Doctors, Vaccine Dissent and The God Complex

As three of the top medical organizations in the U.S. this month pronounced their support for a new vaccine schedule, leading doctors continue to disagree about how to counsel parents on the benefits and risks of vaccines.

On Jan. 4 the Centers for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians released an updated vaccine schedule that now includes 2 additional shots. 

Some families continue to set their own vaccination schedule for their children and some continue to choose not to have their children vaccinated at all. Both are practices the CDC, the AAP and the AAFP warn against.

Despite more fervent calls to ensure adherence to the CDC's published vaccine schedule, a CDC study from Sept. 2008 revealed the numbers of unvaccinated U.S. children may be grossly overestimated.

The CDC report, based on data on 17,017 children, found that fewer than 1 percent received no vaccines, suggesting a record number of U.S. children are receiving vaccinations.

However, some doctors have turned patients away from their practices due to non-vaccination. Other practices issue letters specifying the doctor's philosophy on vaccination to all patients as a form of disclaimer in the event of illness.

The tension over what to do with families who knowingly refuse to adhere to the recommended  schedule is the basis for the recent conflict between two leading pediatricians, Dr. Robert W. Sears and Dr. Paul Offit.

Dr. Robert W. Sears, a California pediatrician, and author of the best selling, "The Vaccine Book", responded to an article published in Pediatrics this month, by Dr. Paul Offit, entitled "The Problem With Dr Bob's Alternative Vaccine Schedule." In the article, Offit, co-inventor of and co-patent holder for the RotaTeq vaccine, directly accused Sears of doing more harm than good with his alternative of extending the interval between shots. Other critics of Sears accuse him of creating distraction and disunity among doctors.

Sears countered Offit with a lengthy reply Dec. 29 on his website saying he agrees with Offit that vaccines are necessary to prevent dangerous diseases in children, which he says Offit irresponsibly overlooked. Last September, Offit published his own book, "Autism's False Prophets" to critique what he believes is junk science circulating in the media and online. He believes it is distracting and frightening parents unnecessarily away from vaccination. Since publication of his book, he has given several interviews in newspapers, radio and online to support his stance.

But, many of the commenters on Offit's Pediatrics article, themselves pediatricians and medical researchers, back Sears' logic. They say Sears is merely creating a healthy, open discussion that is the cornerstone of scientific debate.

Corrinne Zoli, a researcher at Syracuse University and one of the commenters on the Offit article, wrote that the CDC and the FDA through "lack of long-term studies, research by scientists employed by pharma firms" and the"use of pre-World War II data to set benchmarks" have given the impression that "parents are not equal partners and decision makers in their children's health, and they should exhibit blind trust in institutions that many perceive as marred."

Zoli writes, that when the FDA decided to remove mercury based thimerosal preservative from vaccines while around the same time declaring it safe, it gave parents the impression that "these same organizations did not value parents as partners in children's health enough to speak forthrightly with them or to address all sides of a complex issue."

She predicts "only when organizations such as the AAP, the CDC, and others choose to recognize this new cultural phenomenon, that patient-physician relationships have irrevocably changed from the 1950's 'doctor as god' model, will a real dialogue of equals and, hence, public trust be restored."

Comments

[believe it]

This is not parody -

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/vaccines-is-the-boom-sustainable-in-the-obama-era.html
January 16, 2009
Vaccines: Is The Boom Sustainable in the Obama Era?

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/who-is-the-bernie-madoff-of-vaccines.html
January 08, 2009
Who is the Bernie Madoff of Vaccines?

[believe it]

What's going on here? Efforts to block research? (my interpretation)

QUOTE
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/alison-singer-no-longer-speaks-for-autism-speaks.html#more

AUTISM SPEAKS WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FOR STRATEGIC PLAN FOR AUTISM RESEARCH, DECRIES UNEXPECTED CHANGE IN FINAL APPROVAL PROCESS

Calls for New Administration to Restore the Intent of Combating Autism Act to Respect and Value Community Input

NEW YORK, NY (January 15, 2009) " Autism Speaks today decried a vote by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) to reverse a previously voted-on decision to approve objectives relating to vaccine safety research as part of its deliberations for the Strategic Plan for Autism Research. The decision to debate removing these objectives was not posted on the meeting's agenda, nor were the public members given any forewarning that this section of the plan " which was resolved at the previous IACC meeting in December -- would be revisited. As a result, Autism Speaks is withdrawing its support for the Strategic Plan.
(continued)
END QUOTE

[believe it]

And more to be reviewed here before unfairly condemning so-called 'vaccine deniers' ,

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/cdc-aap-paul-offit-feeding-a-hungry-lie.html
January 09, 2009
Tayloe, Offit, Minshew, Katz, Snyderman, et. al.: Feeding a Hungry Lie
By J.B. Handley

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/uc-davis-mind-institute-study-shows-californias-autism-increase-not-due-to-better-counting-diagnosis.html
UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute Study Shows California's Autism Increase Not Due To Better Counting, Diagnosis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Jan. 7, 2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/uc-davis-study-autism-is_b_156153.html
UC Davis Study Authors: Autism is Environmental (Can We Move On Now?)
Posted January 8, 2009
by David Kirby


No need to apologize - please just pass on the information.

[Dion Madsen]

Nice to see that the level of discussion on this forum is much elevated from other vaccine forums. I think that the crux of the discussion here is whether an individual understands the scientific method.

Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. A method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

Generating hypotheses from observation of personal experience is an excellent method of generating new experiments and testing existing bodies of knowledge. Those parents who have children with ASD and where those symptoms have occurred near the same time as vaccination can be expected to generate a hypothesis that these two items are linked. The testing of this hypothesis needs to be rigorous and tested across broad populations to see if this is broad effect, whether it is statistically significant and via this testing, to demonstrate whether this really is a linked effect. Once this is completed than a better understanding of why this occurs would be the next step.

[DangerousDave]

Three things have created the explosion in the human population:
1. Vaccination
2. Sanitation
3. Industrialised agriculture

Remove one of these and people will start to die.

[believe it]

Two out of three on your list are implicated here -

QUOTE
http://www.alternative-therapies.com/resources/web_pdfs/recent/1108_blaylock.pdf
A POSSIBLE CENTRAL MECHANISM IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS, PART 1
by Russell L. Blaylock, MD
(Altern Ther Health Med. 2008;14(6):46-53.)

The autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of related neurodevelopmental
disorders that have been increasing in incidence since the 1980s. Despite a considerable amount of data being collected from cases, a central mechanism has not been offered. A
careful review of ASD cases discloses a number of events that adhere to an immunoexcitotoxic mechanism. This mechanism explains the link between excessive vaccination, use of aluminum
and ethylmercury as vaccine adjuvants, food allergies, gut dysbiosis, and abnormal formation of the developing brain... END

(Link contributed by host of excellent food blog for me to read today. Thanks, Bix.)

[KillTheMessenger]

What is "excessive" vaccination?

To vaccinate every child once against every life threatening disease? What, exactly, is excessive about that?

So what would be "normal"? Vaccinate every other child? Give them half the required dose? Vaccinate only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays?

[ouroborous]

Hmm.

I think that we're conflating (intentionally confusing) a few different ideas here.

First, I don't personally have a problem with parents making health choices for their children. Although there are SOME aspects that are troubling, this is a principle that has stood since forever, so in theory I don't have a problem.

However, we have to understand that vaccination isn't just a personal (child's) health issue, it's a *PUBLIC* health issue. In other words, epidemics have been prevented (per epidemiological data) by widespread vaccinations. So it's not just your own kid you're protecting by vaccinating them, it's everyone ELSE'S kids, too.

All of the evidence supports the idea that, while all medical interventions, including vaccination, carry a risk, the risks of vaccination are much, much, MUCH less than the benefits. Enough to be mandatory. Just like seat belt and helmet laws, the public has made the decision that the small decrease in personal liberty is a fair price to pay for the large increase in public health.

Even so, if you choose to not vaccinate your child -- and then *KEEP YOUR CHILD ISOLATED* from the rest of society -- I have no ethical qualms from a public health perspective. Unfortunately, most of the "vaccine deniers" want to simultaneously skip or delay vaccination, AND have their children take part in the public school system. That's where it becomes a PUBLIC health issue and should be stopped.

[believe it]

While researching GMO food related topics (speifically Dr, Arpad Pusztai), a website mentioning Arpad written by the parent of a child with autism linked to the Age of Autism.

Like many, I had no idea. Please start reading with
http://marthaherbert.com/

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/apr/autism-it2019s-not-just-in-the-head
Autism: It's Not Just in the Head
by Jill Neimark
published March 22, 2007

Then please visit and read widely
http://www.ageofautism.com/

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/olmsted-on-autism-autism-explosion-followed-big-change-in-mmr-shot.html
January 13, 2009
Olmsted on Autism: Autism Explosion Followed Big Change in MMR Shot
By Dan Olmsted

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/what-did-the-cd.html
January 11, 2009
Best of A of A: What Did the CDC Know and When Did They Know It?
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/autism-prevalen.html
January 12, 2009
Best of A of A: Part 2
By Mark Blaxill

http://www.google.com/search?q=age+of+autism+2008+awards&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DMUS
including MUST READ tributes to Dr. Bernadine Healy, Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/12/age-of-autism-awards-2008-person-of-the-year-dr-bernadine-healy.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/12/age-of-autism-awards-2008-galileo-award-dr-andrew-wakefield.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/12/age-of-autism-aware-2008-child-of-the-year-hannah-poling.html

[KillTheMessenger]

I will believe it when I see credible sources.

[CraigWilloughby]

"However, we have to understand that vaccination isn't just a personal (child's) health issue, it's a *PUBLIC* health issue. In other words, epidemics have been prevented (per epidemiological data) by widespread vaccinations. So it's not just your own kid you're protecting by vaccinating them, it's everyone ELSE'S kids, too."

If your child is vaccinated, you shouldn't have to worry.

And the whole point of Dr. Sear's book is that you can still vaccinate. He gives a gentler schedule that is better than bombarding a baby's immune system with 9 different viruses at once (see what happened to Hannah Poling).

And, like all medical procedures (vaccines are indeed a medical procedure), it is one of the fundamental rights as an American citizen to delay a vaccination schedule, or even remove a few unnecessary vaccines (like forcing a child that has had both Mumps and Chicken Pox to get the MMR-V) if they so choose.