Public Affairs Media Presents Haley Vs. Offit: A Virtual Debate About Vaccines
Thank you to Richard Milner of Public Affairs Media for this informative documentary featuring Dr. Boyd Haley. Please visit the PAM page, donate if you can and share the video link.
Public Affairs Media, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established specifically to produce investigative reporting on substantive national and international issues. Public Affairs Media was founded on the premise that if democracy is to survive, the public must be informed and leadership made accountable through a free press, and that freedom of the press depends ultimately on the freedom and duty of the individual journalist to identify, explore, and explain the important issues of the day in a fair, accurate and complete manner.
Public Affairs Media has three major goals: 1) to inform and educate the public on substantive political, scientific and social issues of national and international importance, 2) to increase the supply of thorough investigative documentaries to film, television and radio producers and programmers, and 3) to support and speak for independent journalists, filmmakers, and radio producers committed to covering stories which merit public attention and debate, even though the stories may be complex or their subjects controversial.
Viewing this "virtual debate" provides clear evidence of WHY Offit is so adamantly resistant to participating in a "real time debate" between himself .. a strong proponent of vaccines .. and .. any one of a number of well qualified professionals .. who .. like Dr Boyd Halley .. are strongly critical of vaccines.
It defies common sense that Dr. Offit would be unwilling to debate this issue .. if HE were as confident and informed on the subject .. as he pretends to be. What is HE afraid of?
Unfortunately .. HE is as afraid to publicly debate the issue for the very same reason that public health officials are afraid to conduct an independent .. scientific study of vaccinated v. unvaccinated populations to ascertain .. once and for all .. if BOTH populations .. have the same number of children with chronic autoimmune disorders.
PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS WILL NEVER AGREE TO CONDUCT THAT INDEPENDENT STUDY .. BECAUSE .. LIKE OFFIT .. THEY ARE TERRIFIED OF WHAT THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY WOULD PROVE TO BE.
Posted by: ui | October 26, 2015 at 02:54 PM
If they had shown the last two minutes first, the film would have been over before it began. In the last two minutes, Offit says there is no autism epidemic -- that the rate of autism is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago. He also insinuates that people are claiming their kids are autistic so that they can free services.
I would like to invite Paul Offit to come to my classroom and spend a week with me. Tell me that he remembers having classmates like the kids who fill our classrooms today. Tell me that he can remember even ONE classmate who struggled the way so many kids in our classrooms struggle today. Tell me that he can remember even one classmate who HAD a DEADLY FOOD ALLERGY; one classmate who WORE AN INSULIN PUMP; one classmate who carried an INHALER; one classmate who COULD NOT FIND ANY WORDS with which to speak when CALLED ON; ONE CLASSMATE who SPUN AROUND IN CIRCLES or FLAPPED HIS/HER ARMS when excited or anxious. I'm willing to bet he has NO MEMORY of ANY of these kids when growing up, even though he claims they were all around him.
Posted by: Lisa | October 26, 2015 at 01:36 PM
When Offit talks about the Burbacher study at 22:00, he says that Burbacher shows that it's possible that ethyl or methyl mercury can exist in the brain as essentially inorganic mercury, but that there's no evidence that this is toxic or dangerous. (Dr. Haley's response in the video is unfortunately not really on point.)
Offit goes on to say that, rather than animal studies, epidemiological studies are the key to showing harm. This is a standard argument of environmental polluters according to Deceit and Denial by Markowitz and Rosner.
Posted by: Carol | October 26, 2015 at 01:30 PM