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January 16, 2020

Click here to direct download a copy of my January 14, 2020 letter to South Carolina's licensing agency requesting of review of chiropractor Joseph Cipriano's use of the "Y-Strap decompression tool."

The Y-Strap is a black, mostly fabric harness that looks like something from an S&M dungeon. In Joseph Cipriano’s YouTube videos, it's placed behind the necks of prone patients who, in the moment before the crack, typically tense as if bracing for a crash.

Cipriano, a chiropractor based in Greenville, South Carolina, has become a YouTube sensation in the past 18 months, taking his channel from inception last March to more than 850,000 subscribers ...“I literally watched every video I could find on the Y-Strap first,” says Xavier, a patient of Cipriano’s. “It’s pretty daunting to think you’re allowing someone to pull apart your spine like a Lego.”

“Coowaa,” goes the sound as Cipriano yanks the Y-Strap and patient's skull away from their body: a mix of them being dragged and cracks that ricochet down the spine, caused by bubbles forming in the synovial fluid around joints. The noise is followed by either laughter, a grimace, or an emotional release that can include crying. “I feel like I just grew two inches,” says one woman.

As a result of research by my wife and me into my father's bizarre career, I developed an interest in experimental medical treatments/devices, medical ethics (including the use of human subjects in unsupervised medical research), and oversight responsibility of public health authorities. The following situation in your state appears to include all of those topics.

...This is to request that your office review the following information and provide me with a determination if (Greenville, SC, chiropractor Joseph) Cipriano’s treatment of his patients using a device called the “Y-Strap decompression tool” is in compliance with your agency’s guidelines.

I searched https://y-strap.com and https://www.drjosephcipriano.com and the FDA’s database of registered devices and failed to locate any information regarding whether the “Y-Strap” is registered with that agency, so yesterday I phoned Superior Balance SL in Seville and a company representative informed me that the device is not registered with the FDA.

When I asked if the device has been the subject of any published studies, the representative replied, “The Y-Strap hasn’t been the subject of any clinical trials. Because there is no clinical proof that it works, we don’t sell it as a medical product.”

Therefore, Mr. Cipriano appears to be using his patients to test the medical benefits of the “Y-Strap.” In your review, would you please determine which if any Institutional Review Board is overseeing his research?

(We) do not market (marketing) [sic] our product as a medical product...

We never say they are intended to diagnose, treat, cure, nor prevent any disease or health condition.

Click here for both emails which I'm sharing shared with South Carolina's licensing agency and the FDA.

UPDATE: On January 27, the FDA wrote me that they're taking a look at my concerns about the "Y-Strap."

UPDATE: On June 8, 2020, Erica Williams at the SC Dept. of Labor Licensing and Regulation's Office of Investigations and Enforcement emailed me that my request has been assigned to investigator Kevin Pate.

UPDATE: On January 19, 2021, Mr. Pate emailed me, "The complaint before the SC Board of Chiropractic Examiners (2019-23) is still pending. The investigative aspect of the case has been completed but the Board has yet to render a decision...At this point I cannot provide a date for a Board decision as the case has been designated for additional review. The Board meets next month (February 4th) and it will not be on the docket at that meeting. I would hope the case would be ready for the following Board meeting in the Spring."

Sent via email to jmcgehee@dch.ga.gov and faxed to (404)656-9723 

October 17, 2020

Jonathan McGehee
Director of Investigations
Georgia Composite Medical Board
2 Peachtree Street, NW, 6th Floor
Atlanta, GA 30303-3465

Dear Mr. McGehee:

According to What is unprofessional conduct? on your agency’s website:

According to the Medical Practice Act, unprofessional conduct includes "any departure from or failure to conform to the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice and shall also include, but not be limited to the prescribing or use of drugs, treatment or diagnostic procedures which are detrimental to the patient as determined by the minimal standards of acceptable medical care…"

Re: licensee #69037, Richard Dean McCormick M.D., this is to request that your agency review the following information and provide me with a determination whether or not Dr. McCormick has violated the standards of unprofessional conduct.

According to Dr. McCormick's licensure information on your agency's website, he graduated from the Morehouse School of Medicine in 2010 and completed a residency at Emory University in 2013. According to his LinkedIn, Dr. McCormick was an emergency medicine physician in the United States Navy from 2013-2017 and from 2017 to the present he has worked as an emergency medicine physician at Gwinnett Medical Center and Northside Hospital. According to the licensure information on your agency's website and a search of the website of the American Board of Medical Specialities, he is not board certified. A PubMed search of the literature failed to locate any articles listing him as an author.

In other words, it appears Dr. McCormick has no displayed expertise in any medical field except emergency medicine which, since obtaining his Georgia license on December 7, 2012, he has been practicing for less than seven years.

Nevertheless, per the attached October 6, 2020 letter signed by 120 Georgia health care professionals, since February of this year, Dr. McCormick has represented himself in media reports and via social media as an expert in the fields of epidemiology, immunology, and public health:

On February 27th, Dr. McCormick suggested the country had nothing to worry about, stating that “nobody in the United States has died from [COVID-19]. We have zero cases in Georgia. To put this in perspective, 12,000 people die a year of the flu.” At the time of this statement, 82,736 persons had been diagnosed and 2,814 people had died of COVID-19 globally.

On February 29th, Dr. McCormick tweeted: “Strong decisive leadership prevented this situation from being much worse,” and “Everything gets worse with panic.”

On March 9th, Dr. McCormick blamed the media for “creating panic and hype to create headlines” regarding COVID-19, as cases in the US began to spike.

On March 16th, Dr. McCormick stated in a video that COVID-19 would be "a bad memory" in "two months." By March 16, there already had been 4,679 cases and 97 deaths in the US. Two months later, there would be 1.474 million cases and 91,697 deaths in the US, including 37,212 cases and 1,598 deaths in Georgia.

On May 16th, Dr. McCormick used his credentials as a physician to urge the reopening of the country while the spread of the virus was still not under control. A dramatic surge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred following Memorial Day, including in Georgia.

On May 26th, Dr. McCormick said Governor Kemp “made a bold move to open back up” and falsely claimed “data shows we’re doing it safely.”

...On April 9th, June 1st, and July 3rd, Dr. McCormick promoted, without evidence, the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19. The FDA revoked its EUA for hydroxychloroquine on June 15, 2020 on the basis that it was unlikely to be effective for treatment but had known and potential side effects, thus no longer meeting EUA criteria. In his June 1 appearance on One America News Network he also mentioned using “other drugs” including ivermectin, doxycycline, and zinc, none of which have evidence for efficacy.

...On June 1st, Dr. McCormick incorrectly claimed that the coronavirus "wasn't spreading" because the country was developing herd immunity to the virus. The virus was, in fact, spreading rapidly at that time, as evidenced by the fact that US cases would rise from 1.8 million on June 1 to nearly 2.7 million on July 1. During that month, over 20,000 people would die in the US and over 700 in Georgia, bringing total deaths to 128,417 and 2,827, respectively. McCormick’s unsubstantiated theories about herd immunity have been repeatedly discredited by multiple experts. CDC Director Redfield recently testified to Congress that fewer than 10% of Americans are likely to have immunity, far short of the high levels needed to provide true community “herd” immunity. Moreover, experts have said that “herd” immunity without a vaccine would require a minimum of 50% of the population to have immunity and would result in as many as 500,0002,100,000 deaths in the US, an unimaginable toll to pay.

On September 8th, Dr. McCormick repeated the discredited and dangerous claim that the country had reached herd immunity: “I’m very proud to say we’re reached a point of saturation… Once you reach about 15-25% of the population you do develop a herd immunity. We’ve reached that right now.” Stating that herd immunity has been reached is tantamount to telling the public that further mitigation through masks, social distancing, and other measures, is no longer required. In the same video, he also falsely stated that, “The youth are not at risk for this disease.”

...On September 8, Dr. McCormick stated that “We should have the vaccination out by about November 1.” Both Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Redfield testified under oath to Congress that a vaccine would not be widely available to the general population until at least Spring of 2021. 

In your review, this is to request that you include the entire letter (which includes hyperlinked citations to the sources of Dr. McCormick’s statements).

2) According to a May 27, 2020 interview with reporter Stephanie Myers of the One America News Network (OANN), Doctor discusses fight against COVID-19 & GOP congressional race in Georgia:

SM: Hydroxychloroquine continues to be a trending topic as numerous doctors report seeing success treating COVID-19 patients with the drug. One of those doctors is Dr. Richard McCormick, an emergency room physician in Georgia who’s also running for the Peach State’s 7th Congressional District...As a doctor yourself, what are some cases where you’ve seen hydroxychloroquine treat patients with coronavirus?

Dr. Richard McCormick: So one of our standards is when we admit a patient, and that means they’re sick enough to be treated in the hospital, is we use hydroxychloroquine as one of our standard treatments...Remember this is a novel virus. 

On June 13, a couple weeks after the OANN interview, Katherine Watkins -- who handles media relations for Gwinnett Medical Center and Northside Hospital – wrote me that neither hospital treats COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine.

Since then I’ve written to Dr. McCormick requesting that he provide the name of the hospital where “we use hydroxychloroquine as one of our standard treatments (for COVID-19).” I’ve received no reply, therefore I’m concerned about the veracity of the information he provided to OANN’s audience. Further, since he apparently only works at Gwinnett Medical Center and Northside Hospital, he may have mischaracterized the treatment protocols at those facilities.

This is to request that your agency ask Dr. McCormick to provide the name of the hospital to which he was referring and that you determine if his televised claim was in compliance your agency’s standards of unprofessional conduct.

Thank you for your time/consideration and I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Heimlich
STREET ADDRESS REDACTED
Peachtree Corners, GA 30096 USA
ph: (678)322-7984‬
e-mail: peter.heimlich@gmail.com
website: http://medfraud.info
blog: http://the-sidebar.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/medfraud_pmh
bio: http://tinyurl.com/ych7o7dr 

Republicans willing to criticize the bizarre, delusional conspiracy theory known as QAnon are harder to find than hen's teeth.

So when this critical quote by Karen Handel -- a GOP household name in my state of Georgia who is now running for Congress in a district adjacent to mine -- showed up on the evening of August 11 in a New York Times report by veteran journalists Matthew Rosenberg, Astead W. Herndon and Nick Corasaniti -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon Supporter, Wins House Primary in Georgia -- it unquestionably had news value for readers and for the record:

But the next morning, here's the same part of the story:

The updated version included no explanation to readers why Ms. Handel's quote was scrubbed -- the original version's available via The Wayback Machine -- so via emails and tweets I asked the three reporters. 

No reply, so I emailed and left a voice message for the paper's Politics Editor Patrick Healy.

No reply, so I left a voice message and emailed Standards Editor Philip Corbett who replied later that day.

Time: Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 6:25 PM
From Phil Corbett <REDACTED@nytimes.com>
To: Peter.Heimlich@gmail.com
Subject: Re: blogger inquiry with editorial concern

Dear Mr. Heimlich,

Thank you for your note. I've gone over this with the editor who worked on that story, and I am confident that there were no ethical problems in how it was handled. This was simply routine editing of a live, developing story that went through multiple versions online and in print.

The story changed and grew during the evening, particularly with more material on the Ilhan Omar race in Minnesota. As often happens, some earlier material was cut as new material was added. (In print, of course, we still have finite space for a story. And even online, editors often cut material to keep a story at a manageable length for readers.)

The final version continued to make the point that some Republicans opposed Greene, and included examples beyond Handel.

To your related question, we append corrections or editors' notes when a story has been changed to fix a factual error or other journalistic lapse; we don't append notes to point out other, routine editing changes, which would do little to serve the typical reader.

Best regards,

 

Philip B. Corbett

Associate Managing Editor for Standards

The New York Times

In my thank-you reply, I politely expressed my disagreement with the decision and asked Mr. Corbett to verify the accuracy of the MIA quote to which he replied:

(Obviously) if we thought the quote was wrong, we would do a correction.

Therefore, even though the quote's no longer in the paper of record, in my opinion it's still in the record.

Along the way I also asked Karen Handel to verify the quote. Perhaps not surprisingly, I didn't receive a reply.

Via the Associated Press report about her victory in the GOP primary, here's Marjorie Taylor Greene:

“So the Republican establishment was against me. The D.C. swamp has been against me. And the lying fake news media hates my guts,” she said. “Yep, it’s a badge of honor.”

Based on her incendiary words, I assumed Ms. Greene would welcome the opportunity to fling some fire and brimstone at the New York Times for scrubbing a critical quote about her. After all, couldn't doing so be construed as "lying" to readers?

And the scrubbed quote came from Ms. Handel who could certainly be considered a member of the "Republican establishment." 

So I twice emailed a polite request for a comment to the outspoken Ms. Greene, assuming she'd welcome a seemingly juicy opportunity to condemn these twin targets of her opprobrium.

Based on casual observation, she appears to be a woman of few silences, so I was surprised not to receive a reply.

In any event, if one of Ms. Greene's potential constituents or someone else asks her about Ms. Handel denouncing her as unfit to be in the GOP, I'd be interested in the results.