This sounds like good news to me.  

The LA Times really botched it by going after Christine this way.  

First, this is more "advertising" for the dissidents than has ever been
accomplished before.

Second, this reeks of desperation.  They screwed up, now they're trying to
make it look like they've got to try and save face.  This will backfire,
as they're only painting themselves into a smaller and smaller corner.

Thanks for the good news, Gary.

Invite him to monitor this newsgroup.... tell him, as our pet farmboy
says, he can make up his own mind who is intellectually honest and
straightforward... and not manipulating the science with semantic trickery.

B/

Yeah, that is great news. I just sent the next message to LA Times David
Costello. Help them learn and evolve !

____

Dear sir,

Some weeks ago the LA-Times published an article on the death of Christine
Maggiore's little daughter. I'm very happy to learn that you are looking
for more information on denialists (or dissidents) of the HIV explanation
of AIDS and I am confident that your research will enable the LA-Times to
print some kind of mea culpa.  In my opinion it is important to have a
broad view upon the whole issue and it might be of great interest to read
the documents you can find on:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jan.spreen/21rst.htm

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jan.spreen/SIDA-EN.htm

I hope you'll enjoy the reading and that you find some interesting ideas
in the two documents.

Yours truly

Jan Spreen
France

"It's important that we help with stories like this. It's crazy that we
still have to be battling with the denialists this long into the
epidemic."

That's a GREAT idea!

Then, maybe Daniel Costello can do a story on parents who are *clearly* in
denial over their child's autism being caused by mercury poisoning!

We can finally put a stop to *all* of the denialists who question
epidemics!

WILLAMETTE WEEK COVER STORY 10/12/2005

Curing Jamie Handley - One Portland family pushes a fix for the autism
"epidemic."

BY ANGELA VALDEZ

"Jamie is autistic, and his parents blame the disorder on mercury
poisoning."

"They see their morning routine as a small victory in a battle being waged
by thousands of parents against a perceived epidemic..."

"While conventional medicine holds that autism stems from an abnormality
in the brain, alternative theories have long sought an external cause for
the devastating disorder...  Today, parents like the Handleys blame
mercury and a corrupt medical establishment."

"The Handleys were shocked to read that U.S. autism rates had skyrocketed
in recent years, from 1 in 10,000 in the 1980s to as many as 1 in 166
today. Mainstream medicine downplayed the existence of an epidemic and
offered parents little hope. According to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention website, the cause of the disorder was unknown—maybe
genetics, maybe an environmental contagion—and a cure was not on the
horizon."

"In addition to the mainstream descriptions, the Handleys couldn't miss
the abundance of online testimonials linking autism to mercury
poisoning."

"In countless articles, parents and a handful of doctors attested to a
direct connection between thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative once
common in childhood vaccines, and the onset of autism. With growing anger,
the Handleys read parents' accounts of autistic symptoms emerging around
the same time their children received vaccines."

"Even though most medical institutions—from the CDC to the American
Academy of Pediatrics—reject the theories and treatments as junk science,
the thimerosal argument made sense to the Handleys. They believed that
science could explain Jamie's sudden deterioration. J.B. says his distrust
of bureaucrats, a skepticism he learned from his father, and his wife's
'truth compass' made it easy to believe that the CDC and vaccine
manufacturers would hide a deadly secret from parents."

"When they visited their pediatrician, however, he dismissed their
beliefs. 'That was the last visit we had with our moronic mainstream
pediatrician,' J.B. says."

"Early this year, the Handleys launched a nonprofit dedicated to compiling
information on biomedical theories and helping parents find resources.
Their ads in The New York Times and USA Today—costing at least
$300,000—stated: "'Mercury poisoning and autism. It isn't a coincidence.'"

"Lisa, a slender blonde with easygoing poise, speaks with heartfelt
honesty about her faith in the thimerosal theory. She feels hurt that so
many people dismiss her beliefs. 'To have to meet all these experts who
say that you're crazy, that you're wrong, that you're desperate,' she
says, 'it's really hard.'"

"J.B. is more forceful. ... When Lisa begins to talk about the science
behind autism, he often interjects, saying, 'I'll explain.' Although he is
open with the press, he is also hostile toward journalists who've taken a
critical view of the biomedical movement, especially 'two a-holes from The
New York Times.'"

http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=6822