Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Yes, Virginia there ARE Two Sides to Vaccines [View all]proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)65. Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health, in 2008:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-open-question-on-vaccines-and-autism/
By SHARYL ATTKISSON
CBS NEWS
May 12, 2008, 5:09 PM
The "Open Question" On Vaccines and Autism
Perhaps the most puzzling thing about autism and ADD is that more than a decade into this public health crisis, our best, smartest government scientists and public health officials still say they have no idea what's causing it. Scary stuff, when parents having a child today realize there's at least an estimated 1 in 150 chance their child will have an autism disorder (1 in 90 if it's a boy).
While the government has been utterly unable to stop it, or even tell us what is causing it, they say they do know one thing: it's not vaccines. But today, in an exclusive interview with CBS News, Dr. Bernadine Healy becomes the most well-known medical voice yet to counter the government on that claim.
Healy's credentials couldn't be more "mainstream." After all, she once was a top government health official as head of the National Institutes of Health. She founded the first school of public health in Ohio, and then headed both the school of public health and the school of medicine at Ohio State University. She's an internist and cardiologist. And she's a member of the Institute of Medicine, the government advisory board that tried to put the vaccine-autism controversy to rest in 2004 by saying a link was not likely.
Click below to watch a Web-exclusive extended cut of Sharyl's interview with Dr. Healy: VIDEO AT LINK
According to Healy, when she began researching autism and vaccines she found credible published, peer-reviewed scientific studies that support the idea of an association. That seemed to counter what many of her colleagues had been saying for years. She dug a little deeper and was surprised to find that the government has not embarked upon some of the most basic research that could help answer the question of a link.
The more she dug, she says, the more she came to believe the government and medical establishment were intentionally avoiding the question because they were afraid of the answer.
Why? Healy says some in the government make the mistake of treating vaccines as an all-or-nothing proposition. The argument goes something like this: everybody gets vaccinated at the same time with the same vaccines or nobody will get vaccinated and long-gone deadly diseases will re-emerge. (When I asked about cases of brain damage resulting in autism that have been quietly compensated by the government in vaccine court over the years, one government official recently told me that "it's still better overall to get vaccinated than not to get vaccinated."
Healy says the argument need not be framed in those terms (vaccinate or don't vaccinate). Instead, she says, we should vaccinate, but work to do it in the safest manner possible based on what we know and what we can find out.
That's what the parents of autistic children have told me as well. If we can screen children to see which ones might be more susceptible to vaccine side effects, and vaccinate them on a more personalized schedule that is safer for them, why wouldn't we? If it's safer for all children to have their vaccinations spread out, why wouldn't we? Healy says it's called "personalized medicine" and is being done in virtually all areas of medicine today with the exception of vaccines. Yet the government continues to frame the conversation in all-or-nothing, "one-size-fits-all" terms.
<>
By SHARYL ATTKISSON
CBS NEWS
May 12, 2008, 5:09 PM
The "Open Question" On Vaccines and Autism
Perhaps the most puzzling thing about autism and ADD is that more than a decade into this public health crisis, our best, smartest government scientists and public health officials still say they have no idea what's causing it. Scary stuff, when parents having a child today realize there's at least an estimated 1 in 150 chance their child will have an autism disorder (1 in 90 if it's a boy).
While the government has been utterly unable to stop it, or even tell us what is causing it, they say they do know one thing: it's not vaccines. But today, in an exclusive interview with CBS News, Dr. Bernadine Healy becomes the most well-known medical voice yet to counter the government on that claim.
Healy's credentials couldn't be more "mainstream." After all, she once was a top government health official as head of the National Institutes of Health. She founded the first school of public health in Ohio, and then headed both the school of public health and the school of medicine at Ohio State University. She's an internist and cardiologist. And she's a member of the Institute of Medicine, the government advisory board that tried to put the vaccine-autism controversy to rest in 2004 by saying a link was not likely.
Click below to watch a Web-exclusive extended cut of Sharyl's interview with Dr. Healy: VIDEO AT LINK
According to Healy, when she began researching autism and vaccines she found credible published, peer-reviewed scientific studies that support the idea of an association. That seemed to counter what many of her colleagues had been saying for years. She dug a little deeper and was surprised to find that the government has not embarked upon some of the most basic research that could help answer the question of a link.
The more she dug, she says, the more she came to believe the government and medical establishment were intentionally avoiding the question because they were afraid of the answer.
Why? Healy says some in the government make the mistake of treating vaccines as an all-or-nothing proposition. The argument goes something like this: everybody gets vaccinated at the same time with the same vaccines or nobody will get vaccinated and long-gone deadly diseases will re-emerge. (When I asked about cases of brain damage resulting in autism that have been quietly compensated by the government in vaccine court over the years, one government official recently told me that "it's still better overall to get vaccinated than not to get vaccinated."
Healy says the argument need not be framed in those terms (vaccinate or don't vaccinate). Instead, she says, we should vaccinate, but work to do it in the safest manner possible based on what we know and what we can find out.
That's what the parents of autistic children have told me as well. If we can screen children to see which ones might be more susceptible to vaccine side effects, and vaccinate them on a more personalized schedule that is safer for them, why wouldn't we? If it's safer for all children to have their vaccinations spread out, why wouldn't we? Healy says it's called "personalized medicine" and is being done in virtually all areas of medicine today with the exception of vaccines. Yet the government continues to frame the conversation in all-or-nothing, "one-size-fits-all" terms.
<>
PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT: "This is the time when we do have the opportunity to understand whether or not there are susceptible children, perhaps genetically, perhaps they have a metabolic issue, mitochondrial disorder, immunological issue that makes them more susceptible to vaccines, plural, or to one particular vaccine, or to one component of vaccines, like mercury. So we now, in these times have to take another look at that hypothesis; not deny it. I think we have the tools today that we didnt have 10 years ago. That we didnt have 20 years ago . . . to try and tease that out and find out if there is indeed that susceptible group. Why is that important? A susceptible group does not mean that vaccines arent good. What a susceptible group will tell us is that maybe there is a group of individuals or a group of children that shouldnt have a particular vaccine or shouldnt have vaccines on the same schedule. I do not believe that if we identified a susceptibility group, that if we identified a particular risk factor for vaccines; or if we found out that they should be spread out a little longer, I do not believe that the public would lose faith in vaccines . . . .
It is the job of the public health community and of physicians to be out there and to say, Yes, we can make it safer because we are able to say, this is a subset and were going to deliver it in a way that we think is safer . . . . I think the government or certain public health officials in the government have been too quick to dismiss the concerns of these families without studying the population that got sick . . . . The public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as irrational, without sufficient studies of causation. I think they have often been too quick to dismiss studies in the animal laboratory, either in mice, in primates, that do show some concerns with regard to certain vaccines and also to the mercury preservative in vaccines. The government has said in a report by the Institute of Medicine . . . in a report in 2004, it basically said, Do not pursue susceptibility groups. Dont look for those patients, those children who may be vulnerable.
I really take issue with that conclusion. The reason they didnt want to look for those susceptibility groups was because they were afraid that if they found them, however big or small they were, that that would scare the public away. First of all, I think the publics smarter than that; I think the public values vaccines, but more importantly I dont think you should ever turn your back on any scientific hypothesis because youre afraid of what it might show . . . If you read the 2004 report and converse with a few of my colleagues who believe this still to be the case, there is a completely expressed concern that they dont want to pursue a hypothesis because that hypothesis could be damaging to the public health community at large by scaring people. I dont believe the truth ever scares people and if it does have a certain edge to it, then thats the obligation of those who are delivering those facts to do it in a responsible way so you dont terrify the public.
One never should shy away from science; one should never shy away from getting causality information in a setting in which you can test it. Populations do not test causality; they test associations. You have to go into the laboratory, and you have to do designed research studies, in animals. What were seeing is in the bulk of the population vaccines are safe. Vaccines are safe. But there may be the susceptible group. The fact that there is concern that you dont want to know that susceptible group is a real disappointment to me. If you know that susceptible group, you can save those children. If you turn your back on the notion that theres a susceptible group that means that you are . . . what can I say? (13)
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
79 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
I don't really want our top research scientists taking time out of developing cures to debate
stevenleser
Jan 2015
#25
Agreed, it is best if scientists continue their research than spending all of
Thinkingabout
Jan 2015
#36
What do we do, though, with those who refuse to vaccinate themselves or their children? . . .
Journeyman
Jan 2015
#12
So you propose that the unvaccinated must be kept under house arrest at all times? . . .
Journeyman
Jan 2015
#22
But again, what do we do when those children go to the park, or share a communal swimming pool? . . .
Journeyman
Jan 2015
#27
Which defective vaccines have killed children and this was ignored? Name them.
Bluenorthwest
Jan 2015
#14
SEE ALSO: The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to a Growing Vaccine Crisis
Demeter
Jan 2015
#31
Without the federal fund and immunity we would have NO vaccines in the US.
McCamy Taylor
Jan 2015
#15
Ironic that people don't have as large families any more due to conquering childhood diseases,
Thor_MN
Jan 2015
#43
Elimination of preventable childhood diseases does, in many cases, have an effect on how many
uppityperson
Jan 2015
#53
I hadn't heard of this. Thanks for the info - I need to check to see if I need a booster too.
myrna minx
Feb 2015
#74
With ALL the due respect awarded medical professionals, may I recommend this to be read in full?
proverbialwisdom
Jan 2015
#34
Autism has been proven in multiple studies to have absolutely no correlation with vaccines.
Thor_MN
Jan 2015
#50
Flawed sources. How many were authored by a fugitive? ANS. 21, according to Congressional testimony.
proverbialwisdom
Feb 2015
#54
Again, selectively ignoring inconvenient science is an unsustainable approach.
proverbialwisdom
Feb 2015
#57
That's the official story/FULL STOP. Change subject or tempt me to 'post the same links over & over'
proverbialwisdom
Feb 2015
#60
I have no illusion that purveyors of woo can be convinced that their faith based misinformation
Thor_MN
Feb 2015
#63
Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health, in 2008:
proverbialwisdom
Feb 2015
#65
Wrong, unfortunately. Hey, let's make all the relevant CDC raw data OPEN SOURCE. (nt)
proverbialwisdom
Feb 2015
#69
That's the official story; too bad it ignores all nuance. Read Dr.Poling's Op-Ed from 2008.
proverbialwisdom
Feb 2015
#78
The fact that some people are allergic to penicillin doesn't mean it isn't a lifesaver.
Liberal Veteran
Jan 2015
#37
You know the actual flu causes GBS at a greater rate than the vaccine, right?
Recursion
Feb 2015
#56
Your comment doesn't ring true for someone with a science or technical education background.
Maedhros
Feb 2015
#77
A lot of people did resist the smallpox vaccination, and for a very long time.
MineralMan
Feb 2015
#61
On the bright side, if you get tetanus, you'll die with a smile on your face. n/t
backscatter712
Feb 2015
#70