It was just over a year ago that I had my last bit to say about a man who can arguably called the antivaccine activist who gave Orac his start. I'm referring, of course, to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Indeed, my first deconstruction of the nonsense about vaccines that Kennedy laid down in 2005 in an article foolishly and irresponsibly published in both Salon.com and Rolling Stone was what got Orac noticed, a mere six months or so after this blog had begun—exactly nine years ago, today, amazingly enough. (Holy crap, this blog is old...) Every so often, Kennedy has reappeared to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt (otherwise known as FUD) about vaccines, specifically vaccines that contained thimerosal, a mercury containing-compound that was commonly used in the US as a preservative in childhood vaccines, at least until around 2002, which is when the last lots of thimerosal-containing vaccines expired. After that, thimerosal was not added to childhood vaccines anymore.
Oddly enough, even though autism prevalence shows no signs of decreasing 12 years after it was removed from most childhood vaccines (some flu vaccines still contain thimerosal; but they're not often used in children anymore, at least not in the US), Kennedy still likes to party like it's 1999, which is around the time that thimerosal fear mongering reached the consciousness of the nation and lead to the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the U.S. Public Health Service to remove thimerosal from childhood vaccines. Indeed, as recently as last year, Kennedy was, in his usual subtle way, likening US immunization policy and autism to Nazi death camps. Even more amusingly, at his appearance at the autism quackfest known as Autism One in 2013, RFK, Jr. made a threat. He claimed that he had a book nearly written that would blow the lid off the thimerosal conspiracy and demonstrate that mercury in vaccines causes autism. He went on to threaten:
Kennedy has put together a book-length treatment on the dangers of ethylmercury, given every year to 84 million children around the world including the United States (in prenatal and infant flu shots). He wants to get meetings with the CDC, AAP, FDA, etc., and get a commitment by the end of this summer to finally remove thimerosal from vaccines in one year. ONE year. If not, he said, he’ll publish the book.“If they don’t do this,” he said, “this is what I’m going to do with my life.” Since they’re not going to do it, it looks like we’ve got a friend for life.
That's right. If the government didn't do exactly what he wanted, RFK, Jr. was threatening to unleash hell write a book. Yes, write a book. Actually, he threatened to publish a crank book full of autism fear mongering, quackery, and pseudoscience if the government doesn’t do what he demands. True, he didn't say that, but the crankiness, quackery, and pseudoscience go without saying whenever RFK, Jr. writes anything about vaccines. But a book-length pseudoscience-laden screed? That's going to turn the crankery up to 11.
I'll give RFK, Jr. credit, though. He does appear to keep his promises. I just learned that, true to his word, a little more than a year after making his promise, RFK, Jr. is apparently actually publishing his book. It's written by Robert F. Kennedy (Author), Jr., Mark Hyman, MD (Preface), Martha Herbert, MD (introduction) and is entitled Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak: Mercury Toxicity in Vaccines and the Political, Regulatory, and Media Failures That Continue to Threaten Public Health.
My first thought upon looking at the book entry on Amazon.com was this: WTF is it with these ridiculously long subtitles? I mean, really. Why are book titles so long? Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak would have been a perfectly fine, albeit highly dishonest title. As it is, the title of the book is simply dishonest and boring. Maybe someone in the publishing industry can explain this for me. In the meantime, let's take a look at the description of the book:
Over a decade ago, following a sharp rise in developmental disorders such as autism and ADHD, the mercury-containing preservative Thimerosal was widely believed to have been eliminated from vaccine supplies in the US and abroad. However, dangerous quantities of Thimerosal continue to be used, posing a significant threat to public health and leading to a crisis of faith in vaccine safety.
In this groundbreaking book, authors Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Dr. Mark Hyman examine the research literature on Thimerosal and make a very clear statement about its potentially dangerous effects. In the past, the CDC, FDA, NIH, and AAP, as well as the US Congress, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the US Department of Agriculture, the European Medicines Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency have expressed concerns over the use of Thimerosal in vaccines. But despite the many voices calling for action, the media and policy makers have repeatedly failed to adequately address the issue.
Notice the sheer crankery. Notice, for instance, how RFK, Jr. says that thimerosal was "widely believed to have been eliminated from vaccine supplies" in the US. Of course, thimerosal was mostly eliminated from childhood vaccines. The only vaccines in which thimerosal is still routinely used as a preservative are flu vaccines in multidose vials. Otherwise, vaccines don't contain more than trace amounts of thimerosal left over from the manufacturing process and haven't for well over a decade. Next, he asserts that CDC, FDA, NIH, and AAP, and other organizations have all expressed "concern" about thimerosal in vaccines. This is true—back in the 1990s before the science had solidified to the point that we can be quite confident that mercury in thimerosal-containing vaccines does not cause or contribute to the development of autism.
What appears to have set off the antivaccine crowd about thimerosal again in 2013, even though thimerosal is so 2004, was an effort to exempt vaccines from a global treaty that would ban certain processes that introduce vaccines into the environment. Pediatricians, quite reasonably, argued against the ban on the basis of justice, because in poor countries multidose thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) are a critical part of immunization programs, particularly in areas lacking adequate refrigeration. In brief, given that there's no evidence that TCVs are linked with autism and lots of evidence they are not, it makes no sense to impose the precautionary principle that richer nations can afford (using only thimerosal-free vaccines) on poor countries.
In any case, not long after the 2013 Autism One quackfest, RFK, Jr. was unhappy about a post by Keith Kloor asking if RFK Jr. was antiscience. (Answer: Is the Pope Catholic?) He was apparently also unhappy about a post by Phil Plait covering much the same ground. So he contacted Kloor and Plait's editor, Laura Helmuth, after which, hilarity ensued. RFK, Jr. told Helmuth, for instance, that scientists are lying:
Kennedy claims that scientists admit to him in private that they are lying about the data. When he challenged one university scientist about the accuracy of studies showing that the presence of thimerosal in vaccines had no effect on autism diagnoses, “He folded like a house of cards. Three weeks later I heard him on the radio and he was saying the same things he said to me, which I knew he knew was lying.”
One wonders if he'll actually name names in his book. Somehow I doubt it. Three months before his conversation with Helmuth, he was claiming:
For two years, I have worked with a team of doctors and respected scientific researchers to assemble every published study on Thimeresol, the mercury based vaccine preservative still present in dangerous concentrations in US flu vaccines and pediatric vaccines worldwide. We have assembled and digested close to five hundred peer reviewed published pharmacological, toxicological, clinical, animal and human epidemiological studies in leading publications. These studies overwhelmingly implicate Thimeresol in a host of neurological injuries including ADD, ADHD, Speech delay, Language Delay, Tics, Misery Disorder and Autism. The research team was unable to identify a single study purporting to establish that Thimeresol is safe.
One wonders if Mark Hyman and/or Martha Herbert were part of RFK, Jr.'s "team." Hyman, of course, is the founder of the quackery that is "functional medicine," which, coincidentally enough, I discussed quite recently, given that Bill and Hillary Clinton appear to have embraced it. He's also been known to mangle autism science quite badly. Herbert, on the other hand, has been flirting with the antivaccine movement for years and is a big fan of the idea that autism has something to do with neuroinflammation. Unfortunately, none of her publications persuasively presents evidence for this hypothesis, and lately she’s publishing in bottom-feeding alternative medicine journals articles with titles like Learning From the Autism Catastrophe: Key Leverage Points. Suffice it to say, Dr. Herbert is big on “biomedical” woo, so much so that anti-vaccine propagandist David Kirby likes to cite her and the antivaccine crank blog Age of Autism loves her, particularly a case report of hers and her book on "whole body strategies" for treating autism.
If, so, I'm not impressed.
In the end, I probably won't be reading this book. Maybe if I can get it for free somehow, I'll do it. However, I really don't want to provide a single red cent to RFK, Jr. Besides, having covered RFK, Jr.'s antivaccine crankery for nine years now, I don't need to read it. I know what it's going to say.
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Certainly: It's Skyhorse.
Maurine Meleck is already deploying raw comment spam for Amazon preorders.
CoMeD had been harboring delusions of global influence for a while before that (e.g., here and here).
Ahh, Skyhorse Publishing -- the favourite watering hole of anti-vaxxers and anti-semitic JFK conspiracy theorists everywhere.
I'm sorry - but someone's actually going to take a male from the Kennedy line seriously?
Really?
You never know.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/06/10/cardinal_o_connor_s_j…
</shonde
Martha Herbert testified in court that exposure to mold causes autism. Her bio on the Mass Gen web site shows she obtained her PhD in 1981 and her MD in 1991. Yet she is only at the assistant neuroscientist level at MGH and assistant professor at Harvard. That’s not exactly a stellar academic career. One has to wonder if MGH and Harvard are hoping she’ll give up and leave, since it’s clear she is not ever getting tenure. Unfortunately, I’ll bet neither institution has the guts to fire her for this upcoming fraudulent book, which is sure to put another big dent in vaccination rates in the US.
I have spoken in private to many antivaxers and they've admitted to me that they're lying about a vaccine-autism connection.
Now _that's_ rock-solid testimony that no one can refute.
Ah Skyhorse, the publisher of Judy Mikovits and Kent Heckenlively's forthcoming effort called "Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Autism, and Other Diseases"
Yep that is another ridiculously long subtitle.
It is also the final nail in the coffin of Mikovits' serious scientific career; as if it needed another nail at this point.
We have assembled and digested close to five hundred peer reviewed published pharmacological, toxicological, clinical, animal and human epidemiological studies in leading publications.
I'm going to take a wild guess that there may have been a selection bias in the studies. Hey, at least it's a hypothesis which fits the known facts, which is more than you can say about the alleged link between thimerosal and autism.
As for the overly long subtitles: They look like they're designed to be publisher's blurbs. Get the people who might want to buy such a book to buy it, and get any potential reviewers to reproduce your blurb for you without paying them for the advertisement, even if they pan the book (the theory being that any publicity is good publicity).
> WTF is it with these ridiculously long subtitles?
There's a formula, of course! Using two colons is only for overachievers, though (or overcompensators? I'm never sure).
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=718
I think that I've written about Skyhorse before:
its founder, Tony Lyons, has a daughter with an ASD, his ex wrote a book about the child, he wrote a book, he enables Andy, Andy wannabes, AoA literati and TMs in their writing.
Does any of this make money for the company?
I wonder.
HOWEVER he does have a cash cow- albeit a vegan one- he gave Null his own imprint ( see garynullpublishing.com).
Right. Supposedly the woo-meister will bring out 12 books in the next few years including a few with videos. These meisterwerks will also be offered as 'premiums' for public television stations ( in the smaller markets which still allow him to broadcast his spiels). Books are not provided for free to these stations I've heard. *In toto*, it probably adds up to a profit.
Ew..
Should that be *Meisterwerken*?
I'd go with 'wanking', DW: Null's books really should be referred to as 'Meisterwanking'...
@ JGC:
It may very well be wanking but people pay real money to observe it in process.
Oh no! Now I need to cleanse my mind of that disturbing, disgusting mental image.
@Denice - Wanking for coins is Wakefield's standard fundraising tactic.
It should be Meisterwerke, and you asked (before Orac goes all not-so respectful).
Joke aside, it's sad to see such a prominent name clearly going so far downhill that all he's got left is reliving his one moment of fame (or infamy, depending on the viewpoint), and clearly developing delusions of grandeur about his influence on public opinion. He reminds me more and more of Jake.
Happy Anniversary RI!
#8 Dangerous Bacon: Do you have a recording? (And if not, can you make one). Apparently, Mr. Kennedy claims he has one in Autism One in which these people admitted they were lying - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zt7q0fC_kg
From 29 minutes.
recap:
https://www.facebook.com/hxwhite/posts/10203341236125125
That can't be right, because it's the best scientist in jail story since Galileo. She says so herself (last slide).
That can’t be right, because it’s the best scientist in jail story since Galileo. She says so herself
I'd have to agree with you here, because she seems to be providing even more nails for that coffin. Has she considered that Klaus Fuchs went to jail, too? But Chris is entirely correct that no more nails are actually needed.
WTF is it with these ridiculously long subtitles? I mean, really. Why are book titles so long?
Well, you suggest that RFK Jr. is back in 1995. It may be just that he is harking back to an even older style. From 1703:
New VOYAGES to North-America. Giving a full Account of the Customs, Commerce, Religion and strange Opinions of the Savages of that Country. WITH Political Remarks upon the Courts of Portugal and Denmark, and the Present State of Commerce of those Countries.
Written
By the Baron Lahontan, Lord Lieutenant of the French Colony at Placentia in Newfoundland: Now in England.
Note: I believe this is a translation and the original was published in French
Misery Disorder?
Someone remind me, what's the usual end-product of digestion?
Another nice touch there:
"This month, CDC's Director of the Office of Integrity [sic] resigned publicly citing the agency's continuing conflicts of interest and other problems."
Why, no, not in the sense that you mean.
Dorit,
perhaps you could explain why an attorney with damning evidence that would put so many people in jail decides that he's going to write a book instead?
OK, I know that you can't explain that. No one can.
His integrity and humanity overcame his thirst for vengeance, so he went for public humiliation and hope that someone else will do the dirty work rather than direct action? And anyway, in a book he doesn't have to actually prove it, and under our libel laws he knows a case against him would be very hard? And he can hope to avoid the fact that recording conversations may be legal in New York but it is not in PA (http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-recording-law) (though one party's consent is enough in GA or Washington D.C.)?
[I'm sorry, my mom always complained about the difficulties I had with the concept of a rhetorical question]
Plus, he is an environmental lawyer, not a prosecutor. He can't initiate proceedings against anyone, regardless of what kind of crime he thinks they committed (I'm not quite sure what he has in mind).
My apologies to Mr. Kennedy, but I don't believe that he had the conversations he claims, much less recorded them.
Here's a couple paragraphs from Slate on Mr. Kennedy:
We are supposed to believe that he called people up who have (in his view) spent their professional lives lying about vaccines. They say, "oooh, it's RFK Jr.! I'll tell the truth to him!"
I've spoken 1:1 with Paul Offit. I guess I just don't have the charisma of RFK Jr.. All I got was the same thing that the scientific literature says--thimerosal doesn't increase autism risk.
I listened to a good bit of Mr. Kennedy's AutOne talk. Mr. Kennedy is a denialist, plain and simple. I don't give a fig for his vaccine nonsense. I'm talking about how he claims there are no adult autistics. That sort of denialism is harming the community.
Add RFK to the pile of mediocrities who decide to make a name for themselves by being contrarian on vaccines.
"He can’t initiate proceedings against anyone, regardless of what kind of crime he thinks they committed"
He says he's a litigator who has taken on a gazzilion cases.
@ 24, "Someone remind me, what’s the usual end-product of digestion?"
There's an expert in Skyhorse publishing, ask them.
@Matt Carey: I agree. I find it implausible that he has what he says, and while I don't know the other people he talks about, I doubt he heard something different from Dr. Offit than what he's been saying in multiple forums, which, as you said, is that science shows no link and there's an answer to each of the anti-vaccine group's claims on this.
One advantage of telling the truth is that you tend to not have radically different versions each week.
"He says he’s a litigator who has taken on a gazzilion cases." I should have been more clear: he cannot initiate criminal proceedings. He cannot send people to jail. He can lobby a U.S. attorney or State prosecutor for that, bring civil suits, and so forth.
Holy hell, there really is such thing as misery disorder.
http://www.icd9data.com/2012/Volume1/290-319/300-316/313/313.1.htm
My clinical psych profs in grad school must have skipped it. Oh wait, it isn't in the DSM.
*shrug*
I guess I wasn't sleeping through class then :)
@ 27, "And anyway, in a book he doesn’t have to actually prove it, and under our libel laws he knows a case against him would be very hard?"
The libel laws in the U.K. are certainly more amenable to successfully prosecuting libel than the U.S., and yet they didn't stop, oh, IDK, Brian Deer from coming forth. The point is that it's not libel if it's demonstrably true. And as a well known, connected attorney he doesn't have the ability to forward his information to a prosecutor? And he can't initiate a civil action?
Sorry, cross posted, :)
I will say that an attorney doesn't necessarily have the contacts to be able to talk to a prosecutor to initiate a criminal action. I wouldn't have any more luck than a general member of the public in that regard (though a man with the name recognition of RFK Jr. would likely have more luck in that regard). As for initiating a civil action, that one's more up his aisle. You need a client, obviously, but I'm sure that one of those crank organizations could find one for him (though there's always the question of the cause of action. Fraud maybe? I mean, in the alternate universe where what he was saying could actually stand a chance of being partially true).
I didn't know he claimed there were no adult autistics. Damn. Wish that was true. I'd be happier if I wasn't. I wonder if the therapist who diagnosed me is on the conspiracy.
@ 24, “Someone remind me, what’s the usual end-product of digestion?”
Skyhorse Publishing, committed to bring you a never ending rain of horseshit.
Ezra Klein led a panel on MSNBC today discussing the delusions of the anti vaccine zealots. Seth Mnookin got a nice shout out.
http://www.msnbc.com/now-with-alex-wagner/watch/how-whooping-cough-beca…
Andrew S.
They all are - that is why Big Pharma hasn't got around to sending us our cheques.
The autism 'epidemic' was actually *caused* by psychologists.
They changed the diagnostic criteria in the mid 1990s
* voila!* more autism!
Don't look at me like that:
I had absolutely nothing to do with it .
Perhaps he'll back into Dachel "criteria." Here's how she characterized the recent NAS survey:
"This is a pathetic attempt to show that there are autistic adults---and to feign concern for them. This is more from the world of pretend science....
"SOMETHING IS REALLY WRONG HERE. First of all, these are people WHO COULD ANSWER SURVEY QUESTIONS. (Where have we heard about a British survey on adults before?) I want to know how many hundreds of adults in their 40s, 50s, and 60s they looked at who had SEVERE AUTISM--PEOPLE WHO WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO GET MARRIED. How are the ones who are non-verbal doing? Twenty-five percent of autistic children are NONVERBAL. WHERE ARE THE NONVERBAL ADULTS--the ones who couldn't possibly report on abuse?"
Mr. Kennedy is a denialist, plain and simple. I don’t give a fig for his vaccine nonsense. I’m talking about how he claims there are no adult autistics. That sort of denialism is harming the community.
Thanks Matt. I didn't know about that. I used to find him pitiable and disdainful. Now I'm contemptuous of him.
Wow. What happened to my blockquotes?
How does Kennedy argue there are no adult autistics if he blames thimerosal, which has been in use since the 1930s?
I know he's a loon, but does he have an explanation to go with the diagnostic disparities by state, and the rising incidence while the burden of thimerosal falls?
Just saw that it's now available for pre-order for the princely sum of $22.45. According to Amazon, people that looked at the book also looked at the lego movie?
Why not? After looking at RFK's opus, you might want to see something more based on reality.
@Narad
Looks like she forgot that autism has a spectrum. Ugh. For people "educated" about ASDs, they sure seem to know little to nothing about them.
"Where are all the nonverbal adults"
My guess would be in facilites/homes, whether they be outpatient or inpatient, that provide supervision and help to them. What an idiotic question.
(I know she was referring to the survey, not where they are physically, but in my head I was just picturing her at, like, a shopping mall going "WHERE ARE THE NONVERBALS", haha)
What the hell is "misery disorder?"
Cakesphere: Also, she forgot that there's assistive tech available. That phone survey always puzzled me too; were they only calling landlines?
NH: Something she made up? When it comes to Dachel's little cult, I wouldn't put it past them?
Bobby Kennedy and Anne Dachel ask where are all those autistic adults.
They were institutionalized in human warehouses and classified as mentally retarded. They now live in group homes, "right at home, right in the neighborhood".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDt5IE8RPI
Yeah, right Ms Lilady. And I guess you think that Man landed on the Moon just because you've seen the videos.
Jeff1971 - are you claiming that there was no Willowbrook State School or that a video is not proof?
Jeff 1971: Are you denying the conditions that existed at Willowbrook (and in every other State-run institution for the developmentally disabled)?
Jeff1971 is taking the piss
I think there is a direct correlation between autism and low glutathione levels within the body. There are so many people that run to believing that vaccinations and using other medical treatments is the way to go. In some cases, perhaps, but often times these diseases and illnesses can be treated via glutathione supplementation. Every cell in the body produces it and if the liver is the washing machine, glutathione is the detergent. It detoxifies the blood and body of free radicals among many other things. http://www.rundreamachieve.com
Nathan, do you have any evidence for any of that? Particularly these claims:
Yes, because everyone that has autism is exactly the same.....these people are morons.
Max International is an MLM scheme, by the way. They're hawking ribose cysteine.
Nathan:
I have a washing machine and it is nothing like a liver, so your syllogism fails. You, however, are like a dryer in that you are full of hot air.
I think it's 2013 ICD-9-CM 313.1: "Misery and unhappiness disorder specific to childhood and adolescence."
They say it's going to become "ICD-10-CM F93.8 Other childhood emotional disorders" when the United States transitions from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM.
Nothing overly vague there, no sirree.
Oh, well. More vagueness, more coverage. It is to be hoped.
October 2015. So they say.
But it could also be a bad translation of "Unordnung und frühes Leid."
On the other hand, when my washing machine broke down, my house turned yellow.
Re. the title: similar excessively-long titles were common in the Victorian era, for example 'A treatise on Constipation, explaining How and Why it occurs, and offering Suggestions for Treatment, including how Ladies may excuse themselves to go to the WC by saying they have to Powder their Noses.'
Isn't Ms. Clinton running for President?
And what effect do you think RFK's book will have on her candidacy? And on the opposing candidate?
Methinks we could see this become an election issue and potentially a rather troublesome one.
@ann
Ew, an other code. I thought the ICD-10 was supposed to allow for better coding, not lumping things into an other code so you can't tell what they are.
It makes no sense from a billing standpoint, anyhow (full disclosure, I'm kind of biases since I work heavily with the billers where I work)
*biased, not biases.
Typing fail >_<
Why do you think this, Nathan? From what evidence did you derive this conclusion? Be specific.
Which diseases and illnesses are you speaking about here, and what evidence demonstrates glutathione supplementation irepresents a safe and effective treatment for them? Again: be specific.
Long titles can be good:
On The Origin of Specie By Means Of Natural Selection Or The Preservation Of Favoured Races In The Struggle For Life
OK, I've put this aside, but there are rules here. They have traditionally been handed down by blue-haired faculty wives with sinecures. Sadly, those days are gone, as the aimless bloat and vestigal appendixes of certain cash cows sadly reveal.
The title to hand, if set in full, is as follows:
The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
My info comes from PHD in micro bio scientist, I asked for one answer should I take flu shot the answer is definitely not!!! And as far as children definitely not. and spread mandated shots and make sure to give your kids Advil before shots.
@marc
[citation needed] for your assertions.
"Don't take all your vaccine shots but be sure to self-medicate with a strong painkiller before you do"
Yeah, no way this could go wrong.
Next, don't wash your hands before exiting the washroom but be sure to drink a bottle of cough syrup every day.
Oh, and I'm a "PHD in micro bio scientist", too, so there.
There's a theory "out there" that taking any anti inflammatory drugs immediately before or immediately after a shot, dulls the immune response to that particular vaccine....which you really don't want to do.
If Marc wants to check out that theory a simple google search should provide the answer.
Slug down a bottle of OTC or prescribed cough syrup each day? Not a brilliant idea. There are ingredients in OTC cough syrup that are dangerous in large doses and the codeine in cough syrup which is prescribed will drug you out...when slugged down.
That was my point. Ibuprofen (Advil) is not something to be given like candy.
Neither is cough syrup, if my sarcasm was unclear.
"What the hell is “misery disorder?”"
It's the sinking feeling you get when you discover everything J.F.K. Jr. told you about vaccines is wrong.
And you call yourself a doctor. :(