I Speak of Dreams

Tweet Cloud

Here's my tweet cloud for the last year

http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/lizditz/81477

Reading Teachers Network

Reading Teachers Network - Connecting teachers, parents and administrators to dyslexia and reading.

Neuhaus, in Texas, does fine work.

Amanda Peet, Vaccine Activist, 2009 edition

Amanda Peet is back in the news as she stars in 2012 (even her formidable talent can't save that clunker, but never mind....) She graces the cover of the December 2009 edition of SELF magazine. (slideshow here).

She tells Self magazine, “It scared me when I learned how many parents were withholding vaccines from their children. It made me frightened of the possibility that some of these diseases are coming back.

I make a prediction: Age of Autism will go ballistic over Ms. Peet's remarks, as the site did in 2008.

Update December 2 -- Round 1 from Age of Autism by Katie Wright: Amanda Peet and Autism

A fan site, A-Peet, has more:

Actress Amanda Peet has reignited her feud with those opposing child vaccinations over autism fears by insisting it’s “unconscionable” that parents can let their kids start school without the proper medical cautions.

The 2012 star upset autism activist Jenny McCarthy and Autism United officials in 2008 when she called them “parasites” for leading a campaign to overhaul America’s immunisation programmes, claiming vaccinations are largely responsible for autism in children.

McCarthy, who is the mother of an autistic child, led a rally in Washington, D.C. calling for the Federal Government to clean vaccines of all toxins and to change a loaded schedule of immunisation, which experts claim leads to the cause of autism.

The cause is controversial because leading medical groups insist there’s no clear proof that vaccinations lead to autism.

Peet agrees with the medics, but she has apologised for her emotional outburst in a magazine interview. Now a celebrity spokesperson for [U.S.-based] child welfare group Every Child By Two and the [international] Measles Initiative, Peet has sparked the debate again as she prepares to become a pre-school mum.

She tells Self magazine, “It scared me when I learned how many parents were withholding vaccines from their children. It made me frightened of the possibility that some of these diseases are coming back.

“This is about the future of our children’s health. It’s about what happens when you become complacent and you’re not vigilant as a community.”

And she insists the statistics speak for themselves: “I learned that every day 540 children around the world die from measles when there is an absolutely safe vaccine that costs less than a dollar per child.

“My daughter is about to go to pre-school. If you walk by a school and you try to imagine 540 children… it’s unconscionable that we’re not getting the vaccines to people.”

Peet’s latest remarks are sure to upset McCarthy, who still hasn’t forgiven the actress for the comments she made in 2008. She said, “She has a lot of balls to come forward and be on that side, because there is an angry mob on my side. I like the fact that I can say she’s completely wrong… Until she walks in our shoes she has no idea.”

And Autism United bosses are still calling on supporters to boycott Peet’s films.

Executive director John Gilmore raged, “Ms. Peet’s comments are deplorable and an apology will not suffice.”

Previously

• I Speak of DreamsAmanda Peet's View on Non-Vaccinating Parents: Parasites
• Science-Based Medicine, Mark Crislip: Amanda Peet is My Hero
• Age of Autism -- numerous posts criticizing Ms. Peet.

Press Release: "New Research Sheds Light on Chiropractic and ADHD" -- No It Doesn't!

Michael McCoy, a chiropractor who has a number of enterprises going,  including McCoy Press, i  founded a new journal in 2009, the  Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health - Chiropractic.  It sounds sciency, doesn't it?   It isn't. 

One thing McCoy is excellent at is propagating press releases touting their "studies". Here's one of the first:

New Research Sheds Light on Chiropractic and ADHD

Recent research reporting on improvement in a 3 ½ year old boy undergoing chiropractic care reveals that chiropractic may play an important role in managing children with ADHD and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

It's not research.  It's a single case study.  In addition to chiropractic manipulation,  the child was subject to several other modalities.  Any one of the efforts may have resulted in a change in behavior.

The National Resource Center on ADHD reports:

No research has been done to support the effectiveness of chiropractic approaches for the treatment of AD/HD.

Even the American Chiropratic Association admits that

currently no studies comparing chiropractic neurological and medical treatment for ADHD are available

Using chiropractic for ADHD "treatment" is therefore uncontrolled experimentation on children.   What is ethical about that?  As was written on an article on autism treatments

"They really should be seeing treatment of patients with unproven therapies as dangerous experimentation," said pediatrician Dr. Steven Goodman, a clinical trial expert at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. "The problem with uncontrolled experiments ... is that it is experimentation from which we can learn nothing."

Here's the abstract:

Objective: To investigate the chiropractic care of a child with ADHD and review the related literature.

Clinical Features: A 3½ year old male child diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of birth trauma and ear infections presents with signs of vertebral subluxation.

Interventions and Outcomes: Vertebral subluxations were addressed using toggle recoil adjustments to reduce an Atlas subluxation. Dietary advice, supplements and proprioceptive exercises were given to the patient as part of the care plan. Patient's mother and teachers reported a decrease in hyperactivity and an increase in attention. Paraspinal thermal scans improved after one month of care.

Conclusion: While research on chiropractic care for children with ADHD is limited, some studies have shown improvement in these children while under such care. This is an important area in need of further study and should include the investigation of a combination of chiropractic, nutrition, exercise, and other CAM treatments.

Stone-McCoy, P.A. & Przybysz, L.(2009)  Chiropractic Management of a Child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder & Vertebral Subluxation: A Case Study
Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health - Chiropractic 1 (1)p.1-8

Why Are Infants Vaccinated Against Hepatitis B?

The anti-vaccine activists promoters of infectious disease condemn the use of hepatitis B vaccine in infancy (J.B. Handley, David Kirby, Vaccine Liberation, Think Twice, Sherri Nakken's Vaccine Network, NCCN.net, whale.to) They are all...misinformed.

Joseph Albietz has written an elegant post on the need for neonatal Hepatitis B vaccination, in lay language.

To put this in perspective, the mortality from [Hepatitis B] HBV in the US was 5 times higher than Heamophilus influenza type B and 10 times greater than measles before vaccination was introduced.

I strongly recommend Why Universal Hepatitis B Vaccination Isn’t Quite Universal to expectant parents who may have concerns about vaccination.

Steven Novella on Autism Causation, Prevalence, and Research Priorities in Autism

The good doctor Novella has an online dialogwith Harold Doherty.

Harold asks some very important questions about the alleged autism-vaccine link and research priorities, and I am happy for the opportunity to clarify my position.

Lies About Vaccine Ingredients -- The Role of Fetal Cells Version

Anti-vaccination activists and extreme opponents of abortion like to use language that gives the idea that ongoing abortions are necessary for the manufacture of vaccines.

An example:

It is time to say “enough is enough” with respect to “the worst type of cannibalism you can imagine” – the use of aborted fetal cell lines in vaccines.

....  Debra Vinnedge, executive director of the Children of God for Life organization....“The pharmaceutical industry has imported, exported, exploited and profited using hundreds of innocent aborted babies. And they continue to do so in the present … .”

Uhm, Debra Vinnedge? The ninth Commandment?

  The truth is rather different, as even the Catholic Church has recognized.

There are three cell lines, derived from three abortions in the 1960s, that are involved in vaccine manufacture. From the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii): Immunization Issues: Human Fetal Links with Some Vaccines

Two different strains of human diploid cell cultures made from fetuses have been used extensively for vaccine production for decades. One was developed in the United States in 1961 (called WI-38) and the other in the United Kingdom in 1966 (called MRC-5).

WI-38 came from lung cells from a female fetus of 3-months gestation and MRC-5 was developed from lung cells from a 14-week-old male fetus. Both fetuses were intentionally aborted, but neither was aborted for the purpose of obtaining diploid cells. The fetal tissues that eventually became WI-38 and the MRC-5 cell cultures were removed from fetuses that were dead. The cellular biologists who made the cell cultures did not induce the abortions.

The virus that led to the only rubella vaccine available in the United States and that is widely used overseas (Meruvax II, Merck) came from tissues obtained at the time of an abortion performed on a rubella virus-infected mother.  The abortion was not conducted in order to isolate the virus, but rather because the mother and the fetus were infected with wild rubella virus that posed a risk of major birth defects.

Since that wild strain of rubella virus (known as RA27/3) was isolated, it has been grown in human fetal diploid cells. There is no need to obtain additional cells from aborted fetuses to sustain the supply of attenuated rubella viruses used to manufacture additional batches of rubella vaccine for the future.

Update from the Canadian Coalition for Immunization Awareness and Promotion (CCIAP).  A PDF format version of the following information:  Download Fact4_fetalcells_e

Do vaccines contain cells from aborted fetuses?

No. Vaccines do not contain human cells or tissue. During purification of the vaccine all cells are removed. Human cell lines are used in the early stages of production of some vaccines* because viruses need a living cell to grow. The virus for the vaccine is grown in a human cell line, then killed or damaged so it cannot cause disease. This cell line comes from legal abortions in the early 1960s and continues today from the original source. The abortions were not conducted for the purpose of vaccine discovery or vaccine production. No new fetal tissue is required in the ongoing production of vaccines because cell lines can reproduce themselves in culture and can be used for a very long time.

*MMR, varicella, hepatitis A, Rabies, Quadracel and TdP

Vatican documents confirm that "In the absence of effective alternatives, individuals may use the morally tainted vaccines", and assert that it is necessary to "provide for the good of one's children", including the prevention of disease where possible.

References:

Your Child’s Best Shot p 325

Catholic News Service

Moral reflections on vaccines prepared from cells derived from aborted human foetuses, Pontifical Academy for Life 2005

Two different strains of human diploid cell cultures made from fetuses have been used extensively for vaccine production for decades. One was developed in the United States in 1961 (called WI-38) and the other in the United Kingdom in 1966 (called MRC-5).

WI-38 came from lung cells from a female fetus of 3-months gestation and MRC-5 was developed from lung cells from a 14-week-old male fetus. Both fetuses were intentionally aborted, but neither was aborted for the purpose of obtaining diploid cells. The fetal tissues that eventually became WI-38 and the MRC-5 cell cultures were removed from fetuses that were dead. The cellular biologists who made the cell cultures did not induce the abortions.

The virus that led to the only rubella vaccine available in the United States and that is widely used overseas (Meruvax II, Merck) came from tissues obtained at the time of an abortion performed on a rubella virus-infected mother.  The abortion was not conducted in order to isolate the virus, but rather because the mother and the fetus were infected with wild rubella virus that posed a risk of major birth defects.

Since that wild strain of rubella virus (known as RA27/3) was isolated, it has been grown in human fetal diploid cells. There is no need to obtain additional cells from aborted fetuses to sustain the supply of attenuated rubella viruses used to manufacture additional batches of rubella vaccine for the future.

Happy Thanksgiving, Thermite Style & Traditional Style

I wish you and yours all abundance and health.

Thermite Style, in memory of the Tank Historian and Scholar

A Thermite Thanksgiving - Watch more Funny Videos

Traditional Style

Circle of..something. Family? Life?

When I married Jacques Littlefield in 1985, he had a housekeeper, Sue,  who had a daughter who was then about 24 months. Let's call the daughter SallySue.

When my daughter JumperGirl was born, three years later, it was like SallySue had the best dolly ever.  

A bit later, when Jumper Girl could talk, they would play these long games about princesses.  Who could shoot guns.  And take prisoners.  It was SallySue who convinced Jumper Girl that diapers were so last year.

Right now, SallySue is working late.  Jumper Girl is taking care of SallySue's son, who is almost three.  At the moment, they are playing dinosaurs.

Raaarrrrh.  I am happy.

PS: when a small boy is getting worried about monsters or his mama not being there, a small hand pump sprayer filled with water & a few drops of rosemary oil makes an excellent worry-repeller.

Back in the Good Old Days, Children Worked.

From Shorpy Historic Photo Archive

October 1911. Lowell, Massachusetts. "Robert Magee (smallest), 270 Suffolk Street, apparently 12 years, been working in Mule Room #1, Merrimac Mill, one year. Michael Keefe (next in size), 32 Marion Street, been at work in #1 Mule Room for eight months; apparently 13 years old. Cornelius Hurley, 298 Adams Street, been at work in #1 Mule Room for six months; about 13 or 14 probably." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine

My greatgrandfather, James Franklin Goodwin, had very little formal schooling.