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'{{short description|American anti-vaccination activist}} '''Judy Anne Mikovits''' is an American [[Vaccine hesitancy|anti-vaccination]] activist and former medical researcher. She has made discredited claims about vaccines, coronavirus, and [[chronic fatigue syndrome]] (CFS).<ref name="bad-science">{{cite web |last1=Neimark |first1=Jill |title=Why bad science won’t ever die |url=https://qz.com/595909/why-bad-science-wont-ever-die/ |website=Quartz |ref=bad-science |language=en}}</ref><ref name="coronavirus-truthers">{{cite web |last1=Merlan |first1=Anna |title=The Coronavirus Truthers Don't Believe in Public Health |url=https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/wxevj5/the-coronavirus-truthers-dont-believe-in-public-health |website=Vice |accessdate=22 April 2020 |ref=coronavirus-truthers |language=en |date=22 April 2020}}</ref><ref name="who-is-judy-mikovitz">{{cite web |last1=Iannelli |first1=Vincent |title=Who Is Judy Mikovits? |url=https://vaxopedia.org/2018/12/08/who-is-judy-mikovits/ |website=VAXOPEDIA |accessdate=22 April 2020 |ref=who-is-judy-mikovitz |date=9 December 2018}}</ref> As research director of a CFS research organization from 2006-2011, Mikovits led a research effort that reported in 2009 that a [[retrovirus]] known as [[xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus]] (XMRV) was associated with CFS and may have had a causal role. However, the research came under fire, leading to an eventual retraction on December 22, 2011 by the journal Science. In October 2011, Mikovits was terminated by WPI for refusing to turn over a cell line that was delivered to her laboratory by mistake, and subsequently came under investigation for alleged manipulation of data in her publications related to XMRV.<ref>{{cite news | title = Manipulation alleged in paper linking virus, chronic fatigue syndrome | url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-paper-10032011,0,6792877.story | newspaper = [[Chicago Tribune]] | date = October 3, 2011}}</ref> On November 18, 2011, Judy Mikovits was arrested in her Ventura County, California home. Her lawyer said she was arrested on charges of theft brought by the WPI, but that the charges had no merit.<ref name=scimag201111>{{cite web|url=http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arr.html?ref%3Dhp |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2011-11-21 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111201034505/http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/11/controversial-cfs-researcher-arr.html?ref=hp |archivedate=2011-12-01 }}</ref> By November 28, after negotiations with the WPI, 18 missing notebooks were returned.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.rgj.com/article/20111128/NEWS/111280325/Missing-notebooks-returned-Reno-chronic-disease-lab |title=Missing notebooks returned to Reno chronic disease lab |date=2011-11-28 |accessdate=2011-11-29}}</ref> Later, the criminal charges against her were dismissed by the Reno, NV District Attorney's office. ==Background== Mikovits got a BA in Chemistry with a specialization in biology at the [[University of Virginia]] in 1980. After graduation she went to the [[National Cancer Institute]] in [[Frederick, Maryland]] where she developed purification methods for [[Interferon alpha]]. In 1986 - 1987, she started working at [[Upjohn| Upjohn Pharmaceuticals]] in [[Kalamazoo Michigan]] in order to develop production methods to ensure biological materials manufactured using human blood products were free of contamination from [[HIV-1]]. In 1992 she completed a joint PhD program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at [[George Washington University]].<ref name="Judy A. Mikovits, PhD">[https://web.archive.org/web/20180813065211/http://www.plaguethebook.com/judy-a.-mikovits--phd.html|title= Judy A. Mikovits, PhD]</ref> Because of her previous work experience, her PhD thesis was named ''“Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes”'' She was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Molecular Virology at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute under Dr. David Derse. ==Early career== Mikovits worked for Francis "Frank" Ruscetti at the [[National Cancer Institute]] in [[Maryland]] during the 1980s. She remained in his lab as a postdoctoral researcher. Her work with Ruscetti included studies of several [[retrovirus]]es and their interactions with the immune system.<ref>[http://rex.nci.nih.gov/RESEARCH/basic/llb/mikovits.htm National Cancer Institute biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527114106/http://rex.nci.nih.gov/RESEARCH/basic/llb/mikovits.htm |date=2010-05-27 }}</ref> ==XMRV and CFS== Harvey and Annette Whittemore hired Mikovits as research director of WPI in 2006.<ref name=NYT11102009>{{Cite news |last=Grady |first=Denise |title=A Big Splash From an Upstart Medical Center |newspaper=The New York Times |date=11 October 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/giving/12SICK.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1}}</ref> Frustrated by a lack of answers for the illness, Whittemore decided that, "if there was a place of our own where we could find the answers, we could do it more quickly."<ref name=NYT12102009>{{Cite news |last=Grady |first=Denise |title=Is a Virus the Cause of Fatigue Syndrome? |newspaper=The New York Times |date=12 October 2009 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13fatigue.html}}</ref> Her attempts to find a viral cause of CFS were initially unsuccessful. In 2007, she met a co-discoverer of XMRV, Robert Silverman, at a [[Academic conference|conference]]. Silverman had found XMRV sequences, which are highly similar to mouse genomic sequences, in prostate cancer specimens several years earlier. Using tools obtained from Silverman, Mikovits began to look for XMRV in her CFS samples. In late 2008, a graduate student, who subsequently was hired as her technician, obtained two positive results from a group of twenty samples. He and Mikovits successively altered the experimental conditions until all samples gave a positive signal.<ref name=Nature032011/> In 2009, Mikovits and co-workers reported in the journal ''Science'' that they had detected XMRV [[DNA]] in CFS patients and control subjects.<ref name=Nature032011/><ref name=pmid19815723>{{cite journal |vauthors=Lombardi VC, Ruscetti FW, Das Gupta J, etal |title=Detection of an Infectious Retrovirus, XMRV, in Blood Cells of Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome |journal=Science |volume=326 |issue=5952 |pages=585–9 |date=October 2009 |pmid=19815723 |pmc=3073172 |doi=10.1126/science.1179052 |bibcode=2009Sci...326..585L}} {{Retracted paper|intentional=yes}}</ref> Negative results were published soon after, disputing Mikovits's findings.<ref name=Nature032011>{{Cite journal |last = Callaway |first=Ewen |title=Virology: Fighting for a cause |journal=Nature |volume=471 |issue=7338 |pages=282–85 |date=14 March 2011 |doi=10.1038/471282a |pmid=21412308 |bibcode=2011Natur.471..282C |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=Science100115>{{cite journal |author=Sam Kean |title=An Indefatigable Debate Over Chronic Fatigue Syndrome |journal=Science |volume=327 |issue=5963 |pages=254–255 |date=15 Jan 2010 |pmid=20075217 |doi=10.1126/science.327.5963.254 |bibcode=2010Sci...327..254K }}</ref> Robert Silverman, who was a co-author of the original XMRV-CFS article, told the Chicago Tribune that he was "concerned about lab contamination, despite our best efforts to avoid it".<ref name=Tsouderos032011>{{Cite news |last=Tsouderos |first=Trine |title=Research casts doubt on theory of cause of chronic fatigue |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=17 March 2011 |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-chronic-fatigue-xmrv-20110317,0,6116823.story?page=1}}</ref> The paper was ultimately retracted. Two of the original authors of this paper subsequently reanalyzed the samples used in the research and found that the samples were contaminated with XMRV plasmid DNA, leading them to publish a partial retraction of their original results,<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Silverman | first1 = R. H. | last2 = Das Gupta | first2 = J. | last3 = Lombardi | first3 = V. C. | last4 = Ruscetti | first4 = F. W. | last5 = Pfost | first5 = M. A. | last6 = Hagen | first6 = K. S. | last7 = Peterson | first7 = D. L. | last8 = Ruscetti | first8 = S. K. | last9 = Bagni | first9 = R. K. | last10 = Petrow-Sadowski | first10 = C. | last11 = Gold | first11 = B. | last12 = Dean | first12 = M. | last13 = Mikovits | first13 = J. A. | title = Partial Retraction | journal = Science | volume = 334 | issue = 6053 | pages = 176 | year = 2011 | doi = 10.1126/science.1212182 | pmid=21940859| bibcode = 2011Sci...334..176S }}</ref> and on December 22, 2011, the editors of Science retracted the paper in its entirety.<ref>{{Cite news |title=In a Rare Move, Science Without Authors' Consent Retracts Paper That Tied Mouse Virus to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome |date=22 December 2011 |last=Cohen |first=Jon |url=http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/12/updated-rare-move-science-without-authors-consent-retracts-paper-tied-mouse-virus |accessdate=22 December 2011}}</ref> Lo and Alter in their 2010 paper entitled Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors stated "Although we find evidence of a broader group of MLV-related viruses, rather than just XMRV, in patients with CFS and healthy blood donors, our results clearly support the central argument by Lombardi et al. that MLV-related viruses are associated with CFS and are present in some blood donors." This paper was later retracted by the authors.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Lo | first1 = S. -C. | last2 = Pripuzova | first2 = N. | last3 = Li | first3 = B. | last4 = Komaroff | first4 = A. L. | last5 = Hung | first5 = G. -C. | last6 = Wang | first6 = R. | last7 = Alter | first7 = H. J. | title = Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 107 | issue = 36 | pages = 15874–9 | year = 2010 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.1006901107 | pmid=20798047 | pmc=2936598| bibcode = 2010PNAS..10715874L }} {{Retracted paper|intentional=yes}}</ref> Mikovits and collaborators went on to participate (alongside two other research groups) in a larger 2012 study over 147 CFS patients and 146 controls. The study concluded that there was no evidence of XMRV or MLV infection in either group, a result she is quoted as calling "the definitive answer" on the issue.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Enserink|first1=M.|title=New XMRV Studies Bring Closure--and Fresh Dispute|journal=Science|date=20 September 2012|volume=337|issue=6101|pages=1441–1442|doi=10.1126/science.337.6101.1441|url=http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6101/1441.full|pmid=22997296}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Alter|first1=H. J.|last2=Mikovits|first2=J. A.|last3=Switzer|first3=W. M.|last4=Ruscetti|first4=F. W.|last5=Lo|first5=S.-C.|last6=Klimas|first6=N.|last7=Komaroff|first7=A. L.|last8=Montoya|first8=J. G.|last9=Bateman|first9=L.|last10=Levine|first10=S.|last11=Peterson|first11=D.|last12=Levin|first12=B.|last13=Hanson|first13=M. R.|last14=Genfi|first14=A.|last15=Bhat|first15=M.|last16=Zheng|first16=H.|last17=Wang|first17=R.|last18=Li|first18=B.|last19=Hung|first19=G.-C.|last20=Lee|first20=L. L.|last21=Sameroff|first21=S.|last22=Heneine|first22=W.|last23=Coffin|first23=J.|last24=Hornig|first24=M.|last25=Lipkin|first25=W. I.|title=A Multicenter Blinded Analysis Indicates No Association between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and either Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus or Polytropic Murine Leukemia Virus|journal=mBio|date=18 September 2012|volume=3|issue=5|pages=e00266-12–e00266-12|doi=10.1128/mBio.00266-12|pmid=22991430|url=http://mbio.asm.org/content/3/5/e00266-12.abstract?sid=2c5ce94a-a8f4-404a-8e6e-6389779bb93e|pmc=3448165}}</ref> ==Criticism== Mikovits has garnered criticism from some scientists for stating that XMRV is a communicable infection which is "clearly circulating through the population as is our fear and your fear". Virologist [[Vincent Racaniello]] responded to that, saying that it "is just inciting fear."<ref name=Tsouderos032011/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Powers |first=Lenita |title=Reno researchers dispute British challenge to virus discovery |newspaper=Reno Gazette-Journal |date=13 January 2010 |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/rgj/access/1939980311.html?FMT=ABS&date=Jan+13%2C+2010 |accessdate=13 January 2010}}</ref>{{dl|date=April 2020}} Mikovits showed slides at a conference which linked XMRV to [[Parkinson's disease]], [[autism]] and [[multiple sclerosis]]. However, there is no published evidence that XMRV is associated with these diseases.<ref name=pmid20946639>{{cite journal |vauthors=Satterfield BC, Garcia RA, Gurrieri F, Schwartz CE |title=PCR and serology find no association between xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) and autism |journal=Mol Autism |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=14 |year=2010 |pmid=20946639 |pmc=2964727 |doi=10.1186/2040-2392-1-14 |url=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Luczkowiak | first1 = J | last2 = Sierra | first2 = O | last3 = González-Martín | first3 = JJ | last4 = Herrero-Beaumont | first4 = G | last5 = Delgado | first5 = R | title = No xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus detected in fibromyalgia patients | journal = Emerging Infectious Diseases | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | pages = 314–5 | year = 2011 | pmid = 21291619 | doi=10.3201/eid1702.100978 | pmc=3204766 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Digard | first1 = P. | last2 = Strohschein | first2 = O. | last3 = Brandt | first3 = K. | last4 = Seeher | first4 = A. U. | last5 = Klein | first5 = S. | last6 = Kurth | first6 = S. | last7 = Paul | first7 = R. | last8 = Meisel | first8 = F. | last9 = Scheibenbogen | first9 = C. | last10 = Bannert | doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0015632 | first10 = N. | editor1-last = Digard | editor1-first = Paul | title = No Evidence for XMRV in German CFS and MS Patients with Fatigue Despite the Ability of the Virus to Infect Human Blood Cells in Vitro | journal = PLOS ONE | volume = 5 | issue = 12 | pages = e15632 | year = 2010 | pmid = 21203514 | pmc =3008728 |bibcode = 2010PLoSO...515632H }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Jeziorski | first1 = E. | last2 = Foulongne | first2 = V. | last3 = Ludwig | first3 = C. | last4 = Louhaem | first4 = D. | last5 = Chiocchia | first5 = G. | last6 = Segondy | first6 = M. | last7 = Rodière | first7 = M. | last8 = Sitbon | first8 = M. | last9 = Courgnaud | first9 = V. R. | title = No evidence for XMRV association in pediatric idiopathic diseases in France | journal = Retrovirology | volume = 7 | pages = 63 | year = 2010 | pmid = 20678193 | pmc = 2920251 | doi = 10.1186/1742-4690-7-63 }}</ref> Mikovits was arrested on November 18, 2011, based on allegations by the WPI that she had removed notebooks and other proprietary information from WPI. She was held temporarily pursuant to that case.<ref name=scimag201111 /> Subsequently, criminal charges brought against Mikovits by Washoe County, NV were dismissed by the District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney in Reno, NV.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Official Court Document |url=http://cfidsreport.com/images/Judy%20Mikovits%20Dismissal.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=June 13 Criminal Charges Dropped Against Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Researcher Judy Mikovits |url=http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/06/criminal-charges-dropped-against.html/#.TvNtBjUS01I |publisher=sciencemag.org |accessdate=13 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=June 15 Nevada drops charges against researcher Mikovits |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-mikovits-charges-main-20120615,0,7187208.story/#.TvNtBjUS01I |publisher=chicagotribune.com |accessdate=15 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=June 14 No Theft Charge for Chronic Fatigue Researcher |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/us/chronic-fatigue-researcher-wont-face-theft-charges.html?_r=1/#.TvNtBjUS01I |newspaper=nytimes.com|accessdate=14 June 2011}}</ref> == Published books == * 2020. Heckenlively, Kent; Mikovits, Judy. ''[http://plaguethebook.com/plague-of-corruption/ Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science]''. Simon and Schuster, April 14, 2020. * 2014. Mikovits, at al. ''[http://plaguethebook.com/ Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]''. Simon and Schuster.<ref name=Plague1/> ==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=Plague1> {{cite news | url = https://books.google.ca/books?id=87BfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT520&dq=%22Byron+Hyde%22+OR+%22Byron+Marshall+Hyde%22+OR+%22BM+Hyde%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin0fDsxcPLAhXKw4MKHcg6CP4Q6AEILzAE#v=onepage&q=%22Byron%20Hyde%22%20OR%20%22Byron%20Marshall%20Hyde%22%20OR%20%22BM%20Hyde%22&f=false | title = Plague: One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases |author1=Kent Heckenlively |author2=Judy Mikovits | isbn = 9781628739299 | publisher = [[Skyhorse Publishing]] | date = 2014 | page = | accessdate = 2016-03-15 }} </ref> }} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mikovits, Judy}} [[Category:Anti-vaccination activists]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American medical researchers]] [[Category:American virologists]] [[Category:Women virologists]] [[Category:Chronic fatigue syndrome]] [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]'