8 Member Associations of the WFC Look to Eject the ICA from its Board of Directors
NEWS
The International Chiropractors Association (ICA) has found themselves in the cross-hairs of an attack that looks to eject them from the Board of Directors of the World Federation of Chiropractic. This confrontation has been brought forth as a result of a Report on “Immune Function and Chiropractic: What Does the Evidence Provide?” initially released on March 20 and updated on March 28, 2020. As a result of this report, a letter was written dated June 17, directed to Richard Brown, the Secretary-General of the World Federation of Chiropractic. It was signed by executives from the Canadian Chiropractic Association, the British Chiropractic Association, the Norwegian
Chiropractors’ Association, the Liechtenstein Chiropractor’s Association, the Netherlands Chiropractors’ Association, the Chiropractic Association of South Africa, the Swedish Chiropractic Association and the Belgian Chiropractors’ Union.
The grounds detailed in the letter cites a rule that would permit a member to be expelled if that member “engages in any conduct which may be detrimental to the Corporation, including its reputation.” The authors of the letter refer to two papers recently published in an on-line Journal entitled, “A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity” and “Chiropractic students call for action against unsubstantiated claims.”
The ICA report stated that “In publishing this report, the ICA provides to our membership, at their request, a summary of existing research; and calls for expanded research resources.” This report came one day after the release of “The Effect of Spinal Adjustment / Manipulation on Immunity and the Immune System: A Rapid Review of Relevant Literature,” released by the Research Council of the World Federation of Chiropractic. The Rapid Review concluded, “no credible, scientific evidence that spinal adjustment/manipulation has any clinically relevant effect on the immune system was found.” Since its release, the WFC report has been cited in numerous media reports claiming chiropractors are peddling cures across the world for COVID-19 through spinal manipulation. Chiropractors have even found themselves facing board violations in states due to the Rapid Review document, and a differing interpretation of the science and data that they had grown to use as grounds for clinical practice. You may view the scanned letter in its entirety online, at bit.ly/ICA-Report.
