Scientist Who Attacked Columbia University Dr. Oz Received Money from Junk Food, Biotech and Vaccine Companies
One of the primary physicians who signed a recent letter attacking Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of a popular daytime medical program on television, and seeking his removal from the faculty of Columbia University is also a convicted criminal who once lost his medical license for Medicaid fraud.
Dr. Gilbert Ross, executive director of the American Council on Science and Health, had his medical license revoked in 1995 for professional misconduct. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $40,000 and pay restitution in the amount of $612,855 (which was later reduced to $85,137) for his part in a scheme to defraud New York’s Medicaid program.
After being released from prison, Ross was subsequently hired by an ACSH co-founder, the late Elizabeth Whelan, a Harvard-trained public health scientist who claimed to have started the Council as a crusade against “junk science.” In 1999, he was promoted to the position of medical director/executive director, even though he did not regain his medical license until 2004.
Ross was one of ten “prominent” physicians who signed the letter to Columbia University. In part, the letter stated:
We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz to occupy a faculty appointment, let alone a senior administrative position in the Department of Surgery.
…Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops. Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain.
Junk science? How about junk food?
Ross and the other doctors go on to say that “members of the public are being misled and endangered” by Dr. Oz’s promotion of alternative health options.
However, if anyone is guilty of endangering the public’s health, Ross and the ACSH have certainly played a role. For one, many of the organization’s donors are biotech, junk food and vaccine firms like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, AmVac, and Syngenta.
Moreover, according to an entry describing the history of ACSH at TruthWiki, the organization has said in the past that it conducts independent research and that donors have no influence whatsoever on that process.
However:
An insider report tells a different story. Nicholas Martin, ACSH’s administrative director for part of 1988 and 1989 says funders were involved with projects. during parts of 1988 and 1989. When ASCH published a booklet on sugar and health, it was printed in-house by The Hershey Company. The Stroh Brewery Company participated in editing a booklet on alcohol and health. When The Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA) asked ACSH to publish a booklet defending chemicals used for lawn care, they were told by Whelan they would only take on the project if the PLCAA funded it through a donation.
Owned by special interests?
In addition, ACSH has received donations from Syngenta, with additional funding to support atrazine. Whelan once asked for an additional $100,000 to write a book about why chemicals aren’t bad. She coined the term chemophobia and defined it as the public’s unwarranted fear of chemicals. Syngenta’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Jessica Adelman, called Whelan a “great weapon.”
As for the remaining physicians who signed onto the letter, Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, helped expose the fraudulent nature of their purpose.
“The contrived attacks on Doctor Oz backfired in spectacular fashion today as he took to the air to expose the convicted felons, frauds and hucksters — all doctors operating as corporate front men — who tried to silence him,” he wrote.
Ross and ACSH are no friends of good health, nor are they uncompromised by special interests, apparently.
Sources:
http://truthwiki.org/The_American_Council_on_Science_and_Health
http://truthwiki.org/Vaccine_Fanaticism
