The first of the nine ‘test’ Autism Omnibus cases has wrapped up. This was also the first of the designated three that will attempt to associate autism with MMR _and_ Thiomersal causation.
In todays’ Wall Street Journal, Professor Roy Richard Grinker, author of Unstrange Minds wraps up what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks:
Over the last three weeks, I listened to testimony in the first of nine test cases in the U.S. Vaccine Court (Cedillo v. Health and Human Services) considering the question of whether a mercury-based vaccine preservative called thimerosal (which used to be in many vaccines), or the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine, or both together, caused autism in Michelle Cedillo, the plaintiffs’ daughter.
I heard some of the world’s leading experts on autism, immunology, and vaccines testify that there is no biological model to account for an autism-vaccine connection, no scientific evidence or credible studies linking the two. They argue, instead, that autism is largely genetic. And yet just last week, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wrote in the Huffington Post that there are “hundreds of research studies†from a dozen countries providing “undeniable†proof that vaccines cause autism and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana) wrote a letter to the president of NBC claiming that there is increasingly conclusive evidence that thimerosal caused an “epidemic†of autism. Scores of websites and autism advocacy groups are convinced of the connection, and the vast majority of scientists and physicians can’t understand why.
………….
The scientific testimony has been devastating to the plaintiffs because the recognized experts on autism, vaccines, and immunology do not support even one of these premises, let alone a linkage between any of them. The only thing the government and Cedillos agree on is that Michelle Cedillo has autism.
However, I can assure you that those who support the Cedillo’s – and the Cedillo’s themselves don’t see it like that.
I was able to attend the hearing on Friday.
As I sat in the court room and listen to the twisted bull generated by the defense, I wanted to scream out, “you have proof of what
thimerisol does in the human body-look at all these damaged kids.”
This was posted by Holly (I assume Bortfield) on the Yahoo EoH group. Her response typifies exactly why it won’t make one shred of difference to these people what the outcome of the Cedillo case is – or the other eight to come.
These are not people who are swayed by science. To them, decent, peer reviewed science is ‘twisted bull’. To them idiocy posted to JPANDS, Medical Veritas etc is gospel truth.
This court hearing revealed once and for all Andrew Wakefield’s deliberate falsification of science and the O’Leary labs accidental false reporting of negative samples. In the O’Leary lab it was sloppy science. In Wakefield’s hands it was knowingly ignoring evidence that showed his error plainly. Without Wakefield and without the O’Leary results there was no MMR association to autism whatsoever. That testimony alone is enough to sink the Cedillo case and all other MMR related cases that may come after.
But as Arthur Allen writes in Slate:
None of that moves Laura Wildman, 47, whose son’s case is before the court and who drove from her home near Pittsburgh to watch the hearing, which ended this week. “I know what happened to my son after he got his MMR shot,” she told me. “I have no doubt. There’s no way they’ll convince me that all these kids were not damaged by vaccines.”
At some point we may have to realise that what we are dealing with here is simply blind, deliberate ignorance.
Even the plaintiffs lawyers realise this. Here’s a telling quote from Michelle Cedillo’s lawyer:
The government position is backed by the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence, which has repeatedly found the vaccines safe. But what the Cedillos and other parents lack in hard data, they have made up for with a stubborn passion and sorrow that science cannot dispute. _”It is parents versus science,”_ said Kevin Conway, one of the attorneys for the Cedillos.
Parents vs science. Indeed it is.
The real sorrow here is that the Cedillo’s continue, in the face of all reason, logic and evidence, to passionately insist MMR caused Michelle’s autism.
On the Evidence of Harm yahoo group – and on various other Yahoo groups, the conspiracy theories are already being polished.
Theory one states that the media – bought off by Pharma – have reported nothing but science and dismissed the opinions of parents. This theory goes on to continue to suggest that the three Special Masters will be under the sway of the media.
Its true that the media have not been kind to the mercury militia. This is because there is nothing to write about in their beliefs except for the fact that they are beliefs. The science lies with Respondents.
Theory two suggests that the Special Masters are Pharma plants. Various members of the mercury militia are carefully combing through the backgrounds of these three Special Masters for Pharma connections they can wave about.
Will they ever let this go? Of course not. You cannot reason someone out of a belief they did not reason themselves into.
Left Brain Right Brain 
The passage of time makes conspiracy theorists look ever more foolish.
Because they can’t/won’t abandon their unsupported conspiracy, the anti-vaxers can now join hands and sing Kumbaya with those who believe that fluoridation is a communist plot and that the government keeps the cure for cancer locked away.
I think the junk scientists and quack doctors are more to blame than the parents. If it weren’t for their interest in promoting their fake science and to profit from it, there wouldn’t be so many parents falling into the trap. The average parent cannot tell the difference between an indexed journal and JPANDS, and is very impressed by all the M.D.s that speak at DAN conferences.
I just hope that the real scientists discover the definite causation(s) for autism as soon as possible, so they can put the urban legends to rest once and for all.
I agree. This debate will not go away any more than the debate between creationists (who, by the way, have plenty of scientists on their side)and evolutionary biology will go away. How long ago was the Scopes trial?
I don’t think it’s parents vs. science. That gives the wrong impression. It’s (I suspect) a minority of parents vs. science and a relatively silent majority of parents and autistics.
A substantial number of the british, american and other signatories to the Nigel Thomas petition believe the claim that:
“The threat that faces Dr Andrew Wakefield, Professor John Walker Smith and Professor Simon Murch is that they may be struck-off the medical register for daring to investigate why these children are so ill, which no-one else has been prepared to do.”
On just one page of signatories, people write of Wakefield as a hero, as a prisoner (who is awaiting crucifixion and will be retrospectively vindicated) and in terms of Pasteur and Galileo.
On A-Champ, DO Sherri Tenpenny was so underwhelmed by Dr Byers’ performance that she floated the notion: “Ya have to wonder if someone got to her or threatened her kids by her response. Absolutely unbelievable and I would suspect was really unexpected by the Chin-Conway team or they wouldn’t have put her on the stand.”
Mark Geier is openly spouting conspiracy talk about the vaccine court. In an interview clip on the Nightline site (I didn’t see the show as aired – maybe it was an outtake?) he insists the Special Masters aren’t really judges, they work for HHS, and are thus biased in favor of the government.
Hope next time Geier tries to testify in that court, the opposing attorneys find a way to make sure his opinion of the Special Masters comes up.
I don’t think either Geier will testify in these cases. In the other cases, their testimony was excluded by the Daubert standard. In this case they would let him testify, rip his testimony apart in cross examination, and then apply the Daubert standard.
He would be forced to produce the raw data that he used in his papers. I am thinking of the “case controlled study mercury burden.” The one where the cases had a low of 0, a mean of 4.06 , a standard deviation of 8.59 and a high of 58.65. The raw data will show that the majority of cases were not different than the controls, it was just a few outliers.
I do think that it would be beter to look at the whole proceeedings simply as a means of keeping the scam running as long as possible. My sympathies are with the parents, used, abused and dreadfully out of pocket.
Question: I need some objective advice; I seem to be in a bit of a dilema. A friend of mine and his wife have a baby boy (their only child) approx 16 months of age. He presents w/ classic symptoms, even at such a young age, such as large head circumfrance in propotion to the rest of his body, stereotyped play, looks through you not at you, lack of affect, and…the kicker, last night I caught him stimming.
The parents don’t seem to notice anything at all (so I assume, anyway). Should I say anything and, if so, how? Thanks.
Shinga: The Nigel Thomas petition is being run by a very vexed lady who has at every turn done everything she can to prevent the truth from coming out. She’s appeared or been represented at four court hearings to my knowledge attempting to block examination of records, or the release of the O’Leary measles virus info. She’s reported me to the police (who I think were somewhat bewildered).
Wakefield is not being done for the reasons she states, and she knows this, since the outline of the charges were supplied to her by the GMC’s lawyers. However, it’s very important to her, and to Wakefield, that they try to spread this fiction.
Wakefield is being done essentially along the lines set out at my site:
http://briandeer.com/mmr/lancet-summary.htm
The claim that Wakefield was in any sense at all the first to help these children is an outrageous lie. These children were tested and examined ad nauseam before Wakefield ever got his hands on them. They are among the most investigated children to pass through the NHS.
Among the things Wakefield did, however, was to use the children’s autism as grounds to go into their guts and spines looking for measles virus, which he (wrongly) claimed caused Crohn’s disease.
bones: mail me off-blog and we can chat :o)
kevleitchATgmail.com
Is anyone is the least bit shocked that anti-vaccine parents are going to deliberately ignore evidence that exonerate vaccines in their child’s condition? My eyesight sucks and I still saw this coming a hundred miles away.
This has never been about “finding the truth” or about good science. It’s about folks who have either deluded themselves into thinking vaccines are the root of all evil or are toeing the anti-vaccine party line in hope of a fat payday. They have invested so much that it does not matter if every single shred of scientific evidence points away from a link – they’re going to believe there is one.
I think someone has to sit the Cedillos down and ask them – no, demand to know – why the heck didn’t they take Michelle to hospital when she had that tempreture of 105 fareneheit? If there was a trigger for the Autism – it was that. The FAILURE OF THE PARENTS to look after their sick child.
That’s my opinion anyway – FWIW.
The best thing anyone can do right now i smake sure the government (no matter which) makes it plain that thiomersal does not cause Autism. Put it out in a health paper (whether it be from the Whitehouse, the House of Commons or wherever) and include it where appropriate to make sure EVERYONE knows the real truth. The pressure will then go back onto the mercury militia – especially if the quacks can be isolated and (if appropriate) be stopped from practising medicine or whatever it is they do.
Bottom line – Therese Cedillo, your daughter was not poisoned by the MMR vaccine. Your daughter was crippled by a 105 degree tempreture that you failed to look after properly. You have no one to blame but yourself.
Phil, the Cedillos did what they could. They phoned their doctor and their doctor told them is was a flu. They phoned the city hospital, and the hospital told them there was a bad flu currently affecting babies. Both said not to bring Michelle at the hospital.
High fevers may concern parents but they are not harmful. And they don’t cause autism.
Actually, the fever from the influenza scaring her parents might have been avoided if the child had had a pediatric influenza vaccine. 😉
My son’s last seizure may have been avoided if the Rotavirus vaccine were available. He had a nasty gastrointestinal bug that caused severe enough dehydration to cause a seizure. This meant a trip to the emergency room by ambulance where he was rehydrated (oh, and they found an ear infection also).
It also happened about two weeks after his MMR vaccination. But I am sure it had nothing to do with the vaccine, because I caught the same bug (and even borrowed a diaper or two from the kid because of my own problems!… the funny this is that all my symptoms disappeared while we were at the hospital).
Sometimes people ignore the facts so that they can be released from the guilt. All these people know is that they had a “normal” child one day then a simple shot seemed to change all that. Science doesn’t know all, hell they used to drill holes in the heads of people with migranes, it could be that the vaccination is just a piece of the puzzle in the complex autisum picture.
Lin, 2 of Respondants’ Experts were able to see clear signs of Michelle’s autism and development delay in the Cedillo’s home videos. Michelle’s health took a turn for the worst at 15 months, and the Cedillos blamed the vaccine(s). But their child was already autistic when she got the MMR shot.
Now, if you want to argue that measles causes Crohn’s disease, as Dr. Wakefield seems to believe, that’s another bag of snakes, and they must establish scientific plausibility. Crohn’s disease is not (mostly) a childhood disease, and has not been linked to measles exposure.
Arthur, if that was the case then the Cedillos need to change their focus. They’ve got the wrong target. And besides, they should have insisted. 105 is not to be trifled with. That wouldn’t happen in a country with an operational public health system like the UK or Australia.
Tom, I suggest you check this out.
http://philsworld.wiki-site.com/index.php/Mercury_Poisoning_-_The_Myth#A_Reasonable_Theory
The high fever is a perfect sensory overload candidate, so I’m afraid you are incorrect.
The Respondant’s experts might have thrown a bone to the Cedillos.
2 of the experts have readily ackowledged that a fever and a mild rash can be a reation to the Measles vaccine. If Michelle C. had an extreme reaction, causing health problems, she’s entitled to compensation at the Vaccines Court.
But, they went for a completely different theory, involving a permanent measles brain infection, causing autism.
Andrew Wakefield has proven he cannot be trusted. He is an extremely controversial character who took money to scare parents into not giving their kids vaccines. Wakefield fled the UK and now lives here in Austin Texas where he gives little kids colonoscopies at an ‘alternative’ quack clinic called “Thoughtful House” and calls it ‘therapy’. I know this because I called “Thoughtful House” last year when I moved here and they told me that my autistic son would have to undergo a colonoscopy before he could get involved in their Horse Riding Therapy Program! I declined of course.
I’m very concerned that Wakefield is being allowed to continue his quackery here in Austin Texas. The excellent UK investigative journalist, Brian Deer, has uncovered disturbing evidence about Wakefield. http://briandeer.com/wakefield-deer.htm
I wish someone would help wake up the investigative reporters here in the US. Who is going to stop Andrew Wakefield from continuing to prey on desperate parents and their disabled kids here in Austin, Texas?
Dawn said,
“…they told me that my autistic son would have to undergo a colonoscopy before he could get involved in their Horse Riding Therapy Program! I declined of course.”
Yoicks. I’m with Dawn.
I wish that I didn’t feel so pessimistic, but there is an element of the X-Files for the believers that just seems to promise that this will go on and on and on. Data, peer-reviewed publications, and now the Omnibus Hearings do not seem to make a dent in the need to believe that there is a US, if not global, conspiracy. Wakefield is a speaker at the national ASA conference and I suspect, along with others, that even if he is struck off in the UK, it will just be turned into martyrdom for the cause. Say something contrary to the party line and be tarred with the battle call of “Big Pharma!” *sigh*. I had a faint optimistic moment of early on in the Hearings when this gave a faint glimmer of turning the corner in a different direction, but it’s back to creating explanatory fictions and ad hominem. The need to believe is really something.
I wish that this attention, time and money could turn at least comparably in the direction of giving these kids supports, training and opportunities related to their strengths, so that they can have a productive, respected, dignified and enjoyable life as we would all wish.
There’s a couple of old books out there:
“Betrayers of the Truth. Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science (1982).
William J. Broad and Nicholas Wade
ISBN-10: 0192818899
also
False Prophets
Alexander Kohn (1986)
ISBN-10: 0631146857
They are interesting and give some historical and background perspective in a lot of what is going on.
Thanks for your comment, Regan. I’m afraid you’re right. What the US really needs is for this story to hit a TV show like 60 Minitues, 20/20 or some other popular Pop-News venue. That’s the only way you’re going to get the attention of the common US citizen and the rather lazy mainstream US media IMHO. But I’m not really sure how to make that happen. Is it too much to wish that someone here is going to have lunch with Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace anytime soon? Ah well.
Not that it will help, but I wrote a letter to the editor of the local Austin newspaper yesterday. I stated my concern that whenever the paper mentions Wakefield or ‘Thoughtful House’ they do so without any sign of critical thinking or scrutiny. I then directed them to Brian Deer’s website. The question is: Why aren’t any US journalists reporting the facts about this quack? Even the sites about this guy are all based in the UK (bless you all, btw!). Where are the critical thinking sites based in the US about the same subject? Wakefield is here and needs to be watched here.
It really is upsetting to know that vulnerable/desperate parents who are easily fooled will be taken for an expensive ride and their poor kids poked and proded for the enrichment of these conmen. Grrr…
Okay, rant over. Carry on!
Good going Dawn!
For this one I smell a “Frontline” program, both for time, and because having seen how 60 Minutes and Nightline have covered Autism and Biomed so far, I don’t have a ton of faith in the popular TV media, but I could be wrong. It could be worth checking what the particular program’s track record is, and whether it accurately reports good science vs. a “good story”. I would love to see something that goes beyond a sound bite and cut to commercial.
Good gravy, when was the Laetrile expose…35 years ago? This is the same thing in different clothing.
One angle is the overall regulation of public health. I am horrified by the ease that people practice off-label, off-recommendation, sans Board Certification, sans IRB, as lab, diagnostician AND purveyor of unreferreed treatment, and are still in practice! My realtor would be in hot water if he had connections with the home inspector at the level seen in the crank medico field.
Those who are deeply invested might not be swayed…I suspect, on the contrary, but the public service would be to give people who are not deeply into it or have not looked into it yet,at least something to give them pause to reflect.
My hat is off to the bloggers who have kept up on these developments and the details. Besides Kev, who I very glad still resides in the blogosphere, Autism Diva posted something today on MMR, PCR and Bustein (sp?) that is worth reading (and forwarding).
If Frontline did this story I’d be over-the-moon.
One thing I’ve noticed since discovering this great site is that I cannot seem to find the excellent videos here on YouTube. I do believe if more people could access these cool videos on YouTube it would really help get the word out. As it is, when I search YouTube for ‘Wakefield’ or ‘MMR’ all I seem to find are pro-quack videos. Whoever owns the videos on this site might consider putting more tags on them so they will pop up with searches like “Autism”, “Wakefield”, “Quackery”, “MMR”, “Pharma”, “Thoughtful House”, and any other tag that might be useful.
I think the public here in the US is suffering from a limited source of information. If these videos became more widely viewed the US news journalists — lazy as they are — might finally take notice. The secret is to do their job for them beforehand. 😉
I’ve just seen Brian’s comment – I forgot to put an indication of head-shaking and disbelief in my earlier comment, I was lamenting the comments on that petition as very distressing because, at best, they indicate that a number of people are in for a shock as they learn more about Wakefield and the practices they are defending, or at worst, they will have to perform some amazing cognitive feats to keep their present beliefs about MMR-autism-gut issues-mercury links intact.
I’ve put up several links to your website recently, Brian Deer – mostly in support of posts that explore the unfounded nature of Wakefield’s findings and asking that people who have treatment programmes that are based on them to revise them and to issue retractions. E.g., Patrick Holford and Dr Andrew Wakefield’s Discredited Findings: Part 2 and Part 1.
In response to comment 11 by Brian Deer –
You are incorrect. I wrote the petition of my own free will because I am tired of seeing my brothers in pain. That’s something you never address is it? You’re so busy attacking the few doctors who were actually willing to do something for children who are suffering as much as my brothers that the fact that something IS wrong with these children is not important to you. Have you taken my brothers confidential information off your website yet? Or told where you got it from? No, I thought not.
Dr Wakefield didn’t use Autism as grounds to go into their guts as you state. My brothers have serious physical problems – as a brother, I’ve SEEN them doubled up in agony, I’ve seen their rashes, I’ve seen their fevers, their not being able to eat properly, their spending hours in the toilet because it hurts so much. It’s conditions such as these sir, not just autism that required investigation.
I’ll just correct you on one other point – you say that “These children were tested and examined ad nauseam before Wakefield ever got his hands on them” – as you have no medical background, I wouldn’t expect you to understand that you can conduct a hundred tests on someone, but if they’re not the right tests then they’re of no value.
All the best to you all.
Nigel.
So what is the SCIENCE behind your claims, Nigel.
You see, this post is not about the articles Brian Deer wrote… it is about a trial that took place in the United States of America (it is that country south of Canada, you might have heard of it). The court trial in the USA showed that there was no science, and in fact, Wakefield used bad PCR test results. Even to the point of ignoring the results he did not like.
HN – are you not mature enough to be able to respond without being sarcastic? It says a lot about you.
The intention of my post was not to discuss scientific claims with people such as yourself, but to respond to Brian Deer’s innacurate post.
Then try this:
http://briandeer.com/contact.htm
Hey Nigel!!! No one seems to want to answer my question. Since you know all about the science (which you did not share with me) perhaps you can answer it. Again I ask:
The MMR in question is the Merck MMR that was approved for use in the USA in 1971. This is the exact same vaccine that was introduced in the UK in 1988 (the biggest difference being the mumps strain*** see note below). So why it is that in this vaccine’s thirty-plus years of use, is it only since it started use in the UK that it became a problem?
Oh, and if you had read above… My son also had a nasty gastrointestinal episode a couple of weeks after his MMR. Except one of the reasons I know it was not due to the vaccine is that I also contracted the bug. There are multiple reasons for intestinal problems, including one that can now be prevented with a rotavirus vaccine (oh, and another one is that it is cherry season… yumm… but if you eat too many, OW!).
***Mumps strains… there are a few mumps strains in various vaccines. One that was commonly used was the Urabe strain. It unfortunately causes meningitis. But the one mumps strain that does not cause problems is the Jeryl Lynn strain, which is what is in the Merck MMR vaccine. You can read all about its development in http://www.amazon.com/Vaccinated-Defeat-Worlds-Deadliest-Diseases/dp/0061227951/ .
Now the funny thing is that folks in the UK who wanted single vaccines, decided to illegally import a mumps vax with the more dangerous Urabe strain!
See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020806/ai_n12644054 .
Dear Nigel (Thomas)
I just spotted your post, at this, the most dynamic forum on the web for discussion of these issues.. Sorry for the delay. This stuff about your brothers’ “confidential information” on my website is a classic example of the untruths that flourish where your mother seems to tread.
Firstly, the only information about your brothers that has appeared, and will continue to appear, on my website, are their names, their 1996 legal aid numbers, and the fact they were enrolled into Wakefield’s Lancet “research”. These are matters of public interest, going to the veracity of that research.
Secondly, thanks to your mother, I have a High Court judgment asserting my right – now as a matter of specific law – to include that information on my website. Nigel, you can read the judgment at the following link:
http://briandeer.com/wakefield/eady-children.htm
Eady J states: “If he wishes to publish that material on his website, that is his privilege in accordance with the right of free expression which everyone has, now protected by article 10.”
Thirdly, a number of other children’s names have been withheld by me from my site on grounds that their parents have never, to my knowledge, breached those childrens’ confidentiality. Even despite the public interest, I respect those young peoples’ privacy. Mrs Thomas, however, has for many years paraded your brothers in the media, including with photographs. I particularly remember one – I think in The Sun – with them both posing, looking straight at the camera lens.
Fourthly, persons who are litigants are, as a matter of law, identifiable. As yet, it’s not possible to sue – even drug companies – in secret. In nine years of the MMR lawsuit, even when the claimants were represented by QCs, no order was ever sought to anonymise the claimants, whose names have appeared in numerous judgments and other documents. They are simply matters of public record.
So Nigel, go ask your mother what she’s on about. Because I don’t know.
And while you’re doing it, you might well ask her why she was so scared about the O’Leary “measles virus” story coming out, she turned up in court to object to that information entering the public domain.
She’s lost every time, but she still doesn’t get it. One day, perhaps, she’ll realize that Andrew Wakefield was no friend to your family. Fifteen million pounds of public money went down the toilet (or rather into the pockets of doctors, lawyers and Carol Stott) on persistent measles virus, opioid peptides, autistic enterocolitis and other fantasy notions. And it got the kids zilch, nada, nanimo, nothing.
The dog barks, and the caravan moves on.
B
Dawn,
I have friends in the riding program who do not see any of the doctors at Thoughtful House, and I also have friends who see the doctors there who have never been referred for colonoscopies, including my own child. Perhaps there was a misunderstanding. Meanwhile, my son is thriving under their care, and is about to start a mainstream high school with no aide.
Chris
Nigel,
If you and your family want to use relatives as lottery ticket, be my guest. But please spare me the sanctimonious John Best-like b.s.
Amonimouse:
All I want is for my brothers to be out of pain, and am prepared to put up with cheap shots such as yours for that.
I hope you develop a more open mind.
Best wishes,
Nigel.
Nigel Thomas said: “I hope you develop a more open mind.”
Oh, good you are back. Can you answer my question please?
As you know the MMR vaccine in question was approved in the USA in 1971. It was approved for use in the UK in 1988, mostly because it had a safer mumps component. So why did it only start causing problems in the UK over twenty years since it was developed?
Nigel
Has it occurred to you that insisting on a non-existent causation for your brothers’ problems may make it more difficult for them to get appropriate therapy?
Most of the children in the original Wakefield study had recurring constipation. Given that bowel habit is learned in early childhood, and that severe autism (as you will know well) causes profound learning problems, the minimal explanation for the original childrens’ problems was poor learning of “bowel hygiene”. No mysterious “vaccine virus immune syndrome” required. And none found, despite multiple fruitless investigations.
Repeatedly performing invasive endoscopies tests on children who most probably need mild laxatives, plenty of dietary fibre and fluids, behavioural therapy and calm routine is not something a responsible doctor would do. It is, however, what Andrew Wakefield did. He used the autistic children as guinea-pigs. The fact that the parents, in their desperation, consented does not make it any less reprehensible.
“Has it occurred to you that insisting on a non-existent causation for your brothers’ problems may make it more difficult for them to get appropriate therapy?”
You think that if I stop insisting on that, that someone will actually then decide to medically investigate my brothers and give them the treatment they need? I think not.
“No mysterious “vaccine virus immune syndrome†required. And none found, despite multiple fruitless investigations.” Which fruitless investigations? Properly and independently funded? Studies which actually LOOKED AT THE PATIENTS WHO WERE ILL? That’s a no then.
“Repeatedly performing invasive endoscopies tests on children who most probably need mild laxatives, plenty of dietary fibre and fluids, behavioural therapy and calm routine is not something a responsible doctor would do. It is, however, what Andrew Wakefield did. He used the autistic children as guinea-pigs. The fact that the parents, in their desperation, consented does not make it any less reprehensible.”
Endoscopies are extremely safe diagnostic tests. Children have them all the time. None of the children were harmed by those tests. How do you know what children need (mild laxatives etc as you say) if you don’t actually properly look at the patient?
What IS reprehensible is the fact that there are thousands upon thousands of children suffering out there, not just with autism but serious physical conditions and nothing is being done to look at why this is.
Best wishes,
Nigel.
I’m sorry, Nigel, but you are plain wrong. Endoscopies are not fun – having had two in the last decade I feel qualified to comment. And they are not risk-free either. My wife is a hospital doctor who has “oscopied” several hundred people in her time, and that is her (and the medical profession’s) view.
Gastroscopy (tube down from above) is thoroughly uncomfortable (at the least) for the patient. Tube up from the bottom is no fun either, take it from me. Many patients have to be sedated to have the ‘oscopy. Some may even need to be given a general anaesthetic – more risks The overall risk of some kind of “complication” (including mild ones like getting a little unwell from the sedation) is 1-2%. There is a small but definite risk of worse things, like perforation (1 in 500 to 1 in 1000) You can read more here:
Click to access s-1999-130.pdf
Quote: “The balance between risks and benefits of gastrointestinal endoscopy for a given patient is essential in defining the appropriate use of endoscopic procedures.”
Hence: is this test really INDICATED? If not, don’t do it as it is NOT in the patient’s best interests.
But whatever, ‘oscopies are NOT “routine”, even in adults, and certainly not in children.
And lumbar punctures on kids when not needed (another Wakefield test)…! My wife would call that “assault”, and so would many other doctors. Lumbar puncture to diagnose suspected meningococcal septicaemia, which is imminently life-threatening, is one thing. Lumbar puncture to pursue a pet theory that measles virus causes a kind of “enterocolitis” no other doctor believes in is in quite a different league.
So there are tests and tests. Abdominal physical examination, ultrasound, poo analysis for various things, breath tests and blood tests – fine. Barium enemas, upper GI endoscopies, colonoscopies and lumbar punctures are in a completely different league for risk and are not “oh have one of these, it’s routine” propositions.
I repeat what I said earlier. If what autistic kids who have difficulties with their bowel habits need is “mild help and sensible advice” – which does not require heroic invasive medical investigation – then insisting that they DO need invasive (and quite probably unnecessary) investigations, and that ONLY that will do, is arguably STOPPING the children getting what they need.
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2) Avoid swear words linked to sexual slang
3) Avoid words that are associated with porn
I’m not saying you need to be puritanical just that you need to avoid patterns that might be interpreted by a piece of software as spam.