AGE OF AUTISM

Jenny McCarthy Interviews Kim Stagliano on Autism Awareness

Thanks to Jenny McCarthy for allowing me to share a real life glimpse of what life is like for our family - during autism action month - in the hopes that it will educate people outside our community a bit more than a blue landmark.  KS

Read the full interview at Jenny McCarthy's SPLASH blog at the Chicago Sun Times.

Unless you know someone with autism, it’s difficult to accurately explain what life is like behind closed doors. The mom I want to highlight is Kim Stagliano, because she has three daughters with autism. If God only gives you what you can handle, then this woman is a gladiator. Please read our interview so the next time you see a tantrum by an autistic child in the grocery store, hopefully your frustration will turn to compassion.

JENNY: Tell me about your girls.

KIM: My oldest daughter, Mia, is 18. She is the most affected by her autism. She is a gorgeous, petite girl with blue eyes and a great smile. She can speak but usually only uses one or two words at a time when she needs something. You have to interact with her (a polite way of saying “get right in her face”) in order to get her to say “Hello” or “Goodbye.” She is affectionate and unlike the autism stereotype, she likes being around family and classmates. Mia was a typically developing infant. She met her physical milestones on time and could recite the alphabet and count to twenty before age 2. She regressed into autism, becoming more remote and the main red flag that we saw was that her large vocabulary did not turn into usable communication. She attends the local public high school in a self-contained classroom.

Gianna is the classic middle child: She has a good sense of humor and is a ball of energy. Gianna is always looking out for her sisters; she is kind and caring. She is 16 years old in 10th grade in a combination of the autism classroom and the general special ed classroom. Three years ago our town added a separate autism class because the teaching and behavioral requirements are so different from traditional special ed, which includes intellectual disability, physical challenges and Down syndrome. To our delight, she is also enrolled in mainstream biology with support. She uses sentences and will answer a question with a word or two if you give her plenty of time to process the question.

Editorial by Jenny McCarthy: MMR Doctor Exonerated—Who’s Guilty Now?

By Jenny McCarthy

The parent autism community is buzzing with excitement over a ruling by a British judge clearing Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s colleague and co-author of all charges against him that arose from a study of the relationship between gut disease, autism, and the MMR vaccine.

Judge John Mitting’s conclusion, from an appeal by the highly respected pediatric gastroenterologist Prof. John Walker-Smith, stated:

“…both on general issues and the Lancet paper and in relation to individual children, the panel’s overall conclusion that Professor Walker-Smith was guilty of serious professional misconduct was flawed…The panel’s determination cannot stand. I therefore quash it.”

Professor Walker-Smith was Andrew Wakefield’s co-author on a highly controversial study published in the medical journal The Lancet in 1998. Most of the controversy stemmed from the reporting by the co-authors that many of the parents in the study claimed that their children regressed into autism after receiving the MMR vaccine.

For parents of children with autism, this whole mess has always been a bit of a head-scratcher. The Lancet study’s conclusion that children with autism suffer from bowel disease is something any autism parent could easily confirm, and MMR, by far, has been the vaccine most commonly cited by parents as a trigger for a regression into autism. In my travels, I have heard the same story from parents about MMR leading to regression thousands of times.

In Britain, The General Medical Council is in charge of licensing and regulating doctors. Their 2010 “trial” of Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues was the longest in GMC history, lasting 217 days, and concluded by revoking the medical licenses of Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Prof Walker-Smith. At the time, Dr. Wakefield spoke of the injustice that Judge Mitting has now confirmed:

"It seemed to me that they had come to this decision a long time ago, long before the evidence was fairly heard. This is the way the system deals with dissent. You isolate, discredit and provide an example to other doctors and scientists not to get involved in this kind of thing. That is examining questions of vaccine safety."  

Now what? If the foundation of the proof that the MMR does not trigger autism is crumbling, what in the world are parents supposed to believe? If Professor Walker-Smith is not guilty on all charges, will Dr. Wakefield be next? The Canary Party’s press release explains:

“While John Walker-Smith received funding to appeal the GMC decision from his insurance carrier, his co-author Andrew Wakefield did not — and was therefore unable to mount an appeal in the high court. This year, however, Dr. Wakefield, who now conducts his research in the US, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Brian Deer, Fiona Godlee and the British Medical Journal for falsely accusing him of ‘fraud.’ The suit is currently underway in Texas, where Wakefield now lives.”

Autism Science Digest Offers Holiday Subscription Rate

Subscribe HERE (scroll down page.)

Jenny McCarthy on Celebrity Scoop

Managing Editor's Note: Please click over to Celebrity Scoop to comment directly on this article. As you can imagine, the haters stopped playing wizards of solitaire long enough to add a lot of comments.  I ordered my Rescue Blue Magic Bullet on HSN this week.  Healthy smoothies for my girls and happy SOOTHIES for Mark and me coming up!  KS

Activist mama Jenny McCarthy is partnering with the world's top-selling kitchen appliance, the Magic Bullet® blender, to launch the Blue Limited Edition Magic Bullet® specifically designed for her charitable organization Generation Rescue.

An outspoken advocate for children with autism, Jenny tells Celebrity Baby Scoop that her unofficial role as the celebrity spokesperson on the topic is nothing short of a blessing.

Anytime you can do something that serves the greater good and make a difference, you should act," the mom-of-one says. "So, what I thought was a hardship in my life, I now see as a blessing because I can reach so many people."

The best-selling author says a portion of the proceeds from the Blue Limited Edition Magic Bullet® will go directly to families with autism.

"Our partnership with Magic Bullet® allows us to leverage its worldwide popularity to generate funding for Generation Rescue’s programs that provide education, support and access to medical services for families with autism," she says.

Jenny's son Evan, 11, was diagnosed with autism when he was at 2 ½-years-old. The single mom has publicly spoken about the possible link between childhood vaccinations and autism. She is also well-known for saying that children can "recover" from autism.

Has the community embraced her since Evan's recovery -- and her controversial statement?

My story of Evan’s recovery is not unique, there are thousands of parents before me whose shoulders I stand on today," Jenny says. "I’m just as active today as when Evan recovered from autism. I still travel the country lecturing on autism, am the president and board member of Generation Rescue and actively fundraise throughout the country for the foundation. My journey now is for the other parents whose voice hasn’t been heard.

What's up next for the blonde beauty? "I’m currently developing my own talk show and writing my next book titled Sinner," she says.

Be sure to check out Magic Bullet® and Generation Rescue on Facebook for more information.

Talk to Jenny McCarthy and Order A Magic Bullet on HSN on Monday 7/18!

You'll have two chances to talk to Jenny LIVE tomorrow on HSN at 9am EDT and again at 10pm EDT when you order a Magic Bullet and help support GR.

Check your cable or satellite listing for the HSN channel on your system. Here's the HSN guide.  And here are the HSN details for The Generation Rescue BLUE Magic Bullet.

Think of the smoothies you can make with this beautifully blue Magic Bullet. Supplements for the kids and maybe a little something on a Friday night for Mom and Dad? (Share your recipes in the comments.)

Introducing the Rescue Bullet, the limited-edition blue Magic Bullet, where a portion of the proceeds benefit Generation Rescue. Catch Jenny McCarthy on HSN July 18 and visit the Facebook page July 19 to get your own Rescue Bullet before they run out!

Visit Generation Rescue to learn more, find that last credit card with a few bucks on it (ha ha!) and order yours! KS

Jenny McCarthy At the Autism One Generation Rescue Conference

Jenny McCarthy is the keynote speaker with Byron Katie today at the Autism One Generation Rescue conference in Chicago. Last night Jenny met Rescue Angels at a party in the GR lounge.  Jenny has  new line of affordable, non-toxic baby products called Too Good by Jenny. Keith Schneider of manufacturer Pem-America presented GR with a check for $5,000.And  Jenny kindly allowed everyone to take a photo with her. We'll have more photos to run later. KIM

 

Jenny and Jade Joseph (left)

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny and Abby McKinney

 

 

 

 

Jenny and Kim Stagliano

Jenny McCarthy and Byron Katie on VoiceAmerica Radio for Autism Action Month

Today! Noon EDT, 9:00am Pacific.

Autism One: A Conversation of Hope airs live on Tuesdays at 9 AM Pacific / 11 AM Central / 12 Noon Eastern on the VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness Channel. To access the show, log on at www.voiceamericahealth.com. All shows will be available in Autism One's Content Library on the VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness Channel for on-demand and podcast download.

Nutrition expert and mother of a child with autism, Kristin Selby Gonzalez, interviews inspirational warrior-women on April 5th, 9 AM PT on the VoiceAmerica Health & Wellness Channel to empower parents & caregivers

Phoenix, AZ (PR-Inside) April 4, 2011 -- Autism will be in the news in the weeks to come as America recognizes “Autism Awareness Month.” Throughout the month of April, people will remember the toll which this disorder takes on the lives of children and adults throughout the world. They will also remember the work which doctors, scientists, parents and specialists around the globe are doing to combat the disorder and the millions of dollars which are being raised to provide further research, treatment and therapies.

Katie Wright: Doonesbury's Misogynistic Cheap Shot Against Jenny McCarthy

Managing Editor's Note: It's a sad irony that Gary Trudeau's wife Jane Pauley worked for NBC for many years. Would Trudeau have taken such a cheap misogynistic shot at Katie? And Jenny was in the hospital tending to Evan during a bout of seizures when the barftoon ran. A low, callous and highly "un-progressive" gesture on the part of Trudeau.

By Katie Wright

Gary Trudeau recently took a cheap shot at a single Mom who cares for her recovered, yet chronically ill, son. When this Mom is not with her son she can be found donating almost all her time and energy towards helping other ASD families in need. When is the last time Gary Trudeau fielded phone calls from broke ASD families and offered them tangible assistance? When the last time Gary Trudeau went to an autism conference and was mobbed for 5 hours by crying moms sharing stories of their sick autistic children? When was the last time Gary Trudeau spend Valentine’s Day in the hospital with his small son after he suffered a series of seizures? When was the last time Gary Trudeau heard his child spontaneously speak- today- yesterday? For me it was 2004, just prior to a series of adverse vaccine reactions that took away his voice.

Jenny McCarthy’s “crime” is advocating for objective vaccine safety research. Guess what Gary? Millions of American parents want objective vaccine safety research too. Safe vaccines are their number one health care priority. Gary, get ready to write a million more dumb cartoons. But I guess that is your specialty anyway?

When Trudeau is ridiculing Moms of sick kids with autism is he also making fun of our children’s chronic illnesses or does he doubt their existence? What are Trudeau’s credentials on the subject? Is he a parent of an ASD child-no, is he a doctor-no, is he a special Ed teacher-no, is he a medical researcher- and no to that too. Trudeau special autism expertise is the result of his long history as a… cartoonist? Gary Trudeau is a grown man who sits all day behind a table drawing stick figures with pencils and magic markers. From this lofty perch Trudeau has chosen to sit in judgment of millions of families he does not know and pain he cannot understand.

Guess what Gary? Your cartoon was inaccurate, offensive and unfunny. But that isn’t even the real issue, “Doonesbury” never was funny, the problem was that you mocked a Mom and her autistic son because you believe you “know” better why her child is autistic. When you took on Jenny McCarthy you took on all of us. We all have similar stories and we all have children who suffered horrific reactions to multiple vaccinations.  Apparently Gary Trudeau finds that amusing. Gary I challenge you meet with us. Step away from the magic marker table, Gary. Come out of hiding and tell us why you know our children better than their parents and how you became such an autism causation expert.

Katie Wright is a Contributing Editor for Age of Autism

Jenny McCarthy Speaks Out on HuffPo RE: Andrew Wakefield BMJ Report

Please read and comment on Jenny McCarthy's full post at HuffPo HERE. Don't get trampled by the trolls.

Last week, parents were told a British researcher's 1998 report linking the MMR shot to autism was fraudulent -- that this debate about vaccines and autism is now over, and parents should no longer worry about giving their children six vaccines at a single pediatric appointment or 36 by the time they are five years old.

Is that the whole story? Dr. Andrew Wakefield's study of 12 children with autism actually looked at bowel disease, not vaccines. The study's conclusion stated, "We did not prove an association between measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described [autism]."

Dr. Wakefield did something I wish all doctors would do: he listened to parents and reported what they said. His paper also said that, "Onset of behavioral symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps and rubella vaccination in 8 of the 12 children," and that, "further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome [autism with gut disease] and its possible relation to this vaccine."

Since when is repeating the words of parents and recommending further investigation a crime? As I've learned, the answer is whenever someone questions the safety of any vaccines....  Read and comment on the full post HERE.

Age of Autism Awards 2010: Dr. Paul Offit, Denialist of the Decade

By Dan Olmsted 

Why bother to call attention to Dr. Paul Offit, the vaccine patent-holder who has led the attack on the idea that vaccines have anything to do with autism or any of the myriad of other ailments afflicting this generation of American children? Well, because other people are paying attention -- including the nation's pediatricians and the mainstream journalists who need to start calling him to account. Offit has a new book out -- "Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All." Here's the question doctors who recommend him to nervous parents, and parents unsure what to think, and journalists who interview him, need to ask: Why is Offit transparently opposed to ever studying the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated Americans, even as he acknowledges that vaccines have a long history of causing serious side effects?

While his last book, "Autism's False Prophets," focused squarely on the disability now afflicting 1 in 100 children, Offit branches out here to deride those who have any concerns whatsoever about the safety of the current vaccine schedule. There is plenty of sympathy for parents of children who have died of infectious diseases, but perfunctory dismissal in cases where parents blame vaccines. 

Thus Michael Belkin, whose daughter Lyla died after her hepatitis B shot, is treated as a gullible gadfly, goaded by Barbara Loe Fisher into heading "the Hepatitis B Vaccine Project at her National Vaccine information Center. Soon Belkin, a Wall Street financial adviser, was everywhere" -- everywhere being the CDC and Congress, which is exactly where he should have been as a citizen and parent who believes that Hep B is a dangerous and unnecessary childhood vaccine that killed his daughter. Sniffs Offit: "Despite Belkin's certainty that hepatitis B vaccine had caused his daughter's SIDS, study after study failed to support him."

Parents of girls who died after Gardasil vaccination get similar treatment. The idea that Gardasil is dangerous is "a contention refuted by careful study" and "established science." 

And chickenpox vaccines are critically important because chickenpox can lead to shingles, "one of medicine's most debilitating diseases. Shingles is so painful that it has at times led to suicide. And shingles doesn't only affect the skin; sometimes when the virus reawakens it causes strokes, resulting in permanent paralysis. Chickenpox is a disease worth preventing." Absent is any acknowledgement of the evidence that the vaccine itself, by reducing cases of simple childhood chickenpox, has led to a big increase in shingles by removing the protective immunological "bump" those who already harbor the virus receive when they are re-exposed.

Hannah Poling and the government's $20 million concession that vaccines resulted in her autistic regression? Not mentioned. Billions paid out by vaccine court for all sorts of injuries over the past 20 years? Well, vaccine court is a strange place ...

 

Anyone concerned about any of these things fits Offit's definition of anti-vaccine, because vaccines don't cause any of them, because Paul Offit says so, a solipsism that is really quite breathtaking: "[B]ecause anti-vaccine activists today define safe as free from side effects such as autism, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and blood clots -- conditions that aren't caused by vaccines -- safer vaccines, using their definition, can never be made."

Yet Offit himself yields an amazing amount of ground by describing unsafe vaccines -- including early polio shots and a rotavirus vaccine that was the immediate predecessor of his own. His technique is to situate all this as historical, part of the triumphant march of progress into the bright sunshine of vaccine safety. Here's a description I find especially astonishing: "When Barbara Loe Fisher burst onto the scene, several vaccines had serious side effects, every year causing allergic reactions, paralysis, or death. Public health officials and doctors didn't hide these problems. But they didn't do anything to correct them, either. And most parents had no idea they existed."

Public health officials did nothing to fix vaccine problems that led to paralysis and death? And parents didn't know about it? Is this not an indictment of the medical industry, and an unintentional endorsement advocates who have worked to remedy it?  Does it not argue that at least some of the time parental observations may well be correct, an early warning system of the first order? Well, no, because apparently those things no longer happen -- to say otherwise, in Offit's parallel universe, would be anti-vaccine conspiratorial quackery. 

Much of the book is a score-settling screed against anyone who's ever criticized him or vaccine safety surveillance, including Fisher, Jenny McCarthy and J.B. Handley. So it's no surprise that his "can't be done" argument against studying unvaccinated populations for any untoward outcomes arrives in the middle of an attack on Handley. Offit quotes J.B.'s comments on a Larry King segment in April 2009: "Larry, we have no idea what the combination risk of our vaccine schedule looks like. At the two-month visit, a child gets six vaccines in under fifteen minutes. The only way to test that properly would be to have a group of kids who get all six and a group of kids who got none and see what happens. They don't do that testing. They have no idea."

Offit's comment: "Handley was asking for a study of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. One result is certain: given recent outbreaks of Hib, measles, mumps, and pertussis, no vaccinated children would suffer and possibly die from preventable infections. It would be, of course, an entirely unethical experiment. No investigator could prospectively study children who are denied a potentially lifesaving medical product. And no university's or hospital's institutional review board worth its salt would ever approve such a study." 

Offit goes on, outrageously, to compare Handley's proposal to the infamous Tuskegee experiment in which doctors withheld treatment from black males suffering from syphilis in order to study the natural course of the disease. 

P-LEEZE. No one I know of is suggesting that a study of unvaccinated children deliberately withhold vaccination. Rather, there are growing numbers of never-vaccinated children in America -- a fact Offit acknowledges with dismay -- and plenty of families willing to participate in such a study. State governments have vaccine waivers on file for public school attendance that are another obvious source of non-life-threatening data.

The real problem for Offit is not an ethical one; the real problem is that any such study would trump all the self-interested industry and CDC studies that never manage to include never-vaccinated chldren as a control group. Informal efforts to do that -- by myself, J.B.'s Generation Rescue and others -- have pointed toward less autism and asthma, and been met by the medical establishment and its sycophantic sock puppets with an absolute frenzy of denial and misdirection.

In our book, "The Age of Autism -- Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic," Mark  Blaxill and I discuss this aversion to doing the obvious. "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 suggest we should be seriously concerned over the ever-increasing load of childhood vaccinations, especially in the United States. ... 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 methodological problems that they are 'retrospectively impossible.' As for controlled studies, they would be so burdened with permission problems that they would be 'prospectively unethical.' In short, the resistance to the proposal to do vax/unvax work has not only taken the attitude that '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."  

I am begging, on bended knee, that pediatricians quit putting Offit on a pedestal, and that mainstream journalists do their job and ask him why he is so averse to any study that involves the health of never-vaccinated children. Don't let him call you "anti-vaccine," and don't let him change the subject to the quite thoroughly separate issue of preventing deadly disease. That's an important topic, but there is room at the table for both effective public health policies against disease AND a fearless examination of whether today's vaccine schedule contributes to chronic health problems -- whether Paul Offit denies it or not.

--

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism

 

 

 

When It Comes To Autism, Jenny McCarthy Never Fakes It.

Thank you to Leigh Attaway Wilcox, from the MomBlogs of the Dallas Morning News for letting us share this terrific post with our readers. Please visit the DMN blogs regularly. Dan Burns has a regular blog there and Nancy Churnin, who runs the blogs, has graciously allowed me to contribute as well. KIM

Jenny McCarthy connects with warrior moms in Dallas 

3:00 PM Thu, Oct 07, 2010 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz

Leigh Attaway Wilcox  

Connections make life rich. Each of us seeks to surround ourselves with people who have similar priorities and goals. Sometimes it is thanks to rather dire situations that we truly connect with others who change our lives forever.

Jenny McCarthy, while on tour for her new book, Love, Lust and Faking It, took time out of her schedule Wednesday night to have a drink with a local group of moms (and a few dads, grandmothers and sisters) following a book signing at the Lincoln Park Barnes & Noble in Dallas. Why? She graciously honored a connection that many local "Warrior Moms," like me, have with her.

Let me be honest: Autism can be a very lonely place for families to journey. Especially in the beginning, after first receiving a diagnosis, many of us are so overwhelmed by responsibility ("I caused this" thoughts), shame ("I can't control my own child" thoughts) and grief ("my child may never...make friends...have a meaningful, fulfilling job...get married..." and on and on kinds of thoughts) we don't realize, (some of us for weeks, months or years) that we're far, far from alone...

Read the full post and share your comments HERE.

Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live

Here's a snip from CNN of Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live Friday night. Her new book Live, Lust & Faking It continues to do well at Amazon, and we're happy for her success.

 

Join Jenny McCarthy Today for "Love, Lust & Faking It" Her New Book from Harper

Guys, I'm sure Jenny would never fake it with you.... Congratulations to our friend Jenny McCarthy. Today is release day for her new book, Love, Lust & Faking It: The Naked Truth About Sex, Lies, and True Romance .  Available in hardcover (no giggling) and on Kindle.  Give yourself a break from autism and buy a copy.  Place your launch day order today! Kim

New York Times bestselling author Jenny McCarthy returns to her comic roots in this candid, wise, and witty look at women, men, sex, romance, heartbreak, love, and how (not) to fake it.

In Belly Laughs, Jenny McCarthy told you what you could really expect when you're expecting. In Baby Laughs and Life Laughs, she gave you the unfiltered ups and downs of motherhood and marriage. Now, in Love, Lust & Faking It, the inveterate truth teller turns the lights on for a funny, often poignant, and no-holds-barred look at the essence of relationships: love and sex.

Jenny explores the intensity of first love, introducing us to Tony, the boy of her teenage dreams, and Tubby, her dirty, sexy stuffed teddy bear. She takes us on a whirlwind tour of the world of aphrodisiacs and fetishes, explains the importance of playing doctor and other nice and naughty fantasies, and gives thanks for the pleasures of chocolate. And she sets the story straight on STDs, man junk and lady bits, why we really cheat, why women are master manipulators, the virtues of sex with the lights off, the power of a "loving no," the satisfaction of the perfect booty call, and so much more.

Filled with humorous stories about her own out-rageous exploits—from becoming a Playboy Miss October to the pain of getting a discount boob job to meeting Brad Pitt—as well as the lessons she's learned from family, friends, and fans, Love, Lust & Faking It takes on a subject the sex symbol, mother, television star, comedian, and divorcÉe can be trusted to examine with nothing but unvarnished honesty and earthy humor. Throughout, Jenny reminds us to aim higher, believe in true love, and, most of all, be kind to ourselves. And to have lots of fun and sex—without faking it.

Signing Events & Media Air Dates

Tuesday, September 28 

• “LOVE, LUST & FAKING IT” --- On Sale
• Oprah Airs

Wednesday, September 29 

• New Jersey Book Signing
  • 7:00pm
  • Bookends
  • 232 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450

Sex!

Break out the "good panties", ladies. Guys - charge up that ManGroomer. Tuesday we have sex, love and lust. And we're not faking it.  KS

A Night of Comedy to Benefit Autism

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Okay, so I haven't been out much in the past ten years.

I've gone to two autism events during that time, one in San Francisco and one in Chicago.  But when I heard that Generation Rescue and the Ryder Foundation were putting on a night of comedy at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater, near where I used to live in the Marina district of San Francisco I knew I had to go.  This would be my third event.

For those of you unfamiliar with San Francisco, the Palace of Fine Arts Theater is a beautiful relic of the 1916 Pan Pacific Exposition designed to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal.  The theater probably seats somewhere under a thousand people and it shares the space with the Exploratorium, one of the country's most unique science musuems.  I take my science students there every year on a field trip.  It's a hands-on museum at which students can make their hair stand up straight by putting their hand on a Van de Graaf generator, or watch in fascinated horror as one of the volunteers dissect a cow's eye or sheep brain every half hour. It's the highlight of my school year.

I bought one of the expensive tickets which got me into the gourmet food and wine reception before the event and the dessert reception afterwards.  As I walked from the car to the theater I saw a big, black stretch limousine (Jenny's?) and at the entrance there were a few photographers, men entering in suits, and tall, leggy women in six inch heels towering over me.  I have to admit I felt a little out of place, almost like Frodo amongst a gathering of Men and Elves. (Yes, some of the women were so tall, slender, and endowed with such unearthly beautiful I'm convinced they represent a slightly more evolved race than our own!)  But then again, San Francisco always has been a little different than the rest of the world.

Hanging around the entrance to the reception was a regular reader of Age of Autism who describes himself as my number one fan.  I've now run into him at all three events I've attended.  We greeted each other warmly and he told me I need to stop stalking him.  He's a brilliant, unconventional thinker and I always look forward to our discussions.  He's usually ahead of the curve in his areas of scientific interest and is one of the many people who make me appear smarter than I actually am.

I also met up with my brother-from-another-mother, J.B. Handley, only the second time we've seen each other in person.  However, we e-mail a few times a week and talk regularly on the phone.  Usually the conversation goes something like this, "Yes, Kent, that's a good idea but it would cost a lot of money and I'm not sure how much it will advance the cause."  Then he reminds me how Generation Rescue is funding a vaccinated/unvaccinated study, paying for kids whose parents can't afford treatment, all while Jenny is trying to put together a television show to try to become the next Oprah Winfrey.  We then swap stories about intriguing rumors of a retroviral connection to autism which might also explain some of the health problems of the mothers of many of the children.

Government Awards Hannah Poling $1.5 Million in Vaccine Injury Case

... vaccines didn't cause Hannah's autism -- the condition just "resulted" from the vaccines.

The totally twisted and unsustainable United States government approach to vaccines and autism was on full display today. A few months after the federal vaccine court laughed at the idea that one has anything to do with the other, tossing out more than 5,000 cases at once, CBS reports HERE "Family to Receive $1.5M in First-Ever Vaccine-Autism Court Award" that the government awarded Hannah Poling $1.5 million for regressive autism that followed vaccination. She will also receive $500K per year for life.

The government lawyers mumbled something Orwellian and incoherent about a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder and how vaccines didn't cause Hannah's autism -- the condition just "resulted" from the vaccines. Translation: The medical industry's wall of doublespeak, delay and denial is crumbling and today, at least, one child got justice. More, many more, to come. -- Dan Olmsted

Join Jenny McCarthy in San Francisco for Comedy for Kids with Autism!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Enjoy an Evening of Comedy All-Stars, Award-Winning
Bay Area Cuisine and Acclaimed Art

Click HERE for full details.

Starring JENNY McCARTHY AND HER FUNNY FRIENDS
The Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

An exclusive all-star benefit for Generation Rescue & The Ryder Foundation

6:00PM – 7:00PM – VIP RECEPTION, EXCLUSIVE ART EXHIBIT, FINE WINE AND SILENT AUCTION

7:00PM - GENERAL ADMISSION

8:00PM - COMEDY SHOW

Our generous friends at Generation Rescue invite local autism families who may need assistance purchasing tickets to email info2@generationrescue.org.

Featuring Whitney Cummings, Heather McDonald, Josh Wolf and Gary Valentine (L-R)
 

Join Jenny McCarthy At Comedy for Kids Benefit for Ryder Foundation

Managing Editor’s Note: Jenny McCarthy is hosting a stand-up comedy party in San Francisco on September 11th to benefit autism charities The Ryder Foundation, and Generation Rescue. The event features comedians Gary Valentine, Heather McDonald, Whitney Cummings and Josh Wolf. Tickets adn details, including sponsorship opportunities available online: Comedy For Kids SF HERE. Thank you to Alix, of the MedNauseam blog for the post.

By Alix, editor of MedNauseam Blog

Two moms in Northern California are on a roll. Jenny DeMaria and Maureen Block, co-directors of the Ryder Foundation , once had children diagnosed with autism. The boys are now socially indistinguishable from their peers.

Block says both school-aged boys still have “educational challenges, but they have been recovered.” The rapid changes both mothers saw in their boys after trying a gluten-free diet motivated them to try different diet and biomedical interventions. And, the myriad interventions all add up. Block says, “Treating autism is like trying to get a train back on its tracks. It’s gone off-track and you need to get each train car, one at a time, back on the track.”

DeMaria’s son was diagnosed as moderately autistic. Now he would be classified as having mild Asperger’s. “Ryder's challenges are now barely noticeable to an outsider,” De Maria said. "There were days I thought my child would never be able to dress himself or brush his teeth or sing a song or make a friend. Now he is the happiest, friendliest, most vociferous child I know. He keeps astounding us with his progress."

After their rapid, and continuing success with their own sons, DeMaria and Block quickly got involved with Generation Rescue , Jenny McCarthy’s autism organization, volunteering as Rescue Angels to mentor other parents who were beginning the journey toward recovery. But that wasn’t enough ‘giving back’ for them. They wanted to do more. In 2005, they joined forces with two other women to found the Ryder Foundation in recognition of DeMaria’s son’s recovery.
 
“We have helped raise over $800,000 for autism charities,” said Block, “and we are hoping to move that number to $1 million with our next event, this September 11th, to benefit the Ryder Foundation and Generation Rescue."

Live From the Generation Rescue Lounge!

Here's the Generation Rescue Lounge at Autism One. Join the Angels in Lakeshore A and B tomorrow for free massages, relaxation and more.

Book Signing for Dr. Andrew Wakefield's "Callous Disregard" from Skyhorse Publishing

Dr. Andrew Wakefield's book, Callous Disregard published by Skyhorse Publishing debuts at Autism One.  Meet Dr. Wakefield at his book signing in the Generation Rescue Lounge (Lakeshore A&B) at the Westin O'Hare Hotel on Saturday, May 29 from 12:30-1:30pm.

Be among the first in the world to read about the deception, inconsistencies, and intrigue behind the General Medical Council proceedings in the United Kingdom. Who wanted to see Andy Wakefield silenced – and why?

Features a special foreword by Jenny McCarthy.

Frontline’s Producer Feeds the “Hungry Lie”

 
By J.B. Handley
 
The “hungry lie” on autism is both maddeningly simple and simply maddening and goes something like this: “It’s been asked and answered, vaccines don’t cause autism.”
 
As I’ve written about repeatedly, this is a huge lie, a critical lie, and a very “hungry” lie, because it constantly needs to be fed. Thanks to Frontline’s recent show, “the Vaccine War,” many more people will be confronted with this lie and have to sort through the rhetoric to figure out what is actually true.
 
Jon Palferman, who produced Frontline’s “The Vaccine War,” is different from many of the other feeders of the hungry lie in one important way: he spent nearly 2 hours sitting in my office debating and learning more about this very topic. I am certain that he fully and completely understands that only a single vaccine on the US vaccine schedule has actually been studied for its relationship to autism. I’m also certain he realizes many public health officials make bold and untrue statements all the time to reassure the public that “vaccines” have been studied and rendered “safe.”
 
To me, this makes Mr. Palferman’s recent public comment all the more unconscionable. On Frontline’s website, as a response to Dr. Jay Gordon’s searing critique of Frontline’s decision to not air any of Dr. Gordon’s taped interview, Mr. Palferman issued the following statement:
 
“Many thanks for your feedback on the program. FRONTLINE went to considerable lengths to include a wide range of viewpoints, even in the face of very strong scientific evidence against the hypothesized autism link to MMR and thimerosal. Despite the consistent negative epidemiology and the definitive verdict of the federal vaccine court, we included views from people who wanted more and different studies. The program also gave a great deal of time to the arguments of vaccine hesitant parents who think the CDC schedule is bloated. The companion FRONTLINE website contains full interviews with different stakeholders, including Dr Robert Sears, who promotes an alternative spread out vaccine schedule. The website also hosts a robust public conversation where a full range of viewpoints are being aired and engaged.”
 
Let me repeat for you the part of Mr. Palferman’s statement that shows he did spend 2 hours with me, but wanted to defend his position anyway:
 
“the hypothesized autism link to MMR and thimerosal”
 
You see, Mr. Palferman fully gets that no one has shown “vaccines don’t cause autism,” because I personally hammered home the point to him until he finally got it. So, he’s smart enough not to fully repeat the simple hungry lie that “vaccines” have been studied and at least tells the truth that ONLY thimerosal and the MMR have been looked at.

Generation Rescue Announces the Rescue Family Grant Program for Autism Treatment

Generation Rescue’s Rescue Family Grant Program  provides resources to individuals and families that are affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders. This 90-day program is focused on helping families transition to adopting a gluten-free/casein-free (GFCF) diet and designed to introduce the benefits of biomedical treatment by supplying the appointed family with information, supplements, specialized doctor visits, and mentorship.

Click HERE to download and print an application.

The following is included in the grant package:

1. Two visits with a New Generation Medical Doctor – a physician specifically trained to treat the symptoms of autism
2. 90 days worth of supplements
3. A Rescue Mentor to help guide the family through the process of starting the GFCF diet and biomedical intervention
4. Healing & Preventing Autism: A Complete Guide by Jenny McCarthy & Dr. Kartzinel
5. Generation Rescue Flip camera for documentation of child’s progress before and after program implementation (camera must be returned to Generation Rescue along with footage)
6. Daily log for documentation of child
7. GF/CF dietary training and recipe support
8. Dietary/Nutritional information DVD
9. Significantly reduced lab testing fee
10. Supplement starter guide

This grant program is made possible by the generous contributions made by these participating organizations

 

Frontline's Complete Interview with Generation Rescue's Jenny McCarthy

Frontline The Vaccine Wars complete interview with Jenny McCarthy

Jenny, in your book Louder than Words, you describe Evan's first and subsequent seizures. Summarize that episode, when he began having seizures.

One of the first signs when I knew something was wrong was one morning he slept in late. So I opened the door and just saw Evan struggling to breathe, and pasty white, blue lips, and shaking. I picked him up and just started screaming at the top of my lungs, ran down the hallway, called 911, and it took them about 20 minutes to stop what they were calling a seizure.

We went to the hospital. They blew it off as a febrile seizure -- seizures that you can get if you have a fever. And considering Evan did not have a fever, I was a little concerned.

Three weeks later we went down to Palm Springs to visit Grandma, and when I pulled Evan out of the car, he had this stoned look on his face. And shortly thereafter, his eyes rolled back, and I laid him down, and he was hardly taking in air, just turning blue. I called the paramedics. By the time they got there, he had gone into cardiac arrest. Halfway to the hospital, they gave me the thumbs up that they got him back.

Frontline's Complete Interview with Generation Rescue's J.B. Handley

Frontline The Vaccine Wars interview with J.B. Handley

How did your life change when you discovered your son had autism?

Everything changed from the day it happened. It was an immediate nightmare. It was 30 days of six, seven, eight hours of nonstop crying by both me and my wife. It was the painful realization that my son may not have the kind of life that I expected for him. And once the grief had passed just enough to get up off the floor, it was a mandate to do whatever I could do with the rest of my life to give him the best possible life.

How old was he when this happened?

He was just under 2 years old.

How did you discover this?

People sometimes talk about how these kids are diagnosed today at much higher rates, that we just have a more narrow filter, that parents are more paranoid.

You don't miss this. This wasn't something that was hard to figure out. The child stopped talking. He stopped socializing. He started doing extremely unusual behaviors that no other kid was doing -- running on walls, turning his eyes to the side, spinning around in circles, laughing for no reason. I mean, we watched our son decline into something we'd never seen before, and it didn't take us long, especially with the Internet, to go quickly look up some of these behaviors.

Jenny McCarthy Fires Back at Frontline for Hatchet Job Journalism

Please read Jenny McCarthy's post and comment at Huffington Post.

When the producers of PBS's Frontline approached me to be interviewed for their new documentary "The Vaccine War," I accepted with a simple condition: doctors and scientists on our side of the vaccine-autism debate needed to have a voice, too.

Prior to agreeing to the interview, Frontline sent us this email:

"Frontline will carry out a detailed and even-handed investigation including voices from all sides of the controversy including parents, activists, physicians, scientists, lawyers, politicians and vaccine manufacturers."

Help Jenny McCarthy Win $250K for Generation Rescue in Pepsi's Refresh Everything Contest

Vote HERE.  

Generation Rescue provides biomedical treatment grants for families who can not afford treatment. Each grant provides two visits with a physician specifically trained to treat autism and diagnose the child's needs. The grant also provides essential vitamins and minerals that scientific studies have shown are deficient in children with autism, as well as science-based laboratory testing. Each grant costs $2,500. The support of $250,000 will allow us to provide treatment for 100 families.

AOL Health: Mark Blaxill Discusses Jenny McCarthy Time Article

Mark Blaxill was on AOL Health this week talking about the TIME magazine article on Jenny McCarthy. Click HERE to see the full post with links.
 
By Mark Blaxill Mar 8th 2010 12:58PM

Categories: Family Health, News

Following a story in Time magazine about Jenny McCarthy's role as an autism activist, AOL Health contributor Mark Blaxill responds, saying that "Time" magazine is feeding what he calls "the hungry lie."

More than most other media outlets, you can count on "Time" magazine for the worst in autism coverage. In the pages of Time, rising autism rates are always due to better diagnosing; causes are always genetic, orthodox scientists are always heroic and parent advocates always sadly misguided. What's more, any and all vaccines in any combination are always safe and certainly have nothing to do with autism. A friend of mine calls this the big hungry lie. Why hungry? Because it's so wrong, it requires frequent feeding and thanks to a largely compliant media, feedings take place with regularity. Always at the front of the pack, "Time," in a February 25 article, fed the hungry lie again in a fascinatingly passive-aggressive essay titled, "Who's Afraid of Jenny McCarthy."

In case, you missed it (who reads "Time" anymore?), the Time piece focused on celebrity mom Jenny McCarthy, who has become one of the most prominent and formidable autism parent advocates. In a successful entertainment career, she has shown the world that she is beautiful, sexy, earthy, smart, articulate and determined (and in roughly that order). She also happens to have a son who received an autism diagnosis in 2005 when he was not quite three. To her lasting credit, McCarthy didn't meekly follow the advice of incompetent experts, most of them in thrall to the hungry lie, but has instead given voice to a large community of autism parents, channeling the mojo of a generation of "warrior moms" in a series of books, taking her audience's cause to a new level in the process...

Jenny McCarthy on HuffPo: Who's Afraid of the Truth About Autism?

Please read the full post and comment over at Huffington Post HERE.  Jenny will welcome your support and you know the "machine" has gone into overdrive to beat her up - and our kids. Don't let them. Go comment at HuffPo. KS

Parents of recovered children, and I've met hundreds, all share the same experience of doubters and deniers telling us our child must have never even had autism or that the recovery was simply nature's course. We all know better, and frankly we're too busy helping other parents to really care.

Corner one of the hundreds of doctors who specialize in autism recovery, and they'll tell you stories of dozens of kids in their practice who no longer have autism. Ask them to speak to the press and they'll run for the door. They know better.

Most doctors in our community share a common trait: their own child regressed into autism. They fixed their kid first and knew they'd have to spend their lives helping parents do the same, accepting the loss of "mainstream" status in their field.

Who's afraid of autism recovery? Perhaps it's the diagnosticians and pediatricians who have made a career out of telling parents autism is a hopeless condition.

When I first went public with my son Evan's story, I just planned to talk about the "R" word -- Recovery. But soon I was spending most my time talking about the "V" word -- vaccines.

It's hard to address one without the other because so many of the parents of recovered children I know, myself included, blame vaccines for their child's regression into autism and use vaccine injury as the roadmap to treat their child.

The idea that vaccines are a primary cause of autism is not as crackpot as some might wish. Autism's 60-fold rise in 30 years matches a tripling of the US vaccine schedule.

With so many kids with autism, the environment has to be to blame, and vaccines are an obvious culprit. Almost all kids get vaccines -- injected toxins -- very early in life, and our own government clearly acknowledges vaccines cause brain damage in certain vulnerable kids.

Take those simple facts, along with tens of thousands of parental reports of regression after vaccination, not to mention a growing list of court cases where our government paid claims to children with autism acknowledging vaccines as the trigger, and the case we Moms are making makes sense...

 

Liar’s Poker: Dr. Ari Brown Bets the House

By J.B. Handley
 
Maybe doctors shouldn’t blog?
 
Along with many other bloggers with apparently no interest in actually reading Karl Greenfeld’s article in Time Magazine last week on Jenny McCarthy and the autism debate, Austin-based pediatrician Dr. Ari Brown wrote about it instead, and may have set a blogosphere record in the “lies per words typed” ratio.
 
Friday, Dr. Brown wrote a post titled “Jenny McCarthy changes her mind on autism” for the blog Basil & Spice.
 
Herewith, the incredible lies and ignorance of another doctor trying to defend the indefensible, in this case by just making stuff up:
 
#1: “Those of you who follow this blog and read my books know that I have never supported Jenny McCarthy's claims that her son developed autism from vaccines.”
 
You never have supported Jenny’s “claims” that her son regressed into autism? I am certain that a hallmark of good doctoring is to listen to the parents, particularly true when you’re a pediatrician. A second hallmark of good doctoring is to refrain from opining on the medical cases of patients to whom you have no direct access, like Jenny’s son.
 
Jenny McCarthy has written about many things she observed in her son after his MMR shot. Interestingly, a small sample of the side-effects from the insert label of the actual MMR vaccine appear to describe many of the things Jenny has talked about: “fever, syncope, headache, dizziness, malaise, irritability, diarrhea, vomiting, parotitis, nausea, myalgia, encephalitis, encephalopathy, febrile convulsions, afebrile convulsions or seizures.”
 
#2: “Despite the overwhelming lack of scientific evidence, her "mission" to improve public awareness and draw attention to herself has been a pretty successful campaign.”
 
“Overwhelming lack of scientific evidence” is, of course, nothing more than the “Hungry Lie” I have written about many times where research regarding a single vaccine, MMR, has been generalized by pharma sympathizers to represent “all vaccines”, including the 10 other licensed vaccines given to our kids that have never been studied for their relationship to autism. Anybody want to bet that Dr. Brown tells the parents in her practice the same thing, falsely reassuring them that “the science has been done”?
 
Of course, Dr. Brown is right about one thing, and I’m sure she’s hearing it from parents every day: Jenny’s campaign has been successful. But, it’s been successful for reasons most doctors don’t want to admit: parents on every neighborhood corner in the country are telling the same story Jenny is telling. Without this chorus of confirmation, Jenny’s story wouldn’t resonate.
 
#3: “More parents are freaked about vaccines (and have decided to risk leaving their child unprotected) and Jenny has just taped a pilot for a new talk show with Oprah. Congratulations, Jenny.”
 
At the very least, this is some snarky stuff for a pediatrician to write. Insidiously, Dr. Brown helps perpetuate a myth about our side that serves pharma supporters interests that we are 100% opposed to any and all vaccines.

HuffPo Reports on Time's Jenny McCarthy Story

Please pop over to Huffington Post to comment on the Jenny story in Time. They've just posted about it there and as you can imagine, it will soon be a Trollfest of vaccine injury and treatment deniers.  Thanks.

Karl Taro Greenfeld in Time "The Autism Debate: Who's Afraid of Jenny McCarthy?"

Head over to TIME HERE to leave a comment telling story of how Jenny has helped you, and how your autism journey mirrored hers in terms of lack of medical guidance and frustration of trying to find the right treatments for your child. The author of the article is Karl Taro Greenfeld, who wrote 2009's Boy Alone about growing up with a profoundly autistic brother in the 1970s. Pay attention to the last line of the Time article. It's imporant. Click over to TIME HERE and leave a comment, please. Thanks. KIM

The Autism Debate: Who's Afraid of Jenny McCarthy? (Photograph by Jeff Minton for Time.)

...In 2005, McCarthy's son Evan, then 2, began having seizures so severe he required repeated emergency hospitalization. McCarthy had noticed that Evan had some developmental delays, compared with his peers in a playgroup they attended, and he exhibited some atypical behaviors: arm flapping, repetitive actions and fixation on strange objects. She describes her panic at Evan's diagnosis in her memoir Louder than Words: "I wished to God the doctor had handed me a pamphlet that said, 'Hey, sorry about the autism, but here's a step-by-step list on what to do next.' But doctors don't do that. They say 'sorry' and move you along." McCarthy began to try almost every treatment that turned up on Google. Evan went through conventional, intensive Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy as well as a host of alternative approaches, including a gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diet, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, chelation, aromatherapies, electromagnetics, spoons rubbed on his body, multivitamin therapy, B-12 shots and a range of prescription drugs. McCarthy says she made a deal with God. "Help me fix my boy," she prayed, "and I'll teach the world how I did it."

She believes she did fix her boy. A psychological evaluation from UCLA's neuropsychiatric hospital, dated May 10, 2005, was "conclusive for a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder," and yet here, running toward us on a warm California afternoon, is Evan, shouting out, "Are you here to play with me? When are we going to play?" McCarthy's boy is a vivacious, articulate and communicative child who seems to have beaten the condition. He is an inspiration, the fact of him as incontrovertible as any study done in any laboratory in the world...

Read more: HERE.

Temple Grandin on Vaccines -- If There's a Risk, "Space Them Out."

Temple Grandin gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal this weekend (HERE) in which she amplified comments she's been making about controversial aspects of autism. The interviewer mentions Andy Wakefield's 1998 Lancet paper -- now retracted by the journal -- and "the antivaccine movement perhaps best associated with the actress Jenny McCarthy ..."

"Scientifically, there's still some things to be done,' Ms. Grandin says. Scientists need to study 'the kids where they seem to have language and then they lose it at 18 months to two years of age.' She adds: 'I've talked to too many parents that have talked to me about regressions that I can't just pooh-pooh that off.'"

So what to do? "We can't stop vaccinating because we're going to end up with all these childhood diseases. i grew up with iron lungs. ... That was horrible, dreadful ... We can't go back to that."

She recommends: "'If you have autism in the family history,' or other auto-immune problems, 'you still vaccinate. Delay it a bit, space them out.'" She again cites "very big improvements" with wheat-free and dairy-free diets. And she insists that while better recognition may have increased the number of people diagnosed with Asperger's,  "some of the severe autism has increased." And that suggests, the interviewer wrote, "the possibility of environmental toxins interacting with 'susceptible genetics.'"-- Dan Olmsted

 

Autism One Generation Rescue 2010 Autism Redefined Conference Register Now!

Registration for the Autism One/Generation Rescue 2010 "Autism Redefined" Conference is open! Are you ready to join those who are redefining autism?  Click HERE for registration information.

KEYNOTE: JENNY McCARTHY
OVER 150 SPEAKERS

Chicago, Illinois, May 24-30, 2010

Many new faces and any favorites!

Featuring:

prediction/prevention track
environmental track
advocacy track
PANDAS track
seizures track
adult issues
much more

Join us at www.autismone.org

Hope is real.  Recovery is happening. The treatment category is sponsored by Lee Silsby, the leader in quality compounded medications for autism.

A Statement from Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey: Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys

Los Angeles, February 5, 2010

Dr. Andrew Wakefield is being discredited to prevent an historic study from being published that for the first time looks at vaccinated versus unvaccinated primates and compares health outcomes, with potentially devastating consequences for vaccine makers and public health officials.

It is our most sincere belief that Dr. Wakefield and parents of children with autism around the world are being subjected to a remarkable media campaign engineered by vaccine manufacturers reporting on the retraction of a paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr. Wakefield and his colleagues. 

The retraction from The Lancet was a response to a ruling from England’s General Medical Council, a kangaroo court where public health officials in the pocket of vaccine makers served as judge and jury. Dr. Wakefield strenuously denies all the findings of the GMC and plans a vigorous appeal.

Despite rampant misreporting, Dr. Wakefield’s original paper regarding 12 children with severe bowel disease and autism never rendered any judgment whatsoever on whether or not vaccines cause autism, and The Lancet’s retraction gets us no closer to understanding this complex issue.

Dr. Wakefield is one of the world’s most respected and well-published gastroenterologists. He has published dozens of papers since 1998 in well-regarded peer-reviewed journals all over the world. His work documenting the bowel disease of children with autism and his exploration of novel ways to treat bowel disease has helped relieve the pain and suffering of thousands of children with autism.

“The New York Times”- Where Hope Goes to Die

By Katie Wright

Yesterday, Lisa Belkin, a freelance NYT writer gave her column space to a very angry  and defeated sounding autism Mom, Lisa Kupferberg Carter.

Ms. Carter is not furious with the dismal state of autism research, the foot dragging at the NIH to invest in treatment research, the scarcity of schools or the lack of insurance re-imbursement for basic therapies.

No, Ms. Carter aims a decade of anger at Jenny McCarthy. Jenny McCarthy?

Bizarre, I know. Did Jenny give her son autism? Did Jenny stop Ms. Carter from obtaining a diagnosis, therapy or an education? Did Jenny tell Ms. Carter to give up all hope? No. Then why this crazy rage at another autism Mom who as blameless as the rest of us? 

What Jenny IS guilty of is listening to thousands of parents across the country and taking their concerns seriously. Jenny is guilty of shining a light on the ever growing population of chronically ill ASD kids, whom the medical establishment has ignored.  Jenny is also guilty of writing a book about different Moms’ struggles to help heal their seriously ill children. Jenny also wrote a book with a doctor who is an ASD parent himself. And you know what Ms. Carter, that book helped me and thousands of other parents a great deal.  I recommend that you actually read it.

I would never presume to tell other parents what to do or what not to do for their ASD child. Jenny McCarthy doesn’t either. No one can “make” an adult “feel guilty” for not trying this intervention or that intervention. We are all grown-ups here and responsible for ourselves. Projecting blame onto another parent who has no control over your child or the cause of anyone’s autism is ridiculous.

Autism Recovery is Not for the Faint of Heart

By J.B. Handley
 
Soon after my son’s autism diagnosis, my wife and I were receiving advice from a DAN! Doctor helping our son. Transdermal glutathione and something very smelly called TTFD were prescribed, and we were told to rub each of these creams on his skin every night.
 
“How long do we need to do this for?” I asked.
 
“Six months, maybe a year,” came the doctor’s reply.
 
“A year? Are you kidding?”
 
I couldn’t believe it, what an inconvenience!
 
Those of you who are biomed veterans are already smiling. Five years later, I see the world a little differently, and I have this to say to all parents battling autism:
 
This job of recovery ain’t for the faint of heart.
 
Yup, I know it’s coming, parents who will complain and say that somehow I am blaming parents who don’t try hard enough for their child’s ongoing autism. I’m not. Really. Autism is a huge challenge. We all do the best we can…
 
Some people’s “best” just happens to be better than other people’s “best” -- and that’s the damn truth.

Generation Rescue Supports Dr. Andrew Wakefield

A Statement from Generation Rescue in Support of Dr. Andrew Wakefield

Do you think pharmaceutical companies have too much influence in the laws, policies, and regulations of our government? We do.

Do you think pharmaceutical companies do things that most Americans would view as unethical to protect their profits? We do.

In a court case in Australia involving the use of the drug Vioxx, it was proven that Merck (the manufacturer of Vioxx) “made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced."

In fact, a Merck employee wrote in an email concerning these doctors: "We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live."

This isn’t the stuff of conspiracy theories, this isn’t the stuff of cynics or crazy parents, this is court-documented behavior of Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world who happens to also be the manufacturer of one of the world’s most profitable vaccines, the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella).

The recent decision by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom against Andy Wakefield shouldn’t surprise anyone who understands the stakes, profits, and reputations at risk in the debate over vaccines and autism.

The sole purpose of the GMC’s ruling this week is to try and quell the growing concern of parents that the expanding vaccine schedule and the remarkable rise in autism are correlated. The GMC will no doubt be helped by a press that barely understands the debate and has never read any of the dozens of studies published by Dr. Wakefield in many different respected medical journals.

Celebs and Medical Advice: Great Only When Message Pro-Treatment?

By Kim Stagliano

You might have missed the December 23rd USA TODAY article on the effect of celebrities on healthcare knowledge and decisions. It appears that when Katie Couric tells viewers to get a colonoscopy she's doing the right thing, according the the medical powers that be. Sally Fields can tell you to take a pill that has side effects longer than your arm - and she's as pure as The Flying Nun. J. Lo can tell you to get the pertussis vaccine for your child, with zero disclaimers on side effects required, (preferably NOT while wearing that hideous catsuit from New Year's Eve.) But when Jenny McCarthy asks questions about vaccine safety, she's "wrong."   

Americans are back to eating spinach and hamburger because they belief the risk of e.coli is gone. Not so with vaccines. Many parents have lost trust in the AAP and the vaccine manufacturers. They are afraid of the side effects. The Gardasil marketing push followed by the H1N1 pandemic overkill did not help allay fears.  Jim Carrey said it best, "We are not the problem. The problem is the problem."  (See here.)

Check out the quote from the article by the Wyeth funded pro-vaccine group Every Child by Two (See our post about ECBT last year HERE.) Someone send Amy Pisani a tissue, will you? And tell Africa they dodged a big bullet for the time being.

...Doctors and public health groups say they struggle over the best way to respond to celebrity claims.

At Every Child By Two, an immunization campaign co-founded by former first lady Rosalynn Carter, board members were initially inclined to ignore celebrities who question vaccine safety, says executive director Amy Pisani. Now, the group spends 80% of its time explaining why vaccines are still critical.

"We were poised to start working in Africa," Pisani says. "But we were forced to pull back just to re-educate people here in the United States."

For good or bad, research shows that stars exert powerful influence not just on popular opinion, but on public health.

•Vaccines. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,017 adults found that more than half were aware of McCarthy's warnings about childhood shots. More than 40% of adults familiar with her message — 23% of all adults surveyed — say McCarthy's claims have made them more likely to question vaccine safety. The Nov. 20-22 poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points... Read the full article in USA TODAY.

Kim Stagliano is Managing Editor of Age of Autism.

Age of Autism Award: Jim Carrey, Quote of the Year

We award the 2009 Quote of the Year to Jim Carrey, who appeared on Larry King Live on April 4th, with Jenny McCarthy, J.B. Handley, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel and a group of autism epidemic and treatment deniers who appear to be against vaccine safety for all children.

Thank you, Jim.

KING: Isn't the problem here, Jenny, that people sometimes listen with one ear are going to panic. And not vaccine at all?

MCCARTHY: Probably. But guess what? It's not my fault. The reason why they're not vaccinating is because the vaccines are not safe. Make a better product and then parents will vaccinate.

CARREY: We're not the problem. The problem is the problem.

HANDLEY: The AAP has failed our kids.

Larry King Live - Jim and Jenny -4 April 09 @ Yahoo! Video

Autism One & Generation Rescue Autism Redefined 2010 Conference

The Hopes of a Mother . . . the Dreams of a Father . . . Are Real. Our Children Get Better.

Conference details will be posted soon at www.autismone.org.
Registration opens this week.

PROUDLY ANNOUNCING
The Autism One & Generation Rescue - Autism Redefined 2010 Conference
Monday, May 24 – Sunday, May 30
Westin O’Hare Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

We could not be more pleased to bring you Autism Redefined 2010 and share with you the tremendous excitement we feel. The most comprehensive autism conference internationally is getting bigger and better.

For 7 days in May, everything you thought you knew and could do will be challenged and changed. You will be informed, educated, and join the legion of parents who are embracing prevention and recovery.

Conference Speakers - Partial List for 2010:

Keynote Address - Jenny McCarthy

James Adams, PhD
Timothy Adams, Esq.
Lynne Arnold, MA
Mary Lynch Barbera, RN, MSN, BCBA
Daniel Barth, PhD
Jeffrey Becker, OD
Michael Biamonte, CCN
Mark Blaxill, MBA
Kenneth Bock, MD
Tom Bohager
Jeff Bradstreet, MD

Watch Santa Baby Christmas Maybe on ABC Family Tonight Starring Jenny McCarthy

Click HERE for a sneak peak of Santa Baby Christmas Maybe starring Jenny McCarthy, Paul Sorvino and Dean McDermott. Watch tonight, on ABC Family at 8pm EDT (check your local listings.)

Kickin’ the Tires of the Green Vaccine Initiative

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

From the years I worked in sales there was one piece of information which has always stuck with me.  It’s said that even when a person goes to a car dealership knowing he wants to get a specific car, the salesman still has to ask for the sale at least five times before the customer says yes.

I understand very few of you had ever considered a ballot proposition as a way to make progress in combating autism.  You didn't intend to walk onto that particular car lot.  I may need to “ask” for your support many times before you say yes.

But the process goes even deeper.  The person who goes onto that car lot knowing the specific car he wants isn’t trying to make the salesman’s job more difficult.  We may know what we like, but we also want to make sure the decision we make is the right one.  In the sales world the four times the interested customer says “no” are known as “objections”.  The salesman’s job is to answer those objections as completely as he can.  If he does a good job the sale is made.  If not, the interested customer walks away.

Since I’ve rolled out the Green Vaccines initiative it seems there have been three main objections raised and I want to take each one of them in turn:

A.  We should just stick to getting a Vaccinated/Unvaccinated Study funded – I will confess that the first order of business is getting a Vaccinated/Unvaccinated study done with world-class researchers and a large enough sample size to make people sit up and take notice.  However, I know that some people are very close to getting something along those lines started.  That’s the first punch.  How long will it take them to get results?  Personally, I think such a thing could be done relatively quickly.  Then what follows?  I think the Green Vaccines Initiative is something which supports that line of inquiry.  It's a good second punch.  If a Vaccinated/Unvaccinated study gets funded we should have the results by election time.  If not it creates more of an impetus to get such a study completed.

The Heroes of Autism Video

This is a beautiful way to end the holiday weekend. Thank you to AL for creating the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8onanMtxc

The "Green Vaccines" Initiative

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I hope you'll forgive me if I talk about this idea for the next couple weeks.  I think it's the game-changer for which everybody in our community has been hoping and praying.

The legal system is rigged against us.  The dying traditional media is begging for advertising dollars from pharmaceutical companies in this economic crisis.  And the politicians have their hands open for pharma dollars.

All these doors are closed.  We won't get them to help us by playing nice.  As somebody once said, "if all the doors are closed, find a window."

The "Green Vaccines Initiative" is our window.  Consider how we might change the course of autism and other neurological conditions with this single effort.  Here are what I think are the three most compelling reasons to support this initiative:

1.  If we make this a political fight, then the media has certain additional legal protections.  It's my opinion that a good deal of the media fears giving us too much of a voice because they'll be looking down the barrel of a lawsuit like the 100 million dollar claim made against Oprah Winfrey by the cattle industry for going after beef.  (I know she won it, but how many of the media companies have the money of Oprah Winfrey?  Come to think of it, only Oprah has that kind of money!)  If it's a political fight, the media is obligated to cover both sides, and their LEGAL protections are just about invulnerable.  They could run an entire issue on what we say and the pharmaceutical companies couldn't lay a finger on them.  Do you know how many young reporters must be itching to do this story and make a name for themselves?  This gives the press the opportunity to do the job it should have been doing for the last fifteen years.

2.  It means the medical community has to come out of hiding to defend themselves.  Have you noticed how lately when our community goes on television that all we get from the CDC or some other medical group is a damned written statement?  Where are the flesh-and-blood doctors willing to defend vaccines?  How do you think that's going to look in the context of a political debate?  Will they be able to defend the theft of data from the Vaccine Safety Data-link?  What about the complete absence of studies of the neurological health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children?  If they show up they lose on the facts.  If they don't show up, they lose because they public will see them as cowards.

Jenny McCarthy Featured in Living Without Magazine

Pick up a copy of the December issue of Living Without Magazine to read a terrifc interview with Generation Rescue's Jenny McCarthy about the GFCF diet.

Plus this issue has gluten and casein food charts to help you learn what ingredients to avoid. Copy the charts and share them with friends and family to make sure your (or your child's) food is allergy free.

The "Green Our Vaccines" Initiative for Autism

Managing Editor's Note: We'd like you to know that the parent volunteers of Generation Rescue are donating $50,000 to this ballot initiative effort. We are seeking additional donations, large and small, every dollar counts.  You can donate by clicking HERE. When you get to the donation page, click that you want to make the donation in honor of somebody, then during Step 2 you can make a personal note at the final field to enter information, please place the word "Ballot" in the personal note section so your donation can be directed to this cause.  Thank you.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I'd hoped the Special Masters of the Vaccine Court would put an end to the vaccine/autism catastrophe.  Nobody was more surprised than me by the decisions earlier this year in the cases of Cedillo, Hazlehurst, and Snyder.   

As an attorney I have great respect for the judicial system but the decisions struck me as terribly flawed.  Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.  The Vaccine Court isn't really part of the traditional legal system.  It was a creation of the pharmaceutical companies to shield themselves from liability.  Why else would a plaintiff be unable to force a defendant to produce a single document or witness without the permission of the Special Master? These companies and the U. S. government know they have something to hide.

The Vaccine Court also anticipated a small number of claims.  With conservative estimates of 670,000 children with autism and a rate which has gone from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100 over the course of about two decades it’s probably difficult for those in the medical and legal systems to comprehend the extent of the damage they've caused.

Kept out of the regular court system, ignored by the media who view our questions as “fringe” and “irresponsible”, and shunned by most medical professionals, we need a new plan.

I have one.  I hope you'll join me in making it a reality.

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey Reach Out to Disabled Redskin's Cheerleader

Click HERE to read the full story and how you can help at Fox 5.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - There are new developments in the story FOX 5 first brought you about a Redskins cheerleader left disabled by a seasonal flu shot.   Now, Desiree Jennings is adding a boost of star power to her cause.

An organization founded by actors (Generation Rescue*) Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey is so touched by Desiree's story that they have reached out to offer not only words of encouragement, but the organization's support.

Desiree Jennings' struggle is getting worldwide attention.

"It's been unreal," Jennings told FOX 5. "I didn't think anyone would even care about my story. People are sitting there crying and I can't understand why..."

* Our sponsor GR was co-founded by J.B. and Lisa Handley. Jenny and Jim joined forces with GR and have continued the fight for vaccine safety and vaccine injury advocacy.

Vaccine Injury Isn't Just for Babies: The Desiree Jennings Flu Shot Story

Managing Editor's Note: As part of their vaccine safety and injury outreach initiative, Generation Rescue brings us the story of Desiree Jennings. Click (HERE) to learn how you can get involved. A Dr. Vincour, from the U. of Maryland has called Ms. Jennings's symptoms, "psychogenic," which means originating in the mind, not in true physiological illness. In fact, they are going to use her case to teach students about crazy women who think a vaccine could injure them. Psychogenic is akin to the word, "hysteria" which comes from the Greek word, "hyster" for uterus. Hysteria is a female disease. Psychogenic too, in this case, according to the "experts."

My name is Desiree Jennings and I am twenty-five years old. I work full-time as a Marketing Communications Manager for a major Internet company. I am currently working to finish my bachelor's degree in Finance and Economics this fall and hope to continue on to a Masters in Economics in 2010.

In my spare time, I enjoy running and training for races from 5Ks to marathons. I also lead a local run club, training beginning runners for 5K and 10K races. I am training for the National Marathon in DC in March and recently became a member of the Washington Redskins Cheerleader Ambassador team. That was the life that I used to know.

On August 23, 2009, I received a seasonal flu vaccine at a local grocery store that drastically, and potentially irreversibly, altered my future. In a matter of a few short weeks I lost the ability to walk, talk normally, and focus on more than one stimuli at a time. Whenever I eat I know, without fail, that my body will soon go into uncontrollable convulsions coupled with periods of blacking out. 

Generation Rescue and Autism One Kickoff The Stay At Home Moms March in NJ

CALLING ALL WARRIOR MOMS & DADS!
THE STAY-AT-HOME MOMS MARCH
TAKES TO THE STREETS
BEGINNING FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16!
 
NEW JERSEY VACCINATION CHOICE RALLY & STAY-AT-HOME-MOMS MARCH  

Autism One  and Generation Rescue are delighted to join with you to begin a new era of autism advocacy that takes to the streets - your streets - to bring our message directly to the people who are causing - and profiting from - the epidemic.

The Stay-At-Home-Moms March is the start of the biggest autism uprising ever. The March begins with the "New Jersey Rallies for Choice" event on Friday, October 16 . . . There is no end date - we are not going away. The March is a campaign that will continue as long as necessary to end the epidemic, find justice for our children, and hold those accountable responsible for their actions.

Autism is the number one pediatric health crisis in the world today. Our community has waited and waited and waited for those in positions of power to protect the health of our children as the rates of autism and other chronic childhood diseases go up and up and up. We are not waiting any longer.

Welcome to the kickoff event of the Stay-at-Home Moms March. This Friday, October 16, starting at 4:00 pm in Wayne, New Jersey, at William Paterson University, Life Health Choices and the NJ Coalition for Vaccination Choice conjunction with Generation Rescue and AutismOne takes to the streets.

Jenny McCarthy on the Weight Watchers Lose For Good Program

By Kim Stagliano

Did you catch this on The Today Show? Jenny McCarthy has teamed up with Weight Watchers to help feed hungry children. Did you know she weighed 200 pounds when she was pregnant with Evan? If you've seen her speaking at an autism event, you know she's petite and has a gorgeous figure. She credits Weight Watchers. Who knew? :)

The program is called "Lose for Good" and it works like this. For every pound you lose with Weight Watchers, you donate one pound of food to charity. Fabulous! Just like Jenny. You can find her books HERE and learn about her work for autism at Generation Rescue (our sponsor, also fabulous.)

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