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The past is present (non autism related post)

5 Jan

Kev has recently discussed the book, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. Besides discussing the dangers the movement poses in its current form, Dr. Offit puts the anti-vaccine movement into historical perspective.

Ever since there was vaccination, there was a resistance to the practice. One of the easiest hooks is to discuss the ingredients. In the case of the original vaccine (which used the cowpox virus to protect humans against smallpox), the target was clear: it comes from cows. One of the more famous images was a cartoon made by James Gillray, showing people growing cow parts after vaccination (click image to enlarge):

It’s so 19th century. Or, is it?

I wasn’t aware of this image (or didn’t remember it) before I read the book. I was taken aback by the similarity to recent imagery used to frighten people about the rotavirus vaccine. If you recall, fragments of a pig virus were found in one of the rotavirus vaccine brands. This was a time for a reasoned, serious discussion. Was there potential for these virus fragments to be harmful? (as it turns out, the virus does not infect humans. It is even found in the fecal matter of humans who have recently eaten pig products).

Here’s one image:

Yeah, kinda cute and funny. The text of the post has headings like “Rotavirus Vaccines Use Monkey, Cow, Pig Materials for Production” and, for some odd reason, “Using Cancer Cells to Produce Vaccines? ” What this has to do with pig virus fragments in rotavirus vaccine is beyond me. The post goes on to link to a video by Barbara Loe Fisher, who discusses “fatal pig viruses”. Fatal to infant pigs, yes. Fatal to humans, no. But, Ms. Fisher doesn’t make that distinction.

Here’s another image, this time from the Age of Autism blog:

There is room for a real vaccine safety movement. In fact, vaccine safety advocates have been successful in creating real change. Dr. Offit makes this clear in his book. But scaring people with these images isn’t helping anyone.

Autism and the Affluent

4 Jan

Autism and the Affluent is a piece in today’s Newsweek by Seth Mnookin, author of the upcoming book, The Panic Virus. It lays out how he got started on the book. Here is the first paragraph:

My wife and I first noticed our friends’ preoccupation with autism and vaccines in late 2007, right around the time former TV star and Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy published the first of several bestsellers in which she claimed that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine had probably given her son autism. As we soon discovered, McCarthy’s intuition-based approach to medicine (she referred to it as “mommy instinct”) had a number of adherents among our friends.

The rest can be found on the NewsWeek website.

Deadly Choices: The myth of the mild disease

29 Dec

I’ve started reading Deadly Choices and goodness me its a breath of fresh air in terms of factual analysis and also writing skill. The last autism book I read was Age of Autism so you’ll appreciate how great the difference is.

I’ll be blogging about Deadly Choices a fair bit I guess and I guess Sullivan will too (after all he is Bonnie Offit) and in this first blog post I want to discuss why the idea that certain illnesses are perceived (and indeed promoted) by the anti-vaccine lobby as mild and therefore of no risk – just another excuse to stick us all with another needle containing who knows what!!

The book Deadly Choices, makes this point crystal clear in the Introduction. Regarding a Hib outbreak in Minnesota:

[parents]…were afraid that vaccines contained dangerous additives, or that children received too many vaccines too soon; or that vaccines caused autism

…

…one mother reconsidered her decision: ” the doctor looked at me and said, ‘Your son is going to die, he doesn’t have much time.’ Honestly, I never really understood how severe the risk [was] that we put our son at.”

Deadly choices indeed.

And what about mumps? In 2009, an outbreak caused by an unvaccinated traveller coming back from England caused a chain reaction that infected over 1500 people in 8 months. The end result?

When it was over, mumps was found to have caused pancreatitis, meningitis, deafness, facial paralysis or inflammation of the ovaries in sixty-five people, nineteen were hospitalised.

Hib and mumps are just two of the diseases previously easily controlled by vaccines that are now becoming rampant again due to poor vaccination rates and the fact that such deadly and crippling diseases are now just a plane ride away.

The Peril of Parent Testimony – Stem Cell Treatment for Autism

15 Dec

It usually begins naively enough – the parent of a newly-diagnosed child launches a search into the Wild, Wild West of the World Wide Web, searching for help and hope for a diagnosis they are still struggling to grasp.

Soon parents may find themselves on internet support forums and in email groups, surrounded by parents promoting everything from the plausibly helpful to the fantastically impossible.

Some parents may become part of a new peer group – an online pack of believers, where pack status is determined by the number of experimental treatments employed and the claims made regarding these treatments. Alpha pack status is achieved when a parent claims to have “recovered” or “almost recovered” their child, often by applying an arbitrary definition of “recovered,” or even an extrapolated percentage of recovery. Every developmental tick is attributed to the most recent treatment addition, adverse reactions are attributed to healing, and anyone questioning the pack interpretation is considered an intruder in the anthill.

The appeal of these claims is obvious. The truth, however, may be another matter. With autism, there are always newcomers to the ranks of the recently-diagnosed, whose parents are unfamiliar with the histories of popularized treatments, fantastic claims, and failed treatment prophecies.

Eventually, even well-meaning parents may be sucked into the vortex of upping the treatment ante and believing their own fantastic claims, and may remember history differently in order to rationalize and justify the invasive and risky treatments their children are forced to endure. The pursuit of treatment itself becomes a drug — impairing objectivity, dulling recollection, and often, even obscuring the truth.

And so it goes with the Faiella family. Daniel and Ruth frequently thrust their son, Matthew, now 10, into the media to promote hyperbaric and stem-cell treatment for autism, and they have done so yet again, in Local Father Says Controversial Treatments For Autism Work. Matthew has previously endured four stem cell transplants, the fourth not only involving lumbar puncture, according to Daniel Faiella’s blog, but also a frightening experience with anesthesia in a developing central American country.

Unfortunately, Mr. Faiella later removed his harrowing account of anesthesia and the stem cell lumbar puncture from his blog, and though left an entry stating that he still “believes” in the clinic, along with plenty of graphic pictures of his son undergoing this procedure. The search results for his original post concerning Matthew’s dangerous experience are all that now remain:

Aug 10, 2010 … I would never do a spinal stem cell injection again! I can’t just write the good without writing the obstacle that we went through! …
recoveringmatthew.blogspot.com/…/i-would-never-do-spinal-stem-cell.html
Aug 10, 2010 … We also believe Matthew got way too much anesthesia! Thankfully, we were able to get these behaviors to go away by doing many hours of deep …
recoveringmatthew.blogspot.com/…/i-would-never-do-spinal-stem-cell.html

Mr. Faiella has also self-published a book, Out of the Darkness: The Faiella Family’s Journey to Recover their Autistic Son, encompassing a number of alternative and questionable treatments. According to the Amazon page where it is sold, the book appears to be endorsed by JB Handley, of Generation Rescue and Age of Autism, as well as a number of individuals in the DAN treatment community. Recognition and notoriety – the mirage of a maverick hero “rescuing” a child — seems to glorify and goad along risky experimentation on children with autism.

The current news article depicting the Faiella family’s upcoming stem cell journey to Panama includes many elements typical of such accounts, such as the dreaded institutional prognosis rendered by the diagnostician. This has been a recurring theme in the Faiella treatment testimony, as has the impression that Matthew only recently acquired particular skills that are then attributed to the current treatments. As in a media article published when Matthew was seven:

“Faiella recently gained the ability to use words and loves to share his passion for drawing pictures.

Matthew’s dad said his son was diagnosed with autism at 18 months, and doctors warned he eventually would need to be institutionalized.

“They gave us really no hope,” Daniel Faiella said. “We broke down and cried, but I looked at the doctor and said, ‘Not my son. Not on my watch. I’m going to do whatever I can.'”

And another — Matthew is turning nine years old:

Published : Monday, 02 Nov 2009, 8:00 PM EST
WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WIVB) – Like most eight-year-old boys, Matthew Faiella of Williamsville loves playing with his action figures. Unlike most boys his age, he has an incredible talent for sketching, and can also speak Spanish.
It’s hard to imagine, just two years ago, Matthew, who lives with autism, couldn’t even string two words together.
“It was very sad to see, he was in his own little world. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t communicate,” said Daniel Faiella, Matthew’s father.

The dramatic statements made in media opportunities regarding Matthew’s diagnostic baseline, (institutional) prognosis, and progress have changed significantly from the original parent testimony posted in public internet locations five years ago. According to Matthew’s mother, “momtoMatthew,” the diagnostic baselines and prognoses were quite different then:

When Matthew was four years old, his mother wrote:

“Matthew was diagnosed at age 20 months to have PDD/NOS. This neurologist just doesn’t seem to agree with that diagnosis at all. He says Matthew is just too different to be given that diagnosis. His is very loving, able to learn easily, is learning to read, can write beautifully, and has a great memory to the point of possible photographic memory.”

Several months later (Dec 2005), momtoMatthew explains that:

“Matthew was diagnosed as language delay at 18 months, then that diagnosis was changed to PDD-NOS at 22 months. He had the PDD/NOS label until just a short few weeks ago. […] In the end they told us that NO he is not on the spectrum. However, he does have a SEVERE receptive/expressive language disorder. […] They told me that with TONS of speech therapy he could get to be so typical that no one would know he had ever had a disorder at all.”

Matthew is likely now diagnosed accurately as on the spectrum, as his parents do report. Interestingly, this is apparent in the very youtube video ICM (apparently the stem cell clinic) posted to advertise the treatment. The Faiellas now depict Matthew as “85% recovered” on a charitable site soliciting donations for his additional stem cell transplants. The meaning of “85% recovered” remains unclear, as does the remaining 15% of autism to be eradicated with a 5th stem cell treatment.

Matthew is a charming young man and has made wonderful progress over time. This would understandably pique the interest of a “new” set of parental eyes unfamiliar with the history, especially since his progress is now being attributed largely to hbot and stem cell transplants. However, according to past parent testimony, Matthew has been communicating, speaking in sentences, answering questions, following 3 to 4-step directions, reading, spelling, writing, and drawing long before his hyperbaric oxygen and stem cell treatments:

Dec 2005: Having just turned five years old, Matthew can indeed communicate in sentences, and on this occasion, language progress is attributed to supplements:

“After giving him his supplements, I would say within 15 to 20 minutes he was much calmer and happily playing with some toys. He came over to me a few minutes later and said “excuse me mommy, I want to watch the dog movie.”

Matthew was spelling and reading words at age 3 or 4, and mom states that his handwriting was advanced for his age of 6 at this time:

Despite the parents’ claims that Matthew’s developmental gains are more recent and due to stem cell treatments and hbot, Matthew had made significant progress by the time he was 5, according to mom:

“My ds has come a long way since he was first dx’d. At that time he was completely non-verbal, he could not follow any sort of direction, he would spend at least a quarter of the day spinning in circles or hand flapping (or both).
Today he is a little chatterbox, can follow directions fairly well..even 3 and 4 step directions, he no longer spins or flaps, and his receptive language is much better.”

And also as a five-year-old, mom reports that Matthew was initiating conversation, answering questions, and speaking in sentences:

It is curious that Matthew’s parents later edited and deleted the seemingly contradictory content of these past public posts, following the publication of their book and numerous media articles (checked using an address captured in the screenshots). Perhaps this is most unfortunate for the parents themselves — these at least served as markers along the path that Matthew actually traveled, in case they ever wish to find their way back.

When parent testimonies take on a life of their own, the well-meaning parents responsible may have lost their way, lost their boundaries, and even lost their recollection of the child that actually was – a happy, healthy boy who has been learning, loving, and making progress all along.

Internet testimonies and fantastic treatment claims: approach with caution.

Book Sales: The Age of Autism and Callous Disregard

15 Dec

I tapped my source one last time for book sales figures for “The Age of Autism” and “Callous Disregard”. The Age of Autism was written by Mark Blaxill (board member of SafeMinds and one of the three principle editors of the blog, Age of Autism) and Dan Olmsted (former UPI editor, principle editor and, from what I can tell, owner of the Age of Autism blog). Callous Disregard is Andrew Wakefield’s account of the events which landed him before the General Medical Council and resulted in him being removed from the UK medical register.

Total book sales to date:

Age of Autism: 2301
Callous Disregard: 2925

Last week five copies of Callous Disregard were sold.

Last week The Age of Autism sold 130 copies–38 in Minneapolis St. Paul and 35 in Norfolk, Virginia. This appears to coincide with book signing events in those locations. The week before that, The Age of Autism sold 57 copies.

These figures must be disappointing. If not to the authors, to the publishers.

I may post an update with this week’s book sales. Either way, there isn’t much reason to continue the discussion of these books. When they are available in the remainder book outlets (with this few sales, there won’t be a lot of used copies and little chance for paperback editions) I will likely obtain copies of each. I’ve already read them, but they are interesting from a historical perspective. It will be a good exercise to see how these books read ten years from now. If history is kind to these authors, it will be by neglecting them.

Mitochondrial Dysfunction and autism. Brief Q and A with lead author

13 Dec

Mitochondrial Dysfunction was thrust back into the news again earlier this month when a team from UC Davis led by Professor Cecilia Giulivi discovered:

In this exploratory study, children with autism were more likely to have mitochondrial dysfunction, mtDNA overreplication, and mtDNA deletions than typically developing children

In itself this is a fascinating development and the first true look at whether autistic children were more likely or not to have mtDNA dysfunction(s).

However, as ever in the world of autism, the world of the anti-vaccinationists are never far behind. This passage from Harold Doherty demonstrates this bizarre need to always conflate the two:

The Poling family was successful in advancing a vaccine injury claim on behalf of their daughter Hannah Poling to the point of settlement by US authorities. Hannah’s father is Dr. Jon Poling, a practicing neurologist in Athens, Georgia, and clinical assistant professor at the Medical College of Georgia. He reviewed his daughter’s case in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on April 11, 2008. In his comments Dr. Poling explained how mitchondrial dysfunction was related to his daughter’s case and to the existence of a possible mitochondrial dysfunction subgroup of autism disorder. He also discussed, as a medical doctor who expressly recognized the importance of vaccines in preventing serious diseases, the need for public health authorities to abandon fear tactics and conduct research to restore confidence in public health authorities and vaccines

In order to try and staunch the upcoming flood of misunderstandings and false statements like those implied by Doherty (and John Poling whom other mtDNA specialists such as John Shoffner clearly don’t trust on the issue), I contacted Professor Giulivi and asked her three simple questions about the study she is lead author of. She supplied three simple answers.

KL: Do you think, based on available science (including your paper) that vaccines cause autism?

CG: We do not have any evidence for this in our study. Our study was cross-sectional not longitudinal so it cannot point to any cause (not just vaccines), meaning we do not have anydata supporting one way or another.

KL: If so, why is this? Does it follow (in your opinion) that mitochondrial dysfunction can be triggered by a vaccine?

CG: Again, please see (1).

KL: Do you believe your own paper adds weight to any opinion regarding autism causation by any means?

CG: No. At this point we do not know if it is mainly genetic, environmental or a combination of both. Again, with a cross-sectional study you get a snapshot of the situation but not how you got to that situation.

There you have it. The lead author of the study everyone is raving about is very carefully pointing out that the study in question does not add weight to _any_ hypothesis of autism causation, let alone vaccines.

SafeMinds retaliates against skeptic blogger

7 Dec

SafeMinds is an organization with the stated purpose to “…to restore health and protect future generations by eradicating the devastation of autism and associated health disorders induced by mercury and other man made toxicants. ” SafeMinds has stayed with this purpose even as the years have gone by and the evidence has mounted that the SafeMinds hypothesis was incorrect (autism is not a form of mercury poisoning). Recently, SafeMinds produced an advertisement, framed as a public service announcement, focusing on mercury in the flu vaccine and tried to get these shown in movie theaters. As we discussed here recently, Elyse over at Skepchick started an effort to inform the movie theaters about SafeMinds. Her effort snowballed into a large petition and resulted in the movie theaters deciding to not show the SafeMinds advertisement.

Recently, SafeMinds has chosen to leave the discussion of ideas and take on Elyse in a personal attack, through their media effort at the Age of Autism. SafeMinds is not only a key sponsor of Age of Autism, but Mark Blaxill (SafeMinds board member) is one of the three principle editors of the Age of Autism blog.

Again, rather than discuss the issues, they pulled Elyse’s facebook photo


and posted this message

This is the woman who fought to pull the SafeMinds PSA’s from the theatres. It’s her FB profile page photo. She is anti-choice and wants to tell you that mercury is safe and that Thimeosal is good – according to her blog. She trolls AofA regularly. As do all the pro-vaccine-injury bloggers.

It was a call to mock and insult Elyse. A perfect example of cyber bullying. Amongst the comments to that FaceBook page was one extreme enough that one of the Age of Autism editors noted it and promised to remove it. “While I agree that the broken thermometer comment was out of order (the blog does not condone violent speech, so that comments is going.”

It took a while for them to make good on the promise. As in many hours later, after Elyse reported the abuse to the police. That comment does appear to be gone now. Many other abusive comments (but not all) also appear to be removed.

Rather than apologize for inciting the bullying effort, SafeMinds/AgeofAutism are defending themselves by claiming that Elyse was standing in the way of choice.

Stopping Americans unable to understand? What is she St. Skepchick? She interefered with medical choice and commerce. That’s her right to make the attempt. We dis not use her name. We pulled her public photo that she used here on FB. We ran it on FB, not the main site – our readers deserved to know who was behind (at the outer level anyway) the AMC campaign to stop the ads. We provide news. This was news.

No. It wasn’t news. And, no, Elyse was not interfering with medical choice or commerce. She was quite simply providing the theaters with information–allowing them to make informed consent about the SafeMinds advertisement.

The idea of SafeMinds being pro-choice on vaccines is rather ironic. Again a story from their outlet blog, the Age of Autism makes this clear. Two years ago, a theater in New Mexico was going to show the movie “Horton Hears a Who” combined with a free vaccination clinic. At that time, they had a connection to Horton star, Jim Carrey. Instead of allowing choice, providing information, they got Jim Carrey to force the cancellation of the event:

Following a long discussion with his representatives at Fox Entertainment – Who-ville – once again through Horton – was heard. The New Mexico test market of drive thru vaccines while at the movies with your children was stopped. Halted by Horton himself because he heard “we are here, we are here, we are here!” once again.

The bullying attack on Elyse wasn’t about choice, it was just a childish attempt at some sort of petty vengeance. Unfortunately it got out of control. I thank SafeMinds and the Age of Autism for editing the comments, but even what is left is unacceptable. It’s time for apologies, not excuses.

Don’t Take the Risk: Get the Facts on SafeMinds

1 Dec

No matter what your position is on SafeMinds, I bet you found that title somewhat overly sensational. You may have thought that there was a not-so-hidden message in it. I’d love to know what your initial reaction was. Think it over before going on.

Here is one of the banner icons from the SafeMinds website. “Don’t Take The Risk” (big letters) above “Get the Facts on the Flu Vaccine” (smaller letters, below). What message does this send?

So, once again I’ll ask you to think about your initial reaction to the title of this blog post. If you found it sensational, if you found it leading, what do you think about the SafeMinds banner?

That banner is from the site you go to if you follow their advice to get more information at “safemindsflu.org”. You may recall that SafeMinds was collecting donations to fund the placement of their advertisement about flu vaccines, an ad that asked you to go to safemindsflu.org. As it turns out that fundraising effort was at least partially for naught. You can read about it in Orac’s Something to be thankful for: No anti-vaccine propaganda with my Harry Potter, or at skepchick’s Let’s all go to the movies and save ourselves some lives.

As you might guess from Autism News Beat’s, AMC says no to shouting fire in a crowded theater, AMC movie theaters decided that they would pass on the opportunity to show the SafeMinds advertisements.

Why? Well, according to a comment left on the AMC community discussion forum by an AMC employee:

Ryan Noonan, Official Rep, replied 12 hours ago
Thank you for your feedback.

I understand there’s a lot of passion on both sides of this issue, however, as an entertainment company, AMC feels our movie screens are not the proper forum for this debate.

Quite right: public service announcements aren’t for the promotion of a debate. As if to prove AMC’s decision correct, the forum then devolved into the usual debate on mercury in vaccines, with much of the usual misinformation and, as Mr. Noonan notes, name-calling:

Thank you all for taking the time to post. As I have addressed, AMC Theatres have not and will not be airing any spot about this topic. While we appreciate the feedback received, we consider this matter closed.

Per Get Satisfaction’s community guidelines, discussion about topics unrelated to AMC Theatres, as well as name calling are against Get Satisfaction’s community guidelines. Despite numerous requests to refrain from debating issues not related to AMC Theatres, there continues to be discussion and debate about vaccination. Because this is not the proper forum for this debate, I am deleting this thread, as well as any subsequent discussion about this topic in this community.

The advertisement was to put both SafeMinds and their position in the public eye. Those who wanted to could then read more on the SafeMindsFlu.org website. Here is an example of what you will find there. Under the heading “If You Are Pregnant or Have Small Children . . .”

Look at the evidence and decide if you consider the influenza virus a true threat to your family. Also consider the evidence regarding, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine in actually preventing influenza.

If you do decide to vaccinate, insist on mercury–free influenza vaccines for yourself and your children.

Do not combine the flu vaccine with other vaccines.

Do not let yourself be pressured into receiving a vaccine that you don’t want; insist that your doctor or pharmacist find you a mercury-free vaccine

Let’s look at those points.

1) “Look at the evidence and decide if you consider the influenza virus a true threat to your family.” Well, unless you are immune to influenza, then, yes, it is a threat to your family. The question is how much of a threat, not whether it is a threat. The second part is valid, consider the effectiveness of the vaccine. I would add, consider that any medical procedure, including vaccines, carries some risk.

2) “If you do decide to vaccinate, insist on mercury–free influenza vaccines for yourself and your children.” Sounds like they’ve made up your mind for you on the mercury discussion.

3) “Do not combine the flu vaccine with other vaccines.” Why would that be? Especially, why would that be from the position of mercury exposure? If, as SafeMinds claims, this discussion is about reducing the exposure to mercury, why avoid, say, a mercury free flu shot in combination with a mercury free measles/mumps/rubella shot?

4) “Do not let yourself be pressured into receiving a vaccine that you don’t want; insist that your doctor or pharmacist find you a mercury-free vaccine “. But do let yourself get pressured by SafeMinds, as they have already made up your mind that you must have mercury-free vaccines.

SafeMinds goes on:

All vaccines pose some risk, with or without mercury content. However, the influenza vaccine is of great concern, as many brands contain high levels of mercury. SafeMinds recommends that consumers read package inserts for any vaccine prior to immunization.

No idea given as to what constitutes a “high level” of mercury. Given that SafeMinds bills themselves as an autism organization, one would assume that flu vaccines have a low level of mercury. Why? Because the level of mercury in a flu vaccine doesn’t cause autism. (It is worth noting that no level of mercury exposure has been shown to cause autism).

There are valid questions that should be raised about any medical procedure, vaccines included. One reason why SafeMinds gathers so much criticism is that they do not act as a vaccine safety organization. Instead, they are an organization which uses vaccine safety information and questions.

SafeMinds cites studies in Pediatrics, some authored by employees of the CDC or vaccine manufacturors to support some of their claims that the influenza vaccine may not be effective in pregnant women and their infants. Those familiar with SafeMinds will find this ironic as any of those affiliations appear to be a basis to immediately disregard any paper that goes against the SafeMinds positions.

Another example of the methods used by SafeMinds which are deservedly criticized is their approach to the issue of the flu-mist vaccine. They give citations which conclude that the flumist vaccine (which is thimerosal free) is more effective than the injected vaccine. However, SafeMinds stops short of a clear statement such as, “Ask for the nasal spray version of the vaccine”. Why? They have no problem making a clear decision for their readers in regards to avoiding mercury. Why not recommend a vaccine that they claim is safer and more effective? Why not recommend a vaccine? Many critical readers would question whether SafeMinds is, as they would like to say, an organization promoting safer vaccines or if they are, instead, an organization which can not bring itself to recommend a vaccine because they will not support a vaccination.

Can you “get the facts” from SafeMinds? Well, you won’t get all the facts in any place as there is so much material. But, one paper I couldn’t find on the SafeMinds website was this very recent one:

Eick, A., et al, Maternal influenza vaccination and effect on influenza virus infection in young infants.

Here’s the abstract:

Objective To assess the effect of seasonal influenza vaccination during pregnancy on laboratory-confirmed influenza in infants to 6 months of age.

Design Nonrandomized, prospective, observational cohort study.

Setting Navajo and White Mountain Apache Indian reservations, including 6 hospitals on the Navajo reservation and 1 on the White Mountain Apache reservation.

Participants A total of 1169 mother-infant pairs with mothers who delivered an infant during 1 of 3 influenza seasons.

Main Exposure Maternal seasonal influenza vaccination.

Main Outcome Measures In infants, laboratory-confirmed influenza, influenzalike illness (ILI), ILI hospitalization, and influenza hemagglutinin inhibition antibody titers.

Results A total of 1160 mother-infant pairs had serum collected and were included in the analysis. Among infants, 193 (17%) had an ILI hospitalization, 412 (36%) had only an ILI outpatient visit, and 555 (48%) had no ILI episodes. The ILI incidence rate was 7.2 and 6.7 per 1000 person-days for infants born to unvaccinated and vaccinated women, respectively. There was a 41% reduction in the risk of laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection (relative risk, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.37-0.93) and a 39% reduction in the risk of ILI hospitalization (relative risk, 0.61; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-0.84) for infants born to influenza-vaccinated women compared with infants born to unvaccinated mothers. Infants born to influenza-vaccinated women had significantly higher hemagglutinin inhibition antibody titers at birth and at 2 to 3 months of age than infants of unvaccinated mothers for all 8 influenza virus strains investigated.

Conclusions Maternal influenza vaccination was significantly associated with reduced risk of influenza virus infection and hospitalization for an ILI up to 6 months of age and increased influenza antibody titers in infants through 2 to 3 months of age.

So, vaccinating a pregnant mother reduces the risk of the infant getting the flu (and getting hospitalized as a result). That is contrary to the message I see coming from SafeMinds. They do host another, older study that showed no statistically significant difference in children of vaccinated or unvaccinated mothers. Will they update their webpage to include this new study?

SafeMinds does bring up some valid questions on vaccine safety. And, contrary to how they like to present the discussion, vaccines (and all medical procedures) are not above challenge. However, they tend to use safety questions more as a tool rather than as honest discussion points. Perhaps I missed it, but can you find them bringing up these questions? How can we make influenza vaccines more effective? Isn’t that a laudable goal? Isn’t a universal influenza vaccine be a good goal, rather than the current method of trying to guess which specific strains will be in circulation for the upcoming season? Why haven’t simple safety improvements been made sooner. Changes such as the move to cell-based cultures over egg based cultures which run the risk of allergic reactions. Note that a new flu vaccine plant was being built in the US which would make the move to cell based cultured vaccines. Instead they concentrate on mercury and autism–mercury being the most thoroughly studied vaccine ingredient when it comes to autism (as in, multiple studies, large studies, good studies, have failed to find a link).

But…it’s toxic!

24 Nov

Warning, non autism subject. Rather, the subject is misinformation by pseudo-autism bloggers.

“It’s toxic”. We hear that a lot about vaccine ingredients, especially thimerosal. But, dose makes the poison. As if I need to say that, yet again. But, once again there is a campaign to scare people about vaccines, using mercury as the hammer. Frankly, I’d be glad to see thimerosal go away just to see what hammer pops up next. (My money is on a resurgence of “too many, too soon”)

In addition to the SafeMinds PSA that they are trying to put into movie theaters, a smaller effort is ongoing (as it always is) at the Age of Autism blog. They recently posted the MSDS for thimerosal. They also gave a screenshot. And, they are tweeting the message.

(Note, I had to add that as I feel a kinship with “female bloggers” as of late)

What can we tell from this? Well, thimerosal has a health safety rating of 2 (that’s the number in the . That’s a “moderate” hazard. If you check closer, you will see that there is a listing for toxicity. They give LD50 numbers. That’s the amount of the substance which given in a short period of time will kill about 1/2 of the test animals. For Thimerosal, the LD50 is 91 mg/kg [Mouse]. Give 91mg thimerosal to a group of 1Kg mice, and half will die.

But, hey, as long as we are looking at MSDS sheets, let’s check the sheet for, DMSA. DMSA, or meso-2,3-dimercaptosuccinic acid, is a chelating agent commonly used amongst those who “treat” autistic children as if they are heavy metal poisoned. The MSDS for DMSA shows, just like thimerosal, a 2 rating for health hazard. A moderate hazard. Again, for emphasis, the same rating as thimerosal. The LD50 is higher, acute: 5011 mg/kg [Mouse]. In other words, DMSA will kill mice (it is toxic) but it takes a larger amount than thimerosal.

But, how much DMSA is a child under this treatment exposed to? From one website, I found:

In one popular chelation protocol for children with autism, the dosage of DMSA is calculated based on the child’s weight, at 1/8 to 1/2 mg per pound. It is administered in divided doses, every four hours. This dose is given every day for three days, followed by a rest period of four days. Many children have remained on this regimen for as long as two to three years, with continued improvement over the course of therapy.

VRP now offers DMSA in a 25 mg dosage intended for children. However, it is always a good idea to work with a chelation doctor when treating children, and that is what we recommend.

OK, for simplicity sake, imagine the 1Kg mouse again. If you give that mouse a flu shot with 25 micrograms of thimerosal, you have given him 0.025mg/92mg or 0.03% of the LD50.

What about DMSA? Give that 1Kg mouse 25mg of DMSA and you have exposed it to 25mg/5011mg, or 0.5% of the LD50.

Both DMSA and thimerosal are well under the LD50 limit, but, by this measure, the 25mg of DMSA is over 15 times more toxic than the 25micrograms of thimerosal.

The thing about vaccines is that kids don’t get them every day. You can’t say the same thing about chelators. Kids have been on chelation “treatments” for weeks, months, even years.

If one wants to argue that “dose does not make the poison”, why are those same people supporting exposing disabled children to a chronic exposure of a toxic substance (DMSA)?

Perhaps I could tweet, “Female blogger ignores the fact that DMSA is poison. Perhaps send her the data sheet?”

The shame of the autism community

23 Nov

Sully wrote a post yesterday about how the so-called autism community that Safe Minds alleges it is part of is running blatantly antivax adverts in cinemas whilst ignoring autism related stories.

As counterpoint to that, I came across two stories in the online version of the Daily Mail yesterday with two supremely differing outcomes.

In story one, the Mail reports on the so-called ‘super-vaccination’ ie the 6 in 1 shot.

The ‘super-vaccination’ day will involve three injections to protect against measles, mumps, rubella, two forms of meningitis and bacteria that can cause pneumonia.

This post has 99 comments, mainly antivax and lots who try the emotive gambit of suggesting vaccines caused their childs autism.

My son was bright as a button, attentive and talking before MMR jab and I chose to give it to him thinking that the government must have researched it.. what a fool I was thinking that the MMR jab must be better than the threat of becominng sterile, blind, or brain damaged by the possible effects of mumps, measles or rubella. Instead within 3 months of the jab, my boy stopped talking, started flapping his arms and running on tip toes. He’s now nearly 7 and hasn’t said a word for about 5 and a half years.

and thats just one example, there are a lot more along those lines.

In the second story, last updated on the same day, the Mail reports on the story of one Nicole Wilson who was struck with Meningitis – a vaccine preventable disease.

Nicole survived — just — but, as a result of the disease, the once active teenager who loved gymnastics and dancing has lost both legs, most of her fingers, and the sight in one eye. She has also been left infertile.

…

more than 10 per cent of students have never even heard of the disease, while half don’t know if they’ve been vaccinated against it…

This story? Zero comments.

It is incredible to me how uncaring the ‘autism’ community has become, truly incredible.

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