Arthur Allen writing for HuffingtonPost rejects the mercury/autism hypothesis and calls for an apology from the mercury activists.

As someone who entered the debate about this theory, in 2002, with an open mind, but h as come to the strong conclusion that there is no basis for blaming vaccines for an "epidemic" that may not even exist, I find some of the individuals in these groups, especially in SafeMinds, to be disingenuous. They are playing at scientific seriousness while refusing to acknowledge the data.

Study after study has shown no link between thimerosal and autism. The rates of autism continue to grow in cohorts of children who received no thimerosal-containing vaccines.

...

After you've spent years shouting at the government, participating in flawed Congressional hearings, writing junky "investigational" books and reports, ginning up gigantic legal claims that cost the courts, the public, and the drug companies hundreds of millions of dollars, and spreading unfounded slander against government scientists on the Web, it's pretty darn hard to step back and say, "Whoops, I was wrong." I just wish I could find someone--anyone--willing to do that.

We demand a lot of our government scientists and public health officials--and we should. But responsibility isn't only a government obligation.

If this keeps up I might take HuffPo off the list of denialism promoters.

Labels: anti-Vax denialism

The VT killings have proven to be a cultural Rorschach test, with everybody pulling out their favorite ax to grind as the "cause" of Cho's homicidal rampage.

One blogger is keeping track. He has it up to 51 things being blamed for VT, pretty much what you'd expect. Everything from Gays, to Kos, to video games, to the military industrial complex etc.

The latest though, is most obnoxious of all. Alan E. Moses writes that it's vaccines that are to blame.

Wow. Just wow. Years after thimerosal has been removed from vaccines and diagnosis of autism is continuing to increase (although actual prevalence has probably remained stable), and these cranks just can't let go of the BS mercury autism hypothesis.

Orac takes him on very effectively. This isn't just the latest example of ghoulishness in the post-VT crusades, I think this is the most irresponsible. If you blame atheists like D'Souza did, you're just an idiot, but this continued denialism about vaccines is harmful to public health, the fraudulent chelation treatments by DAN doctors is dangerous quackery, and this denialism ultimately will result in harm to kids.

Labels: anti-Vax denialism

I'll ask because Laurie David wrote an excellent piece for them today on the Media's moral need to cover global warming science accurately.

I liked it because she picked up on a few critical aspects of denialist attacks on science.

If you saw the interview, you know that instead of focusing on the serious problems of global warming and what we need to do about it, Joe decided to put on the hat of naysayer to attempt to refute the consensus opinion of over 2000 scientists from over 150 countries including the US.

He chose to refer to a recent 'documentary' out of Britain that attempts to refute the scientific consensus around global warming.

...

A quick survey of film's 'expert' contributors uncovers a virtual who's who of Exxon funded global warming deniers. Further, I uncovered numerous allegations of selective editing of interviews (apparently causing at least one scientist to threaten legal action), the use of mislabeled graphs, outdated and flawed data, not to mention that the list of 'experts' interviewed includes a who's who of Exxon's favorites. Worse is that when the film's creator was alerted to the fact that the data he was using in certain cases was outdated, misrepresented and flawed, he intentionally ignored it.

Then she ends with an appeal to the media to not dismiss scientific consensus so easily.

What steams me the most about this incident is that for years the media was legitimately misled by industry funded deniers and junk science, however, we are well past the point in time where anyone in the media can credibly say that the earth is not warming and that we are not to blame.

There comes a time when the media has a moral responsibility to accept the prevailing scientific consensus and leave behind the illogical need to create controversy where it does not exist. If they choose not to then that is their mistake, their shame, and their responsibility. What Joe Kernen did was not fair reporting. It was editorializing. On that note, the better word to describe Joe Kernen's actions is "irresponsible". I hope he looks it up.

Now, that's interesting to me. Because I regard HuffPo as a denialist site. Why? Because they promote the mercury/autism ramblings of David Kirby and Robert Kennedy Jr.'s sad conspiracy mongering about the CDC.

It's really very sad. Kirby is a lost-cause believer in altie-woo, but Kennedy in particular is dead-on about other scientific issues, why can't he see that his conspiracy mongering over thimerosal, long discredited as a cause of autism, is a sign of poor scientific reasoning?

And what about HuffPo's responsibility to not promote quackery for treating autism and lies about vaccines? For instance this post today in which she promotes experimentation on children with the unproven "DAN" protocol - based on mercury "detoxification". No credible expert on autism believes in mercury as a cause of, or chelation as a cure for, autism.

How about HuffPo exercise some media responsibility of it's own and stop promoting quackery and lies about vaccines?

Labels: anti-Vax denialism, Huffington Post

The Huffington post should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to publish the deceptive BS of David Kirby, including today's Autism Speaks: will anyone listen?

While no one disputes that autism has a genetic underpinning, there is still a fierce debate over the potential role of environmental influences, particularly mercury, and very particularly, mercury in vaccines.

Many in the upper echelons of Autism Speaks have rejected any environmental hypothesis and insisted that autism is purely a genetic disorder -- though Bob and Suzanne Wright (and the organization itself) remain officially neutral on this crucial question.

But now, Christian is getting better, and that wonderful news could change everything.

Why? Because "genetic" disorders don't typically improve on their own. And little Christian, the child who inspired Autism Speaks, has started to speak again. Will Autism Speaks listen

What really kills me about this is that years, years, after thimerosal has been removed from vaccines (and was never shown epidemiologically to increase risk of autism) autism rates continue to rise. But like all denialists, Kirby won't let evidence change his mind. It's still thimerosal, even after that's been eliminated as a cause. And what's with thinking people can't get better on their own with genetic diseases? Does he have a citation for that ridiculous blanket statement? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

Worse yet, he promotes the quacks at DAN, who push alternative and dangerous cures based on BS, such as chelation therapy.

Since then, Katie said, she and her husband took Christian to doctors belonging to a group called Defeat Autism Now, or DAN. "DAN Doctors" believe that mercury and other environmental factors are what triggered most cases of autism, and have developed a controversial protocol of "biomedical interventions" aimed at removing heavy metals from autistic children and trying to repair some of the metabolic damage they may have caused.

"He's definitely getting better," Katie told me by phone. "He was a very sick kid, with an extended gut and inflamed intestines. We couldn't do anything until we got that under control." But once Christian started to improve physically, she said, he also began to get better emotionally, mentally and cognitively.

When Christian's gut improved, his parents began trying other, still-unproven treatments like dietary changes (no wheat or dairy) chelation therapy (removal of heavy metals from the body) and methyl B-12, which could help restore a critical process called methylation - a needed tool for detoxification and proper nerve function that is apparently deficient in some autistic children.

B-12 magically restores "methylation"! Autism is from the gut - it's really just celiac disease! Quack remedies like Chelation work! What a load of shit. This guy doesn't understand toxicology, epigenetics, nutrition, nothing.

Kirby is promoting woo/altie-meds, false hope, dangerous and unproven treatments, irresponsible conspiracy theories, and creating fear of vaccines, but I guess that's wjust a routine day for a denialist. This stuff is essentially parentally-sanctioned human experimentation on children. If it weren't the parents doing this, it would be a violation of the Nuremberg code. It's still pretty sick if you think about it, how parents routinely and blithely experiment on their children with bizarre diets, altie-meds, and other forms of woo.

HuffPo should be ashamed. It's also ironic that at the same time they publish this piece from Mike Stark on global warming denialism. How about a little insight Arianna? Denialism isn't partisan, both sides have their BS. The left has environmental/toxin/altie paranoia, the right has corporate/religious/greed based shilling.

Labels: anti-Vax denialism, David Kirby