Without evidence of benefit, an intervention should not be presumed to be beneficial or safe.

- Rogue Medic

CBS Neck and Neck with CNN for Most Incompetent Network

Also possibly posted as part of the Skeptics’ Circle over at The Mad Skeptic. I procrastinate and am late in sending this in. Maybe The Mad Skeptic has already finished this edition. Anyway, go check out the rest of what is there.

Then:

Complain to CBS: CBS resident anti-vaccine propagandist Sharyl Attkisson sucks up to anti-vaccine pseudoscientist Andrew Wakefield.

The most famous fraud in medicine, that Criminally Blundering Scientist, Andrew Wakefield, was praised on the television network that has decided to give CNN a run for its money in the category of incompetence.

The CBS (Comedic Bumbling Scaremonger) network decided that they would give some air time to an exposed fraud to promote his latest larceny. He has already been shown to have taken payoffs from trial lawyers to fake his research. Is he pushing a book? So, why does anyone pay any attention to him? One reason. He tells them what they want to hear. And if it is written in a book, it must be true. OK, 2 reasons. He tells them what they want to hear, he feeds their paranoia, and if it is written in a book it must be true. OK, 3 reasons. . . .

If you believe that the people reporting the news, such as Sharyl Attkisson, are objective, you probably were told that by a reporter. If you believe that Andrew Wakefield does anything that is not designed to make him money, you probably were told that by Andrew Wakefield or one of his accomplices. If you think that Generation Rescue Generation Revenue knows anything about medicine, you probably were told that by somebody at Generation Revenue – somebody trying to sell you something.

Anybody, who uses only bumper sticker slogans as their medical evidence, clearly is not worth listening to. Too much, too soon. Based on what? They don’t know. They only feel. Ignorance is their strength. Green the vaccines. That doesn’t even mean anything. And then they use the made up word, Toxics, as if it were a real word.

Because, when you don’t know what you are talking about, it doesn’t matter what you say. It only matters what you feel. And they want you to feel angry, so they can make money off of you.

You should be angry. They want you to sacrifice your children to satisfy their feelings. They also want to make money off of you. They are selling books and magical mystery treatments – guaranteed to lighten your wallet, but certainly not guaranteed to be safe. They demand more and more vaccine research. The research continually shows that vaccines are safe, but they keep asking for more research – hoping for the fluke grouping of autistic children in the treatment group, so they can claim that it was the vaccine that caused the autism. They already do make that claim, but all of the evidence shows that they are lying.

Of course, they will sell you some of their dangerous all natural products. They don’t have to show that they are safe, because they sell them as supplements, rather than medicines. Supplements will kill you. You have no way of knowing what you are getting, because the politicians (such as Sen. Tom Harkin) have minimized oversight in response to donations from the real big money supplement groups – Big sCAM. And they get a quarter of a billion dollars – each year – of our tax dollars to look for evidence to support alternatives to medicine that has evidence that it works. Talk about pork.

When your money is going to buy their untested supplements drugs, they do not care about safety. When your money is going to pay for well tested vaccines, to protect your children, they are ranting and raving about danger.

One thing that can be said about everything that these 2 recommend – Not Safe!

Not safe for adults – and definitely not safe for children.

Interviewer – And yet in many cases, vaccines have effectively eliminated diseases. Measles is among the top five killers in the world of children under 5 years old, yet it kills virtually no one in the U.S. thanks to vaccines.

Jenny McCarthyPeople have the misconception that we want to eliminate vaccines. Please understand that we are not an antivaccine group. We are demanding safe vaccines. We want to reduce the schedule and reduce the toxins. If you ask a parent of an autistic child if they want the measles or the autism, we will stand in line for the f___ing measles.

Jenny McCarthy on Autism and Vaccines
By Jeffrey Kluger; Wednesday, Apr. 01, 2009; Time Magazine

Reduce the schedule? Based on what?

Reduce the toxins? She is giving a chant, like a cheerleader, so repeating the word reduce works in the cheer. The toxins claim is just naming ingredients that are in microscopic quantities and are safe, even in children. Of course, this complaint about toxins is from someone who has botulism injected regularly, to maintain a youthful appearance. What does she understand about toxins?

Do you want the measles or the autism? Again, based on what?

These questions are nothing but a scare tactic.

There is no connection between vaccination and autism. You can look at all of the research, or you can listen to a stripper and an exposed fraud. A fraud who faked his research to make it appear that there is a link between vaccines and autism. Listen to real doctors? Or listen to these 2 ringleaders of a circus of ignorance and anger.

Why do people listen to such psychotic ranting? Mao was more compassionate than either of them and he tops the updated list of greatest mass murderers. Judging by the number of people skipping vaccines, we will probably not get people to realize just how dangerous her advice is until there are a lot of dead children. Probably not even close to Mao’s 73,000,000, but who knows how persuasive she can be.

So that you can keep track of how many people are being killed, because of people listening to the anti-vaccine mob, get the Jenny McCarthy/Anti-Vaccine Body Count widget. There are 2 other designs at the web site.

Jenny McCarthy Body Count

217 dead? The current numbers are actually 235 dead and 49,556 preventable illnesses. I don’t know why the widget is not up to date.

2007: Jenny McCarthy Begins Promoting Anti-Vaccination Rhetoric

Maybe it is just a coincidence. Maybe it is a coincidence that the number of cases of disease, and there are plenty of other diseases documented at the site, began dropping with the introduction of vaccinations, leveling off at very low numbers, and staying low until Jenny McCarthy started telling people that it is wrong to protect their children from these illnesses. Be fair to measles, or something like that.

Why is it wrong to protect my child from these vaccine-preventable diseases?

Loving parents should protect their children, not listen to a stripper giving deadly medical advice.

Am I being unfair?

Ask a parent who has had a child die because of Jenny McCarthy or Andrew Wakefield.

Then there is the big question.

Why was Andrew Wakefield being interviewed about an article appearing in a minor medical journal?

Do they normally cover all of the articles published in the more reputable medical journals, but are now adding to that extensive medical coverage?

Not at all. This is important news only to those who believe in the religion of Andrew Wakefield. The Lancet, which published the study that had to be retracted due to Andrew Wakefield’s fraud, is not going to believe that he had a sudden onset of honesty. JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association), the New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, the British Medical Journal, et cetera, have reputations for quality that they need to maintain. Professional responsibility. Why even look at something from these frauds? Maybe the peer reviewers had no idea of the identity of the authors, but did not see anything about the paper to justify inclusion in a major medical journal.

Neurotoxicology? I never heard of the journal before, but maybe they wanted a bit of publicity. Dr. David Gorski goes into detail on the many conflicts of interest in this study. He also has links to the full study, which has been published at a couple of autism misinformation sites. Monkey business in autism research, part II.

For further information on Andrew Wakefield there is the reporting of Brian Deer:

Thoughtful House: Since the Royal Free ejected him in October 2001, Andrew Wakefield first re-emerged as “research director” of the self-styled International Child Development Resource Center, in Florida, which sells expensive products for autism, including enzymes and purported “genetic tests”. He was then installed at Thoughtful House in Austin, Texas, earning $280,000 a year.

Wakefield’s patents: Nine months before Andrew Wakefield and London’s Royal Free hospital medical school unleashed a global scare over the MMR vaccine, they filed, on June 5 1997, the first of a string of patent claims for theoretically vastly profitable products which could only succeed if MMR’s reputation was damaged. These included a purported safer measles vaccine – a potential competitor – and treatments for bowel disease and autism. All were based on claims that measles virus in MMR was at fault.

These are just 2 examples of the many sleazy activities of Andrew Wakefield. There are a lot more at http://briandeer.com/. Andrew Wakefield is not a doctor in the United States, although he works in the US. Has he been practicing medicine without a license? It would be a surprise if that were the one ethical part of his life.

.

Human Sacrifice Is Legal In Washington

Human sacrifice is still alive and well.

What about the children raised with human sacrifice?

How about a nice eulogy and some Lee Press-On Nails as lovely parting gifts. If you decide to stay with the Church of Human Sacrifice, because that is the way Cognitive DissonanceTM works – don’t forget to tithe.[1]

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40, King James Version

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11, King James Version

Apparently, Zachery Swezey’s parents have rewritten this verse. I never became a man, because my parents wouldn’t let me. My parents blamed God, but my parents killed me. The State of Washington and the Christian Science Church are their accomplices.

If you read the Bible, how can you conclude that there is anything about this that is Christian?

If you know anything about science, how can you conclude there is anything about this that is Science or medicine?

RCW 9A.42.005
Findings and intent — Christian Science treatment — Rules of evidence.

The legislature finds that there is a significant need to protect children and dependent persons, including frail elder and vulnerable adults, from abuse and neglect by their parents, by persons entrusted with their physical custody, or by persons employed to provide them with the basic necessities of life. The legislature further finds that such abuse and neglect often takes the forms of either withholding from them the basic necessities of life, including food, water, shelter, clothing, and health care, or abandoning them, or both. Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature that criminal penalties be imposed on those guilty of such abuse or neglect. It is the intent of the legislature that a person who, in good faith, is furnished Christian Science treatment by a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner in lieu of medical care is not considered deprived of medically necessary health care or abandoned. Prosecutions under this chapter shall be consistent with the rules of evidence, including hearsay, under law.

[1997 c 392 § 507.][2]

The highlighting is mine.

I guess the Christian Science Church has a much more powerful lobby than Catholic Priests.

Yea, though I sacrifice my child, I shall fear no law, for the Washington State Legislature supports human sacrifice, if I use the right excuse.

After all, members of the Church of Human Sacrifice can always make more children victims. If that doesn’t work out, they can adopt.

H/T: of mule dung and ash for the link to coverage of this on Pharyngula.

Footnotes:

^ TM Cognitive Dissonance
Wikipedia
How to harm people with a clear conscience. Fool yourself.
Article

^ 1 Questions still linger over Carlton boy’s death
By K.C. Mehaffey
World staff writer
Posted August 26, 2009
Article

^ 2 Revised Code of Washington (RCW)
Title 9A – Washington Criminal Code
Chapter 42 – Criminal Mistreatment
Section 005 – Findings and intent — Christian Science treatment — Rules of evidence.

RCW 9A.42.005

The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) is the compilation of all permanent laws now in force. It is a collection of Session Laws (enacted by the Legislature, and signed by the Governor, or enacted via the initiative process), arranged by topic, with amendments added and repealed laws removed. It does not include temporary laws such as appropriations acts. The official version of the RCW is published by the Statute Law Committee and the Code Reviser.

.

The Problem With Chicken Pox Parties

KevinMD writes about chicken pox parties[1] and links to an article[2] about the idea.

Never heard of a chicken pox party? You probably just move in the wrong social circles.

OK. What is a chicken pox party?

Chicken pox is a disease that usually causes a lot of discomfort. How much discomfort has a lot to do with how long it has been since you were a child and had the disease, assuming that you have had the disease. A chicken pox party is a gathering of a bunch of healthy children, with no known immunity to chicken pox.

How is that a chicken pox party? It seems like a non-chicken pox party.

At least one child infected with chicken pox, advertised as highly infectious, will be there.

Why would parents let their children play with a sick child someone who can infect their child?

They want their children to get sick.

Why?

They are more afraid of the less important things, rather than chicken pox.

What less important things?

These parties will be a way of having the children sick at a predictable time. Before that illness might interfere with work, or a vacation, or some major event, like a wedding.

Why not just get their kid vaccinated?

There is the bigger problem. These parents think that they are protecting their children from the vaccine.

Is the vaccine dangerous?

Everything is dangerous. What is important is to understand the relative risks and benefits of something.

What are the risks of the chicken pox vaccine?

Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine side-effects
What are the risks from chickenpox vaccine?

Getting chickenpox vaccine is much safer than getting chickenpox disease. Most people who get chickenpox vaccine do not have any problems with it.
However, a vaccine, like any medicine, is capable of causing serious problems, such as severe allergic reactions. The risk of chickenpox vaccine causing serious harm, or death, is extremely small.

Mild Problems
Soreness or swelling where the shot was given (about 1 out of 5 children and up to 1 out of 3 adolescents and adults)
Fever (1 person out of 10, or less)
Mild rash, up to a month after vaccination (1 person out of 20, or less). It is possible for these people to infect other members of their household, but this is extremely rare.
Note:
MMRV vaccine has been associated with higher rates of fever (up to about 1 person in 5) and measles-like rash (about 1 person in 20) compared with MMR and varicella vaccines given separately.

Moderate Problems
Seizure (jerking or staring) caused by fever (less than 1 person out of 1,000).

Severe Problems
Pneumonia (very rare)
Other serious problems, including severe neurological problems (brain reactions) and low blood count, have been reported after chickenpox vaccination. These happen so rarely, however, that experts cannot tell whether they are caused by the vaccine or not. If they are, it is extremely rare.
This information was taken directly from the Vaccine Information Statement Adobe Acrobat print-friendly PDF file[3]

Why do parents want their children to get the disease if “Getting chickenpox vaccine is much safer than getting chickenpox disease?”

There is a lack of understanding of the risks of vaccines, which are small, but real risks. There is a lack of understanding of the risks of the illness, which are much larger and more serious risks.

What are the risks of chicken pox?

Varicella (Chickenpox)
Varicella (also known as Chickenpox) is a virus of the herpes family called the varicella-zoster virus. Varicella is spread by contact with the fluid from the blisters on an infected person and by coughing and sneezing. It is highly contagious. Symptoms include a skin rash of blister-like lesions, usually on the face, scalp, or trunk of the body. The rash usually starts on the face and then spreads to other parts of the body. This rash begins as red bumps that progress to blisters which eventually “crust over” before falling off, usually in one to two weeks. It is not unusual for a child to get 300 to 500 blisters during a single chickenpox infection.

Before the vaccine was available in 1995 there were 3 to 4 million cases of chickenpox in the United States per year, mostly in children 10 years of age or younger. Current figures indicating the decline in incidence of varicella infection, complications and deaths are only available from select areas of the United States due to inadequate and inconsistent reporting levels from State to State. In those States where reporting is adequate and consistent there has been a decreased incidence in varicella infection of 67 to 82 percent. Complications are more common among adolescents and adults, and in immunocompromised persons of all ages, than in children. Historically 1 out of every 10,000 cases of chickenpox proved fatal with 23 out of every 10,000 cases progressing to pneumonia.

Chickenpox has also been an important risk factor for developing severe invasive “strep” (group A streptococcal disease), commonly referred to as “flesh-eating disease.” Treatment of this deep infection requires antibiotics and surgery to remove the infected tissue. 1 in 10,000 cases of chickenpox will result in bacterial infections, decreased blood platelets, arthritis, hepatitis, and brain inflammation which may cause a failure of muscular coordination.[4]

“I’m aghast at the thought of these parties,” said Dr. Louis Cooper, a spokesman for the Infectious Disease Society of America and a professor emeritus of pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

“I deeply regret that parents who are trying to do the right thing just don’t get it,” Cooper said. “The fact is that they’re right, chickenpox for most children is a mild illness. But when you see children who have the misfortune of one of the complications that are possible, you never forget it.” [5]

Offit believes that if the chickenpox vaccine becomes as widely used as the measles vaccine was back in 1963, chickenpox would go the way of the measles: away.

“When we introduced the measles vaccine, which is another virus that gets worse for patients as they get older, in 1963, we dramatically reduced the instance of measles,” Offit said. “That is what will happen here with chickenpox.”[5] (Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician specializing in infectious disease at the department of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)

These parents are putting their children at risk of serious illness, to protect them from less significant and less common problems that the vaccine might cause. They are also preventing the eradication of this illness and all of the complications associated with the illness, treatment of the illness, and vaccination against the illness.

As more of their children suffer the more serious complications of natural vaccination, a greater awareness should develop of the dangers of this infection party approach. Too bad the mental shortcomings of the parents are inflicted on the children.

Footnotes:

^ 1 Chickenpox parties and the risk of natural immunity
Kevin,MD.com
Article

^ 2 Doctors Wary of Dangerous Pox Parties
Kids Who Aren’t Vaccinated Could Face Serious Complications, Docs Warn

By Emily Friedman
Feb. 2, 2009
Article

^ 3 Basics and Common Questions:
Possible Side-effects from Vaccines

CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Vaccines Home > Basics and Common Questions > Possible Side-effects from Vaccines
Varicella (Chickenpox) vaccine side-effects

^ 4 Varicella (Chicken Pox)
ECBT (Every Child By Two)
The Diseases
Article

^ 5 Doctors Wary of Dangerous Pox Parties
Kids Who Aren’t Vaccinated Could Face Serious Complications, Docs Warn

By Emily Friedman
Feb. 2, 2009
Article

.

The Controversy Over Vaccines

OK, a bit of bait and switch. There is no genuine controversy.

Vaccines work.

Vaccines are safe.

That is the wrong controversy.

Why do so many people distrust vaccines?

Why are so many people listening to explanations of science from a movie star, who might make more sense wearing a shirt with a slogan written across her two most prominent attributes – If only these were brains?

Are the other movie stars any more scientifically literate than Jenny McCarthy?

No.

Movie stars are not known for writing their own lines. Do they make sense when they start to ad lib?

Still, no.

At least the movie stars are basing their complaints on good science.

Not a chance.

Now that I have clearly established the authority of movie stars to speak on this topic, I will fight fire with fire. A movie star (Amanda Peet) defending vaccines. Take that you evil anti-science movie stars.

On NPR there is a less than 5 minute long clip at the link below.

Defending Vaccines: Actress Dispels Link To Autism

The doctor on the show is Dr. Paul Offit. He may be more familiar to Anti-vaccinationists from this kind of image. Dr. Offit is the one in the middle.


They are not finding fault with the science, but with the scientist.

Anti-vaccinationists also demonstrate their generosity by sending him death threats.

Wouldn’t that make the Anti-vaccinationists the terrorists?

I suppose that is too complicated a question for the people who buy into their Anti-logic.

On the other hand – Death Threats?

Where do I sign up?

.