Opinion Talk

By Kelli Ann Davis

March 25, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this

“We recognize that much of the success of our nation’s immunization efforts comes from the trust of parents. We do not take that trust lightly. Rather, CDC, FDA and other HHS agencies are continually working to expand efforts in vaccine safety research and science as well as clinician and parent input and involvement. Like parents, we want the best information possible when it comes to protecting and ensuring children’s health.”

Save it.

When you’ve got the VP of Merck included on your roster for the NVAC Safety Working Group along with other notable names like Marie McCormick, Elizabeth Miller, and several Public Health Officers — who all have a vested interest in promoting vaccine uptake — do you seriously think the American public is going to trust anything that comes out of that committee in regards to vaccine safety or vaccine safety research??????

By Blair Peeples

March 25, 2008 6:47 PM | Link to this

To Director of CDC, It is imperative that you implement, as you stated, intensive vaccination safety research. Parents like myself are losing faith and trust in the CDC and the “one size fits all” approach to vaccinating our babies and children.

Pregnant women are told not to eat tuna because of the mercury in it. Then, pediatricians inject ethyl mercury or thimerosol, aluminum and other live viruses in multi-dose vials to our babies and young children. Where is the logic? With a baby that has not fully developed an immune system?

The Pollings case is not some special circumstance. Many children with autism have genetic predispositions or immune system deficits that may make them more vulnerable to vaccinations. Also, it is very likely that the vaccination itself may have caused the mitochondrial dysfunction. After all, there was no sign of this disorder prior to the vaccination.

If you look beyond your cubicle, you will see that thousands of parents are implementing biomedical approaches to treating their children. They are detoxifying their children from heavy metals. Are these forward thinking specialists and physicians quacks because they understand the nature of this autism crisis? My develomental pediatrician is a fellow for the american board of pediatrics and has been honored for her work in autism, published research articles, and testified to congress? What about all the other cutting edge physicians that are working diligently to heal children that have been injured by environmental triggers including vaccinations. Is the Autism Research Institute, Generation Rescue, Autism Speaks - are all these organizations just full of crazy people that have nothing else to do with their time?

Is it better to just turn your head and watch more and more children become neurologically impaired as a result of triggers such as vaccinations?

Why is there a National Vaccination Injury Compensation Program if vaccinations ARE SO SAFE???

You said there is a connection between vaccines and encepholopathy. Are you aware that ethyl mercury promotes inflammation of the brain? And that inflammation of the brain can contribute to autistic symptoms?

The reason we do not have double blind, etc research studies on this phenomenon is because the only entities that can fund this research are the pharmaceutical industries.

Why would the pharmaceutical industries fund research into the connection between vaccinations and autism - especially when they are profitting from the multiple dose vials given to babies and children?

If vaccinations were spread out as they were when I was a child, there would not be the current epidemic. Spreading out vaccinations means the pharmaceutical industries lose money.

But, who is really losing out here?

It is the 1 in 150 children that are diagnosed; one every 60 sec with autism.

Personally, I would rather see a child have the flu or measles rather than have encephalopathy (autism).

I feel like I am writing this letter to deaf ears. If you truly believe that vaccinations are SAFE FOR ALL CHILDREN AND ONE SIZE FITS ALL, that is a sad state of affairs.

I would like for you to not allow multiple dose vials for any babies _ at risk or not - it is not safe. It is only making money for the makers of the vaccine drugs.

If you do not know how to properly screen children and babies, then spread out the vaccinations like they were in the past. At least until further research can be implemented to develop safer vaccination policies.

If the current vaccination program is so safe, then why do you find the need to vehemently defend it?????

What if autism is on the rise because children are being vaccinated at alarmingly high rates with multi-dose vials - without any type of screening to determine genetic or immune system vulnerabilites to vaccinations?

Can the CDC step back and think about that? I do not believe that vaccines cause autism but I do believe - as do many developmental pediatricians - that vaccinations can serve as one of many environmental factors that triggers the onset of autistic symptoms in a subset of the population.

Please consider this prospect!!! Thank you.

By kris toelke

March 25, 2008 8:04 PM | Link to this

Too many children are developing autism, the numbers are sickening 1 in 150, how many more children will it take before the CDC opens there eyes. Most parents take there children in for there shots thinking they are protecting them, soon after the shots many of these same parents have watched there kids go into the puzzling world of autism. Something is pushing these kids over the edge and i feel it is the vaccines. Plain and simple there are just too many parents who have seen there kids slip into autism after a vaccine

By Heidi

March 25, 2008 8:06 PM | Link to this

There is so much the CDC could have done in the past that you can never expect parents of vaccine damaged children or the people that know them to believe your fact deprived sales pitch. Just fix it. Take Hep B out of the infant schedule and move it to age 5 or beyond. Force the pharmaceutical companies to separate all combined vaccines into monovalent vaccines which can be administered one at a time. Get rid of Diptheria and Polio vaccines, the diseases are eradicated in the United States. Take the mercury and aluminum COMPLETELY out of all vaccines. For the love of Prada, tighten up the vaccine adverse reporting system so that the doctors will err on the side of caution and report ALL possible vaccine reactions. You really have no idea how bad the adverse reactions are because you never really wanted to see them. Stop pandering to the Pharmafia before Pharmageddon completely destroys the human race. Stop worrying about the consequences and tell the truth so you don’t destroy any more lives.

By SAM

March 25, 2008 8:09 PM | Link to this

“including some that have involved vaccines and encephalopathy (injury to the brain)”

which is exactly what I think happened to my son and many others. Many of these children with autism (especially the ones who regressed after vaccination) showed signs of encephalopathy. Unfortunately, when I spoke with our pediatrician about my concerns, he in no way said - ‘lets check for encephalopathy’! He said wait and see. Then he said speech delay and finally he said autism.

This, despite my sons classic signs of encephalopathy (high fever, screaming, stark personality change, loss of language) ten days after the MMR (given at the same time as 3 other shots). This is the exact time frame that even the PDR says that MMR can cause encephalopathy (of course, I had no idea at the time). Encephalopathy = brain injury = often autism.

By Wilsonny200

March 25, 2008 8:10 PM | Link to this

Now, conventional wisdom is that 1 in 4000 have a mitochondrial disorder. But what if they are more common than that? What if there are more kids that have that sort of disorder? I think they might also be more at risk of autism regression if they have that kind of problem

By Rob43@comcast.net

March 25, 2008 8:40 PM | Link to this

It’s a shame the CDC won’t admit to a startling rise in autism cases coincident with a doubling of the number of vaccinations given to young children before their brain and systems to fight the effects of immunizations are fully developed. We doubt the CDC is capable of an unbiased research effort which, if it is done, will be aimed at surveying healthy children and exonerating any effects of the too many vaccines too early in life for a significant percentage of our babies. They won’t even test for what’s in the vaccines they demand our babies receive; and take the drug manufacturer’s word for the ingredients that they contain. Neither the CDC or the FDA conducts any independent testing whatsoever…

By Karen Fuller

March 25, 2008 8:47 PM | Link to this

Those who are on the side of blindly immunizing our children always sound so convincing and so very much smarter than we parents. I am curious about something. What is the author’s opinion on what is causing 1in150 AMERICAN children to develop Autism?

By Dyson

March 25, 2008 8:53 PM | Link to this

We seem to have a new hypothesis on the block (following the failure of the thimerosal/MMR causes autism one to come up with the goods), namely the one which says that most children who have autism have it because they have an underlying metabolic or immunological disorder (…evidence please?). If these children are unlucky enough to get a febrile reaction to a vaccine this wil precipitate autism.

This must rank as one of the least credible theories the antivaccinationists have come up with in recent years. Are they suggesting that the only cause of fever in a child is a vaccine reaction? What about (god forbid) all the natural infections that an unvaccinated, unprotected child will develop through its life - you know, all those “harmless” illnesses like mumps, and measles, and chickenpox, and rubella - the things the antivaccinationists keep assuring us do no more harm than cause a few days of high fever with a rash? The fact is that fever as a side effect of a vaccine is an uncommon occurence, but fever from an infection is almost universal.

By maxwell

March 25, 2008 8:55 PM | Link to this

Ms. Schuchat: Why do you say that Mr. Kirby made many “inaccuracies” in his letter yet not say what they are? What mistakes did he make? We all would like to know. I am calling your bluff. I don’t believe he made any inaccurate statements. If anything, his statements cut you and your compadres too much slack.

The truth is far worse than what he wrote about. The truth is that you and your friends have known that thimerosal was causing the autism epidemic all along. Yet to save your own skin along with the fortunes of your industry friends, you have covered up the truth for years. This is why you lie and tell the public that thimerosal has been completely removed from all vaccines, all the while knowing that the vast majority of flu shots still contain large amounts of the mercury-based preservative. Then you began recommending the yearly flu shot during all trimesters of pregnancy and for virtually all children. You did this knowing that the infant’s brain is much more susceptible to the neurotoxic effects of mercury when in the womb.

The truth is too horrible to reveal. There is too much guilt on the line. And the punishment for such unspeakable crimes would be too much to bear. This is why you always seek to calm fears and downplay any talk of vaccine safety. This is why you can’t face the facts. The facts are too horrific. Yet the dam is nearing its capacity to hold back the flood of emotion, the flood of righteous indignation. These children cry out for justice, justice for those who have so malicously dealt these same children a life of misery. Your shame and guilt will be revealed. And your crimes against humanity brought to light. Those responsible deserve to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

And I will say one last word to you and your thimerosal defenders at the CDC and in the pharmaceutical industry: I pray that the Lord will have pity on you, pity on someone so evil and cruel that they would knowingly harm a child.

By maxwell

March 25, 2008 9:08 PM | Link to this

Dyson, I don’t know what pharma or CDC brainwashing you’ve been through, but the thimerosal/autism hypothesis has not failed. Here’s a hypothesis for you: Mercury is a neurotoxin. Guess what? It’s not a hypothesis. It’s a fact that has been accepted and proven for hundreds of years. Do you deny that mercury is a neurotoxin? Do you believe that injection of mercury into a tiny infant is harmless? Is this the kind of pharma/CDC propaganda you buy into? Try something new: Think for yourself. How can anyone argue that we should be injecting mercury into pregnant women, children, the elderly, the chronically ill, etc? This is the insanity we have today. The CDC is actively advocating this exact notion. If you don’t believe me look at the indications for influenza vaccination, then go read a package insert for a multi-dose vial of Fluzone.

These are facts. And you can live in your nice little “ignorance is bliss” world all you want. But the truth is that we have thousands of children now that have autism as a result of being injected with relatively large doses of one of the most powerful neurotoxins on planet earth. This does not take a genius to figure out. That is why CDC incorporated is working so hard to bury the truth and cover their backsides.

By Doyle

March 25, 2008 9:11 PM | Link to this

Why is it so difficult for the CDC to believe that some children might have problems with vaccines? For some it might be the mercury (still in most flu shots), for some it might be the other preservatives (e.g. aluminum), for some in might be the live viruses, and for others it might be the vaccine schedule (children now receive triple the vaccines they received 20 years ago). Why is the CDC unwilling to look at the toxicology research involving neurotoxins in vaccines?

I watched my son regress twice, after each of his MMR shots. I watched him lose language, lose eye contact, lose motor skills, lose smiling, lose joy and curiosity. I watched him develop a seizure disorder.

And finally, with 1 in 150 kids being diagnosed with autism, why isn’t this declared a public health emergency?

By Robyne

March 25, 2008 9:39 PM | Link to this

Your organization is completely oblivious to what is happening to an entire generation of children. How long will it take or how many more children must suffer before the CDC admits the toxins that were and are injected into these helpless children has literally taken their lives away? We will never again vaccinate. The CDC, FDA, this administration and big pharma have destroyed the lives of these children and their families and unfortunatly the list is growing. Each time the CDC issues a statement like this they insult the intelligence of 100’s of 1000’s of families who deserve better.

By Terri Lewis

March 25, 2008 9:42 PM | Link to this

The CDC has been covering up a direct link between mercury (thimerosal) and neurological disorders (such as autism) for at least eight years now.

Let’s talk about what was discussed at Simpsonwood, Georgia in the year 2000, when Dr. William Weil, representing the American Academy of Pediatrics, stated, “the number of dose related relationships [between mercury and autism] are linear and statistically significant. You can play with this all you want. They are linear. They are statistically significant.”

Read some more.

You can find lots more at www.putchildrenfirst.org

It’s all a part of the public record now, and maybe now after Hannah Poling, more people will educate themselves.

We are in a real fix, but most of us have wised up: our vaccine program, taken as a whole, is pretty unsafe.

Parents are right to be afraid of some of the complications of some of the diseases we vaccinate against, but they are also right to be afraid of the vaccines.

There are too many, too soon, and they are given in combinations that are flat-out dangerous. They still contain so many toxins, most people just can’t believe it when they see it.

Mercury, aluminum, antifreeze, formaldehyde, phenol, methanol—this is a very partial listing.

You say, “Those decisions [whether or not to vaccinate]…are best made in consultation with the child’s doctor.”

My doctor thought it was perfectly fine to immunize my kids according to the standard schedule. I thought so, too.

Now I know better, and I don’t know a parent alive today who doesn’t worry that vaccines might give their own child some kind of developmental disorder, maybe a really bad one.

Lots of those parents will go ahead and vaccinate fully anyway, and fully 1% or more of the boys will become full-blown autistic, 10% of those children will develop Asperger’s, PDD-NOS, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bi-polar disorder, or something bad enough that they know their child is really, really hurting, and then they’ll be told “it’s genetic,” or “we don’t know what caused this,” or “it’s a mystery.”

On top of that, most mainstream medical doctors will still be baffled as to how to treat the child, or more likely, will show no interest in doing so.

Insurance won’t cover the treatments that do work.

And you, Anne Schuchat, write a piece of garbage like this, and tell us that this one, little ol’ isolated autism claim shouldn’t “deter” parents.

Sadly, many will still believe you.

And kids will be hurt for it.

By ThoJ

March 25, 2008 9:47 PM | Link to this

Dr. Schuchat: As the parent of a child with autism: thank you very much for this article.

It is unfortunate that a small minority (albeit a loud minority) will represent the autism community with such a shrill voice. As one small example, it is unfortunate that people don’t actually read the words Dr. Schuchat has written. People complain about the “one size fits all” approach. Read again—these decisions should be discussed with your pediatrician. She has made it very clear that the CDC is not “mandating” a single approach.

Dyson, thank you for your comments. One fact that can be pulled from considering mitochondria and autism is that some people regress—without vaccines with or without thimerosal. Fevers cause crises in people with metabolic disorders. Regression does not equate to vaccine injury.

Unfortunately, I expect the rhetoric and overall shrill tone to only get worse for the near future.

By ThoJ

March 25, 2008 9:49 PM | Link to this

Dr. Schuchat: As the parent of a child with autism: thank you very much for this article.

It is unfortunate that a small minority (albeit a loud minority) will represent the autism community with such a shrill voice. As one small example, it is unfortunate that people don’t actually read the words Dr. Schuchat has written. People complain about the “one size fits all” approach. Read again—these decisions should be discussed with your pediatrician. She has made it very clear that the CDC is not “mandating” a single approach.

Dyson, thank you for your comments. One fact that can be pulled from considering mitochondria and autism is that some people regress—without vaccines with or without thimerosal. Fevers cause crises in people with metabolic disorders. Regression does not equate to vaccine injury.

Unfortunately, I expect the rhetoric and overall shrill tone to only get worse for the near future.

By ThoJ

March 25, 2008 9:50 PM | Link to this

Dr. Schuchat: As the parent of a child with autism: thank you very much for this article.

It is unfortunate that a small minority (albeit a loud minority) will represent the autism community with such a shrill voice. As one small example, it is unfortunate that people don’t actually read the words Dr. Schuchat has written. People complain about the “one size fits all” approach. Read again—these decisions should be discussed with your pediatrician. She has made it very clear that the CDC is not “mandating” a single approach.

Dyson, thank you for your comments. One fact that can be pulled from considering mitochondria and autism is that some people regress—without vaccines with or without thimerosal. Fevers cause crises in people with metabolic disorders. Regression does not equate to vaccine injury.

Unfortunately, I expect the rhetoric and overall shrill tone to only get worse for the near future.

By Scientist Parent

March 25, 2008 9:55 PM | Link to this

ISeriously, I couldn’t even get through this article, just more CDC PR machine BS. When I scientifically looked at vaccinating my child (I’m a scientist) with the risks of adverse effects at 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 100,000, I determined the benefits of vaccination outweighed the risks of adverse reactions. Now after vaccination, my child has developed encephalopathy, autism and adhd.
The CDC has at best, misinformed parents and pediatricians and at worse, lied and covered up the reality of adverse effect of vaccinations. Thus far, the CDC has done nothing to address the growing concern over their unsafe and unhealthy national vaccination schedule. Will they defend this sinking ship till the end as more and more parents of healthy kids reject the schedule? Or will the CDC finally do what should have been done a decade ago and admit the mistakes of the past, develop tests and alternate schedules?

By Cindy Keenan

March 25, 2008 9:56 PM | Link to this

“Kirby’s column included many inaccuracies related to childhood vaccines.” Please cite the inaccuracies and provide the rationale for your position. I’m with maxwell—it’s time to call your bluff. You want the public’s trust? Earn it. Start right now. Explain the inaccuracies. Will you step up to the plate and account for your comments? I won’t hold my breath.

By Tanners Dad

March 25, 2008 10:06 PM | Link to this

“This does not represent anything other than a very special situation,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Who are you going to believe the Boss doing the spin or the Judge that slipped?

The case may not be a first, said Gary Golkiewicz, chief special master for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He oversees the special “vaccine court” which rules on requests for payments from the vaccine injury fund. “Years ago, actually, I had a case, before we understood or knew the implications of autism, that the vaccine injured the child’s brain caused an encephalopathy,” he said. And the symptoms that come with that “fall within the broad rubric of autism.” And there are other somewhat similar cases, Golkiewicz says, that were decided before autism and its symptoms were more clearly defined

All the hysterical parents are saying is Green our vaccines. Look at the facts: 1983: Autism rate 1 in 10,000 Vaccine schedule 10 shots 2008: Autism rate in boys 1 in 70 Vaccine schedule 36 My sons last words: “My name is Tanner. My name is Tanner.” The week of his shots for school… Show me any other campaign for disinformation as wound up as this one by the medical(vaccine maker) community. Remove the Mecury, Aluminum, formaldehyde, ether, antifreeze. Reevaluate the schedule. What was the death rate from these deadly diseases in 1983 that we had to add 26shots? If there are side effects to the vaccinations all we asking for is support for therapy, respite, and recovery

By autismMom

March 25, 2008 10:11 PM | Link to this

The CDC and Dr. Gerberding failed to protect my children. I wish I would have known about David Kirby before the vaccination damage was inflicted on my kids.

Maybe you should check your facts about these so called inaccuracies.

By Richard

March 25, 2008 10:17 PM | Link to this

The governments own medical doctors conceded the vacccine autism link. CASE CLOSED

By Richard

March 25, 2008 10:18 PM | Link to this

The governments own medical doctors conceded the vacccine autism link. CASE CLOSED

By Teresa Conrick

March 25, 2008 10:35 PM | Link to this

Ms. Schuchat,

I will try to be polite. I know you are just doing your job, which appears to be attempting to defend a vaccine program that is crumbling. Do not take this personally, but you are no salesperson. The vaccine program is just really that, selling a product. Unfortunately, that product has become a monster that is harming fetuses, babies, and children.

What is enraging is that this has been coming for years. There has been hard evidence yet CDC has done nothing. We are a growing body as the vaccine harm has increased. How would you feel if your child, or maybe more than one of your children became a science experiment or callateral damage in the name of herd immunity?

Truthful and sincere efforts need to be made to clean up the vaccines and also the people who push them on to the consumer. You have not even come close to that in your writing here today.

By isles

March 25, 2008 10:44 PM | Link to this

Boy, the anti-vaccine folks are out in force. They always get stirred up when they feel threatened.

Having failed to get any traction in the world of science, they seem to think they can win the day by the sheer force of their vehemence. As charming as this is, I’m afraid it won’t work. Evidence always trumps rhetoric in the end.

It’s impossible to say much about the Poling case because the only information made public has been by the family. I doubt they would release anything that would undermine their claims. The fact that the hoopla has so obviously been choreographed for maximum PR effect ought to give pause to those who are gnashing their teeth about information being spin-doctored.

By Garbo

March 25, 2008 10:46 PM | Link to this

Gee,maybe the reason your CDC research doesn’t show the obvious connection between the increase in vaccines and the increase in autism is because your studies haven’t ever actually looked at it. The one time you did, it scared the bejeezus out of you and you massaged the results and sent the data to a warehouse, safe from prying eyes of FOIA, while your lead researcher took a cush job at a pharma co. You are so busy burying your heads (and the data) in the sand, when you should be leading the charge to ensure the vaccine safety for our nation. YOU are the CDC. It’s your JOB to CONTROL DISEASE. YOU have created an epidemic by increasing the number of vaccines without doing any safety testing of the combined schedule, and now refuse to lift a finger to help fix the problem. It’s time to pull your collective heads out of that hole and do right by the children. Do the study that you know needs to be done. Do the study that compares vaccinated and unvaccinated children. I dare you.

By Garbo

March 25, 2008 10:51 PM | Link to this

Hey everyone! It’s Isles! Any wagers on which Pharma Co. s/he shills for? Or is it a trade lobby group?

By Liz Parker

March 25, 2008 11:34 PM | Link to this

Please forgive my liberal piracy of prose from Anne Schuchat’s opinion. I felt the need to respond… David Kirby may write about autism and vaccines, but the idea he illustrates is far from novel. Parents across the world have noticed the decline in their children following vaccination for years. My mother noticed events following both mine and my brother’s MMR in the late 60’s early 70’s. I can honestly say, we both have some issues (but that is another story). More to the point, my daughter’s severe neurological event following her 3 month shots and her sister’s hospitalization following her 6 month vaccines with overwhelming asthma (now, I know both events are listed as possible “adverse events” for the vaccines they received). I am, certainly, wondering why every Government entity insists that our nation’s childhood vaccines are both safe and proven effective. When were these studies completed? Where is the data demonstrating these facts? How can this possibly be the case? The ingredients in vaccines include, among other things, known carcinogens, poisons, and heavy metals. Not to mention, 36 shots by age 6?
As a parent struggling with severe autism and its accompanying health and global developmental issues, I believe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with other agencies in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the wide range of scientists and health professionals involved in the nation’s immunization programs are either blind or too far into the pharmaceutical company’s pocket to take seriously questions and concerns related to vaccine safety. Many of the dedicated professionals from these agencies may, in fact, be involved as parents or grandparents; this is immaterial as denial is commonplace in even the most educated families. Until our pediatricians have knowledge of nutrition, health care, AND medicine, they are lacking foundation for providing good guidance. Parents who dare to ask their child’s doctors or nurses about immunizations are harassed and cowed by hurried peds and their office managers. Vaccines are given often and early in life, NOT in order to protect, but for convenience and profit. The joint immunization recommendations of CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians may recognize there are instances when a child should not receive a recommended vaccine or when a recommended vaccination should be delayed – but these recommendations are routinely disregarded by pediatricians (as was the case with my child on more than one occasion).
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation program is far from a simple, expedient, or easy remedy; and, thanks to recent changes to the law, it is the only avenue available to individuals harmed by vaccines. Further, within the last several years, this entity agreed to significantly reduce recognition of serious “adverse events” by reducing the window of time allowed for the events to manifest. The vaccines did not change, the “adverse events” are still occurring, but now only virtually immediate events are recognized.
This program is charged with determining whether a claimed injury meets pre-established criteria or if vaccination may have contributed to a child’s serious medical or health condition. Such determinations can now be made considerably less frequently, and these awards are far from timely or compassionate. In the past 20 years, about 100 million American children received recommended childhood vaccinations; now cancer, diabetes, ADD, ADHD, bi-polar disorder, autism, obesity, and other health issues have become the norm for America’s children. “SIDS” has become commonplace. One in six American children exhibits a developmental disability. Mitochondrial dysfunction is much more common than our Government agencies choose to recognize. Interesting, heavy metals cause mitochondrial dysfunction – which came first, vaccines or mitochondrial dysfunction; I argue vaccines cause the mitochondrial damage. The mitochondrial damage results in loss of brain and nervous system functions. Until it is possible to be certain vaccines will not harm an infant or child, the program should be suspended. Collateral damage should not be de rigueur. EVERY child should be entitled to good health. If Gerber or Beech Nut put baby food on grocery shelves with a touch of anti-freeze, a trace amount of mercury, and a little carcinogenic antibiotic in it there would be community outrage – where is the outrage whent these constituents are injected into our infants’ and childrens’ bloodstreams? At present, we do not know, definitively, if vaccines trigger neurological or developmental declines among children or whether vaccines can cause or aggravate mitochondrial disorders. We do know that, on rare occasions, infections can cause neurological and developmental declines in children — many parents also know childhood vaccinations cause developmental decline in their children with or without mitochondrial disorders. As a mother, I know that good nutrition and supplementation with vitamins A-C-E go a long way to enable my children to naturally defend against measles, chickenpox and influenza. The rate of death from the worst of these is 1 in 10,000 at worst; compared to the rate of 1 in 6 children with a developmental disability. Hmmm, I’ll take the pox. In the meantime, vaccine safety research is seriously lacking. When the CDC actually decides to study long-term outcomes for vaccinated children versus unvaccinated children, I will believe they truly want to uncover the reason for the rise of autism. My trust has been trampled and left in the dirt. The CDC, FDA and other HHS agencies are continually working to expand the vaccine program. Vaccine safety seems of little importance.
Our nation’s high immunization rates are probably the reason why so many of our children suffer from autoimmune diseases that had no prevalence in the past. Since the CDC is committed to maintaining a high level of “herd immunity,” a new agency must be established and charged with evaluating the impact of the CDC’s ever-increasing, toxic, vaccination program.

By Leslie Weed

March 25, 2008 11:54 PM | Link to this

Everything that was interrupted in the development of my daughter began the day her delicate skin was pierced by a vaccine and the poisons began to flow into her pristine infant body… End of Story… There is no spin that will ever hide that fact… When the poisons began to accumulate in her body her life began to spiral out of control taking all of us with her…

It is shameful how families and children stricken with autism have been shunned and criticized by the very agency aimed to protect!

The CDC is wasting precious time, money and energy spinning the truth about vaccines. meanwhile an entire generation of bright and beautiful children have been damaged. When my daughter was diagnosed in 2000 the rate was 1 in 500, I felt that was alarming so I wrote my concerns to many government agencies including the CDC, to no avail…

Public trust in the CDC has eroded, not because of stand up guys like David Kirby, it is because the CDC FAILED to protect and safeguard our children… Look at your own numbers, 1 in 150 and still NO ACTION or apparent CONCERN from the CDC.

When are we going to see some assistance and relief for America’s suffering children?

By Jeff Ransom

March 26, 2008 12:04 AM | Link to this

Kirby’s column included many inaccuracies related to childhood vaccines. Like what? How about your inaccuracies like “As the column correctly noted, vaccine injury cases are often handled through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation program administered by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration.” often handled, often handled? How about always handled, if we could get this in a regular court room this would been over for you & the CDC a long time ago.

How about a Vaccinated / Unvaccinated study, I would love to see that study would you, I think you know what it would look like that is why you will not do that study.

By Karen Beauvais

March 26, 2008 1:13 AM | Link to this

Hearing the CDC respond to David Kirby’s award winning insight is a bit like hearing Hillary Clinton talk about dodging snipers. As a parent of a child who declined in to Autism after a double dose of Mercury laden vaccines… I recall an entirely different story. Facing a life time of care in the millions, I would have rather had risked Hep B. Unfortunately my child was vaccinated for Hep B - a disease only transmitted by unprotected sex or dirty needles. And in the process he got a boatload of brain destroying Mercury for a needless shot that was only good for 7 or so years. On the second day of his life. By the CDC’s recommendation. When we tallied his Mercury in his vaccines it toppled over 277X what the EPA deemed safe.

To this day the CDC’s advisory committee won’t even state a preference for Mercury free vaccines. But they will tell you to remove any Mercury toxic antiques from your home in an urgent press release. What is wrong with this picture???

Enough of the CDC rhetoric. “Own your mistake” as Julie Gerberding once said when the press found the CDC was manipulating hiring grants. But in this case, own the responsibility of insuring that America’s children are more important than your own gross conflicts of interest.

Any Bozo knows Mercury is the 2nd most toxic substance on earth. We can only hope young post-modern mothers are wise to this awful spin. One preview of vaccine ingredients on line and anyone should question why an infant should have 35 vaccines before age 2 and Mercury toxic flu shots. It beggars belief.

By Karen Beauvais

March 26, 2008 1:45 AM | Link to this

Isles, Riddle me this? How are parents who vaccinated to full mandated schedule anti-vaccine? So, we obey the mandates, follow the schedule, keep the wellness visits, swallow the doctor’s words that the fevers, the regression to silence, the poop smearing, the running off, the head banging, the GI pain, the refusal to eat, the neurological delays were not related to the vaccine our kid just got and we are anti-vaccine? May this never happen to your child, you selfish jerk. I hope you fail your CDC/Pharma PR internship.

By Richard

March 26, 2008 2:19 AM | Link to this

The governments own medical experts conceded a vaccine autism link. Case Closed

By Kim Stagliano

March 26, 2008 6:22 AM | Link to this

Hey, CDC, you’ve lost credibility on this important issue. Yesterday, I got another call from a young Mom whose child was due for a “well” visit. DTap, Chicken Pox and Heb B were waiting for her son. She is terrified. Her gut tells her not to give him the shots - because he has been sick all winter, on antibiotics more than once, and seems to have food allergies. She’s afraid her ped will berate her for asking if she can delay or break up the vaccines. The relationship of trust is GONE because you and AAP have ignored the creeping epidemic for so long. You got a vaccine to replace trust? Best get busy.

By Brennan's Grandfather

March 26, 2008 6:59 AM | Link to this

Ms. Schuchat - Instead of being a shrill for the CDC, why not do some real reporting. Talk to the families of autistic children. Ask the CDC why it has refused to perform a study comparing the autism rate between vaccinated and never-vaccinated children. Ask the CDC why the rate of autism has increased from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 150 during the same period that the vaccination schedule has increased from 10 to 36. Ask the CDC why it continues with it’s mindset that only the “one size fits all” vaccine program will work. Ask the CDC why it’s vaccine schedule can’t be modified to start later to allow for the childs immune schedule to mature before injecting multiple live viruses into their bodies.

I’m just a dumb, ill informed grandfather helping with the care of my grandson. I’m sure, as a reporter, you could come up with more probing questions. Do your job.

By Andrea

March 26, 2008 7:25 AM | Link to this

Why won’t believe what it sees? We have the first generation that is SICKER than the previous ones. By school age, one is six has neurological damage - autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, etc. Add to that asthma, diabetes, deadly food allergies. We have drug-resistant diseases. Now we hear reports of early onset Alzheimers. Yet we continue to vaccinate at birth, add more and more vaccines to the schedule, and deny what we see before our eyes.

If the CDC is responsible for improving public health, I give them an F. I don’t know how you live with yourself.

By Maurine Meleck

March 26, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this

Your response to David Kirby’s piece will do nothing to allay the fears of parents about vaccinating. There is a growing number of parents that no longer will vaccinate at all because of the government’s failure to tell the truth and to provide safe vaccines for our children. You can spend from now until Christmas putting spin on the the recent events, including the Poling concession, but it will only make matters worse. We are no longer willing to sacrfice 1 in 150, one in 66 boys, to herd immunity or to keep putting money in the pockets of the CDC or the local pediatricians for a vaccine program that has failed us and made our children so much sicker than they were 20 years ago. Those old days are gone forever.

By RSBell

March 26, 2008 8:19 AM | Link to this

Government welfare scientists are engaged in desperate attempts at damage control while parents across the land slowly regain courage and confidence in protecting their children from the needles of BIG PHARMA…

When will it be that “enough children have suffered” at the hands of the vaccination paradigm? It has become painfully obvious to many that our misplaced faith in welfare scientists doing the bidding of vaccine manufacturers results in collateral damage far outweighing the theoretical benefit of limiting the expression of childhood diseases. Many thousands of children have suffered in order that we may wake from our immunologically-ignorant slumber and finally say “enough is enough.” There are so many ways to strengthen the immune system that do not involve injecting synthetic medicaments into the youngest among us. None of those other options fill the coffers of Big PHARMA or enhance the budgets of the FDA and CDC, however, so if they come along, it may be kicking and screaming. Do you know how little homeopathic nosodes actually cost with NO SIDE EFFECTS? We could reduce billions of dollars of pharmaceutical fraud and government waste just by learning about Antione Bechamp and applying what WE ALREADY KNOW about the Law of the Terrain. But nooooooo, like lambs to slaughter, those who worship at the Church of Biological Mysticism still believe in the vaccine sacrament. Is there any good news? Yes. Despite their attempts at damage control, Big Government and Big PHARMA are losing true believers at a record rate, no small thanks to the vaccine-autism link and the recent revelation that the feds finally acknowledged it. Despite this, methinks they protest too much that “they didn’t really.” Thousands of children have lost a connection to this world because parents did not wake up in time. Let it be that those children were not injured or killed in vain.

By Robin Nemeth

March 26, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this

Four or five years ago I asked my child’s health care provider to test for mercury on my mercury poisoned fifteen year old. I took a great deal of information with me for him to look at, including a letter sent in 2004 by Special Counsel J. Scott Bloch to Senator Judd Gregg and Rep. Joe Barton, describing disturbing reports he’d received about thimerosal.

My child’s pediatrician’s only response was to tell me that I was misinformed, and to hand me a printout from an American Academy of Pediatrics website. He didn’t even bother to look at what he’d printed out. The text all down the right side was truncated—I couldn’t have read it if I’d wanted to, but I only realized this after I’d taken the article home.

I did notice, though, that all of the advertisements down the right hand side of the sheet were perfectly intact.

This pretty much sums up what’s wrong with medicine these days if you ask me.

Nobody should be forced into seeking redress for harm in a ‘special’ court. This is an abrogation of the civil rights of all vaccine damaged children and their parents.

And if all of this were not bad enough, the government health regulators, doctors, and vaccine manufacturers continue to sacrifice children with their flu shots, which still contain toxic levels of thimerosal.

By Holly

March 26, 2008 8:26 AM | Link to this

Kelly Ann, you describe vaccines as being “very safe” but the CDCs own Dr. Marie McCormack describes them as “pretty safe on a population basis.”

By Jerry Watson

March 26, 2008 8:39 AM | Link to this

Some of these people who are questioning the safety of current vaccines would not be alive today if it were not for vaccines that their parents were required to take, as polio and measles. The side effects of these two diseases are death. As a baby boomer, we were vaccinated in the school lunch room and our parents were not given choices. Prior to going to Vietnam, I was given vaccines for everything imaginable and I had zero choice. There are no guarantees in this world; if you need proof, just ask the women who was sunbathing on the back of a boat in the keys when a stingray jumped out of the water and hit her on the head. Oh, you cannot ask-she is dead. Living in this country has privileges and responsibilities; these two are not mutually exclusive. If you do not want to fulfill your responsibilities, then leave and do not let your US issued passport hit you in the rear.

By Wendy Fournier

March 26, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

Another predictable response from CDC. “Nothing to see here, people.” Thanks so much for the reassurance, doc.
Vaccines, like any other medical product are not 100% safe for everyone. The absolute least you can do at this point is to step back and reconsider the schedule. Stop recommending vaccines that are simply not necessary, especially so early in life. Do we really need ineffective flu vaccines loaded with mercury? Why can’t we get chicken pox anymore? What’s wrong with getting natural, lifelong immunity? Do American children really need a Rotavirus vaccine? And please tell us, what were you thinking when you decided to give Hep B on the day of birth? Is that the day that you sold your souls to pharma?

By TheProbe

March 26, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this

Jerry Watson said “Some of these people who are questioning the safety of current vaccines would not be alive today if it were not for vaccines that their parents were required to take, as polio and measles.”

Jerry has hit the nail smackdab on the head. This is PRECISELY the problem. I, like Dean Swift froma few centuries ago (where most of the anti-vacs live in their minds) have a new Modest Proposal.

The parents having been required to be vaccinated interfered with Darwin’s first corollary, Survival of the Smartest, and allowed the parents to grow up and breed. This breeding produced a generation of anti-vaccination idiots who will do and say anything, in any guise, to frighten people away from vaccinating their kids.

We should end reqiring vaccines immediately. Allow those who do not want to vaccinate their children to have a separate existence and, hopefully, in a generation or two, the herd will be culled, and the smartest will survive.

By steve

March 26, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this

The reason for the uptick in the number of children labeled as autistic is that no one is called “retarded” anymore.

I think a lot of kids that we used to called “retarded” were probably actually autistic.

By CrazyParents

March 26, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

I am amazed at the parents that think its ok NOT to give their children vaccines. Stop giving Polio and other vaccines? That is just insane! Think of the millions that are doing great with vaccinations. I do not think there is a link to vaccines and Autism. Drug companies save millions of lives with vaccinations and medications. I bet most of those crying conspiracy are taking medications themselves.

The parents that are whining obviously suffer from munchausen syndrome.

By wow

March 26, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this

Let me guess…one of the anti-vaccine websites posted a link to this first thing this morning?

By Terramuggus

March 26, 2008 10:01 AM | Link to this

The first step in restoring trust in the government’s vaccination policies is to immediately commission an independent, third-party, un-Government-affiliated study comparing Vaccinated versus Never-Vaccinated children born in the same year. This study will show that vaccines do, in fact, cause autism, as well as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, AD(H)D, depression, bipolar, anxiety disorders, etc., etc. In other words, all manner of our modern chronic, autoimmune diseases.

The most surprising finding, though, will be the differences in IQ between the groups. Once American moms and dads realize that our incredibly vicious and aggressive vaccination schedule causes intellectual deterioration, there will be hell to pay.

By wow

March 26, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this

And who would you like to perform and pay for that study, such that it would be truly “independent”. What evidence is there to suggest that any of what you have proposed is true? For example, other drugs like oral contraceptives can cause or exacerbate most of the conditions you mentioned. Do they cause autism too?

By joe harris

March 26, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

This research is from 1948 paid for by the American Medical Association the researchers : Dr. Morton of the Department of Bacteriology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr. North of the Philadelphia General Hospital, and Mr. Engley of Camp Detrick under a grant from the Council of Pharmacy and Chemistry, American Medical Association have published an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association** evaluating the use of mercurials in medicine (attached to this email saved as Bacteriostatic & Bactericidal Actions of Some Mercurial Compounds1a RESULTS OF THE STUDY THIMEROSAL is USELESS !REMOVE IT FROM EVERYHING IT IS IN DR.Engly words on KOMU if they had done what we told them to, get it out we might have missed the AUTISM epidemic THERE FINDINGS It is clear from this research supported by a grant from the American Medical Association that Thimerosal is neither efficacious nor safe, and should be removed as a preservative in prescription biologics and pharmaceutical products, as well as from topical over-the-counter products such as Butt-Balm that have Thimerosal present in their formulations as an active ingredient.

THEY DESTROYED ALL OF OUR CHILDREN AND REFUSED TO REMOVE SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT EVEN WORK

By joshua

March 26, 2008 10:18 AM | Link to this

the vitriol of the anti-vaccine posts is stunning. each is debased by the very anecdotal essence they use to legitimize their complaints. having an autistic child is sad, no doubt. it’s also a totally different thing as compared to 15 years ago. the rate of diagnosis has gone up because the disease has been expanded to include an entire spectrum of disorders. the rates of depression have gone up as well- it’s not that there are more cases, just more labeling. there is not a clearly demonstrated link between vaccines and autism so stop saying that the case is closed vaccines are a vital component of public health, and are only successful if given nearly universally. that’s why there can’t be a randomized trial- what a silly thing to write. i’m sorry to all the families of autistic children. vaccines didn’t cause your children’s problems, and money from the government/a pharmaceutical company isn’t going to help them.

By Karen Beauvais

March 26, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this

Very interesting. Parents who fully vaccinated their children = anti-vaccine nutcases. Why? Because they question blatant, medically documented, vaccine reactions - now confirmed through the department of Health and Human Services in the Poling Concession?

One walk through an elementary school and witnessing hallways littered with adaptive equipment for the 1:5 with neuro-disorders (CDC’s own numbers not Munchausens)should be enough to scare the hell out of the polio generation. That’s a lot of sick kids!

Vaccines are not a panacea. We got 8 as a child and survived. They do not even guarantee immunity, this is validated in the titers blood test routinely given to healthcare workers and other professionals that require regular testing.

The last Mumps and Chicken Pox outbreaks were vaccinated populations. The last Minnesota Amish Polio outbreak was traced to the dreaded oral polio vaccine, still encouraged in 3rd world countries today. (The vaccinated foreigner actually infected the poor little US Amish child with contaminated polio fecal matter shed in a hospital setting.) The first Roto-virus vaccine caused bowel blockage that killed children, so now they are reintroducing in a live virus form. I was at the CDC/ACIP meeting as the Vaccine maker presented from the podium on the new Roto-virus vaccine and laughed of diaper risks from the live vaccine shedding in fecal matter. There would not be a Vaccine Court with a super fund if vaccines were infallible.

Get your head out of the sand and attend the CDC’s ACIP(Vaccine Advisory Panel)Meeting. This agency is the distribution,marketing arm of the pharmaceutical industry. No agency that promotes vaccines can effectively regulate them.

Worse yet, they have to resort to PR scams and strong arm tactics to make their case. The public is quickly losing confidence.

Every wise parent should educate themselves on inserts, ingredients and adverse affects before they offer up their children to an unchecked, unregulated,indemnified, CDC backed, vaccine industry. Georgia and many other States provide a waiver so you can vaccinate or not vaccinate as you choose. This are readily accepted at schools but rarely mentioned by health care providers profiting from vaccines.

All others who wish to live under restrictive government oppression are free to immigrate to Tibet.

By joshua

March 26, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this

Terramuggus- what are you talking about? you have made up a series of nonexistent associations. asthma, hypertension, ADHD, depression, bipolar, anxiety disorders? what? there is no evidence that any of these has any auto-immune causation. as for your randomized trial- again, what are you thinking? vaccines are only effective if given nearly universally. your non-vaccinated group would need to be too large to still allow vaccine efficacy. a more appropriate study design would be a case-control study. admittedly this would not provide the same definitive conclusion but the essence is the same. in any event, you would be, and are, completely wrong. we are in an era now of adversity with medicine. people are encouraged to take charge of healthcare and participate in decisions but clearly the general public hasn’t the training or the thinking to appropriately analyze the data.
finally, the pediatrician’s relationship is with the child, not you. the obligation is to provide care to the child, not you. pediatricians will continue to recommend vaccinations because these provide the best opportunity for a healthy life to the child. you, the parent, can fend for yourself.

By joe harris

March 26, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Hey joshua, wow, other ND’S is Pharma or the CDC paying you heartless gutless creatures to waste our time. explain the science from 1948 Dr. Engly’s research and his comment. I explain it my self this way in 1948 scientist had integrity and pride in the job being done the health of the children came before corporate greed and they took the oath to heart “FIRST”do no harm

By A doc on the side of safe-vaccines...I hope!

March 26, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

I have been reading with great interest a number of blogs and comment sections addressing Mr. David Kirby’s revelation that the government conceded that mandated vaccines caused a little girl’s autistic condition.

I say great interest because I am a father and an uncle, and a physician - a pediatrician, actually. I have seen more and more children diagnosed with autism in my practice every year, and I’ve wondered why are we seeing so many children with these problems - what is causing them?

I have also been recommending vaccines to parents all through my career, because of my experience during my training seeing the children most severely affected by diseases that we can now try to prevent with vaccines, kids in the intensive care unit on ventilators or with their own brain damage from meningitis.

There is something going on, I know it, and I worry. I have become close with a number of the families of my patients with autism problems, and I hear their stories, and see the improvements their children make when they get biomedical therapies. I wish I knew more about these treatments, but we don’t learn about them in medical school. I don’t know why but I guess we’re just starting to do research on their effects. I learn as much as I can from the parents. I really feel for the parents even if I can’t know exactly how they must feel dealing with autism every day.

I know a lot of my colleagues worry about the number of autistic kids they are seeing, and worry about the causes of autism. Is it the vaccines? Is it some food ingredient, something in the air or the water? Maybe it’s because so many people are breastfeeding and something is getting in the breast milk…everybody used to get formulas. It is so hard for a general pediatrician to figure out.

But as I read comments, it seems like there is so much hostility and so many accusations flying back and forth, so many insults. There is so much distrust and I feel like people aren’t even listening to each other. It’s like a reader automatically decides if somebody making a comment is for or against them and then stops paying attention to the content of their comment. I know how frustrated parents who know their child was damaged by vaccines feel.

But I also know where many of my colleagues are coming from - they have been educated and trained to believe in the power of vaccines, and from the medical and professional information they read, they do not believe in the connection between vaccines and autism.

It makes me sad, though, whenever I read responses to a medical person who takes the time to comment on their own opinion and beliefs on the subject. They are coming from a place where they don’t believe that their experience has convinced them of the link, and they express their doubts or uncertainty or worry about families avoiding vaccines, because they have often seen the worts of what happens with diseases like measles or polio or whooping cough.

A lot of people on the safe vaccine side, though, jump on these people with so much anger that I think they end up losing ground in any potential debate or discussion on the vaccine-autism problem or vaccine safety.

Any doctor or even other people who comment in support of vaccines is accused of being brainwashed, or a shill for pharmaceutical companies (I can assure you that general pediatricians are not big fans of pharmaceutical companies, maybe even less so than managed care!). I imagine that most other doctors who are reading immediately must turn their backs on the safe vaccine movement, as a reaction to the anger and hostility they read. I can’t imagine having a parent say that to me in my office, or, to try to look at it the other way, that I could use the same kinds of terminology - brainwashing, being in the pocket of some company, or being a shill, to the parents who are concerned about vaccine safety.

I believe the level of anger I see, while perfectly understandable to feel, undermines attemtps at persuading the powers that be or regular doctors to listen to your concerns.

Also, I see on TV and read about people like Jenny McCarthy or Barbara Lowe Fischer, or, more to the point, I read the opposing side’s reactions to the them too.

Jenny McCarthy goes on TV and says to the head of the CDC to “suck it”. I cringed when I heard that, and I can imagine a lot of my parents may have done the same.

I guess for some people it may create a sense of “sisterhood”, “you go girl” type of feeling, but I think if I were a parent uncertain about what decision to make about vaccines, McCarthy’s behavior would really turn me off to her advice.

Then I read this thing by Mrs. Fischer, equating mandatory vaccination for school attendance with the Holocaust. As somebody who knows families affected by the Holocaust, and also somebody who has seen school-age children infected by diseases that could have been prevented with vaccines, I think it’s an extremely big exaggeration and again, could turn potential allies off to the safe vaccine idea.

Sorry for the length of the post, but this case and the discussion has caused me to do a lot of thinking about what we are doing as doctors and how we can do things better, and I don’t want to see any kind of a move for safe vaccines fall apart because of some people with a bad attitude.

By Karen Beauvais

March 26, 2008 11:03 AM | Link to this

Joshua- I think you should consider avoiding the flu shot with 25mgs of toxic Thimerosal, known to cause neuron and cell death. You already have a little problem in utilizing capital letters and controlling run ons. I would hate to see an inflammatory cascade develop here, or worse yet a metal induced mitochondrial disorder- like 40% of Autistic children suffer.

At least you have a choice in the matter Josh. We as vaccinating parents were not afforded inform consent. My child had full blow Thimerosal, a known neurotoxin, deemed to cause birth defects on the Material Data Safety Sheet, in his HIB, DTaP and Hep B. 49% Mercury in 3 major shot series and no one bothered to ask me if this was OK.

In 2002, since there was no ban instituted, I requested the insert on my newborn daughter’s Hep B shot and guess what? Thimerosal was still in there. Anyone thinking Thimerosal was pulled from shelves is hallucinating. The CDC had data at their Simpsonwood meeting in the 90s that Thimerosal posed a serious developmental threat, but chose to embargo that information.

Please back up-with science-how vaccinating with oxidative neuro toxins and live viruses enhance health.

Consumers should not be mocked requesting that vaccines are made safe and non-toxic. We don’t want lead in our children’s toys or poison in shots. Parents absolutely should take charge and educate themselves. As far as I know, we are not a nanny state.

By Margaret Romao Toigo

March 26, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this

Grab your tinfoil hats — and watch out for those black helicopters — it’s time for a swarm!

Whenever there is an online article under which readers are invited to comment about vaccines and autism, anti-vaccination activists post links to it on their websites and blogs, encouraging their fellow anti-vaccination activists to pile on — with multiple usernames — so it appears that there are more of them than there actually are.

I know these anti-vaccine folks will likely never be convinced of just how dangerously wrong they really are, but I do hope that others, standing on the outside of this issue looking in, will realize that these people are but a small fringe group and do not effectively represent the autistic community at large.

Most parents of autistic children are not cranks buying into the pseudoscience of anti-vaccination literature.

We know that vaccines do not cause autism because there is a very large body of research that found no correlation between vaccines and autism, and we do not subscribe to urban myths and conspiracy theories about vaccines — nor do we patronize quacks who use such misinformation to sell their nostrums.

We actually understand the difference between correlation and causation, and we have our kids vaccinated according to the CDC’s recommendations because we want our children to be protected against infectious diseases.

These few anti-vaccination cranks are making the rest of us look like a bunch of kooks.

By therealist

March 26, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

But ain’t it great that 149 out of 150 children are not dying in mass from measles, smallpocks, mumps, German fever, etc, etc, etc…

By Teresa Conrick

March 26, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this

To dyson, isles, joshua and any I missed-

You appear to all have a similar style in your posts. Discussing vaccine safety does not make anyone antivaccine. If you want to have sincere discussions then another approach would be advisable. As it stands now, your harsh, sarcastic “evidence” does nothing for the issues being discussed and paints a picture of vaccine defenders. Those would be ignorant,possibly paid people who will attempt to push emotional buttons and try to lead the discussion away from its true destination, which is the health of children as it relates to the current vaccine schedule. Not saying you are but your posts sure indicate either a lack of understanding and/or a lack of care. Whatever the reason, your posts are ramblings that resemble bad used car commercials.

By wow

March 26, 2008 11:22 AM | Link to this

Teresa I think the reason why people become so harsh and sarcastic in defending vaccines is that the legitimate scientific evidence is overwhelming. It’s hard to keep a level head when such illogical nonsense is being posted over and over and over again. It becomes especially frustrating when people start accusing you of being paid by a pharma company or the CDC. Just because you side with science doesn’t mean somebody is paying you to do it. And it’s not like the anti-vaccine or “safer vaccine” side is exactly sticking to the Miss Manners approach. Of course, you’re not criticizing them for their vitriol.

By joe harris

March 26, 2008 11:23 AM | Link to this

wow and joshua again answer this science or shut up, and go play with your Pharma money.

By Doc Strange

March 26, 2008 11:29 AM | Link to this

Some people still haven’t seen the inaccuracies in Kirby’s opinion piece? They’re so obvious I don’t think there was a need for Ms. Schuchat to rehash them. But I guess somebody has to:

“But what if we could test children for underlying conditions that might increase their risk of vaccine injury and autism?…It’s a difficult, but not impossible, proposition. And I believe doing so would reduce the rate of autism, seizure disorders and even asthma in some children.”

This statement is rife with false hope and pipe dreams; the vague and simplistic notion of “testing for underlying conditions that may increase their risk of vaccine injury” - this is beyond difficult and if not impossible, as close as you can get; if “Dr.” Kirby has any more specific bright ideas or techniques, let the scientific community know. Then there’s the inaccuracy of the link between vaccination and autism, seizure disorders(?), and asthma (???).

“Hannah’s underlying condition was…most likely environmentally acquired. It was not some rare, grave, inherited disease that would have progressed to autism anyway.”

Absolutely 100% inaccurate. It was a genetic mitochondrial disorder; not environmentally acquired - inherited. End of story. If not a febrile reaction to vaccination, then a febrile infectious disease would have caused her neurological symptoms. I can only imagine what would have happened to a child with a mitochondrial disorder who developed pneumococcal or Hib meningitis, or a severe case of pertussis leading to hypoxia and subsequent encephalopathy. Educate yourselves by reading the mitochondrial disorders website, http://www.umdf.org/.

And then there’s: “The cause of Hannah’s mitochondrial dysfunction is up for debate, though ample evidence exists to implicate heavy metals in air, water, food and vaccines as possible suspects. “

What?!?! I previously pointed out that mitochondrial disorders are genetic (back to high school bio with you, Dr. Kirby!) I would be fascinated to see some real science to demonstrate that heavy metals in air, water, food and vaccines cause mitochondrial dysfunction. Not articles in “Medical Hypotheses”, or other long chain of transitive relationship hypotheses that people seize on as “evidence”.

Please.

By Teresa Conrick

March 26, 2008 11:31 AM | Link to this

To A doc on the side of safe-vaccines-

Your post made sense and I appreciate your thoughtfulness. As a parent to a teen with severe autism, I have been around the block regarding autism. It sounds like you have listened to your families and done some of your own research. It also sounds like you have concerns and are not turning a blind eye to vaccines as a cause of autism. That is a good and honest thing and your families are lucky to have you as an ally and a doctor who is listening with his head and heart. No one has all the answers but to be able to discuss the pieces, vaccine or environmental, is what needs to continue without fearing being attacked. Thank you.

By wow

March 26, 2008 11:45 AM | Link to this

joe harris, I can’t find the reference you’re referring to, otherwise I would be more than happy to address it. I’ll try to drop by the library this afternoon and see if I can dig it up. Seems like you’re just parroting what has been posted elsewhere.

And I wish that I had some pharma money to go play with.

By Teresa Conrick

March 26, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this

to wow-

Not sure why people don’t use a real name. Anyway, I am from the opposite belief. I read all the science, research and see a picture different from you. The major issue is that harm is being done and we ar