Nikki Haley HPV Bill Veto: Bakari Sellers' SC Vaccination Measure For Middle Schoolers Fails

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has vetoed a Democratic-sponsored bill aimed at providing seventh-graders with a free HPV vaccine.

Lexington (S.C.) Patch reports that the measure picked up support across both sides of the partisan aisle, with a 63-40 House vote and 40-2 Senate vote in favor of passing the initiative.

Haley defended her Tuesday veto, calling the bill unnecessary and a "precursor to another taxpayer-funded healthcare mandate," the Charleston Post and Courier reports.

State Rep. Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg, S.C.) sponsored the bill and blasted Haley's move, calling her decision one that "puts her own selfish political ambitions ahead of the people of South Carolina."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/nikki-haley-hpv-bill-bakari-sellers-south-carolina_n_1612709.html

---

The party of women.

[MightyOkie]

1. Haley is flat wrong on this.

The doctors I know believe this vaccine is very important in outright preventing cancer. IMO, this vaccine should be front burner stuff for the administration,

[FiveGoodMen]

3. "doctors I know believe this vaccine is very important in outright preventing cancer"

Well there's your answer.

There's lots of money to be made from cancer treatment and none to be made from preventing it.

If you don't think republicans are that twisted and evil...

[TheWraith]

6. Actually, cancer treatment isn't very profitable.

Expensive, yes, but not profitable.

[lame54]

20. one's expense is another's profit

[TheWraith]

24. No, it's not.

Profit is cost minus expenses. Cancer treatment is expensive because it uses highly specialized machinery, along with lots and lots of testing, and hospital stays. All of those are expenses, not profit.

[lame54]

30. expenses is money paid out...

and there is always someone to receive that payout

[TheWraith]

33. By that logic, employee payroll is a HUGE profit center.

Again, "expensive" means that it requires a lot of effort to make. Not that it's necessarily profitable. Thousands upon thousands of man-hours to make and tune the extremely expensive machines, hundreds of man-hours spent handling testing and results, paying nurses to handle patient care, and a hundred other things cancer treatment requires. None of that means that it's "profitable" to some big nebulous evil corporation that makes money off cancer. Cancer is treated using precision machines and incredibly cheap, non-patented drugs. It's expensive because it's hard to do. To reduce "lots of money" to "very profitable" fails basic economics.

[lame54]

34. who said corporations?...

employees get paid

that's their profit

nurses work and come home with a paycheck - that's their profit


when money changes hands it doesn't disappear

one's expense is another's profit

[TheWraith]

38. So there's a conspiracy by nurses to avoid curing cancer? Seriously?

The truth is, there is no logical motivation to not cure cancer, on the part of anyone.

[lame54]

41. WTF are you talking about?...

I made a statement

One's expense is another's profit

Which is true because spent money does not disappear - it ends up in someone's pocket

there is no conspiracy - nurses are not evil - but they do expect to get paid

companies make these machines - they are not a charity - they expect to get paid

The men who work those hundreds of hours expect to get paid

"It's expensive because it is hard to do." - Agreed

but, again, the money doesn't disappear

i repeat - WTF are you talking about?

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Its because God wants you to be able to die from having sex.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. That's another possibility

Depends on whether Nikki is more of a fundy nut or just the average greedy corporatist.

[Scairp]

44. That's it exactly

Only because this cancer-causing virus is sexually transmitted are they having such a cow over one more vaccine. Has anyone seen all the shots children get these days? This crap about not imposing "another" needless injection on children is utter bullshit. Like the ones we already inflict on newborns and then at regular intervals for the next 6 yrs? It's just bullshit. My daughter is getting it as soon as she turns 9 and I wish it had been around when my other daughters were still children.

[xchrom]

2. Life under anti-science tyrants. Nt

[ForgoTheConsequence]

4. The anti vaccine crowd strikes again.

They exist on both the left and the right unfortunately.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. how sad

[McCamy Taylor]

7. Headlines should read "Nikki Haley supports cervical cancer!"

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Yes they should. And the Dem Party should spend some money making sure that message gets out.

[proverbialwisdom]

11. CBS News: Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out (aka, don't let the facts get in your way).

http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/09/michele-bachman-meet-dr-diane-harper-lead-researcher-for-gardasil-vaccine.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500690_162-5253431.html

September 15, 2011

Gardasil Researcher Speaks Out

By Sharyl Attkisson

(CBS) Amid questions about the safety of the HPV vaccine Gardasil one of the lead researchers for the Merck drug is speaking out about its risks, benefits and aggressive marketing.

Dr. Diane Harper says young girls and their parents should receive more complete warnings before receiving the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. Dr. Harper helped design and carry out the Phase II and Phase III safety and effectiveness studies to get Gardasil approved, and authored many of the published, scholarly papers about it. She has been a paid speaker and consultant to Merck. It's highly unusual for a researcher to publicly criticize a medicine or vaccine she helped get approved.

Dr. Harper joins a number of consumer watchdogs, vaccine safety advocates, and parents who question the vaccine's risk-versus-benefit profile. She says data available for Gardasil shows that it lasts five years; there is no data showing that it remains effective beyond five years.

This raises questions about the CDC's recommendation that the series of shots be given to girls as young as 11-years old. "If we vaccinate 11 year olds and the protection doesn't last... we've put them at harm from side effects, small but real, for no benefit," says Dr. Harper. "The benefit to public health is nothing, there is no reduction in cervical cancers, they are just postponed, unless the protection lasts for at least 15 years, and over 70% of all sexually active females of all ages are vaccinated." She also says that enough serious side effects have been reported after Gardasil use that the vaccine could prove riskier than the cervical cancer it purports to prevent. Cervical cancer is usually entirely curable when detected early through normal Pap screenings.

Dr. Scott Ratner and his wife, who's also a physician, expressed similar concerns as Dr. Harper in an interview with CBS News last year. One of their teenage daughters became severely ill after her first dose of Gardasil. Dr. Ratner says she'd have been better off getting cervical cancer than the vaccination. "My daughter went from a varsity lacrosse player at Choate to a chronically ill, steroid-dependent patient with autoimmune myofasciitis. I've had to ask myself why I let my eldest of three daughters get an unproven vaccine against a few strains of a nonlethal virus that can be dealt with in more effective ways."

<...>

Copyrighted article (excerpt above) posted in full within AoA essay by J.B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue.

Multiple related embedded links in article at AoA source and CBS.

[CottonBear]

12. Are you a man?

Because no women that I know want to contract HPV, undergo the associated surgeries, pregnancy risks associated with cervical surgery (scars can cause the cervix to be unable to dilate fully thus requiring an epidural and then manual dilation to allow normal vaginal birth to occur) and the risk of falling ill from cervical cancer.

[proverbialwisdom]

14. That's not all.

http://truthaboutgardasil.org/about-2/

Let’s see what Dr.Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines and director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, told an audience of medical professionals on October 25, 2009.

And remember, this is coming from a developer of the Gardasil vaccine! She says, “Gardasil is largely unnecessary, and that it has never been fully tested on females under the age of 15. This, despite strong marketing efforts to make the drug mandatory for girls, and product literature and advertising that state the product can be used by girls as young as age 9."

Dr. Harper’s remarks were made to an audience at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination. During this talk, she said 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year, and that within two years that number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent, she said, only half will develop into cervical cancer, resulting in “little need for the vaccine.” She also said incidences of cervical cancer are steadily decreasing with conventional treatments and preventative measures.

Add this to the fact that Merck’s own website says this vaccine is not intended to take the place of regular check ups and pap smears.

<...>

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/24/hpv-vaccine-victim-sues-merck.aspx

In fact, Merck only studied the Gardasil vaccine in fewer than 1,200 girls under 16 prior to it being released to the market under a fast-tracked road to licensure...

There are more than 100 types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) and Gardasil protects against only 4 types but 90 percent of women naturally clear HPV from their bodies within two years, at which point cervical cells return to normal.

The cervical cancer death rate is very low in the United States (3 per 100,000), as this cancer is usually entirely curable when detected early enough through PAP screenings, which have reduced cervical cancer rates by 70 percent in the U.S. since PAP screens have become a routine part of women’s health care.

http://www.nvic.org/Vaccines-and-Diseases/HPV.aspx

SEE: Selected Print Media Reports

[div]

[proverbialwisdom]

15. Oops. post #14 is response to post #11.

[Posteritatis]

16. lawl, AoA link. (nt)

[proverbialwisdom]

19. It's the summary of a CBS interview with one of Gardasil's chief developers at Merck.

Plenty more can be found at AoA by doing a site search for Gardasil, but only if you want to be well informed.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

18. head and neck cancers can be caused by HPV

http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/statistics/headneck.htm

[Odin2005]

21. You should be banned for spamming that Age of Autism woo-shit.

[proverbialwisdom]

23. Censorship, really? I think your assessment of AoA is wrong and that name-calling should be banned.

Frankly, I've never initiated any of the blow-ups over http://www.ageofautism.com/ . It's extremely easy to defend the site if you read it, hard to factually attack it. We disagree, if you want just put me on ignore.

[TheWraith]

26. It's only easy to defend if you think that science is the same thing as bullshit.

It's like "defending" climate change denial. All you have to do is be completely immune to facts.

The attempt to link vaccines to autism has LONG since been disproven as a total and complete fraud--literally fraud, as the "researcher" was censured for deliberately falsifying his results in order to create a link that wasn't there. Dozens of other studies have proven that there is no link, whatsoever. And yet people continue spamming this utter bullshit that there is, reusing the same disproven talking points and claims, and never get held accountable. It's a slightly higher tech version of saying that the Earth is flat, and just repeatedly stating that despite all proof to the contrary.

[proverbialwisdom]

27. You are misinformed. The field is highly dynamic and you are not up-to-date.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=147996

Post 97. http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html

April 3, 2012

Dr. Walter Zahorodny Believes Vaccines Cause Autism. And Geri Dawson???

[TheWraith]

32. No, it's not "highly dynamic." You're simply spreading lies.

One kook website publishing something doesn't make it true. Science proves things true, and science has shown that there is NO LINK, whatsoever, between vaccines and autism. Arguing otherwise is like arguing in favor of birtherism: the continual belief that facts aren't really facts.

[proverbialwisdom]

35. You are misinformed, but don't bother reading. You might learn something you don't want to hear.

I cited sources providing and analyzing very recent AUDIO RECORDINGS (WNYC, NPR) OF INTERVIEWS w CDC vetted experts.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2012/apr/02/autism-rates-rise-new-jersey/

AUDIO (starts at 13:20): [img]http://www.wnyc.org/widgets/ondemand_player/#file=%2Faudio%2Fxspf%2F197065%2F;containerClass=[/img]


The Brian Lehrer Show
Autism Diagnosis Rates on the Rise in New Jersey
Monday, April 02, 2012

Walter Zahorodny, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, discusses the reasons why New Jersey's autism rate is one of the highest in the country, according to a report released last week by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Zahorodny was the lead researcher on the New Jersey portion of the study.

Kurt Andersen (Seth Mnookin's friend): “I guess we know what they (the causes of autism) aren’t, for instance childhood vaccines. Right?”

Dr. Zahorodny: “Vaccines don’t play a significant role in autism increasing. Some small number of children probably do have autism because of an adverse vaccine reaction, but they don’t make for the overall rise.”

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/04/02/autism-numbers-skyrocket

AUDIO (starts at 40:57): http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/04/02/autism-numbers-skyrocket/player


Monday, April 2, 2012 at 10:00 AM
Autism Numbers Skyrocket

[img][/img]

Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks.

Ashbrook: "Dr. Dawson, here's a question online from Melrose, has the link between MMR vaccine and autism been completely discredited. I notice that the word 'vaccine' has not even come up so far in this hour. Is that...for some years that had a lot of attention, is that off the table now, Dr. Dawson?"

Dr. Dawson: "There is no evidence that the increase in prevalence that we're seeing in Autism Spectrum Disorder is linked to the MMR vaccine. You know, if vaccines play a role, and there has not been any evidence thus far to show that it has, it would be a very small minority of individuals who have an underlying medical condition where the vaccine may have triggered an onset of symptoms for an already existing condition or vulnerability. So we do not believe that vaccines are an explanation of the increase and we strongly encourage parents to get their children vaccinated."

http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-walter-zahorodny-believes-vaccines.html

April 3, 2012
Ginger Taylor

...Ashbrook, like Andersen, took the initiative of bringing the vaccine question into the interview, and in both cases it was merely an invitation to declare the vaccine hypothesis DOA. And neither Zahorodny or Dawson took the opportunity to do so!

They BOTH could have said, "Correct." And just moved on. But they didn't!

They both contradicted their interviewers presumptive statements, and said a version of, "Incorrect, vaccines do cause autism in some children, and it is a smaller number of cases than people think, but I don't see that vaccine induced autism could be playing a major factor in the increase."

IMHO... no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that these two didn't know exactly what they were doing. They had every chance to run from vaccine causation and they didn't. They confirmed it. Then they minimized it.

We have just witnessed the very quiet pushing of the envelope. Dr. Geri Dawson and Dr. Walter Zahorodny have just joined you and me and all our friends in taking our position that vaccines cause some cases of autism, just not all the cases of autism. Now we are only separated by the degree in which we believe the vaccine induced autism is a factor in the skyrocketing autism numbers.

<...>

[TheWraith]

37. And what you're claiming is still total and utter bullshit.

Autism diagnosis rates are rising because more disorders are being classified into the autism spectrum. Meanwhile, diagnoses of personality and learning disorders OUTSIDE the autism spectrum are plummeting. In other words, there is absolutely no evidence that there is more autism now than there was 20 years ago.

So basically, all you're left with is a chain of "logic" which requires birther-level distrust of reality to believe. One "scientist" doesn't completely say that vaccines causing autism is bullshit, and he's living proof that it's true; every other serious scientist says that's bullshit, and the newest research shows that the development of autism begins before birth, long before any vaccines could be administered, but they're all psychopathic liars who apparently want to torture children.

But what's the point? You're clearly not interested in doing anything other than defending a discredited pseudo-scientific fraud, using whatever spin you need in order to do it.

[proverbialwisdom]

40. I predict your views will one day inhabit the dustbin of medical history.

Last edited Mon Jun 25, 2012, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Your viciousness is blinding you to reason. I am not making my own claims, obviously. Read Martha Herbert's new book about autism (she 'strongly encourages vaccination. That said, we need more data on how children who have autism and perhaps other known or unseen vulnerabilities respond to the current vaccination protocol,' so you should have absolutely no remotely valid objection):

INTRODUCTION: From Seeing What You Believe to Believing What You See

This book is based on real stories of children and adults with autism who didn't follow the textbooks. They got better - some dramatically so. Although I changed their names and was vague on details to protect their privacy, I was meticulous in sticking to the facts of their stories and letting their experiences direct how I explained the science.

Textbooks do not include the possibility that people with autism get this much better. Neither does a lot of scientific research.

In that sense, you may say that I have gotten ahead of the science. Not everyone will be able to get such fabulous results for themselves or their child. But I have confidence that science and medicine will make these advances possible to many more people going forward.

As I have dug into current research to write this book, I have been stunned by how much science there is to support the approaches parents are taking to get their kids better. Karen Weintraub, an experienced science journalist who has shared this journey with me, has been equally amazed. Every day our internet alerts and Listservs overflow with research publications and news stories asbout every area we discuss, and their findings are largely resonant with what we are explaining in this book.

<...>

Why are my ideas about autism so different from many other people's? I think there are three answers. One, as I'll describe in the first chapter, patients in my pediatric neurology practice at Harvard didn't fit what I had been taught. Two, my research yielded insights I could never have expected. And three, I lucked out in terms of timing. My rethinking of autism coincided with an explosion of science on so many different levels.

This book has been informed by entirely new fields with names like epigenetics, systems biology, gut microbioogy, nutrigenomics, and metabolomics, as well as new revelations in neurology, gastroenterology, environmental science and immunology. We have new tools that allow us to screen tens of thousands of genes in less time than it used to take us to find one. We can now examine single neurons or watch how clumps of them interact. We can explore how the balance of microbes in people's guts changes their health and their brains. New technologies and new research have uncovered previously hidden interconnections, allowing us to frame autism in a way that simply wasn't possible even five years ago.

But this is fundamentally not a science book. It is a book of success stories that make sense biologically.

I believe these triumphs have huge implications for medicine and science and the way we think about autism - and perhaps for much more. I believe it is so dramatic that it calls for a revolution in how we think and what we do.

MARTHA HERBERT, MD, PhD

[img][/img]

http://www.health.harvard.edu/books/the-autism-revolution

After years of treating patients and analyzing scientific data, prominent Harvard researcher and clinician Dr. Martha Herbert offers a revolutionary new view of autism and a transformative strategy for dealing with it.

Autism is not a hardwired impairment programmed into a child’s genes and destined to remain fixed forever, as we’re often told. Instead, it is the result of a cascade of events, many seemingly minor: perhaps a genetic mutation, some toxic exposures, a stressful birth, a vitamin deficiency, and a series of infections. And while other doctors may dismiss your child’s physical symptoms—the diarrhea, anxiety, sensory overload, sleeplessness, immune challenges, and seizures—as coincidental or irrelevant, Dr. Herbert sees them as vital clues to what the underlying problems are, and how to help. In The Autism Revolution, she teaches you how to approach autism as a collection of problems that can be overcome—and talents that can be developed. Each success you achieve gives your child more room to become healthy and to thrive.

Drawing from the newest research, technologies, and insights, as well as inspiring case studies of both children and adults, Dr. Herbert guides you toward restoring health and resiliency in your loved one with autism. Her specific recommendations aim to provide optimal nutrition, reduce toxic exposures, shore up the immune system, reduce stress, and open the door to learning and creativity—all by understanding and truly meeting your child’s needs. As thousands of families who have cobbled together these solutions themselves already know, this program can have dramatic benefits—for your child with autism, and for you, your whole family, and your next baby as well.

A paradigm-changing book that offers hope and healing for the millions of families who have autism in their lives, The Autism Revolution shows that there’s plenty you can do every day to give someone you love the best possible gift: a life lived to the fullest potential.

Martha Herbert, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is the director of the TRANSCEND Research Program. She sits on the Scientific Advisory Committee for Autism Speaks.
Karen Weintraub, MA, is an award-winning journalist and freelance health writer for outlets like The Boston Globe, USA Today, and the BBC. A past recipient of a prestigious Knight Center for Science Journalism fellowship, she also teaches journalism at the Harvard Extension School and Boston University.

For more info visit www.AutismRevolution.org

[arikara]

39. Its good info but you're whistling in the wind

Some just don't care to listen, read or learn anything beyond that which fits into their own little box. "Science" is always the excuse, but its only the very narrow spectrum of it which fits into their worldview, that is acceptable to them.

With this one, ignore is your friend.

[proverbialwisdom]

29. Last off-topic post on this thread by me.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/07/dear-dr-novella.html

Dr. Jon Poling to Dr. Steven Novella: Don't Attack the Moms

Managing Editor's Note: The following is a letter sent to Dr. Steven Novella, a neurologist at Yale University, from Dr. Jon Poling. (We've printed the letter with permission.) Dr. Novella is the founder of The New England Skeptical Society (meetings, 1st Tuesday of the month, on the lawn of the House of the Seven Gables, Salem, MA. BYOB (bring your own blinders.) and is a contributing editor to Quackwatch. Dr. Poling is a neurologist/PhD and the father of Miss Hannah Poling.

Dear Dr. Novella,

Your assertion that the scientific question of Autism etiology belongs to the medical community rather than Hollywood Stars is correct. I also agree that Hollywood opinions are more likely to be broadcast to millions because of their position in the media. This heightened awareness is nothing but a positive thing for the million families struggling with this difficult, and all too common, disorder. Jenny McCarthy is an Autism Mom looking for answers and rattling some cages—good for her. Amanda Peet is a new mom who believes in the importance of vaccines to protect her baby—good for her too. Don’t attack the moms, listen to them.

These issues are very complex as we exchanged before and not amenable to soundbites. Regarding your entry on Hannah’s case, your blog entry unfortunately propagates several of the mistakes from the media.

In criticizing the journalism of Mr. David Kirby, you wrote:

“He refers again to the Hannah Poling case, a girl with a mitochondrial disorder who developed a neurodegenerative disorder with “features of autism” after getting a fever from vaccines.”

Actually—Hannah has diagnoses of DSM-IV Autism (by JHU/KKI psychology) and mitochondrial disorder (by two metabolic experts). The only ‘degeneration’ that occurred (along with 6mos of total growth failure) after 18mos of NORMAL development followed vaccination and nothing else! Of course, any ‘scientist’ can obviously point out that temporal correlation in a single case never proves causation. Rule number one of pediatrics though is “LISTEN TO THE MOM.” Are 10s of thousands of autism moms over the last decade suffering from mass hysteria induced by Hollywood? Not likely.

You also noted:

“This special case - which is not a case of autism being caused by toxins in vaccines - says nothing about the broader vaccine-autism debate.”

The only thing unique about my little girl’s case is the level of medical documentation—5 to 20% of patients with ASDs have mitochondrial dysfunction. Many other cases where mitochondrial testing is WNL is because "we never looked" not because the testing would be "within normal limits." Most mitochondrial experts will tell you that the dots of autism and mitochondrial disorders are strongly connected.

Finally, you say:

“The case was settled (not judged in Poling’s favor, but settled) because both sides realized it was a special case that could not be extrapolated to other vaccine-autism cases.”

The case was not settled, it was conceded by medical representatives of Sec HHS. We are obviously pleased with the HHS decision to concede our case, but we had NOTHING to do with the concession. This was a unilateral decision from HHS (recall that HHS is the respondent, rather than the vaccine maker, as manufacturers have blanket liability protection afforded by the Vaccine Injury Program established in 1986) I will not speculate on the obvious question—why concede? Hannah’s case was positioned to set precedent as a test case in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings for potentially thousands of other cases.

With regard to the science of Autism, I have no argument with the assertion that a single case does not prove causation of a generalized autism-vaccine link. What the case does illustrate though is a more subtle point that many physicians cannot or do not want to comprehend (ostensibly because vaccines are too important to even question). Autism is a heterogeneous disorder defined by behavioral criteria and having multiple causes. Epidemiological studies which have not found a link between autism and aspects of vaccination do not consider the concept of autism subgroups. Indeed, in a heterogeneous disorder like Autism, subgroups may indeed be ‘vaccine-injured’ but the effect is diluted out in the larger population (improperly powered study due to inability to calculate effect size with unknown susceptible subpopulation). I think former NIH Director, Dr. Bernadine Healey explained it best in that population epidemiology studies are not “granular” enough to rule-out a susceptible subgroup.

Furthermore, ‘science’ has not systematically studied the children who fell ill following vaccination to determine what the cause(s) for their adverse reaction was. It would follow that if you never tried to understand why a single child developed encephalopathy following vaccination—you wouldn’t have the first clue as to what aspects of vaccination you could alter which could increase the relative risk of that adverse event (whether it be thimerosal, live virus, or ‘too many’). Could the susceptibility be a mitochondrial genetic haplogroup similar to Chloramphenicol toxicity—sure it could! Why did a few Alzheimer’s patients die of fatal encephalitis following administration of the failed AN-1792 vaccine, but the majority had no ill effects (vaccine didn’t work though)?

Definition: Autism is a heterogeneous systemic disorder with primary neuropsychiatric manifestations due to complex genetic and gene-environmental interactions likely affecting synaptic plasticity early in childhood development. This new theory of Autism is rapidly replacing the ‘old guard’ dictum that Autism is a genetically predetermined developmental brain disorder of synaptic formation/pruning that is set in motion prenatally. By the ‘10 year rule of science,’ your time is about up!

Until the biological basis of ASD subgroups are better understood, further epidemiological and genetic studies regarding “Autism” causation will be relatively meaningless. We need good science to be able to address these complex issues which parallel nicely the emerging story of genetic and environmental influences in Parkinson’s disease. Perhaps some Parkinson’s researchers want to take a crack at Autism?

Recommended SCIENCE reading for the evening:

Altered calcium homeostasis in autism-spectrum disorders: evidence from biochemical and genetic studies of the mitochondrial aspartate/glutamate carrier AGC1. Mol Psychiatry 2008 Jul 8. (The discussion includes thimerosal as a potential toxin that could trigger further perturbations of calcium homeostasis leading to neuronal injury—and in a mainstream Nature publication no less)

Thank-you Dr. Novella and his band of skeptics for continuing the debate.

Dr. Jon Poling

Jon S. Poling MD PhD
Managing Partner, Athens Neurological Associates
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Medical College of Georgia
Diplomate, American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine
ASN Certified in MRI and CT Neuroimaging

Posted by Age of Autism at July 22, 2008

[TheWraith]

25. Age of Autism is a kook site spreading pseudoscience.

The contents of their site range from twisted half-truths to completely made up lies, including attributing statements and studies that simply do not exist.

[proverbialwisdom]

28. That's totally ludicrous, AoA is precisely the opposite of what you describe.

Disregarding the original analyses and anecdotal information the site provides still leaves a wealth of meticulous commentary on sources from peer-reviewed journals, government reports, and hearings. Try reading it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=147061

Post 78.

The Princeton-Harvard (Blaxill), Yale (Olmsted), Stanford (Handley, Kuo Habakus), Johns Hopkins (Taylor), Berkeley (Belkin) educated parents who comprise much of the core of AgeofAutism are not so easily discredited, although I can fully understand how desirable that might be to some. These INCREDIBLY SMART, INFORMED, CREDIBLE, HIGHLY IMPRESSIVE AND COMMITTED PARENTS drill down into the nitty-gritty of the comforting narratives we're all provided in what used to be called 'investigative journalism.'

The AoA site is filled with examples.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/10/hepatitis-b-vaccine-an-unmitigated-disaster-.html

My name is Michael Belkin. I am a father, businessman, former quantitative strategist at Salomon Brothers, and Director of the Hepatitis B Vaccine Project of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC).
...As a UC Berkeley graduate and advisor to some of the largest financial institutions in the world, I am qualified to analyze and make conclusions about statistics.

<...>

Truth is the only agenda.

[Odin2005]

31. War is Peace! Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength!!!

[Botany]

13. what the fuck is wrong w/ these people?

stopping a disease that kills thousands of women is a bad thing?

[JI7]

17. fuck her

[savalez]

22. She was for it before she was against it.

In 2007 Haley co-sponsored legislation called the “Cervical Cancer Prevention Act” that would have required every eleven-year-old girl in the Palmetto state to receive a vaccination against HPV.

I guess it was just politics then as it is now.

Hypocrite!

[proverbialwisdom]

36. Related news from the UK and India.

http://www.rsm.ac.uk/media/pr305.php

21 June 2012

Controversial vaccine trial should never have been run in India, researchers say

Research published today in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine raises further questions about a trial of HPV vaccines in India.

The trial, which has now been halted and is the subject of an investigation by the Indian government, was examining the safety and feasibility of offering a vaccine against the virus associated with cervical cancer.

<...>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2162834/Warning-bells-HPV-vaccines.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Warning bells against HPV vaccines
By Dinesh C Sharma

PUBLISHED:14:45 EST, 21 June 2012 | UPDATED:14:45 EST, 21 June 2012

Scientific evidence does not support rolling out vaccines against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) in the general population, British researchers have warned India. HPV is linked to cervical cancer.

This comes in a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine on Thursday, in the backdrop of intense lobbying to introduce the vaccines in government funded programmes.

Pending a final decision, the vaccines are being aggressively promoted through doctors, social media and publicity campaigns by drug companies - GSK and Merck. PATH, a charity supported by Bill Gates, is also keen to promote the two vaccines in India.

<...>

[proverbialwisdom]

42. Stumbled on this quite accidentally yesterday.

Summary of proposals in state legislatures across the country:

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/hpv-vaccine-state-legislation-and-statutes.aspx

[img][/img]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9889-exposed-the-other-alecs-corporate-playbook

Exposed: The Other ALECs' Corporate Playbook

Thursday, 21 June 2012 00:00
By Steve Horn and Sarah Blaskey, Truthout | News Analysis

How is it that no matter whom we elect as our state representatives - Democrat, Republican, or other - we most often end up with policies that privilege the corporate agenda over the public interest?

It's a simple question, raised by laws promoting charter schools, fracking, union-busting, privatization, deregulation, and countless other corporate-friendly policies that have spread like wildfire around the country, particularly in recent legislative sessions.

As it turns out, the answer is relatively simple. Big business in the United States has perfected a legislative "playbook" - a methodical strategy for turning the wish list of multinational corporations into a state-level policy agenda with bipartisan support.

The specific details of legislative processes are many and intricate, yet the corporate playbook for exploiting state-level policy is straightforward and critical to understand.

<...>

The three largest "other ALECs," and the most influential Groups in state politics are the Council of State Governments (CSG), the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF). There are similarities in processes and structure among these organizations, but there are also several important differences.

[proverbialwisdom]

43. Update - S.C. House upholds Haley veto on HPV vaccine

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/06/26/2908683/sc-house-upholds-haley-veto-on.html

Tuesday, Jun. 26, 2012

S.C. House upholds Haley veto on HPV vaccine

By Seanna Adcox

COLUMBIA -- The South Carolina House failed Tuesday to override Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto of a bill intended to provide information on and access to a free vaccine that prevents a sexually transmitted, cancer-causing virus.

The House’s 54-47 vote killed the bill, which called for informational brochures on the vaccine for human papillomavirus, known as HPV, to be provided to parents of sixth-graders. Parents could choose to have their seventh-graders receive the vaccine. The bill specifies those provisions depend on funding.

A two-thirds majority was needed for the override.

The socially conservative Republican governor opposed the bill on several fronts. She called it a suspended unfunded mandate, while arguing it’s unnecessary.

“It does not make or keep any child from having that vaccine,” she said Tuesday. “It does nothing.”

She said the important issue needs to be discussed by parents, their children and their doctor, without involving the government. Health agencies don’t need to tell parents what to do, she said.

<...>

[proverbialwisdom]

45. New wedge issue, very emotional. Democrats, take heed.

ATTENTION: Democrats, beware the backlash unless a more nuanced approach is adopted. This is trouble.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2012/06/tea-party-joins-canary-party-in-opposing-vaccine-mandates-in-california.html#comments

Tea Party Joins Canary Party in Opposing Vaccine Mandates in California

By Kent Heckenlively
June 27, 2012

<...>

While the Canary Party seeks to be a non-partisan group interested in the health rights of our society and full and rigorous scientific research in the health risks of medical treatments and the unintended consequences of new chemicals introduced into our environment, we must be willing to join with more partisan organizations if they share our values on these issues. In California it is regrettable that the democratic members of the assembly support this bill while the republican members oppose it. But those are the facts on the ground and we must accept conditions as we find them and act accordingly. We hope that the democrats will reconsider their position.

<...>

In addition, I am working closely with a member of the Core Council in order to craft a message to take to national Tea Party organizations. I encourage all parents and those interested in the issue of vaccine safety to work with whatever organizations in their community might be supportive of these efforts. And if you are a democrat, I strongly encourage you to contact your party and tell them to get on the right side of AB2109 as well.

Kent Heckenlively is Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.

AWFUL COMMENTS FOR OBAMA SUPPORTERS!!

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=8386606

Bill lets minors get HPV vaccine without parents' OK

Monday, October 10, 2011

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGO) -- One of the bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown is setting off a firestorm among parents and religious groups. It gives young girls access to a life-saving vaccine without getting their parent's permission.

Starting Jan. 1, 2012, California minors as young as 12 years old have the right to get preventative treatment for sexually transmitted diseases without parental permission. That includes the HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix, which help prevent many strains of cervical cancer.

<...>

The governor's signature, though, touched off a firestorm with critics saying it intrudes on parental rights.

The Masinas family likes the availability of an anti-cancer vaccine but doesn't like the government encouraging kids to go behind their parents' backs. "I think the parents should be involved in that decision; I don't agree with as young as 12 without parental permission," Martinez mother Beverly Masinas said.

Social conservatives are angry that taxpayer money could be used to pay for the series of three shots over several months that could cost up to $500 per child.

<...>

In addition to the HPV vaccine, the law also allows 12-year-olds to get other STD prevention treatments, including hepatitis shots and medication to reduce the risk of HIV infection after exposure.

Of course, the real objections (neither cost, nor sexuality) are described above.

[proverbialwisdom]

46. Upper right-hand corner editor's posts not archived, as far as I can tell, so here's today's.

http://www.ageofautism.com/

From the Editor: A-political

Just to restate as the political season heats up: Those who write and comment here will have different political views, but AOA does not. We're A-political: We focus on Autism, not parties or people. All are welcome here.

[caroll31]

47. SC Statehouse gives this as the summary of this legislation

Not sure if this is the most recent version, but the SC Statehouse gives this as the summary of this legislation. Note that the vaccine is not required to enter school and it allows for the vaccine to be offered at public health departments

[proverbialwisdom]

48. More here. Note the multiple iterations of the bill since 2006.

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20120620/PC16/120629940/haley-vetoes-hpv-vaccination-bill-aimed-at-middle-schoolers

Gov. Nikki Haley vetoes HPV vaccination bill aimed at middle-schoolers

ByStephen Largen and Renee Dudley

Posted: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 12:11 a.m.
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 20, 2012 12:36 a.m.


<...>

Haley, the mother of a 14-year-old daughter, said parents should have the right to decide whether their daughters receive the vaccination.

Backstory: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/health/hpv-vaccine-state-legislation-and-statutes.aspx