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Title: Why the Kennedy-De Niro Vaccine Challenge Matters
Source: [None]
URL Source: http://www.theamericanconservative. ... iro-vaccine-challenge-matters/
Published: Feb 16, 2017
Author: PRATIK CHOUGULE
Post Date: 2017-02-16 07:02:18 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 84
Comments: 23

A presidential commission led by Robert Kennedy Jr. could raise uncomfortable questions about the incentives driving vaccination recommendations.

Robert Kennedy Jr. and Robert De Niro convened a news conference on Wednesday at the National Press Club to announce a $100,000 cash reward for anyone who identifies a peer-reviewed scientific study demonstrating that the mercury in vaccines is safe. Though the challenge was perhaps something of a stunt, the significance of the appearance was underscored by Kennedy’s confirming that President Trump may ask him to lead a commission on autism. The consequences of such a commission could extend beyond the narrow vaccine/autism debate. More significantly, the commission could expose the incentives driving vaccination policy, which, in the current political climate, could move mainstream opinion against vaccines and also bolster doubts about the integrity of the health-care system.

Since at least 2007, Trump has suggested that the recent “epidemic” of autism might be related to current immunization practices. He is not categorically against immunization—in fact, he is “totally in favor of vaccines,” as he says—but he suggests that the rate and quantity of injections given to infants, per the recommended immunization schedule, may contribute to incidents of autism. In Trump’s words, “massive combined inoculations” and “simultaneous vaccinations” may be producing a wave of “doctor-inflicted autism.”

Trump’s central point that diagnoses of autism have skyrocketed alongside an increase in childhood vaccination is not in dispute. The term “early infantile autism” was first introduced in 1943 based on clinical observations of eleven children. When Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger published a groundbreaking paper on autism a year later, it drew little attention, and, indeed, was only translated and annotated into English in 1991. Possible links between immunization and autism did not draw much comment in subsequent years because mass vaccination itself was not yet a common practice. It wasn’t until 1949 that the combined diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccine was licensed in the United States for pediatric use, and it was only around this time that large-scale vaccine production for public health became feasible.

The more salient question is whether vaccines are contributing to the wave of autism diagnoses since the 1980s, when major policy changes related to immunization were enacted. By 1981, under the Childhood Immunization Initiative, all 50 states instituted laws linking school eligibility to immunization—an effective mandate far more stringent than what is instituted in Canada and most European countries. A surge of lawsuits followed and, in a series of high-profile settlements, manufacturers of the whooping cough and polio vaccines were held liable for injuries in children. In response to warnings from pharmaceutical companies that they would cease producing vaccines amid such a precarious legal environment, President Reagan, in 1986, signed into law the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The mandatory no-fault compensation system established under the new legal regime shields vaccine makers from civil product liability, as it forces victims to file initial claims under a federal vaccine compensation program in which awarded damages are paid by taxpayers.

The law was a boon to vaccine manufacturers. The vaccine business, as the Wall Street Journal reports, was “transformed from a risky, low-profit venture in the 1970s, to one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most attractive product lines.” From $500 million in 1990, vaccine-industry revenues have grown to $24 billion today, expanding the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to enter into public-private partnerships, lobby for lower licensing standards for vaccines, and advocate against vaccine exemption laws.

Both the rate of vaccination and the rate of autism have spiked over the past three decades. From 23 doses of seven vaccines in 1983, the recommended immunization schedule has tripled to 69 doses of 16 vaccines, and Americans are now “required by law to use more vaccines than any other nation in the world.” What fuels vaccine hesitancy is the fact that, for several decades through the 1970s, childhood autism remained at a steady rate of about four in ten thousand children. After three decades of steady increases since the 1980s, however, the childhood autism rate, according to the CDC, has climbed to 1 in 68 or 1.5 percent.

Although the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a rebuttal to Trump’s critique, Trump has said that he “couldn’t care less” about the “shills” of conventional medical wisdom, the pharmaceutical companies, and their “fudged up reports.” In typical fashion, he declares that “the doctors lied” and that he is “being proven right about massive vaccinations.”

More influential to Trump than the medical establishment, it seems, is a dissident group of health practitioners, experts, and advocates. Trump has praised the efforts of Bob Wright, the founder and former chairman of Autism Speaks. And as a candidate, he met with a group of vaccine skeptics including:

Mark Blaxill, editor-at-large of the web newspaper Age of Autism and author of three books on the subject as well as numerous articles in academic journals; Gary Kompothecras, a chiropractor who served on the Florida governor’s Autism Task Force; Jennifer Larson, CEO of the Holland Autism Center and Clinic and a board member on numerous autism and vaccine safety organizations; and Andrew Wakefield, an academic gastroenterologist whose controversial research on the MMR vaccine sparked a worldwide debate on possible links between immunization and autism. All of these experts either have children with autism or were drawn to the field after personal encounters with parents who are certain that their children suffered from vaccine damage. This, as Kennedy remarked today, has made an impact on Trump. Asked to explain his persistence on the issue, Trump has consistently cited the testimony of parents who attribute the onset of autism in their children to vaccines—parents, he suspects, who “know far better” than the experts who assert instead that autism is genetic or starts in utero. If Trump ultimately establishes a commission led by Kennedy, and the commission provides a platform for vaccine skeptics, millions of Americans would be exposed for the first time to counter- narratives in the vaccine/autism debate.

They would see that the very term “anti-vaxxer” is misleading. The voluminous writings of the “anti-vaxxers” in fact reveal little in the way of unified opposition to vaccines. Their views, to the contrary, are quite diverse in terms of which vaccines they endorse, the schedules they recommend, and their assessments of vaccine risk in relation to more natural alternatives. Kennedy himself is explicitly “pro vaccine,” had all six of his children vaccinated, and believes that “vaccines save millions of lives.’’ But he questions the safety of neurotoxins in vaccines, particularly the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, given its causative link to brain disorders.

The American people would also learn that the activists with whom Trump has associated are not all that different from vaccine skeptics generally. Numerous investigations suggest that “anti-vaxxers” hardly conform to the caricature of fringe, anti-science zealots. They are, for the most part, highly-educated, wealthy, and, in the assessment of pediatric infectious disease specialist Mark Sawyer, “mainstream upper class people who don’t reject modern medicine.” Steve Silberman observes in his award-winning NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, that they are “generally better acquainted with the state of autism research than the outsiders presuming to judge them.”

Why then are vaccine skeptics treated with such contempt in establishment institutions? There are, it is true, growing numbers of writers such as the science journalist Maggie Koerth-Baker, who, after advancing the conventional narrative on vaccines, decided to study media reporting on the issue. She ultimately criticized her colleagues in Aeon for their failure to acknowledge that vaccine rejection can be a “rational choice.” Yet standard accounts, insofar as they even mention the genuine debate among experts on vaccine safety, often ignore the science informing these objections. Nor do they grapple with personalized approaches to vaccine decisions that, as Prof. Maya Goldenberg argues, are not ignorant per se but can produce cost- benefit analyses that depart, in individual cases, from public health orthodoxy.

In addressing this question, it’s important to consider what vaccine skeptics, including those in Trump’s orbit, do have in common. Rather than a doctrinaire view on vaccines, what unites vaccine skeptics is a suspicion that a corrupt regulatory system, driven by the “seamless marriage” between the health establishment and government agencies, is succumbing to the temptations of “bureaucratic preservation.” The consequence, they fear, is routine data manipulation and stifling of dissent. A legal paradigm—upheld by the Supreme Court’s 2011 decision in Breusewitz v. Wyeth—that does not permit class-action lawsuits or the checks and balances that prevail in almost every other industry, they argue, only exacerbates the risk.

Herein lies the problem. In a recent paper in the journal Science and Engineering Ethics, Prof. Brian Martin found evidence not of a conspiracy, but rather of a pattern of “suppression of vaccination dissent”—one that made Andrew Wakefield “subject to a degradation ceremony, a ritualistic denunciation casting him out of the company of honest researchers.” Martin argues that challenges to free inquiry, while prevalent throughout mainstream science, are particularly serious in the case of immunization. Because “vaccination is a signifier for the benefits of modern medicine,” questions about vaccination are treated as “a potential threat to the public perception that credentialed experts unanimously endorse vaccination.”

While Trump can be faulted for his simplistic rhetoric on the issue, his objections appear to stem from legitimate questions. At a moment when doubts about vaccine are growing and when the federal government, the big pharmaceutical combine, and health-care industries are the three least trusted institutions in America, a presidential commission would seem sensible.

Pratik Chougule is an executive editor at The American Conservative.

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#1. To: Ada (#0)

Vaccines can be a good thing, if they are made of quality fresh ingredients.

The vaccines today are full of poisonous ingredients and Dam those who tout that these vaccines are perfectly safe

Child diseases are off the charts

sonny  posted on  2017-02-16   9:58:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Ada (#0)

Robert Kennedy Jr. and Robert De Niro convened a news conference on Wednesday at the National Press Club

BOTH of whom are well-known rocket scientists with the IQ of Einstein,and who have advanced medical degrees.

Or is it they have the IQ of Einsteins cat if their IQ's are combined?

Yeah,the second thing.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   10:00:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: sneakypete (#2)

Yet for some reason autism is common in fully vaccinated children but rare in unvaccinated children.

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   10:08:40 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: sonny (#1)

Vaccines can be a good thing,

Question as to how effective they are. Recent measles and whooping cough outbreaks in the US are all among the vaccinated.

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   10:09:59 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Ada (#3)

Yet for some reason autism is common in fully vaccinated children but rare in unvaccinated children.

Autism existed LONG before vaccinations,and I suspect a LOT more people are Autistic than you may think. They just keep quiet about it because of the social stigma associated with it.

As with every other "cause" the professional charities and the parasites that run them always make poster children out of the most extreme negatively-impacted children,and this leaves most people thinking those children are representative of Autistic children. They do this to keep the money flowing in.

Same with Asperger's and Tourette Syndrome. At one time in history not so long ago,children with Tourette's were either killed or allowed to die by neglect because their muscle spasms and utterances made religious people think they were "Agents of Satan".

I have both,and parts of my childhood were less than perfect because of it. Frankly,I scared the hell out of some of my Bible-Thumping relatives,and they wouldn't even allow their children to play with or visit me.

I ain't the one that was stupid.

In the spirit of full-disclosure,I DID have a negative reaction to a vaccination when I was a child. It was the Polio Vaccine when it first came out,and it was known there were some potential problems with it. Polio was really becoming a problem on epidemic levels back then and I didn't want to be one of those kids living in a iron lung,so I insisted my parents sign the consent form to allow me to be vaccinated at school. I had a negative reaction to the shot,and had to spend a couple of months at home in bed,and had to learn to walk and run again. No one ever tried to explain it,but it seems obvious to me that I was carrying the polio virus,and it and the vaccine went to war inside my body. I am SPECULATING that if I hadn't gotten the vaccine that I was likely to have developed full-fledged polio.

In all the decades since then,I have met a total of TWO others who went through the same things I did after getting the vaccination. Given the millions (literally) of children who received that "experimental vaccination" in the early 50's,3 known negative reactions made it turn out to be pretty safe after all. People today seem to have forgotten the horrors of polio,and that is entirely due to the polio vaccine. Dr Jonas Salk was and always will be one of my heroes.

Some things really are worse than death. Polio is one of them.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   12:21:14 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Ada (#4)

Question as to how effective they are. Recent measles and whooping cough outbreaks in the US are all among the vaccinated.

I flat do NOT believe that. Where are you getting this from?

Measles and whooping cough ARE making a comeback in America,but it is due to the 3rd world immigrants coming in legally and illegally who were never vaccinated and brought it in with them.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   12:23:10 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: Ada (#4)

Themail lack of effectiveness is proof that current vaccines are for shit - but remanufacture these vaccines using pure ingredients in a totally sterile environment and serve it up fresh with no preservatives

Here in my neck of the woods the Amish kids are all healthy and look it, course they don't vaccinate, the Elders know the benefits of developing natural immunity

sonny  posted on  2017-02-16   12:26:34 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: sneakypete (#6)

I flat do NOT believe that. Where are you getting this from?

Only 14% of Disneyland measles victims were unvaccinated

the whopping cough vaccine is not particularly effective--nearly all those in a Florida outbreak were vaccinate

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   13:00:26 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: sonny (#7)

Here in my neck of the woods the Amish kids are all healthy and look it, course they don't vaccinate, the Elders know the benefits of developing natural immunity

Don't think its natural immunity that protects those Amish children.

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   13:02:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: sneakypete (#5)

Autism existed LONG before vaccinations,and I suspect a LOT more people are Autistic than you may think. They just keep quiet about it because of the social stigma associated with it.

Disputable. Autism was first recognized in 1943. Might have existed before that and been confused with schiziophrenia.

Timeline

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   13:06:41 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: sonny (#7)

Here in my neck of the woods the Amish kids are all healthy and look it, course they don't vaccinate, the Elders know the benefits of developing natural immunity

Code for cousins marrying and breeding?

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   13:10:13 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: Ada (#8)

I flat do NOT believe that. Where are you getting this from?

Only 14% of Disneyland measles victims were unvaccinated

LOL!

And you don't think a web site named "Natural News" might be just a tad biased?

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   13:11:58 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: sneakypete (#5)

the Polio Vaccine when it first came out,and it was known there were some potential problems with it

Oral polio vaccine results in vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis in about three per million doses. Clinical disease, including paralysis, caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus is indistinguishable from that caused by wild polioviruses.[

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   13:15:39 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: Ada (#10)

Disputable. Autism was first recognized in 1943.

Are you now claiming something doesn't exist because it hasn't been recognized?

Might have existed before that and been confused with schiziophrenia.

Pretty safe bet. Most kids grow out of Autism as they mature,but you can bet your bippy that those put into mental institutions as children and drugged to keep them passive NEVER got out of those mental institutions until the day they died and left to be buried.

By the time they matured enough physically to have overcame most of the Autism symptoms if they had been free,their minds were fried with electric shock and they were addicted to drugs. On top of that after an entire childhood of mostly being locked away in rooms by themselves or being put into straight jackets with gags,they would never get any better. That was all they knew of life because they had no education or knowledge of the outside world.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   13:18:07 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: sneakypete (#12) (Edited)

And you don't think a web site named "Natural News" might be just a tad biased?

Could be but the facts are the same wherever you read them. You trust Wired? Vaccinated people get measles at Disneyland Or maybe the LA Times is more truthworthy LA measles spread

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   13:18:35 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: Ada (#13)

Oral polio vaccine results in vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis in about three per million doses. Clinical disease, including paralysis, caused by vaccine-derived poliovirus is indistinguishable from that caused by wild polioviruses.[

Looks like I was right in my speculation after I recovered.

I don't actually remember anything from the months of being bedridden. Had high fevers,and was basically in a vegetative state. It was only after I started getting better that I was even aware I had been sick.

I definitely remember having trouble walking and not being able to run at first without falling down,though. Pretty much ended my Little League baseball career.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   13:21:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#17. To: Ada (#15)

Could be but the facts are the same wherever you read them. You trust Wired? Vaccinated people get measles at Disneyland Or maybe the LA Times is more truthworthy LA measles spread

Ada,it defies logic that the measles vaccine would work for decades,and then suddenly stop working.

I suspect in most cases the vaccine wasn't given. The parents just claimed it was to avoid guilt.

There is also the possibility that some drug companies or even retailers sold bogus measles vaccines. After all,who is going to catch them?

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   13:24:48 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#18. To: sneakypete (#17)

Ada,it defies logic that the measles vaccine would work for decades,and then suddenly stop working.

Acually its quite logical. Vaccine protection doesn't last forever. Even the "natural immunity" that you got when you contacted measles, chicken pox, rubella or mumps doesn't last forever either. Just seemed to because you kept getting reinoculated every time an epidemic passed through.

And vaccines don't take on everyone. My pediatrician told me that 5% of the population didn't respond to the vaccine, and the doctors could only hope that the 5% didn't all get together at some point.

Ada  posted on  2017-02-16   14:31:04 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#19. To: Ada (#15)

Keep bringing the truth to the uninformed and ignorant of the facts.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Lod  posted on  2017-02-16   14:35:31 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: Ada (#18)

My pediatrician told me that 5% of the population didn't respond to the vaccine, and the doctors could only hope that the 5% didn't all get together at some point.

Because 5 percent don't respond to the vaccine,you think that 100 percent shouldn't get it?

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-16   15:39:42 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#21. To: sneakypete (#20)

Because 5 percent don't respond to the vaccine,you think that 100 percent shouldn't get it?

Problem isn't with the 5% because they will never be all in the same place. The risk is polio vaccines which are now the No1 cause of polio paralysis.

Ada  posted on  2017-02-21   11:50:25 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#22. To: Ada (#21)

The risk is polio vaccines which are now the No1 cause of polio paralysis.

Polio is a problem because of vaccines?

Since when?

Polio is becoming a problem in America again because of all the illegal aliens coming to America that have never been vaccinated and who carry the virus. Polio had virtually been wiped out in America until recent years,and then the illegals started coming in by the tens of thousands,and it became virtually illegal to arrest and deport them.

sneakypete  posted on  2017-02-21   12:14:22 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#23. To: sneakypete (#22)

Don't know of any US cases. Oral vaccine is banned here. India, though, has a problem where the polio vaccine caused 53,000 paralysis victims last year

Ada  posted on  2017-02-21   12:45:40 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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