Vaccine researcher brings anti-abortion advocacy to House hearing

All it will take is one really great measles outbreak and a couple of dead kids to expose the truly “pro-life” platform of Dr. Deisher. Vaccines save lives, and religion has no business interfering with science. Don’t pray in my lab, and I won’t think in your church.

“Don’t pray in my lab, and I won’t think in your church.” Well put Diane.

Praise Jebus, God hates sound public health policy, Amen.

The vaccine industrialist/profiteer Paul Offit also claims the amount of mercury used in vaccines is small. Dr. Halsey, in an article in the New York Times says this about mercury in vaccines, “this is not rocket science, nobody bothered to do the math”. Here’s the facts folks;

0.5 parts per billion (ppb) mercury = Kills human neuroblastoma cells (Parran et al., Toxicol Sci 2005; 86: 132-140).

2 ppb mercury = U.S. EPA maximum limit for drinking water.

20 ppb mercury = Neurite membrane structure destroyed (Leong et al., Neuroreport 2001; 12: 733-37).

200 ppb mercury = level in liquid the EPA classifies as hazardous waste based on toxicity characteristics.

25,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose, Hepatitis B vaccine vials, administered at birth from 1991-2001 in the U.S.

50,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose DTaP and Haemophilus B vaccine vials, administered 8 times in the 1990’s to children at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months of age and currently “preservative” level mercury in multi-dose flu, meningococcal and tetanus vaccines. This can be confirmed by simply analyzing the multi-dose vials.

In addition ethylmercury, the type used in vaccines, is more toxic than methylmercury. Why? Primate studies show that ethylmercury leaves behind twice as much divalent mercury in the brain than methylmercury. Injecting this into the muscle provides rapid access to the bloodstream and just makes this situation much worse.

Is it time to check with some new experts Andy?

“Now, the focus appears to be on vaccines, and an embryo that was killed in 1961 to create cell cultures that assist in the production of vaccines. That embryo was donated to research and was not aborted specifically for vaccine production.

“Many vaccines in the U.S. are contaminated with aborted fetal tissue,” she said.”

Follow the religious right long enough and you’ll notice a pattern: definitively refuted claims never die, they merely get recycled. If there’s any eternal life in conservative religion, it’s the large-ish body of nonsense that gets repeated endlessly despite being shown to be false.

This is especially true of creationism, where some anti-science claims have the status of having been demolished literally decades ago, but keep getting repeated as if they were true. Take the alleged fatal flaws of carbon-14 dating, or the claim that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. (If you hold such a view you’re not fit for public office.)

Actually, one of the remaining inanities we can expect from this Republican legislature is the introduction of creationism-friendly legislation. It’s probably only a matter of time.

Dr. Offit is a protector of vaccine profits, and is profiting from his very own vaccine, I would not trust anything that comes out of this mans mouth. On the other hand, Dr. Theresa Deisher is a PRIME example of a breakthrough researcher, a true maverick and must be commended on her efforts!

No Maggie. Your comment has little to do with my article. My sources are evaluating the validity of Deisher’s assertion that DNA particles in vaccines may cause autism. Nobody has mentioned mercury.

And I’m well aware of anti-vaccine activists attacks on Offit and Halsey. If you have research to present that has been published in a respected peer reviewed journal that contradicts any of the testimony provided in my article, I’d be glad to receive it. Any other comments in critique of my sources, I will assume are coming from the anti-vaccine movement and will consider it based the credibility it deserves.

@maggie any IN VIVO studies concluding the amount of thimerosal in vaccines, which there is none anymore except in a few flu vaccines, has any harmful effect to humans? Bet you can’t find one. You listed in vitro studies, nice antivaxxer trick.
@victor Deisher is a retard? Yes, homologous recombination does happen in the way Deisher is describing, IN BACTERIA! It happens in humans when gametes are being made in the hopes of creating a genetically diverse species. You dimwit, it is very hard for eukaryotic cells to 1. uptake foreign dna, and 2 homologously recombine it within their own dna. Nevermind that you need specific flanking regions to your target sequence that are the antisense strands to respective flanking regions in the host DNA. It’s next to IMPOSSIBLE.

Deisher is an idiot if she thinks that FRAGMETS, and not specifically targeted DNA sequences can homologously recombine within a host organism’s DNA, let alone a EUKARYOTIC one. She is the prime example of an IDIOT.

Does it never occur to reporters that there’s an “anti-bad-vaccine movement”?

And that reporters should be researching vaccine safety concerns in depth, instead of just asking the foxes how the chickens are doing?

Consumers now have no safety protections with vaccines. That’s abetted by the loss of investigative journalists willing to spend hours uncovering insider sources, filing FOIA requests, and risking business and financial relationships to stand up for the truth.

Instead vaccine reporting is always sunny, except when those reporting problems are bombarded with self-righteous vitriol. That’s the appeal for repeaters, er, reporters — they can reprint press releases, make a couple of calls, add an official-sounding quote, and voila! They’ve saved the world from deadly diseases.

And by being content with mediocrity, they’ve written off other less lucky children in VAERS and the NVICP as collateral damage in the war on disease.

How’s this one Andy?

Pediatrics. 1998 Mar;101(3 Pt 1):383-7.

Acute encephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death associated with further attenuated measles vaccines: a review of claims submitted to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Weibel RE, Caserta V, Benor DE, Evans G.

SourceDivision of Vaccine Injury Compensation, National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, Health Resources and Services Administration, Public Health Service, Rockville, Maryland 20857, USA.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine if there is evidence for a causal relationship between acute encephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death associated with the administration of further attenuated measles vaccines (Attenuvax or Lirugen, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Kansas City, MO), mumps vaccine (Mumpsvax, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), or rubella vaccines (Meruvax or Meruvax II, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), combined measles and rubella vaccine (M-R-Vax or M-R-Vax II, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), or combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (M-M-R or M-M-R II, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), the lead author reviewed claims submitted to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

METHODS: The medical records of children who met the inclusion criteria of receiving the first dose of these vaccines between 1970 and 1993 and who developed such an encephalopathy with no determined cause within 15 days were identified and analyzed.

RESULTS: A total of 48 children, ages 10 to 49 months, met the inclusion criteria after receiving measles vaccine, alone or in combination. Eight children died, and the remainder had mental regression and retardation, chronic seizures, motor and sensory deficits, and movement disorders. The onset of neurologic signs or symptoms occurred with a nonrandom, statistically significant distribution of cases on days 8 and 9. No cases were identified after the administration of monovalent mumps or rubella vaccine.

CONCLUSIONS: This clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization.

Here’s a new one Andy where the author was interviewed by CBS news (see below) reporter Sharyl Attkisson.

J Immunotoxicol. 2011 Jan-Mar;8(1):80-94.

Theoretical aspects of autism: biomarkers–a review.
Ratajczak HV.

Autism is dramatically increasing in incidence and is now considered an epidemic. There are no objective means to diagnose the disorder. Diagnosis is made subjectively, based on the perceived behavior of the subject. This review presents an approach toward development of an objective measure of autism. Covering the literature from 1943 to the present in the PubMed and Ovid Medline databases, this review summarizes evidence of hormones, metabolites, amino acids, and other biomarkers present in significantly different quantities in autistic subjects compared to age- and sex-matched controls. These differences can be measured in the gastrointestinal, immunologic, neurologic, and toxicologic systems of the body, with some biomarkers showing ubiquitous application.

From CBS news 3 weeks ago;

“Ratajczak also looks at a factor that hasn’t been widely discussed: human DNA contained in vaccines. That’s right, human DNA. Ratajczak reports that about the same time vaccine makers took most thimerosal out of most vaccines (with the exception of flu shots which still widely contain thimerosal), they began making some vaccines using human tissue. Ratajczak says human tissue is currently used in 23 vaccines. She discusses the increase in autism incidences corresponding with the introduction of human DNA to MMR vaccine, and suggests the two could be linked. Ratajczak also says an additional increased spike in autism occurred in 1995 when chicken pox vaccine was grown in human fetal tissue.

Why could human DNA potentially cause brain damage? The way Ratajczak explained it to me: “Because it’s human DNA and recipients are humans, there’s homologous recombinaltion tiniker. That DNA is incorporated into the host DNA. Now it’s changed, altered self and body kills it. Where is this most expressed? The neurons of the brain. Now you have body killing the brain cells and it’s an ongoing inflammation. It doesn’t stop, it continues through the life of that individual.”

The stuff about vaccines being just about the money just kill me (not literally — I had my shots). There’s a lot more money in treating illness than preventing it. The increase in average lifespan we’ve enjoyed the last couple hundred years aren’t from the money we spend on geriatric care or transplants or cancer treatments. There are two causes:

Sanitation
Vaccines

Without them, we’d be lucky to survive long enough to suffer the debilities of old age.

Does this article quailfy Andy? We are talking about injury from the MMR vaccine right?

Acute encephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death

Pediatrics. 1998 Mar;101(3 Pt 1):383-7.

Acute encephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death associated with further attenuated measles vaccines: a review of claims submitted to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine if there is evidence for a causal relationship between acute encephalopathy followed by permanent brain injury or death associated with the administration of further attenuated measles vaccines (Attenuvax or Lirugen, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Kansas City, MO), mumps vaccine (Mumpsvax, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), or rubella vaccines (Meruvax or Meruvax II, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), combined measles and rubella vaccine (M-R-Vax or M-R-Vax II, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), or combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (M-M-R or M-M-R II, Merck and Co, Inc, West Point, PA), the lead author reviewed claims submitted to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

METHODS: The medical records of children who met the inclusion criteria of receiving the first dose of these vaccines between 1970 and 1993 and who developed such an encephalopathy with no determined cause within 15 days were identified and analyzed.

RESULTS: A total of 48 children, ages 10 to 49 months, met the inclusion criteria after receiving measles vaccine, alone or in combination. Eight children died, and the remainder had mental regression and retardation, chronic seizures, motor and sensory deficits, and movement disorders. The onset of neurologic signs or symptoms occurred with a nonrandom, statistically significant distribution of cases on days 8 and 9. No cases were identified after the administration of monovalent mumps or rubella vaccine.

CONCLUSIONS: This clustering suggests that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy exists as a complication of measles immunization.

In your article the expert Neil Halsey says, ” As I’m certain you know, Dr. Andrew Wakefield was the originator of the hypothesis that MMR causes autism,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “We have known for more than 10 years that the science behind his studies was seriously flawed. We now know through recent publications, that the studies were based upon fraudulent evidence.”

Earlier this year, British authorities found Wakefield’s research unethical, noting four counts of dishonesty and 12 counts abuse of autistic children through invasive and unnecessary testing.”

Here’s some science, from 5 different countries, that back Wakefield’s work;

Furlano R, Anthony A, Day R, Brown A, Mc Garvey L, Thomson M, et al. “Colonic CD8 and T cell filtration with epithelial damage in children with autism.“ J Pediatr 2001;138:366-72.

Torrente F., Machado N., Perez-Machado M., Furlano R., Thomson M., Davies S, Walker-Smith JA, Murch SH. “Enteropathy with T cell infiltration and epithelial IgG deposition in autism.” Molecular Psychiatry. 2002;7:375-382

Ashwood P, Anthony A, Pellicer AA, Torrente F. “Intestinal lymphocyte populations in children with regressive autism: evidence for extensive mucosal immunopathology.” Journal of Clinical Immunology, 2003;23:504-517.

Gonzalez, L. et al., “Endoscopic and Histological Characteristics of the Digestive Mucosa in Autistic Children with gastro-Intestinal Symptoms“. Arch Venez Pueric Pediatr, 2005;69:19-25.

Balzola, F., et al., “Panenteric IBD-like disease in a patient with regressive autism shown for the first time by wireless capsule enteroscopy: Another piece in the jig-saw of the gut-brain syndrome?” American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2005. 100(4): p. 979- 981.

S. Walker, K. Hepner, J. Segal, A. Krigsman “Persistent Ileal Measles Virus in a Large Cohort of Regressive Autistic Children with Ileocolitis and Lymphonodular Hyperplasia: Revisitation of an Earlier Study”

Balzola F et al . “Autistic enterocolitis: confirmation of a new inflammatory bowel disease in an Italian cohort of patients.” Gastroenterology 2005;128(Suppl. 2);A-303.

The minnesota independent contacted who? Dr.Paul Offit, the man who sells his vaccines for profit, is this the guy your asking for advice on vaccines? its like having a fox watch a hen house. Give me a break here and do some real reporting!

Profit for medicines is bad. Someone tell this to everyone selling alternative medical treatments, acupuncture, or any other kind of woo.

Vaccines are demonstratively a good thing. The Anti-vaccine Movement is demonstratively bad (see recent measles outbreak in Floyd, VA). It’s simple.

Maybe it would surprise Ofitt to learn that while the FDA requires no greater than 10ng of human DNA in vaccines, Dr Deisher’s studies are showing a huge discrepancy. They have tested vials of the vaccines using aborted fetal cell lines (and there are more than just one from 1961) The results show an average of 135 ng of human DNA. That DNA IS MOST CERTAINLY a problem in more ways than one, as Dr Deisher’s testimony will reveal. Wonder if Ofitt will bother reading it or just go off on his own to make more money from the pharms?

So Wakefield was charged with “12 counts of abuse of autistic children through invasive and unnecessary testing”.

It’s funny that not one of the parents of these kids filed a complaint. Read their story in the book titled, “Crying Shame”. You can contact these parents Andy. They are not hiding.

Anyway, every charge against Wakefield has come from the ? payrolled reporter Brian Deer. Where does he get his income?

Correction: The name of the book from the last post should be “Silenced Witnesses”, not “Crying Shame”. Please accept my apology.

Maggy, do you know what ppb means? It means parts per billion. It is a very useful way to measure things like environmental contamination, but it is not a relevant statistic to quote when discussing mercury in vaccines. The total mass of mercury in an injection from the 1990′s is about half that in a can of tuna. You have been hornswoggled.
http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/vaccinesafety/ucm096228.htm#intro
http://www.pbs.org/now/science/mercuryinfish.html
Also, FYI, evidence of encephalitis is not evidence of autism, and defending Wakefield (who was pushing his own vaccine) just makes you look like a fool.

JLA, are you extracting the mercury from the tuna and injecting it into newborns. Now that would be a legitimate comparsion.

So Wakefield was trying to patent a monovalent measles vaccine. How do you patent something that has already existed for over 50 years?

Because it is a different vaccine, of course.

You brought up drinking water. Does anyone extract the mercury from drinking water and inject it into newborns, or was your comparison illegitimate?