I am sorry Kim, some times you wonder if it is worth the aggravation.

Chris;
In 1978 I sat in a class and listen to my professor tell us how mistaken and ignorant those parents were. I agreed with him. I thought why can't they see.

And then I got to witness what those parents were talking about for myself. Sigh.

Oh, and by the way; my microbiology professor; he was also moonlighting for Merck.

Since it is the Christmas season a quote from the Bible seems appropriate. -

So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but 'in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.'"

In my case the scroll is that so called corrupted science, my education; and it was so very sweet when I first ate it.

Same to you Chris.

As a parent of a child with autism, your anti-science, illogical arguments are a slap in the face to every child who needs help and has organizations like this hijacked by you anti-science nut jobs.

Please go back to the birther controversy or 9/11 truthing or whatever you did before this and stop stealing funding from kids with autism who need help.

But yes; what is given to her - pays for her time to lobby.

Oh, so that's why she's writing pro-vax letters to judges in Minnesota! We might call her a lobbyist, then, I suppose. Apparently a fair number of those "altruistic" parents in Voices for Vaccines are in the health care professions (So says their website). Thank you, John, Benedetta, Mercky Business.

I know what you mean Chistina
Why in the heck would a woman join, volunteer her time to an organization that is as well funded, backed by everything coming and going-- I guess it is better than serving soup down at the homeless shelter, even though it is a time waster.

I guess it is a hobby, and she likes the people, maybe it is kind of like a social club.

Look what the "Voices for Vaccines" website says about MMR (on the "Vaccines, MMR" link. "MMR vaccine can cause a mild rash or fever. Rarely, children who develop a fever may have a febrile seizure, which does not lead to later seizure disorders. Although a now discredited British physician accused the MMR vaccine of causing autism, his study has been deemed fraudulent and extensive studies have fully absolved the vaccine. MMR vaccine does not cause autism." http://www.voicesforvaccines.org/vaccines/#MMR

So much for truth and science! No link to www.callousdisregard.com ! (Another fun page on Facebook is "Things Anti-vaxers Say.") People have to understand that the CDC has completely sold out our interests. It should no longer be receiving public money. Let the vaccine industry pay for its own advertising.

"Alan R. Hinman is the director of programs at the Center for Vaccine Equity at The Task Force for Global Health."

AND one of those Task force parts is - "The Vaccines for Children program — a federal entitlement program "

"Voices for Vaccines have on their board Alan R. Hinman, Director for Programs, Center for Vaccine Equity at the Task Force for Global Health"

"Task Force for Global Health state that they are partners with the CDC."

Judge it Brother!

Meanwhile :

" The Task Force for Global Health revenue includes private donations from corporations"

What kind of corporations?

Oh, come on -- what kind of corporations --?

Now don't that give a good opportunity for money under the table.

But it is okay, it is even a good thing because Reiss wrote a paper explaining all this.

John:

The Task Force for Global Health revenue includes private donations from corporations, according to this: “The sources of The Task Force revenues include contracts, grants, and private donations from individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies.” See http://www.taskforce.org/publications/fy2012-annual-report-task-force-global-health

The Task Force for Global Health has a net worth value of 35 million dollars and most of this is in cash or cash equivalents, according the 2012 financial statement linked here: http://www.taskforce.org/financial-documents .

The Voices for Vaccines is a “project” of the Task Force for Global Health, according to this: “The Task Force [For Global Health] project, Voices For Vaccines, addresses questions about vaccines.”

http://www.taskforce.org/our-work/projects/voices-vaccines .

"...this blog post and now the comments accompanying it seem like little more than character assassination via insinuation."

That's rich. Fanatics, sometimes in gangs, literally stalk concerned citizens and parents and grandparents of sick children that are telling their stories and sharing information, not with respectful, constructive, sympathetic comments as one would expect in a civilized society. The fanatic's modus operandi is to launch brutal personal attacks, discredit the speaker and confuse the issue by twisting the facts (if they even bother to respond to the argument - most times the person is just bullied and ridiculed relentlessly). Above all, the goal is to shut down the conversation as soon as possible, wherever found. Any health care professional who questions (and the list is growing by the minute) is called a quack (sound familiar?).

And you have the nerve to claim that the intelligent and civilized factual article and comments here constitute the character assassination of Dorit Reiss? After the disgusting viscous attack launched against Jenny McCarthy in the past 2 weeks? Are you for real? Please, find a mirror and look in it.

Karen Ernst

I am grateful for the elucidation, but this blogpost has been very engaged with Prof Reiss's arguments, as indeed I previously was when I challenged her in the Jewish Press and my comments were taken down. And you stated in your original response that I had not addressed her ideas when actually that is exactly what I did do, and it was you who moved the debate onto the subject of money, a strategy used again by EW Modemac. Of course, her social and professional connections with insitutions which exemplify her beliefs is relevant whether or not she is paid.

Frankly, it would be naieve to regard the pharmaceutical companies as philanthropic institutions who should be allowed to call the shots (so to speak) but this is apparently exactly what Prof Reiss believes, and when she acts as an advocate for the status quo, the captive market, the absence of liability, the absence of active monitoring, the ever growing schedule, the sneering public hostility to anyone who doubts the government-pharmaceutical machine, then it is absolutely right to point it out and examine it. The probability - in the history of human institutions - is that if you remove all the checks and balances you will get uncharted damage.

Let it be said I am in favour of old-fashioned courtesy - something our community has been continually denied, and I was denied (for example) when my comments were removed in the Jewish Press. And I am also in favour of old fashioned government responsibilty which has been utterly dismantled, and now justified with superficial arguments by Dorit Reiss.

Benedetta, looking at the presentations for the 2011 CDC National Immunization Conference poster and exhibit site (this was the 45th National Immunization Conference), it appears that the watchdog has always been too close and cozy with the industrial machinery. See https://cdc.confex.com/cdc/nic2011/webprogram/meeting.html

The revolving door between the CDC and vaccine companies has to make it almost impossible for any CDC whistleblower to speak out. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Gerberding . Poul Thorsen is still at large and both the press and the CDC are silent. See https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/profiles.asp .

It is difficult to tell the difference between the regulator and the regulated. Congress must stop the CDC from “working with the industry” and start working for the citizens that pay CDC’s budget (9.2 billion dollars for fiscal year 2008). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention .

Jim Thompson:
What you quoted is just plain crazy talk, of a bunch of people that used fear to cover up common sense.
My husband worked for years in polymer research chemist, and as far as I am concern hangs the moon.
He was astonished to find out that the reason for not being able to sue was to make sure the vaccine manufacturers could continue to make the same product that hurt his son.

As a researcher his response to protecting vaccines is that - they insure that they will not be safe, will never be safe, and they have stifled all research toward anything but profit.

E.W "COURAGEOUS ANTI-VACCINE CRUSADERS."

Thankyou for the compliment .....its exactly how I see it .

We are the ones trying to save the children ...from noxious poisonous vaccines .

E.W.Modemac

I am afraid you are trolling. It was Karen Ernst (below) who raised the issue of whether Prof Reiss was being paid, but oddly as an executive of Voices for Vaccines she would have been in a position to deny it if it was not so - she might have written "I would like to clarify that Prof Reiss is entirely uncompensated for her advocacy" but she didn't - instead she opened the issue which I had not addressed.

Secondly, of course, you are trying to distract from the issue of legitimising agency capture which seems to be Prof Reiss's project, and it is a very troubling one - although something of a technicality given the realities of the situation.

Thirdly, it is an absurd claim that Age of Autism - or many other people in our movement - have not perpetually addressed the inadequacy science in CDC studies as well as the conflicts (not that that is not a proper concern). Actually, by and large we have paid more attention to the unconvincing quality of the studies than the funding, though when the coordinator of CDC Aarhus studies was indicted for financial fraud it did not escape our notice. Saying something has been said about Prof Reiss somewhere on Facebook or Amazon is beside the point.

Finally, I continue to regard it as unimpressive that when I challenged Prof Reiss in the Jewish Press about matters of substance on which she had commented my comments were simply removed.

Perhaps - even now - she would do better to come out and defend herself rather than leave it in the hands of bunglers.

John, you quoted from the wiki web site for the Task Force: “The organization is based in Decatur, Georgia, near our partners at CDC, The Carter Center, CARE, and Emory University Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.”

Here is an example of what one of the vaccine companies said at the 2011 CDC National Immunization Conference poster and exhibit site, and where the “CDC partner” was the registrar:

“To ensure the safe, secure, and reliable provision of vaccines, the economic interests of the vaccine industry must be considered by public health policy makers.” See “Vaccine Costs and Manufacturer Profits: What Is the Right Balance?” https://cdc.confex.com/cdc/nic2011/webprogram/Paper25169.html

This “tribute” approach was addressed by Sjostrom and Nilsson in 1972: “It seems that the pharmaceutical industry does not wish to recognize the fact that the main impetus for the running of the pharmaceutical industry, like any other type of industry … is profit.” See “Thalidomide and the Power of the Drug Companies,” (1972), p. 176.

Well, it looks that this Dorit is a crypto pharma lobbyist and she is just doing her thing - spreading the terrorist vaccine propaganda and attacking the parents,who want to protect their children from vaccine injury and death.

Yes, an excellent portrayal of how anti-vaxxers think. Dorit has a genuine education and knows how to present a logical, scientifically based argument rather than outlandish conspiracy theories and scare stories: therefore she MUST BE PAID BY THE EVIL VACCINE INDUSTRY TO ATTACK COURAGEOUS ANTI-VACCINE CRUSADERS.

I'm not a fan of Galbraith, but that quote is right on, and is even more prescient today. The new administration's "hope and change" are consolidating more wealth and power into the suck-up industries, like finance, pharma, and more. Just wait until Obamacare gets the full stranglehold, and there will no longer be freedom to refuse shots. We'll have to wait a century for the next Nuremberg trials.

"Industry usually has information no one else has, and has more incentive to give that information to a friendly regulator."

That's sort of the problem in a nutshell, isn't it, Dorit?

John, in regards to the “captive agency phenomena” look at the Task Force for Global Health press release “Task Force is Registrar for CDC's National Immunization Conference (NIC) [2011],” See http://www.taskforce.org/press-room/press-releases/national-immunization-conference-registration-now-open , (from page 3 of press releases).

Then go to the 2011 CDC National Immunization Conference poster and exhibit site “Achieving Monumental Vaccine Coverage.” Notice how the images of icons of the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Memorial, and the Pentagon are used to promote industry products (flu vaccines). See https://cdc.confex.com/cdc/nic2011/webprogram/meeting.html and https://cdc.confex.com/cdc/nic2011/webprogram/Paper25483.html .

Also look at https://cdc.confex.com/cdc/nic2011/webprogram/Session11587.html and the poster “Vaccine Stakeholder Involvement In the National Vaccine Plan: How Involvement and Deliberation of Stakeholders Can Help Inform and Influence Vaccine Policy.”

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services employee describes stakeholders: “Stakeholders included: state and local public health officials, vaccine manufacturers, academia, advocacy organizations, philanthropic groups, health care providers, and the public.”

The CDC management staff has no qualms in allowing industry representatives to perform work that should be done by federal employees with no conflict of interest. After all, Julie Gerberding went from the director of the CDC to “president of Merck's Vaccine division.” See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Gerberding .

http://www.healio.com/pediatrics/news/print/infectious-diseases-in-children/%7Bb3a8c7e2-d6a2-4931-9c66-5a3fef429932%7D/gaps-closing-in-immunization-coverage-rates-

Sorry that is kind of long link.

But the article is called:

Closing the Gaps in Immunizations Coverage Rates

And

Here is a quote of three paragraphs in that long article that starts out with CDC worrying about the whites are covered really good, but other ethnic groups are not.

So they got the

"Despite a report from the Department of Health and Human Services that stated “the majority of Healthy People 2010 objectives for early childhood vaccination coverage were met by the end of 2010,” opportunities remain to reach those people who continue to fall through the immunization cracks, according to the CDC panel.

The Vaccines for Children program — a federal entitlement program that provides vaccine at no cost for eligible children — has been effective in reducing potential gaps in coverage levels resulting from poverty status and should be discussed in clinicians’ offices as an effective tool for assisting families who want their children to receive the recommended Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vaccines.

“School immunization requirements have increased pressure on parents and the VFC program has helped assure that financing is not a barrier to immunizations,” said Alan R. Hinman, MD, MPH, who is director for programs at the Center for Vaccine Equity at The Task Force for Global Health. “When you combine those factors with an enthusiastic core of providers, that’s how you ensure success.”

Now me as an individual --I am sure my money would be accepted by the federal government -- but why should I -- since I am already giving.

Oh, I could give more.

Also in the Minnesota Department of Health evidence bin is this borrowed quote leveraged by immunization head Kris Ehresmann:
..."As Dorit Reiss wrote, 'The fact that a parent believes a child’s problems stem from a vaccine is relevant, but often not sufficient, especially when the research goes the other way.'”
(2nd to last paragraph)
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/immunize/immrule/mdhresponse.pdf

To what "research" does Reiss refer? Made-up statistics? No one is physically examining vaccine injury victims.

By the way, Kris Ehresmann's son has "autism." It would be interesting to confirm rumors that he had a vaccine adverse reaction.

And is the autism rate in public health workers is higher than the rest of the population?

I wouldn't take much credence in anything Dorit or Karen say. They belong to a horribly antagonistic and vile group known as the Anti-Vax Wall of Shame.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AVWOS/members/

Their only purpose is to ridicule and troll sites of parents of vaccine injured children. They use such high-minded scientific terms like "Dear Anti-vax F$#&nugget" and "so and so is a c%#&." Real paragons of science and open discussion there.

Karen and Dorit have no interest in discussing things rationally. They are simply bullies and hypocrites, who will now run back to their AVWOS and whine about how mean everyone is being to them.

I first encountered Dorit Rubenstein several months ago, on my Amazon review of Melanie's Marvelous Measles. Last week she was called in to the Atlantic Jenny McCarthy hit article to try to counter my comments, since Stacy Herlihy wasn't doing a very good job. When Dorit went on about how dangerous measles was, I posted a link to the Royal Health statistics on measles fatalities being only between one and two per ten thousand sick with measles, she admitted it was true that measles deaths in the UK were much lower than in the US, but since, as she contends, the MMR is perfectly safe, any deaths or damage resulting from the disease are unacceptable. She said that she had read Callous Disregard, and thought the parents involved really believed that their children's autism and bowel disease starting within days or weeks of the MMR were sincere, but mistaken. An honest person would not deny categorically reams of evidence of the dangers of the MMR, and all I can say is that she is more literate, civil, and better-educated than most of those employed for this purpose.

From : http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/destabilizing-the-jenny-mccarthy-public-health-industrial-complex/277695/#comments
"And as I already said - my comments seem to be disappearing - the British figures are lower, though as I mentioned, the U.S. ones are in the one per thousand. I do not know why - not enough information. But those are still preventable deaths, and do not include one in a thousand encephalitis (compared to less than one per million with the vaccine), pneumonia, deafness. You brought not credible evidence that the vaccine is in any way dangerous - and yet you want to just let these people die or be disabled."

Reiss is hard to take seriously, especially when she makes statements like "Industry usually has information no one else has, and has more incentive to give that information to a friendly regulator." She reveals a lack of real world experience. My decades of real world experience has taught me the exact opposite. Ever hear of a bank president excitedly sharing information with the bank examiner during an audit? Even better, ever hear of a pharma company sharing their negative results with the FDA/CDC? Me neither.

Assuming taxpayer dollars pay her salary, it appears a wasteful use of those precious dollars. She'd feel better about herself, possibly even less angry, if she didn't allow herself to be used by Offit and his posse.

Opppps, on my list; I forgot mandatory for attending schools.

Oh silly me

Excellent fighting here John . You have my full respect for the way the jewish press has had to censor those unpleasant facts they would like to hide away . In particular .....bringing up my favourite Julie Gerberding was forced to admit that vaccines could trigger autism, although this has been conveniently forgotten: “….. if you’re predisposed with the mitochondrial disorder, it [vaccination] can certainly set off some damage. Some of the symptoms can be symptoms that have characteristics of autism.”.

John, in regards to the statement: “Industry usually has information no one else has, and has more incentive to give that information to a friendly regulator. Furthermore, working with industry can substantially improve the impact of regulation; voluntary compliance is cheaper and can be more effective than enforced compliance, and industry can help regulators minimize negative unintended consequences.”

This is nonsense. This timeless form of corruption is likely a problem with most of our federal agencies. It is described by Bobby Kennedy Jr. as “captive agency phenomena…the dynamic by which the regulatory agencies become captured by the industries they’re supposed to regulate.” See http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/06/post-1.html .

So imagine an infamous industry scientist that had “more incentive to give that information to a friendly regulator” and then played “Catch Me if You Can” with the FBI and the US Department of Justice.

Or just look up “Poul Thorsen” at https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/fugitives/profiles.asp

and

http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/12/poul-thorsen-called-industry-scumbag-scientist-and-mercury-shill.html .

Voices for Vaccines has as its fiscal agent The Task Force for Global Health. They take in our donations and cut checks for us. Many non-profits who are too small to handle their own 501(c)3 status use fiscal agents in this way; it's quite common. We have absolutely no access to their money, nor do we benefit from their money. Voices for Vaccines is not tied to any pharmaceutical corporation or to any government organization. Thus far, all of our donations have been small and have come from individuals. Thus, the dots you have connected paint an incorrect picture. When all you have left is the Pharma Shill gambit, it's plain that you really have no argument. This article would have been far more interesting had you actually addressed the ideas in Ms. Reiss' article. Instead, you chose to sling mud, and you did so without even bothering to fact check.