In a blacklash to the anti-vaccination movement, Dr. Offit,the chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, wrote a new book chronicling the history of autism and the various suggested theories of its causes and the potential cures.
The New York Times posted this article Dr. Offit's book called Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure . What was alarming about the article was that the doctor doesn't even feel safe enough to go on a book tour. He's had death threats and his children have been threatened as well.
Of course this is a personal issue. Many parents have children suffering from autism and they want answers. I don't blame them. I too want to understand why the rates of autism in this country are on the rise. And we must continue to look tirelessly for answers, our children deserve this. But how did the debate turn so negative and nasty that the Dr. Offit doesn't feel safe? I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around on both sides of this issue.
I would like to get my hands on a copy of this book. My own grandmother wrote a thank you note to Jonas Salk for inventing the polio vaccine. And now, according to this article, Dr. Offit is being called a terrorist? I'm not sure how we came to a place in our society where a doctor who invented a vaccine that saves thousands of children's lives a year was affixed with that label.
8 comments:
Terrorist is today's word for anyone who you do not agree with. Remember how some were calling our President-elect a terrorist. We all need to calm down and remember that we all want the best for children, all the world's children.
No matter what your view, we need to acknowledge that vaccines save
countless number of lives worldwide every year.
my feeling with vaccines is that perhaps infants are given them to soon. i know all babies are different, but my second daughter somehow was on a schedule that was about 2 weeks later than the norm and i just kept it that way. she never developed a fever with her vaccines as my oldest daughter did.
Paul Offit is the de facto spokesperson for the "vaccines don't cause autism" argument and, consequently, is a lightning rod for controversy. While there is one valid reason to at least question where his interests lie, I believe that some of his critics have little more than a strong emotional (and, in some cases, financial) interest in continuing to point the finger at vaccines. As the mother of a delayed child, my heart goes out to anyone searching for answers; I do understand. But I also think that in our search for answers, we should remember that the most obvious target is not necessarily the correct one.
First off, Dr Offit has worked on two rotavirus vaccines, and both have caused Intussusception, killing some children.
Secondly, Dr Offit has profited from the patent.
Why do we hate Offit so? After watching our children get vaccines with huge amounts of mercury and aluminum and then regressing, sometimes as late as age 7, sometimes as late as college-age, into autism and ADD/ADHD, Dr Offit says...it's not the vaccines, it's anything but the vaccines, we have no studies to prove it because we're never compared vaccinated to unvaccinated, but you should trust us, and it's all coincidence that this happened to your kids, and by the way 10000 vaccines at once is safe.
Yea, right, Dr Offit.
Have you read the (lengthy) post on the Dr. Sears Vaccine Book blog about this...
See the Monday, Dec. 29 post,
http://www.askdrsears.com/thevaccinebook/index.asp
I've not spent enough time educating myself on both sides of this issue to pick a side. However, if what Dr. Sears says is true (about what Dr. Offit says in his book), I can see why people would be upset...although, I realize, being upset and calling someone a terrorist are two different things. The latter is a bit extreme.
I'd be curious to read Dr. Sear's post about this. I am just calling for more civility in the discussion.
I would need to do lots more reading and research on this issue to more fully understand it. I don't pretend to have any or all of the answers. I feel that everyone should be working towards lessening any toxicity in vaccines (thermerisol), and discovering what is the safest practice for our children, but also our society.
Research by Laura Curran and colleagues may hold a clue to the perceived connection between vaccination and autism. Their research discovered that autistic spectrum symptoms were reduced during the time that infants had a fever. Rodney Cotterill had published details of similar findings in Nature as early 1985, in a paper titled 'Fever in Autistics', though there seems to have been little further research in this area until recently.
Autistic spectrum symptoms generally develop quite slowly. In a proportion of cases it could well be that, because of their slow onset, existing symptoms would not have been noticed at the time of vaccination. Vaccination can cause a fever. Fever reduces autistic spectrum symptoms, and these then return as it abates.
Because the symptoms return relatively rapidly as the fever comes to an end, and because parents may be more aware of nuances of behaviour at such times, this may be the point when symptoms which already existed are first noticed.
In these situations, when autism is subsequently diagnosed, they will not unreasonably conclude that as the symptoms appeared soon after vaccination it was the vaccination that caused the autism.
If this explanation for anecdotal accounts is indeed correct, it would go some way towards explaining the persistence of the urban myth. For to say that there is no connection whatsoever between the vaccination and the symptoms is, in effect, to call those parents who observe such a connection liars. A proportion will, not without justification, dig in their heels and say that the scientists are wrong; because the epidemiological conclusions deny the evidence of their own eyes.
The myth that the MMR vaccination causes autism can be expected to disappear only when this correlation, that the jab may cause symptoms to come to notice, is recognised and acknowledged. As the recent figures on measles infections show, the fear of vaccination has had damaging consequences.
Possibly what is needed is research into the roots of the urban myth, rather than assurances from politicians which no one really trusts. It's a mistake to treat all parents as stupid.
The current vaccine/autism research has been like this obese lady.
She eats pies, cakes, cookies, ice cream, and candies. She give us eating peanut-butter fudge. Then she moans and groans. She has proven over and over and over again every time that she gives up one food that sweets do not cause obesity. She gave up the fudge for a year and didn't lose an ounce!
Dr. Andrew Moulden has done the research that connects vaccines and autism. You can watch his videos on youtube or his website brainguardmd. All vaccines cause ministrokes.
Also many autistic children have severe food allergies which is also caused by vaccinations! There is a new book out "The History of the Peanut Allergy Epidemic" by Heather Fraser. She found some interesting facts:
The WHO and FDA decided that refined peanut oil is GRAS and does not have to be listed on the package insert of pharmaceuticals. If you want to know if peanut oil is an ingredient in a vaccine, you are not entitled to know because it is a protected trade secret.
Peanut allergy is epidemic among our vaccinated children. 1 in 125 have a SEVERE peanut allergy which means they could die if they smell peanuts.
I want full disclosure of all ingredients on all pharmaceutical products... how about you?
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