Since there are several large studies now demonstrating that there is no difference in the rates of autism between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, this obviously means that there are some unvaccinated children diagnosed with autism. How does Kennedy explain that? Or does he just deny this inconvenient fact? As the number of unvaccinated children increases, the number of unvaccinated children with autism will grow. Somebody should do a long-term study on unvaccinated children and document all the disabilities they have, including autism. Autism has been with us since long before vaccines, even if we didn't always identify it correctly, and eliminating vaccines will not magically eliminate autism, no matter how much we wish it so. I wish some good sleuthing reporter would research and write about all the unvaccinated kids with autism.
Dr. Hickie I'm not sure "Kathy Maxwell" is a real person? Account has no posts except a strange share from a McCullough spam site, and a random smattering of Likes on things like Kevin Sorbo. Or could be legit... Substack attracts such a welter of impervious-to-facts anti-vax zealots for some reason. Sigh. Report/Block, rinse, repeat.
The smear of Kennedy by Offit reminds me of the smear of Trump by the Democrats..Russian collusion, 3 impeachments, multiple indictments, two assassination attempts..yet he has prevailed and the people of this great country have spoken. Jealousy and hatred are overcome by good will. I hope and pray Kennedy will prevail. Anyone who proclaims they are science, like Fauci, and who promotes the COVID vaccine in healthy children, like Offit are in my humble opinion, are self centered government and big pharma sponsored puppets. The times are changing and it is the biggest breath of fresh air to my soul. Let’s keep digging and get out the worms and drain the swamp that has soured us to the point of poison.
So you did not read the post? Offit is not claiming that there are studies "demonstrating that there is no difference in the rates of autism between vaccinated and unvaccinated children." He can't make that claim (and neither can you), because those studies haven't been done.
Vaccines are the cause in nearly all cases. Previously often from mercury toxicity, now as well as previously from vaccine encephalitis, causing severe brain damage.
The irony of Offit. Thank God RFKjr, and not this jab fanatic. Offit projects his own special denial of excellent studies, promotes his pure propaganda, and calls anyone who disagrees with with is BS a "Aids denialist", "Climate denialist, blah, blah--all the standard ad homium attacks. Offit traffics in the greatest medical lie: Before vaccines and antibiotics, millions died. The truth? Deaths from infectious diseases had already dropped to zero or near zero. Think about it. See link below:
Those of us who are capable of reviewing the “real data” for ourselves are quite clear about the lack of credible evidence that vaccines cause autism. We are equally clear that common childhood vaccines save lives and help to avoid needless suffering.
The timing of the decline of infectious diseases in the 20th century were associated with vaccination campaigns, not sanitation - especially since different diseases had timetables associated with vaccines, not soap. The deniers are desperate to avoid reality. It's a cult. Funny how so many anti-vaxxers went to the hospital if their gamble didn't work out, they should have stayed away, gone to a church or vitamin store ...
Wrong About Polio: A Review of Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk’s “Dissolving Illusions” Part 1 (the long version)
This is a longer version of my post on Friday, November 9th, 2018. It is a lengthy discussion of why Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk’s book Dissolving Illusions misrepresents the dangers of polio, one in a series of posts that should comprehensively show the problems with their claims. It covers far more than just polio, but is worthwhile for those interested in the details. — Joel A. Harrison on November 10, 2018
Against serious discussion of vacvine damage, are you? I left a message for Cassidy Monday evening saying that those at risk of hep-B should get the vaccine, but most are not, but thousands react to the vaccine with autism. I said we had to get a handle on vaccine damage, and Kennedy is the only one we have in position right now to do that. Cassidy proposed several meetings with Kennedy every month to discuss the issues. Do you propose gagging everyone so that we cant tell others of our childrens vaccine damage? You neednt answer that, M, you have made your position clear.
The truly tragic events are only beginning to unfold with DJT & his pathetic group of selfish sycophants...although I am beginning to wonder if EM is really in charge... regardless,every day there is another or multiple examples of what will result in a 'river of tears'. I am not be American yet the world will feel the impact of who was elected & unselected & sadly it may take years to recover 😥🇨🇦 JJF
p.s. I could likely copy & paste this to every comment noted 'below' but I cannot read those that are blind to the reality of the liars who have & will be elevated to positions of 'authority' &/or enable to damage the US former position of humanity is just for all within & outside the geographic boundaries of the USA
From the paper referenced in your opening sentence,
“We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described.”
Literally nowhere in the paper did the authors claim that MMR vaccination causes autism.
This is why people don’t trust establishment voices in medicine anymore. If your argument is solid, you don’t need to make misleading statements to get people on side.
So, Offit should have written what the paper actually says. Instead, he led with misinformation in his opening sentence. Not likely to build trust with any readers who care about facts.
The MMR DOES often cause autism, although I refused it fir my daughter: her autism was caused bu the hep-B and DTaP vaccines. Wakefield did the world a service in making it aware of the connection between the measles vaccine, autism, and bowel disease.
I think what the below commenter, Daj, meant to say was - I'm awfully sorry to hear that your daughter has this life altering condition and I wish you and your family all the best in making sense of it and having a full and happy life.
You have no evidence that MMR , hep-B, or Dtap cause autism. Wakefield lied about the connection and he knew full well that he lied. If you want to blame your daughter's condition on some factor you should consider your own genetics. Studies on twins have demonstrated strong genetic factors associated with ASD.
"Using an appropriate meta‐analytic statistical approach we demonstrated that the etiology of ASD in a combined sample is more consistent with strong genetic influences."
No but Wakefield and his medical school held a huge press conference on the release day of the paper where he stated the association explicitly multiple times. And it made giant headlines around the world. So please stop claiming he didn't claim it in the paper because he sure as had claimed it in promoting the paper.
Yes, he stated his empirical observations and suggested further research, per scientific norms.
What he didn't do was claim that MMR vaccines cause autism - per my comment above, he expressly stated in the paper that his research did not prove this causal relationship.
If people want to talk science, they need to actually talk science, not broad brush sensationalised headlines. It undermines trust.
I think it’s us parents and grandparents that are old enough to remember the childhood diseases that these vaccines helped, speak to our kids how important they are. Seems that this is where it is taking us. The responsibility is on our backs now.
You won’t believe until children die from preventable diseases. That’s the only thing that will convince you. And when it happens, their innocent blood will be on your hands.
Beyond the obvious disappointment about RFK Junior and the unanimous Republican support for him is shame on Senator Bill Cassidy MD, who has broken his oaths to Medicine and governing integrity by nonetheless supporting his nomination.
Cassidy required discussions of vaccines with K several times a month. They will learn from each other. I admire and respect that Cassidy voted for him.
That’s cool. However, that is quite naive to think promised chats will change decades of anti-scientific and anti-vaccination actions, or supersede the millions of dollars rfk will continue making while undermining confidence in vaccines while selling onesies. I very much disagree with you, and likely your stances on scientific integrity.
There have been more than a dozen studies in multiple countries with tens of thousands of children, which have all demonstrated no association between autism with childhood vaccines. With not one quality study suggesting there IS an association.
I know there’s no way I will break through the “big pharma” conspiracy theory insanity. But at the very least, could you explain to me why the rates of learning disability and intellectual disability (what used to be called “mental retardation”) went DOWN the same amount as the rates of autism have increased over the past 40 years? Using the RFK/anti-vaxx thought process that would mean vaccines actually CURE those conditions, right?
So is that what you believe?
Or maybe, just maybe, you are seeing a rise in autism primarily because of diagnostic substitution, as well as increased awareness.
Granted there’s no “big pharma” bad guy you can rally against if you go with that. But isn’t that the problem with reality? It’s not always like the movies?
Being unvaccinated is fundamentally not a choice; we were born this way. The premise of being “unvaccinated by choice” is as absurd as “having two hands by choice”. Sure, you can choose to chop off your hands, that’s your choice, but it is not a choice for normal humans to have two hands; it is just what we are.
A healthy immune system is an innate part of what we are. Vaccination is a bio-technological intervention designed to alter it irreversibly.
The transhumanist mindset posits that humans are incomplete, or deficient, without technological intervention. It’s sort of a mirror of the religious belief that humans are born sinful and must be saved by faith, which involves certain rituals.
Good point! all in on herbs, etc. No opposition to vax as “option” “option” being the point…as well as adherence to informed consent — transparency of all data—very against smear campaigns, which the likes of Offit must rely
I disagree. Nature’s way involves huge massacres of both healthy and unhealthy. Shortly after the appearance of a new pathogen, no one’s immune system knows how to cope, and many die. And then they learn, and fewer die. Being healthy and well-nourished offer protection against many established diseases most of the time. Kennedy is wrong to say that mo well-nourished person can get a serious case of any contagious disease.
If there were a vacvine available, that is one option which could be considered, and it would nearly always cause the production of protective antibodies. Or it might trash your immune system forever, making it hyperreactive and causing allergic and autoimmune disease. People’s choice. We can also consider vitamins and herbs, homeopathic remedies and mosodes, safer alternatives.
An addition to the playbook: Pretend you're all for a vaccine if it gets you nominated to a powerful position.
Bobby was trashing the polio until very recently when he told Sen. Susan Collins that he is all for the vaccine. Collins should have asked him why he changed his position.
What "new" thing did he learn? No doubt it was something already well known for years. Yet, he preached against it. Which means:
(1) he makes dangerous definitive pronouncements which destroy lives -- without doing the basic homework, or (2) he just lies. Maybe he has a worm in his heart as well as his brain.
The database platform Mawson used to access Florida Medicaid data, DEVEXI was-- without disclosure of course --almost certainly funded by wealthy anti-vaccinationist Albert Dwoskin. How convenient to have the data filtered through such an anti-vaccine platform before you even start to analyze it!
I'm more than ever convinced that RFK Jr lied more than once during his sworn testimony before the Congress. Specifically irritating was his crazy charge that a Senator from Vermont "had received millions from Pharma.....etc." as you are telling us now that It Ain't So. RFK Jr is also a cringeworthy bullshitter who in my opinion dropped some chosen verbiage into his testimony comments, probably stuff he was given during a pre-testimony preparation performed by his staff, in order that use of certain delicious terminology would make him Appear Erudite. Please! If this guy is erudite then I am Bob Hope returned from the grave.
I allude here to Kennedy's haughty comment near the end of Day One that, ". . . . . .we need to look harder at studies that have not rejected the null". I guarantee you that this guy does not know jack-shit about statistical hypothesis testing. Too bad that the questioner (a medical doctor) did not come right back at him and ask, "Well, let me ask you this Mr. Kennedy, can you tell this committee in plain English what a confidence interval around a point estimate is".
Dr Offit: "In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a now discredited doctor in the United Kingdom, published a paper claiming that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism"
Dr Wakefield: "We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue."
Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
A J Wakefield, et. al. THELANCET • Vol 351 • February 28, 1998
Where in the refered document can be read that Andrew Wakefield stated that MMR vaccine causes autism? Who is really spreading missinformation?
Anyone who makes claims of knowledge about the benefits of some vaccine, or how vaccines improved human longevity, is lying. While you are free to believe the medical or scientific opinions of others, the moment you present your second-hand beliefs as your knowledge of empirical facts, you make a false claim; you are lying. You only know an opinion, not whether that opinion is true, and why should anyone care about your opinion about an opinion of another.
If, on the other hand, you have conducted a placebo controlled study of longevity or morbidity that compares a randomised vaccinated cohort and those who were never vaccinated with any vaccine, then I am interested in your evidence and methodology, but even this would not constitute knowledge of any generalised causative fact; it only gives more credence to certain assumptions.
I acknowledge your right to take any vaccine you desire, and to believe any scientific or medical opinions that you find persuasive. You may state you assumptions or opinions, as assumptions or as opinions, not assert them as Knowledge of empirical facts. Lying in order to promote any unproven medical interventions will not be tolerated here.
"...the moment you present your second-hand beliefs as your knowledge of empirical facts, you make a false claim; you are lying."
So Edward, how have you attained your first hand knowledge of vaccinology? Because if you don't have first hand knowledge according to a reliable source "you are lying!"
A recent SBM has a apt description of Edward's views:
Since there are several large studies now demonstrating that there is no difference in the rates of autism between vaccinated and unvaccinated children, this obviously means that there are some unvaccinated children diagnosed with autism. How does Kennedy explain that? Or does he just deny this inconvenient fact? As the number of unvaccinated children increases, the number of unvaccinated children with autism will grow. Somebody should do a long-term study on unvaccinated children and document all the disabilities they have, including autism. Autism has been with us since long before vaccines, even if we didn't always identify it correctly, and eliminating vaccines will not magically eliminate autism, no matter how much we wish it so. I wish some good sleuthing reporter would research and write about all the unvaccinated kids with autism.
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/study-vaccinated-children-autism-risk-increase/?utm_id=20250202
The irony that you did not read Dr. Offit's post is stunning.
Dr. Hickie I'm not sure "Kathy Maxwell" is a real person? Account has no posts except a strange share from a McCullough spam site, and a random smattering of Likes on things like Kevin Sorbo. Or could be legit... Substack attracts such a welter of impervious-to-facts anti-vax zealots for some reason. Sigh. Report/Block, rinse, repeat.
The smear of Kennedy by Offit reminds me of the smear of Trump by the Democrats..Russian collusion, 3 impeachments, multiple indictments, two assassination attempts..yet he has prevailed and the people of this great country have spoken. Jealousy and hatred are overcome by good will. I hope and pray Kennedy will prevail. Anyone who proclaims they are science, like Fauci, and who promotes the COVID vaccine in healthy children, like Offit are in my humble opinion, are self centered government and big pharma sponsored puppets. The times are changing and it is the biggest breath of fresh air to my soul. Let’s keep digging and get out the worms and drain the swamp that has soured us to the point of poison.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/
God Bless America.
So you did not read the post? Offit is not claiming that there are studies "demonstrating that there is no difference in the rates of autism between vaccinated and unvaccinated children." He can't make that claim (and neither can you), because those studies haven't been done.
/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1681&context=pelr
Did he ever say vaccines were the ONLY cause of autism? Did anyone?
Is it beyond your comprehension that there may be multiple causes?
Vaccines are the cause in nearly all cases. Previously often from mercury toxicity, now as well as previously from vaccine encephalitis, causing severe brain damage.
They're linked in the post, which you clearly didn't read or comprehend.
No surprises there...this is rombios we are talking about after all.
The irony of Offit. Thank God RFKjr, and not this jab fanatic. Offit projects his own special denial of excellent studies, promotes his pure propaganda, and calls anyone who disagrees with with is BS a "Aids denialist", "Climate denialist, blah, blah--all the standard ad homium attacks. Offit traffics in the greatest medical lie: Before vaccines and antibiotics, millions died. The truth? Deaths from infectious diseases had already dropped to zero or near zero. Think about it. See link below:
https://substack.com/@romanbystrianyk/note/c-86518624?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=ege8u
GO RFKjr!! Show us the real data!!!
Those of us who are capable of reviewing the “real data” for ourselves are quite clear about the lack of credible evidence that vaccines cause autism. We are equally clear that common childhood vaccines save lives and help to avoid needless suffering.
The timing of the decline of infectious diseases in the 20th century were associated with vaccination campaigns, not sanitation - especially since different diseases had timetables associated with vaccines, not soap. The deniers are desperate to avoid reality. It's a cult. Funny how so many anti-vaxxers went to the hospital if their gamble didn't work out, they should have stayed away, gone to a church or vitamin store ...
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/wrong-about-polio-a-review-of-suzanne-humphries-md-and-roman-bystrianyks-dissolving-illusions-part-1-the-long-version/
Wrong About Polio: A Review of Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk’s “Dissolving Illusions” Part 1 (the long version)
This is a longer version of my post on Friday, November 9th, 2018. It is a lengthy discussion of why Suzanne Humphries, MD and Roman Bystrianyk’s book Dissolving Illusions misrepresents the dangers of polio, one in a series of posts that should comprehensively show the problems with their claims. It covers far more than just polio, but is worthwhile for those interested in the details. — Joel A. Harrison on November 10, 2018
more about Humphries and her promotion of hoaxes: http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2013/11/783-suzanne-humphries.html
What an unmitigated shit show this has become. Shame on physician Cassidy for voting to send this nomination to the Senate floor.
If RFK gets confirmed Cassidy will have to answer to history .
I weep for my country.
Thank you Paul Offit for continuing to sound the alarm.
Against serious discussion of vacvine damage, are you? I left a message for Cassidy Monday evening saying that those at risk of hep-B should get the vaccine, but most are not, but thousands react to the vaccine with autism. I said we had to get a handle on vaccine damage, and Kennedy is the only one we have in position right now to do that. Cassidy proposed several meetings with Kennedy every month to discuss the issues. Do you propose gagging everyone so that we cant tell others of our childrens vaccine damage? You neednt answer that, M, you have made your position clear.
The truly tragic events are only beginning to unfold with DJT & his pathetic group of selfish sycophants...although I am beginning to wonder if EM is really in charge... regardless,every day there is another or multiple examples of what will result in a 'river of tears'. I am not be American yet the world will feel the impact of who was elected & unselected & sadly it may take years to recover 😥🇨🇦 JJF
p.s. I could likely copy & paste this to every comment noted 'below' but I cannot read those that are blind to the reality of the liars who have & will be elevated to positions of 'authority' &/or enable to damage the US former position of humanity is just for all within & outside the geographic boundaries of the USA
Such an elegant response. Totally predicable.
You wouldn’t believe Jesus Christ if he told you this science was the truth.
That’s your problem. It should be reversed
From the paper referenced in your opening sentence,
“We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described.”
Literally nowhere in the paper did the authors claim that MMR vaccination causes autism.
This is why people don’t trust establishment voices in medicine anymore. If your argument is solid, you don’t need to make misleading statements to get people on side.
"Literally nowhere in the paper did the authors claim that MMR vaccination causes autism."
True. but they did state:
"...suggests that the connection is real and reflects a unique disease process."
In addition, the article was based on outright data manipulation and fraud: https://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452
So, Offit should have written what the paper actually says. Instead, he led with misinformation in his opening sentence. Not likely to build trust with any readers who care about facts.
The MMR DOES often cause autism, although I refused it fir my daughter: her autism was caused bu the hep-B and DTaP vaccines. Wakefield did the world a service in making it aware of the connection between the measles vaccine, autism, and bowel disease.
I think what the below commenter, Daj, meant to say was - I'm awfully sorry to hear that your daughter has this life altering condition and I wish you and your family all the best in making sense of it and having a full and happy life.
You have no evidence that MMR , hep-B, or Dtap cause autism. Wakefield lied about the connection and he knew full well that he lied. If you want to blame your daughter's condition on some factor you should consider your own genetics. Studies on twins have demonstrated strong genetic factors associated with ASD.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4996332/
they conclude:
"Using an appropriate meta‐analytic statistical approach we demonstrated that the etiology of ASD in a combined sample is more consistent with strong genetic influences."
No but Wakefield and his medical school held a huge press conference on the release day of the paper where he stated the association explicitly multiple times. And it made giant headlines around the world. So please stop claiming he didn't claim it in the paper because he sure as had claimed it in promoting the paper.
Yes, he stated his empirical observations and suggested further research, per scientific norms.
What he didn't do was claim that MMR vaccines cause autism - per my comment above, he expressly stated in the paper that his research did not prove this causal relationship.
If people want to talk science, they need to actually talk science, not broad brush sensationalised headlines. It undermines trust.
I think it’s us parents and grandparents that are old enough to remember the childhood diseases that these vaccines helped, speak to our kids how important they are. Seems that this is where it is taking us. The responsibility is on our backs now.
Where did you get that fake news.
You won’t believe until children die from preventable diseases. That’s the only thing that will convince you. And when it happens, their innocent blood will be on your hands.
Can you provide a link to the source data/charts, rather than the amateurish graphs produced by an antivax website?
Beyond the obvious disappointment about RFK Junior and the unanimous Republican support for him is shame on Senator Bill Cassidy MD, who has broken his oaths to Medicine and governing integrity by nonetheless supporting his nomination.
Cassidy required discussions of vaccines with K several times a month. They will learn from each other. I admire and respect that Cassidy voted for him.
That’s cool. However, that is quite naive to think promised chats will change decades of anti-scientific and anti-vaccination actions, or supersede the millions of dollars rfk will continue making while undermining confidence in vaccines while selling onesies. I very much disagree with you, and likely your stances on scientific integrity.
There have been more than a dozen studies in multiple countries with tens of thousands of children, which have all demonstrated no association between autism with childhood vaccines. With not one quality study suggesting there IS an association.
I know there’s no way I will break through the “big pharma” conspiracy theory insanity. But at the very least, could you explain to me why the rates of learning disability and intellectual disability (what used to be called “mental retardation”) went DOWN the same amount as the rates of autism have increased over the past 40 years? Using the RFK/anti-vaxx thought process that would mean vaccines actually CURE those conditions, right?
So is that what you believe?
Or maybe, just maybe, you are seeing a rise in autism primarily because of diagnostic substitution, as well as increased awareness.
Granted there’s no “big pharma” bad guy you can rally against if you go with that. But isn’t that the problem with reality? It’s not always like the movies?
Being unvaccinated is fundamentally not a choice; we were born this way. The premise of being “unvaccinated by choice” is as absurd as “having two hands by choice”. Sure, you can choose to chop off your hands, that’s your choice, but it is not a choice for normal humans to have two hands; it is just what we are.
A healthy immune system is an innate part of what we are. Vaccination is a bio-technological intervention designed to alter it irreversibly.
The transhumanist mindset posits that humans are incomplete, or deficient, without technological intervention. It’s sort of a mirror of the religious belief that humans are born sinful and must be saved by faith, which involves certain rituals.
Good point! all in on herbs, etc. No opposition to vax as “option” “option” being the point…as well as adherence to informed consent — transparency of all data—very against smear campaigns, which the likes of Offit must rely
I disagree. Nature’s way involves huge massacres of both healthy and unhealthy. Shortly after the appearance of a new pathogen, no one’s immune system knows how to cope, and many die. And then they learn, and fewer die. Being healthy and well-nourished offer protection against many established diseases most of the time. Kennedy is wrong to say that mo well-nourished person can get a serious case of any contagious disease.
If there were a vacvine available, that is one option which could be considered, and it would nearly always cause the production of protective antibodies. Or it might trash your immune system forever, making it hyperreactive and causing allergic and autoimmune disease. People’s choice. We can also consider vitamins and herbs, homeopathic remedies and mosodes, safer alternatives.
What huge massacres of the healthy from novel pathogens have occurred?
apt analysis of the evasion and distraction
Dr. Offit, Thank you for your knowledge and factual reports. We need them!
An addition to the playbook: Pretend you're all for a vaccine if it gets you nominated to a powerful position.
Bobby was trashing the polio until very recently when he told Sen. Susan Collins that he is all for the vaccine. Collins should have asked him why he changed his position.
What "new" thing did he learn? No doubt it was something already well known for years. Yet, he preached against it. Which means:
(1) he makes dangerous definitive pronouncements which destroy lives -- without doing the basic homework, or (2) he just lies. Maybe he has a worm in his heart as well as his brain.
Another major undisclosed COI:
The database platform Mawson used to access Florida Medicaid data, DEVEXI was-- without disclosure of course --almost certainly funded by wealthy anti-vaccinationist Albert Dwoskin. How convenient to have the data filtered through such an anti-vaccine platform before you even start to analyze it!
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-trashing-of-science-by-robert-f-kennedy-jr/
I'm more than ever convinced that RFK Jr lied more than once during his sworn testimony before the Congress. Specifically irritating was his crazy charge that a Senator from Vermont "had received millions from Pharma.....etc." as you are telling us now that It Ain't So. RFK Jr is also a cringeworthy bullshitter who in my opinion dropped some chosen verbiage into his testimony comments, probably stuff he was given during a pre-testimony preparation performed by his staff, in order that use of certain delicious terminology would make him Appear Erudite. Please! If this guy is erudite then I am Bob Hope returned from the grave.
I allude here to Kennedy's haughty comment near the end of Day One that, ". . . . . .we need to look harder at studies that have not rejected the null". I guarantee you that this guy does not know jack-shit about statistical hypothesis testing. Too bad that the questioner (a medical doctor) did not come right back at him and ask, "Well, let me ask you this Mr. Kennedy, can you tell this committee in plain English what a confidence interval around a point estimate is".
Dr Offit: "In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a now discredited doctor in the United Kingdom, published a paper claiming that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism"
Dr Wakefield: "We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described. Virological studies are underway that may help to resolve this issue."
Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children
A J Wakefield, et. al. THELANCET • Vol 351 • February 28, 1998
Where in the refered document can be read that Andrew Wakefield stated that MMR vaccine causes autism? Who is really spreading missinformation?
Keep up the good fight Dr Offit. Continue to point out the irrationality, irresponsibility and inaccuracy of Kennedy‘s comments. Thank you.
Anyone who makes claims of knowledge about the benefits of some vaccine, or how vaccines improved human longevity, is lying. While you are free to believe the medical or scientific opinions of others, the moment you present your second-hand beliefs as your knowledge of empirical facts, you make a false claim; you are lying. You only know an opinion, not whether that opinion is true, and why should anyone care about your opinion about an opinion of another.
If, on the other hand, you have conducted a placebo controlled study of longevity or morbidity that compares a randomised vaccinated cohort and those who were never vaccinated with any vaccine, then I am interested in your evidence and methodology, but even this would not constitute knowledge of any generalised causative fact; it only gives more credence to certain assumptions.
I acknowledge your right to take any vaccine you desire, and to believe any scientific or medical opinions that you find persuasive. You may state you assumptions or opinions, as assumptions or as opinions, not assert them as Knowledge of empirical facts. Lying in order to promote any unproven medical interventions will not be tolerated here.
"...the moment you present your second-hand beliefs as your knowledge of empirical facts, you make a false claim; you are lying."
So Edward, how have you attained your first hand knowledge of vaccinology? Because if you don't have first hand knowledge according to a reliable source "you are lying!"
A recent SBM has a apt description of Edward's views:
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/we-are-not-antivaccine-we-are-pro-unattainable-vaccine/
I don’t understand why Senator Cassidy an MD would support this nomination.
Because a few doctors feel concern for human life in a positive way.
Lack of a spine has something to do with it.