AGE OF AUTISM

The Last Day of Andrew Wakefield’s Defence at the General Medical Council

By John Stone

On the last day of his summing up of the defence case for Andrew Wakefield, defence counsel Kieran Coonan at one point remarked about the allegation that Andrew Wakefield had breached medical ethics and the terms of his contract by administering an unusual medication (Transfer Factor) to a patient (patient 10 in the “Lancet Study”) that “this pursuit by the prosecution of Dr Wakefield at all costs was unattractive” (reminding us all also of a certain journalist). Coonan spent the better part of the morning forensically demolishing the prosecutions claims about this matter. By the time the evidence was heard it had transpired that ethical permission for the use of this medication had been sought jointly by Wakefield and John Walker-Smith and received from the Ethics Committee (Dr Lloyd), that Wakefield had obtained the medication and deposited it in the hospital pharmacy (where it would have been issued on prescription), and a prosecution witness had declared the medication to be completely safe: “no more dangerous than drinking goat’s milk” (Dr Lachman).

Swine Flu, Part 2 – Media’s Vaccine Injury Dichotomy

By Nancy Hokkanen

The specter of swine flu has commanded international attention, and media coverage already has saturated our minds. Each day brings new revelations regarding this disease’s source, spread and treatment. If you Google “Swine Flu” you’ll get 200,000,000 hits.

Infectious disease creates an uneasy intersection of the public and the personal. People who’ve suffered a vaccine injury, or have family members that did, are watching quite cautiously as government, industry and the medical community respond with policies that affect their loved ones, and billions more.

Quite predictably the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is finding itself haunted by the ghost of vaccines past, as many consumers are old enough to remember a previous flu epidemic whose public health response is frequently described as a debacle. This week National Public Radio ran a 3:47 segment titled “Lessons From 1976 Flu Vaccinations.” The report on All Things Considered stated that the swine flu immunization campaign eventually became “seen by some as a dangerous overreaction... harmful side effects from the vaccine did appear.” (HERE)

CT Rally for Autism Insurance Reform

RALLY 5/1/2009

This is our day to speak on behalf of families in Connecticut who are dealing with the challenges of autism…

WHAT: Rally in support of the Senate Bill 301 Autism Insurance Reform Bill

WHEN: Friday, May 1st at 10:00 am

WHERE: North Steps of the State Capitol Building, Hartford, CT

WHO: Senator Jonathan Harris, Senator Majority Leader Martin Looney,
Speaker of the House Chris Donovan and hundreds of autism advocates
and supporters.

DETAILS: People are urged to invite their legislators to the rally and are also encouraged to meet with them after the rally and urge them to vote in favor of SB 301.

1976 Public Service Ad for Swine Flu Vaccine

11/4/79 60 Minutes Episode Exposed Swine Flu Vaccine Injuries, Lack of Safety

By Kim Stagliano

Read this transcript from a 1979 episode of 60 Minutes where Mike Wallace talks to President Ford, Judy Roberts (injured by the 1976 swine flu vaccine, paralyzed similar to Gardasil injury) Dr. David Sencer and others about the Swine Flu vaccine of 1976. Note the admitted lack of safety and informed consent to the public, even as TV ads frightened American citizens into getting a shot. Think anything has changed today?

60 MINUTES, Sunday Nov 4, 1979

"SWINE FLU"

MIKE WALLACE: The flu season is upon us. Which type will we worry about this year, and what kind of shots will we be told to take? Remember the swine flu scare of 1976? That was the year the U.S. government told us all that swine flu could turn out to be a killer that could spread across the nation, and Washington decided that every man, woman and child in the nation should get a shot to prevent a nation-wide outbreak, a pandemic.

Well 46 million of us obediently took the shot, and now 4,000 Americans are claiming damages from Uncle Sam amounting to three and a half billion dollars because of what happened when they took that shot. By far the greatest number of the claims - two thirds of them are for neurological damage, or even death, allegedly triggered by the flu shot.

We pick up the story back in 1976, when the threat posed by the swine flu virus seemed very real indeed.

PRESIDENT GERALD FORD; This virus was the cause of a pandemic in 1918 and 1919 that resulted in over half a million deaths in the United States, as well as 20 million deaths around the world.

WALLACE: Thus the U.S. government's publicity machine was cranked into action to urge all America to protect itself against the swine flu menace. (Excerpt from TV commercial urging everyone to get a swine flu shot.) One of those who did roll up her sleeve was Judy Roberts. She was perfectly healthy, an active woman, when, in November of 1976, she took her shot. Two weeks later, she says, she began to feel a numbness starting up her legs.

JUDY ROBERTS: And I joked about it at that time. I said I'll be numb to the knees by Friday if this keeps up. By the following week, I was totally paralyzed.

Autism File Campaign Presents: The New Jersey Moms

Autism File Magazine is running a campaign featuring strong, beautiful women also known as Autism Mothers. Here's a group from New Jersey looking better than Lady Luck in Atlantic City. Eat your heart out Dove soap with the women in their undies. We are Autism Moms! 

To join the campaign, send your photo to info@autism.com. 

 

The Mothers of New Jersey:
We are powerful.  Women.  Mothers.  Activists.  Professionals.  Citizens.  Patriots.  We demand transparency of legitimate choices.  We fight on behalf of those who were injured by their vaccines and will settle for nothing less than dramatic reform of a system that is broken.  We defy anyone who dares to define the boundaries of this battle in pro- or anti-vaccine terms or within the diagnostic realm of a behavioral disorder.  You crossed the line when you failed to protect our children.  The stakes could not be higher.  Or more personal. 

Martin J. Walker From the UK's GMC

By Martin J. Walker

Broken English

It's just an old war,
Not even a cold war,
Don't say it in Russian,
Don't say it in German.
Say it in broken English.
Marianne Faithful

Dr Wakefield's counsel Keiran Coonan began his closing speech on behalf of Dr Andrew Wakefield at 9.30 on April 7th. He continued on Wednesday April 8th and then there was a break until the afternoon of April 14th, after which he continued on his feet again on the afternoon of Wednesday 15th, the afternoon of Thursday 16th and all day Friday 17th. When KC was just half a day away from finishing his closing speech the GMC broke up again, leaving him with two hours to finish on Tuesday 28th of April.

Latest Autism Gene Studies Find….Not Very Much

By Mark Blaxill

There’s a familiar rhythm to the most prominent autism gene hunt publications. Their authors hype their newly minted study aggressively in the media. The prestigious journals that publish them lend their imprimatur to press releases that say, “this study is a big deal.” The findings sound impressive in the press release (and the authors get plenty of time on camera and in leading newspapers to tell us how truly impressive they are).  In the meantime--in papers that are so densely written that making sense of what they really say requires far more reflection than the media hype cycle permits--skillfully concealed evidence reveals the truly important news in the findings: the authors whisper quietly (if at all) that the new analysis negates the most important findings of some of the most prominent previous gene hunts, while crucial detail on their new findings is often relegated to “supplementary material” that’s not available on the publication date.

All of these patterns will almost certainly be on display today as the latest missive from the autism-genetics establishment bursts forth in the form of not just one, but two major papers in the journal Nature. But I warn you, don’t be fooled by the hype. These two studies report a few moderately interesting findings, which isn’t a bad thing. Broadly speaking, trustworthy and actionable biological findings about autism are something all autism parents should welcome, whether they’re about genes or the environment or the interaction between the two. And indeed, most autism parents I know generally agree that there OUGHT to be some kind of genetic susceptibility that we can discover in autism. 

But what’s truly remarkable in these two papers is how so much will be made about so very little.
--
That said, the publication of these two papers--one on the risk of rare mutations (copy number variants) in “autism genes”, the other on common inherited genes (reported here in the form of “single nucleotide polymorphisms” or SNPs) that may increase autism risk--creates an opportunity to review the current state of the great autism gene hunt, something I’ve wanted to do for a while. I’ll break the review into four pieces

1. What you should know about the lead authors and their funding
2. What the paper on “copy number variants” really says
3. Why the paper on common genetic variations will get the most hype
4. How to distinguish faith from reality in reading the results

Unlock Your Health with OSR, The Powerful Antioxidant From CTI Science

By Kim Stagliano

Many of you have heard of Dr. Boyd Haley's revolutionary new fat-soluble antioxidant called "OSR" (Optimize, Strengthen, Rejuvenate). 

My three girls began taking OSR several months ago. OSR has been the only recent addition to their treatment. I can tell you that Gianna is now in two mainstream classes in school, Mia is telling me what day it is and what's on her schedule at school and Bella is.... well, Bella is cuter than ever and her receptive speech has improved to where she can follow directions and communicate with her PECS.  I've seen some minor sleep disruption that passed in two of the three girls.

Contact your doctor, dentist or chiropractor to let them know they can register to purchase OSR HERE. 

From the CTI Science website:

What Is OSR?
OSR#1TM is an antioxidant product that scavenges free radicals and helps maintain healthy glutathione levels.

David Kirby on HuffPo: Patient Zero Identified in Mexican Flu Outbreak?

Click HERE to read David Kirby on HuffPo, "Patient Zero Identified in Mexican Flu Outbreak?"

...Until now, the first flu death confirmed by Mexican authorities had been a woman in the southern state of Oaxaca, who died on April 13. But Health Secretary Cordova on Monday "suggested an earlier timeline for documented swine flu cases," the Associated Press is reporting.

"Cordova said tests now show that a 4-year-old boy contracted the disease at least two weeks earlier neighboring Veracruz state, where a community has been protesting pollution from a large pig farm," the AP says. "The farm is run by Granjas Carroll de Mexico, a joint venture 50 percent owned by Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, Inc."

Company officials said there were no "clinical signs or symptoms" swine influenza in the vast herds anywhere in Mexico, "But local residents are convinced they were sickened by air and water contamination from pig waste," AP says. "There was a widespread outbreak of a particularly powerful respiratory disease in the area early April, and some people reported being sick as early as February. Local health workers intervened in early April, sealing off the town of La Gloria and spraying to kill off flies they said were swarming through their homes."