Dr. Andrew Wakefield on The Poisoning of Young Minds
Managing Editor's Note: We ran this post on June 4th, and chose to re-run it following the NBC programming about Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
By Dr. Andrew Wakefield
Like it or not, there is an unrelenting debate about whether vaccines have poisoned the minds of some children. That vaccines may do so is acknowledged (by, among others, autism expert Professor Sir Michael Rutter ) and is not actually the debate at hand; the real questions are, which children and how many? The base of the tsunami that is the autism epidemic – one sustained hitherto, by competing arguments for the rising number of diagnoses and those invested in non-environmental causes – is no longer able to support its top. In accordance with simple wave mechanics, the tsunami’s slope is too great and breaking is inevitable. Breaking, for the purpose of this metaphor, extends to the shoreline’s horizon, from the child to the family, to schools, to the state budget, to public confidence in healthcare infrastructure, and beyond.
But another form of poison has been insinuated into the collective conscious of young, able minds that threatens like an aftershock on the seabed. Although the tendrils of this poison are deeply embedded in the history of human conflict, its main roots are to be found in the propaganda of emergent Nazi Germany circa 1935. As an example, a math question to German children in schools where Jewish children were limited to 1.5% by 1935 and banned from education altogether by 1939, reads as follows.
The Jews are aliens in Germany – in 1933 there were 66,060,000 inhabitants in the German Reich, of whom 499,682 were Jews. What is the percent of aliens?
It was deemed important, indeed necessary, to sow the seed of anti-Semitic propaganda early into young, fertile Aryan minds. Before continuing, I acknowledge that mere mention of the Third Reich and anti-Semitism risks an emotive distraction from the point this article seeks to make. It is notable, however, that the Holocaust analogy has already been exploited in a different and deliberately pejorative context in an attack against those concerned with issues of vaccine safety in the promotion of Dr Paul Offit’s book Autism’s False Prophets by the New York Times. Second, let me make it clear that this article is about manipulation and is not about me.Recently I was provided with the text of another exam paper, this time from the UK’s Jan 2008 national General Certificate of School Education (GCSE) biology exam (higher tier), which students are now being given as part of their preparation for the 2009 exams. It read as follows:
The MMR vaccine is used to protect children against measles, mumps and, rubella.
(a) Explain, as fully as you can, how the MMR vaccine protects children from these diseases.
(b) Read the passage.
Autism is a brain disorder that can result in behavioural problems. In 1998, Dr Andrew Wakefield published a report in a medical journal. Dr Wakefield and his colleagues had carried out tests on twelve autistic children. Dr Wakefield and his colleagues claimed to have found a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Dr Wakefield wrote that the parents of eight of the twelve children blamed the MMR vaccine for autism. He said that symptoms of autism had started within days of vaccination. Some newspapers used parts of the report in scare stories about the MMR vaccine. As a result, many parents refused to have their children vaccinated. Dr Wakefield's research was being funded through solicitors for the twelve children. The lawyers wanted evidence to use against vaccine manufacturers.
Use information from the passage on the opposite page to answer these questions.
(i) Was Dr Wakefield's report based on reliable scientific evidence?
Explain the reasons for your answer.
(ii) Might Dr Wakefield's report have been biased?
Give the reason for your answer.
Let us pause there in order to reflect upon the question. While several quanta removed from the implications of the Reich’s insidious mathematics test, the coercive subtext is the same. It was set, apparently, by teachers trained in science. It was set for children whose futures depend upon providing answers that will allow them to pass the exam, i.e., by expressing views consistent with those of the State. It is intended to embed opinion.
First, I will deconstruct the passage that the students are given to read.
Autism is a brain disorder that can result in behavioural problems.
Actually, rather than being a brain disorder, autism is a disorder that affects the brain. A growing body of published evidence indicates that for many children, autism is a systemic disorder affecting the immune system, the intestine, and various metabolic processes such as those responsible for detoxification. Similarly, Sydenham’s chorea and Pediatric Autoimmune Neurological Disorder Associated with Streptococcus (PANDAS) are systemic disorders associated with adverse neurologic and behavioral consequences following streptococcal infections of, for example, the tonsils rather than the brains of susceptible children.
In 1998, Dr Andrew Wakefield published a report in a medical journal. Dr Wakefield and his colleagues had carried out tests on twelve autistic children.
I, and twelve other well-respected physicians and scientists, published the report that described the results of clinical tests carried out on twelve sick children who were admitted to the Royal Free Hospital under the care of a senior pediatric gastroenterologist for investigation of their clinical symptoms. An apparently novel inflammatory bowel disease was discovered and has since been confirmed in five different countries. The paper was a case-series (rather than an analytic study, e.g., a case-control study); this was clearly stated in the paper. It is a typical and well-established mode of presenting medical cases with similar features. It is a hypothesis-generating study that is a precursor to analytic studies in which inclusion of controls is appropriate.
Dr Wakefield and his colleagues claimed to have found a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
We specifically stated in the paper that the findings did not prove an association – let alone a causal association – between MMR vaccine and the syndrome that was described.
Dr Wakefield wrote that the parents of eight of the twelve children blamed the MMR vaccine for autism.
Appropriately and accurately, we reported the parental histories of developmental regression following MMR vaccination in eight of the twelve children. No one would have suggested censoring, for example, parental reports of natural chickenpox if this is what had preceded their child’s regression.
He said that symptoms of autism had started within days of vaccination.
We did not say this; we provided an account of the parental reports of the “onset of first behavioral symptoms,” which had often started within days of receiving the MMR vaccine.
Some newspapers used parts of the report in scare stories about the MMR vaccine. As a result, many parents refused to have their children vaccinated.
This is misleading and without any evidential basis. Asked what vaccination strategy I would recommend, I suggested in 1998 (and now) a return to single-spaced vaccines. This recommendation was based upon extensive research by me into the safety studies of measles-containing vaccines, compiled into a report that was several hundred pages long. The conclusions of this report with respect to the inadequacy of MMR vaccine safety studies have since been endorsed by the gold-standard scientific review by the Cochrane collaboration. However, while a fall in uptake of MMR was reported following our publication, figures for the reciprocal uptake in single vaccines were not. I have contacted private UK clinics providing single vaccines and I am informed that they have administered tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of doses, none of which are documented in the official statistics. Bizarrely, when the demand for single vaccines was at its highest, the UK government revoked the license for importation of single vaccines in August 1998, six months after I had made my recommendation. Parents with genuine safety concerns about MMR were denied a choice of how to protect their children: the UK government had decided to put protection of policy before protection of children. Beyond this point, vaccine uptake may genuinely have fallen, for which the government with its “our-way-or-no-way” policy must take responsibility.
Dr Wakefield's research was being funded through solicitors for the twelve children. The lawyers wanted evidence to use against vaccine manufacturers.
This is false. The allegation that The Lancet paper was funded by the Legal Aid Board (LAB) through lawyers looking to sue vaccine manufacturers was made by a freelance journalist who simply got it wrong and whose claims have now been discredited by the evidence. Not one single cent of LAB funding was spent on The Lancet report. In fact the funding for the LAB study (a separate viral detection study) was not even available to be spent until nine months after the children in The Lancet study had been investigated, their results analyzed, and the paper written and submitted to The Lancet for possible publication. These are matters of fact.
In other words, the students’ required reading is substantially false or misleading. And yet in order to gain marks, the students, whatever their understanding of the true state of affairs, are required to endorse the errors of their examiners or fail on the question. The examiners provide a breakdown of their marking scheme:
Answer (i) Was Dr Wakefield's report based on reliable scientific evidence?
A. No (any two from sample size small [only twelve], conclusion based on hearsay from parents, only eight parents linked autism to MMR, no control used (two marks)
First, the question is confusing. A report provides facts, its conclusions (if any) are based upon evidence. The options given for a correct answer completely fail to understand the nature of a case series (such as Kanner’s original description of autism in eleven children), which is essentially an uncontrolled report of the children’s history backed up, where available in our case, by contemporaneous developmental records and GP reports, and clinical findings including a detailed analysis of the children’s diseased intestinal tissues.
Answer (b)(ii) (yes) being paid by parents / lawyers (one mark)
As stated above The Lancet 1998 paper was not funded in any way by Lawyers. And rewarding the answer that I was being paid by ‘parents’ is extraordinary; it not only bears no resemblance to the truth, but it finds no mention in the paragraph upon which the examiners base their question.
Finally, to part (a) of the exam question: “can we explain how MMR vaccine protects children from these diseases.” A simple answer - one pleasing to the examiners - would be: by the induction of specific, life-long antibody and cellular immunity that produces high herd immunity and interrupts chains of virus transmission. While this may get a good mark, it would be false. In truth, there is much that is not known about vaccine-induced immunity. The legacy of mumps vaccination – a policy forced on reluctant Public Health systems in the US and UK, essentially through commercial pressures – has simply made mumps a more dangerous disease. Mumps is a trivial disease in children but substantially more dangerous in adolescents and adults. The vaccine does not protect enough children, and what protection it does confer, does not last - even with boosters. The effect has been to leave pubertal and post-pubertal individuals susceptible to mumps and its complications. Measles vaccine comes considerably closer to the examiner’s preferred answer, although waning immunity is also a problem that may not be overcome by booster doses, a practice that has yet to be studied adequately for safety. The long-term consequence of waning immunity at the population level is an issue of genuine concern.
I would score precisely zero for my response. But what of those who face the question in the future or who have already taken the test? The examining board was sent a series of searching questions by a journalist about this issue. Immediately, the exam paper was taken down from the website. What happens now? Will the students who have already answered the question pass if their answers conform to the dictate of the public health apparatchiks, or will they fail because their answers are wrong? And the science graduates who set the question – on what did they base their position? From their response to the journalist’s questions, the answer would appear to be, the integrity of the Sunday Times – so much for due scientific process. Where does that leave the prospects for tomorrow’s medical science? Consider the recent revelation during the course of Vioxx class action hearings: the publishing house Elsevier (owner of The Lancet and over 500 other medical and scientific titles) created six fake journals that were dressed up to look like scientific journals, funded by Merck without any disclosure, and strongly favorable to Merck in their content. And Merck itself, a company whose suggested corporate policy on Vioxx apparently included “seeking out [dissenting doctors] and destroying them where they live.” Parents of the world’s remaining neurotypical children might wish to consider this when discussing career choices.
‘Corporate government’ is heavily invested in propaganda, many of the techniques of which are a legacy of the Third Reich. It is difficult to believe that it was not influential in setting the UK school’s biology curriculum. For their efforts, Julius Streicher, the Reich’s apothecary of young Aryan mind poisoning, would have given the GCSE examiners and whoever was pulling their strings no more than a six out of ten and a “see me after class.” Streicher was tried and sentenced to death at Nuremberg. Who knows where he might otherwise have ended up?
Dr. Andy Wakefield, MB BS FRCS FRCPath, is an academic gastroenterologist. He graduated in Medicine from St. Mary's Hospital (part of the University of London) in 1981, pursuing a career in gastrointestinal surgery with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel disease. He qualified as Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1985, and in 1996 was awarded a Wellcome Trust Traveling Fellowship to study small-intestine transplantation in Toronto, Canada. He co-founded The Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas. You can read his full bio at the Thoughtful House website HERE.
I have read your book Dr Wakefield and found it honest and enlightening. I was both shocked and fascinated by the chapter on poisoning young minds. This caused me to reflect upon the overall effects of propaganda upon the 'masses' and I despaired!!
Yesterday I inadvertently opened up an internet site called 'Left brain Right brain' I believe this site to be closely associated with a certain Mr Brian Deer. This blog was titled 'Age of Autism Abandoning Pretence Part II', and I was fooled into thinking it was an AoA site when I Googled it.The following extract came from the comment thread. It also mentions Nazis in the context of 'mindbending'.
'Republicans have run for office,and won,with antivaccine planks in their platforms,think Massachusettes.In the last few weeks we have seen comments on AoA about how great Glenn Beck is,and how anybody who believes there is a genetic element to autism openly admires Hitler.uglier,and This is geting uglier,and we would do well to recognize these people for the greater threat they are.We may see threats of violence on anybody who they see as an agent of “big pharma”.Remember the murders of abortion doctors?Rogue elements of the antivaccine movement may do the same,because they also believe they are “saving the children”.Who is to say there isn’t a Joseph Stack,or even a Timothy McVeigh hiding in their ranks,who is nutty enough to do something just as drastic?'
Living in Scotland I am not 'au fait' with the identities of Stack and McVeigh, but assume they are mass murderers or something equally as bad. Glen Beck, I assume to be a politician, sympathetic to autism and its causes.
This stuff is worse than poisonous; it seems to be suggesting that AoA sympathisers are all Nazi types, capable of murder and worse. I was effectively 'fooled' into reading this vitriolic garbage because of the similarities with the AoA internet intros. There were a number of other 'anti AoA' sites on that Google page too.
I have huge admiration for Dr Wakefield, AoA, Polly Tommey and everyone else attempting to tell the truth in the face of enormous bullying and resistance from both official and 'shady' organisations. I am sure the truth will prevail in the end.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | June 30, 2010 at 02:21 AM
So what are suppose to do abou the vaccines?
Posted by: Elias Karam | June 29, 2010 at 10:01 PM
My 2.5 yr old son sat on my knee at the Child Development Clinic and was asked by the doctor to retrieve a number of tiny sugar strands from my outstretched palm.
My boy looked at my palm and licked his finger, rolled it across my palm, catching 100% of the tiny sweets. The doctor's response? A big fat X against my son for having failed to demonstrate he could perform the pincer movement. I challenged the doctor asking if my son had got more of the sweets than most children being asked to perform this task. He agreed my son had out-performed most if not all other children asked to complete the task. I said he had not asked him to demonstrate his ability to do the pincer movement with this index finger and thumb. I also said that my son had waited, considered the task and fathomed the most efficient way to complete it.
They didn't like his solution because it didn't fit their limited model. They have never stopped making this ridiculous assessments of my son and I have never stopped focussing on his ability to identify a problem and find a way of overcoming it. My son was aware he fine motor movements was unrefined and that a crude grab at the sweets would yield few. He continues to make similar assessments in his life and play to his strengths - I seem to be the only one applauding his initiative and his successes.
Mother of autistic child
Posted by: serenity | December 10, 2009 at 09:50 PM
Thanks Twyla. Interesting.
Posted by: benandcoopersdad | June 12, 2009 at 08:09 PM
benandcoopersdad -
Of course I am only guessing at what chloesmom meant, so I won't try to interpret her intentions any further.
As far as what I think, I'm not sure if hyperbole is quite the right word. I have read that there are hundreds of vaccines in the works, and if we continued to give more & more vaccines to babies and children, I think the severely affected group would continue to grow. I don't think we will get to the point of destroying mankind with vaccines because I think it is becoming more and more obvious to more and more people that we have a problem, and that babies don't have a limitless capacity for absorbing dozens, let alone hundreds, of vaccines.
What would be Darwinian is if only those kids who could withstand so many vaccines survived and had kids, and instead of changing the vaccine program we evolved into a species capable of withstanding huge numbers of vaccines.
Now I'm just being facetious. At any rate, it's not just the vaccines but also many toxins in our environment.
Throughout the world's history there have been times when our planet's life has been dramatically altered by huge events such as supervolcanoes, meteors, and possibly by bursts of radiation from the sun. We've been pretty fortunate for quite a while now that our planet has been stable. But with global warming and gradually polluting the ocean to the point of algae and jelly fish taking over in some areas, who knows what the future holds for mankind? Overvaccination is only part of the mix.
Posted by: Twyla | June 11, 2009 at 02:02 AM
@Twyla: Okay, I read the comment from chloesmom "Sadly, if the current trend in autism rates continues, one day there will be no children to teach their propaganda to," to mean there would be no children left who were capable of being taught. I thought that was the only way to read her comment. Chloesmom is not on the thread anymore, so I can't ask her what she meant.
However, you are now the second person to suggest that vaccines could actually cause the extinction of humankind. I thought perhaps this was hyperbole on the part of gatogorra, or he was referring to the Darwinian creation of a drug-resistant super-disease (which would be caused by over-prescription of antibiotics, not by vaccines). But you go on to explain that this would take place when every member of the human race becomes autistic or altered by vaccines to the point that procreation becomes impossible. Humankind would be lost in a "Children of Men" type scenerio, or a post-apocalyptic world populated only with ASD. (To fit her comment, this also would happen so quickly that we would cease procreating before the pro-vaccine lobby died of old age.)
Do you actually believe this could happen, or is this hyperbole? I'm honestly unsure how literally to take your comments.
Posted by: benandcoopersdad | June 10, 2009 at 08:58 PM
Benandcoopersdad, where in chloesmom's words did you hear "a blanket thrown over every kid with ASD that says none of them comprehend their world"?
I could be wrong, but that is not how I read "Sadly, if the current trend in autism rates continues, one day there will be no children to teach their propaganda to." I think she is refering to the possibility that future generations could be destroyed by increasing vaccines and environmental toxins. I don't think she's saying that children with autism can't learn; I think she's saying someday we could have no children.
Some people say that our kids with autism may be like the "canaries in the coal mine" - more sensitive to toxins etc. than most, but if those toxins and vaccines continue to increase eventually more and more are/will be affected.
And although some people with autism will grow up and have children, many will not procreate, either due to having a severe level of disability, or severely deficient social skills.
I think chloesmom is refering to the fact that so many people don't seem to be concerned about the increasing rate of autism and the evident harmful effects of certain aspects of our environment, including vaccines. What will it take for people to become concerned? 1 in 20? 1 in 2? An entire generation of children harmed by vaccines and toxins?
Posted by: Twyla | June 10, 2009 at 02:28 AM
I just noticed Erwin Alber's comment:
"It would be good if Dr Wakefield would wake up to this scam as well, instead of participating in this criminal enterprise by patenting and selling a measles jab."
This just goes to show you shouldn't believe what you read in the Sunday Times: the injection was intended as a treatment for vaccine induced bowel damage, and not as new kind of measles vaccine.
Posted by: John Stone | June 10, 2009 at 02:18 AM
@Twyla: That's reasonable. Where from anything I wrote did you get I advocate sugar coating anything? I just don't want a blanket thrown over every kid with ASD that says none of them comprehend their world, and that message absolutely cannot come inadvertantly from us. But I don't want to hide the toll autism takes, and I certainly don't want to impede anyone honestly looking for cures.
(Personally, I don't think there's any sole cause of autism, and I'm interested in AoA's take on vaccines, which is why I'm mostly reading. I think we'll eventually find lots of "causes" and "triggers" of many disorders that present similarly as "autism," which right now is just a diagnosis of symptoms, but that's my personal bias. I hope people find cures for all of them. At the same time, I put personal effort and resources into research at the Interactive Autism Network and Kennedy Krieger's CARD clinic that has shown it possible to ID symptoms of autism in 9-month-old babies and has shown that very early intervention makes a massive difference in quality of life.)
I wish you and your family well too.
@Gatogorra: That's the first time I've read anyone posit that pro-vaccine propaganda would cause the extinction of mankind. You do have a way with words!
Posted by: benandcoopersdad | June 09, 2009 at 10:33 PM
I just re-read passages from Rachel Carson's "The Silent Spring" on the potential extinction of plant and animal species through toxin-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, DNA and reproductive damage-- the same mitochondrial dysfunction we see in so many injured children. Chloe's mom could very easily have meant that, if the epidemic isn't stopped, "there will be no children left"...alive.
Posted by: Gatogorra | June 09, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Erwin Alber -
I don't believe it is a coincidence that the rate of autism has shot up at the same time as our vaccine schedule has greatly expanded.
I don't believe it is a coincidence that so many parents report their children's vaccine reactions followed by loss of language, social skills, health, etc.
I also don't believe it is a coincidence that diseases have decreased when vaccines were implemented, for example small pox has been eradicated. Polio is extrememly rare in the U.S. When I was a kid we all came down with measles, mumps, chicken pox, and german measles, but hardly any kids these days do.
My first two children came down with full blown cases of the chicken pox. My third child received the chicken pox vaccine (before I knew any better), and when she was exposed to chicken pox at school she came down with an extremely mild case -- just several tiny pox which did not even scab over.
Of course, my youngest had a febrile seizure a few days after receiving the chicken pox vaccine at the same time as the MMR. And, the vaccines that my kids received may not give them the life-time immunity that can result from full blown cases of these illnesses. Vaccines definitely have down sides. But to say that they never prevent disease seems to me to be unrealistic.
My generation received much fewer vaccines, and suffered much fewer vaccine adverse reactions. It seems to me that the risks of, for example, the small pox vaccine were worth taking back when small pox was prevalent.
But these days more and more vaccines are being added willy-nilly, without recognition of the risks, and with an exagerated view of the risks of many of these diseases.
Posted by: Twyla | June 09, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Benandcoopersdad, autism is a spectrum encompassing a broad range of abilities, health issues, etc. I don't think that talking about the problems of some causes prejudice against all. Each person is an individual, with potential that will unfold over the years. Our community believes in the possibility of recovery for many, and in acknowledging/nurturing skills and abilities, and helping people find a place in society. But this does not mean we must sugar coat accounts of the lives that many people lead.
Wishing you and your family all the very best.
Posted by: Twyla | June 09, 2009 at 11:11 AM
I am full of admiration for Dr Wakefield and other doctors and scientists like him who have dared to stick to their findings regardless of the consequences.
He does in my opinion however make a serious mistake when he gives credence to the belief that vaccines are a form of disease prevention. There is in fact no scientific evidence whatsoever to show that vaccines have ever prevented any diseases; on the contrary, infectious diseases mortality graphs based on official government statistics clearly show that most of the remarkable decline in the number of deaths from various infectious diseases occurred BEFORE vaccines were ever used, and that the decline was completely unaffected by the introduction of vaccinations. In other words,vaccination is an elaboate deception, or, as Dr A Kalokerinos MD, Australia, puts it, "a gigantic hoax."
Prominent US health educator Dr. Herbert Shelton: "Belief in immunization is a form of delusional insanity."
It would be good if Dr Wakefield would wake up to this scam as well, instead of participating in this criminal enterprise by patenting and selling a measles jab.
US neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock MD:
"Our society is littered with millions of children who have been harmed in one way or another by vaccines. Also, let us not forget the millions of parents who had to watch helplessly as their children's lives have been destroyed by devastating vaccination programmes."
To see some of the graphs which show that vaccines have never protected anyone, let alone saved anyone's life, go to:
http://www.healthsentinel.com/graphs.php
Posted by: Erwin Alber | June 09, 2009 at 06:42 AM
Benandcoopersdad, it is true that our kids are capable of comprehending and capable of more that they are usually given credit for.
But it is also true that most of them will be reliant on (financial) support from the society for the rest of their lives, and the society will be getting less tolerant as resources continue to shrink and numbers of disabled/financially-dependent individuals continue to grow.
Posted by: Natasa | June 09, 2009 at 05:12 AM
@Gatogora: "You're obfuscating the point she was making in using the words you chose to cut and paste: which is that the epidemic has to end or there won't be any NT children left."
Not trying to refute or obfuscate or even address her point. My post had nothing to do with her point. I'm reading AoA to try to gauge all perspectives of the vaccine debate, not argue it.
My post was to say that words matter. After he regressed to nonverbal at age 2, my (now) 6-yr-old has worked 30+ hours a week to get to the point he can interact with NT peers with a good deal of support in and out of the classroom (and it's cost us $50k+ a year, with very little help from schools (until we moved to a better district), and almost none from insurance or "society"). Still, I don't know if he'll live independently when he grows up. That is perhaps THE goal.
However, I do know that if we as an Autism Community not only tolerate prejudices against those with ASD, but repeat them, my kid's chances of living independently shrink.
It may seem like a small thing, but to say ASD kids can't learn, can't comprehend even propaganda, as chloesmom puts it, really hurts the Autistic Community.
I do know kids and adults all over the spectrum, and I know of adults who have been locked away, "drugged and abused in institutions after their parents either give up or die." And I think that a great many of those people were never given a chance by society, because society believes people with autism cannot learn, cannot participate. The past 4 or 5 years has been an educational firehose for society, and we need to be careful what we're teaching.
I hate seeing school psychologists and others rate ASD kids with IQ tests designed for kids that communicate typically. I hate seeing ASD kids, teenagers, adults binned based on their disorder, rather than their individual capabilities. I hate seeing autism specials where mothers are interviewed with their ASD kids sitting in their laps, and they can only discuss how hopeless the future is. Not only does "society" hear that, but those kids, even the low functioning kids who look lost to the world, are taking it all in. (Did you know that recent educational studies show that ASD kids actually learn more when they're allowed to fidget and rock and stare off into space than when they're forced to "pay attention"?) Those kids in the specials are learning that even their mothers believe they're incapable of accomplishing anything. (And where the F are the dads? Huh? But that's another rant.) If moms did that on camera to NT kids, it would be called child abuse.
The truth is, my kid can be considered high-functioning because my wife and I were able to absorb a great deal of debt (which is now killing us), and we believed he could learn to communicate and interact, and because he has worked incredibly hard with some very talented and caring therapists since he was very, very young. But he, and others on the spectrum, including and especially those lower on the spectrum, cannot afford to be treated as incapable of comprehending.
My eyes are open. Are yours? (And their ears are open, even if they aren't looking at you.)
Posted by: benandcoopersdad | June 08, 2009 at 11:31 PM
Gatogorra, you have an amazing way with words.
Posted by: Twyla | June 08, 2009 at 09:23 PM
Benandcoopersdad,
It's interesting that the article is about censorship and that you're attempting to censor Chloe's mom, not to mention that you're obfuscating the point she was making in using the words you chose to cut and paste: which is that the epidemic has to end or there won't be any NT children left. And autism isn't some great thing that we'd wish on subsequent generations.
I'm glad that your kids are so high functioning that they can go on to learn at higher levels-- great for you. If this fact blinds you to the issues that some children will never grow up to be independent, will cost society between $3 and $4 million over their lifetimes, suffer from terrifying rates of painful and life-threatening related disorders, that they will be drugged and abused in institutions after their parents either give up or die, then maybe you need to open your eyes a bit for the sake of your children if for no one else's.
Autism sucks rocks. We may love our injured children to the ends of the earth but society as a whole will never want their children to have autism and won't want the financial burden of ours, even if they chuck and coo over the occasional "feel good" neurodiverse tale of "natural, great, genetic autism". As global resources are strained from global warming and the financial meltdown, historical precedent predicts that humanity's tolerance for the disabled will plummet-- again, no matter how many neurodiverse spin stories appear in Newsweek.
The children who are already injured and already suffering deserve all the care and support that society can offer and aren't receiving it. Every new case added stips more resources from the whole. The epidemic has to end. Chloe's mom is right.
Posted by: Gatogorra | June 08, 2009 at 05:32 PM
@ cloesmom: Please retract, "Sadly, if the current trend in autism rates continues, one day there will be no children to teach their propaganda to," and don't repeat this.
There's enough prejudice against the Autistic Community, and the Autism Community doesn't need to feed the idea that people with Autism are incapable of thinking or learning or holding down jobs.
Autism is not a death sentence. Our kids will grow up and need to be taken seriously in the world. I know that my son is better at noticing the details of his environment and of assignments than any of his neurotypical peers, and I think that will serve him well when he is an adult. Please don't project automatic failure onto my son and your daughter.
Posted by: benandcoopersdad | June 07, 2009 at 03:20 PM
That should read:
"I think one of the things Skepticat was referring to."
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | June 06, 2009 at 09:33 AM
Kim, I think Skepticat was referring to my little amusing and sarcastic satire about how the Oracians are like a medieval religion. Apparently, I invoked the "wrath" of their Lord and Master.
And, what's best of all, they don't know what satire is!
He even went so far as to threaten me with one of his little fantasy characters. Really, how pathetic is that? And these people call us crazy?
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | June 06, 2009 at 08:56 AM
to John Stone:
you are mistaken. my question was genuine, and i am not a troll. I am a mom of 2 neurotypical completely unvx'ed children- thanks to warnings by parents like yourself. we will be at your service when the study of vx'ed vs unvx'ed is finally conducted.
I do think that the post by "those who do not remember history" is contradicting the idea that autism is a new disorder and not a new definition and can therefore weaken the case made by the anti-vx camp (of which i am part- if that's not obvious enough yet).
keep up the good fight John but spare the messengers!
Posted by: puzzled | June 06, 2009 at 03:04 AM
THANK YOU, Dr. Wakefield! I used to want to meet Bon Jovi, but at Autism One this year, it hit me: my Rock Stars have changed! You, Dr. Wakefield are a ROCK STAR. The fact that you continue to speak out for the benefit of our children and our families is a tremendous gift. Again, thank you for what you do.
Posted by: Sunny | June 05, 2009 at 09:05 PM
Thank you Dr. Wakefield!
Posted by: Jeanne | June 05, 2009 at 03:16 PM
Skepticat, to paraphrase some of those who often argue against us, "Where is your scientific proof of that? Show me 30 peer-reviewed studies published in legitimate journals..."
Posted by: Twyla | June 05, 2009 at 11:51 AM
After the Second International Conference on Vaccines was held in Washington DC in 2000, I spent a couple of days at the Holocaust Memorial. The parallels are there and you would have to be willfully blind, not to connect the dots. Here are a few of the dots:
"We are recording the individual characteristics of every single member of the nation on a little card.... We are proud that we can contribute to such a task that provides the physician of a German body politic with the material [the needs] for his examination, so that our physician can determine whether, from the standpoint of the nation's health, the data thus arrived at correlates in a harmonious, that is healthy, relationship--or whether diseased conditions must be cured by corrective interventions.... We have firm confidence in our physician and will follow his information blindly, for we know that he will lead our nation toward a great future. Heil to our German people and their leader!"
Willy Heidinger
Managing Director of DEHOMAG
January 8, 1934
DEHOMAG--Deutsche Hollerith Maschineu Gesellschaft, A subsidiary of IBM since 1922. The Hollerith machine played an integral part in tracking, who was Jewish, who had Jewish features, who was gypsy, who had gypsy features, who was black, who had black features, who had diseased conditions, retardation, handicapped, neurological disorders, homosexual, genetic or congenital defects.................................the ultimate victims of the Holocaust
January 20, 1942 a meeting took place with the purpose of "coordinating a Final Solution to the European Jewish Question.” More than half of the 15 Nazi's present held doctor-al degrees. Adolph Eichmann took minutes. - The Wannsee Conference, 1942 A Final Solution
September 18, 2000 "The majority of the panel could envision circumstances when intentionally dosing humans with pesticides could be scientifically and ethically acceptable." Scientific Advisory Board final report to the EPA on human testing of pesticides.
The First to Perish were the Children.......From these a new dawn might have risen
-Yitzhak Katzenelson, Holocaust Memorial
Posted by: michael framson | June 05, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Outstanding and courageous posting from Dr. Wakefield.
Many thanks!
Posted by: ScepticsBane | June 05, 2009 at 09:49 AM
Dear Dr Wakefield,
As much as I agree with you about your Autism researches, I must disagree with you on your premise. I have taken many IQ tests and come up around 136, the first 2% of the population. I am smart, but not that smart.
Most people do not believe the instructions. The instructions specifically state that the answers must agree with the question and the paragraph used in the test.
The instructions and the answers do NOT agree with reality, but with the data, paragraph or instructions given in the test!
Respectfully submitted,
Marvin Lewis, R. P. E. (Retired)
Posted by: Marvin Lewis | June 05, 2009 at 07:37 AM
Skepticat, thanks for the compliment. May you never be faced with a medical condition for which you are denied treatment, face a life of disability and end up broke. Truly.
Kim
Posted by: Stagmom | June 05, 2009 at 06:35 AM
Thank you Dr. Wakefield for all you and your family have endured because you dared to speak the truth. Thank you for being a strong voice for our sick and injured children.
We stand by you always -
Theresa, Michael and Michelle Cedillo
Posted by: Theresa Cedillo | June 05, 2009 at 05:48 AM
You are all absolutely nuts.
Posted by: Skepticat | June 05, 2009 at 05:05 AM
Who wrote the exam question?
What educational board approved it?
Who was on the board?
I'd like to check their backgrounds and links personally or familial (remember Sir Crispin Davis (Glaxo Smithkilne) and his brother the Supreme Court Judge (UK)).
If they have the courage of their convictions and deny influence by Big Pharma et al then they should come forward and defend their position.
How prescient that Big Pharma's minions come up with this exam question while the decision is still pending in Dr Wakefield's MMR persecution.
Posted by: Paul Stefanovic | June 05, 2009 at 04:42 AM
As always, thank you Dr. Wakefield. I too have been pondering the web of conversations in current society and relating them to horrors of the Nazi regime. I worry about the current and future adult autism community and wonder when society will just get angry at them instead of the cause. And I would like to offer a new conversation, one that takes this on, head on and converts it to deterring the repeat of history. The conversation is generated as a populist view not as an authoritarian model. That being the source, I believe we have a potential to alter the repeat of history.
The question is no longer do the current powers have all the potential for monopolized control over our freedom to choose without informed consent. They do. In the U.S. the bills have been put in place since April 2009, allowing governors to declare a state of emergency with regards to health concerns such as swine flu to quarantine and even enforce mass vaccination of communities. That is martial law and there is no question in my mind that these issues will be created and followed through upon by our officials. The question is what will people do about it? Are we all so heads down in taking care of our families that we won't have time to stand up to this? Well I'm here to say it just takes a conversation to alter this for society. With that the creation of a network of conversations to alter the future.
We are the community that knows what the impact of vaccinations are. We have earned our credentials. We are the tired, the poor and the restless, yearning to take on these seemingly huge concerns of our country, and with our insights and having connected the dots, I believe we ARE the ones to alter the world. So, get ready, because once the A/H1N1 vaccine is created by next fall, I imagine we will see forced mass vaccination, unless we can make an impact standing up against this. Get ready to become advocates. It will be needed to save lives. The last swine flu vaccine caused injury, chronic illness, guillain-barre syndrome, and death.
I get the impact of school mandated vaccination on the herding in and shaping public opinion - much like the test question is a systematic approach to altering mass thinking. Its simply too difficult for people to take on the doctors, the schools, and the government mandates on vaccination without starting this advocacy conversation in our communities.
I assert that a new conversation is alive in the world. When I had my first child in the late 1990's, I had already read your research in the UK expressing concerns, and I quietly kept them to myself out of fear, shock and disbelief. As I recall, the initial press coverage in the U.K. was much more hopeful that a cause was being found. I lived in Florida and a mother at a church meeting stood up and said that she was concerned about the safety of vaccines, she was laughed at and put down alongside the belief that UFOs exist. Now mothers are talking about this at the playgrounds, schools and community level, even online. This is no doubt in existence due to your work to substantiate a correlation between vaccines and compromised immune systems/chronic disease and due to the rising numbers of afflicted children. The mother who stood up in the 1990's is today greeted in return by, "My neighbor said her daughter was never the same after her shots and before she died from a seizure." The mother's third head and UFO has exited from that 1990s conversation.
And yet, I go so boldly as to say that we don't need a scientific study to create this conversation in the world right now. Its so obvious that its like asking us to wait for scientists to study the shell of an egg to understand why it cracks when we hit it against the side of a mixing bowl. OR waiting to study the mixing bowl itself. So, we must keep up this new conversation. Re-presence this conversation with every mother, elected official, school teacher, and pediatrician we meet.
I like the term vaccine injured. "My son was vaccine injured after his fourth DPaT shot. Its been reported by our pediatrician to the CDC through VAERS. He has autism spectrum and learning disorders and has had other health issues like digestive disorders, brain inflammation, allergies, fatigue, coordination and eye tracking problems, dyspraxia and apraxia..."
Let's start a conversation about the constituents of Autism, like no kidding, its parts, because people need to hear a new conversation that breaks it down for them so they can get it. "...My son has Autism following his shots. This is made up of issues like digestive complications, motor planning problems, compounded by eye coordination issues that have him seeing double at times which causes him to trip and fall. He has non verbal learning disorder which means he cannot understand facial cues and social behavior... and it doesn't leave him when he goes outside the classroom during recess. He is anxious everywhere he goes in trying to make sense of the context of the world in which we live. And it started after his fourth DPaT shot. So I don't know that slowing down the schedule would have helped or that taking out the mercury alone would have saved him. I learned later he reacted to the pertussis and tetanus more than likely. The nurse said she was sorry. The specialist asked if I believed in God. I think any of the shots can compromise the immune system and potentially cause chronic disease such as autism, asthma, allergies, and arthritis. Not just the toxins like mercury, but the actual disease being injected into the body as well as the adjuvants. I see shots as an assault on the body. It only took one shot to damage my son. Its the death of a childhood and a parent's dashed hopes for a future. And its the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about because it involves large industry and deceit. My hope in sharing this is to alter the experience for others so that they might not have to endure what we have gone through, including higher stress levels, divorce rates, bills to pay and care to manage."
And, manifest destiny, here we go, being the current leaders of the world, running around innoculating many nations now in the name of charitable contribution. There are laws of nature. WHO are playing like gods on a global basis. Who benefits? I just wonder what will happen when Africa has had enough of Big Pharma experimenting with their children, the likes of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein novel. And please Mr. Gates, stop and think what you are doing to these people on a long term basis. Acute disease can be managed without creating chronic epidemics. And please, Mr. Obama, watch out for our servicemen and women who are being experimented on with drugs and vaccines. And please Dr. Offut, stop pulling mothers into hospital examination rooms like you did to me, intimidating them, writing down names of physicians who speak otherwise, and lecturing us on how we are causing the potential deaths of babies from childhood diseases by delaying vaccinations.
We, the Autism community, can stop this runaway train. I am a stand for the disappearance of Autism through my strong conviction for freedom of health choice. Please join me in making this a conversation that every mother has heard. Spread the word. Talk it up as matter of fact and what's so in the world. Like smoking can make you sick. And consider what I say about the swine flu vaccine, because when they recommend it to pregnant mothers, we have to have educated everyone. We've got four months to say it, and say it and say it. Vaccines are damaging to our neurological, immune systems, our children, and our unborn children and I reject them as mandatory in the face of no known real epidemic.
My hope is that my children think critically when asked these absurd test questions and that they have a supportive community that allows them to stand by their decisions. And rest assured, my children know of Dr. Wakefield as a force to be reckoned with in providing a voice for autism, health and wellbeing in the world... as someone who did not turn his back on the children damaged knowingly by reckless profiteers of pharmaceuticals and governments. Thank you...thank you, Dr. Wakefield. My love to you and everyone in this community.
Posted by: Dawn Loughborough | June 05, 2009 at 02:25 AM
Thank you Doctor Wakefield for all you've done.
Posted by: anonymous000012002 | June 05, 2009 at 02:09 AM
Thank you, Dr. Wakefield for this excellent article, for standing up for yourself, and for standing up for our children.
This propaganda from the General Certificate of School Education (GCSE) biology exam is absolutely bizarre.
Someday you will be vindicated. In the meantime, at least you have our community's highest respect and deepest gratitude for your work.
Posted by: Twyla | June 04, 2009 at 11:57 PM
My husband and I appreciate everything you've done, Dr. Wakefield. Our children have been patients at your clinic for a year and we couldn't be happier with the care they've received there. It's been one saving grace in what has otherwise been a castastrophic experience for our entire family.
There are no words to describe the horrors of what's currently being done to children, which is probably why we're all forced to turn to analogy in the struggle to even understand it. The fact that one historical analogy in particular lends itself-- without extrapolation-- to the current disaster is more shocking and saddening to us than it could possibly be to the people who disagree with such analogies. I'm sure no one wishes that what you're writing was untrue more than you.
Adding to the parallel, Alfred Doblin, author of "Berlin Alexanderplatz", wrote an essay on his experience returning to Germany after Hitler's defeat. Doblin described trying to find a single psychiatrist or doctor who would admit to taking part in the T4 exterminations (that Ray Gallup mentioned as well) and writes sarcastically that he found Germany to be filled with only "innocent" people. At last he's approached by a physician who drew Doblin into the role of confessor. This physician admitted that he had worked within the T4 program and had witnessed the selections, transports and systematic exterminations of mental patients throughout the war. The physician wishes to confess because he had hidden his own disabled child in the country throughout the war while he'd quietly participated in the slaughter.
As it happened, when families tried to approach the authorities in fury that their institutionalized loved ones had "disappeared" and that the countryside was filled with rumors of mass gassings, the families were warned that they could easily, by hereditary association, be deemed "mentally deficient" as well. This was apparently enough to quell the outrage.
Everything old is new again. What's happening now seems to be-- relatively speaking only-- a "soft" version of the historical pattern: children aren't being deliberately selected for murder; the causualties of health policy are just being allowed to die or to age into agonized neglect and isolation. Too often, they're killed "by accident" within underfunded schools and institutions. This isn't extermination-- not exactly. No one hand-picks who the casualties will be after all. Dissenting families aren't precisely threatened with death; they're simply repeatedly demoralized, driven into poverty, threatened with social ostracism with the help of constant propaganda, sometimes threatened with the loss of custody or the snatching of their children by the state for "acceptable, mainstream" treatments, such as Nate Tseglin's forced institutionalization and near-lethal drugging. Sometimes. It's not *exactly* mass persecution.
At the end of Doblin's essay, he writes that if there were to be more stories like the ones he'd heard, there would have to be another Alfred Doblin.
Thank you for bearing the weight of this "story" of all our children on top of everything else, and thank you for your integrity, Dr. Wakefield. It's as rare today as it was then.
Posted by: Adriana | June 04, 2009 at 11:29 PM
Dear Dr. Wakefield, Thank you for this article and for all you have done (and endured) to bring the truth about the MMR to light. Our son had a negative reaction in terms of balance and physical ability to the DTaP at age 12 mos (he didn't walk again without help until age 4 years) but it was the MMR at age 15 mos which finished off his burgeoning verbal skills. I'm horrified to find that history is being re-written in the medical exams; horrified, but not really surprised. As you point out, the autism epidemic is getting too big to be lied about, even tho' this is the biggest of the big lies. Thank you again, the Blinn Family
Posted by: Amanda Blinn | June 04, 2009 at 09:56 PM
Dr. Wakefield,
I am deeply sorry that you have had to endure this continuing persecution.
Thank you for your work. I know that it has contributed to the body of knowledge that is helping my child to recover from his ASD.
Posted by: Gail C. | June 04, 2009 at 09:55 PM
So sorry to hear that Ray Gallup. We had a rally in London for Autism Awareness last March and many speakers spoke on the subject. It is appaling for your son Eric to be treated in such a way.
Please view
www.openyoureyestoautism.com
Posted by: Joan Campbell | June 04, 2009 at 09:54 PM
Sickening. This is not science, it is dogma. What happened to the land of Newton and Crick?
The Nazi comparisons are very apt. Pharmaceutical companies and Dr.s who profit by unsafe vaccines remind me of Baron Krupp making a fortune selling Zyklon B to the extermination camps.
Posted by: Julie | June 04, 2009 at 09:29 PM
To: "Those who don't know history will repeat it"--
I also am interested in your comments about autistic children in Germany. Can you please list the books where you read this?
thanks much --
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | June 04, 2009 at 09:28 PM
Dr. wakefield, I am appalled (sp?) that "they" have got away with this kind of crap question in a higher level biology exam. How insidious! How galling!! What a bunch of mental midgets!
I think you should make a formal complaint about it. This is one momma that would be taking issue with it in a big way. I would demand that my son or daughter have the questions excluded from their mark. I would do just as you've done and disect it as to why it is so inappropriate. It would be like having a question on sexual orientation on an exam and favouring a response that reflected a biological explanation rather than environmental. All the information isn't in yet.
My daughter currently has a "no thanks" (to needles) group on her facebook and she cannot believe how many kids have joined. Good luck to you with that kind of crap being dished out.
Posted by: jen | June 04, 2009 at 08:45 PM
AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!!!
Posted by: curt linderman sr | June 04, 2009 at 08:42 PM
I am glad that Andy Wakefield said the following:
"The base of the tsunami that is the autism epidemic – ......"
It is a tsunami and no longer just an epidemic of autism. Numbers from the UK and the USA (not the CDC but the US Dept of Education and recent numbers I obtained from the Social Security Administration) bear that out.
When the new numbers for October 2009 that include nationwide figures ending for December 2008 are published by the US Dept of Education, hopefully they will be published by Medical Veritas.
On a personal note, our son, Eric who is in an out-of-state residential center has gotten numerous black eyes from other residents. Recently he had a bite mark on his arm and we were told it was another resident who did this. I hope other parents do not have to go through this like our family but unfortunately as time goes on, more kids will become adults and many will wind up in group homes or residential centers (those that aren't cured of their autism like Eric and either parents get older and can't handle the adult, like us or the parents pass away).
A very unfortunate fact of life that we have to deal with as do other families that are or will follow down our path.
Ray Gallup
Posted by: Raymond Gallup | June 04, 2009 at 07:19 PM
I logged on the internet just now and the Welcome news at my left corner said David Carridine dead at 72 and then it had an article about Orpah allowing bad medical advice on her show! They are after her now too. I know what Dr. Wakefield has been up againest and have always been amazed and humbled by his bravery. A thank you; just is too insignificant.
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | June 04, 2009 at 07:03 PM
Thanks for this response, Dr Wakefield. It is extremely important that these sorts of facts continue to get out to the public. The difference between Nazi Germany and now is basically one: the internet. The Powers That Be have tremendous power, still; but so far they haven't been able to put choke points on internet traffic.
The combination of this business in the UK about setting questions for tests - to elicit the 'right', ie, brainwashing answers - and the recent push by various 'authorities' to make vaccines mandatory, is scary stuff. It would appear that a major 'putsch' is in progress, by the corporate-government complex. The answer? The disinfectant activity of light. Like this article. And like the recent report of an analysis of one of the epid studies that appeared to drive another nail in the lid of the coffin of any suspected link between the MMR jab and autism (the Honda/Nutter study) that revealed that in point of fact it confirmed a dose-response relationship between the two. Thus the current conclusion for the study: it is evidence of a causal relationship. (See childhealthsafety.wordpress.com.)
The best-laid plans of mice and men.......
Posted by: Stan | June 04, 2009 at 07:01 PM
Puzzled
I don't think you are puzzled, but you are a troll.
Posted by: John Stone | June 04, 2009 at 06:07 PM
Ahhhh!
What a great treat to wake up today to an article written by the amazing Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
Especially today, June 4th 2009, in the first anniversary on the Green Our Vaccines Rally in Washington, DC.
Thank you Dr. Wakefield and AoA, keep up the good work.
As the great Man of La Mancha would say: "They are barking Sancho, it's a sign that we are moving forward".
======
Posted by: Erika | June 04, 2009 at 05:58 PM
Dr. Wakefield,
Your comparisons here are eerily true. "The indoctrination" is a good expression for what we keep witnessing in the media, from public health, and from those individuals who profit from
vaccines.
Hopefully,the seeds of propaganda will continue to be squelched by truth, science and morality.
On really hard days,when a seizure or pain surrounds my daughter, it helps me to think of all the ethical and brilliant people who have committed themselves to stopping this travesty of harm and injustice. You are on the top of that list and I thank you eternally.
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | June 04, 2009 at 05:43 PM
Thank you, Dr. Wakefield. I look forward to the day when you are exonerated and our children are seen for the sacrificial lambs that they are.
Posted by: Amber | June 04, 2009 at 05:38 PM
It is shocking that the education authorities have to stoop so low as to get their point across. This is what we have to deal with over here in the UK. A total cover up of the real truth of vaccine damage and I hope the children doing the exams have the sense to know that the questions are totally pro MMR and fabricated.
Posted by: Joan Campbell | June 04, 2009 at 05:38 PM
To " those who don't remember history will repeat it":
i thought there were no significant numbers of autistic children in nazi germany. please explain, and if you could please name the book that talks about the murder of autistic children, i would appreciate that too.
Posted by: puzzled | June 04, 2009 at 04:59 PM
Perhaps they could cure autism by simply taking it out of all the medical textbooks! Presto, no more autism!
Posted by: Garbo | June 04, 2009 at 03:54 PM
Dr. Wakefield,
Your efforts and sacrafice to a fragile community is greatly appreciated. Thank you for what you have done and continue to do for families affected by autism.
You are a wonderful display of courage and messenger of truth.
Thank you.
Posted by: Lisa @ TACA | June 04, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Please don't ever stop speaking out in your defense!
The vaccine debate is heavily influenced by our culture. Those who don't tow the PARTY line are heretical. Throughout history, a cultural bias has always been the barrier to honest scientific inquiry.
Cynthia Cournoyer
http://www.whataboutimmunizations.com/
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | June 04, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Dear Dr Wakefield,
My 15 year-old son Charlie is due to sit his GCSE's next week and has come across this in his workbook. He has assured me he is aware of the lies within, and will lie in order to gain the marks he needs. He will send this article you've to his school headmaster and insist it be sent by him to the examination board, and also will see to it being circulated amongst the teachers to let them hear your side. It is an appalling state of affairs isn't it!
Thank you for giving your valuable time to this.
Good luck to you, you're Britain's finest, and I am ashamed of the way you've been treated by the medical and scientific community in the UK and our spectacularly dishonest Government. However, it is a matter of history that it isn't always easy for pioneers so keep going with your dilligent and exemplary work.
Best wishes
Alli Edwards
Posted by: Allison Edwards UK | June 04, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Dear Andy,
It only has to be said as we confront the moves in the UK to make vaccination - or at the very least MMR vaccination - compulsory, that the claims of institutional infallibility only stem from flawed and corrupted judgement.
Why are these people not listening to you - why are they not listening to parents (as you did)? Because the moment they allow reality to peep through they are surely doomed.
John
Posted by: John Stone | June 04, 2009 at 11:40 AM
I hadn't heard that about Merck creating 6 fake medical journals. I thought they were content with faking out existing ones.
I saw an episode of "Doc Martin" a few months ago where the eminent doctor put in a big plug for MMR and against Wakefield and his colleagues. I'm sure that the show's producers were reimbursed for doing it. It added nothing to the episode.
Posted by: Carol | June 04, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Then there were the mentally ill, the physically disabled, intellectuals, political activists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy, trade unionists, some Africans, Asians and others who did not belong to the "Aryan race".
The less-abled
Several hundred thousand mentally and physically disabled people also were executed. Following a eugenics policy, the Nazis believed that the disabled were a burden to society because they needed to be cared for by others, but first and foremost, the mentally and physically handicapped were considered an affront to Nazi notions of a society peopled by a perfect, superhuman Aryan race. Around 400,000 individuals were sterilized against their will for having mental deficiencies or illnesses deemed to be hereditary in nature.
People with disabilities were among the first to be killed, and the United States Holocaust Memorial museum notes that the T-4 Euthanasia Program, established in 1939, became the "model" for future exterminations by the Nazi regime. The T-4 Program was established in order to maintain the "purity" of the so-called Aryan race by systematically killing children and adults born with physical deformities or suffering from mental illness. The controversy over the discovery of asperger's syndrome, a mild "high-functioning" form of autism was said to originated from the neuro-behavioral study of mental patients in Nazi state hospitals, remains sketchy to most experts.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Holocaust/Victims
Posted by: Ray Gallup | June 04, 2009 at 11:31 AM
I you think this is bad, you should see what Apologia Science (biology specifically) is trying to ram down the throats of home schoolers. Pages of condemnation for anyone who is "anti-vax".
I think funding is being thrown at poisoning young minds.
Soft marketing.
Posted by: karenatlanta | June 04, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Absolutely terrifying.
Posted by: Sara | June 04, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Dr Wakefield
Doctors have always been thought of as the saviors of mankind, the healers, and caretakers of our utter existence. Even ancient civilizations revered the medicine men as having special power to protect life. The trust of a physician is sacred. This is why the practice of medicine by the doctors of the Third Reich is egregious, outrageous, and shocking. The Nazi doctors violated the trust placed in them by humanity. The most painful truth is for the most part the doctors escaped their crimes against Humanity and lived a life, unlike their victims.
So when it happens to their family, is justice due? Maybe...but I hate to have one more child suffer, even if they come from "bad genes".
That said, I am sure they are living their life with ease, with no discomfort...because they have been brainwashed just enough to seer their conscience on this subject, almost to the point of being self righteous about it, though I find that hard to believe when they profit so much off of our sorrow.
It's called, acceptible losses...and that's exactly what we are to them.
The poison from the needle, is concecularly joining up with the poison from our enviornment, from our overprocessed food supply, depletion of soils, to the chemicals we make, sleep on, wear or partake of. I am sure these poisons clog up the immune sytem just enough, especially in young vulnerable children, to make them more susceptible to vaccine injuries. It is somewhat a miracle that all children are not autistic...but look at the result? If they are not MBD'd, they are ADHD, they have problems coping, they have immune dysfunction, etc. And or we have sown the seeds of cancer for decades.
Thanks for all you do. I only wish that the simple minded trusting new doctors can see through the illuminati like mind grabbing education they receive. Why is it that parents have figured this out? Because they love their children, more than they.
Thanks for being that one voice crying in the wilderness.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | June 04, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Thank you, Dr. Wakefield, for explaining yet again. I hope you continue to do so, as excruciatingly frustrating as it is.
Eventually more and more people will begin to honestly listen, and start looking inside our sick children where the medical truth lies.
Posted by: nhokkanen | June 04, 2009 at 10:10 AM
I find it wonderfully ironic that the Church of the Immaculate Vaccination accuses those of us who frequent this site as being Lemmings, yet they have brain washing techniques similar to what Dr. Wakefield discribed in his article. We have the unfortunate experience of having our eyes opened by the injury to our children, but they go on blithely, following a scientific concensus that has a religious following akin to the 15th century Catholic Church. All while being led by the nose as they jump off the cliff.
Much like the 15th century Church, the Church of the Immaculate Vaccination doesn't debate or discuss the possibility of vaccines and autism; they shut it down in any way possible. Their usual and most tried and true tactic is to smear the name of the person questioning vaccine safety ("A Witch! A Witch! Burn Her! She turned me into a Newt!")
I can imagine the meetings of the Oracians (I love that word, Kim; I hope you don't mind me borrowing it) gathering together in secret places, giving each other the ultra-super-duper-secret handshake, dressed in silken black cowls. Then, the high priest stands in front of the rest of the acolytes;
"And the Great One, our Lord and prOffit, did spake;
"Nothing must interfere with the Sacred and Holy Vaccine (a whispered "It Saves Lives" from the congregation), and it's father, the Holy Dollar. Anyone who questions the Vaccine (another fervent whisper, "It Saves Lives") must be a heretic and an anti-vaxxer. Do not debate them! Open the discussion with accusatory comments and smear their name. The Holy Vaccine (a fanatical shout from the congregation "It Saves Lives!") must be protected at all costs."
Then, one of the acolytes starts flopping on the ground, speaking in tongues, "monosodium L-glutamate, potassium chloride, potassium phosphate monobasic, potassium phosphate dibasic, sodium bicarbonate, sodium phosphate dibasic, sorbitol, thimerosal!" The rest of the congregation begins dancing around the quivering acolyte while the High Priest holds up a syringe like a dagger, preparing to plunge it into a child lying on the altar.
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | June 04, 2009 at 10:07 AM
Anyone who is offended by the use of the world "holocaust" when talking of autism needs to study up on their history. I've read many books which told of autistic children being the first killed in Nazi Germany. Autistic children were practised on. I've read books which detailed the nurses notes from the "hospitals" where the children were getting "treatment" and they clearly were describing autistic children. The children were marked for death by the doctors at the hospital and the parents were just told their children died mysteriously. The holocaust was not only about jews and should be discussed when talking about autism because we don't want to repeat this hisotry.
Posted by: Those who don't know history will repeat it | June 04, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Dr. Wakefield, we appreciate how tirelessly you continue to fight for our children. Sadly, if the current trend in autism rates continues, one day there will be no children to teach their propaganda to. I hope we never reach this point.
It is most certainly time to do some honest research into vaccines and autism before it is too late. I hope one day you get the recognition fo being the hero and champion of children everywhere that you are.
Posted by: chloesmom | June 04, 2009 at 10:01 AM
All I can think of whenever I see the Wakefield name linked to some bogus charge is, how many millions did that cost and who is paying it?
I don't know who is behind this massive cover-up or how much money is involved, but I know a conspiracy exists and I feel crazy for thinking so most of the time. However, it is the unjust persecution of Dr. Wakefield that proves to me there is a conspiracy, it does exist and I'm not crazy for thinking so.
Thanks Doc for not giving up!
Posted by: bensmyson | June 04, 2009 at 09:57 AM
My sister was belittled by her son's doctor when she wanted to delay his scheduled shots (this is going back about seven years now). I had just heard about the autism link and asked her to find out what her doctor thought about it. The pediatrician was so irate that this simple Mom was questioning his expertise. Thankfully, she refused to vaccinate her son that day and has since left that practice.
With that negative reaction, I went full force into researching everything I could find on children's medicine, vaccines, medications, typical diseases in childhood and so much more. I felt guilty about suggesting my sister ask her doctor since I hadn't done that with my own. Ironically, I'm thankful that doctor was such a jerk to her since it fed my fire to learn more to help me make the medical connections to find the answers to what my own son was going through.
Dr. Wakefield, thank you for being the voice for so many. It was a treat to see you at the Autism One conference and to know that you are such a hopeful part of this community. You are still a well-respected physician and more. You believe.
Posted by: Cathy Jameson | June 04, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Thank you, Dr. Wakefield. We stand beside you.
Posted by: Erik Nanstiel | June 04, 2009 at 09:32 AM
Dr. Wakefield, Putting nazi germany and present day britain side by side in the above context are both frightening and appropriate. I lost many relatives in Germany in the 40's. Two of my grandchildren on the autism spectrum-one recovered. In 2003, a book came out in the staes called The Language Police by Diane Ravitch. When I read it back then I was shocked. It does not shock me today, but continues to disturb me. The book tells of an elaborabe protocol of beneficent censorship implemented by test makers and school text book publishers in the US with the federal government having total control over this. Thank you for your work in support of our children. I continue to support you for many years.
maurine meleck
Posted by: Maurine Meleck | June 04, 2009 at 09:30 AM
Dr. Wakefield and our review team at A of A gave the question of using the holocaust careful thought.
It is not used to take away anything from what happened under Hitler - nor to say that the situations are 100% parallel.
I've used the Church scandal as a parellel myself. For decades children were horribly sexually abused and the Church got away with it because so few dared think such evil was possible. It was simply unthinkable and ripped apart centuries held beliefs. Nor did they dare to question the Power of the Church. Today, we are much sadder and wiser on that topic, aren't we?
The vaccine injury cataclysm will reach that point in time. It's already on it's way.
Posted by: Stagmom | June 04, 2009 at 09:16 AM
Dr. Wakefield,
You mention that parents may want to consider your information when discussing career choices with their children.
I agree wholeheartedly.
I would be ashamed, knowing what I know now, to have any of my children, or either my niece or nephew, go into the practice of traditional medicine.
I would encourage them, however, to study holistic healing.
What a tragic commentary on the times we live in.
YES--young minds are being poisoned in two ways--directly, through grossly dangerous vaccination practices, and indirectly, through sickening propaganda.
That you have the heart to continue with the work you do is amazing to me.
It will take many of us and tremendous efforts from all of us to change this evil we are facing, but we will change it. I think the Holocaust analogy is very appropriate.
Terri Lewis
Posted by: Terri Lewis | June 04, 2009 at 09:09 AM
As a kid the suggestion that our governments and corporations were using propaganda techniques lifted from the Third Reich would have struck me as absurd.
But kids today are learning about corporate scandals and corruption on a daily basis. And to top it off they're learning that our government lifted torture techniques developed by the Gestapo.
I hope and believe that your average 20 year-old today isn't as naive as I was. Hopefully they won't fall for this sorry attempt to smear Dr. Wakefield.
Posted by: Jack | June 04, 2009 at 08:57 AM
Thank you, Dr. Wakefield.
Posted by: Deb in IL | June 04, 2009 at 08:53 AM
I don’t understand why it is considered exploitation to use the word ‘holocaust’ to describe a situation that is in essence a holocaust.
I was banned from a political chat room once for suggesting that what is currently occurring with vaccines is akin to the holocaust of nazi germany. I won’t go into the parallels---they seem too obvious to me. And yet, the implication for why I was censored when speaking of this was that it somehow was either a distraction from ‘real’ debate, or that it was somehow belittling to the ‘real’ suffering that the jewish people experienced in nazi germany. Neither argument makes much sense to me. I thought that the purpose of debate was, well, debate. And I don’t understand why so many children of our current generation are less deserving of having their suffering recognized and stopped, or even discussed, than were the jewish people so many decades ago.
This wasn’t the first or last time that I was censored for speaking about vaccines and autism. It is easy to get emotional when discussing the issue. However it’s been my experience that one need merely bring up the topic in the most objective of manner to quite often find oneself forcibly silenced, as was the case for me on so many internet forums, or else threatened with arrest (“Can you understand what it is like to have a child with autism? Please leave or we’ll have you arrested--- you are spoiling our evening.”), as was the case when I took my information to the public sidewalks.
It is difficult for me to take the implied motives of the people who do these things at face value. I find it quite ironic at the very least.
I read a book awhile back about the experience of a Japanese American woman forced to go to an internment camp during the war. She spoke of people on trains who were forced to lower the window shades when the trains were passing through the towns at night. This was so that the townspeople wouldn’t be able to see into the train windows--- so that they wouldn’t be forced to witness what was happening. It’s impossible for me not to think of Brian Williams showing nightly news viewers a thimerosal label, but conveniently cropped by the camera angle so that the skull and cross bones isn’t seen.
Posted by: Robin Nemeth | June 04, 2009 at 08:48 AM
Dr. Wakefield,
Thank you for all you do and have done. My son is autistic and has gastritis, duodenitis and ileitis. Because of your work, my daughter's vaccines were delayed and spaced out and her MMR was separated. She is a healthy, neurotypical, beautiful 6 year old. THANK YOU.
Posted by: Lin | June 04, 2009 at 08:30 AM
Thank you, Dr Wakefield, for consistently providing fresh insights and invaluable perspective regarding the enormous man-made disaster caused by vaccine injuries. The courage you demonstrate is inspiring, as always. Best wishes!
Posted by: Mike Sullivan | June 04, 2009 at 07:52 AM
Dr. Wakefield I would like to say I am sorry for my niavete of my questions at AutismONe. Although I have studied for hours and hours on end the available documentation and books on the Autism Tsunami I am still embarrassingly incompetent in your presence. The passion and intelligence of this article brought me to tears. The poison our poor children endure from needles and society. I am sad for the demise of our health, culture, and future. Every Parent of a vaccine injured child wishes you well and pray that one day your are rewarded instead of scorned. Thank you and Sorry again for my simple minded questions on your motivation to find truth and justice. Your passion and intellect defines your character.
Posted by: Tanners Dad | June 04, 2009 at 06:09 AM