I'm just one of the devil's many humble servants.-Offit

[Guest guest]

Funny. Cough.

Do they need the needle?

By Greene, Times Staff Writer

Published Friday, November 21, 2008 4:27 PM

----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------

One is a former Playboy Playmate of the Year. The other was once

voted one of People magazine's most beautiful people. They had a spat

this fall. Actor Peet used the word " parasites " to describe

people aligned with Playmate McCarthy. " She has a lot of

nerve, " McCarthy huffed in response. This would be a bit of celebrity

fluff, except that Peet was criticizing parents who don't vaccinate

their children. McCarthy took up for them because she's the most

visible person who claims childhood vaccines cause autism. As famous

as they are, Peet and McCarthy are merely two combatants in a

national controversy. The nation's most trusted scientific

organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have said there's

no link between childhood vaccines and autism.Most parents believe

them. More than 77 percent of children are completely vaccinated.But

the number of autism cases keeps growing, and nobody can explain why.

Some people believe vaccines must be to blame. The Internet teems

with frightening stories about the harm they supposedly do, and

McCarthy's latest book is a bestseller. Parents are peppering doctors

with questions about vaccines, and some are opting out completely.

Even a small dropoff in vaccinations can have a big effect. Earlier

this year, a rare outbreak of measles was attributed partly to

parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.This is no longer

principally a debate about science. The real question is whether

Americans still believe in science — or at least, in the nation's

scientists.Inside a small ranch house in Tampa's Town 'N Country

neighborhood, 9-year-old Nikki Mc pulled at the penny-sized raw

patch on her nose. Her mother — always alert to Nikki's attempts to

hurt herself — straddled the child on the family room floor, keeping

her hands from the scab. Nikki wailed. " Are you going to be a good

girl? " Janet Mc asked.Eventually, Nikki relaxed. She has worse

moments — sometimes she bangs her head on the floor — but for her

mother, every day is a trial.Eight years ago, two of Janet's

triplets, Nikki and Dougie, were diagnosed with autism, a dis­order

marked by difficulties communicating and interacting. She blames

vaccines. After their 15-month shots, she said, the children began to

change.She doesn't know how vaccines hurt them, and she is not sure

why the third triplet, , wasn't affected. But she is so certain

vaccines are harmful that she warns neighbors and friends not to

vaccinate. " I could just kill somebody who did this to my kids, " she

said, her voice breaking.Caring for the triplets takes all her time

and energy. Her husband died suddenly three years ago, leaving her

struggling emotionally and financially. She may not be able to hang

on to the house.Nikki stood nearby as her mother talked about her

troubles, but didn't seem to notice her mother was upset. Dougie can

say a few words. Nikki can't. " How could they take a beautiful child

and make her like nobody's home? " • • •The debate about vaccines and

autism exploded 10 years ago. A British study of a dozen children

found that children with autism also had inflamed intestines. The

measles vaccine was believed to have caused the inflammation.The lead

researcher, Wakefield, theorized that after these children

received the MMR (for measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, the measles

virus in the vaccine traveled to their intestines, infecting and

damaging them. An unknown protein then was able to travel from there

to the brain, causing autism. Wakefield suggested separating MMR into

three vaccines.After the study came out, rates for MMR vaccination

plunged nearly 15 percent in some parts of Great Britain. In the

United States, fearful parents formed advocacy groups, and the

controversy captured headlines and research dollars. A U.S.

representative whose grandson had autism held a congressional hearing

on the potential link.Since then, the study has been harshly

criticized. Most of the researchers involved have retracted their

results. In September, researchers who conducted a similar study said

they found no link between measles virus and autism.The antivaccine

forces also suggested that thimerosal, a kind of mercury used as a

preservative in vaccines, could be to blame. Mercury is toxic to the

brain, but poison experts say symptoms don't mirror autism, and no

studies linked thimerosal to autism.Still, by 2001, makers of

vaccines removed thimerosal from most vaccines — except for the flu

vaccine — as a precaution. Autism rates continue to climb.Researchers

say part of the rise comes from increased awareness and diagnosis of

autism. But research also is looking at a genetic link — when one

twin is autistic, the other is more likely to be — and at possible

environmental causes.In 2004, an expert panel convened by the

Institute of Medicine issued what was meant to be the final word. The

group said enough study had been done to reject any link to autism

for either MMR or thimerosal.What's more, the group said, money would

be better spent researching other possible causes.End of story?

Hardly.Oregon financier J.B. Handley is a leading critic of vaccines.

Handley, 39, and his wife founded Generation Rescue after their son,

now 6, was diagnosed with autism. McCarthy is the group's most

public face.Most pediatricians, Handley said, " are in denial and not

wanting to believe " the dangers of vaccines. He speaks harshly of

vaccine companies and vaccine scientists. He mentioned one scientist

at the CDC who " should go to jail " for covering up the truth.Handley

is not a scientist and acknowledges he is not sure how vaccines lead

to autism. Maybe it's the thimerosal that remains in flu vaccines. " I

have no doubt that injecting a potent neurotoxin into babies is a

really, really bad idea, " Handley said of thimerosal. " Do I think

it's the only thing (that's unsafe)? I have no idea. " • • •The alarm

that Handley and others is sounding reverberates around the

country.On a recent morning, Tampa pediatrician Marcy Baker spent 15

minutes with a worried mother, explaining why a flu shot would

protect her child. Baker thought she had won her over, only to learn

the mother changed her mind and refused the shot.Baker and her

partners posted a letter to parents, trying to dispel fears, which

they hear more and more often. When Baker talks to reluctant parents,

she speaks of children she has seen hospitalized with whooping cough,

meningitis and rotavirus. " I do feel my patients trust me, " Baker

said. " But sometimes they think that I'm duped by 'the man.' That the

government and the vaccine companies, they're all in on this big

conspiracy. " Some doubting parents make their way to Tampa

pediatrician Berger. He believes vaccines may be linked not

only to autism, but to asthma, allergies and other problems of the

immune system.About a third of his parents don't vaccinate, Berger

said, and most of the others delay their babies' shots. " If parents

educate themselves, and they feel it's not in the best interest of

their child, then who are we to tell them otherwise? " he asked.Berger

knows most doctors disagree. He also says his patients are less

likely to be exposed to childhood diseases because the parents tend

to breast-feed, and since they're more affluent, they keep their

babies at home and out of day care for the first year.But he thinks

most government scientists aren't really listening to legitimate

questions. " There's a big incentive at the government and industry

level to not let this get out, " he said.• • •Some in the antivaccine

movement call Dr. Offit the Antichrist. He laughs at the

name. " I'm just one of the devil's many humble servants. " The joke

might seem strange from a career pediatrician who helped develop a

vaccine that health officials say could save 2,000 lives a day

worldwide.But Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's

Hospital of Philadelphia, lives on the front lines of the vaccine

debate. Director of the hospital's Vaccine Education Center, he has

written two books on vaccines and pulls no punches. He has gotten

death threats.Critics target Offit not only for his outspokenness,

but also because he's making money from a vaccine he helped develop

to prevent rotavirus, a disease that causes potentially fatal

vomiting and diarrhea. " I see myself as a champion of children.

That's why I went into pediatrics, " Offit said.He knows parents

dislike seeing children get painful shots. " What really upsets people

is that their child is pinned down and injected with a biological

agent that they don't really understand, " Offit said. " But in many

ways, they're safer than vitamins. " So he sees why stories on the

dangers of vaccines resonate with parents. " It's very easy to scare

people, " Offit said. " It's very hard to un­scare them. " • • •The

nation's largest medical agencies point out that vaccines have saved

countless lives from diseases such as polio, diphtheria and

meningitis. But even vaccine advocates acknowledge they don't say

this loudly enough. " I think they've been doing a terrible job

informing parents, " said Amy Pisani, executive director of the group

Every Child By Two. " We want to say, 'Hey, listen to the CDC,' but we

don't hear them, ever.''When experts do speak up, their words lack

the same punch for many parents as the emotional stories about

families' valiant struggles against autism.And then there's the

media.Both sides of the debate say reporters cover the issue poorly.

Doctors say reporters focus too much on a relative few critics and

too little on the weight of the science. Those who question vaccines

say reporters don't look at flaws in such studies. Schwitzer

directs the master's in health journalism program at the University

of Minnesota. He said that journalists' delight in controversy and

focus on objectivity have distorted the science. " We helped create

that (controversy) with this sort of tennis-match approach to

covering conflicts in science, " Schwitzer said. Stories often give

equal weight to provaccine and antivaccine views. " This equally

weighted back and forth ... usually that's not the way it is in

science, but that's the way the story is told. " • • •Autism Speaks,

the international advocacy group, walks a fine line in the debate.

Its constituency includes people who think vaccines are dangerous and

others who say the controversy distracts from important research.The

group supports research on whether environmental factors — including

vaccines — might make children with some type of genetic

vulnerability autistic. " Clearly the risk associated with getting

diseases of childhood, such as measles, are very serious, " chief

science officer Geraldine Dawson said. " For the vast majority of

children, (vaccines) are clearly safe. Our recommendation is to

continue to have confidence in the vaccine program while trying to

understand if there are a small minority of children who might have a

problem in certain situations. " Even Handley and some others say they

don't want parents to stop vaccinating. " I am not antivaccine, " said

Vicky Debold, director of patient safety at the National Vaccine

Information Center, a group concerned about vaccines. " If everybody

in this country stopped vaccinating, we would be in a world of

pain. " She opposes a " one-size-fits-all cookbook approach " and wants

more studies. She thinks that parents should consider vaccine safety

more carefully, and that they should talk to their doctors about

spreading shots out for children who might have problems.Handley

wants to return to the vaccine schedule of about 25 years ago and

separate the MMR shot into three shots. He would forgo newer

vaccines, such as those against chickenpox, rota­virus and Hib

meningitis. " Life is made up of compromises, " Handley said. " If it's

chickenpox or autism, parents are going to make the right

decision. " Before the vaccine, about 100 people died in the United

States each year from chickenpox. About 1,000 children died from Hib

meningitis and related disease. About 55,000 were hospitalized for

rotavirus.Tampa parent Fielding says vaccine skeptics

underestimate the threat from infectious disease. " People don't

remember the polio epidemics, or the pandemic flu of the early

1900s, " he said. " We don't remember how debilitating some of these

things were. " Fielding knows first-hand. His 4-year-old son, ph,

nearly died from whooping cough when he was 6 weeks old. ph was

two weeks too young to be vaccinated.• • •Now, some vaccine advocacy

groups are switching tactics. Every Child By Two brought spokeswoman

Peet on board this summer for its Vaccinate Your Baby campaign. " We

haven't been able to get anybody interested until we brought

Peet forward, and that's sad, " Pisani said. The tiff with McCarthy

was just a distraction, she said. " wants to be a spokesperson

for the science. " And just as the Internet connects the antivaccine

community, it has now become a platform for provaccine parents.

Florida residents and Palmer, who live near Melbourne,

are among those telling their stories on familiesfightingflu.org.In

early December 2003, Palmer took their baby daughter, Breanne,

to the doctor. Because Breanne was sick, she didn't get a flu shot.

Just before Christmas, Breanne's older brother got the flu. The next

day, Breanne had a fever as well.The Palmers took Breanne to the

doctor. But soon, her fever soared again, and she had trouble

breathing. She went to one hospital, then a second, but kept getting

worse.She was sent to a third hospital where doctors told the Palmers

it was too late. The virus had attacked Breanne's brain stem. " I think

about it every day, " said. " I will never forget holding her in

my arms as she passed away. " She thinks about what might have been.

That's why she speaks out with Families Fighting Flu. " I think about

what if my child was vaccinated, " Palmer said. " I believe she

would be alive today. " Greene can be reached at greene

@sptimes.com or .Coming MondayFor some, a flawed

vaccine creates mistrust, while others say it proves the system is

safe.

[Guest guest]

---

Finally a kernal of truth passes his lips

In EOHarm , " anacat_11 " wrote:

>

> Funny. Cough.

>

> Do they need the needle?

> By Greene, Times Staff Writer

>

> Published Friday, November 21, 2008 4:27 PM

> --------------------------------------------------------------------

--

> ----------

> One is a former Playboy Playmate of the Year. The other was once

> voted one of People magazine's most beautiful people. They had a

spat

> this fall. Actor Peet used the word " parasites " to describe

> people aligned with Playmate McCarthy. " She has a lot of

> nerve, " McCarthy huffed in response. This would be a bit of

celebrity

> fluff, except that Peet was criticizing parents who don't vaccinate

> their children. McCarthy took up for them because she's the most

> visible person who claims childhood vaccines cause autism. As

famous

> as they are, Peet and McCarthy are merely two combatants in a

> national controversy. The nation's most trusted scientific

> organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and

> Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have said

there's

> no link between childhood vaccines and autism.Most parents believe

> them. More than 77 percent of children are completely

vaccinated.But

> the number of autism cases keeps growing, and nobody can explain

why.

> Some people believe vaccines must be to blame. The Internet teems

> with frightening stories about the harm they supposedly do, and

> McCarthy's latest book is a bestseller. Parents are peppering

doctors

> with questions about vaccines, and some are opting out completely.

> Even a small dropoff in vaccinations can have a big effect. Earlier

> this year, a rare outbreak of measles was attributed partly to

> parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.This is no longer

> principally a debate about science. The real question is whether

> Americans still believe in science — or at least, in the nation's

> scientists.Inside a small ranch house in Tampa's Town 'N Country

> neighborhood, 9-year-old Nikki Mc pulled at the penny-sized

raw

> patch on her nose. Her mother — always alert to Nikki's attempts to

> hurt herself — straddled the child on the family room floor,

keeping

> her hands from the scab. Nikki wailed. " Are you going to be a good

> girl? " Janet Mc asked.Eventually, Nikki relaxed. She has

worse

> moments — sometimes she bangs her head on the floor — but for her

> mother, every day is a trial.Eight years ago, two of Janet's

> triplets, Nikki and Dougie, were diagnosed with autism, a dis­order

> marked by difficulties communicating and interacting. She blames

> vaccines. After their 15-month shots, she said, the children began

to

> change.She doesn't know how vaccines hurt them, and she is not sure

> why the third triplet, , wasn't affected. But she is so certain

> vaccines are harmful that she warns neighbors and friends not to

> vaccinate. " I could just kill somebody who did this to my kids, " she

> said, her voice breaking.Caring for the triplets takes all her time

> and energy. Her husband died suddenly three years ago, leaving her

> struggling emotionally and financially. She may not be able to hang

> on to the house.Nikki stood nearby as her mother talked about her

> troubles, but didn't seem to notice her mother was upset. Dougie

can

> say a few words. Nikki can't. " How could they take a beautiful child

> and make her like nobody's home? " • • •The debate about vaccines and

> autism exploded 10 years ago. A British study of a dozen children

> found that children with autism also had inflamed intestines. The

> measles vaccine was believed to have caused the inflammation.The

lead

> researcher, Wakefield, theorized that after these children

> received the MMR (for measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, the measles

> virus in the vaccine traveled to their intestines, infecting and

> damaging them. An unknown protein then was able to travel from

there

> to the brain, causing autism. Wakefield suggested separating MMR

into

> three vaccines.After the study came out, rates for MMR vaccination

> plunged nearly 15 percent in some parts of Great Britain. In the

> United States, fearful parents formed advocacy groups, and the

> controversy captured headlines and research dollars. A U.S.

> representative whose grandson had autism held a congressional

hearing

> on the potential link.Since then, the study has been harshly

> criticized. Most of the researchers involved have retracted their

> results. In September, researchers who conducted a similar study

said

> they found no link between measles virus and autism.The antivaccine

> forces also suggested that thimerosal, a kind of mercury used as a

> preservative in vaccines, could be to blame. Mercury is toxic to

the

> brain, but poison experts say symptoms don't mirror autism, and no

> studies linked thimerosal to autism.Still, by 2001, makers of

> vaccines removed thimerosal from most vaccines — except for the flu

> vaccine — as a precaution. Autism rates continue to

climb.Researchers

> say part of the rise comes from increased awareness and diagnosis

of

> autism. But research also is looking at a genetic link — when one

> twin is autistic, the other is more likely to be — and at possible

> environmental causes.In 2004, an expert panel convened by the

> Institute of Medicine issued what was meant to be the final word.

The

> group said enough study had been done to reject any link to autism

> for either MMR or thimerosal.What's more, the group said, money

would

> be better spent researching other possible causes.End of story?

> Hardly.Oregon financier J.B. Handley is a leading critic of

vaccines.

> Handley, 39, and his wife founded Generation Rescue after their

son,

> now 6, was diagnosed with autism. McCarthy is the group's

most

> public face.Most pediatricians, Handley said, " are in denial and

not

> wanting to believe " the dangers of vaccines. He speaks harshly of

> vaccine companies and vaccine scientists. He mentioned one

scientist

> at the CDC who " should go to jail " for covering up the

truth.Handley

> is not a scientist and acknowledges he is not sure how vaccines

lead

> to autism. Maybe it's the thimerosal that remains in flu

vaccines. " I

> have no doubt that injecting a potent neurotoxin into babies is a

> really, really bad idea, " Handley said of thimerosal. " Do I think

> it's the only thing (that's unsafe)? I have no idea. " • • •The alarm

> that Handley and others is sounding reverberates around the

> country.On a recent morning, Tampa pediatrician Marcy Baker spent

15

> minutes with a worried mother, explaining why a flu shot would

> protect her child. Baker thought she had won her over, only to

learn

> the mother changed her mind and refused the shot.Baker and her

> partners posted a letter to parents, trying to dispel fears, which

> they hear more and more often. When Baker talks to reluctant

parents,

> she speaks of children she has seen hospitalized with whooping

cough,

> meningitis and rotavirus. " I do feel my patients trust me, " Baker

> said. " But sometimes they think that I'm duped by 'the man.' That

the

> government and the vaccine companies, they're all in on this big

> conspiracy. " Some doubting parents make their way to Tampa

> pediatrician Berger. He believes vaccines may be linked not

> only to autism, but to asthma, allergies and other problems of the

> immune system.About a third of his parents don't vaccinate, Berger

> said, and most of the others delay their babies' shots. " If parents

> educate themselves, and they feel it's not in the best interest of

> their child, then who are we to tell them otherwise? " he

asked.Berger

> knows most doctors disagree. He also says his patients are less

> likely to be exposed to childhood diseases because the parents tend

> to breast-feed, and since they're more affluent, they keep their

> babies at home and out of day care for the first year.But he thinks

> most government scientists aren't really listening to legitimate

> questions. " There's a big incentive at the government and industry

> level to not let this get out, " he said.• • •Some in the

antivaccine

> movement call Dr. Offit the Antichrist. He laughs at the

> name. " I'm just one of the devil's many humble servants. " The joke

> might seem strange from a career pediatrician who helped develop a

> vaccine that health officials say could save 2,000 lives a day

> worldwide.But Offit, chief of infectious diseases at the Children's

> Hospital of Philadelphia, lives on the front lines of the vaccine

> debate. Director of the hospital's Vaccine Education Center, he has

> written two books on vaccines and pulls no punches. He has gotten

> death threats.Critics target Offit not only for his outspokenness,

> but also because he's making money from a vaccine he helped develop

> to prevent rotavirus, a disease that causes potentially fatal

> vomiting and diarrhea. " I see myself as a champion of children.

> That's why I went into pediatrics, " Offit said.He knows parents

> dislike seeing children get painful shots. " What really upsets

people

> is that their child is pinned down and injected with a biological

> agent that they don't really understand, " Offit said. " But in many

> ways, they're safer than vitamins. " So he sees why stories on the

> dangers of vaccines resonate with parents. " It's very easy to scare

> people, " Offit said. " It's very hard to un­scare them. " • • •The

> nation's largest medical agencies point out that vaccines have

saved

> countless lives from diseases such as polio, diphtheria and

> meningitis. But even vaccine advocates acknowledge they don't say

> this loudly enough. " I think they've been doing a terrible job

> informing parents, " said Amy Pisani, executive director of the

group

> Every Child By Two. " We want to say, 'Hey, listen to the CDC,' but

we

> don't hear them, ever.''When experts do speak up, their words lack

> the same punch for many parents as the emotional stories about

> families' valiant struggles against autism.And then there's the

> media.Both sides of the debate say reporters cover the issue

poorly.

> Doctors say reporters focus too much on a relative few critics and

> too little on the weight of the science. Those who question

vaccines

> say reporters don't look at flaws in such studies. Schwitzer

> directs the master's in health journalism program at the University

> of Minnesota. He said that journalists' delight in controversy and

> focus on objectivity have distorted the science. " We helped create

> that (controversy) with this sort of tennis-match approach to

> covering conflicts in science, " Schwitzer said. Stories often give

> equal weight to provaccine and antivaccine views. " This equally

> weighted back and forth ... usually that's not the way it is in

> science, but that's the way the story is told. " • • •Autism Speaks,

> the international advocacy group, walks a fine line in the debate.

> Its constituency includes people who think vaccines are dangerous

and

> others who say the controversy distracts from important

research.The

> group supports research on whether environmental factors —

including

> vaccines — might make children with some type of genetic

> vulnerability autistic. " Clearly the risk associated with getting

> diseases of childhood, such as measles, are very serious, " chief

> science officer Geraldine Dawson said. " For the vast majority of

> children, (vaccines) are clearly safe. Our recommendation is to

> continue to have confidence in the vaccine program while trying to

> understand if there are a small minority of children who might have

a

> problem in certain situations. " Even Handley and some others say

they

> don't want parents to stop vaccinating. " I am not antivaccine, " said

> Vicky Debold, director of patient safety at the National Vaccine

> Information Center, a group concerned about vaccines. " If everybody

> in this country stopped vaccinating, we would be in a world of

> pain. " She opposes a " one-size-fits-all cookbook approach " and wants

> more studies. She thinks that parents should consider vaccine

safety

> more carefully, and that they should talk to their doctors about

> spreading shots out for children who might have problems.Handley

> wants to return to the vaccine schedule of about 25 years ago and

> separate the MMR shot into three shots. He would forgo newer

> vaccines, such as those against chickenpox, rota­virus and Hib

> meningitis. " Life is made up of compromises, " Handley said. " If

it's

> chickenpox or autism, parents are going to make the right

> decision. " Before the vaccine, about 100 people died in the United

> States each year from chickenpox. About 1,000 children died from

Hib

> meningitis and related disease. About 55,000 were hospitalized for

> rotavirus.Tampa parent Fielding says vaccine skeptics

> underestimate the threat from infectious disease. " People don't

> remember the polio epidemics, or the pandemic flu of the early

> 1900s, " he said. " We don't remember how debilitating some of these

> things were. " Fielding knows first-hand. His 4-year-old son, ph,

> nearly died from whooping cough when he was 6 weeks old. ph was

> two weeks too young to be vaccinated.• • •Now, some vaccine

advocacy

> groups are switching tactics. Every Child By Two brought

spokeswoman

> Peet on board this summer for its Vaccinate Your Baby campaign. " We

> haven't been able to get anybody interested until we brought

> Peet forward, and that's sad, " Pisani said. The tiff with McCarthy

> was just a distraction, she said. " wants to be a

spokesperson

> for the science. " And just as the Internet connects the antivaccine

> community, it has now become a platform for provaccine parents.

> Florida residents and Palmer, who live near Melbourne,

> are among those telling their stories on familiesfightingflu.org.In

> early December 2003, Palmer took their baby daughter,

Breanne,

> to the doctor. Because Breanne was sick, she didn't get a flu shot.

> Just before Christmas, Breanne's older brother got the flu. The

next

> day, Breanne had a fever as well.The Palmers took Breanne to the

> doctor. But soon, her fever soared again, and she had trouble

> breathing. She went to one hospital, then a second, but kept

getting

> worse.She was sent to a third hospital where doctors told the

Palmers

> it was too late. The virus had attacked Breanne's brain stem. " I

think

> about it every day, " said. " I will never forget holding her

in

> my arms as she passed away. " She thinks about what might have been.

> That's why she speaks out with Families Fighting Flu. " I think about

> what if my child was vaccinated, " Palmer said. " I believe

she

> would be alive today. " Greene can be reached at greene

> @sptimes.com or .Coming MondayFor some, a flawed

> vaccine creates mistrust, while others say it proves the system is

> safe.

>

[Guest guest]

To paraphrase, parents are really stupid and biomed parents are really,

really stupid.

That just won't win me over, .

CGF

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Do they need the needle?

By Greene, Times Staff Writer

Published Friday, November 21, 2008 4:27 PM

....He knows parents dislike seeing children get painful shots. " What

really upsets people is that their child is pinned down and injected

with a biological agent that they don't really understand, " Offit

said. " But in many ways, they're safer than vitamins. " ...

[Guest guest]

I know what she means. People mention how attractive my son is in his

baby pictures. They mean he looks " with it, " smiling, eyes pointing in

the same direction.

I tell them that was before he was affected.

CGF

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Do they need the needle?

By Greene, Times Staff Writer

Published Friday, November 21, 2008 4:27 PM

.... " How could they take a beautiful child and make her like nobody's

home " ...