Wired Magazine and Amy Wallace Drink Offit’s Kool-Aid

[Guest guest]

had to laugh when I saw the title

Sheri

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/10/wired-magazine-and-amy-wallace-drink-paul-offits-kool-aid.html#more

October 21, 2009

Wired Magazine and Amy Wallace Drink Offit’s

Kool-AidBy J.B. Handley

Unbelievable. That was my first reaction to reading Wired Magazine’s new

cover story on vaccines and autism that you can read

HERE.

It’s not a thoughtful look at both sides of the debate. It’s not a piece

providing a new spin on a well-known conflict. It’s simply a

regurgitation of Offit’s talking points that he’s been dishing out

to the uninformed media now for years. Ms. Wallace didn’t just drink

Offit’s Kool-aid, shit, she scooped the Kool-Aid out of the rusty old

bucket to make enough for everyone!

The article is so misguided, one-sided, lacking in basic research, and

ultimately useless, I found myself yearning for Gardiner , Anahad

O’Connor, or some of the other Vaccine Patriots

(HERE) at the New York Times to spew out something new – at least

their stories have the occasional original thought.

Ms. Wallace appears to have gone exclusively to Google University to

research her feeble attempt at describing a very complex topic. Aside

from a low-profile visit to Autism One, it seems Ms. Wallace never

actually bothered to interview anyone from our side of the fence, perhaps

she was simply too busy hanging out at Offit’s Rotateq-funded

mansion? Did you get a call or an email? I sure didn’t. Ms. Wallace, I

would have welcomed you to spend a day at my house with my son to get, I

don’t know, maybe a different take on the topic?

I grow so weary of pointing out the same logical fallacies,

misstatements, and outright factual errors that many journalists make

when covering this debate, it’s going to be a struggle for my stamina to

analyze her tripe in detail. To save us all some time, I’ve decided to

offer up her “Top 10 blazingly untrue passages” for you to enjoy,

along with some comments -- feel free to add a few more of your own.

1. “To be clear, there is no credible evidence to indicate that any of

this is true. None. Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data

that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six studies

have found no trace of an association between thimerosal (a preservative

containing ethylmercury that was used in vaccines until 2001) and autism,

and three other studies have found no indication that thimerosal causes

even subtle neurological problems.”

Comment: This is the #1 sign that a journalist is totally ignorant. What

about the 34 vaccines that HAVE NOT been studied? The 50+ ingredients

that no one has considered? Giving six vaccines in 15 minutes? Anyone?

Bueller? It’s why the website 14

Studies was created. If you start with a belief that the “science has

spoken”, you’re wrong from the get-go. (Note to Amy: did you Google

Bernadine Healy? I heard she does interviews.) For a much longer

rebuttal, please read “Feeding the Hungry Lie”

HERE.

2. “The risk of dying from the pertussis vaccine, by contrast, is

practically nonexistent ­ in fact, no study has linked DTaP (the

three-in-one immunization that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and

pertussis) to death in children. Nobody in the pro-vaccine camp asserts

that vaccines are risk-free, but the risks are minute in comparison to

the alternative.”

Comment: Wow, did you ever go to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program

website? It’s hosted by our lovely government. It shows 792 claims of

death from DTaP vaccine, and more than 1,200 claims of injury from DTaP

where an award was paid by the government. You can read it all

HERE. Is that your definition of “nonexistent”? Unbelievable!

3. “Counterintuitively, higher rates of non-vaccination often

correspond with higher levels of education and wealth”

Comment: It’s only counterintuitive if you think vaccines are great,

never cause injury, and that the science has spoken. Most people, hearing

that rich, well-educated people vaccinate less, would stop and figure out

why! Maybe with their brains, education, and free time, they know

something you don’t seem to get?

4. “As a result, Offit has become the main target of a grassroots

movement that opposes the systematic vaccination of children and the laws

that require it.”

Comment: The main targets of our movement are the CDC, AAP, and vaccine

makers. Offit is an annoying sideshow, nothing more. He’s annoying

because of articles like yours. He didn’t cause my son’s autism, and he

has nothing to do with my son’s recovery. Offit actually has proven to be

quite helpful – he’s the poster boy for the other side, which means his

faults become the other side’s faults.

5. “The doubters and deniers are empowered by the Internet (online,

nobody knows you’re not a doctor) and helped by the mainstream media,

which has an interest in pumping up bad science to create a “debate”

where there should be none.”

Comment: The mainstream media helps us? Which planet are you living on?

And, the internet democratizes truth, you’d think Wired magazine would

embrace that!

6. “Looking back over human history, rationality has been the anomaly.

Being rational takes work, education, and a sober determination to avoid

making hasty inferences, even when they appear to make perfect sense.

Much like infectious diseases themselves ­ beaten back by decades of

effort to vaccinate the populace ­ the irrational lingers just below the

surface, waiting for us to let down our guard.”

Comment: Pot, meet kettle. Why are you boring readers with misguided

psychobabble? You could have used this time to read some of the science

on our side of the fence which is also peer-reviewed! Clean water,

toilets, and refrigerators eradicated disease, or at least 98% of it,

I’ll give vaccines credit for the final 2% -- and a whole lotta’ autism,

allergies, and other demylenating illnesses.

7. “Today, because the looming risk of childhood death is out of

sight, it is also largely out of mind, leading a growing number of

Americans to worry about what is in fact a much lesser risk: the ill

effects of vaccines.”

Comment: If 1 in 100 kids have vaccine-induced autism, this may challenge

your conclusion about “low-risk,” unless you like those odds. Few parents

do, and your article is unlikely to change that.

8. “The so-called epidemic, researchers assert, is the result of

improved diagnosis, which has identified as autistic many kids who once

might have been labeled mentally retarded or just plain slow.”

Comment: Please. Help. Me. Can’t. Breathe. Um, which researchers did you

talk to? As I stated very recently, what you are saying here is 96.7%

impossible

(HERE), and always will be.

9. “In fact, the growing body of science indicates that the autistic

spectrum ­ which may well turn out to encompass several discrete

conditions ­ may largely be genetic in origin.”

Comment: Mark Blaxill, I need you, man, I really can’t take it anymore!

(Read: Autism and Genetics: What We’ve Got Here is a Failure to

Replicate

HERE.)

10. “Then, he came up with a rough estimate: a person could handle

100,000 vaccines ­ or up to 10,000 vaccines at once. Currently the most

vaccines children receive at any one time is five. He also published his

findings in Pediatrics. Soon, the number was attached to Offit like a

scarlet letter. “The 100,000 number makes me sound like a madman. Because

that’s the image: 100,000 shots sticking out of you. It’s an awful

image,” Offit says. “Many people ­ including people who are on my side ­

have criticized me for that. But I was naive. In that article, I was

being asked the question and that is the answer to the question.”

Comment: OK, this last one wasn’t an error by Ms. Wallace, it was just a

quote from Offit, but for God’s sake why do they still talk to this guy?

If you had 100,000 doctors in a room, and you asked them what would

happen to a baby if you gave that many shots, 99,999 would say every

single child would immediately die, and well before the 100,0000th

vaccine! Makes you sound like a madman? I know the answer to that

question.

Ms. Wallace, no one is all that surprised you wrote a piece that bad.

Heck, we’re all kind of used to it. I Oh, and wipe the kool-aid of your

upper lip, I heard Dr. wants to interview you.

Unhappy with her piece? Anything you’d like to correct? You can let Amy

Wallace know at

ecallawyma@....

J.B. Handley is co-founder of

Generation Rescue.

full article here

don't read if nauseated to begin with

Sheri

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/

An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers

Us All

By Amy Wallace

October 19, 2009 | 3:00 pm | Wired Nov 2009

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm or

http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers, Childhood Disease Classes & Homeopathy

Online/email courses - next classes start October 28 & 29

http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccineclass.htm or

http://www.wellwithin1.com/homeo.htm