Cinema Libre's Philippe Diaz Tries to Bully "Vaxxed" Critic into Silence

Cinema Libre Founder and CEO, Philippe Diaz
Source: Cinema Libre Studio

Apparently, Philippe Diaz, founder, president, and CEO of Cinema Libre Studio, is a litigious bully.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up and start by introducing you to Fiona O'Leary. Fiona is the mother of five children, living with her husband in Ireland. Two of her children are autistic, as is Fiona herself. Several years ago, she became an outspoken advocate for autistic rights, campaigning against quack autism treatments like MMS, chelation, GcMAF, and so on. Last year, she was featured in an Irish documentary called Bleach Cult, which detailed the bleach treatment known as MMS, a protocol created by ex-Scientologist Jim Humble. She also worked with the Illinois attorney general to shut down MMS promoter Kelli Rivera. In April 2015, Fiona and her husband, Tim, founded the charity Autistic Rights Together, an organization of autistic and non-autistic individuals dedicated to promoting the rights and respect for children, teens, and adults on the autism spectrum.

On July 19, Fiona started a Change.org petition to stop the film Vaxxed and its production team (Andrew Wakefield, Del Bigtree, and Polley Tommey) from spreading its anti-vaccine message (e.g., stating that there is no safe vaccine) in the state of Texas, and possibly beyond. The petition notes how the film and its production team are spreading misinformation about vaccines and autism around the country, particularly during the Q&A sessions after some of the screenings. Examples include Polly Tommey telling people that pediatricians are dangerous and should be avoided, Tommey saying that she would never judge parents who murder their autistic children, and Bigtree's urging of anti-vaccine activists to exercise their second amendment right to bear arms in their fight against vaccinations. Fiona also notes Bigtree's comments comparing autistic individuals to chimps and dogs, as well as how the supporters of Vaxxed ridicule autistic individuals who protest the film.

This is where we get back to Philippe Diaz and Cinema Libre's threats. On July 21, he sent a letter on the studio's letterhead to Mrs. O'Leary threatening her with legal action.

Wakefield's "Vaxxed" Demands Less Safety

"This is not an anti-vaccine movie. We're just going to use ominous imagery to make people scared of vaccines."
- Del Bigtree, Vaxxed Producer [My paraphrase.]

This past weekend, Andrew Wakefield's factitious documentary Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe premiered in New York City at the Angelika Film Center, after being dropped from the TriBeCa Film Festival. A number of reporters and skeptics attended the film, live-tweeting the experience and writing up reviews of the movie afterward. You can read reviews at The Hollywood Reporter, STAT News, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Indiewire, and others. The central story of the film, such as it is, is William Thompson and the CDC. For background on the saga, please read this reference guide. (As an aside, even though the impetus behind the film is William Thompson, the CDC researcher does not appear anywhere in the film. Instead, the audience is left with only recorded phone calls between Thompson and Brian Hooker. The transcripts were released last year in a book, which was discussed here, here, and here.) The movie alleges that the CDC covered up evidence that vaccines cause autism. However, according to William Thompson's own documents, which Matt Carey has kindly made publicly available at his blog Left Brain Right Brain, there was no cover up.

I have yet to see the film, so I will leave you to read those other reviews. Instead, I wanted to focus on a list of "demands" at the end of the film, helpfully posted by a Wakefield supporter on Twitter. The four demands would do little to help children or people with autism and would instead run counter to what the anti-vaccine community wants.

MMR, the CDC and Brian Hooker: A Guide for Parents and the Media

The anti-vaccine community has been in a tizzy lately over a supposed "CDC whistleblower", Dr. William W. Thompson, who, according to them, revealed fraud at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To bolster their claim, they point to a new study from one of their own, Brian S. Hooker, that purports to show evidence of an increased risk of autism among African American boys who receive their first MMR vaccine late. However, the claims appear to be hollow and unfounded, and so they have chosen to rely on emotional arguments that may sound convincing to those who are not familiar with the issues and people involved. In a truly egregious fashion, they have erroneously and cynically compared this whole thing to the Tuskegee syphilis study, and equated the CDC with Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Pol Pot, combined.

With that in mind, here is a brief FAQ for parents, news media and others to help them understand what the claims are and what the evidence actually says. The questions below have been raised or implied by anti-vaccine activists. Hopefully, this will prevent inaccurate reporting and help parents feel reassured about the MMR vaccine.

CDC Whistleblower William Thompson Breaks Silence

Things have certainly been progressing quickly in wooville, specifically in the anti-vaccine neighborhood. Earlier this month, anti-vaccine activist and petitioner in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, Brian S. Hooker, PhD, published a study in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration titled Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young african american boys: a reanalysis of CDC data. [Update (10/4/14): Hooker's study has been fully retracted by the journal.] Basically, Hooker took a dataset that was used by CDC researchers DeStefano et al. in their 2004 study looking at whether on-time, slightly late or late MMR vaccination was more common among autism cases than among controls. It was a case-control study that looked at both a large population, as well as a smaller population limited to those who had a Georgia birth certificate. After receiving word from a whistleblower that the DeStefano study found an association among African American males, but did not include that in the finished report, Hooker waded in to find the holy grail of government malfeasance and cover-up. Except, he did not use the same methods to examine the data that the CDC did. Using a dataset designed for a case-control study, he conducted a cohort study, applied statistics inappropriately and reached a spurious conclusion.

Although it made a splash among the conspiracy-minded, it didn't garner much attention right away. Science bloggers held off putting up any immediate posts, opting instead to examine the study to see if Hooker's methods were sound, particularly since his conclusion had no plausible biological basis. In the interim, the British doctor who engaged in research fraud and was stripped of his medical license, Andrew Jeremy Wakefield, put together a video in which he exploited the victims of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in a cynical attempt at using the race card to drum up outrage at the CDC. At the same time, he said the CDC was actually worse than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. Wakefield also included in his video carefully edited snippets of audio recordings that, presumably, are the whistleblower. He released two versions of that video, one with the whistleblower's name bleeped out and his voice distorted, and one where the audio is unobscured and his name, William Thompson, is plainly stated. Interestingly, anti-vaccine blogger Jake Crosby condemned Wakefield for outing Thompson without Thompson's permission, an allegation that Wakefield strongly denied.

Early this week, science bloggers began posting their analyses of Hooker's study, noting the flaws and questioning the validity of its conclusions. They also pointed out that not one anti-vaccine activist called out Andrew Wakefield for race-baiting, but instead praised and shared his video, the implication of which is that one of the original DeStefano authors was a race traitor.

On Tuesday evening, the Wakefield/Hooker sycophants threw a collective tantrum on Twitter, whining about how no one takes them seriously.

That brings us to the momentous events of Wednesday.

Andrew Wakefield Tortures History

I've written before about how the anti-vaccine movement regularly gets the science wrong (see, for example, here and here). Most often, it involves how they interpret (or, rather, misinterpret) studies that they think support their view that vaccines are the root of all evil, causing all manner of disorders. They regularly misrepresent and torture the scientific literature to fit their agenda. But occasionally, it involves actually attempting to do science themselves, the latest of which being a study [Edited to Add: this study has been fully retracted by the journal.] recently published by Vaccine Injury Compensation Program petitioner, Brian Hooker, PhD and funded by the anti-vaccine group Focus Autism. This study has been examined by an epidemiologist, another epidemiologist, and a cancer researcher. The players have also been examined by a dyslexia consultant and autism advocate (see also here). This study, in addition to being of questionable validity, has spawned quite the brouhaha among anti-vaccine activists. In short, Hooker took a dataset that was analyzed by a group of CDC investigators. Their finding was that age at first vaccination with MMR did not appear to [edited to clarify and correct] affect the risk of be associated with autism [ETA: cases (those with autism) were no more or less likely to have been vaccinated with MMR than controls before 18, 24 and 36 months; the study design could not establish causation, only correlation]. The results of their study were published as a case-control study. Hooker used the same dataset to create a cohort study and found that there was no increased risk of autism in any of the groups (i.e., MMR does not cause autism) except one: African American males, for which he puportedly found a 3.36-fold increased risk of autism when they were vaccinated between 24 and 31 months. Read the two posts by those epidemiologists for why his analysis is suspect.

I'm not going to go into the science behind the studies, because it relies very heavily on statistics, and I'm not a statistician or epidemiologist. As an aside, neither is Dr. Hooker. Instead, I want to focus on some statements made by one Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor who committed scientific fraud, resulting in the full retraction of his 1998 case series study on MMR and the stripping of his medical license. Wakefield boldly added himself to the list of not only torturing science, but now adds to his accomplishments torturing history and ethics (granted, we already knew he was ethically challenged). You see, in his videos (here and here) about the alleged "whistleblower", William Thompson,Wakefield compared the purported "cover-up" to the Tuskegee syphilis debacle. It's a false comparison used simply to inflame people and claim the race card.

Beware the Wakefraud

The sun set long ago, and outside, the world sleeps. Only the occasional passing car breaks the tranquility of the night. Inside, a lone figure sits before a laptop. The lamp on the desk sheds a soft, if weak, light, nearly drowned out itself by the cold illumination of the monitor. The figure's fingers tap out a few final strokes, then move to the mouse. She drags the cursor across the screen and clicks "Publish". A sudden flash of lightning and thunder, then the room goes dark.

A low, quiet chuckle filters out of the laptop as the screen fitfully flickers back to life. On the screen, four words shed an ominous, baleful glow:

The Wakefraud had struck.

CBS Sympathizes with Murderers

Back in June, I wrote a post in which I tried to understand the murder of Alex Spourdalakis by his mother, Dorothy Spourdalakis, and his caretaker, Jolanta Agatha Skrodzka. In particular, I noted how those who do not blame vaccines for autism properly blamed Dorothy and Jolanta for the murder, expressing sympathy and horror on behalf of Alex. Yet among the biomed and "vaccines cause autism" communities, the general spin to the story was that Dorothy was oh so distraught and just couldn't cope any more; because she had supposedly been failed by the system, poor woman that she is, she resorted to murder, putting Alex out of his misery. That is a horrible, horrible insult to a boy who suffered the ultimate abuse by those who were supposed to care for him.

That sentiment, sympathizing with a child murderer, disgusted me then and disgusts me now. Part of the tragedy of this whole thing is that we only have Dorothy's voice being heard. HIPAA regulations block any revelations from the medical professionals being vilified by murder apologists at Age of Autism, Autism Media Channel and so on. Alex's voice has been permanently silenced. To make matters worse, CBS This Morning has decided to lend their support to Alex's killers.

Measles Running Rampant in Pakistan and Wales

Whenever I hear someone say that vaccine-preventable diseases are harmless or that they are just a right of passage for children, I can't help but shake my head a bit. Part of the reason behind this mindset is a lack of experience with these diseases. Many young parents have never seen them in action. The most they know is their own childhood experiences with them; they clearly survived and, with death being thankfully uncommon, probably don't know or remember anyone who died of one of these illnesses, especially if anyone contracted a disease at a young age. And then there's the rarity of the diseases thanks to the success of vaccinations. I have to admit that before I developed an interest in vaccines and the manufactroversy surrounding them, I probably would have held a similarly flippant opinion of childhood diseases.

But I learned more about them. I read about their typical presentation, what some of the more serious complications are and how commonly they occur, and how long a person is contagious (often starting before any symptoms appear). I learned that while one needn't panic and run for the hills when there's an outbreak, a healthy respect for the seriousness of vaccine preventable diseases doesn't go amiss. Above all, I've learned that they are worth preventing, if not for one's own health, then for the health of those around them. While I might be healthy and think I might fare well if infected, the same may not be true for others I infect.

To this end, vaccinations are one of the best public health measures in modern medicine. When people avoid or reject them in sufficient numbers, we invariably see outbreaks of disease sooner or later. Outbreaks like the current measles outbreaks in Pakistan and Wales.

Calling on Congress to Do the Wrong Thing

Oh, Age of Autism. Once again, this rag that calls itself a web newspaper of the autism epidemic ignores science and providing real help and support for families with autism in favor of unsubstantiated hyperbole and appeals to politics. Since they do not have actual science behind their claims, they try to use political means to get their way, freely ignoring reality.

Feeling that, perhaps, they made some small victories after the recent Congressional hearing on autism, the fact-challenged are making some demands suggestions to our legislative body. In a post titled Top 10 List for Congress Post Autism Hearing, contributor Laura Hayes addresses Congressman Bill Posey (R-FL) and includes a list of ten things she would like Congress to do. I'm not quite certain whether to chuckle at how inane it is or worry, since the hearing included more than one science-challenged Congresscritter.

A Call to Arms

Orac, over at Respectful Insolence, has called on those of a scientific bent to take action on two important issues. First off, investigative journalist, Brian Deer, will be speaking at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse on October 4 and 5. Brian Deer, you may recall, is a U.K. journalist who has harshly criticized pharmaceutical companies and who uncovered the research fraud committed by Andrew Wakefield. The anti-vaccine activists at Age of Autism have encouraged their followers to rally against Mr. Deer and to support a press conference that Andrew Wakefield will be giving on October 4, also at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. Here are the details about both:

Brian Deer's Talks

• "An Elaborate Fraud: The MMR Vaccine & Autism"
• Thursday, October 4 at 5:30pm
• Centennial Hall, Room 1309 

• "Stiletto Journalism: Busting the Vaccine Scare"
• Friday, October 5 at 3:30pm
• Centennial Hall, Room 1309

Andrew Wakefield's Press Conference

• Thursday, October 4 at 1:00pm
• Location to be provided - email info@drwakefieldjusticefund.org for more info

The other item that need your support is AB2109, about which I've written before (here and here). As a quick reminder, this bill would require parents who want a philosophical exemption for their children from school immunization requirements to talk with a medical provider about the risks and benefits of vaccination, and the risks of not vaccinating for both themselves and their community. The bill has passed both the California State Senate and Assembly. It is currently on Governor Jerry Brown's desk, waiting to be signed. A vocal contingent of anti-vaccine activists and Tea Partiers are holding a rally to oppose this legislation tomorrow, September 28 from noon to 2pm on the West Steps of the state capitol. If you live nearby, I urge you to attend in counter-protest to voice your support for this bill. I also encourage you to contact Gov. Brown, asking him to sign AB2109.

If you decide to attend any of these events, please remember to remain civil. Do not be goaded by the anti-vaccine activists you are likely to encounter.

Censored on Dan Olmsted at Autism One on The Wakefield Inquisition

It's been a while since I've put one of these posts up. One of my readers tried to leave a comment over at Age of Autism on the post Dan Olmsted at Autism One on The Wakefield Inquisition. I'm putting this up so that any comments which the moderators at AoA censor can still see the light of a computer screen. If you have tried to leave a comment on that post but were censored, feel free to copy your comment below. Include the date and time that you tried to post, if you can.

Autism One: Pick Up Your Police Escort at the Reception Desk

Time to take a trip back to some subject matter that was at the creation of this blog: censorship, autism and anti-vaccination sentiments. It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads here regularly that I take these issues rather seriously. Generally speaking, censorship seems to go hand in hand with the anti-vaccination folks within the autism community (and let it just be said that the autism community is very broad, with the anti-vaxers representing a rather small minority, thankfully). Silencing dissent is a favored tactic, as evidenced by the "editorializing" favored by such luminary and (mis-)informative sites as Age of Autism, among others. Where truth and reality rear their ugly heads, there will always be a moderator close at hand to protect their quailing, fragile readers, making such reason-based comments disappear down the memory hole before a single electron hits the screen of an AoA reader.

Should you decide to attend an event organized by those with anti-vaccination notions, be not afraid of having your tender sensibilities bruised, for there will be an ever-so-polite and helpful event organizer to call the police to haul out any suspicious-looking persons. Yes, though they may be mild-mannered and behaving themselves, who knows when they will utter uncomfortable truths? Best to remove them, without any justification, before any charlatans or quacks can be challenged, before any parents, trying their best to cope with a child with a disability about which, frankly, not a great deal is known, can have the scales removed from their eyes and their wallets protected from expensive and utterly useless treatments. Fear not, for brave folks like Teri Arranga will quickly summon hotel security and police to deal with anyone she thinks may pose a threat to your delicate sensibilities.

Notes from Andrew Wakefield's talk at Brandeis

This is a guest post by John Santos, who was able to attend Andrew Wakefield's recent talk at Brandeis University. The talk was also covered by the Brandeis Hoot (with an additional editorial) and the Boston Globe.

On April 13, 2011, I attended a talk by Andrew Wakefield at Brandeis University. The talk was sponsored by a student organization Spectrum, which is concerned with autism. The student who hosted the talk was Jake Crosby, who blogs at Age of Autism. I estimate there were about 75-100 people present.

Wakefield spoke for about 2 hours, followed by about 15 minutes of Q&A. I took notes, though it was hard to keep up and there may be many gaps here. Despite that, I hope it will be useful, especially as preparation for anyone attending one of his lectures in the future.

The talk was recorded (I saw at least one person with a video camera), and Crosby said it would be available on the web, at the AoA site, I think.

The talk raised many questions in my mind, some of which I've had a chance to do some research on. I'm at least passably familiar with the vaccine controversy, but many of the references went by too fast for me to fully understand. I imagine to someone with no background at all, it would have completely snowed them. I agree with what Steven Novella has pointed out many time, if you are going to debate with a pseudoscientist, you really need to be on top of your game. I didn't feel capable of doing this, so I didn't ask any questions.

More Cases of Measles in Minnesota, 3 of 4 Hospitalized

UPDATE: On Wednesday, 3/23/11, a 10th case of measles has been confirmed in Minnesota. Like 4 of the other cases, the latest was in a child old enough to be vaccinated but had not been. The current tally is: 4 too young to be vaccinated, 5 old enough but unvaccinated and 1 of unknown vaccination status. Half of the cases have been hospitalized and there are, as yet, no deaths from this outbreak.

UPDATE: On Tuesday, 3/22/11, the Minnesota Department of Health announced that the measles outbreak now includes 9 cases. 4 in children too young to have received the vaccine, 4 in children old enough, but who had not been vaccinated and 1 whose vaccination status is unknown. To date, 5 of the 9 have been hospitalized, but are recovering.

UPDATE: On Monday, 3/21/11, a seventh case of measles, in a 7-month-old, was confirmed. That brings the tally to 3 too young to be vaccinated, 3 old enough but unvaccinated due to fear and 1 with unknown vaccination status.

UPDATE: According to the Star Tribune today, March 18, 2011, the total number of cases is up to six. Three are Somali children. Two of the six were too young to be vaccinated. Four of the six have been hospitalized.

Last Friday, one week ago, I wrote about a Minnesota infant contracting measles. That child, too young to be immunized, was hospitalized. In that post, I also called out Dr. Jay Gordon who, on his own web site, states that he does not give or recommend the MMR vaccine. Well, in the past week, three more cases of measles have been reported in Minnesota. Two of the three new cases, like the initial case, were also hospitalized.

And now it looks like I'm going to have to call out Age of Autism's J.B. Handley and disgraced gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, because two of the latest cases are in the Somali community. Two children who, although old enough to be vaccinated, were not because of the fears that Handley and Wakefield fueled in their parents. Two children in a community with declining vaccination rates, thanks to the callous and flat-out wrong nonsense spouted by Handley and his ilk.

Four kids, one too young to be vaccinated, two unvaccinated because of fear of the vaccine and one of unknown vaccination status. Four children, three hospitalized.

Some people, like the aforementioned Dr. Gordon, would suggest that four cases is nothing to worry about, that it is not an outbreak:

The problem here is that we shouldn't be seeing any cases of measles in the U.S. We have an extremely effective (95% or higher) and safe product to prevent measles. Not only that, but measles only infects humans, which means that if enough people worldwide are vaccinated, then, like with smallpox, we would no longer need to use the vaccine.

However, until measles is eradicated worldwide, then, as I've said before, a new infection is just a plane ride away. People like J.B. Handley, Wakefield and the goons at Age of Autism and pediatricians who should know better and do a grave disservice to their patients, like Dr. Gordon, must stop. Through their actions, they promote outbreaks like the ones in Boston and Minnesota. Although currently small, these cases could almost certainly have been prevented through vaccination, either of the children themselves or, in the case of the infant too young to be vaccinated, of those around the kids. Behavior such as suggesting the erroneous notion that vaccines cause autism or actively choosing to tell people that the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits, despite mountains of scientific evidence to the contrary, is not only reckless and irresponsible, it is abhorrent and despicable.

Vaccinate your children. Protect them, their friends, their families and everyone around them. Do what is right.

Update: Just to put this in perspective, in the past 5 years, there have been six cases of measles. In the past week, there have been 4 6 cases. Let me repeat that: in the past 5 years, only 6 cases; in the past week, 4 6 cases. Got that, Dr. Jay "4 cases is an outbreak?" Gordon?

Update 3/21/11: If there was any doubt that Dr. Gordon displays an amazing level of callousness, he had this to say about the Minnesota measles outbreak and how an outbreak is defined:

Yep, taking "a few extra cases" seriously is "pointless." Stay classy, Dr. Gordon. I'm sure the families of those 6 kids think that it's pointless to take the outbreak seriously.

Comedy Central's Vaccine Two-fer

Last night, January 31, 2011, Comedy Central had a rather refreshing two-fer regarding vaccines. With all of the media attention surrounding the fraud allegations against Andrew Wakefield, stories about communicable, vaccine-preventable diseases popping up and now this double-whammy, it seems that there is a sort of tide shift taking place in the popular media and public opinions. True, the anti-vaccine movement really represents a fringe group of individuals, loud and extremely vocal though they may be, but this shift, I think, is a very good thing, raising public awareness of just what is happening and, hopefully, swaying fence-sitters toward reason and reality.

Now, on to the videos, after the break.

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A Harsh Reality: Wakefield and Medical/Scientific Fraud

If you are a regular reader of this somewhat irregularly updated blog, you probably have already heard the news. Andrew Wakefield, whose 1998 Lancet paper was fully retracted, has now been accused of fraud. Investigative journalist, Brian Deer, wrote a rather lengthy piece for the British Medical Journal detailing the evidence of fraud committed by Wakefield. I won't go into a detailed analysis here, since it has already been covered at Respectful Insolence, Bad Astronomy, Left Brain/Right Brain, Just the Vax and elsewhere. The story has been broadcast on local news stations, as well as on CNN and Fox News. There is plenty of reading out there for those who are interested.

Instead, I'm going to take a somewhat different approach. I'm interested in what Wakefield's supporters will do now.

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Censored on The Wakefield Inquisition: Case Series Insanity

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