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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seth Mnookin:  An admitted criminal.

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

And now James Murdoch and the Sunday Times.

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

Click to see it full sized

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

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

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

James Murdoch to remain on GSK's board

* Drugmaker says Murdoch has made strong contribution

* Investigations need to run their course

* News Corp executive also sits on Sotheby's board

By Ben Hirschler

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is just stupid at this point.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint in Nsanje

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

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


Ginger Taylor"

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



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

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

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

Dr. Offit,

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

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

131 Children Vaccinated at Gunpoint in Nsanje

Do you support or condemn this practice?

Ginger Taylor

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

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

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

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

UPDATE:

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

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

Joan Campbell Has Gathered Vaccine Injury Stories

Last fall, Joan Campbell began asking parents:

"I am compiling a list of children who were adversely affected by any vaccine. Please if you could say in about 4-6 sentences what that vaccine was, how they reacted, how they are today and what city the vaccine was administered."

Joan had received more than 900 responses so far. She has posted them here:

http://www.followingvaccinations.com/

Thank you Joan for telling the story that health authorities are doing their damnedest to bury.

If you have not yet submitted your story, you can do so at admin@followingvaccinations.com

The Canary Party: Done with Bad Faith

I received an email today noting my recent absence from my blog, asking if I was OK. (The sentiment was much appreciated) I realized that I had neglected my obligations/opportunities here, so I am taking some time today to talk about The Canary Party. I have been too busy doing the Canary Party to write about the Canary Party, so apologies for taking so long to update my blog readers.

I have become the Executive Director of the newly formed Canary Party.

Wanna know how a trusting and naive young mother becomes a political activist? Read this blog from the beginning and watch the evolution.

If you dial back to the beginning in 2004, it was just supposed to be a little mommy blog to document a largely untested autism treatment so that I could keep a record of Chandler's progress, and so that parents considering the therapy could read about what was and was not working for us so they had a little more information to go on in their decision making process on what treatments to invest their time and money in to get the best outcomes for their little ones.

As Chandler begin to improve, I ran into something that I never expected. Bad Faith.

I assumed that when my son was diagnosed with autism, that the professionals around him had gotten in their respective businesses to help children like mine. Why get into a business where part or all of your job was supposed to be helping struggling children unless you really cared about helping struggling children? Right?

It only took about a month before I ran into my first bad faith encounter. With my pediatrician.

In my trip to autism book land, I got a copy of "Children With Starving Brains", thought... "wow... that is my child!" and started Chandler on the GFCF diet. With in 48 hours he was making eye contact, answering to his name and had the first normal bowel movements since his first dose of the Hep B vaccine as a newborn. (He had been constipated his whole life and my doctor taught me that that was normal.) I was VERY excited about this development, and called my pediatrician to tell him what had happened.

But my ped's reaction was odd. When I told him the story, he said something to the effect that he had had other autism families that had tried it, but they didn't really see any changes on it. That confused me a bit, because I didn't really see the point of those other families experiences, because this was already working for MY son. So I explained that... "OK... but it IS working for Chandler." I kept waiting for him to say, "That's great, come in and we can talk about what this means for him and where to go from here," but instead I got another blow off.

At that point, I honestly thought he just didn't hear me or wasn't paying attention because he was having a long day or something, so I repeated the story and got the same odd reaction. After that I just got off the phone.

It took two more encounters like that with him before I just decided that he didn't know what he was talking about and to find one of those DAN! doctors to deal with the autism stuff, and just use my ped for check ups and sick visits.

I didn't have the experience under my belt at the time to recognize the bad faith then, but I think back on all our conversations since then, and that man had to work his butt off to ignore all the things I have told him over the years. He never had any intention of dealing with what was happening, because, of course, all that was happening implicated him in causing my son's autism.

Bad faith.

As Chandler got better, and I got excited about sharing his progress on biomed, I found more and more bad faith players. I made the oh so naive mistake of thinking at a middle aged physician using an internet moniker to mock doctors he didn't like might actually have a good faith conversation on autism causation and treatment. I thought the American Academy of Pediatrics would want to know about treatments that make struggling kids healthier and would want to reform their practices and policies to prevent neurological damage to children. I thought that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would actually want to Prevent and Control Autism. This blog is a long history of all the people I took at their word when they said that they wanted to prevent autism and serve those who have it.

It took me a full year of making excuses for all these bad actors, of thinking... 'well if they only knew that______ then things would change quickly' and 'I am sure that they will want to sit down and look at all this amazing information any day now' and even 'If they would just talk to us face to face and see our kids videos, the will see we are not crazy people and the dialog can begin'... and then CDC et al ignoring David Kirby's book, that I finally started to think... 'oh... maybe they know all this and don't want to deal with it'.

By the end of 2005 it was pretty clear to me that they didn't want to face the problem, but then I thought, "well... as the public becomes aware, they will have to deal with it". Skip to 2008 where Jenny McCarthy and the Polings made the whole world aware of the problem, and yet STILL no good faith actions on the part of those responsible.... And then to 2010 on the "Wakefielding" of Andrew Wakefield, and then the Super Double Skapegoating of Wakefield again in 2011 just for good measure....

Well at this point if we don't declare these people working in Bad Faith, then we are just morons and we get what we deserve. That is all their track record shows, for much longer than the seven years that I have been documenting these issues.

And when we look around us, we are only one of the groups that is being treated like this. Families struggling with cancer, lupus, chronic lyme disease, chronic fatigue, diagnosed mental disorders, and dozens of other problems, they are getting jacked in one way or another by abuse and neglect from the medical establishment.

It is time to call a spade a spade and say outright that corruption in the medical establishment is rampant, that power and profit motives are being served at the expense of patients, and it is time for the corruption to be cleaned out and for the abusers to lose their jobs.

We have to separate the wheat from the chaff, remove those bad faith profiteers posing as health professionals and replace them with people of good faith, actual healers, who do their jobs.

We know who the bad faith actors are. We pretty much knew it after our first encounter with them, but pushed it off and waited for them to prove it 20 or 30 more times over before get around to asking that they be replaced.

But as we have learned that our good faith and reasonable "asks" are just ignored (and sometimes mocked).  It is now time to DEMAND the medical system change, or change it ourselves.

Thus is born The Canary Party.

Let's face it... we are pretty much one issue voters already. Time to mobilize all of us who are getting screwed by private medical industry and public health, fire the politicians who are keeping them funded and in power, and put in men who will clean house.

The definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting Paul Offit and Kathleen Sibelius to change.

So this month I move from my role of pissed off mom to professional activist and paid politico, as I become the Director of Operations for the infant Canary Party. (Or maybe the Director? Is Director of Operations to wordy? Who cares I guess... I will think of a better title later)

So a few changes in the way we will be taking this on.

First off... I am now all about breaking ties with people who act in bad faith. The liars, the stallers, the cover up ers, the admittedly biased, those in denial of their bias, the attackers, the mouth pieces, the proxies, the mockers, the useful idiots, the parrots, the industry protectionists, the PR firms, the bullshit artists, the purchased politicians, the blackmailed politicians, the lazy politicians and most of all, the people who can't take things seriously because they want to be 'cool' so people to like them.

For years I have been asking the question, "18% of the population has a developmental disability or delay, and that does not include allergies, asthma, diabetes and all the other childhood epidemics we are seeing... So how many healthy children are left?"

Two weeks ago we got our answer. Less than %46 of the children in our country are typical, healthy children.

Take the time to go read the abstract of that study. They looked at more than 91,000 children in all 50 states and found that most of them were sick, delayed or obese. And they didn't even look at all illnesses.  They just picked 20 common chronic health conditions, then added in obesity and developmental delay.  For example, cancer was not even considered in this study.

But what is doubly shocking is not just the number, but the lack of alarm by the researchers! The current health care system is failing our children abysmally, and their solution for these kids? MORE ACCESS TO THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM!!!

When half the cars coming out of a mechanic's shop are not working, on what planet do authorities say, "Well clearly you need to send your car back to that shop and pay them to fix it." ?????

In the real world they would be at least out of business and at most under investigation for fraud!

A baby born today has less than a 50/50 shot of being a normal, healthy child.  Sick is actually now 'normal' and healthy is the minority.  (Any one wonder what it means for a society when half the population is financially or other wise dependent on the other half?)  And it is only getting worse. The sky is actually falling and the medical establishment does not care or even seem to notice. Or is it just good business for them? Have they become that corrupt? How do we find out?

Well that starts with a congress that will actually give a damn about health outcomes over Pharma campaign donations. And that is what we can to do something about.

This is a patients rights movement and a movement for the right NOT to become a patient.

So take a stroll over to the Canary Party site, read our founding documents, and send it to all your friends. Autism friends, but more importantly, anyone struggling with a chronic health condition or who is concerned about plummeting human health. Sign up and start spreading the word.

We are currently organizing in 25 states, and hope to have active teams in all 50 states shortly.

And a note to all those concerned with all the usual bad faith players. A few people have sent me comments dropped around the internet by those usual suspects on what they think of CP (which is a little funny to me as CP has not actually done anything yet... but whatever) and I want to let people know that honestly... I could not care less about the opinions of those who have been acting in bad faith with our community for years. OF COURSE they are going to say nasty things about The Canary Party. We are a threat to the cottage industry of shouting "ANTI-VACCINE" when someone points out that HHS claims that vaccines can cause brain damage and even kill some children. I was reminded of the depth and wisdom of their thoughtful prose when someone sent me a link to that old doctor's article on us.  I quit reading when I got to the place where he noted his opinion that our web site was the color of "piss".

No one wants medical advice and treatment from people who display that level of anti-social behavior, and I am now less open to getting tied up on the ropes with these individuals that I was when I wrote this in 2009. Our party is about exposing corruption and abuse, so the corrupt and the abusive will be coming at us with teeth barred. To be frank... I just don't care any more.  Let the dogs bark.

However, if one of our critics makes solid point about somewhere we are off or something that we have done wrong, please let me know so that I can get it addressed properly.

A few more housekeeping notes. I probably won't be blogging here very much. At least for the rest of the year as we get geared up.

Those of you who know how much I love lengthy phone conversations and wordy emails, please don't be put off if our conversations and missives become rapid fire. If you email the main canary party email you will get me. I am racing to keep up with the pace of things, so please don't be offended if I seem short. I am just in a hurry a lot these days trying to organize a few thousand of my closest friends. ;)

If you have questions, please ask. We have hit the ground running and everything is still in process. I am trying to get information out as quickly as I can, but don't want to get carts before horses, so if you feel an information vacuum, shoot me off an email.

I will answer everything, but bad faith communications will, of course, go to the back of the line.

So my friends... time to get bold and get our medical system back on the tracks.  See you at The Canary Party.

Autism One's Free Livestream!

So excited! I will be in Chicago for Autism One in 48 hours!

Even more excited that Ed Arranga, in his passion to get healing information to families any way he can, has not only made the Autism One Conference free this year, he is streaming it live on the internet gratis! ON SIX CHANNELS!

You can find the schedule here.

And the Ustream feed is here .

And just in case you wanna watch right now (when the conference starts) I will embed channel 3 here:


Free video chat by Ustream
Broadcasting Live with Ustream.TV

The info straight from AO:

FREE Live Video Streaming

AutismOne/Generation Rescue Conference Goes Worldwide! Live Video Streaming of all Conference Presentations is confirmed!

With years in the making and lots of hard work we have confirmed that we are going to be able to offer live video streams of the conference presentations.

After each lecture we will be selling the presentation DVDs and Digital Downloads in the AutismOne.org/shop. You may want to visit the schedule page here >> we will be uploading FREE downloadable handouts of the presentation materials and have links to each Digital Download as they become available.

For those at the conference this will be a great way to see the presentations you loved again and to experience the ones you couldn't attend. With over 150 different sessions over 5 days no one can see them all at the conference.

For those of you who couldn't make the conference we will be sorry to miss you but are happy you can experience some of the conference at home.

Tune into the AutismOne Channel

'AutismLive' on Ustream

The link to Ustream will be posted to the AutismOne.org home page all days of the conference.

Join the conversation! Ustream provides the ability to chat with others watching the presentations. You need to be a Ustream member to join the chat. Now would be a good time to become a Ustream member and ensure your voice is part of the dynamic community conversation.

Please help us spread the word about this amazing effort that allows us to bring the AutsimOne / Generation Rescue Conference 2011 to all the families in need world-wide!

We couldn't have offered this free conference and live stream without the help of all our great sponsors especially our title sponsor OxyHealth. A heartfelt thanks goes out to them!

Please Note: Live streaming 150 presentations on 6 channels is a huge undertaking and there may be some technical difficulties but we will do our best!

83 Canaries in the Vaccine/Autism Coal Mine

... at least.

Remember when Julie Gerberding said the Hannah Poling case was "rare"?

Remember when Julie Gerberding said that what happened to Hannah should not be generalized to "normal" children?

Remember when Julie Gerberding said she had "looked and looked" and could not find a link between vaccines and autism?

Julie Gerberding was lying her ass off. I want her under oath before Congress and then under oath in front of a jury.

Today we learn that Hannah Poling is only rare in that her parents had the biggest balls among the autism families in vaccine court, some of whom had been warned not to talk about their settlements in case HHS might turn off financial support to their children, and Hannah's mom and dad talked first. Otherwise she is just another face in a crowd that probably includes hundreds of children with autism paid by the sham that they dare to call a "Vaccine Court".

Of the vaccine induced brain damage cases that the program compensated that EBCALA found, 40% of them were associated with autism. If this percentage holds out for the entire 1300+ brain damage rulings in the program, that is more than 500 children with vaccine regressions that have "Autism" or "Autism-like symptoms" or "Autism-like Syndrome" or "Features of Autism" or "ASD ish" or "Spectrum Derivativeness" or "Insert Bull Shit Make Up Phrase To Obscure Wide Spread Vaccine Damage Here", that our government recognized while lying to our faces to trick us into handing over our children to a vaccine program they KNEW was causing this damage.

They KNEW this before Chandler was born in 2002!

AND THEY KNEW THIS FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES!

THEY DID NOTHING!

THEY COULD HAVE PREVENTED ALL OF THIS!!

I am in a blind rage today.

Fox did a great segment on this yesterday:



Press Conference in an hour:


Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Someone just sent me a shot of the cameras watching the conference:

Ready to fight? Get me your contact information.

The Next Chapter in the Vaccine Autism Story Begins Tomorrow

In 2008 Johns Hopkins Neurologist Jon Poling went public with the news that his daughter Hannah, who regressed into autism following her 18 month vaccines, was paid by the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

CDC, in a public statement, claimed that the Hannah Poling case was "rare" and should not be generalized to "normal" children. Days after the Poling's announcement, the Hiatt family also went public with their VICP ruling that their autistic daughter Madison was also a vaccine injury victim. Then the Banks family went public. Finally, CBS News reported finding 7 more vaccine/autism cases that dated back to 1991, the very beginning of the autism epidemic.

So the autism community wanted to know... just how many cases of autism have been paid by the program that was established in 1986, how "rare" is this, and what did the government know about vaccine injury and autism causation that they were not telling the public and the medical community. After being questioned by a journalist, the department of HHS that oversees the VICP issued the following statement on whether this was an admission that the government was now paying children for vaccine induced autism. The "official response" from HRSA:

"From: Bowman, David (HRSA) [mailto:DBowman@hrsa.gov]
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 5:22 PM
To: 'dkirby@nyc.rr.com'
Subject: HRSA Statement

David,

In response to your most recent inquiry, HRSA has the following
statement:

The government has never compensated, nor has it ever been ordered to
compensate, any case based on a determination that autism was actually
caused by vaccines. We have compensated cases in which children
exhibited an encephalopathy, or general brain disease. Encephalopathy
may be accompanied by a medical progression of an array of symptoms
including autistic behavior, autism, or seizures.

Some children who have been compensated for vaccine injuries may have
shown signs of autism before the decision to compensate, or may
ultimately end up with autism or autistic symptoms, but we do not track
cases on this basis.

Regards,

David Bowman
Office of Communications
Health Resources and Services Administration
301-443-3376"

This admission of a link to autism, and the disturbing revelation that the government was not even planning on counting how many autism cases it had paid from the vaccine injury fund, made it clear that HHS's claims of concern for the rise in autism rates and concern for vaccine safety were less than sincere, and that it was time for an investigation into the VICP to find out how many of the cases of vaccine induced encephalopathy (brain damage) resulted in "autistic behavior, autistic symptoms or autism" as Bowman had referenced.

Tomorrow the results of this two year investigation will be revealed and we will get a better look into what the government knows about vaccine/autism causation and how long they have known it.


Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Please tune in to the press conference tomorrow (streaming live on the internet at USTREAM), Tuesday, May 10 at Noon Eastern to the announcement take place on the steps of the US Supreme Court, that ruled only two months ago that vaccine injury cases would never be heard in a court of law, but must go through the corrupt Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

The EBCALA Press Release:


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ELIZABETH BIRT CENTER FOR AUTISM LAW AND ADVOCACY (EBCALA)

CONTACT NICOLE WILLIAMS
(301) 625-7772
OR
DANIELLE ORSINO
(480) 200-4411

Investigators and Families of Vaccine-Injured Children to Unveil Report Detailing Clear Vaccine-Autism Link Based on Government’s Own Data

Report Demands Immediate Congressional Action

Directors of the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy (EBCALA), parents and vaccine-injured children will hold a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (717 Madison Place, NW in Washington, DC) on Tuesday, May 10 at 12:00 PM to unveil an investigation linking vaccine injury to autism. For over 20 years, the federal government has publicly denied a vaccine-autism link, while at the same time its Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has been awarding damages for vaccine injury to children with brain damage, seizures and autism. This investigation, based on public, verifiable government data, breaks new ground in the controversial vaccine-autism debate.

The investigation found that a substantial number of children compensated for vaccine injury also have autism. The government has asserted that it “does not track” autism among the vaccine-injured. Based on this preliminary investigation, the evidence suggests that autism is at least three times more prevalent among vaccine-injured children than among children in the general population.

The federal government has called autism a “national health emergency,” conservatively affecting 1 in 110 children and costing the country billions of dollars each year.

Because almost all children in the United States are required by law to receive between 30-45 vaccines in order to attend public school, it is crucial that the VICP decide cases with justice and transparency.

EBCALA and the families of the vaccine-injured call on Congress to investigate the VICP, the only forum in which parents may bring claims of vaccine injury on behalf of their children.

WHERE: United States Court of Claims
717 Madison Place, NW
Washington, DC

WHEN: Tuesday, May 10
12:00 PM noon


--
Thank you,
EBCALA Host Committee

Ariana Goldboldo Goes Home to Her Family

DETROIT (WWJ) – After a standoff with police at her home in which the State Department of Human Services removed the child from the home, Maryanne Godboldo is slated to be reunited with her 13-year-old daughter Ariana on Friday.

On May 4th, Judge Lynne Pierce of Wayne County Juvenile Court ordered that the Godboldo/Hakim family and the Michigan Department of Human Services cooperate to take care of all outstanding matters before the court to secure the release of Ariana Godboldo by 11:00 am May 6 or face contempt charges by 1:30 pm Friday.

According to a release, Judge Pierce stated that the Michigan Department of Human Services should stop “stonewalling,” and facilitate the release of Ariana to the home of her aunt, Penny Godboldo, by Friday.

In the last 24 hours, the State Attorney General’s office filed a motion for a re-hearing on all matters before Judge Pierce; and before the State Court of Appeals in order to delay Ariana’s release.

“We fully expect to pick up Ariana today per Judge Pierce’s order,” Roger Fahrina, attorney for Ariana’s father Mubarak Hakim, said in a release.

Ariana has been held under state care at The Hawthorn Center in Northville.

Stay tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 and CBSDetroit.com for the latest.

An Update On Maryanne Godboldo And Medical Tyranny
05.05.11 09:01 PM

A Wayne County (Mich.) Family Court judge has ruled that a Detroit teenager stolen from her mother by armed thugs of the Detroit medical police must be turned over to the custody of her aunt this afternoon.

We told you April 20 in The Medical Police State about Maryanne Godboldo, who took her 13-year-old daughter, Ariana, to the Detroit Children’s Center last year after the girl began experiencing behavioral problems following a series of State-mandated immunizations.

The doctor at the DCC prescribed a treatment plan for Ariana that included a psychotropic drug. But the “treatment” only worsened Ariana’s condition, so Maryanne did what any rational person would do: She sought a second opinion.

The second doctor recommended removing Ariana from the drug and prescribed a holistic plan to help Ariana, who also has a physical disability. Maryanne agreed with the new treatment.

But medical goons from the DCC and tyrants from Detroit Child Protective Services did not and gave Maryanne two choices: Put her daughter back on the “treatment” plan first prescribed — a treatment plan that she sought voluntarily and, therefore, should be able to stop — or give up her daughter. Maryanne chose none of the above.

So on March 24, the DCC and CPS fascists, aided by a Detroit Police SWAT team, crashed into Maryanne’s home, took Ariana into custody of the State and incarcerated Maryanne for resisting the armed intrusion.

Ariana has been detained ever since. And to make the case even more bizarre, a doctor treating Ariana while she was in custody decided she didn’t need the psychotropic drug after all. And if the whole ordeal wasn’t enough trauma for the State to inflict on one of its citizens, Ariana was apparently assaulted while in State custody, as Maryanne’s attorney claims Ariana has contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

The DCC and CPS are trying to fight the judge’s order to turn Ariana over to her aunt (notice that she still will be separated from her mother), according to the Detroit Free Press. But the judge said she would have none of it.

Let’s hope rationality finally reigns in this case and Ariana can be returned quickly to her mother, who apparently is one of the few people who truly has the girl’s best interests at heart.

http://www.personalliberty.com/conse...dical-tyranny/

Seth Mnookin: The New Kid in Town

[Update: Good Grief... Seth Mnookin is a mess. I posted this piece less than two hours ago on Seth's claim on his blog that David Kirby might be out at the Huffington Post, and I JUST got this email in my inbox because I subscribe to Kirby's posts there:



I don't know what is worse for Mnookin, that Kirby had a post immediately on HuffPo, that it was on vaccines or that it was entitled, "Government and Many Scientists Agree: Vaccine-Autism Research Should Continue." How exactly is this guy a credible journalist!?

I emailed Kirby on Mnookin's speculation and he just replied: "I believe there may have been a bit of a backlog on the Health Page after the AOL merger, when other editors came on board to oversee the review process for medical pieces."

Mr. Kirby, If you are walking around NYC whatever you do, don't sit down, not even on a subway... Seth Mnookin might come along and pronounce you dead!]

Initial post:

... and by kid, I mean teenager.

In 2009, after five years of trying to have earnest discussions with people with a history of bad faith dealings on the vaccine issue, I gave up. I wrote a lengthy piece called, "Chris Mooney, Sheril Kirshenbaum, Lori Kozlowski, Rosie Mestel, Thomas Maugh, David Gorski, Virginia Hughes, Science Journalists, The Dying of the LA Times and an Angry Autism Mom," the thrust of which was that the grown ups that had retreated and that the only new blood that could be found to go out and defend the current disaster of a vaccine program were immature, teeny boppers (of varying chronological ages) whose underlying MO seemed to be wanting to be seen as cool and "sciency and stuff" to quote one of them. Consider this (and my next post) to be adjuncts to that one.

Well the jury is in and Seth Mnookin clearly qualifies for the brat pack. I think we were pretty clear on that when he called parents who might be concerned with the tripling of the vaccine schedule and giving a baby 8 vaccines at once at only two months of age, "Total Assholes."

Part of this rite of passage into this gang of Mean Girls posing as "science journalists" is of course to take a swipe or two at David Kirby, someone who actually practices science journalism... and get this... does it like a grown up.

So Mr. Mnookin writes a piece I guess announcing that David Kirby is no longer welcome on The Huffington Post. I have no idea if that is true or not (and if so, how does Mnookin know this), as he was posting there as of two weeks ago, but might make sense since AOL/TW has purchased it and the mainstream media has been asked by Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama Administration (and probably their Pharma advertisers) to censor criticism on the vaccine program, no matter how legit it is.

But of course, this would be a dumb move for HuffPo if they actually care about circulation as Kirby's columns on vaccination garner hundreds of comments and generate traffic, so if such a decision has been made, then it is not in order to make its readers happy, it is to make the entrenched powers that be happy. Which of course is why the main stream media is dying and the Huffington Post became popular in the first place, which I guess means that we can begin to see the decline of this and other successful online outlets and Big Journalism's money rushes in to corrupt it? We will watch and see.

But in the mean time, Mnookin is happy, yes happy, that censorship is taking place on vaccine issues.

But then again, he is a censor himself...

Yeah... I can't get him to post my comments on his blog unless I post them some where else, and that apparently embarrasses him into posting them, but with some sort of face saving thing... I don't know... Not a grown up... read on.

Long story short... Mnookin launched personal attacks Harvard's Dr. Martha Herbert and PBS's Robert MacNeil after they had a real discussion on vaccine causation that didn't stick to Offit's approved talking points. So JB Handley launched an attack on Seth Mnookin, pointing out that while Herbert and MacNeil were busy earning their world class credentials, Mnookin was honing his skills as a thief and a heroin addict. Rather than learning that people in glass houses should not throw stones, Mnookin, being the entitled adolescent that he is, shook his finger at JB for hurting his feelings and played the victim.

Mnookin wears his past as a heroin addict/thief like a beauty queen wears her sash. As I read his own accounts of his more than decade long hard core NY heroin addict life, I kept waiting for the part where he regrets it and is broken over what his actions did to those who loved him and tried for so many years to help him, but I just can't find it. (You know that humble softness that recovering addicts have, where they know that they are broken and accept the brokenness of others? That place where the are in that their ego has kinda melted away and they are healing to those around them because of it? I don't see that at all in Seth Mnookin. Quite the contrary.) One of his pieces actually ends with a bitter stab at his own mother for not trusting him any more after all that he did to his family. The guy clearly thinks he is entitled to display horrible, selfish and anti-social behavior for half his life, and use that past addict life to gain street cred with the NY journalism scene and mount a writing career, but somehow not reap any of the natural adverse consequences of said life of drugs and crime.

Drug addicts are interesting and amusing, but they are not trustworthy people. One has to get really good at lying to maintain that life. It takes a lot of years and a lot of work to show that they should be trusted. I don't see evidence of that kind of work in Mr. Mnookin. I do not see him as a trust worthy person.

As I have said, I am thrilled for the guy that he quit using and built a life. That is not the norm with his level of addiction, and good for him. Not even a little bit of sarcasm in my statements on that. But the expectation that he should then be trusted by moms across America with medical advice for their children? (When he has made clear that his own mother does not even trust him?) That suggests that there has clearly been some arrested development as one would expect during a time of prolonged drug use. (...and perhaps a bit of grandiosity? He is setting himself up as having more credibility on this than David Kirby, Robert MacNeil and Dr. Martha Herbert?)

But now back to the censorship thing... so on that post on how JB upset Seth, I posted a comment:

"I’m trying real hard to be the shepherd driven by charity and good will.” – Seth Mnookin
Parents who want to make their own vaccine decisions are “total assholes.” – Seth Mnookin, American University, “Communicating to the Public”

Mr. Mnookin, the idea that you have entered into a good faith relationship, as an objective journalist, to the public and to the biomedical autism/vaccine injury community, for which you can expect that you will be treated with generosity and be given the benefit of the doubt…. well that is just silly.

The expectation that your very long history of serious IV drug addiction and accompanying anti-social and illegal behavior will not cut into your credibility on any topic, (much less one on the safety of injectables) is frankly, unreasonable.

I began my counseling career doing outpatient drug counseling in the psychology department of Johns Hopkins and I have seen more than a few tragic stories. So please believe me when I say that I am very, very happy for you that you kicked your habit, that you have had some restoration with your family, and that you now have a career and a family of your own.

But as a recovering addict, surely you have to understand that actions have consequences. Your formative years were spent… well… not forming a man of good judgement and good character. That is lost time that is difficult to win back. And while you may have kicked your habit, your judgment on these matters remains in question. Starting with the expectation that no one is going to hold against you severe drug use, which spans around half your life, when making judgments about your good judgement.

Long term drug addiction causes a stunting of emotional maturation. I see it in you, as do many in our community.

It may hurt to be called out for this difficult part of your life, but your contempt for these families you criticize has been evident from the time you began misrepresenting yourself to parents while you researched your book, up until today.

If you want to be treated respectfully, you have to treat people with respect. Calling a significant percentage of parents in this country “total assholes” for trying to work in the best interests of their own children in light of an under researched and indiscriminate vaccine program (which all sides admit will kill some and injure others) betrays your contempt for them. Expect then to be treated likewise.”

To the point and respectful, I thought, but apparently not one that Mr. Mnookin wanted on his blog. He declined to post the comment. But I had also posted it on JB's column on AoA, with the following preface:

Mnookin is complaing aboout this post. Says it is hurtful to him. I posted a comment, but don’t know if he will allow it, so I am posting it here too:

Well several hours later Seth apparently discovered that my comment was public and put it up at the end of his comment stream with the following note:

Note: This comment was sent in by Ginger Taylor at approximately the same time I said I was shutting down the comments. Since she was unaware that comments were being closed when she was writing it, I will post it here.

Except that I had posted this hours before he "closed the comments" (something that I don't think I have ever done here, what is with that?) right after JB, and should have been half way through the comment thread. Further, the copy he published was copied off of AoA, as it has my AoA comment and even the date signature at the bottom. So he moderated my comment out, found out it was public, and lied and said I got it in at the last minute. Nice.

So yesterday I commented on Seth's post about David Kirby and his celebration of censorship with the following comment:

Following JB's line of questioning, I am interested in your thoughts on the admission of David Bowman at HRSA (who runs VICP) that vaccines can cause encephalopathy that causes autism as reported by David Kirby.

Following the Poling vaccine concession, Kirby wrote to HRSA and asked if this now meant that the VICP was now paying for vaccine induced autism. This the "official statement" that HRSA sent him:

"From: Bowman, David (HRSA) [mailto:DBowman@hrsa.gov]
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 5:22 PM
To: 'dkirby@nyc.rr.com'
Subject: HRSA Statement

David,

In response to your most recent inquiry, HRSA has the following
statement:

The government has never compensated, nor has it ever been ordered to
compensate, any case based on a determination that autism was actually
caused by vaccines. We have compensated cases in which children
exhibited an encephalopathy, or general brain disease. Encephalopathy
may be accompanied by a medical progression of an array of symptoms
including autistic behavior, autism, or seizures.

Some children who have been compensated for vaccine injuries may have
shown signs of autism before the decision to compensate, or may
ultimately end up with autism or autistic symptoms, but we do not track
cases on this basis.

Regards,

David Bowman
Office of Communications
Health Resources and Services Administration
301-443-3376" *

Is this not a very significant disclosure by HHS and in conflict with many of their public statements of autism causation? HHS has admitted that vaccines can cause brain damage that becomes "autistic behavior, autism, or seizures". Rather than question HHS on this and ask how they made that determination, and how many autism cases they have compensated, you want David Kirby not to be able to have a public forum to ask questions any more?

How is that journalism? How does this not show that you are simply bias and want those who might punch holes in your high praise of the vaccine program shut down?

And when there are so few voices attempting to keep HHS honest on vaccine injury, do you not think that it is a serious problem when outlets begin to censor those voices? How then will corruption in the vaccine program be prevented from taking hold? Is the vaccine program above suspicious when we know the same companies and public health officials are suspect in other product lines and policies? By what magical process are vaccines exempt from critical review and media scrutiny? Merck lies about Vioxx, is fined more than 400 million dollars for Medicaid fraud, but their MMR and other vaccines is perfect at all times, Merck would never lie about vaccine safety and should not be questioned or reviewed?

CDC employees steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical and computer equipment from their own building, but all their vaccine statements are honest and should never be questioned?

As a journalist, do you support the suppression and censorship of accurate information offered by earnest reporters?

If the vaccine program is truly with out corruption and is somehow exactly flawless in its operation and policy, how long do you think that will last if media outlets [suppress criticism on it?]

There were 24 doses of vaccine on the schedule when we were children, now there are 70 and two more will be added shortly. With no oversight from the courts due to Bruesewitz and with the media unable to question vaccine policy, what prevents multinational corporations from purchasing public health agencies and getting 100 doses of vaccine on the childhood schedule? How many is too many? 150? Are we allowed to talk about this in the media?

And you think it is a GOOD thing if media outlets stop reviewing vaccine policy for potential damage to children?

Vaccines are pharmaceuticals like any other, their production and use are subject to media review like any other. Why do you celebrate the repression of media scrutiny that can only serve to make sure the vaccine program is as safe as possible?

And while other comments (including one praising him for letting "anti-vaccine" voices like JB Handley be heard on his blog) were approved, and Mr. Mnookin has since posted new articles, my comment is no where to be found. (What does JB have that I don't got?)

Seth is fond of dishing it out, taking it like a grown up... not so much.

So... I have to ask the same question of Seth that I have of his fellow play mates... Why exactly would parents turn to you for advice when you are clearly biased, treat parents like crap and behave with less maturity than my ten year old?

How many mothers are sitting at home thinking...

"You know... I hear there are safety concerns about the vaccine program. What is at stake in my vaccine decisions for my child is his very life itself. If I make a bad choice he could die or end up with brain damage or a host of other life long problems either from a disease or from the vaccine for a disease. I need to do some research. Who to turn to for the care of my most precious possession.....

I know! There is this really pretentious, arrogant guy who does't seem to like his mother who spent his teens a twenties stealing cash from loved ones to fuel his heroin chic life style because he though he was Hunter S. Thompson, and who thinks that parents like me are "Total Assholes". So yeah, he rejoices over the idea of vaccine safety advocates being shut out of the discussion on the vaccine program, and sure, he lied to his interview subjects about the book he was writing, but I GOTTA find out what he thinks about vaccine safety. I can think of no more wise human being in whom I can entrust the life, health and welfare of my child!"

I cannot understand what The Powers That Be are thinking. Was "The Situation" not available be their spokes person for vaccine safety?

Louis Cooper and others keep saying that they are SO concerned with the trust in the vaccine program and of AAP in general. If that is so why do they continue to go to fishing in the Pool of Maturationally Challenged Disaffected Youth, clamoring to become "science journalists" to prove something to somebody. Why is Mnookin being promoted if they want parents to trust the vaccine program? It is truly mind boggling.

And I (and many others) have been writing this for YEARS! And we know they read us. Daily! Just glancing at my stats, as I was writing this piece, the State Department visited my web site to watch Dr. Bock's appearance on Fox News.

What are these meetings like?

Kathleen Sebelius: I hear vaccine sales are dropping... brief me.

CDC Number Cruncher: Vaccine rates still dropping.

AAP: Well Offit has been doing yeoman's work, but parents are just to dumb to understand his brilliance. We can't understand why they don't trust us any more.

One Lone Doctor Speaking Softly: Well it may be that our vaccine market is saturated and the public won't buy any more because they are finding diminishing returns at this point. Perhaps we should call Dr. Sears for some kind of partnership? Parents are listening to him. Maybe we can save the vaccine program by customizing it for vulnerable subsets and admitting some of the problems that have been found through the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program... even bringing some of our critics onboard to make sure we have things straight... I think that might boost trust in us and confidence in the program.

Merck Goon: Who the hell is that guy?! How did you get in here? What is your name? Where do you practice? (aside) Get him out of here... take his name down... get his state medical board on the phone.

Sebelius: Well then get out there people. Push those talking points!

AAP: Don't look at us... we are not going out there where people can ask us questions!

Sebelius: Frieden... what about you guys.

Thomas Freiden: Hells no! I am not getting outed like Gerberding did. I am gonna bide my time quietly, stay off the radar and then take my Glaxo payday.

Sebelius: Well I am not going out there any more. Last time I got my ass handed to me by Fran Dresher, for cripes sake. We need new cannon fodder. Who can we scrounge up?

AAP: Our MD's just look stupid when they do it. Even Iannelli on About.com looks like a jerk because he puts out our talking points and then can't answer challenges in the comments section. We have to send in the anonymous trolls to try to bail him out. We are out of ideas.

Robert Mnookin: Well, I got this nephew who needs a job. He is kind of a screw up, but I think he got his act together, wrote a book about baseball and he can add two and two.

Sebelius: What's his baggage?

Mnookin: Heroin. Theft. Wanted to be Hunter S. Thompson when he grew up. But he has been clean for years now.

Sebelius: No, no... we need someone to inspire trust... what else we got?

Glaxo: Just Brian Deer.

Sebelius: I need you to be serious... who else is there.

Crickets: Chirp, chirp, chirp.

Mnookin: I think we should give Seth a try. Some of the NY journalists think he is "cool".

Sebelius: Well I guess thats something... let's go with your nephew then. Call him and tell him to take Offit's class and get started. Get him booked on Colbert, etc, but our finger prints cannot be on this.

Mnookin: You won't be sorry.

Sebelius: I'm sure I will be, but I only have to hold my nose for two more years, then I will be at Sanofi taking board meetings in the South of France and won't have to deal with these meddling parents any more."

And the vaccine program continues to go down the drain.

(This is part one in a two part series of ad hominem arguments... second coming soon)

* For more on the Bowman statement.

Update 5/6/2011

Mr. Mnookin updated his post here to reflect that "Unfortunately, it looks like my optimism was misplaced", and written a new one here: to reflect his lament that David Kirby is not being censored.

My comment on his blog that will probably not see the light of day there:

If there was any question that you are not a real journalist, I think this answers it.

When the White House decided it was going to give interviews to CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN, while cutting out Fox News, the other four networks refused to participate in the press event unless Fox was included. Those networks do not like Fox and they are regularly beat in the ratings by Fox, but they backed Fox, which they hate, over a President, who they love, because they understand that censorship is the worst enemy of journalism and a free society. They knew how dangerous the precedent was that the White House was attempting to set, and they did not allow them to do it.

They practiced real journalism.

Mr. Mnookin, while still not posting any of my comments, addressed calling parents "Total Assholes" here. I left yet another comment, but if past behavior is a predictor of future behavior, which it is, the comment will not be posted, so I am posting it here as well:

Along the lines of Dr. Gordon's comments, I too have some trouble with your lamenting of the premature deaths of these children.

While there were 10 deaths last year from pertussis, the CDC Wonder database lists 41 deaths of children associated with pertussis vaccines? And that was one of the lowest numbers of deaths listed in years.

42 in 2009, 76 in 2008, 82 in 2007... 126 in 1994, 148 in 1993... Do you lament the more than 1,750 children who have died following this vaccine since 1989? Where is the balance in your reporting on this, if you are the earnest journalist that you claim you seek to be?

Do you not see that under the current vaccine policy that seeks to vaccinate all children with out screening for the known subsets that may be vulnerable to vaccine injury or death, that the cure might actually be worse than the disease at this point?

Further, I have counted 27 premature deaths last year that came as a direct result of autism (seizures, wanderings, drowning, neglect, abuse and even being shot by police for acting strange). Where is your concern for preventing the risk to our children?

Why do the dozen deaths you cite trump the close to 70 deaths last year that I have written about? Were their deaths some how acceptable when the others were not? Did you even know about them? Have you looked?

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

update: I have written ad nausium about this phenom. Overzealous and unwise defender of the vaccine program makes untenable statements and claims in an attempt to get parents to vaccinate with out question. Parents challenge said vaccine program defender. Vaccine program defender can't give a good answer with out a) having to recognize that critics are actual human beings that should be treated with a modicum of dignity b) being forced to actually enter into an earnest discussion with said critic c)having to make corrections on untenable statements.

Still not comments allowed on Seths blog, but I left another comment:

I see your "total assholes" comment as applying to parents who say, "Well, this is my decision."

But lets give you the benefit of the doubt and go with the idea that you ONLY meant that parents who want to make their own decisions, but don't recognize that their child may transmit illnesses.

Then two points:

First:

I am a parent who has decided to make my own vaccine decisions for my children. Am I a "total asshole"?

I recognize that viruses exist and often talk about the fact that when my father was seven and his little brother was five, they and their father contracted Polio. My father had flu like symptoms at home, my uncle was hospitalized for several weeks, and my grandfather died. That death sent a shock wave through my family that is still felt. Which I why I think that we need a vaccine program.

But I absolutely believe the current vaccine program is corrupt to the bone and likely doing more harm than good. I have been documenting it for 7 years. So, am I one of those who is not "worth your time"?

I am having trouble telling if I fit into the category of person or non-person to you. Do I count?

Should the fact that you won't post my comments, while posting the comments of other critics of yours signal that I don't count?

Second point:

If you think that those who deny the disease risk group are "total assholes," then are not your comments the height of hypocracy?

As I mentioned... 10 v. 41 deaths.

We have TWO risk groups in play here. One that is at risk from dying or being injured by the disease, and one that is at risk from dying or being injured from the vaccine, right?

(My grandfather was in one, my vaccine injured son is in the other... two risk groups)

You classify people who want to protect the vaccine risk group at the expense of the disease risk group, "total assholes", while you vociferously advocate for the disease risk group with a 'to hell with the vaccine risk group' attitude. You seem perfectly fine with them being sacrificed for the disease risk group.

Does this make you a "total asshole"? Or not worth the time of readers or the public?

When it looks that FOUR TIMES the number of children are dying from the vaccine than are from the disease in the case you cite?

Update: I emailed Seth directly and he said that my comments are posted on his site now. Except for the comment about the networks. I can't get it to post and he thinks that it is a Word Press problem.

Does Brian Deer Have Aspergers?

If he does have Aspergers, kind of an important disclosure that he should make, right?

(from Deer's own blog)

This week Toni Lapp interviewed Deer for an article called "Autism in Journalism." Deer dropped that bomb as if it was a throw away comment:

"When I told him I had a unique interest in the issue – as a journalist, and as the mother of son with Asperger’s) Deer seemed genuinely interested and asked after my son’s “special interests.” I told him how Ryan at one time had memorized the terms of U.S. presidents, and he dryly remarked how that is not exactly a skill one can build a career on. And, he told me he thought he had a touch of Asperger’s himself as an adolescent, and probably outgrew it. (Can one outgrow Asperger’s?)"

No... one cannot outgrow Asperger's.

So by admission, Deer began his assault on Wakefield being supported by Pharma (for up to four years from what I can discern) he has continued this assault, claiming not to be paid by pharma, but has done so for years with no visible means of financial support, and now he might have Aspergers?

He has already demonstrated his ignorance on the basics of environmental causation theory in autism, how compromised does he have to be as a source? Good grief.

Doses 71 and 72 Soon to be Added to the Childhood Vaccine Schedule

So dose number 70 was added last December, and four months later we are headed for the addition of two more infant doses.

The FDA has approved Sanofi's Menactra for use in two doses at 9 and 15 months.

The ACIP has not yet added it to CDCs recommended schedule, but does anyone really think that they are not going to? No.

FDA Approvals Meningococcal Vaccine For Children
Jamie Peter | Web Producer
Posted: 8:01 pm EDT April 22, 2011
Updated: 8:29 pm EDT April 22, 2011


A local drug maker has been granted approval for a vaccine to protect infants against a potentially deadly disease.

Sanofi Pasteur announced Friday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it's two-dose schedule for Menactra, a meningococcal conjugate vaccine, for children 9 months through 23 months.

It is the first U.S. approval of a meningococcal vaccine for this age group.

"Licensure of Menactra vaccine for infants as young as 9 months of age gives the opportunity to help protect infants against this potentially deadly disease when the likelihood of exposure supports a need for early protection," said Stephen I. Pelton, MD. Pelton is a professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology at Boston University Schools of Medicine and is the Public Health and Chief for Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center.

Meningococcal disease is rare but it can be deadly.

It is caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis and can progress so quickly it can claim the life of a child within 24 hours.

FDA studies also showed that measles-mumps-rubella-varicella vaccine (MMRV) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) can be administered with the Menactra vaccine in children.

Vaccine related reactions included swelling, tenderness at injection site, and irritability.

Merck's Pnumovax Pulled in Australia with 82 Severe Reactions Since January

Drug watchdog halts injections after adverse reaction in patients
Adam Cresswell From: The Australian April 19, 2011 12:00AM

THE drug regulator has told GPs to stop giving patients a second dose of a vaccine that protects against pneumococcal disease, after more than 80 Australians suffered severe reactions, including severe swelling and abcesses.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration said it was investigating what could have caused 178 reports of reactions to the Pneumovax 23 vaccine, which is meant to protect against a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection that can cause meningitis and death and is mainly given to adults.

Of the 178 reaction reports made from January 1 to April 14, 169 related to reactions at the injection site, of which 82 were deemed severe, and included the skin inflammation cellulitis, swelling from the shoulder to the elbow and abcesses.

In a statement, the TGA said that although such reactions were specifically mentioned as possible side-effects in the information provided with the vaccine, the sheer number had triggered the agency's concern.

The total number of reaction reports is nearly three times the 63 adverse reactions that were reported to the end of April last year, and more than five times the 34 reactions reported in 2009.

The vaccine, made by Merck Sharp and Dohme, is provided free once every five years for adults over 65, indigenous people over 50, tobacco smokers, and people aged 10 and over who are predisposed to invasive pneumococcal disease.

The latest scare follows an earlier incident with the same vaccine in March, when the TGA ordered a recall of one specific batch after a cluster of seven patients reported similar reactions.

Of the 178 reaction reports overall, 57 were among people who received the suspect N3336 batch involved in the earlier NSW incident.

The TGA said in a statement that, out of the 82 severe reactions, 44 were among people receiving their second dose. Another 22 were in people receiving the vaccine for the first time, while it was unclear whether the remainder were first or second shots.

"Analysis of these adverse reactions suggests that the largest number of reactions is occurring in people receiving their second five-yearly dose of Pneumovax," the statement said.

"Further detailed analysis . . . is required and will be undertaken by the TGA and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. Until this analysis is complete, the TGA is recommending as a precautionary measure that patients do not receive a second dose."

Merck Sharp and Dohme said the company was not involved in the TGA's alert and could not "elaborate on the reasons" for the warning.

PBS Newshour: Autism's Causes: How Close Are We to Solving the Puzzle?

It is so crazy to me when we get these normal windows of real discussion on autism causation. I attended the Maine CDC Autism Conference in 2009 and I sat there in the audience next to Harry Tembennis, listening to these discussions that should have been the discussions all along (had not the preservation of the vaccine program necessitated the suppression of science and free expression), and just marveled. Harry kept turning to me and saying, "I can't believe this is a CDC conference!"

That is how watching this episode is. It is like stepping into an alternate universe where science is progressing normally with out the Offits and Mnookins and Oracs and Novella's of the world.

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

I take issue with the statements that there is no research that there is a vaccine link, of course, but note that they are largely qualifying that statement to apply to epidemiology. (The Stony Brook, Heb B autism study finds a link for example, but lets give them a pass on the mis characterization.) Because frankly, I am shocked at the statements on environmental causation by a rep from the Simons Foundation.

They are admitting (as IOM did in their 2004 report) that epidemiology won't find our kids with susceptibility to vaccine regression. But unlike IOM, they are saying in on camera on PBS.

And I am not sure where Dr. Amaral is getting his info on fully vaccinated children having lower autism rates, no such research that I know of exists, but everything else he is saying warms my heart. Worth a phone call to find out from whence he has drawn that opinion.

But again... It is amazing to see earnest researchers coming out of the closet, on camera, to back our belief that our little ones were different and the one size fits all vaccine program did not fit them.

I really pray that this leads to screening BEFORE vaccination to find our little subgroups before they regress. And soon.

Posting Martha Herbert's talk from the Maine CDC Autism conference. He got a standing ovation and the CDC director was in tears when she was done talking.

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Genes and Environment, Developmental and Chronic: An Inclusive Approach to Autism Science, followed by Q&A
Martha Herbert, MD, PhD
Pediatric Neurologist
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School



(I hear Seth Mnookin is already trying to rip her to shreds. It must be hard for him that he joined the Vaccine Program Protection Squad after the glory days. Coming late to the party is not fun. Seth still has time to cut and run though. He can go write another book about baseball or drugs or something he knows a little better.)