April 28, 2010

War, Death, Murder and Suicide

Last night I returned home, planning on watching Frontline's "The Vaccine War", which we already knew would be a hit piece on parents, as we saw the website that only offered the perspective of dismissive doctors, heard that they had cut famous UCLA pediatrician Jay Gordon out of the show (even though he was interviewed sitting next to Jenny McCarthy), and we had seen the preview which basically told vaccine resistant mothers they were bad citizens and condemning other children to death by vaccine preventable illness.

But I never got to watch the show.

Because as soon as I came in the door, the phone rang. It was a reporter from the Portland Press Harold who had interviewed me after Ashley's death looking for comment on a story. Another murder suicide of someone with autism by their parent. But this time it was just a few towns away from me.

GRAY - A father shot and killed his autistic son Tuesday at their home on Yarmouth Road before turning the rifle on himself, Maine State Police said.

Cumberland County sheriff's deputies found the bodies of Daniel McLatchie, 44, and his son, Benjamin McLatchie, 22, in the family's driveway at 227 Yarmouth Road around 2:30 p.m.

The driveway, which is several hundred feet long, slopes down from Yarmouth Road -- part of Route 115 -- before ending at a white, two-story, Cape-style home surrounded by woods.

State police Sgt. Chris Harriman said the sheriff's deputies responded to a 911 call. He did not say who made the call.

He said it appeared that Daniel McLatchie was upset about what would happen to his autistic son after he and his wife died. He was a stay-at-home father, Harriman said...

It was a punch in the gut.

I didn't know the family. It is tempting to speculate on what exactly was going on and what drove him to it, but that wouldn't be fair. It is fair to assume that he was despondent and lost all hope. It is horrible, tragic, evil, a total disaster... there aren't words strong enough for how bad it is that this happened, and keeps happening. I wish I could be more eloquent, but honestly I am at a loss. It is just grievous.

And this is the third premature death of someone with autism that we have heard about during autism month, following the drownings of two wandering children. (correction, this is the fifth premature death this month). But is PBS running documentaries on how many of our children are dying from seizures and from drowning or from being abused by caregivers or shot by police or even murdered by the people who might even love them most? Are there stories on how children with autism cannot get life insurance until they turn ten because the insurance companies know damn well how likely our kids are to die young and don't want to pay out that kind of cash? No. Frontline is worried that children might get chicken pox and measles again.

But of course Frontline thinks that science has spoken and vaccines are good and never bad, and that the vaccine/autism connection belief is the fault of the internet and thinks that vaccine preventable illness is the greater risk and that it is the duty of every parent to enlist their child in the war on it, sacrificing them as needed. And of course they do, because:

The Vaccine War is a FRONTLINE co-production with the Palfreman Film Group. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a major grant-making private foundation based in Chicago that has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978.


Jamie S. Gorelick

John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation - director
Central Intelligence Agency National Security Advisory Panel - member
Council on Foreign Relations - member
Fannie Mae - vice chair
Sallie Mae - lobbyist

http://www.muckety.com/Jamie-S-Gorelick/2302.muckety

Robert L Gallucci

John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation - president
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service - dean
Intelligence and National Security Alliance - director
Council on Foreign Relations - member

http://www.muckety.com/Robert-L-Gallucci/152184.muckety

Donald R. Hopkins

John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation - director
CDC Foundation - board member

http://www.muckety.com/Donald-R-Hopkins/30160.muckety

John M Deutch

Central Intelligence Agency - director
Citibank, N.A. - director
U.S. Department of Defense - deputy secretary

http://www.muckety.com/John-M-Deutch/4562.muckety

Schlumberger Limited

John M Deutch - director
Jamie S. Gorelick - director

Ruth J Katz

CDC Foundation - honorary board member
George Washington University School of Public Health - dean

http://www.muckety.com/Ruth-J-Katz/86637.muckety

J. Veronica Biggins

CDC Foundation - honorary board member
Kaiser Permanente - director

David Satcher

CDC Foundation - board member
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - director
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation - trustee
Johnson & Johnson - director

As was pointed out by an autism dad posting on The Age of Autism.

And another astute observation posted by another dad of a vaccine injured child points out that:

If anyone thinks PBS can be fair with their underwriters as potential litigates in court...

So yes... PBS is right about one thing. People believe that vaccines cause autism because they can go on to the internet, find that all of the supposedly objective research clearing vaccines of widespread damage is bought and paid for by people with very special interests, financial and otherwise, in seeing the vaccine program flourish. They can, like I did, go to the government's own research database and find that the vaccines their child got just before they regressed have never even been studied to see if they are associated with autism. No Hep B vax autism studies. No DTaP vax autism studies. No Pnumo vax autism studies. No Polio vax autism studies. No HIB vax autism studies. And no studies to see if giving a child Hep B, DTaP, Pnumo, Polio and HIB simultaneously will increase their chance of autism. Not even any studies comparing fully vaccinated children to unvaccinated children to see who has more autism.

And they can go the web site of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, look at the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program's table of recognized injuries and see that the vaccine induced "encephalopathy" that is caused by DTaP and MMR is just an alternate description of a child with autism:

(1) Decreased or absent response to environment (responds, if at all, only to loud voice or painful stimuli);
(2) Decreased or absent eye contact (does not fix gaze upon family members or other individuals); or
(3) Inconsistent or absent responses to external stimuli (does not recognize familiar people or things).

And they see the government pay Hannah Poling, and Baily Banks and Madison Hiatt for their vaccine induced autism, while claiming that they are not paying them for vaccine induced autism.

And they can watch Julie Gerberding claim that vaccines both do and do not cause autism, then leave her job as CDC chief to become the head of vaccines for Merck.

And they can see that "autism" can be so hard it can even lead a parent to spiral down so low that they would do the ultimate evil to a child they love. (And then condemn them self to the ultimate judgment).

And they see pleadings of the pharma paid media to vaccinate and their indifference to what happens after vaccination. And they can see that the main stream media is not even reporting the truly important and dramatic parts of this story.

For example, MSNBC is very concerned with the two children that have died following pertussis infection this year, but has not commented on the 11 who died following pertussis containing vaccines this year, and no big stories on how our children are dying early and demanding actual progress on autism be made.

Yep... it is clearly the internet's fault. Not the MSM for their embarrassingly transparent bias and constantly being caught withholding vital information, not CDC's for telling stupid lies about vaccine injury, not the AAP's for pushing inadequately tested vaccines in untested combinations on untested populations, Not public heath's for yawning at the autism epidemic while spending billions and screaming "EMERGENCY!" over a mild flu, not mainstream medicine's for not even researching regressive autism or GI problems or any of the treatments that make our childrens' lives better, not Pharm'a fault for constantly getting caught knowingly poisoning people while trying to cover their tracks and kneecap docs who point it out and not FDA's fault for approving vaccines when makers openly admit that they don't even know how some of them work.

It is the internet's fault for letting you find out about it all. BAD INTERNET! If only there was a way to prevent parents from discovering all the immoral, unethical and illegal activities of the MSM, HHS, CDC, FDA, Pharma, AAP and Public Health. Clearly we need to turn off the internet for the sake of the children.

And the shocking thing is that MSM and PBS and MSNBC and AAP and CDC and VCIP and Public Health and all the usual suspects who are bemoaning the falling vaccine uptake rate seem to see no correlation between it, and their own "parents are stupid and we don't give a shit about vaccine injury or the struggle of autism families or the suffering and dying children (and young adults) with autism enough to actually do anything that would actually put us out in any little way" attitude.

Let's see... I can swallow the clearly BS story that vaccines are in no way associated with autism and risk a vaccine injury where I will spend my life trying to keep my child alive, fight with the school system to get him educated, fight with doctors and insurance companies to meet his medical needs, not sleep for the next thirty years, become alienated from family and friends, cease participating in society, be told that I am a crazy person for thinking vaccines cause my child's autism, be called a baby killer for warning others about my child's vaccine injury, cry every day while wiping poop off of every surface of my home and possibly attend my child's funeral when he elopes and drowns in elementary school...

OR

I can feed my child lots of organic veggies and vitamin D, educate myself on how to spot disease early and treat it effectively in my child.

Clearly parents who choose the later are deluded and dangerous!

Risk of dying from polio at the height of the polio epidemic - 1 in 30,000.
Risk of having a child with autism today - at least 1 in 100, probably higher.

I am sad and disgusted and angry and horrified.

And I will ask the question again... the same one I have been asking for years...

What is your plan? CDC, AAP, MSM and the rest of "The Empire"... The more bullshit you pump out, the faster the trust levels of the public fall, the more people come to believe that vaccines cause autism and widespread damage. And vaccine rates continue to fall and vaccine preventable illness are coming back, but they are not causing the mass death that you try to keep scaring people into believing will happen if they don't adhere to the CDC recommendations, so you are looking a bit foolish there too. How long are you going to keep this facade up? Till autism is 1 in 20, hundreds of our kids are dying per year and half the population decides to quit vaccinating all together? Have you marked out the point at which you will abandon this garbage and issue a mia culpa?

How long will you say, "Let them eat cake?"


Addendum: Dr. Jay Gordon posted the following comment on Facebook:

I attempted to post on PBS' website and they refused my post.

"PBS documentary omitted every single word of the two hour interview they did with me and their interviews with Dr. Robert Sears and all other doctors who supported the idea of questioning the current vaccine schedule and supporting parents who do so. Read my response."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-gordon/pbs-frontline-show-about_b_554691.html
Jay N. Gordon, MD,
FAAPAssistant Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA Medical School
Former Senior Fellow in Pediatric Nutrition, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute

Update 4/30/10

How long will they say, "Let them eat cake"? Apparently for a long time to come.

HHS Sec Kathleen Sebelius, who openly admits that she asks the media for favorable coverage on the autism debate (did she ask PBS to make this propaganda piece?) has appointed new members to the IACC, the government group that coordinates research into the causes and treatments of autism. All of them are people who have a long history of not making any progress in making progress for our kids, drugging them, looking for genetic causes that never materialize; except for one, who believes that autism is a natural variation, and that causes and treatments should not be researched, nor 'cures' given... Appointed to THE government committee tasked with finding a cure for autism.

This is the biggest middle finger yet that the Obama administration has given to our community. This may be the biggest that any administration has given us.

Clearly we are on our own.

April 27, 2010

Words, Beautiful Words

Have not updated on Chandler's progress in a long time and it is long overdue.

So recently we started doing hard tank hyperbaric oxygen therapy with Harold Grams and we have been seeing some pretty big wows.

Chandler's progress had been really flat since last summer, kind of disheartening after all the gains he had made in previous years, and so we decided to give it a shot. We had tried soft tank HBOT a few years back, thought we saw some small gains, but it was the same month he had a huge lead exposure (did you know dirt is yummy) so if it was helping him, it may have been canceled out.

This has been quite a different experience. After the forth session, we started to see some really cool language. More words, more flowing language, less scripting, more jokes, more engagement... just more Chandler.

The first fun little wow happened on the way home. If we are out and he wants to go home, he says one of two things, "Mommy, do you want to go home now?" or "Go to 34 Maple Street?" He has done that for years. Imagine my happiness to hear, "Mom, how long until we get to Brunswick?" I didn't even know that he knew we lived in Brunswick!

Two days later when I went to pick him up from school, I get an email in the middle of the morning from his teacher at school. She has never emailed me in the middle of the day to tell me things, much less after school:

Ginger,

Something amazing happened with Chandler this morning. We were having morning meeting and the greeting was Buenos Dias. We usually just say good morning or hello to him. I don’t remember if we assumed another language would confuse him or if he was not responding. That’s what we have been doing all year. Anyway this morning when we came to Chandler he very appropriately said "Buenos Dias Holly" before Amy could even greet him. We were all so shocked, it was the coolest thing. James said, “He’s becoming more normal.” It was precious! He had also asked me earlier this morning, “Mrs. Williams, how do you spell Mrs. Williams? Thought you would want to know.

Jane

Gotta love James! When mom's crow about their children making big gains with biomedical intervention, sometimes they are written off as seeing what they want to see, teachers might just want to have high hopes for the child, but second grade boys are immune to treatment bias, especially when they don't know there is any treatment going on!

That afternoon his aid met me in the lobby of the school for the hand off and with tears in her eyes she gushed about Chandler's day.

"In music class he was perfect, he did everything he was instructed to do, was completely attentive and I didn't even have to repeat an instruction for him!" I've got to look up this... what is it called... hyperbaric?

We just met with his school team and everyone was telling stories about his new skills. They decided they wanted to hold off making plans for him for the summer and fall until the end of the year to see how far he goes with this.

It has only been upward from there. And have not seen any significant down side. He was a little hyperactive for the first two days, but that went away and it has been all good since. His great in the tank and the pressure has never bothered him.

We have had to take a bunch of breaks due to illness and broken cars and unfaxed prescriptions and life, but have started up again this week and hope to do another six sessions in a row and will see what happens. It is a thrill to see him making gains again.

Amazing that just giving the brain more oxygen can do this kind of healing. I will keep ya posted on how this goes.

April 13, 2010

I Will Be On Autism One Radio Today

Correction! It will be on Voice America - http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vportal.aspx

At noon today Louise Habakus and I will be interviewed by Terri Arranga, about the upcoming American Rally for Personal Rights.

April 12, 2010

Combined Diphtheria and Tetanus Increase Asthma Risk - GI Link

Early-Life Infections, Immunizations Alter Childhood Asthma Risk
From Reuters Health Information CME
http://cme.medscape.com/viewarticle/719682

News Author: Megan Brooks
CME Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
CME Released: 04/02/2010; Valid for credit through 04/02/2011

April 2, 2010 — Recurrent bouts of gastroenteritis in the first two years of life increase the risk of asthma by age 6 years, a study in allergy-prone children suggests.

Combined diphtheria and tetanus (DT) immunization in the first year of life also increased the risk of childhood asthma in the prospective study.

"There are a range of possible explanations for the finding of an association between CDT in the first year and asthma," lead author Dr. Jennifer A. Thomson from the University of Melbourne, Australia told Reuters Health by email.

"CDT is only used for those children who meet specific indications such as a reaction to triple antigen (DTP)," she said. "The requirement for combined DT may reflect (or) be a marker for those children with delayed or altered development of their immune systems and consequent inherent allergic tendency."

The role of early childhood infections and immunizations in the development of allergic diseases "remains controversial," Dr. Thomson and colleagues noted in a March 23rd online paper in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

To investigate associations between gastroenteritis, otitis media, and lower respiratory tract infections before age 2, immunizations, and asthma, the researchers enrolled 620 infants who had first-degree relatives with allergies. The children all belonged to the Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study. By age 6, 488 (79%) were still in the study.

Each of the three types of infection was associated with a modest increase in risk of asthma by age 6, the investigators report. The average increased risk per infection episode ranged from 7% to 58%. The relative risks (RR) with gastroenteritis, otitis media, and lower respiratory tract infection (including bronchitis) were 1.07, 1.30, and 1.58, respectively.

Children with at least three bouts of gastroenteritis in the first two years of life had a greater than twofold increased relative risk of having asthma by age 6 (crude RR, 2.36; adjusted RR, 2.03).

"Children with recurrent gastroenteritis in infancy/early childhood may be at increased risk of asthma in later childhood and therefore a higher level of clinical suspicion and monitoring for asthma is appropriate," Dr. Thomson told Reuters Health.

By age 1, approximately 98% of the children had received at least one immunization with diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis (DTP) and 99% received at least one Sabin oral polio immunization. Less than 5% received at least one combined DT immunization in each of the first or second years.

According to the researchers, combined DT immunization in the first year yielded crude and adjusted relative risks of asthma at age 6 years of 1.76 and 1.88, respectively.

Dr. Thomson said she was not aware of other studies that reported an association between combined DT vaccination and asthma. She emphasized, however, that the study does not suggest a "causal link." Rather, it shows a statistical association "for which a range of explanations (some noted above) may apply."

"While chance is an unlikely explanation for the finding, it can not be eliminated completely; nor can unknown or recognized confounders for which we lacked data be definitively excluded," Dr. Thomson said.

Importantly, she added, the association between combined DT and the later development of asthma "should not deter parents from immunizing their children when weighted against the benefits."

The study also found that oral polio immunization in the second year of life was associated with a decreased risk of asthma at 6 years (crude RR, 0.60; adjusted RR, 0.63).

"Early childhood immunizations that are administered orally such as Sabin and/or more recently introduced immunizations such as the rotavirus vaccine may offer benefit in preventing the development of childhood asthma and other allergic diseases," Dr. Thomson said.

Pediatr Allergy Immunol. Published online March 23, 2010. Abstract
Reuters Health Information 2010. © 2010 Reuters Ltd.

Clinical Context
The impact of early childhood infections and immunization on subsequently developing allergic diseases is still unclear. Results have been inconsistent from epidemiologic studies assessing immunization and allergic disease, with different findings based on which vaccines were given and in which settings.

One theory suggests that immunization may contribute to the development of allergic diseases by preventing natural infection, by providing a different microbial exposure, or by affecting the natural microbial flora. On the other hand, an alternate theory proposes that by providing some microbial exposure, immunization may help prevent the development of allergic disease.

Study Highlights
• This prospective study examined the association between early childhood infections and immunization and the development of allergic disease, particularly asthma, in a high-risk cohort of allergy-prone children from birth to age 6 years.
• The study cohort consisted of 620 infants who had first-degree relatives with allergic diseases and who were recruited into the Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study.
• A questionnaire administered by an interviewer gathered data on risk factors and outcomes, which were based on parental report and/or clinician diagnosis.
• Potential risk factors were gastroenteritis; otitis media; lower respiratory tract infections; and other early childhood infections, as well as immunizations from birth to age 2 years.
• Outcomes were current asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema reported at age 6 years.
• RR and confounding were determined with univariate and multivariate regression analysis.
• Study retention was 79% of the original cohort at 6 years.
• All of the early childhood infections studied, including otitis media and lower respiratory tract infections, were associated with an increased risk for asthma at age 6 years, but the most consistent increased risk was with multiple episodes of gastroenteritis.
• Participants with at least 3 episodes of gastroenteritis were at increased risk for the development of asthma at age 6 years (crude RR, 2.36; 95% CI, 1.41 - 3.95; adjusted RR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.50 - 2.75).
• For scheduled immunizations, Sabin immunization in the second year was associated with a lower risk for asthma at age 6 years (crude RR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.37 - 0.98; adjusted RR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.39 - 1.02).
• Combined DT immunization in the first year was associated with a greater risk for asthma at age 6 years (RR, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.11 - 2.78; adjusted RR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.28 - 2.77).
• A similar pattern was not seen with combined DT immunization in the second year.
• The investigators concluded that recurrent gastroenteritis in early childhood is associated with a later risk for asthma, which could reflect a cause-and-effect relationship or exposure to common risk factors.
• They also noted that Sabin immunization in the second year is associated with a lower risk for asthma in later childhood.
• Although combined DT immunization in the first year may be a risk factor for asthma, the need for combined DT immunization could also be a marker of greater risk for asthma in later childhood.
• The investigators recommend that clinicians have a higher level of clinical suspicion and monitoring for asthma among those children with recurrent gastroenteritis.
• Limitations of this study include possible overestimation of risk for the general population of children, possible unknown confounders, limited statistical power, lack of data on perinatal risk factors or child care, reliance on parental or clinician reporting, and some loss to follow-up.
Clinical Implications
• In the prospective Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study, recurrent gastroenteritis in early childhood was associated with a later risk for asthma, which could reflect a cause-and-effect relationship or exposure to common risk factors.
• In this cohort, Sabin immunization in the second year was associated with a lower risk for asthma in later childhood. Although combined DT immunization in the first year may be a risk factor for asthma, the need for combined DT immunization could also be a marker of greater risk for asthma in later childhood.

Authors and Disclosures
As an organization accredited by the ACCME, Medscape, LLC, requires everyone who is in a position to control the content of an education activity to disclose all relevant financial relationships with any commercial interest. The ACCME defines "relevant financial relationships" as financial relationships in any amount, occurring within the past 12 months, including financial relationships of a spouse or life partner, that could create a conflict of interest.
Medscape, LLC, encourages Authors to identify investigational products or off-label uses of products regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, at first mention and where appropriate in the content.
Author(s)
Megan Brooks
Megan Brooks is a freelance writer for Reuters Health Information.

Disclosure: Megan Brooks has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Editor(s)
Brande Nicole Martin
CME Clinical Editor, Medscape, LLC

Disclosure: Brande Nicole Martin has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
CME Author(s)
Laurie Barclay, MD
Freelance writer and reviewer, Medscape, LLC

Disclosure: Laurie Barclay, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

April 2, 2010

Good Friday and World Autism Awareness Day

Today is "World Autism Awareness Day", which you might think that I would like, except that, as I have pointed out previously, everyone is aware already. Almost everyone has it already.

So what many in my community are advocating is "World Autism ACTION Day". Now that we are all aware, it is time to do something, so I am going to offer you five things to do today to improve the lives of people with autism (and if you don't get them all done today, you have all of April as it is autism awareness month, so no excuses:

1. Contact your officials about the "Restraint and Seclusion Act". Children with autism are being abused and even killed, in their own schools. The GAO has now issued a report on it. The stories that are now coming out of the school systems are horrifying and disgusting and are like something out of a history book, but they are happening right now, today, in your state. I will not burden you with them in this piece. Suffice it to say, we now actually need laws to tell schools that they can't slap children across the face, they can't punch them, they can't lock them in a dark closet, they can't handcuff them to their desks, and they can't sit on them until they suffocate and die.

The National Autism Association has detailed instructions on what you can do. And contact John McCain, because the man has lost his mind and is opposing this measure.

2. Take one minute and vote for Generation Rescue to win $250,000 from Pepsi to give medical grants to children with autism. And then go there every day to vote again until this contest closes.



3. Since World Autism Awareness Action Day falls on Good Friday this year, I will post links to my series on "Autism in God's Economy". If you love or know someone with autism, I think that it is important that you consider the issues that arise from this series. It it in six parts, and they build on one another, so please take some time this week to read them all.

Christ said, "what you have done to the least of these, you have done unto Me". Those with autism are the 'least of these' in our modern society. So what does that mean for you?

Autism in God’s Economy: The Least of These
Autism in God’s Economy: Those with Autism
Autism in God’s Economy: Parents of Autistic Children
Autism in God’s Economy: Friends and Family
Autism in God’s Economy: Those in Power over Those with Autism
Autism in God’s Economy: For All of Us Who Have Failed in Our Duty

4. Act Locally! Your school, your church, your neighborhood, your street... if there is not a family dealing with autism in your world, I would be shocked. Life with autism is hard. Show up. Help them. Do it.

5. Finally, as you are in church today and on Sunday, pray for my son. Pray for his health and his safety and his soul and his functioning and his friendships and his support system and please, please pray for his wisdom. Pray that with whatever neurological or biological obstacle he faces, that Chandler will grow to be a wise man.