Vermont Public Radio   

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, Vermont had the highest opt-out rate for kindergartners in New England at more than five percent for the 2012 and 2013 school years. Maine came in second. New Hampshire and Massachusetts had much lower opt-out rates.

Recently, vaccination rates in some of the toniest neighborhoods in Los Angeles made national news for being lower than Southern Sudan. In some LA schools, 60 to 70 percent of parents have filed personal belief exemptions.

The reason for these personal belief exemptions can range from fears that vaccines cause autism, contain harmful chemicals, and prove less effective than immunity gained from community exposure. All of these claims have been largely scientifically disproven

 I posted five comments. This is Vermont....home of a lot of independent thinkers.

New York Times

Last month The Hollywood Reporter published an illuminating investigation on immunization trends in Los Angeles County, which revealed that vaccination rates on the city's wealthy west side, in neighborhoods like Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, had plummeted, as incidents of whooping cough surged. The piece had the virtue of offering New Yorkers yet another opportunity to feel smugly superior to their counterparts in L.A., because of course here on the East Coast we like our science to come from scientists, not from former Playboy models and people who feel entitled to pontificate about public health because they drink kefir.

The rhetoric here is scary.  Parents shouldn't be allowed to chose not to vaccinate.  According to the vaccine zealots, the health of Americans depends on vaccinating our children.  

What other medical product or procedure is so universally promoted and defended?  There are so many holes in this story, so many things not covered, that it should be on the editorial page. 

Ginia Bellafonte gives us Eula Biss, the Hollywood Reporter, and several vaccine supporters, including doctors, all sounding an alarm about unvaccinated children.  On the other side is this shadowy entity made up of non- vaccinating parents, referred to as "anti-vaxxers." 

We don't hear from any of them and there's nothing here telling us WHY THEY'RE NOT VACCINATING.  All we really learn is that they are WRONG WRONG WRONG....and dangerous.

The biggest worry surrounding vaccines concerns the link to the autism epidemic, now affecting one in every 68 children, but it isn't even mentioned in this story.  Is the Times afraid to bring up autism?

I've seen a number of stories citing those parents in Orange County schools who don't vaccinate--50, 60 and greater percent in some schools---SO WHY DON'T WE EVER HEAR FROM ANY OF THEM?  What, are they invisible?  I'm waiting for some reporter to actually talk to any of them.  (They don't need to use their names and it would really add to the discussion.) 

This controversy only gets worse because the media refuses to cover both sides of the issue.  In the real world, parents know that the government has recognized vaccine injury that included autism for the last 20 years in the federal compensation program, at the same time they deny there's link.  They also know that there are plenty of independent doctors and scientists who do believe that an unchecked, unsafe vaccine schedule is harming our children.  They also know that neither the doctor nor the vaccine maker has any liability for vaccine side effects.  What incentive is there to produce a truly safe product?

I posted a comment.

TIME

To own the argument you've got to own the language. At the moment, the dangerous anti-vaxxers are winning that war

And on [Ronan Farrow's] Oct. 10 show he deftly filleted the arguments of a vocal anti-vax mother whose child is undeniably suffering from a number of illnesses, but who wrong-headedly blames them on vaccines. In this show as in others he invites his audience to learn the truth about vaccines and to connect with him and one another via the handle #VaccineDebate.

It’s true too that the court has paid out about $2.8 billion to parents and families since 1989, but those awards are overwhelmingly for relatively minor side effects that are fully disclosed by the ostensibly secretive CDC for any parents caring to look on the agency’s website.

I think Kluger is incorrigible.  He's ruthless in what he says about Lisa Goes and what happened to her son. He's angry about social media and thus he had to slam Farrow for telling people to use it.  Kluger's description of the Vaccine Court is totally false, but he has to do this.  Things are falling apart as OUR VOICES ARE BEING HEARD.  Therefore, Kluger has to talk about the whistleblower, the VICP, Vaccine Injury Month.  It really won't stop people from learning the truth.  The mainstream media isn't what it used to be.

SharylAttkisson.com

A Michigan toddler has become the sixth patient to die of Enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68) in the past two months. Madeline Reid was just 21-months old when she passed away at Children's Hospital of Michigan Friday afternoon. A hospital official says the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed her EV-D68 infection after she arrived at the hospital for advanced medical care.

According to the latest update from CDC, at least 691 people in 46 states have been sickened with the respiratory illness that can cause paralysis from mid-August through October 10. The outbreak is likely more widespread than reported since some states are not lab testing all respiratory illnesses to confirm. Most cases are said to be mild.

My comment:

On the CDC website:  "Children with asthma may have a higher risk for severe respiratory illness caused by EV-D68 infection." 

Mar 25, 2014, WebMD: Asthma in Children: Symptoms and Risk Factors

"Asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness in children. It affects more than one of every 10 children in the U.S., and, for unknown reasons, it is steadily increasing."

If, as the CDC tells us, children with asthma are more susceptible to EV-D68 and the asthma rate is 10 percent of U.S. children, we have a lot to worry about.  Why is the news predominantly about Ebola?  When are officials going to be alarmed about this epidemic?

The Buffalo News 

Fear No. 2: Autism

The rate of autism went up around the same time more kids started getting vaccinated - there must be a connection, right?

Nope. The only study that linked autism with vaccinations has been disproven - and even found to be fraudulent, yet many parents believe that there is an unproven link.

"The total number of children diagnosed with autism has increased," Brady said. "But also the total number of children diagnosed with 'mental retardation' has gone down. We're not seeing autism more, but rather, we were probably incorrectly diagnosing autism as mental retardation in the past."...

Michael T. Brady, chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Infectious Diseases and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, eases our fears.

Actually Brady gives us false claims and only one side of the issue.  Doctors like him have obviously not looked into this.  All he can give us are tired clichés.

He says that ONLY ONE STUDY EVER LINKED VACCINES AND AUTISM.  He doesn't mention.... there's never been a study on the cumulative effect of our out-of-control vaccine schedule and parents can't sue over damage.  And the absurd claim of diagnostic substitution has been tried before---but there's no proof.  Believe me if it could be shown that all these kids just used to be called retarded, it would be lead story on every network and newspaper.

I posted four comments. 

WRAL Raleigh, NC:

Raleigh, N.C. - Nearly 4,000 participants showed their support for individuals with autism Saturday morning, raising more than $315,000 in the 16th annual Triangle Run/Walk for Autism in downtown Raleigh.

The event included competitive and noncompetitive events, and gave families a chance to celebrate autism awareness. Many teams wore matching t-shirts, carried homemade signs and enjoyed music, vendors and special entertainment.

In North Carolina, one in 58 children will be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorder. Proceeds form the event stay in the state, funding local programs, officials said.

I have no words for this.  This is the standard story in April, Awareness month, but we're also seeing it here................

Happy, running kids celebrating autism awareness.  What is that all about?  What exactly are they celebrating?  A disorder with no known cause or cure overwhelms a generation of children and officials just don't care.  A generation of children is ages into adulthood with nowhere to go.  An epidemic will eventually bankrupt this nation. ...Insane.

Maybe we should ask parents like Michelle Guppy if they want to join in the celebration.

Financial Post

Our bodies have changed in the last generation, making us more susceptible than we were a scant few decades ago

Something's happening to our bodies and we don't know what it is. At the same time that we're living longer and seemingly stronger, we're also becoming surprisingly vulnerable.

A striking example of our new vulnerability involves the smallpox vaccine, which a generation ago was universally administered - credited with eradicating smallpox, this was seen as a safe vaccine whose serious side effects were infrequent. Today this same vaccine is no longer seen as safe, not because it has changed but because we have.

"Thirty percent of the population has a contraindication to receiving the current vaccine," says Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group, which makes us susceptible to dangerous complications such as encephalitis and heart attacks. The risk to us from this once tried-and-true vaccine, explains Dr. Poland, has become "higher than the risk of exposure to the wild virus." To protect against a possible terrorist attack using smallpox, the U.S. government has funded Poland's team - leaders in the field - to develop a new smallpox vaccine that won't put so many at risk.

Another incredible piece by Lawrence Solomon...That opening statement can't be ignored...."Our bodies have changed in the last generation..." 

I left a comment:
Thank you for this piece.  What is especially concerning is the declining health of our children.  Thirty years ago we did not have schools filled with children with diabetes, seizure and sleep disorders, bowel disease, learning disabilities, autism, allergies, asthma and more.  Nowhere is there any call for action.  Dr. Stephanie Seneff at MIT announced this past summer that at the present rate of increase, by 2025, the U.S. autism rate will be one in every two children.  Where is the alarm?  We are well on our way to being a nation of the chronically ill and disabled.


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.