AGE OF AUTISM

Mercury Laden Vaccines Exempted From Mercury Treaty

Managing Editor's Note: The American Academy of Pediatrics has won the fight to keep mercury in vaccines exported around the globe.  The AAP has all but disavowed the 1999 decision to remove mercury from pediatric vaccinations as stated in Ban on Thimerosal in Draft Treaty on Mercury: Why the AAP's Position in 2012 Is So Important Louis Z. Cooper, MD ,FAAPa and Samuel L. Katz, MD, FAAPb:

"Had the AAP (and, we suspect, the USPHS) known what research has revealed in the intervening 14 years, it is inconceivable to us that these organizations would have made the joint statement of July 7, 1999. The World Health Organization recommendation to delete the ban on thimerosal must be heeded or it will cause tremendous damage to current programs to protect all children from death and disability caused by vaccine-preventable diseases."

From The Washington Times:

A global treaty to reduce toxic mercury in the environment has been completed and will be presented to countries for their ratification as part of a worldwide bid to control and reduce ways in which mercury is used, released or emitted.

Negotiations on the Minamata Convention on Mercury, named for the Japanese city that suffered severe mercury poisoning in the 1950s, finished in Switzerland on Saturday.

“Everyone in the world stands to benefit from the decisions taken this week in Geneva — in particular, the workers and families of small-scale gold miners, the peoples of the Arctic, and this generation of mothers and babies and the generations to come,” said Achim Steiner, United Nations undersecretary-general and executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, which facilitated the meeting of delegates from 140 member states.

Did MenAfriVac Paralyze 40 Children in Gouro, Chad?

There are reports (The Nigerian Voice) that 40 children have been paralyzed in Guro, Chad in Northern Africa following vaccination with a meninigitis vaccine funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called MenAfriVac.   About MenAfriVac from the Bill Gates's newsletter article titled:  The MenAfriVac An Amazing Success Story in Global Health:

In 2001, our foundation funded a 10-year partnership between the World Health Organization and Seattle-based PATH to develop an affordable, new vaccine that experts hoped would last longer and do a better job of interrupting transmission of the disease. Over the next decade, a remarkable collaboration grew to include many private sector and public sector partners.

In December 2010, the new MenAfriVac vaccine was introduced in three countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Mothers queued up early with their children, fearful that health workers would run out of the vaccine. They need not have worried. In four weeks, a remarkable 20 million people were vaccinated.

No mother wants to watch her child succumb to disease.  Likewise,  no mother wants to put her trust into medicine only to see a tragic result as bad or worse than the disease she was hoping to prevent.  The seal of The United States reads, "E Pluribus Unum." This translates to "Out of the many, one." Because the individual matters in America. We are not data points, statistics, or... a herd. 
Read additional reports and background on the paralysis at Were 40 Children Paralyzed by MenAfriVac in Gouro, Chad?  at SaneVax and at Video Footage Shows Prime Minister Visits Paralyzed Children, Powerful Groups Involved in Vaccine Campaign at VacTruth.

(PS) Hi, Dr. Kalichman!

IOM Fails Again to Pursue Science on Vaccine Injury

SafeMinds Response to 1/16/2013 IOM Report: 

IOM fails again to pursue science on vaccine injury

The January 16, 2013 Institute of Medicine report, The Childhood Immunization Schedule and Safety: Stakeholder Concerns, Scientific Evidence, and Future Studies, repeats the IOM pattern of failing to call for the appropriate scientific research to be conducted on vaccine-induced autism.  The report ignores the fact that for 6 of the 7 vaccines administered in the first year of a child’s life (HCV, DTaP, PCV, Rotavirus, IPV, and Rotavirus), there has never been a study of autism prevalence in children who received the vaccine versus children who did not receive the vaccine.  These studies were not performed before each of these vaccines was approved, and have not been performed since approval.  The IOM report admits that such a study is the gold standard of science, yet does not call for studies.  The IOM report ignores the fact that for the 7th vaccine (Hepatitis B), there has been only one such study and that this study found a 3-fold increase in autism risk for children who received the vaccine in the first month of life.  The autism epidemic dates to the 1988 birth cohort per an EPA study, the same birth cohort which was administered the Hib conjugate vaccine (an entirely new class of vaccine), and an October 2011 published paper describes a plausible mechanism by which this new type of vaccine could have caused the autism epidemic.  Yet the IOM report ignores the fact that autism prevalence has never been studied for the Hib conjugate vaccine in children receiving versus not receiving this vaccine.

Why would the IOM not call for the obviously necessary research to be conducted?  Safeminds believes the answer lies in an institutional bias within IOM towards protecting the vaccination program.  Leaked transcripts of initial deliberations during the 2004 IOM Immunization Safety Review show that the IOM chair told the committee that they would not ever come down that autism is a true side effect of vaccines; subsequently, the IOM 2004 report had the audacity to call for a halt in further research into a vaccine-autism association.  The IOM 2004 report was not based upon conclusive research, but instead appeared policy-driven based on leaked transcripts.  Now in this January 2013 report, intended to lay the groundwork for future research on vaccine-safety, the IOM instead advertises the benefits of the current testing system which has failed to conduct the necessary research.  While recognizing that “randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for clinical research”, the IOM committee does not call for these trials. The IOM committee also dismisses the feasibility of retrospectively comparing vaccinated vs unvaccinated children citing that population groups often containing unvaccinated children, such as religious communities, would yield sample sizes too small for valid results. This short-sightedness ignores the more obvious solution of utilizing the estimated 1-2M home-schooled population for such a study.

Institute of Medicine Chokes On the Epistemological Obscenity

By Dan Olmsted

It isn't worth spending much time and energy to take on the new Institute of Medicine report on vaccine safety concerns-- bought and paid for by the Department of Health and Human Services -- except to note that as the Feds continue trying to bottle up the truth about the autism epidemic, it keeps leaking out everywhere else. The Vaccine Court rulings this week, uncovered by the outstanding reporting of David Kirby and validated over and over by the Unanswered Questions report of EBCALA, are far more important in the long run than the dying yelps of the medical-industrial complex.

In other words, the fact that vaccines are the main driver of the autism epidemic, validated every day by families across the county and now in the world, is far more important than the ginned-up claim by the special interests that they don't cause autism, or autoimmune disorders, or asthma, or ADHD, or juvenile diabetes, and etcetera and etcetera and etcetera.

But one interesting sign of desperation does shine through in this report. My fellow AOA editor and book-coauthor Mark Blaxill has called it the Epistemological Obscenity -- the idea that the total health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated groups simply cannot be determined. It's like some mad extrapolation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to the macro-atomic level. You just can't measure it!

The EO is a two-part equation. First, you cannot ethically do a prospective study of vax v unvax. Paul Offit has been whining about this for years and he'll just love the IOM report, which says:

"Although randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for clinical research, such a trial cannot be safely and efficiently performed to compare health outcomes among vaccinated and unvaccinated or differently immunized children, the committee concluded.  Among other reasons, children placed in the study group that does not receive vaccines in a timely fashion would be exposed to greater risk for contracting illnesses.  Many parents who refuse immunization may object to their children being randomly assigned to the group that gets vaccines."

So, it's prospectively unethical. OK, then what about a study of people who are already unvaccinated -- you know, the Amish, homeschoolers, the HomeFirst practice in Chicago? Chiropractors, Christian Scientists, Bushmen, Waldorfers, Spenglerians, Hippie-Dippies (not my term!) in Ashland.

No way. The report says: "Some people have suggested comparing vaccinated children with children in "naturally occurring" populations of unimmunized individuals, such as certain religious communities.  With less than 1 percent of the American population refusing all immunizations, however, it would be very difficult to recruit enough willing unvaccinated participants, the committee concluded.  It can take tens of thousands of study participants to discover uncommon health problems.  Moreover, these populations tend to be much less diverse ethnically, racially, socio-economically, and genetically than the general population, and because such factors can influence health, it would be difficult to determine if differences between the study groups are the result of vaccines or these other factors.  The costs of conducting this kind of study or a randomized controlled trial likely would be prohibitive."

Even people with no noses should smell a rat here. As readers of AOA know, a study funded by Our Side, but rigorously independent, is already under way at Jackson State among homeschoolers. How in God's name did such a study ever get approval if this idea is so impossible? Please, please, oh please, let this be the moment that journalists with an ounce of skepticism say, wait a second.

In our book, The Age of Autism, Mark and I addressed this approach:

"A very simple test goes right to the heart of the vaccine controversy. What is the difference in total health outcomes, including autism, between vaccinated and unvaccinated populations? We would argue that we've uncovered a number of natural experiments in human populations that suggests we should should be seriously concerned over the ever-increasing load of childhood vaccinations, especially in the United States. At the same time, we'd argue that the right approach to what we often call the 'vax/unvax' issue is not a single study but a body of science. Oddly, when it comes to doing such studies in human populations, and studying the autism levels in the Amish, the homeschooled, or philosophical objectors, vaccine industry proponents resist mightily.

"Conducting human vax/unvax studies in existing unvaccinated groups would be so fraught with metholodical problems that they are 'retrospectively impossible.' As for controlled studies, they would be so burdened with permission probelems that they would be 'prospectively unethical.' In short, the resistance to the proposal to do vax/unvax work has not only taken the attitude of 'we already know the answers,' but 'we should not seek to know.' It's pretty hard to make scientific progress in the face of this kind of epistemological nihilism."

Tell Congress that Vaccine Court Has Ruled CA Boy has Autism from MMR

Take Action!

This isn't supposed to happen.   
 
It happened again. The federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has awarded Ryan Mojabi and his family a multi-million dollar settlement for autism as the result of an injury from the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine.  Ryan’s family joins Hannah Poling and at least 85 others who have received judgments for vaccine-induced autism from the VICP. These people aren’t supposed to exist. We are told again and again that vaccines cannot cause autism, vaccines have never caused autism, and vaccines never will cause autism.  Except when they do.

Here is the link to the settlement document.

Please click on the Take Action Link to share this information with your elected representatives in Washington, and ask them to support further hearings into why this thing that supposedly cannot exist keeps on happening. As we saw in the vaccine hearing in November, many members of Congress are clearly skeptical of both the competence and truthfulness of the autism bureaucracy.   

And remember Andrew Wakefield lost his medical license for suggesting that there may be a connection between autism, the MMR and bowel disease, and that further study was warranted (but people should continue to immunize. )

To learn more about the documented VICP  cases of compensated VICP injury cases read. “Unanswered Questions, A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury”. More than 80 cases were documented in a review of the relatively few VICP cases that are available to the public.
     
Please share this message with friends and family and please post it to Facebook and other social networks.
 
 

Breaking News: US Vaccine Court Awards Millions for 2 Autism Diagnosis Cases

By David Kirby

The federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, better known as "vaccine court," has just awarded millions of dollars to two children with autism for "pain and suffering" and lifelong care of their injuries, which together could cost tens of millions of dollars.

The government did not admit that vaccines caused autism, at least in one of the children. Both cases were "unpublished," meaning information is limited, and access to medical records and other exhibits is blocked. Much of the information presented here comes from documents found at the vaccine court website.

Some observers will say the vaccine-induced encephalopathy (brain disease) documented in both children is unrelated to their autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Others will say there is plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise. 

Read David's full post and comment at Vaccine Court Awards Millions to Two Children With Autism

Age of Autism Contest: HandySpeech App Developed by 12 Year Old Eric Zeiberg

Necessity and LOVE appear to be the "brothers" of invention in this app we're giving away. 12 year old Eric Zeiberg of CT created "HandySpeech," an app that converts writing into speech.    We have 2 codes for this app to give to readers.  The app runs on the iPad with iOS 5.0 or higher at this time.  Leave a comment to enter.   To order the app for $29.99, go to HandySpeech in the iTunes store. 

From the ISpeak4U website: HandySpeech was created by 12-year-old software developer Eric Zeiberg, who was inspired to create the application by his sister -- an autistic individual with speech disabilities.

Unvax Study: We still need your help

By J.B. Handley

Thanks to the generosity of this community, the unvaccinated children study has received more than $30,000.00 in contributions to continue their work.

We still need more help, you can donate right here (scroll down and designate your donation to the “vaccinated unvaccinated study”).

Dr. Suzanne Humphries has assembled a Q&A about the unvaccinated study that may prove helpful, please read on. Thanks again for all the support!

Questions and comments on the ongoing study at Jackson State University: Vaccination Status and Health Outcomes among Homeschool Children (From Dr. Suzanne Humphries)

Q: Mississippi is the chosen state? Yes, I am not for this at all. Mississippi is also one of the first states to fluoridate their water and it is virtually impossible to access non-fluoridated water (bottled water contains fluoride...) in Mississippi.

A: Mississippi is actually not “the chosen state”. MS is one of 4 mostly southern states selected arbitrarily for the pilot study, which has just been completed, and the data are being analyzed. There were four states involved in the pilot study. Those states were Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oregon.

The main (nationwide) study is planned for Year 2 and the overall analysis will be performed in Year 3. This is the study under discussion.

The upcoming study involves a broader reach beyond those four states. Depending on the fluoridation of each state there could be information in the data to actually show a marked detriment to fluoride. No state is entirely fluoride-free, but some towns are and some are mostly on well water—which can also have toxins. Many households filter the water at the intake and at the sink. It may be worthwhile to add a question regarding water filters on the house and the sink and any known fluoride ingestion, dental or otherwise. However, so few households filter the water that this calls for a separate follow-up study IF there are clear differences in outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

Q: So if they need Internal Review Board approval, does this mean that there could be other sources of funding? $500,000 is a lot to come up from the grassroots. There needs to be a benefactor or some other creative financing.

A: IRB approval for the study was obtained at Jackson State University, where the study is based, in 2011. Approval was renewed for Year 2 a few months ago. There is no other current funding for the study. The pilot study was funded by Generation Rescue, whose support was financial. They are totally uninvolved in study design and analysis.

Q: It might be a good idea to see why they need $500,000--what is the breakdown of expenses, etc.?

A: The planned nationwide phase of the study will compare the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated homeschool children ages 6-15 years, based on responses to an online survey by biological mothers of the children. This phase of the study will require considerable resources in terms of engagement with the homeschool communities in each state, recruitment into the study, and statistical analysis. Mothers will be asked to use their children’s vaccination records and to report physician-diagnosed chronic illnesses. The study was originally budgeted at $850,000 over three years and a detailed budget was prepared, based on that amount. The stated goal of donations totaling $1,000,000 would be to complete the study and then to partially fund a follow-up study comparing the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children based on physician records.

If you recall, the NFIP and Basil O’Connor galvanized the country in order to get over two million dollars in donations in the form mostly of dimes, to fight polio. Just about NO questions were asked back then of anyone. And look what they did. The big difference here is that nobody is going to get rich from this, and nobody is frightening the public in order to get people to donate. And questions will be answered of the public. Most importantly, the end result could be totally opposite of NFIP’s in terms of vaccine value.

Q: But we all feel that there needs to be a place to go for our questions to be answered -- like maybe a commonly addressed Q&A that people can read prior to donating.

A: Hopefully, my responses to these questions will eliminate the doubts and concerns of most readers.

Q: A flagrant design flaw in that they are basing it on home schoolers. If the results come out showing unvaxed are healthier (which we already know), the provaxers will simply dismiss it saying that home schooled kids aren't intermingling with as many kids and are not exposed to as many diseases as conventionally schooled children; therefore, it is unknown what their health would be like if they were "socialized" like vaxed public schoolers. They did the same thing with the Amish, going so far as to say that maybe the Amish have some sort of gene that protects them from becoming autistic! 

Is it Drugs Not Guns that Cause Violence?

Dr. Hyla Cass

A common thread amongst the most horrific school shootings of the past 25 years is that the majority of the shooters were taking a psychiatric medication. With the media fixated on guns and violent video games, Connecticut's chief medical examiner says he's seeking genetic clues to help explain why a shooter killed twenty children and six adults in a Newtown elementary school. 60 Minutes reported that Adam Lanza was taking prescribed medication, but the mainstream media failed to follow up on this.

Sure, guns are rampant, too easy to get, and should clearly not fall into the hands of mentally disordered people, and violent video games are priming the pump - - all issues that I deem important to address, but I will leave that to all the others who have done it justice to date.

As a psychiatrist who is all too familiar with this issue, I am dismayed at this oversight, and believe that these tragedies should also contain some lessons going forward - both for the public and for prescribing doctors.

These drugs do not always cause violent behavior, of course, and in many cases, they are used to treat it. However, certain medications, such as Prozac, have been linked to increase risk for violent, and even homicidal behavior. Several of the most tragic cases of violent murder by prescription takers should be noted.

Many legal cases, with closed books due to settlement, document cases of suicides and homicides in individuals who had not been violent prior to taking medication, and often they were newly prescribed or on an increased dose.

Below are some of the mass-murderer statistics (thanks to Deborah Merlin and her book, Victory Over ADHD ):

The Virginia Tech shooter murdered thirty-two. Cho was prescribed the antidepressant drug Prozac prior to his rampage.

Jeffrey Weiss went on a shooting rampage on March 21, 2005, at Red Lake High School that left ten dead, including him. Earlier that day, Weiss had killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend. He was on Prozac and the dosage had recently been increased.

Eric Harris, one of the killers at Columbine High School, was on the antidepressant drug Luvox. Court records show that the prescription for Harris had been filled ten times between April 1998 and March 1999.Three and a half months before the shooting, the dosage had been increased. The Physician's Desk Reference records show that during controlled clinical trials of Luvox, manic reactions developed in 4 percent of the children given the drug.

Ask White House & EPA to Ban Land Application of Sewage Sludge Biosolids

URGENT: sludge ban petition/please sign  There is an excerpt from and link to an article by David Lewis titled Institutional Researcher Misconduct: An Honest Researcher's Worst Nightmare that will put this petition into context. From the intro: Scientists have implicated environmental pollutants and pediatric vaccines as possible causes behind the rising incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Some vaccines may also increase the risks associated with environmental pollutants linked to autism. Government organizations and the pharmaceutical industry, however, are highly motivated to predetermine the outcomes in this area of research by funding scientists to support government policies and industry practices.

By David Lewis and Caroline Snyder

Dear friends,

To pressure EPA to address the potential for complex mixtures of neurotoxic pollutants in biosolids to trigger neurological effects associated with autism, please take a moment to sign the White House petition  posted by Dr. Caroline Snyder. I am currently writing an article on this subject with faculty at Virginia Tech, and would like to refer to the White House petition if we can get at least a few thousand signatures.

Scientists investigating the role environmental pollutants play in triggering autism in genetically susceptible children are focused on traces of a few heavy metals and organic chemicals from automobiles, coal-fired plants, agricultural practices and other sources. These pollutants are typically present in air, water, and food products in the low parts-per-trillion (ppt) range. At the same time, every large municipality throughout the industrialized world permits chemical wastes to be discharged into sewer systems where complex mixtures containing hundreds of thousands of different kinds of fat-soluble heavy metals and toxic organic molecules are concentrated in sewage sludge.

Most sewage sludge is simply treated with lime to reduce pathogen levels and odors and then spread on farms, forests, golf-courses, school playgrounds and other public and private lands as "biosolids." The same heavy metals and toxic organic chemicals linked to autism in traditional environmental studies are present in biosolids at high parts-per-million (ppm) levels, i.e., more than a million times more concentrated. To suppress valid, independent research on the effects of biosolids, EPA established a network of land-grant universities to publish thousands of peer-reviewed scientific articles to support EPA's biosolids regulations and attack scientists such as myself who document adverse effects. Please see my Autism Science Digest article attached to this email.

 Caroline and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. She can be contacted at cgsnyder@post.harvard.edu and www.sludgefacts.org.

URGENT: sludge ban petition/please sign

Lisa  Jackson will be replaced by a new EPA administrator.  This is a golden opportunity for us  to use  We The People,  the  Whitehouse Petition Web site, to request that Obama work with the new EPA Administrator to ban the land application of sewage sludge.  I have drafted a petition.  

We Suggest You Make a Year End Donation To These Autism Orgs

The end of the year is a time to express our gratitude to the groups who have help our loved ones (and our general dislike of  taxes) by making donations to charitable organizations. We hope you will consider donating to one or more of the groups that has helped bring you your daily dose of Age of Autism.   From family grants, to usable research, to education,to therapy, the AofA family is making a tangible difference in the lives of so many families with children on the spectrum, whether newly diagnosed tots or adults finding their way in the world. Thank you.

Generation Rescue

Generation Rescue is dedicated to recovery for children with autism spectrum disorders by providing guidance and support for medical treatment to directly improve the child’s quality of life for all families in need.




Holland Center Minneapolis, MN

Holland Center is a MN autism center and a day program for treatment of children with autism. Holland combines what is researched to be the most effective forms of therapy combined with the environmental interventions that have been proven to make a difference in a child's ability to learn.




TACA

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to educating, empowering and supporting families affected by autism. For families who have just received the autism diagnosis, TACA aims to speed up the cycle time from the autism diagnosis to effective treatments. TACA helps to strengthen the autism community by connecting families and the professionals who can help them, allowing them to share stories and information to help improve the quality of life for people with autism.

National Autism Association

The mission of the National Autism Association is to respond to the most urgent needs of the autism community, providing real help and hope so that all affected can reach their full potential.

Safeminds

The purpose of the Coalition for SafeMinds is to restore health and protect future generations by eradicating the devastation of autism and associated health disorders induced by mercury and other toxicants from human activities.

And please remember to purchase your family's health products from our sponsor Lee Silsby.

Best of AofA: Brian Deer's Second Award - As Meaningless As The First

Author's Note: This post originally ran in 2011, after the vaccine lobby's hired gun Brian Deer received his second "Press Award," to explain why his second such award is as meaningless as his first. Later that same year, Deer won another "award" from the UK pharma front group "HealthWatch." Then just a few days ago, another front group in the UK run by pharma-backed "science" writer Simon Singh gave Dr. Andrew Wakefield - whose Lancet paper was vindicted by colleague Prof. John Walker-Smith's successful appeal earlier this year - a mock award for "quackery." In response, we are re-running this piece to remind readers that Brian Deer's "awards" are just as farcical. 

By Jake Crosby

The UK’s “Press Awards” are not nicknamed the “Hackademy Awards” for nothing, especially in the case of Brian Deer. He has been given not one, but two such awards. The claim, made by Brian Deer, that the UK Press Awards are like the Pulitzer Prize is laughable and absurd.

The UK’s Society of Editors runs the Press Awards. Sitting on the Editors’ advisory council is Les Hinton, who recently resigned as CEO of Dow Jones in the wake of the Murdoch phone hacking scandal. Also on that committee is Rebekah Brooks, who resigned as senior executive of News International - which publishes The Sunday Times - and was then arrested.

For over a decade,  Brian Deer's only award was based on a faulty premise. It was called “Specialist Reporter of the year.” The judges said Deer was “the only journalist in Britain that polices the drug companies.” However, during the year for which he won his award, 1998, Brian Deer wrote an article alleging that patients who suffered neurological injury from the DTP vaccine were not really injured and should therefore not have received legal compensation for their injuries. That is the exact opposite of “policing” the drug companies, but is instead harrassing the victims of defective drug company products. In 2004, Glenn Frankel reported in the Washington Post that one of Brian Deer’s specialties “was tracking down false claims of damage from vaccines.”

Weeks after the bogus premise behind his first award was reported on Age of Autism, Brian Deer was nominated for “News Reporter of the Year” and also for “Specialist Reporter of the year,” the latter of which he won at the ceremony in London’s Savoy Hotel on April 5^th, 2011. That award was given to Deer for his smear campaign against Dr. Andrew Wakefield.

The measure of any great or even good journalist must be his independence. Journalism awards are supposed to be based on independent assessments of reporters’ work, otherwise they are meaningless. Furthermore, it seems too perfect that Brian Deer was nominated for a Press Award (that he would later win) mere weeks after Age of Autism revealed he had only won one award.

How surprising can this really be given that the Academy of Judges for this year’s awards ceremony included Richard Caseby, managing editor of The Sunday Times? Caseby became notorious for his exchange with Rosemary Kessick – one of the few parents of the Lancet 12 children that Brian Deer actually interviewed.

Following a 6-hour interrogation of Kessick by Deer in 2003, during which he falsely gave his name as “Brian Lawrence,” she complained to The Sunday Times executive editor John Witherow. The exchange is detailed by Dan Olmsted in his article,  An Elaborate Fraud, Part 2: In Which a Murdoch Newspaper’s Deceptive Tactics Infect the British Medical Journal.

Unfortunately, Kessick might as well have been complaining to GlaxoSmithKline, the board of which has retained News International boss, James Murdoch, since 2009. John Witherow recently wrote in a self-congratulatory piece about The Sunday Times’ investigative journalism on July 17^th:

There have, of course, been many other investigations, including Brian Deer's outstanding work on exposing the doctor behind the false MMR scare.

This sentence exposes a clear desire to try and shift the arguments off the ground of the Sunday Times and GSK and into a more general arena so showing that what happened to Wakefield was a result of universal investigating and popular will. In fact one of the most staggering things about the Wakefield case was that Deer carried sole responsibility for it prior to lodging it with the GMC; no other investigative journalist in the world uncovered or wrote anything original critical of Wakefield besides Deer. 

Instead of Witherow responding to Kessick’s complaint, Richard Caseby wrote back:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from all of us at Age of Autism. A "friend of ours" sent us this photo of her handsome son and a certain jolly old elf. May the love and peace of the season touch your family - around the world, whatever your faith, for the message of giving and kindness is universal.

Patterns In Chaos: Child Psychiatry, Violence and Autism

By Andrew J. Wakefield

Patterns in chaos: understanding acts of “senseless” violence (also available at The Academic Integrity Fund site.

At the Royal Free Hospital, London, in 1996 my gastroenterology colleagues and I were reliably informed by our attending child psychiatrist, that acts of extreme violence, such as the tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary School, were perpetrated more commonly by those with Asperger’s syndrome (AS). Like so much that child psychiatry has had to offer - then and since - this assertion is misleading.

In support of his statement, the Royal Free’s child psychiatrist, Dr. Berelowitz, cited the example of Martin Bryant who had recently been imprisoned for committing 35 murders and causing 37 serious injuries in Tasmania in April 1996, in what became known as the Port Arthur Massacre. Bryant, according to Dr. Berelowitz and later, Wikipedia, had AS. Both sources turn out to be incorrect: the report of Paul E. Mullen, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, who examined Bryant in prison in May 1996, tells the story. In his criticism of an earlier diagnostic assessment by a Dr. Sale, Dr. Mullen wrote:

“Mr Bryant craves the attention of others. He desires relationships but fails to effectively communicate with others unlike the patients with Asperger's who are blandly indifferent to others. Mr Bryant also lacks, in my opinion, the central features of this condition, which are repetitive activities, unusual skills with all absorbing obsessive interests and problems with motor coordination. He also showed marked delay in the acquisition of language skills and required remedial therapy for this language deficit which is contrary to the picture found in those with Asperger's Syndrome.”[1]

While my experience of 18 years suggests to me that many with AS are not blandly indifferent to others, Bryant’s speech delay precludes this diagnosis. In addition, Bryant had an IQ of 66 – well below the average or above average IQ that experts consider necessary for this diagnosis.[2].

More recent reviews of the relevant medical literature do not support an association between an increased risk of violence and AS.[3]. This fact is crucial, lest the wider community stigmatize a population of individuals that are already poorly served and badly misunderstood by many. This does not mean, however, that those with AS are not at increased risk of violence under certain circumstances, as discussed below.

A further Web-based review (see below) of acts of violent crime similar to those seen in Port Arthur, Colombine, and Connecticut reveals that the majority of cases are not associated with any evidence of an ASD diagnosis in the perpetrator at all. So what do these tragedies have in common?

A common denominator

As with all tragedies of this nature, many try to make sense of the “senseless.”  In the case of Martin Bryant, Dr. Mullen failed. He concluded his expert psychiatric report with the following:

“The enormity of Mr Bryant's crimes call out for some explanation equally dramatic and extraordinary. It is not to be wondered at that the media have either attempted to portray Mr Bryant as afflicted by a dramatic mental illness, such as schizophrenia, or to be some kind of evil genius. In my opinion the origins of this terrible tragedy are not to be found in a single dramatic and sufficient cause, but in the interaction and combination of a range of influences and events. We may never know fully the intentions and state of mind which led to the killings, but a number of the contributions are apparent.”

American Academy of Pediatricians Wants to Keep Mercury In Global Vaccines

No, this is not a report from The Onion.  America's Pediatric Union is fighting to keep mercury in vaccines sent around the Globe. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed the World Health Organization's stance that thimerosal -- a mercury-based preservative -- should be left in vaccines and should not be subject to a ban contained in a draft treaty from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

In a brief statement published online in Pediatrics, the academy supported the recommendations drafted by the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization at an April meeting. An AAP spokesperson said that the endorsement was adopted unanimously by the academy's infectious diseases committee. Read the full report HERE.

Fox News On Autism and Adam Lanza: Rebecca Estepp and John Gilmore Speak Out

Managing Editor's Note: Thank you to EBCALA's Rebecca Estepp and Autism Action Network's John Gilmore for appearing on Fox News yesterday to discuss the Newtown shooting and Asperger's.  I would suggest to Fox News that they change their caption - parents are experts.

Age of Autism Responds to Newtown CT Autism Allegation in Media

The senseless shooting massacre that took the lives of dozens of innocent victims - most of them children - at Sandy Hook Elementary School of Newtown, Connecticut was a horrific and unprecedented tragedy. Age of Autism mourns the deaths of all innocent victims of this awful crime and offers its deepest condolences to their families. Additionally, we are deeply disturbed by the association of the perpetrator of this awful crime by various media outlets to a vulnerable community - the autism community - with rumors that he was on the autism spectrum. Regardless of whether or not the shooter truly is on the autism spectrum, we wish to make it clear that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are in no way associated with criminal violence. More often than not, people with ASDs are the victims of such violence, not the people committing them.

As the Daily Web Newspaper of the Autism Epidemic, we fight every day to combat persistent misinformation about autism, particularly about its causes and natural history, as well as the denial of its causes. Today, we are fighting some of the most vile stigmas that can befall people with autism and disability in general, and we ask other newspapers - both online and print - as well as other media outlets in general to take a strong and public stand against such bigotry. The best way to honor the victims of this atrocity is for us as a society to work towards building a safer, healthier environment for all people - both those with and without ASDs - that is free of stigma and free of fear.

Polly Tommey Welcomes UK Government Announcement on Private Homes

Polly Tommey, the founder and trustee of The Autism Trust, welcomed yesterday’s government announcement that thousands of patients will be taken out of NHS funded private hospitals and placed in community-based care.

Polly said, “Thousands of young people with Autism and learning disabilities have been placed in care that is now seen to be inappropriate. The Autism Trust has campaigned for years on this issue. Young people with autism need to be in care that is safe and mindful of the person’s needs. It needs to be near their home and also needs to provide them with work, a social life and a stable caring environment. In many cases this is simply not happening.”

In contrast, over the last few months The Autism Trust has developed Polly’s Place in Sunninghill, Berkshire. This social enterprise store was developed by Polly Tommey to enable people with autism to lead fulfilling and rewarding lives. It provides retail and administrative experiences and showcases the artistic talents of people with an autism spectrum disorder. The Autism Trust is also promoting home working as a recognisable economic solution and encouraging homemade and handmade as an artisan skill to be celebrated and compensated for. This is the beginning of a project that will eventually provide a community based resource, enabling young autistic people to sample “real world living” by working in the community. Being developed alongside it is the concept of a Whole Health Learning Clinic offering a range of specialist training to parents and professional care staff to promote the health and wellbeing of people with autism.

Top 10 List For Congress Post Autism Hearing

Managing Editor's Note: Thank you to Laura Hayes who shared this email and list with us at Age of Autism - sent  to Congressman Bill Posey and his Chief of Staff & Legislative Assistant in Florida after the hearings.  Contact your own Congressperson HERE.

Hi Stuart and Christen,

Thank you for your time on the phone this past Friday.  It is my sincere hope that the Hearing on Autism that was held on 11-29-12 will not be a one-shot deal.  As promised, attached is my Top 10 List with suggestions for how Congress needs to proceed in the wake of the Autism Hearing. You will see that a vax-unvax study is not on my list of Top 10.  As I explained to Christen after you had to leave the call on Friday, Stuart,  such a study would not solve anything in the here and now.  It would not stop the holocaust against our nation's children.  It would not help those who have already suffered vaccine injury.  It would not return liability to its rightful owners.  That is the study that needed to be done BEFORE beginning this multi-decade-long experiment on the infants, toddlers, and children of the United States of America...a study that should have been done on animal test subjects versus human test subjects.

Other aspects of our nation's vaccine program should have needed no studies, as common sense and ethics should have dictated that known neurotoxins should NEVER have been included in vaccines. 

It is past time that our legislators recognize the dire circumstances our children face in America today:  toxic and unsafe vaccines, pesticides everywhere, GMO-foods, flame retardants, hundreds if not thousands of untested chemicals in use, fluoridated water, dental amalgams still being used, the list goes on.  This horrific list, despite the fact that we have a number of multi-billion-dollar agencies in our country charged with protecting our health.  I, as a tax-paying American citizen, am appalled by what is approved and allowed by these agencies. 

It's time to stop the madness, and it needs to begin with the immediate abolishment of vaccine mandates.  If vaccines were truly safe and effective, as they are purported to be, no mandates would be needed...people would not have to be forced to be injected with them.  If they were effective, the people choosing to get them would have no worries as to whether or not anyone else was vaccinated or not, as they would be protected.  If they were safe, we would not have people who have immediate and/or delayed adverse reactions, including death, after receiving vaccines.  Clearly, vaccines are neither safe nor effective, and therefore, it is beyond unethical, immoral, and illegal that they be mandated.  It is time to stop the medical tyranny and medical fascism that have taken a strong hold in our country.

I hope that Congressman Posey will read this list, share it with his fellow Members of Congress, and begin to act on it immediately.  Our country's leaders have been complacent for far too long concerning the ill health of our children, including the Autism Epidemic.

Sincerely,

Laura Hayes

Top 10 List for How Congress Needs to Proceed Following Its Hearing On Autism
on 11-29-12

1. Pass an Act of Congress banning vaccine mandates nationwide, an Act which
would override any state mandate laws.
2. Immediate ban of all mercury and aluminum in vaccines, including in the
manufacture of vaccines.
3. Immediate recall of all mercury and aluminum-containing vaccines.
4. Immediate retraction of the CDC’s recommendation for the Hep B series for
infants, toddlers, and children.
5. Repeal the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act.
6. Immediate investigation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program
7. Criminal charges need to be brought
8. All Members of Congress need to be educated
9. Use the monies in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program’s fund
10.Bring Paul Thorsen back to the U.S. to face charges for fraud

1. Pass an Act of Congress banning vaccine mandates nationwide, an Act which
would override any state mandate laws. Vaccine mandates are unconstitutional,
violating both the First Amendment and parental rights, they violate international
codes of ethics, and they violate fundamental human rights. Rationale:

Prof Steven Salzberg and the Congressional Autism Hearing: Why Can’t He Answer or Correct

By John Stone

One of the few public responses to the Congressional hearing into autism by a vaccine programme advocate was from Steven Salzberg, professor of medicine and biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University Medical School on Forbes.com. While Prof Salzberg’s blog was open to comment he has unfortunately not only ignored serious criticism but most disturbingly - for a senior scientist and academic - correction of basic facts.  Here are a few points, some taken or adapted from my comments.

(1)    Salzberg criticises Congressman Burton:

“Bang bang, two false claims in 10 seconds. First he claims that mercury from vaccines “accumulates in the brain”, a statement with no scientific support at all … Unfortunately, some quack doctors have experimented with chelation therapy on autistic children, despite that fact that it can cause deadly liver and kidney damage, and one of them caused the death of a 5-year-old boy in 2005.”

However, Burton had presumably read the Burbacher paper (NIH funded). Here is and extract:

““There was a much higher proportion of inorganic Hg in the brain of thimerosal monkeys than in the brains of MeHg monkeys (up to 71% vs. 10%). Absolute inorganic Hg concentrations in the brains of the thimerosal-exposed monkeys were approximately twice that of the MeHg monkeys. Interestingly, the inorganic fraction in the kidneys of the same cohort of monkeys was also significantly higher after im thimerosal than after oral MeHg exposure (0.71 ± 0.04 vs. 0.40 ± 0.03). This suggests that the dealkylation of ethylmercury is much more extensive than that of MeHg.”

We really have to ask whether Salzberg can truthfully state that there is “no scientific support at all”. Here, by the way, is a two part list of 90 peer review studies condemning the safety of thimerosal.

Salzberg is also deeply misleading or worse regarding chelation and autism citing a 2005 case and a contemporary report . Subsequent to that report it transpired that the child had been administered with the wrong chelating agent and this was not in any way representative of chelation therapy for autism (and in seven years there are no more cases he can cite). A senior academic ought to know better than to cite an out-of-date and provisional journalistic report, when a later one would have given a different story. He has taken no steps to correct his article in either respect.

(2)

Salzberg then goes on to refer to Andrew Wakefield’s Lancet 1998 paper as “fraudulent” failing to acknowledge that earlier this year an English High Court judge exonerated Wakefield’s senior co-author, Prof John Walker-Smith. Re-examining the GMC finding he could not find evidence of misreporting, no evidence that the investigations were inappropriate (i.e. the children were genuinely sick) or unauthorised, or that the paper had been commissioned by the UK’s Legal Aid Board, and this was uncontested by the GMC. It remains anomalous that charges against Walker-Smith’s colleagues Wakefield and Simon Murch have not been reversed on these matters but then we are dealing with corrupt and politicised institutions.

(3)

Dear Washington: This is Autism Too.

We would like very much to thank all those who took time out of their lives to represent our children in congress a week ago.  Thousands watched with rapt attention as the hearing regarding the federal response to autism got underway.  The audience was different this time, though.  Among the whispers and hum of activity that exists among "normal" crowds one could hear an occasional yelp.  An inappropriate laugh.  The sound of limbs flapping and the strange wake of energy such unnatural movement leaves behind.  Congress members expressed that perhaps the overflow room would be an appropriate place for some.  

This is life in the overflow room.  This. is. Autism.  Please, do not look away.  PLEASE ACT as our government has thus far, failed to do.  Let them know better diagnosis DOES NOT EQUAL APPROPRIATE MEDICAL CARE.  Autism. is. medical.  Regards,  Lisa Joyce Goes, Vice President of Public Relations, The Thinking Moms' Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_lo3Zny7WGE

Juggling the Astronaut: Failure to Launch

Managing Editor's Note: We ran a post by Wendy called Juggling The Astronaut, Autism into Adulthood last summer.  Below is her follow up. Unfortunately, there was no lift off - but we keep reaching for the stars for our children, whether tots or adults.

By Wendy Frye

The disability services advisor at our local community college needed to meet with us before our son could be admitted to classes. The gate-keeper in charge claimed 30 years of experience in disability services while he eyed our son. Our son, who just happens to be a very talented artist, diagnosed on the autism spectrum when he was three and half and a recent high school graduate.

My husband and devoted father to our two son comes from a family of educators. It was only logical that our son continue his secondary education as an extension of his student experience that started when he was 3 1/2 years old. Like a long rising phoenix, this young man had paid his dues and deserved a college experience, Right?

Wrong. Apparently we were dead-assed wrong and the minutes scribed during our brief meeting will only relay our ignorance. The road we travel just got infinitely longer supporting our now adult son with ASD.

The gate-keeper required him to pass a 3 hour reading and writing assessment, unsupported, with a timer looming in the corner. For art classes - even labs. Awesome. Didn't we cover our Achilles heel well enough over the 15 years of education, therapies, assessments, awards, grades, passing federal standardized testing, his web-site, posted online art submissions all while earning exceptional honors? Nope.

Losing eye contact. Right. About. Now.

We, the parents, knew exactly what was happening. Our son was being deliberately set up to fail. This was not acceptable, on any level, with any student. On the way home, the conversation in the car yielded a new plan. Anxiety was replaced with reassurance that he would NEVER again have to take class or be assessed just to learn the skills he needs to use equipment and techniques to create his own brand of graphic arts.

Call in 12/6 Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines Meeting

The ACCV advises and makes recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues relating to the operation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). There are nine voting members who provide oversight of the VICP and recommend ways to improve the VICP. Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland

Agenda

Conference Room 10-65
December 06, 2012
(1:00 pm – 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time)
Dial: 1-800-369-3104
Passcode: ACCV

Poul Thorsen Called Industry “Scumbag” Scientist and Mercury Shill

By Jim Thompson

Last week Dr. Coleen Boyle, director of the U.S. CDC National Center on Birth Defects and Development Disabilities, testified before Congress in regard to a probe into the CDC’s dismal response to the Autism epidemic in this country.  In stark contrast to this epidemic, Dr. Boyle defended the CDC’s actions of both recommending as well as funding the injection of flu vaccines with the preservative Thimerosal for injection into the bodies of children and pregnant women (Federal Vaccine For Children Program) and (CDC List of Vaccines for Children Program with Thimerosal).  This hopeless fact that the CDC still recommends this as safe was defended by elusive references to studies by industry scientists. 

Upon questioning by US Representative Bill Posey in regard to an industry scientist Poul Thorsen, who is still on the FBI wanted list for defrauding the CDC for over a million dollars, Mr.  Posey declared, “This guy is a humongous scum bag and one of the most wanted men on earth.”  Then Mr. Posey asked why the CDC relied on the studies by him.  Dr. Boyle responded that there were only two studies on autism with this indicted scientist listed as contributing author.  When asked why multi-dose vials of flu vaccine still contain Thimerosal, Dr. Boyle responded, “I can provide you with that information [later].”  When asked how many multi-dose vials of the flu vaccine still contain Thimerosal, Dr. Boyle replied in the same way.

So how many studies were published by this humongous scum bag and how many multi-dose shots of flu vaccine are there? 

According to this CDC web site, during 2012-2013 approximately 135 million doses of flu vaccine will be distributed in the United States (CDC).  From this website one can determine that approximately 72 million doses contain Thimerosal--each with mercury equal to one half cup of D009 mercury hazardous waste (half cup of D009) . 

Since 2002 there were twenty one  autism studies published by P.Thorsen--four of which were published since the April 13, 2011 federal indictment of this humongous scum bag.  Apparently some journals could care less about the indictment and continue to publish papers by this corrupt industry scientist.  Another one came out just last month. 

Thank Government Reform Committee for Autism Hearing and Share Your Testimony

From our friends at The Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy: The Oversight and Government Reform Committee is accepting public statements until Thursday, December 6 at 5 p.m. EST. Please submit written testimony regarding your autism or vaccine injury experiences as part of the public record. Submissions should be sent electronically.

Also, remember to thank the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for last week's hearings. It is up to our community to keep the momentum going for future hearings.

EBCALA's Statement for the Committee:

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform “1 in 88 Children: A Look into the Federal Response to the Rising Rates of Autism” November 29, 2012

Statement of the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy (EBCALA)

Chairman Issa, Ranking Member Cummings and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for holding hearings on the federal response to the rising autism rate and for resuming the important work Rep. Dan Burton began over a decade ago. We strongly support your goal to hold the government accountable in this health emergency. We were tremendously pleased to see your bipartisan effort on November 29. 

Calling All Artists with Autism: Earn Extra Holiday Shopping Money

SUPPORTING THE GIFT OF ART AND MICROENTERPRISE

Artists with Autism, Earn Extra Holiday Shopping Money

Beacon Day School, supporting programs for adults and microenterprise, would like to obtain more artwork by individuals with autism to beautify the environment for students. Beacon Day School features many paintings by award-winning artist Trent Altman, whose mother, Dr. Jackie Marquette, recently came on board as AutismOne art curator.

Between December 5th and December 15th, individuals with autism or their caregivers are invited to email pdf or jpg images of their art that is valued between $150-$500 to art@beacondayschool.com.

Please include the artist's name, website address, mailing address, phone number, and dimensions and price of each piece submitted by December 15^th (also send a second email with no attachment that lets Beacon know of your submittal, just in case the email with an attachment bounces). Three pieces will be selected, which, after verification of availability to ship to Beacon by January 11^th, will be announced on the Beacon Day School website's Focus on Art tab, www.beacondayschool.com/artists.html, on December 18^th. A check will be mailed from Beacon to the three selected artists December 19^th (shipping costs are the responsibility of the artist; please ship insured). Selected pieces will be depicted on the Beacon website and displayed at the AutismOne conference in May 2013.

 

 

Mark Blaxill Discusses Skyrocketing Autism Rates on Imus

Mark described his personal involvement with autism and his work with SafeMinds on Thursday morning before the hearing. Mark was brilliant.  He spoke from his heart and he came across as a dedicated, selfless father trying to expose the truth about what’s happening to our children.  It begs the question: What did they know, when did they know it, and what did they do to cover it up? Why is Autism So Prevalent Among Today’s Children?

 

Mark: “Everywhere you turn there’s an affected child or an affected family.  And you wonder, when are the numbers going to get high enough that people will open their eyes and say there’s a crisis here.  We haven’t seen that happen yet.” 

“Unfortunately, NIH, CDC—the agencies of the Health and Human Services Department---have really dropped the ball.  They’ve failed in their duty to get to the root of what’s going on and they’ve been wasting money, they’ve been wasting time. In the eyes of many, they’ve actually been getting in the way.  They’ve been covering up the issue, they’ve been manipulating data and that’s one of the issues I want to talk about today.” 

In answer to Don’s question about what NIH/CDC believes, Mark said, “I think they would like us all to believe that nothing is wrong.  Autism has always been with us.  It’s a natural state of the human condition.  It’s not an issue of injury to children.  It’s just a case of the medical system doing a better job diagnosing.  It’s a status quo argument that wants to turn its back on the epidemic.  That’s what they’re arguing but the reality is, Rome is burning.  We have a crisis.  One in 29 boys in New Jersey are autistic.  That’s crazy.  That’s nuts.  That hasn’t been the way the world has been and we need to do something about it.”

Don asked where all the autistic adults are, if it’s just better diagnosing. 

Mark: “People have looked for them.  We just can’t find them.  They don’t exist.  I’ve call that the ‘Theory of the Hidden Horde.’  If autism is genetic, if it’s always been with us, there must be hundreds of thousands of autistic people in the United States are just walking around undiagnosed, undiscovered, and you just can’t find them.” 

Mark went on to describe how his daughter was born healthy and was developing normally until she was a year old.  Between her first and second birthdays, “she slowly drifted away from us.”

SafeMinds' Mark Blaxill Autism Hearing Testimony Before Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Testimony of Mark Blaxill
Board Member, SafeMinds
Before theCommittee on Oversight and Government Reform  US House of Representatives

November 29, 2012

Good afternoon Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee.  I am honored to be here today on behalf of the non-profit organization, SafeMinds, grateful to Chairman Issa for today’s invitation and humbled by the opportunity to represent the community of autism families.

(Slide 1)  In addition to my comments, I have provided a more extensive report from SafeMinds and documents for the record.

(Slide 2) In 1935, a John Hopkins professor named Leo Kanner wrote the world’s first textbook on Child Psychiatry. In 527 pages and 43 chapters, Kanner described every psychiatric condition in children know to medicine at the time.  There was no condition remotely resembling autism.

In 1938, Oliver and Mary Triplett left Mississippi with their five year old son Donald to visit Kanner, by then considered the world’s leading authority on children’s development. When Kanner met Donald he was fascinated. He had never seen a child like him. 

In 1943, Kanner wrote a paper inspired by Donald. “Since 1938,” he wrote, “there have come to our attention a number of children whose condition differs so markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far, that each case merits-and, I hope, will eventually receive-a detailed consideration of its fascinating peculiarities.”

The oldest child of the eleven described was born in 1931. Kanner subsequently diagnosed hundreds of children with autism, but never found a case born before 1930. The historical record is clear: before 1930, the rate of autism was effectively zero.

(Slide 3) Today, nearly 70 years after Dr. Kanner’s paper, reported autism rates are 1 in 88 American children born in the year 2000. In some states, the rate is higher than 1 in 50.

Review of Autism Hearings April 2012

Managing Editor's Note: We first ran this post last Spring.  Dan Olmsted also provided his review of this Autism Speaks/CDC meeting in his post titled: Mush From the Wimps: Autism Speaks and the CDC Take Over Capitol Hill as Rep. Smith Bows Out

By Katie Wright

You have to see this to believe it. No transcript could do this briefing justice.

Thank God Beth Clay was there and filmed the briefing on her phone. I had been told that it would be too difficult to broadcast the briefing. Beth used her iphone and then put the footage on Facebook, not complicated, not expensive.

OK this was a joint CDC Autism Speaks briefing on the new autism prevalence numbers. Listen, I am sure Dr. Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp and Dr. Baio are nice people. The problem is that their understanding and conception of autism is both dated and deficient and, sadly, they are very bad at their jobs.

Yeargin-Allsopp is always polite with parents, but I am sorry to say she is incompetent. Yeargin-Allsop has been working in this job for almost 30 yrs and should have been fired 25 years ago. In the past 2 decades Yeargin-Allsopp has had access to tens of millions of dollars and could have been a hero to American families because she had the opportunity to change the face of autism and stop this epidemic. Instead Yeargin-Allsopp and her partner Coleen Boyle (another sad story) have spent decades devising and executing dreadful, wasteful research that has accomplished little. Just how many studies on parental age do we need? 10, 50, 100? Because we are on our way there! Yeargin-Allsopp has also authored a number of studies on autism and parental aggravation. This is very ironic considering the CDC is a tremendous source of parental aggravation. Let’s not forgot the studies on fat moms causing autism, either. CDC autism research is literally a treasure trove of nonsense.

Ask CBS News to Cover the Issa Autism Hearing on Thursday

Congressman Darryl Issa is holding a hearing to review the Federal Response to Autism this Thursday.  (The photo is of San Diego area families who went to Congressman Issa's office before Thanksgiving.)

1)  Please ask CBS, home of Sharyl Attkisson, to cover the hearings.  evening@cbsnews.com

2) Send a message to Congress telling them why you, a parent of a child with autism, can not attend, how much the integrity of the hearing means to you and your family. We need answers and action to address the abysmal government progress to date.

Here are four documents you can review to give you additional background.

MEMORANDUM REGARDING MISCONDUCT BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES DURING THE OMNIBUS AUTISM PROCEEDING AS TO THE EXPERT OPINIONS OF DR. ANDREW ZIMMERMAN

Exhibits presented

Memorandum Regarding Kennedy Krieger Documents

Attachments to Kennedy Krieger Documents

Tell Congressman Issa Your Autism Story for DC Autism Hearings

Want to attend the Federal Response to Autism Hearing on November 29th but can't?

Click here to tell us your name, where you live, and a 2 - 3 sentence reason for why autism prevents you from going.

We will compile this list and it will become part of the public record. 

Here's a sample:

"My name is Jane Doe and I live in Any Town, VA.  I cannot attend the hearing because I will be taking my child to speech therapy that afternoon."

Leave your message for Congress here: http://www.safeminds.org/government-affairs/2012-congressional-hearing-form.php

Happy Thanksgiving from SafeMinds: TACA Families Visit Congressman Issa

All of us at SafeMinds are thankful for our community of wonderful fellow parents who love and support our children every day.

These TACA famillies took the time to visit Chairman, Darrell Issa's office this week. They wanted to thank him for paying attention to autism by holding the hearing next Thursday. We really appreciate their extra effort on behalf of all of our kids. (Learn more about the Autism hearing in DC on 11/29 HERE.)

Best wishes for a lovely Thanksgiving to you and yours.

SafeMinds

Autism File Magazine: At Holiday Time Follow Your Heart

Our friends at Autism File Magazine have shared an article on The Holidays.  We invite you to subscribe to The Autism File - published by Belvoir Media.   Every issue is loaded with info about education, recreation, family challenges, biomedical treatments, adult issues and more.  Our own Cathy Jameson and Dan Burns write for the Autism File as does that Managing Editor lady with the pink books.  :)

By Christina Adams

After a tense pre-Thanksgiving dinner out, our young son climbed into my soon-to-be ex’s station wagon and they left for five days. Staring at the setting sun from the parking lot, I realized I’d be alone the whole time.  My family lived far away, my friends were busy and I was too proud to interrupt anyway. My mood fell into the classic single’s “nobody cares if I live or die” feeling. Drifting around town that Saturday, I bought a sparkly white almost-prom dress with lipstick-red flowers, a discount-rack promise that I wasn’t dead yet and might actually wear a pretty dress again. By Christmas Eve, I was meeting new male and female friends for holiday drinks, and I moved into a cute condo behind a convenience store on a rainy New Year’s morning.

A festive but drama-filled year and a half after that miserable Thanksgiving, I flew home from the Memorial Day Autism One conference in Chicago. Reluctantly doing my dating “homework,” I paged through the weekly listing of singles from an online dating service, and found Tony—who’d posted a profile just for the three-day holiday weekend. My brief note to him was a near-miss as he’d planned to take it down within minutes!

We soon met for a three-hour lunch and although I was afraid of marriage, I knew by its end we would wed. After I spent the July Fourth weekend in Virginia with family, Tony met my son for the first time at the airport. That night, he gave me a card pledging his love and commitment. I wore my prom dress with red flowers to his company winter holiday party, and we were married in August 2009 at an old Tennessee plantation.

Holidays are emotionally risky for singles, but their original purpose was to mark death, rebirth and the change of seasons. If you’ve just realized your relationship is over or have just become a solo parent, begin your break-up recovery with seasonal inspiration, planning and celebration.

Set your expectations to slightly non-normal

Becoming single or divorced as an ASD parent “…is not the same as other people who are divorcing. You work a lot harder than the average parent,” says Dr. Kathy Marshack, a Washington psychologist specializing in ASD families. She advises surrounding yourself with people who understand life with an ASD kid, such as an autism support group.

If you’re breaking up with the child’s parent, separations may reveal a huge difference in parenting styles. You two may not get along, but kids who know both parents love them are not very troubled by this, Dr. Marshack says. She cautions that ASD traits in other family members may add to the stress of the separation.

Wrap up a short-term survival plan                       

Make sure you have some cash in the bank and a credit card. Ensure your living arrangements offer you a temporary place for peace and some alone time, even if you have to cohabitate with the ex temporarily (something I did but don’t advise—stress and lack of privacy causes problems). Hire a sitter if the other parent isn’t available—childcare may be a legally sharable expense.

Call your local developmental agency, United Cerebral Palsy or YMCA and ask for additional respite, homecare and daycare aide services for you and your child if needed. Seek new mental health services if you feel very stressed even if it’s strictly a romantic breakup. ASD parents are pre-burdened with stress so reaching for help is right for us even if other people wouldn’t.

Write it down—and feel better

Crawl into your bed or behind your favorite coffee shop table with paper and a pen. A study showed 100 new singles gained comfort, relief, thankfulness and wisdom when they wrote about the positive aspects of their breakup for 15 to 30 minutes a day.

Put those silver linings down on paper and see if your mental black clouds lift. Then burn them ceremonially over a Yule Log or a cheap candle—the flames are quite satisfying. Or call a friend for a burning hearts party!  Read the full article HERE.

Will Congressional Autism Hearings Be Different This Time?

By Anne Dachel

On November 29th a congressional hearing will again address autism.  The simple truth is, we can’t afford to bring up the issue, let lots of people talk and then go home with nothing resolved. Something needs to be done about an affliction that is decimating our children and that officials seem unable to understand or to stop.

The advocacy group SafeMinds asked parents to contact their Congressional Representatives and urge them to attend the hearing. 

SafeMinds also asked us to consider four questions regarding how the government is dealing with autism:

1) Do you think the federal government is doing enough about autism?

2) Do you think the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee has helped your family?

3) Do you think federal policies have prevented new cases of autism?

4) Have you seen results from the government's hundreds of millions of dollars in research spending?

Please remember we’re asking these questions in 2012. The autism numbers have been steadily
increasing over the last two decades to what can only be described as an epidemic rate while
mainstream medicine and U.S. health officials have stood by helplessly, unable to tell us the cause
or the cure for autism.  There’s nothing a mainstream doctor can tell a new mother whose baby
was born healthy and is developing normally that will ensure that this child won’t also end up on
the autism spectrum by age two. On a daily basis we’re given news reports where experts
solemnly tell us that all the autism is merely better diagnosing and an expanded definition of a disorder that’s always been around. 

In 2006, the Combating Autism Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President
George W. Bush.  This legislation authorized nearly a billion dollars over five years for screening,
education, services and research. The act created the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee
chaired by Dr. Thomas Insel.  The act was reauthorized in 2011.

Here’s what the advocacy group, Autism Speaks, had to say about the reauthorization:

“The new law continues the federal government’s commitment to autism research, services and
treatment at current levels, authorizing $693 million over the next three years. The original act
provided nearly $945 million over five years. Since its passage in 2006, significant advances have
been made in determining potential causes for autism as well as promising new early intervention
behavioral treatments. By signing CARA into law, President Obama has ensured the federal
government’s commitment to autism so that crucial research can continue unimpeded for the next
three years.”

So how concerned is Congress about autism?  Besides the CAA, what have they done to address
a disorder that has claimed a million children in the U.S.?   How interested are they in
the heated controversy over vaccines and autism?

This is some of history of how the Congress has dealt with autism.

In 2000, Representative Dan Burton held a six hour hearing on autism and childhood vaccines.
Burton talked about his grandson’s regression following his routine vaccinations.  Other legislators sounded equally concerned about the possible role vaccines could play in the development of autism.  Parents testified about the difficulties of raising an autistic child and about the link they saw between vaccines and their child’s autism.  There were calls for adequate studies to discern any causal relationship.  Dr. Andrew Wakefield was there presenting a report on his discovery of a new bowel disease he had observed in autistic children.  Dr. John O’Leary from Coombe Women’s Hospital in Dublin Ireland testified on the presence of measles virus in the children with autistic enterocolitis.

Q & A – How About a Half Cup of Mercury Hazardous Waste?

By Jim Thompson

How much mercury is in the flu shot when it has Thimerosal as a preservative?

There are 25 micrograms of mercury in each flu shot that uses Thimerosal as a preservative[1].  And a half cup of water (4 ounces) with that much mercury has 0.2114 parts per million mercury and is considered a hazardous waste by the USEPA[2].

Why is there a concern about mercury?

Mercury is a known neurotoxin[3]. 

How much mercury is in the blood after receiving a flu shot with Thimerosal? 

The mercury blood level in human newborns has been measured at a peak levels with an average of 5 nanograms per milliliter (5 parts per billion)[4].

How much mercury ends up in the brain?

The mercury level in the human infant brain after receiving a shot with Thimerosal is unknown.   However tests have been performed on infant monkeys.  Burbacher et al[5] gave infant monkeys shots with Thimerosal--with the same mercury weight per body weight, on average, as received by human infants.  This study reported that “The inorganic form of Hg was readily measurable in the brain of the thimerosal-exposed infants. The average concentration of inorganic Hg did not change across the 28 days of washout and was approximately 16 nanograms per milliliter (16 parts per billion).” 

Age of Autism Turns Five As Autism Epidemic Continues to Grow

Welcome to Age of Autism, the Daily Web Newspaper of the Autism Epidemic.  We are published to give voice to those who believe autism is an environmentally induced illness, that it is treatable, and that children can recover. For the most part, the major media in the United States aren't interested in that point of view, they won't investigate the causes and possible biomedical treatments of autism independently, and they don't listen to the most important people – the parents, many of whom have witnessed autistic regression and medical illness after vaccinations. We do all those things, and more.

We believe that autism is the defining disorder of our age, man-made and therefore preventable, and that it points to the truth about other problems that beset us, from ADD to asthma to Alzheimer's. We address those issues as well, along with exposing the special interests, bureaucratic inertia, and medical malfeasance that perpetuate denial and suffering.

Since beginning in November 2007, we've run hundreds of posts and thousands of reader comments and received millions of hits by people who share our mission. We are here to stay.

We depend on our valued sponsors and advertisers, as well as individual donations.

Thanks for joining us.

Another Tale of the Corrupt and Bungling BBC

By John Stone

The BBC is convulsed by the fall out of the scandal of Jimmy Savile , the DJ who died last year having been sheltered by the corporation and others for 50 years from serial sex abuse accusations. The Newsnight program which expediently shelved its report on Savile not to interfere with the hagiographic programs about him scheduled for last Christmas, has now blundered with a follow up report which wrongly implicated Conservative Party grandee, Lord MacAlpine, in the age old North Wales children’s home sex abuse case. BBC Director-General George Entwistle  has been forced to resign while the Chairman, Lord Patten (who is himself under threat) remarked “If trust goes it’s over”.  For a long time the BBC has been riddled with agendas while truth has taken a back seat. It is therefore no surprise that they make corrupt decisions or bungle reports, it is just that on this occasion they have been caught out.

Against this background Age of Autism re-publishes John Stone’s review of the BBC Trustees response to his complaint about the ‘Science Betrayed’ radio program last year ‘BBC Trustees Stand By Groundless Insinuations Against Andrew Wakefield in Radio 4 'Science Betrayed ' Programme’. We believe that the program and the response of the BBC hierarchy is demonstrative of the BBC’s arrogant culture and its utter contempt for truth.

The decision of the BBC's Editorial Standards Committee - whose six members are also Corporation trustees - fails to take account of emerging facts, and hides behind Brian Deer's flawed and logically untenable account of events. We publish UK Editor John Stone's final submission to the committee.

I am responding to the document from Part 4... It is important to note that Mr Deer’s claims have unravelled very substantially in the past 5 weeks as the result of a report on Nature News, and further correspondence in BMJ Rapid Responses including statements made by the BBC’s expert advisor on this complaint, Prof Ingvar Bjarnason, by BMJ editor Fiona Godlee, by Brian Deer himself and by Dr Amar P Dhillon, the senior histopathologist co-author of the Lancet paper. These events demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt the original recklessness and unfairness of the programme in March.

Point 1

I note that progress with the University College London Inquiry stalled after the programme, a source of frustration to the editor of the BMJ at least, who complained to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee [1].

Autism, Flu Shots and the Fable of Mercury and Pregnancy Safety

Managing Editor's Note: You've likely seen the media flurry that spins fever during pregnancy into "flu shots may prevent autism."  No mention of the mercury in the flu shots of course.  Below is a post we ran back in 2009 - that dispels the notion that flu vaccination has been properly tested in pregnant women. Did you have a flu shot while pregnant? Tell us in the comments.

By Jim Thompson

The CDC and FDA are still telling stories about how thimerosal, which contains 50 percent mercury and is a known neurotoxin, is safe for pregnant women in flu vaccines.  The reference for this fable is Heinonen, Shapiro, Monson et al from 1973. 

"Is it safe for pregnant women to receive an influenza vaccine that contains thimerosal?  Yes. A study of influenza vaccination examining over 2,000 pregnant women demonstrated no adverse fetal effects associated with influenza vaccine."  See CDC and FDA, 2008.

Apparently this fiction was previously published in 2004 by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. 

“One study of influenza vaccination of over 2,000 pregnant women demonstrated no adverse fetal effects associated with influenza vaccine.”

Ayoub and Yazbak exposed this whopper in “Influenza Vaccination During Pregnancy: A Critical Assessment of the Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).”

“This solitary safety study, by Heinonen et al., has in fact very little to do with the safety of influenza vaccination. The reported outcomes were strictly limited to malignancies, mostly after polio vaccination during pregnancy.”  Ibid.   

Apparently the bologna was also served in 2006 in a paper by Naleway.  The references included Heinonen, Shapiro, Monson et al 1973 and Heinonen, Sloan, and Shapiro et al 1976.

SafeMinds Action Alert: Autism Hearing in Congress

AUTISM  HEARING  IN CONGRESS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29th AT 2:00 PM

RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING - ROOM 2154

PARENTS AND ADVOCATES:

PLEASE ATTEND, GET YOUR CONGRESSMAN TO ATTEND AND SPREAD THE WORD.  COME TO WASHINGTON.  BRING YOUR CHILDREN.

On Thursday, November 29th at 2:00 pm, The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing regarding the federal response to autism over the past decade.  EBCALA, SafeMinds and many individual parents have worked hard to make this happen.  Our understanding is that two panels are scheduled - one of government witnesses and one of public witnesses, including SafeMinds. 

Do you think the federal government is doing enough about autism?

Do you think the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee has helped your family?

Do you think federal policies have prevented new cases of autism?

Have you seen results from the government's hundreds of millions of dollars in research spending?

If you answered "No" to these questions, here's what you can do to help:

1. Attend the hearing if possible.  Bring your child or children if you can.  Let's try to make the hearing "standing room only".  Be visible.      
2. Contact your Congressman right now.  Committee members and contact info are listed here  and it is critical that they attend the hearing. If yours is on the list, make sure you contact their office (leave a message) and ask that they attend. Other Representatives can be found here.    Ask them to attend the hearing and stay for the entire meeting.  If they cannot, ask them to send staff.  If you are going to Washington, ask for an office meeting, before or after the hearing, to talk about your family's needs and concerns.  Or meet with them Thanksgiving week when they are home in your district.  Remember they work for you and this is the first time in 10 years that Congress has provided oversight of autism activities.  Encourage them to get involved in the House Autism Caucus long term.      

Thank Jim Kirk of Chicago Sun Times for Hiring Best Selling Author Jenny McCarthy

Last week Every Child By Two asked the Chicago Sun Times newspaper to remove Jenny McCarthy's parenting column because of her pro-vaccine-safety stance.    JB Handley wrote about ECBT yesterday, you can read his post Every Child By Two: A Frozen Caveman Pharma Front Group. We invite you to email Mr. Jim Kirk (feel free to use the letter below) to thank hm for hiring Ms. McCarthy and show your support for his newspaper.

jkirk@suntimes.com

Jim Kirk
Editor-in-Chief, Chicago Sun Times

Dear Mr. Kirk

I am writing in regard to “Every Child By Two’s” campaign asking “parent advocates” to write to you and request that actress/author Jenny McCarthy not be allowed to have a column in your newspaper. 

Every Child By Two (ECBT) is primarily funded by vaccine makers whose products have fallen under criticism for inadequate safety by Ms. McCarthy.  In 2010 (the most recent year for which funding information is available), Wyeth vaccines provided  $307,000 to ECBT and Sanofi Vaccines provided ECBT with $245,171.  Furthermore, ECBT’s board members include Dr. Paul Offit – vaccine industry spokesman and co-inventor of the Rotavirus vaccine that has been estimated to have earned him in excess of $10 million.

These funding sources were not disclosed in ECBT’s letter urging the media’s censorship of Ms. McCarthy.  Instead, ECBT presents itself as an unbiased public service organization.

ECBT’s states on its home page:

“11,000 children are born every day. We must vaccinate all of them on time.”

This statement is an example of ECBT’s disregard of the established medical fact that all individuals are not tolerant of all pharmaceutical products. The federal government has compensated families over $2 billion for vaccine injuries and deaths, and thousands of Americans have reported serious adverse affects to VAERS (the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System).

Georgia Mountains YMCA Dismisses Boy with Autism from After School Program

By Sarah David

I am a newly single mother facing the daunting task of reentering the work force and trying to earn a college degree while still being a good mommy to my two kids.  We are new to the area we live in, because of the move, because of the end of the marriage.  So when I found out that in Hall County (Georgia) Schools there is after school care that takes place at the school run by the YMCA I was very grateful.  My son Logan, who is on the spectrum, and my daughter began attending the after school child care program at their school when I recently found a job.   

Before the YMCA accepted my son into the childcare program I had a conversation with the program director and on site staff about his condition and they seemed understanding.

My son’s special education teacher and I met with the YMCA staff to discuss that he exhibits elopement behaviors, a common symptom of autism. This simply means he will try to leave an enclosed space.

The YMCA staff member assured me they would not allow my child to leave and that they would provide an additional staff member -- so where normally there are two adults, they would add a third -- for supervision on the days my son was scheduled to attend. However, when they were picked up, there was never another staff member there.

On Wednesday, October 24th the staff at the YMCA called a meeting with me. First I was asked to pay extra to keep my son in the program, and then I was told that he was no longer allowed in the program.  Previous to this meeting there had never been any notes sent home about behavior incidents.  There were only two voicemails to me in one day alerting me to the fact that he had tried and failed to leave the building. 

The director of the After School programs told me in the meeting the reason for his dismissal was that he was a flight risk due to his autism. Once outside the meeting room and in front of additional staff and YMCA patrons, staff members denied having kicked my son out.  I asked several times whether they could attend that day but all I got was pleas to discuss it privately.  It must have been very embarrassing for them.  Admittedly, I was upset and even told some poor girl who was only there to apply for a job that she would soon be working for a company that doesn’t allow kids with autism to their programs.  They had been in the program for just over two weeks. 

Mercury, Vaccines and Autism

By Tony Bateson

I believe mercury was the cause of my daughter's autism resulting from a DTP shot in January 1964.  Claire had a frightening response to the jab and our General Practitioner sent Claire to hospital where she stayed for a week.  It was obvious during this time that her condition was serious and although sent home after a week she was not the same child she had been before her shot.

My son twenty months earlier had experienced the very same reaction although not sent to hospital.

Our concerns that Claire had been damaged by the vaccination and her hospital stay were dismissed by doctor after doctor albeit one doctor suggested that it was possible that Claire had suffered a psychological trauma in hospital.

When Claire was six I complained to the Head Teacher at her special school that the school had very poor quality resources and needed to be improved.  She agreed and said if you can do something about this I would be delighted as I have tried for years.

After organising a parent group to raise the issue with the authorities I led the development of a new school.  Now one of the biggest of its type anywhere, Linden Bridge School, Worcester Park, Surrey, UK, during this process I met dozens of parents of autistic kids.

Later I led another group to develop an adult residential care centre in Gloucestershire, Stroud Court where my daughter now lives, opened in 1983. I met dozens more parents of autistic school leavers.

I had also been a Board Director and Vice Chairman of the National Autistic Society where I met hundreds of parents.  During these years I had struggled to see any common trait that would suggest a genetic or familial link that would suggest inherited characteristics were involved in autism.

Except for one thing.  I worked on the Board of the NAS for some years in quarterly meetings at its London HQ.  The Board was around thirty in number, about ten women and twenty men.  Looking at the men I had soon been struck by what I thought was an odd feature.  I found myself in company with about six men with similar features to myself.  Soft skinned, lightly bearded, unhairy.  In my teens, twenties and even thirties I had been acutely aware of my hairless physique and lightly bearded countenance.  Playing a lot of sport, being part of a military detachment of two hundred or so and then in a corporate body of the same size I had observed nothing like this where I would say less than one in ten men shared these characteristics.

Or even, except for another thing.  On the Board of the NAS there were also five or six men who were diametrically different.  They had hair everywhere, no doubt had to shave several times a day and their presence in similar numbers to their unhirsute fellows confused me no end. The other eight or ten in the middle group conformed to a fairly common, average or normal body of men.

Election Day: Will The Presidential Winner Address Children's Health?

The Canary Party Challenges 2012 Presidential Candidates on Three Key Healthcare Questions

Children’s Health Crisis Ignored on the Campaign Trail

“The U.S. Presidential election is down to the wire, with both candidates in a dead heat”, states Mark Blaxill, Chairman of the Canary Party. “What can set one man apart to win? Bold, innovative ideas on healthcare policy-making.”

“In an effort to draw attention to problems affecting every American”, continues Blaxill, “The Canary Party has three hard-hitting questions for the 2012 Presidential Candidates. We are asking them to break the deadlock of denial about environmental toxins, iatrogenic causality, and the unprecedented intrusion of marketing into consumer healthcare decision-making.”



“Our first question is, ‘Why are so many American children sick?’” Canary Party Founder, Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson says. “According to the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, 43% of children in our country have a chronic illness, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 14% of children ages 3-17 have a developmental disability. American infant mortality has dropped to 41st worldwide, behind Cuba and Estonia. Autism rates have exploded, and SAT scores are declining again for the first time in decades. What frustrates me,” she continues, “is that current discussions on health care have focused on the questions of costs and insurance but have not addressed the more important questions like ‘Why are so many American children sick?’ and ‘What needs to be done to stop the new childhood epidemics?’ We need a leader who will pledge to proactively address this crisis in children’s health by focusing national health policy on the environmental causes that have triggered these epidemics.”

Why Can't Johnny Poop? Or Stop Pooping? Pediatric Bowels are Broken.

Managing Editor's Note: Why Can't Johnny Poop? Those of us in the autism world already know about the epidemic of life altering constipation, skin burning diarrhea, gut pain induced behavior.  "Better diagnosis" -- that cop out answer to pediatrician induced disease -- strikes again.  Here's more Betty Boop oopsie doopsie eyelash batting golly gee willikers we just don't know reporting from The Star in Ontario, Canada. 

Inflammatory bowel disease is on the rise in Ontario, most notably in children.

The number of kids under 18 living with the chronic disease has increased by about 50 per cent, rising from 1,034 in 1995 to 1,621 in 2005, according to a report released Thursday by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada.

Unpublished statistics from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, a non-profit health-research group, show those figures have increased even more, jumping to 2,070 in 2009.
“I think it’s troubling and very concerning,” said Dr. Eric Benchimol, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, who contributed to the report, The Impact of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Canada. “It reflects what we see in clinics and hospitals. Answers need to be found. We need to know why.”

The rate of new cases in Ontario has been stable in preadolescents and adolescents, but in children under the age of 10 it has increased by 30 per cent, said Benchimol, also an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. In other countries there have also been a sharp rise in pediatric cases, while the adult rates have levelled off.

“This is no longer a disease of adulthood. It used to be something we talked about happening to people in their 20s and 30s, but it’s becoming much more common in children, specifically in children under 10, which used to be unheard of.

“We need more research to figure out why it’s affecting (children) more and how we can treat them better, how to improve their outcomes and their quality of life. And we’re just at the infancy stage in conducting that kind of research in pediatric IBD.”

IBD — a group of inflammatory disorders that includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis — causes sections of the gastrointestinal tract to become severely inflamed and ulcerated. Symptoms include chronic diarrhea, blood in the stool, abdominal pains and weight loss. In addition, children face long-term complications, such as problems with their physical growth and osteoporosis.

Researchers know that IBD, which is becoming more prevalent in the western world, is related to genetics and environment. But they still haven’t been able to pinpoint what triggers it. To date, no cures have been found.

In Canada, incidence rates have been on the rise since 2001. About 233,000 Canadians have IBD, up from 201,000 in 2008. About 5,900 of those with the disease are children.

Scientists are still trying to answer the question of why IBD is growing.

Trolls Trolls Trolls

Many of us at AofA live on the East Coast - and hurricane Sandy brought power outages, cold, dank nights and other sorrows.  I watched this video and simply laughed out loud - despite the bit of coarse language. It's snarky for sure, and a funny take on the annoyance of trolls everywhere. From which we know.... KS

WANTED BY THE FEDS: Poul Thorsen, Who Helped Pull Off CDC Vaccine Autism Heist

Poul Thorsen is the man whose research is used by the AAP, media, public health establishment and pharma spokespeople like Dr. Paul Offit, and Bill Gates and Dr. Nancy Snyderman to "prove" that there is no connection between vaccines and autism.  He is a fugitive wanted by American authorities - see below.  We've been writing about him for years:

Read The Indictment of Poul Thorsen at Age of Autism We have a pdf of the indictment of Dr. Poul Thorsen the Danish researcher held in highest esteem for having "debunked" the autism vaccine connection (Poul Thorsen's Mutating Resume) many years ago. As Dr. Max Wiznitzer said about another doctor recently, "If you can't trust the researcher, you can't trust the research."

Poul Thorsen: Autism Speaks' Original Trailblazer  Poul Thorsen, indicted last week (HERE)  by US Attorneys for embezzling tax payers money via the Centers for Disease Control, also received $1 Million in funding through an Autism Speaks grant in 2008 (HERE). Now Autism Speaks is trying to hide their Thorsen affiliation. Why is that?

Poul Thorsen's Mutating Resume  In bits and pieces, in Danish and English, from three universities in two hemispheres and the CDC in Atlanta, a picture has begun forming in the past few days that is already startling in its outline: Paul Thorsen, one of the key scientists involved in CDC-backed studies exonerating vaccines as a cause of autism, is under investigation for collecting millions of dollars in bogus “grant” money, misrepresenting himself to his employers and the world and possibly forging the documents that enabled the scam.
 
Even more astonishing, it appears the CDC and several other major autism research centers have known about this for months and stayed publicly silent, even as the debate over autism and vaccines has reached several decisive moments -- and a new decision is expected any day from U.S. vaccine court. The CDC in particular would have a hard time claiming ignorance about the suspected crime -- at least three of the forged documents were in the agency’s name, and it helped uncover the fraud last year.

https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/profiles.asp#thorsen

• From approximately February 2004 until February 2010, Poul Thorsen executed a scheme to steal grant money awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC had awarded grant money to Denmark for research involving infant disabilities, autism, genetic disorders, and fetal alcohol syndrome. CDC awarded the grant to fund studies of the relationship between autism and the exposure to vaccines, the relationship between cerebral palsy and infection during pregnancy, and the relationship between developmental outcomes and fetal alcohol exposure.
  
  
• Thorsen worked as a visiting scientist at CDC, Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, before the grant was awarded.
  
  
• The initial grant was awarded to the Danish Medical Research Council. In approximately 2007, a second grant was awarded to the Danish Agency for Science, Technology, and Innovation. Both agencies are governmental agencies in Denmark. The research was done by the Aarhaus University and Odense University Hospital in Denmark.
  
  
• Thorsen allegedly diverted over $1 million of the CDC grant money to his own personal bank account. Thorsen submitted fraudulent invoices on CDC letterhead to medical facilities assisting in the research for reimbursement of work allegedly covered by the grants. The invoices were addressed to Aarhaus University and Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The fact that the invoices were on CDC letterhead made it appear that CDC was requesting the money from Aarhaus University and Sahlgrenska University Hospital although the bank account listed on the invoices belonged to Thorsen.

Happy Halloween!

Tell us your Halloween plans to help your child on the spectrum enjoy (survive) the doorbell ringing, candy eating (or not), school party chaos.

The Canary Party Challenges 2012 Presidential Candidates on Three Key Healthcare Questions

The Canary Party Challenges 2012 Presidential Candidates on Three Key Healthcare Questions

Children’s Health Crisis Ignored on the Campaign Trail

“The U.S. Presidential election is down to the wire, with both candidates in a dead heat”, states Mark Blaxill, Chairman of the Canary Party. “What can set one man apart to win? Bold, innovative ideas on healthcare policy-making.”

“In an effort to draw attention to problems affecting every American”, continues Blaxill, “The Canary Party has three hard-hitting questions for the 2012 Presidential Candidates. We are asking them to break the deadlock of denial about environmental toxins, iatrogenic causality, and the unprecedented intrusion of marketing into consumer healthcare decision-making.”



“Our first question is, ‘Why are so many American children sick?’” Canary Party Founder, Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson says. “According to the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, 43% of children in our country have a chronic illness, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 14% of children ages 3-17 have a developmental disability. American infant mortality has dropped to 41st worldwide, behind Cuba and Estonia. Autism rates have exploded, and SAT scores are declining again for the first time in decades. What frustrates me,” she continues, “is that current discussions on health care have focused on the questions of costs and insurance but have not addressed the more important questions like ‘Why are so many American children sick?’ and ‘What needs to be done to stop the new childhood epidemics?’ We need a leader who will pledge to proactively address this crisis in children’s health by focusing national health policy on the environmental causes that have triggered these epidemics.”

“Our second concern is improving vaccine safety,” states Katie Weisman, Executive Director of the Canary Party. “As the number of mandated childhood vaccines has doubled over the last two decades, we have concerns over conflicts of interest within Health and Human Services. HHS agencies now develop, approve, recommend and judge injury claims for vaccines in addition to profiting from patents on them. This does not happen in any other industry.  At the same time, over 89% of parents in a 2010 survey reported that vaccine safety was their number one medical research priority.” Weisman continues, “Reform is needed to restore confidence to the national vaccine program. In the U.S., we have a widely respected model in the National Transportation Safety Board, which is an independent agency that lies outside the Department of Transportation. The Canary Party would like to see unbiased assessment of vaccine safety risks and benefits through the creation of a National Vaccine Safety Board and we are asking the candidates to support that.”

“Our third candidate pledge is focused on direct-to-consumer advertising,” says Blaxill. “Of all the advanced economies in the world, only the United States and New Zealand permit unconstrained direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceutical products [John Abramson, Overdosed America 2008 p.80]. Starting in the 1980s, a series of FDA rulings relaxed previous disclosure requirements for such advertising. As a result of the FDA's 1997 guidance on ‘adequate provision’ of risk information, DTC advertising, which was only $985 million in 1996, skyrocketed to $4.2 billion in 2005. This explosive change in pharmaceutical advertising has promoted the use of potentially dangerous drugs, allowed their manufacturers to wield vast influence over mainstream media outlets, and weakened the integrity and independence of American journalism on health issues. We are asking the candidates to restore integrity to broadcast media by issuing an executive order restoring full disclosure requirements for direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising.”

Canary Party Responds To Brian Deer's Rebuttal

When Brian Deer was introduced at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse earlier this month to give his version of events in the Wakefield/MMR controversy,  the audience was told, "There is no debate.”   That statement was swiftly refuted by WKTV news whose top story was: "Vaccine-Autism Debate Reaches La Crosse," (See video here.)    Among the many vaccine safety advocates who had contacted university officials was Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson, President of the Canary Party and mother to a child with regressive autism, triggered by vaccines.  Her e-mail, critical of Deer,  was also sent to Canary Party's 5,000 members. Deer posted a response to her on his personal website, and VanDerHorst-Larson has now answered him in an e-mail to the more than 30 sponsors of  Deer's lectures at La Crosse. Her hope is to enlighten the La Crosse community and others about the side of the controversy the media does not report. In the latest installment of the debate, it looks like Deer is caught the headlights. Her response, running on the Canary Party website is below:

OPEN LETTER to the Sponsors of Brian Deer’s Lectures at The University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, October 2012

Allergy Associates of La Crosse (Drs. Vijay Sabnis, James Thompson, Ted Habel, David Morris, George Kroker, Mary Morris)

Marshfield Clinic and Labs  (Brian H. Ewert, MD, C. Todd Stewart, MD, Gene R. Shaw, MD)

Gundersen Lutheran Clinic  (Jeffrey E. Thompson, MD, Julio J. Bird, MD, Mary Kuffel, MD)

U of W La Crosse Foundation, Allen Trapp, President, Greg Reichert, Asst. Chancellor

College of Science and Health, Dean Bruce Riley

Departments of Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry, English, Health Education and Promotions, Communication Studies, Exercise and Sports:

Dr. David Howard, Chair, Biology Dept., Dr. S. N. Rajagopal, Chair, Microbiology Dept., Dr. Aaron Monte, Chair, Chemistry Dept. Dr. Susan Crutchfield, Chair, English Dept. Dr. Dan Duquette, Chair, Health Education and Promotions Dr. Linda Dickmeyer, Chair, Communication Studies, Dr. Mark Gibson, Chair, Exercise and Sports Science

Faculty of the Dept. of Microbiology: Sue Anglehart, Marisa Barbknecht, Bonnie Jo Bratina, Michael Hoffman, Michael A. Lazzari, Marc A. Rott, William Schwan, Diane Sewell, Bernadette C. Taylor, Peter Wilker, Mike Winfrey

Susan Betts, Dept. of Microbiology

Premed Club,  Jordan L. Ludwigson, President

Biology Club 

Microbiology Club, William Close, President

Institute for Biomolecular Sciences

Members of Distinguished Speakers Committee

cc:        Editor, Racquet Student Newspaper, Chancellor Gow

My name is Jennifer VanDerHorst-Larson, and my open letter to university officials was singled out by Brian Deer for response. As you know, Mr. Deer recently lectured at the university about the Wakefield/MMR vaccine controversy. On his website, Mr. Deer referred to my letter as a form of “abuse.”  (Please judge for yourself if it’s abusive.) My letter.  Mr. Deer’s response.

I am the mother of a boy with autism who developed normally – exceeding his milestones - until he received his Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) and other vaccinations at 15 months. He reacted immediately and showed clear evidence of regression the day after his 15-month shots. By 18 months, he had lost all of his skills.  By 19 months, all he did was cry, bang his head and say “go” – his only remaining word. I was told to consider an institution for him, and he wasn’t even two.

At age 12, he is now diagnosed as severely autistic and in need of 24-hour supervision. He will never be independent. My son is also diagnosed with colitis – the bowel disease that was diagnosed in the Lancet 12 children with autism – denied by Brian Deer who spoke at La Crosse University. The gut-autism hypothesis has been placed under prolonged attack by those defending the vaccine program, including Brian Deer whose unsupported statements about the Lancet 12 children’s health  (“They don’t have bowel disease!”) have resulted in UK parents being unable to find medical help for their autistic children with bowel disease, the effects of which are profound and tragic.

High Court Judge Mitting has since rejected Mr. Deer’s claim that the 12 children were not seriously ill and did not require the medical attention they received from Professor Walker-Smith’s team at the Royal Free Hospital where Dr. Wakefield co-authored the controversial Lancet paper. 

 I am one of thousands of parents who have reported that their child (or children) regressed following vaccination. I was given the official medical explanation by Minneapolis doctors that my son’s regression was coincidental, even though no other pediatric medicine or procedure is associated with large numbers of “coincidental” reports of regression into autism.  To my knowledge, there is no case of a completely unvaccinated child developing normally and then spontaneously, dramatically regressing into autism. I think that’s significant. A retrospective, vaccinated vs. unvaccinated study would tell us more, but the government refuses to undertake such a study.

To Mr. Deer’s claim that the vaccine/autism link is a “fringe” theory put forth by “small groups of ill-informed, misguided” and “malicious people,” “desperate for attention,” I can only respond by asking you to watch this brief CBS interview of former NIH Director Dr. Bernadine Healy describing how medical authorities have refused to consider the possibility of an autism/vaccine link in susceptible children, for fear of scaring the general public.

There is also the case of Hannah Poling, a child who developed normally until she received 9 vaccine doses at one doctor’s visit. Her family will be compensated in the amount of $20 million over her lifetime by the U.S. government for her autism resulting from MMR and thimerosal-containing vaccines.  The Cochrane Review is not reassuring of MMR safety either, concluding: “The design and reporting in MMR safety studies both pre- and post marketing are largely inadequate.”  Please see the last page of my letter for links to independent studies that support Dr. Wakefield’s work, including peer-reviewed papers that duplicate his original findings in five additional countries.

IACC Meetings Cancelled

From our friends at SafeMinds:

In light of the near certainty that Hurricane Sandy will create dangerous conditions in the Washington, DC area, the fact that many people--including some subcommittee co-chairs-- will not be able to attend the workshop in person due to the storm, the warning that there will likely be massive power outages, and the expected severe disruptions in transportation systems, the IACC Strategic Planning Workshop scheduled to take place Monday and Tuesday, October 29th and 30th has been CANCELLED.