Anti-vaccine activism, not autism activism

You know, with people like Louise, Cruise, and Travolta so proud of their NJ heritage,maybe I should start saying my *family’s* from NY(it’s true, actually). I am familiar with her and her organization (NJ Coalition for Vaccination Choice); if some of her antics and tactics seem familiar,she is a frequent guest and “student”( and I use that word loosely)of Gary Null, guest-star at her rallies in Trenton and at Wm. Paterson University.About Corzine,I think it had more to do with reductions to the “Homestead Rebate”(a yearly property tax relief check) to higher income homeowners and an increased sales tax than it had to do with vaccines.

Once again, AOA and the antivax crowd conflate “autism advocacy” with their own “anti-vaccine, pro-vaccine safety/choice etc.” agenda. Looks like more of the same’s coming up in 2010; readying the blogging forces…. Agree with you about Corzine but not looking forward to what’s ahead Jersey-politico-wise either, under the next regime.

three brave families who were fighting to establish a link to their children’s disorders

Oh dear, I hope no one was hurt in the fighting /sarcasm

Actually, it’s the vaccinated children who spread disease. Many of the disease outbreaks that we are warned about today, are caused by, and occur in, recently vaccinated children.

That is a massive and demonstrable lie. The outbreaks i’ve heard about were ALL caused by pockets of unvaccinated children. You should most definitely call them out on that.

From the independent “Half of the cases (662) of the potentially fatal disease occurred in London, where the MMR vaccination rates are lowest, the Health Protection Agency (HPA), which published the figures, said. It was a record number of measles cases in the capital. Records have been kept since 1995.”

Plus there was case recently of an outbreak where 9 out of 10 were unvaccinated. And I think the 10th wasn’t properly vaccinated or something. Anyone got a link? I can’t find it.

Uh, in a word, no. CAM does not substitute for vaccination.

Its also probably more expensive.

Pathetic, sniveling, lying toads.

Stupid is everywhere.

Corzine was pretty lame and in the face of our current economic climate, a vulnerable Dem like him is much more easily defeated. Christie’s ads were very polarizing and I predict he wont get a second chance once he tries to foist his fundamentalism on the state. His election was a vote against Corzine not for him. Leave it to the activists to zero in on one small topic amid the current chaos to support their side. Very likely we will have UK style outbreaks in NJ in a few years if Christie gets his way causing herd immunity to drop.

The selfish pricks at AoA should be made to pay the cost.

Check out this story about a measles outbreak in Zimbabwe. The article states that the victims appear to be children who were not vaccinated during a recent vaccination campaign.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/12/29/zimbabwe.measles/index.html?eref=rss_world&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_world+(RSS%3A+World)&utm_content=Google+Reader

The CNN story doesn’t mention how many, if any, of the kids weren’t vaccinated because they were too young to get the vaccine; exposure of infants to unvaccinated older kids (sometimes in pediatricians’ offices!) has been a factor in Western outbreaks.

@Elf eye

Thanks for the link. I’ve added it to antiantivax.flurf.net in some comments about how measles, mumps and rubella aren’t harmless.

Anti-vaxers will, however, likely brush the story off, rationalizing that clearly the problem must be with poorer hygiene or some other variation on the fact that African nations tend to be less affluent than the U.S.

@Kathy

I believe “not even wrong” was originated by Wolfgang Pauli, and has now become pretty common.

I like fractally wrong, but it is a bit subtle for some uses. Worng is both compact and self-defining.

Oh, yeah, Pauli’s having originated ‘it’s not even wrong’ rings a bell. But maybe I just heard the same rumors!

Well, I didn’t vote for Christie or Corzine as I disliked them both (voted for a 3rd party). However, I really don’t recall hearing Christie being “pro-vaccine-choice” until either right before or just after the election. (In the back of my mind I either overheard an ad on TV or read it in the paper but I honestly don’t remember).

Louise Kuo Habakus is very scary and I’m almost ashamed to admit I live in the same state. But, knowing there are people like her just give me more impetus to stress the importance of vaccines to my coworkers, friends and family.

They do have one good use though: they spew enough nonsense that my children have sworn that if they ever have any children they will make sure the children are fully vaccinated! They’ve led my kids to reading books like “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, books by Dr Offit and books by Arthur Allen. So, although their actions may not have had the results THEY want, they have done some good (at least in MY mind…)

“fractally wrong” – – – It works better with the picture. I don’t know who created it – I found it somewhere on the WWW. I’m just hosting it for a while.

http://api.photoshop.com/home_869cd6202b6b4484b9127b6bb612418e/adobe-px-thumbnails/3e840ff654874826b301bd612872b10a/1024.jpg

Ummm, Maryn, is that just a drive-by statement, or are you going to provide some evidence?

When does the balloting for Clueless Celebrity Antivax Pediatrician begin?

There could be brisk competition – we’ll want to cast votes for our local favorite.

When does the balloting for Clueless Celebrity Antivax Pediatrician begin?

There could be brisk competition – we’ll want to cast votes for our local favorite.

Now, now – let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Dr. Jay has been pretty quiet on the headlines lately. After all, he didn’t save a Redskins cheerleader from a condition she didn’t have after a flu shot with a day’s worth of chelation. Buttar may have the edge on that category, thanks to his “miracle”.

@Chris – I do have evidence. The Amish don’t use seatbelts and they don’t have autism.

Maryn, your sarcasm is duly noted.

ababa said (in commenting on the competition for Clueless Celebrity Antivax Pediatrician):

“Now, now – let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Dr. Jay has been pretty quiet on the headlines lately. After all, he didn’t save a Redskins cheerleader from a condition she didn’t have after a flu shot with a day’s worth of chelation. Buttar may have the edge on that category, thanks to his “miracle”.

I think that as far as the wider world of antivax goes, Dr. Bob Sears has more appeal than either of the medicos you mentioned.

I think you’re right. Dr. Bob is the new rising pediatrician star of the antivax movement. Dr. Jay’s star seems to be fading, I’m afraid.

Huh? What? Are you another Poe?

It must be galling for you all to see that basically autism incidence spiked quite nicely along with increased uptake of hep b vaccines at birth.

If there were anything like this, it would certainly raise some questions. But there is not. I’ve actually looked at data on HepB uptake in California. It spikes and then plateaus, unlike the administrative prevalence of autism, which shows gradual exponential growth (like any awareness/word-of-mouth driven series.)

22 died from “harmless” measles in Zimbabwe, all unvaccinated. Apparently they need to wash their hands more.
—————-

They needed to get out of Zimbabwe

Now, now – let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Dr. Jay has been pretty quiet on the headlines lately.

Maybe he’s been staying away from the ether.

There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge — Hunter S Thompson

This anti-vaccine award has got me thinking. They talk about the high rate of autism in New Jersey and about New Jersey’s vaccination policy. As a geographer, this makes me wonder if there is a pattern with regard to vaccination rates and autism rates. I’m betting not. I wonder if I could get county level autism rate and vaccination rate data for the nation. A geographic study should help to separate out the temporal link that anti-vaxers see by showing that there is no spatial link. Hmm, this should be publishable in the geography journals if the data is available (which I doubt). I know, it won’t really convince them, but I always imagine that the more evidence there is and the more available it is, the more we can keep sensible parents from falling prey to anti-vaccine lies.

Mrs Wakefield just wrote a touching and stupid piece on AoA lamenting all the pain she & Andy have suffered and the terrible cost of the GMC complaint. Money that could have been spent on research. So much bullshit in so little space is mind boggling.

Her hubby should rot in hell for the pain he has caused and will yet cause because of his greed and lies.

IIRC, Buttar has been prohibited from treating children and cancer patients by his state medical board.

I suspect those were his major sources of income, and he now needs a new source.

Hence, chelation for “vaccine injury” with Jennings as free publicity.

Gus & Todd,
Couldn’t you use the length of time in residence as one of the variables and run the results for various times as well as autism and vaccine uptake? If this question seems foolish, I am a programmer by trade rather than a scientist actually performing these kinds of studies. Just wondering.

@MI Dawn

I have a friend who used to work for COSAC and still works in the autism field in NJ. She has, in the past, mentioned the high level of services available as compared to other states. So, that could be a major factor.

@MikeMa

That could work, but the flaw I mentioned would still be there. The reason I brought it up is because, if such a study showed no correlation between residence in a locale with tough vaccination regs and autism, anti-vaxers would undoubtedly bring up people moving as an excuse to devalue any such study.

@Gus Snarp: it would be neat to see a graph with no correlation; how would you do it if you created one (even hypothetically)? (I’m statistically challenged and infinitely curious. But very visual and understand graphs better than numbers).
I hope this makes sense; as I re-read my comment doesn’t seem clear but I can’t figure out how to say what I mean!

@MI Dawn – Frankly I’m not sure off the top of my head. I would have to sit down with the available data and determine the best statistical approach. It depends a lot on scale factor (county level data would be better than state level), but you also have to consider that near things tend to be more alike (Pennsylvania’s rates and New Jersey’s are probably similar) and you can actually deal with that statistically to isolate the correlation between autism and vaccination from the spatial autocorrelation (fancy technical term for similarity between near things) that exists independently. This would also deal with some of the migration issues. All of it means you get an answer that is too complicated to avoid attacks from the anti-vaccine crowd, but anything that has any statistics is going to be. For public consumption the best approach is a map instead of a graph. You can use different symbols for autism rates and vaccination rates on one map, you can make two maps, or you can map a ration of vaccination rate to autism rate.

Wow, that almost sounds like I still remember all that stuff. I would have to do a lot of review to get my stats back up to the level to actually do this.

@Gus Snarp: Well, whether you remember or not, you explain very well and I was able to visualize what you meant! Thanks.

@Gus Snarp, the study you propose would be fascinating. There was a study similar in form, comparing rates of prescription of ADHD medications on a county-by-county level. IIRC there was enormous variation both at the county and state level. (I have lost the PDF of the study so can’t provide any more information, such a a citation.)

Let us not forget the scenario alleged in the letter below

Letter published in Pediatrics October 9 2009

The author is Cheryl Pace, her email leads to Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Schools in Scottsdale, AZ 85256

She is also a part-time instructor at a satellite campus of Northern Arizona U.

Parents who beg educators for the autism diagnosis
9 October 2009

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/eletters/124/5/1395

Re: Parents who beg educators for the autism diagnosis

Dear Authors,

I am curious as to if your survey can pick out those parents who are going to medical doctors and educational professionals in public school to request that their child be diagnosed with the autism label.

This is happening often in the public schools. Since autism is also an educational diagnosis as well as a medical diagnosis, as an evaluator and part of an educational evaluation team I have witnessed many parents asking that their child receive the autism diagnosis because they can then get life-time medical insurance for the condition. I have seen parents study the symptoms of autism and tell their child to act certain ways so that they do look like they have autism. When completing the CARS or GARS or other checklists, they know the right answers to make their child look autistic.

I have also often witnessed medical doctors providing a parent with the autism diagnosis if the parent is insistent. In these cases, it is usually the same medical doctor who easily will give the diagnosis.

It is my hope that the medical field becomes aware that these scenerios are happening, not just in the state I live in but in other states.

Personally, I doubt Pace’s claim that it “happens often”. However, depending upon the state/county, a child may get better services (speech therapy, occupational therapy, respite care) with an autism diagnosis than some other disability.

I actually grew up in the Ohio county with the largest Amish population in the world. I lived next to them, went to school with them and worked with them. I’m pretty confident that I know more about Amish people than anyone posting on this page.

Also, there is no doctrine prohibiting the Amish from vaccinating.

From Pertussis Outbreak in an Amish Community — Kent County, Delaware, September 2004–February 2005:

Amish persons typically have lower vaccination coverage and often delay or avoid seeking medical care (1). Since 1980, public health nurses in Delaware have conducted immunization clinics at two fixed outreach sites in Amish homes, but coverage rates have remained low. After the outbreak described in this report, DPH staff distributed educational pamphlets discussing immunization and VPDs, including information about Amish immunization outreach clinics. The reasons cited by persons in Amish households for failure to vaccinate children (e.g., fears of vaccine-related adverse events and general lack of awareness regarding vaccination) were not religious or doctrinal. This suggests that enhanced outreach and education regarding vaccination safety and protective benefits might help increase coverage rates.

and from Epidemiologic Notes and Reports Follow-Up on Poliomyelitis — United States, Canada, Netherlands:

Investigation and control of the outbreak involved exceptional cooperation between local and state officials in the 21 states with Amish populations and CDC. …snip… The programmatic efforts to reach and vaccinate Amish populations were coordinated through the Division of Immunization and state immunization programs, and used the efforts of many CDC public health advisors. Vaccination efforts involved extensive contacts with Amish groups in the 21 states and ultimately resulted in vaccination of approximately one half of Amish persons in the United States.

Here’s an interesting article by a Physician in Chicago with a large practice, who has associates working alongside him.

***
NO AUTISM FOR UNVACCINATED AMISH?
The Age of Autism: ‘A pretty big secret’

UPI | December 7, 2005
By DAN OLMSTED

It’s a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill.

But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And they don’t have autism.

“We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children that we’ve taken care of over the years, and I don’t think we have a single case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines,” said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst’s medical director who founded the practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated.

The few autistic children Homefirst sees were vaccinated before their families became patients, Eisenstein said. “I can think of two or three autistic children who we’ve delivered their mother’s next baby, and we aren’t really totally taking care of that child — they have special care needs. But they bring the younger children to us. I don’t have a single case that I can think of that wasn’t vaccinated.”

The autism rate in Illinois public schools is 38 per 10,000, according to state Education Department data; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the national rate of autism spectrum disorders at 1 in 166 — 60 per 10,000.

“We do have enough of a sample,” Eisenstein said. “The numbers are too large to not see it. We would absolutely know. We’re all family doctors. If I have a child with autism come in, there’s no communication. It’s frightening. You can’t touch them. It’s not something that anyone would miss.”

This column has been looking for autism in never-vaccinated U.S. children in an effort to shed light on the issue. We went to Chicago to meet with Eisenstein at the suggestion of a reader, and we also visited Homefirst’s office in northwest suburban Rolling Meadows. Homefirst has four other offices in the Chicago area and a total of six doctors.

In practice, that’s unlikely to account for the pronounced absence of autism, says Eisenstein, who also has a bachelor’s degree in statistics, a master’s degree in public health and a law degree.

Homefirst follows state immunization mandates, but Illinois allows religious exemptions if parents object based either on tenets of their faith or specific personal religious views. Homefirst does not exclude or discourage such families. Eisenstein, in fact, is author of the book “Don’t Vaccinate Before You Educate!” and is critical of the CDC’s vaccination policy in the 1990s, when several new immunizations were added to the schedule, including Hepatitis B as early as the day of birth. Several of the vaccines — HepB included — contained a mercury-based preservative that has since been phased out of most childhood vaccines in the United States.

Medical practices with Homefirst’s approach to immunizations are rare. “Because of that, we tend to attract families that have questions about that issue,” said Dr. Paul Schattauer, who has been with Homefirst for 20 years and treats “at least” 100 children a week.

Schattauer seconded Eisenstein’s observations. “All I know is in my practice I don’t see autism. There is no striking 1-in-166,” he said.

Chicago is America’s prototypical “City of Big Shoulders,” to quote Carl Sandburg, and Homefirst’s mostly middle-class families seem fairly representative. A substantial number are conservative Christians who home-school their children. They are mostly white, but the Homefirst practice also includes black and Hispanic families and non-home-schooling Jews, Catholics and Muslims.

They tend to be better educated, follow healthier diets and breast-feed their children much longer than the norm — half of Homefirst’s mothers are still breast-feeding at two years. Also, because Homefirst relies less on prescription drugs including antibiotics as a first line of treatment, these children have less exposure to other medicines, not just vaccines.

Schattauer said Homefirst’s patients also have significantly less childhood asthma and juvenile diabetes compared to national rates. An office manager who has been with Homefirst for 17 years said she is aware of only one case of severe asthma in an unvaccinated child.

“Sometimes you feel frustrated because you feel like you’ve got a pretty big secret,” Schattauer said. He argues for more research on all those disorders, independent of political or business pressures.

The asthma rate among Homefirst patients is so low it was noticed by the Blue Cross group with which Homefirst is affiliated, according to Eisenstein.

“In the alternative-medicine network which Homefirst is part of, there are virtually no cases of childhood asthma, in contrast to the overall Blue Cross rate of childhood asthma which is approximately 10 percent,” he said. “At first I thought it was because they (Homefirst’s children) were breast-fed, but even among the breast-fed we’ve had asthma. We have virtually no asthma if you’re breast-fed and not vaccinated.”

Because the diagnosis of asthma is based on emergency-room visits and hospital admissions, Eisenstein said, Homefirst’s low rate is hard to dispute. “It’s quantifiable — the definition is not reliant on the doctor’s perception of asthma.”

Several studies have found a risk of asthma from vaccination; others have not. Studies that include never-vaccinated children generally find little or no asthma in that group.

Earlier this year Florida pediatrician Dr. Jeff Bradstreet said there is virtually no autism in home-schooling families who decline to vaccinate for religious reasons — lending credence to Eisenstein’s observations.

“It’s largely non-existent,” said Bradstreet, who treats children with autism from around the country. “It’s an extremely rare event.”

Thimerosal, which is 49.6 percent ethyl mercury by weight, was phased out of most U.S. childhood immunizations beginning in 1999, but the CDC recommends flu shots for pregnant women and last year began recommending them for children 6 to 23 months old. Most of those shots contain thimerosal.

Thimerosal-preserved vaccines are currently being injected into millions of children in developing countries around the world. “My mandate … is to make sure at the end of the day that 100,000,000 are immunized … this year, next year and for many years to come … and that will have to be with thimerosal-containing vaccines,” said John Clements of the World Health Organization at a June 2000 meeting called by the CDC. <<<<< Let's not forget that the W.H.O. recently reported that there are way too many people on the planet, and that they need to 'cull the population' from useless eaters. 6 Billion people on planet earth, and they want to reduce this number by 90%. And in their detailed plans, begun back in the 1980's, it states that they will accomplish this goal partly by using vaccines that will perform a 'slow kill'. That's a nice one... and using our Tax Dollars to boot! I know who will be frying in hell when judgment day comes, and I know you do too. Please refer to Lifesilver.com and read the Congressional Testimony link, referring to bioterrorism and the cure which they want to stockpile. You can get it now and be prepared for when all hell breaks out. Can someone please tell me why the information in the following U.S. Government Patent Office website has been suppressed for so long? Could it be pressure from Burroughs-Wellcome who provides AZT to HIV and AIDS patients? Who knows whom to blame, but it certainly seems cruel to withhold this life-saving information: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5676977.PN.&OS=PN/5676977&RS=PN/5676977

Regards,
Dr Drea

I’m for vaccinations if given at 3-5 years of age, when the neurological system is more developed, and if they are given at least a month apart.
Having worked at a Daycare center in Hudson, Ohio for 3 years, I had the rare opportunity of seeing the before and after effects on infants and young children who had been vaccinated. About 25% of them showed marked differences in behavior and physical fitness. I was surprised to learn that Tetanus, which my daughter received at 3 yrs old, when most young children go play outdoors, is now given at 8 weeks! One vaccine is even given at the hospital, right after birth!

Babies cannot even turn over in their crib until 4 months old, so there is no reason to vaccinate an infant who obviously cannot go play near barbed wire or rusty metal that has been used near horses or cows, where the Tetanus germs reside.
No one could explain to me why this is happening, and the parents of these children, overwhelmed and over tired from work and stress, just go along with the new vaccination schedule without even asking the pediatrician why.

Our daughter, now 22 who just graduated from Kent State U. received about 8 vaccinations before entering Kindergarten when she was about 5 years old.
Now, the scheduling of vaccines, as proscribed by the Manufacturers, is over 20 by the time the child is entering Kindergarten, and they say it may reach 30 shots!
Still, no parents asked why so many more than before. A few more involved parents asked for the vaccines to be given 3 -4 weeks apart, and they paid the extra doctor’s visit fee to do this for their children.

Regarding the Seasonal Flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine, the makers of these products warn NOT to intermix them, due to the fact that each one has a different aminoglucoside (antibiotic), such as Neomycin, Polymyxin B sulfate, and Gentamycin.
Therefore, people should not get both vaccines on the same day, as they double their risk of side effects. This is what Novartis, who makes them says:

>>Neomycin and polymyxin are listed as contraindications for CSL’s (2) and Novartis’ (3) vaccines. “Neomycin may cause damage to the kidneys and/or nerves. Kidney function and drug levels in the blood may be monitored with blood tests during treatment. Tell your doctor if you experience decreased urination, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, feeling of fullness in the ears, dizziness, numbness, skin tingling, muscle twitching, or seizures which may be signs of kidney or nerve damage. < < Teva Pharmaceuticals, which provide the antibiotics to Novartis, to be used as a sort of preservative, says this about its products: >> According to Teva Pharmaceuticals, the effects of neomycin may not be evident until long after the medication has been discontinued. Just exactly how long is unclear at this time. (8) Polymyxin has its own set of possible adverse reactions. “Neurotoxic reactions may be manifested by irritability, weakness, drowsiness, ataxia, perioral paresthesia, numbness of the extremities, and blurring of vision. These are usually associated with high serum levels found in patients with impaired renal function and/or nephrotoxicity.” (9)

Furthermore, all four Flu vaccine makers warn that children and adults who are allergic to eggs or poultry (15 million people) are contra-indicated to receive the vaccine. Also, people who suffer from Asthma are contra- indicated, and these are 40 million people. Plus NSAIDS and cholesterol lowering drugs are also contra-indicated for any of the Flu vaccines.

I’m sure that formaldehyde is known by most readers to cause cancer, so I won’t list the side effects for this dangerous chemical.

I suggest people read the Package Info Insert very carefully, and then go to the different Pharmaceutical companies websites, and read up on their vaccines, and how they were tested, on how many subjects, final results, both in-house and paid independent results. Learn the facts from the horses’ mouths, then you can discuss this subject with authority and facts behind every statement you make. If you need the spelling of the various makers, then please refer to this website that lists them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pharmaceutical_companies
Don’t be surprised by the $millions$ in sales by the top 12 companies.

A well known author, lecturer, and Physician here in Ohio, who has had great success in healing autistic children, and also helping people with asthma, allergies, chronic pain, etc. is Dr Sherri Tenpenny. Please refer to her website, and read thru it with an open mind. She has treated hundreds of cases with much success, and is very health oriented. People from 38 states and 9 countries come to her to get well.
She has lectured at Universities in Cleveland, such as the prestigious Case Western Reserve University, where only successful top notch doctors are invited to speak to students in the medical school.

Biography: http://drtenpenny.com/about_drTenpenny.aspx

On vaccines: http://drtenpenny.com/default.aspx

Case studies in respected medical journals and Universities:
http://www.fourteenstudies.org/ourstudies.html

In conclusion, we are for free choice, as in having the LIBERTY to chose what will happen to our own bodies, for which we alone are responsible, as declared in our Constitution. These rights of life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are granted by the Creator, and cannot be taken away by ‘the state’.

Learn what you can do to improve your own Immune System, so that you will not get ill, or if you do it will be milder and of shorter duration.

You can get a vaccine blood test that will determine which antibodies you already have, which means you have been immunized already, (by any vector) and can defer the vaccination. It’s a “titer test”: http://drtenpenny.com/titer.aspx.

God Bless everyone, and may you all have a Healthy and Happy 2010!
Respectfully submitted,
Dr Drea

Here’s some more info on Dr. Eisenstein:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-autism-doctor-eisenstein-may22,0,3826791.story?page=1

And some more info on Dr. Bradstreet:
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/bradstreet.html

Your paranoid delusions about the WHO speak for themselves. Get back on your meds, dude.

So, Dr. Drea, you are cool with babies dying from pertussis and Hib? Nice, really nice. You are despicable.

Babies cannot even turn over in their crib until 4 months old, so there is no reason to vaccinate an infant who obviously cannot go play near barbed wire or rusty metal that has been used near horses or cows, where the Tetanus germs reside.

Clostridium tetanii is everywhere in the environment. Newborns have umbilical cord stumps. Neonatal tetanus is a common cause of death in the Third World.

No one could explain to me why this is happening

Who did you ask – the pizza delivery kid?
Any doctor or nurse worth his or her license would tell you about neonatal tetanus.

T. Bruce,

I believe that the 15 deaths of newborns, delivered at home and at hospitals during 30 years of practice, is indeed tragic.
But when you consider that this number, 15 out of 15,000, is
less than 1/2 of 1%, it is quite remarkable. 14,985 live and healthy births is admirable, considering that no matter where a child is born, some infants unfortunately do die, and it is not always the fault of the doctor or attending nurses.

From Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Website:

>>Infant mortality rate is defined as infant deaths per 1,000 live births. In Europe and Asia, it is 5.0 or below.
In Hamilton County in Ohio, it is almost 10.0 per 1,000 live births. The African-american death rate is 18.0 and 3 times higher than the White death rate of almost 6.0. << [Source: WHO (world health organization), National Center for health statistics, Ohio Department of Health]. So for the Homecare doctor's network, they are coming up short on deaths! By statistics provided by an agency of the United Nations, W.H.O., these doctors are truly dedicated, since there should have been 90 - NINETY - 90 deaths, resulting from their 15,000 newborn deliveries. That is if they performed according to hospital statistics. Maybe hospitals can learn something from their group, to get their percentages down to under 1%. You can read this in their second paragraph on the homepage: http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/cores/cprc/infant-vitality/default.htm

Thank you for your time.

Christopher or Christine:
I thought name calling was a playground tactic, or more recently in blogs, a troll tactic.
Be advised this is serious blogging, and further name calling shows disrespect and lack of education, and will not be acknowledged.

Learn something about Tetanus.
1. You cannot build up antibodies to it. The body does not produce antibodies to Clostridium Tetani. It is the toxin this anaerobic bacteria produces upon dying and decaying that is the culprit. No natural antibodies can therefore be made, and that is why Booster shots for adults are recommended for adults every 10 years (also misguided advice).

2. There are 4 general reactions in every 500 vaccinations given, and 1 death in every 500. (Sisk, C.W., Lewis, C.E.; Arch Environm Health, 1965; 11:7,34).
REPEATING…. 1 death in every 500 vaccinations!
So how many babies born yearly die? You do the Math.

3. From the respect New England Journal of Medicine:
>>Immune system damage is commonly written about with this vaccine, perhaps the most concerning is that research has indicated that tetanus toxoid causes a massive drop in T cells, comparable to that of an AIDS sufferer:

‘Tests of T-lymphocyte subpopulations were done on 11 healthy adults before-and-after routine tetanus booster immunizations. Tests showed a significant though temporary drop in T-helper lymphocytes (a class of white blood cells which helps govern the immune system) in all of the subjects. Special concern rests in the fact that in 4 of the subjects the T-helper cells fell to levels found in active AIDS patients. (2) If this was the result of a single vaccine in healthy adults, it is sobering to think of the consequences of the multiple vaccines (twenty-one at last count) routinely given to infants with their immature systems during the first six months of life. However, we can only speculate as to the consequences, as this test has never been repeated’ – Dr. Buttram (Abnormal T-lymphocyte subpopulations in healthy subjects after tetanus booster immunization.N Engl J Med. 1984 Jan 19;310(3):198-9).

4. Proper hygiene! If cut, allow the wound to air first. Tetanus spores are killed before they enter the bloodstream if they come into contact with oxygen. In the case of more severe wounds, make sure it is cleaned out with water or saline before being stitched at hospital. Adequate cleaning is usually enough to deter tetanus.
In the case of newborns, any instruments used to sever the cord should be previously boiled thoroughly.

5. It is likely that any raised antibody level seen after vaccination is the result of adjuvants (toxic heavy metals which are added to increase the body’s antibody response). In the case of tetanus vaccine, this substance is aluminium.
Antibodies themselves are not an indication of immunity – this is just one function, which is vastly different from whole body immunity.
According to Vieira et al: ‘This minimal protective antibody level is an arbitrary one and is not a guarantee of security for the individual patient.’ (Vieira, B.l.; Dunne, J.W.; Summers, Q.; Cephalic tetanus in an immunized patient. Med J Austr. 1986; 145: 156-7).

6. Most tetanus cases occur in third world countries and many of these are caused by umbilical stump infections in newborns, where the cord has been tied off in unsanitary conditions.
In Western countries, tetanus is rare. For instance, Germany has only 17 cases a year. (Mass für Mass – Tetanus-Impfung (Tetanol u.a.). Arznei-Tel, 1994; 7:60).

7. During WW2, The British Army had 22 cases of tetanus in which 11 people died. All of the deaths were in tetanus vaccinated soldiers. The 11 survivors were unvaccinated. (Dittmann, S. Atypische Verlàufe nach Schutzimpfungen. Johan Ambrosius Barth Leipzig, 1981; 156).

8. Other ingredients that are in the tetanus toxoid vaccine: formaldehyde; sodium phosphate monobasic; sodium phophate dibasic, [an eye and skin irritant that may be harmful if ingested]; glycine, aluminum, and 25 ug. of thimerosal (mercury).

9. If the person doesn’t need the tetanus booster, the vaccine can cause a severe allergic reaction referred to as an Arthus type, Type III hypersensitivity reaction. This side effect is defined as “an acute inflammatory reaction caused by deposition of antigen — antibody complexes into the tissues.”
“Arthus type” variation classically causes a reaction only at the injection site, but the result is an acute necrotizing vasculitis and localized necrosis (death) of the tissues.

10. Harvard Medical School scientists, Randolph Byers and Frederick Moll carried out tests on the DPT at Children’s Hospital in Boston and concluded that severe neurological problems followed administration of the vaccine. The results were published in Pediatrics, a respectable medical journal. The results were completely ignored by the medical and pharmaceutical community. In 1976, Charles Manclark, an FDA scientist, remarked, “The DPT had one of the worst failure rates of any product submitted to the Division of Biologics for testing.”

11. From the CDC website:
>># Any child who had a life-threatening allergic reaction after a dose of DTaP should not get another dose.
# Any child who suffered a brain or nervous system disease within 7 days after a dose of DTaP should not get another dose.
# Talk with your doctor if your child:

* had a seizure or collapsed after a dose of DTaP
* cried non-stop for 3 hours or more after a dose of DTaP
* had a fever over 105 degrees Fahrenheit after a dose of DTaP. < << 12. From the Philadelphia Children's Hospital, come these statistics: >>Every year as many as 70 cases of tetanus causing about 15 deaths are reported. In 2005, 27 cases of tetanus were reported in the United States.<<< GOLLY ALMIGHTY! 27 cases and even fewer deaths in 2005! So if even half resulted in death, being 14 victims total, does this low number dictate that millions and millions of people should receive a vaccination, when normal hygiene would take care of most cases? What a waste of time and money. And don't forget to read the 14 inch long insert that comes in the Tetanus vaccine package, that deals with all the side effects. This way the pharma cannot be sued when you react negatively to the their vaccine ingredients... you know, the aluminum, mercury, and formaldehyde, and other things. Thanks for posting, but let's get serious in the future. We're all for staying healthy, right? Clean living, good eating, immune boosting supplements, and exercise. That's about all you need to be like we are. Good luck.

‘Dr’ Dre @ 79

Hmm, let’s see, now:

1. I need a cite for this (“can’t build up antibodies to tetanus”). The literature has many examples of tests and titres for just this factor in blood.

2. Sorry, it’s cited on whale.to. By definition, via Scopie’s Law, it’s instantly nonsense. Next!

3. Ditto 2. Uh, you might want to branch out a bit, given whale.to’s uneviable record for scientific truth, accuracy, and incomplete / incorrect / misleading citation.

4. Hmmm, let’s put this to the test, ‘hygenic’ person! If you’ll submit to a test where you are either punctured with a nail or have an open wound come into contact with, say, horse manure (let’s do this right, shall we?), in a typical environment where this would take place, then wait as long as would be typical if it was an accidental injury (I vote for puncture with a rusty, manure-encrusted nail, but that’s just my penchant for thoroughness), then “allow the wound to air first.” Then water wash or saline will be allowed, but no hydrogen peroxide (which *might* reasonably have a chance of getting enough oxygen deep enough into the wound to get to the spores before the bloodstream takes them away, but only if nearly instantly applied.) Also, especially for puncture wounds, no stitching is likely to be neccessary, unless cut on a blade of some type (shovel / saw / ? ). I’d be *fascinated* to watch the results…but I’m guessing you wouldn’t like it one bit, as long as you lasted. More succintly: I believe you’re lying or deluded, and I lean toward you being a liar.

As to using sanitary instruments when performing surgery…Uh, that’s a given, a non-sequitur, and a red herring in this context.

5. Article cited doesn’t mention “raised antibody level after vaccination is result of adjuvants.” And there’s far more aluminum naturally occurring in the body of just about anybody you’re likely to meet than there is remaining in any vaccine dose. Antibodies ARE an indication of immunity…they’re reacting to the foreign substance introduced. As for your cite…whale.to…again. Non-authoritative, non-scientific, & doesn’t even address the topic you start with here.

6. no data to support this assertion (“Most tetanus cases occur in 3rd world countries & many caused by umbilical stump infections in infants.”) “In Western countries, tetanus is rare”. ‘Western’ countries also routinely immunize, & give immune boosters in case of wounds where the possibility of tetanus presents (I’ve had my fair share…I don’t keep good records, & better safe than sorry).

7. Dammit, whale.to again! At least do a *little* independent searching, rather than returning to the same purulent well!

8. re ‘other’ ingredients in the tetanus toxoid vaccine: THE DOSE MAKES THE POISION (Paracelsus, 16th century). How much of each of these ingredients, in nanograms, is in each dose of the vaccine under discussion? How does that relate by ratio to the amount present in a typical human being (or average, if you want to be sure to account for ill people…illness being atypical IN LARGE PART BECAUSE OF VACCINES.) And the mercury in the infinitesimal portion of thimerosol in the vaccine is *ethyl* mercury, not *methyl* mecury. This is significant because *ethyl* mercury is rapidly removed by the body’s cleansing systems, unlike *methyl* mercury, which can’t be cleaned out as fast and so is more (if still unlikely in these concentrations) likely to cause damage from prolonged exposure.

9. Assuming I grant this, what is the prevalence of such a reaction? And the potential severity of the reaction? It sounds like a sore at the injection site. Now, what is the prevalence of tetanus in people who DON’T get the injection? And the potential severity of untreated tetanus? It’s almost trivially easy to conclude that the possibility of a sore at the injection site is both of lower probability & severity than death from tetanus. Next!

10. So you cite a study from Harvard Medical School at Children’s Hospital in Boston, published in Pediatrics, but here you *can’t* provide a citation? From a collaboration between two prominent health facilities? You say the results were completely ignored. Were all the copies pulled from the shelves, too, so nobody could cite it as a defense for your position? As for Mr. Manclark, was/is he a *biological* scientist? A physicist? A chemist? An epidemiologist? What is his reputation in his chosen field? Details matter.

11. Assuming you’re not, as my beloved mother would still say (genteel-ly): “Full of prunes”, why not a link to the text on the CDC website? You obviously found it. Are you trying to hurt your own case by making the information difficult to find? Or (tinfoil hat on) perhaps using quotes out of context?
From common sense (not a publication)
– If a child nearly drowns, it would be bad to attempt to make him/her breathe water again
– If there is a reasonable expectation that some act performed upon the child yielded an adverse reaction, the same or similar action(s) should be contra-indicated while analysis of the incident occurs to determine what the aggravating / precipitating factor(s) is/are. Note, *analysis* of the incident, not subjective, anecdotal, knee-jerk reaction based on unsupported conjecture.

12. Okay, those are mortality figures. How many of those cases were left untreated? How many got intensive treatment (antitoxin / palliative care)? How long was such care needed? What were the non-death related long term effects of the illness? Not to mention the human suffering of the actual victims? Perspective, my dear doctor, Perspective!

Concerning the 14-inch long insert that comes with the tetanus vaccine: that says to me that those who make it are trying to tell the practitioner EVERYTHING that is known that could go wrong. You find me a CAM ‘physician’ who will offer up such comprehensive information. And don’t try to bring up the idea there are no side effects or possible harm, or I’ll have to bring up poor little Tariq Nadama while I go searching for more such cases (that are hushed up until the lid gets blown off, not that EBM is perfect either [and don’t cite h. pylorii & ulcers, either. THAT brave maverick doctor proved *scientifically* he was right, experimenting on HIS OWN BODY, and orthodoxy / treatment have changed to reflect proof provided in that case. It wasn’t an experiment on somebody *else’s* child with lousy controls & fear-mongering])

As someone around here said, “Thanks for posting, but let’s get serious in the future.”

You nitwit.

Also, the GAPING loophole left in your penultimate sentence, “that’s ABOUT all you need to be like we are”, is both about the only true statement in the whole post, and it’s still misleading. First of all, who are ‘we’? Do you have a tapeworm? Are you royalty or an editor? Or do you refer to the willfully unvaccinated community who have been responsible for the reported PREPONDERANCE of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease? And the “about” can easily be filled in with ‘vaccination and/or herd immunity’, what you don’t do & what you depend on.

If you actually are a doctor, turn in your sheepskin, you quack. No, I take that back, quack, that is, & make it “you purulent maggot on the body of society”.

Not that I have any strong opinions on the subject.

“Maryn sounds more sarcastic than anything (giving her the benefit of the doubt!), I doubt those are her real concerns. The crunchy mama brigade (which makes up a great deal of the anti-vax fanatics) are always going on about things like that. I’ve seen a few go on things like raw milk that just make you roll your eyes (which their husbands do as well because they learned long ago that they would be cast aside if they so much as question any of that)…”

That’s odd. What did those non-crunchy-papa types see in those women (and older teen girls too, I bet – which is more “all-natural,” studying for high school finals at 17 or attracting and doing a guy without a condom at 17?) to try to have and raise children with them in the first place?

“…It’s not so much the issue, it’s more the ‘I know better because having a baby makes me smarter than statistics’.

“They love natural and completely dismiss the fact that everyone did things ‘naturally’ 200 years ago and lived to a ripe old average age of 35…”

Average because so many people didn’t reach any ripe old age at all, of course!

“…Apparently clean water and hand washing solved that pesky life expectancy thing. Oh, they usually hate tap water too, because oh no it has fluoride in it and trace amount of horrible toxins. So it must just be hand washing (and it’s great fun to watch some of the germ theory denialists explain why washing your hands improved health).

“There is a long thread on mothering.com where some are falling apart at the seams because their natural ways still resulted in an autistic child and they have crazy amounts of off the wall theories trying to explain how avoiding vaccines didn’t work.”

Isn’t that the point at which if-it’s-popular-don’t-do-it people switch to praising autism and denouncing social skills?

Darn, Dr. Dre has left, and I forgot to ask how Ed Lover’s doing.

We have not only the pharma shill argument and an additional ad hominem against Dr. Barrett, we have an “all reporters are equal” defense of whale.to [FAIL], “too many too fast,” thimerosal, “hygeine is all you need,” incredibly vague argument from authority (unsourced, even), and last but not least, a reference to “a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Alimentarius] Seems the nice Codex folks are a subject of controversy because they suggest supplements should be properly tested for safety and efficacy and appropriately labeled. I’d offer an opinion on what Dr. Dre thinks of CA, but I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

He keeps quoting the website ‘Whale’, as if the reporting there differs from other similar reporting sites.

Well, you tell us, do you think reputable “reporting sites” contain The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and first-hand claims of being burned on the bum by Satanic ley lines?

This is how Quackwatch got started…JAMA provided the seed money.

Do you have anything from a reliable source to back up this preposterous accusation?

Then a PA court in his hometown found him liable and issued a civil judgment against him.

Do you have anything from a reliable source to back up this allegation?

I try to research these claims about Barrett and I never find anything about them on reliable sites. Most of the time I find them only posted as anonymous comments on message boards — usually posted in 100% identical wording, indicating that it’s simply being copied-and-pasted by a small group of people who have never done any independent checking to find out the facts for themselves. The only name I ever see given any credit for these claims is Tim Bolen. Yes, the same Tim Bolen who was a publicist for the late Hulda Clark, which would pretty much eliminate any credibility even if he wasn’t being sued for libeling Barrett.

So, to the person who is not a doctor, and is also not Andre Romelle Young… have you yet figured out how to use your mouse to click on the blue text? Here is a hint: you move your mouse over the blue writing the little arrow turns into a hand, then you can click the left button and see the web page with the cite.

Oh, goody, it’s Mr. John “Whale.to” Scudamore himself! This should be fun.

Two words: Scopie’s Law.

http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Scopie's_Law

Dizzy Gillespie is a genius as a jazz musician, but that doesn’t mean I think he’s a genius about medicine as well. (Now I want to go play my Gillespie collection.)

Someone quoting a violinist and a trumpeter with butter fingers as proof that homeopathy is valid is some sort of really crappy poe right? No one with anything beyond a brainstem would actually make that argument. Right?

@Nick

In my personal experience ABA has been the best therapy for behavior modification in my son. We simply could not function without it!

Occupational therapy has also been very helpful. He will ask for OT whenever he is out of his comfort zone or otherwise upset. It calms him right down. Here is a good resource.

most people in america have no idea that adjuvants are in vaccines. besides aluminum, mercury, eggs, therre are many other adjuvants that can carry all kinds of problems along with the vaccine injected into tiny babies. the volume of vaccines given to children has grown exponentially since l980 concurrent with autism. and the mfrs make mistakes. live viruses have been carried in quite a few profiteers drugs in the last couple years. some have been caught. what about the mfg mistakes not caught? the profiteers are not always careful when big money is at stake. we have seen that over and over.