Scientists are expected to discover things. They are applauded when they do and sometimes ostracized when they don’t.
Mainstream researchers investigating the connection between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, however, seem pleased when they find nothing. They hurry to publish their “findings” to the jubilation of “authorities.”

Part III: The PHLS Study Reviewed

By the time the U.K. Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) study was published in September 2004, Elizabeth Miller’s department had become the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Immunization Department. The authors disclosed no competing interests. However, independent researchers Mark and David Geier wrote to Pediatrics:

Part II: The Long Arm Of The CDC

As noted in Part I, it took Elizabeth Miller, head of immunization at the U.K. Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), four weeks to reply to a June 17, 2001 article in the Sunday Times that reported she was to lead a World Health Organization (WHO) investigation into autism and mercury-containing vaccines. When Miller’s letter finally appeared in the newspaper on July 15, it apparently denied reporter Rosie Waterhouse’s claims about an increasing mercury load in vaccine since 1988, although on careful scrutiny, there seemed little substance to the rebuttal. It also came to light that the official U.K. infant mercury exposure was just a fraction of the WHO schedule, despite the statement in the published study that they were “the same.”

In the United Kingdom, the issue of mercury in pediatric vaccines and autism has been consistently overshadowed by the longer-standing measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) controversy, which has rumbled in the British media since the publication of Andrew Wakefield’s famous Lancet paper in February 1998.

The day before Thanksgiving, the U.S. Department of Education released its 28th annual report to Congress. It revealed, as usual, a sustained increase in autism and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) in the United States. (1, 2) In the school year 2004-2005, there were 25,902 children with autism aged three to five, enrolled in preschool programs in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico — and 166,302 students aged six to 21. Between 1991, the first year autism was listed separately, and the present, the total number of children serviced under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) increased 3,449 percent — from 5,415 to 192,204.

Much has been written about the declining use of the MMR vaccine in the UK due to concerns about its possible connection to autism.  Ironically, the BBC recently reported, “New mothers and women hoping to become pregnant are to be offered the MMR jab because supplies of the single rubella vaccine have run out.”

Zero x 31 is still zero
and if it is not the MMR,
then what was it
 that damaged our children?

Many parents believe that one or more of their children regressed after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. No one knows exactly the number of these children, but they probably constitute 10 to15 percent of children with regressive autism. The majority of children appear not to react unfavorably to the triple vaccine. Obviously, for a couple whose only son is fascinated with garage doors, or makes strange whirling noises all day, or hits his head against the wall to keep entertained or answers by pointing to pictures in a book, the percentage jumps to 100 percent.

In “Trust me: I have the statistics to prove it,“ (1) I described the findings published on July 29, 2005 in the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under the title “National, State, and Urban Area Vaccination Coverage Among Children Aged 19-35 Months — United States, 2004.” (2)

It was evident that the CDC took great pride in the achievements of its National Immunization Program (NIP) and particularly in the results of a 2004 vaccination survey, which showed that the 80.9 percent vaccination coverage for the 4:3:1:3:3 series of children aged 19-35 months had exceeded the Healthy People 2010 goal. 

In the 1980s, autism affected one in 10,000 children. By the 1990s, this figure had risen to one in 500. In the U.K. and U.S., the figure is now estimated as one in 166.

RATES OF AUTISM PER 100/000 (approx)

It is widely claimed that some, or all, of this rise is due to greater awareness of the condition. I would suggest that it is nearly impossible to miss a child with autism. So I doubt that better recognition and diagnosis has played more than a minor part in this huge increase.

When you’re growing up, there’s at least one person who will make a drastic impact on your life. My brother, Eric, is the one who stands out. In between watching Sesame Street together, going to the park and doing puzzles, my love for him grew. We had our disagreements, but he was always there for me when no one else was. Everything about him wasn’t so flawless though. My brother has autism. 

"A Review of the Evidence for a Link Between Vaccination and Regressive Autism"

Pronouncements by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are accepted as absolute truth by the media and by most Americans. Should they be?

On July 28, 2005 at 4:02 a.m. EDT, CNN.com published a long article (1) that started, “Almost 81 percent of the nation’s toddlers are getting vaccinated on time, a record level that comes five years ahead of government expectations, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

In March 2003, I had the pleasure of addressing a parents’ group in Delaware on regressive autism. After I finished my talk, I went back to my seat and found my usually resilient wife visibly upset. When I asked her what was the matter, she softly answered that she would tell me later. 

As we embarked on our seven-hour drive back to Massachusetts in a torrential rain, my wife, now composed, explained. She said a young mother sitting next to her had confided that she’d had to make a choice two days earlier between buying a new stove, which she needed badly, or paying for her son’s supplements and vitamins. Her decision was easy: the stove would wait. 

A fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1963, Dr. Yazbak has devoted his time over the past seven years to the research of regressive autism, its epidemic increase and its autoimmune causes.

For years, those of us who believed that autism and autistic spectral disorders (ASDs) were increasing in the United States were told that they were not — that if indeed there were more children diagnosed with autism, it was because of more liberal criteria, better diagnosis and a variety of other causes.

Should the United States Department of Education (U.S. DOE) data on autism be used and trusted? The answer may depend on whether you read the March or July issue of PEDIATRICS, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In its March 2005 issue, the journal published an excellent report by researchers and epidemiologists from the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Divisions of Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the University of Minnesota. Extrapolating from U.S. DOE special education data, the investigators found that autism prevalence hasbeen increasing with time, although recent years may mark a slowing in that increase.

The CDC finances, writes and helps publish Danish research (pdf)

The CDC finances, writes and helps publish Danish research (pdf)

Another useless CDC-sponsored Autism Study

From an early age, I have been attracted to people who are different: the very shy students in school classes who were socially awkward but academically gifted. The boy who constantly and uncontrollably disrupted class but knew world geography like the back of his hand. The girl who never spoke to anyone, but always got 100 in math.

Letter to Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD, President, Institute of Medicine  - from F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP:

Harvey V. Fineberg, MD, PhD
President, Institute of Medicine
500 Fifth Street NW
Washington DC 20001

Dear President Fineberg,

I respectfully request that you

I have tended to stay clear of the vaccination controversy. Many people have contacted me about the issue assuming that, because I exhibit a healthy scepticism about many things medical, I will be on the side of the anti-vaccination lobby.

Frankly, I am not sure where I stand. At thirteen months my son had his first MMR, and within a few weeks suffered a severe asthma attack requiring hospital admission. Or at least he would have, had I not had a fistful of steroids and a nebuliser in the house. One of the advantages of being a doctor.

If you knew what Liz Armstrong did for a living, you might understand why she is not much of a shopper.  As a young girl, she remembers having no more than five choices of shampoo.  And that was fine by her.  But today, as an environmental author and cancer prevention activist, Armstrong knows that in the North American personal care and cosmetics market alone, there are 10,000 ingredients. Only 11% of these have been tested for safety. One-third of these products have been found to contain known or possible carcinogens.

The table posted below represents a valuable and careful review of diseases and mortality over the years. As Mr. Hollenbeck clearly demonstrates, Autism has become a pandemic. Please note his reference to the just released MMR-Autism study from Japan.

Dear Red Flags Readers,

A study on MMR and Autism in Japan was just published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Like similar epidemiological studies, it has received much acclaim from the British Medical Authorities, the Television Networks in the UK and the British Press. The following are some of the headlines from London newspapers in the last three days:

"Lingering Fears Of MMR-Autism Link Dispelled"
"Study Finds MMR Jabs Not Linked To Cases Of Autism"
"MMR Jab Cleared Of Blame For Autism By Major Study"
"MMR Jab ’Doesn’t Cause Autism’"
"MMR Jab Scare Research Dealt A ’Killer Blow’"

The rate of autism decades ago was 1 in 10,000. A dramatic nationwide increase in autism followed directly on the heels of the abrupt rise in exposure to thimerosal. Rates rose from 6 in 10,000 children in the 1980s to 60 in 10,000 today (American Academy of Pediatrics 2004). In 2003, the Autism Society of America estimated the cost of treating and caring for 1.5 million autistic children at $90 billion per year (Autism Society of America 2003). CDC research indicates that 1 in 150 children are autistic today and they have known why for five years, but still won’t come clean.

A “News Roundup” (1) by Janice Hopkins Tanne will be published in the January 15, 2005 issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

In it Ms. Tanne reports: “Changes in the definition of autism, rather than use of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR vaccine), led to increased diagnosis of autism in the United States and probably in Europe, says a study from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota (Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 2005;159:37-44)”.

This is an important point concerning the inappropriate use of epidemiologic ’evidence’ cited to support the ’No Vaccine Causal Link To Autism’ proposition. 

The source of the following is the main US judicial work of reference on scientific evidence which is also used as a training manual for US judges.

Yesterday, the Institute of Medicine held its controversial Immunization Safety Review meeting re: autism and vaccines.  I say controversial because there was a good deal of protest over the arguably premature timing of it. 

According to McGill University Professor Eric Fombonne, the prevalence rate of autistic disorders has risen to 60 per 10,000 individuals [1 in 167]. For decades, such a rate was estimated to be 2 to 5 per 10,000 [1 in 5,000 to 1 in 2,000].

In 2003, the number of individuals with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) under the age of 20 was estimated at 10,500 in the Province of Quebec and 45,000 in Canada.

Autism, as an entity, was unknown before the early 1940s when it simply appeared in small numbers. A steep increase in its prevalence was noted in the United States starting in the late 70s and in the United Kingdom after 1988 following the extensive use of the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine in both countries. The vaccine authorities in both countries are convinced that there is no connection between MMR vaccination and autism.

Newsweek Cover Story On Autism Sparks Outrage

Just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. In epidemic numbers, parents all over the world are struggling mightily, even heroically, with the tragedy of classic autism, and Newsweek comes along to "make nice".

more here...

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part;

but then shall I know even as also I am known."

I Corinthians

There is a Starbucks in our neighborhood that we sometimes visit to take our minds off our son’s medical condition. On our last visit, there was a plastic donation box for children stricken with autism, and a little plaque that read, "Autism strikes one child in every 5,000." I ordered my double-latte and thought for a minute. Then I pulled out a red pen and deliberately defaced the sign, writing: "In Oregon, autism strikes one child in 150!"

By Linda Carlton and Mary Brauninger

Introduction

Autism, a childhood disorder whose behavioral symptoms usually manifest within the first few months of life, has been recently linked to environmental etiology. This paper presents the hypothesis that autism may be the result of a disease created by Man due to the aberrant use of chemicals, drugs, vaccinations, environmental toxins and poor nutrition.

Run, Don't Walk

The Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Dan Burton, held a "Full Committee Hearing on 'Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: Reviewing the Federal Government's Track Record and Charting a Course For the Future'" on Tuesday, December 10, 2002.

more here...

During the recent fiasco in Congress, during which special interest riders were snuck into the Homeland Security Bill, roiling the autism community and those who care about it, no one was more surprised or disturbed than Congressman Dan Burton, Republican from Indiana. As chair of the powerful Committee on Government Reform, and having personally taken on the challenge of addressing many vexing vaccination issues, nothing was nearer and dearer to his heart than championing the rights of those possibly injured by vaccines. And as chair of the committee, in which many hearings on the subject were held, he had every reason to expect to be informed of any relevant amendments prior to the vote.

Once again, the powers-that-be have released a study claiming to vindicate the MMR re: autism, with most of the mainstream media dutifully waddling behind, rubber-stamping and disseminating the conclusions.

And once again, many of us are responding with skepticism.

more here...

Hepatitis B Vaccine And Autism

I learned from Debbie Bermudes at Massachusetts Citizens for Vaccination Choice that, in my state, like most others, there is no legislative process for vaccine mandates. I was astounded to find that when it becomes law for a child to receive a vaccine in Massachusetts, legislators are normally not involved. Instead, the CDC tells state health departments that they want children to have yet another vaccine on their school entrance requirements. Adherents of the view that a vaccine for every ill is a good thing, the health department agrees with little fanfare. A public hearing on the issue is only held when parents are concerned and aware enough to ask for one. There is no vote, no debate. The health department simply tells the legislature to add another vaccine mandate to the law books, et voila: Your pediatrician starts telling you your kid must have this shot.

HOW A COMBINATION OF FAITH AND SCIENCE SAVED MY SON FROM AUTISM

The journey of my son’s life continues to be inexplicably entwined with mine–his mother. It began one cold January day in the year 2000.

GOVERNMENT IS THROWING MONEY AWAY

I am having a difficult time reconciling why a US Congressional Committee that goes by the name of "Committee on Government Reform" would think that throwing more taxpayer money at incompetent government agencies -- like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- is considered reform. I consider it a betrayal of the public trust.