Generation Rescue

Comment and Opinion

Generation Rescue
This site disappeared in 2020, so I've mined the Internet Archive.

Because this was essentially a vanity project of J. B. Handley, the items below are about him.

Another gutless anonymous liar (14/2/2009)
Dr Paul Offit is being sued over something that appears in his excellent book, The details of the suit appear on the anti-vaccination liar web site Age of Autism. The wording starts off by saying:

DR. PAUL OFFIT SUED FOR INVASION OF PRIVACY
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON FOR THE COUNTY OF MULTNOMAH
PLAINTIFF, an individual,
Plaintiff,
v.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, a New York corporation, and PAUL A. OFFIT, M.D., an individual, Defendants.

Plaintiff alleges as follows:
1. Nature of Action This is an action brought by Plaintiff against Columbia University Press ("the Press") and Paul A. Offit, M.D. ("Offit") (collectively, "Defendants") for false light invasion of privacy arising from a fictionalized online "conversation" between Plaintiff and Kathleen Seidel.

You will notice that the plaintiff does not reveal his name. You will also notice that the "plaintiff" makes the simultaneous claim that the reported message was both "fictionalized" and an invasion of privacy. A reasonable person might ask how revealing the contents of a non-existent message can have anything to do with privacy if the message didn't exist, but we are talking about an anti-vaccination liar here, so anything is possible.

Here is what it said in the book (page 145 in my copy):

Seidel was also appalled by the Geiers' and J. B. Handley's constant promotion of chelation therapy as a cure for autism. In 2000, only a handful of children were chelated; by 2005, the number had purportedly climbed to more than 10,000 a year. On her Web site, Seidel pleaded with Handley to stop promoting a "therapy" that had never been shown to work and was potentially dangerous. Handley wrote back: "I have no respect for your movement," he said. "We are spending our time constructively engaging doctors to help our babies. If you don't like what we have to say, stop listening. We will bring the full resources of myself and Generation Rescue to stop this. We will sue you for libel and will go after your home and assets. My lawyers live to investigate and sue people like you. This will be your only warning."

By the way, Handley doesn't deny saying the quoted words. He just denies saying them to Kathleen Seidel.

I posted the following message to the discussion of the suit at the Age of Autism site. There are no prizes for guessing whether it was allowed through by the moderator. And, yes, unlike the gutless anonymous "plaintiff" in the suit I used my real name when I posted.

Two questions for JB Handley:

1. Why are you so cowardly that you need to redact your name from the court papers?

2. If the exchange is fictional, how can it also be an invasion of privacy to publish it?

These questions and your reply (or non-reply, or failure to allow this message to get through the moderation process) will be published on my web site at the next scheduled update.

Who will do the rescuing now? (15/8/2020)
One of the most egregious anti-vaccination liar outfits around has been Generation Rescue, founded by top liar J. B. Handley. It promoted the absurd idea that vaccines cause autism and, of course, offered cures, chelation and cozening.* This month's link check here produced the following at the Generation Rescue web site.

And here's Handley defending Andrew Wakefield's lies and deception.

* Cozen – verb (used with or without object): to cheat, deceive, or trick. Never say you don't learn anything here.