Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Vaccine-Autism War: Will Beating Up Jenny and Oprah End the War?

From Newsweek to Discover online to the self appointed protectors of science who contend that any questioning of the safety of injecting substances containing mercury, aluminum and biological agents directly into the blood of young children on dozens of occasions constitutes "woo" the Offit Offensive has rolled out with a vengeance lashing out at Jenny McCarthy and Oprah Winfrey for the attention they bring to parents' concerns about vaccine safety. Will these vicious personal attacks convince those parents who have seen their children regress into autism after vaccination? I doubt it. I doubt it very much.

If the self styled anti-woo brigade really wants to persuade parents that their concerns about multiple injections of potentially toxic chemicals and biological agents into their children's bloodstream is risk free they should change course. Stop repeating the same failed tactics over and over and over again. Do the comparison study of vaccinated and unvaccinated populations that credible health authorities like Dr. Bernadine Healy, Dr. Julie Gerberding, Dr. Duane Alexander and neurologist, university professor, "autism dad" and successful vaccine autism litigant, Dr. Jon Poling have all said could and should be done.

Dr. Paul Offit and others should stop the silly name calling. You will change no minds with such foolishness. Stop playing in the "woo" and do the credible studies to change minds. If you want to stem the tide of concern over vaccine safety do the research that will convince people of vaccine safety .... or start accepting your own responsibility for continued public suspicion over the safety of vaccines.




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5 comments:

  1. Great points did you notice Dr Harvy Karp is now using a 1 in 166 stat. Does this mean they are saying Autism rates are declining because the mercury was removed...Where are the headlines?

    Do I owe Dr Harvey Karp an Apology. The Autism Mystery continues. Devil in details.
    http://tinyurl.com/naarf4

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  2. Anyone notice how the scienceblogs are highly populated with ND people?

    "We want to find the real cause of autism, but it isn't vaccines."

    They say they want to find out what causes autism, but they hop in bed with people who subscribe to a philosophy that says it should not be cured.

    Never read Offit's book but from what I understand he quotes people like Kathleen Seidel a lot. Neurodiversity.

    Does this make any logical sense?

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  3. Anonymous1:40 am

    Thank you for pointing out just how unscientific some scientists can be.

    When did the word "anecdotal" become a pejorative? Why do vaccine promoters foolishly discount parents' reports of vaccine injury?

    It's difficult to trust public health administrators who've shown so little interest in investigating consumers' reports and improving their medical product. Fool me twice, shame on me.

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  4. Roger,

    I read medical blogs, particularly labor and delivery nurse blogs (as I thought I might want to go back to school and be an L & D nurse or midwife once my kids were older) as well as autism blogs and that is how I first found that Insolence place. I think I skimmed the archives, read a few posts, and then left feeling sick to my stomach.

    What is so sad about that blog is that so many of the medical blogs I see just love that guy and lap up every word he says like thirsty dogs at a bowl of water. I was reading a labor and delivery nurse blog once (and I really liked this lady) and she started going off about these autism parents just looking for someone to blame and how they cannot handle that it is genetic, etc., etc. A doula then politely pointed out to her that there is a theory that these children cannot handle much of the crap that is in our environment and there is science to back that up. Well, everyone jumped on her, even though she did not use the word "vaccine" in her post one single time. Medical folks read blogs like that, see all these ND followers in the comments section who claim that they have autistic children themselves and that anyone who wants a cure just doesn't love their child because he isn't "perfect" and they get preconceived notions about biomed parents or parents who are not biomed but want a cure. I kind of wonder if the dude who ridiculed me to the point of tears when my daughter was suffering horribly from a prolonged yeast infection and refused to give me Nystatin was reading some kind of drivel like that and came to the conclusion that I was a horrible parent and that is why he acted the way he did towards me. He was openly rude and acted like a complete ass to me in front of my daughter.

    The medical community gets all pissy even if you say "environmental insult" and do not use the word "vaccine". Why is that? By golly, if you do not believe it is genes and the brain, genes and the brain, genes and the brain, then you are a tinfoil-hat wearing nutcase.

    All that Insolence guy ever does is attack the character of any doctor or scientist who is doing environmental and not genetic research on autism. I don't think the guy really cares about autistic people in the slightest.

    Someone told me that awhile back he blogged that amalgams were not harmful. Well, guess he was wrong about that one.

    People who are absolutely certain that they know everything like that scare the crap out of me. Even moreso when they have initials behind their name.

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  5. Anonymous3:40 pm

    THE VERY FIRST STEP IN CONDUCTING ANY RESEARCH ABOUT EFFECTIVENESS OF VACCINES IS TO FIND OUT THE SPONSOR OF SUCH STUDIES. MOST INDEPENDEND ORGANIZATIONS CAME OUT WITH RESULTS THAT ARE NOT IN FAVOR OF VACCINES, AND THOSE FINANCED BY PHARMA BIZ/GOVERNMENT WERE ALWAYS "MIRACLES" TO MODERN MEDICINE... WONDER WHY IS IT?????

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