Wired Magazine and Amy Wallace Drink Paul Offit’s Kool-Aid

By J.B. Handley
 
Unbelievable. That was my first reaction to reading Wired Magazine’s new cover story on vaccines and autism that you can read HERE. It’s not a thoughtful look at both sides of the debate. It’s not a piece providing a new spin on a well-known conflict. It’s simply a regurgitation of Paul Offit’s talking points that he’s been dishing out to the uninformed media now for years. Ms. Wallace didn’t just drink Offit’s Kool-aid, shit, she scooped the Kool-Aid out of the rusty old bucket to make enough for everyone!
 
The article is so misguided, one-sided, lacking in basic research, and ultimately useless, I found myself yearning for Gardiner Harris, Anahad O’Connor, or some of the other Vaccine Patriots (HERE) at the New York Times to spew out something new – at least their stories have the occasional original thought.
 
Ms. Wallace appears to have gone exclusively to Google University to research her feeble attempt at describing a very complex topic. Aside from a low-profile visit to Autism One, it seems Ms. Wallace never actually bothered to interview anyone from our side of the fence, perhaps she was simply too busy hanging out at Paul Offit’s Rotateq-funded mansion? Did you get a call or an email? I sure didn’t. Ms. Wallace, I would have welcomed you to spend a day at my house with my son to get, I don’t know, maybe a different take on the topic?
 
I grow so weary of pointing out the same logical fallacies, misstatements, and outright factual errors that many journalists make when covering this debate, it’s going to be a struggle for my stamina to analyze her tripe in detail. To save us all some time, I’ve decided to offer up her “Top 10 blazingly untrue passages” for you to enjoy, along with some comments -- feel free to add a few more of your own.
 
1. “To be clear, there is no credible evidence to indicate that any of this is true. None. Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six studies have found no trace of an association between thimerosal (a preservative containing ethylmercury that was used in vaccines until 2001) and autism, and three other studies have found no indication that thimerosal causes even subtle neurological problems.”
 

Comment: This is the #1 sign that a journalist is totally ignorant. What about the 34 vaccines that HAVE NOT been studied? The 50+ ingredients that no one has considered? Giving six vaccines in 15 minutes? Anyone? Bueller? It’s why the website 14 Studies was created. If you start with a belief that the “science has spoken”, you’re wrong from the get-go. (Note to Amy: did you Google Bernadine Healy? I heard she does interviews.) For a much longer rebuttal, please read “Feeding the Hungry Lie” HERE.
 
2. “The risk of dying from the pertussis vaccine, by contrast, is practically nonexistent — in fact, no study has linked DTaP (the three-in-one immunization that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) to death in children. Nobody in the pro-vaccine camp asserts that vaccines are risk-free, but the risks are minute in comparison to the alternative.”
 
Comment: Wow, did you ever go to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program website? It’s hosted by our lovely government. It shows 792 claims of death from DTaP vaccine, and more than 1,200 claims of injury from DTaP where an award was paid by the government. You can read it all HERE. Is that your definition of “nonexistent”? Unbelievable!
 
 
3. “Counterintuitively, higher rates of non-vaccination often correspond with higher levels of education and wealth”
 
Comment: It’s only counterintuitive if you think vaccines are great, never cause injury, and that the science has spoken. Most people, hearing that rich, well-educated people vaccinate less, would stop and figure out why! Maybe with their brains, education, and free time, they know something you don’t seem to get?
 
4. “As a result, Offit has become the main target of a grassroots movement that opposes the systematic vaccination of children and the laws that require it.”
 
Comment: The main targets of our movement are the CDC, AAP, and vaccine makers. Offit is an annoying sideshow, nothing more. He’s annoying because of articles like yours. He didn’t cause my son’s autism, and he has nothing to do with my son’s recovery. Offit actually has proven to be quite helpful – he’s the poster boy for the other side, which means his faults become the other side’s faults.
 
5. “The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online, nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media, which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate” where there should be none.”
 
Comment: The mainstream media helps us? Which planet are you living on? And, the internet democratizes truth, you’d think Wired magazine would embrace that!
 
6. “Looking back over human history, rationality has been the anomaly. Being rational takes work, education, and a sober determination to avoid making hasty inferences, even when they appear to make perfect sense. Much like infectious diseases themselves — beaten back by decades of effort to vaccinate the populace — the irrational lingers just below the surface, waiting for us to let down our guard.”
 
Comment: Pot, meet kettle. Why are you boring readers with misguided psychobabble? You could have used this time to read some of the science on our side of the fence which is also peer-reviewed! Clean water, toilets, and refrigerators eradicated disease, or at least 98% of it, I’ll give vaccines credit for the final 2% -- and a whole lotta’ autism, allergies, and other demylenating illnesses.
 
7. “Today, because the looming risk of childhood death is out of sight, it is also largely out of mind, leading a growing number of Americans to worry about what is in fact a much lesser risk: the ill effects of vaccines.”
 
Comment: If 1 in 100 kids have vaccine-induced autism, this may challenge your conclusion about “low-risk,” unless you like those odds. Few parents do, and your article is unlikely to change that.
 
8. “The so-called epidemic, researchers assert, is the result of improved diagnosis, which has identified as autistic many kids who once might have been labeled mentally retarded or just plain slow.”
 
Comment: Please. Help. Me. Can’t. Breathe. Um, which researchers did you talk to? As I stated very recently, what you are saying here is 96.7% impossible (HERE), and always will be.
 
9. “In fact, the growing body of science indicates that the autistic spectrum — which may well turn out to encompass several discrete conditions — may largely be genetic in origin.”
 
Comment: Mark Blaxill, I need you, man, I really can’t take it anymore! (Read: Autism and Genetics: What We’ve Got Here is a Failure to ReplicateHERE.)  

10. “Then, he came up with a rough estimate: a person could handle 100,000 vaccines — or up to 10,000 vaccines at once. Currently the most vaccines children receive at any one time is five. He also published his findings in Pediatrics. Soon, the number was attached to Offit like a scarlet letter. “The 100,000 number makes me sound like a madman. Because that’s the image: 100,000 shots sticking out of you. It’s an awful image,” Offit says. “Many people — including people who are on my side — have criticized me for that. But I was naive. In that article, I was being asked the question and that is the answer to the question.”
 
Comment: OK, this last one wasn’t an error by Ms. Wallace, it was just a quote from Offit, but for God’s sake why do they still talk to this guy? If you had 100,000 doctors in a room, and you asked them what would happen to a baby if you gave that many shots, 99,999 would say every single child would immediately die, and well before the 100,0000th vaccine! Makes you sound like a madman? I know the answer to that question.
 
Ms. Wallace, no one is all that surprised you wrote a piece that bad. Heck, we’re all kind of used to it. I Oh, and wipe the kool-aid of your upper lip, I heard Dr. Nancy wants to interview you. 

Unhappy with her piece? Anything you’d like to correct? You can let Amy Wallace know at ecallawyma@gmail.com.

J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue.
 

Comments

[Craig Willoughby]

Thanks, everyone.

It's not that she used my email; I don't mind that. It's the way she used it. She butchered it, took words out of context, and changed the entire meaning of my heartfelt letter to her, completely ignoring the vaccine injury part. She did exactly what I was describing in my email; she ignored us and dismissed our children's reactions as hysterical and desperate.

She is the worst kind of journalist. Maybe she should go write for one of those gossip rags like Star magazine or the Enquirer. Or maybe not....even they have standards.

I'm completely and horribly offended by her actions.

[Benedetta]

I am so sorry Craig!
I am sorry for the frustration of having such a horror story and a liar half telling it, and then only to benefit her faith.

I am also sorry that your son received both the MMR and the DTaP in one day!?? Is this a normal thing they do now a days? Why did they do that??? WHY???

Of all the fuss we did 20 years ago it was like we were just spitting in the wind.

Just another layer of damn frustration on top of another layer of frustration. I have never seen such a situation as the one with vaccines.

I find myself hoping (never wanted a child hurt) but the people that could make it stop needs to feel a little of the hurt along with us lower bottom feeders.

[bensmyson]

Craig, thank you for posting the ENTIRE email you sent to the pharmatool. This is an all too familiar story of the serious ramifications that SOME vaccines and/or the combination with other vaccines or some other environmental toxin that caused autism in a normally developing child. She seemed to want to feed the fear in the lazy and ignorant that it is a conspiring evil mass of "anti-vaxers" that want the innocent to suffer some horrible disease, how did the pharmatool put it, oh yeah, "he decided to become the first. In 1977, when he was an intern at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, he witnessed the second event that would determine his career path: the death of a little girl from a rotavirus infection (there was, as yet, no vaccine). The child’s mother had been diligent, calling her pediatrician just a few hours after the girl’s fever, vomiting, and diarrhea had begun. Still, by the time the girl was admitted, she was too dehydrated to have an intravenous line inserted. Doctors tried everything to rehydrate her, including sticking a bone marrow needle into her tibia to inject fluids. She died on the table. “I didn’t realize it killed children in the United States,” Offit says, remembering how the girl’s mother, after hearing the terrible news, came into the room and held her daughter’s hand. “That girl’s image was always in my head.”"

Meanwhile, in 2008, Merck’s revenue from RotaTeq was $665 million.

RotaTeq costs a little under $4 a dose to make, according to Offit. Merck has sold a total of more than 24 million doses in the US, most for $69.59 a pop.

“That girl’s image was always in my head.”

“That girl’s image was always in my head.”

“That girl’s image was always in my head.”

“That girl’s image was always in my head.”

“That girl’s image was always in my head.”

Yeah right!

$5 says that story is a lie. There was no girl, there was no heart ache, it's one of those stories (lies) he has told so many times at cocktail parties and speaking engagements he has started believing it.

[John Stone]

Craig

Pitiful behaviour, and profoundly silly.

John

[Angela]

Thanks for the update Craig. Really enjoy reading your posts on HuffPo, and here - though I'm sorry for what you and your family have experienced.

If what you write is true - even more reason to mistrust that piece.

[Craig Willoughby]

Oh, I'm now officially annoyed at Ms. Wallace. I don't mind her using my email in her story, but using it in such an out-of-context way that clearly demonstrates her bias is unforgivable. On her blog, she lists some of the reactions she received. Here is a sample:

"From a father who disliked the story, a wrenching illustration of why it’s so vital that research dollars not be wasted. People need help:

“My son was born in 2001. He was diagnosed with Autistic Disorder at 26 months. He is 8 years old now and still in diapers. We have to lock the doors, and I have to sleep in front of the front door in case he gets up and tries to leave (he loves to wander). His rages are sometimes so violent that we have to force his sisters to leave the room in case he tries to attack them.
He can, in the throes of his anger, lift his 6′4″, 230 lb father off of the floor,”

says this dad, who is sure that the MMR and DTap vaccines caused his son’s suffering.

“There is no other explanation.”

Until there IS another explanation, vaccines will b falsely vilified."

Not falsely vilified!! Not falsely vilified!!! Did you write in there WHY it said there was no explanation, Ms. Wallace? Good thing I save my emails. Here is the complete and unbutchered version of the email I sent her.

"It took me a while to formulate this email because I don't want to come across as hostile. To say that I am disappointed in your article is a bit of an understatement, but I'm willing to engage you diplomatically in the hopes that you will understand where many parents like myself are coming from.

The reason why there is so much anger from parents who share my views is that we are tired of being ignored. Vaccine injuries do happen, and quite probably much more often than the CDC and Offit admit. Only 10% of all doctors report to VAERS, and most of the CDC's prevalence data about how often reactions occur are gleaned from VAERS. Scientists like Offit and many others like to paint parents like me as desperate. I've been called ignorant, stupid, liar, and all manner of horrible names because of my views. I'm a long way from being an idiot. But more of that later, because it ties into a later point.

Here's my story. My son was born in 2001. By the time he was 18 months old, he was bright, happy, funny. He could walk, spoke about 30 words, and was exceeding all developmental milestones. His final words to me were, "Go Bye Bye!" on the day of his 18 month checkup. That day, he received the MMR and DTaP vaccines. That night, he began running a very high fever, was screaming these horrible, agonizing screams that raised the hair on my neck, arched his back and was completely unconsolable. My wife and I called his pediatrician, who proceeded to tell us that my son's reaction was "perfectly normal." Really?!?! Perfectly normal MY ASS!!! We brought him to the ER soon after. They performed numerous tests and, after doing a CT scan of my son's head, they were able to determine that he had neuroinflamation, or an encepalopathy.

The next day, he was listless. He hasn't spoken but maybe 5 words since. He lost the ability to walk until he was almost 3 years old. He was diagnosed with Autistic Disorder at 26 months. He is 8 years old now and still in diapers. We have to lock the doors, and I have to sleep in front of the front door in case he gets up and tries to leave (he loves to wander). His rages are sometimes so violent that we have to force his sisters to leave the room in case he tries to attack them. His rages can be so violent that he can, in the throes of his anger, lift his 6'4", 230 lb father off of the floor. This is what parents like me have to deal with EVERY DAY!! This is what our life is like. There is no other explaination for his brain damage. But, doctors and Offit and, apparently, journalists like you, try to pawn it off as coincidence. They say that I confuse correlation with causation. Coincidence can't happen so often. So many parents cannot be wrong about seeing their children spiral into illness and neurological dysfunction so soon after a vaccine. But, to Offit and others, the only way they would say that it is a causal factor is if it were to happen when the needle was still in the arm of the child.

The reason I am disappointed in your article is that you spoke with so-called "experts" concerning this condition without looking at their background. Offit is biased; he was reprimanded by congress for his conflicts of interest in vaccine policy making. Here is someone who says that a newborn baby can handle 100,000 vaccines at once. The scientists you spoke to are biased. To them, my son does not exist. To them, children like Hannah Poling and Bailey Banks (2 children who were awarded by the government for iatrogenic autism) do not exist. How can anyone trust them at face value? These are people who's livelihoods rest on the success of the vaccination program. That is known as a Conflict of Interest. A truly objective journalist would have done what they could to address all sides of the problem and investigate who they were talking to.

Now, on to the threats. Everyone, on all sides of the issue, have received threats. I've had CPS called on me, because, apparently, I haven't vaccinated my children. Someone called the school that my youngest daughter goes to and asked them to investigate her vaccine status. Out of 400 children, only she was singled out because she had not received the MMR (I didn't feel it was necessary...she got both measles and the mumps as a baby, and I had her vaccinated for rubella). Painting Offit as a saint for speaking out against us dangerous and unhinged parents is a bit hypocritical considering that he and people like him do the same thing to people like us.

Please don't take it that I am angry at you; I'm not. I'm angry at the situation. I'm angry that doctors, instead of listening to their patients and asking, "what can I do to help?" paint parents with vaccine injured children as crazy, dangerous, ignorant and desperate sociopaths who are endangering everyone else around them. I have vaccinated my children. I encourage others to vaccinate. But when I question vaccine safety, or rather the lack thereof, I'm called "anti-vax" by people like you.

Tell me, how am I anti-vaccine? How am I endangering other people by encouraging them to read up on vaccine injuries. How am I endangering them by giving them as much information as possible in the hopes that their children will not have the same reaction as my son?

The true dangers to society are the individuals who put profit above the health and well-being of those they are sworn to help. All you have to do is look at the track record of companies like Merck, GSK, Bayer, or any of the Pharmaceutical companies, to see that my statement is true. My hope is that you further investigate, go further down the rabbit-hole, and see what you find.

Please be a responsible journalist.

Sincerely,
Craig Willoughby"

This woman is obviously biased. She doesn't want to post the portion that explains WHY I'm sure that the vaccine caused my son's brain damage and the evidence behind it. Why? Because it doesn't support her nice, safe little myopic world. I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but her article is shoddy journalism at its worst.

[Here's why]

For those of you who ever pay attention to the other side:

Ms. Wallace posted on her twitter account that I sent her an email with a headline entitled, "Paul Offit Rapes (Intellectually) Amy Wallace and Wired Magazine". My many colorful enemies are having fun with this, and avoiding the substance of my issues with her piece.

Here's the story, once and only once:

I often write and then re-write pieces. When I first wrote the piece about Ms. Wallace's Wired article, which I wrote right after reading that horrible piece of shit, here is how it began:

Paul Offit Rapes (intellectually) Amy Wallace and Wired Magazine

By J.B. Handley

"The roofie cocktails at Paul Offit’s house must be damn good, I really don’t know how else to explain the intellectual rape that lead to the writing and printing of Wired magazine’s cover story on vaccines and autism that you can now read HERE..."

I was so amazed with the article. As a student of Paul Offit's talking points for years, it was as if he had put his brain inside Ms. Wallace head and written the piece for her. As is often the case, I forwarded my essay, via email in advance, to Ms. Wallace the night before it ran.

With some reflection, I decided that although "intellectual rape", a relatively commonly used term, and "sexual rape" were very different things, the use of the word "rape" was ultimately in poor taste, would distract from the article, and would most certainly offend some readers, and could appear demeaning of women, which wasn't remotely the intention of the piece or my words. So, I changed the article to the one you all have read, and then AoA ran it the next day. And, I sent Ms. Wallace, via email, the new piece.

The only reason you are reading about a non-published draft of my essay is because Ms. Wallace chose to write about it. That's certainly her right, and it's certainly my mistake, in my fury over her horrible article, for sending it to her in the first place before I had time to reflect. But, she appears to be using these two words, intellectual rape, as a means to avoid having to address the substance of all the lies she told in her article.

For that reason, I will continue to hound Ms. Wallace for the untrue, wildly biased, unsupportable piece of shit she allowed to be published with her name at the top. If I offended any AoA readers with my unpublished draft, please know that it offended me, too, I changed it, and I apologize to all of you.

JB Handley

[Managing Editor for Brian]

Brian, you're neglecting to connect the dots of media. If your Grandma wants to read a romantic story, she picks up a Harlequin Romance, not Penthouse, right? Both contain steamy scenes but you could hardly compare the two. Age of Autism has a target audience and an editorial direction. JB wrote a perfect piece for us designed to make people think and understand the issues we parents of vaccine injured children face.

Thanks for your comments.

Kim

[Brian]

@sarahsam @Theresa O: In regards to the comments in which you suggested that I claimed that I believe that the arguments made in this article were false, I made no such accusation. The only thing that I commented on was the writing style in this article, and this article alone. I did not discuss the writing style of 14studies.org, nor any other source. Rather, I believe that 14studies.org, overall, is written in a much better style than this is.

@sarahsam: I did not once dismiss any argument that was put forth in this article, the Wired article, or any other source. Not once. As I mentioned, I lack the knowledge required to make such an argument, and do not pretend to do so. You say that I find fault with his critique, which is simply not true; I do not agree with the method in which the author tries to convey his arguments.

@Theresa O: I did visit each site that was referenced. Although I only had the time to quickly peruse the sources, those sites and others are in my queue for more detailed reading.

[sarahsam]

Another excellent piece by J.B., please keep them coming.

I find it amazing that Tim and Brian find fault with J.B's critique of what is clearly a completely devoid of substance hit piece that completely miss characterizes the entire vaccine safety issue but do not seem to have any problem with the idiotic hit piece itself-and all the while admitting they are not up to speed on the issue! Amazing!