Welcome to Dr. Judy’s Data Substack - where we will help restore institutional memory! What do we mean by this? Follow along - it will be a great ride!
And we picked this day to introduce this to you, why?
It is both the 11th and 8th anniversary today of my arrest and the publication of my first book which chronicled it and many other related events, Plague - One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases.
Eight years ago this coming week, I was interviewed by my local newspaper, the Ventura County Star, ironically the same newspaper that last month interviewed my pastor Rob McCoy in an article titled, The unmasked rise of Pastor Rob McCoy: Culture war propels evangelical to larger stage, who wrote with the same twisting of truth he featured in his earlier article I discuss here. And how fitting a title for a pastor so unmasked! Remembering, “Our faces are not covered with a veil. We all display the Lord's glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Kisken’s account of my story reflected in the Ventura Star in 2014, the same week of the publication of my first book, Plague, was the beginning of the mission to distort and erase the institutional memory of both scientific literature and the lay news media that narrates it.
A key ingredient to wiping out institutional memory is to strategically embed propaganda that masquerades as truth/science.
Kisken got a lot of things right - Our discovery of XMRV Viruses and their connection to chronic fatigue syndrome gave promise to ways to treat and possibly cure it, XMRVs convert into DNA and stay with a person for life and that retrovirus discoveries could also offer promise to autism patients.
He was willing to acknowledge some of the inconvenient truth - even acknowledging “Retroviruses and environmental toxins led to this explosion of chronic diseases.” As I pointed out,
But then propaganda was neatly embedded, like Vincent Racaniello’s statement, “She was simply wrong, and only at the end did she really admit it.” Mmmm, I don’t think so.
A new reality starts to take shape, wiping away the truth and replacing institutional memory with a new unfortunate and life-threatening one.
And how interesting the title of the other piece featured in this article, nothing to do with our story, but who cannot unsee the phrase, “How doubt was cast on guilt?”
I am asking the same questions and demanding the same answers from ‘Science’ I did in 2011, when my work was first challenged inside the now corruption-plagued scientific community.
From ScienceInsider, on November 19, 2011 the article titled Controversial CFS Researcher Arrested and Jailed By Jon Cohen, Cohen states, “Sheriffs in Ventura County, California, arrested Mikovits yesterday on felony charges that she is a fugitive from justice. She is being held at the Todd Road Jail in Santa Paula without bail. But ScienceInsider could obtain only sketchy details about the specific charges against her. The Ventura County sheriff's office told ScienceInsider that it had no available details about the charges and was acting upon a warrant issued by Washoe County in Nevada. A spokesperson for the Washoe County Sheriff's Office told ScienceInsider that it did not issue the warrant, nor did the Reno or Sparks police department. He said it could be from one of several federal agencies in Washoe County.”
Yet according to David Follin and Travis Middleton, there was no search warrant nor was I officially charged for any crime for my arrest.
How did the Ventura Star know all about my arrest less than a day later?
And so it began, and rather than how doubt was cast on guilt, as the Ventura Star leads us to consider, we see how doubt was cast on innocence!
Follow along - as we unpack more on the anniversary of my release from jail, five days later…
Thank you Doc. We need more like you! Absolute stellar human being, brilliant and more than a blessing!!
Welcome Dr. Judy to Substack! Great to have you here.