ROBERT TINNELL: Greetings From The Lunatic Fringe
The seventies were a great time to be a kid. Anything seemed possible. By that I don’t mean so much cloning or a cure for cancer. I mean important stuff, like Bigfoot. Nessie. Visits from alien life-forms. Week after week, no less an authority than Leonard Nimoy himself appeared on my television, solemnly narrating case-after-case of paranormal and otherworldly encounters that, to my impressionable mind, were irrefutable.
Then, technology reared its ugly head. One-by-one, these quasi-cousins of Santa Claus began to disappear, picked apart by advances in computer science, digital photography, instant-access to massive amounts of research courtesy of the worldwide web, and not least, the growing cynicism that comes with age. Sure, some enclaves of paranormal-believers have held on – and even prospered – thanks to technology, particularly the ghost hunters. But in general, to be a believer in, say, UFO’s (and before the angry e-mails come in, I know, an unidentified flying object is just that – unidentified – and everyone should believe in that. I’m referring to spaceships carrying folks from other planets; Stephen Hawking messed me up on that) is to be marginalized. Visions of bearded, potbellied fellows in Area 51 ball caps spring to mind. In short order, these folks have been relegated to the margins, to the lunatic fringe.
Little did I know that one day I would be amongst their number.
It was not my belief in visitations by aliens from other worlds that consigned me to this intellectual wilderness. Rather it was my firm conviction that my son was rendered autistic thanks to something called thimerosal, a form of mercury, that was present in his vaccines (Note: there are also strong indications for some of these kids that the measles virus in the MMR shots is involved, as well as aluminum). I won’t go into mind-numbing detail about what he (and we) have gone through since his descent into the hell of autism – you can do that by reading my comic strip The Chelation Kid if you are so inclined.
What I do want to do is make you aware that with the government finally conducting some trials on the vaccine-autism connection, I’ve no doubt powerful interests (including Big Pharma and their various lap dogs) will be running a full-court press to marginalize those of us who dare to expose what has been done to many thousands of kids in the last several years. Let me lay a couple things on you: I don’t hate doctors and I don’t want children to be unprotected from things like polio or smallpox. The majority of the other parents of autistics I speak to feel the same way. A wonderful doctor saved my life. Another is helping us recover our son. By the same token, I don’t automatically defer to them as demi-gods. Going to school for a very long time doesn’t make you smarter than other people. It makes you better educated – to a point.
Despite the fact that since starting the strip, I’ve personally been tarred with a wide-reaching stereotyping brush, I’ll withhold from doing the same to the medical community at-large. In fact, I don’t even always agree with some of my peers’ assessments of medical professionals when it comes to the whole controversy. I think it’s a cheap shot to label that community as a bunch knee-jerkers beholden to orthodoxy and the status quo. Because in a lot of ways, they’re victims, too. Victims of something far more insidious than benign neglect or a short-attention-span or a focus on their particular field of medicine. Like these kids they are victims of the Big Pharma spin machine. The one that keeps telling you that a link between autism and vaccines has been disproved.
Look, you want to discount the anecdotal observations of parents who’ve had success treating their autistic kids through biomedical interventions, because you can only buy into the scientific method, I say “fine.” Hell, you’re probably right, strictly speaking. But ignoring a mass of peer-reviewed papers, based on studies conducted according to scientific-method, that very strongly suggest a causal connection between the vaccines and mercury, as well as the existence of an epidemic? Well, that’s flat out denial or ignorance or lying. Take your pick.
To all various and sundry who ridicule those of us who believe that autism is an epidemic and vaccines a major contributing factor in that epidemic, I have an idea. You don’t want to believe my claims about my son, about what caused his condition, and what treatments are recovering him, fine. I’m not a scientist and I don’t claim to be. I’m just a guy who writes a comic strip as way to deal with all the rage and sadness in my head thanks to what has happened to my son. Why not take some of the vitriol and faux-sympathy you’ve aimed at me and other parents who are just trying to save our kids, and focus it on the authors of these studies? All you need to do is go to www.generationrescue.org and click on the evidence link. You’ll find a host of data there that is quite compelling. Go ahead – get busy.
Now, in advance of the nasty e-mails I’m going to get about how we’ve always had this many autistics among us and how I should just love my son for who he is let me go ahead and respond. First of all, while there may have always been a number of high-functioning autistics among us – say the Thomas Jeffersons or Albert Einsteins – I never, never knew of any like my son. And now I know many, many like my son. Nonverbal kids who suffer terrible sensory problems and have zero social skills. Ask yourself: did you know of a bunch of nonverbal kids who ran around on their toes, flapping their hands when you were young? I sure didn’t. Of course, that’s purely anecdotal on my part so I guess you can strike that one out.
As far as my not loving my son for who he is – I’ve lived with a child who has consistently smeared feces on the walls, screamed in public, missed most developmental milestones, banged his head on floors to a scary extent, and he’s never called me “daddy” – I do love him for who he is – and I want to keep him alive and safe. Who wouldn’t? Kids like my son aren’t the Rain Man. They aren’t brilliant at math or music. They’re not simply shy. They’re bewildered, trapped kids who are at the mercy of the world if we don’t make every effort to recover them to, at the very least, a functional level of existence, and if we can’t do that we have to find a way to care for them – and at this rate, for their parents as well, since most insurance covers none of the treatments we find effective for our son. So like I said, these hearings are important to me, as I cling to the hope that some measure of the truth will emerge.
I for one just want these guys to answer a few simple questions – like, for instance, why are there no autistics amongst the Amish – who do not participate in the vaccination program? (Actually, they did finally find a few Amish autistics, but as it turns out, they were, in fact, vaccinated). Why did the autism rate jump dramatically in WHO countries – and not in those who do not participate in the vaccine programs? Why does a child need a Hepatitis B vaccine the day it is born – immediately subjecting its developing immune system to an assault? What do they expect – the kid’s going to run down to the corner and score some smack from a hooker? Why – if there’s no problem – did they agree to remove thimerosal in the late ‘90’s? And perversely, why do they continue to use it in the flu vaccine they push today? (Note: even worse, there are still existing lots of vaccines that contain thimerosal and will be through 2009.)
Why do these drug-makers and their government vaccine-pushers continue to hide behind manipulated, dubious science and the scientific-method, but refuse to employ the latter in a sincere attempt to disprove the link? Okay – enough – if any of this in any way strikes a chord in you and you want to know more just read David Kirby’s Evidence of Harm. He lays it all out with greater eloquence, handier facts, and less emotion than I do.
Slowly but surely we are recovering our son and we’re doing it through biomedical interventions, specifically through a process known as chelation. It’s working. Not because I want it to – not because I’m kidding myself or looking for someone to blame. It’s working because it’s working. Because my son is becoming more and more typical by the day. Because after just a short time on one new chelator he potty-trained – after seven years of diapers. I’m getting my son back and I’ve got a line of teachers and therapists who agree and who are convinced it’s because of the interventions and the effort to remove the mercury and other toxic metals he’s poisoned with. But that, of course, is merely anecdotal, and of no consequence.
So what do they do with guys like me? They marginalize us. Deposit us on the lunatic fringe. Ridicule me because I believe the government blew it back in the nineties and poisoned tons of kids – how dare I challenge their authority? Hmmm. I don’t know? I mean our government is so efficient and corruption-free and all-knowing – look what a great job they did on the Iraq WMD thing, right?
I’m not saying I’m ready to burn my copy of A Brief History of Time or anything, but from where I’m standing, my boy in the Area 51 hat is looking a little less dodgy. But then, thanks to the lies of the villains who poisoned my kid, I’m apparently as far out on the ledge as he is.
Robert Tinnell is the writer/director of such movies as Believe and Frankenstein and Me and has written numerous comics projects, including The Black Forest and The Wicked West with Todd Livingston and Neil Vokes, Feast of the Seven Fishes with Alex Saviuk and Ed Piskor, and Sight Unseen with Bo Hampton. Robert and Bo will be reuniting for the upcoming Demons of Sherwood Forest and will be joining Mark Wheatley in EZ Street, both coming to you shortly.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been blogging about this on the Huffington Post. Let's hope his voice is heard more loudly than those of the many parents of autistic kids who have been talking about this for years.
.I don't know anybody who has an autistic child, but I am better read than the average citizen on this subject because I care. Chelation therapy is not all that new, but many doctors will tell you it is quackery. I first heard of chelation therapy about 6 years ago through the now deceased Dr. Donald Carrow of Healthy Talk Radio. He was a champion of the procedure.It's my understanding that thimerosal is still in many of the shots used for children, but not here in the US. They reportedly have exported those sera to underdeveloped countries. Cynical me is willing to bet that it will eventually be reported that it couldn't have been the thimerosal because all these other countries didn't have any reported cases.Best of luck with your son's recovery..
Bravo, Bob!!!!!!! Wear that damn Area 51 cap with pride!!!!It's a very large ledge,afterall. Maybe the ledge will becomethe building at some point. Go JACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re ufos, Bigfoot,Nessie,etc.(I too, have been near Area 51)Note that if parallel universes exist, (Dr Michio Kaku)that it is possible to have odd beings leak over to ours.Thus, anything goes.Jon-Erik Beckjord http://www.bigfootresults.wordpress.com
Yo Bob, I am with you on the "fringe", thanks to my nonverbal, non-potty trained, seven year old grandson who "regressed" and was diagnosed autistic just prior to his third birthday. Unfortunately, our family lost our lovable child just as quickly and mysteriously as if he had been seized by a 'space ship' and transported to a world we no longer share. He lives in a world of "Elmo", 24X7, and we desperately want him back. We know he is "in there, somewhere" and we want him back.
This piece is so full of misleading and inaccurate statements that it's difficult to figure out how to reply briefly to it. Alan Coil is absolutely right- most doctors will tell you that using chelation to treat autism is quackery. They are also likely to point out how dangerous it is. Offhand, I know of at least one autistic child who died during chelation "therapy." I wouldn't be surprised if there were many more.Besides advocating an ineffective and dangerous medical "treatment" and spewing forth totally unfounded conspiracy theories about "Big Pharma," Tinnell- both here and in his strip- gratuitously insults autistics with phrases like "hell of autism." I have a non verbal, severely autistic daughter who is the joy of my existence. Life with her is anything but hell. I am sorry that Tinnell feels otherwise about his son.
Dear Kevin, The boy who died during chelation therapy was treated incorrectly using the wrong chemical. Just like the space shuttle blew up when incorrectly assembled. Why is it so outrageous to question the safety of a vaccine? Rotavirus vaccine was recalled when it was killing and maiming infants. A vaccine is just another medical product like Vioxx which was recalled as you should know. You have the right to treat or not treat your autistic daughter as you see fit, I pray she is not punching holes in the walls of your house or attacking you and biting off your finger as other autistic teens and adults have recently done to their parent's. I hit the ground running when my son was dx at age 2 and have tried to treat any abnormalities in his biology the same as a parent of a child dx with leukemia or muscular dystrophy. Why are parents of autistic children looked at so differently than parents of children with other disorders? If your child tests positive for heavy metals, why wouldn't it be logical to chelate them out? this is not done without supervision and blood and urine and sometimes fecal testing as well as supplementation to replace lost minerals. You are totally uninformed and I hope anyone else reading this comments section will speak to an informed parent or physician before accepting your misinformation as fact.
Hi, Kevin. Have you ever done any testing to see if your daughter has biological problems that should be addressed? For instance, if she has problems with diarrhea, constipation, or yeasty rashes, have you ever checked to see if she has underlying GI issues that should be treated? If she suffered (or still suffers) from eczema, have you tested to see if she has allergies/intolerances? If she suffered (or suffers) from recurrent ear infections, have you checked into the status of her immune system? These and many other symptoms and related tests routinely show marked differences between "neurotypical" and autistic kids. What's sad is that once autism is suspected or diagnosed, doctors tend to disregard signs and symptoms that in "normal" kids would never be overlooked. For instance, at practically every one of my son's well child visits, I would ask my son's pediatrician about my son's chronic diarrhea. She would always say, "Oh, it's just toddler diarrhea." Unfortunately, she was still saying that long after my son's toddlerhood was over. She was also, as are most pediatricians, all too quick to say "Oh, he's just a boy; boys are just slower to develop," wasting precious early intervention time until I finally broke down in tears in her office because I KNEW something just wasn't right with my son's development. I realize you have a daughter, but I'm wondering if you were also in some way delayed from getting early intervention for your child because of being told something like, "Let's just wait and see what happens." The reality is that doctors make mistakes just like everyone else. They aren't all-knowing. Because we know this, we still visit the same mainstream pediatrician, though we are much better informed now than in the past about what does and does not happen in the exam room. Thank goodness that same pediatrician is willing to admit that she doesn't know much about treating autism, but that she's willing to learn. Her comments to me since we started biomedical interventions are all along the lines of, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it." My next step with her is to give her a copy of Changing the Course of Autism by Bryan Jepson, MD. I challenge you to read that book and hope that you will consider having some testing done for your daughter if for no other reason than you just want to prove me wrong. There's one other part of my challenge to you, though. I challenge you to act on it when you discover that your daughter's immune and/or gastrointestinal systems are not functioning properly.Best wishes to you. I hope you one day experience the recovery for your daughter that we are experiencing with our son.Kathy
Kevin -Despite being engaged in a commentary, Bob Tinnell actually engages in a fair amount of journalistic balance in his piece, differentiating his opinions from the facts. He rather clearly identifies where his thoughts and experience diverge from what is commonly accepted, even when he is trying to challenge the standards. I simply don't see what you see. Other than having a great deal of compassion for anyone dealing with this issue, I don't have a pony in this race. On the other hand, I would like know what on Earth gives you the idea to even suggest that Bob does not consider his son to be the joy of his existence? Can't you argue your points without such a personal attack on someone simply because they have a different opinion?
I became a big fan of The Chelation Kid from the beginning. It's a story of hope and love, told with a keen sense of humor. Those of us who live the life depicted in the strip are searching for the complete truth in science that is still emerging. All we know for sure is that we haven't heard that truth from the FDA, the CDC, the IOM, or the vaccine manufacturers. That may sound a bit paranoid, but to me, parroting what some critics have said about the dangers of chelation based on a case of extreme malpractice rather than the inherent nature of the procedure makes one sounds a lot more gullible than any of the parents who share my opinions. Maybe we're not the ones wearing the tin-foil hats.
I became a big fan of The Chelation Kid from the beginning. It's a story of hope and love, told with a keen sense of humor.Those of us who live the life depicted in the strip are searching for the complete truth in science that is still emerging. All we know for sure is that we haven't heard that truth from the FDA, the CDC, the IOM, or the vaccine manufacturers. That may sound a bit paranoid, but to me, parroting what some critics have said about the dangers of chelation based on a case of extreme malpractice rather than the inherent nature of the procedure makes one sounds a lot more gullible than any of the parents who share my opinions. Maybe we're not the ones wearing the tin-foil hats.
Great article! I can appreciate a lot of what you are saying–we too are baffled, saddened, ticked off and ready to recover our son due to his vaccine injury. No one should have to see their own child suffer needlessly as we have. Your strip has been able to educate our own family about chelation–they get the shortened yet understandable and humorous version of what we drown ourselves in for the sake of our child's health. Thanks for sharing Jack's story with us and to countless other families.
Bob – thanks for the great article. There are so many different forms of autism and I have been reading up on the topic. There are too many people that are not aware of what it's like living with/being parent to a child with autism/any other special needs/illness needs that say what is wrong and what is right. How about they take a walk in the caregivers shoes! Adding your strip to my favorites right now. I wish you all the strength and faith that it takes to keep you, your son and the rest of your family to continue to make strides with the course of treatment that works best for YOUR son!
Chelation is the standard treatment for lead poisoning. How bizarre that some people would state it's inappropriate for removing mercury. Among the many chemists and oher scientists studying chelators is Andrew Hall Cutler, PhD, PE (Princeton, NASA) who has written a great deal about mercury toxicity and chelation in technical jargon and in layman's terms. Heck, even the conservatives at Townhall.com sent out an e-mail ad last month promoting EDTA chelation to remove arterial plaque in adults with heart disease. In the future as the world population grows and polluted environmental conditions increase, a variety of chelation methods may be necessary to remove accumulated toxins that overloaded organs cannot flush. Hey, vaccines can't do everything….
Great article Bob, and I LOVE The Chelation Kid! I am proud to be a card carrying member of the lunatic fringe (A.K.A. a parent seeking appropriate medical care for their children)!
I just wanted to support you and your wonderful creative way of expressing what many autistic parents don't have the energy, time, and wonderful spirit that you have! I also wanted to comment to those that think we are terrible parents for not "loving our child as they are". Wouldn't you take your child to a tutor if they didn't "get" math? Wouldn't you practice their handwriting if it wasn't up to par? Wouldn't you do CHEMO on a child with cancer? Why, then, would you dare to judge a parent of a child that could move further ahead (obviously, we know they will never be perfect as no one is)? Why would you pretend to know what is happening in that home? Why would you judge someone who is finally been given some hope through seeing other children improve, not just hearsay? It's so cliche, but usually those types of things ring true..you don't know until you have lived it. Our children are a true blessing because they open our eyes to teach US how to behave all the while we are working so hard on them to help them behave. My daughter has blessed me so many times over and I give praise to God for showing me the good in this crazy mess we are in. We need to question our medical community regarding vaccines because this all can't be just a coincidence. Something is happening and you see the research that is done and it points to environmental factors including vaccines, antibiotics, water, air…etc as well as genetic issues. It needs to be addressed why there IS STILL THIMERESOL IN OUR VACCINES HERE IN THE US AS OF TODAY! (check the government's website that lists these and their ingredients…along with formaldahyde!) Excuse the typos! So, thank you for writing a great piece with such heart and best wishes for The Chelation Kid to make a comeback!
Bob,Thanks for the Chelation Kid! My son is also being recovered with biomedical treatments. After our 1st round of oral DMSA, he potty-trained himself in one week! He is dumping lead, mercury, arsenic, aluminum etc. like crazy & is making huge gains. In fact I got a call from our ped asking why they have not seen my son in months. Oh well, let's see.. my little guy is no longer sick 3 weeks out of 4, he doesn't need antibiotics, he no longer has an elevated temperature, as he did right after getting the Hep B on the first day of his life. An elevated temperature that continued for almost 3 years until we got rid of his gut dysbiosis. He does not need us to revisit his inability to have a normal bowel movement because the GF/CF diet took care of that issue. And he absolutely DOES NOT NEED his 4 year booster vaccinations because that is what got us in this mess to begin with. So if you would like to see my son, swing on by my house and check him out he is playing ring around the rosie on the trampoline with 3 other kids(appropriately)! Praise God!
Bob–
I love the Chelation kid and am so glad there’s some graphic (and I mean graphic!) representation of what a life of vaccine damage looks like.
And I disagree–70s wasn’t such a great time to be a kid! My father was a physician and it was all "better living through chemicals." I was vaxxed early and often and am now a mess (would have been autistic, no doubt, if I’d had the even more ridiculous vax schedule they have today).
What no one seems to be thinking about ("long term" studies of vax are 30 days) is that we are the 1st generation of kids to receive multiple vaccines, and what happens when we pass these weird antibodies to our kids…and then vaccinate the heck out of them? Is no on worried that we’re losing a whole generation of kids to autism/ adhd, sever asthma, diabetes, etc? As Stan Lee would say, "’nuff said!"
For those who are interested, on Saturday's Ring of Fire on Air America (3pm-6pm), Robert Kennedy Jr. will be discussing autism and vaccines and the CDC's connections to big pharma companies. I heard a preview yesterday and highly recommend everyone try to catch the full thing.
Great piece, Bob. I've really enjoyed the Chelation Kid and you handle the hand you've been dealt with an incredible amount of grace.