The group that wants to bring the third world up to modern standards of vaccination or the group that wants to bring the US to current third world standards?
I’ve been trying to avoid responding to Age of Autism blog posts. I have a full time job, I don’t need another one. But, this one struck me as worth a few minutes.
Mr. Olmsted posted the blog piece, “WHO is Anti-Vaccine?” In it, he quotes a newspaper article that stated
“In the first nine months of life, the World Health Organization recommends vaccines for tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and measles.”
Mr. Olmsted then tries to draw a parallel between his own organization (Generation Rescue et al.) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Since both organizations recommend fewer vaccines than in the current US schedule, supposedly his group is mainstream.
Mr. Olmsted chafes at the reputation he has earned (and earn it he did) for not digging very deep into a story. He won his battle star, as it were, by missing out on a big part of the Amish story, the Clinic for Special Children. No doubt the revisionist history, complete with stories by angry Amish, will fill at least a chapter in his upcoming book.
Why bring this up? Because once again, Mr. Olmsted looked only far enough to support his preconceived ideas. The WHO campaign he is discussing is well covered on…well, the cryptically named World Health Organization website.
Page 15 of this presentation, gives a good idea of WHO’s goals: by 2015, introduce new vaccines. They discuss adding HepB, Hib and also:
Japanese Encephalitis
Yellow Fever
Rubella
Pneumo (Conjugate vaccines)
Rotavirus Diarrhoea
Typhoid Fever
HPV
Mening Conjugate A
Here is fact #2 in the WHO 10 facts about immunization. Would Mr. Olmsted and his organization agree?
Immunization currently saves between 2 and 3 million lives per year. It is one of the most successful and cost-effective public health interventions.
Mr. Olmsted: enter “autism” into the search box on the WHO website.
First hit MMR and autism.
Based on the extensive review presented, GACVS concluded that no evidence exists of a causal association between MMR vaccine and autism or autistic disorders.
Another of the top links–a page from the WHO Bulletin. The story? ‘Science vs ‘‘scaremongering’’ over measles-mumps-rubella vaccine’.
How about this link, also on the first page: “No vaccine for the scaremongers”. Here’s a nice quote from that article:
While parents in developing countries have, for example, first-hand experience of measles and welcome vaccination against it, the uptake by parents for the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in many developed countries has yet to recover almost 10 years after a study linking it to autism, even though the original study has long since been discredited and there is overwhelming scientific evidence that refutes the link.
Frankly, I think Mr. Olmsted is squarely in the group the WHO would call “scaremongers”. It is ridiculous in the extreme for him to try to draw a parallel between him and his organizations and WHO.
Again I will ask, who is antivaccine, the group that wants to bring the third world up to modern standards of vaccination or the group that wants to bring the US to current third world standards?
Left Brain Right Brain 
The WHO campaign he is discussing is well covered on…well, the cryptically named World Health Organization website.
I laughed out loud when I read that. Olmsted and Kirby are clearly publicists, none-too-cleverly disguised as journalists. You can’t expect them to dig any deeper, considering the hole they’re in already.
“Frankly, I think Mr. Olmsted is squarely in the group the WHO would call “scaremongers””
Exactly… and there are international ramifications to that scaremonger.
First:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iJnoCvLEOV9fG5CkDnfhJmwqGOmgD9750RGO0 … “”I never thought I’d see the day where perfectly good vaccines are being destroyed,” said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for UNICEF.” …
because… “Ukrainian media outlets are numerous and uncensored but do not widely follow Western standards of fairness and accuracy. Some print and online reports alleged after the boy’s death that the Indian-made measles and rubella vaccine would sterilize men as part of a plot by Ted Turner, whose Washington-based United Nations Foundation charity paid for the vaccines.”
and there is more! From:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jRt25m4e39DRdfEJYABxzZK7rawg … “Indonesia’s health minister wants to end vaccinating children against meningitis, mumps and some other diseases because she fears drug companies are using the country as a testing ground.
Siti Fadillah Supari – who first drew widespread attention by boycotting the World Health Organisation’s 50-year-old virus sharing system in 2007 – said she wanted “scientific proof” that shots for illnesses like pneumonia, chicken pox, the flu, rubella and typhoid were “beneficial”.
…
Her statement comes at a time when Indonesia is struggling to contain outbreaks of preventable childhood illnesses.”
I think we can expect for children to die around the world, and that will include North America just because the infections are only a plane ride away.
(by the way, I see that Age of Autism has the same standards of fairness and accuracy as are in the Ukraine!)
I’m impressed that the Indonesian Public Health minister is asking for scientific evidence. That’s more than we can expect from Olmsted, who is happy to just make stuff up.
Cherry picking from another news article. Wow. That’s some impressive investigative reporting by Mr. Olmstead.
Thank you for doing his work for him.