OC Register First Mainstream Media to Correct Dr. Offit's Unsubstantiated Claims
OC Register reports HERE: Correction for April 18
• Article
An OC Register article dated Aug. 4, 2008 entitled “Dr. Paul Offit Responds” contained several disparaging statements that Dr. Offit of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia made about CBS News Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson and her report. Upon further review, it appears that a number of Dr. Offit’s statements, as quoted in the OC Register article, were unsubstantiated and/or false. Attkisson had previously reported on the vaccine industry ties of Dr. Offit and others in a CBS Evening News report “How Independent Are Vaccine Defenders?” July 25, 2008.
Unsubstantiated statements include: Offit’s claim that Attkisson “lied”; and Offit’s claim that CBS News sent a “mean spirited and vituperative” email “over the signature of Sharyl Attkisson” stating “You’re clearly hiding something.” In fact, the OC Register has no evidence to support those claims. Further, Offit told the OC Register that he provided CBS News “the details of his relationship, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s relationship, with pharmaceutical company Merck.” However, documents provided by CBS News indicate Offit did not disclose his financial relationships with Merck, including a $1.5 million Hilleman chair he sits in that is co-sponsored by Merck. According to the CBS News’ documentation recently reviewed by the OC Register, the network requested (but Offit did not disclose) the entire profile of his professional financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies including: The amount of compensation he’d received from which companies in speaking fees; and pharmaceutical consulting relationships and fees. The CBS News documentation indicates Offit also did not disclose his share of past and future royalties for the Merck vaccine he co-invented. To the extent that unsubstantiated and/or false claims appeared in the OC Register and have been repeated by other organizations and individuals, the OC Register wishes to express this clarification for their reference and for the record
Might I suggest that comments on the OC Correction statement be addressed. They are slanted towards supporting Offit.
Posted by: Page Kurtz | April 20, 2011 at 01:49 PM
I don't have a comment, just wanted to say I really enjoyed reading Jenny Allan's comment and agree 100%. Very well stated.
Posted by: Richids Coulter | April 20, 2011 at 12:45 PM
Famous quotation from Sir Winston Churchill during World War 2:-
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Offit has been strangely silent of late. Mnookin has retreated into into a shell of 'no comment'. In the UK, as John Stone has stated to AoA, the BBC and BMJ are 'battening down the hatches' and attempting to dissemble and distance themselves from the obvious lies peddled by them!!
Only yesterday's man, Brian Deer, outrageously continues to manufacture the lies, but I have a feeling that the John Hopkins institution is already regretting their invitation to invite him to speak yesterday. Autism is not about funny jokes about suffering children and their parents. Even before the Poul Thorsen scandal the passage of time was slowly but surely proving the RIGHTNESS of Andrew Wakefield's research studies into inflammatory bowel disease in children , and the exponential rise in autism cases since the MMR was introduced cannot be hidden forever!!
The perverse decision to ignore Wakefield's advice regarding further properly conducted research into the possible side effects of MMR and the refusal to take his advice regarding a return to monovalent vaccinations in the meantime will be exposed by history as a major misjudgement on the part of worldwide governments and the WHO, all promoted by the greedy pharma industries.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | April 20, 2011 at 07:19 AM