Age of Autism Weekly Wrap Up: Arrogant, Ignorant "Experts"
One of the guilty pleasures of covering the autism story lo these many years is to witness the spectacle of arrogant, ignorant "experts" weighing in on the issue -- supposedly on the side of science, or, as they often think of it, Science -- and making absolute blithering fools of themselves.
It's even more fun to contemplate the blot this will eventually be on their permanent record, because we're not talking here about trivialities, the kind of feature-y stuff where a lot of these folks spend most of their intellectual energy, such as it is. No, when they opine about things like mercury, vaccines and autism, and declare it to be a proven fact that none of those could possibly be related, they are Wrong When It Really Matters.
That's why I call them Wwirms. The newest Wwirm to come crawling our way is one Alexandra Petri, a Washington Post blogger who says she "puts the pun in punditry."
"Consider the Congressional hearing today on the dangerous link between vaccines and autism – again, not a real problem that exists, as countless studies have demonstrated. It is abundantly clear that vaccines save lives. Meanwhile, scientists can show no connection whatever vaccines and autism. This is a fictional problem."
She goes on to say, "next there will be a hearing about how to keep the Dragon Smaug from ravaging your village."
While it is perversely satisfying to read this kind of thing, the truth is it disrepects thousands of parents and contributes directly to the suffering of millions of human beings worldwide. That, Ms. Petri and fellow Wwirms, goes on your permanent record.
CT Teacher,
Re your statement that mainstream medicine considers nutrition therapy for heart disease to be quackery...Check out Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.. He runs a heart disease prevention and reversal program at the Cleveland Clinic. Also, Medicare now reimburses for Dr. Dean Ornish's program, which is focused on lifestyle including diet. Both Esselstyn and Ornish are former (maybe still?) cardiac surgeons. Not meaning to correct you, but I didn't want you to be misled. This type of treatment is what inspired Bill Clinton to become vegan. All the best to you and your husband.
Posted by: Linda | December 12, 2012 at 06:38 PM
@Liz P, that's a FABULOUS letter.
1) May I have permission to post it in its entirety (with or without your name, your choice) on a parenting forum? (They limit us to 100 words unless we have permission from the author.)
2) I would quibble with one tiny thing: my 4 1/2 pound premie was given the hep B shot when he was only 4 hours old. The standard protocol is to vacccinate them before mom leaves the hospital with them; when a baby is born in the early morning hours, this means that the baby will be vaccinated within a few hours. So I'd say that these are the shots that they receive between 4 hours of age and age 2.
Posted by: Taximom | December 10, 2012 at 10:01 PM
Bendetta:
Thank you for your good wishes. You are so kind. It was a minor heart attack, but he had a bad aortic valve also, which we were told could only be replaced with open heart surgery. Believe me, I looked for every way out for him, but in the end, he had to make up his own mind. There are metabolic cardiologists out there who treat heart problems nutritionally, but they are considered quacks by mainstream doctors and my husband would have none of it. So, he did the major surgery and seems to be recovering well. Today, we just refused another offer for a flu shot from the visiting nurse. It goes on and on!
@ no vac
I am sure you are correct about pediatricians, but I have concerns about this whooping cough thing. Where is it all coming from? Is the DTaP actually giving it to kids? There have been a few cases in the school district where I work part time and I have never heard of it before in CT. It seems to targeting mostly vaccinated kids so I wonder about a correlation.
Posted by: CT teacher | December 10, 2012 at 07:14 PM
Sent to Wash Po on the 5th, probably won't ever see the page:
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to Ms. Petri’s post, entitled, “From vaccines to Panetta-Burns, our fictional concerns.” Ms. Petri is purported to be a punster, but there is absolutely nothing pun-ny in this post – rather it is derisive, demeaning, and patently un-researched.
As parent to a child who suffered a severe neurologic event after receiving 5 shots at 3.5 months of age, which resulted in permanent brain damage and numerous, lifelong, health and developmental roadblocks, I take exception to her patently untrue statement which begins, “Consider the Congressional hearing today on the dangerous link between vaccines and autism — again, not a real problem that exists.” The entire purpose of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform holding this Hearing was to shine sun on the malfeasance of certain Government agencies. Sure, there have been “numerous studies,” I challenge any reader to review the design of the studies (purposefully designed to NOT look where the trouble lies), who performs these studies (PhRMA, wanted felons), and to assess whether any of these studies address two critical and fundamental issues:
1. Is the concurrent administration of 6 shots containing up to 10 vaccines, and neurotoxins, teratogens, carcinogens, animal and human DNA, common food proteins, and amino acids, designed to cause your body to mount an inflammatory immune response to everything they are injecting (your body cannot discriminate between the virus’ and the other ingredients), SAFE for a human; especially, is it safe for an infant at birth, then again at 2, 4, 6, 12, 15, and 24 months of age?
2. Is the schedule of vaccines we administer to our newborns, infants, and children EFFECTIVE at providing better health outcomes for the fully vaccinated than the health outcomes their fully unvaccinated counterparts have?
To-date, the FDA, CDC, NIH, HHS and other Government bodies have avoided answering these two questions, and instead have deemed vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe” products; granting their manufacturers blanket immunity from liability for any death, disability, or injury caused by their vaccines.
If there was no concern about the safety of these products, there would be no need for PhRMA to be protected. Vaccination is a medical procedure and vaccines are a medical product – just like Vioxx; the difference is, if you are killed, disabled, or injured by Vioxx, you can demand recompense, if a vaccine causes you harm, you can take your chances with HHS’ Special Masters in their version of “Vaccine Court” where there is no discovery allowed and it is you versus your Government; don’t expect to win.
To-date, care and “recovery” efforts for my daughter have cost $1.5M; she is 13. She has a lifetime ahead of her, but lost her future before she could even walk. There is great hue and cry over the Alzheimers epidemic because of the toll on families in parents’ sunset years – for too many, having a child who suffered a permanent brain injury from vaccination, resulting in severe “Autism,” is like having a parent with Alzheimers for a lifetime.
The rate of “Autism” in Utah is currently 1 in 47 children, in NJ 1 in 49; lifetime care costs between $3M and $6M for these children. At what point WOULD Ms. Petri have the Government look at the single common factor in nearly every child in America – the 27 shots (minimum) they receive between 12 hours of age and age 2?!
While for a large number of these children, there will be need for accommodation, community choice, and workplace inclusion – this should be the future of last resort. Families do not dream of limited futures dictated by DISability, reduced expectation, and forced acceptance; we dream of our children meeting their future ABLE to conceive their own dream and make it a reality. Demanding answers to the above questions is the only way we will be able to identify why our dreams are not commensurate with our children’s reality and change the future reality for those children being born tomorrow.
With hopes our children all experience adulthood free of the tyranny of Autism,
Liz Parker
Posted by: Liz P | December 10, 2012 at 07:33 AM
Funny, aren't vaccines always touted as the dragon-slayer of disease, by inserting into the body a benign form of the germ (nothing else in the vaccines needs to be mentioned here) and teaching the body to fight it off, so you won't get sick when the real dragon crosses your path, not only that, but the germs fall right off of you so you won't pass them on to anyone else (that's why unvaccinated healthcare providers have to wear masks around their patients), but everyone has to take them, all of them, (don't even 100,000 at a time is no problem, even for infants, as explained by dragon-slayer, Dr. Offit, who has made a million or two or 3 or 4 or something unnecessary to disclose like that, from the most recent infant vaccine which he voted onto the schedule himself, so he is most obviously expert), in order for each dragon to be slayed, ok, at least largely routed, but then, if repeatedly taken, each dragon should stay away (excluding a few hardly mentionable outbreaks in fully vaccinated populations), and vaccines, their benefits far, far, far outweigh their risks, even though we haven't yet actually researched the risk part, but we don't need to--it would actually be unethical to try--because we know vaccines save lives even without the evidence base officially required to prove anything not patentable by a pharmaceutical company is not therefore dubiously experimental and mortally dangerous, but with vaccines, even when given with up to a 1000 times dosing guidelines of a toxic substance and many combinations of such substances, that's all good, and soon we may be able to cure everything from smoking addiction to cancer with vaccines! maybe even autism--which is not on the rise by-the-way, just more detectable now that we are not so busy dealing with polio and chicken pox, though we have more shingles for some reason...but hey we've now got a vaccine for that--and every time any disease dragon breaks through this greatest medical advancement of all time, it's because some crazy, dim-witted parents, somewhere in the vicinity of the outbreak (or at least a few counties away) don't understand that they CAN'T understand, without the proper corporate-driven training, these things, and decide to venture onto the *insert-snake-tail-rattle-sound* internet and become duped by a rogue doctor from the U.K., who started it ALL and has been thoroughly debunked, or else by some Playboy model/actor/comedian, whose "recovered" child probably really never had autism to begin with, who studied, if she didn't author, some anti-vaccine talking points manual from the powerful, well-financed, profiteering, anti-vaccine lobby, and then decide to let their children go "unvaccinated" (translation: not having had one or more of the 30 or so vaccine doses of now recommended for infants according or in acceleration of the recommended schedule, with of course several more before they age out of school, oh wait, why stop there, let's make vaccines mandatory for all adults before filling life-dependent prescriptions, etc), so obviously all of us autoimmune, allergic, asthmatic, chronically unwell Americans need another booster shot because of them, and don't forget to get your annual flu shot--in the United States, 36,000 people die every year from the flu ...
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | December 10, 2012 at 01:43 AM
CT teacher:
I hope for a full recovery for your husband. Open heart surgery don't sound like a minor heart attack to me!
I hope all is well with you -
and congratulations on your new grandchild.
Posted by: Benedetta | December 09, 2012 at 09:10 PM
@CT teacher:
I think the pediatricians are worst, because they are paid by pharma mafia to push vaccines on children and their parents. DTP vaccines are totally ineffective now against pertussis, hence vaccinations make no sense at all, but they cause a lot of harm and thousands of deaths. I suspect that DTP vaccine which they give to adults contain mercury and toxic additives.
Posted by: no vac | December 09, 2012 at 06:06 PM
It appears that DSM is making a climb up the Google News ranks.
Amazing coincidence.
Posted by: Media Scholar | December 09, 2012 at 04:48 PM
re: enforced vaccinations-The hospitals are still pushing flu shots. My husband had a mild heart attack 1 month ago and was hospitalized for 2 days. Upon discharge the nurse tried to push flu and pneumonia shots on him. When he refused, the head nurse appeared and did the hard sell, telling him that he should protect himself before facing his open heart surgery. The Drs. never mentioned a word. Still, the visiting nurse questioned us about the shots today ( he came home yesterday after open heart surgery).
Last year my pregnant daughter was briefly hospitalized with pneumonia. Upon her release a Dr. tried to push a flu shot on her, because she had not had one. How stupid is that? She was already sick and her immune system was trying to recover and he wanted to vaccinate her? And pregnant to boot?
Some pediatricians are still pushing shots, too. My neighbors went to CA to see their new grandson, and they had to get DPT shots before they went. Apparently in CA because of whooping cough, Drs. are "cocooning", which means the entire family has to get DPT shots to protect the baby from the illness. I haven't heard that the whooping cough rate has dropped in CA, so this practice might not be too successful.
My daughter takes the new baby and her 6 yr old to a family practice and so far this Dr. has not pressured her about vaccines. She had already been to at least 6 pediatricians, each of whom lectured her on every visit about the dangers of not vaccinating.
Posted by: CT teacher | December 09, 2012 at 12:49 PM
We need to start calling these people "Cash for Trash"
And seriously... they need to have everything they say listed. Questions from each statement need to be asked and they need to be given a chance to answer in detail. They should be challenged to debate and the number of times they have refused debate needs to be listed. They need to be asked to read all the literature that supports vaccine injury and they need to be asked why they deny it and back up their statements. Everything they say needs to be made public. They have to be made responsible for their statements! Until then, it is easy for these people to take cash for trash.
Posted by: billie joe | December 09, 2012 at 12:35 PM
The Forbes blogger whimpered that those two poor scientists were not prepared for that barrage of unfair questions by those big dumb meanie Congressmen and gee whiz, how dare those bullies act so disrespectful to people who are so very, very much smarter than everybody else.
Funny how the Forbes blogger failed to mention that one of the scientists had testified before Congress 12 years earlier, right about the time that scientist was working behind the scenes to help the people diluting the vaccine/autism statistics.
And that scientist hadn't done a damn thing in 12 years other than come up with a "tool" for parents to detect autism, which is pretty much useless because parents (1) can tell anyway that there's something wrong with their kid and (2) they still need to get the official diagnosis from a licensed professional.
Imagine how ever-more haunted Boyle is going to look twelve years from how....
Posted by: nhokkanen | December 09, 2012 at 12:59 AM
Hall of Shame, please!
Then at the end of every year we could nominate the boob who has done the most damage to our cause.
Don't forget Dr. Nancy! ;-(
Posted by: Michelle | December 09, 2012 at 12:27 AM
Alexandra Petri got her head in the sand- rising autism and auto-immune disorders are "not a real problem" for her.She is shallow just like a petri dish container to understand the real issues.Her articles are dumb and a waste of time,
lets put our energy elsewhere.
Posted by: oneVoice | December 08, 2012 at 11:17 PM
United we stand guys there is no i..we stand as one together ..
Angus
Posted by: Angus Files | December 08, 2012 at 07:31 PM
Alexandra Petri is a terrible writer. I often scan though her columns below the editorial cartoons. She thinks she's funny but she's not. Try reading any of her other columns on any other subjects.
Posted by: Mike Frandsen | December 08, 2012 at 06:22 PM
She's a real dish.
Let's not sweat the small stuff. I'm sure she could fly with at least a thousand words about how disease-mongering vaccine-manufacturing drug companies and their bioterrorism countermeasure-based science saved millions from Bird Flu.
What happened with Swine Flu II? She can explain.
Posted by: Media Scholar | December 08, 2012 at 06:16 PM
Re: enforced vaccinations of medical staff. People who face such vaccine terrorism should go massively on strike in protest and should threaten hospital bureaucrats that they will leave their work place if such terror continues. Hospitals without doctors and nurses are just buildings, they can’t afford to lose most of the valuable personnel; they will come back begging the doctors and nurses to return to work. This is a real vaccine war against the people. In my area doctors do not even mention flu vaccines to the patients anymore, only the creepy department stores and pharmacies are pushing them, but I don’t see people wanting them. Doctors became educated, they have seen vaccine-induced deaths and injuries, many experienced such effects themselves. They don’t want to harm their patients.
Posted by: no vac | December 08, 2012 at 06:13 PM
In my thank you to Chairman Issa and members of the Committee on Government Reform, I asked that that they hold more such hearings. Representative Cummings suggested that maybe the IACC should be composed of members outside NIH. In 2009 I made the suggestion that we need something like the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to investigate the catastrophe of autism. See
http://conradsimon.org/files/IACC4feb2009.pdf
Dr. Guttmacher tried to say that the IACC is receptive to public comments, but they are not. Representative Paul Gosar described his own family’s ordeal with celiac disease, that “researchers don’t listen,” and it’s a slap in the face.
Representative Carolyn Maloney asked, “Why so many shots in such a short period of time?” She pointed out the evidence (clear to everyone) that autism rates were low before the increase in vaccines given at earlier ages. Dr. Boyle mumbled something about needing to be sure children got all their shots early.
Chairman Issa pointed out that we need a more systematic approach to what we are putting in our children’s bodies.
Members of the Committee on Government Reform asked the kind of intelligent questions that the NTSB asks after transportation accidents. Yes, we need the insight of people not trying to defend the “established authorities,” and bloggers should be required to reveal who is paying them to make scornful remarks about people working to promote reforms.
Posted by: Eileen Nicole Simon | December 08, 2012 at 06:01 PM
Billie Joe -
Loving your idea! I'm apparently in the Vaccine Hall of Shame as a promoter of vaccine preventable diseases. We need a real Hall of Shame for these numb nutses(is that correct plural for numb nuts :))
Posted by: LB | December 08, 2012 at 05:50 PM
The problem is that the goverment`s divide and rule all the time and wont take on complaints grouped together with the same symptoms...M.S. M.E. AUTISM. GULF WAR SYNDROM...ETC
we all need to group together and stuff the divide and rule that they impose to great effect..
Angus
Posted by: Angus Files | December 08, 2012 at 04:36 PM
LOVE that idea Billie Joe!
Posted by: Sylvia | December 08, 2012 at 04:07 PM
With the "fiscal cliff" issue now on the front burner, do they realize that the "vaccine industry business model" functions by throwing children over the cliff and then looking for more money to come up from the bottom ?
Why it took over 10 years for another Autism hearing I do not know.
However, AoA could compose about 10 to 20 very simple questions that need to be answered by the "expert dimwits" at the CDC. I will start with #1 & #2.
1) Has thimerosal ever been formally tested for safety for use in vaccines ???
2) What the hell happened at Simpsonwood and who called for a "never mind do-over" ???
Posted by: cmo | December 08, 2012 at 02:52 PM
aaaaayes, I too many years ago would watch James Cherry move his mouth and relish the day he would eat every word.
So far he ain't had to, but maybe the day is moving closer.
So, that makes these late comers really living on the edge don't it.
Look what was at the CDC conference in May of 2000 - 12 years ago that was discussed and now it is in Wiki!!!
The day is moving closer - for them to eat their words.
Macrophagic myofasciitis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Macrophagic Myofasciitis, or MMF, is a rare muscle disease identified in 1993. The disease is characterized by microscopic lesions found in muscle biopsies that show infiltration of muscle tissue by PAS-positive macrophages.[1] Specific causes of MMF are unknown, but the disease is most often associated with the pathological persistence of aluminium hydroxide used in some vaccines. Clinical symptoms include muscle pain, joint pain, muscle weakness, fatigue, fever, and muscle tenderness. A diagnosis can only be identified with an open muscle biopsy of the vaccinated muscle.
Posted by: Benedetta | December 08, 2012 at 02:06 PM
@ Lou you wrote: "And yes, when the truth really hits, such people will have black marks on their records. Although they will likely say they were deceived."
My friend, it may be possible for the "wrong when it really matters" crowd to claim they were deceived .. however .. career public health "experts" and the bureaucracies (CDC, NIH, IOM, FDA, etc) they represent .. cannot claim THEY were deceived .. because .. quite frankly .. it was THEY who orchestrated the deception of the people for at least two decades now.
These "experts" ought not be confused with the "useful idiots" they managed to deceive .. and .. THEY must be held to a higher standard .. perhaps .. at the very highest levels .. criminal charges for violating their "oath" of office.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | December 08, 2012 at 01:51 PM
Seriously... AOA or Safeminds should have a link to the Most Wanted Vaccine Injury Denialists. You should post the stupid things they say, the number of times you have challenged them to debate their comments, and challenge them to read all the studies showing links. They won't stop unless they aren't feeling stupid about their actions. It would make them think before they write... even if they are being paid.
Posted by: billie joe | December 08, 2012 at 12:03 PM
Culpable degenerate pseudoscientists---the world (like sheep) embraces them (CDC, AAP) as "health" experts when they are actually contributing to humanity's self destruction.
Posted by: Stand Up! | December 08, 2012 at 11:49 AM
A quick search brings up two interesting things: Daddy is a congressman and she appears to have attended the same "go to print first, fact check later" school of journos as Seth Mnookin.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/rush-limbaugh-washington-post-alexandra-petri_n_1332686.html
Posted by: I ain't no fortunate one | December 08, 2012 at 10:55 AM
It is amazing how little work people do these days.
This pundit chuckle head is yet another in the long line of lazy thinkers that seems to get jobs rehashing the company line. I call such people "regurgitators" (and if this spelled incorrectly, it works even better as they don't deserve any better).
And yes, when the truth really hits, such people will have black marks on their records. Although they will likely say they were deceived.
Posted by: Louis Conte | December 08, 2012 at 10:40 AM
I, too, indulge in this "guilty pleasure." It is a kind of premature schadenfreude, contemplating the historical legacy of these criminal scientists, bureaucrats, and yes men. Won't the children and grandchildren of Offit, Deer, Thorsen, Reibel, Boyle, Gorsky, McCormick, Mnookin, Verstraeten, etc. be so proud. And thanks to the Web, their deceit will be easy to replay, down to the nastiest details. I think about my lifetime legacy often. They must not be thinking so much of theirs- too much money and temporary glory to contemplate their cog-like parts in this evil web. I hope to see some of their comeuppances in my lifetime.
Posted by: La Playa | December 08, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Each of these people should be challenged. Ask her to provide the countless studies she is talking about,,, and if she is smart enough to understand them, have her stand by them in debate. These people have it too easy. They are paid to spew crap they don't understand, and no one challenges them. Challenge her, Dan! Challenge her to a debate. And if she says no, then she goes on a Most Wanted List for people who are hurting children by not reading and understanding what they write about. Seriously,... It's the only way to make them actually think. MAKE HER THINK AND UNDERSTAND WHAT SHE WRITES. Else we are all fools for standing by and letting it happen. Call her on it.
Posted by: billie joe | December 08, 2012 at 10:10 AM
"Countless studies"?
She couldn't even be bothered to count them because she would have had to use her toes.
Posted by: Carol | December 08, 2012 at 08:52 AM
Dan
I remember the rumour factory in the British media prior to Deer's false allegations in late 2003-2004. Every blessed little columnist had "inside information" and were putting whispery hints into their copy - doing it because they were being paid or patted on the head by someone. You cannot of course tell whether the sneering Petri understands what she is doing or just indulging in childish group think, but whichever way she should be ashamed of herself.
John
PS Of course, the standard quackbuster technique of comparing a perfectly reasonable concern with a silly one.
Posted by: John Stone | December 08, 2012 at 06:37 AM