Revisiting James Murdoch, Brian Deer, The Sunday Times, GlaxoSmithKline and the Attack on Andrew Wakefield

So I started writing a long piece on the James Murdoch/Sunday Times/GSK/Wakefield development, but Dan Olmsted and John Stone did it faster and better than I, so I will just point you there and add my .02.  Which is...

How long does this ridiculous charade have to go on?!

I mean how many of those who have quite obviously be put to task defending an indefensible vaccine program have to be revealed as... well... less than earnest, by main stream sources, before those earnest people in the medical profession, who really care about health outcomes and the public trust, throw up their hands and say... "Well... yes... this has become quite absurd.  Let's stop all the nonsense and sit down at the table with our critics and deal with the real problems."

Let's make a short list of the industry protectionist standard bearers at the various levels and their credibility... well let's call them "weaknesses."

Julie Gerberding:  Claims that she never bothered to read the Poling case, that vaccines can and cannot cause autism, that children with mitochondrial disorders can develop "autism like syndrome" from their vaccines, then upon leaving her post at CDC became the head of vaccines for Merck, who makes the MMR vaccine that damaged Hannah Poling.

Paul Offit: Reprimanded by Congress for his conflicts of interest, successfully sued by the head of Jenny McCarthy's charity for lying about him in a book, had the OC Register retract an article where he made false accusations against CBS News, makes stupid and irresponsible claims that a baby can safely receive 100,000 vaccines at once, gets caught misleading the public and failing to disclose conflicts of interest on a regular basis.

David Gorski: Forgot to mention that he was developing a cancer/autism drug for vaccine maker Sanofi for like five years or something while attacking vaccine safety activists and autism treatment advocates.

Paul Thorsen:  Middle aged club kid under indictment for conspiracy and fraud.

Brian Deer: Lied to families about his name to get them to agree to interviews, feels qualified to diagnose GI disorders on the street despite having no medical background, does not even know the basics of the vaccine causation arguments or who is on what side, routinely says things that are at best, embarrassing, at worst, suggest some ... issues.

Seth Mnookin:  An admitted criminal.

GlaxoSmithKline: Who has the time. Just google "Glaxo Fraud."

And now James Murdoch and the Sunday Times.

Lets take a step into the way back machine and revisit my little chart on the obnoxious level of conflict of interest in those who were... *ahem* protecting the British people's interest by examining the conflicts of interest of Dr. Wakefield and his co-authors in a paper that pointed out that 8 kids started having serious GI problems after MMR and also had developmental disabilities. I have faded out the later comers to the game to focus on the players who started all this bother:

Click to see it full sized

We have of course been pointing out Murdoch's little credibility problem with being placed on the board of GlaxoSmithKline after his Sunday Times began the whole Wakefield attack, but of course, we were just conspiracy theorists for pointing out that little conflict of interest. How dare we impugne the integrity of blah, blah, blah...

So now we learn that Murdoch the Younger is not above doing horrid, and bottom feeder like things to make a buck.  Possibly not even illegally obtaining the private medical information of the child of the leader of his country. If Mr. Brown's son's cystic fibrosis is not something to be handled sacredly, earnestly and above board, what's next, having reporters lie about who they are to autism parents to get info for a hit piece on their doctor?  Oh... never mind.

But no fear for Murdoch that GSK will turn on him... despite his failing morality, he still far exceeds the standards of respectability required to be a board member of GSK, who is standing behind their man for all he has done for their company:

James Murdoch to remain on GSK's board

* Drugmaker says Murdoch has made strong contribution

* Investigations need to run their course

* News Corp executive also sits on Sotheby's board

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline , Britain's biggest drugmaker, said James Murdoch continued to serve as a non-executive director, and it would watch investigations into the phone-hacking scandal engulfing his family's newspaper business.

The 38-year-old heir apparent to his father Rupert Mordoch's News Corp joined GSK's board in 2009, since when he has made "a strong contribution", a GSK spokesman said on Friday.

In recent days, James Murdoch's reputation has taken a pummelling, with critics saying he was too slow to realise the enormity of the scandal at News International, the British newspaper unit he chairs.

GSK -- a group with plenty of experience of corporate controversy, ranging from rows over executive pay to safety alarms about some of its medicines -- will watch developments closely and is not rushing to any judgments.

"With regard to the activities that are alleged to have taken place at News International, we believe that the full facts must be established and the ongoing investigations be allowed to take place and come to a considered conclusion," the spokesman said.

James Murdoch was paid 98,000 pounds ($158,000) in shares for serving on GSK's board in 2010. He is member of both the drugmaker's corporate responsibility and remuneration committees.

He is also a non-executive director of U.S.-listed auction house Sotheby's .

The News International chairman said on Friday his company would take out adverts in rival British newspapers this weekend to apologise to the nation for wrongdoing at the News of the World, the Sunday paper at the centre of the scandal. ($1 = 0.620 pound) (Editing by Dan Lalor)

(Note that the story is published by Reuters, whose CEO is also on the board of Merck. That other MMR maker. Conspirators Corporate Synergists must stick together, you know)

He has made one hell of a contribution!  He made the salvation of MMR possible.  GSK can't very well abandon their hit man.  If he falls completely, then might more people wake up to the idea that what was done to Wakefield was a scapegoating?  Best to see if you can get away with keeping him on to assure your "corporate responsibility", and hope no one notices that you are trying to keep him propped up to keep your skeletons in the closet.

Can anyone name ONE person who has been out in front in the vaccine defense that actually has a good reputation, is an earnest person and is free of serious conflicts of interest?  I can't think of any at the moment.

So... when the next one pops up, I am going to start the clock running and see how long it takes for their questionable history to start to come to light.

It is just stupid at this point.

131 African Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint. Do Bill Gates and Paul Offit Approve?

The Malawi Voice is reporting that a group of families who took their children out of the country, to Mozambique, to avoid the free measles vaccine that was being distributed, were rounded up by police and vaccinated at gunpoint upon returning to the country.

The vaccine safety/choice community has been hearing reports of this happening in Africa for more than a year now, but this is the first official story that I have heard thus far and thus been able to report. In this case the District Health Officer himself, Dr. Matchaya, freely admitted to the newspaper that this was done.

"According to Dr. Medison Matchaya District Health Officer for Nsanje, medics went to vaccinate the children in Nsanje under police escort.

"We were alerted that some children who were hiding in Mozambique were back in the country and we asked police to escort the health officials in order to vaccinate them and we have managed to vaccinate about 131 children," said Matchaya.

This week, Bill Gates, working on another round of publicity for his "Year of the Vaccines" campaign (which just happens to fall on the year that he became an owner of a vaccine company, funny that) has declared at the GAVI meeting that the world needs to work toward "vaccine equity". He wants every child on the planet vaccinated. (Which in my book only matters when he is of course elected King of the World, which he hasn't been. Gates is not even a doctor, but just some guy who dropped out of college and made a bunch of cash on his buggy software via pushy business practices. I am more qualified to give medical advice than Gates is.)

"It's now that we are going to start to get the last two vaccines that rich kids take for granted, Pneumococcal and RotaVirus, and over these next five years, get them out to every child everywhere. That means for the first time ever, that we have equity in vaccines. That we don't take the poorest children who are actually the most susceptible to these diseases, and the benefit of giving them the vaccine is the highest, and yet in the past, they've been the ones who don't get it. And so, it really is, in the achievement of equity, this is a very important day. Now our foundation wants to do its part, so I am pleased to announce to you that we are pledging and additional billion dollars... (pause for lengthy applause)... Thank you... alright, thank you... It's not every day we give away a billion dollars, but for a cause like this it is exciting to be doing it. That will be over the next five years."

So will Bill "Not a Doctor" Gates' billion dollars go to making sure that the basic human right not to be injected with any substance against ones will is respected? Or will some of it go to guns to force people to take the vaccines that they don't want?

Will any of that billion to care for children who suffer vaccine injury? Wanna know the difference between my vaccine injured son a let's say, a child in a small African village who suffers a vaccine encephalopathy? In our house we have doors with locks on them to keep him safe inside, and school systems that are legally obligated to serve him. Take a moment and imagine what it would be like to try to keep your neurologically impaired child alive in rural Africa for a month or two. Just watched a short documentary about a new neurological illness befalling children in one African village. Parents have to tie their children to the side of their homes with a rope to prevent them from walking away and dying. That is how they live their entire lives.

I submitted the following media inquiry to the Gates Foundation. I have not waited for a response, as I understand that these questions have been sent in on several occasions and no one that I know of has ever received a response. I will amend this article if they do respond:

"Subject: Vaccination forced at gun point
Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:50:43 -0400
From: Ginger Taylor
To: media@gatesfoundation.org

I am writing a piece and I am looking for comment from Bill Gates or the Gates Foundation on forced vaccination.

Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation have donated billions to new global vaccination campaigns over the next decade. Gates announced at GAVI a billion over the next five years to get Pneumococcal and Rotavirus vaccines "out to every child everywhere".

But, not every family wants these vaccines or believes that they are in their child's best interest, and of course, all vaccines carry risk of serious injury or even death to some people.

In light of this, do Bill Gates and The Gates Foundation believe that people should be coerced or forced into vaccinating against their will in violation if their human rights to decide what pharmaceuticals go into their bodies?

Further, for more than a year now, we in the vaccine safety/choice community have been hearing about people being vaccinated at gun point in Africa, but had not had any confirmation of these reports. Today an official in Malawi confirmed that he lead such an effort, and used police to force vaccinate children of families who did not want the measles vaccine.

131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint in Nsanje

Do Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation support or condemn this practice?

Additionally, in the US, vaccine injury (and deaths) are recognized by all involved in vaccination and our Department of Health and Human Services has a compensation program that was set up to provide financial compensation to those injured by vaccines so that their loved ones could care for them. Will the Gates Foundation be setting up a similar system to care for those who will be injured by their vaccine campaigns?


Ginger Taylor"

I am equally as interested in Paul Offit's thoughts on this, as it is a huge payday for him in future royalties. Bill Gates money is going to to buy his vaccine for every single person in the entire world. Offit advocates coerced vaccination, recommending that people be forced to take classes before being "allowed" to refuse a shot for themselves or their child. In the trailer for The Greater Good, Offit says, "Sadly, some people don't do what it best for their children unless it is mandated."



Note that he is not the only one advocating mandated vaccination. Gunpoint is one hell of a mandate. Does he believe that this level of coercion, threatening to kill someone if they don't vaccinate, is appropriate?

I sent the following to Dr. Offit. He has responded to my inquiries before, so there is a much better chance I will hear back from him. I will let you know if he responds.

Subject: Gun Point Vaccination in Africa
Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:42:08 -0400
From: Ginger Taylor
To: offit@email.chop.edu

Dr. Offit,

You have spoken out in favor of vaccine mandates and compelling individuals to take an education course on vaccination before they would be allowed to turn down a vaccine for themselves or their children.

For more than a year now, we in the vaccine safety/choice community have been hearing about people being vaccinated at gun point in Africa, but had not had any confirmation of these reports. Today an official in Malawi confirmed that he lead such an effort, and used police to force vaccinate children of families who did not want the measles vaccine.

131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint in Nsanje

Do you support or condemn this practice?

Ginger Taylor

So the questions are... just how insane does this vaccine push have to get before the world stands up and says "NO!".  How far does this go... this Doctocracy?  How many shots?  How many other medical interventions?

This has officially become the plot of a bad movie. Egomaniac billionaire desperate to leave a legacy proving he is the most wonderful man in the world, destroys long term health of civilization, pits doctors against patients and citizens against governments (and NGOs who have become delusional that they are actually governments with power over people). Gates and GAVI seem to want all the rights to make people's health decisions for them, but I don't see them talking about taking any of the responsibilities for the outcomes of those decisions.

When I heard "vaccine equity" I immediately thought, "so now children in rural Africa and Asia will have the same access to immune dysfunction and brain damage that my son has?" Congratulations children of the world?  When rich, educated, established Americans (even medical professionals) can't get recognition and proper care for their vaccine injured children, what chance do you think poor single African mother has?  And we now know that if she tries to say no in the first place, there is a chance that a gun will be used to make her do what Bill Gates has decided is good for her child.

"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!" - Barbie, Toy Story 3

UPDATE:

Michael Belkin noted that Melinda Gates has already been praising Malawi for their vaccine program:

‘How is it that they do that? What I found was that the vision and dedication of the country’s top leadership has been absolutely instrumental in terms of making success in this area. So the country, one of the commitments that they’ve made is to build out this cadre of front line workers they call them in their country health surveillance assistants. So every month these 11,000 health surveillance assistants spend 3 weeks out in the villages, talking with the villagers providing basic vaccinations … They make sure the vaccinations happen, not only at the village level but all the way back through the system.’