The Miseducation of Sharon Begley: One Parent’s Reaction to Irresponsible Journalism

Managing Editor's Note: L.J. Goes wrote this piece in response to THIS article in Newsweek, Anatomy of a Scare, by Sharon Begley.  

By L.J. Goes

I try, for the most part, to keep my nose above the fray when it comes to autism news.  It could be said that I am “in the know” because when you have a child with autism you are automatically catapulted into this unusual subculture of seekers you never imagined cavorting with, discussing subject matter you never considered relevant—until now. But, our reality—and by “our” I mean those of us who are recovering our kids, our reality, means we rarely have time to devote to the war.  

With biomedical treatment, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, developmental therapy, ABA therapy, IEP meetings, nutrition counseling, meetings with doctors, test kits, chelating, gluten-free/casein-free food shopping; the list is truly endless.  It’s pretty hard to make the decision to hop on a plane and attend a rally when you can’t find someone willing to give your kid his B12 shots.  Plus he starts new enzymes this week. The tests show the yeast is bad and who besides a loving mom or dad is going to want to deal with the die off?  It could mean hours of stimming, climbing, a week of sleepless nights or maybe violent diarrhea or another spooky skin condition. Plus, no one gets how closely you have to watch him near water and there’s a pond at the park I promised he could go to this week.  Oh yeah—and who’s going to take care of his neurotypical siblings and their needs?  

No, public rallies and wars are not for us.  Our battles are personal and they occur in the home with the enemy possessing our child. This is why we rely on celebrities, the wealthy, parents who’ve gone before us, senators, AAP doctors turned DAN (Defeat Autism Now!) doctors and enlightened former CDC employees to fight our battles for us.  God bless every single one of these saints who walk among us. 
 
My father-in-law, a seeker himself, is always looking for answers.  He showed up on our doorstep with a copy of an article he’d read written by Ms. Sharon Begley that appeared in the March 2, 2009 edition of Newsweek.  The title alone was incendiary, “When one study linked childhood vaccines to autism, it set off a panic.  The research didn’t hold up, but some wounded families can’t move on.  Anatomy of a scare.”
 
I have been living with the hard copy of this article for five days now.  It’s tattered, with baby food and coffee stains splotched randomly around words smudged from stuffing and restuffing it into my diaper bag.  I’ve grown rather obsessed, pouring over Ms. Begley’s attempt to explain the autism controversy in layman’s terms to the general public.
 
Yesterday I unwittingly allowed my daughter to eat skittles and bologna for dinner while my youngest pounded on pots at my feet, and our ASD (autism spectrum disorder) son was off in his own little world, spinning and stimming. Truthfully, I’ve been neglectful.  I really don’t have the time for this right now. Why can’t I get over this?  People forward me articles about the science of autism all the time.  What’s my deal?
 
Mind you, I’m a Christian, albeit of the drinking and swearing variety.  I’m also Irish, and from Detroit.  You would think given the historical implications I would be quite a scrapper, but the reverse is true. Most in my circle would say I am genuinely peaceable and when I override my own lowly, egomaniacal opinions, I find great solace in praying for the powers that be, and even for Mr. Offit on occasion.
 
I am strangely possessed by Ms. Begley’s work though, and for this reason I feel compelled to action.  I’m angered and annoyed and I can’t move on.  I am not a paid journalist, fact checker, scientist, doctor, researcher, or lobbyist.  I am a mom. That said I would like to get this over with so I can get back to my job.  Therefore, Ms. Begley, I kindly request your presence in the ring. This is an official invitation to fight.  The rest of you, please settle in.  Pull up a chair. Grab a soda.  I am lacing up my gloves at this very moment.  
 
Round 1
 
I find it curious that when you explain the initial debate over the vaccine-autism link you only mention the controversial research of Dr. Wakefield and his associates while excluding the pioneering efforts of Dr. Bernard Rimland, the founder of the Autism Research Institute, who was on the scene far before Dr. Wakefield. You make no mention of Dr. James Neubrander, Dr. Ken Bock, Dr. Anju Usman, Dr. Doreen Granpeeshesh, Dr. Richard Deth, Dr. Stuart Freedenfeld, Dr. Mark Noble, Dr. Dan Rossignol, Dr. Andrew Levinson, Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, Dr. Jim Adams, Dr. Julie Buckley, Dr. David Berger, Dr. Sidney Baker, Dr. Jane El Dahr,  Dr. Martha Herbert or Dr. Elizabeth Mumper.  Why is that? 
 
Beyond curious I am downright suspicious of your complete exclusion of any facts pertaining to the Simpsonwood conference.  I’m sure you’ve been made privy to the June 2000 gathering and it’s attendees, renowned specialists in the field of epidemiology, the U.S. government, the CDC, the FDA, the pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth, Aventis, and Pasteur. No matter where you stand on this controversial topic I think people at both poles can agree on two facts: the meeting was of a clandestine nature and the objective was to address the alarming rise of autism, speech delay, ADD, and hyperactivity in children and a possible correlation to the mercury dense preservative, thimerosal, used in our vaccines. 
 
You’ve probably heard about the strangely unremarkable results of this meeting and research done by then CDC epidemiologist, Dr. Tom Verstraeten.  He found a link between mercury containing vaccines and certain neurological problems. The 2000 study was withheld from the public and then the “amended”—a word chosen by unbiased, third party, just-the-facts-jack Wikipedia—the “amended” study results were not published until 2003. Surprisingly, at that time he found no link between vaccines and autism that was “statistically significant”.  Dr.Vertraeten was no longer with the CDC; he left his post to accept a position with GlaxoSmithKline, one of the leading manufacturers of vaccines.
 
Round 2
 
You also state, “In 2004 a study of the medical records of 14,000 children in Britain found that the more thimerosal the children had been exposed to through vaccines, the less likely they were to have neurological problems.” Do you happen to know who conducted this study?  I tried to Google, “2004, a study in Britain”, but as you might imagine, nothing worthwhile came up. 
 
When addressing the Wakefield research and related scientific data that supports the vaccine, leaky gut, and hyper immune response link to autism (Utah State and NYU studies) you close this particular portion of your work with a glowing report of how doggone spectacular…no, I’m sorry, “extraordinary”…well, it’s so glowing it bears repeating:
 
“But these studies and others supporting the link between autism and the MMR were nothing compared with an extraordinary step that had been taken by the U.S. Government and by one the country’s leading medical organizations.   On July 7, 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the U.S. Public Health Service issued a warning about the preservative in many vaccines.  Called, thimerosal, it contains 49.6 percent ethyl-mercury by weight and had been used in vaccines. --The experts tried to be reassuring, saying in a statement there are “no data or evidence of any harm” from thimerosal.  But, they continued, children’s cumulative exposure to mercury from vaccines “exceeds one of the federal safety guidelines” for mercury.” 
 
Am I to understand from your word choice that you consider the organizations that require us, by law, to inject our children with this potentially destructive preservative  “extraordinary”, simply because they told us a half truth? With that logic Marlboro and Camel are pinnacles of society because they put a warning on the side of their packaging that states “smoking may cause lung cancer”. 
 
Truly, Ms. Begley, if there was “no data or evidence of harm” why take it out? Why issue a public statement? I can’t help but call to mind the commercial that shows us a car totally submerged in water as it’s tossed about by violent winds and a sales ad caption that reads “new interior”.
 
If thimerosal is so harmless why did the Homeland Security Act include, “…a rider, known as the Eli Lilly Protection Act,” according to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., that intended to protect Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of thimerosal, from subpoenas?
 
Round 3
 
Coincidentally, Ms. Begley, this is where you go down.
 
You talk a lot about conclusive science and how researchers were “dumbfounded that so many parents rejected the conclusions of the CDC, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics,” and go on to quote from Paul Offit’s book, Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure.  “The issue for people like Jenny McCarthy isn’t that doctors and scientists and public-health officials haven’t listened to parents. It’s that they’ve been unable to find any evidence to validate parents’ concern.”
 
Here in lies the source of our problem.  You must walk among us.  Talk to us.  It is not enough to simply analyze medical data, often collected by ambivalent office employees and hospital personnel, and farm archaic databases for information that may or may not be veracious.
 
Almost every new parent of a child with autism I meet has the same story.  Onset of symptoms after the shots.  Yes, it varies. Sometimes hours, sometimes 3 days, 14 days, but still, within days.  Doctors, scientists, and public health officials have NOT listened to parents.  Isn’t the basis of valid scientific study observation? 
 
The implication of this next comment you had the chutzpah to print provokes me to embarrassment for both you and the IOM.  “Some autism symptoms typically appear at the same age that children get the MMR, the (IOM) panel said, it would be inevitable that some children would first show symptoms of autism soon after being vaccinated.”  That is ambiguous rhetoric at best. 
 
We know our children, Ms. Begley.  To imply that parents seeking to understand their child’s condition are simply mistaken when correlating their decline to the time of vaccination is the equivalent of Nazi propaganda. You are getting very sleepy Mr. and Mrs. Smith, focus on my voice, “it’s not the shots, it’s not the shots, it’s not the shots.” Wake up! OPEN YOUR EYES.  You are a journalist.  Act like one. 
 
Now it gets personal. When my husband and I took our son to an emergency care clinic for a 104-degree temperature, accompanied by complete lethargy within days of being vaccinated, the doctor on duty said, “Oh, yeah, it’s the shots.  Just go home and alternate Tylenol and Motrin.  He’ll be fine.”
 
 Until then he’d never had a fever. HE IS NOT FINE.   So the shots can cause a fever but they can’t cause autism in kids who have a genetic predisposition for the disease?  This argument I will never understand because of its inherent stupidity.  Try this one on, “Oh, yeah cigarettes make you cough but they don’t cause cancer!”  Until recently we thought heartburn was just heartburn and learned it can actually be a heart attack.  Given these albeit pedestrian examples does it not make sense to at least continue to investigate the correlation?  I can answer that for you.  Yes, it makes perfect sense.  I think we both know it is the politics behind the science that is prohibiting this from happening.  It’s also what probably prevented you from reporting this issue accurately. 
 
I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong on this; this morning I was in quite a hurry but I quickly thumbed through your magazine while running errands at Target—it was the Commemorative Edition focused on the president.  No less than three advertisements, pharmaceutical in nature.  While this might not seem like a lot it was more than any other company or special interest.  Since there were so few I am assuming those advertisers need to carry a big burden to cover those production costs.  Meanwhile I write, you write, celebrities go on talk shows, politicians debate, and another parent of a child with autism is born every 20 minutes.
 
Round 4
 
Still standing? 
 
You wrote, “When Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, testified before Burton’s panel he said that he had his own children vaccinated, and gave their names.  At the break, a congressional staffer pulled him aside and said, “Never, never mention the names of your own children in front of a group like this.”  The following year he received an email threatening to “hang you by your neck until you are dead.”
 
Did you know Ms. Begley, that in addition to his benign sounding role at Children’s he is also, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, “a co-inventor and co-holder of a patent on the rotavirus vaccine Rotateq, from which he and his institution receive royalties, as well as serving on the scientific advisory board of Merck.” 
 
Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill report in the online newspaper Age of Autism, “Dr. Paul Offit of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) took home a fortune of at least $29 million as part of a $182 million sale by CHOP of its worldwide royalty interest in the Merck Rotateq vaccine to Royalty Pharma in April of last year…”
 
They go on to explain, “Unlike most other patented products, the market for childhood mandated vaccines is created not by consumer demand, but by the recommendation of an appointed body called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).  In a single vote the ACIP can create a commercial market for a new vaccine that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in months.  For example, after the ACIP approved the addition of Merck’s (and Offit’s) Rotateq vaccine to the childhood vaccination schedule, Merck’s rotateq revenue rose from zero in the beginning of 2006 to $655 million in fiscal year 2008.”
 
Did you also know that Mr. Offit served as a member of the ACIP from 1998 to 2003?!  Is that crazy or what?   Mr. Blaxill and Mr. Olmsted can confirm it.  They really did their homework, didn’t they? 
 
Need I remind you also of Mr. Offit’s role on the CDC advisory board?
 
I cannot condone a death threat of any kind, find such harassment abhorrent, and feel terribly saddened that one among us is this desperate to be heard.  But, if you could, for just a moment, consider the ramifications of all this.  We as parents, citizens, who think we are doing something good for the health of our children are actually harming their bodies, their minds, and their personalities in ways that will alter the course of their lives forever.  Many of them are in physical pain and cannot speak to tell us what is wrong. Some might get better, some might not; some might be institutionalized.  And we did it to them. The government and our pediatricians told us to.  The burden of guilt is greater than you can possibly imagine. Death threat, unacceptable—driven to madness over causing your child’s autism and living in a society that not only refuses to acknowledge the damage done but continues to propagate it everyday, feasible.
 
It should also be noted that calling Paul Offit, “a vaccine expert at CHOP,” while omitting his multiple posts and power in the pharmaceutical community is akin to posterity remembering Abe Lincoln as a tall guy who lived in Springfield.
 
Round 5 and the T.K.O.
 
After Autism Speaks Advocacy Group, Chief Science Officer, Geraldine Dawson’s goodwill statement about addressing parents concerns, “we don’t want to close the door…” you add your own two cents by stating, “Not even a door that, since it was opened 11 years ago this month, has let through such demons.”
 
Ms. Begley, seriously. Demons?
 
Until you have looked into the eyes of a child who is shaking uncontrollably, looking into your face and searching for your eyes but cannot find them, in a state of abject sadness and true terror, you do not know demons.  I know much of this copy has been catty on my part, but on this one point I must beg of you with total sincerity, do not speak.  You…do…NOT…know. 
 
This brings me to where this all began.  The title phrase that is to blame for my mania, “…but some wounded families can’t move on”.  No, Ms. Begley, we can’t. You’re right.  Because the AAP, the CDC, the ACIP, the government and the IOM refuse to consider logic as they themselves abandon real science to do battle for their true cause, the preservation of the vaccine regime and the complex political power structure put in place by the pharmaceutical megaliths that feed it. 
 
When you patronize Ms. McCarthy for responding to the news the CDC does not link vaccines to autism by saying “my science is Evan”, does it occur to you to investigate whether or not Evan is indeed better? Did the treatments his mother pursued work? And if they did than why isn’t every major scientific mind in America clamoring to study this boy?  How many cases of spontaneous autism reversal have you reported?  Insert sound of crickets chirping here. 
 
You have written this article from the perspective of one who is untouched and uneducated on this topic.  Lacking both sympathy and empathy, you portray parents of children with autism as hysterical reactionaries and you fail to take into account the children who have progressed and made significant leaps toward a neurotypical existence by following DAN (Defeat Autism Now!) protocol.  I dare not say they have been healed.  Ms. Begley, we have moved far beyond “panic” and “scare”.  We use the word “epidemic”.  Look it up. 
 
In closing you state, “Most tragic of all, it has diverted attention and millions of dollars away from finding the true causes and treatment of a cruel disease.” 
 
We, the autism community, are finding treatments that work and despite this tension we desperately want to work with the mainstream medical community.  We need not be polarized, but the likes of your work certainly contribute to the “us” versus “they” mentality.  We need green vaccines, NECESSARY vaccines and genetic testing, period.  We need pediatricians who do not address parents’ concerns with, “kids develop at different rates, let’s wait and see”.  As the current political anthem decries, “transparency!” Ms. Begley.  What is in each and every single vaccine on the shelves of American pediatricians offices at this very moment?  We will soon demand to know. The millions of dollars you refer to are wasted not on failed research, but rather on preserving a political hierarchy that is destined to fall because it is costing us our children.  More and more people are learning the truth and asking questions.  Those of us in battle will be equipped to answer them.
 
This exercise has taught me why we are known amongst mainstreamers as “crazy autism parents”.  The bonus is I no longer care.
 
Ahh…sweet relief.  

LJ Goes is the mother of an autistic son and two NT children.
 

Comments

[john huffstickler]

Hi- Probably someone here has already mentioned this. It appears that aluminum vaccine-adjuvants were first used "about 75 years ago" according to various pro-vaccination writers. The writers intended to soothe parents who worry about aluminum re: chronic-fatigue-like and neurologic problems. Oddly, this puts its first use, like that of Thimerosal, squarely in the decade before autism became a known syndrome. Multiple metal insults... Will we ever hear the truth? Best wishes, John

[CJ, mother of LIly]

Well done LJ. I feel honored to have met you and your husband at the autism one conference over the weekend. It's great to be able to connect with other parents that share a passion for not only recovering their children, but exposing the truth.

I hope we can talk soon!

[Tanya]

Go girl! Sound the charge and take no prisoners! I'm keeping your article, it is an eloquent summation of why aut parents get so ticked when others just don't get it and think we should "let it go". I would love to keep copies of the intro to hand out to the clueless. Keep going.

This vaccine cover up is familiar, go back to the Agent Orange cover up. You know, the one that they covered up until the service men were dead? People fought this when it was emmerging, they're fighting it now that it is obvious, and they'll keep fighting it as long as they have a profit to protect. We have to keep fighting, we have kids to protect.
Aut parents are something new to business, we don't go away, and the condition doesn't kill the victims (companies can't play the waiting game). Our kids will win, but it takes moms like you to dig in their heels and not give up.

[Carol Brannaka]

LJ-All of this needed to be said and you have done a WONDERFUL job at it! Thank you so very much. I have this article and I too was appalled that someone so obviously without back round knowledge could write for Newsweek, damn the pharmeceutical companies that daily screw up this country as tell us that we must not only live with it, we are supposed to thank them, I loathe them instead, me and my boy who yes, became very ill and lethargic after his MMR and gee, now he has AUTISM-go figure!!!

NEVER GIVE UP ON OUR CHILDREN-Mother Warrior

[rileysmom]

LJ, I must say...you are AWESOME! Well Done. You're the kinda lady I want in my corner. We have a "famous" boxer in our neighborhood...his name is Kelli (The Ghost) Pavlik. I rank you right up there with him. We'll call you LJ (Boom Boom) Goes!
Did anyone send this numb nuts of a reporter your letter? I'd love to be a fly on the wall when she reads it.
Shame on you Ms Begley! You should be 100% ashamed of your shotty reporting, your incompetence is astounding.

[Bob Rose]

Maria Montessori wrote, almost a century ago, that three- and four-year-old preschoolers will learn to read spontaneously if they get "sufficient" practice forming alphabet letters. Although boldly claimed in her "The Montessori Method" this possibility has strangely never before been subjected to a scientific test.

In 2002-2004 I found five kindergarten teachers on the Internet who provided experimental data on 106 experimental kindergarten students as they practiced printing fluency and we monitored their reading ability (and also five other first-grade teachers who did NOT make the effort of inducing printing practice, but who only measured how much of the serial alphabet students could print in a timed, twenty-second period of time, and the correlation with reading skill. These 94 students formed a control group).

The correlation was very obvious in all ten classrooms. We found that all but a very small percentage of students read well, and with good comprehension, shortly after the point in time when they were able to print at least the first thirteen letters within 20 seconds. Multiplied by three, this equates with a fluency rate of 39 letters per minute.

The children enjoyed the practice sessions, and observing their gradual increase in fluency as the weeks passed. No apparent stress was noted, and it was found that the median kindergartner, after spending five minutes daily of each school day practice printing, was "printing fluent" after a mere three months. But printing fluency didn't correlate with reading skill among older students, according to our results with a group of fifty fourth-graders.

The kindergartners wrote and read with about the same skill as the first graders at the end of the winter of school. The fact that kindergartners were reading and writing at a level of children a full grade ahead shows that the early acquisition of literacy in the kindergarten (experimental) group was caused by the dedicated attempt to induce practiced fluency in printing, and not just a coincidental marker of some third, and unknown, causative factor.

At the present time (May, 2008) I have collected another group of kindergarten and first-grade teachers on the Internet. Fourteen K-1 teachers have already submitted correlations of the printing fluency and reading skills of their pupils. In each case the correlation has been obvious and strong. Anyone wishing to join and monitor (or participate on) this free list need only send any email to k1writing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Returning the automated "confirmation message" to the computer will result in automatic list membership.

Printing practice and fluency training in the early grades has completely gone out of style during the twentieth century, though it is still practiced (though not specifically tested) in India and China. This rediscovery of this important principle offers an inexpensive and effective means toward ensuring reading and academic success from the earliest grades for children of all races and ethnic backgrounds.

It has also been found that second-graders able to give correct answers to simple addition facts more fluently than 40 answers per minute rarely have problems with math or science thereafter.


Bob Rose, MD (retired), rovarose@aol.com
Jasper, Georgia

[DG]

LJ, You are an inspiration and the love of my life. Thanks for writing this. Stay strong. I love you. Your husband.

[Kevin Barry]

Great article LJ!

Begley chose to recycle material from Every Child by Two rather than do actual reporting - much easier that way. Hope they gave her a ECBT pen or a glossy of Rosalyn Carter.

[Linda]

I just keep wondering why the researchers don't simply do a true double blind randomized study of the effects of vaccines in relation to autism. I guess there just isn't anyone as rich as a drug company around to pay for the study.

I also wonder why our country is so gung-ho to vaccinate against nuisance illnesses. I will do whatever I can to make sure my child doesn't get polio or smallpox, but chicken pox or the flu for most kids is not that big a deal. It's uncomfortable and a pain in the rear, but that isn't worth the risk. Now for my child with heart issues the flu can be fatal so the risk vs. payoff must be weighed carefully, but for my kids with typical hearts, no way is it worth that risk to me. I'd rather they get sick and feel awful for a few days than they end up with something much worse.

[Cynthia Cournoyer]

L.J.,
Thanks for putting your gloves on! Let us know when you want to put them on again.

Cynthia Cournoyer
www.whataboutimmunizations.com

[Twyla]

Thank you so much, LJ, for this great great article which is at once passionate, logical, well informed, and right on the mark. Sharon Begley's article cried out for rebuttal, and your knockout feels oh so satisfying, and it's something we can link to when battling the opposition.

I look forward to reading more articles by you! Go ahead, let your neurotypical kids eat junk food while your son with autism entertains himself stimming for a while! It's just temporary -- no guilt! -- soon enough you'll go back to serving nutritious organic food and engaging in DIR again!

[Lisa Brown]

The guilty and broken hearted salute you! Please don't stop writing you have a gift.

[K Fuller Yuba city]

Every article allowed in a national publication should have to provide the references they check while writing the article.
Thanks for calling the writer at Newsweek out. I wonder if she will bother to read what you have written. It would appear that she just wrote what she was told without doing any independent research at all.

[Kelli Ann Davis -- Where Have You Been??]

"LJ Goes is the mother of an autistic son and two NT children..."

....and one of the most incredible writers I've read!

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??

Okay, you get a "pass" on the whole Rally thingy BUT you MUST write more!

Deal??

Pinky Promise?? Secret Blood Oath?? Boy Scouts Honor?? Girl Scouts Honor?? (And anything else I missed.)

[Kub Marshman]

Down goes Begley! Down goes Begley!

[John Stone]

""You also state, “In 2004 a study of the medical records of 1,400 children in Britain found that the more thimerosal the children had been exposed to through vaccines, the less likely they were to have neurological problems.” Do you happen to know who conducted this study? I tried to Google, “2004, a study in Britain”, but as you might imagine, nothing worthwhile came up.""

Just to comment on this, there is no study exactly corresponding to this description but there were the two British studies published in PEDIATRICS in September 2004 which found a negative relation between thimerosal and autism, and it was suggested in news agency releases at the time that this was a protective effect. The authors of at least one of the studies were at least embarrassed by this (although not much else) stating in on-line correspondence:

"We do not conclude that thiomersal can have a true protective effect; we believe the hazard ratios that are below one are due to confounding that we were unable to adjust for. The reducing trend is not by age but is by exposure at a given age so cannot be explained by protective effects of increased body weight."

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/eletters/114/3/584

Incidently, thimerosal is 49.6% mercury by weight, not ethyl mercury.

[Julie Swenson]

Fabulous piece! I was enthralled to the point of making my loudly protesting son stay in bed an extra ten minutes while I read the entire thing...I generally have to read long articles in 3-4 steps ;)

[GK]

It took me about 30 seconds with Google to find the 2004 study of 14000 kids. You can read about it here:

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20040907/studies-no-link-between-autism-vaccines?z=1728_00000_1000_nb_02

The lead researcher was Jon Heron, PhD, a pediatric epidemiologist with the University of Bristol in England. It was published in Pediatrics.

GK

[Andrea]

Wow the Irish girl from the Motor City can write like nobody's business. Woo-hoo!

Good stuff LJ.

Thanks- this was just what the I needed.

[Amy Stouch]

Beautifully written piece. Thanks for taking the time to jump in ring and whoop some pseudo-journalist ass!