The unjustified abuse of Paul Offit
Dr Gordon is aggrieved
Over at Respectful Insolence, Science Blogger, Orac has been visited by Dr Jay Gordon in the comments section of his blog, Dr. Jay Gordon: No vaccines needed, just quit eating cheese and ice cream. Dr Gordon, you will remember, is a paediatrician to the children of the rich and famous, including Jenny McCarthy’s son Evan. He appeared with her on the Larry King Show when she tried to shout down Dr Tayloe of the American Association of Pediatrics. He appeared with her on the platform of the Green Our Vaccines demo which was actually an anti-vaccine campaign, as evidenced by the slogans on many of the banners. He enjoys being feted on a yahoo group devoted to Jenny McCarthy and her ideas. Recently he used this group to make disparaging remarks about Paul Offit, which reappeared in the comments section of Respectful Insolence
“From: Jay Gordon
Date: Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 7:44 PM
Subject: [JennyDCAutismRally] I’M TIRED OF THE DISRESPECT FOR DR PAUL OFFIT
To: JennyDCAutismRally@yahoogroups.com
Dr. Offit is a tireless advocate of vaccination and a respected medical authority.
I am tired of hearing people refer to Dr. Offit as a “shill” and a dishonest profiteer willing to lie repeatedly. I tired of hearing people on this list imply that he lacks integrity, hides his profits and is a disgustingly disingenuous man.
Actually, I’ve decided I’ll never tire of people say those things about Dr. Offit. Carry on!!!”
Dr Gordon appeared on Orac’s blog to complain that he was not anti-vaccine; that he was a good man and a good doctor and we should not be mean to him by countering his off beat ideas with hard science and evidence based medicine. His message can be summarized thus;
Don’t be mean to good people. They are only trying to help and what if they are right and you are wrong?
Well I have news for Dr Gordon. Asking for hard evidence is not being mean. And if we ask and you come back with the same old nonsense while still failing to provide any evidence, you will get laughed out of court. If you were a worried parent or even an ill-informed journalist we would probably give you more of our time and patience and try and explain things to you. But you are a doctor, a national media figure with a following amongst parents of autistic children. When giving health advice it is your job to check the facts and get it right. What are we to make of this, where Orac quotes you from an interview you recently gave to Cookie Magazine?
I think that the public health benefits to vaccinating are grossly overstated. I think that if we spent as much time telling people to breastfeed or to quit eating cheese and ice cream, we’d save more lives than we save with the polio vaccine.
I also happen to think that Dr Offit is good people. He is trying to help and doing a very good job with the rotavirus vaccine he helped to develop that is now saving lives. What if Dr Offit is right and Dr Gordon is wrong? Both have years of clinical experience. Dr Gordon somehow thinks his clinical experience entitles him to disregard the collective experience of his fellow pediatricians at the AAP. His clinical experience even trumps the evidence from clinical trials. Dr Gordon may be right to have such unbridled regard for his own professional judgement. But we have the right to a better justification than, “because I say so.” He may also be right to ask for a respectful hearing and for people not to be rude. In which case he ought to apologize to Dr Offit for his own rudeness in maligning him behind his back, in a forum where he had no right of reply.
Dr Offit is abused
Unfortunately this sort of behaviour, maligning people with whom you disagree instead of engaging in a respectful discussion or debate about the issues, seems to be a standard response from some of the more vocal purveyors of anti-vaccine propaganda linked to autism. David Kirby, writing on the Huffington Post, described Amanda Peet as
a well-meaning but grossly misinformed actress who is guided by a doctor who will likely make money from his own work helping to develop a childhood vaccine.
Amanda Peet was worried about vaccines. She did her research, not like that other “grossly misinformed actress,” Jenny McCarthy, who googled autism and clicked on an advert for quack autism treatments. Ms Peet asked her paediatrician brother-in-law. He arranged for her to speak with Dr Offit whose explanations eased her concerns. And what sort of a slur is that supposed to be on Dr Offit? He gets paid for helping to develop a life saving vaccine and of course that equals conflict of interest. Is David Kirby conflicted because of his close ties to advocacy groups like Generation Rescue? Should we disregard the message he brought on his recent visit to London because that trip was sponsored by anti-vaccine organizations? Or should we question him on the strength of his argument and his knowledge?
Jay Gordon agreed with Kirby on Orac’s blog and held up an execrable piece of journalism that has been roundly condemned by my fellow bloggers Orac, Kev and Autism Newsbeat as evidence.
I would find it easier to take Dr Gordon seriously if he was at least consistent and publicly condemned the slurs and character assassinations that are regular repeated about good people like Dr Offit. I expect he knows JB Handley (known as “Brad” to his friends). They would have met up at the Green Our Vaccines rally. Brad helped to set up the organization, Generation Rescue, that sponsored the rally and has recently added Jenny McCarthy to its board. Generation Rescue always had money for full page adverts in national newspapers. Now that Jenny and boyfriend Jim Carrey are attracting stars like Britney Spears to Generation Rescue fundraisers they are branching out and adding to their web presence. Brad already has a track record for cybersquatting but the latest antic by Generation Rescue is both puerile and malicious.
They have set up a website, PaulOffit.com that traduces the man’s motives and his reputation. Perhaps not enough people were reading Brad’s rants against Offit on his Age of Autism website, the anti-vax alternative to the Autism Hub. I wonder how long a similar site, BradHandley.com would stay up before Handley’s lawyers intervened. Kev was almost forced to stop blogging with Left Brain Right Brain when threatened by the long arm of Brad Handley’s legal department. The “offending” material has now been removed and Kev had to apologise. That’s the way to settle an argument about autism. Use your wealth to try and bankrupt a fellow parent who disagrees with you.
Still, if all the rumours are true and Paul Offit is indeed a multimillionaire from the proceeds of his “vaccineering” and has the power and money of the drug companies at his disposal, perhaps he will put it to good use and sue the pants off his detractors. Somebody ought to.
Footnote
Friends have suggested that my tone in this post is angrier than usual. I apologize for the tone but I am angry with journalists who curry favour with anti vaccine groups and distort the evidence to suit their purpose. I am even more angry with doctors who play up the risks of vaccines and downplay the risks of vaccine preventable diseases.
According to The Measles Initiative in 2000 757,000 children died from measles. A mass vaccination campaign has reduced that figure to 242,000 children. In Africa there has been a 90% reduction in deaths from measles but there is still a lot to do in parts of Asia.
According to the CDC
Rotavirus is the leading cause of severe acute gastroenteritis among infants and young children, accounting for an estimated 527,000 deaths among children aged <5 years worldwide in 2004 (1,2). In the United States, rotavirus causes few deaths (20–60) each year, but remains a substantial cause of morbidity among children, resulting in approximately 55,000–70,000 hospitalizations, 205,000–272,000 emergency department (ED) visits, and 410,000 physician office visits (3). In the continental United States, rotavirus activity follows a distinct winter-spring seasonal pattern (4). In winter months, approximately 50% of hospitalizations and ED visits and 30% of outpatient visits for acute gastroenteritis among U.S. children aged <3 years are caused by rotavirus (5).
Dr Offit’s vaccine, Rotateq, is already having an impact on those figures and has the potential to prevent a lot of those estimated 527,000 deaths among children aged <5 years worldwide. The hate campaign against him does make me very angry and on second thoughts I do not apologize for the tone of this post. According to Aristotle,
”Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not easy.”
Comment by isles | July 31st, 2008
Great post. The hypocrisy of the anti-vaccine contingent is breathtaking. I dearly wish someone would give Handley a taste of his own medicine.
Comment by l'asperge | July 31st, 2008
JB Handley has friends?
Comment by TheProbe | July 31st, 2008
Brad? I always thought that the ‘B’ was for Bully. That seems way more appropriate than “Brad’. Bullying seems to be the only tactic, other than outright lying and twisting of words, that the anti-vaccinationists seem to have going for them.
Comment by A mom | July 31st, 2008
Attacks on Dr. Offit started years ago, but JB Handley and his merry band of sycophants have been deliberately stirring up hatred for Dr. Offit in anticipation of his book, “Autisms’s False Prophets,” coming out in September. Apparently it will expose what David Kirby, Generation Rescue, Safe Minds, and Defeat Autism Now are about. Instead of waiting for the book to come out and countering any statements they think are false or unfair, they are trying to smear Dr. Offit now. That is in keeping with the immature and cruel way the people leading these groups do things. I do hope that Dr. Offit will have a lawyer deal with the extremists because they are obviously out to defame him.
Comment by andrea | July 31st, 2008
Mn, this all reminds me of a saying,
“Good intentions plus no results equals no results.”
Pingback by blog-thing : Voices for Vaccines | August 1st, 2008
[...] Yesterday I referred to Age of Autism, the self styled “Daily Web Newspaper of the Autism Epidemic.” It has an editor, Dan Olmsted, who believes that [...]
Comment by JayGordon | August 1st, 2008
Vaccines, as presently formulated and administered, can cause harm to children. They certainly can prevent illness but must be used judiciously with careful evaluation of risks and benefits.
Dr. Offit has long claimed to have absolutely no financial interest in vaccination and this was not true. Dr. Offit does not need to be smeared. He refused an interview with CBS TV because his position has become quite difficult to defend in an open forum or a question and answer format.
Data are subject to different interpretations and honest people can disagree.
Best Wishes,
Jay
Comment by S. Monica | August 1st, 2008
http://stripgenerator.com/strip/159387/
So Dr. Jay, have you asked Dr. Offit to talk to you? No? You prefer a little backstabbing? You act like you know that Dr. Offit has done harm in the name of cash, but then you acted like you knew that vaccines contained antifreeze, too. And how do you know what Sharyl Atkisson asked Dr. Offit and why he turned her down?
Are you psychic now? Is this a new thing? Get Dr. Offit on the phone tomorrow and ask him if you are such a hotshot celebrity doctor.
Comment by Mike | August 1st, 2008
Jay,
before we can disagree on the data it would be good if you provide some. If the information on I speak of dreams is correct, the patent on Rotateq is assigned to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia “CHOP” (Philadelphia, PA); The Winstar Institute of Anatomy and Biology “WIAB” (Philadelphia, PA) His employers enjoy the profits and Dr Offit benefits to the extent that his employers are able to pay his salary. And if it is a considerable salary it is no more than he deserves.
Comment by isles | August 1st, 2008
There you go again, Gordon, with the misleading tripe.
What a responsible physician would say is “Like any medical intervention, vaccination carries some risk, but the risk is so small compared to the great benefit of immunity from life-threatening diseases that, for people without contraindications, vaccination is the best choice.”
Is that too complicated?
What financial interest does Dr. Offit have in children receiving the DTaP vaccine? Hib? MMR? He and the other targets of defamation simply speak the science which is known to all of medicine (except, I guess, those in the profession who think their personal perceptions trump all data). If you can’t substantiate your accusation, keep it to yourself.
Dr. Offit consistently declines requests to debate anti-vaccine extremists. Such debates bring stature to the extremists and provide an opportunity for their unscientific positions to get publicity. An interview with Sharyl Attkisson would just have been another debate with an antivaxer. Her bias is no secret.
What would happen to Dr. Offit if he decided tomorrow to start speaking out against vaccination? Would he lose his research chair? I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure once you have one of those, it’s for life. Would doctors stop giving RotaTeq? I doubt it. There are, ahem, well-known examples of doctors going off the deep end and scorning vaccines, and nobody takes them particularly seriously. Would he get fired from CHOP? Maybe, I guess. But if he’s making as much money off RotaTeq as you insinuate he is, he wouldn’t miss the salary. Really, now - where is his financial interest in promoting the vaccine he invented, much less the vaccines he didn’t invent?
Comment by Annie G. | August 1st, 2008
Gee, Dr. Gordon, you’re a physician — you must know that every medical procedure (including “wait and see”) has risks as well as benefits.
When you baldly assert Vaccines, as presently formulated and administered, can cause harm to children. — care to quantify “harm”? Care to supply statistics, or failing that, a link to a creditable source?
Otherwise, you’re just blowing hot air.
When you assert that Dr. Offit has long claimed to have absolutely no financial interest in vaccination — hmmn. It took me about 45 seconds to find Dr. Offit’s conflict of interest statement from the NEJM (May 15, 2008)
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/20/2089
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/20/2089
Dr. Offit reports being a co-inventor and co-holder of a patent on the rotavirus vaccine RotaTeq, from which he and his institution receive royalties, as well as serving on a scientific advisory board for Merck.
Who is asserting something that is not true, sir, you or Dr. Offit?
Given Attkinsson’s close association with Age of Autism (as reported on this blog’s next post, http://actionforautism.co.uk/2008/08/01/voices-for-vaccines/), it is hardly surprising that Dr. Offit would refuse an interview with a biased and unreliable reporter. My surmise: Offit’s refusal to speak to Attkisson is public relations 101 — don’t grant interviews to “journalists” who will distort your position.
He refused an interview with CBS TV because his position has become quite difficult to defend in an open forum or a question and answer format. Dr. Gordon, how do you know Dr. Offit’s motivation? Did he tell you? Did you read his mind?
While I agree that Honest people can disagree, it does help if both sides stick to the facts.
Comment by HCN | August 1st, 2008
Dr. Gordon said “Vaccines, as presently formulated and administered, can cause harm to children. They certainly can prevent illness but must be used judiciously with careful evaluation of risks and benefits.”
What exactly are those risks? How are they compared to the risks of the diseases?
According to the 9th slide of this Powerpoint:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/Slides/Pertussis10.ppt#9 … during the 2004, 2005 and 2006 at least 69 infants under the age of three months died from pertussis.
If you look at later slides you will see that the number of pertussis cases are going up. Very likely because of the efforts of valiant folks like Barbara Loe Fisher, David Kirby, Dan Olmsted and yourself.
Since you do have a definite background in science, can you tell us exactly what the risks are from the DTaP vaccine (which no longer seems to have thimerosal) versus diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis? Please provide the relevant peer reviewed paper where I can at least access the abstract from http://www.pubmed.gov. Thank you.
Comment by Do'C | August 1st, 2008
“Data are subject to different interpretations and honest people can disagree.”
This is true, but totally irrelevant to reality.
Honesty/dishonesty and agreement/disagreement, have no bearing on whether or not assertions about vaccination are scientifically correct.
Among differing interpretations, there can be the scientifically sound (supported by replicable scientific evidence), pseudoscientific, and probably some combinations of the two. Interpretations with longevity and relevance in science are supported by evidence.
Comment by Kev | August 1st, 2008
You also have a financial interest in vaccination Dr Gordon. Given that, I would like to ask you a question in an open forum which I hope you will answer, lest you be seen as refusing to answer the question:
Over and above your work as a ‘regular’ paediatrician, how much money do you make per month from your client list who you believe are vaccine injured? And how many of these clients do you have?
Comment by S. Monica | August 1st, 2008
I wonder if there is a monetary value that the IRS would place on an invitation to Jim Carrey’s house for a party? I would guess that if one could get such an invitation and auction it off, one would get a considerable amount of money. Jay uses his appearances on television to bolster his resume. On his website he has a comment similar to: “I sat on a couch next to supermodel Cindy Crawford on a morning news show.”
Golly.
Pingback by VFV Blog » Blog Archive » Catching up… | August 1st, 2008
[...] seems to have made an impact was to write a letter to CBS News objecting to their unfair treatment of three fellow immunization advocates. This letter quickly made its way to an anti-vaccine organization, an [...]
Comment by l'asperge | August 1st, 2008
He won’t be back.
Since you do have a definite background in science, can you tell us exactly what the risks are from the DTaP vaccine (which no longer seems to have thimerosal) versus diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis? Please provide the relevant peer reviewed paper where I can at least access the abstract from pubmed. Thank you.
Pingback by Autism Blog - Yet another look at CBS’s view of Offit’s COI’s | Left Brain/Right Brain | August 2nd, 2008
[...] Offit has been much in the news and blogOsphere lately (Say, here , here and here. Dr. Offit is a vaccine researcher and vocal supporter of vaccines. This makes him a target amongst [...]
Comment by Unherdof | August 7th, 2008
I’m confused. How can you require evidence of harm, when there is no way to determine those that will and those that will not be allergic to any given component of a vaccine, or react unfavorably in general? Children are not allergy tested prior to their administration, nor are they tested for immune competence. (standard disclaimer, like markers present etc…) Certainly don’t know near enough to be administering a vaccine within 24 hours of birth.
Vaccines are studied for efficacy - not harm. Marked humoral response, not the dissection of the CNS and the potential damage vaccines can do to a developing infant. (other than a single component like Al or Hg) Saying that there is no evidence to support harm because it’s not been adequately studied is a bit specious.
Pingback by Autism Blog - Conflicts, then and now | Left Brain/Right Brain | September 3rd, 2008
[...] Many people people (and Orac, and Kev, and AutismNewsBeat, to name a few) have gotten it right already, so I shouldn’t be too worried about it. But, as I await the book showing up in my mailbox, I keep thinking about the issue of conflicts of interest and Dr. Offit. [...]
Comment by Andrea Sutherland | October 30th, 2008
When something bad happens to your child, you want to understand why. The unknown is tough to deal with. As parents look for any cause to make the frightening and unbearable make some sense, a target is helpful.
Dr. Offit is not a reasonable target, he treats children, carefully researches and is willing to speak out with the facts. He is a courageous advocate for children, his only gain is provide scientific data to the mainstream.
My newborn son caught whooping cough, before he could be vaccinated at 2 mos., whooping cough has a 20% mortality. So to those families who elect to avoid vaccines, you need to understand your decision kept whooping cough active in the community. An unvaccinated child might seem to only affect you but I can say the choice put my son in mortal danger. Vaccines are life savers, we need to look for more answers to the source of autism, and move on from the ones that are not the source.
Pingback by The Science Museum and MMR « A canna’ change the laws of physics | December 29th, 2008
[...] I feel that I must point out, before I go on, that I have tremendous sympathy for those who find themselves, or a loved one, disadvantaged through ASDs (or perhaps a world that doesn’t understand people with ASDs). This includes those involved with JABS. However, as will become evident, I don’t think that anyone’s best interests are served by barking (very loudly) up the wrong tree. Particularly if this involves undermining essential - and life-saving - vaccination programmes. Neither do I think that being in pain yourself gives you the right to inflict it on others. [...]
Comment by Dr Sanguivore | June 7th, 2009
Well I have co-morbid Asperger’s, Dyspraxia and Dyslexia. Once, I had to explain to someone that I have an AS’D’ and they asked if it had been caused by the MMR. I guess this was caused by the pseudo-science put about by Generation ‘Rescue’ and such organisations, ‘cos the MMR was developed in 1988 and I was born in 1980. You do the math. (Year of MMR development researched via Google.)
Comment by Chris | June 9th, 2009
Dr. Sanguivore, the MMR that was introduced in the UK in 1991 was approved in the USA in 1971. The one used in the UK from 1988 to about 1991 only differs by the mumps strain (even still, the Urabe mumps portion of the vaccine still is safer than getting mumps, and the Jeryl Lynn strain in the present MMR is even more safe).
Comment by David N. Brown | August 10th, 2009
The story as given by AoA et. al. is bogus.
Offit’s critics base claims about his income from Rotateq on the assumption that he alone was eligible to receive an “inventor’s share”. However, CHOP’s manual defines the share as “the total amount payable to all Hospital Personnel who are Inventors, Authors, or other creators of the Intellectual Property generating the Net Income.” This definition is too broad for ANY one person to claim the entire share for himself.
Comment by Dr Sanguivore | November 11th, 2009
Thanks for the info Chris, any knowledge that helps me learn is welcome. Having said that, you seem to have missed my point which is that I wouldn’t have had the MMR in England in 1982, so it couldn’t have made me an Aspie. I reckon the reason that the statistics of people on the autistic spectrum are going up, is just that. As the relevant professionals are getting better trained to recognise autistic signs, more people get diagnosed and enter the statistics, which rise enormously, while the Autistic Community doesn’t grow as significantly. Jabs have f*** all to do with it.