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FDA & VeriChip try to
Spin Spy Chip Scandal

September 11, 2007
John Gaver

John GaverAfter a recent investigation by the Associated Press uncovered the fact that substantial evidence exists, linking FDA-approved, human-implantable spychips, manufactured by VeriChip Corporation, with cancers found in numerous lab animals and at least one pet dog, both the FDA and VeriChip have been in full spin mode, trying to avoid a full-scale investigation that has the potential to bring down not only VeriChip, but quite possibly former Health and Human Services Secretary, Tommy Thompson.

It's important to note that Thompson, who was Secretary of the department that oversaw the FDA, at the time that VeriChip received its FDA approval for their spychip, resigned that post just two weeks after that approval and within five months, held a very lucrative position on the board of directors of both VeriChip and its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions. Was this payback? I don't know. But, if this wasn't payback, it was certainly an extremely convenient and lucrative coincidence. Is it any wonder why this exposure has all parties involved cranking up their spin machines?

In fact, that's all that it is - pure spin, without any hint of relevant fact. Let's look at what these spychip proponents are saying and then look at the facts.

  1. VeriChip said that it had not been aware of the studies cited in the report.
     
    1. The several studies that were available, at the time of Verichip's FDA application, had all been published in recognized veterinary and toxicology journals.
       
    2. If the Associated Press could find these studies, related to VeriChip's spychips, why couldn't a company in that business find them?
       
    3. It isn't reasonable to conclude that a company in that business could have "overlooked" all of those studies, relating to their product, especially in a day and age, where you can electronically search such medical journals, for articles containing certain words, like "chip." If VeriChip didn't know about those studies, then that alone is evidence of such gross incompetence in their field, as to bring into question the validity of all of their past research.
       
  2. A spokesperson for the FDA said, “At this time there appears to be no credible cause for concern.”
     
    1. Researchers found these cancers, when they were not looking for them and in some cases, even stated that they only noted the most obvious tumors.
       
    2. The cancers most often had completely encased the implanted spychip. You have to wonder what the FDA does consider "cause for concern."
       
  3. The studies in question were looking for other results and the finding of cancer around the chips was coincidental. Since there were no controls in place to look for such cancers, spychip proponents suggest that these adverse results should be completely ignored.
     
    1. In at least two of the studies, the researchers made note concerning the cause of the cancers, with comments like "clearly due to the implanted microchips." Such authoritative comments should never be ignored, but should signal a serious need for more specific research, to get a better handle on the incidence rate - research that never took place.
       
    2. In most cases, the cancer completely encased the microchip. This is supposed to be coincidental?
       
    3. Although the lack of specific controls does render the findings of VeriChip-related cancers somewhat less accurate, they do not mean that the studies have no veracity. Those studies prove the connection. But, without specific controls the incidence numbers may not be as accurate as they would be, with such controls in place.
       
    4. We have to believe that since the researchers only noted the "most obvious tumors," had specific controls been in place, the incidence would likely have been even higher than the original studies indicated.
       
  4. The benefits outweigh the risks. Spychip apologists even go so far as to suggest that since doctors now know that there may be a serious cancer risk associated with the chips, this could actually be a good thing, since doctors would perform cancer screenings on those with implanted spychips, more often. You say that you don't believe that any sane person could come up with such an incredulous idea? Read it for yourself, here.
     
    1. According to this kind of warped logic, we should all be injected with a known carcinogen, just so doctors will screen us for cancer more often. Fantastic!
       
    2. That incredible claim ignores two facts. 1) We all know that a person who has had any type of cancer is far more prone to get cancer again. 2) An aggressive cancer can progress from non-existent to cause of death between even annual screenings (see next bullet point). Yet, these people want us to get cancer earlier in life, so they can treat it sooner. I suppose that they think that younger cancer patients will last longer and thus, generate more revenue.
       
    3. Dr. George Demetri, director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said that In humans, sarcomas (like those found around the spychips), which strike connective tissues, can range from the highly curable to "tumors that are incredibly aggressive and can kill people in three to six months."
       
    4. The spy chip does not store your medical records, but rather responds, when queried, only with a simple serial number that is used to access your medical records online. How does placing a potentially lethal device in your body outweigh that risk, when the same exact data can be stored on a bracelet or on a card in your wallet? Think about it...
       
  5. Prior to AP's uncovering the spychip scandal, Tommy Thompson stated that he would get one implanted in his arm, saying "Absolutely. Without a doubt."
     
    1. Yet, to date, Thompson has not done so. Why???
       
    2. Perhaps Thompson knows what Dr. Robert Benezra, head of the Cancer Biology Genetics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, knows. Dr. Benezra said, "There's no way in the world, having read this information, that I would have one of those chips implanted in my skin, or in one of my family members."

Watch for the spin and then look at the facts. Remember that the more you hear spin, the more you should suspect that someone doesn't want you to know the truth. I don't want to speculate on what the truth might be. But, it is clear that we are not being told the truth. Although I am not a big fan of Senate or House inquiries, the amount of damning evidence and the level of risk that it represents, as well as the political placement of the players involved, would seem to call for just such an investigation.

Read our original story on this subject here.

Suggested Google words for this story: spy chip cancer (also spychip, spy-chip & VeriChip).

Copyright 2008 John Gaver

 

 

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