Call Me Irresponsible
By Norm Roberts
I had pertussis as an infant. It had no lasting impact on me but it traumatized my parents. For the rest of his life my dad talked about pacing the floor with me in his arms while I cried and coughed that horrible whooping cough. Mom and Dad would have been vocal advocates for the DTaP vaccine. But they never heard of autism. They had no idea their great grandson would come down with it, what it would mean for him, or that there was any possibility it might be caused by his immunizations. If they had, if they thought there was any risk, I wonder if my dad might have said “No thanks, I’ll walk the floor.” With ten dead infants from pertussis in California this past fall it wouldn’t be an easy choice. But with thousands of cases of autism, and more than a few deaths there too, it wouldn’t be an idle choice either.
That’s what pediatricians and public health officials are afraid of; given an informed choice, parents will opt out of vaccines rather than put their children at risk of autism. Authorities would rather make those decisions themselves, and justify it as a public necessity. So they have made what I believe is a conscious decision to suppress the information. They refuse to compare vaccinated vs. unvaccinated populations. They insist vaccines have been studied to death without ever actually evaluating the cumulative effect of a huge increase in the childhood schedule. They muddle the definition of the disease and suggest without evidence that the change and better awareness may be entirely responsible for an observed phenomenal increase in incidence. They stop reporting classical autism separately from other autism spectrum disorders and further obscure the real increase. They invest millions in a bizarre attempt to show autism isn’t a disease at all but a genetic defect. They demonize any researcher who finds even an incidental tie to vaccines. They patronize parents who ask uncomfortable questions. They foist off on us one absurdity after another.
It isn’t working. With only a suspicion of a causal link to autism parents are choosing not to vaccinate in alarming numbers, numbers large enough to nullify the desired herd immunity. The more dismissive the authorities are the more suspicious the parents become. The voices are getting louder. Why don’t these people want to know what is causing the autism pandemic? The CDC and NIH just announced they will look into reports Somali children in Minneapolis have unusually high rates of autism. People have been clamoring for them to do this for years. Why are they just now getting interested? Will they conduct an honest investigation? Their credibility isn’t high on this.
I’m old enough to remember the polio epidemic of the 1950s and to consider Jonas Salk one of the heroes of the last century for his vaccine. The eradication of small pox was one of the great humanitarian advances in my lifetime. But for vaccines like those to be effective we have to be able to trust them and right now the people in charge of them aren’t looking very trustworthy. I don’t know whether the tragic increase in the incidence of autism is related to the childhood schedule or not. I am convinced however that some environmental factor or factors must be at its root, it must be something that emerged about eighty or ninety years ago at about the same time autism did, that exposure to it must have increased dramatically twenty years ago when autism rates began to explode, and that attempts by doctors and public health officials to explain it away amount to a betrayal of trust. Vaccines fit the profile. It is not irresponsible to question them. It is irresponsible not to.
Norm Roberts is a retired business analyst living in Plano, Texas. His 9 year old grandson has autism.
Whooping cough is a cyclical illness that peaks in number of infections every few years. No matter how high the vaccination rate, about every five years there are reports of whooping cough increases. The new universal recommendation for avoiding the disease is vaccination for everyone, even though some scientists have raised questions about the efficacy of these vaccines.
To convince the gullible masses that whooping cough vaccinations are a great idea from cradle to grave, 'big pharma' is trying to convince the public, that they are in constant need of pertussis boosters. In order to protect newborn babies who can't be vaccinated, they will tell
grandparents, parents, teenagers and children that every few years, they are all in need of a booster. It shall be called "cocooning', but in reality it is just a way to constantly push
pertussis vaccinations on as many people as possible.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/dec/15/whooping-cough-experts-rely-vaccine-companies-mone/
Posted by: Rachael | January 27, 2011 at 04:38 PM
I dont think that is unrelated that the campaign for the eradication of small pox in the late 1970's was in the same third world countries where AIDS is epidemic since reusable needles were used ....
Posted by: L Land | January 27, 2011 at 01:19 PM
2 more pertussis vaccinated children dx. with pertussis.
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110127/NEWS01/101270343/Preston-student-diagnosed-with-case-of-whooping-cough
Posted by: Recent pertussis vaccinated cases | January 27, 2011 at 09:30 AM
To David Burd, Thankyou for the interesting information on perussis cases, and please keep us informed on further developments. The fact that such young infants are getting pertussis, makes one wonder if these children are still getting small amounts of mercury in their hepatitis B at birth vaccines. As I understand it, vaccines with 1 mcg of Thimerosal are still allowed and in fact the 1 mcg may actually be as much as 4 mcg. Please, anyone correct me if this seems incorrect. Even one mcg of Thimerosal could cause damage to the infant immune system and result in the child being vulnerable to pertussis. (See research by Dr. Isaac Pessah, U Cal , Davis .)
This is another example of why we really need that vaxed/unvaxed study. Are unvaccinated children in the U.S getting pertussis disease, or is it mainly the ones who have received vaccines with small amounts of ethylmercury in the Thimerosal. And how many of the pertussis victims are babies who were given flu vaccines? How many were the children of mothers who ate a lot of fish ?(This could easily include Hispanic moms who are perhaps not exposed to information about mercury in fish)
Today, we live in a world of many complexities, with our public health personnel ignoring those complexities to suit their own agendas.
Posted by: Cherry Sperlin Misra | January 26, 2011 at 11:07 AM
There is already talk of changing the DTaP vaccine. Reality (vaccinated kids are getting pertussis) is too blatant to ignore anymore.
The only problem with a new DTaP: .... after vaccinating against pertussis for over 60 years, and achieving vaccinated rates of very close to 100% coverage in school children and around 80% in preschoolers, there is no ADMISSION of FAILURE. No, it's not failure. It's just, "we need a new vaccine."
When there is a new vaccine, expect a declaration of "WE SOLVED the outbreak problem now... Give the new vaccine a chance to work!" We will be asked to be patient once again and implored to SHUT UP. Again. Meanwhile, the injuries keep mounting with NO ADMISSION that the vaccine ever failed.
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | January 25, 2011 at 07:41 PM
Kathy - where did you get the last statistic, 2011 - 39 vaccines for 18 diseases before ...the age of 5 - AUTISM = 2 in 100? I have been looking for current stats for some time. Thank you.
Posted by: Jill Fenech | January 25, 2011 at 10:08 AM
Whooping Cough Outbreaks & Vaccine Failures - Barbara Loe Fisher
July 8, 2010
"Even with super high pertussis vaccine coverage in America and other countries like the Netherlands, Australia, Finland and Canada, whooping cough disease cannot be prevented."
http://www.nvic.org/NVIC-Vaccine-News/July-2010/Whooping-Cough-Outbreaks-Vaccine-Failures.aspx#_edn20
Posted by: Rachael | January 25, 2011 at 08:57 AM
My daughter has had whooping cough twice and received 3 DtaP vaccines. So not only did the vaccines not protect her from the illness, but they prevented her from developing immunity to it. We traded lifelong immunity for lifelong autism. Thank you CDC!
Posted by: Libby | January 25, 2011 at 03:36 AM
I am appalled anyone would wish harm to anyone's child. I know for a fact, my son with autism has more compassion and a much kinder heart than to wish ill will or disease on anyone. Sorry to say, but "Someone With Autism" gives those with autism a bad rep.
Posted by: Lin | January 24, 2011 at 11:03 PM
At a recent community pertussis panel in Southern Oregon, one mother shared how her newborn, after being age appropriately vaccinated, still came down with pertussis. It was the mother who diagnosed the symptoms, and the doctors who missed it. Her infant was a healthy, breast fed, and above the weight norm for his age. All of those factors worked for encountering a disease which will make a parent pace the floor.
It is my opinion that the CDC will be forced to announce in the next two years that the current DtaP is ineffective, and has been ineffective since the 1990's. They will probably make this kind of admission at 4:45PM on a Friday afternoon, typically the time when the government has to admit oops, we were terribly, terribly, unforgivably wrong.
Posted by: michael framson | January 24, 2011 at 10:10 PM
I would love to get the source for the stats of autism in relation to vaccinations posted by kathy blanco. Having "discussions" with my infant son's dr... Thanks for a great article!
Posted by: Kara | January 24, 2011 at 09:39 PM
@ kathy blanco - awesome comment! Those statistics are absolutely frightening and very persuasive.
A conclusion that any reasonable person might make from those stats is that VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM.
Sadly, the crisis may actually be much worse than that. VACCINES ARE INCREASING ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY in a manner that appears to be related to the number of mandated vaccines.
See page 26 of Dr Obomsawin’s Immunization graphs for under age 5 mortality per 1,000 live births for 2007 by number of vaccines mandated.
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/documents/vaccines/Immunization%20Graphs%20PPT%20-%20RO%202009.pdf
Posted by: patrons99 | January 24, 2011 at 07:06 PM
I almost feel kind of sorry for the next big " breakthrough, ultra-important, your kid will die if they don't get it" vaccine. If 48% of people aren't so convinced that vaccines don't cause autism then things are really at a tipping point.
Posted by: Jen | January 24, 2011 at 04:08 PM
Norm, Here's an excerpt from the California Department of Public Health report in October 3-4 months ago. Two factors cry out: One, 8 out of 9 deaths were Hispanic babies manifesting pertussis illness BEFORE 2 months old - thus BEFORE the Immunization Schedule that puts the first DTaP shot at 2+ months, and we have no idea what other health factors may have been involved and if their Hispanic parents had given them toxic drugs such as Ribavirin that are sold like aspirin in Mexico without any medical prescription. The 9th fatality was a preemie and was given a pertussis vaccine shot 15 days yet still came down with pertussis (and what else?). My point being we really don't know how many health factors were involved - but I'm still investigating as best I can (an MMWR report may surface).
"As of 10/12/2010, there have been 5,658 confirmed, probable and suspect cases of pertussis with onset from January 1 through October 12, 2010 reported to CDPH for a state rate of 14.5 cases/100,000.
Nine deaths have been reported; 8 (89%) were Hispanic infants. Eight fatalities were infants <2 months of age at time of disease onset and had not received any doses of pertussis-containing vaccine and the remainder was an ex-28 week preemie that was 2 months of age and had received the first dose of DTaP only 15 days prior to disease onset. The majority of infant cases in 2010 have occurred in infants <3 months of age (Figure 3)."
Posted by: david burd | January 24, 2011 at 04:08 PM
"Well I hope all their kids get measles, mumps or rubella."
I had mumps, rubella, and chicken pox as a kid as the only vaccine available in the 1960's was for the measles. So did my brothers and sisters along with the other neighborhood children. We are all fine and now have lifelong immunity. All three of these diseases are mild in children; they only risk serious complications in adolescence or adulthood. Measles is nasty in children so perhaps vaccination is warranted, the others are not.
Why then vaccinate infants for mild diseases? If they don't get the disease as children, they can still be vaccinated once they reach their teenage years. At this point, the immune and neurological systems are far more mature and less prone to adverse reactions. In addition, the doses can be spread out over time instead of trying to cram them all into the first year of life.
Do those that vehemently defend the schedule think we can't remember these things? Diseases that are now spoken of as scourges by those that have not had them used to be considered virtually harmless in children. That is a historical fact.
Posted by: Jeff C. | January 24, 2011 at 03:54 PM
bottom line
Vaccines UP, Disorders UP, WAKE UP !
• 1950 – 3 vaccines given at the age of 5-6years old - AUTISM = 1 in 15000
• 1983 – 10 Vaccines given up to age 6 - AUTISM = 1 in 1500
• 2002 - 23 doses for 13 diseases by the age of 2 - AUTISM = 1 in 150
• 2011 - 39 vaccines for 18 diseases before ...the age of 5. - AUTISM = 2 in 100
Posted by: kathy blanco | January 24, 2011 at 03:10 PM
The truth was never told about polio either:
1. NEVER proven to be infectious or contagious
2. No doctor or nurse or family member ever got polio from another (if more than one in a family, got it at the same time or nearly)
3. Many speaking out about this at the time and silenced or ignored
4. Most likely toxic poisoning at the time - see all the info here http://www.wellwithin1.com/PolioJimWest.htm
Posted by: Sheri Nakken, former RN, MA | January 24, 2011 at 02:35 PM
My father will never forget when he had pertussis at age 6. But guess what--he grew up healthy and normal, married, got a job, and had kids. No seizures, no neurological problems. He had a poor diet growing up, which I think contributed to the severity of his pertussis symptoms.
My unvaccinated kids won't even remember when they had pertussis, because they were very young. I wasn't traumatized, and neither were they. Sodium ascorbate was very helpful. Why is the government not getting the word out about sodium ascorbate? Do they not want there to be a widely known effective treatment, because people would no longer be scared into getting the vaccine?
Posted by: Kristina | January 24, 2011 at 01:58 PM
"That’s what pediatricians and public health officials are afraid of; given an informed choice, parents will opt out of vaccines rather than put their children at risk of autism."
Well I hope all their kids get measles, mumps or rubella.
Posted by: Someone with Autism | January 24, 2011 at 01:18 PM
Dr Shiv Chopra points out "that vaccination did successfully eradicate smallpox. The possibility of eradicating polio in the same way is open to scientific debate. However he also observes that ALL THE OTHER CHILDHOOD DISEASES HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT WITH VACCINATION CAMPAIGNS involving millions of children every year. Worst of all, these diseases are appearing with increasing frequency in the very populations that have been vaccinated for several generations. Clearly, something is wrong with these programs, the vaccines themselves, and he finds it alarming that “the list of vaccines being administered to young children has been enlarged to include many more viral and bacterial infections with little or no scientific rationale."
http://www.vitalitymagazine.com/apr_08_helke
Posted by: Rachael | January 24, 2011 at 11:50 AM
Oops! Thats "deceiving and being deceived"
Mr Roberts,
Great article. The Simpsonwood transcript reveals that the major players in this disaster do know what is going on, at least with thimerasol. After all Dr Johnston didn't say he didn't want his grandson to get any shots at all, just not thimerasol containing ones. "Evil men deceiving and being deceived". About the polio and smallpox vaccines, there is a lot of evidence that they were not as successful as advertised and actually caused damage in other ways. See Dr. Tenpenny's work on this and Neil Z. Miller's book Vaccine Safety Manual. It's amazing how many lies surround vaccines.
Posted by: Adam M | January 24, 2011 at 11:43 AM
"I’m old enough to remember the polio epidemic of the 1950s and to consider Jonas Salk one of the heroes of the last century for his vaccine. The eradication of small pox was one of the great humanitarian advances in my lifetime."
Ok, then you've never view Vaccine Nation by Dr. Gary Null - google it seriously.
Dr. Mary's Monkey - book... then, decide if you really think you witnessed the greatest medical advances or just a really successful marketing campaign.
Posted by: Renee | January 24, 2011 at 10:32 AM
Another thing they have not being completely forthright about is the fact that there is a disproportionately larger number of pertussis incidence and mortality in individuals of Hispanic ethnicity. In a June, 2010 bulletin, the 'California Department of Public Health' said that, “since 1998, more than 80 percent of the infants who died from pertussis have been Hispanic." In fact, eight of the nine California infant deaths this year have been of Hispanic ethnicity. Immunization coverage among Hispanics, did not seem to play a role. Studies are needed to find the reasons, as to why these children have lower levels of immunity to pertussis and are more susceptible to severe consequences.
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/NR10-041.aspx
"The immunization rate for California Latinos was even higher, at 98.1%." http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/724881
Posted by: Rachael | January 24, 2011 at 10:31 AM
This settlement should act as a stimulus to dramatically increase the safety construct in the U.S. regarding the vaccine schedule and delivery methodology...but, sadly, it probably won't. 39 Billion dollars. That's a lot of dough.
"The Japanese government will soon reach formal agreement to settle a massive class-action lawsuit involving people who contracted hepatitis B through childhood vaccination, expected to cost up to 3.2 trillion yen ($39 billion) in damages to compensate hundreds of thousands of victims.:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703555804576101502771928070.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_health
Posted by: Dadvocate | January 24, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Great article Norm!
Posted by: Jen | January 24, 2011 at 09:58 AM
Are they planning to bring back the super brain damaging DPT shot?
I agree with Adam M. Please read Dr. Tenpenny's work and you'll have your eyes opened about the fraud of polio and smallpox vaccines. The whole vaccine pyramid crumbles when you realize the vaccines have ALWASY been a fraud.
Posted by: Mary | January 24, 2011 at 09:58 AM
Actually I think it is good that the PDD-NOS and aspergers are included in classic autism. I may not really understand what I am talking about, but if we are going to statistical count those that have a brain injury from a vaccine reaction and call it autism, then let us count all of them.
That said:
The pertussin vaccine is probably the worse/unsafe vaccine out there (but then they chose to make a Hep B and it too is pretty rough). I believe pertussin sets up the child for other vaccine reactions. Like the MMR that has a weaken virus. It also sets our kids up not to fight off any virus or bacteria, or pathogen effectually.
Posted by: Benedetta | January 24, 2011 at 09:47 AM
"Health officials across the country are trumpeting pertussis vaccinations, but a four-month investigation by KPBS and the Watchdog Institute, a nonprofit investigative center based at San Diego State University, has found that many people who have come down with whooping cough have been immunized."
http://www.watchdoginstitute.org/2010/12/13/whooping-cough-epidemic-california/
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/dec/14/immunized-people-getting-whooping-cough-experts-sp/
Posted by: Rachael | January 24, 2011 at 09:10 AM
I would love to see the exact statistics of the California whooping cough "epidemic". What % of kids were vaccinated "against" pertussis that actually caught it? I keep telling people I don't only question vaccine safety, I question their efficacy. Efficacy studies haven't really been done either… why would I risk that for my children?
Posted by: casey | January 24, 2011 at 09:00 AM
this morn. they announced in northern upstate ny it is the length .of time between pregnancy...talk about moving goal post...there was 15 years between my kids..and only a increased vax sceduale..from the 1998..born norm hit milestone regressed after a grandmal siezure at 13mos..autism diag:27mos...now its us breeders..having children to close...good greif...cdc..we are not stupid breeders.......candace
Posted by: candace | January 24, 2011 at 07:21 AM
"Autorities . demonize any researcher who finds even an incidental tie to vaccines. They patronize parents who ask uncomfortable questions."
This description of what the "authorities" call an "antivaccinationist" .. was written by Dr. Gregory A. Poland and Dr. Robert M. Jacobson .. and published in the prestigious New England Journalt of Medicine:
"Today, the spectrum of antivaccinationists ranges from people who are simply ignorant about science (or "innumerate" unable to understand and incorporate concepts of risk and probability into science-grounded decision making) to a radical fringe element who use deliberate mistruths, intimidation, falsified data, and threats of violence in efforts to prevent the use of vaccines and to silence critics. Antivaccinationists tend toward complete mistrust of government and manufacturers, conspiratorial thinking, denialism, low cognitive complexity in thinking patterns, reasoning flaws, and a habit of substituting emotional anecdotes for data".
The "spectrum of antivaccionationist" described above is so intentionally meanspirited and broadly defined .. it apparently was written for only one purpose .. to prevent ANY rational discussion regarding the safety of vaccines .. such as .. asking the common sense study of "vaccinated vs. unvaccinated" study be done.
Indeed, according to this definition .. Dr. Julie Gerberding former Director of the CDC could be called an "antivaccinationist" .. because she said such a study not only "could be done .. it should be done".
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | January 24, 2011 at 06:57 AM
Mr Roberts,
Great article. The Simpsonwood transcript reveals that the major players in this disaster do know what is going on, at least with thimerasol. After all Dr Johnston didn't say he didn't want his grandson to get any shots at all, just not thimerasol containing ones. "Evil men deceived and being deceived". About the polio and smallpox vaccines, there is a lot of evidence that they were not as successful as advertised and actually caused damage in other ways. See Dr. Tenpenny's work on this and Neil Z. Miller's book Vaccine Safety Manual. It's amazing how many lies surround vaccines.
Posted by: Adam M | January 24, 2011 at 06:22 AM