AGE OF AUTISM

HECKENLIVELY ON THE OMNIBUS AUTISM PROCEEDING: 5/27

The Idea Makes Sense – The Omnibus Autism Proceeding – Second Set of Hearings (Thimerosal & Autism) – Day Eleven – May 27, 2008

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I need to make a request of the U.S. government. 

Please stop bringing such incompetent witnesses as Dr. Rutter into Vaccine Court.

It just ceases to be any type of intellectual challenge when your expert witnesses keep saying “I don’t know”, or “I didn’t read that article before I prepared my report”, or “the idea makes sense”, but it’s beyond my expertise to research it.

JOHN ROBISON WRITES ABOUT TMS THERAPY FOR AUTISM

Earlier this week we told you about NYT best selling author John Robison's participation in a ground breaking treatment study for autism/Aspergers taking place at Harvard. Read our post HERE. 

John has blogged HERE about another Aspergian study participant's perspective on the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Here's a taste:

After the final simulation, I realized that my normal way of communicating while reading aloud involves a complex mental process, which goes on subconsciously. This involves reading the sentence, deciding what emotion it is supposed to convey, and then deciding how that needs to sound in my voice before I speak. However, after the stimulation session, I was able to understand the emotional content, and speak the sentences with natural emotion in my voice, without having to do any mental processing about it.

HOLLAND ON THE OMNIBUS AUTISM PROCEEDING: 5/27

May 27, 2008:  The Government’s Response, continued

Direct Examination of Dr. Michael Rutter

Ms. Ricciardella reviews Dr. Rutter’s qualifications as a child psychiatrist and as a researcher in the U.K. 

Q:  Were you were involved in the formulation by the DSM-IV and ICD-10?
A:  Yes; I was involved in an attempt to bring the two sets of criteria closer together.

Q:  Please discuss your clinical experience in autism.
A:  It goes back to the early 1960’s, but I continue to see cases today.  I used to be involved quite heavily in treatment, but in the last decade my work has been more advisory.

Q:  How many autistic children have you diagnosed in your career?
A:  Many hundreds.  I’ve followed them into adolescence. 

DR. PAUL OFFIT: QUOTE MACHINE FOR HIRE

Compiled By Generation Rescue, June 2008

Quote Machine

1) Mr. Offit is the mainstream media’s favorite quote machine in the vaccine-autism debate. In fact, he is more than often the only quote in every article on the topic and seems to have immediate access to the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Wall Street Journal.

2) A Google search of “Paul Offit & Vaccines” reveals 47,800 separate hits.

Conflict

IMMUNIZATION ACTION COALITION SENDS PRESS RELEASE TO COUNTER RALLY

The folks at the Immunization Action Coalition have sent out an alert (pulled up the drawbridge) trying to diffuse the effect of the Jenny McCarthy GREEN OUR VACCINES rally on June 4th.  (You can send Ms. Deborah Wexler of IAC an email, her address is at the end of this post. Be polite!)

Here's the opening paragraph from a letter they just sent out: 

This summer will bring renewed efforts by anti-vaccine protestors to bring media and political attention to their cause. As a way of defusing the impact of their rallies and press releases, Voices For Vaccines, a newly formed immunization advocacy organization, is coordinating an Open Letter to Congress, to be distributed to every member of Congress before the first of these anti-vaccine rallies, stating the support of a wide range of professional societies, public health organizations, and immunization coalitions for immunization in general and concern for the potential impact of anti-vaccine activism on public health.

Before you read their full, heartfelt letter, take a moment to recall what Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of NIH, has said about the government having turned a blind eye to the vaccine/autism problem in the name of protecting public health policy. In other words, the sum of the whole population is greater than each individual child when it comes to vaccines.

Dr. Bernadine Healy is the former head of the National Institutes of Health, and the most well-known medical voice yet to break with her colleagues on the vaccine-autism question. In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Healy said the question is still open. "I think that the public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as irrational," Healy said.

FOOLS RUSH IN

It's an "Age of Autism Instant Replay!" We first ran this piece on April 10th. In light of the IAC letter about the rally, we thought we'd share JB's info again.

By J.B. Handley

You know the response is coming.

For anyone watching the news for the last two months, the “other side” (aka, The Vaccine Lobby) has been getting annihilated in the press, online, in the coffee shops, schools, watercoolers, and, of course, on Larry King Live.

There’s too much power, profits, and prestige at stake for the other side not to fight back, at least a little.

With that as backdrop I was delighted to get an email from a friend with a link to a new, curious website called Voices4Vaccines. 

The website is under construction, but the home page opens with this noble goal:

“Voices for Vaccines has only one goal to provide science-based, accessible, and clear information about the benefits and risks of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases. Our leadership consists of scientists and concerned individuals who are totally committed to supporting continued efforts to eradicate vaccine-preventable diseases.”

This new organization also makes a veiled reference to you-know-who and our movement in general:

“But we also know that the loud voices and famous faces are not necessarily giving the best information.”

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: TIME AND NEWSWEEK AND "THE REST OF US"

By Dan Olmsted

People flying out of Chicago from Autism One last weekend couldn’t help but notice the cover of the new Time staring out at them from O’Hare’s 5 million newsstands: “The Truth About Vaccines.” Subtitle: “Worried about autism, many parents are opting out of immunizations. How they’re putting the rest of us at risk.”

Uh-oh. You and me versus “the rest of us.” Welcome back from the Westin to the Real World. Is it really necessary to turn inside and read what we all know is coming after a cover headline like that? I resisted for a few days, but I have now done my duty. Rather than rage on about the overall tone of the article and its attempt to put the vaccine-autism zealots (you and me) in our place (le bin de les loones), I’d rather make a few observations that fit with the larger picture that’s starting to emerge.

First: Where is Bernadine Healy? Nowhere. Maybe the fact that she wrote about taking the vaccine-autism link seriously in a sort-of rival, U.S. News & World Report, made it a non-story for Time. They still could have quoted her CBS interview, though. Trashing the vaccine theory without at least mentioning the concerns of the former NIH head is just not going to cut it any more.

LOOK! A WHOLE NEW WAY TO RUN OVER OUR KIDS!

Autism Speaks, the nation’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to autism is championing an effort and encouraging race fans to cheer for a special goal at this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the Dover International Speedway. This goal will extend far beyond the racecars crossing the finish line by bringing the NASCAR community a unique "Goal Line" dedicated to Autism Speaks.

Read more HERE.  Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

DR. ANDREW WAKEFIELD IN THE STATESMAN

From the Austin (Texas) American Statesmen. You can leave comments at the end of the article. Link below.

Wakefield: Advances in medical science demand ongoing scrutiny
Dr. Andrew J. Wakefield, LOCAL CONTRIBUTOR
Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Do vaccines cause autism?

According to the former head of the National Institutes of Health, the question remains unanswered.

George Bernard Shaw once said that science never solves a problem without creating ten more. For every advance in medical science, in particular for vaccines given to healthy children, there must be ongoing scrutiny to look for those inevitable problems. This is a duty of modern science.

However, in a recent interview on CBS News, Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health and member of the Institute of Medicine, acknowledged that public health officials have failed to fulfill that duty when it comes to the problem of autism.

Read more HERE.

CRACKING LIKE THE LIBERTY BELL

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, which is in Dr. Paul Offit's backyard, comes this article talking about the Poling case.  You can read the full article HERE.

For a decade, the government, public- health experts and medical groups have said there is no credible scientific evidence - none - that vaccines cause autism.

Then came Hannah Poling, a 9-year-old from Athens, Ga. A federal program created to compensate vaccine-injury victims conceded that her autism is linked, albeit indirectly, to immunizations she received as a toddler.

Hannah's case, made public by her parents in March, is unusual and circumstantial, yet it is building mainstream support for a notion long considered dangerously misguided: There may be subgroups of children who should not be vaccinated - or at least, they should get fewer shots over a longer period.