There was a huge public outcry over Insel’s deceptive actions and a near universal call for re-instatement of the vaccine research. But rather than listening to appeals for common decency,  reason, Senators, Congressmen, Moms, Dads, Autism Speaks, ASA, the National Autism Association, SafeMinds, Generation Rescue, TACA, Tom goes it alone- yet again. This self-professed non expert in autism, non expert in vaccines, unelected bureaucrat believes he knows better than everyone. Rather than respecting the public’s wishes and the public interest, Insel hands the CDC and other govt agencies even more money to continue investigating and exonerating themselves. Why not just burn the money now? Let’s just end any pretense that these projects will amount to anything.

Tom Insel is not alone in fear driven agenda to stop independent scientists from taking a close look at vaccine safety.

A co-captain of team “stop vaccine research” is Dr. Yvette Janvier. Dr. Janvier likes to remind the committee and all the autism parents listening in that we are spoiled Americans who (drumroll please) “don’t remember the real diseases.” Oh, how many times have we been subjected to this irrational, baseless and condescending argument. Janvier, Insel the CDC, the NIH all present our families with the same ridiculous threat; parents must either accept their lousy, sloppy vaccine studies riddled with conflicts of interest or every American child dies of an infectious disease! Janvier went on to reminiscence, at length, at her life saving work in Eastern Europe and …how Americans are ignorant about these disease…how we do not understand The Science! Who cares about the public input, who cares what every single autism organization wants done, who cares that the Denmark study is riddled with embarrassing errors and would not merit a D in a stats 100 class. All that matters is Janvier’s opinion and her all consuming loathing of Jenny McCarthy.

Yes, yes, you see the real enemy here is not the tragic human suffering of autism but Jenny McCarthy! In Dr. Janvier’s twisted universe, McCarthy’s call for independent vaccine research amounts to a call to arms. The fact that Jenny’s child regressed became chronically ill and almost died as a result of autism is irrelevant.  Dr. Janvier knows better! McCarthy has never once said that she is anti-vaccine, quite the contrary, so why are these bureaucrats so threatened by her advocacy for better vaccine safety testing? Where was the medical community’s outrage and sense of urgency about autism before Jenny came on the scene?

Another IACC committee member who believes vaccine research, not autism, is the real enemy is Story Landis, PhD. After Dr.Mark Noble so eloquently spoke of the paucity of research regarding the safety of so many toxic additives in childhood vaccines,  Ms.Landis scoffed! Landis stated that no matter what, many parents will never believe The Science! Landis than compared the situation to a research study on echinea which failed to demonstrate its effectiveness as proof. Landis decried the fact that still people keep buying ecchinea- not matter what!  Incredible! OK, I am lost; this has what to do with autism? I suppose the difference between echinea and vaccines is that vaccines are legally mandated and our children’s has been endangered by 11 horribly done vaccine studies while echinea is a harmless herb? Or was Landis saying that if parents dare to question the CDC, they are crackpots who can never be satisfied? Well whatever Landis meant to imply or say, her contributions to IACC were useless.

Now we come to Ms. Alison Singer, the Rod Blagojevich of IACC. Singer lost her job at Autism Speaks precisely because she did such a terrible job representing the autism community on IACC. Like Blagojevich, Singer bizarrely clings to a seat that any reasonable person would vacate- immediately. As with Blago, Singer refuses to accede to the reality that her presence on IACC is neither legitimate nor justifiable. Singer is has no support from ANY autism organization. What is she even doing there? Crowbaring in Paul Offit’s tired talking points into the IACC discussions does not constitute a representation of our families’ interests.  Instead, maybe Singer can explain why it is “perfectly safe to inject a baby with 10,000 vaccines at once” as Offit like to claim. Singer, naturally, had cast her vote to stop all independent vaccine research. Singer says there are “more promising” leads? What leads? Eye gazing? What is she so afraid will happen if we were to comprehensively study vaccine safety?

Finally we heard from Bruce Gellin of the CDC. Gellin reported that the CDC had undertaken a number of listening projects to hear what Americans thought of the CDC’s immunization schedule. Surprise, surprise, Gellin reported that most Americans do not feel that our immunization schedule is safe. Families have serious concerns about the additives in vaccines as well as in the combinations vaccines are administered to babies and toddlers. OK, CDC, tell us something we do not already know…Yet Gellin did indeed seem surprised by these findings. At least he was honest.

Rather than implementing Lyn Redwood’s motion to re-instate independent vaccine research into the Strategic Plan, Tom Insel, instead, to decides to collaborate even more closely with the CDC. Now we are right back to the beginning, the CDC, whose immunization safety research the public does not find credible or trustworthy, are once again investigating their own vaccine program. It is a bureaucratic masterstroke driven by fear of the truth.  Nice work Tom, 2 years of meetings and IACC is right were they started- no independent vaccine research. Fear, corruption and self-interest win, American children lose.

Katie Wright has two young boys. Her oldest son, Christian, is severely affected by autism. He developed normally; smiling, talking, walking; only to lose every skill and every word by the age of 2 and a half.  Upon the advice of medical professionals Katie and her husband were advised to pursue only high quality behavioral therapy, speech and OT for Christian. It had no meaningful impact on Christian until his parents sought help from DAN! doctors who treated the underlying causes of Christian's descent into autism. Christian has improved but still has far to go. He has Inflammatory Bowel Disease, the measles virus in his gut and an immune system akin to a late stage AIDS patient. Christian does not have a psychiatric disorder. Before autism, Katie Wright was the Clinical Director of Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Stamford Connecticut. Katie is proud to serve on the Boards of NAA and SafeMinds.