Forbes' Lipson Goes After Brownstein, Who Responds.
By Anne Dachel
Pharma-friendly Forbes (Dr. Peter Lipson) is on the attack. Dr. David Brownstein is in their sights. The media likes to pretend that doctors like Brownstein and dozens more we know don't really exist, so for the most part, they're ignored.
Forbes/Lipson has gone after a number of doctors, including Dr. Bob Sears, in the past. (Feb 2014)
Lipson also made a strange reference to Nazi eugenics experiments in a story criticizing Dr. Wakefield in 2014.
This latest coverage is because Dr. Brownstein is not a shrinking violet on the vaccine issue.
See my past coverage on Brownstein:
Sept 2015 Interview with Dr. Brownstein: Thoughts on CDC
Aug 2015 Open Letter to Michigan Congresswoman
This all started when Dr. Brownstein wrote No Vaccines? No Camp For You! on Dec. 31, 2015. This piece outlined Brownstein's objections to a vaccine mandate in order to go to summer camp. Forbes published a critique of Brownstein, and incredibly, it ignored the concerns that were expressed in Brownstein's article.
I asked Dr. Brownstein for a response to what Peter Lipson wrote about him.. Here Brownstein comments on the charges Lipson made against him (in italics below):
Dr. David Brownstein is a family doctor whose “goal is to inform the world about the power of holistic health solutions,” whatever that might mean. Yesterday he posted a dangerous and poorly-informed piece on his website. First a bit of cultural background.
Dr. Brownstein practices in the heart of Michigan’s Jewish community. Among American Jews, summer camping has been an important part of childhood for nearly a century. In the early part of the 20th century, it was felt that city children would benefit greatly from exposure to nature. Jews were not allowed to attend most camps and started their own. The tradition has remained strong.
I spend a week every summer helping to keep an eye on the kids at one such camp. During the flu epidemic of 2008–09, I watched as dozens of kids came down with a new flu strain, one for which a shot had not yet been developed. It was a frightening lesson in what can happen in unvaccinated populations. Thankfully, the strain wasn’t deadly in this population. Among the hardest hit were pregnant women.
Still, it did put a damper on the summer for many kids. Last winter, another in which we had a flu strain not well-covered by the vaccine, I lost nearly half-a-dozen patients. All were elderly, and really didn’t stand much of a chance. But if the people around them had been immune they might have lived through the winter never knowing what might have happened.
Brownstein: Dr. Lipson must be poorly informed here as there has not been a single flu vaccine—and the flu vaccine has been around for over 70 years–that has been shown to work for the elderly. In the best of the flu studies (which are hard to find), the efficacy for younger people is around 7-10%. That means the vaccine fails nearly all the elderly and fails around 90% of younger subjects. Dr. Lipson might want to review the research on the flu vaccine for the elderly. A 2005 study of a 33-season national data set found the “…national influenza mortality rate among seniors increased in the 1980s and 1990s as the senior vaccination coverage quadrupled.” (Arch. Int. Med. 2005;165:265-272). A 2012 systemic review found the original recommendation to vaccinate the elderly was made without data for vaccine efficacy or effectiveness. (Lancet Infect. Dis. 2012;12:36-44). Nothing much has changed since then. And, injecting the elderly with mercury? Nonsense. More about that later.
My daughter, who attends the same camp as I did, has had every shot, always on schedule. Thankfully so have her friends. I’d be very hesitant to let her play with kids who weren’t vaccinated, both because of the small but real risk she could catch something, and because I would not want her to give an illness to someone else.
One of our largest summer camps here reportedly sent out a letter this week informing the community that all staff and campers must be fully immunized to attend camp next summer. This is great news for our kids.
But Dr. Brownstein doesn’t think so. His blog lists the usual arguments against requiring vaccination, all of which are, to be blunt, total bullshit. It’s not even good bullshit, but bullshit that has long been known to be, well, bullshit.
Brownstein: That is unprofessional and uncalled for. We can argue the science if you would like. We should talk to each other like professionals.
For those of you who want the detail, read on. If you don’t, feel free to skip to the final paragraph for a summary. So let’s go through Brownstein’s arguments point-by-point:
You might assume that Tamarack Camps, which has been around for over 100 years, must have had an outbreak of a communicable disease. However, if that is true, I missed it. In fact, I would be interested in any data from Tamarack Camps of any outbreak of a communicable disease in its’ 100-year history.
I call this the “seat belt” argument. I’ve never been in a serious crash, but studies clearly show that if I were, wearing a seat belt could make the difference between life and death. The same is true for vaccination. While we may not see a lot of tetanus in this country, we still need to protect ourselves. Tetanus is a particularly hideous death, and we see so little precisely because of our vaccination efforts.
Brownstein: As far as I know, tetanus is not a communicable disease. Therefore, I am not sure why Dr. Lipson is arguing this point. How much tetanus do we see? According to the CDC, from 2001-2008, there were 233 cases of tetanus out of 322 million people. The annual incidence is 0.1 per 1,000,000 population. During this time period, among 92 subjects, out of the 233 reported cases where the vaccination status was available, 60% were vaccinated. In other words, the majority who got tetanus were vaccinated. Do we need to give routine tetanus shots to 322 million people to prevent about 30 cases of tetanus per year? Will that work? Those are questions that need to be answered. Moreover, the Td vaccine (Tetanus vaccine in multi dose vials) still contains mercury. Dr. Lipson is fine injecting mercury into people, but I am not.
Perhaps Camp Tamarack is unaware that over $3 billion has been awarded by the Federal Government to children and adults injured by vaccines. Maybe Camp Tamarack can assure all who will have to be fully vaccinated to attend camp that it is safe to inject numerous doses of neurotoxins like mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde into any living being. As far as I am aware, there are zero — ZERO — safety studies on injecting a neurotoxin into a living being. I would like to see where Jewish law says it is safe to inject a neurotoxin into a baby or any living being.
This is completely wrong in every conceivable way. First, the “$3 billion” thing: vaccines are not very profitable, and people who listen to Brownstein might be tempted to sue a drug company after getting a vaccine and having something bad happen. Serious vaccination reactions are vanishingly rare, but in order to protect the public and to protect the companies that make vaccines, the government has set up a “vaccine court”. While you may sue a drug company for causing injury through a poorly manufactured vaccine, you cannot sue them simply because you think you had a reaction. This court liberally awards money to people who feel they have been injured by a vaccine. The level of evidence needed is minimal. It is meant as a safety net both for those who are truly injured and for those who think they are, even if they might not be able to prove it in a normal court.
Brownstein: Vaccines are not very profitable? GIVE ME A BREAK! I don’t think I need to comment any further about that. I am amazed that Dr. Lipson even brought that up. In fact, the World Health Organization has estimated that the U.S. vaccine market is projected to rise to $100 billion dollars by 2025.
Basically, Dr. Lipson says to trust Big Pharma without question. Since when does Big Pharma deserve our trust? What is wrong with questioning Big Pharma’s reasons for demanding no liability for their vaccines?
Serious vaccination reactions are rare. That is correct. However, the vaccine court has never “liberally” awarded funds. That is a fact. I have spoken to patients who have gone through the vaccine court. The vaccine court is a miserable experience for those who suffer vaccine injuries.
The “toxin” gambit uses scary words out of their scientific context. Aluminum is used in some vaccines in order to help create a stronger immune reaction. This allows us to use less of the actual antigens derived from the germ. It is not present in amounts that cause harm. Formaldehyde is sometimes present in tiny amounts left over from the preservation process. Your own body manufactures more formaldehyde in a day during its normal chemical processes than you would get from a lifetime of vaccines. The tiny amount that might be left in your shots is trivial for your body to deal with.
Brownstein: Oy vey! A neurotoxin, is a neurotoxin, is a neurotoxin. Injectable aluminum is a neurotoxin. That is a fact. If Dr. Lipson would simply search Pub Med for aluminum and neurotoxicity he could find 393 papers.
Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. Formaldehyde is not produced in the human body. As with injecting anything, there is 100% absorption of formaldehyde via injection. There are reports of inflammatory diseases developing after injection of formaldehyde in vaccines. (Cutan. Med Surg. 2015 Sep-Oct;19(5):504-6)
Formaldehyde is a direct acting genotoxic compound that affects multiple gene expression pathways including those involved in DNA synthesis and repair.
There have been no safety studies finding that is safe to inject formaldehyde into a living being (at least none that I am aware of).
Mercury is not present in most vaccines. It is present in a few in the form of thimerosal, a preservative that keeps vaccinations from becoming contaminated. Thimerosal in vaccines has been found in study after study to be harmless. No “neurotoxins” are injected into our children as part of the vaccination process. That is either a lie or profound ignorance of biology. Tetanus, on the other hand, produces a potent neurotoxin that kills people in a uniquely painful way.
Brownstein: Mercury is still present in vaccines. Mercury is one of the most toxic substances known to mankind. There are ZERO studies showing that it is safe to inject mercury into a living being. Injectable mercury has not been found to be harmless. Dr. Lipson, please present the safety studies with injectable thimerosal.
Animal studies have shown that injectable mercury easily crosses the blood brain barrier in both the animal and the fetus. Further studies looking at the cells form the brains of mice injected with Thimerosal indicate that Thimerosal causes cell damage and death. (Appl. Microbiol. 1967;15:590-3. Toxicology. 2004;Jan 15;195(1): 77-84)
In 1982, the FDA proposed to ban Thimerosal from over-the-counter topical drug products because it was found to be deadly to human cells in vitro. (U.S. Mercury in medicine report. Congressional Record. May 21, 2003;1011-1030). Perhaps it is too toxic for topical use, but ok for injectable use? Common sense should answer this question.
Thimerosal has also been found to be associated with cellular toxicity in studies of both human nerve and skin cells. (Toxicol. Sci. 2003. Aut;74(2):361-8). This study found Thimerosal induced DNA breaks, membrane damage and cell death in doses the most American children received before it was removed from many childhood vaccines.
And, I have a question for Dr. Lipson: Would you expose any living being to a known neurotoxin if there were safer alternatives? Common sense should also answer this question, though I am not sure of his answer. This reminds me of a famous quote: “Common sense is not so common.” Voltaire.
Maybe Camp Tamarack should take notice that there is a whistle blower at the CDC — a senior scientist who authored research papers on childhood vaccinations — who has stated that the CDC has hidden and altered data that confirmed a link with the MMR vaccine to autism. Or, perhaps they could provide an explanation of why another whistleblower scientist who worked at Merck (who manufactures the MMR vaccine) has filed a federal lawsuit saying the mumps data used to justify the MMR vaccine was falsified by Merck.
This bears repeating: There is no link between MMR vaccines and autism. None. The “link” was from a fraudulent paper published in a British medical journal by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. The paper has been retracted and his license has been revoked due to his fraud.
Brownstein: I did not write about Dr. Wakefield’s paper. I wrote about the senior scientist at the CDC, who co-authored a 2004 paper that found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Ten years later, the same scientist came forward and said he and his colleagues altered the data to report no link when such a link did, in fact, exist. Furthermore, he made claims that his superiors ordered him to throw out incriminating data. Get your facts straight, Dr. Lipson.
Dr. Brownstein goes on to make an argument that would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous. He argues that as vaccination rates have risen, so have childhood disabilities. Any 7th grade forensics student could tell you what the problem is here: just because two things occur at the same time does not mean one is the cause of the other.
Brownstein: There is nothing funny about any childhood illness or any child with a disability. An association does not equal causation. However, this association calls for more research and more debate—at least that is what I was taught in medical school.
For example, in the same time period cited by Brownstein, lead exposure in kids decreased dramatically, mostly due to the elimination of leaded gasoline. So was lead exposure protecting our kids from learning disabilities and autism? (For the definitive, ground-breaking book on the “rise” of autism, see Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes.)
Brownstein: No, Dr. Lipson. Lead causes problems, it does not prevent them. I am glad lead was taken out of gasoline. I would like the same done with mercury and aluminum in vaccines.
Maybe you skipped the details above and have arrived down here to the bottom of the page. Here’s the short version.
Vaccination, along with water sanitation, has saved billions of lives. Most of us are too young to remember life before vaccines, but before the fifties, being a parent was terrifying. Vaccination has been shown over and over to be safe and effective, so much so that there is nothing that unites the medical community more strongly. Failing to vaccinate your child puts them at risk, and puts others’ kids at risk.
Brownstein: Just because you make these statements does not make them true. Deaths due to communicable diseases were dramatically declining before mandatary vaccines were used and that includes every childhood illness that is presently being vaccinated for.
Water sanitation and better living conditions have been true public health miracles.
Many vaccines do work. They lower the incidence of illness. But, are we healthier for injecting more and more vaccines in our kids? And, should we continue to inject more and more vaccines in our population?
Dr. Lipson, you may not want to ask the appropriate questions, but I do. I have seen both the good and bad with vaccinations. We need better vaccination studies and safer vaccines. Unfortunately, due to rhetoric like yours, there is no need to do further research—just keep giving more and more vaccinations and hope that we are doing a good thing.
Summer camps are intimate environments, with kids sharing space, clothes, water bottles. I’ve seen what an outbreak of a mild disease can do. Can you imagine what would happen if, say, meningitis broke out at a camp? You don’t have to imagine it, all you have to do is read history.
Brownstein: So, I get accused of fear mongering, but you can make a ridiculous statement like that? If the CDC whistleblower is telling the truth, then we will all have to deal with one in forty five children suffering on the autistic spectrum from mandatory (or coerced) vaccination.
Camp Tamarack should be lauded for their policy of full vaccination. If there is a kid who for some medical reason can’t get all their vaccines, this policy will protect them from unvaccinated cabin-mates. And there is no downside to the policy.
Dr. Brownstein is wrong on the facts. That’s not my opinion. What is my opinion is that doctors like him are a threat to public health. Doctors who spread incorrect information about health and disease are endangering my child and yours. They are a threat to public health. It is my personal belief that doctors who practice so strongly against the standard of care should lose their license to practice.
Brownstein: To the reader: You judge who is right or wrong on the facts.
Perhaps you are right, Dr. Lipson; We should practice the standard of care without questioning or thinking. Then, we can go back to prescribing Vioxx—which caused 50,000 deaths and 100,000 heart attacks and strokes. By the way, Big Pharma Merck knew Vioxx would do this before it was released. In case you did not know, Merck is the same Big Pharma company who manufactures the MMR vaccine.
And, don’t forget the standard of care in medicine in promoting smoking. Both the AMA and most physicians promoted the use of cigarettes even though data showed their negative effects.
Perhaps we need more critical analyses of the standard of care instead of less. I teach the medical students who rotate through my office to question everything and do their own research. Only then, can they make rational medical decisions for their patients. Dr. Lipson, you might want to try that.
Finally, if, as Dr. Lipson states, all doctors who dissent from the standard-of-care should have their licenses taken away, medicine will be in a very sorry state. How will we ever improve if we don’t ask tough questions?
Let me finish with a quote from Galileo.
“Facts which at first sight seem improbable will, even on scant explanation, drop the cloak which had hidden them and stand forth in naked and simple beauty.”
(Note: I edited my comment about formaldehyde on 1.4.16 to state that formaldehyde is not produced in the human body. Thanks to Dr. Cutler for this. DrB)
David Brownstein, MD
There you have the real disconnect.
In the chemical paradise of Peter Lipson, known neurotoxins like mercury and aluminum, along with multiple live viruses, can be injected into babies and pregnant women with no ill effects. No one needs to worry that a pre-existing condition may set a child up for a vaccine reaction.
I want to know what other medical product or procedure Dr. Lipson would universally recommend for every child, like he does when it comes to vaccines. AND IF THERE ISN'T ANYTHING ELSE---Why is that? Why do advertisement for vaccines warn us not to get the vaccine if we're allergic to any of the ingredients in the shot? And how could someone possibly know if there's a chance for a reaction when it's a day-old infant?
When it comes to vaccines, we're expected to believe in MEDICAL MAGIC. All the science is put on hold. Toxic elements are transformed into healthy additives. Six vaccines, seven, eight in a single doctor's visit---it's all safe for every child.
And why should we accept all the claims are true? Because all the pharma-funded science and liability-free doctors like Peter Lipson say so. And if that's not enough to convince you, they'll take away your right to choice. Any public activity like attending school or summer camp will be closed to the unvaxxed. And dissenting voices will be silenced too. Lipson would like see doctors like David Brownstein lose their license to practice medicine.
The real message from Dr. Lipson is that EVERYONE MUST COMPLY. NO CAN OBJECT. IT IS NOT YOUR RIGHT. EXPERTS WHO DISSENT MUST BE SILENCED.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
By Dr. Brownstein: "Serious vaccination reactions are rare. That is correct."
As Laure Hayes pointed out, Brownstein's saying "rare" reactions was inexplicable and a contradiction to his other positions and thought. Methinks Brownstein saying "rare" was a verbal blunder he would take back. IF Dr. Brownstein is reading this, I ask him to clarify, and use actual numerical percentages, whatever.
Dr. Brownstein, thanks!
Posted by: david m burd | January 08, 2016 at 02:51 PM
Thank you,Dr. Brownstein! Your last paragraph says it all about Dr. Lipson's motives.
Posted by: Denise Anderstrom Douglass | January 08, 2016 at 11:29 AM
Vaccination, along with water sanitation, has saved billions of lives. [Sanitation was a great idea. Now could they stop putting fluoride in the water.]
Most of us are too young to remember life before vaccines, but before the fifties, being a parent was terrifying. [What a ridiculous thing to say. People were not terrified of having children before the fifties. Most children when I was growing up in the fifties got childhood diseases and survived. How does Dr. Lipson think the human race got to where we are when we only started having to vaccinate in the fifties?]
Vaccination has been shown over and over to be safe and effective, so much so that there is nothing that unites the medical community more strongly. [Could you make that into a chant that you say every morning?]
Failing to vaccinate your child puts them at risk, and puts others’ kids at risk. [So why would a vaccinated child be at risk from a non-vaccinated child? I thought the vaccine protected the vaccinated one.]
Maybe everyone should send Dr. Lipson their bills for healthcare for their vaccine damaged children. I don't have any, but my children were never vaccinated.
Posted by: Dorie Southern | January 08, 2016 at 04:34 AM
Amazing that Dr. Lipson is allowed to continue to practice medicine. Anyone with such ignorance of vaccine injury should lose their license. The quality of his arguments for medical tyranny is a disgrace.
Posted by: Ted Kuntz | January 07, 2016 at 11:09 PM
Doubt this will appear on Forbes Comment page...
_________________________________________________
Dear Peter Lipson,
Just One Thing.
You saw with your own eyes during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009.
You watched as kids came down with a new strain of flu.
A flu they (you in the media) said was going to kill us all!
Did you know (and do you really care?) that those kids - Your Camp Kids - who got the regular flu shot that year were TWICE as likely to come down with H1N1?
TWICE as likely to die as those who did not vaccinate. Do you have any idea what the implications of that are? Stop and think, just for a second. Don't regurgitate in your mind what you 'know to be true'.
Just research ONE Fact would you please? Pretend you are a researcher, pretend your life depends on it.
Just ONE Time! http://bit.ly/FluShotHigherH1N1
Posted by: Art of Autism | January 07, 2016 at 10:32 PM
We now have the Lipson Law:
I concur we should have a law or at least a "trigger" name to identify those pro-vaccine comments or arguments that have no substance thus the writer must invoke Wakefield & McCarthy in an attempt to add creditability. Lipson isn't well know enough. It should be someone who drops those names in multiple stories they post online. "Gorski's Law" maybe?
Posted by: Danchi | January 07, 2016 at 10:12 PM
I have followed and loved Dr. Brownstein for a long time. Dr. Brwonstein's insight on the need for iodine I truly believed saved my life. What has Dr. Lipson ever done to truly improve my health directly or indirectly? NADA.
I am so glad the point was finally made about possible allergy to vaccine ingredients. I have thought long and hard on this for a VERY long time. How can anyone KNOW if a baby is allergic to any of the ingredients???? And when were mercury, formaldehyde, or aluminum ever so much as scratch tested on the back or arm of an infant BEFORE they get injected with it? Well, that wouldn't happen because putting those substances on the SKIN of a baby would be criminal. Injecting babies with it is even MORE CRIMINAL.
The only thing I disagree with is causing vaccine injury RARE on either side of this issue. 1:45 is NOT RARE. I live in a rural area and if we threw a stone, it would hit a family with vaccine injured child. I don't call it "AUTISM" anymore because it is far more than "behaviors our children are dealing with. It is medical and neurological ILLNESS and it's high time we call it what it really is. Their side uses that term to trivialize the crime done to our children,and I won't play that game of semantics anymore. How is it that my child's immediate neurological downfall after a round of vaccines (which I truly believe was a stroke) - how is it his severe intestinal problems, absence seizures, tremors with nystagmus, sudden on set of metabolic disorder, and severe chronic immune disorder got neatly packaged under a behavioral term? If Dr. Lipson wants to really know what BS is - calling this iatrogenic disorder "autism" is BS.
Posted by: Haven Delay | January 07, 2016 at 09:56 PM
And not to dignify the following statement of Dr. Lipson's that Dr. Brownstein wisely refused to respond to...but:
"It’s not even good bullshit, but bullshit that has long been known to be, well, bullshit."
What is "good bullshit", Dr. Lipson? Is that what you think comes out of your mouth? The good kind?
Posted by: Linda1 | January 07, 2016 at 08:13 PM
We now have the Lipson Law: Whenever a vaccine-defender realizes that there are no valid arguments to defend vaccine mandates, he will invoke the names of Andrew Wakefield (argumentum ad Wakefieldum) and Jenny McCarthy (argument ad McCarthyum).
Anything to divert attention from the criticisms of the science that supposedly exonerates vaccines.
Posted by: Researcher | January 07, 2016 at 07:11 PM
Thank you, Anne, for all the work you do to keep us informed. Great article. I am so glad that you and Dr. Brownstein are not letting Dr. Lipson's lies about him and the science and policy of vaccination stand unchallenged.
You have to love Lipson's description of vaccine injury as "vanishingly rare". What is that? So rare that the injuries/injured disappear? So rare that we don't see the victims? They "vanish"? Or is it that vaccine worshipers like Dr. Lipson are trying to literally hide them in their fantasy world of the protected human herd? If Dr. Lipson would open his eyes, he would recognize all the vaccine injury and devastation around him.
Posted by: Linda1 | January 07, 2016 at 06:25 PM
Why is mercury even in vaccines?
Posted by: Barry | January 07, 2016 at 05:48 PM
Great interview, Anne! I will be sharing it.
And, great comments by Dr. Brownstein! However, there was an exception when he stated:
"Serious vaccination reactions are rare. That is correct."
Really? Where is the proof for that? I would say we now have the proof in spades painfully showing just how wrong that continued propaganda statement is. The current numbers of America's children and young adults who suffer from one or more chronic illnesses, developmental disabilities, social and behavioral issues, speech and language disorders, learning and attention issues, etc., all point to the fact that we are tragically harming the health, development, and well-being of children in America. Our infant mortality rate is a disgrace, too, and there is reason to believe that infant deaths are often a result of vaccinations.
Furthermore, the reporting of adverse vaccine reactions in our country is negligible...doctors choose to not report...and parents often don't know how and to whom to report, or even that they can/should report. To make matters worse, the damage done by vaccines is often not immediate (although there is plenty of the immediate kind of damage, too), so the connection to the vaccines isn't always made...and if/when it is, the parent is told they're wrong...just a coincidence.
We do not have any type of accurate or reliable numbers regarding vaccine injuries and deaths in our country...not at all.
With the exception of those two sentences, BRAVO! Thank you, Dr. Brownstein, for your moral courage to speak up and out! We need MANY MORE like you!
Posted by: Laura Hayes | January 07, 2016 at 05:30 PM
I already knew I liked Dr Brownstein, but when I saw his mention of Dr Andrew Cutler (who helped me recover my child) I knew he was a good egg.
I think Dr Lipson is probably one of those "liberal arts majors" that annoy Cutler so much. Those who are *not* scientists but demand that we inject heavy metals into our kids.
No longer, Dr Lipson.
Posted by: Michelle B | January 07, 2016 at 04:58 PM
"The “link” was from a fraudulent paper published in a British medical journal by Dr. Andrew Wakefield."
The paper referred to by Lipson was "Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children"
Volume 351, Number 9103 28 February 1998 A J Wakefield, S H Murch, A Anthony, J Linnell, D M Casson, M Malik, M Berelowitz, A P Dhillon, M A Thomson, P Harvey, A Valentine, S E Davies, J A Walker-Smith
The paper was an 'early report' on 12 children, with 13 multidisciplinary authors. The childrens' medical histories were written by clinical lead, Professor Walker-Smith, NOT Dr Andrew Wakefield who collated the reports. The basis of the three year £8million GMC 'trial' which delivered guilty verdicts on Dr Wakefield and his two clinician co-authors Profs Walker-Smith and Murch, was an alleged 'conspiracy' to subject children to unnecessary invasive procedures. Journalist Brian Deer, with no scientific or medical qualifications whatsoever, was the sole complainant. Deer always claimed (loudly) the Lancet children did not have bowel disease. Of course they DID, and the clinicians were only doing their jobs diagnosing and treating their bowel disorders. The GMC made no attempt to attack the veracity of the Lancet paper, concentrating instead on ethical permissions etc. It was plain the evidence was manipulated throughout the hearing, to ensure guilty verdicts were delivered on all three doctors.
Following the guilty verdicts, several articles by Deer appeared in the British Medical Journal. It was an Editorial by BMJ Editor Fiona Godlee, which first alleged fraud against Dr Wakefield, based on Deer's ridiculous article, alleging Dr Wakefield altered the Lancet childrens' medical histories. (This would have been impossible).
Later, Godlee made a determined attempt to smear ALL of Dr Wakefield's co-authors, accusing them all of research fraud and misconduct. Unfortunately, Godlee was forced to admit, during her evidence to the UK Government's Science and Technology Committee, the huge pharmaceutical industries' financial and sponsorship involvement in the BMJ and other medical and scientific journals. The politicians refused to 'touch' this poisoned chalice. Neither University College London, nor UKRIO, the research watchdog wanted anything to do with it either.
Professor Walker-Smith was completely exonerated following his High Court Appeal in 2012. Judge Lord Justice Mitting took less than four days to demolish Deer's evidence and the panel's 'inadequate and superficial' handling of it. Dr Wakefield, by then effectively banished, from the UK, could not afford the costs involved in an appeal, and Prof Murch, who was permitted to keep his medical licence, remains in a guilty but 'admonished' limbo.
Lipson needs to be careful about making slanderous statements about Dr Wakefield. His Forbes colleague, Emily Willingham, was forced to retract her lies, following an approach from Dr Wakefield's lawyers. Her article incredibly blames Dr Wakefield for the lack of research on autism related bowel disorders. Blame DEER Dear!!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2014/04/30/blame-wakefield-for-missed-autism-gut-connection/
Blame Wakefield For Missed Autism-Gut Connection
Posted by: Jenny Allan | January 07, 2016 at 02:45 PM
Thank you, Dr. Brownstein, for continuing to speak the truth and for asking those tough questions. Parents everywhere appreciate you.
Posted by: Karen | January 07, 2016 at 02:07 PM
" In the early part of the 20th century, it was felt that city children would benefit greatly from exposure to nature. Jews were not allowed to attend most camps and started their own. The tradition has remained strong."
Oh the irony. So he admits.....exposure to nature is needed for optimal health and due to segregation born of ignorance Jewish kids had to start their own camps. Yeah, it sucks to be discriminated against.
Posted by: Kathryn | January 07, 2016 at 12:49 PM
Good for Dr. Brownstein for standing on the front lines to protect unvaccinated Jewish kids from discrimination. My understanding is that herd immunity is leaky at best. Some people don't react to vaccines, for some people the vaccine wears off very quickly, and for the majority the vaccine does work but eventually will wear off. The general wear off age tends to be right around the age of your average camp councilors. And boosters don't work because they don't tend to change the age when there are disease outbreaks--late teens, collage age.
And, of course, as many of us know, vaccines don't work with immune compromised kids since these kids just come down with the disease, harbor it and spread it. Many of us with immune compromised children know that their titers are full of every disease they have ever had. As many of us know as well, doctors don't know how to treat the immune compromised except with more and more antibiotics--you start with the weakest and then work up to the top gun antibiotics in hopes of keeping chronic disease under control. I can't imagine, though, that an immune compromised kid would want to go to camp anyway.
The only solution I suppose for parents who don't want to vaccinate is to stay away from camp, or at least that camp. Maybe the market place will eventually find a niche of a camp for the unvaccinated.
Posted by: kapoore | January 07, 2016 at 12:31 PM
The CDC published this in September, 2009 promoting their newly concocted H1N1 vaccine. I want to emphasize they specifically call for all children to get even THREE doses, including TWO of the never toxicity-tested new H1N1. It's no wonder American pediatric flu-associated deaths soared to around 300 for 2009-2010, compared to a typical flu season of 40 -100. As I have written here before, U.S. medical treatment protocols include treating kids with flu symptoms with one of the most toxic antiviral medicines ever known, called Ribavirin, a nucleoside analogue (i.e. as in cancer chemotherapy) that literally CAUSES immediate hemolytic anemia (destruction of red blood cells needed to carry oxygen). The CDC should be called Centers for Deadly Concoctions.
From the CDC itself on the new 2009 H1N1 vaccine:
"How many doses of vaccine are required?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of one dose of vaccine against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus for persons 10 years of age and older. For children who are 6 months through 9 years of age, two doses of the vaccine are recommended. These two doses should be separated by 4 weeks. Infants younger than 6 months of age are too young to get any influenza vaccine.
Why does my child need two doses of the 2009 H1N1 vaccine dose?
The recommendation that children younger than 10 years old receive 2 doses of 2009 H1N1 vaccine was based on studies of immune response to the vaccine as measured by levels of protective antibodies in the blood. After 1 dose of vaccine, infants and young children do not make as many antibodies compared with older children and adults who get 1 dose.
In addition, effectiveness of seasonal flu vaccine is much less for young children who have never been vaccinated before and only get 1 dose, compared with young children who have never been vaccinated before and get 2 doses.
Persons who have some antibody from previous vaccination or exposure to infection with another related flu strain will have much greater increases in antibody to flu vaccines. Studies that looked at blood samples taken from children before the pandemic indicate that very few children had any measurable immunity against 2009 H1N1 prior to the outbreak Therefore, all children younger than 10 should get 2 doses regardless of whether they ever have been given seasonal influenza vaccine."
Posted by: david m burd | January 07, 2016 at 10:38 AM
Lipson the slip-on pro-pharma propagandist one dangerous vaccine fits all and no-slip ever recorded.
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | January 07, 2016 at 10:37 AM
Lipson says:
"During the flu epidemic of 2008–09, I watched as dozens of kids came down with a new flu strain, one for which a shot had not yet been developed. It was a frightening lesson in what can happen in unvaccinated populations."
AND
"Last winter, another in which we had a flu strain not well-covered by the vaccine, I lost nearly half a dozen patients. All were elderly, and really didn’t stand much of a chance. But if the people around them had been immune they might have lived through the winter never knowing what might have happened."
So, he points to two flu outbreaks in which the vaccine strain flu did not match the actual flu that was circulating, and then says it reminded him of the dire consequences of not vaccinating. Actually, he is providing the best reason of all for not getting the flu shot: It doesn't work. How would everybody going out and getting a vaccine that doesn't match the circulating the virus help anybody? Strange logic, indeed. But it helps me to understand why the vast majority of doctors today are so stupid -- there are apparently no standards anymore for getting into medical school, other than perhaps being able to memorize pharmaceutical propaganda verbatim.
Posted by: lisa | January 07, 2016 at 10:24 AM
"The “link” was from a fraudulent paper published in a British medical journal by Dr. Andrew Wakefield."
Is is without fail anytime a paid for person attempts a hatchet job on another writers article to "bring him/her" down in the public arena they always, somewhere in their story insert the name of Dr. Wakefield or Jenny McCarthy. The two trigger names the pharma industry and their online troll operatives have been using for years. Because these people suffer from willful ignorance or they are outright liars, know the truth but they benefit from the lie, they cannot see that the trigger is broke. The names no longer impact they way they did in the past. Now the names serve as a red flag which indicated the story that the person is writing (Lipson) has no substance and is clearly part of an agenda to continue to push poison onto small children and adults for profit.
Posted by: Danchi | January 07, 2016 at 09:05 AM
David
It is very disquieting that Dr Lipson as a professional just talks off the top of his head all the time and without reference to anything - he is just like a casual newspaper reader who thinks they know it all.
Posted by: John Stone | January 07, 2016 at 08:31 AM
Lipson starts out with a flagrant error in citing the "flu Epidemic of 2008-2009" when this unfortunate farce began the early Summer of 2009 and proceeded into the Fall with approx. 50 million doses of brand new untested H1N1 flu vaccines injected into Americans (on top of the "regular" flu vaccine), via a campaign of total fear promoted by the CDC and a pitifully ignorant Obama who insanely declared it a "National Emergency" that side-stepped any toxicity tests for the new vaccine.
BECAUSE of this onslaught of this new flu vaccine promoted by fear mongering, American women were additionally targeted for the vaccine, and thousands spontaneously aborted with many became permanently infertile; how many of these women died was never correlated with the injected flu-vaccine toxins. I have no doubt the CDC specifically (and secretly) refused to investigate this H1N1 Flu Shot catastrophe. What's new?
I have to give Dr. Lipson credit of sorts: He is one of the best fear mongers and liars ever aired here on AoA.
Posted by: david m burd | January 07, 2016 at 08:18 AM
Dr Lipson:
"I call this the “seat belt” argument. I’ve never been in a serious crash, but studies clearly show that if I were, wearing a seat belt could make the difference between life and death. The same is true for vaccination. While we may not see a lot of tetanus in this country, we still need to protect ourselves. Tetanus is a particularly hideous death, and we see so little precisely because of our vaccination efforts."
I would suggest to Dr. Lipson that studies showing the safety of "seat belts" clearly show wearing a seat belt could make a difference between life and death may be a little misleading as a comparison to mandatory vaccines.
First of all .. seat belts are ADJUSTABLE to fit the person using them .. because .. a 'one size fits all seat belt" would probably prove more dangerous than not.
Secondly .. as with seat belts .. standard newer autos all have "air bags" installed to prevent someone from being launched forward upon impact from smashing their head area into the dashboard or windshield .. but .. if those "air bags" are improperly manufactured and instead of protecting riders from serious injuries at impact .. they explode with the force of an IED .. sending shards of shrapnel into the rider's face and head .. in some instances .. actually killing the rider instead of protecting him.
Like Dr. Lipson .. I too have never been involved in a serious life-threatening crash .. but .. I am extremely grateful that I can strap my family in ADJUSTABLE seat belts .. otherwise those seat belts may actually be more dangerous than not .. and .. I pray to God the air bags installed in my vehicle will not explode with the force of a hand-grenade should they deploy following impact.
My point being .. technology designed with the best of intentions .. such as vaccines .. must be SAFE and EFFICENT for all who are required to use them .. and .. deliberately using mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde as ingredients in vaccines .. expecting EVERYONE .. disregarding the obvious physical disparities .. gender, size, weight, age, etc .. let alone the unknown makeup of every personally unique immune system they are invading .. expecting ALL can tolerate those substances without consequence .. to me .. is wishful thinking .. masquerading as "science".
Posted by: Bob Moffit | January 07, 2016 at 07:01 AM