Dr. Andrew Wakefield is one of the most vilified medical practitioners of recent times, and now he carries the extremely rare dishonor of a retraction in The Lancet, on the paper he coauthored in 1998 suggesting a potential link between autism, bowel disease and Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine.
I believe that the public lynching and shaming of Dr. Wakefield is unwarranted and overwrought, and that history will ultimately judge who was right and who was wrong about proposing a possible association between vaccination and regressive autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).
Wakefield's critics can condemn, retract, decry and de-license all they want, but that does nothing to stop or alter the march of science, which has come a long way over the past 12 years, and especially in the last year or two. The evidence that autism is increasing at alarming rates, and that some thing (or things) in our environment is wreaking havoc on a vulnerable one-percent of all US children is now so irrefutable that, finally, the federal government is climbing aboard the environmental research bandwagon - way late, but better than never.
This long-overdue paradigm shift will leave many in the scientific community with some proverbial but nonetheless uncomfortable egg on their increasingly irrelevant faces: Those who have protested with shrill certainty that autism is almost purely genetic, and not environmental in nature, and therefore not really increasing at all, will hopefully recede from the debate.
And that begs a nagging question: If those people were dead wrong about environmental factors in autism, could they also be mistaken in their equally heated denials about a possible vaccine-autism link? More bluntly, why should we heed them any longer?
We need to examine a host of environmental factors (air, water, food, medicine, household products and social factors) and how they might interact with vulnerable genes to create the varying collection of symptoms we call "autism." But these triggers almost have to be found in every town of every county of every state in the land - from Maine to Maui.
Are vaccines the only contributing factors to autism? Of course not. Other pharmaceutical products like thalidomide and valporic acid, as well as live mumps virus, have been associated with increased autism risk in prenatal exposures, so we already know that a variety of drugs and bugs can likely make a child autistic.
But, there are now at least six published legal or scientific cases of children regressing into ASD following vaccination - and many more will be revealed in due time.
There was the case of Hannah Poling, in federal vaccine court, in which the government conceded that Hannah's autism was caused by vaccine-induced fever and overstimulation of the immune system that aggravated an asymptomatic and previously undetected dysfunction of her mitochondria. Hannah received nine vaccines in one day, including MMR.
Then there was the Bailey Banks case, in which the court ruled that Petitioners had proven that MMR had directly caused a brain inflammation illness called "acute disseminated encephalomyelitis" (ADEM) which, in turn, had caused PDD-NOS, an autism spectrum disorder, in Bailey.
And last September, a chart review of children with autism and mitochondrial disease, published in the Journal of Child Neurology, looked at 28 children with ASD and mitochondrial disease and found that 17 of them (60.7%) had gone through autistic regression, and 12 of the regressive cases had followed a fever. Among the 12 children who regressed after fever, a third (4) had fever associated with vaccination, just like Hannah Poling.
The authors reported that "recommended vaccination schedules are appropriate in mitochondrial disease," although "fever management appears important for decreasing regression risk."
That conclusion, however, is not supported by some of the world's leading experts on mitochondrial disease, including Dr. Douglas Wallace, a professor of pediatrics and biological chemistry at UC Irvine, and director of its Center for Molecular & Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics. "We have always advocated spreading the immunizations out as much as possible because every time you vaccinate, you are creating a challenge for the system" in people with mito disorders, Dr. Wallace, who was recently named to the National Academies of Science, testified at a federal vaccine safety meeting.
The possibility that vaccines and mitochondrial disease might be related to autism was also supported in another chart review published in PLoS Online. The authors wrote that mitochondrial autism is not at all rare, and said that, "there might be no difference between the inflammatory or catabolic stress of vaccinations and that of common childhood diseases, which are known precipitants of mitochondrial regression."
In fact, they added, "Large population-based studies will be needed to identify a possible relationship of vaccination with autistic regression in persons with mitochondrial cytopathies."
Another fact that gets little attention in this never-ending debate is that more than 1,300 cases of vaccine injuries have been paid out in vaccine court, in which the court ruled that childhood immunizations caused encephalopathy (brain disease), encephalitis (brain swelling) and/or seizure disorders. Encephalopathy/encephalitis is found in most if not all ASD cases, and seizure disorders in about a third of them.
If we know that vaccines can cause these injuries, is it not reasonable to ask if they can cause similar injuries that lead to autism? (Stay tuned as those 1,300 cases come under closer scrutiny).
Fortunately, the federal government seems to be getting serious about identifying ALL potnetial environmental factors that could contribute to autism, including a few studies that take in vaccines and the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal. And President Obama's brand-new budget includes increased spending for autism research at NIH, including money to help identify environmental factors that contribute to ASD.
Meanwhile, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee has unanimously endorsed a CDC proposal to study autism as a possible "clinical outcome" of vaccination, and has recommended several more studies pertaining to vaccines and autism, including a feasability study on analyzing vaccinated vs. unvaccinated populations.
And over at the government's leading autism research panel, the Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), the Chairman, National Institute of Mental Health Director Dr. Thomas Insel, recently told me that that better diagnosis and reporting could not "explain away this huge increase" in ASD cases.
"There is no question that there has got to be an environmental component here," Insel said.
I asked him if the IACC would ever support direct research into vaccines and autism, now that CDC has rasied the estimated ASD rate from 1-in-150 to 1-in-110, in just two years. "I think what you are going to see with this update is that there is a recognition that we need to look at subgroups who might be particularly responsive to environmental factors," he answered.
So what might those factors include? Well, it turns out that the IACC has unanimously recommend research to determine if certain sub-populations are more susceptible to environmental exposures such as "immune challenges related to naturally occurring infections, vaccines or underlying immune problems."
Nobody seriously thinks that the retraction of The Lancet article, and the international flogging of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, will do anything to make this debate go away. And they are right.
David Kirby's new book, "Animal Factory - The Looming Threat of Industrial Pork, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment," will be released on March 2, 2010 by St. Martin's Press. It is currently available for pre-order at several online outlets, including here.
Chantal Sicile-Kira: HBO: A Mother's Courage: Talking Back to Autism
I am not trying to assert or argue that the quantity of ethyl mercury (12-25 mcg/injection) that has been used in pediatric vaccines in the past, or now in the flu vaccine, causes significant negative effects or harm to the developing neurological system of neonates or young children. I don’t want to address or argue that point right now. All I want to do here is clarify some basic pharmacokinetics (metabolism and distribution) of thimerosal. (Sheldon, if you respond, kindly stick to the specific questions asked.)
Methyl mercury does cross the blood-brain barrier.
Ethyl mercury does --not-- cross the blood-brain barrier.
Inorganic mercury does cross the blood-brain barrier. … Correct or incorrect?
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Here is Jenny McCarthy's argument against vaccinations.
I'm a mother of a child with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. I believe that vaccines cause ASD.
That is it. Really.
The point to remember is that there are lots of parents who first saw their children develop ASD after some childhood vaccination. Some of the parents choose to blame vaccination, some of the parents choose not to blame vaccination.
Neither group can add anything useful based upon what they choose to believe. So Jenny McCarthy's whole - a parent knows -- argument is just as useless as the same argument --- a parent knows - of a parent who chooses not to blame vaccination.
Of course, if Oprah is smart, she will abandon McCarthy. Because children in the US, including those who were vaccinated, will die in the future from measles. And those parents and others will get very, very angry at McCarthy and anyone who supported her and that resulted in the deaths of their children. A smart Oprah would have nothing to do with McCarthy. But maybe money is everything to her.
"The Autism Debate: Who's Afraid of Jenny McCarthy?"
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1967796-1,00.html
Great article for raising public awareness. A very biased article but at the same time, most informative.
I was happy to learn from it of the promise of a talk show we'd been hearing about is going to happen as the article stated;
"Jenny has just completed shooting the pilot for a daytime talk show for Oprah Winfrey's TV network to begin airing later this year — which will be, she promises, yet another platform for her message."
There's a lot of good information in the comment section, especially by J.b. Handley, so be sure to have your say.
Those involved in the big pHARMa mess can't be in good moods of late.
Here's what I've been waiting for that I saw on the news yesterday & told you about. I said it wouldn't be long until someone at HuffPost wrote about it but I was wrong. I found the details in my inbox from my favorite health ranger, Mike Adams & here it is;
"GlaxoSmithKline deliberately hid evidence of Avandia harm, says Senate report"
http://www.naturalnews.com/028233_GlaxoSmithKline_Avandia.html
Among other incriminating matter in the article is this;
"GlaxoSmithKline intimidates scientists"
"This investigative report also reveals that GSK engaged in the intimidation of physicians, saying: "GSK executives attempted to intimidate independent physicians, focused on strategies to minimize or misrepresent findings that Avandia may increase cardiovascular risk and sought ways to downplay findings that a competing drug might reduce cardiovascular risk."
Bad news for those behind the witch hunt against him who, mistakenly, thought they had the upper hand..
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/wakefield-moving-into-new-leadership-role-in-autism-community-leaving-thoughtful-house.html
"Wakefield Moving into New Leadership Role in Autism Community, Leaving Thoughtful House."
By Dan Olmsted
Dr. Andrew Wakefield announced today his intention to move on to a new phase of leadership in the autism community as he also prepares a more aggressive defense of his scientific accomplishments in the wake of a ruling from the U.K.’s General Medical Council (GMC).
That ruling, which charged Wakefield and two pediatric gastroenterologists with misconduct, was followed shortly by the retraction of a 1998 case series report by Wakefield and his colleagues from London’s Royal Free Hospital in The Lancet.
“There has been an extraordinary outpouring of support from the autism community in response to the events of the last two weeks”, Wakefield told Age of Autism in an exclusive interview.
“The most exciting part of it has been the opening up of an entirely new sort of opportunity that will allow me to continue my work on behalf of autism families.
” Wakefield said he would provide more specifics on the nature of that opportunity soon. “In addition, I will now speak publicly to refute the findings that have been made against me...
The fact that he has been kicked out of Thoughtful House and is now scrambling around trying to find a post of some description at Generation Rescue, or Safe Minds?
Straw grasping.
It's like saying that Lindsay Vonn missed out on her 2nd Olympic Gold medal, but guess what? Great news people, she is entering a ski competition for first graders in Malawi.
You never give up do you, Sheldon, even when you're beat? Your services must have been invaluable at one time.
Even if Dr. Wakefield were the biggest fraud, ever, which he's not, you're still beat because public awareness has already reached the point of no return for the likes of you concerning all the deception we've been buying into, for far too long.
Just you wait because you haven't heard the last from Dr. Wakefield. Maybe you missed the fact this witch hunt against Dr. Wakefield has been challenged & will be exposed because it "is" going back to court?
Did you forget the following promise?
"False Testimony Denies Dr Wakefield a Fair Hearing at MMR GMC Witchhunt"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyvKnavzPjM&feature=related
Google "Andrew Wakefield and witch hunt" & see how wide the exposure of what's been going on is. Your agenda will soon be rendered irrelevant & obsolete, so do yourself a favor, Sheldon, & give it up.
See the honorable Dr. Tenpenny give her take on what she too, calls a "witch hunt"
http://www.newswithviews.com/Tenpenny/sherri127.htm
I don't know about that. Wakefield founded Thoughtful House. But now he has resigned. I think the retraction encouraged Wakefield and Thoughtful House to part ways.
I'm not a religious person that man made doctrine dictates to but I'm spiritual & believe in a lot of written scripture.
One especially I live by & applies here is Roman's 8:28. Check it out.
Elsevier controversies:
1) Faked journals:
Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine
Australasian Journal of General Practice
Australasian Journal of Neurology
Australasian Journal of Cardiology
Australasian Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
Australasian Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine
2) Shill reviews
"Elsevier has been accused of offering Amazon gift certificates to academics who would write positive reviews at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble of their textbook Clinical Psychology"
3) Parent organisation links to weapons industry
Reed Elsevier, for its participation in the international arms trade
4) Chaos, Solitons and Fractals
"There is speculation that the editor-in-chief, M. El Naschie, is misusing his power to publish his work, without peer review."
5) Resignation of editorial boards
"November 1999 the entire Editorial Board ... collectively resigned"
"In 2002,...European Economic Association"
"2003, the entire editorial board ... Journal of Algorithms resigned"
"in 2005 to the International Journal of Solids and Structures"
"2006, the entire editorial board of the distinguished mathematical journal Topology"
Therefore I conclude vaccines cause autism, and Wakefield is a paragon of virtue.
Once I consider an information source to be corrupted or tainted then I try not to support them, even if I agree with them.
I was opposed to Elsevier publishing the monkey studies just for this exact reason. They cannot be trusted completely. And look what happened.
Wether the study was right or wrong should be discussed. But the rertraction is getting more attention than the study.
STUDY OF THIMEROSAL AND HEP B IN NEW BORN PRIMATES HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN
"Delayed acquisition of neonatal reflexes in newborn primates receiving a thimerosal-containing Hepatitis B vaccine: Influence of gestational age and birth weight" HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN
-----------------------------------
Study has been withdrawn from the journal Neurotoxin
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W81-4XC57CT-1&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F02%2F2009&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=ad2b44ec3cbb5c94eed5ed3bdf3c28f8#FCANote
Haven't seen an explanation. Could just be the taint of Wakefield as he is a listed author on the paper.
Before anybody cries foul, Wakefield has now been proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, to have committed scientific fraud when he misstated the source of the children and then repeated the lie. Considering it was clear when the charges were laid that this would happen, it was foolish to have a study where Wakefield is a named author.
Bye bye deception. Hello road to recovery.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/02/no-parent-ever-complained-to-gmc-public-statement-from-lancet-families-supports-the-mmr3.html
"No Parent Ever Complained to the GMC: a Public Statement from the Lancet Families Supports The MMR3 (Dr. Wakefield, Prof. Murch, Prof. Walker-Smith.) "All of the investigations were carried out without distress to our children, many of whom made great improvements on treatment so that for the first time in years they were finally pain free."
One fact often lost in the media frenzy over the MMR 3 is that the accusations against the three doctors came entirely from the medical industry and their hired guns, never from the parents of the patients who were served"
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The children (more than 40) were put through a very nasty week of tests. I've had all of them except for the EEG and the lumbar puncture. The clean out process for the colonoscopy is nastier than the process itself.-- and for an autistic child, it would be very distressing. Plus the blood tests and the strange room and the hospital.
As to the source of the complaints to the GMC, it very well could have been Wakefield himself. Because:
"It has been proposed that my role in this matter should be investigated
by the General Medical Council (GMC). I not only welcome this, I insist on it and I
will be making contact with the GMC personally, in the forthcoming week."
Andrew Wakefield - February 2004
------------------
The parents of the kids were desperate for answers and desperate for money, especially if they have fallen into the land of autism woo, where insurance companies or public health programs won't pay for bizarre treatments. That isn't any difference today.
If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't care about research ethics. I wouldn't care if my child went through a week of hell, getting procedures that were not clinically indicated and that, even as research, couldn't directly benefit my child.
But that isn't the rules that our society operates on.
What makes it so much worse is that Wakefield wasted the suffering of the children by lying about his results. That damaged those particular children and parents and many other parents and children. Children have died.
-------------------------------
If you want to know what the GMC panel found proved against Wakefield and the others read the decision. It is poorly written, but it you can read the specific charges and specific conclusions.
On the other hand, if you read anything that originally came from Wakefield which most of the material for the we love Andy movement just adapt, you have to be very careful. The evidence is overwhelming that Wakfield is guilty and he wants to avoid obvious lies (like the 2 studies lie). So what he has to do is use ever trick possible. The straw man is a particular favorite.
Without that, it's open to speculation on all sides.
For each child and each doctor, they made a 'clinically indicated' procedures and tests decision and provided their reasons, much of the time on Walker-Smith's writings to other doctors.
They did make a crucial finding of credibility in rejecting the defense 162-95 argument. See page 3. They should have explained it in greater detail.
Luckily, you have me. Very little has been written on the specifics of 162-95, because once you read it and the testimony at the hearing, you realize why it was rejected.
I think I'm the best source of information on this.
http://vaccineswork.blogspot.com/2010/02/162-95-in-one-paragraph-or-sinking.html
http://vaccineswork.blogspot.com/2010/01/16295-or-162-95-two-studies-defense-of.html
and how they answer Bill Long's defense of Wakefield.
After reading those, read http://briandeer.com/wakefield/dawbarns-news.htm.
Page 4 of the Spring 1997 newsletter that says Wakefield's pilot study is underway and children have already been investigated. That puts the lie to Wakefield's claim that the Legal Aid work didn't begin until the fall of 1997. Which means....
http://www.autismone.org/content/discredited-defamation-fallacious-case-against-dr-andrew-wakefield-polly-tommey
Here's more proof of the witch hunt this has been. The good doctor has been black balled by special interests and words now coming out big time.
Claim: First, it has been demonstrated beyond doubt that The Lancet study was not
funded by Legal Aid. Not one penny of Legal Aid money was used for the
study.
Response: From a timing point of view, that statement might be true, if you work hard enough. But let us state the facts that matter. At the same time as Wakefield was getting approval in 1996 for the conspiracy that became the Lancet paper, he was arranging and getting Legal Aid money for items covered by the NHS. There was a costing application of June 1996 and there is an application to the ethics comittee of August 1996. And the money got to Wakefield's account.
Claim:Second, it has been shown that the children in the study were not
sourced by lawyers. None of the children reported in The Lancet study were
involved in any legal action at the time of their referral to the Royal Free
Hospital.
Response: Polly is being really sloppy, she should quote directly from the master, Wakefield. The sentence,"Second, it has been shown that the children in the study were not
sourced by lawyers", is false. I think even Wakefield would agree it was false.
Claim: Horton knew connection of Wakefield with lawyers in advance.
Response: Could be true. So Horton was wrong as well as Wakefield.
http://thoughtfulhouse.org/0405-conf-awakefield.php
I'm asking all good people here here like Quiddler, Schwartzz , JonGH and everyone else looking in, to speak out in truth, right now and right here by adding your much needed comments;
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/radical-behaviorist/201002/the-autism-vaccines-myth-the-impact-the-media/comments
Here too. Just look at all these articles directed at trying to discredit the good doctor Andrew Wakefield;
http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=d9WVYerJ_rqaxRMhXGhnzwP4Kj4yM
This doesn't take long and most don't ask you to even register to leave comments. A few do ask you to register but it's easy and takes little time. Please do it for the sake of the children. You know that saying that goes something like, "Evil prevails when good men do nothing" or something such as that?
Hit back hard via all these articles aimed at stifling the truth and in attempt to stop the frieght train that's coming, from run them over. Recruit all your friends and family possible to do the same because many more children are in much danger and we must save them.
Two years ago we went on an autism walk. We was out all day without eating. That night around 6 pm we went to a restaurant to eat. When the waitress brought rolls, my son almost knocked me over to get to the rolls. Within 10 minutes he fell out of his chair and appeared drunk.
Stupidly - we repeated the experience one more time - months later...with the same result. Our babysitter was with us and made us swear to never feed them food with gluten/casein again. She had been skeptical of the "diet" - until she saw how different they acted when there were infractions.
"False Testimony Denies Dr Wakefield a Fair Hearing at MMR GMC Witchhunt"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyvKnavzPjM&feature=related
All's coming out in the wash & the bad guys in this mess are finally being exposed. Because of heroes like Dr. Wakefield we'll soon be on the road to recovery we need to be on. We, who are paying attention with a fair share of common sense, know who the ones are that actually have the well being of our children & nation at heart.
Wakefield has been the scapegoat in calling the "much needed" attention to this whole charade of atrocity & many thank & commend him. Very soon parents & their children will be thanking him for the change he & those like him will bring to this sad state of a world we have become due to greed of man. Men & women responsible for taking something meant for good & turning it in to something evil are soon to be replaced as much revamping & restructuring of the system & entities associated in this matter, who have taken the wrong turn, resulting in this epidemic of injury & harm that's been done to our children. To a higher court we will go now and the world is, thankfully & finally paying attention
Our day has come & now it's time to save the children!
1. He lied about the research project and that kids would have procedures anyway.
2. He lied to ethics committee, repeating that kids would have procedures anyhow.
3. Kids had procedures, found beyond reasonable doubt, to not have been clinically indicated. The procedures can be very nasty and they have risks.
4. Samples from kids were tested for evidence of vaccine measles virus RNA. That was key part of research proposal. Any positive results were found to be false positive. No measles RNA was found. Wakefield was told this before publication of paper.
5. Wakefield hid from the paper that this was a research project. If he had said so, paper would have undergone much more scrutiny before publication. The Lancet and the medical school wanted the publicity so they helped Wakefield
6. Actual data reported in paper was falsified.
7. Wakefield lied that there was no selection bias in writing and at meetings after publication. If Wakefield had let it be known that this was a research.
8. Children have become sick and died because of Wakefield.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeDAKz6fJiA&NR=1
Truth's coming out as this is now going to high court. Thanks to Wakefield being the scapegoat the world is watching now and they won't be able to continue the charade of this atrocity.
Who do you believe people? Those who are taking part in this witch hunt against Wakefield or the Mothers who were thrown out of that kangaroo court in that video?
The fight is on so watch out bad boys because the good guys are taking over.
What is worse is that they lied about what they had found. The story they wanted to tell was that measles vaccine virus remained persistently in the gut and caused gut problems. And that the measles vaccine travelled from the gut to the brain. Of course, this wasn't even the story they told the ethics committee they want to test.
They tested the guts and spinal fluid of their victims and found no measles vaccine RNA. But left that out of the paper--- just saying they still needed to explore that.
Nick Chadwick, who Wakefield had published papers with, tested ALL the samples searching for vaccine measles virus RNA. Any positive results were found to be false positives. At the top of page 9 as numbered in the pdf file and page 2285 in the original ftp://autism.uscfc.uscourts.gov/autism/transcripts/day10.pdf
Chadwick passed samples on to a Japanese lab. They reported positives, but Chadwick could categorically determine that all positives were false positives.
Yet, look at this. I believe this document has most of the information that was in the other and rejected paper to The Lancet in 1998.
http://briandeer.com/wakefield/protocol-1998.htm