Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice on Maine Informed Consent Bills

Marching orders on supporting the Maine bill.

My Interview with The Lindermans on the Maine Legislation on Autism One

Linderman Live on Autism One Radio.  They wanted the details on my exchange with Representative Anne Graham.

Maine HHS Committee Votes Against Informed Consent in Vaccination

UPDATE! Apparently I am a TERRIBLE reporter! I left too soon! (had my boys with me) One other committee member, Representative Richard S. Malaby (Republican from Hancock, Maine, father of three) returned to the room and voted with our three heroes for the bills to move forward. And I was uninformed on procedure. I thought this was a majority vote, but apparently because the vote was divided, it will go to the full legislature to be voted on!

Could not be more happy to be so wrong. (Study your state civics people)

Mainers, call your state Senators and Representatives! Ask for meetings! Educate! Go, go, go!

Go to Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice and get on the mailing list.

Original post:

The highs and lows of trying to prevent vaccine injury...

Today the Maine Legislature's HHS committee voted NOT to allow the two informed consent bills to go to the floor to be voted on.

Much of the discussion again centered around the fact that if you tell parents what is in a vaccine, and then give them a choice, they will say no in greater numbers. And that they will do so out of "unnecessary fear." That doctors operate on the facts and mom's operate on emotion, so the state, therfore must save us parents from putting our children at "unnecessary risk". And of course, the Medical Establishment is to decide for you, what you should think about their practices.

Low point of the hearing... one committee member sharing his decision on why he would be voting the measures down. He shared that the legislature came up against the fears of the public on a regular basis and that he believed that his job as a legislator was to separate the real fears from the unfounded fears. In his estimation, fears of damage from vaccination are unfounded. I do not know the scope of his research into this opinion, but it may be as simple as, docs testified that vaccines are safe, so vaccines are safe. But he also shared that he is in the construction business and comes up against a lot of unfounded fears by people on renovations. He believes that these two situations are analogous.

What he had clearly not factored into his equation is that he, his employees, his company and his material manufacturers can be sued for making false safety claims or hurting their customers when they are wrong, and that when those big lawsuits come, they serve to first keep those in the renovation business honest, and second, the force the industry to reform itself at various stages of its evolution. No such mechanism exists in vaccination.

The Vaccine Program is Self-Policing.

I wanted to ask that committee member, "If your industry had enjoyed liability protection for the last quarter century, would you want to force builders to disclose their materials? Would you EVER renovate your house? Just how corrupt do you think that the construction business would be? Why do you assume that liability protection has not corrupted vaccine safety reporting?"

But, of course, all I could do is sit there and listen. And scream on the inside.

The high point of the proceeding today for me however was the vote, because three smart, conservative mothers, who completely got it and asked all the best questions, voted to allow the bills to continue on. They were:


Deborah J. Sanderson, Republican from Chelsea, Maine


Beth A. O'Connor, Republican from Berwick, Maine


Heather W. Sirocki, Republican from Scarborough, Maine

Between them they have 12 children and 1 grandchild. They seem to know that mom's aren't morons. And they repeatedly made the simple and straight forward case that parents need to know and have the right to decide.

I offer a very public thank you to these women for their service to our families and our children.

I hope you will consider contacting these three women in appreciation for their efforts. We are no Big Pharma, but I would like for us to thank them on behalf of Little Parenting. I am going to send them each a five dollar contribution to their campaign funds. I hope you will consider doing the same and let them know that our community values legislators like this that can think independently and that want to preserve the rights of parents to make informed decisions for their children.

As I was on the way out, the three of them were standing in the hallway together (in the same spot where I took that tongue lashing the week before), and as I passed I thanked them for their support. Like a dork, I started crying. I have gotten so cynical, run up against so much resistance to facts and logic, that just knowing that there were three people who were listening ... well it hit me kinda hard. Made me realize that it does not have to be this way. Made be grieve that we are going to go through another flu season where parents have no idea they they are injecting their 6 month old babies with levels of mercury that the EPA says its not safe for a 200lb man. Another year of parents being told to just love and accept their child, while their baby is suffering an unrecognized neurological emergency in front of them. Another year of children in medical crisis being denied treatment.

It doesn't have to be this way.

My Testimony to the Maine Legislature on Two Informed Consent Vaccine Bills

This week I have written about my experience testifying before the Maine Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services and my exchanges with another State Representative who testified in opposition to the bills that I was supporting.

The bills are:
LD 694 (HP 523) "An Act To Encourage Transparency in Disclosing the Ingredients in Vaccinations for Children to Parents and Guardians" Sponsored by Representative Andrea Boland, that would make doctors tell patients the ingredients of a vaccine before administering it to them, just like food.

And

LD 941 (SP 287) "An Act To Prohibit Mandatory Immunizations" Sponsored by Senator Douglas Thomas, which would simply state that no one could force a Mainer to be vaccinated against their wishes.

I had heard about the hearing some what last minute and was not able to prepare written testimony before hand, but submitted it today.

I am linking to the documents here so that they may be reviewed by the public.

I encourage Mainers to get involved in supporting these common sense measures to protect the human rights of those in our state. You can contact the committee here to offer your support and testimony.

Further, I encourage Mainers who want to be able to know what is in a vaccine, and preserve the right to say no to a vaccine if they so choose, to let their voice be heard over at the Portland Press Herald who has come out in support of removing your right for you to decide what goes into your body and what goes in the body of your children in an op ed piece.

I am posting my cover page to the testimony, and will link to the actual documents in the body of it below. While I submitted two chapters of our book Vaccine Epidemic, I will not be posting those, as I am sure that our publisher would not be pleased, so if you have not done so, please consider buying the book.

Written testimony by Ginger Taylor M.S. to the Maine Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services

In support of: LD 694 (HP 523) "An Act To Encourage Transparency in Disclosing the Ingredients in Vaccinations for Children to Parents and Guardians" Sponsored by Representative Andrea Boland, and LD 941 (SP 287) "An Act To Prohibit Mandatory Immunizations" Sponsored by Senator Douglas Thomas


My name is Ginger Taylor and I am resident of Brunswick. I hold a BS in Psychology with a concentration in child development and an MS in Clinical Counseling from Johns Hopkins University with a concentration if adolescent and family therapy. I am a co-author and contributing editor on the new book, “Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children,” which makes the argument that informed consent in vaccination is a fundamental human right. I served on the steering committee for the 2009 Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism Conference to educate medical professionals on the current state of the research and treatment of Autism. I am the founder of Greater Brunswick Special Families, but most significant to these proceedings, I am the mother of a child who regressed into autism following the simultaneous administration of the DTaP, Hepatitis B, Polio, HIB and Pnumo vaccines. When I discovered that none of the vaccines My son received that day had been studied for their relationship to autism, and that my pediatrician’s opinion that his vaccines did not cause his autism had no basis in science, I began to investigate and document the vaccine-autism causation theory and other vaccine injuries.

My thanks to the committee for indulging my impromptu oral testimony on these bills and for allowing me to submit further written testimony on these matters.

Drastic changes have taken place in the vaccine program since I was a child growing up in the 1970s and 1980s and when vaccination is discussed most people’s frame of reference on vaccination was their own experience growing up. Vaccination has gone from a tool used to protect the health of individuals and to prevent deadly epidemics, to an over aggressive, under researched, one size fits all program to eradicate disease, even at the expense of individual patients. At the heart of this phenomenon is the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act that granted liability protection to everyone involved in vaccination from the manufacturer who makes it to the public health official that recommends or mandates it to the school system that requires it and even to the doctors and nurses who administer any FDA approved vaccine regardless of the damage or death of the child or adult being vaccinated.

Because of this, over the last quarter century the vaccine program has changed drastically. Pharmaceutical companies realized what a cash cow they had on their hands when suddenly they had a product line that the government could require people to buy, and that Pharma could not be sued for. They began pouring funds into vaccine research and development and only a few short years after the act was passed, began adding new and more cheaply made vaccines to the market, and using their considerable political influence to get CDC to recommend these vaccines and states to require their purchase and administration for school entrance.

As a result the vaccine schedule has ballooned to three times its previous size, and vaccines have become a 27 billion dollar a year industry.

Children born between the mid 1960s and the mid 1980s were subject to a childhood vaccine schedule that recommended between 24 and 25 doses of vaccine (depending on whether or not they received the small pox vaccine that was discontinued in the early 1970s.) Children born today are subject to a vaccine schedule that has just had its 70th dose of vaccine added to it as of late 2010.

A child born today, if vaccinated according to the CDC recommended schedule will receive more doses of vaccine by the time he is six months old than his mother did by the time she went to college. Unlike his mother, his vaccines will begin with in hours of his birth, before he has even established a health history which can be used to evaluate whether or not a particular vaccine is safe for him.

Disturbingly, there is not one study to investigate what this aggressive vaccine schedule may do to a child and there is no safety testing of vaccines in the combinations which are recommended on the infant schedule. For example, at two months old babies are vaccinated for Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, Polio, Rotavirus and Pneumococcal, and there is no study to find out if this is a safe practice or what long term health problems it may lead to.

Further, CDC now has an adult vaccine schedule, and if the schedule is followed to the letter by someone living the average life span of 78 years, they will receive 167 doses of vaccine.

Aggressive insistence from the vaccine injury and vaccine safety community has yielded almost no results in requiring improved safety research and accurate risk information, rather the medical community labels all vaccine safety advocates as “anti-vaccine” and demonizes them in the press. Ironically this includes parents who continue to vaccinate their children, and even doctors who administer and advocate for vaccination, but publicly state that they do cause autism and other adverse reactions. The most recent example of this was Bill Gates appearing on CNN last month and insisting that parents who assert that vaccines can cause autism, as I am asserting to you today, are “child killers.” This is analogous to calling those who advocate for safer infant car seats and accurate product safety information, “baby killers.”

My personal appeals to the Maine CDC under the previous administration to conduct reviews of vaccine safety information and recommendations offered to Maine by the federal government on vaccine policy before adopting them have been rebuffed. As a result, Maine vaccine policy is for all practical purposes, set by a panel of only 16 people at the CDC in Atlanta on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who bear no burden if the policy they set is errant. Instead, Maine bears almost all the cost of these flawed decisions via medical expenses, HHS, special education programs, Maine Care, law enforcement agencies and individuals and families like mine paying for the consequences of inappropriate vaccination.

There are no checks and balances in the vaccine program, and the costs of damages roll down hill from the CDC to ME to me.

The dangers of adopting the policies of the federal government on vaccine policy are most clearly highlighted during the H1N1 scare generated by Atlanta, who declared an epidemic, declared a state of emergency, activated their emergency powers, rushed an inadequately tested vaccine to market, held out the option to FORCE administration of that vaccine, and spent several billion dollars for what turned out to be the mildest flu season on record. This despite the very low uptake of the flu vaccine, as the public did not buy the hype.

Further, we had ample evidence that the H1N1 flu was no serious threat to the American people, as it was not causing problems in the southern hemisphere during their flu season in their winter (our summer) of 2009. Yet despite the evidence that this flu was actually a very weak one, CDC continued to sound a false alarm for the entire 2009 – 2010 flu season.

Neither Kathleen Sebelius nor any public official involved lost their jobs over the debacle, no investigation was launched and CDC continued to attempt to push the H1N1 scare into the following flu season.

I submit to you that the vaccine program has become a run away train that abuses its power and the trust of the public, asserts safety and efficacy claims that are not supported by the science and that there is no way for the public to challenge bad vaccine policy under current US law.

Because of this it is imperative for the legislature of the State of Maine to protect the rights of Mainers to Informed Consent in vaccination.

We must have the right to all known information about any vaccine that we may be considering for administration, and if we believe that it is not a wise health choice for ourselves and our children, then we must be allowed exercise our fundamental human right to decline a vaccine.

These two measures are reasonable protection of my rights as a citizen and a mother, and I hope you will consider the information that I am presenting to you and support these measures.

Supporting arguments:

1. Why These Laws are Needed
a. The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act
b. Vaccination Choice is a Fundamental Human Right
2. A Review of Vaccine Safety Claims
a. IOM Vaccine Safety Review Bibliography Additions
b. Evidence that vaccines can cause autism
c. The Dangers of Mercury in the H1N1 Vaccine
3. Informed Consent: HHS states that vaccines DO cause autism
a. HHS, HRSA, Vaccine Injury Compensation Table
b. Julie Gerberding Admits on CNN that Vaccines Can Cause Autism
4. An Evaluation of the Trustworthiness of Federal Public Health Assertions
a. The Role of Government and Media
5. Additional Comments

In closing, it is my opinion and experience that the majority of the medical community is employing the Semmelweiss Reflex and in denial about the true incidence of serious vaccine adverse reactions; and it is unwilling to look at the evidence to this effect. I have included a discussion of the Semmelweiss Reflex in my chapter in Vaccine Epidemic on the Role of Government and Media, and hope you will pay particular attention to it.

No doctor gets into this difficult profession in order to harm patients, and facing the fact that a practice that they are employing to make people better is many cases causing more harm than good, is not something that they have demonstrated that they are willing to do.

In light of this, I believe it is the responsibility of this committee to look at this topic in a fresh light, look at testimony of health officials, organizations and physicians with a critical eye, and make them actually prove their case. It is my belief that most of them do not know they are providing false information. Avoidable vaccine damage continues because state and federal legislators are taking the unsupported claims of these parties at face value and not forcing them under oath to address the challenges of vaccine safety and choice advocates.

Further I encourage the committee to consider formal hearings on the evidence that I have in included in my testimony and that we have compiled in Vaccine Epidemic and several other books published on the subject of vaccines and their component parts.

I thank the members of the committee and appreciate the thoughtful way in which these hearings have been carried out thus far. I will be happy to be at your disposal in providing any further information you may need to carry out your responsibilities on these matters.

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help"

Ronald Reagan's "nine most terrifying words in the English language."

The state of Maine is considering, get this shocker, passing a law to prevent forced vaccination.

End of the world... I know.

So yesterday I hopped up to the state house when I heard that they were having debate on this bill. Turned out they were also considering a bill to, horror of all horrors... compel doctors to tell patients what is in a vaccine before administering it to them. I can almost hear the bodies dropping dead left and right as the pleague sweeps the nation because people know what is in a vaccine.

(BTW... if you are a Mainer, call your reps and senators and support these bills. Call the HHS committee and offer testimony.)

Of course the AMA, AAP, Insert alphabet soup Suits/hired guns lined up to tell us why these are horrible ideas, how vaccines are safe and magical and have saved the earth from falling into the sun and all sorts of the usual song and dance to prevent simply people from knowing what is in a vaccine and being able to say no.

The oddest thing to me is that they repeatedly, openly stated that they didn't want to tell people what is in a vaccine and give them a choice, because if they did, then more people would turn down vaccines. THEN they claimed to be for informed consent! I wanted to ask if they actually knew what informed consent was.

As has not been the norm in my experience of these types of proceedings, the committee hearing the testimony was really open and quite logical. It is odd for me to see public health officials being logical during vaccine hearings.

But the low point of the hearings was the testimony of one state representative from a town near mine who was also a former pediatric neurology nurse. Amidst the serious testimony of the vaccine injured and one woman who had lost her husband to mercury poisoning, this representative was jocular and truculent and found it an occasion to entertain the panel. But worse is that she truly had no understanding of the issues on which she was testifying. She said that vaccines were safe. She gushed with shallow pity for her patients that believed that their developmental delay was caused by their vaccines, claiming that she truly, earnestly wished that there was research that could tell us that vaccines caused autism, but there was just none that existed. And the cherry on the ignorance sunday was when she claimed that we know that mercury in vaccines does not cause autism, because the MMR study that said so was retracted.

I think at that point I had a mini stroke.

Fortunately I had a chance to testify and crammed as many facts into my three minutes as I could. Telling them, no vaccines are not "safe", they are legally and factually "Unavoidably Unsafe" that they kill and maim some which is why we have a VICP to begin with. Telling them that I would be producing 48 studies showing that vaccines can cause autism. And finally telling them how upsetting it was to hear a medical professional/elected official testify to the fact that MMR contained mercury when in fact the MMR and mercury have nothing to do with each other, and that the woman in question had not even ready the study on which she was testifying.

Following the hearing, I caught the representative in the lobby and asked her a simple question, "What can you tell me about vaccine encephalopathy?" I was trying to figure out if anyone had ever educated her on the fact that HHS has ruled and openly stated that vaccine encephalopathy causes autism. She did not respond well, at one point actually aggressively questioning me, "I have a masters degree from Yale! Where is your degree from?!" She has since apologized. At the end of the exchange she said she would read whatever research I sent to her, but insisted that none of it should be from junk sources. She would only accept university studies, peer-reviewed journal articles, federal public health emanations and the like. Although she was not so friendly about it, I thought "Great! I didn't even ask her if she would read anything and she just volunteered!"

So this morning I sent her a letter with my list of 48 studies.

What ensued is just another microcosm of the same old same old. I am publishing it all here to yet again, belabor the point that... well that public health is doomed. It is another Bagdad Bob story where someone who knows it all is going to plant her feet and insist that everything is sun and picnics on the Tigris when in truth the army is three blocks away. It is Geri Dawson issuing missives from her ivory tower that we are not to talk about vaccines and autism any more. It is delusion that parents are going to shut up and stop talking about vaccine dangers. It is just flat out denial of a reality that is pretty clear to at least half of all Americans now.

Bottom line, she offered false testimony to the State and refuses to hear corrections. Which means that she will continue to make bad decisions for Mainers health because they will be based on what is going on in the castle she has built in her head. I rarely share my exchanges with public health officials, but as she is both an elected official AND a medical professional holding herself out as a vaccine expert AND it turns out, a former board member of the Maine Autism Society and asserting autism expertise, she should be held triply accountable for her bad judgement and insistence on disseminating false information. So she does not get a pass.

Representative Graham,

As per our conversation yesterday following your testimony, I am forwarding you a list of the research that supports the supposition that vaccines can cause autism, as well as the federal government's own admission that vaccines can cause autism. The documents I am sending you are a part of the written testimony that I am submitting to the HHS committee.

As you can see, when you have been advising your patients that vaccination could not be responsible for their developmental delays and disabilities or autism, you have been offering them false information. I have been working very hard at the federal level, along with many other vaccine safety advocates, to get public health officials to inform those involved in vaccine administration and the care of children and to put this information in the hands of professionals like yourself so that they can understand the true known risks of vaccination. Unfortunately, as the hearings yesterday have demonstrated, they have failed to do so.

I am hoping that you will review the information I am attaching, and be spurred to investigate them and how they fit into the vaccine injury picture and the current autism epidemic.

I am also hoping you will hold your professional associations and public health authorities accountable for not informing you of this research and allowing you to give false testimony to patients and the State of Maine.

I also wanted to call your attention to the US Department of Health and Human Resources, Health Resources Services Administration, Vaccine Injury Compensation Program's table of compensated vaccine injuries which I will also be including in my written testimony. http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/table.htm

You will note that HRSA recognizes and compensates vaccine deaths as well as an array of neurological and autoimmune conditions known to be caused by vaccines. You will also note that both MMR and DTaP are known to cause vaccine encephalopathy (brain damage). If you check the symptoms of this encephalopathy (scroll down to the middle of the page) in children 18 months and older, you will find that they include:

1. Loss of eye contact
2. Not responsive to normal speech
3. Don't seem to recognize familiar people

This is a description of a child regressing into autism. This is an accurate description of my child following his DTaP vaccine. However for displaying these symptoms following the shot, he was diagnosed with "autism" and never even evaluated for "vaccine encephalopathy," despite my continued insistence to my pediatrician that I believed his vaccines were involved. He insisted that the AAP assured him that vaccines were not involved in autism causation. Later when I learned about the HRSA description of this vaccine injury, I forwarded it to my pediatrician with a letter asking if he knew about this vaccine reaction and if this is what could have happened to my son. He has never responded to my queries. It was past the 3 year statute of limitations placed on vaccine injury, and I can now never file for compensation for my son's likely vaccine induced brain damage that was called "autism" by his doctors.

(You will also note that seizures are often a feature of vaccine encephalopathy, and about a third of those diagnosed with "autism" also have seizures.)

Following the publication of the Hannah Poling case in 2008 in which HRSA compensated a child for her DTaP/MMR induced encephalopathy that caused her autism, and CBS News investigation that showed that VICP has been paying autism cases since at least 1991, HRSA was forced to admit that yes, vaccine encephalopathy causes autism. This was their official statement on the case to a reporter's inquiry. (emphasis added)

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

David,

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

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

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

Regards,

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

Note that HRSA freely admits that they don't even track how often vaccines cause autism, after admitting that HRSA knows that they do cause autism. This is dereliction of duty. HHS owes this information to the public.

Further, in correcting you on the fact that mercury has never been included in the MMR, as the MMR vaccine is a live virus vaccine and mercury kills all living things it comes into contact with rendering the vaccine useless, I have had to do what parents who have been studying vaccine injuries have had to do with medical professionals far too often. Explain to those presenting themselves as experts on vaccination, what the basics of vaccine/autism causation theory are. It is heartbreaking to find out how many doctors don't even know what the issues involved are.

This is a colleague of mine, Rebecca Estepp of San Diego, having to explain on Fox News to Dr. Marc Seigel, their medical expert, that the MMR has never contained mercury. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp5YWZVnpeI

It should not be that parents like Ms. Estepp and myself have to educate medical professionals on their own professed field of expertise.

I understand, as you stated to me, that you do not like "self-proclaimed experts," but I hope you can see why parents have had to become self-informed on vaccine injury. Because the medical profession is ignoring the evidence of widespread vaccine damage that they are causing by closing their eyes and repeating talking points, and because families carry the burden of injury while public health and Pharma remains both untouchable and unaccountable because of the unjust 1986 childhood vaccine injury law.

I hope that you will do as I have done and do your own independent research into vaccine injury for the sake of children in Maine.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the information I have given you, and would be happy to make myself available to you for questions, to point you toward further resources or to sit down with you to discuss the information further.

Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor, M.S.
Maine Coalition for Vaccine Choice
Adventures In Autism

Research list here: http://adventuresinautism.com/StudiesforGraham.doc

Representative Graham responded to the large amount of information that I sent to her in the time span of 1 hour and 20 minutes. This makes it unlikely that she had the time to review the 48 research papers that I sent to her. Although she asked me for information from only reputable sources (which at the time she said she considered to be something to the effect of universities, journals, public health statement) she apparently had changed her critera for what is acceptable debate material and will now only accept, "studies certified through the National Institutes of Health or the CDC"

Further, she took issue with the fact that I discussed my exchange with her on my private facebook account (I mean, "mercury in the MMR" and "I went to Yale!"... cummon... how do you NOT share that on facebook). She believed it was "inappropriate" for me to do so.

Her response to me.

Subject: RE: Research on Vaccine Autism Causation
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 13:39:38 -0400 From:
Anne Graham
Reply-To:
To: 'Ginger Taylor'

Ms Taylor,

First I apologize for being frustrated with you yesterday. As I said 3 times outside the hearing that I could not speak with you as I had a meeting to get to. It was a town council meeting that it was important that I attend. I typically am calmer but I felt attacked by you.

I see no studies that you sent certified through the National Institutes of Health or the CDC. Until a direct cause and effect relationship can be established for the cause of Autism Spectrum disorder, no one can say that vaccines or their ingredients are the cause. I am committed to the care of children and adults with ASD and I have been on the Board of the Autism Society of Maine. I am a pediatric nurse practitioner and worked in for 6 years with children with developmental delay, autism and epilepsy. My job was to treat and support children and families as best I could. There rest of career has been committed to providing primary care for children and families. As a Legislator, I will be a voice for children and their families.

I do not intend to continue a discussion with you. We will not agree. Angry divisive debates get us no where fast. I ask for your respect. I have been notified that you are making inappropriate comments about me on Facebook. I would urge you not to continue.

Let us agree to disagree and move on.

Anne
Rep. Anne P Graham
House District #109, Parts of Gray, North Yarmouth and Pownal

Her commitment to be a voice for children and families apparently does not extend to my children or my family.

She does not have my respect.

My response to her:

Rep. Graham,

Thank you for your response and thank you for your apology. While I believed I was simply asking you what you could tell me about vaccine encephalopathy, I do regret that you felt attacked by my question.

While I strongly disagree with your assessment of the material I have sent you that met your request of being only from established universities, peer-reviewed journals and federal health authorities, and I disagree that debates that are divisive should not take place, I will respect your request not to contact you again on the matter.

However, I do not believe my public comments about your testimony or your behavior toward me are inappropriate, as you are a publicly elected official and your testimony and behavior in the state offices toward citizens of Maine is open for public discussion and scrutiny. I believe your defensiveness and unwillingness to answer earnest questions about the topic of vaccination and autism on which you claim to be an expert, speaks to your credibility on the subject and your fitness to serve in public office. While I am sure this is one of the more difficult aspects of holding elected office and may make you feel uncomfortable, which is unfortunate, I feel it is in the greater public interest to document, as I feel appropriate, your vaccine injury denialism in the face of copious amounts of published science and HRSA admissions. This will allow members of the public and your colleagues in the Maine Legislature to have a fuller understanding of your understanding of the facts of the matter so that they can judge your credibility as a source for vaccine safety information.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor, M.S.

But apparently that was not her last comment. She really does not think that I should be able to talk about her on facebook.

Subject: RE: Research on Vaccine Autism Causation
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 15:01:14 -0400
From: Anne Graham
Reply-To:
To: 'Ginger Taylor'

This is my last comment. I don’t mind feedback but comments that border on slander on Facebook are highly inappropriate and I ask that you refrain from such postings.

Anne
Rep. Anne P Graham
House District #109, Parts of Gray, North Yarmouth and Pownal
RepAnne.Graham@legislature.maine.gov

Note that the worst accusation she can make is that it "borders on slander", not that it is slander. (Slander - noun. a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report: a slander against his good name.) No where has she pointed out where I have even come close to slander or asked me to retract anything. (She does know she is a public official, right?) Further note that she does not claim that anything I have written is not an accurate account of what happened.

My reply to her.

Representative Graham,

Thank you for reiterating your request. I will respond by reiterating my intention to continue to discuss the matter openly and accurately, and assert that there is absolutely nothing slanderous or even "borderline slander" about my comments online.

I am sure this is completely presumptuous of me to offer you advice on how you have chosen to conduct your exchanges with me on vaccine safety, but I will offer it anyway and you are free to ignore me as you have said you will not be contacting me again.

This unwillingness to have an open exchange with me, and your additional pressure on me not to talk about your poor behavior, is exactly why the vaccine rates are dropping in Maine. This happens time and time again. Elected officials, public health officials and medical professionals make untenable vaccine safety statements, members of the public attempt to engage them on the veracity of those statements, and the conversation is shut down, often by bullying those members of the public. This does not inspire confidence in the vaccine program, it alerts the public in a very loud way, that those repeating the mantra, "vaccines are safe" either have something to hide, or know they cannot win a true vaccine safety debate.

When you shut down the debate, you tell the public that you know you are wrong. Why would you run away and suppress discussion if all the facts where on your side? Mainer's are not suckers Representative Graham. You can have all the letters after your name in the world, and a resume as long as Abe Lincoln's hat, but if you can't stand up to a single question from the mother of a disabled child, you loose the argument. You didn't avoid a divisive debate with me, you lost the debate on the first question then stormed out of the arena.

I believe that if you truly cared about childrens' safety, as you claim to, you would have embraced the chance to educate me on true vaccine injury when I asked you the simple question, "What can you tell me about vaccine encephalopathy?"

Vaccine uptake is decreasing, not because of one study on MMR (which again, has nothing to do with mercury), it is because like the more than 100 people who have responded to my facebook post on our exchange, so many Mainers have all seen some or all of the 48 studies and HRSA admission that I sent you, as well as the head of CDC admitting CNN that vaccines cause autism (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh-nkD5LSIg). The public is willing to look at the science that you declare by some strange executive caviat 'not applicable'. To them, you betray the fact that you live in an arcane construct where people with letters after their name get to say things in complete contradiction to available evidence, and even common sense, and are expected to be believed because... well... "I went to Yale!"

This subject is literally a matter of life and death for the most vulnerable among us. Both children at risk from death and disability from disease and children at risk for death and disability from vaccination. Your refusal to even answer one simple question, or engage the mother of a disabled child/published author on vaccine safety, in my estimation, ensures that the public confidence in the vaccine program will continue to erode, that more parents will come to refuse vaccination all together. The end result of that will be that children who could be safely vaccinated will go completely unvaccinated, and children for whom vaccination is not safe, will continue to be inappropriately vaccinated, permanently injured and killed by vaccines.

I think that your choices over the last two days are destructive and I implore you to change your course.

I have been writing about vaccine injury for five years on my blog, Adventures In Autism. I repeatedly ask the question of public health officials who have chosen the route you are taking the question... "what is your plan?" Refusal to engage vaccine safety advocates and parents of vaccine injured children is not working. Vaccine rates are dropping BECAUSE of the shut down of public debate. You have asked me not to talk to you about vaccine injury any more... Do you think that fixes the problem? Do you think that makes all the questions and facts I have sent you go away? It is the political equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling, "La, la, la... I'm not listening."

Five years ago a few friends kinda of looked at me politely and you could tell they thought I was a little crazy to say vaccines caused my son's autism. Now they all call me for advice on how to deal with their pediatricians who are pushing them on vaccines they don't want and where to go for vaccine vaccine decision making. I don't even think I know any parents who adhere to the recommended schedule any more. You are loosing the "vaccine wars" because you won't take people like me seriously and treat me like an equal worthy of being heard. Because I don't have an MD? You do remember that I am the injured party here, right? But trying to ask you, the self-proclaimed expert, about things that apply to my son's case make you feel "attacked?" The only thing my questions do is point out your lack of credibility. Am I not owed answers for my son's condition by those who hold them selves out as vaccine experts? Remember, I cannot go to court and force any doctor to answer my questions. CDC and AAP literally don't return my calls or letters.

As I testified in the hearing... once you have a vaccine injury... YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. The public sees how true that is when people like you respond to parent like me, then way you have this week.

So, Representative Graham... I am going to ask my question to you again, although I know it is likely simply a rhetorical one as you refuse to engage me on substantive issues of vaccine safety.

WHAT IS YOUR PLAN?

There are only more and more parents just like me out there who want answers. And none of them care that you went to Yale if you continue to make statements so erroneous as to claim there is mercury in the MMR, which shows you know about as much on the vaccine safety debates as might be expected of a gas station attendant. Are they allowed to ask you questions? Are they not allowed to talk about the fact that you don't know what you are talking about? Because the whole world is taking about vaccine injury and they are not going to stop and wait for people like you who are stuck in a 1950's paradigm that says the guy in the white coat is the only one who can read a study and draw a conclusion.

What is your plan?

I hope that this difficult experience will be a humbling one and that you will realize how destructive the course you are on is for children like my son and for children who need vaccines and will not receive them because parents know that "experts" like you are not trustworthy. So there is my advice to you.

I understand you do not wish to speak with me further on this, but I remain open to whatever discussion you are willing to have with me. I am sorry that my advice has been so long winded and unless I hear from you, I will not contact you again.

But honestly, my beautiful baby was given a DTaP vaccine, and suffered a vaccine encephalopathy that was misdiagnosed as "autism." So I don't really care if you feel offended or your feathers are ruffled because I have called you out publicly. His injury has devastated our family and our lives revolve around finding answers for him and preventing this horrible thing from happening to any other child. I believe that people like you owe me answers. I believe people like you own me solutions. I believe people like you owe me help in getting an accurate picture of his medical condition and effective medical care for his physical illness. It is very difficult for me to have to swallow that I am not allowed to question elected official/vaccine/autism/neurology expert on my son's life altering brain damage/autism. I hope you understand that your false information, your arrogance and your abysmal treatment of me is very difficult for me to bear, as you suffer no consequences for it, but families like mine do.

In Tears,
Ginger Taylor,
Master of Science, Clinical Counseling
Johns Hopkins University
Mother of Chandler Taylor, age 8
A little boy of whom you claim to care about the health and welfare, but refuse to answer questions that may make him better.
A little boy that cannot receive appropriate medical treatment for his condition because medical professionals like you continue to deny that it even exists even though HHS has said that it does.

P.S. I will be publishing all the letters in this exchange.

By the time I finished this thing I was just weeping.

And I am just so disgusted.

This is one of the public officials that I have to go to, and beg for permission to say no to a vaccine?

Exactly how many rings am I supposed to kiss to get public officials to perform their civic duty? How many insults am I supposed to take for trying to get information to help our kids... MY OWN SON! How long will I get the - Who the hell do you think you are for challenging and expert with published research and statements by federal health agencies - treatment? I am supposed to walk on egg shells for people like this prideful woman living in her self-imposed ignorance that she pours out on the public like she was blessing them with holy water?

Excuse me... this allegedly prideful woman living in her suspected, self-imposed, probable ignorance. I wouldn't want to upset her highness with my "borderline slander" by calling a duck, a duck.

Plus until CDC or NIH issues a study saying that in their opinion Anne P. Graham is prideful or ignorant, I don't think anyone is allowed to say that she is.

Have I mentioned that she went to Yale?

Addendum: I have been contacted by an earnest member of the Maine Legislature with the following message:

"Anne Graham is claiming she is being harassed by some who were opposed to her testimony at the public hearing. If you know of any of that would you ask those people to please stop?"

I replied that I know of no one who has contacted her, and on two occasions that people on fb raised the issue of contacting her, I have asked them not to, as she stated that she felt "attacked" by me merely asking her a simple question following the meeting, so it stands to reason that having my writing about her behavior when I asked the simple questions would be seen by her as a further attack.

However, I will put out the message again that Representative Graham does not want be harassed on this matter. I do not know what she considers "harassment." So to be on the safe side, please consider not contacting her on this matter.

On a related note, this blog piece has apparently been tagged on Facebook as "objectionable material" and people are having trouble sharing the link for the page. I am assuming that Representative Graham has complained about it to prevent this story from spreading, but have no way of knowing for sure.

As always, I expect that my readers who speak to any of the subjects of my articles to behave respectfully toward them. Even when they are angry.

But of course, this is a free country and expressing your experiences and opinions about elected officials is THE point of the first amendment to the US Constitution, so if Rep. Graham's expectation is that such speech about her should be suppressed... well... it can't and shouldn't and that is something that she should have gotten straight on before she put her name on a ballot.

So. Don't harass Rep. Graham. Whatever that means.

Maine CDC Autism Conference: How Do We Know What Autism IS NOT if We Do Not Know What Autism IS? by Jon Poling, MD, PhD

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Looking Forward Beyond Vaccines: How Do We Know What Autism IS NOT if We Do Not Know What Autism IS? Followed by Q&A with other conference speakers.
Jon Poling, MD, PhD
Neurologist, Clinical Assistant Professor
Medical College of Georgia
Father of child with autism

Maine CDC Autism Conference: Genes and Environment, Developmental and Chronic: An Inclusive Approach to Autism Science by Martha Herbert, MD, PhD

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



Next Session:
Looking Forward Beyond Vaccines: How Do We Know What Autism IS NOT if We Do Not Know What Autism IS? by Jon Poling, MD, PhD

Maine CDC Autism Conference: Kim Block of WGME Presents News Piece on Autism

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Kim Block, reporter for WGME, presents a news piece on autism treatment






Next Session:
Genes and Environment, Developmental and Chronic: An Inclusive Approach to Autism Science by Martha Herbert, MD, PhD

Maine CDC Autism Conference: Gastrointestinal and Nutritional Co-Morbidities in Autism by Tim Buie, MD

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Gastrointestinal and Nutritional Co-Morbidities in Autism, followed by Q&A
Tim Buie, MD
Pediatric Gastroenterologist
LADDERS Program, MassGeneral Hospital for Children
Harvard Medical School



Questions from the Audience



Next Session:
Kim Block from WGME presents news piece on Autism treatment.

Maine CDC Autism Conference: Autism 101

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Autism 101, First signs and symptoms, Maine’s new screening tool, how and when to refer for specialized diagnostics, how a diagnosis is made, AAP Autism Toolkit, diagnostic and therapeutic services in Maine.
Introduction of Speakers by Dora Mills, MD, MPH




Autism 101
Early Identification and Autism Prevalence
Nancy Cronin, Coordinator of the PDD Systems Change Initiative




Autism 101
Common understanding of what children with autism look like
Mary Ellen Gellerstedt, MD
Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician
Eastern Maine Medical Center




Autism 101
Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders
Victoria Dalzell, MD
Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics
Barbara Bush Children's Hospital
Maine Medical Center



Autism 101
Developmental Screening in the Office
Donald Burgess, MD, FAAP



Autism 101
Diagnostic and Medical Evaluation, Intervention and Office Visits for Children on the Autism Spectrum
Carol Hubbard, MD
Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician
Maine Medical Center



Autism 101
Questions from the Audience




Next Session:
Gastrointestinal and Nutritional Co-Morbidities in Autism by Tim Buie, MD

Maine CDC Autism Conference: Intro by Dora Mills

As I have previously mentioned, in May the Maine CDC held a one day conference on Autism. The videos of the conference will be available on the Maine CDC web site, however Maine state law requires that they be ADA compliant before going up, and the process of close captioning the videos is proving to be time consuming. So in my impatience, I am uploading my copies of the videos (with permission from Maine CDC who is encouraging their free circulation.)

Conference materials available here on the Maine CDC web site.

Those who would like a set of DVD's of the conference, for yourself, your organization or to pass along to doctors and public health officials, email me.

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Introduction and Overview of Autism in Maine
Dora Anne Mills, MD, MPH
Director, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, State Health Officer
with Becky Grant-Widen, Board Member of the National Autism Association



Next session:
Autism 101: First signs and symptoms, Maine’s new screening tool, how and when to refer for specialized diagnostics, how a diagnosis is made, AAP Autism Toolkit, diagnostic and therapeutic services in Maine.

Happy Easter Mainers!

A welcome to my fellow statesmen who are visiting for the first time after reading their local news paper! Come on in and take a look around. Drop me an email and say hi!

While you are here, let me invite you to join me and lots of other autism families on April 18th at the Falmouth Memorial Library at 5 Lunt Road in Falmouth, Maine from 7:00-9:00PM for the World Premier Screening of "Autism Yesterday". See the stories of children who have recovered from autism via the biomedical intervention that is working so well for my son Chandler (he has not recovered yet, but he is halfway home to us!).

I understand that four autism doctors will be on hand, so if you ever wanted to investigate ways to improve your autistic child's health and functioning, (or just meet other families that are) this is the chance. For more information contact: Laura Plourde: 829-3474 or mlplourde@verizon.net

Check out the trailer:

This week, check back in, I will be posting lots of recovery stories and updating everyone on how Chandler is progressing during chelation (hint: great!)

Thanks for visiting!

Web Gives Autism a Global Stage

Thanks to Josie Huang at the Portland Press Herald:

Web Gives Autism a Global Stage
by Josie Huang
Portland Press Herald

Earlier this month, major news broke in the autism world when the federal government conceded that vaccines worsened a health condition in a Georgia girl named Hannah Poling and triggered autism-like symptoms.

Federal officials, while agreeing to pay for her care, maintained that vaccines do not cause autism, a developmental disorder. Still, the case was seen as a victory by a subset of parents certain of a direct link. And they could learn everything they wanted to know about it from Ginger Taylor, a Brunswick woman with an autistic son.

Search for "Hannah Poling" on the Internet, and Taylor's blog www. AdventuresinAutism.com will pop up as the first or second search result. In the days after the case became public, readers from around the world converged on the site, with daily visits climbing from about 350 to 1,700, she said. Her lengthy posts prompted some readers to comment online. Even more e-mailed her.

"The Internet is a great tool for all the debate you can have," said Taylor, who also blogs about medical studies and treatments for her 6-year-old son, Chandler. "I don't know what they did before it."

Taylor is part of a group of Maine parents who are using the Internet to share information on an international stage and create a community around a disorder that is as isolating as it is mysterious in its cause.

The thirst for knowledge is growing as more children are diagnosed with autism. About 1 in 150 children have autism or a closely related disorder such as Asperger's syndrome, estimated the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hallmark symptoms include repetitive behaviors and problems socializing, speaking and reasoning. The degree of severity varies, as does the need for educational and social services.

Answers and support

In Maine, diagnoses among school-age children have more than tripled annually since 2000. Cases among people ages 3 to 21 rose from 594 that year to 1,990 in 2007, according to state education officials.

Similar rate increases have been posted nationally. It's not clear whether autism is becoming more prevalent or whether awareness has grown.

Looking for answers and support, dozens of Maine parents are using blogs, Yahoo! groups, YouTube, listservs and social networking sites such as MySpace to share their experiences with other families in their state and beyond.

At least 15 of them are members on FoggyRock.com, a site founded by Shannon and Steve Johnson of Harpswell, whose older child, Wynn, is autistic.

FoggyRock -- a reference to the uphill climb autism poses -- acts like a FaceBook for members of the autism community. Each member has a home page for posting blog entries, photos, videos and "wit and wisdom." They also can add "contacts" and join groups such as The Autism Sibs and Military Families with Autism.

Shannon Johnson, FoggyRock's editor-in-chief, has her own page, where she writes about the joys of raising 13-year-old Wynn -- like "seeing a genuine smile on his face"-- and the heartbreak of separation. Wynn spent about a year in the hospital, returning in December.

The site has attracted nearly 700 members, some from places as distant as England and Australia, Johnson said. She wants it to be a comforting place for families whose lives change dramatically the moment their child is diagnosed with autism.

Often, one spouse will leave a career to care for the child, as Johnson, a former teacher, did. Many will throw themselves into researching and trying different behavioral therapies, diets and supplements.

For some, family outings, never mind vacations, become a thing of the past.

"I hear from members all the time that they're so isolated," Johnson said. "You can't participate in life the same way you did. When the kids are younger, and they're having behavioral issues, it looks typical. When they're older like my son, and he's having a meltdown, people are afraid."

A Lifeline

For families in more remote areas, where they know of no other people in their situation, the Internet can serve as a lifeline, said Cathy Dionne, program director of the Autism Society of Maine. She said this is especially true in a lightly populated state like Maine.

"A lot of families especially in rural Maine -- we're talking Aroostook County, Washington County -- their connection is their computer," Dionne said.

Dionne, who has an autistic teenager, regularly visits the sites and feels uplifted after reading posts. Though her child does not speak, she is still hopeful for the day she will hear an "I love you."

"The one thing I like about these sites is the 'Guess what my child did today?'" Dionne said. "They share of lot of those type of stories, and I think parents need that inspiration."

Some of the parents say that they feed off one another's advice and encouragement because they feel the medical establishment has abandoned them.

Unlike a condition such as juvenile diabetes, autism comes with less defined guidelines for treatment, parents say.

"When you go to the pediatrician, they say 'there is no cure. Put him in speech therapy. Bye,'" said Taylor, a family therapist before she switched to Web design so she could stay at home with her son. "You're not left with a lot of options."

Taylor belongs to the group of parents who believe autism can be cured in some children. Many blame the mercury-containing preservative in vaccines given to children through the 1990s for causing the disorder, as well as environmental toxins.

On the other end of the spectrum are parents who believe that autism is largely, if not entirely, genetic. Some of them consider the view that autism can be "fixed" as a direct affront to their children.

The Maine-based Web sites and online groups reflect the range of views. Rebecca Waddell of Waldoboro said she falls somewhere in the middle of the pack.

For her blog, www.mainely musings.blogspot.com, Waddell said, she stays away from controversies and topical issues, except for the occasional mention of actress Jenny McCarthy, the parent-turned-activist who's acquired hero status on many autism sites.

Waddell prefers to document her day-to-day experiences with her two sons, the younger of whom, 4-year-old Thane, is autistic. Her site is plastered with close-ups of her sons mugging for the camera and videos of them goofing off with their father and the family husky.

Waddell, who regularly reads four other Maine-based sites, said it is therapeutic to have an online journal and receive feedback from readers.

"I sort of would like people to realize that it's not all horrible," she said. "Yes, there are some challenges. He'll go into a store and scream the whole time. But he can be also incredibly cute and charming and smart."

The rest of the world can see for themselves. Just the other week, she said, another mother in Sweden let her know how adorable Thane is.

New Biomedical Support Group in Rockport Maine

From Laura Plorude of the Portland Maine biomed support group:

The new midcoast support group will be starting the 27th of October and will always be the last Saturday of the month. It will be held from 10 to 12 at Namaste Institute in Rockport.

This is on Beech Hill road across from Hobokin garden on Rt 1. It is about one mile up that road on the left. A little black sign is at the foot of the drive. (for the local MOMs)

The directions are also at Namasteinstitute.com

NAA Maine's Autism Walk

So there has been a change of plans and we will not be walking in Boston, instead we will be walking in Auburn, Maine!

The National Autism Association of Maine is holding its kick off event:

The 3-mile walk will be held on May 6th, 2007. Registration will begin at 9:00 AM at Festival Plaza in Auburn and the walk will kick off at 10:00 AM.

We are currently seeking both corporate and private sponsorships as well as walkers. For more information please contact Shawn and Emily at walk@naamaine.org or by calling 207-514-0303.


The walk will take place rain or shine!

See you there!

Walk for Chandler!!

The National Autism Association is holding annual Road To Recovery Walk in Boston on May 6th and the Taylor family will be a'walkin'.

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/walk.php

We would like to raise $3,000!

So if this blog has been a blessing to you, be a blessing to NAA and donate a few dollars in Chandler's name

http://www.firstgiving.com/GingerTaylor





UPDATE!
NAA is now holding a walk in Aubern, Maine! We will be walking there instead of Boston.

Say Goodbye to Hollywood

So we decided to that LA was not the best place in the world to raise our little ones, so we packed up the car and moved the family to a super cute little town in Maine.

Check out the view from the boys room.

Chandler is diggin' the snow.

Escape From LA

So we have decided to say goodbye to Hollywood and head back east. Raising Chandler in Los Angeles was not the best, so we are moving to a quiet little town in Maine. We are in the process of slowly making our way, taking the old school trip across the country.

Unfortunately my computer was stolen during the packing up and I have lost TONS of information. Among the losses were a good portion of my email and addresses. So if you have written to me, and I have not written back, I won't be answering you. If we have corresponded at all, please drop me an email and remind me of anything that I may have outstanding to you. That way I will also have your information again.

I will be checking in from the road periodically over the next month and get to do much more writing once we settle in.

Eastward Ho!