Stefan Lanka, a “vaccination skeptic” who claims that measles are a psychosomatic condition brought on by “traumatic separations,” publicly challenged people to prove that measles was caused by a virus.
So David Barden, a German MD, took him to court to prove that he was owed €100,000 according to the terms of his bet. He won.
On Thursday, a Ravensburg court ordered Lanka to pay up because all the criteria of his wager had been fulfilled. Court spokesman Matthias Geiser said the judges had deliberated for three hours and concluded there was “no doubt about the existence of the measles virus.”
Lanka told German news site The Local that he will appeal the ruling “because we know that the ‘measles virus’ doesn’t exist, and according to biology and medical science can’t exist.” In 1995, Lanka penned an article questioning whether the virus that causes Aids was “Reality or Artefact?
Biologist ordered to pay €100k after losing wager that a virus causes measles [Calvin Ayre/Gambling News]
(Thanks, Ben!)