By Kent Heckenlively

It seems that William W. Thompson has finally come over to the side of the angels.

For those of you who might have been off fishing the past few days, or like me, spent part of the week in the hospital with a gall bladder attack, I'll briefly recap what may be one of the most consequential stories ever to come out of the autism epidemic.

On Monday, August 18, a video was released by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and Dr. Brian Hooker which claimed that a major researcher for the CDC admitted that he and others had concealed evidence that moving up the date for the MMR vaccine had increased the rate of autism for African-American males by 340%.  Later in the week it was revealed that the researcher was Dr. William W. Thompson, who had in fact been one of the authors of a 2004 paper by the CDC claiming there was no link between the timing of the MMR shot and the development of autism.  On Friday it was reported that Dr. Thompson had been escorted off the grounds of the CDC by security personnel.

For those of us who have been in the fight a long time this news produces mixed emotions in us.  I reall the optimism with which I reported on the Omnibus Autism proceedings, reporting on the Hannah Poling case which many of us thought would finally break the whole damned thing wide open, or the revelation that the Vaccine Injury program had actually given awards to at least 83 children who suffered vaccine injuries which included autism.

On the one hand I want to take this guy who has concealed this information for so many years, throw him up against a wall, and go to town on him.

On the other hand I sense a real opportunity to advance our cause among a scientific community which has been largely indifferent to us, as well as frequently hostile.

As a leader in any movement it's important to understand your adversaries, their strengths, as well as their weaknesses.  What moves them, what leaves the indifferent, and what is likely to break them.

I want to share an example from a less fraught topic.  Recently I attended a surprise 50th birthday party for a friend of mine, an economics professor at Stanford University in California.  One of my friends' recent academic accolades was being one of only ten economists invited to the Nobel Prize symposium (held every ten years) to present on his work.  The expectation is that these ten economists will probably win the Nobel Prize somewhere in the next ten years.  Pretty cool that this is happening to my high school buddy.

By Kent Heckenlively

I was standing in the take-out line at the Rutherford Grill in California's beautiful Napa Valley when the writing on the back of a man's t-shirt caught my attention.

The t-shirt read, "Be without fear in the face of your enemies.  Stand brave and upright that God may love thee.  Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death.  Protect the helpless and do no wrong - that is your oath."

I tapped the man on the shoulder and asked where the quote had come from. 

"Oh, it's the vow of the Knights Templar," he replied.

Okay, Knights Templar, I thought.  Not really clear on them.  When I got home I did a little research.  The Knights Templar were founded in 1129 with the idea of protecting pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land.  They were attacked by King Phillip IV of France in 1307, and officially disbanded by Pope Clement in 1312, or roughly 702 years before I found myself standing in that restaurant.

Now I don't want to talk about whether the Knights Templar were a positive or negative force in history, but to pose a more elemental question.  Why is it that more than 700 years after they were disbanded we still quote their oath?

I think it's because in any age we recognize courage.  And it made me wonder who the people are in this age whose courage I admire.  It didn't take me long to come up with an answer.  In fact, I know a good many of them.  They are the ones writing books and making films to help our community and those helpless children who all too often cannot speak for themselves.

I must start with David Kirby and his wonderful book, Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy, released in 2005.

Next are Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill for their book, The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Man-Made Epidemic, and the work they do on a daily basis with this web-site.

I would be remiss if I didn't include Kim Stagliano's book, All I Can Handle - I'm No Mother Theresa [A Life Raising Three Daughters with Autism].

In 2010 Dr. Andrew Wakefield published his book, Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines - The Truth Behind a Tragedy, which detailed the campaign of persecution against him and his work.

An excellent book in all ways was Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children, by Louise Kuo Habakus and Mary Holland, released in 2012.

There was the wonderful movie in 2013, The Greater Good by Leslie Manookian and Kendall Nelson.

After two hundred and twenty-six posts the regular readers of Age of Autism are no doubt familiar with Kent Heckenlively's words.  With subject matters ranging from mercury and aluminum, the Omnibus Autism Proceedings in the Vaccine Court, to stem cells and animal viruses, Heckenlively has been a veritable Scarlet Pimpernel of the bio-med world.

But now you can see his face and hear his comments in this exclusive interview with Dr. Judy Mikovits, his co-author for the book, PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases which is being released by Skyhorse Press on September 2, 2104.  Let us know what you think of the video and feel free to pass it on to friends and family!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ReDZpqUjs

PLAGUE goes on sale September 2, 2014 at bookstores everywhere.

Kent Heckenlively is a Founding Contributing Editor to Age of Autism and author of Plague: One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases.   Visit his website at Plague The Book. You can pre-order the book HERE.

By Kent Heckenlively

You should probably know I worship at the altar of The Lord of the Rings.  As a cinematic evocation of loyalty, friendship, and courage I believe it has no equal.  I tell my son that if someday in the distant future I am not around and he wants to explain to his children or grandchildren what his father hoped to be, he should pop in the DVD and let them view the trilogy.

When I watch I imagine myself as Aragorn, taking the Dimholt Road under the mountain, clutching the sword, Anduril, Flame of the West, offering a deal to the souls of the dishonored dead if they would join me in battle.  I picture myself as Aragon, astride my horse in front of the Black Gate, telling my troops, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.  A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.  An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day!  This day we fight!  Then I jump off my horse, and with the setting sun behind me, a reckless, almost manic glint in my eye and a crooked grin, I am first to charge into the enemy army.

Aside from my heroic Aragorn fantasies the most inspiring part of the story to me is how the different groups of Middle-Earth come together to form a Fellowship and fight a common enemy.  The scene in which a council of humans, elves, dwarves, the wizard Gandalf, and hobbits discuss what to do with the One Ring reminds me of the problems faced by so many disparate groups today.  Among the groups under threat today are the autism parents, those with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and the Lyme disease sufferers, to name just a few of the most prominent.

One of the reasons I love the scene at the council table is because it shows how much each group is mistrusted by the others.  The humans are distrusted because they had a chance to destroy the One Ring and failed to do so.  The dwarves are mistrusted because they care so much about treasure and tunnel too deep into the earth where they risk awakening dark forces.  The elves are distrusted because they so often stand back from the fight, as if they are not part of their world.

By Kent Heckenlively

I've always believed in the power of nicknames to reveal truths about a person.  My grandfather nicknamed me "the little professor" because I could usually be found with my nose in a book.  Indeed, one of the favorite images I have of myself is a picture taken by my fourth grade teacher and given to my parents.  In the picture, class is over, the chairs are up on the tables, and yet I'm still sitting there reading a book.

After two years working on the book, "PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases", I have a greater appreciation for the nickname given to my distinguished co-author, Tsunami Judy.  Dr. Judy Mikovits certainly can talk.  Sometimes I'd interview her for an hour and a half and when I did a word count we'd be at well over fifteen thousand words.  "Judy, they wanted a hundred thousand word book.  With just one interview we're fifteen percent of the way there!"  (Update - It's probably going to be a hundred and fifty thousand word book.)

I like the image of my co-author as some elemental force of nature, because to a great extent it's true.  And yet, there's also a gentleness and an unshakeable devotion to the betterment of humanity in her.  For those of you familiar with the story, you'll know that after a civil dispute with her former employers went in a really "bizarre" direction in the words of Jon Cohen, a writer for Science, she was jailed for five days.  I wanted to write in some joke about how the staff at the jail hadn't improved much since the days when they hung horse-thieves.

"Oh, no," said Dr. Mikovits, "They were really very professional."  Who thinks to compliment the professionalism of their prison guards?  My co-author, that's who!  And as she was waiting to be released, one of the other prisoners told the guards that Dr. Mikovits was a cancer researcher.  A few of the guards had family members with cancer and came up to ask her questions.  They gave her their cards and she promised to review their cases and offer her opinion as to what they should ask their treating physicians.  Who does that?

And it reminded me why I was attracted to this story in the first place.

I want to be inspired by scientists.  I've heard enough double-talk, wilful ignorance, and outright lies from scientists in the autism struggle that it's blinded me to many of the couragous people who are trying to fight our battle.  I want to be inspired by scientists who care about humanity, not whether a certain line of research will affect their lab's funding.

By Kent Heckenlively

I'm not a hero, but I'm trying to live a heroic life.

The other night I was in bed reading the latest adventures of my favorite supernatural detective, Harry Dresden, (often described as a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Phillip Marlowe), and I came across a scene which reminded me of the true nature of heroism.

Harry was in another one of his jams, under contract to the Queen of Winter, who in turn lent him to a villain, Nicodemus Archelone, who wanted to steal the Holy Grail from the treasure vault of the Greek god of the underworld, Hades.  Yeah, it was one of those kind of days.

But Harry had the good sense to bring along his friend, Michael Carpenter, a Knight of the Cross, (yes, that Cross!)  So this group is down in the treasure vault, all the bad stuff is coming down, with the villain Nicodemus about to double-cross them, and Michael offers Nicoedmus a chance to surrender.  Michael's words don't seem to come from your run of the mill fantasy story, but might just be my new code for life.

Michael tells the villain, "You think your power is what shapes the world that you walk in.  But that is an illusion.  Your choices shape your world.  You think your power will protect you from the consequences of those choices.  But you are wrong.  You create your own rewards.  There is a Judge.  There is Justice in this world.  And one day you will receive what you have earned.  Choose carefully."

Okay, maybe that last bit was a little too close to the famous line in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but it's still very powerful.  And it made me think about the book I've been co-writing with Dr. Judy Mikovits for the last two years, PLAGUE - One Scientist's Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases, which is being released on September 2, 2014 (now available for pre-order on Amazon.  You can also visit the web-site www.plaguethebook.com)

Because you see, in the past two years I feel as if I've uncovered a lot of villainy in the scientific world.  And it makes me wonder what a true hero is supposed to do in such a situation.  If you'll let me explain, I think a hero should try to understand the forces which created his enemies.

For those I might call the villains in my story, when they were young I believe they had an overwhelming desire to help their fellow man, and perhaps a bit of vanity that they could crack the great mysteries of our world.  They learned that there was a rigorous scientific method in which they were supposed to tell the absolute truth.  An experiment worked, or it failed.

By Kent Heckenlively

I’m always telling anybody who asks that one of the challenges of our movement is to attract the general public to our issues.  There are so many pieces to this puzzle, our individual stories, the influence of special interests, the corruption of science, but at its heart the question is a simple one: what factors are causing an unprecedented rise in chronic diseases like autism, chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, to name just a few?

It was with these thoughts in mind that I was delighted to pick up David Hammond’s new book, Mercury Poisoning – The Undiagnosed Epidemic, and find that he had so successfully navigated these treacherous waters.  His book is well-organized, easy to read, and authoritative.  Hammond has an excellent writing style and his chapters each take on a specific question, such as how mercury increases the toxicity of other metals, or the complexity of mercury symptoms.

Like most of us, Hammond comes to these issues through personal experience.  He was a laborer in a steel factory in Australia and suffered from the effects of mercury poisoning via inhaled mercury vapors from the scrap metal in molten steel.  He was fortunate enough to find an internet forum comprised of people who had also been exposed to mercury, undergo chelation, and recover his health.

In an unemotional, but straight-forward manner Hammond makes his points.  Modern man is exposed to heavy metals far in access of our ancestors.  Even low levels of mercury, over time, can lead to very severe health problems.  Mercury exposure works in combination with other metals, increasing their toxicity.  Hammond provides examples from the medical literature of the diseases which can be caused by mercury poisoning, and details cases of people who have removed the mercury from their bodies and regained their health.

If there is somebody in your life who is curious about mercury exposure, or you are confused about this important issue, I encourage you to go out and buy this book.

Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor to Age of Autism.

By Kent Heckenlively

As a father, I live a divided life. My daughter Jacqueline has severe autism, seizures, and at the age of sixteen years old still cannot speak. When she walks she sways like a drunken sailor, always looking like she’s about to capsize – but more often than not making it to her destination.

By contrast, my thirteen-year-old son Ben is neurotypical. He does not have seizures or autism, and is athletically gifted. He is usually the fastest kid in his group, and as his soccer coach recently told me, “Ben has this almost sixth sense for being in the right place at the right time to get the ball.” 

My son is also highly verbal and has a wicked sense of humor. Because I’m a science teacher and a member of the executive board of my union, I’m often interacting with a few of his teachers and they tell me many of the funny things he says in class. I cringe sometimes because I recognize my barbed, sarcastic humor and know that in many instances it is appreciated and amusing to people, but fear in others it will get him into trouble. “Watch your tongue,” I’ll tell him, worried that he might be viewed as defiant, and yet secretly proud that he is nobody’s fool.

As a science teacher I’m aware that my parental life presents me with a classic science experiment. I have one child with no trace of autism or other neurological problems, and another who is severely affected. Granted, the sample size is small, but it might yet present some intriguing data for further consideration.

Note: Read Kent's interview with  Jeff Hays of BOUGHT here.

by Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

We all know what we need.

We need a well-produced film that shows how the system of checks and balances which normally protects the public from defective consumer products has gone horribly wrong in vaccines.  And we need to do it with a vehicle that reaches people outside of our community.

And if we really want the message to reach the general public, it would probably be best to combine our  health and scientific concerns with those of other communities, especially when all of these groups face the same dysfunctional system.  "BOUGHT" is that movie.

The film asks the critical questions so many of us want answered:  Are vaccines really safe and effective for diseases?  Are genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) key to feeding the growing population.  Has Big Pharma really taken over medical research?  These are the questions that generations to come will look to us and ask ifwe pursued them with courage and intelligence.  Their future is in our hands, and in our wallets.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I know that readership in the mainstream media has declined over the past several years because people have lots of other choices and so many times it seems like the media is being bought and paid for by some industry that isn't really interested in telling you the truth.  

So just in case you haven't been reading the popular press all that much, I thought I'd compile the current enemy list of all right-thinking people so you'd have it in a single place.  It just makes hating people so much easier when you don't get confused about the identity of the bad guys.

1.  Dr. Andrew Wakefield - Okay, let's all pile on him first.  I mean, so he was a top scientist in the field of gastroenterology and he did respond to parent complaints that their children regressed after a MMR vaccination and had gastrontestinal problems.  Like any good supervillian, he went looking for the source of the gastrointestinal problems and found the measles virus in the gut of these children several years after it should have cleared their system, and was brazen enough to say the findings called for additional research.  That's what good scientists are supposed to do when they find something which might help people, right?  Instead, Wakefield was attacked and found guilty of "conspiracy" with another gastroenertologist who had retired years earlier.  However, that other doctor was able to get the insurance company to fight the verdict handed down by the British Medical Council and be exonerated.  So, even though now the gastrointestinal problems of children with autism are widely accepted, Wakefield remains probably the only man on the planet guilty of a conspiracy with himself.  You have to be a major-league supervillain to pull off that feat.

2.  Jenny McCarthy - Jenny was an actress, a best-selling author of humorous books, and yes, she did have a rocking body that was hot enough to land her in the pages of Playboy magazine.  Then she had a child who developed autism after a vaccination, and she was able to recover him, a supposed impossibility.  When she talked about what had happened to her son, she was attacked as if she was, well, an NBA owner who made racially insensitive remarks.  Okay, let's put her on the hate list.

3.  Dr. Bernadine Healy - Healy may not have had a rocking body, but she had a rocking mind.  It was good enough to make her the first female head of the National Institutes of Health, where she started the Human Genome Project.  Oh, and after that little stint, she headed that crypto-fascist organization, a.k.a.  the Red Cross, and was a columnist for U. S. News and World Report.  She thought it was important to study subgroups of people who received vaccinations because some might be more vulnerable to side-effects than others.  What?!?  Some medical interventions might have different effects on different people and should be studied?!?  Next, she'll be saying the world is flat and we're going to sail off the edge.

4.  Sharyl Attkisson - For those Neanderthals who think the leaders of our country need to answer serious questions from reporters, like what happened to our ambassador in Benghazi, the IRS scandal, or Fast and Furious, this is your poster girl.  But wait, this former top CBS investigative journalist also pursued embarassing stories that the Bush administration didn't like.  I'm starting to have a thought here, but it needs time to develop.  Maybe . . . just maybe . . .  in a free society, the press should act as a check on whichever party is in power.  Sharyl's crime?  She interviewed Dr. Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institutes of Health, asked whether vaccines had been thoroughly studied, and reported Dr. Healy's response that they had not.  Oh, and for those keeping score at home, that happened at the end of the Bush years.

5.  Rob Schneider - Here's another funny actor, but he's dangerous too, because he also worries that vaccines might be hurting children.  We need to crush him like a grape!  Okay, maybe they should just keep him locked up so he doesn't lead good people astray, and let him out only when he does those movies with Adam Sandler because they're so damn funny.  (I'm not sure, does that mean Adam Sandler should be on the list, too?)

6.  Katie Couric - Well she did anchor the CBS Evening News and was known for going after people like the first President Bush, but when she did stories on the harm that the Gardasil vaccine might be causing in young girls, well, that was it.  We need to turn our backs on her and shun her like a bunch of mean girls.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I encourage the members of the scientific community to take note of two numbers.  The first is that according to the Centers for Disease Control the rate of autism for children born in 2002 is 1 in 68.  The second number is that according to Professor Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, 20% of the public believes that vaccines are linked to autism.

For those who believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with the way we currently try to protect the health of our children, this is very alarming information.  However, for the rest of us, this is all very clear and predictable.

The number of children with autism and other autoimmune problems is going up dramatically.  The members of the scientific community say they don’t know what’s causing it, maybe something new in the environment, maybe better counting (although nobody really seems to believe that any more), and even though it’s got to be something that the vast majority of kids are getting exposed to, you really need to make sure you cram as many shots in as possible at that well-baby visit.

How is it then, that 20% of the public now believes vaccines are linked to autism?

I like to think it’s because there are a significant number of people who actually look at all this and say, hmm, something’s wrong with this picture.  On the one hand I’ve got my pediatrician telling me one thing, and on the other I’ve got that long-time friend who tells me something went wrong with her kid after a vaccination.  Who makes more sense?  Let me think about it, says the parent to herself.  Vaccines work by causing an immune reaction, and a lot of these kids are the victims of an overactive immune system.  Hey, doc, could anything possibly go wrong when you try to stimulate the immune system of an infant?

I say this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it is the future of the human race we’re talking about here.

And for me, that’s where the scientific community comes into this discussion.  The mainstream media likes to play the “Science vs. Parents” card in this debate, but I see a different reality.  There are really three actors in this drama.  There is Science, there are Parents, and there’s Big Money.  Science isn’t the enemy.  Big Money is the enemy, and it can come from the government or the pharmaceutical companies.

Managing Editor's Note: You can support the production of BOUGHT at IndieGogo.

By Kent Heckenlively

It was through chiropractors that documentary film producer, Jeff Hays, first became acquainted with those he jokingly calls “the most dangerous people on the face of the Earth.”

Hays was working on a film called, Doctored, which recounted the attack made by traditional medicine on the chiropractic profession and the fight the chiropractic profession waged in response and won.  “It was a small film that told the chiropractic story.  The AMA (American Medical Association) tried to contain and eliminate the profession of chiropractic.  Some chiropractors sued them in 1974, and it took 13 years, but the AMA was eventually found guilty.  That story had never really made its way into the mainstream.  And I felt it was a microcosm of what happens to alternative therapies that come under attack from mainstream or political medicine.”

Many of the chiropractors Hays interviewed had parents who were chiropractors and several of them said that in their life they’d never, “taken a drug, an aspirin, or a vaccine.”  Hays was startled to hear that many of them had never had a vaccine and what followed from that was a slow awakening to the fact that there was even a discussion about the safety of vaccines.

By Kent Heckenlively

Louis Conte has finally gone and done it.

Conte has written an exciting medical and legal thriller that may end up being as important to the autism community as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was to the anti-slavery movement.

I want to talk first about the fine book Conte has written, then why it is important for you to not only to go out and buy it, but to purchase several copies and give them out to friends, families, and public officials who haven’t yet understood our cause.

Conte’s main character is Tony Colletti, a former New York cop who now works in a suburban community on the Hudson River.  As the father of a child with autism, Tony’s life is upended when he fails to save the life of a boy with autism who had wandered away from his house and fallen through the ice of a frozen pond.  This event, combined with the increasing number of policemen on the force who have a child with autism convinces Colletti that he needs to use his investigative skills to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Former CBS investigative journalist, Sharyl Attkisson, called this book, “Compelling and controversial.  You know that saying about truth being stranger than fiction?  This is the truth.  I couldn’t put it down.”

From this point Colletti plunges into a world we in the autism community know all too well, a sordid intersection of media disinformation, political and scientific corruption, the influence of big money on important issues, and something that many of us thought existed only in other countries, a public and press which acts more like those in an authoritarian country where people are afraid to speak out.  In a democratic country, is the fear of ridicule more powerful than the secret police of a dictatorship?

All of these questions are presented in a fast-paced page-turner that I believe the typical person could race through in an afternoon.  But it is a book that will be difficult to forget. 

The Autism War has the potential to do something revolutionary for our movement.  Those who know me are aware that I have long advocated for non-traditional ways of fighting for our children.  I’ve often used the example of George Washington taking on the British during the Revolutionary War.  He was facing the best-trained, most powerful army in the world.  As a gentleman, he knew he was expected to engage in the enemies' definition of a fair fight – basically, the two armies squaring off against each other at a pre-arranged location, a day or two of battle, then a winner being declared.  That was a fight Washington knew he would lose.

By Kent Heckenlively

For those readers kind enough to notice my absence from the pages of Age of Autism for the past two years I’d like to offer an explanation.

If you recall my last articles, I had become very intrigued by the story of Dr. Judy Mikovits and her investigation of retroviruses and their possible connection to chronic fatigue syndrome/ME as well as autism.  In many ways I felt her story, especially the campaign of persecution against her, mirrored that of many other honest scientists who have looked for answers to the questions raised by these diseases. 

That inquiry has resulted in Dr. Mikovits and I writing the book, “PLAGUE – One Scientists’ Intrepid Search for the Truth about Retroviruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases” to be published by Skyhorse Press on May 6 2014.  The web-site for the book is now on-line at www.plaguethebook.com and you can pre-order from the site as well as read some other interesting content.

As an autism advocate, one of the things which has long drawn my attention is that so many of the mothers of children with autism have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome at one point, or like my wife, appear to have sub-clinical indications of the disorder. 

Dr. Judy Mikovits, a 20-year veteran of the National Cancer Institute was well-placed to investigate these questions when she started her work on neuro-immune diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome and autism in 2006.  Dr. Mikovits has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, many in the world’s top medical journals and she has been profiled in Discover magazine as well as the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

I must confess that the two years I spent writing PLAGUE have changed many of my views. I’ve been deeply impressed by the humanity and compassion of many scientists, while at the same time have become more keenly aware of the political and financial obstacles which prevent scientists from making the type of contributions to the well-being of society that they imagined at the beginning of their careers. 

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

 Did your mother ever say things to you like that when you were growing up?

My mother did.

I couldn't help thinking of my mother's admonition when I saw the headline from the July 14, 2012 issue of The New York Times "Vast F.D.A. Effort Tracked E-Mails of its Scientists." The headline does a good job of explaining what happened, but I thought I'd let the lead paragraph give you a little flavor of the piece.

"A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a group of its own scientists used an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, journalists, and even President Obama, previously undisclosed records show."

Let that swirl around in your brain for a moment.  Some F.D.A. official says to himself, "I don't think those scientists can be trusted.  Let's track their e-mails."  The spy software used captured screen images from government laptops of five scientists, tracked their keystrokes, intercepted personal e-mails, copied documents from their personal thumb drives, and even followed messages as they were being composed.

The article also states, "many Congressional staff members regarded as sympathetic to the scientists each got their own files containing all their e-mails to and from the whistle-blowers."  Congressman Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland was listed as No. 14 on the F. D. A. surveillance list.  A former staff member to Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican was also on the list.

The program grew out of a dispute that several scientists had regarding what the scientists claim were faulty review procedures which led to the approval of medical imaging devices for mammograms and colonoscopies.  The concern was that patients were being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.  Four of these scientists were fired from the F. D. A.

By Kent Heckenlively

In a sign of increasing political strength, the Canary Party has achieved an alliance with the East Bay Tea Party, one of California’s largest tea party groups, on the issue of AB2109, a measure sponsored by California Assembly Member, Dr. Richard Pan. The bill seeks to limit the ability of parents to obtain a philosophical exemption to refuse a vaccine or modify the schedule by requiring them to get a note from a doctor if they wish to vary the schedule or chose to decline vaccinations.

Both the East Bay Tea Party and the Canary Party believe this is an unwarranted governmental intrusion on the rights of parents and the first step in a program of mandated vaccines.  Not only would this be the first time in California history that the right to refuse a medical procedure which carries the risk of injury or death would be dependent on a non-neutral third party who is not compelled by law to sign the required form, it is also likely to be a violation of the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution and a violation of several sections of the California Education Code.

While the Canary Party seeks to be a non-partisan group interested in the health rights of our society and full and rigorous scientific research in the health risks of medical treatments and the unintended consequences of new chemicals introduced into our environment, we must be willing to join with more partisan organizations if they share our values on these issues.  In California it is regrettable that the democratic members of the assembly support this bill while the republican members oppose it.  But those are the facts on the ground and we must accept conditions as we find them and act accordingly.  We hope that the democrats will reconsider their position.

I was saddened but not surprised to attend a meeting of the Core Council of the East Bay Tea Party  and hear one of their leading members talk about how his daughter, a nurse, was compelled by her doctor to get a flu shot as a condition of employment, and developed Guillan-Barre syndrome.  And while this was certainly regrettable, it reveals that those waking up to the true risks of the current vaccine program are more and more widespread, and it underscored the importance of the vaccine safety issue to all members of society.  The leaders of the East Bay Tea Party also viewed the film “The Greater Good” within a week of my giving it to them and came back with excellent questions and comments.

I was most gratified to have the East Bay Tea Party agree to take on advocacy of this issue through their web-site and e-mail alerts to their members.  You can view what they have put up in support of this joint effort HERE.

In addition, I am working closely with a member of the Core Council in order to craft a message to take to national Tea Party organizations.  I encourage all parents and those interested in the issue of vaccine safety to work with whatever organizations in their community might be supportive of these efforts.  And if you are a democrat, I strongly encourage you to contact your party and tell them to get on the right side of AB2109 as well.

Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

There is a most curious interview with Dr. Ian Lipkin in the April 2012 issue of Discover magazine entitled "In the Lab with the World's Greatest Virus Hunter".  I can't help but notice that Dr. Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the scientist who first identified West Nile Virus sounds more like a bio-med autism parent than a CDC spokesman who claims that while we don't know what causes autism, "we're sure it's not vaccines."

Many will no doubt remember it was Lipkin's study which  supposedly  disproved the work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield regarding the persistence of the vaccine strain of the measles in the gut of children with autism.  And it's certainly true that Lipkin has done little to counter that impression. 

However, a closer look at Lipkin's study reveals a more complicated picture.  Lipkin used the same lab as Wakefield and did identify the measles virus from one of the children with autism he studied. The patient selection criteria was significantly different than that used by Wakefield, and as I have written previously, Lipkin has recently used Wakefield's research in the footnotes to his recent article showing that different bacterial colonies are present in the guts of children with autism.  If Wakefield's research was so dishonest, why would Lipkin ever cite him?

Perhaps all this has set the stage for a conversion on the question of autism, similar to that of the apostle Paul, a former Christian hunter who after having a vision of Christ on the Road to Damascus, became one of the founders of the early Church.  For as much as Dr. Lipkin took the wrong road in regards to Dr. Wakefield's work, there has also been evidence of an exceptionally humane side to the man. 

When Dr. Mady Horning released her study showing that the neurotoxic effects of thimerosal in mice were dependent upon a certain genetic profile, the autism community worried that the long knives were out for her.  This could explain why only certain infants were harmed by the thimerosal in vaccines and not others.  Dr. Horning was sheltered by Dr. Ian Lipkin who made her his research partner, probably saving her academic career in the process.

Recently I've come across Lipkin in the controversy over the XMRV retrovirus and its possible link to both ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and autism.  When the situation with Dr. Judy Mikovits and the Whittemore-Peterson Institute fell apart, Dr. Lipkin had the power to determine whether the research would continue.  I am told by sources that Dr. Lipkin was actually threatened with legal action by various entities and he told them to take a hike.  Instead of succumbing to this pressure, he put Drs. Mikovits, Frank Ruscetti of the National Cancer Institute and discoverer of the first human retrovirus, as well as Jose Montoya of Stanford University, and others in charge of determining the possible link between XMRV (or a related human retrovirus) and these diseases.

Lipkin's willingness to remain agnostic on the question of XMRV (or other related human retroviruses) opens up some other possibilities into how a retrovirus could cause conditions like ME/chronic fatigue syndrome and autism.  A virus or other pathogen may cause collateral damage that is not simply due to the infection, but how the body responds to the pathogen. 

From the Discover magazine interview of April 2012:

Have we reached the point where we can link specific infections to specific psychiatric disorders?

No, the connection is much more complex.  When I worked with LCMV, it became clear that any sort of pertubation could damage the nervous system.  Nerves find their way to specific locations through signposts that are part of the immune system.  And if you increase immunological molecules of certain types, a nerve may jog this way as opposed to the way it's supposed to go.  It may not make a difference what the infectious agent is-bacterial, viral, or parasitic.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Last weekend we went to a baptism. 

It was for the grandaughter of Awetash, the woman who was our son's nanny for several years.  When our son Ben was born we were in the thick of the fight with our daughter Jacqueline's seizure disorder, navigating this new world of sickness, cycling through pheno-barbitol, prednisone, and depakote, desperately trying to find something to stop the nearly eighty seizures a day she was having.

My wife was concerned we wouldn't be able to find a person to help care for Jacqueline while she attended to our newborn son.  I came up with a solution.  "What if we advertised for somebody to help with Ben?  Then we could focus on Jacqueline."

Yes, it was a terrible choice to make, but also one that was ruthlessly practical, like the surgeon making decisions in a triage unit.  It would be so much easier to find someone to work with a newborn than with the screaming, biting, could barely walk, constant diarrhea wreck that was our two-year-old daughter.

And then into our lives came Awetash, one of the strongest, kindest people I I have ever met.  In so many ways she would remind me that the lives of  others are often a struggle beyond our capacity to imagine.  And yet every day we are given a choice as to how to respond to these challenges.

Awetash came from Eritrea, a country that was once part of Ethiopia.   At the time she came to work for us the two countries were still in the midst of a decades-long civil war.  Awetash was new to the United States when she came to interview and was accompanied by her sister who had been in the country for a few years.   The sister's English was much better and I was struck by the sister's sense of quiet authority.  It was only later I learned Awetash's sister had been a commander in the Eritrean rebel army.

The chaos which was our house didn't seem to trouble Awetash.  She was always on-time, never complained, and appeared to consider us her number one priority.  And she was learning how to make her way in this new land.

Every few weeks my wife would notice that Awetash had purchased a new necklace, a pretty blouse, a stylish pant suit.  When she became aware of a city program for better housing for low-income people she applied for it and got a new place to live.

And as we got to know Awetash we learned more of her story.  She had three children back home in Eritrea and was trying to get them into the United States.  Previously she'd worked as a nanny in Saudia Arabia, a country which has a well-deserved reputation for mistreating their domestic workers.  She eventually decided to flee from the family when they were on vacation in the United States.

Awetash was told she should make her escape at the airport as the family was getting ready to depart back to Saudi Arabia.  A man she did not know would approach her and tell her it was time.  She was to walk immediately out of the airport where another man in a car would be waiting.  She was to ask no questions, get in, and the car would drive away.

But as much as Awetash was a rebel, she wanted to do everything right.  She immediately applied for asylum in the United States and waited patiently for her paperwork to come through.  And Awetash had a long-term plan.  She wanted to get her children into the United States as well.

So there we were together, both of us with lost children.  Awetash with hers stuck in a country wracked by civil war, and us with one right in front of us, but who had vanished into autism.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

The Reno Gazette-Journal and the Las Vegas Review Journal are both reporting that Harvey and Annette Whittemore, founders of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Diseases at the University of Nevada/Reno have been sued by their former business partners for embezzlement in the amount of more than 40 million dollars. The articles can be accessed HERE.

This development may have an enormous impact on the ME/CFS community (myalgic encephelomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome) and also end up being of great importance to the autism community.

The readers of this blog will no doubt be aware that Dr. Judy Mikovits, the former research director of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute presented information at a poster session of the First International Conference on XMRV in September of 2010 that in a small study 14 out of 17 children with autism, who had parents with ME/CFS, tested positive for signs of a retroviral infection. (This was in addition to her reporting that 66 out of 101 patients with ME/CFS showed signs of retroviral infection.  The research was published in the journal Science.  It has since been retracted, although further research is continuing, and the controversy shows little sign of abating.)

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. - Henry VI - Shakespeare

This line even got a laugh in Shakespeare's time.  But it's important to understand the context.  Henry VI was planning a revolution and didn't want the lawyers to slow him down.  If knocking off the lawyers is the sign of a planned revolution, then the pharmaceutical industry has done a pretty good job so far. 

Dr. Wakefield's complaint against the British Medical Journal, Brian Deer, and Fiona Godlee for defamation can be best understood as the first stirrings of a counter-revolution.

Let me back up and explain.

I think it's incredibly difficult to create a legal system which can successfully resist the various pressures put upon it.  That's why the creators of the Anglo-American justice system put such a premium on a system of checks and balances, instituted an advocacy system, and established rules of discovery.  They expected people to be flawed.  They expected undue pressures and prejudices to be placed upon the proceedings at some point.  They anticipated that people's opinions would inevitably color their judgments and tried to make adjustments.  They understood the truth was most likely to come out when both sides were able to present their strongest case.  You get to confront your accusers.  You get to put on your best witnesses.  The other side needs to divulge their darkest secrets. 

Leave a comment to enter to win a signed copy!

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

It's a rare autism book which wins praise from figures as diverse as Tom Brokaw, Jenny McCarthy, Temple Grandin, and Suzanne Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks.

But that's exactly what writers Virginia Breen and her daughter, Elizabeth Bonker, a thirteen-year-old girl with autism have accomplished with their book, I Am in Here.

For those of us with a child who is still non-verbal despite all of our best efforts this book is akin to a glass of cool, refreshing water in the midst of a burning desert.  Elizabeth cannot speak, but has learned how to communicate using the rapid prompting method created by Soma Mukhopadhyay.  Elizabeth has also learned to use the computer and often types out short poems to communicate how she's feeling.  For parents who wonder, and hope that something beautiful exists within our mute children, her words are nothing less than an answered prayer.

In the poem "Me" which opens up the second chapter she writes of her frustration that she goes to every extreme to try and express her need to talk, and how she wants people to know she is conscious and aware, even though she can't speak.  In the explanation which accompanies her poem  she says, "I wrote "Me" to let people know that even though I don't speak, I feel and understand the world around me.  I want to be heard and respected.  I want that for everyone, especially for people like me."

A doctor once asked me what I wanted for my daughter.  A number of possibilities sprang to mind.  I could have said I wanted her to be potty-trained, ride a bike, have a meal in a restaurant, but instead my fondest wish was for something else. "Someday I want to have a conversation with my daughter," was my reply.                                                                                                                                                     

 Until that day arrives, Elizabeth and Virginia's book lets me imagine that conversation.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I think that we have not cared for people with ME (myalgic encephelomyelitis, otherwise known as chronic fatigue syndrome) to a great enough extent.  I think it is correct to say that we have not established proper health care services for these people, and I regret that." - Apology from the Norwegian Directorate of Health on publication of a study showing that the cancer drug rituximab is effective in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome/ME.

What was reason for this unprecedented apology from the public health authorities in Norway?

It was the publication of a study which showed that the drug rituximab improved the health of 10 of 15 patients (67%) with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and that 2 of the 15 patients given the drug staged a complete recovery from their condition.  You can read about the study in Medscape.

Why is this important to the autism community?

It's important because chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism share many common clinical indicators, including immune disregulation, increased oxidative stress, heavy metal retention, co-infection by other pathogens, and mitichondrial insufficiency.  What is effective in treating chronic fatigue syndrome/ME may end up having some relevance to treatments for autism.  I have written before about my daughter with autism having tested positive for XMRV.  You can read my previous article for background on XMRV.

The researchers I have spoken with about XMRV and autism have told me their suspicion that the retrovirus likes to enter B cells which have the CD20 receptor.  They also suspect that it isn't the retrovirus itself which is doing the harm, but the toxins or auto-antibodies which are produced in response to the retrovirus.  Rituximab specifically targets those B cells which have the CD20 receptor.  It is a very targeted type of chemotherapy, although it is not without significant risks.

B cells are part of the immune system, but when they go haywire they may cause cancer, or diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.  Rituximab is approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and many types of lymphoma.

The question of why rituximab's depletion of B cells helps those with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME remains unexplained.  The researchers specifically noted they had searched for XMRV and not found evidence of its presence, but that touches on the greater issue of whether the currently validated test for XMRV is accurate.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Although my daughter is not a patient of Dr. Jeff Bradstreet I've always had an enormous amount of respect for the good doctor.  I'll usually go on his website once or twice a month to find out what has most recently attracted his interest.  Often it seems we're looking at similar questions; which either means great minds think alike, or we suffer from some of the same delusions. 

I was intrigued by his October 11, 2011 entry, "An Update on Viral Issue in Autism" since it dovetailed with some of my own recent investigations.

In the past months Dr. Bradstreet has become interested in nagalese, which he describes as an enzyme "produced by cancer cells and viruses."  He thinks it unlikely that children with autism have undiagnosed cancers, and thus suspicion falls on a viral etiology.  Dr. Bradstreet writes, "Viruses make the nagalese enzyme as part of their attachment proteins.  It serves to get the virus into the cell and also decreases the body's immune reaction to the virus-thereby increasing the odds of viral survival."

Further on Dr. Bradstreet writes, "It is reasonable and likely that the nature of the immune dysfunction and the frequently observed autoimmune problems in autism are mediated by persistent, unresolved viral infections."  He claims to have tested approximately 400 children with autism for the viral marker, nagalese, and found that nearly 80% have significantly elevated levels.  He hopes to publish soon on this study and believes this information "is one of the most important developments in the clinical treatment of children on the spectrum that I have experienced in the last 15 years."

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

No responsible historian quotes Unabomber Ted Kaczynski for a proper understanding of the Industrial Revolution and the struggles of a technological age.

So why is uber-scientist Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University quoting with approval the work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield?  Isn't Wakefield supposed to the author of our common mass delusion that vaccines are linked to autism?

And wasn't it Dr. W. Ian Lipkin who wrote Lack of Association Between Measles Virus Vaccine and Enteropathy: A Case Control Study in September 2008 which was widely seen as the final "nail in the coffin" of the MMR vaccine/autism theory?  (Author's note - Lipkin's study also showed that the lab work of Dr. John O'Leary, relied upon by Dr. Wakefield, was accurate.  And little reported was the fact that the measles virus was detected in the gut tissue of 1 of the 25 children with autism and 1 control.  Perhaps the most serious critcism, and difference from the Wakefield study was that only 5 of the 25 children with autism had received their MMR shot prior to the start of gastrointestinal problems, according to parent reports.  The parents of all Wakefield's patients in the original Lancet study claimed that the development of GI symptoms came after the MMR shot.  That's why he was investigating the shots as a possible cause of the development of GI symptoms AND as a consequence, autism.)

Or to put it a little more clearly, even Dr. W. Ian Lipkin found 20% of the children whose parents claimed that the MMR shot preceeded the development of GI symptoms in their children with autism were positive for the measles virus in their gut.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

As a good portion of the medical and media world  is furiously attempting to bury the XMRV story a few intrepid researchers appear not to have gotten the memo.

Scientists from the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services are busily trying to figure out how this retrovirus may be involved in conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome/ME.  (I have written before of how my daughter with autism, my wife, and my mother-in-law have all tested positive for this retrovirus.)  You can read my previous article HERE.

In an article entitled "Susceptibility of Human Primary Neuronal Cells to Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-related (XMRV) Virus Infection," and published in the Journal of Virology, September 20, 2011  HERE the authors tried to answer the question of whether XMRV could be responsible for inflammation in the brain.

From the findings section the authors wrote, "XMRV has been associated with prostate cancer and CFS.  Although CFS patients show many symptoms for inflammation in brain, there is no report about the presence of XMRV in the brain of CFS patients.  In an effort to determine the susceptibility of neuronal cells to XMRV in-vitro, we used human primary Progenitors, Progenitor Derived Neurons (PDN), and Progenitor Derived Astrocytes (PDA)."

Translation - CFS patients show evidence of brain inflammation (just like kids with autism), but nobody's looked to see if it might be due to XMRV.  We wondered if brain cells were susceptible to infection by XMRV.

In order to answer the question of how XMRV could cross the blood-brain barrier the authors noted, "T-cell traffic into the central nervous system is thought to occur when activated T-cells cross the blood-brain barrier.  The T-cells presumably act as a "Trojan horse" to store and transport infectious materials across the blood-brain barrier.  This "Trojan horse" hypothesis has been well established in the pathogenesis of many viruses that infect the central nervous system.  Based on the assumption that XMRV infected lymphocytes could infiltrate and infect the neuronal cells, we conducted an in-vitro coinfection/co-culture study using XMRV-infected Jurkat cells with neuronal cells."

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Mikovits has her own theory about when Coffin changed his mind.  She and Lombardi had found evidence, not included in the Science paper, that XMRV was linked to autism.  On 11 November 2009, Lombardi presented those data at a meeting at the Cleveland Clinic.  "You don't talk about autism in the U.S.-it's too politically charged," Mikovits claims Coffin told him.  She believes Coffin turned against her that very day.  Coffin confirms he was upset that Lombardi presented such preliminary data on such a fraught topic but says, "I did not 'turn against' Judy at that or any other point." (Author's note - Dr. John Coffin is an influential member of the National Academy of Sciences.  He originally wrote an article in support of the October 2009 Science article by Dr. Judy Mikovits and others, showing an association between the XMRV retrovirus and chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, but has since turned against the theory.  The reasons for this change of heart remain in dispute.)

            Science, September 23, 2011, False Positive by Jon Cohen and Martin Enserlik

I'm glad this is out in the open.  I've heard this privately for more than a year and now nobody can accuse me of making things up.  It's in the public record.  I know I wasn't at the meeting so I can't comment as to the accuracy of the claim, but the lawyer in me can't help making a couple of observations.

Both Dr. Mikovits and Dr. Coffin admit there was a meeting at the Cleveland Clinic on November 11, 2009 in which Dr. Vince Lombardi discussed information they had linking autism to infection by the XMRV retrovirus.  For background on the XMRV/autism connection you can read my article HERE.

Coffin admits that "he was upset that Lombardi presented such preliminary data on such a fraught topic."

Which leads me to the inevitable question, why?

No members of the press were present.  Nobody put out a press release.  It was simply a private conversation between medical collaborators of the possibility that autism, the number one developmental disability among children, that disease which is twenty times more prevalent than polio ever was, could possibly be linked to a retrovirus, just as AIDS is linked to HIV.  Isn't that the way responsible medical researchers are supposed to act?

But something about the possibility that autism could be linked to a retrovirus made John Coffin by his own admission "upset."  Could it be that if autism was linked to a retrovirus, and it behaved like HIV, that any stimulation of the immune system, by say a vaccine, could cause the retrovirus to replicate out of control and cause problems?  You can read my article on this subject where the UCSF Pediatric AIDS Department told me the same thing and you can also read it on their website.  HERE

And while the attacks on Dr. Mikovits paint her as a zealot, here's what Dr. Coffin has to say about her in the same article.  "I began comparing Judy Mikovits to Joan of Arc.  The scientists will burn her at the stake, but her faithful following will have her canonized."

Is it just me or is there something a little unusual about a scientist who makes such comments about another scientist? 

And the former English major in me can't help but be struck by how Coffin compares his fellow scientists to those who would burn a woman at the stake.  Does anybody need to tell Coffin that burning dangerous women at the stake went out of vogue a few centuries ago?  Could he have used a diferent analogy?  Has anybody made a complaint to the National Organization of Women?

So, while Coffin is comparing Dr. Mikovits to Joan of Arc, here's how Dr. Mikovits responds to the criticism, "I don't care if nobody else in the world wants to work on it!" Mikovits exclaimed at one point, rolling her eyes.  "Fine, leave us alone."

Who seems like the professional scientist to you?

The article also doesn't give full credit to Dr. Mikovits partner, Dr. Francis Ruscetti.  About Ruscetti the article only notes, "She soon enlisted Ruscetti, who had worked in Gallo's lab when it discovered HTLV-1 . . ." 

Dr. Francis Ruscetti is currently Head of the Leukocyte Biology Section, Laboratory of Experimental Biology at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland.  He had not simply "worked" in Gallo's lab when HTLV-1 was discovered, he was one of the two people who isolated HTLV-1, the first known human retrovirus, and is regarded as one of the fathers of retrovirology.

And what is all of the ruckus about?  It's about a partial retraction of the original article linking XMRV to chronic fatigue syndrome. 

By Kent Heckelively, Esq.

My wife often says I'm "the believer" among the two of us.  In her mind faith comes easily to me, but when she sees the inequities of the world, the difficulties so many deal with on a daily basis, it's difficult for her to summon much belief in a divine entity.

The truth is I've struggled with faith for years, trying to reconcile various philisophical positions.  Why would God let a child be born if they were going to come down with autism?  My daughter with autism/seizures is thirteen years old.  My son who is neuro-typical is eleven.  My daughter's condition is so severe that the four of us have never gone out to a restaurant.  We have never been on a family vacation.  When I walk in the door after work I know my daughter will probably have been tantrumming for at least a half hour, a condition which is only remedied by putting her in my car, and taking her for a long drive.  My wife would ask, where is God in that domestic scene?

Of course the believer in me would start to come up with the counter-arguments.  Do we thank God for all of the wonderful things in our life?  The fact each of us were born to parents who loved us, we had the means to go to college, the friends we've had in our life, and our level of material wealth which many in the world can only dream of?

And yet this balacing of good and bad in our lives seems somehow the wrong approach.  Sometimes everything can go wrong.  Do we say God has abandoned us?

Sometimes people will say that in the midst of difficulties we cannot see God's plan in full.  That God has planned wonderful things for us, but we often must go through a period of suffering and hardships so the full beauty of that plan can be unveiled.  I will confess that sometimes I've seen glimmers of this possibility, and at others it has been difficult to imagine.

Lately I've come to a new approach, one that satisfies my need to believe in a higher power, but  also acknowledges the wickedness I often see in the world.  For I can call it nothing less than wickedness when the medical community refuses to perform a study of the neurological health of vaccinated and unvaccinated children.  It is nothing less than wickedness when those who suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome/ME are told they are not physically ill, but suffer only from a mental illness.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

When my daughter's test results showed she was positive for the XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus) retrovirus my next step was to find a doctor who could tell me how to treat it.  Since the only other two human retroviruses currently identified are HTLV, found mostly in Asian countries and responsible for causing T-cell leukemia, and HIV, which causes AIDS, I figured I had to find an AIDS doctor.

I called the University of California, San Francisco Pediatric AIDS unit and talked to their media representative.  I figured in our first conversation I'd avoid flying my freak flag and simply tell him my daughter had been diagnosed with this newly identified retrovirus and that she had autism and seizures and I was concerned that the retrovirus might be at least partially responsible for her problems.

"Well, that explains why a vaccination might cause autism," he said, barely missing a breath.  He went onto tell me this question was something he often discussed with his friends.   The idea of an underlying retrovirus was the first time it made sense as to how a vaccination might cause autism.

He explained that if XMRV was similar to HIV then it probably hid out in the cells of the immune system and any stimulation of the immune system was likely to cause XMRV to replicate out of control.  (This had previously been discussed by some of the researchers working on XMRV, but I was still surprised to hear the media representative go right to that point.)  Apparently it is common knowledge among retrovirologists that immunizations can stimulate a retrovirus.  Even the most pro-vaccine physician will admit that vaccinations work by stimulating the immune system.

The media representative was very kind and said he'd try to find a doctor to talk to me.  Predictably, none of them wanted to talk to me, and I can't say I'm unsatisfied with that result.  The currently existing HIV medications don't hold much appeal to me as I worry about some of their side-effects, particularly on the mitochondria.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I want to win the "Vaccine-Autism War."

It's probably why I spend inordinate amounts of my scarce free time watching History Channel specials on military battles and tactics.  The books I read also tend to be about great historical struggles and what eventually happened. 

And sometimes I simply can't believe we haven't already won.  Consider the facts:

Since the 1980's the number of vaccines children have received have more than tripled, with the majority of them coming in the first eighteen months of life.

The rate of autism has gone from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100.  At the height of the polio epidemic the numbers were never greater than 1 in 2,000.

A significant and vocal number of parents claim the changes in their child's development came after a vaccination.

And yet the government and medical authorities refuse to conduct the one study, (the neurological differences between fully vaccinated and fully unvaccinated children), that would settle the matter.

I recently read a book, "Mindset" by Dr. Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, which I believe has relevance to our struggle against the medical community.  Sometimes it's not enough to have facts on your side, you have to understand the psychology of the other side and use it yo your advantage.

Dr. Dweck identifies two types of mindsets among people, the "fixed" mindset and the "growth" mindset. 

In the fixed mindset a person is motivated by a desire to look smart and therefore has a tendency to avoid challenges, will give up easily when frustrated, and ignores useful negative feedback.  How many of you feel that the majority of physicians you've encountered fall into the fixed mindset?  Honestly, if you were a physician wouldn't you think children with autism present an amazing diagnostic challenge?  From their pale skin, to their gastro-intestinal issues, multiple food allergies, abnormal immune markers, I couldn't think of a greater medical challenge.  And as we expect to find some brilliant, if somewhat eccentric physician, like the fictional Dr. Gregory House, who won't let go of a case until he finds the answer, we get a collective shrug, as if we're dealing with some sullen teenager.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

As part of my continuing series of articles which I think should be subtitled, Official Documents which Scare the Living Daylights Out of Me! I offer this July 24, 2011 publication from the Food and Drug Adminstration.

The release is entitled Investigating Viruses in Cells Used to make Vaccines; and Evaluating the Potential Threat Posed by Transmission of Viruses to Humans.  XMRV is prominently featured as a virus about which they are concerned.  Please feel free to read the entire document at FDA.gov.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the question of XMRV and autism, please allow me to give a brief recap.  The xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus (XMRV) was discovered in 2006 by scientists working for the University of California at San Francisco and the Cleveland Clinic.  It is a human gamma retrovirus and there are many who say we should be referring to this family as XMRVs or HGRVs. 

The retrovirus was originally found in the tumors of men with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, in 2009 the virus was found in high numbers in people with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, and there has been some very preliminary findings of its presence in children with autism.  In the interest of full disclosure I must note that my daughter with autism/seizures, my wife who has had a number of mysterious health ailments, and my mother-in-law have all tested positive for the XMRV retrovirus.  I've tested negative, as has my father, who is my only surviving parent.

Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism  share many common clinical features including immune dysregulation, increased expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, mitochondrial abnormalities, and chronic active microbial infections.   In my own investigations I've been surprised how many of the mothers of children with autism say they have either been formally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, or believe they have subclinical indications of the disorder. 

Onto the FDA release of July 24, 2011.  After first describing the need for new vaccines and that the virus-based vaccines require the use of living cells for a substrate, there's this paragraph. 

In some cases the cell lines that are used might be tumorigenic, that it, they form tumors when injected into rodents.  Some of these tumor-forming cell lines may contain cancer-causing (author's note - autism causing?) viruses that are not actively reproducing.  Such viruses are hard to detect using standard methods.  These latent or "quiet" viruses pose a potential threat, since they might become active under vaccine manufacturing conditions.  Therefore, to ensure the safety of vaccines, our laboratory is investigating ways to activate latent viruses in cell lines and to detect the activated viruses, as well as other unknown viruses, using new technologies.  We are also trying to identify specific biological processes that reflect virus activity.

Translation for the average reader - Hey, the cell lines in which we grow the viruses we want in vaccines, may contain some viruses we don't want!  Including those which may cause cancer!

Managing Editor's Note: Last week, I spoke at a conference in Cleveland. To my great pleasure, Dr. Derrick Lonsdale of Preventive Medicine Group, who was our first Defeat Autism Now! doctor, was also speaking. Dr. Lonsdale is 87 years old, vigorous, (Hugh Hefner should be so good looking) and still devoted to helping people with autism when mainstream medicine turns its back. He has pioneered the use of Vitamin B1 Thiamine for autism. If you've read All I Can Handle I'm No Mother Teresa, you know that our daugher Mia had a life threatening seizure disorder, written off by the doctors at University Hospitals as, "part of her autism." I willl never forget how I called Dr. Lonsdale in tears, sitting next to Mia's hospital bed, begging for help. When she was released, he brought her into his office for an IV infusion of liquid and nutrition to help get her back to health. He cared. He cares. Dr. Lonsdale is an expert in oxidative stress and its chain of sickness. Please visit his blog called The Spark of Life and tell him a very grateful Kim sent you. Below, Kent describes a doctor who tried to help his own daughter. And who recently died.

Has there been a doctor who has reached out to help you when mainstream medicine had nothing to suggest? Let us know in the comments. KS

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Dr. David W. Gregg died on July 6, 2011 at the age of seventy-six.  He was my friend and an honest scientist.

There's a Bible passage from Matthew which reads, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them; for it is to those who are childlike that the Kingdom of the Heavens belongs."

If you knew David you know he faced the world with a child's innocence, curiousity, and sense of fair play.  I have rarely known a better man.

I met David sometime in 2003 when I ran across his web-site.  He was proposing a viral theory for autism and we spent a good deal of time trying to develop treatments for my daughter.  None of them worked.  But on a road filled with so many disappointments, it's also important to take the time to acknowledge the good people you meet on the journey.  Despite the failures, David never lost the optimism that one day an answer would be found.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

There's a story a fellow science teacher told me that I've always remembered.  This science teacher headed the Education Center at Lawrence-Livermore Labs and was present when Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, came to visit the National Ignition Facility, designed to create nuclear fusion, the energy of the Sun.

"What do you think you will learn?" the elderly scientist asked of the director in his thick Hungarian accent.

The chief scientist prattled on about all of the things they expected to discover on the road to nuclear fusion, but Teller was unimpressed.

The famous scientist shook his head and said, "No!  The answer is, you have no idea what you will learn!"

I like the story because it demonstrates a humility in the face of the things we don't understand.  It's not just that we know we don't know.  It's that we might not even know the right questions to ask.

I was reminded of Teller's story when I read an article, dated July 15, 2011 from Science Daily entitled, "First Adenovirus to Jump Between Monkeys and Humans Confirmed."  What?  Adenoviruses can jump from monkeys to humans?  We never knew that!  You can read the article  HERE.

Are you getting my point?

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

My choice for the scariest reading of the year was recently published  in the journal Cancer Biology and Therapy and has the unwieldly title of Frequent Detection of Infectious Xenotropic Leukemia Virus (XMLV) in Human Cultures Established from Mouse Xenografts.

For those of you who may be confused by the idea of a "xenograft" I'll provide you with the definition given by the U. S. Public Health Service.  "Any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation, or infusion into a human recipient of either (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a non-human animal source or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivio contact with live non-human animal cells, tissues, or organs."  This covers vaccines as well as other surgical procedures in which human tissue is manipulated prior to transplantation.

In the scientific community mouse xenografting is often used to manipulate cancer cells for research purposes, among other things.  With research that has linked XMRV (which is a xenotropic murine leukemia virus) to prostate cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, and to a lesser extent autism, scientists from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as a few other institutions thought it made sense to investigate the frequency of XMLVs in human cell lines "established from mouse xenografts and to search for the evidence of horizontal spread to other cell lines."

In layman's terms the question they were asking was, "when we do xenografting with mouse biological products how often do we get XMLVs popping up in our samples?" 

The answer they found is that six out of twenty three (26%) mouse DNA free xenografts "were strongly positive for MLV and their sequences had greater than 99% homology to known MLV strains."  These samples were obtained from seven independent laboratories. 

Further on the authors wrote, "Of the 78 non-xenograft derived cell lines maintained in the xenograft culture containing facilities, 13 (17%) were positive for MLV, including XMRV, a virus strain first identified in human tissues."  (My daughter with autism has tested positive for XMRV.)  In scientific terms this is an absolute train wreck.

This means that every surgical patient receiving any biological product which used mouse tissue in any way has a one in four chance of being exposed to an XMLV.  And that also means that any biological sample which is maintained in a facility containing xenograft cultures has a 17% chance of becoming infected.

On the question of vaccines, let's just say that only 10% of the nearly 40 vaccines children are expected to receive prior to the age of five contain mouse biological products.  This translates into roughly a 100% chance that our current generation of children will be exposed to an XMLV through a vaccination.

Are you scared yet?

It gets worse.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I've been very busy lately.

Unfortunately, I can't talk much about it.  What I can say is that on some level, my prayers to God for an understanding of the autism epidemic have been answered.  I now know why they fear us so much.  I can't prove it, and as a lawyer I understand that's the real show.  But I know.

And yet, as thankful as I am for an understanding of what has happened to my child and so many others, my heart is heavy.  The Dark Forces which in the past have destroyed the careers of those who have found clues to the afflictions of our children and other disease communities are once again on the move.  You may very well read about their actions this week.  And I can't do anything to stop them.

I recently watched the mini-series The Stand, based on the book of the same name by Stephen King.  The book has long been one of my favorites.  It starts like a science fiction movie, with a deadly virus escaping from a government lab, and killing most of humanity.  But then it changes.  The survivors start having dreams.  Some dream of Mother Abigail, a 106 year-old black woman who lives in Hemmingford Home, Nebraska.  Mother Abigail urges those who dream of her to meet in Boulder. Colorado.  Others dream of Randall Flagg, who tells them to meet him in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As the inevitable showdown between the good people of Boulder and the evil people of Las Vegas looms, something quite remarkable takes place.  Instead of a great battle between the two sides, Mother Abigail has a vision that five members of the Boulder community must make their way to Las Vegas where they will make their "Stand" against Randall Flagg.  They will deliver themselves into the hands of the enemy.

Flagg is clearly a demonic force, but he doesn't have quite the hold over people he thinks he does.  His followers keep deserting him, especially in light of the five who have chosen to make their "Stand" against him.  They carry no weapons.  It's simply the power of the faith they bring to that unholy place which defeats Flagg.  Evil falls apart in the face of such humble courage.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

It's a nightmare many autism parents fear.  Not only do you live with the daily challenge of a child with autism, but you wonder what might happen if the government wanted to take your child away.  Would they care for your child as you would?

By all accounts, Derek Hoare is a wonderful father to his two children with autism and a normally developing son.  He is a single father on government assistance in British Columbia.  His ex-wife has written "He has been a loving and dedicated father.  He has had . . . an enormous amount of challenges as a parent, the likes of which most people would not believe."  An article on this case can be found HERE.

The most recent challenge he's had to face started when he momentarily took his eyes of his nine-year-old daughter, Ayn.  Even though his house is surrounded by a six-foot fence, she disappeared.  He ran up and down the street looking for her.  After ten minutes he called the police.  Three hours later she was found safe and sound playing in a neighbor's pool.  Although Derek locks the doors and windows in his house, he believes his daughter escaped by climbing her treehouse and jumping over the fence.

When Ayn was brought back to her father she ran into his arms.

Four days later, though, officials from the Ministry of Children and Family Development came with orders to take Ayn away.  The officials told Derek they were taking this action to "lighten his load."  Due to her need for round-the-clock attention she will be placed in a psychiatric facility.  Derek worries that the staff will hold her down and sedate her in order to make her more compliant.

Derek now has to wait for a July 12 hearing to determine his level of access to his daughter.  He worries about even going to visit her, knowing she'll cry and beg to be taken home.

If you have any suggestions or comments for how the Ministry of Children and Family Development can "lighten the load" of this parent, by much less drastic measures, such as a tracking device for his daughter, or respite care, please feel free to contact them at (604) 870-5880 and share your thoughts.

Kent Heckenlivey is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I received the following e-mail a few weeks back from the National Institute of Health concerning my inquiry into XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus related virus) infection and children with autism.  Here is the reply:

Dear Mr. Heckenlively:

Thank you for writing to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concerning the presence of the XMRV retrovirus in children with autism.  As the Acting Director, Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), I have been asked to respond on behalf of Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director.

 NIH is dedicated to addressing the growing public health challenge that autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present.  In FY 2010, NIH invested $160 million from its annual appropriation in research on autism and another $58 million in funding provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  In addition, NIH issued several funding opportunity announcements to encourage research designed to elucidate the etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and optimal means of service delivery related to ASD.

 As you may be aware, NIH intramural researchers are examining the XMRV retrovirus in samples from approximately 100 children in an autism subtyping study:  Neuroimmunologic Investigations of Autism Spectrum Disorders.  You can access further information on the study via the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools at http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm.  Since final analyses of the study are not complete and have not been published, we do not yet have any results to provide.  The researchers will share the results in the future after completion of the data analysis.

 Thank you again for your interest in research on autism. 

 Marina Volkov, Ph.D.                                                                                                                                            Acting Director                                                                                                                                                               NIMH Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications

I responded on June 2, 2011, asking three questions, based on a series of e-mails provided to me by another autism parent who had made a similar inquiry.

1.  What was the testing initially used by the NIH which showed a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?

2.  What were the subsequent tests used by the CDC which did not show a high rate of XMRV infection in children with autism?

3.  Is the NIH following the established protocols for blood storage, preparation of the sample, and tests utilized, as detailed by the initial study group of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute, the Cleveland Clinic, and the National Cancer Institute as detailed in their October 2009 article in the journal Science?

When I receive an answer to these questions I will share them with the readers of Age of Autism.

Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor to Age of Autism

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

My daughter's one-on-one aide spent last weekend in jail. 

You see, in addition to being one of the best things in my daughter's life, her aide is a passionate advocate for animal rights.  She protests at the circus, rescues turkeys (I'm not kidding) and other animals, and was even one of the leaders in a recent successful California ballot initiative on behalf of more humane conditions for farm animals.  Apparently, one of these protests got a little out of hand and that's how she ended up in a jail cell.

It got me thinking that if we ever want to change the discussion about vaccines and autism, that we need to get loud.  The current medical system is destroying a generation of children.  A recent report found that 54% of children suffer from a chronic health problem, and that 1 in 6 has a developmental disorder.

And we worry about sounding crazy.

We're supposed to genuflect at the altar of vaccines, then speak in a reasonable tone of voice, and ask for them to please look into the safety of their products.  But they never do.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

They call us "warriors."

I'm speaking about the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME community and the way they view the autism parents.  When I hear them speak this way I'm proud to belong to our group.

For those who are most severely affected by chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, often needing to lay in bed for most of the day with the curtains drawn, they refer to themselves as "the unburied dead."

My desire to assist this community is borne of simple human compassion, but also by the prospect that in their suffering they hold clues to what is going on with our own children.

Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association are all asking their members to support this effort to aid the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disorders in the Chase Community Giving Program. 

Voting ends at midnight, EST, May 25, 2011.  This is the last day to vote.

I know how strongly at least two of the autism groups feel because I set up the meeting with Dr. Judy Mikovits to go over her research into the XMRV retrovirus, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, and yes, autism.  The discussion lasted more than three and a half hours.   Many questions were asked, but the feeling in the room was almost electric.  We might be on the trail of an answer which explains what happened to our children, and also why so many mothers seem to have a myriad of health concerns.  A retrovirus can explain many (if not all) observations reagrding autism, from co-infection by other pathogens, oxidative stress, mitochondrial problems, vaccines acting as a catalyst for the virus to replicate out of control, and mysterious ailments of the autism mothers.

Dr. Amy Yasko, whom I consider to be one of the brightest minds in autism, is excited about this research because it dovetails with many of her long-term observations and suspicions.  The same can be said of Dr. Jeff Bradstreet.

It's time for the legions of the chronically ill, such as the autism, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, Gulf War illness patients, and the hundreds of thousands of children with potentially life-threatenting allergies and their parents to band together in a single forum to raise our voices.  Let this be a small step in that direction.

I know everybody is tired.  I know there are so many battles to be fought, most concerning how to just get through the day with our sick children.  My own daughter just came home a few days ago after spending nine days in the hospital with uncontrolled seizures.  But for one  last time I ask you to elevate your gaze and take a few moments to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disorders.

Here's how to do it:

1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Community Giving:
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.
 
Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association are teaming up to ask their members to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue for Neuro-Immune Diseases/University of Nevada-Reno in the Chase Community Giving Project, which ends on May 25.
 
In the first round, the Whittemore-Peterson Institute finished fifth in overall voting.  This won them $25,000.  The difference between fifth and first place was three thousand votes.  In the second round the first place winner will receive $500,000.
 
Readers of this website know I've written many times about the work of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute and their work with XMRV retrovirus and autism.  It's no secret I consider this to be one of the more promising areas of inquiry.  Chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism share a number of immune system abnormalities.
 
However, the fact that Generation Rescue, Talk About Curing Autism, and the National Autism Association have agreed to help with this effort shows that this opinion is not held by me alone.  I was also heartened to receive an e-mail the other day from Dr. Amy Yasko, letting me know she was also going to vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue. 
 
Let me tell you why I think that this vote is good for our community.  We have long needed a world class facility dedicated to studying the problems of our children, staffed by scientists who are not afraid to ask challenging questions.  I believe that describes the Whittemore-Peterson Institutue and the people who work in it.  For those who believe this to be a worthwhile cause I strongly encourage people to get friends and relatives to vote as well.  I have set a personal goal of gathering 100 votes from family and friends.  I am currently at 10% of my goal.
 
After you vote for the Whittemore-Peterson Institute you will have four other votes to share among other charities you desire.  Here is how you can vote.
STEP-BY-STEP Instructions:
 
1. From your Facebook page, go to Chase Giving Community:
http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving
 
2. "Like" the Chase Giving Community by clicking on the "Like" button.
 
3. Now search for Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease.
 
4. Cast your vote by clicking the "Vote Now!" button.
 
5. Search other organizations for whom you want to vote, up to 5 per Facebook account.
Voting for round two is May 19 – May 25

Kent Heckenlively is a Contributing Editor to Age of Autism

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I received an interesting series of e-mail exchanges from the mother of a seven-year-old boy with autism and officials from the Centers for Disease Control.  The e-mails concerned her request for information from the CDC about testing for the presence of the XMRV retrovirus in children with autism.  The mother also suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. 

The e-mail exchange was prompted by the publication of an article by David Kirby in The Huffington Post in December of 2009 in which Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health mentioned that his intramural group at the NIH had been looking into the presence of the XMRV retrovirus in children with autism since August of 2009. HERE

The series of e-mail exchanges which took place in November of 2010 are interesting for what is said, and what is not.  Dr. Insel provided a note from Dr. Swedo in respone to the inquiry from this mother.

Dr. Mike Iadorola is now ready to run the XMRV assays on samples from our children with autism (approx 100), typical development (60) and developmental delay (30).  We did send him a batch of approximately 100 samples last summer (from the three groups), almost immediately after the initial report of the positive results in autism.  However, that assay proved to be quite unreliable, yielding positive results in individuals who were known to be negative by more extensive testing.

The mother was confused by the response so sent back the following inquiry.

I am puzzled by the statement "yielding positive results in individuals who were known to be negative by more extensive testing" - as the testing for XMRV in humans is still not standardized, how can one test be considered "more extensive" than another one?  What tests were used to give the original positive results?  Were the samples taken and handled in the same way for these tests that gave the negative results?  How were those initial positive results explained away - contamination?  Cross-reactivity?

I would appreciate if you could share with me what assays were used for negative/retest findings and who developed them?

In response Dr. Mike Iadorola sent back a reply noting that the assay used was called luciferas immunoprecepitation systems and suggested she look at the results from  a recent publication in the journal Molecular Autism by Satterfield/Cooperative Diagnostics.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

For many long years I've felt that those of us in the autism community resemble the African-Americans in the 1930s and 1940s who would go to movies filled with white faces and yearn for the moment when one of their own would appear on the screen for even just a fleeting moment.  By and large these actors would do nothing more than utter a sarcastic quip or provide some important piece of information, or simply take somebody's coat.   It would matter because for a brief moment the members of that community would feel they too were part of the American nation.

I couldn't help but feel a bit of solidarity with those audiences as I sat on the sidelines and heard President Obama says this on April 13, 2011 in regards to the Ryan plan.

It's a vision that says up to 50 million Americans have to lose their health insurance in order for us to reduce the deficit.  Who are these 50 million Americans?  Many are somebody's grandparents, maybe one of yours, who wouldn't be able to afford nursing home care without Medicaid.  Many are poor children.  Some are middle-class families who have children with autism or Down's syndrome.  Some are kids with disabilities . . . so severe they require 24-hour care.  These are the Americans we'd be telling to fend for themselves.

And yet it all sounds so hollow. 

Does anybody believe this means President Obama is going to do a single helpful thing for this disease which is striking more than 1 in 100 children and is now twenty times more prevalent than polio ever was in the population?

Now I'm not writing this to tell you who to vote for, but to simply point out how useless politicians seem to be about anything in regards to autism.  Remember that kid with autism who scored so many basketball shots in a row and President Bush stopped by to see him?  Nice gesture, but who the hell cares?

Maybe I'm just a little punchy because in the past month I've spent two nights in the hospital with my daughter who was having breakthrough seizures, then she got a yeast flare which caused her to be up for several nights in a row walking around the house, or that the new seizure medication seems to be giving her incredible rages.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Although I’ve been a science teacher for the past five years I find that when I’m confronted with new information I want to explain to people I fall back on the strategies I used during the fifteen years I was a lawyer. I hope you'll consider this article in that light, as essentially an opening statement.

I think it’s important to note I don’t refer to this as a closing argument. I consider this to be the beginning of a discussion, not the end.

In a typical opening statement a lawyer reviews the evidence, the theories which will be presented, but doesn’t go into exceptional detail to prove every single point. That’s what the trial is for. And so, while each one of the points I want to make could be abundantly expanded upon, my intention is to present a brief overview of the major issues regarding the potential importance of the XMRV retrovirus to autism.

As a reader I think you'll be impressed by the number of observations which can be explained as a consequence of XMRV infection.  Similarly, disturbing questions are raised about the role of vaccines in the spread of this retrovirus.  When our understanding of how XMRV disregulates the immune system is as complete as our understanding of how various toxins can cause similar disruptions we may be able to better help those children for whom recovery remains a distant mirage.

XMRV background - XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) was discovered in 2006 by scientists working at UCSF and the Cleveland Clinic in the tumors of men with aggressive prostate cancer.  It's important to understand the difference between a typical virus and a retrovirus like XMRV.  A typical virus enters a cell, hijacks the cellular machinery to make viral particles, then causes the cell to burst, spreading viral particles throughout the body.  A retrovirus enters a cell and inserts itself into the DNA of the host, often remaining dormant for years.  I've mentioned it before, but my daughter with autism/seizures, my wife with psoriasis, and my mother-in-law with celiac sprue have all tested positive for XMRV.  I have tested negative.

In 2009 XMRV was linked with chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. An abstract presented at a meeting in 2010 from a small group of children with autism found that 82% of the children tested positive for the XMRV retrovirus.

The scientists working on this research believe XMRV is stimulated by three things, and this is where it starts to become relevant to the autism community.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I recently finished reading the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and couldn't help thinking how relevant its message is to so many communities.

For those unfamilar with the book, it tells the story of Louis Zamperini, one of the world's great runners in the years before the Second World War, his experiences as a Japanese POW, and what happened upon his return to the United States.  The author, Laura Hillenbrand suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome/ME.  I know, sounds sad and disturbing, right?  I agree.  And yet it's one of the most profound and uplifting stories I've read in years.

I've been spending a good deal of time recently on chronic fatigue syndrome/ME websites.   I don't know if you're aware of this, but lately they've been striking some pretty good blows for the autism community.  There has been preliminary data linking both autism and chronic fatigue syndrome/ME to the XMRV retrovirus and it has some of the traditional opponents of the autism community concerned.   I've mentioned it before, but both my daughter with autism and my wife have tested positive for the XMRV retrovirus.

The other day there was a web-chat with Chicago Tribune reporter Trine Tsouderous and Dr. Paul Offit regarding vaccine safety.  Dr. Jamie Deckoff-Jones, a chronic fatigue patient asked the following question of Trine and Dr. Offit.

Dr. Deckoff-Jones: Are you concerned that the current epidemics of ME/CFS, ASD (autism spectrum disorders) and GWI (Gulf War illness) are related to vaccines? These neuroimmune disease cohorts are all of mysterious etiology and share many clinical similarities: sensory and cognitive processing deficits, susceptibility to and inability to clear certain infections, an unusual susceptibility to stress, increased oxidative stress, glutathione depletion, methylation blocks, mitochondrial defects, high levels of heavy metals, inflammatory bowel issues, hormone abnormalities and a suspicion that vaccines are implicated in pathogenesis. The pathology in humans is extremely similar to what is known of simple retroviral infections in animals. We have evidence that xenotropic and polytropic MuLVs are infecting humans (Lombardi et al Science Oct 2009, Lo et al PNAS Sept 2010). Given the history of the use of mouse and chick embryo cells for vaccine production coinciding with the history of Epidemic Neuromyasthenia (as documented by Henderson and Shelokov, NEJM 1959), the known presence of animal retroviruses in those cells, and the documented ability of these viruses to infect human cells, aren't you the least bit concerned?

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

It's been said that some of the greatest tragedies happen because those in charge fail to ask the most basic questions.

Consider the fire which swept the Apollo 1 capsule in 1967, killing all three astronauts.  A spark ignited the pure oxygen atmosphere in the spacecraft.  Every high school chemistry student learns pure oxygen is highly flammable.  After an exhaustive investigation the conclusion was that no engineer had asked the simple question of whether it was safe to have a pure oxygen environment in the capsule.

I was reminded of the Apollo disaster when I read a recent post by Dr. Jamie Deckoff-Jones entitled Cover-up and Contamination Theories.  HERE Dr. Deckoff-Jones is a former emergency room doctor, chronic fatigue syndrome/ME patient, and is currently the clinical director of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute of the University of Nevada/Reno. However, the blog explicitly states the opinions expressed are hers alone and do not necessarily represent those of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute.

The simple question Dr. Deckoff-Jones asks in her post is whether the culturing of viruses for vaccines in certain animal tissues, such as mice, has resulted in the combination of endogenous human and mouse retroviruses and caused both the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME and autism epidemics.

Dr. Deckoff-Jones begins by asking how those who claim XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus) is a lab contaminant explain that the blood of chronic fatigue syndrome/ME patients contain antibodies to XMRV.  Anti-bodies can only be produced in the body, thus any later contamination of the blood in a lab would not provoke an immune response.  The Whittemore-Peterson Institute has also put out a statement on allegations of contamination.  HERE

I've been interested in XMRV since my daughter and wife have both tested positive for the retrovirus and are part of an ongoing research program at the Whittemore-Peterson Institute.  I have tested negative for the retrovirus.  Children with autism share many common clinical symptoms with the chronic fatigue syndrome/ME population, including immune disregulation, increased oxidative stress, expression of proinflammatory cytokines, low natural killer cell functionality, and active microbial infections.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

A new study from scientists at Emory University, the Cleveland Clinic, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and Abbott Diagnositics and featuring such medical luminaries as Drs. Eric Klein and Robert Silverman is providing information on the path of XMRV infection in primates, and surprisingly the possible triggers for activation of the retrovirus.  The work was recently published in the Journal of Virology.

I have a long-standing interest in XMRV (xenotropic murine leukemia-related virus) as my daughter with autism/seizures and my wife have both tested positive for the retrovirus. (My daughter has also recently tested positive for co-infection by HHV-6, type B.)  I have tested negative for XMRV.  While  most of the recent commentary on XMRV has focused on its possible connection to chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, children with autism share many common clinical symptoms with the CFS/ME population, including immune disregulation, increased oxidative stress, expression of proinflammatory cytokines, low natural killer cell functionality, and active microbial infections.

A poster presentation entitled "Detection of Infectious XMRV in Peripheral Blood of Children" was made at the 1st International Workshop on XMRV in September of 2010 at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.  In a small sample it was found that 14 of 17 children (82%) of the children were positive for XMRV infection.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I will confess my deep disappointment over the outcome in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth.  The case was well-presented by the attorneys and I thought it might be one of those rare instances where there could be a convergence of conservative suspicion of big government and a liberal suspicion of big business.

I was wrong.  The conservatives did not hold true to their principles.  The liberals did.

And yet in the 6-2 decision I must also note a crack in the defenses.  You'll forgive me if I sound a little like Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, who noted hope in a small-town southern jury who argued long and hard before convicting an obviously innocent black man of attempted rape.

To put it bluntly, the republican males of the court folded and the democratic women, Sotomayor and Ginsburg stood firm and identified the true issues in the case.  Sotomayor's blistering dissent set the stage for future public debates.   Here is the preview she gave of her 28 page dissent:

"Vaccine manufacturers have long been subject to a legal duty, rooted in basic principles of products liability law, to improve the design of their vaccines in light of advances in science and technology.  Until today, that duty was enforceable through a traditional state-law tort action for defective design.  In holding that section 22(b)(1) of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (Vaccine Act or Act), 42 U.S.C. section 300aa-22(b)(1), preempts all design defect claims for injuries stemming from vaccines covered under the Act, the Court imposes its own bare policy preference over the considered judgment of Congress.  In doing so, the Court excises 13 words from the statutory text, misconstrues the Act's legislative history, and disturbs the careful balance Congress struck between compensating vaccine-injured children and stabilizing the childhood vaccine market.  Its decision leaves a regulatory vacum in which no one ensures that vaccine manufacturers adequately take account of scientific and technological advancements when designing or distributing their products.  Because nothing in the text, structure, or legislative history of the Vaccine Act remotely suggests that Congress intended such a result,  (bold is mine) I dissent."

 This dissent sets the stage for all future conversations.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

The masterful new book, Vaccine Epidemic, edited by Louise Kuo Habakus, M.A., director of the Center for Personal Rights, and Mary Holland, J.D., research scholar at the New York University School of Law may be the most important book yet published on the autism-vaccine controversy.

I say this as an attorney because of my conviction that the scientific misdeeds alleged by many in our community, and in which I strongly believe, could never have taken place without a legal framework which allowed them to happen, and subsequently, prevented them from being investigated.  To put it simply the whole game is rigged.  Do you play an unfair game or do you walk away?

Consider the public debate on this issue.  Our community is referred to as "anti-science" because we assert that vaccines cause significant damage in some people.  The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act itself defines vaccines as "unavoidably unsafe."  Even though I believe the court established by this Act to be fundamentally flawed in many ways, and should be abolished, the fact remains it has paid out more than $2 billion dollars since 1988.  How are we "anti-science"?  It seems to me we should be referred to as "pro-science" since we are asking the medical community to come up with some sort of screening system to identify those at risk for vaccine injury.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

I've been glued to the television the last couple days watching the situation in Egypt unfold and thinking of our community.  Make no doubt about it, we are an opposition group.  If there is any radicalism within us it's because our questions to the reigning medical establishment have been so consistently ignored, and we as a community have been attacked.  What have we asked of the medical community which threatens them so greatly?  A study on the rates of neurological disorders among vaccinated and unvaccinated children?  If that would take too long, how about a similar study with a group of vaccinated and unvaccinated primates?

Some, like Dr. Andrew Wakefield, are attacked and an attempt is made to destroy their professional reputations.  (Or if you are too highly respected, like former head of the National Institute of Health, Dr. Bernadine Healy, who has publicly stated that this issue has not been honestly investigated for fear of what might be found, you are ignored in any media stories.) Let me be clear about this.  Dr. Wakefield is only the most visible medical person to be attacked.  In my discussions over the years with various scientific researchers they have often shared similar stories with me.  I expect any medical professional who honestly searches for the cause of autism to run the risk of an attack on his or her professional reputation.

And what in this orgy of ignorance that the medical community seems to have about the most common childhood developmental problem, have brave researchers discovered about our children?

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

"Hey, what do you think about all the news on Wakefield?" my brother asked over the phone.

He had called me.  This was a rare occurence.  Usually I call him.  He's my older brother, just a little more than two years older, although in school we were separated by three grades.  He was one of those December babies, ready to take on the world, and so he ventured into school younger than most of his peers.

My brother had asked my parents for a baby brother and they obliged him, so I wasn't perceived as a rival to our parent's affections.  In addition, my parents had the foresight to buy gifts from "the baby" every time my mom went for a doctor's appointment, and when I came home from the hospital there was a new tricycle waiting for him.  He had asked for me, and in an unexpected bonus, I came  with presents.

While we were close it was also clear we had wildly different personalities.  He was a fighter, a scrapper, an athlete, and well, I was none of these things.  We had a joke that when the coaches saw me coming they'd rub their hands in expectation saying, "Great!  Another Heckenlively!  And then they'd meet me."  Because let's face it, my brother was a stud.  He won hundreds of first place ribbons in swimming, was a pitcher for his little league team, and captain of his high school footbal team.  And as for me, in swimming I beat exactly one person in two years of swimming, held the strike-out record in tee-ball, and although I played a year of high school football, nobody was clamoring for me to become captain.  I disappointed many a coach.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

Do you ever find yourself wondering when the media will look at vaccines with the same skepticism as it does other medications?

After watching Anderson Cooper of CNN go after Dr. Andrew Wakefield with more anger than if he'd been questioning a dictator who'd killed millions, I'm not really holding my breath for the media to do their job.

I'm a little more hopeful for the Supreme Court.  In a January 13, 2011 editorial for The New York Times entitled "The Anosmia Case" HERE the Times told of a very interesting case before the Supreme Court in which the justices displayed an admirable amount of intellectual curiousity and just plain common sense.

It's one of those cases in which you get to the end and ask yourself, are the lawyers really making that argument?  Here are the facts. 

Zicam, a homeopathic cold remedy was marketed by a company called Matrixx Initiatives.  The company received complaints from 23 users of the product claiming they'd lost their sense of smell, a condition known as anosmia.  "Good Morning America" aired a piece questioning the safety of Zicam and as a result the price of Matrixx's stock fell 24 percent.  The shareholders sued, saying the company should have warned investors about the problems and potential lawsuits.

According to The New York Times, "The company complained that it didn't have to, arguing that the complaints had no scientific basis, that any loss of smell should be blamed on illness and that the number of complaints was not statistically significant."  Sounds similar to how the pharmaceutical companies respond to complaints regarding vaccine injury, doesn't it?  If it's not "proven" we don't have to tell you the company claimed.