Monthly Archives: February 2020

Overcoming Bias

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What are my biases?

Do I express strong bias that could cause polarization of those who do not agree with me?

How to detect your expression of bias:

Words. Our own language can provide a flashlight into the recesses of our own motivations.

  1. Absolute Language. The words you use are clues that you are expressing a bias that will not be well received by those who do not share your bias. Absolute language such as “any”, “all”, “always” may appeal to those who share your bias – it’s sort of like ‘preaching to the choir’. Using strong words may win you praise from fans but will most likely alienate those you might be hoping to sway towards your way of thinking.
  2. Framing inferences as facts. This can include inferring the motivation of others, or making inferences based on the lack of actions of others. 
  3. Framing your own motivation positively. E.g. I seek solely to find “objective truth.”
  4. Broadening conclusions. For instance, painting someone as a ‘dictatorial ideologue relentlessly oppressing humble and honest scientists in order to ensure the only messages that survive are self-serving propaganda’ is usually a stretch.

Questions to help me examine my bias:

  1. How might my own beliefs be coloring my advocacy? If I use absolute language and state inferences as facts I could be reducing my effectiveness in sharing what I believe to be true.
  2. Do I feel insulted or offended when others do not share my views or challenge my points?
  3. Are there times when I overstate my data?
  4. Do I sometimes approach a conversation with a predetermined opinion, then back into arguments that support it? Even a little?
  5. Can I read the science from the opposing position? Do I rate the quality of research higher because of feelings about a particular author or conclusion? Is there a body of science I feel loyalty or affection for?

Other clues that highlight your bias:

  • Do you dismiss scientific papers that don’t agree with your beliefs?
  • Can you impartially evaluate the quality of the research in a paper?
  • Can you listen without interrupting when someone expresses an opposing point of view?
  • Do you maintain objectivity in your decision making process?
  • The most pernicious kind of subjectivity comes from those who think they are objective.
  • Can we move beyond self-righteousness in our ideology?

I find that if I have crafted a story in my mind that makes me the righteous victim and others the premeditated villains, I am likely to have little influence with them, or to their adherents. To the degree you can come to see the failings of others as temptations you also occasionally succumb to, you’ll humanize the opposition and amplify your prospects of healthy conversation.

One of the best ways to resolve conflict is to transcend it. If this is an issue that is extremely important to you, or important for someone you love, try to step off of your high horse and seek to have a mutually respectful conversation. Here are some ideas I’ve gleaned from communication specialists:

  1. Find a time when you are not debating a specific topic or specific paper. 
  2. Open the conversation by acknowledging frequent conflict about topics in the past. Acknowledge any transgressions in your own approach to those conflicts.

You might say, for example, “I experience our decision making conversations as more contentious than is helpful. I know I’ve contributed to that. There are times when I let my ego trump my objectivity. I feel insulted and defensive, and that’s my stuff. And I suspect I’m not the only one. I suggest we step away from the specifics for a few minutes and discuss our purpose and our mutually shared goals. Let’s find principles that we both agree on such as the robust health of our children. My hope is that if we can all commit to those principles and stay to our convictions, we will reduce unnecessary conflict.”

It could well be that in the conversation you discover an unapologetic commitment of the other person to support only a particular bias. If so, you have a decision to make.

If, on the other hand, the conversation leads to purposeful and meaningful conversation with a discovery of shared purpose and principles that will guide the interactions, you will then have a context within which to challenge decisions that don’t fit with your mutually shared principles and hopefully come to a resolution.

I acknowledge great insight gleaned from https://www.vitalsmarts.com/crucialskills/2020/02/unconscious-bias-in-science/#comment-13183

Previously I wrote some ideas on having discussions with those you love on hard topics that has reached 2,400 people.

Becky Hastings, wife, mother, grandmother, passionate follower of Jesus and truth. As a breastfeeding counselor for over 23 years Becky is devoted to helping parents make wise decisions for the long-term health and wellbeing of their babies. As a member of a Vaccine Safety Education Coalition, Becky writes and speaks on the topic of vaccine safety.

Dear Daughter and SIL

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I have absolute confidence in your body’s ability to grow a baby, birth a baby, and breastfeed a baby! You’re doing great! God created your precious baby and knows him/her well already! There was a divine spark that ignited life in you and is now growing in you!

I recently saw this  list of questions to ask midwives and thought it was a fairly good list but got me thinking about the most important questions pregnant parents should ask. I would modify some of the questions so that they require more than a yes/no answer.

One question I would add – at the top of the list is “Describe the cord clamping process”. Many ‘standard’ practices of birth are widely accepted by midwives. Midwives were once the guardians of natural respectful birth but have become indoctrinated with medical training in a similar way as doctors. Not all midwives have the same outlook on standard procedures around birth which makes it important to know what to ask about. Some examples:

Pregnancy

TDaP & flu vaccines routinely recommended during pregnancy have never been safety tested, yet because CDC recommends them for every woman for every pregnancy – no matter when they had the last shot – midwives go along with suggesting or recommending them. This recommendation has only recently been implemented – from around 2008 or so. Before that EVERYONE understood vaccines in pregnancy were a very bad idea. I’ve got a few blogs about these. Moms can absolutely refuse. Politely refuse.

Rhogam during pregnancy. This shot has caused a lot of problems for some individuals related through VaxXed story videos. Many times the blood type of the father is not even considered. If both mom and dad are rH – there is no need for a Rhogam shot either during pregnancy or after birth. I admit I haven’t fully researched the impact of refusing Rhogam for after birth when a baby is rH positive. I just accepted that when my first two babies were born, tested to be + and I got the shot – after the birth. The only ‘danger’ or risk of refusing the Rhogam after birth is going to be for the next pregnancy/baby. If mom is rH negative and baby is rH positive some of the blood may have mixed during the birth process which would cause mom to produce antibodies in the next pregnancy. It will not impact the current baby. There are health risks for mom that are generally not presented when the shot is recommended. Rhogam contains polysorbate 80 which is known to open the blood brain barrier.

During Birth:

  • What type of monitoring is done during labor?
  • What kind of movement will be possible for me during labor?
  • How do you encourage movement?
  • Under what circumstances would you want to restrict movement?
  • What type of water birth options are available?
  • At what stage of labor is a birthing pool encouraged?
  • What position do most of your moms give birth in? This is a good question because it reveals the reality of what happens – not just what they say they believe in. Standing, squatting, (my third baby) or kneeling over a chair (that’s how you, #4, were born) allow the fullest opening of the pelvis for easier delivery. Lying on a bed restricts the pelvis – my first two babies.

After birth:

  • Vitamin K. Most facilities routinely administer vitamin K nearly immediately after birth – sometimes without even asking the parents or thinking twice about it. I’ve got a few blogs about Vitamin K. Knowing what I know I would always refuse vitamin K injections, but staff are often misinformed and very pushy about this. If the staff are pushy I would have vitamin K drops on hand and assure them the drops will provide even better protection. I don’t think the drops are necessary to give, but they provide a great protection from pushy medical people. Dr Suzanne Humphries speaks to the details of vitamin K injections and drops in a video on my blog.
  • Hepatitis B vaccine on first day of life. This is one of the worst vaccines. I’ve written extensively about it. Hepatitis B vaccine is never necessary, especially when mom is negative for hepatitis B, yet so many medical people push it as if it is life-saving.
  • ‘Eye goop’. Standard policy for all babies to protect against blindness possibly caused by STI in the vaginal canal. It burns baby’s eyes and causes them to keep them closed which can interfere with bonding.
  • Bath. Timing of the first bath. Many people feel delaying a bath is better for baby. The vernix is good to soak in the skin. Any mess can simply be wiped off.
  • Delayed Cord clamping is HUGE. Quick cord clamping greatly reduces baby’s total blood volume. 1/3 of baby’s blood is still in the cord. Some birth attendants think they delay because they wait one minute. The cord needs to be allowed to give all the residual blood and STEM CELLS to the baby. Some say 10 minutes, some say until the cord stops pulsating, and some do ‘lotus’ birth where they don’t ever cut the cord but keep the cord and placenta attached for days until it naturally falls off!
  • Ask ‘what happens to my placenta‘? That’s another good question. Many women want to keep their placenta. Some prepare it and capsulize it and find it a wonderful supplement for the months following birth. I never did that, but your SIL did.

All standard procedures can be refused – but navigating the process can be challenging depending on the staff, their beliefs, and their respect for you. Many babies ‘accidentally’ are given shots that the parents have expressly stated they do not want. The best approach for this is to keep the baby in your arms – mom or dad or baby body guard (BBG) – at all times while in the medical facility. If baby needs anything the nurse will sometimes say “I need to take baby to nursery for ….” a BBG must accompany nurse for all such visits. 

Medical people hate to be disrespected. The hardest part of navigating birth is the need to be ultra respectful and polite while standing your ground! Information, research, and knowledge will all give you the kahoonas to manage this process. Having respect for ridiculousness is not my strongest character strength, but I keep trying to learn and put it into practice.

I highly recommend a very short booklet called Basic Needs of a Woman in Labor. Understanding these principles truly make labor go easier, faster and better. You can order an electronic copy with any small donation.

Birth Without Fear: the judgment-free guide to taking charge of your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum by January Harshe published in 2019 looks like a great read.

I repeat, I have absolute confidence in your body’s ability to grow a baby, birth a baby, and breastfeed a baby! You’re doing great! God created your precious baby and knows him/her well already! There was a divine spark that ignited life in you and is now growing in you! My hope is that you would not have any fear at all, but feel empowered for this process. 
Love Mom

Becky Hastings, wife, mother, grandmother, passionate follower of Jesus and truth. As a breastfeeding counselor for over 23 years Becky is devoted to helping parents make wise decisions for the long-term health and wellbeing of their babies. As a member of a Vaccine Safety Education Coalition, Becky writes and speaks on the topic of vaccine safety.

Doctor presents facts

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Dr. LawrencePalevsky is a renowned board certified pediatrician, sought-after lecturer, and published author, who utilizes a holistic approach to children’s wellness and illness. He provides patients and their families with personalized, comprehensive consultations to address their children’s wellness at Northport Wellness Center, New York City.

Dr Palevsky gave this comprehensive overview of his medical training and his personal research and experience regarding vaccine safety before the Connecticut Legislative Informational Forum. This 18 minute presentation covers vital information that every doctor, parent and grandparent should understand before accepting the current vaccine recommendations of 72 doses by the age of 18 for every single child.

I urge you to 1) watch; 2) take notes; 3) learn some of the most obvious facts; 4) formulate questions to ask those who continue to believe that ‘vaccines are safe and effective’ and ‘the science is settled’; 4) share. Together our education efforts are making a difference. Educating the end user – families – seems to be the most powerful way of changing this narrative. As state legislatures continue to seek to pass mandatory vaccine laws we see how political this debate has become. Information will empower families to make informed choices for the best possible long term health of their babies and children.

Transcript, edited slightly for clarity:

“In 1983, when I started medical school, I was taught vaccines were safe, they were effective and I should give them.
But I was not taught about any of the science around their safety or any of the studies around how safety (studies) were done.
It wasn’t until 1998 that a mother came up to me and said: “Doctor, did you know that there’s mercury in vaccines?”
And I said no I did not.
As a medical student I was trained to critically think.
If you see an observation you go after it try and figure out if there’s a question to ask.
So, instead of just ignoring it I looked further into the vaccine ingredients and I found that there were a number of vaccine ingredients that in animal studies were proven to be very dangerous to animals.
And I didn’t understand why these same ingredients were actually in vaccines.
I was starting to hear stories from parents.
Not dozens, not hundreds but thousands of stories, from parents, who took a very healthy child into their doctor’s office and then found that their child lost much of their health.
Whether it was their speech, whether it were seizures, whether it was death, whether it was asthma, allergies, eczema…
Whether it was autism, whether it was learning disabilities, whether it was inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases …
And every one of those parents were told it had nothing to do with the vaccine.
Every single one.
And this continues today.
But yet, when I look at the ingredients that are in the vaccines, I have the science to
actually explain how these medical problems could be happening in these children.

Today, one in five children is learning-disabled .
In 1976 it was one in 17.
One in six, under age eight.
One in two in adolescence
And one in four, in young adults, is diagnosed with a mental behavioral or emotional disorder.
One in twenty children under the age of five have seizures.
One child in forty develops autism.
The number of cases of children and adults with autoimmune diseases is rising exponentially.
It’s one of the highest rising diseases in this country.
And the vaccine ingredients, if you are willing to look at them and understand how they work, when they are injected into the body, can be seen to be responsible for every single one of these cases.
So what are these ingredients?
Well when I was in medical school we were taught that the body has something called the blood-brain barrier.
The blood-brain barrier is like Fort Knox for the brain.
Some elements that are in the bloodstream can not get into the brain.
Those elements include: drugs, viruses and bacteria… among other things that are in the blood.

Drug companies were very concerned about being able to develop drugs. So, to get the drugs into the brain. So they used something called a nanoparticle.
A nanoparticle is a very small particle, bound to the drug.
They found that if they could put a nanoparticle onto a drug they could get that drug to go into the brain. It shows in animal studies that they were able to do this.
They then were able to take an emulsifier, which is something that’s good with water and fat (it can dissolve in both) and if they added the emulsifier to the nanoparticle that was bound to the drug, they could increase drug entry into the brain 20 fold.
This is right out of animal studies that I’ve found.
So you have a drug, you have a nanoparticle and you have this emulsifier bound together.
This combination gets quite easily into the brain.
Vaccines are constructed the same way.
You have the vaccine viruses and bacteria that are bound to a nanoparticle, called aluminum,
That aluminum (which is a nanoparticle) has, by definition, the potential to enter the brain.
Most vaccines also contain polysorbate 80 or sorbitol.
Both of those compounds are emulsifiers.
Emulsifiers bind very tightly to the nanoparticle aluminum which is bound very tightly to the vaccine antigens.
This raises a question: “If the vaccine model is the same model as the model that the drug companies are using to enhance the delivery of drugs into the brain. Then is it possible that vaccine ingredients are making their way into the brain of our children?”
That could explain why so many parents are watching their kids deteriorate after vaccinations, even though the doctors, the media and the government say: absolutely no connection.
Even though the science suggests that there is a connection.
You cannot find a single study in the literature that addresses whether the injection of aluminum into the body penetrates the brain, whether any vaccine ingredients enter the brain and whether polysorbate 80 enhances the delivery of any of those ingredients into the brain.
And when I could not find those studies… I was concerned, because I’m told and you’re told
the vaccines are evaluated and very very distinctly tested for safety.
Yet, you can not find a study that says if aluminum stays in the blood or gets into the brain of children.
Does aluminum take other vaccine ingredients into the brain that don’t belong in the brain?
Because when ingredients that don’t belong in the brain get across the blood-brain barrier, they cause inflammation.
And inflammation is what we see in one in five children with learning disabilities and one in 40 children with autism.
All we have to do is ask the guidance counselor’s at schools about what they see.
If you get honest pediatricians who are telling you what they’re seeing in their practice..they will tell you:
They’re seeing kids, one after another, with more and more brain disorders.
Now, as a medical doctor – who was taught to think – I went into the literature and said:
“Are proper science studies done?”
Safety studies like for example: Where you take a vaccine and you inject it into a hundred kids and then you give another hundred kids a saline placebo (meaning it’s inert).
No study exists to actually evaluate the safety of a vaccine compared to a placebo group. None !!

When vaccines are studied, the maximum amount of days that vaccines are studied is up to ten days to two weeks.
And unfortunately, the vaccine manufacturers pre select what side effects they will allow to be associated with the vaccines.
So, if a child has a vaccine reaction that is associated with the vaccine, the vaccine manufacturers will decide whether or not it should or should not be associated with the vaccine. And the public knows this and they’re learning it more and more.
So, if your child develops seizures five months after a vaccine, your child is told by the doctor that it had nothing to do with the vaccine.
But that’s not true, because there are no studies to prove it.
There is opinion… but there’s never been a study really addressing whether a vaccination at two months or even nine hours of age, could be related to an event that happened months or even years later, and yet we have some of the sickest children in our country.
In New York, we lost the religious exemption on June 13th, 2019, because the unvaccinated children with a religious exemption were blamed for a measles outbreak.
When I met with representatives in New York I told them that there is no study to prove that unvaccinated children have ever been proven to start an epidemic.
He was surprised and he said: “I will vote against removing the religious exemption if I can’t find a study like you say.”
He could not find a study, but he voted to repeal the exemption anyway,… because there are no studies.
There are no studies proving that unvaccinated children are responsible.
There’s consensus…”

Becky Hastings, wife, mother, grandmother, passionate follower of Jesus and truth. As a breastfeeding counselor for over 23 years Becky is devoted to helping parents make wise decisions for the long-term health and wellbeing of their babies. As a member of a Vaccine Safety Education Coalition, Becky writes and speaks on the topic of vaccine safety.