Dr Dyer did his residency at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia no doubt with our other great vaccine opportunist Dr. Offit. Explains a lot.

An addendum to address critique that this post has received elsewhere.

-One person seems to have been concerned that I was personally insulted by the AAP and All Star Pediatrics. I want to assure that I am at peace on the matter. After having my son become sick due to AAP's bad policy, not much that they simply say about me, or people like me, hurts my feelings.

Insults given do not necessarily need to be received.

In my life, personally, I believe it is wise to work toward not being "insulted" by insults. Because really, either the person insulting you is right, and you need to do some self examination and change, or they are wrong, and (to be frank) who cares what they think about you.

In this case, I think that Dr. Dyer and his crew are wrong. Deciding not to vaccinate based on your best judgment is not selfish, self-centered, or a product of 'unacceptable attitudes'. (Come to think of it, how exactly does Dyer and company read minds to know what peoples motives are? Especially people he has never met, as the statement is a blanket one?) We are charged with making the best choices for our kids that we can given the information we have. Reducing that decision making process to the motives Dyer wants to believe are behind those decisions is just speculative bullying and communicates low regard for parents.

Especially parents who are earnestly struggling with the issue.

And it is not me being insulted that is the problem. It is the parents on the vaccine bubble. Treat their legitimate concerns with contempt and you only risk making complete vaccine refusal more widespread.

-Umbrage seems to have been taken at my use of the word "recommends" in the opening sentence, "The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that pediatricians tell parents who don't vaccinate their children that they..."

I am making the assumption, a reasonable one I think, that choosing only one medical practices vaccine policy letter to patients (one would think there are a thousand out there to choose from) and placing it prominently both on your newsletter and website whose purpose is to give guidance to pediatricians who are members of the AAP constitutes a 'recommendation'. If not a recommendation, it certainly represents a ringing endorsement.

For the sake of accuracy, I will contact the AAP on Monday and ask that they clarify if this was a 'recommendation' or an 'endorsement'.

But, if we can cut the crap and get real for a moment, it does not matter what semantics the AAP decides to play with this. They are holding it out for their members as an example to be followed and even if they DID run a disclaimer (which they didn't) that they don't recommended the letter at all, the message would still be loud and clear to peds.

'Feel free to insult your patients, use coercion to get them to fully vaccinate and dismiss them if they don't. We might 'have' to officially say don't do it, but really, you won't get any arguments from us! (wink)'

Kinda like the conversation I had with my seven year old yesterday, "Son, it is totally wrong to steal cars. Did I ever tell you about Jonsie "Zoom Zoom" Mcgillicutty? Man that guy was great at stealing cars. Here is what he did... now here is how you jimmy the lock to break in... and here is how you hot wire it... and once you have the car you..."

They can say all day they want their docs to 'work with' parents, but what they DO gives us the real message of what they are all about. And what they have DONE is tell peds how to treat patients with earnest vaccine concerns with contempt.

The AAP had long remained silent on vaccine injury and was thought a fool by many parents. Now those self-serving bureaucrats have opened their mouths and removed all doubt.

These shrill, money-minded people have unmasked the ugliness we parents intuited from their previous inaction about our children's injuries. They are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the dues-paying members of AAP nationwide.

Trust can only return after the current officers are replaced with people of the highest moral standards. And with people who can write press releases that don't contain 3 grammatical errors in the first paragraph.

Fire your pediatrician, hire a General Practioner!

Pediatricians are *not* the only doctors qualified to care for children.
I never saw a pediatrician growing up. My mother took my brother and
I to a general practitioner, and we are fine. I know of many parents
who do the same thing and most tell me that their GP gives them little
or no pressure about vaccine schedules.

Parents have an option. And if you chose a GP over a PED you still
have the choice to take your child to a pediatric specialist
should the need arise.

The AAP thinks if they can get all peds to treat us the same way we won't have a choice. Well guess what peds aren't the only choice we have for our kids.

Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center
http://www.909shot.com/ had this to say about the uncompromising attitude of the AAP:

"If the average practicing pediatrician will reject the AAP leadership for making life too difficult for them by insisting on inflexible administration of one-size-fits-all vaccine policies, then the AAP will suffer membership loss and lose their power. The AAP has steered their members wrong for way too long about the risks of vaccination and gotten away with it. Hopefully a new and more enlightened pediatrician organization will take its place that is not so tied to vaccine manufacturers and truly embraces the concept of "First, Do No Harm" and shared decision making with parents."

Barbara Loe Fisher

I am sure that pediatricians too are as individual as snowflakes. Some are good, some are bad, and some are downright ugly.

I have experience with examples on both side of the Great Divide. While my current pedi doesn't *believe* that vaccines can be a contributor to autism, she does *believe" that I am doing the right thing for my boys. She's seen them change, grow, and thrive. And at every well child visit it's the same two things "are we vaccinating today, mom?" (to which I very politely say "Not today") and "Keep doing what you're doing, these kids are doing GREAT.".

My ex pediatrician is a prime example of a rude arrogant pedantic donkey's behind. She had seen me struggle through many years of medical misery and pain with Salamander. Her assessment of his projectile vomitting and *like clockwork every 6 week metabolic crashes* was "he's trying to control you with his BEHAVIORS, he doesn't like the fact that you are a full time working mom".
And when I asked about splitting up the MMR for Potatey (as by that time I had a better grip on what was going with Salamander; plus Potatey has severe food allergies, was a premie and had RSV when he was 3 months) she got very angry with me and told me I was wasting time and money (whatever.. as I said, she's the EX-pediatrician).

I think somewhere along the way some medical professionals forgot that they are 'service providers' (right along with 'first do no harm'). I am a service provider and I can tell you that if I treated MY clients the way some medical professionals do theirs my business would have folded a long time ago.

I guess I'm lucky to have such an enlightened pediatrician. My girl is not quite two and I didn't even mention autism at all as a reason for not getting her vaccinated yet (I may later but definitely not on the AAP schedule). I only mentioned that I have some food allergies and my brother-in-law has type 1 diabetes, and I was concerned about exposing her developing immune system to these so early.

You know what she said? "You're doing the right thing."

Not everyone in that practice would say the same thing--another doc got very agitated when I told him I was delaying, but he didn't force it once he realized I was reasonably well informed. I am so grateful that that practice hasn't muzzled this amazing and supportive doctor, and just hope that those diamonds in the rough pediatricians that see kids as individuals and listen to parents concerns will not be bullied into conforming.

I actually don't know any children with autism, but I am generally agitated with the conventional medical community's dogma and lack of focus on proper nutrition and natural health. I am inspired by all of your plights. God bless you all and your children, and thanks for everything you do.

(And thanks Dan Olmstead, David Kirby, and others who have been brave enough to go against the grain to report on this issue.)

Commenting on my own piece. Personally, I don't think that individual pediatricians are going to tolerate this for a whole lot longer. They are the ones who have to actually stand in front of patients and say these things. At some point they are not going to be able to stomach it any more.

But the AAP is insulated. Like CDC and HHS, they can stay in their building and never have to actually debate parents or the docs that are serving their vaccine damaged kids.

I don’t have any answers. I guess I’m hoping that if I just explain a couple of things that have happened to me, somebody else might be able to look at the situations and figure out some kind of an answer for the mess we’re in. I can’t. But anyway, there are two things that happened to me that I wanted to relate just because I think they’re pertinent.

The first is the visits that I had with my oldest child Erin’s pediatrician, when she was a baby and toddler. Erin is the one who we had the most serious concerns about, who we were told might have autism by her gastro intestinal specialist.

I think he suspected that the vaccines were harmful. I don’t know why, exactly. When Erin would be there with me in his office for well checks as a baby, screaming incessantly at the top of her lungs the way she did, as if somebody had stuck a fork into her, he would just smile at me and shrug and say “oh well sometimes this happens…” But I remember there was one vaccine, I can’t remember which one it was, that had just begun being routinely given, and he actually suggested that perhaps it would be better if Erin didn’t get that vaccine. She was about four or five years old I think, at the time-- that would’ve been in around `94. He said “It’s to protect against a disease which is almost exclusively sexually transmitted. I don’t think Erin’s going to be having sex any time soon, do you?” And I thought to myself “well duh.” And I smiled and I said “No” and he said “why don’t we put that vaccine off until she’s older?” and I said okay.

He left the practice shortly after that. I was disappointed because I’d always thought he wasn’t too bad of a doctor all things considered. But I was also a bit surprised, because he didn’t really seem that old, to me. He’d told me he was retiring. I thought to myself that he seemed too young to retire, but didn’t ask him anything else about his age or why he was retiring. I sort of suspected though that maybe he was just going into private practice rather than continuing to work through the HMO. Or leaving the country maybe. But maybe he just looked young for his age.

The other incident happened five or six years ago. Everyone in my family, all six of us, got this horrible cough. You’d cough uncontrollably so hard and so long that eventually sometimes you’d end up barfing from it. It was pretty disturbing because it wouldn’t go away for the longest time. I was beginning to think there was some environmental toxin in my house, like maybe a carbon monoxide leak or something.

I remember seeing one of the HMO Doctors about it a few times over a period of maybe six or eight weeks. At first she told me it was the flu and it would go away. I said to her “are you sure? I’ve never had a flu last this long.” Eventually she told me it was asthma, and then later on, COPD. One of the things that she said to me, I think it was on my third visit, was “Are you just trying to get out of going to work?” I might not have been as offended as I was if I had any thought that perhaps she might have meant it as a joke. But the way she said it, I really don’t think it’s very likely that she wasn’t completely serious. I told her “Ha. I wish! I’m a stay at home mom.”

I swore that that was the last time I would make an appointment to see her.

I found out a few weeks later that we’d all had whooping cough. My husband found a description on a website, with a wave file of the way the cough sounded. Although he was the only one who got the classic ‘whoop’ sound with his cough, the rest of the description fit us all to a tee. It went away in three months, for all of us, just as the whooping cough description said it would. So anyway, the HMO Doctor couldn’t diagnose the problem, but my husband could. It’s all kind of weird because I don’t know how up to date I or my husband were on our childhood vaccines, but I do know that all of my children had been fully vaccinated at that point in time. Which meant they’d got their whooping cough vaccines. But still, they got whooping cough.

The worst thing about the whole situation, though, I think, was the attitude of the Doctor. I wrote a letter to the HMO explaining how offended I was by her question. This was the same HMO where I went, years later, and handed my pediatrician the information about mercury in vaccines, and he printed out the AAP’s There-there,-nothing-to-worry-about statement for me but he didn’t bother to look at it before he handed it to me. So that, when I got it home, I found that it wasn’t printed properly and I couldn’t have read it if I’d wanted to. We don’t have that HMO any longer.

The other thing that really disturbs me a lot is how no matter which health insurance plan you have (my husband is a federal employee, which means that we can choose between a list of insurers and switch yearly if we’d like), you end up with the same kind of crappy care.

(Originally Published on Jenny McCarthy’s web blog)

To the other parents who like us, struggle with our son's Autism, please don't get caught up arguing with people who are not compassionate. The naysayer’s who say that vaccines have nothing to do with this epidemic, have a hidden agenda – they are protecting the medical establishment’s BIG mistake.

This is all going to come out in due time, and hopefully much faster with the pending litigation in Vaccine Court. The government finally conceded that there is a connection, and that is the start. Where one of the problem’s proving the connection, has been a lack of funds for studies and that is changing. The medical community can no longer play dumb and lie to parents anymore, we just will not accept the B***S*** anymore.

The medical community is quick to say there is no connection, but they have no reasoning on why a normal developing child would make a complete reversal of development and personality. Why? Because they made a BIG mistake, and they are trying, with the support of the government who mandates the vaccination schedule to cover up this major disaster. Here are a few points’…

1. Why did congress try to pass legislation that would drop all lawsuits against the pharmaceutical industry and indemnify them? Senator Frisk and Senator Army where pushing this at the eleventh hour, to try to slip it in. It failed.

2. Why do so many Doctor’s have conflicts of interest and own stock, options or get paid for studies that the pharmaceutical industry funds? Why have there not been more studies to prove that vaccines are safe, before they are made mandatory? The answer is that they are making a TON of MONEY, there are no third party independent studies. The pharmaceutical industry controls all studies, and they cater to doctors. I know, my wife is in the medical profession.

3. Why is there even a Vaccine Court, think about that? Because the government
acknowledges that people do get vaccine injured, and it was setup to protect the vaccine program.

4. Why after the most current ruling in Vaccine Court, the government will not release all the details – what are they hiding? This should be public record, and must be disclosed. Here the government again, is deceiving parents of very sick children and doing a disservice. All records of this magnitude must be open to the public. There should be an uproar why the court sealed the records, don’t you think? The parents are willing to disclose, but the government will not allow it?

5. Why did so many of us get sick when vaccinated, which I saw when I was in
the Military? Because the human body is getting bombarded, and can’t handled it – now think about giving all that to a developing baby? It does not make any sense, unless you think of all the money involved.

For further thought…

I (we) don’t need to listen to people who want to lecture me about what my son and family have been through, it is a waste of my time and anyone who is fighting this disorder. I always have believed America is compassionate, but I also have to remind myself that much of it is based on a system of greed.

This profitable relationship between the pharmaceutical industry, is just like the one you’re reading about in the current news about FFA and the Airline Industry safety. The government has a very LONG history of lying to the Public; this matter is no different and will come out with the proper litigation. They are not going to admit anything, it is going to have to be forced out of them…and I promise that parents like myself, are leading the charge.

By the way, my son will soon turn 9 and I have been involved in the Autism fight to be heard for the last 7 years. I told my wife, many years ago that it would take powerful people (Congressman Weldon, Senator Burton) famous people (Jenny, etc.) that this would unfortunately happen to their child, where you would see the change of public opinion. And change is coming quickly…My son is one of the first cases in Vaccine Court, and if we lose, we plan on taking it even further. Supreme Court if it goes that far.

For those of you out there, like us, keep fighting and don’t let anyone say otherwise (they don’t know what they are talking about). We are not EVER going away, EVER!

Michael A. Chernoff, for Alexander and so many Others…I will be your voice.

(Originally Published on Jenny McCarthy’s web blog)

My pediatricians have not hassled me about my vaccination opinion. They treat my children with care and concern. We've worked with a ped in Cleveland (who was is a MENSA member and a truly respect and like him) one in Massachusetts and now CT. Do they jump up and down and give me an "atta girl!" when I tell them my vaccination opinion? Nope. They counsel me and we agree to watch the girls' health. Of course, when I utter, "seizure disorders, mitochondrial dysfunction, siblings with autism" they tend to get rather buggy eyed and write, "Medical Exemption" on the chart. But I've always had a respectful relationship with them, even when we disagree. I'm grateful for that.