I feel for new parents who have no idea about the dangers of vaccines and listen to their uniformed Pediatricians. However, parents today have a much greater opportunity of reading about the harmful effects of vaccines than parents had even 5 years ago so there is less of an excuse to be so clueless.

I DO NOT feel for the parents who believe vaccines had nothing to do with their child's autism and who choose to believe that doctors "know best" and follow their advice of continuing to vaccinate. The stupidity of this is amazing.

CNN is now running the same story. So clearly a coordinated press release bandwagon kind of thing. And if you check out the "blogosphere" links down below, you can see a delightful array of people kvetching over we "anti-vax" parents who are going to be the end of civilization. They are so foaming at the mouth I think they may need a rabies shot. Seriously.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/08/21/measles.outbreaks.ap/index.html

Every time Mr. Harris writes about the fear of the MMR and Autism,or vaccines and Autism, he sparks curiosity in hundreds of people who may not know about this controversy. I can hear the google searching from here.

Gee, what a coincidence that they pick up this story at almost the EXACT same time as the one that ran in the UK. I mean, it's almost like they're psychic, right? Or Pharma shills with a coordinated press release plan...

"From January through July, 131 measles cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 15 states and the District of Columbia. Fifteen people, including four infants, were hospitalized. There were no deaths."

I don't get the crises? Or the panic. Nobody died. All that happened was that some people got sick. Don't people get sick? Last time I checked people were getting sick all the time, its a fairly common phenomenon. NYT had to write a piece about it???

Really? Who are these scientists who are working soooo hard to figure out what happened to our kids?! I'd love to read a story about how they are up nights discussing all of their "theories" including: genetics (not sure how you can attribute genetics to an epidemic but they continue to try), television, or one of the most recent media reports I've read, that pet food is the culprit! Why look where it makes the most sense - environmental causes including but not limited to vaccines - when the gov't can blame genetics, NBC and the family dog?

J.B.,
Thank you so much for posting this.

It looks like Mr. Harris is at it again with another article in the New York Times today bashing parents who don't want to vaccinate because they are concerned for the safety of their children. He is listed as a contributor in the article "Public Health Risk Seen as Parents Reject Vaccines" posted at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html?hp. The article was so biased and full of misrepresentations that I became suspicious of his ethics as a journalist and did a google search for his name and the word "vaccine" and lo and behold your posting came up. The man cares nothing for the suffering caused by vaccine reactions and is abusing his position in the media to further his own biased and ignorant agenda of "one-sized-fits-all vaccine mandates regardless of the causalties.

I run Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, or PROVE, and sent a note to our members today asking them to send in letters to the New York Times for this piece. I will post my comments below. Many of our members have a family member or have suffered themselves from vaccine reactions, and articles like this one trying to paint these families as irresposnible for wanting to stop the carnage are mean spirited and rooted in ignorance.

Thanks for creating a permanent record of this reporter's lack of jornalistic ethics to help me make sense of this horrible piece.

Sincerely,
Dawn Richardon

Dear Prove Members,
The New York Times has published an article entitled “Public Health Risk Seen as Parents Reject Vaccines” (posted below and online at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html?hp ) that deserves a strong response from our members. Please read this article and send letters to the editor and post comments on the website letting the New York Times know what you think. Please point out some of the numerous mistakes and glaring bias. You may even want to post your responses on the various blogs and email lists you are on encouraging others to do the same.

In this article, the New York Times’ has demonstrated callous disregard for the families devastated by vaccine reactions, and their willingness to act as accomplices to propagate the ignorant and inhumane agenda of vaccine zealots who REFUSE to acknowledge the countless studies demonstrating vaccine risks is unacceptable in this country. Employees at New York Times not involved in the writing and editing should be embarrassed and ashamed of their colleagues for this article.

Intelligent and highly educated parents across the country are questioning vaccines in increasing numbers because they have observed for themselves the FLAWS and the HOLES in the science used to hold up unreasonable and sometimes dangerous one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates and they have seen for themselves previously healthy children destroyed by vaccine reactions while top public health officials categorically deny any association. The public health infrastructure is built on the flawed premise that parents who are educated consumers and question vaccines are somehow responsible for the failure of a drug to perform as promised or advertised. Vaccines are drugs that have the ability to cause injury and death in some people period. NO amount of glorification will change that fact.

When you click on the link to the article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html?hp you can post comments responding to the article online. Additionally, information on sending letters to the editor can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html and letters can be sent to [email protected]
Some of you may want to refer to their self-proclaimed ethical policies namely in section A1 - Our Duty to Our Audience, item number 17 which states “As journalists we treat our readers, viewers, listeners and online users as fairly and openly as possible. Whatever the medium, we tell our audiences the complete, unvarnished truth as best we can learn it.” More on their ethical policies can be found at http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html#A1. The media has an ethical obligation to tell people the truth. Parents aren’t wrong to question vaccines just because some people don’t like it.
Sincerely, Dawn Richardson

Yes, Sandy, I remember that the CDC turned down the offer of mercury-free vaccines, enough to keep us going until the other vaccine makers could get on-line, and have been trying to find it on my computer (ha! good luck, there is so much), but I finally found mention of it here: http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/media/2.14.pdf which is an article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the Huffington Post. Here also, are links to the letters from the vaccine manufacturers:
http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/media/2.3.pdf
http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/media/2.4.pdf

What I meant to say was "one reason they don't have only thimerosal-free flu vaccines on the market".....

How I got the other sentence, I'll never know.

Well, one reason there is a version of the flu vaccine on the market can be read about in the following: "Introducing the American Academy of Pediatrics’ new 'Two Wrongs Make a Right' policy!" (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2006/Apr_10/Scandal78.htm )

By the way, I believe the CDC was told at one point by the vaccine manufacturers that they could produce enough thimerosal free flu vaccine to go around, but the CDC turned them down. But I need to verify that.

What's truly "sad" is that Harris has betrayed the journalistic ideal expressed by I.F. Stone that his calling should be to "aflict the comfortable and comfort the aflicted." He uncritically parrots CDC's talking points about the "five studies prove . . ." bue he refused to report on the repeated rounds of data manipulation to hide any autism "signal" thoroughly reported in Evidence of Harm and in detailed analyses at Safeminds.org. He claims to be sympathetic to parents "haunted" by their unvaccineated children contracting infectious diseases, but where's the sympathy for the countless more parents "haunted" by autism possibly caused by vaccines. If Harris is so committed to vax as public policy, then where's his investigative reporting on why the government hasn't insisted on safer vaccines, why all Hg (an undisputed neuro and immune toxin with no safe level) hasn't been replaced by a safer preservative or single-dose jabs, and why CDC is so willing to tolerate so many cases of autism as collateral damage in its war against infectious disease. Why isn't Harris, since he supposedly "cares" so much, obcessed with figuring out why CDC can't have both safer vaccines and reasonable immunization policy. He has sold his soul, utterly lost his objectivity, and is more a propagandist than a reporter for a once-great paper that has sunk to a house organ for the pharma-industrial-government complex that should just change its name to Pravda and its sacred motto to: "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength."

It's funny about Gardiner Harris. Here's this guy who's pitched in a few squeaks towards the idea that massively drugging children with multiple neurotoxic psychotropes might not be healthy and that, furthermore, he seems to get that pharma is profiting from the iatrogenic brain damage. But his journalistic umbilical cord-- a leash which has probably been shortened all the more because of his sacrilege against psych drugs-- is still firmly attached to a publication which takes the big bucks off pharma. I think the grotesque Omnibus parent-bashing he did on "All Things Considered" last year and these really vitriolic defenses of vaccines are his concession to the mother ship, a way to grovel for amnesty, consciously or un. He just can't for the life of him (and for the sake of his career) apply the same model to vaccines, despite the studies showing that both the drugs and vaccine toxins have some very curious overlaps regarding effects on the brain.

I always imagine him as an hysterical personality because of having to talk out of both sides of his mouth to such extremes. He might even have two heads. That mother ship ingests (and spews back) a lot of toxic bullshit, after all.

Gardiner Harris's selective worldview is chillingly evident, showing that media's power is intoxicating -- and corrupting. It's creepy to read his evasive responses, his deliberate rephrasing of issues, and the final tipping of his biased hand.

Like the Mayo Clinic's Dr. Gregory Poling, Harris perceives himself as a warrior against disease. Somehow he's convinced himself that disease can be eradicated by typing the right words into a computer. Meanwhile he's helped increase the number of children with autism by misinforming the public about vaccine safety.

Harris's job as a news reporter is not to SPIN news, but to report it accurately, objecively, without bias or outside influence.

Sadly he still can't get past regurgitating the bullet point lists replicated by the CDC and others with vested interests. A responsible reporter could get his/her mind around the paradox that a product intended to improve health may have an adverse effect on some, and fashion the information appropriately.

Here is a FAQ from the watchdog group Accuracy In Media (AIM):
"Why is it necessary for the media to have a watchdog?
"Quite frankly, the news media don't always get their stories right. What's worse, many of them don't even seem to care. By advising them of their responsibility to the public, whom they claim to serve, AIM helps to nudge the members of the news media into greater accountability for their actions."
http://www.aim.org/about/frequently-asked-questions-faq/

Vaccine safety and vaccine protection are not mutually exclusive issues, and should not be reported as such.

Gardiner Harris says that "scientists, including government ones. and the ones i know are working as hard as they can to figure out why" children become autistic. But are they investigating what so many parents have witnessed -- the impact of vaccines? And I don't mean with epidemiology, I mean investigating the impact of vaccines on the immune system, the nervous system, the intestines? Or if they want to do epidemiology, how about a study of health outcomes among vaccinated and unvaccinated children?

Regarding thimerosal-free vaccines being discarded, Mr. Harris should read Tim Kasemodel's 1/17/08 AOA article "MERCURY FREE? OR FREE MERCURY?" regarding the bizarre manipulation of demand for mercury-free vaccines in Minnesota. I believe there was a similar acccount of circumstances in Illinois a while back -- I haven't been able to find it.

Mr. Harris says that J.B. has "moved from blaming thimerosal to simply being against vaccination." This is the way that propagandists frequently try to shape this debate: as if it is between pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine forces. We are not anti-vaccine. We are for making vaccines as safe as possible. We are for studying vaccine adverse events and learning from them. Why do these events occur? How can they be prevented? How can they be treated? How can vulnerable kids be identified before being vaccinated? Can we slow down the schedule and give vaccines individually? Do we really need this many vaccines, and at such a young age? Instead, these tragic, life changing events are being denied as coincidental and therefore ignored.

At the very least, shouldn't Hannah Poling's story prompt the agencies and doctors to stop saying it's o.k. to give multiple vaccines together at the same time?

There are too many events like Hannah Poling's to be coincidental. Some occur with older kids (age 3-4) who receive multiple vaccines to "catch up"; this is not just a matter of autism striking at a certain age. These events overlap with events acknowledged by the CDC, such as the study on the CDC's web site from the New England Journal of Medicine saying that febrile seizures may occur after the MMR or DPT vaccines, or the study on Proquad showing that even more febrile seizures occur if the varicela virus is added to the mix.

Regarding what causes vaccine adverse events, a very interesting study was mentioned in a comment a month or so ago, which can be found at http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1913/richet-lecture.html. In this article, written in 1913, a nobel prize winning scientist discusses how injecting minute amounts of toxins or "any protein" can sensitize the immune system so that subsequent injections provoke an over-reaction from the immune system.

We are not just talking about thimerosal. But Gardiner Harris's close mindedness is shown in the fact that he continues to insist that thimerosal was removed from vaccines in 2001, which is false. He also ignores the studies that say there is a synergistic effect when aluminum and mercury are combined. And he ignores the increase of mercury in the environment, which is another factor complicating any epidemiology studies.

The fact that vaccines have saved us from small pox does not prove that it is safe for all babies to receive over 25 injections of anything. Gardiner Harris, wake up. Your logic is simply very stupid and narrow-minded. For the sake of our children, open your mind and listen with intelligence.

New York Times, do not leave this story solely in the hands of Gardiner Harris. Put some other reporters with intelligent fresh minds on this story to learn about these issues in depth, from an unbiased perspective.

The impact of so many vaccines on the immune systems of our children has not been adequately studied -- not only in relation to autism, but also in relation to a host of other conditions, including allergies, asthma, and auto-immune disorders.

I recently wrote a column called "The Power of Fear" (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2008/Feb_11_08/Scandal85.htm )

Until and unless we educate ourselves about the long-term consequences of diseases (as opposed to the mere incidence of them) and the long-term consequences of vaccines (as much as they are known), we all will be vulnerable to it.

Please consider using Vaccination News for that intent and forwarding the link to everyone you know. (http://www.vaccinationnews.org ) The entire purpose of the site is to make it easier to navigate the massive web so that people can make as informed decisions as possible, including deciding to get "politically" involved so that we actually have a choice.

Thanks,
Sandy

We keep hearing the argument about less thimerosal. Does anyone know how much thimerosal was injected into babies in 1931 when autism began? If we have that answer, we know the minimum dose of thimerosal that it took to start this. Of course, that doesn't mean that a smaller ammount than that wouldn't also be hazardous but we would know what the standard dose was that caused the first cases of autism. Or, maybe those first few cases were caused by overloads from lazy nurses who didn't shake the vials.

JB, great job! Teresa, I agree. I was googling this morning and stumbled upon this site (http://autism.about.com/b/2008/03/10/jenny-mccarthy-calls-for-the-resignation-of-the-director-of-the-cdc-will-you-answer-her-call-to-action.htm). Most disturbing, besides the author being unsure as to why Jenny McCarthy would be calling for the removal of Gerberding, is the comment string.

When people such as Gardiner and some of the commenters on this other site, make their propaganda based statements - as if the government or mainstream media's opinion is the end-all-be-all of fact (excuse me while I make a gagging noise) - they do harm. They put false information out there that could potentially turn a parent away from educating themselves on what is best and safe for their child, and in the case of the other autism blog, they risk turning a parent of a newly diagnosed child away from biomedical interventions.

While I was reading Gardiner's emails to JB, I kept praying to the universe that he not be stricken with a child with autism. He is tempting the fates by being so judgmental and closed minded. If he had a child that was developing normally, received shots and then went "to some unreachable place," I promise you, he'd be changing his tune so fast it would make your head spin.

The problem is when people with no personal experience report on something they know nothing about - so for info they go to whom they perceive as "the experts." Little do they know, the parents are the experts in this case.... oh... in my opinion, of course.

We all know it's not "all about " the mercury BUT how do we let the subject go and move on to other things like yeast and the immune system when we hear idiotic news reports that the type of mercury in vaccines is actually good for you and the two studies that showed mercury helped memory and behavior. Answer me; why does the gov't tell pregnant women not to eat fish but within the same news program encourages them and their babies a flu shot? Find me a mother who will say; "yeah, give my child some mercury because I can't miss work".

Let's challenge Jon. Have him show us every family that lost a child to a "supposed" vaccine preventable disease. I bet we can show him two deaths and at least a hundred damaged for every death he talks about. We've got to question if we are saving a few lives to kill and hurt more?