June 28, 2005

The Growing Phenom of Non-Vaccination

This article came up on Saturday and I thought it was a great chance to give follow up commentary on my previous post on what happens when parents stop vaccinating their kids.

In this case more kids got sick, but the article does not say that any children died or suffered life long disability from getting the measles.

Bottom line, parents’ fears are only going to increase the longer the government refuses to take an OPEN look at possibility of the autism/thimerosal connection.

Yesterday I spoke to Lynn Redwood, head of Safe Minds and the mother of a mercury poisoned autistic child, and she told me a story that spoke volumes to me.

She attended an ACIP meeting on Thimerosal. This is the Advisory Committee for Immunization Policy that makes vaccine policy recommendations to the CDC. The CDC always accepts the recommendations of the committee, so it is very powerful.

By law, the meetings are open to the public and the public may ask questions and offer comments. After some discussion, Lynn noted that the CDC and the American Association of Pediatricians has not made a recommendation that pregnant women and children receiving vaccines should get ones with out mercury if it is available. She asked the ACIP to state a preference for Thimerosal free DTaP, HiB and HepB for infants.

The moderator said that they would not be stating a preference between the two. When Lynn asked why not, he said that he was not going to argue with her about it and moved on to the next question.

I will try to get the transcript of the meeting for clarity and confirmation.

Here is my question:

Why, when a conscious parent who attended, what was supposed to be, the open meeting for discussion on U.S. policy regarding mercury in vaccines, asks good question and is then told, by one of the 12 individuals who votes on what the vaccine policy will be, in effect to shut up and sit down, should any parent feel comfortable following their recommendations?

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