The Washington Post Whips Up Fear And Blames Andrew Wakefield
In the US this week we are witnessing the replay of two years ago in the UK. The media whips up hysteria about a few cases of measles – which is usually not a serious illness - and casts Andrew Wakefield in the role of a popular villain who has caused the outbreaks to happen . In order to get a perspective on these events it might not be necessary to recap the career and political trial of Wakefield because actually it would be impossible to locate any point at which he was in a position to influence popular US opinion against the use of MMR vaccine, whereas in the UK there was a famous TV press conference in 1998 when he offered the personal opinion that it might be safer to use single vaccines (an option at the time available through the UK’s National Health Service) rather than the triple vaccine containing three live viruses, measles, mumps and rubella.
All the present hullaballoo is not really about what Wakefield did. It is simply a ploy by a weak government and even weaker mainstream media to distract from the ever growing problem of vaccine damage and the expectation that the “CDC Whistleblower” William Thompson will ultimately give evidence before Congress that the CDC have known all along that MMR can cause autism (which is what Wakefield feared in 1998). People should be concerned about measles like any illness, but they should be even more concerned about the ever increasing certainty of the toxic load on their children from vaccines and the sheer unaccountability of the system which mandates them while protecting the manufacturers for nearly these last 30 years from any litigation. What is really stake is not just a legislative situation which only protects the manufacturers - not the public, not the children – but the fact that the US’s sold out mainstream media will no longer even allow the matter to be discussed. Meanwhile the Supreme Court has pronounced vaccines to be “unavoidably unsafe”. So they will harm you and your children but you have less and less say in the matter.
Worse, we know that the VICP (Vaccine Injury Compensation Program) has actually compensated cases where vaccines have caused autism while keeping the cases sealed so they cannot become legal precedents. HHS HRSA official admitted to both Sharyl Attkisson (at the time reporting for CBS) and David Kirby on Huffington Post:
"The government has never compensated, nor has it ever been ordered to compensate, any case based on a determination that autism was actually caused by vaccines. We have compensated cases in which children exhibited an encephalopathy, or general brain disease. Encephalopathy may be accompanied by a medical progression of an array of symptoms including autistic behavior, autism, or seizures."
While CDC director Julie Gerberding , who later left to become head of Merck’s vaccine division, told CNN of the decision to compensate Hannah Poling:
“….. 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.”
However, the media have become amnesiac and none of them will report today what is matter of public record.
Further, several days into this story with the news media pumping away we have no statement from anywhere that any of the cases are laboratory confirmed. It was discovered some years ago in the UK that only about 1 in 40 reported cases went on to be lab confirmed. A newspaper story of the time (1997) discloses :
"London (Europe Today). – "97.5% of the times that British doctors diagnose measles they are wrong", says a publication of the Public Health Laboratory service. The mistake being made by National Health GP's was found when the services tested the saliva of more than 12,000 children who had been diagnosed as having measles. Roger Buttery, an adviser on transmissible diseases at the Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Department, said that the majority of doctors "say they can recognize measles a mile off, but we now know that this illness occurs only in 2.5% of the cases." Buttery says that doctors classify as measles, many other viruses that also cause spots. He found eight different viruses during the survey in East Anglia. One of them, parvovirus, gives symptoms similar to German measles. The reason for the high rate of error puzzled Buttery. "Doctors are neither vague nor careless," he said. The solution is to defer the diagnosis until more detailed information can be got. There are 5,000 to 6,000 cases of measles registered each year in the United Kingdom, but these findings now call most of them into doubt."
But in the notorious 2013 “measles outbreak” in Swansea, Wales the local health official failed to follow the basic rule of not announcing reported cases as actual cases – in fact I found by consulting official records that at the time when they were claiming more than 400 cases they only had a single one lab confirmed. In the end they admitted to about 200 cases when the media had been running with over a thousand, but it would be reasonable to treat the whole episode with scepticism. Even in the UK it would be stretching a point to argue that Wakefield impacted on these matters greatly. Today in the US, for sure, something is catching like wildfire and it is not measles.
I am afraid that Age of Autism we have been forced to take a long term view of these matters, but in Washington and Atlanta they are trying to create public panic for political ends, and the once great Washington Post is a pathetic sight.
Tom Van Calster;
Hi Tom. I'm glad you are at least coming here to ask questions and get information.
Lots to read here, and of course you could start doing your own research.
Here are some easy places to start if you are not great at research.
but if you are interested in more academic stuff, we can do that for you too.
Ian Gromowski
www.iansvoice.org
Little baby who died following the Hep B vaccine, rest in peace Ian.
The antibody titer law ( Holly's law) passed in New Jersey in 2004. ( NJSA 26:2-N-8_11) It states that a titre can be taken instead of a second dose of the MMR. Named after Holly who died form her second dose of the MMR.
HopeforHolly is a website where Robin Stavola talks about beautiful little Holly's death from encephalopathy caused by the MMR vaccine.. The government admitted liability and compensated them for her death.
May she rest in peace.
Oh, and Fox news has an article on the $7.4 million compensation given to Carolyn Schuttes' husband. She is now bed ridden, unable to speak and requiring in 24 hour care post her vaccinations to go on a trip. Her husband says he is still a "passionate advocate' for vaccines. I wonder if his wife , who can only communicate by blinking now, is just as passionate?
Given that you think all vaccines are safe for everybody, these may be good starting points for you. I'm be interested in your opinions after you do a bit of reading.
All the best,
Hera
By the way John, loved your accurate comment on the shape of the Earth..gave me my first smile of the day.
Posted by: Hera | February 27, 2015 at 01:21 PM
Language Tom, the F word is a very old word and so is Mercury .Mercury you find it in the brains and organs of dead autistic kids...coincidence you find the same Mercury in vaccines ...keep reading on here your more than welcome .
MMR(the vaccine) RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | February 27, 2015 at 12:02 PM
Hi Tom
Don't know about the earth being round. How about an oblate ellipsoid? Vaccines are industrial products full of classified toxic substances and they are injected into infants. Then it is just a matter of hit and run: deny everything if it goes wrong and run hate campaigns against anyone who speaks up.
What you have of course done is play the game of false analogy - the issues are not remotely similar: the safety of vaccines is not a scientific truth, it is a bureaucratic one mantained by techniques of social repression.
Where are we getting our information from? Many places (scientific and official publications included) but by and large we are people whose families have been hit by manifest vaccine injury (and there are lots of us).
Posted by: John Stone | February 27, 2015 at 11:19 AM
Where are you people getting info that vaccines kill children ? How are you all so delusional ? The world is not flat people, its round.
How can anyone with an ounce of critical thought think that vaccines cause ... autism, and kill more than the infectious diseases ? How ? How the fuck can you be so delusional ?
Posted by: Tom Van Calster | February 27, 2015 at 09:49 AM
Dee,
You may have a good doctor, but obviously you don't have any experience with an autism child. Otherwise you would not be as positive about your opinion.
I got the Rubella vaccine when I was pregnant in 1969 before doctors knew that it should not be given to pregnant women. It took 40 years to get over the experience of having that child be damaged. He had an IQ of 20. He did not talk. He walked, but he could not take care of himself, ever. He died in 2010.
Trust me, there are things you don't know about vaccines that I know, and those details are pretty horrific and frankly somewhat disgusting if you really want to get into how even the Salk vaccine was developed. It would be in everybody's best interest to have an open mind. Vaccines have been determined to be "unavoidably unsafe".
It is a shame that the pharmaceutical industry has to resort to its tactics in order to satisfy their bottom line. I am not against vaccines. I am against unsatisfactory adjuvants, and I am against forcing multi-valent vaccines on anybody. Read up on today's drugs and find out what really is being done in the name of medical science. The lack thereof is sometimes frightening. The dark ages are not all history, yet.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | January 26, 2015 at 11:39 AM
@Dee
re: "If you don't believe in the benefits of vaccines, stay home, please home school your child, don't go to public parks or churches or stores or libraries or museums."
I say on the contrary - if you believe in medicinal poisons called vaccines, stay away from normal healthy people, don't go to schools, libraries, parks, etc., because you are a leper and you spread viral or bacterial infections around. In fact, you should be locked away for a month. Obviously , more people are killed and maimed by current vaccines than they are by infectious diseases, although millions of people still get them.
Posted by: no-vac | January 25, 2015 at 01:58 PM
Thank you for putting what's known and not known in perspective. I wonder with the use of attenuated viruses in the MMR if we are sometimes repeatedly exposed to the vaccine viruses, and if that sometimes has a more invisible toll on the health of some (I particularly wonder if there is an unacknowledged risk for the recently-mercury-aluminum-injected infant for instance?).
The only outright case of one of the three (measles, mumps, or rubella) in my neighborhood that I'm aware of was assumed to be a horizontal transmission from the vaccine itself and that case was not exactly publicized. If it is routine to check virus strain involved in an outbreak would a vaccine source for a widely publicized outbreak ever be acknowledged?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | January 25, 2015 at 01:29 PM
In order to maintain profits and decrease risk of liability from past or future injuries, the system does not count or report on adverse events including the tragedy of the rising incidence of autism.
Now, if they could do that to protect their cash cow, it is not a leap to imagine that they wouldn't also throw flares of outbreaks into the crowd, for the purpose of promoting interest in their product, toward the ultimate goal of protecting the bottom line. Fear inhibits the ability to think rationally and makes people easy to manipulate.
Posted by: Linda1 | January 25, 2015 at 01:22 PM
"Why so dramatic all of a sudden?"
Greg,
Waning MMR sales?
Posted by: Linda1 | January 25, 2015 at 01:14 PM
@Cia Parker
Good point Cia! How come so little is known about patient zero, yet we presume they have an accurate read on the cases to justify their hysteria? Also, how come all these disease vectors heading from abroad never seem to infect fellow passengers on the plane? Yes, there is the incubator period of a week or so, but surely by now we should have had some plane infections.
@Danchi
I hear you that the high vaccination rates refute their claim that under-vaccination is causing the outbreaks. Also, what accounts for the abrupt measles increase last year? Is it a case of vaccine failure or waning protection? Why so dramatic all of a sudden?
Posted by: Greg | January 25, 2015 at 12:35 PM
"...I'll stick with my modern medicine, thank you very much.."
*****************
Good luck with that
Posted by: Barry | January 25, 2015 at 11:44 AM
Most of the recent people with measles were not vaccinated, but a minority did get vaccinated (one or both shots).
I would never listen to anything that comes from the La Times. One of the shirrellist (new word) papers in the country. They are equal in repugnancy to the Daily Beast and their pseudo doctor russell simmons. See I've read there still is no official word on the status of the people but they will continue to lie until the number of cases abate than the accurate count will come out in about 6 months. This is when most people will have forgotten about the outbreak, until the CDC/Health dept in California and big pharma need another boogeyman. Look how long it took for the information about who was patient zero in New York- a vaccinated young women to come out. In order to get information from a specific state you have to go to the states health dept. Given the governors stance on vaccines, the states declining vaccination rate which has infuriated the governor and big pharma they have no compulsion to tell the pubic the truth. There is nothing in it for them. The state wants to coerce parents in California to capitulate their potion on vaccines and they especially don't want Hollywood celebrities to put their two cents in because of the influence they may have on the populace. The CDC and pharma are still under the impression that parents follow the path of Jenny McCarty and Andrew Wakefield which is why they constantly invoke their names in every article they write. It's at the point right now that when you read a vaccine article you already know what it's going to say. The bought & paid for people at Daily Beast who have this russell simmons on their payroll treat their readers as morons because every article that has come through this guy/girl has said the same thing. I think he has a template and all he has to do is insert a new date and place because they ran a similar article earlier this year about the NY outbreak.
I don't see the California Health Dept giving measles information to anyone who calls. I'm sure they have been instructed to provide that information to authorized persons and those are the people who can do the government and big pharma the most good. My suggestion is if you are commenting on a blog-don't engage in back & forth comments with others, they are mostly trolls. Post your comments with your sources and leave it at that. People who are genuinely looking for information to try and wade their way through this quagmire will find your post, look up your sources and than make a decision based on what is real and applies to them. I read a report that says parents who are looking for vaccine information don't comment on blogs because they don't like the tone many commenters project. It turns them off. Some boards have become havens for troll: LA Times, Daily Beast, Raw Story, Natural News, Green Med, Washington Post just to name a few. Yes, some of these are considered alternative sites however moderators on these sites have allowed the trolls to do the moderating to remove post of commenters who can easily discredit what they are putting out by use of the troll train. Until this measles episode is played out and people get access to the genuine number the MSM is going to lie, coverup, hype, manipulate numbers and censor information that reveals the continuing lies of the government/CDC and MSM. Keep the faith!
Posted by: Danchi | January 25, 2015 at 10:57 AM
Interesting UK report on this outbreak. Iy was introduced by a presenter (not shown in video) as a 'killer disease'.http://www.channel4.com/news/us-measles-outbreak-spreads-from-disneyland-video. I felt so mad I wanted to scream at the presenter, 'Yes and the VACCINE also kills' but I was too weary. Actually I think people are voting with their feet on this one, AWAY from the Clinic!
Posted by: patricia | January 25, 2015 at 05:54 AM
The MMR is hardly a benign vaccine. Holly Stavola died from her 2nd dose in the series. This lead to the adoption in NJ of "Holly's Law", which educates Health Care Personnel about how to recognize vaccine reactions, and permits titer test in lieu of boosters. https://hopefromholly.wordpress.com/our-purpose/
1/3500 of MMR recipients ends up admitted to the emergency for a vaccine provoked febrile seizure, another 100 have fevers so high and unresponsive to remedy they warrant a return to the Dr. Office for an outpatient fever visit, and 500 plus experience a course of illness with a 102 plus fever.
Add a Chicken Pox vaccine to visit and the febrile seizure rate increases to 1/2500, the Pro Quad 4 in 1 Combo shot puts 1/1250 kids into the emergency room, and both correspondingly increase the fevers and outpatient visits. This group of children (15 -20%) experiences a course of vaccine provoked illness equal to or arguably worse that an uncomplicated case of measles, and certainly more so than mumps or rubella, which the CDC pink books lists that major proportions of those infections are asymptomatic. This data is all sourced from the CDC VIS and Vaccine Safety Datalink studies here http://www.scribd.com/doc/120430481/CDC-MMRV-Vaccine-Data-Safety-Link-Slides
As to hospitalizations it is becoming SOP to admit someone simply because they have measles, regardless of severity.
Posted by: VaccineInformation | January 25, 2015 at 04:15 AM
Dee
I note that you are not responding to the actual content of the article, though I agree with you that measles is not particularly nice. A great error was to link measles with a mumps vaccine which no one needed - instead of being a usually harmless disease which everyone got as a child it became a disease which put adolescents and young adults at risk because the vaccine wore off. Pertussis was always a rotten vaccine: neither safe or effective. The chicken-pox vaccine was never introduced in the UK for the very reason that it destroyed natural immunity and increased the risk of shingles. The problems is that you are talking about these things as if they are magic bullets, and reality is that vaccines are a messy business: neither as safe or as effective as we are told, shrouded in false and misleading information, there are far too many of them, the manufacturers aren't liable if they go wrong and government officials are in bed with them.
Apart from which - unfortunately - MMR does cause autism.
Posted by: John Stone | January 25, 2015 at 04:06 AM
Most of the recent people with measles were not vaccinated, but a minority did get vaccinated (one or both shots). Vaccination doesn't have 100% prevention of a disease, but it decreases dramatically your chance of getting it or if you do get the disease, it usually is a lesser case. See the LA Times stories if you want data http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-measles-spread-20150122-story.html
One in 4 people getting measles in this outbreak have been hospitalized. It's a serious disease (I know because I almost died from pneumonia complications after getting measles then scarlet fever in the 1960's). My child got her MMR shots because that's better than getting the diseases. If you don't have the MMR vaccine, you risk death or encephalitis or other complications from measles, you could give rublella to a pregnant women and cause her unborn baby to die or have serious birth defects. Mumps - not a nice disease either - ask a grown man what it's like to have swollen testes. These are not chicken pox diseases - they can be fatal (and chicken pox sufferers may get shingles later in life, so why not get the chicken pox vaccine and avoid problems later).
Autism is not linked to MMR -- it's been disproved, so get over it. Do not listen to Dr Sears about avoiding or having long delays in vaccinations - at least pick the important ones for your child (pertussis over hepatitis, MMR next, the hepatitis and chicken pox later) so you don't infect other people. Thank the lord we eliminated polio in the US -- you really don't want to catch the "wild" version so your child is naturally immune. Ever hear of iron lungs and people afraid to visit swimming pools and parks in the 1940's and 1950's -- God bless Drs Salk and Sabin for the polio vaccine.
If you don't believe in the benefits of vaccines, stay home, please home school your child, don't go to public parks or churches or stores or libraries or museums. Grow your own food and stay isolated. And don't go to the doctor if you get sick -- just treat it yourself with your homegrown remedies. I'll stick with my modern medicine, thank you very much,
Posted by: Dee | January 25, 2015 at 02:23 AM
Well put!
Comparing measles to Ebola is another one of those fear mongering tricks. All I can say is that measles is not a minor illness, but it is one I had when I was a small child. Then, it rarely caused complications beyond a high fever and pink spots. I had whooping cough, too. It, too, was something the family was expected to suffer through.
The reason why these illnesses are now considered with such panic is that mother and father can't spend time with there children while they are sick. It's an inconvenience. Little do those parents know about the inconvenience of having an autistic child for as long as the child lives, and that that was caused because that vaccine in that batch lacked the proper quality control to keep that child from being harmed. I have worked in a lab where I added preservatives to chemical solutions. The accuracy of the inactive ingredients was often off by as much as 30%
I presume Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper who also went on the Wakefield blaming trip again recently are not exactly speaking from experience when it comes to either measles or autism as it has affected my family and so many others.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | January 25, 2015 at 01:48 AM
Lab confirmed vaccine associated measles case -
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20649
Posted by: VaccineInformation | January 24, 2015 at 11:59 PM
Betty,
I am so sorry that happened to you.
My trust is gone too.
Posted by: Linda1 | January 24, 2015 at 07:26 PM
"and the once great Washington Post is a pathetic sight."
Now a mockingbird Pharma rag..
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | January 24, 2015 at 06:48 PM
@Linda1,
I'm sure my baby was immune compromised. He reacted very badly to the Hep B shot (with mercury) on the second day of life. The nurses handed me a calm baby, gave him the shot, then told me he was screaming later because I was a new mom and didn't know how to hold and comfort him. And people wonder why I don't trust medical professionals! It took me a few years to put it all together, but once I did, my trust was gone.
Posted by: Betty Bona | January 24, 2015 at 06:19 PM
According to the CDC is 2013:
American Children Highly Vaccinated
In August and September, the CDC published annual reports that once again confirmed American children are among the most highly vaccinated in the world. In 2012, 95% of children entering kindergarten had gotten two MMR shots and so had more than 90% of high school students. About 1.8% of kindergarten children had a medical or personal belief exemption to vaccination on file with schools.
Bottom line: 95% of the approximately 75 million children under age 18 have gotten two doses of MMR vaccine and there is also a high measles vaccination rate among young adults in their 20’s and mid-30’s because, since 1981, 95% of all children entering kindergarten have received at least one dose of MMR vaccine and three or more doses of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio containing vaccines.
All I can say is the CDC & the pharmaceutical companies know their audience well. If you read the comments on the Washington Post, The Daily mail and other sites, commenters are either some of the most ignorant people that exist or the sites are saturated with troll activity. What I've been focusing on showing the flaws in the Herd Immunity myth. The foundation of mass vaccination is based on this erroneous construct that needs to be shown for what it is-a construct, a myth, wishful thinking and based on all the outbreaks of childhood illnesses in highly vaccinated populations-it's just plain wrong.
-National, State and Local Vaccination Coverage Among Children Aged 19-35 Months – United States - 2012. MMWR Sept. 13, 2130; 62(36): 733-740.
-CDC. Vaccination Rates Among Children in Kindergarten – United States, 2012-2013 School Year. MMWR Aug. 2, 2013; 62(30): 607-612.
-CDC. National and State Vaccination Coverage Among Adolescents Aged 13-17 Years – United States, 2012. MMWR Aug. 30, 2013. 2(34): 685-693.
-Hinman AR, Orenstein WA Schuchat A.. Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Immunization and MMWR 1961-2011. MMWR 2011; 60(04): 49-57
Posted by: Danchi | January 24, 2015 at 06:07 PM
Greg
According to the National Vital Statics Report of the CDC's there have been 9 deaths from Measles in the US since the year 2000. Since the year 2000 there have been 1002 cases of Measles REPORTED. I have been researching the CDC's website and I can't find where it states the reported cases are lab confirmed.
One interesting thing is the site does state that many of the outbreaks are caused by travelers from other countries. My question is where's the lab information on that? This seems like to me a ruse to cover up the fact that either the vaccine has failed or viral vaccine shedding from vaccinated people are the cause of the outbreak. It's very convenient to say that travelers are the patients zeros and there is no follow up.
Posted by: Danchi | January 24, 2015 at 05:58 PM
Greg,
On the other hand, measles only caused death in about one in ten thousand cases even in 1960, it may be we just haven't reached the critical number, although even then it wouldn't be frequent enough for me to worry about at any rate.
Posted by: cia parker | January 24, 2015 at 05:26 PM
Interestingly, even these outbreaks support our contention that the oft stated 1 death in a 1000 measles incidence is exaggerated. The following report had this to say about the measles incidence since 2000:
2003 was the last year that we had a death from measles. From 2004 then to 2009 with an average incidence of 60 that gives us 360 incidence. From 2010 to 2013 with an average amount of 160 incidence, this gives us a total 640. And, last year, the worst year for measles in recent years (insert sarcasm), we had 640. In total, since 2003 there have been 1640 cases of measles and no death. This fact definitely takes a little of the air out of the measles fear mongering.
Posted by: Greg | January 24, 2015 at 04:02 PM
And They Wonder Why We Don't Trust Them
http://www.vaccinationnews.org/20110118AndTheyWonderWhyGottsteinS
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | January 24, 2015 at 03:06 PM
According to vaccinologist Dr. Gregory Poland, "...eradication (complete elimination of the global spread and transmission) of measles is unlikely as modeling studies suggest that herd immunity of approximately 95% or greater is required to eliminate persisting measles endemicity [10]." Elsewhere he said, "...measles vaccine has a failure rate measured in a variety of studies at 2–10%, and modeling studies suggest that herd immunity to measles requires approximately 95% or better of the population to be immune [12]." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905323/
According to Moss and Strebel, "A review of 69 published studies of measles vaccine effectiveness from 1969 to 2006 found an overall estimate of measles vaccine effectiveness of 90% [13]. Median measles vaccine effectiveness was estimated to be 77% when administered between 9 and 11 months of age, and 92% when administered at 12 months or older. These findings are consistent with immunogenicity studies." http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/204/suppl_1/S47.full This is an even lower estimate for measles vaccine effectiveness than provided by Poland.
Poland also noted "In an October 2011 outbreak in Canada, over 50% of the 98 individuals had received two doses of measles vaccine. The Table shows that this phenomenon continues to play a role in measles outbreaks. Thus, measles outbreaks also occur even among highly vaccinated populations because of primary and secondary vaccine failure, which results in gradually larger pools of susceptible persons and outbreaks once measles is introduced [8]. This leads to a paradoxical situation whereby measles in highly immunized societies occurs primarily among those previously immunized [8]."
And now for the first time a major outbreak, in fact, was traced to a fully vaccinated person. http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/04/measles-outbreak-traced-fully-vaccinated-patient-first-time
For these and other reasons it is hard to justify blaming the unvaccinated for outbreaks.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | January 24, 2015 at 02:08 PM
It is simply a ploy by a weak government and even weaker mainstream media to distract from the ever growing problem of vaccine damage and the expectation that the “CDC Whistleblower” William Thompson will ultimately give evidence before Congress that the CDC have known all along that MMR can cause autism (which is what Wakefield feared in 1998).
*********
A whistleblower is defined a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization.
Although we've been referring to Thompson a 'whistleblower' since August, absolutely nothing has come of his allegations ( … excluding yet another opportunity to bash Dr. Wakefield).
Does anyone even know exactly what it is that he has supposedly exposed? Or perhaps more importantly, which government agency he has 'exposed' the information to? And who from that organization is acting on his information, to ensure that this "day before congress" actually does happen at some point?
Assuming of course, that a "day before congress" is the appropriate response to what can only be described as an egregious crime.
Posted by: Barry | January 24, 2015 at 02:05 PM
Betty,
As you probably know, prednisone stops allergic and other immune reactions by suppressing the immune system.
If you were on prednisone during your pregnancy, the question is how suppressed was your immune system when you were given the MMR. If it was suppressed, then it makes sense that even though you had measles as a child, your body would have been able to fend off the attenuated measles strain - that strain would not have been attenuated enough in your case. Live virus vaccines are usually not recommended for the immune compromised. And, another question is, how immune compromised was your baby after intrauterine exposure to prednisone?
Posted by: Linda1 | January 24, 2015 at 02:01 PM
The day after the birth of my first child (a pregnancy including fairly high dose prednisone to combat an autoimmune fetus rejecting type of immune system) I was told I had no titer to rubella, and that I must receive a vaccination. I was a bit out of my mind because they cold-turkeyed the prednisone after birth, so I questioned the need for the shot, knowing I had rubella in childhood, but didn't fight the shot. I'm pretty sure it was the MMR, and my new baby and I developed a rash on our chests, a fever above 101 degrees, and conjunctivitis (that fits Dr Yazbak's definition of a clinical diagnosis). I told them we had caught measles from the vaccine, but they told me that was impossible. There is no question I had measles as a child, so I believed them at the time. Does having wild-type measles give you immunity to vaccine strain measles? I would love to know how much of the confirmed measles cases we see in these "epidemics" are actually vaccine strain measles.
Posted by: Betty Bona | January 24, 2015 at 01:20 PM
Hi Betty,
It is very unclear presently that there are any lab confirmed cases.
John
PS If they do find vaccine strain they are unlikely to start telling anyone about it. If they find wild measles they may very well tell you about it.The real problem in this situation is that they are very unlikely to tell anyone the truth about anything except very selectively, and they are not now.
Posted by: John Stone | January 24, 2015 at 12:45 PM
With the laboratory confirmed measles cases, do they know whether they are detecting wild type measles or vaccine strain measles?
Posted by: Betty Bona | January 24, 2015 at 12:40 PM
Ed
Thank you for these very informative comments. In the UK we have a saliva test for measles which is given to all suspect cases - virtually everyone is treated through our National Health Service - and I see from the NHS website that the turn around should be maximally three weeks, but it is very hard to see how you can confidently diagnose any measles cases at all without a lab test.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-mumps-and-rubella-mmr-letter-for-parents-and-form-for-oral-fluid-swab
http://www.gloshospitals.nhs.uk/en/Wards-and-Departments/Departments/Pathology/Pathology-Samples-and-Tests/Search/Microbiology/Measles-mumps-and-Rubella-oral-fluid-saliva-test/
In Wales they were talking about first of all more than 400 cases, then more than a thousand but even if data that was ultimately given to the official inquiry was truthful they were speculatively diagnosing many hundreds of cases which were not in the end lab confirmed.
Another problem is that if you go berserk testing and put everyone on alert you will evidently locate more cases than you would otherwise. This was what going on in the run up to the GMC hearing against Wakefield and colleagues with the Health Protection Agency developing new capacity to test for measles and it was fairly clear that they were just finding more cases because they were looking harder (and of course making a ridiculous song and dance about it).
All these factors ought to be a warning in the present situation. The Welsh incident was cue and a pretext for months of relentless, and completely unjustified, Andrew Wakefield bashing in the British media, and involving the most respected organs. Perhaps, this very fact suggests that it is the establishment itself, not the population which is under threat.
As we also saw during the swine flu fiasco in 2009 no one had any compunction about making up figures.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/08/by-john-stone--there-were-two-new-stories-in-uk-media-today-indicating-the-lack-of-administrative-grip-on-the-almost-entirel.html
I seem to remember the CDC were running a parallel policy.
John Stone
Posted by: John Stone | January 24, 2015 at 12:22 PM
Glad to hear - thanks John
Posted by: Who is William Thompson ? | January 24, 2015 at 11:55 AM
RE Lab Confirmed
John: Great piece as usual. Thank you.
I searched and searched for a lab-confirmed case of measles during the "Swansea Wales Outbreak" and could not find one. Do you recall how long after the outbreak was over was that specific laboratory result reported and which test was actually performed?
RE Our current California measles outbreak:
The presently-posted CDPH Bulletin (# 15-008) is dated January 21, 2015 and is titled “California Department of Public Health Confirms 59 Cases of Measles”
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/NR15-008.aspx
I was not able to find out if any of those 59 cases had been laboratory-confirmed even though the CDPH “encourages submission of specimens from suspected measles cases who meet the CDC clinical case definition.”
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Documents/CDPHMeaslesLabTesting2011-01.pdf
The following CDC definitions may be worth keeping in mind when measles “outbreaks” are reported:
"Confirmed measles cases in the United States are reported by state and local health departments to CDC using a standard case definition.* A measles case is considered confirmed if it is laboratory-confirmed or meets the clinical case definition (an illness characterized by a generalized rash lasting ≥3 days, a temperature of ≥101°F [≥38.3°C], and cough, coryza, and/or conjunctivitis) and is linked epidemiologically to a confirmed case. Measles cases are laboratory confirmed if there is detection in serum of measles-specific immunoglobulin M, isolation of measles virus, or detection of measles virus nucleic acid from a clinical specimen. Cases are considered imported if at least some of the exposure period (7–21 days before rash onset) occurred outside the United States and rash occurred within 21 days of entry into the United States, with no known exposure to measles in the United States during that time. An outbreak of measles is defined as a chain of transmission of three or more confirmed cases."
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6322a4.htm
Ed Yazbak
Posted by: Ed Yazbak | January 24, 2015 at 11:07 AM
Is there a web location of the five other "MMR/gut virus/Autism" papers that have been published since the 1998 Wakefield paper?
Posted by: thanks | January 24, 2015 at 11:04 AM
Encephalopathy is the cause of language disorder, repetitive movements, and diminished level of consciousness (LOC) in autism. This encephalopathy might have been understood 3 to 4 decades ago. Complications at birth have long been recognized as a cause of autism. Oxygen insufficiency is the most feared outcome of difficult birth.
Encephalopathy caused by asphyxia of 6 to 8 minutes was described in many articles published between 1959 and 1974 on experiments with monkeys. The surprise finding was that the cerebral cortex was not affected. However, post-natal maturation of the cortex was disrupted. Brief asphyxia at birth was cited as a possible cause of "minimal cerebral dysfunction" (MCD), and not considered to be that serious.
Encephalopathy is the cause of aphasia, and should be recognized as the cause of developmental language disorders. Encephalopathy caused by asphyxia at birth was most prominent in the brainstem auditory pathway. What guides maturation of the language areas? Children learn to speak through the auditory sense.
Encephalopathy of the basal ganglia underlies chorea and athetosis, which should be recognized as the basis of repetitive movement disorder in autism.
Encephalopathy of diminished level of consciousness (LOC) involves alerting centers of the brain. Nuclei in the brainstem auditory pathway provide the alerting stimulus for visual attention.
Encephalopathy caused by toxic substances includes the same subcortical brain structures affected by asphyxia. Mitochondrial damage causes oxidative stress, and toxic substances likely disturb mitochondrial function.
Why do "experts" not recognize clear signs of encephalopathy underlying all cases of autism?
Posted by: Eileen Nicole Simon | January 24, 2015 at 10:42 AM
Very well written article John. I have shared it on Autism Mothers on facebook, we have nearly 218,000 members. I will get the word out no matter the backlash. We have got to be heard.
Posted by: Joan Campbell | January 24, 2015 at 09:43 AM
They can't tell the truth because the same agencies are still doing the same sorts of capers today as they have from the first day of lies concerning MMR and vaccine safety.
Thanks to Dr Wakefield and his family.
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | January 24, 2015 at 08:22 AM
"Who is William Thompson?"
"Social media Twitter has nearly a billion tweets concerning William Thompson (why don't you do your bit here ? ) "
At AoA we not only write about these issues every day, we tweet, we facebook, we lobby politically and encourage everybody else to do the same. What on earth do you think this article is about?
I suspect you just get a kick out of winding people up.
Posted by: John Stone | January 24, 2015 at 08:05 AM
John, your thinking on this matter mirrors my own, the interesting thing is I am willing to bet that most of these people coming down with measles (if they are) were already fully vaccinated. But the real purpose of this media blitz is to take away from the Dr.Thopmson information, to build a defense, to prove no matter what that the vaccine is the right choice for all, however we know the other side to this story, which is what the whistleblower story is really all about, which in my view they can't legitimately defend.
Posted by: Victor | January 24, 2015 at 07:57 AM
Hi John .. you wrote:
"It is simply a ploy by a weak government and even weaker mainstream media to distract from the ever growing problem of vaccine damage and the expectation that the “CDC Whistleblower” William Thompson will ultimately give evidence before Congress that the CDC have known all along that MMR can cause autism (which is what Wakefield feared in 1998).
I agree with your observation regarding the media's effort to distract from the "CDC whistleblower Dr. William Thompson .. but .. I would add to that observation that Thompson is not the only "whistleblower" out there the media is desperate to distract from:
Consider .. here is an article titled:
"Judge: Lawsuit Against Merck’s MMR Vaccine Fraud to Continue"
http://healthimpactnews.com/2014/judge-lawsuit-against-mercks-mmr-vaccine-fraud-to-continue/#sthash.oPtUtPIL.dpuf
It is a lenghty article .. well worth reading .. which begins:
"In a story this week that no mainstream media outlet reported ....
(think about that opening statement and compare it to what is happening today regarding the measles coverage)
.... a Pennsylvania federal judge ruled in favor of whistleblowers who have accused Merck of lying about the efficacy of its mumps vaccine (currently only available in combo with MMR). We had to find this story posted on a couple of websites servicing attorneys.
This story did garner mainstream news coverage back in 2012, before Merck’s attorneys appealed and tried to get the case thrown out of court ....
As the single largest purchaser of childhood vaccines (accounting for more than 50 percent of all vaccine purchasers), the United States is by far the largest financial victim of Merck’s fraud. But the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an adequate level of protection against mumps. And while this is a disease the CDC targeted to eradicate by now, the failure in Merck’s vaccine has allowed this disease to linger with significant outbreaks continuing to occur -"
Odd the media never forgets to mention Dr. Wakefield at every opportunity .. yet .. no one knows the names of those accused of perpetrating the "largest financial fraud in US history
Gee .. isn't Ms. Gerberding Merck's chief executive overseeing Merck's global vaccine empire?
I haven't heard one word on the action that Ms. Gerberding has taken to either defend or punish those accused for perpetrating one of the world's greatest financial frauds in history?
And so .. I am left asking myself of what good is the US Constitution's guarantee of "freedom of the press" .. if the press itself decides to self-impose censorship on subject they find inconvenient to their own purposes .. as described by Sharyl Attkisson in her book "Stonewalled"?
AND THE BAND PLAY ON .. AND ON .. AND ...
Posted by: BoB Moffitt | January 24, 2015 at 07:02 AM
The ebola Hoax , and now this measles scare is a classic military deflection technique .
Jenny , John et al . There is only one topic :
Merck, the pharmaceutical giant, is facing a slew of controversies over its Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine following numerous allegations of wrongdoing from different parties in the medical field, including two former Merck scientists-turned-whistleblowers. A third whistleblower, this one a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control, also promises to bring Merck grief following his confession of misconduct involving the same MMR vaccine.
The controversies will find Merck defending itself and its vaccine in at least two federal court cases after a U.S. District judge
earlier this month threw out Merck's attempts at dismissal. Merck now faces federal charges of fraud from the whistleblowers, a vaccine competitor and doctors in New Jersey and New York. Merck could also need to defend itself in Congress: The staff of representative Bill Posey (R-Fla) -- a longstanding critic of the CDC interested in an alleged link between vaccines and autism -- is now reviewing some 1,000 documents that the CDC whistleblower turned over to them.
The first court case, United States v. Merck & Co., stems from claims by two former Merck scientists that Merck "fraudulently misled the government and omitted, concealed, and adulterated material information regarding the efficacy of its mumps vaccine in violation of the FCA [False Claims Act]."
According to the whistleblowers' court documents, Merck's misconduct was far-ranging: It "failed to disclose that its mumps vaccine was not as effective as Merck represented, (ii) used improper testing techniques, (iii) manipulated testing methodology, (iv) abandoned undesirable test results, (v) falsified test data, (vi) failed to adequately investigate and report the diminished efficacy of its mumps vaccine, (vii) falsely verified that each manufacturing lot of mumps vaccine would be as effective as identified in the labeling, (viii) falsely certified the accuracy of applications filed with the FDA, (ix) falsely certified compliance with the terms of the CDC purchase contract, (x) engaged in the fraud and concealment describe herein for the purpose of illegally monopolizing the U.S. market for mumps vaccine, (xi) mislabeled, misbranded, and falsely certified its mumps vaccine, and (xii) engaged in the other acts described herein to conceal the diminished efficacy of the vaccine the government was purchasing."
These fraudulent activities, say the whistleblowers, were designed to produce test results that would meet the FDA's requirement that the mumps vaccine was 95 per cent effective. To the whistleblowers' delight, the judge dismissed Merck's objections to the case proceeding, finding the whistleblowers had plausible grounds on all of the claims lodged against Merck.
If the whistleblowers win, it would represent more than a moral victory (they repeatedly tried to stop Merck while still in its employ). Under the False Claims Act, the whistleblowers would receive a share -- likely 25 per cent to 30 per cent -- of the amount the government recovers. Previous settlements involving extensive fraud by pharmaceutical companies under the False Claims Act have run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and in some cases such as against GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, into the billions.
The second court case, Chatom Primary Care v. Merck & Co. relies on the same whistleblower evidence. This class action suit claims damages because Merck had fraudulently monopolized the mumps market. Doctors and medical practices in the suit would be able to obtain compensation for having been sold an overpriced monopolized product, and a defective one to boot, in that the mumps vaccine wasn't effective (indeed, the suit alleged that Merck expected outbreaks to occur and, as predicted, they did -- mumps epidemics occurred in 2006 in a highly vaccinated population and again in 2009-2010).
"Plaintiffs have argued sufficient facts to sustain a claim for proximate causation, detailing the significant barriers that other companies would face to enter the mumps vaccine market," the court ruled.
The third whistleblower -- a senior CDC scientist named William Thompson -- only indirectly blew the whistle on Merck. He more blew it on himself and colleagues at the CDC who participated in a 2004 study involving the MMR vaccine. Here, the allegations involve a cover-up of data pointing to high rates of autism in African-American boys after they were vaccinated with MMR. In what could be high-profile House hearings before Congressman Posey's Science Committee -- hearings made all the more explosive given the introduction of race into the mix -- Merck could find itself under unprecedented scrutiny. The CDC still stands by its study although Frank DeStefano, the CDC's Director of Immunization Safety and a co-author in the CDC study, also stated that he plans to review his notes with an eye to reanalyzing the data.
Some say all publicity is good. In Merck's case, regardless of the ultimate merits, the publicity will be all bad.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/lawrence-solomon/merck-whistleblowers_b_5881914.html
Accessed 9/26/2014
Vaccine Giant Merck Faces Class Action Lawsuits, thanks to CDC & Former Employee Whistleblower
Pharma Harma is hanging on by its fingernails .
Social media Twitter has nearly a billion tweets concerning William Thompson (why don't you do your bit here ? )
Posted by: Who is William Thompson ? | January 24, 2015 at 07:02 AM
Good Morning John!
Yes, the late Mark Struthers,(a qualified medical doctor), and ChildHealth Safety, both exposed glaring discrepancies in the reporting of 'official' UK measles surveillance cases.
For me the 'nastiest' measles 'statistic' was the young Welshman Gareth Colfer-Williams, stated to have contracted measles at the time of his death. The Welsh Health Authorities ably assisted by the BBC and the rest of the UK and Worldwide press and media, fastened onto this like a pack of starving hyenas.
After all the hype, and doom and gloom measles death prophesies, this was just what was wanted -a measles death-only it wasn't! At the much delayed Inquest into Mr Colfer-William's death, the Coroner concluded this young man, died from pneumonia which MIGHT have been caused by the measles, but in the UK, the rules are very clear about what goes on death certificates. In this case pneumonia was the CLEAR cause of death, with measles perhaps being a contributory factor, alongside Mr Colfor-William's severe asthma and alcohol dependency. He was also immune suppressed, making him more vulnerable to infections. It was very wrong for the UK Government to have recorded this death as a measles death, the ONLY 2013 UK measles death.
Whilst waiting several months for this Inquest to take place, the press and media, in best Brian Deer fashion, simply made up the facts to suit themselves. First we were told Mr Colfer-Williams almost certainly caught measles from his unvaccinated little 4 year old daughter. Her very indignant mother was able to prove her daughter was fully vaccinated, including MMR vaccine. Later, Gareth's mother insisted Gareth was vaccinated against measles as a child, although this gem only appeared in one news outlet, and some later ones had Mother Colfer-Williams, apparently regretting NOT vaccinating him as a child. The Welsh Health spokespersons later said Gareth had not received MMR, which could be correct since at that time a single measles vaccine was still available as an NHS choice.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | January 24, 2015 at 06:51 AM
Good morning Jenny
Regarding anomalies in UK data I note this BMJ letter from Mark Struthers (greatly missed) 5 May 2013:
Re: MMR, measles, and the South Wales Evening Post
Thank you, John Stone, for your response in answer to Dr JK Anand's pertinent questions.
Leaving aside the astonishing 2013 figures from NHS Wales, I have noticed some interesting discrepancies in the compilations for 2012, between NHS Wales and Public Health England. The Welsh figures referenced by John Stone show that in 2012 there were 14 laboratory confirmed measles cases in Wales (one in Swansea) after 384 notifications (3.6% hit rate). However, reports from the HPA (Health Protection Agency, now part of Public Health England) indicate that there were 116 confirmed cases of measles in Wales during 2012. [1]
Curious.
The total number of measles cases for England and Wales (E&W) was given as 2016. However, totting up the 2012 quarterly numbers of confirmed cases in E&W, in another HPA report, revealed only 1137 confirmed cases of measles after 5145 notifications (22% hit rate). [2]
Curiouser.
Perhaps one of Her Majesty's senior health officials could explain?
[1] Public Health England. Number of laboratory confirmed measles cases in England and Wales (last reviewed 8 February 2013). http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1223019390211
[2] Public Health England. Measles notifications (confirmed cases) England and Wales 1995 - 2012* by quarter (last reviewed 22 February 2013). http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1195733811358
Competing interests: No competing interests
Posted by: John Stone | January 24, 2015 at 04:15 AM
It is now obvious to anyone with even half a brain, the 'official' stance on measles vaccinations has changed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The only thing that HASN'T changed is the 'blaming' of Dr Wakefield for every single case of measles, whether relevant to MMR vaccine or not.
Since the Wakefield et al Lancet paper was published more than 16 years ago, almost a generation, it can be assumed, without political and corporate compliance and propaganda, including, Brian Deer and the pharma friendly Murdoch and other press and media 'empires', the vast majority of young adults, including parents and potential parents would not have even been aware of the Wakefield MMR issues, far less influenced by them.
Yes there WAS a UK dip in child MMR vaccine uptake, during the early 2000s, but this soon recovered after a huge UK Government sponsored campaign to discredit and vilify the Wakefield et al 1998 Lancet paper and its authors. Murdoch's Sunday Times published Deer's concocted and often fanciful allegations and James Murdoch, in charge of the UK Murdoch press operations, was appointed to the board of MMR vaccine manufacturer GSK, thus ensuring a lot of Deer articles also got published in the BMJ. (BMJ Editor Fiona Godlee, admitted to a UK Government select committee, the huge pharma influence over what gets published in the BMJ). The hugely expensive £8million GMC 3 year 'inquisition' which found Dr Wakefield and 2 clinician colleagues, guilty and removed the medical licences from 2 of them, (one later restored on High Court appeal), is a huge blot on the reputation of the GMC, supposed to protect patients, not persecute and vilify important 'whistleblowers' within the medical professions.
As John points out (above), the Swansea measles outbreak had reached epidemic levels in the press and media, at a time when only a SINGLE case had been lab confirmed. The Welsh propaganda and scaremongering machine insisted the outbreak was mainly 'teenagers' whose parents had been put off MMR child vaccinations by Dr Wakefield. The only thing I believe about ANY of the Welsh stats and hype is that there were 8 confirmed cases between Jan and March 2013. These could easily be accounted for by a family of gypsies, (who mostly don't vaccinate), or persons recently visiting from countries where measles is endemic, or immigrants. We have NOT been told, and the question is 'why not'? Also, in the final figures, very quietly released in Sept 2013, the confirmed measles cases were not skewed towards 'teenagers' but were distributed evenly amongst young persons; a large proportion were in the 1-4 years age group, officially more than 95% vaccinated. There were NO babies under one year. Tellingly, we have never been given a breakdown of the admitted 250 or so, Welsh confirmed cases,(most of which, suspiciously, were recorded in April 2013), who were unvaccinated, partially, or fully vaccinated against Measles. We were told all the measles cases were the result of 'not being FULLY MMR vaccinated', but many parents chose to have their children immunised with private single measles vaccines, and initially at least, boosters were not considered necessary, since the vaccines were claimed to provide lifelong immunity. How HOLLOW that sounds now.
With the Disney measles outbreak, it seems the US medicos, politicians, and press and media outlets have still to get their 'stories' synchronised! This would be laughable, with almost any other infection, but with measles, here we go again. Dr Wakefield, take a bow, it's all your fault!!!
Firstly, it seems a large proportion of these measles cases WERE vaccinated, including 2 of 5 Disney staff members. Sniffily, we are told the vax status of the other 3 is 'unknown', which to me suggests they probably WERE vaccinated but there is no documentation, not unusual.
Secondly, we have changed from a position of 'unvaxed' to 'not fully vaxed'. Furthermore the 'not fully vaxed' status of some measles cases extends , not just to their measles vaccinations but their vaccinations for everything else!! How many childhood vaxes are there currently in the US schedules? -48? So someone who has had only 47 is NOT FULLY VAXED - whether these include measles vaccinations or not!! The latest hype in some US news outlets prissily suggests ADULTS going to visit Disney should get an MMR vaccine, and teenagers should get a top up!!
As a footnote - In 2012, the Welsh Health Authorities received a complaint from Cardiff University, concerned about a high number of young adult students contracting MUMPS. Whilst poring over the 'latest' surveillance stats for measles, I could not help noticing that for Wales, at least, MUMPS cases, (virtually ALL in young adults) EXCEEDED measles cases during 2013. The press, media and the BBC, all very active during the Swansea measles outbreak, have reported:- NOT ONE WORD ABOUT MUMPS.
Posted by: Jenny Allan | January 24, 2015 at 03:55 AM
Excellent summary of the situation, John. Thank you!
Posted by: Laura Hayes | January 24, 2015 at 01:07 AM