Free Republic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-AUGUST 27,2014 STATEMENT OF WILLIAM W. THOMPSON, Ph.D., REGARDING THE 2004 ARTICLE EXAMINING THE POSSIBILITY OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where I have worked since 1998. I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul is standing by his statement that most vaccinations should be "voluntary," telling CNBC that a parent's choice not to vaccinate a child is "an issue of freedom." In an interview with the network Monday, Paul said that vaccines are "a good thing" but that parents "should have some input" into whether or not their children must get them. And he gave credence to the idea - disputed by the majority of the scientific community - that vaccination can lead to mental disabilities. "I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound...

California's measles outbreak has climbed to 91 confirmed cases, prompting a vicious attack from USA Today contributor Alex Berezow against "anti-vaxxers." He blames them for the epidemic that CDC officials say was introduced at the Disneyland theme park by a person infected with measles overseas. Berezow's knee-jerk reaction is to declare, "Parents who do not vaccinate their children should go to jail." He erroneously maintains that measles could not spread in a fully vaccinated society and discredits as "ludicrous" concerns regarding the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Claiming there is a "mountain of data" proving otherwise, his one and only...

AS THOMAS PEEBLES jabbed a needle into the arm of a sick student in 1954, he told him, “Young man, you are standing on the frontiers of science.” Indeed he was. Using blood collected at the boy’s school, Peebles was able to isolate the measles virus, which John Enders then used to craft a vaccine in 1963. That year there were around 400,000 cases of measles in America. In the decade to 2013 the average number of annual cases dropped below 100. The disease is no longer endemic in America (though it still kills thousands abroad). The measles vaccine, now...

The measles outbreak continues to spread in California and beyond, with a case confirmed Wednesday in Fresno County. Fresno health officials say the man visited the area recently and may have had contact with county residents in public locations, including an area medical center and its maternity ward, potentially exposing babies to the extremely contagious disease.

Miami (AFP) - This US winter season's flu vaccine has been just 23 percent effective at preventing doctor visits for people of all ages, according to health authorities' early estimates out Thursday....The flu vaccine is generally most effective in young, healthy people under 65.This season, vaccine effectiveness has been highest -- 26 percent -- in those aged six months through 17 years.Vaccine effectiveness wa s just 12 percent for ages 18 to 49 years and 14 percent for people age 50 years and older, the CDC said.

EXCLUSIVE: Doctors 'used nine-year-olds as human guinea pigs' for a new cervical cancer vaccine... and they suffered side-effects including nausea, dizziness and weight-loss Children as young as nine suffered side-effects after being used as unwitting human guinea pigs for a new multi-billion pound anti-cervical cancer drug, it has been claimed. The new anti-cancer drug has just been approved for use in the United States and is due to be released in Britain this year. But MailOnline has learned that several of the children used as 'guinea pigs' for the drug trial in India reported suffering problems including weight loss, fatigue,...

New York City preschoolers will be heading back to class next week with memories of new holiday toys, vacation adventures, and, health officials hope, a flu shot.In fact, because of a new city requirement, young children can, for the first time in the city’s history, be excluded from class if they have not received a flu vaccination.The new rule, which applies to some 150,000 children in city-licensed day care centers and preschools, was quietly adopted by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the waning days of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration. 

A case of red measles, also known as Rubeola, was diagnosed earlier this week in Moorseville, North Carolina -- worrying health officials and highlighting the renewed threat of measles in this country. The infected person was unvaccinated and had recently returned from a trip to India confirmed Rebecca Carter, the public information officer for Mecklenburg county. Carter said she could not release any additional details such as the age or sex of the person due to patient confidentiality. Dr. William Schaffner said this case is no trivial matter, warning that measles is highly contagious, spreading easily through coughing and sneezing....

Callie Van Tornhout was about a month old when her mother noticed that she'd developed a dry cough on a Sunday afternoon in January. Soon the cough worsened, and Callie became pale and started throwing up, Callie's mother, Katie Van Tornhout told ABC News. By the middle of the week, Callie stopped breathing in her mother's arms in a pediatrician's waiting room and was rushed to the hospital. On Saturday, less than a week after the cough first appeared, Callie died at 37 days old on Jan. 30, 2010. It wasn't until a few weeks later that tests confirmed the...

The World Health Organization (WHO) set out plans on Friday for speeding up development and deployment of experimental Ebola vaccines, saying hundreds of thousands of doses should be ready for use in West Africa by the middle of 2015. The Geneva-based United Nations health agency confirmed that two leading vaccine candidates are already in human clinical trials, and said another five experimental vaccines were also being developed and would begin clinical trials next year.

The inescapable conclusions of negligence or corruption or both cannot be simply swept aside for the sake of political correctness There have been many questions regarding the Ebola outbreak and the attempt to have it contained around the world. In light of an article by the WSJ, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals has been placed on the fast track to increase production of their experimental drugs and to expedite clinical trials on infected patients. But, what is the connection between the U.S. government and Tekmira Pharmaceuticals?

Billionaire businessman Ron Perelman's five-year marriage to actress Ellen Barkin is over — and the legendary corporate raider is getting out of the match just in time to save himself a huge bundle of money, sources said yesterday. The Revlon boss — who gained infamy in the late 1990s during a bitter custody battle with third wife Patricia Duff — served his latest spouse with divorce papers at their post Upper East Side mansion yesterday, a source familiar with the couple said. Under the pair's prenup, the bald buyout baron is set to pay the sultry "Sea of Love" actress...

I’ve written previously (here and here) about the possible connection between autism and vaccines made with aborted fetal cells. Now, the September issue of the prestigious Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology has published a study conducted by scientists at Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute that shows an spike in autism in country after country where vaccines using fetal cells from aborted babies have been introduced. The implicated vaccines are MMR (measles/mumps/rubella), Varicella (chickenpox), and Hepatitis A. Using data from the U.S. government, United Kingdom, Denmark, and Western Australia, researchers found a spike in autism around the world after vaccines using...

WATCHUNG, N.J., April 16, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- In an April 8 interview on AutismOne's A Conversation of Hope radio show, Congressman Bill Posey's strong resolve and demands for transparency were evident as he discussed the Center for Disease Control (CDC)'s handling of vaccine safety studies which affect "our most precious resource in our nation – our children." The 30-minute interview, conducted by vaccine industry watchdog, PhD biochemist Brian Hooker, delves into what Posey called "the incestuous relationship between the public health community and the vaccine makers and public officials." The Florida legislator, known as "Mr. Accountabililty," did not mince words...

One in 68 children has autism, a 30 percent rise over the last estimate released in 2012, US health authorities said Thursday. The latest US data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the "proportion of children with autism and higher IQ (is) on the rise," said a CDC statement. Previously, as many as one in 88 US children were known to have autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a developmental disorder that recent research suggests may originate in the womb. "This new estimate is roughly 30 percent higher than previous estimates reported in 2012 of 1 in...

Of all the things to be nostalgic for, infectious diseases probably don’t make it onto many lists. However, if you happen to pine for the good old days when measles was an active public health threat, I have good news for you. The anti-vaccine crowd is bringing it back. There is currently an outbreak of measles in New York City. Considered eliminated in the United States in 2000, last year saw a record number of outbreaks around the country. It’s only three months into 2014, and not only is the nation’s largest city seeing cases in several boroughs, but other...

Microsoft is an insanely profitable company standing on the edge of disaster. It desperately needs new thinking. With word that 22-year Microsoft veteran Satya Nadella is likely the new CEO, attention turns to the leadership of the company's board of directors. It will have two former CEOs, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. So new thinking is unlikely to come from them. In fact, Gates has a track record of huge strategic errors that have cost the company years of progress in market share. Here's why he should be the one to go: 1. Gates' world was: Go slow. Microsoft needs...

Al Gore pops his head up at Davos…say, how’d he get there? A fossil fueled flight?…to make a racist pronouncement (via Climate Depot). Stopping overpopulation is one way the dangers of climate change can be mitigated, according to two of the most prominent believers in global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore and Microsoft founder Bill Gates (how did Gates get to Davos? Anyone think he flew commercial?) said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that contraception is a key in controlling the proliferation of unusual weather they say is endangering the world. “Depressing the rate of child mortality,...

Former Vice President Al Gore raised eyebrows last week when he suggested that “fertility management” was the key to fighting global warming and promoting economic development in poor countries. Gore’s comments drew criticism from free-marketeers who said his remarks amount to “eco-imperialism.” “Gore’s agenda for saving the world from global warming has always included population control,” Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Advocating population control specifically for Africa is just another form of imperialism. Gore’s eco-imperialism is uncomfortably close to the original racist goals...