Government Investigation Finds Autism Vaccine Related
By Evelyn Pringle
http://www.opednewshttp
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, 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 neuro-developmental
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-containi
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 rece
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. In
1999, many drug companies claimed they were reducing the amo& 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" Co continued to supply infant
vaccine containing a mercury preservative for two years after declaring that
it had eliminated the chemic
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 that 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 it's 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 say 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 neuro-developmental
disorders. The Geier's 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-containi Back in 2002, the research team of
David and Mark Geier, released a study based on an analysis of tens of
millions of 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 According to the Geiers, the usual course
of DTaP vaccine consists of primary
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 neuro-developmental
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 increasing 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, According to Dr
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 can not 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."
Evelyn Pringle
evelyn.pringle@evelyn.prieve
Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for OpEd News and investigative journalist
focused on exposing corruption in government and corporate America.
Add
to Address Book 
Add
Mobile Alert
Fwd: Government Investigation Finds Autism Vaccine Related