Is That Paul Offit with a Casserole?
By Teresa Conrick
In 1995 when Megan was diagnosed with PDD-NOS, I thought all would be ok. It wasn't the "AUTISM" word and the neurologist who gave her that diagnosis was famous, and old, so he had to be an expert, right? HA! How naive I was back then. That doctor knew NOTHING about what was wrong with my daughter and she WAS autistic, according to the DSM, but I think he decided that the term PDD, would somehow get him out of the examining room without holding my hand or witnessing my tears. What doctor in their right mind wants to say in 1995, "Your child has AUTISM - a life-long, unknown cause, no treatment, diagnosis?" Two things he DID say have always stayed with me.
This one -- out of absolute denial of the severity of her symptoms (she lost speech, was a robot of perseverating behaviors, fingers in the ears, spinning, GI distress, crying, etc etc) --"Put her in a regular nursery school as being around NORMAL children may help her." Well, I am all for inclusion in the schools BUT my daughter was exhibiting MEDICAL problems that showed up in her behaviors. I don't think hanging out with Suzie or Johnny was going to stop that diarrhea or eliminate her painful auditory dysfunction. The other comment he made that has always lingered with me was this -- "Many of these children are very fair, very pale." It didn't occur to me to probe him on that as I watched my precious child tapping the blocks repeatedly instead of stacking them. She had been counting and stacking them months before and I was fearful that something very bad was happening. I had no idea what was in store.
And what did happen? Not enough! I had to pull teeth to get speech and OT services while we waited for early interventions via the local school district. Meanwhile she had a frequent flier ticket to the pediatrician's office about every 2 weeks. Ear infections, throat infections, mysterious viruses, nose bleeds, rashes, unknown crying, GI "distress", etc would be written on her medical log. A very sad occurrence through much of this was that people, be it blood connection or friendship, had no idea what to do. That DSM word of "autism" and its related DSM synonyms in 1995, was like saying my daughter now had a form of some weird mental health "cooties." We were put on a small boat with scarce supplies and pushed off the island of "normalcy." I could hear the soup Nazi from Seinfeld shaking his finger saying -- "No casseroles for you!" -- a casserole being the universal sign that someone is sick, that a family has a real need for help. It is chicken or beef combined with love and support but it never knocked on my door.
Enter Paul Offit, some doctor that kept creeping up in news stories about autism as each year passed to the next. The NY Times describes him: "Dr. Offit, a pediatrician, is a mild, funny and somewhat rumpled 57-year-old. The chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, he is also the co-inventor of a vaccine against rotavirus, a diarrheal disease that kills 600,000 children a year in poor countries." How come the NYT didn't include Vaccine Patent Owner/Seller, MULTI-Millionaire, and Merck Consultant?
As the years went by, it became apparent that there were many more of us on our little boats but we then landed. It was a new place with MEDICAL research and studies showing that children with an autism diagnosis had real, scientific, medical issues that often caused pain. Most of us shared vaccine injury regression. Much of it had to do with inflammation, oxidative stress and the numerous downstream effects from that. It involved BOTH the GI and the Brain. The more research showing that many of the children had a regressive type of autism that occurred at the same time as vaccination, the more I saw that Offit guy. Could this be an example of that mantra he kept beating the viewers with then and now, over and over, "correlation doesn't equal causation, yet he pops up when new research AGAIN implicates thimerosal to mitochondria damage (after Hannah Poling was diagnosed autistic after vaccination with a mitochondrial disorder) or an Italian study replicating Dr. Wakefield's study showing the same inflammation to the gut in regressive autism. Is that autism/vaccine -- Offit popping up -- like.... correlation and causation? If A+B=C, then yes, I think that VACCINES + AUTISM = OFFIT. That sure seems CAUSATIVE of the CORRELATION of Paul Offit on my TV AGAIN. Why does he keep coming on the news and telling everyone that vaccines are safe and do not cause brain injury or autism when there are 1,300 cases showing just that (HERE) ...and then this story, which sounds not too different from Jan Brady's whopper about George Glass, a made-up boyfriend. Check this one out:
"…it’s hard to make a statistical argument, or an epidemiological argument, to a parent who’s seen something that’s very emotional. There’s a story that I tell, because I think it’s a powerful one. My wife is a privately practicing pediatrician in the suburbs. And she was in the office one day and there was a four-month-old sitting on her mother’s lap. And my wife was drawing a vaccine into a syringe that she was about to give this child. Well, while she was drawing the vaccine into a syringe the child had a seizure, and actually went on to have a permanent seizure disorder—epilepsy. And there had been a family history of epilepsy, so she was certainly at risk for that. If my wife had given that vaccine five minutes earlier, I think there’s no amount of statistical data in the world that would have convinced that mother that anything other than the vaccine caused the seizure, because I think those sort of emotional events are very hard to argue against." (HERE) So you see, we saw something emotional and then we became unable to truly have a cognitive ability on what ailed our children. Offit is setting up the old hysterical spin. It's been used for centuries, and Dan and Mark actually discussed it in in their book, "Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Manmade Epidemic," HERE.
One thing I was interested in was what DID Offit claim caused autism? He is the chief of Infectious Diseases and many, many children with an autism diagnosis have all kinds of infections and inflammation in both the Brain and GI. Don't you think he would be saying something like, "that's interesting" and what his ideas are about that as far as causation? NOPE -You would be WRONG! He NEVER mentions any of their medical issues. Here is what Offit did say in what looks to be an elusive gene hunt and an infomercial for vaccines: HERE
What causes autism?
"It has, at least, a genetic basis. A number of studies have shown a complicated genetic mutation. It's not like sickle-cell anemia, where a single gene has a single mutation, or cystic fibrosis, where a single gene has many mutations. With autism spectrum disorder, it appears that at least several genes have varying mutations." HERE And that's it! All done! Time to pick up the checks! A + B = C! Now, not getting emotional as that then negates any sense I have because having a child with autism makes you emotional therefore the science of vaccine damage is wrong. A + B = C. Well, that is what Paul Offit wants his victims to believe and by victims, I mean the innocent people of the world who expect honesty when it some to health procedures with very possible life altering implications, like seizures, mitochondrial injury, autism, and death They are being told untruths, half-truths and fabrications. BUT it appears that it's not working anymore! It appears that Offit's repeated, year after year denial of vaccine damage causing autism, is losing. This (HERE) just out showing that 52% of Americans polled do not think vaccines cause autism yet 48 % are not convinced they don't. That's getting pretty close and it may be that Offit will be making an appearance soon. REMEMBER, if it's about autism and vaccines -- Offit can't be far away.
Teresa Conrick is Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.
Parents, Dr. Offit is not playing his pied piper flute for you. He is playing for the doctors. A couple of lines are going down very well with the beleaguered medical fraternity : One is that parents are emotional (euphemism for nutty). One is that the kids arent REALLY autistic- The parents are merely angling for some benefits.
Me thinks the doctors are a little miffed because the "Flu vaccine stampede" promised them by their pharma friends, in the Pediatrics journal, (Imagine visual of a stampeding bull ) is no longer materializing.
Remember, It is of the utmost importance to keep fooling the doctors about the cause of autism so that they go on telling people that the cause is genetic. There are still plenty of people who are not so familiar with autism who will readily believe this- even busy doctors in other areas of medicine who are not familiar with autism. Gotta keep the stories spinning so that no one goes on youtube to see Dr. Wakefield
Posted by: Cherry Sperlin Misra | February 03, 2011 at 04:09 PM
The argument of the person who had a seizure BEFORE a vaccine is powerful but did Paul tell us all the facts?
It seems strange that a person should have problems before a vaccine but it would be good to know if the vaccine had already been given and if there was cause for concern.
Paul tells us of the confusion of temporal occurrence and real cause but gives a snippet of something that is tantalising to know more.
While some such stories go down as case studies this seems worse than a poor blogger might invent.
Posted by: John Fryer Chemist | February 03, 2011 at 03:52 AM
I found the podcast of Paul Offit being interviewed by Dr. Ginger Campbell where Paul tells the story about his wife vaccinating a child whom develops seizures 2 months later. It was made 1 year ago.
Some interesting points he makes:
On the topic of understanding risk Offit agrees w/ the interviewer that tuna fish is more dangerous than the flu vaccine.
When asked about real world experiences with toxicity of mercury and autism symptoms Paul brings up the Minimata Bay Mercury poisoning happening in Japan and the toxic effects are "quite the opposite" of autism -as well as the Iraq grain fumigation w/ mercury as a fungicide. Mothers that consumed the tainted bread had children with seizure disorder, and mental retardation and motor defects, but no increase in autism.
He goes on about how pharmaceutical funding of studies shouldn't matter and the media is irresponsible in reporting both sides.
He talks about Alison Singer being his hero.
Offit says parents that speak of their Autistic children's condition as a different way of being.... parents that don't complain are the real heroes.
His thoughts are that this debate is only alive because lawyers are trying to make money...and that things will die down in about 10 years in court.
The average person doesn't understand the science.
Andrew Wakefield is not a true scientist because he didn't admit that his hypothesis is wrong.
He talks politics...he urges his supporters to contact representatives and say...enough of this business that vaccines cause autism....no federal money should be put towards this....complains that the rights are on the side of parents that decide not to vaccinate.
Posted by: patrick | February 02, 2011 at 09:59 PM
Patrick,
I wondered the very same thing about Mrs. Offit's little anecdote. Before autism, I worked for several different pediatricians and family practice physicians, and there was never, ever an occasion where an actual doctor drew up or administered a vaccine. Has anyone anywhere ever verified that Mrs. Offit's story is even based on truth?
Posted by: Donna L. | February 02, 2011 at 02:43 PM
"four month old seizured" ..I agree..docs don't give the shots, aren't in the room when they are given..another "convenient tale"?? No ..a lie designed to impact an audience!!
much like the little whooping baby on the newest TV ad here, what would happen if instead the "truth" side of this issue, showed the syringe and a six year old autistic child melting down with a desparate mom trying to comfort him while he banged his head into the floor and made non verbal noises,during his diaper change..
Posted by: barbaraj | February 02, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Offit's story about his wife is very unusual. I have never heard of a Doctor drawing a vaccine for a client nor have I ever seen a parent holding a 4 month old on her lap during the administration of rotavirus DTaP Hib PCV and IPV. The nurse generally injects these vaccines in both legs quickly while the parent stabilizes the child on the examination bench.
On a different note I do wish pediatricians did less assuming everything is coincidence and more logical thinking. It is very odd for a healthy 4 month old to suddenly develop seizures regardless of their family history. I wish Mrs. Offit would have been more of a "do no harm" type and related the seizures to the 4 month old's 2 Month vaccinations of rotavirus DTaP Hib PCV and IPV or the child's birth dose of hep B. Unfortunately, I don't believe pediatricians ever make the obvious assumption that these childhood epidemics are due to an intervention that they themselves have ordered.
It makes me sick to hear a Doctor trying to communicate to his peers that it is useless to try to communicate to parents of sick children on a logical level as they are too emotional. In my experience it is parents whom become very serious and logical when their child becomes sick. Many of us become experts in our child's particular injuries and supply doctors with important information to help children. To break down this important line of communication is sad.
I get what Dr. Offit is trying to say. It disturbs me that his wife and others that hear her story will go on to see children suffer a seizure immediately upon administration of a vaccine and not put the two events together and report what happened. A worse scenario would be that the particular child injured by the vaccine in front of their own eyes then is given the same vaccines 2 months later and sustains additional life threatening injuries.
And the whole "seizure disorder-epilepsy" thing....he makes my skin crawl. Seizures do have causes and can be treated too. I am curious how hard they looked for a cause to this child's seizures before they slapped the dead end of epilepsy-no apparent cause mystery diagnosis just because of the family history or because the seizure happened within 2 months of heavy vaccination.
Posted by: patrick | February 02, 2011 at 10:29 AM
"it’s hard to make a statistical argument, or an epidemiological argument, to a parent who’s seen something that’s very emotional."
So there it is: dehumanize a child down to a data point and spread the Pharma propaganda that there are no worries because most children won’t be injured.
Posted by: Jim Thompson | February 02, 2011 at 08:14 AM
"Many of these children are very fair, very pale." It is a heart touching line comment can be done on a child who is suffering from the autism.
Posted by: Clenbuterol | February 02, 2011 at 01:13 AM
Congratulations Greydon Lister
That comment merits the Pharma Troll Recipe Award
1) Deny everything--"just because...
2) Attack the messenger--"you all seem so...
3) Change the subject away from vaccine injury--"the vaccine prevents...
Posted by: Jim Thompson | February 01, 2011 at 10:54 PM
Just because Paul Offit has made money on a vaccine does not mean that is why he created it. You all seem so cynical and mean-spirited. He could have invented a phoney cure like those fizzy drinks that are supposed to cure colds. Apparently the vaccine prevents a virus. That is a good thing in my book.
Posted by: Greydon Lister | February 01, 2011 at 07:53 PM
When autism was "new" the diagnosis focused only on behaviors. As time went on, immune problems seem to be common to autistic individuals, then seizures were seen along with an autism diagnosis, then gut problems were added. It keeps growing and growing. The more physical issues are found along with autism, the more they are thrown into the diagnosis, or thrown in to "what to expect." Has there EVER been a disease or a condition that keeps growing in its description?
I believe the strategy is to lump anything and everything onto autism so the phrase "there is no cure" can cover anything and everything so doctors do not have to treat an "incurable" disease and they do not have to find a cause. How convenient.
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | February 01, 2011 at 06:28 PM
Strange disconnect, when the CDC mandates injecting children with mutagens and then vaccine profiteers speculate about autism spectrum disorders being genetic mutatations.
Posted by: nhokkanen | February 01, 2011 at 05:58 PM
I just saw this new report on Vaccines by International Medical Council. It is aptly called "Vaccine : Get the Full Story". A free download of the report is available. Checkout these two links:
http://www.naturalnews.com/031173_vaccines_science.html
http://naturalnews.com/Vaccines_Get_the_Full_Story.html
Posted by: R Prasad | February 01, 2011 at 03:53 PM
Teresa, thank you for this, I'm still waiting for my casserole too. And Paul Offit, well, I can't use the kind of language I'd like to. One thing I'm curious about on the 'paleness' question. My son was diagnosed with pyrroluria by our DAN, using the mauve factor test through Labbio.net, this is the disorder where the child does not hold onto any zinc or B6. My DAn thought to test Nick after a month in FL in AUgust and my son was still so pale he was almost transparent. After heavily supplementing zinc and B6 my son's depression (yes depressed at 6, really heartbreaking for a mom), incredible fatigue, and death palor are gone. It took about 2.5 months to turn around. My DAN says there is some new conversation about pyrroluria as a mito marker. Woody McGinnis has a very informative article on this on line. I know that you and Adrianna are very interested in the melanin issue and I wonder if the two could be related? Anyway, just thought I'd toss that out in case it gave you another avenue to explore. Treating my son's pyrroluria has been one of the more effective bio med interventions for us. Not surprising given how vital zinc and B6 are in so many pathways our kids have impairments with. My best to you and your daughter.
Posted by: Alison MacNeil | February 01, 2011 at 03:25 PM
The ASD "expert" who diagnosed my son in 2000 at the Oregon Health Science University told us he knew nothing about special diets or biomedical treatments and told us there was nothing we could do. I found this so strange that I did a little research and found that he had published articles in med journals about "alternative treatments" for autism.
When I read them, they were basically to train pediatricians how to steer parents away from such treatments. Among other things, he advocated letting the "emotionally distressed parents" try a special diet for one week, then off for one week, then on for one week, then "disconinue the treatment" because by then it would be obvious the treatment didn't work.
Forgone conclusion, self-fulfilling prophecy. Pretty scientific, huh?
I heard his partner-expert from OHSU several years later on a call-in show on the local NPR station saying, "We would never tell parents not to try any treatment that they thought would work for their child with autism" - which was EXACTLY what the two of them had done with us.
Of course, I'm a hysterical, emotional parent who believes in conspiracy theories. Wait until you catch your physician out-and-out LYING to you!
Posted by: Jimsomnia | February 01, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Vaccines pose a significant risk of harm to the health of your children... see the International Medical Council on Vaccination document signed by over 80 medical professionals.
http://prototyping.engageus.info/media/VaccineReport-EN.pdf
Posted by: Rachael | February 01, 2011 at 12:09 PM
I would not hold on to the neurologist saying that it is mostly white people that get autism. I mean look at your source. Besides I have known plenty of black children with autism too.
Can you believe the neurologist said right in front of my little sweet 10 year old boy that ,"We see alot of these kids come in here that are short, and very slow, and had some reactionto their vaccines. We don't know why but they were probably like that to begin with. I have a neice that has down syndrome and a seizure disorder, and the vaccine made her siezures worse."
We drove back home that day, a beautiful day in the middle of OCT, one of those fall days that are crystal clear and you can see the mountains from miles away. One of those crisp days of Fall - and we drove out of the big city, past Bernheim forest and the food hills of the knobs full of fall colors of changing leaves. In spit of all that my son eyes had welted up with tears the whole way home. It was he that was crying not me. Lies are sometimes a good thing and it was then I lied about his IQ. I told him that the neurologist did not know what he was talking about. First that he and I both knew he had a seizure disorder and second (the lie) he was not slow becasue he had been tested and his IQ was not above average but high average like his sister. And as for being short - well look at his mother (me) and my father.
He brightened up and said "Really Mommie, really, I have the same IQ as my sister!" And I said yes.
I wrote a letter to the neurologist that night that he will not soon forget.
Posted by: Benedetta | February 01, 2011 at 12:04 PM
I still want to know how Dr. Paul Offit, a virologist and former Rotateq patent holder now millionaire, became the media's "go to" guy on all things autism. Offit is a real life spin-doctor.
One one hand it seems the media wants to distance vaccines from autism but whenever autism comes up everyone runs to Dr. Paul for a quote. strange.
I can think of much more qualified experts than Offit like the doctors at UC Davis MIN Institute or the Cleveland Clinic. Why don't reporters talk to those experts? Why seek out a
non-expert on autism like Offit?
Posted by: Sarah | February 01, 2011 at 11:33 AM
The psychologist we took our sons to back in the 90s told us they were not autistic and that they would improve if we let them watch a lot of videos with speech and singing (I am not joking). This was what passed for medical intervention back then.
Posted by: Theodore Van Oosbree | February 01, 2011 at 11:27 AM
Any and all good things that can possibly be associated with vaccines are cause and effect. All bad things are coincidence.
Thanks Paulie! What a releif!
He must be gearing up for a career in politics, since he has a degree in Spin Doctoring. Nah, scratch that, politics couldn't possibly be more lucrative than vaccine making.
Posted by: Sylvia | February 01, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Awfully funny "genetic disorder" we have here, since Monozygotic Twins (genetically identical) have about a 90% likelihood of both being somewhere on the Autism Spectrum... but don't necessarily look anything like each other outside of diagnosis. The earlier the separation (which can be told by having different umbilical cords, placentas, and other various differences, the less they are like each other. You can have one twin who is nonverbal, in diapers, and stays that way his whole life... while the other twin has a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome and writes computer programs.
This is NOT how genetic disorders usually work. Usually identical twins have similar manifestations of the disorder under study. Obviously, something ELSE is going on besides just genetics.
Posted by: Tara Marshall | February 01, 2011 at 10:24 AM
I had the same experience with my pediatrician in 2001. Interestingly, I was talking with a grandmother of a 2 1/2 year old with autism and she had the same experience last year. She told me that she's working on a set of guidelines to teach pedidatricians how to diagnose autism. Cynical me started laughing and told her that she's getting bullsh*tted. Her grandson's autism was obvious on sight and her pediatrician was just giving her the run around and a referral to get her out of there so he can continue vaccinating because that's how he makes his money. She hates me now but she'll thank me later.
Posted by: Mary | February 01, 2011 at 09:08 AM
There is no autism epidemic, but if there is, it's genetic. And if it's not entirely genetic, then the kid was going to get sick anyway. Any questions?
Ciao,
Paul
Posted by: Carol | February 01, 2011 at 08:14 AM
".... Could this be an example of that mantra he kept beating the viewers with then and now, over and over, "correlation doesn't equal causation,.."
It is amazing how "correlation doesn't equal causation" .. except when exaggerating the benefits of vaccines.
According to public health officials .. if you received a vaccination for ANY disease .. and .. you don't get THAT disease .. the reasons you didn't get it is because you had been vaccinated. That is simply reversed "correlation equals causation".
Indeed, since the beginning of time .. public health officials have always claimed vaccines are the primary CAUSE of declines in disease .. the ONLY evidence being statistical graphs that CORRELATE the introduction of vaccines with declining disease rates.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | February 01, 2011 at 07:21 AM