AGE OF AUTISM

The End of Science History

By Martin Walker

Last week, following the guilty verdict of the GMC Fitness to Practice Hearing in the case of Wakefield, Murch and Walker-Smith, the Lancet and one other journal expunged Wakefield's work from the academic record. A person's work is often their life and erasure of this work from the record under a determination of dishonesty, is very close to erasure of the subject's life. To erase scientific work from the history and progress of science, is perhaps the closest you can come to academic assassination; it is not, however, something new. It is perhaps a sign of the growing power of the chemical and pharmaceutical corporation that what was at first only threatened is now a viable option for corporate science.

Those who imagine that this liquidation of a person's work from the record is a novel technique invented solely for the use of pharmaceutical companies in relation to Dr Wakefield, should take a look at the shenanigans that surrounded the 1985 Australian Royal Commission on Agent Orange and dioxin on Australian personnel during the Vietnam War. [1] Agent Orange was a herbicide dropped by the US and their allies on forested areas of Vietnam so as to expose insurgent fighters and groups. Agent Orange contained dioxin in large quantities. Shortly after involvement in dropping Agent Orange in Vietnam, US and Australian troops and even the dogs used by the military showed serious adverse reaction to the chemical. The Vietnamese are still having to cope with familial genetic damage caused by Agent Orange forty years later.

The Australian Royal commission was from the start a 'get-up'. Two Swedish doctors, Lennart Hardell and Olaf Axelson, had some years before the commission managed to get dioxin-based herbicides banned in Sweden. Hardell gave evidence to the Royal Commission but he paid dearly for this privilege. The judge's final verdict that there was no evidence that exposure to Agent Orange, including TCDD (Dioxin), was a health hazard turned out to be an almost verbatim account of a Monsanto submission on the issue.

Dr. Oz Talks Vaccination, Cautiously, On The View

Will the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee Finally Get it (Katie, Bob and Suzanne) Wright?

By Katie Wright

A few months ago I wrote to the new Director of the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, and asked to meet him with my parents, Bob and Suzanne Wright Dr. Collins graciously responded saying that he would very much like to have a meeting with us and some autism organization advocates.

My main reason for the request is because the majority of autism families do not feel heard by IACC nor are they fairly represented among the public members.  Only one person of the 20 odd members on the committee has any experience at all with the all too common needs of children like mine, Lyn Redwood. Meanwhile there are committee members from the Dept. of Deafness, Medicaid and Substance Abuse all casting votes for and against  (and it is mostly against) important scientific research they cannot possibly understand. This is absurd.

The lack of services for ASD people of all ages is a critical issue facing our community. Expertise in planning group homes, job training or respite care does not translate to scientific knowledge in stem cell research, oxidative stress, gastrointestinal disease or immunology. Obviously the same holds true for the neurologists on the committee regarding their limited insight into special education or adult services.

In this disparate roomful of scientists, parents and aspergers adults, there was agreement on two things: IACC is failing, it moves incredibly slowly, is way too bogged down with bureaucrats, has yet to embrace innovative research and autism organizations are virtually unrepresented. There was also complete agreement that IACC has done a poor job addressing the tremendous and immediate service needs of children and adults affected by ASD. In order to do justice to both autism services and autism research we need to separate IACC into 2 committees: services and research. That way each subject will have a committee staffed by people with the appropriate expertise.

An even better option is to abolish IACC and form a virtual Autism Institute, much like the HIV Institute. That way we would attract federal members with deeper and more current scientific understanding of autism.

One of the most serious problems with IACC is the total absence of clinical specialists.  Dr. Yvette Janvier, serves as a “public member.” Last fall, Lyn Redwood was advocating for an investment in GI research after speaking about the recent death of young ASD girl who died due to an untreated impacted bowel. Dr. Janvier’s immediate response was not one of compassion, concern or even respect. No, Janvier literally said, “Phhsssss! Anyone could have diagnosed that! In 20 yrs of (neurology) practice I have never seen a sick ASD child or a child with these ‘immune’ problems!” Javier went on and on about how IACC should not focus on such “rare” problems like GI disease or immune dysfunction.

The Cedillo Appeal - Mary Holland is a "Friend" to the Court and Autism Community

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

The autism community owes a great debt of thanks to attorney Mary Holland for putting together her excellent amici curiae (friend of the court) brief in the Cedillo appeal which can be found [HERE]. Ms. Holland was surprised to find there had never been an amicus brief in a vaccine case before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and was delighted with the 23 autism organizations who supported the brief.  She hopes that future issues concerning our community will generate a similar level of support.

A legal proceeding is a long process and sometimes it’s only in a brief such as the one that Holland put together that the outlines of what’s at stake, and what went wrong during the Omnibus Autism Proceeding become clear.

Michelle Cedillo was born healthy on August 30, 1994 and like other children at the time received twelve mandated vaccines containing ethyl mercury.  At her fifteen month check-up she received a measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and seven days later developed a 105 degree fever.  She also developed a rash.  As the months went by Michelle’s pediatrician noticed she was less verbal and continued to have a rash.  Around the time of her third birthday she was given a diagnosis of autism.  Now fifteen years old, Michelle cannot talk, walk unassisted, or care for herself.

Holland’s excellent brief recounts the history of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986 which was designed to ensure the vaccine supply, improve vaccine safety, and generously compensate vaccine victims.  Recovery was supposed to be based on certain criteria, such as a “temporal relationship between a vaccination and symptoms specified in a Vaccine Injury Table.” 

David Kirby's "Animal Factory" Is Back Up At Amazon!

Our friend David Kirby’s new book, “ANIMAL FACTORY – The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment,” was removed from sale at Amazon.com for over a week, because of fighting over the price of e-books between Amazon and Macmillan, which owns St. Martin’s Press. You can read the advance reviews below the jump.
 
We are happy to announce that David’s book and all Macmillan titles are back up for sale today at Amazon. If you haven’t yet, please show your support by pre-ordering Animal Factory prior to the publication date of March 2, 2010, at Amazon or any of these online retailers:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books a Million

Borders

IndieBound

Powells

Alibris

Animal Factory is also available as a Blackstone Audio Book. To hear a brief reading from David’s work, please click here. http://tinyurl.com/animalaudio
 
Don Imus said on his show the other day that David’s book is “going to be an enormous best seller,” and we agree! In the book, David follows three families and communities whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms.  These farms (known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” or CAFOs), confine thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under horrifying conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins.
 
Here is David’s preliminary media and public appearance schedule, with many more to come. More information will be available soon when the Animal Factory website is launched at www.animalfactorybook.com .
 
Please let people know that David is available for speaking engagements nationwide.
 
February 25 – (TBA) – Panel Discussion with Nicolette Hahn-Niman at the Public Interest Environment Law Conference, Eugene, Oregon - http://www.pielc.org/pages/home.html
 
Feb 25 – 6PM PST – Book signing, Public Interest Environment Law Conference, Eugene, Oregon -
 
March 2 – 7:30AM EST – Imus in the Morning – WABC-AM, Fox Business News, etc.
 
March 3 – (TBA) – The Leonard Lopate Show – WNYC-FM

The Conflicting Views of Dr. Ben Goldacre and the Wakefield Affair

The conflicting views of Dr Ben Goldacre and the Wakefield affair: dumbing the public down.

By John Stone
 
Photo: Ben Goldacre receiving the 2003 GSK/ABSW award  for his Guardian article on MMR,’Never mind the facts’, posing between Pallab Ghosh, science correspondent of the BBC, and Dr Alistair Benbow of GSK.

Not so familiar in the North American world Ben Goldacre, author of the Guardian’s Bad Science column,  is perhaps the most prominent and prestigious scientific opinion leader in UK journalism, and at least since 2003 – when his career was effectively launched – he has carried a brief to defend the reputation of MMR vaccine. Essentially, this has consisted of a different strategy of that of Times Newspapers and Brian Deer, focussing on trying to damage Andrew Wakefield’s scientific reputation without the all-out assault on his integrity. Until the GMC brought in its verdict against Wakefield and his colleagues John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch this might have looked like a clever insurance policy, but now it has led to problems.

In his article ‘Don’t Dumb me down’ which won the 2005 Syngenta/Association of British Science Writers’ award Goldacre wrote something remarkably interesting (and accurate) (HERE ):

"...people periodically come up to me and say, isn't it funny how that Wakefield MMR paper turned out to be Bad Science after all? And I say: no. The paper always was and still remains a perfectly good small case series report, but it was systematically misrepresented as being more than that, by media that are incapable of interpreting and reporting scientific data."

Remarkably, too, there sat on the panel of judges for the award, Brian Deer’s associate and Liberal-Democratic member of parliament Dr Evan Harris. This nevertheless brought Goldacre into conflict with Brian Deer, or certainly led to Deer expressing public annoyance in an interview the Press Gazette last year.

On the other hand when the GMC panel announced its decision on 28 January Goldacre was hit by a sudden attack of amnesia, failing to recall anything of his earlier reasoned objection to the central charge of the GMC hearing. Even if for some reason he had changed his mind, the only mainstream journalist who had sufficient grip on the case to explain what was at issue held his tongue in his “expert view” comment in the Guardian on-line that evening (HERE).

Author of Children With Starving Brains Supports Dr. Andrew Wakefield in Letter & Petition

Below is the letter attached to a petition from Dr. Jaquelyn McCandless, known to many in the biomedical world as a Grandparent/Physician Warrior.  Her 2002 book Children With Starving Brains remains a valuable resource for parents seeking treatment information for autism.  She has written a letter to the GMC in England, and created a petition for hose who wish to show their support of Dr. Andrew Wakefield. You can read the petition HERE.

Target:General Medical Council (GMC) in United Kingdom (UK).

Sponsored by: Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D..To: General Medical CouncilUnited Kingdom

Fr: Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D., and co-signers

Re: The Inquisition of Doctors Wakefield, Murch, and Walker-Smith

As a US board-certified psychiatrist and specialist in treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, I want to register a complaint regarding the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) judgment (28 January 2010) concerning Andrew J. Wakefield, M.D., and two colleagues.  As with Semmelweis and puerperal fever, history will show that Dr. Wakefield should have been exonerated, apologized to, and thanked for his original evaluations and findings in autistic children.

Since 1998, the findings reported and discussed in Wakefield et al 1998 (5) have been replicated and expanded. For instance, a newly published study by U.S. gastroenterologist Dr. Arthur Krigsman et al (1) corroborates Wakefield%u2019s findings of lymphoid hyperplasia in a subgroup of autistic children. Similar findings by another group have been presented as a conference abstract (2) and are soon to be submitted for publication.

Age of Autism Contest: A Dozen GFCFSF Cupcakes from New Orleans' "Chasing Cupcakes!"

Leave a comment to win a dozen gluten free, casein free, egg free, agave sweetened, no artificial coloring cupcakes from www.chasingcupcakes.com in New Orleans. The winner will be able to speak with Chase Nugent about the cupcakes before shipping.

New Orleans Children taste King Cake for the First Time-
Thanks to a Local Mother Who Finds Her Niches as a Gluten-Free Baker:

NEW ORLEANS (February 5, 2010)- The brainchild of a working mom, the CUPCAKE KING CAKE was created to provide those who live with food allergies, diabetes, celiac disease, autism or special diets with delicious desserts rather than ones that taste like cardboard.

Chase Nugent is a veteran of the television and digital broadcast industry, and self described New Orleanian. In 2008, Chase’s son, John-John was diagnosed as having a gluten and casein allergy. So a nationwide search began to find John delicious gluten free/ casein free cupcakes. Her search turned up many recopies yet they were more like dry, tasteless softballs.

Unsuccessful in her pursuit of gluten-free/ casein-free cupcake perfection, Chase stopped the chase. Returned to the kitchen, and focused on creating a gluten-free/casein-free/ dairy free/ egg free/dye free/ vegan masterpiece.

The result, the CUPCAKE KING CAKE, created so that everyone can participate in the tastiness that is the king cake.

Make sure the next person to bring a King Cake to your party brings this one so everyone can enjoy it!

 

 

 

Gigi Jordan, Manhattan "Socialite" Kills Autistic Son, Fails Suicide Attempt

From ABC News.

New York police today discovered the body of a 9-year old autistic boy in a luxury Manhattan hotel room, possibly strangled to death by his "socialite" mother who was found nearby suffering the effects of a botched suicide, sources told ABC News. Gigi Jordan, 49, distraught over the recent end of her marriage, checked in to the Peninsula Hotel where she allegedly killed the boy and then tried to kill herself by taking an overdose of drugs, police said. Police say she was taken to Bellevue...

From The NY Daily News 

Gigi Jordan just wanted the pain to end - for her, and for her beloved 8-year-old son.

In a bizarre message intended as a suicide note, the wealthy one-time pharmaceutical company executive detailed a life of sadness interrupted by a single ray of hope: her only child, Jude.

"I hope Jude is in a better place," the 49-year-old Belgian wrote in the strange two-page note left in her 16th-floor suite at the posh Peninsula hotel.

At one point, Jordan suggested her son was a rape victim and "in constant pain." She mentioned speaking with a Wyoming child porn investigator about the sexual abuse of kids...

 

Aide Who Dragged Autistic Young Adult By Ankles Resigns

From WKYC News Cleveland.

AKRON -- An educational assistant under investigation for allegedly pulling a special needs student down a school hallway by his ankles submitted his resignation Friday.

Ingram Myers, 50, was placed on paid leave from Ellet High School Jan. 19 after witnesses said he pulled the student, who suffers from severe autism, 50-100 feet down a hallway.

School leaders and Akron Police are continuing to investigate the allegations.

The student's mother, Denise Fabian-Powers, said Myers' resignation is only part of her desire.

"I really want to see that this aide is not only removed from the school district, but from his place of employment and something is done is criminally, so that there's something on his record, so that he cannot work with this population in a school district."

Age of Autism Comment of the Week: 2/6

Suzanne is our commenter of the week on the post, Olmsted on Autism Enjoy It While It Lasts.  There is this narrative they say about us: "those poor parents; they just want something to blame." Yeah, I wanted something to blame: genetics. Last year my son was test for the some 200 genes implicated in the 15% of Autism that has a straight genetic cause AND HE HAD NOT ONE OF THEM. I sat and cried. I really hoped they'd find something that would show me all this was going to happen anyway despite his having a complete regression and personality change after being given a DPT shot (while he was sick and on antibiotics, which is malpractice in my book!)So here is a mom who wanted to be able to blame genetics only and was proven, once again, that this is not the case. The problem when you assume you are privy to the motivations of millions of parents you don't even know is that you are probably wrong.

Didn't win but still want a T-shirt? Taking a page from public television, we'll happily send you one as our thank you for making a donation to A of A via our PayPal donate button.  You choose the donation amount. OK? Please tell us on the PayPal form if you want an adult M, L, XL or 2XL and include your mailing  address in the comments box at PayPal. Click below to  to see the back of the shirt.

Watch "Temple Grandin" Tonight on HBO

Tune into tonight, February 6 at 8PM (ET/PT), as HBO premieres an original film based on the inspirational true story of Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes. "Temple Grandin" paints a picture of a young woman's perseverance and determination while struggling with the isolating challenges of autism. Temple is a highly successful doctor of animal sciences, a best-selling author, and an internationally renowned autism advocate." 

The movie has gotten great reviews.

Australian Vaccination Network Asks for Your Support

By Meryl Dorey

Will the anti-choice movement win?

It is strangely fitting that on the same day the Lancet announced it was retracting the first paper possibly linking MMR vaccination with gastrointestinal symptoms among the autistic [i], the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) announced that without a significant injection of funds, the organization would be closing at the end of the month.

The AVN started out in 1994 – an idea inspired by a seminar presented by Dr Viera Scheibner, a research scientist who discovered, through the use of the Cot-Watch monitors she and her partner had invented, that infants were having episodes of hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) and apnea (periods when breathing stops) following vaccination. 
Dr Scheibner, a well-respected researcher, had her career and her business destroyed because she had the temerity to link vaccination with SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).

In the same way, Dr Wakefield may have had his career destroyed by his claim that for a susceptible subset of the population, there is reason to believe vaccination might be a causal factor in the development of ASDs.

The mainstream world does not welcome these messages. It does not greet those whose work – often thankless and unpaid – is intended to ask questions about procedures that are considered to be sacrosanct – above question. (starting with “is intended”, I don’t understand what you are saying.)

Instead, these individuals continue to work on the sidelines – doing what they can, when they can, often risking both the loss of their reputation and financial ruin. When I started the AVN, it was due to a strong desire to see justice done – a need to prevent the sorts of reactions which had hurt my own son so badly and which continue to affect him today – almost 21 years later.

A Statement from Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey: Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys

Los Angeles, February 5, 2010

Dr. Andrew Wakefield is being discredited to prevent an historic study from being published that for the first time looks at vaccinated versus unvaccinated primates and compares health outcomes, with potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and public health officials.

It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers reporting on the retraction of a paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues. 

The retraction from The Lancet was a response to a ruling from England’s General Medical Council, a kangaroo court where public health officials in the pocket of vaccine makers served as judge and jury. Dr. Wakefield strenuously denies all the findings of the GMC and plans a vigorous appeal.

Despite rampant misreporting, Dr. Wakefield’s original paper regarding 12 children with severe bowel disease and autism never rendered any judgment whatsoever on whether or not vaccines cause autism, and The Lancet’s retraction gets us no closer to understanding this complex issue.

Dr. Wakefield is one of the world’s most respected and well-published gastroenterologists. He has published dozens of papers since 1998 in well-regarded peer-reviewed journals all over the world. His work documenting the bowel disease of children with autism and his exploration of novel ways to treat bowel disease has helped relieve the pain and suffering of thousands of children with autism.

Autism Organizations Unite in Brief to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Cedillo

Twenty-three organizations sent a formidable message to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: enforce the law for vaccine injury compensation or acknowledge that this system is irrevocably broken.  Last week, these organizations filed an amicus curiae brief, or friend-of-the-court brief, in the case Theresa Cedillo, et al. v. Secretary of Health and Human Services ("Cedillo"), on appeal from the United States Court of Federal Claims, No. 98-VV-916.  The petitioners include advocacy organizations such as the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy (EBCALA), as well as research organizations such as the Autism Research Institute.  A link to the brief and the full list of autism organizations signing it can be found [HERE].
 
In Cedillo, the Court of Federal Claims denied Michelle Cedillo's request for compensation, although many petitioners have received awards under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ("Program") in similar circumstances.  The organizations argue that the Cedillos were denied compensation because they said that their daughter's autism is a vaccine injury.  The theory of this first test case is that the MMR vaccine and thimerosal, the mercury-containing preservative, together contributed to Michelle Cedillo's autism.  As a supplement to the Cedillo family's briefing on appeal, the organizations provide the Court with another angle for consideration: that this case is actually a "test case" for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program itself.
 
Indeed, Congress established the Program to provide compensation to those injured by vaccines “quickly, easily, and with certainty and generosity.”  The balance in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund 75X8175 as of September 2009 was greater than $3.1 billion.  Congress intended the Program to create presumptions for “on-table” vaccine injuries that the Program would compensate administratively. The reality, however, has become adversarial litigation where special masters “protect” the national vaccine program rather than apply the law.  HHS has removed injuries from the Vaccine Injury Table.  Other injuries are not considered, despite the fact that 46 doses of nine new vaccines have been added to the CDC vaccine schedule. 

Autism One Generation Rescue 2010 "Autism Redefined" Conference

Registration for the Autism One/Generation Rescue 2010 "Autism Redefined" Conference is open! Are you ready to join those who are redefining autism?  Click HERE for registration information.

KEYNOTE: JENNY McCARTHY
OVER 150 SPEAKERS

Chicago, Illinois, May 24-30, 2010

Many new faces and any favorites!

Featuring:

prediction/prevention track
environmental track
advocacy track
PANDAS track
seizures track
adult issues
much more

Join us at www.autismone.org

Hope is real.  Recovery is happening. The treatment category is sponsored by Lee Silsby, the leader in quality compounded medications for autism.

Olmsted on Autism: Enjoy It While It Lasts

By Dan Olmsted

Can’t the medical industry find someone who doesn’t look like he sleeps in a crypt, or isn't making millions on vaccine patents, to make the case that it couldn't possibly be causing a cataclysmic autism epidemic and excruciating gut problems in children?

Sorry for the triple negative, but you get the point. At the moment when they should be savoring their smashing victory over the evil Wakefield and his deluded voodoo worshippers, they seem like a sorry lot; they're sore winners, as if they sense it's already too late. It shows on their faces and in their voices. They even say so, although they blame anyone but themselves.

Because obviously the debate is not done, and while it’s true that “the parents” are keeping it alive, “the parents” are a synonym for "the people," and they are everywhere – on the blogs, in the schools, moving up in the government and the medical and media worlds that have been so hostile. They know what they’ve seen and are sick of listening to bloviating "experts" and big shots with conflicts so blatant no one even thinks to point them out. They have a gut feeling, if you’ll allow the expression, that something is amiss here.

The mad-max vaccine schedule couldn't possibly cause autism? Great. Now, uh, what does? Well, the experts tell us, genes and environment acting in some exotic fashion that we’ll never ever figure out and are not all that urgently attempting to find. Please stop asking; we'll let you know. Maybe they're under the desk here somewhere.

So guys (and it’s almost always guys, aging, cranky, windy white guys in white lab coats), go on, feel really good. Enjoy it while it lasts. It won’t be long.
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

“The New York Times”- Where Hope Goes to Die

By Katie Wright

Yesterday, Lisa Belkin, a freelance NYT writer gave her column space to a very angry  and defeated sounding autism Mom, Lisa Kupferberg Carter.

Ms. Carter is not furious with the dismal state of autism research, the foot dragging at the NIH to invest in treatment research, the scarcity of schools or the lack of insurance re-imbursement for basic therapies.

No, Ms. Carter aims a decade of anger at Jenny McCarthy. Jenny McCarthy?

Bizarre, I know. Did Jenny give her son autism? Did Jenny stop Ms. Carter from obtaining a diagnosis, therapy or an education? Did Jenny tell Ms. Carter to give up all hope? No. Then why this crazy rage at another autism Mom who as blameless as the rest of us? 

What Jenny IS guilty of is listening to thousands of parents across the country and taking their concerns seriously. Jenny is guilty of shining a light on the ever growing population of chronically ill ASD kids, whom the medical establishment has ignored.  Jenny is also guilty of writing a book about different Moms’ struggles to help heal their seriously ill children. Jenny also wrote a book with a doctor who is an ASD parent himself. And you know what Ms. Carter, that book helped me and thousands of other parents a great deal.  I recommend that you actually read it.

I would never presume to tell other parents what to do or what not to do for their ASD child. Jenny McCarthy doesn’t either. No one can “make” an adult “feel guilty” for not trying this intervention or that intervention. We are all grown-ups here and responsible for ourselves. Projecting blame onto another parent who has no control over your child or the cause of anyone’s autism is ridiculous.

Bring Back the Neanderthal!

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

On the weekend of January 30 I went to my first autism conference in San Francisco.  It was called "Autism: Hope in Action" and put on by Martin and Julie Matthews.

It may seem unusual that I'm such an active voice on-line and yet have met hardly any of our community in person.  What can I say?  My home life is tough, but this was in my area.  There was no reason not to go.

I expected to find a range of people, from the lost, the struggling, the brilliant, and the eccentric.  I wasn't disappointed.

As I sat with more than 150 people in the hotel ballroom listening to speakers talk about dietary changes, the struggles we parents, especially men face, I thought, well, this is a good start.

I spent about a half hour with one of the organizers outside the ballroom discussing the vaccine/autism question.  The general idea the organizers had was to fully document all of the medical research on the positive effects of diet while skirting the vaccine question.  I understood the thinking, even if I disagreed with it.  I tried my best to explain from my veteran perspective that what we're saying isn't new to the medical establishment.  Those at the very top, as explained so well by former NIH chief Bernadine Healy, have made a conscious decision not to investigate these claims "for fear of what they might find."

Watch the Fox News Video on Vaccine Autism Debate with Mark Blaxill

Watch CNN Video on Vaccine Autism Debate with Kim Stagliano

Temple Grandin on GFCF Diet (High Praise) and Regressive Autism (More than Genes)

Check out Scene Newspaper with Temple Grandin. She speaks plainly, logically and eloquently about autism as a spectrum. Tune into HBO's Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes"" Saturday, February 6th at 8pm. (Photo credit, Rosalie Winard.) 

Some salient paragraphs from the scene article:

“...You have to remember autism is a spectrum that goes all the way from very, very, very severe where the person is going to remain non-verbal and handicapped, to people that are brilliant scientists. It’s a huge spectrum,” she said. “I don’t think the increase is the mild end because the Asperger types have always been there. I think some of the real mild autism – some of the Asperger’s – there’s increased diagnosis.

“But in young kids where you have speech delay and autistic-type behavior, that’s not increased diagnosis. Something’s going on. And nobody really knows what. There’s a lot of speculation. I think there has been an increase in some of this very severe, early onset autism, especially this regressive type, where the kid seems to be somewhat normal – verified by looking at birthday party videos in a study by Geraldine Dawson at the University of Washington. The parents are right. There really is a regressive form of autism. If this is something happening at 18 months to 2 years of age – there’s some other insult getting in there acting with susceptible genetics – that needs to be looked at very, very carefully. That’s some of the real severe stuff. That regressive sample needs to be looked at separately.

“We don’t understand the whole increase thing. It’s complicated genetics. But genetics is half the story,” she continued. “One thing that everyone knows is that early intervention helps to improve the prognosis immensely. Other things that help are some of the special diets. Gluten-free, casein-free, cutting out tons of carbs. They don’t cure autism, but they really help some kids. Some of these regressive kids tend to respond to the diets.

“I also think the American diet is bad. I’d say of all of the alternative treatments, diet is the single most important thing for parents to try. The other thing that’s getting really good science now are the Omega 3s. They have tons of good science. Give them Omega 3s.”

Autism Recovery is Not for the Faint of Heart

By J.B. Handley
 
Soon after my son’s autism diagnosis, my wife and I were receiving advice from a DAN! Doctor helping our son. Transdermal glutathione and something very smelly called TTFD were prescribed, and we were told to rub each of these creams on his skin every night.
 
“How long do we need to do this for?” I asked.
 
“Six months, maybe a year,” came the doctor’s reply.
 
“A year? Are you kidding?”
 
I couldn’t believe it, what an inconvenience!
 
Those of you who are biomed veterans are already smiling. Five years later, I see the world a little differently, and I have this to say to all parents battling autism:
 
This job of recovery ain’t for the faint of heart.
 
Yup, I know it’s coming, parents who will complain and say that somehow I am blaming parents who don’t try hard enough for their child’s ongoing autism. I’m not. Really. Autism is a huge challenge. We all do the best we can…
 
Some people’s “best” just happens to be better than other people’s “best” -- and that’s the damn truth.

Vaccination News 2010 Launch!

Managing Editor's Note: We invite you to subscribe to Vaccination News. From the newly re-launched Vaccination News site:

Vaccination News is published in order to provide a wide range of news and views on vaccinations and vaccination policy. By providing all sides of the vaccination controversy, it is believed the public/consumer will be best equipped to make reasoned decisions regarding vaccination use, decisions which will have profound implications for them and their family’s health. By providing all sides of the vaccination controversy, it is also believed that readers will recognize both the complexity of the controversy and the dearth of good information available to them.

Among the views provided will be those of the publisher and Editor Sandy Gottstein (aka Mintz) on a variety of vaccination related issues and news, including commentary on breaking news items. Her long-running column Scandals can be found HERE.

Vaccination News is not against an informed parent choosing to vaccinate his or her child. Vaccination News is against bad science being used to justify forcing parents to vaccinate. It is against bad science being used to convince a parent to vaccinate. And it is against a parent, any parent, being forced to do something that has even a remote chance of harming their child.

What all parents deserve is good information, untainted by conflict of interest, on the safety of vaccines. They deserve the right to choose whether or not to vaccinate their children. And those that choose to vaccinate, after weighing the known benefits and risks, deserve safer vaccines.

Merck RotaTeq May Be Contraindicated for Infants with SCID

Managing Editor's Note: Kudos to The Wall Street Journal for sharing this information about a live virus vaccine infecting a once unacknowledged population, so that American parents and physicians can make informed decisions for their infants and patients. About the last line, that RotaVirus "...causes more than 500,000 deaths from dehydration among young children world-wide, mostly in countries were vaccination isn't common." Is it lack of vaccination or lack of clean water, proper nutrition and access to medical care that leads to these deaths?

By Jennifer Corbett Dooren

Doctors said infants with a rare immune deficiency can be sickened with a gastrointestinal illness after being vaccinated with a rotavirus vaccine.
 
A report in this week's New England Journal of Medicine discusses the cases of three infants with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, who developed dehydration and diarrhea after receiving a first or second dose of Rotateq, a vaccine made by Merck & Co.

It wasn't known at the time the babies were vaccinated that they had SCID, which is a rare immune-system disorder. Studies of the infants showed they developed rotavirus related to the vaccine and didn't get the virus from another source.

Rotateq was approved for use in the U.S. in 2006. GlaxoSmithKline PLC's competitor vaccine, Rotarix was approved in 2008.

Rotateq's label was updated last month to state that infants with severe combined immunodeficiency shouldn't receive the vaccine.

David Kirby: The Lancet Retraction Changes Nothing

Read and comment on David Kirby's Huffington Post piece, "The Lancet Retraction Changes Nothing" HERE.

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...

David Kirby is author of Evidence of Harm, a  regular contributor to Huffington Post and a contributor to Age of Autism.  His next book, Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment will be released within the year and is available now for pre-order at  Barnes & Noble.

National Vaccine Advisory Committee Meeting Feb 3 & 4

NVAC meeting Dates for 2010:

February 3-4, 2010

Register to Attend: Registration for the February 3-4 meeting has been re-opened. Please register online, e-mail nvpo@hhs.gov, or call 202-690-5566. See the agenda  for conference call information.

Webinar Available: The February 3-4 meeting will be available via Webinar.  Please register separately for each day using the links below:

(If you require special accommodation to access the Webinar, please send your request to nvpo@hhs.gov.) 

Register for Feb 3 9:00am - 5:00pm (weather permitting, click HERE for any changes.)
Register for Feb 4

Click HERE to read about the National Vaccine Advisory Committee meetings tomorrow and Thursday inlcuding the agenda.

Kim Stagliano on The GMC Hearing: "The Censorship of Autism Treatment"

By Kim Stagliano

Hi, I'd appreciate your comments over at HuffPo on my post, The Censorship of Autism Treatment" HERE. Support Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues and share your own story there, please. Thanks.

...Last Thursday afternoon, The General Medical Council in London, England announced its decisions in the disciplinary hearing of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Professor Simon Murch and Professor John Walker-Smith. The ruling was not in their favor. (You can read the official ruling HERE.)

There will likely be other posts here at HuffPost explaining the legal machinations of the GMC hearings and science behind the original The Lancet paper, now retracted. Be sure to look for David Kirby's post on the topic. If you're interested, you can read an eye witness account of the proceedings from Martin Walker, who has followed the GMC hearing from the start.

To understand the bigger picture, I highly recommend Mark Blaxill's Age of Autism post on the current scientific environment for autism research in general in which he says, "The deep and profound censorship occurring around autism science reaches depths that few casual observers can imagine. I have proof." (HERE) I'd like to provide the voice of an autism Mom, hoarse from yelling into the wind for a cumulative total of thirty seven years...

Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of www.ageofautism.com. Her book, All I Can Handle. I'm No Mother Teresa. debuts in the Fall of 2010 from Skyhorse Publishing.

The Lancet Retraction

Read the full article in Bloomberg News HERE.

By Michelle Fay Cortez

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Lancet medical journal retracted a 1998 study that linked a routine childhood vaccine to autism and bowel disease after a U.K. investigation found flaws in the research.

An investigation by the U.K. General Medical Council, which registers and licenses doctors, concluded in a report last week that three researchers led by Andrew Wakefield at the Royal Free Hospital in London carried out invasive, unnecessary tests, failed to act in the best interest of the children, and misused public funds. It also said Wakefield didn’t disclose a conflict of interest as he was involved in legal claims against the vaccine makers.

“It has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation,” the editors of the Lancet wrote in a statement today.

The original study, involving 11 boys and one girl aged 10 and under, found bowel disease and developmental disorders in the previously normal children. The parents reported symptoms in eight of the children after they were vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella. Immunization rates plunged in the U.K. to less than 80 percent by 2003, as parents concerned about the possible health risks refused the vaccine, according to the Health Protection Agency.

The paper was retracted from the published record, stripping it of its scientific claims...

Olmsted on Autism: Thailand Teaches U.S. a Flu-Shot Lesson

By Dan Olmsted

In their latest e-mail, our friends at The One Click Group in England carry a story about how H1N1 vaccinations for pregnant women have been suspended in Thailand after one woman suffered a miscarriage a day after getting the shot.

Yes, that's right. ONE WOMAN suffered a miscarriage ONE DAY after getting a shot. "The Public Health Ministry yesterday denied any link between the vaccinations and the foetal death," the Bangkok Times reported, but as a precaution suspended flu shots among pregnant women pending an investigation into the miscarriage in the south province of Satun.
The ministry took the step even as it stood by the shot. "There is no substantiated report of H1N1 having a harmful effect on pregnant women," Public Health permanent secretary Paijit Warachit said. "The product is certified and safe for use."

I guess this is what you'd call the precautionary principle at work. In the U.S., what you'd get is the condescending bit about post hoc-ergo propter hoc, or however you say it -- just because one thing happened after another thing doesn't mean the first thing caused the second thing.

Yes, but it doesn't mean it didn't, if you follow me. As I understand it, at least in this country, flu shots have NOT been tested for safety among pregnant woman, a glaring statement that CDC officials treat as some kind of technicality, like the fine print of page 4 of your credit card statement that says they can raised your interest rate anytime they feel like it. But that lack of safety testing ought to tip the balance even more quickly in favor of assessing the risk part of the risk-benefit ratio, WHENEVER a possible adverse event is recorded.