Judy Mikovits

Dr Judy Mikovits    (biologist)
Alma mater	University of Virginia, George Washington University

Judy Anne Mikovits is an American anti-vaccination activist and former medical researcher who claims that anti-flu vaccines contain coronavirus, and those vaccinated are at risk from COVID-19. She is highly critical of Dr Anthony Fauci.

As research director of a chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) research organisation Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) from 2006-2011, Dr Judy 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 22 December 2011, by the journal Science.

In October 2011, Mikovits was terminated by the 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. On 18 November 2011, she was arrested in her Ventura County, California, home and jailed for 5 days. Her lawyer said she was arrested on charges of theft brought by the WPI, but that the charges had no merit. By 28 November after negotiations with the WPI, some lab notes were returned. Later, the criminal charges against her were dismissed by the Reno, Nevada, District Attorney's office.

Background

In 1980, Mikovits was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry with a specialisation in biology at the University of Virginia. 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 Pharmaceuticals in Kalamazoo, Michigan, working 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. Her PhD thesis was titled "Negative Regulation of HIV Expression in Monocytes." Mikovits 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 Frank Ruscetti included studies of several retroviruses and their interactions with the immune system.

XMRV and CFS

Harvey Whittemore and his wife Annette were frustrated by lack of answers for CFS patients, including their daughter. In an effort to solve the CFS problem, they created the Whittemore Peterson Institute in 2005; Mikovits became the research director in 2006. Attempts to find a viral cause of CFS were unsuccessful.

In 2007, Mikovits met a co-discoverer of XMRV, Robert Silverman, at a conference. Silverman had found XMRV sequences, which are 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.

In 2009, Mikovits and co-workers reported in the journal Science that they had detected XMRV DNA in CFS patients and control subjects. Negative results were published soon after, disputing Mikovits's findings. 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." 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. In December 2011 the editors of Science retracted the paper in its entirety.

Mikovits was fired in September 2011 over concerns about her integrity.

Lo and Alter, in their 2010 paper titled "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 also later retracted by the authors.

Mikovits and collaborators went on to participate, alongside two other research groups, in a larger 2012 study with 147 CFS patients and 146 controls. The study concluded that there was no evidence of XMRV or MLV infection in either group, a result that Mikovits said was "the definitive answer" on the issue.

Anti-vaccination activism and conspiracy theories

According to Snopes, Mikovits has become a champion for believers in medical conspiracy theories, basing claims linking the XMRV to autism and cancer on other retracted papers, and claiming she had been jailed by the influence of the Deep state and Big Pharma for exposing the truth about vaccines. In reality, she was arrested on 18 November 2011, for allegedly stealing lab notebooks, a computer, and other material belonging to Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI).ref>https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/scientist-vaccine-jailed</ref> She was held temporarily pursuant to that case. Subsequently, criminal charges brought against Mikovits by Washoe County, Nevada, were dismissed by the District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney in Reno, Nevada.

Mikovits has spoken at a number of anti-vaccination events. She has claimed that retroviruses have contaminated 30% of vaccines.

Mikovits has garnered criticism from 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 that "is just inciting fear." Mikovits showed slides at a conference linking XMRV to Parkinson's disease, autism and multiple sclerosis. However, there is no published evidence that XMRV is associated with these diseases.

Mikovits has gained attention on social media for promoting her ideas about the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. She does not believe that a vaccine is needed to prevent COVID-19, and claims that the coronavirus was "caused by a bad strain of flu vaccine that was circulating between 2013 and 2015". One of her videos about the coronavirus pandemic was fact-checked by the website, which rated some of her claims as either false or not based in evidence.

Published books

• 2020. Heckenlively, Kent; Mikovits, Judy. Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science. Skyhorse Publishing
• 2014. Mikovits, at al. Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Skyhorse Publishing

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References

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