|
Headline:
This study, funded by the CDC, was shopped for years until Pediatrics
finally printed it. Want to compare kids who got more and less
thimerosal? This is your study. No value whatsoever. We gave it a
negative score for such bold fraud and misuse of data. An embarrassment.
Actual Question This Study Asked & Answered:
Q: Are autism rates different for children who received 62.5 mcg or 137.5 mcg of mercury?
A: No. (although our study had an autism rate of 1 in 1,700, which is 1/10 the U.S. rate)
Did the study look at unvaccinated children?
No.
Conflict of Interest (from the study itself):
"The study was supported in part by the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, through contract 2002-N-00448 with the Istituto
Superiore di Sanita."
Ability to Generalize:
None whatsoever. Please read the critiques below, the study simply
looked at kids receiving varying levels of mercury in their vaccines.
Post-Publication Criticism:
Extremely high, and still coming.
Scoring (Out of 40 possible points):
Asked the Right Question: -1
Ability to Generalize: -1
Conflict of Interest: 0
Post-Publication Criticism: 0
Total Score: -2 (negative number for such extreme fraud)
Choice Excerpt from the Study:
"Some limitations should be considered in the interpretation of our
results. The cumulative intake of thimerosal was relatively low,
compared with that in other countries including the United States, where
vaccination schedules included more thimerosal-containing vaccines in
the first year of life. Moreover, there was no comparison group with no
exposure to thimerosal...Our analysis included only healthy children who
were selected during enrollment in the original trial, and some
families might have declined to participate in the present study because
their children had cognitive developmental problems. This might have
reduced the prevalence of adverse neuropsychological conditions and
might have made potential differences hard to detect. The eligibility
criteria of the original trial also limited the participation of low
birth weight children, and only 55 children with birth weights of
<2500 g underwent the neuropsychological evaluation (data not shown).
Moreover, only 1% of children in this study received hepatitis B virus
vaccine at birth. Although no effect of birth weight according to
thimerosal intake was detected through multivariate analyses, our study
was not powered to detect an association of thimerosal exposure and
neuropsychological development in low birth weight infants."
Guest Critic #1: Mike Wagnitz, Ph.D, University of Wisconsin
What are the Italians Doing Right?
In the article, "Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After
Immunization in Infancy With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines", the
authors identify only 1 case of autism among 1,704 subjects who were
involved in the study. That makes for some real simple math, 1:1704. The
rate of autism in the U.S. is 1:150. What are the Italians doing right?
Why are their autism rates more than 10 times lower?
Reprinted from Pediatrics.
Guest Critic #2: John Stone
This study is misleading and was not scientifically worth doing
I note the conclusion of this study by Tozzi, Bisiacchi, Tarantino,
De Mei, D'Elia, Chiarotti and Salmaso [1]. However, I also note the
limitations of the study as described in the discussion:
"Some limitations should be considered in the interpretation of our
results. The cumulative intake of thimerosal was relatively low,
compared with that in other countries including the United States, where
vaccination schedules included more thimerosal-containing vaccines in
the first year of life. Moreover, there was no comparison group with no
exposure to thimerosal, although our setting was appropriate to identify
a dose response effect in the absence of any evidence suggesting a
threshold dose for observation of an effect. Our analysis included only
healthy children who were selected during enrollment in the original
trial, and some families might have declined to participate in the
present study because their children had cognitive developmental
problems. This might have reduced the prevalence of adverse
neuropsychological conditions and might have made potential differences
hard to detect. The eligibility criteria of the original trial also
limited the participation of low birth weight children, and only 55
children with birth weights of <2500 g underwent the
neuropsychological evaluation (data not shown). Moreover, only 1% of
children in this study received hepatitis B virus vaccine at birth.
Although no effect of birth weight according to thimerosal intake was
detected through multivariate analyses, our study was not powered to
detect an association of thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological
development in low birth weight infants." [1]
I ask how it would be possible to draw any useful scientific
conclusions from a study with such deficiencies in relation to the
issues it purportedly set out to investigate? But I also reflect on the
headline value of negative results for wider media consumption, as in
the Associated Press report by Carla K Johnson, with contributions from
Alberto Tozzi himself, Jennifer Pinto-Martin and Paul Offit [2] claiming
this strengthens the evidence base for vaccine safety.
[1] Alberto Eugenio Tozzi, Patrizia Bisiacchi, Vincenza Tarantino,
Barbara De Mei, Lidia D'Elia, Flavia Chiarotti, and Stefania Salmaso,
'Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After Immunization in Infancy
With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines', Pediatrics 2009; 123: 475-482.
[2] Carla K Johnson, 'Study adds to evidence of vaccine safety', Associated Press, http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jp7ZD1RFVm7yOzgaB04Ra4dY
Reprinted from Pediatrics.
Guest Critic #3: Vincenzo Miranda, M.D., Italy
This study is not methodologically correct
The study by Tozzi and others has many limitations.
No comparison is done with children not exposed to thimerosal and
neuropsychological disturbances are studied in recruiting voluntary all
children even healthy ones, without assessing the sensitivity individual
mercury.
With this background this study can not lead to any conclusion.
It is possible to evaluate the role of vaccines and thimerosal in
neurodevelopmental disorders with the study of immune response. In my
case I found a hyperimmune response to measles, polio with autoimmune
reaction against myelin and glia. Moreover, the presence of
antifibrillarin antibodies indicates an autoimmune response induced by
mercury (HgIA).
All this can not be a coincidence.
Reprinted from Pediatrics.
Guest Critic #4: J.B. Handley, co-founder of Generation Rescue
Feeding the Hungry Lie, Italian Style
By J.B. Handley
Well, you won't be able to miss it because it's all over the news:
another "study" published in Pediatrics proving that vaccines don't
cause autism.
In case you wonder how the media feels about the whole thing,
consider this opening line from the Associated Press article today:
"A new study from Italy adds to a mountain of evidence that a
mercury-based preservative once used in many vaccines doesn't hurt
children, offering more reassurance to parents."
Mountain of evidence?
Herewith, my guide to reading this new study:
- Re-read my original post, Feeding the Hungry Lie HERE.
Open the new study from Pediatrics, titled:
Neuropsychological Performance 10 Years After Immunization in Infancy With Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines - Prepare for Nausea.
Read the details regarding the two groups that the Italians analyzed:
"Therefore, in the first 12 months of life, the cumulative intake
of ethylmercury, the mercury metabolite of thimerosal, was 137.5 mcg
for the children who were assigned randomly to receive the DTaP vaccine
that contained thimerosal ("higher intake group") and 62.5 mcg for those
who received the thimerosal-free DTaP vaccine ("lower intake group")." - Realize that this study is only comparing kids who got 62.5mcgs of
Thimerosal to kids who got 137.5mcgs of Thimerosal. They have all been
vaccinated, and they've all been vaccinated with mercury-containing
vaccines.
- Vomit.
Read about their sample size of children and prevalence of autism:
"We detected, through the telephone interviews with parents and
reviews of medical charts, 1 case of autism among the 856 children in
the lower thimerosal intake group and no cases among the 848 children in
the higher thimerosal intake group." - Realize that in their sample, the rate of autism of the children analyzed was 1 in 1,704, 15-20 times lower than the US average.
- Vomit.
Read the acknowledgements section:
"The study was supported in part by the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, through contract 2002-N-00448 with the Istituto
Superiore di Sanita." - Vomit.
- Read the AP's headline today: Study adds to evidence of vaccine safety
- Vomit.
Read that the Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics, Dr. Lewis First, wrote today on his blog HERE:
"Finally, we get to the heart of the immunization controversy
with a study by Tozzi et al. on whether or not thimerosal can influence
neuropsychological performance ten years after immunization in infancy
(475-482). You'll be reassured that the results show essentially no
differences between groups who did or did not get thimerosal in their
vaccines -- and you'll want to know this information when talking with
parents of your patients about the safety and benefits of vaccines." - Realize that the Editor-In-Chief of Pediatrics is either grossly
misinformed or lying because you read the Italian study and know every
child considered received Thimerosal.
- Vomit one last time.
- Pray that this study, like many of the others that have come and
gone, doesn't falsely reassure a family with a young child about how
best to approach vaccines.
J.B. Handley is co-founder of Generation Rescue and a contributor to Age of Autism.
Reprinted from the Age Of Autism Blog
|
