A Call to all Artist-A Card Game for Mickie!

A few weeks ago, a blogger and artist friend of mine, Magarita Garcia Alonso, came up with the idea, or convoking a card game for Mickie.

"Mickie's World"

Trying to brake barriers and find ways of communication and learn Mickie's world, by explaining our world.

Any persons interested-artists, graphic artists, drawers, sensitive people, All can participate by sending a drawing.

Something like Tarot Cards, in 10 cms x 5cms, with simple traces, or a line, a crayon, that will make up the game, where emotions will be present as well as the world around us.

Thank you.

In Spanish:

Hace algunas semanas a mi amiga blogera y artista Magarita Garcia Alonso, se le ocurrió convocar un juego de cartas para Mickie.

"El Mundo de Mickie"

Tratamos de que no existan barreras, de encontrar modos de comunicación y de aprender el mundo de Mickie, nombrando el nuestro.

Las personas interesadas-artistas, infografistas, dibujantes, personas sensibles, Todos, pueden participar enviando un dibujo.

Como cartas de un tarot, en 10 cms x 5cms, con trazos simples, a linea, a crayon, que conformaran un juego, donde estarán presente las emociones y el mundo que nos rodea.

Los blogs pueden afichar la convocatoria, asi como pasarla a escuelas e instituciones...

In French:

Convocation.

"Le monde de Mickie", ou Un jeu de cartes pour Mickie.

Nous traitons de que n' existent pas des barrières, de trouver des manières de communication et d' apprendre le monde de Mickie, en nommant le nôtre.

Les personnes intéressées les artistes, graphistes, des dessinateurs, des personnes sensibles, Tous, peuvent participer en envoyant un dessin.

Comme des lettres d' un tarot, dans 10 cm x 5cms, avec des traits simples, à une ligne, à crayon qui façonneront un jeu, où seront présents les émotions et le monde qui nous entoure.

Les blogs peuvent afficher la convocation, et inviter à des écoles et des institutions à nous rejoindre.

Merci.

In Italian:

Convocazione.

"Il mondo di Mickie, o un gioco di carte per Mickie.

Noi discutere che non esistono barriere, trovare i mezzi di comunicazione e di imparare il mondo di Mickie, i nostri nomi.

Coloro che sono interessati artisti, grafici, designer, persone sensibili, tutti possono partecipare inviando un disegno.

Come le lettere di una tarot in 5cms x 10 cm, con linee semplici, una linea a matita, che forma un gioco, dove saranno presenti le emozioni e il mondo intorno a noi.

Blog possono visualizzare la convocazione, e di invitare le scuole e le istituzioni ad unirsi a noi.

Grazie.

Mystery Illness Strikes UK Child

Six months ago Belle Isle youngster Melody Brook was full of life.Now an illness baffles medics has left the five-year-old struggling to speak, walk, feed herself or even support her head...

...Melody started showing symptoms a few days after having her joint measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination in July.

Read the rest of this article at AgeOfAutism.

A Message From Dr. Andrew Wakefield - The Truth About Public Health's Promotion of Vaccination

The Meaning of true Informed Consent in Vaccination "Response to Dr. Ari Brown and the Immunization Action Coalition"

Dear Concerned Parents:

As new parents we face decisions great and small; to inform them, our vocabulary expands to include new ideas, new worlds and phrases such as “sippy cup”, “Diaper Genie,” and “nasal syringe.” Open-minded, we spend hours researching car seats, organic mattresses, day care, the benefits of sleep schedules, and playgroups.

One of the most important decisions you’ll make is how to vaccinate your child. Educating yourself on the risks and benefits of vaccination is the first and most crucial step. Your baby’s doctor probably assumes that vaccines and the CDC-recommended vaccine schedule are safe, but you’ve heard rumors that there might be a connection to autism. Dr. Ari Brown has written an article called “Clear Answers and Smart Advice about Your Baby’s Shots” that makes it sound as if there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

What is the truth?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Academy of Family Practitioners believe that vaccines are one of the most significant public health measures of all time. We couldn’t agree more. But are there unnecessary risks for the individual? Don’t forget that antibiotics were rightly greeted with similar enthusiasm, but we now know that antibiotics can backfire, and that more isn’t always better. Is it possible that the same could be true for vaccines?

Vaccines are recommended, licensed, and assessed for safety by federal authorities including the FDA and CDC, but how comprehensive are the safety tests? We know from one large university study that early administration of the DTP shot is implicated in the development of asthma. Is it true that serious side effects are rare? Would the vaccine manufacturer’s safety testing methods even reveal a link to autism, if there were one?

The vaccine-autism controversy persists because the appointed watchdogs are willfully ignoring evidence concerning vaccine safety issues; the AAP’s response to parents’ concerns has been to just insist more and more vociferously that vaccines are safe. But denying it will not dispel the controversy. Shouldn’t they be insisting instead on really good testing? The research to date is inconclusive. No one can say yet with complete certainty that vaccines do or do not cause autism.
Nothing is more important that than the health of our children. Please read this article, print it out, and take it to your pediatrician. Share it with other parents. It will take you about the same amount of time to read this as it takes to research that car seat, and it will let you have a more thoughtful and informed discussion about vaccines with your baby’s doctor.

Click Here to Download a PDF of the "Response to Dr. Ari Brown and the Immunization Action Coalition", by Dr. Andrew Wakefield et al.
Thank you for your time and continued interest.

Thoughtful House Center for Children
With

ACT Today!

CryShame

Age of Autism

International Chiropractors Association
Autism Action Network

A-CHAMP

Medical Veritas
The Autism File

National Vaccine Information Center
Autism One

National Autism Association
Autism Research Institute

NoMercury

Autism Today

SafeMinds
Autisme et troubles envahissants du developpement Montreal

Schafer Report
Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Unlocking Autism
Alan D. Clark, M.D. Memorial Research Foundation

Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy

World Autism Association!

FYI

Friday, February 6th National Vaccine Advisory Committee Meeting

[latest posting from the Coalition for Safe Minds]

BACKGROUND: During Monday's third stakeholder meeting by Institute of Medicine to review priorities in the National Vaccine Plan, panel members Dr. Louis Z. Cooper, (ex-head of the American Academy of Pediatrics) and Dr. Samuel Katz (one of the principal architects of US vaccine policy) stated that more honesty in communications with parents with regard to vaccines were needed. Dr. Cooper added that communication should be coordinated and based on sound vaccine safety science and noted that that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) spent $300 billion on the promotion of vaccines, while spending only $20 billion on vaccine safety research. Dr. Cooper stated that this sound science had been "done on the cheap" and was seriously deficient.

Many public comments at this meeting centered on parents concerns on lack of information received from physicians on vaccine risks and the need for a comprehensive study of vaccinated and unvaccinated populations to determine total health outcomes, possible detrimental effects of current timeline of immunization schedule and the number of vaccines given at any one time.

In sharp contrast, CDC's Glen Nowak, CDC's Media Director, response was "less is more" in terms of information given to parents. During yesterday's Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) meeting, NVAC's Dr. Gellin stated that parent concerns were not limited to the autism community and the need to address these concerns to restore the public's trust in the immunization program.

Andy Wakefield
Executive Director
Thoughtful House Center for Children
andy.w@thoughtfulhouse.org

Autism, Vaccines and the CDC: The Wrong Side of History

by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Kirby

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-and-david-kirby/autism-vaccines-and-the-c_b_161395.html

Even as the evidence connecting America's autism epidemic to vaccines mounts, dead-enders at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) -- many of whom promoted the current vaccine schedule and others with strong ties to the vaccine industry -- are trying to delay the day of reckoning by creating questionable studies designed to discredit any potential vaccine-autism link and by derailing authentic studies.

On January 12, a cadre of mid-level health bureaucrats left over from the Bush administration ignored Federal requirements for advance notice in order to vote to quietly strip vaccine research studies from funding allocated by Congress in the Combating Autism Act (CAA) of 2006. Members of Congress had said that this money should be used to study the vaccine-autism connection.

These rogue bureaucrats -- members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee -- held an unannounced vote to remove previously approved vaccine studies from funding under the CAA. Nearly all of the "Federal" members of the panel voted to remove the two studies, whose estimated cost was $16 million - or 1.6% of the billion dollars authorized by Congress for autism. The panel's civilian members, in contrast, voted nearly unanimously to retain the funding.

IACC's action to halt vaccine-autism research flies in the face of congressional intent. The bill's authors clearly stated that vaccine research should be funded. Even the esteemed Institute of Medicine has condemned CDC's methods. In 2005, an IOM panel condemned CDC for its "lack of transparency" in vaccine-autism research.

The bureaucrats responsible for this scandal are on the wrong side of history and it's hard to not attribute an obstructionist motive to their act since vaccine-autism research has already entered the realm of mainstream science. Serious scientists (except those tied to the vaccine industry) no longer debate whether vaccine-autism research should be done, but rather how it should be done, and by whom.

Please click here to visit the Huffington Post website to read this piece in its entirety.

Seizures and the Immune System

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/seizures-and-the-immune-system.html

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

What causes seizures?

It’s a simple question, and a profoundly important one to people like me who have a child with seizures. The recent death of Jett Travolta from a seizure leaves parents like us feeling that may some day be our story, despite all our best efforts. Dan Olmsted’s recent article, “The Unnatural History of Seizures” appropriately places at least some of the blame on environmental factors, but leaves unanswered the question of exactly how such seizures are caused. However, recent research from New York University (NYU), and the Scripps Institute may answer some questions which have long eluded researchers. (“Peering Inside Skull of a Mouse to Solve Meningitis Mystery: Immune Cells Implicated in Fatal Seizures”, Science Daily, January 7, 2009)

In their series of experiments mice were infected with the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), a virus which is relatively harmless in humans, but which causes fatal seizures in mice. It has been known that the virus itself did not cause the seizures, but something in the immune system’s response to the virus did.

It was known that something set off a chain of events in which the leakage of fluid from the meninges (the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord), caused a swelling which led to seizures.

Using high-tech, intravital two-photon microscopy the scientists were able to observe that T-cells, the body’s virus fighters, were doing something very unusual. At first, the T-cells acted normally, making copies of themselves, migrating to the place where the virally-infected cells were located, but then things went awry. Instead of attacking the virally-infected cells and sticking tightly to them, it was as if they suddenly went blind. They didn’t attack the virally-infected cells, even though they were in close proximity.

But like a policeman called to a murder scene who can’t find a body, the T-cells called in reinforcements, specifically monocytes and neutrophils, two types of white blood cells which usually fight bacteria, not viruses. According to the Science Daily article, “Intravital microscopy showed massive numbers of these white blood cells breaking through the walls of blood vessels into the meninges, opening the floodgates for fluid to pour out and cause swelling.” And the swelling leads to seizures.

Problems with the immune system have long been associated with autism, but the exact mechanisms by which they cause their damage have been unclear. The authors of the report note that if they can inhibit the monocytes and neutrophils they will be going after the root of the seizures.

I would add a few extra questions to be addressed. What is blinding the T-cells to the
invaders in their midst? Could viruses and heavy metals have similar ways of blinding T-cells? Why have the body’s own guardians become the destroyers of the body? Rather than simply muting the misguided message of the T-cells to the monocytes and neutrophils it seems we should be figuring out how to restore the proper functioning of the T-cells. We need to discover how to return the guardians to their proper role.

The lives of many children, maybe even my own, hinge on the answers to these questions.

Kent Heckenlively is Legal Editor for Age of Autism.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/01/seizures-and-the-immune-system.html