Does anybody remember the Canary Party? As I described two and a half years ago when I first became aware of it, the Canary Party is a weird mutant hybrid of antivaccinationists convinced that there are "toxins" in vaccines that are making all our children autistic, "health freedom" activists, and, more recently, Tea Party activists. The name of the party was chosen based on the old story about how miners would keep canaries in the mine because they were more sensitive to toxic gases. The idea was that, if the miners saw their canary collapse, they knew they'd better get out of that shaft pronto. Canaries are members of a more general class of creatures known as animal sentinels. In any case, the idea behind the party is that our children are supposedly like those canaries, sentinels who are more sensitive to environmental dangers, such as (to the Canary Party) vaccines, heavy metals, and various chemicals, a generation of children that the Canary Party describes as "over vaccinated and over medicated, over fed, undernourished and have record levels of chronic illness and developmental delay." Most recently, dimwitted comedian Rob Schneider has taken up with Canary Party antivaccine cause, lending his "talents" to the narration of a video chock full of misinformation about the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
So what next for the Canary Party? Well, yesterday I learned something that amused me greatly. In fact, it looks to me as though the Canary Party has found its soulmate in the form of Mike Adams. As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, there are two main honchos in the online world of quackery. One is Joe Mercola, who's been known to promote a cancer quack who claims that all cancer is a fungus and baking soda is the cure. Of course, he's into the standard stuff, too: Acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, all sorts of varied quackery, and, of course, boatloads of supplements, which he is happy to sell you through his online store. He's the sane one. The crazy one is Mike Adams, who is known not only for his rabid antivaccine views, but for his equally rabid hatred of any conventional medicine (particularly psychiatric medications). He's also, not coincidentally, a New World Order conspiracy theorists, an NRA-style gun rights advocate, and an anthropogenic global warming denialist. No wonder he's a regular on Alex Jones' website and online video and radio empire. He also seems to be a match maid in heaven for The Canary Party, whose platform he calls "life protecting":
Today is a milestone day for Natural News because it is the first time we are officially endorsing the platform of a political party. However, the Canary Party is really more of an activism group right now with the aim of influencing elections. You are not likely to actually see Canary Party candidates any time in the very near future (although you might a few years out).
What is the Canary Party? It's a group of moms, dads, concerned citizens and scientists who recognize the severe harm being caused to our world and our children by toxic heavy metals and synthetic chemicals found in vaccines, medicines, foods, personal care products and even products for the home. Their published mission statement is:
The Canary Party is a movement created to stand up for the victims of medical injury, environmental toxins and industrial foods by restoring balance to our free and civil society and empowering consumers to make health and nutrition decisions that promote wellness.
And why does Mike like the Canary Party so much? Oh, just a few reasons that I bet you can figure out:
The issue of the mass poisoning of humanity transcends all other political concerns except for liberty. Freedom from being covertly poisoned by unethical corporations is, in fact, a form of liberty. So, in essence, the Canary Party is founded in liberty and focused on some of its most important areas of application: medical freedom, health freedom, food freedom and freedom from harm by insidious corporations that spew chemicals with no regard for the sanctity of life.
The Canary Party, for example, believes in "vaccine choice" -- the idea that individuals and parents should have the right to choose whether they wish to be vaccinated rather than having vaccines forced upon them by the state. This idea of medical freedom is essential to liberty and it is found in the debates leading up to the creation of the United States Constitution (see the writings of Dr. Benjamin Rush).
Don't you just love it when Mike Adams goes all Founding Fathers, liberty, and health freedom on us? Truly, he is the very definition of crank magnetism. There is no quackery he will not embrace, no conspiracy theory that he won't uncritically swallow. No wonder he loves the Canary Party. Just look at its position paper! I've deconstructed it before, but it's been a while; so it's worth briefly touching upon again. No doubt Adams also knows about how the Canary Party tried to buy Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) for for $40,000 and managed to get a useless Congressional hearing and a kiss and a promise of another hearing on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in November. In other words, the Canary Party was played by a savvy political operator. Of course, if you look at the list of initial signatories to the Canary Party position paper, you'll see a lot of familiar names. It's like a who's who of the antivaccine movement, with a special emphasis on the Age of Autism and SafeMinds wing: Ginger Taylor, John Stone, Mark Blaxill, Rebecca Estepp, Julie Obradovic, and more. Hilariously, they all include their degrees after their names, none of which include an MD degree. There are lots of MBAs, MAs, and Ginger Taylor's MS, none of which confer any expertise in biology, medicine, immunology, autism, or vaccines. But they proudly display them anyway. Sure, there are a couple of RNs, an LICSW, and a couple of PhDs, but none of them look like anything that bespeaks expertise in the relevant sciences behind vaccines, and, make no mistake about it, the Canary Party is all about the vaccines far more than it is about anything else.
Oh, and there's Sherri Tennpenny, DO, one of the more—shall we say?—science-challenged antivaccine activists, which is probably why Adams likes her so much:
The only person I really know in the Canary Party is Sherri Tenpenny, and she's a brilliant, science-minded researcher with a lot to teach the world about vaccines and immunology.
As of yet, I don't know the other Canary Party members very well, so this is not a personal endorsement of each and every person involved in the Canary Party; it's an endorsement of the Canary Party platform and philosophy -- something that's far larger than any individual or group.
The philosophy of the Canary Party is powerful and timeless. Whereas the currently philosophy of Democrats and Republicans is to protect POWER, the philosophy of the Canary Party is to protect LIFE.
One wonders how trying to persuade parents not to vaccinate is "protecting LIFE." The only result of declining vaccination levels, particularly if they decline well below herd immunity levels, will be the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases that used to kill children by the thousands. Antivaccinationists will claim that this can't happen, that better hygiene and sanitation have vanquished diseases like polio in industrialized countries to history. Of course, the lessons of the UK and Europe are rather instructive, given how the measles, once all but vanquished, came roaring back in the wake of Andrew Wakefield's fear mongering about the MMR vaccine. If you think the same thing wouldn't happen within a decade after vaccination rates plummet to the near non-existent rate that antivaccinationists want, well, I have some land in Florida I'd love to sell you—or maybe a bridge. Whenever vaccination rates plummet too much, vaccine-preventable infectious diseases like the measles come back. Always. And the measles is transmitted mainly by air and fomites; so better sanitation is not going to stop it.
In the end, I rather suspect that the Canary Party doesn't know what it's in for. Right now, I've been told that Ginger Taylor is quite happy that Mike Adams has publicly endorsed the Canary Party, and why not? He runs a Web 2.0 empire selling quackery, conspiracy theories, AGW denialism, and Tea Party politics. He can certainly bring attention to the group. However, if, as is apparent by the way that the Canary Party tried to buy influence by donating to Rep. Issa, the Canary Party wants to present itself as a mainstream party of "concerned parents and citizens," having Mike Adams on board sure won't help with that. Nothing screams "lunatic fringe" like Adams, particularly his association with Alex Jones.
On second thought, maybe it's a good thing that Adams endorsed the Canary Party. It ought to be good for a few laughs at the very minimum. It'll probably be good for an occasional blog post. At the very most, it will destroy any hope the Canary Party has of convincing anyone that it's anything more than a bunch of antivaccine cranks. You know? I like that.
- Log in to post comments
As the little yellow badge on my avatar says; "Canary Party - Your Health, Your Choice, You're Mental"
Not fair, not fair...Rebecca got first dibs on this thread.
Mikey posted a new manifesto, about vaccination freedom:
http://www.shiftfrequency.com/mike-adams-10-outrageous-but-true-facts-a…
"Mike Adams ~ 10 Outrageous (But True) Facts About Vaccines . . .Prepare to be shocked. Here are 10 outrageous (but true) facts about vaccines the CDC and the vaccine industry don’t want you to know:"
Some of Mikey's untrue factoids about vaccines:
(Yup, pertussis has been reclassified as a virus)
"FACT #5) In nearly every outbreak you hear about these days, the majority of the children affected by the outbreak have already been vaccinated against the virus! For example, outbreaks of whooping cough routinely involve children who have already been vaccinated against whooping cough. This is yet more proof that vaccines do not confer immunity."
(Could Mikey ever post anything without a Godwinism?)
"Doctors who inject children with vaccines are delusional. They are practicing a medical holocaust against humanity while fraudulently calling it “immunization.” For the record, vaccination does not equal immunization."
/facepalm
Darwy: Double facepalm...back atcha...read the comments.
(Some RI Regulars managed to get comments posted, as well)
http://www.naturalnews.com/042012_vaccine_facts_vaccine-damaged_childre…
I'm going to have to sleep fast, as the sun will be up shortly. :-)
Unvaccinated children are canaries for vaccine-preventable diseases...
Mercola "is the sane one". That is to say, he's more on the huckster side of the quack equation than the completely bats__t crazy side.
"Sane" is a relative term, clearly.
Where Adams et al. see a world being progressively poisoned, I see a world slowly getting cleaner, certainly in the developed world. There are some worrisome areas for sure, but it seems to me that many concerns over traces of various chemicals in the environment and in breast milk and other bodily fluids has more to do with increased assay sensitivity than increases in exposure.
There is no more lead in gasoline, deadly pesticides and herbicides are far better controlled than they used to be and GMOs have reduced the amount of these chemicals required in agriculture, coal-fired power stations have stricter rules controlling emissions, companies are monitored and given punitive fines if they pollute rivers etc. etc..
In London, where I live, I know people who lived through the great smogs that killed thousands in the 50s, and until recently the Thames was a dead river, but it now sustains a variety of fish and other wildlife.
If you go back a few hundred years things in cities were even worse, with a variety of industries making some locales barely habitable. I remember reading an account of 18th century Paris where people regularly keeled over in certain parts of the city, probably from chemical fumes, and poisoning from pathogens and chemicals in the bread that was made from river water were common.
Adams is welcome to "the good old days".
A minor "correction" -- vaccine-preventable diseases didn't used to "kill children by the thousands".
It was more like "by the millions".
Vaccines are a victim of their own success. These people have no personal memory of how dreadful these scourges were, so they view vaccinations as unnecessary.
As I mentioned previously, MIke has a new bio up @ Health Ranger.com ( linked at the end of each new article)- read it IF YPU DARE.**I've also learned that his frequent partner in crime, Alex Jones, also lives in Austin.
Mike tells his audience how brilliant he is, about how he excelled in science and math, how he masters all disciplines he entertains and then he tells us that the video with Schneider is useful and that the Canary Party know what they're talking about.
** I laughed for several minutes afterwards.
Tenpenny admitted herself that she missed a whole year of school due to a vaccine-preventable disease. Do parents in the Chicanery Party have the time and resources to allow their children to miss entire years off of school?
This is all you need to know about Tenpenny:
h_ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pByYy2uhIIU
"As of yet, I don’t know the other Canary Party members very well, so this is not a personal endorsement of each and every person involved in the Canary Party"
Sounds like Mikey is uneasy about what sort of weirdos will pop up as fellow Party members. Of course, the real embarrassment should be experienced by Blaxill et al on finding out that Adams is an enthusiastic supporter. Not that they will care - it's a long-standing tradition among antivaxers that any voice of support, no matter how loathsome and deranged, is to be treasured and encouraged.
That should be IF YOU DARE!
At any rate, I assume that Krebiozen ( and Orac himself, praised be his name!) and I are of similar vintage (think I'm a few years older) but I find the idea of our environment being buried under a poisonous toxic sludge frankly hilarious because I remember it being a lot worse.
In the 1970s and beyond, the environmental movement attracted many teenagers and university students ( some say the writings of Rachel Carson and even Tolkien helped to inspire youngsters); there was great concern about the air, fuels, consumer products, pesticides and especially, rivers.
Being that manufacturing still existed on a grand scale in the west, air and water were often contaminated by its processes- much of which were visible and wound up in rivers. The fact that companies profitted while polluting also fit in with the radicalised *esprit du temps*. People advocated for legislations for cleanups and prosecution - many of which succeeded.
Rivers near large cities were often showcased by these groups: I personally have older cousins/ cousins-in-law who were involved in the cleanups of the Thames and the Hudson- so occasionally I get invited to an event where antivaxxer - and river watcher- RFK jr is featured.
So carping about the environment is not news to me and I imagine my "toxin level" is much worse than that of younger people. Long ago, no one would think to visit river banks and estuaries where parks now exist. I find it amazing that people can swim and eat fish from rivers that were once malodorous and truly poisoned. Years later, when visiting a semi-tropical third world island, the sight of contaminated wetlands brought back memories- none of them good.
A friend onced played a tune for me by Randy Newman called, IIRC, " Burn On, Big River", which described a river so contaminated that it periodically caught on fire.
.
“Canary Party – Your Health, Your Choice, You’re Mental”
FTW.
Antivaccinationists will claim that this can’t happen, that better hygiene and sanitation have vanquished diseases like polio in industrialized countries to history.
I don't think hygiene and sanitation in this country are significantly better today than they were in the 1950s, mainly because decades of deferred maintenance on sewer systems is catching up to us. But polio was, quite rightly, much feared and dreaded in the 1950s, up until the Salk vaccine became widely available. And it will become much feared and dreaded again within a few years if we stop routinely vaccinating people against polio. There are still countries where polio is endemic, and all it takes in a world of intercontinental air travel is one person catching the polio virus in one of these countries and bringing it home to a susceptible population.
In the 19th century quarantines were a common method for limiting the spread of diseases like cholera, because that was often the only available method. I for one do not want to go back to that world, but the Canary Party implicitly does. Without vaccination, there isn't any other reliable way to keep travelers from bringing polio (or measles, or several other vaccine-preventable diseases) with them.
Eric: There were also quarantines in the early 20th century, if you'll pardon my pedantry.
I normally don't notice innocent homonyms in generally coherent, well-written, posts, but I think "match maid in heaven" is a beautiful accidental turn of phrase. I assume that in a part of the Afterlife resembling a Victorian upper-class gentleman's lounge, where the souls of this rich people who made it through the eye of a needle on their camel are residing (there's, uhm, probably a lot of empty chairs...), there's an angel (or perhaps the soul of someone poor, who needs the money, what, you think when you get to heaven, you just get to sit around all day? You think Jesus is a COMMIE?) who goes around lighting their cigars. (No cancer, because, well, they're already dead.)
The song is "Burn On", inspired by the 1969 Cuyahoga river fire (the last of 13 times this river caught fire).
The Cuyahoga, also given a nod by R.E.M. in 1986.
This is not science blog. This is a an "establishment " blog that as an agenda for sure. It is called the status quo of people who push pharmecutical snythetics, anti-biotics, ridilin and all the rest. Hey you vaccine pushers, how come I have had one vaccine in my life and you supposedly educated people think kids need more than 13 at once?
This blog is owned by the pharmacuetical industry that is killing us with their synthetic drugs including vaccines, and now adults can get the "shingles" vaccine that is now supposedly needed because some of us had chicken pox. Are you all really falling for that crap? do you really think you need a flu shot? Why? Because you saw some ad that siad you needed it? Are you all really that sheep like?
So all you vaccine pushers out there, how come there are all these lawyers advertising to people who have been injured by the same drugs you think are no problem?? I know that this blog thinks it has knowledge as its credibility, but the knowledge you have is all based on lies and un-natural ways of good health. You have drank the koolaide and eaten the twinkies, while you claim everyone else who hasn't fallen for the mecial fraud that is rampent are the kooks. Remember as you point your ignorant fingers, 3 fingers are pointing back at yourselves. And isn't the back of your mind, that thing called common sense, just bugging you a little? Does the American Cancer Society really want to find the cure for cancer? Do all the people who "fundraise" for all these supposed oganizations of "health" want the dollars to go away because that elusive cure is suddenly discovered (hey let me give you a hint, drink a good source of Aloe Vera, even though I know all you medicaly educated vaccine pushers have no idea what to look for a in a good Aloe Vera drink). Do you ever ask yourself why you got that high priced medcial degree in the first place, only to become a pusher of so called legal drugs? Or was it so you could feel superior to everyone else, so that when someone beneath you questions the entire existance of your beliefs, you can call them quacks and worse? tie them to political parties that don't bel;ieve in you liberalsim. Dr. Mercola is not my favorite person for other reasons, but I would highly recoomend you listen and learn from some of the education that he supplies for free. You don't have to purchase anything from him, that is your choice (I don't), but in your mind it is okay to push synthetic drugs and vaccines that support your livilihood? Talk about being hypiocrites. Same goes for MIke Adams. This blog really is very defensive and I think that is proof enough that those of us in the natural health areana are right and we are getting to you. Call us quacks if you want, but one day maybe one of those lawyers will be representing you when you are sueing the same industry you support. Then maybe you might even thank people like Mercola and Adams (or maybe even me) for thinking out of the box and pursuing the truth and not just excepting the staus quo. I'm glad I didn't and I made the decision to never put a synthetic drug (and that includes the liver damaging Tylenol that some people live on) in my body again in 1993. I have done it and so can you. Your body wil thank you as you get older. Trust me. I am proof of it. So while you all bad mouth people who disagree with you and your so called science, you have no idea that you are only harming yourselves. it really is sad to see how badly people follow the crowd and refuse to use their common sense and think for themsleves. See there goes that little gnawing feeling again creeping in and you can hear yourself saying "What if I'm the quack?" Actually you are and you are the ones pushing the quackery called synthtic drugs and vaccines . . . a huge business isn't it vaccine pushers? . . . while you bad mouth people who offer
"boatloads of supplements, which he is happy to sell you through his online store." Gee I wonder why people like me are so successful in these repeat sales. Why do people want more??? Because it works and they used thier common sense . . . and this is very worrisome to this blog and its agenda. This blog still believes the world is flat and that Global Warming is real. Sad. Try using some common sense.
"Don’t you just love it when Mike Adams goes all Founding Fathers, liberty, and health freedom on us? Truly, he is the very definition of crank magnetism."
Orac the animal is the an idiot who thinks naming himself after a low budget sci-fi movie is supposed to make people want to listen to him.
What a joke. Your a whore for pharma. You don't care how many children die so you can make money. You should be ashamed of yourself but that would be too much to expect from an evil WHORE for pharma!
@Eric Lund
I don't particularly like the idea of mass quarantines, a la 1800s and 1900s. For one, they're not actually all that effective at containing a disease. They work on very, very small scales, but the bigger you get, the more likely it is that someone will get past the cordon to spread the infection elsewhere. A good example of this is the smallpox epidemic around 1904.
( OOh REM- I ran into two of them ( Michael and Mike) in a hotel a few years ago. Woo hoo.)
More seriously, Orac talks about anti-vax partisans' lack of relevant information/ background iRT vaccination - here's another facet:
a few of them ( Katie Wright, Ginger Taylor, TMR's Prof, Alison MacNeil) ostentatiously wave their educations and careers in counselling/ psychology/ social work about- which can be very misleading-
degrees or concentrations in these areas ( even at master's level) DO NOT necessarily include the study of neurophysiology and its development in humans, construction and evaluation of tests. discussion of taxonomy. historical factors, related genetics or autism itself and other developmental conditions.
It should be noted that their areas are rape counselling, school psychology, psychotherapy ( SW).
I would guess that MOST doctorates in experimental or clinical psych require at least some physio- and possibly testing et al- and tons of statistical courses. I doubt any of the aforementioned have had much of that- which is very relevant to their inability to see the problems wth ideas like:
the "epidemic" autism
how exactly vaccines would cause autism in the brain
categories of psychological phenomena
why biomed and food fads as cures don't cut it.
neurotoxins
Stil they ramble on about their expertise.
Jemima,
Why all the hate?
Please get your facts straight, though. Orac uses the name of a character in a low budget (you got that part right at least) British science fiction television series. He has not, so far as I can tell, ever pretended that his nom de net provides him with any particular credibility or any reason to listen to him; rather, his posts stand or fall based on their contents.
He has also remarked several times that he does not receive compensation from pharmaceutical companies, so could not be considered a whore. Even if true, though, it hardly matters in the discussion above.
Please take this in the spirit it was intended.
So...people disagreeing with you is proof that you're right? Here's a fun thought exercise: What would it take to convince you that you're wrong?
Ah, right. Is this the same common sense that leads me to conclude that anything 'synthetic' is evil?
Jemima: If nobody wants to listen to Orac then why would 'pharma' bother to pay him?
PFS -
Are you saying that repeat sales are the key measure of how effective or good for you something is? Does that mean that if people buy lottery tickets every week because they always win? Does it mean that stuff that isn't good for you and doesn't work doesn't sell?
@Todd - also, I believe the concentration of disease in a smaller area actually exacerbates the effects.....just a thought.
PFS@20:
I will. Common sense tells me that if Aloe vera drinks really were effective at curing cancer there'd be a significant body of objective evidence establishing that fact.
So...where is it, PFS?
Which 'dying children' are you referring to here, Jemima? Be specific.
Gee I wonder why people like me are so successful in these repeat sales. Why do people want more???
I'll hand the microphone to Tom Lehrer:
Meanwhile, back at AoA, we have Mark Blaxill interviewed on the Alex Jones Infowars show. Blaxill is still fixated on Thimerosal in influenza vaccines and braying about the Congressional Vaccine Court hearing, scheduled for November:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ziLxI1jyA
Poor Mark, nine years ago he stated that once Thimerosal was removed from vaccines the prevalence of autism would go down.
http://www.autism.net.au/Downloads/Can%20childhood%20vaccines%20cause%2…
@pfs, jemima
So, go any evidence for your brain droppings?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
@PFS
If I start using common sense, will you promise to learn how to use paragraphs?
I hope everyone knows I only am commenting here, supporting vaccines, so I get my pay off. Everyone that supports vaccines gets a pay off from big pharma, right?
I wonder if the Canary Party hates public water/sewer being forced on them too. Darn that clean water to keep us safe!
I was unconvinced through PFS and Jemima's comments until the bit at the end where Jemima really brought it home by not just repeating the word "whore" but putting it in all caps. I shall now find out how to sign up for one of those multi-level marketing schemes and help sell the One True Way.
"Your body wil thank you as you get older."
That's not your body thanking you - that's gas.
PFS,
That's a long fact-free rant. One thing caught my attention:
Some of us work with very young, very old or immunodeficient patients who are especially vulnerable, and we consider it our responsibility to reduce the risk of infecting them with influenza or other diseases as much as possible.
Some of us have seen just how sick influenza can make people, and think it is sensible to have an extremely safe vaccine that dramatically reduces your risk of getting the disease. I will be getting my flu shot next week - I get it free because I live in the UK and I have asthma.
Maybe you will think about this should you be unlucky enough to succumb to this year's strain and spent several weeks feeling like you have been run over by a truck. Getting a simple painless shot will suddenly seem like it might have been a much better idea.
On average people get the flu once every 20 years, unless they get the vaccine of course. When did you last have flu? Are you due for a bout? Supplements, aloe vera juice and diets will not prevent you getting it. If you are not immune to the current strain and you are exposed, you are very likely to get sick, no matter what Mercola and Adams tell you.
I do not get the flu shot because I saw an ad that said I needed it. In fact, this year is the first time I can remember ever seeing a flu vaccine ad at all, and it's for one I can't get -- as an asthmatic, I don't qualify for FluMist. I gotta get the needle.
I get the flu shot because I don't want to get the flu, and I"ve seen the research showing that, imperfect as it is, the flu shot is very safe and does significantly reduce the risk of influenza, a disease which would be particularly dangerous for me. I also get my children vaccinated, and my husband gets vaccinated too.
I find it very amusing that you point to the financial success of supplements as evidence of their effectiveness, even as you accuse everyone who disagrees of being pharma shills. Your logic doesn't impress me with its consistency.
Interestingly, PFS (Paragraphs are For Simpletons) comments about how lawyers are taking on lawsuits over pharma drug complaints, but doesn't mention that injuries due to dangerous supplements are starting to become a source of lawyerly income as well.
There's a story in today's USA Today about the popular "natural" pain medication Reumofan, which has been blamed for numerous complications and deaths. Turns out this "natural" supplement has been spiked with powerful pharma drugs, including a steroid, anti-inflammatory agent and muscle relaxant, which can cause bleeding, infections and other problems in unwary users. It might be tough for lawyers to sue the Mexican manufacturer though, especially since the company may not even exist.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/25/who-is-riger-natur…
What is it about being a crank that makes one far less likely to use paragraph breaks? You could almost use it as a secondary diagnostic criterion.
PFS
September 25, 2013
I read as far as "ridilin" before I had to stop, worried whether my stupidity vaccinations were up-to-date.
I think it would be very unprofessional for mel to pass the flu on to clients, even if I were a financial or legal advisor. Also I am involved in sports activities where adults and children congregate in a common area. Someone close to me has asthma and another works in a close-quarters office and frequently volunteers with kids. Other friends have families with children or grandchildren. One of my relatives has a heart valve condition PLUS asthma. I used to work with people who had very compromised immunity and once had extremely elderly family members with heart conditions.
I also think that being sick with a VPD is a waste of time and money.
Are antivax fears an expression of phobia? I do wonder.
@PFS
Some of us have actually had the flu, and nearly died from it.
A flu shot is much preferable.
DW: rape counselling..
Oh, god, no. Please tell me whoever that is quit the field. That's one of the many fields where competent counselors are needed. And these women simply aren't.
Kreb: Uh, once every 20 years? That seems kind of high..
the natural health areana
I believe that Ms Huffington's first name is spelled "Arianna".
@ PGP:
That would be Katie Wright ( she of the videotaped extreme expressive reactions whilst CDC officials speak). IIRC she was trained to counsel rape victims but didn't appear to have standard credentials/ degrees otherwise. I can't recall her actual degrees.
Similarly the others listed studied social work, family counselling, school psychology: none have graduate work in clinical psych, developmental psych, experimental psych- this tells me volumes.
@P(oor)F(oolish alt-med)S(hill):
1) Why do I need a flu shot? Because the one bad flu year that I didn't have one, I got so sick that I was hypotensive, and literally had to crawl to the bathroom to vomit. I was lucky to have a phone on a low table. When my SIL called to ask how she could help, I made her come over the river to bring me some broth and crackers, which were all I could bear to think about eating. Those are just some of the highlights.
2) I also think I need it because in two decades in medical practice I never saw anyone who had their influenza vaccine get influenza.
3) I also think I need it because I understand how the immune system works - and guess what? It doesn't involve aloe vera.
4) "Does the American Cancer Society really want to find the cure for cancer?" Don't know about the ACS, but every one of the many oncologists I have ever met was inspired to go into that specialty after losing loved ones to cancer. I have seen one of the great hematologists of the 20th Century distraught because he could not save his urologist brother from prostate cancer. Don't you dare to impugn the motivations of the dedicated people who spend years of eighteen hour days desperately trying to save people whom they cannot save yet. You betray your complete ignorance of science and medicine with that comment. Not everyone is as venal and cynical as you are, Pathetic F***ing Sicko.
5) "Gee I wonder why people like me are so successful in these repeat sales. Why do people want more???" Aren't there any bars and liquor stores where you live in Cloud-Cuckoo land???? Just like alcoholics, they keep coming back. Some return because they think they need one more bottle of fake Chinese herbs to finally feel better. Others come back because they think that as long as they feel reasonably well, their quack nostrums are working for them.....!!!!!????? (See, I can punctuate better than you can - I use MORE punctuation)!!!! You mention people like you being successful in repeat sales. Does this mean that you are peddling those expensive placebos???????????? Aren't you ashamed to take money for products that like as not are fakes or contaminated????? If all these herbal products are so grand,,,,, why do manufacturers repeatedly adulterate them with bootleg pharmaceuticals????????? Could it be because unlike the stuff that's on the label, the stuff they really put in there actually does something???????????????????
6) Your mention of global warming is a non sequitur that serves not only to underline your crankery (to coin a word), but to add proof that your understanding of science, physics in particular, is nil.
7) Your ability to "think out of the box" is also nil, since all you do is repeat age-old alt-med "party lines".
8) Are you a native English-speaker? If you are, you must immediately march back to your old elementary school and demand that they take you back for a redo of your writing lessons.
Goodbye, Pre-literate Festering Sc***ck.
Denice,
You're right, I was misremembering this Cochrane review which found 4% of the unvaccinated people in the study caught influenza, as compared to 1% of those who were vaccinated (in a year when the vaccine matched the circulating strain). I believe this was in one flu season, which works out to about once every 25 years, not 20.
Correction:
Thinking Mom "Saint" is the school psychologist, "Rev" is something else. I get my TMs mixed up. So many moms, so much woo.
@ Kreb:
That was PGP, not me.
-btw- I believe I have had flu only twice.
@Jemima:
The factual content of your post is the same as the maple sugar content of your namesake's pancake syrup - none at all. In fact, you suffer by the comparison, since the syrup at least offers artificial maple flavor, while you don't give us even any artificial facts.
Come back when (IF!) you have something else to offer beyond nastiness.
@ Jemima,
*you're
For those of you who made it all the way through PFS's rant about how much money we all make from pushing "synthetic drugs (you know, like paclitaxel, salicylic acid and vancomycin) including vaccines"...well, my little brain can't compete with all you. I think I made it all the way to "sheep." I'm just going to go home and count all my Big Pharma money.
In about 30 days, I won't have to see parents who think like PFS, because once my new vaccine policy kicks in, I can tell them they need to seek care elsewhere when they start their insane diatribe about everything under the sun.
It will be a nice day for me in not having to listen anymore to that nonsense from that type of parent. It will be a sad day in that their unvaccinated children are now living in a world much more dangerous from VPDs due to kooks like PFS.
My dad came down with shingles, and if a shot will help keep me from going thru that same Hell, you bet I'm going to get it. The man was in agony.
Because I have had the flu. The real flu, not just a really bad cold. Burning up with fever, but I couldn't get warm, every muscle hurt, and in bed for 9 days straight (I finally had to get up and into the shower, because I was tired of smelling myself).
The Air Force made sure I had a flu shot every year, and most other years I made it a point to get a shot. But about 10 or 12 years ago, I started slacking off, and it hit. Never again.
@Chris HIckie Good for you.
@ Denice and Kreb,
I just recently had that review thrown at me by an employee complaining about the new NYS mandate for HCWs during widespread flu conditions. He particularly liked how he could say a Cochrane review showed vaccination didn't reduce transmission overall. SMH. Cue explanation of herd immunity and the effect of low uptake levels for a vaccine not required such as influenza on transmission in a normal population.
Of note, I've had lab-confirmed flu twice in my life (once as a teen which was terrible but not TOO terrible, and then H1N1 in 2009 which was absolutely, positively the most terrible thing I've ever experienced)....I'm 29. Flu shots for teens weren't en vogue in 2000, and I was a statistic in 2009 before the vaccine was released to non-front line HCWs. As such I will never not get a flu shot, even if it is only a modest benefit for me.
And pure anecdote here, for me there is a BIG difference between influenza and other influenza-like illnesses. Personal problem with that review, however I do realize the difficulty in distinguishing between ILIs and actual flu in the absence of a lab test when even the most straight forward of symptoms are still going to be subjective when described by different individuals. I've also had lab-confirmed parainfluenza and respiratory adenovirus (my doctor likes respiratory screens and I get curious so I let him order them) and I would take both of those over the flus I had any day. Too many people don't realize how bad a standard run of actual influenza can be. I was able to drive myself to the doctor during my bouts with para and adeno because I thought they were bad sinus infections. Not so when I had those flus.
Again, pure anecdote, I know.
#20 PFS
"Ridilin?" Is that anything like "Ritalin" or are you speaking of something else?
I don't know why you've only had one vaccine in your life; it doesn't sound like a good decision to me. Good luck not getting lockjaw, I guess?
This blog is not owned by the pharmaceutical industry; it is owned by National Geographic. It's not run by the pharmaceutical industry either.
Shingles can result in suffering from nerve pain for years. I, personally, would give postherpetic neuralgia a skip, as it sounds unpleasant to me.
Lawyers advertise because they want to earn money.
The substance used in the Guyana tragedy wasn't Kool-Aid, but grape Flavor Aid.
Yes, the American Cancer Society wants to find the cures for cancers. (As there are many cancers, one cure that would work on all of them seems unlikely.)
Aloe vera is potentially toxic when ingested; it's odd that you tell us vaccines are poison and then tell us to drink something actually poisonous.
Not everyone here is liberal.
It doesn't matter if drugs are synthetic or natural, if they are proven sufficiently effective or safe. Arsenic is natural, cyanide is natural, belladonna is natural.
No one here is pushing anything; you will note a distinct lack of product sales, unlike, for example, Mercola's site. So calling people here pushers while defending Mercola is a little odd.
Here again, you seem to think that everyone secretly believes as you do. (Again, shades of DJT!) Instead, many people actually do disagree, and it is actually possible to do so without, say, eating babies and kicking puppies.
My common sense tells me that being sick is bad. I follow it.
"It works" is yet to be shown by science. When it is shown so by studies, I suspect we will all happily get on board.
#21 Jemima
Orac is not named after a low-budget science fiction movie, but a low-budget science fiction television show.
He saves lives for a living, so it's a bit odd to accuse him of being evil or letting children die. I don't think Orac even treats children; it would be a little strange for a breast surgeon, as they are generally short on breasts.
@PFS
If I start using common sense, will you promise to learn how to spell? Then people might actually make it past your third sentence before giving up.
Scared Momma, what's your secret? I"ve been a pharma whore for going on four years now and I have yet to see a single check!
#37 Krebiozen
I mostly get the flu shot to protect other people. I'd feel really bad if I hurt someone by giving them the flu, or worse... killed someone.
The CDC has pretty good information about the shot's potential side effects, too, so I make sure to read the Pink Book before I get the shot every year, just in case.
#54 Chris Hickie
At least your remaining patients will not have to risk their lives by potentially visiting a waiting room with a kid with VPD.
@Shay, you have to smile a little sweeter ;)
@ AnObservingParty:
Orac wrote about that review - use the search box and try "Tom Jefferson".
On the subject of HCWs/ flu vax in NYS:
I just heard via Gary Null ( @ PRN yesterday's show, last 5 minutes perhaps) that opponents of the mask rule will work very hard to propagate disease, I mean, *voice their opinion* with the legal assistance of Patricia Finn. Null's woo-nurse, Luanne, is helping to organise RNs who wish to enable viruses, I mean, propagate health freedom across the vast empire state.
I get my flu shot every year because I'm an asthmatic and the one and only time I had the flu, I developed pneumonia and was too sick to work for two months. Fortunately I still had a job when I recovered. I doubt that would be the case today.
"Ridilin". I like that. If I ever stop rockin', I'll start ridilin'. Whatever that means. Something to do with Batman, maybe???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The Kanary Party likes people with deep pockets. They lost Barry Segal and Ginger coincidentally decided to volunteer her services.
Maybe they've convinced Mikey to find his checkbook.
Now that she's done losing her second attempt at showing the Grievance Committee for the Ninth Judicial District and its lackeys exactly where they can get off, I imagine she's eager to stay in midseason form.
O/T...The Ho-Po has a pro-vaccine article up and some of the RI Regulars have already posted, "I'm Coming Out...As Pro-Vaccine". My comments are still in moderation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jj-keith/vaccines_b_3829948.html?
Auto-brewery syndrome: When Aromatherapists strike!
Commenters at Boing Boing have weighed in.
Would anyone care to shed some light on Piers Morgan claiming the flu shot gave him the flu? I have never experienced this, though, one year, my wife came down with flu-like symptoms that lasted a few days.
@Curious, as I understand it, your body mounts an immune response to the vaccination. This can lead to flu-like symptoms.
Piers Morgan is wrong. The vaccine is not live and therefore can't cause the flu. As a final note, I had the flu over 10 years ago. In bed for two days; ate only one banana during those two days which I promptly threw up; sick for three whole weeks; and lost 9 kg.
I'd rather have 5 jabs a day every day for 5 weeks than go through that again.
The latest idiocy from Natural News: mercury (presumably the type found "in vaccines") can turn you GAY!
One commenter has already speculated that if we "detox mercury" from gays we can "heal them."
I don't think he was joking.
Thanks Denice.
My hospital was one of the first to start the mask-policy in NYS...4 years ago. They've tried already and the unions held a hearing: judge sided with my boss. It will fail. Mwahahahaha!
@Curious, I got my shot yesterday when it was released. I'm at work, but I'm currently achey and last night I had a low-grade. It happens every year with me, I know others who get nothing. Mild flu like symptoms are a common side affect. I kind of like it in a masochistic way, I like feeling my immune system mounting a response. Also, Piers may have had 1) another respiratory virus that causes influenza-like illnesses that are NOT influenza and in my experience no-where near as bad, 2) missed the cut-off for protection, as the flu shot takes about 2 weeks to cook and offer immunity and you can totally get infected in that time period, 3) that normal reaction some people experience more than others or 4) it didn't match the strain.
But he didn't get it from the vaccine. It's a dead virus.
@lilady,
That article is uber-viral on twitter. I love it.
Vaccines make you gay? Old news - that was covered at JABS years ago. (The original post was removed pretty quickly...)
http://jabsloonies.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/teh-vaccines-makes-you-gayer…
As if this isn't bad enough....
MIkey now has his own "television" show on GAIAM TV ( internet) which he hosts with Ed Group, a chiropractor. You may watch the premiere episode for free and then subscribe to the series ( of 12)
Because I love sceptics and wish to spare them unnecessary pain, despair and suffering- as I am made of strong stuff- I watched the entire episode despite its problems with loading ( " a moment of calm brought to you by GaiamTV" -accompanied by a figure in full lotus asana with a circling heart chakra- is what they call loading). 31 minutes long:
we are informed how to recognise and avoid GMOs, despite their insertion, stealthily hidden, in most grocery products. We are shown a container of ((gasp)) baby formula which we are told is loaded with sugary GMO corn and soy (( shudder)). Corn and soy products are quite frequently GMO. A few other notoriously deadly products are subjected to derision as well.
The two dudes scare the audience about "GMO poisons" and how products like these lead to conditions like obesity, diabetes and degenerative disease.
The horror! Feeding these products to children amounts to "nutritional child abuse".
Our hosts are nattily attired, cargo cult fashion: whilst Ed wears blue-grey scrubs that work rather well with his skin tone, Mikey rocks the white lab coat for laboratorious effect**.
As a note:
websites like Natural News or PRN tell you that they provide a free education through shows and articles about health: that's a lie, they are infomercials for product lines of supplements, food/ water processing mechanisms, survivalist supplies and media creations like the above, as well as radio channels, books, lectures, retreats and films.
It's called the "foot in the door" technique.Or "roping them in"
Or "commercials".
** Mike used to display his lean physique by wearing sleeveless shirts. Now he seems to cover up. I wonder why.
Tats gone bad?
@ Shay:
No, he's no longer 9% body fat: observe older photos in his ads, there's a different, leaner facial contour.
Woos can't do tattoos- it INJECTS foul industrial products into the bloodstream JUST LIKE VACCINES!
One thing I realised that never comes up in these threads but is worth mentioning:
The anti-vaxxers always seem to talk about the flu, et al, as if they never mutate. As if just drinking some juice will overcome every adaptation that a virus can throw at you.
It's almost as if they don't understand basic biology... ;)
(Hello all!)
@Denice:
I guess Botox is exempt?
@Flip
Well, its the way a lot of woo-sters (sorry, Bertie) talk about cancer, as if it is one single disease.
Wait.......the earth's not flat?
But I can se with my very own eyes that it is flat. Why would I listen to anyone else? My experience trumps all other evidence.
I wonder, sometimes, what percentage of people who come up with lame reasons for not getting flu shots, are really just grown up four year olds who afraid of needles.
I'm not afraid of needles but I don't bother with the shot anymore. When I worked in a hospital I got it every year. I no longer work in a healthcare setting so I don't feel the need to get it for a couple of reasons: 1 - it is crap-shoot based on best estimates as to which particular strain will be circulating and 2 - I don't work with the general public. However I do wash my hands a lot, I don't touch any surfaces on public transit and I distance myself from any person who appears sick or starts coughing uncontrollably. If I ever contracted the flu, I suppose I might change my mind, but I have a great immune system which so far has served me well, so for now, I will take my chances.
Curious, chacun a son grippe -- but your approach, to me, is like saying if I ever got in an accident I suppose I might change my mind about seatbelts, but I have a great car which so far has served me well and I will take my chances.
@Shay
Yep, in their world, things do not change. Amazing how acting like mutations don't exist also complements the positive-thinking victim blaming. If dis-eases don't change, then the problem is obviously with *you* and the *choices* you've been making.
@Captian_a:
How naive. Of course the Earth isn't flat. It's really kind of bumpy, all those hills and stuff. You really have to get out of Kansas more often.
Today Mike Adams is shilling for Wakefield's IndieGoGo film funding campaign. At the same time, it seems as if he is condoning, or at the very least excusing the murder of Alex.
This film is already 75% complete in terms of production, and it's a film documenting how Alex Spourdalakis, a child ravaged by autism, was ultimately killed by an ignorant medical system that refused to acknowledge the reality of his intense suffering and pain. Doctors refused to treat his autism (which often includes terrible gastrointestinal pain) and had him handcuffed to a hospital bed.
The suffering of this boy was so intense and so heart-breaking, that his mother ultimately took his life. She was, of course, accused of murder. But who really killed Alex Spourdalakis? This documentary explores how today's medical system tries to pretend that autism is not a preventable nor treatable condition while at the same time modern doctors are injecting children with mercury and other nervous system poisons that may actually cause or contribute to autism.
It's at least reassuring to know that with a little more than a month left to fund this piece of child-murder apologist propaganda, Wakefield has only raised about $7000 out of the needed $200,000 (and that took 83 donors to achieve).
It'll be interesting to see how much Adams's endorsement will affect the funding, if any, but I doubt if they'll even top the $10000 mark before the deadline at this rate.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/who-killed-alex-spourdalakis--2
And now, right on cue, Tim Bolen chimes up in support of Wakefield's child-murder apologist film:
http://www.bolenreport.com/autism/alex%20spourdalakis.htm
Loyola Hospital became THE PROBLEM. On the sixth day another Pediatric Gastroenterologist, this time a woman ordered the examination. But, five days later all of that was overridden by Dr James H. Berman MD, Chief, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Ronald McDonald Children's
present Hospital, Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, IL entered the room with his large entourage, saying:
"There is absolutely no need for any GI procedure for now. There might be a GI issue but it is secondary to the psychiatric issues. And, if you heal the mind, the rest is going to follow."
Berman leaned over the bed , wagged his finger under Dorothy Spourdalakis's nose and said, condescendingly:
"Do you get it? Do you get it?"
One wonders whether or not Indiegogo could be convinced they're breaking the terms:
It could easily be suggested that the promotion of anti-science views about vaccinations can hurt others.
Excellent point, flip!
It could also be argued that this film might give other parents the same idea, thus potentially endangering more children, violating terms of service by promoting personal injury or death.
Here's a bit more from Bolen's multi-font, multi-colour screed:
Alex was sent home - with no possible medical care available in the future. Not long after, his exhausted and totally demoralized mother and his godmother killed him - and tried, unsuccessfully, to kill themselves.
So, let's analyze this situation...
First let's ask the question "How long would YOU last, before you lost it, under these circumstances?"
Then let's ask "How many more of these situations are we, as a society, going to allow to happen?" There are four million autistic children now - virtually ALL of whose families are told "It is a psychiatric problem..." Is what happened to the Spourdalakis family going to happen to them all?
Then "Is there something that we, the Health Freedom Movement, can do for these people?" The answer is, of course, "yes there is."
Things are VERY desperate in the autism community.
What can we do?
There are several things - The first, and most obvious, is to support the production of the documentary. I have never asked anyone, ever before, to support, with money, an issue. I am now. Go here, please, and see the short two-minute-forty-five-second video. Contribute.
Both Mike Adams and Bolen promote Wakefield's film. And what happens? Not much. One $1000 donor 22 hours ago - (I bet that was Bolen or Adams), and a few small donations. totaling $460. Exactly $7,416, out of $200,000 needed, as of 8AM on Oct 1.
I'll check again tomorrow and see if that "vast" readership of those two heavy-weights brings in the big bucks.
I have never asked anyone, ever before, to support, with money, an issue.
A 5-second search for "Bolen hulda clark defense donate" reveals the fact that Bolen is a barefaced liar. Shocking, I know.
Now at $7627. Just over $200 since this AM.
I did actually make it through PFS' rant, though I feel I have lost several IQ points to the void. I have actually had shingles, some of the most terrible pain I have ever endured and I can now compare it to childbirth. Would have taken the vaccine gladly, but had them at the ripe old age of 32. Get the flu shot every year, not least because I don't want to infect anyone else or suffer myself. Also, as an epidemiologist I relentlessly promote vaccination everywhere as probably the single most effective public health intervention of all time. I think my Pharma checks must be getting lost in the mail.
@Denice
You must not go to the same natural food stores i do*. The staff and quite a few of the customers have plenty of tattoos.
*Where else can I get Bison, Ostrich and Elk.? Unfortunately the one store that carried Yak no longer does so.
@ Militant Agnostic:
I know but I couldn't resist getting an "into the bloodstream" jab at the anti-vaxxers.
They must use ALL NATURAL tattoo inks. Plant based. Woad, indigo or henna perhaps?
"One $1000 donor 22 hours ago – (I bet that was Bolen or Adams), and a few small donations. totaling $460. Exactly $7,416, out of $200,000 needed, as of 8AM ..."
Not need. Want.
Wakefield wants $200k. To finish his documentary. Which is already 22 min long (I.e a 30 minute time slot minus commercials). Which Sharyl Attkisson gave free advertisement for. Except she didn't point out Wakefield was using this for fundraising. And she implied it was done.
But, hey, that's what CBS news is for, right? Letting a failed and disgraced former researcher turned reality show wannabe use CBS airtime to drum up $7,000 in payments for what will become a direct to YouTube mockumentary.
According to Wakefield's radio interview that aired a few short weeks after Alex was murdered, Wakefield and Tommey had plans for an autism reality TV show that he was looking to sell to a major TV network. He stated then that he had an 18 minute edited videotape and that one major TV network was quite "interested".
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thecandystore/2013/07/13/our-special-guest…
If you listen to the radio interview, Wakefield seems to state that he had no more contact with Alex's mother once they returned from New York after they consulted with Dr. Krigsman. Did Lisa Goes, Jill Rubolino and the other bio-meddlers abandon the Mother, as well?
Wakefield must have added an additional 4 minutes of videotape. I am kinda wondering if CBS was the network he was negotiating with.
Because, as we all know, psychiatric = not real, or at the very least not medical or treatable
And naturally, when things get desperate, we turn to film making to solve our problems.
I'd rather turn to film-making than murder, which seems to be the other possible lesson here...
Where else can I get Bison, Ostrich and Elk.?
This has to be said in a Boris or Natasha accent.
I have actually had shingles
Let me tell you about scrotal shingles. Actually maybe I won't.
Excellent point, Matt. Given that he own a $1.45-million house, Wakefield probably has the money to fund it. Even if he didn't, he could go to the bank and ask for a loan, and with his house as collateral, I can't imagine any bank refusing him.
@Julian - of course he "wants" it, because he could have spent a small amount of money to help Alex & his mother, except that solving that particular problem would have brought in less "money and attention" than letting nature take its course.....and these people claim the moral high ground? It is just sickening.
Now at $8007, Just over $600 in 24 hours. And that is with all the "big guns" already pulled out (Bolen and Adams). At this rate it will take 320 days to meet Wakefield's want. Only 35 days left, though.
Or, under the best circumstances, this might raise $29K for Wakefield.
Same time, one day later, $8157. Only $150 in 24 hours. Now on track to raise only $15K.
Same time, one day later, $8157. No contributions since yesterday.
Three days later, $8357, less than $70 per day.