On Media: The CDC Medicine Show

By Anne Dachel

Members of the press love the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  They love citing the CDC as if their pronouncements come down off Mount Sinai.  And they love quoting Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC.

Who could argue with the CDC's claims?  After all, this is the agency that gets billions to run health care in the U.S.  If they don't know what's going on, no one does.

And the CDC always has studies, although no reporter ever asks about the nature of any study.  They never want to know who paid for it or if there were any conflicts of interest involved.  The CDC's latest decree is the MMR study.  Sept. 3, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson (HERE) couldn't wait to say, "A study out this evening offers the most powerful evidence yet that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine." 

"This is the nail in the coffin.  The final bit of research we were looking for to finally discredit this link between the measles vaccine and autism," said Marie McCormick from the Harvard School of Public Health on ABC News.

Reporter John McKenzie warned us, "Many parents remain skeptical and worried about the safety of these vaccines; some refuse to have their children vaccinated, which has resulted in a higher incidence of the disease."

We've been hearing reports about parents everywhere who question vaccine safety.  The

CDC is worried and you should be too.  They're blaming the recent outbreaks of measles on non-vaccinating parents.  One news story said, "More measles cases have been reported in the first seven months of this year than have been reported in any seven-month period since 1996."

Headlines sounded an alarm with strong language.  In Lynwood WA, we could read, More parents are saying 'no' to vaccines, Lansing MI had the story, More parents choosing to skip inoculations for their children, and in Abilene TX, they published, Children entering school without all vaccinations, in which the opening line was, "Hundreds of thousands of children are going to school this fall without protection from deadly diseases."

Scripps Howard News Service reviewed surveys submitted to the CDC and found at least 135,000 children started kindergarten last year exempted from vaccines.  Scripps Howard warned, "In some states, one in 10 children did not get vaccinated, and in some communities 30 percent of the children were unprotected."  This past April the CDC found that more than one in four toddlers under 2 are not being vaccinated as recommended.

The latest official response to falling vaccine rates is the formation of the Immunization Alliance.  The  AP story, Public needs to know vaccines are safe, docs say, (HERE) out everywhere announced, "A new coalition of 22 major medical groups says public confidence in vaccine safety needs to be restored to avoid risks for deadly disease outbreaks."  The Immunization Alliance joins other vaccine advocacy groups out there like Every Child By Two, Immunization Action Coalition, and Voices for Vaccine.

So officially, we're being told parents are not vaccinating like they used to and that's why there are measles outbreaks.  We need to educate the public on vaccines and crack down on all these parents exempting their kids from necessary, life-saving vaccines, right?
Wrong.  You are so wrong.

You're obviously behind in the other very latest vaccine news.  Everything's really fine and dandy with the U.S. vaccination rate.  In fact, we're at an all-time high.  The very same agency that a couple of weeks ago claimed epidemics were looming because of the unvaxed has done a complete u-turn and we're seeing headlines like the Reuters piece, Child vaccination rates hit record levels (HERE).  Here we find out that the CDC just learned that fewer than 1 percent of children got no vaccines.  Gerberding is pleased with how well parents are complying and said that it reflects their trust in vaccine safety.

News reports quickly fell in line with headlines like, Record Number of Toddlers Vaccinated in the Washington Post, Vax rates at near-record levels in the Chicago Tribune, and Most US Kids Getting Recommended Vaccinations from ABC News.

The Wall Street Journal Blog reported, "Despite the hullabaloo over certain alleged vaccination risks, the rate of young children getting their shots has remained high - and largely unchanged - over the past several years.  ...And data going back to 2003 show that vaccination rates have remained stable."

According to the CDC, you can have it both ways, depending on the point you're trying to make.  If you want to scare the wavering parents out there into vaccinating, you claim that kids aren't being vaccinated, old diseases are returning with a vengeance and it's all their fault.  If you want to make the case that vaccines are safe, all the studies say so, and parents trust the CDC, you report that parents are confidently vaccinating.

Reporters evidently live day to day and the only thing that matters is the latest CDC press release.  The claims made just last week have no bearing on whatever they may be saying today.

Another glaring example that shows the people at the CDC speak out of both sides of their mouths is the ridiculous spin they've produced about the autism rate.  You can read that the number of kids with autism is unchanged over the last thirty years or you can find that autism is steadily increasing, depending on what point the CDC is trying to make.
 
The official autism rate of one in 150 came out in Feb. 2007 and officials said the same thing they did when it was one in every 166 children.  More kids don't actually have autism, doctors are just better at diagnosing it.   Paul Offit said back in 2007 that we just used to call these kids 'quirky or geeky or nerdy' but now we know that they were really autistic.
Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp from the CDC was interviewed in Newsweek and agreed that it isn't that 'the rates of autism have gone up, just that now we have some more definitive data.'  Officially the CDC has long denied any increase and this has been repeated endless times in news reports. 

If there's no real increase, the public can relax, there's no need to worry.  Autism is only 'a serious health care concern' and nothing like an epidemic.

Not so fast.

That's not always the case.  There are times when the CDC admits that autism is increasing.  The only time that the CDC makes that claim is when they need to prove that the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal isn't linked to autism. 

It works like this: If the subject is thimerosal, the CDC points out that in CA, no vaccines given to pregnant women and children under 3 could contain more than "trace" amounts of mercury after July 2006 and yet autism numbers continue to rise in that state.  (Almost never does anyone note that since most kids are diagnosed around age 2, we'd hardly be seeing the effects of the ban in 2008.)

No matter.  CA is living proof.  They took the mercury out and the autism numbers continue to rise. 

When this is the spin, I never see reporters demanding a reason for the increase.  If more kids have autism, something must be causing it.  Shouldn't we be alarmed about that? 
The CDC is amazing.  One day we can have a vaccination crisis in which outbreaks of measles and the threat of epidemics are being blamed on all the kids who aren't vaccinated.  And the next, we have glowing reports of all-time high vaccination rates and the latest state-of-the-art CDC study proving once again that vaccines are safe.
 
The CDC has a perfect response for every occasion, except there's this epidemic of autism plaguing our schools that no one can account for.  The agency that's in a continual state of denial over vaccines, can't explain it.   

The CDC can turn out studies at will to make vaccine side effects disappear but they are never proof of anything.  For as long as I've been following the press on autism, I've read all the reassurances about no link to vaccines.  They make a news splash for awhile and quickly fade away.  Marie McCormick and ABC's Charles Gibson might be saying that all the science is in and vaccines are safe, but tomorrow the controversy will be right back in the news.

Precious time is lost doing this.  The people in Atlanta are devoting themselves to vaccination rates, measles outbreaks, and MMR studies, but not to autism.  My son is now a young adult and there is a multitude advancing in age right along with him.  CDC officials will never be able to spin the numbers to make this disabled generation go away.  To spend years telling us WHAT DOESN'T CAUSE AUTISM and offering continuing research to prove WHAT DOESN'T CAUSE AUTISM isn't their job.  I've yet to see anyone in the media criticize the CDC for their inaction on what is clearly a national crisis.                                                                         

How many more years will we be reading that studies show no link, that there is no known cause, and that we still don't know if there's been an increase in the disorder?    
How can the people who claim to care about the health of our children ignore hundreds of thousands of them who suffer with autism?

When will the press finally hold the CDC responsible for this health care disaster?
--
Anne Dachel is media editor of Age of Autism.
                                                                                                                                                             

Comments

[Dana C. Sturdivant]

Great Job Anne!
I think as long as parents voice the truth, which is for many of us with children who were completely on track for normal development, language, waving bye-bye, waving hi, interacting, pointing and at 16 months of age taking my son in holding my son allowing those vaccinations in that moment to take his normal life away and put into this pure hell that he fight's on a daily basis. Striking 105 fever within 24 hours of his 16 month vaccination, losing all language immediately, gradually over the next couple of weeks following losing all fine motor skills and descending into the labeling of Autism, Autism the biggest debilitating health disease I have ever seen in my life. Candida yeast Root's coming out in his stools after making him eat 6 cloves of garlic, cramping on everynight until we introduced digestive enzymes. wheat, milk, soy, sugar, yeast, white rice and corn allergies(what hell that is for him in itself), glutamate issues, seizure activity at night, lead and aluminum pouring out off the chart after IV chelation, anemia, gut problems, severe headaches,thyroid issues,clostrida bacteria, High measle titers, off the chart HHV-6 titers,constipation on a daily basis and pain and the list goes on. The word Autism is so easy to say it flow's so well, but this debilitating health crisis is killing our children and raping them from the life that god had intended for them. Thank you age of autism for being our voice and never let it stop being heard! My prayers to all the families that are suffering and especially our children. May you all always have the energy and financial means to keep fighting for your children's recovery! And may your children always know that we are praying all their pain ends and they all heal.

[Solomon]

It is the sad reality that CDC officials will only realize that their INEPTNESS and cover-up through press releases in the media will no longer work only when the government start taking away money from their budget to address the rising cost of providing services to our children and the more to come who will be injured because of this orchestrated negligence together with irresponsible media outfits.

CDC can claim whatever they want. Here in our county in California, our Regional Center has created an Autism Task Force and positions like Autism Coordinators for the first time so they can provide services specifically for people in the spectrum. They even published it in their quarterly magazines that this is necessary because of the rise in number of children being diagnosed trying to get services. So what does this tell CDC? It is staring to put pressure on the basic systems of our community. It's just a matter of time before the whole system is rocked by this epidemic. Just like what happened to our housing market...and it's all about greed by people in high places.

[peoplesmd.com]

Great post. In today's world it's up to each family to determine what is best for them when it comes to health care. It's unfortunate but the reality is we have to be the check on the government, and we cannot assume that what the Government says on health is necessarily true. Blogs like Age of Autism are so important, and will only become more important in the coming years. Keep fighting the good fight!

[Michelle]

They will NEVER tell the truth,we know it and they know it! Bob, stated in an earlier post that 1 in 6 American children suffer from some early childhood developmental disorder!!! How can we accept this!!! When will we demand Truth!
1 in6!!!

[Gatogorra]

Ann Dachel wrote: "How many more years will we be reading that studies show no link, that there is no known cause, and that we still don't know if there's been an increase in the disorder?"

I think they're planning to say this for about fifty, sixty-five more years-- enough time to for the first huge wave of the epidemic to shuffle off this mortal coil. That way, the government can make the wide-eyed pronouncement that autism "has always been 1/150" or "1/67" or wherever the dial lands-- because there will be no living generation to point to with the embarrassing question, "Where's the comparable number of effected adults?" anymore. It's easier to argue the "increased recognition/diagnostic substition/bla bla bla" arguments when there's no uneffected generation left.

Imagining there was such a hare-brained plan, it wouldn't work if the vaccine schedule remains pretty much as it is or even if it's made "a little safer". The vaccine toxins-- whatever it is that's primarily responsible for triggering autism in children-- may eek down a bit from public pressure but as toxins in the air and water eek up to make up for whatever's "lost" in vaccine rat poisoning, the rates of autism are going to continue to grow.

After witnessing our kids' partial, virtually overnight recoveries just from diet, our 19 year old babysitter has said that she's thinking about chelating several years prior to conceiving children because of all the junk that was shot into her in childhood and adolescence on top of all the junk in the air, food, etc. She's afraid that even if she doesn't vaccinate, her children might develop autism from her body burden alone.

[bek]

Yes, the push for you to eat a thermometer, er I mean get your flu shot has begun. I recall last year in our hometown they made it very easy to do, all the while staying in your car. Yes, it was a drive in (a garage) flu shot campaign. In the coldness of winter you could roll down the window, push up your coat and get shot up! The local news reported it, pretty crazy visual, eh? Last time I checked, health care shouldn't be happening in a garage. Wonder if those vaccine manufacturers give out prizes for the most inventive way to promote flu shots?

[Carolyn M.]

I heard an ad on the radio recently urging listeners to "come in to your local Safeway to receive you flu shot and get 10% off your grocery bill." I went into a different grocery store chain and heard an announcement over the PA system saying that flu shots would be available soon and to ask the store's pharmacist for them. I also saw a sign outside a specialty compounding pharmacy advertising flu shots and a sign on the door stating that they were available and that walk-ins were welcome. As far as I can see, the push has definitely started. I wonder what incentive Safeway was given for them to make the offer that they did over the radio.

No one in my family is going to get the flu shot. I am also going to give my daughter's school a letter stating that she is not to be given ANY vaccination(s) without the prior written consent of BOTH of her parents. I have been writing that on her emergency and health forms for years now, but with this increased push to vaccinate people I think I had better put more emphasis on it.

[rileysmom]

Anne
Once again you floor me! You said it all and put the "dots" together! This is what I try to tell people that believe in the "All Mighty CDC" Thank you.
Louise,
Very powerful statement. I think it's time (past due) for the doctors that continue to turn a blind eye to this, are made accountable. I'm tired of the doctors throwing up their hands and saying "Gee, I'm just doing what I'm told." or the other doctors that think some how they are going to change the face of medicine by using children as guinea pigs to "find out which vaccines work in combination with each other" Wasn't that something they should have known BEFORE the needle touched my childs arm???
This is a sick world we are faced with. You've got your Offits, Amanda Peets, and Savages, Jenkins and Gerberding's that fight this tooth and nail but in the long run...what's the point? Who are they hurting but the smallest and most vulnerable of our citizens? It's madness, absolute madness. They are ONLY HURTING children but I guess it doesn't matter who they hurt as long as the money keeps pouring in.
Some days I just feel like giving up.

[karenatlanta]

I'm no scientist but if numerous universities have found the same measles virus in the MMR still alive and kickin' in the GI tracts of ASD kids, wouldn't that be a, er, a diaper risk like oral polio?????
You know oral polio..that sheds fecally...the only reason for Polio's existence today.
Wouldn't that rogue measles virus exiting these kids, just be feeding the measles outbreak increase?

[Bob Moffitt]

I agree with Anne and the comments already made.

I would only add to the long list of "professions" already mentioned that have failed to protect our children.... elected representatives....who are mainly responsible for providing oversight for federal agencies, such as, CDC, HHS, FDA, EPA, etc.

Consider the difference between the "urgent bi-partisan outrage" of the majority of elected representatives over recent financial crisis..and...the absolute indifference many of these same elected officials have shown to the CDC report that 1 in every 6 American child suffers some type of early childhood development disorder, such as, autism, allergies, asthma, juvenile type 1 diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ADD, ADHD.

[Terri Lewis]

"CDC= Centers for Double-talk and 'coincidence'"

Also: Continually Damaging Children

It's what they do best and most consistently!

[Andrea]

Oh Anne - you got their number!

Mercury's a problem in just about everything in the environment EXCEPT vaccines.

Hannah Poling had autism UNTIL it was linked to vaccines THEN it was "autistic like features".

Children have full blown autism UNTIL they improve with biomedical treatments like special diets and chelation THEN they didn't probably have autism at all to begin with.

The press is a joke. I was listening to Jenny on GMA this morning tell Diane Sawyer the story about Evan telling his Mom he was like Dory in Finding Nemo. Made me think of the press and how they cover the autism vaccine debate... Short term memory problems...appears that is what the press suffers from.

I mean how many papers carried the "all time high vaccination rates" to follow in days with the Measles outbreak due to parents not vaccinating ENOUGH of their children.

I guess when you are the CDC you can have it both ways.

CDC= Centers for Double-talk and "coincidence"

"coincidence" being my favorite explanation for EVERY vaccine related injury. How many times does the CDC use the "coincidence" card?

[nhokkanen]

Look at today's Minneapolis Star Tribune article unabashedly promoting flu shots.

Health employers giving flu vaccine a shot in the arm
Stepped-up efforts are in place to make sure all medical workers get the vaccines, for moral, ethical and safety reasons.
By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune
Last update: September 28, 2008 - 11:36 PM
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/29866219.html?elr=KArksUUUU

The article's author called up a bunch of her cozy contacts and as usual simply took their word at face value.

Self-described "vaccine warrior" Dr. Gregory Poland, a researcher from the Mayo Clinic, says that months from now 8,000 people who don't get vaccinated will be dead from flu. I guess that's one way of getting around that "36,000 deaths" figure.

No mention of vaccine injury or adverse effects. Just one brief mention of exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

What's strange is that Dr. Poland says the list of people's excuses for not vaccinating "is as long as your arm." However he handily dismisses all these empirical observations.

[Louise Kuo Habakus]

This was terrific, Anne. It would be eye opening to see the amount of Big Pharm ad spend by media outlet -- the real reason that the CDC is adored and can do no wrong?

Equally extraordinary are the lengths to which doctors are unwilling or unable to connect the dots. For those doctors who see and don't dare to speak out, shame on you. For those doctors who are going through the motions and don't care to see, shame on you. Doctors, you took an oath to protect and do no harm. When this comes to the light of day, millions will not be so quick to forgive. For many of you, the expectations you had for being a doctor did not quite match up to the realities of huge student loans, managed care constraints and high malpractice premiums. For many of you, it turned out to be far more work and far less less pay than "promised." For pediatricians, the dramatic increase in the number of recommended shots arrived in the nick of time. There's money to be made with each shot and each office visit. Do you really not see what you are doing when thousands of typically developing children return to your office autistic, asthmatic, diabetic, and anaphylactic? Do you really think you can hide behind the AAP or your own absence of bad intentions?

And finally, parents cannot be taken off the hook either. To all you parents whose children emerged apparently unscathed from their first, second even third round of childhood vaccines. It feels good to do the right thing, doesn't it? It is amazing how quickly these good feelings can morph into self-satisfied superiority... people who don't vaccinate are parasites, parents of autistic children are just looking for someone to blame and even the quietly smug thought, pity so many are not well, we must come from genetically superior stock.

Press, doctors, parents... there's denial and blame to go around. We're all human after all.

We live during a time when there is so little personal courage. So little willingness to put ourselves out there, to stand for something, to take a risk. We are taught to be smart, pay your dues, don't make waves, keep your nose clean. There's no upside being the nail that sticks out, right?

It has been a long time since most of us were children. It has been a long time since most of us can remember what it was like to have no power and to be constantly told what to do. But that time will come again. One day, we will inevitably populate the ranks of the elderly and we may again experience what it is like to have no power and to be told what to do. We all reap what we sow.

[MinorityView]

Insidevaccines has published a number of blog entries analyzing CDC mythmaking. Our latest series is tearing into the 33,000 deaths a year prevented by vaccines myth. Now, the interesting thing about this story is that the news spin, orchestrated by the CDC is that two studies, one published in 2005 and one in 2007 agree with each other. But they don't. The numbers don't match up at all. And yet major news outlets never bothered to even look at the studies and compare the numbers. How is it possible that a bunch of amateurs writing a blog can out-research Time Magazine? This is crazy! The series starts with this entry:
http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/06/16/where-do-they-find-these-scary-statistics/

Just for "fun" here is an article on pertussis statistics, with a perfect example of the CDC telling two different stories:
http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/2008/02/14/pertussis-yo-yo-stats/
story #1: The vax is saving us all from terrible outbreaks of pertussis
story #2: Teens and adults are coming down with pertussis right and left and all of them need to be vaxed to save the babies
Which might even be true, but the numbers, as usual, don't match up.

I think the CDC has some sort of problem working with statistics...is there a vaccine for this condition?