No you haven’t gone mad or landed somewhere else ;o)
I’m taking a new design approach – a bit more minimalist accessible.
This is not the final thing. This is a ‘standard’ template designed by someone else. I#ll be building on this design to make it more mine but it won’t all happen at once. What design bloggers call a ‘live redesign’ in that it is redesigned right before your very eyes!!!!
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.
When Mike and Paul McCarron came to visit us recently, one of the most sombre and important parts of the day was them giving us some of the ribbon that they had selected to remember Katie. They had fashioned the ribbon into remembrance bows and as well as some of the loose ribbon, gave me one of the bows.
The bows are worn when the McCarrons go to court to do justice for Katie. I am proud and honoured beyond the capacity of words to express that I too, can wear my bow on the days the McCarrons go to court.
Today is one such day. A very important day. Today the judge who will hear the trial will decide if the confessions that Karen McCarron made (including the confessions made to the Police) will be admissible as evidence in the trial.
It may well sound strange to you that a confession – or in this case, a series of them – could possibly _not_ be admissible as evidence. It certainly did to me. It may well also sound strange to you that not only could a mother kill her child, she could also callously attempt to wriggle out of what she has done by trying to halt the admission of confessions she freely made into the evidence the court can hear. It certainly did to me.
Tomorrow is not the trial. It is not even the start of the trial. However, tomorrow could be the first day that Katie finally has just the twinkling possibility of some justice in her name.
Someone else who would benefit from some justice is Patrick Holford. Read where at NHS Blog Doctor, Holford Watch and Mike’s blog.
On Day 8 of the testimony in the Autism Omnibus, Stephen Bustin – the leading world expert on PCR put a stake through the heart of the MMR debacle when he revealed that the testing done in Professor O’Leary’s lab on behalf of Andrew Wakefield and others was flawed due to uncontrolled contamination in O’Leary’s lab:
What I immediately observed was that they had forgotten to do the RT step…….If you detect a target that is apparently measles virus in the absence of an RT step by definition it can’t be measles virus because it has to be DNA. It’s a very simple concept. At least it is to me. It’s not to everyone else……[b]ecause measles virus doesn’t exist as a DNA molecule in nature, they cannot be detecting measles virus….
On day 10, the head was finally chopped off the corpse of this hypothesis. Day 10 featured the testimony of Nick Chadwick, a scientist who was a graduate students of Andrew Wakefield’s when Wakefield was being paid to find fault with the MMR. Here is the two killing sections of Chadwick’s testimony:
Q Okay. Did you personally test the gut biopsy samples for measles RNA?
A Yes.Q What tests did you perform?
A A PCR test, a polymerase chain reaction.Q What results did you receive from the gut biopsy materials for measles RNA?
A They were all negative.Q They were always negative?
A Yes. There were a few cases of false positive results, which I used a method to see whether they were real positive results or false positive, and in every case they turned out to be false positive results. Essentially all the samples tested were negative.…….
Q So you personally tested while you were in Dr. Wakefield’s lab gut biopsy material, CSF and PBMCs?
A Yes, that’s right.Q And all the results were either negative, or if they were positive it always turned out that they were false positives?
A Yes, that’s correct.Q Did you inform Dr. Wakefield of the negative results?
A Yes. Yes.
Same source material, same equipment, same lab. The only difference was in the results. The difference came about because Chadwick did it properly. Wakefield didn’t. But even after Chadwick _told_ Wakefield about the negative results and the false positives Wakefield had engineered, Wakefield carried on.
MMR as a hypothesis is dead. The initial results were errors. No replication has been done and published in reputable journals. Decent science has shown the exact nature of Wakefields ‘error’ and Chadwick has testified that Wakefield knew about the error.
MMR uptake dropped over 10% in 10 years in the UK. Lots of people were hospitalised, people in the UK and Ireland died.
Brad Handley has commissioned a telephone polling company to perform a telephone poll:
Generation Rescue commissioned an independent opinion research firm, SurveyUSA of Verona NJ, to conduct a telephone survey in nine counties in California and Oregon. Counties were selected by Generation Rescue. Interviews were successfully completed in 11,817 households with one or more children age 4 to 17. From those 11,817 households, data on 17,674 children was gathered. Of the 17,674 children inventoried, 991 were described as being completely unvaccinated. For each unvaccinated child, a heath battery was administered.
Oooh – exciting!
The results are damning apparently….
We surveyed over 9,000 boys in California and Oregon and found that vaccinated boys had a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD or autism than unvaccinated boys
Woah, what? _Like_ autism…? And what the hell has ADHD got to do with anything? Oh right, right – I remember, Generation Rescue redesigned their site when they couldn’t make their old message of:
Autism is treatable. It’s reversible. It’s nothing more than mercury poisoning,†said JB Handley, founder of Generation Rescue.
stick. Now its more than just mercury and its more than just autism. Hey – if you can’t make one idea work, expand it and pretend you’ve _always_ meant that. In this survey, applicants were asked about ADD, ADHD, Aspergers, PDD-NOS, Autism, Asthma and Juvenile Diabetes. Nothing like muddying the water to make things clearer.
On the Generation Rescue page I link to above, Generation Rescue have kindly provided their source data but in closed access PDF’s. How helpful. Never mind, I turned all the aggregate data into an Excel file and had a bit of a look myself. UPDATE: All Generation Rescue Survey data is now available in Excel.
Now, my issue with Generation Rescue is solely to do with autism and vaccines. I really don’t care about their newly found interest in asthma or juvenile diabetes. Lets see what they say about their autism results:
Vaccinated boys were 61% more likely to have autism
Well, thats one way to look at it. Another way is to look at it properly. In the spreadsheet I created using Generation Rescue raw data the following was found.
Number of boys with Aspergers
Unvaccinated: 2% of total
Partially vaccinated: 3% of total
Fully vaccinated: 2%
Fully and Partially combined: 2%
Conclusion: you are 1% more likely to have Aspergers if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being Aspergers is exactly the same as if you were unvaccinated.
Number of boys with PDD-NOS
Unvaccinated: 1% of total
Partially vaccinated: 2% of total
Fully vaccinated: 1%
Fully and Partially combined: 1%
Conclusion: you are 1% more likely to have PDD-NOS if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being PDD-NOS is exactly the same as if you were unvaccinated.
Number of boys with Autism
Unvaccinated: 2% of total
Partially vaccinated: 7% of total
Fully vaccinated: 3%
Fully and Partially combined: 4%
Conclusion: you are 5% more likely to have autism if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being autistic is 1% greater than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of boys with all ASD’s
Unvaccinated: 4% of total
Partially vaccinated: 8% of total
Fully vaccinated: 5%
Fully and Partially combined: 5%
Conclusion: you are 4% more likely to have an ASD if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of having an ASD is 1% greater than if you were unvaccinated.
These figures are laughable. 4% more likely? And that’s if your son has been partially vaccinated! If he’s been fully vaccinated the percentage increase drops to 1%. The figures for girls are even worse.
Number of girls with Aspergers
Unvaccinated: 1% of total
Partially vaccinated: 1% of total
Fully vaccinated: 0%
Fully and Partially combined: 0%
Conclusion: you are no more likely to have Aspergers if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being Aspergers is 1% less than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of girls with PDD-NOS
Unvaccinated: 2% of total
Partially vaccinated: 1% of total
Fully vaccinated: 0%
Fully and Partially combined: 0%
Conclusion: you are 1% more likely to have PDD-NOS if you are unvaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being PDD-NOS is 2% less than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of girls with Autism
Unvaccinated: 1% of total
Partially vaccinated: 2% of total
Fully vaccinated: 1%
Fully and Partially combined: 1%
Conclusion: you are 1% more likely to have autism if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being autistic is no greater than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of girls with all ASD’s
Unvaccinated: 3% of total
Partially vaccinated: 3% of total
Fully vaccinated: 1%
Fully and Partially combined: 1%
Conclusion: you are no more likely to have an ASD if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of having an ASD is 2% less than if you were unvaccinated.
My goodness, this is _awful_ for Generation Rescue. Finally, we’ll look at girls and boys together:
Number of boys and girls with Aspergers
Unvaccinated: 1% of total
Partially vaccinated: 2% of total
Fully vaccinated: 1%
Fully and Partially combined: 2%
Conclusion: you are 1% more likely to have Aspergers if you have been partially vaccinated than unvaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being Aspergers is no greater than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of boys and girls with PDD-NOS
Unvaccinated: 2% of total
Partially vaccinated: 2% of total
Fully vaccinated: 1%
Fully and Partially combined: 1%
Conclusion: you are 1% more likely to have PDD-NOS if you are unvaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being PDD-NOS is 1% less than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of boys and girls with Autism
Unvaccinated: 2% of total
Partially vaccinated: 4% of total
Fully vaccinated: 2%
Fully and Partially combined: 2%
Conclusion: you are 2% more likely to have autism if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being autistic is no greater than if you were unvaccinated.
Number of boys and girls with all ASD’s
Unvaccinated: 4% of total
Partially vaccinated: 6% of total
Fully vaccinated: 3%
Fully and Partially combined: 3%
Conclusion:you are 2% more likely to have an ASD if you have been partially vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated your chance of being autistic is 1% less than if you were unvaccinated.
There’s no getting away from this. This is a disaster for Generation Rescue and the whole ‘vaccines cause autism’ debacle. Generation Rescue’s data indicates that you are ‘safer’ from autism if you fully vaccinate than partially vaccinate. It also indicates that across the spectrum of autism, you are only 1% more likely to be autistic if you have had any sort of vaccination as oppose to no vaccinations at all – and thats only if you are male. If you are a girl you chances of being on the spectrum are _less_ if you have been vaccinated! Across both boys and girls, your chances of being on the spectrum are _less_ if you have received all vaccinations.
You can always tell when the mercury militia are hurting – they wheel out their biggest gun. The biggest gun they have in their armoury is RFK Jr, a man who seems to live on the reputation of his dead family members and not a lot else. Last time he dropped the biggest, steamingest, drippiest turd on the web in the fullsome (and entirely accurate) language of Orac.
Well, after reading RFK Jr’s latest verbal tantrum I think Orac might need to get out the Dynorod and try and flush this particular big shit in a small bowl away as quickly as possible.
RFK Jr claims firstly that:
The poisonous public attacks on Katie Wright this week–for revealing that her autistic son Christian (grandson of NBC Chair Bob Wright), has recovered significant function after chelation treatments to remove mercury — surprised many observers unfamiliar with the acrimonious debate over the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal.
Christian Wright has ‘recovered significant function’ has he? Any evidence for that? Any evidence even if he has that _chelation_ is responsible for this? No, didn’t think so. I’m going to go right ahead and assume that Christian Wright isn’t any more ‘significantly recovered’ than the other 90% + kids on the Generation Rescue page.
Kennedy may be unfamiliar with the sort of PR bullshit that Katie Wright’s self confessed mentor likes to spin so let me clue him in a little: The chelationistas love to claim ‘thousands of cured kids’ but when pressed, cults like Generation Rescue can only display 76 and when one examines those 76 carefully only 6 report their kids as recovered/cured/whatever. The situation with Katie Wright’s mentors is so ridiculous that I got my own daughters details published on their website as a ‘recovered’ kid.
So, Kennedy will have to forgive me if I’m less than impressed with the (unfounded) claim of ‘significant recovery’.
Kennedy then goes on to paint loving images of the mercury militia’s members:
Instead of a desperate mob of irrational hysterics, I’ve found the anti-Thimerosal activists for the most part to be calm, grounded and extraordinarily patient. As a group, they are highly educated. Many of them are doctors, nurses, schoolteachers, pharmacists, psychologists, Ph.D.s and other professionals.
I must admit I did start chuckling when I read this. I’m sure some of these people are clam and grounded but ‘for the most part’ they are comprised of racist, homophobic dullards such as John Best Jr – a man thrown out of 4 autism groups at the last count and who likes to fist fight his autistic son, or people Erik Nanstiel who holds down his autistic daughter to inject her with pointless, dangerous drugs. Or people like Christine Heeren who takes her son to a doctor who chelates him with IV’s of garlic and vinegar. Or people like Julia Berle who loves to crow about her ‘recovered’ son, neglecting to state that he was diagnosed, treated and ‘cured’ by Scientologists.
_These_ are your ‘calm, grounded’ people Mr Kennedy.
Kennedy goes on to describe the ‘overwhelming science’ behind the thiomersal hypothesis:
hundreds of research studies from dozens of countries showing the undeniable connection between mercury and Thimerosal and a wide range of neurological illnesses. In response to the overwhelming science, CDC and the pharmaceutical industry ginned up four European studies designed to disguise the link between autism and Thimerosal.
Wow. Kennedy must be privy to studies that the rest of the world isn’t. Where are these ‘hundreds of research studies…showing the undeniable connection’ between thiomersal and autism? Up your ass Mr Kennedy? How come they’ve not been used in the Vaccine court hearing of the last week? You’re a lawyer right? Get your legal backside down there and save the day with your ‘hundreds of research studies’.
The truth is Mr Kennedy, that the vast majority (key word: vast) of the ‘science’ done thus far by the militia is not of sufficient quality to be published in decent science publications. These ‘hundreds of research studies’ in habit the murky world of JAPANDS, Medical Hypothesis and Medical Veritas. These aren’t science journals Mr Kennedy, they’re agenda driven vanity publishers. Much like your good self.
Battling further through the stupid we come to this:
Ironically, it is the same voices that once blamed autism on “bad parenting,” and “uninvolved” moms that are now faulting these mothers for being too involved.
Er, what? Who has said that? When? Where? Cite your sources Mr Kennedy. You might also want to check, but I’m pretty sure that Bruno Bettleheim, the man who actually _did_ blame autism on bad parenting isn’t so vocal on the subject anymore. Possibly due to him being dead the last seventeen years.
You know absolutely nothing Mr Kennedy and yet you feel duty bound to poke your oar in anyway. Participate by all means, but do so from a position of knowledge, not ignorance.
One of the frustrating things that often strikes me about the direction blogging has taken me in is the fact that the vast majority of the people I consider friends I have never actually spoken to, or met and who I actually live in a different continent from.
Of course I often receive pictures, podcasts or video of events that my online friends have participated in. Camille, Kassiane, Sue Senator, Estee, Amanda, Kathleen, Kristina and more. But this isn’t the same.
However, earlier this year, my family was blessed with a visit from two people who I both very much wanted to meet and yet at the same time was pained at the ultimate reason we finally met.
I first blogged about Katie not long after she was killed. It was then, and still remains, the hardest post I have ever written. Autistic children have been murdered before and since Katie died and I wrote about them too but although they horrified and saddened me, Katie’s death remains most memorable to me. Possibly because I have two little girls who bracket Katie’s age and the thought of them dying fills me with a terror that I cannot describe.
Katie’s grandad read that post and the video of Meg on her trampoline that accompanied it. The posting of that was intended to be our family’s tribute to Katie’s life. A little girl having fun.
But something happened I did not expect. Katie’s paternal grandad, Mike, read that post and saw that video and we started to communicate. Not about the trial but about our shared experiences with autistic little girls. I also swapped emails with Katie’s paternal uncle.
Over the course of the last year, Mike and I have developed a warm friendship and have swapped addresses, pictures of the family, birthday cards for family members. We talk often about Katie and the wonderful life her Dad and her paternal Grandma gave her. Our ability to converse across internal boundaries take a step up when we started to use Skype to actually talk directly. And believe me, if you think the world has exhausted its sense of wonder then you should experience listening to mid-afternoon bird song in the background of a conversation you are having with someone over 4000 miles away whilst the darkness of evening descends at your house.
I have also talked with Katie’s dad, grandma and uncle and listened to the sounds of Katie’s younger sister playing happily.
These people are family now. There’s no other way to think of them.
Earlier this year, Mike told me that he and Paul were coming over to the UK to visit. Brilliant news. I was so looking forward to meeting them finally.
We had a fantastic time. Not that we did very much, we just hung out, talked and played with the girls. I’ll admit that I had been nervous – how could we all be expected to get on when we’d never really met? – and yet those worries were banished. Within 10 minutes we were all chatting and laughing away with each other as though we’d known each other all our lives. Tabitha was absolutely smitten with Paul and followed him around begging to be picked up most of the day, which Paul – a natural gentleman in every sense of the word – was happy to do. Mike got some grandpa kisses from Meg which I believe made his day. Meg is naturally reticent around new people but she knew Mike and Paul were good people immediately.
And there was sadness too. Nobody could forget why we were all together that day and I feel I speak for all of us when I say that if I could make a promise never to have met Mike that Katie could be returned to them, that promise would be made in a heartbeat. Mike and Paul brought over some of the ribbon Kassiane had selected for Katie and which Paul and Mike wore with honour every time they went to court to battle for Katie. That was a humbling experience for me.
Mike and Paul stayed long after the girls had gone to bed. Naomi and I treasured every minute we had with them. They are Megan and Tabitha’s uncle and grandpa in every sense that matters. Gail and Em are their grandma and cousin in every sense that matters.
Terrible, awful things happen to the best people. What was done to Katie has not yet even been tried in court. I want to make sure that people remember that Katie lived. This little girl I’ve never met and heart breakingly, never will. Whilst the vaccine trial goes on, remember that this is going on too. Although, that day, we never talked about the trial it was in their eyes and gestures. How could it not be? For the two families that have come together into one, I wish there was some way – any other way – we could’ve become as close as we are now.
At the end of this month, the motions that are being heard now – those motions to suppress the confessions of Katie’s murderer – will be concluded. We must hope that justice prevails. Katie, my niece I never met, deserves no less.
The Omnibus case needs to establish (at this time) two issuses: causation to Michelle Cedillo in particular and also general causation in that thiomersal and MMR in combination cause Michelle’s autism. So far the expert witnesses for the Plaintiffs have been less than stellar but on Day 4 you could almost hear the sound of a barrel bottom being scraped.
The establishment of witnesses as ‘expert’ is vital to each sides case. They have to establish to the Special Masters (which by the way is a great title – do they have long flowing robes and carry light sabres?) that _their_ experts are indeed that – experts. Bear that in mind as you read the rest of this.
The cross examination of Vera Byers was an exercise in the destruction of a persons expert credibility. No wonder the Petitoners team decided against putting Geier, Bradstreet, Haley et al on the stand. It would’ve been a massacre.
Q: You’re not certified in allergy and immunology, are you?
A: I’m board eligible. I have not taken the test.
Q: Is board eligible a phrase that’s recognized by the organization that certifies allergists and immunologists?
A: Yes, it is…
Q: You’ll see on your screen a letter from the American Board of Allergy and Immunology referencing your status with that organization. They note that the board neither recognizes, uses nor defines the term board eligible.
A Okay.
Q: So you’ve been essentially representing that that is a qualification that you have in terms of rendering an opinion about immunology?
A: Yes, I have.
Q: You mention in your resume that you’re the medical director of the four doctor team responsible for filing the Biologics License Application for Enbrel?
A: That is not exactly correct. I was a consultant medical director. There were I think either four or five physician members of the team.
Q: So that part is perhaps a misstatement on your curriculum vitae?
[NB: Here’s the wording of Byers CV: _1998 – 2000: Immunex Corp: Medical director on the team responsible for filing the BLA for for Enbrel in methotrexate resistant rheumatoid arthritis, and as initial therapy for rheumatoid arthritis._ The section this is in is entitled: Consulting Medical Director. Misleading and ambiguous in the extreme.]
Q: If we were to check the files at FDA to see whether your name appears at all on any of the documents submitted by Immunex for Enbrel, would your name appear?
A: I’m sorry. I don’t know.
Q: We checked at FDA. Your name doesn’t appear on any of the documents submitted by Immunex on the Biologics License Application
Q: You talked this morning about Nottingham University.
A: Yes.
Q: On your CV you say that you’re still a member of the faculty there. Is that true?
A: No. I think I dropped off.
Q: So your CV is inaccurate? You are not still on the faculty of Nottingham University?
A: That’s correct. It sounds like it’s an old CV.
[NB: This detail is also on Byers CV on her website]
Q: Your CV also lists you as a faculty member at University of California-San Francisco. Are you still a member of that faculty?
A: To my knowledge I am, unless this hearing has kicked me off.
Q: We checked with University of California-San 3 Francisco. What was your faculty role at University of California?
A: I’m on the adjunct series.
Q: What did you do there?
A: I did research in poison oak and ivy dermatitis, went on rounds with the docs.
Q: How long ago was that?
A: Let me see. Through from about 1974 through about 1981, and then I went back again in 1984 and was there episodically probably through about two years ago.
……
Q: Okay. About a decade ago for the dermatitis? About a decade ago for the dermatitis?
A: About, yes.
Q: Any other involvement at UCSF, at University of California-San Francisco?
A: Well, I use their library and I go to their parties…..
Amazing. Apparently affiliation with a major university can be claimed by using the library and going to parties.
Q: They in their response indicated that your participation was I believe at best gave very occasional lectures.
A: Oh, no. That’s not true. I don’t know why they said that. Maybe they just don’t know. Who did it come from? Oh, Bruce Wintroub? See, Bruce Wintroub is the head of dermatology, right? This was in biostatistics.
Q: You worked there in biostatistics?
A: No. I took the courses in biostatistics.
Q: You took courses?
A: Yes.
Seems mini-Geier isn’t the only person who likes to claim institutional affiliation from being a student.
Q: Now, in the last decade, about the last decade, you’ve only seen patients in consultation for litigation purposes, correct?
A: They’re not specifically for litigation purposes,…..
…..
Q:Do you recall testifying in a case in February of this year, a vaccine case?
A: Probably. Was that you?
Q: Yes, it was.
A: Hello.
Q: Welcome back. Now, do you recall what your answer was about whether you treated patients or whether you saw them in consultation for litigation purposes at that time?
A: I’m sorry. I don’t.
Q: Would it refresh your recollection then to know that you testified at that time that for approximately the last 10 years you had only seen 16 patients for litigation consultation purposes?
Ouch.
And so, as we approach the end of week one of the vaccine trial, its been truly fascinating to read (albeit a day behind my US counterparts) the ongoing proceedings.
One of the things that fascinated me was the culling of the ‘expert witness’ list. Before Monday – the start of the trial – the expert list comprised:
Jim Adams PhD
Harland Austin D. Sc.
David S Baskin MD
Jeffrey Bradstreet M.D.
Richard Carlton Deth PhD
Mark Geier MD
M. Eric Gershwin MD
Phillippe Grandjean, Ph.D.
Sander Greenland, Dr. PH
Boyd E. Hayley, Ph D
Robert Hirsch PhD
Arthur Krigsman MD
Cathy A Lally, Master P.H.
Mary Megson, MD
Elizabeth Mumper MD
Andrew J. Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath
And on Monday, the people left from this list were:
Arthur Krigsman MD.
Amazing. I can only surmise that the others were considered as liabilities. Certainly when one considers the stupidity of Haley, Adams, Geier and Wakefield then this looks like a good move. They would’ve been crucified on cross examination. It comes to something when only one person from the original list is considered a safe bet and then he is also crucified on cross examination.
Q. Doctor, your C.V. states that you’re a clinical assistant professor at New York University.
Is that correct?
A. Correct.
Q. Are you currently on staff there?
A. Correct.
Q. When was the last time you taught a class at NYU?
A. I haven’t taught there.
Q. You’ve never taught a class at NYU?
A. I’m on staff there.
Q. Are you salaried?
A. From NYU?
Q. Yes.
A. No.
Q. Have you ever been salaried at NYU?
A. No
I listened closely to the Petitioners opening statement and was bewildered. I’ll quote the ACHAMP blog:
Mr. Powers argued that over the last five years, since the Omnibus Autism Proceeding commenced, the Respondent in the Proceeding, with the Department of Justice acting as its counsel, had been standing “shoulder to shoulder” with industry and that it had placed many obstacles in Petitioners’ way. He noted obstacles of a short statute of limitations; very limited rights of discovery to gain necessary background information to build a case, particularly discovery from the Vaccine Safety Datalink; and selective use of materials from MMR litigation in the United Kingdom that was inaccessible to Petitioners; among other uncooperative tactics.
Not only are most of these things not _quite_ as painted, it seemed to me that Powers was presenting a long litany of excuses to be presented when the case fails. He’s simply fuelling the conspiracy theorist fire.
Also stoking the flames of that fire is one David Kirby. He made a recent HuffPo blog entry that berated critics for inflating the possibilities of what might happen if the parents win:
Critics of the autism claims also contend that a victory in court by any of the families would drive panicked parents away from immunizing their children at all, resulting in new epidemics of infectious disease and lots of sick and dying youngsters…..Nobody wants to see measles, or mumps, or polio sweep the country. But I don’t think that will happen.
Yeah? Its already happening you idiot.
In the course of 10 days, officials confirmed four pertussis cases, including the hospitalization of one child to treat respiratory symptoms. All of the cases afflicted children under 5 years old, and one in an infant just a couple of days old, according to Ravalli County Public Health Nurse Judy Griffin…..There have been more than 450 cases of pertussis in Montana so far this year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The infection rate is much higher than average years, when about 30 cases are reported….”Parents should check immunization records and make sure they’re up to date,” Nurse Judy Griffin said.
(Columbia) The state health department said yesterday that an infant has died from whooping cough. It is the first death reported in South Carolina from the disease in nearly three years….The health agency said it’s important children receive pertussis vaccinations on schedule.
A whooping cough epidemic has hit Deschutes County. Health officials say that in the past six weeks, 18 cases of pertussis have been identified in the county. In all of 2004, there were only two cases of pertussis in Deschutes County.
An increase in cases of the highly contagious whooping cough is prompting state health officials to urge stricter compliance with childhood immunization schedules….Cases have increased annually from 22 statewide in 1996 to 120 last year…Oklahoma’s childhood immunization levels continue to lag behind those nationally, officials said.
Kids are dying again. And in some areas of the US the disease causing those deaths is at epidemic (real epidemic as oppose to autism epidemic) proportions. And thats just one disease that vaccination removed the sting from for many years. In my country (UK) we’ve recently had a Mumps epidemic due to Andrew Wakefield’s unfounded scaremongering regarding the MMR vaccine. And worse:
Take-up rates of the jab dropped throughout the UK, down to less than 70% in some areas, after a small-scale study published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr Andrew Wakefield suggested a link to autism.
In 2004, mumps cases in the England and Wales rose from 4,204 in 2003 to 16,436 in 2004, nearly a four-fold increase.
And in the first month of 2005, there were nearly 5,000 cases. Most were among young adults born before 1988 and who would, therefore, not have been offered MMR as a child. In the second paper, Dr Ravindra Gupta, from London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’, working with colleagues from King’s College London, found cases have also occurring in very young children who would have been eligible for the MMR – measles, mumps and rubella – vaccine…..Dr Gupta (…) said uptake of MMR among two-year-olds in the UK fell from around 92% in early 1995 to around 80% in 2003/4.
In October 2004, experts predicted that due to falling vaccination uptake, the UK would start to suffer from ‘small outbreaks’:
The medical newspaper Pulse has warned that there could be a measles epidemic this winter on a scale last seen in the 1960s. It said that lowering levels of immunity meant as many as 12% of children and 20% of adults could be hospitalised if infected by measles.
And now, this year, 18 months after this warning, we have the UK’s first measles induced fatality in 14 years.
The 13-year-old who died last month lived in a travellers’ community. It is thought that he had a weakened immune system; he was being treated for a lung condition. The boy died of an infection of the central nervous system caused by a reaction to the measles virus. The Health Protection Agency described his death as shocking.
The Times also says that of the 72 reported measles cases last month, 9 required hospitalisation – this tallies almost exactly with the 2004 prediction of a hospitalisation rate of 12%.
Kirby has his own ‘dire warnings’ about what might happen if the parents lose:
And then there is the Middle East. Osama, for one, has a very extended family. We are exporting thimerosal containing vaccines to many Muslim nations. Some vaccines contain not only mercury, but products derived from pigs. I don’t need to tell you where I am going with this train of thought. You already know.
Actually, I do. You’re trying to instil fear of Muslims into people to support your meaningless rhetoric you nasty little racist.
Right. This is it. Absolutely the last time this subject gets raised on this blog. Comments will not be enabled on this post.
It’s the last time because I’m sick to death of hearing about it, thinking about it and discussing it. If anybody else wants to carry on discussing it – be my guest. But you won’t do it here.
First and foremost is that you understand that I regret absolutely nothing. I retract absolutely nothing. I apologise for none of my words and actions. I meant every single one of them and stand by them.
It was made clear to me by Larry that I wasn’t welcome in what he thinks of as neurodiversity. That’s fine, I can live with that. What he failed to specify, other than insults and vague allegations was _why_ I, and a loose group of people referred to as ‘the parents’ weren’t welcome. We sought no leadership. We sought no setting of the agenda. We just wanted to do our bit.
I asked calmly and politely – at first – what it was we – I – had done specifically. No answer, but more snideness. Eventually I realised that nothing of any substance would come from Larry. I retreated after speaking my mind about what I thought about Larry. It wasn’t good but it was accurate. It was my opinion.
After a week, I came back to my blog and explained my thoughts on the whole matter. Things were calming down. I avoided Larry. I didn’t seek out his comments, thoughts or opinions. Then yesterday I come back to my blog on a thread that is indeed heated but respectful and what do I find? Three long comments from – you guessed it – Larry. More of the same insults, murky accusations and pompous posturing. I let him have both barrels. He deserved it.
So – bullying. One ‘Donna’ who’d been on this blog many times and doesn’t like me or what I have to say accuses me of bullying poor poor Larry. Let me remind people who was ‘chasing’ who. I want to have no interaction with Larry if I can possibly avoid it. He sought it out and left three long, whiny, disrespectful comments. I’m not easily provoked but that did it. If anyone wants to avoid bullying I’d suggest to them that chasing after the ‘bully’ bleating ‘please notice me’ is not a great idea. I’d also like to offer a tip to would-be bullies: it seems that you don’t have to do any chasing these days. Apparently people coming in to your turf and running their mouths off, making empty accusations and calling you names is OK but if you respond in kind, they can cry about what a nasty bully you are.
As I said in my previous post – I’ve been used as Larry’s punch bag already. Not any more. If Larry – or anyone else – comes to my blog looking for a fight then they _will_ get one.
Humour. Its a personal thing. Some people don’t like other peoples humour. That I can understand. But suggesting that someone elses sense of what’s funny is inherently wrong because they don’t share it? Forget it.
First I’m told what I can and can’t blog about. Now I’m told what I can and can’t laugh about. What’s next? Anyone want to let me know where my black shirt is? Double plus ungood.
I really am beginning to wonder if the whole idea of _some_ autistic people wanting allies is true. We had a chance to start something great here. As far as I’m personally concerned, that’s dead in the water. Do you want perfect parents? We might not be perfect but we’re better than CAN parents. You had a chance to work with us. Make us better. Instead you’ve driven this one away for no better reason than one suspicious man couldn’t reign in his ego.
At least 20 people have emailed me to tell me that Larry has been like this since forever. They think he is jealous of the fact that I and other parents have been interviewed. He confirms this by stating that autistic people should be interviewed, not parents. He’s right, they should.
In early April this year I was contacted by a journalist from The Observer in the UK. She wanted to speak to someone connected with the autism advocacy movement. I told her she’s be best speaking to autistic people in the UK. I told her I would mail her details to a few UK autistic people I knew so they could speak their piece. True advocacy, right from the horses mouth. One of those I contacted was Larry.
He never replied to me and he never contacted the journalist. I know this as she contacted me increasingly desperately as no one had contacted her. She didn’t want to hear my voice, she wanted to hear from autistic people about autism advocacy. Nobody, including Larry, could be bothered.
Remember this next time you hear Larry banging on about rights and agendas. He’s full of hot air.
And that is that.
From now on I blog about what I want to blog about. That will mostly be about autism related quackery. Larry is banned from commenting on this blog. Any comment that touches on Larry in any way or on any of these discussions will be deleted.
I don’t consider myself part of neurodiversity, although I am clearly neurodiverse. I will gladly stand with autistic allies – both autistic people, their parents and professionals – who want nothing to do with a cure and who want rights for autistic people to come first in autism advocacy. I will not stand with anyone at all who wants to accuse me of wrong doing without any substance to their claims or who wants to dictate what I should and shouldn’t talk about.
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