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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.

Vaccines on the Hill III

26 Sep

Somehow I never thought there would be a “Vaccines on the Hill II”, much less III. That said, a question from Lisa (from about.autism.com) got me thinking and, well, I’d rather do this a post than a response.

I admit, this isn’t directly related to her comment, who commented on how David Kirby makes a point of stating he is not “anti-vaccine”.

Instead this is about frustrations with Mr. Kirby. As an example, let’s discuss how Mr. Kirby “quoted” a response that the CDC made to an NEIHS report in his congressional briefing. Yes, “quoted” is in quotes for a good reason.

On his presentation, page six, Mr. Kirby “quotes” (there’s those quotation marks again!) the NIEHS report:

NIH: “We identified several areas of weakness that were judged to reduce the usefulness of the VSD for addressing the potential association between exposure to thimerosal and risk of ASD.”

With the response from Dr. Gerberding at CDC of:

Gerberding General Response: CDC CONCURS

What was the real quote?

The panel identified several serious problems that were judged to reduce the usefulness of an ecologic study design using the VSD to address the potential association between thimerosal and the risk of AD/ASD.

Emphasis mine.

Yep. Mr. Kirby left out the fact that the NIEHS was specifically talking about ecological studies.

Makes a BIG difference in how that phrase is interpreted. This was a major part of two epiwonk blog posts, here and here. Mr. Kirby’s original blog post on this was retracted, so Mr. Kirby is well aware of the importance of the fact that the NIEHS limited the statement to ecological studies.

By the way, the real CDC response?

CDC Response: CDC concurs with this conclusion and does not plan to use VSD for ecological studies.

They did most certainly not concur with the statement that Mr Kirby “quoted”. Instead, they see the limitation for ecological studies. There is strength in using the VSD. They don’t see it as valuable for discussing the thimerosal/autism question, as we’ve discussed before.

Here’s the NEIHS report, and here, the CDC response.

Mr. Kirby’s “quote” of the NIH was incorrect. This isn’t incorrect in the way Dan Olmsted thinks that “has” vs. “have” is an important difference. No, the quote by Mr. Kirby completely changed the very meaning of the statement that NIEHS made and implied the CDC concurred with.

It sounds like Mr Kirby was caught red-handed trying it too, by a staffer who obviously came in very well informed. The bright side is that the legislature got an idea of Mr. Kirby’s tactics. The down side, they may not realize that the entire autism community is not represented by Mr. Kirby and his tactics.

This misinformation effort has already had an effect. Mr. Kirby’s original treatment of the CDC response made people think that the CDC position is that the Verstraten study was flawed. As epiwonk makes very clear, the opposite is true. The NIEHS panel suggested expanding the Verstraten study (which was not ecological) with additional years.

And people wonder why I get frustrated with Mr. Kirby.

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.

Autism's False Prophets selling well

26 Sep

“Autism’s False Prophets” has caused quite a stir in the autism-vaccine advocacy community. They started early and they worked somewhat hard to defuse the book’s impact. Consider an earlier post on the Age of Autism blog. This was titled “Phalse Profits: Offit’s Book Peaks At 8,173“.

The 8,173 was the rank of the book in Amazon.com. The blogger apparently had been watching day by day and noted the book’s rank. After the initial peak, the blogger reported back.

The blogger was trying to make a point that Dr. Offit’s book isn’t being purchased in high numbers. I never expected it too. As I write this, it has risen to #779. It was at 715 yesterday, but I haven’t been watching that closely to see if that was the “peak”. Not too shabby. It is also number 1 in a few categories, including:

Books > Science > Medicine > Administration > Policy > Health Care Delivery
Books > Science > Medicine > Administration > Policy > Public Health
Books > Professional > Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Biology > Microbiology

I don’t expect Age of Autism to write a correction. Then again, I didn’t expect longtime vaccine-autism activist Rick Rollens to admit that MMR doesn’t cause autism, so who knows?

In my mind I find an interesting analogy to Mark and David Geier declaring that the CDDS autism count showed “early downward trends”, indicating that, yes, thimerosal caused autism.

They seemed to stop watching and didn’t report back when it turned out that the “early” trend was, in fact, false.

They left that up to Schechter and Grether…

But, I digress. Autism’s False Prophets is not the kind of book to become a best seller. Too bad, really, as it is quite well done. But, that is not to say that the book isn’t doing quite well.

Good for whatever autism research group gets the proceeds. Yep, Dr. Offit is donating the proceeds to autism research.

Vaccines on the Hill part 2

25 Sep

We recently discussed the Malony briefing where she hosted David Kirby and Mark Blaxill in a discussion of autism and vaccines. As part of that post, I included a letter from Amy Pasani of Every Child By Two.

On a hunch, I checked with another organization, Voices For Vaccines, to see if they had contacted legislators. Lo and behold, they did:

Dear Senator or Representative:

The organizers of a briefing being held later today have listed your office as one from which a staff member will be in attendance. I would like to supply some information which may place the content of the briefing in context.

Today’s event, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, will feature Mr. David Kirby and Mr. Mark Blaxill speaking on the claim that vaccines cause autism. This is a notion which is not supported by scientific evidence. It is also one that has been recognized by the mainstream medical community as posing a threat to the health of Americans.

I am attaching an Open Letter to Congress, issued last June, in which 84 national, state, and local organizations emphasized their support for immunization as a cornerstone of United States public health, and made clear their desire for Congress to follow a sound, evidence-based course in evaluating legislation related to vaccines. As you are undoubtedly aware, this year brought a sharp upswing in cases of measles, most of which were associated with importation of the virus by unvaccinated individuals. These outbreaks reflect vaccine reluctance borne of misplaced fears. The agenda for today’s briefing indicates that it will fan, rather than quell, those fears.

While the presenters will no doubt couch their claims in scientific-sounding language and the rhetoric of impending doom, you can rest assured that no new information has emerged to lead credible scientists to raise concerns about vaccine safety. The popular concept of an “autism epidemic” is largely, if not wholly, an artifact of diagnostic shifts and a broadened definition of autism. There has been no government concession that vaccines cause autism, only that they might have hastened the appearance of autistic-like features in one Vaccine Injury Compensation Program claimant. What autistic people need and deserve is funding for legitimate research and programs that will improve their quality of life — not distractions that squander resources and promote panic.

For further information on these topics, I recommend the following sites:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Autism http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Immunization http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines

American Academy of Pediatrics – Autism http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/autism.cfm

American Academy of Pediatrics – Immunization http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/immunizations.cfm

Vaccine Education Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia http://vaccine.chop.edu

Best regards,

Lisa H. Randall, J.D.
Interim Executive Director
Voices For Vaccines
325 Swanton Way
Decatur, GA 30030
http://www.voicesforvaccines.org

If the reaction to Ms. Pisani’s letter is any guide, one sentence in the letter above will be particularly targeted by some vaccine-autism advocacy groups:

What autistic people need and deserve is funding for legitimate research and programs that will improve their quality of life — not distractions that squander resources and promote panic.

Some may complain about that, but not me.

Keeping the theme used for the previous post, I’ll close with this statement:

Why reproduce the Lisa Randall’s letter here? Because many in the greater autism community agree with Ms. Randall. This blogger certainly does. I hope that legislators know that members of the autism community side with Voices for Vaccines on this subject.

Vaccines on the Hill

25 Sep

With a hat-tip to Kim Stagliano at the Age of Autism blog. They got ahold of an email sent by Amy Pisani of Every Child by Two to legislators who were sending staffers to a briefing by Mark Blaxill and David Kirby on vaccines and autism.

Mr. Kirby promised to talk about, amongst other topics, Hannah Poling. That’s not what I would call a good briefing. A good briefing would be if the legislators asked HHS to talk to them about what the concession meant. Somehow, I think the two briefings would be significantly different. Then again, I suspect a briefing by the doctors who are studying that potential cause of developmental regression via mitochondrial dysfunction would also have a very different story to tell than Mr. Kirby. I strongly suspect that.

But, I digress, as I often do. You see, Every Child by Two thought that the legislators who were sending staff to the Kirby/Blaxill briefing should be informed that the information provided by that team was, well, not accepted by the mainstream.

The letter, respecfully written, respectfully submitted is quoted below. One reader of this blog asked Ms. Pisani for permission to reproduce it here. I am using the text from the AoA blog.

Why reproduce it here? Because many in the greater autism community agree with Ms. Pisani. This blogger certainly does. I hope that legislators know that many members of the autism community side with Every Child by Two on this subject.

So, after much delay, here is something written much better than the ramblings I’ve put together:

Today you have been invited to attend a briefing to provide “updates on the recent autism-vaccines debate”. While I recognize that most of you will likely be dealing with other priorities and will not attend the Maloney briefing, I write to you this morning because I feel it is critical to clarify that there is no debate among the scientific community regarding vaccines and autism. Instead, the debate rages on in the media due to the efforts of those who wish to sidetrack critical research away from finding the true cause(s) of autism and treating children and their families struggling with this condition.

‘Last week Dr. Paul Offit’s new book “Autism’s False Prophets, Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure” was published by Columbia University Press. This book is a must read for all those concerned with children dealing with autism. The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that “Offit’s account, written in layman’s terms and with the literary skill of good storytellers, provides important insight into the fatal flaws of the key arguments of vaccine alarmists, including such well-known names as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.), and Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.).” And the Wall Street Journal writes “Ever since psychiatrist Leo Kanner identified a neurological condition he called autism in 1943, parents whose children have been diagnosed with the most severe form of the illness — usually in the toddler stage, before age 3 — have found themselves desperately searching for some way not to lose their children to autism’s closed-off world. Unfortunately, such parents have often found misguided doctors, ill-informed psychologists and outright charlatans eager to proffer help.”

In 1999 I was pregnant with my first son just as the questions first arose regarding the MMR vaccine and subsequently the thimerosal in vaccines. After attending Congressman Burton’s hearings (quite pregnant I might add) I too became alarmed. Fortunately, as the Executive Director of Every Child By Two I had at my disposal the scientific research and advice of the world’s leading experts on vaccines and I was able to confidently vaccinate my son without fear of side effects. As of today, eleven studies now show that the MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism, six have shown that thimerosal doesn’t cause autism, and three have shown thimerosal doesn’t cause neurological problems.

I urge you to read a few of the reviews of Dr. Offit’s book which are listed below and contact us if you wish to have a copy sent to you.

I also ask that you please visit our new website www.vaccinateyourbaby.org – this site was unveiled in August with our new spokeswoman Actress Amanda Peet specifically for parents who have questions about vaccine safety.

at the risk of making this an extremely long blog post, let me do what the Age of Autism did not do: list some of the reviews of the book.

A definitive analysis of a dangerous and unnecessary controversy that has put the lives of children at risk. Paul A. Offit shows how bad science can take hold of the public consciousness and lead to personal decisions that endanger the health of small children. Every parent who has doubts about the wisdom of vaccinating their kids should read this book. — Peter C. Doherty, Ph.D., St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and Nobel Laureate in Medicine for fundamental contributions in Immunology

As a parent it is my job to protect my children. Hearing all the rumors about vaccine side effects made me question the right thing to do. This book makes it clear that vaccines save lives, and that they clearly do not cause autism. — Amy Pisani, mother

In his latest book Paul A. Offit unfolds the story of autism, infectious diseases, and immunization that has captivated our attention for the last decade. His lively account explores the intersection of science, special interests, and personal courage. It is provocative reading for anyone whose life has been touched by the challenge of autism spectrum disorders. — Susan K. Klein, MD, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve Hospital, and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Case Medical Center

No one has been more vocal-or courageous-than Paul A. Offit in exposing the false and dangerous claims of the growing antivaccine movement. Offit’s latest book lays waste to the supposed link between autism and vaccination while showing how easily Americans have been bamboozled into compromising the health of their own children. Autism’s False Prophets is a must read for parents seeking to fully understand the risks and rewards of vaccination in our modern world. — David Oshinsky, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History for Polio: An American Story

All good reviews. But, dang, a Nobel Laureate in Medicine. Not just medicine but immunology? Plus a Pulitzer prize winner? Begs the question of why the Age of Autism didn’t include them.

I am so glad that they offered Dr. Offit’s book to the legislators. I hope that the legislators, or their healthcare legislative assistants take them up on the offer. It’s a well written book, and fairly concise. It really explains how we (the autism communities) got here (into a big mess where vaccines are such a high profile subject–at least in the media) even though we shouldn’t be (because the science has been done repeatedly and shown no link).

Word back on the briefing is that about 75 people attended–a mix of staffers, parents, possibly even a member of the press. One representative was noted. Mr. Kirby gave the short version of his talk (the full version is quite long–take a look at his power point presentations sometime!). But, we can all rest assured that Mr. Kirby is there to save the vaccine program (I do hope that autism-one puts this briefing on their website. I need to hear that claim by Mr. Kirby with my own ears). Mr Blaxill took on the “sickest generation ever” theme, common to the vaccine rejectionists (a claim that has been addressed ably by epiwonk).

But, again, I digress. Let me bring you back to what I see as the one message I think you should take home from this post (repeated from above):

Why reproduce it [Ms. Pisani’s letter] here? Because many in the greater autism community agree with Ms. Pisani. This blogger certainly does. I hope that legislators know that many members of the autism community side with Every Child by Two on this subject.

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.

David, I am not embarrased but puzzled

23 Sep

I just read David Kirby’s short post dig on Age of Autism at the review Dr. Rahul K. Parikh made yesterday on Salon.com. I am quite puzzled by David’s post I have to say.

In his overly simplistic way, this pediatrician from Northern California, who has repeatedly ignored third-party invitations to debate me in an open forum, praises Dr. Paul Offit for his attacks on groups like DAN! and Generation Rescue, while holding up Autism Speaks as a bastion of rational scientific thinking, one that does not succumb to what this doctor calls the “slanted science” of thimerosal research:

While Offit focuses on those groups (like Defeat Autism Now! and Generation Rescue) that have been very confrontational and that support slanted science, there are many … groups (like Autism Speaks) that have been broader in their search for autism’s causes and cure.

Overly simplistic is not a fair or polite way to describe Dr. Parikh or the review at Salon. The quote David chooses to single out is precise and accurate. DAN! and GR _are_ confrontational. Several of their members have expressed themselves in terms that are aggressive and violent. They _do_ support slanted science. Generation Rescue once published an ad in (I think) the NYT that thanked researchers for their work on mercury. Several of the named researchers immediately sent an (unpublished) letter to the editor to protest that their work was misrepresented. How much more slanted can you get?

And David, if you’re going to take Dr Parikh to task for ignoring invitations to debate you in an open forum, should I take you to task for refusing to participate in a debate with me in an open forum? Because you did.

David then goes on to suggest that Autism Speaks are just as slanted as GR or DAN! by citing the fact that they have sanctioned three studies that concentrate on vaccines.

Dr. Parikh – Please get your rhetorical ducks in a row, or refrain from participating in this discussion altogether. Misinformation is a dangerous thing. If Autism Speaks is not “slanted,” then how do you explain their support for thimerosal-autism research?

If we look back at what Dr Parikh actually _said_ we can see the picture is clear. Dr Parikh said:

….there are many … groups (like Autism Speaks) that have been broader in their search for autism’s causes and cure.

Autism Speaks have funded three out of twelve studies that concentrate on vaccines. I would not describe a 25% hit rate as supporting thiomersal-autism research. I would describe it exactly as Dr Parikh – ‘broader in their search’. In other words, 75% of their research is _not_ about vaccines. That’s pretty broad.

Its a puzzle. I can only think David didn’t understand Dr Parikh’s rhetoric. I’ll close with an echo of David’s challenge to Dr Parikh. If you ever do change your mind about the debate – a debate in the most open arena of all – a weblog – just let me know. There’ll be no money in it at all but you’ll be able to say you did what Dr Parikh didn’t and accepted the challenge.

Dr Parikh responds.

Scientology and HBOT

23 Sep

At the start of the month I read a post about HBOT on the OC Register. Standard fare but something about it nagged away at me.

I realised it was the sidebar where the author had listed two purveyors of HBOT in Orange County. One of them was called Whitaker Wellness. The name rang a bell so I found the website and lo and behold, found the connection – Julian Whitaker, MD.

Whitaker Wellness in Costa Mesa was the first hyperbaric oxygen therapy clinic in Orange County to treat a large number of autistic patients.

I first blogged about Whitaker two years ago. It turns out that he has some interesting friends:

[Whitaker]….is with the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, established by the Church of Scientology to expose what the church calls psychiatric violations of human rights and who pushes a variety of CAM treatments including chelation.

My goodness these Scientologists get about.

Julian Whitaker is – like all DAN! docs and Scientologists down on toxins and big on how to get rid of them all but intriguingly the word ‘autism’ is not used once on his website, although a web search for Dr Whitaker and autism reveals lots of results.

I was concerned two years ago at the prospect of Scientologists being so involved with the autism/antivax movement and I still am. I hope Dr Whitaker is totally upfront with all his patients regarding his beliefs.

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