The Attack on Big Mac

Across the blogesphere this week John McCain has been attacked for making the comment, "It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children. The question is, What’s causing it? And we go back and forth, and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines." (David Kirby could not have been more right when he told McCain to watch out for incoming).

Political blogs that have never touched on the vaccine/autism issue have used words like 'lunatic' and 'crackpot' in discussing now Republican Nominee for President John McCain. Even conservative bloggers who support him for president are being critical.

And the truly bizarre thing about these attacks is that they have all sprung from this account by Jake Tapper which includes, right at the top, a mention of the bombshell news that the US Government has just conceded the first vaccine/autism case to come to a conclusion in the Federal Vaccine Court.

These attacks either make no mention of the case, or give it a cursory mention, as Tapper did, and then pretend it was never said. They then move on to make their arguments predicated on the now legally false claim that 'There Is No Link Between Vaccines And Autism'.

Yesterday I submitted some version of the following comment on at least 4 different blog posts that were attacking McCain:

I want to call everyone's attention back to the question that actually elicited this response from John McCain in the first place.

In that meeting in Texas, another autism mom who believes as I do asked him about the revelation last week that The US Government, in the Federal Vaccine Court, had finally come to a decision on the FIRST vaccine/autism case, that that decision was...

...and I am gonna bold the hell out of this because this is very, very important...

THE GOVERNMENT CONCEDED THAT THE PLAINTIFFS AUTISM WAS THE RESULT OF A VACCINE INJURY AND SHE WILL NOW BE PAID DAMAGES FROM THE VACCINE INJURY COMPENSATION FUND!!!!!

There are 4,900 autism/vaccine cases in the pipeline, and in case #1 the verdict has just gone to the family that alleged that vaccines made their child autistic.

In other words, at the current time, 100% of all the vaccine/autism cases tried in the Federal Court finds a causal link between vaccines and autism.

And apparently the family whose burden it was to prove that their child's autism was triggered by her vaccines had such a good case, that the Department of Justice, which is fighting like hell in the two other cases currently under way, decided it was not even worth trying to fight.

...And yet these attacks on John McCain are are reporting the forgone conclusion that there is no link?

Respectfully, could it be that John McCain is actually paying closer attention to the issue than they are?

So that everyone may investigate this for themselves, here is the info to get started (from another piece I wrote):

In November the US Government conceded that a little girl's autism was brought on by her vaccines and she will be paid out of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund. Her case was one of the first three test cases chosen to put the vaccine/autism theory under the microscope at the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings. This is only the first of 4,900 cases before the Federal vaccine court to get a decision.

The case was supposed to go to trial this coming May, but was instead settled and subsequently sealed by the court, who claimed that it was for the protection of the child's privacy. Except that the family has waved their right to privacy and apparently wants the fact of the case and the ruling known.

Journalist David Kirby obtained the court documents and published them last week. The family of the girl is planning a press conference this week in Atlanta some time.

No major US news outlets have run the story on the bombshell court ruling, and in fact in the past week several 'experts' have been in the news repeating the now legally false claim that there is no link between vaccines and autism. ABC News looked at doing a story on the government court concession, it but then didn't.

Despite the fact that the both the blogesphere and the autism community are going crazy with the story... the only mainstream news outlet to report thus far has been the Sunday Herald in Scotland.

So what we have here is the government and the medical community publicly telling parents that vaccines have no relationship to autism while privately admitting the link and paying damages to a family for vaccine induced autism. And apparently hoping that no one will notice.

Which in this case is actually kind of working.. because blogs like this and the ones mentioned above, actually quote that the case went to the vaccine/autism plaintiff, and then ignore it and slap McCain?

It is just bizarre to me!

Why does your blog post say something to the effect of, "WTF!? The government admitted that a vaccine caused autism in one of the test cases to test the theory that vaccines cause autism? And they are voluntarily paying damages? Why do they keep telling us that here is no link then? What the hell is going on?!"

All of the blogs had moderated comments, except for one. None of the blogs with moderated comments posted it.

It is as if I were watching "Cloverfield" and all the news reports that we see interspersed through out the film when the main characters run by a TV were stories about how things were exploding and buildings were falling down and thousands were dead all over town, but made no mention that all this was happening because there was a 20 story monster stomping through Mid-Town. Because everyone knows there is no such thing as monsters, so even when one appears right before our eyes, best just to ignore it really. But do go on to report the impact of the monster, because that is dramatic stuff.

I reiterate... WTF?

It is not just as if they missed the big story here, it as if they are FIGHTING to ignore the big story. Political bloggers across the country are collectively sticking their fingers in their ears and singing the, "La La La... I'm Not Listening" song.

So my next question is this... how many of the Vaccine Court cases have to go in favor of the petitioners until main stream American media and the political blogesphere begins to give the link between autism and vaccines serious consideration? Not even believe that it is conclusive fact, but just merely worthy enough of consideration to stop mocking people who discuss the matter publicly?

One definitive court case, an actual legal precedent, is apparently not enough. If either of other two of the three test cases currently under way in the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings, the ones that were chosen to represent many of the 4,900 cases that are in the pipeline, go to the plaintiffs, is that enough to make everyone sit up and pay attention?

Or will the media actually be able to keep their fingers in there ears if all 4,900 cases end with the verdict that gets these kids paid for their children's regression into autism due to vaccines?

UPDATE: Cudos to The New Scientist for getting to the heart of the matter, and giving the Government Concession the weight it deserved! Although they are wrong in their statement that, "decades of research have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism", they are asking the very important question...

If there is no link, then why pay Hanna?

They seem earnestly confused by the move and one pediatrician interviewed said he was 'stunned'.

Read my thank you/challenge to them and go encourage them to demand that HHS return their call and get the government to explain there contradictory stances.

News Max Reports On The Government Vaccine/Autism Consession

Here.

... and they use "Eve's" real name. I feel comfortable linking to it now as it has been announced that her family will be holding a press conference this week. So it is pretty safe to assume that they are not worried about privacy or confidentiality.

I will continue to track these stories.

The First Newspaper Reports On The Goverment Concession

.... and it is not in the US... but Scotland.

This article is reporting that "Eve's" family will be holding a press conference in Atlanta tomorrow. I will try to get details.

I will keep you posted on other media outlets who pick up the story of the century that everyone is working so hard to try to ignore.

US To Award Vaccine Damage Payment
By Judith Duffy, Health Correspondent
The Sunday Herald
Campaigners hail decision as ‘unprecedented’

A DECISION by the US government to award compensation under its vaccine damage programme to a child diagnosed with symptoms of autism has been hailed as "unprecedented" by campaigners.

The claim is one of nearly 5000 cases currently pending in the American vaccine "court", which allege that mercury-containing vaccines resulted in autism.

Washington-based attorney Jim Moody, one of the lawyers involved in the cases, told the Sunday Herald the case was scheduled to go to trial in May, but "to everyone's surprise" the government conceded liability.

"It is also significant they conceded it was causing autism, they could have just said vaccines caused injury or been vague," he said. "Never before has our government linked vaccines to autism."

According to court papers, the girl was developing normally during the first 18 months of her life. But the officials agreed to pay compensation after it was demonstrated that five vaccinations she received on one day significantly aggravated an underlying type of genetic disorder, leading to a condition which had "features" of autism.

A press conference is planned for Atlanta tomorrow, where the girl's parents are expected to talk about the case.

While the US health department continues to insist there is no evidence that vaccines cause autism, it has been seized upon as a major concession by campaigners on both sides of the Atlantic who believe there is a link.

Wendy Fournier, of the National Autism Association in America, claimed it echoed the stories of thousands of children across the country.

"With almost 5000 similar cases pending in vaccine court, we are confident that this is just the first of many that will confirm what we have believed for so long - vaccines can and do cause children to regress into autism," she said.

Bill Welsh, president of the Edinburgh-based Autism Treatment Trust, said: "Over many years the compelling evidence of parents in this regard has been ignored by a medical hierarchy who appear more concerned with vested interests than the health of children."

The girl received five vaccinations for nine diseases on one day in July 2000 - including for chickenpox, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and the MMR jab for mumps, measles and rubella. The decision by the Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation did not pinpoint specific issues with the vaccinations but concluded they "significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism disorder."

In the UK, much of the concern around vaccines and autism has focused on the MMR triple jab for mumps, measles and rubella. However, numerous studies have failed to find any link, including the largest ever study, which was published earlier this month.

Thiomersal, which contains mercury, began to be phased out as a preservative in childhood jabs from 1999 in the US and in the UK in 2004. It has never been used in MMR.

Tina Cheatham of the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) said: "HRSA has reviewed the scientific information concerning the allegation that vaccines cause autism and has found no credible evidence to support the claim.

"Accordingly, in every claim submitted under the Act, HRSA has maintained and continues to maintain the position that vaccines do not cause autism."

A spokesman for the Vaccine Damage Payments Unit in the UK, which is run by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), said details of the disabilities involved in payouts made under the scheme were not recorded.

"DWP keeps the vaccine damage scheme under regular review to ensure that it continues to meet policy intentions," he said.

AAP Has To Search For Autism Parents Who Support Vaccination

The PR department of the American Academy of Pediatrics, concerned with all the bad press that vaccines are getting since Jenny hit the talk shows and Eli hit prime time, have put out a call to find parents who can counter the message of parents like be who believe that vaccines triggered their child's regression into autism.

From: Susan Martin (ssmartin@aap.org)
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 2:29 PM
To: SPOKESPERSONS@LISTSERV.AAP.ORG
Subject: parent spokespersons

Hello,

As part of our ongoing response to media stories regarding autism and vaccines, the AAP communications department is compiling a list of parents who support the AAP and are available for interviews. We are looking for two types of parents who could serve as spokespersons:

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders who support immunization and who do not believe there is any link between their child’s vaccines and his or her autism.

Parents of children who suffered a vaccine-preventable illness. This could be a parent who declined immunization, whose child became ill before a vaccine was available, or whose child was ineligible for immunization.

We are asking for your help identifying parents who would be good spokespersons. They do not need to be expert public speakers. They just need to be open with their story and interested in speaking out on the issue. We will contact candidates in advance to conduct pre-interviews, to offer guidance on talking to reporters and to obtain a signed waiver giving us permission to release their name.

If a parent were placed on our list, we would offer their name and contact information to select media. We hope to build a list of parents from a wide range of geographical areas.

As the Jenny McCarthy and “Eli Stone” stories illustrate, this issue is likely to recur in the national and local media. The AAP is committed to doing all we can to counter such erroneous reports with factual information supported by scientific evidence and AAP recommendations.

The anti-vaccine groups often have emotional family stories on their side. The ability to offer a reporter an interview with a similarly compelling parent who is sympathetic to the AAP’s goals is a powerful tool for our media relations program.

Please contact me if you have any questions or to suggest a parent to interview.

Thank you,

Susan Stevens Martin
Director, Division of Media Relations
American Academy of Pediatrics
847.434.7131

The outspoken JB Handley of Generation Rescue responds to the architect of this manufactured PR blitz (while it is still in the manufacturing stage) by calling attention to the fact that while she needs head hunters to find her parents to make vaccination look appealing, all you have to do to find parents who can tell the story of the destruction that vaccination has brought into their family is to swing a dead cat.

As has now become the norm in this country, rather than taking responsibility for bad practices, dangerous policies and harmful products, the AAP adopts the corporate model of 'why fix the problem when a PR campaign is so much cheaper and easier!'

I wonder how hard Ms. Martin would have to look to find parents who not only had a sympathetic story to tell about why everyone should vaccinate, but to find parents like those of us who have spent thousands of (unpaid) hours on trying to get their vaccine message out. Because those of us with autistic, vaccine injured children who have become active activists are kind of everywhere. We can't leave home too often to give interviews, and writing is our best tool, but we are everywhere.

I am reproducing Handley's article in full, and I will add this to his comments:

Dear Ms. Martin,

You and the AAP need to realize that continuing on the course of denying your blinding love affair with vaccines combined with the permanent damage to our kids health from over vaccinating them (both of which are readily apparent to anyone with eyes) is destroying your credibility very quickly.

Conversations on the playground between mothers about their children's health is not, "Well the AAP says vaccines are safe, thank goodness. I am going to stop by today and get a flu shot for Johnny". They are about your conflicts of interest, your failure to take the questions asked by parents seriously, and "I am not going back to Dr. Smith because he yelled at me when i asked him if getting 4 shots at once was safe for my three month old baby. Do you know of a pediatrician who is OK with not vaccinating on schedule or at all?"

No one disagrees that viral infections suck, but no one on the playground knows any children who have died or suffered long term problems from getting a viral infection. Sadly, most of those mom's saw what happened to little Jimmy with their own eyes. He looked completely normal to them last month, and now, after being vaccinated and getting a little sick right after, Jimmy can't come to the playground any more because he is in therapy and will be for the rest of his childhood. And many of them have sat and cried at the kitchen table with Jimmy's mom who thought she was doing the right thing when she gave him all his shots, and doesn't understand why her pediatrician keeps saying that they could have nothing to do with his autism. Isn't it as obvious to him as it is to her and everyone else who knew Jimmy before?

Please, stop playing PR games and face the problem. Too many vaccines, too close together, not tested in combination, given to soon, to children who have no medical history and are not screened in advance to see if they have a healthy enough immune system to handle the vaccines, is adding up to tens of thousands of children with life long health problems and developmental disabilities.

The AAP has over estimated what children could handle and it is time to roll back the vaccine program and put common sense safety measures in place.

And Please... Please... stop your pediatricians from sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring vaccine reactions in children. Unexplained fevers and crying for three months is not something that just happens. Years of constipation and bowel problems cannot be explained away with, "some kids are just like that". The answers that my pediatricians gave me when I raised these concerns with them about my child were malpractice and they were fed to them by you.

After Chandler was diagnosed and I went back into my ped with all my research and tried to get him to read the safety and risk information on the actual package insert on the first vaccine my child reacted to. Although he was nice about it, he told me he didn't have time to read what I had to give him because he could barely keep up with all that you had to give him. When I asked him, 'who do i talk to about this then', he said, 'Talk to the AAP, I go by their direction'.

But you don't listen to me. Who cares if I raise reasonable and important questions about the shoddy research you use to promote vaccine safety and can offer you video tapes of my son before and after his 18 month vaccination/autistic regression, right?



After all, I am just another "scientifically illiterate" and "desperate" parent looking for someone to blame for my son's autism.

(Wait a minute, so if the public is supposed to dismiss autism parents stories about vaccine triggering their children's regression because those parents are emotional and not scientific experts, then shouldn't the public also be dismissing the stories of the parents that you are planning on trotting out because their tragedy has made them emotional and they are not scientific experts? Are people supposed to be listening to parents anecdotal stories or not... I am confused...)

I stopped listing to you when you stopped listening to me. Parents are asking questions, lots and lots of parents. If you stop listening to those questions, and pass on giving real answers, not thinly veiled BS flackery, but truthful and earnest answers, they are all going to stop listening to you too.

Admit that there is a problem and fix it. Any other faux solution, like this stupid PR move, is just throwing your time and money, and many children, down a black hole.

Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor, M.S.
AdventuresInAutism.com

AAP WAGS THE DOG: FIND US SOME SICK KIDS PRONTO!

American Academy of Pediatricians email reveals panic and new low in “media planning.” (Full email at end of post.)

By J.B. Handley

Dear Ms. Martin:

I understand you are the Director of Media Relations for the American Academy of Pediatrics. I read your email of February 13th to medical practitioners (that I have included below in its entirety) describing a nationwide search for parents that, in your words, fit one of two profiles. First:

“Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders who support immunization and who do not believe there is any link between their child’s vaccines and his or her autism.”

Second:

“Parents of children who suffered a vaccine-preventable illness. This could be a parent who declined immunization, whose child became ill before a vaccine was available, or whose child was ineligible for immunization.”

Apparently, you are trying to establish connections with these families because:

“The anti-vaccine groups often have emotional family stories on their side. The ability to offer a reporter an interview with a similarly compelling parent who is sympathetic to the AAP’s goals is a powerful tool for our media relations program.”

It sounds like you have a system in place to prepare these parents to meet the media, according to your email:

“We will contact candidates in advance to conduct pre-interviews, to offer guidance on talking to reporters and to obtain a signed waiver giving us permission to release their name.”

As the father of an autistic child and the leader of a national autism organization, I found myself sitting at my desk, my chin nearly hitting the floor, in stunned astonishment as I read your email. Where, exactly, has the AAP’s humanity and moral compass gone?

Ms. Martin, let me give you a little insight into my world. If I wanted to find parents who had autistic children and who believed their child’s autism was impacted by vaccines, I wouldn’t need to email the nation’s pediatricians hoping I might find one or two. I could just open my window and yell, because these parents are everywhere in my neighborhood and town! Worse, our numbers continue to grow.

You see, not a day goes by without Generation Rescue receiving an email from a new parent who watched their child decline following a vaccination appointment with their pediatrician. While you search for the handful of parents with autistic children who may support immunizations, we can’t respond to emails fast enough from the thousands we hear from who feel vaccines contributed to their child’s autism. You may think our organizations have some sort of well-orchestrated system for having “emotional family stories” teed up for reporters. What’s actually true is that within a phone call or two, any reporter worth their salt could find parents anywhere in the country who feel exactly like I do.

And, that gets us right back to the problem with your organization as many of us see it. When Generation Rescue rented a booth at your national convention 2 years ago, we were stunned by how many AAP members came to our booth, quietly mentioned that they supported what we were doing, and encouraged us to keep fighting for the kids.

Let me repeat that: Hundreds of your members congratulated my organization for fighting for the kids!

Meanwhile, employees of the AAP like yourself have your head in the sand:

Where is the media story of the AAP sounding the alarm that the prevalence of autism continues to rise?

Where is the media story of the AAP digging into the growing number of stories of children recovering from autism?

Where is the AAP when parents return to the pediatrician and explain to the doctors they trust that their child disappeared after receiving multiple vaccines?

Where is the AAP to help protect our kids from a growing, devastating epidemic of Autism, ADHD, PDD-NOS, asthma, food allergies, learning disorders, and other autoimmune issues?

You are nowhere.

You are looking for the needle in the haystack parent with the autistic child who supports vaccines.

You are looking for the parent with the illness to exploit to scare the masses.

What you should be looking for, Ms. Martin, is your own soul, which you seem to have lost somewhere along the way. Worse, particularly if you are a parent yourself, you also seem to have lost the ability to listen to the parents and to put the needs of our kids first.

Shame on you, Ms. Martin, for planning such blatant manipulation of the media.

Shame on you for being part of an organization that has done nothing to respond to the growing epidemic of autism.

Shame on you and your organization for never exploring the growing body of stories of recovered children.

With deep disappointment and disgust,

JB Handley
Co-Founder
Generation Rescue

JB Handley is Co-Founder of Generation Rescue and Editor at Large for Age of Autism.

USA Today Ad

JB Handley from Generation Rescue, with an assist by Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy.

Click to see larger, readable image.

Eli Stone Compares Tobacco Safety Claims With Pharma Safety Claims

With all the vaccine safety claims by Med and Pharma flooding the media to counter the Eli Stone pilot, I thought it would be a good time to repost this from last summer:

Draw Your Own Analogies




Johnson & Johnson Clears Their Own Product of Autism Link

Critique of JnJ's Rhogam Study

If you don't want to find something, look where it is isn't.

Hey Kids, Get Vaxed!

UPDATE:

Scanning You Tube I found these, and these are not from that long ago:

Autism: The Non Urgent Crisis.

I thought Anne Dachel's response to this piece deserved a good read.

Autism Center Helping Families Cope With Disorder
WISC, WI - Oct 11, 2007

The story on the new autism school called Common Threads gave us some disturbing information. We're told that one in every
150 children in the U.S. now has autism. WISC-TV calls autism "a crisis" yet they can give us no reason why so many children
are affected with this devastating disorder.

Associate Dean of Research for the Waisman Center Dr. Susan Ellis Weismerm tells us that "in the past 10 years, there has been
an explosion in autism research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and much of it is being done at the Waisman Center.

Actually, there's been an explosion in the number of children with autism from one in 10,000 in the 1970s to one in every one
150 kids today, including one in every 94 boys, but the Waisman Center has long told us that there is no "crisis" or any
increase in autism.

A Spectrum of Disputes - New York Times

What's happened according to the Waisman Center is "better diagnosing" by doctors and an expanded spectrum of autism disorders. In other words, we've always had so many kids with autism, they were mislabeled. The problem with that claim is that no one asks people who make that claim to prove it. Why isn't there even one study that can find the misdiagnosed/undiagnosed adults with autism at a rate of one in 150?

When we talk about autism, we're talking about kids with autism. The rate of one in 150 came from studies of eight year olds, not eighty year olds. That simple fact should be scaring us all. Most adults never knew anyone labeled autistic or who displayed autistic behavior when they were young, but anywhere you bring up the subject, people start talking about kids they know with autism.

Research has shown that eighty percent of Americans with autism are under the age of eighteen. That means that within the next five to ten years these autistic kids will be adults dependent on the taxpayers for their support and care. Imagine what it will be like when one in every 150 eighteen year olds isn't going to work, or to school, or into the military, but applying for Social Security Disability for life with autism.

Right now the impact of the autism epidemic is being felt in our schools. Boston Globe reporter Carey Goldberg for example, wrote the story on July 5th, With rise in autism, programs strained - The Boston Globe in which we were told, "Statewide, the number of schoolchildren diagnosed with autism has nearly doubled over the last five years, from 4,080 to 7,521, according to soon-to-be-published data from the Department of Education."

In Massachusetts, one in every 130 kids has autism officially. Goldberg wrote, "Autism programs are faced with enormous needs and no one feels like we have enough programs to meet the up-and-coming numbers of children," said Rita Gardner, executive director of Melmark, in Andover, which serves children in its school, in their homes, and in public schools. "I would argue that this is one of our biggest public health crises in this country.

"A few years ago, when state public health authorities began providing autism services to children under 3, they expected about 500 children to enroll. At last count, they are serving more than 1,100.

Goldberg also reported that educating all these disabled children costs the state over $3 million dollars a year. Does anyone seriously think that this is happening merely because doctors are better at diagnosing? The same autistic children who are bankrupting school districts and on endless waiting lists for services will be overwhelming Social Security in the next five to ten year.

These are the current statistics on autism in the U.S. based on Dept. Education figures. http://www.vaprojec t.org/autismasds tatistics. html The explosion in the autism rate is clearly evident. Now imagine a similar increase in the number of young adults applying for Social Security Disability. This is also a double blow. These disabled young people are meant to be the replacement work force to help support the retiring post WWII generation. Not only won't they be paying into Social Security, they'll be living off of it for the rest of their long lives.

Findings by Michael Ganz at Harvard makes a chilling prediction of the future cost to our society as more and more autistic kids become autistic adults. His findings are felt by others to be a gross underestimate of the eventual autism price tag.Autism Has High Costs to U.S. Society, press release of Tuesday ....
It can cost about $3.2 million to take care of an autistic person over his or her lifetime. Caring for all people with autism over their lifetimes costs an estimated $35 billion per year.

See other figures from Lifespire: http://www.a-champ.org/documents/Lifespire%20Costs%20rev.2-23-06.ppt.pdf

Lifespire puts lifetime cost for a single autistic person at $10.125 million.

For more information on the cost of autism, contact Robert Krakow <rkrakow@earthlink.net>

At the height of the polio epidemic in the 1950s, one in 3,000 Americans was affected. That was a national crisis. A major effort was made to address it. Autism affects far more people, but no one seems concerned about what's going to happen to all these children. The most important comparison to be made with polio is the fact that most of the victims of polio recovered and went on to lead productive lives. The same won't be said about the victims of the autism epidemic. They will need support and care for life.

The words of Laura Bono of the National Autism Association are a grim forecast for the future: "As those children reach adulthood, the U.S. is ill-equipped to care for them. Not only do we not have enough services for adults now, the light at the end of the tunnel is a train. Frankly, we don't know what we're going to do."

Anne McElroy Dachel
Chippewa Falls, WI USA

The British Press Does It's Job

Handley reminds the British Press that they are supposed to cover up vaccine problems, not air them out in the open where any member of the proletariat might see and make a decision for themselves.

A taste...

Doesn't Pharma Advertise in Britain?
Jb By J.B. Handley

Its MMR-Autism mayhem in Britain, while American reporters seem to have misplaced their typewriters.

Don’t British reporters know who pays their bills? It seems if I leave “the Google” for a moment, I return to find another article from a British journalist pouring fuel on the fire of the MMR-Autism controversy.

Don’t you reporters understand American-style journalism, or rather A-Merck-ican journalism, where we take care of those who take care of us? Consider the hatchet job CNN apparently did of Michael Moore’s new film, Sicko, which caused Mr. Moore to post a lengthy rebuttal, including this ditty:

“Clearly, no one is keeping you honest, so I guess I'm going to have to do that job, too. $1.5 billion is spent each year by the drug companies on ads on CNN and the other four networks. I'm sure that has nothing to do with any of this. After all, if someone gave me $1.5 billion, I have to admit, I might say a kind word or two about them. Who wouldn't?”...

Go read the rest.

Draw Your Own Analogies

Johnson & Johnson Clears Their Own Product of Autism Link

Critique of JnJ's Rhogam Study

If you don't want to find something, look where it is isn't.

Hey Kids, Get Vaxed!

A Ray of Light at the U of Minnesota

I am back from my week off and I have missed much drama since I have been gone. The hostility continues to increase with the Wakefield hearing approaching, new charges that Autism Speaks is in bed with Pharma, and California wants to put the ACIP in charge of their vaccine schedule and give up their say on what will go into their own children.

As I catch up and sort all this out, I thought I would bring you something that encouraged me in it's non-polarizingness.

U Minn is setting up an autism research/treatment center that seems as if it will earnestly study biomed interventions like gfcf and chelation, and implement what they can discern might be working for children.

The article on it written by by Jeremy Olson of the Pioneer Press makes them sound like they are actually interested in finding out about what is going on in the bodies of our children, and what is working to make them healthier. I called Mr. Olsen to get his general impressions of their efforts, because I spend my emotional life bouncing between cynicism and optimism (is there such a thing as a cynical optimist?) when reading about main stream medicine's approach to autism, and he reports that they seem genuinely impressed with what Rick Rollens' MIND is doing and really want to model it.

So I am choosing to believe that U of Minn is not just engaging in fund raising spin and that they are gonna be real investigators. I look forward to hearing what their plans are, what they are going to look into first and how.

My advice to the U, because you know they are waiting on the edge of their seat for my advice, ("how will we be able to open this research center with out Ginger's help", they privately fret) ditch the mindset, "does this intervention work?" and think, "who does this work for and why?". Chelation, diet, HBOT, Zinc, B12, Antivirals all work (you have thousands of families out there that can show you their results), but not on all kids who have an ASD label slapped on them. Find a group of kids that are responding to a specific intervention and figure out why it is working for them.

Also... listen to mommies... they know what they are talking about.

The times they are a-changin'.

Any day now Julie Gerberding will call a press conference and say that after listening to parents stories and reading their research that there is a slight possibility that the vaccine schedule might be a tad too aggressive and just to be super safe they are gonna start rolling the schedule back a tiny bit and spacing out shots and screening kids before vaccination just to be sure they don't have any immune system abnormalities and maybe just perhaps free metal tests for all ASD kids!

It is coming... I can feel it in my bones!!!

I believe in the power of Christmas!!

Ginger Perine Taylor
"The Cynical Optimist"

U project's goal: a top autism center
Raising $2 million is an early step toward learning which treatments actually work
BY JEREMY OLSON
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 07/08/2007 10:51:13 PM CDT

The University of Minnesota is raising $2 million to study and improve the treatment of autism, the nation's fastest-growing developmental disability, which afflicts an estimated 10,000 people in Minnesota.

Over time, the doctors leading this initiative hope the U will grow into a top U.S. autism center that evaluates the best available treatments, researches the next generation of treatments and studies the disorder's biological and genetic origins.

"We're trying, really, to get at the whole picture," said Dr. Michael Reiff, director of the university's clinical autism program.

In autism, the university is focusing on a disorder that is gaining national attention and public funding but remains shrouded in mystery, politics and controversy.

While behavioral therapy is known to help some autistic children, there is little proof of what medical therapies are effective. Many parents suspect environmental causes, such as mercury preservatives in vaccines, for the growing number of autistic children. Research has not yet proved such a link, but skeptical parents suspect a coverup.

"Right now, we don't have anything that would be considered a cure, so it's no surprise that parents are looking for answers," Reiff said.

Autism refers to a broad spectrum of brain disorders in children that typically involve difficulty talking, interacting with others or learning. One in 150 births results in an autistic child, according to federal estimates. Autistic children also have medical problems that are often misunderstood and receive inconsistent treatment. Stomach problems and sleep disorders are common, but autistic children often can't describe them.

"Whatever behavior therapies you're trying to implement, they're not going to work very well if that child is sick," said Dr. Scott Selleck, director of the U's developmental biology center.

He compared the nation's emerging focus on autism to the quest that intensified 30 years ago to gain a basic understanding of cancer.

The vision for the Minnesota center is to embrace all ideas about the treatment of autism and to determine whether they should be used in clinical care. Evidence is lacking, for example, about whether autistic children can be treated effectively with chelation therapy, a powerful but risky medication therapy that removes heavy metals such as mercury from the body. Research also needs to address whether gluten-free diets can treat autism by eliminating the gluten proteins that may have a role in the disorder. Some methods work in helping some children; others do not.

"We are open to all possibilities, but we are going to evaluate them rigorously," Selleck said. "That is the only way, in the end, that we're going to make sense of this. ... We are not going to go down the road of implementing the things we don't study."

The university's interest coincides with increasing concern among Minnesota insurers over the rising costs of autistic children and the lack of evidence on how best to treat them. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota plans to collaborate with the university initiative and has created its own advisory group on the issue.

"What's out there just isn't working," said MaryAnn Stump, Blue Cross' chief innovation officer.

State lawmakers this session required the Minnesota Department of Human Services to study how to encourage and reward doctors to provide the best care for autistic children. The state and the university envision a "medical home" that will coordinate the efforts of family doctors and specialists who often are involved in a single child's case.

An attempt to boost public funding by more than $4 million per year for treatment and family support services was not included in the state health budget this session. However, the federal government has tripled its research dollars for autism since 2000 and increased support for education and early intervention services.

Among the university's goals is a registry of autistic children in Minnesota that will be used to research trends in the development and treatment of autism.

Selleck said he hopes the university initiative will help bridge the divide between the medical community and parents of autistic children. Experts in autism tend to broaden the implications of autism research beyond the specific groups of children in their studies. The spectrum of autism disorders is so wide that such generalizations can be faulty and confuse and annoy parents, he said.

"The choice of one's words is extremely critical," he said, "because we don't want to ignore the studies that are out there, nor do we want to discount them. But we do want to recognize what their limitations are."

The university hopes to complete fundraising later this year. Supporters Alfred and Ingrid Lenz Harrison have pledged a $1 million matching grant. The university is prepared to start with a small budget and seed money that researchers on campus could use to start autism-related projects.

But Selleck said the university has a road map toward its larger vision. The MIND Institute at the University of California-Davis started small and grew to a $100 million center within seven years. The university's goal is to become the Midwest's premier autism research institute.

"Our objective is to have the comprehensive approach to this problem, equivalent to what they are doing, within that time frame," Selleck said.

Jeremy Olson can be reached at jolson@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5583.

BY THE NUMBERS

1 in 150

Children believed born with autism

10,000

Autistic people in Minnesota

11 percent

Increase in boys diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders, including autism, from 2004 to 2005

9.6 percent

Increase in girls diagnosed

She's Mad As Hell and Not Taking It Any More

Kendra is a mom who apparently got sick and tired of the biased and illogical media coverage and shot back.

Her points were so good that I am posting the original article and her response.

I encourage the Valley Independent to be brave enough to publish it.

I encourage the Media to come to grips with the fact that people don't believe the medical community and the government claims that vaccines have no relationship to Autism, and by choosing to report those claims unchallenged, the public trust in them will ebb right along with their trust of PHARMA sponsored medicine.

[UPDATE: Kendra heard back from the author who is the father of a 16 year old with autism, and has softened a great deal toward him. She may update her remarks here.

This was part of a series. The latest installment, published today, indeed adds balance to the previous column. I had written to the columnist myself yesterday, and his response was, 'wait and see'.

To me, the most interesting part of his column today was this:

My wife was invited to attend a special luncheon held by National Association for Autism Research in Pittsburgh to kick off Walk Far for NAAR. About nine other parents of autistic children sat around the same table and naturally they began to discuss their children's condition. One by one, they expressed the same belief that the MMR shot caused their children to become autistic.

Even supporters of NAAR, who are the most anti autism/vaccine link group in existance, firmly believe that vaccines "caused" their own children's autism.

Stunning.

I saw an online poll a few weeks ago that 89% responded that they believed there was a link between vaccines and autism. So if everyone apparently believes this, even NAAR's own charity event goers, even the authors of articles that are criticized by parents who are actually turn out to be on the same "side" as they are, then what are we arguing about? Why are the authorities allowed to ignore the link?

When is someone going to stand up in public and say that the Emperor has no clothes???

I feel like I am living in the twilight zone.]

Report Addresses Autism Levels
By Chris Buckley
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

(Editor's note: This is the second part of a four-day series of informational stories about autism and profiles of people who are afflicted with the condition.)

The results of the study sent shockwaves through the medical community.

The Centers for Disease Control announced earlier this year that it had determined one in every 150 children was afflicted with autism or an autistic spectrum disorder.

But Dr. Nancy Minshew was not surprised by the results.

The findings did not indicate an increase in the number of people with autism, but an increased awareness that autistic children are living in our society, Minshew said.

"No, it's not an epidemic, it's an issue of how well a job we're doing diagnosing these kids," said Minshew, professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"In Pittsburgh, we're doing a pretty good job. But get an hour out of Pittsburgh and we're doing a poor job."

Minshew has spent 22 years studying autism and is director of the National Institutes of Health Collaborative Program's Excellence in Autism at the University of Pittsburgh. She said university-based diagnoses are most effective in identifying autism.

Minshew said recent surveys found similar results to the CDC report. The community of Brick Township, N.J., concluded in 2001 that the rate was one in 150. A cluster of studies done from 2001 to 2005 found results ranging from one in 150 to one in 170. Autism related agencies agreed to use a figure of one in 166

The national numbers are based on two CDC surveys encompassing 22 states, including Pennsylvania.

The Autism Society of Pennsylvania estimates there are about 75,000 people statewide with some form of autism and about 4,000 in the Pittsburgh region.

Still, Minshew said the figure may be even more startling. She said the CDC study could not reach home-schooled children and those in private schools.

Most pediatricians are not trained to diagnose autism, Minshew said. Regional centers for diagnosing and treating autism are needed, she said.

Collecting information on the number of autistic individuals is also hampered because families are not open to discussing their children. Society tends to cut off ties with families with autistic children.

Minshew recalled one parent of an autistic child who noted, "We don't have friends anymore. The only friends we have are the people who have an autistic child. Our old friends cut away."

MMR a cause?

Whether mumps, measles and rubella vaccinations are a cause of autism, especially the spike in autism cases in the past 20 years, has been debated.

In the June 16, 2005, edition of "Rolling Stone" magazine, an article titled "Deadly Immunity," by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., theorized a link between thimerosal in inoculations and autism in children.

Thimerosal is an antiseptic and antifungal agent that has been used as a preservative in vaccines, immune globulin preparations, skin test antigens, anti-venoms, ophthalmic and nasal products, and tattoo inks.

The compound is being phased out of most childhood vaccinations. Packaging the vaccines in single-dose vials eliminates the need for bacteriostatics such as Thimerosol.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London, was the lead author of a controversial 1998 research study, published in the Lancet, which reported bowel symptoms in a selected sample of 12 children with autistic spectrum disorders and other disabilities, and alleged a possible connection with MMR vaccination.

Although in the paper the authors stressed no causal connection had been proven, Wakefield called for suspension of the triple MMR vaccine, recommending instead that the three vaccines be administered with one-year gaps.

A controversy surrounding his findings occurred in 2004, when it was reported in The London Times that some children in the study were recruited by an attorney preparing a lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer.

The interpretation of the possible connection to vaccination, but not the report itself, subsequently was retracted by 10 of the paper's 13 authors.

General Medical Council, the regulator of the medical profession in the United Kingdom, has since investigated the reports' claims and is preparing to conduct hearings.

Currently, the U.S Court of Federal Claims is conducting hearings on whether the vaccines caused autism. More than 4,800 families have filed claims alleging the link.

Parents of autistic children - especially those diagnosed from 1988 to 2000, when Thimerosol was used in the vaccines - believe a connection exists.

Matt Kadash was developing at the same rate as a normal infant, and was even ahead of the curve. He spoke words at 13 months, for example, his mother, Sandy Kadash recalled.

Then, suddenly, his development stopped. He stopped speaking. The Amity woman is sure she knows why.

"I blame it on the MMR shots," Kadash said.

Kelli Tencer, of California, also believes the MMR vaccination is the root of her son's autism. She saw a dramatic change after he received the vaccination at about 16 months.

"I believe there is a direct link," Tencer said. "My son was fine and developing normally until he had that first shot."

Minshew, though, said the connection is purely coincidental. She said children usually show signs of developmental regression consistent with autism from 12 and 22 months of age. MMR shots are routinely given during that period.

She challenged parents who still believe in the link to view videotapes of their child's first birthday to look for signs of early regression.

"They are not oriented to other people," Minshew said. "They do not get the idea of presents, cake, celebration - the interaction with other people."

Chris Buckley can be reached at cbuckley@tribweb.com or (724) 684-2642.

Chris,

Do you ever stop when you hear all this and let the bat of common sense come up aside your head?

Anyone that repeats the "just better diagnosis" mantra cannot live in a reality based world. The story seemed to be about the CDC released data of 1 in every 150 but seemed to leave out the biggest shock that the CDC's study found. The study surprised the CDC by showing that diagnoses nationwide was abysmal. The CDC announced that their study showed that parents concerns and fears were being downplayed, ignorned, and neglected on average of 1 1/2 years after they expressed grave concerns. Does that sound like better diagnosis. No, instead, it sounds like what many of us know, that over 90% of all Autism diagnosis are parent driven. If this is the case then it would not have changed over time. A parent 20 years ago would have demanded just as adamantly "what is wrong with my child" as parents are demanding now.

Autism is not a unique skin rash that could be easily mis-identified as another rash. It is not a subtle condition and the signs and symptoms not easily missed. Missing autism is sort of like missing a grand mal seizure. The majority of those diagnosed will never live independently. They will require constant care for the rest of their typical lifespan. Autism is so devastating, there is no way it was ever missed in the past. When high-funcitoning or Aspergers is mentioned, even most of these individuals, while they may be verbally adept, will not lead an independent life either. Only the lightest affected could possibly "slip through the cracks" and those are probably more the ADD/ADHD area than autism. The criteria required to be met for an autism diagnosis under the DSM IV code are devastating and must incompass a majority of the areas across the Autism spectrum.

These so-called experts quoted in stories such as yours would like the American public to believe that our personal and collective memories are faulty. That we all lived among these people in the same numbers as now and we simply cannot remember them, but they were always there.

Many say other diagnosis are now more properly labeled Autism and were just mis-labeled or misunderstood before. How do they explain every school in America that is going broke from the sheer numbers. How do they explain the 20 year tenured teachers that cannot fathom the explosion in Autism and have never seen the kids in the numbers they are seeing now. Tiny towns with "Autism" classrooms, that never had an autistic student in over 50 years. Tiny towns with classrooms of kids unable to function in typical classrooms, unable to learn in a typical manner, unable to pay attention, sit still, grasp basic concepts, etc. etc. It would not have mattered what these kids were 'labeled' in the past, the schools still would have had to accomodate them, no matter the name that was put to their disability. But we all know that was not the case. Schools lack the facilities, staff, and training to deal with the tsunami of affected children.

I grew up in a town of less than 1,000 people. In my 12 years of education I never knew one kid with autism, or anyone I can remember that would have come close to meeting the criteria. I knew one child a few years older than me who was mentally retarded. 1 child many years older who was blind, and one a few years younger who died of cancer. My same home town now has Autism classrooms bulging at the seams. After coaching there for five years, four former athletes have informed me they have children diagnosed with severe Autism. Including myself, the former coach, that gives us five children with autism from 47 different mothers. But here in Oregon the rate state-wide is 1 in every 98. Of course this does not include ADD/ADHD, nor does it include the huge numbers of children now with life-threatening food allergies, the 1 in 5 with asthma, the 5000% increase in kids with diabetes, arthritis, cancer, etc.

Those like Dr. Paul Offit, owner of a vaccine patent, like to attempt to scare the American public with threats that if autism or other serious immune system diseases are connected to vaccines that people will stop vaccinating their children and serious childhood diseases will return. Just talking about vaccines and Autism, he speculated could destroy the health of American children. UH, Hello. It seems Dr. Offit is a little out of touch with reality. He is assuming we have some gold standard of health in our children today that merits protection. Yet new studies just today from Offit's very hospital and designed and run by Harvard University say our children are sicker than in any generation. Perhaps Americans aren't buying it anymore. Parents see their children's classrooms with Medicine "cubbies" where nearly half of all student have regular medication including the devastating numbers of children on anti-psychots, risperdal, ritalin, and more. Children with ANA kits, inhalers, and insulin injection kits. When you look at the life-shortening devastating lifelong illnesses children are now suffering from it sure makes a week with the measles look like a picnic. If Dr. Offit was more of the same, protect the great health of American children, no thank you. If he is proud of the ranking of 37th in the world of infant mortality...no thank you.

I saw a mainstream media poll the other day in which 89% of respondents replied that they believed in a link between vaccines and autism. Maybe all of us parents aren't such fringe whackos after all. The pharmaceutical companies have proven their motivation with lies and falsifications of drug trials and Americans are rightfully sceptical of all their claims now.

Just like global warming, the debate is over. In fact, besides government denials, there never was a debate. Injecting mercury into childrens' bodies is criminal, no debate. Mercury is a known neurotoxin, no debate. Mercury causes neurological damage, especially in fetuses and children, no debate. Only in corporate America can there even be a debate over injecting babies with the 2nd most toxic substance on earth. There is no debate, only corporate greed and self-preserving denials. An Autism Mom said the other day, "Autism spilled on a school room floor is a toxic event, the schools are shut down, the hazmat team called in, young people decontaminated, health screenings are done, and a major long term clean-up occurs. But, inject mercury into an infant and it's called a well baby visit".

The medias refusal to use common sense, to ask the tough hard questions is only making them look as bad as the now professional liars, protecting their own collective butts. I don't know how you can even write this stuff anymore without laughing or crying, but you have to have lost all common sense to not question even the most basic tenets of the crap now being spewed forth by the self-protectionists. Can you even have two neurons left to rub together and not see the truth? Apparently not.

Kendra Pettengill

Roseburg, Oregon

Mother of a recovered child, formerly diagnosed with Autism

Dan Burton Addresses Congress on the Vaccine Hearings

Not quite sure how I missed this one.

"I believe the families of these autistic children deserve to be compensated for their vaccine injury as Congress intended when it created VICP. I believe the science is there to prove this case and I am hopeful that the court will agree and at the end of this arduous process these 4,800 families will finally get justice."

When a respected republican congressman who held vaccine/autism hearings stands on the floor of the house and lists some research studies that support the vaccine/autism hypothesis, how the heck does the media get away with going on the air and repeatedly saying, "No Link"?

SPEECH OF
HON. DAN BURTON
OF INDIANA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007

• Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about the Omnibus Autism Hearing which started on June 11, 2007, down at the U.S. Federal Claims Court here in Washington, DC. At issue are the 4,800 claims against the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program filed by parents of autistic children who believe, as I do, that thimerosal--the mercury-based preservative in vaccines--caused their children's disorders.



• There are many people in our health agencies, in the pharmaceutical industry and here in Congress who say that there is no the scientific evidence linking thimerosal and autism. However, during my tenure as chairman of Government Reform Committee (1997-2002), and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness (2003-2005), I chaired numerous hearings examining the alarming increase in autism in this country over the last several decades. In the 1980s, roughly one in 10,000 American children was diagnosed with some kind of autism spectrum disorder. Today that number has risen to 1 in 150. I believe, as do many credible scientists and researchers, that the clear correlation between the dramatic rise in the number of autism cases, and the rapid expansion of the childhood vaccination schedule during that 20-year period, points to the mercury-based preservative thimerosal--routinely used in pediatric vaccines during the period--as a contributing factor to our country's literal epidemic of autism. In fact, I firmly believe my own grandson became autistic after receiving nine shots in 1 day, seven of which contained thimerosal. In fact, Dr. Bernard Rimland--founder and director of the Autism Research Institute--testified before the committee that classic autism, (noticeable from birth) has largely been replaced by late-onset or ``acquired autism''; a form of autism in which children are born normally developing but later regress into autism in the second year of life. He was one of the first to point to environmental insult through vaccine injury as a possible leading contributing factor.


• The truth is that since the initiation of my vaccine investigation, two schools of science have evolved leading to two very different conclusions. The first, largely funded by the Centers for Disease Control, consist of epidemiological evaluations in Denmark that look at medical files in individuals who developed autism and deciding whether or not thimerosal exposure was more predominant in the autism patients. Those who have focused solely on the epidemiology research have concluded that there is no relationship between vaccine injury and the onset of autism. However, once published, these studies were discovered to have many methodological flaws. For example, using individuals in Denmark did not provide a true comparison to the U.S. vaccine schedule, and by the CDC's own admission, the study could not really provide any true conclusion as to whether or not a subset of the population--because of vaccine exposure to mercury or some other vaccine injury--developed autism.


• The second school of research has conducted so-called ``hard'' science; providing objective measures through laboratory and animal research. For example, Dr. Hornig at Columbia University replicated the thimerosal exposure in vaccines in a mouse study and discovered mice exposed to thimerosal had both behavioral and biological responses--displaying autism like behaviors and exhibiting white matter changes in the brain that were measurable. Other laboratory research has shown that thimerosal exposure affects the protective sheath of the neurofibrals in the brain as well as the IGF-I molecule. And Dr. Jill James at the University of Arkansas has shown that thimerosal exposure affects the methylation process--the mechanism used to regulate genes and protect DNA from some types of damage.


• The most recent hard science study to be published is from Dr. Burbacher, a leading expert on mercury, who investigated the different affect methyl mercury and ethyl mercury had on primates. He found that ethylmercury--the form of mercury in thimerosal--stays in the brain (doing more harm) than methylmercury.


• The bottom line is that mercury is a base element and the most toxic substance known to science outside of radioactive materials; and each of these hard science studies, and more, show that it is biologically plausible for mercury exposure in vaccines to cause the onset of autism and provide tantalizing pieces in the puzzle about how.


• My support for the link between thimerosal and autism, especially in open congressional hearings has caused many people to throw around the accusation that I am ``anti-vaccine.'' My response to that is that vaccines are the only medications that are mandatory for Americans to receive and as such we have an even greater obligation to ensure that they are as safe as possible. In addition, experience tells us that, as with any other epidemic, while there may be underlying genetic susceptibilities, there usually is some type of environmental trigger as well, such as a virus, fungus, exposure to heavy metals, pollutants, or whatever. There has never, to the best of my knowledge, been a purely genetic epidemic. So, genetics alone simply cannot explain how we went from 1 in 10,000 children with autism spectrum disorders 20 years ago to 1 in 150 today.


• No one has ever identified a positive health benefit to mercury in the human body. Thus, it was sound public health policy to eliminate mercury from thermometers, blood pressure gauges, light switches, cosmetics, teething powder, horse liniment, hat-making materials, smokestack emission, and mining operations. It would also be sound public health policy to eliminate mercury from all vaccines.


• But Madam Speaker, getting the mercury out of all vaccines is only the first step. We also have a responsibility to help all of the children who have already been injured by mercury in vaccines. That is why the outcome of the Omnibus Autism Hearing is so critically important. In the 1980s, Congress creating the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to shield medical professionals and vaccine manufacturers from liability if an individual suffered an adverse event from receiving vaccines. The compensation fund, which currently contains about $2.5 billion, is financed by a tax on pediatric vaccines. We created VICP to protect the vaccine supply and to insure that all who were injured by a vaccine would receive compensation in what was supposed to be a no-fault, easy to use manner. Congress intended for families to be compensated quickly and fairly; and when the evidence was close as to whether or not the medical condition in question was vaccine related or not--as is the case with thimerosal--the court should always err in favor of the injured. But over the years the system has broken and what was supposed to be quick and fair has become slow and contentious; which is why today 4,800 families are fighting in court to be heard. They have waited a long time for their day in court and I am pleased that the court is providing the transcripts online quickly and that audio streaming on the internet is being provided for the thousands of families who are not able to travel to Washington and actually be in the courtroom during the proceedings.


• As the Omnibus hearings proceed, I hope that all of the evidence regarding vaccine injury will be received by the courts and given a full and fair review. I believe the families of these autistic children deserve to be compensated for their vaccine injury as Congress intended when it created VICP. I believe the science is there to prove this case and I am hopeful that the court will agree and at the end of this arduous process these 4,800 families will finally get justice.

Autism, Vaccines, Biomed and Lisa Sykes on Nightline Tuesday

Our own Lisa Sykes and her son Wesley will be featured on ABC News Nightline, tomorrow Tuesday night.

Why Are They Afraid to Look?

Why Are They Afraid to Look?
By Anne McElroy Dachel
amdachel@msn.com

Last week in Washington, DC, parents got a chance to present their side alleging that vaccines caused their child's autism. This is the most heated medical controversy in the nation and it has no signs of going away.

Part of the reason the debate is guaranteed to continue is because of what officials can't tell about us about autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has downplayed autism at every opportunity. It is infuriating to parents who have no reasonable explanation for why their child has autism and who are going broke paying for therapy and treatment to continually hear about what the CDC doesn't know. They don't know the cause or the cure for the disorder. They don't even know if there are more kids with autism, despite counting affected children for the last ten years. Federal officials are convinced of only one thing: Vaccines don't cause autism.

The CDC has their studies as proof of their claim, but these are rife with charges of manipulated data and conflicts of interest that reduce them to the "cigarette science" used to disprove that smoking caused lung cancer half a century ago. An official Institute of Medicine Report in 2004 settled nothing and the battle continues now in federal claims court in Washington, DC.

According to the media, the parents have no case and if they win, it won't be because they had any real proof of their claim, just that they managed to sway the minds of the three masters on the panel with their story of personal tragedy. For the public watching the coverage, it's unprecedented. The parents presented their case last week, but almost all the major news stories already had the verdict announced.

On Monday June 11th, NBC News had Pete Williams confusing the MMR vaccine with thimerosal-containing vaccines, yet adamant that "repeated studies have found no evidence linking autism to the vaccines."

Gardiner Harris at the New York Times that day also told us, "Every major study and scientific organization examining this issue has found no link between vaccination and autism but the parents and their advocates have persisted. " His story was picked up by other big city papers.

Newsday conclusively stated, "Large scientific studies have found no association between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal."

Tuesday, June 12th, ABC News earned the week's prize for saying that science doesn't support a link in more ways and with more experts than any other news source:

Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch, professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Brownsville:

"Awarding a claim would fly in the face of reason and science."

Dr. Robert Schooley, professor of medicine and head of infectious diseases at the University of California at San Diego: If parents win it "would only further increase the cost of vaccines and lead to worsening of the public health."

Dr. Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington D.C.:

"Focusing on vaccines is really misplaced energy."

Dr. David Witt, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco:

"My personal opinion is that if there is a victory, it is a sad comment on how energy can be diverted from real health issues and causes, to faddish beliefs and diverted angst toward a handy target,"

Dr. Pascal James Imperato, chairman of preventive medicine and community health at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center:

"The scientific evidence to date does not support their claim."

If names of prominent institutions and well-credentialed experts could have settled the issue, that ABC News story would have done it. There didn't seem to be any scientist or doctor worth quoting on the parents' side, or maybe ABC News is so convinced about who's right that they didn't bother to look.

One has to wonder how the claims of 4,800 parents ever made it to federal court when it seems there is nothing to support their side.

As the week wore on, the coverage droned on. A Washington Post story on June 16th reported , "To date, no major studies have shown any connection between vaccines and autism, and the Institute of Medicine has rejected any causal relationship."

The Albuquerque Tribune reported, "Every major study and scientific organization examining this issue has found no link between vaccination and autism,"

The San Francisco Chronicle ran the story, The Truth About Autism in which we were told by Dr. Rahul K. Parikh that "large, well-conducted studies have shown no link between thimerosal and autism."

Sunday, June 17th, the Boston Herald published an editorial, Autism suit puts others at risk. There the unnamed writer dismissed the parents' case as absolutely without merit. "We are aware of nothing that justifies changing the conclusion of a special committee of the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, three years ago: 'The body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism,' and ditto for vaccines containing the preservative in question, thimerosal. In plain English, children get autism at the same rate whether vaccinated or not, whether the vaccine contains thimerosal or not. The committee could find no evidence to support various postulated mechanisms by which autism might result from vaccination."

Monday, June 18th ABC Nightly News ran a story about how the autism controversy is affecting the Wright family. The founders of Autism Speaks and their daughter Katie epitomize how deep the divide is. ABC News of course had to note in the report that with regard to vaccines causing autism, "There is no scientific evidence that is the case. None."

Every time I hear that pronouncement I want to shout, "How can you defend injecting mercury into children when it was never tested and approved by the FDA before it was put into use?" I've asked that question of countless reporters and no one has ever answered it.

These news reports all week sounded like press releases for those with everything at stake in the fight and not objective journalism. Readers would sadly come up empty if they were to search for major stories quoting any of the expert witnesses for the parents. What's implied of course is that there were none. It seemed as if news outlets were beating themselves over the head trying to put the claim that vaccines cause autism on a par with the flat Earth theory.

It was never noted in these articles that if the parents were proved right and the explosion in the autism rate is connected to the coincidental increase in the childhood vaccine schedule, especially the increase in mercury-containing vaccines, this will go down as the worst medical mistake in history. The implications are enormous.

On June 15th, CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson posted an online article, Autism: Why The Debate Rages. She outlined the suspicions, the obfuscation, and the denials that parents have had to deal with in this issue. This argument is never going quietly away no matter how many newspapers and TV networks find willing experts to tell the public that injecting mercury into children hasn't hurt them.

This week David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm had a perfectly timed piece on the Huffington Post. In Tired of Autism Yet? he tells us this war will wage on until one side concedes and he proposes a logical way to settle things. This suggestion has come out before and it would seem a simple solution: Compare vaccinated and unvaccinated children of the same birth cohort who were born at the time of the greatest mercury exposure in the vaccine schedule.

Dan Olmsted has already shown us that it's possible. He found unvaccinated Amish and he found unvaccinated kids in a medical group in Chicago. He also found no autism in those groups and that may be why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't jumped at the chance to settle this heated issue once and for all.

David Kirby says he'd welcome such a study. "If the drug companies, and the Bush Administration, and Congress, and the public health establishment, are so very confident in the total safety of all childhood vaccines (and their components, including mercury), then why would they reasonably object to such a study." This may become the rallying cry of thousands of parents: "Why are they afraid to look?"

Parents of autistic children see officials paralyzed in addressing autism. They will only continue to demand this issue be dealt with openly and fairly. There is no patience left with those who can only come up with new ways of repeating the same tired claims that have been around for years.

Autism can't continue to be referred to as a some mystery or puzzle while we pretend that one in every 150 children has always had this disorder. It's bankrupting families and school districts. I personally know the autism controversy isn't going away because there are now far too many parents who are devoting their lives to public recognition of the disaster.

Marc Joseph Does My Job For Me

After hearing Charlie Gibson repeat the "No proof of a link" lie, adding an emphatic, "NONE" for good measure, I sat down to pound out another rebuttal suggesting he go read the 1000 pages of expert testimony from scientists during the trial last week. Fortunately Mr. Joseph did it for me:

The Un-Truth About Autism

Thank you Marc. Now I can go put my kids to bed.

NYT: Katie "Denigrating", Wrights "Sympathetic", Autism Speaks "World-Class"

Today in a front page article on the problems at Autism Speaks and the division in the Wright family, the New York Times lives up to its reputation among autism parents as the most biased media outlet in autism reporting today.

As usual, there is much wrong with this article. Here are the highlights.

First, the NYT reports that Autism Speaks is a “Big Tent” organization. The Wright’s may have intended AS to be a “Big Tent” organization, but it is not. Proponents of vaccine safety and biomedical intervention are not welcomed in the tent any more than Katie is, now that she questions the AS line of research. Go ask the other organizations and they will tell you their stories.

[See below, NYT did not get any $ for this ad]
Next, I will start with the day before the article came out. Sunday June 17th Autism Speaks ran a full page ad in the NYT. I called the NYT and found that it costs between $120,000 and $150,000 to run such an ad in their paper. This was done the day before publishing this article that is heavily weighted toward the Wrights and AS, and against Katie and the multiple autism organizations and bloggers that support her position, which are apparently so unimportant that they do not even merit being named, much less their specific concerns even listed.



And here we are back at the same conflict of interest question that I have been harping on all week. How do we accept network news “expert doctors” claim that vaccines are not linked to autism, when those making the claims have ties to the pharmaceutical industry that will be libel if there is a link, and when the commercial immediately following the interview is a prescription drug ad? How do we take the NYT’s word for it when Bob and Suzanne gave them six figures while the interview process was taking place?

Seriously?

[Anon. commenter reports that, "The NYT ad you are talking about is an Ad Council public service announcement and the space to publish it would have been donated by the NYT. No AS $$$ would have been used for publishing this ad."

When I called the NYT this morning they quoted me $150,000 with 20% discount for non-profits and I specified autism.

Checking...]

[Just talked to a nice lady at the Ad Council who works on the AS campaign and she reports that the NYT got no money for the ad. The space was donated. That said, conflict of interest accusation withdrawn. Sorry for the bad information.]

[Hey! I want $150,000 worth of free ad space to tell parents out there that "Autism is Treatable", a much more important message than, "Autism Exists". I am calling the Ad Council back.]

[Generation Rescue reports that they paid $125,000 for their full page NYT ad in 2005]

Ms. Gross and Ms. Strong’s article claims that:

"The Wright family’s fight has captured the attention of the bloggers, who are now questioning everything from its office lease to how it makes grants. The charity rebutted the bloggers’ accusations of improprieties in interviews with The New York Times, which examined its IRS forms and read relevant sections to Gerald A. Rosenberg, former head of the New York State attorney general’s charities bureau. He said nothing he reviewed was untoward.”

As one of the bloggers who is questioning what AS is doing, I am none to satisfied with this “nothing to see here” dismissal of the accusations. Have the Wrights or AS made a public rebuttal of the questions we have raised somewhere, and I have just missed it? Or does the NYT just feel that we should take their word for it that a sufficient rebuttal has been made privately and be satisfied with that?

I am not satisfied with that. I want AS to answer publicly as to why they believe that Park Avenue office space, a $340,000 salary, not paying the ‘autism mom’ director of Autism Everyday for her work, and their “world-class” science board giving millions of dollars in grants to themselves rather than researching the interventions that are actually healing the child whose illness inspired the foundation in the first place (The Wright’s own grandson) does not qualify as ‘untoward’. *(see note at bottom)

I looked up ‘untoward’:

un•to•ward (ŭn-tôrd', -tōrd') adj.
1. Not favorable; unpropitious.
2. Troublesome; adverse: an untoward incident.
3. Hard to guide or control; unruly.
4. Improper; unseemly.
5. Archaic. Awkward.

That pretty much fits the picture perfectly.

And since when is a formal assistant attorney general the one to consult on what is moral and ethical? He is the guy to tell you if something is illegal, but we have not made charges of any law being broken. This entire paragraph was a strawman argument.

Finally, the authors discuss the hurt feelings at Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks' 'feelings were hurt' by Katie when she said that it is time for the old guard to allow the research to shift to environmental causes and treatments? Again… Seriously??

Note that the response was not, "No they don't need to shift because the genetic course is resulting in assistance to those with autism and here is how..."

Note that the response was not, "Yes it is time to shift, and here is where we are going to make changes..." The answer was "We are offended at your remarks".

I have seen this happen in several places I will label it "The Offense Gambit". [It is probably a recognized logical fallacy with an actual name. If you know what it is, let me know.] It comes in handy when you run out of counter arguments.

Taking offense at comments is what Thomas Verstraeten did when he ran out of ways to defend his terrible epidemiological study against the legitimate critique that was offered.

Here is a little secret about us autism parents. People who try to use The Offense Gambit on autism parents need to understand that it does not work on us. When you get offended, here is what we are too polite to say at the moment:

We don’t care. Either you are guilty of the accusation, in which case we want you to own up to it and fix it so we can get back to helping out kids; or you are not guilty and we will happy accept a legitimate defense of the claim and apologize for our error and get back to helping out kids. Pick one or the other but don't waste our time being offended. We are in the fight of our lives.

Are we to believe that it is reasonable NOT to change the direction of research because even suggesting it will hurt the feelings of wealthy and powerful board members and researchers? Seriously?

I am a family therapist, so I am about the last person who thinks that hurt feelings should be ignored; especially in a broken family. Feelings are important. But there is a time and a place for dealing with feelings. That place is not in a discussion determining where millions of dollars in research funding for a disastrous childhood epidemic will go.

The reason for all the fractiousness and contention in the autism community is because, flat out, parents of autistic kids are sick of being lied to. We have seen the truth with our own eyes and all the lipstick in the world is not going to pretty up that “no vaccine link, no cure, must be genetics” pig enough for us to kiss it the way AS, the CDC and the NYT want us to.

Are you sick of the autism arguments? All of them? Are you ready for healing?
Then see part 2 of this piece coming up on The Rescue Post.

PS. And who the hell are "The Mercurys"? Sounds like a band. Am I one of "The Mercurys"? Is this an NYT invention, because I have never heard it before? Neither had Dan Olmsted when it was brought up to him on C-SPAN today.

*NOTE* Last week Dr. Kreigsman testified at the hearings about something good and constructive that AS did for our kids in regards to advancing the medical communities understanding of our kids GI problems and establishing a consensus on how they should be treated. This is huge and wonderful. This is a great example of the kind of good that AS could do if they wanted to. I am all for giving credit where credit is due and will be writing a full piece on this.

Autism Debate Strains a Family and Its Charity

The New York Times
By JANE GROSS and STEPHANIE STROM
Published: June 18, 2007

A year after their grandson Christian received a diagnosis of autism in 2004, Bob Wright, then chairman of NBC/Universal, and his wife, Suzanne, founded Autism Speaks, a mega-charity dedicated to curing the dreaded neurological disorder that affects one of every 150 children in America today.

The Wrights’ venture was also an effort to end the internecine warfare in the world of autism — where some are convinced that the disorder is genetic and best treated with intensive therapy, and others blame preservatives in vaccinations and swear by supplements and diet to cleanse the body of heavy metals.

With its high-powered board, world-class scientific advisers and celebrity fund-raisers like Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Simon, the charity was a powerful voice, especially in Washington. It also made strides toward its goal of unity by merging with three existing autism organizations and raising millions of dollars for research into all potential causes and treatments. The Wrights call it the “big tent” approach.

But now the fissures in the autism community have made their way into the Wright family, where father and daughter are not speaking after a public battle over themes familiar to thousands of families with autistic children.

The Wrights’ daughter, Katie, the mother of Christian, says her parents have not given enough support to the people who believe, as she does, that the environment — specifically a synthetic mercury preservative in vaccines — is to blame. No major scientific studies have linked pediatric vaccination and autism, but many parents and their advocates persist, and a federal “vaccine court” is now reviewing nearly 4,000 such claims.

The Wright feud has played out in cyberspace and spilled into Autism Speaks, where those who disagree with Katie Wright’s views worry that she is setting its agenda. And the family intent on healing a fractured community has instead opened its old wounds and is itself riven.

The rift began in April when Katie put herself squarely on the side of “The Mercurys,” as that faction is known, on Oprah Winfrey, where she described how her talkative toddler turned unresponsive and out-of-control after his vaccines and only improved with unconventional, and untested, remedies.

In a Web interview with David Kirby, author of the controversial book, “Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic,” Ms. Wright lashed out at the “old guard” scientists and pioneering autism families. If the old-timers are unable to let go of “failed strategies,” she said, they should “step aside” and let a new generation “have a chance to do something different with this money” that her parents’ charity was dispensing. [link to the interview at FAIR Autism Media]

Complaints poured in from those who said Ms. Wright’s remarks were denigrating.

So, in early June, Bob and Suzanne Wright repudiated their daughter on the charity’s Web site. “Katie Wright is not a spokesperson” for the organization, the Wrights said in a brusque statement. Her “personal views differ from ours.” The Wrights also apologized to “valued volunteers” who had been disparaged. Told by friends how cold the rebuke sounded, Mrs. Wright belatedly added a line saying, “Katie is our daughter, and we love her very much.”

Ms. Wright called the statement a “character assassination.” She said she had not spoken to her father since. Ms. Wright continues to spend time with her mother, but said they had not discussed the situation.

“I totally respect if her feelings were hurt,” Mrs. Wright said. “But a lot of feelings were hurt. A lot.”

Now other autism families who hoped to put their differences aside are shouting at each other in cyberspace. “Our struggle is not and should not be against each other,” said Ilene Lainer, the mother of an autistic child and the executive director of the New York Center for Autism.

The big tent approach of Autism Speaks appealed to Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius Radio and an early board member and contributor. “If you look at what projects Autism Speaks has funded, we are agnostic,” he said.

Mr. Karmazin, who also has an autistic grandson, added, “I never wanted to look my grandson in the eye and tell him I’m taking just one viewpoint or that I think it had to be genetic.”

Bob and Suzanne Wright are sympathetic to Katie’s plight, having witnessed Christian’s sudden regression and his many physical ailments, mostly gastrointestinal, which afflict many autistic children.

Some in the traditional scientific community worry that Autism Speaks has let Ms. Wright’s experience shape its agenda. She scoffs at the notion. Her parents, she said in a telephone interview, are “courageous” and “trying very hard,” but have been slow to explore alternative approaches.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
On Autism's Cause, It's Parents vs. Research (June 25, 2005)
Times Topics: Autism
Web Link
Autism Speaks Web Site

“You can say it and say it and say it,” she said. “Show me evidence that they’re actively researching vaccines.”

The Wright family’s fight has captured the attention of the bloggers, who are now questioning everything from its office lease to how it makes grants. The charity rebutted the bloggers’ accusations of improprieties in interviews with The New York Times, which examined its IRS forms and read relevant sections to Gerald A. Rosenberg, former head of the New York State attorney general’s charities bureau. He said nothing he reviewed was untoward.

The most distinctive aspect of Autism Speaks is its alliance with Autism Coalition for Research and Education, an advocacy group; the National Alliance for Autism Research, devoted to scientific research into potential genetic causes, with high standards for peer review; and Cure Autism Now, which has championed unconventional theories and therapies.

Which wing of the merged charity is ascendant? Some establishment scientists and parents now fear it is The Mercurys. They point to Cure Autism Now’s having more seats than the National Alliance does on the board of directors and the growing number of research projects that focus on environmental causes.

At a recent benefit gala, featuring Bill Cosby and Toni Braxton, some in the audience were surprised when Mr. Wright announced that all proceeds would go toward environmental research, which generally includes vaccines.

But a list of current research grants on the Autism Speaks Web site suggests that the Wrights, while walking a fine line, are leaning toward genetic theories.

From 2005 to 2007, the charity sponsored $11.5 million in grants for genetic research (compared with $5.9 million by all its partners between 1997 and 2004). It sponsored $4.4 million in environmental research (down from $6 million granted by the partners in the previous seven years). And many of the environmental studies explore what is known as the double-hit hypothesis: That the genes for autism may be activated in some children by exposure to mercury or other neuro-toxins.

Bob and Suzanne Wright say their two-year immersion into the world of autism has been an eye-opener, especially the heated arguments worthy of the Hatfields and McCoys.

Mrs. Wright is aware that the marriage of the Alliance and Cure Autism Now, for instance, could fall apart over opposing ideologies. “I’m not going to let it,” she said. “The truth will rise to the top.”

She is also aware that the rift in her own family needs repair: On Friday, her daughter posted a message on an autism Web site questioning their “personal denouncement of me.”

Yet Mrs. Wright is confident that “we’ll work our way through this.” Autism, she said “has done enough damage to my family. I’m not letting it do any more.”