Is there a Confundus Charm at BMJ? Critical of US Vaccine Organizations and CDC
Note: I admit to being a dedicated fan of all things Harry Potter. Heck, I look like Bellatrix, don't I? (OK, not my teeth.) JB Handley posted on Facebook yesterday this remarkable British Medical Journal piece critical, I repeat, critical of our CDC funded non-profits. That's said, can WE at Autism Age get some of the CDC love? Money? Cash? Our John Stone handles UK issues with aplomb. I rather nicked this piece from his purview. Hope he doesn't call me a git. Cheerio! Kim
The unofficial vaccine educators: are CDC funded non-profits sufficiently independent?
By Peter Doshi, BMJ
Vaccination programs have long been a centerpiece of public health activity. But policies of compulsion have always been controversial. Against a backdrop of recent measles outbreaks, France and Italy moved this year to mandate certain vaccines for school entry.12 There’s even a renewed push for mandates in the UK,3 where public health leaders have long resisted compulsory vaccination on the grounds that it undermines the trust between the public and healthcare professionals and is ultimately counterproductive.4
The debate is also alive in the US. Although all states require vaccination as a condition for entry to school, most also allow exemptions for families with non-medical philosophical or religious objections. Overall, childhood vaccination levels remain at or near historically high levels, with under 1% of toddlers receiving no vaccines.56 But beneath the broad national trends there is geographic variation in coverage,6 and survey data have documented that parental concerns over vaccination safety and timing are common, even among those whose children receive all recommended vaccines.7
In 2015, a US federal advisory committee warned that public confidence in vaccines cannot be taken for granted,5 and some prominent vaccine advocacy organizations are pushing for greater compulsion. But are these groups—which present themselves as reliable sources of information—providing the public with independent information?
Two years ago, California state legislators passed a law removing the personal belief exemption that had previously allowed families to defer or decline mandated childhood vaccinations.8 In doing so, California became the third state to remove non-medical exemptions, following Mississippi and West Virginia. You can view the entry here, without sign in.
Thanks, John, for flagging up those responses. They're very informative, along with the article, and I think show the increasing but covered-up unease among the British medical profession. I notice David Healy (Pharmageddon) is a doctor in Bangor. What a pity I left there after getting my degree!
Posted by: Grace Green | November 10, 2017 at 09:09 AM
Note correspondence
http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5104/rapid-responses
Posted by: John Stone | November 10, 2017 at 07:16 AM
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,have a search engine below and you can see how various Pharma companies link up off shore and pay no tax back to the countries they have just robbed.
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
https://www.icij.org/
Pharma For Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | November 09, 2017 at 05:11 AM
Thank you for sharing this very valuable analysis. Focus on the often obscured Money Trail, Profit-Margins (and profit goals), and Conflicts Of Interest, is an excellent way to bring attention to the subject of the rigid, unquestioning stance on vaccines that we see mimicked so often in the U.S. Many people who cannot be bothered with trying to understand vaccines, can understand a money trail and how that money trail ruins an organization's appearance of independent thought and decisions. (And certainly with the organizations mentioned, there seems to be scant evidence of any recent independent thought or decision-making.)
Posted by: JPS | November 09, 2017 at 02:02 AM
Thank you, Dr. Doshi and Age of Autism!
On the subject of vaccine educators, I'm getting caught up on recent posts by James Lyons-Weiler including this informative test:
https://jameslyonsweiler.com/2017/10/31/true-or-false-how-much-do-you-know-about-vaccine-risk/
Dr. Lyons-Weiler welcomes more submissions of T/F questions in the comments.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | November 08, 2017 at 06:37 PM
Hi Cia,
A have fixed the link now.
Posted by: John Stone | November 08, 2017 at 03:20 PM
"Vaccines are considered one of public health’s greatest success stories. But is all promotion of vaccines necessarily a good thing, or does it depend on the details?"
In the U.S., the public health authorities are still claiming that water fluoridation is a huge success, despite all of the negative research that has come to light and the fact that much of the world has recognized the folly of doing so.
The bottom line is that the government (and the people who rely on it for funding) cannot be the judge of its own programs.
Imagine if you and I had a legal dispute and I suggested that we bring it to my uncle to decide? Would you be willing to accept his verdict?
Posted by: David Weiner | November 08, 2017 at 01:21 PM
I could only get the first page of the report. It said I had to log in, and it would charge 30 pounds to buy the article. Is there any other way to read it?
Posted by: cia parker | November 08, 2017 at 12:41 PM
I didn't get skepticism about vaccines or their safety from this report. What I saw was in the first paragraph...what I got was he was questioning the advertising of vaccines from their advocates. Don't think he implied mistrust on his behalf about vaccines themselves butmonly about the advertising of them......???grandma peg
Posted by: Margaret Jaeger | November 08, 2017 at 12:17 PM
How sad it is that California lost its rights to Religious Freedom to say no to having their children shot up with neurotoxic chemicals and drugs. How sad it is that California lost its Parental-medical decision making and philosophical rights to say no to cancer-promoting neurotoxins and chemicals found in vaccines. Consequently Los Angeles Kindergarteners had a 17% Increase in Autism in just the first 3 months of school and vaccine promoters like the LATimes says not one word. "In the Great Green Room, they are whispering hush..." Sad that Ca. lost 13% of intact educated children from the school system, but the world must learn that even states where mother's have legal documentation to exempt their children from vaccines are getting; Moms are getting Thrown in Jail by the courts and judges for not vaccinating their children! Once a society starts brainwashing its people- public opinion loses its sight and science loses its conscience. 54% of kids are now chronically ill-don't let this happen in your country.
Posted by: Shelley Tzorfas | November 08, 2017 at 11:42 AM
Policy -based evidence making for stoogies by Bandolier evidence based medicine bandits sector incorporated.
If you like all things Harry Potter you will enjoy reading The Gaelic Otherworld John Gregorson Campbell's isbn no 1 84158 207 7 £16.99
Buachialle Etive Mor area and Loch Etive Glencoe .Wild camping climbing and hillwalking heaven on earth . Not an area for the unwary . Ask the Langside mountaineering club "The Langie" about Glencoe ghosts and such likes some will talk about thier experiencies "On the hill" but many will not .
"born wild and free and staying that way !.
Beautiful Scotland Glen Etive youtube
No Great Mischief if you fall The Highland experience by John MacLeod isbn no 1-85158-540 0
Good reading !
Posted by: Morag | November 08, 2017 at 10:21 AM
Peter Doshi is the only person in the mainstream who dares to suggest vaccines aren't necessarily God's gift to humankind.
Posted by: Grace Green | November 08, 2017 at 09:16 AM
Kim your nothing like Bellatrix shes a pharma presstitute..
Helena Bonham Carter.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/no-child-born-to-die-vaccine-push-aims-to-save-millions-1-1498048
But glad to see the CDC rivers of blood money is possibly drying up.
Pharma for Prison
MMR RIP
Posted by: ANGUS FILES | November 08, 2017 at 09:05 AM
Correct. It’s a subscriber site.
Posted by: ME | November 08, 2017 at 08:09 AM
I'm not able to get the rest of the article without sign-in.
Posted by: Cait from Canada | November 08, 2017 at 07:52 AM
Kim
You are very welcome. I don't know about Confundus charms but I think Hogwarts would be a pretty good analogy for BMJ.
John
Posted by: John Stone | November 08, 2017 at 06:18 AM