Pauloffit.com: The Website No One Wants?
By J.B. Handley
My apologies to the 99.9% of AoA readers who have grown tired of this silly issue, albeit one I helped create. As some know, I wrote a post accusing a blogger named “Sullivan” of being Bonnie Offit, who is the wife of a well-known vaccine inventor.
It turned out I was wrong. Frankly, I couldn’t believe that the parent of a child with autism—which is what Sullivan claimed to be—would spend their time defending a denialist, profiteer, Merck-funded blowhard--it simply seemed inconceivable to me (and still does), but Matt Carey, Ph.D., aka Sullivan, proved me wrong.
I admitted as such and agreed to stop writing about the profiteer and make sure a website, www.pauloffit.com, ended up in the profiteer’s hands.
Here’s what’s transpired since.
Matt Carey wrote me a note on 4/29, it said this:
Mr. Handley,
A few people have forwarded your piece to me today. I appreciate what you have said and I have offered a public apology on LeftBrainRightBrain for questioning your integrity in honoring your commitments.
As far as the domain pauloffit.com, you can transfer that directly to the Offits. I believe you have his contact information. If not, it can be found on his website: http://www.paul-offit.com/
Matt Carey
20 minutes later, I responded:
“Matt:
I'll take care of it early next week, thanks for the guidance.
On a separate note, I wanted to ask you to submit to an interview via email for publication at AoA. I will generate the questions, you answer them, and I publish them in totality without editorializing. The topics will exclusively cover the science of autism, known and unknown, and include prevalence, vaccines, and medical issues.
My reason for asking is that you are really the first well-educated parent (although Harvey Mudd is no Stanford :) I have encountered on the other side of this topic who doesn't seem to be a nut job (Kevin Leitch, Autism Diva, etc.).
I honestly do not understand how you have looked at the same published research I have looked at and concluded that vaccines have been exonerated from causing a majority of today's autism. I really, truly do believe that the large-scale epidemiological studies that are constantly cited as "proof" are garbage, have yet to ask the right questions, and are typically managed to produce a previously determined outcome. I believe Allison Singer and P--- O---- consistently and knowingly misrepresent what has been studied in public statements, and it really drives me nuts.
As a Ph.D. scientist, I think your answers will be thought-provoking. I'd like to ask you pointed questions and let you answer them. Your writing has shown me you aren't a spin doctor and will answer things like a scientist, not a partisan. Despite my delight in provoking people I consider to be idiots (Orac), I actually do enjoy debating this issue, because my only genuine interest in all this is helping my son. If it really wasn't the antibiotics and vaccines that got him, I'm wasting a hell of a lot of time and money treating the wrong things.
My request for the interview has nothing to do with Offit's website, so no conditions here, I just hope you'll consider the interview for its own sake. There are a lot of extremely smart parents on our side of the table, and I'd like to see the different reactions a thorough and measured interview with an "opposition figure" brings.
Ball is in your court,
JB Handley”
I never heard back from Matt Carey on my offer and still haven’t. I’m sure many haters will be very disappointed to see that I tried to bridge the gap with Mr. Carey, as I really have no interest in fighting with other parents and my disbelief over Mr. Carey’s views is sincere, I’d really like to interview him and hear what he has to say.
Early next week, as promised, I sent a simple request to the person who controls the pauloffit.com website that went like this:
“Give the site back to P--- O----, or at least give him the right to register the domain name. Can you do that? Please email the right to the domain to: [email protected] It's a long story, but basically I lost a bet. JB”
The person who controlled the site wrote me back on May 3 at 932AM:
“The domain is unlocked and anyone can request a transfer. Additionally, I used Register.com's transfer process, using the "chop.edu" email address below. –DZ”
This confirmed the email Matt Carey had directed me to had received the transfer of the domain, and I considered the matter settled.
In order to confirm that the vaccine profiteer got the domain, I confirmed things with Mr. Carey on My 5th and reiterated my offer of an interview:
“Just an fyi that pauloffit.com was unlocked and an email sent to Dr. Offit making it available to him was sent Tuesday afternoon this week. Case closed. The offer stands for an interview to be posted at AoA, thanks, JB”
I have still never heard anything from Mr. Carey, he has never responded. At this point, I considered the matter 100% closed.
* * *
72 hours after the email to said profiteer, the pauloffit.com site was unlocked, meaning it can now be claimed by anyone. At that point, it could be claimed by anyone. As an additional courtesy, on May 15th, 12 days after offering profiteer the site for the first time, I asked the person controlling the site to send a SECOND email, offering the site again. At the time of this writing, the site remains unclaimed. (I kept a screen shot of the confirmation of emails sent from register.com.)
Apparently, Todd W. reported that Matt Carey said this:
“After Mr. Handley emailed me I replied that he could transfer the domain directly to the Offits. He never contacted them.”
(By the way, I didn’t email Mr. Carey, he emailed me, just to be clear.)
And the profiteer himself apparently said this:
“I suspect that Mr. Handley did turn over the site. He just didn't turn it over to me or my wife. But his dishonesty isn't particularly surprising. I can live with Handley's ill-informed and misguided attacks against me. But he reaches a new low when he accuses my wife of something she never did. Frankly, I've never come across anyone so relentlessly mean-spirited.”
So, there you have it. The profiteer is right about one thing--I will remain relentless in trying to save our kids. On the topic of “dishonesty,” you be the judge. Mr. Carey can certainly confirm the back and forth of our emails and my interview offer, and I can easily prove the domain was made available to the doctor who lies.
I hope this clears up this topic, sorry to disappoint the many hair-trigger, blood-lusting anonymous bloggers looking for some reason to sully my reputation, including Mr. Carey himelf. If I am “mean-spirited,” the vaccine profiteer, who is denying the suffering of millions of children and their families and doing everything he can to ensure the poisoning of our kids continues, is the devil himself.
J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue.
jb you should of never given up the domain...he does not deserve to have his own name website...big mistake!!!!
Posted by: rod | May 18, 2011 at 01:10 AM
quote: www.drpauloffit.org
pls link to it and you can be sure it'll be on page 1 soon enough!
WebDesign By Gena
-----------------
Very nice beginning. If people find more good stuff about Paul Offit how can they get it added to the page?
Posted by: MinorityView | May 16, 2011 at 11:36 PM
PassionlessDrone, you make a valid point.
However, you fail to take into consideration the paid shills for pharma, whose JOB is to take down anyone who even questions the safety of vaccines.
I find it unpleasant enough to deal with my kind, caring doctor friends who still believe that "vaccines can't do that." They don't want to look at any research I've found; they whole-heartedly believe that vaccines are safer than ever, and that even thimerosal is safe. They think I'm misguided, but they won't debate with me. We agree to disagree, and we simply don't talk about it.
But dealing with the shills--who are often extremely well-educated about the subject matter, and apparently have extensive legal training--is very much like being an innocent defendant on the stand, facing a corrupt prosecuting attorney. You KNOW you are speaking the truth, but every word you utter is twisted out of context and used to ultimately hurt you.
I'm very happy that the shills are not allowed to post here.
Posted by: Taximom | May 16, 2011 at 08:26 PM
You can say one thing for the Offits - at least they are consistent!
Posted by: Lisa@TACA | May 16, 2011 at 05:49 PM
moneymoneymoney - on the adjuvant/antigen/vaccine ingredient issue - great question and it's something I have wondered a long time!
Could that be why my kid is so sensitive to eggs AND chicken, but not turkey? Aren't several of the vaccines grown in chicken eggs? Isn't it odd that one type of poultry would cause so much commotion but not another?
He's also very sensitive to yeast (HepB vax).
Thank you pharma.
Posted by: Parent | May 16, 2011 at 05:11 PM
Gena -
Great job!!! Let's all boost www.drpauloffit.org.
Pd,
Many of us come here for a break from the usual pharma propaganda which is available all over the internet and mainstream media. If the "skeptics" were allowed to do to the AoA comments what they do to Amazon, Huffpo, etc. (which is mostly personal attacks thinly disguised as debate - "He's a fraud!!!"), this would be an annoying and stressful website to visit.
I think the comment moderation here is just right - with the exception of the one or two comments of mine that were not let through. :-)
Posted by: pass the popcorn | May 16, 2011 at 04:19 PM
There will be no Q & A here because this guy and Paul Profit and the Offiteers are only useful when their rhetoric is not closely scrutinized.
For example, Paul rarely allows his discussions to be "taped" to audiences because he puts forth so much BS if he cannot stay exactly on the script, it is too risky.
One of the more interesting things (pathetic really) he has said was when describing how a patient was admitted to CHOP with Pertussis. He said that P was so contagious that it just floated in the air for up to 2 hours... "so no one could go in for two hours..." As he speaks quickly, this may go unnoticed by many. However, think about that statement for a minute. Does the kid stop breathing and then the staff wait 2 hours to come in? He is just plain FOS!
Another psycho babble that he loves to talk about...this one has been taped on sites like NPR as it is his usual script and has been effective in the past.
'Take a Q-tip swab and swab your nose....you have more bacteria on that Q-tip than all the vaccine antigens put together.' Hmmm. Yes. BUT....the bacteria is in our nose hair, NOT circulating inside our body. That is the purpose of the integumentary system...to prevent such an invasion of normal skin bacteria from getting inside where it can kill us.
Lets do our own experiment. Take Paul's Q-tip with all that nose bacteria...rub it around in a petri dish, add a dab of sterile saline and then pull it up in a syringe. Now inject the stuff like we do the vaccines. Next, say goodbye to the world as we become septic. The real shame is that even doctors listen to him and do not actually think about what he is saying.
One last thing...a question really for "Sullivan", Paul or Bonnie if you dare....An adjuvant is intended to rev up the immune system so that it responds to less antigen (the reason you give as being so safe now compared to in the past). The adjuvants purpose is to create antibodies but you have no way of preventing antibodies from being created for every single ingredient in that vaccine...not just the antigen. So, for example, what prevents antigens from developing to the soy broth, as an example, (prevar) is prepared in. For that matter, from a severe and ongoing antigen response to the adjuvant itself?
Posted by: moneymoneymoney | May 16, 2011 at 03:10 PM
Matt Carey, why aren't you interested in an Interview? It is so frustrating to actually get close to a real, scientific discussion (even on RI) where people who surely must be able to discuss these things in great detail, back down. If politics were out of the way this could/should happen.
Posted by: Jen | May 16, 2011 at 02:46 PM
I guess Paul Offit doesn't know people can look it up on whois.com? It says it belongs to Bonnie Offit.
I know everyone else said that too, but I'm posting it too because I want some credit for the research, lol. I did it before I read any of the replies. Point is, I'm not an internet genius. Anyone has easy access to that information.
Some people get so used to lying, I guess, that it's hard to stop even when they know they'll be easily caught.
Posted by: Kristina | May 16, 2011 at 02:31 PM
I think pD is one of the more interesting minds I encounter in these forums, and I often agree with his/her points. On the issue of moderated forums, though, I take exceptions. Go see, sometimes, what happens when I post at a place like Orac or LB/RB--things get really heated really quickly, ad hominems fly, and it spirals into a waste of times. AoA was always here for PARENTS to havea forum where they could feel protected from the many ND loonies. I think thoughtful disagreement is always welcome, but crazies trying to get in another dig aren't.
Should AoA be a moderated forum or a place where crackpots take potshots anonymously? I'll take moderation, I don't think it harms us.
I do think we should feature and interview more "opposition figures" like Matt Carey, but it's hard to get someone to submit to an interview who won't even return an email.
JB
Posted by: JB Handley | May 16, 2011 at 01:34 PM
If Bonnie Offit registered it on 5/4, why did Paul Offit say,
“I suspect that Mr. Handley did turn over the site. He just didn't turn it over to me or my wife."
If Handley didn;t turn it over to Offit, why does the WHOIS read:
Registrant:
Bonnie Offit
59 Overhill Road
Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
US
Phone: +1.6106647588
Email: [email protected]
Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: www.register.com
Domain Name: pauloffit.com
Offit is just a ridiculous liar!
Posted by: Dr. Ziegler | May 16, 2011 at 01:30 PM
Guys, it's not hard to get links to the first page of google. Losing pauloffit.com is something I don't think jb should have done, altho I understand he thinks he made a deal. how do u make a deal w/the devil? Anyhoo, for a mere 49.99 and some copying and pasting, i created this
www.drpauloffit.org
pls link to it and you can be sure it'll be on page 1 soon enough!
WebDesign By Gena
Posted by: Gena hates paul offit | May 16, 2011 at 01:21 PM
If you do not stand behind what you are saying don't say it. Why did it take years for Carney to admit he was this blogger person?
Why is he afraid to honestly and openly express his views without hiding behind a made up persona?
Posted by: Katie Wright | May 16, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Registered to Bonnie Offit on 5/4.
They jumped on it as soon as they got your first email.
Posted by: Steve | May 16, 2011 at 12:27 PM
PassionlessDrone
Just to mention that I have previous experience of un-pre-moderated site in JABS Forum, and the answer is that it can quickly become unworkable if groups from the other side of the debate gang together to post propagandistic junk in great quantities and are not really trying to have a constructive or polite exchange. People were extensively rude, repeated falsehoods endlessly when their error had already been pointed out. The answer is that all too often you do not get quality debate, you get mob tactics. In 2007-8 I spent endless hours trying debate politely with people who were just playing unpleasant games, but the final result was pre-moderation. As it happens it all began to spin out of control the day I submitted this post to BMJ (although it wasn't posted for a further week):
http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7618/480.extract/reply#bmj_el_176662
I have also posted very extensively on Guardian Comment is Free, and though debate there can be extremely rough it is very different from trying to run you own site when certain people are trying to stop you.
I really don't think if people make substantive points they are going to be turned away here. If the point they make is that we are all very bad people - which you can read in the mainstream media any day - then it is wasting everybody's time.
Posted by: John Stone | May 16, 2011 at 12:06 PM
PassionlessDrone;
To prevent Spin, spin, spin, spin -
straight forward questions should be answered straight forward.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 16, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Great move to request an interview. No surprise Carey did not respond.
Who posted the image of the animated "Sully" that was up for awhile on www.pauloffit.com? I assumed that was posted by Sullivan to indicate possession of the site.
Unclaimed property is often donated to worthy causes. Why not donate it to AoA, with the content on the new www.pauloffit.com being all of AoA's articles about Offit, beginning with this one:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/12/age-of-autism-awards-2010-dr-paul-offit-denialist-of-the-decade.html
Posted by: pass the popcorn | May 16, 2011 at 11:34 AM
It is unfortunate that Matt Carey hasn't replied to the AofA invite to an unedited e-mail interview. I don't know whether he's kosher or not, or Catholic, Muslim, Baptist or Hindu (tongue planted firmly in cheek), but it would have been very interesting for me to hear the perspective of why this person believes vaccines have been exonerated in the Autism debate. It's been my personal experience that the parents I've met seem to fall into 2 different categories: the adamant and the unsure/adamant NO. The ones who are adamant (such as our family) that vaccines are directly related to their child's Autism are the ones who say, "Well, something just seemed to change around 15-19 months of age". The ones who are unsure or adamant that vaccines played NO role are the ones who say, "Well, there have been things that have concerned us almost, it seems, from the day he/she was born". I'd be curious to know if the Carey family had concerns from day 1 or from later down the road?
Posted by: Lesa Walsh | May 16, 2011 at 11:16 AM
Who knows what motivates Sullivan.
However I will say I know of a situation of a physician who receives a staggering sum each year in consulting fees directly and indirectly from vaccine manufacturers in addition to the income from being a full-time practicioner. Child - fully recovered via chleation, hbot, etc. Public stance - "these parents are crazy".
Posted by: Steve | May 16, 2011 at 11:15 AM
Hi Kim -
Instead of being happy that you are pissing some people off, you ought to be more worried about the far greater number of people you convince that the ideas put forward here are not strong enough to withstand criticisms. Does anyone trust a censored narrative?
The hypocrisy is on full display, there are jeers that someone has refused to agree to an interview on a site that actively dissallows comments deemed inappropriate. Make no mistake, this is seen as a sign of weakness of argument more than anything else.
I am deeply skeptical of the research used to exonerate vaccines from possibly changing some infants in unexpected ways, but shouting to the winds while refusing to allow others to enter a cloistered environment is the hallmark of zealots and those immune to rational discussion; the groups that never affect change.
pD
- pD
Posted by: PassionlessDrone | May 16, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Sullivan won't debate because he can't debate.
Even as informed as he may be --- He could do no better than a microbiolgoy professor at a big Univerisity; and the best my college microbiology professor could do in a lecture not a debate in a communicable disease class was:
"Vaccines don't cause any harm because they just don't!"
Posted by: Benedetta | May 16, 2011 at 11:02 AM
There are other parents out there who are shills for the pharmaceutical industry. Maybe they've gotten book deals or better long-term care for their injured children. Maybe they've gotten their education paid for. Or maybe it's that age-old favorite: envelopes of cash slipped under the table.
There are lots of possibilities and would be tailored to the recipient.
Posted by: Carol | May 16, 2011 at 10:52 AM
This reminds me of a child who hides his hands behind his back, when something owed is returned, so he can claim it wasn't given. All for the childish purpose of dishonoring the person trying to give the item, while gaining pity for their wanting. JB did his part. The games are tiring.
Posted by: MaryW | May 16, 2011 at 10:52 AM
I suspect Matt Carey is a sham on this matter and that he has been paid handsomely to take the fall for Mrs. Offit. Whatever his short term rewards are, they will pale in comparison to the agida that will eat away at his soul. The truth shall set you free Mr.Carey and until you speak the truth, you will be a slave to remembering the myriad things you never said, did or emailed.
Posted by: Disgusted | May 16, 2011 at 10:41 AM
I'm still not convinced Matt Carey is kosher.
I can't believe a parent of an autistic kid will never mention his kid, his struggles with autism, etc.
That's what got me convinced Sullivan is Mrs. Offit in the first place.
Him turning away the interview speaks volumes as pointed out below.
Posted by: vaccine.explorer | May 16, 2011 at 09:19 AM
Pd, because perseveration is not debate. The NDs and skeptics and passive aggressive Mommies can chat all they want at their own sites. When someone has something of value to our readers we run it. When someone is obnoxious in a way that exposes their agenda, we run it. When someone is here just to pound and poke and glean nuggets to take back to the cave we do not run it. The fact the comment moderation here pisses off so many people is a good sign. Without us they have no content after all. They are derivative and we choose not to be their narcissistic pond.
KIM
Posted by: Managing Editor | May 16, 2011 at 08:50 AM
Re: Matt Carey
Ho-hum, another nut job.
So far their batting average is perfect on that side.
Posted by: David Taylor | May 16, 2011 at 08:34 AM
That's great determination Mr.Handley, I myself am not particularly interested in hurting the feelings of Paul Offit's wife, they are not interested in the feelings of millions of vaccine injured children. When Paul Offit talk's about new lows, there is nothing lower than the lies that come out of his mouth, yes this man is evil and one day that evil will consume him.
Posted by: victor pavlovic | May 16, 2011 at 08:33 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avFaTud5V90
Posted by: Media Scholar | May 16, 2011 at 08:18 AM
If you actually want a debate, why not turn off comment moderation?
- pD
Posted by: PassionlessDrone | May 16, 2011 at 08:13 AM
Great article Mr. Handley, and a brilliant idea to request such an interview.
And his complete lack of response to your request.... speaks volumes.
Posted by: Barry | May 16, 2011 at 07:46 AM