Thursday 12 January 2017

Bad week for science

Oh, what a bad week for science this has been, and for vaccines in particular.  If anyone even remotely follows science news (or me) on any social media, you know exactly what I'm about to talk about.  No, I'm not even going to focus on the story two days ago about Donald Trump purportedly talking with anti-vaccine lunatic Robert Kennedy Jr. about possibly heading a possible presidential commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity.

*pause for laughter*

Having an anti-vaccine advocate head up a commission on vaccine safety would just as ridiculously stupid as
  • having Bernie Madoff lead a commission on stock trading ethics
  • having Clint Eastwood lead a board on gun control
  • electing Donald Trump be president of the United States of America
No, we're going to ignore that utter travesty for a bit since Trump's team seems to be denying that they offered Kennedy anything (and thank god for that) despite the fact that Kennedy said, and I quote, "[Trump] asked me to chair a commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity [...] and I said I would."  Fake news, indeed.

Instead we're going to focus on the other insanity that cropped up nearly a week ago.  I've been trying to figure out how exactly to write about it, because it caused such a visceral reaction of anger and pure outrage that I was forced to buy a new computer after smashing my old (new) one against the wall, throwing it out the window, running it over with my car, and setting it on fire.  Unfortunately that did not cause the ridiculousness in question to disappear from the internet.

What I'm talking about is a piece written on Cleveland.com by an actual, real doctor at the actual, real Cleveland Clinic, which hit on so much antivax bullshit I can't even begin to count.  How many?

All of them, I think.

I'll start by saying that this was written by Daniel Niedes, MD, who is the director . . . THE DIRECTOR of the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.  For me, that's a clear strike 1.  Whenever I see the word "wellness" or "integrative" or "holistic" (or "organic", for that matter), it stirs within me an unease that can only be mollified by coffee or a full fat, GMO, mostly gluten, chock-full-of-real-non-organic-sugar doughnut.  Or coffee and a doughnut.

Dr. Niedes isn't some naturopath.  He isn't a homeopath.  He isn't a chiropractor.  No, he is by all appearances a stand-up physician, fully qualified, board certified in family medicine, and working at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic.  This isn't some fly-by-night walk-in clinic, this is THE CLEVELAND CLINIC, easily one of the most famous and well-respected medical facilities in the entire world.

That's what makes this so infuriating.

The title of Dr. Niedes' piece is "Make 2017 the year to avoid toxins (good luck) and master your domain: Words on Wellness".  And that is strike 2.  A real doctor used the word "toxins".  I'll ignore the "master your domain" bit, as I'm sure we've all seen the Seinfeld episode and remember it well, and I can't even imagine what Dr. Niedes was thinking when he used this particular phrase.

Anyway, I'll go through the piece line by line, step by step, and I will quote from it liberally so we can all bask in its bullshitty glow.  Ready?

Brace yourselves.
"I am tired of all the nonsense we as American citizens are being fed while big business - and the government - continue to ignore the health and well-being of the fine people in this country."
Whoa whoa whoa, stop right there bucko.  This is the very first line, and he's already DEEP in bullshit.  He's starting off at the very top with the BIG PHARMA WANTS TO KEEP YOU UNHEALTHY crap, and I don't give a flying fuck how tired he is with his made-up nonsense, I'm absolutely sick to fucking death of people thinking that doctors are trying to keep people sick to make money.  And this is a DOCTOR saying this!

It gets worse.  MUCH worse.
Yes, he delves into the thimerosal wastebin next.  Let's first remind ourselves that thimerosal IS NOT MERCURY.  Thimerosal is ethylmercury, which is safe and is rapidly cleared from the body, as opposed to methylmercury which is much more dangerous and commonly found in fish, and as opposed to elemental mercury, which is obviously unsafe.  But it is NOT mercury!  Also, thimerosal has been shown to be safe and does not cause autism.  And then he goes straight into the formaldehyde bullshit!  The amount of formaldehyde in a vaccine is far less than the body normally produces in a day, and it is rapidly metabolised.

Bullshit.  And we're not even out of the third paragraph yet.

Ha!  I actually laughed out loud at this.  1) He calls the flu shot an "unsafe product", and 2) getting a minuscule dose of formaldehyde landed him in bed and caused him to miss two days of work.  Are you fucking kidding me?  Are you actually accusing 0.1 mg of formaldehyde of making you that sick?  Do you even realise it took your body about 9 minutes to metabolise 99% of that formaldehyde, which your body is constantly making?

But Dr. Niedes is angry.  Angry at "toxins".
He doesn't say what these toxins are or what chronic diseases they cause.  Just nebulous nefarious TOXINS.  But whatever these TOXINS are, he's not done complaining about them.  There are just so many CHEMICALS in our environment, and evil scientists are coming up with more of them EVERY DAY:
So many toxins!  This made me laugh out loud again.  He goes full Food Babe and implies that ingredients are toxic if you can't pronounce them.  However, safety of a product is not based on your ability to pronounce the name of it.  I can pronounce "ricin" and "pit viper", but that doesn't make them remotely safe.  That is a stupid argument of a stupid person.

It gets worse.

What are these evil toxins?  And where is the evidence that these purported toxins actually cause this laundry list of diseases (including autism, of course)?  He never specifies.  He only makes these vague statements with absolutely no facts to back them up.  And if you thought this was really bad already, it's about to shoot straight down the conspiracy theory tin-hat rabbit hole with extreme alacrity.
I read this passage with my mouth literally agape.  HOLY FUCKING HELL, HE JUST WENT THERE.  I had to read it twice just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me.  Of course he uses the typical antivax approach of "just asking questions", which makes it on the surface look like he isn't actually saying that vaccines cause autism, but it is EXTREMELY clear that he IS saying that vaccines cause autism.  He says he is not going to debate it, but there's one problem: EVIDENCE ISN'T A DEBATE, JACKASS.  The evidence clearly and convincingly shows that there is no link between autism and vaccines.  I've talked about that too many times to count here, and I won't do it again.  How does a board certified family practitioner not know this?  He claims he isn't going to debate it, but in the very next paragraph:
There.  Right there.  There is no other way to interpret that other than "Dr. Daniel Niedes believes vaccines cause autism".  But he's not done.  He goes on to the next antivax gambit about why we give Hepatitis B vaccine to newborns.
Sigh.  Exposure to the Hep B virus is unlikely, but it is not impossible, and we have a vaccine that can prevent it.  Why take the risk?  The shot is very safe, and it could prevent a horrible disease.  And what is this bullshit about "immunity may not last"?  Really?  I guess Dr. Niedes missed this article last year in the very obscurely titled JOURNAL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE which shows quite clearly that the Hepatitis B vaccine offers immunity for at least 30 years (I say "at least" because that's how long the study has been ongoing).  Doctors who take care of children (like Daniel Niedes) need to stay up with the latest research, and Dr. Niedes clearly has not.

He then detours to a slightly less insane place, talking about eating better, avoiding unsafe food ingredients, and self education.  These are all things that no rational person could possibly disagree with.  I thought he might end on a high note, but my hopes were immediately dashed:
OH.  MY.  GOD.  He did NOT just reference Food Babe.  NO HE DID NOT.  I can't.  I can't even.  There are just no words.  I just . . .

NO.

Almost as disheartening as the bullshit piece itself is the comment section.  Way too many people believe that Dr. Niedes is a hero for "standing up" to mainstream science and medicine and voicing the opinion that they all hold.  This is the very definition of confirmation bias - they read that an actual doctor shares their opinion that vaccines and TOXINS are evil, and this reaffirms their belief that vaccines and TOXINS are evil.  Facts don't matter, evidence doesn't matter, data doesn't matter.  All that matters is that this real doctor at a real institution with a really prestigious name agrees.

For their part the Cleveland Clinic has disavowed the article and has promised "appropriate disciplinary action", whatever the hell that means.  And Dr. Niedes has since apologised for the piece (which will accomplish exactly fuck all), and said:
"I apologize and regret publishing a blog that has caused so much concern and confusion for the public and medical community. I fully support vaccinations and my concern was meant to be positive around the safety of them."
Confusion?  There's no confusion whatsoever, Dr. Niedes.  You can stomp around and claim to be pro-vaccine all you like now that there has been a firestorm of backlash against you and your institution, but your words have definitively proved otherwise.  

But in 2017 words cannot simply be withdrawn.  The proverbial cow is out of the proverbial barn, and the internet never forgets.  Just like with Andrew Wakefield's original bullshit Lancet article in 1998 that was subsequently withdrawn for being the elaborate fraud it was found to be, the damage to public health is done, and I have no doubt it will be long-lasting.  Antivaxxers for years to come will hold up this ridiculous piece as the proof that they need that they are right and scientists, immunologists, paediatricians, infectious disease doctors, the World Health Organisation, and every single major medical association on the entire planet are wrong.

In closing, I have one simple question for Dr. Niedes: Do remember that basic tenet of medicine that every medical student on Earth is tought, primum non nocere?  Well today, you caused harm.  A lot of it.  Children will literally die if their parents believe the stupid bullshit you spewed and choose not to vaccinate them.  Not a lot of them, thanks to modern medicine, that same modern medicine that you chose to denigrate with extreme prejudice.  But some inevitably will.

And in this day and age, just like your bullshit-filled column, any death from a vaccine-preventable disease is absolutely inexcusable. 

72 comments:

  1. The Food Babe, who in uncertain what we breathe (there's nitrogen in the air), is such a great source of reliable health information. Yeesh! I enjoyed getting to weigh in on this (and the trolling on Twitter was distracting at the gym - troll:vaccines are ineffective Me: BS)

    http://thescientificparent.org/cleveland-clinic-doctor-apologizes-for-anti-vaccine-comments/


    "Francl also adds there’s a bit of an easy way for parents (Francl is a mother as well) to tell if a medicine is water soluble and thus easily bioprocessed by the liver and kidneys (and not stored in fat cells). 'A good rule of thumb is that if you are drinking a clear fluid, or it’s being injected into you, everything in it is water soluble, making it easy for your body to clear out any excess — or why I don’t worry about vaccines turning my fat cells into some toxic soup.'

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    1. clear fluids are water soluble and safe to drink??

      http://3.imimg.com/data3/JE/FL/MY-1039515/kerosene-250x250.jpg

      here you go, drink up.

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    2. I didn't say it was safe, I said they weren't fat soluble!

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    3. umm, doc? you got a spammer to hunt down.

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    4. I saw it. It's been vanquished.

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    5. hope there was damage involved. that kind of stupid spam irritates me.

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    6. I have been suffering from (HEPATITIS B) disease for the last four years and had constant pain, especially in my knees. During the first year, I had faith in God that I would be healed someday.This disease started to circulate all over my body and I have been taking treatment from my doctor, a few weeks ago I came on search on the internet if I could get any information concerning the prevention of this disease, on my search I saw a testimony of someone who has been healed from (HERPES and Cancer) by this Man DR OSE and she also gave the email address of this man and advise we should contact him for any sickness that he would be of help, so I wrote to DR OSE telling him about my (HEPATITIS B) he told me not to worry that I was going to be cured!! hmm i never believed it,, well after all the procedures and remedy given to me by this man few weeks later I started experiencing changes all over me as the DR assured me that I have cured, after some time i went to my doctor to confirmed if I have been finally healed behold it was TRUE, So friends my advice is if you have such sickness or any other at all you can email DR OSE on( droseherbalcurehome@gmail.com sir I am indeed grateful for the help I will forever recommend you to my friends!!! with your lovely Email Address (droseherbalcurehome@gmail.com or you can also WhatsApp him on this number +2348164222865,.,

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  2. David Stephan, the Canadian father who "treated" his son's meningitis with maple syrup and other useless substances, is back in the news. He's peddling his company's "treatment" for mental illness - EMPowerplus, which he also gave his dying son. Truehope Nutritional Support describes EMPowerplus, which is basically a mixture of vitamins and minerals, as “a natural alternative to pharmaceutical medications” that can be used to manage bipolar disorder, ADD/ADHD and stress.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nutritional-supplements-prince-george-1.3927824 How is this allowed to happen? Never mind, I know the answer.

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    1. anyplace we can point out that 100% of the patients in his human testing phase died?

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    2. You made me spit my coffee Ken

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    4. It's one more service we offer ;-D

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    5. I remember when everyone was bi-polar in the 90s.. That's when I started my career in mental health services (counselor), and now it is some form of autistic (no offense).

      I seriously think people run with this self diagnosis in whatever fits the fade.. Gluten free, everyone was allergic to gluten and dontyaknow it causes ADHD, red food coloring causes ADHD episodes, and don't you know bright colors cause ADHD outbursts.. I have seen a lot in my 20 years but goodgawddamn parents piss me off with home remedies that stunt their children's learning by not allowing to be on proper meds to help them stay better focused and productive with their peers in school..
      Interesting factoid I learned after dealing with severe ptsd clients, that PTSD has the (what in the hell is the word I am looking for) quasi traits (lack of cognitive function due the flu) as bi-polar disorder.. So finding out 15 years later rape victims that I counseled weren't bi-polar, they were suffering with PTSD..
      Let me prescribe (I can't, not a real doctor) some glutten-free lactose-free sugar-free maple syrup and laxatives (so you can shit that evil out), that will fix ya right up and no red dyes or bright colors, hate to see your PPD flare up and cause you to strangle your baby..
      Sorry doc, I don't want these freaks on my side of the railroad tracks.. Ill be getting my three degrees out now and use them to wipe my syrup runs from my ass and dance around them on fire and pray my ADHD/OCD..

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    6. and now if they claim to be autistic they get to ignore any social rules they find inconvenient; and you can't prove otherwise.

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    7. If someone is using autism as an excuse to ignore social rules, they're probably just assholes. If someone actually has ASD (and is high functioning enough to interact socially), they may seem a little off but they are going to work as hard as they can to not transgress any boundaries.

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    8. I thought that was what I said.

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    9. On a reread, you're right. I lost the thread of the conversation. Teach me to post on three hours sleep.

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    10. and I made a point of being diplomatic about it; which sometimes obscures the message from sleep deprived people.

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    11. It doesn't take much to obscure the message from sleep deprived people. Anything short of painful bluntness will do it, and even then I'm not so sure the message will get through!

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  3. I was at the CC once for a lung transplant evaluation and was so glad I didn't have to have mine there. They totally treat patients like numbers, not actual people, and have some of the worst customer service I've ever seen. I have no idea why people think they're so great. Ugh.

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  4. he must have made a slight typo, and what he really intended to type was "we need to require clinical trials and material analysis on alternative medicines to prove it is safe and effective; and while we're at it, we need to safeguard public health by converting to a single payer system, and adopt minimum wage rules that allow people to make a living without working more than 40 hours a week."

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  5. Why are newborns vaccinated for Hep B? While ideally children wouldn't need such a vaccine until, say, their mid-to-late teens, apparently Dr. Neides isn't familiar with the stats on child sexual abuse. (I'm not sure what the current figure is; I've heard 1 in 3 quoted a lot, and sadly that wouldn't surprise me.) It's horrible enough that children have to deal with being abused, but crimony, do they have to end up with an STI as well just because of someone's anti-vax campaign? If you'll excuse me, I may have to go and beat my head against a wall for a spell...

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    1. and HepB is not just an STD. it is a bloodborne pathogen. the reason for infant vaccination is because it can be passed from mother to baby.

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    2. I wish I had saved the article written by the foster parent of a hepatitis B positive toddler(maternal transmission). The toddler was, as a small amount are, a biter. The childcare staff were aware of both and do their best to prevent bites, but they can't be everywhere, and the child's status is rightfully protected. Toddlers are also known for the occasional bloody injury, and blood can get on other children.

      That's why you vaccinate.

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  6. Trump did not deny anything about JFK Jr. Exact wording from the Washington Post: "a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition said that while Trump would like to create a commission on autism, no final decision had been made."

    The human body's immune response to vaccine can break down the blood brain barrier (BBB) the same way infection does. The breakdown of the BBB then allows antigens (vaccine) and other components to enter the brain resulting in the activation of the microglia --> neuroinflammation --> tissue damage --> neuronal cell death --> regressive autism.

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    1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11208482

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    2. If you are going to make a claim and post a citation, you may want to make sure the citation actually supports your claim. That said, RFK,Jr. has no business nor expertise to head some commission on vaccine safety and/or autism. Those agencies already exist so this would be something with no teeth but whip up anti-vaxx fears among people.

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    3. "The protective effect of the BBB is lost during bacterial and viral infections." A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, so in some cases and I'm not saying ALL, it would be possible for susceptible individuals to become autistic due to their weakened BBB after vaccination. It's not fear mongering at all.

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    4. Anon, if I'm interpreting your comment correctly, you are hypothesising that vaccines can cause autism via the blood brain barrier. Yes?

      Excellent! A hypothesis! Let's test it, shall we?

      Oops, it's already been tested. Multiple studies involving literally millions of children have been done, and ALL of them show no evidence that vaccines cause autism.

      You see, that's how science works. You come up with a hypothesis, you test it, and then you accept the results. It's been tested, and the hypothesis failed.

      What you're doing is refusing to believe the evidence and coming up with a hypothesis to fit your predetermined conclusion. That is not science, that is a travesty of science.

      Got it? Good. I'm glad I could clear that up for you.

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    5. Can you provide me with 1 MRI study of the blood brain barrier during or after vaccination?

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    6. Good one! I laughed out loud.

      Oh wait, you were serious? That question proves definitively that you have no idea what you're talking about.

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    7. Sigh. Another anatomy fail. The Blood Brain Barrier is on the cellular level. It is a description of function. You are confusing it with the meninges - the tissues covering the brain and spinal cord. You cannot see cells with an MRI. It is not a microscope.

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    8. You can assess blood brain barrier disruption by using enhanced MRI. Same procedure done on MS patients last time I checked.

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    9. And when was the last time you checked?

      Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI is experimental at this point, but I suspect you knew that, so you were asking the question hoping to trip me up. No such luck, friend.

      Regardless, your question is entirely moot. As I stated before, studies of millions of children demonstrate that vaccines do not cause autism, no matter what hypothesis you'd like to bandy about this week. You can try to support your foregone conclusion that vaccines cause autism by coming up with 1000 more hypotheses and it will not change the overwhelmingly convincing evidence that they do not. You cannot fit a hypothesis to fit a conclusion that has already been disproved.

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    10. There hasn't been any studies done on the effects of vaccine on the blood brain barrier. That's all I'm saying. None, whatsoever.

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    11. There also haven't been studies done on crystal meth and the BBB. Or on calculus and the BBB. Or...

      No, we all know exactly what you're saying. We all know that you're still trying to implicate vaccines despite the studies of millions of children showing THEY DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM.

      I've now officially had enough of your bullshit. Sod off back under your rock.

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    13. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, so in some cases and I'm not saying ALL, it would be possible for susceptible individuals to become autistic due to their weakened BBB after vaccination. It's not fear mongering at all.

      Nope. That's not how autism occurs. Try again but this time try to be consistent with what your citations state. It is tiring to respond to "citizen scientists" who continually make shit up because the actual evidence doesn't support their irrational and absurd beliefs.

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    14. now, I'm just a dumb firefighter, but if a vaccine imitating the effects of a virus had some small chance of causing autism, wouldn't an ACTUAL INFECTION WITH THE VIRUS have an even greater chance?

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    15. I think what the original poster is trying to say is that due to the vaccine's bacterial or viral properties, it could lead to the breakdown of the BBB. And without the barrier the immune cells from the circulating blood can then enter the brain, triggers the microglia resulting in brain inflammation?

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    16. No, what the original Anon was saying is that vaccines cause autism. And as Ken astutely pointed out, if the vaccine can do it, then the virus or bacteria can also do it, and they don't (except meningiococcus and measles).

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    17. I didn't see that anywhere.

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    18. I think what the original poster is trying to say is that due to the vaccine's bacterial or viral properties, it could lead to the breakdown of the BBB. And without the barrier the immune cells from the circulating blood can then enter the brain, triggers the microglia resulting in brain inflammation?
      "vaccine's bacterial and viral properties" is a completely meaningless statement. Autism isn't brain inflammation FFS.

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    19. Well, most attenuated vaccines are viral, some are bacterial in nature.

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    20. Anon: "I didn't see that anywhere".

      Then you weren't looking.

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    21. Well, most attenuated vaccines are viral, some are bacterial in nature.
      Sort of. The only live bacterial vaccine is BCG and is not used in many countries. But "vaccine's bacterial and viral properties" still remains a meaningless statement unless you provide context for those properties and what their biologic activities are in relation to autism.

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    22. You missed the whole point. This is what the OP posted:

      "The protective effect of the BBB is lost during bacterial and viral infections."

      Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection. This is called imitation infection. By immitating an infection, the blood brain barrier (BBB) may break down and start leaking. This allows the immune cells to enter the brain.
      Once in the brain the microglia is activated followed by neuroinflammation,tissue damage,neuronal cell death and regressive autism?

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    23. I missed nothing. While your hypothesis is fascinating, it's also wrong. How do I know? Because before vaccines when the prevalence of all these infectious diseases was high (nearly everyone got measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc), NOT everyone "became" autistic.

      If the "imitation infection" causes autism, why doesn't the infection?

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    24. most viral and bacterial infections are viral and bacterial in nature.

      if the vaccine will cause autism, then the real deal will cause autism even more often.

      vaccines are still safer than what they protect you against.

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    25. Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating an infection. This is called imitation infection.

      No they don't. The point is to illicit an immune response without full blown pathology.

      Once in the brain the microglia is activated followed by neuroinflammation,tissue damage,neuronal cell death and regressive autism?

      Straight outta Jenny McCarthy's Science Skool.

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    26. I think the screed is what is called imitation knowledge.

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  7. I understood what he said, doc.

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  8. The very first thing I thought when he said that was "don't many, many infants come out of actual vaginas.... which could possibly have an STD??" Maybe that's just a small % of it but the thought did cross my mind as soon as I read that, then dropped my phone.

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  9. I don't get far in to autism studies, I just can't.. In college we had to take a human development by theory class with a psychiatrist with a specialty in geriatric medicine..
    Oh yes one of those classes that taught us, if you're a girl you have penis envy and get mad at your mom that your dad punished you and her by taking your penis away..
    Or your son is in love with his mother and resents the father and when son grows up he will marry a woman that is like his mother..
    Or my favorite Freudian's psychosexual development.
    Or Maslow's pyramid, the basis of our nonprofit organization..
    Mainly in that horrendous class you never should take during the summer because wow way too much material, you learn something interesting, nurture and nature argument..
    Terminal cliff, MS, Alzheimer/dementia..

    So how many studies have been devoted to seeing if autism is something that organically happens to the brain and is related to genetics.

    I could google but I'm scared of the anti-vaxxer bullshit that will pull with fake reports and statistics that are twisted..

    Oh yes, in another class we had to take we studied the asshole who faked his statistics no one could match on vaccines and autism.. My blood boiled, because as our class instructor said, "you can't prove or disprove a theory, but you can build a case with peer review and studies information in support of or against a theory".. But I asked if I wrote a theory on I shit gold, you can most definitely dispove that..

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    1. back in the dark ages when I took my college psychology classes, the common belief was that autism was caused by keeping babies in ISDs (Infant Storage Devices) around the clock instead of actually picking them up and holding them.
      this would seem to be supported by the fact we are now seeing the ISD generation also be the autism generation.

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  10. Vaccines haven't been around all that long, my mom was born in 1924 and I can't remember her ever saying she had any vaccines. My question is how long has autism been around? Did children still have it way back and was called something else?

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    1. that is one of the toughest issues around medical statistics. you never know how many people suffered from an ailment before it was given a name and a diagnosis. nobody died from alzheimers before 1906.

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    2. Yes, people had autism before the advent of vaccines. The historical record provides little definite information, however, due to social conditions and changes in medical (and social) classifications.

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    3. Also children were locked away in institutions in years back. People didn't talk about it. Many probably had autism. Before vaccines.

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    4. Also, how people were labeled depended on socioeconomic status and severity of symptoms. For example, if you were a white, upperclass man with Asperger's then it's very possible you'd just be considered "eccentric."

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    5. Mary, there's considerable evidence for people with autistim-like symptoms in popular culture and folklore, long before it was formally named/diagnosed in the 1940's.

      http://adc.bmj.com/content/90/3/271.full

      http://www.hekint.org/index.php/71-history-essays/383-from-changelings-to-extraterrestrials

      https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276059373_Autism_and_Changelings (downloadable pdf)

      http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/02/25/1309455.htm

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  11. To add to the generally disturbing nature of the anti-vaxx movement, consider the subtext: "Hey, kids might die of preventable illnesses but at least they don't have autism."

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  12. I used to work at the Cleveland Clinic and kept a bunch of t-shirts with the logo to wear to the gym. I'll have to get rid of those suckers now.

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  13. you could just get a permanent marker and put scare quotes on "clinic"

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  15. Education and experience in American society has been devalued by so many that Donald Trump has been elected president and bloggers are elevated to medical professionals. Critical thinking skills? They're largely nonexistent in a segment of our population, replaced by emotion and fear and knee jerk reaction. But when physicians at reputable facilities go off the rails in such a public and egregious manner, it is indefensible. And it really ticks me off. This man knows and is trusted to communicate truth, and he chose to deliberately confuse the public. Shame on you, Dr. Niedes. If I were tasked with your punishment, your name and face would become synonymous with vaccination education - in the affirmative.

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  16. and in the morning news, there hve already been 20 cases of mumps in my home state, so far, this year.

    mumps can result in deafness, and it can result in sterility.

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  17. Ken Brown15 January 2017 at 17:48

    and in the morning news, there hve already been 20 cases of mumps in my home state, so far, this year.

    mumps can result in deafness, and it can result in sterility. << in some cases this could be well deserved and desired for some people preventing them from either hearing the call of love, or responding to said call and begetting a candidate for the darwin awards and thus carrying on the family tradition.

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    1. And I went three rounds with an antivaxxer who is desperate to find a mumps outbreak so that her unvaccinated autistic teenager can achieve "natural" immunity.

      She was upset when I called her a loathsome individual -- can't imagine why.

      Delete
  18. I have seen a few reputable hospitals advertise that they provide wellness services, accupuncture, natural medicine, and such, along with the expected, science based medicine.

    I suspect this satifies a demand by many patients. The hospital can collect revenue which the patient would spend elsewhwere on such practices.

    It is hard to refuse more income from people who demand witch-doctoring along with their "corporate" medicine, just to be sure. Maybe that explains the Cleveland Clinic.

    Then, these add-on doctors can be embarassing when they explain to the public some of the stuff they believe.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hey doc you seen the news on msn about Minnesota, and the study on autism..

    Not sure if links will work..
    http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/healthtrending/researchers-have-ditched-the-autism-vaccine-theory-here’s-what-they-think-actually-causes-it/ar-BBB1s8Z?li=BBnbfcL#page=1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good article, but the comments are disheartening.

      Delete

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I'll start this post by answering a few questions that may or may not be burning in your mind: No, I'm not dead.  No, I didn't g...