A call to arms
Hello Reader,
Apologies for my extended absence, but things have been busy at the actual paying job. I have been brought out of hibernation because of the announcement by the “National Vaccine Information Center” (NVIC) regarding their anti-vaccine billboard campaign. According to their press release, NVIC has launched a program to place billboards in Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, Washington and Texas in March and April, for the purpose of promoting their ill-informed anti-vaccine message.
These superficially innocuous billboards feature a picture of a Mom with an incredibly cute infant, but the horror of the campaign is the link directing the innocent billboard peruser to NVIC’s abysmally misleading and one-sided website. They claim that the campaign is designed “to encourage citizens to become informed vaccine decision-makers”. If this were true, then surely NVIC would include the websites of the CDC or Every Child By Two on their adorably horrifying billboard, would they not?
Folks, it is time for a call to arms. Recently, vocal opposition to misleading vaccination information successfully quashed the efforts of the Australian Vaccination Network to place an anti-vaccination video on American Airlines. Sadly, a similar effort to prevent dissemination of dangerous information on Delta Airlines by NVIC failed, despite opposition from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics. Now is our chance to again fight against the propagation of information that is dangerous to children and to public health.
If you know of the corporation that accepted money from NVIC for these billboards in any of the states listed, please write them a letter and tell them how you feel about the promotion of such egregiously incorrect information. I have received information that the company in question for at least two of the states is Clear Channel Communications. This is a company which claims on the philanthropy section of its website the following:
Clear Channel Communities™ works with an array of health-related organizations to bring attention to key health issues while promoting the importance of living an active and safe lifestyle. By addressing specific issues afflicting the US population we hope to improve the overall physical, mental and social well-being of our listeners, and those in the communities in which they live.
Accepting money from an organization that represents the precise opposite of this noble philanthropy seems a bit shady, no? You may contact Clear Channel here if you so desire.
Thanks for stopping by reader, I have missed you!
Edited to add: Todd W. at Harpocrates Speaks came in with this brilliant post on this subject about an hour before I did. You should definitely check it out!
What is interesting is that in my state they decided to place the billboard in the capital, and not in any of the largest cities. Three of which have pediatric hospitals (yeah, I know, weird for a “small” western state, but it happens).
Though this state already passed a law that requires a personal exemption from vaccines to be signed by a medical care provider proving the risks have been explained. Unfortunately it allows signatures from naturopaths (ND, also known as Not a Doctor). Aargh.
Also, please fix the “recent comments” widget. It is difficult to tell if you have had a recent comment from someone who protests against nurses getting vaccines, or some parent who thinks their eighteen year old will get autism because the university requires a measles and/or meningitis vaccine to live in the dorms.
Hi Chris, thanks for stopping by as always. I have given a little thought to why they chose the target states…and so far I’ve come up with nothing. I’m working on the widget but I have had no joy yet, apologies for the annoyance!
Thanks, SkewedD! You raise a good point about how the billboards compare with Clear Channel’s mission with regard to safe and healthy living. On the very surface, one might think that there’s no conflict. But when you add in all the context left out by NVIC, the two are greatly at odds.
Agree; thanks for stopping by, Todd and thanks for your excellent post!
This is a purposely naive question: If this organization’s mission is about personal empowerment and decision-making, then why do they need to advertise? Why should they care what the rest of us are doing as long as they can make their own “choice”? It can only be that they actually want to abolish vaccines for all. If there’s another conclusion to be reached, please let me know.
Meanwhile, I’ll write to Clear Channel. I live in New York, though, so–for now–it doesn’t seem as if I’ll be seeing billboards.
Hi Beth,
Thanks for stopping by and for your thoughts. On the personal empowerment theme, it is even more curious that they do not want their followers to really learn about vaccines. If they did, their website would not be littered with blatant misinformation.
Thanks for writing to Clear Channel as well. They need to know about this.
Instead of criticizing NVIC, can somebody post the total number of “suspected measles cases” in the US for the year 2011 and this year to date. The reason I asked is because the CDC is not telling the truth.
Hence, I do agree with the NVIC for disseminating information regarding vaccine risks and failures.
Thank you.
Hi Th. Why don’t you go ahead and tell us how the “CDC is not telling truth” about measles cases. Please provide links to reputable data sources.
Then again, if you support NVIC and are willing to accept lies and misinformation as the truth, I may in fact never want to hear from you again. I don’t have much time for willful stupidity.
Beware of Thingy. She lives in her own little world, much like Htrae (also known as Bizarro World). An example: “Why should I let the child walk on the dirt when there is a dry concrete pavement next to it? A toddler would readily know which is the safe path to take even without the knowledge of C. tetani,”
Awesome.
[reposted to avoid being skewed]
Great. The CDC claims that there are “thousands of patients with suspected measles” in the US, as evidenced by this.
h_ttp://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv-manual/chpt07-measles.html
But when I check the official WHO report on the total suspected measles cases in the US, this is what I have found.
h_ttp://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/diseases/measlesreportedcasesbycountry.pdf
What gives?
Okay, I get it. You have reading comprehension issues. As you point out, the CDC has not reported “thousands of patients with suspected measles” in their data. In fact, they are emphasizing the need to get the correct diagnosis.
I think you are the one with the obvious reading comprehension issues. “Correcting the diagnosis” either by lab or clinical confirmation does NOT affect the incidence of suspected measles cases. It’s only the US and Canada which have confirmed measles cases without even suspecting a single case. Kazakhstan is laughing at you.
I comprehend that you are a conspiracy theorist who takes words out of context to “prove” your point. That’s about all I need to know about you, silly goose.
Actually, she really does not have reading comprehension problems, she has issues with reality.
Oh, and here is a report on measles in the USA in 2011:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6115a1.htm
There were 222 cases.
Chris, I did not ask for the number of confirmed measles cases but rather the TOTAL NUMBER OF SUSPECTED MEASLES CASES as claimed by the CDC to be in the thousands.
No ad homs.
The point, my dear, is that CDC is not formally reporting suspected measles cases in the thousands.
Well, you call yourself an epidemiologist so why don’t you investigate?
Bwahahahaha! If you only knew.
Wow I really hate to see your blog go down like SBM, RI, SOP, Justthevax, The Poxes among others which have transformed into bullying communities, if not a TMZ-like discussion forum.
Todd W must be feeling very lucky he had to disable the anonymous profile in his comment section.
Sigh. I <3 all of those blogs and would love to be placed in the same category. Sadly, as I have just the one reader, this is unlikely to happen.
Oh, Skewed! Lucky you, to cop a visit from Thingy! Don’t bother to respond..nothing you say will sink in.
Thingy: trying to get banned from yet another blog? What’s the matter, running out of places? I have to say, I’m really impressed that you were banned from MDC…
Oh, and you have more than one reader. I may not comment often, but I do check in regularly.
Thanks for stopping by and for the heads-up, Dawn! I am already seeing the problem with this entity known as Thingy. I have only banned one poster here–an AIDS denier– but Thingy may take a run at it if this keeps up.
Th1Th2 has already been banned from several science blogs, for her insults directed at parents of developmentally disabled children…and her referring to these children as “vaccine-damaged” and that awful “R” word. She is a pathological liar and claims she worked as a registered nurse in a hospital. When I asked her about how she would prevent transmission of measles in a hospital emergency room, the pathological liar, deranged health-care-professional-wannabe stated she didn’t need to close off the examining room for two hours where a suspect case of measles was examined…she would order “terminal disinfection”.
Thingy has also been banned from mothering.com and AoA, where *anything* anyone posts, no matter how lacking in basic science/plausibility…is allowed through “moderation”.
She’s just a germ phobic, disease-promoting, health-care-professional-wannabe troll, who now resorts to using different IP addresses and sock puppets. She’s in desperate need of “terminal disinfection”.
We did have some success foiling Barbara Loe Fisher and her NVIC ad funded by Dr. Joe Mercola, on Delta Airlines. I was able to reach the VP-Occupational Health at Delta, (a registered nurse, BTW), who stated that Delta Airlines would review promotional PSA films that are placed on their in-flight video programs and ran a PSA produced by “Every Child By Two”, right after Delta Airlines received multiple complaints from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the on-line petition signed by thousands of people.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/11/03/vaccine-injury-awareness-week-joe-mercol/
Needless to say, Babs was not too happy….
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/11/16/barbara-loe-fisher-cries-intimidation/
Thanks for your informative post lilady, and great job with the efforts against NVIC on Delta.
Well, how about if it’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth, will it still sound awful?
–VACCINATED, by Paul A Offit, MD page 47
–VACCINATED, by Paul A Offit, MD pages 24-25
So how many did you count lilady?
You’ve just been booted off another science blog, Thingy. Time for you to slither back to sewer.
Thingy tends to not read what’s written very well. It’s a chronic comprehension problem with her.
“For these reasons, it is crucial to use laboratory diagnosis to confirm the few actual measles cases among the thousands of patients with suspected measles.”
This is normal. I present to my MD with a rash and fever. He/she suspects measles. I get tested, it’s negative. So the diagnosis is something else.
Since it’s not measles, it isn’t reported.
“US: Total
suspected
measles cases
[left blank]”
Since there is no official diagnosis of ‘suspected measles’ (since we test for it), numbers aren’t reported to WHO. There is no ICD for ‘suspected measles’.
Seriously, that’s a pathetic attempt at attention whoring, even for you.
Why would your MD primarily suspect measles in the first place? Regardless of the final diagnosis, however, suspected measles cases should be documented and reported to WHO, as a distinct case from lab/clinical cases.
Well, duh, a suspected measles case, by definition is a non-clinically or laboratory confirmed case. BTW, you may want to re-check the WHO reports on measles incidence I presented earlier and look under “Total suspected measles cases” for each country.
“Why would your MD suspect measles in the first place?”
Perhaps they’re aware of my travel abroad; perhaps they’re aware of an outbreak locally; perhaps they’re aware that I’m showing some of the classic signs of measles?
There is no legal requirement to report ‘suspected measles’ to the WHO for any MD in the US. There is no legal requirement to report ‘suspected measles’ cases to the CDC.
If another country reports ‘suspected measles cases’ – that’s part of their healthcare system(s) reporting. It doesn’t mean that MD’s in the US are under the same requirements or guidelines.
I couldn’t agree more.
Except that the WHO requires its members to report every incidence of suspected measles case. This is also the same reporting used in AFP surveillance i.e. non-polio AFP. Now here in the US, the CDC explicitly recommends to not report any incidence of suspected measles cases even though serologic evidence would confirm the inevitable measles infection. Do you know why?
In fact the CDC has deviated from the established WHO guidelines in the diagnosis of measles let alone the basic classification of a suspected measles case.
Here is the bottom line. You are ridiculously, and to no productive end that I can discern, making a huge deal out of nothing. The CDC is not doing a press release announcing “thousands” of suspected measles cases. You are utterly failing to understand the point of the CDC text that you are cutting and pasting. And frankly, that is no one’s problem but yours. Willful denial of what has been explained to you several times does not make you appear smarter.
Now, I do like to give anti-vaxxers a chance, and normally I would not base my view of a new commenter here on what happened at other blogs. But for two reasons I will make an exception for you. The first is reading what has been brought to my attention by other posters here. The second is that I respect Chris, Darwy, and Lilady beyond any doubt; hence I trust their word. Therefore, you are walking a very fine line here. One more attack of a commenter and you will be banned, period.
“Mental Retardation” (mild, moderate, severe, profound), is used for diagnostic purposes in the clinical area using the DSM IV diagnostic codes…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes#Mental_Retardation
Before the vile nasty ignorant Troll was banned from every science blog she has ever posted on, she used to use the “R” word when posting back at parents who have children who are developmentally disabled, and label their children as “vaccine-damaged”.
This is just one example of the Troll’s thread-derailing vicious vile posts (starting at # 72) on Respectful Insolence. Scroll on down to the Troll’s post at Todd W. (# 182), where she again confuses isolation/containment of an ER examination room with “terminal disinfection”.
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/07/11/joe-mercola-plays-the-religion-card-agai/
Welp, in this case I will be keeping a close eye on Thingy. I won’t tolerate that nonsense, as she knows by my blocking of several of her ad hominem attacks.
The WHO guidelines regarding suspected measles cases are for those countries where measles is still endemic.
http://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/diseases/measles_surveillance/en/index.html
“The global Measles Mortality and Regional Elimination Strategic Plan 2001-2005 (WHO/V&B/01.13) seeks to reduce the number of measles deaths by half by 2005 (compared with 1999 estimates) and to achieve and maintain interruption of indegenous [sic] measles transmission in large geographical areas with established elimination goals”
Measles is NOT endemic to the US; ergo this guideline does not apply.
That is purely an assertion. The last time I checked the US is still vaccinating children for measles.
You may want to check Australia’s total suspected measles case in 2012.
LOL. Trying to move the goalpost already?
“Recommended types of surveillance”
Low-incidence or elimination phase
Case-based surveillance should be conducted and every case should be reported and investigated immediately (and also included in the weekly reporting system). Laboratory specimens should be collected from every sporadic suspect case. Suspected measles outbreaks should be confirmed by conducting serology on the first 5-10 cases only. Urine, nasopharyngeal or lymphocyte specimens (for virus detection and genetic characterization) should be collected from sporadic/outbreak cases (approximately 10 cases from each chain of transmission) to characterize viral circulation and importation patterns
Recommended != Required.
If it isn’t the measles, they’re not going to report it. Saying, “suspected measles” isn’t a clinical diagnosis.
Confused much?
When did I say that a suspected measles case is a clinical diagnosis? You’re comprehension difficulties are so amusing.
You may also add Finland, ROK, Cuba, Mexico, England/Wales, and Brazil to the list of countries which report suspected measles cases. It’s only the US and Canada that do NOT report such cases intentionally.
What in Sam Hill is your point? You say the CDC is lying because you appear to dislike the count of “suspected measles cases”. Yet you also seem to be chagrined that the US doesn’t report suspected measles cases.
Illogical much?
For countries not experiencing an outbreak or which do not have endemic measles, reporting suspected measles is pointless.
In 2012, England/Wales (1685), Brazil (6044) and Cuba (1249) have had a large number of CONFIRMED measles cases. Finland had a marked increase as well – and given its proximity to Russia (with 1950 cases), I’m not surprised.
For Mexico (4379) and Cuba (1249) – again, they’re in the middle of an outbreak – all potential measles cases must be identified. Identified != reported to WHO. They identify them so they can follow the transmission.
The US had what, 54 cases in 2012? We’re not in an outbreak.
You and Chris should stay together. It’s a shame that you fell into the same trap of confusing a suspected measles case from a confirmed case. You are baking up the wrong tree.
But that’s just it, Thingy.
I have 15 cases of suspected measles. I take samples for analysis from all 15 persons.
10 were negative, 5 were positive.
I now have 0 cases of suspected measles. I have 5 confirmed cases of measles.
There’s no trap, only your ignorance.
Because all ‘suspected’ measles are sampled and confirmed. There’s no grey area there.
Goodbye, Thingy! I warned you about ad hom attacks and you simply cannot stop yourself. I have neither the time nor patience for ignorant stubborness.
“Rational Antivax” is one of Thingy’s many sock puppets.
Ta-ta Thingy.
Thanks, banned that one too.
Now that the insufferable ignorant, disease promoting, germ phobic health-care-professonal-wannabe troll has been banned from posting her inanities…I would like to link to this paper about the experimentation on developmentally disabled children who were admitted on to a special ward for the sole purpose of using them as guinea pigs….after the overcrowded Willowbrook facility was closed to new admissions. These newer wards promised enriched staffing ratios and active treatment if the parents/guardians would agree to sign consent agreements to have their children experimented on by Doctor Saul Krugman the lead investigator in developing a vaccine to protect those (deliberately) exposed to the virus. Sadly, desperate parents did sign those consent forms.
Read here, why children used in this fashion cannot give informed consent that would never pass IRBs, today:
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih9/bioethics/guide/pdf/Master_5-4.pdf
I had already read the extensively researched and thorough book written by Sheila and David Rothman, “The Willowbrook Wars” and had the pleasure of meeting David Rothman at a New York State hearing, where the State tried to defy the Suffolk Class Action “Federal Court Consent Degree” to deinstitutionalize that large institution by tearing down the bricks and mortar of the units located on the Suffolk “campus” to develop community-based homes in established residential neighborhoods, (“Right at home, right in the neighborhood”)…by building newer buildings with smaller bricks and new mortar…thus violating the spirit of the Consent Degree.
I published a bunch of articles about the conditions I found in the existing human warehouses located on the Suffolk Developmental Cnter “Campus”, where children and adults received no active treatment, where the smells were overpowering and fetid and the “inmates” needs were not met.
I also spoke out about Dr. Krugman’s use of these children and adults. Krugman, in later years was rehabilitated in the eyes of some…not in my eyes. What I witnessed, in State-run human warehouses throughout NYS, will stay with me…forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Krugman
This is tremendously interesting, lilady! I need to read the link more carefully when I get a few minutes. Thanks for posting it here.
Dr. Jay has returned to the Ho-Po after several years’ hiatus. He’s pimping his new book and has commented on the new 1 in 50 autism prevalence report. All the usual suspects from the anti-vaccine blogs are posting there. I’ve posted a bunch of comments (still in moderation) at the Ho-Po. Come and join me there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-gordon/cdc-one-of-every-fifty-ch_b_2921256.html
I am from a state where this billboard can be found in its capitol Olympia. But just yesterday I saw another billboard from Clear Channel advertising to parents to make sure car seats are properly installed and latched. I believe a Disney princess is also on the billboard along with a very cute toddler in her car seat. Can’t believe they would think to put up a billboard that says “car seats: know the risks and failures”.
Good point…did you send them an email?
Yes I did send them an email when this billboard was first pictured- odd that my original email made that very car seat analogy and what do you know I look up one day and see a billboard advertising the benefits of car seats. I might try to take another picture of it and ask if they plan on putting something up that says “but know the risks and failures!”
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Sorry to be so MIA, but real life has been a doozy.
Glad I could finally come check out another terrific article.
Keep up the great work, Skewed!