Guest post by Catherine de Jong
About the Master Kackadorisprize
The Master Kackadorisprize is awarded annually, this year for the 23rd time, by the Dutch Association against Quackery (Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, VtdK, www.kwakzalverij.nl) to a person or institution that promotes quackery. It is emphatically not about quack practitioners themselves, but about persons and institutions that facilitate and/or legitimize quackery. The goals of the prize are to stimulate discussion and prevent the unjust tolerance of quackery, so-called alternative medicine (SCAM), and healthcare scams. The prize is named after a figure in a play published in 1596, the quack “meester Kackadoris”.
The Executive Board of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has been awarded the Master Kackadoris Prize 2025 for appointing a chiropractor named Sidney Rubinstein as professor by special appointment (https://www.kwakzalverij.nl/nieuws/vrije-universiteit-krijgt-meester-kackadorisprijs-2025/ ).
Who is Sydney Rubinstein?
Sidney Rubinstein did his training in chiropractic in the USA. Apparently he managed to get into a training scheme for epidemiologists in the Free University in Amsterdam. On the website of the Free University it says: “I am a registered epidemiologist and work in the Department of Health Sciences, section Musculoskeletal Health (MSH). Additionally, I work as a chiropractor in Soest. (https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/sidney-rubinstein-2)”.
He defended and published his PhD thesis on 20 June 2008, a thesis that got a lot of criticism from scientists (https://www.kwakzalverij.nl/tijdschrift/tijdschrift-archief-2008/proefschrift-bijwerkingen-chiropraxie/).
Chiropractic is seen as quackery in the Netherlands
The profession “chiropractor” is not recognized in the Netherlands. The training of chiropractors is not recognized by de NVAO (Nederlands Vlaamse Accreditatie Organisatie, www.nvao.net, the organization that controls the quality of schools for higher education and university education). Chiropractic in the Netherlands is an alternative treatment and not paid for by the basic healthcare insurance that everybody has in the Netherlands. Only people who pay extra for the insurance for alternative treatments can get (limited) reimbursement for visits to a chiropractor.
So why did the Executive Board of the Free University Amsterdam get the Master Kackadorisprize?
The VtdK believes that with the appointment of Rubinstein, the Free University Amsterdam (VU) has brought quackery into the university. ‘VU Amsterdam has a first with this, a quack as a professor,’ says em. Prof. Michiel W. Hengeveld, psychiatrist and chairman of the jury of the Master Kackadoris Prize.
The prize was awarded in Utrecht on Saturday 4 October during the annual symposium of the VtdK.
The board of the VU did not take advantage of the association’s invitation to explain its appointment decision. In an e-mail to the jury chairman, the VU said: “Thank you for your message. We have taken note of your decision. We will not use your offer. For more information about this chair and what we stand for as a university, we would like to refer you to our website”.
The Free University did find the courage to give a comment on the Student Magazine website Ad Valvas: https://advalvas.vu.nl/wetenschap-onderwijs/vu-krijgt-kwakzalversprijs-voor-hoogleraar-chiropractie/
So far at least some discussion and about the unjust tolerance of quackery, SCAM, and healthcare scams.
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