Feeding the Hungry Lie, Italian Style

By J.B. Handley
 
Well, you won't be able to miss it because it's all over the news: another "study" published in Pediatrics proving that vaccines don't cause autism.
 
In case you wonder how the media feels about the whole thing, consider this opening line from the Associated Press article today:
 
"A new study from Italy adds to a mountain of evidence that a mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines doesn't hurt children, offering more reassurance to parents."
 
Mountain of evidence?
 
Herewith, my guide to reading this new study:
 
1. Re-read my original post, Feeding the Hungry Lie HERE.
 
2. Open the new study from Pediatrics, titled: 
 
Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After Immunization in Infancy With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines
 
3. Prepare for Nausea.

 
4. Read the details regarding the two groups that the Italians analyzed:
 
"Therefore, in the first 12 months of life, the cumulative intake of ethylmercury, the mercury metabolite of thimerosal, was 137.5 mcg for the children who were assigned randomly to receive the DTaP vaccine that contained thimerosal ("higher intake group") and 62.5 mcg for those who received the thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine ("lower intake group")."
 
5. Realize that this study is only comparing kids who got 62.5mcgs of Thimerosal to kids who got 137.5mcgs of Thimerosal. They have all been vaccinated, and they've all been vaccinated with mercury-containing vaccines.
 
6. Vomit.
 
7. Read about their sample size of children and prevalence of autism:
 
"We detected, through the telephone interviews with parents and reviews of medical charts, 1 case of autism among the 856 children in the lower thimerosal intake group and no cases among the 848 children in the higher thimerosal intake group."
 
8. Realize that in their sample, the rate of autism of the children analyzed was 1 in 1,704, 15-20 times lower than the US average.
 
9. Vomit.
 
10. Read the acknowledgements section:
 
"The study was supported in part by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through contract 2002-N-00448 with the Istituto Superiore di Sanita."
 
11. Vomit.
 
12.  Read the AP's headline today: Study adds to evidence of vaccine safety

13.  Vomit.
 
14.  Read that the Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics, Dr. Lewis First, wrote today on his blog  HERE:
 
"Finally, we get to the heart of the immunization controversy with a study by Tozzi et al. on whether or not thimerosal can influence neuropsychological performance ten years after immunization in infancy (475-482). You'll be reassured that the results show essentially no differences between groups who did or did not get thimerosal in their vaccines—and you'll want to know this information when talking with parents of your patients about the safety and benefits of vaccines."
 
15. Realize that the Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics is either grossly misinformed or lying because you read the Italian study and know every child considered received Thimerosal.
 
16. Vomit one last time.
 
17. Pray that this study, like many of the others that have come and gone, doesn't falsely reassure a family with a young child about how best to approach vaccines.

J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and a contributor to Age of Autism.

Comments

[Heidi N]

Well, I guess one could say we are in some kind of a war. The vaccine-pushers and the vaccine-victims. Hmmmm. And it appears the victims are gaining ground, by default actually. You see, there are a bunch of victims, and they just keep growing in numbers. Thus, the vaccine-pushers over-did it. They made too many people sick, and now those "too many" are more than they can win against. Stay tuned, as the war continues. At this point, its obvious who will win, but what is still up in the air, is what will happen to the losers. Will they just get fined, fired, etc. or will there be criminal charges filed against them as well. Hmmm. I wonder how long we have to wait to find out.

[John Stone]

Dyson

Trouble is no one has been able to locate this extremely disabled, demanding and costly adult group (say in the UK >400,000 cases) in the general population. People who confront this problem practically as their children approach adulthood know the adult services are almost clueless about their childrens needs, and it is pathetic to go on pretending their was not a gigantic bulge in incidence between 1987 and 1992.

But what is also very insulting is that we are being asked to pretend for the alleged public good that certain events to which we were witness never happened. Of course, it is recall bias because the events were neither recorded or reported at the time. That's how we do science these days.

[Kathy Blanco]

There are probably many causes of autism, and in my opinion, they may either cause autism, initiate it, worsen it, etc. I do believe there are congenital /toxins that cause/initiate/worsen autism, not limited to measles, syphilis, lyme disease, toxo, and even the flu virus (this is proven in Schizophrenia) and all the toxic sludge our world can hand out . The larger question would be what if toxins + infections cause this. As you know, many auotimmune journals state an infection + a toxin can initiate an autoimmune situation-they are synergistic...one lowers cell mediated immunity/hampers it, and the other infects it. That's pretty much a vaccine to me? But, that can also mean, mothers amalgam fillings, or toxic fluoride, and so on and so forth. The point being, how can predict what child can "take" a vaccine? Even in the biological code of ethics, it states rather boldly, that no biologic medicine, should be given someone as a "guessing game", one should know, that they are able to handle it. Is this done in our vaccine program? NOT. They didn't take into account MY three autoimmune diseases, nor my chaulk full mouthfull of amalgams that MY KIDS CHELATED ME OF, my exposures to chemicals, if I had a pathogenic silent but deadly infection, or my children had an infection at the time of vaccinations? Of course, did I know this as a young mother, did I have an internet? NOT. THIS IS WHY I SAY, how can anyone, in their right scientific mind, PREDICT, what vaccine will turn to adverse? AND, how do we know that vaccines, in a long haul of life, has not initated other diseases in adulthood/replaced them for chronic illnesses? What of oncogenic viruses in them, or mycoplasma contaminations which alters the oncogenic genes? We all tested positive for SV-40...you tout as safe...right, tell that to my dead myeloma mother (said to be the one precipitating cancer from SV-40). Point being, I am totally anti vaccine, because they did not think of ME, and my kids, nor did they QUESTION, PREDICT, and or INTERPRET our problems, as "do not touch"...NO, they wanted to shoot us up, literally and build defences without question if I had a defence problem already. And let's get this straight, the polio vaccine has CAUSED many cases of polio, and some say, the virus is quite innocuous, and the real problems are TOXINS (READ THE REAL FDR story). AGAIN, what if the vaccine has TOXINS in it, plus a VIRUS? I think we need to think, sit back and ponder, what we have done to our generation of children, and adults. Some of the adults in our population are still harboring their own vaccine series obviously, and now that is incorporated into their genome. This is possible, I have seen the science on it. So, what if we give them a new vaccine, into their children, how can we predict this genomic experiment then heh? If there are point mutations in parents, is that because they have DNA changing viruses and toxins in them? NO DUH!~ Do they have methylation defects, and glutathione block, DUH. Point being, I am not willing to put my body in this experiment ANY MORE (already have, thanks guys). My grandchidlren are FREE of autism, because they did not vaccinate...if autism is SOOO genetic...you tell me, wouldn't there be an X linked disorder showing up in ALL MALE CHILDREN? Give me a freaking break. It is obvious, we have a mess on our hands, and denials may loom large, and pinnochio noses...as well as pharmaceutical plants on this forum. I don't believe in the so called science of artificial immunity, simply because EVERYONE's CELL/IMMUNE/METABOLIC COMPTENCE is different. I am not moowing cow in a giant cesspool of humanity...for God's sake. I am a human, a toxic human, and a human trying to crawl out of the mess of what MANKINDS kind (not) and generous (NOT), believing and trusting (not) system has done to me, and my children.

That said, you can have a right to stick yourself in the bum all you want, as for me and my health and house, it won't be the case, so help me God.

THERE IS NO GREEN VACCINE, THERE IS NO SAFE VACCINE, THERE IS NO SAFE SCHEDULE, THERE IS NO WAY TO PREDICT IF YOUR CHILD WILL REACT, and THERE ARE NO BIOMARKERS/TESTS to DATE that would identify, (except my study on Hyper IgE on cord blood, plug plug), that would identify a child prone to anaphylaxis and immune problems. Until then, I will trust in my instincts, my scientific examination, and say, anyone trusting a vaccine, ought to have their heads examined.

One time, we did a MELISA test on me, before deciding what kind of material we should use, to replace my DAMN amalgams. The test said the number one thing my body is allergic to, IS,....drum roll.....THIMEROSOL!!!!!! Gee, I wonder why my kids did so badly with their vaccine series heh?

Enough said...

[Dyson]

JB Handley, you said: "But, autism is approaching 1 in 100, at a minimum its 20x worse than polio, and we have no plausible explanation for cause."

There are several logical fallacies in this statement. Firstly, why choose to put in information on the supposed autism prevalence? This is not relevant to the issue of deaths from infection/polio. It's not a case of comparing one against the other, as much as you would like to pretend it is. The way you phrase your claim would make someone think one vaccine shot in 100 causes autism. Of course this is quite untrue. You are deliberately "poisoning the well" by calling attention to an irrelevant, scary-sounding association. The prevalence is 1:100 for boys, not all kids, and encompasses all ASDs including aspies and high functioning spectrum variants.

Then you say autism is "20x worse" than polio. Very poor choice of words, this. Do you possibly mean 20x more frequent? If you do you should say so (even though this still makes no sense as the comparison is invalid, since you don't have a frequency for autism following vaccination only a general prevalence). All you do is confuse people with terminology that suggests being on the ASD spectrum is 20x worse than suffering polio, a paralysing and often fatal infection.

You then finally cobble on a non-sequitur, saying there is no plausible cause for autism (and therefore linking in people's minds the suggestion that vaccines might fit the bill). Don't the studies on the congenital or genetic causes of it have any sway in your book? While this may account for only the minority of cases, it means that not all cases of autism could be caused by vaccines.

So, if vaccines DO cause autism, how often would that be, calculated per vaccinated child, or per vaccine? Go on, tell us please.

[Cassandra]

Vaccines contribute to many chronic conditions.
There is evidence of that. It is not voodo science.
There is science to prove that children have severe reactions to vaccines that include regressing in to autism. Unfortunately some people that refuse to believe this are still floating in the river called denial.

The facts are there if you choose to believe them are not.

MDCVC
www.mdvaccinechoice.wordpress.com

[Stagmom]

Francesco, grazie - why don't you write your comment in Italian? I'll have it translated for you.

Your English is far better than my Italian - all I know are swear words!

Kim Rossi Stagliano, Managing Editor.

[Francesco Lucarelli]

I'm Italian, my english is very poor, but I hope you will understand me.

My son was vaccinated (in postmarketing phase) with the thimerosal containing vaccine of the mentioned pertussis clinical trial and now he suffered from an autistic disorder.

That vaccine would have been sell in USA as 'Pertugen' (brand name), but the manufacturer withdrew a PLA from FDA at 'last minute'. EMEA (the European Agency) authorized it, but it was never marketed in Europe an it was withdrew in Italy after five years of marketing only (the vaccine was the first recombinant DTaP in the world, that was an innovative product).

It's an interesting story, but it would be too long to tell (and now I'm in trouble with my english...).

Anyway, there is some rotten in Denmark, and in Italy too...

Tozzi, that now is working at Bambin Gesù hospital, in the '90 worked at Istituto Superiore di Sanità, with Stefania Salmaso (another author of the Pediatric's publication).

Both were member of 'Progetto Pertosse Working Group', the working group of the mentioned DTaP clinical trial: they administered the vaccines more than ten years ago!

An they was also funded by NIH (billion of US dollar, in 1991)...

Did they tell us now that the TcV was'nt safe?

Vomit again...

Ciao

[jruch]

"None of us want to bring back deadly diseases. When we say we want safe vaccines, you immediately say that we are trying to get rid of them entirely. ... Using your logic; the only safe vaccine, then, is NO vaccine. I'm not saying that; YOU nitwits are."

I agree - well said Craig

If they can't accuse of being hysterically antivax, then they are left with us being merely rationally cautious and pragmatic. Can't have that.

[Julie Swenson]

Pru,

A modern, sanitary society will have healthy, well-nourished children who will be able to overcome these ‘diseases’ for which we (over)vaccinate. 200,000 deaths a year from measles? I think not. Try 200K deaths a year from malnutrition and extremely unsanitary conditions (the same reason polio is coming back around, thanks to improper sanitation and the overused, over-appreciated polio vaccine).

The unethical mass-vaccinating of children to eradicate disease that could, would and should be controlled via sanitary conditions is eroding the immunity of generations of children to come. We are one sick herd, my dear.

[Twyla]

Thanks, Craig -- we needed that.

[Twyla]

To clarify the very first comment by Diane, I believe she copied the comment "This is so sad. It's scary to think how quickly an infection can kill... Just a reminder to get your kids vaccinated," and posted it here with her own comment "Wanna vomit again?"

Since she didn't put the copied comment in quotes, some readers thought those were her words, but actually she was scoffing at that comment.

[Theresa]

I had to laugh when I read Pru's comment about "absurd conspiracy theories" ... kind of like the doctors who told my grandparents that they would never have children because they both had the mumps during their teen years. They have twelve children and (at present) thirty grandchildren.

I also think it's interesting that Pru and the pro-pharma crowd seem only capable of mentioning polio when they want to scare us. I guess that's because we've all had the chickenpox and the flu, and because we know that responsible sexual practices (and not vaccines) are all that it takes not to be a "vector for disease" when it comes to HPV, Hep B, and other STDs.

...and while I'm at it, why don't we be honest with ourselves and talk about what would really improve the health of people in (for example) Nigeria: access to clean water, modern plumbing, and good nutrition--the same things that have helped Americans' health to improve. The beauty of clean water, modern plumbing, and good nutrition is that they help prevent the spread of many diseases (not just the diseases for which vaccines exist) and help people survive the diseases they do catch (after which they have real immunity that doesn't need a booster shot). Bringing real change to developing nations wouldn't boost Big Pharma's revenues, though, so why bother, right?

[Julie Swenson]

"You'll be reassured that the results show essentially no differences between groups who did or did not get thimerosal in their vaccines—and you'll want to know this information when talking with parents of your patients about the safety and benefits of vaccines."

Well...thanks for that, CDC and Italian-study-people. I guess now I must be finally convinced that all my son's tests (showing mercury poisoning), his drop-seizures (mercury poisoning), his tremors, inability to walk or talk well (mercury poisoning) CLEARLY cannot be a result of (mercury poisoning) because mercury has been totally exonerated thanks to this insane study.

Thanks mercury, for fucking up my son’s life for the last 4 years and probably the next 40, too. Oh wait, that’s right…it was my and/or my husband’s crappy genes. Hell, let’s throw mercury a big party, since it’s cool to be mercury again. You know, since it doesn’t cause autism. This study says so. Can't we all just admit it now? Bleh.

[Julie Swenson]

Can't comment....vomiting...

[dismayed]

JB,
Thank you for exposing this lie - one of the most contemptible yet. It's so egregious, I encourage readers to write Pediatrics and demand a retraction and a correction to the blog.

Here is the e-mail contact link:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/feedback

In his blog in Pediatrics, the Editor-In-Chief calls the following a "valentine" to his readers...

"Finally, we get to the heart of the immunization controversy with a study by Tozzi et al. on whether or not thimerosal can influence neuropsychological performance ten years after immunization in infancy (475-482). You’ll be reassured that the results show essentially no differences between groups who did or did not get thimerosal in their vaccines—and you’ll want to know this information when talking with parents of your patients about the safety and benefits of vaccines."

As you pointed out, every child in the study was vaccinated with Thimerosal-containing vaccines.

I also intend to follow up in my local newspaper. Our pediatricians need to know they are being lied to, and they need to see evidence of the lies.

Note to Craig: Good rant. It was necessary.

[Amy]

Please don't forget to rehydrate yourself.

[hera]

Just saw this on youtube; what mercury does to brain cells from the university of calgary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5WNLOjmAiw
How did they think a study that involved only 1400 kids,had no control group, and was not representative of the population (ie only 1 case of autism ) could tell them anything?
It would have cost much much less to run the ICD 9 codes for asthma/autism and correlate them with the vaccination codes through the insurance company records that pays the doctors group at Homefirst.( I think that is the name of the doctors group who provide services for many unvaccinated children,and report minimal autism?)
Insurance companies do ICD 9 code reviews and look at traits all the time.In fact, I think it was because they ran a trait analysis that showed low asthma inpatient admissions that the insurance company first started looking at the homefirst practice.Any takers to get permission from the Insurance company, and then do a fairly simple piece of programmming?

[samaxtics]

For Pru,

Maybe it has something to do with how these programs are implemented:

“Early this year, it was reported that some children between eight and 10 years had been recruited to administer polio vaccine drops, but instead of using ice boxes, the children were using their own pockets to store the temperature-sensitive vaccines.” http://tinyurl.com/bkgy53

Maybe the parents have good reason to be skeptical:

“The one-year-old, as per state health department records, has so far had nine doses of the vaccine — two under the routine immunisation programme and seven booster doses under the pulse polio programme. Yet, earlier this month, Jannat, daughter of Jameel Akhtar, a tailor from Bihar, was diagnosed with the debilitating disease” ******************************************************************
“Saniya’s mother, Noorjahen, is furious. “She is having polio drops ever since she was four days old. She has had over a dozen doses of the polio drops. We came to know about her polio when she got a high fever. She could barely manage to stand, could not walk at all, after the fever. We took her to the local hospital where they did a stool test. We were later told that she has polio,” she recounts. “There must be some thing wrong with the polio drops if even after so many doses my child has contracted polio. The government should test medicines before they are used. Pata nahin bachchoo ko kya pila rahin hain!” (Don’t know what they are making my child drink), she adds.” http://tinyurl.com/ywmag9

And just FYI, my grandmother and my best friend’s brother had polio.

[Craig Willoughby]

Ok, Pru?

I've said this before and I'll say it again, but I am getting sick and f-ing tired of having to explain this to you rude and brainless twits.

Most of the people you are talking to on this board HAVE VACCINATED THEIR CHILDREN.

How can that not be clear? We vaccinated our kids, which is why we're in this mess. For f&%$'s sake, you people claim to be doctors and scientists, but you are some of the stupidest people I have ever had the displeasure of knowing. And you can tell your chief idiot over at your hateful Quackosphere site I said that, too.

If you want to blame someone for the "spread in disease because of parents not vaccinating," take a quick look at that site that is so full of rampant hypocrisy and blind idiocy. Parents are worried about vaccines, and they should be. The reason why they don't vaccinate? Because of doctors treating them like idiots.

None of us want to bring back deadly diseases. When we say we want safe vaccines, you immediately say that we are trying to get rid of them entirely. Bullshit! Using your logic; the only safe vaccine, then, is NO vaccine. I'm not saying that; YOU nitwits are.

And the reason why Polio has come back in these 3rd world nations is NOT because of "antivaccination lunacy," but because the Live Polio vaccine brought it back. Do some frikkin reading before you come on here spewing your brainless propaganda.

Kim and AoA, I apologize for the rant, but there is only so much I can take of their hypocrisy before I have to say something. If you don't want to post this, I understand, but I hope you do. I am sick and tired, though, of being called an idiot, and I HAVE to fight back.

[ElizaCassandra]

From "across the pond":- In the early 90s I remember being warned to be careful about washing my hands after nappy changes after my children were given their polio vaccines. Sorry, I don't know what type/brand it was - anyone got any ideas?