By TLB Contributor & Talk Show Host: Leslie Carol Botha – “Communications Manager” for A Shot of Truth Campaign

Dr. Andrew Wakefield addressed a packed audience at the 12th annual AutismOne Conference. In his presentation (excerpt below), he discussed recent polls and surveys that indicate a “massive proportion” of medical consumers are questioning vaccine safety and efficacy. Even though the pharmaceutical industry spends $30 billion annually on vaccine promotions through PR firms, Wakefield declared that Pharma has failed because of the growing percentage of consumers who are becoming aware of the issue.

He cited a recent poll that reported 29% of U.S. adults today believe vaccines cause autism. According to Dr. Wakefield that number is approximately 1/3 of all parents with children under 18. In 2011, only 18% of adults felt that vaccines caused autism.

The question begs to be answered: is this growth in awareness due to the vaccine safety and efficacy campaigns? Or is the percentage growth sadly due to the rise in numbers of parents with children now on the autism spectrum?

Dr. Wakefield then reported that a stunning 76% of respondents in a National Consumer League poll indicated that consumers have the prerogative to decide how and if their children should be vaccinated.  He followed up with this comment: “The harder the other side pushed the more mandates they impose; the more things they take away such as exemptions, the more they force the people of this country to do – to bow to their will, the more resistance they will meet.”

He went on to cite a recent University of Chicago poll where 36% of the respondents were undecided when asked if they believed if vaccines can cause autism and whether the government is aware of the link. Also significant, 20% of respondents said they did believe vaccines can cause autism and the government is covering it up.

Dr. Wakefield then carefully cites the discrepancies between fact and the hypocritical, blatant lies printed in peer-reviewed medical journals about his work and research.

However what is most important in the transcript and video below is Dr. Wakefield’s approach in articulating a compelling answer to the question most of us have encountered: “If every kid gets vaccinated, why not every child?” (i.e., why doesn’t every child have an adverse reaction?)  He used the dangerous and horrific drug Thalidomide used for morning sickness in pregnancy as an example of the lack of universal outcomes in vaccine and drug injuries.

Why not every child? Or is it possible that it is every child – but the observed damage done is relative to the timing of the poisoning? Is the ASD spectrum actually a larger disease spectrum crossing all ages?

True to form, Dr. Wakefield was passionate in his presentation on The Legacy of Vaccine Injury. There is no doubt that this unsung hero of our time places the suffering of our children first and foremost in his quest not only for justice but for demanding truth and integrity within the scientific and medical communities. Brian Hooker, PhD who introduced Dr. Wakefield, stated “This is a man who deserves ‘knighthood’ not persecution.”

Readers are encouraged to view Dr. Wakefield’s video presentation below.
The following excerpt is from Dr. Wakefield’s AutismOne presentation on May 23, 2014.

Brian Hooker, PhD Introduces Dr. Andrew Wakefield at AutismOne

Dr. Brian Hooker: Good evening and welcome. My name is Brian Hooker and I have been given the honor of introducing Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Dr. Wakefield has been involved in the autism issue and autism research since 1995 when he embarked on the effort that led to his landmark 1998 Lancet paper regarding autistic inner colitis. Only now in 2014, 19 years later, has mainstream autism research even begun to elucidate what Dr. Wakefield discovered back then; while they ignore the obvious connection between vaccines and autism. Because of his commitment to the truth, Dr. Wakefield has suffered dearly. When many others have bowed to professional pressure, he has stood firm. Dr. Wakefield’s commitment to our children is unwavering and he deserves ‘knighthood’, not persecution. He along with Dr. Mark and David Geier are true heroes, who have made a deep and positive impact on society as a whole. I would like to introduce my good friend and colleague, Dr. Andy Wakefield.

Dr. Wakefield Honors Brian Hooker, PhD with the 6th Annual Dr. Andrew Wakefield Award for Courage in Medicine

Dr. Wakefield (to Brian Hooker): Before you go, stay where you are – Thank you, thank you it is always a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much. I have the pleasure of every year of acknowledging a hero in the field of science and autism, and this year is one of my favorite years – to Brian Hooker a great friend of mine, a person who has not only has been personally affected by autism – but through it all has stood completely firm, and who gone back time and time again; relentlessly to the CDC to force them ultimately to give him that data that he needed to show that they have lied, and lied, and lied again, and that will become very apparent in the forthcoming months. So, it is a great, great pleasure to give this to you Brian. I think I already know who I will make the award to next year; Teri I think I am going to need two awards… there’s a spoiler if there ever was one.

Dr. Wakefield: When you are disenfranchised as a scientist… I have been coming to this meeting since the very inception of AutismOne, and when you are not producing science year after year there is very little to talk about… It is very easy when you are conducting science to update that every year. Now, I’ve kind of run my course…it’s very important. When I played Rugby, I started pulling ham strings; the worst moment for me was when we were in a defensive position attacking my outside half – who’s kind of like the running back. Made a break with the ball, he should never have done it. This guy was with the England B team and he was very good in his day; this was not his day. And he made a break and he was dragged to his knees by two old-age pensioners, and as he fell to his knees I called for the ball to pass; in Rugby you pass backwards. He threw the ball over his head. I jumped up in the air and I stuck my thumb in my eye. And I fell to the ground. “Who did it Andy, who did it?” I said I did it. And the only good thing about that day was that my children were not on the touch line watching the game.

But someone was telling me to give up the game of Rugby, and the time has almost come for me to give up lecturing to AutismOne in the absence of… but, you haven’t seen the last of me. Having been disenfranchised as a scientist and a physician, what I now do is make movies with Polly Tommey’s daughter’s Media Channel. And our first movie which has been finished and was shot here last year in Chicago – not a happy story – but a very, very instructive story;  has just been accepted as an official selection at a major film festival. So we’re very, very pleased about that.

People come to filmmaking – the extremes in two ways: they come as undergraduates and postgraduates in film schools and they know a lot about making films; they now the history of cinematography; they know the techniques, they know the editing style –they know a lot. But they have no stories to tell. They have no experience in life.

The other extreme; people like me who have to learn about making films, but who have the most extraordinary stories to tell. Stories of of your own experiences. And it is a privilege to do that; it is a privilege to do that. So getting together with those young people who know how to make films and putting the narrative together with that we can tell some extraordinary stories. And I realized that as Joseph Stalin said “the death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic.” And when you tell sometimes the story of just one person – their suffering – their family suffering you can persuade the agnostic. And talking of the agnostic – what is the current state of this nation? We heard earlier from Claire Dwoskin that the government – sorry the pharmaceutical industry sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish; the pharmaceutical industry have spent 30 billion a year on promoting vaccines. They should have saved their money. Because they’ve failed; they’ve failed.

In a recent poll, U.S. adults who believe that vaccines cause autism rose from 18% in 2011 to 29% today; that’s 33% of all parents with children under 18. In polling terms; in an exit poll – that is a massive proportion of the American public. In a National Consumer League poll 76% believed that it was their prerogative to decide how and if their children should be vaccinated.

And the harder the other side pushed; the more mandates they impose; the more things they take away such as exemptions, the more they force the people of this country to do – to bow to their will,  the more resistance they will meet. And they don’t understand that. They do not get yet that they have wasted their time and their money.

Why? Why? They’ve paid a fortune to public relations companies; you could say if you were cynical that the public relations companies have wasted their money, but I would bet my bottom dollar that the public relations companies have not been told that they’ve been lied to. That the CDC and the drug industry as we’ve seen today, and as I’ll show you, have lied to them; have not been honest with them and therefore, whatever they put into it they are going to fail. Is there failure due to people like me? No. Its people like you who have experienced it first-hand – in your families, in your communities, in your streets and in your schools; so many children becoming damaged that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It is your instinctive belief- from your own experience, that vaccines are causing not just a wave – a pandemic of neurodevelopmental disorders, but other immune-mediated diseases as well. And they don’t get that. They are furious that you do not comply; you do not believe them. They are living in a never, never land. And at that continued rate of growth of people who do not believe in the safety of vaccines – and there is not mention in these studies of the uncertain or undecided.

There was another poll that came out, from the University of Chicago, in fact, where they asked the question: “Do you believe that doctors think that vaccines cause autism and are covering it up?” Twenty percent of the respondents said “yes.”

The important number is that 36% didn’t know. And it’s that 36% that I am targeting in the films I am making. They’re not for you – you already know. I’d be honored if you watched them, but they are not for you – they are for the agnostic and for that reason, they must get out into the mainstream.

I don’t believe them and there are many reasons I don’t believe them; I read such nonsense in the scientific literature and one of them is a paper that was just published the other day, and it was a study funded by, I believe, by the Marcus Foundation. And it was looking; meta-analysis at the studies looking at gastrointestinal symptoms in children with autism. Coming to the conclusion – something that you knew 20 years ago is that they were highly prevalent in children on the autistic spectrum. And that in fact, they reflected an underlying disease. But this is why I don’t believe them; here is the opening; here is the introduction:

“A great amount of controversy has surrounded this topic since publication and public awareness in 1998 naming a new pathologic entity, autistic enterocolitis…”

Oh, right there – wrong. The term autistic enterocolitis did not come into being until several papers later. It was not mentioned in that Lancet paper…did they read it. They said that the autistic enterocolitis is responsible for developmental regression in 12 children. No, we didn’t. No, we didn’t;  we did not say that the bowel disease is responsible for the regression. These are such mundane errors in a peer-reviewed paper coming from a major academic institution in this country. No wonder, people do not believe it.

“Ultimately this research was retracted for several reasons including questionable research practices as found by the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom.”

No mention there whatsoever, that the General Medical Council’s ruling in respect of the lead researcher, Professor Walker Smith; the lead clinician, Professor Walker Smith was completely thrown out by the first time this came before Justice Mitting in the English High Court.  And in effect, ruled that the General Medical Council were incompetent to hear and interpret evidence. No mention of that here.

“An association between the MMR vaccine and autism spectrum disorder has not been supported in subsequent research.”

It’s extremely misleading. There have been at least five papers by Dr. Singh and Professor O’Leary that support this association. But they receive no mention whatsoever.

“There is no evidence suggesting unique GI pathology in ASD.”

Here, are the papers suggesting there is a unique pathology. They show that the immune cells in the gut of children with autism are distinct from those with Crohn’s, and colitis and food allergy. They show that the cytokines produced by those immune cells in the gut and the blood of children with autism are distinct from those with Crohn’s, colitis and other inflammatory bowel diseases. They show that the pattern of pathology is different. They show that the staining characteristics of the diseased bowel are different. They do not make the claim absolutely for a unique pathology, but they are most certainly evidence in support of that.

And here is the latest paper with which I was involved with; Steve Walker and Arthur Krigsman – peer-reviewed published – a major publication showing that the genes that are switched on and off in the gut biopsies of children with autism and bowel disease are distinct. Quite distinct from healthy controls; and show a pattern that is also distinct from Crohn’s disease and colitis.  Have these people not read this or are they simply biased?

They concluded that and that this is something that I think Emily Willingham, whoever she is… in a blog “Chilling Future Research;” I actually got the blame for the lack of any research on bowel disease and children with autism. Had I not been so impertinent as to report the parent’s stories, we may have made more progress in the interim.

“Previous controversy surrounding the MMR vaccine and proposed causal link between autism and infection of the GI tract probably deterred investigators from dedicating resources to examining GI function in this group while fostering uncertainty regarding the validity of this line of inquiry.”

This line of inquiry is initiated by the parental description of the symptoms in their child; the physical findings on examination; nothing to do with whether the vaccine drove it or not. Is this child sick; what ails them, what should I do as a clinician to make them better? And this kind of garbage is such an excuse for gutless pediatricians and pediatric gastroenterologists not to do their job.

This is utter, utter hypocrisy. And people did not do this. They were deterred from this line of inquiry because they feared what might happen to them. They put themselves before suffering children. And shame on them.

So here is the mantra. Here is the mantra. This is from Dr. Poland from the Mayo Clinic. “Vaccines and the ability…” – read this – at the beginning of so many papers that talk about vaccine safety. It’s almost as if they have to say this. Their compelled to say this (1) because their given a grant by the pharmaceutical industry, or (2) it won’t get published in a peer-reviewed journal unless you say something that appeases the vaccinology.

“Vaccines and the ability to prevent morbidity and mortality due to infectious diseases has been one of the greatest public health success stories. On a global level it is one of the few cost-effective medical measures that result in universal benefit.”

Well, what if it’s not. What if that’s not true? What if the onset of these problems is so insidious so widespread – so unexpected rather like narcolepsy with flu vaccine – who ever expected that? You’re not just looking for things you know might occur – but you’re looking for things that are completely new – idiosyncratic – or are you? Depends whether you set up the surveillance systems or not.

But, what if it’s not?

I want to talk briefly about the legacy of vaccination; perceived benefits. This is one of the arguments you hear time and time again. Go to a cocktail party – I do not go to cocktail parties any longer, I do not get invited… But when I did, people would say ‘well, what about polio’? And that was it – that was the end of the conversation – ‘Well, what about polio’? This is not what we are talking about – What about polio? What about polio… It has nothing to do with polio so that’s not even an argument.

Why not every child? Now you must get asked this question… ‘Ok, well alright, maybe, but so every kid gets vaccines, so why not every child”… I’ve been thinking about this and I have been trying to articulate an argument that you might use that is compelling and going forward; universality.

We’ll talk about it in terms of ecological shift; changing patterns of immunity and infection and what the long-term implications are for interfering with the eco-system. Because nature abhors a vacuum and when you move the ecosystem just a fraction then it has a sort of chaos theory effect, beyond that. And you may not reap the reward or otherwise for many years; escaped mutants in vaccines and vaccine resistance, transmissibility, and vaccine failure.  I’ll also talk about what I call the ‘Valedictorians’ and where next.

So, why not every child? Let’s look at an analogy; lessons from Thalidomide. The FDA did one good thing; they’ve done several good things, but one good thing they did –years ago there was a lady, I don’t remember her name; who was in charge of the FDA… and she would not let the drug Thalidomide be licensed in this country. It’s a drug that came from Germany originally. And it was a drug that was ultimately used around the world, except in the States to treat morning sickness; to treat nausea in pregnancy. It was effective at doing that. The problem is it was a major teratogen. It caused major, major deformities in the children whose mother’s took it during pregnancy.

Now let’s look at the evolution of … or the evolving fetus in the womb from 3 to 38 months – the phase of – because here timing is everything. Why not every child? Remember, that is the key question. Why not every child? (Note: Photos are from Wikipedia – not Dr. Wakefield’s presentation. Dr. Wakefield’s PowerPoint slides showed a pregnancy timeline in addition to the photos of Thalidomide damage.)

If your mother takes this drug during this time period of upper limb development, – that is when you get problems with upper limb and development. If your mother takes the drug before that – or after it – you will not have problems with upper limb development, if this is the period for lower limb development. If your mother takes the drug during that period, then that is when you will have the problem. So the exposure does not necessarily produce a universal outcome.

Now, this is Phocomelia. These are children who were born… Phocomelia means seal-like disorder; seal-like abnormality.  And you can see these children had no rudimentary arms. And these were children whose mother’s took that drug during that critical window of upper limb development.

Here is the time during which the external and internal ear develops; a critical window of development. Now… and here is such an  ear abnormality in a child.

So exposure does not equate to a universal outcome. Exposures may result in very different outcomes. Timing is crucial. The interesting thing is that Thalidomide causes autism. Children with autism do not have limb abnormalities; they don’t have upper limb or lower limb abnormalities, but they do commonly, have ear abnormalities. What this has led to is now the appreciation that critical window of developing autism in the face of Thalidomide is the mother taking the drug between 20 and 24 days – 20 to 24 days – so it is critical to understand that timing in this case is everything. And I hope that makes it clear.

A wide-spread exposure and only 30% of those children whose mothers took the drug during the 20 to 24 days would actually develop autism. Why? We don’t know. But not everyone will develop it. And I hope that goes someway to using an argument that you might put forward to people who question this issue of universality. So it doesn’t apply to adverse reactions to vaccines just as it does not apply to protective vaccine responses. Not everybody responds to vaccines in the same way.  And this is very, very important. Because the belief has been of course, that one-size fits all – it does not and it never did.

Additionally in terms of timing and exposure, we have changed the natural pattern of exposure. We are giving exposure at different age; at different dose; at different root – we are not inhaling these anymore we are getting injected. It bypasses that part of immune system that has seen that virus over 1,000’s of years in terms of evolutionary history.  And now it’s seeing it in a completely different way.

Whoever thought that that would produce the same outcome? The root and concurrent exposure – we’re adding in more and more and more things that could interact; aluminum, thimerosal, other live viruses, viral excipients, viral contaminants, that we never knew were there; Porcine Circovirus; Types 1 & 2 in the Rotavirus vaccine; things that they never knew were there. So, no one knows how to determine the risk/benefit analysis. If they do, then they are lying. This whole argument about risk benefit analysis cannot be articulated unless you know the down side. Unless you know the risk – and there is no way of knowing that.”

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Dr. Wakefield’s presentation was informative, eye-opening – and his words need to be shared. The entire video presentation can be viewed below.

His response to the question, “Why not every child?” is compelling – and his conclusion as to why there is no universal outcome is thought-provoking. Timing of vaccination is as crucial to neuro-development as the timing of Thalidomide was to limb development. And in both cases, the timing led to a certain percentage of children developing autism. There is still so much to learn – to understand about the bio-chemical natures of our bodies that will ultimately affect the health outcomes of our children.

See featured article here: http://www.ashotoftruth.org/blog/dr-andrew-wakefield-massive-proportion-question-vaccine-safety-responds-why-not-every-child