Doctocracy: Paul Offit, Vaccine Millionaire, Wants Coerced Vaccination and Re-education Camps, I Mean, Vaccine Classes

“Offit suggests one way to raise vaccination rates is to make it harder for people not to get themselves or their children vaccinated. This could mean, for example, attending educational classes that teach the public what the safety profiles of different vaccines are, before they are allowed to opt out of vaccination. “You have to convince people that a choice not to get a vaccine is not a risk-free choice; it’s just a choice to take a different risk.” ”
- The Lancet

Vaccination is down. For Offit, that means a loss in future profits on his vaccine patents. The solution? Make people sit though vaccine propaganda lectures (complete with pictures of children with horrible rashes and in polio wards, I am sure) before they are ALLOWED not to vaccinate.

Because, you see, your body belongs to the government and you need their permission NOT to put mercury, aluminum, foreign DNA and viruses it in. After all, having a body, is like driving a car, you should have to take classes and pass an exam in order to use it... it is a privilege.

OH WAIT.... NO IT'S NOT.... YOUR BODY BELONGS TO YOU!!!!

A few months ago I heard a very accomplished physician, bemoaning the bias and pressure tactics at work in his own profession, refer to the public health power grab that is happening as a growing "Doctocracy". That immediately popped to mind when I read Offit's new ideas.

"Public Health" has gotten way out of hand. Doctors have always been accused of having a God complex, but few would actually go as far as suggesting that you legally need permission from them to exercise informed consent on whether or not you should take a pharmaceutical.

So if the health care bill passes, will they try to make full vaccination mandatory before you can access your health care coverage? Will only AAP member doctors be covered, and will AAP only allow docs that make their patients vaccinate according to the CDC schedule? Maryland already sent out letters to parents saying that they may be subject to imprisonment and child protective services intervention if they didn't vaccinate (and conveniently left out that Maryland is a philosophical exemption state and all they had to do what sign a form to be 'legal').

Now Offit has said, and Lancet has printed, that vaccines uptake should be coerced, so if this idea is accepted, what other methods of coercion will they come up with?

Say no to forced and coerced vaccination at the The American Rally for Personal Rights. Enough is enough.

The Lancet, Volume 375, Issue 9719, Pages 970 – 971, 20 March 2010

Experts concerned about vaccination backlash
Priya Shetty

Public health professionals are worried about the increasingly vocal anti-vaccination lobby in the USA and other western countries and their effect on immunisations globally. Priya Shetty reports.

Vaccination was one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. Its success might now be its undoing, however. Around the world, vaccination rates are dropping, and the unthinkable is happening: children are dying from childhood diseases like measles and pertussis.

This fall in immunisation has coincided with an increasingly vocal anti-vaccination movement. Public health now seems more at threat than ever by anti-vaccination messages, and the reluctance to vaccinate has been affecting rates of uptake for other vaccines such as that for influenza A H1N1. Health experts are now faced with the daunting challenge of fighting these groups.

Anti-vaccination groups have been around for as long as the practice of vaccination has. Arguably, health watchdogs and critics are a vital part of checks and balances on the medical industry. But scientists are starting to become increasingly concerned about the medical misinformation that some groups are spreading.

Organisations such as the US National Vaccine Information Centre (NVIC), the Coalition for SafeMinds, and Know Vaccines, either oppose universal vaccination (on the basis that “all children are different”) or emphasise the parents’ right to choose whether their children are vaccinated. In a statement on the website of the NVIC, one of the biggest groups in the USA, its co-founder Barbara Loe Fisher says: “If the State can tag, track down and force citizens against their will to be injected with biologicals of unknown toxicity today, there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the State can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.”

Many groups use as ammunition alleged links between vaccines and diseases such as autism, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis. “At the heart of the anti-vaccine movement is the notion that we are merely substituting infectious diseases with chronic diseases”, says Paul Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, PA, USA, and co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine.

Offit is one of several scientists who told The Lancet that anti-vaccination groups are unequivocally threatening public health, the evidence of which is the re-emergence of diseases that medical science had once beaten. “In 2008, we had a measles epidemic in the USA that was bigger than anything we had had in a decade, and that epidemic owed directly to the fact that some children had not been vaccinated. The parents were more afraid of the vaccine than they were of the disease, as a direct result of misinformation by anti-vaccine websites”, says Offit. Recent outbreaks of pertussis and haemophilus influenza B in undervaccinated communities in parts of the USA have resembled outbreaks from the prevaccine era, he says.

The geographical spread of people who refuse to vaccinate is important, says Saad Omer, assistant professor of global health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. If these people are uniformly spread out across an area, then the herd immunity stays intact. “However, our group and others have shown that vaccine refusal clusters geographically (and perhaps in social networks). Anti-vaccination groups often ‘think globally but act locally.’ Therefore, even if only ten of 100 people refuse vaccines but most of them live in the same neighbourhood, the likelihood of outbreaks increases due to local breakdown of herd immunity”, says Omer.

The movement has tended to be most active against childhood vaccines, with the most forceful rhetoric coming from parents who say that they do not want to expose their children to “unnecessary toxins”. One in eight American parents has refused at least one vaccine recommended for their children by their family doctor, according to a study published in Pediatrics this month, which surveyed more than 1500 parents of children aged 17 years or younger. But the reluctance to vaccinate is now permeating other areas of health.

According to the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), anti-vaccination messages have partly been responsible for the poor uptake of the H1N1 vaccine. As each influenza season progresses, “we don’t know whether the virus will stay the same”, says Giuseppe Cornaglia, former president of ESCMID, now at the Department of Pathology, University of Verona, Italy. “Because many people who could have been immunised haven’t had the vaccine, we are going to be starting from scratch”, he says.

Anti-vaccination groups have also affected the way governments responded to the pandemic, says Tevi Troy, the previous Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services. “The US decision not to use adjuvants, which effectively expands the supply of the vaccines, stemmed in part from concerns about how the anti-vaccine groups would have reacted to adjuvants. This could have been a problem had the H1N1 outbreak been more severe”, he says.

However ludicrous some of the anti-vaccination messages might seem to scientists, it is hard to deny that they do hold some traction with the public. Complacency about infectious diseases in the developed world, born out of the enormous success of vaccination, might be one explanation. “As the rate of illness goes down, and people mostly encounter real or perceived vaccine associated adverse events (instead of disease), there is a change in mental calculus in terms of benefit versus risk of vaccines”, says Omer.

The internet, and the forums and social networking sites it has spawned, has allowed anti-vaccination advocacy and influence to permeate deeper than ever. For example, says Omer, “a few years ago, vaccine-related rumours would be restricted to certain (mostly developed) countries. However, now a viral video made by a vaccine opponent in California can end up being discussed in an Indian web forum.”

The increase in anti-vaccination advocacy dovetails with a growing public mistrust of science that in recent years has manifested against genetically modified food, stem cells, and, most recently, climate change.

At last month’s yearly meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Ralph Cicerone, president of the US National Academy of Sciences, told delegates that recent controversies over climate change had damaged public faith in science. “There has been a widespread deterioration in the public’s attitude to science not only in the US but in many other countries in the past 3 months”, said Cicerone.

Against this background, global health experts are trying to ensure that people in developing countries can access life-saving vaccines.

Does anti-vaccination advocacy exist in these countries? “Unfortunately yes”, says Omer. “However, they are relatively less organised. Often there are entities that are organised for a different reason but end up providing a platform for opposing vaccines eg, religious and political groups in Nigeria.”

ESCMID’s Cornaglia says he is “seriously scared” about the prospect that anti-vaccination groups will take hold in the developing world. “Vaccines are the best weapon we have for the future.”

Not everyone shares this view. Offit still believes that there is much more public appreciation of vaccines in the developing world. Offit remembers taking the rotavirus vaccine to Nicaragua, and says “it was remarkable how happy people were to get a vaccine to prevent a common cause of diarrhoea and dehydration, and, at least in the developing world, death.”

Cornaglia was ESCMID’s communication officer at one time, and he believes that health agencies such as ESCMID and WHO “have to change their communication style”. “They have to address public health professionals like physicians and nurses, because if we don’t convince them, then we cannot convince the lay public at all”, he says.

“Public-health messages should be simple, honest and straightforward.” Sending a clear message, however scientifically erroneous it might be, is how the anti-vaccination movement scored big with H1N1, he says. Their message was simply: “vaccines are the devil”.

The anti-vaccination lobby has become so highly organised, says Adam Finn, professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, UK, that “they do pose a threat and need to be taken seriously. NVIC in the USA now has a yearly conference and is becoming a kind of institution…They are not amateurs—they are making careers out of this.”

Like Cornaglia, Finn says that the anti-vaccination lobby’s communication skills have a lot to do with their influence. “They, unlike most doctors and scientists, are always willing to talk to the media and are good at doing it.”

Offit suggests one way to raise vaccination rates is to make it harder for people not to get themselves or their children vaccinated. This could mean, for example, attending educational classes that teach the public what the safety profiles of different vaccines are, before they are allowed to opt out of vaccination. “You have to convince people that a choice not to get a vaccine is not a risk-free choice; it’s just a choice to take a different risk.”

HT:AVN

Thorsen Leaves The DSM V Team, Still Has Not Been "Found"

On Tuesday, Poul Thorsen "requested leave" from the DSM V committee that he was working on to redefine autism for the next iteration of the diagnostic bible of the psychology world.

"Home / Meet Us / Thorsen, Poul, M.D., Ph.D.
Thorsen, Poul, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Thorsen has requested work group leave of absence effective 3-16-10. For biosketch and disclosure information, please click here.
"

He resigned as an unpaid adjunct professor (just there to be an advisor to one student on his thesis) at Drexel last week. He resigned from Emory last month. He resigned from Aarhaus last year. Thorsen now has no professional ties that we know of.

But we know he has had contact with that world, if only to resign, since the story broke in Denmark more than a month ago.

The question is now, since yes, Thorsen is clearly running from facing the charges against him, is anyone chasing him?

He is being investigated in Denmark, and reportedly the police want to talk to him, but it does not seem that the police here are pursuing him. Has Denmark asked for our help in finding him and extraditing him? Have charges been filed against him in Denmark? It has been a full years since he left, and I am sure there investigation must have enough info to make an arrest at this point, or they would not be making allegations in the news papers.

So... Will anyone ACTUALLY pursue Thorsen, arrest him and put him on trial? CDC has got to hate that idea with the white hot heat of a thousand suns. Because all sorts of ugly things spill out in trials (gosh, I wonder what would come out of SCOTUS says we can sue Pharma for vaccine injury and DISCLOSURE starts opening long locked closets and basements).

Or will the US government have as much trouble putting their hands on Thorsen as they do the cause of autism, "We keep looking, and looking, and looking, and we really cannot turn up any information" - Julie Gerberding on the vaccine/autism connection.

We can find Saddam in a spider hole in the desert, but we can't find a professor who owns two homes, was attached to two universities and the DSM V panel?

My prediction? Thorsen will continue to be 'missing' and live his life, unpursued on a beach a beach somewhere with the two million dollars he procured. I will be shocked if he is ever held accountable in any measure.

Because really, to be blunt, he has CDC by the balls. He carried out a big hit for them, and if they don't cover his tracks, they go down with him.

Which proves that the old adage works in business as it does in love...

...If they will cheat with ya, then they will cheat on ya.

Lesson to Offit, Gorski, ECBT, AAP, Gerberding, Singer, Fombonne, Wiznitzer et. al. and all potential whistle blowers at Government and Pharma everywhere Feel free to rob CDC and affiliated institutions BLIND. They can't fight back, they can't send you to jail, they can't even Wakefield you.

Update: Got an email that he had been “sighted” in London on Feb 21-22.

Call for Congressional Hearings into CDC/HHS/VICP and Vaccine Shenanigans

From the Autism Action Network:

Vaccine “Court” Denies Justice to Vaccine-Injured Children

Take Action!

Mercury-Autism Link Not Found Because of Government Policy, not Science

Click on the Take Action link to send emails to your Representatives calling for Congressional hearings

In a decision released last Friday afternoon, the Autism Action Network, a founding member organization of the Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS), believes that the Special Masters of the Court of Federal Claims (the Vaccine Court) wrongly decided that mercury-containing vaccines do not cause autism. The decision was the last of three test cases selected to

"The government is completely inconsistent, we know from the Hannah Poling and the Bailey Banks cases that vaccines can cause autism," said John Gilmore, executive director of the Autism Action Network. "It is as if they are saying, 'Vaccines never cause autism, except when they do.'"

The Special Masters appear to have based their decisions on the government policy to protect the vaccine program rather than to fulfill their role to do justice by vaccine-injured children. In these three 'test case' decisions in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, petitioners William Mead, Jordan King and Colin Dwyer developed normally through the first year of life and then regressed into autism. They presented thousands of pages of scientific documentation and testimony. Their evidence showed that thimerosal, a mercury-laden vaccine preservative, more likely than not contributed to their autism.

"The deck is stacked against families in Vaccine Court. Government attorneys defend a government program, using government-funded science, before government judges. Where's the justice in that?" asked Rebecca Estepp, a CVS steering committee member and mother of a petitioner in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding.

"This has been a huge, but legally necessary, waste of time for the injured kids and their families," said Gilmore, "At least now we will have a chance in a real court where we have the basics rights denied in the Vaccine court."

Mercury is a known neurotoxin and that damages the developing brain and the immune system. All three boys' health improved through medical interventions to reduce mercury toxicity and immune dysfunction. Nonetheless, the Special Masters concluded that petitioners failed to meet their burden of proof, even though Health and Human Services (HHS), the respondent in the proceeding, offered no alternative explanation other than genetic predisposition.

The Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS) is an alliance of organizations dedicated to vaccine safety representing over 75,000 families. In recent letters to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of House and Senate Committees charged with oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Coalition called for hearings to investigate HHS, the CDC and other government agencies. Those federal agencies have failed to comply with the terms of the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act (VICA). Specifically they have failed to provide critical vaccine safety science, including from the taxpayer-funded Vaccine Safety Datalink, on thimerosal, autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Vaccine court decisions and revelations about Dr. Thorsen's actions only strengthen the Coalition's resolve in calling for immediate Congressional action to investigate vaccine safety - an issue that potentially affects every person in the country.

"We are confident that the truth will win out. We hope that Congress will intervene in what is clearly a miscarriage of justice to vaccine-injured children," said Jim Moody, an attorney and CVS steering committee member.

Please join the Autism Action Network and the Coalition for Vaccine Safety in calling for Congressional hearings in to the may failures of the federal vaccine program. To send an email to your Representative in the House and your to Senators please click on the Take Action

The VICP Autism Omnibus: How The Government is Killing the Vaccine Program

... and their credibility right along with it.

Today, yet again, the Kangaroo Court Vaccine Injury Compensation Program found that, surprise, surprise, vaccines don't cause autism. Exactly what we expected that their propaganda finding would be. (See the statements by the Coalition for Vaccine Safety, TACA, SafeMinds and the National Autism Association at the end of this post).

A few weeks back, after I posted my chart of the 20 billion dollar vaccine industry and their Wakefield Witch Hunt, Steve Kette, an autism dad, sent me a flow chart that he had done illustrating just how the public/private partnership (Government/Pharma/MSM entity here to for referred to as "The Empire") that is the US vaccine machine program is running itself into the ground.

We have had story after story illustrating the revolving doors between CDC and Pharma/vaccine industry, painful experiences on just how biased the media is, and now an admission straight from the horses mouth that the Secretary of Health, Kathleen Sebelius, is asking for the media for favorable coverage on the vaccine issue. The role of the MSM is to do critical analysis of the government, not hold Kathleen's purse.

And another thing that MSM outlets are supposed to do is compete with one another, right? Not so if you are all a part of one giant conglomco like the Tribune Company Corporation Incorporated. Here is an email exchange that took place today between the two notorious "reporters" Trine Tsouderos from the Chicago Tribune who has spent the last few months trashing our community, and Thomas Maugh from the LA Times who has spend the last few years trashing our community, (and who once responded to an earnest inquiry from me with the oh so respectful, "Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong!") collaborating on VCIP Ruling story today:

From: Tsouderos, Trine
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 12:39 PM
To: Dennis, Tami
Subject: Vaccine court story

Hi Tami,

Kaarin said you guys were going to write the vaccine court story – she said to let you know if you need anything, I’m happy to help. My autism sources have been contacting me all day wanting to talk about it, so it would be easy to get quotes.

Anyway, let me know! Best wishes,

Trine

Trine Tsouderos
Chicago Tribune
Science and Medical Reporter
312 222 5648 (w)
312 927 7986 (cell)
ttsouderos@tribune.com



From: Dennis, Tami
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 12:43 PM
To: Maugh, Thomas
Subject: FW: Vaccine court story

They did good stuff. Don’t hesitate to use them if you need comment.



From: Maugh, Thomas
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 2:47 PM
To: Tsouderos, Trine
Subject: FW: Vaccine court story

Please. Anything you can send me would be helpful. I'm gong to be listening in to the Every Child by 2 Press conference.

Thomas H. Maugh II
Science/Medical Writer
Los Angeles Times
202 West First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
310 649-1300



From: Tsouderos, Trine
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 1:02 PM
To: Maugh, Thomas
Subject: RE: Vaccine court story

Do you want me to get JB Handley at Generation Rescue? I have his email.



From: Maugh, Thomas
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 3:02 PM
To: Tsouderos, Trine
Subject: RE: Vaccine court story

Whoever you think would give a good, rational quote. Some of the responses on the PR newswire seem rather irrational.

Thomas H. Maugh II
Science/Medical Writer
Los Angeles Times
202 West First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
310 649-1300

FYI... For the "irrational" response on the newswire... see below. He means the responses from our community. So sweet how Trine and Maugh are there for each other in their battle against the forces of darkness vaccine injured children.

The whole circle is corrupt. Because there is no way to sue Pharma or the Government for vaccine damage, and certainly no way to sue biased media sources, the public is penned in and once vaccine injury takes place... well... to bad... you're screwed. You are also evil and want children to die from polio because you said out loud that a vaccine injured your child. You are also anti-vaccine, even if you continue to vaccinate your other children. (Did I mention desperate and scientifically illiterate? Also you probably have mental health issues. Oh... and Thomas Maugh thinks you are irrational.)

And the public is starting to get that this whole thing is bullshit. There has been speculation today as to why these VICP rulings were dropped on a Friday afternoon, burial ground for media pieces. Is it that the government gets that people think they are full of crappola and don't want these rulings to feed another cycle of vaccine program bashing? That is my guess. (Or are they trying to prevent more stories on Thorsen?)

Because, as Mr. Kette has illustrated below, the Government/Pharma/MSM shenanigans like the rulings today only serve to discredit themselves in the public's eyes, and add fresh, stinky fertilizer to the growing suspicion and distrust of the vaccine program.


The Life Cycle of a Failed Public Vaccination Program
(click to enlarge as pdf)



Kette is quite insightful in placing "Empire Paternalism" at the head of this death spiral, because it begins when the public forgets the profound axiom that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The warm feeling of security that comes from allowing yourself to believe that governments and billion dollar multinational corporations are earnest, righteous and working in your personal best interest is seductive. But Big Brother does not love you... he doesn't even know you. History ONLY illustrates the cycle of powerful governmental/corporate entities falling into corruption and either destroying society OR eventually being held accountable by the people either by the vote or by pitchfork. Powerful entities like these are only held in check when people turn their brains on, stop pretending that the government, or the corporation can fix our problems and heal the world.

Be clear, the corporation exists to make money, the government is not doing its job to hold the corporation accountable, and the media is not doing its job of holding them both accountable. They are all becoming very powerful and very rich by working together. The ONLY accountability for vaccine damage will come directly from the public saying "NO MORE!".

In vaccination, the government is not your friend.

Ronald Reagan's words were never truer than in the case of the story of American Vaccine Injury:

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'We're from the government and we're here to help.'"

UPDATE:

I, along with most of the people who have been writing about the VICP decisions, have been corrected by one of my readers who makes a good poing:

"...Anyone looking closely at the accumulative decision(s) of MEAD, KING and DWYER (plus, 595 Pages) will be hard pressed to find the Special Master(s) (Patricia Campbell-Smith, George L. Hastings, Jr., and Denise K. Vowell) saying, Thimerosal Does Not Cause Autism,  It's Official: Vaccines Don't Cause Autism or Vaccines Could Not Have Caused Autism, U.S. Court Says, and yet, incredibly, that's exactly what being broadcast and reported across the nation by the media.

What the Special Master(s) did say was the Petitioner(s) respectively failed to satisfy the burden of proof , CAUSE AND EFFECT, or by a PREPONDERANCE OF 'CAUSATION-IN-FACT" EVIDENCE under the articulated legal standards. Consequentially, all three petitioners failed to establish their clear entitlements to compensation.

In other words, it appears the full weight and burden of proof to establish a "link" between Autism and vaccines (including the preservative, Thimerosal) was entirely placed on the families of WILLIAM P. MEAD, JORDAN KING and COLIN R. DWYER.

Not an easy task for the family struggling with a sick kid at home, even the family was armed with equal resources and a league of brilliant litigators with law degrees from the Harvard School of Law.

These families faced lawyers hired by the vaccine makers with unlimited resources and truckloads of paper. No reasonable person would call that a fair fight.

There is a huge difference in saying Vaccines Could Not Have Caused Autism, and in saying, by the Preponderance of Evidence the families failed to prove a "link" to the satisfaction of the court, a story broadcasters and media unjustly prejudiced, be it out of ignorance or by intent..."
-Larry

Read the press released from:

The Coalition for Vaccine Safety:

Special Masters Protect Vaccine Program and Deny Justice to Vaccine-Injured Children

Mercury-Autism Link Not Found Because of Government Policy, not Science

Washington, DC - The Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS) believes that the Special Masters of the Court of Federal Claims wrongly decided that thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) do not cause autism. The Special Masters appear to have based their decisions on the government policy to protect the vaccine program rather than to fulfill their role to do justice by vaccine-injured children. In these three 'test case' decisions in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, petitioners William Mead, Jordan King and Colin Dwyer developed normally through the first year of life and then regressed into autism. They presented thousands of pages of scientific documentation and testimony. Their evidence showed that thimerosal, a mercury-laden vaccine preservative, more likely than not contributed to their autism.

"The deck is stacked against families in Vaccine Court. Government attorneys defend a government program, using government-funded science, before government judges. Where's the justice in that?" asked Rebecca Estepp, a CVS steering committee member and mother of a petitioner in the Omnibus Autism Proceeding.

It is universally accepted that mercury is a neurotoxin and can damage the developing brain and the immune system. All three boys' health improved through medical interventions to reduce mercury toxicity and immune dysfunction. Nonetheless, the Special Masters concluded that petitioners failed to meet their burden of proof, even though Health and Human Services (HHS), the respondent in the proceeding, offered no alternative explanation other than genetic predisposition. The Special Masters appear to be following a misguided government policy that if they acknowledge a mercury-autism link, parents will stop vaccinating their children.

The breaking story of fraud at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) involving Dr. Poul Thorsen, a leading member of a Danish research group that wrote studies supporting the CDC's claims that there is no mercury-autism link, casts further doubt on the Special Masters' decisions. The emerging evidence of Dr. Thorsen's embezzlement of $2 million, falsehoods about his employment, and serious questions about his research throw into question the validity of the science at the heart of HHS's claim of no mercury-autism link.

The Coalition for Vaccine Safety (CVS) is an alliance of organizations dedicated to vaccine safety representing over 75,000 families. In recent letters to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of House and Senate Committees charged with oversight of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Coalition called for hearings to investigate HHS, the CDC and other government agencies. Those federal agencies have failed to comply with the terms of the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act (VICA). Specifically they have failed to provide critical vaccine safety science, including from the taxpayer-funded Vaccine Safety Datalink, on thimerosal, autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.

The Special Masters' Omnibus Autism Proceeding decisions and revelations about Dr. Thorsen's actions only strengthen the Coalition's resolve in calling for immediate Congressional action to investigate vaccine safety - an issue that potentially affects every person in the country.

"We are confident that the truth will win out. We hope that Congress will intervene in what is clearly a miscarriage of justice to vaccine-injured children," said Jim Moody, an attorney and CVS steering committee member.

For more information on the Omnibus Autism Proceeding and vaccine safety, visit www.coalitionforvaccinesafety.org.

SafeMinds:

Government's Refusal to Fund Sound Science Stacks Deck Against Vaccine-Injured Children and Casts Doubt on the Integrity of the National Immunization Program says SafeMinds.


Washington, D.C. - March 12, 2010 - Autism and mercury advocacy organization SafeMinds regrets today's ruling by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims against three families who argued that vaccines which contained the mercury based preservative thimerosal contributed to their child's autism. The denial of reasonable compensation to families was based on inadequate vaccine safety science and poorly designed and highly controversial epidemiology studies supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the defendant in vaccine injury cases and is also responsible for carrying out the very vaccine safety research that should be integral to court decisions. This conflict of interest means the deck is stacked against families when they enter "vaccine court" and is yet one more reason for parents to doubt the integrity of the National Immunization Program.

"The government has its thumb on the scales of justice," said Laura Bono, parent of a vaccine injured child whose case was dismissed. "The Vaccine Injury Compensation Act passed by Congress in 1986 gave immunity to vaccine manufacturers and diminished the incentive to create safer products. Meanwhile, the law only gives the illusion that parents will have their day in court. The process is dysfunctional and many families will not see justice done."

Two HHS agencies, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are responsible for conducting vaccine safety research. Calling into question the scientific integrity of this research, a top CDC funded vaccine researcher, Poul Thorsen, responsible for the oversight of some of the most influential and controversial studies that have been claimed as evidence for no link between autism and thimerosal, is alleged to be under investigation when funding documents were found to be forgeries and millions of dollars were missing.

The director of the NIH institute in charge of autism studies has admitted that HHS has a conflict of interest in conducting autism-vaccine research due to the court cases. Last year, the government dominated Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee blocked critical vaccine-autism research studies from moving forward. "The government must fund an extensive vaccine safety program, including studies of the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children," stated Lyn Redwood, Vice President of SafeMinds. "Trust in the immunization program will continue to deteriorate without adequate and unbiased safety science."

Over 5,000 petitions have been filed in the vaccine court alleging that vaccines caused a variety of damage to the developing brain, immune system, and other metabolic pathways ultimately giving rise to a diagnosis of autism. Already, the court has awarded approximately $5 million in compensation for such cases, of which the Hannah Poling case is the most well-known. Many of these cases were quietly settled by the government so the public is not aware of them. Thus the court has already decided that vaccine injury is linked to autism.

Today's ruling against families demonstrates that the process is arbitrary. The question is not whether some cases of autism have a vaccine etiology. The government has admitted that. The only remaining question is how many kids have been injured - and what must be done now to treat these kids and prevent further injury.

SafeMinds wishes to recognize the bravery and perseverance of the families who now may face a lifetime of inadequate support for their disabled children.

The Coalition for SafeMinds (Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) is a nonprofit organization founded to investigate and raise awareness of the risks to infants and children of exposure to mercury from medical products, including thimerosal in vaccines. Further information about SafeMinds and the harmful effects from mercury exposure may be found at www.safeminds.org

Talk About Curing Autism:

Second Round of Autism Omnibus Court Cases Decided

Legal update By Rebecca Estepp, TACA.

March 12, 2010

Today in Washington DC, the Special Masters of the Court of Federal Claims released their decisions in the second round of Omnibus Autism Proceeding (OAP) claims. Once again, the OAP has failed children with autism that exhibited regression after their routine childhood vaccinations. All three cases: Mead, King and Dwyer were denied compensation.

First off, what is the OAP?

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-660) created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) in 1988. The VICP was created to ensure there was an adequate supply of vaccines and stabilize vaccine costs. Prior to this Act, there were only a handful of drug companies that producing vaccines. These companies faced lawsuits in civil court when their vaccines caused injuries. The drug companies lobbied for liability protection and the Act was passed.

A responsibility of the VICP was to establish and maintain an accessible and timely venue for individuals found to be injured by vaccines. The VICP was developed to be a no-fault alternative to the traditional tort system for resolving vaccine injury claims that provides compensation to people found to be injured by certain vaccines. The U. S. Court of Federal Claims that decides these claims in court is commonly referred to as vaccine court. Damages are paid to individuals from a government-maintained fund. Drug companies can no longer be sued in a civil court of law until the claim has gone through the VICP. For more information go to: HRSA Vaccine Compensation.

The VICP was set up for individuals who suffered an “on-the-table” vaccine injury. That is an injury that happened within minutes or hours after receiving a vaccine.

In 2001, parents of children with autism started filing claims with VICP. These claims were considered “off-the-table,” meaning the vaccine injury did not occur “on-the-table” or at the time of injection. In July of 2002, the Special Masters (the term used for “judges” in vaccine court) established the procedure for addressing these claims and the Omnibus Autism Proceeding (OAP) was born. It was at that time that parents started flooding OAP with claims. More than 5500 claims have been filed in the program to date.
For more information on the Omnibus cases & decision click HERE.

Who are the Mead, King and Dwyer families?

The Mead, King and Dwyer are families with many similarities. All three families have boys with autism. All of the boys in these cases are the same age, 12 years old. Each family reported that their sons developed typically during the first year of their lives and then suffered a regression after their routine pediatric vaccines were administered. William Mead and Jordan King are both from Portland, Oregon while Colin Dwyer is from Queens, New York. Interestingly, William Mead was developing so typically that he was a model for Pottery Barn.

TACA would like to take this time to recognize the extraordinary efforts of the Mead, King and Dwyer families along with their attorneys. These brave families put their children on the line for more than 5500 children in the OAP. Their attorneys fought a brilliant battle in a very rigid court. These courageous families and their attorneys are truly our heroes.

When were these cases heard? What was the causation theory behind these cases?

These cases were heard in May and July of 2008. These three families were chosen as test cases number four, five and six in the OAP under the causation theory number two. Theory number two states that the thimerosal contained in the vaccines these boys were administered was the sole reason for their injuries.

Weren’t there decisions in the OAP last year? What was the causation theory in those OAP Cases?

Last February the same court denied compensation to the first three OAP cases (Cedillo, Hazlehurst and Snyder) which had a different theory of causation. Those cases theorized that the first three children had suffered an injury due to the combination of thimerosal containing vaccines and damage done from the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Read more information on the first OAP cases at TACA HERE.

Analysis of all OAP decisions

Hindsight is always 20/20. The analysis I wrote for the first round of OAP decisions was far too optimistic. I mistakenly theorized that the reason the first verdicts took 19 months to conclude was due to a close call the Special Masters must have had when coming to their decisions. I no longer hold that opinion.

While I recognize that the Special Masters had the herculean task of sifting through thousands upon thousands of pages of evidence, I believe it took over a year for the Special Masters to carefully choose the language in their verdicts to send the message that the OAP will not award compensation to children with autism. The Vaccine Court seems to be more concerned about protecting the perception of safety in the current vaccine schedule than compensating the children who were harmed in the immunization program.

This opinion change was confirmed today when the Special Masters concluded that Mead, King and Dwyer families did not meet their burden of proof. I’d like to point out that the government did not offer any other explanation for these boys’ regressions, other than to claim that it was a vague, nonspecific genetic cause for which there was not a shred of evidence.

I attended the OAP hearings in 2007 and 2008. I was full of hope this was the venue that would finally lead to justice for vaccine-injured children. I was optimistic as I watched the parents testify and watched their dedicated attorneys fight for their clients. Unfortunately, I now view the OAP as a program where government attorneys defend a government program using government-funded science before government judges. This is hardly fair and I am afraid we never had a chance for justice for these children.

Is there any hope?

I know this all sounds very bleak. However, there are many reasons why there is still hope for children with autism who suffered vaccine reactions.

1. These three decisions will be appealed. The appeal process begins immediately in the OAP.

2. Bruesewitz v. Wyeth—On March 8, the Supreme Court voted in favor of hearing this vaccine injury case. The issue in this case is not whether or not the child was harmed by a vaccine, rather the Supreme Court will decide on whether or not parents have the right to sue a drug company outside of the VICP. Mary Holland, Esq. and Jim Moody, Esq. wrote a wonderful article on this upcoming case for the Age of Autism. Read more HERE.

3. Theresa Cedillo and Michael Cedillo v. Secretary of Health and Human Services—This amicus curae brief was filed in February backed by twenty-three autism organizations in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Read more HERE.

4. The above legal cases will take many months to move forward which allows more time for science to develop. This could possibly help our side of the argument.

5. The Dr. Poul Thorsen situation is still evolving. Dr. Thorsen was a lead scientist in the Danish studies conducted in 2003 that showed that vaccines and autism were unrelated. Dr. Thorsen is now missing with $2 million of Danish Universities’ money. Read more of this explosive story HERE.

6. The Hannah Poling and Bailey Banks cases. These two children with autism were awarded compensation for damage done to them during their routine childhood vaccinations. The difference for these two children was their cases were heard outside of the OAP and were compensated for conditions like seizure disorder and encephalopathy. Read more about Hannah Poling and Bailey Banks: Poling HERE and Bailey-Banks HERE.

7. One in four parents now believes in the autism/vaccination connection! And no wonder. There is substantial evidence that a susceptible set of children have reacted to their vaccines. The number of children with autism has been skyrocketing for years and there is still no explanation from the government or the medical establishment for the increase. Read more at CBS News HERE.

8. The newly formed Coalition for Vaccine Safety is spear heading many new vaccine safety initiatives including the call for Congressional Hearings on this topic. For more information on this coalition click HERE.

I ended last year’s decision analysis with “this fight is not over.” I feel even more devoted to that statement this year. While I do think the OAP is broken, needs reform and provides very little chance that any child will receive compensation from it, I don’t think the vaccine and autism connection issue is dead. This fight is far from over.

Rebecca Estepp is Media Relations Director for TACA.

NAA:

Justice Once Again Denied to Vaccine Injured Children

The National Autism Association is disappointed but not surprised by the decisions made public March 12, 2010 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in three thimerosal test cases. These decisions reflect the corruption of a broken system that is rooted in protecting the country’s vaccine program at all costs, and not in compensating children who have been injured by vaccines.

Ironically, it is the government’s negligence in maintaining proper oversight of vaccine safety issues, and then refusing to compensate those injured by vaccines, that is eroding public confidence in the vaccine program. Our government health agencies continue to demonstrate complete loyalty to a vaccine program known to have caused autism and other serious injuries to children.

Because these latest decisions in vaccine court are the end result of a corrupt legal process and a blatant disregard for vaccine safety, we are asking Congress to investigate the Department of Health and Human Services and its subordinate agencies for their role in overseeing vaccine safety issues. These agencies are charged by both federal law and ethical responsibility to ensure that vaccines are as safe as possible. To become a part of this crucial effort to hold federal health agencies accountable for vaccine safety, please visit NAA's Autism Action Center at http://naa.kintera.org/actioncenter.

Low level Hg and Autism: Mercury induces inflammatory mediator release from human mast cells

Mercury induces inflammatory mediator release from human mast cells

Duraisamy Kempuraj, Shahrzad Asadi, Bodi Zhang, Akrivi Manola, Jennifer Hogan,
Erika Peterson, Theoharis C Theoharides

Journal of Neuroinflammation 2010, 7:20 doi:10.1186/1742-2094-7-20

Abstract
Background: Mercury is known to be neurotoxic, but its effects on the immune system are less well known. Mast cells are involved in allergic reactions, but also in innate and acquired immunity, as well as in inflammation. Many patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have “allergic” symptoms; moreover, the prevalence of ASD in patients with mastocytosis, characterized by numerous hyperactive mast cells in most tissues, is 10-fold higher than the general population suggesting mast cell involvement. We, therefore, investigated the effect of mercuric chloride (HgCl2) on human mast cell activation.

Methods: Human leukemic cultured LAD2 mast cells and normal human umbilical cord bloodderived cultured mast cells (hCBMCs) were stimulated by HgCl2 (0.1-10 μM) for either 10 min for beta-hexosaminidase release or 24 hr for measuring vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and IL-6 release by ELISA.

Results: HgCl2 induced a 2-fold increase in β-hexosaminidase release, and also significant VEGF release at 0.1 and 1 μM (311±32 pg/106 cells and 443±143 pg/106 cells, respectively) from LAD2 mast cells compared to control cells (227±17 pg/106 cells, n=5, p<0.05). Addition of HgCl2 (0.1 μM) to the proinflammatory neuropeptide substance P (SP, 0.1 μM) had synergestic action in inducing VEGF from LAD2 mast cells. HgCl2 also stimulated significant VEGF release (360 ± 100 pg/106 cells at 1 μM, n=5, p<0.05) from hCBMCs compared to control cells (182 ±57 pg/106 cells), and IL-6 release (466±57 pg/106 cells at 0.1 μM) compared to untreated cells (13±25 pg/106 cells, n=5, p<0.05). Addition of HgCl2 (0.1 μM) to SP (5 μM) further increased IL-6 release.

Conclusions: HgCl2 stimulates VEGF and IL-6 release from human mast cells. This
phenomenon could disrupt the blood-brain-barrier and permit brain inflammation. As a result, the findings of the present study provide a biological mechanism for how low levels of mercury may contribute to ASD pathogenesis.

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Boy!

Happy 8th Birthday to my sweet, happy boy Chandler!




I love you forever!

The Autism File Magazine

I just renewed my subscription to Autism File Magazine. Do you subscribe? If not, you can do so here.

No Polly is not advertising with me, I just love her for her big brass ones in telling the British bullies to tell their story walking when they threatened to shut her mag down if she didn't tow the line like a good little vaccine injury denier. So buy a subscription for you and for your doctors office!

Ten Million Kroner, and Head of Denmark Autism Studies, Missing

THIS JUST IN....

Correction... turns out that this is not Madsen, it is Thorsen. So swap the names out in your head. Denmark research still remains crappy so no changes needed there.

AoA will be posting on it shortly.

Initial post:

Almost two million dollars is missing from Aarhus University, along with the lead researcher of the Denmark Autism studies on which the CDC has based their "no evidence of harm" opinion.

His name has not been used in the articles, but the head of the program that they seem to be referring to is Kreesten M. Madsen, MD.

Madsen was the lead author on the much disparaged "Denmark Studies", that our own pediatrician referenced when my husband asked, "are these vaccines safe?" to reassure that vaccines didn't cause autism. (Although he never mentioned autism, just asked if they were safe.)

Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism. Negative ecological evidence from Danish registry-data
Madsen KM, Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, Thorsen P, Plesner AM, Andersen PH, Mortensen PB.
Ugeskr Laeger. 2004 Sep 13;166(38):3291-3. Danish.

MMR vaccination and autism : what is the evidence for a causal association?
Madsen KM, Vestergaard M.
Drug Saf. 2004;27(12):831-40.

Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism: negative ecological evidence from Danish population-based data.
Madsen KM, Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, Thorsen P, Plesner AM, Andersen PH, Mortensen PB.
Pediatrics. 2003 Sep;112(3 Pt 1):604-6.PMID: 12949291

MMR vaccination and autism--a population-based follow-up study
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Olsen J, Melbye M.Ugeskr Laeger. 2002 Dec 2;164(49):5741-4. Danish. PMID: 12523209 [

A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism.
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Olsen J, Melbye M. N Engl J Med. 2002 Nov 7;347(19):1477-82.PMID: 12421889

Try as Madsen might... he just couldn't find a link between autism and vaccines. But then again, there's no money in finding a link between autism and vaccines... not when CDC is paying for your research. And it looks like Madsen may be just fine with placing money above ethics... and even the law.

And Madsen (if indeed, it is Madsen) apparently lied about his employment at a conference in Italy last year, claiming that he was still at Aarhus when he was not.

I have commented in the past on what a piece of junk the Madsen thimerosal study was, you remember, the one that docs use to say that autism rates shot up as mercury was removed from vaccines, so it actually might protect kids from autism?!? It is useless, as the second to last paragraph of the study tells the reader that the database used changed its inclusion criteria at the time thimerosal was removed and autism rates went up, then ignores that in the very next paragraph, the conclusion, that states that removing thimerosal was followed by an "increase in autism" (not an increase in the autism database, which had been changed from only tracking inpatient cases, to all cases in the country). This of course invalidates the whole study. And despite that fact, and that it was done with researchers that actually work for the country's only vaccine maker, Pediatrics published it, CDC extolled it, and my pediatrician used it guide Chandler's vaccinations.

The articles are from mid February, and I have not found any updated stories on this. Danish papers report that he is in the US, and and employed at (CDC stronghold) Emory University in Atlanta (apparently he has been for some time, while still at Aarhus, unbeknown to Aarhus, which is a no no), but his Linked In profile says that he is employed at Nycomed Pharmaceuticals in Zurich, Switzerland.

So will Aarhus confirm that this is Madsen? And where is Madsen? And where is the money? And why isn't the GMC up in arms about this dishonest researcher? And what does CDC think about all this? And what moron actually believes that giving children a neurotoxin at 25,000 times the concentration allowed in drinking water will protect the child from brain injury?

If anyone has any updates, or friends in Denmark that can help answer these questions... help us out with this one.

Update from a reader:

The CDC recruiting Madsen in 2001, email:

Dr. Simpson (CDC): "Did they [autism rates] increase after 1993??"

Dr. Madsen: "Yes but not very dramatically and there could be more reasons for that. First of all we had a change from ICD8 to ICD10 in 1994 and furthermore our outpatient clinics were registered in our surveillance from 1995."

On the irrelevance of Madsen's conclusions, if indeed they were valid in the first place:

"Because the pediatric vaccination practices of Denmark differed greatly from those of the U.S. during the study period, Madsen's conclusions, even if relevant to Denmark, were certainly not applicable to the U.S."

- Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 9 Number 3 Fall 2004

Two reports from the Danish media:

SWINDLE FOR MILLIONS AT AARHUS UNIVERSITY
Aarhus Stiftstidende
By Maja Nielsen and Morten Ravn, translated by Ulla Danielson
Wednesday February 10, 2010

A big research project has resulted in a deficit of 10 million crowns in the budget of Aarhus university.

Police are investigating the case as fraud while the university has cut its links to the chief-investigator from Aarhus, writes Danish Daily Aarhus Stiftstidende.

The Aarhus-based scientist left his job at the medical health faculty in March last year. After a short period, the university began to suspect something was radically wrong. The suspicion increased.

Accordingly the university in collaboration with Board of Science and Innovation reported the case to the police of Eastern Jylland.

Among other things the now disputed research project maps out the cause of autism. Since 2002, the project has received more than 80 millions crowns from the American board of health,the CDC.

The University of Aarhus is in the process of issuing a declaration to a lot of institutions about the tangled case.

In this communication the director of the university, Joergen Joergensen, underlines that the aarhus-scientist no longer is connected with the university.


Researcher employed in more than one place


“At the same time it has become clear that the resigned leader of the research project has been employed doubly.

Without the university’s knowledge, he has been a payed employee at the University of Emory in the USA while he was still employed in aarhus.

"Of course that is not acceptable,” says head of press for the rector at the university, Anders Corell, to Aarhus Stiftstidende.

He does not want to say anything about the amount of money the University is missing. Neither will Anders Corell comment on the information provided to the newspaper talking about a fraud involving 10 million crowns.

Police inspector Boerge Frandsen from Eastern Jylland’s police confirms, that there is a report. The police has started to investigate the case.

”Yes, it is about fraud”, the police inspector says to Aarhus Stiftstidende.

He is not able to confirm or deny size of the amount of money or the consequences.

But so far the disputed chief investigator has not been charged.


On the move in the USA


The newspaper has learned that the investigations are hampered because it has been very difficult to find the key figure in the case.

Aarhus Stiftstidende has also unsuccessfully tried to get a comment from the aarhus-based scientist, who has his private address in hoejbjerg (outside Aarhus).

After he left the medical health faculty in Aarhus he participated, among other things, at a conference in Italy.

On that event his papers erroneously said that he was employed by the University of Aarhus.

Aarhus Stiftstidende has spoken to several sources, who say that the scientist, who has a PhD, is at the moment is on the move in USA. They describe him as a Stein Bagger type (a Danish financial fraud) who is eminently clever at raising money from funds.

“He can open the doors to the great money tanks. But all projects all the time had to grow bigger and bigger. He succeeded in raising a huge amount of dollars. Rules however was something that existed for the sake of others – not for him,” it has been said, sounding characteristic.


mani@stiften.dk, mora@stiften.dk

Researcher accused of cheating Uni out of millions
The Copenhagen Post
February 11, 2010

A former lead research suspected of fraud now living in US and has not been questioned by police.

Aarhus University has confirmed that a former head of research at its North Atlantic Neuro-Epidemiology Alliances department has committed possible fraud amounting to 10 million kroner against several of the school’s research partners, reports Århus Stiftstidende newspaper.

Until last March, the man was head of an 80 million crown joint research project between the US government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of Southern Denmark and Aarhus University.

Jørgen Jørgensen, Aarhus University’s rector, confirmed police charges have been filed against the former researcher and that it concerns a sum of around 10 million crowns.

Numerous applications for funding for the research were apparently signed with forged signatures.

The scientist – who is reportedly living and working in Atlanta in the US – resigned from his post last March. But he allegedly continued to pass himself off as the head of the international project, which dealt primarily with research into the possible causes of autism.

Aarhus University also claims that the researcher took another permanent position at Emory University in the US while still heading the Danish-based project.

Danish police said they were still investigating the case but had not yet sought cooperation from US authorities in the matter. They also have yet to question the man in connection with the case.

‘When we’ve gone through everything then we’ll decide whether there are sufficient grounds to charge the researcher or any others for forgery or fraud,’ said Børge Frandsen of East Jutland Police.

The American Rally for Personal Rights

See you in Chicago!


American Rally for Personal Rights:
May 26 Grant Park Chicago

We believe in the rights to life, liberty, and personal security for ourselves and our children.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Grant Park, Downtown Chicago

www.americanpersonalrightsrally.org

www.americanpersonalrights.org

We demand the universal human rights standard of informed consent for all medical interventions. Compulsory vaccination cannot be legally and morally justified.

We affirm...the sanctity of personal space the right to be left alone, and the freedom to make personal health care decisions guided by the professionals of our choosing.

We invite all people, families and organizations committed to protecting these fundamental rights to stand with us in downtown Chicago on May 26, 2010 at our inaugural rally, and to work with us after the event to support grassroots advocacy, education, and leadership in defense of our personal – individual, legal, moral, religious, civil, and human -- rights.

The American Personal Rights Rally coincides with Autism One and Generation Rescue's conference, Autism Redefined, May 24th through May 30, 2010 at the Westin O'Hare in Chicago. Please visit the Autism One site devoted to conference information.

Anatomy of a Witch Hunt

Much has happened in the last few weeks surrounding Andrew Wakefield, and I have not been available to write about it. It has been truly frustrating to see this story reported as if the GMC hearing was legit and The Lancet as if it was a respectable and unbiased publication, rather than the dog fight between corporate interests and safety advocates that it actually is. Was the fact that 21 autism organizations in the US and UK filed perjury charges against the head of the Lancet for lying about Wakefield's disclosures of his conflicts in the GMC hearing not relevant to the fact that the Lancet retracted Wakefield's article the following week? Apparently the press didn't think so.

Also fascinating that they have tried to portray Wakefield as the guy that invented the autism/vaccine connection, despite the fact that Leo Kanner reported that one of his first 11 cases in the 1940's was a regression following a smallpox vaccine, the VCIP has been paying autism cases for 25 years, and I first heard about the connection in my undergrad psych program in 1988 at George Mason University, so that they can use this GMC hearing to declare the vaccine controversy over. (I have forty or so studies on my "no evidence of any link" page supporting the vaccine/autism connection and I have never even had Wakefield's MMR paper up there.

Fortunately AOA has been all over this.

Today I had an hour and started mapping out the conflicts on interests in all of the forces that are posing as unbiased sources and trashing Wakefield and his work by charging him with conflicts of interest. The irony is lost on too many people.

It is a work in progress. One of my friends in the UK is looking it over to help fill in more of the blanks, so it will be updated.

A few notes not on the chart. Judge Nigel Davis is the judge who ruled that families trying to sue GlaxoSmithKline for the damage done to their children by the MMR would not be given legal aid to do so, ending MMR litigation in the UK. His brother is Sir Crispin Davis, who was the CEO of Elsevier, publisher of The Lancet and was also on the board of GlaxoSmithKline. Additionally... Paul Offit is an industry spokes person for Merck, that was too long to fit into the chart, so I used the more pejorative, "lap dog". And there is word out this afternoon that another Elsevier journal may be trying to bury the Hep B monkey study that Wakefield worked on, although no word from the journal on this yet.

Look at the energy flow in this thing... Props to Dr. Wakefield and his compadres for not backing down under this insane amount of industrial pressure. I mean just look at this billion dollar medical/pharma/media/(arms sales?) unprincipled conglomco machine! Eliot Ness wasn't even up against this big of a beast when he took on the mob. And I have not even included any of the public health infrastructure, or the GMC in this flow chart.

Keep your head up England, and understand that you are under a blitz. They are now officially throwing everything they have at you and they are only exposing their own corruption. Never, never, never, never give up.

Problem for the beast is... they are using all their ammo, and six months from now, nothing will have changed for them. Because the public knows they are full of crap.

click to see it full size.



UPDATE:

A friend in the UK brought something interesting to my attention. It is a flow chart done by a journalist in 1994 on how money and influence flowed around the Burroughs Wellcome pharmaceutical company and all it's satellites (foundations, trusts, doctors, medical institutions, universities, medical journals and even regulatory agencies). One of which is the Wellcome Trust.

I invite to you take a look at the amazingly, unbiased and completely free of conflicts of interesty type research that Wellcome is funding, by reading my piece on Professor Alan Emond's study that shows that kids with autism don't have bowel problems. He claims no conflicts of interest, but fails to mention that he is on the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (Britian's version of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.)

The chart certainly enhances the understanding of how the machine works, but the two facts that make this flow chart so much more interesting is that Burroughs Wellcome of course became Glaxo Wellcome, which became GlaxoSmithKline, who makes the MMR; and that the journalist that created this chart was Brian Deer.



UPDATE: One commenter was looking for a source for my 20 billion dollar figure.

Drugmakers, Doctors Rake in Billions Battling H1N1 Flu
Swine Flu Is Bad for Victims, But Good for Businesses That Cater to Expanding Market
By DALIA FAHMY
Oct. 14, 2009
ABC News/Money

Americans are still debating whether to roll up their sleeves for a swine flu shot, but companies have already figured it out: vaccines are good for business.
h1n1.

Drug companies have sold $1.5 billion worth of swine flu shots, in addition to the $1 billion for seasonal flu they booked earlier this year. These inoculations are part of a much wider and rapidly growing $20 billion global vaccine market.

"The vaccine market is booming," says Bruce Carlson, spokesperson at market research firm Kalorama, which publishes an annual survey of the vaccine industry. "It's an enormous growth area for pharmaceuticals at a time when other areas are not doing so well," he says, noting that the pipeline for more traditional blockbuster drugs such as Lipitor and Nexium has thinned.

As always with pandemic flus, taxpayers are footing the $1.5 billion check for the 250 million swine flu vaccines that the government has ordered so far and will be distributing free to doctors, pharmacies and schools. In addition, Congress has set aside more than $10 billion this year to research flu viruses, monitor H1N1's progress and educate the public about prevention.

Drugmakers pocket most of the revenues from flu sales, with Sanofi-Pasteur, Glaxo Smith Kline and Novartis cornering most of the market.

But some say it's not just drugmakers who stand to benefit. Doctors collect copayments for special office visits to inject shots, and there have been assertions that these doctors actually profit handsomely from these vaccinations.

It is a notion that Dr. Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Practitioners, says is simply not true.

"According to most of the physicians I have talked to, the administration of these vaccines is done for the community's benefit as opposed to anything that helps profit," she says. Heim adds that even though doctors will not have to shell out for the H1N1 vaccine, they will bear the usual costs associated with storage and administering the shots.

"There is an administration fee, for the costs that you can't get reimbursed through Medicare or Medicaid," she says. "This is usually less than, or right at the break-even point."

Still, pharmacies also charge co-payments or full price of about $25 to those without insurance and often make more money if patients end up shopping for other goods.

"Flu shots present a good opportunity to bring new customers into our stores," says Cassie Richardson, spokesperson for SUPERVALU, one of the country's largest supermarket chains. Drawing customers to the back of a store, where pharmacies are often located, offers retailers a chance to pitch products that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Even companies outside of the medical industry are benefiting: the UPS division that delivers vaccines in specially designed containers, for example, has seen a bump in business.

New Entrants in Flu Shot Business

The intensifying competition has irked some doctors.

"Retailers and other non-medical professionals have siphoned off the passive income that once helped to cover medical overhead," says Dr. Caroline Abruzese, an internist in Atlanta. "The larger retail chains can invest up front in large volumes of vaccine at low prices, and market to customers already in their stores."

The promise of profits has attracted new players into the business. Some of the world's largest drugmakers, who in the past avoided the vaccine market because of its limited scope -- its not easy to convince healthy adults to get a shot for measles -- are now jumping into the fray.

Last month alone saw three large vaccine deals. Abbott Labs bought a Belgian drug business, along with its flu vaccine facilities, for $6.6 billion. Johnson & Johnson invested $444 million in a Dutch biotech firm that makes and develops flu vaccines. Merck, which already makes vaccines for shingles and other diseases, struck a deal to distribute flu shots made by Australian CSL.

Smaller biotechs are also angling for a slice of the action, making vaccines one of the fastest-growing areas of research in the biotech industry.

Large and small drugmakers are drawn to the business largely because of scientific advances that promise to radically expand the range of health problems that vaccines can address. In addition to preventing childhood diseases such as measles and polio, vaccines can now also ward off cervical cancer, and researchers are working on vaccines for HIV and tuberculosis.

Scientists believe they can create therapeutic vaccines than treat diseases such as Alzheimers and diabetes after they have set in. (At least one company is betting on a vaccine that helps cigarette smokers quit.)

"These innovations broaden the market potential for vaccine makers and partly explained the renewed interest by drugmakers," says Anthony Cox, a professor at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business who specializes in the marketing of medical products.

But Mark Grayson, a spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents the country's leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, says that drugmakers are also compelled by the government to join efforts to ensure that there is enough vaccine to go around.

"Because of national security implications, the government felt that they needed to encourage and ask [vaccine manufacturers] to move much quicker," he says. Grayson adds that vaccine manufacturers also face significant costs; aside from the expense of fitting a new vaccine into a tight production schedule, drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur were forced to acquire new vaccine production facilities in recent years to keep up with demand.

Alternatives to Vaccines Are Few

While this promise of new treatments for painful diseases brings hope to many, vaccines continue to attract critics. The National Vaccine Information Center, a non-profit advocacy group, is at the forefront of a movement demanding that vaccines be tested more thoroughly before hitting the market. Although there has been little evidence to support their claim, detractors -- including the comedian Jim Carrey -- believe that vaccines are at least partly to blame for the sharp rise in autism in recent decades.

The swine flu vaccine has also attracted its share of critics. Frank Lipman, a New York-based doctor who specializes in a mix of Western and alternative medicine, points out that the swine flu is rarely fatal and that it's too early to tell if it's safe because it hasn't been widely tested.

Others argue that Americans have little choice. The cost of a widespread pandemic, similar to Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918, which killed 675,000 Americans (and 50 million worldwide), would be devastating. The Trust for America's Health, a Washington-based non-profit organization, estimates that a severe pandemic could push down GDP by more than 5 percent and cost Americans $683 billion.

"We're not seeing a pandemic that's this severe," says Jeff Levi, director of Trust for Americas Health. "We've dodged a lot of bullets."

Wade Rankin Speaks Wisdom to the Trib

I wonder if Wade and I have ever disagreed on anything.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE TRIB

I wish he would write more so I didn't have to as much.

Scott Brown for Senate in MA, He Supports Those with Autism

UPDATE: Scott Brown has won in MA. He has put himself out there in support of our kids... all you in Mass... get to know his staff, hold his feet to the fire and make sure he supports our kids with autism!

A bit late to the game, however...



Autism dad Doug Flutie is endorsing Scott Brown for Senate and so am I.



Scott Brown, a tax cutter and one who advocates cuts in government spending, wrote publicly to ask his governor NOT to cut from Autism spending. From last May:

Brown: cut to autism funding hurts the deepest
Posted May 13, 2009 10:06 AM
By: State Senator Scott Brown
Guest Columnist

Governor Patrick may be under a lot of pressure working out a budget for FY10, as it is one of the worst fiscal periods in decades, but that is no excuse for recklessly cutting funding for some of the most important programs in our State Government.

The Governor is adamantly advocating state spending reductions for the FY10 budget. He is proposing that the state implement a deep local aid cut which will reduce public safety jobs and seriously hinder progress in our communities. He is also proposing cuts to public higher education which will minimize the chances of many to attain a useful and valid education, as well as an even bigger decrease for human services and health care.

The latter is of particular interest. This decrease in human services and health care is going to harm a significant portion of the population. Many of these people I know on a personal level and are constituents of mine who have rallied for support. Those who could possibly take the biggest blow from these difficult cuts are the families of children with autism. Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability and is presently it occurs in 1 and 150 child births, with an annual growth of 10-17%.

Families of children with autism struggle daily. For some, the lives of their other children are put on the back burner because caring for a child with autism is a full-time, consuming responsibility.

According to the ARC of Massachusetts, whose mission statement is to enhance the lives of individuals who have intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, if the Governor’s plan passes 11,000 disabled children and adults will lose support services. In addition, more than 1,000 people will lose their jobs, and 200 children will lose part or all of their services due to the $85 million in cuts or proposed reductions to local aid, autism/human services, and employment services.

Regardless of whatever agenda the Governor claims to have for these individuals and their families, these actions could have dire consequences. Health care is an issue to which I am proactively involved, having co-sponsored over 35 different health care bills directly impacting the Commonwealth and most recently signing on to three pieces of legislation that help and support individuals with autism and their families.

One bill would establish a tax credit for employers who hire individuals on the autism spectrum. The tax credit will be 50% of the employee’s gross wage earned in the first year and would decrease in years following. Another bill would create a special commission to investigate and study services and supports for individuals on the autism spectrum. Lastly, I have co-sponsored a bill to require health insurers in Massachusetts to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder. It includes habilitative or rehabilitative care, pharmacy care, psychiatric care, psychological care, and therapeutic care.

I hope that we can find a way around cutting aid to those that are in need and that Autism Awareness will continue to create attention so that individuals in the future will attain the help and support that they deserve.

State Senator Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) represents Needham as part of the Norfolk, Bristol, and Middlesex District.

Got any friends in Mass? Let them know that Brown supports our kids, even when they cost lots of money!

Our kids need all the support in Washington that they can get.

Chase The Hope

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