Dr Andrew Moulden was a neuroscientist from Canada with strongly anti-vaccine views. Dr Moulden had his own hypothesis for how vaccines cause brain injury.
Dr. Moulden earned MD and PhD degrees. He received his MD degree from McMaster University in 2000 and his PhD (neuroscience) from University of Ottawa in 1999. Moulden died in 2013, supposedly by suicide. Dr Moulden published no scientific papers on vaccines or vaccine injury. Moulden’s ideas about vaccines are described only in low-quality, unreferenced videos, articles and interviews, and in a book written by someone else.
I confirmed the receipt of Moulden’s MD and PhD degrees directly with the universities.
Moulden’s expertise was in psychiatry and neuroscience. His PhD dissertation is here: Moulden-Dissertation
Moulden wrote a short biography about his life and evolving views of vaccination: Moulden-Biography
Moulden never completed residency and consequently he never became a practicing doctor. Moulden spent 9 years attempting to complete a 5-year psychiatry residency, but never finished. He spent 4 years in the 3rd year of the program, for example. This is strange and suggests personal problems during this time. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontarios (CSPO) provides Moulden’s residency history here: Moulden-CPSO-Data
Did Moulden Write Anything About Vaccines?
Dr Moulden is an author of two papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10883773 and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8724917. Both papers are unrelated to vaccines or vaccine adverse reactions. So, Dr Moulden published no original research or review papers in scientific journals on the subject of vaccines. I have been unable to find any scientifically-supported articles written by Dr Moulden on vaccines, peer-reviewed or not.
A book about Dr Moulden’s ideas on vaccines is heavily promoted on vaccine-critical websites. The book is called “Dr Andrew Moulden: Every Vaccine Produces Harm” http://amzn.com/B00VNYPKHA). Surprisingly, this book was not written by Dr Moulden. It was written by John P. Thomas and Brian Shilhavy of Sophia Media of Austin, TX. The book title/cover is misleading, because it identifies only Dr Moulden, and not the actual authors. Sophia Media is the publisher of Health Impact News and Vaccine Impact News, which explains why these websites heavily promote the book. Since the book does not reference any papers or articles by Dr Moulden (it only cites an interview), it’s not clear that the book accurately describes Dr Moulden’s ideas.
A big problem with the book is that it cites only one peer reviewed paper: an ecological study by Neil Miller. Miller’s paper is a respectable ecological study (comparing infant mortality rates and vaccination schedules in many countries). But the paper does not specifically support Moulden’s ideas. Also, ecological studies have unavoidable problems with bias, and therefore are considered very weak evidence. Ecological studies should not be used as evidence of causation. They should only be used for hypothesis generation.
Other than Miller’s paper, the book cites articles from Natural News, NVIC, Vactruth, an interview by Moulden (provided below), and non-scientific and/or poorly-referenced internet articles or youtube videos. Here are the citations from chapters 1 and 2 (comprising 26 of the 37 total citations in the book), so you can see for yourself the low quality of the sources used: Ch1-refs1 Ch1-refs2 Ch2-refs1
Dr Moulden apparently never wrote any articles about vaccines with scientific citations. His ideas about vaccines are described in youtube videos, an interview and a poorly-referenced book written by someone else.
The best-available descriptions of Dr Moulden’s ideas are found in a 2009 interview on vactruth.com and in his video lecture “Tolerance Lost”. Its not much to go on.
Vactruth interview: https://vactruth.com/2009/07/21/dr-andrew-moulden-interview-what-you-were-never-told-about-vaccines/
Tolerance Lost (transcribed): http://barbfeick.com/tolerance_lost/
Moulden’s Hypothesis
Moulden’s hypothesis (apparently) is that vaccines cause blood and oxygen starvation (i.e. “ministrokes”) as a result of inflammation. Moulden coined the phrase Moulden Anoxia Spectrum Syndrome, or “MASS” to describe his hypothesis. Moulden asserts that ministrokes cause neurological damage and autism. Increased blood viscosity and clotting is a consequence of some types of inflammation, so Moulden’s hypothesis is biologically plausible. However, I have been unable to find supporting scientific evidence, and Moulden doesn’t cite any. Moulden claims that his hypothesis is proven conclusively, but this is definitely not true. So, while his hypothesis is plausible, he is wrong to say it is proven. He cannot even claim to have evidence. Moulden has a hypothesis, and nothing more.
In his 2009 interview on vactruth.com, Moulden states:
“I have now conclusively shown that ALL vaccines, from infancy to geriatric, are causing the exact same brain damages irrespective of what disease or disorder comes out. The damages are specific to end vascular “mini strokes” that are beneath the resolution of our neuroimaging, but measurable in a before/after vaccination protocol. They are also directly measurable in real time – however, this involves techniques and technology I have not disclosed to the public as yet.”
AND
“The evidence is now self evident. All you have to do now is receive the education you need to appreciate and see what is before your very eyes – layperson and Doctor.”
AND
“It is no longer an opinion as I now have conclusive evidence to show that ALL vaccines are causing the exact same damages for us all in the exact same manner that wild polio virus caused paralysis, respiratory failure, death, bleeding into the brain, and more.”
AND
“Remarkably, I have made the evidence so glaringly obvious, that you can quite literally now see for yourself, in the here and now, and going back 70 years ago if damages happened then.“
These statements are grandiose and unsupported. Moulden’s “ministroke” hypothesis is plausible. But it is absolutely wrong for Moulden to claim that his hypothesis has been “conclusively shown” or proven. Moulden provided no evidence. Claiming “the evidence is now self evident” does not help.
Some recent evidence indirectly and nonspecifically supports the plausibility of Moulden’s ministrokes hypothesis. In January 2016 it was reported that the cytokine IL-17a causes autism in immune activation experiments. The connection to Moulden’s hypothesis is that IL-17a is induced by ischemia (oxygen starvation). So thats a possible link. But keep in mind that lots of things can induce IL-17, and IL-17 must be at high enough levels for sufficient duration to cause autism. The IL-17a-autism link is described here: http://vaccinepapers.org/new-kid-block-il-17a/
Diagnosis by Photographs
Moulden claimed that vaccine-ministroke injury can be diagnosed by photographs. Specifically, his claim is that asymmetrical facial features and asymmetric muscle tone around the eyes indicate vaccine injury. Many vaccine critical websites publish photos of faces as examples of vaccine injury. Below is an example, taken from healthimpactnews.com
Above: Image purportedly created by Dr Moulden, showing examples of asymmetrical facial features allegedly caused by vaccine injuries. Dr. Moulden claimed to be able to diagnose vaccine injury from such photographs. MASS = Moulden Anoxia Spectrum Syndromes.
It is true that vaccines and immune activation can cause nerve damage, which can result in asymmetrical facial features. However, these adverse effects are not specific to vaccines. Many types of infections and inflammation can cause these symptoms.
Dr Moulden allegedly offered a web-based service to diagnose vaccine injury in children. He did this by comparing face photographs taken before and after vaccination. This is not reasonable because facial changes have numerous causes. Offering a “diagnosis by photograph” service, performed remotely (without seeing the patient) is almost certainly unethical.
Nerve Palsies
The facial distortions shown above and discussed by Moulden are known in the medical scientific literature. There is evidence that they can be caused by vaccines, though the literature emphasizes that there are many causes. The literature also mentions that these “nerve palsies” often resolve on their own.
Nerve palsies are apparently caused by brain inflammation or swelling that causes compression of the facial nerves, which control muscles in the face. So when they are injured by compression from swelling, the associated muscles can be affected. There are a number of papers on the topic of nerve palsies:
Benign recurrent sixth (abducens) nerve palsies in children
Incidence, Associations, and Evaluation of Sixth Nerve Palsy Using a Population-Based Method
Recurrent isolated sixth nerve palsy after consecutive annual influenza vaccinations in a child
Benign VI Nerve Palsies in Children
In view of the numerous causes of nerve palsies, and it’s relatively low incidence, it is not reasonable to claim, as Moulden does, that nerve palsies can be used to diagnose vaccine injury. The association between nerve palsies and vaccine injury is not strong and specific enough to use for diagnosis.
Vaccines can cause nerve palsies (likely by a neuroinflammation mechanism), but Moulden did not discover this. Moulden’s claim that nerve palsies can diagnose vaccine injury goes too far.
Moulden’s Weird Website
Moulden’s website has articles on extremist politics, religious ideology and bizarre nonsense. It further undermines his credibility. There are no scientific articles on Dr Moulden’s website, and no articles whatsoever about his vaccine-induced “ministroke” hypothesis. http://www.drandrewmoulden.com/
The Moulden website was created on Nov 8, 2013, 4 days after Dr Moulden died. Consequently, we cannot be sure that the website content was written by Dr Moulden, or accurately reflects his ideas. It is possible that the website was written by people with an incorrect understading of Moulden’s ideas. The Moulden website administrators have not responded to email inquiries about their connection to Dr Moulden.
A Dam Mad MD?
Evidence suggests Moulden suffered from mental illness. A psychotic break may explain why he never finished his residency, and the bizarre content on his website.
His autobiographical description contains a grandiose claim:
“I have completed the unfinished “Germ Theory” work of Louis Pasteur upon which the Western medical, vaccine, and prescription drug industry is based.“
Moulden’s website has another grandiose statement:
“As I am a medical Doctor, who was being groomed and positioned to lead all of organized medicine in Canada, I am in a position to tell the truth – I have seen it, lived it, studied it, diagnosed it…and we will cure it ALL, and you, with the Truth. Remember, I ONLY tell the Truth, as you will see and learn. I am mad – you will decide where the mental derangement is, in me, in you, or in the system, men and women we have placed our faith in…blindly” (Emphasis added)
Thats quite a claim for someone who never obtained a medical license.
The Moulden website states that he was compelled to sign a statement that he was mentally ill, in order to return to clinical medicine:
“The Public Health Department advocated that I NOT be allowed to return to clinical medicine as they were incensed by the message (truth) of my lectures and teaching prior to ‘disappearing.’ The only way I was allowed to return to organized medicine to work with medical patients was if I signed a contract drawn up by the public health department which states: 1) I am mentally ill and therefore my research and teachings on vaccine safety were delusional. 2) I am not allowed, whatsoever, to speak or present my research or views on vaccine safety, in public, at all, as a condition of being allowed to return to clinical medicine, receiving a medical license, and for maintaining that license.” (Emphasis added)
It’s impossible to know what to make of this, but the mentally ill often complain about being forced to admit their illness. The Canadian medical licensing board has a policy of not allowing doctors with active mental illness to practice medicine. In Canada, information about mental illness of doctors and medical students is confidential by law, so Dr Moulden’s school and the licensing board cannot say anything.
Conclusions
Some of Moulden’s general statements about the danger of vaccines (and aluminum in particular) are correct. But Moulden does not support his claims with evidence. He boasts that he has “conclusive” and overwhelming evidence, but he provided none.
Moulden appears to be a once-capable scientist who encountered personal problems and adopted increasingly extreme and unsupported beliefs. There is reason to believe that Moulden suffered from mental illness.
Vaccine critics should cease promoting Moulden’s ideas because they lack scientific support. Also, Moulden’s extreme and bizarre statements undermine his credibility and the credibility of vaccine activists that cite his ideas.
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Notes:
1) A prior version of this article stated:
“The immune activation research suggests that Moulden’s hypothesis is wrong, at least in the case of autism. Moulden’s “ministrokes” hypothesis is not consistent with what we know about immune activation-mediated brain damage. Immune activation and cytokines cause neurodevelopmental damage by mechanisms that are not associated ministrokes or ischemia (localized tissue damage from loss of blood flow). Cytokines cause brain damage that does not resemble ischemic brain damage. So, the available evidence seems to contradict Moulden’s “ministroke” hypothesis.”
I now believe the above statement is wrong, because I have recently become aware of evidence that ischemia stimulates IL-17a production in the brain. A recent discovery has demonstrated that IL-17a causes autistic behavior in animals, and it is responsible for much of the damage caused by immune activation. The IL-17a-autism evidence is described here: http://vaccinepapers.org/new-kid-block-il-17a/