Best of Age of Autism: Paul Offit and the Original Sin
Managing Editor's Note: JB wrote this post last January. We're running it as a follow up to Dr. Offit having been appointed to the IOM.
By J.B. Handley
OK, let me be clear: I think Paul Offit is a blowhard liar, a vaccine profiteer and apologist, and every time he opens his mouth he disrespects my son. When the final chapter is finally written on this man-made autism epidemic, I will do everything within my power to ensure that Offit is remembered by history as one of the most sinister, dishonest, well-funded talking heads pharma ever produced, and that his efforts served to afflict so many children with autism who may otherwise have avoided it.
In one of the most absurd snowjobs ever put on the media, Offit, a doctor who has never seen a patient with autism, never treated autism, and never published a study about autism, is somehow considered to be an expert on autism. Given his status as a multi-millionaire vaccine patent holder who has had much of his career supported by Merck, this isn’t just absurd, it’s highway robbery, and yet the media persists, and rarely even mentions Offit’s Mount Everest-sized pile of conflicts.
In the latest example of Offit’s dishonesty, AOL recently published a two-person interview HERE with Offit and Geri Dawson, chief Science Officer at Autism Speaks.
In this interview, Offit commits what I consider to be the “Original Sin” of Autism, and something that should be condemned by every autism organization in the country, including Autism Speaks. To quote Paul Offit:
“It's not an actual epidemic. In the mid-1990s, the definition of autism was broadened to what is now called autism spectrum disorder. Much milder parts of the spectrum -- problems with speech, social interaction -- were brought into the spectrum. We also have more awareness, so we see it more often. And there is a financial impetus to include children in the wider definition so that their treatment will be covered by insurance. People say if you took the current criteria and went back 50 years, you'd see about as many children with autism then.”
Is this guy actually insane? Denying the existence of an autism epidemic is truly the original sin. In Offit’s world, there is absolutely NO PROBLEM HERE. Things are as they always were, we just understand it better. Of course, we all know, if there’s no epidemic, there is no environmental trigger, because why have a trigger if something hasn’t actually grown? Said differently:
Denying the autism epidemic is to deny the suffering of millions of children and their families and also to deny the exploration into the true cause so the epidemic might end.
It’s truly despicable. And, I’m certainly not alone in disagreeing with Offit’s absurd position on autism prevalence. Look what Geraldine Dawson, no friend of our community, does in the very same interview. She says:
“We know that the broadening of the diagnosis, as well as more awareness and access to services, accounts for some of this increase, but these variables don't account for all of the increase. Over the last two decades, the prevalence of autism has increased by over 600 percent. Between 2004 and 2006 we saw a 57 percent increase. A large percentage is unexplained, and that's why there is a focus on identifying environmental factors.”
Blink. Blink. Knock, knock! Hello? Is anyone home?
Do you think the interviewer of these two wondered, as she transcribed these two answers, if something was amiss? The most basic question, but also the most important question, just got two completely different answers. Lest you think me and Geraldine Dawson are the only two human beings who believe there has been a REAL rise in children with autism, consider these:
"It irritates me to no end that we still argue over whether there is an increase in incidence [of autism]. I think there is lots of evidence for increased incidence. Overwhelmingly it supports that there are things in the environment that are contributing to the rate of incidence. But people still argue."
- Michael Merzenich, Ph.D., neuroscientist, UCSF
"It’s time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California."
- Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto
"There is no evidence that a loosening in the diagnostic criteria has contributed to increased number of autism clients...we conclude that some, if not all, of the observed increase represents a true increase in cases of autism in California...a purely genetic basis for autism does not fully explain the increasing autism prevalence. Other theories that attempt to better explain the observed increase in autism cases include environmental exposures to substances such as mercury; viral exposures; autoimmune disorders; and childhood vaccinations."
- UC Davis MIND Institute
Hmm…whom to believe, whom to believe. I don’t know, journalists, what do you think? Behind door number one, a vaccine inventor who has been supported by pharma’s largesse his entire career. Door number two? Pretty much the entire world of scientists who specialize in autism.
It actually gets worse. I had to squint while reading most of this interview because it was so painful, but I thought I’d leave you with one final Offit quote that I think really reveals who we are dealing with, it goes like this:
AOL Health: Do you believe that there is a cure for autism?
Offit: No. Children who show signs of autism sometimes can get better between 2 and 5, but it probably has nothing to do with the biomedical treatments -- they simply improve with time.
* *
Move along, everyone, nothing to see here, Offit the Prophet has spoken. Interestingly, the question didn’t mention biomedical treatments, but Offit slammed the door on them anyway? No, no chance for recovery. And, oh, by the way, everything that can be invented already has, and every innovation in medicine to help people get better is already here.
This guy is a doctor? A Doctor of Doom, perhaps, but certainly not a Doctor of kids. Join me in condemning this lunatic.
J.B. Handley is the father of a child with autism, the co-founder of Generation Rescue, and a contributing writer for AoA.
Mark Neumann
Yes, Offit also invented Rotashield. Incidentally, Rotateq has in 5 years 204 associated deaths reported on VAERS:
http://tinyurl.com/3xstxj
CORRECTED TEXT
Posted by: John Stone | October 25, 2011 at 05:41 PM
"Dr. Offit forgets to mention his vaccines that have been pulled off the CDC schedule because they were damaging children's GI tracts."
You're thinking of Rotashield. Offit invented Rotateq, which has never been pulled.
Posted by: Mark Neumann | October 25, 2011 at 01:49 PM
Thank you Veritas,your knowledge is power and thank you for sharing.I think people will open their eyes and understand
that vaccines and drugs can be used to affect our central
nervous system,our immune system,our reproductive system.
That we the people have to take the power back from the
corporations and pharma;and the vaccine pushers and pharma manipulated doctors will LOSE
our trust and their status as care-givers in our society.
Let this be a warning to all professionals who lost the power of healing and forgotten the golden rules
"do not harm" !!!
They lost my trust long ago when my son lost muscle strength
and his little legs collapsed under him like spagetti.Took me a year to strengthen and tone his muscles and teach him to walk again.
Posted by: oneVoice | October 24, 2011 at 02:53 AM
Dr. Nancy, Matt Lauer & Dr. Paul Offit
Nothing but elite hype here... Dr. Offit forgets to mention his vaccines that have been pulled off the CDC schedule because they were damaging children's GI tracts.
today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/27453507
The "science" quoted by Dr. Nancy & Dr. Offit relates to population / statistical studies of vaccine data.
As Thimerosal has been shown to damage brain tissue at nanomolar concentrations, Dr. Nancy and Dr. Offit can never use any "real science..."
Posted by: cmo | October 23, 2011 at 04:41 PM
Barry- I got some South Korean kids in my nursery school, about 5 years back and I quickly put two and two together and knowing that the Americans have been in South Korea (must be using American vaccines) and knowing that the people eat a lot of fish and have historically had some mercury poisoning incidents- I began telling the Korean parents about mercury in vaccines and fish causing autism. Now all this I did long ago, without every going to South Korea and without spending a cent. The fact that Autism Speaks went to Korea to do a prevalence study of autism, indicates clearly that they know very well what is causing autism today and they know where to find it when they want to. This is just pure evil. With every day more kids will fall to autism and these people refuse to tell the truth. Tomorrow, if they might want to show the world that autism is decreasing , they will head for south India and do a study of South Indian Brahimins who never eat a bite of fish or egg in their entire lives .
Posted by: Cherry Sperlin Misra | October 23, 2011 at 03:41 PM
Everybody should read it - in reference to forced poisonous vaccinations. This is real.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329753/Nazis-given-safe-haven-America-Second-World-War-report-reveals.html
Posted by: veritas | October 23, 2011 at 03:20 PM
@OneVoice,
This is so plainly clear to anybody who knows the history, that there could be no doubt about their true intentions. After WW II, the US government invited the Nazi war criminals with open arms, so they could continue their holocaustic experiments on the American public. There are no mandatory vaccinations in western Europe, and in Germany or Austria less than 1/3 of parents (only uneducated immigrants) vaccinate their children, hence they have healthy young generations of their own, but they have totally corrupted the US and some other countries governments and parliaments of mercury loaded morons, so these governments are the primary executors of their holocaustic plans against the nations, which they want to destroy.
We must join the OWS revolution with our information and demand to end these corporate-government crimes against humanity. We should demand the tax reimbursements for private education, if they want to keep the public schools as concentration camps for Nazi medical experiments, hoping that soon there will be no students in these schools. This will end these criminal experiments on the children. Of course, I do not expect that overworked parents will be constantly protesting in OWS movement, but they should engage their younger and still healthy family members and their colleagues to do so. These young protesters in OWS should be educated that their future children will be also killed and crippled by Nazi-vaccines, if they don’t stop this madness. NOW IS THE TIME to do it!
Posted by: veritas | October 23, 2011 at 03:11 PM
Dr Profit is so corrupt that he actually lies about his own lies.
If you check page 2 in the following link, Dr Profit originally tried to re-assure parents that their babies could safely receive up to 100,000 vaccines at one.
http://www.whale.to/vaccine/Offit%20June%202006.pdf
Lets assume for a second that your were to take this morons advice, and somehow give your child 100,000 flu shots at once.
The EPA's guideline for "safe mercury exposure level" is 0.1 micrograms of mercury, per kilogram of body weight, per day. And since a single flu shot contains at least 25 micrograms of mercury, a person has to weigh 550 lbs to safely metabolize the amount mercury in just 1 flu vaccine.
So according to that EPA established guideline, your child would need to be 55,000,000 lbs to safely metabolize 100,000 flu vaccines at once. That is roughly the weight of 3800 full grown African bull elephants. Or to put that another way, a full grown African bull elephant (14,500 lbs) could safely metabolize ~ 26 flu shots
This guy, a pediatrician no less, has a stunning disregard for the tiny patients he took an oath to protect. His statement is nothing short of reckless endangerment, and he should be held criminally responsible for having made it.
Posted by: Barry | October 23, 2011 at 01:15 PM
prOffit is no expert,other than expert as how to minimize,
deny,cover-up the vaccine issues and attack parents.He needs
those 10,000 "safe and effective" vaccines in his muscle,to show us that vaccines are safe.A multi-million dollar corrupted dr -
who does NOT see patients,but he is an "expert".But of
course why would anybody wants to see an expert like that?!
Posted by: oneVoice | October 23, 2011 at 10:00 AM
Just Plain Wrong
Yes, what a try-on but it strikes me that everything follows from the having the status of "knowing what you are talking about". We get lots of these submissions on AoA repeating these unsubstantiated mantras: always with presumption that they really know (in most cases they don't even identify themselves). And, of course, the reason why the interviewer doesn't mark the discrepancy between Offit and Dawson is because "scientists" are allowed to waffle in this undisciplined manner, and if it just sows confusion it probably achieves the desired objective.
Posted by: John Stone | October 23, 2011 at 09:42 AM
It is enough to compare the SAT scores from year to year and it becomes plainly clear that vaccines are dumbing and neurologically crippling American children at an alarming rate. All teachers, professors can confirm it. And this is all planned, folks. The (nazi-pharma) goal is to destroy the US population using American own money. And our government is their helper.
Posted by: veritas | October 23, 2011 at 09:01 AM
Let's break up that quote ...
“It's not an actual epidemic. (Wrong)
In the mid-1990s, the definition of autism was broadened to what is now called autism spectrum disorder. (Wrong)
Much milder parts of the spectrum -- problems with speech
(Wrong)
social interaction -- were brought into the spectrum.
(wrong)
We also have more awareness, so we see it more often.
(Half point)
And there is a financial impetus to include children in the wider definition so that their treatment will be covered by insurance. (Wrong)
People say if you took the current criteria and went back 50 years, you'd see about as many children with autism then.”
(Wrong)
How many times can you be wrong in one paragraph...
Posted by: Just Plain Wrong | October 23, 2011 at 08:21 AM
My son had High Functioning Autism and then regressed into Severe Autism between ages four and six. There was dozens of witnesses: family, educators & the like.
Posted by: AnaB | October 23, 2011 at 08:04 AM
Australia
JB Handley, I have always admired your directness as we Aussies say "never beat around the bush!"
Elizabeth
Posted by: AussieMum | October 22, 2011 at 11:20 PM
"Guilt is always present to the mind of the guilty."
AOL Health: Do you believe that there is a cure for autism?
Offit: No. Children who show signs of autism sometimes can get better between 2 and 5, but it probably has nothing to do with the biomedical treatments.
Posted by: pass the popcorn | October 22, 2011 at 08:31 PM
You gotta love how Autism Speaks, one of the biggest Pharma front groups in existence, just happened to investigate the incidence of autism in some South Korean city ... and just happened to discover that their autism rate was 1 in 38!
So there you have it then... we North Americans should be grateful that our incidence is just a measly 1 in 10. And since we vaccinate at a rate far higher than the South Koreans, it’s time to close the debate over "vaccine induced Autism", and move on to treating our kids with “life saving” pharmaceuticals.
This is a brilliantly simple deception. Not only does it diffuse public concern over vaccines, it lets Big Pharma off the hook for the crimes they’ve already committed against children. And as added sadistic bonus, it opens up a whole new market for them to profit yet again from damaging our children.
There are forces inside the Big Pharma machine that are straight from hell. And for the sake of both present and future generations.. they have to be stopped!!!
Posted by: Barry | October 22, 2011 at 08:13 PM
shut up! I mean shut up! just ask the teachers. they KNOW there is something up with this generation of kids. And that last quote...kids get better between 2 and 5? my son regressed AFTER 5 years old..what are you effing talking about, Paul? I feel you, Jake. The media...the media. They could do so much but instead report his offensive dribble.
Posted by: sarah | October 22, 2011 at 07:34 PM
"When the final chapter is finally written on this man-made autism epidemic, I will do everything within my power to ensure that Offit is remembered by history as one of the most sinister, dishonest, well-funded talking heads pharma ever produced, and that his efforts served to afflict so many children with autism who may otherwise have avoided it."
Ditto. Till my dying breath.
Posted by: StephM | October 22, 2011 at 05:54 PM
Hey! We cannot lay this all on Paul Offit's shoulders. He is standing the shoulders of past giants.
James Cherry ugly mug comes to mind.
Posted by: Benedetta | October 22, 2011 at 01:35 PM
I think PO is a discrace to humanity. I have always wondered who his real master is.
Posted by: DOUG TROUTMAN AKA MR.T | October 22, 2011 at 10:49 AM
i also join..offit actions are horrifying!
Posted by: candace | October 22, 2011 at 10:32 AM
JB, consider yourself joined; the good Dr. Offit's actions are reprehensible.
Posted by: Shawn Siegel | October 22, 2011 at 09:42 AM
Only to mention that by May 2011 Geraldine Dawson had shape-changed and was proclaiming an incidence of 1 in 38 for autism as perfectly normal, and as it turned out a golden opprtunity to screen the US child population for a wonderful new generation of pharmamaceutical products that Autism Speaks were developing in a "pre-competitive consortium" with Pfizer, Lilly, Roche, Novartis and Jannsen.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/05/1-in-38-autism-speaks-new-normal-is-the-biggest-business-bonanza-ever.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsW8Wf9kpWU
So, folks, autism is good news, and whatever is good for them is good you.
Anyhow, congratualtions Paul Offit.
Posted by: John Stone | October 22, 2011 at 06:25 AM
Thanks Kim, Your little quote in the corner just ruined another simple joy in life the teletubbies. Just Realized Paul Offit's initials are PO. Sad day.
Posted by: TannersDad Tim | October 22, 2011 at 06:04 AM