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Letters to the Editor Issue 230
listed in letters to the editor, originally published in issue 230 - May 2016
Vaccination - Don’t Shoot the Messengers! - Alliance for Natural Health International
On 1 April 2016, Andrew Wakefield’s film Vaxxed was screened by Cinema Libre in New York. Most mainstream media ignored it - online media generally canned it. The Wikipedia entry is entirely condemnatory of the film, with not even a token nod to journalistic balance, alarming given it’s hard to deny the existence of significant voices in support of the film’s airing.
Elephant in the Room?
The UK’s Guardian is one of few mainstream media to have given coverage to Vaxxed. Predictably, it points to the elephant in the room which it considers to be the film’s non-disclosure that Wakefield had been struck off the British medical register.
It was unlikely an omission on Wakefield’s part. Wakefield, the film’s director, has for well over a decade lived with the notion of a British medical establishment intent on discrediting him, deregistering him, and having his 1998 Lancet paper retracted (in 2010). The paper was the first to point to a possible link between autism, bowel disease and the triple MMR vaccine.
So why the omission? Wakefield and producers Del Bigtree and Polly Tommey would undoubtedly give the best answer. But some options might be….Firstly, all sides of the story have been told and retold, so it’s old hat. Secondly, the charges were massively trumped up, and thirdly, the charges had nothing whatsoever to do with medical or scientific findings linked to the mooted association. That’s one reason why the 12 other co-authors of the 1998 Lancet paper were let off the hook. They were prepared to toe the party line and shut up. Scientifically as well, there was nothing much wrong with the work. The media’s insistence on repeatedly using terms like “disgraced” or “discredited” in front of Wakefield’s name is just part of the process intended to make the public disregard any of the science to which Wakefield speaks. It’s about poisoning the messenger with the intent of preventing communication of the message.
Wakefield becomes the Focus
The crux of the matter is that the medical establishment and its media supporters, including Murdoch’s News International group, had a target on Wakefield’s back ever since the Lancet paper was published. The paper gave credence to a view that was already developing among parents who had witnessed the rapid onset of symptoms of autism in their young children shortly following their receipt of the MMR jab. Of the 13 authors of the Lancet study, Wakefield was alone in his passion and determination to do something about it. Wakefield, the person, became the target. Any rational or balanced debate about the science relating to the discovery of the associations the 13 authors had stumbled upon was consigned to the scrapheap. Along with any further consideration of the author’s recommendation for further research. Wakefield has met his end of the bargain and many believe it’s a matter of time before Wakefield’s views are vindicated by unequivocal science.
Whether or not Wakefield had been struck from the British medical register had nothing at all to do with the subject of Vaxxed, which is centrally about a cover-up by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The main allegation of the film is the CDC’s knowing concealment of its knowledge of a link between the MMR vaccine and certain vulnerable groups of children.
Whistleblowers Emerge
The star witness to this is the CDC whistleblower, Bill Thompson PhD. Find out more by seeing Vaxxed where and when you can - or read up more here, as well as on whether Dr Thompson is likely to testify to the US Congress.
The UK has its own whistleblower, in the form of Dr Peter Fletcher. Last Sunday, Sue Corrigan from the Mail on Sunday published a story on Dr Fletcher’s views, including a view he has expressed previously. It went as follows; if a link between MMR and autism is conclusively established, “the refusal by governments to evaluate the risks properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history.”
Dr Fletcher knows his onions, or, more correctly, his vaccines. In the ‘70s, he was Chief Scientific Officer at the Department of Health as well as Medical Assessor to the Committee on Safety of Medicines. That gave him nothing less than key responsibility for determining safety of new vaccines. His concerns were first raised about MMR in 2001.
On the weekend, the Mail on Sunday revealed the following:
“[Dr Fletcher] said he had decided to speak out because of his deep concern at the lack of treatment for autistic children with bowel disease, as revealed in The Mail on Sunday two weeks ago. He called the sudden termination of legal aid to parents of allegedly vaccine-damaged children in late 2003 “a monstrous injustice". After agreeing to be a witness for the parents, he received thousands of documents relating to the case. ”Now, it seems, unless the parents force the Government to restore legal aid, much of this revealing evidence may never come out,” he said.
Our ‘Ask’
This week, we’re not going to suggest you write more letters. We’re going to ask you to simply listen and engage very carefully with everything you hear on the vaccine issue, particularly as it relates to MMR and MMRV (the MMR vaccine with added varicella, for chickenpox).
We then ask you to focus only on information that relates to scientific and clinical data about people who have been vaccinated or are reported to have reacted following vaccination. This is called having an open mind. Unfortunately the vaccination debate has too often been more about shooting messengers (Andrew Wakefield obviously having been the prime target, with the likes of Thompson and Fletcher chasing up the rear) rather than addressing the incredible health and other challenges faced by patients and families who have revealed associations between particular environmental triggers that have shortly preceded regression and autism.
This is something we at ANH International have been doing for many years now, and it’s the reason our views tend to be in line with the likes of Wakefield, Thompson and Fletcher.
Our goal should now be to do everything we can to let the whistleblowers be heard so the data they have been looking at are made public. While you’re at it, you might want to mention this to your elected representative.
Further Information
Reprinted from
Editorial Comment
Readers are also referred to the following links for coverage of the above story, the cover-up admission and rebuttal by Dr Andrew Wakefield:
www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-179
www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-217
www.positivehealth.com/article/letters-to-the-editor/letters-to-the-editor-issue-219
Ratify Minimata Treaty and Phase out Mercury Amalgam Fillings
Campaign by Graeme Munro-Hall - Graeme <hallvtox@dircon.co.uk>
I have started this petition to put pressure on MPs. The EU commission has put the Minimata Treaty out to each individual Government for ratification. They are asking for a Phase Down of Dental Amalgam rather than a phase out which the public wanted by over 80% when the EU had a consultation.
The petition is to make the UK Government alter it to Phase Out rather than Phase Down.
If we get enough signatures we can make a bit of a splash with it.
Please sign the petition and share with your network?
Interestingly this is what the Chief Dental Officer wanted in 2012 when he wrote to the British Dental Association (BDA) who refused to cooperate. I include his letter.
Maybe we can get some traction on this.
To: MPs
Ratify the Minimata Treaty proposal from the EU Commission but to phase out mercury dental amalgam rather than phase down mercury dental amalgam fillings as the EU Commission has suggested.
Why is this Important?
The greatest source of human exposure to mercury is from dental amalgam fillings (WHO Report 118). The Minimata Treaty is to reduce exposure to mercury worldwide. The public consultation by the EU showed the public were 80% in favour of an immediate ban on mercury dental amalgam fillings but the EU has come down on the sides of the Dental Associations who want to keep using mercury. The alternatives to mercury as "Available, Affordable and Effective" (Swedish Chemical Agency 2009) and Norway (2009), Denmark and Sweden (2010) have banned the use of mercury fillings. Mercury from fillings harms the environment and there is no need to use it.
Each EU member Government must now comment on the EU ratification proposal. The UK Government should ask for the phase out of mercury dental amalgam not a phase down. A phase down will allow the dentists who use mercury to continue to pollute our environment for years to come. I am a dentist who has not used mercury for 30 years. Mercury has no place in health care
Further Information
Sign the Petition at: http://community.sumofus.org/petitions/the-government-to-ratify-minimata-treaty-and-phase-out-mercury-amalgam-fillings
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