At some point in the last several days, Rolling Stone re-posted “Deadly Immunity,” the error-laden piece by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that the magazine and Salon.com simultaneously published in June 2005. The story, which was officially retracted by Salon in January, claimed a conspiracy that began during the Great Depression to prop up “the vaccine industry’s bottom line” by covering up the dangers of thimerosal, the mercury-based additive that was removed from most standard childhood vaccines years before Kennedy’s story was published.
At the time of the Salon retraction, I noted that the story appeared to have been disappeared from Rolling Stone‘s site (along with the magazine’s aggressive defense of the piece after it came under fire). It’s re-posting — and for what it’s worth, it’s now only available behind a paywall — was accompanied by this statement:
Editor’s Note: The link to this much-debated story by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was inadvertently broken during our redesign in the spring of 2010. (We did not remove the story from the site, as some have incorrectly alleged, nor ever contemplated doing so.) The link to the original story is now restored, including the corrections we posted at the time and the subsequent editorial we published about the ensuing controversy.
I’m pretty sure I’m the “some” who were “incorrectly alleged” that the magazine had removed the piece — or at least I haven’t found anyone else who brought it up. I think what the magazine meant was that it didn’t deliberately remove the story — because the piece definitely was missing: The URL where the story had previously appeared led to a “404 – Page cannot be found”; what’s more, searches for “thimerosal” or “Deadly Immunity” on the Rolling Stone site yielded no results…not even broken ones leading to broken links.
It’s a curious time for RS to be digging in. Kennedy’s hypothesis depended on the amount of thimerosal in vaccines actually being harmful, and that conclusion was reliant on the research work of Mark and David Geier, the “only two scientists” who had managed to gain access to the data Kennedy claimed contained proof of the conspiracy.^
Photo by Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune
“The Geiers,” he wrote, “have completed six studies that demonstrate a powerful correlation between thimerosal and neurological damage in children.” The father-and-son team, for those of you who don’t know, haven’t had the best week: Last month, Maryland suspended Mark Geier’s medical license because of his peddling of the “Lupron protocol,” a bogus cure for autism that involves chemically castrating autistic children.
The other notable news event of the last week is the publication of a study ginning up a new manufactroversy over Vaccine Court data. That study appeared in the Pace Environmental Law Review; Kennedy is a Pace University Professor of Environmental Law.
Off the top of my head, there a couple of questions the magazine’s statement raises:
* Did other articles also disappear during the redesign?
*Why did it take four months from the time when Salon retracted the story (and I pointed out its absence from rollingstone.com) for the magazine to re-post it online?
* Did RFK Jr contact anyone about the piece and it’s absence from the RS site?
I sent those questions to a magazine spokesman earlier today; I’ll post any answers when I get them.
^ Wording changed for clarity.
The article was not originally behind a paywall, and was duly archived by the Wayback Machine. This may be a good time for more people to point out just how serious a lapse of journalistic standards this article represented for Rolling Stone.
I know that for some people (and maybe certain publications) the suspicion that pharma is pulling something is quite appealing. They want to be perceived to be on the other side of that.
But what I never understood about that is: if infectious diseases spread–who benefits? Pharma. More illness is *better* for them. Certainly not better for infected people, or for the moms who have to stay out of work–and possibly lose jobs–taking care of a household of sick kids for a couple of weeks. And certainly not for the public health system. Did you see what just one outbreak cost, described in Mary McKenna’s article? Zoiks.
I really can’t figure out how people have convinced themselves that this is all a giant pharma and government plot to give out autism.
Maybe I should read the book. I’ve been meaning to….
Actually, pharma benefits more from the chronic immune system and neurological disorders which may sometimes be the result of over-vaccination such as asthma, diabetes, ADHD, MS, IBD…
This article does not talk about causation, but one has to wonder what could account for this increase in immune system disorders. The novel use of dozens of vaccines in infancy has to be a prime suspect.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030303200.html
But the main benefit for pharma is the profit from selling vaccines.
Evidence of your claims please. Of the peer-reviewed sort.
You do realize that the news article you link to says it’s not having enough exposure to worms and bacterial parts, right? Which is the opposite of your claim. They are saying kids aren’t exposed to enough stuff. You are claiming they are exposed to too much.
Which is it, dear?
Why is it that so many can defend what Big Pharma has done to our children and society as a whole, yet fail to acknowledge the evidence of vaccine damage staring them in the face, (or lack their of). Who has yet to to find a rate of 1 in 110 children of the Amish Community with Autism. I’ve not heard of one case of an Amish child having autism that was born to an Amish couple. BTW: They don’t vaccinate.
What evidence? You need to produce some, and not the “I heard of” type.
Interesting thing about the Amish is that you do not have to rely on the “I heard from someone who wandered around Lancaster County” kind of information. They are an interesting research population due to their limited genetic pool, which is why there is this:
http://www.clinicforspecialchildren.org/CSC/Research.html
Not sure what that article has to do with Autism rates in the Amish community. Again, more crap people post that have no idea what they are talking about. There was a time when asbestos exposure was safe, cigarettes did not cause cancer, DDT exposure was safe and all of which our goverment supported at one time. Yeah, I’m a beleiver in vaccine safety for the good of all, so why not make them safe. All this garbage about how Autism usually presents itself at the same time of vaccines. Is it a coincedence that most of these parents see the changes from normal to autistic within hours of a round of vaccines. Anyway, here are the facts that you seek in that community in 2005 when it was 1 in 166 for the rest of the population…
http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2005/06/autism-rate-us-1166-amish-115000.html
I noticed you called that page an “article.” The reason you have no idea what it has to do with anything is you did not even glance at it. It is a list of the peer reviewed articles on the disabilities experienced by that populations because of their limited gene pool.
It is the clinic that Mr. Olmsted completely missed when he was in Lancaster County. Not only do they actually vaccinate the children, but also study them due to the several genetic disorders that occur. Many of which are similar to autism.
Since you did not bother looking at the page, and have indicated you have no clue what science is by posting to a blog article: I guess you will not be bringing forth any real evidence to support your claims. Good to know.
Call it what you will, I didn’t see anything in there on the number/percentages of Amish that actually vaccinate their children. So even if a very small percentage of Amish vaccinate, there is still the argument that can be made from the Amish to warrant a vaccinated versus non-vaccinated study to get the facts. That is the only way to close the door on this debate. Why is everyone so afraid of such a study being conducted, nevermind…dah, I know this answer. The VICP did recognize that vaccines caused the Autism in Hanna Poling and a few more. Give it time and you will see. What happened to this country that requires kids to receive 36 vaccines now when I had a total of 7. It is all about $$, becuase I’m still alive and have survived the measles, mumps and chicken pox.
Steve: that looks nothing like evidence*. Nor does it look like truth.
http://autism-news-beat.com/archives/29
*I am aware that readers of AoA wouldn’t really be expected to know what legitimate evidence looks like.
Just what I thought. No answers to my questions.
Just what I thought. No legitimate evidence of the claims made by Twyla or Steve to form the basis of a discussion.
Well, now you have:
http://imfar.confex.com/imfar/2010/webprogram/Paper7336.html
The authors noted: (1) “Preliminary data have identified the presence of ASD in the Amish community at a rate of approximately 1 in 271 children using standard ASD screening and diagnostic tools” and (2) differences between the reported level among the Amish compared to the prevalence in the general population may be related to “the cultural norms and customs that may be playing a role in the reporting style of caregivers”.
That was from real researchers, by the way, not from Dan Olmsted, who has again been shown to be unable to understand the difference between medical research and a telephone call.
What surprises me is how the autism biomed fringe seems heavily invested in the inefficacy of vaccines. It would seem to make sense to claim that our public health establishment, in its zeal to stamp out communicable disease, has hidden some serious side-effects of that effort. Yet nearly every anti-vax screed I’ve seen goes out of its way to claim either that vaccines don’t work or that the infectious diseases they target aren’t really a problem. Not that I’m complaining — it makes it easier to fight against their other falsehoods.
Of course, you are assuming that the Geiers have done something wrong–they are fighting it because they have become the American scapegoats like Wakefield in England.
Sorry but are most important claim is that we had children who developing normally and reaching all milestones on time, but following a series of vaccinations–they completely regressed. I don’t think you people aree qualified to speak for the autism community. Do you have a child on the spectrum who is seriously sick?
FYI-I recovered a child with bio-med so I wouldn’t knock it unless you’ve tried it. Hooray for Robert Kennedy Jr. We are so grateful he understands the dangers of vaccines.
Maurine – what is “biomed” about chemically castrating a child, based upon a a vague association of mercury with testosterone in boiling benzene?
Lowering a child’s testosterone level with Lupron, for a limited period of time, to help alleviate the signs of autism (as many of these affected children had way higher than “normal” levels of testosterone) is NOT “castration”. The US government, along with the Rockefeller Foundation, helped fund even more permanent sterilization methods during previous decades. Why isn’t anyone after their tails?
@ Maurine:
I presume you will never accept this, but in the real world (of working science) plural of anecdote isn’t data.
Nor is “the autism community” something that we need to speak for when addressing the outcome of science. If anything, those with a family of live bodies are foremost speaking for “the infect-able community”.
Autism is, to the best of our knowledge, a development problem. (Latest find is that the enlarged brain of autistics can be seen at ~ 1 year, and used for prediction of the disease before other characteristics.) And we now _know_ with certainty that vaccines, or even problems of the immune system, aren’t involved.
It would in any case be immoral to suggest that vaccines shouldn’t be used for disabling diseases (unless side effects of disability would overpower the positive effects of hindering disabilities and death), but now it is imperative to not do so.
How could you say that we now know that “problems of the immune system, aren’t involved?” There are many published peer reviewed studies showing immune system dysregulation, inflammation, and auto-immunity in people with autism. There are studies showing inflammation in the brain, inflammatory cytokines in the spinal fluid, imbalance between Th-1 and Th-2 cells in the immune system, auto-antibodies to the myelin basic protein coating nerve cells.
http://www.jleukbio.org/content/80/1/1.long
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2004/11_15a_04.html
http://www.featofthecarsonvalley.org/07docs/herbert-martha-autism.pdf
As far as brain growth, a recent study comparing vaxed and unvaxed monkeys found accelerated brain growth in the vaccinated monkeys:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/07/new-study-shows-vaccines-cause-brain-changes-found-in-autism.html
And yes, “plural of anecdote isn’t data” is one of the favorite phrases that is repeated ad nauseum. But the many reports of vaccine reactions resulting in autism need to be investigated. We need studies of the injured children. And we need a study comparing health and development in vaccinated and unvaccinated children.
In RFK jr’s article Deadly Immunity, only one out of 38 paragraphs mentions the work of the Geiers. To say that the article is “almost entirely reliant on the research work of Mark and David Geier” is preposterous. I did a word search to be sure, and found that “Geier” is mentioned twice in the 34th paragraph, and that’s all. Readers, read the article for yourself — it’s an excellent article.
http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/articles/2005_june_16.html
How often someone is mentioned is not a measure of if the article is based in large part on their theories. RFK’s article is almost entirely focused on the idea that vaccines, via mercury perservative, cause autism. The Geiers are the source of almost all the “research” (using the term loosely) to support this now debunked theory.
Explain how this has been debunked.
Pediatrics. 2010 Sep 13.
Prenatal and Infant Exposure to Thimerosal From Vaccines and Immunoglobulins and Risk of Autism.
Price CS, Thompson WW, Goodson B, Weintraub ES, Croen LA, Hinrichsen VL, Marcy M, Robertson A, Eriksen E, Lewis E, Bernal P, Shay D, Davis RL, Destefano F.
Neurotox Res. 2010 Jul;18(1):59-68. Epub 2009 Sep 16.
Are neuropathological conditions relevant to ethylmercury exposure?
Aschner M, Ceccatelli S.
Neuropsychological Performance 10 years after Immunization in Infancy with Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines
Authors: Tozzi AE, Bisiacchi P, Tarantino V, De Mei B, D’Elia L, Chiarotti F, Salmaso S.
Source: Pediatrics, February 2009, Vol. 123(2):475-82
Mercury Levels in Newborns and Infants after Receipt of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines
Pichichero ME, Gentile A, Giglio N, et al
Pediatrics, February 2008; 121(2) e208-214
Mercury, Vaccines, And Autism: One Controversy, Three Histories
Baker JP
American Journal of Public Health, February 2008;98(2): 244-253
Continuing Increases in Autism Reported to California’s Developmental Services System: Mercury in Retrograde
Schechter R, Grether JK
Arch Gen Psychiatry, January 2008; 65(1):19-24
Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years
Thompson WW, Price C, Goodson B, et al; Vaccine Safety Datalink Team
N Engl J Med, Sep 27, 2007; 357(13):1281-1292
Thimerosal Exposure in Infants and Developmental Disorders: A Prospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom Does Not Support a Causal Association
Heron J, Golding J, ALSPAC Study Team
Pediatrics, September 2004, Vol. 114(3):577-583
Thimerosal Exposure in Infants and Developmental Disorders: A Retrospective Cohort Study in the United Kingdom Does Not Support a Causal Association
Andrews N, Miller E, Grant A, Stowe J, Osborne V, Taylor B
Pediatrics, September 2004, Vol. 114(3):584-591
Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines and Autistic Spectrum Disorder: A Critical Review of Published Original Data
Parker SK, Schwartz B, Todd J, Pickering LK
Pediatrics, September 2004, Vol. 114(3):793-804
The Evidence for the Safety of Thimerosal in Newborn and Infant Vaccines
Clements CJ
Vaccine, May 7, 2004, Vol. 22(15-16):1854-1861
Safety of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Two-Phased Study of Computerized Health Maintenance Organization Databases
Verstraeten T, Davis RL, DeStefano F, et al
Pediatrics, November 2003, Vol. 112(5):1039-1048
The Toxicology of Mercury–Current Exposures and Clinical Manifestations
Clarkson TW, Magos L, Myers GJ
New England Journal of Medicine, October 30, 2003, Vol. 349(18):1731-7
Association Between Thimerosal-Containing Vaccine and Autism
Hviid A, Stellfeld M, Wohlfahrt J, Melbye M
Journal of the American Medical Association, October 1, 2003, Vol. 290(13):1763-6
Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative Ecological Evidence from Danish Population-Based Data
Madsen KM, Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, et al
Pediatrics, Sept. 2003, Vol. 112(3 Pt 1):604-606
Autism and Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines. Lack of Consistent Evidence for an Association
Stehr-Green P, Tull P, Stellfeld M, Mortenson PB, Simpson D
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, August 2003, Vol. 25(2):101-6
As to the studies you have listed, how many are from an unbiased and non CDC connected source? How many vaccines have been studied to date and their link to Autism? If you can answer these questions, then you might start to see the light. There has never been a study to date on the effects of 6 vaccines given to an infant in one doctor’s visit. There are about 19 vaccines given to an infant in the first year before they ever receive their first MMR shot, where none of the 19 has been studied for an association to autism. Obviously, whoever you are, you are starting to get scared, either because you are living from some sort of guilt of your own, whether it be vaccination damage to your own kids or someone else’s kids or you have ties to the medical profession or big Pharma. The tables are turning, just as they did with smoking and cancer, asbestos, etc… I guess this article debunks, all the articles you claim to have debunked the autism link to vaccines …http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20049118-10391695.html. We’ll see my friend. Make sure you read the post written about Bertrand Russell’s book in 1953. Incredible!
You must get very tired moving those goalposts. Many of those studies were done in other countries where the CDC has no jurisdiction. But I guess since they are all done by scientific and medical researchers they don’t count. You seem to prefer to get your evidence from biased journalists.
You might as well give it up Chris. The only evidence I need lives right under my roof and that isn’t journalist bias. Since there is no way you could possibly understand this unless you have lived it, it is time to sit down and shut your trap and wait for everything to unfold, because it will and I know that when I leave this world I’ll have a clear conscience, knowing that I was able to protect my last child from this horrible poison. My last one, (vaccine free), is very bright and very healthy.
You have yet to answer my other questions, so I wouldn’t expect you to have an answer to the one below either.
BTW: Since you seem to be the expert here, (in your own mind) explain to me why there is Monkey Kidney Tissue in the DTaP and HepB vaccines, not to mention Aluminum. What does that do for an infant?
I think Steve is looking for is looking for vaccine research done by aliens from Mars, so that they can be considered independent. Oh, wait, they would have been discovered by NASA, and that is a US gov’t agency and so is the CDC … oh, nevermind.
Don’t need it Seth, obviously you ignore the the thousands of parents who have lived this horrer as well as Chris. Are you two brothers? Someday, if you are a true journalist, you will listen to what they are saying, because that is true journalism. Mark my word, it is not going away. Amazingly, since you are convinced it is not the vaccines, then why the drastic rise? The one common thread still exist and we all know what that is. Who is lining your wallet?
Steve, I only reply so there is no confusion, the handle is “moderation” as in “all things in” … depending on your point of view, I would not want Mr. Mnookin to have to take the blame or credit for me.
The mercury theory has NOT been debunked, even though some people like to write, untruthfully, that it has been. Even the CDC is up to studying the issue further. However, I DO HOPE that they find some reliable independent researchers to look at the issue, so that the rest of us can have some confidence in their findings.
Cites, please?
What, in your mind, would constitute a reliable researcher? No ties to the gov’t? No ties to the AAP? No ties to the pharmacutical industry? No ties to any university that recieves any money from any of the above for research? My mother’s next door neighbor’s 3rd cousin mows the lawn of a guy who works for a drug company … so obviously I would be biased.
Some of the problems with oft-cited research:
http://www.rescuepost.com/files/vaccines-and-autism-epidemiology-rebuttal.pdf
The Geiers are certainly not the source of everything that implicates thimerosal.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/05/three-part-series-on-thimerosal-and-vaccines-by-f-edward-yazbak-md-faap.html
http://www.scielo.org.pe/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1025-55832007000300003&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/03/vaccination-news-reports-90-peer-reviewed-studies-already-condemn-thimerosal.html
http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/09/theres-a-funny-thing-about-evidence-more-support-for-autism-mercury-link.html
Seth, you seem to be engaged in a bit of wishful thinking lately — thinking that David Kirby’s articles will no longer be posted on Huffington Post, and that Deadly Immunity will no longer be posted on Rolling Stone. Wishing for censorship, but it doesn’t quite reach that level!
Twyla: You’d think that if Seth loved censorship, he’d ban people who disagree with him from commenting on this blog. Oddly enough, Seth doesn’t seem to do that. Perhaps you’re confusing this blog with AoA?
Twyla, I challenge you to bring this up with your overlords at Age of Autism and have them post each and every single comment that comes their way instead of deleting them. But you won’t, of course. No need to piss off your masters.
I don’t expect any blog to post every single article or comment that is submitted. But I do expect our news media to cover important stories.
I do appreciate Seth Mnooking posting most of my comments.
Edit: I have thus far refrained from responding to comments because it would take up an inordinate amount of time. I do want to correct Twyla here. I have posted every single one of Twyla’s comments on both this blog and the iteration of this blog that appeared on my own site.
In fact, there are only three comments with original content that have ever been rejected:
* One personally attacking Alison MacNeil
* One mocking the intelligence of people who don’t vaccinate their children
* One accusing Andrew Wakefield of murder
There have also been two occasions where comments that had already appeared on previous posts but were re-submitted in their entirety were not approved.
A large number of Twyla’s comments get caught in the WordPress spam filter, which flags posts that have an unusually large number of links (because they’re assumed to be advertisements) or come from a user who has submitted a large number of comments in a very short amount of time (because they’re assumed to be generated by a spam bot). All of those have also ultimately been approved.
– Seth
Thanks for clarifying. Revision to my prior comment: I do appreciate Seth Mnookin posting all of my comments.
BTW Rene, I don’t have “overlords” and “masters”.
The pharma industry must love the Geiers and their fans – competent, honest doctors won’t prescribe expensive drugs like Lupron when they’re not needed, but the Geiers and their fans can always be counted on to do their bit for Big Pharma’s bottom-line.
Lets talk about chemical Lobotomy,just a little. [shills]
I did not write this, Bertrand Russell did in 1953. One could argue,at the least
of what this man has said in his book from 1953. That they knew what mercury could do to a child’s brain, One could also argue, that with all the warnings out there about Mercury and Thimerosal. That certain people wanted this in the children at all cost, for what ever reason. Be it Greed or to make a step ford society. A partial lobotomized state of varying degrees, is what is appearing to be the out come. So far. That, is exactly what we are seeing in today’s children. You could argue, I am just a conspiracy theorist. I could argue, Fact is! he said it and we are living it today. And asking Did the
Thimerosal cause it????
As said in 1953, in his book ” impact of science on society” BTW You can no longer down load these pages, from the internet. No one was buying the E book…
Russell being quoted as saying we would put mercury in vaccines, and other compounds to produce a partial lobotomized state Also from Russell who advocated the use of vaccines to induce partial chemical lobotomies and create a servile zombie population,
When reading this next Quote,please remember the non profit organization
” every child by two ”
“Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.” – Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”, 1953, pg 49-50
1953. Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society: “…the subject which will be of most importance politically is Mass Psychology…. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen. As yet there is only one country which has succeeded in creating this politician’s paradise.”11
Do I think It is a conspiracy of the medical community. No! but someone wanted it (Thimerosal) to stay in the vaccines, because in the next post I will send it shows that they were warned about the inefficacy and the Toxicity of the preservative for decades. Also in the warnings, they were suggesting the total removal of it! from everything it was in. All the way down to butt balm, that was in 1948 and again in 1982. The sad thing is, it was an American Medical Association grant that paid for the study. And it was good enough back then, to be in the JAMA. So today, those at the AMA know the truth about Thimerosal and will still not come forward. The AMA paid for the study,and found that Thimerosal is weak as an antimicrobial at best. And dangerously Toxic down to an unbelievably low level,
AND SAID NOTHING!!!!!!
In japan they they have been known to fall on their own swords, for far less incompetency. Here we promote them, and pay them over six figures.
And that is why, that health insurance cost as much as a mortgage in TX on a
3 bed room brick home. $1200 to $1400 a month.
Here is the problem, of why this is so hard to believe.
“any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.” – Bertrand Russell, “The Impact of Science on Society”
1953, pg 49-50
I don’t know enough about Lupron to have an educated opinion on this, but I do think that the way this is being presented is overblown propaganda. As I understand it, testosterone is a risk factor for mercury toxicity, and mercury also can increase the level of testosterone. I don’t know enough about this to say whether it is true, but it could help explain why there are more boys than girls with autism. Simon Baron-Cohen found that “fetuses exposed in the womb to high levels of the male hormone testosterone are more likely than others to develop autistic traits as children… had a greater chance of displaying autism-associated traits such as poor social skills, imagination and empathy and high aptitude in certain memory-retention exercises.”
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1871515,00.html#ixzz1MReZnTVK
Is Lupron effective in decreasing autism attributes and increasing mercury detoxification? Is it safe? Does it impact normal developlent? I don’t know. But to call it “chemical castration” is rather extreme. These children are not losing their testicles. They are not permanently losing sexual function. My understanding is that Lupron treatment is temporary, and that it is used to lower testosterone to normal levels, not to completely stop production of testosterone. Some parents have reported beneficial effects from this. As I said, I don’t know whether this treatment is overall beneficial and whether it is safe.
But I do think that the “chemical castration” headlines are propaganistic. Very few people are using this treatment. Many people are using other biomedical treatments which are more moderate than this one, such as supplements, digestive enzymes, probiotics, and dietary intervention. Certain people (e.g. Trine Tsouderos) love to headline this treatment as if it invalidates the whole biomedical movement. It does not.
Where’s the concern over tardive dyskinesia, obesity, and deaths due to Risperdal, and suicides due to use of anti-depressents in children?
As Dr. Martha Herbert has said “There is risk for many procedures and medications in medicine, and this is balanced against benefit and need.
“It is also the case that physicians use treatments based on judgment in cases of serious need. That is commonplace. Obviously there are good and bad doctors but it is not only bad doctors who do whatever they can to help patients in need. Good doctors are often good precisely because they do that skillfully.
“There are always good doctors, bad doctors, successes, failures and mistakes. That is not a news story. The CENTRAL conclusion to be drawn from observing parents searching far and wide for treatments for their ASD children—and reporting successes as well as failures and catastrophes—is that much more attention must be focused by mainstream medicine and federal and private funding on the medical crisis faced by so many of these children.”
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/11/cherry-picking-science-chicago-tribunes-shotgun-journalism-strikes-with-another-shoddy-hit-piece.html
Mainstream medicine offers very little to people with autism, other than drugs such as risperdal, ritalin, and anti-depressants — all of which can have serious side effects and do not address core causes of autism. Mainstream medicine and science continue to tell us that autism is a mystery with no known cause or cure. Yet some parents and practitioners are recovering some children from autism with alternative biomedical treatments; and other children and adults remain atuistic but lead more comfortable lives and funtion better cognitively and socially due to these treatments. It gets really tiresome to keep hearing that we should genuflect to mainstream science and medicine, who provide so little. We are told that we don’t understand science, that we should not think for ourselves, and that we should look at Science as a totalitarian religious order where we are to accept being ignorant peons and think as we are told.
P.S. There are mainstream practitioners such as Dr. Timothy Buie who treats GI issues and Dr. Marvin Natowicz who treats mitochondrial issues. Just want to acknowledge that mainstream medicine is not completely devoid of helpful treatments.
It is used to chemically castrate sex offenders, it is not “extreme” to call it what it does. And yes, it does have damaging side effects for children. Many are listed in the official order, you should read it, especially page 6:
https://www.mbp.state.md.us/bpqapp/Orders/D2425004.271.PDF
If Lupron is used to “castrate” sex offenders, it does not necessarily follow that lower doses of Lupron given to children with autism, are being used to “castrate” them. The Lupron that was used with autistic children, was only used on a temporary basis, as yes, many of these children had higher than normal levels of testosterone, and it seemed to help them to have the levels of this hormone lowered.
Except they admitted to giving high doses in their presentations.
Helkie, how do you know the children had higher than normal levels of testosterone? The Geiers were diagnosing precocious puberty with little or no testing, such as taking an x-ray of the wrist bones. They diagnosed children who were too old for the precocious puberty diagnosis. They did so in order to trick insurance companies into paying for unnecessary medical treatments. Do you really want to defend that?
Stop believing all this corporate science mumbo jumbo. The fancy statistics doesn’t mean it is true. Don’t wait to see a comprehensive study on the health of vac versus unvac children because the corporate controlled system will NEVER fund that. You have to use some common sense and stop buying the BS — injecting young children with 20+ poison cocktails is just plain dumb.
Damn straight Robert – the corporate interests that support the biomedical industry don’t want to hear that vaccines are safe – that would cut into the market for phony cures. But you’ve severely underestimated the evil of the biomed advocates – they advocate hundreds of injections of dangerous chemicals over years of time; things like chelation and Lupron and any other crap they can sell.
GenRes still pushes hyperbaric oxygen “therapy” for autism, even though Wakefield’s own study found no benefit. Some DAN docs still offer secretin. Is there any biomedical treatment so quacky that even DAN won’t offer it?