The chart at the right came from the Centers for Disease Control. EV-D68 is a strain of enterovirus, first isolated in the United States in 1962. There has been a bit of an outbreak of the generally uncommon virus recently. It is a respiratory virus whose symptoms can range from mild to severe.
Orly Taitz has enlisted the services of Vera Dolan, an epidemiologist writing Taitz in an email:
I have done a little research on the enterovirus outbreak. This strain of enterovirus (EV-D68) is uncommon. I believe that you have a good case to make that this outbreak is associated with the influx of illegal alien children.
I suppose that an epidemiologist trying to make the case that illegal immigrant children were spreading the virus would first want to demonstrate that the children had the virus, or came from a place where the virus was prevalent, and then show that these new cases were showing up in places where the children were being transported, and to try to rule out other possibilities. Dolan attempts to explain the lack of cases along the US border by acquired immunity in those areas due to exposure to historical illegal immigration.
In a 2011 report in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), clusters of the disease were diagnosed in the United States, the Philippines, Japan, and the Netherlands. U. S. cases (Sept. 2009) were in Georgia (6 cases), Pennsylvania (28 cases), and Arizona (5 cases). I wasn’t able to find any support for the idea that EV-D68 is common (or even present) in Latin America.
Dr. Ann Schuchat. director of CDC’s national center for immunization and respiratory diseases, points out that respiratory illnesses spread rapidly (and I would add that transportation of children isn’t necessary). She stated in a September 8 conference call:
Respiratory viruses can spread quite quickly across the U.S. we see a number of different respiratory viruses cycling each year or over a couple-year period. So we really do think that clinicians throughout the country need to be on the alert for increases in severe respiratory illness and consider this in the differential diagnosis. Geography isn’t that helpful when it comes to respiratory viruses. We know that flu transits the country pretty quickly and the unusual increases in Kansas City and Chicago may be occurring elsewhere over the weeks ahead so we want people to be on the lookout.
Nowhere is the CDC even hinting that the illness is tied to illegal immigrant children. My money is on a Japanese tourist in Kansas City.
Taitz is asking the parents of children with respiratory illnesses to call her (PLEASE DO).
Amended Complaint
Dolan is quoted in Taitz’s Amended Complaint (continuation pages) as making the remarkable statement:
As an epidemiologist, I believe that Dr. Taitz’s respiratory infection originated from close contact with infected patients who were sent for treatment to her office, in particular immigrants who were detained by the DHS without quarantine or medical treatment for existing communicable diseases and then transported to California.
I believe that Dr. Taitz is in further imminent danger of similar additional infections from immigrant patients detained by the DHS without quarantine or medical treatment for existing communicable diseases.]
This is remarkable given that it was not determined what Taitz got sick from. The full affidavit from Dolan provides no indication of how Dolan arrived at her conclusions, and identified no methodology employed. If I had to characterize her statement it would be: “Taitz said she treated lots of immigrant children with coughs, and she got one too; therefore, she got sick from treating illegal immigrant children, and she will likely get sick again if these children aren’t quarantined.”
The Amended Complaint adds a new claim of negligence, but of course, she cannot sue the government for damages resulting from a policy decision. There is that pesky sovereign immunity thing.
Postscript
I studied a couple of epidemiology textbooks as part of the process of designing software to be used by public health professionals when I was in that business. I also worked for 6 years in a district health department. I have also been a consultant to the CDC on immunization systems. That means I know more than the average person about epidemiology, but am far from an expert. What I can say is that the Dolan affidavit bears no resemblance to any epidemiology methodology I have ever seen, nor does it contain anything I would identify as using the scientific method.
Bloody Orly was given a once-in-a-career opportunity to remedy her case. She used that opportunity to make the case immeasurably worse. It’s mind-boggling, and promises endless hilarity.
I am not at all clear about the law regarding expert testimony, but this situation makes me wonder whether emitting this kind of BS will have any effect on Dolan’s ability to qualify as an expert in future cases.
You mean Vera Dolan, epidemiologist? That Vera Dolan?
I guess it depends on how many people Google “Vera Dolan, epidemiologist,” and where the resulting links lead them.
You know; for people who want to learn about Vera Dolan, epidemiologist.
It’s worth noting that Vera Dolan’s affidavit says that has been retained three times as an expert in epidemiology, but she does not that that she has ever been qualified as an expert in epidemiology. In other words, she has never given testimony as an expert in epidemiology. She merely was a consultant in those three cases.
She has qualified as an expert in calculating life expectancy.
That said, I am astonished that she was willing to offer an opinion without seeing Orly’s medical records, and apparently without even meeting Orly in person. I can’t imagine that any judge would give any credence to her affidavit.
Dolan is not a doctor, she is an life expectancy actuary, at least according to people who looked her up at Fogbow. So how she can be an expert on anything of use to Taitz is beyond me..
Well, I don’t know about this Dolan, but that page 9 of those “continuation pages” is a doozy.
The full affidavit from Dolan provides no indication of how Dolan arrived at her conclusions, and identified no methodology employed.
Sure it does: Vera Dolan will say whatever Orly Taitz wants to hear, because Orly Taitz wrote Vera Dolan a nice check.
“This is remarkable given that it was not determined what Taitz got sick from. The full affidavit from Dolan provides no indication of how Dolan arrived at her conclusions, and identified no methodology employed. If I had to characterize her statement it would be: “Taitz said she treated lots of immigrant children with coughs, and she got one too; therefore, she got sick from treating illegal immigrant children, and she will likely get sick again if these children aren’t quarantined.””
She even got “particular” about it. So, apparently then, she would have personal knowledge that Dr. Taitz treated “immigrants who were detained by the DHS without quarantine or medical treatment for existing communicable diseases and then transported to California,” right? Who have been diagnosed with an “existing communicable disease” which Dr. Taitz has also been diagnosed with (as a NEW diagnosis, of course; not something she brought to our fair shores HERSELF). Isn’t that kind of how this whole science thing (and the “expert witness” thing) works?
Oh Lordy, an epidemiologist who falls victim to the old “coincidence doesn’t imply causation” fallacy.
But then again, for every idiocy, you can find an expert (a real one) willing to support it in a pool of 320 million people. Let’s just hope the Chinese and Indians never get that info…
She has a Masters in Public Health degree in epidemiology, which is the usual degree for people in the field. Her resume is part of the affidavit linked in my article. One might want someone who actually worked with disease outbreaks, but by virtue of her training, Dolan SHOULD be able to apply what she learned in school and produce something of value. All she relies on in the affidavit is the value of her opinion, not her methodology.
Ms. Dolan ends her affidavit with, “I declare that my assessments are true and correct based upon my current knowledge and informed consent.”
I sign documents regarding my opinion from time to time for use in court proceedings or private arbitrations. I looked at the last few and they all follow the same formula: “I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.” Usually, my affidavit just attaches my report and I’m verifying that my report is, well, genuine. IANAL, but what does Ms. Dolan’s statement mean? What is the reference to informed consent, which I thought was a term related to whether a medical professional had provided a patient with enough information with which to make a decision?
Perhaps Vera Dolan and Reed Hayes should team up together. They’d make a dynamite duo.
For the record, one of my many management portfolios is public health and I have worked with epidemiologists in support of public responses to the incidence of communicable disease in the community for the past 13 years. I am no epidemiologist myself but I can tell you that someone as sloppy and loose as Ms. Dolan is with her “analysis” and remarks wouldn’t survive her probationary period in an organization under my direction.
Is anything not the fault of those darn immigrant children? Someone please dial down the patternicity on that woman.
I think this will be very career-limiting for Dolan.
Orly may have had some help with parts of her amended claim, as the writing style, language, syntax etc are quite different.
It seems that her claim of economic harm is based on her inability to treat people she says should never have been let into the country anyway. Can’t see her getting far with that
Perhaps, but just as having a law degree does not make one a lawyer, having a degree in epidemiology does not make one an epidemiologist.
Looking over her resume, it does not appear that she has ever worked as an epidemiologist. She gives an opinion about the origin of Orly’s respiratory infection without even reviewing medical records which would establish that Orly had a respiratory infection. In the courts where I work her affidavit would be immediately dismissed. There is no foundation for her opinion and she is not qualified to give her opinion.
It means Orly Taitz drafted the declaration and Vera Dolan signed it because Orly Taitz paid Vera Dolan to do so.
Yes, informed consent means that a patient has been advised of the risks and benefits involved before agreeing to a medical procedure. In the context of the declaration, it sounds like pure OrlySpeak to me.
BINGO!
I think the border patrol agents that wouldn’t testify for her aren’t going to be thrilled to have their employment records dragged into this.
I don’t get when Taitz even met with the children as a dentist?
And why are immigrants like Taitz and Cruz so anti other immigrants entering this country for the same reasons….
The mapping of the cases of respiratory infection indicates places far from where the Guatamalan children are being held, cared for, etc. It would seem to me (and I am a total amateur – couldn’t even tell you where my uterus is) that if this infection is as contagious as reported, virtually all the Guatamalan children would have it, lots of the people involved in handling them at the border and in the official processing would have it, and we’d be hearing reports of epidemics in Guatamala, No such thing.
We had been told that the refugees coming over the border from Central and South America, fleeing grinding poverty, corrupt government, drug wars, etc., were – first – Al Qaeda terrorists, then a conspiracy to undermine our country – presumably by taking all those lucrative lettuce picking jobs that we got our high school diplomas for, and now that we are getting children, sent this way in an almost biblical gesture to save them from danger, we are being told that they have, well, cooties.
This is just low and mean.
I’ve seen that terminology before, in another Taitz filing in the same case. Google and Bing return no hits for “based upon my current knowledge and informed consent.” Even Dog Pile didn’t find it. When I first reported on the phrase I put “(sic)” after the word “consent,” presuming another word belonged there.
I wonder if Vera Dolan, MSPH of VDS Consulting in Ukiah, California saw Taitz as a gullible moron with deep pockets. Since Vera doesn’t really have a career as an expert consultant, maybe she doesn’t have a lot to lose by ruining her reputation with this obviously and deeply flawed affidavit. Maybe it’s one grifter grifting another grifter.
As luck would have it, Mrs. Crusty is an epidemiologist (with many years experience). I read to her the statements of Ms. Dolan, and questioned how an epidemiologist could ever make such claims based on so little information. Her reply gave me a chuckle: “She was talking to Orly Taitz, what do you expect? There are idiots in every profession.”
Squeeky has an older affidavit written by Orly that uses some of that language.
http://birtherthinktank.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/did-the-whistleblower-give-orly-taitz-the-slip/
As luck would have it, part 2: I am at this moment cruising north on CA-101, heading for some R & R (South Fork Eel River frolicking) near Leggett. We’ll be passing through Ukiah in about an hour. For some reason, Mrs. Crusty is refusing to stop at VDS Consulting to confront Ms. Dolan. I’m begging and pleading, but she’s not budging (and she has the con).
Alas, it seems my fantasy of an epidemiologist showdown isn’t going to happen.
Now as I understand it, when I see a medical practitioner and they inform me of “the potential benefits, risks, and alternatives involved in any surgical procedure, medical procedure, or other course of treatment” (See more at: http://healthcare.findlaw.com/patient-rights/understanding-informed-consent-a-primer.html#sthash.tvV0WMMS.dpuf ), and I tell them to go ahead anyway, that’s informed consent. What the heck is “informed consent” supposed to mean in the context of this affidavit?
But it would have fulfilled the prophecies!
Well – Mendocino County is known for its agricultural products of questionable legality.
As others have pointed out, Orly regularly signs affidavits based on her “informed consent.” She obviously saw the term used on a medical form and copied it because she thought that this is what real lawyers put at the end of affidavits. It has become a standard part of her legal buffoonery.
That this is included on this affidavit is evidence that Taitz herself drafted the affidavit, or at least part of it, and that Vera Dolan didn’t even care enough about the contents of the affidavit she supposedly wrote to read the whole thing and change this obviously inapplicable phrase. It’s inclusion in this affifavit exposes both Taitz and Dolan as unethical and lazy.
Mrs. Dolan’s office address is her home from what I can tell. Probably using a spare bedroom for the world headquarters of VDS Consulting.
I understand that. I just wonder what the heck she thinks it MEANS.
It doesn’t mean anything as it is simply another magical incantation in the Mad Ole Orly Kargo Kult of Lawyermegating. She, just like the idiots in the sovereign citizen cult believes that if she can just get the right magical words and phrases in her piles of poo then the courts just have to grant her her three wishes
An affidavit usually ends with this statement prior to the area for the signature.
“I SWEAR OR AFFIRM THAT THE ABOVE AND FOREGOING REPRESENTATIONS ARE TRUE AND CORRECT TO THE BEST OF MY INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, AND BELIEF.”
What puzzles me the most is why didn’t Orly provide an affidavit from her physician? That’s the person that provided the diagnosis and would have a better idea of exactly how she might have caught what ever she caught and would also include the precise reason for prescribing a CPAP machine.
The only reason I can think of is that her physician diagnosed her with a common cold. As far as the CPAP, that makes no sense unless she went through a sleep study. Doctors don’t prescribe a CPAP unless they know for sure the reason why you would need one.
That’s a really good point.
My own suspicion is that 1) there never was a physician to begin with, 2) or whoever her poor physician was/is, won’t lie for her and say what she wants them to say, and they won’t let her write an affidavit for them. Just sayin’. It is lyin’ Lena we’re dealing with here.
Of course she is lying. That’s a given.
But she did attach something from her (or a) doctor that she had a chest x-ray with the first pile of garbage she sent in. And there was also another piece of paper with something regarding a CPAP. I know it couldn’t be a positive pressure oxygen machine as she claims since that would require she be intubated. That’s what hospitals use to keep people breathing that can’t breath on their own.
If this charade continues, the court is going to want to hear from an actual doctor. My guess is that what he had in mind when he told her that she needed expert proof that she had become infected by an illegal alien. And there would have to be actual proof that she treats undocumented aliens and that she treated the ones arriving at the border when she first filed this heap of horse manure.
She’ll never be able to do that. I hope she has spent a lot on her current “expert”.
Forgive my logic, but it seems to me that Dolan’s unsupported theory that residents of border state have acquired immunity due to exposure to historical illegal immigration actually works against Taitz’s allegation that the virus caused her recent respiratory illness. Taitz lives in a border state and, as she has pled, is a provider of services to immigrants, so –using Dolan’s rationale — it is likely that she would have acquired immunity.
This is perfectly consistent with Bloody Orly’s own strategies and/or theories always working against her own cases. She is the Lucy Ricardo of law.
In the early part of the amended complaint, Taitz writes:
Later (page 10) Taitz says she treated “immigrants.”:
Dolan follows the second version:
I would certainly want to ask how Taitz knew that any of her patients were government-transported illegal immigrant minors.
If this case gets past a motion to dismiss, Taitz will have to prove that she has treated people who were processed as part of the federal policies she is challenging. She will have to prove that this patient/these patients had a communicable disease. And she will have to prove that she had the same communicable disease. Since sleep apnea is not a communicable disease, I can’t see how the CPAP machine will enter into this equation. I think she’s painted herself into a corner with this web of lies around her alleged illness. I’d be happy to see this case get to a step where she’s got to untangle this web and try to convince a judge that she caught sleep apnea from an illegal immigrant.
I can’t see how the CPAP machine will enter into this equation.
I use a CPAP. I hope she has the read outs from the sleep lab that determined she needs one. Or she may have self diagnosed and not bothered with actual medical professionals.
Saturday Night At the Movies:
WHEN VERA MET ORLY (Comedy 2014) ★★1/2
Starring: Orly Taitz, Vera Dolan, (cameo by Andrew S. Hanen as “the judge”)
Written by: Screenplay by Bill Ayers based on a book by Saul Alinsky
Director: George Soros
Plot: Fleas lie down with other fleas. Hijinks ensue.
Google street view shows that it is a modest tract home. Zillow estimates that the current market value is $300,000. It sold for $302,000 in 2002.
Grifters gotta grift, even in modest homes!
Did they arrive in a puff of smoke? When I read that, I saw Aunt Clara from “Bewitched” trying to help her friend Orly by conjuring up some stereotypical Juan Valdez-like peons, who cough furiously as they try to fan away the thick smoke that heralded their appearance.
A dozen D68 cases in New York
http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/12/health/enterovirus-new-york/index.html
Taitz claims she was told she had oxygen insufficiency due to her cough, and her doctor said she had to use the machine for the rest of her life. I didn’t know they had portable models that you could carry around with you, like folks with oxygen cylinders.
I have my own doubts. Conspiracy theorists generally have problems with cause and effect.
Maybe I should file in federal court for an emergency injunction to prevent Orly Taitz from practicing dentistry due to her persistent cough that she is in imminent danger of spreading to her patients.
More specifically an aversion to the truth and any inconvenient facts that disagree with their deeply held delusions.
I think I am more concerned with her claim that she is often covered from head to toe in blood from her patients. I’d file an injunction on behalf of all of those patients that bleed out during their visits to her office.
Yeah, that would all have to come from ONE patient at a time, you know. It wouldn’t be safe otherwise.
Excellent point. It very well may be. Google her name, and the birther stuff is the first thing that comes up. She’s tied to the birthers four different times on the front page of Google results. By the time the various birther websites get hold of this, Vera Dolan will be tied in an inescapable Gordian Knot of birtherism.
If I were an attorney for the other side (whatever that side is, sometime in the future), when I asked about her credentials, I’d ask her repeated detailed questions about how she came to her conclusions in this case, without the medical records of the supposed illegal immigrants. And that’s just for starters. All sorts of awesome questions come to mind.
Good times. Good times.
CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. Oxygen concentrators are often used with CPAPs in a home setting at the altitude where I live. They use zeolite and something called rapid pressure swing absorption to scrub nitrogen from the air. We live above 7,000 feet, and they aren’t uncommon here at all. My guess, based on previous Orly pronouncements, is that she is possibly merging or confusing the two.
As a dental professional, if she caught something which is able to evade the precautions any normal, responsible dentist would take, and which works to quickly and permanently scar the lungs, surely she has informed the CDC. Informing the CDC would seem to be the first step in handling this.
They make portable CPAPs and oxygen concentrators. If she’s on oxygen for a cough, she’d probably need it 24/7, not just overnight. Overnight is usually for sleep apnea, not lung damage.
Thankfully, doctors are able to be called as witnesses. Of course, Orly would be called as a witness, too, since she bases her claim on her own damages.
So we might be treated to Orly cross-examining herself again? This could be fun.
Her CV lists how she once (?) passed a Daubert hearing. I suppose that would’ve been the last time, too.
So here’s a nice local article from the Brownsville paper:
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/valley/article_f820750a-3d49-11e4-a0bc-001a4bcf6878.html
I don’t see how she is going to overcome sovereign immunity, and ever get past a motion to dismiss.
The APA provides for a waiver of sovereign immunity. COBELL v. BABBITT, 30 F. Supp.2d 24 (D.D.C. 1998).
There remain some hurdles.
And then there is the issue of standing… Will be interesting
Ah, Sven is back. Sven, where is Pres. Obama’s naturalization certificate you said you had. If you produced that, Dr. Taitz would not need to debate the finer points of waivers of sovereign immunity, now would she?
Please specifically cite the paragraphs in which Taitz alleges an APA violation.
Hi Sven,
Managed to turn up that naturalization record for President Obama yet..?
You know, from the detailed instructions proved previously that tells you how..?
The instructions you then totally tried to hide from by posting irrelevant links about totally different types of records..?
So, how is the search going..?
http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Taitz-v-Johnson-first-Amended-complaint-filed.pdf Pg 16.
{paraphrasing}
The federal government is releasing apprehended illegal aliens who are hosting/incubating infectious disease in their body after setting a bond and issuing terms for release on bond. As a generous, thoughtful, and professional healthcare provider, plaintiff is in the zone of interest of potential and actual injury created by defendants failing to properly implement and administer the Flast/Cohen settlement, a defacto government policy for a catch and release program of illegal aliens instituted by the federal government.
The Cobell v. Babbitt case was appealed as Cobell v. Norton
http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/308939063093E6EF85256F7A0063D849/$file/00-5081a.txt
Appeals court summary of the District Court’s ruling …
“After a lengthy trial, the district court concluded that the federal government and its officers have been derelict in their duties, and issued a remand to the Interior and Treasury Departments so that appellants could discharge their fiduciary obligations. The district court further retained jurisdiction and ordered appellants to file quarterly reports detailing steps taken in fulfillment of their duties.”
Appeals court ruling …
“While we order the district court to modify the characterization of some of its findings, we generally affirm its judgment and order.”
Put Orly on a pedestal and bend a knee because Orly is destined for greatness.
Doc invoked the powerful and arcane majick of “sovereign immunity,” which summoned the demon from his foul lair.
Can someone in Independence, MO call Adult Protective Services? We have a pitiful old man having some sort of psychotic episode.
She qualified to testify about life expectancy, which appears to be her one area of expertise.
The Flores (not “Flash/Cohen”) settlement was not an act of Congress. The APA applies only to acts of Congress. Taitz does not allege a “zone of interest” that Congress sought to regulate or protect.
And the Flores settlement focused on the detention conditions and terms of release for juvenile detainees. Unless you are suggesting that Taitz is an underaged and in the United States illegally, she is not in the class of people (“zone of interest”) covered by Flores.
the only time I bend a knee before oily is when they buckle on my way to the floor before rolling around on it in hysterics watching her ridiculous antics!
the only greatness she’s headed for is `the greatest number of cocked up cases by an individual incompetent lawyer’
Sven, you’re boring me.
Not me. “Orly is destined for greatness” is the funniest statement I have read in years.