Deisher will present her findings at a hearing called, “Presentation on Vaccine Safety: New Considerations, Concerns and Insights.” According to her press release, she will present “a continuation of her public efforts to shed light on key elements regarding vaccine safety, specifically as regards the likely adverse affects of human DNA residuals in many widely utilized vaccines.” No one else is scheduled to testify.

Deisher contends that the MMR vaccine may cause autism in young children. She doesn’t assert that it does, only that it may and that she feels more research should be done. And her lab is soliciting money to do that research.

In 2008 testimony to the President’s Commission on Bioethics under President George W. Bush, Deisher proposed that DNA from human cell cultures used to make the MMR vaccine may be causing autism in America’s children.

“How might the human DNA contaminated vaccines contribute to human disease? First, there is the potential for the contaminating DNA to be mixed with our own genes by a process called homologous recombination,” she said. “We do not yet know if this occurs with the contaminating human DNA found in some of our vaccines, and if so, to what extent. Imagine the potential consequences of human DNA from a vaccine, a vaccine that is given to children at an average age of 15 months, being incorporated into a child’s developing brain. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know that this potential has to be studied.”

The Minnesota Independent contacted several leading vaccine researchers who say Diesher’s claims are far from accurate.

Dr. Paul A. Offit, MD, is the head of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of Vaccinology and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as well as the author of the book “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure.”

“I don’t know where that comes from,” he told the Minnesota Independent of Deisher’s claim.

In the 1970s, vaccine producers switched from using animal cells for the rubella vaccine — a component of MMR — to human cells. Researchers derived those cells in 1961 from embryonic lung tissue, a bit similar to the embryonic stem cell lines used today to study and develop cures for chronic diseases. That 1961 line is still used today for vaccine production, and manufacturers list DNA from those cell lines as ingredients in the MMR vaccine.

Offit says that the amount of DNA in a vaccine is extremely small and unlikely to cause any problems: “We are talking picogram levels, or one trillionth of a gram.”

“There’s very little chance that a DNA fragment could cross the blood-brain barrier and insert itself into brain cells,” he said. “This would be the best news for gene therapy,” a process that seeks to use fragments of DNA to cure disease.

If incorporating DNA into cells — let alone brain cells — were as easy as Diesher says it is, Offit says it could revolutionize gene therapy research.

He says that the trivial quantities from vaccines make no difference. “You are injecting foreign DNA all the time” from the food we eat. “Look, if it worked that way, after eating at McDonald’s, we’d all turn into cows.”

The bottom line, he says, is that the science is confusing and people become skeptical. “It’s easy to take advantage of the fact that most people don’t understand vaccine science.”

Dr. Neal Halsey, professor of International Health and director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concurred.

“This claim has no merit,” he said. “The scientific data is now overwhelming that MMR is not a cause of autism.”

He added, “There is no evidence that small residual amounts of DNA from any source contribute to the development of autism.”

Dr. Halsey said that past research on links between autism and vaccines has been debunked.

“As I’m certain you know, Dr. Andrew Wakefield was the originator of the hypothesis that MMR causes autism,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “We have known for more than 10 years that the science behind his studies was seriously flawed. We now know through recent publications, that the studies were based upon fraudulent evidence.”

Earlier this year, British authorities found Wakefield’s research unethical, noting four counts of dishonesty and 12 counts abuse of autistic children through invasive and unnecessary testing.

But, the skepticism raised by Wakefield — and now Deisher — has had consequences beyond bad science.

So far this year in Minnesota, eight children have been hospitalized after contracting measles, and in at least some cases, parents of those children have followed Wakefield’s skepticism. Measles can be fatal in young children.

Does the MMR vaccine cause autism? “The answer could not be clearer and that answer is ‘no,’” said Offit. He said the vaccine has been researched in 12 large studies on three continents, and findings show the risk for autism after vaccination is no greater than for those children who have not been vaccinated.

Deisher: “Our pro-life work is our top responsibility”

Deisher’s questioning of the MMR vaccine seems to come from two related sources: religion and opposition to abortion.

In an interview in 2008, when she first opened AVM Biotechnology, LLC — the acronym stands for “Ave Maria” — Deisher said, “It is our goal to develop human therapeutics that are morally acceptable and compatible with the magisterium of the Catholic Church.”

Her ties to the church remain close; last year, the Archbishop of Seattle, Alexander J. Brunett, conducted a blessing of Deisher’s lab — complete with holy water and solemnization.

Deisher’s original focus was on embryonic stem cell research, and she successfully filed suit against the Obama Administration in 2010. The suit halted funding for embryonic stem cell research for a period in August of last year before an appeal was filed and a stay issued to continue the funding.

Now, the focus appears to be on vaccines, and an embryo that was killed in 1961 to create cell cultures that assist in the production of vaccines. That embryo was donated to research and was not aborted specifically for vaccine production.

“Many vaccines in the U.S. are contaminated with aborted fetal tissue,” she said. “There are no ethical alternatives, putting parents,
physicians and pharmacists in a moral dilemma.”

Further, Deisher has said using research that involved embryonic stem cell research or fetuses would be akin to Nazism.

“It would be like using the research results on hypothermia from Nazi Germany that involved murdering people,” she said.

Diesher’s zeal in opposing human cell cultured vaccines and embryonic stem cell research has achieved for her star status in the anti-abortion movement.

“We are clearly unique in that we are open and upfront about our pro-life mission,” Deisher said in an interview with Xcomony Seattle. “Our pro-life work is our top responsibility. For most companies, fiduciary return is the top priority. We hope our investors will make lots of money, but that’s not our first objective. We won’t compromise our pro-life mission for economic returns.”

While it’s unclear who invited Deisher to testify at Thursday’s hearing, the committee is chaired by Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, the cosponsor of several abortion-related bills, including one that would criminalize embryonic stem cell research and another that would direct taxpayer funds to anti-abortion groups through sales of “Choose Life” license plates.

The cuts would affect between 30,000 and 35,000 Floridians with severe developmental disabilities. They go into effect Friday and will remain in place at least through June 30, the end of Florida’s fiscal year.

Amy Van Bergen, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida, tells the Orlando Sentinel, “lt’s not like, ‘Gee, does this mean I have to skip a vacation this year?…Potentially, these cuts have life and death implications for these people.”

The news comes at the same time as a report that the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) has received approval for a federal Medicaid waiver program that is designed to help stabilize the budget. Nevertheless, the APD is now expected to operate minus 15 percent of funding.

Bob Wright, a board member and former CEO of Winter Park’s Threshold Center for Autism, tells the Sentinel that the most practical way to make do with less funding — cutting staff accordingly — would be an impossibility because it would put the Treshold Center in violation of state laws on staff-to-patient ratios. “This may break our backs,” he said.

Wright went on:

“If this were any other workplace, you would consider it a war zone…My staff gets bitten, hit, kicked, spat upon, defecated on, urinated on — for $8.23 an hour. And every time we start talking about giving our guys a pay raise, the governor comes along and cuts the rates.”

That pay rate is a dollar above Florida’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. It’s also right around the average pay for round-the-clock in-home aides. Aides who work 24 hours a day for four-day stretches tell the Sentinel they make around $800 a week, which works out to $8.33 for every hour they’re on the clock.

In an ironic display of temerity, governor’s office staff happily tweeted about an appearance Scott made at a fundraiser for the Special Olympics on the same day he authorized the order.

McCain then sought to define Palin by her reformer bona-fides, including the time she unseated the incumbent Republican governor and when she resigned from a state energy board over her disgust with a member’s ethical lapses.

But then McCain headed into muddy territory, where he made a number of errors on Alaska and Palin’s overall record. I’ll break down the paragraph in question line-by-line.

She’s given money back to the taxpayers.

Alaska doesn’t tend to talk about the public as “taxpayers.” The reason is that there is no state income tax or property tax here. Alaska is run by taxing the companies that tap the state’s rich natural resources, mainly oil companies. To say she gave back “taxpayer” money isn’t entirely accurate. Alaskans received a $1,200 check this year to offset the high cost of energy, which coincided with huge state revenues because of high oil prices. This check was in addition to $2,000 that every Alaskan received this year as part of the state’s Permanent Fund Dividend program that shares oil profits with residents.

She’s cut the size of government.

Palin actually increased government spending in Alaska by about 28 percent this year, according to The Associated Press. Her $11-billion budget spends about $16,000 per person in the state.

She negotiated with the oil companies and faced them down, a $40 billion pipeline of natural gas that’s going to relieve the energy needs of the United — of what they call the lower 48.

It’s true that Palin has agreed to subsidize the company, TransCanada, with a half-billion dollars in public money to explore a possible natural gas pipeline. But that doesn’t mean any dirt will be turned for years – if at all.

McCain wrapped up talking about Palin by noting that she understands the challenges of families with children with special needs, including autism. This was a bit of a surprise, as the Palins have a 5-month-old baby boy, Trig, with Down syndrome. The Anchorage Daily News reports that she does have a nephew with autism, which she noted during her 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

One thing McCain left out of his points on Palin was the story that’s put her in the headlines up here lately — Troopergate.