Vaccination Controversy, and the Public Sentiment

This short entry must begin with a humble plead to not judge me as a monster at least too quickly. I feel an abundance of sympathy for all levels of disadvantage. Today I engaged in a short exchange around the identification and causes of Autism, and the hypothesis that the disorder is caused by mandatory childhood vaccinations. I made me want to put it to paper (as it were) with some background on Autism, the vaccination controversy and other exchanges I’ve had around vaccination.

Before we go any further, we should identify what Autism is. It’s a neurological disorder which impairs an individual’s social and communications skills (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism). It has varying degrees from high functionality to not being able to communicate. In the United States around 1 in 100 children are diagnosed, and diagnosis occurs typically in infancy. Autism is a genetic disorder, for which there has been no cause determined.

The diagnosis for the disorder has become much clearer in recent years in the United States thanks to research and the sponsorship of groups like Autism Speaks (http://www.autismspeaks.org/). In fact, my wife, son and I recently participated in one of their charity events in Grand Prairie. It was a great event that saw me leave with a stiff neck from carrying my son on my shoulders for the entirety.

While this and many other organizations look for ways to identify, treat, and live with Autism, some groups have taken up the cause that the disorder is caused by some of the vaccinations that American schoolchildren and required to get before the age of five. As of today, there have not been any significant scientific studies that show this to be the case.
Typically the anti-vaccine argument is one of confirmation bias (http://www.skepdic.com/confirmbias.html) where a parent observes that their child had the required vaccinations and they now have Autism. This is referred to as a logical fallacy. I could make the same style argument that I received all my vaccinations, and they prevented me from having Autism.

I would encourage everyone to use this as an opportunity to look for research that appears legitimate about the side effects of childhood vaccinations, and if you have a child, ask your doctor. They can probably point you in the right direction. Here are a couple sources.

• Autism Speaks - http://www.autismspeaks.org/science/policy-statements/information-about-vaccines-and-autism


• Center for Disease Control - http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Autism/Index.html


• Institute of Medicine - http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2004/Immunization-Safety-Review-Vaccines-and-Autism.aspx


• Steve Novella video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap_0uQDbZl4
  

However fears still surface, usually from very concerned parents and grandparents that I can only conclude have the best intentions for their children. One activist, Jenny McCarthy (of Playboy fame) started what has come to be a large organization that is established to convince the public that vaccinations (most specifically the MMR vaccine) directly causes Autism. Her site can be found at www.generationrescue.org/.

Now, I have two admissions here. First, I am not a doctor and have no medical training. I’m simply a guy that has a computer and a fascination with the natural world and how it works. Second, if forced to put the greatest inventions that our species has ever come up with, I think vaccines and antibiotics would hit my top 5. However, since I’m not conducting a study (see my former admission) I feel as though a bias is not a problem for this blog entry. I’m just disclosing.
Childhood vaccinations for diseases such as the flu, mumps, measles, Hepatitis A and Polio have saved countless in this country alone. We live in such a fascinating time for medical discovery. I suppose that is why it’s important to get this debate correct!

Recently I had a very short debate around the HPV vaccination with a man that I sincerely respect and admire. HPV, or the human papillomavirus, is typically passed through sexual contact and causes an aggressive form of cervical cancer. There was a controversy in the state of Texas when Gov. Perry (of Fox/CNN/MSNBC/TMZ notoriety) supported a mandatory vaccination for school girls against HPV. I supported his decision, but was latter disenfranchised when rumors surfaced that Perry supported the measure in response to the urging (large monetary contribution) of Merck, the drug company that created the vaccination (http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/15/opinion/krumholz-beckel-perry-pharmaceutical/index.html). My debate went something like this.

Man 1 – The vaccine is worse than the disease (HPV).
Me – There are no major side effects of the HPV vaccination and the disease causes cancer (http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/side-effects.htm).
Man - OK

This evening, after a long run with a Marine candidate I went into my local grocery to look for a movie in the Red Box they have in the corner (Midnight in Paris actually). I was wearing the t-shirt that was given to me by Autism Speaks for participating in the above mentioned charity run. It’s a little chilly today with a brisk breeze prevailing out of the north and the shirt is long sleeved.
The women at the checkout stand asked if my child had Autism. I replied no, but try to support Autism Speaks research by participating in their events and by making small donations. She began telling me of her eight year old grandchild that had mild Autism, is very high functioning and undoubtedly cute as a button.

She then went on to tell me about her frustration with her daughter when she brought her granddaughter home at the age of one and a half after being vaccinated. She indicated that shortly after the vaccinations her grandchild was diagnosed with Autism. The conversation then went like this.

Me: Did you believe that the vaccinations caused her Autism?
Woman: Yes.
Me: That’s not correct. Significant studies have shown that mandated childhood vaccinations do not cause Autism. It’s been debunked.
Woman: OK.

And that was it. Now, do I think that she was convinced? I’m sure not. She was an employee of the store and probably knew it’s best not to debate the clientele. But perhaps she’s just never been corrected. Perhaps she’s never mentioned that to a doctor or a scientific enthusiast. I have to believe that she’s passionate about it, because I could tell that she loves her grandchild and came to that conclusion through a strong, if not flawed, conviction.

I hope she, and others that share her belief use this as an opportunity to do a little research into not only the side effects of vaccinations, but the dire consequences of not vaccinating a child at all.

Hank Skinner: Texas Inmate Denied 'Due Science', May Still Die

Capital punishment is a tricky prospect because of its finality. There’s no redo, start over or white out to cover an unwarranted mistake once punishment is administered. I view the practice of state sanctioned executions pragmatically. Ideally, I believe that threats so great to society can do things so heinous that they lost the right to live. For example, I’m not sure many would argue with the sentences of the Nuremburg defendants.

We may not always be getting it right. In fact, we (especially in Texas) may be executing innocent people. This may be the case with Hank Skinner, a death row inmate that was accused of murdering his girlfriend and her two sons in 1993 and is set to be executed Wednesday. Skinner and his attorney claim that there is a huge amount of evidence that was not tested before his trial that would prove his innocence.

DNA profiling is a method that can match DNA traits 99.9% of the time. Profiling is not as detail and exhaustive as full genome mapping, but is effective in paternity testing and as evidence in criminal cases.

Before September 1st of 2011, if a defendant did not have evidence DNA profiled that may prove innocence at their initial trial, they were out of luck. Now however, it must be tested according to SB 122. This is a big step forward for capital punishment supporters.

In Hank Skinner’s case, his attorney jumped at the opportunity to DNA test based on the recent bill and filed to have the apparently abundant evidence DNA tested. He was, however, denied! This seems to be a slap in the face to the spirit of the law. It flies in the face of justice and fairness. Judge Steven R. Emmert denied the request and gave no explanation. Skinner is expected to appeal, but time is running out.

Internationally the most vocal proponent of DNA testing is the Innocence Project. As of this year IP has overseen the release of 273 people in the United States. They are lobbying for the DNA testing in the Skinner case.

If he is indeed guilty, this is the best way to prove it. If he is actually innocent, justice demands DNA profiling to ensure the release of Skinner.

Judge Adams Defense as an Aggressive Narcissist

My fingers struggle to keep with the ill thoughts I have towards this swine Judge William Adams. In an interview (someone running after him with a microphone) he gave no indication that he was at all remorseful.

CNN reports, "She's mad because I've ordered her to bring the car back, in a nutshell, but yeah, that's me. I lost my temper," Adams told the TV station. "Her mother was there, she wasn't hurt ... it was a long time ago ... I really don't want to get into this right now because as you can see my life's been made very difficult over this child."

Adams continued: "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized. It looks worse than it is."

There are also reports that his wife (since divorced) lived in fear of Adams. She was seen in the video appearing to be Judge Adams' side kick in child abuse.

In reviewing the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, this treacherous leach seems to score high on the Aggressive Narcissism personality factor. This includes a lack of remorse, empathy and a failure to accept responsibility.

To say that I hope he gets what's coming to him is not fair, because we are not neccesariy sure what's coming to him. Texas does still allow corporal punishment administered by teachers and public school administrators in many districts so there may be leniency especially if the monster is tried in a rural area.

I don't think he should get what's coming to him. No, I hope he gets what I think he deserves.....

Hillary Adams Beaten by a Ruthless Texas Judge

I always wonder when the sharp edge of love fades in a parent-child relationship. To me it's always been love with a sense of urgency, but my parental chronology only goes back 14 brief months. Recently I was able to view how far from the source of caring a father can actually get.

Texas Judge William Adams of Aransas County was seen on video taken by his daughter, Hillary Adams (then 16), beating her with a belt in a way that defies normal punishment after she apparently downloaded music illegally.

This goes well beyond the boundaries of any type of corporal punishment (if one were to believe in the merit of such a practice). This appears to be a sick and twisted man taking out two decades of frustration on the weakest person he could find. Perhaps he was rubbing his hands together waiting for the moment when she would slip up so he could transform the leather strap normally commissioned with holding up his pants to a device of child torture. Unfortunately, the mother is also seen in the video taking a role of apathy to encouragement.

The International Business Times did a much better job officially reporting it so for further details I would suggest going there. Should you want to see the seven minute video for yourself, CLICK HERE.

I would encourage anyone with a child, husband, wife or parent that the truly care for to use this as an opportunity to reaffirm their relationship. Don't be a cruel shell like this judge, and if you live in the Aransas area demand the resignation and incarceration of this brute.

Gang of Four: Armalite Blast

I magically stumbled upon Gang of Four's Armalite Rifle. It was a little diddy by the seminal punk band, released in 1978. The subject matter is the American combat weapon company, Armalite. In the UK, Armalite gear was typically used by the Provisional IRA against the forces of the Crown during the years that Sectarian violence escalated to full fledged warfare. It was no longer the march north by the Norman Saxons, or the height of the Black and Tans from the days of the Churchill, this was "The Troubles".

Gang of Four, like many punk bands from the time period, were all-bloody-in for anti-establishment civil rights including a myriad of SHARP ideals, and Irish equality. OK, so I may be assuming here just a little. I'm not too sure about the punk movement's thoughts in the late 70's of Irish equality.

Here's the song, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Ladies and Gentlemen, GANG OF FOUR!!!

Email Exchange with Local Sports Personality: Gordon Keith

I thought I would post this email exchange, not because it is that damning or exclusive, but I put a lot of effort into it. It is in response to a piece he did earlier in the morning about those odd necklaces that baseball players wear that look like multicolored rope. Cheers.


On Oct 6, 2011, Wolman, Michael wrote:

Howdy Gordon. Thanks for talking this morning about those noose like necklaces that MLB players wear. This type of jewelry line, while not a huge drain on society, is all based on fraud. To start with, I assumed that these necklaces were just silly merch that the league was trying to push, but later discovered that they are based on the negative ion imbalance pseudoscience and maybe even 'water memory'.

The Wikipedia page is pretty harsh (I love it when Wiki is more pretentious than me).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phiten

However the website is pretty ambiguous on what the product does and the technology behind it. All you see is amorphous claims of well being and eastern medicine mumbo-jumbo. Products sold on the site include 'titanium tape' and shirts with negative ions.

http://www.go-titanium.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=238&Click=2&gclid=CIfKlbfd0asCFUqK4AodbF5HTQ

At the gym I check out chicks at…I mean work out at….there was a vendor there hocking bracelets with this 'technology'. I asked him about it and he kept going on about negative ions. Now, there was study that said negative ions produced serotonin in the blood stream that does create a sense of well being, so that's cool then, right? Here's the article on Web MD.

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes

However, you'll notice a couple things. First, the amount of negative ions needed is huge, like in a thunderstorm of huge amounts of water moving (water falls, oceans). So these apparently made people 'feel' better. But is it because of the negative ions or because those involved in the study were sitting in front of a water fall? Also, negative ions are produced in static when you walk across carpet, or turn on a light, or sit around anything electronic. Artificial light is created by shooting energy into gas and creating ions (that's a really simplified explanation I reckon).

So why would you need to get ions from a bracelet if you have a cell phone in your pocket? What about those cool tests where people balance better and are more flexible? Those….are magic tricks. Straight out fraud. Here's a video on how they're done. We do these all the time at the house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piu75P8sxTo

Here's a 10 minute podcast about these bracelets:

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4084

In fact, there were a lot of law suits going around what these companies were saying. Here's some examples.

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/qray.html

So to wrap it all up, I got the vendor at my gym on video explaining ions and told the guy at the front desk that it was a total fraud. He said he knew and that they let him set up shop because the company bought a group membership. If I wasn't scared of my phone, I'd try and download it.

People will always buy into it because it's a way to 'feel' healthier without doing the work. If this really did what they claimed to do, why wouldn't any doctors prescribe them of the FDA endorse them?

Like most alternative medicine, it's Bullshhhh. Alternative medicine that works…….is just called medicine, right? At this point, if you've read down to here I thank you. I'm a little amazed, because even I stopped paying attention, and I'm writing this hogwash. This was WAY longwinded. Watch out for those positive ions boss man.

-Michael 'I drive a Porsche and live in Highland Park where I only drink Petron and hang with Romo and Brady James and teach MMA part time to Peruvian orphans' Wolman

From: Gordon Keith [mailto:gordonkeith@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 06
To: Wolman, Michael
Subject: Re: Magic in the Major Leagues

thanks for this!

From: Wolman, Michael
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011
To: 'Gordon Keith'
Subject: RE: Magic in the Major Leagues

Good sir!

A buddy (criminal acquaintance) sent me more damning (or damnable) power bracelet documentation.

The IIG (Independent Investigation Group) started some interesting experiments on power bracelets. They also give folks info on filing law suits against the jewelry companies.

http://www.iigwest.org/investigations/powerbalance/index.html

They also link out to an article on ESPN that somehow slipped under my radar. Weird because I live my life for ESPN and ESPN content, especially the great commentary of the MNF crew.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5660039

So, I suppose I'll keep sending you skeptical emails on power bracelets and the like until you demand I stop or file an injunction with the local authorities.

Here's a comedy/beat poem by Tim Minchin sort of about skepticism. He's coming to the Lakewood this month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0W7Jbc_Vhw

If you ever want to hang and have a couple Stella Artois'seses with me an buddy C'eej Wilsonian let me know, we're going to Zookes this weekend to hang with the Stroke's bassist and mixed martial artist Georges St. Pierre. Wud up.

Michael Wolman
US Combat Sports
http://USCombatSports.com
http://Death-Panel.blogspot.com
mwolman1981@gmail.com

What's a Zimbabwe Part 2: A Pragmatic Conversation over a Salad Bowl

My inquisitive nature around Zimbabwe now has a face. A coworker, who I will call Raheem, is from Zimbabwe and agreed to sit down and chat with me about his country over a cold lunch. Raheem is certainly not his given name. He was not as comfortable talking Zimbabwean politics with a veritable stranger as I was listening, so I decided to use a Nom de Plume. Raheem is a name I borrowed from Raheem Sterling, the Liverpool winger. You see, Raheem is a Liverpool fan, which is at current beating my Norwich FC Canaries 1-0 at the half. C’est la vie.
I was very curious about a number of things. Raheem stated he doesn’t speak Afrikaan, which is an odd Dutch/English/African language, but he does speak Shona, which is a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. I had never actually heard someone speak Shona before.
I got a very unique perspective on politics in Zim. Firstly, Mugabe is mostly seen in a very pragmatic way. As Raheem indicates, most would have considered him more significant politically and historically if he stepped down after 10 years or so. By 1990 Zimbabwe was a bustling and diverse economy that was mixing the classic agricultural knowhow of the white Zimbabweans, and a strong state run educational and healthcare system. People were fed, educated, working and most importantly, getting along.
Interestingly, Raheem also believes that the land distribution policies of Mugabe were politically not that damaging. In fact, it’s thought that if the economy was not in shambles the taking of land from the .5% of white farmers would have gone almost unnoticed. One could make the argument that the land grab was a byproduct of the economic downturn as people were desperate and looking for Mugabe to do something drastic.
One issue that was raised over and over again was a basic awareness of westerners of issues, or really anything all, facing Africa. We discussed the problems in southern Africa, the conflict minerals in the Congo, child soldiers in Sierra Leon, drought in eastern Africa (Ethiopia, etc.) and a myriad of other conflicts. However, most westerns are thought to be well learned if they can point to two countries on an African map and remember that Zambia used to be called Northern Rhodesia. Raheem, on the other hand, grew up knowing the names of German Chancellors, British Prime Ministers and American Presidents. Not that Americans and westerners are dullards (or more dullard than others) but there isn’t a sense of how big this world really is at times.
Finally, we had to talk books and movies. He gave me a huge list of books that are now on my must read list as soon as I can get through these damnable Hunter Thompson letters. He suggested everything from Ian Smith’s ravings to books on ZANU’s leadership in the independence struggle. He also told me I needed to watch Cry Freedom, a movie about the short life of Steve Biko, a South African martyr killed towards the end of Apartheid. I was able to rent it last night. I have to admit, I found the performances outstanding, but the editing was really odd. There seemed to be a lot of holes, the flashbacks were not always relevant and they didn’t go into depth about how Biko and Woods (da white guy) became so close. I would, however, suggest renting it from a historical standpoint.
I hope to keep an open dialogue with my new chum. He’s a great fellow, always smiling even while stuffing his face with pay by the pound salad. Hopefully we will be working on upcoming projects of awareness. Cheerio Raheem, cheerio.