ABC HAS NO SHAME

By Anne Dachel

To back up Dr. Johnson (see a post on the ABC/Tim Johnson story HERE), ABC NEWS also gives us Dr. Peter Hotez and more false claims.

February 29, 2008: Fallout From Vaccine Fear Hits UK Kids (HERE.)

In the article, we're told about parents not vaccinating in the UK over fears about the MMR and the question is asked: "Could it happen here?"

In the video interview Dr. Hotez plays the frustrated expert who simply can't understand why anyone suggests that vaccines cause autism.

He is asked why parents "who aren't scientists like yourself" persist in their false beliefs.  He responds: ". . . I'm frankly a little bit baffled.  Why this erroneous link between vaccines and autism keeps surfacing.  We now have at least five, arguably seven excellent clinical studies ...that show quite conclusively that there is no link between vaccines and autism."

According to Dr. Hotez, "Thimerosal has been used for decades.  It has an excellent safety profile.

Its use in very trace amounts sufficient to prevent bacterial contamination but way millions of doses lower than could ever cause toxic effects."

Not only is it safe to inject mercury into children, but there's no autism increase going on.  Dr. Hotez tells us that there's only "an alleged epidemic of autism."  No, it's really just that these kids who were "previously being diagnosed as odd...are now re-diagnosed as having ASD."  "...That all pretty much accounts for the alleged rise in autism."

"It's a rise in the numbers of people being diagnosed, not in the number of people who actually have autism."

I found very little truth in this.

Anne Dachel is Media Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[Sandy Gottstein]

I want to remind everyone that there are well over 100,000 vaccine-associated adverse reaction reports on VAERS. (http://vaers.hhs.gov/scripts/data.cfm )

When I wrote about them 5 years ago, over 125,000, in fact. Once again, here is the column: "Scandals: Avoidance Of Vaccine Truth But Not Consequences -Are We 'Knee Deep in the Big Muddy'?"
http://www.vaccinationnews.com/scandals/2003/Feb_14/Scandal55.htm

[Anne Dachel]

Dear Monica,
I appreciate your comment about Asperger's being in the spectrum. My son has Asperger's Syndrome and his disability is so different from what kids face with full-blown autism. Once for a TV interview, they wanted to include my son who is 21, very personable when he speaks and very skilled in many areas. I refused. I wasn't going to let them show my son as a typical kid with autism. Anyone watching him would say, "Hey, he's not so disabled. Autism's not so bad."

Most people who aren't personally affected can't begin to understand how limited some children are. They can't imagine the demands made on parents who have to care for these children.

So what will happen when so many children with profound autism reach adulthood? We will all be asking: "Where did people like this come from?" And ...."What are we going to do with them?"

Anne Dachel
Media editor

[Bob Moffitt]

"According to Dr. Hotez, "Thimerosal has been used for decades. It has an excellent safety profile."

So were the popular, over-the-counter, non-prescription, infant cough and cold medicines the FDA just warned parents to stop using, in response to a CDC study that found these medication to have caused 7,100 ANNUAL emergency room visits by children under ten. Some of these "products" have been in use for 30 years.

Even more troubling was the original CDC study done between 2004 - 2005 that found 1,500 children "under the age of two" who received emergency room treatments....3 died.

One has to wonder what the "cause" of death parents of those 3 children were given? One also has to wonder why the "new" study of 7,100 children did NOT identify how many "died" annually from these medications.

So, the fact that thimerosal has been in use for decades should be of no comfort to parents.....because parents have good reasons to question why it took the CDC almost 30 years to warn parents on adverse reactions to infant cough medicines.

[Monica]

sheesh, I only WISH Jade was diagnosed as "odd". Don't they realize that the fastest growing population of ASD is the "severe" category? I really resent the fact that the entire spectrum is considered as one. I have 2 kids on either ends of the spectrum. My son, is odd. My daughter cannot talk. I really hate the inclusion of Asperger's in the spectrum sometimes, as it is an entirely different animal.

[Tim Welsh]

Talk about playing both sides off against each other. ABC reports the McCain comments...
John McCain Enters the Autism Wars
February 29, 2008 7:11 PM

At a town hall meeting Friday in Texas, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared that "there’s strong evidence" that thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was once in many childhood vaccines, is responsible for the increased diagnoses of autism in the U.S. -- a position in stark contrast with the view of the medical establishment.

McCain was responding to a question from the mother of a boy with autism, who asked about a recent story that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program had issued a judgment in favor of an unnamed child whose family claimed regressive encephalopathy and symptoms of autism were caused by thimerosal.

"We’ve been waiting for years for kind of a responsible answer to this question, and are hoping that you can help us out there," the woman said.

McCain said, per ABC News' Bret Hovell, that "It’s indisputable that (autism) is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it. And we go back and forth and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines."

Why don't we send these few paragraphs back to them to compare notes...

As a parent of an Autistic child... I ask the question... Why wouldn't I question the fact that one day my son could speak and the next he could not. The only thing that changed was a needle went into his body.

How dare the "Expert" question a parents right to ask!

[Jeanne]

And what's his diagnosis? A-hole?

[Jeanne]

Odd?!? Odd?!?