The past few days haven't been good for vaccine-autism conspiracy theorists.
Earlier today, the Special Court of Federal Claims ruled that no evidence existed that the MMR vaccine contributes to autism. One of the judges said that the parents had been misled by physicians pushing the theory, who were guilty of "gross medical misjudgment."
The ruling comes on the heels of the Times of London's report that Andrew Wakefield, M.D, the chief charlatan behind the anti-vaccination movement, fudged his data to reach his discredited conclusion.
Wakefield's lies have made well-meaning parents question vaccinations. The U.S. has experienced large outbreaks of measles in recent years. "What concerns me is the trend of more and more people not vaccinating their children because of fears that vaccines cause autism -- although no studies have proven this to be true," said Dr. Joseph Rahimian, an infectious-diseases specialist at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. Kids don't have to get measles; it's outrageous in 2009.
On Tuesday night, Keith Olbermann correctly named Andrew Wakefield the worst person of the day for lying to the world. I was shocked to see him backpedal on the story last night, citing conflicts of interest in the Times's reporting. A bizarre move, more worthy of Rush Limbaugh than Keith Olbermann.
Perhaps Keith got a call from conspiracy theorist RFK Jr. that made him change his mind, or maybe he just hates science. Either way, shame on you, Keith -- you're my worst person of the day for questioning solid and important reporting. (Unlike anything on your entire hour last night.)
Obama has promised to restore science to its rightful place. That means opposing nonsense like creation science, global-warming denial and autism-vaccination links. It's all the same kind of bad science.
Originally posted on The Hill. More on Davis, visit his official blog.
Follow Ryan J. Davis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RyanNewYork
Dr. Sherri J. Tenpenny is an osteopathic medical doctor from Cleveland, Ohio. Her board certification is in Emergency Medicine and Osteopathic Manual Medicine. She says:
“A vaccine is a drug...a widget of Pharma. Will we ever get to the place of unemotionally discussing that widget? I really can't recall a single person who has truly investigated vaccine science and examined what is in vaccines and then has chosen to continue to vaccinate. Vaccines cause harm. The risks are substantial and evidence is growing.
Hundreds of thousands of children and adults have been maimed by this pharma widget. A week of reading VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) http://vaers.hhs.gov/ reports should be mandatory for all those involved with this issue....and for every medical doctor, nurse and public health official before they are allowed to administer a shot. When you read the hundreds and hundreds of tragic stories, the true insanity of vaccination is apparent to even the most unmedical minds.”
http://www.nmaseminars.com/#
http://www.nvic.org/reportreaction.aspx
There is something odd in someone who is pushing for a generally unaccepted view to try to argue that there is this widespread acceptance amont those who have studied the subject. Her goal is to show why, despite the fact that most people who have studied the subject came away with the opposite view, her view should be accepted anyway.
But someone who denies that her opponents have studied the issue despite the fact that her opponents include most of the people who have studied the issue, is hardly reliable as a source of factual claims.
;-)
July 17, 2008
© NewsWithViews.com
"A recent publication by a conservative watchdog group has rekindled media interest in a controversial anti-virus vaccine and sent Big Pharma and federal health agency officials into damage control mode.
In a 25-page special report released June 30, Judicial Watch -- a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization that promotes “transparency and accountability in government” – presents evidence based on government documents that in the two years since being licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, Merck & Co’s Gardasil, heavily promoted as a safe and effective vaccine against cervical cancer, has been connected with nearly 9,000 “adverse events,” including the deaths of 18 – perhaps 20 – girls and young women.
In addition, there were 140 “serious” events reported (27 categorized as “life-threatening”), with 10 spontaneous abortions and six cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome – all since January 2008.
“I think we’ve uncovered a lot of disturbing things about Gardasil,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “All we’re asking for is further investigation of its safety. We’re not convinced they’re taking these reports seriously.”
http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news57.htm
http://www.judicialwatch.org/gardasil
Judicial Watch, funded by Richard Mellon Scaife, isn't an organization that most progressives put much faith in. The motivation here is not the safety of the girls getting the Gardasil vaccines, it's that Gardasil vaccines are protection against an STD.
Your spiritual conviction is understandable, but misguided.
By Dr. James Howenstine, MD.
December 7, 2003
"When we take vaccines we are playing a modern version of Russian Roulette. We not only get exposed to aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde and foreign cell proteins but we may get simian virus 40 and other dangerous viruses which can cause cancer, leukemia and other severe health problems because the vaccine pool is contaminated due to careless animal isolation techniques. Congress has protected the manufacturers from lawsuits, so dangerous vaccines simply increase profits at no risk to the drug companies."
"Vaccines are an unnatural phenomena. My guess is that if enough persons said no to immunizations there would be a striking improvement in general health with nature back in the immunizing business instead of man. Having a child vaccinated should be a choice not a requirement. Medical and religious exemptions are permitted by most states.
When governmental policies require vaccinations before children enter schools coercion has overruled the lack of evidence of vaccine efficacy and safety. There is no proof that vaccines work and they are never studied for safety before release. My opinion is that there is overwhelming evidence that vaccines are dangerous and the only reason for their existence is to increase profits of pharmaceutical firms"
http://www.whale.to/a/howenstine.html
"The bitter controversy over immunizations that is now raging within the medical profession has not escaped the attention of the media. Increasing numbers of parents are rejecting immunizations for their children and facing the legal consequences of doing so. Parents whose children have been permanently damaged by vaccines are no longer accepting this as fate but are filing malpractice suits against the manufacturers and the doctors who administered the vaccine. Some manufacturers have actually stopped making vaccines, and the lists of contraindications to their use are being expanded by the remaining manufacturers, year by year. Meanwhile, because routine immunizations that bring patients back for repeated office calls, are the bread and butter of their specialty, pediatricians continue to defend them to the death."
Dr Robert Mendelsohn, M.D.
http://www.whale.to/vaccines.html
I assume that there is a small fee built into the charge to cover the nurse, but that's it.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/347/19/1477
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/157/7/628
It's not the frequency, It's not the ethyl mercury preservative they no longer contain. It's not measles hanging out in the gut. It's not vaccines.
- Social skills delays at 6 months (Dewey, Fleming, et al, 1998)
- Motor skills delays at 6 months (Dewey, Fleming, et al, 1998)
- Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) (Corvaglia, 2007)
- Milestone delays (Davis, Moon, et al., 1998)
- Plagiocephaly, torticollis, strabismus, etc. etc. etc...
My question is:
If a doctor was presented with a baby that had social skills delays, motor skills delays, and gastroesophageal reflux what would a doctor say if a child had these three things but not too bad. The doctor might tell the parent to be patient and that different kids develop differently. But, what if the case was more severe - what if the kids social skills were worse? The doctor might diagnose him with ADHD. But, what if the kids delays were really far behind - that is the kid had very large delays in social skills and motor skills? The doctor might diagnose him with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I think part (if not all) of the Autism Epidemic is caused by the SIDS Back to Sleep campaign. Just a though.
BTW, back sleep prevents slow wave sleep (that's how it prevents SIDS) which is important for memory consolidation.