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No, the autism prevalence did not go down in Denmark after the removal of thimerosal

25 Feb

Once there was an open question of whether the thimerosal containing vaccines, previously used for infants in the U.S. could be contributing to the increase in autism diagnoses being reported. Even with multiple studies showing no increased risk due to thimerosal exposure, there is still a group who not only believes in the mercury-induced epidemic, but they believe that there has been a concerted effort on behalf of the U.S. government and other groups to hide this “fact”.

An email obtained through a freedom of information act (FOIA) request is often cited in online discussions of not only the “fact” that the mercury-induced-epidemic is real, but that the government conspiracy is real. The email reportedly was made by one of the authors of a study from Denmark. The authors had used a sort of natural experiment: Denmark had phased out thimerosal from vaccines in the early 1990’s. They reported that the prevalence of autism continued to increase even with the phase out, thus indicating that thimerosal was not the driving force behind the increase.

The study, by Madsen, et al., was published in 2003. An email obtained by FOIA reportedly shows the authors removing data for the final years of the study period:

I need to tell you that the figures in the manuscript do not include the latest data from 2001….But the incidence and prevalence are still decreasing in 2001.

Sounds alarming, doesn’t it? Data which supposedly shows that autism rates actually dropped following the removal of thimerosal was removed from a paper. Well, I think they should have included the data, a possible explanation and done a follow-up study. That said, the statement really doesn’t bother me. Why? A few reasons but mainly because the data are clear that autism prevalence did continue to go up in Denmark. And much of that data are below.

First, what was the prevalence in the 1990s? Here’s a study from 2007. They were using data where from 2004 (followup through 2004):

Time trends in reported diagnoses of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders: a Danish cohort study. 2007
ASD:
Birth cohort 1994-1995. Prevalence: 0.58%
Birth cohort 1995-1996. Prevalence: 0.47%
Birth cohort 1998-1999. Prevalence: 0.32%

Childhood autism:
Birth cohort 1994-1995. Prevalence: 0.18%
Birth cohort 1995-1996. Prevalence: 0.17%
Birth cohort 1998-1999. Prevalence: 0.18%

Yes, they are showing ASD prevalence dropping in the 1990’s, which should be an admission that the prevalence went down after the removal of thimerosal! I guess they forgot to censor that paper. While ASD prevalence seems to be going down, Childhood Autism is relatively flat. Why would that happen, do you think? Here’s one reason: average age of diagnosis for autistic disorder (childhood autism) is lower than that for the other ASD’s. While autism is not as obvious as many would have us believe, childhood autism *is* more obvious than the other ASD’s (and even with that it gets missed). Consider 1998-1999. That’s only 5 years or so until the followup date from the study: 2004. Average age of diagnosis for ASD in Denmark was about 5 years. So, about 1/2 of the ASD kids born 1998-1999 were not diagnosed at the time of the study. More of the ASD kids born in 1995-1996 and even more of those from 1994-1995. So, what looks like a declining prevalence is most likely just an artifact of how many years of follow-up there were from birth to study date.

I’d say it is even more than “looks like”. Consider the studies below. These are the papers I could easily find that give autism prevalence values for Denmark. I give the title, with a link to pubmed, the year of the study, the birth cohorts reported and the prevalence.

Autism prevalence in the 1990’s?

a href=”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14519711″>Association between thimerosal-containing vaccine and autism. 2003
Birth cohort 1990-1996. Prevalence 0.26%

Autism prevalence for cohorts including kids born after 2000? More like 1%. Consider this first paper:

Autism after infection, febrile episodes, and antibiotic use during pregnancy: an exploratory study. 2012
Birth cohorts 1997-2003. Prevalence: 1%

But there are more. The cohorts don’t always match between studies, and we don’t have individual years for kids born 2000 and later. But the prevalence is repeatedly reported as above the 0.26% found for the 1990’s.

In other words, the prevalence continued to go up.

Using maternally reported data to investigate the association between early childhood infection and autism spectrum disorder: the importance of data source. 2012
Birth cohorts 1997-2003. Prevalence: 1%

Parental age and autism spectrum disorders. 2012
Birth cohorts 1980-2003. Prevalence: 0.73%

The rising prevalence of autism: a prospective longitudinal study in the Faroe Islands. 2012
Birth cohort 2002. Prevalence: 0.56%
Birth cohort 2009. Prevalence:0.94%

A comparison of autism prevalence trends in Denmark and Western Australia. 2011
Birth cohort not in abstract. Prevalence (ASD) 0.685%

Risk of autism spectrum disorders in children born after assisted conception: a population-based follow-up study. 2011
Birth cohort 1995-2003. Prevalence: 0.61%

Association of hospitalization for infection in childhood with diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders: a Danish cohort study. 2010
Birth cohort 1980-2002. Prevalence 0.52%

Association of family history of autoimmune diseases and autism spectrum disorders. 2009
Birth Cohort 1993-2004. Prevalence: 0.48%

The incidence and prevalence of pervasive developmental disorders: a Danish population-based studyBirth cohort 1971-2000. Prevalence 34.4 (“corrected”)

Association between thimerosal-containing vaccine and autism. 2003
Birth cohort 1990-1996. Prevalence 0.26%

A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism 2002
Birth cohort 1991-1998. Prevalence: 0.14%

The more early birth cohorts a given study uses, the lower the average prevalence. The more years included post 2000, the closer the prevalence is to 1%.

Sure, it would be great if we had data for prevalence by individual birth year going to 2000 and beyond. But there’s enough data above to make it clear that the autism prevalence in Denmark did not go down after 2000. Quite the contrary. Similarly, measures of autism prevalence in my home state, California, have continued to go up even after thimerosal was removed.

The idea that thimerosal caused an autism-epidemic is just not consistent with the facts. The same data people used over and over to make the argument that thimerosal causes autism–the various autism prevalence estimates–don’t support the idea any more. Thimerosal went away, autism prevalence continued to climb.

So I’m just not swayed when I read people write about how the autism prevalence went down in Denmark with the removal of thimerosal. It didn’t go down. It is sad that people are being misled to think there is still some substance to the mercury-epidemic idea. Cherry pick one email out of how many FOIA’d documents, present it out of context and play it up as something real–while ignoring the evidence that is right in front of you. This is not treating the autism community with respect. This is misleading people.

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By Matt Carey

Folic acid supplements and autism

22 Feb

A recent study claims that women who take folic acid supplements before conception are at a lower risk of having an autistic child. In Association Between Maternal Use of Folic Acid Supplements and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Children the authors found that the odds of a child being autistic were 40% lower if the mother took prenatal folic acid supplements.  The researchers used the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study(MoBa). A couple of points need to be raised: the report focused on autistic disorder, not ASD’s in general. The number of individuals with Asperger syndrome or PDD-NOS were low, limiting the ability to detect differences.  Given that limitation, they found no decreased risk for AS and PDD-NOS with pre conception folic acid supplementation.

Here is part of the abstract:

Results  At the end of follow-up, 270 children in the study sample had been diagnosed with ASDs: 114 with autistic disorder, 56 with Asperger syndrome, and 100 with PDD-NOS. In children whose mothers took folic acid, 0.10% (64/61 042) had autistic disorder, compared with 0.21% (50/24 134) in those unexposed to folic acid. The adjusted OR for autistic disorder in children of folic acid users was 0.61 (95% CI, 0.41-0.90). No association was found with Asperger syndrome or PDD-NOS, but power was limited. Similar analyses for prenatal fish oil supplements showed no such association with autistic disorder, even though fish oil use was associated with the same maternal characteristics as folic acid use.

Conclusions and Relevance  Use of prenatal folic acid supplements around the time of conception was associated with a lower risk of autistic disorder in the MoBa cohort. Although these findings cannot establish causality, they do support prenatal folic acid supplementation.

The overall prevalence is somewhat low at 0.1-0.2%, but recall that they are focusing on autistic disorder, not ASD’s in general (especially in the abstract). A 40% reduction in autism risk is quite large if real. How does that stack up against other studies? There was a study just last year in the U.S.: Maternal periconceptional folic acid intake and risk of autism spectrum disorders and developmental delay in the CHARGE (CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment) case-control study, which also found a 40% lower risk of autism with Folic acid supplementation. From that abstract:

RESULTS: Mean (±SEM) folic acid intake was significantly greater for mothers of TD children than for mothers of children with ASD in the first month of pregnancy (P1; 779.0 ± 36.1 and 655.0 ± 28.7 μg, respectively; P < 0.01). A mean daily folic acid intake of ≥600 μg (compared with T variant genotypes. A trend toward an association between lower maternal folic acid intake during the 3 mo before pregnancy and DD was observed, but not after adjustment for confounders.

CONCLUSIONS: Periconceptional folic acid may reduce ASD risk in those with inefficient folate metabolism. The replication of these findings and investigations of mechanisms involved are warranted.

One might think this is rather coincidental that two folic acid studies came out so quickly after one another. Or, perhaps not. One study that received a lot of attention in 2009 was Prenatal and Infant Exposure to Thimerosal From Vaccines and Immunoglobulins and Risk of Autism. The study was one of many which showed no increased risk of autism from thimerosal exposure from vaccines. One side finding of the study was published in their technical report: Price C, Robertson A, Goodson B. Thimerosal and Autism. Technical report. They found a possible increased risk due to maternal folic acid supplementation. That study relied upon maternal report, i.e. memory rather than medical records. It would not surprise me if the two recent studies came out of concerns raised by and during the Price study.

What if pre conception folic acid supplementation reduces autism risk? For one thing, this would point again to the prenatal period as important in autism development. Another factor is that this would point out the fact that given the social factors driving up the autism rate, it is very difficult to pull out factors which could be “real” factors driving autism prevalence up–or down as in this case. Folic acid supplementation is a relatively new practice, and still not universal. In the U.S. fewer than 50% of women report taking these vitamins prenatally. But this fraction has increased:

Although year-to-year variation has been observed over time, the percentage of women of childbearing age who reported consumption of a daily supplement containing folic acid increased overall from 28% in 1995 to 32% in 2003 and to 40% in 2004 and 2007

It’s very much a secondary question to whether folic acid supplementation is reducing autism risk, but an interesting question nonetheless.

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By Matt Carey

21 Feb

Article at MSNBC about a school which fully integrates students with and with out disabilities and has a focus on civil rights. Follow the link to the video of the discussion of the Ideal School.

Robert Saylor’s death ruled homicide

19 Feb

A gentleman with Down Syndrome went to the movies recently. When the movie was finished, he decided to stay to see it again. In other words, he did not get out of his seat; he did not buy a new ticket. The theater has security guards. Three of them.  Off duty police who were in police uniforms.  All three were called in to deal with this gentleman who would not get out of his seat.

The gentleman, Robert Saylor, died of asphyxiation.

Yes, for “resisting arrest” the off-duty police used enough force to result in the death of the gentleman. Because he wouldn’t buy an $11 ticket.

More at:

Autopsy finds that Md. man with Down syndrome died of asphyxia while in police custody

Robert Saylor death ruled a homicide

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By Matt Carey

NCD Response to the State of the Union Address

18 Feb

The U.S. National Council on Disability (NCD) has issued a response to the State of the Union address presented by President Obama recently. I am presenting it in its entirety below:

In the annual State of the Union address, President Barack Obama addressed several policy areas of importance to the 56 million Americans with disabilities and their families. As the independent federal agency which advises the President and Congress on disability policy, the National Council on Disability (NCD) applauds the significant agenda proposed by the President and recommends the following actions to guarantee full participation and integration in all aspects of society for Americans with disabilities.

The President called for an increase in the minimum wage to $9.00 an hour by stating “in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.”

NCD agrees. In 2010, statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that nearly 28 percent of Americans with disabilities aged 18 to 64 live in poverty.

Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities earn less than minimum wage under a little-known relic of employment policy that assumed people with disabilities were not capable of meaningful, competitive employment.

As the President said, “America is not a place where chance of birth or circumstance should decide our destiny. And that is why we need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.”

Twenty three years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the time has come for minimum wage to be available to everyone who works, including Americans with disabilities. Over a quarter of a million Americans with disabilities work under the Fair Labor Standards Act 14 (c) program resigning people with disabilities to earning less than minimum wages and the poverty, isolation and segregation that often results.

In our August 2012 Report on Subminimum Wage and Supported Employment, NCD recommended a gradual phase out of the 14 (c) program. The ladders our nation builds to opportunity must be accessible to every American – including those with disabilities. As America works toward increasing minimum wage, implementation of a comprehensive set of supports and targeted investments in integrated employment services to make it possible for people with disabilities to rise to the same heights as other Americans must also be assured.

In addition, the President announced a non-partisan commission to improve voting in America by emphasizing “our most fundamental right as citizens: the right to vote. When any Americans … are denied that right … we are betraying our ideals.” A Fact Sheet on the Voting Commission issued by the White House lists voters with disabilities and “physical barriers” among the issues to be corrected.

NCD appreciates inclusion of the difficulties faced by voters with disabilities as part of the Commission’s work. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found as recently as 2008, only 27 percent of polling places were barrier-free. In fact, the Federal Election Commission confirmed that, in violation of state and federal laws, more than 20,000 polling places across the nation are inaccessible, depriving Americans with disabilities of their fundamental right to vote. People with disabilities and senior citizens are particularly disenfranchised by long lines at polling places and by constraints on and, in some places, the discontinuation of early voting.

To address this disparity, NCD has been collecting the experiences of voters with disabilities in the November 2012 General Election from across the nation in coordination with the National Disability Rights Network and EIN SOF Communications. NCD will issue a report on our findings later this year.

NCD urges the Voting Commission to consider the findings of our upcoming report and to include voters with disabilities on their Commission.

The President also stressed the importance of key reforms to realize cost savings in the Medicare program, including the shift from a fee for service payment system to a managed care model designed to pay for performance. NCD understands the importance of shifting to payment models that both manage costs and increase quality for our health care financing infrastructure. However, it is crucial that people with disabilities and seniors retain the ability to have their needs met.

Over the last two years, NCD has conducted a detailed exploration of managed care within Medicaid, issuing comprehensive recommendations on due process safeguards, program design, performance measures and other facets of responsible managed care frameworks that consider the needs of Americans with disabilities without causing adverse consequences on the quality of care we receive. As the Administration considers various measures to enhance health care quality while controlling costs, NCD stands ready to apply this expertise to Medicare reforms.

As President Obama affirmed, “the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.” NCD looks to continuing its role in developing and promoting robust disability policies in close collaboration with the Administration, Congress and the public.

— Jeff Rosen, Chairperson
On behalf of the National Council on Disability

—
By Matt Carey

Tax forms for CoMeD (a Geier nonprofit)

17 Feb

A recent article here at Left Brain/Right Brain showed how Mark and David Geier spend their money: on a large house in this case. Another place where the Geiers spend their money is on their nonprofit: CoMeD, the Coalition for Mercury Free Drugs. Their 990 forms are avaiable on GuideStar.com:

2009 Form 990
2010 Form 990
2011 Form 990

In 2009, CoMeD was Mark Geier (President) and David Geier (VP). Mark Geier was paid $1000.

In 2010 and 2011, the officers are:

Mark Geier (Treasurer)
David Geier (VP)
Lisa Sykes (President)
Paul King (Secretary)

In 2010, officers were all paid $500 each. In 2011, officers were all paid $6,000 each.

CoMeD brought in the following sums:
2009: $12,693
2010: $61,062
2011: $121,217

That’s a big jump. A factor of 10 increase in 2 years. Where does CoMeD spend their money? In 2009 they list one contributer (JB and Lisa Handley, of Generation Rescue) with a $5,000 donation. They don’t list contributers in 2010, but in 2011 the contributers are:

ASD Centers, LLC: $103,915
James and Wendy Abrams: $20,000
Institute of Chronic Illness: $1,975
MEDCON: $5,083.

ASD Centers, Institute for Chronic Illness and MEDCON are all run by the Geiers. So, CoMeD is run by and mostly funded by the Geiers.

Where do they spend their money? Let’s focus on 2011 as it is the largest budget:

$44.6k on travel
$34.8k was spent on legal fees.
$24k on compensation of the officers.
$17k on printing and publications.
$15.3k on other professional services

So, CoMeD apparently spends its money on flying the Geiers around and paying attorneys. Plus paying the Geiers small salary. But they are the primary donors so CoMeD is paying the Geiers their own money. Plus printing and publications.

I would be very interested in seeing the details of these expenses. Especially considering how close inspection of expenses by the special masters in the vaccine court have routinely found strange accounting practices. The Geiers have been travelling to try to convince the U.N. to include a ban on thimerosal in vaccines in the global mercury treaty. They have brought lawsuits against two HHS secretaries (Leavitt and Sebelius. But did those require large legal fees? And that much travel? And publications? Their website certainly doesn’t cost much money. Perhaps there are flyers out there somewhere. Or, maybe, they are paying the publication charges for their papers?

Bottom line: if you want to pay the Geiers to travel the world, pay attorneys and pay themselves, this could be the charitable contribution for you.

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By Matt Carey

Boston Globe: Patrick fights Rotenberg shock therapy decree

16 Feb

The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is known for its use of electric shocks as an aversive therapy for behavior modification.  The center is named for Judge Rotenbrg, whose settlement decision 25 years ago allowed for then use of aversives.

The Governor of Massachusetts is now moving to nullify (vacate) that settlement decree.  The Boston Globe reports, Patrick fights Rotenberg shock therapy decree. (Note there is a paywall).

While some families and others connected with the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton argue that the skin-shock procedure is necessary to treat people with the most severe conditions, others say it is tantamount to torture. Disability rights advocates and some former patients have worked for years to shut down the ­center.

The state’s motion comes two months after federal health officials said they would stop paying for treatment at Rotenberg. If approved, it could mark the beginning of the end of that decades-long debate.

I’ve also been informed that the State’s medicaid office is moving to stop payments to facilities that use electric shock treatments, even for those who are not receiving the shocks.

The electric shock devices are being considered for FDA approval.

It looks like pressure is being brought to bear on JRC from many sides all at once. They could lose their settlement decree allowing for the use of aversives. The could fail to get FDA approval for their shock devices. They could lose federal and state funding. All told, it looks like the use of electric shocks at JRC may be coming to an end.

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Matt Carey

Gluyas v Best: autistic blogger wins defamation suit

16 Feb

Long time readers of this site may recall the name John Best. Mr. Best was a very active participant on online discussions, including this blog. Mr. Best is a staunch believer in the notion that autism is mercury poisoning and that chelation is the cure.

Over time Mr. Best’s activities have, in my opinion, increasingly focused on attacking people. For example, Phil Gluyas, an Australian autistic blogger.

Examples of blog posts Mr. Best has published include:

“Is Phil Gluyas the next Adam Lanza?”
“Phil Gluyas’ history of brutality”
“Severely deranged mental case sues me again”

For those familiar with John Best, a defamation case is not surprising. For those who are not familiar with Mr. Best, count yourself lucky.

The judge found in favor of Mr. Gluyas:

The defendant’s responses to the plaintiff’s views have gone well beyond the bounds of ordinary discussion and intellectual debate. The items posted by the defendant on the internet, concerning the plaintiff, contain an extraordinary level of invective and personal denigration, which, in some measure, have been repeated in two letters which he has forwarded to the court in response to the proceedings served on him.

and Mr. Best did not argue that his statements are true:

Taken together, the article, and the imputations to be derived from them, are highly defamatory of the plaintiff. Again, the defendant has not sought to plead and prove the truth of any of those allegations. As such, each of the allegations by him about the plaintiff are false.

This, and much more, led to Mr. Best losing the defamation suit. Instead of the originally requested $10,000, the judge awarded $50,000. With a comment that he could have gone even higher:

Taking into account the foregoing considerations, I consider that it is appropriate to award the plaintiff the sum of $50,000 damages to compensate him for the publications made by the defendant of the plaintiff in Victoria. I should add that, if I had been satisfied that the publication in Victoria of the items, of which the plaintiff complained, had been more widespread than that proven in the evidence, I would have awarded the plaintiff a considerably larger sum of damages

I fear that the ability of someone finding Mr. Best capable of paying anything, much less $50,000, is slim. Accomplishing that from Australia might be even more difficult. It is an attempt to get blood from a turnip. But, Mr. Gluyas has been awarded the right to draw blood from this turnip and that alone is a victory.

There is room to be critical of the actions of others online. John Best crossed that line. To quote the TV show “Friends”, “you’re so far past the line that you can’t even see the line! The line is a dot to you!”

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By Matt Carey

An autism reality show…run by Andrew Wakefield?

15 Feb

There is a TV reality show being shopped around right now focused on autism. The team behind this project includes Andrew Wakefield and Polly Tommey. They have an enterprise called the “autism media channel” which has been making YouTube videos for some time. But they have a promo for their “Autism Team” program which appears to be the basis for their reality show.

Where Mr. Wakefield failed to accomplish with science, where he failed to accomplish with books, he is now attempting to accomplish with TV: create the image that his ideas of autistic enterocolitis is a real entity and that he and his friends (such as Arthur Krigsman) are the source of hope for the autism community. Like many reality shows, it appears to be a commercial.

There is a blog post on the Autism Media Channel website, Guest Post by Autism Mother Diane-Cecilia Graham, which begins:

Did you know someone stole my children? He took them away from me and never intended to give them back but I am fighting him. I used all my skills and abilities to learn what I could about him. In battles knowing your enemy is your best defence. He is a mystery, his place of birth is unknown, his future is unpredictable, no one knows how far he can go and he snatches every child in a unique way and holds them captive for an indeterminable amount of time. He comes when you do not see him coming.

Very reminiscent of the “I am autism” video that Autism Speaks put out a few years back, to much criticism. Take autism and personify it as a monster, stealing children.

The framing is all too familiar: create an atmosphere of doom and gloom, plus fear, then bring in the heroes to save the day. The nice thing about TV is that there is no peer review. Editing for effect is expected. Facts are supposed to take backseat to a good story.

I didn’t consider this a viable project. But, Andrew Wakefield has been spotted at a convention for reality TV people recently. And he has the support of a husband/wife film maker/producer team who have a studio in Austin, his home town.

We are a community with great needs. There is no denying that the needs of autistics are often times very great. But I don’t see how a failed researcher, failed author turned TV reality show producer is on the path to a better future for this community. Especially when the failed researcher is one whose lost his medical license for multiple counts of unethical behavior.

Andrew Wakefield may have hit on something: being a business guy for TV or movies. He could probably sell a studio on the sequel to Plan 9 from Outer Space. But the thought of him creating a reality TV show in his image is frankly frightening.

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By Matt Carey

Note:edited to correct spelling of Ms. Tommey’s name

A look at the financials for Generation Rescue and the Strategic Autism Initiative

15 Feb

Generation Rescue is a well known charity with a focus on alternative therapies for autism and promoting the idea that vaccines cause autism. The Strategic Autism Initiative was formed by Andrew Wakefield after he left Thoughtful House (now the Johnson Center). Many of these organizations have close ties and, in fact, GR helped SAI get started with a $100k grant its first year.

The most recent tax forms are from 2011 and are below:

Generation Rescue IRS form 990Strategic Autism Initiative IRS form 990

Generation Rescue pulls in a great deal of money, nearly $1.2M. Of which about $240k goes to the “rescue grant” program. About $125k goes to running their website. Another $125k to pay their executive director.

Under grants, Generation Rescue (GR) has two:

$25,000 to the Strategic Autism Initiative
$20,000 to Jackson State University

Both “for researching causes of autism”. We see again the link between GR and SAI. Jackson State is the institution engaged by Generation Rescue and the SAI to perform a vaccinated/unvaccinated study using homeschooled kids. I’ll point out that when I reviewed the GR and SAI tax forms last year, I speculated that they were starting to fund the vax/unvaxed study.

Now consider the SAI’s form 990. SAI pulled in $284k. They paid out $250k in salaries and other compensations. Yep, 88% of intake went to salaries. Luckily they had a bit of a war chest from the year before to draw on. But let’s look at those salaries. Andrew Wakefield is compensated $200k/year for a reported 30hours/week. That’s $270k/year (his salary at Thoughtful House). Terri Arranga ( of AutismOne) was paid $28.8k for reported 15hours/week.

But, as I said, they had a war chest from 2010 (due in big part to a $100k donation from GR). How did they spend that? Well, they appear to have a grant of $25k to Generation Rescue for “research related to the vax/unvax study”. Which strikes me odd as GR gave SAI $25k, so it looks like the money went in a circle.

That said, what expenses did SAI report?

$158k to Dr. “Lenys G. Gonzalez” to work with Arthur Krigsman and Stephen Walker on “molecular and clinical signatures of inflammatory bowel disease and adverse vaccine reactions in autistic children.”

Lenny Gonzalez is a researcher in Venezuela who was funded by Wakefield at Thoughtful House in one of the supposed “independent” replications of Wakefield’s findings. Arthur Krigsman is a former colleague at Thoughful House, with a colorful history. Stephen Walker’s name comes up periodically in regards to a study he presented at IMFAR but never published which supposedly confirmed Andrew Wakefield’s finding of measles virus in intestinal tissues of autistics.

$43k for a study on “vaccination status and health outcomes among homeschool children in the United States”, with Anthony Mawson of Jackson State. Mr. Mawson was named as the lead researcher for this project back when GR was seeking funding from money left over from a class action lawsuit to fund it.

$86k for an “IRB approved” (are the others not?) investigation using the Florida Medicaid database. And, no surprise, this is to look at vaccines. (1) acute adverse reactions to vaccines as predictors of neurodevelopmental disorders and (2) age of vaccination and risk of adverse outcome.

I am curious if the Florida project is the same one the Geiers were attempting to get pushed through approval a few years ago. A t that time a vaccine-causation focused chiropractor and heavy political donor was pushing both access to the Florida medical records and for things like changing a bill to improve access to services for families with autistic children into a vaccine bill.

Many people might be wondering how Andrew Wakefield managed to gather half a million dollars in under two years. I can’t say for sure but I can put out some information for speculation.

One of his board members is Elizabeth Avellan. She also serves on the board for Mr. Wakefield’s “Autism Trust”, which lists her accomplishments as including ” highly successful film producer and co owner of Trouble Maker studios “. Troublemaker Studios has the “Spy Kids” franchise.

Another board member is Phil Rawlins. There was a Phil Rawlins in Austin who owned a soccer team. He has since moved to Florida.

So whatever skills he had, Mr. Wakefield is basically now a fundraiser. He’s good at it, you gotta hand it to him. I can think of a lot of ways that money could be better spent, though.

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By Matt Carey

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