Autism News & More

The Age of Autism: 'A pretty big secret'

2005-12-07T23:24:00.000-05:00

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor

CHICAGO, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- It's a far piece from the horse-and-buggies of
Lancaster County, Pa., to the cars and freeways of Cook County, Ill.

But thousands of children cared for by Homefirst Health Services in
metropolitan Chicago have at least two things in common with thousands of
Amish children in rural Lancaster: They have never been vaccinated. And
they don't have autism.

"We have a fairly large practice. We have about 30,000 or 35,000 children
that we've taken care of over the years, and I don't think we have a single
case of autism in children delivered by us who never received vaccines,"
said Dr. Mayer Eisenstein, Homefirst's medical director who founded the
practice in 1973. Homefirst doctors have delivered more than 15,000 babies
at home, and thousands of them have never been vaccinated.

The few autistic children Homefirst sees were vaccinated before their
families became patients, Eisenstein said. "I can think of two or three
autistic children who we've delivered their mother's next baby, and we
aren't really totally taking care of that child -- they have special care
needs. But they bring the younger children to us. I don't have a single
case that I can think of that wasn't vaccinated."

The autism rate in Illinois public schools is 38 per 10,000, according to
state Education Department data; the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention puts the national rate of autism spectrum disorders at 1 in 166
-- 60 per 10,000.

"We do have enough of a sample," Eisenstein said. "The numbers are too
large to not see it. We would absolutely know. We're all family doctors. If
I have a child with autism come in, there's no communication. It's
frightening. You can't touch them. It's not something that anyone would
miss."

No one knows what causes autism, but federal health authorities say it
isn't childhood immunizations. Some parents and a small minority of doctors
and scientists, however, assert vaccines are responsible.

This column has been looking for autism in never-vaccinated U.S. children
in an effort to shed light on the issue. We went to Chicago to meet with
Eisenstein at the suggestion of a reader, and we also visited Homefirst's
office in northwest suburban Rolling Meadows. Homefirst has four other
offices in the Chicago area and a total of six doctors.

Eisenstein stresses his observations are not scientific. "The trouble is
this is just anecdotal in a sense, because what if every autistic child
goes somewhere else and (their family) never calls us or they moved out of
state?"

In practice, that's unlikely to account for the pronounced absence of
autism, says Eisenstein, who also has a bachelor's degree in statistics, a
master's degree in public health and a law degree.

Homefirst follows state immunization mandates, but Illinois allows
religious exemptions if parents object based either on tenets of their
faith or specific personal religious views. Homefirst does not exclude or
discourage such families. Eisenstein, in fact, is author of the book "Don't
Vaccinate Before You Educate!" and is critical of the CDC's vaccination
policy in the 1990s, when several new immunizations were added to the
schedule, including Hepatitis B as early as the day of birth. Several of
the vaccines -- HepB included -- contained a mercury-based preservative
that has since been phased out of most childhood vaccines in the United
States.

Medical practices with Homefirst's approach to immunizations are rare.
"Because of that, we tend to attract families that have questions about
that issue," said Dr. Paul Schattauer, who has been with Homefirst for 20
years and treats "at least" 100 children a week.

Schattauer seconded Eisenstein's observations. "All I know is in my
practice I don't see autism. There is no striking 1-in-166," he said.

Earlier this year we reported the same phenomenon in the mostly
unvaccinated Amish. CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding told us the Amish
"have genetic connectivity that would make them different from populations
that are in other sectors of the United States." Gerberding said, however,
studies "could and should be done" in more representative unvaccinated
groups -- if they could be found and their autism rate documented.

Chicago is America's prototypical "City of Big Shoulders," to quote Carl
Sandburg, and Homefirst's mostly middle-class families seem fairly
representative. A substantial number are conservative Christians who
home-school their children. They are mostly white, but the Homefirst
practice also includes black and Hispanic families and non-home-schooling
Jews, Catholics and Muslims.

They tend to be better educated, follow healthier diets and breast-feed
their children much longer than the norm -- half of Homefirst's mothers are
still breast-feeding at two years. Also, because Homefirst relies less on
prescription drugs including antibiotics as a first line of treatment,
these children have less exposure to other medicines, not just vaccines.

Schattauer, interviewed at the Rolling Meadows office, said his caseload is
too limited to draw conclusions about a possible link between vaccines and
autism. "With these numbers you'd have a hard time proving or disproving
anything," he said. "You can only get a feeling about it.

"In no way would I be an advocate to stand up and say we need to look at
vaccines, because I don't have the science to say that," Schattauer said.
"But I don't think the science is there to say that it's not."

Schattauer said Homefirst's patients also have significantly less childhood
asthma and juvenile diabetes compared to national rates. An office manager
who has been with Homefirst for 17 years said she is aware of only one case
of severe asthma in an unvaccinated child.

"Sometimes you feel frustrated because you feel like you've got a pretty
big secret," Schattauer said. He argues for more research on all those
disorders, independent of political or business pressures.

The asthma rate among Homefirst patients is so low it was noticed by the
Blue Cross group with which Homefirst is affiliated, according to Eisenstein.

"In the alternative-medicine network which Homefirst is part of, there are
virtually no cases of childhood asthma, in contrast to the overall Blue
Cross rate of childhood asthma which is approximately 10 percent," he said.
"At first I thought it was because they (Homefirst's children) were
breast-fed, but even among the breast-fed we've had asthma. We have
virtually no asthma if you're breast-fed and not vaccinated."

Because the diagnosis of asthma is based on emergency-room visits and
hospital admissions, Eisenstein said, Homefirst's low rate is hard to
dispute. "It's quantifiable -- the definition is not reliant on the
doctor's perception of asthma."

Several studies have found a risk of asthma from vaccination; others have
not. Studies that include never-vaccinated children generally find little
or no asthma in that group.

Earlier this year Florida pediatrician Dr. Jeff Bradstreet said there is
virtually no autism in home-schooling families who decline to vaccinate for
religious reasons -- lending credence to Eisenstein's observations.

"It's largely non-existent," said Bradstreet, who treats children with
autism from around the country. "It's an extremely rare event."

Bradstreet has a son whose autism he attributes to a vaccine reaction at 15
months. His daughter has been home-schooled, he describes himself as a
"Christian family physician," and he knows many of the leaders in the
home-school movement.

"There was this whole subculture of folks who went into home-schooling so
they would never have to vaccinate their kids," he said. "There's this
whole cadre who were never vaccinated for religious reasons."

In that subset, he said, "unless they were massively exposed to mercury
through lots of amalgams (mercury dental fillings in the mother) and/or
big-time fish eating, I've not had a single case."

Federal health authorities and mainstream medical groups emphatically
dismiss any link between autism and vaccines, including the mercury-based
preservative thimerosal. Last year a panel of the Institute of Medicine,
part of the National Academies, said there is no evidence of such a link,
and funding should henceforth go to "promising" research.

Thimerosal, which is 49.6 percent ethyl mercury by weight, was phased out
of most U.S. childhood immunizations beginning in 1999, but the CDC
recommends flu shots for pregnant women and last year began recommending
them for children 6 to 23 months old. Most of those shots contain thimerosal.

Thimerosal-preserved vaccines are currently being injected into millions of
children in developing countries around the world. "My mandate ... is to
make sure at the end of the day that 100,000,000 are immunized ... this
year, next year and for many years to come ... and that will have to be
with thimerosal-containing vaccines," said John Clements of the World
Health Organization at a June 2000 meeting called by the CDC.

That meeting was held to review data that thimerosal might be linked with
autism and other neurological problems. But in 2004 the Institute of
Medicine panel said evidence against a link is so strong that health
authorities, "whether in the United States or other countries, should not
include autism as a potential risk" when formulating immunization policies.

But where is the simple, straightforward study of autism in
never-vaccinated U.S. children? Based on our admittedly anecdotal and
limited reporting among the Amish, the home-schooled and now Chicago's
Homefirst, that may prove to be a significant omission.

--

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes comment.
E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

The Age of Autism: Nuts

2005-11-30T13:47:00.000-05:00

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor

You may have seen the brief news stories this week: A 15-year-old Canadian girl with a severe peanut allergy kissed her boyfriend -- and died.

The New York Post perfectly captured the tabloid pathos. The headline: "Allergy teen's fatal kiss." The lead: "Her allergy to peanuts may have been the kiss of death for a Canadian 15-year-old who died after smooching with her boyfriend, who'd just had peanut butter, authorities said.

"Christina Desforges died last Wednesday in a Quebec hospital, where she was being treated for the allergic reaction to the kiss the weekend before. The fact is that even a trace amount can cause a severe reaction."

A CNN reporter asked: "Could it really have been ... the kiss of death?" (Could it really have been ... a crass cliché worth avoiding?) The network quoted three people -- ages 13, 15 and 20 -- who all have severe peanut allergies and recounted near-death experiences as a result. It quoted a doctor as saying, "I've lost three patients due to anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction). They're all teenagers. One was a baked good, one was Chinese food, one was a candy. None of them had epinephrine (antidote) available."

Now, why are so many young North Americans suddenly at risk of death from eating common foods or kissing those who have?

"Food allergy such as peanut allergy is an immune response," explains foodconsumer.org. "It differs from food intolerance which causes discomfort without provoking the immuno-response. What causes peanut allergy remains largely unknown. A study, published in the March 13 issue of New England Journal of Medicine, linked the acquisition of the condition with babies' using skin preparation containing peanut oil. Peanut allergy was also found associated with intake of soy milk or soy formula."

Other possible factors cited in press accounts include more peanut-eating by pregnant and breast-feeding women and earlier peanut consumption by young children. That, it is surmised, could predispose them to severe allergic reactions later.

Maybe. But omitted from the speculation is one other possibility, which explains why peanuts are the subject of this column about autism: There are studies and informed observations suggesting that a rise in peanut allergies -- and other severe allergic and autoimmune reactions in young people, both acute and chronic -- are associated with a rise in childhood vaccinations in the 1990s.

Are you rolling your eyes yet? Please bear with us. Our purpose here is not to propose this as the most plausible hypothesis, but simply to point out -- yet again -- how nutty the discussion of the horrifying rise in childhood medical problems becomes when it does not look squarely at all possibilities.

And vaccines are among those possibilities -- certainly right up there with peanut eating during pregnancy, to say the least. We refer you to this posting on the Web: www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/March2002/Anaphylaxis&Vaccines.htm.

It is a Nov. 6, 2001, letter from Rita Hoffman of Stirling, Ontario, to the Immunization Safety Review Committee of the U.S. Institute of Medicine, part of the prestigious National Academies.

"Re: Epidemic of Children with Anaphylaxis," it begins. "Thank you for the opportunity to submit the following information for your review of the possible association between multiple immunizations in newborns and infants and immune system dysfunction. We are writing in particular about the potentially life threatening allergic response called anaphylaxis."

The letter, which Hoffman wrote on behalf of the group Anaphylaxis Action, sure looks like a serious piece of work to us. It cites one scientific journal study after another, beginning with the Archives of Internal Medicine, which reported in 2001 that "The occurrence of anaphylaxis in the US is not as rare as is generally believed. On the basis of our figures, the problem of anaphylaxis may, in fact, affect 1.21 percent (1.9 million) to 15.04 percent (40.9 million) of the US population."

That's something that should trigger urgent research and -- despite the cluelessness of the press accounts about the 15-year-old's kiss of death -- it has indeed.

Hoffman quotes from a paper in the journal Pediatric Allergy Immunology from 1994 that says that "the role of immunization for the development of allergy merits further study."

A 1997 article in Immunology Today: "Modern vaccinations, fear of germs and obsession with hygiene are depriving the immune system of information input upon which it is dependent. This fails to maintain the correct cytokine balance and fine-tune T-cell regulation, and may lead to increased incidences of allergies and autoimmune diseases."

From the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics in 2000, Effects of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis or tetanus vaccination on allergies and allergy-related respiratory symptoms among children and adolescents in the United States: "The odds of having a history of asthma was twice as great among vaccinated subjects than among unvaccinated subjects. The odds of having any allergy-related respiratory symptom in the past 12 months was 63 percent greater among vaccinated subjects than unvaccinated subjects."

We could go on, but we refer you to Hoffman's excellent summary. Of course, there are countervailing studies and theories that find no such link between immunizations and allergic reactions, anaphylaxis and asthma (not to mention autism). But the point is this is a serious, ongoing debate with immediate, life-and-death consequences.

Too bad the mainstream media doesn't take it seriously. Christina Desforges and her generation deserve better -- and they deserve it now.

--

E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com
© Copyright 2005 United Press International, Inc.

An Ill Wind Blows into a Child's Life

2005-11-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in autistic children

By James Ottar Grundvig
Special to The Epoch Times

Most Americans remember with clarity where they were when they first heard the news of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Life-defining moments like 9/11 are those rare events that reshape society and culture, forever changing how people take stock of their lives. This holds especially true for those who witnessed the tragedy firsthand.

For me, a rooftop witness to the fire and smoke that poured out of the Twin Towers, the day after 9/11 has lingered in my mind with equal brilliance and anxiety. Confined at home with work closed, my son and I appeared safe in the shutdown city with Navy jets flying over the empty skyline. And why shouldn't I have felt that way? We lived Uptown at 94th Street and Third Avenue on the opposite end of the island, six miles away from the smoldering ruins of the collapsed buildings that made up the World Trade Center complex.

Yet what happened that morning unnerved me. With our 14th floor living room window ajar, I began to smell an acrid, burning smoke that I had never smelled before. I raced around the apartment looking for the source of the fire. I found nothing. Watching my son, Fridrik, play by the open window, wondering where the pungent odor was coming from, I had a delayed reaction. The smoke that I saw drift east to Brooklyn on 9/11, blew north as the wind changed direction the next day. I closed the window. But my gut feeling told me it was too late.

A Child Sickens

By the next morning, Fridrik began to cough. It was a dry, hacker's cough as if he had smoked cigarettes for twenty years. Within a week, he developed an acute ear infection—the only one of his life. On the 25th of September, my wife and I took Fridrik to see his pediatrician. This was the same doctor who told us one year before that an infant's lungs develop over the first three years. So when we inquired about taking him swimming the only restriction the doctor emphasized was "no dunking." With the cough still persisting weeks after the insult, the pediatrician gave Fridrik his only prescription of penicillin in his life. It wasn't for the cough, but the ear infection. Although the cough dissipated over time, the thought about what toxic chemicals had invaded my son's lungs never left me.

If pool water is bad for an infant, then how much worse would be the scorched air emanating out of Ground Zero? The answer came more than three years later, and almost two years after Fridrik had been diagnosed with autism.

On Valentine's Day, we decided to forego the ritual romantic dinner and took Fridrik to see a doctor. The results were in for his red blood cell analysis test, which profile the metal makeup of a person's body—from essential (good) metals, like zinc and iron, to heavy metals that can be harmful. When we learned that our son was carrying high amounts of mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic in him, we were at a loss. How did he become so "dirty" at such a young age? Having done extensive research into the vaccine-thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative used in many vaccines), we knew we would find mercury in him, but not the other three neurotoxins.

The Danger of Ground Zero

It took only the subway ride home from the doctor's office for the burnt smell of 9/12 to come racing back. We began to research and interview people, including several New York journalists, to see if those heavy metals in Fridrik were present in the World Trade Center. In short, we discovered that computers carry high amounts of mercury; cadmium can be found in light fixtures; and arsenic and lead in the steel. The World Trade Center, which comprised a small city of 60,000 people, with computers on every desk and light fixtures in every room and corridor, became the focus for the secondary source of heavy metal poisoning.

We learned that the EPA air monitoring stations were setup at the northern-most limit of 14th Street—a good eighty blocks from where we lived—but a poor location to get a true sampling of what was airborne. More research brought home a frightening fact. The intense fires, which appeared to vaporize everything in their path, released the superheated heavy metals into the air. And when the particles of lead and arsenic cooled off, far from the source of the heat, they shrank in size and collected on the dust and drifted, in Fridrik's case, uptown into our home and in his lungs.

I was never concerned about asbestos or other PCB, cancer-causing chemicals harming him. His exposure was limited in time. But after learning that mercury from the baby vaccines had shutdown Fridrik's glutathione, or his ability to filter out neurotoxins, I knew that he had more than enough exposure to ingest the bad stuff—something far worse than being dunked in a pool.

The Metals Around Us

What parents of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) children need to know is that heavy metals, which come from the earth's crust, cannot be destroyed, incinerated, or broken down any further. Once inside an ASD kid, mercury and the rest can stay there for up to a third of his or her life if not treated.

Fridrik wasn't the only child on the spectrum, a "human" magnet collecting heavy metals in the city when 9/11 occurred. And the Upper East Side wasn't the only area in the city to be hit by the poisonous air that cooked for more than a month after the towers collapsed. There are other children who were insulted, adding to the "bioaccumulation" problem that impacts their speech, amplifies their senses, and zaps their nervous system.

Finally, there are other 9/11-like events that put ASD children in harm's way: the fires in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; the cities that burned in the riots that plague France. There are also more innocuous sources, from the water we drink to the air tainted by industrial plants.

For children like Fridrik, the struggle has not only been treating him for toxins that have made a home in his body and brain, but trying to prevent primary (vaccines) and secondary sources of heavy metals from leeching again into his body and not out.

James Ottar Grundvig lives and works in New York City. He is the father of an autistic child.

Please also read Autism's Razor: Epidemic's Cause Found, and How Can a Child Forget a Parent's Face?.

Critics question provision in vaccine plan

2005-11-29T08:42:00.000-05:00

Source: 13 Eye Witness News
Tom Walker/Washington Bureau Chief

Washington D.C., Nov. 29 - The government's strategy for fighting bird flu includes doing everything possible to keep it from becoming a pandemic in the first place.

President George W. Bush has said, "The best way to deal with it is to isolate and contain it in the region in which it begins."

In case that fails, Congress is working up a $7 billion plan to encourage production of potentially life saving vaccines.

But critics are now taking aim at a part of the plan they say would also give drug makers sweeping new protection from lawsuits, protection they say goes beyond bird flu.

"A couple of cases of measles could be considered an epidemic that then would be covered under this legislation." Barbara Loe Fisher runs the watch-dog group National Vaccine Information Center that she founded after her son developed learning disabilities she believes were related to childhood vaccine.

She and other critics of the pharmaceutical industry, including Indiana Congressman Dan Burton, are gearing up to oppose the liability provisions.

President Bush and others say the number of makers of vaccine has plunged, largely because of fear of lawsuits. And they argue that without protection companies won't make the drugs.

But there is growing opposition from groups, including the politically powerful Association of Trial Lawyers, that say

fear of pandemic should not close the courthouse door to those injured.

"Certainly when it happens to you or to a loved one," says Fisher, "when you're the one that gets hurt, things look very different."

This is shaping up as a bitter struggle that could have an impact on drug makers like Eli Lilly and Company that don't make vaccines, but could be ramping up production of other medicines that might be needed in a bird flu pandemic.

Legislation drafted by Republicans would only allow lawsuits against makers of pandemic vaccines if there were willful misconduct.

A New Ultra-Secret Government Agency

2005-11-29T08:31:00.000-05:00

Source: OMB Watch

Legislation is moving in the Senate to create a new government agency to combat bioterrorism that will operate, unlike any other agency before it, under blanket secrecy protection.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) has introduced the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005, S1873, that would create a new agency in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to research and develop strategies to combat bioterrorism and natural diseases. While Congress has created several agencies recently in response to homeland security concerns, most notably the Department of Homeland Security, Burr proposes for the first time ever to completely exempt this new agency from all open government laws. The legislation has already passed out of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and is now before the full Senate.

The Act creates the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA) to work on countering bioterrorism and natural diseases. Apparently in an attempt to protect any and all sensitive information on U.S. counter-bioterrorism efforts or vulnerabilities to biological threats, Burrs has included in the legislation the first-ever blanket exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The legislation states that, "Information that relates to the activities, working groups, and advisory boards of the BARDA shall not be subject to disclosure" under FOIA "unless the Secretary [of HHS] or Director [of BARDA] determines that such disclosure would pose no threat to national security."

Neither the CIA nor the Defense Department has such an exemption. Burr’s spokesperson argues that the exemption is necessary to protect national security claiming that "there will be times where for national security reasons certain information would have to be withheld." For instance, the BARDA should not, according to the spokesperson, be required to publicly disclose information pertaining to a deadly virus.

FOIA, however, already includes an exemption for national security information, as well as eight other exemptions ranging from privacy issues to confidential business information and law enforcement investigations. If the public disclosure of information would threaten national security, then the government may withhold the requested information. "The well-established and time-tested FOIA provisions already address Burr's concerns," explains Sean Moulton, OMB Watch senior policy analyst, "thereby making the blanket exemption for BARDA unnecessary and unwise."

Congress established and strengthened FOIA over the years to create a reasonable, consistent level of accountability among government agencies. Under FOIA, when the public requests agency records, the agency is compelled to collect and review the requested information. The only decision for the agency is whether specific records can or can not be released under the law based on the exemptions from disclosure written into the law. However, the Burr legislation reverses the process: it does not require BARDA to collect or review the requests for disclosure. Instead, the agency can automatically reject requests. Still more troubling, the law prohibits any challenges of determinations by the Director of BARDA or Secretary of HHS, stating that the determination of the Director or Secretary with regards to the decision to withhold information "shall not be subject to judicial review."

Mark Tapscott at the Heritage Foundation writes that "BARDA will essentially be accountable to nobody and can operate without having to worry about troublesome interference from courts or private citizens like you and me."

This move to restrict the reach of FOIA appears in stark contrast to the recent Senate vote to strengthen open government. Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) co-sponsored FOIA reform legislation, passed by the Senate in June, that "will bring additional sunshine to the federal legislative process, and was another step toward strengthening the Freedom of Information Act."

The Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act also exempts BARDA from important parts of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires public disclosure of advice given to the executive branch by advisory committees, task forces, boards and commissions.

Other provisions of the bill compound the troubling secrecy provisions. They include:

Giving BARDA the authority to sign exclusive contracts with drug manufacturers and forbidding the agency from purchasing generic versions of these drugs or vaccines.
Authorizing BARDA to issue grants and rebates for drug companies to produce vaccines.
Providing liability protection to drug manufacturers for drugs and vaccines not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, by requiring the secretary of HHS find that a drug company willfully caused injury.

The FOIA exemption in combination with these provisions would prevent the public from knowing whether BARDA is effectively completing these duties. Only information on agency actions could establish if the new agency is protecting the public from bioterrorism and infectious disease or if it is simply providing handouts to drug companies that creates no added security.

"It is essential that open government safeguards remain in place for all agencies," Moulton continues. "It is extremely important to ensure that the nation is protected against pandemics and bioterrorist attacks, but such efforts must not be excluded from open government. By providing the mechanisms for government accountability, these safeguards ensure that the government meets its responsibility to protect the public. In the end, an accountable government is a stronger government which acts to effectively meet all threats, including pandemics and bioterrorism."

Burr is still in the process of revising the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act, and, with the Senate's incredibly tight schedule, the timing of the bill's introduction on the floor remains uncertain. In the meantime, supporters are rumored to be seeking out a Democratic cosponsor to give it momentum.

The Sickening Politics Of Vaccine Legislation

2005-11-28T16:55:00.000-05:00

By Richard S. Dunham
Business Week Online

Even in an era of hyper-partisanship, it should have been easy. Everyone on Capitol Hill, Republican and Democrat, understands that the U.S. needs emergency legislation designed to speed production of new vaccines aimed at combating future pandemics. Everyone knows drugmakers need a liability shield to protect against the lawsuits that will inevitably spring up when a vaccine is rushed to market. And nearly everyone wants Washington to help Americans who are injured by their shots.

But in Washington nothing is easy, especially when it involves a clash between two bitter enemies -- Hill Republicans and the trial lawyers. The GOP and pharma lobbyists charge that the lawyers and their allies are pulling out all the stops to prevent any erosion of their cherished right to sue at the drop of a hat. But the plaintiffs' attorneys see the Republicans pushing broad relief from lawsuits under the guise of public health. "It's cynical to claim that this is what's needed to deal with avian flu," says Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). "The Republican leadership is trying to do another favor for the drug companies."

Obscured by the overheated rhetoric, however, is a key issue: How much compensation should people damaged by these vaccines collect? Kennedy and the trial lawyers say they can support liability protections for drugmakers only if victims are promised full government indemnity. "We are not in any way trying to undermine the vaccine program," says Association of Trial Lawyers of America lobbyist Linda Lipsen. "In the event that individuals are injured [or] killed, there should be... compensation."

Full indemnity could be a trillion-dollar commitment, but that's completely impractical and unaffordable, Republicans say. During negotiations between Kennedy and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) on indemnity, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) summoned senators to his office to call off the talks. Indemnity will never fly, he said.

Vague Compensation
Instead, Industry and Frist are backing an effort led by Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). They would limit liability to vaccines designated as essential to fighting pandemic flu or other deadly new diseases and would direct the Secretary of Health & Human Services to create a compensation program, with details and funding to be determined later. "We just don't have enough information to set one up now," argues a GOP staffer.

The pharmaceutical industry, not surprisingly, is firmly behind the GOP. Trial lawyers, advocates for vaccine victims, and others counter that a vague plan for a future compensation program is tantamount to none at all. Somewhere in the middle are public health experts. They want Congress to spur vaccine production while assuring the public it will have a safety net.

When all the smoke clears, that's likely to happen. Supporters plan to attach the Burr liability provision to a spending bill that just enough Democrats -- especially those like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who have already backed some form of liability protection -- will be loath to oppose. It won't be pretty, it won't be easy, and it won't be truly bipartisan. But "it's all going to work out, despite the big bad trial lawyers," says a pro-industry lobbyist.

By Richard S. Dunham and John Carey, with Lorraine Woellert and Eamon Javers

CAPITAL WRAPUP
Business Digs Deep For Pro-Trade Dems

Union leaders vowed to shut the fund-raising spigots for 15 House Democrats who broke ranks with their party in July to vote for the Central America Free Trade Agreement. But new Federal Election Commission reports indicate that business has more than compensated for labor's closed wallets.

A BusinessWeek analysis of political action committee receipts for the first nine months of 2005 finds that unions provided an average of 16.1% of the PAC money raised by CAFTA Dems -- down from 22.1% in the 2004 election. But business donations surged to 76.7% of the CAFTA 15's PAC money, from 66.3% that these pro-business Dems received in 2003-04. Corporate interests have already pumped more than $100,000 into the coffers of 10 of the 15 Democrats.

Business efforts included a September fund-raiser hosted by leaders of the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Electronic Industries Alliance. Bernadette Budde, senior vice-president of Business Industry PAC, says executives also will hold local events to make sure that Democrats "do not suffer for the [pro-trade] positions they have taken." First up: helping friendly Democrats such as Representatives Henry Cuellar of Texas and Gregory Meeks of New York, who face primary races against labor-backed foes.

Pharma's Poisoned Generation

2005-11-27T09:10:00.000-05:00

by Evelyn Pringle
OpEdNews.com

A growing number of professionals in the health care field are reporting that a relationship exists between the epidemic in neurodevelopmental disorders of autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, and speech or language delay all across the country, and the use of thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative used in childhood vaccines.

Vaccines are the only medicines that Americans are mandated to receive as a condition for attendance in school and day care, and for some types of employment. Parents who receive federal assistance are also required to show proof that their children have been vaccinated.

While the mandate for which vaccines must be included on the vaccine schedule is a state mandate, it is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its Advisory Committee that make the recommendations to which the majority of states adhere when determining mandates. The current epidemic actually began in the late 1980s when a large number of new vaccines were added to the schedule.

The blame is at least partially attributable to the failure of government officials to keep track of the cumulative amounts of mercury as they added triple-dose-vaccines to the schedule and the amount of thimerosal was multiplied by three.

Each new vaccine contained 25 micrograms of mercury and according to Professor Lynn Adams, of Radford University, who specializes in autism, by 1999, a study determined that the average child received 33 doses of 10 different vaccines by the age 5.

Elected lawmakers first became aware of the problem in 1999, when the House Committee on Government Reform initiated an investigation into the dangers of mercury exposure. An alarm rang early about the exposure of children to thimerosal.

By October 25, 2000, Committee Chairman, Dan Burton (R-IN), was trying to get the substance out of vaccines as quickly as possible and sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, asking the director to get the FDA to recall all vaccines with thimerosal.

“We all know and accept that mercury is a neurotoxin, and yet the FDA has failed to recall the 50 vaccines that contain Thimerosal,” Burton wrote. “Every day that mercury-containing vaccines remain on the market is another day HHS is putting 8,000 children at risk,” he said.

“I implore you to conduct a full recall of these products,” he wrote. “If the only action ... is a gradual phase out, children will continue to be put at risk every day,” Burton warned. “These vaccines will continue to be injected in children for years to come - putting our nation's most vulnerable population ... at risk for mercury poisoning," he added.

The Reform Committee soon discovered that regulatory agencies were still allowing thimerosal to be used decades after the recognition that it was harmful. The Committee was told that the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA), uses a subjective barometer in determining when a product that has known risks can remain on the market. According to the agency:

"at the heart of all FDA’s product evaluation decisions is a judgment about whether a new product’s benefits to users will outweigh its risks. No regulated product is totally risk-free, so these judgments are important. The FDA will allow a product to present more of a risk when its potential benefit is great—especially for products used to treat serious, life-threatening conditions."

The argument that the known risks of infectious diseases outweighs any potential risk of neurological damage is one that has continuously been used by officials. The FDA claims that any risk from thimerosal is theoretical because no proof of harm exists.

However, after its review of scientific literature and listening to the testimony of witnesses, the Committee found plenty of evidence to support the fact that thimerosal posed a grave risk. "The possible risk for harm from either low dose chronic or one time high level (bolus dose) exposure to thimerosal is not "theoretical," but very real and documented in the medical literature," the Committee said.

The Committee also discovered that regulatory agencies have never required drug companies to conduct studies on the use of thimerosal. During a June 20, 2002, hearing, Burton questioned officials from the FDA and CDC and said, "You mean to tell me that since 1929, we've been using Thimerosal and the only test that you know of is from 1929, and every one of those people had mennigitis, and they all died?"

In his opening statement at a July 18, 2000, hearing, Burton said:

"We assume that the FDA would protect our children from exposure to any level of mercury through drugs. But that hasn’t been the case. Thimerosal was first marketed in 1930 and has become the most widely used preservative in vaccines. It is present in over 50 licensed vaccines."

"The FDA recently acknowledged that in the first six months of life, children get more mercury than is considered safe by the EPA," Burton noted. "The truth is that sometimes kids go to their doctor’s office and get four or five vaccines at the same time," he added.

"My grandson received vaccines for nine different diseases in one day," Burton said. "He may have been exposed to 62.5 micrograms of mercury in one day through his vaccines."

"According to his weight, the maximum safe level of mercury he should be exposed to in one day is 1.51 micrograms," Burton advised. "This is forty-one times the amount at which harm can be caused," he added.

In his opening remarks at a June 19, 2002, hearing, Burton described the devastation of witnessing the correlation between vaccines and autism.

"My only grandson became autistic right before my eyes – shortly after receiving his federally recommended and state-mandated vaccines. Without a full explanation of what was in the shots being given, my talkative, playful, outgoing, healthy, grandson Christian was subjected to very high levels of mercury through his vaccines. He also received the MMR vaccine. Within a few days he was showing signs of autism."

People often wonder why regulatory officials would protect drug makers. In large part, because the CDC and FDA policy decisions are made through advisory panels whose members have financial relationships with the same companies they are charged to regulate.

The decisions of the 300 experts who sit on the FDA's 18 advisory committees affect billions of dollars in sales. The panel members play a crucial role in determining what drugs will be approved and participate in just about every major decision related to industry regulation.

When it comes to vaccines, the large population in the USA transforms into a lucrative customer base when our government makes vaccines mandatory and keeps adding more and more to the list. Between 2003 and 2006, it was predicted that the annual global market for vaccines would rise from $6 billion to $10 billion, by Mark Benjamin for United Press International on July 21, 2003.

Investors follow the decisions made by the advisory panels closely. A favorable vote by a committee can add hundreds of millions of dollars to a company's stock value which also means the potential for corruption in the panels is enormous.

In a July 18, 2000 hearing, Burton mentioned the problem. "We have a lot of doctors who serve on Federal advisory committees who have serious conflicts-of-interest problems. They’re allowed to vote on vaccines made by companies that they get money from."

An analysis conducted by USA Today, of 159 FDA advisory committee meetings that took place between January 1, 1998, and June 30, 2000, revealed conflicts of interest were wide-spread:

At 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a financial conflict of interest.

At least one committee member had a financial stake in the topic under review at 146 of 159 advisory committee meetings.

At 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisers had conflicts of interest.

At the 102 meetings dealing with the fate of a specific drug, 33% of the experts had a financial conflict.

Many parents are now refusing to vaccinate their children because they believe there is an on-going conspiracy by government officials and the pharmaceutical industry to boost profits by mandating unnecessary vaccines, while at the same time, denying their potential for harm. Congressman Burton addressed this issue in a June 19, 2002 hearing:

"Parents are increasingly concerned that the Department may be inherently conflicted in its multiple roles of promoting immunization, regulating manufacturers, looking for adverse events, managing the vaccine injury compensation program, and developing new vaccines. Families share my concern that vaccine manufacturers have too much influence as well."

Burton also noted the need to get honest about the current epidemic. "As representatives of the people, we have a responsibility to ensure that our public health officials are adequately and honestly addressing this epidemic and its possible links to vaccine injury," he said.

In May 2003, the Reform Committee, released a report that said the "FDA and the CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the immunization schedule."

As an example the report cited the Hepatitis B vaccine. "When the Hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenzae Type b vaccines were added to the recommended schedule of childhood immunizations, the cumulative amount of ethylmercury to which children were exposed nearly tripled." The report identified thimerosal as the cause of the autism and chastised the FDA:

“Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly 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.”

Many people have not yet recognized the seriousness of the epidemic, largely because the majority of people have not seen many autistic children due to the fact that parents seldom take their affected children out in public because of the difficulty in trying to control them in a strange environment.

However, the rising numbers in special education classes in the nation's public school system provides a clear measurement of how wide-spread the epidemic has become. State by state statistics for students with autism from the Department of Education for the 12-year period between 1992-93 and 2003-04, are almost unbelievable. For instance, in Ohio in 1992-93, there were only 22 cases of autism, by 2003-04 there were 5,146. In Illinois, there were only 5 cases twelve years ago and 6,005 in 2003-04. Wisconsin had 18 cases of autism in 1992-93 and the numbers rose to 3,259 in 2003-04.

The true reality of these statistics will register in the not too distant future. "With eighty percent of autistic Americans under the age of 18, the dramatic impact of this crisis will be felt by taxpayers in the coming years when these autistic children become adults," says Anne McElroy Dachel, Media Relations Coordinator for the National Autism Association.

Most vaccines on the immunization schedule now are said to be thimerosal-free but some still do contain trace amounts. "An exception is the flu shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for pregnant women and for infants 6 to 23 months old,” advises Don Olmsted in United Press International on November 19, 2005.

For 6 to 23-month-old infants, the schedule calls for two flu shots that contain 12.5 micrograms of thimerosal each to be given a month apart. “That total of is the same amount that was in vaccines some parents believe triggered their child's autism," Olmsted advises. "And some of them believe in utero exposure to mercury via the pregnant mother might be the most dangerous exposure of all,” he said.

When deciding whether mercury-laced flu vaccines are safe for children, parents had better think long and hard before rolling the dice.

Evelyn Pringle
epringle05@yahoo.com

(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government)

Investigate This

2005-11-27T08:45:00.000-05:00

by Rich Tucker
Townhall.com

Oh goody.

Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor who’s been investigating the supposed outing of a CIA operative, plans to present evidence to another federal grand jury. “The investigation is continuing,” Fitzgerald announced, just weeks after most assumed it -- almost two years old and counting -- had finally ended.

This will be the second grand jury called to investigate whether or not Joe Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame was outed. In the long run, though, few Americans will care about -- or even be aware of -- the outcome of Fitzgerald’s probe (assuming it eventually ends). But as long as we’ve got a grand jury impaneled, let’s have it ask some questions about something that actually affects countless American lives. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

There are more questions than answers about autism. But unfortunately, it’s no longer unusual. In her new book about manners, author Lynne Truss writes that we’re living in “an age of social autism, in which people just can’t see the value of imagining their impact on others.”

Imagine reading that sentence two decades ago. In 1985, an estimated 4 in 10,000 children were diagnosed autistic. Most people went through life without meeting an autistic person. Autism then was similar to schistosomiasis -- even if you had heard of it, you probably didn’t know what the symptoms were. Today the Centers for Disease Control says as many as 1 of every 166 children is on the autism spectrum. Autism today is something that afflicts a son, nephew or cousin.

Everyone knows what it means to be “autistic.”

Still, the government seems stumped. “There are no effective means to prevent the disorder, no fully effective treatment and no cure,” the National Institute of Mental Health admitted in its February 2005 annual report on autism to Congress. And on its Web page, the CDC lists three things it is “doing about ASDs.” Two are studies tracking the number of children with autism in the Atlanta area and in Brick County, New Jersey. The third is funding various state projects. “These state projects look at how common ASDs are in children. Some of the projects also study what factors make it more likely that a child will have an ASD,” the CDC says.

Well, that’s a start, but a slow one.

Let’s use the grand jury to dispell some of the fog and ask some difficult questions. For example, in his book “Evidence of Harm” author David Kirby writes that thimerosal, a preservative long used in many vaccines, “never underwent any of the rigorous safety trials now required for FDA approval.” Thimerosal is 50 percent mercury, and mercury is a known toxin.

A grand jury could subpoena records to find out if the government (which approved thimerosal) or drug companies (which included the preservative in their vaccines) ever ran any tests to determine if it really was safe to inject it into infants. And if there were no such tests, perhaps a grand jury could find out why not.

This isn’t simply an academic exercise. While it’s been removed from most childhood inoculations, thimerosal remains in one vaccine: The flu shot we’ve heard so much about.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says flu shots are critical. “Since young children are at such high risk of getting the flu, the AAP recommends the flu vaccine regardless of whether it contains thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative,” the group says on its Web site. “To date, there is no scientific proof that mercury in vaccines caused autism despite years of study.” That’s true, but it’s also true that thimerosal has never been proven safe, either. Our grand jury could ask the AAP if medical standards have changed -- is it now all right to inject a substance that may be dangerous, as long as it hasn’t been proven dangerous?

The jurists might also want to hear from some experts who question the use of thimerosal. Michael Wagnitz is a senior chemist for the state of Wisconsin. He’s urging his state to stop giving thimerosal-containing flu shots. “Liquid waste needs to go to a hazardous site if it contains more than 200 ppb mercury. Is it really safe to inject people with a level of mercury 250 times higher than hazardous waste?” he asked in a recent letter republished by the UPI wire service’s “Age of Autism” column.

It’s said that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Today our government spends time and money investigating whether or not a CIA officer’s name was leaked to a reporter. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of children have descended into autism, with no apparent hope of a cure.

Wouldn’t it be grand if a simple grand jury investigation could help change that?

Rich Tucker is an editor in Washington D.C. and a columnist for Townhall.com. You can email him here.

Mercury in vaccine poses a danger

2005-11-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

Journal Standard.com
Opinions

Dr. Amy Johnson's comments in The Journal-Standard on the mercury-containing flu vaccine for children contain serious flaws.

Dr. Johnson may say that "there is no evidence of harm," but she's basing that on the CDC's easily flawed and manipulated population studies to "prove" mercury is safe when injected into babies. What about the government's own testing of thimerosal?

Introduced by Eli Lilly in 1930, thimerosal was tested only once, on 22 adult patients suffering from meningitis. There was no chance for follow-up to observe long-term effects, as all of the patients in this "study" died. Even if follow-up had been possible, damage to the developing brains of very young children would have remained an unknown. Thimerosal was pronounced "safe" and later grandfathered in when the FDA was created.

Starting in the late 1980s more and more vaccines with mercury were added to our children's list of required vaccines, without any regard for the total mercury exposure children were receiving. Finally in 1999, the federal health agencies and the American Academy of Pediatrics added up all the mercury children were receiving and realized it was over 100 times EPA limits for mercury exposure. They then urged vaccine makers to stop using it. In 2004, the AAP put out an "autism alarm" because of the epidemic increase in autism.

In 20 years, the rate has gone from one in 10,000 to one in every 166 children. Furthermore, one in every six schoolchildren now has a diagnosis of attention deficit or some other learning disability.

The medical community seems to focus on denying that this is in any way related to mercury in vaccines.

The first 11 cases of autism ever documented, in 1943, were in children who were among the first to be vaccinated with mercury. The federal government has never conducted specific tests on the neurotoxicity of thimerosal, although hundreds of published studies and documents attest to its extreme toxicity. Our CDC and FDA should be utterly embarrassed to make safety claims based on such a pathetic history of oversight.

Our federal health agencies are also the ones whose members have over 700 conflict-of-interest waivers for direct financial ties to the vaccine makers.

Evidence of Harm is the new book by David Kirby on the autism controversy. Mr. Kirby spent two years researching the history of thimerosal use and its relationship to thimerosal. He writes, "... many research) documents dating back to the 1930s, each raising a red flag about thimerosal." (EOH 207-209). Mr. Kirby chronologically lists over 70 years of scientific research on the damaging and deadly effects of thimerosal that was willfully ignored by Eli Lilly and the CDC. http://www.evidenceofharm.com/

We need to take a serious look at the generation of American children exposed to mercury. A person would need to weigh 275 pounds by the EPA's own standards to be able to eliminate the 12.5 mcg of mercury in the children's flu vaccine for this year.

This is hardly a "low dose" of mercury. By anyone's standards, it is unconscionable to inject a known neurotoxin into babies and toddlers.

Anne McElroy Dachel
Chippewa Falls, WI

Pharma To Republicans - Time To Pay Up Again

2005-11-24T19:22:00.000-05:00

By Evelyn Pringle
Scoop Independent News

The generation of children injured by vaccines containing the mercury-based preservative thimerosal is now reaching puberty. Many of these children will require life-long care and support. The cost to their parents by today's standards, will reportedly exceed $2 million dollars for each child.

An ever-growing number of health care professionals point to thimerosal as the culprit behind the explosion in cases of autism and other neurological disorders. The only common thread connecting these damaged children to one another is their exposure to mercury through childhood immunizations.

Accountability from vaccine makers is something that parents of injured children have been seeking for years; but accountability appears more illusive with each year's passage. On October 27 2005, the Hartford Courant reported that "Congress is considering a bill that would allow the government to order that vaccines be given to every U.S. citizen in a national emergency, even if a vaccine has previously harmed some people."

The Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005 (S 1873), is being pushed through Congress without giving voters the chance to make their objections known to their elected officials.

Nicknamed "Bioshield Two," the bill's primary sponsor, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), claims the Act will give the Department of Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines."

Co-sponsored by Senators Bill Frist (R-TN), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Judd Gregg (R-NH), the Act will in truth, eliminate current regulatory and legal safeguards applied to vaccines.

What kind of profits need protecting? A good example is GlaxoSmithKline, which predicts that some of its new vaccines will become blockbusters with projected sales of more than $1 billion a year, according to Reuters on June 30, 2005. Glaxo aims to launch five major vaccines by 2010, it said.
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Another example, for people who believe there’s no profit in vaccine making, “tell it to Wyeth, a big drug maker whose vaccine Prevnar ... costs more than $250 for the four-dose treatment given to infants,” says Kristine Severyn, PhD, author of the report, Profits, Not Science, Motivate Vaccine Mandates Vaccine Policy Institute.

Despite the price, "the government has recommended that all infants get the vaccine, and insurers generally pay for it - as does the federal Vaccines for Children program for low-income families. Prevnar, with sales expected to top $1 billion this year," says Severyn.

Severyn's predictions were right on. According to Wyeth's 2005 first quarter earnings report, Prevnar achieved net revenue of $391 million, more than double the first quarter earnings in 2004.

Bush’s FY2006 budget proposes to improve access to vaccines by allowing underinsured children to receive Vaccines for Children at state and local health clinics. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that cost of the proposal will be $140 million in 2006, and $700 million over the 2006-2010 period.

How much does this sort of government protection cost? For starters, according to the Center for Public Integrity, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), is the industry's trade organization and it has topped the list of pharmaceutical lobbying spending since 1998, shelling out $74 million. Its members include 16 of the industry's 20 largest companies and their subsidiaries and its current president is Billy Tauzin, is a former Republican congressman from Louisiana.

In the 2002 election cycle, PhRMA gave $3,505,052 with 95% going to Republicans. The top recipient in the Senate was none other than Senator Richard Burr, who received $288,684, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. So far in the 2006 cycle, Gregg has received over $106,000 and Enzi has taken in $21,000 in pharma money.

Frist is a real piece of work. He has been trying to get a law passed to protect the drug companies for years. In 2002, he was behind the dead of night insertion of a provision into the Homeland Security bill that would have immunized vaccine makers from lawsuits related to thimerosal.

Frist has made millions upon millions profiting off human misery. The basis of the family fortune is the Hospital Corporation of America, the largest for-profit hospital conglomerate in the nation. However, the corporation also paid the largest health care settlement in history of more than $1.7 billion in civil and criminal penalties to settle charges of massive Medicare and Medicaid billing fraud.

Until recently, Frist and his wife owned $26 million worth of HCA stock. They are currently being investigated on charges of insider trading in the sale of HCA stock in the weeks immediately before the stock's value plummeted, and conflict of interest charges involving his ownership of HCA stock which he had previously claimed he knew nothing about because in accordance with ethics rules, it was in a "blind trust."

According to the Center for Justice and Democracy, Frist has received more than $2.3 million from doctors, health insurers, drug companies and others in the health care industry, raising more cash from health-care interests than 98% of his colleagues. In return, his legislative work in the Senate consists of almost nothing but trying to push through laws to increase profits for his number one backer.

Its worth noting that while Frist was its chairman, the pharmaceutical industry was also the largest single contributor to the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, doling out about $4 million, with Eli Lilly, the company that invented thimerosal, being the single biggest contributor, giving $1.6 million.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a watchdog advocacy group, is highly critical of the pending protection legislation. According to the group's President, Barbara Loe Fisher, "It is a big lie that drug companies have been driven out of business by lawsuits in the past two decades.” The NVIC calls the Act "a drug company stockholder's dream and a consumer's worst nightmare."

According to NVIC, currently there are at least ten different bills pending in Congress that will contain provisions to shield drug companies from lawsuits including S3, S975, S1437, S1828, S1873, S1880, HR650, HR3154, HR3970, and HR4245.

"This proposed legislation," Fisher told UPI, "is an unconstitutional attempt by some in Congress to give a taxpayer-funded handout to pharmaceutical companies for drugs and vaccines the government can force all citizens to use while absolving everyone connected from any responsibility for injuries and deaths which occur."

The bill establishes the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA), as the single authority for the advanced research and development of drugs and vaccines and grants the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the sole authority to determine whether a drug maker violated drug safety laws. In addition, the Act specifically bars citizens from challenging the Secretary's rulings in court.

BARDA will be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, to ensure that no evidence related to injuries caused by vaccines classified as "countermeasures" will become public.

"It means that, if an American is injured by an experimental flu or anthrax vaccine he or she is mandated to take," Fisher told UPI, "that citizen will be banned from exercising the Constitutional right to a jury trial even if it is revealed that the vaccine maker engaged in criminal fraud and negligence in the manufacture of the vaccine."

In a November 15, 2005, letter to Senator Burr's staff director, Fisher describes S 1873 as "arguably unconstitutional" because it (1) lacks transparency into the research, development, licensure and post-licensure surveillance of vaccines and drugs used in public health emergencies; (2) lacks accountability for either manufacturers of these products or government health officials who mandate their use without informed consent; and (3) lacks justice for those who will inevitably die or suffer chronic illnesses after being compelled to take these products.

“It is exactly this type of legislation that leads to civil disobedience and many times in the extreme form,” Dr Boyd Haley, a well-known expert on heavy metal toxicity, told this author, “I am very fearful of how certain segments of our society will respond to any mass vaccination program---especially if it does cause a problem like the thimerosal/autism situation,” he said.

As it stands today, if the Bush administration and its puppets in Congress achieve their common goal of protecting pharma profits by shielding vaccine makers from lawsuits, tax payers will have to foot the bill for the life-long costs of caring for millions of injured children.

Tax payers are already funding their special education needs. In a January 14, 2005, letter to a Congressional Subcommittee on Human Rights, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), informed committee members that the number of children diagnosed with autism served under the IDEA has increased by more than 500% in the last decade and that "about 1.5 million Americans are currently living with some form of autism."

In a recent interview with Teri Small published in the journal, Medical Veritas 2 (2005), Dr Geier said that he believes that this may be the greatest iatrogenic epidemic in history. "The damage already done to our society is already in the trillions of dollars," he warns. "The damage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and that of the AIDS epidemic pale when compared to the current epidemic of autism," he told Veritas.

"All of us alive," Dr Geier says, "will have to bear its effects both in the lifetime care of the damaged children and the loss of what they otherwise might have contributed to our society."

*************

Evelyn Pringle
epringle05@yahoo.com

(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative columnist focused on exposing corruption in government."

Protective mind coating

2005-11-22T22:03:00.000-05:00

UCLA researchers learn how a nerve-tissue wrap in the brain, myelin, impacts behavior

BY JAMIE TALAN
Newsday

Abnormal development of the protective insulation that wraps around the wiring of the brain's nerve cells could result in a range of behavioral problems - including autism, attention deficit disorder, drug abuse and schizophrenia, according to a new study.

Dr. George Bartzokis and his colleagues at the University of California in Los Angeles have studied brain scans in living humans and autopsied brains to unravel the role of myelin, the insulation material. The thicker and heavier the wrapping, the faster and more effective nerve cells can communicate.

Bartzokis is the scientist who first discovered that myelin production continues to grow throughout the first four decades, then peaks at 45 and goes down from there. "We are truly adults at our 50th birthday," he said.

In his latest study, published in Adolescent Psychiatry, Bartzokis and his colleagues map out a picture of the younger brain undergoing myelination and what can happen if those connections don't develop normally.

He believes that humans myelinate different circuits at varying points throughout life, which could explain why the brain diseases of young people are so different from those of older ones.

For instance, if myelin is disrupted early in life, basic circuits that govern language and social communication might not develop normally, hence autism.

If the problems develop in school-age children, the inability to process information fast and effectively could pave the way for attention deficits. Even later in adolescence, problems with myelin can impair a person's ability to think clearly, a common feature of schizophrenia.

So what's a brain to do?

Myelin is a fatty acid, and Bartzokis said that there may already be medicines, certain foods and fish oil supplements high in fatty acids that promote myelination. He likens it to a high-speed Internet connection. Without proper myelination, the brain "can't get online," he said.

Only vertebrates have myelin, and humans have the most - about 20 percent more than chimps. It increases the speed of transmission of information, expands the brain's bandwidth and allows the brain to go online.

The California scientist said that this finding could explain why it is virtually impossible to see any obvious brain damage in many of these developmental disorders.

"There's no dead anything on autopsy," Bartzokis said. "Those brain connections just never developed normally."

If people are working offline because of myelination problems, Bartzokis said, "it's not that they are bad or dumb. It's that they are not able to bring all of their knowledge to bear."

That's why a teenager's knowledge about the dangers of driving while drunk might not help when he or she is in a high-risk situation.

Barzokis' brain scans of healthy people from 19 to 76 show a myelination growth curve. In middle age, when myelin is on the decline, a number of new brain diseases emerge.

Genes, environmental toxins and even diet appear to influence the myelination process, Bartzokis said.

Good news for the female brain: His studies show that female brains are making better myelin, which could explain why young boys are at greater risk for problems.

The Age of Autism: Flu shot flashpoint

2005-11-19T16:06:00.000-05:00

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor

It's flu shot season, and that simple fact is sharply focusing the debate over a possible link between vaccines and autism. The reason: Most flu shots contain thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative that some suspect caused a huge rise in autism cases beginning in the 1990s.

Federal health authorities say science has ruled that out. But to be on the safe side, the U.S. Public Health Service -- along with groups representing pediatricians and family doctors -- urged manufacturers in 1999 to phase thimerosal out of childhood vaccines as soon as possible.

Most such vaccines are now thimerosal-free or contain trace amounts. An exception is the flu shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for pregnant women and for infants 6 to 23 months old.

The counter-argument: Why take a risk when thimerosal-free shots are also available and cost just three or four dollars more? The CDC has declined to express a preference for those shots on the theory that there wouldn't be enough to meet demand.

On Monday, as this column reported, a New Mexico pediatrician appeared before the state Board of Pharmacy to urge it to immediately warn residents that most flu shots do have mercury. He also wants the state ultimately to ban it from vaccines for kids and pregnant women, something six states have already done -- with bans taking effect in future years. A dozen states are actively debating the issue.

The pediatrician, Dr. Ken Stoller, said the board decided to seek an advisory opinion from the New Mexico attorney general about its jurisdiction in the matter. It meets again in two months.

"The recent meeting was, I have to confess, a little disappointing from the standpoint of truth-in-labeling as set out in the New Mexico Drug Act," Stoller wrote the board in a follow-up letter.

"I presented clear, accurate and precise information on how a preservative that contains the known neurotoxin, ethylmercury, exists in the flu and other vaccines at a level that exceeds several safety limits as set forth by more than one Federal agency."

Perhaps because of the growing number of state bans -- which mean, self-evidently, that they don't want their children and pregnant women exposed to mercury in flu shots -- the issue is percolating this year in a way that it simply hasn't before.

In a Chicago Tribune piece titled, "A contradiction taints flu shots among infants," writer Julie Deardorff said that as a mom, she was concerned that health experts are now recommending a shot that in most cases contains an ingredient they suggested removing six years ago.

"It was eliminated from nearly all vaccines with one exception: the flu vaccine. Now the academy (American Academy of Pediatrics) wants us to immunize infants with a vaccine that contains an ingredient that it suggests should be removed," Deardorff wrote.

She quotes an Illinois AAP spokesman about the apparent contradiction:

"The amount (of thimerosal) in the multidose influenza vaccine (12.5 micrograms) is well below even the most conservative standards for mercury exposure. ... There's no evidence that thimerosal in vaccines is dangerous, and the benefits kids get from being protected against the flu are substantial."

Still, it needs to be noted that the immunization schedule calls for two 12.5 microgram shots a month apart for the 6-to-23-month olds. That total of is the same amount that was in vaccines some parents believe triggered their child's autism. And some of them believe in utero exposure to mercury via the pregnant mother might be the most dangerous exposure of all.

Directly to the north, a senior chemist at the University of Wisconsin has been trying to get the attention of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

"Unfortunately, in the 35 days that have passed since my original letter, thousands of Wisconsin's most vulnerable citizens have been exposed

to this material (mercury in flu shots)," Michael Wagnitz wrote the department in a letter this week.

"As I explained in my original letter, liquid waste needs to go to a hazardous site if it contains more than 200 ppb mercury. Is it really

safe to inject people with a level of mercury 250 times higher than hazardous waste?

"What exactly is the (department) working on that is more important than stopping the injection of mercury directly into the bloodstreams of its

citizens? Could you give me some examples? Again, I ask that you issue an immediate mercury warning for pregnant women and infants who plan on getting the flu shot."

This looks to be an issue that won't go away.

--

E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

© Copyright 2005 United Press International

EMERGENCY ALERT, DAY 2!

2005-11-17T20:06:00.000-05:00

POWER OF PARENTS CALL-IN CAMPAIGN

WITH YOUR HELP, WE JAMMED PHONE LINES ON CAPITOL HILL YESTERDAY TO PROTECT VACCINE-INJURED CHILDREN’S RIGHTS—WE MUST KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!!!

Pharmaceutical Liability Protection Language is now EVERYWHERE in pending legislation on Capitol Hill, and we must speak up NOW on behalf of our children.
We need to get on the phones again today and tomorrow to fight the most sweeping threat so far to our children’s rights.
THIS IS WORSE THAN THE FRIST LEGISLATION. OUR CHILDREN WILL GET NOTHING.
Our sources in Washington tell us that Pharma-protection language will be inserted into as much legislation as possible between now and Thursday. There are already ten different bills on Capitol Hill -- S3, S975, S1437, S1828, S1873, S1880, HR650, HR3154, HR3970, HR4245 -- that contain provisions which will let drug companies off the hook for injuries resulting from vaccines and other products.
Other appropriations bills are being considered for similar provisions. If the provisions are attached to an appropriations bill WE CANNOT STOP IT!!!

HERE’S WHAT WE NEED TO DO:
THE POWER OF PARENTS CALL-IN CAMPAIGN, DAY 2

Get on the phone ASAP!!!
Our ONLY defense is to prevent anything from being attached!
Tell the legislators listed below plus your own senator and representative that they must not support any of the bills that take away your child’s rights and that you demand that drug companies not be rewarded for their disregard for safety.
Remind them that their constituents are watching them very closely and will remember who supports the children, and who supports Big Pharma. They cannot have it both ways—they are either for our injured children, or they are against them.

Time is of the essence and it ties up their phone lines.

The results are immediate.

If you have time for faxing, below is a sample letter you can change to fit your situation, or just write your own brief note.

We need everyone possible to get involved—in-laws, neighbors, friends, and anyone else you can think of. Send this action alert to everyone in your address book. This is their best chance. WE MUST STOP THEM!

A-CHAMP will send out updates on the situation on Capitol Hill as they receive them.

________________________

Dear Senator (or Representative) _________:

Re: SAY NO TO UNFAIR AND UNNECESSARY LIABILITY PROTECTION FOR VACCINE MANUFACTURERS

I respectfully request that you act to protect the rights of vaccine injured children by blocking the unfair liability immunity giveaway proposed for pharmaceutical companies.

There are ten bills that we know about that contain language that unnecessarily limits the rights of children injured by vaccines. These include S3, S975, S1437, S1828, S1873, S1880, HR650, HR3154, HR3970, and HR4245. I am shocked to learn that similar provisions are being slipped into proposed legislation, including Appropriations bills, in a manner similar to the provisions snuck in the dead of night into the Homeland Security bill in 2002. If any of these provisions is enacted, a vaccine-injured child's right to have his or her day in court will be unnecessarily and unfairly taken away. Enactment of this legislation will be a dark day for the tradition of fair play and equity in the American justice system.

As a voter and one who cares deeply about children injured by vaccines, I oppose legislation that provides unprecedented immunity to a vaccine industry that has caused tragic injury to some children. Such liability protection is unnecessary.

Current laws adequately protect vaccine manufacturers. There have been very few vaccine injury claims against vaccine makers over the past 30 years. The true reason for the apparent lack of vaccine manufacturing capacity is the pattern of merger and consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry and market factors unrelated to liability concerns that make vaccines economically difficult to produce. National health authorities such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Walter Orenstein have said that the liability concerns are not causing the problems. The Government Accountability Office ("GAO") and other respected authorities said the same.

I urge you to place the interests of injured children above those of the pharmaceutical industry. Along with hundreds of thousands of voters across the country, I am deeply concerned that vaccine manufacturers will cease to have an incentive to make their products safe, should unnecessary liability protection be enacted.

I know that families of vaccine injured children and their friends are watching the actions of legislators very closely. As a legislator you must choose whose interests you protect: the interests of injured children, or the financial interests of the drug industry.

Please do all in your power to see that none of the provisions that take away children's rights are enacted.

Sincerely,

________________________

CALL ALL of these Senators (and three House Members) ASAP!!! Our sources in Washington tell us that Senators Frist, Santorum, and Graham, and Congressmen Hastert and Barton are especially important for us to focus on right now.

Senator Bill Frist (TN) Phone: (202) 224-3344 Fax: (202) 228-1264

Senator Rick Santorum (PA) Phone: (202) 224-6324 Fax: (202) 228-0604202-224-3344

Senator Thad Cochran (MS) (Chairman) Phone: (202) 224-5054 Fax: (202) 224-9450

Senator Ted Stevens (AK) Phone: (202) 224-3004 Fax:(202) 224-2354

Senator Arlen Specter (PA) Phone: 202-224-4254 Fax: 202-228-1229

Senator Pete Domenici (NM) Phone: (202) 224-6621 Fax: (202) 228-3261

Senator Christopher Bond (MO) Phone: (202) 224-5721 Fax: (202) 224-8149

Senator Mitch McConnell (KY) Phone: (202) 224-2541 Fax: (202) 224-2499

Senator Richard Shelby (AL) Phone: (202) 224-5744 Fax: (202) 224-3416

Senator Judd Gregg (NH) Phone: (202) 224 – 3324 Fax: (202) 224 - 4952

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) Phone: 202-224-5922 Fax: 202-224-0776

Senator Conrad Burns (MT) Phone: 202-224-2644 Fax: 202-224-8594

Sen. Daniel Inouye (Ranking Member) (HI) Phone: 202-224-3934 Fax: 202-224-6747

Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV) Phone: 202-224-3954 Fax: 202-228-0002

Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) Phone: 202-224-4242 Fax: 202-224-3479

Senator Tom Harkin (IA) Phone: (202) 224-3254 Fax: (202) 224-9369

Senator Byron Dorgan (ND) Phone: 202-224-2551 Fax: 202-224-1193

Senator Richard Durbin (IL) Phone: (202) 224-2152 Fax: (202) 228-0400

Senator Harry Reid (NV) Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327

Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) Phone: (202) 224-3841 Fax: (202) 228-3954

Senator Barbara Milkulski (MD) Phone: 202-224-4654 Fax: 202-224-8858

Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA) Phone: 202-224-4543 Fax: 202-224-2417

Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) DC Phone: 202-224-5344 Fax: 202-224-1946

Sen. Susan Collins (ME) Phone: 202-224-2523 Fax: 202-224-2693

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) Phone: 202-224-4822 Fax: 202-228-0325

Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (RI) Phone: 202-224-2921 Fax: 202-228-2853

Sen. John McCain (AZ) Phone: 202-224-2235 Fax: 202-228-2862

Sen. Lindsay Graham DC Phone: 202-224-5972 Fax: 202-224-3808

Congressman Dennis Hastert (IL) Phone: 202-225-2976 Fax: 202-225-0697

Congressman Joe Barton (TX) Phone: (202) 225-2002 Fax: (202) 225-3052

Congressman Jerry Lewis (Chair, House Appropriations) Phone: 202-225-3801 Fax: 202-225-0351

Think Autism. Think Cure.

Some responses to Paul Offit

2005-11-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The HILL

In response to an article by Paul Offit.

Mercury-autism link can’t be dismissed so easily
From Anne McElroy Dachel, media-relations coordinator, National Autism Association:
Dr. Paul Offit promotes the success of vaccines in eradicating diseases and lightly dismisses the growing controversy linking the mercury-based neurotoxin thimerosal to the epidemic of autism in the United States (“Vaccine history shows need to update VICP law,” Nov. 15). Nowhere, however, does Dr. Offit note the explosion in the rate of autism that directly coincides with the increase in mercury-containing vaccines in the childhood schedule.

In the past 20 years, autism has increased from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in every 166 children. Furthermore, one in every six schoolchildren now has a diagnosis of attention-deficit or some other learning problem. The best our federal health agencies can tell us is that it’s all due to “better diagnosing.”

Dr. Offit may think that science disproves any link between mercury use and neurological disorders, but our Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can only point to easily flawed and manipulated population studies to “prove” mercury is safe when injected into babies. What about the government’s own testing of thimerosal?

Introduced by Eli Lilly in 1930, thimerosal was tested only once, on 22 adult patients suffering from meningitis. There was no chance for follow-up to observe long-term effects, as all of the patients in this “study” died. Even if follow-up had been possible, damage to the developing brains of very young children would have remained an unknown. Thimerosal was pronounced “safe” and later grandfathered in when the FDA was created.

The first 11 cases of autism ever documented, in 1943, were in children who were among the first to be vaccinated with mercury. The federal government has never conducted specific test on the neurotoxicity of thimerosal, although hundreds of published studies and documents attest to its extreme toxicity. Our CDC and FDA should be utterly embarrassed to make safety claims based on such a pathetic history of oversight. Our federal health agencies are also the ones whose members have over 700 conflict-of-interest waivers for direct financial ties to the vaccine makers.

The Hill article describes Dr. Offit as “the chief of infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,” but it should be noted that he is also someone who’s been on the vaccine approval board of the CDC and is himself is a vaccine patent holder. In addition he is paid by Merck Pharmaceutical Corp. to promote vaccines. His conflicts should be noted in any article where he is cited as an expert.

Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Children need answers
From Liz Birt:
As a parent of a child who has documented measles vaccine in his gastrointestinal tract and his cerebral spinal fluid, as well as immune-system and metabolic disorders, I find Dr. Paul Offit’s recent article disturbing.

It is very difficult, as the parent of a child who has been injured from vaccines, to get a decent remedy from our system. To do away with the current “opt out” system would protect the vaccine manufacturers from liability associated with known problems from their products.

We must have a counterbalance in our system; if not, then those that are in power and have the most influence in Congress will be protected in spite of those who are suffering.

We are suffering today in this country with an epidemic of children with neurological disorders. This is not the luck of the cards. This increase is directly related to the increasing dose of mercury that was injected to our children.

The only study conducted to this date by the Centers for Disease Control not only serious has flaws but the raw data have been hidden from independent researchers who have no vested financial interest in the outcome.

Many, many children are suffering needlessly and deserve answers as to why suddenly they failed to progress, regressed and are so ill. This is inhumane.

Our country, our culture must do better; if not, then we are no better than animals. I am sorry, but this is the truth. Perhaps your editorial board can’t deal with it. Who knows? By now everyone has a child with autism.

Oakwood, Ill.

Frist Inoculates Drug Makers for Any Vaccine Liability

2005-11-16T18:48:00.000-05:00

Frist Inoculates Drug Makers for Any Vaccine Liability After Industry Won Him Senate & He Himself Said Anthrax Was Problematic

To: National Desk

Contact: Jamie Court, 310-874-9989; Carmen Balber, 310-392-0522 ext 324

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is seeking a last-minute amendment to an appropriations bill that would remove legal liability from a drug company if the Bush Administration declares its vaccines are needed to respond to a public health threat. The Associated Press reports Frist is behind the eleventh-hour change.

The pharmaceutical industry that makes the vaccines was the largest industry donor to Frist's National Republican Senatorial Committee, the political arm of Senate Republicans that was key to winning a GOP majority in the Senate. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) called on Frist to withdraw the amendment based on his own conflict of interest - the industry he is helping is his biggest donor and he has himself condemned the safety of the anthrax vaccine.

"How can we trust an administration that does not know what a weapon of mass destruction is to take away our legal rights when it sees a so-called public health threat?" said Jamie Court of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "This is a total giveaway to the GOP's biggest donor using national security as cover. It's a terror dividend for Big Pharma, which handed Senator Frist and the GOP the third branch of government."

Under the legislation the Frist amendment is based on, the Bush Administration could declare a real or potential public health emergency, classify any vaccine or product as necessary to respond to a public health threat and provide its manufacturer almost virtual immunity from prosecution. The immunity provisions are so broad that any product that can be considered a "countermeasure," not just vaccines, would be included under its protection.

Frist himself has acknowledged problems with the anthrax vaccine: "The (anthrax) vaccine is a dated vaccine, it's an old vaccine. There are very real and potentially serious side effects from the vaccine and anyone who elects to receive the vaccine needs to be made aware of that."

"I do not recommend widespread inoculation for people with the vaccine in the Hart Building," Frist said. "There are too many side effects and if there is limited chance of exposure the side effects would far outweigh any potential advantage." (CNN.com, 12/20/01, http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/18/anthrax/ )

After a secret attempt to provide liability protection for the makers of Thimerosal in 2002 under the cover of an amendment to Homeland Security legislation, Congressional leaders are again promoting sweeping protections for the drug industry while no one is looking. Frist denied involvement in the Thimerosol amendment in 2002 but the backlash forced the Senate to remove the immunity provision. The 2002 amendment was based on parallel legislation Frist carried.

Frist's blind trust listed personal investments with Abbot Labs and Johnson & Johnson, each in the $15,000 to $50,000 range, through 2004. Frist himself had a close relationship with Eli Lilly, maker of Thimerosal, which not only topped the list of drug maker contributors to the Senator's PAC but also bought 5,000 copies of Frist's book on bio-terrorrism.

FTCR filed an ethics complaint with the Senate Select Ethics Committee last April charging Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN) with a conflict of interest for promoting medical malpractice liability limits while retaining stock worth millions in HCA. The Frist family-founded hospital chain owns HCI, the nation's fourth largest malpractice insurer. The committee dismissed the complaint, ruling that Frist's millions did not constitute a conflict. The Senator sold the stock this summer just before the stock price plummeted and is under investigation by the SEC for possible insider trading.

For more on FTCR's complaints about Senator Frist's ethics, visit http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/Frist/

http://www.usnewswire.com/
© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

See also:
"Forced To Withdraw Drug Company Immunity From 2002 Homeland Security Bill After Outcry...."
Agency Would Be Exempt from FOIA
Open Secrets - Politicians Protection for vaccine makers debated
Frist Secretly Pimps For Drugmakers Again!!

Lawmakers weigh preventing drugmaker suits

2005-11-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer

Last Updated: November 16, 2005, 12:33:42 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) - People injured by a vaccine against bird flu or anthrax would have to prove willful misconduct to bring a claim for damages against drug manufacturers or distributors, according to legislation being drafted behind the scenes by Republicans.

A 10-page draft of the legislation obtained by The Associated Press says it would be up to the Health and Human Services secretary to declare that such misconduct occurred. If that declaration is made, the case must be heard in federal court.

The measure, which would be included in a spending bill, would bar any punitive damages and limit awards for physical and emotional pain and suffering and other noneconomic damages to a maximum of $250,000.

The draft legislation was provided to the AP separately by two parties opposed to its provisions, who did not want to be identified.

An aide to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., confirmed the majority leader was looking to add the liability protections to a spending bill.

Amy Call said the legislation is important because "it would be a pity to appropriate $7.1 billion to purchase vaccines and antivirals but have no capacity to produce them."

She said Frist is seeking clearly defined standards for an industry that is already heavily regulated.

"We would only provide liability protection in a serious situation and for a set period of time and for a specific purpose," Call said. "The protection would only go into effect if the secretary makes a declaration that we are grave danger and the public is advised to take the product."

President Bush's plan for dealing with a flu pandemic called on Congress to give drug manufacturers sweeping immunity against lawsuits. "In the past three decades, the number of vaccine manufacturers in America has plummeted, as the industry has been flooded with lawsuits," Bush said last month. "Today, there is only one manufacturer in the United States that can produce influenza vaccine."

Lawmakers from both political parties also have cited a need to grant the industry some protections. However, the protections described in the draft are quite broad, and some say they would make it extremely difficult for those harmed by a medicine to get any financial compensation.

"The Republican leadership in Congress is trying to do another special favor for the drug companies by slipping a provision into a massive spending bill to absolve the pharmaceutical industry of any responsibility to patients injured by dangerous drugs or vaccines, with no compensation for those who are harmed," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement.

He called for an open debate on the issue.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate's health committee, favors liability protections for drug manufacturers, but not as part of an appropriations bill, according to spokesman Craig Orfield.

"He does not want to address biodefense in a piecemeal fashion," Orfield said.

Trial lawyers said they oppose having to prove "willful misconduct" to get financial compensation from an injury.

"Basically, as an average person, I would have to prove some scientist at Merck or some CEO somewhere had made a determination to hurt me," said Chris Mather, a spokeswoman for the Association of Trial Lawyers for America.

Willful misconduct, according to the draft legislation, would occur if manufacturers or distributors of a particular product knew that it presented "a significant or unreasonable risk to human health" and there was a "conscious failure to act" to avoid that risk.

If the HHS secretary rules against the petition, then those claiming to be harmed could seek judicial review from the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., a doctor who said he is involved peripherally in the talks, said he doesn't want protections so broad that people might be unwilling to take medicine in the event of a flu pandemic.

"The way it's being discussed is lacking," Weldon said.

Meanwhile, House GOP leaders have delayed until December any action on President Bush's $7.1 billion request to prepare for a potential bird flu pandemic. The development came as negotiators on a huge spending bill covering health care and education programs met Monday night.

The House rejected an almost $8 billion Senate plan to fight the flu, saying it will revisit the issue next month as it also turns to Bush's request to direct emergency funds already enacted for victims of Hurricane Katrina to new purposes such as rebuilding highways, levees and federal facilities damaged by the storm.

--

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

CHEAP TRICK! LEGISLATORS ARE TRYING TO SNEAK IN UNFAIR LIABILITY PROTECTION – AGAIN!

2005-11-16T12:52:00.000-05:00

STOP THE NEW "ELI LILLY RIDER" LEGISLATIVE GAMBIT Take Action!

STOP THE LATEST CHEAP LEGISLATIVE TRICK THAT AIMS TO GIVE LARGE CORPORATIONS UNFAIR AND UNNECESSARY LIABILITY PROTECTION

CALL, FAX, and SEND AN EMAIL THROUGH A-CHAMP'S AUTOMATED SYSTEM.

FAX & TELEPHONE Numbers of key legislators are Listed Below. Call and send faxes to them and send emails to your Senators and Congressman through A-CHAMP's system.

THIS TIME YOU NEED TO DO ALL THREE TO SEND A STRONG MESSAGE!

POWER OF PARENTS CALL-IN CAMPAIGN

WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN SWARM WASHINGTON WITH PHONES CALLS TO PROTECT VACCINE-INJURED CHILDREN’S RIGHTS!!!

Pharmaceutical Liability Protection Language is now being placed in in multiple pieces of pending legislation in Congress; there is an all-out effort by the pharmaceutical industry to sneak unfair liability protection legislation into larger pieces of legislation, like appropriations bills.
We need to get on the phones through Thursday, Nov. 17, to fight the most concerted effort thus far to take away our children’s rights.
THIS IS WORSE THAN THE FRIST-SPONSORED LEGISLATION OF PAST YEARS. IF UNFAIR LIABILITY PROTECTION PASSES OR CHILDREN WILL LOSE THEIR LEGAL RIGHTS (right to sue, right to jury trial, right to just compensation).
We have learned that liability protection language that will unfairly give pharmaceutical companies legal immunity never before known under U.S. law will be quietly inserted into as multiple bills between now and Thursday. These unfair and unnecessary liability protection provisions have already been inserted into ten separate bills: S3, S975, S1437, S1828, S1873, S1880, HR650, HR3154, HR3970, HR4245 -- these provisions let drug companies off the hook for injuries resulting from vaccines and other products.
Similar provisions will be inserted into general Appropriations bills in the House and Senate. If these provisons are attached to an Appropriations bill WE CANNOT STOP IT!!!

HERE’S WHAT WE NEED DO:

Get on the phone ASAP!!!
Our ONLY defense is to prevent anything from being attached to an Appropriations bill!
Tell the legislators listed below plus your own Senator and Representative that they must not support any of the bills that take away your child’s rights and that you demand that drug companies not be rewarded for ignoring safety.
Remind your legislator that constituents are watching their actions closely. We will remember who supports the children, and who supports vaccine manufacturers. Our legislators cannot have it both ways—they are either for our injured children, or they are against them.

Time is of the essence and it ties up their phone lines.

The results are immediate.

If you have time for faxing, below is a sample letter you can change to fit your situation, or just write your own brief note. In addition, use our automated email system to send messages to your representatives and other key Senators.

We need everyone possible to get involved—in-laws, neighbors, friends, and anyone else you can think of. Send this action alert to everyone in your address book. This is their best chance. WE MUST STOP THEM!

We will send out updates on the situation on Capitol Hill as we receive them.

____________________________________

Dear _________:

I respectfully request that you act to help protect the rights of vaccine-injured children by blocking the unfair liability immunity giveaway proposed for pharmaceutical companies.

There are ten or more bills that contain language that severely limits the rights of children injured by vaccines. I am shocked to learn that similar provisions are being slipped into proposed legislation-including Appropriations bills- in a manner similar to the provisions snuck in the dead of night into the Homeland Security bill in 2002. If any of these provisions is enacted, a vaccine injured child's right to have his or her day in court will be unnecessarily and unfairly taken away. If it occurs this will be a dark day for the tradition of fair play and equity in the American justice system.

As a voter and one who cares deeply about children injured by vaccines, I oppose legislation that will provide unprecedented immunity to a vaccine industry that has caused tragic injury to some children. Such liability protection is unnecessary. There have been very few vaccine claims over the past 30 years--current laws adequately protect vaccine manufacturers. There are other reasons for the apparent lack of vaccine manufacturing capacity, such as merger and consolidatin in the pharmaceutical industry and market factors that make vaccines economically difficult to produce. Liability concerns have little to do with vaccine manufacturing problems--Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Walter Orenstein have said so. Liability is not the problem.

I urge you to place the interests of injured children above those of the pharmaceutical industry. Along with hundreds of thousands of voters across the country, I am deeply concerned that vaccine manufacturers will cease to have an incentive to make their products safe, should unnecessary liability protection be enacted.

Sincerely,

____________________________________

CALL ALL of these Senators (and one House Member) ASAP!!!
Senator Thad Cochran (MS) (Chairman) Phone: (202) 224-5054 Fax: (202) 224-9450

Senator Ted Stevens (AK) Phone: (202) 224-3004 Fax:(202) 224-2354

Senator Arlen Specter (PA) Phone: 202-224-4254 Fax: 202-228-1229

Senator Pete Domenici (NM) Phone: (202) 224-6621 Fax: (202) 228-3261

Senator Christopher Bond (MO) Phone: (202) 224-5721 Fax: (202) 224-8149

Senator Mitch McConnell (KY) Phone: (202) 224-2541 Fax: (202) 224-2499

Senator Richard Shelby (AL) Phone: (202) 224-5744 Fax: (202) 224-3416

Senator Judd Gregg (NH) Phone: (202) 224 – 3324 Fax: (202) 224 - 4952

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) Phone: 202-224-5922 Fax: 202-224-0776

Senator Conrad Burns (MT) Phone: 202-224-2644 Fax: 202-224-8594

Sen. Daniel Inouye (Ranking Member) (HI) Phone: 202-224-3934 Fax: 202-224-6747

Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV) Phone: 202-224-3954 Fax: 202-228-0002

Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) Phone: 202-224-4242 Fax: 202-224-3479

Senator Tom Harkin (IA) Phone: (202) 224-3254 Fax: (202) 224-9369

Senator Byron Dorgan (ND) Phone: 202-224-2551 Fax: 202-224-1193

Senator Richard Durbin (IL) Phone: (202) 224-2152 Fax: (202) 228-0400

Senator Harry Reid (NV) Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327

Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) Phone: (202) 224-3841 Fax: (202) 228-3954

Senator Barbara Milkulski (MD) Phone: 202-224-4654 Fax: 202-224-8858

Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA) Phone: 202-224-4543 Fax: 202-224-2417

Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) DC Phone: 202-224-5344 Fax: 202-224-1946

Sen. Susan Collins (ME) Phone: 202-224-2523 Fax: 202-224-2693

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) Phone: 202-224-4822 Fax: 202-228-0325

Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (RI) Phone: 202-224-2921 Fax: 202-228-2853

Sen. John McCain (AZ) Phone: 202-224-2235 Fax: 202-228-2862

Sen. Lindsay Graham (DC) Phone: 202-224-5972 Fax: 202-224-3808

Congressman Jerry Lewis (Chair, House Appropriations) Phone: 202-225-3801 Fax: 202-225-0351

Bird Flu Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

2005-11-16T04:50:00.000-05:00

In the middle of the night, without a hearing or debate, friends of big drug companies have plans to attach to an unspecified conference report a pandemic disease proposal that instead of protecting the public health and safety would award special interest protections to the pharmaceutical industry.

If their proposal is so essential to the public health, why are proponents attempting to add it stealthily, while the American public isn’t watching? The truth is their proposal has nothing to do with public health and safety and everything to do with unnecessary giveaways to drug companies. The proposal includes language not included in any House or Senate passed bill—language that provides the drug companies with sweeping legal protections, releasing them from virtually all accountability. The proposal is so broad that it applies to a wide range of commercial drugs and products that may have nothing to do with bioterrorism or a potential pandemic. It even applies to commercial drugs already on the market for which drug companies are making billions of dollars.

Under the proposed language, drug company immunity is triggered if the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) 1) declares an actual or potential public health emergency and 2) declares a drug, vaccine, or device a “countermeasure” or qualifying “pandemic or epidemic product.” Once this occurs, drug companies are virtually immune from all liability. The proposal:

Applies to a wide range of drugs, vaccines, and other products. The proposal provides that any “drug, biological product or device that is used to mitigate, prevent, treat, or cure a pandemic or epidemic or limit the harm such pandemic or epidemic might otherwise cause…” may be covered and given immunity. The proposal does not, in any way, limit its application only to new drugs or vaccines used in a pandemic context. The scope of the proposal is so broad that it could include drugs like Tylenol, Advil or Vioxx.

Immunizes drug companies by erecting insurmountable barriers to the court system. Citizens can’t go to court unless the Secretary of HHS gives them permission. The proposal bars injured individuals from filing a claim against a manufacturer of a covered product, even in cases of gross negligence. The only exception to the grant of wholesale immunity is in the case of “willful misconduct.” An injured person may ask the Secretary of HHS to find that the manufacturer acted with willful misconduct and allow a case against a drug company to go forward. The Secretary has the sole discretion to investigate or to simply decline the petition. Because the Secretary is bound by an entirely new definition of “willful misconduct” it is virtually impossible for the Secretary to ever allow a claim to go forward. The proposal mandates the Secretary of HHS, together with the Attorney General, promulgate regulations defining what is meant by “willful misconduct” and requires them to find that the drug company had actual knowledge that their product would harm the petitioning individual. This requirement means that only conduct that would also constitute assault, battery or murder would be sufficient for the Secretary to find “willful misconduct.”

Includes severe restrictions even if a claim is allowed. In the unlikely event the Secretary allows a claim to go forward because he has found sufficient evidence a drug company intentionally and willfully injured or killed a person, the following restrictions would still apply:

An exclusive federal cause of action, barring individuals from filing a claim in their own state court under state law;
A $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages, even if the willful conduct of the drug company caused a person’s death or lifelong disability.
No punitive damages allowed—even though the only way a person can get to court is if the Secretary has already determined the drug company specifically intended to harm that individual.

Includes provisions of the so-called “Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act” (LARA). Proponents have even dumped into this proposal provisions of LARA, a bill which has twice passed the House but has never been considered in the Senate. Among other things, the proposal would amend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure without following the normal rule-making processes.

Fails to specify any time limitation for application of immunity. Under the plan, immunity may be triggered at any time because the Secretary of HHS is given broad and unfettered discretion to declare a “public health emergency” when he or she decides there is an actual or potential threat of a pandemic occurring. This could occur tomorrow in light of new risks posed by such diseases as avian flu. Once this declaration occurs, anything deemed a “countermeasure” under the proposal receives wholesale liability protection. A drug or vaccine is shielded from liability whether or not it is actually given in response to a flu pandemic health emergency.

Fails to provide any alternative compensation remedy and is therefore wholly unconstitutional. This proposal sweeps away a host of rights under state and federal law for persons who may be injured by drugs and vaccines. Yet the proposal neither establishes nor provides access to an alternative compensation system. The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly made clear that constitutional rights, including specifically an injured person’s right to a jury trial, may not be simply eliminated. The legislature must offer a reasonably equivalent right to a remedy.

Without a safety or compensation component, the proposal asks the American public to trust the pharmaceutical industry to keep them safe. And if that trust is broken, Americans are left with no place to turn for a remedy—no access to the court system and no access to any compensation system when they or their loved ones are injured or killed by a covered countermeasure.

Parents Swarming Capitol Hill with Phone Calls

2005-11-15T16:05:00.000-05:00

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
November 15, 2005

Contact:
Rita Shreffler, NAA (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030
Wendy Fournier, NAA (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523

PHARMA-FRIENDLY POLITICIANS THREATEN TO STEAL AWAY CHILDREN’S RIGHTS WITH MULTIPLE BILLS

WASHINGTON DC – Advocacy organizations kicked off a new campaign today that promises to over-load Capitol Hill’s phone lines.

The Power of Parents Call-in Campaign hopes to stop pharma-friendly legislation in its tracks. For years, politicians like Senator Bill Frist and Judd Gregg have routinely inserted language that removes liability from vaccine-makers, which ultimately eases safety guidelines and dismisses injuries some children suffer from vaccines.

In 2002, an anonymous party inserted the now-famous secret rider to the Homeland Security bill, a provision that gave Eli Lilly and vaccine manufacturers liability protection from a toxin used in vaccines. The rider was later repealed.

But sources in Washington say that the liability language is back and fiercer than ever. Over ten pieces of legislation now contain liability-protection language that will slam the door on children injured by vaccines. Some language is expected to enter the appropriations committee. If it passes, the language cannot be removed.

Just yesterday, Dr. Paul Offit, a friend to big pharma, widened his own PR campaign by stating in The Hill that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) needed updated. He proposed the removal of what’s called “opt out,” a right that a claimant has to enter civil court if the NVICP doesn’t provide what’s necessary for care.

However, the NVICP has been updated several times over the past decade. Some of the more common injuries have been removed from the table, ensuring less awards to claimants. The Department of Justice has been given more fire-power to fight cases that enter the NVICP, and many claimants call the program a complete waste of time.

To protect the opt-out, which keeps the NVICP in check, and to prevent other legislative language that destroys children’s rights and loosens safety guidelines, parents will call their senators and congressmen now through Thursday.

To learn more, visit http://www.nationalautism.org/.

- 30-

Think Autism. Think Cure.

EMERGENCY ALERT! POWER OF PARENTS CALL-IN CAMPAIGN

2005-11-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

From the National Autism Association

WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN SWARM WASHINGTON WITH PHONES CALLS TO PROTECT VACCINE-INJURED CHILDREN’S RIGHTS!

Ø Pharmaceutical Liability Protection Language is now EVERYWHERE in pending legislation on Capitol Hill, and it’s getting worse by the minute.

Ø We need to get on the phones today, tomorrow, and Thursday to fight the most sweeping threat so far to our children’s rights.

Ø THIS IS WORSE THAN THE FRIST LEGISLATION. OUR CHILDREN WILL GET NOTHING.

Ø Our sources in Washington tell us that Pharma-protection language will be inserted into as much legislation as possible between now and Thursday. There are already ten different bills on Capitol Hill -- S3, S975, S1437, S1828, S1873, S1880, HR650, HR3154, HR3970, HR4245 -- that contain provisions which will let drug companies off the hook for injuries resulting from vaccines and other products.

Ø Other appropriations bills are being considered for similar provisions. If the provisions are attached to an appropriations bill WE CANNOT STOP IT!

HERE’S WHAT WE DO:
THE POWER OF PARENTS CALL-IN CAMPAIGN.

Ø Get on the phone ASAP!

Ø Our ONLY defense is to prevent anything from being attached!

Ø Tell the legislators listed below plus your own senator and representative that they must not support any of the bills that take away your child’s rights and that you demand that drug companies not be rewarded for their disregard for safety.

Ø Remind them that their constituents are watching them very closely and will remember who supports the children, and who supports Big Pharma. They cannot have it both ways—they are either for our injured children, or they are against them.

Time is of the essence and it ties up their phone lines.

The results are immediate.

If you have time for faxing, below is a sample letter you can change to fit your situation, or just write your own brief note.

We need everyone possible to get involved—in-laws, neighbors, friends, and anyone else you can think of. Send this action alert to everyone in your address book. This is their best chance. WE MUST STOP THEM!

We will send out updates on the situation on Capitol Hill as we receive them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Senator _________:

VOTE YES to helping vaccine-injured children and NO to pharmaceutical companies.

I am aware of at least ten bills that already contain language that will severely limit the rights of my injured child and understand that even more bills are being targeted for similar provisions and will be slipped in like the Homeland Security Provisions. If any one of these bills is allowed to pass, my child’s right to have his day in court will forever vanish, all in the name of corporate greed.

As a citizen, voter and parent of a vaccine-injured child, I am appalled at the overwhelming amount of legislation currently on the table that will allow complete immunity to the very industry that has caused tremendous pain to my entire family.

I urge you to place the interests of injured children above those of the pharmaceutical industry. Along with hundreds of thousands of voters across the country, I realize that an industry already known for placing profit over safety will no longer have any incentive whatsoever to be concerned about injuries from their products should any of these various bills pass.

All of us parents of vaccine-injured children will be watching the actions of our legislators very carefully regarding all the relevant bills. Either you support the interests of injured children, or you support those of the drug industry. Those in the latter category will be pointed out to the media as an enemy of our injured children, and a protector and promoter of corporate greed.

I urge you to do all in your power to see that none of the bills that take away my child’s rights are passed. I am also contacting the local and national media today.

Sincerely,

_____________

CALL ALL of these Senators (and one House Member) ASAP!

Senator Thad Cochran (MS) (Chairman) Phone: (202) 224-5054 Fax: (202) 224-9450

Senator Ted Stevens (AK) Phone: (202) 224-3004 Fax:(202) 224-2354

Senator Arlen Specter (PA) Phone: 202-224-4254 Fax: 202-228-1229

Senator Pete Domenici (NM) Phone: (202) 224-6621 Fax: (202) 228-3261

Senator Christopher Bond (MO) Phone: (202) 224-5721 Fax: (202) 224-8149

Senator Mitch McConnell (KY) Phone: (202) 224-2541 Fax: (202) 224-2499

Senator Richard Shelby (AL) Phone: (202) 224-5744 Fax: (202) 224-3416

Senator Judd Gregg (NH) Phone: (202) 224 – 3324 Fax: (202) 224 - 4952

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) Phone: 202-224-5922 Fax: 202-224-0776

Senator Conrad Burns (MT) Phone: 202-224-2644 Fax: 202-224-8594

Sen. Daniel Inouye (Ranking Member) (HI) Phone: 202-224-3934 Fax: 202-224-6747

Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV) Phone: 202-224-3954 Fax: 202-228-0002

Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) Phone: 202-224-4242 Fax: 202-224-3479

Senator Tom Harkin (IA) Phone: (202) 224-3254 Fax: (202) 224-9369

Senator Byron Dorgan (ND) Phone: 202-224-2551 Fax: 202-224-1193

Senator Richard Durbin (IL) Phone: (202) 224-2152 Fax: (202) 228-0400

Senator Harry Reid (NV) Phone: 202-224-3542 Fax: 202-224-7327

Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) Phone: (202) 224-3841 Fax: (202) 228-3954

Senator Barbara Milkulski (MD) Phone: 202-224-4654 Fax: 202-224-8858

Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA) Phone: 202-224-4543 Fax: 202-224-2417

Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) DC Phone: 202-224-5344 Fax: 202-224-1946

Sen. Susan Collins (ME) Phone: 202-224-2523 Fax: 202-224-2693

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) Phone: 202-224-4822 Fax: 202-228-0325

Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (RI) Phone: 202-224-2921 Fax: 202-228-2853

Sen. John McCain (AZ) Phone: 202-224-2235 Fax: 202-228-2862

Sen. Lindsay Graham DC Phone: 202-224-5972 Fax: 202-224-3808

Congressman Jerry Lewis (Chair, House Appropriations) Phone: 202-225-3801 Fax: 202-225-0351

Compensation and safety essential to immunization

2005-11-15T14:42:00.000-05:00

By Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.)
The Hill

The year: 1976. The last time our nation faced the serious threat of a nationwide flu epidemic.

The administration mobilized the vaccine industry, Congress provided liability protection, and more than 150 million doses of swine-flu vaccine were produced to inoculate all Americans.

Only three weeks into that vaccination campaign, the city of Pittsburgh suspended all vaccinations because of public fears that the deaths of three elderly vaccine recipients were linked to the vaccine. As nationwide reports of other adverse reactions surfaced, the nation’s vaccination campaign came to a screeching halt after only a fraction of Americans had been immunized.

Fortunately, the deadly swine-flu epidemic in 1976 never materialized. Though most Americans did not receive a swine-flu vaccination, only one death was attributed to swine flu.

For today, the question is: What lessons have we learned from history should an avian flu pandemic hit our nation in the next few years? Will we escape as easily?

The administration’s influenza-pandemic preparedness plan involves expanding vaccine manufacturing capacity and stockpiling essential medical supplies, including anti-viral drugs. As was the case in 1976, an essential component of this preparedness plan involves liability protection for vaccine manufacturers.

However, we in Congress must recognize that by indemnifying manufacturers we are assuming responsibility for problems that will undoubtedly emerge in the course of seeking to protect Americans under such extraordinary circumstances. We must accept this responsibility with integrity by (1) ensuring that the safety of pandemic countermeasures is independently researched and reviewed and (2) by providing fair compensation for individuals who experience adverse reactions to the vaccines or drugs they receive.

Liability protection for industry must be accompanied by an independent, robust vaccine-safety research program and a fair compensation program prior to an outbreak of pandemic influenza. This will help give both the manufacturers and the public the confidence they need to participate fully in our nation’s preparedness plans. Had all of these elements been in place before undertaking the swine-flu vaccination program in 1976, that program might not have been terminated.

Research later demonstrated that the 1976 deaths of the three elderly vaccine recipients from Pittsburgh were unrelated to the vaccine, but the data emerged far too late to salvage the vaccine campaign. Investing now in a robust and independent vaccine-safety infrastructure, like that contained in H.R. 4245, will provide the tools necessary for answering future public concerns more thoroughly and efficiently.

The swine-flu vaccination campaign was also undermined by nationwide reports of a rare neurological condition known as Gullian-Barré syndrome (GBS) in vaccine recipients. A scientifically credible research enterprise dedicated to understanding the varied responses to vaccines and other countermeasures may allow us to better discern genuine adverse reactions. Developing screening tools to identify those most at risk for adverse reactions will further assure the public that the federal government is taking these safety issues seriously.

Furthermore, considering the growing concerns that some Americans have about routine vaccinations, we must recognize that building public confidence requires that the countermeasure-safety research program be completely independent of those recommending and administering the countermeasures and free from conflicts of interest.

With these components in place — liability protection, fair compensation and a robust, independent safety research program — we will be appropriately recognizing the risk both industry and individuals will be taking to protect our nation from the threat of a deadly pandemic.

It would be a mistake to implement plans to combat pandemic influenza without also building public confidence. One hundred million doses of swine-flu vaccine went to waste in 1976 because public confidence disappeared. In a true pandemic, we cannot afford to have our carefully planned and coordinated response similarly stopped dead in its tracks because we took public confidence for granted.

Weldon, a doctor, is a member of the Labor, Health and Human Services and the Science, State, Justice and Commerce subcommittees on Appropriations.

Americans must trust vaccines for avian-flu plan to be a success

2005-11-15T03:49:00.000-05:00

By Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.)
The Hill

On Sept. 14, 2005, during the high-level plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, President Bush announced the creation of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza.

In a continued response to the growing concerns of a pandemic, two weeks ago President Bush made another critically important and timely speech before the National Institutes of Health on “Safeguarding America Against Pandemic Influenza.” In his speech, the president laid out a national strategy to prepare for and hopefully prevent an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus strain of the avian flu, better known as the bird flu.

The president outlined a $7.1 billion proposal builds upon three decisive steps that the government and the citizens of the United States must take to ensure that America is fully prepared to deal with the threat of a pandemic. I applaud the president’s steadfast leadership and commitment to America’s health, and now members of Congress have the responsibility to review the plan and move swiftly to enact the most effective preparedness measures we can in order to address this threat.

However, I’m concerned that the administration’s proposal did not go far enough to address one critically important question — namely, what do we do if a vaccine causes dangerous side-effects and ends up injuring millions of Americans? The president did discuss the need for tort reform to protect the domestic vaccine industry as key to ensuring America’s safety, but he didn’t address the reasons behind the lawsuits, namely the injuries caused by vaccines.

Members of Congress must remember that the vast majority of lawsuits brought against the vaccine industry are a result of the thousands of Americans who have been injured or who are currently suffering from vaccine-related illnesses. Furthermore, recent studies indicate that more than half of pediatricians have encountered at least one family that has refused all vaccines, while 85 percent said they’d had a parent turn down at least one shot. Whether it’s because of fear that mercury, used as a preservative in childhood and adult vaccines, causes autism and other neurological disorders or that the dangers of immunizations far outweigh their benefits, the facts are clear: More and more American families fear immunization.

While many still dispute the science, I firmly believe that some of the concerns of parents — particularly concerns about the mercury-based preservative known as thimerosal found in many vaccines — are well-founded. While chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee (1997-2002) and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness (2003-2005), I held numerous hearings involving the vaccine industry’s use of mercury in vaccines.

Based upon credible scientific evidence, we concluded that there was a biologically plausible, almost unequivocal linkage between mercury in vaccines and the increase in autism rates throughout America. And the facts bear this out. In the 1980s, roughly 1 in 10,000 American children were diagnosed with an autism-spectrum disorder. Today, that number has risen to 1 in 166, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When we laid out our scientifically based conclusions, I personally pleaded with the pharmaceutical companies, even speaking with many of their CEOs, about the need to remove all traces of mercury from their vaccines and to support reform of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund (NVICF). Their response was consistently negative.

I firmly believe that our avian-flu preparedness plan will fail if the American people do not trust that the vaccines and drugs they receive, aimed at protecting them from a deadly flu strain, may in fact harm them instead, especially if they have no recourse to seek compensation. For the public to trust our national bioterrorism and pandemic-flu plans — and to feel comfortable enough to comply with vaccination orders in the event of a possible biological or chemical terrorist attack — it is vitally important that we as members of Congress ensure the safety of vaccines as much as possible and work to make the NVICF program efficient, effective and, most important, fair to those who may have suffered or been injured.

We can do this by:

Adequately funding the NVICF.
Reforming the NVICF to make it a more user-friendly program as Congress intended when it was originally conceived in the 1980s.
Immediately removing mercury — a known neurotoxin — from all current and future vaccines.

Then we can give liability protection to the vaccine manufacturers.

It is extremely important that our government does what can be done to protect the American public against a flu outbreak that could kill millions of people, but at the same time not forget those who have already been or may in the future be damaged by “lifesaving” vaccines. I respectfully urge all of my colleagues in Congress not to succumb to the fear of the avian flu and give the vaccine industry liability protection without the reforms I mentioned previously.

We must stand with the children and their families who have been injured by vaccines, or may be injured in the future, and oppose any effort to grant the vaccine industry blanket immunity without simultaneously reforming the NVICF program and demanding the removal of mercury from all vaccines.

Once we achieve these goals, I will be the first to sponsor legislation that not only protects the American public but helps protect America’s pharmaceutical industry from class-action lawsuits.

Burton is past chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.

Americans must trust vaccines for avian-flu plan to be a success

2005-11-15T02:44:00.000-05:00

By Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.)
The Hill

On Sept. 14, 2005, during the high-level plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, President Bush announced the creation of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza.

In a continued response to the growing concerns of a pandemic, two weeks ago President Bush made another critically important and timely speech before the National Institutes of Health on “Safeguarding America Against Pandemic Influenza.” In his speech, the president laid out a national strategy to prepare for and hopefully prevent an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus strain of the avian flu, better known as the bird flu.

The president outlined a $7.1 billion proposal builds upon three decisive steps that the government and the citizens of the United States must take to ensure that America is fully prepared to deal with the threat of a pandemic. I applaud the president’s steadfast leadership and commitment to America’s health, and now members of Congress have the responsibility to review the plan and move swiftly to enact the most effective preparedness measures we can in order to address this threat.

However, I’m concerned that the administration’s proposal did not go far enough to address one critically important question — namely, what do we do if a vaccine causes dangerous side-effects and ends up injuring millions of Americans? The president did discuss the need for tort reform to protect the domestic vaccine industry as key to ensuring America’s safety, but he didn’t address the reasons behind the lawsuits, namely the injuries caused by vaccines.

Members of Congress must remember that the vast majority of lawsuits brought against the vaccine industry are a result of the thousands of Americans who have been injured or who are currently suffering from vaccine-related illnesses. Furthermore, recent studies indicate that more than half of pediatricians have encountered at least one family that has refused all vaccines, while 85 percent said they’d had a parent turn down at least one shot. Whether it’s because of fear that mercury, used as a preservative in childhood and adult vaccines, causes autism and other neurological disorders or that the dangers of immunizations far outweigh their benefits, the facts are clear: More and more American families fear immunization.

While many still dispute the science, I firmly believe that some of the concerns of parents — particularly concerns about the mercury-based preservative known as thimerosal found in many vaccines — are well-founded. While chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee (1997-2002) and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness (2003-2005), I held numerous hearings involving the vaccine industry’s use of mercury in vaccines.

Based upon credible scientific evidence, we concluded that there was a biologically plausible, almost unequivocal linkage between mercury in vaccines and the increase in autism rates throughout America. And the facts bear this out. In the 1980s, roughly 1 in 10,000 American children were diagnosed with an autism-spectrum disorder. Today, that number has risen to 1 in 166, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When we laid out our scientifically based conclusions, I personally pleaded with the pharmaceutical companies, even speaking with many of their CEOs, about the need to remove all traces of mercury from their vaccines and to support reform of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund (NVICF). Their response was consistently negative.

I firmly believe that our avian-flu preparedness plan will fail if the American people do not trust that the vaccines and drugs they receive, aimed at protecting them from a deadly flu strain, may in fact harm them instead, especially if they have no recourse to seek compensation. For the public to trust our national bioterrorism and pandemic-flu plans — and to feel comfortable enough to comply with vaccination orders in the event of a possible biological or chemical terrorist attack — it is vitally important that we as members of Congress ensure the safety of vaccines as much as possible and work to make the NVICF program efficient, effective and, most important, fair to those who may have suffered or been injured.

We can do this by:

•Adequately funding the NVICF.

•Reforming the NVICF to make it a more user-friendly program as Congress intended when it was originally conceived in the 1980s.

• Immediately removing mercury — a known neurotoxin — from all current and future vaccines.

Then we can give liability protection to the vaccine manufacturers.

It is extremely important that our government does what can be done to protect the American public against a flu outbreak that could kill millions of people, but at the same time not forget those who have already been or may in the future be damaged by “lifesaving” vaccines. I respectfully urge all of my colleagues in Congress not to succumb to the fear of the avian flu and give the vaccine industry liability protection without the reforms I mentioned previously.

We must stand with the children and their families who have been injured by vaccines, or may be injured in the future, and oppose any effort to grant the vaccine industry blanket immunity without simultaneously reforming the NVICF program and demanding the removal of mercury from all vaccines.

Once we achieve these goals, I will be the first to sponsor legislation that not only protects the American public but helps protect America’s pharmaceutical industry from class-action lawsuits.

Burton is past chairman of the House Government Reform Committee.

Autism: Genetic Disorder Or Mercury Poisoning?

2005-11-14T16:38:00.000-05:00

Lindsay Puccio
Charlottesville Newsplex

1.5 million children are affected by autism in the United States, but nobody is certain exactly where it comes from.

Autism is defined as a developmental disability that by age three will effect children's non-verbal and verbal communication.

But, the question that has yet to be answered is how these seemingly perfect children come down with such a debilitating disorder?

Dr. Sue Anderson said years of population studies have shown that it's in their genes.

"There seems to be a genetic component. We know there are some families in which more than one child is affected or first degree relatives are affected," said Dr. Anderson, of the Kluge Children's Hospital.

The President of the Virginia Chapter of the National Autism Association said it's absurd to think that this disorder is only caused by genes.

"There is no way for there to be a genetic epidemic, it's just impossible because it takes too many generations for there to be a jump from 1 in 20,000 kids to 1 in 166 kids today having Autism," said Kathy Young.

That number includes her own daughter, Anna. At 15 months old she started showing the signs of Autism.

"At three [years old] this is when she was kind of the sickest. [She] started withdrawing, started isolating herself. She started doing repetitive behaviors like opening and closing doors," said Young.

Young attributes her daughters Autism to something environmental - mercury poisoning. Thimerasol, which is a mercury mixture, was put in children's vaccines so they can be inexpensively mass produced and during a 4 year period the number of Thimerasol filled vaccines increased from 8 to 20.

"1989 to 1992 was when we started to get three times as much mercury as you were getting in the years before," said Dr. Kyle Van Dyke, a Pediatrician.

More scientific evidence based research has been collected and those studies suggest Autism is caused by a combination of the two.

"The research that we're seeing now would seem to indicate that Autism is a disease characterized by a genetic pre-disposition with an environmental insult," said Dr. Van Dyke.

Like his son, Ryan, it is thought that some children are born with a pre-disposition for not being able to get rid of toxins in their body - and all it took was a shot filled with mercury to act as a trigger.

Parents and physicians alike, all agree there needs to be more research done to find the true culprit. But there have been changes made in the meantime. By Congress' recommendation in 1999, Thimerasol was taken out of children's vaccines. Currently, there are several lawsuits pending regarding the government's knowledge of Thimerasol's side effects.

What Young wants isn't a fight, she just wants the truth.

"I truly just want it to come out, I want it to stop so that we can get treatment for our child and so no other family has to go through this," said Young.

Thimerasol continues to be put vaccines including flu shots. A recent California study shows the number of children being diagnosed with Autism has declined in recent years.

The Age of Autism: Showdown in Santa Fe

2005-11-14T16:05:00.000-05:00

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor

A pediatrician had an appointment Monday with the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy to deliver a blunt message: Its members need to warn state residents that the mercury in flu shots could be harmful to children -- or risk being remembered for failing to do their job.

The request by Dr. Kenneth Stoller, an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, opens a new front in an escalating war over the use of a mercury-based preservative in medical products. He is medical director of the Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico and uses hyperbaric oxygen to treat autism.

Six states -- including heavyweights New York, California and Illinois -- have banned the preservative, called thimerosal, from vaccines intended for children and pregnant women. It has been voluntarily phased out of most childhood immunizations but remains in most flu shots.

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes an outright ban, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declined to express a preference for the thimerosal-free version of the flu vaccine.

The dynamics are complicated, but the basic issue is whether it's reasonable to fear that thimerosal might cause autism. Stoller says it is; the AAP and the CDC say it is not.

"There is an acute public health issue that very few understand even though several states have banned or limited the use of vaccines containing thimerosal," says a copy of Stoller's speech he provided Age of Autism. "In the months and years to come this iatrogenic (doctor-induced) poisoning of Americans and New Mexicans will be fully understood and what you decide to do here today will be noted in the not too distant future.

"We have a responsibility to perform here and the Board of Pharmacy has the regulatory power to perform it," he said. "I am requesting that you issue an immediate advisory so that all New Mexicans who desire to receive the current flu vaccine receive information about what is being injected as there has been a labeling omission (violation). And lastly, I request that you prohibit the use of this flu vaccine that contains thimerosal to all pregnant woman and children under 50 pounds."

Stoller's concern is emphatically not shared by the physicians group, which has opposed such a ban in other states. Before New York Gov. George Pataki signed a thimerosal ban in August, a state chapter of the AAP urged its rejection.

"This bill, designed to protect individuals from alleged adverse effects of thimerosal which contains ethyl mercury, is completely unnecessary," said the AAP statement. "To legislate based on fear and misinformation is an anathema to those of us who work tirelessly for the health and welfare of our communities.

"To enact this legislation implies that the vaccines that have virtually eradicated many diseases, constituting one of the greatest public health accomplishments of the past century, are dangerous. This bill denigrates our informed scientific and medical communities while supporting all of the anti-vaccine factions in our society. This legislation potentially jeopardizes our most vulnerable communities."

The CDC says concerns about thimerosal have been allayed by numerous studies. "As the Institute of Medicine concluded in a recent report, the vast majority of studies, which have involved hundreds of thousands of children in a number of countries, have failed to find any association between exposure to thimerosal in vaccines and autism," according to the CDC's Web site.

Stoller said medical groups and the federal government are misguidedly trying to protect the childhood immunization program by defending mercury as a vaccine ingredient. He also said they are afraid of massive liability if a link is shown -- some quarter-million Americans have been diagnosed with autism, 80 percent of them under 18.

Careers and credibility are at stake, he added.

"Their throwing sand in everyone's face -- to protect their jobs and their reputations and status -- is interfering with getting these kids the help they need," he charged. And thimerosal-containing flu shots will create more cases, he said.

Autism diagnoses increased dramatically over the past two decades at the same time that more vaccines containing thimerosal were added to the schedule. In 1999 the U.S. Public Health Service, the AAP and family physicians recommended that manufacturers phase out thimerosal in childhood vaccines as soon as possible.

Most flu shots, however, continue to contain a full dose of thimerosal. The CDC -- which now recommends flu shots for pregnant women and infants 6 to 23 months old -- has declined to express a preference for non-thimerosal flu shots out of what it says is concern that parents might be reluctant to vaccinate their children unless they can find it.

"Most New Mexicans haven't received their flu vaccines yet," Stoller told Age of Autism. "I'm asking them to issue an urgent advisory letting them know the danger and the risk of the thimerosal flu vaccine which accounts for about 90 percent of the flu vaccine in New Mexico and the United States."

He said that while New Mexico has ordered some thimerosal-free vaccines for infants and pregnant women, private-practice physicians are likely to order the thimerosal-containing multiple-dose vials.
--
This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes reader comment. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

© Copyright 2005 United Press International, Inc

Getting Our Children Back

2005-11-13T01:36:00.000-05:00

A documentary on treating autism seeks to destigmatize the disease

Carolyne Zinko
SanFrancisco Chronicle

Elizabeth Horn, looking back on the moment doctors diagnosed her daughter, Sophia, with autism eight years ago, described it as being "the darkest day of your life.''

Not only because she was being told her daughter had a brain disorder that would hinder her ability to communicate and behave appropriately with others for the rest of her life, or that her daughter was joining the ranks of some 26,000 people in California who receive services for autism each year, some of whom may require special, institutional care -- a concern to state officials looking at long-term expenditures for the developmentally disabled. It was also because doctors at Mills Peninsula Hospital in San Mateo, where her daughter was being seen, had few suggestions for treatment beyond hiring a speech therapist.

"The first impression you get with this diagnosis is that you're on your own,'' Horn said. "Even though there were resources, there was no sense of direction anyone could give as to how to proceed.''

Horn received a list of therapists to contact. "In 1997, that's all you got,'' she said. "It was woefully inadequate.''

Horn, a filmmaker who primarily makes films for corporations, began looking at her family's journey through an artistic lens. She decided there was a story in how difficult it is to figure out what to do to help your autistic child.

Based partly on personal experience and partly on the experiences of families whose autistic children appear to be recovering with a controversial treatment, Horn created a 60-minute film, "Finding the Words." The film's financial sponsor is KTEH San Jose. American Public Television has agreed to submit the film to PBS for a national broadcast in April, which is national Autism Awareness Month.

In her search for answers, Horn began talking with therapists, asking if they had seen any autistic children -- as she put it -- "get better.'' She learned of people around the United States who were trying behavioral therapy and biomedical cures such as supplements and a highly controversial treatment called chelation therapy -- aimed at ridding the body of heavy metals, which some parents believe are introduced by thimerosal, a mercury preservative in childhood vaccines. Mercury is known to cause brain damage. The medical establishment has countered that there is no proof that thimerosal causes autism. Thimerosal has been eliminated from most vaccines since a 1999 call by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service for drugmakers to voluntarily stop including the substance in immunizations.

The arc of the film goes like this: Parents with so-called normal children watch something go wrong with their child's development, receive the autism diagnosis and do whatever they can to get their children "back" to a normal state.

"My question to myself as a mom was, 'If another woman can get her kid back, why can't I get mine back, and if I can't get mine back, why?' " Horn said. "That's the question I want every parent to ask. Until they do, children will get lost at a rate of one every 22 minutes in this country with profound autism.''

During the course of four years, Horn visited nine families whose autistic children appeared to be improving with chelation, and she got permission to film them both before and after treatment began. One unexpected result of her interviews, Horn said, was the discovery of similar patterns of symptoms, behavior and recovery in each child. Dishearteningly, Horn said she discovered that many of the parents of autistic children were urged by doctors to put them in institutional care at ages as young as 2.

"The doctors felt they were being kind, and because most of the families had other children, that the best thing to do was to get the child out of the house and give them 24-hour care,'' Horn said. "But something in all these parents refused to accept the diagnosis. That moment where you decide that rather than give in to despair, you're going to turn and fight, was interesting to me as a filmmaker. Each of these families had that moment, and they had the outcomes with children improving as a result.''

One of the more dramatic improvements included in the film is that of a boy who did not begin to speak until he was 15. His family attributes it to the treatment. Although her 10-year-old daughter's progress has not been dramatic, Horn believes she is "slowly but surely getting better.''

The film was financed by 70 individuals, many from Silicon Valley, Horn said. Her husband, Zach Nelson, is chief executive at NetSuite.com.

One of her goals is to push for the use of technology to build a database of information on autistic children so that patterns of symptoms could be detected more quickly and treatments could be targeted more effectively.

Not all the families Horn approached wanted to be included in the film, even those whose children were said to be doing better after treatment. Horn said there is an "underground" of recovered children because some families don't want anyone to know that their children had been diagnosed with autism in the first place.

The film is Horn's attempt to push for a medical paradigm shift, which she feels will help remove treatment obstacles such as stigmatization and isolation.

"If we can change the definition of autism from incurable brain disorder to an illness, there's no shame in getting well,'' she said. "In fact, it's a triumphant story.''

E-mail Carolyne Zinko at czinko@sfchronicle.com.

Generation Rescue ad in the New York Times on November 11, 2005.

2005-11-10T19:31:00.000-05:00

To see this ad full size: http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/051111.pdf

The Age of Autism: 'The facts say maybe'

2005-11-10T18:23:00.000-05:00

By DAN OLMSTED

A small text block on the cover of the current Columbia Journalism Review may be a lot bigger than it looks:

"Drug Test. Q: Does thimerosal cause autism? A: The press says no; the facts say maybe."

Thimerosal is the mercury preservative that was used in childhood vaccines; some parents and researchers blame it for an astonishing rise in autism diagnoses in the past decade, but the media has tended to treat the idea as dangerous, discredited "junk science."

"Steeped in controversy and intrigue, the thimerosal debate has all the makings of a compelling news story, yet it has been approached with caution by the news media, which, more often than not, don't portray it as a legitimate scientific debate," writes CJR Assistant Editor Daniel Schulman in the accompanying article.

His closing line leaves no doubt that he thinks that's a bad idea. "(W)ith science left to be done and scientists eager to do it, it seems too soon for the press to shut the door on the debate."

To understand why that's a big deal, consider two stories, both running Tuesday: one on the front page of The New York Times, the other leading the Health section of The Washington Post.

"5 Cases of Polio in Amish Group Raise New Fears" was the headline on the Times article by Gardiner Harris. He reported from Long Prairie, Minn., about the discovery of polio virus in an 8-year-old Amish child.

"(T)he girl is now a wellspring for polio, a modern-day Typhoid Mary who can pass it along to others," Harris wrote. "Anyone who has not been vaccinated is vulnerable. And though vaccination rates in the United States are at historic highs, an increasing number of parents are resisting inoculations for their children, fearing that they may cause disorders like autism, a connection scientists have almost universally discounted."

The Post article, by Sandra G. Boodman, was headlined "Feuding Over Vaccines/Doctors Vexed by Parents' Refusal." It, too, mentioned the concern that vaccines are linked to autism and quotes a doctor reassuring a patient that "multiple studies by prestigious groups have found no evidence that vaccines cause autism. ... His equanimity in the face of what many pediatricians say are persistent myths that circulate on the Internet -- that mercury used as a preservative in childhood vaccines causes autism, that the dangers of immunizations far outweigh the benefits, and that there is a conspiracy by drug companies, doctors and vaccine makers to conceal the harm -- is not shared by other physicians."

These two stories exactly illustrate Schulman's point: that the media is dismissing the autism-thimerosal theory as almost universally discounted Internet mythology, right up there with conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine know-nothingism. Schulman's valuable service is simply pointing out that, inconveniently, some thoroughly legitimate scientists still say, "Maybe."

They include members of the epidemiology department at Columbia's own Mailman School of Public Health. The department chair, Dr. Ezra Susser, wrote The Times in June to complain about a front-page piece that made parents and researchers who remain concerned thimerosal has caused autism look ridiculous.

"Scientists pursuing research on mercury and autism are caricaturized as immune to the 'correct' interpretation of existing studies," Susser wrote. "Researchers rejecting a link are depicted as the sole voice of reason. ... Whether mercury in any form (or any of several factors recently introduced to our environment) has anything to do with autism can and should be resolved with rigorous studies and respectful discourse, not moral indictments and denunciations."

About that earlier Times article, Schulman writes in CJR: "Headlined 'On Autism's Cause, It's Parents Vs. Research,' the story cast the thimerosal connection as a fringe theory, without scientific merit, held aloft by angry, desperate parents. ... Readers were left with little option but to believe that the case against thimerosal was scientifically unsound."

The Times did not run Susser's letter and did not change its approach -- its ombudsman effectively told readers who complained to pound sand, and the report from Minnesota on polio and the Amish is more of the same. As is the Post's lumping of the issue with conspiracies and coverup scenarios that only the most equanimous pediatricians could reasonably be expected to tolerate.

We should point out that Schulman mentions Age of Autism in the article. His thesis -- that a careful reading of the facts suggests it's too soon to close the door on thimerosal as the possible cause of a horrendous affliction -- is one we have put forward since beginning this column at the start of the year.

But now that critique is coming not just from "angry, desperate parents" who need to calm down and stop endangering the rest of us, or the odd reporter who can be dismissed as biased or misguided, but from a respected peer and arbiter, the Columbia Journalism Review.

That's a big deal. It's the kind of thing that makes journalists stop and think -- or ought to, anyway.

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes reader comment. e-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

New Mexico Board of Pharmacy to Hear Petition to Limit Exposure to Aspartame and Thimerosal

2005-11-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

Dr. Kenneth Stoller, Santa Fe Pediatrician and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, has released the text of his remarks to be made on November 14th 2005, at the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy's next meeting.

Santa Fe, NM (PRWEB) November 10, 2005 -- Dr. Kenneth Stoller, Santa Fe Pediatrician and Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, has released the text of his remarks to be made on November 14th 2005, at the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy's next meeting.

He is requesting that the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy issue an immediate advisory so that all New Mexicans who desire to receive the current flu vaccine receive information about what is being injected in terms of the amount of neurotoxic mercury in the vaccine, which is a labeling omission, and thus a violation of the New Mexico Drug Act (NMSA 2-1-9). Stoller further requests that the New Mexico Board of Pharmacy prohibit the use of this flu vaccine containing thimerosal to all New Mexico pregnant woman and children under 50 lbs.

Speech to new mexico pharmacy board on november (Advance copy):

"There is an acute public health issue that very few understand even though several states have banned or limited the use of vaccines containing Thimerosal. In the months and years to come this iatrogenic poisoning of Americans and New Mexicans will be fully understood; what you decide to do here today will be noted in the not too distant future.

The mercury-based preservative, Thimerosal (49.6% ethyl mercury), has been used in killed bacterial vaccines since the 1930’s without ever having undergone adequate testing for toxicity. In the past two decades, as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have added many more vaccines containing Thimerosal to the routine vaccination schedule for all children and states have mandated these vaccines, children have been exposed to much higher levels of mercury through vaccination. During this same time period, childhood developmental disabilities have dramatically increased to the point where today the CDC estimates 1 in 6 American children is developmentally delayed with a diagnosis of autism, learning disabilities, attention problems or other learning or behavioral problems. The CDC estimates that 1 in 166 American children has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (the incidence in boys is more like 1 in every 100). Clinical and scientific evidence is now emerging which is linking mercury-containing vaccines to the regressive type of autism in some children. There has been a 2000% increase in reported cases of autism in New Mexico in the last decade.

Mercury is an incontrovertibly proven neuro-toxin that has been proven to cause brain damage in the developing fetus as well as to children and adults exposed to it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed guidelines for limiting mercury exposures to humans from many different sources, including air and water pollution; contaminated foods, such as tuna; as well as in products sold over-the-counter, such as contact lens solution.

In 1999, the AAP and the Public Health Service (PHS) asked that Thimerosal be eliminated in childhood vaccines, and the EPA and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directed the vaccine manufacturers to remove mercury from childhood vaccines. This did not occur immediately, and six years later, has still not yet been fully realized.

Since 1999, vaccine manufacturers have been reducing the amount of mercury preservatives in killed bacterial vaccines (live virus vaccines such as MMR and chicken pox do not contain Thimerosal) and some now only contain trace amounts, depending upon the vaccine manufacturer, type of vaccine and whether the vaccine is being packaged in multi-dose or single-dose vials. Single-dose vials of killed bacterial vaccines usually only contain trace amounts of mercury.

The thimerosal vaccines were never recalled and lots of the thimerosal vaccines didn’t expire till September of this year. So, it has only been in the last two years that most children stopped receiving most of the thimerosal laden routine vaccinations.

In 1995, a 10 pound two month old infant who got the CDC and AAP recommended DPT and HIB vaccines could have been 110 times over the EPA limit and an 18 pound six month old given the recommended DPT, HIB, and Hep B vaccines could have been 76 times over the EPA limit, depending upon the manufacturers of the vaccines.

Ten years later, in 2005, a 10 pound two month old baby who receives the recommended DTaP, HIB, IPV, and pneumococcal vaccines may or may not be at all over the EPA limit for single mercury exposure, depending upon the manufacturers, while an 18 pound six month old who got these vaccines as well as a dose of flu vaccine, could be 31 times over the EPA limit.

A 125 pound teenager or adult, who gets a recommended flu and meningococcal vaccination, could be 4-8 times over the EPA limit for a single mercury exposure, depending upon the manufacturers. A teen or adult who got a mercury-containing flu vaccine would have to weigh 551 pounds to be under the EPA limit for a single mercury exposure.

On January 14, 2005, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR from the HHS/CDC printed a white paper entitled “Case Definitions for Chemical Poisoning.” On page 12, the definition for organic mercury toxicity is defined as >10 mcg/L in whole blood. In other words, aside form the EPA, we now have the CDC stating what their definition of a chemical toxicity is for organic mercury.

All the flu vaccine destined for children three years old and older in New Mexico contain thimerosal, which means they will be receiving 25 mcg of organic mercury per dose.

A rough estimate of total blood is 16% of body weight. So, for a 30 lb. child (13.64 kilograms or liters, which is the average weight of a 3 year old), this would be 13.64 X 0.16 = 2.18 liters of blood.

All the ethylmercury moves thru the bloodinitially at 25mcg/2.18L or 11.48 mcg/liter. This meets the definition of a chemical toxicity by the CDC. However, ethylmercury doesn't stay in the blood long and is assimilated into the body where it does the damage to the brain and potentially other organs as well, such as the heart.

Giving a three year old child the flu vaccine will raise their blood level of organic mercury beyond what the CDC has defined as a chemical poisoning.

Furthermore, the MMWR toxicity level of 10mcg/liter is based on mercury inhalation of older factory workers and also on individuals with normal ability to excrete mercury. This does not represent the subsets, such as autistic children, that are deficient in their ability to excrete mercury.

Therefore, the current flu vaccine will deliver a dose of organic mercury to 3 year old that meets the definition of a chemical poisoning by the MMWR, CDC and HHS. Furthermore, the recommended schedule requires that this dose be given twice (one month apart).

It is of interest to note that the EPA considers any material that has greater than 200 ppb of mercury to be hazardous waste. The flu vaccine, as well as tetanus booster, has thimerosal levels that exceed this value by 250 times or 50,000 ppb mercury.

The Manufacturer’s inserts, the package labeling, do not address nor do they warn about the dangerous levels of organic mercury being given. This omission is in violation of the New Mexico Drug Act, section 26-1-9.

Given that most New Mexicans have yet to receive this year’s flu vaccine, thanks to delivery delays, there is still time for the Board of Pharmacy to issue an advisory that informs the public of this labeling oversight if action is taken immediately. The violation of the Drug Act was not caught before now, but having so come to the fore, the Board of Pharmacy must take immediate action to defend the health and welfare of the citizens of our state, and uphold the integrity of the existing statues of the NM Drug Act itself.

Even though I have just presented the cold facts about thimerosal (facts that can be backed up with references) – we all wonder, “How can this be? How did it come to this? How was this allowed to happen?” We must leave the answers to these questions to others. Perhaps the State Attorney General’s office?

Nevertheless, we have a responsibility to perform here and the Board of Pharmacy has the regulatory power to perform it. As the truth about Thimerosal and Aspartame becomes better know to our state's citizens, New Mexicans will expect no less of their Board of Pharmacy.

Proposed Additions to New Mexico Administrative Code that permanently bans the use of the neurotoxins thimerosal and aspartame have been presented to you to act upon. Giving neurotoxins to children, pregnant woman, and the rest of us under the guise of improving our health is a violation of human rights as well as numerous New Mexico Statutes. Certainly, there is absolutely no need for you to capitulate to industry's demands of acquiescence and capitulation to the FDA and its sloppy industry-manipulated substandards, both in the case of Aspartame and in the case of Thimerosal.

Please schedule the necessary evidentiary hearings before the Board of Pharmacy at your earliest convenience.

I am requesting that you issue an immediate advisory so that all New Mexicans who desire to receive the current flu vaccine receive information about what is being injected as there has been a labeling omission (violation). And lastly, I request that you prohibit the use of this flu vaccine that contains thimerosal to all pregnant woman and children under 50 lbs.

Thank you."

###

Flu shot for kids makes some parents anxious

2005-11-10T13:45:00.000-05:00

Debate continues over whether mercury plays role in development of autism

Lauri Githens Hatch
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

(November 10, 2005) — Twice Terri Kerr felt a twinge of uncertainty when it came time to vaccinate her babies, once in 1992 and again in 1994.

Twice she ignored that twinge — largely because of broad suggestions that declining the shots made her appear an unfit mother.

And twice Kerr and her husband wound up with autistic sons: one mildly and the other so acute he has required continual watching since babyhood, when periodically he might dash into the snow in just a diaper, or leap from furniture and land on his knees, feeling no pain.

The boys' vaccines contained thimerosal — a mercury-containing preservative removed from U.S. vaccines, except flu, in 1999 — which the Kerrs, along with a cadre of other parents and some researchers believe can accumulate to trigger autism, typically diagnosed by age 3.

As flu season begins, Kerr hopes parents will press for a mercury-free vaccine — particularly because the flu shot may be added to the already long list of those required for school.

"I would say to pregnant women and new mothers, 'Read, read, read,'" before vaccinating a child, says Kerr of Irondequoit. While she cherishes the gifts her sons have brought to her life — "It's made me a better person, a better advocate" — she often thinks about those doctor visits.

"I should have grabbed my baby and run like hell. And I didn't. And I don't think anything has changed at all."

Yet many pediatricians disagree, saying science has never been clearer about this.

"Since 2001 there have been 10 studies, and they've all found no link, no causal association between thimerosal as a preservative and autism, nor the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines," says Dr. Michael Pichichero, the University of Rochester professor whose 2002 pharmacokinetic study on mercury's rapid elimination from the body appeared in the British medical journal The Lancet.

"I'd give this flu shot to my own grandchildren. You don't get a higher endorsement than that."

What's available

Thimerosal-free flu vaccines are out there. But to get one, you may have to shell out as much as $1,000.

Why?

The single-dose nasal spray (FluMist) isn't recommended for kids younger than 5, kids with underlying medical problems or adults older than 50.

That leaves mercury-free shots, but single doses aren't widely available. What is, is a roughly 10-dose vial, the cost of which isn't covered by insurance. With each shot costing about $100, "that's a lot of money to shell out for one shot," says Pichichero, who in December will unveil a larger version of his 2002 study, this one indicating mercury leaves a child's body faster than previously thought.

For people who rely on the county health department or community clinics for their flu vaccines, the mercury-free option doesn't exist.

Nancy Hackett, clinical supervisor for the Monroe County Immunization Clinics, says the county's position is that the minute amount of thimerosal in the flu vaccines renders them safe. Providing an alternate "would make it appear that we're lying," says Hackett, who is also a registered nurse. "And we're not. We believe these are safe."

When the county does get its supply, she says, it will be in multidose vials that do contain the preservative.

Debate continues

The fierce dispute over thimerosal shows no signs of ceasing, nor does the loop of study-debate-study-debate.

For example, a May 2004 comprehensive report from the Institute of Medicine firmly rejected a link between autism and vaccines; barely a month later, Columbia University released a study showing there was an autismlike response in mice exposed to the substance.

Parents must sift through the ever-growing pile of evidence, or what claims to be evidence, and make a choice.

"They still talk about it, but there's less refusal (of shots) in general," observes Dr. Robert Tuite, a pediatrician with Panorama Pediatric Group in Penfield, which has approximately 16,000 patients.

"Most pediatricians feel (the risk) it's pretty minimal. We try to be the patient's advocate, and if we don't recommend the thimerosal-free one, it's because it's so much more expensive."

Neither he nor Pichichero can recall ever having a family use the 10-dose vial, just for the one shot.

And some parents make up their minds long before a vial is needed.

Julie Kuss, a registered nurse, had her first two children inoculated. While the eldest, a girl now 15, did not become autistic, her brother, now 13, did develop a mild form.

So when she delivered her third child, a girl now 10, Kuss looked her doctor in the eye and asked him to guarantee that autism wasn't brought on by the shots.

"He said no, I can't say that. So I said, OK, no shots," recalls Kuss, of Gates. "He let me hold off and I feel fortunate, because this was before it became such an issue. Now, to this day, do I believe it caused (my son's) autism? I can honestly say you never know. Let's see what science says 10 or 20 years from now, when it's gone from vaccines. Will autism be leaping and growing? There's your answer."

LGITHENS@DemocratandChronicle.com

Holiday Every Day for Pharma under the Bush Administration

2005-11-09T16:02:00.000-05:00

Evelyn Pringle
Investigative Journalist
Email: epringle05@yahoo.com

Abstract

A December 21, 2004 report by the watchdog group Public Citizen provides information that explains why it’s been a holiday every day for the pharmaceutical industry, since George W. Bush took office.

Thirteen pharmaceutical industry executives or lobbyists rank among Bush’s “Rangers” and “Pioneers,” the honorary titles given to those who have raised at least $200,000 or $100,000, respectively, for one of Bush’s presidential campaigns, according to Public Citizen, “Together, these pharmaceutical industry super-fundraisers have raised at least $2.2 million for Bush.”

This report also provides details concerning TeenScreen, the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP), and other programs, including Medicaid, the National Institute of Health (NIH), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) riddled with conflicts of interest.

Full text: http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/manteenscene1.doc

Can Childhood Vaccines Cause Autism?

2005-11-09T02:46:00.000-05:00

Scott Wahle
CBS4 Boston

(CBS4) The debate is heating up over the cause of an alarming increase in the number of childen with autism. Some parents blame childhood vaccines, but federal health officials say there's no scientific proof of any connection.

Michaela Blaxill's parents say she was a normal baby, but that changed. "Sometime between her first and second year of life she slipped away, sort of quietly," says Michaela's father Mark Blaxill. "She lost the speech she had begun to acquire, she started disconnecting socially," he adds.

Michaela was diagnosed with autism. Mark Blaxill says a form of mercury used as a preservative in childhood vaccines may be to blame. "I think the mercury in vaccines could trigger autism. It's a very plausible hypothesis," says Blaxill.

The preservative is called thimerosal. Critics say when the government required more childhood shots in the nineties, kids received unsafe levels of mercury. At the same time the number of autism cases skyrocketed.

By 2001 mercury was taken out of childhood vaccines except for some flu shots. Despite that, the debate recently took on a renewed intensity.

A new book called "Evidence of Harm" by David Kirby raises alarming questions about thimerosal, and a controversial article by Robert Kennedy, Jr. charges the medical establishment with covering up the effects of mercury in vaccines. "The science connecting brain damage to thimerosal is absolutely overwhelming," says Kennedy.

But many doctors and scientists say that charge is nonsense. "I don't believe there's any relationship between autism and thimerosal in vaccines, period," says Dr. Edward Bailey, the head of Pediatrics at North Shore Children's Hospital and a board member of the Academy of Pediatrics. He says the issue has been studied over and over. According to Dr. Bailey, "There is no scientific basis to come to the conclusion and say that vaccines are anything other than a miracle."

But Mark Blaxill, vice president of Safe Minds, an organization demanding more research, says there are conflicts of interest at work. "A lot of these studies have been conducted and carried out by people who either have an ideological stake in the game, or a financial stake in the game, or a career stake in the outcome," according to Blaxill.

The medical community dismisses charges of conflicts or cover ups, and worries that fears about vaccines could result in parents not immunizing their children. According to pediatrician Dr. Edward Bailey, "For those people who have never seen meningitis or for those for whom polio is a strange disease out of the past, they could all come back."

There's one thing both sides in this controversy agree on. If the mercury preservative is responsible for triggering autism, we should see a dramatic drop in new cases over the next few years since thimerosal is now out of almost all childhood vaccines.

© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

Related Links

Safe Minds (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders)

CDC on Autism

CBSNews: Kennedy Fuels Autism Debate

More CBS4 Special Reports

The Age of Autism: Concerned in Tennessee

2005-11-08T17:26:00.000-05:00

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor

Susan Lynn would like some information, please: What is the autism rate among people living in the United States right now who have never been vaccinated? If you have that data or know where to find it, kindly contact her by the end of the month, care of the Tennessee House of Representatives, which is considering whether to ban a mercury preservative from childhood vaccines.

Lynn, a Republican member of the House, is sponsoring the bill. Lynn's colleagues in the state Senate already have passed it -- unanimously -- despite protests from the American Academy of Pediatrics and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. The pediatricians and the renowned hospital say the mercury preservative, called thimerosal, is not dangerous and not linked to autism or any other ailment.

What bothers Lynn is they can't tell her the autism rate in Americans who've never been vaccinated.

"It just occurred to us, why doesn't there seem to be a problem (with autism) among unvaccinated populations?" she said. "Of course, that's anecdotal. There hasn't really been a study done, but it doesn't seem that there is a problem among unvaccinated populations.

"It would certainly be wonderful if the federal government, or a group out there interested in this, would conduct a study, or maybe there already is information out there that can be gathered."

Lynn's question echoes one this column has been raising for several months -- where are the studies that would exonerate thimerosal by demonstrating that unvaccinated Americans have just as much autism as those who received the full slate of state-mandated, mercury-containing childhood immunizations?

"You have to ask yourself why are there no studies," Lynn said. "We have seen an explosion in autism. If we saw increases in any other disease like we've seen in autism, it would be a national crisis. Why is there no funding to investigate this?

"I think it would be very useful. I don't know if I'll be able to get that data by December when our study committee meets again. But gosh, if you could be any help. ... "

This column's admittedly anecdotal reporting has turned up what looks like a lower prevalence of autism among the mostly unvaccinated Amish in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Federal health experts say that is not a good group to study because they might be protected from autism by their isolated gene pool.

They have not suggested an alternative.

There are other, less genetically similar groups that don't vaccinate based on their religious, philosophical or health views. An example: a significant subset of the 2 million children of families who homeschool. One doctor who treats such families says they have almost no autism, either.

A number of readers have offered similar observations about a number of other groups. But none of it is scientific or conclusive and, unless such studies are done, it never will be.

"We'd definitely want to look at a population within the United States of America because that's most relevant to us," Lynn said. "When you start looking at populations from other countries, you've got all kinds of other factors that we can't imagine."

Lynn said that absent such convincing information, she is willing to err on the side of caution and ban thimerosal from childhood vaccines.

"I read the science and read the experience of these parents and I realized, you know what, there really could be something here. And thimerosal is a poison. There is a skull and crossbones on that bottle. There's no reason to have that in there -- so let's take it out."

Lynn's interest in the issue stems from personal experience. Her son, Michael, was diagnosed with ADHD -- attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- at age 3; their doctor said they would have to wait till he was 6 to put him on Ritalin.

"I said why wait? I'm going crazy," she recounted. Researching the subject on her own, she came across the controversial Feingold Diet that eliminates various foods including those with artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. "I put him on the diet 100 percent and in three days, to my own astonishment, I had a normal little boy.

"I was at my doctor when I showed him Michael could now sit still on the examining table instead of being under it and in all the drawers and everything. And I was totally dismissed. So we just agreed to disagree.

"Through the years I have given this information to a lot of parents and it's worked, it's helped them," Lynn said. "I realized there is a tremendous amount we don't know and there is a tremendous amount that doctors for whatever reason dismiss, even though parents will testify to them, 'This has helped my child.'"

Michael spent 10 years on the diet and now, at 21, is doing fine, Lynn said. When the controversy over a possible thimerosal-autism link arose, she learned that some scientists suspect ADHD and autism might be on opposite ends of a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders triggered by a toxic exposure. And she said she saw the same pattern of parents being ignored when they said their child had regressed after vaccination -- and in some cases improved dramatically after biomedical treatment.

In 1999 the U.S. Public Health Service and the pediatricians group urged that manufacturers phase out thimerosal in childhood vaccines as soon as possible. But they say scientific evidence now shows thimerosal is not responsible for autism; therefore, banning it ties their hands unnecessarily and injects politics in a medical decision based on "junk science."

Lynn says she can't understand that argument. "I think it would be the best public policy for the state of Tennessee to remove it from children's immunizations. Whether or not it does contribute to mercury toxicity or autism or whatever you want to call it, not giving tiny children and newborn babies a chemical that has a skull and crossbones on the bottle, injected directly into their bloodstream, can't be a bad thing."

Lynn also questions whether thimerosal is actually out of all routine childhood immunizations (it remains in most flu vaccines, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends for pregnant women and for infants 6 to 23 months old).

She said a Tennessee mother testified at a legislative hearing that her son received an immunization that contained thimerosal on May, 21, 2004. "He suffered immediate effects from that and was diagnosed with autism and he's being treated now and he is coming around," Lynn said.

Six states -- including California, New York and Illinois -- have banned thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Lynn said she is now canvassing them to determine whether the ban has caused problems.

--

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes reader comment. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

© Copyright 2005 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Scrutiny of evidence on the MMR vaccine is being stifled by the government and a reckless medical establishment

2005-11-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

Melanie Phillips
The Guardian

At the heart of the MMR vaccine controversy is an attempt to blind people with science. Proponents of the vaccine say science has proved it is safe and that those who deny this are scientifically illiterate. This argument has been used to tell parents that the evidence of their own eyes is not true. While the vast majority of children have had no problem with the MMR vaccine, a small proportion of parents found that after vaccination their children developed bowel problems, an allergic reaction to various foods, and a halt to their behavioural development that produced the symptoms of autism.

Their concerns were dismissed by the medical profession. One doctor who did take them seriously was a gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield. In a Lancet paper he said the children were suffering from a new disease, autistic enterocolitis; at a press conference he suggested that to be safe children should have single jabs instead of the triple MMR.
u
Since then the government has pointed to a succession of epidemiological studies that, it says, prove that MMR is safe. A recent meta-study by the Cochrane Library was likewise reported to have said that fears about the vaccine were based on "unreliable evidence".But the study itself did not say this. On the contrary, it found that nine of the most prominent epidemiology studies that are employed to attack Wakefield's research were unreliable. Since it did not look at Wakefield's research, it did not address the questions raised over the vaccine in the first place. The report therefore could not bear the conclusion attributed to it that MMR was safe.

When I pointed this out in the Daily Mail last week, I was attacked in these pages by Dr Ben Goldacre, who said I did not understand how science worked. On the contrary, it is Goldacre who is ignoring the evidence, and his errors go to the essence of the MMR controversy.

Like the government, Goldacre believes clinical findings are trumped by epidemiology, which he says is "evidence-based" medicine. But the attempt to refute Wakefield by epidemiology is a category confusion. Epidemiology looks at patterns of disease in a population. It cannot prove or disprove cause and effect in individual patients.

A paper published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons says epidemiology "cannot establish a causal association unless other biological evidence backs it up", and does not meet a scientific standard of proof since it is prone to bias - the very criticism that the Cochrane report made of the epidemiological studies of MMR and autism.

Having accused me of misunderstanding "real" science, Goldacre then claims that I have fallen for pseudoscience by believing evidence that has never been peer-reviewed. Bizarrely, he asserts that I have relied upon research that has been published only in the "in-house magazine of a rightwing US pressure group well known for polemics on homosexuality, abortion and vaccines".

What on earth is he talking about? The devastating finding of measles virus in the cerebro-spinal fluid of some autistic children who had been given the MMR vaccine has been peer-reviewed in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

He claims that Wakefield's term "autistic enterocolitis" has appeared in no other studies that have endorsed it. But Wakefield's core finding of a unique gut-brain disease has been replicated in peer-reviewed papers in the Journal of Paediatric Neurology, Neuropsychobiology, the Journal of Paediatrics, the Journal of Clinical Immunology and the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

So what is this sinister "rightwing" organisation upon which I am supposed to have relied? Alas, Goldacre does not tell us. So let us guess. Might it be, perhaps, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which published the evidence of measles virus in cerebro-spinal fluid? Or might it be the American Institute of Medicine, which said that any evidence that symptoms worsen after booster jabs (as has been claimed with MMR) was real evidence of a link between a vaccine and a disorder?

Goldacre's case boils down to evasiveness, ignorance, misrepresentation and smear. Are these really the attributes of a scientific vocabulary? Is this really "evidence-based medicine"? Of course, it is important to vaccinate children against dangerous diseases. But if even a small subsection of children is badly affected - which is all that is being claimed over MMR - the balance of risk dramatically changes.

The government and the medical establishment deny the evidence of any such effect. They claim that science has shown there is no case to answer. But it depends on which type of science, and whether it is being used appropriately. The fact is that scientists are making progress in deciphering the mysterious relationship, which Wakefield first identified, between a new type of bowel disease and brain disorder. The connection between this relationship and the MMR vaccine is far from proven. But legitimate scrutiny of the real questions that have been raised are being stifled by the government and a medical establishment that have behaved recklessly and spinelessly, and are busy suppressing all attempts to hold this up to the light.

Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist
melanie@melaniephillips.com

Related articles
31.10.05: Melanie Phillips writes in the Daily Mail on MMR
02.11.05: Ben Goldacre writes in the Guardian on Melanie Phillips, the 'MMR sceptic who just doesn't understand science'

The Age of Autism: Amish genes

2005-11-06T18:47:00.000-05:00

By Dan Olmsted
UPI Senior Editor

What do the experts say about the idea that genes could explain a lower rate of autism among the Amish? Well, two noted medical geneticists say it's entirely possible.

One of them, in fact, has identified another brain disorder that has a lower incidence among the Amish -- and even the gene she believes helps protect them from it.

"It's like a 'founder effect' -- where you're tracing back a whole large number of people to a few ancestors," Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, director of the Duke University Center for Human Genetics, told Age of Autism. "So if those ancestors do not carry the genes responsible for a particular phenotype (trait), then yes, you'd be less likely to see it."

We asked Pericak-Vance and a second expert, Dr. Anne Spence of the University of California-Irvine, about the possible role of genes because we found what seems to be a lower prevalence of autism among the Amish. There has been no formal study of the Amish autism rate, but doctors who treat them say autism is very rare. The two experts were recommended by the American Society of Human Genetics, the nation's primary professional group.

"Could you have an effect which would mean fewer of the genes that I'm personally convinced are important in autism were drawn into this population by the founder?" asked Spence. "I would say yes, that is certainly a possibility."

Pericak-Vance studied dementia in an Amish group and reported -- in a paper published in the journal Annals of Neurology in 1996 -- that it is less common than in the outside Caucasian population. She found they also have a lower incidence of a gene called APO-E4.

That gene is associated with Alzheimer's disease; in fact, "it's the one risk factor that's been confirmed in thousands of studies worldwide," Pericak-Vance said.

Her deduction: Because the Amish she studied have less APO-E4, they have a lower incidence of dementia; her findings have "just recently confirmed in some updated data we have with the Amish population.

"So the answer to your general question is yes. It could be the founders of the Amish community you're looking at didn't have any of the risk or susceptibility genes for autism."

It's unclear what role APO-E4 might play in triggering Alzheimer's, Pericak-Vance said. Both she and Spence said they don't see evidence that the gene is linked to autism.

"I am not aware of any report ever correlating APO-E4 with autism," Spence said. "Nor is there any evidence of tangles or placks or any of those things in the brains of these kids."

Both said that whatever susceptibility genes are involved in autism, an environmental trigger might be needed to activate them in at least some cases.

"Gene-environment interaction could play a huge role in complex traits, and that in fact is what we think is going on," Pericak-Vance said. "For example, the APO-E4 gene is common in the population but not everyone who has it has Alzheimer's. It's obviously other genes (as well) or something going on in the environment that makes people at higher risk."

Spence said the role of genes in autism is the subject of ongoing controversy and uncertainty but that answers are coming.

"People will argue how much the genes contribute in autism. I continue to contend that as long as we say "autism is," and we don't say "autisms are," we're deluding ourselves. I believe there have to be etiologically a lot of disorders under that broad umbrella that we call the diagnosis of autism and autism spectrum.

"Some of those kids (cases) may be absolutely nothing but genes, and some may have very little to do with it, and lots of people in the mix in the middle. Some genes are very important. I cannot name them for you. I wish I could."
--

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism invites reader comment. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

New treatment for Autism

2005-11-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

Source: WFSB.com News

Some parents in Connecticut say there is new hope for children with Autism. Autism is the most common developmental disorder in America. These mothers and fathers say their children have been transformed.

But Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Steve Bunnell tells us that researchers in our state insist there is still no quick fix or cure.

BUNNELL: Paul Avram, has Autism. He is energetic like most second graders, but he is not like most 7-year-olds who have Autism.

"I had autism when I was a kid," he said. "It felt really uncomfortable."

Paul says he had autism because he is essentially a different boy now.

Just before his first birthday, Paul appeared to be developing normally in this home video, but just nine months later his mother says Paul was "drifting away."

He wasn't interactive with the toys, he couldn't say mama anymore," said Lynn Avram, "He lost 'mama' for two years."

Being a registered nurse, Paul's mom noticed that his symptoms were more than mental.

"He had chronic loose stools, he was pale, black circles under his eyes, systemic eczema," she said

Blood tests showed high levels of lead, mercury and other heavy metals.

So Lynn turned to "Chelation Therapy" -- the process clinics use to "pull" metals out of the bloodstream. And Paul experienced a transformation -- both medically and mentally.

"We need to get the word out that there is something that we can do to help our children," Lynne says.

And now Lynne Avram's support group of a half-dozen Connecticut moms is joining a nationwide chorus of parents who believe getting toxins out can bring their children back.

There's a lot of smoke, but not necessarily much fire," said Dr. Fred Volkmar, a Yale Child Study Center psychiatrist:

Volkmar says there's little evidence supporting Chelation therapy and it carries risks.

"Some of the medications that are used have not been FDA approved," he said. "There's the potential for adverse reactions to Chelation."

Researchers at Yale see hundreds of children every year and they say there's evidence that other therapies do work.

Having a child get speech therapy, having a child get behavioral therapy...educational, special educational interventions -- makes a big difference for kids with autism," Volkmar says.

"You can cut years of therapy with these children if you just heal their physical problems," Lynn Avram counters.

Avram says Chelation is supported by science and by the evidence of her son's amazing turn-around.

"He's becoming the person he was always meant to be, and that's a gift," she says.

Influenza Vaccine during Pregancy

2005-11-02T14:19:00.000-05:00

Perinatology.com states the flu vaccine is Category C for pregnant women.
Only Categories A & B are safe for pregnancy.

Category C :
Animal studies have shown an adverse effect and there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women.
OR
No animal studies have been conducted and there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women.

All pregnant women are encouraged to receive the flu vaccine and no contraindications have been publicized in regards to the influenza vaccine for pregnant women.
However an article on Medscape states:
A number of maternal conditions were perceived as potential contraindications to influenza vaccination during pregnancy. The most common of these were the first trimester, history of preterm labor, history of intrauterine fetal demise, and pregnancy-induced hypertension; none of these are listed by the CDC as contraindications. According to CDC guidelines, the only absolute contraindications to the influenza vaccine during pregnancy are a history of allergy to its components and a moderate to severe febrile illness. Furthermore, although some may consider the first trimester a period of relative contraindication, even this administration has shown no adverse maternal or fetal effects.^[4]

Below is a press release that was issued today by Safeminds:

^{-----------------------------------}

SafeMinds Issues Urgent Warning on Risk to Pregnant Women, Children, Infants of Exposure to Mercury from Flu Shots; As Bird Flu Plan is Unveiled

To: National Desk, Health Reporter

Contact: Stephanie Morris, 202-628-7772 or smorris@venturecommunications.com

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- As the flu season approaches and the Bush administration begins sharing details of their plan to prevent a possible avian flu pandemic, much emphasis is being placed on the idea that flu shots should be readily available and administered to large portions of the population. But lost in these numerous media reports is the danger posed by mercury found in a majority of annually administered flu vaccine preparations.

"Consumers are not aware of the fact that flu shots still contain thimerosal, a mercury based preservative recently phased out of most childhood vaccines," said Lyn Redwood, president of SafeMinds, a non- profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and conducting research into mercury exposure. Most alarming to Redwood is the fact that pregnant mothers and infants are now targeted to receive the annual flu vaccine when they are exactly the populations known to be most vulnerable to exposure to mercury. "We know from study after study that mercury rapidly crosses the placenta, enters the fetal brain and interrupts critical stages of development," said Redwood.

The CDC's recently recommended exposure to mercury from flu vaccine comes despite the fact that one in every six women of childbearing already has blood levels of mercury high enough to harm their unborn children from environmental exposures. An EPA announcement came on the heels of a report, which found that the fetus actually accumulates mercury and typically has blood levels 70 percent higher than those found in the mother at the time of birth.

According to Mark Blaxill, director of SafeMinds, "Why on earth would the CDC on one hand recommend that pregnant mothers avoid environmental exposure to mercury from eating seafood, but on the other hand ignore the danger from mercury administered in vaccines when they know that an average flu vaccine exceeds EPA's safe level of daily mercury exposure in the average woman by four fold? By suggesting that a direct injection of ethyl mercury via a flu shot is harmless, and indeed by recommending that exposure, these policies defy not only sound medical practice but common sense."

"If you choose to be immunized against regular flu, you should know what benefits you're actually getting," continued Blaxill. "American consumers should make informed decisions about their health. Amidst rising fears over a theoretical avian flu pandemic, numerous health officials have tied the avian flu risk to the regular annual flu shot, but most people don't realize that the annual flu shot won't protect you against avian flu. In addition, pregnant women also should know that recent scientific studies show little support or benefit to them or to their fetus from a flu shot."

SafeMinds also expressed concern about the blanket protection from liability for vaccine manufacturers offered in Bush's flu pandemic plan.

"Any kind of blanket immunity will only take away incentives for producing safe products and inevitably, will set our country up for a bad outcome," continued Redwood. "Immunity from legal liability for injury will result in vaccines that are less safe, which in turn will cause declining public confidence in vaccines."

The claim that the threat of lawsuits has kept manufacturers from entering and staying in the vaccine business has long been touted as a reason for protecting the pharmeceutical industry. Language providing relief from liability for vaccine manufacturers has been introduced unsuccessfully over the past several years. Although supporters of these bills claimed that intervention is needed to address concerns over the vaccine supply, the past problems that occurred were a result of long overdue FDA enforcement actions concerning violations of good manufacturing practices and complacency on the part of the manufacturers for production and distribution of their products, not litigation.

As the avian flu scare becomes increasingly political, SafeMinds is urging consumers to take a critical view of the rising media hype. SafeMinds encourages doctors to educate themselves and their patients about the risks of mercury exposure before administering the flu vaccine and to recommend only mercury free vaccine products for their patients.

More information about SafeMinds (including neurodevelopmental disorders, autism and mercury exposure) may be found at http://www.safeminds.org or by calling Stephanie Morris at 202-628-7772.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

Mercury pollution dangers aired

2005-11-02T14:09:00.000-05:00

Bush rules rapped: Speakers touch on vaccines, fish

By A.J. Goldsmith
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SUN

HIGHLAND PARK — Many of the estimated 250 people who attended Tuesday night's Mercury Forum at the Highland Park Country Club were astounded when one of the principal speakers warned that common flu shots are preserved with Thimerosal that contains mercury.

Dr. Anju Usman is the director of the True Health Medical Center of Naperville and specializes in discovering and treating such underlying causes of diseases as the presence of heavy metals in the body.

"Ask your doctor for a flu shot without Thimerosal," she recommended, noting that as a vaccine preservative, Thimerosal is thought to be a culprit in the onset of neurological problems in very young children who are normally given vaccines.

Autism, for example, manifests itself within the first three years of a child's life.

There is a correlation between "the increase in reported autism cases and apparent parallels to the increase in number and frequency of Thimerosal-containing vaccines in the 1990s," indicated David Kirby, author of "Evidence of Harm, Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy." He was the keynote speaker at the forum, sponsored by state Rep. Karen May, D-Highland Park.

Kirby readily admits that the link between mercury-containing vaccines is not conclusive, but he said the inferences are substantial.

For example, the link shown by new biological research is not substantiated by research sponsored by the federal government. Kirby cites a recent discovery of data from the Centers for Disease Control "showing a shockingly high correlation between Thimerosal exposure and autism, ADD and other childhood disorders."

He recognizes that there are other sources of mercury, also. For example, prenatal fish consumption by an expectant mother could transmit mercury through breast milk.

Speaker Bruce Nilles, representing the Sierra Club, told the audience Illinois and 44 other states have issued fish-consumption advisories because of high levels of mercury in native species.

Much of the mercury found in both freshwater and saltwater species come from pollution generated by coal-burning utilities that now have until 2018 to install scrubbers that would remove mercury. Mercury is a heavy-metal element that is found naturally in the Earth's crust. Methyl mercury and ethyl mercury are toxic substances.

"There is no leadership in our national level, so there is no reason not to look to minimize pollution on the local level," said Nilles.

Ann Alexander, environmental counsel to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, scored the federal government's clean air initiatives.

"It is not true that the Bush administration put forth the first rules to limit mercury from power plants," said Alexander. "They have backtracked from the mercury standards set during the Clinton administration. They have failed to consider the evidence of risk."

Alexander said Illinois and 14 other states are in the process of legally challenging the federal mercury rule.

"The plan to trade credits for mercury pollution just doesn't work," she said, adding the Bush administration traded a 90 percent reduction in mercury pollution in 2008 for a 70 percent reduction in 2018.

The current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Alexander says, gave a preference to high-mercury-content coal from Western states over lower-mercury-content coal from Illinois, for example.

Furthermore, in looking at mercury-containing fish, the EPA only considered freshwater sport fish and ignored freshwater commercial fish, aquaculture, marine commercial fishing and marine sport fishing.

Kevin Greene, manager of the Illinois EPA Office of Pollution Prevention, spoke about how his office helps businesses, institutions and local governments adopt environmentally sound practices that reduce waste generation, eliminate the use of toxic materials and conserve resources. His office also promotes alternatives to mercury and other harmful substances in manufacturing.

National Autism Conference Preview on Autism One Radio

2005-11-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

Autism One Radio Special

Thursday, November 3rd: Special 12:30 pm – 1:00 ET Jo Pike talks with Teri Small about the National Autism Conference, Nov 10-13 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

What types of information will be presented? How will this help children? What is the mission of the National Autism Association and the objective of the conference? Join us for this special pre-conference interview, and tune in Nov 11-13 for live presentations and interviews from the National Autism Conference including: Dr. Jeffrey Bradstreet; Dr. Julie Buckley; David Kirby; Dr. Anju Usman; Dr. Andrew Wakefield (presentations) and Dr. Phillip DeMio; Dr. Boyd Haley; Dr. Mark and David Geier; Dr. Arthur Krigsman; Dr. Seth Pearl (interviews).

Think Autism. Think Cure.

NEWS RELEASE

2005-10-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

Tetrahedron Publishing Group Health Science Communications for People Around the World 206 North 4th Avenue, Suite 147 ۰ Sandpoint, ID 83864 ۰ 208-265-2575 ۰ FAX: 208-265-2775

NEWS RELEASE
Release: No. XXXIV
Date Mailed: Oct 20, 2005

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jackie Lindenbach-208-265-8065; (e-mail: tetra@tetrahedron.org)

"CODE RED" VACCINE ALERT ANOTHER DEADLY DECEPTION

Road to Destruction Paved with Good Intentions

Sandpoint, ID: "This is incredibly serious," wrote Ingri Cassel, National Vaccination Liberation Organization (VacLib) director. "So serious that the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)," led by President, Barbara Loe Fisher, issued a red alert on the Senate HELP Committee's passage of the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act
of 2005."

The bill, nicknamed "BioShield 2" is expected to pass in the Senate by year's end. In its technically accurate assessment, the NVIC warns the legislation will "strip Americans of the right to a trial by jury if harmed by an experimental or licensed drug or vaccine that they are
forced by government to take whenever federal health officials declare a public health emergency."

Ms. Cassel issued the "CODE RED alert" for health groups nationwide to launch a concerted effort to stop Richard Burr's Republican bill co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH). According to Cassel everyone should oppose this bill by calling and e-mailing their senators to make them aware. The bill: a) undermines drug safety laws; b) violates the constitutional right to a trial by jury in case a vaccine or drug causes injuries; c) keeps the public in the dark about every aspect of vaccine research, development, injuries, and deaths resulting from the partnership between government and the pharmaceutical lobby; and d) forces mandatory compliance with public health proclamations demanding vaccinations and/or drugs be taken by anyone declared at risk, not necessarily infected.

"This is the latest deception and distraction issued by government and grassroots activists espousing public protectionism," said Dr. Leonard Horowitz, author of 15 books including the national bestseller, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional?
(http://www.tetrahedron.org/). "There is nothing new in this legislation that hasn't already been politically dictated."

Technically, Dr. Horowitz is also correct. Drug safety laws have been violated since their inception. The constitutional right to a jury trial fell years ago in cases brought against all federal officials including those engaged in public health practice. The National Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, co-sponsored by NVIC and initially promoted by Ms. Fisher, shielded drug companies from vaccine injury lawsuits. The public, even medical doctors, have always been in the dark about "proprietary" pharmaceutical intelligence, the nitty-gritty on drug testing for FDA
approval, and vaccine injury data. And following 9-11, the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act passed by most states forced compliance with public health vaccination/intoxication mandates.

The only message worthy of social, not political, activism at this point is, "WAKE-UP! At least half of the world's population is targeted for elimination under the global elite's depopulation agenda," Dr. Horowitz insists. "Avian flu over the cuckoos nest. DO NOT, UNDER ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES, GET VACCCINATED WITH ANYTHING!"

Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote the opening quote in the aforementioned bestseller. He claims, "To do evil, a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good. . . . Ideology is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in
his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors."

This offers a great explanation of why "the road to destruction is paved with good intentions."

-End-

Note to journalists: For interviews on this topic, or copies of Dr. Horowitz's many books, please call Jackie Lindenbach at 208-265-8065.
(E-mail: tetra@tetrahedron.org)

See also:
http://www.drlenhorowitz.com/
http://www.healingcelebrations.com/
http://www.tetrahedron.org/
http://www.originofaids.com/

Dr. Len Horowitz's Avian Flu Fright Commentary

To: All grassroots activists, health and vaccination networkers.

Please forward this urgent message, to help save lives, to everyone in your network.

Avian Flu Fright: Politically Timed for Global "Iatrogenocide"

A Public Health Warning and Political Essay by a Harvard-trained Author of Fifteen Books Including the American bestseller, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola-Nature, Accident or Intentional?

Leonard G. Horowitz, DMD, MA, MPH

Abstract

If avian flu becomes more than a threatened pandemic, it will have done so by political and economic design. This thesis is supported by current massive media misrepresentations, profiteering on risky and valueless vaccines, gross neglect of data evidencing earlier similar man-made plaques including SARS, West Nile Virus, AIDS and more; continuance of
genetic studies breeding more mutant flu viruses likely to outbreak, inside trading scandals involving pandemic savvy White House and drug industry officials, curious immunity of these pharmaceutical entities over the past century to law enforcement and mainstream media scrutiny, and published official depopulation objectives. With the revelations and assertions advanced herein, the public is forewarned against this physician assisted mass murder best termed "iatrogenocide."* This genocidal imposition is expected to serve mainly economic and political depopulation objectives.

Background

In April, 2003, a social experiment called SARS, said to have arrived from Asia, heavily struck Toronto. I was there throughout most of this Asian flu-foreshadowing fright. This bizarre new pneumonia-like illness was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It was said to be the
latest threat in an ongoing series of attacks on humanity by mysteriously mutating "supergerms."

A careful study of the scientific and medical-sociological correlates and antecedents of this "outbreak" revealed something amiss far more insidious than SARS. I critically considered Toronto's media reaction as any Harvard-trained public health expert in media persuasion behavioral science might. The scourge had all the earmarks of a novel social experiment conducted by white-collar bioterrorist.

It seemed clear to me that this unprecedented population manipulation effectively indoctrinated the mass mind in support of a grossly ineffective, albeit legislated, public health response in advance of the arrival of "the Big One." Throughout the "SARS Scam,"(1) repeated references
were made to biological agents that might facilitate decimation of approximately a third to half of the world's population. Having extensively reviewed political population control literature and contemporary objectives of leading global industrialists, I noted these predictions were
in close keeping with current official population reduction objectives.(2)

Canada's response to SARS in 2003 was, for the first time in history, directed by the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO). Having reviewed the intimate financial and administrative ties between these organizations, the Rockefeller family, Carnegie Foundation, and the world's leading drug makers, "the fox," in essence, reigned over Canada's "chickens."

The truth about plagues includes the fact that "no grand pandemic ever evolved divorced from major socio-political upheaval." SARS advanced a political agenda more than a public health emergency. If public health officials earnestly intended to prevent these new emerging diseases, or successfully treat them at their roots, I repeated, they would study their obvious origins from the merged military-medical-biotechnology arena. A basic course in medical sociology simply justifies this utilitarian counsel.

"Experts" had been predicting the arrival of a super-plague for decades. What was HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS about the mysterious and terrifying arrival of SARS, however, was its timing. It synchronously arrived with the global war on terrorism, and the Anglo-American war with Iraq. It seemed a convenient distraction from the fact that the earlier Bush administration had shipped Saddam Hussein most of his deadly biological weapons arsenal including anthrax and West Nile Virus. SARS was pathognomonic (i.e., symptomatic and characteristic) of what I had predicted and explained in the book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare (Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2001; http://www.healthyworlddistributing.com/), a prophetically-titled text that predated the 9-11 attacks on America by several months, and provided a contextual analysis of certain globalists' links to recent "outbreaks."

In essence, I provided insight into the broad application of a new form of institutionalized "bioterrorism" consistent with state sponsored biological warfare. Saddam Hussein was said to have exposed populations in his and adjacent lands with biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction.

SARS and the current avian flu fright is sanctioned by military-medical-pharmaceutical-petrochemical industrialists likewise operating above the law in many documented instances. Having testified before the U.S. Congress, I personally experienced how premiere pharmaceutical industrialists direct our political-economic representatives in government. Emerging diseases complement the political "War on Terrorism," and our bioterror-influenced culture. This agenda serves two primary objectives: profitability and population-reduction.

Political Reality Versus Mass-Mediated Myths

The ever increasing madness around us is eerily consistent with globalist think tank recommendations for the current "conflicts short of war." Beginning in the late 1960s, "economic substitutes for standard militarization" were sought and found by leading global industrialists. New biological threats, the "war on terrorism," and increasing numbers of "natural disasters" including space-based threats and superstorms were considered economically and politically expedient compared with the first and second world wars. These "conflicts short of war" were decidedly more manageable and economically viable. For this reason, especially their profitability, they were leading options among Anglo-American policy makers.

Nelson Rockefeller's protégé, Henry Kissinger, for instance, as National Security Advisor (NSA) under Richard Nixon, oversaw foreign policy while considering Third World population reduction "necessities" for the U.S., Britain, Germany, and other allies. This Bush nominee to direct the 9-11 conspiracy investigation, a reputed war criminal, then selected the option to have the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) develop biological weapons, according to the U.S. Congressional Record of 1975. Among these new man-made biological weapons were germs far deadlier than the avian flu.

For example, by 1968, when Kissinger requested and received updated intelligence on useful "synthetic biological agents" for germ warfare and population control, mutant recombinant flu viruses had just been engineered by Special Virus Cancer Program researchers O'Conner, Stewart, Kinard, Rauscher and others.(3) During this program, influenza and parainfluenza viruses were recombined with quick acting leukemia viruses (acute lymphocytic leukemia) to deliver weapons that potentially spread cancer, like the flu, by sneezing. These researchers also amassed avian cancer (sarcoma) viruses and inoculated them into humans and monkeys to
determine their carcinogenicity. In related efforts, Raucher et al. used radiation to enhance avian virus's cancer-causing potential. These incredible scientific realities have been officially censored and generally neglected by the media's mainstream.

Similarly, the Institute of Science in Society (IoSS) in London raised the genetic engineering question in the origin of SARS. "Could genetic engineering have contributed inadvertently to creating the SARS virus?" they asked. "This point was not even considered by the expert
coronavirologists called in to help handle the crisis, now being feted and woed by pharmaceutical companies eager to develop vaccines." Those living in glass houses should not throw stones. The above emphasis is added to show IoSS they had "not even considered" intentional SARS deployment in their scientific, allegedly unbiased, purview.(4)

Conflicts short of war, like the "War on AIDS," "War on Drugs," "War on Terrorism," "War on Cancer," and now "War on the Avian Flu" require sophisticated propaganda programs employing fear campaigns for social acceptance and popular support of legislated policies. These psychological operations (officially termed PSYOPS) for "command and control warfare"
(technically called C2W), experts advise, best support the emerging "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA). The RMA's capabilities include "a form of human slavery" in which the world's captive populations would not know they are enslaved.(2)

The RMA undoubtedly incorporates the use of debilitating biologicals and chemical agents most generously on behalf of drug and vaccine makers. A classic example is the toxic carcinogenic organophosphate pesticides deployed against human populations, said to target "mosquitoes," in the "War Against the West Nile Virus." Such "non-lethal warfare" agents, as these are militarily termed, are indeed deadly, but mortality results slowly from toxic exposures allowing more profits to be made by allied pharmaceutical and medical industrialists. Victims of the "non-lethal" exposures die slowly from chronic debilitating diseases. Expensive hospitals and long-term care facilities are virtual concentration camps. The ailments generated for "iatrogenocide" include the plethora of autoimmune diseases and newer cancers virtually non-existent 50 years ago. This fact, alone, strongly suggests a genocidal socio-economic and political agenda.

Avian Flu for Profit

In response to SARS, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, Michael Fumento, published an economic thesis in Toronto related to the one I advance here. The "Super-bug or Super Scare," he wrote was published in Canada's National Post. Canadians were warned to "quarantine themselves," wear masks, and in some cases stay home. The Ontario Health Minister declared a "health emergency," as the media dubbed the "mysterious killer"
a "super-pneumonia." Recoiling from the hype, Fumento asked and answered a few "real questions . . . How lethal, how transmissible, and how treatable is this strain?" The answers, he concluded, "leave no grounds for excitement, much less panic." The same may be said for this new curse of avian flu.(1)

Lethal?

At this writing, the avian flu is said to have killed "about 65 people" in Southeast Asia during the past two years! Little to no data is available on these individuals who most commonly had immune-compromising medical conditions. Further, all deaths were in Asian countries with
questionable health services.

Conversely, other forms of flu kill more than 40,000 North Americans annually, generally the immune-compromised elderly.

Transmissibile?

According to USA Today (October 9, 2005), "European health officials are working to contain the [avian flu] virus, which so far has not infected anyone in the region." Although, allegedly "more than 140 million birds have died or been destroyed, . . . and financial losses to the
poultry sector have topped $10 billion." This propaganda actually admits, "the current virus, known as H5N1, has not yet mutated to the point at which it can easily spread from person to person." In fact, it is likely to have never spread from person to person other than during laboratory handling!(5)

Treatability?

"The U.S. Senate has already approved a $3.9 billion package to buy vaccines and antiviral medications, and the Administration is also preparing a request for an additional $6 billion to $10 billion," according to a current BusinessWeek report.( 6)

"Beam me up Scottie, there is no intelligent life on this planet." This largely explains why the public puts up with this deadly deception. Even USA Today bemons, "there is no human vaccine yet." So how come the U.S. Senate is rushing to spend all these billions for an avian flu vaccine?

I suppose we should overlook the fact that the current frightening strain of H5N1 avian flu virus has never readily jumped from human to human, and not commonly from birds to humans either. Thus, an effective vaccine can only be prepared by mutating this virus, thus creating what the world fears most. Let me explain. . . .

To make the human vaccine specific for the H5N1 mutant virus, you must start with the human virus which does not yet exist, except in perhaps military-biomedical-pharmaceutical laboratories. In fact, this is precisely what is being prepared based on news reports. To produce the human pathogen, the avian virus must be cultured for lengthy periods of time in human cell cultures, then injected into monkey and ultimately humans to see if these experimental subjects get the same feared flu. Thus, the flu virus the world currently fears most is either: 1) now being prepared in labs paid by industrialists with massive wealth-building incentives to "accidentally" release the virus; or 2) has already been prepared in such labs to take advantage of this current fright and future sales following the virus's release.

Remember, to be effective against a virus, a vaccine is said to require specificity. If authorities were to now have the main H5N1 avian flu strain feared to spread at some future date there's no assurance by the time they developed the vaccine the strain would remain sufficiently the
same for the vaccine to be effective anyway due to expected viral mutations. Viral mutations over time is a function of the agent's newness. New man-made viruses, laboratory creations, like the ones currently being prepared for vaccine trials, are less stable not having evolved over
the millennia.

Thus, the entire vaccine effort is largely, if not entirely, a sham with ulterior motives.

Remember too, that a vaccine's reliability requires years, or at least months, of testing in the targeted population. Vaccine injury data must, or should, be meticulously collected over this period to assure the vaccine is not killing and maiming more persons than it is helping or
saving. Can you seriously believe this assurance will be provided by government or pharmaceutical industry officials in this pandemic's wake? FEMA's failed Katrina response pails by comparison to this public health liability and vaccine-injury certainty.

I say "vaccine-injury certainty" because of the extensive list of newly developed vaccinations, highly touted when brought to market, that caused horrific results. This list includes the first swine flu vaccine, polio vaccines, smallpox vaccine, anthrax vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine,
and most recently Lyme disease vaccine that crippled approximately 750,000 people within months of its release and prior to its recall by the FDA.

Most people fail to realize all vaccines carry a list of ingredients that typically increase human disease and death (i.e., morbidity and mortality).

These include toxic elements and chemicals such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and formalin (used to preserve corpses), MSG, foreign genetic material, and risky proteins from various species of bacteria, viruses, and animals that have been scientifically associated with
triggering autoimmune disorders and certain cancers. A growing body of scientific evidence strongly suggests vaccines are largely responsible for increasing cases of autism and other learning disabilities, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, hay fever, allergies, chronic draining ear infections, type 1 autoimmune diabetes,
and many, many more pandemics. These chronic ailments are said to require long-term medical care for the patients' management causing toxic side effects resulting in America's leading killer--iatrogenic disease. That is, vaccines and other pharmaceutical industry inventions are
literally killing or disabling millions with little effort on the part of government officials and their drug industry cohorts to arrest this scourge.

For all we know, governments are ordering an avian flu vaccine that will precisely deliver this pandemic to the world to affect population control.

Absurd thesis? Read on.

BusinessWeek expects avian flu vaccine stockpiling by government officials will help the Sanofi-Pasteur company on behalf of Sanofi-Aventis and Chiron. "Tamiflu," it reported is an antiviral manufactured by Roche. . . . considered effective against avian flu. . . . The U.S. owns enough for 4.3 million people, with more on order." BusinessWeek failed to report: 1) Tamiflu's safety and effectiveness has not been determined in people with other chronic medical conditions--a significant percentage of the U.S. population-- and common side effects of this drug include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bronchitis, stomach pain, dizziness, headaches, and much, much more; 2) Roche (Hoffman-LaRoche) was found guilty of price fixing the world's supply of vitamins in 1999 as part of the global petrochemical/pharmaceutical cartel evolved from Nazi-Germany's I.G. Farben organization;(2)(6) and 3) Sanofi-Aventis's corporate colleagues
include Merck, a company that received a lion's share of the Nazi war chest at the end of WWII, whose earnings plunged after the withdrawal last year of its deadly Vioxx arthritis drug. According to recent news reports, Merck is partnering with Sanofi-Aventis to produce the world's first sexually-transmitted-cancer vaccine to be given to prepubescent boys and
girls.(7) Merck is infamous for having developed the first hepatitis B vaccines that triggered the international AIDS pandemic according to published scientific research and stunning documents reprinted in this author's national bestselling book.(3)(8)

In the weeks and months following the 9-11 attacks on America, I traced the widely publicized anthrax mailings "mystery" to U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) commissioned biological weapons contractors with ties to Britain's MI6, Porton Down, and this same Anglo-American
pharmaceutical cartel.(9) The anthrax mailings fanned fears of bioterrorism throughout
America and economically served primarily vaccine and drug makers with administrative and financial links to these avian flu profiteers.(10)

People willingly relinquish their civil rights and personal freedoms in the wake of such engineered frights. The passage of the infamous "Homeland Security Act" in America, and its counterpart in Canada, are classic examples of this societal direction, forced legislation, and
egregious manipulation.

Why Asia?

How convenient that Asia is said to be the origin, as with SARS, of this latest plague when Chinese-Anglo-American relations are strained to say the least.

In the days preceding the emergence of the first SARS cases, America raced to the Pacific Rim to impact escalating aggressions on the Korean peninsula. Communist China--a "most favored" trading partner with America--is politically allied with several American enemies, including those said to possess weapons of mass destruction, including Iraq. Coincidental? Not likely when viewing the larger political picture involving the Ango-American oligarchy's RMA, its global enterprises, and instigated planet-wide "conflicts short of war."

Consider also the fact the media's mainstream has been heavily influenced, if not entirely controlled, by multi-national corporate sponsors protecting and advancing the interests of a relatively small number of global entities. Also recall that the focus of news providers, on any
given day or hour, results from intelligence agency directives, according to reputable authorities including myriad retired news officials and intelligence officers. So ask and answer the following intelligent questions:

Why have American military officials, beginning with Secretary of Defense William Cohen during the Clinton years, publicized America's greatest vulnerability lies in the realm of biological weapons wielded by terrorists? Is this not a form of treason against the United States to relay such sensitive intelligence to potential enemies through the mainstream press?
Why does the mainstream media continue to foretell of the expected arrival of the "Big One"-an influenza virus that will produce a super
Why was the "Spanish flu" influenza virus called the "Spanish flu" when it originated, by historic accounts, in Tibet in 1917? It is said that Spanish newspapers were the only ones reporting on the great plague due to their neutrality over World War I politics. However, Spain was as dear to America then as Communist China is to the United States today. The "Spanish flu" was named such following two decades of disputes between America and Spain over colonization of the Caribbean Islands, Hawaii and the Philippines beginning with the Spanish American war that ended in the Philippines in 1902. In fact, the grand Spanish flu began in military camps. Does this history appear to be repeating?
Doesn't it make sense that America is being manipulated, if not targeted, for the purpose of advancing globalistic agendas, central among them is population reduction?

The "Big One"

As mentioned above, during the 1960s and early 1970s, military biological weapons contractors with intimate ties to leading drug industrialists prepared mutants of influenza and para-influenza viruses recombined with acute lymphocytic leukemia viruses. In other words, they stockpiled a quick spreading cancer virus which may also be deployed.(3)

Alternatively, many infectious disease experts and government health officials oblivious to this scientific reality say this avian flu might be the 'Big One." Several days ago, the United Nations released a report that stated as many as 150 million people worldwide might die from this
avian flu.

Emma Ross of the Associated Press reported on SARS as the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its "crisis plan to attack" the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. WHO, as you may recall, is a U.N. sponsored organization that is rumored to have helped spread AIDS to Africa by way of contaminated hepatitis B and/or polio vaccinations. There is a reasonable amount of evidence to support this contention.(1)

More disconcerting, the U.N. is known to be heavily influenced by Rockefeller family members and their petrochemical-pharmaceutical interests. History shows Rockefeller fortunes built the U.N. building in New York City. During WWII, the Rockefeller family and their Standard Oil
Company supported Hitler more than they did the allies according to court records. One federal judge ruled Rockefeller committed "treason" against the United States. Following WWII, according to attorney John Loftus-an official Nazi war crimes investigator-Nelson Rockefeller persuaded the U.N.'s South American voting block to favor Israel's creation only to
assure secrecy regarding his support for the Nazis. Earlier that century, John D. Rockefeller joined Prescott Bush and the British Royal Family in sponsoring the eugenics initiatives that gave rise to Hitler's racial hygiene programs. During the same period the Rockefeller family
virtually monopolized American medicine, American pharmaceutics, and the cancer and genetics industries.(2, 3)

Today, the Rockefeller family, its foundation, U.N. and WHO remain at the forefront of administering "population programs" designed to reduce world populations to more manageable levels. As per an advertisement in Foreign Affairs--a prestigious political periodical published by the David Rockefeller directed Council on Foreign Relations--the U.S. population is being targeted for a 50% reduction.(2)

"We've never faced anything on this scale with such a global reach," said Dr. David Heymann, of the WHO, not regarding the avian flu, but SARS.

"This is the first time that a global network of [Rockefeller-directed infectious disease 'surveillance' outposts and] laboratories are sharing information, samples, blood, pictures," added Dr. Klaus Stohr, a WHO virologist coordinating labs internationally. "Basically overnight,
there are no secrets, there is no jealousy, there is no competition in the face of a global health emergency. This is a phenomenal network."(1)
____________________
* The term "iatrogenocide" is derived from the combination of words "iatrogenesis," meaning physician induced illness, and "genocide," defined as the mass killing and/or enslaving of people for economics, politics, and/or ideology.

About the Author Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H., is an internationally known authority in the overlapping fields of public health, behavioral science, emerging diseases, and bioterrorism. He received his doctorate in medical dentistry from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 1977, was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral science at University of Rochester, earned a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University, and another Master of Arts degree in health education from Beacon College, all before joining the research faculty at Harvard. Dr. Horowitz is best known for his national bestselling book, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional? (Tetrahedron Press, 1998; 1-888-508-4787) which recently resulted in the United States General Accounting Office investigating the man-made origin of AIDS theory. (See: http://www.healingcelebrations.com/gao.htm)

Dr. Horowitz's work in the field of vaccination risk awareness has prompted
at least three Third World nations to change their vaccination policies. His stunning testimony before the United States Congress' Government Reform Committee, literally brought the hearing to a halt. (See: healingcelebrations.com) Dr. Horowitz questioned government health
officials regarding a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) secreted report showing a definitive link between the mercury ingredient (i.e., Thimerosal), common to most vaccinations, and the skyrocketing rates of autism and behavioral disorders affecting our children and the
future of our nation.

Incredibly, Dr. Horowitz alerted the FBI, in writing and in person, one week before the first anthrax mailing was announced in the press, that a "major anthrax fright" was in the process of unfolding that demanded the FBI's urgent attention. Needless to say they did not heed Dr. Horowitz's warning.

Moreover, three months before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Dr. Horowitz released his thirteenth book, prophetically titled Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare. The book focuses on the West Nile Virus as an act of Bioterrorism, and considers what and who is really behind this and other recent outbreaks. Dr. Horowtiz argues that his disclosures expose the roots of global terrorism, along with the individuals and organizations at the heart of what he calls "the petrochemical-pharmaceutical cartel". He believes this "multi-national corporate beast" is in the process of committing
global genocide, profiting from engineered frights, and at the same time, most efficiently culling targeted populations considered excessive.

As you may have heard, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation into the links between recent West Nile Virus outbreaks and bioterrorism. Dr. Horowitz is among the leading pioneers of this theory.

Dr. Horowitz's most recent book is DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral, a reference text on the electro-genetics of biology, disease therapy, and human spirituality. This work also details links between the anthrax mailings and human genome project heist, and leading intelligence agency, genetics industry, and pharmaceutical company officials.

For more information about Dr. Horowitz's books, videos, CDs and DVDs link to www.healthyworlddistributing.com and www.tetrahedron.org, or by calling 1-888-508-4787.
His official website is www.drlenhorowitz.com.

This article was provided courtesy of Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Tetrahedron Publishing Group. It's copyright is relinquished for widespread distribution.

References:

Horowitz LG. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome): A Great Global Scam. Available at: http://www.healingcelebrations.com/SARS.htm
Horowitz LG. Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare. Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, (Spring) 2001.
Horowitz LG. Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola, Nature, Accident or Intentional? Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, (Spring) 2001.
The Institute of Science in Society. SARS and Genetic Engineering? London, England. Article available at: http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/health_risks/sars_engineering.html
Knox N. Europe braces for avian flu. USA TODAY, October 9, 2005; Manning A.Government to stock up on avian flu shots. USA Today, Oct 8, 2005.
Wang P. Avian Flu: Inoculate Your Portfolio. BusinessWeek. Online edition. Available at:
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/oct2005/pi2005110_4988_pi015.htm
CNNMoney. Merck shares jump on cancer drug vaccine. October 6, 2005. Available at:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/06/news/fortune500/merck.reut/
For more scientific background on the link between the hepatitis B vaccine and the AIDS pandemic link to http://www.originofaids.com/.
Horowitz LG. The CIA's Role in the Anthrax Mailings: Could Our Spies be Agents for Military-Industrial Sabotage, Terrorism, and Even Population Control? A Special Report. Article available at: http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/anthrax_espionage.html
Horowitz LG. DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral. Sandpoint, ID: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2004.

The Age of Autism: The Amish Elephant

2005-10-29T21:55:00.000-04:00

By DAN OLMSTED
UPI Senior Editor

A specter is haunting the medical and journalism establishments of the United States: Where are the unvaccinated people with autism?

That is just about the only way to explain what now appears to be a collective resistance to considering that question. And like all unanswered questions, this raises another one: Why?

What is the problem with quickly and firmly establishing that the autism rate is about the same everywhere and for everybody in the United States, vaccinated or unvaccinated? Wouldn't that stop all the scientifically illiterate chatter by parents who believe vaccinations made their children autistic? Wouldn't it put to rest concerns that -- despite the removal of a mercury-containing preservative in most U.S. vaccines -- hundreds of millions of children in the developing world are possibly at risk if that preservative is in fact linked to autism?

Calling this issue The Amish Elephant reflects reporting earlier this year in Age of Autism that the largely unvaccinated Amish may have a relatively low rate of autism. That apparent dissimilarity is, in effect, a proverbial elephant in the living room -- studiously ignored by people who don't want to deal with it and don't believe they will have to.

Here are a few cases in point.

Earlier this month the National Consumers League conference in Washington held a session on communicating issues around vaccine safety. I was on the panel and talked about the Amish and autism. In the Q&A session that followed, the first question was for me.

"Is this a proper role for a journalist, or is this just a straw dog set up there with a preliminary answer? It not only showed up where you wrote it. It was all over the place. You did very, very well for UPI (at which point I said, 'Thank you -- please tell my bosses that!') but the question is, did you do very, very well for America?

"Is it appropriate for a journalist -- you weren't reporting, you were investigating. And I just wonder if you think it's an appropriate role for you to play."

My answer: "There's different roles for the press. That's certainly a reasonable question. That is investigative reporting. This idea is something that's already been discarded -- that there's any reason why you would want to look in an unvaccinated population.

"One of my favorite comments about journalism is that it's the wild card of American democracy. The First Amendment says we can do (in the sense of reporting about) whatever we want. So one of our privileges is to get an idea in our head and go look at it."

My questioner was not finished. "I wasn't questioning whether you have a First Amendment right to do it. I think this is more of a question of the ethics, of what value we are bringing to the debate."

My response: "That's probably not a good one for me to answer. Obviously I thought it was ethical."

At that point a fellow panelist, Dr. Louis Cooper, former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a staunch vaccine defender, spoke up. "I would jump in and say I thought it was ethical and I think it was useful," said Cooper, a courtly and unfailingly courteous Manhattan pediatrician.

"As you've learned, it was annoying to many people. I wasn't annoyed by it because I thought you kept the process and the debate and the discussion going forward. And we have to do that for one another."

That did not end the discussion. A few minutes later a public-health professor from -- where else? Harvard -- did her own version of Jeopardy!, offering the correct "answer" in the form of a question.

"This question is for Dan. Did you mention the outbreak of polio that happened in the Amish community in the Netherlands that caused widespread problems there, and also the fact that there'd been some context with respect to history in our country in trying to reach out to the Amish to actually encourage them to try to benefit from some of the vaccine technology to the extent that we could?

"So there's been a long history in this country of the CDC trying to reach out to them to the extent that they could. Also with respect to polio, I think what's really amazing is it's such a great story, this is such an exciting time, in the sense that we are very close to global eradication. What that means is we've gone from 1988 when we had 350,000 estimated paralytic polio cases in the world every year to roughly a thousand. It's very exciting that in fact we don't have the terror or the hysteria and all of the fear that surrounded disease.

"I just want to remind everyone that one thing that's very important in the context of reporting these stories is making sure that people do remember and also realize with infectious disease is these things can come back, and until they are eradicated they can come back and devastate us just as much as they did before, except now there are a lot more people.

"There's some related news that people might find interesting. A headline in the Washington Post today, 'Polio outbreak occurs among Amish families.' So I thought people might be interested in that."

At that point the moderator, Dr. Roger Bernier of the Centers for Disease Control, said time was getting short -- why was I not surprised? -- and asked for the next "question."

One thing I've noticed is the more that people want to lecture instead of learn, the more they speak in breathless run-on sentences that are hard to stop, slow down or even diagram. They leave one with the unspoken idea that dialogue -- opening the door to new information -- is somehow dangerous.

These exchanges reminded me of the response I got from Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC director, when I asked her this summer, verbatim: "Has the government ever looked at the autism rate in an unvaccinated U.S. population, and if not, why not?"

Her answer, verbatim:

In this country, we have very high levels of vaccination as you probably know, and I think this year we have record immunization levels among all of our children, so to (select an unvaccinated group) that on a population basis would be representative to look at incidence in that population compared to the other population would be something that could be done.

But as we're learning, just trying to look at autism in a community the size of Atlanta, it's very, very difficult to get an effective numerator and denominator to get a reliable diagnosis.

I think those kind of studies could be done and should be done. You'd have to adjust for the strong genetic component that also distinguishes, for example, people in Amish communities who may elect not to be immunized (and) also have genetic connectivity that would make them different from populations that are in other sectors of the United States. So drawing some conclusions from them would be very difficult.

I think with reference to the timing of all of this, good science does take time, and it's part of one of the messages I feel like I've learned from the feedback that we've gotten from parents groups this summer (in) struggling with developing a more robust and a faster research agenda, is let's speed this up. Let's look for the early studies that could give us at least some hypotheses to test and evaluate and get information flowing through the research pipeline as quickly as we can.

So we are committed to doing that, and as I mentioned, in terms of just measuring the frequency of autism in the population some pretty big steps have been taken. We're careful not to jump ahead of our data, but we think we will be able to provide more accurate information in the next year or so than we've been able to do up to this point. And I know that is our responsibility.

We've also benefited from some increased investments in these areas that have allowed us to do this, and so we thank Congress and we thank the administration for supporting those investments, not just at CDC but also at NIH and FDA.

The latest response to my pesky persistence comes not from academia or government but from my own profession. Last week the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review published an article whose main thrust -- with which I concur -- was that a vigorous debate over a possible link between vaccines and autism was being thwarted by the self-induced timidity of the press.

Some reporters told the author, Daniel Schulman, that they have basically given up on the story because the criticism -- some of it from their own editors -- was so fierce, and the story was so complicated.

Schulman described Age of Autism's efforts to come at the issue "sideways," looking for possible clues to the cause of the disorder in the natural history of autism. And he mentioned our reporting on the Amish:

"Privately, two reporters told me that, while intriguing, Olmsted's reporting on the Amish is misguided, since it may simply reflect genetic differences among an isolated gene pool. ... Both reporters believed that Olmsted has made up his mind on the question and is reporting the facts that support his conclusions."

Ouch. Being slammed by one's peers is never enjoyable, although reporters need to have thick skins and realize they dish this kind of thing out every day. (And those anonymous sources really are annoying, especially when I am happy to be quoted by name about everything.)

What's interesting about the reporters' "private" remarks is the degree of presumed expertise they suggest -- that looking at the Amish is misguided "since it may simply reflect genetic differences among an isolated gene pool." Really? Where did these guys get their doctorate in genetics, Harvard?

This assertion -- that the Amish gene pool could explain everything, based on no data that I'm aware of -- is the kind of self-interested speculation masquerading as expertise that has beset the autism-vaccines discussion for far too long. The term I learned for it long ago is "convenient reasoning," and it does not always have to be conscious.

The Amish have all kinds of standard genetic mental and developmental disorders -- from bipolar to retardation -- and a lot more genetic issues to boot from this supposedly protective "isolated gene pool." The doctors who actually know something about the Amish have never suggested to me that genes have anything to do with a low rate of autism. They seem perplexed.

In upcoming columns, we'll put that question to the right people -- geneticists -- and tell you what we find. It's called reporting.

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes reader response. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

Alive and Well: The MMR-Autism Connection

2005-10-29T18:41:00.000-04:00

Zero x 31 is still zero
and if it is not the MMR,
then what was it
that damaged our children?

By Red Flags Columnist, F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP
(tlautstudy@aol.com)

Original Article: http://www.redflagsdaily.com/yazbak/2005_oct28.html

Many parents believe that one or more of their children regressed after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. No one knows exactly the number of these children, but they probably constitute 10 to15 percent of children with regressive autism. The majority of children appear not to react unfavorably to the triple vaccine. Obviously, for a couple whose only son is fascinated with garage doors, or makes strange whirling noises all day, or hits his head against the wall to keep entertained or answers by pointing to pictures in a book, the percentage jumps to 100 percent.

The poor parents of affected children, particularly those living in England, woke up on Oct. 18 to the news that yet another “definitive” epidemiological study — the most thorough survey of MMR vaccination data — had concluded that there is no credible evidence behind claims of harm from the MMR vaccine. The news had been carefully leaked with an impressive notice that it should be “strictly” embargoed until 00:01 hours (BST), Oct. 19, 2005. This was the most effective way to guarantee that it would spread like a California wild fire on Tuesday the 18th. After all, with everything happening around the world, from earthquakes to hurricanes, wars, elections and bird flu, it was not safe to take a chance that some new calamity would distract people on Wednesday from appreciating the important findings of the study.

It was Tuesday when I received the embargoed press release. It started, “There was no credible evidence behind claims of harm from the MMR vaccination. This is the conclusion drawn by the Cochrane Review Authors, an international team of researchers, after carefully drawing together all of the evidence found in 31 high quality studies from around the world.”

The lead author of the study, Vittorio Demicheli, MD, of the Servizo Sovrazonale di Epidemiologia, Alessandria, Italy, promptly tempered the initial sweeping statement by adding, “In particular we conclude that all the major unintended events, such as triggering Crohn’s disease or autism, were suspected on the basis of unreliable evidence.”

He then was quoted as saying, “Public health decisions need to be based on sound evidence. If this principle had been applied in the case of the MMR dispute, then we would have avoided all the fuss.”

The fuss!
Is that what it was all about?
Is that what regressive autism is? A fuss!
Now Demicheli had my attention.

What was not mentioned in the widely circulated embargoed press release was the actual first conclusion listed by the authors in their abstract: “The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate.”

I have to say in fairness that I have always admired the work done by the Cochrane group. In fact, I quoted their excellent pediatric influenza vaccination review in “Influenza vaccination of infants: A useless risk” on Red Flags less than a month ago. (1) The lead author for that review was Tom Jefferson, MD, who is a Cochrane researcher based in England; Demicheli was one of the co-authors. Of the most recent 15 reviews listed in MEDLINE, which they have co-authored with others, Jefferson was the lead author in eight and Demicheli, the lead author in four. Most studies were related to influenza vaccination.

It is well known that the Italians have never had much amore for the MMR vaccination. In 2002, a measles epidemic was attributed to “inadequate” vaccination coverage (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Oct. 31, 2003). Actually “inadequate” was a charitable way to describe a seven-percent vaccination rate in the area with the most cases that year — 3,750 cases per 100,000 children under the age of 15. (2)

To see Demicheli listed as the lead author of this recent MMR review (3) was, therefore, intriguing to say the least. The MMR-autism issue had created much “fuss” — indeed, more of an obsession — in the United Kingdom for years and Jefferson has been connected with it since 1999. So, why was the apparent expert on the subject not the lead author, while his Italian colleague was? We’ll get to that later.

Details of the Release

“Aware of the controversy surrounding the use of MMR, members of The Cochrane Collaboration set out to review the evidence for effectiveness of the vaccine and also to review evidence of adverse events. In a process of ‘systematic reviewing’ researchers searched international databases and found 139 articles about MMR use. Because many of them referred to studies that had been conducted in a way that could not rule out bias or error, the researchers discarded all but 31 of them. Using rigorously established methods, the researchers then synthesized the findings from these pieces of higher-quality research to create the most authoritative assessment yet available.”

The above would suggest that 108 of 139 studies on MMR did not meet the Cochrane criteria. In fact, the authors reviewed some 5,000 MMR-related articles and found only 31 that could "possibly” fulfill their inclusion criteria.

According to the embargoed information, the authors concluded that:

There is no credible link between the MMR vaccine and any long-term disability, including Crohn’s disease and autism.
MMR is an important vaccine, which has prevented diseases that still carry a heavy burden of death and complications where the vaccine is not used consistently.
The lack of confidence in MMR has caused great damage to public health.
People arguing for or against the use of any therapy need to make sure that they base their conclusions on carefully collected evidence, not just on biased opinion, speculation or suspicion.

From here on, my comments will be limited to regressive autism.

Conclusion 1

The fact that a review of the 31 studies suggested that no link exists between the MMR vaccine and autism does not mean that, indeed, no link exists. We have seen each one of those epidemiological studies make a splash, get some applause and then fade away while the so-called study of 12 by Andrew Wakefield, MD, has endured. Indeed, if one of the adversarial studies had been strong enough to stand on its merits, we would not have needed another and another and another to follow. We would not have needed 5,000 of them and we would not have needed the Cochrane review.

In 2002, K. M. Madsen, MD, stated that preceding studies lacked sufficient statistical power to detect an association and did not have a population-based cohort design. In time, his own study was proved deficient by G. S. Goldman, PhD, and myself. (4) The 2004 Smeeth study only survived a few weeks and now the Cochrane reviewers suggest that it, too, is lacking something.

In addition, the impartiality of some authors and the significance of their findings came into question. The research group led by Heikki Peltola, MD, received financial support from Merck. The U.K. Medicines Control Agency (MCA) and Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) commissioned the studies by Brent Taylor, PhD, and friends. Madsen’s study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MCA and PHLS. And those are only three of many.

Conclusion 2

The authors are expressing a personal MMR-favorable opinion although they know or should know, as everyone else does, that measles mortality had decreased drastically in the Western world before the advent of vaccination because of improved hygiene and nutrition. In Third World countries today, improved nutrition and hygiene are the top priorities.

Conclusion 3

The lack of confidence in the MMR vaccine was the result of the inability of its promoters to instill confidence and maintain it. The so-called, and so-far theoretical, “damage to public health” would have been nil if the U.K. Department of Health had not outlawed the monovalent measles, mumps and rubella vaccines in 1999 — just to force people to their knees. This should be remembered as the worst public health decision ever: vaccination’s Day of Infamy.

Conclusion 4

No one ever said that MMR vaccination should be withdrawn. In fact, Wakefield’s biggest troubles started when he warned the U.K. health department to get ready and have some single vaccines available in case there was a further drop in MMR vaccination rates — following the publication of his article — as the rates had been falling since 1996. (5)

***

MMR and Autism

The evidence supporting an MMR-autism link was carefully collected and duplicated and is rock solid. It is certainly not “biased opinion, speculation or suspicion.”

In hundreds of children with post-MMR regressive autism, a specific type of enterocolitis has been identified by many investigators in several countries. Some of the affected children have evidence of measles virus genomic RNA in the cerebrospinal fluid, some in the gut wall and some in both sites. In many, the sequences obtained were consistent with being vaccine strains and, in these children, there was no history of exposure to wild measles.
Many affected children have specific patterns of urinary polypeptides, high serum measles and MMR antibody titers and elevated myelin basic protein auto-antibody levels.
In fact, it will be safe to say that it is impossible to find one normal child who has evidence of both MMR antibody and myelin basic protein auto-antibodies in his serum or his cerebrospinal fluid or one child, who regressed after MMR vaccination, who does not have at least one of the following: the typical enterocolitis of autism, a suggestive pattern of urinary polypeptides, evidence of measles virus genomic RNA, elevated serum measles virus antibody, MMR antibody or myelin basic protein auto-antibodies.

These are not suspicions. These are facts — rock-solid facts.
In many children, two regressions have been clearly documented by health-care providers, photographs and videos. The first regression occurred shortly after the first MMR vaccination and the second, much more severe, after the MMR booster at age 4 or 5, following a period of relative improvement. This biphasic course, or challenge-dechallenge-rechallenge, has been accepted as evidence of causation by the courts and by a special committee of the Institute of Medicine.

In a May 2005 presentation to the American Gastroenterological Association of a study titled “Autistic enterocolitis: confirmation of a new inflammatory bowel disease in an Italian cohort of patients,” Frederico Balzola, MD, of Turin, Italy, and associates described in detail the many gastrointestinal (GI) findings in nine consecutive patients with autism who had long-standing and serious GI symptomatology including abdominal pain, bloating, constipation and/or diarrhea.

The authors concluded, “These preliminary data are strongly consistent with previous descriptions of autistic enterocolitis and supported a not-coincidental occurrence. Moreover, they showed for the first time a small intestinal involvement, suggesting a panenteric localization of this new IBD. The treatment to gain clinical remission has still to be tried and it will be extremely important to ameliorate the quality of life of such patients who are likely to be overlooked because of their long-life problems in the communication of symptoms.”

Now this is the kind of study that Demicheli and his colleagues should have looked at, instead of reviewing epidemiological studies of dubious quality financed by the vaccine manufacturer or vaccine agencies.

Conflict or Bias

A conflict of interest is a situation in which someone in a position of trust has competing personal, professional and/or financial interests.
Bias is an inclination that inhibits impartial judgment.

Jefferson, the real MMR expert of the Cochrane team, did disclose that he had a “potential” conflict of interest: In 1999, he acted as an ad hoc consultant for a legal team advising MMR manufacturers.

The Cochrane publication also carried the following acknowledgements: “Drs Harald Heijbel, Carlo DiPietrantonj, Paddy Farrington, Ms Sally Hopewell,
Melanie Rudin, Anne Lusher, Letizia Sampaolo and Valeria Wenzel. The authors wish to thank the following for commenting on this review draft: Bruce Arroll, Lize van der Merwe, Janet Wale and Leonard Leibovici.”

***

If the lawyers for the MMR manufacturer(s) in the U.K. hired Tom Jefferson as a consultant in 1999, while they were preparing for the looming MMR autism case, they must have been certain that he would be ready to testify under oath that MMR did not and could not cause autism — in anyone.

In June 2000, Jefferson wrote an editorial in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health Online, titled“Real or perceived adverse effects of vaccines and the media — a tale of our times.” In it, he stated, “Since the publication of the Wakefield study on 28 February 1998, public concern fueled by extensive media coverage caused a steady decline in MMR coverage in parts of the United Kingdom, with a subsequent risk of a decline in herd immunity and resurgence in morbidity.

“A swift reaction by the U.K. government and the subsequent publication of studies by the Committee on Safety of Medicines and by Taylor et al, showing no evidence of a causal link, partly redressed the balance. As usual with vaccine "scare stories," there was a delay between publication of the initial case series and that of population-based causal assessment study. During this time, declining coverage took place.” (6)

Jefferson acknowledged that he received help in the preparation of the editorial from Robert Chen, Ulrich Heininger, Elisabeth Loupi and Harald Heijbel.

Since 1998, and until a short while ago, Chen, an epidemiologist with the National Immunization Program (NIP), had been the CDC’s point man for all MMR matters arising from the Wakefield publication. He wrote frequent anti-Wakefield articles and gave many interviews. He was also always in close contact with Elizabeth Miller of the U.K. Department of Health, who co-authored the Taylor studies and who led the charge against Wakefield in England.

Ulrich Heininger was the European editor of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. In 2002, he wrote, “However, safety questions raised about certain vaccines — whether true (intussusception associated with rotavirus vaccine) or false (autism due to MMR) — have challenged pediatricians.” (7)

Elizabeth Loupi was senior director of Pharmacovigilance, Sanofi Pasteur SA, Lyon, France. Sanofi Pasteur MSD is the only European company dedicated exclusively to vaccines and was founded in 1994, as a joint venture between Sanofi Pasteur and Merck & Co., Inc.

Lastly, Harald Heijbel was the coordinator, Immunization Registry Project, Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control, Stockholm, Sweden

Jefferson was obviously a big booster of MMR vaccination and a firm believer in its safety — no matter what. He also had to be anti-Wakefield.

Even if he only had a “potential” financial conflict of interest, he certainly had a major personal conflict and bias and he should have declared them. A father who regularly contributes comments on the autism situation to the electronic British Medical Journal has always added “father of an autistic child.” And I certainly have always declared that I had a grandson who regressed after MMR vaccination. I thought it was only fair that readers know.

As stated earlier, the Cochrane researchers who designed the present study, evaluated the 31 “chosen epidemiological works” and wrote the present report received assistance and scientific support from Harald Heijbel, Carlo DiPietrantonj, Paddy Farrington, Sally Hopewell, Melanie Rudin, Anne Lusher, Letizia Sampaolo and Valeria Wenzel.

Information about Harald Heijbel was reported earlier.

Paddy Farrington co-authored Brent Taylor’s and Elizabeth Miller’s first article “Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association” (The Lancet, June 12, 1999). Having him help review that study and others like it is strange — to say the least.

Farrington’s statistical contribution to the first Taylor study was criticized by James H. Roger, PhD, at a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society in London. In a letter to the editor of The Lancet (July 8, 2000), Roger wrote, “Sir — Rather than clarify the measles, MMR, and autism confusion with your editorial, you perpetuated the myth that good scientific evidence rejects a link between MMR vaccination and autism.
You quote Taylor and colleagues as publishing "epidemiological evidence contradicting this alleged association." On March 28, 2000, I presented a talk to the Royal Statistical Society, in which I showed how the currently published data, including that from this study, are consistent with an appreciable number of autism cases being triggered by MMR vaccination. In short, Taylor and colleagues used the wrong study design to detect an association between immunization and a disease with chronic onset, such as autism.”

Sally Hopewell, Melanie Rudin and Ann Lusher are employed at the U.K. Cochrane Centre.

Scientists Valeria Wenzel and Letizia Sampaolo work at the Istituto superiore di sanità in Rome, the main Italian Institute of technical-scientific research, control and advice in public health.

Because the listing of personal bias is not required, Jefferson’s past association with the Brighton Collaboration was also not disclosed.

No wonder Vittorio Demicheli of the Servizo Sovrazonale di Epidemiologia, Alessandria, Italy, became the lead author of the Cochrane MMR review.

The Brighton Collaboration

On its Web site (8), The Brighton Collaboration reports:

“[It] was founded by Robert Chen, Harald Heijbel, Tom Jefferson, Ulrich Heininger, and Elisabeth Loupi in 1999 at a meeting in Brighton, England. It was officially launched in autumn 2000. The Collaboration consists of volunteers from patient care, public health, scientific, pharmaceutical, regulatory and professional organizations coming from developed and developing countries. They are experienced and knowledgeable in the field of immunization safety and corresponding medical specialties.”

It says its objectives are:

“A. Global Collaboration
To establish a global collaboration of professionals and organizations concerned with immunization safety.
B. Development
To develop a single standardized case definition per AEFI and guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation for global use.
C. Evaluation
To develop and implement study protocols for evaluation of case definitions and guidelines in clinical trials and surveillance systems.
D. Implementation
To raise global awareness of the availability, educate about the benefit of use, facilitate access to and monitor worldwide use of standardized case definitions and guidelines for data collection, analysis, and presentation.”

It reports the following about its sources of support:

“The work of the Brighton Collaboration is based on a large number of volunteers worldwide. It obtained its first funding in 1999. The Brighton Collaboration is presently supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). From 2000 until 2003, the Collaboration also received funding through the European Research Program for Improved Vaccine Safety Surveillance (EUSAFEVAC).

“In December 2003, the Brighton Collaboration Foundation was established by the University Children's Hospital Basel, Switzerland. The purpose of the Foundation is to protect and preserve public health by promoting immunization safety. The Foundation promotes the development and availability of globally accepted, high quality scientific standards for research on and communication of immunization safety. The Foundation may also conduct immunization safety research itself or support such research projects.”

It is well known that U.S. Congressman Dave Weldon, MD, of Florida has been watching health matters carefully as a member of the committee on government reform of the House of Representatives.

In one particular address to the House of Representatives in 2004, Weldon discussed autism, MMR research and the Brighton Collaboration among other things. The address (9) is now part of the Congressional Record, June 18, 2004, beginning on page H4564 and can be seen in its entirety at
http://weldon.house.gov/UploadedFiles/RepWeldonMDonIOM.pdf

The following segment is relevant to this discussion:

“Mr. Speaker, I want to touch on one more additional issue, and that is something called the Brighton Collaboration. I am very concerned about the development of the Brighton Collaboration, which began in the year 2000. This is an international group comprised of public health officials from the CDC, Europe, and world health agencies like WHO and vaccine manufacturers.

The first task of the Brighton Collaboration, created several years ago, was to define what constitutes an adverse reaction to a vaccine. They have established committees to work on various adverse reactions to vaccines. Particularly troubling to me is the fact that serving on these panels defining what constitutes an adverse reaction to a vaccine are the vaccine manufacturers. What is even worse is the fact that some of these committees are chaired by vaccine manufacturers.

It is inappropriate for a manufacturer of vaccines to be put in the position of determining what is and what is not, an adverse reaction to its product. Do we allow GM, Ford and Chrysler to define the safety of their automobiles? Do we let airlines set the safety standards for their airlines and determine the cause of an airline accident? Do we allow food processors to determine whether or not their food is contaminated or causing harm? Then, I ask, why we are allowing vaccine manufacturers to define what constitutes an adverse reaction to a vaccine?

This collaboration is fraught with pitfalls, and merges regulators and the regulated into an indistinguishable group. It is critical that the American public look at what is going on here and how this entity may further erode the ability for us to fully understand the true relationship between various vaccines and some adverse reactions in some subsets of our population. I plan to devote additional attention to this effort in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working with you and others in this body to address the problem that we face today.

As I stated at the outset of my comments this afternoon, autism was once in America a rare and infrequently seen condition. I went through four years of medical school, internship, residency, and years of private practice and practice within the military and had not seen one single case. I have seen case after case in my Congressional District over the last seven years, a disease that I had never seen before.

The disease incidence was previously thought to be one in 10,000. It is now thought to be as high as possibly one in 167, an almost 100-fold increase in the incidence.

We need to get answers to these questions. We need to restore public confidence and safety in our vaccine program. Our vaccine program saves millions of lives, it saves millions of kids from a life of disability, and the best way for us to ensure public confidence and make sure that all the kids get vaccinated properly is to get answers to these questions. The way the CDC and the Institute of Medicine and the industry is going about trying to answer these questions is highly flawed.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to begin to look at this issue. I know that many of them are coming to me saying they have parents coming in their offices now with autistic kids, saying something needs to be done. Something needs to be done.”

Discussion:

Epidemiological and statistical studies — even the best — cannot prove that the MMR vaccination does not cause regressive autism in a small percentage of genetically predisposed children.
So far, we have not seen one unbiased, well-done and convincing epidemiological study.
Hundreds of weak studies have come and gone after they made a little noise.
The Wakefield study of 12 certainly seems to have endured.
Reliable histories with documentation have clearly shown regression occurs following vaccination and specifically MMR vaccination.
Accurate clinical studies have revealed the presence of typical and similar intestinal findings in children with post MMR regressive autism.
Reproducible laboratory investigations have confirmed the relationship of the findings with the measles component of the MMR.
Challenge-dechallenge-rechallenge has been documented repeatedly.
Diet and therapeutic management of the gastrointestinal component of the disease has improved behavior and speech.
Though technically impressive, the recent MMR review by the Cochrane group will please those who are already “on board” and convince only those who know little about the subject.
For everyone else, the huge effort did fall short.
The hierarchy of the Cochrane Institution should examine the impartiality of all involved.
For an institution of that caliber, even the appearance of bias is unacceptable.
The authors of the Cochrane review revealed their partiality when they endorsed the MMR vaccine without reservation and declared that it could not cause harm. Multiple reports to VAERS and a review of the vaccine compensation programs in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and other countries show otherwise.

Something Is Not Right When:

Epidemiological studies about MMR and autism are financed by the CDC, the U.K. Department of Health, the vaccine manufacturers or someone supporting them.
Those studies — even the worst of them — are easily published in the best medical journals, while their criticism is not.
The same studies are applauded after publication by the CDC, the U.K. DOH and friends who made them happen.
The studies are then reviewed by friends.
And they are re-reviewed by sympathizers who minimize their problems and attest that “there is no credible link,” while not looking at all the evidence contradicting them.

Something Is Certainly Not Right When:

All this is happening and the only one accused of conflict of interest is Andy Wakefield because his hospital received a grant of £55,000 to support GI research.

Conclusion:

The recent Cochrane Review of the MMR vaccine epidemiological research is not convincing.

References:

Influenza vaccination of infants: A useless risk
http://www.redflagsdaily.com/yazbak/2005_sep30.php
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5243a4.htm
Review Paper: Demicheli et al: Vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella in children. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 4.
Goldman GS, Yazbak FE: An Investigation of the Association between MMR Vaccination and Autism in Denmark. JAmPhysSurg 2004; 9(3):70-75 http://www.jpands.org/vol9no3/goldman.pdf
MMR Vaccination rates were down before Wakefield
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/conferences/autism/2003_dec22.html
http://jech.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/54/6/402
http://adc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/extract/87/1/9
http://www.brightoncollaboration.org/internet/en/index/about.html
http://weldon.house.gov/UploadedFiles/RepWeldonMDonIOM.pdf

Children's study will be far-reaching

2005-10-29T17:22:00.000-04:00

Look at genetics, environment to include not-yet-born Utahns

By Lois M. Collins
Deseret Morning News

Sara and Douglas Christensen believe their youngest daughter Lillie's autism is likely genetic because they have a nephew who also has autism. They'd like to know for sure, but that would require the kind of study that has never before been conducted.

Now Lillie — with her bright eyes, blond pigtails and beguiling indifference to the news conference that was going on around her Friday at Primary Children's Medical Center — is the human face of just such a study, although she will not be a participant.

She, her mom, Sara, and stuffed bear "Daisy Daffodil Buttercup Christensen" helped kick off the beginning to Salt Lake County's participation in The National Children's Study. The University of Utah and Salt Lake County were recently named among six "vanguard" or pilot centers for the study, set to begin recruiting within two years.

Before it's done, the study will have followed 100,000 pregnant women and the resulting infants from before birth (and in some cases before conception since women who might become pregnant are being recruited) until the child's at least 21. It will be conducted in 125 communities selected to represent America's demographics.

The study will examine genetics, environment and how the two interact to shape health and well-being, said Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr.

"It's the most ambitious, comprehensive study of children ever conceived," said Alan Fleischman, chairman of the study's federal advisory committee.

Researchers will be looking at psychological, social, biological and environmental factors that impact a child's well-being, he said. Of special interest are what happens during pregnancy, birth defects, asthma, obesity, diabetes and autism, among others.

That means researchers will be looking at air and dust in children's schools and homes, what they eat, how they are cared for, neighborhood safety, health care and much more, he said.

The researchers will also be storing a lot of biologic samples, said Dr. Cheryl M. Coffin, a professor of pathology at the U., who is spearheading local plans for collection and storage of blood, DNA, nail samples, hair, urine and possibly placenta tissue. It's a gargantuan undertaking. In just the Salt Lake County part of the study, a total of 85,000 blood samples will be collected in the first five years.

And while they're thinking in practical terms, like using liquid nitrogen to preserve some fluid samples and how new technology might keep DNA fresh at room temperature, they're also being creative. They are trying to imagine all the ways the samples might be needed in the future, when, perhaps, it can be paired with technology not yet even conceived.

Recruitment plans are being made now, in anticipation of the study actually beginning in 2007, said Sarah Keim, deputy director of the program office for the study, within the National Institutes of Health. It may follow census tracts or school boundaries or some other logical, statistically sound basis that ensures an end result that adds up to a picture of Salt Lake County's demography, from ethnicity to income.

Sara Christensen spoke movingly of what such a study would mean to her family. Lillie, the youngest of four children, was diagnosed at age 2 1/2. She's now 8. And while she's very loved, raising her has been at times "hard," her mother said. She can rattle off statistics about autism, but it's harder to understand what causes it and what might prevent it. "Let's figure it out," she said.

Just think of it, challenged Dr. Edward B. Clark, medical director of Primary Children's Medical Center and head of pediatrics at the U. He will serve as the vanguard center's principal investigator. None of the children who will participate in the study have been conceived yet. And the study will use technologies that didn't exist five years ago.

Although the study is set to run at least 21 years, congressional funding willing, the first results would be released as early as 2009, Keim said.

It is the power of the early results that Fleischman believes will ensure that the study runs its full term. He thinks findings will be so clear and compelling that the study will have no trouble maintaining ongoing financial support from Congress. But to do that, they have to have all their funding for the planning stages, too.

Planners would like to see the children's study run even beyond that, perhaps following the babies their entire lives. But they acknowledge it's a huge commitment of time and money. This year, costs will be about $69 million. And it will get more expensive when families are enrolled, what with testing and storing and processing and also paying families an incentive to join and stay in. They're toying with paying $500 a year. Another possibility is setting up education savings accounts for participants to help fund college, Clark said.

Participants will have about three visits during pregnancy and an evaluation immediately after birth, with later checkups to coincide with typical "well-child" visits, Clark said.

Keim said the U., with help from its partners in the state Health Department and Intermountain Health care, will recruit about 1,250 people. The six vanguard centers and 125 other centers expected to join them later in the study hope to be done recruiting by 2011.

Congress asked for the study in 2000, but it's funded year to year, and Fleischman said he hopes America will see the value and let their representatives know how important this is to everyone. They must fund the whole study for it to have meaning, he warned.

"We need 100,000 children. If we try to answer the questions we're asking — you can't do it with a smaller number of children and get real answers."

Its long-term and comprehensive nature creates a sample that will allow researchers to make inferences at causation that can't be done with haphazard recruitment, Fleischman said.

E-mail: lois@desnews.com

Response to Watertown's toxicity

2005-10-28T16:41:00.000-04:00

Opinions & Letters
Watertown TAB online

The article [about] Watertown 12th most toxic city in state, points to an association between toxic chemicals and autism. While consciousness of environmental toxins is growing, there is an area of serious exposure that goes unnoticed. For over 70 years, vaccine makers have used mercury (thimerosal) as a cheap preservative in vaccines.

Six years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the EPA, the CDC and the FDA all recommended that vaccine makers eliminate mercury because of the "potential for neurological damage." Amazingly, it is still used in the flu vaccine, and the AAP recommends it for babies whose delicate brains are still developing. There is a mercury-free flu shot available, but the pharmaceutical industry tells us that they make most flu vaccines with mercury because there is no demand for the mercury-free ones. However, most people are unaware of the mercury in these vaccines.

Starting in the late 1980s, more and more mercury-containing vaccines were added to the required list for children and coincidentally, the autism rate exploded. Twenty years ago, autism affected one in 10,000 children, and today it's one in 166. Furthermore, one in every six children has a diagnosis of attention deficit or some other neurological disorder. The government says it's due to better diagnosing.

The CDC points to easily flawed and manipulated population studies to show no link between mercury and neurological disorders. Introduced by Eli Lilly in 1930, thimerosal was tested only once, on 22 adult patients suffering from meningitis. There was no chance for follow-up as all of the patients in this study died. Thimerosal was pronounced safe and later grandfathered in when the FDA was created. The first 11 cases of autism ever documented in 1943, were in children who were among the first to be vaccinated with mercury. The government has never conducted tests on the neurotoxicity of thimerosal, although hundreds of studies show its extreme toxicity.

Recently, many angry parents from national autism organizations came to Washington to ask Congress why the federal government has failed to take action in the face of this epidemic increase in autism. Participants at the Capitol listened to legislators who believe the pharmaceutical industry has undue influence in Congress, making some Congressmen more concerned with the interests of the vaccine makers than in protecting our children against unsafe vaccines.

Anne McElroy Dachel
Media Relations Coordinator
National Autism Association
Chippewa Falls, Wisc.

Bird flu—threat or hoax?

2005-10-27T11:14:00.000-04:00

By Joe Baker, Sr Editor
Rockford's Rock River Times

Dr. Leonard Horowitz is an internationally known expert in the fields of public health, behavioral science, emerging diseases, and bioterrorism. His testimony before the Government Reform Committee of the U.S. Congress brought the hearing to a screeching halt. He forced the committee to acknowledge that a secret report showed a link between mercury [Thimerosal], found in many vaccines, and the spiraling rate of autism and behavioral disorders in American children.

Dr. Horowitz believes the current avian flu scare is highly suspicious. In a recent article, he said: “If avian flu becomes more than a threatened pandemic, it will have done so by political and economic design. This thesis is supported by current massive media misrepresentations, profiteering on risky and valueless vaccines, gross neglect of data evidencing earlier similar man-made plagues including SARS, West Nile virus, AIDS and more; continuance of genetic studies breeding more mutant flu viruses likely to outbreak, inside trading scandals involving pandemic-savvy White House and drug industry officials, curious immunity of these pharmaceutical entities over the past century to law enforcement and mainstream media scrutiny, and published official depopulation objectives.”

Dr. Horowitz has dubbed what he calls this “physician-assisted mass murder” as “iatrogenocide.” The term is a combination of iatrogenesis [physician-caused illness] and genocide, meaning the mass killing or enslaving of people for reasons of economics, politics and/ or ideology.

He recalled the period in which SARS, [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] first appeared. For the first time, Horowitz said, Canadian response to the alleged threat was directed by the U.N. and the World Health Organization. He noted these organizations are tied administratively and financially to the Rockefeller family, Carnegie Foundation, and leading drug makers here and abroad.

“The truth about plagues,” said Horowitz, “includes the fact that no grand pandemic ever evolved divorced from major socio-political upheaval. ‘Experts’ had been predicting the arrival of a super-plague for decades. What was highly suspicious about the mysterious and terrifying arrival of SARS, however, was its timing.”

It arrived with the launch of the “War on Terror” and the invasion of Iraq. This provided a good distraction from the fact that the Bush I administration had furnished Saddam Hussein with the majority of his deadly biological weapons, including anthrax and West Nile virus. “SARS, and the current avian flu fright,” said Horowitz, “is sanctioned by military-medical-pharmaceutical-petrochemical industrialists likewise operating above the law in many documented instances.”

Richard Nixon’s National Security adviser and protégé of Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, directed foreign policy while weighing Third World population reduction, which he viewed as “necessities” for the U.S., Britain, Germany and other allies.

Kissinger chose the option to have the CIA develop biological weapons, or so states the U.S. Congressional Record for 1975. These weapons included some organisms far deadlier than avian flu.

Horowitz said conflicts like the “War on AIDS,” the “War on Drugs,” and the “War on Terror,” need sophisticated propaganda campaigns to generate fear to gain social acceptance and public support for the legislated programs. These psychological operations, experts say, best support the new “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA). RMA’s capabilities include a form of slavery in which the globe’s captive populations would not even know they are enslaved.

Ailments generated for “iatrogenocide” include the many autoimmune diseases and newer cancers that were almost non-existent 50 years ago, Dr. Horowitz said. He added, “This fact alone strongly suggests a genocidal socio-economic and political agenda.”

Pointed questions about the avian flu do not seem to be advanced. For instance, has anyone asked how lethal, how transmissible, and how treatable is this strain? Did you know that avian flu has killed “about 65 people” in Southeast Asia in the past two years? Most of these victims had compromised immune systems, and all the deaths were in Asia in countries with dubious health services.

Other forms of flu kill more than 40,000 North Americans yearly, mostly among the elderly.

Earlier this month, USA Today reported more than 140 million birds have died or been destroyed in an effort to contain the virus, but the significant statement was “The current virus, known as H5N1, has not yet mutated to the point at which it can easily spread from person to person.” In fact, Dr. Horowitz said, it is likely it has never spread from person to person except when being handled in a laboratory.

Despite that fact, the U.S. Senate has authorized a $3.9 billion package to obtain vaccines and antiviral medications, and the Bush administration is readying a request for an additional $6 billion to $10 billion,” according to an article in Business Week.

No human vaccine exists, so why is the Senate eager to spend all that money for an avian flu vaccine? Avian flu has never spread from person to person, nor has it spread from birds to humans. To get a human vaccine specific for this virus, it is necessary to culture the avian virus in human cell cultures and then inject the result into monkeys and, eventually, humans. Then, these guinea pigs are watched to see if they develop avian flu.

That virus is being either produced now in labs financed by industrialists with huge profit-incentives to “accidentally” release the virus, or it is already prepared and awaiting release to take the maximum advantage of the present fear and future sales when the virus is released.

The track record on vaccines is not encouraging. Many have led to horrific results. Remember swine flu vaccine? Then there was polio vaccine, smallpox vaccine, anthrax vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine and, more recently, Lyme disease vaccine that crippled close to 750,000 people within months after it was released and before its recall by the FDA.

Dr. Horowitz said vaccines contain ingredients that can increase human disease and death. Growing scientific evidence, he said, suggests vaccines are chiefly responsible for spawning cases of autism and learning disorders, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, allergies, type 1 diabetes, and many other pandemics. Dr. Horowitz added: “Vaccines and other pharmaceutical industry inventions are literally killing or disabling millions with little effort on the part of government officials and their drug industry cohorts to arrest this scourge.”

More information on this situation can be found at www.globalresearch.ca.

Measure Eases Vaccine Rules

2005-10-27T10:36:00.000-04:00

Would Shield Manufacturers

By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS
Courant.com

Congress is considering a bill that would allow the government to order that vaccines be given to every U.S. citizen in a national emergency, even if a vaccine has previously harmed some people.

The bill would also make it almost impossible for anyone harmed by these substances to sue the manufacturer or drug researchers.

Supporters say protecting producers from potential liability would bring more drug makers to the table. Opponents warn the proposal would render everyone little more than a "guinea pig" for the drug industry.

"[This new] legislation provides liability protection for individuals and entities who engage in countermeasure or pandemic/epidemic technology development, manufacturing or administration," said Michael B. Enzi He is an official with the Biotechnology Industry Organization that represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions and related organizations.

"Current law," he said, "provides inadequate protections; thus companies have been reluctant to enter the bio-defense market."

"This is a drug company stockholder's dream and a consumer's worst nightmare," said Barbara Loe Fisher, director of the National Vaccine Information Center. "It is a sad day for this nation when Congress is frightened and bullied into allowing one profit-making industry to destroy the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing citizens their day in court in front of a jury of their peers."

These contrasting views are helping to shape the next phase of the nation's bio-defense program in which seven federal agencies appropriated or spent nearly $25 million between 2003 and 2005.

The measure would give the secretary of health and human services power over what information, if any, the public can know about what drugs people could be made to take against their will. It would also shield manufacturers, universities and other drug research institutions against liability when drug products lead to illness, disability or death.

Had this proposed bill been in place, the six deaths linked to BioThrax, the controversial vaccine the Defense Department bought to protect soldiers against an attack by anyone using airborne anthrax spores, and ordered them to take, might never have been disclosed publicly. The HHS secretary could have decided that the information could harm national security.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been reviewing the deaths of five other service members to determine whether their deaths were also linked to the vaccine.

Information about the drugs' effectiveness or its potential to do harm could not be obtained through normal federal Freedom of Information channels. Manufacturers would be immune from lawsuits arising out of negligence claims in cases where people have been made sick or have died.

Since the public would have trouble obtaining documents proving a drug is causing adverse reactions, Fisher said, there is little chance of challenging a drug company in court.

"The last resort for ordinary Americans who are victims of corporate negligence, is the civil justice system. So, we are against any proposal that leaves people without a just remedy [like this one]," said Erin Mayton, deputy director and counsel of communications for the American Trial Lawyers of America.

The new bill's controversial provisions were discussed over several days inside and outside the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, which approved the bill.

Doug Heye, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr [R-N.C.], the bill's sponsor, said initial language that would have barred all public access to information has been eliminated. The newer version allows the secretary of HHS to block the release of any information that would hurt national security, he said.

"We must ensure the federal government acts as a partner with the private sector, providing the incentives and protections necessary to bring more and better drugs and vaccines to market faster," Burr said.

If the bill passes in the Senate, it goes to the House for further action, and if approved there, would need President Bush's signature.

"We feel it is very important to have liability protection for the companies as part of any bio-defense bill," said Allen Abney, a Bush spokesman, who declined to comment on the bill's public information restrictions.

Despite this presidential approval, some doctors believe this bill would turn U.S. citizens into guinea pigs.

"The concept of streamlining product development is left very loose, potentially allowing for any safety requirement to be bypassed," said Dr. Meryl Nass, a Maine physician who has studied experimental vaccines and testified before Congress and in the courts about them.

"This [bill] ignores the Nuremberg Code," said Nass, "in essence requiring American civilians to become guinea pigs for untested products for which their manufacturers have little incentive to assure optimal safety."

Nass said she sees a conflict in the HHS secretary's reviewing of complaints about drugs whose use the secretary authorized by declaring a national emergency. Furthermore, if a drug company disagrees with the secretary's ruling, it could immediately appeal to the federal court.

Connecticut's two Democratic senators have differing opinions on the proposal.

Rob Sawicki, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said Lieberman supports Burr's bill and its restrictions on the release of information to protect national security.

Last spring, Lieberman favored passage of legislation giving drug companies protection from lawsuits, tax incentives, drug patent protections and fast track government drug licensing approvals.

"There is no market for these [drugs and vaccines]," said Lieberman, "unless there is a national disaster, so there is no normal market to encourage drug development in this bio-threat area."

The state's other Democratic senator, Chris Dodd, said although the new legislation is sound in attempting to prepare the public for a biological attack, he will not support it in its present form.

"Sadly," Dodd said, "the need for legislation to protect people from biological threats has in crucial respects been placed as a secondary priority behind special protections for special interests in the drug and health care industries. Some limited liability protection is reasonable, but it must be done in a way that doesn't unfairly hurt people affected by potential health crises - or by potential treatments for those crises.

"The bill also gives drug companies exclusive rights to manufacture drugs and vaccines that could increase prices just when people need these drugs most," he said.

Already former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson has used his emergency powers, created by initial Bioshield legislation, to force voluntary use of BioThrax vaccine for service members. He did so after a federal judge enjoined its mandatory use last April. The vaccine supposedly protects soldiers from enemy attacks by airborne anthrax spores.

BioThraxis manufactured by BioPort Corp. of Lansing Mich. Federal inquiries of its adverse effects show the vaccine can cause lymphoma, lupus, multiple sclerosis, seizures and even death.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, acting on complaints that the vaccine was not properly licensed, said the law requires that service members give their consent to be vaccinated.

But Sullivan said he did not have the power to overrule Thompson's emergency vaccine use authorization even though it was issued following Sullivan's ruling. Defense Department lawyers would not tell Sullivan the factual details about the department's basis for asking for Thompson's emergency order saying the details are classified secret. They were, however, able to convince Thompson there is an imminent threat of a biological anthrax spore attack.

In 1998, former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen ordered forced anthrax vaccine inoculations of all 2.4 million service members. Since then, disputes over its licensing, its safety and the need for its use have been a constant source of public debate.

BioPort's vaccine is utilized almost exclusively for soldiers, has already demonstrated an adverse reaction rate 100 times the figure initially stated on the label. Adverse reactions include immune disorders, muscle and joint pain, headaches, rashes, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, chills and fever. At least half a dozen deaths and a number of birth defects have been attributed to its use. BioPort is shielded from lawsuits over adverse reactions through a defense department authorization.

Now the HHS is stockpiling the vaccine and other developing drug products, not yet approved, to use on civilians in the event of a terrorist anthrax spore attack. Under initial Bioshield acts passed by Congress in the past two years, HHS and other federal agencies are working on still other new unlicensed drugs and vaccines that in theory will protect the public in the event of a biological attack.

Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant

Drug Test

2005-10-27T10:33:00.000-04:00

By Daniel Schulman
CJR Nov/Dec 2005

On May 18, 2004, the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the prestigious National Academies, delivered its eighth and final report on vaccine safety, seeking to end a scientific controversy that had built to a slow boil over the previous five years: whether a mercury-containing vaccine preservative called thimerosal was to blame for an alarming spike in autism cases among a generation of children. After three years of reviewing this and other immunization safety questions on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the institute’s fourteen-member panel rejected the thimerosal link, and, in a powerful policy statement, recommended that research funding in this area be shifted toward other, more promising lines of inquiry. Under headlines such as this one from The Washington Post, EXPERTS FIND NO VACCINE-AUTISM LINK; PANEL SAYS MORE RESEARCH ON POSSIBLE CONNECTION MAY NOT BE WORTHWHILE, the press dutifully reported the IOM’s conclusions, perhaps as eager to lay the question to rest as the IOM panel itself.

For a time it appeared the controversy over thimerosal would end there. It didn’t. Over the past seven months, it has gained traction again, leaving journalists in an awkward position. The thimerosal question — scientifically, politically, and emotionally complex — is proving to be a test for journalism, and the successes and failures are evident in the coverage

David Kirby, a Brooklyn-based writer, jumpstarted the debate in April with the publication of his book, Evidence of Harm, which lays out a compelling case for a connection between thimerosal and autism. Then, in June, Robert Kennedy Jr. followed with a more pointed — some say over-the-top — article, co-published by Rolling Stone and Salon.com, that alleges what amounts to a government cover-up of the harmful properties of thimerosal in the interest of buffering vaccine manufacturers from a cascade of lawsuits and maintaining public confidence in the national immunization program.

Still, the bulk of the scientific establishment denies the autism link, citing the conclusions of the IOM panel, and views believers as crackpots, conspiracy theorists, or zealots — a perspective many medical experts barely conceal in conversations with reporters. In an interview with Myron Levin of the Los Angeles Times after the publication of the IOM report, Dr. Stephen Cochi, the head of the CDC’s national immunization program, dismissed supporters of the thimerosal theory as “junk scientists and charlatans.” If so, then such universities as Harvard and Columbia, among others, employ charlatans — scientists who believe that a link between mercury exposure and autism is plausible. Even so, the perception that only distraught, activist parents and disreputable scientists back the thimerosal theory has seeped into the collective consciousness of the news media, which, in general, have been reluctant to cover the controversy.

Both sides in the debate make convincing arguments to support their cases, and in the cacophony of competing claims each is guilty of using data selectively. What is known is this: Since the late 1980s the number of children diagnosed with autism has increased sixty-fold, from one in every 10,000 in 1987 to one in every 166 in 2003. Much of this spike overlaps with a period when, due to recommendations by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the number of suggested immunizations on the childhood vaccination schedule more than doubled, raising the doses of mercury that some children received to levels that far surpassed federal standards for mercury exposure. (The standards were based on methylmercury, the type emitted by coal-burning power plants. Ethylmercury, which makes up nearly half of thimerosal by weight, is a closely related compound. To date, ethylmercury has received far less study, and scientists disagree on whether it’s as harmful as methylmercury, though both are considered neurotoxins.) Until the late 1990s, health officials were unaware of the total amount of mercury children were receiving in their vaccinations. It’s not unreasonable to ask how this went unnoticed, and unreported, for so long. The answer is simple: no one had ever done the arithmetic. When scientists did, the U.S. Public Health Service recommended that vaccine manufacturers phase out thimerosal from children’s vaccines in 1999 as a precaution. It was careful to note, however, that “there are no data or evidence of any harm.” As it stands, the preservative, which allowed drug manufacturers to supply vaccines in multidose vials (the thimerosal-free, single-dose versions are costlier), has been eliminated from most immunizations, excluding some flu and tetanus shots. During 1999 and 2000, the thimerosal link was quietly under study by the CDC, and, as shown in internal memos and meeting minutes, health officials were deeply concerned about what they might find.

Thimerosal activists point to this history: In June 2000, the CDC convened a closed meeting at the Simpsonwood Convention Center in Norcross, Georgia, to discuss, among other things, preliminary findings on thimerosal. In addition to the health officials, researchers, and vaccine experts in attendance were representatives from GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth, and Aventis Pasteur, the vaccine manufacturers who had the most to lose if an autism link were proven. During one session of the two-day meeting, the CDC epidemiologist Thomas Verstraeten presented the results of an analysis of the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink, a database that contains the vaccination histories of more than seven million Americans. His study, at least at that stage, appeared to support a connection between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders, showing what Verstraeten described as “statistically significant relationships between exposures and outcomes.” The presentation caused one physician in attendance to remark, “the medical legal findings in this study, causal or not, are horrendous.” Attendees were instructed that what they’d heard that day was to be considered “embargoed.”

Known as the Simpsonwood transcripts, the minutes of this meeting are widely available on the Internet thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the autism advocacy group SafeMinds. Some advocates of the thimerosal theory point to Simpsonwood as proof that the government buried evidence of an autism link. In the minds of some supporters of the theory, the perception of conspiracy was heightened when Verstraeten’s study, published three years later, no longer indicated an association between thimerosal and neurological maladies, including autism. Adding to their suspicion is the fact that in the study, published in the journal Pediatrics, Verstraeten was listed as a CDC researcher, when in fact he had been hired away by GlaxoSmithKline two years earlier. (Nor did they find it any less suspicious when a midnight rider turned up in a 2002 bill creating the Department of Homeland Security that sought to protect vaccine manufactures from thimerosal-related lawsuits. The measure was eventually removed.)

But Simpsonwood is not a smoking gun. Nor are other documents that purport to be, including the transcript of a private session of the Institute of Medicine’s Immunization Safety Review Committee from 2001, in which the committee’s chairwoman, Dr. Marie McCormick, referring to the vaccine-thimerosal issue, says that the CDC “wants us to declare, well, these things are pretty safe on a population basis.” It is a statement that indicates to some that the IOM had already decided where it was going to come down on thimerosal. If transcripts of both meetings are not damning, the comments of some attendees are striking, particularly when they are quick to note the legal ramifications should a connection be established. As McCormick makes plain during the 2001 meeting, attendees were aware of the conclusion that the CDC wanted them to reach, but that isn’t proof that the institute manipulated data to reach that end, as some allege.

When the IOM panel released its final report in 2004, it had analyzed more than 200 studies and based its conclusions largely on five recent epidemiological papers that appeared to debunk the autism connection, including Verstraeten’s and one from Denmark that shows autism cases rising after thimerosal was removed from that country’s vaccine supply. Excluded was much of the biological research that supports a link, which the IOM deemed speculative

Those are the facts, though they are interpreted in radically different ways by each side. Even the question of whether the nation is currently experiencing an autism epidemic is subject to debate. Detractors posit that the increase in cases is a red herring, that the numbers reflect changes in how autism is diagnosed and reported. As for the IOM report — the nail in the coffin for the autism link as far as many scientists are concerned — believers hold that the studies that the panel relied on were flawed. For example, as David Kirby reports in Evidence of Harm, the researchers on the Danish study examined autism cases both before and after 1992, when thimerosal was removed, but used two different data sets in doing so, tallying inpatient cases through 1994 and adding outpatient cases to their count thereafter, a factor that could explain the increase they observed. According to Kirby, even the study’s authors conceded, in their own words, that they “may have spuriously increased the apparent number of autism cases.” Verstraeten, for his part, seemed to grow tired of how his findings were being interpreted by both sides. In an April 2004 letter to Pediatrics, he wrote that his study “does not state that we found evidence against an association, as a negative study would. It does state, on the contrary, that additional study is recommended, which is the conclusion to which a neutral study must come.” He went on to call allegations of a potential conflict of interest an “insult,” saying that he remained on the study only in an advisory capacity after he went to work for Glaxo. “Did the CDC water down the original results? It did not.”

Steeped in controversy and intrigue, the thimerosal debate has all the makings of a compelling news story, yet it has been approached with caution by the news media, which, more often than not, don’t portray it as a legitimate scientific debate. “I’m putting my faith . . . in the Institute of Medicine,” ABC’s medical editor, Dr. Timothy Johnson, told viewers during a segment on thimerosal in July. At the conclusion of an NBC report on the debate last winter, the science correspondent Robert Bazell was careful to note that “if we stop vaccinating our children, we run the risk of having these horrible diseases come back . . . . And the evidence right now is that vaccines do not cause autism.”

There is a very real fear that taking the thimerosal theory seriously will prompt antivaccine blowback. Myron Levin, the Los Angeles Times reporter, said that some journalists have been cowed by the notion that “by the mere act of covering this, they will instill panic in the vaccination-getting public, or feed mindless phobias that cause people to refuse to let their kids get shots.” That concern is reflected in the coverage and has implications for how deeply the story is reported. “I think many news organizations have held back and given the story short shrift,” Levin said

On June 25, The New York Times addressed the thimerosal controversy in a front-page article, the product of five months of reporting by Gardiner Harris and Anahad O’Connor. Appearing less than two weeks after Robert Kennedy’s piece, which would later have a list of corrections and clarifications appended to it, the Times article had been eagerly awaited by proponents of the thimerosal link, some of whom had been communicating regularly with the Times reporters over the previous months. Believing that the heft of the paper’s reputation would help to propel their cause into the mainstream, they expected a proper airing of both sides of the question — that, after all, was the impression O’Connor gave at least one of his sources, the mother of an autistic child and a member of an autism advocacy organization, when he approached her in late January. “I’m thinking of a 2,000-word story, essentially saying that an array of studies over the years (the Institute of Medicine report, I would think, being the most prominent) were intended to settle the issue of autism and vaccines once and for all,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Yet it seems that the question is still very much open . . . and evidence for the case against vaccines has been mounting, despite many researchers’ insistence that the issue is dead. I think, for now at least, I’d like to just present the evidence on both sides and let the readers decide.”

The result was much more one-sided. Headlined ON AUTISM'S CAUSE, IT'S PARENTS VS. RESEARCH, the story cast the thimerosal connection as a fringe theory, without scientific merit, held aloft by angry, desperate parents. The notion that supporters of the theory were disregarding irrefutable scientific findings was an underlying theme, drilled home several times. “It’s really terrifying, the scientific illiteracy that supports these suspicions,” Dr. Marie McCormick told the Times. Readers were left with little option but to believe that the case against thimerosal was scientifically unsound.

The piece did note the work of Mark and David Geier, a father-son research team who believe that mercury exposure is linked to autism. The Geiers’s research has been a lightning rod for criticism, and their methodology has been called into question by some in the scientific community. But before the reporters even discussed the Geiers’s science, they had already painted the researchers as eccentric outsiders: “He and his son live and work in a two-story house in suburban Maryland. Past the kitchen and down the stairs is a room with cast-off, unplugged laboratory equipment, wall-to-wall carpeting and faux wood paneling that Dr. Geier calls ‘a world-class lab — every bit as good as anything at N.I.H.’” Omitted from the story was the work of Dr. Mady Hornig, a Columbia University epidemiologist; Richard Deth, a Northeastern University pharmacologist; Jill James, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas; and others whose work suggests that thimerosal may cause neurodevelopmental disorders in a subset of susceptible children (those who are not able to eliminate mercury from the body in the ways that most people do). The story alluded to Boyd Haley, chairman of the department of chemistry at the University of Kentucky and an ally of thimerosal activists, in the same sentence as a Louisiana physician who believes “that God spoke to her through an 87-year-old priest and told her that vaccines caused autism” — leaving Haley, it would seem, guilty by association of lunacy. Several reporters I spoke with who have covered the thimerosal controversy described the Times story as a smear. One called it a “hit piece.”

The Times’s O’Connor told me he had looked at the research linking thimerosal with autism, including the work of Hornig, Deth, and James, but ultimately found the epidemiological studies cited by the IOM more persuasive. “The larger scientific community has rejected a link between thimerosal and autism,” he said. “You do have some scientists who are convinced that there’s a link, but then you have the American Academy of Pediatrics, the World Health Organization — it’s not a stretch to say that the scientific community has rejected this link.”

The article prompted a massive reader response. One organization, known as A-Champ (Advocates for Children’s Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning), organized an e-mail campaign directed at top editors at the Times, as well as the public editor, Byron Calame. O’Connor personally received dozens of e-mails and letters. “There were a couple that were threatening. There were some that were pretty harsh and others saying that I was part of the conspiracy. A lot of people responded saying there must be some link between the Times and the pharmaceutical industry.”

Responding to the complaints of one group, Calame wrote: “I have carefully reviewed your e-mail and spent several hours with the editors and reporters who prepared the article . . . . This has left me convinced that the article isn’t intellectually dishonest. Nor are the omissions staggering. Nor is there a pervasive editorial bias. I find the article fair and accurate.”

As it turned out, the story had angered members of the epidemiology department at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, including the department’s chair, Dr. Ezra Susser. Since some of their work, including that of Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a highly regarded neurologist, and Mady Hornig, explored the connection between environmental mercury exposure and autism, including exposure through thimerosal-carrying vaccines, they felt that they had been lumped into the category of scientific illiterates. Responding to the article in a June 28 letter to the Times (never published), signed by Susser, Lipkin, Hornig, and the epidemiologist Michaeline Bresnahan, the researchers wrote that “scientists pursuing research on mercury and autism are caricaturized as immune to the ‘correct’ interpretation of existing studies. Researchers rejecting a link are depicted as the sole voices of reason . . . . Whether mercury in any form (or any of several factors recently introduced to our environment) has anything to do with autism can and should be resolved with rigorous studies and respectful discourse, not moral indictments and denunciations.”

Journalists agree that the thimerosal story is one of the most explosive they’ve ever encountered. In addition to the vitriolic response Anahad O’Connor drew from readers, he also said he received a number of e-mails praising him and Harris from fellow reporters who had been interested in covering the thimerosal controversy, but had “gotten scared away from really tackling the subject . . . they were afraid of getting hate mail.”

Some reporters who have portrayed this as an ongoing scientific controversy have been discouraged by colleagues and their superiors from pursuing the story. A reporter for a major media outlet, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, told me that covering the thimerosal controversy had been nearly “career-ending” and described butting heads with superiors who believed that the reporter’s coverage — in treating the issue as a two-sided debate — legitimized a crackpot theory and risked influencing parents to stop vaccinating their children or to seek out experimental treatments for their autistic sons and daughters. The reporter has decided against pursuing stories on thimerosal, at least for the time being. “For some reason giving any sort of credence to the side that says there’s a legitimate question here — I don’t know how it becomes this untouchable story, I mean that’s what we do, so I don’t understand why this story is more touchy than any story I’ve ever done.”

Pursuing this story is unattractive for other reasons, too. The issue is exceedingly complex and easily oversimplified. “It took me two and a half years and four hundred pages to tell this story, and I’m sure I made some mistakes,” David Kirby told me, adding that the complexity convinced him to write a book.

The fact that the bulk of the public health establishment dismisses the thimerosal theory is also daunting, particularly for science reporters who rely on the same pool of medical experts and health officials regularly. “They depend on these people in this symbiotic relationship that they have,” said Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for the local ABC affiliate in Detroit, WXYZ, whose three-part series on thimerosal won an Emmy. “They’ve come to trust them and respect them and to believe when they tell them, ‘Look, you’re barking up the wrong tree here; these parents are just looking for somebody to blame.’”

Some of the most enterprising journalistic contributions to the thimerosal debate have come from the once prestigious, now flagging news wire United Press International, which is owned, along with the Washington Times, by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church. On my desk, UPI senior editor Dan Olmsted’s “Age of Autism” series, which he began late last winter, occupies a file that at this writing is more than an inch thick and growing. He averages two columns a week on the topic. Aside from the Washington Times, though, not a single U.S. paper that Olmsted knows of has run any part of the series. It has, however, been widely disseminated on the Internet.

Olmsted, a former assistant national editor at USA Today, found his way into thimerosal through another medical side-effect story. It involved an antimalarial drug called Lariam, which was prescribed to Peace Corps volunteers, travelers to third-world countries, and more recently to U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Olmsted and his UPI colleague Mark Benjamin (now a national correspondent at Salon.com) detailed in an investigation that spanned more than two years, starting in 2002, Lariam, which had been approved by the FDA and recommended by the CDC, also appeared strongly linked to psychosis, including homicidal and suicidal behavior. Partly because of their reporting, the effects of Lariam are now under study by the Pentagon. “If it hadn’t been for Lariam, I don’t think I would have ever thought twice about autism,” Olmsted told me. “With Lariam, CDC officials said many times that there’s absolutely no problem with side effects from this drug, it’s extraordinarily safe. That’s just not true.”

Instead of wading directly into the thimerosal controversy, Olmsted approached it, as he puts it, “sideways.” By this he means that after reading what had been written on autism and noticing a relative dearth of material about its origins, he set out to write a natural history of the disorder.

Eventually, Olmsted began thinking of ways to test the thimerosal theory. He wondered whether researchers had ever examined the prevalence of autism in an unvaccinated population, such as the Amish. That, it would seem, would be the most likely way to determine whether the vaccine link held water. If the number of autism cases among the unvaccinated mirrored the national average, then it would seem that thimerosal played no role. Olmsted found that though researchers had discussed such a study, none had ever been done. “That’s an expensive study,” he said, “but for a journalist all you have to do is get on the phone and start asking.” After spending weeks searching for cases among the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, he managed to find three children with autism, two of whom had been vaccinated, a rarity in that community. “The cases among the Amish that I’ve identified over the past several weeks appear to have at least one link — a link made of mercury,” Olmsted wrote in a column on May 20, referring to the vaccinated children. “That’s not something I expected to encounter.” Looking at other large Amish populations in the Midwest, such as those in Middlefield, Ohio, and Goshen, Indiana, Olmsted found similarly low autism rates. He admits that his findings are not scientific. “I could be getting a completely wrong impression from what I’m finding, but it’s interesting,” Olmsted told me. Interesting enough to get the attention of members of Congress, including Representative Dave Weldon of Florida and Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut; officials at the Department of Health and Human Services; and researchers, including Mady Hornig, the Columbia epidemiologist, who now hopes to devise a study looking at the Amish.

Privately, two reporters told me that, while intriguing, Olmsted’s reporting on the Amish is misguided, since it may simply reflect genetic differences among an isolated gene pool (Hornig, however, said that a study on the Amish may still be valuable should the prevalence of autism in that community indeed be low, allowing researchers to study the genetics of people who are not susceptible to the disorder). Both reporters believed that Olmsted has made up his mind on the question and is reporting the facts that support his conclusions.

“I’ve just tried to find a way to get into this that adds something to the debate and is original,” Olmsted said.

Among major newspapers, the Los Angeles Times’s coverage of thimerosal stands out. It has taken the story seriously and devoted significant coverage to it, partly because through the summer and fall of 2004 a bill to ban thimerosal from all vaccines given to infants and pregnant women was making its way through the California legislature. Strongly opposed by the vaccine manufacturer Aventis Pasteur and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the measure was signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in late September of that year.

The reporter Myron Levin entered the fray in April 2004 with a piece that revealed that while the CDC would add flu shots to its list of suggested vaccines for children, it would not recommend that parents seek the available thimerosal-free version. He followed in August with a long feature on the attempts of parents who believed their children’s autism was caused by mercury-containing shots to win compensation through a little known branch of federal claims court for the exorbitant costs of caring for their kids. (This “vaccine court,” which pays out claims from a federal trust funded by revenue from a vaccine surcharge, was established during the mid-1980s as a means to protect drug companies from civil suits.) It was while covering this story, in which Levin captured both sides of the debate, as well as the devastating realities of raising a child with autism, that the CDC’s Stephen Cochi referred to supporters of the thimerosal link as “junk scientists and charlatans.”

Cochi’s lack of diplomacy stunned Levin. “When government officials talk to reporters, they are usually beyond cautious and it can be really hard getting them to opine on anything,” he told me. “To attack opponents in those terms shows the raw emotion that has infused this whole issue.”

From his introduction to the thimerosal issue toward the end of 2003, Levin found it striking that a neurotoxin had ever been put into vaccines given to infants, even newborns. He wondered how health officials had failed for so long to consider the repercussions of injecting children with mercury-carrying vaccines.

As Levin reported last winter, the question of whether children were receiving too much mercury from their inoculations had been considered by Merck in the early 1990s. The front-page story — which reverberated through autism circles but drew little attention from the rest of the press — reported the contents of a leaked memo written by Dr. Maurice Hilleman, then the president of Merck’s vaccine division. While public health officials had yet to recognize the total mercury load infants would receive from all of their suggested immunizations, Hilleman had done the math. “When viewed in this way, the mercury load appears rather large,” he wrote in the 1991 memo, suggesting that thimerosal should probably be removed from vaccines administered to young children when possible. Levin kept the heat on Merck, reporting in March that the company had likely misled the public when it assured consumers in 1999 that its “infant vaccine line . . . is free of all preservatives.” Merck had in fact continued supplying vaccines containing thimerosal until the fall of 2001.

Interestingly, this scoop had first been offered to The New York Times in February by a source who provided evidence to back up the claim. Gardiner Harris, then working on the story that turned out to be dismissive of the thimerosal debate that would run in June, blew off the tip, signing off his e-mailed response to the source, “I’ll let Myron bite this apple.”

Levin’s reporting has drawn the ire of some in the pharmaceutical industry. Wyeth officials met with Levin and his editor in late July. “They have said there are problems with the tone, and that we seem to take too seriously an idea that they say is absurd and has been disproved by the IOM,” Levin told me. (Douglas Petkus, a Wyeth spokesman who attended the meeting along with two lawyers who represent the firm, declined to discuss the particulars of the conversation.)

In late August, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the death of a five-year-old boy whose heart seized while he underwent an unproven autism treatment known as “chelation.” Used for purging the body of heavy metals, particularly in cases of acute lead poisoning, it can prove damaging to internal organs by leeching certain necessary elements, such as calcium, from the system. While chelation has been embraced by some supporters of the thimerosal theory, who report that their children’s conditions have improved as mercury was drawn from their bodies, the medical establishment has cautioned against it as a means of treating autism. To journalists, for whom the perils of covering thimerosal have been purely theoretical, this incident could only underscore the potential dangers of lending any credibility to the autism link.

The day the boy’s death was reported, Craig Westover, a columnist at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, who writes frequently about thimerosal, received acid comments from readers on his blog. One reader, writing under the name Credenza, wrote, “They finally did it Mr. Westover, they killed a little boy trying to get that satanic mercury out of his little body. You have some blood on your hands. Like it or not you do. There has been no autism epidemic and thimerosal doesn’t cause autism . . . . I hope the parents of this boy point the finger at you and scream murder.”

“I really do try to walk a middle line on this,” Westover told me that day, as he mulled his response to the reader. “You have to go out and investigate this and be able to come to some sort of conclusion. Not definitely that thimerosal does or does not cause autism, but you have to come to the question of whether this theory is plausible or not. Otherwise, I think you’re doing a disservice to your reader.” The evidence has led Westover to believe that a connection is possible. He realizes, moreover, that what he writes may influence others to believe the same.

To the reader who blamed him for the boy’s death, Westover ultimately wrote, “That is the risk of a sin of commission, and one I considered long and hard before I wrote my first article on this topic . . . . I will stand on what I believe and accept the risk and the consequences if I am wrong.”

Whether the thimerosal theory is proved right or wrong, there will be consequences — for the public health apparatus and vaccine manufacturers, for parents and their children, even for journalists. But with science left to be done and scientists eager to do it, it seems too soon for the press to shut the door on the debate.

Daniel Schulman is an assistant editor at CJR.

Miracle Cure, or Murky Research?

2005-10-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

By Wendy McElroy
FOXNews.com

Herceptin, a therapeutic drug for breast cancer, was trumpeted across the news last week after a glowing report appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Forbes called it a "wonder drug"; the London Times declared Herceptin "stunning"; CNN heralded the drug as "perhaps the most powerful cancer medicine in a decade," which "can halve the risk of relapse" in many cases.

I hope the reports are accurate.

But another body of research has gone comparatively unnoticed.

"Why Most Published Research Findings Are False" by John P. A. Ioannidis -- an epidemiologist at the University of Ioannina (Greece) -- presents convincing evidence that an alarmingly high number of scientific "findings" are eventually proven false.

Dr. Ioannina first published his controversial claim in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, July 2005). JAMA's report studied "all original clinical research studies published in three major general clinical journals or high-impact-factor specialty journals in 1990-2003," each of which had been "cited more than 1000 times" in subsequent literature.

In short, Ioannina focused on original research published by influential journals and widely accepted as accurate by other scientists. (These studies are the cream-of-the-cream and can be expected to return the highest accuracy rate within medical research in general.)

Their data impact the health and, sometimes, the life of patients.

Of 49 studies, 45 "claimed that the intervention [examined] was effective," which means they changed the day-to-day decisions of medical care.

Fourteen of those 45 studies (approx. 32 percent) were subsequently refuted. Twenty (44 percent) were replicated or validated. Eleven (24 percent) remain unchallenged and, so neither validated nor refuted.

One refuted study concerned the safety of hormone-replacement therapy for women…in case you wondered why that therapy was deemed safe one minute and risky the next. Fortunately for women, the media focused on the medical establishment's about-face on hormone replacement. But the refutation of other studies hasn't received similar publicity.

Nor has Ioannina's claim that fully 50 percent of medical research is wrong, with approximately the same chance of accuracy as flipping a coin.

Ioannina's conclusion is speculative but, given that so many prestigious studies have been contradicted, it is not wildly improbable.

The 50 percent figure came from asking, Why are so many prestigious research proven wrong?

In response, Ioannina designed a mathematical model; he expressed the general character of medical research in mathematical terms. The model allowed him to manipulate variables in order to determine how changing circumstances impacted research, especially with regard to well-known sources of error.

The Economist reported on just one such variable: statistical significance. "To qualify as statistically significant a result has…to have odds longer than one in 20 of being the result of chance…In fields where thousands of possibilities have to be examined, such as the search for genes that contribute to a particular disease, many seemingly meaningful results are bound to be wrong just by chance."

Small samples, "weak effects", badly designed studies, researcher bias…the crunching of such variables through Ioannina's model resulted in the 50 percent figure.

I question the value of speculatively crunching variables. But I'm convinced by Ioannina's empirical finding that 32 percent of prestigious studies are false, with 24 percent unverified. And I applaud the caution he raises.

In fairness and returning to Herceptin, not all news reports of the research are uncritical and the major responsibility does rest with the medical establishment.

The UK newspaper The Guardian reported, "No one is completely sure how it works, and the tests on it are far from complete."

On FOXnews.com, Web MD reported, "Approved by the FDA in 1998, Herceptin isn't a cure, and it's not without drawbacks….The small study -- which was sponsored by the makers of the drugs used (including Herceptin) -- doesn't gauge long-term survival."

But such qualifiers hardly balance the circus-through-town news coverage of sensational research. It is not as though the calls for caution are new. The warning bell has been ringing for years.

In 1998, "The Great Health Hoax" by Robert Matthews appeared in the UK newspaper The Guardian.

It opened, "In 1992, trials in Scotland of a clot-busting drug called anistreplase suggested that it could double the chances of survival. A year later, another 'miracle cure' emerged: injections of magnesium." By 1995, the "amazing life-saving abilities of magnesium injections had simply vanished. Anistreplase fared little better."

Why does sloppy research succeed? That is, why is it accepted by the medical establishment and, then, heralded by the press? The Herceptin case -- which may not be "sloppy" but which serves as an example of incentives -- provides an explanation.

CNN reported, "American sales of Herceptin leaped by two-thirds, to $215 million, in the three months ending October 1, compared with the year's first quarter….A year of Herceptin could cost $48,000 even at wholesale prices."

The Toronto Sun observed, "He's known as Mr. Herceptin but his name is actually Dr. Dennis Slamon and his Los Angeles lab conducted the research that led to the development of the new breast cancer drug."

Big money, big reputations are on the line. Within the medical establishment, these factors push toward acceptance and against critical analysis. Within the media, the words "miracle drug" grab bigger ratings than "indication of progress is suggested."

As a woman, I hope claims about Herceptin are true. But, unless a study has been thoroughly analyzed with a sharp critical eye, I have no reason to believe anything said about its accuracy. I must agree with Ioannina when he cautions, "There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false."

Given that patients make life-or-death decisions based on such research, this is a non-trivial matter.

Wendy McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com and a research fellow for The Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of many books and articles, including the new book, "Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the 21st Century" (Ivan R. Dee/Independent Institute, 2002). She lives with her husband in Canada.

The Age of Autism: Mercury goes to work

2005-10-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

By DAN OLMSTED

Throughout the 1920s a scientist named Morris Kharasch filed a blizzard of applications with the U.S. Patent Office.

In 1924: "The present invention relates to the production of water soluble organo-metallic compounds ... including mercury. ... This invention is of particular importance in connection with the organic compounds having germicidal or therapeutic value."

In 1926: "This invention relates to the treatment of infections of soil, and more particularly to the use of mercury and other compounds in conjunction with a fertilizer and its application to the infected soil."

Kharasch, who died in 1957, is widely known for work reflected in that 1924 patent: the creation of thimerosal, the ethyl-mercury-based preservative used in a wide range of medical products including vaccines. It allowed for multidose vials and mass vaccination.

Less recognized is his invention of similar ethyl-mercury applications for fungicides, reflected in that 1926 patent for "the treatment of infections of soil."

Until now, a possible link between ethyl mercury and autism has focused on vaccines. But what about fungicides? In the last column we outlined a new theory by Mark Blaxill, research chair of the advocacy group SafeMinds.

Blaxill's theory is simple: The possibility of fungicide exposure connects some of the first 11 cases diagnosed by child psychiatrist Leo Kanner. The most striking: Case 2, the son of a plant pathologist, and Case 3, the son of a forestry professor at a southern university.

Case 1, Donald T., grew up in a small Mississippi town surrounded by land that was being heavily planted with tree seedlings by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The idea that ethyl mercury -- in vaccines or anything else -- causes autism is hotly debated. The notion has been firmly rejected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies of Science. (In 1999 manufacturers were asked to phase out thimerosal in routine childhood vaccines; fungicides no longer use mercury.)

No one doubts, however, that ethyl mercury is a potent neurotoxin especially dangerous to the developing brains of infants. The question: Did "domesticating" it inadvertently trigger the age of autism?

"What's fascinating is if you look at the natural history of autism and ethyl mercury, there's a pretty interesting coincidence in time and place," said SafeMinds' Blaxill.

-- A trademark for "Merthiolate," the brand name for thimerosal, was filed in 1928. Kharasch was the inventor. Innovations included water solubility, compound stability and effectiveness.

-- A trademark for "Ceresan," an ethyl-mercury-based fungicide, was filed in 1929. Kharasch and Max Engelmann were the inventors. Innovations included organic mercury usage, methods of delivery and compound stability.

-- The oldest child diagnosed with autism was Virginia S., born in 1931. That is the first year records refer to thimerosal in vaccines.

-- In Europe, the first child that pediatrician Hans Asperger diagnosed with a similar disorder was Fritz V., born in 1933. His mother talked of trips to her "beloved mountains."

-- A German company manufactured a brand of ethyl-mercury fungicide.

Blaxill notes that Kharasch's work had enormous impact. He was a founder of the Journal of Organic Chemistry and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Kharasch came to Chicago from the Ukraine at the age of 13, and spent most of his professional career at the University of Chicago," according to the Web site of the University of Michigan Chemistry Department. "Kharasch brought free radicals, previously considered esoteric species, into the mainstream of organic chemistry.

"Kharasch made pioneering studies on organomercurials important in agriculture (as seed disinfectants) and medicine (the antiseptic merthiolate)."

We asked Boyd Haley, a professor and former chair of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, to look at the early ethyl mercury fungicide and thimerosal patents.

"You're on to something," said Haley, who is controversial for his belief that mercury is behind a range of neurological disorders including autism.

"The whole problem -- and if you read these patents, it just jumps out at you -- is that ethyl mercury was not water-soluble. You had no delivery. All Kharasch did was really very simple straightforward chemistry. He coupled ethyl mercury to an organic acid to make it water-soluble."

Haley speculated that if ethyl-mercury-based fungicides caused some of the early cases, it might have been because the fathers got it on their clothes, sprayed it on their gardens or used it in their labs to control fungus.

"If they ever took any home or got it on their hands, they could end up with big problems," Haley said.

Next, we'll look at other countries' use of fungicides for more possible dots to connect.

This ongoing series on the roots and rise of autism welcomes reader comment. E-mail: dolmsted@upi.com

Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

An Infant Dies Suddenly at a Child Welfare Office

2005-10-21T20:31:00.000-04:00

By RICHARD LEZIN JONES and TINA KELLEY
New York Times

A month-old baby boy who was in foster care suddenly stopped breathing yesterday at a Newark office of New Jersey's child welfare agency and died a short time later, the authorities and child welfare officials said last night.

What caused the death of the child, Zaire Knott, remained unclear late yesterday. Newark police detectives said that they would treat the case as a homicide, a routine step, until they received autopsy results. The child welfare agency, the Division of Youth and Family Services, also opened an investigation, as did the state's child advocate, Kevin M. Ryan.

Child welfare officials said a preliminary review showed that they had received no allegations that Zaire, who was brought to the office for a visit with his biological mother, had been abused or neglected.

"At this point, we don't think that there is anything improper," said Andy Williams, a spokesman for the State Department of Human Services, which oversees child welfare. Mr. Williams said that child welfare investigators were focusing on whether Zaire had an adverse reaction to two vaccines - for Hepatitis B and polio - that he had received during a regular check-up by a pediatrician hours before he died. Medical experts said yesterday that it is extremely rare for children to die because of bad reactions to vaccines.

Zaire's death comes at a time when New Jersey's child welfare agency is already reeling from a report released by an independent review panel last week that found state officials were not making sufficient progress in putting a court-ordered reform plan in place.

The overhaul of the system, which began two years ago and has already cost the state more than $300 million, was part of the settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the state's foster children by a child welfare reform advocacy group.

After the review panel released its findings, the advocacy group, Children's Rights Inc., asked a federal judge to intervene in the overhaul of the system, a step that could lead to the agency being placed in receivership.

One of the review panel's findings was that just a third of the children who should have received routine medical check-ups had actually done so. In court papers, Children's Rights cited those findings and warned that children in the state's care were suffering "immediate" and "irreparable" harm.

Yesterday, Susan Lambiase, associate director of the group, said that Zaire's death raised questions about the agency's handling of the child's case.

"Was there something obvious about this baby's case that should have caused them to be more careful with and pay attention?" she said. "It could just be one of those things that happens. But when the state takes a child into its custody, it has a responsibility."

Child welfare officials said that records showed Zaire had received all the required medical exams since his birth and was given a clean bill of health. There were no problems found during Zaire's doctor's visit yesterday morning, although an official said that the child was coughing.

However, around noon, while waiting for Zaire's biological mother to arrive at the child welfare agency's third floor office at 153 Halsey Street, workers noticed that he was taking labored breaths and had a bloody nose. Moments later, Zaire stopped breathing and lost consciousness.

"They took him upstairs to the nurse, who performed C.P.R.," Mr. Williams said. Paramedics were called and they took the child to St. Michael's Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:46 p.m.

Leticia LaComba, the deputy director of the child welfare agency in northern New Jersey, said that grief counselors were summoned after the incident. "These are strong, resilient people on our staff," she said, "but it was painful for them to see another human being die before their eyes, especially a baby."

Child welfare officials refused to identify Zaire's foster family. They refused to provide details about his biological mother, but acknowledged that her history with the agency had compelled it to take custody of the child at birth.

Medical experts said yesterday that it was "very, very rare" for infants to die after vaccination. "I don't have the literature, but in 20 years of practicing medicine, I've never seen a case of a baby dying as a result of a vaccine," said Dr. Gregory A. Poland, chief of the Mayo Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, N.Y.

Officials said that preliminary autopsy results could be available today.

A Battle Over the Link Between Vaccines and Autism

2005-10-21T14:19:00.000-04:00

by Bill Wilson
Family.org

Scientists and consumer organizations disagree whether vaccinating children is a factor with autism.

The condition known as autism has caused a heavyweight fight in children's healthcare. In one corner, are scientists and pharmaceutical companies, claiming vaccines don't cause autism. In the other corner, consumer organizations are saying there is irrefutable evidence that some vaccinations do. Peter Hotez is a vaccine researcher at George Washington University.

"I conclude there is no relationship between vaccines and autism. There is no relationship between Thymerasol and autism. And I don't even believe that there is a relationship between mercury and autism."

Barbara Loe Fisher, of the National Vaccine Information Center, says that after a quarter century of vaccinations, evidence suggests otherwise.

"We have witnessed the nearly doubling of the number of doses of vaccines our children receive. At the same time our nation has experienced a doubling of the numbers of children suffering with learning disabilities, ADHD and asthma, a tripling of diabetes, and a 200 to 7,000 percent increase in autism in every state."

Cindy Hill from Maryland says doctors have confirmed her autistic son Luke is evidence of vaccinations gone awry.

"Luke's pediatrician indicated that his immune system was not functioning properly which would make him hypersensitive to infections and vaccines. We have since learned that autism is triggered by environmental factors, including vaccines. What's really upsetting is that nobody warned us of these risks before we vaccinated our son."

Dan Olmsted, a UPI reporter, says he researched a group of Amish people whose kids were never vaccinated and found only one autism case in two states. After further review, the autistic child was the only one who had received his childhood vaccinations.

As usual, money's in the mix. Researchers and scientists don't receive new federal grants for work already done. But, studying new theories of genetic ties to autism, for example, can be financially rewarding to everyone-- except kids like Luke.

Infant dies at DYFS office after shot

2005-10-21T11:32:00.000-04:00

SOURCE: post from the Asbury Park Press

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWARK — An infant died Thursday after being stricken at a downtown office of the state child welfare agency, police said.

The month-old boy, who has been in foster care since birth, had just arrived about noon at an office of the state Division of Youth and Family Services from a doctor's visit. He had received immunizations at the doctor's office, said DYFS spokesman Andy Williams.

"When the aide arrived to bring the baby upstairs, he noticed he was having trouble breathing and there was blood in his nose," Williams said.

The aide brought the child to the office nurse, who began resuscitation efforts while emergency medical workers were called. The baby was pronounced dead at 12:46 p.m., Williams said.

"It appears the baby had a reaction to an immunization," Williams said.

PRESS RELEASE from National Vaccine Information Center

2005-10-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is calling the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005"(S. 1873), which passed out of the U.S. Senate HELP Committee one day after it was introduced "a drug company stockholder's dream and a consumer's worst nightmare." The proposed legislation will strip Americans of the right to a trial by jury if harmed by an experimental or licensed drug or vaccine that they are forced by government to take whenever federal health officials declare a public health emergency.

The legislation's architect, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Chairman of the HELP Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness, told the full HELP Committee yesterday that the legislation "creates a true partnership" between the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry and academia to walk the drug companies "through the Valley of Death" in bringing a new vaccine or drug to market. Burr said it will give the Department of Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines." The Burr bill gives the Secretary of DHHS the sole authority to decide whether a manufacturer violated laws mandating drug safety and bans citizens from challenging his decision in the civil court system.

The bill establishes the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA), as the single point of authority within the government for the advanced research and development of drugs and vaccines in response to bioterrorism and natural disease outbreaks such as the flu. BARDA will operate in secret, exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, insuring that no evidence of injuries or deaths caused by drugs and vaccines labeled as "countermeasures" will become public.

Nicknamed "Bioshield Two," the legislation is being pushed rapidly through Congress without time for voters to make their voices heard by their elected representatives. Co-sponsored by Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH), the legislation will eliminate both regulatory and legal safeguards applied to vaccines as well as take away the right of children and adults harmed by vaccines and drugs to present their case in front of a jury in a civil court of law.

"It is a sad day for this nation when Congress is frightened and bullied into allowing one profit making industry to destroy the seventh Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing citizens their day in court in front of a jury of their peers," said Barbara Loe Fisher, president of NVIC. "This proposed legislation, like the power and money grab by federal health officials and industry in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Project Bioshield Act of 2004, is an unconstitutional attempt by some in Congress to give a taxpayer-funded handout to pharmaceutical companies for drugs and vaccines the government can force all citizens to use while absolving everyone connected from any responsibility for injuries and deaths which occur. It means that, if an American is injured by an experimental flu or anthrax vaccine he or she is mandated to take, that citizen will be banned from exercising the Constitutional right to a jury trial even if it is revealed that the vaccine maker engaged in criminal fraud and negligence in the manufacture of the vaccine."

The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is legally responsible for regulating the pharmaceutical industry and ensuring that drugs and vaccines released to the public are safe and effective. Drug companies marketing painkillers, like Vioxx, and anti-depressants, which have resulted in the deaths and injuries of thousands of children and adults, are being held accountable in civil court while the FDA has come under intense criticism for withholding information about the drugs' dangers from the public. Since 1986, vaccine makers have been protected from most liability in civil court through the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act in which Congress created a federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) that offers vaccine victims an alternative to the court system. Even though the program has awarded nearly $2 billion to victims of mandated vaccines, two out of three plaintiffs are
turned away.

"The drug companies and doctors got all the liability protection they needed in 1986 but they are greedy and want more," said Fisher. "And the federal health agencies want more power to force citizens to use vaccines without having to worry about properly regulating them. If the Burr bill passes, all economic incentives to insure mandated vaccines are safe will be removed and the American people are facing a future where government can force them to take poorly regulated experimental drugs and vaccines labeled as "countermeasures" or go to jail. The only recourse for citizens will be to strike down mandatory vaccination laws so vaccines will be subject to the law of supply and demand in the marketplace. The health care consumer's cry will be: No liability? No mandates."

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) was founded by parents of vaccine injured children in 1982 and co-founders worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. For more information, go to http://www.nvic.org./

WHO warns against bird flu 'scaremongering'

2005-10-19T09:19:00.000-04:00

The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned against "scaremongering" as avian influenza gained a toehold in Europe.

The UN health agency also advised against panic buying of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, seen as a possible first line of defence if a widely feared human flu pandemic strikes.

As authorities in Turkey and Romania fight to contain the spread of the H5N1 virus among poultry flocks, other European governments are growing increasingly jittery.

The outbreaks increase "the number of countries in which this avian disease is prevalent and therefore by their very nature increase the risk of human exposure," said Michael Ryan, the UN health agency's pandemic alert chief.

But he sought to calm public concern about the role of migratory birds, blamed for carrying the virus spread from its Asian hotbed across Russia and into the rest of Europe.

"Clearly migratory birds may be implicated in spreading this disease and we may see avian influenza in other countries because of that," Ryan said.

Deaths of wild birds in some countries, including Croatia, have increased fears.

"But there are many, many other reasons for bird die-offs in populations, be it infectious or toxic," he said.

"So over-associating die-offs in particular bird species with avian influenza would be to risk scaremongering. The specific issue is to make sure that unusual die-offs are properly investigated.

"Clearly, people should limit their contact with dead or sick birds, but not every death of a bird in the world is necessarily avian influenza and it's important to remember that," Ryan said.

While avian influenza primarily affects birds, the H5N1 strain has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003.

Human-to-human transmission has been extremely limited.

But experts fear the bird virus could eventually combine with its human variant and mutate into a lethal, fast-spreading flu like those which killed tens of millions worldwide in the past.

Stepped-up surveillance is vital to lower the risk of the H5N1 virus jumping the species barrier, and governments must brace for a massive outbreak, the WHO has warned repeatedly.

"Maintaining vigilance is going to be a long and exhausting process," Ryan told reporters. "Nobody can say with any certainty when a pandemic virus will emerge."

Ryan praised Romania and Turkey for their "very transparent, quick, decisive response."

Both countries have culled poultry flocks and slapped travel restrictions on affected areas.

As experts try to develop a potential vaccine for what is still a hypothetical virus, the WHO is building a stockpile of Tamiflu, an antiviral drug which it believes could serve as a first line of defence, slowing down the spread of a pandemic.

Governments are also stockpiling Tamiflu to help cope with an emergency, but the WHO is urging caution over panic buying by individuals.

Many European pharmacies have seen their shelves cleared of Tamiflu because of snowballing demand.

"WHO at this point does not advise for individuals to stockpile this drug for any purpose," Ryan said.

"There is no indication at this stage for anyone to be taking this drug other than the very high-risk groups in areas in which the avian disease has become a problem," including poultry farmers and medical staff, he said.

Sales of poultry have slumped amid consumer worries, but Ryan said these are also misplaced.

"There is an issue of exposure for high-risk workers in the poultry industry, people working with wild birds and so on, but in terms of the food on your table, there's no public health risk."

PRESS RELEASE

2005-10-19T06:22:00.000-04:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:

October 13, 2005

Location:

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Court Case:

Stephen Barrett, M.D. vs. Tedd Koren, D.C. and Koren Publications, Inc.
Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County for the State of Pennsylvania
Court Case No.: 2002-C-1837

Contact:

Carlos F. Negrete LAW OFFICES OF CARLOS F. NEGRETE San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Phone:	949.493.8115
Fax:	949.493.8170
email:	mediarelations@healthfreedomlaw.com
	mediarelations@negretelaw.com
URL:	www.healthfreedomlaw.com
	www.negretelaw.com
Dr. Tedd Koren, DC
Phone:	800.537.3001
	267.498.0071
Fax:	267.498.0078
URL:	www.korenpublications.com

Subject:

Quackwatch Founder Stephen Barrett loses Major Defamation trial in Hometown

In a stunning development, Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Judge J. Brian Johnson on Thursday, October 13, 2005, tossed out nationally known self-proclaimed "consumer medical advocate" Stephen Barrett's defamation lawsuit just minutes before it was going to be considered by a local jury.

The lawsuit, filed in August 2002, against also nationally known Pennsylvania chiropractor, lecturer, researcher and publisher, Dr. Tedd Koren sought unspecified damages against Koren and his company, Koren Publications, Inc. for statements that he wrote in his newsletter in 2001 about Barrett. Barrett, a long-time nemesis of chiropractic, filed the lawsuit because of Koren's publication that Barrett was "de-licensed" and "in trouble because of a $10 million lawsuit" and because Barrett was called a "Quackpot." In his defense, Koren contended that the statements were true and not defamatory and that he had a First Amendment right to write them in his newsletter.

Thursday's ruling by Judge Johnson represented a major reversal of the finding of an arbitration in August 2004 wherein a panel of three local private attorneys reviewing the case had found in favor of Barrett and awarded Barrett $16,500 in damages and that Koren should publish a retraction. That award was appealed by Koren.

Dr. Koren was represented by well-known health freedom San Juan Capistrano, California, attorney Carlos F. Negrete for trial and Washington, D.C. attorney James Turner of Swankin & Turner. Easton, Pennsylvania attorney Christopher Reid of Laub, Seidel, Cohen, Hof & Reid served as local counsel for the team and was co-counsel for the trial along with Negrete. Turner and Negrete have been well known for their representation of clients in the health food, supplement and vitamin industries as well as representing naturopaths, nurses, dentists, physicians, chiropractors and complimentary therapists across the country. Turner's experience dates back to the 1960s when he joined consumer advocate Ralph Nader and was one of the groundbreaking Nader's Raiders that made consumer advocacy popular and brought about significant changes in manufacturing and consumer protection.

In making the ruling to throw out the case, Judge Johnson granted a rare directed verdict to the jury finding there was insufficient evidence to support Barrett's claims. Judge Johnson indicated that this case was one of those "rare times" where such a motion was appropriate.

Barrett operates the web sites www.quackwatch.org , www.chirobase.org and 20 other web sites and has been a long time critic of chiropractic calling much of it "quackery." The victory to chiropractor Koren comes almost 18 years to the date that chiropractors received national attention with their victory against the American Medical Association (AMA) by obtaining an injunction against the AMA from an Illinois federal judge for engaging in illegal boycotting of doctors of chiropractic in Wilk et al vs. AMA. Barrett had been an outspoken supporter of the AMA at the same time that Koren had been a vocal advocate that the AMA has, in recent years, violated the spirit of the federal judge's order.

After the ruling, Koren proclaimed that: "I am overjoyed and enthusiastic that this nightmare is over and that the science, art and philosophy of chiropractic and the work of all of my colleagues have been vindicated." "This case took a toll on my life and family, but I knew that I was right in publishing the truth." "Dr. Barrett has no right to misinform the public about chiropractic and other natural healing arts or to try to silence anyone who criticizes him or tell consumers that he is not what he purports to be." "I believe that it is not right to be silent when there is a duty to inform the public and let the truth be told."

For years, Barrett has touted himself as a "medical expert" on "quackery" in healthcare and has assisted in dozens of court cases as an expert. He also was called upon by the FDA, FTC and other governmental agencies for his purported expertise. He was the subject of many magazine interviews, including Time Magazine and featured on television interviews on ABC's 20/20, NBC's Today Show and PBS. He has gained media fame by his outspoken vocal disgust and impatience over natural or non-medical healthcare, including his criticisms of two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling.

Dr. Tedd Koren is known for his writings and lectures on chiropractic science, research, philosophy, and chiropractic patient adjusting. He is known for his Koren Publications chiropractic patient education brochures, posters, booklets, books and other products that are used in chiropractors' offices throughout the United States and around the world. Dr. Koren also co-founded a chiropractic college, is on the extension faculty of two chiropractic colleges, is published in chiropractic and bio-medical journals and has received numerous awards in his field. His web sites include www.korenpublications.com and www.teddkorenseminars.com.

In his 2001 newsletter, Koren published articles that revealed that even though he touted himself as a medical expert, Barrett had not been a licensed physician since the early 1990s. He also published that Barrett had been the subject of a $10 million racketeering lawsuit [that had been withdrawn] and called him a "quackpot" for the contradiction of his web site and lack of credentials.

Koren's trial attorney, Carlos F. Negrete of San Juan Capistrano, California, is known for his defense of physicians, chiropractors, dentists, clinics and natural heath providers who practice what is known as complimentary & alternative medicine and holistic healthcare. Negrete has also handled groundbreaking cases against HMOs in California and has represented many celebrities and politicians.

At trial, under a heated cross-examination by Negrete, Barrett conceded that he was not a Medical Board Certified psychiatrist because he had failed the certification exam. This was a major revelation since Barrett had provided supposed "expert testimony" as a psychiatrist and had testified in numerous court cases. Barrett also had said that he was a "legal expert" even though he had no formal legal training.

The most damning testimony before the jury, under the intense cross-examination by Negrete, was that Barrett had filed similar defamation lawsuits against almost 40 people across the country within the past few years and had not won one single one at trial. During the course of his examination, Barrett also had to concede his ties to the AMA, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

This was not the first time that Negrete was a trial attorney in a Barrett case. He also represented anti-fluoridation advocate Darlene Sherrell in a federal lawsuit filed in Eugene, Oregon by Barrett. Barrett also lost in trial of that case. Negrete also represented Frank King of King Bio Natural Medicine of North Carolina and MediaPower (manufacturers of CalMax and Nu-Zymes) of Maine in cases filed by an organization led by Barrett, which were lost by Barrett's organization. Barrett has also filed a lawsuit against Negrete and his client Dr. Hulda Clark (author of The Cure for All Diseases and The Cure for All Cancers), which is now pending and awaiting trial in San Diego, California federal court.

After the Koren trial, Negrete stated: "The de-bunker has been de-bunked. I am pleased and satisfied with this outcome for Dr. Koren and am proud that Dr. Koren did not succumb to the pressures of the intimidation of Barrett's legal wrangling." "Not everyone can stand up to someone as well known as Barrett."

Negrete continued, "It is another great day for health freedom and alternative healthcare around the world. I am especially pleased that this most important victory was in Barrett's own hometown. It just goes to show you that there is justice anywhere, even when you are a visitor challenging the home team. Barrett is a shill for the medical and pharmaceutical cartels and his bully tactics and unjustified discrediting of leading innovators, scientists and health practitioners should not be tolerated."

Negrete said, "You can be assured that our legal team will be wherever health freedom advocates and practitioners are being persecuted. The tide is now turning and people are no long accepting that synthetic drugs are the only way to address health concerns. Every day, consumers are becoming more educated about the benefits of holistic and alternative methods. This is something that the medical establishment obviously fears and wants to crush with false propaganda."

Koren said that he would now go back to his home in Pennsylvania to spend more time with his family and continue to write, research, and lecture on topics concerning chiropractic and healthcare and the experiences he has gained from this precedent setting legal battle. He plans to give new lectures to chiropractors across the country who are under attack or have been subjected to governmental actions. He also announced that he is forming a new organization aimed at informing and assisting chiropractors across the country.

The trial started on Monday, October 10, 2005 and ended on October 13, 2005 Barrett was represented by local Allentown attorney, Richard Orloski.
###

From NAA - THE BEST GOVERNMENT DRUG MONEY CAN BUY

2005-10-18T15:13:00.000-04:00

Parents, Grandparents and loved ones - We need your help. Please take a few minutes from your day to join us in calling and sending faxes! We need to send the message: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TAKING AWAY OUR CHILDREN’S CIVIL RIGHTS!

It has happened again. We need you to act ASAP. In The Name Of Bioterrorism, Congress Again Plans to Extend Liability Protection To Vaccine Manufacturers, Abandoning America's Vaccine-Injured Children.

Senators Enzi and Burr have introduced the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005". Like BioShield and Homeland Security Bills, it plans to take away our children’s rights. Please read and take action now!

THE BEST GOVERNMENT DRUG MONEY CAN BUY

We need your help NOW in putting a stop to this legislation designed to protect the very industry that poisoned our children.

Knowing that drug companies have suppressed safety data and poisoned a generation of children with mercury-laced vaccines, the Senate HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) is nonetheless expected to push the Biodefense Bill through without hearings. If passed, vaccine makers will have even more incentive to ignore product safety. The reckless disregard for injuries to Americans through dangerous products created by drug manufacturers must not be further sanctioned and encouraged by our lawmakers.

Capitalizing on fear and intimidation, and the reminder of generous campaign donations, drug companies have seduced Congress into awarding the pharmaceutical industry unprecedented liability protection, removing any financial incentive to produce safe vaccines.

The Biodefense Bill, influenced by drug industry lobbyists, abandons the children and citizens of this country and rewards a pattern of bad behavior by an industry recognized for suppressing safety data on vaccines.

Please call and fax the members of the Senate Health Committee listed below TODAY and let them know you and your family oppose rewarding the companies responsible for injuring countless children through unsafe vaccines.

Your communications with the HELP Committee members need not be long or detailed, especially since time is of the essence. Just let them know you are the parent, caregiver, or friend of a vaccine-injured child, and that the language in the Biodefense Bill that protects the pharmaceutical industry for the results of lax, profit-driven safety standards is detrimental to public health and unacceptable. Below is a letter you can use if you want to cut and paste.

(Dear Your Congressman or Your Senator);

Say NO to Ripping Off The Rights of Vaccine-Injured Children with the Biodefense Bill.

As both a voter and caregiver of a vaccine-injured child, I feel very strongly that my child's rights are about to be jeopardized once again.

As a (Senator/Congressman), we ask you to pledge to put the interests of America’s children and families before that of drug companies. We remind you that the public is watching. Just like the Homeland Security Rider, the Biodefense Bill will be seen for what it is – a gift to the pharmaceutical industry in exchange for campaign contributions.

As a voter, I am asking you to vote against legislation that will remove my vaccine-injured child's rights to fair litigation.

Thousands of families of special-needs children are going bankrupt, and many are selling their homes just to pay for care that insurance does not cover. More over, lawsuits give our children the voice that was taken away. The right to have fair litigation. The right to have compensation for care.

Please do not support anything that allows pharmaceutical companies more favors than your constituents. Especially those that cannot speak for themselves. If you do, we will make sure that every reporter in your state knows what you have done to your weakest constituents.

Sincerely,
(your name)

Parents, for more information on the Biodefense Bill and its implications to public health, please see the analysis from the Center for Justice and Democracy at http://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbusters-free/MB_VaccinesAlert.htm

Again, this bill will likely go to mark-up on Thursday, so it is vitally important that we contact these people ASAP. Faxes and phone calls are very important and tie up their regular lines. Let them know we are watching out for our children!

Republicans on the HELP Committee:

Gregg, Judd (R - NH)
393 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3324
Fax: (202) 224-4952
E-mail: mailbox@gregg.senate.gov

Frist, William (R - TN)
416 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3344
Fax: (202) 228-1264
E-mail: http://frist.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Enzi, Mike (R - WY)
290 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3424
Fax: (202) 228-0359
E-mail: senator@enzi.senate.gov

Burr Richard (R-NC)
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3154
Fax: (202) 228-2981
E-mail: richard.burrnc05@mail.house.gov

Isakson Johnny (R- GA)
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3643
Fax: (202) 228-0724

Alexander, Lamar (R-TN)
UNITED STATES SENATE WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4944
Fax: (202) 228-3398
E-mail: http://alexander.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Bond, Christopher (R - MO)
274 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5721
Fax (202) 224-8149
E-mail: kit_bond@bond.senate.gov

Roberts, Pat (R - KS)
302 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4774
Fax (202) 224-3514
E-mail: http://roberts.senate.gov/email.htm

Ensign, John (R - NV)
364 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6244
Fax (202) 228-2193
E-mail: http://ensign.senate.gov/contact_john/contactjohn_email.html

DeWine, Mike (R - OH)
140 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2315
Fax (202) 224-6519
E-mail: senator@dewine.senate.gov

Democrats on the HELP Commitee:

Kennedy, Edward - (D - MA)
317 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4543
Fax: (202) 224-2417
senator@kennedy.senate.gov

Dodd, Christopher (D - CT)
448 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-2823
Fax (202) 228-1683
E-mail: http://dodd.senate.gov/webmail/

Harkin, Tom (D - IA)
731 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone (202) 224-3254
Fax (202) 224-9369
E-mail: tom harkin@harkin.senate.gov

Mikulski, Barbara (D - MD)
709 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4654
Fax (202)224-8858
E-mail: senator@mikulski.senate.gov

Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)
703 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510Phone:
(202) 224-5521
Fax (202) 224-2852
E-mail: senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Murray, Patty (D - WA)
173 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2621
Fax: (202) 224-0238
E-mail: senator_murray@murray.senate.gov

Reed, Jack (D - RI)
320 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4642
Fax (202) 224-4680
E-mail: jack@reed.senate.gov

Clinton, Hillary (D - NY)
476 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4451
D.C. Fax (202) 228-0282
Long Island Fax (631) 249-2847
Email: http://clinton.senate.gov/email_form.html

Helpful Senators, not on the HELP Committee but important to contact:

Senator Susan Collins
172 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2523
Fax (202) 224-2693

Senator Olympia Snowe
154 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5344
Fax (202) 224-1946

Senator Lincoln Chafee
141A Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2921
Fax: (202) 228-2853

Senator John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone (202) 224-2235
Fax (202) 228-2862

Senator Debbie Stabenow
702 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Fax (202) 228-0325

Jeffords, James (I - VT)
728 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5141
Fax (202) 228-0776

Graham, Lindsey - (R - SC)
UNITED STATES SENATE WASHINGTON DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-5972
Fax: (202) 224-3808
Web Form: http://lgraham.senate.gov/email/email.htm

Helpful Congressmen to contact:

Congressman Dave Weldon
2347 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3671
Fax: (202) 225-3516

Congressman Dan Burton
2185 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2276
FAX: 202-225-0016

Congressman Chris Smith
2373 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-3765
FAX: 202-225-7768

Think Autism. Think Cure.

Important News from The A-CHAMP Legislative Action Team

2005-10-18T14:02:00.000-04:00

Parents, Grandparents and all other loved ones -

Send a Message to Your Senator-Click Here to Send a Message!

Use our Action Alert to Automatically send a Message to Your Senator and members of the Senate HELP (Health, Education, Labor & Pension) Committee

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TAKING AWAY OUR CHILDREN’S CIVIL RIGHTS!

It has happened again. We need you to act ASAP. In The Name Of Bioterrorism, Congress Again Plans to Extend Liability Protection To Vaccine Manufacturers, Abandoning America's Vaccine-Injured Children.

Senator Enzi and Burr have introduced the new BioDefense Bill. Like BioShield and Homeland Security Bills, it plans to take away our children’s rights. Please read and take action now!

THE BEST GOVERNMENT DRUG MONEY CAN BUY

Dear Parents,

We need your help NOW in putting a stop to this legislation designed to protect the very industry that poisoned our children.

Knowing that drug companies have suppressed safety data and poisoned a generation of children with mercury-laced vaccines, the Senate HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) is nonetheless is about to to push the Biodefense Bill through without hearings. If this bill is passed vaccine makers will have even more incentive to ignore product safety. The reckless disregard for injuries to Americans through dangerous products created by drug manufacturers must not be sanctioned by our lawmakers.

Capitalizing on fear and intimidation, drug companies are using generous campaign donations to seduce Congress into awarding the pharmaceutical industry unprecedented liability protection, and thereby remove any financial incentive for manufacturers to produce safe vaccines.

The "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005", influenced by drug industry lobbyists, abandons the children and citizens of this country and rewards a pattern of bad behavior by an industry recognized for suppressing safety data on vaccines.

Your communications with the HELP Committee members need not be long or detailed, especially since time is of the essence. Just let them know you are the parent, caregiver, or friend of a vaccine-injured child, and that the language in the Biodefense Bill that protects the pharmaceutical industry for the results of lax, profit-driven safety standards is detrimental to public health and unacceptable.

Use the letter in this Action Alert and send a message!

For more information on the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005" and its implications to public health, please see the analysis from the Center for Justice and Democracy at http://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbusters-free/MB_VaccinesAlert.htm