CDC Under Siege

CDC Under Siege

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Subject: Re: [SpinLyme] CDC Under Siege
Date: Apr 4, 2008 4:34 AM

Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
>From:
>Sent: Apr 3, 2008 10:57 PM
>To: SpinLyme@yahoogroups . com
>Subject: [SpinLyme] CDC Under Siege
>
>CDC Under Siege
>
* w w w .huffingtonpost . com /deirdre-imus/cdc-under-siege b 94720.html
>
...Once revered around the world, hardly a month passes without
another news
report questioning the credibility, scientific independence, and
integrity of the
nation's premier health agency.

Over the past four years headlines frequently chronicle a disturbing
litany
of allegations charging top CDC officials with wasting money on
questionable research
priorities, public relations stunts, distorting or ignoring health
concerns raised
by their own scientists, and retaliation against those who object to
the censorship
of scientific findings.

...And if the suppression of safety data and intimidation of agency
scientists
raising health concerns were not bad enough, the CDC also stands
accused of hyping
certain health threats and terrifying the public in the hope of
benefiting from
the "fear" campaigns. Sandwiched between the Great Lakes and FEMA
trailer
"cover-up" reports, another article by the AJC asks "Did CDC hype
TB case as a fund-raising ploy?" (March 13, 2008).

The article chronicles the hysteria created over 31-year-old Atlanta
attorney,
Andrew Speaker, a man CDC officials diagnosed with XDR TB five months
after an agency
"strategy" session focused on obtaining more funding for the rare and
deadly form of TB.

According to the article, "The handling of the Speaker case was so
unusual
that it has raised questions among other TB experts, including whether
CDC publicized
Speaker's case in a quest for more money."

While the CDC's Media Relations Director Glen Nowak maintains "the
agency's actions were justified," the agency "has refused for nearly
seven months to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) about
any role the agency's XDR TB funding strategy played in its handling
of the
Speaker case." As it turns out, Speaker didn't even have the deadly
XDR
TB. All that hype and the young man had a different, "more treatable"
form of TB all along.

It's a little disturbing that the world's leading health agency would
misdiagnose the type of tuberculosis this man has. Makes you wonder
how often situations
like this are sensationalized way out of proportion and sending the
public into
a panic. Anyone remember monkeypox? When was the last time you heard
about that?
And what has become of that deadly bird flu that dominated the news
for about a
year? Ever notice how the urgent predictions of impending disaster
disappear after
the CDC gets a big boost in funding from congress to combat these
diseases?

...Although never held accountable for these misrepresentations, top
CDC officials
have consistently shown themselves to be quite creative at exploiting
certain health
threats, like TB, influenza and bird flu, when it suits their
purposes, and ignoring
other health threats, like childhood cancer and autism, when it
doesn't. How
do they keep getting away with this stuff?

No where has the CDC's credibility suffered more than in the way it
has
responded to questions about vaccine safety, and if vaccines are
associated with
increased rates of autism. When you study the way the CDC has
responded to the autism
epidemic you will see a very similar pattern of behavior as what
occurs when the
CDC investigates cancer clusters. Their studies never find a "link" or
an "association" because that is what they are designed to do.

For years thousands of parents have maintained their healthy, normally
developing
children regressed into autism following vaccinations. And for years
the CDC has
vehemently denied any evidence of an association. The debate has been
the subject
of thousands of news stories with neither side backing away from their
steadfast
positions.

On March 6, however, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution carried a front-
page headline:
FIRST AUTISM-VACCINE LINK: HOW HANNAH MADE HISTORY.

The article details an admission by the federal government, that
Hannah Poling,
a nine-year-old Georgia girl, was harmed by the nine vaccines she
received at 19
months, after which Hannah became autistic. The leaked landmark
concession was actually
filed last November 9th but the decision remains sealed even though
Hannah Poling's
parents have asked that the documents be made public. There's that
secrecy thing
again.

...By the end of the day, news of the concession made headlines around
the world
and was one of the lead stories on every nightly news program. In a
report for the
CBS Evening News, reporter Sharyl Attkisson uncovered nine additional
cases where
the government awarded compensation to vaccine-injured children who
developed autism.

There has been a lot of parsing of words and the expected "spin" about
this decision from the usual sources. But none of these "opinions"
changes
the facts. Individuals can continue to argue whether or not vaccines
cause autism,
but there is no arguing that the government -- not a court or a judge
-- the government's
medical experts conceded this case having determined that vaccines DID
harm little
Hannah. Hannah Poling did not have autism before she received nine
vaccines in one
day, but soon after Hannah was diagnosed with autism. And the
government's medical
experts -- not a judge -- said this little girl should be
compensated.

Of interest is the leaking of a second decision involving Hannah
Poling filed
on February 21st carried in a March 19th AJC op-ed by journalist/
author David Kirby.
The second concession states, "The cause for (autistic) encephalopathy
in Hannah
at age 19 months was underlying mitochondrial dysfunction, exacerbated
by vaccine-induced
fever and immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic reserves."

Kirby clarifies several misconceptions being reported in other news
reports
and makes several very good points.

1. Instead of health officials expressing concern for other children
who may
have experienced the same reaction as Hannah, parents are "met with
stonewalling,
denial, and misinformation.
2. Hannah's underlying condition was not a "rare" or "inherited"
disease. Hannah was asymptomatic prior to receiving her vaccines and
by all accounts
developing normally.
3. The government still hasn't released either decision.

The conflicts of interest between CDC officials and the vaccine
industry are
vast, appalling and were detailed by UPI in 2003. "The Vaccine
Conflict"
is a must read for anyone concerned about industry influence on
government agencies.
The article provides shocking details about how the CDC collaborates
with the vaccine
industry. Following a four-month investigation, UPI found:

In two cases in the past four years, vaccines endorsed by the CDC were
pulled
off the market after a number of infants and adults appeared to have
suffered devastating
side effects, and some died.

Members of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee get money from vaccine
manufacturers.
Relationships have included: sharing a vaccine patent; owning stock in
a vaccine
company; payments for research; getting money to monitor manufacturer
vaccine tests;
and funding academic departments.

The CDC is in the vaccine business. Under a 1980 law, the CDC
currently has
28 licensing agreements with companies and one university for vaccines
or vaccine-related
products. It has eight ongoing projects to collaborate on new
vaccines.

Those are some very serious conflicts. So when Dr. Gerberding or any
official
rushes to the microphones to tell us vaccines don't cause autism we
should consider
the source and the implication for the agency if shown to be wrong....

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