http://www.thenhf.com/vaccinations_95.htm
August 13, 2006
"Government Investigation Finds Autism
Vaccine Related"
by Evelyn Pringle
According to the most recent CDC estimates, one
in 166 children in the US suffers from an autistic disorder. Twenty years ago,
autism only affected one in 10,000 children.
For years now, studies have shown that exposure
to mercury in childhood vaccines, not only causes autism but can also result in
immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions similar to
traits associated with autism.
On May 21, 2003, after a three year
investigation, "The Mercury in Medicine Report" was released by the
House Committee on Government Reform, and stated in part:
"Thimerosal used as a preservative in
vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all
probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at
the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and
the sharper eyes of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. The public health
agencies' failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self
protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."
The Congressional report also said that the
CDC, due to its "biases against theories regarding vaccine-induced
autism," had chosen to fund researchers "who also worked for vaccine
manufacturers" to conduct population-based immunologic studies . . . and
stated:
"The CDC in general and the National
Immunization Program are particularly conflicted in their duty to monitor the
safety of vaccines, while also charged with the responsibility of purchasing
vaccines for resale as well as promoting increased immunization rates."
The autism epidemic cannot be denied. On
February 15, 2005, the GAO, released a Report titled, "Special Education
Children With Autism," that revealed the number of children ages 6 through
21 diagnosed with autism receiving special education services has increased
more than 500% over the past 10 years.
In a transcript, obtained under the FOIA [Freedom of Information Act], of a
secret meeting attended by officials from the FDA and CDC in 2000, Pediatrician
Bill Weil, acknowledged the epidemic and stated, "There are just a host of
neurodevelopmental data that would suggest that we've got a serious problem....
The number of kids getting help in special education is growing nationally and
state by state at a rate we have not seen before."
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that
was developed in the 1930s by Eli Lilly, and has been used regularly in
vaccines ever since basically to boost vaccine maker profits by allowing drug
companies to package vaccines in large containers instead of a single dose.
However, years ago children only received a
small number of vaccines that were injected with a period of time in between
and one dose at a time. Since 1988, the number of vaccines given to children
before the age of two has tripled.
Lisa Blakemore-Brown, a psychologist in the UK,
has been investigating the vaccine-autism link for years and says the reason
the epidemic in autism did not occur sooner is because before the 1990s children
"were given single vaccines with single amounts of mercury."
"But with the introduction of triple
vaccines," she explains, "the amount of mercury contained within the
preservative was multiplied and the cumulative effects are only just now being
discovered by the public."
Once the cumulative amount of thimerosal that
children were receiving through injections of 30-some odd vaccines was finally
measured in 1999, the FDA discovered that infants were receiving more than 100
times the EPA's safe limit for mercury by 18 months.
Internal documents from the FDA and CDC show
public health officials knew about the increased mercury they were receiving at
least since 1999. A June 29, 1999, email from FDA scientist, Peter Patriarca,
to the head of the CDC office on vaccine safety, warned that the FDA was going
to be criticized for being "'asleep at the switch' for decades by allowing
a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines and not
forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products."
Mr Patriarca also pointed out that calculating
the cumulative amount of mercury in vaccines was not "rocket science"
and involved only ninth-grade math. He also noted the questions that agency
officials would likely be asked as:
"What took the FDA so long to do the
calculations? Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when
they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?"
An internal company memo that surfaced in a
lawsuit against vaccine maker, Merck, proves the company knew infants were
being injected with unsafe amounts of thimerosal back in 1991.
The memo says a 6-month-old baby receiving
shots on schedule would receive mercury 87 times higher than established safety
guidelines:
"If eight doses of Thimerosal-containing
vaccine was given in the first six months of life (3 DTP, 2 HIB, and 3
Hepatitis B) the 200 micrograms of mercury given, say to an average size of 12
pounds, would be about 87 times the Swedish daily allowance of 2.3 micrograms
for a baby of that size."
On September 8, 2004, Dr William Egan, then
acting Director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review, told the
House Government Reform Committee that prior to the mercury reduction
initiative in vaccines, children may have received 187.5 micrograms of mercury
by 6 month's of age through routine childhood vaccinations.
People often ask why some children become
autistic when so many do not. As a neurotoxin, thimerosal, has been linked to
the depletion of the protective anti-oxidant, glutathione, which helps rid the
body of mercury. People with autism seem to be more susceptible to this effect
and most have low levels of glutathione. Therefore, their bodies have
difficulty excreting mercury.
A December 2004 report by the independent
Environmental Working Group determined that autistic children have less
glutathione than normal children. The study, led by Dr Jill James, a professor
of biochemistry and pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences, said a glutathione deficit "may contribute to the development
and clinical manifestation of autism."
In 1999, many drug companies claimed they were
reducing the amount of thimerosal in vaccines. Some even provided product
inserts that claimed that only a trace amount of mercury still existed in the
final product. Others even claimed to be producing vaccines that were
completely mercury-free.
For instance, a September 1999, press release
by vaccine maker Merck declared: "Now, Merck's infant vaccine line is free
of all preservatives."
However, On March 8, 2005, the LA Times
reported that "Merck & Co continued to supply infant vaccine
containing a mercury preservative for two years after declaring that it had
eliminated the chemical."
In fact, Merck continued to distribute vaccines
containing thimerosal until October 2001, according to a June, 2003 letter from
the FDA to Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL), a doctor by calling, in response to
an inquiry. Dr Weldon called what Merck did "misleading."
"You had people literally into 2002,"
he told the Times, "getting shots with mercury, having been told it was
all taken out in 1999."
To see if vaccines were indeed thimerosal
free, last year the group, Health Advocacy in the Public Interest (HAPI), sent
four vials of different vaccines to be tested for mercury content to Doctor's
Data, an independent lab, which specializes in heavy metal testing.
The tests found that all four contained
mercury, despite the claim by 2 companies that their vaccines were completely
mercury-free. According to HAPI, all four vaccines also contained aluminum
which greatly increases the toxicity of mercury for causing neuronal death in
the brain.
In fact, during further investigation, HAPI
discovered that thimerosal was still being used during the production process
for most vaccines. The drug makers claim that after production, they filter the
preservative out of the final vaccines.
However, heavy metal expert, Dr Boyd Haley,
PhD, the Chemistry Department Chair at the University of Kentucky, told HAPI
that its not possible to remove all of the thimerosal because mercury binds to
the antigenic protein in the vaccine and cannot be filtered out completely.
Experts says, a drastic decline in autism has
not been seen due to the fact that the drug makers misled the public about when
thimerosal was actually eliminated from vaccines. Because the FDA has never
ordered a recall of the vaccines previously manufactured and shipped all over
the country, many mercury-laced vaccines remained in the inventories of health
care facilities and some had an expiration date as late as September, 2005.
In addition, pregnant women and their unborn
infants, are still being injected with a full dose of thimerosal in flu
vaccines. The CDC has ignored the tremendous amount of scientific evidence
documenting the injuries from mercury-laced vaccines and has continued to
recommend flu vaccines for all pregnant women and children over 6 months old.
Back in 2002, the research team of David and
Mark Geier, released a study based on an analysis of tens of millions of
vaccines given to during the 1990s, and presented epidemiologic evidence that
demonstrated the association of the increase in thimerosal in vaccines with
neurodevelopmental disorders.
The Geiers' analysis of the government's
"Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System" database showed statistical
increases in the incidence rate of autism, mental retardation, and speech
disorders in children receiving thimerosal-containing diphtheria, tetanus, and
acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccines, when compared with those who received
thimerosal-free vaccines.
According to the Geiers, the usual course of
DTaP vaccine consists of primary immunizations administered at two, four, and
six months, followed up by booster shots at 18 months and five years.
By analyzing the database, the Geiers
determined that there were a total of 6575 adverse reaction reports with the
DTaP thimerosal-vaccines, compared to only 1516 adverse reaction reports with
thimerosal-free vaccines.
In one of their more recent studies in 2005,
the Geiers assessed thimerosal exposure in about 110,000 children and found a
statistically significant association between exposure to thimerosal and a host
of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism, tics, attention deficit
disorders, and speech and language delays.
The public remains largely unaware of the
autism epidemic because people hardly ever see autistic children out in the
community. Aside from taking the children to school, parents seldom take them
anywhere because of the difficulty of trying to control them outside of a
routine environment.
The increasingly number of children with this
disorder is forcing public school systems to provide more special education
classrooms to meet their needs. Autistics are the fastest-growing segment of
special ed students and schools lack the trained professionals with knowledge
of how to work with autistic children. Schools were caught completely
unprepared for this epidemic.
Unlike normal children, children with autism do
not learn by watching other people and must be taught even the simplest skills
such as making eye contact, waiting in line, following directions or how to
hold a conversation which often requires one-to-one mentoring.
Skills, behaviors and abilities vary with each
child and about half of autistic kids have few or no language skills. Some kids
also suffer from other problems that impair learning such as hearing loss or
epilepsy and many are not toilet trained.
In a program that serves Minneapolis students,
each classroom usually has 6 students and requires one licensed special ed
teacher and two special ed assistants. Toddler classrooms are smaller with 4
students and require one licensed special ed teacher and one special ed
assistant.
Services by speech and language clinicians,
occupational therapists, social workers and adapted physical education teachers
are also available at each site based on student needs. And the educational
services reflect only part of the expense. Other costs include tuition for
summer school to help kids retain skills, transportation costs, and
psychological and behavioral evaluations.
In 2003, the California National School Board
Association reported that the number of autistic students in California had
doubled over four years and represented 13% of the state's student population
of 20,377, at a cost of up to $60,000 per student.
In July 2005, a San Mateo County California
civil grand jury released a report warning that increasing numbers of autistic
children and the high cost of their education was causing a significant drain
of resources for school districts.
The report said the number of autistics in the
San Mateo county had doubled since 2000, to more than 5,000, and the county
needed to find cheaper special ed alternatives since federal and state funding had
not kept up with spending.
The grand jury pointed to a pilot project at a
school in San Bruno, that paired four aides and one teacher with a small class
and said it was cheaper than one-on-one mentoring, which could cost $50,000 per
student.
In one year, the number of children treated for
autism at centers operated by the California Department of Developmental
Services increased 13% between 2003 and 2004. Autism now accounts for more than
half of the new cases handled at the centers, which treats various
developmental disorders, with the vast majority of cases being kids 13 and
younger. The number of autistics treated at the centers rose from 5,000 in
1993, to more than 26,000 in 2005.
And the numbers are the same all across the
nation. The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services estimates that in
2006, about 25,000 Kentuckians have autism spectrum disorders, an increase from
about 1,500 in 1990.
The US Department of Education all total spends
about $53 billion a year on grades K-12 education. If the government provides
$60,000 per year to educate the currently identified school-age autistics, the
tab will run about $7 billion a year, or 13% of its entire budget. And each
year the costs will rise as the number of autistics entering the system increases.
On December 10, 2002, Dr David Baskin, a
neurosurgeon and Professor of Neurosurgery and Anesthesiology at the Baylor
College of Medicine, testified at a Congressional Hearing and told the panel
that most autistic children will grow up and require lifelong care because they
cannot live independently. He described what he referred to as a
"horrible" fact and said:
"Over one-half will never speak. Many of
them will never be able to look at their parents and tell them they love them.
It's worse than Alzheimer's Disease. There's been a tremendous focus on
Alzheimer's Disease, but these children never had a chance to enjoy life before
they lost it."
According to Dr David Ayoub, author of the
report, "Pregnancy and the Myth of Influenza Vaccination--Is it safe, is
it effective, is it necessary?" government officials and vaccine makers
are working hard to keep the truth about vaccines and autism hidden because if
they admit guilt, it would mean they "have taken part in the largest
iatrogenic epidemic known to man."
"The fallout over admission of causality
would be unprecedented," Dr Ayoub said.
Dr Mark Geier is probably the most credentialed
expert on vaccines in the US. When he was 23, he corrected a genetic disorder
in a tissue culture, gaining distinction as one of the founders of genetic
engineering, and earning him front-page articles in the New York Times and
London Times, and a call from President Richard Nixon.
He holds an MD and a PhD in genetics from
George Washington University and spent ten years at the National Institutes of
Health. After several more years as a professor at Johns Hopkins University, he
opened the genetic laboratory and clinical practice that he co-owns today. He
is also a court-certified expert on vaccines. Based on his years of research on
autism he makes a statement similar to Dr Ayoub's.
"The current epidemic of autism may well
be the greatest iatrogenic epidemic in history. The damage already done to our
society is already in the trillions of dollars. The damage of the 9/11
terrorist attacks, and that of the AIDS epidemic pale when compared to the
current epidemic of autism."
Eighty percent of autistics are under the age
of 17. Soon states will be forced to provide support for an enormous number of
disabled adults. Many autistics cannot be left alone and must be looked after
non-stop. If the vaccine makers are not forced to pay for the damage they
caused, tax payers will be left to cover the entire expense of daily care and
housing as well as life-long medical treatment for this generation of injured
children.
As for the other reasons why officials within
the FDA and CDC keep denying the link between vaccines and autism, according to
Congressman Dave Weldon, "If it is eventually determined that an entire
generation of kids was essentially poisoned, a class-action suit against the
federal government could be on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars,
and so there's very good reason for them to try to cover this up."
"And then when they appear as though they
are covering it up," he says, "it makes you suspicious that it's all
true."
In the book, Evidence of Harm, award-winning
author, David Kirby, explains that "the stakes could not be higher.
Perhaps billions of dollars in litigation is pending against drug companies
involved in vaccine production. The deep pocketed pharmaceutical industry has
extended its financial largesse to politicians and scientists around the
country, in open pursuit of indemnity against lawsuits and, some charge, in a
darker effort to suppress evidence of thimerosal's toxicity."
"The jury is still out on thimerosal, but
deliberations are well under way," Mr Kirby writes. "One side will
emerge vindicated, and the other will earn eternal scorn in the medical history
books."
Article originally appeared on
http://www.opednews.com
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and
investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government and
corporate America. evelyn.pringle@sbcglobal.net