Friday 19 February 2016

More Complete Bullshit About Vaccines and Autism

So this lovely image popped up on my Facebook wall today.







Now, this is me.  I can't resist sometimes.  So I just had to respond.  It's probably much blunter than it should be.  A politician wouldn't use words like bullshit.  They would say "In due respect to the right honorable gentleman, he is perhaps misinformed."  Because in politics you're not meant so say "You're talking crap mate, and here's why."  But I'm not a politician.  I'm just a normal autistic person.  And stereotypically, we are not noted for our tact!
There's a ton of information about this subject online, sound information.  I really should read a lot more of it and get it all in my head so I don't have to look anything up.  I should read all of my books on autism too.  I received my first book on the subject just a year ago, an early birthday present from a friend who thought it would be good for me in exploring my own self.  It was.  The book was "Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate" by Cynthia Kim.  Her blog, which is no longer updated, is Musings of an Aspie, contains loads of good material.  I recommend it highly for those who want to know more about autism or are looking into the possibility of diagnosis or what to do with a diagnosis.  Now I have very nearly a shelf of books on the subject.

So.  My tactless response.
This is bullshit.

Please give details of ALL cases where the US government has compensated people for "vaccine induced autism" since 1986.

Can't do that? Okay then. Give me just TWO cases. Just two.

Wow. You can't do that either?

That's because it's bullshit. And there are not two cases to be found.

There was ONE case, just one, in which there was compensation for "autism like symptoms" but that child was later diagnosed with something else that caused the symptoms, a mitochondrial enzyme deficit. (damages awarded to the family of Hannah Poling in 2008)

The previous year saw the start of the omnibus autism proceedings. The claimants, the family of Michelle Cedillo, went to court after being convinced by ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield that MMR caused their child's autism and through a "Defeat Autism Now!" conference. The judgement ruled that the evidence was overwhelmingly to the contrary and that they had been misled by medical professionals.

In fact, a total of zero autistic people or the their families have been compensated for so called "vaccine induced autism."

Zero.

Yes, zero.

Now can you please stop sharing this total garbage.
I await a reply.

To read more about autism omnibus proceeding, look here, a clearly written web page.  It even has a link to a complete transcript of the trial if you have a lot of time and obsessive interest to spare.  For a scientific, medical view on the Hannah Poling case, there's this.  Then there's this, an article published a few days ago, on the lack of a link between MMR and autism as proved in a study involving 95,000 children.  And for reading on ex-doctor Andrew Wakefield's article that claimed a link between vaccines and autism, you could do worse than this from the BMJ.  To summarise: the article was fraudulent.  Not a surprise.  Wakefield has been called the "father of the anti-vaccine movement."  As such I believe he has a lot to answer for.

People still want to believe even though the evidence is very clear.  This site for instance has nearly 400 articles about Andrew Wakefield.  They say autism is man-made, environmental and can be cured.  They still believe that vaccines cause it.  And yes, they're very into "Autism Awareness Day" too, a day that needs eradicating because we need "Autism Acceptance Day" and then "Autism Celebration Day".

It's understandable people want to find a simple cause for autism.  And it's understandable too when people want to seek a cure for their child.  Because, there's no doubting it, autism is bloody hard work for parents.  It is.  And without decent support it can be easy to despair or look for ways out.  Unfortunately often that support is not available and parents are left to deal with everything themselves.  They love their children and give them everything they can but the honest truth is that it's exhausting.  Without proper education and support and celebration of their child by society it's only natural that parents might want a way out.  Chapter two of Neurotribes, by Steve Silberman gives an account of such a family and all the things they tried - and the reasons why - and how they came to embrace and celebrate their autistic child and how they feel about all the things they tried that damaged their child, including their own involvement with "Defeat Autism Now!".  It's sobering reading but such parents deserve much compassion at all stages of the journey.  These are good people, trying their best.

1 comment:

  1. I got my reply. Yay!

    1. May I suggest you get your facts up to date about Andrew Wakefield's findings.
    2. Many of the Doctors who have been murdered had found the link between vaccines and autism.
    3. An Italian court paid out compensation although full details were withheld.
    4. The contra-indications leaflet lists autism amongst a great many others as possible side effect, not that anyone gets the leaflet as there is only one per box of ten.
    5. An FOI request obtained in 2011 shows the governments and public health departments have not only known of the problems associated with vaccines for over 15 years, but that they are ineffective.
    6. Why, if vaccines are so safe, are the pharma companies immune from having to pay out any compensation themselves, but it is left to the governments to foot the bill out of the bung they get from each vaccine given?

    Now a study has just revealed the aluminium is causing male sterility, well Bill Gates said years ago that vaccines would be used to reduce global population.


    And I have replied. Yay!

    BMJ on Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent findings: http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452

    I have read the contra-indications leaflet. It lists autism as a REPORTED side effect and does not actually imply a causal relationship. If I were to report being hit on the head as a side effect of an elastoplast then it would class as a REPORTED side effect. They have to include it in the leaflet, not because it is a side effect or ever has been a side effect but because it's been reported - presumably by people who have been convinced of it through such things as Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent findings.

    Or there's this recent study - not the only one to study this many children. http://personalhealthrecords.in/2016/02/15/study-of-95000-children-finds-no-link-between-mmr-vaccines-and-autism/ A European study and an Australian study had bigger sample sizes but I post this because it's very recent.

    Or there's this on the omnibus trial concerning compensation re autism and vaccines in the US, with a link to the entire transcript too. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Autism_omnibus_trial

    The Italian case in 2012 relied on testimony from a so-called expert who was relying on a study (the same one discussed in the BMJ article above) by a certain Andrew Wakefield. Yes, a fradulent study It did not look at ANY other scientific testimony, instead rejecting it. In 2015 the court of appeal in Italy overturned the decision reached in 2012, because it used scientific testimony. See http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/italian-mmr-autism-decision-overturned/

    I confess I don't know about murdered doctors. Some people claim James Bradstreet was murdered but here's the Washington Post on that. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/16/the-mysterious-death-of-a-doctor-who-peddled-autism-cures-to-thousands/

    As for the rest, yes Bill Gates has been known to say weird things. I'd get to the FOI request if I had time but it's a busy day. Everyone knows that there can be side effects from vaccines. That's not in doubt. Everyone knows that there are compensations granted for those side effects. That's not in doubt either. And it's commonly known that governments pay them - because it's government policy that calls for vaccination programmes, not the bosses of a pharmaceutical company. It's all public record and nobody is trying to cover it up. There's not a conspiracy.

    BUT. Vaccines do not cause autism. Period.

    Please provide me with details of the cases where the US government has been "compensating people for their vaccine induced autism since 1986."

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. But not spam and not obscenity. It's not all politeness though - religion and politics aren't banned.