Another Review Of Evidence Of Harm

Another first class review of Evidence of Harm, this time from Debunkers.

Cutting stright to the chase, the reviewer exposes the fallacy of Kirby’s book:

…Kirby’s Brockovich-esque page-turner, featuring a group of parents of autistic children as David and big pharma/big government bureaucrats as Goliath, must be taken for what it is, a story of parental love and determination – and not for what it isn’t, an instructional and unbiased medical text.

No one doubts that the ‘mercury is autism/causes autism’ crowd love their children (although I and many other parents of autistics who don’t belive the connection exists have been openly accused by these same people of abusing our kids by not chelating them, have had these people offering to start collections to pay for chelation of our children and have been told we will be going to hell as we are terrible parents.) and want the best for them. Its simply unfortunate that books like Kirby’s peddle their poor science in such a well written way – its the ultimate in spin, if the science doesn’t exist, present anecdotal evidence and present it in a way calculated to inflame their target market. All style, no substance.

As the reviewer also points out there have been poorly researched conspiracy theories regarding autism and vaccines going back to the 1980’s. One by one they’ve crumbled into nothing as will this one regarding Thimerosal. Of course I doubt any of the parents who’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ‘treating’ their childs autism will be in any position when the next big boogeyman (which wil apparently be Aluminium) raises its head – they’ll be too busy trying to recoup all the money they laid out in false cures. You have to shake your head in despair at the mentality of anyone who swears that a ‘cure’ exists and then goes on to prove it by needing $500,000 worth of treatment. At some point you would’ve thought they would’ve noticed that the ‘cure’ doesn’t work at all – except in the instances of children who are mercury posisoned. Newsflash: if it worked for your child, then they weren’t autistic, they were mercury poisoned. If it continues not to work after half a million dollars worth of treatment thats because your child is autistic and chelation doesn’t cure autism. I wonder – when this mercury conspiracy theory falls apart at the seams, will Kirby refund all these people he’s profited from? I doubt it.

The reviwer also points out the sad fact about followers of Kirby – they ignore valid science as it disagree’s with their case:

Regrettably, a book written instead on the data presented at Vanderbilt by CDC pediatrician and epidemiologist Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp (whose study of autism prevalence trends indicates that the “epidemic” may be attributable to better and broader diagnostic criteria) would probably sit on bookstore shelves gathering dust. As we all know, cries of “the sky is falling!” turn far more heads than “all’s well.

As I’ve documented previously, the state of the science behind the ‘mercury is/cause autism’ theory is frighteningly inept. The holy trinity of Geier, Geier and Wakefield – all darlings of the lucrative speaker circuit in the US have been either laughed out of their own country (Wakefield) or disallowed from being an expert witness in trials involving vaccines due to their ignorance of the subject (Geier senior) or not actually be a Doctor at all (Geier junior).

The reviwer is also spot on when it comes to how those of us who don’t believe in the connection get treated:

Those who have fought against the demonizing of thimerosal have to put up with absurd accusations of being industry shills. In actuality, many of those who are fighting against the fear – some of them parents of autistic children themselves – strive to make clear the value of vaccinations.

I personally have been accused of being a bad parent, of being a liar, of being an idiot, of being on the payroll of vaccine manufacturers – one email even accused me of being ‘in league with Satan’ and quoted Revalations at me! Why? Because I follow the science, not the conspiracy theory. And why do I do that? Because I value the health of my child and I’d rather find an intervention that worked than a ‘cure’ that never will.

Overview of Wakefield’s Contribution To Science

Wakefiled was one of 13 authors of a paper published in The Lancet alledging a connection between MMR and autism. In fact, there were only 12 people studied, 9 of whom were autisitc – it seemed Wakefiled made the schoolboy error of deciding on his conclusions and working backwards to find his ‘culprit’.

On the question of these 12 subjcts, it later transpired that some of the 12 were not randomly selected but supplied to Dr Wakefield by a firm of lawyers acting for the parents who believed their kids were ‘made’ autistic by the vaccine. Wakefield was paid about £50,000 for his work and was lined up for lots more as a paid expert witness when legal action against the Pharma’s swung into action. As Ratbags say:

Put bluntly, Wakefield was paid to find a certain result (which matched his beliefs anyway) and was going to get a lot more money if he found it.

Shortly afterwards 10 of the 13 authors of the original report authors issued a statement saying that the paper was not evidence of a connection between MMR vaccine and autism and The Lancet now say they would never have published the paper at all if they’d known about Wakefields payments..