Dachel Media Review: Smear Campaign Means Fewer $ to Prevent Wandering Death
By Anne Dachel
Read Anne's commentary and view the links after the jump. The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand.
April 7, 2014, My Fox DC: Chili's cancels fundraiser for anti-vaccine charity
April 7, 2014, Fox News: Father's obesity tied to child's risk for autism
April 7, 2014, Fox News: Chili's cancels fundraiser for anti-vaccine charity
April 7, 2014, USA Today: Chili's cancels autism fundraiser over vaccine issue
April 7, 2014, ABC News: Chili's Nixes Autism Event After Backlash
This was the same print story as Fox Central had (below). They also had a video. I posted comments asking why the media is attacking the autism community.
Paternal obesity may increase a child's risk of developing autism spectrum disorders, MedPage Today reported.
In a study in the journal Pediatrics, researchers studied a cohort of 93,000 children from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Over the course of the study, 419 children were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
Overall, a child born to an obese father had a .27 percent risk of developing ASD while a child born to a normal-weight father had a .15 percent risk. The researchers also noted that children ages 7 and older born to an obese father had double the risk of developing Asperger's disorder.
What a timely story. It's being picked up everywhere. A nice diversion to deflect the link between vaccines and autism.
The NAA has helped support a growing anti-vaccination movement that includes celebrities such as "The View" host Jenny McCarthy. On its website, the NAA says: "The National Autism Association believes vaccinations can trigger or exacerbate autism in some, if not many, children, especially those who are genetically predisposed to immune, autoimmune or inflammatory conditions."
This is despite several creditable studies that show no link between vaccinations and the risk of several neurological conditions, including a study in 2013 that says shots, even on the same day, do not increase the risk of autism. There is "not a causal relationship between certain vaccine types and autism," stated The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So Fox News labels the NAA as "an anti-vaccine charity." Have they even talked to anyone at the National Autism Assoc?
Fox News needs to explain their title of this story. The National Autism Assoc., an organization that has done more to prevent deaths from autistic children wandering than anyone else and has provided help and hope to countless THOUSANDS of families dealing autism, is labeled an "ANTI-VACCINE CHARITY."
Today, TIME Magazine published a piece entitled, Chili's Burns Anti-Vaxxers: That's What Happens When You Kill and Maim Kids. (The title was later edited.)
Why is the media attacking the National Autism Association? Why does Fox News cite them as "anti-vaccine"?
I would like to remind Fox News of their own coverage of the issue of vaccines and autism.
These Fox News reports show that the government has long recognized that vaccination can cause autism.
Dr. Sarah Bridges was on Fox News in 2011 talking about how son developed autism following routine vaccinations. The government agreed and she was awarded a $7 to $8 million settlement for lifetime care.
On Fox News, May 10, 2011, New York University law professor Mary Holland discussed the fact that a stunning report from Pace Law School revealed that for years, parents have won vaccine damage suits resulting in autism in federal court, all the while the government denied doing so.
Should Fox News be called an "anti-vaccine network" because of this coverage?
(I tried to post comments but they were removed by Fox News.)
On its website, the National Autism Association states, "Vaccinations can trigger or exacerbate autism in some, if not many, children, especially those who are genetically predisposed to immune, autoimmune or inflammatory conditions."
However, NAA is not an anti-vaccination organization, said Wendy Fournier, president of the association, in an interview with USA TODAY Network.
"We're not saying vaccines are the cause of autism," Fournier said. "All we're saying on the vaccine issue is, like any other medical decision you make for your family, it should be made with all the information available."
Chili's says it does not take a position on vaccinations.
I posted comments.
Wendy Fournier, president of the National Autism Association, said in a phone interview that she was "shocked" by the backlash and "this group of individuals that is trying to pigeonhole us as anti-vaccine."
Fournier noted that the National Autism Association's doesn't have any programs related to vaccines.
"We haven't even looked at that page - it's been up there for years," she said of the section on the group's site that says vaccines can trigger autism.
"There has always been a lot of debate," Fournier said. "It hasn't been answered whether or not vaccines can cause autism."
For now, she said no changes would be made to the site because that might be criticized as well.
On Saturday, Chili's had earmarked money raised from the event to go specifically toward the group's "Big Red Safety Box" program. The boxes are intended to help autistic individuals who are prone to wandering off and include an identity tag, a safety alert wrist band and door and window alarms.
This was actually impressive. ABC News actually allowed Wendy Fournier to respond and they noted the work that NAA does with ASD children wandering away. I posted comments because Seth Mnookin is clearly WRONG. There is a link. The government says so. The Dachel Media Update is sponsored by Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy and their OurKidsASD brand. Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy is one of the largest and most respected compounding pharmacies in the country. They use only the finest quality chemicals and equipment to prepare our patients’ compounded medications and nutritional supplements. Customizing medication and nutritional supplements for our customers allows them to achieve their unique health goals.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism and author of The Big Autism Cover-Up: How and Why the Media Is Lying to the American Public, which goes on sale this Fall from Skyhorse Publishing.
All these articles on Chili's canceling the NAA fundraiser were pathetic, especially since the fundraiser was for wandering, which is a very serious issue! Seems more press coverage on Japan suspending the HPV vaccine would have been a much more respectable use of their time, yet we've heard hardly a peep from them on this issue. These journalists should be embarrassed! Most of these articles were mean-spirited and cheap, tabloid quality. Disgusting coverage, really.
Posted by: Anne J. | April 09, 2014 at 11:07 PM
Hey Chili's and anyone else who's wondering why in the world the major media outlets are making such a fuss of this. The media is the mouthpiece of the pharmaceutical industry, remember all those ads, all of them that drive you nuts with all the side effects…those ads allow the pharma companies to control the media reporting, and right now pharma companies are in overdrive on the self-protectionism front.
Here’s why the vaccine issue with Chili’s and autism awareness month is such a big deal. It comes down to numbers.
Let's do the math together:
10,000 babies are born in the USA each day.
That's 3,650,000 per year.
The pharma companies (and the media outlets who are funded by and dependent on pharma ad dollars) would prefer that each child born in the US pays for 60+ vaccines.
At 100% vaccine uptake at $10 per vaccine/antigen that translates to:
$2,190,000,000 for the vaccine manufacturer's pipeline each year, and lots and lots of ad dollars for media companies. I'm sure the actual amount is a lot more than that but I’ll use these #'s since they're conservative.
So that's more than $2 billion annually at 100% vaccine uptake.
But, vaccination rates are not that high and in fact they are dropping fast as more parents are increasingly concerned about environmental toxins and chemical/pesticide/heavy metal exposures to their children.
So for every 1% drop in vaccine uptake, the impact on pharma company’s vaccine revenue is a staggering $21,900,000 dollars.
If 5% of parents stopped vaccinating, that's a $109.5 Million hit to the bottom line.
A 10% drop in vaccine uptake hurts to the tune of $210 Million dollars.
Okay, you say, but in the world of pharma finances where the goal is billion dollar annual blockbuster drugs, the vaccine numbers are a relative drop in the bucket.
True, and yes this explains why it really hurts. The delay, selective and non-vax trend represents something extremely pressing and concerning to the pharma industry. And that is the start of a significant dent in the cradle-to-grave marketing strategy for the synthetic chemical medical paradigm.
If parents avoid GMO foods, then they are likely avoid GMO vaccines (most new vaccines are GMO/recombinant vaccines) and if they avoid synthetic foods, they will likely avoid synthetic meds for their children too. As more parents opt for a natural lifestyle, they will forego vaccines AND it would follow, all the standard, synthetic Rx's found in the average American families medicine cabinet.
Insurance companies already know this is a big issue. They see that the most profitable customers in their databases are their non-vaccinating families. They spend the least on healthcare, they have the fewest prescriptions, the fewest chronic illnesses, the least allergies, they don’t take the pricy ADD/ADHD drugs, and they do not vaccinate.
As the natural health and wellness tide rises, it's a serious threat to the medical status quo so much so that you see all these insane responses to events like Chili's support of NAA. Or a few cases of measles in a mostly vaccinated populatioins.
Right now the industry still has a lot of money to pay PR firms, and to build bots and hire bully commenters to conduct their acts of social terrorism. Someday, they will be strapped for cash and the world will be better for it.
I speak from experience – there is nothing in the Walgreen’s pharmacy and nothing in your MD’s cabinet that can’t be replaced with safer, more effective natural remedies.
Seek and ye shall find.
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
-Thomas Jefferson
Posted by: Chili-ing Observations | April 09, 2014 at 10:22 PM
I hope that NAA won't cave on the vaccine-autism causation link. No need to kowtow to these pharma-bought-and-paid-for media people (can't call them journalists or investigative reporters, because they're not). This is the time to be bold and speak the truth, not be hushed by a cut-and-paste, propaganda-filled media campaign.
The lid is off this box...the truth about the dangers and inefficacies of vaccines is out, on the loose, and spreading. Let's keep it that way. Children's health, development, and lives are depending on it.
Posted by: Laura Hayes | April 09, 2014 at 07:11 PM
Thanks major media and chilibots. We'll have to start thanking you each time an autism wandering death happens. I am guessing the next poor child to wander and drown or perish in the cold etc. will be number 62? The mainstream media/chilibot autism wandering death count. Thanks.
Mainstream media you got sucked in bad this time. I have to admit I had already felt let down in fair reporting of the autism/vaccine issue but this kind of dog- piling on NAA is really ignorant when such an important issue as wandering is at hand. You truly are nothing more than pharma's lap dog. Pathetic. I feel truly embarrassed for you as journalists or reporters- they may as well replace you with robots. It might at least be more understandable that way.
Posted by: Chilibots suck | April 09, 2014 at 07:09 PM