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David Kirby – Thimerosal does not cause autism

29 Oct

In something of a jaw-on-chest admission, David has finally admitted that thimerosal does not cause autism:

David Kirby, a journalist and author of “Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy,” said he believed that thimerosal, which still exists in trace amounts in some childhood vaccines, was no longer the “smoking gun.” Several national studies have found no connection, and a California study found that, even after thimerosal was removed from vaccines, diagnoses of autism continued to rise.

I would go on to say then that the claim that mercury in vaccines ever caused a never-established autism ‘epidemic’ needs to be retracted also. I would further like to see David (who has appeared on TV, Radio and in the press speaking as if thimerosal was definitely the cause) question his previous belief that this was ever a medical controversy.

We need to be clear on this issue. In the US, the idea that mercury in vaccines cause autism is the reason so many parents are not vaccinating their children. David was the chief media spokesperson in this belief and whilst it is gratifying to hear him publicly admit thimerosal does not cause autism – it needs to be proclaimed widely and David needs be much more public than this.

However, its not all good.

But, he said, the links between vaccines and conditions like autism are still strong and more research is needed.

Conditions like autism or autism?

David seems to have moved from targetting thimerosal to simply targeting vaccines in general. Contrary to his statement that there are strong links between autism and vaccines, the fact is that there are none. No decent science supports this hypotheses and (with apologies to David) he has a now self-admittedly bad track record when talking about ‘strong links’ between vaccines and autism. David’s ‘strong link‘ between thiomersal and autism was CDDS data and we all know how that one turned out. I’d ask David to please consider very carefully his ideas about ‘strong links’ of today turning around to bite him in the future. Does international public health really need another three/four year gambol through the wilderness based on a non scientific ‘strong link’ which in reality is simply an opinion?

We all know the recent makeover the vaccine hypotheses has been getting. Generation Rescue now no longer claim that autism is simply mercury poisoning for which the cure is two years chelation resulting in a child 100% neurotypical, no different from their peers. SafeMinds – an organisation dedicated to Mercury in their very name – attack MMR, a vaccine that has never contained mercury. Jenny McCarthy is now on board and gives credence to the idea that an average parent (such as myself) knows more about the sciences of medicine, epidemiology, toxicology etc etc than specialists who have spent years in their field. Whilst at the same time Ms McCarthy simply cannot keep her story straight about incidents from her book or even when her son was recovered or not.

The inconsistencies mount and mount and whilst I am glad that David has admitted the non-role of thimerosal in autism causation this is simply the tip of the iceberg. Are Generation Rescue, SafeMinds, NAA, TreatingAutism, A-CHAMP queuing up to admit the same? Are these same organisation prepared to go back onto the same TV/Radio stations they first proudly proclaimed they knew the cause and had the cure and admit they were wrong? Or will it all continue to be held behind the Emerald City of the new ‘Green Our vaccines where we are urged to never, ever look behind the curtain in case we see the simple, obvious truth about the grand machinations?

Every Child By Two: Oprah, Jenny McCarthy et al

20 Oct

An email from Amy Pisani – a thoroughly charming lady who runs the organisation Every Child By Two – made me nod appreciatively today. I’ll quote it in full:

It has been quite some time since Every Child By Two (ECBT) has asked you to take action on an issue related to immunizations. I write to you today with an urgent request for your assistance in reaching out to the Oprah Winfrey Show to urge that she dedicate a show to the science behind the question of whether vaccines cause autism.

More than fourteen credible studies have been conducted worldwide exonerating vaccines and yet the media and entertainment industry continue to frame this as a debate. ECBT and our public health partners have reached out to Oprah’s producers countless times without success. However, I recently had a lengthy conversation with one of the producers who recommended that we initiate a letter writing campaign by commenting within the Oprah.com feedback section of the website. This information is tabulated to determine whether there is enough interest to conduct follow up shows.

I urge you to take five minutes to fill out the Oprah Winfrey Show online form by following the link below. In your comments, please request that Oprah invite credible scientists and/or physicians to explain the science of vaccines to her viewers. We also would like her to invite parents who have suffered the loss of a child from a vaccine-preventable disease, and a parent of an autistic child who can speak on behalf of the many families that are frustrated over the continued focus on vaccines and their supposed link to autism and the therapies that focus on “repairing vaccine damage”. Please relate any personal experiences you may have with vaccine-preventable diseases or autism. In addition, please refer the Oprah Winfrey Show to Amy Pisani, Executive Director of Every Child By Two, for any follow-up questions.

And finally, please forward this to your family and friends and request that they also reach out to the Oprah Winfrey Show.

https://www.oprah.com/ord/plugform.jsp?plugId=215

An excellent idea. I’d like to see a show that mirrors the one sided show that Jenny McCarthy recently got – the one where she was free to spout off her latest game of ‘cure the Evan‘ (he’s cured, no he’s not, yes he is….) but this time with a careful step by step walk through the science that:

…is largely complete. Ten epidemiological studies [plus two clinical ones and the testimony of Stephen Bustin] have shown MMR doesn’t cause autism; six have shown thimerosal doesn’t cause autism; three have shown thimerosal doesn’t cause subtle neurological problems; a growing body of evidence now points to the genes that are linked to autism; and despite the removal of thimerosal from vaccines in 2001 [and the 10% drop in MMR uptake between 1997-2007], the number of children with continues to rise.

– Autism’s False Prophets, Page 247. Dr Paul Offit.

Compare this hard, clinical, transparent (and thus independent) science with Mother Warrior Jenny McCarthy’s recent evangelical call to arms:

“I made a deal with God,” she explains. “I said, ‘You fix my boy, you show me the way and I’ll teach the world how I did it.'”

Hallelujah! Or whatever. To misquote the Pythons – she’s not the Messiah, she’s just a very silly girl.

Please act on Amy Pisani’s request – do it right now.

Why now, Jenny?

6 Oct

I try to stay away from mind reading. It is all too prevalent on the internet: “I know why so and so did such and such.” That said, who didn’t find the timing odd of Jenny McCarthy’s Amanda Peet attack and that really strange interview where Ms. McCarthy “forgives” Barbara Walters?

For those who have been lucky enough to miss this mess, here are brief timelines.

Amanda Peet gave an interview to Cookie Magazine for their August issue. It went online about July 10th. In that interview, she commented that people who don’t vaccinate are parasites. A week later (about July 17), Ms. Peet came out with an apology. I thought it was very well written, and have since been pleased to confirm that yes, indeed, Ms. Peet wrote it herself.

Fast-forward to September 30. That’s when Jenny McCarthy decided that it was time to make a public statement about the apology. That’s what, 7 weeks later? Of course, it’s also a week after Jenny’s book debuted.

Story line two: Let’s go all the way back to September, 2007. Jenny McCarthy is on “The View” for her first autism-book tour. Barbara Walters committed a terrible “sin”: she actually treated it like an interview and questioned Jenny McCarthy. I’d like to show you the video, but the video is now pulled from YouTube and the link to the video from the more recent story (which included the bit from “The View” also doesn’t seem to work anymore.)

Some short time after taping “The View” Ms. McCarthy was at a TACA picnic where she is said to have made some rather rude suggestions towards Ms. Walters.

Fast-forward to the present. On September 29th, Ms. McCarthy “forgave” Barbara Walters.

No, really. After Ms. McCarthy got a bit cross on the show and then took it out on Barbara Walters at the TACA picnic, she “forgives” Barbara Walters.

Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

In that same interview, according to Ms. McCarthy (and only according to her, since Ms. Walters seems above responding to this), there was a bit of a heated exchange backstage with Ms. Walters after taping “The View”. Ms. McCarthy gives no indication of whether she (Ms. McCarthy) lost her cool at all.

But now, you see Ms. McCarthy understands what was going on with Barbara Walters. Remember that intro about “reading people’s minds”? Well, missing from the timeline above is the fact that Barbara Walters came out with, Audtion, a Memoir. In Audition, Ms. Walters discusses her life growing up with a special needs sister. Soooo, back to the mind-reading: Jenny McCarthy says that Barbara Walters was angry that she (Jenny) cured her son, while Barbara Walters had to go through tough times with her sister.

Yep.

Of course, did this “forgiveness” come out say, in May, when Audtion came out? No. Jenny McCarthy waited 4 months and “forgave” Ms. Walters…during the book tour for Warrior Mothers. (and after it was pretty clear that she wasn’t going to be a guest on “The View” this time).

Anyone want to guess how long before Jenny McCarthy apologizes to Ms. Walters for the rude statements?

Somehow I don’t think it’s going to happen. If I put on my mind-reading hat, I would say that these recent publicity events were, well, just that: publicity. Staged for the time when it benefited Ms. McCarthy.

I’m not shocked by the idea that a celebrity would work the press. Would anyone?

Let’s take another look at the timeline, shall we? Let’s take a look at how Jenny McCarthy’s book tours have created a buzz. As a measure, let’s use Google Trends. Google Trends gives you a rough idea of search engine traffic for specific terms. In this case, I chose “Jenny McCarthy” as the search term.

Let’s look back when Ms. McCarthy was doing the “Louder than Words” book tour, shall we? (click to enlarge)

It’s pretty impressive. For about 2 weeks, the search traffic was much higher than the average, reaching a peak of about 14 times the normal traffic for Jenny McCarthy.

Let’s expand this so we can see from 2007 to the present, shall we? (click to enlarge)

Google Trends for Jenny McCarthy 2007-2008

Google Trends for Jenny McCarthy 2007-2008

First, note that these data are week-by-week, not the day-by-day of the first figure. This smooths things out some, so the 14x peek we saw before is only about 7x in this graph. Still impressive. So, how about the traffic for “Mother Warriors”? I don’t see it either. Let’s zoom back in, but on the last 30 days. (click to enlarge)

Last 30 days Google Trends for Jenny McCarthy

Last 30 days Google Trends for Jenny McCarthy

(here’s the original graph from Google if you want to see it).

Warrior Mothers came out on the 23rd. See that little blip? This is a day-by-day trend, so we can compare to the first graph that showed a 14x spike in search traffic and a two-week increase. Instead, looks like it went up to about 1.7 and came back down fast.

But, wait, there’s another peak in early October? It goes to 4.

Remember those media events described above: the attack on Amanda Peet and the “forgiving” of Barbara Walters? Those happened on the 29th and 30th of September. After attacking Amanda Peet in the press, the Jenny McCarthy “buzz” went up.

Again, the timing is just too coincidental to suggest anything by a calculated decision by Ms. McCarthy.

Even though the buzz was low for Mother Warriors, this doesn’t mean that “Mother Warriors” is a flop. Supposedly it made “best seller” status.

As a rule of thumb, it takes about 100,000 copies of a book sold to get to be a “Best Seller”. As a second rule of thumb, that means about $350,000 for the author.

For “Louder than Words” Jenny McCarthy stated (if I recall correctly) that a portion of the proceeds would go to the UCLA autism program, if I recall correctly. I haven’t heard such a statement, or any statement about “Mother Warriors”.

Of course, she and Jim Carrey have been (and will almost certainly continue to be) proud supporters of Generation Rescue. They paid for a full page ad in USA Today–which I seem to recall being about $200,000. The thing is, I don’t consider that benefiting the autism community–or the community at large.

Jenny McCarthy’s potential for book profits are obvious. By improving her “brand” she also stands to gain from sales of her educational DVD’s and her soon to roll-out “Too Good by Jenny” products. That’s enough to set off conflict-of-interest alarm bells for many in the vaccines-cause-autism community. OK, that sets a pretty low bar, but you get the idea.

This sort of observation begs for comparison. As long as Jenny McCarthy is attacking Amanda Peet, let’s take a look at how much Amanda Peet makes from being a spokesperson for Every Child By Two and their Vaccinate Your Baby campaign.

ZILCH

Yes, that would be zero. As in nothing. As in she’s doing it because she thinks it’s the right thing to do. I somehow doubt the Generation Rescue crowd will believe that (or the fact that Amanda Peet wrote her own apology). They don’t seem to believe that anyone would act except out of financial self interest…well, except Ms. McCarthy. They also don’t want to admit that Paul Offit has no more conflict of interest, or acknowledge that he isn’t going to profit from Autism’s False Prophets. Seriously, I’ve seen them challenge whether he will actually donate the money.

A statement above sticks with me as I finish this post: Setting the Bar Low. When it comes to standards of behavior, yes, I think Ms. McCarthy has set the bar low. The question in my mind is this: Is she taking on the standards set by her organization or does she fit the organization because they have similar standards?

Reality bites back II

2 Oct

Its all going wrong for the believers of the vaccine/autism religion. This was supposed to be the time of their Fall offensive, spearheaded of course by Mother Warrior Jenny McCarthy and her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.

So far though, the media seem markedly less keen to talk to her about her recovering/no, recovered/ah….recovering/no, recovered/oh whatever autistic child. And the science is beginning to get equal air time. Recently, Dr. Ari Brown, Dr Lou Cooper and our very own Ken participated alongside a couple of minor league celebs on a discussion regarding autism and vaccines on the US show Good Morning America.

Yesterday the Age of Autism exhorted its members to mob a website that had created a Jenny vs Amanda poll (because popularity contests will definitely help autistic people). When the Pharyngula blog got wind of this PZ, the blog owner, asked his readers to vote too. The outcome?

Yikes.

The world view of the autism/vaccine zealots was shaken mightily yesterday. They’ve always imagined themselves as a large group with considerable power. Yesterday, they got squashed like a flea on a windscreen over something as meaningless as a celeb poll. Imagine how they must’ve felt to read some of the comments there. In fact, I’ve been tracking a lot of the gossip websites who’ve mentioned Jenny of late. She’s not popular outside her own crowd. Parents of autistic kids are catching on. Here’s a quote from someone I do not know and have never heard of before today commenting on Hollywood Today:

I am a single father of an autistic child and agree that Jenny Mcarthy is doing more harm than good. Why do we put more credibility in an actress / playboy bunny than doctors and other more credible sources.

And a mother of two autistic kids says on Ecorazzi:

As a mother with TWO autistic children, I find McCarthy’s ignorance appalling. Don’t we have enough difficulty in dealing with and understanding the Autism Spectrum without letting fad pseudo-science sway our families away from proper health care for our children?

These are not isolated examples I am very happy to report.

Yesterday the mercury militia – who think we’re just a few people compared to their ‘tens of thousands’ got a great big wet fish slap of reality.

Mother Warrior McCarthy is now complaining the US Presidential candidates are snubbing her. For goodness sake, why on earth did you ever think they would listen to you? You’re a D-list celeb who can’t even get her story straight on whether her son is recovered or not.

Anyway, she says:

I literally flew to go see MCCain, his team agreed to it (meeting), I was prepped and then all of a sudden his campaign manager said, ‘We’re ahead in the polls and this is a very, very touchy subject. Let’s not give this interview right now.

Wow, McCain employs the worst PR people in the world. They tell someone that they’re not going to interview them as they’re too controversial. How convenient for Jenny!

I’m thinking the conversation went something more like this:

JM: Hi, I’m Jenny McCarthy, can I speak to John McCain?

PR Dude: Sorry? You’re who?

JM: Jenny McCarthy, I’ve appeared in films such as ‘Scary Movie 3’ and…uh…

PR Dude: Whatever…why do you want to speak to the boss?

JM: About vaccines and autism! They’re poisoning our kids! Except mine is now recovered! No, wait – I have a book coming out, make that ‘recoverING’.

PR Dude: The country – no, the world – is in a national financial crisis and you want to talk to the boss about some quacky ideas never supported by science. Go away lady.

JM: But…but…I’m JENNY MCCARTHY…BULLSHIT!….BULLSHIT!!! (Where’s the camera?)

Now Jenny is desperate to get ahold of Obama:

MCCarthy is now desperately hoping Barack Obama, MCCain’s opponent in the race for the White House, agrees to champion her cause and address the autism versus vaccines issue.
She says, “We are trying (to contact him)… We have sent numerous (requests).

This is the same Barrack Obama who has said:

I am not for selective vaccination, I believe that it will bring back deadly diseases, like polio.

He might see you Jenny. Me might even pretend to listen. You might even get your picture taken with him. Better yet, he might pass on the opportunity to see you and then you can tell people how its a big conspiracy. You might even manage to squeeze another book out of it.

None of that will change reality though. The tide isn’t changing just yet but there’s been a few signs that it might be on its way.

Mother Warriors – the cost

26 Sep

I recently posted an entry about the health costs being one of Jenny McCarthy’s Mother Warriors can exact on the Mother Warrior in questions kids. It was a pretty horrific litany of blown veins, heavy medications and screaming kids being restrained by adults in order to receive IV Chelation. Sometimes in babies as young as 13 months.

Today I thought we might take a look at the range of treatments on offer and how, in order to be a true Mother Warrior, you are expected to know them all.

Stan Kurtz recently produced a list (PDF) of the typical treatments one of Jenny McCarthy’s Mother Warriors are expected to know and use. There are a mindboggling 150+ different treatments.

Of course, a parent is not supposed to use all 150+ in one go. No, they are expected to use the ones that ‘work best’ for them. This is of course under the care of a DAN doctor – who sometimes might actually be a doctor, sometimes they might not.

In reality, what we have is a list of things that are used on a trial and error basis. There is absolutely no way to know which are having an effect and which are not. Even the most simple test of – is my child ‘less autistic’ than they were before is not an accurate judge. It is well know that autistic kids improve with age and to be perfectly frank, most of the ‘recovery stories’ I’ve read are stories of kids who are still very much autistic and really not in a very different place than my own.

A Mother Warrior on her blog reports the cost of ‘recovering/curing’ her autistic child:

$15,039

Here’s the breakdown:
DAN Doctors $2000
GI Doctor $6000
Private Labs $2000
Supplements & RX $2000
Speech & ABA $3000

Additionally, we spent $500 for respite care once a week (a special needs babysitter). We also paid an unknown amount in expensive GFCF foods, like $6 per bag of wheat-free pretzels….

In 2008, we will add the additional expense of IV chelation at $320 a month.

And how do they describe their child now?

After implementation of the gluten-free, casein-free (GFCF) diet, our son regained eye-contact and lost the repetitive behaviors. Six weeks after initiating an anti-fungal drug to counter the yeast overgrowth in the intestines, our non-verbal almost three-year-old child began to speak and gesture. He gained 120 new words in two months. We supplemented specific vitamins and minerals, and we saw evidence of his immune system starting to respond properly. After treating the gut inflammation with anti-inflammatory drugs, he began to eat a better variety of foods and started toilet training.

………

He is now four years old, and he speaks in simple sentences. He has mastered letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. He sings songs and laughs at humorous things. His demeanor is sweet and cute. He will attend preschool with his peers this fall. All of his special education teachers and therapists are amazed by his unprecedented progress.

I always feel deeply saddened when I read stories like this. This is just simple development and education. I know so many autistic kids who are at similar stages of development and/or could report near-identical things. And yet these parents have near bankrupted themselves for no real reason.

This is far from an unusual situation. A 2005 survey reports:

The mean number of current treatments being used by parents was seven….

These parents are bankrupting themselves and the DAN fraternity et al are watching the money come rolling in.

Getting back to Chief Mother Warrior McCarthy. Apparently in her new book and on Oprah she veered between describing her son as ‘recovered’ and ‘recovering’:

…And lets get back to where this started. Jenny said her son Evan, HAD autism.

This surprised me because in her both of her books she repeatedly says he is IN RECOVERY or RECOVERED from autism. She doesn’t ever say CURED – though it is implied. In her book she says that if/when he is sick – his symptoms of autism resurface. So, then it is not really ‘gone’, right? And all the biomedical treatments did with him (the gfcf diet, supplements, threelac, b12, [chelation/HBot]) does she no longer need to do these? I’m just thinking out loud.

This isn’t the first time McCarthy has cut her message to her audience with no regard for the accuracy of what she’s saying:

So, in April 2008, Evan McCarthy is recovered (‘we believe what helped Evan recover…’). Not recovering but recovered. We can also see that among the treatments the helped Evan ‘recover’ is ‘detox of metals’.

Fast forward two months later and apparently Even needs chelation. Why? Back in April he’s recovered. Now he’s not? Now he needs chelation?

Apparently, at the last Autism One conference, McCarthy was asked about the expense of treatments. She answered:

I just need you guys to be creative in your thinking and say we’re going to give up Starbucks this year.

Does anyone you know have a coffee habit of $15k per year?

Jenny McCarthy isn’t living in the real world. A massively well-off celebrity lecturing people to give up a coffee in order to finance a totally fabricated treatment schedule that she can’t decide from one month to the next has cured her son or not? And people _listen_ to her? People give her _credence_ ?

Katie Wright was interviewed by Jenny McCarthy for her new book. Another rich Warrior Mother who doesn’t live in the real world where scrabbling to make ends meet is the first priority. Not ‘living in the moment’ and not really having to worry about where the next months food is coming from.

Warrior Mothers? These people have fought for nothing.

Whilst Mother Warrior McCarthy Oprahed…

25 Sep

David Kirby, who recently had a puzzling and somewhat inexplicable spat with Dr Rahul Parikh was carrying the torch for the male contingent of the autism/antivax crusaders along with Mother Fu…sorry..Worrier Dad…sorry…chief of the quackosphere (term not coined by me but too good not to use) Mark Blaxill at a meeting set up by a political person called Maloney in Washington.

It reminded me quite a lot of the meeting David tried to have with MP’s and Lords over here in June. Then, nobody showed except my MP who I asked to attend to protest on my behalf. What would happen this time?

Well, according to David himself 135 people showed up including 2 US Reps in person (these are the people David wanted to speak to. If I’m right, the event organiser, Carolyn Maloney is a Congresswoman in the House of Reps so, if thats true, there was really 1 US rep other than her) 58 Reps sent staffers (staffers are bottom feeders sent by people who can’t – or don’t really want to – make it. Like glorified gophers.) and 30 Senators sent staffers. So that’s 90 politicals (of whom – lets be honest – only 2, possibly 1, actually count).

Other people there included AAP, CDC, FDA etc.

Anyway, AoA posted two images of the event:

Now, is anyone else looking at those pictures and thinking ‘135 people? Really?‘. It reminds me a little of the odd maths that resulted in an attendance of 8 – 10,000 at the green our vaccines rally.

This event is trumpeted at AoA as ‘standing room only’. Really? Because I can count quite a lot of available sitting room in those photos. Maybe a thought for next time would be to not exaggerate your claims and then post photographs that contradict them.

There was also a very interesting comment left on AoA by a guy called David Atkinson who said:

I happen to be in town on business and I just came back from this meeting. It was a pretty small room but yes it was packed. I am guessing about 50-70 were there. From the looks of it, most were staffers and there were a few parents like myself. I know there were at least 2-3 senators and I am not sure how many if any representatives. David presented very well as usual and then Mark added his piece as well. After this, there were questions taken from the staffers. There were a few pointed questions. I felt that they were quite divisive and loaded questions. This was really dissapointing to me. Mark did a great job at defending and taking these questions on. I was quite impressed with his eloquence as I would have probably killed the snotty little staffer that was quesioning Davids slides. Overall it was a useful meeting. However, for me who doesnt participate in this type of thing very often, I dont feel it was hugely impactful. It didnt seem like this meeting will be any type of game changer for our community but I am a rookie at this. Hopefully I am wrong on that. Great job to David and Mark. I am more inspired now to try to be more active and help out……I would like to help more in future.

Looking at the photos, I would agree with Atkinson that there were about 50 – 70 people there. I would also agree that this not much of a game changer.

Anyway, I guess 1 or 2 US reps is better than the zero that turned up in London. To me though its just growing evidence to support my view that the autism/vax ideas have truly jumped the shark. Anti-vaccine related deaths in the UK, hundreds of anti-vaccine related hospitalisations in the US and ever growing studies showing no association get the message across.

Jenny McCarthy's Mother Warriors

24 Sep

Jenny McCarthy’s bullshit-fest starts up again today. Look forward to her and Jim Carrey on various US talk shows.

Her new book is called ‘Mother Warriors: A Nation of Parents Healing Autism Against All Odds’ which is equally amusing (mother warriors?) and, well, bollocks. A nation of parents healing autism? Really? Where? I’ve been having this conversation with the autism/antivax loons for over five years now: show me the kids who were once autistic who are now cured by biomed? And I don’t mean your sisters best friends cousins kid, I mean case studies. I keep hearing that there are _thousands_ of these kids – surely some doctor treating them somewhere thought – hey, a case study would be a good idea.

And this definitely includes Chief Mother Warrior McCarthy herself and her somewhat loose definition of what ‘healing autism’ is. I posted awhile ago about how Chief Mother Warrior McCarthy had described her son as recovered (as oppose to recover_ing_) in April this year and then go on to describe how she was planning to chelate Evan in June 2008. Why? If he’s recovered, why is the poor lad being subjected to chelation?

Meh, cup and ball trick much?

So, I thought – given that Chief Mother Warrior McCarthy is doing it – that we might take a closer look at chelation in the form of quotes from Mother Warrior’s on the CK2 (Chelating Kids 2) Yahoo group. I’ll say up front, it makes pretty grim reading but I think people need to know what exactly being a Mother Warrior entails. These are all from different people.

It just takes time. My twins (almost 8 now) have been doing IV CaEDTA roughly every 2 weeks for over 3 years (71 and 78 IVs). The first half-dozen or so were really traumatic, then the kids started realizing it really wasn’t so bad after all and got to the point where they didn’t need to be held anymore, then they didn’t cry anymore, etc.

My son is 6 and I have to hold him down for the IVs – we’ve done 10. Today he got poked 3 times and has purple hands from blowing veins. As I’m lying on him, both of us sweating with 2 nurses trying to do the IV, I’m thinking is is worth it?

I used to give my son a valium before the IV’s when we first started. We had to give him 15 mgs when he was about 90 pounds.

We give my son 300 mg of L-Theanine 90 minutes prior to the IV…

We are considering IV chelation with our almost 7yr old. We started with nutritional IV’s just to see how he would do. THe first one was rough the second was a piece of cake. My Mom instinct tell me they made him feel better…

We do IV chelation on experienced regression during the first 3 or 4 months. I would consider them “healing” regressions, though because he didn’t stay in a regressed state and always came out of the regression….

Now these are bad. Blown veins, chelation over periods of years, kids being medicated to calm them down from their obvious terror. But these next are worse.

Any thoughts or experiences with chelation on children under 16 months? The child in question was tested moderately mercury toxic….

My 15 month old son had a porphyns test by Phillipe Auguste labs that showed very high lead and mercury that spiked off the page, so our DAN is starting him on DMSA suppositories once his OAT test comes back demonstrating that he’s medically stable enough to chelate…

We actually began chelating our son at age 2

And the absolute crowning horror. There aren’t words for this last one so I’m just going to quote it. Remember – this is an example of McCarthy’s Mother Warriors in action describing a process she was going to try on her own son.

I started chelating my son at 13 months of age w/ IVs. Dr Bradstreet’s office chelates little kids. It was actually easier to give him the IVs before he turned 2. My DAN, Scott Smith, says that kids under 3 chelate much faster and it is a good idea to start early.

Arthur Allen – vaccine skeptics vs your kids

11 Sep

Whilst, I’m not sure that the people Arthur is writing about are skeptics as I understand the term (having a scientifically valid basis for not accepting an argument or position), I know what he means. And he’s right that it is this group of people vs the health of people everywhere.

The sub-header is even more accurate ‘immune to reason’. One only has to take a look over at the recent rantings on a certain blog we all know about where the latest themes are:

1) Presidential candidate Barack Obama is now a big pharma shill because he told one of them: “I am not for selective vaccination, I believe that it will bring back deadly diseases, like polio.”.

2) The latest study in a long line of studies that show once more there is no link between MMR and autism is both flawed and exonerates one of their heroes.

3) Kathleen Seidel is wrong because….uh….well, no one knows why but she must be. Apparently.

Immune to reason indeed.

As Arthur points out, there is a great deal at stake:

…in the last trimester of her pregnancy, Helena Moran caught a cough that she couldn’t get rid of. She figured she’d picked up the germ—whatever it was—from one of her patients at a Boulder dentist’s office. But the real nightmare began after her daughter, Evelina, was born: The baby began to cough and cough, and then she’d curl up in a little ball and turn blue. At the emergency room, she was diagnosed with whooping cough. She spent the next five weeks in intensive care and suffered permanent lung damage.

Now, this isn’t *all* the fault of the so-called autism community, but as I’ve discussed before, I’m ashamed to say that a lot of it is.

….the movement got a huge boost from the controversy over the mercury-laden preservative thimerosal, which some theorized might be linked to autism. That link has been disproven—by, if nothing else, the fact that autism rates remained steady after pediatricians and public health authorities told manufacturers to stop making thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines in 1999. But the anti-vaccine movement has kept going, finding ever new reasons to distrust immunization.

The are a lot of zealots out there who have fed upon the autism community. A parent who might not believe vaccines case autism listens to horror stories and reads links sent to them from such places of quackery as whale.to who are nothing to do with the autism community but who market their own brand of ridiculousness (the owner of whale.to believes dolphins can manipulate gravity and has the pictures to prove it!) regarding vaccines and the autism parent greedily sucks it down.

Arthur discuss the practice of abusing ‘religious exemption’ by these people:

Right now, in many states, all it takes to get an exemption from vaccine requirements is signing a form. Some, including a group of doctors at Johns Hopkins University, have proposed making it harder—allowing a philosophical exemption only after parents demonstrate a good-faith effort to educate themselves.

But an article I read in yesterdays ‘Edmond Sun’ stated:

….a person “who has reached the age of majority and is mentally competent to do so may justifiably refuse immunizations for himself or herself, but may not impose this refusal on a child, who has no choice in the matter.” Courts have consistently upheld this principle.

That makes sense to me. Who would want to refuse such a simple thing that has no link of any kind to autism?

Arthur closes with the following:

But while questioning authority is healthy, facts are facts. If vaccines really were responsible for autism, it would be too much to ask parents to do the altruistic thing. But more than a dozen studies have failed to discover such a link—and not a single legitimate study has shown that one exists.

He’s spot on. All the celebs and all the money in the world cannot change that simple fact. We need to get past this. Those who believe autism is caused by vaccines need to put up or shut up. They are holding up progress on autism research and causing the health of our societies to suffer.

I urge readers to visit Arthur’s piece and read the comments. The first few demonstrate exactly the sort of mindset Arthur is talking about – the one’s who bring shame on the autism community. They truly are immune to reason.

Autism's False Prophets

5 Sep
Autism's False Prophets. Bad science, risky medicine and the search for a cure - Dr Paul Offit

Autism's False Prophets. Bad science, risky medicine and the search for a cure - Dr Paul Offit

Available now – Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Canada.

NB – Dr Offit is donating all profits from this book to autism research.

So. Here’s the short review: holy shit, this is a good book, you need to buy it and pass it on. Make your local library stock a copy or three.

Here’s the longer review.

The book begins – after a dedication that made me grin from ear to ear – with a quote so acutely apposite that its like Professor Szasz said it to perfectly sum up the book and the last ten years:

When religion was strong and science weak,
men mistook magic for medicine.
Now, when science is strong and religion weak,
men mistake medicine for magic.

I knew Dr Offit got a lot of hate mail. What I didn’t know was the extent and the utter viciousness of it. From the books prologue:

Whilst sitting in my office, I got a phone call from a man who said that he and I shared the same concerns. We both wanted what was best for our children. He wanted what was best for his son, giving his name and age. And he presumed I wanted what was best for my children, giving their names and ages and where they went to school. His implication was clear. He knew where my children went to school. Then he hung up.

I can empathise. I’ve had cowards directly or indirectly threaten my kids too. We know who I’m referring to.

Offit refuses to feel sorry for himself and goes on to describe in painstaking detail the circumstances surrounding the rise and fall of the two main vaccine/autism ideas: MMR and thimerosal. He paints a vivid and (in my experience) completely accurate portrait of Andrew Wakefield as a vainglorious but weak king who simply doesn’t have the courage to admit his own wrongdoing. Offit recounts an anecdote from one time Wakefield supporter, John March. The setting is a meeting between March, lawyer Richard Barr and Andrew Wakefield, called to discuss their litigation strategy.

[March]…presented his data….he told them there was no difference between the children with autism and controls, he suddenly found that the meeting had moved on to a different subject. It was a Damascene conversion for him. He realised that Wakefield could not hear negative results.

Offit (rightly) does not spare Wakefield at all. This is the man who is literally, the architect of the whole idea that vaccines cause autism. Offit quotes Wakefield in an interview with US show ’60 minutes’ in 2001:

I would have enormous regrets if [my theories] were wrong and there were complications or fatalities from measles.

In Feb this year, the Gaurdian reported:

There were 971 cases of measles in England and Wales in 2007 in contrast to 740 the previous year — a rise of over 30% and the highest jump since records began in 1995, said the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Two teenagers have died of measles in the UK. One in 2006. One in 2008. Are there any signs of Wakefield’s profound regrets?

Offit goes on to study the thiomersal hypothesis from the beginning of the noughties to 2007 and the Cedillo hearings.

It is a strange feeling reading an account of events that you have been so intimately involved in talking about for the last five years. From the bizarre Bernard et al paper and the outright insistence of certain writers and founders of autism/anti-vaccine groups that autism was just another name for mercury poisoning, through Kathleen’s demolition of the Geier’s credibility and science, all the way to Jenny McCarthy’s Oprah showboating.

The main feeling I got was how much a lot of this was now _history_ – as Offit clearly and devastatingly argues, the science has spoken. Vaccines don’t cause autism. And as I blogged about recently, it seems pretty clear that the US public are (rightly) more concerned about the possible resurgence of killer diseases such as measles than they are to keep flogging the dead horse of autism anti-vaccinationism.

But my all time favourite part of the book was the final section. My friends were interviewed at length and the clearest feeling I had from this section was – you threw everything at us. Your money, your influence, your political power. We’re still standing. You threatened us with legal action – we’re still standing. You called us and our children names and threatened their well being. We’re still standing.

Paul Offit has written a real page-turner of a book here. One that should matter to every single autistic person and every single parent of an autistic person. Ultimately, its a book written to support autistic people. Why? because it seeks to close the door on a debate with no scientific merit. Will it do that? Possibly not, we are not dealing with rational people by and large. But what it will do is once and for all dispel the notion that ‘the parents’ who believe vaccines cause autism must be listened to solely because they are parents. Amen to that.

"I don't believe that"

29 Aug

To promote his new book ‘Autism’s False Prophets. Bad science, risky medicine and the search for a cure’ (Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Canada) – and look for a review here very, very soon – Dr Paul Offit went on the US radio show Talk of the nation ‘Science Friday’ earlier today.

It turned into a microcosm of exactly the sort of scenario that those of us who have blogged about this for some time have come to expect. A question, a reasoned response and then a flat statement of denial.

The show began with the show host (who’s name I didn’t catch) asking why people weren’t vaccinating. Offit gave the answers we all know.

Then the show took a turn into what could’ve been a blog argument on any one of a number of blogs – including this one. A caller called Chantelle/Chantal came on the line and essentially asked Dr Offit how it could possibly be safe for a newborn to receive up to 1250micrograms of Aluminium and that there hadn’t been any studies on how Aluminium could affect a child. She said –

that is why I will not follow the CDC’s guidelines….my child will be vaccinated on my own schedule.

(Her emphasis)

Dr Offit answered with a brief overview of Aluminium’s role in a vaccine is and then told Chantal the simple truth – one that I blogged about fairly recently – there’s more Aluminium in between 50 days to a years worth of breast milk than in the entire vaccine schedule:

We live on the planet Earth. If we choose to live on the planet Earth that means we’re going to be exposed to light metals like Aluminium and heavy metals like mercury.

Chantal then seemed (I wasn’t entirely clear) to want to compare kids with kidney issues (who clearly need to be careful with Aluminium) with _all_ kids. As Dr Offit stated – that’s hardly a valid or real-world comparison.

Then the host asked a great question:

Chantal, is there anything Dr Offit could tell you that would change your mind

.

The answer: “Absolutely not”.

And there we have it. That is the rock bottom of every single argument the autism/antivax brigade peddle. Screw the science, screw the facts. I just don’t want to hear it and I will put my fingers in my ears and make ‘la-la’ noises until you go away.

Chantal then goes on to justify this ridiculous stance by saying (a la Jenny McCarthy) that there is no independent science supporting vaccine safety. This is tosh. A study this is submitted for peer review to a science journal is peer reviewed by independent experts from the relevant field all over the world. And then, the ultimate test of impartiality takes place – the science is either replicated or it isn’t. Replicated science _has to be_ by definition be independent of its author. How could it not be? If we want to see the opposite of reproducible science, then that can be arranged.

Chantal goes on to say that Dr Offit ‘makes millions’ from speaking about the safety of vaccines. A bizarre claim that I’m pretty sure is not true. He then goes on to describe the ‘high bar’ that vaccine studies must pass. Studies with tens of thousands of participants.

Next, Chantal tries the ‘too many too soon’ dogma that we’ve become recently familiar with. She claims ‘six at one time is absurd’. Dr Offit gives Chantal some facts to play with on that score too:

…the bacteria that live on their nose [a newborn], or the surface of their throat are literally in the trillions. Those bacteria have between 2,000 and 6,000 immunological components and consequently our body makes grams of antibody to combat these bacteria….The number of immunological challenges contained in vaccines is not figuratively, it is literally a drop in the ocean of what you encounter every day.

(Emphasis his, slight paraphrasing)

Chantal then got a bit snappy.

So tell me…how many studies have been done on vaccine loading, which means five or six vaccines at one time. How many?

Dr Offit’s answer:

Somewhere in the vicinity of the high hundreds to low thousands.

Chantal:

I don’t believe that.

Boom! There it is again – she simply doesn’t believe it. Screw the facts, screw the evidence, my fingers are going right back in my ears…la-la-la-la…I can’t hear you…

Dr Offit explains further that any vaccine in the US has to undergo something called a ‘concomitant use study’. These are to establish that vaccines work OK together.

You have to show that vaccine does not interfere with the immune response or the safety of existing vaccines and similarly that existing vaccines don’t interfere with the immune response or the safety of the new vaccine

Dr Offit said ‘high hundreds to low thousands’ of studies (Chantal didn’t believe that remember). A simple Google search reveals over 1,800 results for that phrase. Searching PubMed for ‘concomitant vaccine’ returns over 700.

Dr Offit closes the interview by saying he doesn’t believe all parents are as close minded as Chantal. He uses a nicer phrase than that as he’s a gentleman but that’s how I see it. Close minded to the point of obstinate stupidity.

For some people, it truly doesn’t matter what the facts are, or what the science is. They just stick their fingers in their ears.

La-la-la.

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