Vaccines and Autism: A Story of Medicine, Science and Fear
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-02-02/vaccines-and-autism-story-medicine-science-and-fear
In 1998 a research paper was published that linked the childhood measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to the onset of autism, a life long developmental disorder. Follow up studies could not replicate the findings casting doubt on its conclusions, and earlier this year it was proven that this original study was, in fact, fraudulent. But the damage was done. Childhood vaccination rates dropped resulting in outbreaks of measles and whooping cough. Funds that would have gone to new research into the causes of autism were diverted, and surveys indicate that about one in five Americans continues to believe that a childhood vaccine can trigger autism. A story of fraudulent medical research and its consequences.
Guests
Seth Mnookin
Author of "The Panic Virus: a True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear." He is a contributing editor at "Vanity Fair" and a former senior writer for "Newsweek."
Dr. Roberta DeBiasi
pediatric infectious diseases physician at Children’s National Medical Center
Alison Tepper Singer
Founder and President of the Autism Science Foundation, formerly Executive Vice President of Autism Speaks, served on the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC.)
Comments
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My husband, a Board Certified Physician, and I witnessed our daughter have an adverse reaction to a flu shot. She was hospitalized within 36 hours with fever, vomiting, and a new onset of seizures. She also lost all language and regressed into full-blown autism.
We are not anti-vaccine and we do not feel vaccines cause autism. Instead we believe autism is likely a multi-factorial disorder. Perhaps vaccinations, pollutants and genetics are some of the many factors that play a role. Parents like us justifiably want more research and hope to see vaccinations made/administered more safely. Turning this controversy into a simple "anti-vaccine" debate is not fair and appears to be shoddy journalism, at best.
As a regular listener, I was disappointed that you did not present information from both sides of the vaccine controversy. Your reason was that Dr. Wakefield was so "thoroughly discredited" that you chose to only to present one view. You let your 3 guests easily discount studies that have replicated Dr. Wakefield's study of 1998 as not being "good science". There is currently a study being done at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina that is in the process of validating what Dr. Wakefield found. Click on this link to find out information on this vaccine controversy. Check out Dr. Mercola's wbsite and his newsletter from 2/7/11.
https://media.mercola.com/redirect2/view.aspx?Email=wellnesswithin@me.co...
This is just a wonderful interview! One of the problems is that science is considered "insensitive" for not believing the testimonies of mothers. But science, in order to be accurate, needs to be insensitive in certain respects. What mothers in this case say about the onset of their childrens autism could lead to scientific research, but in reality it is all anecdotal evidence.
Dr DeBiasi is "ID" physician not a GI doc, so I respect her opinion about what she said of GI disorders in ASD kids. The gut issue raised by one of the callers was very important and has a logical ground (I totally agree). Certainly in my (and my colleagues) clinical experience the autistic children suffer more GI symptom than the normal healthier counterparts. FOR SURE. I as a pediatric gastroenterologist I see autistic children with diarrhea, food intolerance and texture difficulty, constipation etc. more than "normal" population. There is a whole spectrum of problems they face as far as GI issues are concerned. Unfortunately because of lack of explanations of the nature of disorder, lack of studies to look at the long term outcomes, lack of management strategies, and lack of our understanding of how autism affects neuro-gut system we fail to answer the parents. SO I totally disagree as a scientist that GI disorders are comparable to general population. Of course there is a difference......
I have now read the transcript in its entirety & I am disappointed. Your guests told only the drug industries' side of the vaccine/autism story, which is still unfolding. The science of Dr Wakefield et al's paper has never been discredited.
One of your listeners was right on the mark when she talked about autism and gastrointestinal problems, challenging an assertion by one of your guests. Unfortunately, after your guest partially agreed with her criticism Debiasi belted out misinformation that autistic & non-autistic kids have the same incidence of GI problems. That is horribly wrong as even the industry biased Autism Speaks agrees 70% to 28% is the ratio of autistic & normal kids with bowel problems.
Why is your guest's misinformation favoring drug industry propaganda?
Another fact - Gastrointestinal problems are a compensible side effect on the VICP Vaccine Injury Table. So are seizures, autoimmunity, encephalitis & arthritis (& many others)
The influence of the drug industry has reached many places. Merck heavily influenced Jim Lerher News Hour. Specifically, reporters Margaret Warner & Jeffrey Brown who in 2006 did seperate interviews of Elizabeth Garner of Brigham & Women's Hospital about Gardasil. These interviews were free advertisement for Merck's just released, very expensive vaccine. No probing, no hardball, just a one sided view of the vaccine from a heavily influenced panel of 1.
Both declared Garner to be independent of drug industry influence, but they are very poor reporters. Garner's hospital receives funding from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute which received heavy funding from Merck. Less than one year after the last interview on PBS Garner was made Merck's worldwide spokesperson for Gardasil. A lucarative payoff for a young doctor.
As I said, I am disappointed, & now listen to your show cautiously. If given the chance I could expose your guests' "errors", without breaking a sweat & blindfolded.
To a child with a healthy immune system none of the childhood diseases are devasting. But vaccines are known to cause a wide # of side effects in adults as well as infants. Merely look at the Vaccine Injury Table used by the VICP. These are injuries automatically compensated when a child is injured by a vaccine. Or look at the CDC list of Vaccine Adverse Events, an astonishingly long list includes autoimmunity, encephalitis, meningitis, thrombocytopenia, arthritis, seizures & much more.
Most of these injuries occur for simple reasons. The baby's immune system is unable to handle live pathogens in the vax, is unable to effectively clear the for-profit-vax-toxins or is very susceptible/allergic to the vax components
We spend no money trying to find those kids/adults susceptible to being damaged by vax because the FDA/CDC/drug industry execs don't want to know the true numbers. They declare the # is small, force all lawsuits to be filed in DC (too expensive for most), deny 2/3 of the claims of those that can afford to sue while the vax makers don't pay a dime of the damages
On one hand industry shills like Paul Offit say kids can handle 1,000 or more vax at once & the CDC/FDA scaring us with swine flu "associated" deaths. If we believe the FDA/CDC story then 36,000 individuals every year die of various secondary infections while infected with the flu.
If 36,000 of us cannot handle 2 pathogens then why would we inject infants (some with immune problems) with MMR which contains 3 pathogens plus additional vaccines with more antigens infants must mount an immune defense against? The positions of Offit & FDA/CDC are ludicrously juxtaposed & crystally contraindicating.
You also state "I do not believe we should blindly trust the medical or pharmeceutical community" yet you want to ignore that statement regarding vaccines and autism. CDC head Gerberding is now President of Merck's Vaccine division. Conflicted enough?
Make an effort to get to the truth
I cannot thank you enough for this program. I was driving my newly-diagnosed autistic child home from an autism testing appointment, feeling devastated and confused and wondering if I shouldn't have vaccinated my child. I turned on the radio and heard this program. It was exactly what I needed to hear at exactly the right moment. Everyone has anecdotes, but it was so important to hear what the research says.
A call to parents with vaccine damaged children
I know it is a touchy subject but I am looking for parents that believe their child was damaged by vaccinations. I have created a page on my blog dedicated to the stories about what transpired after these children received the vaccination. I have posted my own story there as well. My goal is to compile as many stories from us parents that witness this change in our perfectly normal child. If anyone is interested, I invite you to drop by and give a short letter on what you witnessed with your child. I would like to think if we get enough of these stories, we will draw attention and show the world we are not making this up. If I get enough of these stories, I will present them to the Canary Party in order for them to take these stories to congress. Please take a few minutes and help change this world we live in. Here is the link to my site... http://www.kodawe.com/?page_id=655