Comments on: Today with Charlie and Tomorrow, Too

By: 29 Marbles / Advocates and allies

29 Marbles / Advocates and allies — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:18:35 +0000

[...] comment discussion concerning Kristina Chew’s appearances on Newsweek.com and NBC’s The Today Show last week in which she was asked, as the mother of an autistic son, her opinions about vaccines. [...]

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:32:11 +0000

I was just reading the ABC news on death threats and thought I would see what you wrote. I like how you have that pic of the three of you from today segment.

I think since the GMA on call series starts on Monday that this was a way for them to get traffic to the site.

Maybe you can post that link to the leave comments for Nancy that was in a comment yesterday.

I am going to look for it and put it on my blog.

By: HCN

HCN — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:53:12 +0000

goodfountain said “Does anyone know if there are children who were not vaccinated who have eventually rec’d an Autism dx?”

Yes, they exist, see:
http://notmercury.blogspot.com/2006/02/i-was-wrong.html

By: Karin

Karin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:23:08 +0000

Ok, I know I’m going to regret jumping into this, but… I did not get to see the show yesterday, but my husband did. He commented to me this morning about it, saying that Matt and Dr. Snyderman practically came to blows. From his perspective, and one that people might want to keep in mind – Matt was just doing what journalists do, wrapping up the segment, and saying that there was still a controversy – now obviously there IS, since people all over the web and everywhere else are still arguing about it. I agree with Dr. Snyderman, there is no SCIENTIFIC controversy, but the fact remains that there are people who don’t believe it, and therefore there IS a controversy.

Anyway, I have no idea what his personal feelings or beliefs are, but I think it behooves us to remember there are several possible explanations for anyone’s behavior, anytime.

By: Jeff P

Jeff P — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:08:44 +0000

Dr. Chew:
Great piece from the Today show – it showed the emotion in a very emotional topic. However it was nice to see Dr. Snyderman make the points that she did against the opinion of a few including Matt Lauer. First his slip about casual and not causal, then his verbal ambush vs. physical ambush; thankfully Dr. Snyderman corrected him right away and then said her opinion on controversial caused a cheer from my desk when I saw this. When you popped on, it warmed my heart after following you and Charlie this past year. Let’s hope more pieces come to the surface like this one so that finger pointing and division can stop and a cause can be found.

By: goodfountain

goodfountain — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:05:32 +0000

Kristina, great post as always.

I have a question for you: Does anyone know if there are children who were not vaccinated who have eventually rec’d an Autism dx? I would think that might be another way to show that there isn’t a vaccine-autism connection. If I remember correctly, I met a woman who chose not to vaccinate her 2nd son b/c her older son has Autism, but her 2nd son was eventually dx’d. Yet she was still convinced vaccines were the problem. I could never make sense of that.

Just wonder if you know if anyone out there has looked at that.

Thanks.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:09:23 +0000

Good for Dr. Snyderman!!

By: bonnie

bonnie — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:07:25 +0000

This piece was wonderful and I hope you don’t mind but I blogged about it as well and embedded it into my entry. I don’t have as intelligent and insightful thoughts about it as you convey here but I did my best to share my feelings on the matter. THanks for sharing yours in the piece. It was really cool to put a face to a blog, and it you sure got the feel for what a great bike rider Charlie is!

By: Liz Ditz

Liz Ditz — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:51:59 +0000

I liked the way Charlie was represented in the video–dignity & anonymity. And I loved the shot of the three of you walking away. Charlie’s physique at the moment reminds me of my younger stepson at about the same age. I thought of him then as “inflating from the bottom up” — man-sized feet and ankles, calves growing fast to catch up, and the rest of his body long and lean, the structures on which the musculature would be laid down.

And I thought Dr. Snyderman’s exchange at the end of the clip was great.