Atanno emerging dangerous toxins. The tones and attacks - ranging from insult to mockery - target not only the actor De Niro. Lauded until a few days ago as a champion of free speech for his willingness to preview the Wakefield documentary, he is now despised for "turning his back on his autistic son" and betraying - they argue - the cause of the parents of the vaccine-damaged autistic children around the world.
29/03/2016 – EUGENIA TOGNOTTI – THE PRESS
A reprehensible behavior that of the proselytes of the supporter of the vaccine-autism link, for how they accepted the choice of Robert De Niro - co-founder of the refined Tribeca film festival - to withdraw the documentary film of the well-known anti-vaccine prophet, whose title is all a programme: Vaxxed: from Cover up to Catastrophe. (Vaccinated: from coverage to catastrophe). What has opened in these hours is a kind of Pandora's box from which dangerous toxins are emerging. The tones and attacks – ranging from insults to mockery – target not only the actor. Lauded until a few days ago as a champion of free speech for his willingness to preview the Wakefield documentary, he is now despised for "turning his back on his autistic son" and betraying - they argue - the cause of the parents of the vaccine-damaged autistic children around the world.
The big media are also under fire, which would meekly follow the orders of the CDC, an acronym for the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the public health control body in the United States. After having evoked all sorts of wickedness - from the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry to the "criminal" of doctors across America, from the systematic scientific fraud in clinical trials to the exploitation of children for illegal medical experiments - here is the inevitable question that to the conspiracy theory. What kind of pressure and threat (to his career and even to his life, his own, that of his wife and his son) was the actor subjected to inducing him to be canceled from the Vaxxed program? Who were the mysterious "scientific consultants" with whom he allegedly consulted last Friday before the official announcement and what did he talk about on the phone for more than an hour with a powerful politician? The controversies rage. In truth, De Niro's second thoughts and belated and tormented explanations did not even convince the opposite side: he really thought he was supporting the cause of his autistic son by admitting to the Festival a film based on scientific fraud and on the discredited theory that the trivalent vaccine does it cause autism? In fact, De Niro's statement on the desire to open a dialogue, starting from the documentary of a character like Wakefield is at least questionable.
In announcing its contents, the management seemed to lend credence to its discredited theory, reducing a crucial question, which had been on the table for years, to a Hollywood plot: the most vitriolic debate in the history of medicine which starts from the news that an elderly scientist of the CDC withheld secret documents, data and internal emails that confirmed what millions of devastated parents and "discredited" doctors had suspected. Needless to say, there was no conspiracy and Wakefield's lies were exposed. Author of the study that in 1998 launched the vaccine-autism link bomb from the pages of one of the most authoritative medical journals in the world, Lancet, was later denied by countless clinical studies. Among other things, a commission ascertained that the research was burdened by serious scientific and financial conflicts, as well as ethical flaws: a part of the costs would have been borne by the lawyers of the parents of autistic children who intended to sue and ask for damages vaccine manufacturers. In addition, the author of the article had patented a measles vaccine the year before that could have found a large market if the combination vaccine had been discredited. In conclusion, the author had behaved dishonestly, breaking the basic rules of ethics and showing a "cynical contempt" for the suffering of the children involved in his research, subjected to invasive tests. 
Faced with evidence of falsification of the data used in the study, the Lancet formally withdrew the article Wakefield who was also struck off the medical register of Great Britain.
But, meanwhile, the damage to public health - and what damage - was done: old fears and new alarms had spread like wildfire, giving strength to the fierce and rooted vacciniaphobic movements. Prejudice, distrust and skepticism also invested common vaccines, which has caused a surge in measles cases in recent years. Let's face it: the Tribeca accident does not bode well. Somehow the withdrawal of the documentary film has given Wakefield the opportunity to pose as a martyr and to find a new limelight for his theories. His followers cry out to censorship who denounce the desire to extinguish the confrontation. As if it were a documentary on Syrian refugees, on the American electoral system, on abortion, on in vitro fertilization. The false vaccine-autism link is not just any difficult, controversial, provocative topic on which to debate and compare different points of view. There are no "opposite sides of the problem" to consider in fraud, deception, and impropriety.
Related news: How misinformation spreads. “Vaccines in decline? Well! Nicoletti, get vaccinated!"
The legend of vaccine-caused autism
The study withdrawn from the Lancet Of Wakefield
Alarm in Tuscany, it is escape from the anti-meningitis C vaccination
The trend continues in the Ausl Centro. Fewer bookings and more cancellations, worried operators
"Half-empty clinics and phones that don't ring". It is 'leakage' from anti-meningitis C vaccinations in Tuscany, a region that has recorded an anomalous increase in cases of infection since the beginning of 2015. The Ausl Centro continues to observe "a drop in bookings and an increase in cancellations" for the shield injection against meningococcus C: a trend in the face of which "concern for health workers in public health and hygiene facilities is growing - explains the health company – who invite the population, especially the young, to join the extraordinary campaign promoted by the Tuscany Region “, with the free vaccine for the population aged 11 and over.
“It is important that a high coverage is reached in the 11-20 age group – reiterates the Ausl – because it is young people who often harbor meningococcus in their pharynx, the so-called 'healthy carriers'. For this reason, particularly in the Florentine area, it was decided to solicit the adhesion of the youngsters by sending letters of invitation also to sports clubs”. The doctors warn: "Only with vaccine prophylaxis will it be possible to reduce the risk of spreading meningococcal C infections (16 since the beginning of 2016 and 38 in 2015)".
For this reason, "Asl Toscana Centro, with the strengthening of the extraordinary openings of the vaccination centers and with the introduction of the single booking system throughout the territory, intends to vaccinate at least 70% of the resident population by next summer". However, the finish line seems to be moving away: “Even yesterday there were thousands of seats available in the Cup system and very few bookings. Just to give a few examples - lists the company - in the Prato area, again yesterday, there were 2,041 vacancies and just 615 occupied ones, with a percentage equal to only 30%. The same situation in the Pistoia area, with 1,419 availabilities and only 40 bookings, with a saturation rate of 2.82%.
Here, given the availability of 4,500 seats immediately available from next week, we will contact all reservations due in May-June to bring them forward in April. Things are no different in the Florence area, even if the percentage rises to 62%. But even here, compared to an offer of 51,713 seats, there were only 31,466 bookings”. Numbers very different from those of February when, "in the wake of the cases of type C meningitis that had affected some young people, and after the extension of vaccination to the entire population by regional resolution, on average every day there were about 1,600 booking requests (a total of 87,855 in Florence alone through call centres, branches, the web, pharmacies).
Precisely in conjunction with the hospitalizations for meningococcal infection C, the days of greatest influx were those of 10 and 11 February, respectively with 5,654 and 5,702 daily bookings, while the peak was reached on 18 February with as many as 6,820 bookings”. It is no coincidence that "the day before there had been another case of meningitis". Now, however, it is an escape from prophylaxis: “In the Florentine area in March, including the Prato and Pistoia areas, we dropped to 22,953 bookings. The cancellations, on the other hand, reached 12,186".
(PO – 05/30/2016 – PharmaKronos)
Related news: Meningitis, the strange case of Tuscany
