Autism's False Prophets

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair

Yes, yes.. don’t listen to parents who have lived through the experience of watching their child regress into autism and become horrifically sick “coincidentally” as they receive multiple toxic vaccines in the ever growing vaccine schedule.

Listen to the self-proclaimed “lottery winner” who cleared roughly 30 million from his rotavirus vaccine. It’s parents who obviously have something to gain by telling their “truth”, not the multi-millionaire infectious disease doctor.

Yes, yes.. don’t listen to parents who have lived through the experience of watching their child regress into autism and become horrifically sick “coincidentally” as they receive multiple toxic vaccines in the ever growing vaccine schedule.

Listen to the self-proclaimed “lottery winner” who cleared roughly 30 million from his rotavirus vaccine. It’s parents who obviously have something to gain by telling their “truth”, not the multi-millionaire infectious disease doctor.

That a doctor could be motivated by money into doing or saying something that isn’t truthful is easily believable after reading Autism’s False Prophets. After all, Dr. Andrew Wakefield took $800,000 from lawyers who were trying to prove that vaccines harmed their clients when he came out with his MMR/vaccine article, which was later discredited.

The book also includes many stories from parents of children with autism who do not believe that vaccines made them sick.

And all of the royalties from the sale of the book are being donated to autism research.

800,000 is a far cry from 30 million. Anyone could see that. Besides, like it or not Dr. Wakefield has helped hundreds if not thousands of children suffering from GI problems and autism. And when doctors address the real physical problems children with autism are suffering from – their autism gets better. Did you know that?

Dr.Iannelli, Did you ever consider there are multiple causes of autism? Maybe those parents’ kids don’t have regressive autism? Maybe they don’t suffer from the same dysfunctional immune system issues many of our children suffer from? Autism is a psychiatric label. It does not help identify the subtyes of autism, and there are many. Are you familiar with Hannah Poling? Hannah had an underlying mitochodrial disorder. That in combination with 9 vaccines administered in one day caused her to develop autism. Did you know some parents who have children who regressed into autism are having their siblings tested for mito disorders? And they are finding their appearingly normal children have mito issues? Should they vaccinate on cue?

We know the increase in autism is not due to better diagnosis. UC Davis did a study that said the increase is attributed to environmental factors. But, what environmental factors? Unfortunately, the small profit I predict will be made by Dr. Offit’s book will not go to those kinds of studies. More than likely, it will be put towards inventing or relabeling psycho-tropic meds.

Many children are getting better with bio-medical treatments. Diets, supplements, and various alternative medicines are making a big difference.

Did you know the AAP is looking into this? Why are parents turning to Alternatives and abandoning mainstream? Mainstream is usually made up of condescending doctors who won’t listen to them and dismiss their concerns. Mainstream has nothing to offer but drugs.

Have you read Dr. Bob Sear’s Vaccine Book? Dr. Sears seems like a reasonable doctor who treats patients on the spectrum and advises parents how to vaccinate the siblings of those children. He takes a middle of the road approach. We need more doctors like him who undestand and acknowledge those children who have regressed and become ill.

Dr. Offit is a dangerous man. He has dangerous ideas (a baby could receive 100,000 vaccines in a single day). He has made millions off of vaccines. How could he possibly find a thing wrong with them?

I hope for your patients’ sakes you will look further into this issue. Dr. Offit should not be where you stop.

Many children are getting better with bio-medical treatments. Diets, supplements, and various alternative medicines are making a big difference.

Dr. Offit’s books talks about this a lot too. From the once highly touted to now failed treatments with secretin and facilitated communication and a number of parents who say they were trying all of the current alternative treatments and noticed the same ups and downs in their progress whether or not they were taking them.

This is not to say that some of these treatments might not help some children, but just that the book offers an alternative view about those treatments and introduces parents to websites like neurodiversity.com and Autism Diva.

Why are parents turning to alternatives and abandoning mainstream?

I think parents are turning to these alternative treatments because the average pediatrician or other health professional in mainstream medicine simply doesn’t have much to offer the parent of an autistic child in terms of treatment.

I wish that we did.

People like Iannelli love to reference Secretin, which was helpful to a small number of children, and was never adequately studied. The fact is, the AAP is heavily funded by Wyeth and other pharmaceutical companies as revealed by CBS News, and the professional journal Pediatrics depends on pharmaceutical companies for 80% of its advertising revenue. Small wonder none of the many studies revealing a vaccine/autism link are EVER published in Pediatrics.

And pediatricians depend on “well baby” visits (i.e. immunizations) for their livelihoods. Not surprising that a blog called “Pediatrics” is touting Dr. (PR)Offit’s propaganda.

It’s almost funny that pediatricians pretend there are no conflicts – if only there weren’t so many children’s lives at stake. The spike in SIDS correlates with the 2-month and 4-month shots (yes, I know, “coincidence”), and the U.S. has one of the highest infant mortality rates of all industrialized nations, despite our high cost of medical care.

Perhaps Dr. Iannelli would care to comment on the VAERS link below. Every death is associated with the administration of Dr. (PR)Offit’s Rotateq vaccine (among other childhood vaccines). The Pediatrics profession contributes to infant deaths, plain and simple. No wonder they’re screaming vaccines are innocent. I’m glad there are a few courageous doctors who will stand up to the madness.

tinyurl.com/dzetm4

And remember, the FDA tells us VAERS reports represent as little as 1% of actual events. If true, that means thousands of deaths after vaccines. Look how quickly after shots many of these deaths occurred. To quote that great American Jim Carey, “How stupid do you think we are?”

To quote that great American Jim Carey, “How stupid do you think we are?”

Dr. Ianelli,
Not all of us who have children with Autism buy into the propaganda bull that is being sold out there. Some of us think for ourselves and do not get caught up in the hype.
I get my science from scientists, not from ex-Playboy bunnies and their boyfriends.

I wonder why the AAP doesn’t adopt Dr (Pr)Offits belief that a newborn is able to handle 10,000 vaccines in the same day? Then he later modified that to what? 100,000 in the same day? Wow, all the money we could be saving in co-pays and “well baby” check-ups! What qualifies Dr (Pr)Offit to write a book about autism anyway? Many of the parents in his book admit that their own ASD children experienced adverse vaccine reactions. Hey, another “coincidence!”

The truth is that Dr (Pr)Offit is motivated by money, not how “safe” vaccines are. The individual vaccine package inserts tells the real story of how much we don’t know about the “safety” of vaccines. I wonder if any quacks these days actually read them? And who can say with any certainty that vaccines are “safe” when the carcinogenic and mutagenic effects (according to the package inserts that no one gets to see or read) have not been evaluated or studied?? The potential to impair fertility has not been evaluated either!! So please keep telling parents how “safe” vaccines are when the science clearly is not there to support what you’re saying. You know, the same “science” that doctors are always repeating shows “no evidence” of a vaccine/autism causal link. Who knew Jim Carrey was such an intellectual giant? And heres the FDA link to those pesky vaccine package inserts in the off chance a doctor may care enough to take a moment to find out what they really inject into infants:

http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/licvacc.htm

Fun reading for the whole family! I wonder how our human DNA mutates over time with chicken embryo cells and bovine fetal serum and all the other animal cells and tissue vaccines are made with? Hmmmmmm.

Hi Vincent Iannelli, MD –

Unfortunately, the debate over autism and vaccination has focused on either the presence of absence of thimerosal, or the presence or absence of a single vaccine, the MMR. If only things were so simple.

However, what we are learning about children with autism is that they have a unique immunological profile consistent with problems regulating inflammatory immune responses; the heart and soul of how all vaccinations actually work, with or without thimerosal.

By way of example, did you know that we now have three studies showing greatly increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the brain and/or csf of children with autism compared to their non diagnosed peers?

Elevation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in cerebrospinal fluid of autistic children (chez 2007)

Elevated immune response in the brain of autistic patients (Li 2009)

Neuroglial activation and neuroinflammation in the brain of patients with autism (Vargas, 2005)

There are many, many other studies showing profound immune dysregulation in autism, including highly increased levels of MIF (Grigorenko, 2008), significantly decreased levels of TGF-Beta1 (Ashwood 2008), decreased levels of p-selectin levels (Iwata 2008) [all three of which showed correlation between levels of aberrant values and autism severity], decreased levels of IL-10 (Molloy 2006), and many studies showing increased generation of tnf-alpha and other pro-inflammmatory cytokines in response to a variety of stimulants.

The exaggerated creation of tnf-alpha in response to LPS or other stimulants may be of particular importance considering that we are now learning that tnf-alpha seems to be critical towards generation of seizures, and that the autism population goes on to develop autism at rates between 20 and 40%.

You want to read something terrifying? Check out:

Postnatal Inflammation Increases Seizure Susceptibility in Adult Rats

Wherein the authors report that a single, transient inflammatory response during critical developmental timeframes caused rats to be more succeptible to having seizures into adulthood. The mechanism was driven by tnf-alpha, and indeed, could be blocked by concurrent administration of a tnf-alpha antibodies. Interestingly enough, when blood is taken from children with autism and stimulated with LPS, it generates TNF-alpha at highly increased rates compared to their non diagnosed peers (Ashwood 2008, Jyonouchi 2002).

Having seizures early in life has been linked to long term neurological problems, and seizures into adulthood. See: Glial activation links early-life seizures and long-term neurologic dysfunction: evidence using a small molecule inhibitor of proinflammatory cytokine upregulation (Somera-Molina 2008)

It isn’t always about getting sick, sometimes it is about the bodies immune response. Our children have immune responses that are categorically different than those of children without autism, and that reality is completely invisible to all of our existing research regarding vaccines and autism. We simply haven’t studied it.

- pD

Dr. Ianelli,
Welcome to the fabulous world of Autism. Where people will give money to doctors like Krigsman and Wakefield, but complain that Dr. Offit makes money from saving lives with vaccines.
Parent’s are working very hard to pay off these “prophets of autism”. Meanwhile, these “prophets of autism” are living in the lap of luxury off of their hard-earned dimes.
Just today, on the biggest propaganda site of them all, the leaders of the hype are trying to steer the parents of autistic children to now look at “aluminum” as the culprit.
Pick a metal already.
No wonder it is so hard for parent’s who are trying to raise autistic children are having a hard time being heard.

mom4autism? What kind of name is that? What Mom could be “for” autism? Autism is a horrible disability.

Krigsman and Wakefield are not millionares like Dr. Offit is. They make livings, they didn’t make millions off of vaccines like a “lottery winner”.

If these medical issues do not pertain to your child- please go about living your life and fighting for the things your child needs. We are not stopping you.

We are speaking for our children and the hellish existence they have been forced to endure. We want good independent research. We want vaccinated vs. unvaccinated studied. We want our children who became sick and regressed studied. We want honest to goodness answers not industry propaganda. We want therapy and treatment options besides psycho-tropic meds.

You say pick a metal already. Your glibness is pathetic.

We have millions of children with neurological damage from environmental toxins and exposures to multiple chemicals. We should all be concerned about that.

Who will care for them? How will we afford to care for them when the estimated costs range from several million to over 10 million per individual? How will they function in this world when we are not here to care for them?

We should be able to have a discussion, even with our differences in opinion, without beginning to attack each other.

We want therapy and treatment options besides psycho-tropic meds.

Then why is it so hard to believe that other parents of children with autism what treatments besides the current ‘alternative treatments,’ but think that is being delayed because everyone keeps talking about vaccines.

Autism Mom,
My name refers to my 4 children on the autism spectrum. They are autistic. They are not mercury, aluminum, or whatever the metal-of-the-month is damaged.
BTW, Dr. Wakefield and Dr. Krigsman are both considered millionaires. Do you live in a million dollar home? Wakefield does.
Autism Mom, did you read Dr. Offit’s book?
I did. Dr. Offit did a wonderful job explaining vaccines and their role not being in Autism.
I have been through the anger. I have been living with a child with autism for over 17 years. I have seen all the hype and I am amazed that people are still buying into it. But, as I said, I once bought into it too.
My children have progressed amazingly since we stopped doing all of the things our DAN! doctor prescribed. My children are healthier and happier now than when we pushed supplement after supplement, the GFCF diet and B12 shots.
My children are at the top of their classes in regular schools where they are inclusioned with NT peers.
So, Autism Mom, I do know what I speak.
I am just sorry you find your world so “hellish”. I hope your child does not feel this wrath.

It’s very frustrating having your child diagnosed with autism, and no-one really knowing what caused it or what will help. But we need to find ways of working together and supporting each other as parents and professionals to find answers and help our kids. Generally, professionals and parents are doing the best they can, and following what they believe to be true. I’m glad to hear other people’s kids are also doing well, despite their diagnosis.

Oh, so you agree it’s “us” against “them”? So in a round about way you are acknowledging there could be different causes therefore different treatments would be likely?

I’m pretty sure pharma is going full-tilt on the psycho-tropic studies. Nothing will stop that from happening. Last month Autism Speaks had some pretty disppointing results from their Prozac study.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090218135122.htm

But, that won’t sway doctors from prescribing it.

And, there is always Risperdal, right? That was approved a year or two ago. Who cares about the weight gain, diabetes risk, and these side effects:

http://doublecheckmd.com/EffectsDetail.do?dname=Risperdal&sid=1259&eid=2127

Many with ASD are on all kinds of meds “off-label” of course. More mainstream medicine russian roullete.

There will never be any other mainstream treatments besides drugs.

If someone wants to put their child on drugs who am I not to tell them not too?

I want more and better options for my own child.

I apologize mom4autism for assuming what your “name” meant.

That is wonderful that your children are practically normal now! Totally mainstreamed and everything. So, it seems those biomedical approaches were doing nothing but hampering your kids and holding them back? Interesting. The “exceptions” to the “rule”, eh? All the parents that report good improvements, excellent results, sometimes “recovery” and your kids were the escat opposite. You have a different outcome- then most? Imagine that? Everybody with autism is not exactly the same. So since you jumped to the “other side” you figure there must be others out there like your children? Wow! What a thought.

I think it works both ways…if you know what I mean.

No, I did not read Dr. Offitt’s book and have no plans to read it.

Yes, I am still angry after all these years. My son was a normal thriving developing baby who went away after his 12 month vaccines. And became oh so sick. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. Autism is a horrible disbility.

I said:

“We are speaking for our children and the hellish existence they have been forced to endure.”

You know all that stuff people get mad about when you talk about. Headbanging, biting, feces smearing, fits of rage, diarrhea, not eating, not sleeping etc….

Are you familiar?

Autism Mom,
I am more than familiar with head-banging, feces smearing, screaming, etc.
We put our oldest through all sorts of biomedical interventions. We did not subject the other children through it.
Our oldest is still on the severe end of autism. She will require life long care.
She has still gotten much better with maturity. As have all of our children. They no longer smear feces, scream or bang their heads.
As angry as you seem to be about Dr. Offit, I am twice as angry at the “autism prophet” doctors that prey upon the parent’s of autistic children.
I find it very strange that you would come onto a blog, written about a book that you have never read.
I read all books on Autism. Even the really silly ones written by “B-list actresses”.
Like I said, I will get my science from scientists, not from Playboy Bunnies.

Mom4Autism,
Your life experiences and point-of-view are very similar to those of another mother of multiple children with autism whose oldest girl is a teenager and is also severely affected. In fact, here’s what she wrote on her blog recently:

“Parents of Autistic children who practice the biomedical approach to Autism
will still be singing the praises of Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
Jenny and Andrew will be nicely retired after earning a butt-load of money
from these parent’s.
The parent’s who gave money to these retirees will be working to pay off the
large amount of debt they incurred while paying these “Autism prophets”.”"

This particular mother stopped vaccinating all of her children on her pediatrician’s recommendation because she felt her children have weakened immune systems and the vaccines made her children worse. How do you feel about her decision? Do you feel her doctor was right in making that recommendation? If so, I wonder if there are other children out there with weakened immune systems who would be better off not following the one-size-fits-all vaccine schedule.

Also, Dr. Iannelli, I am very much hoping you’ll comment on the link I posted above. Do you feel all of these deaths were conincidence? I’ll post it again:
tinyurl.com/dzetm4

Thank you.

What a very through and well thought out review that points out the pros and cons of the issues involved in a thoughtful way.

Not.

Instead of just adding your two cents worth to the debate and suggesting that people go learn more from the likes of Autism Diva and Neurodiversity I strongly suggest that you take the time to become truly educated about the issues involved.

For example, you are apparently unaware that Neurodiversity considers autism to be a “difference” rather than a disorder. Is this your stated medical opinion, that autism is not a disorder?

If you are seeing a patent with autism, would you tell the parents to just “accept” it and not attempt any of the AAP suggested therapies such as ABA? This is another ND teaching.

Perhaps you could talk to your fellow about.com on the autism blog. I think she would be able to give you the needed background to understand the issues.

I’m not sure why this book has to be brought up again, when the only thing that results from it is nasty disrespectful comments to others. Reading these comments, it’s easy to see where the threats to Offit generate from. What qualifies any one to write a book? If a blonde can write a book, who is also no expert and ingests her own kids seizure medicine, why cant this man? Vaccines have been around for years, and it was never about profits to begin with.
As for Vaers, Vaers data are derived from a passive surveillance system and represent ‘unverified’ reports of health events, both minor and serious, that occur after vaccination. Hardly a reliable source to site.
There is alot more more to autism than vaccines, some of you need to remember that.

I find it very interesting that this review has sparked such a heated debate. I thought Dr. Ianelli’s review was fairly neutral and really just begs us to read the book if we are interested in what it has to say.

If you haven’t read the book, why go on a rampage about what you “think” it says? I know that mothers with autistic children are hurting and angry but geesh people! Dr. Ianelli is not the one to take your anger out on!

Telling parents this book is a “must read” is the only reason I’m “angred” by Dr. Ianelli’s “review,” but I think the term “rampage” is ridiculous. This book is filled with false information. If parents really want to be “informed” about vaccines, they need to read the vaccine package inserts at the link posted above in comment number 8, not some twisted, “what I want you to know” nonsense coming from a vaccine maker/former patent holder with clear and very large conflict of interest problems.

I wonder why pediatricians aren’t required to provide parents with these inserts prior to every vaccine? A sheet of paper listing “possible” side effects is certainly not what I would call “informed consent.”

And the fact that the VAERS system, the only one that the CDC and FDA uses to monitor vaccine adverse reactions is a “passive surveillance system,” should ring alarm bells and red flags everywhere! If vaccines are so important and the health of our infants are so important, don’t you think the CDC and FDA would have a more sophisticated, top notch, “state of the art” adverse event reporting system to protect them and everone else? What has the CDC really done while the infants of the US have been victims of a one size fits all vaccine schedule and while autism rates have skyrocketed? They redesigned and remodeled the headquarters in Atlanta and added a “state of the art” fitness center with top of the line workout equipment and machines. Telling the citizens of America that the rise in autism is only due to “better diagnosis.” I suppose the remarkable rise in other childhood illnesses like asthma, type 2 diabetes, cancer and allergies are all because of “better diagnosis” too.

Thanks for nothing, Julie.

The link Mom4Autism gave for the site America’s Vaccine Safety Watchdog, the VAERS ID numbers doesn’t even match up with any reports from the VAERS site. If people want actual reliable information, they should go directly to the VAERS site, down load the years and look for themselves than some watchdog site that doesn’t even have matching info.

Right on the VAERS site “VAERS has received over 123,000 reports, most of which describe mild side effects such as fever. Very rarely, people experience serious adverse events following immunization.” They mainly are also ‘unverified’ reports.

Illnesses like asthma, type 2 diabetes, cancer and allergies have never been linked to vaccines either as well as SIDS hasn’t.

Families should be allowed to read a wide range of books, not just the ones that pertain only to ones point of view. Families also could research vaccines prior to going to the doctors office, and they should. They should research any medication given to their child prior to giving it to their child.

If anyone thinks vaccines is a big money maker, you’re wrong. Vaccines are not prolonged use as other medications are and after a certain age, you never get any vaccines other than optional ones.

I read it. It was a very well done book. And, yes, I have a child with autism.

It is very clear that many who bash this book have never read it. Very clear to those of us who have.

Instead of taking on the actual subject, people want to try to divert attention with discussions of how much money one person or another has made.

The fact of the matter is that the book discusses in detail how we got to a point where the vaccine-autism hypothesis has taken such hold on the autism community. Dr. Offit’s book tells the story clearly and with a lot of time given to clearly discussing the pro-vaccine-causation side. What irks people is that he then shows how those arguments are false or, in some cases, very poorly supported.

The book is fairly brief and filled with facts, not the blogsense that one can find at, say, the age of autism.

I wanted to send a copy to my congressman and to people in policy making positions in the government. I found that they already had the book, and many had already read it.

Hi Sandy –

If anyone thinks vaccines is a big money maker, you’re wrong.

Please back this statement up. As vaccine manufacturing is run by for profit entities, I’m extremely curious to understand how you’ve come to the conclusion that they’ve been doing so while losing money all the while.

Wyeth made 2.8 billion dollars on Prevnar in 2008.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2744286420081027

A four dose series costs 240, and every one of the four million children born in the US is supposed to get fully immunized. An adult variant is being proposed for later this year.

- pD

passionlessDrone~ I never said they were loosing money, you did. Everyone makes a profit and it does take money to manufacture things. That is the way the world turns. Vaccines is no different. You believe what you want, makes no difference to me and what you claim actually for an odd reason makes people some how feel better. Go figure.

Money isn’t the motivation, disease is. It has always been about disease and suffering children.

I find it interesting that several people who support Offit’s book claim that there’s no way those of us who oppose it could have read it. That is a false statement, because I read the book!

Sandy claims the VAERS ID numbers on the link I provided don’t correlate with VAERS ID numbers on the government database. I input the very first ID number on the government database, and it confirmed the death and the Rotateq vaccine being involved.

And then she goes on to claim VAERS is useless anyway. Well here’s something I pulled right off of VAERS on the hhs government site:

“VAERS data contains coincidental events and those truly caused by vaccines.”

That means, if VAERS reports 113 babies died after being vaccinated with Rotateq, at least some of those deaths were caused by vaccines. Sorry, but there’s really no other way you can interpret that statement.

As for dismissing Jenny McCarthy as a “blonde,” personal attacks only reflect on the attacker. Odd that Sandy criticizes “nasty, disrespectful comments” when it’s so much a part of what she posts.

I thought this fact of hers was among the more far-fetched.
“If anyone thinks vaccines is a big money maker, you’re wrong.”

Then how did Dr. Offit earn between $30 million and $55 million on his vaccine? And he only received a fraction of the profits?

Dr. Iannelli, I’m still patiently waiting for you to comment on the link I posted. And Mom4autism, what happened to you? I’m also awaiting your response.

Mom4truth, I think Mom26children is off taking care of her 5 autistic children in her EHM house, not the 4 she claims to have.

I also noticed a descrepancy between her first post and her second. First, she claims all of her children are doing better since they stopped doing what their Dan! doctor recommended. Then, she follows up with they never subjected all of her children to biomed treatments, only the eldest. Which is it, I wonder?

Anyhow, at the very least she should admit she has not fully vaccinated all of her children on the advice of her children’s doctors. Classic…”do as I say, not as I do”.

Being a blonde is not a personal attack- she is blonde and she did ingest her child’s seizure medicine (she stated this publicly) which is illegal and also gross carelessness. That’s not an attack, it’s facts. She wrote a book, making profits off it too.

The VAER ID numbers do show up, just not in relation to their reporting area of side effects or deaths. Anyone can down load each years reporting, and I am sorry, those ID numbers are not there for the year reporting. Those deaths may have occurred, they’re just not there to find.
“at least some of those deaths were caused by vaccines” Really. Of the site you gave, 20 per page, 6 pages stemming for 4 years in which you’ve stated in post 6 ” Every death is associated with the administration of Dr. (PR) Offit’s Rotateq vaccine (among other childhood vaccines).”; some don’t even mention vaccines at all let alone Rotateq and some are listed as accidental suffocation. One died due to pneumonia viral, one had metabolic disorder & necrosis of the liver. Many don’t even mention which vaccine(s) were given. Many were given other vaccines the same day so one cant say which or what vaccine at all caused death.
If you read the deaths at the VAERS yearly reporting, you’d see there’s other existing factors than just a vaccine.
You think the person who invented penicillin didn’t make money off it? You think the person who invented the smallpox vaccine didn’t make money? The first RSV vaccine was recalled. I’m sure the person who created the next RSV vaccine made money too. So what. The point is many died from smallpox, RSV and rotavirus. Would it make you feel better if they didn’t get paid for these things?? You think any one is making huge money off these vaccines when most states have vaccine waivers? You don’t even need a waiver when your child is 2 months old, use the old saying “just say no”.

Dr,
Respectfully, “talking about vaccines” is not preventing some wonderful treatment from being developed.In actual fact, being open to acknowledging the various causes of the brain inflammation known as autism, is likely to be crucial in finding a cure.

Re the new treatment you feel could be developed, if people would just “stop talking”: as we know funding is easily available in the “ABV” or “look at Anything But Vaccines” category.
What form do you see this new cure or treatment taking?

I’m interested in the fact that you did not comment on passionless drones’ studies.( And I love your comments,as well as your name, passionless drone!)
Why? Surely as a physician and scientist, those studies would interest you?

The rate of autism is highest for families with a history of auto immune disorder.(About 1 in 12 for children with a family history of thyroid problems I believe.)

As you are no doubt aware,the package insert for the MMR vaccines states it should not be given to those with dysfunctional immune systems.

Out of interest, have you ever NOT vaccinated a child with immune system dysfunction due to the fact that as the package insert says, this vaccine is dangerous for this population?

Dr Jon Poling wrote an op ed piece today that mentions Dr Offits’ book.You may be interested in reading another point of view.

It is good that you are willing to discuss this. Please now be open minded enough to look at the facts from all angles.

Hello friends –

This thread seems to have some tenacity; I thought I’d post an edited version of something I wrote at another location regarding whether or not we can take Mr. Offit’s scientific knowledge regarding autism as credible or not. It does have some study citations repeated from my earlier post here, so please bear with me.

In any case, late in 2008, Mr. Offit published a ‘paper’ Vaccines and Autism A Tale of Shifting Hypothesis”.

In it, he claims:

“Unlike autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, there is no evidence of immune activation or inflammatory lesions in the CNS of people with autism.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Offit’s credibility, when you use five year old science in the area of autism, you are going to get some things wrong. His source for this particular quote is the 2004 IOM paper regarding vaccination and autism. The lack of an observations regarding immune activation in autism is referenced several times in the IOM report.

Here is something from the IOM paper on page 131:

Although a number of studies have suggested immune dysregulation in autism, there is as yet no evidence that these findings are directly related to the pathogenesis of autism. Unlike what is known about neuroimmunological disorders that affect the brain, such as multiple sclerosis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, there is no evidence of immune activation or an inflammatory process within the autistic brain. Neuropathological studies of autism have revealed no evidence of cerebral inflammatory lesions or microglial activation, which is a common feature in immune-mediated encephalitis (Bauman and Kemper, 1997). However, there are very few autopsy studies of brains from people with autism and this has not been fully investigated. Analysis of CSF from young children with autism, including screening for sensitive inflammatory markers such as quinolinic acid and neopterin, has also found no evidence of inflammation (Comi et al., 1999). The sample size in these studies is small, however. (my emphasis)

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=030909237X&page=131

So, it would seem, in 2004 anyways, that we hadn’t really looked for immune activation in the brains of children with autism very much. If I hadn’t gone out to the IOM report myself, and read parts of it, I’d never have known that such strong qualifiers were in place regarding our knowledge of immune activation in the brains of children with autism. I wonder why Mr. Offit didn’t acknowledge that our information set was incomplete, and in fact, seemed to be based on studies from 1999 or 1997? [Although, looking at some of the dates on his other references might explain that somewhat.]

But anyways, what a difference five years makes! It just so happens, anyone paying attention to the findings in autism research over the past five years will find that, in fact, we have lots of evidence that speaks directly towards brain inflammation that we didn’t have in 2004.

For example, in 2005, Vargas reported chronically activated microglia and immune activation in the brains of people with autism in “Neuroglial activation and neuroinflammation in the brain of patients with autism” Fancy that, evidence of exactly what the IOM defines as “a common feature in immune-mediated encephalitis ” in autism! It reported highly increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines like tnf-alpha, IL-6, and MCP-1; as well as chronically activated microglia.

In 2007, Chez reported highly increased levels of tnf-alpha in the CSF of children with autism, “Elevation of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in cerebrospinal fluid of autistic children”. And so again, long after the IOM report we have evidence of immune activation in the CNS of children with autism. How strange that these studies seem to have escaped Mr. Offit’s keen eye.

In 2009, it happened again. Li reported that children with autism had a highly pro-inflammatory cytokine set in their brains when compared to normal children. “Elevated immune response in the brain of autistic patients.”

If I didn’t know any better; I’d think that either Mr. Offit either hasn’t been paying attention to autism science, or is intentionally giving us a highly selective view of our availbable information in such a way that benifits his case. Maybe he’d just come up with that catchy phrase ’shifting hypothesis’ and didn’t want the existence of new data to interferre.

- pD

AutismMom – you are exactly right.
Not only is “800,000 is a far cry from 30 million,” but you can judge these trees by their fruit.

Let’s see: Offit’s “fruit” is to offer a hopeless dead-end and to block investigation into the MOST LIKELY source of environmental triggers for Autism: vaccines.

Whereas Wakefield is in the trenches, devoting his life to helping our kids.

Good intentions are not sufficient, but they are necessary. I do not see good intentions in Offit, and I do see them in Wakefield.

As has been said before, Offit’s book has the egg laying the chicken. He assumes that the “false prophets” came up with the hair-brained idea that we should be suspicious of vaccines, and dumb/desperate parents were all too happy to gulp down the kool-aid. In reality, it was we parents who saw the temporal nexus between the vaccines and the onset of regressive autism. Wakefield’s book resonates because it makes sense and it jibes with our experiences.

I took many years before Gulf War Syndrome (MS, ALS, etc.) was proven to be a real organic condition (either a reaction to the Anthrax vaccine, sand flea parasites, or a virus; TBD). The Aussies and Brits had to do the research — and found the statistics that proved it was real — because the US did a couple pilot studies with small sample sizes so that the margin of error washed away the reality.

Autism is going to be the same thing. Offit is on the wrong side of history. I can’t wait until 15 years from now when he issues his apology to all of us “dumb” parents.

I smell a rat!

I have never seen “mom4autism” post before. Has anyone else?

I think that’s a fake profile; who would call themselves “mom[for]autism”??? Is that you, AutismNewsBeat?

(16) mom4autism says:
We put our oldest through all sorts of biomedical interventions. We did not subject the other children through it.
Our oldest is still on the severe end of autism. She will require life long care.
[...]
As angry as you seem to be about Dr. Offit, I am twice as angry at the “autism prophet” doctors that prey upon the parent’s of autistic children.
I find it very strange that you would come onto a blog, written about a book that you have never read.
I read all books on Autism. Even the really silly ones written by “B-list actresses”.
Like I said, I will get my science from scientists, not from Playboy Bunnies.

LIKE I SAID, I SMELL A RAT!
IT’S VERY CONVENIENT THAT “Mom4Autism” IS POSTING ON THIS BLOG, WHERE LISA (AUTISMGUIDE) CAN’T POLICE IT. I BET LISA WOULD RECOGNIZE “MOM4AUTISM” AS A FRAUD.

Imagine, a parent having the same views as another. That’s so hard to believe, isn’t it? I hate to let you down but not every one disagree’s with this book or actually like McCarthy. I highly doubt ANB needs to hide behind some other name to express their opinions. And are you suggesting that Lisa does not let people comment freely?? She polices the comments? How interesting and thank you for pointing that out.

As for Wakefield, who did none of those 12 children any good and sent some to the hospital, took that $800,000 from lawyers and then attempted to conceal that fact for as long as he could. That’s where the difference is. Once a so called creditable researcher does that, you have no idea what else he’s concealed.
At least you know where the 30K is coming from.

30K off the backs of how many dead infants? How many poor disadvantaged babies from third world underdeveloped areas? I wonder if they even had informed consent for all the Rotateq clinical trials? (Junk science.) Intimidation is more like it. And Wakefield didn’t personally treat the boy, Jack who was injured. But I guess he gets all the blame anyway. How many kids are DEAD because of Wakefields research? It doesn’t begin to compare to the Rotateq vaccine. That’s what it comes down to, money and dead babies. (Pr)Offit is obviously wayyy ahead of Wakefield on those counts.

600,000 children a year worldwide die from rotavirus. Offit’s interest stems from witnessing the death of a 9-month-old infant from rotavirus while he was a pediatric resident in 1979. Offit is a co-patent holder for RotaTeq, not the sole holder. Like it or not, RotaTeq has been credited with saving hundreds of lives every day. I cant say I like the man or dislike him, but he’s not the first to create a vaccine and he wont be the last.

As for Wakefield, he only had 12 children in his study, of which some of those children were injured due to the tests Wakefield conducted on them. Those tests he conducted were evasive and painful tests as well. I don’t think Wakefield himself was even a GI pediatrics specialist to be performing those tests on children.

“of which some of those children were injured due to the tests Wakefield conducted on them.”

What are you talking about? I am assuming that you have some sort of reference for that absurd statement.

Not absurd at all. All you have to do MJ is research it. I wont do the work for you.

I have read a lot on the subject and never seen a claim like that before. Since you are the one making it, either provide a reference for the claim or don’t.

If you do then we can both know what you are talking about.

If you don’t then I am going to assume that you are making it up.

Sorry you didn’t find it, but it is there to be found. It isn’t made up nor would I make such a thing up. Maybe you’re just limiting your research which would prevent you from finding it? Some people of course don’t want to find it or hear it. Hard to say.

Besides that, fact is Wakefield’s study only had 12 children, hardly a size for any good findings and much of the facts of it are public recorded records of Wakefield himself making the statements, which further debunks the study.

OK, so you did make it up, that’s what I thought.

No I didn’t, you just don’t want to see it/ find it. If I posted the source, I’d prove I was correct however that’s not the point. The point is finding the info for ones self, and those that really are interested will actually find it easily. Why you cant is obvious you just don’t want to. Either that or you’re just not that motivated.
Fact is, I wont do the work for you.

Sandy,
600,000 dead worldwide from the rotavirus? I believe that as much as I believe the false CDC stat of 36,000 per year dead from influenza. These are nothing but inflated fearmongering numbers that are repeated continuously. They can’t even give an accurate number of flu vaccine adverse reaction deaths, yet we’re to trust these “numbers.”
And are you aware Sandy, that according to the vaccine package insert, the Rotateq vaccine can shed and make its recipients contagious to others? Why would I want to give a vaccine on purpose and possibly SPREAD the rotavirus to other children? Especially when you consider the odds that an infant would ever be exposed to the rotavirus without the vaccine. This is a nice way to make sure the rotavirus keeps making children sick, keeping the “need” for a vaccine and a steady stream of PROFIT.

:~(

Sandy – this isn’t a homework assignment nor any other type of educational setting. This isn’t doing work for anyone.

You are making an unsubstantiated claim.

I am asking for the rational of your claim.

Since you are unwilling or unable to provide any sort of justification or reference for your claim, I am calling bullsh*t.

Dr Wakefield did not injure any of the children in his study and you are making false and slanderous statements.

I am done with this conversation.

(37) Sandy says:

Offit is a co-patent holder for RotaTeq, not the sole holder.

Offit sold the patent. He has not financial interest in RotaTeq or any other vaccine.

As for Wakefield, he only had 12 children in his study, of which some of those children were injured due to the tests Wakefield conducted on them.

I don’t think Wakefield himself was even a GI pediatrics specialist to be performing those tests on children.

Wakefield is a charlatan. His own people are turning on him.

Depends, if you’re the parent of a child who died of the flu- you may think otherwise however the flu vaccine is guess work. They never know for sure which strains will be prevalent each flu season. Everyone should know the flu vaccine may not contain the strain of flu that’s out there that season. How does one transmit Rotavirus? By the fecal-oral route and guess what, RotaTeq is a live virus oral vaccine. Didn’t need a vaccine package insert to know that but transmission during the ages it’s given is not as likely and almost every child will have had Rotavirus at least once if not more but a baby is less likely to spread Rotavirus other than those who don’t change diapers cleanly and wash their hands. It’s those older kids (toddlers and pre K) that spread Rotavirus to the infants, so yea, those odds are much greater. Most toddlers hover over babies, sneeze all over them and never wash their hands after the bathroom. That’s how my kid got RSV, from an older child who had it and that older child had to go to my baby.
The only reason why I mentioned it, is Offit isn’t the sole patent holder making a profit off of Rota Teq, and why he was motivated to begin with about Rotavirus.

As for Wakefield, many things he did was horrible, I mentioned just one of them and those who are Wakefield followers wouldn’t accept a source even if I provided it. That’s why I always say, don’t rely on other’s for your info, research it yourself. Apparently, some only rely on other’s to supply the info. It doesn’t bother me if you don’t believe it or not.

Wakefield is a charlatan. Many are finally seeing him for who he really is.

Just because (Pr)Offit sold the patent does not mean he didn’t make a deal for a percentage of future profits. He has very outspoken for years repeating incorrect information about vaccines. There is your charlatan. If YOU say something, you should be able to post links to verify what you’re saying is true. This dosen’t mean that you are “doing the work for you.” How ridiculous that you expect others to search for the information to verify something YOU yourself say!

This man was recently awarded 22.5 million after he contracted Polio from changing his daughter’s diaper. Gee it sure took long enough and it says the pharma will appeal:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/03/21/2009-03-21_staten_island_dad_gets_225m_in_polio_cas.html

That diaper change was 30 years ago- they don’t use that same vaccine any more. No vaccine was ever perfect, during the 1800’s people actually died during the first stages of vaccines. Every one appeals, so what.

I’m sure Offit did make a profit, just as Wakefield made a profit as well. It wouldn’t matter if I posted the info or not, it’s be discredited, not believed anyway. So it makes more sense not to provide the link, those who want the info will fnd it as easily as I did.

Yes Sandy, we all have our own opinions but when we’re told time and time again how “safe” vaccines are with vast areas of them that haven’t even been studied, we’re not being told the truth. We’re just trading an illness like the chicken pox for another potentially chronic lifelong illness. Or maybe cancer since the package inserts do in fact indicate that the carcinogenic effects have not been evaluated or studied. I would rather for my child to have the chicken pox (like I did along with my 7 siblings and neighborhood friends who also had and recovered from measles and the mumps and many other “deadly” illness our kids are being poisoned, I mean vaccinated with these days) and obtain natural immunity than play Russian roulette with the potential risk factors and side effects of the vaccine.

Read the package inserts. There are vast areas of vaccines that have not been studied and the risks are no longer “outweighing” the “benefits.”

It’s astounding to hear the people who shout “show me the science” when it comes to the autism/vaccine causal link issue, yet these same people clam up when I say “show me the science” regarding carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. The “science” is just not there because it hasn’t been done.

We’re vaccinating the infants in America and around the world because we “trust” the doctors who “say” vaccines are “safe” with no scientific proof whatsoever to back it up. Sorry, I don’t “trust” what doctors say when it comes to my kids and obviously, no one else should either.

No one should make choices based on if some one else pulled through the measles, chicken pox or anything else. That doesn’t mean the people you exposed the diseases to did. My mom had a childhood disease and her lifelong side effect is damaged heart valves. My mom’s childhood friend died, but still my mother is most like you and didn’t believe in vaccines even though the disease itself greatly effected her and her friend died. People who choose not to vaccine is fine by me, however for those who make that choice, measles can harm an unborn child and those on chemo. Those with respiratory illnesses aside from the measles can die from complications of both combined. Measles has an estimate of killing 200 million people worldwide, and in some countries children are stilling dying from it. You don’t die from autism, the chances of it is slim however it is Russian Roulette with childhood diseases and ones personal reaction to it. Other countries use smallpox as a threat of bio warfare. You will not build a natural immunity to it, you’ll simply suffer and more than likely die.

My choice is I had no idea how to prevent autism, but autism and a childhood disease that I can prevent, I will. If I could prevent the common cold for my child, I would because a simple cold and autism is very difficult. That is my choice. As long as I read in the news a child contracted this or that, which could had been prevented, I know I made the right choice for us.

Sandy said:

“You don’t die from autism, the chances of it is slim however it is Russian Roulette with childhood diseases and ones personal reaction to it.”

Really? What about all the children who have died because of their autism? Escaping from home to be later found dead in the nearest body of water. And all the other horrible things that have befallen autistic kids.

And you think 1 in 150 (even less than that I’m sure by now) is SLIM chances???

The roulette is played in the administration of vaccines and the potential adverse reactions they may cause, not to mention if in 20 years the recipient experiences carcinogenic effects and turns up with some form of cancer. You can wash your hands against a vaccine that you administer on purpose.

I think the odds are much better against a person contracting an illness that there is a vaccine for (even with the issue of live virus’ shedding and rendering the recipient contagious to others) but we as parents need to have ALL the correct information to make the best decisions for our kids. Which most parents at this point do not have.

Many children die each year from drowning. For kids with autism, just as any child, the fact is the reason why they drowned was due to lack of supervision. Most cases regardless, the death is considered an accident but not caused by disability.

Many kids with autism know how to swim. Since many parents are aware their child can run off (even if they’re not a known runner) they teach their kids how to swim just in case the come across a large body of water.

Many parents have a hard time given medications to their child with autism. Many have that same trouble with their typical children as well. I do as well with my child. A fever can become very dangerous if your kid wont orally take fever reducer. Now add that to a childhood disease and that disease more than likely will require antibiotics and fever reducer, maybe some itch cream and mybe going to the hospital which can be scary for any child.

A mom in an article recently from Nightly News, which decided not to vaccine her children, she probably got information from those who were giving correct information you see. She wanted no chance of her kids getting autism. She thought she researched everything carefully. At the age of 5, her son contracted meningitis and almost died. Her story was more or less: parents have no clue what some of these diseases we vaccinate against can do if contracted and how her researched choice almost killed her child.

That article was called ‘Avoiding vaccines is a shot in the dark’

Sandy said:

“She thought she researched everything carefully. At the age of 5, her son contracted meningitis and almost died.”

That’s a good point Sandy, but vaccines are not guaranteed to provide immunity are they?
Isn’t this why so many “booster” shots are given? And even if the boosters are administered, they don’t have guaranteed efficacy either, do they? Who can say whether or not the vaccine would combat that particular strain of meningitis that her son had? Too bad you didn’t post a link, I would like to have had more details.

It seems as if you’re suggesting this mother is bearing some degree of guilt or responsibility in relation to her son’s contracting this illness. But just as parents whose infants have documented adverse vaccine reactions by “informed” parents, aren’t looked upon as being guilty or responsible by authorizing the vaccines to be administered to their baby, neither should this mother feel guilty about what happened to her son. In both cases, parents are doing what they think is best for their OWN children which, as parents, is their God given right.

Statistics show most who contract whatever were either never vaccinated or didn’t have a booster. Adverse vaccine reactions is a side effect, but that’s true of about any medication out there, even over the counter stuff. Parent’s don’t feel guilty over vaccine reactions and their choice; they simply put the blame else where.
Yea, I’d feel guilty if my child almost died from something that was preventable. I think most people would, it’s human nature.

Well I have read many of the articles but the one that sticks out is the father who contracted polio from changing his infants diaper. Someone said “that was thirty years ago, they do things different now.” Well it is 2009 and my 31 year old daughter contracted Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM) from changing THE DIAPER OF her newly vaccinated 16 mos old. She stopped talking and walking. She has lesions in her brain and spine. The family pediatrician reported it to VAERS (vaccine adverse episode reporting system). THE NEURO SPECIALIST SAID SHE CONTRACTED IT THIS WAY….I asked the neurologist if there is a genotyping to prove it came from the live MMR or VARICELLA vaccine….to prove it to VAERS….she said that she has seen cases with less evidence than this win in court. Why isnt anyone talking about family members being exposed to these live viruses and the consequences that family members can face???? I am so mad! They dont even tell the caretakers of the newly vaccinated infants to do something so simple and preventative as WEAR GLOVES DURING DIAPER CHANGES!!! My daughter’s life has changed forever because of these damn vaccines. She is in a wheel chair and cant even take care of her family. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical bills. Its been over two months now. What will happen to her quality of life??? What about the quality of her children’s and husband’s life??? NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS!!! HOW MANY MORE ARE THERE OUT THERE LIKE MY DAUGHTER AND SUPPOSEDLY THIS IS SO RARE AND NEVER HARDLY EVER HAPPENS….BULL!!! WHY DONT THEY SAY THE TRUTH….THERE ARENT ANY STUDIES DONE AT ALL TO SEE THE EFFECTS OF THOSE SURROUNDING THE VACCINATED INFANT. IM FRUSTRATED AND ANGRY. SOMEONE TELL MY DAUGHTER THE BENEFITS OF VACCINES….WHAT SHOULD SHE BE CONSIDERED, JUST CONSIDERED A CASUALTY…??? I HOPE THEY GET A LAWYER AND SUE SUE SUE SUE!!!!! DAMN THOSE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES

McCarthy fraud hurting autistic community

Jenny McCarthy is a fraud. Her son was never autistic. Why won’t she admit it? Febrile seizures, possibly triggered by vaccine injury, thwarted his development. Then, thankfully, he recovered. Yet she uses her son’s acute and temporary medical condition to speak for autism? Has she no shame?

What drives her? I’ll tell you what. See her Indigo Mom or Children of the New Earth Internet sites. New Age madness. Interestingly, many sites run by Aspies (persons with Aspergers) oppose her. They see the con job.

To learn more about ignorance about autism, go to http://www.stopjenny.com. Also, go to YouTube and type in “autism and seizures” or “autism and self-injury” to see real faces of autism. The sides McCarthy and other false prophets of autism don’t want you to see.

Kim Oakley

Mother of child

with classic autism

Valley Center