Click HERE to post your comments on the CBS News BLOG about the story by Sharyl Attkisson of Dr. Healy's thoughts on autism and vaccines, won't you?
And please leave a COMMENT HERE that will go directly to CBS NEWS to tell them how much you appreciate Sharyl's work! We need to support the journalists who stick their necks out on behalf of our children.
BY DAN OLMSTED
Bernadine Healy's comments to CBS (and Imus) today are a landmark in the long, painful slog toward the truth about vaccine damage. Be excited -- be very excited. But believe me, it will take a while longer for the "mainstream" media to realize what a catastrophically mediocre job they've done -- and fix it. Too many egos (Dr. Nancy, Dr. Tim, "Dr." Harris...), too many careers, too much credibility are at stake. CBS's Sharyl Attkisson has been way ahead for a long time.
Meanwhile, I'm struck by Sharyl's remarks that brain injury from vaccines has been well documented since 1991 -- but that calling it autism has been a taboo.
Here's an article I wrote for UPI in 2005 about clear warnings to the CDC and FDA as early as 1991 from doctors linking autism and vaccines. Most chilling: The California doctor who reported in 1994 "there are currently 10 cases of autism in children who received DPT/OPV/MMR at 15-18 months." Isn't that a cluster? The response? Dismissive. In my view, most of the tens of thousands of autism cases since then are the responsibility of the CDC, the FDA, the AAP -- as well as Big Media for enabling them.
Continue reading "RE-RUN: WE KNEW ALL ALONG? YES, WE REALLY DID." »
(NOTE: Dr. Schaffner may have to "reconsider" his words after Dr. Bernadine Healy stated today that doctors have purposefully ignored and disparaged research that points a causal finger at vaccines. Anne Dachel provides proof here.)
By Anne Dachel
On May 12, 2008 ABC News put out the story, Court to Hear Families on Vaccine-Autism Link by Dan Childs. In it we hear (click here to listen) that it's only a theory that thimerosal or the MMR vaccine cause autism and that these theories are opposed by mainstream medicine.
Dr. Boyd Haley from the University of Kentucky is cited by Childs and described as "a vocal proponent of a vaccine-autism link" who thinks that "the current studies are flawed." Dr. Haley tells us that these cases being heard in the special court "are indeed the result of an underlying genetic vulnerability being triggered by the mercury."
Dr. William Schaffner, professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., challenges Dr. Haley and refers to his claim as "one of many hypotheses behind the development of autism in some children. Some of these hypotheses. . . are being investigated. But none so far. . . have the weight of scientific proof. "
Summary of Monday, May 12, 2008 proceeding.
By Mary Holland, Esq.
Test Cases of Jordan King and William Mead for Petitioners’ Second Theory that Thimerosal Alone Causes Autism
Opening Statements:
Special Master Hastings:
Special Master Hastings opened the evidentiary hearing by introducing himself and Special Masters Vowell and Campbell-Smith. He said that the proceeding has two purposes: to hear the claims of Jordan King and William Mead about autism and other medical issues and to hear testimony that this autism is vaccine-related on the theory that thimerosal alone can cause autism. All three Special Masters will evaluate general causation evidence; individual cases will be decided by one Special Master using evidence from the general causation hearing.
Continue reading "OMNIBUS AUTISM PROCEEDING: Monday, May 12, 2008" »
CBS was tipped off to cases as far back as 1991 where the gov't is paying families for brain damage for vaccine cases - the gov't is not tracking which of them would be called autism. Healy was shocked.
Tune in this morning to www.abcradio.com to listen to Don Imus live. He is having Dr. Bernadine Healy and Sheryl Atkisson from CBS on to discuss vaccines. Tentative time is 7:30am.
Points brought up right now live by Dr. Healy:
The Poling case is so important.
The principle of herd immunity drives vaccine thinking because of that there's a fear in public health community that people will stop getting vaccines.
Public Health officials feel: We are challenging something too important let's not do the studies or the science."
Continue reading "TUNE INTO IMUS NOW! HEALY AND ATTKISSON" »
Sounds like Bill Clinton was talking to JB Handley while stumping for his wife in the Pacific Northwest. Click HERE.
President Bill Clinton on KTVZ in Central Oregon: You do not want to bring your children into the world where we go on with the number of children who are born with autism tripling every 20 years, and nobody knows why," he said.
We'd like to see how the Offits, Tayloes and Gerberdings attempt to impugn "loudmouth" Dr. Bernadine Healy who says, "the government has been too quick to dismiss the possibility of a vaccine-autism link" in THIS CBS report by correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
Today, a second round of autism test cases begins in federal vaccine court. Tonight on the CBS Evening News, we'll have exclusive interviews with the two families who are bringing the cases: two of nearly 5,000 autism cases that have been filed in this special court. The government and many scientists have consistently maintained for more than a decade that there is no link between vaccines and autism. The Institute of Medicine issued a report in 2004 that was intended to put the controversy to rest, saying that the weight of the body of scientific evidence does not show a causal link between vaccines and autism. However, other scientists and parents disagree.
For our report, we interviewed Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health and a member of the Institute of Medicine who breaks with her colleagues in this exclusive CBS News interview: Dr. Healy says the government has been too quick to dismiss the possibility of a vaccine-autism link, and that it should be explored with renewed vigor.
Continue reading "DR. HEALY: GOV'T TOO QUICK TO DISMISS VACCINE LINK" »
By Kim Stagliano
Below is a quote from Paul Offit about this week's Federal court case that is as condescending as anything we've read recently. And is especially galling to parents of vaccine injured children, as it comes from a man whose own vaccine, RotaTeq, just killed a child (Read more HERE) and has injured many others. "Endearing?" Surely a man with his education could have chosen a less patronizing word?
Dr. Offit has a financial conflict of interest with vaccines. He holds the co-patent on RotaTeq, Merck's vaccine which made a half a billion dollars last year. And he has a book coming out in September aimed at all of us who believe autism is treatable and that vaccines play a role in the epidemic. Funny how the article neglects to mention that.
"I think that what's so endearing to me about the anti-vaccine people is they're perfectly willing to go from one hypothesis to the next without a backward glance," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Read the full Yahoo article by AP's Kevin Freking HERE.
Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism.
By Mary Holland, Esq.
I will be posting summaries of the thimerosal-autism test cases starting May 12. Below, I provide some answers and links that may be helpful in understanding this unusual proceeding. My goal is to provide short, objective summaries of testimony every day for those people who do not have the time or inclination to listen to the hearings. You may still sign up to get audio access to the hearings (HERE).
What is the Omnibus Autism Proceeding?
In 2002, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims’ decided Leroy v. Secretary of HHS and started the unprecedented “Omnibus Autism Proceeding.” Read more HERE
Parents of autistic children had filed thousands of lawsuits around the country in ordinary state and federal courts, in addition to “vaccine court,” arguing that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative, caused their children’s autism. Lawyers in ordinary courts argued that they should be able to proceed there, rather than in “vaccine court,” because thimerosal is a vaccine “adulterant” or “contaminant” under federal vaccine law.
In Leroy, Chief Special Master Golkiewicz decided that because thimerosal is “vaccine-related,” its injuries should be heard first in “vaccine court” according to Congress’ National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act of 1986. Read more HERE.
By Kim Stagliano
My children aren't babies any longer. Are yours? In the not too distant future, I will become the gray haired woman in this lovely painting by artist Sheldon Feuerstein. And I'll kiss my girls with as much love as I did on the day they were born.
Happy Mother's Day.
Kim
By Kim Stagliano
Most of you know that Autism Speaks has partnered with a snack company to sell puzzle shaped pretzels. Isn't that clever? Rumor has it Hershey is coming out with a candy bar for Juvenile Diabetes too.
Guess the fund raisers/publicity pros at Autism Selfpromotes don't fully understand the impact of the GFCF diet. Here AS team, read and watch THIS. From the CBS report:
Dr. Seshagiri Rao specializes in treating autistic children. He said that a gluten/cassein-free diet is useful in about one third of his patients who receive an early diagnosis, an alternative diet, a daily regime of vitamins in large doses, behavioral therapy and physical therapy. "Some children can recover completely," Rao said. "Other children can recover to a large extent."
Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism. She just made her 23,434,099 GFCF meal for her children. Hold the pretzels.
By Jack Russell
Given that politicians are as hungry for votes as big pharma is for dollars I keep waiting for the day when either the Republicans or the Democrats seize hold of our issue and run with it. After all, we’re becoming not an insignificant portion of the electoral. As the stakes get higher and higher with each election cycle, I would expect someone to want to grab for our demographic and pick up some loyal voters. Sure, we’ve seen some courageous politicians put forth our issues and we’ve seen encouraging signs from the remaining candidates for president. But we have yet to see either party promote itself as the champion for vaccine safety and/or autism biomedical research.
Can you imagine hearing someone say, "There's no better time for a soldier to get his legs blown off in Iraq because our ability to save mangled bodies and employ high tech prosthetics is at an all time high." You'd pillory the person who said that, wouldn't you?
How about the person who says this about autism? They may feel that the future is bleak for all of these newly diagnosed cases of autism. But I remain optimistic that, for a good proportion of them, it has never been a better time to have autism. Why? Because there is a remarkably good fit between the autistic mind and the digital age.
This is from an article that was published in January of 2007. You can read it HERE.
"Simon Baron-Cohen Psychologist, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University; author, 'The Essential Difference'
The rise of autism:
Whichever country I travel to, attending conferences on the subject of autism, I hear the same story: autism is on the increase. Thus, in 1978, the rate of autism was four in 10,000 children, but today (according to a Lancet article in 2006) it is 1 per cent. No one quite knows what this increase is due to, though conservatively it is put down to better recognition, better services, and broadening the diagnostic category to include milder cases such as Asperger's syndrome.
Continue reading "BARON-COHEN: IT'S THE GOLDEN AGE OF AUTISM!" »
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
I’m currently reading the memoir, “All But My Life” by Gerda Weissmann Klein, an account of her survival as a Jewish woman in World War II Poland. Maybe it’s an unusual choice for the dad of a daughter with autism but it has its attractions for me.
The New York Times praised it as “A moving personal testament to courage” while The Boston Globe wrote that the story was so moving because of “the passion with which she looked through the horror and found a heart-felt and basic goodness in humanity.”
World War II ended sixty-three years ago, eighteen years before I was born. Ever since I became politically aware I have known the outlines of that conflict. The identity of the good guys and the bad were never in doubt.
The question then becomes, why read such stories at all, if you already know what it’s going to happen?
By Ronna Hochbein, OTR/L
This paper has been milling around in my sleep for a number of weeks now. But as I eat, sleep and breathe the disorder called autism, it often takes me awhile to chain myself to the computer and permit it all to spill out.
As I attended the Defeat Autism Now! In Cherry Hill New Jersey this year, several startling revelations occurred to me. In one lecture, they showed a colored map indicating the most polluted areas of the United States, and then superimposed clusters of autism over that map—and they correlated very well. Too well.
SAN DIEGO - The Autism Research Institute (ARI) applauds caregivers and advocates nationwide for their commitment to secure appropriate, individualized medical and educational intervention for individuals living with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).
"Many individuals with autism suffer from apparently related medical conditions; these conditions are often ignored, and so are left untreated by the medical community. These children can improve significantly, and in some cases recover, if their medical needs are met," said ARI Director, Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D.
A recent Harvard School of Public Health study by Dr. Michael Ganz estimates that the overall costs of caring for a person with autism are as much as $3.2 million over his or her lifetime.
Read more HERE.
(NOTE: You can donate to Dean's team, info at the end of this post.)
By Dean Fulton
The Tacoma City Marathon this Saturday has special significance this year, although few in the crowd may realize it. A lone runner in a gaudy red jersey will be unapologetically moving his feet for one of the growing grassroots autism support organizations aimed at forwarding the agenda of providing active, meaningful ground support for families living with autism.
That runner is me - Dean Fulton - a freshly minted Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) Dad in Washington State.
By David Kirby
If autism has always been with us in the same high numbers that we see today -- as some scientists and academics contend -- then we should be able to identify the 1 in 150 adults currently living with autism in places like the US and UK.
With all of the media attention on autism these days, one would think that adults with the disorder would come forward in search of social services, adult education, job training programs, support groups, and other ways that would make their numbers be counted.
Of course, not all adults on the autism spectrum are aware that they have an ASD, and others may not be interested in social services, special education or job training. And of course, many of these services are woefully lacking or unavailable to adults with autism.
But still, by any currently available measure, there appear to be far more people under the age of 18 with autism than there are adults with the disorder.
Continue reading "DAVID KIRBY: IF AUTISM HAS ALWAYS BEEN WITH US..." »
To our Ohio readers, did you know about this project? The Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) meetings are today and tomorrow.
Autism Pilot Project - The Ohio AAP is looking for interested pediatricians, family physicians, early childcare instructors, parents or anyone with an interest in autism to take part in a first of its kind Autism Diagnosis Education Pilot Project.
By Harry Hofherr
If you've had an email address for more than 24 hours, odds are you've been introduced to The Darwin Awards. These are the Oscars of stupid human stunts. The Darwin's are awarded to those among us who exhibit a monumental disregard for double digit I.Q.'s. These are creatures that should not be allowed to pass on their DNA. They pee in the gene pool.
I got a new list of nominations not long ago and it got me thinking.
Leo Kanner, the guy who first described autism, coined the term "Refrigerator Mom", but Bruno Bettelheim is more closely identified with the phrase. Bruno made the expression his. He gave refrigerator moms their day in the sun. He put his stamp on the term and reaps the well earned disdain.
Congratulations to our Parent Perspective contributor Cathy Jameson and her husband Steve on the birth of their baby daughter this week!
Charges have been dropped against Dr. Roy Kerry of PA in the death of a child undergoing chelation. Read more HERE.
By Dan Hollenbeck
The CDC has two ongoing projects to study autism prevalence: ADDM Network (1) and the MADDSP (2).
In 2003 the MADDSP program published a study pegging autism prevalence at 1 in 250, based on data recorded in 1996 (3). A short four years later, on Feb 7, 2007 the ADDM Network published two studies indicating autism prevalence at 1 in 150, using data from 2000 and 2002 (4, 5). The second of these studies showed that several states showed a statistically significant growth of autism prevalence between 2000 and 2002 (5). Therefore, the current CDC autism prevalence of 1 in 150 is based on six-year old data.
| Autism Prevalence | Year Published | Year data recorded | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in 250 | 2003 | 1996 | MADDSP |
| 1 in 150 | 2007 | 2000 and 2002 | ADDM Network and MADDSP |
By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
I am grateful that Theresa Cedillo e-mailed me a few days ago to inform me of the latest Autism Update for the Autism Omnibus Proceeding.
As we get ready for the next round of hearings, scheduled to begin on May 12, 2008 and proceed until May 30 I thought I’d recap what has happened up to this point and what is anticipated in the next few weeks.
Three different theories of causation are being presented by the Petitioners Steering Committee in regards to vaccines and autism. The first theory is that the MMR vaccine in combination with thimerosal can cause autism. The second is that thimerosal alone can cause autism. The third theory is that the MMR vaccine alone can cause autism.
By Twyla Ramos
Wisdom from Veterinarians – Vaccinations for Pets, Adverse Reactions, and Reformed Vaccine Schedules
Recently I came across several articles and books about adverse reactions to vaccinations among animals such as dogs, cats, horses and cattle. The harm caused by over-vaccination is referred to as "vaccinosis". Interestingly, pet owners and veterinarians report that vaccine-injured animals suffer from many of the same health conditions as people with autism, including inflammatory bowel disorders, seizures, encephalitis, auto-immune issues, hypothyroidism, eczema, susceptibility to infections, chronic ear infections, and behavioral issues.
By Julie Obradovic
Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe you're crazy. This week a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics (HERE) says if you're the parent of an autistic child, there's a good chance you are.
The large scale population study done in Sweden attempts to conclusively link psychiatric conditions in parents with an increased risk for Autism in their children. Other studies on a smaller scale have suggested the link in the past.
My immediate reaction to the result was one of extreme anger. I'm not sure why this one made me so mad, whether it was the last straw on a pile of stupid studies being done to ultimately blame my child's Autism on my husband and I (you know, old dads and too much television), or the implication that when all is said and done, I am simply more likely to be insane (it's only the mom's, by the way). As a friend suggested, this is why it's good I don't have a gun in the house.
Continue reading "PEDIATRICS: MENTALLY ILL PARENTS AND AUTISM" »
Here's the newest "it's genetic" spin to deflect the dialogue away from the environmental causes of autism.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - In another sign pointing to an inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child's risk of being autistic.
"Our research shows that mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism," said Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked on the study.
.....No one knows what causes autism, but researchers think it is likely that several genes and possibly environmental factors contribute. Some autism advocates believe childhood vaccinations play a role, although most medical experts say it is extremely unlikely.
Read the full Reuters article HERE.
Here's a mystery to rival "What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?" and Nessie herself. The Scots can not find an adult population with autism in numbers to refute the concept of the current epidemic among younger people. Read more HERE.
You have got to read THIS post over at John Robison's blog about brain plasticity and some science-fictionesque research he's been participating in at Harvard. John, as you may already know, is the author of LOOK ME IN THE EYE, his memoir about growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome.
John is undergoing crazy, insane, you'll never believe it kind of testing that could change the world for millions. Including our kids. It's like something from Ray Bradbury. But it's here. Holy Martian Chronicles....
He'll share more with us soon. Get ready.
Senator Clinton is a Methodist. Has she seen this resolution from the United Methodist Church? Thank you to A-Champ for the information.
With passage of a historic resolution today at its 2008 General Conference, the United Methodist Church has become the first faith community to officially oppose the use of mercury, in any form, including Thimerosal, in medicines, especially vaccines.
Beginning in 2005, several United Methodist Annual Conferences and its Women's Division, an organization of nearly 1 million women globally, passed a resolution entitled, "Protecting Children from Mercury-containing Drugs." Today, the validity of this urgent issue was further affirmed by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which speaks authoritatively for the denomination' s 11.5 million members worldwide.
Read the full press release HERE.
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