Fallout from Meet the Press: THERE JUST ISN'T A LINK
Reporting like their jobs depend on it
As expected, Donald Trump saying that Robert Kennedy, Jr. would be looking into a link between vaccines and autism on Meet the Press on December 8th drew immediate fire from mainstream news outlets.
What are they afraid Kennedy might find?
USA Today had Dr. Marc Siegel raising an alarm over the prospects of Kennedy at HHS and Dr. Dave Weldon as head of the CDC in a piece entitled, Vaccine skeptics like Trump nominees Kennedy, Weldon are threat to public health | Opinion
First Siegel recalled the wonders of the COVID 19 vaccine done at “warp speed.” He credited President Trump with promoting this rapid response to COVID, but attacked his choices for key health care positions.
Siegel cited Dr. Paul Offit, conveniently omitting the fact that Offit has made millions off the invention of a rotavirus vaccine. Offit explained how scrupulously vaccines are studied before they’re licensed.
I found it interesting that Siegel only mentioned AUTISM one time in the entire piece, and that was in paragraph 11, in a sentence where he went after Weldon.
Weldon in the past has promoted false claims that vaccines are linked to autism.
So much for autism
Marc Siegel is typical of mainstream medicine today. Autism, a disorder that’s always increasing with no known cause, prevention or cure, now affecting three percent of U.S. children, is inconsequential to Siegel. He seems totally oblivious to what’s really happening to children.
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“Discredited”
U.S. News published a piece by Robin Foster, a reporter from Health Day. The title was, Trump Says RFK Jr. Free to Revisit Discredited Autism/Vaccine Link
While this clearly should have been labeled an opinion piece, it was in Health News.
If Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is approved to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, he will be free to revisit a long-debunked link between autism and childhood vaccines, President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday.
Foster assured us that autism has always been around.
Welker also noted that there's been no connection found between vaccines and autism, and increases in autism diagnoses are probably tied to greater screening and awareness of the developmental disorder.
“Debunked” is the word of the day
The now debunked link between autism and childhood vaccines was first claimed in 1998 by a British doctor who was later banned from practicing medicine. His research was found flawed and was subsequently retracted, NBC News reported.
False numbers
Lots of sites are saying that in 2000, the autism rate was one in 150 children, which simply wasn’t the case, as reported by Johns Hopkins. The rate of one in 150 is from 2007. Previously, it was one in 166. Before that it was one in 250.
Then in 2009, it was one in 110 children. In 2012, it became one in 88. In 2014, autism grew to one in 68, and in 2018, one in 59. In 2020, it was one in 54. In 2021, it was one in 44, and finally, the latest, and it’s sure to increase again soon, is one in 36.
For each of these statistics the rate for boys was four times higher. More of the mystery we have all the time in the world to figure out.
Bad genes and the never defined, “other factors”
Autism diagnoses have spiked about 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 today, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, scientists have reported on a strong genetic link to the complex disorder, along with other factors.
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The New York Times ran a piece entitled, Trump Suggests Kennedy Will Examine Debunked Link Between Vaccines and Autism, by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, who covers health policy for The Times from Washington. She told us autism isn’t anything new and blamed Dr. Andrew Wakefield for the controversy over autism and vaccines.
President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has promoted the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism for more than a decade, suggested on Sunday that he would have his choice for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., look into the issue.
“I think somebody has to find out,” Mr. Trump said on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” after his interviewer, Kristen Welker, brought up autism in the context of a conversation about Mr. Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines.
Mr. Trump noted that autism cases in the United States have risen in recent decades, and said he was “open to anything” when asked if Mr. Kennedy would look into it. . . .
Autism diagnoses have indeed been increasing in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 36 American children now has a diagnosis of autism, compared with one in 150 in 2000. Experts attribute the rise to greater awareness and improvements in identification of children who exhibit a variety of symptoms classified together as “autism spectrum disorder.”
The theory that vaccines cause autism gained currency in 1998, after a British researcher published a medical journal article that purported to find a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism. That article has since been retracted, and its author has been stripped of his medical license. . . .
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The Hill joined in the fray in Trump voices support for RFK Jr.’s vaccine views, suggests Kennedy will research debunked autism link, by Nathaniel Weixel
Kennedy has spent decades religiously promoting the theory that childhood vaccines have led to an increase in autism and chronic illnesses, despite studies repeatedly showing otherwise..
Blaming Dr. Wakefield
The Hill also promoted the false narrative about Dr. Wakefield by ignoring what really happened. Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, was approached by parents who told him that their children developed bowel disease and autism after the MMR vaccine.
Officials had to discredit Wakefield’s questions about the MMR vaccine because the British government had indemnified the vaccine makers, and the government would be liable if a link between the vaccine and autism/GI damage were clearly shown.
The debunked theory connecting autism and childhood vaccines first garnered major attention in 1998, when a paper published in a British medical journal purported to find a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.
The study, which was based on only 12 children, was eventually retracted. A panel concluded author Andrew Wakefield violated basic research ethics rules and subjected the children in his study to needless invasive tests for which he did not have approval. Wakefield was then banned from practicing medicine in Britain.
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It’s so predictable exactly what the media will do when the controversy over vaccines and autism hits the news.
First, they downplay all the staggering increases in the autism rate with the time honored claim of better diagnosing, greater awareness. Any and all increases are totally acceptable. It’s of no concern to them that our rate of one in 36 will, no doubt, keep claiming more children.
No reporter ever asks when the increases will stop or why the rate is always from studies of eight year olds, not eighty year olds.
They typically blame bad genes and vague environmental factors (which never include vaccines).
All the above mentioned reporters are fine with the never-ending onslaught of autism around the world
They seem terribly naïve about what other factors are at play here, or else, they lack the courage to ask critical questions and do real investigative reporting.
QUESTIONS NOT ASKED
What is really at stake here for mainstream medicine, health officials and most notably the media who’ve all been in denial for so long?
How much does the revenue from pharmaceutical advertising influence news coverage of vaccines and autism?
What would be the impact if it were clearly shown that unsafe, unchecked, ever-expanding vaccine schedule was behind the worldwide explosion in autistic children?
Why have the vaccine makers and doctors administering vaccines been protected against lawsuits for any vaccine injuries?
Why doesn’t the media ever look into the vast web of ties between Big Pharma and our health regulators? Who really runs HHS and the CDC?
Who funded the studies used to “debunk” a link between vaccines and autism? What about the conflicts of interest waivers of the experts telling us there is no link?
How long can the increases continue before they finally stop? Already it’s one in every 22 children in California and nearly one in 20 in Florida. The rate is one in 25 children in Australia, one in 23 in Scotland, one in 21 in Ireland and one in 20 in Northern Ireland.
Why isn’t anyone alarmed over these statistics, and the really big question: HOW ARE WE GOING TO SUPPORT HUGE NUMBERS OF DISABLED ADULTS IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE?
Why don’t reporters ever talk about the fact that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has quietly compensated over eighty cases of vaccine-induced autism, while health officials continue to deny a link?
Why does the media ignore the case of Hannah Poling? She also claimed to have vaccine-induced autism and the feds agreed. Her case was conceded by the government in 2008.
Honestly, no one really wants to talk about what autism is doing to the human race, but whatever rate you choose to believe, one in 36 or one in 22, you need to consider just how serious this is.
30 percent of these children have what is described as “profound autism” according to health officials at the CDC.
30 percent of these children are “minimally verbal” or nonverbal.
30 percent of these children experienced regression or a loss of learned skills in early childhood. Something impacted their development, yet health officials have never wanted to study these children.
Robert Kennedy threatens to expose everything that’s been covered up for so many years. I suspect that Dr. Marc Siegel, Robin Foster, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Nathaniel Weixel and everyone else claiming to do honest reporting will have to double down on their efforts to try and make all this go away. Their jobs will depend on it.
Your thoughts?