Note: Kindness. Compassion. Lend a helping hand. As taught by an 8 year old. This is America, despite what we see on "social" media and cable news.

WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) -Read more here.

A first day of school picture is going viral, in a really good way.

Two elementary school boys began the new school year with a lesson in kindness.  

"I saw him on the ground with Connor as Connor was crying in the corner and he was consoling him. He grabs his hand and walks him to the front door. We waited until the bell rang and he walked him inside of the school. The rest is history. They have an inseparable bond," says Courtney Moore.

What Christian didn't know that day...is that Connor is autistic. He was overwhelmed with everything going on around him.

 "I fear everyday that someone is going to laugh at him because he doesn't speak correctly, or laugh at him because he doesn't sit still or because he jumps up and down and flaps his hands," says April Crites.

It was a moment in time, caught... now capturing the hearts of strangers all over. 
But to the boys, it was simple.

"He was kind to me.  I was in the 1st day of school and I started crying then he helped me and I was happy," says Connor Crites.

http://www.kake.com/clip/14896145/photo-of-8-year-old-wichita-boy-reaching-out-a-hand-goes-viral

Note: Thanks to Nancy Hokkanen for sharing this article about problem of a serious virus that is attacking pigs in china.  She took note of a particular line, on which we have expanded below.

Urgency for vaccine grows as virus ravages China's pigs

But before a vaccine becomes available, it needs to be tested in large numbers of pigs in secure facilities with isolation pens, waste and carcass incinerators and decontamination showers for staff, said Linda Dixon, a biologist at London's Pirbright Institute, which studies viral diseases in livestock. The process takes two to five years, she said.

The extensive testing is necessary to ensure vaccines made by weakened viruses don't have unintended side effects.

In the 1960s, for instance, Spain and Portugal tested such a vaccine after outbreaks of African swine fever. The treated pigs seemed fine at first, but then lesions broke out on their skin, arthritis locked up their joints and the animals failed to fatten up, said Jose Manuel Sanchez-Vizcaino Rodriguez, who leads a lab focused on African swine fever at the University in Madrid.

One of the "...unintended side effects" that warranted extensive testing was that the pigs did not fatten up. Ah ha. Skinny pigs are not profitable. So safety is extra important.  What about unintended side effects for vaccines given to humans?

Note: Last week, we featured an article that says study summaries, like the one below, often sugar coat the results so that the reader thinks there is a better outcome than was actually reported in the full study.  The abstract below reports that more study is needed, in case the vaccine does indeed cause miscarriage. Will the study team be pilloried, driven out of their careers and country fro suggesting more study is needed? That has been known to happen when critiquing a vaccine. We've heard.

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Background

To assess whether the peri-conceptional or pregnancy exposure of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination would increase the risk of spontaneous abortion. 

Methods

We searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for clinical trials and observational studies that investigated the association between exposure of HPV vaccines (2vHPV, 4vHPV or 9vHPV) during peri-conceptional period or pregnancy and spontaneous abortion before 28 gestational weeks. We pooled data from 2vHPV, 4vHPV and 9vHPV separately. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to data sources, and raw data or adjusted data.
Results

Seven observational studies were eligible and all studies were low risk of bias. Meta-analyses suggested that 2vHPV vaccination did not increase the risk of spontaneous abortion regardless of exposure period during 90 days before last menstrual period (LMP) or pregnancy: risk ratio, 95% confidence intervals (RR, 95% CI), 1.15 (0.95–1.39), and 45 days before LMP or pregnancy: 1.28 (0.96–1.70). However, 2vHPV vaccination during Pre-45 days to LMP seemed to increase the risk of spontaneous abortion: 1.59 (1.04–2.45). The current evidence did not support the association between 4vHPV vaccination and spontaneous abortion regardless of exposure period during 45 days before LMP or pregnancy: 0.88 (0.73–1.06); and 45 days before LMP: 1.00 (0.80–1.24). Additionally, 9vHPV during within 30 days of conception also seemed to increase the risk: 2.04 (1.28–3.24).
Conclusions

The association between peri-conceptional or pregnancy exposure of HPV vaccine and spontaneous abortion is still uncertain, and additional research is warranted to assess the impact of exposure of HPV vaccination on spontaneous abortion.

Read more at Peri-conceptional or pregnancy exposure of HPV vaccination and the risk of spontaneous abortion: a systematic review and meta-analysis Jing Tan, Yi-quan Xiong, Qiao He, Yan-mei Liu, Wen Wang, Meng Chen, Kang Zou, Xing-hui Liu & Xin Sun BMC Pregnancy and Childbirthvolume 19, Article number: 302 (2019)

SHERIDAN, Wyo., Aug. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- DTP is one of the most common vaccines used in the world.  In 2012, SAGE requested that the WHO review the evidence concerning the possible effects of DTP vaccines on mortality¹. In a new expert report, Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor, DrMedSci, MSc analyzed the WHO systematic review as well as any studies published after the WHO report that assessed the effect of DTP vaccine on total mortality. This new expert report concludes that the "evidence tells us that it is likely that the DTP vaccine increases total mortality in low-income countries." ²

This echoes the conclusion by Peter Aaby – a highly acclaimed scientist renowned for studying and promoting vaccines in Africa - that "all currently available evidence suggests that DTP vaccine may kill more children from other causes than it saves from diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis. Though a vaccine protects children against the target disease it may simultaneously increase susceptibility to unrelated infections." ³ Dr. Aaby's recent study, the first ever naturally randomized comparison of mortality between children receiving DTP and those that are unvaccinated, found that children vaccinated with DTP were 10 times more likely to die in the first 6 months of life than the unvaccinated.³ 

One of the five goals of the WHO's Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) is to exceed the UN Millennium Development Goal 4 target of reducing child mortality.⁴ A strategy for achieving this goal is to reach 90% national vaccination coverage on DTP containing vaccines worldwide.⁴ According to Gøtzsche's conclusions, this strategy would be counterproductive toward the goal of reducing child mortality.

Some states are trying to change the laws so that teens can opt into vaccines that their parents might think are not the best choice for them. This week on a Mom list in my town, a woman was displeased that her 18 year old daughter took 2 vaccinations at the pediatrician without her knowledge. The young woman, at 18, was able to consent. And Mom was not allowed to participate in the decision. But what about minor teens who are being pushed to get the Gardasil shot? Below is an article spun so hard that your head might fly off after reading even the intro we shared below. A teen, formerly ignorant, started college and a career in cancer research (red flag!) and feels so lucky she escaped HPV for as long as she did, and then got the 3 shot Gardasil protocol.

We protect our children, including our teens from products that might harm them. Cigarettes. Liquor. Firearms. Lottery Tickets. Vaping/E-cig products.  So why the push to allow vaccines?  Because the media tells the general public, and the general public fully, passionately, with all their heart and soul and heads buried in the sand believes that vaccines are overall safe. Safe for you. Safe for me. Safe for every kid. Safer than any of the diseases they purport to protect against. Side effects, injury and death never enter into the equation.

This article is about a legal push in guess where - New York, which is now overtaking California in pharma obeisance. 

When parents say 'no' to HPV shots, teens have no choice. Some states are changing that.

Thank you to John Gilmore of Autism Action Network for this summary of yesterday's decision from New York state.  Thousands of children on IEPs who are not 100% in compliance with vaccination requirements, and who used their religious exemption will be sitting at home instead of attending school. Public school. Think of the effect on their parents, many of whom now have to stay home from work. Think of the the drop in income taxes taken in by the state. Think of the teachers who may be put out of work as student numbers fall. Think of the injustice of denying an education to HEALTHY children in America for lack of.... a chicken pox vaccine?  This should be a voting issue in 2020 - the nation has stood up for the rights of every self-appointed cockamamie, yes, I said cockamamie, group in the alphabet - except NVC - not vaccine compliant.  Stay tuned.

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Judge denies preliminary injunction in NY lawsuit allowing spec ed students to return to class

The preliminary injunction was denied without hearing in V.D. v. State of New York, a case challenging the denial of school-based educations to special needs students with IEPs and 504 plans as a result of the repeal of the religious exemption from vaccine mandates to attend school. The following is the conclusion from the judge's ruling on the preliminary injunction:

"Plaintiffs’ children qualify for services under the IDEA, and they are entitled to continue to receive those same services if they return to school. Their status as children with disabilities, however, does not entitle them to an injunction banning the enforcement of a neutral, widely applicable state law. Plaintiffs’ objection to the repeal constitutes an affirmative choice to opt-out of public, private, and parochial schools—not a unilateral action on the part of defendants that interferes with or alters their rights under the IDEA. As a result, and for the foregoing reasons, they are not entitled to either a preliminary injunction or a stay-put order, and their motion is DENIED."

by John Stone 

As Britain's new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, calls for reassuring messaging about vaccination on the web, AoA's British editor looks at an NHS web-page on vaccination safety and finds it full of holes. Unfortunately, the problems with the vaccine program do not lie with its critics. A copy of this review will be sent to the NHS web editors.

I am responding to claims or statements in this web-document ' Why vaccination is safe and important' [1] (not following the original order of presentation). 

I begin with the statement:

“(Vaccines) do not overload or weaken the immune system - it's safe to give children several vaccines at a time and this reduces the amount of injections they need”

It is not clear what the evidential basis is for this statement. Formerly, at least, British health officials were keen to cite a paper by Offit et al (2002) which suggested absurdly an infant could withstand 10,000 vaccines at a time. However far-fetched, this was based on a theoretical claim about routine exposure to environmental antigens. Evidently some environmental exposures are more dangerous than others, otherwise people would not be at risk from infectious diseases at all, but the basis of exposure through vaccination is different (injected), and involves adjuvants so it is perhaps not relevant at all to talk about the number of antigens (as in Offit). In August 2004 Dr Salisbury distinguished in an e-letter to me between the increased risk of adverse reactions in an extended schedule and “overload”, which begs the question what is meant by “overload” and what people are supposed to understand by such a statement. A paper by Aaby et al (2012) was entitled “Vaccine programmes must consider their effect on general resistance”, which is evidently a warning that there is no such blank cheque for expanding the schedule. I covered this ground in my published submission to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee inquiry into anti-microbial resistance last year [2]. The NHS need to clarify what they mean, but also state what the evidential basis is for this claim.

Another statement apparently contradicts the proposition that there is anything inherently safe about vaccinating:

“(Vaccines) get safety tested for years before being introduced - they're also monitored for any side effects”

By Kim Rossi

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy
The moon walk
If you play the record backward, it says "Paul is dead."
You will die if you drink Coca Cola while eating Pop Rocks.
Step on a crack. Break your mother's back.
Mikey killed himself.
Cigarettes cause cancer.
There's a "thing" called crisis actors who are faking mass shootings.
The world is flat.
There is no climate change.
September 11 was an inside job.
Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide.
Vaccines cause autism.

Who decides what information should be called a conspiracy theory worthy of the Weekly World News versus hard hitting reporting worthy of the front page of the New York Times? 

The information age has given way to the over-information age. Social media created an opportunity to influence our thinking in ways the old fashioned news, whether on television or in print, could never have imagined.  The thought of waiting a week for the next issue of Time or Newsweek is quaint, as is turning on ABC, NBC, or CBS each night at 6:30pm for the evening news. But - are we being inundated by or isolated from what is really happening in our world?  I feel less aware than ever. I turn on the morning cable news networks and hear nothing but arguments from Trump supporter or Trump detractors. I don't bother to listen. Cable "news" is opinion and bias and snarky judgemental politics for most of the day. Sometimes, I turn on BBC radio to get a glimpse of what's happening around the world.

When Jeffrey Epstein's death was announced,  America had a unique, almost unheard of moment of unity where we all blurted out, "Suicide?????" The evidence against Epstein was piled high. His past conviction and white glove treatment generated worthy doubt.  The manner of his crime and its reach into the echelons of politics and high society so abhorrent it had to be true.  The suicide so convenient for those for whom the canary might have sung a loud tune. Questioning his death was a logical response.  Even Howard Stern waxed apologetic for becoming a conspiracy theorist by questioning Epstein's death.  I don't understand the leap to overusing the term conspiracy. Why aren't we allowed to think something we hear isn't true without being painted as kooks? Dangerous kooks even.

Hello, friends. a dozen years ago, Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill had an idea for a site to expose the Age of Autism as the epidemic it had become. Kim Rossi (then Stagliano) joined their team and Age of Autism, "the nation's first daily web newspaper of the autism epidemic" was born. In 2019, we're a site focused on autism, yes, but also on the much broader topic of HEALTH CHOICE.

We need your financial support. Gone are the days when organizations were able to sponsor and support us.   We are now fully donor driven. 
 
Your donation is tax deductible. I've signed on to Network for Good as a safe, easy to use donation platform.  Every dollar counts!   Or you can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. And don't forget matching gifts! Especially is you work for a pharma company. Ha Ha! THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here

Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. We stand almost alone. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong.

Yesterday, we ran a post from Laura Hayes about the fact that Huffington Post deleted all content that was about vaccination safety, including many of my own posts.  I'll be writing about that soon. Laura wrote:

I just read your letter to Huffington Post readers regarding your decision to “remove dozens of blogs that perpetuate the unfounded opinion that vaccines pose a health risk to the public.”

I am wondering if you happened to even read the link you posted as evidence of vaccine safety? If you did, you seemingly missed the CDC’s own admission, albeit woefully inadequate, that vaccines come with myriad risks and do indeed cause harm, and fail, and have since their inception. Read her full letter here.

Health Freedom advocate Larry Cook pulled down all of his contributions on Vimeo (the video hosting site) because they removed vaccination safety and choice related videos.  I could not limk a Vimeo from Kevin Barry earlier this week - the link wouldn’t connect.

We've worked too hard - all of us including you, our readers, to see our work "Marie Kondo'd" because it does not spark joy for pharma. I have a plan underway for a new platform to tell HuffPo and Medium to become ShoveItPo and MediumSmallMinded. Stay tuned. And please, donate a few bucks to keep the rebel alliance going!  Thank you. KIM

Doctors in New York were just demoted below bureaucrats. Stay tuned. 

By Cathy Jameson

I went to the pool early one evening with 3 of my kids over our summer break.  We’d have loved for him to join us, too, but Ronan stayed behind.  Previous summers had him at the pool quite a bit.  He’s not interested in swimming as much as he used to be though.  He preferred to stay comfortable and inside that evening, so I left to take a quick dip in the pool.  Ronan can be flexible during vacation time, but why rock the boat?  He was happy, and when he’s happy, we’re happy, too. 

With Ronan not being there and with me not needing to constantly supervise him, I was able to actually swim at the pool.  I did that and also enjoyed watching my other kids play.  Each of them, including Ronan, are like fish to water.  It was so encouraging to see them have fun and to see them be so confident underwater.  When the kids swam to the deeper end, I floated around on my own.  That’s when heard something interesting.  

An older woman was talking with a couple who’d mentioned they had college-aged kids.  Maybe she was hard-of-hearing and couldn’t tell how loud her voice carried across the water, or maybe she didn’t care that other people beyond their small circle could hear her, but this older gal kept talking and talking.  Those of us not in earshot couldn’t help but hear what she had to say.  The more she said, the more I wanted to be part of the conversation.  I floated by and heard her mention Sharyl, as in Sharyl Attkisson. Slowing myself, I treaded water near these 3 people.  That’s when the older lady mentioned another name, Dr. Zimmerman, and continued to share that, as a retired pharmacist, she’d seen a lot.  She'd read a lot, too, including taking time to read about something called vaccine court.  ‘Why would a vaccine court exist if vaccines were so safe?’ she asked.  I nodded my head in agreement and said softly, “She’s right”, and swam closer to the group while preparing to introduce myself. 

I’d have to wait.  The retired pharmacist had much more to say.

‘Look at how many shots kids are getting now also.  Of course, times have changed and medicine has advanced.  But at some point, you have to listen to the parents.  Something’s happening to their kids after they get all those shots.’

“I couldn’t agree more,” I interjected while the gal waited for the couple to reply.  They didn’t say anything, so I continued, “I'm one of those parents, and my son is one of those kids.”

No one spoke, but three sets of eyes now stared straight at me. 

Before adding anything else, I asked myself, Do I keep talking, or do I sheepishly swim away? Years ago I never would have said anything, but as time’s gone by, I’ve gotten more vocal with complete strangers when vaccines come up.  Another minute went by with no one talking, so I took the chance and continued. 

Looking at the older woman, I said, “I love Sharyl's investigative research and really appreciate what she reported.”  I added that not only is she thorough in her news reports, but shared how brave I thought Sharyl was, especially with all the censoring we've witnessed in corporate news outlets.  “She’s shed light on things that the mainstream media won’t touch.  If more people spent time reading up on the topic, like that vaccine court exists, parents may be able to make different decisions about vaccines.  Our doctors didn't tell us much when my son was being vaccinated, nor after he was injured by vaccines.  I learned what I needed to know too late and only after reading on my own...like you mentioned you did.”

‘It's incredible what I’ve learned,’ the older lady offered. 

Photo credit: Capture The Faith Photography.  The red lines are ours so as not to share copyrighted work.  Please visit the site to see and purchase the magnificent photos that say so much about the passion and pain currently sweeping New York, and coming soon to a state near you.....

This week, something very special happened in Albany, New York. Unnoticed or warped in the mainstream media, thousands of men and women from all walks of life, races, creeds and religions showed up at the capitol to peacefully protest the removal of the religious vaccination exemption. Thousands of children have been expelled from school by virtue of this change. Healthy American-born children. Healthy Immigrant-born children. Healthy children who may be here under the law or outside of the law. All banned from a free and appropriate education as implemented by our Founding Fathers, for whom religious freedom was also paramount.

Today, politicians seek to expel children from their right to a free and appropriate education. A shock.

The rationale for this removal? Well the public word is measles. That's right. Measles.  The common childhood sickness that a mere 30 years ago was considered a nuisance of discomfort and Mom not being able to leave the house for the duration of each child in her family's rite of passage. Today? Measles is a weapon of Mass Freedom Destruction, every case turned into something worse than Ebola in the news so that the average Tom, Dick and Harry, and Jane, Sally and Mary, are scared to death to the point where losing rights becomes a good thing. It's an old trick. Fear sells everything. Including vaccines.

Please take a look at this video and then check out the photography site of Capture The Faith, which shows in beautiful color and black and white the unity of the day. Right here in America, where the news day in and day out is how Americans are at each other's throats. We are not. We are more alike than dissimilar despite the narrative of separation. It's the politicians, driven by corporate money and personal greed without personal edification, who are driving this push. And it must stop.  Thank you to everyone in Albany. Let freedom ring.

Imagine an America where a major political magazine refuses to publish Robert Kennedy, Jr.. whose family has been political royalty for more than 60 years, because the topic, vaccination safety, is verboten unless it's to praise pharma and damn vaccine choice. America is 2019 is upside down. Do we stay this way or find a way back upright? I just don't know. Seems like the only category we need here at AofA these days is "nightmares."

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CHD NOTE: In early May 2019, Politico Magazine published an article written by three of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s relatives, criticizing his advocacy for safe vaccines. After numerous requests, Politico magazine has refused to publish his response.

Americans Can Handle an Open Discussion on Vaccines—RFK, Jr. Responds to Criticism from His Family

By Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  

Three of my Kennedy relatives recently published an article criticizing my advocacy for safe vaccines. Our contentious family dispute highlights the fierce national donnybrook over vaccinations that has divided communities and raised doubts about the Democratic Party’s commitment to some of its defining values: abhorrence of censorship, wariness toward excessive corporate power, support for free speech, religious freedom, and personal sovereignty over our bodies, and the rights of citizens (codified in the Nuremberg Code and other treaties to which we are signatories) to decline unwanted government-mandated medical interventions. The debate has also raised questions about the independence of our press and its role as a champion of free speech, and First Amendment rights and as a bulwark against overreaching by government and corporations.

I love my family and sympathize with their anxieties when I call out government officials for corruption. The Kennedys have a long, close, and continuing relationship with public health agencies so it is understandably difficult for us to believe that powerful regulators would lie about vaccines. “All issues are simple,” the saw goes, “until you study them.”

Those conflicts motivate them to recommend ever more vaccines with minimal support from evidence-based science.

My skepticism

I’ve arrived at my skepticism after 15 years spent researching and litigating this issue. I have watched financial conflicts and institutional self-interest transform key sectors of our public health bureaucracies into appendages of the very pharmaceutical companies that Congress charged them to regulate.

Multiple investigations by Congress and the HHS Inspector General have consistently found that an overwhelming majority of the FDA officials directly charged with licensing vaccines, and the CDC officials who effectively mandate them for children, have personal financial entanglements with vaccine manufacturers. These public servants are often shareholders in, grant recipients from, and paid consultants to vaccine manufacturers, and, occasionally, patent holders of the very vaccines they vote to approve. Those conflicts motivate them to recommend ever more vaccines with minimal support from evidence-based science.

HHS partners with vaccine makers to develop, approve, recommend, and pass mandates for new products and then shares profits from vaccine sales.

The pharmaceutical industry also enforces policy discipline through agency budgets. FDA receives 45% of its annual budget from industry. The World Health Organization (WHO) gets roughly half its budget from private sources, including Pharma and its allied foundations.  And CDC, frankly, is a vaccine company; it owns 56 vaccine patents  and buys and distributes $4.6 billion in vaccines annually through the Vaccines for Children program, which is over 40% of its total budget. Further, Pharma directly funds, populates and controls dozens of CDC programs through the CDC foundation.  A British Medical Journal editorial excoriates CDC’s sweetheart relationship with pharma quotes UCLA Professor of Medicine Jerome R. Hoffman “most of us were shocked to learn the CDC takes funding from industry… It is outrageous that industry is apparently allowed to punish the CDC if the agency conducts research that has potential to cut into profits.”  Please read the full article at the Children's Health Defense website.

By John Stone

This is a follow up to my brief article at the end of February British MPs are Front for Gates and the Pharmaceutical Industry

The deadly charade continues. British television viewers were told on ITV NEWS on Thursday night that an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) was to investigate "the  resurgence of the anti-vaccination movement".  They should not be deceived into thinking however that the APPG  "Vaccinations For All is the equivalent of a parliamentary committee. The secretariat for the group - which itself  consists of five little known members of the House of Commons and two of the House of Lords - is listed as an organisation  called Results UK, which is in turn a satellite of GAVI, which we all know is a partnership of  the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the WHO,  Unicef, the World Bank and the Pharmaceutical Industry etc. Every single vaccine manufacturer is represented within GAVI.

The strategy has been apparent since the summer of 2017 when the director of GAVI, Seth Berkley, had an article published in the on-line Spectator - a British news journal - calling for "anti-vaxxers" to be banned from the web, when what he was really setting out to do was ban all criticism of vaccines from the web while simultaneously indulging in hate rhetoric. In the British context it might perhaps be a modestly hopeful sign that the present move comes from an undistinguished ad hoc group of parliamentarians rather than a standing committee: less helpful is the continuing treachery of the mainstream media which cannot any longer report anything without a having devious agenda behind it.

The deadline for submissions to this inquiry is 30 August. Many people from the vaccine injury/vaccine critical community are apparently writing but if they do they should be aware that the group is an industry lobby organization and not one of the standing parliamentary committees which regularly hold inquiries as part of their remit - there may be some point in trying to embarrass them but their standpoint is essentially hostile, and their avowed concern is to silence families of the injured not listen to them.

When the State jams through a law removing religious rights from citizens, citizens show up to peacefully protest. This is political engagement. This is the American way. New York removed the religious exemption to vaccines, effectively expelling THOUSANDS of health American, Immigrant, tax paying, USA loving, freedom seeking, generations here and newcomers alike from the right to a free public education for lack of...... a vaccine. Here is the crowd in Albany today. More news to follow as available. 

Source: Attorney Rita Palma

Live from Albany, New York. Here is the courtroom where the Oral Argument on the Repeal of the
Religious Exemption to Vaccination for New York Children is being held as families from across the Empire State fight for the right to a free and appropriate public education for their HEALTHY children. This is discrimination of the most UnAmerican sort. It must stop.

My Bella is home on summer break between ESY and her new school year.  I turned on Sesame Street on HBO - and clicked CLASSIC - so that she could watch the fun, musical, kind, educational Sesame Street that I remember from when her sisters watched in the 1990s.  One of the episodes available caught my eye - "Big Bird Catches the Birdy Pox." 

Below is a clip from Season 27, back in 1995-96 in which Big Birdy gets "the Birdy Pox." The doctor uses a soothing, compassionate voice to tell him, "It's nothing to worry about. Almost all big yellow birds get the Birdy Pox!" Imagine that. Before the marketing vaccine machine took over, chicken pox was common childhood disease whose prescription was exactly what the doctor told Big Bird: Rest in your nest.

Today, kids unvaccinated for the chicken pox have been EXPELLED from school in both New York and California. This has happened in a mere 25 years. Chicken pox is a scourge that brings scorn and shame to mothers and kids alike.  Rest in your nest is now "No school, you fool." The sunny day is now sad.

Judge to Hear Oral Argument on the Repeal of the
Religious Exemption to Vaccination for New York Children

After the Wed., Aug. 14th, 10: 00 a.m. hearing, Attorneys Michael H. Sussman and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chairman of Children’s Health Defense, will answer questions on the Albany County, NY Courthouse steps, 16 Eagle Street.
Albany, NY—On July 10, attorneys Sussman and Kennedy filed a lawsuit in New York State (NYS) Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the legislature’s repeal of the religious exemption to vaccination. Suing on behalf of 55 NYS families who held lawful religious exemptions, Sussman and Kennedy requested that the court enjoin the repeal temporarily, preliminarily and permanently.

The Honorable Denise Hartman, Supreme Court judge, will hear oral argument Wednesday, August 14th. With school only three weeks away, plaintiffs present their case that on June 13, 2019, NYS halted more than fifty years of lawful religious exemptions from vaccination for those with genuine and sincerely-held religious beliefs. The law, which became effective immediately, threw more than 26,000 NYS families into chaos, barring their children from school and daycare. A representative group of affected families, from different regions and diverse faiths, including Christianity, Judaism and Islam, challenged the repeal as constitutionally defective and unlawful. They seek judicial intervention to enjoin the repeal and permit their children back to school and camp throughout the state. The ruling will not only affect the 55 plaintiffs but the thousands of other similarly situated families.

Over the weekend, a teen with autism wandered and was found within 24 hours just miles from my house. A friend on Facebook reported her teen son wandered in Chicago and we spent a harrowing night praying for him, he was found alive and safe.  Also, this weekend, a youngster in Lima, Ohio was not so fortunate.  He was drawn to "water, trains and parks...."  And yet, the Justice Department continues to drop the ball.  See below.

The body of an autistic boy who was reported missing in Lima early Sunday morning was recovered from a body of water Sunday afternoon, according to the Allen County Sheriff’s Office. 8-year-old Matthew Converse had last been seen around 12 a.m. Sunday, according to the Lima Police Department. Police had informed the public that Matthew had autism and was drawn to water, trains and parks. Matthew was found in a body of water not far from his home around 3:34 p.m., deputies said.

From Disability Scoop:  The U.S. Department of Justice is on the hot seat amid attempts to allocate funding intended to address the needs of kids with autism and other developmental disabilities who wander.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pressuring the agency to follow through on its obligations under Kevin and Avonte’s Law.

The law, which was signed last year, called for $2 million annually through 2022 for grants to local law enforcement and nonprofit agencies. The money can be used to provide electronic tracking devices to families of those at risk of wandering or for education, training, notification systems and other efforts to prevent or better respond to elopement.

However, Schumer’s office said that rather than make funding available to local agencies as called for in Kevin and Avonte’s Law, the Justice Department folded the wandering program into a larger grant for a national center to improve police response to people with mental health conditions as well as intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Now, the grant solicitation is being amended and reissued, Schumer said.

“I have serious concerns that deviating from the Kevin and Avonte’s mandate, will divert key resources from in need families and communities,” Schumer wrote in a letter this month to Katharine Sullivan, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs.  Read more here.

Note: One of the phrases we 0ften hear regarding vaccine safety is that "The science is settled, vaccines do not cause autism." Is science in its pure form ever really settled. And what of science today, in a profit driven system? Here, an article talks about the problem of sweet talking, data changing tweaks in psychiatric clinical trial report summaries that are read instead of the full study in part because few have the time to read actual papers and properly draw their own conclusions.  How can anyone claim the science is settled when we know that studies are spun to present profit-assisting data?  We can't. Why is this understandable and presentable in the media EXCEPT when it comes to vaccinations?  The deluge of information is not necessarily a good thing, especially when doctors are also required to do more administrative paperwork than ever before.  Even those who want to keep up may be unable to do so.

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Spin in psychiatric clinical trial reports is widespread
More than half of a sample had flattering tweaks in report summaries

It's not just longform journalism and apoplectic Internet commenters that prompt a "tl;dr" from readers. Research papers trigger it, too, as scientists are so inundated with the volume of new results that just barely keeping up is a struggle. According to University of Oxford psychiatrist Michael Sharpe, "Everyone is deluged with information."

Research papers give a brief summary of their contents in an information-rich "abstract" of the article—it's often the only text that's publicly available from a paywalled journal. Time-pressed researchers may rely on the abstract rather than investing in reading the lengthy paper, but those abstracts are not always reliable. A paper published this week in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine found that half of the 116 psychiatry and psychology articles they analyzed included some sort of spin that made the results look better than they were.

"These findings raise a major concern," Sharpe told the Science Media Centre, "especially as readers may draw conclusions on the basis of the abstract alone, without critically appraising the full paper."

Read the full article at ArsTechnica. It's troubling and we aren't sure there's any answer to make future reports more accurate.

By Anne Dachel

Ever since Simpsonwood (the secret meeting of CDC, FDA, British Health Ministry, federal scientists and pharma people in June 2000 where they discussed the link between mercury-containing vaccines and the explosion in neurological problems in kids) the official explanation for the decline of our childrenhas been one of reassurance. Parents are routinely told that nothing is really wrong. They’re told the dramatic increase in learning problems/neurological disorders is merely greater awareness and better diagnosing—experts just used to miss these kids or label them as something else. 

Nineteen years ago officials were already seeing the connection between vaccines and speech delays, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism, but the aim of that meeting was not to address what was happening, but to figure out how to cover it up. 

Autism

And for two decades officials have stuck to the script. More and more kids with disabilities is never a crisis (officially the word CRISIS is never used in connection to the ever-increasing autism rate). We celebrate autism every spring with April Awareness Month. Health officials have remained dumbfounded by the puzzling disorder. Is the rate the result of better diagnosing/greater awareness or is it really going up? We may never know. Officials have never acknowledged a real increase in the autism rate.

In truth, the meeting goers at Simpsonwood had every right to be concerned. The increase in the number of mandatory vaccinesafter the U.S. government indemnified the vaccine makers and doctors in 1986 was affecting children worldwide. The effects went way beyond the short list of neurological problems discussed in 2000. Modern children were rapidly becoming the generation of the sick and disabled. Chronic health problems like seizure disorders, asthma, life-threatening allergies, bowel disease, diabetes and more were becoming commonplace in children, along with behavior problems and mental health issues.

More vaccines were added year by year to the childhood schedule, and year after year our kids became more disabled.

The disinterest of the media

Since January 2017  I’ve been collecting stories from all over on what’s happening.  I barely touch on what’s out there in the press, yet I have over 5,000 news reports. 

The figures I’m seeing on a daily basis are the undeniable truth. Incredibly, there is pathetically little effort being made to explain why these things are happening. We’ve come to the point where we just have to accept the situation. 

That should surprise no one. Any thinking person back in 2000who understood the full scope of things could have predicted the future we’re living today:

Note: Cathy is enjoying a well deserved vacation with her family. She thought you might enjoy this best of from Spring, 2017.

By Cathy Jameson

Some people try to tell us that our children’s diagnosis is a gift.  They think it’s something we should treasure.  Forgetting just how very complex it is, some people try to simplify it.  That happens when they say that autism isn’t much more than a different way of thinking. 

If only that were really the case.

For many, including for my child, autism is medical.  It’s loss of acquired skills.  It’s the onset of seizures.  It’s problems with the gastrointestinal tract.  It’s the inability to speak.  It’s cognitive deficits and lack of independence.  That kind of autism exists, but mainstream news tends to show only bright and shiny ‘fee good’ autism stories.  I love to see those heart-warming stories, but rarely do I get to see ones that represent my son. 

Thinking that it may just be a US trend to highlight only happier tales, I looked on some international news pages to see what sort of autism stories they were sharing.  While scrolling through a few of the featured stories on the BBC last week, I came across a few ‘feel good’ piece.  The title of one caught my eye.  The fact that it was medical in nature made me even more curious.  The story wasn’t about autism, but I had to find out more. 

I much prefer to read my news than watch it, but the accompanying clip was too good to pass up.

Imagine.  A devastating diagnosis x 2!  With nowhere to turn.  With no one able to help.  The parents research on their own.  Yes, research.  It proves promising.  It has the potential to help their children.  The parents find a team, a TEAM of medical providers to help them.  The research, the hard work, the never quit attitude and the unique drug that the parents create yields results – good ones!  The girls are improving.  They are gaining skills.  They have a better quality of life.  The family hasn’t found a cure…yet, but everything these parents have done is promising.  With the potential to help other children.  With the desire to reach other parents.  With love, determination and support, the parents have moved mountains.  Others recognize that.  They reach out to the parents.  The parents make themselves available.  How very exciting! 

So why did I feel a twinge of jealousy as the news story ended?

Children at Fernald State School fed Radioactive Cereal by scientist at MIT & Harvard University

Note: Hell is for children, to quote Pat Benatar. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, there are children around the world whose fates are in the hands of rapacious manufacturers and scientists alike. The Alliance for Human Research Protection has written about a frightening story from my own home state, Massachusetts. Harvard and MIT scientists were testing how much radiation children could bear through America's very own breakfast staple, Quaker Oats.  How ironic that Quaker Oats was founded by a Christian businessman named Henry Parsons Crowell whose cereal was used for a diabolical experiment.

We see a similar laser-focus coming from pediatician (intentional sic) Richard Pan in California, architect of SB277.  And in Dinowitz in New York. Their zealotry for full vaccination with no ability or willingness to see the harm they are causing mirrors these horrible experiments. The children do not matter in their black and white world. It's the concept of full vaccination that matters.

In 1944, Joseph Mengele was conducting experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps of Germany and America was repulsed. Yet right in the seat of America's liberty, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT and Harvard were equally evil in conducting experiments on marginalized Americans will no perceived value. "Morons" euphemistically sanitized by calling them a "science club." A club without parental consent. Sound familiar? Do you think times have changed in 2019? Do pharmaceutical companies conduct experiments on children today? Yes. It's called the pediatric and obstetric vaccination schedule. Plus ca change.

###

By Kim Rossi

When Sesame Street launched in 1969, I was a 5 year old first grader whose teacher dragged the TV on the tall trolley into our classroom so we could all watch this groundbreaking new program. From that day on, I adored Sesame Street for 5 decades. Grover was Mia's first word.

I did not stop watching, or adoring, Sesame Street until they introduced Julia, a character with autism that never, ever struck the right chord with  me. While appreciating the effort of introducing a character with autism, the fact that it was a female Muppet never sat right, since autism affects boys far more than girls. Sesame Street has been criticized over the decades for its lack of female characters. The female Muppets like Prairie Dawn and Rosita were ancillary and not main characters. Happy, dancing Zoe became Elmo's friend and was a more visible female presence. Abby Cadabby, a relative newcomer, added little to the program in my opinion. She made magic mistakes and often her Mom had to fix them for her. Hardly a strong role model for girls.  And Julia? Introduced in May of 2017, Julia seemed forced, her  gender chosen to fill a gap. 

Julia's role was to "destigmatize" autism and reduce isolation among autistic children. A fine goal. Except.....

Just moments away, airing at 11:00am Pacific, 2:00 Eastern Daylight time. Join Del Bigtree in Mexico as he talks to experts about aluminum in vaccinations. 

By Teresa Conrick

What does it mean if 45% of adults question vaccines?  It may mean that they are leery of a product that is put into their bodies and their children’s bodies, which has no liability.  The no-fault vaccine court is horrible. Who wants to play Russian roulette with their health?  Protection from the flu, for example, for a few months--as they are advertised, but realistically with low effectiveness, often less than 50% on a good year -- vs-- actual neurological and neuropsychiatric issues after receiving the influenza vaccine, such as anorexia, tics, OCD, and anxiety.  That’s pretty scary.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

CHICAGO—June 24, 2019—A recent online survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults, conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Osteopathic Association, revealed that more than two in five American adults (45%) say something has caused them to doubt vaccine safety…..Although 55% of Americans don’t doubt vaccine safety, 45% noted at least one source that caused doubts about the safety of vaccination. The top three doubt-causing sources were online articles (16%), past secrets/wrongdoing by the pharmaceutical industry (16%) and information from medical experts (12%).1

“From an evolutionary perspective, humans are primed to pay attention to threats or negative information,” she says. “So it makes sense that people hold onto fears that vaccines are harmful, especially when they believe their children are in danger.”

She believes it is possible that, since vaccines have been so effective in eradicating disease, people may have more fear of possible vaccine side effects than the actual diseases vaccines prevent…...herd immunity is essential to maintain because some people cannot be vaccinated due to medical conditions, including allergies, illness or a weakened immune system. Keeping the rest of the population vaccinated protects those who are vulnerable…..

By Nancy Hokkanen

“Opioid epidemic” versus “autism epidemic” – why does the first phrase garner a far more proactive ethical response from media and the public?

U.S. government law firms’ legal actions against opioid manufacturers have been embraced by news networks like CBS, ABC and more, as over 40 states, 1,500 counties and cities seek to recoup costs of drug abuse.

“Ohio is losing $4 [billion] to $5 billion a year from the opioid epidemic, and they’re losing 5,000 or 6,000 people a year from overdose deaths,” said Florida attorney Mike Moore to CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes. A jury award, he said, could reach $100 billion or beyond.

Meanwhile, autism is affecting up to 1 in 36 American children and the epidemic could cost the U.S. up to $1 trillion by 2025. As for global costs of autism, WHO’s counting – not working to slow growth, but conceivably helping increase autism rates.

As with vaccine adverse reactions, the epidemic means little until it affects one personally. In 2010, Moore’s nephew overdosed on generic fentanyl. “We have 72,000 people dying every year; let’s figure out a way to resolve this thing,” Moore said. “You guys [manufacturers] made billions of dollars off this thing. Take some of that money and apply it to the problem that you helped cause.”

Moore earned recognition after his successful 1994-1998 case against Big Tobacco, taking on their 68 lawyers to win $250 billion for state governments. (Back then he’d also been interviewed by 60 Minutes, for a segment to feature tobacco company whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand – but CBS corporate lawyers shut down its broadcast initially.)

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

Please consider a donation to our "Stop the Summer of Censorship" campaign. Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong. You can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here

By Mark Blaxill - 2016

The National Health Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released its latest prevalence rate for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in American children this Wednesday. Their “data brief”, which is based on information gathered in the National Health Information Survey (NHIS), reported an ASD rate for 2016 of 2.76%, or 1 in 36 American children (1).

This is the highest rate ever recorded in a national survey of children in the United States and was an increase from the rate of 1 in 45 children (or 2.24%) reported in the 2014 NHIS survey (2). The ASD information reported in these surveys includes children between the ages of 3 and 17 years of age and any diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder, including Asperger’s syndrome.

This startling new peak received virtually no media coverage and was downplayed by the NCHS, whose headline finding was that--despite setting a new American record with a 1 in 36 ASD rate: “There was not a statistically significant change in the prevalence of children ever diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder from 2014 to 2016.” (1)

Yet this new 2016 rate is a sharp increase from a highly similar 2007 report, the first year in which an NCHS survey included the question, “Has a doctor or health professional ever told you that [sample child] had Autism, Asperger’s disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, or autism spectrum disorder?” The 2007 report, also measuring the rate for 3-17 year-old children, reported an autism rate of 1.1%, or 1 in 91 American children (3).

The NCHS, like the CDC a department within the Department of Health and Human Services, follows a different methodology in the NHIS than the approach used by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Network (ADDM), which last reported an autism rate of 1 in 68 American children for 8-year-olds born in 2004 (4). The ADDM network’s estimates likely include fewer children with Asperger’s (only about 10% of the ADDM cases have an Asperger’s diagnosis), which may explain why NHIS ASD rates have been generally higher than ADDM rates.

This prescient article was brought to our attention this week: Dan identified already how vaccine critics were being crudely branded as public enemies.  It was written 10 years ago by Dan for the now out of print Spectrum Magazine.  We thought it deserved a home here.

by Dan Olmsted,  March 9, 2009 

And why are they making me want to vomit?

Recently I received an email with the rather provocative subject line: "I may vomit - NPR segment." The body of the email was simply an NPR segment on vaccines and autism by Jon Hamilton. After listening to it, I felt kind of sick to my stomach, too.

"Defending Vaccines: Actress Dispels Link To Autism" is the headline on the NPR website story summarizing the segment. The actress in question is Amanda Peet, who has become the anti-Jenny McCarthy of the celebrity duel over whether vaccines are safe.

"A movie star and a prominent scientist have teamed up to reassure the public that childhood vaccines are safe and do not cause autism," the article begins. The prominent scientist is Paul Offit, who tutored Peet on the fact that an autism-vaccine link has been disproven by "more than a dozen large scientific studies," as Hamilton puts it. In the segment, Offit bemoans the fact that the media still calls the issue "controversial."

We've heard all this before, of course, but what turns my stomach is the source: my beloved National Public Radio. This piece is part of a pattern pointed out by many parents and others involved in the environmental-biomedical approach to autism. Some even say NPR is the single most hostile news organization to the whole question of vaccines and autism.

The hostility is obvious from the intro to the segment on Morning Edition: "Today in Your Health, scientific studies show that childhood vaccines are remarkably safe (the last two words emphasized for effect) but a lot of parents do not agree." One reason, the announcer goes on to say, is all the celebrities pounding on the poor pitiful vaccines.

by Cathy Jameson

That title above is the G-rated version we used to use here in the house. Change that last word to something else for the adults, and it’s the same message. Couldn’t figure something out? Google that stuff. Arguing with someone about something and needs facts to back up a claim? Google that stuff. GTS worked when we were out of the house also. With how readily available the internet is on mobile phones, long gone are the days of having to wait until you’re back home to look up information in a book. No need to trek to the library to scour the reference section for data either. One quick online search is all it took!

I’ve shied away from using Google, but this FB memory of mine reminded me just how much Googling I’d done over the years.

Me: Do you have any recommendations?

Nurse: No. You can do your own research. You know your child's needs.

Me: < stifles a smile >

! ! !

When you walk into a medical facility and you're not sure if you should open your mouth or not on certain subjects but you bravely go for it and the medical person sees that you, the parent, are a completely capable, competent human being who can GTS* on their own....all the yesses.

Me: < high fives self > ✋ < smiles > :) Okay. Thanks.

*Google That Sh!t

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts. 

By Laura Hayes

What if your baby could talk?  Here are some things I think they would surely say:

• Please don’t poke me with sharp needles! Those hurt! You wouldn’t let anyone pinch or hit me, so why are you letting someone in a white coat pierce my skin, multiple times, in a very painful way? I am trusting you to protect me and not let others hurt me.
  
  
• Please don’t trust others over your own common sense and God-given maternal and paternal instincts. I am yours. No one knows me like you know me. No one will protect me like you will. No one loves me like you do. You are, and will continue to be, the one responsible for me.
  
  
• Please don’t ever leave me unattended at a hospital or in a doctor’s office. I need your eyes on me at all times…to ensure that your directives are being followed to a tee, to prevent procedures and treatments from being implemented on me to which you have not consented and/or to which you have made clear that you do not want for me, to ward off mistakes, and to protect me at every turn.
  
  
• Please don’t think that someone wearing a white coat is smarter than you are. Turns out that they can be some of the most inexcusably uninformed, pompous, close-minded, resistant to truth, and unethically coercive people around! I am not kidding you! I want you to take responsibility for me and my health. Please do not delegate your responsibility to some self-appointed “expert” who was taught using a curriculum designed by those who make their money (we are talking trillions) when others become chronically ill and permanently disabled.
  
  
• Please don’t let me be injected with things you wouldn’t even consider feeding me! They won’t have an escape route, and they will be left inside me where they will hurt and harm me both now and in the future.
  
  
• Please don’t ever permit me to be injected with metals of any sort! We know that lead is bad for children, but guess what? Mercury and aluminum are far worse, and are in the syringes that doctors are sticking into babies and children. Mercury and aluminum cause severe damage inside the body, to all parts and to all systems, and this damage will hurt and haunt me for the rest of my life! As if those two metals weren’t health-destroying enough, there are others in vaccines: lead, stainless steel, tungsten, a gold-zinc aggregate, platinum, silver, bismuth, iron, and chromium. One flu vaccine for children tested as having 11 metals and aggregates of metals, which are similar to those prevalent in cases of leukemia. Please don’t let the pediatrician cause me to develop cancer!
  
  
• Please don’t mess around with my immune system, it’s the only one I have…and it has to last me a lifetime! Things that mess with and harm my immune system include nearly every ingredient in vaccines. Again, I am not kidding! Please tell me which one of these ingredients will induce good health in me: mercury, aluminum, lead, formaldehyde, polysorbate 80 (which enables other ingredients to enter my brain and cells), MSG, phenol, anti-freeze, human fetal tissue material from aborted babies, viruses cultured in the body parts of various animals including African green monkeys, chickens, and dogs, viruses from other humans, viruses from animals, retroviruses that are just beginning to be understood of both human and animal origin, nanoparticles of many different metals that are not listed on the ingredients lists, dangerous bacteria, glass shards, food proteins that don’t belong anywhere other than in my stomach, glyphosate (designed to kill things), insect parts and viruses, DNA from other humans and from animals, squalene (I hear it caused Gulf War Syndrome in our soldiers), and who knows what else, Mom and Dad, because all ingredients are not required to be listed under the guise of “trade secrets”, and there is little to no oversight of the vaccine manufacturing process!
  
  
• Please don’t permit anything to be injected into me that you are not willing to inject into yourself.
  
  
• Please don’t permit anything to be injected into me that the nurses and doctors administering it, those approving and recommending it, the legislators mandating it, and the manufacturers making it have not injected into themselves, their children, and their grandchildren, without your own eyes witnessing it. If they aren’t willing to personally demonstrate for you how “safe” it is (which should be required to mean won’t cause harm) and personally demonstrate their trust in it, then please don’t trust in it, either! (Ask yourself when the last time was that you saw any state legislator rolling up their shirt sleeves and dropping their drawers to show those whom they supposedly represent how safe the scores of vaccines that they just mandated for babies, children, and teens are? If they are virtually harmless, as claimed and constantly touted, then they should be willing to get the whole lot of them at once, publicly.)
  
  
• Please don’t “go along to get along”. I know at some point I will hear you ask me, “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you, too?” I put a similar question forth to you, “If everyone else chooses to permit the poisoning and harming of their baby, would you follow suit just to fit in?” Please be strong and stand firmly, saying boldly and with conviction, “I will not permit you, or anyone, to inject poisons, toxins, and heinous ingredients into my baby…ever!”
  
  
• Please learn why it is important for me to be breastfed for at least one year, hopefully longer, with Mom eating a nutrient-dense, non-toxic diet. If Mom is unable to breastfeed me, please source breastmilk from another healthy, lactating mom who is willing to share.
  
  
• Please learn why it is important for me to contract certain infections naturally, during childhood.

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

By Mark Blaxill - 2009

It’s official now, real autism rates have exploded to 1 in 100 American children. We’re facing a national public health emergency of historic proportions. Bigger than swine flu. Bigger than polio. Bigger than almost anything one can imagine except AIDS. No matter how hard some may try, it’s impossible to escape the inexorable upward march of the numbers.  Even Tom Insel, head of autism research at NIH and not exactly the autism world’s greatest forward thinker, has conceded the obvious: “There is no question that there has got to be an environmental component here.”

Following last week’s release of the latest CDC autism surveillance report, no amount of methodological obfuscation (“autism prevalence has clearly gone up but there are no real incidence studies”), epidemiological nihilism (“we simply can’t know without large scale, well-controlled, prospective studies”) or social deconstructionist nonsense (“autism is an intolerant invention of modern society”) should escape scorn . Anyone with brain, a conscience and an ounce of integrity must acknowledge that we face a crisis. Meanwhile, those who would accuse the autism parent community of “denialism”, unscientific reasoning and irresponsible irrationality need to explain how their own theories, so dependent on the evidence-free suggestion that rates are rising because of “better diagnosing”, deserve to be considered respectable scientific speech. There is no more unscientific position in public health today than the fiction that rising autism rates come from better diagnosing. Let’s be clear, the only evidence for better diagnosing is wishful thinking. Our public health institutions deserve no credit for a job done better; quite the contrary, they deserve an investigation into their negligence.

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

Please consider a donation to our "Stop the Summer of Censorship" campaign. Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong. You can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. And don't forget matching gifts! Especially if you work for a pharma company. Ha Ha! THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here

By Mark Blaxill - Originally published in 2010. The full series follows below. Please share.
 
Part 1:  How A Public-Private Partnership Made the Government Merck’s Gardasil Partner

“Perhaps no other recent product on the market demonstrates successful health care technology transfer better than the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, produced by Merck & Co. and approved by the FDA in June 2006,” proclaimed a recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) newsletter. In a February 23, 2007 article entitled “From Lab to Market: The HPV Vaccine”, the NIH Record celebrated the pivotal role of government researchers in developing Merck’s Gardasil product. “Based largely on technology developed at NIH,” the newsletter reported, “the vaccine works to prevent four types of the sexually transmitted HPV that together cause 70 percent of all cervical cancer and 90 percent of genital warts (HERE).
 
The occasion motivating this celebratory article was the “Philip S. Chen, Jr. Distinguished Lecture on Innovation and Technology Transfer” given by Douglas T. Lowy, one of the NIH scientists involved in developing the HPV vaccine. In the ceremony pictured above, Lowy is receiving an honorary poster from the head of NIH at the time, Elias Zerhouni, who took advantage of the occasion to shower praise on his team’s work, one he viewed as a model for future efforts. “It’s a ‘heroic’ story about the effort to fight cervical cancer, the second most deadly cancer for women worldwide, said NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni,” in the NIH Record’s account. “He noted that he has talked about the vaccine’s creation to Congress and with the President on his recent visit to NIH. How researchers took the technology ‘from the lab to the marketplace is a journey we can learn from,’ Zerhouni said.”
 
While Zerhouni was bragging to anyone in Washington D.C. who would listen about the NIH team’s role in this historic accomplishment, the vaccine's developers were actively spreading the news of their achievement in scientific circles. It’s hard to blame them, because at the time Lowy and his colleague John T. Schiller, leaders of the team that had invented the technology for the “virus-like particles” (or VLPs) that made Gardasil possible, were in some pretty heady company. In 2008, Harald zur Hausen, the scientist who discovered the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cancer during the 1980s, received one half of the Nobel Prize in Medicine; the two researchers at the Pasteur Institute who had discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had to share the other half.
 
Perhaps campaigning for their own place in the pantheon of medical heroes, Lowy and Schiller described their VLP technology in several review articles on the history and development of the Merck vaccine. These treatments were studiously scientific in tone and at points openly critical of their commercial partner, as the authors commented with disapproval on the high price Merck was charging for Gardasil. But in one May 2006 review in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, the pair also made the following disclosure about their own commercial interests:
 
“Conflict of interest: The authors, as employees of the National Cancer Institute, NIH, are inventors of the HPV VLP vaccine technology described in this Review. The technology has been licensed by the NIH to the 2 companies, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, that are developing the commercial HPV vaccines described herein.”
 
Attached to an otherwise heroic narrative of the triumph of technology over cancer, this disclosure struck a discordant note. Conflict of interest? Inventors? Vaccine technology? Licenses? Pharmaceutical companies? Commercial vaccines? This isn’t scientific language, but rather the language of money and commerce. What was this unusual concession doing there in the fine print?

by Ginger Taylor

"Where is the Church?"

A great many of us who are Christians have been asking this question in regard to vaccine injury and corruption for years.  We read the very errant missives put out by often well meaning, professing Christians, pastors, elders and physicians that seemed to have never looked beyond the CDC's home page on vaccine safety and efficacy, and give up hope that our voices, and our cries for our children, will ever be heard in what should be our spiritual homes.

This week, one of those errant missives was answered with a stunning five part series by Jordan Wilson in the New City Times.  Wilson has not only bothered to actually search the scriptures to inform his writing to the church on vaccine questions, he watched the Plotkin videos.

If you are looking for a good source to begin to talk about the vaccine problem in your church, I offer you...

"The Gospel Coalition & Vaccines: A Response to Joe Carter

Jordan Wilson  July 29th, 2019

This article is the intro to a 5-Part series on Vaccines. See the full list of (and links to) the rest in this series below.

A recent article at the Gospel Coalition manifests one contributor's decision to wade into the debate regarding vaccines. Contributing Editor, Joe Carter, planted his flag firmly on one side of the debate.

If I had to summarize the gist of Carter's position in three statements, they would be:

• The debate is settled: modern vaccination programs are safe, ethically sourced, and the results are amazing, let's celebrate!
• Skepticism of the vaccine program is unwarranted, and results in practices which are unloving to neighbor, harmful to their children and society.
• If Christian parents ultimately decide against vaccinating, they should reasonably be prepared to accept banishment from public institutions, and they are also to be held morally responsible if their child (or someone else's child) dies because they chose not to vaccinate.

An Uncritical, One-Sided Perspective

I'm not sure to what degree, if any, Carter is willing to be persuaded from his position. I used to passionately write the same things he wrote, before really opening myself up to hear both sides of the debate. Regardless, my goal in writing is not mainly an attempt to persuade Joe Carter; it's to offer an alternative viewpoint which I firmly believe deserves consideration for many reasons.

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

Please consider a donation to our "Stop the Summer of Censorship" campaign. Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong. You can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. And don't forget matching gifts! Especially if you work for a pharma company. Ha Ha! THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here

By Teresa Conrick

In Part 1 , we took a look at autoimmune encephalopathy and the emerging research in autism.  Much of it had a focus on autoantibodies.  Now, I’d like to investigate the microbiome and its connection to both autism and autoimmune encephalopathy.  Again, follow the studies as they are showing patterns that are important for autism:

This paper discusses Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis yet its value in autism research cannot be denied.

The gut–brain connection: triggering of brain autoimmune disease by commensal gut bacteria, 2016

However, the discovery that intestinal microbiota are able to trigger autoimmune disease in organs far away from the gut, in the CNS, was less anticipated. How could gut microbes ignite an autoimmune attack against the CNS, an organ not only far from the gut, but also enveloped by seemingly tight tissue barriers? First, it should be remembered that tissue-specific autoimmune diseases are driven by autoimmune T cells with receptors specific for tissue-specific autoantigens. Second, such self-specific T cells are normal components of all immune systems, healthy as well as diseased. They sit in the immune system in a resting mode, innocuous. Only upon particular stimuli that trigger their activation, do the self-specific T cells unleash their autoaggressive pathogenic potential…….

….antibiotic treatment not only altered the gut microbiota, but also mitigated clinical CNS inflammation. They attributed the effect to a decrease of Th17 cells in the gut, possibly effected by invariant T cell populations  [31]. Subsequently, Kasper and colleagues discovered in a similar model that the expansion of a particular bacterial species, Bacteroides fragilis, reduced autoimmunity. The microbes seem to release a capsular polysaccharide A for recruiting and activating intestinal regulatory T cells in the colon [32]. Lactic acid bacteria were also reported to protect against EAE responses, though by activating another regulatory T cell population, IL-10–producing Tr1 cells [33].

by Laura Hayes

Dear AoA Friends,

I am doing 2 radio interviews this week. I am hoping that you will be able to tune in, and that perhaps you will consider inviting a few people over to listen with you :)

First one is this Tuesday, July 30th, 9:00-10:00am PST, on Food Chain Radio with host Michael Olson. Topic will be vaccines, and I will be interviewed along with Dena Churchill from Canada, who recently paid an extreme price for standing firm in her right to proclaim vaccine truths.

To listen in live, click here, then click the "Listen Live" button:

https://metrofarm.com/food-chain-radio-3/

Or here, then scroll down for the "Listen Live" button:

https://metrofarm.com

Second one is this Wednesday, July 31st, 12:00-1:00pm PST, on KVMR Radio with host Jeanie Keltner. As most of you know, Jeanie is savvy to the truth about vaccines, and we always have a robust and informative discussion about them, in addition to discussing the most-recent efforts to eliminate our parental rights and medical choice freedom.

To listen in live, click here, then click the "Listen Live" button at the very top:

https://www.kvmr.org

Both interviews will be available as podcasts after the fact for those who are unable to tune in live.

Please spread the word!

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

Please consider a donation to our "Stop the Summer of Censorship" campaign. Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong. You can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. And don't forget matching gifts! Especially if you work for a pharma company. Ha Ha! THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here
By Teresa Conrick - August, 2017

As the Autism Epidemic keeps on rolling, we hear from too many deniers how GREAT it is, and that having a diagnosis of ASD is just a different way of life.  I disagree.  I have a young, adult daughter who has been ill since her regression into Autism.  Lab reports show an immune system that is extremely dysfunctional, with GAD antibodies, positive antinuclear antibodies, and an IgG, the immunoglobulins that fight infections, at 402, when the normal range is 694-1618.  Far too many children and young adults are in physical and emotional pain.  Megan is one of them and they deserve proper medical investigations and treatments.  Many cannot speak or if they do, they have language but are not conversational.  They don´t know danger.  They have a gut microbiome and immune system that have been shown over and over, to be the epicenter of OCD, tics/stimming, perseveration, sensory issues, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, aggression, and self-injurious behavior. They have a leaky gut AND a blood brain barrier that is compromised.  This sentence may sum that up best:

...non-self antigens crossing a damaged intestinal barrier elicit a local and/or systemic inflammatory reaction that, associated with a breach of the BBB [blood brain barrier], may lead to ASD in genetically predisposed subjects....In conclusion, our results seem to point to a dysfunctional gut–brain axis associated with neuroinflammation in ASD. 

What´s an antigen?  -- a toxin or other foreign substance that induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies.

What's a non-self antigen?  - A vaccine works by training the immune system to recognize and combat pathogens, either viruses or bacteria. To do this, certain molecules from the pathogen must be introduced into the body to trigger an immune response.

These molecules are called antigens, and they are present on all viruses and bacteria. By injecting these antigens into the body, the immune system can safely learn to recognize them as hostile invaders, produce antibodies, and remember them for the future.

by Louis Conte

I have decided to ask my State Assemblymen and State Senator to introduce a bill in the New York State Legislature that would require all Senators and Assembly Members and the Governor, along with his Executive Staff and Department heads, to fully comply with the CDC recommended vaccine schedule. I call it the Public Official Vaccine Compliance Act (POVCA) and it would require that elected officials in New York fully comply with the vaccine mandates they hold children to.

The Governor and the Legislators would have thirty days to get into full compliance with all sixty-nine CDC recommended vaccines.

The rationale is clear: elected state officials often spend long periods of time cramped together in buildings, just like school children. I think that we can all assume that the New York State Capital in Albany is a breeding ground for contagious disease, much like a septic tank.

In the attached video from a recent New York State Assembly Health Committee meeting, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is seen in close proximity to Assembly Member Nader Sayegh. In this video, this speaker is “putting the arm” on poor Assemblyman Sayegh, to get him to change is no vote to a yes vote, so that the bill repealing of the Religious Exemption law in New York state could move to the Assembly floor so that it could be voted on by the full Assembly.

Please watch what happens at about minute 40:

Certainly, if New York’s elected officials are going to be in such close proximity to each other and becoming so physically intimate, they should all be fully vaccinated.

by Cathy Jameson

When I saw this image and the accompanying questions a few weeks ago, I immediately shared it with my circle of family and friends. Many of them could easily answer the 40 questions. I’d be more curious if their doctors could. I’d guess a handful of them could. I wonder how many could do so without looking any of the information up though.

I was told at a young age when I started school that no question was a dumb question. I believe that to be true still today, especially when the question pertains to vaccines. Every question I saw on @chemfreekids’ page are important ones to ask. Even if someone isn’t contemplating vaccines, knowing each of the answers is important, too. Vaccines are no longer a private topic. They’re now part of everyday discussions and have become a weapon of choice for legislators. I’m all for discussing liability-free vaccines, but I can’t support vaccine mandates some legislators are vehemently pushing. I can never support withholding education or denying employment based on someone’s vaccine status either. But that’s what’s happening here in the U.S. Before more people lose their rights, it’s time to become familiar with accurate vaccine information. I think reviewing and being able to answer the following questions is a good place to start:

“How much do you know about vaccines? Here are 40 solid questions to ask before you move forward with any vaccine. 

1. Name 5 vaccine ingredients.
2. What is MRC-5?
3. What is WI-38?
4. What is vaccine court?
5. What is the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?
6. What is the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act?
7. How has the CDC schedule changed since 1986?
8. How much money has been paid out by vaccine injury court?
9. How many doses of how many vaccines are in the CDC schedule between birth and age 18?
10. Do vaccines contain aborted fetal tissue? If so, which vaccines? And how many aborted babies were needed before they found one with the virus necessary to create the vaccine?
11. Do any vaccines contain dog, monkey, pig, and human DNA?
12. What is an adjuvant?
13. What is an antigen?
14. Which arm of the immune system do vaccines stimulate?
15. Which arms of the immune system do natural diseases stimulate?
16. What is transverse myelitis?
17. What is encephalopathy?
18. What is the rate of autism in 2017, what was it in 2000? What was it in 1990?
19. What is glyphosate and is it in vaccines?
20. If your child is injured, who will take physical, emotional, and financial responsibility?
21. What was the Supreme Court’s statement on vaccines in 2011?
22. Can you provide a study showing vaccinated vs. unvaccinated health outcomes?
23. Can you show me a safety study proving it is safe to inject multiple vaccines at one time?
24. What is shedding?
25. Do vaccines shed? Which vaccines can shed for up to 6 weeks?
26. Which vaccines are live virus vaccines?
27. What is the VICP?
28. What is SV40?
29. What is MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase)?
30. What is an acceptable amount of aluminum to ingest per day and how much is injected via the hep B vaccine on day one of life? 
31. Can someone who was vaccinated for pertussis still spread pertussis after being exposed to it? If so, for how long?
32. What is the death rate from measles in the US from 2005-2015? From the MMR vaccine in same time frame?
33. What does attenuated mean? 
34. Where can I find information about vaccines?
35. Are there vaccine consent forms?
36. Can the vial stopper cause allergic reaction?
37. Can there be serious reactions to vaccines?
38. What is NVIC?
39. Is there any compensation for physicians who have a certain percentage of their patients vaccinated?
40. What is VAERS?”

How’d you do?

I can answer all but one of those questions above.

To our faithful readers, care to answer one in the comments below? Be sure to leave references or a website for further reading if you do. I’m hoping that those new to vaccines will be inspired to continue to read and learn as much as they can before they find themselves face-to-face with their child’s doctor. Vaccine choice doesn’t exist like it used to, and parents need to know that sooner rather than later.

I wish that I had been asked just one of those questions before my child was vaccinated. I’d imagine one questions could’ve sparked my curiosity to read about vaccines. It wasn’t until after my son was vaccine injured did I bother to do that. Now, after reading and pondering those 40 questions, I could think of a few more that I’d want a new parent to think about. Surely some of you have thought of other questions as well, so leave that thought in the comments also. It’s through others’ stories and through shared resources that I’ve gained the knowledge that I have. I know that’s true for many of us.

To those who constantly question, who bravely answer, and who continue to educate the public and the media about the risks that liability-free vaccines carry, thank you.

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

Please consider a donation to our "Stop the Summer of Censorship" campaign. Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong. You can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. And don't forget matching gifts! Especially if you work for a pharma company. Ha Ha! THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here

By Teresa Conrick

Here in Chicago, they have been reporting on the SPARK Autism, national database.  This from our local ABC, channel 7 Chicago:

RESEARCHERS AT RUSH MEDICAL CENTER CREATING NATIONAL DATABASE TO STUDY AUTISM  Sunday, December 18, 2016

 Some highlights- 

∗  Autism is one of the fastest growing developmental disorders in the United States. It now affects one in every 68 children and on in every 42 boys.

∗  That's one reason why there is an intense push to try to find treatment and a possible cure. There is a major research study taking place at Rush Medical Center in Chicago.

∗  a ground-breaking research study, which is now gathering genetic information on autistic individuals. They're creating a national database.

∗  Every day we struggle with it and every day we hope that, in the back of your mind, that studies like this are going to help us," said Tony Belmonte, Jack's father.

∗  Nation-wide they are hoping to register 50,000 individuals on all levels of the autism spectrum. There is a concentrated effort now to get more minorities to sign up for this research.

Thinking of changing careers? Have we got a job for you!  Are you up for a "fascinating role"? You'll need a naturally collaborative workstyle - except with anyone who questions vaccine safety, then you will need to be a big old git. Hob nob with none other than Bill Gates! Push vaccines on unsuspecting families in low income countries while they go hungry and lack clean water and sanitation. You might even become obsequious, purple and CLAIRVOYANT* as GAVI already knows it has "PREVENTED 10 MILLION FUTURE DEATHS!" Golly gee, I guess the company car is a DeLorean!!!   GAVI is hiring a chief of staff!

Note: Kim is taking a summer break and we're running our favorite "Best of" posts.

Please consider a donation to our "Stop the Summer of Censorship" campaign. Many mainstream platforms have censored articles that discuss health and vaccination choice, refusal, even safety. We've seen articles replaced by "404 Error" messages. Age of Autism is more important and valuable than ever. And we need your support to keep the rebel alliance, as our dear friend Dan called us, going strong. You can send a check to Autism Age, PO Box 110546 Trumbull CT 06611. And don't forget matching gifts! Especially if you work for a pharma compan y. Ha Ha! THANK YOU.

Donate through Network For Good Here

By Mark Blaxill

September 5, 2017

On May 8, The Boston Herald published an editorial calling for my execution. They didn’t know much about me, but had heard about an event in Minneapolis at which I spoke. I learned subsequently the piece was written by Rachelle Cohen, editor of the newspaper’s editorial page. Her brief essay didn’t refer to me by name, but cited a Washington Post article from May 5^th that did, describing me as “a Boston businessman” and “anti-vaccine activist.”

Cohen wrote that during "this latest outbreak [of measles in Minnesota], anti-vaccine groups have fanned the flames, making it hard for public health officials and doctors to be heard above the noise. These are the facts: Vaccines don’t cause autism. Measles can kill. And lying to vulnerable people about the health and safety of their children ought to be a hanging offense." [emphasis added]

Four months later, the much-hyped Minnesota measles outbreak has passed with little notice, but there are important lessons to be learned from the events surrounding it. What really happened? Why all the fuss? What are the salient facts about measles, vaccines and autism? What was my role in the process? Most importantly, what does this episode teach us about the state of public health policy and the ongoing concern for vaccine safety and parental rights. To explore those questions, let’s first take a look at the outbreak itself.

The Minnesota measles outbreak of 2017

On April 13, the first news report of three measles cases among “toddlers” in Minneapolis was published (see HERE). The next day, confirming five more cases, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) issued a press release with additional information. Of the then eight confirmed cases, all were unvaccinated children living in Hennepin County. Seven of the eight were “Somali Minnesotans.” Six of these children were hospitalized.

Over the next three months, as the count of confirmed cases rose to 79, the initial pattern continued. The outbreak was largely confined to children (73 were under 10 years old) who were Somali-American (64 of 79) residents of Hennepin County (70 of 79), most of whom (71 of 79) were unvaccinated. The case count rose quickly to reach 73 by the end of May and then leveled off sharply. Six additional cases were confirmed, until the last case report on July 13.

By late April, MDH was posting daily case updates on their web-site (see HERE). This was both a response to and a stimulus for widespread media coverage, first in local news outlets and then nationally. At the outset, these were brief, factual reports, but it didn’t take long for the MDH to start pointing fingers. On May 5, The Washington Post published the article that caught Rachelle Cohen’s attention, “Anti-vaccine activists spark a state’s worst measles outbreak in decades.” (see HERE). Health officials complained specifically that the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota (VSCM) “in the middle of their crisis” was informing Somali-Americans that they had the right according to Minnesota law to opt out of vaccination based on conscientiously held beliefs. Reminding parents of their rights was a message these officials felt was “exactly the opposite of what clinicians and public health officials are urging, which is to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

On August 25, the MDH officially “declared an end to the measles outbreak of spring and summer 2017.” Their news release, which was not widely reported, described why they waited so long to announce something that had been clear for weeks.

By Fiona Jameson

This was one of the essays I wrote for a college application.  During the application process, I was asked to answer a prompt:  How do you think you will be challenged in the STEM field?

-- 

I find myself constantly challenged when it comes to being labeled as someone who’s against science.  If you really knew me, you would know that that does not describe me at all. 

As I grew up watching my brother regress from being a typical child to losing skills and now being completely dependent on my family.  My outlook on what we were told to believe, that the greater good always outweighs individualized patient care, had obviously changed the sicker my brother got.  While my belief does not correspond with the beliefs of society, it is what I know to be true. Over the years, I’ve had to defend my views, including the fact that my brother’s childhood vaccines affected his development.  I was able to do that in several classes and even had the opportunity to present them in a project at the national level.  I may not have changed anyone’s mind, but if there is anything that I have learned about my brother’s experience, it’s that I should speak up when given the chance. 

While there is still much to discover in the STEM fields, to include why some people are more affected by pharmaceuticals and their known side effects than others, we must never assume that the science is settled.  How can it be?  Scientists strive daily to know more about natural phenomenon and how it relates to the world.  I am fascinated by that and am excited to continue to pursue my love for science and learning at the next level.  

--

Fiona was accepted into several schools and was offered a spot in two university’s Honors Programs.  She plans on pursing a Biology major and will follow a pre-Med track. 

Note: We excerpt this opinion piece in the Scientific American blog for your review. The content is indeed in keeping with the POV of many (most) of us at Age of Autism. I wish the author had referenced Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted's book, "Denial How Refusing to Face the Facts about Our Autism Epidemic Hurts Children, Families, and Our Future," which attests to and delves into the severe damage done to progress for autism by the neurodiversity movement in its political and media driven form.  We want pride for our loved ones on the spectrum, and our readers on the spectrum. We respect their right to feel a connection to their autism, just as a hearing impaired person feels part of the "deaf" (I apologize if this is the wrong word usage today) community. To deny the right to change, improvement, amelioration of negative aspsects of the diagnosis, medical care, safety legislation and housing choices that meet the needs of the range of the spectrum is akin to saying you are a feminist, but ONLY the most radical, "boys are stupid throw rocks at them" version. This isn't the American way. We are a nation of free choice. We're supposed to be, at lease.

####

The Neurodiversity Movement Should Acknowledge Autism as a Medical Disability

By Yuval Levental on July 17, 2019
Yuval Levental is an autistic individual who critically analyzes autism advocacy. Follow him on Twitter @YuvalLevental.

The autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen published an article, “The Concept of Neurodiversity Is Dividing the Autism Community,” where he defends the neurodiversity perspective. There are several specific arguments in his article, but overall, he views autism as a biological difference, not a disability.

Aiyana Bailin, a disability rights advocate, wrote a response titled “Clearing Up Some Misconceptions about Neurodiversity,” where she claims that while she supports neurodiversity, she believes that autism is best understood through the social model of disability. This means that the negative aspects of autism are caused by a lack of external accommodations, such as in improper work environments.

Advocating for medical research, former president of Autism Speaks Liz Feld has stated that one third of people with autism also have a seizure disorder, half suffer serious digestive complications, 49 percent wander, and more than 30 percent are nonverbal. Feld claims that no accommodation could solve those specific difficulties, and that they interfere with their quality of life. In 2018, the National Council on Severe Autism was founded to take action regarding those concerns, with its founder, Jill Escher, stating that “For countless families devoted to the well-being of their disabled loved ones, the daily challenges can be overwhelming, and the prospects for the future extremely bleak.”  Read more and please comment with a suggestion to read Dan and Mark's book at the SciAm site here.

Note: Kim is on a bit of a summer break and we're running some of our contributors favorite posts from the past.  Please remember our Summer of Freedom AoA fundraiser! Donate here.

Enjoy! 

By Teresa Conrick - October, 2017

This story is dedicated to David, his family and especially his sister, Carol.  It is also dedicated to Dan Olmsted, who always wrote that AUTISM had its roots in the 1930´s.  He believed, as a journalist, that the epidemic rise of autism was devastating and --- "the story of a lifetime ." What was once a rare disorder, began increasing into exponential growth in the 1990´s and continues into current day.  This should be the the most feared AND most studied medical event in history as normally developing children stop a typical trajectory and instead,  their medical, educational and social-emotional needs change in a drastic and often life-threatening manner.  The spectrum of autism is a gauge, a barometer of health, a yardstick of being socially at ease, to attend, focus, and to learn. The further an individual is along on that spectrum, the more immune abnormalities, microbiome challenges, and health issues we see. The behaviors of ¨autism¨ also seem more pronounced and severe. The spectrum is a gauge of the immune system, from high to low functioning. My interest in this relates to my own daughter, Megan, diagnosed with both severe autism and an autoimmune disorder.  In addition, she has prevalent PANS symptoms, like many others .  My investigations of the research on autism show that it is a disorder that can be mild to devastating as it relates to the immune system and microbiome.  Obviously the brain is affected by both, which is important and hopeful as far as prevention and treatments.

SINCE 1938

Here is David´s story as I was privileged to hear it from his sister, Carol.  She shared family stories, memories, and David´s baby book as written by their mother. The devastation this family had encountered unfolded in front of me.  Carol, born in October of 1935, still has many questions about her life with David.

In 1932, as America struggled through The Great Depression while listening to the famous songs of Cole Porter, David was born.  He was born at Evanston Hospital,  a suburb of Chicago, on January 12th, 1932.  Four months later in May, his 5 year-old sister, Ruth Mary, died of spinal meningitis. According to the CDC in this publication on Mortality Statistics of 1932, only 17 females between age 5 and 9 died in the entire United States of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis.  What were the odds for this to happen?  Such a TRAGEDY -- and then for David to eventually succumb to what the doctors called, Childhood Schizophrenia by age 5, again, what were the odds for this family? Heartbreaking.

The story could end there with of course, the family hardships of losing not only one child but TWO.  Then the day to day struggles for years of raising a child who required much more supervision, special schools, the financial responsibility --- and for Carol, the confusion of a brother who ignored her --¨I did not exist to David.¨ David was not particularly loving and treated the family politely but not with much affection. The word AUTISM was never mentioned to Carol as they were growing up.  It wasn´t until her friend, Rosie, mentioned that her brother, Dan Olmsted, had co-written a book about autism in 2010. It was then that Carol began to hear about the history of this once rare disorder. Rosie described the symptoms and the timing of the first cases, all born in the 1930´s. Carol was struck with the thought that David may have indeed had behaviors that pointed to autism. Dr. Leo Kanner had written about the first patients, children who presented with the unique symptoms. There were not any adults -- only children --“Since 1938, there have come to our attention a number of children whose condition differs so markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far that each case merits—and, I hope will eventually receive—a detailed consideration of its fascinating peculiarities....".

By Norma Erickson

In an unprecedented move, pathologist/clinical microbiologist, Dr. Sin Hang Lee has decided to invite the international community of scientists and medical professionals to peer-review and/or discuss his latest research “Toll-like receptor 9 agonist in HPV vaccine Gardasil 9” in an open public forum.

According to Dr. Lee, during 2011/12, when he tried to publish papers describing HPV DNA fragments he had discovered in Gardasil 4, his first paper was rejected by three medical journal editors despite the fact that the manufacturer had assured health authorities worldwide no such fragments were in the final product.

The first of his papers regarding this subject was favorably peer-reviewed by three scientists who recommended publication.  However, upon subsequent review by a journal editor publication was inexplicably denied.

Both papers were subsequently published in non-medical journals which deal with ‘pure science’ thereby limiting access to most medical professionals.

Dr. Lee also states that after submission of his latest research to “Vaccines” the editor-in-chief sent his paper out requesting a peer review. However, the editor’s subordinates refused to process the manuscript even though the journal claims to be “an international, peer-reviewed open access journal focused on laboratory and clinical vaccine research, utilization and immunization.”

Dr. Lee believes this unusual response illustrates a top-level concerted effort by vaccine stakeholders to suppress any information which could potentially impact the published safety profile of HPV vaccines.

Dr. Lee decided to release the paper to an open forum because:

• • He believes medical professionals need access to all information which might impact their analysis of the safety profile of HPV vaccines so they can help their patients make intelligent choices regarding cancer prevention options.
  • He believes the only way for medical consumers to make intelligent choices is to be informed of known potential risks as well as the promised benefits of any medical intervention, including HPV vaccines.
  • He believes the process of discovering mechanisms of action associated with serious adverse events after HPV vaccinations will be expedited if the medical/scientific community is aware of any new research in that arena.
  • He believes that discovering the mechanisms of action as quickly as possible will enable researchers to better define biological plausibility and causation, thereby allowing medical professionals to help those most susceptible to serious reactions avoid unnecessary risks.
  • He believes open discussion and honest debate may help restore the public’s faith in science.

Therefore, in the interest of public health and safety, Dr. Lee cordially invites any medical/scientific professional interested in the benefit/risk profile of HPV vaccines to review and/or discuss his latest research via the comment section below. He has kindly agreed to answer any scientific questions regarding the following paper.

Toll-like receptor 9 agonist in HPV vaccine Gardasil 9

Author: Sin Hang Lee; Milford Molecular Diagnostics, Milford, CT, 06460, USA

* Correspondence: shlee01@snet.net ; Tel: +1-203-878-1438

Abstract:

Gardasil9 is a recombinant human papillomavirus (HPV) 9-valent vaccine, containing purified major capsid L1 protein of HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 re-assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) as the active ingredient. Since the antigens are purified recombinant proteins, Gardasil9 needs a potent adjuvant to enhance the initiation of the immune response through activation of innate immunity of the host to generate high and sustained levels of antibodies for maintaining efficacy of vaccination. Historically, the aluminum salt, amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate or AAHS which is listed as the adjuvant for Gardasil9, was known to require a Toll-like receptor agonist, such as phospholipids, to work in combination to achieve its potent adjuvant effects in the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, Recombivax HB®. However, there are no phospholipids in the purified HPV L1 proteins or in the Gardasil9 formulation. Since the Food and Drug Administration has informed the public that Gardasil4 does contain recombinant HPV L1-specific DNA fragments, these HPV DNA fragments may serve as Toll-like receptor 9 agonist in Gardasil9 vaccination. The author has tested 5 samples of Gardasil9 from 4 manufacturing lots by PCR amplification with a set of degenerate primers followed by heminested PCR or by another 5 sets of non-degenerate nested PCR primers in an attempt to detect all 9 vaccine-relevant HPV type-specific L1 gene DNAs bound to AAHS in the vaccine. Sanger sequencing of the PCR products confirmed the presence of HPV 18, 11, 16 and 6 L1 gene DNA bound to insoluble AAHS nanoparticles, but unevenly distributed even within one vaccine sample. In addition, these genotype-specific HPV DNA fragments were at least partially in non-B conformations. Since no L1 gene DNA of HPV 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 was amplified by the commonly used degenerate PCR primers, the results suggest that these latter 5 type-specific HPV DNAs may all be in non-B conformations or have been removed as contaminants by a special purification protocol. Further research is warranted to standardize the HPV DNA fragments in Gardasil which are known to be potent Toll-like receptor 9 agonist.

Keywords: Gardasil 9; Gardasil; HPV vaccine; HPV DNA; non-B conformations; topological conformational change; Toll-like receptor 9 agonist; AAHS; amorphous aluminum hydroxyphosphate sulfate; DNA sequencing

View entire paper here.

By Nancy Hokkanen

Welcome to the flexible lexicon of Internet censorship.

When governments and corporations are uncomfortable about online reporting from disgruntled consumers, their media minions relabel it “misinformation.” Or “disinformation.” Even “radicalization.” (Heckuva job fact-checking, Psychology Today.)

A recent Harris Poll says about half of U.S. adults “have some doubts about vaccine safety.” Taken further, a variety of citizen activists believe they are morally obligated to correct falsified government research, which metastasizes when repeated unquestioningly by 50 state health departments, agencies, physicians, trade groups and media.

Since the 1990s democratized communications technology facilitated bypassing of centralized information clusters, letting people worldwide access medical study data, FOIA’d government emails and legal testimony. Networks of parent advocates have shared information on vaccines’ adverse effects, treatments for autoimmune disorders… the kind of data collection and analysis that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control should perform, had that agency not contributed to those problems inadvertently and chosen to conceal it.

So, how have the agencies and corporations charged with improving people’s lives responded to increased consumer participation in communications sharing?

They responded with censorship. “An unprecedented attack on civil liberties and the right to dissent is being led by a new privileged ruling class whose power is not derived from aristocratic titles, wealth and political influence linked to genetic heritage and ownership of land,” summarized Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine information Center in a recent essay.

Vaccine safety censorship kicked into high gear after Rep. Adam Schiff’s March 1 letter to Amazon billionaire C.E.O. Jeff Bezos. Emboldened by such high profile support (or afraid to be labeled anti-vaccine), a number of social media sites began withdrawing service from specific members and groups. Shadow banning, aka stealth banning, partially blocks users without them being aware of it. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram do it.

Age of Autism visitors can read an Op Ed submission that the NYT would not publish.  Mind you, the NYT already knows most of this information, as they published the AP investigation into the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and titled it, "Court Heaps Grief on Vaccine Victims, Makes Them Wait Years."

From: Pam Long
Date: Sunday, June 30, 2019 at 5:48 PM
To: <opinion@nytimes.com>
Subject: Op Ed submission from CPT Pam Long, US Army

New York Times editor,

I respectfully ask you to consider publishing this Op-Ed.

You can let freedom of speech ring this Fourth of July.

Thank you, Pam Long

An Open Letter To All Us Lawmakers Regarding The Us Vaccine Program

By Pam Long

Pam Long is a West Point graduate and former Army Captain, Medical Service Corps, and Medical Intelligence Officer.

The New York Times asserts that “Vaccine Injury Claims Are Few and Far Between” (Belluck and Abelson, June 18, 2019). Two health writers have provided the public an over simplistic data approach on the very disconcerting and concealed Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) and summarize a cost-benefit analysis with two deceiving measures.

First, given billions of doses of administered vaccines, resulting in only a few hundred reported vaccine injuries, government agencies assess the current vaccine program as a health success. Second, the incalculable dollars in diseases, hospitalizations, and deaths that were not incurred, are assumed to be a cost savings to the $4.15 billion paid in rare compensation to vaccine injuries, therefore the vaccine program is a financial success. Despite this affirmative narrative, there is currently a heavy handed trifecta of vaccine manufacturers, sponsored media, and incented health agencies lobbying to remove parental vaccine exemptions in every state, therefore I urge you to reevaluate the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program as a matter of national security with an unprecedented level of transparency. It is imperative to challenge the marketing mantra that vaccines, with now 72 doses recommended for children, an untested schedule for cumulative effect during brain development of infants, and without any civil liability for harm are “always safe and effective” and injuries are one-in-a-million-doses. There is evidence to the contrary.

Start with the 1980s aftermath of the whole cell version of the DTP vaccine causing brain damage and seizures in children, which resulted in the National Child Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA 1986) granting vaccine manufacturers civil immunity from lawsuits. Children were harmed by a product, and lawmakers incredulously removed any future incentive for manufacturers to produce safe vaccine products. Once the VICP was established, parents became subjected to a combative quasi-legal process at a federal court that can span for a decade or more with lawyers on retainer at $430 an hour, where Department of Justice lawyers defend their government brothers and sisters at CDC, and where vaccine manufacturers are not required to provide any discovery about their products. Under the new era of liability-free vaccines, manufacturers created the most aggressive vaccine schedule in the world. The CDC vaccine program tripled the recommended doses for children, under the Advisory Council of Immunization Practices (ACIP) board that allows vaccine industry employees to vote to accept recommendations for their company’s product for all US children. The VICP is designed for maximum attrition and dismisses two-thirds of claims that enter the daunting system.

Is the US vaccine court under VICP an alternate universe where vaccines are “guilty until proven innocent?” If so, this rigorous scrutiny would bolster public confidence in vaccines at a time when the WHO contends that “vaccine hesitancy” is the greatest public health threat, even greater than malnutrition and lack of clean water. Transparency demands that these VICP records and proceedings should be open to the public, immediately. Are these claims of people with sick children looking for an easy, quick payout from the government? Seems unlikely. Or are these claims of healthy children who suffered an undeniable disability or death from a vaccine? Let consumers have access to this valuable information so that contra-indications can be identified and screening can be improved.

Beyond the data that shows that most cases are dismissed and the assertion that injuries are rare, the public should also know what eligible participants in the program report about the VICP. CBS Journalist Sharyl Attkisson reported in 2008 on parents’ perspectives on VICP,

“Unfortunately, vaccine court is little-known. It's believed only a small fraction of the total number of claims ever makes its way to this court. In my reporting, I often ask families who believe their children were injured by vaccines whether they've filed a claim in vaccine court. None of them had ever heard of this court. Several said something like, ‘How would we ever have time to pursue such a thing? We're spending all our time trying to care for our injured child.’”