Fraudulent Reports: Vaccines cause Autism

[American Patriot]

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/01/06/autism-vaccine-fraud/

In the past few years, I've heard people screaming about vaccines being dangerous for children and causing autism and other issues. Looks like, as USUAL it was a whole lot of BS.

Study Linking Vaccine to Autism Was 'Elaborate Fraud,' Journal Says


Published January 06, 2011
| Associated Press



LONDON – The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]information about the children involved, according to a new report on the widely discredited research.[/COLOR]


The conclusions of the 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet, where it was published. Still, the suggestion the MMR shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.


A new examination found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.


The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems. Deer also found that all the cases were somehow misrepresented when he compared data from [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]medical [COLOR=blue ! important]records[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] and the children's parents.


Wakefield could not be reached for comment despite repeated calls and requests to the publisher of his recent book, which claims there is a connection between vaccines and autism that has been ignored by the medical establishment. Wakefield now lives in the U.S. where he enjoys a vocal following including celebrity supporters like Jenny McCarthy.

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Deer's article was paid for by the Sunday Times of London and Britain's Channel 4 television network. It was published [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]online[/COLOR] Thursday in the medical journal, BMJ.[/COLOR]


In an accompanying editorial, BMJ editor Fiona Godlee and colleagues called Wakefield's study "an elaborate fraud." They said Wakefield's work in other journals should be examined to see if it should be retracted.


Last May, Wakefield was stripped of his right to practice [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]medicine[/COLOR] in Britain. Many other published studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism.[/COLOR]


But measles has surged since Wakefield's paper was published and there are sporadic outbreaks in Europe and the U.S. In 2008, measles was deemed endemic in England and Wales.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01...#ixzz1AGflbfXt[/COLOR]

[American Patriot]

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4487252/a...ylist_id=86892

[American Patriot]

WebMD Expert Blogs
WebMD Newsroom



WebMD's editorial staff on the latest news from the world of health.

Thursday, January 6, 2011
Infamous Study on MMR Vaccine and Autism Link Takes Final Blow


Much has been made of the link between vaccines and autism, and nothing ignited the fire as much as a 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield’s scientific paper, published by The Lancet, linking the MMR vaccine to an increased autism risk.
In the last two years, that study has been retracted, and The Lancet has called it “dishonest” and “irresponsible.”
Now the story has taken on another head of steam, pitting two esteemed British medical journals at odds.
The editor in chief of the BMJ, Fiona Godlee, M.D., says “the MMR scare was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud” and that such “clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare.”
This is referring to the famous 1998 Lancet study that linked the MMR (mumps,measles, and rubella) vaccine to autism.
As with the retraction, there have been other claims brought against the research as reported on by WebMD.
This research caused considerable deliberation that vaccines were a key cause of autism. Although it is accepted that there may be rare instances where vaccines can have rare side effects, many groups have disproven this claim that vaccines cause autism, including the Institute of Medicine.
An additional BMJ editorial claimed that , “A great deal of thought and effort must have gone into drafting the paper to achieve the results he [Andrew Wakefield] wanted: the discrepancies all led in one direction; misreporting was gross.”
Much of this newer evidence has been surfaced by a seven-year inquiry by investigative reporter Brian Deer.
Although this is unlikely to close the door among many people’s suspicions of vaccines and autism, it is an important step towards leading us in a useful direction to finding the causes of autism — and perhaps closing some doors as to the myths of what causes it.
Sean Swint
WebMD Executive Editor

[American Patriot]

2 new books challenge myths, fears about vaccines
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY Vaccines are one of the most controversial topics among parents these days, with a growing number questioning whether to give their kids recommended shots.
Nearly 40% of parents have delayed or declined at least one of their children's shots — a practice that's fueling outbreaks of infectious diseases, from mumps to measles and whooping cough, that were once nearly eliminated by vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yet much of the anxiety about vaccines is based on myths and fear, rather than facts, say pediatrician Paul Offit and journalist Seth Mnookin, the authors of two new books that aim to clear up the confusion. Offit, chief of infectious disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is author of Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (Basic Books, $27.50). Mnookin is author of The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science and Fear (Simon & Schuster, $26.99).
Myth 1: Vaccines cause autism
Few medical myths have been debunked as thoroughly as this one.
Fourteen scientific studies have failed to find a link between autism and vaccines, says Offit.
The myth was fueled by a small, flawed study in The Lancet in 1998, which was later retracted. British medical authorities last year found the author guilty of serious misconduct related to the study — including accepting more than $675,000 from a lawyer hoping to sue vaccine makers — and removed his ability to practice medicine in England.
Editors of BMJ, the British medical journal, have even called the study "an elaborate fraud," accusing author Andrew Wakefield of deliberately falsifying medical data.
Legal authorities, including a federal "vaccine court" handling the Omnibus Autism Proceeding, in which judges considered the claims of roughly 5,000 families, also have ruled against parents who claimed that shots caused their children's autism.
But myths, once unleashed, can be hard to rein in, says Mnookin.
"This idea has been set in people's minds, and it's going to take a while to overcome it," Mnookin says. "I talk to people who look at the research and say, 'I just don't trust it.' But for this to be a conspiracy, it would have to be virtually every government in the world."
Myth 2: Vaccines contain toxic chemicals
Over the past 200 years, critics have made claims that vaccines contain methyl mercury, ether and anti-freeze, as well as the blood and entrails of bats and toads, Offit reports in his book.
None of that is true.
Vaccines have never contained methyl mercury, a toxic metal that can cause brain damage, Offit says.
Before 2001, some vaccines contained thimerosal, a preservative made with ethyl mercury. But ethyl mercury, which is safe, is very different from methyl mercury, which is toxic.
While most laypeople don't pay attention to such differences, they're important, says obstetrician-gynecologist Jennifer Gunter, author of The Preemie Primer. Consider the huge difference between ethyl alcohol — or drinking alcohol, found in wine and beer — and methyl alcohol, or wood alcohol, which can cause blindness, she says
As proof of its safety, Offit notes that seven studies have failed to find any link between thimerosal and autism.
To address parents' concerns, however, the Food and Drug Administration ordered that thimerosal be removed from routine childhood vaccinations.
Today, thimerosal is found in only one type of shot: flu vaccine stored in multi-dose vials use the preservative to prevent the growth of fungus or other potentially dangerous germs, says Ari Brown, a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics and author of Expecting 411.
Parents who remain concerned can ask for a thimerosal-free version, which is readily available. Neither flu shots in individual-dose containers or the FluMist nasal spray contains thimerosal, Brown says.
Some parents are also concerned about potential harm from aluminum, used in small amounts in some vaccines to stimulate a better immune response.
Yet babies get far more aluminum from food — including breast milk — than from vaccines.In the first six months of life, a breast-fed baby takes in 10 milligrams of aluminum; a baby given a milk-based formula takes in 30 milligrams; a soy formula-fed baby gets 120 milligrams, Offit says.
One teaspoon of Maalox liquid, an antacid, has 200 milligrams of aluminum, Gunter says.
In comparison, a baby who receives all recommended shots takes in only 4 milligrams of aluminum, Offit says.
Aluminum is also found in self-rising flour, Offit says. For most people, the biggest source of aluminum is cornbread.
And while many medications and consumer products have trace levels of chemicals, so do our bodies, Offit says. Young infants have 10 times as much formaldehyde circulating in their bodies than is found in any vaccine. Breast milk and infant formula both have more mercury than vaccines. But vaccines, like breast milk, play a vital role in keeping infants healthy.
"If you have zero tolerance for mercury, you have to move to another planet," Offit says. "We all have mercury and formaldehyde and aluminum in our bodies. Vaccines don't add to what we normally encounter every day."
Myth 3: Children receive too many vaccines, overwhelming their immune systems
Again, there's no sound evidence to support this, Offit says. Researchers have studied the question and found no increase in autism among kids who get multiple vaccines at an early age.
What many parents don't realize, he says, is that kids today get less of an immune challenge from their vaccines than their parents and grandparents did — even though kids today get more shots.
A century ago, kids were vaccinated against only smallpox.
Today, children are vaccinated against 14 diseases.
Yet today's shots contain fewer germ particles — the proteins that prime the immune system to respond to infections, Offit says.
That's because the vaccine against smallpox — the largest of the world's more than 1 million viruses — contained 200 germ particles, Offit says.
That's more antigens than are found in all 14 of today's shots combined, Offit says.
New shots also are engineered to be more targeted than earlier generations of vaccines, Brown says.
For example, whooping cough shots made before 1991 contained 3,000 different germ particles, or antigens. Today's version has only three to five, Brown says.
Experts note that the immune system is stronger than many realize.
When leaving the womb, babies are immediately surrounded by millions of bacteria in the birth canal. If the immune system weren't so robust, humans wouldn't survive being born, Offit says. People actually have 10 times more bacteria living on the surface of their bodies than human cells inside it.
Given that sort of daily challenge, the body's immune system has no trouble handling the few viral or bacterial proteins found in vaccines, Offit says. Even if children got 11 shots at once, they would still need only 0.1% of their immune system to respond.
Myth 4: It's safe to "space out" vaccinations
A growing number of parents are delaying vaccines to avoid giving their children several shots at once, sometimes because they're afraid of inflicting unnecessary pain.
But spacing out vaccines may actually cause children more distress, Offit says.
Studies show that a child's stress hormone levels peak after one shot. Because that one shot is so stressful, giving a child additional needle sticks doesn't appreciably increase a child's distress, he says. So children who receive one shot a month, instead of several at once, may actually have higher total stress levels.
Postponing shots also leaves babies at risk, Brown says.
The vaccination schedule developed by the CDC wasn't developed "out of thin air," Brown says. It's based on research to "protect as many babies as soon as possible."
The "nasty little truth" to alternative schedules, on the other hand, is that they "are all fantasy," Brown says. None of the alternative schedules has been clinically tested — the kind of evidence upon which the CDC relies.
"There is absolutely no research that says delaying certain shots is safer," Brown says. "Doctors who promote these schedules are simply guessing when to give which shots. What we know for certain is that delaying your child's shots is playing Russian roulette."
Myth 5: Vaccines cause lots of serious side effects
Vaccines are tested in more children — over a longer period of time — than any other drug, Offit says. Research overwhelmingly shows them to be safe.
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, for example, was tested in 30,000 women before being approved, Offit says. The pneumococcal vaccine was tested in 40,000 children. The two rotavirus vaccines were tested in a total of 130,000 children. All were tested for more than 20 years.
When introducing any new vaccine, the FDA also requires pharmaceutical companies to prove that their product doesn't pose a threat when added to the existing vaccine schedule, Offit says.
In addition, a special database, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) helps scientists to monitor vaccine safety, Offit says. Anyone can use the system to report a suspected side effect.
Not everyone understands how to interpret this safety information, however.
Some parents looking at VAERS reports are alarmed by the large number of illnesses that occur after vaccinations. Offit says parents should remember that the database is a screening system, meant to cast as wide a net as possible in order to detect the greatest number of potential problems.
The system can't determine cause and effect, however.
A mother may report that her child had a seizure after getting a vaccine, for example.
But VAERS doesn't include a comparison group, showing how many children developed seizures after NOT getting a vaccine, Offit says.
In many cases, the side effects reported to VAERS are coincidences.
And 80% of people who reported to VAERS that vaccines caused autism were personal-injury lawyers, Offit says.
Vaccine makers often take a cautious approach when writing their warning labels, listing all of the side effects reported after vaccination — even if these side effects occurred at the same rate in unvaccinated people, Offit says.
Myth 6: Vaccine-preventable diseases aren't that dangerous
Vaccines are a victim of their own success, Mnookin says.
They have nearly eliminated diseases that once sickened, disabled or killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. But because few young parents have encountered any of these diseases, they don't realize how dangerous they are, Mnookin says.
Whooping cough, for example, once sickened 300,000 people a year and killed 7,000 — mostly young children, Offit says.
Now, partly because of failure to vaccinate, whooping cough is making a comeback.
In California alone, whooping cough has sickened at least 7,800 people — and killed 10 babies under 3 months old, according to the state health department.
Unvaccinated children returning from trips abroad also have started outbreaks of measles and mumps, infecting both their unvaccinated friends and neighbors, and newborns too young to have gotten their first shots. Unvaccinated kids and adults aren't just risking their own health, Offit says. They're also risking the health of vulnerable people around them, such as people with immune deficiencies caused by disease or cancer therapy, who are more likely to be hospitalized by the flu, chickenpox or other infections.


"We've reached a tipping point," Offit says. "Children are suffering and dying because some parents are more frightened by vaccines than by the diseases they prevent."

[American Patriot]

Published: Thursday, January 6, 2011


Breath of fresh air


Story tools


Breath of fresh air

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, was elected the 61st Speaker of the House on Wednesday.

The new speaker tearfully vowed to rein in government spending, cut the deficit and find a decent steakhouse in northern Virginia that allows smoking in the cocktail lounge.



F is for fake: A 1998 study claiming to link a childhood vaccine with autism was a fraud based on doctored information, according to a new examination funded by the Times of London and Britain’s Channel 4 TV network.

The Buzz Karma Court hereby decrees that the discredited study’s author shall come down with measles, mumps and rubella.



He’s in the money: One of two winners of a $380 million Mega Millions jackpot bought the winning ticket at a Safeway in the Eastern Washington town of Ephrata.

The lucky new multimillionaire will be introduced to the world today at a press conference in Olympia. After that, Gov. Chris Gregoire will ask him for a payday loan to tide state government over until the end of the month.

— Mark Carlson, Herald staff

[RememberCuba94]

I've heard something similar to this involving AIDS. Basically, people are saying AIDS was caused because of a cure for polio or something.

[Toad]

Jenny McCarthy is going to be pissed off. She's been claiming for YEARS vaccines caused her son's autisim and has been riding that horse from the get go.

[American Patriot]

Well... let me explain my own angst about this.

Many years ago helping to run the "Survival Lists" a few people started popping up with this "the government is making our people sick with vaccines" nonsense.

Having served in the military for a long time and having taken literally hundreds of shots against various viruses and diseases I found that I never caught anything bad other than once when I got dysentery. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine against microbes that cause that and so I got sick.

But, I haven't ever had typhoid, polio, smallpox or any of the other things for which I received vaccines. I'm no more "autistic" than the next relatively lucid individual posting on this site (or any other) and I have been exposed to some nasty things in my life.

Also knowing my own kids had all had similar vaccinations (because I was in the military it was generally required my kids get certain things by the military hospitals) and none of them have ever suffered any of these diseases it bugs me that some kind of conspiracy was popping up.

In the early 1990s and as far back as the late 80s I was hearing how vaccines were a problem but there were never presented any data or evidence for this. Just "A report" said so, or "I heard from my third cousin's wife's nephew about an uncle of a friend" etc.

Basically, this vaccine thing was created as a scare tactic by the people involved in the survival lists who were also anti-government people.

And of course, the Left who are forever looking for SOMETHING to grasp on to that sounds "bad".

Ice ages
Nuclear power plants causing deformities in children
High Tension power lines cancer
Eggs are BAD for you.
Milk is bad for you.
the Ozone lay being "destroyed" by CFCs
Global Warming
Cell phones causing cancer
Plastic
Deforestation
SUVs
McDonalds (and other fast food places) causing our kids to be fat.....

If you all think back carefully you will realize that each and every one of these have either been corrected, proved wrong, or have been shown NOT to have any real science to back them. In the case of things like eggs (and milk) for instance, you will discover that eggs were assumed to be BAD because of cholesterol and later we are told eggs are good because they have GOOD cholesterol....

Cellular phones makers have been sued over this because someone said they caused brain tumors.... and there were never any studies to prove this.

Global Warming numbers have been mismanaged, lied about and manipulated.

Deforestation? Another myth. While certainly there is clear cutting going on down in South America in the rain forests the forests have an ability to keep on going.

Ice Age? Never came.

Ice shelves melting? Never happened. Sure a few broke off, but you can bet that has probably happened throughout the history of the planet.

High tension lines causing cancer? Can't be proven. Alternating current at 50/60 hertz doesn't pass THROUGH the body but only over the surface (that is the field, not the actual current) and that emf is not ionizing radiation.

Manufacture of plastics... well, plastics do indeed last for a very long time and I've heard rumors and stories of "floating plastic islands" in the pacific ocean where the currents eddy flotsam together. It's very possible I guess. But mostly it is trash we've left behind and doesn't deposit bad chemicals into the ground or water. Rather it just "stays there". (And it's a good reason for recycling...and on a side note has anyone ever noted that in fact the biggest opponents to plastics and things like that, the LEFT are also the ones continually purchasing plastic bottles of water on a daily basis and simply producing more waste plastic????)

I guess what irks me is the way people take up a flag and march with it for some cause without being intellectually honest with either themselves or their circle of friends about the cause.

Most of these people screaming the loudest have the LEAST amount of knowledge of a subject and yet perpetuate lies and mythology, or urban legend to advance their own personal (or group) agendas.

My sage (and I can say that now, I'm a half century old or better now) advice it to stop listening to these people without science behind their arguments. Verify what they say, look at the science and data available and if it is INCONCLUSIVE then by God it it is INCONCLUSIVE and NO action should be taken.

If the evidence is conclusive then you have a leg to stand on. If not, then it is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Why people take up arms about things like power lines, cell phones, global warming or vaccines is anyone's guess. I'm not a psychologist but I do understand the psychology of people in some conditions and circumstances and I suppose people want to "belong" to something (a cause), they want to take "ownership" (of a situation) at times and even want their fifteen minutes of fame (ego) - perhaps all of which can be cited as reasons for fighting a cause that has no scientific evidence for the basis of arguments against the thing they are fighting.

Either way - as a skeptical person I would rather people take a conservative viewpoint of anything like this, any sort of attempt to stop anything that has a potential GOOD side because a few people view it as bad.

By the same token, I will say as a kind of hard core conservative, I would caution against "religious" calls to "battle against evil" at times... stem cell research is one of those things. But, I digress on the thread.

Vaccines are a GOOD thing to 98% of the population and trying to stop them is bad.

At the same time, if a parent doesn't want their kids getting a vaccine, then that's THEIR CHOICE!

Freedom in our actions, religion, daily life are the MOST IMPORTANT THING WE HAVE.

[catfish]

I had a sneaking suspicion that study was a fake as soon as the Hollyweirdos jumped all over this. And of course in this day and age where famous people are the best and smartest out of all of us, people went off the deep end, possibly doing long term damage to their children. All part of the dumbing down of America. Almost reminds me of the Harvard study about medical bills causing bankruptcies in America. Complete and utter bullshit.

[American Patriot]

I'd MUCH prefer to have a shot from a pharmaceutical company than ANY GOVERNMENT.

Governments can't manage businesses. Governments can't even properly follow regulations themselves, let alone force others to do it.

[Malsua]

I still have my Smallpox vaccination scar.

I bet Ryan doesn't have one.

[American Patriot]

I was vaccinated against smallpox. If I recall correctly, my children were as well. The eldest is 33 this year and the youngest is 25 at the end of this month.

[Malsua]

Routine vaccinations against smallpox ended in 1972. Folks born after that wouldn't have been vaccinated unless there was a specific risk factor that suggested it was necessary, like health workers or biologists working at the CDC, etc.

[Ryan Ruck]

Nope no smallpox vac. I think my brother Danny got one as part of his intake into the Marines. I could be mistaken though so don't hold me to that.