Pre-order now on Amazon, ships February 9th!
January 28, 2011
My Interview with Wade Rankin about Vaccine Epidemic
Check out my interview with Wade Rankin on his radio show Injecting Sense about our new book Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children
Pre-order now on Amazon, ships February 9th!
Pre-order now on Amazon, ships February 9th!
January 27, 2011
Watch the Vaccine Bubble Burst: Novartis Q4 Profit Down as Vaccine Demand Drops
Last week I posted yet another appeal to the Pharma/Public Health public-private partnership to stop attacking our community, pointing out to them that their tactics were not working and were only loosing the vaccine/autism wars.
Today the Associated Press put out yet another confirmation that PharmaKorpGov's tactics are not working:
Will the vaccine profiteers pay attention. If history is any gauge, and it always is, then no.
Their business runs on a cost/benefit analysis. Since there is such little cost compared to their other product lines (because the 1986 vaccine law protects them from lawsuits for the injured and dead via vaccination, and because the government - the US tax payer - sells their product for them via public health drives and mandates), it is likely they are willing to let things take a long nose dive, while they stay in denial that this is just temporary and one more run at Andrew Wakefield should solve the whole mess.
But have no doubt... this is the thing that hits PharmaKorp where it hurts. You can carry pictures of our sick and dead children and march around their building every day, that is not going to change things. Because of history is any gauge, and it always is, then only loosing enough cash will change things.
So the next question is, where is their bottom? My guess is an analyst sitting in some building, somewhere, watching for the magic number to flip, and then suddenly we will see Offit tucked away in some lab somewhere, a sudden change in management, and this new management will show that they are truly upset by what our community has had to shoulder, both insults and injuries, and really wants our help in making the vaccine program safe.
OR
We will win the Bruesewitz case in SCOTUS and the timeline jumps into overdrive.
So what is that magic number?
Today the Associated Press put out yet another confirmation that PharmaKorpGov's tactics are not working:
Novartis Q4 profit down as vaccine demand drops
Jan 27, 2011 5:32 AM ET
By The Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — Swiss drug maker Novartis AG saw fourth quarter net profit slip 2 percent on the year to $2.32 billion amid one-off charges and a sharp drop in demand for its pandemic flu vaccine, the company said Thursday.
Profit in the October-December period was hurt by one-time charges of $789 million, including restructuring costs in the U.S. and Germany — only partially offset by a one-time gain of $392 million, the pharmaceutical company said.
Revenue in the fourth quarter grew from $12.92 billion to $14.19 billion. However, the vaccine division suffered a 74 percent decline in sales to $361 million following the end of the pandemic flu in 2010, after sales for the flu vaccine totaled $1 billion a year earlier.
The maker of hypertension drug Diovan and anticancer treatment Glivec — known as Gleevec in the United States — said its 2010 full year sales were up by 14 percent to $50.62 billion, including $2.4 billion revenue from the full consolidation of eye care specialist Alcon, Inc.
Full year 2010 net profit was up to $8.45 billion from $9.96 billion a year earlier, the company, based in Basel, said.
"Novartis achieved excellent results in 2010 as all divisions contributed to above-market growth," Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez said.
The company's results were helped by 13 key product approvals and the breakthrough of the multiple sclerosis medication, Gilenya, which has also been launched in the U.S., he said.
Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank said while Novartis' revenue is fully in line with market expectations, its net profit remained slightly below expectations.
In its outlook, Novartis said it expects sales to grow at constant currency rates by a "double-digit mark," and productivity gains to help improve margins while absorbing price cuts, generic competition and the loss of the pandemic flu vaccine sales.
The company's shares were trading lower on Switzerland's stock exchange Thursday morning, falling by 1.74 percent to 53.50 Swiss Francs ($56.71).
Will the vaccine profiteers pay attention. If history is any gauge, and it always is, then no.
Their business runs on a cost/benefit analysis. Since there is such little cost compared to their other product lines (because the 1986 vaccine law protects them from lawsuits for the injured and dead via vaccination, and because the government - the US tax payer - sells their product for them via public health drives and mandates), it is likely they are willing to let things take a long nose dive, while they stay in denial that this is just temporary and one more run at Andrew Wakefield should solve the whole mess.
But have no doubt... this is the thing that hits PharmaKorp where it hurts. You can carry pictures of our sick and dead children and march around their building every day, that is not going to change things. Because of history is any gauge, and it always is, then only loosing enough cash will change things.
So the next question is, where is their bottom? My guess is an analyst sitting in some building, somewhere, watching for the magic number to flip, and then suddenly we will see Offit tucked away in some lab somewhere, a sudden change in management, and this new management will show that they are truly upset by what our community has had to shoulder, both insults and injuries, and really wants our help in making the vaccine program safe.
OR
We will win the Bruesewitz case in SCOTUS and the timeline jumps into overdrive.
So what is that magic number?
January 26, 2011
CBS: Flu Shots and Seizures
You know that "CBS Cares" PR line. I know they are just a huge Viacom congolmco, bit I am kinda starting to believe it a little. They seem to care about vaccine safety:
Read the rest here
Child Flu Vaccine Seizures?
Posted by Sharyl Attkisson
More confusing news for parents trying to do the best, safest things for their children when it comes to vaccination.
According to a Vaccine Safety "update" issued by the FDA on Jan. 20, there's been an increase in reports of febrile seizures among infants and children following this year's flu vaccine. Febrile seizures are seizures associated with fever.
According to the FDA:
"FDA and CDC have recently detected an increase in the number of reports to VAERS of febrile seizures following vaccination with Fluzone (trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine or TIV, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, Inc.). Fluzone is the only influenza vaccine recommended for use for the 2010-2011 flu season in infants and children 6-23 months of age. These reported febrile seizures have primarily been seen in children younger than 2 years of age."
Read the rest here
January 21, 2011
Matt Lauer, Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopoulos Adopt Skeptic Community/Science Media's Failing Tactics
A year and a half ago, my patience ran out with those in this debate pretending to be earnest seekers of truth, but whose words and actions revealed them to be closed and biased. I published an extensive piece detailing the problems I saw in the Skeptic movement (which I really now see as just the Contrarian movement, as they don't seem to be skeptical of some assertions that someone from Missouri would demand proof of, but merely oppose anything our community says no matter how reasonable) and in "science writers" who act as mere functionaries of Pharma and their friends/sometime employees in public health. It was entitled:
It details my earnest attempts to get through to these skeptics/science journalists, and an effort to point out that they are shooting themselves in the foot with their actions, and that our children are collateral damage in their efforts. Long story short... they are some pretty myopic people and not open to self-evaluation, so their tactics continue to loose them the vaccine/autism wars.
(*After I posted the piece, Dr. David "Orac" Gorski sent me a flattering email saying he had actually always respected me and asked me to remove the piece. When I declined, he let the insults fly again. So... not the most honest and straightforward guy.
A few months later, we learned that Gorski has spent the last several years developing a drug for vaccine maker Sanofi, which he had some how forgotten to mention in his hundreds of posts about these issues, so I do feel a bit the sucker for approaching him as if he was actually a somewhat disinterested party in this debate. Had I known I would not have wasted so many hours trying to have a real discussion with him, but live and learn I guess.)
I hope you will take the time to read it, especially if you are someone who believes the media on this issue and super especially if you are Matt Lauer, Anderson Coooper, George Stephanopolous or any other major news personality who has been handed a press release labeled "News" that was likely drafted in a Pharma conference room and told to get really angry at some guy named Andrew Wakefield.
Pharma Co and their emissaries have launched an extended (and what appears to be a) last ditch effort to bury the vaccine/autism story since the beginning of the year. Two books on how vaccine safety advocates are both ignorant and a threat to society, and an attempt to once again make Andrew Wakefield a scape goat and sacrifice him at the alter of the vaccine program. And, of course, various and sundry supporting pieces hither and yon from the usual players.
This is, of course, just more of the same transparent "killing the messenger" tactic that has been losing them the vaccine/autism wars for the last ten years. But since their only other choice is to admit there are problems in the vaccine program and address them, no doubt costing them billions of dollars and landing a few of them in jail, they have decided to die with their boots on while taking a few doctors, lots of parents and untold thousands of innocent children down with them. It is pretty clear that the vaccine bubble is now deflating, but they are pumping with all their might, influence and dollars to keep that thing inflated. They seem to be telling themselves... "there are just two big holes in this... Wakefield and McCarthy. If we can convince the public that Wakefield is a crook and use the "Nuts and Sluts" defense against McCarthy, we can plug them and our bubble can grow with no end in site!!"
Yet they are astonished that bubble is still deflating.
Because they have incorrectly diagnosed the bubble's aliments. The hundreds of thousands of pin holes in it. The epidemic of autism, add, asthma, diabetes, allergies, developmental disability and delay... and all those other neurological and autoimmune disorders running rampant in our children. And the millions of people who are seeing it happen to children they love... seeing how it points back to the vaccine program and other toxic injuries... coming to ask all those unanswered questions and discovering all those unsupportable safety claims.... and knowing that whether or not some doctor they never heard of in the UK is or is not a big fat liar, has nothing to do with their concerns. Nor do Jenny McCarthy's boobs.
But still PharmaKorp trudges on in their ineffectiveness.
But now they are working to enlist some high profile media types to adopt their attack dog tactics, and the little backfires that they have been experiencing in the vaccine safety debate circles are now becoming big backfires on a national level.
Last year before Wakefield's book "Callous Disregard" came out, PharmaKorp launched an out of the blue attack on him, and Matt Lauer was awful to him on the Today show. Rather than having the intended result of finishing off Andrew Wakefield (because yanking his license four months earlier during his previous public execution had not quite done the job), the assault put Wakefield's book on the Amazon top ten list and Lauer's popularity took a hit. The autism and vaccine safety communities were angry at the unfairness of his interview, and the wider public saw the assault on Wakefield as unprofessional and their suspicions were raised (and they clicked on Amazon). The tongue in cheek "Land of the Lost" tribute facebook group called, "Matt Lauer Can Suck It" was even taken over by people upset with Lauer about the interview, who proceeded to tell Matt Lauer that he could actually "Suck It".
Yet despite how badly these tactics bomb... over and over and over... THEY still just up the ante? Why?
Now they have dragged Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopulos into it. I am curious as to how they pull this off. I assumed that after the Nancy Snydermand/Matt Lauer tiff where she got mad at him for insisting that vaccines were still contriversal, that she brought down heat on Lauer at NBC and he was told to put the screws to Wakefield. After all, Lauer's ex wife is the mother of a child with autism who believes that vaccines and gut issues are a factor, and it is rumored that Lauer and his current wife selectively vaccinated their own children. Add in NBC/GE ownership of large medical corporations and you can see how that happens.
But what were the conversations that had to take place with Cooper and Stephanopulos to make them behave like jerks and go hard on Wakefield? Who is the person that talked to them to get them all hyped up? That kind of aggression and "combativeness", as Stephanopoulos admitted to engaging in, doesn't just come from no where. What were they told, and by who, that would make them stick their necks out this far on a story that they don't even follow?
When Shephard Smith got pissed at the Bush administration for stranding thousands of people in a sinking New Orleans, he was not sticking his neck out or making assumptions or taking the word of someone in another country that people in need were being neglected to their detriment. He was standing in the middle of them, filming an abandoned dead body. He had all the facts and knew he had the high ground. Anger justified.
But Lauer, Cooper and Stephanopoulos? They don't actually know jack. So how exactly were they tricked into making asses of themselves and losing the trust of some of their regular viewiers?
And why? At this point, every journalist who actually has a career to care about (not talking about writers with no serious credentials like Trine Tsouderos or Seth Mnookin who are brought into to write hit pieces that elevate their profile) must know that the public is taking this issue very, very seriously. Even if they think that there is nothing to the vaccine/autism debate, don't they wonder why despite all the stories that they see coming across their desk declaring the debate over... that it only grows? Does the last guy to do it even take a look at the outcome of the previous guys to do it? Did Stephanopoulos even check reaction to Cooper's interview to see how badly it went over? And if so, did he care that his went over even worse?
So the point of this whole piece that I am writing is to, once again, with feeling, declare to the Pharma stragetists and media heads out there who are attacking our community in order to defend their over-zealous, under tested and destructive vaccine program and its profits...
It has never worked! It didn't work when you started it in the blogesphere, it didn't work in local news, it doesn't work in the national news.
It didn't work when Skeptico did it.
It didn't work when Orac did it.
It didn't work when Chris Mooney did it.
It didn't work when Sheril Kirshenbaum did it.
It didn't work when Lori Kozlowski did it.
It didn't work when Virginia Hughes did it.
It didn't work when Thomas Maugh did it.
It didn't work when Trine Tsouderos did it.
It didn't work when Gardier Harris did it.
It didn't work when Nancy Snyderman did it.
It has never worked when Paul Offit does it, as his new book,"Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All," is currently #8,277 on Amazon's best seller list.
And it is not working as Seth Mnookin is trying his hand at the same failing tactics that all his predecessors have failed with. His book kicking the vaccine safety community didn't break the #1000 mark and continues to slide.
And you guys have been hyping the hell out of those two books!
It didn't work when Lauer did it.
It didn't work when Stephaholopoulos did it.
It didn't even work when Cooper and his "national treasure" baby blues did it.
So....
Whose up next? What media name will Pharma Co. forward scouts turn to next to expose the vicious murders that are vaccine safety advocates and parents of sick and dying children?
Or is the Old Stream Media taking note that doing Pharma Co's dirty work is only further hobbling their struggling industry by further eroding public trust in their reporting? Nah... probably not.
And what is the next story? A few months from now when this media push falls flat, parents are purchasing even fewer vaccines and Andrew Wakefield is still booking speaking engagements and publising, will he fail to return home from work one evening only to be "discovered" three days later, unconscious in a Mexican hotel room filled with cocaine and under aged prostitutes, by a vacationing Brian Deer who is coincidently on holiday in Cancun? Exactly how far do they plan on trying to get this Wakefield story to stretch?
Pharma Co, with all their in depth market strategery has to know that this tac is not working on the public and is only losing the public trust in vaccines. So have they just decided that the masses may be lost, but at least they can keep doctors and researchers from questioning the party line publicly by creating a hostile environment through the media crush? That is not working too well either, but I think that might be the last line that Pharma Co. is trying to hold in this war. Eventually docs get pissed at being told what to do and what to think, so we will see how long that one holds out.
Pharma... Brian Deer (with your allusions to Wakefield's severed hand crawling across the floor)... the reason Wakefield won't die is that... please pay attention... that there are no real bullets in your gun. You guys are just flicking pebbles at him. The guy published a paper that says children with autism sometimes have serious GI issues and that sometimes they both come on after MMR. This is hard to discredit as it is also the active policy of the Federal Government of the United States of America. CDC tells their docs to screen for GI issues upon suspecting an autism diagnosis, because gastrointestinal distress IS associated with autism. HHS lists the symptoms of autism as a reaction to the MMR and DTaP vaccines on their web site, and they have paid many children for MMR induced autism.
So you need to understand... if tomorrow you publish video of Andrew Wakefield robbing a 7-11 with an AK-47 and taking a crippled 8 year old girl as a hostage, while Jenny McCarthy drives the get away car... it is not going to solve your vaccine sales problem. Because the vaccine program is the problem. The people talking about the problems in the vaccine program are not the problem. Trying to shut them up or shut them down is not working.
Jenny McCarthy and Andrew Wakefield did not kill Elias Tembenis. The DTaP vaccine did.
Any route Pharma Co takes ends badly for them. The vaccine bubble is over. It is not bursting all at once, but as soon as SCOTUS renders their Bruesewitz decision, bubble starts deflating in earnest. Because either the law suits will start flying fast and furious, or the public will finally understand that if they have a vaccine injury, they are on their own.
Happy pumping Pharma.
Update: See... doesn't work.
Another Update: Seriously... not working.
It details my earnest attempts to get through to these skeptics/science journalists, and an effort to point out that they are shooting themselves in the foot with their actions, and that our children are collateral damage in their efforts. Long story short... they are some pretty myopic people and not open to self-evaluation, so their tactics continue to loose them the vaccine/autism wars.
(*After I posted the piece, Dr. David "Orac" Gorski sent me a flattering email saying he had actually always respected me and asked me to remove the piece. When I declined, he let the insults fly again. So... not the most honest and straightforward guy.
A few months later, we learned that Gorski has spent the last several years developing a drug for vaccine maker Sanofi, which he had some how forgotten to mention in his hundreds of posts about these issues, so I do feel a bit the sucker for approaching him as if he was actually a somewhat disinterested party in this debate. Had I known I would not have wasted so many hours trying to have a real discussion with him, but live and learn I guess.)
I hope you will take the time to read it, especially if you are someone who believes the media on this issue and super especially if you are Matt Lauer, Anderson Coooper, George Stephanopolous or any other major news personality who has been handed a press release labeled "News" that was likely drafted in a Pharma conference room and told to get really angry at some guy named Andrew Wakefield.
Pharma Co and their emissaries have launched an extended (and what appears to be a) last ditch effort to bury the vaccine/autism story since the beginning of the year. Two books on how vaccine safety advocates are both ignorant and a threat to society, and an attempt to once again make Andrew Wakefield a scape goat and sacrifice him at the alter of the vaccine program. And, of course, various and sundry supporting pieces hither and yon from the usual players.
This is, of course, just more of the same transparent "killing the messenger" tactic that has been losing them the vaccine/autism wars for the last ten years. But since their only other choice is to admit there are problems in the vaccine program and address them, no doubt costing them billions of dollars and landing a few of them in jail, they have decided to die with their boots on while taking a few doctors, lots of parents and untold thousands of innocent children down with them. It is pretty clear that the vaccine bubble is now deflating, but they are pumping with all their might, influence and dollars to keep that thing inflated. They seem to be telling themselves... "there are just two big holes in this... Wakefield and McCarthy. If we can convince the public that Wakefield is a crook and use the "Nuts and Sluts" defense against McCarthy, we can plug them and our bubble can grow with no end in site!!"
Yet they are astonished that bubble is still deflating.
Because they have incorrectly diagnosed the bubble's aliments. The hundreds of thousands of pin holes in it. The epidemic of autism, add, asthma, diabetes, allergies, developmental disability and delay... and all those other neurological and autoimmune disorders running rampant in our children. And the millions of people who are seeing it happen to children they love... seeing how it points back to the vaccine program and other toxic injuries... coming to ask all those unanswered questions and discovering all those unsupportable safety claims.... and knowing that whether or not some doctor they never heard of in the UK is or is not a big fat liar, has nothing to do with their concerns. Nor do Jenny McCarthy's boobs.
But still PharmaKorp trudges on in their ineffectiveness.
But now they are working to enlist some high profile media types to adopt their attack dog tactics, and the little backfires that they have been experiencing in the vaccine safety debate circles are now becoming big backfires on a national level.
Last year before Wakefield's book "Callous Disregard" came out, PharmaKorp launched an out of the blue attack on him, and Matt Lauer was awful to him on the Today show. Rather than having the intended result of finishing off Andrew Wakefield (because yanking his license four months earlier during his previous public execution had not quite done the job), the assault put Wakefield's book on the Amazon top ten list and Lauer's popularity took a hit. The autism and vaccine safety communities were angry at the unfairness of his interview, and the wider public saw the assault on Wakefield as unprofessional and their suspicions were raised (and they clicked on Amazon). The tongue in cheek "Land of the Lost" tribute facebook group called, "Matt Lauer Can Suck It" was even taken over by people upset with Lauer about the interview, who proceeded to tell Matt Lauer that he could actually "Suck It".
Yet despite how badly these tactics bomb... over and over and over... THEY still just up the ante? Why?
Now they have dragged Anderson Cooper and George Stephanopulos into it. I am curious as to how they pull this off. I assumed that after the Nancy Snydermand/Matt Lauer tiff where she got mad at him for insisting that vaccines were still contriversal, that she brought down heat on Lauer at NBC and he was told to put the screws to Wakefield. After all, Lauer's ex wife is the mother of a child with autism who believes that vaccines and gut issues are a factor, and it is rumored that Lauer and his current wife selectively vaccinated their own children. Add in NBC/GE ownership of large medical corporations and you can see how that happens.
But what were the conversations that had to take place with Cooper and Stephanopulos to make them behave like jerks and go hard on Wakefield? Who is the person that talked to them to get them all hyped up? That kind of aggression and "combativeness", as Stephanopoulos admitted to engaging in, doesn't just come from no where. What were they told, and by who, that would make them stick their necks out this far on a story that they don't even follow?
When Shephard Smith got pissed at the Bush administration for stranding thousands of people in a sinking New Orleans, he was not sticking his neck out or making assumptions or taking the word of someone in another country that people in need were being neglected to their detriment. He was standing in the middle of them, filming an abandoned dead body. He had all the facts and knew he had the high ground. Anger justified.
But Lauer, Cooper and Stephanopoulos? They don't actually know jack. So how exactly were they tricked into making asses of themselves and losing the trust of some of their regular viewiers?
And why? At this point, every journalist who actually has a career to care about (not talking about writers with no serious credentials like Trine Tsouderos or Seth Mnookin who are brought into to write hit pieces that elevate their profile) must know that the public is taking this issue very, very seriously. Even if they think that there is nothing to the vaccine/autism debate, don't they wonder why despite all the stories that they see coming across their desk declaring the debate over... that it only grows? Does the last guy to do it even take a look at the outcome of the previous guys to do it? Did Stephanopoulos even check reaction to Cooper's interview to see how badly it went over? And if so, did he care that his went over even worse?
So the point of this whole piece that I am writing is to, once again, with feeling, declare to the Pharma stragetists and media heads out there who are attacking our community in order to defend their over-zealous, under tested and destructive vaccine program and its profits...
IT DOESN'T WORK!
It has never worked! It didn't work when you started it in the blogesphere, it didn't work in local news, it doesn't work in the national news.
It didn't work when Skeptico did it.
It didn't work when Orac did it.
It didn't work when Chris Mooney did it.
It didn't work when Sheril Kirshenbaum did it.
It didn't work when Lori Kozlowski did it.
It didn't work when Virginia Hughes did it.
It didn't work when Thomas Maugh did it.
It didn't work when Trine Tsouderos did it.
It didn't work when Gardier Harris did it.
It didn't work when Nancy Snyderman did it.
It has never worked when Paul Offit does it, as his new book,"Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All," is currently #8,277 on Amazon's best seller list.
And it is not working as Seth Mnookin is trying his hand at the same failing tactics that all his predecessors have failed with. His book kicking the vaccine safety community didn't break the #1000 mark and continues to slide.
And you guys have been hyping the hell out of those two books!
It didn't work when Lauer did it.
It didn't work when Stephaholopoulos did it.
It didn't even work when Cooper and his "national treasure" baby blues did it.
So....
Whose up next? What media name will Pharma Co. forward scouts turn to next to expose the vicious murders that are vaccine safety advocates and parents of sick and dying children?
Or is the Old Stream Media taking note that doing Pharma Co's dirty work is only further hobbling their struggling industry by further eroding public trust in their reporting? Nah... probably not.
And what is the next story? A few months from now when this media push falls flat, parents are purchasing even fewer vaccines and Andrew Wakefield is still booking speaking engagements and publising, will he fail to return home from work one evening only to be "discovered" three days later, unconscious in a Mexican hotel room filled with cocaine and under aged prostitutes, by a vacationing Brian Deer who is coincidently on holiday in Cancun? Exactly how far do they plan on trying to get this Wakefield story to stretch?
Pharma Co, with all their in depth market strategery has to know that this tac is not working on the public and is only losing the public trust in vaccines. So have they just decided that the masses may be lost, but at least they can keep doctors and researchers from questioning the party line publicly by creating a hostile environment through the media crush? That is not working too well either, but I think that might be the last line that Pharma Co. is trying to hold in this war. Eventually docs get pissed at being told what to do and what to think, so we will see how long that one holds out.
Pharma... Brian Deer (with your allusions to Wakefield's severed hand crawling across the floor)... the reason Wakefield won't die is that... please pay attention... that there are no real bullets in your gun. You guys are just flicking pebbles at him. The guy published a paper that says children with autism sometimes have serious GI issues and that sometimes they both come on after MMR. This is hard to discredit as it is also the active policy of the Federal Government of the United States of America. CDC tells their docs to screen for GI issues upon suspecting an autism diagnosis, because gastrointestinal distress IS associated with autism. HHS lists the symptoms of autism as a reaction to the MMR and DTaP vaccines on their web site, and they have paid many children for MMR induced autism.
So you need to understand... if tomorrow you publish video of Andrew Wakefield robbing a 7-11 with an AK-47 and taking a crippled 8 year old girl as a hostage, while Jenny McCarthy drives the get away car... it is not going to solve your vaccine sales problem. Because the vaccine program is the problem. The people talking about the problems in the vaccine program are not the problem. Trying to shut them up or shut them down is not working.
Jenny McCarthy and Andrew Wakefield did not kill Elias Tembenis. The DTaP vaccine did.
Any route Pharma Co takes ends badly for them. The vaccine bubble is over. It is not bursting all at once, but as soon as SCOTUS renders their Bruesewitz decision, bubble starts deflating in earnest. Because either the law suits will start flying fast and furious, or the public will finally understand that if they have a vaccine injury, they are on their own.
Happy pumping Pharma.
Update: See... doesn't work.
Bloomberg Businessweek:
Nearly Half of Americans Still Suspect Vaccine-Autism Link
18% don't trust measles-mumps-rubella shot, and 30% are undecided, Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll finds
By Amanda Gardner
Just a slim majority of Americans -- 52 percent -- think vaccines don't cause autism, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll found.
Conversely, 18 percent are convinced that vaccines, like the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, can cause the disorder, and another 30 percent aren't sure.
The poll was conducted last week, following news reports that said the lead researcher of a controversial 1998 study linking autism to the MMR vaccine had used fraudulent research to come to his conclusion.
The poll also found that parents who have lingering doubts about the vaccine were less likely to say that their children were fully vaccinated (86 percent), compared to 98 percent of parents who believe in the safety of vaccines.
Still, the percentage of fully vaccinated children remains high, at 92 percent, the poll found.
"This sounds like a cup half-empty/cup half-full story," said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll. He noted that while the number of people who believe in a connection between vaccines and autism is "only 18 percent," that nonetheless translates to "millions and millions and millions of people, and it's clear that in some cases that has led them to not vaccinate their children."
Vaccine safety has been a major concern for many parents since the publication of the 1998 study, led by now disgraced British doctor Andrew Wakefield, which concluded that the MMR vaccine caused autism. The journal that originally published the study, The Lancet, has since retracted the paper and Wakefield was recently barred from practicing medicine in Britain.
In recent weeks, another leading British medical journal, BMJ, has published a series of articles purporting to expose deliberate fraud by Wakefield in his handling of the research that served as the basis for the 1998 study.
In the new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll, 69 percent of respondents said they had heard about the theory that some vaccinations can cause autism.
But only half (47 percent) knew that the original Lancet study by Wakefield and other researchers had been retracted, and that some of that research is now alleged to be fraudulent.
"Forty-seven percent is a huge number and this is a relatively new thing [allegations of fraud], so it's remarkable that they have heard of it. But that still means that half the population has not," Taylor said.
Still, the retraction and allegations of fraud do seem to have influenced public perception. Among those who had been following the news about Wakefield, only 35 percent believed the vaccine-autism theory, compared to 65 percent who had not kept up to date on the latest developments.
"There seems to be reasonable support for vaccination and I think this will increase with the revelation that a lot of this stuff was based on fraud or bad science," said Dr. Kenneth Bromberg, chairman of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Research Center at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City.
Overall, 69 percent of adults polled agreed that schools should require vaccinations -- including, interestingly, 52 percent of those who believe that autism might be connected to vaccinations.
Sixteen percent of all adults surveyed said they knew of at least one family whose children had not received all recommended vaccines due to concerns about autism. One-quarter of those who believed the vaccine-autism theory said they knew at least one family that had not fully vaccinated their children.
Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center, which supports more research into the safety of vaccinations, said autism is just one concern linked to vaccines.
"Parents have legitimate questions about vaccine risks and want better vaccine science to define those risks for their own child," she said. "This concern long predated the debate about vaccines and autism. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 was passed by Congress, in part, to address those concerns but has not done the job.
"The Harris poll points out the urgent need for a renewed effort to conduct new vaccine safety studies that are methodologically sound and free from real or perceived conflicts of interest," Fisher added, "or a significant portion of the public will continue to question the conclusions."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated one in 110 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, part of a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges.
The Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll was conducted online within the United States from Jan. 11-13, and included 2,026 adults over the age of 18. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.
More information
Read more about the poll methodology and findings at Harris Interactive.
Another Update: Seriously... not working.
Novartis Q4 profit down as vaccine demand drops
Jan 27, 2011 5:32 AM ET
By The Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — Swiss drug maker Novartis AG saw fourth quarter net profit slip 2 percent on the year to $2.32 billion amid one-off charges and a sharp drop in demand for its pandemic flu vaccine, the company said Thursday.
Profit in the October-December period was hurt by one-time charges of $789 million, including restructuring costs in the U.S. and Germany — only partially offset by a one-time gain of $392 million, the pharmaceutical company said.
Revenue in the fourth quarter grew from $12.92 billion to $14.19 billion. However, the vaccine division suffered a 74 percent decline in sales to $361 million following the end of the pandemic flu in 2010, after sales for the flu vaccine totaled $1 billion a year earlier.
The maker of hypertension drug Diovan and anticancer treatment Glivec — known as Gleevec in the United States — said its 2010 full year sales were up by 14 percent to $50.62 billion, including $2.4 billion revenue from the full consolidation of eye care specialist Alcon, Inc.
Full year 2010 net profit was up to $8.45 billion from $9.96 billion a year earlier, the company, based in Basel, said.
"Novartis achieved excellent results in 2010 as all divisions contributed to above-market growth," Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez said.
The company's results were helped by 13 key product approvals and the breakthrough of the multiple sclerosis medication, Gilenya, which has also been launched in the U.S., he said.
Analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank said while Novartis' revenue is fully in line with market expectations, its net profit remained slightly below expectations.
In its outlook, Novartis said it expects sales to grow at constant currency rates by a "double-digit mark," and productivity gains to help improve margins while absorbing price cuts, generic competition and the loss of the pandemic flu vaccine sales.
The company's shares were trading lower on Switzerland's stock exchange Thursday morning, falling by 1.74 percent to 53.50 Swiss Francs ($56.71).
January 19, 2011
CBS Takes Notice of the Governments Admission of the Vaccine Induced Death of Elias Tembenis
Last month the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ruled the death of Elias Tembenis a vaccine injury. Elias was the son of Harry Tembenis, board member of the National Autism Association.
Elias was vaccinated and developed autism with seizures. He was almost fully recovered from his "autism" when a seizure took his life.
The message has been received that if you file in the VICP under "autism"... well it would not really work PR wise for more Poling cases to come out of the vaccine protection program... so straight up autism cases now get filed for every symptom the child has... just don't call it "autism".
"Conclusion: Petitioners have satisfied the legal requirements for proving that Elias’s December 26, 2000 DTaP vaccination was a legal cause of his epilepsy and death."
Should have filed for my son's "vaccine encephalopathy" when I had the chance, eh?
All my respect and gratitude to our friend Harry and Gina for all they have done, even in the depths of their grief, for our children who are still struggling. If you have met them, you understand how exceptional they are and how much love they have. It is an honor for Scott and I to call them friends.
Rest in peace Elias.
The Search for Safer Vaccines
The tragic death of little Elias Tembenis is yet another vaccine injury case you probably won't hear much about. Yet some medical experts believe it could teach us something about how to make vaccination safer.
It could also add to the limited body of knowledge as to why the vast majority of kids are vaccinated safely, but a minority become seriously ill, brain-damaged or even die. Still, government officials have said they have no plans to study cases like Elias': cases that victims are winning against the government in the little-known federal vaccine court.
According to court and medical records, Elias was born on Aug. 23, 2000 and appeared healthy until Dec. 26 when he received his second dose of DTaP vaccine. His parents noticed some swelling around the injection site. According to court records:
"Early in the morning on December 27, 2000, Elias's parents found him seizing in his crib and took him to the emergency room ("ER")...Within one day, he developed a fever, which led to a complex febrile seizure. Subsequently, Elias developed epilepsy. This fact pattern is commonly seen in the Vaccine Program."
According to court records, after the DTaP reaction, the once-healthy baby ended up with debilitating medical problems, including features of autism, ear infections and developmental delay. His parents first filed their case as one of the "omnibus" group of autism cases to be heard in federal vaccine court....
Elias was vaccinated and developed autism with seizures. He was almost fully recovered from his "autism" when a seizure took his life.
The message has been received that if you file in the VICP under "autism"... well it would not really work PR wise for more Poling cases to come out of the vaccine protection program... so straight up autism cases now get filed for every symptom the child has... just don't call it "autism".
"Conclusion: Petitioners have satisfied the legal requirements for proving that Elias’s December 26, 2000 DTaP vaccination was a legal cause of his epilepsy and death."
Should have filed for my son's "vaccine encephalopathy" when I had the chance, eh?
All my respect and gratitude to our friend Harry and Gina for all they have done, even in the depths of their grief, for our children who are still struggling. If you have met them, you understand how exceptional they are and how much love they have. It is an honor for Scott and I to call them friends.
Rest in peace Elias.
January 15, 2011
Deer's MMR Wakefield "Fraud" Story Not Playing in the UK, Deer's Wheels Coming Off His Cart
The Bash Wakefield crew seems to finally have overplayed its hand in the UK. And Deer... well... true colors are showing.
For the last two weeks, the US media has been pounding Deer's fraud allegations. The UK media has ignored them.
In the US, a CNN blogger is calling for Wakefield to be brought up on criminal charges (ironically... even outright mentioning Galileo in his piece). In the UK.... no calls for new investigations, no interviews with prosecutors, no pitchfork wielding mobs calling for Wakefield's head.
Because in the UK, they have been following this story for a decade, they know what is up with it, they know what a weaselly figure Brian Deer is and they are not falling for it. The lapdog media there is not even falling for it. The US media apparently was handed a press release, saw that the British Medical Journal's name was on it, and having no understanding of the case or the players, or what making actual fraud allegations would mean legally, just parroted it.
Child Health Safety reports today that Brian Deer is angry that the only coverage he could get there was the Guardian allowing him to write a blog, which could well have been titled, "Someone Please, Please Pay Attention To Me." And even the blog piece is not being received by the readers it is getting.
In it, Deer recounts his glorious MMR protection and declares that, "13 years passed before I slayed the MMR monster." I get the sense that he is disappointed that he has not been hoisted on the shoulders of a teeming mass of mothers and carried triumphantly through the streets of London.
Shockingly, Deer lashes out against the medical establishment for... get this... PROTECTING Andrew Wakefield! He chastises Ben Goldacre and Paul Offit for not being hard enough on him!
I don't even know what to do with Deer's reference to "a single, severed hand may yet come crawling across the floor."
I am sure this column in the Guardian must have been met with a flurry of text messages betwixt board rooms hither an yon saying, "someone tell Deer to shut up before this whole thing falls apart". (Update: CHS now reporting that Deer has actually shut up.)
And I wonder why his blog was not run in the Sunday Times and if the BMJ is cringing at their endorsement of him.
These charges of fraud are based on the word of Brian Deer alone, as none of us has access to the children's records or interviews with the parents to confirm his claims. And these claims are coming from a man who believes he can be a journalist AND the complainant in the GMC trial, lied to the Lancet 12 parents about his name, calling himself "Brian Lawrence", to get interviews with them and who not only writes very self-aggrandizing pieces (to put it mildly) but posts a page of 36 pictures of himself on his journey from babe to "MMR Monster Slayer" on his journalism blog.
I feel that I am being kind in characterizing Brian Deer as someone whose honesty and judgment one might be wise to question.
Bottom line, it is not being covered in the UK, because there is no fraud. If they cover it, they have to interview prosecutors for interviews and prosecutors know there is no crime here. Worse... the media would have to start asking... "Hey... I know I can't get access to, or publish, private medical records... how 'come Deer can?"
And GSK has to be a little concerned about calls in the UK for criminal proceedings... God Forbid that the parents of these kids are allowed to testify, which they would have to be, and the news carries the fact that the 12 children in the study went in sick and came out better! Then its heads on a platter for the GMC who took away the licenses of doctors who heal very sick children, and a decade and millions in work on the End Wakefield project goes right out the window.
For the last two weeks, the US media has been pounding Deer's fraud allegations. The UK media has ignored them.
In the US, a CNN blogger is calling for Wakefield to be brought up on criminal charges (ironically... even outright mentioning Galileo in his piece). In the UK.... no calls for new investigations, no interviews with prosecutors, no pitchfork wielding mobs calling for Wakefield's head.
Because in the UK, they have been following this story for a decade, they know what is up with it, they know what a weaselly figure Brian Deer is and they are not falling for it. The lapdog media there is not even falling for it. The US media apparently was handed a press release, saw that the British Medical Journal's name was on it, and having no understanding of the case or the players, or what making actual fraud allegations would mean legally, just parroted it.
Child Health Safety reports today that Brian Deer is angry that the only coverage he could get there was the Guardian allowing him to write a blog, which could well have been titled, "Someone Please, Please Pay Attention To Me." And even the blog piece is not being received by the readers it is getting.
In it, Deer recounts his glorious MMR protection and declares that, "13 years passed before I slayed the MMR monster." I get the sense that he is disappointed that he has not been hoisted on the shoulders of a teeming mass of mothers and carried triumphantly through the streets of London.
Shockingly, Deer lashes out against the medical establishment for... get this... PROTECTING Andrew Wakefield! He chastises Ben Goldacre and Paul Offit for not being hard enough on him!
I don't even know what to do with Deer's reference to "a single, severed hand may yet come crawling across the floor."
I am sure this column in the Guardian must have been met with a flurry of text messages betwixt board rooms hither an yon saying, "someone tell Deer to shut up before this whole thing falls apart". (Update: CHS now reporting that Deer has actually shut up.)
And I wonder why his blog was not run in the Sunday Times and if the BMJ is cringing at their endorsement of him.
These charges of fraud are based on the word of Brian Deer alone, as none of us has access to the children's records or interviews with the parents to confirm his claims. And these claims are coming from a man who believes he can be a journalist AND the complainant in the GMC trial, lied to the Lancet 12 parents about his name, calling himself "Brian Lawrence", to get interviews with them and who not only writes very self-aggrandizing pieces (to put it mildly) but posts a page of 36 pictures of himself on his journey from babe to "MMR Monster Slayer" on his journalism blog.
I feel that I am being kind in characterizing Brian Deer as someone whose honesty and judgment one might be wise to question.
Bottom line, it is not being covered in the UK, because there is no fraud. If they cover it, they have to interview prosecutors for interviews and prosecutors know there is no crime here. Worse... the media would have to start asking... "Hey... I know I can't get access to, or publish, private medical records... how 'come Deer can?"
And GSK has to be a little concerned about calls in the UK for criminal proceedings... God Forbid that the parents of these kids are allowed to testify, which they would have to be, and the news carries the fact that the 12 children in the study went in sick and came out better! Then its heads on a platter for the GMC who took away the licenses of doctors who heal very sick children, and a decade and millions in work on the End Wakefield project goes right out the window.
January 14, 2011
Interview for the book "Vaccine Epidemic"
I will be on Kitchensinkautism today from 10am to 10:30am discussing Vaccine Epidemic. I will be joined by one of my co-authors, Lisa Marks Smith, who was paralyzed for four years by a drug store flu shot.
Interview for the book "Vaccine Epidemic"
Interview for the book "Vaccine Epidemic"
January 12, 2011
Andrew Wakefield Answers His Accusers
... and proves that he has dual citizenship.
He has the manners of an Englishman and the balls of an American.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING WITH ANDY WAKEFIELD?
He has the manners of an Englishman and the balls of an American.
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING WITH ANDY WAKEFIELD?
Mothers, Misogyny and Money
Yesterday I was involved in a discussion where one man noted that he saw a great deal of misogyny in the rhetoric coming out of vaccine industry public relations, and cited a few examples. It is there both in the overt PR, and PR that is posing as public health advice/policy and independent journalism/reporting. Because in order to dismiss vaccine damage and keep vaccine sales climbing, you have to dismiss the reporters of the vaccine damage. The mothers who spend hours a day interacting with their child.
Francesca Strino
Mother & Child
I have felt this usually not so subtle bias consistently since I began asking questions about vaccines on my first visit to the pediatricians office after the birth of my first baby, right on through to the events of the last week. I am repeatedly talked to as, and even on occasion even outright called, "just a mom." But I feel like accusing someone of misogyny is like accusing someone of racism. You might see hints of it in their actions, but you cannot know the true state of the human heart, so unless someone outright tells you they have a problem with women, making the accusation against them does not really serve anyone.
Besides, real misogynists, like real racists, are not usually open to hearing about how they might earnestly do some self-evaluation on their dislike for a specific group from a member of that group, so best just not to take it personally and let it go. Noting, of course that their point of view might be skewed and their advice to you may not really be in your best interest.
But I bring this up because wanted to do a small study in contrasts and highlight some philogyny... some of what is right in what the two men I was in this discussion with, noticed and said about mothers and how they set themselves apart from those who devalue and talk down to "Justamoms."
In response to the comment, Ed Arranga of Autism One shared the following:
I agree (and blame Freud).
In this little story, I feel that Arranga has captured the depth in the often dismissed claim that mothers make when doctors try to wave away their claims of vaccine regression, "But... I know my child". Many doctors and officials hear mom's say, "I have met my child in passing once on the street during a rainstorm," but what mothers are actually saying is, "I am more intimately involved with my child on a spiritual and biological level that I cannot communicate to you in words, and that child is an extension of my own heart and body".
And on a more practical level, it tells me why Autism One has become THE autism convention of the year, and why our opponents can't sell books to mothers or don't bother trying to have conventions for the public. As a mom, I can see that Arranga gets it and wants the problem of autism solved and children served, while PharmaKorp and their emissaries are really just salesmen and mercenaries. They could not care less about me, my child or the well being of my family, and they sure as hell don't want to answer my earnest questions to help me wisely protect the health and life of my family.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I can tell who cares about me and my babies, and who cares about their own power and pocketbook. I can see which doctor will allow his career to be destroyed to get answers for my son and which doctor prevents answers from being found to raise his vaccine profits.
So props to the men out there (and the amazing one in my home) that see and esteem the unique talents of mothers. They are worthy of our motherly esteem as well.
And thank you Ed for all you have done for us an our children.
Ginger Taylor, Justamom
Addendum:
Francesca Strino
Mother & Child
I have felt this usually not so subtle bias consistently since I began asking questions about vaccines on my first visit to the pediatricians office after the birth of my first baby, right on through to the events of the last week. I am repeatedly talked to as, and even on occasion even outright called, "just a mom." But I feel like accusing someone of misogyny is like accusing someone of racism. You might see hints of it in their actions, but you cannot know the true state of the human heart, so unless someone outright tells you they have a problem with women, making the accusation against them does not really serve anyone.
Besides, real misogynists, like real racists, are not usually open to hearing about how they might earnestly do some self-evaluation on their dislike for a specific group from a member of that group, so best just not to take it personally and let it go. Noting, of course that their point of view might be skewed and their advice to you may not really be in your best interest.
But I bring this up because wanted to do a small study in contrasts and highlight some philogyny... some of what is right in what the two men I was in this discussion with, noticed and said about mothers and how they set themselves apart from those who devalue and talk down to "Justamoms."
In response to the comment, Ed Arranga of Autism One shared the following:
"I think you’ve hit the nail on the head - Misogyny.
Six months ago I was in a doc’s office with 4 to 5 moms and about 12 kids. The room went quiet for a moment and each mom gently tested the air. A moment later a mom said, “It’s mine, Jeffrey come here, time to get changed.”
It was incredible. In the space of 5 seconds each mom knew if their child had pooped or not from 10 feet away.
These are the moms who cannot tell if their child regressed after a vaccine?
It seems something vital has been lost in the last hundred years in our race to certainty, with hubris and misogyny playing a far bigger role than is honestly acknowledged."
I agree (and blame Freud).
In this little story, I feel that Arranga has captured the depth in the often dismissed claim that mothers make when doctors try to wave away their claims of vaccine regression, "But... I know my child". Many doctors and officials hear mom's say, "I have met my child in passing once on the street during a rainstorm," but what mothers are actually saying is, "I am more intimately involved with my child on a spiritual and biological level that I cannot communicate to you in words, and that child is an extension of my own heart and body".
And on a more practical level, it tells me why Autism One has become THE autism convention of the year, and why our opponents can't sell books to mothers or don't bother trying to have conventions for the public. As a mom, I can see that Arranga gets it and wants the problem of autism solved and children served, while PharmaKorp and their emissaries are really just salesmen and mercenaries. They could not care less about me, my child or the well being of my family, and they sure as hell don't want to answer my earnest questions to help me wisely protect the health and life of my family.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. I can tell who cares about me and my babies, and who cares about their own power and pocketbook. I can see which doctor will allow his career to be destroyed to get answers for my son and which doctor prevents answers from being found to raise his vaccine profits.
So props to the men out there (and the amazing one in my home) that see and esteem the unique talents of mothers. They are worthy of our motherly esteem as well.
And thank you Ed for all you have done for us an our children.
Ginger Taylor, Justamom
Addendum:
"To parents out there, I would say please trust your instincts. In particular, maternal instinct has been a steady hand on the tiller of evolution for many thousands of years and we wouldn't be here without it. Parents have tended to relinquish that instinct in favor of a medical community. We assume doctors know a lot when in fact they know very little. Please mothers, trust your instincts. No one knows your child like you do and no one can take that away from you, so trust that. That is my most important message. - Andrew Wakefield
"The festering nastiness, the creepy repetitiveness, the weasly, deceitful, obsessiveness, all signal pathology to me," "And they wonder why their children have brain problems." - Brian Deer, on parents of children with autism.
January 11, 2011
January 10, 2011
Our Book: Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children
Funny the timing of things, right?
Last May, just before Dr. Wakefield's appearance at the Center for Personal Rights rally (of which I was a coordinator) and the launch of Wakefield's book "Callous Disregard", seemingly out of nowhere, with no real precipitating event, the media was flooded with stories, old stories, unfounded stories, about how Dr. Wakefield's research was bogus, that the vaccine/autism link has been disproven and declared the vaccine safety debate over.
Imagine my surprise when this week, seemingly out of nowhere, with no real precipitating event, the media was flooded with stories, old stories, unfounded stories, about how Dr. Wakefield's research was bogus, that the vaccine/autism link has been disproven and declared the vaccine safety debate over.
It might lead someone to wonder... does the vaccine safety/choice community and/or Dr. Wakefield have any events and/or books coming out for which this might be an attempt to sabotage/distract/end around/disparage/discredit and generally torpedo? I mean they did that with "Callous Disregard" in the spring and to "Age of Autism" last fall, should I be looking for a new book from those who care about vaccine safety?
Fortunately, I already know the answer to that question is... wait for it... YES!
And I know that because I am proud to share that I am a contributing editor and co-author (along with Andrew Wakefield and more than twenty others) of the upcoming book, brought to you by the Center for Personal Rights, announced today:
How crazy that AGAIN, just like last May, that Wakefield has been declared a dastard, and vaccines cleared of all wrong doing RIGHT BEFORE our community comes out with media on the vastness of the problems in the vaccine program... darn the luck, I tell ya. Boy... do we have bad timing or what!
And that the source of this damning "new information" (which was actually from March of 2010) is once again, Brian Deer, who has mined the (illegally obtained) medical files of the children in Wakefield's paper to find evidence of "fraud" (by which he means that kids GP's who knew nothing about bowel disease and autism took different notes than the internationally known specialists in the field doing in depth research and medical evaluations on the children). Brian Deer.... who for those of you who have lost track, was the man who made the complaint that Wakefield's GMC trial was in response to (but who is also a "journalist" reporting on it... wrap your brain around those ethics if you can)... Deer has has managed to find "fraud" that was undectable by the parents of the children involved in the research project, Wakefield's 12 coauthors on the paper, the prosecutors and judges in Wakefield's 6 year/3 million dollar GMC trial, and the entire medical community and autism community, in the 13 years since this paper has been published.
Wow... that Brian Deer is one talented "journalist". So talented in fact, that he, among all journalists and doctors and people on planet earth, is allowed to illegally obtain the medical records of children, and not only escape arrest and prosecution for doing so, but is granted special dispensation to actually PUBLISH information, over the protests of the children's parents, that he claimed came from the files... in a medical journal! And not just that, but gets to have his unverifiable allegations broadcast by every mainstream media outlet in the US! (Anyone wonder why this is not being broadcast in the UK? Might there be legal problems with doing that there? Never mind... I am probably concerning myself over nothing.)
/end sarcasm
If it is not clear to you this far, let me be frank about it. The coverage of the vaccine/autism debate that you see in the media, is not scientific debate or earnest investigation... it is a dog fight. And Pharma plays dirty.
The vaccine industry is a 27 billion dollar per year business. It is as near as you get to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury as a license to print money. Vaccines are marketed and purchased by the US government and vaccine makers are immune from any financial or any other kind of liability when their vaccines kill or maim the American people. If you had a product line that you didn't have to advertise, that every child in the country had to buy (several times) and that you could not be sued for, and that even when one of your products was known to cause widespread death and damage, you could STILL go a decade or more with out having to go to the expense of updating it... how hard would you fight to keep that golden goose a'layin'? OK... pretend you have the gutter ethics of Merck, and GSK (who make MMR in the US and the UK respectively) and then tell me how hard you would fight. Ruining a man's life to prevent billions or trillions in future losses and potentially damaging a few kids is really nothing at all. It certainly would not have been the first time, nor the last. (Have I mentioned that Deers "investigations" have been mostly published by James Murdoch's newspaper? Did I mention that Murdoch is on the board of directors of GSK who makes the MMR? Or that Deer was "assisted" by Pharma's investigationhit squad firm? So many coincidences, many more to wade through over at Age of Autism.)
Vaccine Epidemic is a real threat to those 27 billion in profits. Our book is a very serious, very in depth analysis, by a cadre of smart and respected professionals (and me), that outlines the international medical standard of informed consent, stories of a variety of vaccine damage, legal implications/historical perspectives/financial concerns/political machinations/medical opinions of vaccinations and presents information on much of the damage that 25 years of pharmaceutical liability protection has done to the vaccine program and to our children.
What you have witnessed in the media this week is a frenzied effort to convince you that:
1. This one research paper represents all of the concerns about the vaccine program. (Our book has almost 400 citations... and we didn't cite the Wakefield paper 400 times).
2. That Wakefield has been "discredited". (He hasn't).
3. That the vaccine/autism debate is settled and that all the questions have been "asked and answered". (It is actually expanding and the evidence that there is a causal association is mounting, not diminishing).
And if you read Vaccine Epidemic, you will see why the medical community and Pharma throwing out the Wakefield paper and declaring the debate "closed", is like carving a pothole in I-95 in Virginia and declaring the interstate from Florida to Maine "closed".
They don't want the media taking our book seriously and they sure as heck don't want you to read it.
So please buy our book and decide for yourself. Is the message that you are getting on NBC the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or do you need to take responsibility for your family's vaccine decisions in your own hands, based on your own research from original sources?
UPDATE: From the Department of Backfire
Yesterday our book was ranked below 250,000 on Amazon. At the moment it is #2,886 and climbing.
Offit's book, out last week, is 8,569
Wakefield's Callous Disregard, a year old, has climbed back up to 7,706 and number 10 in autism.
When they did this to Wakefield last spring, they put his book on the Amazon top ten list. So thank you to Brian Deer and Pharma? I guess? Keep slinging mud and the people will keep seeing through your CYA tactics and looking for the truth in how to best raise their children.
Last May, just before Dr. Wakefield's appearance at the Center for Personal Rights rally (of which I was a coordinator) and the launch of Wakefield's book "Callous Disregard", seemingly out of nowhere, with no real precipitating event, the media was flooded with stories, old stories, unfounded stories, about how Dr. Wakefield's research was bogus, that the vaccine/autism link has been disproven and declared the vaccine safety debate over.
Imagine my surprise when this week, seemingly out of nowhere, with no real precipitating event, the media was flooded with stories, old stories, unfounded stories, about how Dr. Wakefield's research was bogus, that the vaccine/autism link has been disproven and declared the vaccine safety debate over.
It might lead someone to wonder... does the vaccine safety/choice community and/or Dr. Wakefield have any events and/or books coming out for which this might be an attempt to sabotage/distract/end around/disparage/discredit and generally torpedo? I mean they did that with "Callous Disregard" in the spring and to "Age of Autism" last fall, should I be looking for a new book from those who care about vaccine safety?
Fortunately, I already know the answer to that question is... wait for it... YES!
And I know that because I am proud to share that I am a contributing editor and co-author (along with Andrew Wakefield and more than twenty others) of the upcoming book, brought to you by the Center for Personal Rights, announced today:
How crazy that AGAIN, just like last May, that Wakefield has been declared a dastard, and vaccines cleared of all wrong doing RIGHT BEFORE our community comes out with media on the vastness of the problems in the vaccine program... darn the luck, I tell ya. Boy... do we have bad timing or what!
And that the source of this damning "new information" (which was actually from March of 2010) is once again, Brian Deer, who has mined the (illegally obtained) medical files of the children in Wakefield's paper to find evidence of "fraud" (by which he means that kids GP's who knew nothing about bowel disease and autism took different notes than the internationally known specialists in the field doing in depth research and medical evaluations on the children). Brian Deer.... who for those of you who have lost track, was the man who made the complaint that Wakefield's GMC trial was in response to (but who is also a "journalist" reporting on it... wrap your brain around those ethics if you can)... Deer has has managed to find "fraud" that was undectable by the parents of the children involved in the research project, Wakefield's 12 coauthors on the paper, the prosecutors and judges in Wakefield's 6 year/3 million dollar GMC trial, and the entire medical community and autism community, in the 13 years since this paper has been published.
Wow... that Brian Deer is one talented "journalist". So talented in fact, that he, among all journalists and doctors and people on planet earth, is allowed to illegally obtain the medical records of children, and not only escape arrest and prosecution for doing so, but is granted special dispensation to actually PUBLISH information, over the protests of the children's parents, that he claimed came from the files... in a medical journal! And not just that, but gets to have his unverifiable allegations broadcast by every mainstream media outlet in the US! (Anyone wonder why this is not being broadcast in the UK? Might there be legal problems with doing that there? Never mind... I am probably concerning myself over nothing.)
/end sarcasm
If it is not clear to you this far, let me be frank about it. The coverage of the vaccine/autism debate that you see in the media, is not scientific debate or earnest investigation... it is a dog fight. And Pharma plays dirty.
The vaccine industry is a 27 billion dollar per year business. It is as near as you get to the Federal Reserve and the Treasury as a license to print money. Vaccines are marketed and purchased by the US government and vaccine makers are immune from any financial or any other kind of liability when their vaccines kill or maim the American people. If you had a product line that you didn't have to advertise, that every child in the country had to buy (several times) and that you could not be sued for, and that even when one of your products was known to cause widespread death and damage, you could STILL go a decade or more with out having to go to the expense of updating it... how hard would you fight to keep that golden goose a'layin'? OK... pretend you have the gutter ethics of Merck, and GSK (who make MMR in the US and the UK respectively) and then tell me how hard you would fight. Ruining a man's life to prevent billions or trillions in future losses and potentially damaging a few kids is really nothing at all. It certainly would not have been the first time, nor the last. (Have I mentioned that Deers "investigations" have been mostly published by James Murdoch's newspaper? Did I mention that Murdoch is on the board of directors of GSK who makes the MMR? Or that Deer was "assisted" by Pharma's investigation
Vaccine Epidemic is a real threat to those 27 billion in profits. Our book is a very serious, very in depth analysis, by a cadre of smart and respected professionals (and me), that outlines the international medical standard of informed consent, stories of a variety of vaccine damage, legal implications/historical perspectives/financial concerns/political machinations/medical opinions of vaccinations and presents information on much of the damage that 25 years of pharmaceutical liability protection has done to the vaccine program and to our children.
What you have witnessed in the media this week is a frenzied effort to convince you that:
1. This one research paper represents all of the concerns about the vaccine program. (Our book has almost 400 citations... and we didn't cite the Wakefield paper 400 times).
2. That Wakefield has been "discredited". (He hasn't).
3. That the vaccine/autism debate is settled and that all the questions have been "asked and answered". (It is actually expanding and the evidence that there is a causal association is mounting, not diminishing).
And if you read Vaccine Epidemic, you will see why the medical community and Pharma throwing out the Wakefield paper and declaring the debate "closed", is like carving a pothole in I-95 in Virginia and declaring the interstate from Florida to Maine "closed".
They don't want the media taking our book seriously and they sure as heck don't want you to read it.
So please buy our book and decide for yourself. Is the message that you are getting on NBC the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Or do you need to take responsibility for your family's vaccine decisions in your own hands, based on your own research from original sources?
UPDATE: From the Department of Backfire
Yesterday our book was ranked below 250,000 on Amazon. At the moment it is #2,886 and climbing.
Offit's book, out last week, is 8,569
Wakefield's Callous Disregard, a year old, has climbed back up to 7,706 and number 10 in autism.
When they did this to Wakefield last spring, they put his book on the Amazon top ten list. So thank you to Brian Deer and Pharma? I guess? Keep slinging mud and the people will keep seeing through your CYA tactics and looking for the truth in how to best raise their children.
January 7, 2011
Recycling Old Wakfield: Anatomy of a Witch Hunt
Reposing a piece I wrote from a year ago. Or Two Times Ago in the "We Declare Wakefield Debunked" efforts timeline (I think we had three rounds in 2010, but I would have to check). All of it still applies, especially the part where six months from now nothing will have changed in the public skepticism of vaccine safety. What with this paper being such a small part of the vaccine/autism case.
According to Pharma scheduling, I am guessing we will see another media push sometime later this year, but we can probably set our clocks that we will be doing the Wakefield Dance next January as well. Pharma seems to like to start off their year fresh by declaring Andy dead, as they are making a habit of it:
Feb 12, 2010
Anatomy of a Witch Hunt
Much has happened in the last few weeks surrounding Andrew Wakefield, and I have not been available to write about it. It has been truly frustrating to see this story reported as if the GMC hearing was legit and The Lancet as if it was a respectable and unbiased publication, rather than the dog fight between corporate interests and safety advocates that it actually is. Was the fact that 21 autism organizations in the US and UK filed perjury charges against the head of the Lancet for lying about Wakefield's disclosures of his conflicts in the GMC hearing not relevant to the fact that the Lancet retracted Wakefield's article the following week? Apparently the press didn't think so.
Also fascinating that they have tried to portray Wakefield as the guy that invented the autism/vaccine connection, despite the fact that Leo Kanner reported that one of his first 11 cases in the 1940's was a regression following a smallpox vaccine, the VCIP has been paying autism cases for 25 years, and I first heard about the connection in my undergrad psych program in 1988 at George Mason University, so that they can use this GMC hearing to declare the vaccine controversy over. (I have forty or so studies on my "no evidence of any link" page supporting the vaccine/autism connection and I have never even had Wakefield's MMR paper up there.
Fortunately AOA has been all over this.
Today I had an hour and started mapping out the conflicts on interests in all of the forces that are posing as unbiased sources and trashing Wakefield and his work by charging him with conflicts of interest. The irony is lost on too many people.
It is a work in progress. One of my friends in the UK is looking it over to help fill in more of the blanks, so it will be updated.
A few notes not on the chart. Judge Nigel Davis is the judge who ruled that families trying to sue GlaxoSmithKline for the damage done to their children by the MMR would not be given legal aid to do so, ending MMR litigation in the UK. His brother is Sir Crispin Davis, who was the CEO of Elsevier, publisher of The Lancet and was also on the board of GlaxoSmithKline. Additionally... Paul Offit is an industry spokes person for Merck, that was too long to fit into the chart, so I used the more pejorative, "lap dog". And there is word out this afternoon that another Elsevier journal may be trying to bury the Hep B monkey study that Wakefield worked on, although no word from the journal on this yet.
Look at the energy flow in this thing... Props to Dr. Wakefield and his compadres for not backing down under this insane amount of industrial pressure. I mean just look at this billion dollar medical/pharma/media/(arms sales?) unprincipled conglomco machine! Eliot Ness wasn't even up against this big of a beast when he took on the mob. And I have not even included any of the public health infrastructure, or the GMC in this flow chart.
Keep your head up England, and understand that you are under a blitz. They are now officially throwing everything they have at you and they are only exposing their own corruption. Never, never, never, never give up.
Problem for the beast is... they are using all their ammo, and six months from now, nothing will have changed for them. Because the public knows they are full of crap.
click to see it full size.
UPDATE:
A friend in the UK brought something interesting to my attention. It is a flow chart done by a journalist in 1994 on how money and influence flowed around the Burroughs Wellcome pharmaceutical company and all it's satellites (foundations, trusts, doctors, medical institutions, universities, medical journals and even regulatory agencies). One of which is the Wellcome Trust.
I invite to you take a look at the amazingly, unbiased and completely free of conflicts of interesty type research that Wellcome is funding, by reading my piece on Professor Alan Emond's study that shows that kids with autism don't have bowel problems. He claims no conflicts of interest, but fails to mention that he is on the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (Britian's version of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.)
The chart certainly enhances the understanding of how the machine works, but the two facts that make this flow chart so much more interesting is that Burroughs Wellcome of course became Glaxo Wellcome, which became GlaxoSmithKline, who makes the MMR; and that the journalist that created this chart was Brian Deer.
UPDATE: One commenter was looking for a source for my 20 billion dollar figure.
According to Pharma scheduling, I am guessing we will see another media push sometime later this year, but we can probably set our clocks that we will be doing the Wakefield Dance next January as well. Pharma seems to like to start off their year fresh by declaring Andy dead, as they are making a habit of it:
Feb 12, 2010
Anatomy of a Witch Hunt
Much has happened in the last few weeks surrounding Andrew Wakefield, and I have not been available to write about it. It has been truly frustrating to see this story reported as if the GMC hearing was legit and The Lancet as if it was a respectable and unbiased publication, rather than the dog fight between corporate interests and safety advocates that it actually is. Was the fact that 21 autism organizations in the US and UK filed perjury charges against the head of the Lancet for lying about Wakefield's disclosures of his conflicts in the GMC hearing not relevant to the fact that the Lancet retracted Wakefield's article the following week? Apparently the press didn't think so.
Also fascinating that they have tried to portray Wakefield as the guy that invented the autism/vaccine connection, despite the fact that Leo Kanner reported that one of his first 11 cases in the 1940's was a regression following a smallpox vaccine, the VCIP has been paying autism cases for 25 years, and I first heard about the connection in my undergrad psych program in 1988 at George Mason University, so that they can use this GMC hearing to declare the vaccine controversy over. (I have forty or so studies on my "no evidence of any link" page supporting the vaccine/autism connection and I have never even had Wakefield's MMR paper up there.
Fortunately AOA has been all over this.
Today I had an hour and started mapping out the conflicts on interests in all of the forces that are posing as unbiased sources and trashing Wakefield and his work by charging him with conflicts of interest. The irony is lost on too many people.
It is a work in progress. One of my friends in the UK is looking it over to help fill in more of the blanks, so it will be updated.
A few notes not on the chart. Judge Nigel Davis is the judge who ruled that families trying to sue GlaxoSmithKline for the damage done to their children by the MMR would not be given legal aid to do so, ending MMR litigation in the UK. His brother is Sir Crispin Davis, who was the CEO of Elsevier, publisher of The Lancet and was also on the board of GlaxoSmithKline. Additionally... Paul Offit is an industry spokes person for Merck, that was too long to fit into the chart, so I used the more pejorative, "lap dog". And there is word out this afternoon that another Elsevier journal may be trying to bury the Hep B monkey study that Wakefield worked on, although no word from the journal on this yet.
Look at the energy flow in this thing... Props to Dr. Wakefield and his compadres for not backing down under this insane amount of industrial pressure. I mean just look at this billion dollar medical/pharma/media/(arms sales?) unprincipled conglomco machine! Eliot Ness wasn't even up against this big of a beast when he took on the mob. And I have not even included any of the public health infrastructure, or the GMC in this flow chart.
Keep your head up England, and understand that you are under a blitz. They are now officially throwing everything they have at you and they are only exposing their own corruption. Never, never, never, never give up.
Problem for the beast is... they are using all their ammo, and six months from now, nothing will have changed for them. Because the public knows they are full of crap.
click to see it full size.
UPDATE:
A friend in the UK brought something interesting to my attention. It is a flow chart done by a journalist in 1994 on how money and influence flowed around the Burroughs Wellcome pharmaceutical company and all it's satellites (foundations, trusts, doctors, medical institutions, universities, medical journals and even regulatory agencies). One of which is the Wellcome Trust.
I invite to you take a look at the amazingly, unbiased and completely free of conflicts of interesty type research that Wellcome is funding, by reading my piece on Professor Alan Emond's study that shows that kids with autism don't have bowel problems. He claims no conflicts of interest, but fails to mention that he is on the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (Britian's version of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.)
The chart certainly enhances the understanding of how the machine works, but the two facts that make this flow chart so much more interesting is that Burroughs Wellcome of course became Glaxo Wellcome, which became GlaxoSmithKline, who makes the MMR; and that the journalist that created this chart was Brian Deer.
UPDATE: One commenter was looking for a source for my 20 billion dollar figure.
Drugmakers, Doctors Rake in Billions Battling H1N1 Flu
Swine Flu Is Bad for Victims, But Good for Businesses That Cater to Expanding Market
By DALIA FAHMY
Oct. 14, 2009
ABC News/Money
Americans are still debating whether to roll up their sleeves for a swine flu shot, but companies have already figured it out: vaccines are good for business.
h1n1.
Drug companies have sold $1.5 billion worth of swine flu shots, in addition to the $1 billion for seasonal flu they booked earlier this year. These inoculations are part of a much wider and rapidly growing $20 billion global vaccine market.
"The vaccine market is booming," says Bruce Carlson, spokesperson at market research firm Kalorama, which publishes an annual survey of the vaccine industry. "It's an enormous growth area for pharmaceuticals at a time when other areas are not doing so well," he says, noting that the pipeline for more traditional blockbuster drugs such as Lipitor and Nexium has thinned.
As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools. In addition, Congress has set aside more than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1's progress and educate the public about prevention.
Drugmakers pocket most of the revenues from flu sales, with Sanofi-Pasteur, Glaxo Smith Kline and Novartis cornering most of the market.
But some say it's not just drugmakers who stand to benefit. Doctors collect copayments for special office visits to inject shots, and there have been assertions that these doctors actually profit handsomely from these vaccinations.
It is a notion that Dr. Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Practitioners, says is simply not true.
"According to most of the physicians I have talked to, the administration of these vaccines is done for the community's benefit as opposed to anything that helps profit," she says. Heim adds that even though doctors will not have to shell out for the H1N1 vaccine, they will bear the usual costs associated with storage and administering the shots.
"There is an administration fee, for the costs that you can't get reimbursed through Medicare or Medicaid," she says. "This is usually less than, or right at the break-even point."
Still, pharmacies also charge co-payments or full price of about $25 to those without insurance and often make more money if patients end up shopping for other goods.
"Flu shots present a good opportunity to bring new customers into our stores," says Cassie Richardson, spokesperson for SUPERVALU, one of the country's largest supermarket chains. Drawing customers to the back of a store, where pharmacies are often located, offers retailers a chance to pitch products that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Even companies outside of the medical industry are benefiting: the UPS division that delivers vaccines in specially designed containers, for example, has seen a bump in business.
New Entrants in Flu Shot Business
The intensifying competition has irked some doctors.
"Retailers and other non-medical professionals have siphoned off the passive income that once helped to cover medical overhead," says Dr. Caroline Abruzese, an internist in Atlanta. "The larger retail chains can invest up front in large volumes of vaccine at low prices, and market to customers already in their stores."
The promise of profits has attracted new players into the business. Some of the world's largest drugmakers, who in the past avoided the vaccine market because of its limited scope -- its not easy to convince healthy adults to get a shot for measles -- are now jumping into the fray.
Last month alone saw three large vaccine deals. Abbott Labs bought a Belgian drug business, along with its flu vaccine facilities, for $6.6 billion. Johnson & Johnson invested $444 million in a Dutch biotech firm that makes and develops flu vaccines. Merck, which already makes vaccines for shingles and other diseases, struck a deal to distribute flu shots made by Australian CSL.
Smaller biotechs are also angling for a slice of the action, making vaccines one of the fastest-growing areas of research in the biotech industry.
Large and small drugmakers are drawn to the business largely because of scientific advances that promise to radically expand the range of health problems that vaccines can address. In addition to preventing childhood diseases such as measles and polio, vaccines can now also ward off cervical cancer, and researchers are working on vaccines for HIV and tuberculosis.
Scientists believe they can create therapeutic vaccines than treat diseases such as Alzheimers and diabetes after they have set in. (At least one company is betting on a vaccine that helps cigarette smokers quit.)
"These innovations broaden the market potential for vaccine makers and partly explained the renewed interest by drugmakers," says Anthony Cox, a professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business who specializes in the marketing of medical products.
But Mark Grayson, a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents the country's leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, says that drugmakers are also compelled by the government to join efforts to ensure that there is enough vaccine to go around.
"Because of national security implications, the government felt that they needed to encourage and ask [vaccine manufacturers] to move much quicker," he says. Grayson adds that vaccine manufacturers also face significant costs; aside from the expense of fitting a new vaccine into a tight production schedule, drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur were forced to acquire new vaccine production facilities in recent years to keep up with demand.
Alternatives to Vaccines Are Few
While this promise of new treatments for painful diseases brings hope to many, vaccines continue to attract critics. The National Vaccine Information Center, a non-profit advocacy group, is at the forefront of a movement demanding that vaccines be tested more thoroughly before hitting the market. Although there has been little evidence to support their claim, detractors -- including the comedian Jim Carrey -- believe that vaccines are at least partly to blame for the sharp rise in autism in recent decades.
The swine flu vaccine has also attracted its share of critics. Frank Lipman, a New York-based doctor who specializes in a mix of Western and alternative medicine, points out that the swine flu is rarely fatal and that it's too early to tell if it's safe because it hasn't been widely tested.
Others argue that Americans have little choice. The cost of a widespread pandemic, similar to Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918, which killed 675,000 Americans (and 50 million worldwide), would be devastating. The Trust for America's Health, a Washington-based non-profit organization, estimates that a severe pandemic could push down GDP by more than 5 percent and cost Americans $683 billion.
"We're not seeing a pandemic that's this severe," says Jeff Levi, director of Trust for Americas Health. "We've dodged a lot of bullets."
Round 20 in the Destroy Andrew Wakefield Campaign
I don't have a ton of time for blogging these days, but someone sent me a question about the latest chapter in the Wakefield Witch Hunt and I found myself writing a response, so I am just going to post it here:
"Subject: Wanting your opinion
Ginger, How do you respond to a radio personality who makes this post:
"When your car is repaired for an oil leak, and the next day the transmission fails, you blame the mechanic. But that deduction fails to consider that the car is old, and of course things will start to go bad. When a child is vaccinated, and later displays signs of autism, you can't say that all vaccines are dangerous. I am pissed that a lie had us focusing so much energy in the wrong direction."
I posted your link there. If you feel like making a comment, the gentleman's name is Chip Franklin. He's conservative ... but thinks anyone who questions the med industry or vaccine safety is nuts.
Thanks for all your links and information you bring to my attention. You are very appreciated !"
Here is how I would answer that.
When your car is repaired for an oil leak, and the next day the transmission fails, you go check to see what exactly is wrong with the transmission. When you find that you can't account for the damage naturally, and it looks man made, then you start checking with other clients of that mechanic. When you find that tens of thousands of his customers came in for oil and left with similar damage, both crippling to the car and vastly expensive if not impossible to fix, and you find out that the mechanic has been charged BILLIONS of dollars in fines internationally for outright fraud and attacking their critics, then you call the authorities and demand that they investigate him. You recommend that they might start by checking to see how often this mechanical failure happens as compared to those who have not brought their car in.
When the authorities REFUSE to investigate, and then you find out that those authorities used to work for the mechanic shop, and than many will work for it again when their job in government is over, then you call the media to investigate.
But when the media won't investigate, but merely takes any claim coming out of that mechanic shop or friends in government at face value, and you find out that the mechanic shop is a HUGE advertiser/client of theirs, and that those few in media who do investigate get punished and learn not to do it any more... THEN you decide the system is just so corrupt that you will never get answers, that the fancy house the mechanic has is likely paid for via taking advantage of the trust of customers and that the transmission problems are probably his fault as your own small investigations are telling you, and you and the other screwed customers make a car club, and learn how to fix each others cars.
And you stop listening to media for info on what is going on, and do your own research.
Don't know Chip, but I would encourage Chip to start by asking himself one question.
How does a "journalist" get copies of confidential childrens medical records?
Because apparently no one has called his attention to the fact that this entire "fraud" case is based on Brian Deer's claim that he has found information in the kids records, which he has has admitted to keeping in his apartment for months, and that no one can confirm most of these accusations because, again, he claims that they came from stolen children's medical records.
From there he can ask why the police are not at Deer's door arresting him. Then on to why the BMJ has published what cannot be confirmed. Then he might question why the "journalist" who first "broke" the story that there were problems with the study in 2004, then became the complainant in the case against him (since no actual patients could be found that would bring a case against Wakefield), then jumped back to becoming a "journalist" and reporting on the case as if he had nothing to do with it, then jumped back into the case, actually harassing parents of the children in question as the demonstrated on Wakefield's behalf at the hearing, then again jumped back to being an oh so objective journalist (by the way writing these stories for a British newspaper run by James Murdoch, board member of GlaxoSmithKline who makes the MMR) and reported on the case again, then again becoming involved in the case with a flurry of personal lawsuits between himself and Dr. Wakefield, then, after the case is settled, comes out with NEW information, that a six year trial in the GMC could not turn up, and prints it as a "journalist".
Then he can ask himself why the BMJ is not chastising him for stealing childrens medical records but actually publishing this? And ask them why they have removed calls from their web site from physicians and parents enraged that he stole childrens medical records and is claiming to publish the information (which again... can't be confirmed by outside sources because it supposedly comes from private medical records of minor children). And he can ask why, instead they actually published this instead of calling for a legal investigation on how Deer got the records he claims to have.
Then he should ask his own community why they are not investigating Brian Deer and why they are not horrified that the guy who brought the charges against Wakefield is posing as a "journalist" and stealing childrens medical records, instead carrying this garbage as if it is the gospel truth.
Then he can look into just who else was involved in the Deer investigation and check out the Pharma research group that "assisted" Deer in his "investigation".
And from there he can research actual vaccine/autism research and see that throwing out this study and saying that the vaccine/autism theory should be thrown out is like carving a pot hole in I-95 and saying the highway from Maine to Florida should be shut down. It is a 13 year old study, what it taught us about autism and vaccines has been at least replicated and at most adopted as standard practice from the medical profession at the behest of the CDC no less.
I have been writing about vaccine autism causation for five years, I never even read the Wakefield paper until last year, in more than a thousand posts I think I have done a few about Wakefield, but not many, and I have never even included this study. I think that the list of studies I point to is in the mid forties at this point. Encourage Chip to check it for himself: No Evidence of Any Link
Vaccine autism causation did not start with Wakefield, it started half a century earlier when Leo Kanner wrote the first paper about this new syndrome that he discovered that would be called "autism" when he noted that one of the first 11 cases ever defined was a regression following a smallpox vaccine. CBS found that our government had been paying autism cases from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program as early as 1991, long before Wakefield ever laid eyes on a patient with autism. This whole thing is a pharma marketing campaign and Chip is unfortunately becoming a willing sucker.
Oh... and my child regressed into autism after his vaccines AND HE NEVER GOT THE MMR.
Saying that this study shuts down vaccine autism causation is like saying that the one study on the dangers of drunk driving is flawed so everyone can go ahead and crank up the party bus!
Please send him this.
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