FSU chiropractic school voted down

Florida Sun-Sentinel ^ | January 27 2005, 2:30 PM EST | By David Damron

[eartotheground]

GAINESVILLE Florida's Board of Governors voted 10-3 today to reject a proposed chiropractic school at Florida State University that was sought by powerful lawmakers, but vehemently opposed by some FSU medical faculty.

The board did not agree there was a need to create the nation's first chiropractic school at a public university, especially when state funding is so scarce and it could damage the school's reputation.

The project has been embroiled in controversy since last year when state lawmakers put $9 million in the state budget for a school.

Instead it was a pet project for then Senate President Jim King of Jacksonville, who is a FSU alum, and state Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Treasure Island, a chiropractor.

Wetherell said the board's vote was clear about whether it wanted such a school and added "I don't think FSU will proceed with any [further] study at this point."

[eartotheground]

Meanwhile, State Senator Dennis Jones, RINO scum, quack chiro, all-around sleazebucket, has introduced Senate Bill 972, which takes away the ability of an MD or a DO to "go bare" and almost doubles the amount of medical liability insurance that a physician must carry.

I assume that Chiros are exempt.

I hate RINO scum, especially when they are also QUACKS

[livius]

Well, I'm glad at least that the chiropractic nonsense got voted down. The odious RINO Jim King was supporting it, of course.

[eartotheground]

Any suggestions on how to derail "Dr." Senator Jones in general? Isn't it a horrendous conflict of interest for a chiropractor politician to demand that real physicians pay for more insurance? This is just making my blood boil!!

[RexBeach]

Ooh, my achin' back.

[Dutchgirl]

The Sen. King school of massage therapy is shot down-ping.

[Rockingham]

Florida has a long history of relatively weak supervision of medical doctors due to a potent doctor's lobby and strong support of chiropractic due to its popularity among the elderly. In know people who have benefited greatly from chiropractic, but the claims for it by its practitioners are commonly so sweeping that they tend to discredit and overwhelm the good it can do.

[Naomi4]

what is "go bare?"

[mikeus_maximus]

"especially when state funding is so scarce and it could damage the school's reputation."

This is my alma mater (at least one of them). There's a story behind the story. The current school president is a Republican and a former speaker of the FL house during the historical Republican coup. The bill to create the chiro school was pushed by another Republican, Jim King, who apparently wanted a college named after him. This whole thing was pure political backroom dealing, and my party was guilty.

On warchant.com, the academic message board has been devoted to the outrage this scheme was causing. Alumni, boosters, the medschool faculty, students, and the general public were incensed. Everyone but the politicla kingpins knew a chiro school would only FSU in the long run. The board of trustees bowed to the political pressure. But thank-goodness the board of governors had a dose of sanity and killed the deal.

Tallahassee politics, business as usual.

[eartotheground]

That is where you are sitting in your office and you get a bill from your liability insurance company for $250,000 and you tell them to go @#@# themselves.

Going without liability insurance VASTLY decreases your chances of getting sued.

You can't go bare if you are on the staff of a hospital. If you do go bare, it is a big hassle however, there are strict requirements on posting signs in your waiting room, etc.

[anniegetyourgun]

Thanks for your insight into this matter.

Let's just hope there isn't a prominent/political alum who happens to be into aromatherapy.

[KarlInOhio]

In know people who have benefited greatly from chiropractic, but the claims for it by its practitioners are commonly so sweeping that they tend to discredit and overwhelm the good it can do.

If chiropractors kept to the spine it would be OK - that's their area of expertise. There's a kookopractor with a local radio show that is always pushing his herbal medicines and talking about how awful vaccinations are. I wish I could lock him in a room full of kids in iron lungs because of polio, but we don't have those anymore because of #$$(#($#! vaccinations.

[NautiNurse]

Glad to hear the chiropractor school has been shelved. The news about Senate Bill 972 is disturbing.

[usafsk]

What exactly is "expert" about their spinal knowledge. There is no credible, peer-reviewed scientific evidence that chiropractic is beneficial to spinal issues. Moreover, chiropractors do not have a scientific view of spinal structure and neural systems. They are simply quacks preying on the weak and gullible.

Myriad stings have shown that people with no pain can present to a series of chiropractors, get x-rayed, and then have each doctor come up with a a different, unfounded issue and recommended regimen. Does anyone ever go to the chriopractor and hear "There's nothing wrong with you" or "Maybe you should see a doctor"? Doesn't happen.

And, when's the last time you saw a neurosurgeon with a booth at the mall adivising you to get some brain work? In my local mall the chiro booth is about 20 feet from the Dyanetics crowd. One wonders which offers the more credible solution...

[Atlas Sneezed]

My years of back problems are a thing of the past since getting regular chiropractic care.

I suppose some dentists are incompetent quacks, too, but I'll get my teeth checked each year.

[Rockingham]

I agree with you as to chiropractors, but their claims and criticisms based on alternative medicine are not entirely out of line.

Herbal medicines have valid applications. They are used by some medical doctors, and I have found them effective from time to time. There is a great deal of marketing puffery in alternative medicine though, and purity and safety issues about some preparations; but it also has some effective remedies with a solid basis in science. Unfortunately, as ignorant as doctors tend to be about herbal medicine and nutritional supplements, chiropractors tend to be ignorant, credulous, and enthusiastic, with little real knowledge of what works and what doesn't and why.

Vaccines have been a great advance, but they are subject to controversies: the use of mercury and aluminum compounds as adjuvants; contamination with a monkey virus in early polio vaccines; and adverse effects, ranging from claims of autism in children who were given the MMR vaccine to Gulf War syndrome and anthrax vaccine reactions in veterans. The benefits of vaccines though far outweigh their harms and risks, a point many of the critics seem incapable of acknowledging.

My view of these issues is mixed: great respect for the virtues and accomplishments of conventional medicine; frustration at its often willful blindness to its faults; and an openness to alternative therapies in concept -- with much skepticism in their application and as to most practitioners.

[Petronski]

This is just making my blood boil!!

Don't let it get you all bent out of shape.

[MedNole]

Do you have a link to this new bill 972? The Florida Senate leadership completely screwed the docs during the med mal special sessions, and it wouldn't suprise me to see Sen. Jones do it again.

[MedNole]

I thought TK was a Democrat? Wasn't Dan Webster the first Republican speaker in like 150 years?

BTW, congrats on Antone Smith and Rouse today...

[mikeus_maximus]

I may be getting their postions/parties confused.

Thanks on the recruiting. Looks like we picked up a third 5-star.

But as someone said on our boards, with our current coaching staff, we can get dom perignon, but we serve it in jelly jars.