Autism, Vaccines and the CDC: The Wrong Side of History

[tabatha]

Even as the evidence connecting America's autism epidemic to vaccines mounts, dead-enders at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) -- many of whom promoted the current vaccine schedule and others with strong ties to the vaccine industry -- are trying to delay the day of reckoning by creating questionable studies designed to discredit any potential vaccine-autism link and by derailing authentic studies.

.......

IACC's action to halt vaccine-autism research flies in the face of congressional intent. The bill's authors clearly stated that vaccine research should be funded. Even the esteemed Institute of Medicine has condemned CDC's methods. In 2005, an IOM panel condemned CDC for its "lack of transparency" in vaccine-autism research.

..........

Recognizing this fact, the vaccine industry and its CDC allies have continued to fund a series of deceptive and badly flawed studies designed to dispute the connection between vaccines and the epidemic of pediatric neurological disorders. The latest of these is the controversial Italian study released this week intended to allow Thimerosal's defenders to argue that the preservative is safe. The study comparing two groups of Italian children, who received a moderate level of Thimerosal vs. a moderately higher level, is so poorly designed it could only find one child in 1400 who tested with autism. The researchers did not include in the study the records of children who received no Thimerosal. For years, a cadre of vaccine officials at CDC has vigorously opposed funding for epidemiological studies that include both vaccinated and unvaccinated cohorts that might give us useful information about causation.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-and-david-kirby/autism-vaccines-and-the-c_b_161395.html

Scientists at UC San Diego -- They wrote in the journal Autism that children given Tylenol after the MMR shot were several times more likely to develop autism. Tylenol can reduce levels of glutathione - a powerful antioxidant and detoxifier. "Tylenol and MMR was significantly associated with autistic disorder," the authors wrote. "More research needs to be completed to confirm the results of this preliminary study."

The new administration of President Barack Obama also seems to recognize the need for independent studies. HHS Secretary Nominee Tom Daschle said in 2002 that, "Mercury-based vaccine preservatives actually have caused autism in children." And President Obama said on the campaign trail last year, that: "We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it."

Thanks - Barack - we need studies NOT done by the CDC.

[alarimer]

1. THERE IS NO FUCKING EVIDENCE LINKING VACCINES TO AUTISM

None whatsoever. I am getting fucking sick of ignorant people spreading this bullshit.

The CDC is a well-known, well-established institution.

Wakefield manufactured his data. His and his followers should be thoroughly discredited. Stop spreading this bullshit.

The science is all against you "pro-infectious disease". Ans RFK Jr is an idiot to be spouting this nonsense.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=370

Actually, on second thought, Wakefield deserves no pity at all. After all, he is the man who almost single-handedly launched the scare over the MMR vaccine in Britain when he published his infamous Lancet paper in 1998 in which he claimed to have linked the MMR vaccine to regressive autism and inflammation of the colon, a study that was followed up four years later with a paper that claimed to have found the strain of attenuated measles virus in the MMR in the colons of autistic children by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It would be one thing if these studies were sound science. If that were the case, then Wakefield’s work would have been very important and would have correctly cast doubt on the safety of the MMR. Unfortunately, they were not, and, indeed, most of the authors of the 1998 Lancet paper later withdrew their names from it.

Over the next decade, aided and abetted by useful idiots in the media, by British newspapers and other media that sensationalized the story, and the antivaccine movement, which hailed Wakefield as a hero, Wakefield managed to drive MMR vaccination rates in the U.K. below the level of herd immunity, from 93% to 75% (and as low as 50% in some parts of London). As a result Wakefield has been frequently sarcastically “thanked” for his leadership role in bringing the measles back to the U.K. to the point where, fourteen years after measles had been declared under control in the U.K., it was in 2008 declared endemic again.


http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=357

The more recent issue of the Journal Pediatrics contains two article providing further evidence for the safety of vaccines and is published amid news reports of recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in those who chose not to vaccinate over unwarranted fears. This highlights the need to continue our PR battle against the antivaccinationist movement that seeks to spread pseudoscientific fears about vaccine safety.

The Outbreaks

Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib) is a bacteria that can cause meningitis, pneumonia, and epiglotitis in young children - all serious illnesses. A Hib vaccine was introduced in 1992 followed by a significant decrease in the number of Hib infections. Last year in Minnesota, however, there were five cases of Hib meningitis, including a 7-month old infant who died. This is a significant spike above the rate we have seen since the Hib vaccine, and occuring in a cluster. Three of the five children who were affected did not have the Hib vaccine by their parent’s choice.

There are concerns that Minnesota may be the canary in a coalmine, since they have particularly good reporting of such illnesses and may simply have been the first state to catch the outbreak. This latest cluster provides further evidence that diseases that our now rare due to the routine vaccine schedule are poised to return in populations with low vaccination rates. It also highlights that not only the unvaccinated are put at risk. They allow the outbreak to occur, which then can claim those who were vaccinated but did not have an adequate antibody response and therefore have incomplete protection.

This is why so-called herd immunity is critical - high vaccination rates (above 90%) keep infectious diseases from spreading, protecting the unvaccinated and the vulnerable. Therefore individual decisions by parents not to vaccinate has clear cut public health implications.

[Mnemosyne]

14. If people are so stupid, why do you contimue to post about it?

Just curious.

No need to be rude to the OP though, seriously.

Do you suffer from HBP perhaps? :hi:

[varkam]

16. Probably don't want tourists wandering by and seeing lunacy go by unchallenged.

Just my guess.

[Mnemosyne]

18. It has to look good for the tourists, always!

:rofl:

I recall how Brazil took care of the homeless children "problem" awhile ago. :cry:

Never will forget.

[varkam]

20. ?

....

What do homeless children in Brazil have to do with this?

[Mnemosyne]

22. A comparison of the tourists here and the posters vehemence to want

things proper here at all times. If the poster cares so much what strangers on the internet believe, there are issues stronger than the hatred shown. jmo

Never mind.

[varkam]

23. Did they give the children autism by giving them the MMR vaccine?

:sarcasm:

And it isn't so much about making things "proper." This is a message board, and people are free to spout off all sorts of nonsense. Point being, I wouldn't want someone new to this issue to come across a thread like this and think "Wow! Vaccines cause autism!"

[Mnemosyne]

24. Swearing at people accomplishes nothing. The poster was rude. n/t

[varkam]

25. Well - welcome to teh internets.

Among other things, I have been called a shill, a republican, a "merckenary", a troll, a "sick puppy", et cetera et cetera. I'm not whining, but merely to point out that it comes with the territory.

[Mnemosyne]

26. Excuse me. I was under the impression we were here for 'civil' discourse. Night. n/t

[varkam]

28. That's what I thought, too. Then I started posting.

:shrug:

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. This has already been posted. n/t

[Deep13]

3. "evidence connecting America's autism epidemic to vaccines mounts"

Nothing added to nothing is still nothing.

[Ian David]

4. This bullshit has no place here. Go convince Freepers not to vaccinate their kids.

The guy who started this bullshit is BUSTED-- IT'S A HOAX!

What the fuck more do you need?

Go smother your own kids with a pillow if you want, but you have no right to put MINE at risk.

I have no use for you, so I am putting you on ignore until the day when we can ship you to an island of unvaccinated misfits.

[stray cat]

5. The evidence is crashing and burning and some data is now actually criminal fraud

[cosmik debris]

6. You had your day in court--and you lost.

Now let it go.

[tabatha]

7. WOW - I just heard Robert Kennedy Jr talking and referenced this article -

which I thought I would post for general interest.
Phew!

[Warpy]

8. However, they're on the right side of SCIENCE

which is our best hope for discovering both cause and cure for autism.

Internet ranters are not going to do anything to help the process.

[Mnemosyne]

15. Exactly. Thank you Warpy. n/t

[flyingobject]

9. Science = open mind + continuing research

kicked, and recommended.

[cosmik debris]

11. How long do you keep an open mind?

How much research is enough?

This issue has been studied over and over and no cause and effect link has been found between autism and vaccination.

How much more time and money do you want to waste re-proving the same conclusion?

The verdict is in. The Earth is NOT flat and vaccines do NOT cause autism.

It is time to let it go and move on.

[varkam]

12. One should keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out.

Too late for some, it would seem.

[Liberal Veteran]

10. Why am I reminded of Celia Farber?

The erstwhile reporter who tells us how the evidence is mounting HIV is not the cause of AIDS long after they should have given up their silly theory.

[varkam]

13. Yikes - guess the Autism Court ruling must have struck a nerve or two.

I think the conflation of MMR and thimerosal is really pretty funny in that it shows the scientific illiteracy of the anti-vaxx crowd.

[xchrom]

17. debunked hogwash. nt

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

19. The govt set up a Vaccine Inury Program because - vaccines have injured some people

Lets find a way to study the vacines without the people who recommend vaccines
being the ones conducting the studies.

Then, lets look at what may be causing some children to get sick from vaccines,
and find a way to prevent it.

Then, maybe then, people will have reason to trust in vaccines.

But if we refuse to have objective studies, then the public will remain afraid
as more and more people know someone affected by autism in their family.

The concern that there may be a tie between vaccines (too much, too soon, one size fits all wrong )
to autism will not go away until real research is done.

[varkam]

21. Injury != Autism

Go Democrats!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. I didn't know Daschle was that stupid.