CAN'T ANYONE GET THESE DELUSIONS OUT OF MY HEAD?

By Dan Olmsted

Help me -- I'm suffering again from what the psychiatrists call "delusions of reference." In layman's terms, I believe that all kinds of seemingly unrelated things -- from government pronouncements to scientific studies to newspaper headlines to cable-news "crawls" -- actually speak to me. Some of them seem to be sending messages only I and a small group of others (fellow basket cases like you, perhaps?) can truly understand.

My latest attack began with the news, reported on our site this week, that the anti-cholesterol drug Zetia doesn't seem to do much of anything (in fact, nothing at all; in fact, maybe worse). There is the further issue of whether the drug manufacturers and marketers, Merck and Schering-Plough, held on to the study results because they were such a bummer (of course not, the companies say, but Congress seems to want to put that reassurance to the perjury test, under oath. No doubt both companies welcome the opportunity).

Call me crazy -- I do! -- but couldn't anyone with a third eye see this one coming? The current Newsweek has an ad for Zetia (along with ads for Crestor on the back page and the page before that, Lyrica on pages 7, 8 and 9, Plavix on 13 and 14, Alli on 19 and 20, Effexor on 25 and 26, Prilosec on 50, Ambien on 70 and 71):

"The most common cholesterol-lowering medicines, statins, are a good option. Zetia is different. Statins work mainly in the liver. Zetia works in the digestive tract ... Unlike some statins, Zetia has not been shown to prevent heart disease or heart attacks."

If I'm reading this correctly -- and obviously my cognitive processes are not to be trusted -- Zetia is different, all right: Some cholesterol drugs really do help your heart, but there was never any evidence Zetia was one of them. And that's the AD, for crying out loud. Whatever happened to the FDA not approving drugs until they were proven both safe and EFFECTIVE?

And Merck made Vioxx, too, which it withdrew after a study showed it caused heart attacks and strokes -- and lots of 'em -- and the New England Journal of Medicine said an earlier study by Merck looked a little fishy because it excluded heart attacks that occurred just after the formal study period ended. (No, no, no, said Merck, which ponied up $5 billion to put this grotesquely unfair episode behind it.) Whatever happened to the FDA not approving drugs until they were proven both effective and SAFE?

Suffering as I do from delusions of reference, I can't help thinking about Merck's ProQuad, the four-live-virus-jumbo-combo shot I first wrote about a couple of years ago. There were at least two cases of regressive autism in clinical trials leading up to FDA approval of ProQuad -- and that was just in Olympia, Wash. Merck wouldn't say how many other cases of autism popped up around the country, but it did acknowledge it didn't tell the FDA about the Olympia cases until the month I started asking -- months after the FDA approved ProQuad as effective and, of course, SAFE. Merck said the parents had just reported the cases (those darn parents!). The parents said: Merck who?

Last year Merck "suspended" production of ProQuad, saying they had run low on the chickenpox component of the shot. Yet they're still making the standalone chickenpox shot and the new shingles vaccine, which contains tons of chickenpox virus.

Could ProQuad be the Zetia and Vioxx of vaccines? That very question is a sure sign I'm losing it, because no one else in the media ever wrote about those Olympia autism cases or why they weren't reported or whether they had anything to do with Merck suspending ProQuad. And of course, to my mangled mind, if there's something messed up (that's science-speak) with the measles-mumps-rubella-chickenpox combo, there might be something messed up (ditto) with the MMR, which so many parents believe triggered autistic regression. (Didn't the similarly delusional Jenny McCarthy tell her doctor she heard that the MMR was "the autism shot," just before he reassured her it wasn't, just before her son got it, just before he regressed into autism? I think that was just before Jenny quit listening to "the experts." But I digress.)

There's also evidence -- again ignored by BM (Big Media) -- that chickenpox vaccinations have  triggered a big increase in shingles, a much worse affliction. Fortunately, there's a vaccine for that, too, and it hasn't been "suspended"!

My delusions are such that I see hidden messages even in stories that have nothing to do with drugs. The Washington Post Health Section this week had two big front page articles that really sent my thoughts racing. The first headline: "Too much of a good thing?" The article was about radiation exposure from CT scans and how they are "driving a significant increase in the amount of radiation many people are being exposed to ..."

So, the overuse of a valuable medical procedure may be too much of a good thing? See how my mind "works" -- all I could think of was whether too many vaccines too soon could be behind the rise in autism, even though vaccines themselves have a valuable role to play in public health.

Below that was an article titled "Lobotomist Serves as Warning," subtitled "Documentary Shows Damage When Medicine Goes Awry." First paragraph: "One of the most horrifying medical treatments of the 20th century was carried out not clandestinely but with the approval of the medical establishment, the media and the public. ..." Once again, my delusions got the better of me. Could the unprecedented and largely untested increase in childhood vaccines -- the biggest uncontrolled experiment in medical history -- be the same kind of medical mistake? Surely not -- the media, the medical establishment and most of the public don't think so.

But what tipped me over into frank psychosis (the British sometimes use the lovely term "barking mad") was the news that parents aren't supposed to give kids under two over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. The crawl on CNN said something like "Medicines Unsafe for Children Under 2."

Oh, brother. Now the TV was broadcasting my thoughts. The crawl might as well have continued (maybe it did!), "Some maverick doctors also suggest waiting until at least age 2 to give most or all vaccines, on the theory that the immune system and brain have had time to mature. They say medicines that might be safe for older kids or adults may act in ways that can harm fetuses, infants and young children."

One of those maverick doctors said he was all for the early-and-often CDC vaccine schedule until his infant daughter got the whooping cough vaccine, and within days ended up in pediatric intensive care with whooping cough. She nearly died. (No over-the-counter remedies for her!)

See how all of this speaks to me? But then, I'm barking mad. How 'bout you?
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism

Comments

[Sandy Gottstein]

Woof, woof!

[BM]

It seems as though BM (Big Media) has a case of on-going no-BM. There is lots of input but no evident signs of output so far. In autism circles we call it impaction. What remedies the problem is a good clean-out. Wow, the parallels continue to amass (no pun intended).

[JB Handley]

Dan:

Yes, I am equally barking mad. Thinking about all these examples we have from our past, I'm plagued by one simple question: How do we move this one along a bit faster? It sure would help a lot of kids!!

Looking forward to the day when autism and all its ugliness is a chapter in a book,

JB Handley

[Raymond Gallup]

Dear Dan Olmsted

How appropriate.......BM for Big Media. The way the Big Media reports on vaccines and autism, I will have a BM. They can get any parent's bowels in an uproar the way they report the story about vaccines and autism. They have done it to me for years when they ignore the science and report the drug company propaganda.

Raymond Gallup
http://www.vaproject.org/

[Raymond Gallup]

Per...............
"So, the overuse of a valuable medical procedure may be too much of a good thing? See how my mind "works" -- all I could think of was whether too many vaccines too soon could be behind the rise in autism, even though vaccines themselves have a valuable role to play in public health."

YES.......Too many vaccines at too early an age are responsible.

If you look at the following article about lobotomy
by the Washington Post, consider that vaccines ARE the new lobotomy.............

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011401484.html

Per...........
"One of those maverick doctors said he was all for the early-and-often CDC vaccine schedule until his infant daughter got the whooping cough vaccine, and within days ended up in pediatric intensive care with whooping cough. She nearly died. (No over-the-counter remedies for her!)"

When I got the pertussis vaccine at 6 months old in 1944, I later got a very bad case of the whooping cough when I was about 8 years old.

Vaccines, The New Lobotomy.

Raymond Gallup
highnoon@gti.net

[Theresa]

Hey Dan - excellent piece and as a "fellow basket case" I completely understand and agree! I like your BM abbreviation too!

Theresa

[Not Mad At All]

"So, the overuse of a valuable medical procedure may be too much of a good thing? See how my mind "works" -- all I could think of was whether too many vaccines too soon could be behind the rise in autism, even though vaccines themselves have a valuable role to play in public health."

I think that little paragraph right there has said it all - its really quite elementary when you think about it. You don't have to analyze something to death and you don't need countless mindless investigations, all you have to do is make a connection and institute a change.

[Kelli Ann Davis]

Classic. A Notable Quotable?

There's also evidence -- again ignored by BM (Big Media) -- that chickenpox vaccinations have triggered a big increase in shingles, a much worse affliction. Fortunately, there's a vaccine for that, too, and it hasn't been "suspended"!

Anne, any chance you'll be using the BM abbreviation too? Seems fitting, don't ya think?