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The Launch of Silenced Witnesses Volume II: The UK GMC Hearings



 
 
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Old January 27th 10, 07:48 AM posted to misc.kids.health
john[_5_]
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Default The Launch of Silenced Witnesses Volume II: The UK GMC Hearings

http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/01/t...-hearings.html

January 26, 2010
The Launch of Silenced Witnesses Volume II: The UK GMC Hearings
By Martin Walker

Around 70 people gathered in the Virginia Woolf Suite at the Hotel Russell
in London for the launch of the second volume of the 'parents voice books',
Silenced Witnesses: The Parents Story. The Hotel Russell is probably one of
the most beautiful hotels in London, and of course the Virginia Woolf suite
was ideal considering the literary aspirations of the parents authors.
There are occasions when things go continuously wrong in projects like book
writing and publishing. Having been involved in editing, publishing and
introducing both volumes of Silenced Witnesses with Carol Stott, I had
become aware, with this latest volume at least, that up until the very last
minute things can go awry. Just as the books arrived in London from the
printers, the company that had been set up to distribute them, collapsed
leaving me just before Christmas owing a large amount of money - a loan
having been part of the distribution deal - and the books marooned; unable
to even send out copies to the contributing authors. These dispiriting
circumstances continued right up to the day of the launch when 2,000 flyers
and book order forms, instead of arriving in London to be brought to the
venue, ended up in France!

Right up to the start of the launch, I had only a glimmer of hope that
everything would go well. However, it turned out be an event to remember and
my anxieties, were quickly dissipated when it became clear half an hour
before the start of the launch that the sixty chairs available would not be
enough to seat everyone.

This is the second volume of Silenced Witnesses from Slingshot Publications,
and the object of the books is evident, to give a clear voice to parents of
vaccine damaged children, so that whether we win or lose the GMC battle or
in the future when we win the scientific and the political arguments about
vaccine damage, the parents' voices have been recorded.
When the proceedings began, it was as if the gathering was a warm-up for
Thursday's day of gatherings and demonstrations that will accompany the
verdicts following the two and a half year trial of Dr Wakefield, Professor
Murch and Professor Walker-Smith.
I opened the launch by introducing the book and then commenting on something
that has frequently concerned the parents over the last two and a half
years. The fact that the parents of the Lancet paper children were not
brought to give evidence about the inflammatory Bowel Disease affecting
their children.

"The GMC prosecution has said that on the basis of the Lancet paper, Dr
Wakefield and the other two doctors, carried out research on 12 children,
without ethical committee approval, that they used invasive procedures for
the purpose of experiment, that they carried out research without parental
approval. That they experimented on children for the purpose of aiding
claimant's cases against the pharmaceutical companies, but most seriously of
all, the prosecution has argued that the children who came to the Royal Free
were not ill, that they were autistic but did not have Inflammatory Bowel
Disease; this has been the absolute core of their case"

"Anyone could see clearly that if they had a genuine case, to show that the
children were not ill and that they were subjected to aggressive procedures
without ethical approval and without parental consent, they were bound to
call the parents to give evidence. They didn't because the parents would
have told the hearing that most of the children suffered the most terrible
bowel disease followed by regressive autism. So had the prosecution called
the parents from day one the GMC case would have collapsed."

In order to show that the campaign against vaccine damaged children and
others seeking claims for iatrogenic damage in Britain had been going on for
forty years now, from the time that the drug companies were challenged over
Thalidomide, I read out something that I had written recently.

" In the Loveday case for example, which ended in the late eighties the
parents of Susan Loveday sued their GP who had given Susan Loveday the
whooping cough vaccination fifteen years earlier. The Wellcome Foundation
joined this action, on the side of the GP, despite not being named in it and
were able to add the support of one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies
in Britain to the defence."

"Expert evidence for the claimants, was given amongst others by Dr John
Wilson a consultant whose case review paper cited 24 children, at trial, the
defence claimed that none of the children said to be damaged in this case
review paper stood up to scrutiny, some did not exist, the illnesses of
others were not associated in any way with a vaccine and a large number of
them had 'been proved' to be damage caused by quite other factors or
illnesses."
"One of the expert witnesses called was Dr John Stephenson, a consultant
paediatrician and neurologist at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children,
he claimed in his evidence that 'the suggestion that whooping cough vaccine
causes brain damage in children is based more on 'mythology than science'.
According to Stephenson, any evidence that might once have existed
suggesting a possible causal link had 'evaporated'. In his view any temporal
connection between vaccination and damage was purely coincidental. This was
the vacuum of science into which that the vaccine conundrum was sliding."

"I drew parallels between this case and the one against Dr Wakefield and
pointed out that throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the strategy of the
pharmaceutical companies was to dismiss evidence on behalf of the children
from the parents, having done this, the validity of the claimants analysis
of the child's illness and its cause could be disputed. It was mainly done
by attacking the credibility and reputation of any doctor or medical
research worker who had recorded cases on which to base opinions. It was
however, never sufficient to dispute the science and individual scientists
became the subject of planned personal attacks. What was happening to Dr
Wakefield is part of a continuum in which industrial science and the
multinationals are taking control not only of medicine but also of the legal
process and ordinary citizens are unable to get satisfaction in the courts."

After I introduced the launch, some of the parents authors spoek about their
cases and the experience of writing. In the typically modest style of
British parents, a number of them had commented, throughout the afternoon,
on the opening chapter of Volume II, by Barbara Loe Fisher. How I wished
that Barbara could have been there in the Hotel Russell, not just so that
the UK parents could have joined hands with the US parents, but so that we
could all have heard the views and had the support of this invigorating
campaigning woman. Despite the high quality of all the chapters, Barbara's
chapter stands out, because like Rosemary Fox's introductory chapter in the
first volume, Barbara's chapter gives an intimate historical portrait of the
growth of a movement.

When the parent authors spoke about their chapters, it became very clear
that as well as being strategically useful the two volumes had provided a
therapeutic role in their personal and family life. As Deborah Heather,
whose chapter rings with the clear voice of authority, said after the
launch; " It is strange isn't it that you can talk to people till the cows
come home about your experiences but there is something very different when
it is laid out in print. It is this reaction that we want, if after reading
the book, just one doctor stands up and begins treating one child then I
personally will feel my work has been done."

Two of the parents, who had contributed chapters to the first volume, David
Thrower and Allison Edwards, spoke about the value of the books. Having
accompanied some of the authors, as editor, throughout some of their
journey, I obviously must agree with Allison Edwards, the Chair of Cry Shame
when she said, "I think the second volume is an absolute cracker of a book,
all of the chapters are compelling reading "straight from the heart".
The first printing of volume II is accompanied by Alan Golding's brilliant
hour long DVD, titled 'Selective Hearing: Brian Deer and the GMC'. And at
the same time as the launch, the Times was publishing Deer's latest article
about the GMC trial that has now dragged on for two and a half years and for
which the verdict is expected this Thursday. In his article Deer posed as
the parents saviour, disguising himself as a victims' campaigner and
defender of what he termed 'the Lancet 12'; a complete travesty. Had Deer
dared to show his face at the launch, unseemly as the outcome might have
been, there would have been no doubt about who had spoken for the parents
from the first and who the parents still supported from the depths of their
hearts.

Dr Wakefield, attending the launch with his wife Carmel, gave an impromptu
and modest speech in which he repeated a number of times, the fact that
whatever the verdict of the GMC, this battle was not about him but about
science and the terrible plight of the parents and their children. Everyone
was, however, aware that this is only half true, without Andrew Wakefield,
the science, the data, the information about MMR, Inflammatory Bowel Disease
and regressive autism, would have been buried by governments and drug
companies, perhaps for ever.

I was left at the end of the launch, feeling that I it had been such a full
and busy occasion that I hadn't had the opportunity to speak to so many
people who I had not seen for some time. Most of all, I didn't really get a
chance to speak to the parents whose project this was. Instead I was left to
round off the launch with the correction of another disgusting Deerism. In a
recent addition to his site there is a fulsome explanation of how I had
conned parents out of money for self-published books and lined my pockets
with money made from Dr Wakefield's vested interests; more bizarre unchecked
accusations. I reflected for a moment on the wall of lies that Dr Wakefield,
the parents, the campaigners and ultimately the children have had to fight.
I took a moment at the end of the launch to thank all those who went unnamed
in the production of the book, including it's typographical designer and
cover designer and all those who have anonymously donated money to the
project. I had to make the point however, that the project still has a debt
outstanding of around £2,000 to the books printers.

All enquiries about volumes I and II of Silenced Witnesses should be made to
www.slingshotpublications.com, after referring to the ad for the book that
is on the home page of this site. And if there is a US publisher out there
for both these volumes, I and the Bitish parents would love to hear from
them.


 




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