April 18, 2007

Julie Gerberding: Getting out the BIG shovel

I sit here trying to come up with a post on this that does not contain any offensive synonyms for animal leavings, but I am hard pressed to do it. When I signed onto this debate almost three years ago, we heard the same thing from the CDC yet they have done NOTHING to get us any closer to finding answers to the questions that parents have been screaming at them. It is completely absurd.

The statements Gerberding makes in this "hearing" are laughable.

CDC chief: Autism not overlooked

By JEFF NESMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/18/07

Washington — Autism is an "urgent" concern of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, told senators Tuesday.

Although the CDC has been criticized by some autism activists and members of Congress, Gerberding said the Atlanta-based agency is best equipped to do the surveillance and research needed to understand and respond to the disorder.
THEN DO IT!!!!!!

GIVE US A VALID, REPLACEABLE, TRANSPARENT VACCINE/AUTISM STUDY!

YOU HAVE THE MONEY, YOU HAVE ALL THE DATA, DO IT!

STOP PRETENDING THAT DENMARK AND VERSTRAETEN ACTUALLY SUPPORT THE CLAIM THAT VACCINES ARE SAFE FOR OUR KIDS!

GIVE US THE AMISH STUDY THAT YOU WERE CHARGED WITH DOING IN 1982!

STUDY THE CHILDREN THAT ARE LOOSING THEIR AUTISM DIAGNOSIS AFTER DAN! TREATMENT!

DO IT ALREADY!!!!

IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DO IT THEN STOP TALKING ABOUT AUTISM!

AND PLEASE... PLEASE... STOP SAYING THAT YOU CARE WHAT IS GOING ON WITH OUR CHILDREN!

YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS!

"The profound lifelong impact of autism spectrum disorders, tremendous costs to the affected individuals and their families, the lack of known causes or cures and concerns about the increased rates of diagnosis all make autism spectrum disorders one of our urgent realities," she told a Senate appropriations subcommittee.

She said "CDC recognizes that parents want answers," adding, "We share their frustration at not having more answers about the causes and possible cure."
This statement is just a lie. No other way to say it. She is lying.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), whose Appropriations subcommittee on the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services held the hearing, said that "millions of families are grappling with the profound difficulties of understanding and coping with this disease."

"We've got to do something about this," Harkin said.

Testifying with Gerberding were the director of the National Institute of Mental Health and a generally supportive group representing families and advocacy organizations.

Not represented at the hearing were autism activist groups that have accused the CDC of concealing evidence of a link between childhood vaccinations and the disorder.
I am sure that our invitation was lost in the mail. Again.
However, while the Senate committee hearing was under way, two members of the House announced that they will reintroduce legislation to end what they called "a conflict of interest whereby CDC is responsible for both vaccine promotion and vaccine safety."

Reps. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), and Carolyn Maloney, (D-N.Y.,) said they will introduce the bill Thursday. Their bill last year that would remove the CDC's responsibility for vaccine safety did not pass.

UPDATE:

My good friend Wade responds to my post with a What What, and like me, far less civility than those who read his blog are used to.

UPDATE:
From John Gilmore of A-CHAMP:

If you were to deliberately design a plan to not find the cause of a disease, or even accurately count how many people are affected with a disorder, you couldn't have done better than the CDC management under Dr. Gerberding. She has not brought us an inch closer to finding the cause of autism or any treatments. She has destroyed confidence in the CDC and much of the federal public health apparatus.

It is time for her to go. And I think all autism organizations should give serious thought to calling for her resignation.

John Gilmore

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi. I am new to blogspot and browsing to meet other moms of ASD kids.

My 3 boys are all 'on the spectrum'. There's not much support here where I live.

--Kimberly

Susie said...

Unfortunately Kimberly, you're not alone. But know that there are moms in the world who understand what you're going through.

LIVSPARENTS said...

So, Ginger, should we spend more money to yet again disprove a general link between autism and thmersol or maybe, just maybe, we should funnel some (most or all) of that money to people like Kimberly who are desparately trying to help thier kids. I'm all for investigating causation, but to beat our collective fists against a brick wall is not going to change the facts. Vaccines aren't the only things Amish avoid...

Ginger Taylor said...

Liv's Parents,

A link has not been disproven. The studies that the CDC and the IOM point to as doing the job don't do the job.

The only study that the CDC has done was the Verstraeten study, there is a link to my review of it in the post above.

The initial study was a good one, but it found that thimerosal DID have a dramatic relationship to autism. The study was supposed to take 1 guy four months to do, not an expensive undertaking since the medical databases they were using were already bought and paid for by the CDC.

Instead, they spent 4 years and a reported 25 million dollars trying to make the study show no link between the two.

Redoing the study the way it should have been done initially would not be an expensive endeavor.

That said, if parents are clamoring for it as loudly as they are, then you gotta ask, why doesn't the CDC just do it?

And the Amish study, as you hint toward, might tell us something that none of us ever thought of. So you gotta ask, why won't the CDC do it?

As far as beating our fists against the wall, I could not agree with you more. I have absolutely no belief that the CDC will ever do the right thing and investigate Autism objectively.

I am just getting really disgusted with them holding press conferences and making stupid statements.

Also with them wanting a piece of the CAA pie, when they will only piss it away.

Let that money go to someone who will actually come up with something that will improve the quality of life for those with Autism.

To my knowledge the CDC has done nothing of the kind and should not get a dime of that money.

Ginger Taylor said...

Kaber,

I looked at your profile... wow... homeschooling three boys on the spectrum... whew!

You must have the patience of a Saint!

Where do you live?

Ginger

LIVSPARENTS said...

If the 'initial' study you are referring to is that study off of the VAERS database, that's like basing effectiveness of the safety of a product based on # of lawsuits. The data is just not meant to extrapolate into meaningful number; its meant to find patterns not percentages.

It's probably a forgone conclusion that the rantings of a bunch of uninformed parents will result in yet another fruitless search into a direct causation between thimeresol and autism.
Meanwhile potential 'hot leads' in the autism investigation will either get under or unfunded; reasearch into good therapies will likewise be shortchanged.
It's time to stop taking a simplistic approach to trying to solve this complex disorder. There are probably many causations for certain subgroups of autistics. Who knows, they may even find an indirect relationship between something in vaccines and smaller subgroup of autistics. But to blame and investigate vaccines and thimeresol as the primary cause or even a vast minority of cases is a foolishly placed bet...

Ginger Taylor said...

Ma'am, it is not a study of the VAERS database.

I would encourage you to read the studies themselves and then the critique of them that I referred you to so that you post can be informed.

I would also encourage you to read the critique (and more of my writing on the subject) before you label parents like me uninformed and our theories simplistic.

LIVSPARENTS said...

Ma'am, I see no link to this 'initial' study on you post, I have just discovered your blog and I have not had time to peruse your historical blogging. I have 5 children and 2 on the spectrum and usually limit myself to current blogs, if you could point me to your synopsis of the study you are referrring, I would be interested to look at it.

And by the way, since you are holding me to these standards, I would suggest researching at least my profile and notice that I am of the male gender.

Nice to meet you,
Bill

Ginger Taylor said...

Bill,

Sorry for calling you a girl.

Here is the link:
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2005/08/heres-why-disdain.html

If that is to long to fit on the screen (long links get cut off sometimes) You can find the link in the post above where the words "Denmark and Verstraeten" are highlighted.

I posted the critique in 2005 and have openly asked people to correct me where they see I might be wrong, and added notes in the place where there was valid criticism. If you see any problems with it, I welcome the criticism so that I can refine it further.

LIVSPARENTS said...

Despite having changed more diapers than most women (12 years and still counting!) I'm still of the male persuasion last time I checked.

My argument with the vaccine argument is the general, all emcompassing, stamp they put on the theory that autism IS vaccines. Can you agree that the vast majority of the increase in autism is due to the broadening of the criterea and to much better diagnosis. In 1994 it was almost unheard of to have so many kids being diagnosed before the age of three (let alone before two as we have done with our youngest). I feel the tying of vaccines to this increase only lends fuel to the fire of disproving that association.

The fact of the matter is that I am NOT further vaccinating my daughters due to the fact that I can't trust that some autism is NOT caused by vaccines.

There has to be a better tact at getting proper studies done, without the broad condemnation of vaccines in general. We need better classifications of the spectrum primarily in my mind. We need better records of therapies that will work within these groups secondarily. THEN we can get into the causation factors. Personally, I am all for Deafeating Autism Now, simply because I have a personal interest. But to take what I am doing and broadly applying it across the whole spectrum INVITES skeptics to quite easily shoot it down.

We need screaming parents to be advisors in the design and setups of proper studies, not the dictators of what should be done.

So now you have my ear, I have set you as one of the 2 dozen or so blogs I will check on a regular basis. I will be contentious, slightly combattive, but if I am discourtious, please let me know. I hope you don't mind misspellings, because I am a butcherer of the written blogging arena. I look forward to doing more reading though...
Bill

CDC Chatter Box said...

"We The People Have A Dream"

Greetings distinguished members of The United States Senate, Congress and fellow Vanguards of our Constitution. It's an honor and privilege to correspond with you on this day, despite the blatant deception and fraud perpetrated on the American People each year by the Department of Health and Human Services.

In the wake of the 911 Travesty and current global events, dedicated Public Health Servants had a unique opportunity to ensure the trust and confidence of all tax paying citizens during this time of uncertainty.

Like many Americans today, the reality of the current condition of our Public Health System would be horrifying at best. The preference between life and death by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while protecting their institutionalized fabrications that are predicated by practices and patterns detrimental to the unknowing and unsuspecting in both affluent and resource poor communities remain unchallenged.

Unfortunately more will perish before true reform occurs. Time is running out. Take into account the "Chatter" heard months before the attacks on our country that brisk September morning. This is not a warning, rather a somber veracity of the discreditable strategies and approaches taken to quell the spread of fatal communicable diseases that plague our nation.

What has been absent is the forum in which truth and justice can be achieved for those whose lives have been unceremoniously discarded. These failed policies are poised to have a catastrophic affect on our National Security. My sole purpose for contacting you is to appeal to the very essence of your moral fortitude.

Therefore I'm respectfully requesting you exercise the full and lawful authority attainable to address this urgent situation. The documents that accompany this letter (accessed via. http://www.myspace.com/cdc_chatter_box) will detail the qualitative assertions made by myself and many others while stationed at the CDC's Federally Managed Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Program in Philadelphia’.

Among other things, these documents will illustrate conditions of “Selective Enforcement of Disease Control” resulting in the “ Intentional Abandonment of Care” e.g. Tuskegee North! I strongly believe this problem is endemic throughout the Country. Your leadership is necessary and engagement is warranted!

I thank you in advance for your service to our Nation and Dedication to the notion of "Justice" for all!

Gods Speed,

Brian C. Robinson Public Health Consultant
P.O. Box 162 Abingdon, Maryland 21019
443-504-5522