So in my other life (non-autism life) I work in the world of oil spills. I don’t get to do anything glamorous like scrub oil off of swans, or pull up alongside oil tankers in my speed boat shouting through a bullhorn. I’m in the back office counting the beans, paying the bills and filing forms with the government. Stop yawning – somebody’s got to do it! But during the daily grind this month, my partner (and hubby) pointed out this opinion piece about “How to Prevent Oil Spills” by Joe Nocera. The basic premise of the New York Times article is that in order to make the Big Oil CEOs care about, and curb, the damage their companies cause you’ve got to send them to jail. Because if you’ve got enough money, fines don’t faze you one bit. Case in point, BP recently unveiled its 2011 net profits of close to $24 billion. This is after paying out $22 billion settling claims and paying cleanup costs for Deepwater Horizon. There isn’t a financial slap on the wrist big enough to have these guys reconsider the way they do business. Yep, going to jail would be the only way to incentivize the industry. Except for one thing: It’s never gonna happen. Never. Oil is too important to this nation.
So what the heck does this have to do with Thinking Moms? Well, it really gets my panties in a bunch when I think about how everyone was completely up in arms about BP two years ago: Do they have enough insurance to cover Deepwater Horizon? Was there negligence involved? Will there be a criminal investigation? I can tell you there are a lot of checks and balances built into the oil industry. There is insurance and reinsurance. Then there’s that whole liability and gross negligence thing. It’s certainly not perfect, but there are things in place to help replace the environment, economic losses and whatnot. And, as much as I’ve witnessed the oil industry mess with the world to benefit themselves, I was not prepared for an even more manipulative industry to become a part of my world.
What product has grown from approximately $1 billion in revenue in 2001 to $27 billion in 2009? This product also enjoys 100% liability protection. This same product does not have to dip into revenue to fund a program to pay for injuries it creates (but is not liable for). Do you know what I’m talking about? One guess. Vaccines. Simply put, no pharmaceutical executive is weighing the cost vs. benefit of creating a safer vaccine. Or losing sleep over a “hot lot.” No doctor is worrying about how long the Gardasil vaccine was tested for safety, or its horrible track record. Not. Their. Problem. Congress, in 1986, erased that worry from their balance sheet. So you’ve got an industry making a TON of money from a product that has 100% liability protection. And that protection extends to the folks that administer those vaccines. Woohoo!
How did this happen?!
You see, in the 1980s a lot of kids were having adverse reactions to the DTP (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis) vaccine. Lots of lawsuits were being filed against docs and vaccine manufacturers. This caused the pharmaceutical industry to make noises about pulling out of the vaccine market, and the alarm bells rang that the nation’s health and safety were at risk. Why were vaccine manufacturers getting ready to take their ball and go home? Because vaccines fall into a class of products considered “unavoidably unsafe.” I am not kidding you. This “unavoidable” word comes from the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act itself “products which, in the present state of human knowledge, are quite incapable of being made safe.” So they TRIED, but sorry, they just can’t come up with vaccines that are safe enough that their risk department will allow them to sell them. Because a HUGE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY sees that even THEY do not have enough money to cover all the expense of fighting and paying injured vaccine recipients. This is an industry that today spends over $200,000,000 A YEAR in lobbyists. Which puts it way ahead of the oil industry in terms of lobbyist expense.
So the Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (that title alone points to fact that vaccines can injure children) in 1986. This releases all manufacturers and administers of vaccines from all liability from any injury caused by a vaccine. Then an interesting thing started happening . . .
Hmmmm . . .
As part of this Vaccine Injury Act, vaccine administers had to provide Vaccine Information Sheets (VISs) prior to vaccinating a patient. Parents know these sheets. Betcha didn’t know it was a legal requirement, huh?
MMR Vaccine Information Sheet
These sheets are considered a parent’s or patient’s informed consent. Except there are a couple of things I take issue with. First, vaccines, on this sheet, are referred to as safe – not, as above, where they are classified as unavoidably unsafe. So unsafe that an entire industry threatened to walk away from producing them if they were not given complete immunity from the fallout. Think about that piece of information the next time someone tells you that vaccines are proven safe. It is not true. I realize that into each life a little risk must fall, but stop telling people that vaccines are completely safe. My second problem with this VIS sheet is that it claims that the chances of having a severe problem from this MMR shot are “extremely small.” I really think that it should tell people that anaphylaxis and encephalopathy are “on-table injuries” in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. An “on-table injury” is a vaccine injury that is so common that it is presumed to be caused by the vaccine and is included in a table of more frequently compensated vaccine injuries. By the way, encephalopathy is brain damage.
So – um – I’m sorry, but I did not see those specific words on that on the little yellow flyer they handed to me prior to giving either of my children one of their dozens of vaccines. Nope, UNAVOIDABLY UNSAFE never made it onto that sheet. This drug — which I am told I am required to give my child – is considered unavoidably unsafe.
Good thing there is a way to compensate folks for these avoidable injuries and death. It is called the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. From 2001 until 2011 the program has compensated about 2500 families a total of $2 billion. Now, $2 billion might sound like a lot of money, but it really is nothing. It’s about $800,000 per claimant. We all know that $800,000 doesn’t go very far in the care and feeding of a medically fragile individual. Right now the going rate of raising and seeing a child with autism through adulthood is about $3 million. Oh, and that $2 billion? It wasn’t paid by the vaccine manufacturers; it’s paid by the taxpayer. The fund is financed by a tax on vaccines. So the purchaser of the vaccine finances this fund. Nice, huh? Even the oil companies pay into their own fund. But don’t worry, fund administrators, most new parents don’t know what encephalopathy looks like until waaaay after the VICP’s statute of limitations have kicked in. By the way, encephalopathy presents as inattentiveness, poor judgment, poor coordination of movements, lethargy, seizures, tremors, twitching, changes in sleeping patterns, headache and stiff neck. Yep, other than crying, not too many of those symptoms would be noticed in a nine-month-old . . .
So go ahead and boycott BP gas stations because they repeatedly have accidents that spill oil and kill employees — but at least BP can be sued in court. They pay their fines and restitution. Hey, you actually have the right to boycott their stations. And the people in your town don’t point at you and call you dangerous or crazy. We run around hand waving about oil companies, when there is a bigger product-safety issue facing every single one of us. One in which we do not have informed consent about a product that is inherently unsafe, from a manufacturer that we cannot sue, in an industry that has proven itself to be increasingly less and less trustworthy and is under increasing pressure to create more and more revenue opportunities. And if we boycott this product we are labeled crazy, dangerous or worse. Much worse.
What the hell can we do?
Talk about it.
Share this blog with new mommas, moms-to-be, grandmoms-to-be, moms of tweens. They need to know the truth. Then they can make their own decisions.
Informed consent.
THINK.
~ LuvBug
To read more blogs by LuvBug, click here.
Everything you need to know about vaccinations and autism can be found right here:
http://ernestlmartin.com/vaccinationsautism.htm
Pingback: Vaccines: Unavoidably Unsafe | Thinking Moms Revolution
all drugs and medical technologies are considered unavoidably unsafe.
http://injury.findlaw.com/product-liability/what-is-an-unavoidably-unsafe-product.html
Types of Unavoidably Unsafe Products
The most widely recognized category of unavoidably unsafe products is prescription drugs. Some courts hold that all medications automatically qualify as unavoidably unsafe on the theory that public policy favors the development of beneficial drugs even if their introduction poses some risk. Other courts weigh the usefulness of the drug against its risk of harm in the same way they would for any other product.
Some courts also find medical devices, vaccines, and blood products are unavoidable unsafe. When deciding whether these products are unavoidably unsafe the court may look at the type and quality of research done on the drug or device. Courts also look at how necessary to human life and public health the product is and whether the FDA looked at it to determine its risk vs utility.
Other products that have generally qualified as unavoidably unsafe include guns, cleaning compounds like commercial dry-cleaning solvent, industrial-strength bathroom cleaners, and acetone, as well as benzene and cosmetics like hair perms, bleach, and dye. Conversely, natural gas stoves, cars, folding chairs, and fire extinguishers haven’t been found to be unavoidably unsafe.
– See more at: http://injury.findlaw.com/product-liability/what-is-an-unavoidably-unsafe-product.html#sthash.0nRy7oS6.dpuf
To add a little more information to the article, in 2005 Congress added another program called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. Under this law under a pandemic, epidemic or security threat a vaccine, medication or medical device can be altered, base the safety and efficacy on its previous form, clinical testing is fast tracked and released to the public. If you refuse, the government can force you take or use the product, if you refuse you can be quarantined.
http://www.hrsa.gov/gethealthcare/conditions/countermeasurescomp/covered_countermeasures_and_prep_act.pdf
http://www.hrsa.gov/cicp/coveredcountermeasures/index.html
Everyone, I got all of this education from MEDICAL SCHOOL. I have been working in the medical field for 3 years and the whole time I have been continuing education. People can find what every research hey want to back up any information, but what I learned was from collage professors and medical professionals. It is real science. I have learned time and time again about Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s research, and the facts are it was falsified research and could not be duplicated by other scientists. After an investigation it was proven he did it for profit and had to pay some lawsuits for it. His licence was revoked after the investigation. If course he vb won’t admit he did it for profit, it would prove he was a fake! And fyi, mercury is treated the same weather it is eaten or injected. It all ends up in your blood stream and goes to your Brian.
You got your education from medical school? Like Harvard, you mean? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/business/03medschool.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Or one of these others? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3778453/ Excuse us if we don’t defer to your “collage” professors and medical professionals by assuming your information is accurate, and we actually check it for ourselves. Did you read Wakefield’s paper? I did. Did you listen to the parents of the “Lancet 12” on the subject? I did. Did you read the transcript of the proceedings? I did. Do you know that the “falsification” charge was based on small differences between the children’s official medical records and the medical histories as the parents reported them? Are you aware that the doctors at the Royal Free Hospital didn’t have access to those records (U.K. is different from U.S. in this regard)? That they took the health histories from the parents? Are you aware that doctors frequently don’t record medical information accurately? I sure am, having dealt with a particularly obtuse pediatrician who was equally as smug as you about her medical school training. If you read our book, The Thinking Moms’ Revolution: Autism Beyond the Spectrum, you would be struck over and over again with how many times a doctor has dismissed outright what the parent was saying when the parent was right all along. If those parents continued to listen to their original doctors, who all got their information from MEDICAL SCHOOL, then their children would be in much worse shape then they are now. Those medical professionals told many of those parents that autism was a “rare” genetic disorder and nothing could be done to help their child. Many were given a laundry list of things their child would never do. Diet had nothing to do with it and changing the child’s diet was worthless. Fortunately for their children, these parents found answers somewhere else and many of their children are far healthier, with some of them no longer having autism.
Mercury is the same “weather” eaten or injected? So . . . this never happens? “Bowels – This is a major route of elimination of toxins from the body. As food is ingested, it passes through the digestive tract and is continually broken down and nutrients are absorbed along the way. What the body cannot utilize is then eliminated in the stool. Toxins and waste are eliminated in the stool, thus protecting the body from toxic accumulation.” http://www.ndhealthfacts.org/wiki/Elimination_of_Toxins What exactly did they teach you at that medical school?
To: peopleneedmoreREALscience: Clearly, you have not studied the evidence about Dr Andrew Wakefield. The investigation by the GMC was deeply flawed, as proven in court by Prof. John Walker-Smith (co-author of the famous paper). The handouts to the press were deeply misleading and influenced many people. But those who read the evidence can easily see that there was serious bias in the flawed investigation, ruinng the careers of two honest men (one since totally vindicated in court; the other unable to afford the luxury). If you are beholden to a pharmaceutical company, then it would be honest to say so! Hiding behind a false name suggests you have something to disguise. I owe no allegiance to anyone, other than my judgement and my concern for the truth.
‘professor’ you do realize that everyone can have a spelling error. You yourself had several in you latest ‘post’.
Doctors dismiss the parent because of several reasons. The first being that the parent usually has no medical training. The second being that the parent is usually emotional distraught over their child. The parent with their emotions and lack of medical training doesn’t know the difference between the types of seizures.
Also The UK and US are very different, the reason you brought up was probably the least well known or cared about.
Of course I realize that “everyone” can have a spelling error, though I would be surprised if you could find “several” in any of my posts, unless you’re counting the name of the University that I used three times as three “errors.” At least I didn’t call her a moron, like someone else we know would do. 😉
Doctors dismiss parents because they assume they were taught the truth. What parents are telling them directly contradicts what they were taught, therefore it “cannot” be true according to the doctors. Only, as you yourself have pointed out, medical knowledge is constantly evolving, and we are taught many things that aren’t “true,” even in medical school. A scientist, would have no problem understanding that and knowing that their assumptions need to be adjusted based upon all the available data. Medical doctors are rarely scientists, by the way. I have a radical idea, how about the doctors STOP dismissing the parents (no matter how much emotion they feel over what happened to their children) and learn a thing or two?
Your comment about the UK and the US is very puzzling. I brought up the UK because that was where Wakefield’s research was done and where the paper was published. I’m well aware that the US and UK are very different, but it’s important to understand what was happening in the UK when charges of fraud are brought up about a paper published in the UK. You may regard the “reason I brought up” as the “least well known or cared about,” but it was the basis of the fraud charges against Wakefield and a couple of colleagues, which is by far the most often mentioned thing about the paper. If it’s not well known or “cared about,” then there should be no “well-known” fraud charges. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Everybody and his brother knows “that doctor was discredited,” but they don’t know how or why. A little research into it reveals the absurdity of the charges.
I’d find it more laughable if it wasn’t so serious the ‘opinions’ people hold on vaccines having no possible risks. Wakefield is a typical example where people are happy to quote his ‘fake findings’ and ‘what a fraud’ he is and yet I don’t think they have actually looked at what Wakefield was saying. (remember this happened in 1998, nearly 20 yrs ago, there are many more people raising concerns and yet people still have to go back 20 years – do some homework and read his report you might just find all the negative hype surrounding it is just that ‘hype’) It seems to me that people who choose not to vaccine spend more time researching why they have concerns and chosen not to vaccinate than those who do. Because all I hear on the other side (pro vaccines) is the same paraphrased comments, it’s actually boring. It isn’t hard to find enough out there to have ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that vaccines are of concern, “unavoidably unsafe’ and therefore we must not be complacent and we must listen to concerns surrounding adverse reactions and have independent science looking in to this. It’s big business people. To them its just the cost of doing business – $3.755 BILLION to 2017 has been paid out from the vaccine injury fund. That’s nearly doubled in 6 years from the quoted figures in this article which was $2 BILLION at 2011!
You haven’t been doing your research. It was proven that Wakefield was innocent and was the victim of ignorance, corruption and manipulation. Good medicine is being destroyed by by the selfish financial interests of drug companies and by well meaning, brainwashed or “threatened” incompetent doctors who receive no education in homeopathy or nutrition. Homeopathy has been proven many, many times. Those who prove that which is against big business are attacked, drummed out of their own countries etc. One day we will be allowed to take our health back by overcoming this kind of ignorance.
My brother died of a measles infection – he got measles two years before the vaccine became available. I have a number of autistic relations – it runs in the family – I myself am autistic.
It is is understandable the amount of self-denial that parents express about their autistic children. I did. Now, I accept my son for what he is, part of me. It is genetic – we have a common bond of blood. Accept this and you are on the road to recovery from your grief at a loss you perceive, because of what society says is neurotypical. Accept the part of you in your child – they will be better for it and so will you. It is not due to the influence of the outside world, it is a simply a quirk of timing.
Dr. Duggan, with respect, every reputable study done on the subject of autism has made it clear that there is no way that “genes” can account for the totality of autism. http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2011/07/non-genetic-factors-play-surprisingly-large-role-in-determining-autism-says-study-by-group.html In addition, there are more than 100 genes that are “linked” to autism. If autism were truly a “genetic” pheonomenon, we would have found the “autism gene” long ago, as it has been the subject of tremendous amounts of scientific research. It may very well be that a susceptibility to autism runs in your family, but that does not mean that it runs in all those families that now have autism. In addition, for all we know the “genetic predisposition” to autism may in reality be a genetic predisposition to toxic overload.
We are all for “accepting” and loving children with autism exactly as they are, but we are not for “accepting” the pronouncements of so-called “experts” as to those children’s ability to improve. Obviously, as you say you are a doctor and you identify as “autistic,” you are functioning already at a level that is much higher than at least one-third of the people with autism, who are classified as “severe” and are likely to be non-verbal and have other profound challenges in dealing with adult life.
You may want to look at the purpose of your so-called “education” and the education system in general. Of course that would go against its design because it was designed to create compliant (non-questioning) workers and maintain control. Watch these if you dare. Yes, they are on youtube. “Oh NO, nothing on youtube can be true!” you say? Then look up the information to verify. Go to your library if it makes you feel better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6J_7PvWoMw
Just want to point out there are two videos to view but only one is imbedded.
Oh God… so much miss information on here. Ok first if all, how is Hep C “rare” when 3.2 MILLION people in America have it? Second there is no science stating at vaccines cause autism. The original study the “proved” this was a horrible man who did it for profit. Thanks to him, everyone freaked out and vaccine rates dropped and there was a sudden increase in polio of whooping cough. Vaccines eliminated small pox! They work. Yes, of course people’s will have reactions to some of the components of vaccines (such as eggs), but they are very very rare. Out of millions of people vaccinated, only a few thousand have reported negative reactions. I think I will take my chances instead of facing the risk of getting the diseases. As for the thought that vaccines contain mercury the poisons you, a can of tuna fish has more mercury then a shot. I have gotten all of this information from very reliable sources and that been peer reviews through the scientific process without biased opinion. Please people, open your eyes! You are putting your children and other at risk by not getting vaccinated.
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/index.cfm?id=160http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/c/cfaq.htm
First off, the word is “misinformation,” and unfortunately your comment is chockfull of it. We are agreed on one point, People do indeed need more real science. Other than that, though . . .
You have clearly not read Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s paper that was published back in 1998. It does not purport to “prove” anything, certainly not that vaccines cause autism. It was merely a case series reporting on what the gastrointestinal doctors at the Royal Free Hospital found in 12 children who were treated for gastrointestinal illness, who also happened to have autism. Guess what? Gastrointestinal illness is strongly linked to regressive autism! Not only was he not a “horrible man” who wrote his paper for profit, the parents of those 12 children were — and are — grateful to him and his colleagues who finally treated their children’s gastrointestinal disease. See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrgYxqcU0w. And what was the “profit” one of the most respected gastrointestinal researchers in England reaped for writing that paper? Wakefield lost his job in London’s Royal Free Hospital, his country of birth, his career, and his medical license. Yet, he still stands by his work and continues to help children with autism and gastrointestinal disease, because the health of children matters more to him than his own reputation. Would that there were many more “horrible men” like him.
But aside from that, you make the same ridiculous argument, heard over and over, that Andrew Wakefield is the reason people believe vaccines can cause autism or people don’t vaccinate at all, and that simply isn’t so. The only vaccine that Wakefield’s paper mentioned at all was the MMR vaccine. His paper cannot have had any effect on whether or not people choose to use polio or DTaP vaccines. There has been no increase in polio, sudden or otherwise. And the medical literature points to the DTaP being at fault for the rise in pertussis cases. The use of the DTP was discontinued in this country, because it was causing too many serious reactions. So they use the DTaP now, which is acknowledged to be less effective against pertussis. There is a link elsewhere in these comments to a list of studies that support the link between autism and vaccines, which only confirms what parents already knew from their own observations. But the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Oftentimes, when children are treated for vaccine injury, they get better — something that absolutely should not happen if the vaccines had nothing to do with it.
I’m going to go over this here, even though it is well-known and acknowledged by anyone who isn’t interested in deceiving you: you imply a false equivalence between the mercury in a can of tunafish (that goes into your mouth and is processed by your digestive system) and the mercury that is injected into your muscles and finds its way directly to your bloodstream. There is a huge difference between the biological effects of ingestion vs. injection. Example: your body contains squalene. It is a benign substance, that may actually be helpful to you if you eat it. If you inject it, however, bypassing the digestive system, you fool your body into thinking it is an “invader” that needs to be neutralized. You create antibodies to it, which then go and attack it where it lives in your body and — voila — you have given yourself a debilitating autoimmune disease! And secondly, the mercury in a can of tunafish is a most definitely a bad thing for your brain. Comparing something bad to something else that is also bad in order to minimize the badness of the first thing is hardly a strong argument.
You state that reactions to vaccines are “very very rare” without any supporting documentation whatsoever. Have you taken a look at the VAERS database? Have you talked to parents whose children have changed dramatically following vaccination? Have you read any of the studies that have tried to determine what percentage of vaccine reactions actually get reported to the VAERS database? Have you heard repeated stories from parents who were told that their child’s dramatic and violent vaccine reaction had “nothing to do with the vaccines” from medical personnel who wouldn’t know a vaccine reaction if it kicked them right between the eyes? Clearly not. When you do that, you may be eligible to discuss “misinformation.” Until that time, you need a lot more education.
Andrew Wakefiled had an undeclared conflict of interest in the patent he had on a measles vaccine of his own. It is estimated that he would have made $43M.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/11/autism.vaccines/?hpt=Sbin
If you read the decision of the UK General Medical Council in his hearing you will find that he selected data, did not run his trials in accordance with the basic requirements of good clinical practice. None of his co-authors were removed from the GMC register.
I address a number of your statements elsewhere in these comments, but I just want you to know that, yes, one of his co-authors was removed from the GMC register. Dr. John Walker-Smith, the primary clinician involved in the research, was also removed with very similar charges, but was reinstated in 2012, making it clear that the CMC panel made some very odd logical leaps. That didn’t surprise me in the least, as that was exactly what I thought when I read the proceedings. http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2012/503.html
And, sorry, when I was talking about Hepatitis C, I did not mean to imply that chronic hepatitis C was “rare.” I was talking about the incidence of new hepatitis C infections (the only ones that could possibly be affected by a vaccine if there were one), which peaked at 262,000 in a year and has dropped to under 17,000 (http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Statistics/IncidenceArchive.htm), all without a vaccine. And, yes, in a country of 318,000,000 people, that’s “rare.” (By the way, 2.2 million have chronic Hep B. http://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/mis-cancer-news-102/hepatitis-b-infection-rates-in-u-s-higher-than-thought-665292.html)
People tend to find information and studies that back up what they already believe. If you did more research on the wakefield/brian deer court case, it’s pretty clear what happened. Dr Wakefield was crucified for reporting that they found vaccine-strain measles virus living in the intestines of autistic children and that this should be further investigated. Just read his paper and there is no such relationship of causation mentioned. Why do you think someone would do this to him? Now no one will touch the subject with a ten-foot pole for fear of being ruined like Wakefield was. That’s why there is no further research on the subject.
Also be careful of what you suggest is “real” science. Science is not perfect and it took decades to prove that smoking cigarettes caused cancer. Back then the relationship was vehemently denied, today it is taken as fact. Just because it hasn’t been proven yet, doesnt mean that it isnt true. And does it not at all seem suspicious to you that the pharmaceutical industry refuses to do a comparison of vaccinated vs unvaccinated children based on the reason that it would be “unethical?” Question everything.
Kindly do not blaspheme! You state: ‘The original study the “proved” this was a horrible man who did it for profit.’ That is defamatory!!! You have not read the report. GMC did NOT challenge the ‘findings’ of either of these eminent and honest doctors. They could not and dared not, because empricism has since shown the doctors’ opinions to be validated – and remember this you scientist(s): ‘Science is just empriricism supported by data’ (whether that data is true or false). That was the view of my late father-in-law, a world leader in his speciality, and one who rejected the ‘bribes’ of the pharmaceutical industry. As to cans of tuna – ‘Two wrongs do not make a right!’ I suggest you heed your own words: ‘….open your eyes’.
Everyone should read what autism speaks has to say about this subject
http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/new-meta-analysis-confirms-no-association-between-vaccines-and-autism
Yes, they should. They should also be aware of the tremendous amount of money that Autism Speaks takes in. Like many of the other large “disease” charities, they are more about marketing than they are about truth. They should also be aware that Bob and Suzanne Wright started Autism Speaks because of their grandson, Christian, whose mother, Katie Wright, says became autistic as a result of a round of vaccines. Unfortunately, Autism Speaks accomplished nothing that helps Christian or others like him, which is why Katie spends her time working for SafeMinds, HealthChoice, and Age of Autism.
Can you please post scientific data that supports the idea that vaccines cause autism?
Canary Party
Autism Relevant Vaccine Dangers in Scientific Literature
http://www.canaryparty.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97:research-that-shows-that-vaccines-can-cause-autism&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25114790 I think you are looking for this the latest study.
Thanks, D. I had posted this (with the background, how it’s from one of the CDC epidemiologists who participated in the original paper and claimed they fraudulently withheld this data and other data that showed “isolated autism” was much more prevalent in the population that was vaccinated “on time” as well), but the site was wonky last night, and it disappeared.
I also provided background on another CDC paper, Thomas Verstraeten’s study on the effect of early Thimerosal exposure through vaccines and the connection to neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. Verstraeten’s data showed a HUGE correlation (autism was more than 7 times higher in the high early exposure group than the non-exposure group — clear evidence of causation) between early Thimerosal exposure and developmental disorders. So, of course, the CDC held a secret meeting with pharmaceutical reps in attendance to decide what to do about it. What did they do? Held off publication until they could massage the data into statistical insignificance and produce a “neutral study” (which, by definition, doesn’t prove anything at all). Then they cynically point to the “neutral study” to claim it as “proof” that Thimerosal doesn’t cause autism! Anyone ever read 1984? Heard of doublespeak? Classic example. http://www.safeminds.org/research/library/GenerationZeroNotes.pdf, http://www.putchildrenfirst.org/chapter2.html
That study was retracted in a very embarrassing way. It failed peer review, and the author has serious conflicts of interest. Spend 2 minutes researching before you take this stuff at face value.
Reason, there was nothing “embarrassing” about the way it was retracted — except for the fact that the journal should be embarrassed for caving to pressure. Peer review happens before a study is published. This one passed just fine. The author’s “serious conflicts of interest” were disclosed in advance, too. But thanks for the reminder that people should not take anything at face value. 😉
Can you post the data that shows it does not, other than one dubious study?
I doubt you’ll even read this or allow it to be seen publicly, as you must have spent much of your life hiding blatantly obvious facts and ideas to come to such an ignorant conclusion regarding the nature of vaccines, but I’ll give it a blind shot:
You clearly have done no research on “unavoidable”. The way that you are using that word refers to the definition described by the “Restatement (Second) of Torts §402A”, which was made in 1965 and has since been replaced by the third edition, which gives an updated definition:
“[Unavoidably unsafe products] are especially common in the field of drugs. An
outstanding example is the vaccine for the Pasteur treatment of rabies, which not
uncommonly leads to very serious and damaging consequences when it is injected.
Since the disease itself invariably leads to a dreadful death, both the marketing and
the use of the vaccine are fully justified, notwithstanding the unavoidable high degree
of risk they involve. Such a product, properly prepared, and accompanied by proper
directions and warning is not defective, nor is it unreasonably dangerous”
This idea refers to drugs and vaccines that are UNAVOIDABLE because the risk of NOT using the drug outweighs the risk of using it! It uses rabies as an example, saying that you should use the vaccine or drug, because YOU WILL DIE without it! It says, in the literal definition that you are basing your entire ridiculous article off of, that these vaccines and drugs are “NOT DEFECTIVE, NOR UNREASONABLY DANGEROUS”.
How about next time you want to damage the world further by polluting your readers’ minds, you do some homework!
I think you missed the point entirely. It’s right there in your definition: “which not uncommonly leads to very serious and damaging consequences when it is injected.” “The unavoidable high degree of risk they involve.” “Unavoidably unsafe” clearly refers to the fact that they cannot be made “safe,” not to the fact that they cannot be avoided.
A vaccine that can “not uncommonly lead to very serious and damaging consequences when it is injected” can only be considered not “unreasonably dangerous” if it actually prevents “a dreadful death.” The vast majority of today’s vaccines are for illnesses that are rare and/or not particularly deadly, providing little to no benefit for consumers while providing significant risk. For instance, BEFORE the measles vaccine was introduced, measles was responsible for approximately 400 deaths per year in this country. That’s it. Chicken pox and mumps? Far fewer. Hepatitis B only affected approximately 2 out of 100,000 children ages 0-4 BEFORE the vaccine (according to CDC charts), and the vast majority of those were born to hep B positive mothers, an easily identified population. And, yes, we’ve all heard the argument that the dangerous diseases are only “rare” because of vaccines, but other illnesses that do not have vaccines have also become similarly “rare,” such as hepatitis C (no vaccine) whose decline is similar to that of hepatitis B (vaccine), and scarlet fever (no vaccine) whose decline is similar to measles. So, when you examine the situation, it is not at all clear how big a part vaccines have played in industrialized countries. The fact is that there ARE “not uncommon” serious reactions to vaccines, which makes them unsafe. They are, however, avoidable by simply not vaccinating.
Well said!
No one anywhere has ever died from a “vaccine deficiency.” It is idiotic to state “you WILL die if you don’t vaccinate.”
Actually, we’re all going to die, whether or not we vaccinate. 🙂
The impossibility of justice for victims of pharmaceuticals is present in other areas as well. In 2013 the Supreme Court decided that generic drug manufacturers couldn’t be held responsible for injuries caused by the drugs they produce. This coincided with the move toward forcing all patients to take generic drugs by insurance companies. If you get hurt by a generic drug, you’re screwed. Lawyers won’t take your case. That’s in addition to the catch-22 burden of proof those damaged by pharmaceuticals face – if the injury suffered is listed on the warning label, your case won’t be taken because you were warned. If the injury is something that isn’t listed on the warning label, your case won’t be taken because you can’t show that the injury was due to the drug. Patients are left completely without justice. It’s a shameful situation and the role that the so-called “justice” department played in making it reality is disturbing.
I was hurt by generic ciprofloxacin. My mitochondria, microbiome and GABA receptors will likely never be the same. I am lucky in that I have largely recovered. There are many who have not recovered at all though, who have no chance for justice. It’s a disgusting situation.
My heart goes out to all those hurt by any pharmaceutical product, including (maybe especially) vaccines.
True, Lisa! I have read that about generic drugs. It is equally bogus. One big difference is that with vaccines they don’t even have to provide you with the “warnings.” When’s the last time a doc said, “Here’s the vaccine insert with all the warnings and contra-indications for this drug” when administering a vaccine?
I did not know that about generic drugs! Do you by chance know what the case was called or have a link to the proceedings?? I would love to learn more about that.
I was often given those papers ON THE WAY OUT of the office. Not before. You know, when they tell you how much Tylenol to give your infant to help them cope with the shot. Sickening.
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Parents have the right to choose what’s best for their children, that’s why there are the so-called “refusers”. If they refuse something for their children’s sake, the government should respect that because it’s their right and that should be protected by all means. They know how dangerous vaccination is in effect with their children’s health so they refuse to take such medication.
I believe the story goes, pharm was not making money making the vaxes so they wanted to stop. Govn’t stepped in and said they’d cover their hineys, so the continued to make them (obviously govn’t wants them made to keep some of the very yucky/deadly illnesses at bay). WRT to self-policed…sorta yes, sorta know. Pharm isn’t gonna let out a lot that doesn’t pass specs (if they is suddenly a huge signal for an unwanted chemical in the product, they aren’t going to release it). There is nothing magical in how they remove something like thiomersal if they use it in the process..every single man made or even bacterial made “drug” is purified so that unwanted components are brought below certain measurable leves. The have a spec, they get the levels equal or lower than that level. If not, they don’t release the lot. Its regulated by the plant making it too (read: less direct financial gain b/c often the plant isn’t owned by the company selling the drug).
Thank you so much for that analogy. I was one of the parents who believed vaccines were the only thing that would ensure children growing healthy. When people come to me and say that vaccines are safe and they continue by saying that their kids are vaccinated and their kids are doing fine, I inquiry about the number of vaccines their children received in one day…they find themselves shocked and can’t believe kids in The USA have an average of 7 vaccines in a given day…too many shots they say.
Just a detail. According to CDC, DPT vaccine injury lawsuits increase during the 70s and not the 80s as you have stated.
National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act
The topic of vaccine safety became prominent during the mid 1970s with increases in lawsuits filed on behalf of those presumably injured by the diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT) vaccine. [4] Legal decisions were made and damages awarded despite the lack of scientific evidence to support vaccine injury claims. [4] As a result of these decisions, liability and prices soared, and several manufacturers halted production. A vaccine shortage resulted and public health officials became concerned about the return of epidemic disease. To reduce liability and respond to public health concerns, Congress passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) in 1986. This act was influential in many ways.
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccine_monitoring/history.html
Thank you for any/all clarifications.
You are so cοmpetent at writing, уou сould haνe been an English prof.
xoxo
For many years I have believed that my son’s sensory processing issues and lower I.Q. were a result of vaccinations. But as some have noted, I have no proof that that is what caused his developmental issues. I often say only God knows what really happened. I find is heart breaking that I allowed my baby to be poisoned but I had no clue. I also think that our genetically modified food items plays a big role in our children’s issues as well. My question now is- what vaccines are a must? If you don’t get your child vaccinated for tetanus or polio, are we going to end up having these diseases spring up more and more. Recently I was handed the informational sheets for HPV vaccine as well as the meningococcal vaccine and I said I need to think about these( because I hate giving my kids shots due to my mistrust in them). I read recently that Sweden and some other countries had refused to give vaccines containing thimerosal mercury. If this is true, why can’t the U.S. do the same thing? So many questions and so much frustration.
It is very frustrating.
Most vaccines have removed thimerosal, but it is still used in the production of the vaccine and filtered out at the end of the process. This still leaves a trace of thimerosal. How much? We do not know. The companies producing the vaccines are required to test the final product – but the testing, results and remediation are not closely monitored. This is essentially a “self-policed” process.
One of the books that I liked that helped with some decisions we had to make regarding vaccination was Dr. Bob Sears’ The Vaccine Book. No book or internet site, etc can tell you what is safe or best for your family, of course. This is a great starting point for understanding what the diseases the vaccines were created to protect against aka “What the heck is Diphtheria?” as well as some of the risks of the disease vs the vaccination. It’s a good jumping off spot and then you can research specific points of interest to you online.
You can also look online and see what is “required” by your state in terms of vaccinations for children to attend school as well as exemptions that are permitted. (http://www.nvic.org/Vaccine-Laws/state-vaccine-requirements.aspx)
Yes, I’ve advocated since the late eighties about this and some young mothers have listened. Especially when they hear about my daughter….who is 24 now and sweet as can be but needs intensive care the rest of her life…our forever baby….she has cost a million plus already and we chose not to seek funds from the law suits going on….in her classic perfect storm in immunizations tragedy.
Pingback: AnneDachel.com » Blog Archive » Unavoidably Unsafe | The Thinking Moms’ Revolution: “How did this happen?”
“How did this happen?” That’s the question. How did the drug industry and the doctors ever get such a free ride? How did countless thousands of claims of damage get ignored? How did autism turn into an epidemic and nothing was done to stop it?
Even worse: how can doctors and pediatricians not care about the disaster they are causing?
Any time I try to discuss, question and educate among my friends, I get bombarded with guilt trips, sermons on myths and unproven “psyudoscience” behind claims that vaccines are unsafe to the point that I no longer even want to bring up the issue OR educate people who don’t want to be educated. It’s very frustrating that people who doubt the system get so much grief for it. Completely agree with your reasoning. Great article. Thank the gods for freedom of speech, at least.
The fact that vaccines can be unsafe can be seen in the thousands of claims in the Vaccine Injury Claims Program; this claim (http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/CAMPBELL-SMITH.MOJABI-PROFFER.12.13.2012.pdf) from that same program that includes Autism as one of the injuries resulting from all of this child’s vaccinations; as well as the 83 families that came forward that received compensation for their child’s vaccine injury that ALSO just happen to have Autism.
Never stop talking because they might look at you like you are crazy, but someone in the room might just be listening. And THINKING.
Excellent article. Conveniently (for the government) the page you linked has been removed. Thank you for helping me educate the masses who have called ME the crazy one, after our son was injured by vaccines.
My baby was given the hep-B vax at the hospital the day that she was born, at ten till midnight. They did not inform me or ask permission, much less give me an information sheet about the vaccine. She reacted with four days and nights of endless screaming, vaccine-induced encephalitis, but I did not know that at the time. I worried and held her all night, but even though I had gone to her pediatrician a month before she was born only to say that I didn’t want her to get this vaccine (he forgot to tell the staff at the hospital), I did not recognize a vaccine reaction at the time. She was later diagnosed with autism, but not until the statute of limitations had run out on filing a claim for vaccine damage.
Twenty years ago the vaccine information sheets had more and scarier information on them than they have now. They decided about fifteen years ago that to prevent having to deal with parents fearful of the risks after reading the sheets, they should replace the old, longer sheets with short, upbeat sheets with cute pictures of children on them, that talk about the horrors of the disease and say little or nothing about the risks of the vaccine.
What are the appropriate steps to take? I really don’t know, it would be great if a letter-writing campaign could be mounted from this site with a coordinated agenda. Any ideas?
I am horrified and so sorry about your daughter’s reaction. Unfortunately, it is all too familiar.
Appropriate steps…well, there are several groups working toward justice and change. Visit Thinking Moms’ Revolution on Facebook and visit some of the groups TMR “likes”. There is a lot of advocacy going on in our community.
And we Thinking Parents always have a trick or two up our sleeves, and are always working on new ideas….so you never know. Just keep reading. xoxo
This made my blood boil! Whenever I read about Vaccine Court, the Vaccine Injury Act, or anything of the sort, I start going bat sh!t crazy. There has to be a way to change how these systems are structured and strip away their infallibility. I get most angry that these things were set up only to make it appear that the pharmaceutical companies and our government care about the well-being of our children at the hands of these unavoidably unsafe vaccines, which are full of carcinogens and heavy metals.
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was set up to take care of those injured – but has become completely overwhelmed and a farce of justice. It is infuriating.
The oil industry is my favourite analogy regarding the vaccine court. I often joke about the power of oil being dwarfed by the power of the vaccine industry.
Imagine a shrimp farmer going to sue BP for the devastation DWH caused to his livelyhood…and BP says that they cannot be sued. Instad one must go to the “oil spill court”.
So the broke, desperate and angry farmer goes to the Oil Spill Court and meets a slew of government experts who begin to challeng the claim.
“Can you prove it was oil that killed the shrimp?”
“Asuuuuming it is oil that caused the shrimp’s demise, can you prove it was the exact oil that came from this hole 5000 feet under water?”
“We know that many shrimp die at about this time of year from various genetic conditions. It is probably just a coincidece that the oil spill happened at the same time”
As ridiculous as this sounds, that is exactly the vaccine court.
It uses a Napoleonic system which ignores precedents and starts anew with every case.
Hanah Polling’s mito dysfunction case canot help the next child’s claim. Baley Bank’s ADEM case cannot help following injured children.
As a legal expert once told me, the way it works is as follows:
“You theory of how this child was injured is plausible, and the process you describe is at work IN THIS CHILD ALONE”
Welcome to the US of Autism!
Hard to believe that the Pharmaceutical industry has overtaken the oil industry in terms of spending on lobbyists. But then again, we are completely and utterly dependent on oil – willing to fight, poison,etc to keep a cheap supply flowing. The pharmaceutical industry can only dream of that day.
No need to dream.
In a capitalist society to have no legal liability while also completely controlling your demand IS a dream. Add to it the control of product information via the media and you have OUR nightmare.