Subpoena the Blogger
The vaccines-cause-autism controversy has reached a new low. Clifford Shoemaker, an attorney who represents parents of allegedly vaccine-injured children in the federal "vaccine court" and other venues, has subpoenaed Kathleen Seidel, a sharp-witted blogger who delights in poking holes in the legitimacy of the physicians and scientists who support the thesis that vaccines cause autism.
Shoemaker filed the subpoena only hours after Seidel listed his payments in a series of vaccine court cases, in a piece she titled "The Commerce of Causation." Shoemaker's subpoena, filed in the case of the child of a the Rev. Lisa Sykes, an anti-vaccine lobbyist and Methodist minister, commands production of "all documents pertaining to the setup, financing, running, research, maintaining the website neurodiversity, including bank statements, cancelled checks, emails, etc., between Seidel and anybody remotely associated with her, including "religious groups (Muslim or otherwise)."
I see nothing wrong, in principle, with Shoemaker getting paid to represent kids whose parents blame vaccines on their kids' problems. He has a proper role in the vaccine court. But it's puzzling that he decided to take what can only be viewed as an effort to silence Seidel. She has filed to quash the motion.
Comments:
Posted 04/08/2008 09:04am with
It appears that Shoemaker has bought into the anti-vaccine paranoia, and believes that Big Pharma has hired a small army of bloggers to shill for the industry. That’s the only plausible explanation that occurs to me. It’s obvious that whatever his motivation, Attorney Shoemaker badly miscalculated the blowback from this move. It would be great if the Virginia Bar Association followed up on the complaint that is sure to arise from this travesty.