Mush From the Wimps: Autism Speaks and the CDC Take Over Capitol Hill as Rep. Smith Bows Out
After attending Wednesday’s congressional briefing on the latest autism statistics, I found myself with three questions, despite having asked several at the briefing. They are variations on the same theme, and not exactly new, but seem more pressing after more than an hour of listening: Why is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still in charge of monitoring and explaining the rise in autism? Why are the CDC and Autism Speaks cozying up to each other in such a public way at this particular moment? And why was the Congressional host heaping praise on the agency when it covered up the first signs of the epidemic -- and in his home district in New Jersey, of all places?
The event was co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) and billed as “a Congressional Briefing on the Centers for Disease Control's recent announcement that autism now affects 1 in 88 American children.”
Rep. Smith began the proceedings, which drew probably 30 people to a room in the Rayburn House Office Building. Congressmen often try to make news at these kind of events, and before he started speaking an aide passed out a statement by Smith headlined, “Global Autism: ‘A Developmental Disability Pandemic’ – 67 Million People Affected According to Autism Speaks.” Then I realized the statement was from May 31, 2011. Nothing new to say, I guess.
Smith began by describing the CDC’s Brick Township study, which started after a parent reached out to the congressman in 1997 (he’s been around for 16 terms, as he pointed out). The parent was concerned about “an apparent prevalence spike” in autism. The CDC investigated, Smith said, and “did an expert study that was extraordinary … and all of a sudden it became clear that it wasn’t just Brick. It seemed as if there was some game changer somewhere in the population causing this huge new increase in autism.”
Well, not exactly. In fact, not at all. The CDC did find a rate of 1 in 150 children in Brick Township – the highest ever reported anywhere in the world to that point – but said no conclusions could be drawn from the data about whether there was an actual increase. (That refrain has become familiar, repeated time and again by the CDC at Wednesday’s briefing. Some things never change.)
In our book, The Age of Autism – Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic, Mark Blaxill and I took a look at the actual data the CDC used in its Brick Township study, which the group SafeMinds had obtained from the CDC. In fact, the autism rate in Brick Township was actually zero in 1989, the start of the study period. Not one kid had autism.
As we wrote, “Once you have the real trend data, you can figure out how hard the CDC had to work in order to report a result that said there was no trend. … If this wasn’t a cover-up, it’s hard to think of a polite synonym.”
So the opportunity to recognize, report on, and try to intervene in the autism epidemic years ago was lost, and lost by the CDC itself. Since then, hundreds of thousands more children have developed autism in the United States alone. Today, though, the CDC remains in charge of studying the rate of autism and looking for the reasons behind it. In response to a more recent spike in autism in the Somali population, the CDC said it was going to do a really thorough analysis and cited the Brick study as precedent for the kind of really thorough job it would do. Oh, joy.
Smith’s comments were a prelude to his introduction of the CDC’s two speakers, Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp and Jon Baio. I hadn’t heard of Baio, an epidemiologist and principal investigator on the new report, but I certainly knew Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp. She is a developmental pediatrician and Chief, Developmental Disabilities Branch, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She also was a co-author of the CDC Brick Township study (Prevalence of Autism in a United States Population: The Brick Township, New Jersey, Investigation, published in Pediatrics on November 1, 2001.)
Now, this is not about Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp, whom I’ve had dinner with and who remains friendly and professional. But to the extent she was part of this study and other CDC activities that in my view amount to a denial of clear evidence of harm from the CDC’s own programs (namely, the vaccination schedule), she represents an institution with much to answer for. An institution that needs to get out the way and let someone else get to the bottom of this.
But back to the introductions. After the Brick study, Smith went on, “the CDC was off to the races doing its great work, along with the NIH, in trying to determine what is truly going on. That led to five years later we have an autism act,” the Combating Autism Act, which was renewed last year.
Great job, CDC. Smith continued:
“The people behind this great work that was done – and there’s always disagreement about what should be studied and to what extent and what may be a trigger – well, we have with us today three extraordinary people” who will give “expert insight especially into this most recent study that just came out,” the 1 in 88 number.
He then introduced Dr. Yeargin-Allsopp, Baio, and Dr. Andy Shih, vice president for Scientific Affairs at Autism Speaks. Smith left the podium to Baio, went to the back of the room, and, shortly thereafter, quietly exited. The CDC and Autism Speaks had the floor.
--
Baio and Yeargin-Allsopp went through the numbers, followed by Shih. Their presentations were interesting in terms of what the agency and Autism Speaks say are the most important issues and directions in autism research, and I will summarize them in an upcoming article.
Then came question time. Peter Bell of Autism Speaks had a question about ascertainment, and – gesturing around him – said he wanted to get in a follow-up since he suspected “then we’re going to go on to something else.”
Ah yes, Something Else, the pet name for the 900-pound room-hogging gorilla elephant, the "what may be a trigger" issue as Smith demurely phrased it, the one that dare not be spoken by the CDC or Autism Speaks. In response to another question, Yeargin-Allsopp had just described the agency’s longtime efforts to “determine what some of the risk factors are” for autism when I raised my hand.
Me: Given the fact that so many parents believe that vaccines caused their child’s regression, isn’t the CDC exactly the wrong agency to be looking into causation and prevalence and whether there’s an epidemic? And I’d like you and also for Dr. Shih to comment on that since they’re co-sponsoring this event.
Yeargin-Allsopp: OK. Andrew, stand up here. Why don’t you answer this?
Shih: Well, why don’t you answer first, obviously? (general laughter) So the question is? Would you repeat that, please?
Me: Uh, isn’t the CDC exactly the wrong agency to be looking for causation given the concerns of so many parents that vaccines caused their child’s injury and autism?
Shih: Right. So, I don’t think Autism Speaks is in a position to answer that question. So this is obviously a federal government issue.
Me: Why are you co-sponsoring this event then, or why are you up there with the CDC?
Shih: We’re not cosponsoring it.
Me: Then why are you up there?
Shih: I’m reporting on the cost of autism related to the rise in prevalence rates, which is absolutely alarming. What I can tell you is Autism Speaks is very proactive in investing in research in looking at risk factors related to autism. So some of the risk factors that you’ve heard about today, for example, you know, low birth weight, prematurity, increased age, they are actually related to research that was partially supported by Autism Speaks.
So we are very proactive, we believe we can accelerate science and don’t have to wait ten years for results.
Yeargin-Allsopp: Thank you. And I would just say that, you talk about the Children’s Health Act (cited by Rep. Smith), we didn’t write the Children’s Health Act. Congress mandated to do what we’re doing, so I think you’re asking the wrong person, to ask us why we’re doing what we’re doing.
So you might want to ask others about that. Other questions?
--
So I guess, yes, Autism Speaks did not co-host the hearing. But they did share the dias with the CDC, and of the putative co-hosts, one (Rep. Doyle) never showed as far as I know, and the other was gone by the time anything having to do with anything was brought up.
It’s probably better to say the CDC and Autism Speaks co-led the event, co-avoided the question
of vaccines and co-operated to keep the agenda squarely on older parents, prematurity and low-birth weight. The burning issues of our day, or at least theirs.
I just don’t get it. Why are the CDC and Autism Speaks doing this, why are they collaborating in this way? That’s not a rhetorical question, and maybe our readers or others can help answer it. There was reference at the briefing to Autism Speaks helping fund CDC studies, so there’s an economic alliance, for sure -- a conflict of interest, I'd call it. But at a very basic level, the CDC says it’s not sure there’s an autism epidemic, while Autism Speaks says there is an "alarming" one that constitutes a national emergency -- and so, for that matter, does Rep. Smith (“some game changer somewhere in the population causing this huge new increase in autism”).
Why are these people all cuddled up? Who do they co-hold, or co-attend, or co-habit meetings where they co-ngratulate each other for all the hard and wonderful work they've all been doing lo these many long and trying years, and how much more wonderful work they all will be doing for many, many, many more years to come?
It looks like entrenched bureaucracies entwined in a public-private partnership that wants to go on and on and on. And on.
Anyway, more to come on the briefing.
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of AgeofAutism.com and co-author, with Mark Blaxill, of The Age of Autism – Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic.
Tylenol is the Trigge for *Autism. You Tube "Autism Acetaminophen".
Posted by: K Lane MD | March 27, 2015 at 10:37 AM
I think Mary has misunderstood what Michael was saying.
Posted by: John Stone | April 29, 2012 at 06:49 PM
Seriously Michael? You're comparing parents who choose to find the answers for their child's well-being, to the military industrial complex? Who are you? Obviously you're not a parent of a child with autism, and my guess is you're not a parent at all.
You're a troll for sure but I'm not clear of your motives other than to spew vitriol.
Here's a news flash for you. We're going to win this war that has been perpetuated on our children and families. And we will win one child at a time. . .mine included.
Posted by: Mary | April 29, 2012 at 05:56 PM
John Stone, from your references to military industrial complex, its easy to see the birth of the autism industrial complex. Many others at AOA have written about the normalizing of ASD and invariably would lead to an industry. The forensics of this are in such plain site, and the media is integral and complicit.
Industrial complexes are dependent on the interaction of government and industry. But with autism industrial complex, its being sold to the public by the media. I don't know if the military industrial complex, needed or used the media to that extent.
Posted by: michael | April 29, 2012 at 11:37 AM
Benedetta
I would have responded to the woman "do you really think we would have missed 1 in 54 boys with autism b/c that is the current rate? in th 1960's it was 1 in 10,000". Plant a seed. Make them nervous so they'll think about it after.
I get more avoidance about talking about autism than anything else. Just nervous blank looks. Autism makes people uncomfortable. And to that I say, good, I'm glad it makes people uncomfortable..shake up their cozy little worlds.
As for the brainwashed ones, they are in for a shock when our kids are adults and they will be shortage of teachers, policeman, fireman, soldiers b/c soooo many have a disability. Or when our government can no longer sustain this crisis.
Denial is a nice, happy, comfy lala land place people escape too but I've never spent much time there.
Posted by: Sarah | April 28, 2012 at 11:24 AM
Not off of topic at all Carol, but a very good example.
Snake oil salesman are no longer peddling out on the dusty streets - but are now in fancy buildings and finally gained respect. But instead of magic oils from snakes - they hide behind beakers and flask.
And these modern snake oil salesmen have pulled the wool over the eyes of our government, and our media. And worse of all the entire general population that won't catch on! Because of fear of disease and there have been some amazing discoveries like antibiotics and let us face it there is no measles, mumps, polio - we have exchanged one disease for another - it is like those shell games!
Vaccine Explorer;
Then it will be nessacary to combine all brain injuries, learning disabilities, combining all of those having to have special education services all together.
They have not just exposed 1 out of 88 to Thimerosal. but all children to thimerosal
Which I think from watching the movie "The Greater Good" National Vaccine Information Center/The upper crust of Age of Autism - joining the Carnary Party ----is starting to do just that, an it is a very Smart move. THank GOD for these good souls that are now playing chess with crimnial snake oil salesmen and can't catch on-faith based "fools".
"The Greater Good" said CDC stats says 1 out of 6.
Do you know if this recent CDC report that was just release that 1 out of 88 have autism also released learning disability numbers too?
Posted by: Benedetta | April 28, 2012 at 10:23 AM
The 1 in 88 is children born in 2000 and exposed to Thimerosal.
They were buying time until the DSM-5 is out and then they can release the next study who will show a clear drop in autism. However this will be explained as not a "real" drop but due to DSM-5 changes.
In other words, they've been working on the problem of what to do with declining rates after Thimerosal was largely phased out, and now they have found their way out of it.
Posted by: vaccine.explorer | April 28, 2012 at 09:36 AM
I'm sorry for being a little off-topic, but not sorry enough not to post....Remember the 80s and 90s when every other relatively-young person you knew was dying of aneurysms? The apparent culprit turned out to be an ingredient in over-the-counter cold medicines, Phenylpropanolamine or PPA.
"By then [Nov. 2000], the drug industry had spent more than two decades fending off growing evidence of a possible link between PPA and hemorrhagic stroke. But Patton and Newenham were among hundreds of PPA consumers who suffered attacks after a landmark study -- sponsored by the drug industry itself -- concluded in October 1999 that the use of PPA was associated with an increased risk of that deadliest form of stroke.
Recently obtained internal company documents show that rather than alerting the public during cold season, drug makers launched a yearlong campaign to keep the results quiet and stall government regulation. By the time the FDA acted, 13 months and hundreds of strokes later, the companies had reformulated their brand names with little interruption in sales. The market for PPA has been estimated at $500 million to $1 billion annually.
In the interim, Americans continued to purchase PPA products right off the shelf and assume they were safe.
....As early as 1982, an FDA report warned that PPA had 'the ability to cause cardiovascular effects, cerebral hemorrhage and cardiac arrhythmias.' Two years later, a memo from the medical services department at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, which made the PPA products Triaminic and Tavist-D, referred to PPA as 'an agent known to cause hypertension and stroke.'
Yet the drug companies accelerated their marketing of PPA, winning FDA approval to sell prescription PPA products on an over-the-counter basis and introducing flavorful new formulas for children.
Upon learning that the 1999 study had found a stroke link, the drug makers opened a relentless assault on its methodology and on the integrity of the Yale University researchers who conducted it. They did so despite having paid for the five-year, $5-million study themselves, approving its protocol and handpicking investigators who had previously expressed skepticism about a link between PPA and stroke...."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ppa28mar28-1,1,2552623.htmlstory?coll=la-home-left1
Posted by: Carol | April 28, 2012 at 09:09 AM
Sarah;
Yesterday going through the check out line, the lady in front of me had some Atkins candy bars. She was talking to the clerk about the Atkins diet. She was a nice looking lady, so what was her worry - I guess - keeping her figure.
But being the wild eye radical that I am - I couldn't let this opportunity pass.
So I said we are on the Atkins diet, mostly to control my son's epiliepsy - the epilespsy foundation recommends a 15 carb atkins diet.
lady in front of me - exclaimed that is very low.
But I get to throw in vaccine reaction, autism, immune diseae - me gaining weight from an atuoimmune diseae that ruined my thyroid.
In which the check out lady says she thought her problem was an autoimmune disease.
She thinks she had lupus- her ANAs are bad, but the second part of the test was fine. However, she feels terrible, and she had on makeup to hide the spots on her face, but on her neck were those blue/red bruises.
So, I told her about my husband's two reactions to his tetanus shots and he has high ANAs but not the other part of the lupus test.
She was friendly and nice and working while sick. But she whispered to me "I think autism has always been around".
The perfect murder weapon is a slow poison. The whole nation is slowly being poisoned. I think that our leaders are just as slow about understanding as the lady that was checking out my groceries.
But I saw the faces on the reporters of Fox News the day after Jett Travolta died - from reading the emails of all of us and they were woke up - they were amazed. Now what are they going to decide to do about it. They have done some things - but they are trying to go canty about it
Which gets us to our leaders??? Canty again, I think?
As far as the CDC, NIH, the pharma companies, and our dear sweet little Austism Speaks they are going to burn in hell.
Canty -- no--- there is a problem with vaccines and they are to my amazement they are increasing the number of new vaccines, and the number of boosters.
It is like Dan O. said - he can't figure that out, and neither can I???? Except these guys are Mad, Mad, Mad, Insane from taking their own vaccines????
Posted by: Benedetta | April 28, 2012 at 09:06 AM
The one place I don't want to feel censored is AoA. Free and open debate. I may not agree with what you post but I'll defend your right to post it.
Veritas and I see that there is something very wrong and evil going on. Denial is deep but the rabbit hole is deeper. There is nothing wrong with talking about it.
Posted by: Sarah | April 28, 2012 at 01:28 AM
Well,
now it became clear. Pharma cartels and doctors Mengele from US universities want to cripple and maim millions of children, so they will have many child guinea pigs for testing of their new poisons. We must increase efforts to inform the society about this horrible abuse of American children by the medical establishment, before all of them are crippled and autistic.
Posted by: veritas | April 27, 2012 at 11:08 PM
Well, there's a merger I guess we should have seen coming from a mile away! And just when I thought these folks couldn't possibly become any more seedy and corrupt...
Thank you, Dan, for attending this disgrace of a meeting and for continuing to expose the truth behind this whole pathetic mess.
Posted by: Donna L. | April 27, 2012 at 10:40 PM
Planned eugenics or not - with the futures of so many babies now on the line, they are moving steadily forward to wreck the futures of the rest of the children before they become part of the child bearing demographics:
https://www.dtmi.duke.edu/news-publications/news/dtmi-news-archives/sahm-announces-adolescent-vaccine-project-grant-recipients
Which is part of CAPTN from NIMH: http://www.capmh.com/content/3/1/12
Of which the Psychiatrist from "Church, We have a Problem" (see AofA news links today) is part of, whose program will be funded through Duke from Pfizer.
Posted by: Ask just one question | April 27, 2012 at 09:51 PM
If they wait long enough, there won't be any people left to do the studies, because all that will be left will be people with autism...
Posted by: Sue Morgan | April 27, 2012 at 09:27 PM
veritas
I think the Bushes are blind and trusting of vaccines.
You might recall that Bush the Elder and his wife both came down with Graves disease at the same time???? !!!
Did they get vaccinated about the same time with a tetanus shot or a flu shot???
For my family was fast reactions is what opened my eyes. But what if most reactions are slow - Bushes and graves disease sounds very suspious to me. So now we have the top president and his wife affected and they don't know it.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 27, 2012 at 09:26 PM
Why should autismspeaks be any different from all the other large support groups who work hand in hand with companies who keep them in business. The peanut allergy people getting funded by jif, koman funding planned parenthood, as getting funding from vaccine guys....everybody has to eat.
Posted by: Holly Murphy | April 27, 2012 at 07:51 PM
BERNIE MARCUS + $25 million + AUTISM SPEAKS = CDC, It did not take 9th grade algebra!
Posted by: Linda Weinmaster | April 27, 2012 at 06:41 PM
Talking about eugenics is not going to get to the root of anything. It is not helping to bring in another evil. Let's focus on the problem. The problem is ignorance, nothing else.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | April 27, 2012 at 06:39 PM
DAN THE MAN. Oh my gosh was I shocked to read this. Dan, we parents thank you so much. Like it was mentioned before, you WERE the gorilla in the room!!! Thank you for pounding your chest for us all!!
We need those rooms filled with people like you--who somehow don't get kicked out!--And instead of just the 900 lb gorilla, we end up with the gorilla, the elephant and any other giant animal people don't speak about in a room!
WE OWE YOU. Thanks for having our backs. You're like family to me now. You spoke for my son. Peace to you!!!
Antoinette
Posted by: antoinette f. | April 27, 2012 at 05:49 PM
To the thousands upon thousands who believe AS actually does great things for our community, the collaboration looks good--it gives the CDC credibility in their eyes (the CDC is friends with an autism advocacy group, so they MUST have my best interest in mind, right?). It makes AS appear as if the studies they are completing are good and sound (I mean the CDC is the authority on disease control, RIGHT?). Problem is, this is all crap. It's a saving face game. If you know the behind the scenes info about either, you'd see that you've got two ''agencies" essentially making a pact to stand up for one another in a coverup.
Posted by: Lori Eason | April 27, 2012 at 05:28 PM
Sarah,
You are right about the eugenics, however they destroy not only the children, who are sensitive to toxins, but all the others as well (except of their own, who are not vaccinated , I am sure). If more than 64% of American children have now one or more chronic diseases
while c. 20% are neurologically damaged, that means the majority has been seriously injured. Not every child will get autism from toxic vaccines, but most will be harmed one way or another. And this means the END of American future. The society of chronically sickly people has no chance of being successful and no chance of surviving. It will first be reduced to a 3rd world country and die out soon.
I believe the intension of Nazi master evils was to destroy majority of American society. Idiot politicians in the US Congress or administration in this country help them to achieve this goal. I know quite a few German physicians, who told me that in Germany most parents don’t vaccinate and nobody forces or even pressures them to do so. They protect their own, because they know vaccines now are the weapons of mass destruction. Only a few naïve, ignorant immigrants in Germany still vaccinate their children.
I don't buy the story that people from CDC or AS don’t know that mercury is an extremely powerful toxin. Everybody knows it, and they are obliged to know it. The fact that they promote injections of this poison to American and world babies, means that they work as an arm of the evil.
Posted by: veritas | April 27, 2012 at 04:58 PM
I have seen government bureaucrats in action close to. They are not always nasty people, but they can jump to instant attention at a change of agenda or ideology: in fact they frequently have to to do their job at all according to political expectations. And the demands can very easily become completely detached from reality. When dealing with such individuals what really strikes is often their optimism that if they do something really delusional it will somehow come out alright. This is not offered as a full explanation of what is happening here but it is perhaps one dynamic of it. A certain kind of institutional flexibility essential sometimes for "pubic servants" to meet demands of the democratically elected representatives can easily lead to moral disaster.
And here, of course, the greatest political imperative remains protecting the reputation of the vaccine programme, the biggest single totem (or taboo) in public policy of modern times.
Posted by: MaxW | April 27, 2012 at 04:30 PM
Thanks Dan for standing up for us parents. I can only dream of what it would have been like for them if Jake Crosby and Mary Holland could have joined you!!
I was interviewed by Eric Gladen (World Mercury Project) a few years ago and I was asked what I thought the future held for our children. I told him that I envisioned a day that instead of pediatricians asking about immunization status of our kids, it would be if we were up to date on our “detoxification profile”.
Whether this is all planned eugenics I do not know. I believe that, given the current level of environment toxins our future generations will be exposed to, it is going to be down to three factors: Tolerate, Detoxify or Die.
The good news is there are a few good people working on the detoxify factor, we just need to get the political backing to finance a hell of a lot more of it. By showing up and exposing the foolishness of those like the CDC and AS, we will get there, someday.
Posted by: Tim Kasemodel | April 27, 2012 at 03:57 PM
Let's just presume these people are not frauds and that they are well-meaning and that their interests are truly geared towards discovering the reason for the autism epidemic. Is it possible that they actually don't get what is being proposed by so many of us? Could it be that they are still part of the flat-earth theorists? If that is the case, it might be necessary to engage more people in a paradigm shift relating to toxicity. Part of the problem here is that whenever someone like Boyd Haley or the Geiers speak up, they are being labeled as conflicted in some form or another. We, the parents, are biased because: "Maybe we can't think straight?" After all many of us have autistic children. So maybe we have a touch of autism ourselves because it's genetic? I have come across that type of bias a few times. They deduce that we have caught something from our children.
I am more inclined to think that they are not aware of certain forms of toxicity and how toxicity works. It needs to be explained by someone other than me how toxic mercury can be and how much time it takes (sometimes months) for mercury toxicity to actually show up in a patient, what synergism is, and how the discussion of, let's say, Sigmund Freund in your book "The Age of Autism" is relevant. I have tried, and tried and tried. It is very hard to get people to understand that when a person is poisoned by mercury she often doesn't feel ill at all for a while. It is not so much the science that is far behind, it is the grasp of science that is lacking. The people of the CDC are not trained in that direction. They are only interested in promoting vaccines. They have no interest in confusing themselves with the facts.
Maybe getting Donald Trump involved is a step in the right direction. He seems to have an open mind.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | April 27, 2012 at 03:30 PM
Veritas,
The eugenics movement never ended with the Nazi's. It just went underground where they've been perfecting their technique.
Instead of concentration camps the eugencists are using existing infrastructure and long trusted programs to carry out their dirty work under the guise of public health. Many involved in the charade actually have no idea what they are really a part of.
Pediatric practices are where they deliver the toxins. Laws are passed to ensure compliance. Schools are where they sort the genetically inferior injured children from the genetically "fit" strong. Media used to cover up the scheme and divert the publics attention. Autism organizations exist on the surface to support the parents but also protect the agenda (genetic cleansing- getting those with disease prone genes out of the gene pool).
As this generation of kids ages, only those who can hold a job, live indepedently and marry will reproduce. The future for our kids is grim. Most likely they will never reproduce so their genes will not be passed on. A eugenicists dream fullfilled.
Brilliant but evil.
Posted by: Sarah | April 27, 2012 at 03:05 PM
Well, we're making progress on the vaccine/autism issue -- some of those accountable have moved from outright denial to uncomfortable evasion.
That pretty much spells out the reason for the PR partnership... keeping the "anything but vaccines" messaging on point, as it were.
Posted by: nhokkanen | April 27, 2012 at 02:32 PM
Thank u Dan so much for being there.
I was able to watch the proceedings thanks to Beth Clay's video -posted to facebook.
Honestly I was shocked at what I saw.
Marshalyn happy, cheerful, giggling about the biggest tragedy affecting our nation's children
.
Andy Shih saying words with zero ability to connect to the audience or the concerns of American families in general. If he talks about Korea anymore someone should turn the lights out in the room- COME BACK to reality. Why doesn't AS have a scientist who lives this issue and cares about our families and listens and acts upon our concerns? When Shih cited parental age as his main focus of "environmental" study I literally screamed. Enough with the nonsense. What's next Shih- obesity?
Where is the real environmental scientist at AS? Why are families paying for this crap?
Posted by: Katie Wright | April 27, 2012 at 02:04 PM
IMO, all congressional and CDC crimes against American children stem from the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986 (42 U.S.C. §§ 300aa-1 to 300aa-34), which gives pharma cartels total immunity and permission to kill and cripple Americans with their toxic vaccines.
It was initiated and strongly promoted by the Reagan administration and probably was written by Eli Lilly. And it is well know that the Bushes have long standing business connections with Eli Lilly – the manufacturer of thimerosal. Over the years Bushes probably made many millions if not billions on the business of poisoning and killing the American children. Past Bushes connection to Hitler and Nazis is also well known.
The CDC’s answer to Dan’s question tells it all. "Congress mandated to do what we’re doing, so I think you’re asking the wrong person, to ask us why we’re doing what we’re doing."
It is therefore clear that main criminals in this crime are the politicians connected to Bushes and/or to other republicans. They ordered this genocide of children and they are guarding that this process continues until the final destruction of American society. Is this a delayed Nazi revenge on America? A holocaust of American children conducted with the help of Nazi collaborators in the US government?
I believe that only a massive social boycott of most if not vaccines will stop this crime against humanity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Lilly_controversies
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=123&contentid=1267
http://dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Pringle0207-2.htm
http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/new_world_order/bush_nazis.html
Posted by: veritas | April 27, 2012 at 01:50 PM
Dan,
Thank you for attending while we are busy trying to reverse the damage.
Posted by: Sandra Lopriore | April 27, 2012 at 01:03 PM
What looks on the surface like patient advocacy group may be a front group for pharma. Here is an example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_organization
"Another pharmaceutical company, Biogen, set up a campaign called Action for Access, which also claimed it was an independent organization and the voice of MS sufferers. People who visited the website and signed up for the campaign did not realise that these were not genuinely independent patient groups."
Here is a list of corporate front groups:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Front_groups
Posted by: Sarah | April 27, 2012 at 12:55 PM
Mr. Olmsted took the time and effort to present this photo-op ready panel of concerned government officials and citizens with a few simple questions. In return, he continues to receive the same drivel they have been spewing upon our community for decades. They remind me of CAFOs.
Their responses are akin to a sadistic game of 'Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?" Who me? Yes you! Couldn't be. Then who?
Q & A? No... just another sound bite to help celebrate Autism Awareness Month.
Autism Speaks should be ashamed. "Light It Up Blue" should be changed to "Ignoring You're Questions Until You're Blue in the Face."
Posted by: Christine Thompson | April 27, 2012 at 12:15 PM
Have you looked at the members of the Board of Directors on AS? Many have children with autism, but they also have connections to Wall Street. I happen to know one of the members personally so I am in a quandary to understand his motives as a member. They seem to steer clear of any and all "other than mainstream" versions of science while perpetuating the myth that autism's answers lie in genetics.
A friend of mine who runs an autism organization once remarked that AS was set up as a front for the pharmaceutical interests. Considering their latest position of working with Pfizer, et.al, I am beginning to believe this assumption is correct.
Posted by: Mary | April 27, 2012 at 12:01 PM
the CDC's reaction to this crisis has evolved from denial and refusal to accept blame to acquiescing to what has become a national eugenics program. Now the autism - eugenics train has become almost unstoppable unless we throw our selves in it's path through social networks. I can sympathize with the Tibetan monks self immolation in protest. Great work CDC, I hope you're all very proud of yourselves in Atlanta. When you tuck your kids safely in bed at night think of ours.
Posted by: Sarah | April 27, 2012 at 11:28 AM
We've all seen years and years of denials and obfuscation from the feds when it comes to autism. Washington pretends to be looking into this disaster as this Senate hearing from two years ago showed.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/08/us-senate-hearing-on-autism-its-the-environment-not-the-gene-pool.html
I imagine that in two or five or even ten years, officials will still be looking for answers, mystified by all the autism everywhere. They can't decide yet if there really is a problem. It's clear that autism has paralyzed Washington. They have no idea what to do about it and the problem is only getting worse---especially THE COST AND THE NUMBERS. Try as they might, they just can't make the problem go away. People increasingly aren't buying the "better diagnosing" theme song of health officials who produce non-stop studies that link autism to older parents, fat mothers, siblings too close together, smoking/antidepressants during pregnancy, and living too close to a freeway--anything but vaccines.
It's nothing but a pathetic attempt at autism busywork.
And don't expect this to change anytime soon. The feds have no choice. They're the perpetrators of the damage and they've being asked to investigate the results.
In the end, it'll be the states that will be left to care for the victims of the health care malfeasance and corruption, It's impossible to imagine what the future holds. We're just beginning to see the first wave of the autism tsunami hitting the beaches and already it's clear we're helpless to do anything. No one has warned us that we're all going to drown.
Anne Dachel, Media
Posted by: Anne Dachel | April 27, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Thank you, Dan, for having the testicular fortitude to go up against these... OK I'll call them criminals. Yes, just follow the money, as usual.
Posted by: Therese Holliday | April 27, 2012 at 10:55 AM
I think we'll see more disappearing acts as this story continues to blow up. The people in charge who are part of the problem are feeling the heat like never before. People are mad and scared to learn that 1-in-54 boys has autism. The masses are seeking answers and finally listening to parents thanks to social media.
It's becoming more apparent to more people that there are 2 camps - those trying to end the autism epidemic and those trying to keep it going as the new normal to protect their financial interests.
People who harm children eventually end up in jail, and there they get a special kind of treatment from the other inmates.
The risk of jail time is becoming more of a reality for government employees who have committed gross negligence and allowed a generation of kids to be harmed and to develop autism.
The CDC and govt. agencies will continue to have a hard time finding their own spokespersons. Those who speak up, and put their face out there in defense of the indefensible will fall almost as hard as their bosses who have been calling all the shots.
That's why Autism Speaks spoke so much at the congressional briefing. The CDC doesn't want to speak very much. Not anymore. Not about autism.
Posted by: Autism Speaks for the CDC | April 27, 2012 at 10:50 AM
Thank you so much for attending, contributing, and keeping us informed, Dan.
I also have a question. If not the CDC, and if not Autism Speaks, who? Are there any regulatory or investigative organizations that would be fit to look into this issue as 'formal', 'official', or 'orthodox' authority figures?
Posted by: Valerie | April 27, 2012 at 10:33 AM
From what I'm reading here, I wonder how many other congressmen and senators Autism Speaks owns? Let's all keep walking to buy congress.
Posted by: Just Curious | April 27, 2012 at 10:30 AM
Disenfrachised
You can't expect these guys to take a long term view-it's the present killing which motivates them.
Posted by: For Disenfranchised | April 27, 2012 at 10:22 AM
We seem to now have the best government money can buy.
But now the corporatists are getting grumpy about how much all their corruption of government is costing, so now they want us to all turn against government and just disband all the regulating agencies. That way they won't have to spend so much money corrupting their functions and bribing the top regulators to write and rewrite regulations to favor their interests. I think it has gotten to the point that if you want to be in the game, make a really good salary and be in any top position, you must be willing to defend and promote whatever BS favors powerful corporate interests. And there seems to be no shortage of individuals willing to play the game.
The sickness industry has created another cash cow and they certainly don't want anyone to understand that. Autism Speaks, like the American Cancer Society, appears to be in the business of keeping the sickness going. Solving the mystery would mean there would no longer be a need for Autism Speaks--so keeping the mystery alive looks to be their real agenda.
All that matters is the current and the next few years' profit (and "nonprofit") statements. Unfortunately the Pharma corporations are so short-sighted that they don't realize this is going to be their last hurrah. Just like the general failure to understand that people can't survive without a healthy natural environment, these folks seem to fail to understand that the human species can't survive if it can't successfully reproduce, and society can't survive if too many of its members are brain-damaged.
Perhaps NOT thinking too much (or at all) is requisite for those seeking or enjoying wealth and power based on telling lies and avoiding truth.
Posted by: Disenfranchised | April 27, 2012 at 09:55 AM
Why didn't they say that study after study shows that vaccines don't cause autism? Seems like the obvious answer.
Posted by: Carol | April 27, 2012 at 09:52 AM
I know you all know, but I just have to point out
that (IF) and it (WILL) make it to Congress (AGAIN)
This will be the third (blanked blank, blank) time.
Three, third, tris, 3 times.
Posted by: Benedetta | April 27, 2012 at 09:13 AM
You asked why are they doing this!
It has never made sense! NEVER! NEVER! NEVER
You are talking 30 years here of just jaw dropping amazing actions on the part of the medical community.
1979 - 80 or what ever there was enough damaged children to cause a Congressional hearing.
In which they decided for the greater good forget those injuried people.
1986- Sealed that deal. Get that law pass were it says no body is responsible for any vaccine damage no matter how bad the vaccine is. Tell 'em the federal government will take care of them. And they did with a run around at ever phase of the process.
and if I thought it was bad back then, ahhhh- the games had not even begun -- oh, silly me!
Posted by: Benedetta | April 27, 2012 at 08:59 AM
Perhaps they didn't throw Dan out because he WAS the 900 pound elephant-gorilla in the room and too heavy. What an absolute downer. When I heard Congressional Hearing-I assumed(and incorrectly) that lots of congressional members would attend. At least those on the health committee. We've been had by all the congressional leaders
besides the CDC and AS.
Maurine
Posted by: maurine meleck | April 27, 2012 at 08:30 AM
Well done Dan! Regarding the answers to your question:
Isn't CDC all but telling us to go to Congress and tell them to stop mandating CDC to do what they're doing? This response should be a clarion call for us to mobilize and advocate for this long overdue action. Legislation was proposed several years back to split the CDC into two separate agencies - one to promote the vaccine program (which it does so well) and one to oversee vaccine safety (which it doesn't do at all). As long as the fox is watching the henhouse, the epidemic will continue.
Posted by: Madvocate | April 27, 2012 at 07:55 AM
It's getting hard to choose which is more devastating -
1- knowing how vaccines can scientifically cause autism and see it in my own child OR 2- knowing that our government KNOWS this yet continues driving the steamroller....
Posted by: Teresa Conrick | April 27, 2012 at 07:14 AM
Exactly the right question, Dan O: "isn’t the CDC exactly the wrong agency ...?" Perfectly phrased and aimed. The nerve! Jake would have been thrown out. Why weren't you?
Got your back. Keep asking.
Posted by: Dan E. Burns | April 27, 2012 at 07:03 AM
Dan
Tragic and interesting. I have been harping for a while on JK Galbraith's concept of "innocent fraud" which he also traced back to Eisenhower's famous "military-industrial complex" speech, now 50 years old: I also recall Mark once writing about it.
"Money, we once agreed, gave the owner, the capitalist, the controlling power in the enterprise. So it still does in small businesses. But in all large firms the decisive power now lies with a bureaucracy that controls, but does not own, the requisite capital. This bureaucracy is what the business schools teach their students to navigate, and it is where their graduates go. But bureaucratic motivation and power are outside the central subject of economics. We have corporate management, but we do not study its internal dynamics or explain why certain behaviors are rewarded with money and power. These omissions are another manifestation of fraud. Perhaps it is not entirely innocent. It evades the often unpleasant facts of bureaucratic structure, internal competition, personal advancement, and much else...
"A more comprehensive fraud dominates scholarly economic and political thought. That is the presumption of a market economy separate from the state. Most economists concede a stabilizing role to the state, even those who urgently seek an escape from reality by assigning a masterful and benign role to Alan Greenspan and the central bank. And all but the most doctrinaire accept the need for regulation and legal restraint by the state. But few economists take note of the cooptation by private enterprise of what are commonly deemed to be functions of the state. This is hidden by the everyday reference to the public and private sectors, one of our clearest examples of innocent fraud...
"The clearest case is the weapons industry. Given the industry’s command of the Congress and the Pentagon, the defense firms create the demand for weaponry, prescribe the technological development of our defense system, and supply the needed funds—the defense budget. There is no novelty here. This is the military-industrial complex, a characterization that goes safely back to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
"Any notion of a separation between the public and a private sector—between industry and government—is here plainly ludicrous. Nonetheless, the absorption of public functions by the arms industry is ignored in all everyday and most scholarly economic and political expression. And what is so ignored is in some measure sanctioned. I hesitate here to speak of innocent fraud; it is far from being socially benign."
Of course, now the weapons industry is only one of the clearest cases. The bureaucracy is the problem and it is completely out of control. The "free market" is not a "free market":
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/12/best-of-aofa-scientists-and-drug-companies-scheme-to-avoid-fda-scrutiny-and-exploit-us-vaccine-progr.html
Moreover, Autism Speaks now also has a far from benign role in events, being linked to an industrial complex which seeks advantage from screening the population to detect as many autism cases as possible as a captive market for prescription drugs being developed by a pre-competitve consortium. So, they only have an interest in the problem being worse rather than better:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/05/1-in-38-autism-speaks-new-normal-is-the-biggest-business-bonanza-ever.html
http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/03/the-phoenicians-autism-recovery-denial-drug-profits-and-the-medias-flat-earth-2012.html
And this is just as the military industrial complex has an interest in stoking war, rather than preventing it. Meanwhile, the politicians sit by and pretend to be stupid. Well, Galbraith and Eisenhower came from opposite ends of the US political spectrum but both at the end of their respective careers spelt out the same doom, and they both knew it was not a partisan message.
John
Posted by: John Stone | April 27, 2012 at 06:44 AM
Geez, Dan, I can't blame Rep Smith for slinking out the back door as soon as he had the opportunity to do so .. I would have done exactly the same had it been me instead of him that orchestrated that discouraging "dog and poney" show.
QUESTION: "Given the fact that so many parents believe that vaccines caused their child’s regression, isn’t the CDC exactly the wrong agency to be looking into causation and prevalence and whether there’s an epidemic?
ANSWER BY AUTISM SPEAKS: "I don’t think Autism Speaks is in a position to answer that question. So this is obviously a federal government issue.
ANSWER BY CDC: "Congress mandated to do what we’re doing, so I think you’re asking the wrong person, to ask us why we’re doing what we’re doing."
Duh .. you weren't asking "WHO" assigned them the critical task of investigating the causation of the autism epidemic .. you were asking them if THEY should have been given the task.
That they feel comfortable enough to give the equivalent of a "dog ate my homework" answer to your question is CRIMINAL.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | April 27, 2012 at 06:35 AM