Notes From the Big "Anti-Vaccine" Conference
Last weekend, the Autism One organization held its annual conference in Chicago, attended by thousands of parents, doctors, educators and others, to discuss a wide array of autism-related issues. The New York Times labeled it an "anti-vaccine" conference and the Chicago Tribune portrayed it as a freak-show spectacle straight off the island of Dr. Moreau.
Yes, there was some discussion of vaccines - and some admittedly unconventional, and controversial, autism therapies. But there was so much more than that. Out of nearly 150 presentations, only a few dealt directly with vaccines at all. Most of the days were filled with topics such as "Creating Theater with Autism Spectrum Youth," "Epilepsy in Autism: An Overview," and "Perspectives from cell biology and autism risk factors and treatments," a fascinating talk by the forward-thinking Dr. Mark Noble, Professor of Genetics and Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Rochester.
My own remarks dealt with vaccines, and so much more as well, including environmental mercury, wild-type viruses, tainted food, air pollution, pesticides, arsenic, antimony, formaldehyde in household products, even pet shampoo.
I believe that most ASD cases have environmental triggers (probably more than one) that activate certain genetic predispositions (again, probably more than one) and create some of the symptoms that we call "autism." I also believe that vaccines may have played a role in triggering some - though certainly not all - cases of regressive autism. Even if that number is a small minority, it seems sensible to me to study the mechanism of action, in hopes of finding clues to the development of autism in all those other children.
Because my own interest in the cause of autism extends well beyond thimerosal, MMR vaccine, or the immunization program itself, I chose to speak about three potential factors in autism - metals, myelin (which coats the brain and nerve cells) and mitochondria - that could possibly trigger the disorder, with or without the involvement of vaccines or vaccine components.
I believe that the study of environmental triggers - other than vaccines - can provide some sorely needed middle ground in what has turned out to be one of the most contentious and vitriolic issues of our day. That doesn't mean that research into genes - or vaccines - should or would stop. But it might provide for a way forward from here.
Most reasonable people agree that autism has an environmental component. Recent analyses from California show that widening diagnostic criteria are not responsible for the explosive growth in autism cases in that state.
And stay tuned for new numbers coming out of the US Military that will shatter the current national estimate of 1-in-150 kids - which, by the way, was calculated in 2002, by analyzing children born in 1994. That's right, our most current CDC autism statistics are seven years old, and describe people who are now at least 15 years of age. The CDC cannot even tell us when it might finish analyzing its 2004 data - on children born in 1996 - though it knows exactly how many H1N1 cases are in, say, California today.
As I said in my remarks, these are just my own personal musings, spoken out loud. I offer proof of nothing, and answers to no questions. I draw no conclusions. My only point is that, if we are going to find the actual environmental triggers to autism, we had better get busy. Heavy metals, damage to myelin, and the role of mitochondria are just three of the many, many areas where I believe that Federal research dollars should be targeted.
I am sure that this modest proposal will spark the usual hew and cry from the usual gallery of reactionaries - one of whom just wrote at Daily Kos that, even if all autism cases were caused by vaccines, there would be no reason to alter or even examine the immunization program.
People who ask questions about vaccine safety are now being called "pro-disease." Some are supporting censorship of any talk about vaccines and autism. Yet many of these same voices balk and squawk at the very idea of researching potential factors like mercury from coal, live viruses, pesticides, aluminum, formaldehyde, jet fuel and many other toxins.
That mystifies me. If science could pinpoint the exact triggers that produce autism - and they had nothing do with vaccines - this debate would end, as far as I am concerned, and happily so.
METALS, MYELIN & MITOCHONDRIA - PATHWAYS TO AUTISM? -- Remarks by David Kirby, Autism One, Chicago, May 2009I first want to say that this conference was described by The New York Times as "an anti-vaccine conference." And, you know, when I read that I actually laughed out loud. And I thought, "What would you even do at an anti-vaccine conference, anyway?" And I know there are some people in this audience who are anti-vaccine, and they have that right. I just don't happen to be one of those people.
The reason I get upset at being called "anti-vaccine" is that, A), it's untrue, and B), I do think vaccines are important. And I think we can vaccinate more safely than we do in this country. But the label is used as a weapon. It is used as a tool against people like me. And even though it's a lie, it is so much easier to dismiss somebody if you think that they're anti-vaccine. "He's a kook. He's a nut. He doesn't know what he's talking about."
And now we're into the rhetoric that has gotten so heated that people like me are called "pro-disease." It's like Karl Rove is writing the playbook for these people. Because it's gotten that political, it's gotten that nasty. So, I'm going to fight back against that label.
This is not an "anti-vaccine conference." There's a discussion tonight about athletics in autism, and one on relationships in autism.
And we are here to talk about a lot more than vaccines. And that's sort of the theme of my speech, too. Because for quite a while now, I have believed there are many, many different ways to get to what we call "autism." And I think we really need to step back from vaccines, we need to step back from Thimerosal, we need to step back from MMR and other specific vaccine components. We need to work backwards and look at the world in its entirety. We need to look at food, air, water, and medicine. And by medicine, yes, that would include vaccines.
Now, the Obama administration just announced they're going to have a national meeting on toxins; and how toxins affect people. And that's exactly where I think this conversation should go. I'm ready for a little middle ground. I'm really tired of the screaming back and forth, you know. We need to find out what's making these kids sick. And I think there's more consensus now that something in the environment or some things in the environment are contributing to that.
So let's look at those things in a more general sense. And that's where - I think - it gets really, really interesting, and where we may find some common ground in science - that there are things in nature that are triggers for autism. I truly believe there are things in the environment that can trigger autism that have nothing to do with vaccines.
I am just a journalist, I'm a layperson, so I view things in a slightly different way than scientists. And I have the luxury of doing that because I get to, you know, play around with theories a little bit, ask different kinds of questions and try to see connections between different things.
And when I look at the situation, I think we've moved way past thimerosal as the one and only cause of autism. And I've just picked three possible routes - Metals, Myelin & Mitochondria - that we'll be talking about tonight. Now, you could make up a very, very long list of potential pathways to autism. But what's so interesting about these three pathways -- and remember, this is all just theory, this is just me, kind of musing out loud -- is that they're found in the natural environmental, or the man-made environment, and they're also found in vaccines.
The other thing that's interesting about these three things is they're interactive. So you might have metals as a contributing factor to autism, but you can't separate that entirely from the fact that metals can also destroy myelin. Metals can destroy mitochondria. They're all interrelated. And I think that we should look at ALL metals. And I think one reason that we haven't looked at all metals is because two of those metals happen to be aluminum and mercury, and those metals also happen to appear in childhood vaccines. If there never was mercury in vaccines, I can pretty much state that we would be much further along at this point in researching heavy metals in autism.
The same with live viruses. Measles virus can affect myelin as a matter of fact. Well, there is live measles virus in the MMR vaccine. Maybe that's one reason why there's been some reluctance to look more carefully into how viruses might be triggers of autism.
And the same is true of mitochondrial dysfunction and overstimulation of the immune system - all sorts of things can happen in that situation. And it does happen in nature - a lot. But talk with Jon and Teri Poling, and you'll find out it can also happen when you give a child nine vaccines in one day.
So maybe what it might take to try to find some middle ground and move research forward is to just put - even for a day - vaccines aside. And let's just look at metals. And let's just look at myelin damage - what can damage myelin. And let's look at mitochondria - and many, many other things.
But I am here to discuss these three things. And, I am not here to give you any answers. I don't have any answers. My job is to ask the questions. I also draw no conclusions. But my message to you is this: If I were running the show, and if I were dishing out the research dollars, these are some of the areas that I would be pursuing, posthaste. And if I were a scientist, these are some of the things that I would be wanting to study with federal money, including some money coming into the NIH right now.
The rest of the transcript, with slides, has been posted here:
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When David Kirby's book "Evidence of Harm" first came out, I went to a bookstore in Berkeley to listen to him speak. I cannot see that there are a whole lot of inconsistencies about what he said then, and what he says now. However, many more questions are being raised since the many studies that have come out can't find a connection between autism and vaccines, or specifically Thimerosal.
My comment here, however, relates to a Berkeley chemistry student who attended that same book event that I attended. After the talk, the young man asked around wanting to know about the feasibility of studying mercury in graduate school. His faculty adviser was present.
The adviser strongly discouraged the student saying that it was unlikely that any grants would become available studying mercury, essentially that this student would ruin his career by studying a subject that had no monetary future.
By what I have found out, studies with mercury have been done by a number of scientists. But almost without fail the careers of those scientists have been compromised when they stated a connection between mercury and autism or Alzheimer’s or other human disease. No wonder that students don't want to go into a field that offers no monetary rewards and is likely to cause them a whole lot of grief.
It also happens that mercury is toxic and causes ill health in those who work with it.
Scientists who draw erroneous conclusions by their research are bound to suffer career setbacks. Which scientists are you referring to? Hornig? Burbacher? Geier?
Please do some research as you will see that there are plenty of research careers successfully following research into various aspects of mercury. A simple search on pubmed and you will see over 600 publications this year alone about mercury and in the NIH database of funding, there are 3643 past and present funded research projects on mercury
NetDude-
So true! There is mercury research, past and present that is pertinent to autism.
The naysayers would like to keep trying to take the focus off of the research, put down the researchers, and claim environmental mercury can be deleterious but not so with thimerosal -- oh no..it is the safe kind!
I wish that the CDC would care as much about what is Killing, our children's future, as it does about the swine flu epidemic. Autism has claimed more victims then the swine flu, yet its not in the news everyday. WHY?
As for the Vaccine controversy, well its been going on ever since my son was first dxed with autism in 1999, and for every study that has been done, saying vaccines don't cause autism, another study comes out to prove that it does. If there was absolutely no link,what-so-ever, this debate would have been laid to rest Years Ago, but nobody has ever been able to put the final nail in the coffin! So, When do we finally meet, in the middle of the road? Our Children don't have time to waste on Political BS, Agenda's or to Play the Blaming Game, and quite frankly neither do the parents. The milk has been spilt, and now the question is...do we have enough guts to take responsibility and clean it up?
I want autism therapy, treatments, services and supports, our kids aren't getting any younger and we all know, that society isn't even close to being ready for the Next Wave that is coming. When all of our ASD children age out of school and enter adult services..
We All have a part in this, question is,do you want to continue to be part of the problem or solution?
"Autism has claimed more victims then the swine flu, yet its not in the news everyday. WHY?"
Swine flu is potentially fatal, and its incidence has noticeably jumped over the last six months. Just a guess.
And infectious.
"for every study that has been done, saying vaccines don't cause autism, another study comes out to prove that it does"
there are plenty of epidemiological studies that say vaccines do not cause autism. where are the studies that show the contrary?
"Our Children don't have time to waste on Political BS, Agenda's or to Play the Blaming Game, and quite frankly neither do the parents"
I totally agree. Its about time this argument was put to rest so the scientific community can pursue other causes and treatments for autism.
Unfortunately, it wont end, because neither side has been able to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt. That is why I think, instead of both sides screaming at each other...it would be nice, if they would take a time out and actually look at the research both sides have done....an
But We all know that's not going to happen.
There's a concern that the second wave of swine flu infections will be considerably more deadly. The precedent for this are the spanish, hong kong and asian 'flu epidemics where the initial wave of infection was relatively mild (similar to seasonal 'flu), but the subsequent waves (occurring some months later) were the killers. I would disagree with your usage of the term "claimed more victims", which seems to imply death. I get that there are more people who are autistic.
Maybe my child didn't Die Physically
So you see...I don't really see the two as being that different.
BTW, I never said that the Swine Flu wasn't important.
Repost:
DK said: "I believe that most ASD cases have environmental triggers (probably more than one) that activate certain genetic predispositions (again, probably more than one) and create some of the symptoms that we call "autism"."
List of some environmental triggers DK provided: "environmental mercury, wild-type viruses, tainted food, air pollution, pesticides, arsenic, antimony, formaldehyde in household products, even pet shampoo".
So, my question is this: why is (psychological) stress not included in your list (or those of anyone claiming environmental triggers)? We are dealing with the brain which, in addition to many functions, deals with input stimuli, cognitive function, memory, and stress responses. What has happened for stress to be eliminated as a possible culprit as one of the "environmental triggers".
As an example, look at the correlation with stresses and (psychological) trauma that often precedes the onset of schizophrenia in teens/adults. One day they are "normal", a period or instance of stress/trauma occurs, then the behaviors/symptoms manifest and they are diagnoses as schizophrenic.
http://www
Maybe because most of the children with autism grew up in a normal stress free environment just like their peers did. Nobody every started a study without some anecdotal evidence to point them in a particular direction. Where do you find evidence that children with autism experienced more stress as infants? That is, other than through the issuance of a large number of injections -- ooh, maybe that was the cause! THAT'S IT! It was the stress caused by too many shots. Josephine you've discovered the truth.
"Where do you find evidence that children with autism experienced more stress as infants? "
I'm asking this question because it is always left of the list of "environmental factors", which is quite telling, actually.
First of all, stress-free environment? Really? Seriously, think about what you're saying.
"other than through the issuance of a large number of injections -- ooh, maybe that was the cause! THAT'S IT! It was the stress caused by too many shots."
Trauma at the doctors office, an new sibling, a move, a change in a parent's work status, pre-school, peer-interactions, the list can go on and on. Ever hear of the terrible 2's? Hmmm, seems others have ID'd that one, unlike your stress-free environment (ya right).
Again, I'm not suggesting that is the or a driver necessarily. My point is that no one here recognizes that as a valid source as an "environmental" trigger.
I suppose we do know that thimerosal has been removed from vaccines? Or are we just taking a drug company's word for it? Is it somebody's job to test this? I know if I were a sleazy drug company, I might be inclined to leave more in than I stated on the label to confound the results.
Excuse me now, I'm going to get some General Tso's Arsenic Chicken...
That's going to be your new argument? "Thimerosal causes autism. Autism rates have not gone down since they removed it. Therefore thimerosal hasn't been removed?" Dang, that's some mighty circular reasoning.
go get yourself a vial of vaccine and have it tested independently. As for "sleazy" drug companies, that's an insult to the hundreds of thousands of hard working folk who bust a gut trying to make life-saving medicines. They're human beings with families too, you know. You might need pharma one day if you are one of the significant proportion of people with cancer, diabetes, heart problems etc. It's easy to confuse the science from the marketing.
How about just greedy and corrupt?
Kwombles said below, "Your words aren't going unnoticed and will be countered with factual, scientifically accurate informatio
And, of course, not offering any helpful information on causation nor treatment. It's the usual, "We have no idea what causes it nor how to treat it yet we know exactly what does not cause it and can state categorically that all parents, doctors, and scientists who don't agree with us are irrational and don't understand science." Only said more rudely than that.
Seriously? I've offered an abundance of scientific information on Huff for the last three months, as well as treatment methods that actually have some evidence behind them. And I've rarely been insulting. Instead I've been roundly attacked several times, and when I posted at AoA, my initial two posts were allowed on, but once the attacks began against me, even though I emailed the managing editor and asked for rebuttals to be allowed on, I was censored.
You're right, it often gets contentious and snide, but it comes every bit as much if not more from the vaccine/autism side.
I've noticed a tendency for the folks who believe autism is caused by vaccines to completely dismiss any research that counters the idea. Openness to evidence is not something most on your side are open to, and you collectively certainly disdain anyone who doesn't jump on your bandwagon.
"I've noticed a tendency for the folks who [DON'T] believe autism is caused by vaccines to completely dismiss any research that counters the idea." is a true statement as well. What do you have to say about the research that points to a possible connection? And spare us the "my research is better than your research argument" -- that's just a waste of time.
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
How true that is. Read any good Kirby books lately?
David Kirby makes very little. His income is low. The pharma companies make millions, some of which they donate to politicians and give to doctors and the AAP and spend on advertisements on news programs and in newspapers and professional journals and donate to universities as well.
What about Paul Offit? Read any of his? And how much money did he make off of his vaccine?
David Kirby said:
"I believe that most ASD cases have environmental triggers (probably more than one) that activate certain genetic predispositions (again, probably more than one) and create some of the symptoms that we call "autism." I also believe that vaccines may have played a role in triggering some - though certainly not all - cases of regressive autism."
There's a lot of stuff in this discussion about what people "believe." Even better, what they "feel."
I'd rather see some evidence.
VicDaring:
You seem a bit lost. Look at the viral encephalitis cases ending in autism. Read them. Read bacterial meningitis cases ending up in autism. Read on cases of perinatal oxygen deprivation ending in autism. Look at the rare monogentic disorders that have autism as a prevalent phenotype. Look at the countless animal model studies. All published peer reviewed studies. Then look at what common mechanisms are affected in those cases, what parts are dysfunctional, how that happens and why. Where to those cases meet on physiological level. Then look at all other environmenal triggers mentioned by David, see what pathways they affect, what all these things have in common. You will be astonished.
(and btw all real science begins as a feeling... if there was no intuition, if scientists and inventors didn't follow what they felt, and relied only on what they already knew, there would be no science at all !! we would still be sitting in our caves waiting for someone to invent the wheel or start a fire)
You're mixing up correlation and causation.
What about all the kids who contract viral encephalitis or bacterial meningitis, or experience perinatal oxygen deprivation who are never diagnosed with autism?
The causes of autism are not known. Risk factors seem to indicate that genetics are the major risk factor. Whether their is a seperate environmental component, or what it might be, is all conjecture.
Stating that conjecture, and then running with it as though it were fact, is dangerous.
Ah, but the woo is more interesting to some. And more profitable to others. ;)
I'm sorry, but evidence based medicine isn't allowed here.
Autismnostrum, that's not true. David's article is full of evidence.
To Josephius: "....The problem concerning this...whi
ALL these contributors will cause specific damage (nb temporary dysfunction, rather than damage) through one mechanism: their effects on calcium signalling!
Perturbation of cellular calcium signalling does lead to all the things we know happen in autism. MANY things are capable of affecting it. Including numerous toxins-metals and organophosphates, radiation, viruses and bacteria, hypoxia etc. And yes, genes. In rare cases it is only genes that lead to calcium-induced autism (TimothySyndrome), in most other cases they are only a small contributing factor.
Effects that lead to autism happen mainly through VoltageGat
I have posted about this many times, and so have other people.
http://www
Calcium channels and signaling systems are ubiquitous. If this was the mechanism, autism would be defined differently with many other physiological effects and distinct phenotypes.
http://www
Nearly all cellular functions would be affected..
I appreciate that you are using bits and pieces from literature to propose your mechanism, but what you are providing are bits and pieces that really have no relationships with one another. You are merely listing described phenomena and speculative mechanistic proposals.
Here is a hint though...w
It is to do with location, the spread of pathogens and toxins, and the expression levels of those channels (which change by age)
Let me ask you something - how long did you actualy spend reading the paper before making conclusions
As Twyla said, when someone wants to talk science, you staunch defenders of it make a run!
(... and yes, all cellular functions are affected in autism, on many levels - this goes to show how much you really don't know about underlying biological abnormalities in autism)
http://www
http://www
Thank you for another excellent presentation and for your continuing work to improve the environment our children live in.
I've never really understood the logic of implying that discussion of problems with vaccination is "anti-vacc
With neurological and immune disfunction epidemic in our children (and ourselves), arguments attempting to dismiss the need to look at environmental components and combinations (particularly the injected ones) for possible causation are rooted only in self-protectionism (or possibly self-destr
"Who would line up for these same exposure scaled to adult sizes?"
Many healthcare workers do just that.
I'm a medical anthroplogist who has worked in several major acute care hospitals. Due to the precarious immunity of pateints, every single employee in those hospitals, from the head cardio thoracic surgeon to the janitor, has to get WAY more immunizations than your average kid has in order to work there. They want you immunized for everything under the sun, especially as these have been high profile hospitals which foreigners travel to, who can carry more exotic diseases. They don't make the PATIENTS have to be vaccinated, but the employees HAVE to be, to try and help prevent spread of disease as much as possible In addition, we have to keep up with booster shots for these vaccines, and receive the flu vaccine every year.
I'm not telling you this as an argument that vaccines don't cause autims, I have no interest in debating that. Besides, what I am talking about is adults receiving vaccines, obviously brains and bodies work very differently as adults than as children and things effect them differently.
But I did want to answer your question of "who would line up for exposure?"
oops! that should read "affect" not "effect"
We are seeing more cases of adult disorders - alzheimer's, parkinson's, ms, autoimmune issues, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, cancers and on and on - perhaps the vaccines don't cause "adult autism" but they may result in other serious conditions.
Are we trading short lived infectious diseases for on-going, chronic medical conditions?
BlackCat,
Could you give me an idea of how many injections per year the health care workers you are referring to receive and how many may be given on one day? Are any health conditions or family history considered as contraindications for vaccination? Thanks.
The projects of burying the rise in autism and denying the involvement of vaccines in autism have always gone together. When I first started to raise the issue of numbers with UK Department of Health in 2000 they thought I was arguing about vaccines - which I hadn't mentioned. They said it, not me.
John Stone, Contributing editor to Agege of Autism http://www
David: Excellent presentation! Also, speaking of the 'Big Anti Vaccine Conference' as the NY Times likes to call it, less than one month after Newsweek magazine ran a global cover story on Seizure Disorders.
http://www
Once again, the parents are taking the bull by the horns on another important issue effecting children with Autism.
As expected..
Will anyone answer the question? You? David Kirby? Anyone?
If you want to spearhead a study on stress and autism, go right ahead. My point was that you, ANB, and others constantly ridicule parents for making any "unproven" statements -- as if no possibility should even be discussed until an iron clad study is published in a professional journal. When parents report seeing their children have severe vaccine reactions and then lose speech, eye contact, etc., they are told, "Anecdotal! No evidence! You don't understand science! Leave this in the hands of the scientists!"
In that context, your speculation that autism may result from parents being under stress is very inconsistent with your usual anti-think
Your theory sounds like it belongs in the "ABV" camp -- i.e. "anything but vaccines". I'm sure Alison Singer's and Paul Offit's new organization could get some pharma money to research this, as their stated mission is to research anything but vaccines.
"In that context, your speculation that autism may result from parents being under stress is very inconsistent with your usual anti-think
One more time - Josephius isn't speculating. He's asking why stress didn't make the cut in Kirby's laundry list of potential causes for autism. From Science Daily:
"Certain individuals have long been regarded as particularly susceptible to developing behavioural and emotional problems when they experience negative environmental conditions, due to the fact that they carry so-called ‘vulnerability genes’."
It's a good article. Lots of facts.
It's really not much of a question, Josephius. You asked, "why is (psychological) stress not included in your list (or those of anyone claiming environmental triggers)?" Maybe because we have not come accross any evidence of that, and because babies/tod
That is putting the cart before the horse. We haven't established firm evidence that the true incidence rate of autism is greater than it was in prior decades and centuries.
Nonetheless, you don't think being in daycare, riding around in cars and car seats, sleeping in separate rooms from parents, C-sections and inductions, and formula feeding might be stress inducing?
David,
I am tired too, for being called anti-vaccine. I do vaccinate my youngest child, but with caution. She is very bright and healthy little girl, same as her older sister.
I would like to know why the statistics are so so outdated too? In MN the 2007 school data says there are 1:81 with ASD. I am not sure what age group they have ran this data with, but the country as a whole can not be too far off from that number.
Also, I would like to agree with you that if there was something proven to be the cause of autism, other than vaccines, this would rest. I think it may take a little time for it to settle but nonetheless, it would rest.
Laura, you are so right, we all know that their science has been going in the wrong direction for far too long. It is time to get off of the pot and take some honest to goodness real action here! Quit wasting valuable time and get on with what they already know have compelling evidence leading in the right direction. I mean everything, not just vaccines, like environmental toxins and such.
This is serious everybody. We have to stop arguing and start putting our heads together and getting to some real answers. Our kids deserve us to behave far better than we all have been. It is not helping anything.
It's so tiresome to read the same people with the same snide comments, proving once again that they lack scientific curiousity and basic human compassion.
For some people, 500 cases of full body paralysis from Guillain-Barre is still written off as coincidence. As Boyd Haley says, there are none so blind as those who WILL NOT see.
So well said, nhokkanen!
I read something yesterday about how TB used to be considered a "genetic" condition.
What will future generations look back and say about us?
People are willing to go to the grave shouting that "vaccines don't cause autism" just like others used to shout "cigarettes don't cause cancer".
Please cite your references. FTR, science does not deny an association between some vaccines and GBS. However, I don't remember reading about any "500 cases of full body paralysis," so if you've got that in a credible source somewhere, that would be swell.
In the mean time, here's what I can find: http://eme
Mr Kirby,
Thanks for your tireless commitment to cover this issue in the most straight forward and honest fashion. It is a service to all those who seek the truth, or as close as we can get to it.
Someday, maybe some university will endow a chair with your name on it, as an honor to you for your honesty and journalistic integrity to pursue the story of the century: "Why are so many of our children sick, and getting sicker." The story of our children, is also the story of the failure of all of our institutions who are so undeserving of our trust.
You are a rare commodity in 21st century journalism.
"honesty and journalistic integrity"
to pull a Doug, i'll just leave the quote hanging there.
"You are a rare commodity in 21st century journalism
Yeah, he's paid well. By JB Handley.
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