Dachel Media Update: Measles, God, Autism
August 21, 2013, Fort Worth (TX) Star Telegram: Copeland's church finds hope in vaccinations
August 21, 2013, Newson6, Tulsa, OK: After Texas Outbreak, Tulsa Doctor Says Measles Will Make Way To Oklahoma
August 21, 2013, KWWL-TV Waterloo, IA: "Vaccines do not cause autism." Local doctor sounds off on latest wave of criticism
Fort Worth (TX) Star Telegram
"After 50 years in ministry, Kenneth Copeland is now preaching for emergency vaccinations.
His church worried over a sudden measles outbreak, the elder statesman of American televangelists has delivered a bold message that left no doubt.
"With Tarrant County residents from age 4 months to 44 suffering, Copeland wrote to Eagle Mountain International Church worshippers telling them the Lord wants them to pray and be thankful for vaccinations the way they would for food.
"Copeland, 76, wrote that God is telling worshippers to "take advantage of what I have provided for you in Jesus' Name."
"For an evangelist who preached as recently as four years ago that parents should be skeptical and "don't take the word of the guy who's giving the shot," it was a noble turn away from doubt and fear.
Copeland even quoted 1 Timothy 4, framing vaccinations as a "creature of God . sanctified by the word of God and prayer."
"Dozens of worshippers lined up for immunizations Sunday.
"Most of the county measles cases involve infants, children and adults who were never vaccinated, county health officials said Tuesday."
When this guy retires from the ministry, he should consider being pharma rep. I posted comments.
This smacks of the 2009 LA Times article where a rabbi was quoted saying, 'To vaccinate is a religious obligation. To refuse protection for a serious disease is a sin.'
Newson6, Tulsa, OK
"Keller said some parents are also worried about a study linking the measles vaccine to autism.
"'There's been many, many, many studies after that, which do not show that same link,' Keller said."
KWWL-TV Waterloo, IA
"Say the words vaccine and autism in the same sentence, and you will get a firestorm of response.
"A new article is circulating social-media with the headline: 'Courts quietly confirm MMA Vaccine causes autism.'
"'Vaccines do not cause autism,' said Dr. Angela Townsend, Covenant Medical Center."
Poor Dr. Townsend. She keeps on saying it, but parents just don't believe it. I posted comments.
"'Vaccines do not cause autism,' said Dr. Angela Townsend"
"Only YOU can prevent forest fires in your child's brain and body." Smokey Bear
Posted by: Lou | August 26, 2013 at 01:48 PM
Visitor
You have made some fine contributions.
John
Posted by: John Stone | August 26, 2013 at 01:24 PM
"Certainly scary - as a very small child - to be standing in line waiting for people to stick needles in you.
Yes, it was me fearful in line.
Sorry I have been an asshole at times John. You are mature intelligent fellow.
Posted by: Visitor | August 26, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Stephanie thanks for telling us what happened to you.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 26, 2013 at 09:54 AM
Vicky Hill:
Thanks for the background on this.
Copeland statement that the Bible santifies vaccines -- sounds like my professors, and my daughter's professors at the big universities.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 26, 2013 at 09:52 AM
Hi Stephanie,
Memory elides all sorts of things, particularly if you were three and it was 50 years ago. In 1963 you would likely have been given Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, just possibly Smallpox and just possibly the first very dodgy Measles shot (which had to be withdrawn). Certainly scary - as a very small child - to be standing in line waiting for people to stick needles in you.
John
Posted by: John Stone | August 26, 2013 at 04:32 AM
Just my opinion, I wouldn't lump in Copeland with God. Religion? Yes. God? No. And if things are getting so bad for the government that they have to use a religious organization to pressure people to get their vaccinations, you know something is wrong.
I remember getting ton of shots, they made us line up at the kindergarten center prior to being able to go there.
And I immediately started coming down with everything they supposedly vaccinated me for plus Scarlett Fever. It almost killed me.
My poor mom and I were quarantined for an entire year! There was a delivery boy that brought stuff to us and left them at the bottom of the stairs.
I had chicken pox, measles, mumps and Scarlett fever after I was vaccinated. The doctors told my mom it gave me asthma and I was out sick at least a third of every school year because of it.
I've always felt I was part of some government experiment...well, some researchers are coming up with results that show that Autism is a genetic mutation.
I honestly wonder sometimes if those scientists they brought here from Nazi Germany didn't just work on mind games like MK Ultra, but also were allowed to do bioengineering experiments on the public and we were the guinea pigs.
I took an Aspergers test and scored 37 of 50. I don't hand flap. I foot flap and sit on my hands or rub my thumb over my fingertips. I'm a serious loner and a multitude of other things that not only applied to me, but my mother as well. And noise drives me to anger, rage and tears and gets worse as I age.
And I'm worse than my mother was. I wish she were alive now so that I can ask her questions.
Scored at the genius level repeatedly all through school. They wanted to send me to College for half a day when I was in 3rd grade. Smart, gifted, talented as they come and dysfunctional.
After praying my rearend off, I was diagnosed with PTSD (MPD), bipolar disorder and neither one of those diagnosis took into account every issue. Until Aspergers and suddenly for the first time in my life I don't have anymore questions and I am comfortable in my own skin. All the questions have been answered except for one.
What/Who caused it? And I keep coming back to this internal belief and certainty that I was a guinea pig.
My grandmother worked for a mental hospital and she told me that they closed down an entire wing of that hospital and did experiments on the patients there. All of them were people who had been dropped off by family members and forgotten about, or didn't have any family at all.
She wasn't allowed in that wing. My grandmother was 32 years older than I am (53) and she told me about that some time when I was in my teens. I don't know what years those experiments took place or even if they stopped. But I know that every time my grandmother talked about it, she teared up like she was getting ready to cry. She was so worried about those people and yet she too scared to do anything about it.
Posted by: Stephanie | August 26, 2013 at 02:59 AM
Who Knows? wrote:
"the "science" bloggers will actually start thinking, researching, and asking some real questions"
Don't hold your breath. I think it would be more productive to work and hope for accountability in speech, as in scientific and health claims, stated as indisputable fact and not as opinion, must be verifiable or the speaker should face stiff penalties outside of a court of law (in other words without the costs of litigation), stiffest if the speaker is one charged with overseeing and protecting public health. Parents of vaccine damaged children awarded compensation by the courts are warned to be quiet, while the public is lied to. This has to stop. I have no problem with opinions, no matter how outrageous they may seem, as long as they are presented as opinions and not fact, and as long as people are free to decide what they will or will not accept or believe.
Posted by: Linda | August 25, 2013 at 12:57 PM
This Fort Worth Star-Telegram article left out an important fact that most locals have already heard on the news: ALL of the current measles cases are associated with his church. An adult came back from a mission trip to Indonesia, unknowingly coming down with measles, and spread it among the 1,500 member congregation. Quite a number of the church members choose not to vaccinate. So the minister was under pressure - from public health officials, from media, and from church members, to stop the outbreak before it grew larger.
But the local media has been over the top about the horrors of a measles outbreak. Even senior citizens have been rushing to get booster shots - and, of course, anyone born before 1969 most likely already had measles and developed lifelong immunity. But panic sells vaccines. (When I was a kid, a case of measles in the neighborhood meant your mom took you over to play with the infected child to make sure that you got the measles and developed that lifelong immunity. Certainly public health wasn't notified and it wasn't on the evening news!)
Posted by: Vicki Hill | August 24, 2013 at 07:19 PM
God works in mysterious ways. Maybe if the evangelists start demanding vaccinations for all as a religious obligation, the "science" bloggers will actually start thinking, researching, and asking some real questions. After a bit of serious investigation, maybe some of those misled by the oracs (or is that orcs?) of the blogosphere might even turn into skeptics in the true sense of the word. One can always hope.
Posted by: Who knows? | August 24, 2013 at 02:24 PM
No stretch Benedetta.
Posted by: Linda | August 24, 2013 at 11:24 AM
Oh vaccines is in that Bible alright - it is called the mark on the hand and forhead and unless you receive it, you can neither buy or sell.
But I could be stretching a old prophecy here and making it fit?
Hmmmm, the worry I have from it everyday -- I may not be going far enough.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 24, 2013 at 07:52 AM
"When this guy retires from the ministry, he should consider being pharma rep."
It seems he already is, on a much deeper, spiritual level.
Posted by: Linda | August 24, 2013 at 03:58 AM
The Bible never uses the word "vaccine" so it's hard to see how they are sanctified by the word of God. The distortion of the Word of God, as portrayed in Matthew 4 is diabolical.
The word "justice" is abundantly used in scripture: God's creatures are to fight for it and cry out to God for it.
Posted by: Caroline McIlhenney | August 23, 2013 at 08:33 PM