care. It is
crystal clear that the minority of chiropractors like Winchester choose
to build cathedrals of illogical and spurious knowledge, as they sit in
their pulpits, and wait for the world's minions to walk into their offices,
and bow down before them.
For information on chiropractic history, and current raging debate about
pediatric chiropractic I suggest tuning your web browser to www.chirowatch.com.
Terry Polevoy, MD
Waterloo
30 Dec. 1998
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