By
J.B. Handley
Paul Offit wrote a book, Autism’s False
Prophets, with the overt goal of repudiating
the biomedical treatment movement for
autism. Of course, the real goal of the
book, and how it’s being used today, is to
convince parents to keep on vaccinating.
As an inventor of the Rotateq
(HERE) vaccine, a man who voted his own
vaccine
(HERE) onto the childhood schedule, and
a multi-millionaire after his vaccine was
sold to Merck, Offit has plenty of time on
his hands to protect his legacy and the
legacy of his peers.
The AAP has done a great job of getting
Offit’s book out to their pediatric base,
many of whom give the book to parents when
they express concerns about vaccination. I
have personal friends who have come home
from their doctor with a copy of his book in
hand.
The book is filled with factual errors
and/or completely made-up information about
a wide variety of our community’s most
important players, including Dr. Andrew
Wakefield, David Kirby, RFK JR., and Jenny
McCarthy, to name just a few.
For a simple example of the book’s
poorly-veiled intentions, consider the
inside cover that includes a quote from a
parent, Amy Pisani:
“Hearing all the rumors about vaccine side
effects made me question the right thing to
do. This book makes it clear that vaccines
save lives, and they clearly do not cause
autism.”
There are so many revealing things about
this quote, which is literally the first
thing you see on the cover’s inside flap.
Firstly, Amy Pisani is the Executive
Director of Every Child By Two, a vaccine
advocacy organization funded by Wyeth, a
vaccine maker.
(HERE) The book only describes her as
“Amy Pisani, mother.” Not only is Ms.
Pisani’s conflict hidden from the reader,
but her actual quote is a complete
fabrication. Ms. Pisani has been advocating
vaccines for children for YEARS, everything
in her quote is a lie -- she wasn’t
questioning the right thing to do when
Offit’s book came along. A liar with a
conflict of interest -- how perfect!
In advocating for vaccines, Offit uses his book to take a sideswipe at an entire movement of scientists, doctors, and parents who are toiling away to recover children from autism. With roughly 1,000 worldwide doctors and more than 100,000 parents practicing biomedical treatments, it’s one hell of a sideswipe. Not only does he criticize the biomedical movement, he says it isn’t working to help kids:
“Instead of helping, these therapies can hurt those who are most vulnerable, and particularly in the case of autism, they undermine childhood vaccination programs that have saved millions of lives.”
I want to highlight this a little further, because it’s such an important point. Offit says, unequivocally, that our therapies do not help children with autism. Has your child improved through biomedical treatment? Offit says no way. Do you have a child who has recovered from autism? To Offit, it’s just coincidence. He lives in a world where recoveries from autism are of unknown origin and any adverse events created by vaccines are coincidence.
The lack of humanity, the lack of interest in recovering children, is this guy really a doctor? It would be like the Marlboro man shitting on a non-traditional treatment for lung cancer, because the treatment uses natural substances to pull tobacco tar out of people’s lungs. It’s horrible, repugnant, and so profoundly disrespectful of parents who ARE seeing recovery through biomedical treatment, I really don’t have the words to castigate Offit to the proper degree. In fact, it’s even worse than that. Offit and his comrades are actually rooting AGAINST recovery for our children, because if recovery from autism is actually possible through biomedical intervention, then autism is environmentally caused. And, if it’s environmentally caused, then the guy who will die known as “Mr. Vaccine” is in very deep kimchi, and his tombstone may actually end up reading, “Mr. Autism Epidemic Facilitator.”
Who wants that?
Making a sweeping statement -- that biomedical treatments don’t work – certainly means you better have done your homework. In fact, since the publication of his book, Offit is now routinely quoted in articles discussing alternative treatments for autism, and always as the naysayer. Given Offit’s developing “expertise”, I placed a phone call last week to his office in Philadelphia. While I knew the answer, it was still shocking to have the conversation, which went like this, with me (“JB”) talking to Offit’s assistant (“OA”):
JB: Hi, I have a child with autism, and I’d like to make an appointment to see Dr. Offit.
OA: He doesn’t see patients.
JB: My son, he has autism, he needs help. My understanding is Dr. Offit is an expert on autism, he wrote a book, I’d really like to see him.
OA: He doesn’t see patients in a clinical outpatient setting.
JB: Well, is there some other way for me to see him? Please, my son, he needs help, can’t Dr. Offit make an exception?
OA: He doesn’t see patients at all. I’m sorry.
Don’t believe me? Make your own call: 215-590-2549. Paul Offit, autism expert, doesn’t see any patients. Ever.
The 100,000 vaccine man
It was recently in Wired magazine, this quote from Paul Offit that a baby can handle 100,000 vaccines at one time:
Then, he came up with a rough estimate: a person [he said a baby] could handle 100,000 vaccines — or up to 10,000 vaccines at once. Currently the most vaccines children receive at any one time is five. He also published his findings in Pediatrics. Soon, the number was attached to Offit like a scarlet letter. “The 100,000 number makes me sound like a madman. Because that’s the image: 100,000 shots sticking out of you. It’s an awful image,” Offit says. “Many people — including people who are on my side — have criticized me for that. But I was naive. In that article, I was being asked the question and that is the answer to the question.”
Let me repeat: Offit says a baby can handle 100,000 vaccines simultaneously. As we all know, a vaccine is a pharmaceutical drug. Is there a doctor out there who would ever claim that a human being could simultaneously tolerate 100,000 aspirin or Tylenol or Ambien or Aleve or Viagra or Vioxx or any other drug manufactured anywhere on the planet? Of course not.
Not only is Offit’s comment insane, it’s also wildly dangerous and untrue. 100,000 vaccines given to a baby would cause immediate death, every single time. How profoundly disrespectful to the THOUSANDS of parents for whom ONE vaccine caused death for their child. ONE!!
Let’s look at the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program website for a moment, just to further highlight how crazy Offit’s comments really are (HERE). What does it tells us? It shows 11,970 claims of injury and 1,006 claims of death, in every case from ONE vaccine. Offit is saying a baby can handle 100,000 of something that has killed, at a bare minimum, more than 1,000 Americans (and note that for some reason this table doesn’t include Gardasil).
David Tayloe, the President of the AAP, recently posted this on a discussion board, “Just wanted to let members of this list know that the AAP is honoring Dr. Offit with it's President's award next week based on input from many of us in practice.”
The following email was sent to the AAP media relations department, I have yet to hear back:
“I have two questions for the AAP, would greatly appreciate a reply by end of day Thursday. 1. I heard a rumor that Paul Offit, M.D. recently received the President’s award from the AAP. Is this true? 2. Dr. Offit stated in Wired Magazine this month that a baby could safely receive 100,000 vaccines at one time. Does the AAP agree with Dr. Offit’s position, that 100,000 vaccines would be safely tolerated by a baby? Thank you for your prompt reply.”
Way to go, AAP.
Dr. Offit, here’s my simple offer for you, since I know you and Bonnie are reading this right now:
Get 100 Gardasil shots (just approved by the FDA for boys) in one arm and 100 H1N1 shots – the ones from a multi-dose vial, please (loaded with Hg) -- in the other. If you’re still alive three months later, I’ll contribute $100,000 to Alison Singer’s autism organization, perhaps to let her move out of her basement. 200 shots is plenty for me, I’ll give you a break on the other 99,800.
By the way, Dr. Offit, in your own book you state, “Although vaccinations have probably saved more lives than any other medical intervention, they have come with a price – occasionally causing severe, even fatal, side effects.” I’m sure you’ll be just fine. If one vaccine won’t hurt you, 200 will be a breeze.
The lies, the lawsuit, the settlement
In my opinion, there are more than a dozen members of our community who could sue Paul Offit for libel and win based on the lies and mischaracterizations of them in his book, Autism’s False Prophets. But, I’ll just tell you about me.
Frankly, I was
shocked to see my name in Paul Offit’s book.
Of all the people to pick a fight with, I
wouldn’t recommend starting with me.
Moreover, when I actually read the passage
Offit wrote about me, I was absolutely
stunned. From earlier this year:
* *
It was October 2005. Generation Rescue had
only been up and running for about 5 months,
and we had 125 brave souls who had put their
names, locations, and emails on our website
to serve as Rescue Angels to help other
parents (today we have more than 800) on
their journey through biomedical
intervention.
On or around October 10th of that year, I
heard from a Rescue Angel Mom who was
extremely distraught. It turned out that
someone, most likely a member of the "ND"
community, had blended a post they had seen
from her on a message board, her Rescue
Angel information, and somehow figured out
where she worked. This person had contacted
the Rescue Angel's employer and told them
something to the effect of, "Your employee
is a volunteer of this organization,
believes and says a lot of scary things
about autism [like that it's triggered by
vaccines and is treatable], and why is she
allowed to say and do these things and work
here?"
This Rescue Angel mom had just been through
a meeting with her employer, which I believe
was a public school, where she'd had to
respond to this anonymous mudsling, and she
was understandably very, very upset.
I, too, was irate. The thought that people
were trying to impact the livelihoods of our
Rescue Angels was incomprehensible, and I
felt personally responsible for the plight
of this Mom, having created the group that
got her into this whole mess. Knowing that
many of our enemies were avid readers of a
public message board where we all
congregated, I fired off a warning to the
person responsible that read:
Dear N.D. folks monitoring this list:I
have no respect for your "movement". You are
now spending your time actively hassling our
Rescue Angels. We are spending out time
constructively engaging doctors to help our
babies. If you don't like what we have to
say, stop listening. We will bring the full
resources of myself and Generation Rescue to
stop this. We will sue you for libel and we
will go after your homes and assets. My
lawyers live to investigate and sue people
like you. This will be your only warning.
Sincerely, JB Handley
My message is still up there on the EOH
message board, it's message #17717 and you
can read it for yourself. Now, you may
disagree with the message I wrote, you may
disagree with its tone, and you may disagree
with my reaction to the situation at hand.
But, at least you know the circumstances
that surrounded the decision I made, and
that's what I really want you to know.
I really want you to know and understand
what happened and why I wrote the note I
wrote because once you do, you can see what
a profoundly dishonest and manipulative liar
Paul Offit really is.
You see, this post from EOH, or at least an
excerpt from it, actually made it in to Paul
Offit's book, that book that will remain
nameless, but the one we all know the name
of. Yup, a piece of my post from EOH, the
one where I was trying to tell the person
hassling one of our Rescue Angels at work to
back the hell off, made Offit's book.
But, you wouldn't know that from what Offit
wrote.
You see, Paul Offit has a passage using a
portion of this post, but it's used for an
entirely different reason. Rather than try
to explain, I'm just going to share the
passage from the book that will remain
nameless, on page 145:
"SEIDEL WAS ALSO APPALLED BY THE GEIERS' AND
JB HANDLEY'S constant promotion of chelation
therapy as a cure for autism. In 2000, only
a handful of children were chelated; by
2005, the number had purportedly climbed to
more than 10,000 a year. On her Web site,
Seidel pleaded with Handley to stop
promoting a "therapy" that had never been
shown to work and was potentially dangerous.
Handley wrote back: "We are spending out
time constructively engaging doctors to help
our babies. If you don't like what we have
to say, stop listening. We will bring the
full resources of myself and Generation
Rescue to stop this. We will sue you for
libel and we will go after your homes and
assets. My lawyers live to investigate and
sue people like you. This will be your only
warning."
Well, I'll be damned. A post I wrote on a
public message board regarding someone
hassling our Rescue Angels was now a
response to Kathleen Seidel? A response that
never actually took place in an exchange
that Offit manufactured from thin air? I
threatened to sue her for challenging me on
the "promotion" of chelation therapy?
I'll be damned again.
So, there it is folks. Offit made up a
conversation that never took place and
blended something I wrote on a public
message board for an entirely different
reason to serve his own purpose.
* *
After a simple (and rebuffed) request asking
him to change the above made-up passage, I
filed a lawsuit
(HERE) with the same request, hoping to
get a better answer the second time around.
There’s a great scene from an early 80s
movie called the Dead Zone where Martin
Sheen, playing an ambitious and morally
compromised politician, is under sniper fire
during a campaign rally. To protect himself,
and while the network TV cameras are
rolling, he grabs a small child and hides
behind him. End of political career.
I’m not going to tell you that Paul Offit’s
defense during my lawsuit and subsequent
settlement negotiations reaches quite this
same dramatic pitch, but it was the first
thing I was reminded of when recently
re-reading some letters from his lawyers.
Let’s get something straight: there is
nothing about my victory in the lawsuit
against Paul Offit that’s going to solve the
autism epidemic or recover any of our kids.
My victory is a small victory. But, you have
to admit, it’s damn entertaining just the
same.
Our settlement discussions, which went on
for several months, were a hoot to witness.
I knew from the beginning that I was right
and that I could prove it. It took the other
side several weeks of reviewing the
supporting evidence my lawyers gave them to
reach the same conclusion, at which point
they knew they had a weak hand.
So, if you’re Paul Offit, what’s the best
thing to do when you’ve been caught in a
lie? You guessed it: blame someone else.
If you’ve seen Offit’s book, you know that
he pays tribute to some of our most
intractable critics for all their help in
putting his manuscript together. Notable
amongst them is Kathleen Seidel, the Church
Lady who runs a website called
Neurodiversity. I’ve really got nothing
personal against Ms. Seidel and I’ve never
met or talked to her. She’s always struck me
as being rather brittle and shrill, but
she’s certainly no Orac or any of the other
particularly annoying characters residing in
the dark world. And, she actually blogs
under her own name.
Offit was clearly grateful for Ms. Seidel’s
help in putting his book together. But, when
he found himself in a wrangle over lies that
he allowed to be printed, she was the first
person he threw under the bus. Don’t take my
word for it, check out this passage from a
letter sent to my attorneys by Offit’s
lawyers:
“Moreover, Dr. Offit has informed the Press
[Columbia University Press] that the book
had been sent for review to a long list of
individuals, including Kathleen Seidel.
Further, the Press had a high degree of
confidence in Dr. Offit, a confidence
enhanced by the initial review of Dr.
Offit’s manuscript by an eminent scientist
and former dean, and a review of his
manuscript by Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., a
leading autism expert at Yale University
School of Medicine, Marie McCormick,
Professor of Maternal and Child Health at
Harvard School of Public Health, and Anne
Gershon, MD, director of the division of
Pediatric Disease at Columbia Presbyterian…
"Dr. Offit interviewed Ms. Seidel at some
length. While Dr. Offit was writing the
book, somebody sent him a copy of the Oct.
10, 2005 post from Handley directed ‘To the
Nuero-Diverse Crowd Reading the List’ as a
stand-alone document. At the time, he put it
in his JB Handley file. When he went to
write his book, he assumed that, given its
salutation ‘To the Nuero-Diverse Crowd,’ the
post was directed principally at Kathleen
Seidel in response to her writings on
Handley, Generation Rescue, and the Rescue
Angels. Seidel created the neurodiversity
website and she is strongly associated with
that term. To Paul’s knowledge, no one else
used that unusual term prior to Seidel…
"After Dr. Offit completed a draft of the
manuscript, he sent it to Kathleen Seidel
for her review. Although she made several
other suggested changes regarding other
portions of the manuscript she did not
indicate that there were any errors
regarding the language at issue or make any
suggested changes to correct the language.”
As Milli Vanilli once said, “Blame it on the
rain!” Just don’t blame me.
Our case wasn’t a slam-dunk. We’d proven
Offit had lied, that was easy. The higher
hurdle was to prove Offit’s passage actually
damaged me in any material way – that’s what
you need to prove to win a false light
claim. Was I worse off for it? Could I show
that he had damaged my ability to hold down
a job or anything else? My lawyers gave me
51/49 odds of winning in court. There was
damage, but the other side would spend all
their time challenging that position So,
because I’d rather spend my time with my
kids, I decided to settle, which Offit’s
side (including Columbia University Press)
was very eager to do.
The final terms of our settlement,
reported here by AoA for the first time
anywhere, include the following:
- Offit will correct the passage in his
book
- Offit and Columbia University Press
will each contribute $5,000 to one of Jenny
McCarthy’s favorite autism charities at
UCLA.
- Offit will send me a personal letter
expressing his regret for the lie he told.
The letter isn’t everything I wanted, but,
hey, I’ll take it. It reads:
“On page 145 of my book, Autism’s False
Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and
The Search for a Cure, I may have conveyed
the impression that J.B. Handley directed an
internet posting, which was addressed to
“Neurodiverse folks” on a public message
board, as a response to Kathleen Seidel, and
as a continuation of a prior exchange of
posts between Mr. Handley and Ms. Seidel.
After publication, Mr. Handley brought
additional information to my attention
confirming that, in fact, the post quoted in
the book related to a different topic, and
was intended to address individuals he
believed may have been harassing members of
Generation Rescue. I have agreed to make
revisions to the text of the book in
subsequent printings to address this issue.
I regret any mistaken impression the
original language may have created.”
Paul Offit: Vaccine inventor. Vaccine
profiteer. ACIP member who voted himself
rich. A man reprimanded by Congress for
doing so. Winner of the AAP President’s
award. Avowed liar from his book, Autism’s
False Prophet’s. The 100,000 vaccine man.
The autism expert who won’t see patients.
The man who has never seen a child recover
from autism, and thinks vaccines are
medicine’s greatest invention. Paul Offit,
that’s one hell of a legacy.
On the one hand, I hope Offit takes me up on
my offer, and gets those 200 vaccines. On
the other hand, I hope he doesn’t. We’re
always one gullible journalist away from
another Gucci-loafer in the mouth moment --
he’s far more valuable to all of us alive.
The donations have been made, the book
correction is under way, and you can read
the letter,
HERE. Offit loses, we all win.
J.B. Handley is Co-Founder of
Generation Rescue.
Our son has recovered, thanks to you and heroes like you. Offit will truly get what's coming, have no doubt or fear.
Posted by: David Taylor | October 27, 2009 at 01:46 PM
The vaccine industry makes the "too big to fail" banking industry look almost honest...
We are up against pharma, the news media, and the government, that are "way too big to provide the truth about anything..."
Posted by: cmo | October 27, 2009 at 11:38 AM
Just sing along to some of Offit's classics.. like..
Offit you know its true,
ooh ooh oooh you are through...
And..
Blame it on Siedel,
She was falling falling,
Blame on Siedel with her laughable website..
and who can forget this one..
Ba, ba, ba, baba, ba, ba, baba, Baby,
Don't forget my number. (100,000)
The list of your favorite tunes just keeps going on and on. And just like Offit you can have yours for just one low price of $5,000 and your choice of charity.
Get it NOW!!!!
Posted by: Elucidatus | October 27, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Keep up the good work! Wait, the AWE INSPIRING work.
Posted by: Casey Ohlsson | October 27, 2009 at 09:28 AM
Posted by: Natasa | October 27, 2009 at 04:53 AM
Posted by: Kristina | October 27, 2009 at 01:59 AM
Posted by: curt linderman sr | October 27, 2009 at 12:55 AM
Posted by: Angela S. | October 26, 2009 at 11:48 PM
Posted by: Bonnie | October 26, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Thanks again. You have made my day. Paul Offit, "Thank you for smoking" man. I love that scene when aaron ekhart has his body covered in nicotine patches and hope paul will take the cash for the 200 shots.
My best to your family JB--
Posted by: autismdad | October 26, 2009 at 11:32 PM
Posted by: Sunshine | October 26, 2009 at 11:24 PM
Posted by: Janet Sheehan | October 26, 2009 at 11:17 PM
1) Request the books you need via interlibrary loan. One or two or three requests for a certain category of book will wake up the collection development staff to a gap in the collection.
2) Go in with a list of books you think the library should have. If two or three people can go in together, even better. Make an appointment so you are sure you are talking to the right person, the one who makes book purchasing decisions.
3) Donate good books that you are done with and explain why the library needs to have these books in the collection. Ask them to pass along books they can't use to other parents in the community. This happened in my library and I was able to pass along about 20 books and add 4 excellent titles to our collection. We frequently fulfill interlibrary loan requests to other small libraries (and occasionally big ones) in my state.
Posted by: MinorityView | October 26, 2009 at 11:16 PM
Only this morning our private (neuro) school teacher gave a leave of absence. Wanna guess the reason? She's pregnant and can't find a vaccine without adjunctives.
This ain't Kansas is it?
MAKE AUTISM STOP
Posted by: MAKE AUTISM STOP | October 26, 2009 at 10:55 PM
I entered this fight almost the exact same time you did. You keep the fight in me fresh. Thank you so much my friend.
Posted by: Steve | October 26, 2009 at 10:41 PM
Posted by: Manuela | October 26, 2009 at 10:40 PM
Posted by: Bonnie | October 26, 2009 at 10:15 PM
Posted by: Lisa Clark | October 26, 2009 at 10:12 PM
1. At my local (small town) library, the vaccination section has two books, both by Offit, surely donated by Merck. Can Generation Rescue or some other bio-med organization start a campaign to get Jenny's, Bock's, Kirby's, etcs. books on the shelves of the small towns which desperately need this information? I'd be thrilled to volunteer to help with this effort.
2. This is the letter I wrote to Philadelphia Magazine after reading the 'advertorial' about Paul Offit:
To the Editor:
It seems that the only research done by Jason Fagone on the article about Paul Offit, MD ( in the June 2009 issue) was to read Offit's own book. One merely needs to read the inserts included with the vaccines to realize the extent of the damage that they can do to children. The insert on Merck's RotaTeq vaccine, invented by Dr. Offit, states, "In post-marketing experience, the following adverse events have been reported in infants who have received RotaTeq: Gastrointestinal disorders: Intussusception (including death); Hematochezia Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders: Urticaria; Infections and infestations: Kawasaki disease. Of course RotaTeq's precursor, RotaSheild, developed by Wyeth, was recalled due to causing infants to suffer from intussususception, twisting of the intestines.
Mr. Fagone's disparagement notwithstanding, critiques of the current vaccination schedule such as Jenny McCarthy and Robert Kennedy are doing parents a great service by encouraging them to not blindly adhere to the American Acadmeny of Pediatriacs schedule of 50 vaccinations by the time the child is six years old. They remind parents not to allow children who are ill to be vaccinated and not to play 'catch up,' by giving numerous vaccines at once, as occured with Hannah Poling, the child who became gravely ill after receiving her shots as conceded by the government in the Court of Federal Claims.
Had Mr. Fagone read other works about vaccination, ie, "Evidence of Harm" by David Kirby, Dr. Stephanie Cave's "What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations" or even "The Vaccination Book" by Dr. Robert Sears, the answer to the question in the title of the article, "Will This Doctor Hurt Your Baby?" would have been an unequivocal YES.
Posted by: Mom23boys | October 26, 2009 at 10:03 PM
there's something wrong!
logistical coincidence
so they'd have us believe
ridiculous to common sense
no matter what we grieve
they are immune nor bear the blame
and legally we have no claim
they are immune
they are immune
would they were not immune to shame
logistical coincidence
our children falling prey
still these proclaiming innocense
lest profits fall one day
this they hold dear, their bottom line
to rake in millions, their design
this they hold dear
this they hold dear
would conscience did their wealth define.
logistical coincidence
we know what we have seen
despite the rise in prevalence
autisms numbers mean
there's something wrong it gives us pause
whatever proves to be the cause
there's something wrong
there's something wrong
big pharma's lobbies making laws
moonwind
copyright2009