Archive 2007
Media Articles and Books
Commentary: Vaccine advocate
Deborah Busemeyer
Albuquerque Tribune
April 24, 2007
…I grew up with a generation of children who never saw anyone stricken by polio or mumps, and the only stories I heard about those vaccine-preventable diseases were stories of my family's past. Instead, I heard stories in the media about concerns about potential side effects immunizations may cause.
Letter: Vaccines save lives
By Frankie Milley
Business Gazette (MD)
November 29, 2007
Immunizations are not a matter of personal choice but protection of public health. I lost my only child, Ryan, to a vaccine-preventable form of meningitis. I did not know there was a vaccine at the time that could have prevented it. Had I known, the choice life and vaccine, death and no vaccine would have been easy.
Flu-shot scare unjustified by either evidence or science
By Jonathan L. Temte
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
November 24, 2007
Legitimizing extreme points of view, without critical evaluation, not only is wrong but can lead to flawed, and sometimes deadly, personal and policy decisions. A Nov. 13 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report aired such an alarmist viewpoint ("Most flu shots contain mercury, but few know it").
The anti-vaccine lobby makes us sick -- literally
Union-Leader (NH)
By Michael Fumento
November 20, 2007
The vaccine preservative thimerosal has jumped the safety hurdle. Again. So indicates a recent large epidemiological study in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Again" is the problem, though. One huge study after another has cleared thimerosal as a cause of child developmental disorders, and specifically autism, but there is a powerful lobby that couldn't care less.
Sharp Drop Seen in Deaths From Ills Fought by Vaccine
By Donald G. McNeil Jr.
New York Times
November 14, 2007
Death rates for 13 diseases that can be prevented by childhood vaccinations are at all-time lows in the United States, according to a study released yesterday. The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first time that the agency has searched historical records going back to 1900 to compile estimates of cases, hospitalizations and deaths for all the diseases children are routinely vaccinated against.
Wall Street Journal Editorial Defends Childhood Vaccination and Counters Jenny McCarthy's Claim of Vaccination Harm
Dr. Ari Brown
Washington Post Online
November 5, 2007
On October 27, the Wall Street Journal published a guest editorial, "The New McCarthyism: Vaccines & Autism." It is written by Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician in Austin, TX. Portions of the editorial are reprinted in the link above.
On Vaccines, Immune to Reason
Paul Howard
Washington Post Online
October 12, 2007
Sadly, too many parents have lost faith in vaccines. Partly, this is because of a 'generation gap.' In 1940, U.S. infant mortality rates stood at 40 deaths per 1,000 live births...When mysterious disorders like autism strike seemingly healthy children, frustrated parents lash out at doctors and pharmaceutical companies...
Fear Factor
Forbes.com
September 27, 2007
Vaccines have eradicated polio, smallpox and mumps, and every year the shots administered to children prevent 14 million infections, prevent 33,000 deaths and save society $40 billion in direct and indirect medical costs. Yet some parents say they are responsible for a rise in autism cases...
Cases in Vaccine Court — Legal Battles over Vaccines and Autism
New England Journal of Medicine
September 27, 2007
Do childhood vaccines cause autism? This scientific question has now become a legal one — perhaps inevitable in our society.
Thimerosal and Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale
Paul A. Offit, M.D.
New England Journal of Medicine
September 27, 2007
...On July 9, 1999, after much wrangling, the CDC and AAP decided to exercise the precautionary principle. They asked pharmaceutical companies to remove thimerosal from vaccines as quickly as possible.
How a legal case could cripple one of modern medicine's greatest achievements
Boston Globe
June 3, 2007
No single medical advance has had a greater impact on human health than vaccines. Now, massive litigation could force companies to leave the vaccine business, threatening the future of one of medicine's greatest achievements.
Vaccine Claims to Get Their Day in Court
Associated Press
June 4, 2007
(Ran on Washington Post online, New York Times online, Houston Chronicle online, San Francisco Chronicle online, Washington Examiner online, Birmingham News (AL) online, News Tribune (WA) online, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Boston Herald, Canadian Press and MSNBC.com)
Science has spoken when it comes to the theory that some childhood vaccines can cause autism. They don't, the Institute of Medicine concluded three years ago. Soon, it will be the courts turn to speak.
Washington court will hear autism-vaccine suits
Reuters
June 10, 2007
A special court that will pit scientists against activists in the debate over whether vaccines have caused autism in many children begins hearings on Monday with the first test case, involving a 12-year-old Arizona girl.
Fight Over Vaccine-Autism Link Hits Court Families, After Having Claims Rejected by Experts, Face Lower Burden of Proof
Washington Post
June 10, 2007
For more than a decade, families across the country have been warring with the medical establishment over their claims that routine childhood vaccines are responsible for the nation's apparent epidemic of autism. In an extraordinary proceeding that begins tomorrow, the battle will move from the ivory tower to the courts.
Editorial: Autism in Court
The Washington Post
June 16, 2007
Very little is known about autism, what causes it and exactly what it means biologically or neurologically… Still, some activists have claimed that autism rates have skyrocketed since many of these vaccines were mandated for young children.
Link to Autism Continues to Erode
Lost Angeles Times
June 18, 2007
Last week, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims began hearing arguments about whether a childhood vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella caused autism in a 12-year-old.
Editorial: Autism Suit Puts Others at Risk Boston Herald
Boston Herald
June 17, 2007
Parents of nearly 5,000 children with autism or related disorders have opened their court case claiming that vaccinations caused those diseases. As much as we sympathize with their plight, there is little science on their side…
Opinion: Science is Not a Democracy
Washington Times
June 15, 2007
Scientists years ago dismissed the alleged causal link between childhood vaccinations and autism. But a large and vocal group of advocates are nonetheless convinced there is a cause-and-effect relationship. For them and their lawyers, science is irrelevant.
Is There an Autism Epidemic?
Chronicle of Higher Education
May 11, 2007
According to some advocates, an epidemic of autism is attacking young children and the government has been woefully negligent in dealing with it. But many epidemiologists dismiss the evidence used to support the idea of an epidemic. The debate has grown so ugly that researchers say they are being threatened if they question evidence of an upsurge in autism…Some groups of parents of children with autism argue that vaccines are to blame for the rising numbers of people diagnosed with the disorder.
Autism Experts Bring Insights to Seattle
Tom Paulson
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
May 2, 2007
The public dialogue on autism tends to focus largely on speculation about its cause. Though often based on studies of dubious scientific merit, the lack of a firm answer on causation has created a firestorm around those studying the disorder.
Opinion: Autism, Mercury and the Anti-Merc Activists: Whose Conflicts?
Arthur Allen
Huffington Post
April 21, 2007
Study after study has shown no link between thimerosal and autism… 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.’
Editorial: Silencing debate over autism
Nature Neuroscience
May 2007
Despite the lack of scientific evidence that childhood vaccines cause autism, extreme tactics used by those convinced that this hypothesis is correct have been increasingly successful in influencing public opinion and legislation...A review by the Institute of Medicine of over 200 studies concluded that that there was no causal link between thimerosal- containing vaccines and autism. Autism is no more common among vaccinated than unvaccinated children, and its incidence has not covaried with the presence of thimerosal in vaccines across different times and locations.
Opinion: Fact: No link of vaccine, autism
Philadelphia Inquirer
February 6, 2007
Arthur Caplan is the Emanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-directs the Ethics and Vaccines Project
What must it be like to spend a huge amount of time every waking day trying to change public health practice - only to find out that you were wrong? That is precisely what has happened to the proponents of the theory that mercury in vaccines...
Fatal Exemption
By Paul A. Offit
Wall Street Journal
January 20, 2007
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published a study that received little attention from the press and as a consequence, from the public. The study examined the incidence of whooping cough (pertussis) in children whose parents had chosen not to vaccinate them. The results were concerning.
Opinion: For the Good of the Herd
By Arthur Allen
New York Times
January 25, 2007
Here we are in another flu season, and this time there is plenty of vaccine to go around. But now state and county officials expect to throw away millions of doses. This situation reflects our blasé attitude toward vaccination...