LA Times Chides HuffPo for Having Run Vaccine Posts (Once Upon a Time)
By Anne Dachel
August 11, 2016, Los Angeles Times: Arianna Huffington wants to sell health advice and products. Science help us.
Paul Thornton, at the LA Times, is mad at Arianna Huffington because for years she's allowed for free speech on the issue of vaccine safety on the Huffington Post blog. Thornton blames the likes of Jenny McCarthy, Dr. Jay Gordon, and Bill Maher for giving us their opinions on vaccines on HP, and he's even more dismayed because now Ms Huffington is moving on to a new public forum, Thrive Global. Thornton fears for the worse.
I think I can see what Thornton's problem is, because even a brief scan of the Huffington Post archives reveals numerous articles on the pro-vaccine side. The only conclusion I can come to is that he’s mostly upset by the idea of anyone being fair and balanced when it comes to covering vaccines safety. If all the mainstream news outlets are following the dictates of their advertisers (pharma) and bowing to pressure from health officials and therefore writing what they're told about vaccines--never actually investigating this controversy for themselves--there has to be a way to shut down the alternative news sources.
In his biography it states, "Paul Thornton is the Los Angeles Times’ letters editor. He joined the editorial pages in 2005 as a researcher and occasional editorial writer and also served as a Web producer."
We should all be concerned that someone with no tolerance for opposing views on vaccine safety is in charge of which letters get published at the Times. And it's hard to believe that Thornton has spent over a decade as a researcher for the LA Times, yet has such a simplistic view of the vaccine controversy. Sadly, his not-too-subtle call for censorship is the standard viewpoint of the American media when it comes to talking about vaccines: We will not look into this.
Arianna Huffington got very rich off writers working for free and by providing a platform for quacks to push dubious medical advice, including dangerous amounts of anti-vaccination nonsense. ...
But we should be skeptical of anyone who sees economic opportunity in selling us answers that science and mainstream medicine have not yet provided (despite their best efforts). Huffington has gone a step further and enabled people who encourage dangerous behavior and deserve to be ignored. Keep that in mind before you “Thrive” (for a price, of course)....
I’ve written a handful of pieces on the public health crisis of diminishing vaccination rates, work that required doing some opposition research. The articles that soberly presented the evidence on vaccines and the risks of forgoing them appeared mostly in peer-reviewed medical journals and in newspapers and magazines with a respect for scientific consensus. As for the other side (and I say “other side” without any implication of moral equivalence), one place served as a clearinghouse for articles that ranged from insidiously raising questions about the vaccination schedule to angrily rejecting the work of scientists and doctors: the Huffington Post. This isn’t to say that site publishes only pieces from vaccine deniers (to the contrary, its more recent record on the topic is better), but parents worried about harming their children and who might withhold valuable medical treatment at the slightest suggestion that something could go wrong can easily find archives of material at the Huffington Post to confirm their worst fears.
According to Thornton, no one can question vaccines safety claims--NO ONE. All the science is in and we must accept whatever pharma-funded officials tell us. I can’t think of any other subject where the media so completely shuts down like they do when the topic is vaccination. Even a hint of doubt regarding the safety of the ever-increasing vaccine schedule isn’t allowed. Reporters do everything in their power to try and convince us that every vaccine is safe for every child—something that hardly seems possible to any thinking person. Perhaps this is why the public increasingly doesn’t trust the press to tell them the truth about vaccines.
And as far as Thornton’s attack on McCarthy, Maher, and Gordon, it was more than just a little disingenuous, it was an out-and-out cover-up. Thornton gave us of the opinions of these three, hardly much to challenge the conclusions of mainstream medicine.
What Thornton didn’t give us were details about the multitude of articles on Huffington that have raised serious questions about vaccine safety for the last decade.
I’m talking about ones like the Jan 6, 2014 piece by Lawrence Solomon, National Post (Canada) columnist, entitled Why the Press Shouldn’t Dismiss Vaccine Skeptics. He wrote about the late Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of NIH, who, according to Solomon, “criticized the public health establishment for being ‘too quick to dismiss [vaccine concerns] as irrational. The more you delve into it, if you look at the basic science, if you look at the research that's been done in animals, if you also look at some of these individual cases, and if you look at the evidence... what you come away with is that the question [of vaccine safety] has not been answered.’”
Solomon listed well credentialed experts, including Dr. Diane Harper, Dr. Chris Shaw, Dr. Lucija Tomljenovic, Professor Walter Spitzer, and Dr. Peter Fletcher—all of whom are convinced that vaccines have serious side effects.
Solomon is a veteran journalist and bestselling author, and he’s continued to write on vaccines.
Oct 8, 2014, Huffington Canada: More Parents in California Are Refusing to Vaccinate Their Kids
On December 19, 2014, his story, Why Doctors Aren't Shocked That Mumps Have Hit the NHL was published on Huffington Canada. This was a strong critique of the efficacy of the mumps vaccine by top doctors like Dr. Gregory Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. Solomon also revealed that Merck, the maker of the MMR vaccine, was facing two lawsuits by “doctors and medical practices who claim they were sold an overpriced and defective product.”
In addition, Thornton doesn't mention what Robert Kennedy, Jr's has said about fraudulent vaccine science, the federal government, and the Centers for Disease Control in his Huffington stories.
For instance,
on May 11, 2010, Central Figure in CDC Vaccine Cover-Up Absconds With $2M,
or his March 27, 2009 Vaccine Court: Autism Debate Continues,
or his Feb 27, 2009, Autism, Vaccines and the CDC: The Wrong Side of History,
or his March 5, 2006, Time for CDC to Come Clean.
It’s pretty easy to understand why Thornton didn’t want to bring up these Huffington stories; they expose corruption, and they name names. They're the kind of reporting that we should be getting from our mainstream news outlets.
Actually these stories are just the beginning of "anti-vaccine" coverage on Huffington. Look at what journalist and author David Kirby has had published on Huffington. .
If Thornton had wanted to be honest about what been on Huffington, he would have had to include some of these:
Jan 14, 2013, Vaccine Court Awards Millions to Two Children With Autism
Dec 6, 2012, Mercury, Vaccines Hot Topics at Autism Hearing
June 12, 2012, Mercury, Vaccines Hot Topics at Autism Hearing
Nov 17, 2011, NEW STUDY - "Mitochondrial Autism" is Real; Vaccine Triggers Cannot Be Ruled Out
May 10, 2011, High Rates of Autism Found in Federal Vaccine Injury Program: Study Says More Answers Needed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/high-rates-of-autism-foun_b_859234.html?
May 5, 2011, Government and Many Scientists Agree: Vaccine-Autism Research Should Continue?
March 18, 2011, CDC to Study Vaccines and Autism?
Feb 11, 2011, The Autism-Vaccine Debate: Why It Won't Go Away
March 18, 2010, Top Autism Panel Backs Research Objectives Mentioning Vaccines -- Dueling Press Releases Ensue
Nov 5, 2009, US News -- Slow Down Vaccines for Some Kids?
Mar 28, 2009, NIH Agency Head: Vaccine-Autism Research is "Legitimate"
Dec 27, 2008, Former UK Science Chief -- Vaccines Cause Autism: "What More Evidence is Needed?"
Nov 11, 2008, "Revolutionary" News From Medicine: 1 in 200 People Carry Mitochondrial Disease Mutation
April 27, 2008, The Next Vaccine-Autism Newsmaker: Not Isolated, Not Unusual
April 4, 2008, CDC Has Lost Control of the Autism Argument
Jan 2, 2007, There is No Autism Epidemic
Somehow Paul Thornton avoided making any mention of these articles and the questions they raise (and I'm sure there are plenty more that I wasn't able to find). We all need to ask ourselves why a reporter writing for a major U.S. paper doesn’t want to see balanced coverage when it comes vaccines. It's so much easier to pretend there are no fraudulent studies, no government payouts for vaccine injury that includes autism, and no experts challenging what conflicted officials tell us.
I think what really bothers Thornton and the rest of the mainstream media is the fact that these Huffington stories are out there, available to anyone who cares to search online. The public has come to realize that there is a huge difference between pap from LA Times and what true investigators have discovered about vaccines.
NOTE:
There must be enormous pressure on Huffington to shut down the debate on vaccines. On April 17, 2016, former CBS Emmy Awarding journalist Sharyl Attkisson published the story, Review of “Vaxxed” deleted From Huffington Post.
Sharyl wrote,
A review of the film by writer Lance Simmens was originally published in the Huffington Post. It deviated from the normally-accepted vaccine industry, government and medical establishment storyline. It read, in part:
Vaxxed, the controversial documentary alleging a direct causal relationship between vaccines and exponential increases in autism amongst children is a deeply disturbing and hence critically important piece of work that will cause many sleepless nights for parents of infants everywhere. I had the honor of both watching the film last night and participating in a discussion afterwards with its Producer, Del Bigtree and Director, Dr. Andrew Wakefield. It is a must see film and deserves to serve as a catalyst for a national discussion of the role of mandatory vaccines for children and the role of the pharmaceutical industry in government decision-making.
Vaxxed represents another in a cascade of documented allegations calling to task not only the corruption of government regulatory agencies but the corruption of science and scientific method itself.
What is equally disturbing, however, is that the film represents another in a cascade of documented allegations calling to task not only the corruption of government regulatory agencies but the corruption of science and scientific method itself. And to the extent that the current Presidential election contest has sparked virulent dissatisfaction with our elected leadership and the institutions of government we must take this opportunity to seriously question what many had taken for granted: namely, that government has as its most solemn mission the protection of public health, safety and welfare. The film carefully documents decisions by the Centers for Disease Control that lend credence to systemic corruption.
Sharyl continued,
Simmens has reported that his review was removed from the Huffington Post shortly after it was posted. He says his account was blocked and he’s been unable to get an explanation.
It’s probably just a malfunction. The news media wouldn’t censor this sort of information.
That was, I'm sure, said in a very sarcastic tone. The news media has powerful forces pushing to cover up the truth about vaccine studies, vaccine damage, and the autism epidemic.
Forbes and Scientific American have both attacked Huffington for their "anti-vaccine" stories. Censorship is alive and well in America, and things are most likely only going to get worse.
Anne Dachel is Media Editor for Age of Autism.
Benedetta,
I thought the mention of cyclical eating was in a paper by a research team from China led by Heyam Hamza, 2012. This was not an easy read but basically the researchers decided to dig deeper into the question of the safety of aluminum adjuvants by studying gene expression after exposure to the Hepatitis B vaccine. Using mice as test subjects they measured what genes were up regulated or down regulated at 24, 48, and 72 hours. They found 144 genes were changed, but they focused on 7 particular genes that were biomarkers for liver injury and disruption of mitochondria. The hepatitis B vaccine leads to loss of mitochondrial integrity and cell death. Genes that lead to obesity were over expressed following the vaccination. Still I couldn't find the sentence on cyclical eating that had something to do with the overall effect of mitochondria disruption.
Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines were first studied by C.A. Shaw around 2007 and he did a couple of other experiments following the first one. He took three groups of mice, one group got saline solution, one group got a light aluminum vaccine schedule, and one group got the American vaccine schedule which is very high in aluminum. One of the effects was on weight gain. The high aluminum group of male mice gained the most weight 154% increase compared to 123% increase in the low aluminum group. So, basically in addition to devastating effects on the neurons, aluminum also caused weight gain in that experiment.
Another paper I read recently was called, "The Molecular Connection Between Aluminum Toxicity, Anemia, Inflammation and Obesity: Therapeutic Cues by researchers in Canada.
This also was a complex paper because aluminum will upset one process that leads to a cascade of disruptions. For example, a hormone secreted by the liver and adipose fat, hepcidin, senses iron metabolism that has a relationship to anemia and obesity. Aluminum toxicity increases iron in the blood, hepcidin is secreted. and this leads to gene expression such as genes related to hypoxia and inflammatory cytokines. Obese individuals have high hepcidin levels. Basically aluminum disrupts iron, leads to mitochondrial destruction, hinders iron transport, displaces iron from stores like transferrin, is prooxidant, and competes with magnesium and calcium in cells. Aluminum acts like a cluster bomb going off at the cellular level.
Anyway, we are in the midst of a obesity epidemic. Dipping into the research on aluminum and its effects on mitochondria and metabolism, one comes up with a big what if question. What if the obesity epidemic is somehow related to the vaccination schedule. Again we have a situation where everything is blamed on parents, kids, food, and even the First Lady; but not the vaccine schedule. Reading these papers changed my mind on obesity. Maybe obese people really don't have control, maybe it is as much a disruption of genes, and biochemicals as it is a character flaw. Some gene got turned on and they eat, eat, eat all the time. That's what I was thinking when I said cyclical eating. It does seem, though, that mitochondria disease has different causes, and there is a genetic version that can be more serious.
Posted by: kapoore | August 17, 2016 at 12:17 PM
Kapoore: I have heard the same about the New York Times - Our neighbor moved down here to Kentucky from Mass. , and he went to the big Rite Aid they built next to the interstate on Sunday to get his New York Times. LOL. No one around here knew what the New York Times was.
But they know what the Lexington Herald Leader is. I wonder if no one noticed when they are reading articles why they never noticed that some of the articles came from the bigger newspapers? Regurgitated as the say
And speaking of regurgitated I had no idea what you meant about cyclical eating eating. So I looked it up; something you can't do with a newspaper -- The Lexington Herald Leader is no long selling their paper at Rite Aid either -- they are putting it all on the internet by the way.
What is cyclic vomiting syndrome?
Cyclic vomiting syndrome, sometimes referred to as CVS, is an increasingly recognized disorder with sudden, repeated attacks—also called episodes—of severe nausea, vomiting, and physical exhaustion that occur with no apparent cause. The episodes can last from a few hours to several days. Episodes can be so severe that a person has to stay in bed for days, unable to go to school or work. A person may need treatment at an emergency room or a hospital during episodes. After an episode, a person usually experiences symptom-free periods lasting a few weeks to several months. To people who have the disorder, as well as their family members and friends, cyclic vomiting syndrome can be disruptive and frightening.
The disorder can affect a person for months, years, or decades. Each episode of cyclic vomiting syndrome is usually similar to previous ones, meaning that episodes tend to start at the same time of day, last the same length of time, and occur with the same symptoms and level of intensity.
Oh, I am very familiar with that!
Posted by: Benedetta | August 16, 2016 at 09:26 AM
"Bio ethicists." Ultimate pharma media goons.
Posted by: Concerned mommy | August 15, 2016 at 08:25 PM
Thank you Anne for all you do! Up for a little moonlighting? You should send Ms Huffington this article along with your resume. Thrive Global could use an honest journalist. First Dr Stein and now Ms Huffington. I think this vaxtremist tactic of attacking progressives for even the slightest and most tepid of commentary and/or action questioning vaccine safety and efficacy is going to backfire. Reeks of McCarthyism, and hopefully these powerhouses won't take it lying down. Have to share TMR's latest re-post. Love those folks, and you folks too! Again, thank you so much for all you do!!!
http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/exactly-anti-vaccine/
Posted by: annie | August 15, 2016 at 07:24 PM
Yes, thank you for collecting bad news. I know avoiding it doesn't make it go away. I hate the L.A. Times, so last week when a young man outside of Whole Foods wanted me to support his college tuition by buying the L.A. Times I said..NO. He then said that I could support his education and not buy the L.A. Times so I said OK and gave him some money. Then I asked him if a lot of people didn't want to buy the Times and he emphatically agreed this was the case. I guess he is out there all day taking complaints about the L.A. Times. The biggest complaint seemed to be from people who want to cancel the paper and the Times won't let them. I told him that I didn't like the Times because they demonize parents for wanting a choice whether or not to vaccinate their children. He was shocked that parents didn't have the right to choose not to vaccinate. I thought how a poll during the SB277 debate said most Californians supported parents in the right to refuse vaccinations, but neither the L.A. Times nor the Democratic legislators think parents should be making those choices. It's hard to believe but sadly true.
The problem for me is that I know from personal experience that a sick child is without question the responsibility of the parents. That means they are responsible if the child gets one of the so called vaccine preventable diseases. But parents are also responsible if a child gets a vaccine injury. The only difference is that doctors can cure most diseases, and in fact, most vaccine preventable diseases once were mild childhood illnesses that resolved with no doctor intervention. However, doctors cannot cure vaccine injuries. Maybe that is why they choose to ignore them. Parents, though, cannot ignore a vaccine injury---encephalitis, seizures, autoimmune disease, mitochondria disease that can result in cyclical eating. So, doctors say that vaccines don't cause those diseases but they also can't say what does. It is current medical wisdom that no knows what causes most immune related diseases. It's just bad luck, bad karmic. Maybe ten years down the road we'll find out those diseases do have a cause, that is, the doctor visit.
Posted by: kapoore | August 15, 2016 at 04:00 PM
It is certainly not news that "patient groups" are mostly just pharma lobbying fronts. On the other hand if "patient groups" are now lobbying for more expensive medicines it rather gives the game away.
Posted by: John Stone | August 15, 2016 at 11:47 AM
If one follows this back to the source, Public Citizen, it turns out that both Chaffetz and Issa are called out for the very same thing in an earlier report.
Posted by: Reading Is Fundamental | August 15, 2016 at 11:15 AM
Dr. Kostoff,
Would be nice if watchdog Public Citizen could watch vaccines too.
Posted by: Linda1 | August 15, 2016 at 10:52 AM
Oh dang -- not clear on my previous comment: I was referring to Scientific American attacked Huffington in which Dr. Fasano's article on celiac - and his cholera vaccine appeared in Scientific American .
Posted by: Benedetta | August 15, 2016 at 09:35 AM
"Now a troubling new report from the corporate watchdog group Public Citizen reveals that some patients groups are accepting donations from the pharmaceutical industry and then siding with it in backing policies that may contribute to higher drug costs for the very patients whose interests they claim to represent."
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37216-a-surprise-shill-for-big-pharma
Posted by: Ronald Kostoff | August 15, 2016 at 09:20 AM
Thanks Anne, a great collection of articles that bring up questions they refuse to answer.
It is only a matter of time before some California pediatrician demands that a “shrapnel air bag” be installed in front of every baby car seat in America. A large check will then be provided for his efforts.
This will change the present vaccine focus to a new group of “anti-airbag” parents...
Posted by: go Trump | August 15, 2016 at 07:15 AM
'We all need to ask ourselves why a reporter writing for a major U.S. paper doesn’t want to see balanced coverage when it comes vaccines."
I think that particular question has been asked and answered for two decades at least .. the question should be .. "why a reporter writing for a major US paper" .. should feel so comfortable among his professional peers .. promoting "censorship"?
I suspect it is because he knows his call for "censorship" will be widely accepted among his peers because they have all been taught to practice .. ADVOCACY JOURNALISM .. where any controversial subject has already been decided at the corporate level of the paper .. making differing opinions ... unnecessary and unacceptable .. for publication.
Trust me on this .. "censorship on vaccine safety" is just ONE of MANY other similar "controversial subjects" .. that are routinely being "censored" every day .. most controversial issues smothered under the heavy hand of what has become the new CEO standard of journalism .. "political correctness"
Indeed .. most polls show the American people have little to no trust in our "free press" .. and .. this particular journalistic fraud is a perfect example why that is deservedly so.
Unfortunately ... journalism is just one of the many institutions in our country that no longer deserves the public's complete trust .. others include .. science, academia, public health, religion, military, law .. on and on .. in fact I cannot think of a single institution in the US today that I trust as I did when growing up 70 years ago? Not one.
But .. hey .. that's just cynical old me.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | August 15, 2016 at 07:09 AM
I suspect this is overkill. Vaccine critical articles have not been welcome at Huffington Post for half a decade at least (since its purchase by AOL, which was basically - surprise, surprise - Time Warner), and nor have comments. We've seen this kind of thing in the UK: it is probably just to intimidate and maintain discipline but actually Arianna knuckled under long ago. Maybe Lawrence Solomon flew under the radar a bit, but it was scarcely typical.
Posted by: John Stone | August 15, 2016 at 06:32 AM
LOL! I did not know - at the time - or I would have kept my hard copy of the "Scientific American"
When Dr. Fassano wrote that he had worked for 20 years on the cholera vaccine and finally had to give up cause it gave all his test subjects celiac spru . Now, on line it just says he was working with cholera and dropped the word vaccine.
Ohhhhh, the nuts, illogical, mad world we live in.
Posted by: Benedetta | August 15, 2016 at 06:19 AM