Media Sanctioned Prejudice on Minnesota Autism Board
Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes is also the land of 1 point of view, it would seem. There is no such thing as vaccine injury, choice or conversation about safety. If you have touched the topic, you are an anti-vaxxer and as such, you will be ridiculed even when you donate your precious time away from your severely autistic child to sit on a board designed to help families cope with the slew of problems associated with the rise in autism.
Wayne Rohde has written a carefully researched book on The Vaccine Court that every American should read. He moved to Minnesota from Oklahoma to help his son. His son Nick was the namesake of "Nicki's Law" which in 2008, fought for medical coverage for autism in Oklahoma. Monday (May 19), two newspapers – both in predominantly Republican communities – published editorials in support of “Nick’s Law,” a measure by Senator Jay Paul Gumm that would require health insurance policies cover diagnosis and treatment for autistic children. Patti Carroll has worked tooth and nail for ALL people with autism in Minnesota and also to protect those not "yet" touched. She was especially involved in helping the immigrant Somali population as they faced autism for the very first time, once here in America. To offend them by writing them off as mere "antivaxxers" is an insult in the extreme.
And it's sanctioned.
We are the new N word. We are the new R word. I was supposed to speak at an autism school somewhere in the United States in 2 weeks. I was hired as keynote speaker for their annual fund raiser. Some parents at this fine private school caught wind that "KIM ROSSI OH YOU MEAN STAGLIANO THE ANTIVAXXER" is being hired and guess what? They got me FIRED from the job. They cancelled my signed contract. I was really looking forward to meeting a new group and sharing my experiences by using my humor to make them laugh.
I'm sorry for Wayne and Patti. They have weathered a storm for being part of this committee from inside the committee and outside too. I know they are strong enough and dedicated enough to look past the shunning and slurs against them. They are autism parents and we are tough as hell. We deflect barbs and names like water off a duck while we fight in the trenches for our kids. We're tired. We're getting older. We are STILL finding news ways to help the aging autism epidemic survive and thrive into adulthood - by serving on committees exactly like this one in Minnesota.
Kim
From the Daily Beast:
Two members of the Minnesota Autism Council are vaccine skeptics, in a state that already has a history of struggling with misinformation about vaccinations and has recently fought one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent memory.
The Autism Council was formed last fall by state Sen. Jim Abeler (R) to advise the state’s legislature on public policy related to autism.
Abeler, who believes doctors should tell parents the “pluses and minuses of vaccines,” appointed anti-vaxxer Wayne Rohde, co-founder of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, a group that is skeptical of vaccines, and Patti Carroll, who was involved with organizing anti-vaccine outreach in the Minnesota Somali community.
Rohde refutes the label of “anti-vaxxer.” “Those who question vaccine safety are quickly marginalized as saying ‘We’re anti-vax,’” Rohde told the Star Tribune.
@saba, I'd say this post is more about prejudice, prejudices of the type that have sometimes been used to justify/facilitate slavery.
If you look at what a vaccine mandate is, though, and if you understand the adverse effects that can stem from that mandate, how they may shackle a person's health and redirect many resources (resources paid for by hours of labor on the part of the one sickened or their families or others in society) to pay for what sometimes amounts to a lifetime of medical "care" that one doesn't have a choice regarding or know how to avoid/find alternatives to ... forced vaccination, or IMO even vaccination under conditions of fraudulent inducement (believing you've been informed of all risks/benefits/limitations when you haven't), this is one of the modern forms of slavery IMO.
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | January 29, 2019 at 02:10 PM
personally i have trouble, despite everything, to = this with the history of racism, and slavery. i don't think it's a good comparison.
Posted by: saba | January 29, 2019 at 01:13 PM
When I was a kid growing up in the 1950's everyone got the measles, mumps, chicken pox, and after a week or two they got over it with no side effects and NO ONE DIED. These illnesses were simply a normal part of childhood that almost everyone caught even on into the 1960's. Fast forward to the mid 1980's when all of a sudden these illnesses suddenly become a dangerous risk, including possible death. The CDC, NIH, American Academy of Pediatrics suddenly stated that these illnesses were as dangerous as being exposed to radiation and therefore all babies and very young children should be vaccinated against them for fear of mortal harm. Suddenly since the mid 1980's our children were given vaccines that they did not need and the reason-strictly for profit for big pharma and they lied to all the parents without batting an eye that there were real risks to these vaccines that would lead to an autism diagnosis that is now a lifelong disability. I being the young innocent mother back then believed that the vaccines were necessary for my son and now I realize how naïve I was to trust the medical establishment. What I want to know now is what researchers are out there who realize that our children do not have to live this way for the rest of their lives and that with enough research the damage from the vaccines can be reversed and our children can be cured and lead normal lives just like everyone else. Research is the only way we will find a CURE.
Posted by: Gayle | January 27, 2019 at 09:19 PM
Kudos to Patti and Wayne for their long hours of hard work. The State of Minnesota is getting a bargain.
Responsibility for the Star Tribune’s hit piece belongs to op-ed writer Jill Burcum, of whom I wrote last February. She has been criticized by at least one other local journalist as mischaracterizing the critics of institutions she holds dear. Like Hansel and Gretel, she leaves little trails of digital breadcrumbs leading to the cronies she protects.
Burcum cultivates plausible deniability of vaccine/autism causal evidence so she can maintain prized community alliances. So much for objective reporting. How has society reached this place where mainstream newspapers have stopped investigating fairly? It’s an Orwellian dystopian nightmare, destroying the lives of countless people.
The Daily Beast characterizes Minnesota as “struggling with misinformation about vaccinations.“ Actually the source of spin is immunization head Kris Ehresmann, the mother of an adult son with autism who, rumors say, reacted adversely to the DTaP vaccine. I can only hope decades from now the people dealing with the autism epidemic’s fallout will see the obvious and wonder why we so many of us did not, or would not.
Posted by: nhokkanen | January 26, 2019 at 12:38 PM
Bill: Right on target. What makes this the most supreme evil is in the targeting of helpless infants and children. Where are the ministers in their pulpits raising the alarm about this? Where is our President?
Posted by: Gary Ogden | January 26, 2019 at 10:46 AM
It’s truly pathetic (and telling) that a headline with the word autism in it, is followed up by an article that uses the word measles three times as much. Do these ding-a-lings really believe they’re kidding anyone? How many people diagnosed with the measles as children, living in the world today, are: on disability, need life-long services, have seizures, can talk?! It boggles the mind how the vocal minority of powerful people, the one percenters, are getting away with convincing the public that autism is no big deal while the measles is a deadly scourge. Everyone out there who believes that Rupert Murdock has only brain-washed people who watch Fox News is kidding herself. His power (via lackey Brian Deer) runs far and deep on both sides of the aisle.
Posted by: annie | January 26, 2019 at 10:29 AM
Regarding the link to the "Daily Beast" story, it's clear to me, that the "Daily Beast" is PRO-VXX PROPAGANDA! On the same page that the story about the Minnesota Autism Council appears,
there are ALSO 2 other stories.
The first, under the blaring, all-caps headline, "CONTAGIOUS", is titled
"Blame Anti-vaxxer Parents for the Next Measles Outbreak". I didn't note the author's name.
The second, under the blaring, all-caps headline "SICK", is titled "Did Anti-vaxxers Spark Measles Outbreak." The author is listed as "Paul A. Offit". Anybody else here at AoA know who Paul Offit is?
Why no mention of his "Dr." title? Why no full disclosure of his close working and financial ties to the "Pro-Vaxx Industrial Complex"? The CDC? Offit writes as if he's an investigative journalist! Or could this be another GHOST-WRITTEN screed from the "Daily Beast".
Make no mistake, my friends. We here in America are engaged in a long, drawn-out, un-acknowledged CIVIL WAR. A PROPAGANDA WAR. Money is power, and the money of power is most able to buy the loudest voices in the media. I call them the "GREG B.'s", - the Global Ruling Elites, & Global Banksters. $Billionaires$ such as Bill Gates, the Koch Bros., George Soros, Jeff Bezos, etc., are able to BUY the loudest voices. That's GLOBALIST PROPAGANDA. I'm no "anti-vaxxer", but I WILL accept the label of "vaccine skeptic". I'm skeptical when RICH GUYS with vested interests try to tell me what I can and can't do, and especially when they would "mandate", that is, *FORCE* me or my children to consume pharmaceuticals without fully informed consent. And I KNOW they are not telling me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the TRUTH. They aren't, they can't. They're PROPAGANDISTS. May GOD help us all!
KEEP UP the GOOD WORK, people!....
Posted by: Bill | January 26, 2019 at 09:50 AM
"The Autism Council was formed last fall by state Sen. Jim Abeler (R) to advise the state’s legislature on public policy related to autism .. Abeler believes doctors should tell parents the “pluses and minuses of vaccines,” appointed anti-vaxxer Wayne Rohde, co-founder of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, a group that is skeptical of vaccines, and Patti Carroll, who was involved with organizing anti-vaccine outreach in the Minnesota Somali community."
So … the Daily Beast implies it is somehow "anti-vaccine" to believe doctors should tell parents of the pluses and minuses of vaccines. Really? Telling parents of the pluses and minuses of vaccines is a basic requirement of international "informed consent" laws designed to prevent the usurpation of individual and parental RIGHTS to judge for themselves and their precious children whether or not the benefits of each and every vaccine is worth the KNOWN RISKS INVOLVED.
It is positively frightening to learn "informing parents" of the RISKS TO ANYTHING .. airbags, helmets, anti-biotics, on and on .. is the same as being ANTI-EVERYTHING WITH KNOWN RISKS.
Posted by: Bob Moffit | January 26, 2019 at 08:49 AM