- Letter to the Editor
- Open access
- Published:
More published full-time researchers, early career researchers, clinician-researchers and graduate students unite to call for actions against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies volume 28, Article number: 48 (2020)
On May 4, 2020 we published a commentary entitled: “A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity” [1]. Our paper generated significant interest within the research community and several individuals contacted us to ask whether they could co-sign the commentary. We believe that it is important for members of the research community to formally add their voice to this important public health discussion.
On May 6, 2020, the authors of the commentary were asked to inform their networks of the opportunity to add co-signatories. This included an invitation made on social media. Specifically, we invited full-time researchers, early career researchers, clinician-researchers, graduate students and individuals who have published in the peer-reviewed literature during the course of their career to add their name to the list of co-signatories [2].
On May 20, 2020, 71 new individuals had responded to our call. Of those, 52 are affiliated with academic or research institutions, 15 are in private practice, two have retired and one is currently inactive. Therefore, 224 signatories are now calling for “regulatory authorities and professional leaders to take robust political and regulatory action against those claiming that chiropractic adjustments have a clinical impact on the immune system.”
It is likely that other individuals in the research community would like to add their signatures to the commentary. Therefore, a webpage has been created (https://nikkb.dk/table/cmt-signatories/) to display the names of all signatories, and provide the opportunity to those who qualify (publication in the peer reviewed literature) to add their names to the list.
Availability of data and materials
Not applicable.
Rerefences
Côté P, Bussières A, Cassidy JD, et al. A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity. Chiropr Man Therap. 2020;28:21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-020-00312-x.
Kawchuck G. https://twitter.com/GNK1/status/1258000331704635394?s=20.
Acknowledgements
Signatories‡.
‡ The views and opinions expressed herein are those solely of the authors and may not represent the views of their institution.
1. Jon Adams, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2. Knut Andersen, Private practice, Norway
3. Sasha Aspinall, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia
4. Pierre Boucher, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada
5. Jonny Branney, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
6. Alexander Breen, AECC University College, Bournemouth, UK
7. Danica Brousseau, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada
8. Christian Calvert, Private Practice, Sweden
9. Edward Cambridge, Private practice, Canada
10. Joel P. Carmichael, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado
11. Keith Charlton, Central Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia
12. Chadwick Chung, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
13. Gaelan Connell, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada
14. Sophia da Silva-Oolup, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
15. Laura Davies, Private practice, UK
16. Christopher deGraauw, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
17. Felipe C.K. Duarte, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
18. Martha Funabashi, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
19. Matthew F. Funk, University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, USA
20. Anne Marie Gausel, Stavanger University Hospital, Stavanger, Norway
21. Geoff Gelley, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba
22. Darrin Germann, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
23. Dominic Giuliano, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
24. Lindsay Gorrell, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
25. Chris Grant, Private practice, Canada
26. Alexander Grier, Private practice, Canada
27. Francois Hains, Private practice, Canada
28. Léonie Hofstetter, Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland
29. Michelle Holmes, AECC University College, Bournemouth, UK
30. Scott Howitt, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
31. Mohsen Kazemi, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
32. Stuart Kinsinger, New York Chiropractic College, Seneca Falls, USA
33. Robert Kitchen, Retired, Canada
34. Carolina Kolberg, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
35. Olivier Lanlo, Institut Franco-Européen de Chiropraxie, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
36. Robert A Leach, Private Practice, US
37. Jocelyn Lemire, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada
38. Gordon McMorland, Private practice, Canada
39. Christine Meckamalil, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
40. Jani Mikkonen, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio and Joensuu, Finland
41. Dale Mierau, Retired, Saskatoon, Canada
42. Brad Muir, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
43. Craig F. Nelson American Specialty Health, Minneapolis, USA
44. Richard Nicol, Geneva, Switzerland
45. Kirsten Olesen. Private practice, Canada
46. Per J. Palmgren, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden
47. Efrosini Papaconstantinou, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada
48. Caroline Poulin, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada,
49. Aaron Anthony Puhl, Private practice, Canada
50. Jairus Quesnele, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Canada
51. Christine Reinhart, Private practice, Canada
52. Nadia Richer, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Canada,
53. John J. Riva, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
54. Jacqueline Rix, European Academy of Chiropractic, Hampton Hill, UK
55. Marc Sanders, AECC University College, Bournemouth, UK
56. Ann-Christin Sannes, The National Institute of Occupational Health in Norway
57. J Keith Simpson, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia
58. Guy Sovak, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
59 Peter Stilwell, McGill University, Canada
60. Igor Steiman, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
61. Matthew Stevens, The National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark
62. Eric St-Onge, Private practice, Canada
63. Peter Tuchin, Private practice, Australia
64. Taylor Tuff, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
65. Daphne To, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
66. Simon Wang, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
67. Carol Ann Weis, Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, Canada
68. Patrick Welsh, Private practice, Canada
69. Arnold Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
70. Shari Wynd, Texas Chiropractic College, Pasadena, USA
71. Ken Young, University of Central Lancashire, England
Funding
No funding was obtained for this commentary.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors (Pierre Côté, André Bussières, J. David Cassidy, Jan Hartvigsen, Greg N. Kawchuk, Charlotte Leboeuf-Yde, Silvano Mior, Mike Schneider) developed, wrote, edited and proofread the commentary. All signatories reviewed the commentary and endorsed its content.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
PC reports research grants unrelated to this work from Aviva Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research-Canada Research Chair Program, Canadian chiropractic Association, Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation, College of Chiropractors of British Columbia, Et liv i bevegelse” (ELIB), French Chiropractic Association, Financial Services Commission of Ontario, Ontario Ministry of Finance, Ontario Trillium Foundation; travel expenditures unrelated to this work from Griffith University - Whiplash Symposium 2017, Eurospine, Southern Denmark University, Institut Franco-Europeen de Chiropraxie, Karolinska Institutet, North American Spine Society, University of Quebec-Trois-Rivieres, University of Zurich, World Federation of Chiropractic; fees medical-legal expertise from the Canadian Chiropractic Protective Association. He is the Chair of the World Federation of Chiropractic Research Disability and Rehabilitation Committee. AB reports research grants unrelated to this work from University of Quebec-Trois-Rivieres, McGill University, Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire en réadaptation du Montréal métropolitain, Canadian Institutes of Health Research; fees medical-legal expertise from the Canadian Chiropractic Protective Association. GNK reports active research grants unrelated to this work from The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research, The National Institutes of Health, The Alberta Spine Foundation, The American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association, The New Frontiers in Research Fund and the Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation. Travel expenditures unrelated to this work in the past year include Kiropraktik i Sverige Live, Et liv i bevegelse” (ELIB), the Nordic Institute of Chiropractic and Clinical Biomechanics, The American Chiropractic Association, The National Institutes of Health, The British Columbia Chiropractic Association, and The World Federation of Chiropractic. He is the Chair of the World Federation of Chiropractic Research Council. Fees for medical-legal expertise unrelated to this work from the Canadian Chiropractic Protective Association. JH reports that he holds multiple research grants from Danish and international funding agencies and charities. He has received coverage of travel expenditures from multiple sources internationally in connection with speaking engagements. Within the past year he has received speaking fees from Parker Seminars and Novartis. He is member of the World Federation of Chiropractic Research Council. SM reports research grants unrelated to this work from Ontario Chiropractic Association, Canadian Chiropractic Association, and Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation. MS reports support from research grants unrelated to this work from the National Institutes of Health, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, University of Pittsburgh and NCMIC Foundation; honoraria from NCMIC speaker’s bureau; fees from medico-legal consulting services. JDC and CLY declare that they have no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
About this article
Cite this article
Côté, P., Bussières, A., Cassidy, J.D. et al. More published full-time researchers, early career researchers, clinician-researchers and graduate students unite to call for actions against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity. Chiropr Man Therap 28, 48 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-020-00334-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-020-00334-5