Heart expert Kevin Channer appears to dispute cause of death of newspaper seller hit by PC Simon Harwood at G20 protests A leading heart specialist appeared to rule out the theory that Ian Tomlinson died of a heart attack at the G20 protests, at the inquest into his death has . Tomlinson, a newspaper seller, collapsed and died less than three minutes after being hit with a baton and pushed to the ground by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood, during the demonstrations near the Bank of England. He had been trying to get home from work at around 7.20pm on 1 April 2009 when he encountered the Metropolitan police officer. Paramedics were unable to resuscitate Tomlinson, a father of nine, who was pronounced dead more than an hour later. Prof Kevin Channer, a heart expert at Royal Hallamshire hospital, was asked by the inquest to analyse chart readings from a defibrillator that was used on Tomlinson by paramedics. Channer’s expert evidence, contained in a report to the inquest, was that the electrocardiogram (ECG) data obtained by paramedics as they fought to resuscitate Tomlinson was inconsistent with an arrhythmic heart attack. The heart pulse data was however consistent with the 47-year-old dying of internal bleeding, Channer said. The medical cause of Tomlinson’s death has proved a key area of controversy in his inquest, which is now in its fourth week. The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said that when he was unable to find a source of the bleeding in Tomlinson’s abdomen, he concluded “through a process of elimination” that the newspaper seller must have died of an arrhythmic heart attack. Patel, who is no longer on an accredited list of pathologists, said the type of heart attack would have resulted from Tomlinson’s coronary artery disease and could have occurred at any time. However, his evidence is contradicted by three forensic pathologists who examined the body and found instead that Tomlinson was likely to have died as a result of internal bleeding. They include Dr Nat Cary, who also gave evidence at the inquest on Monday. He said Channer’s report meant there was now “only one real possibility. “It doesn’t matter how you look at this case, whether you look at the heart and the coronary arteries or heart, you look at the ECG traces and clinical status, you come to the same view,” Cary said. “Mr Tomlinson did not die due to a so-called heart attack, or arrhythmic heart attack, due to coronary artery disease.” Cary previously told the inquest that he believed that Harwood’s violent shove of the newspaper seller was likely to have been the cause of his death. He said video footage showed Tomlinson’s elbow was caught between his body and the ground, which would have been sufficient to cause a “blunt force trauma” internal injury, most likely to the liver, which was badly diseased. When Patel was presented with Channer’s findings, he appeared to alter his explanation of a heart attack, indicating that Tomlinson may have suffered a “very transient” form of arrhythmic heart attack and then recovered spontaneously, before then losing consciousness. He also introduced an previously unmentioned explanation for the death: hypoxia, or the deprivation of adequate oxygen supply. Paramedics previously told the inquest that they had ruled out hypoxia when they went to Tomlinson’s aid. Patel confirmed to the judge that he had made no prior mention of hypoxia as a cause of death in his two official postmortem reports. When it was suggested the to Patel that he was introducing a entirely new cause of the death in his fourth day of evidence, he momentarily fell silent. The jury was previously told that Patel has since September been suspended twice by the General Medical Council, including for professional misconduct and dishonesty. Matthew Ryder, counsel for the inquest, said: “I am sorry to say, Dr Patel, I suggest you are reaching for options because you know, now, or you realise now, the conclusion that you have put forward is not a solid one, and cannot be sustained.” The pathologist replied: “I do not agree with that at all.” Earlier, a consultant liver expert, Dr Graeme Alexander, told the jury his view was that Tomlinson had died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, caused by trauma to his liver after his fall. He said that Tomlinson’s serious liver disease would have made him much more susceptible to collapse from internal bleeding than another person. Alexander added that Patel’s suggestion that an absence of damage to a capsule surrounding the liver indicated it could not have been the source of bleeding was “not a relevant argument at all”. “I have a ward full of patients with liver disease, and if they have a cardiac arrest on the ward it is safe bet that they have bled,” Alexander said. The inquest continues. Ian Tomlinson London Police Protest G20 Dr Freddy Patel Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Republican Montana legislator thinks gays should face felony charges for ‘recruiting’ straights
April 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media We’ve reported previously about how Republicans in Montana’s Legislature, completely overrun by some of the most extremist of all the Tea Party elements, have been going nuts this session, passing a variety of bills that have been so obviously unconstitutional and frivolous (not to mention downright insane) that last week the Democratic governor felt compelled to make a very public display of his vetoes — with a branding iron . But the problem isn’t merely with the legislation they’re passing. There’s also a problem with the legislation they’re refusing to pass. For instance, last month a Democrat offered up a bill that should have been uncontroversial: It would have officially repealed the state’s primitive anti-homosexuality law, already long overturned by the state’s Supreme Court. But no: the Tea-Partying Republicans running the House committee overseeing the bill simply killed it in the crib . So one of those Republicans last week explained to the Missoula Independent exactly what his thinking was: The legislature’s inaction was not, it turns out, another non-priority falling off the too-long to-do list. Rather, it’s homophobic lawmakers subtly suggesting that homosexual acts should still be outlawed, the Supreme Court—and equal rights in general—be damned. In fact, at least one lawmaker, Rep. Ken Peterson, R-Billings, an attorney, argues that the archaic law may still apply in certain situations. Which situations? According to Peterson, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, there are at least two prosecutable offenses—felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. One is the “recruitment” of non-gays. “Homosexuals can’t go out into the heterosexual community and try to recruit people, or try to enlist them in homosexual acts,” Peterson says. He provides an example: “‘Here, young man, your hormones are raging. Let’s go in this bedroom, and we’ll engage in some homosexual acts. You’ll find you like it.’” Peterson hasn’t actually seen this happen, he says, because “I don’t associate with that group of people at all… I’ve associated with mainstream people all my life.” The other offense, in Peterson’s legal opinion, is the public display of homosexuality, since he believes the Supreme Court’s decision only applies to private acts behind closed doors. Being gay in public, he says, is a wholly different matter: “In my mind, if they were engaging in acts in public that could be construed as homosexual, it would violate that statute. It has to be more than affection. It has to be overt homosexual acts of some kind or another… If kissing goes to that extent, yes. If it’s more than that, yes.” He went on Billings TV a little later and defended the remarks: Peterson says the law in question, which was ruled unconstitutional in 1997, still has merits. He says the Montana Supreme Court’s decision had a narrow scope limiting prosecution only in private settings. “I feel the law can still have some potential application,” he said Friday, “I don’t think it was repealed with the Grayson case, anyone that says it was repealed hasn’t read the case and doesn’t understand the case.” He says gays and lesbians can and should be prosecuted for overt sexual acts in public, and for “recruiting” members of the straight community. However, he also tried to claim that he did not say something that he in fact plainly said: Friday, he told us he stands by them, but says some were taken out of context. Specifically, he said characterizations that kissing in public could lead to prosecution were untrue. Peterson said he gets along fine with his gay and lesbian colleagues and did not intend to offend the LGBT community with his comments. Peterson, in fact, was probably one of the more thoughtful Tea Partiers who weighed in on this issue. Legislators arguing over the bill in committee were even worse : Sen. Facey said the reason he brought this bill to the legislature is because words matter. And the fact that this law remains on our books sends a message to gay and lesbian people in our state. Unfortunately, members of the committee did not hear Sen. Facey when he said “words matter.” Throughout the hearing, GOP members constantly equated homosexuality with bestiality and pedophilia. In fact, one opposing witness of the bill went so far as to say all pedophiles are either gay or bisexual. In an even more disturbing exchange, Rep. Bob Wagner (of Anderson Cooper 360 fame) asked a series of questions that were intended to imply that all homosexual men have HIV and then have to rely on state assistance for their medical care. Proponents of Sen. Facey’s bill, who have worked multiple legislative sessions, said that this hearing was the most disgusting hearing they have seen in their years at the Capitol. I sure hope Montana voters are proud of what they have wrought.
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Demonstrations follow claims that security forces killed at least 25 people in Homs and further five in Talbisseh Thousands of people chanting for the toppling of the Syrian regime took to the streets of the country’s third largest city for mass funerals, as activists denied any US role in the uprising. Rights groups say security forces killed at least 25 in Homs on Sunday night as protests erupted despite president Bashar al-Assad’s offers of reforms in a bid to quell unrest. A further five people were killed on Sunday night in the nearby town of Talbisseh, and there were also unconfirmed reports of four dead in Latakia, rights activists said. Residents of Homs and Talbisseh told news agencies that the cities were tense following funerals for at least 8 of the victims. The injured were refusing to seek medical treatment for fear of being arrested, they said, while reports suggested a sit-in was being staged. Despite a reduced level of violence during Friday’s protests and a pledge to lift emergency laws within the week, protesters turned out on Sunday for Syria’s independence day which commemorates the departure of the last French soldier in 1946. Protests also took place in Daraa, Duma and Latakia on Sunday, and Daraa again on Monday]. Amateur footage suggests a rapidly growing number of demonstrators are calling for the toppling of the regime rather than freedom. Amid the funerals, internal activists stressed the grassroots nature of Syria’s uprising after the publication of a US embassy cable leaked to Wikileaks on Monday saying that the US had channelled funds to Syrian pro-democracy groups. The cableclaimed that, since 2006, $6m (£3.6m) had been channelled to groups including the Movement for Justice and Development, a moderate Islamist party based in London, and Barada TV. The Syrian government – who said one policeman had been killed and 11 injured in Talbisseh at the hands of an armed gang – has repeatedly blamed the past month of protests on armed gangs linked to outsiders, from Lebanese enemies to exiled opposition. “Even if the US gave money to these groups, it has no bearing on the protests,” said one independent activist in Damascus. “It is clear that this movement was started by normal people, not the opposition – which barely exists anyway – and not even us activists.” Ausama Monajed, an activist helping to publicise the protests, is a member of the party, but said his work was run by volunteers only. Few people in Syria watch Barada TV, preferring the Dubai-based Orient TV or al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, while Syria’s weak, and mostly exiled, opposition has little influence inside the country. While on Sunday some in the capital expressed positive views over Assad’s speech, which was seen as targeting the silent majority who have yet to come out in the centres of Damascus and Aleppo, the renewed use of violence may have caused a resurgence of discomfort. Since the violence of 8 April, a growing number of women have staged protests. On Saturday an unknown number of Syrian students posted a statement on Facebook condemning the violence used against protesters and calling for a three-day boycott of lectures starting on Tuesday]. Some students have been referred to the punishment committee of Damascus University after a small protest last week. Katherine Marsh is a pseudonym for a journalist living in Damascus Syria Middle East Protest Katherine Marsh guardian.co.uk
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This week’s edition of MRC’s Notable Quotables newsletter is chock full of liberal media quotes showing reporters’ slanted approach to the tax and budget issues now at center stage. In fact, there’s so much bad material, we had to add an extra page to our usually three-page newsletter (you can view/download the PDF here ). The whole issue is up over at www.MRC.org . Here’s a baker’s dozen of the worst quotes (including two video clips), all collected in the last couple of weeks: Once Again, Evil Republicans Making War on the Poor “Guess what? Paul Ryan is doing it on the backs of poor people and seniors…He’s not doing anything in terms of raising taxes to compensate and say, ‘you know what, the sacrifice is going to be shared across all areas of our economy.’ The rich get off like scoundrels.” — Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday, April 10. “You voted to give tax cuts to the richest Americans, the top two percent, you gave them tax cuts of about $800 billion over a decade, which is exactly what you guys are saying we now need to cut from health care for the poorest Americans. That was a trade off that you made. How can you justify that as a matter of ethics, morality or simply good conscience?…You are driving the government to bankruptcy and then balancing the budget on the backs of the poor….” — CNN’s Eliot Spitzer to Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, In the Arena, April 5. Ryan’s Budget Would “Kill Half” of Matthews’ Audience “Most people who follow the news and watch the newspapers every day and watch television shows like this on Fox or this network, MSNBC, or anywhere, on CNN, they — those most attuned to this debate over the budget are either retired or close to it….Let them [Republicans] offer a big slash in Medicare, which is going to kill half the people who watch this show.” — Chris Matthews talking about the House GOP budget plan on MSNBC’s Hardball, April 11. Don’t Reduce Government Spending or “People Will Starve to Death” “I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry….These supposedly deficit-reducing cuts — they’d barely make a dent — will quite literally cause more people to starve to death, go to bed hungry or live more miserably than are doing so now.” — New York Times food writer Mark Bittman in a March 30 op-ed, “Why We’re Fasting.” As Always: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit “If it [the proposed Republican budget] respects the Treasury, what it does not respect are women’s rights, what it does not respect is the environment. Is it going to undermine potential success here if you force social issues on to the budget table?” — Daytime anchor Contessa Brewer to Republican Congressman Mike Pence on MSNBC Live, April 1. “Poor white people, poor black people are the ones who are oppressed by the right wing in this country, but they don’t seem to get that. They vote against their own interests all the time.” — Headline News host Joy Behar on her Joy Behar Show, April 12. Touting Victims of the Shutdown That Never Happened “The shutdown will stop new funding for medical research and hope for desperate patients….Doctors at the National Institutes of Health would be forced to stop seven new clinical trials, four involving children, next week; and stop admitting new patients at 640 ongoing trials, 60 of them involving children with cancer.” — ABC’s Jake Tapper on World News, April 6. Correspondent Jonathan Karl: “And there’s the sixth grade class at Central Elementary in Coleraine, Massachusetts. They’ve been looking forward to visiting Washington D.C. on Monday.” Unidentified girl: “The government is mean.” Karl: “But now they may be due for an entirely different kind of civics lesson, as most of the city may be shut down.” — ABC’s Good Morning America, April 7. Matt Took the Spin Right Out of Chuck’s Mouth Matt Lauer: “When you look at some of the things the Tea Party and others on the far right are asking for — no funding for Planned Parenthood, no funding for climate control, public broadcasting — does it seem to you, Senator, that this is less about a fiscal debate or an economic policy debate and they are making an ideological stand here?” Democratic Senator Charles Schumer: “That’s exactly right, Matt. You’ve hit the nail on the head.” — Exchange on NBC’s Today, April 6. Right on Cue, Media Start Chirping for Higher Taxes “He [Paul Ryan] doesn’t deal with the revenue side at all….His goal is to do 18 percent of GDP as revenue. That’s not enough. We’re going to have to raise some taxes and we’re going to have to face up to that…” — Former Newsweek managing editor Evan Thomas on Inside Washington, April 8. “Finding a way to raise taxes may well be the central political problem facing the United States.” — New York Times chief economics writer David Leonhardt, April 13. “Is raising taxes on the table?…Why shouldn’t the burden be equally shared? Why shouldn’t we put some of that burden on the wealthy and corporations?” — Matt Lauer to Representative Michele Bachmann on NBC’s Today, April 13. It’s “Awesome” Just to Be Near the “Anti-Reagan” “If you were a kid in the Northeast during the 1980s, as I was, there is something awesome — in the literal sense — about sitting across a desk from Mario Cuomo, even if he now misplaces names and occasionally grasps for the point of an anecdote that has fluttered just out of reach. He was, at that time, the anti-Reagan, a powerful and resonant voice of dissent in the age of Top Gun and Alex P. Keaton. Cuomo, Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson were the three titans of the day who seemed to possess the defiance needed to rescue liberalism from obsolescence.” — Correspondent Matt Bai in an April 10 New York Times Magazine profile of Cuomo. And there's plenty more where those came from. Just click over to www.MRC.org for even more outrageous quotes from the liberal media.
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Latest opinion poll, carried out three weeks before AV referendum, suggests opinion against alternative vote system is hardening Support for a change to the way in which MPs are elected is collapsing, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll. The figures give the No campaign a 16-point lead, compared with a two-point lead for the Yes campaign in the equivalent Guardian/ICM poll, carried out in February. Conducted less than three weeks before the UK votes, the poll suggests opinion against the alternative vote is hardening as both sides squabble over the implications of change. The poll is the first for two months to be carried out by telephone using a random sample rather than an online panel, and the results have been adjusted to take account of turnout. Uniquely for the Guardian, the poll also includes a sample of voters from Northern Ireland, which is included in the UK-wide referendum. ICM posed the same question that will be asked in the referendum: “At present, the UK uses the first past the post system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the alternative vote system be used instead?” The results will make depressing reading for Yes campaigners, who began the year with high hopes. A December Guardian/ICM poll last year put the Yes vote six points ahead before adjusting for likely turnout. In February, the two camps were neck and neck on the same measure, and now – again before turnout is taken into account – the No vote is 11 points ahead. Pro-AV campaigners had hoped people who wanted change would be more likely to turn out on polling day. Instead, once people are asked how likely they are to vote, the lead for the Nos increases. Among people who say they are likely to vote and have made up their minds, the No lead is now 16 points, with 42% saying yes and 58% no. Three-quarters of Conservatives are planning to vote will vote against, as will a small majority of Labour supporters. Only Lib Dem voters are firmly in favour, with more than two-thirds saying they will vote for the change. The Yes camp could still turn things around by winning over the 23% who say they do not know how they will vote, but this includes many people who say they may not turn out at all. Young people are more than twice as likely to favour AV as pensioners, but pensioners are more than twice as likely to vote as the young. Increasing youth turnout could determine the outcome. Ahead of the elections, which will take place in Scotland and Wales for devolved administrations and in England for many local councils, Labour has also regained a narrow lead over the Conservatives. The estimated national voting intentions put Labour on 37%, up one. The Conservatives are on 35%, down two, and the Lib Dems on 15%, down one but still higher than in most online polls. Support for other parties stands at a combined 13%, a recent high in ICM surveys. That includes 3% each for the Greens and Ukip and a combined 5% for the Welsh and Scottish nationalists. • ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,033 adults across the United Kingdom aged 18+ by telephone on 15-17 April 2011. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. Voting intention based on British sample of 1,003 people. Alternative vote Electoral reform AV referendum Opinion polls Julian Glover guardian.co.uk
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Apple share falls less quickly as Google operating system takes over – but Windows Phone has barely sold half of the 2m handsets shipped, say new figures Nokia is suffering dramatic falls in market share worldwide, and RIM has seen a calamitous fall in its US sales – while the Android mobile operating system is streaking past rivals in almost every developed country to become the dominant player everywhere. New figures provided exclusively to The Guardian by Kantar WorldPanel Comtech shows Nokia’s market share for smartphones dropping from 10% to just over 1% in the US over the past six months, meaning it sold only about 160,000 top-end devices there. The story is the same for the troubled Finnish phone manufacturer in every country over a 12-month or six-month period, with a collapse in market share that bodes badly ahead of its quarterly financial results due this Thursday. The story is no more encouraging for RIM, which according to Kantar has seen a huge fall in the number of sales in the US, the world’s biggest smartphone market. There its share has fallen from 32.5% in June 2010 to just 10.6% in March 2011, meaning that it only sold an estimated 1.4m devices there. Apple is also being rapidly eclipsed by Android devices, though Kantar notes that the introduction in the US of its iPhone to the Verizon network provided an uplift to sales, so that it actually increased its market share there. But in other countries, notably the UK, Germany, France and Japan, the iPhone saw double-digit falls in market share – which could mean that even if it is selling more phones, it is not growing the number as quickly as the market is expanding. Meanwhile Microsoft’s Windows Phone launch has made barely a ripple, with the company’s share of the market falling in every country as the last of its previous-generation Windows Mobile phones are phased out. Kantar’s figures suggest that only 1m Windows Phone devices were sold since they launched – around half the number that Microsoft has repeatedly said have been “shipped”. “The key underlying trend is that Android is growing in every country,” said Dominic Sunnebo, consumer insight director for Kantar. “Windows Phone handsets have had virtually no impact on the market; until Nokia starts to produce versions of them, I don’t think that we are going to see anything, because there’s no key reason why you could choose one over an iPhone or Android phone – those can already do everything you might want to do with a Windows Phone handset.” Sunnebo warned that Apple faces serious dilution of its market share unless it expands its handset range quickly. “The lesson of Android is that if you release enough handsets, they are going to sell. It’s hard for Apple to compete against that if they’re only producing one new handset per year, especially when the growth in this market is among the low-end devices. Apple is profitable in the developed markets such as the US, but if you look into the future, at countries like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, there’s no way that they can get serious penetration there because of the import duties adding to the sheer cost of the phone. Places like that are where [Nokia's] Symbian is dominant, and that’s where Android is getting to be dominant now.” Rumours have circulated for some time that Apple will try to expand its iPhone offering to take in low-end buyers, as it did when it expanded into the cheaper end of the digital music player market with its iPod mini in 2004. But at that time it controlled the music player market – a situation that doesn’t apply with mobile phones. RIM faces problems because the ASP (average selling price) of its handsets is falling as it tries to expand sales – which keeps revenues strong but cuts profits. “They’ve realised that they can’t compete with Apple and they’re struggling against Android,” said Sunnebo. Meanwhile Windows Phone faces a difficult transition period while it waits for Nokia to make its move, announced in February, to bury Symbian on smartphones and replace it with Windows Phone . The Guardian has forecast that Nokia will not be selling any Windows Phone devices before October , when Microsoft is expected to release a substantial upgrade to the OS, codenamed “Mango”, with enhanced functionality that should put it on feature parity with iOS and Android’s present capabilities. Kantar produces its figures from a global consumer panel, carrying out around 1m interviews per year in Europe alone. It tracks mobile phone purchasing and other behaviour. The data provided excludes enterprise sales. Smartphones Android Apple iPhone Nokia Microsoft Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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A winking John Berman on Monday used only a little subtlety as mocked Donald Trump for his “enormous” “size.” The Good Morning America reporter turned financial comments by the businessman into something more suggestive: ” We know he has a big ego, but he swears he has big ideas and also an enormous, well, see for yourself .”
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Radical plan unveiled by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cope with growing strains of city with 17 million residents Istanbul is renown as the place where east meets west, the only city in the world to straddle Europe and Asia. But it may soon lose this unique status if the Turkish government goes ahead with a plan to divide it in two. The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Istanbul mayor, has announced what he described as a “wild project” to split the city into European and Asian sides to make it easier to govern. “We will build two new cities in Istanbul due to high population,” Erdogan said, announcing his party’s manifesto for June elections.. “One on the European side and one on the Anatolian side.” Istanbul’s official population is soon expected to reach 17 million, with thousands more unregistered people living in the city. Tahire Erman, an urban planning expert at Ankara’s Bilkent University, said this caused significant problems for authorities: “[Istanbul] is already overgrown, and there are already many problems in the provision of infrastructure and municipal services to the city.” Should the plan go ahead, the two cities would be well connected by transport links promised by the ruling party, including a third bridge over the Bosphorus, the strait that divides the European and Anatolian sides of the city, and two tube tunnels for cars and rail transport under the water. Two bridges and frequent ferries already connect the two sides of the city. Resident Emre Borat, a 25-year-old computer engineer, welcomed the proposal. “Actually their project is not like dividing up into two, but more like creating [new cities] from Istanbul,” he said. “Since our economy is getting better, it seems like a good idea to have a separate city for the finance world, or for foreign investment in general.” Plans have been announced to build a new financial district in Atasehir, a booming district on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, as part of a government pledge to increase Turkey’s global stature by 2023, the centennial anniversary of the Turkish republic. No information has been released on what the proposed new cities would be called. Mustafa Demir, 51, a salesman, said that while the city was currently “ungovernable” any possible division might go badly “if they do it with the wrong intentions”. But the opposition People’s Republican Party vice-president, Gürsel Tekin, said the proposal was not practical. “The prime minister has these sorts of ideas. It does not matter if these projects come alive. They are soundbites.” Ayse Onol, a former journalist from Istanbul who knew Erdogan when he was mayor, said the announcement was not a serious proposal. “People in Turkey just care about headlines, Erdogan knows this. 2023 is far in the distance. People think we will be grander than America; this is a populist policy. It doesn’t matter if Istanbul is divided into two or 12. What matters is how the city is used, not how it is divided.” Turkey Europe guardian.co.uk
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A winking John Berman on Monday used only a little subtlety as mocked Donald Trump for his “enormous” “size.” The Good Morning America reporter turned financial comments by the businessman into something more suggestive: ” We know he has a big ego, but he swears he has big ideas and also an enormous, well, see for yourself .”
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The American Academy of Pediatrics has urged CBS Outdoor to take down the advertisement funded by anti-vaccine groups For 17 days, every hour for 15 seconds, a controversial message is being sold to the American public via a CBS billboard in Times Square, New York. A photograph of a mother cradling her naked baby is accompanied by the words: “Vaccines: Know the risks.” This image is faded out, and replaced by the Statue of Liberty and “Vaccination. Your Health. Your Family. Your Choice.” The advert is paid for and endorsed by the non-profit National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) and Mercola.com (self-proclaimed World’s Number 1 Natural Health Website), and will be shown until 28 April. CBS Outdoor has faced a massive backlash for its choice of clientele: both NVIC and Mercola are viewed by many as anti-vaccine propagandists. In particular, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) , one of the many organisations responsible for testing the safety of vaccinations, is urging the company to remove the ad. It accuses CBS of putting the lives of children at risk by encouraging parents to delay or skip vaccination. Mercola and the NVIC use the ad to endorse their websites, linking the public to what the AAP deems “misinformation” – a barrage of articles blaming common ingredients in vaccines for a number of health problems from breast cancer to infertility. The NVIC publishes a disclaimer on almost every article, assuring readers that it is not anti-vaccination – despite the fact its spokesperson, Playboy model Jenny McCarthy, has publicly described vaccinations as “a product that’s shit” . For Mercola, NVIC and McCarthy, thimerosal – a mercury-containing preservative – is Public Enemy Number One. All three insist there has been a direct connection between vaccines containing thimerosal and the increasing number of children being diagnosed with autism. McCarthy’s own son has the condition, which she blames on the MMR shot he received before his diagnosis. Her bestselling Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism warns parents of the “dangers” involved in vaccinations. NVIC’s website recommends A Shot in the Dark, one of the first books to link vaccines to autism and, in its words, a “classic”. As a precautionary measure thimerosal has been reduced or eliminated from vaccines in the US and Europe, but in 2010 it was proved that the preservative was not linked to autism and the AAP is keen to defend it . On 13 April, Dr Marion Burton, president of the AAP, wrote to Wally Kelly, CBS Outdoor chairman, describing her organisation as having “worked hard to protect children and their families from unfounded and unscientific misinformation regarding vaccine safety”. It seems the 15-second ad is undoing all its hard work. The letter states: “The AAP’s 60,000 member pediatricians urge you to remove these harmful messages … Please do your part to help reassure parents that vaccinating their children … is the best way to protect them from diseases.” The AAP is not alone in demanding that CBS remove the ad. Blogs are urging readers to sign a petition to get it removed, and there are campaigns such as Stop Jenny against McCarthy’s celebrity endorsement. They describe the ad as “misinformed consent” – linking parents to sites that aren’t scientifically accurate. CBS has yet to comment publicly on the negative attention surrounding the campaign. Would an ad campaign like this be allowed to run in the UK? It seems unlikely given the recent discrediting of Andrew Wakefield’s research linking the MMR vaccine to autism. Interestingly, Wakefield continues to work in America, despite being accused of fraud by the BMJ and struck off by the General Medical Council . Having resigned from the NHS for being (in his words) “unpopular”, he set up the Thoughtful House foundation in Texas, which researches autism. Wakefield’s research continues to be recognised by Thoughtful House and the National Autism Association , despite having been discredited by the AAP and the American Medical Association . In America, it seems, Wakefield, Mercola, NVIC and Jenny McCarthy enjoy the freedom to do and say whatever they please, without fear of being hounded by the media. Perhaps that is why CBS has allowed its Times Square billboard to be used by the campaign: the American media just don’t care enough to kick up a fuss. Immunology Medical research Controversies in science Vaccines and immunisation Autism Health Health & wellbeing guardian.co.uk
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