One type of story that I've fairly frequently commented upon since the very beginning of this blog is the story of children or teens with cancer whose parents decide to pursue quackery instead of effective therapy or children with other serious diseases whose parents reject effective therapy for them. Think way, way back to Katie Wernecke and Abraham Cherrix back in 2006. (Cherrix is still battling his lymphoma seven years later, having blown his best chance at cure back in 2006; I do not know how much longer he can continue.) More recently, there was Chad Jessop and Daniel Hauser. Just in the last couple of years, there has been one more case, including Jacob Stieler, as well as a case of a young wrestler who suffered a spinal cord injury and needed spine-stabilizing surgery whose mother refused the surgery in favor of "alternative medicine." That doesn't even count the children
Every time these sorts of sad, infuriating stories come down the pike, the reaction of alt-med apologists is the same. They all invoke parental rights, as though parents own their children. While it's true that society grants parents a large degree of autonomy over their children, this authority and autonomy are not absolute. The assumption behind the implicit agreement between parents and society is that parents will do their utmost to act in the best interests of the child. It is understood that there might be disagreements over what constitutes the best interest of the child, which is why wide leeway is usually given to parents, often too much leeway in my opinion. (Antivaccinationists come to mind as parents who are given far too much deference by the law.) However, there are times when it is so clear that the course of action being chosen for the child is so inimical to the child's interest that something has to be done. The prototypical example of this sort of situation is, not surprisingly, the child with cancer for whom parents choose quackery over effective therapy—or choose nothing at all, such as Christian Scientists choosing prayer instead of medicine. To try to justify choosing quackery or prayer (but I repeat myself) over medicine, alt-med apologists will also do their utmost to try to discredit conventional cancer therapy, painting it as ineffective and harmful. Of course, if there's one area of cancer where the effectiveness of modern cancer therapy is most obvious, it is in childhood cancers, for which the cure rates of cancers that were once death sentences 40 years ago are now in the 80-90% range.
Here comes another one, and our old "friend" Mike Adams is losing his mind over it (as if he ever had a mind to lose in the first place). I had heard about this story before, and had planned on blogging it. Why I didn't, I don't know. It was probably a Dug the Dog moment and another squirrel ran by, which is as good a reason as any to thank our quacky friend Mikey for the opportunity to revisit the story:
Just weeks after an Ohio court ruled that medical authorities could not force chemotherapy upon a 10-year-old Amish girl against the wishes of her parents, an appeals court overturned the rule, allowing the hospital -- which profits from chemotherapy treatments -- to force this girl to receive chemotherapy against the wishes of her parents.
This is, essentially, chemotherapy at gunpoint or what I call "predatory medicine." If the parents refuse the court order, they will be arrested at gunpoint and charged with various crimes. The Akron Children's Hospital, which stands to profit from this decision, is the new medical mafia, poisoning children with mandatory "life sentences" handed down by a corrupt, medically ignorant justice system.
Ah, Mike. Predictably overwrought in the service of quackery, as always.
Let's go to a more objective source to find out what really happened, such as ABC News. What happened is an all-too-familiar story. A ten year old Amish girl named Sarah Hershberger was diagnosed with lymphoblastic lymphoma, an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. (Some stories state that Sarah has "leukemia," but a diagnosis of lymphoblastic lymphoma sounds more plausible given additional information in news stories stating that she has masses in her neck, chest, and kidneys, as leukemia usually doesn't produce masses like this.) In children, most forms of lymphoma are highly treatable for cure, far more so than in adults. Consequently, doctors at Akron Children's Hospital estimated Sarah's chances of survival at 85% with chemotherapy, which sounds about right. Chemotherapy was started, but Sarah suffered its unpleasant side effects, which alarmed her parents. As a result, her parents took her off of chemotherapy in June in order to treat her cancer with herbal remedies. As was the case with so many of the children I've written about before, a court battle ensued.
Here's the video:
We learn here that the girl's tumors on her neck, chest, and kidneys were shrinking in response to the chemotherapy, which she took for about a month before her parents took her off of it, indicating a promising initial response. The initial decision of the court in early September was that requiring the child to undergo chemotherapy was too much of a violation of parental rights. However, on October 1, the appeals court ruled that the hospital attorney, who's also a registered nurse, should be granted limited guardianship over the girl and the power to make medical decisions on her behalf, stating, "While we respect the wishes of the parents and believe them to be honest and sincere, we are unwilling to adhere to the wishes of the parents." The judges pointed out that while competent adults can refuse medical treatment no matter what the consequences are, children don't have the same option because of their vulnerability and insufficient maturity to make critical decisions. Certainly, this line blurs and becomes more difficult when the child is a teenager, as Abraham Cherrix was at the time of his cancer diagnosis. We can even argue about the age at which a child is sufficiently mature to make such life-and-death decisions. This is not one of those cases however, as Sarah Hershberger is only 10 years old. When she complained that the chemotherapy made her feel tired and sick, it should have been up to the parents and doctors to try to make her understand why it's necessary and get her through it. However, she doesn't get the option of vetoing the chemotherapy because she is not yet competent to make such a decision. The parents are supposed to act as her guardians and guard her best interests, but in this case it is very obvious that, for whatever reason, they can't do it. So someone else has to, and that "someone else" is the state.
At this point, I should mention that I understand the parents' plight, at least as much as it is possible to understand without actually having a child with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. As you see your child suffering fatigue, nausea, and other symptoms that are side effects of the chemotherapy and think about the potential long term sequelae of chemotherapy, you just want the suffering to stop. The problem is that you don't understand that death from cancer is far worse than the side effects of chemotherapy. It's understandable that parents with a bit of belief in woo would see what chemotherapy is doing to their child, forget what it could do for their child in converting a virtually certain death sentence to an 85% chance of long term survival, and decide to make the suffering stop. Medically, it's the wrong decision, but on a human level I can understand it. I can also understand why courts are reluctant to overrule parental prerogatives—at least up to a point. When a child's life is being endangered by parental decisions, however, the court has to act.
Not surprisingly, quackery apologists like Mike Adams don't see it that way. Adams, true to his usual form, sees this as a conspiracy, an intolerable affront to parental rights and and assault on the child, a grave offense against humanity itself. I'm not exaggerating. Take a look:
The chemotherapy agents used today are, in fact, derived from the research of Nazi scientists and the chemical conglomerate known as IG Farben, which was later broken up into multiple companies, including Bayer, the modern-day pharma company. For example, the chemo drug thalidomide is actually an off-shoot of Nazi chemical weapons research.
Based on my research into all this, it is my opinion that the Akron Children's Hospital is engaged in heinous crimes against children.
Yes, as expected, Adams couldn't resist pulling a Godwin. Then he can't resist the pharma shill gambit, coupled with what I like to refer to as an "appeal to doctors' arrogance":
Yet, despite the fact that western medicine is just one system out of a hundred, and despite the fact that chemotherapy is extremely toxic and causes more cancer, somehow western doctors are so incredibly, inexcusably ignorant that they have convinced themselves -- and even many courts -- that their way of treating cancer is the ONLY way! Everything else be damned! (Including prayer, fasting, juice feasting, medicinal mushrooms and more...)
Such a position can only come from nauseating arrogance combined with the kind of extreme ignorance of health that you can only learn in medical school, where all common sense is pounded out of your brain and replaced with pharmaceutical propaganda. No wonder tens of thousands of doctors in America routinely receive bribes from drug companies, including chemotherapy manufacturers.
Who's more arrogant? A physician who's spent years and years studying medicine, cancer, and how to treat cancer or a computer hack who once made his living fooling the gullible into buying into Y2K fear mongering and now pretends to know more about medicine than doctors? Yes, I'm referring to Mike Adams. The phrase "nauseating arrogance" applies to him perfectly, as does "extreme ignorance of health." This sort of idiocy leads him to rant:
Even if you don't agree with the Hershberger's decision, if you support the court's ordering their child into treatment, then you support the medical mafia operating at gunpoint in every context. Maybe soon the government will decide that everyone in the nation must take statin drugs. If you don't, you are arrested or fined. Got a problem with that? You'll be called "anti-science" and thrown in prison, then force-fed statins until the drug companies collect enough profit off your body. If you happen to die during the "treatment," don't worry: there are plenty more bodies to take your place.
Here's the difference that seems to escape Adams' pea-sized brain. Sarah Hershberger is a child. An adult can make any decision he or she pleases. If Sarah were 18, she could turn down chemotherapy for any reason, consequences be damned. And this is as it should be. However, society assumes that we will protect our children and act in their best interests. If the parents fail to do this so egregiously, then the state must act. Nor is Sarah's case a gray area. If she does not receive treatment for her lymphoma, she will almost certainly die within a short period of time, and that death will not be the peaceful, dignified death that alt-med believers seem to think it would be if only the evil, nasty drugs were kept away from her. It very likely would be horrible—and completely preventable.
I've been to Akron General Medical Center before on an organ harvest run when I was a resident in Cleveland, although I've never been to the Children's Hospital. Adams apparently contacted the hospital, and, although it was a response that was probably somewhat unprofessional when examined completely objectively, but completely understandable when one realizes that, well, we're dealing with Mike Adams here:
How heroic, eh? These "heroes" of medicine are so moral, so ethical and so "in the right" that they won't even reveal their names. They choose to hide behind anonymity, probably because at some level they realize their actions violate fundamental human rights and parental rights. These are crimes against families.
That's what I told Akron Children's Hospital public relations spokeswoman Lori Shuler, even encouraging her to "do something more meaningful with her life" than be a P.R. front woman for a destructive institution. Her answer to this? Literally, she screamed, "What an asshole!" and then slammed the phone down.
That is an on-the-record quote from Akron Children's Hospital, by the way: "What an asshole!" This is the level of professionalism these people exhibit. They poison children for a living, then scream profanities at honest journalists trying to ask them intelligent questions about the names of the doctors involved in the lawsuit that's forcing an innocent child to be poisoned with potentially deadly chemicals. For the record, I didn't raise my voice at all. I was calmly asking questions and offering this person my view on the actions of their hospital.
Lori Shuler sounds as though she is a keen judge of character.
I also don't quite understand the Hershbergers. During my residency in Cleveland, I dealt with a lot of Amish families. They were lovely people, by and large, and I never encountered one who refused conventional science-based medical therapies. Whatever their beliefs regarding technology, the Amish in Northeast Ohio at least did not eschew what modern medicine had to offer. The Hershbergers appear to be outliers. Be that as it may, I'm grateful that Akron Children's Hospital is willing to go to the mat to save the life of a child and has a PR person willing to call Mike Adams what he is.
ADDENDUM: The quack apologist flying monkey brigade has descended upon the Akron Children's Hospital Facebook page. It's painful to read. The forces of reason could use some reinforcements.
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What an asshole.
If your base postulate is that chemotherapy does not work at all, then everything Mike Adams and the family say and do makes perfect sense. The fact they are completely wrong doesn't negate a certain kind of rationality to their actions. Something to keep in mind when engaging this type is that the only chink in their internal logical armor is their base assumptions. Everything else logically built on them is essentially unassailable.
Literally, she screamed, “What an asshole!” and then slammed the phone down.
Geez, Adams, I've never known someone to figuratively scream "what an asshole".
I always count to 5 after hanging up on someone like Adams and make sure the connection is clearly broken before verbally venting (this is especially critical with cell phones which are notorious for a few second delay from when you tap the end call icon to when the hangup actually occurs).
I wonder if she screamed that at him, or if some patient walked by with an open hospital gown so she had to hang up and run to cover-up the patient's a-hole.
Anyway, saying that the hospital stands to profit is laughable. Hospitals have not been profitable in a long time. They bring in money, yes, but they spend far more than that because of the state healthcare is in.
Mikey routinely spews his spittle-flecked vitriol about physicians and healthcare but then suddenly clutches his pearls when he is called what he so richly deserves. Sure, not very professional on the part of the PR person but who can blame her after having to deal personally with Mikey.
Lori Shuler is my new favorite person. :)
"I’ve been to Akron General Medical Center before on an organ harvest run when I was a resident in Cleveland"
You do realize, Orac, that this confession could fuel a whole new Mike Adams rant about how one of the chief skeptics in the Medical Mafia is running a black market organ-selling operation?
Stay tuned for more lunacy from the Health Deranger.
And the evidence that prayer, fasting, huice fasting, etc. are as safe and effective, let along safer and more effective, at treating cancer would be what, Mike?
Oh, that's right . You don't have any.
Hey so a lot of people have been accusing a libertarian fire department as letting the buildings burn.
I'll confess, in the situation of the NSA data collection center burning, this might be true. LOL
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/10/08/2-Billion-NSA-Spy-Cen…
Wrong thread sorry.
I couldn't help noticing. Mike Adams said "juice feasting".
Any ideas what a juice feast would have? Would it just be fruit juice? Or would dairy, smoothies and thickened drinks be allowed? :p ;)
"honest journalists trying to ask them intelligent questions"
I know Mike Adams is not an honest journalist, and I doubt he was asking intelligent questions. I would love to see a transcript of the conversation before she snapped.
MIkey has a new bio up @ Health Ranger.com in case you haven't yet relished its disturbed and twisted self-aggrandising prose and hidden message to the world.
A few weeks ago, he promised that he'd lay off politics and stick to science ( heh) but obviously he could not resist the urge** to shriek and holler about politics and the economy -
so off he goes again.
(in an aside, I'm sure that Narad and others who work with this sort of thing will enjoy his takedown of governmental software/ computer operations... it's precious).
Mikey supports parental rights to harm or neglect children via woo thus the Canaries and other antivaxxers often quote him. Also his anti-expert contrarianism gathers him fans from those quarters as well.
** I'm sure that that's revealing
OT- but are parents playing pretend doctor instead of taking their children to real ones ever TRULY OT @ RI?
Didn't think so.
Whilst this post fits in withmcuh of her previous work ( until now, I found her to be the least objectionable of the TMs**), I find something delightfully mad about it although its inherent darker undercurrent soon caused me discomfort:
Ms Dragon Slayer ( of TMR and Malaysia) reveals how she uses essential oils instead of medications for the various ills her daughters suffer- it almost reads like an advertisement for a particular company but that's nothing new in woo-topia.
She lists what oils and their combinations are useful for symptoms INCLUDING a chart that categorises psychiatric conditions alongside SB meds and which oils could be used as adequate substitutes. There is also a section about oils for symptoms associated with autism. Often people with ASDs are prescribed meds by SBM.
She - like many other anti-vaxxers, discourages medication and offers up altie alternatives. As we all know, it is common for MI patients to reject or dismiss meds for psychiatric symptoms to BEGIN WITH- a trend which she encourages in her cheerful way: she rhapsodises about the lovely smells the oils emit and how wonderful she feels-
I'm a bit of a perfume aficionado myself but I wouldn't go as far as to say that scent cures***.
But then, I'm not a TM. Thankfully.
** she used to give recipes and write about cultural festivities like Eid and Chinese New Year's usually complete with photos of her kids' outfits for the day.
*** but oakmoss does do wonders.
Hmm...I never see news stories about fundie Adults refusing treatment for life-threatening diseases.
That's probably because adults have the right to refuse medical treatment for any reason whatsoever, and so these cases don't make it to court. If a fundie adult refuses medical treatment, the hospital and the state do not take him to court to make sure he receives treatment.
@ Julian Frost:
You obviously need to peruse juicefeasting.com to learn ALL about it.
However, Mikey has been known to create his own recipes for green smoothies which include myriad ingredients including superfoods which are- unsurprisingly- also available at his 'store' @ NaturalNews. He has videos of his attempts at woo cuisine.
Ironically, juicefeasting makes me think of the SNL skit "Hub's Gyro" where the customers would always be peppered with "you'a like'a the jooz?" by the owner (whom I believe was Rob Schneider)
Hmmm...what time did Orac's post go live?
I just came online at 12:45 PM EDT and the link to Dr Mikey's rant is gone. Why?
Dr. Mikey, you really are an a$$hole.
"The chemotherapy agents used today are,
in fact, derived from the research of Nazi scientists "
And what if Genghis Khan invented toilet paper, Mikey-poo?
Towards the end of his rant, Mikey advises parents NEVER to take their children to an oncologist.
Alright, I've been reading/ hearing him carry on about how corrupt the medical "industry" is, how doctors indeed are mafioso, n-zis, criminals really...
But isn't there something criminal about what HE is doing?
I do believe that there are laws about pretending to be a doctor when you're not ( US), something called the 'Cancer Act' ( UK) and Canada probably has a few on the books as well.
Non-doctor Mr Geier got fined for acting as a doctor and Mr Wakefield got struck off. Ms Carolyn Dean lost her certificate to practise medicine in Ontario and had to move to the US and get an ND in order to continue her charade.
Mike and the others give medical advice whilst talking out of their arses daily. They boast international readership/ listeners - they've got to be breaking laws somehow.
There's got to be a way to nail** these people.
** although metaphorical, my word choice is deliberate.
Okay, I give up. Where's the link to Dr. Mikey's rant about the hospital taking action on behalf of Sarah?
Oh, how I loathe Adams. With the heat of 1000 suns.
My grand-nephew got leukemia a few years back. And yes, the side effects of the chemo are awful. And I would weep for my poor niece who had to hold him down during the spinal taps. I cannot imagine the parental strength that takes.
But they stuck it out, and he started kindergarten last year--chemo free and looking great--with his twin brother. He's also now caught back up with his vaccinations that he couldn't get before.
This was a dramatic difference from the leukemia my cousin had 30 years prior. He died within about 6 weeks, and it shredded their family ultimately.
It's a rough road and I wish no one had to take it. But there has been progress and you can get through it. To withhold that possibility from a child....grrrrr.....
@lilady:
See this sentence: "Here comes another one, and our old “friend” Mike Adams is losing his mind over it (as if he ever had a mind to lose in the first place)."
It's always been there ever since this post went live. Rather funny of me to put the link in the paragraph right before I start quoting Mikey's rant, isn't it? :-)
Something else to consider is that if , in the past, so many parents hadn't been willing to endure the side effects their children had during cancer treatment, there wouldn't be the much better odds for children for many cancers today.
OT- but afterall it *is* late on Friday and don't RI minions always enjoy Master Jake posting e-mails or parts thereof even if they're 10-11 years old as long as they're not his?
AND this is not TRULY OT @ RI, I would think.
Which he does now to Mark Blaxill ( see Autism Investigated today).
Okay, the Dr. Mikey's rant page finally loaded for me.
What hubris. The very idea that this science illiterate pompous and gutless whelp snake oil salesman, contacts staff at the hospital where young Sarah is being treated, demanding personal information about the child's care is mind-boggling.
"What an asshole!" This is the level of professionalism these people exhibit. They poison children for a living, then scream profanities at honest journalists trying to ask them intelligent questions about the names of the doctors involved in the lawsuit that's forcing an innocent child to be poisoned with potentially deadly chemicals. For the record, I didn't raise my voice at all. I was calmly asking questions and offering this person my view on the actions of their hospital."
Dr. Mikey... You're not an honest "journalist" and no one gives two sh!ts about your views or opinions and your lame attempts to subvert the care that will probably save Sarah's life.
A few weeks ago, he promised that he’d lay off politics and stick to science ( heh) but obviously he could not resist the urge** to shriek and holler about politics and the economy
Via Boing-Boing I read about the impact on cancer research of the US Govt. shutdown:
http://boingboing.net/2013/10/11/national-cancer-institute-dire.html
For Mike in particular, and the venn-diagram-intersection between smash-the-govt. Teahadis and cancer scammers in general, this is clearly a win-win-situation.
The chemotherapy agents used today are, in fact, derived from the research of Nazi scientists
The mental process involved here seems to be "some chemo drugs are derived from the sulphur mustard agents... Germans used mustard gas in WWI... Nazis were also Germans... therefore chemo == Nazi".
the chemo drug thalidomide is actually an off-shoot of Nazi chemical weapons research
Here Mikey is outsourcing his bullsh1t production to the feckin' Daily Fail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138955/Nazis-developed-Thalido…
I just read Mike's bio. Wow. His ego has an ego. I think I know why it says "Adams is not known to appear on the social scene": there is no one else Mike would rather be with than Mike.
I also got a kick out of this sentence:
"Adams is believed to have been born in 1967".
Why would anyone put that in their very recently published biographical history? Does it mean that he doesn't know when he was born? Or that we are not sure he WAS born? Or that somebody else wrote his bio who didn't dare ask him his birth date?
I just read Mike's bio. Wow. His ego has an ego. I think I know why it says "Adams is not known to appear on the social scene": there is no one else Mike would rather be with than Mike.
I also got a kick out of this sentence:
"Adams is believed to have been born in 1967".
Why would anyone put that in their very recently published biographical history? Does it mean that he doesn't know when he was born? Or that we are not sure he WAS born? Or that somebody else wrote his bio who didn't dare ask him his birth date?
I just read Mike's bio. Wow. His ego has an ego. I think I know why it says "Adams is not known to appear on the social scene": there is no one else Mike would rather be with than Mike.
I also got a kick out of this sentence:
"Adams is believed to have been born in 1967".
Why would anyone put that in their very recently published biographical history? Does it mean that he doesn't know when he was born? Or that we are not sure he WAS born? Or that somebody else wrote his bio who didn't dare ask him his birth date?
I just read Mike's bio. Wow. His ego has an ego. I think I know why it says "Adams is not known to appear on the social scene": there is no one else Mike would rather be with than Mike.
I got a kick out of this sentence:
"Adams is believed to have been born in 1967".
Why would anyone put that in their very recently published biographical history? Does it mean that he doesn't know when he was born? Or that we are not sure he WAS born? Or that somebody else wrote his bio who didn't dare ask him his birth date?
Oh crap. Will somebody please delete the 3 extra posts? This is humiliating.
@lsm - no worries....we all have those kinds of days.
“Adams is believed to have been born in 1967″.
He is International Man of Mystery! Many speculate but none can know the truth! His origins are veiled behind enigma and uncertainty!
I followed the link from your Facebook post to the Akron Children's Hospital page.
Holy cow.
Adams has loosed the psychotic flying monkeys to carpet-bomb every single post with comments that verge (oh, hell, more than verge) on self-parody:
Why Dr. Congeni is using chemotherapy to treat concussions is not explained. The whole page is now like that. My conjecture is that Mike Adams, being a loonie's loony, has concentrated and purified the crazy in his readership to the point where he now commands a division of absolutely batshit-insane, drooling, barking shock troops, and he need only raise his hands and cry "FLY, MY PRETTIES" to make the Akron Children's Hospital site totally unreadable. Sorry, ACH: this infestation is just your bad luck.
@ Ism:
@ herr doktor:
What makes the phrase even more hilarious than it already is- IF that is indeed possible- is that he probably wrote the bio himself.
“Adams is believed to have been born in 1967″.
His mom probably doesn't want to admit to anything about him.
It horrifies me that I was living in Lawrence, attending the University of Kansas in 1967.
Any ideas what a juice feast would have? Would it just be fruit juice? Or would dairy, smoothies and thickened drinks be allowed?
The important question is, is any of the juice fermented?
“Adams is believed to have been born in 1967″.
Well, that's what his mother, father, and birth certificate say, but you know all persons in authority lie.
"Adams is believed to have been born in 1967″.
"Why would anyone put that in their very recently published biographical history?"
You have to leave that smidgen of an opening to anyone who wishes to believe he's actually the reincarnation of Jesus. Or P.T. Barnum.
OT but hey, it's Saturday-
@ AoA we learn ( via Dan) that the site has been chosen for ..... ( wait for it)... its contribution to single focus journalism... "by Natural News or PRN?" you might ask:
no, by an actual, real school of journalism at a bricks-and-mortar university- not a website cashcow...
.
it's called 'Columbia'. Yes, Mark, Dan and Kim will show the way to young students who want to bring news to the world.
I swear I'm not making this up...
Denice Walter, I hope that either he's lying, or that Columbia wants to use them as a negative example.
@ Julian Frost:
Well, he DOES say that Mark will speak about 'building a community' or suchlike which I imagine he can do altho' the especial qualities of that community are of concern to me.
As we all know there are 'communities' around the 'net that are of interest for many reasons, not all of them good.
BTW, as mentioned above, the quack apologist flying monkey brigade has descended upon the Akron Children's Hospital Facebook page. It's painful to read. The forces of reason could use some reinforcements.
Somebody should attend, as Olmsted's appearance ("I'll be on a panel discussing how to create community around a niche topic") will be on November 9, i.e., free, 4:30–5:45 p.m. I'd love to see him respond to questions about their tenderly cultivated blob of semiliterate NWO conspiracy nuts.
Narad, there's another name for 'single focus journalism'-
such as that we find at AoA, TMR, AI-
* une idee fixee*.
SRSLY...
correction- that should be 'single subject' and 'Dan' not Mark.
I should know better than trying to do this while doing other tasks.
"I don't do Facebook", but I do post on other blogs...such as this New York Daily News blog.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/ohio-hospital-force-amish-…
Wait till Mikey hears about this case: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24493422
TL:DR: The parents both started out anti-vax, believing Wakefield's lies. Eventually they divorced, the father read more about vaccines, concluded that he had been wrong and wanted his two daughters vaccinated.
The sad thing is that the two children have by now been thoroughly indoctrinated by their mother:
Just by the by, following on the old case of Bruce Anderson, Chenzira v. Cincinnati Children’s Hosp. Med. Ctr. illustrates that this position still has legs in the realm of employment law.
(I'm still not "doing Facebook")...but I posted several comments on this ABC TV blog:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ohio-hospital-force-chemo-amish-girl-court…
Denise, I'd go with "monomania," myself. Idee Fixee always reminds me of the' dog in Asterix.
I made the mistake of clicking the FB link...an old "demotivator" came to mind. "Go ahead and lose hope, rage will fill the void." Or some such thing.
I just, can't. How do these people function?
single focus journalism
Is that what the kids are calling it?
Along similar lines... I'm not a stalker, I'm a single subject investigator.
Break out the champagne...and the popcorn, folks.
Olmstead just post this on Age of Autism:
Weekly Wrap: Columbia Journalism School Single Subject News Network
By Dan Olmsted
"UPDATE: Well, that was quick. Shortly after this article was posted, Columbia Journalism School withdrew their invitation, saying that after further review, "Age of Autism does take a clear position on the link between vaccines and the incidence of Autism, also engaging in advocacy on that position. Therefore we must disqualify the site from our study." The same person said, when inviting us in August: "I'm also a huge fan of The Age of Autism, how you've built and sustained an enriching and focused platform. It's a huge pleasure to invite you to join a community at Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism. ... What you're doing is part of a wave in the journalism world that the Tow Center wants to bring together and highlight as a trend." We warned them to expect to hear from critics but were told, "Thank you Dan for the head's up but we are happy to have you!" Que sera, sera."
Yeah, que sera, sera Dan. So much for your inroad into legitimate journalism.
Oops...Olmsted's snark about being disinvited to Columbia University's seminar can be found here. The comments posted since the disinvitation are "precious".
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/10/age-of-autism-columbia-journalism-sc…
The full text of the MMR judgement mentioned by Sophia, above, is here:
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2013/26…
How do you get to be a "huge fan" of AoA and their "enriching and focused platform" and not notice what they're focused on? And that it has as much in common with journalism as it does with sanity?
#58
That is *not* journalism. Although I'm not a fan of the term "journalism" anyway. It seems to be used a lot of times by people who don't understand the difference between reporting and advocacy.
I thought this one was outstanding, particularly the combination of disjointed thought with not only a serious misunderstanding of how university presses work, but also the failure to pick up on the fact that they only published one of his books, five years ago:
That comment really is precious. They make their own reality at AoA and are so warped that they actually believe Paul Offit or anyone on their sworn enemies list would even bother to make phone calls to Columbia U.
Hmmm...could it be that the person who issued an invitation to Dan Olmsted didn't actually have the authority to invite him? Nah.
Shay:
In english, he's called Dogmatix.
Which is also a good description of AoA's thought processes.
So I went to the AoA site to read for myself, and read firsthand about the new concern that vaccines make concussions more common and may even make the human skull thinner. I woke my significant othe with uncontrolled laughter (which also let the dogs know I was awake so then I had to get up.) Is there no end to the stuff these dolts will attribute to vaccines? The mind reels......thinner skulls? I'd say the skulls are pretty darn thick over at AoA.
Janet,
I laughed at the concussion nonsense too. I remember visiting a friend with a head injury in a hospital around 30 years ago. He was on a head injury ward with scores of other patients. There are far fewer such patients now, mainly because of seat-belt and crash helmet laws and improved vehicle safety. Or perhaps people have thicker skulls now thanks to vaccines ;-)
This is most excellent.
Confabulatory wheels are already a-turning at AoA, I can imagine the following scenario being constructed.....
Orac has many spies, minions and creatures who are only too pleased to do his bidding or to 'find something big' for him to discuss. As soon as the announcement was made, an especially compromised but alluring vixen sounded the alarm, then another made some calls and the computer wizards then set to work creating a barrage of e-mails that soon engulfed the school of journalism, leaving its staff crying out for help. The powers-that-be at the university were contacted by the super secret Inner Council of Sceptics who then threa...
oh wait, I'm not supposed to talk about THAT.
Needless to say within a few hours of their evil plan being set into motion: the invitation was rescinded and the valiant journalists at AoA had to announce that they would no longer be attending...
all the parts fit together seamlesssly and function like a well-oiled machine.
A machine oiled with MONEY, I daresay.
and the sceptics laughed: ha ha.
It's all in a day's work for the marvelous minions, Oracolytes or whatever you want to call the clever, charming pharmasluts of RI. Get out the champagne!
While this has switched to the topic of loons at AoA and the media conspiracy against them, remember their joy at Jenny's being put on The View? A TV Guide (yes, I read TV Guide) article brought up the elephant (well, one of them) in the room.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Jenny-McCarthy-View-1071940.aspx
One, it's HILARIOUS she was taken aback, if she was, I'm of the opinion she's trying to play the victim. Or she's honestly too stupid to understand how dangerous what she promoted was and therefore honestly doesn't understand why people are so angry. Two, she's once again attempting to back away from her stance, stating slow it down, blah blah blah (I have half a mind to post links in the comments to some of her quotes in articles and YouTube videos clearly refuting her statement, but there are no other comments so I doubt people who matter are paying attention). BUT, even if it's BS, at least she seems to know what proselytizing would have gotten her and has learned to keep her mouth shut. She didn't even mention the titles of those books, which she would drop in a second previously if it had come up . She still shouldn't be given the legitimacy of the position, but I suppose it could be worse than what it is as of now. I wonder how much she really danced around the question when it was asked and how many times it was edited for approval before print.
Regardless of her actual feelings though, what struck me the most was how much AoA was looking forward to her being on The View, how they finally had a public platform, and now what they'll feel about her essentially acknowledging that she wasn't going to talk about it, and even if she were asked, it'll be watered down. I'm also pretty certain they probably worked it into her contract, and I remember someone on RI mentioning that possibility as well. I wonder how long until AoA jumps up and starts accusing either shadow agencies for silencing her, or actually accusing her of selling out. They're known to turn on each other. It just kind of made my morning, more because it's a kick in the stones to the hopes and dreams AoA had. Where's their celebrity messiah now?
Or perhaps people have thicker skulls now thanks to vaccines
Vaccines cause Paget's disease!
Remember, you read it here first.
MESSAGE BEGINS-------------------
Shills and Minions,
I send this missive of congratulations from the back of our very luxurious, customized Prevost PharmaCoach™. I'm taking a kinder, friendlier "lizard of the people" sort of approach this fall in our Glaxxon PharmaCOM Roadshow™. I was told motoring among you would make me seem more . . . human. I'm not too sure a 1.5 million dollar motor coach qualifies as poplulist, but its' climate controlled and the ladies on Level 7 have tinkered with it a bit and assure me that should the need arise, it can make orbit in under 3 minutes.
But enough about me, I hear congratulations are in order to my marvelous minions of mayhem for thwarting the rebel Olmsted's journalistic aspirations. Tell me, what did you use? Money? Extortion? Enhanced conversation techniques? I and tingling in anticipation (or maybe I'm about to molt, so hard to tell). In any case, all team members can look forward to a little extra something in this week's courrier bag.
Yours in Pure PharmaEeeeeeevil™,
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Pharmaca Magna of Terra, Dasher of Journalistic Dreams
PharmaCOM Roadshow and Old-Tyme, Pill-Peddlin Chautauqua™
10100100010000100000100000010000000100000000
----------------------------MESSAGE ENDS
Your lordship...Pau...er, a rather famous doctor/author has his *Big Pharma* shills' and minions' phone numbers on speed dial, in order to foil Dr. Olmsted's shot at fame and fortune.
Cheer up Dan...there's always next year.
HDB,
I know you're joking, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the AoA brigade were to make that claim.
It's off topic really, but the reduction in deaths and serious injuries (often head injuries) due to RTCs (what used to be called RTAs) in the UK is quite extraordinary. There were 60,000 serious injuries and 5,217 deaths due to RTCs in the UK in 1990. By 2012 those figures had fallen to 23,039 and 1,754 respectively, reductions of 62% and 66%, despite the increase in both population and the number of cars on the roads. I assume that similar reductions have been seen in other parts of the developed world.
It's yet another example of this weird belief some people have in a Golden Age when everyone survived contagious diseases and had strengthened immune systems as a result, and developmental disorders and mental handicaps didn't exist, all because fewer vaccines were used.
Thus spake Lord Draconis (may His slime glands ooze forever):
None of these were necessary. Someone at Columbia Journalism School simply browsed the AoA website.
You've got it all wrong. It may be fluoride (?), Aluminum, too many antibiotics, Polysorbate-80 and um, other factors, which causes the breach in the BBB and the thinning of the cranium...
"I agree that severity of concussions has increased. I think we are weakening our blood brain barrier somehow. Maybe Fluoride? I think of fluoride as a bouncer at the blood brain barrier. BFF Aluminum always gets in when fluoride is at the gate! Also, I wonder about polysorbate 80 in foods and especially injected in vaccines. It's not just for emulsion. It's added to certain pharmaceuticals to help the drugs get to the brain. Furthermore, I think too many antibiotics have killed the microbiota we need for better integrity of our blood brain barrier."
Sounds like someone has read too many of Teresa Conrick's posts!
lilady,
That bizarre stream of consciousness explanation of how vaccines increase the severity of concussion is a doozy. It sounds like Blackheart's explanation of how vaccines cause autism: there may be changes in cytokine regulation in autism, cytokines are involved in the immune system, vaccines affect the immune system, QED. Wherever did they get the idea that the blood brain barrier is involved in concussion? It would be funny if only no one took this sort of speculation seriously.
To be serious for a moment, there are somewhat more plausible explanations for the increase in reported concussion in various sports, such as changes in definition, increased reporting (this sounds oddly familiar) and increased size and strength of participants.
I forgot to mention "the microbiota we need for better integrity of our blood brain barrier" - when will these people start sending each other CSF through the mail for DIY brain probiotic transplantation?
Ms Conrick and the commenter quoted above@ # 75 suffer from chronic physiologucal fan-fiction pseudo-echolalia:
this syndrome is produced when self-taught scientist-mimics scan over physiology/ biochemisty textbooks and fixate upon particular words and/or phrases, reproduce them randomly and then link them together purely by confabulation in order to convince others that they understand something about which they haven't a clue. Despite the glaring obviousness of that fact, they manage to assemble a small fanbase who in turn copy them.
It's PHYSIOLOGICAL dammit.
Idee Fixee always reminds me of the’ dog in Asterix.
Idee Fixie is the name of my next bicycle.
I think too many antibiotics have killed the microbiota we need for better integrity of our blood brain barrier
Obviously blood reaching the brain is a Bad Thing, that is why we have a barrier to keep it out.
I think readers would be familiar with young Australian woman Jessica Ainscough and her deluded belief that Gerson principles will cure her cancer. Her mother jumped on board with Gerson when diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of years ago - and has just died. http://www.thewellnesswarrior.com.au/2013/10/saying-goodbye-mum/
A somewhat weird question, but here goes: On another discussion board, I saw a link to a blog called economic policy journal, with a weird article viciously attacking the Obamacare website, and written by a Mike Adams. It claims that the code (javascript mainly) that he looked at is the worst he's ever seen, etc etc. It's all part and parcel of a generalized nastiness over Obamacare that doesn't seem to have much to do with the substance, but fits in with the right wing tendency towards taunting over straw men.
So is this the same guy, or are there squadrons of Mike Adamses who are all a mite off?
@ Bob G:
It is one and the same ( posted @ Natural News a few days ago). Fortunately for us ( and the world) there is only one Mikey.
Thanks.
MESSAGE BEGINS------------------
Slime glands? Surely you're thinking of some other overlords you've apparently been moonlighting for. Perhaps those dreadfully whiney molluscoids from the Svatstvra Vortex? Honestly, how is it that you don't want to claw your ears off after spending fifteen minutes with one of them?
Because of your extraordinary service and loyalty to Her Imperial Highness (may her claws flash swiftly) I'll not take your impertinence personally. But really, get your overlords straight. Slime indeed.
Lord Draconis Zeneca, VH7ihL
Forward Mavoon of the Great Fleet, Pharmaca Magna of Terra, Smooth, Dry Overlord of Doom
Glaxxon PharmaCOM Roadshow Bus "Invincible Menace"
001100011100001111000001111100000011111100000001111111
------------------------------------MESSAGE ENDS
I always thought most of our microbiota reside in the colon, a long way from the blood brain barrier. However the denizens of AoA do tend to pull most of their ideas out of their asses, so their anatomy may be different.
A thousand apologies my Lord, my monkey brain jumped to evidently unwarranted conclusions; I dread to think what was truly dripping from your jaws last time we met.
I would never dare to question your generosity in the slightest, of course, but the Pharma checks have been few and far between recently, and a shill's gotta eat; all you non-human Overlords look the same to me when I'm hypoglycemic.
Slime glands? Are they anything like gonads? There's another Polysorbate-80 explanation up at AoA.
When did they put rat poisoning in Gardasil vaccine?
"There are polysorbate 20/60/80 available.These are chemical emulsifiers that allow oil and water mix.Used in bakery, cosmetics,vaccine manufacturing (Gardasil,Flu vaccines)etc.
It is also used as an agent to carry medication through the blood brain barrier,like chemotherapy medications when the cancer is in the brain. Europe-an research study also indicates
that it has damaging effects on the gonads (rat study that examines the rats after injection,and checks different tissues for histological changes)so in a nut shell the ovas were degenerated in the ovaries.It also has the ability to weaken the blood brain barrier by creating lesions.It also has the capability to transfer aluminum (eg.adjuvants)or
viral particles or contaminants to the central nervous system.Some people allergic to this substance,can cause anaphylactic shock.When you combine two emulsifiers like boric acid(rat poison)and polysorbates their detergency will increase.(eg Gardasil)Yes I took biochemistry and I will do everything to bring big pHarma down for the pain they have caused to my son.I hope this helps."
Seriously Kreb, you do honestly think that I'd stick around if there was SLIME involved?
((((shiver))))
if there WERE slime involved.
Denice,
It may not be entirely compatible with your habitual sartorial elegance, but one man's slime is another man's er... never mind. Personally I find those molluscoids rather cute, as long as they don't start singing.
in a nut shell the ovas
Ovas? My first facepalm of the day.
@ herr doktor bimler:
That poster probably meant the ovums...double facepalm.
That evil polysorbate again? There is a massive 50 micrograms polysorbate 80 in Gardasil. Studies in which volunteers ingested 9 grams (PDF) of this extremely toxic substance every day for 13 days reported no ill effects whatsoever, not even nausea or diarrhea (which frankly I would have expected at that dose - it is essentially detergent after all).
That's only 1.8 million times as much as in a single shot of Gardasil! Another study found "no effects on hemograms, blood pressure, or renal or hepatic functions following oral administration of polysorbate 80 (4.5-6 g/day) to 46 patients for 1-4 years".
For God's sake will no one think of the children?
[/sarcasm]
That evil polysorbate again? There is a massive 50 micrograms polysorbate 80 in Gardasil. Studies in which volunteers ingested 9 grams (PDF) of this extremely toxic substance every day for 13 days reported no ill effects whatsoever, not even nausea or diarrhea (which frankly I would have expected at that dose - it is essentially detergent after all).
That's only 1.8 million times as much as in a single shot of Gardasil! Another study found "no effects on hemograms, blood pressure, or renal or hepatic functions following oral administration of polysorbate 80 (4.5-6 g/day) to 46 patients for 1-4 years".
For God's sake will no one think of the children?
[/sarcasm]
Hiccup. Server flaky again?
@ Kreb:
"One man's slime is another man's...."
nectar? ambrosia? Dom Perignon? polysorbate 80?
I could continue but choose not to.
“One man’s slime is another man’s….”
À chacun son glutinosity.
There is a massive 50 micrograms polysorbate 80 in Gardasil.
The homeopathic dilution just makes it MORE POWERFUL.
I confess, I'd be pretty upset if I found degenerating "ovas" in my nut shells...
Thanks for that visual, Richard. You just about ruined my lunch.
BTW, the Facebook comments at Akron Children's Hospital have been joined by a staunch Burzynksi defender but it does not, thank Crom, appear to be Diddimus.
"More recently, there was Chad Jessop and Daniel Hauser. Just in the last couple of years, there has been one more case, including Jacob Stieler, as well as a case of a young wrestler who suffered a spinal cord injury and needed spine-stabilizing surgery whose mother refused the surgery in favor of “alternative medicine.” That doesn’t even count the children "
I think a sentence was left incomplete here...
Just been to NaturalNews in an attempt to find Mike's bio... it doesn't appear to be there any more.
IS IT ACCEPTABLE FOR PARENTS TO SEEK NON "STANDARD OF CARE" TREATMENT FOR THEIR KIDS WHO ARE GIVEN A PROGNOSIS OF DEATH FROM CANCER?
ARE YOU ASKING IN GENERAL? BECAUSE IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CASE.