Edit of Criticisms of Paul Offit on the Subject of Autism and Vaccines Blog

1:1  This blog is primarily based upon in interview of Paul Offit on NPR, specifically the program Science Friday.  It was originally broadcast on 1/7/2011.  Transcripts of this broadcast are still most likely available.

1:2  The original date that I posted this blog before this edit is: January 7, 2011 at 6:52 pm.  The original blog post I made was called, “Criticisms of Paul Offit on Autism and Vaccines (NPR, Science Friday, 1/7/2011, transcript available).”

1:3  “Science Friday This Friday, Paul Offit joins us to talk about vaccines, autism and misinformation.”  This quotation was posted to NPRs Facebook account before the program was broadcast, where I made some comments to it.

 1:4  “I suggest that by stimulating the immune system through vaccinations, we are triggering autism spectrum disorders. Historically, only about 7 in 10,000 people were once diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The studies that I am familiar with that show no correlation between autism and vaccines do not have a large enough sampling to show significance. The genes for schizophrenia are found within those of the immune system. Might the genes for autism be found there too?”  This comment was made by me on a Tuesday at 12:15am via Facebook Mobile.

1:5  “My mom said I knew many words before I got vaccinated and then I stopped talking for an entire year after. My first psychotic episode was during my junior year of college. Before I started a gluten and casein free diet and taking an exorphinase pill my scores on a professional intelligence assessment were that my auditory comprehension was in the bottom 1% of people where my IQ typically showed 95th percentile in most areas, meaning I had answered all the questions correctly on many of the tests that combine to make the score. However, the test revealed that I had a poor short term memory. Since the special diet my short term memory and auditory comprehension have drastically improved. That is that I understand that though the dietary changes don't work for many people, they worked for me.”  This comment was made by me on a Wednesday at 3:58pm via Facebook Mobile.

1:6  Currently, I am able to change my short term memory and auditory comprehension scores if I consume gluten or casein.  So, this is an ongoing problem of mine, where if I desire by eating certain foods, I can induce autistic symptoms in myself that last for weeks.  However, if I take a pill call Serenaid, then my autistic symptoms go away, especially if I adhere to a gluten and casein free diet.

1:7  “Science Friday Coming up today: "yarn" spun from nanoparticles, citizen science projects you can participate in, the core of the moon, Paul Offit on vaccines and pseudoscience, and a how-to on different ways to get content to your television.”  This is another post on one of NPR’s Facebook accounts.

1:8  “If someone has a history of ASD in his or her family, given what we know, it is reasonable to consider not vaccinating.”  This post was not made by me, but was made on Facebook on one of NPR’s accounts.

1:9  A comment I posted that was made to the actual program Paul Offit spoke on made to one of NPR’s Facebook accounts:  “I listened to Offit and he misunderstands some of the fundamentals of medicine. There is not room for detail here. However, he indicates for example a belief in a common man's fallacy regarding bacteria; all bacteria are harmful. The exposure of bacteria that a newborn experiences is not relative to vaccines because the vast amount of bacteria are not harmful and thus not comparable to bacteria a child would experience from vaccination.”

1:10  A comment I posted that was made to the actual program Paul Offit spoke on made to one of NPR’s Facebook accounts, “Other Offit fallacies. Let me paraphrase, "Since children’s immune systems are stressed, it is good to stress them out even more." And, "doctors don't do unconscionable things, especially a large mass of them." Perhaps, Offit is unaware of what masses of doctors did during the Holocaust.” – Note: this quote is edited.

1:11  A comment I posted that was made to the actual program Paul Offit spoke on made to one of NPR’s Facebook accounts, “Yet another Offit fallacy, let me paraphrase, "At my hospital we know we have good doctors because they are all conformists. In order to be a doctor at my hospital, you must conform to our vaccination policy. That way we know you have what it takes to be on our team."”  - Note: this quote is edited.

1:12  As far as I know, transcripts are still available for a fee at the following website.  The date of this Science Friday program is given elsewhere in this blog, which may be of assistance if one wants to listen to what Paul Offit has to say on vaccines, and especially how he successfully jaded his interviewer and callers on the program. http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/misc/faq/tapesandtrans.html

1:13  Paul Offit is a well such a well renown scientists that on January 7, 2011 at 7:00 pm I first located the information about him at this website, which may have since been changed due to the possibility of editing Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Offit

1:14  The following is from another blog I wrote where I commented upon it:  February 10, 2011 12:15 PM

“I recommend www.mercola.com for more information on vaccines and autism. A study was done recently that shows a link between the MMR vaccine and autism that Mercola reports on. This was not the original study that caused a doctor to lose his license.”

However, I have to admit that I do find much of what Dr. Mercola shares to be suspect although often worth reading.

1:15  The following is from another blog I wrote where I commented upon it:  February 10, 2011 12:19 PM

“The information surrounding the initial study surrounding the MMR vaccine and autism is fishy. Seriously, why would a doctor put his license on the line to make such an audacious claim? If he were simply looking for funding, then he could have published on something trivial that would be overlooked.
Consequently, with regard to autism and the MMR vaccine link, I believe that there has been a government cover up. This is that the I believed the government sabotaged the data of the scientist that showed the link. Think of it. If autism and vaccines were linked, and I believe that they are, the government would owe oodles of damages to its citizens.”

Seriously, if you think about the invention of vaccines has been one of the most significant changes to the practice of medicine in the last 500 years.  For a doctor to think that publishing something against vaccines would not draw much criticism from his medical peers is borderline absurd.  I would even go to the extent that when he published his paper, he was possibly making the most audacious claim in medicine of the century, which makes the publishing of this article a borderline attempt at suicide.

1:16  The following is from another blog I wrote where I commented upon it:   April 10, 2012 11:32 AM

“Where are all these new severe allergies coming from? Could it be that vaccines are playing a role since they add stress to an immune system.”

That is medically there has been a marked change in the prevalence of allergies.  Since allergies are usually not lethal, doctors should be searching for reasons as to why there is an increase in the morbidity rate of allergy diagnosis.  This change in the morbidity rate is well documented.  Thus, since vaccinations have changed, and the methods for their delivery has changed, I find it perfectly reasonable to consider studying to see if there is a link between practices associated with vaccines and the astonishing increase of rate of diagnosis of autism spectrum related disorders, especially since at one time, before the existence of the autism diagnosis, these people that have been given the diagnosis of autism would have been historically called schizophrenic, and before that narcoleptic.  Thus, it is such that the existence of narcolepsy was found shortly after the use of vaccines became commonly employed by doctors.  

1:17  Thus, conclusively it is my recommendation that everyone should be made aware of the possible risks of vaccination.  In addition, after my last blog was written it seemed like some progress on this subject had been made by doctors, but that the interviewed doctors had difficulty preventing themselves from reverting to the old knowledge about vaccines, such that contradictions where made that were not resolved on the radio program.  Though I can’t remember the exact date of the latest program, it was heard on the Boston area FM radio station, 89.7, which is Boston’s NPR station.  The reason I remember broadcast in particular is that Meghan and I listened to it, while driving to a doctor’s appointment in the Boston metropolitan area, where we were at about exit 12 on route 3 north to Boston.  Often I have difficulty with dates, but this was almost certainly sometime in 2012.  I often have difficulty remembering dates, and that might possibly partly be because there are so many calendars although though I did have trouble remembering the date when there was only 1 calendar.  Another possible reason why I may have difficulty remembering the date is that I feel that the Hassidic calendar is not correct, and that it is 15 years off.  Thus, in order to find the date relative to my thought patterns I have to do some math.  Additionally, there is some confusion on my part because as a child, I learned that the day ends at 12:00 midnight during the night, while many Jews say that the day changes immediately after sundown because the Torah says that the universe started in darkness, such that Gd created the universe from darkness, and still further there are things like time zones.  Time is a really messy subject.  In fact, sometimes I feel that the computer is not able to remember data as well as I am able to remember it, or that there are glitches, such that what was originally typed may be resurrected.