World Autism Awareness Day: Autism Exists, Let's Celebrate? Even Though It's Killing our Children?

My regular readers already know how I feel about Autism Awarness Day/Month. Everyone is aware already, how about actually doing something about it? No... instead let's just wear blue and do nothing. Except, of course, give money to Autism Speaks. Their party budget is getting low and Geri Dawson has horses to feed.*

Anne Dachel makes the case yet again this year:

I have a hard time each year with AUTISM AWARENESS DAY/MONTH. This is the Fourth Annual International Autism Awareness Day. How long are we going to pretend that all this autism is normal and acceptable? Seriously, how bad do the numbers have to get?

A number of stories out in the news calling for the public to "celebrate" the day. Today is World Autism Awareness Day by Kristina Chew "Today, April 2, is the fourth annual World Autism Awareness Day, during which 'autism organizations around the world celebrate the day with unique fundraising and awareness-raising events.' "

Pueblo Chieftain: Blue balloons raise autism awareness, "The baby blue balloons that Jonah and his classmates at Beulah Heights Elementary School released were to celebrate the beginning of National Autism Awareness Month. The event is celebrated each April, while the World Autism Awareness Day is today."

Sioux Falls Argus Leader: 5 questions: Shedding light on autism, "The falls will be colored blue by lights in support of the Autism Speaks' global Light It Up Blue campaign to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day and Autism Awareness Month."

Lufkin Daily News: Peavy students working to raise autism awareness, "Because of the prominence of the disorder in boys, blue is the official color for autism awareness and the reason the entire Peavy campus was encouraged to don the color Friday to celebrate Autism Awareness Month."

Berkshires.com: Diversity Takes Center Stage in the Berkshires, "'We have so many people supporting this committee right now,' said MaryLee Daniels, director of the Berkshire office of the Department of Developmental Services, and committee member.

"BFAIR, BCArc, the list goes on as to how many organizations support this initiative. We especially want people to join us in celebrating three different months of diversity. Of course, last month was Black History month. This month is Developmental Disabilities month and next month is Autism Awareness month. We have so much to celebrate here."

What is there to celebrate?

Lots of stories are about lighting things up in blue for autism awareness. Lots of them talk about autism being a developmental disorder affecting one percent of children whose cause is unknown. This is done without any alarm or demand for answers. We have been conditioned to accept autism as the perpetual mystery.

As the parent of a son in his 20’s with autism, I’ve had several decades of experts knowing nothing about this disorder. Is this to be the epidemic without a cause?

Looming in the background is the reality of what autism is doing to us. As I listen to the dire predictions about the hard economic times we're in and the need for austerity, I have to ask how in the world we're going to address the needs of the generation of children with autism about to descend on America as adults.

Dr. Thomas Insel is the wet blanket in all this celebration, acceptance, and awareness of autism.

He's the head of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee created by Congress to deal with with the disorder and he says that 80 percent of Americans with autism are under the age of 18. He's warned us we have to prepare for a million dependent adults "who may be in need of significant services." The IACC now calls autism "a national health emergency."

Maybe a better name for April 2 is World Autism Emergency Day.

Anne Dachel
Media editor: Age of Autism

Anne is right. And I gotta wonder, exactly how long this PR BS is going to continue.

And the biomed community isn't even being remotely polite about this any more. These are the two images that are being passed around on facebook today:





Last year I began a new blog. Lives Lost to Autism. I got more than a little bit sick of the blatant fear mongering of death by diseases that are NOT killing Americans, like measles, while the deaths of our children caused by their autism go unlamented and ignored by health authorities.

Last year 10 children died of Pertussis and the response was a national campaign to get people vaccinated (both adults and children), new state vaccine mandates are being pushed through, and the press on it has been everywhere. Last year at least 27 children and adults died as a direct result of autism, and unless you are in the autism community, or one of these deaths happened in your town, you probably never knew it. Even then, it is always an isolated incident, yes? (There were 41 reported deaths following the pertussis vaccine last year, but that is a whole other story.)

And those 27 autism deaths are only the ones who came across my google alerts for "autism deaths" or "autism died" or "autism drowning." The test I use on how to include them is basically, "would this have happened to this this person was neurotypical?" Who knows how many more went unreported or didn't get picked up by google. I would love to quote an actual statistic on how often autism kills, or how their incidence of premature death compares to the general population, but no public health agency cares enough to track this.

But insurance companies, whose bottom lines are effected by deaths and actually need to know if autism is deadly, won't sell life insurance policies on children with autism younger than 10, because it is not a good risk for them. See the problem there?

Our precious ones drowned, were murdered by caretakers and loved ones, were shot by police, suffocated while being restrained, were hit by cars, burned to death in fires, died from neglect and were killed by seizures. A few of them even killed others during their own melt downs.

Bryan Nevins, age 20, died because, on a hot day, he could not simply open the door of a van and get out. His institutional caretaker was on her cell phone and forgot about him for five hours. She is in jail now.

Autism kills and our government could not give less of a damn.

Autism Speaks doesn't seem to want to make that point that autism kills more than whooping cough, because then the public might actually begin to see this as a public health emergency and demand results... and then were would AS be? The party financing would dry up. Better for them to let autism linger and keep sucking up cash from suckers as they pretend to do something about it. Autism Speaks has found quite the cash cow.

(Speaking of... Guidestar finally posted AS's 2009 tax returns... they took in 45.5 million, and less than a quarter of it went to grants to do what the purported purpose of the org is, "Autism Speaks (AS) funds research into the causes, prevention, treatment and cure for autism. AS raises public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society. AS aims to bring the autism community together to urge government and the provate sector to take action to address this urgent global health crisis." Of the whole list, "autism awareness" is the only thing that I think they actually have accomplished since their inception.)

And HHS's admissions that yes, vaccines CAN AND DO CAUSE AUTISM would mean that HHS has been able to do something about this FOR YEARS and has not done it. It means that those vaccine cases can be avoided by screening for mitochondrial disorders, autoimmunity and toxicity, and treated early on if doctors were actually taught that "vaccine induced encephalopathy" exists and if recognized and treated immediately that it may minimize or even prevent many cases of autism from developing.

And that might also mean that the people who have been sitting on this information for years, and decades, might suffer some consequences.

But AS has decided to ignore HHS's own claims of vaccine autism causation and openly declared that everyone should stop talking about the vaccine autism link.

Better that we just "wear blue" because dealing with all that ugliness would just be too ugly.

This is my post on "Autism Awareness" from 2008 entitled, "Insensitive Jerk Makes a Good Point". Nick sees all the signs that tell him that Autism is everywhere, but tells him nothing about what to do about it. And this was three years ago. I should try to track Nick down and see if he has figured out what he can do about it yet.

HAPPY PHONY, BS, ARCHAIC, DESCRIPTION OF BEHAVIORS DIAGNOSIS THAT TELLS US NOTHING ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON MEDICALLY SO WE CAN KEEP IGNORING THE TOXIC CAUSES OF WHATEVER THE HELL IT REALLY IS WHILE IT CONTINUES TO KILL PEOPLE CELEBRATION DAY!

Make sure you wear blue, write a check to AS, vaccinate your baby, give him a dose of Tylenol, feed him GMO's and then go back to sleep. They experts are handling it for you.


Insensitive Jerk Makes a Good Point
By Ginger Taylor, Adventures In Autism
APRIL 13, 2008

Last week Nick Jameson, college smart ass, wrote a piece on his reaction to the autism awareness campaign currently under way. One currently struggling with autism might be put off by his callousness until one remembers that he is only 22 and that we were all pretty much insensitive smart asses at 22.

I would encourage all to allow Nick a chance to grow and check back with him in 10 years or so when he is expecting his first child and see if maturity has tempered his stance.

But what is useful from Nick, random college punk, is this reaction:

For example, what is the purpose of putting up a billboard that is telling me a child is born with autism every 20 minutes? What can I possibly do other than sit in my car and mutter to myself, “Well that sucks.” Maybe if there was a cure or even ways to help prevent autism, it might make more sense to have a billboard. Then it would reinforce concepts in people’s head that they could apply later like “only you could prevent forest fires” or “don’t eat cheese before noon.” But frankly, all this billboard is really saying is, “Beware, autistic people are everywhere,” and I’m sure that isn’t the message they want to get across. We already know autism exists; give us something we can work with. If the autism front wants to put us through a year of sappy ads and TV specials, than at least make it worth the time and money and headache. Teach us something. I was on my way to New York City this weekend and every toll booth was littered with autism propaganda. Did I learn anything? No. There are more intelligent ways to get out a message to the public.

Does Nick know that there are successful treatments available? Does Nick know that there are some kids who are completely recover from autism? Does Nick know that there are things that he can do to prevent his own children (should he ever become soft hearted enough for a woman to agree to marry and/or procreate with him) from slipping in to autism?

Apparently not. And that is the fault of the media who won't report the whole story.

So our young Nick has made a great point. One that parents like me have been trying to make for years now. "Autism Exists" is a message that everyone got a few years back now. But the important message, "Autism is Treatable and Preventable" is one that the media will not share with him.

What is it going to take for them to tell the whole story?

In ten years, when Nick is expecting, will he have heard this message from the media? Or, like us, will he hear it from another parent on the playground after Nick Jr. is diagnosed with autism?

Addendum: Autism Speaks had a huge chance this month to get the treatment message out and yet again, they are screwing children by with holding the important message. They certainly have the cash to do it.

/End 2008 article

*Ok... I actually have no idea if Geri Dawson has horses, but I do know she lives on a ranch or a farm or something, so horses... not out of the question really.

Julie Gerberding Named Head of Merck Vaccines

Wow... Congratulations Julie! Who would have guessed that you would be the one person in the whole world  that Merck would want to head their vaccine division?

Oh... that is right... we did.

Me, January 10, 2009:

"Anyone wanna start bets on where our friend Julie will land? Eli Lilly? Merck perhaps? "

Julie's years of "looking and looking" for a vaccine/autism connection with the firm resolve of OJ Simpson looking for the real killers, asinine statements on autism in the press and denialism of an epidemic happening in front of everyone's eyes has finally paid off big for her.

Here is what we do know now... that the head of vaccines for Merck is a liar.  And one who tells absurd lies and thinks that people will swallow them.  In the age of vaccine skepticism, Merck was so concerned with winning the public trust that they hired the woman who was the at the helm of the autism epidemic for the last eight years.

Brilliant.

But I am guessing that deal with the devil was made long ago.

There is no one whose actions I have had more contempt for in this health disaster than Julie Gerberding. My son regressed into autism following his vaccines on her watch. I became increasingly incensed by her actions, non-actions and thinly veiled vaccine salesmanship as the years rolled on; but I don't think down deep that even I actually believed that out of all the positions in the world she would take THE job with THE company that would truly prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was working for PHARMA at the expense of our kids since Bush appointed her as CDC head. If for no other reason out of embarrassment for what it would betray about her.

The woman has no shame.

The position is announced Christmas week, I guess hoping that mom's like me will be too busy trying to keep their kids with autism from eating the glass balls off the yule tree to notice.  And it may be that she was legally prevented from taking the job any sooner.  Email from someone who travels in these circles:

"...but based on a conversation I recently had with a friend who is a former Bush Administration official, this is pretty close to the minimum interval for how former feds can go to work with a company they regulated after leaving government. January 25th: a year and three business days after Obama’s inauguration (January 20th, 2009). January 25th 2010 is the first Monday she could start".

So as Julie ascends to this esteemed position, lets take a walk down memory lane of her disastrous reign as the chief of our nations public health services at all the bull shit she has had to offer us.

First, a critical review of the only thimerosal/autism study done under Julie's tenure:

Here's Why the Disdain...

And Julie's eventual secret disavowal of the research as junk to Congress while CDC still listing it publicly as research that disproves a vaccine autism connection:

Julie Gerberding Tells Congress That The Verstraeten Study is Junk!

Next, as sampling of her brilliant track record and descent into mockable absurdity:

The Age of Autism: CDC Probes Vaccines

AJC: Autism Controversy Eats at Credibility of CDC

Time: Troubles at the CDC

Julie Gerberding: Getting out the BIG shovel

Another Call for Julie Gerberding's Resignation

CDC: Out of Excuses on the Autism Study that "Should be Done"

Julie Gerberding is Doing an Awsome Job

It Is Time for Julie Gerberding to Step Down

Jenny McCarthy Calls For Julie Gerberding's Resignation

An Invitation to Julie Gerberding to Help Her Find the Missing Information on Autism

Wait! Did Julie Gerberding Just Admit that Vaccines Trigger Autism!?

Our Julie in her Finest Hour trying to convince us that vaccines do and do not cause autism:

Julie Gerberding Admits on CNN that Vaccines can Trigger Autism







Julie digging the hole deeper:

Hey Dr. Gerberding.. What is this "Autism-Like Syndrome"

Gerberding Axes 9/11 Health Official

This is one of my favorites... a video of Julie NOT lying.  I was so used to her rehearsed, condescending autism denials that when I saw her talking normally about something that was actually true, that smoking is bad for you, I was a little shocked at the stark difference in her demeanor.

Watch Julie Gerberding Not Lie

The relief when she finally went away:

Julie Gerberding Has Resigned

Julie's sly return while working for PHARMA but pretending that she was still a public health official:

Julie Gerberding Now Officially a Paid Pharma Shill Withholding her Conflicts of Interest

Confirmation that she was acting as a swine flu salesman as a part of the "Edelman Global Task Force on H1N1 Influenza":

Of vaccines, mercury, autism and Julie Gerberding

And finally, her assention to the fruit of her labor selling out the children of the world:

WSJ: Merck Appoints Former CDC Chief As Head Of Vaccines

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Merck & Co. (MRK) named former public-health authority Julie Gerberding as the head of the company's $5 billion vaccines business, starting Jan. 25.

Gerberding was the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through most of President George W. Bush's administration, from 2002 until earlier this year.

Vaccines, along with emerging markets and biologics, are an area Merck is eyeing for growth as it digests its recent acquisition of Schering-Plough Corp. The takeover was designed to help bolster Merck's research pipeline and diversify its product lineup in the face of challenges such as generic competition and setbacks in bringing new drugs to market.

Merck's previous head of vaccines, Margaret McGlynn, recently retired.

The appointment of Gerberding brings Merck a step closer to rounding out its post-Schering senior leadership team, most of which had been announced in late August but which still had a few holes. Last week, the company named a chief medical officer, Michael Rosenblatt, who had been dean of Tufts University's medical school.

Also, Merck earlier this month named Michael Kamarck as president of Merck BioVentures and senior vice president of vaccines and biologics manufacturing, said spokeswoman Amy Rose. Merck BioVentures is the unit Merck created last year to develop so-called follow-on biologics, or new versions of drugs derived from living cells.

Kamarck was previously head of technical operations and product supply at Wyeth, which was acquired by Pfizer Inc. (PFE). Frank Clyburn, who previously led Merck BioVentures, has been named senior vice president of global pharmaceuticals franchises.

Merck continues to search for a permanent head of its consumer health-care unit, a business largely inherited via the Schering deal, and which sells Coppertone sunscreen among other products. Stanley Barshay is interim leader of the business.

Merck Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Clark on Monday called Gerberding a "preeminent authority in public health, infectious diseases and vaccines."

As president of the vaccines business, she will be responsible for the sale of the company's current portfolio of vaccines, the introduction of vaccines from the company's pipeline and the acceleration of Merck's efforts to broaden vaccinations in developing countries. Gerberding will also collaborate with Merck's manufacturing division and Merck Research Laboratories to manage links between basic research, late-stage development and manufacturing.

Merck shares were recently up 2.25% at $38.24 amid a broad market rally.

-By Joan E. Solsman, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2291; joan.solsman@dowjones.com

(Peter Loftus in Philadelphia contributed to this article.)

Again... Congratulations Julie. With your nightmare of a record and history of now confirmed corruption, I can only imagine the destruction that any product under your supervision will be able to do to the children of the world.

Un-frickin-believable... the hubris of these people.

Are there no whistle blowers that will tell the truth about what has happened from the inside? Is no one at CDC disgusted enough with this to speak up?

UPDATE:

Just got this email from Louise Kuo Habakus at Life Health Choices:

"It’ll be old home week when she joins… Eddy Bresnitz, NJ’s former state epidemiologist and deputy commissioner of health, was responsible for mandating seasonal flu and Hib vaccines before he skipped off to Merck to head up adult vaccines".

Another Update:

Someone sent me this bit of info:

Julie G. also landed on this board. With Accordia, she'll be able to get the UN and Gates Foundation to pay for Merck's products for distribution in the third world.

Of course, she will continue to tap the US Treasury to transfer American tax dollars to Merck.

CDC Looks to Force Vaccines on a National Scale

Today Thomas R. Frieden, head of CDC appeared before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to testify on H1N1 and in a response to a question from Congressman Darrell Issa, said that the CDC would like to create federal mandates forcing vaccines on the public.

Issa asked about the "push back" from the New York medical professionals to the states mandate that they receive the H1N1 and seasonal flu shot and the case that the state has for forcing the vaccines. Frieden expressed the opinion that he believed that the state mandate is warranted, and that he thinks such mandates should take place at a federal level, although not this year.

This echos Julie Gerberding's comments to the New York Times last week in regard to the NY manndate that CDC wanted to implement forced vaccines while she was there.

"The unions do not oppose vaccination “but we oppose a mandatory program,” he said. “This is: ‘You don’t get the shot, you’re fired.’ ”

Some prominent health experts, however, were delighted.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called New York’s move “a big deal.”

She had pushed for years for mandatory vaccinations — not just to protect health care workers, she explained, but to protect their patients, who are often aged, have weakened immune systems or are bedridden after surgery, which increases pneumonia risks.

“We tried to market the idea, to push people, to educate,” she said. “But looking back, broadly speaking, we failed. It’s time to look at a more aggressive approach.”

By contrast, her successor, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, said last month that even though he expected a surge in swine flu deaths this winter and even though C.D.C. guidelines give health care workers first priority for the new vaccine, he would not push to make vaccinations mandatory."

Apparently the NYT was only partially right that Frieden wouldn't push for forced vaccinations. He wants to force them, just not this year.

Video can be found here, Issa/Frieden discussion starts at 43:20.

UPDATE: Listening to Frieden again, I can't tell if he is talking about mandating vaccines for health care workers or for the general public. Not that either are acceptable. But I don't think that a mandate for health professionals would be anything but a precedent for mass forced vaccination.

Julie Gerberding Now Officially a Paid Pharma Shill Withholding her Conflicts of Interest

Your favorite CDC director and mine, Julie Gerberding, is back to help ABC news scare you into vaccinating with the rushed and poorly tested H1N1 flu shot by using the now tried and true, "On no... there's gonna be a vaccine shortage, get yours now", offense in their piece:


"Swine Flu: Should We Be Worried?
Possible 'Global Grab' for Swine Flu Vaccine If Faced With Shortages"

(UPDATE: After getting some criticism for scare mongering, ABC changed the title of the piece to, "CDC Downplays Swine Flu Vaccine Fears: Goverment Health Officials Say U.S. Preparations Should Preclude Risk of Shortage")

A few years back, there was an actual seasonal flu shot shortage because of a failure in manufacturing, and the news reported on it. To everyone's surprise, people RAN to get shots, even waiting in long lines. More people got flu shots that year than ever.

So now, they do it every year just before the fall. Get your flu shots before they run out! So of course the are using this tactic with swine flu (FYI, I listened in on the HHS National Biodefense Science Board meeting today on the Swine Flu and they are expecting to have tens of millions of vaccines available by September 15th [or sooner] and more than 190 million available by October, that is most of the US just in the first two months of flu season)

After the scare piece, Dr. Gerberding is introduced to us for a short interview thusly:

"Joining us now from Atlanta, the former head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Julie Gerberding. ... do you have an update on when that vaccine might be available?

Dr. Gerberding shares with us:

Well if everything goes well, we should have vaccine early in the fall. But we've never had the luxury of being able to count on vaccine as the magic bullet in the early months. We know there is not going to be enough globally, and it will be many months before we can even cover our own population under the best scenario...

I am sure the public feels reassured about the vaccine by seeing the familiar face of a public health official talking about "magic" vaccines.

Except that Dr. Gerberding is not a public health official any more. She is now a PR consultant.

Gerberding left CDC in January at the request of the Obama administration and subsequently went to work for the global giant PR firm Edelman as an "adviser on global health strategy".

And Edelman represents PHARMA. And AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and Johnson & Johnson.

And Merck.

Edelman gave us the "One Less" campaign.



From PR Watch:

"The PR genius behind all stages of Merck's HPV and Gardasil campaigns is the PR giant Edelman. The world's largest independent PR firm, Edelman boasts more than 2,100 employees working in 46 wholly owned offices worldwide, plus the additional resources of more than 50 affiliates. They report $299 million in revenues for FY 2006. In addition to Merck, Edelman works on behalf of the industry lobby group PhRMA, as well as some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Novartis, Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories, and Johnson & Johnson. They proudly promote their health-related expertise as being adept in pioneering "health relationships with health care companies, advocacy organizations, foundations, NGOs and academic institutions." Co-optation, anyone?"

And INFOTAB, Big Tobacco's marketing group:

Edelman has made a name for itself outside of the pharmaceutical realm as well. A key chapter in Edelman's long and sordid history is their work on behalf of Big Tobacco. For example, in 1978, Edelman, working on behalf of R.J. Reynolds, produced a document titled Taking the Initiative on the Smoking Issue: A Total Program. The introduction states "The public mind-set against cigarettes is so firm that one cannot conscientiously promise miracles from the campaign suggested here. But we believe this program, executed effectively, can begin to slow or reverse the growing negative trends in public opinion regarding smoking; can stimulate a more balanced media coverage of smoking; and can generate a more congenial dialogue between smokers and non-smokers.... (Read that whole article.)"

Nice eh?

(Especially considering Gerberding was trying to end smoking at CDC, but then went to work for a PR firm that promotes smoking.)

In fact Richard Edelman, Dr. Gerberding's boss, is quite open about the fact that he makes his living by lying to the public creative truthing.

“In this era of exploding media technologies there is no truth except the truth you create for yourself.” – Richard Edelman

Edelman put his skills to work in praising Gerberding:

"Just prior to Dr. Julie Gerberding’s January 2009 resignation as Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, advertising industry mogul Richard Edelman praised her as a “selfless crusader, a throw-back to a time when public service was the highest calling.” Edelman cited Gerberding’s ability in “humanizing communications” and “the need to tell stories to buttress traditional CDC reliance on science and facts.”

So there you have it. Today Dr. Gerberding has come full circle from a public health official making ridiculous statements that shilled for PHARMA, to a PHARMA shill posing as a public health official.

Same schtick, just someone else signing a bigger check to her.

Watching this again, how could we have not just assumed that she would go into public relations.




UPDATE: Apparently the good doctor has begun making the rounds offering up a 'live healthy' message, that begins with slipping in a subtle message that is in the interests of PHARMA.

The day after the ABC interview, this opinion piece surfaced:

Gerberding: Will health reform make us healthier?

Robert Reich reported that Pharma was trying to kill part of the health reform bill that would drive down drug prices.

Julie is as entitled to her opinion as I am to mine, however she is not disclosing her conflicts of interest.

What are my conflicts of interest, you ask? Well in five years of blogging I have received about $1,850 in donations from individuals and ad sales from Lee Silsby (I discontinued ads cause I don't wanna mess with it). That works out to about $1.71 per blog post, as I have written 1082 of them.

My child is not in the Vaccine Injury Compensation pipeline and we are not suing anyone over anything.

Another Update: Another day, another new Gerberding article. Nothing since she left CDC in January, and now three in three days.

This one is her in Forbes praising NYC for its trans-fat ban.

I didn't see any conflicts of interest there. But I thought surely they woman would not just be talking about good health for the sake of her health.

Then tonight I realized that her successor at CDC, Thomas R. Frieden, was the NYC Health Commissioner who put the trans-fat ban in place. Well no conflict of interest there, just praising her successor.

But then I did another search on Edelman and Source Watch says that Edelman has some government PR contracts. I wonder if CDC is one of those government contracts.

Edelman and Gerberding met working together at a CDC Foundation where he was on the board. I wonder if that won him a contract.

I wonder if Edelman and co. were responsible for her "Pretty in Pink" makeover for the CNN interview? The change in her look was dramatic.

I will see if I can find out if there is a formal relationship between CDC and Edelman PR.

Update: On January 25th 2010, after a legally mandated one year waiting period, Julie Gerberding took her new position as the head of the vaccine division of Merck.

Julie Gerberding Named Head of Merck Vaccines


Addendum:

Recently I watched the BBC Documentary, "The Century of the Self", which details how Sigmund Freud's theories on the human psyche were used by his nephew to give birth to the PR industry. It was truly astonishing to see how we have been abused for a hundred years.

I am tacking it on to the end of this post as it is relevant.

Take the time to watch this four hour series. It is quite the wake up call to start thinking for yourself.

I have considered my self psych and media savvy, but I had no idea how many of my decisions had been made for me.

“We must shift America from a needs to a desires culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old have been entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man’s desires must over shadow his needs.”

- Paul Mazer, Public Relations, Lehman Brothers in the 1930’s

Julie Gerberding Has Resigned

CNN is reporting that the current head of the CDC has resigned effective January 20th. Mike Leavitt, current head of HHS asked for her resignation along with several other senior officials at CDC. Gerberding will be replaced by William H. Gimson, COO, will take over as interim director until a new director is appointed by the Obama administration.

Does this seem odd to anyone? Why would the current head of HHS get rid of the head of CDC and place an interim director rather than just leaving her there for Tom Daschle, new head of HHS, to do as he likes with the staffing? Is there some reason that Leavitt does not want Gerberding and her associates to be under the purview of and answering to, Tom Daschle and Barack Obama?

Leavitt explained his move this way: "The next phase of Transition involves the departure of our team on January 20, and the arrival of President-elect Obama's team later that day," his e-mail said. "In order to create a clear path for leadership transition, I am attaching a list of senior leaders who will become the acting heads of their respective agencies and offices (or in some cases, remain as heads of their respective agencies and offices) until the new administration appoints individuals to various leadership positions."

Is this normal? Are other agencies in the US government resigning and putting interim people in place on Jan 20th?

Don't get me wrong... I am thrilled to see her go. Trying not to be giddy about it frankly. But this strikes me as the same kind of thing as moving the Vaccine Safety Datalink overseas so it can't be accessed. Gerberding will have lots of damning information that she would have to give up to the new administration if she still worked for the US Government. Best move the source of that information out of the reach of those who are in position to ask the questions that Leavitt/Bush don't want asked.

(Clinton's CDC director stayed on almost two years into the Bush administration)

Anyone wanna start bets on where our friend Julie will land? Eli Lilly? Merck perhaps?

Well Good bye and good riddance Julie. I hope that the knowledge that a generation of children were severely developmentally disabled by your policies keeps you awake at night, just like the kids you made sick and their parents are awake at night, until you decide to do the right thing and tell the truth.

And for those of you interested in just why I hold Dr. Gerberding in such disdain, here is an overview of the premium quality Bullshit that she shoveled in regard to the autism epidemic that is crippling our country (and our family).

And here, again, is Julie in her finest hour:





UPDATE:

The AJC is reporting that the Obama administration asked for her removal. Sorta.

The headline reads: "CDC director Gerberding resigns at Obama’s request"

But the text of the article just says "the Administration" requested the resignation, with out saying if they were referring to the Obama administration or the Bush administration. And the next "administration" that they referr to in the following sentence is Bush. So it is not clear if the headline is correct and Obama asked for her removal.

“As part of the transition process, the Administration requested resignation letters from a number of senior-level officials, including Dr. Julie Gerberding. This week, the Administration accepted Dr. Gerberding’s resignation, effective January 20. As Dr. Gerberding noted in a November e-mail to CDC leadership, she has always expected that she would be leaving after the administration changes,” the written statement said..

The article goes on to describe some of the mess that was Gerberdings CDC.

UPDATE: So apparently this replacement senario is happening with FDA as well, along with most of the health agencies. Is it ONLY the health agencies?

Most health agency heads replaced before Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most of the heads of the U.S. agencies under the Health and Human Services Department will be replaced by their deputies by January 20, when Barack Obama is sworn in as president, employees learned on Friday.

An e-mail issued on Friday evening listed all of the agency heads who will go, ranging from the director of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to the head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Incoming presidents traditionally name the heads of agencies, especially with a change of party. Obama, a Democrat, is replacing Republican George W. Bush.

Obama has named Tom Daschle, a former senator, to be head of the Health and Human Services Department. Daschle has said he will act quickly to name permanent new heads of agencies such as the FDA.

Here is a list of some of the affected agencies:

FDA - Frank Torti, now principal deputy commissioner and chief scientist, will replace Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.

CDC - William Gimson, now chief operating officer, will replace Dr. Julie Gerberding, who resigned this week.

Rear Adm. Steven Galson is already the acting U.S. surgeon-general.

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services - Charlene Frizzera, now chief operating officer, will replace acting director Kerry Weems.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - Dr. Carolyn Clancy will stay on as director.

Administration for Children and Families - Curtis Coy, now deputy assistant secretary for administration, will replace Daniel Schneider.

National Institutes of Health - Raynard Kington is already acting director after Dr. Elias Zerhouni resigned last year.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - Eric Broderick will stay on as acting administrator.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

UPDATE: Salon.com's rundown of the damage she did:

But her tenure also proved controversial:

-- She instituted a large, morale-damaging reorganization of the agency that triggered an exodus of admired agency scientists. Gerberding said the changes made the CDC stronger. But in 2005, five previous CDC directors wrote Gerberding a joint letter expressing their concern about what was happening to the agency.

-- A 2004 medical journal article co-authored by Gerberding said obesity was about to overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States, but CDC officials later reported they had overstated the increase in obesity-related deaths by about 35,000. The mistake was blamed on a computer software error.

-- After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the agency was criticized for being slow to respond to survivors' complaints about formaldehyde fumes in trailers that had been provided by the government.

-- In 2007, she was criticized for going along with the White House's editing of her Senate testimony on the impact of climate change on health, which involved deletion of key portions citing diseases that could flourish in a warmer climate.

UPDATE: The Daily Kos parties as Julie Departs.

and

CDCChatter.net, unofficial hangout of CDC employees seems to breathing a collective sigh of relief. A few quotes:

So many takes, so little time. But the one I--and I dare say others--have found to be the most egregious and damaging is the placement of people into management positions that have absolutely no business being managers, and all the widespread fallout related to it. For example, being a good scientist doesn't automatically qualify someone as good manager material (nor vice versa, of course). Yet such square pegs seem to have been REPEATEDLY pounded into way too many round holes during Gerberding's tenure, to the detriment of many good people and amazing scientists, educators, analysts, programmers, etc. And really, "detriment" nowhere near captures the extent of the impact some have had to endure (myself included); in these cases, "destruction" is more than fair. Moreover, they often KNEW they were doing it. Even in the face of mounting internal and external scrutiny, mass staff exodus (either completely out of the agency or fleeing in droves from certain areas/managers within CDC to another), EEO complaints, direct staff protest, and so on, highly questionable people (to put it lightly) have been put in charge time and time again. As a result, I've painfully observed and myself experienced divisions, sections, teams and, most tragic of all, people, literally come apart at the seams.

Indeed it was the placement of people in key positions who had no background in the science and purpose of public health. An inordinate amount of attention was paid to centralizing decisions that effectively marginalized the judgement and experience of experienced qualified experts. Basic knowledge of public health functions was not a core value of the reorganization. It was more about creating endless levels of "executive" and other boards that have resulted in nothing of any matter happening at all. Enormous expenditures were engaged to centralize goals, dialogue, and decision making that would have been best left to those closest to the real work of this agency. At a time when inovative, young companies were moving towards flat hierarchy structures, the reorganization aimed to create a multi-layered structure that protected the power of the director and marginalized the highly trained (from new hire to experienced oldsters) who became "content experts" for communication strategies and the like.

Ding dong the witch is dead...
When every dictator falls the new leaders must clean out those who collaborated with the fallen regime. All JLu's Yes-men must be swept out and take the Coordinating Centers, Goals, SBU, and SSPU with them.

For six years, Julie has been the Great OZ, with all the smoke and fire. She goes no where, does nothing, without the Wizard behind the curtain- William Gimson. Bill, who just happens to have a Masters in Business Administration. Ironic how "Futures" took a "business" like structure, with some perverse modifications. How many examples do we need, before we realize that Julie was just the "face", while Bill was the "power"?
I hope that who ever come into this office, has a broom and sledge hammer. Dismantle the Julie-Bill (et al) "management" clones along with the deeper and wider silos of Futures. Knock down the Centers. While at it, remind the Information Technology people of their purpose, who they work for and that without the clients, they have no reason to exist. Same can be said going up the "food chain".

"Ding-dong..." isn't right. Its been, "Ignore that man behind the curtain!"

David Kirby: The Growing List of Professionals Recognizing the Vaccine/Autism Connection

From David Kirby:

The List Keeps Growing
By David Kirby

It’s getting harder to keep up with the list of scientists, doctors, and public health officials who now believe that a vaccine-autism connection is at the least possible, and should be researched further.

Earlier this week, Dr. Peter Fletcher, former Chief Scientific Officer at the UK Department of Health was added. Now, eight more prominent researchers have joined the group. (See list below – they are the last eight names added).

These are the authors of the new study, “Mitochondrial Disease in Autism Spectrum Disorder Patients: A Cohort Analysis,” who did chart reviews on Hannah Poling and two dozen other young people with autism and mitochondrial dysfunction.

In my opinion, it could well prove to be one of the most significant autism studies published to date. (My Huffington Post article on this is HERE:

Mito disorders, which might affect 7-to-30 percent of all children with ASD, can predispose kids to developmental regression following a stressful trigger. Such a trigger might come from a febrile infection – or it could conceivably come from a vaccine reaction, the authors wrote.

“There might be no difference between the inflammatory or catabolic (breaking down of tissue) stress of vaccinations and that of common childhood diseases, which are known precipitants of mitochondrial regression,” they said.

And then they wrote this: “Large, population-based studies will be needed to identify a possible relationship of vaccination with autistic regression in persons with mitochondrial cytopathies (cellular disorders).”

And so, they get added to the list.

The list keeps changing in other ways. For example, late last spring it listed, “all three presidential candidates” (Obama, Clinton and McCain). Soon enough, that will be changed to US President, Secretary of State, and a pivotal and potentially filibuster-busting Senator from Arizona.

Another change: Before, the list said, “Autism researchers at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center.” Now, those people can be named, along with their colleagues: Investigators at the Cleveland Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital. I have also listed a Harvard scientist who sits on an advisory panel of the federal Inter-Agency Autism Committee (IACC).

It makes you wonder how long the term “fringe” can seriously be applied to people who believe that this debate is not over.

Finally, keep your eye on the draft National Vaccine Plan at HHS, especially this January - right around the time the nation gets a new HHS Secretary and, reportedly, a new Director of the CDC – both of whom could potentially be added to the list, as well.

-----------------------------------------------

In 2008, the following groups and individuals have advocated, or at least considered, further study of a possible vaccine-autism connection:

1) Presidenti-Elect Barack Obama,
2) Sen. Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Designee
3) Sen. John McCain, Senior Senator from Arizona and pivotal minority vote
4) Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the CDC
5) Dr. Bernadine Healy, Former Director of the NIH and President of the American Red Cross
6) Rep. Brad Miller, (D-NC), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the House Committee on Science and Technology
7) Members of the HHS Vaccine Safety Working Group
8) Officials at the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office who drafted the federal vaccine safety research agenda, the National Vaccine Plan
9) Medical personnel at the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program of HHS, who ordered federal compensation to Hannah Poling for her vaccine-associated autism.
10) Members of the CDC’s Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment Network (CISA)
11) America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the national association representing nearly 1,300 companies covering more than 200 million Americans
12) Research grant making officials at Autism Speaks
13) Dr. Douglas Wallace, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, Director of the UCI Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine in Genetics, and member of the Scientific & Medical Advisory Board of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation
14) Dr. Peter Fletcher, former Chief Scientific Officer at the UK Department of Health
15) Dr. Jon Poling, prominent neurologist and father to Hannah Poling
16) Dr. Isaac Pessah, Professor and Chair, VM: Molecular Biosciences,
Director, Center for Children’s Environmental Health, University of California, Davis, and member of the Strategic Planning Workgroup for Autism Spectrum Disorders of the federal Inter-Agency Autism Committee (IACC).
17) Dr. Martha Herbert, Assistant Professor, Pediatric Neurology Director, Transcend Research Program, Harvard Medical School, and member of the Strategic Planning Workgroup for Autism Spectrum Disorders of the federal Inter-Agency Autism Committee (IACC).
18) Dr. Geraldine Dawson, Chief Science Officer, Autism Speaks, and member of the Strategic Planning Workgroup for Autism Spectrum Disorders of the federal Inter-Agency Autism Committee (IACC).
19) Dr. Jacqueline R. Weissman, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
20) Dr. Richard I. Kelley, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and Division of Metabolism, Kennedy Krieger Institute
21) Dr. Margaret L. Bauman, Department of Pediatrics and Learning and Developmental Disabilities Evaluation and Rehabilitation Services (LADDERS), Massachusetts General Hospital
22) Dr. Bruce H. Cohen, Neurological Institute and Pediatrics Institute, Cleveland Clinic
23) Dr. Katherine F. Murray, Genomic Department of Pediatrics and Learning and Developmental Disabilities Evaluation and Rehabilitation Services (LADDERS), Massachusetts General Hospital
24) Dr. Rebecca L. Mitchell, Genomic Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic
25) Dr. Rebecca L. Kern, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University Medical Center and Division of Metabolism, Kennedy Krieger Institute
26) Dr. Marvin R. Natowicz, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine


“HONORARY MEMBER”:

HHS Secretary Designee Tom Daschel, who said in November of 2002: “Mercury-based vaccine preservatives actually have caused autism in children.”

CDC States that Chemical Exposures Will Be Shown to Cause Autism

I am a little speechless.

Apparently David Kirby has attained some sort of Jedi mastery and has gotten the Centers for Disease Control, The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Minnesota Department of Public Health snapping to attention to answer his questions. And all in one day!

One letter full of questions to each of them has elicited lengthy responses and more promised to come. This is in stark contrast to CDC's response to him in 2005. He wrote a big fat book about their malfeasance and their only response was to post a note on their web site that they were reading the book and would respond, and then just took down the notice a few months later with out ever responding.

Some sort of fire has been lit under some asses somewhere. Could it be in response to the rumor that Julie Gerberding is on her way out, and during her lame duckiness everyone is scrambling to make themselves look like they were doing the right thing all along so that if/when Secretary Daschel walks in the door on Jan 21 and asks to see the Poling files, their flesh will not burn under the white hot sunshine that starts to flood the place?

(Now you know what I dream about at night).

I will let you read for yourself, but the highlight of the work is this statement from CDC, in fact Julie Gerberding's officer itself, that Chemical Exposure will be shown to be one of the causes of autism through "today's research".

"While it is important to understand if autism is affecting any group of children disproportionately, it is also important to keep in mind that there are likely multiple causes of the autism spectrum of disorders. Most scientists agree that today's research will show that a person's genetic profile may make them more or less susceptible to ASDs as a result of any number of factors such as infections, the physical environment, chemical exposures, or psychosocial components."
-CDC Director’s Office of Enterprise Communication (OEC)

Oh... and they also mentioned that infections may cause autism as well.

Minnesota and the CDC Confer on Somali Autism Situation: CDC’s Office of the Director: Autism May Result from “Chemical Exposures”.

Every Child By Two Wants to Take the Vaccine Debate to Oprah

Amy Pisani, director of Every Child By Two, (a vaccine advocacy non-profit funded by Pharma) has asked her supporters to write to the Oprah show and ask "that she dedicate a show to the science behind the question of whether vaccines cause autism".

We here at Adventures in Autism think that is a GREAT idea.

It is LONG past time to have an ACTUAL public debate between physicians, researchers and parent advocates that believe that there is a link and those that think there is not, an ACTUAL debate on the merits of the arguement. Have your opponent right there to respond, rather than just having AAP and CDC issue statements that they cannot be questioned on.

As a matter of fact Pamela Felice of The Educated Parent got in touch with Oprah earlier this year and asked for exactly that.

So if you are so inclined, I would encourage you to write to the Oprah show and let them know that you would like to see such a debate, not just Paul Offit and ECBT being given an hour to say whatever they want unchallenged, but an actual, equal time, debate.

Time and time again, those of us on this side of the debate have requested that CDC/AAP/those who deny the vaccine autism connection appear on TV alongside us to actually debate the issue, but apart from Larry King's program last spring with Jenny McCarthy, that request is pretty much universally turned down. And CDC would not even show up to sit next to AAP on Larry King. They just issued one of those damn statements to be read.

Is the topic of a vaccine/autism connection is of so little importance, and so little concern to the American public, that they can't spare one single person to show up and talk about it?

So we thank Ms. Pisani for being willing to participate in this public debate. Let Oprah know that this is the debate that you have been waiting to see!

Dear Oprah,

I am the mother of a child who regressed into autism following his 18 month vaccinations. I have been reading and writing about the vaccine/autism connection for four years and believe that there is more than sufficient evidence to prove a link.

More importantly, apparently so does the Department of Health and Human Services as they have been quietly paying children with vaccine induced autism from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund for more than 15 years now, and they list the symptoms of autism under vaccine induced 'acute encephalopathy' on the VICP's web site. In addition, the head of the CDC, Julie Gerberding, went on CNN this spring and said that vaccines trigger autism in a subset of the population.

It is been incredibly frustrating to see advocates of the vaccine autism connection, like Jenny McCarthy, appear on national programs like yours to discuss it, and hear that CDC/HHS ubiquitously refuses to appear along side them and have an actual debate and be questioned on their claims. Instead they issue a statement to be read at the end of the show that they can never be questioned on.

Do they think that this is not an important enough issue for them to send one person to speak on their behalf? If the science is so sound that vaccines don't cause autism, then why are they so afraid to show up and be questioned on it?

However, it is my understanding that Amy Pisani of Every Child By Two has contacted the show and asked for an episode on the autism/vaccine connection, and I am writing to support her in her request. What this country needs is OPEN debate on this issue between physicians/researchers and parents on both sides on what the science really says, what the science is silent on, and who is overstating their case.

I think that Ms. Pisani has envisioned an hour for her and her experts (ECBT is funded by pharmaceutical companies) to extol the virtues of vaccines and ignore the questions and points that parents like me and our physicians would make, but honestly, that is pretty much what has been going on in this country for the last decade.

So instead, I hope you will consider Pamela Felice's request to your show from last spring:

With autism awareness month approaching in April and in light of the recent court ruling regarding Hannah Polling's vaccine related autism, I thought it might be interesting for Oprah to host a debate on the topic of vaccine safety.

Some suggested guests might include; David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm, Dr. Robert Sears, Author of The Vaccine Book , Dr. Boyd Haley, head of the Chemistry Dept at Kentucky State University, Dr. Jerry Kertzinel, the DAN! Dr. treating Jenny McCarthy's son and Barbbra Lowe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Ctr. on the Critic side.

Possible panelists who support the current vaccine program might include, Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the CDC, a representative of the American
Academy of Pediatrics and/or a representative of Every Child By Two.

Personally, I would like to see Bernadine Healey expound on her understanding of the state of the research and why she is of the opinion that we can't no longer say that vaccines don't cause autism, or neurologist Jon Poling explain his understanding of the relationship between vaccine induced autism and undiagnosed mitochondrial disorders.

Thank you for your attention this vital issue.
Ginger Taylor, M.S.
AdventuresInAutism.com

Watch Julie Gerberding Not Lie

I was doing a search on Julie Gerberding when I came across some surprising video.  Julie Gerberding talking candidly about smoking.

What was surprising to me was hearing her talk like a normal person.  She spoke off the cuff about her thoughts on smoking and health policy, and she was not the least bit full of crap when she did it.

Now I have only heard her talk about vaccines and autism, and the person that she is when she talks about these two topics is not at all the person I see in the above video.  When she talks about autism and vaccines she is rehearsed and condescending and carefully threads the needle with very specific, very qualified, very evasive language.  (Watch the CNN video again, both the questions and her answers are pretty clearly from a script)  Not in a million years would I expect to hear Julie speak extemporaneously on vaccine safety.

If there was ever any doubt that Julie was spouting bullshit when talking about vaccines and autism, it is dealt a death blow by hearing her talk about something else.

Nothing like hearing some one tell the truth to figure out when they are lying.  

...also it is kinda funny to hear her talk about the stupidity of knowingly giving toxins to kids via cigarettes.

Congressmen and 9/11 Responders Pissed at Bush/Gerberding for Firing John Howard

Congress Members, Responders Decry NIOSH Director’s Firing

... and if our Julie responds like usual, she will just ignore them.

"Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), accompanied by World Trade Center responders gathered Tuesday at Ground Zero to demand that the Bush administration reverse its decision to fire Dr. John Howard, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. As NIOSH director, Howard administered federally funded health care programs for 9/11 first responders exposed to Ground Zero toxins.

Also yesterday, Maloney, Nadler, and Reps. Eliot Engel and Edolphus Towns sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding demanding a meeting this week to discuss Howard’s firing. In a related effort, New York Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer also on Tuesday sent a letter to Leavitt urging him to reconsider the termination of Howard and calling for a detailed account of the reasons he was removed from his position.

“Only the Bush Administration would fire a respected public servant who has received near-universal praise for doing a good job,” Maloney said. “Dr. Howard is out of a job because he wanted to help the heroes of 9/11 and his superiors didn’t. We demand that the administration take back this outrageous slap at sick 9/11 responders and reappoint Dr. Howard to a well-deserved second term.”..."

Gerberding should have been fired years ago. I have lost track of all the things people have wanted her fired for.

Why does she still have a job?

Oh... because she does whatever the administration tells her to, even if it is completely unethical, constitutes lying to the American Public and endangers the health of those it is her job to protect.

Cheney's staff censored EPA, ex-official alleges

Has anyone noticed that there is a thread running through all her malfeasance?

All of it is in defense of toxins in one form or another.

Gerberding Axes 9/11 Health Official

By all accounts Dr. John Howard was taking care of the people who got sick from 9/11.

So of course Julie had to fire him.

Can't have health professionals actually doing their job well, it will make her look bad!

Hey Dr. Gerberding.. What is this "Autism-Like Syndrome"

"While we recognize, and have recognized, mitochondrial disorders are associated with... autism-like syndrome, there is nothing about this situation that should be generalized to the risks of vaccines for normal children," said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. - The Washington Post

Hey Julie... What is this "Autism-Like Syndrome" you speak of?

How does it differ from actual "Autism"?

Does my child have "Autism" or "Autism-Like Syndrome"?

Where is my resource to find out about this "Autism-Like Syndrome" that CDC has recognized both now and in the past that is associated with mitochondrial disorders? I have checked the CDC's web site and can't find anything.

Are there some case studies you can point me to?

Is this the same as the "Symptoms of Autism" that Hannah Poling got from her Vaccines?

Is this the same thing as "Vaccine Induced Encephalopathy"? 'Cause that has the symptoms of autism too.

Is CDC going to put out an "Autism-Like Syndrome Alarm" like the Autism Alarm that you put out for pediatricians so that they can tell the difference between these syndromes, correctly diagnose their patients and get them appropriate care?

What about a "Vaccine Induced Encephalopathy Alarm"? I just talked to a soon to be pediatrician graduating from med school who said she was not taught about Vaccine Induced Encephalopathy. She had never heard of it. Pretty poor on the medical establishments part not to teach their own doctors to look for known, permanent, kinda brain damagie side effects of pharmaceuticals that they are administering DOZENS OF TIMES A DAY!

Wait... CDC lady... aren't you the one who is supposed to be setting standards for medical care in this country? Have you not made sure that medical doctors look for medical conditions like Vaccine Induced Encephalopathy that explains "Autism Like" symptoms right off the bat?

I mean shouldn't doctors rule that out first before jumping to a psychological diagnosis of Autism with 'no cause and no cure'?

And how can they rule out that diagnosis if they are never even taught of it's existence? Hmmmm....

... and what about your comment about not generalizing vaccine damage in children with mitochondrial disorders to "normal" children? Which are the "normal" children?

Hannah Poling seemed to everyone a "normal" child before her vaccine induced, mitochondrial related, regression into "encephalopathy" with "autism like" "symptoms" that was diagnosed as "autism".

My son was "normal" too. Or was he? How can I know?

If we can't see the not "normal" kids with the naked eye, then why are we not testing for not "normal"? Or should pediatricians just be checking birth certificates for any child named "Abby Normal" and assume THAT is the "rare" child who has an undiagnosed mito disorder and will get "Autism Like Syndrome" from vaccines?

Come to think of it, if Hannah didn't show any outward symptoms that she was not "normal", how can ANY parent know that their baby is "normal"?

This is all so confusing for my tiny little, desperate, emotional, non vaccine expert, parent mind. I better rest it before I give myself a headache.

So many questions... absolutely no answers.

Speaking of no answers, I have been emailing CDC since March asking for those "15 good studies" that CDC stands behind and is basing it's "no link between vaccines and autism" stance on. I just keep getting responses that CDC will get back to me.

It has been three months. If you don't have 15 good studies that prove no link, then can you just send me a note to that effect so I can stop bugging you guys every two weeks?

But seriously...

When is the media going to stop giving CDC a pass on these increasingly absurd statements? Shankar Vedantam is given the chance to actually question a 'vaccine expert' who is an autism dad and should have answered to these essential questions to his satisfaction before spiking the vaccine autism connection, and there is no sign that any of these important questions were even considered. But we did find out that Hotez is insulted at the idea that anyone would cover up a vaccine/autism connection.

Has the medical community not noticed that we don't care if anyone is insulted by this anymore? Because that concern was last seen somewhere in the spring of 2004 around the time of the IOM "don't even bother looking at vaccines" decision. And the Simpsonwood transcripts put the last nail in that coffin.


Dear Media,

DO YOUR JOB!

Autistic children have been being paid from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund for more than 15 years!!! How many clues do you need that there is a big fat link between vaccines and autism before you call shenanigans on the AAP, CDC and HHS!

How much easily disprovable "Bullshit" do they need to shovel for you guys to report that their story is not adding up?

... and Shankar, I feel for the thousands of African children struggling with diseases that I have never heard of before, but the reason that I have never heard of them before, is because they are not a threat to my American child. Please stop trying to change the subject of the American autism epidemic by mentioning that other diseases exist in other places. Either vaccines can cause autism or they can't. The fact that they also may or may not help with other illness does not change that. Safety and effectiveness are two different issues.

... and please stop falling for this "talking about vaccines and diet treatments distracts from genetic biomarkers" crap. Untold millions in research has been poured into genetic causes for three or four decades now with ZERO applicable results and with a comparative nothing going into treatments that are actually working for our kids. Do your research before quoting a college sophomore. You are using up valuable space in one of the world's most influential papers interviewing a 19 year old who 'might' study autism one day.

Julie Gerberding has already gone on TV and admitted that vaccines can cause autism and explained how it happens. Please get your head out of the sand.

God bless the few of you reporters that are out there doing your jobs for real. I hope you all get Pulitzers when this is done with.

Ginger... getting snarky and annoyed

Ken Stoller's Letter to Pediatrics on the Verstraeten Study

Thimerosal Mea Culpa from the CDC
Kenneth Stoller,Pediatrician
International Hyperbaric Medical Association

Letter sent to Pediatrics:

In 2003, Dr. Eric Coleman (LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Ethylmercury in Vaccines
Pediatrics, Apr 2003; 111: 922 - 923.) was able to have a letter printed in Pediatrics, undoubtedly because of his affiliation with the FDA, defending the decision to pull the Hep B vaccine until a Thimerosal or ethylmercury free version became available. He said the AAP and USPHS should be commended for this proactive decision for "the fact is, no preclinical or clinical studies were ever conducted to specifically examine the safety of thimerosal (ethylmercury) at the doses found when used in multiple infant and childhood vaccines. Thus, there was no conclusive evidence because there were no studies."

The Coleman letter is of historical importance because of what what took place next.
What followed was insanity. The CDC forced flawed and perhaps fabricated ecological
studies down the throats of pediatricians and the AAP. Pediatrics published the
Verstarten and Madsen studies, to name two, despite glaring methodological errors.

The CDC then used this planted intelligence, if you will, to not only defend the continued presence of Thimerosal, but to obfuscate the rising numbers of children with neurobehavioral disorders, including Autism, and controlled the IOM in the process to make it all but impossible for any one in academic medicine to point out the obvious and still be taken seriously.

Valuable time was lost for affected children and families were destroyed in the ensuing years when legitimate interventions and research could have been taking place.

Thimerosal continues to this day to be given to 3rd world children with the blessing of the WHO and without protest from those that know better within the USA. Meanwhile
the CDC line was all the "new" cases of affected children were but do to better diagnosis.

After numerous unanswered Data Quality Act complaints filed with the the CDC, Director Dr. Julie Gerberding has

produced a report

delivered to the House Appropriations Committee, in which she admits to a startling string of errors in the design and methods used in the CDC's landmark 2003 study that found no link between mercury in vaccines and autism, ADHD, speech delay or tics.

A 2006 report from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS),
concluded that the CDC's infamous Verstarten Thimerosal safety study publish in this journal was riddled with "several areas of weaknesses" that combined to "reduce the usefulness" of the study.

"CDC concurs," Dr. Gerberding wrote in an undated confession (see above link) to Congress, (provided to journalist David Kirby through a Capital Hill staffer) adding that her agency "does not plan to use" the database in question, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, (VSD) for any future "ecological studies" of autism.

In fact, Gerberding's report said, any continued use of the VSD for similar ecological studies of vaccines and autism "would be uninformative and potentially misleading."

After Verstarten revealed the link between Thimerosal and neurobehvioral disorders in the report presented to the secret Simpsonwood meeting in June of 2000 (http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/media/2.9.pdf) CDC officials conducted at least five separate analyses of the data. The first analysis revealed at Simpsonwood showed that children exposed to the most Thimerosal by one month of age had extremely high relative risks for a number of outcomes, compared with children who got little or no mercury: The relative risk for ADHD was 8.29 times higher; for autism, it was 7.62 times higher; ADD, 6.38 times higher; tics, 5.65 times; and speech and language
delays were 2.09 more likely among kids who got the most mercury.

Verstarten, who did NOT disclose to this journal that he was now an employee of vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline (not the CDC) diluted his data five times The relative risk for autism plummeted from 7.62 in the first analysis, to 2.48 in the second version, to 1.69 in the third round, to 1.52 in the fourth, and down to nothing at all in the fifth, final, and this was what was published in November of 2003 (Pediatrics 2003; 112:1039-1048).

The new and improved Verstarten VSD study was the main pillar of a hugely influential 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine, which was essentially ordered to conclude that there was no evidence of link between mercury, vaccines and autism.

The AAP published VSD study has long been held up as the best and brightest of all epidemiology studies(the others were in Sweden, the UK, and two in Denmark).

There is now not a single pediatrician in the USA who can not quote from at least the AAP (Verstarten) study.

In 2005, a group of Senators and Representatives headed by Sen. Joe Lieberman wrote to the NIEHS (an agency of the National Institutes of Health) saying that many parents no longer trusted the CDC to conduct independent minded studies of its own vaccine program. Lieberman et al asked NIEHS to review the CDC's work on the vaccine database and report back with critiques and suggestions.

The final NIEHS report detailed where the CDC went wrong in its design, conduct and analysis of the study. The NIEHS panel "identified several serious problems," with the CDC's effort, criticism to which the agency had not responded until Dr. Gerberding delived her undated report referenced above.

The NIEHS had criticized CDC for failing to account for other mercury exposures, including maternal sources from flu shots and immune globulin, as well as mercury in food and the environment.

"CDC acknowledges this concern and recognizes this limitation," the Gerberding reply
says.

The NIEHS also took CDC to task for eliminating 25% of the study population for a variety of reasons, even though this represented, "a susceptible population whose removal from the analysis might unintentionally reduce the ability to detect an effect of thimerosal." This strict entry criteria likely led to an under-ascertainment" of autism ases, the NIEHS reported.

"CDC concurs," Gerberding wrote, again noting that its study design was "not appropriate for studying this vaccine safety topic. The data are intended for administrative purposes and may not be predictive of the outcomes studied."

Another serious problem was that the HMOs changed the way they tracked and recorded autism diagnoses over time, including during the period when vaccine mercury levels were in decline. Such changes could "affect the observed rate of autism and could confound or distort trends in autism rates," the NIEHS warned.

"CDC concurs," Dr. Gerberding wrote again, "that conducting an ecologic analysis using VSD administrative data to address potential associations between thimerosal exposure and risk of ASD is not useful."

So, the Director of the CDC is now saying that its most powerful and convincing piece of exonerating evidence for Thimerosal is, in effect, "useless." This after years of
propagandizing the American public in violation of the law, after holding the illegal secret Simpsonwood meeting when all of this was revealed - including to a representative of the AAP!

Now we have a generation of pediatricians, who face perhaps the greatest iatrogenic accident in the history of pediatrics, who actually need to be deprogrammed to understand what the true nature of all the neuro-behvioral problems are that they confront without any understanding of etiology or potential interventions.

The most serious message that affected children have sacrificed themselves for still goes unheeded. The message is that the level of industrial pollution we are exposing ourselves to is so great now, that just a little more toxic load will push us over the edge.

It pushed a generation of children over the edge and so while we ponder who is going to pay for the many who will go on full disability, we should ponder the fate of our species as well.

(Special thanks to the journalist David Kirby.)

Julie Gerberding Tells Congress That The Verstraeten Study is Junk!

I am stunned.

I can't even think of a snarky comment to write.

My only question is, when is the press release from the CDC retracting Verstraeten coming out?

David Kirby "CDC: Vaccine Study Design "Uninformative and Potentially Misleading"

For those of you who may not understand the significance of this development, Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC, has just taken down the tent pole arguement in the "vaccines don't cause autism" claim, on her own, with her bare hands.

UPDATE:

Pamella Addresses the AAP and All Star Pediatrics about the Gerberding report and their continued disrespect for parents.
The American Academy or Pediatrics in an Awkward Position after CDC Takes Thimerosal Safety Studies Off the Table

David Kirby On The Case that Replaced Hannah Poling

The boy who replaced Hannah Poling as a test case in the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings has the same biomarkers for having the "rare" condition that Hannah has.

If the first to thimerosal test cases both just happen to have the same "rare" mitochondrial disorder, then at what point do you have to retract your claim of "rare"?

The Next Vaccine-Autism Newsmaker: Not Isolated, Not Unusual
David Kirby
Huffington Post
April 27, 2008


In February, I leaked news of the Federal government's admission that vaccines had triggered autism in a little girl named Hannah Poling. The stunning revelation, though still reverberating around the world, was roundly downplayed by US officials, who insisted that Hannah had an extremely rare, genetic case of "aggravated" mitochondrial disorder, with zero bearing on other autism cases.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), rushed to the airwaves, exhorting parents to adhere to the nation's intensive and virtually mandatory immunization schedule, and brushing off their legitimate anxieties by saying: "We've got to set aside this very isolated, unusual situation."

Well, the days of setting aside are over: Hannah Poling is neither isolated nor unusual.

In fact, the boy who was selected to replace Hannah Poling as the first-ever thimerosal "test case" in so-called Vaccine Court, has just been found with many of the same unusual metabolic markers as... you guessed it, Hannah Poling.

Hannah's case was scheduled to be heard in Federal Claims Court on May 12 -- as one of three "test cases" of the theory that thimerosal (a mercury-based vaccine preservative) can cause autism.

Test cases will help address general causation issues in all 4,900 autism claims now pending in Vaccine Court. But following the government concession, Hannah was withdrawn as the first test case of the thimerosal theory, and attorneys scrambled to find a replacement: a young boy from New York.

Last week, however, the court announced that the replacement thimerosal test case was also being withdrawn, in order to "proceed to an individual hearing on a different theory of causation."

That theory, which applies to Hannah as well, maintains that children with dysfunctional mitochondria (the little batteries within each cell that convert food into energy) are susceptible to autistic regression, triggered by a vaccine-induced overtaxing of the immune system.

"We want to pursue an additional theory, not a different theory," the boy's father told me. "We are by no means abandoning the thimerosal theory of causation but, in the context of the test case, the thimerosal theory would have eclipsed our other evidence, including evidence of metabolic dysfunction," such as impaired mitchondria and low cellular energy.

Following the Poling concession, he said, "I saw right away that we needed to pursue the mitochondrial theory,"but the lead attorneys did not see it that way. "Perhaps they did not properly understand the concession, and believed the finding was of a rare, genetically caused mitochondrial disorder," as the government contends. "I think they rightly want to keep clear focus on thimerosal in the test case, and not muddy the presentation with other theories."

The court's test case process is unusual and unwieldy. "They limit the cases to one theory at a time, when the theories are not mutually exclusive," the father said. "For example, thimerosal could cause, contribute to, or aggravate mitochondrial dysfunction. These cases can't be wrapped into neat
little packages."

The unexpected withdrawal of two test cases in a row - both because of their apparent mitochondrial underpinnings - is sure to have larger ramifications in the Court of Federal Claims, as well as the much larger court of public opinion.

A new, additional theory of causation is about to be introduced in Vaccine Court: Vaccines can trigger a chain of events in children with mitochondrial dysfunction that causes autism.

But the US Government now has a major quandary to deal with. Federal officials already conceded that, far from being "theoretical," this chain of events already happened to Hannah Poling. This will make it difficult, if not impossible, to argue against compensating the boy from New York, when compensating a nearly identical case - Hannah Poling - was already deemed appropriate.

Some estimates of mitochondrial dysfunction in children with autism range as high as 20%-30%. But among the regressive subset of cases (virtually all of the claims in Vaccine Court) up to half of the children might show signs of it.

No one knows how many of those families will pursue a similar strategy of individual hearings on causation, based on the mitochondrial concession in the Poling case. But my guess is that there could be hundreds of them, following in the precedent of this case's footsteps. The legal ramifications, inside Vaccine Court and throughout the judicial system, remain incalculable at this point.

Still, when the American public finds out that the exceedingly "rare" Poling case was replaced by what is shaping up to be yet another exceedingly rare case - they will follow the lead of all three presidential candidates and finally reject the tired mantra that, "there is no link" between vaccines and autism.

Then perhaps will end, "One of the most vitriolic debates in medical history," as it is called by Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the NIH and the Red Cross. "At some level," she said, the Poling case "was a vindication for families," adding that, "vaccines as a trigger carry a ring of both historical and biological plausibility."

The government is currently examining the national vaccine schedule to see if we are, perhaps, immunizing children too early and too often (and with too much thimerosal from the flu shot).

I personally thought that one Hannah Poling emerging out of Vaccine Court would be enough to
change the way we vaccinate in this country. But now we have two. And there are many more Hannah's out there, waiting to be counted.

NOTE: Today, the UK's Sunday Sun writes about the controversy today, and mentions the second test case being withdrawn.

Congress Invesigates CDC Over Beryllium Dust in Ohio

"...chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian has found the CDC may again be putting politics ahead of public health..."

You don't say? Well that just doesn't sound like Julie Gerberding's CDC, now does it?

Hey... while Congress is there investigating anyway... could they just find out for us what the heck is up with all those questions we have been asking with the whole vaccines cause autism thing?

What is opening one or two more file cabinets going to hurt?

(Trying to count in my head all the CDC scandals in the last 2 years or so, Autism/Vaccines, FEMA trailers, De Rosa, Beryllium Dust, spending the HIV budget on porn and hookers, and several million dollars of CDC computers stolen from the inside. Oh and fat people mad at them for overstating the health risks of obesity. Did I miss anything?)

Did CDC Cave To Pressure Over Toxic Dust?
Documents Obtained Exclusively By CBS News Raise Questions About Public Health Study
April 10, 2008
CBS News

CBS News reported in January that the Centers for Disease Control, the nation's top public health agency, under pressure from FEMA, suppressed a study citing the long-term health risks of living in travel trailers. Now Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian has found the CDC may again be putting politics ahead of public health. Previously undisclosed documents obtained exclusively by CBS News raise new questions as to whether high-ranking CDC officials caved to political and corporate pressure - and shut down a major public health study putting the residents of a small Ohio town at risk.

"It's worrisome; it's very worrisome."

Bernadette Eriksen lives in Elmore, Ohio, where the material engineering company Brush Wellman operates the world's largest manufacturing plant for beryllium, a metal used to make parts found in nuclear weapons, golf clubs and computer chips.

During manufacturing it produces a toxic dust. Exposure can cause an incurable, often-fatal lung disease and possibly cancer, Keteyian reports.

In 2001, in response to community concerns, the CDC began looking at whether beryllium dust from the plant was a health hazard. By 2005, CDC scientists pledged a thorough investigation - with blood tests for up to 200 residents and household dust readings.

"A sigh of relief comes over your family because testing is going to be done and the answers are coming," Eriksen said.

In the spring of 2006, Brush Wellman threatened to withdraw plans for a new multi-million dollar plant because of the CDC research.

At the urging of the company president, then-Ohio Gov. Bob Taft sent a handwritten note, obtained by CBS News to Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services. In it, he complained that actions in Elmore by the CDC's agency for toxic substances, known as ATSDR, "are a deterrent to choosing Ohio," adding, "Please have someone look into this and get back to me..."

Within days, the note was forwarded from Leavitt's office to that of CDC Director Julie Gerberding, and quickly passed down to ATSDR managers.

By April 14, an internal document reveals the agency was now taking "...a fresh look at scientific and related ... issues," and a "more limited approach" in Elmore. Only 18 residents - not 200 - would get blood tests.

Household dust readings were out.

In September 2006, just five months after the Ohio governor had sent his letter and shortly after ATSDR had packed its bags and left town, Brush Wellman decided that Elmore would be the site of its new 100,000-square-foot production facility.

Congress is investigating. Both Brush Wellman and Health and Human Services declined an interview request with CBS News. Dr. Thomas Sinks, a director at the CDC, said they used the best science.

"There was no political pressure that affected our decision of what we were going to do," Sinks said.

Keteyian asked: "No pressure from the governor of Ohio? No pressure from Secretary Leavitt? No pressure from Dr. Gerberding, who runs this agency?"

"I received no pressure that would have altered a decision that we made to go forward to use the most definitive tests we could," Sinks said.

But Eriksen said: "If we cannot rely on these agencies that come in on a big white horse and make all these promises, who are we going to trust?"