Autism Update: Jenny Mcarthy on Oprah, CDC says no connection, and Chandler is improving! (UPDATED)

(Posted by Patrick Sullivan Jr.)

I haven't been following autism news much lately, but my mom just sent me an email link to an MSN Health story: Kids' Vaccine Ingredient Not Likely Linked to Neurological Problems, reporting on a new study from CDC published in NEJM. 

As I read it, I was thinking, "Well, ok so we have a NEW reliable study (ie. not the roundly rejected Verstraten study) that proves a link between autism and thimerasol doesn't exist.  At least we finally have some new relevant data to argue over."

"Our study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and deficits in neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years," concluded the study's authors.

Then I read the next paragraph:

That conclusion, however, seems to contradict some of the study's findings.

Ok, so what the heck does that mean? 

The second half of the article goes on with some gibberish from Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and Dr. Paul Offit (aka. Darth Offit) about how this contradiction is mere statistical randomness.  Great.  Are you reassured?  I am.  (Care to explain them in human terms RandomJohn?)

So I hop over to Ginger Taylor's Adventures in Autism blog figuring there will be some sort of rebuttal, and I scan this post of A-CHAMP's eight-point rebuttal.  Ginger summarizes it thusly:

Exclusion of low birth weight babies, 70% participant drop out rate, focusing on blood mercury levels and ignoring brain mercury, conclusions not backed up by the data, conflicts of interests with all the researchers and on and on...

It is like a greatest hits of all the bad research done in the last decade wrapped up in one convenient package.

Unbelievable!!

So I see the next post titled: America, Meet Your Unvaccinated Children, where I read:

If you vaccinated your son, they have a %155 higher chance of having a neurological disorder had you chosen not to vaccinate.

The question that we have been screaming at the CDC for years, and they will not answer, is this:

Are we trading curable communicable diseases for incurable neurological diseases by over vaccinating our children, and by not screening to see which children cannot tolerate vaccination.

What the hell??

Ok, so scroll down a little further and read some EXCELLENT news -- Ginger's little man Chandler is doing awesome with CaEDTA IV chelation!  (HUGE CONGRATS TAYLORS!! :)

Scroll down a little further to see that Jenny McCarthy was on Oprah talking about Autism...wait, WHAT?!?!  When did this happen?  Are we talking about that Jenny McCarthy? 

After a quick google, yeah, it is that Jenny McCarthy.  And her story is about regressive-autism caused by MMR vaccine.  Reading the questions she's answered online, it's clear that she's done her homework reading on all the same websites I've been reading/writing.

The point is, all this "mumbo-jumbo-snake-oil-biomedical-BS" worked for her son.  Cool.

Well, there's obviously a LOT going on in the world of autism right now and I need to catch up!

UPDATE: David Kirby shares this and several other compelling arguments:

[The study showed that] Boys who received the highest amounts of thimerosal in the first seven months of life were determined by evaluators to be 2.19 times more likely to have motor tics at age 7-10 years, and 2.44 times more likely to have phonic tics, than boys with the lowest exposures.

Any relative risk between exposure and outcome that exceeds 2.0, incidentally, is considered to be proof of causation in US courts of law.

...

It's perplexing that the CDC can report replicating a doubled risk for tics in boys, and an increased risk for speech disorders and attention and behavior problems in other kids, and still insist that this is all "very reassuring news."

I posed the question on the conference call today, and got nothing even resembling an answer (an opinion that was backed up by a producer from ABC News Nightline).

So I will ask it again here.

Given that the CDC has just reported that thimerosal might increase the risk for tics among boys, how is it possible, in addition, to publish the following two phrases within the same report?:

"The findings...suggest a possible adverse association between neonatal exposure to mercury and language development."

AND

"Our study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury...and deficits in neuropsychological functioning."

Read the rest.

 

Comments

[Grodge]

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/536622/

[Dana]

You are wrong and will find out in 30 years, like the Cigarettes and Lung cancer link was held back, the truth will surface. WHY? Not because: The Vaccine Industry stands for $$$$ on a global scale, fear (bio wars), power (government backing), pride (science and it's reputation) and ignorance (average people don't understand vaccines virus/immunesystems as, does not the Science Community)(just like... ie.hormones). As for the proof TOO MANY Vaccines are harmless, the cherrrypicked journals and studies billboarded by the Vaccine Industry are all over the place, even at the National Academy of Sciences -April 28th 2008 symnosium; the august audience was given misleading studies and half truths were sited for exhonorating TOO MANY Vaccines as casual for the autism epidemic. (ie the was no more Hg in shots after 2001. fact: never recalled, and still in great supply and use for years). While tens of science journals with legitimate and contary findings are never brought to the public or Science forums. It's a sad world now that the truth is so rare. And many people are lobbying for something the have know real idea of the truth.
I have seen first hand accounts of vaccine injury within the last 4 months. The parents believe the peds the media, the CDC and blogs lie yours. Only to watch their 5 yr old daughter lose her toilet training ability, speech ability, eye contact and sleeping ability and general awareness the next after an MMR vaccine. I KNOW YOU DON'T HAVE or KNOW anyone with Autism or you would never be so foolish or cavalier in your opinions.
Autism is NOT just a communication and social problem.(would that it was!>
AUTISM is PERMANENT BRAINDAMAGE,
permanent immunesystem dysfunction, and permanent gastrointestinal damage assault from an outside enitiy. i.e.
26 Vaccines before 24 months of life. We Boomers never had 36 required vaccinatons.In 1983 10 vaccines were on the recommended schedule, now it's 36!!! COMMON SENSE! PLEASE> Bill, if there's a.75% chance you'd be ADD or Autistic would you get all these vaccines? Why don't you get these vaccines on a day your sick and see what happens. Just because a vaccine is invented doesn't mean WE All must have. THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY VACCINES. So some company does't make $30 million on that new Vaccine for jock itch, and politicians don't get a kick back, the immune systems of children should not be easy income for Global chem/bio companies.

[cheryl ogden]

my grand daughter was a beaytiful child and when she had her 3in 1 vaccine things started to change she is 5 now has only few words and is suffering from autism and lives in her own little world it breaks our heart she is such a beautiful girl her name is lily