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Generation Rescue: a dishonest autism charity?

6 May

Generation Rescue has a long history of promoting bad science. They even have tried their hand at it themselves before, with a phone survey that was so bad it would have earned a college freshman in epidemiology a failing grade.

So when they came out with their own “study” of vaccination rates around the world, you can imagine I didn’t expect it to be good. In fact, I just avoided it altogether until they sent me an email telling me how good it was.

So I looked.

It was worse than I expected. Far worse.

The “study” is here. Generation Rescue (GR) looks at the vaccine schedules for multiple countries and compares this with the infant mortality rate and autism rates in those countries.

I read it and, Oh…my…god… I expected bad science and poorly/biased interpretations. Instead, what I found was pretty clear evidence that Generation Rescue is knowingly distributing misleading information.

Before you get worried that this post is way long and question whether you really want to read the details, here’s the short version:

1) They compare infant mortality rates between the US and other countries–even though it is clear (according to their own expert no less!) that the US uses different criteria for infant mortality and it isn’t accurate to compare the US infant mortality to that in other countries.

2) They compare autism rates amongst countries to show the US has the highest rate, suggesting that the higher the number of vaccines the higher the autism rate. They just “forget” to tell you that the prevalences for the other countries are from old studies. We can debate why the reported autism prevalence is going up with time, but no one debates that the older studies report lower prevalences than we see now. So, why does Generation Rescue compare prevalence in the US using 2002 data for kids born in 1994 with, say, a Finnish study using 1997 data on kids born as early as 1979? I consider them very biased, but not incompetent enough to miss those fatal mistakes in their study.

3) They claim that the US has the highest vaccination rates and the highest autism rates. They conveniently ignore prevalence from Canada and the UK, which have comparable prevalences to the US and much much lower numbers of vaccines. Yes, you read that right, they left out the well known studies that would show that their conclusions are nonsense.

The worst part is that it is almost certain that Generation Rescue didn’t make an honest mistake. These are so obvious that whoever wrote that “study” had to know he/she was producing what amounts to the lowest form of junk pseudoscience.

For those who want the gory details, here they are:

Infant Mortality Rates

Generation Rescue points out that the reported infant mortality rate is highest in the United States, which also has the most childhood vaccines. All well and good, but can we really compare the infant mortality rates from country to country?

When I type infant mortality rate into a google search, the first hit is a Wikipedia page which, as it turns out, addresses exactly this question.The answer is a resounding “NO”, we can’t compare the US infant mortality rate with that of other countries.

While the United States reports every case of infant mortality, it has been suggested that some other developed countries do not. A 2006 article in U.S. News & World Report claims that “First, it’s shaky ground to compare U.S. infant mortality with reports from other countries. The United States counts all births as live if they show any sign of life, regardless of prematurity or size. This includes what many other countries report as stillbirths. In Austria and Germany, fetal weight must be at least 500 grams (1 pound) to count as a live birth; in other parts of Europe, such as Switzerland, the fetus must be at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. In Belgium and France, births at less than 26 weeks of pregnancy are registered as lifeless.

So, who wrote that 2006 article in US News & World Report?

Bernadine Healy.

Yep, the same Bernadine Healy that is Generation Rescue’s favorite “mainstream” doctor.

One has to believe that GR saw that article in Wikipedia and the US News article. They are, after all, Google Ph.D.’s. Given the author was Bernadine Healy, they have to have considered it accurate, don’t you think? And, yet, GR conveniently forgets to mention the differences in how the US and other countries count infant mortality in their vaccines cause autism “study”.

Autism Rates 1: Autism Prevalence by country

Start with the conclusion of the Generation Rescue “study”:

This study appears to lend credibility to the theory that the U.S. vaccine schedule is linked to the U.S. epidemic of autism, particularly when compared to the published autism rates of other countries.

Given this bold claim, it is critical that they use good data for the autism rates. By “good” I mean that they need data that they can accurately compare to the CDC reported prevalence of 1 in 150. That data was taken in 2002 on 8 year old children. I.e. kids born in 1994. Since reported prevalence numbers are going up with time, it would be very misleading if they were to use, say, prevalence numbers from the early 1990’s, wouldn’t it?

Any prevalence that they use would have to use prevalence numbers from about the same time, on kids of about the same age.

Here’s their table comparing the autism rates.

gr_table3

Let’s take a look at the studies they cited for their numbers, shall we?

Iceland: Prevalence of Autism in Iceland. This 2001 study uses kids from birth years 1984-1993. I.e. most (if not all) of the kids are from the time before the big upsurge in autism diagnoses. Hardly a good comparison to the 2002 CDC study, eh?

For Sweden, they use a paper called, “Is autism more common now than 10 years ago?” from The British Journal of Psychiatry. Published in… 1991. That’s pre DSM-IV. Amongst other problems, they won’t be including the other PDD’s in the autism spectrum, like the CDC study does. Besises, the kids from the CDC study weren’t even born yet, it was so old! Is there any wonder that the Swedish study shows a lower prevalence?

For Japan, they use a paper titled Cumulative incidence and prevalence of childhood autism in children in Japan. The study uses data from 1994 on kids who were born in 1988.

Are you starting to see the pattern here? Time after time, GR is comparing US 2002 prevalence data to much older data from other countries. Let’s go on:

For Norway, they use the paper Autism and related disorders: epidemiological findings in a Norwegian study using ICD-10 diagnostic criteria. The paper was published in 1998 on children 3-14 years of age. Simple math suggests they had kids with birth years going back to at least 1984 in that study. Hardly a good comparison to kids born in 1994.

For Finland, they use Autism in Northern Finland. Here is an updated version from 2005. The study uses data from 1996-97, on kids up to 18 years old. I.e. they are using kids that were born as early as 1979. Also, they are using data on patients from hospital records who used “communal health services”. Sounds a lot like “inpatient”–one of the critiques that GR uses against studies from Denmark. Also, the Finland study didn’t include Aspeger syndrome, as that was a new diagnosis at the time. Hardly a good comparison to the CDC study.

For France, they use Autism and associated medical disorders in a French epidemiological survey. This uses “French children born between 1976 and 1985”.

For Israel, they use Autism in the Haifa area–an epidemiological perspective. This paper looks only at autistic disorder (no PDD-NOS, no Aspergers, no Rett’s no Childhood Degerative Disorder). Right off the bat that reduces the prevalence and makes it impossible to compare the the CDC 2002 study. The Israell study also is, you guessed it, based on kids older than the CDC study: children born between 1989 and 1993.

Last, Denmark. If you’ve been following the thimerosal debate, you know this is going to be ironic. They use Madsen’s paper, Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative Ecological Evidence From Danish Population-Based Data. Generation Rescue refers to this study (incorrectly, I might add) as “This one goes beyond useless”. I guess “useless” is only when it is used to refute the thimerosal hypothesis? Come on, GR, this level of hypocrisy is just painful.

Missing Studies

There are some very well known studies that Generation Rescue somehow forgot to include in their “study”. Could this be due to the fact that they are very good counterexamples to the vaccine-hypothesis ? Let’s look at some and see, shall we?

United Kingdom: Pervasive Developmental Disorders in Preschool Children: Confirmation of High Prevalence ( study performed in 2002 with a prevalence of 1 in 170), and Pervasive developmental disorders in preschool children (study performed in 1998/9 with a prevalence of 1 in 160).

Canada: Pervasive Developmental Disorders in Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Prevalence and Links With Immunizations (birth years 1987 to 1998. Prevalence 1 in 154).

Wow, the United Kingdom and Canada have prevalence numbers comparable to those in the US!

So, let’s complete the comparison, shall we? What is the vaccine schedule like for the UK and Canada? Using the Generation Rescue “study” we get 20 vaccines for Canada and 21 for the UK.

Wow, that’s way less than the US (with 36), and they have the same autism prevalence as the US? How could that be? Is it, perhaps, that the autism is NOT related to the number of vaccines in a given country’s schedule?

Anyone doubt why GR left the UK and Canada off their table of Autism Prevalences Around the Globe? No, I am not giving them a pass that this could be an honest mistake.

To quote Generation Rescue’s top funny guy (Jim Carrey), “How stupid do you think we are?”

Jenny Mcarthy on HBOT

6 May

Given the recent death of a woman and serious injury of a child in a hyperbaric chamber. It is perhaps worth highlighting Jenny McCarthy’s recent “tweet”.

Im inside a hyperbaric chamber. This thing makes me feel amazing.

If a vaccine “exploded” killing one person and critically injuring another with such clear causality, one can imagine McCarthy would be the first to stand up and denounce it. Instead, as one commentator says it’s “All risk, no benefit” when it comes to the quackery surrounding autism, and that’s before you risk dreadful gluten-free and casein-free cup cakes. Meanwhile, despite having no evidence, McCarthy suggests vaccines are dangerous toxic products and may be responsible for the start of an explosion of preventable childhood diseases.

Mark and David Geier promise its true

4 May

The South Jersey Courier Post carries a story today concerning the father and son team of Mark and David Geier.

They have presented at the branch meeting of the U.S. Autism & Asperger Association concerning their own branch of autism related woo – treatment with Lupron. A process that has led them to stretch the truth beyond breaking point numerous times, claiming false affiliations and using friends and family as members of review bodies in order to pass ethical regulations. In a wider world of autism related woo, this is a particularly sordid story.

The Geiers say excess testosterone increases the toxicity of mercury, which they claim is the primary cause of autism, and that the suppression of testosterone production improves the ability to remove the poisonous mercury — a method often referred to as chelation therapy.

The drug Lupron, or leuprolide acetate, lowers testosterone in autistic children, which then frees up the toxic mercury, the Geiers say. The Geiers, who operate eight offices nationwide under the name “Genetic Consultants,” found that testosterone blocks the body’s ability to make glutathione and that mercury binds to glutathione.

So, the Geier’s are still clinging grimly to the mercury = autism belief. A belief for which there is no sound science whatsoever and so much against it would take too long to discuss in one blog entry.

And they are also claiming that they have ‘found that testosterone blocks the body’s ability to make glutathione’. Searching PubMed for ‘lupron glutathione’ returns no hits at all. So where have they found this? Under the stairs? Why aren’t they publishing this science if they’re so sure?

Lupron lowers testosterone and…

To prove there is a hormonal connection to autistic children, the Geiers displayed several studies that showed a major side effect of high testosterone in children is precocious (or premature) puberty. The Geiers said they found signs of premature puberty, such as facial hair, body odor and early sexual development, in 80 percent of the autistic children in their clinic.

Weird stats. When I searched PubMed for ‘precocious puberty autism’ I got one result back:

This is a presentation and discussion of clinical and laboratory data obtained on 13 girls with Rett syndrome…..Precocious puberty and respiratory alkalosis were not found in our patients

Huh. Fancy that. Not found. And here the Geier’s are claiming an 80% correlation rate between autism and precocious puberty. Maybe that results from the test they’re using.

The Geiers said they found signs of premature puberty, such as facial hair, body odor and early sexual development…

And yet they somehow failed to perform the very simple and definitive test for precocious puberty – an xray of the wrist. If bone age is one year older than their chronological age then they have precocious puberty. Simple. And not done by the Geier’s. You have to wonder why.

And here we have more hidden science.

Mark Geier said laboratory tests at his clinic show that after just three months on Lupron, autistic children improved in dozens of cognitive and behavioral ways.

Next time someone tells you that ‘big pharma’ are using unindependant research, tell them this: science published in a mainstream journal has its methods and results clearly published so that other scientists can attempt to replicate them. That’s about as independent as you can get. Here we have the Geier’s simply saying these kids improved. No methods, no results, no science is shown. We’re just expected to take their word for it. That’s about as unindependent as you can get. Anyone would think the Geier’s have a vested interest in Lupron doing well.

Autism Science Foundation: a Research based org

30 Apr

We need more quality research in autism, no doubt about that. Private organizations can fund/manage this. But, there are Research Organizations and ‘research’ organizations.

I was interested to see the new autism organization emerge–the Autism Science Foundation. Kev has already discussed introduction of the ASF.

When I saw ASF’s webpage, I was immediately drawn to the paragraph on their scientific advisory board:

ASF’s Scientific Advisory Board, still in formation, includes Dr. Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom (UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; past program chair of the International Society for Autism Research); Dr. Ami Klin (Yale Child Study Center); Dr. Harold Koplewicz (NYU Child Study Center); Dr. Sharon Humiston (University of Rochester); Dr. Eric London (NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities and co-founder of NAAR); Dr. Catherine Lord (University of Michigan); and Dr. Matthew State (Yale Medical School).

There are some well-known names in there. Dr. Catherine Lord, for one, is a real heavy hitter in the autism world. There are some other names that were new to me, so I decided to do a quick check on them. One measure I use is how many papers a person has in Autism. To measure this, I used the ISI Web of Knowledge database. I searched for papers with the person in question as author and with topic=autism. I checked number of papers and number of highly cited papers. Keep in mind that not all papers get listed by ISI. But, it is one way to measure how active someone is in autism.


Dr. Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom

Six papers found in the ISI database under the topic “autism”. This out of 58 papers total, many very well cited. He is also past chair of INSAR.

Dr. Ami Klin

32 papers on autism. Six of which have been cited over 50 times. That is impressive. He has six autism papers published in 2008–so he’s currently active in research.

Dr. Harold Koplewicz

He’s at the NYU child study center. I don’t get any hits for him as an author with the subject=autism in the ISI database. He does have a long publication record, though.

You may recall his name. Dr. Koplewicz and the NYU Child Study Center was behind the “Ransom Notes” advertisement campaign that didn’t go so well.

Dr. Sharon Humiston

She is affiliated with the University of Rochester.

I don’t get any autism publications from her in my search. What I do get in a Google search is that she testified with Jeffrey Bradstreet and others in Senator Dan Burton’s hearings on vaccines and autism. She welcomed the call for research into whether MMR or thimerosal were causing autism–so claims that she doesn’t have an “open mind” don’t apply here. However, she has been very clear on the idea that there is no evidence linking vaccines to autism. She does have a number of papers on immunization, as well as a book Vaccinating Your Child: Questions and Answers for the Concerned Parent.

Dr. Eric London

I get four autism papers for Dr. London in the ISI database. One of which, The environment as an etiologic factor in autism: a new direction for research shows that this is also someone who has demonstrated an “open mind” to the the idea that environmental causes could be important in autism etiology. But, I expect he doesn’t get much credit for that in the vaccines-cause-autism world since he doesn’t like the “correct” version of environmental etiology.

Dr. Catherine Lord

46 papers on autism, with 17 papers cited over 50 times. Wow, 1/3 of her papers are very highly cited! That is impressive.

Her bio includes this statement of awards:

Lord is Chair of the Early Intervention in Autism Committee, National Academy of Science. She received the Irving B. Harris Early Childhood Lecture Award in 2004 and was a Finalist for the New York University Child Study Center Scientific Achievement Award in 2005.


Dr. Matthew State

Dr. State is from Yale. I only get 3 papers from him in my search. One of which, though, is in Nature Genetics and has been cited 178 times. If you aren’t familiar with the Nature journals, I’ll point out that these are highly prestigious journals. Suffice it to say, nothing in the “vaccines-cause-autism” research world has even come close to a journal of this caliber.

This is a pretty good group for a brand new organization–one that is still growing. We will have to wait to see what the Autism Science Foundation does, but for now it appears that, yes, there is a new research based autism organization in town.

The problem with the IACC is…

27 Apr

…that Tom Insel is too nice.

OK, that is as oversimplification, but bear with me. Dr. Insel is the director of the NIMH (National Institutes of Mental Health) and the chair of the IACC (Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee). As chair, he gets to run the meetings. Lucky him!

I say that with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Dr. Insel has a tough job trying to manage the IACC.

Let’s back up a little bit. The IACC committee meets regularly to work on producing a plan for the government’s research effort in autism. The idea is simple–gather together a lot of people who can bring their expertise to the table and work together to build a good plan.

Unfortunately, Lyn Redwood apparently didn’t get that memo. Ms. Redwood represents her organization (Safe Minds) as well as the views of a number of other autism organizations who promote the idea that vaccines caused an epidemic of autism.

Lyn Redwood spends each meeting as though it is held for everyone to listen to her talk about vaccines. I know that sounds like an exaggeration–it isn’t. Here is a quote from another member of the IACC committee from a recent meeting, speaking about an effort by Lyn Redwood to insert a large amount of new language into the Strategic Plan.

I’m just a little perplexed as to why we are actually looking at this. Because we worked so hard over many months as a committee and..you know..and as one person in the field who is constantly seeing more and more children with autism this sense of urgency seems to sabotaged by this constant barrage of another opportunity for one person of this committee to constantly try to rewrite the Plan. It doesn’t seem to be the correct process.

Dr. Insel then commented “There are heads shaking here.” “Heads Shaking” is what Dr. Insel says when people are nodding in agreement during a meeting. In other words–a large portion of the IACC agreed with the idea that Lyn Redwood was hijacking the process again!

The problem is, to say it again, Tom Insel is too nice. He gives Lyn Redwood a LOT of leeway to talk about…well, whatever she wants to talk about. Unfortunately, she spends a lot of time talking vaccines. Lots of time. The IACC doesn’t have lot’s of time to spend on any one subject. Especially a subject like vaccines that the rest of the committee clearly isn’t interested in discussing. To make matters worse, many of the discussions are nearly meaningless. “Should we phrase this noncommittal statement this way or that way?”

Another person draining a lot of valuable time from the IACC is Mark Blaxill. Mr. Blaxill is not on the main IACC committee. He is in one of the working groups (think advisory group to the main committee). While, luckily, he doesn’t get to vote in the main committee, in his own way he is worse than Ms. Redwood. He makes long speeches, filled with insults to the other committee members, calling those who don’t agree with him “Epidemic Denialists”.

It strikes this listener that Ms. Redwood and Mr. Blaxill are trying desperately to engage the other IACC people in a debate on the autism vaccine question. Ms. Redwood has offered to bring in papers supporting her position. Thankfully, Dr. Insel avoided that mess. I can easily imagine many of the researchers on the IACC thinking, “Gad! I already wasted part of my life on that junk science when I read it the first time. Can’t we just get something accomplished for people with autism here?” I mean, seriously, does Ms. Redwood think that people haven’t read the papers she leans on? The implications sounds like, “You don’t agree with me. That means you haven’t read these studies.” What she doesn’t understand is that pretty much everyone has read the studies she uses as support for the “mercury and vaccines caused an autism epimic” idea. Everyone has read them, and most who have read them find them to be really bad science. The academics could use them as examples of bad science for their students. Those studies are that bad.

Here’s some much needed background. The IACC committee is made up of a number of professionals and stakeholders. People fly in from all over the US to attend meetings–most of which are only a day long. The agendas are packed; there isn’t much time to waste.

Rather than accept that IACC meeting time is limited and precious, with many topics to cover, both Ms. Redwood and Mr. Blaxill act as though they are in one of Senator Dan Burton’s hearings, where the goal was to get as much of the idea that vaccines cause autism into the public record as possible–whether the science was good or not.

So, what’s happening while Ms. Redwood or Mr. Blaxill are talking? This is where the “Tom Insel is too nice” bit comes into play. Dr. Insel, chair of the IACC, allows them all the time they want to take (and they want a lot of time) to talk about vaccines. I don’t know how much of it is Dr. Insel being polite or how much is an effort to stave off future complaints that the vaccine lobby was excluded from the process. There are likely multiple reasons. Net result–lots of time taken up talking about vaccines.

Well, that’s not really accurate. There is a lot of time lecturing about the supposed vaccine/autism link. You see, there is almost no discussion amongst the commitee. Just the one-sided presentations by Lyn Redwood and Mark Blaxill. The rest of the IACC members often (almost always) remain silent. My guess is that they are just too smart to get dragged into the discussions. Yes, too smart. What purpose would it serve?

From what I can see, the rest of the IACC “gets it”. They “get it” in the fact that they already understand the vaccine debate. I don’t see the point in taking up committee and working group time with Lyn Redwood or Mark Blaxill pretending to be trying to educate the other members. The rest of the IACC also “gets it” in the fact that they understand to avoid getting sucked into the debate. Mark Blaxill would likely enjoy some blog fodder. The likes of David Kirby and Robert Kennedy Jr. would love to take everything out of context and misinterpret it for their own blog readers. All this would come at the cost of people with autism.

Dr. Insel could, I guess, limit the time that Ms. Redwood and Mr. Blaxill use. To be honest, he does manage their time somewhat, but much more would help keep the meetings productive. Dr. Insel is in a hard spot–even a reasonable level of limiting the discussion would obviously be used to fuel complaints that the vaccine debate is being quashed or the process is corrupt.

So, in the end, Dr. Insel plays the nice guy. What else can he do? Lyn Redwood and Mark Blaxill take advantage of it and, in the end, it is people with autism who pay the price when the IACC meetings are hijacked and the sense of urgency is lost as one person tries to rewrite the strategic plan.

Richard Deth – gambling man

27 Apr

Maybe you don’t know, or have forgotten who Richard Deth (pronounced to rhyme with ‘teeth’) is.

He is:

Richard Deth, Ph.D., is a neuropharmacologist, a professor of pharmacology at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and is on the scientific advisory board of the National Autism Association. Deth has published scientific studies on the role of D4 dopamine receptors in psychiatric disorders, as well as the book, Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-Folate Connection. He has also become a prominent voice in the controversies in autism and vaccine controversy, due to his theory that certain children are more at risk than others because they lack the normal ability to excrete neurotoxic metals.

Deth became ‘hot property’ in the anti-vaccine autism groups after publishing a paper (with which there were numerous issues – see Bart Cubbins excellent video for details) that was funded by one of those anti-vaccine groups – Safe Minds. Interestingly, during an exchange with Kathleen documented at neurodiversity.com, it also came to light that Richard Deth was registered as a paid expert witness in the vaccine litigation omnibus proceedings. Professor Deth said:

“I thank you for alerting me to the fact that my name was included on that expert witness list. It was done so without my knowledge or permission. It might be related to a phone call from that law office that was logged to my office while I was away on vacation in February. I never returned the call.”

To which Kathleen replied replied:

“It was quite an oversight for the attorneys to fail to confirm your willingness to serve in that role prior to naming you as a plaintiffs’ expert in the Petitioners’ Initial Disclosure of Experts, and filing that document with the Court of Federal Claims. However, their certainty is understandable, given your indication during our brief telephone conversation that the lawyer with whom you discussed the matter was “Andy” Waters, lead attorney in the thimerosal cases.”

Deth didn’t comment any further. As many have discovered, if you want to go head to head with Kathleen you better make sure your i’s are dotted and your t’s are crossed.

One of the statements Deth made during their exchange stood out to me at the time.

…I would like to make a virtual wager that within the next 18-24 months scientific evidence will make the thimerosal-autism link a near certainty. If you are willing, I’ll let you name the stakes.

Deth sent his email on March 22 2006. Luckily for him, Kathleen took pity on him and declined his rather gauche offer.

So what does this mean? What does it prove?

Why, nothing. Nothing at all. I just wanted LB/RB readers to be perfectly clear that a strong _belief_ in a scenario doesn’t make one right. In fact, when we look at all the recent evidence for the various beliefs of the various anti-vaccine/autism groups – from the prediction that the Omnibus Autism cases would be a walkover for them, to David Kirby’s certainty that thiomersal causation would be vindicated by CDDS data in 2005, then 2007, to this example of ego from Richard Deth what we see is a clear picture of a set of people who are consistently and unerringly wrong. This is because they simply cannot see the science right in front of them. Even such an august figure as Richard Deth, Ph. D.

Jennifer Lopez adds vocal support

25 Apr

In an interview with ‘Good Morning America‘ Jennifer Lopez stood up for vaccinations by talking about a new campaign and website. The website is very accomplished and features Ms Lopez talking about how to protect your baby from Whooping Cough.

The interview itself contained the following on vaccines:

She’s also raising awareness about pertussis, the potentially fatal disease better known as whooping cough.

Visit www.soundsofpertussis.com to find out more about the vaccine.

Pertussis cases were virtually nonexistent in the United States after a vaccine was developed. Reported cases of whooping cough hit a low of about 1,000 in 1976. That number has been on the rise over the past 30 years, and in 2005, 25,000 cases were reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to a CDC study of the disease, Hispanic infants were particularly hard hit by the disease, though there is no clear reason why.

Immunization from the whooping cough vaccine wears off over time, usually between five and 10 years, so adults can spread the highly contagious disease to infants.

Lopez said babies most often contract the disease from their parents, and it can go undetected. “We’ll be OK, but it could be fatal to the babies,” she said.

The Sounds of Pertussis campaign educates adults about getting a Tdap booster shot, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

Lopez joins other responsible parents and celebs Jennifer Garner andAmanda Peet in making sure everyone knows that these vaccines are safe and available.

Nothing to do with us: Measles in Wales

25 Apr

The recent measles outbreak in Wales occurred near Swansea. The local newspaper in the area gave publicity to the autism-MMR vaccine hoax, and may have been behind the area’s relatively poor vaccination rate. Tammy Boyce’s Health Risk and News: The MMR Vaccine and the Media described an examination of the Swansea MMR uptake rates:

Mason and Donnelly (2000) examined coverage of the MMR/Autism story in the local Swansea paper The South Wales Evening Post (SWEP) and compared the Swansea MMR uptake rates with the vaccination rates across Wales. Since 1997, coverage of the MMR vaccine in the SWEP has primarily challenged the safety of the triple jab and supported Wakefield’s theories. Many stories, predominatly written by one journalist, covered the experiences of parents who claimed their child’s autism was linked to MMR vaccine.  Mason and Donnelly found the MMR uptake in the Swansea area declined by 13.6% compared to 2.4% in the rest of Wales, ‘a statistically significant greater decline in the distribution area of the SWEP’. They admit their conclusion cannot claim a causal relationship but they do suggest the newspaper ‘has had a measurable and unhelpful impact over and above any adverse national publicity’.

The newspaper concerned does not make the link between its reporting and reduced MMR vaccine uptake, when reporting the recent outbreak. On August 24th, 2007 the paper was reporting that the low uptake rates for MMR vaccine were a ticking time bomb.

SWANSEA is facing a ticking health time bomb, GPs have warned.
They say unless more mums and dads make sure their youngsters are protected by the MMR jab, the city could face a measles epidemic.
Latest figures show thousands of schoolchildren are being placed at risk because they are not fully protected by the MMR vaccination.
Health chiefs say around 10,000 youngsters aged under 15 are not completely covered because they have not had the full course of treatment. For the vaccine to be effective, children need two jabs. The injections should then protect youngsters from measles, mumps and rubella.
However, uptake in Swansea is among the lowest in Wales.

This can hardly be a surprise to the paper, since less than a month earlier the paper had published an article called “Doctor calls for truth on vaccines” (July 30th 2007) which provided free publicity for Dr Richard Halvorsen. The following extract will allow you to play “anti-vaccine” statement bingo:

Dr Richard Halvorsen, raises his concerns – warning that the Government “misleads us about vaccines”.
Author of a new book, The Truth About Vaccines, he claims that UK children are being used as “guinea pigs” and given “unnecessary” jabs for illnesses such as mumps, and a vaccine for whooping cough which has been “ineffective” in stamping out the illness.
Halvorsen is a GP who has spent five years researching vaccination.
He said: “Vaccine programmes are not the magic bullet cure that they are claimed to be, and bombarding children with a cocktail of vaccines could be causing some serious health problems, with hundreds if not thousands of children adversely affected every year.”
Dr Halvorsen points out that a child is supposed to have 25 vaccines by the time they are 15 months old.
“There remains uncertainty whether the growing number of childhood vaccinations is contributing to the rising numbers of children affected by asthma, diabetes and other immune related disorders,” he claimed.
[…]
“I have been told that there is no one study that can disprove that MMR may cause 10 per cent of autism cases in this country in susceptible children. Studies can show that MMR does not cause all autism.

The Mason and Donnlly paper cited by Boyce is here:

Mason, BW and Donnelly, PD (2000) ‘Impact of a local newspaper campaign on the uptake of MMR vaccine’, Journal of Epidemiological Community Health, 54: 473-474 [link]

Seven years after warnings about their reporting on MMR vaccine, SWEP continued to publish dangerous nonsense about vaccines.

Liar Liar

24 Apr

Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy are very critical of vaccines. They assert that vaccines cause autism.

Criticising vaccines is a dangerous business. Vaccines are arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, medical advances in history. Anyone whose causes people to stop vaccinating their children runs the risk of being blamed for illness, permanent injury and death if/when the diseases return.

Mr. Carrey seems aware of this. In his recent blog piece he made a point of noting:

We have never argued that people shouldn’t be immunized for the most serious threats including measles and polio

This statement bothered me enough that I discussed it in two pieces (here and here) about measles outbreaks in Wales and the US.

I wanted to highlight the fact that the website for Mr. Carrey’s organization (Generation Rescue) includes language specifically telling people to avoid the measles vaccine.

Even after blogging that, somehow Mr. Carrey’s statement statement still bothered me. Then I remembered why.

A year ago, Mr. Carrey’s movie, “Horton Hears a Who”, was in theaters. One group in New Mexico decided to offer a screening of Horton with an added benefit: free vaccinations for children who came.

This didn’t sit well with Mr. Carrey, who decided to put a stop to the free vaccination program. According to Lisa Akerman of TACA (Talk About Curing Autism, another group that has had Jenny McCarthy as a spokes-person):

Once word from the autism community (Who-ville in this case) got to the Carrey & McCarthy super team about this story of a New Mexico vaccination plot things got a brewing. After his morning coffee, Jim made a few calls this morning on behalf of the autism community.

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…

So, Mr. Carrey doesn’t “argue” that people shouldn’t be immunized. He just stops them from being immunized.

Fallout of the vaccine-autism scare: Measles in Wales

24 Apr

Jim Carrey, Jenny McCarthy, Andrew Wakefield…what do these people have in common? They have all helped promote fear of vaccines–especially the Measles/MumpsRubella (MMR) vaccine–by claiming there is evidence vaccines cause autism.

To be fair, Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy relatively new to the scene, unlike Dr. Wakefield, whose flawed research really fueled the fear. Perhaps the actors could learn from the doctor’s lesson: you claim MMR causes autism, that reduces the number of people getting immunized and people get sick. Pretty simple logic.

Measles was considered basically wiped out in the UK until a few years ago when it returned, sickening thousands and killing a few. Last year, measles returned to the US, and it’s back this year. Now we see that the UK isn’t being spared int he 2008-09 season: Wales has approximately 60 cases of measles suspected or confirmed.

Nineteen cases are in Llanelli–that’s in the lower left corner of this map:

Map showing location of recent measles outbreak in Wales

Map showing location of recent measles outbreak in Wales

That’s a short ride from Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol…lots of high density population centers. Any reasonable person would find that scary.

We in the autism communities need to stand up against misinformation that leads to people being sickened and, in some cases, killed. The MMR-Autism link never had good evidence, and now there is good evidence that MMR does not cause autism Even people like the autism-is-vaccine-injury proponent Rick Rollens admitted it’s time to look beyond MMR (and here).

Jim Carrey seems to understand at least on some level that it is wrong to dissuade people from vaccination. He claimed (incorrectly):

We have never argued that people shouldn’t be immunized for the most serious threats including measles and polio…

Maybe there is some Clintonian logic about the words “We” and “argued”. But, on Larry King Live, Jenny McCarthy stated:

You need to find a doctor that can find an alternate schedule. Generationrescue.org has three of them on there.

Generation Rescue, aka “Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey’s Autism Organization” has alternate schedules on their website. The “favorite” of the three alternate vaccine schedules states, very clearly,

One should avoid vaccines that contain live viruses. This includes the combined measles mumps and rubella vaccines…

You’ve talked the talk, time to walk the walk, Jim. Pull that schedule off your website. Get your organization to make a clear statement about the value of vaccinating against measles.

I realize that I have concentrated a lot on Jim Carrey in this piece. But, there is a man who can make a difference in the future. That future will see people in the US and the UK sickened by measles. The question is how many. What Jim Carrey says could make that number larger or smaller, it all depends on whether he makes good on his sentiment that measles is a serious disease worth immunizing against.

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