Welcome news as Corzine has admitted that the only thing he gets more calls about than autism is tolls, yet has failed to follow through on the committements he made to our community.
Corzine needs to go.
From Louise Kuo Habakus of Life Health Choices:
A PERSONAL APPEAL TO VOTE FOR CHRIS CHRISTIE
I'm making a personal appeal to our community. Please join me in voting Chris Christie for Governor on Tuesday, November 3rd.
Whether you live in New Jersey or not, this e-mail is for you.
I'm asking you to forward this to everyone you know. This is a bona fide "get out the vote" from someone who has lived here for nearly two decades and seen firsthand how Trenton is failing the people of New Jersey.
It's time to stop wringing our hands about how bad things have gotten. In a democracy, we get the government (and the governor) we deserve. The election is close. If you know me, then you will know that my standards are high, my commitment to progress is deep, and I do not make this appeal lightly.
Here's why you must vote. For Christie.
WHY WE MUST VOTE CHRIS CHRISTIE FOR GOVERNOR ON TUESDAY
Christie supports vaccination choice. He wrote the following letter of support on Campaign letterhead, to the vaccination choice and special needs communities. He states: Many of these families have expressed their concern over New Jersey's highest-in-the-nation vaccine mandates. I stand with them now, and will stand with them as their governor, in the fight for greater parental involvement in vaccination decisions that affect their children.
Christie has reached out. I met with Chris in August. He is the only candidate who approached us, offered his time, and said he wanted to learn more. His lead policy guy visited me on two separate occasions to open the dialogue, late last year, at the moment Christie had made the decision to run.
Christie has gone on the record. He stated his support for vaccination choice early on, during the primary debate. He went on Imus in the Morning this past Thursday and said: "We need to look at all the different things affecting autism in New Jersey because we have the highest rate in the country. Not just the environmental concerns but vaccinations. Parents of children with autism need to be heard, they need a seat at the table to be talking about these issues. I met with a number of these parents, I've spoken to them about the awful time they've had. They need to have somebody who is going to them. And I'm going to listen to their concerns and try to make things better. But clean up the environment is one of the ways. Be more environmentaly sensitive in terms of the other toxins that we put into our environment. And also dealing with the vaccination issue is important..."
Christie understands parents' concerns. He is a young parent himself. He sees that parents are desperately worried about very real world problems, such as autism and chronic disease. He sees that parents are being forced to vaccinate when they believe in their hearts that the shots are harming their children. He sees that the epidemic of sick and injured children in New Jersey is the pressing public health crisis of the day. And unlike the other candidates, he has shown us that he's willing to talk about it.
To say this is a breath of fresh air is a massive understatement.
CORZINE HAS BEEN BAD FOR NEW JERSEY
Speaking plainly, Corzine does not deserve to be re-elected. Here are the reasons I cannot vote for Corzine:
He Isn't Listening To His Constituents: Vaccination Choice
Last year, he added four new vaccine mandates to the most crowded schedule of any state in the country. And he did it completely outside the legislative process. Corzine pushed the mandates through the Public Health Council, a rubber-stamping formality. That's how NJ became the first state in the country, and the first jurisdiction in the world, to mandate the seasonal flu shot in 2008.
And perhaps most egregious of all, he promised to support both vaccination choice and removal of the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, from our vaccines when he was running for governor. And he never followed through. There's a less kind way to say the same thing.
Corzine Has Abandoned The Special Needs Community
These are strong words chosen carefully to deliver a strong message.
Zero leadership. New Jersey is Ground Zero when it comes to the autism epidemic in the United States. There has been no official statement of concern, no think tank sessions, no roundtables, no convening of leading scientists, doctors and toxicologists. We're not even sure he's concerned.
Corzine has refused to err on the side of caution. His failure to send a strong message of concern about the rising incidence of autism has been a profound disappointment. But he has taken his neglect one terrible step further. He could have just held firm. Completely ignoring the existing and emerging science that links vaccines and their ingredients to the symptoms and hallmarks of autism and chronic illness, Corzine chose instead to add even more vaccines to the schedule, including shots that no other state in the country has dared to mandate. We mandate 36% more shots than the next highest state. Why? Why indeed.
It is a form of insanity to re-elect him and expect progress. Corzine has demonstrated little interest in developing innovative answers to the problems facing NJ's parents, both those with and without special needs. I have no reason to believe this would change, if he is elected for another term. We expected the former Wall Street CEO to clean up Trenton. We expected him to do a lot more than deploy his millions in support of his own re-election. Imagine if he had taken $120 million of his own money, the money that he spent on his three campaigns, and instead created real solutions, that real money can buy, to the real problems facing New Jersey?
Corzine does not deserve to be re-elected.
A NATIONAL MESSAGE: WHAT HAPPENS IN NEW JERSEY MATTERS TO YOU
New Jersey is Ground Zero when it comes to the issue of vaccine mandates. No state in the country, no place in the world, mandates more shots for daycare and school than the Garden State.
Help us now. It's time for the country to get on with the task at hand:
Finding solutions for the real public health catastrophe in our country: an epidemic of neurological, autoimmune and chronic illness facing our children, including asthma, diabetes, ADHD, allergies, peanut anaphylaxis, seizures, palsies, arthritis, OCD, autism and learning disabilities. One in six American children is learning disabled.
Setting Big Government straight, that fake pandemics, massive and expensive vaccine campaigns, and the systematic erosion of personal, health care freedom and parental rights has got to stop now.
New Jersey is the most reliable bellwether for the clout and influence of Big Pharma in our country. If we succeed in taking on the pharmaceutical industry here, there is hope for the rest of the nation.
BE VIGILANT AND PARTICIPATE IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS
These are historic times. The swine flu pandemic has reshaped the vaccination choice debate. If government can:
change the definition of an epidemic to mean something non-virulent,
mobilize billions of dollars to fight something that's not remotely deadly, and
We must question whether our government has earned the right to withhold choice, whether they have earned the right to tell us what we must put into our bodies. In my opinion, we have but two viable paths to pursue. The first is legal action. The second is our power at the voting booth.
Vaccines are meant to prevent disease. They must be as safe as possible. If they are not safe, they should not be mandated. If they are safe, people will take them.
So give us choice. And give New Jersey a new governor that will prioritize this issue for us all. We can ill afford more of the same. Vote on Tuesday, Chris Christie for Governor.
Louise Kuo Habakus
p.s. We'll have some news to share in the next newsletter. We're aligning and collaborating with likeminded organizations to increase our scope and reach.
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Last night I attended a SAD 75 (a Maine school district) public meeting on the H1N1 response and school vaccine clinics. It was a strange experience for me, as I feel like I had stepped back in time to a day ten years ago when giving mercury to children was no big deal, perfectly safe, just like candy really.
I pointed out a number of problems with doing so, which I assumed were common knowledge, that proved at the very least that mercury containing vaccines were not desirable and I will list some of those here for those of you who watched the meeting on TV and wanted references to my points.
As I want every parent and individual to have the informed consent that I was not given in vaccinating my child, I will also list several other references.
And if you have not read it already, this is a good time to review my "History of Thimerosal" (needs updating since 2007)
First, a reminder of what mercury does in the brain:
CDC's toxicology division, ATSDR, says that this is what mercury can do to children:
How does mercury affect children?
Very young children are more sensitive to mercury than adults. Mercury in the mother's body passes to the fetus and may accumulate there. It can also can pass to a nursing infant through breast milk. However, the benefits of breast feeding may be greater than the possible adverse effects of mercury in breast milk.
Mercury's harmful effects that may be passed from the mother to the fetus include brain damage, mental retardation, incoordination, blindness, seizures, and inability to speak. Children poisoned by mercury may develop problems of their nervous and digestive systems, and kidney damage.
And they have set up a new web site to warn children of the dangers of mercury complete with scary video:
This study demonstrates that very low-levels of Thimerosal can contribute to immune system disregulation.
Excerpt: "Our findings that DCs primarily express the RyR1 channel complex and that this complex is uncoupled by very low levels of THI with dysregulated IL-6 secretion raise intriguing questions about a molecular basis for immune dyregulation and the possible role of the RyR1 complex in genetic susceptibility of the immune system to mercury."
The type of mercury in vaccines becomes trapped in the brain at higher rates than ingested mercury from fish:
Thimerosal is a preservative that has been used in manufacturing vaccines since the 1930s. Reports have indicated that infants can receive ethylmercury (in the form of thimerosal) at or above the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for methylmercury (MeHg) exposure, depending on the exact vaccinations, schedule, and size of the infant. This study compared the systemic disposition and brain distribution of total and inorganic mercury in infant monkeys following thimerosal exposure with infants exposed to MeHg. Monkeys were exposed to MeHg (via oral gavage) or vaccines containing thimerosal (via i.m. injection) at birth and 1, 2, and 3 weeks of age. Total blood mercury (Hg) levels were determined 2, 4 and 7 days after each exposure. Total and inorganic brain Hg levels were assessed 2, 4, 7 or 28 days after the last exposure.
The initial and terminal half-life of Hg in blood following thimerosal exposure was 2.1 and 8.6 days, which are significantly shorter than the elimination half-life of Hg following MeHg exposure at 21.5 days. Brain concentrations of total Hg were significantly lower by ~3-fold for the thimerosal-exposed infants when compared to the MeHg infants, while the average brain-to-blood concentration ratio was slightly higher for the thimerosal-exposed infants (3.5±1.0 vs. 2.5±0.6). A higher percentage of the total Hg in the brain was in the form of inorganic mercury for the thimerosal-exposed infants (34% vs 7%). The current study indicates that MeHg is not a suitable reference for risk assessment from exposure to thimerosal derived Hg. Knowledge of the toxicokinetics and developmental toxicity of thimerosal is needed to afford a meaningful assessment of the developmental effects of thimerosal-containing vaccines.
It causes neuro-inflammation (ie, rapid brain growth) by activating "glial" cells in the brain:
Charleston JS, Bolender RP, Mottet NK, Body RL, Vahter ME, Burbacher TM., Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Washington
The number of neurons, astrocytes, reactive glia, oligodendrocytes, endothelia, and pericytes in the cortex of the calcarine sulcus of adult female Macaca fascicularis following long-term subclinical exposure to methyl mercury (MeHg) and mercuric chloride (inorganic mercury; IHg) has been estimated by use of the optical volume fractionator stereology technique. Four groups of monkeys were exposed to MeHg (50 micrograms Hg/kg body wt/day) by mouth for 6, 12, 18, and 12 months followed by 6 months without exposure (clearance group). A fifth group of monkeys was administered IHg (as HgCl2; 200 micrograms Hg/kg body wt/day) by constant rate intravenous infusion via an indwelling catheter for 3 months. Reactive glia showed a significant increase in number for every treatment group, increasing 72% in the 6-month, 152% in the 12-month, and 120% in the 18-month MeHg exposed groups, and the number of reactive glia in the clearance group remained elevated (89%). The IHg exposed group showed a 165% increase in the number of reactive glia. The IHg exposed group and the clearance group had low levels of MeHg present within the tissue; however, the level of IHg was elevated in both groups. These results suggest that the IHg may be responsible for the increase in reactive glia. All other cell types, including the neurons, showed no significant change in number at the prescribed exposure level and durations. The identities of the reactive glial cells and the implications for the long-term function and survivability of the neurons due to changes in the glial population following subclinical long-term exposure to mercury are discussed.
It impairs methylation, a biological process that creates the compound gluthatione, that allows the body to process out toxic substances:
This study demonstrates how Thimerosal inhibits methylation, a central driver of cellular communication and development. Excerpt:
"The potent inhibition of this pathway [methylation] by ethanol, lead, mercury, aluminum, and thimerosal suggests it may be an important target of neurodevelopmental toxins."
Thimerosal, at a fraction of the dose found in vaccines, causes motochondrial damage so severe, that it causes the cell actually self-destruct:
Yel L, Brown LE, Su K, Gollapudi S, Gupta S.Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. lyel@uci.edu
There is a worldwide increasing concern over the neurological risks of thimerosal (ethylmercury thiosalicylate) which is an organic mercury compound that is commonly used as an antimicrobial preservative. In this study, we show that thimerosal, at nanomolar concentrations, induces neuronal cell death through the mitochondrial pathway. Thimerosal, in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, decreased cell viability as assessed by calcein-ethidium staining and caused apoptosis detected by Hoechst 33258 dye. Thimerosal-induced apoptosis was associated with depolarization of mitochondrial membrane, generation of reactive oxygen species, and release of cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) from mitochondria to cytosol. Although thimerosal did not affect cellular expression of Bax at the protein level, we observed translocation of Bax from cytosol to mitochondria. Finally, caspase-9 and caspase-3 were activated in the absence of caspase-8 activation. Our data suggest that thimerosal causes apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells by changing the mitochondrial microenvironment.
Humphrey ML, Cole MP, Pendergrass JC, Kiningham KK. Department of Pharmacology, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Marshall University, Huntington, WV 25704-9388, USA. Environmental exposure to mercurials continues to be a public health issue due to their deleterious effects on immune, renal and neurological function. Recently the safety of thimerosal, an ethyl mercury-containing preservative used in vaccines, has been questioned due to exposure of infants during immunization. Mercurials have been reported to cause apoptosis in cultured neurons; however, the signaling pathways resulting in cell death have not been well characterized. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the mode of cell death in an in vitro model of thimerosal-induced neurotoxicity, and more specifically, to elucidate signaling pathways which might serve as pharmacological targets. Within 2 h of thimerosal exposure (5 microM) to the human neuroblastoma cell line, SK-N-SH, morphological changes, including membrane alterations and cell shrinkage, were observed. Cell viability, assessed by measurement of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in the medium, as well as the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, showed a time- and concentration-dependent decrease in cell survival upon thimerosal exposure. In cells treated for 24 h with thimerosal, fluorescence microscopy indicated cells undergoing both apoptosis and oncosis/necrosis. To identify the apoptotic pathway associated with thimerosal-mediated cell death, we first evaluated the mitochondrial cascade, as both inorganic and organic mercurials have been reported to accumulate in the organelle. Cytochrome c was shown to leak from the mitochondria, followed by caspase 9 cleavage within 8 h of treatment. In addition, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) was cleaved to form a 85 kDa fragment following maximal caspase 3 activation at 24 h. Taken together these findings suggest deleterious effects on the cytoarchitecture by thimerosal and initiation of mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis.
Thomas J. Hagele, Jessica N. Mazerik, Anita Gregory, Bruce Kaufman, Ulysses Magalang, M. Lakshmi Kuppusamy, Clay B. Marsh, Periannan Kuppusamy, Narasimham L. Parinandi,
Lipidomics and Lipid Signaling Laboratory, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, United States
Correspondence: Address correspondence to Narasimham L. Parinandi, PhD, Room 611-A, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Dorothy M. Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, The Ohio State University, 473 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. E-mail:narasimham.parinandi@osumc.edu
Currently, mercury has been identified as a risk factor of cardiovascular diseases among humans. Here, the authors tested the hypothesis that mercury modulates the activity of the endothelial lipid signaling enzyme, phospholipase D (PLD), which is an important player in the endothelial cell (EC) barrier functions. Monolayers of bovine pulmonary artery ECs (BPAECs) in culture, following labeling of membrane phospholipids with [32P]orthophosphate, were exposed to mercuric chloride (inorganic form), methylmercury chloride (environmental form), and thimerosal (pharmaceutical form), and the formation of phosphatidylbutanol as an index of PLD activity was determined by thin-layer chromatography and liquid scintillation counting. All three forms of mercury significantly activated PLD in BPAECs in a dose-dependent (0 to 50 µM) and time-dependent (0 to 60 min) fashion. Metal chelators significantly attenuated mercury-induced PLD activation, suggesting that cellular mercury-ligand interaction(s) is required for the enzyme activation and that chelators are suitable blockers for mercury-induced PLD activation. Sulfhydryl (thiol-protective) agents and antioxidants also significantly attenuated the mercury-induced PLD activation in BPAECs. Enhanced reactive oxygen species generation, as an index of oxidative stress, was observed in BPAECs treated with methylmercury that was attenuated by antioxidants. All the three different forms of mercury significantly induced the decrease of levels of total cellular thiols. For the first time, this study revealed that mercury induced the activation of PLD in the vascular ECs wherein cellular thiols and oxidative stress acted as signal mediators for the enzyme activation. The results underscore the importance of PLD signaling in mercury-induced endothelial dysfunctions ultimately leading to cardiovascular diseases.
(More studies on the damage that vaccination and their components are known to do)
CDC reports that approximately 100 children die of the flu every year.
It was reported by the panel that 40-50 children die of flu per year, and that the 86 that have died from H1N1 this far had vastly exceeded that number. I told the panel that my understanding was that the number was 100 per year, and that we had not yet exceeded that. I had gotten that number from this CDC video that was posted a year ago on their You Tube Channel (50 seconds in Dr. Jeanne Santoli states that about 100 children die of influenza every year).
They have either doubled the real number, or cut it in half, presumably to encourage vaccination.
So my question is... was CDC inflating the number of children who die per year from the flu last year to scare parents into getting the seasonal flu vaccine OR are they deflating number of children who die per year from the flu this year to scare parents into getting the H1N1 vaccine?
[Update: CDC has reported that pediatric flu deaths have ranged between 46 and 153 over the last six years. CDC has apparently chosen the lowest year of pediatric flu deaths to use as their "average" to make this years flu deaths seem like they are twice the 'average'.
How many children have died from flu-associated complications during previous flu seasons?
* During the 2003-04 season, 153 flu-associated deaths in children were reported to CDC. (This data was collected by CDC.) * During the 2004-05 season, 47 deaths in children were reported to CDC. (This is the first year that influenza mortality in children became a nationally reportable condition.) * During the 2005-06 season, 46 deaths in children were reported to CDC. * During the 2006-07 season, 76 deaths in children were reported to CDC. * As of June 14, 2008, 83 deaths in children occurring during the 2007-08 season have been reported to CDC.
(Note: The counts above are of flu-associated deaths among children according to the flu season the deaths occur, not when they are reported to CDC.)
So pediatric deaths over the last 5 years average 81.
In Maine, no children have died from the flu this year, despite the fact that it has been one of top three states where the virus first became widespread.
It should also be noted that CDC is currently stonewalling a CBS News request for accurate H1N1 flu numbers. Additionally, CDC turned down a request to expidite CBS's FOIA request for the information on state H1N1 numbers because CDC has determined the request is “not a matter of widespread and exceptional media and public interest.”
Read that again... accurate numbers on H1N1 are “not a matter of widespread and exceptional media and public interest.”]
Thimerosal Containing Vaccines are legally classified as Hazardous Materials
Because of the mercury content in these vaccines, they cannot be thrown away, or even disposed of according to medical waste guidelines. To do so would be illegal.
They must be disposed of according to HazMat rules. From the Wisconsin guidelines:
Some vaccines are preserved with 1:10,000 or 0.01 percent Thimerosal (see the vaccines in the table titled "Thimerosal Content in Some U.S. Licensed Vaccines" at www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm that have .01% in the Thimerosal Concentration column). Thimerosal contains about 50 percent mercury by weight. Vaccines with 1:10,000 or 0.01 percent Thimerosal have about 50 mg/L mercury, which exceeds the 0.2 mg/L hazardous waste toxicity characteristic regulatory level for mercury. According to state and federal hazardous waste management requirements, discarded Thimerosal-preserved vaccines may need to be managed as hazardous waste, using the waste code D009 (mercury).
It is illegal to manage Thimerosal-preserved vaccines as infectious waste or regular trash.
A (just in case) correction on my statement on mercury concentrations in vaccines. I may have said "parts per million" when I meant "parts per billion", but I can't remember.
None the less, the mercury concentration in the H1N1 and seasonal flu shots is exponentially larger than what is considered hazmat material. A comparison of mercury concentrations from Pediatrics:
0.5 parts per billion (ppb) mercury = Kills human neuroblastoma cells (Parran et al., Toxicol Sci 2005; 86: 132-140).
2 ppb mercury = U.S. EPA limit for drinking water http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/index.html#mcls
200 ppb mercury = level in liquid the EPA classifies as hazardous waste. http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/mercury/regs.htm#hazwaste
25,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in the Hepatitis B vaccine, administered at birth in the U.S., from 1990-2001.
50,000 ppb Mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose DTaP and Haemophilus B vaccine vials, administered 4 times each in the 1990's to children at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months of age. Current "preservative" level mercury in multi-dose flu (94% of supply), meningococcal and tetanus (7 and older) vaccines. This can be confirmed by simply analyzing the multi- dose vials.
In my home state of Maine mercury disposal is regulated by The Hazardous Waste Rules Chapter 850
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Chapter 850: IDENTIFICATION OF HAZARDOUS WASTES
B. Identification of hazardous wastes by characteristics
(5) Characteristic of toxicity
(b) A waste that exhibits the characteristic of toxicity has the EPA Hazardous Waste Number specified in Table I which corresponds to the toxic contaminant causing it to be hazardous.
Table I. Maximum Concentration of Contaminants for the Toxicity Characteristic
What this means is that if you took one of the vaccines being injected into the children at my son's elementary school outside and squirted it onto the pavement, a hazmat rules would be triggered and a hazmat team must be called in to clean it up.
[Update 07/23/10 - Now that the "pandemic" has passed, and so few decided to take this toxic vaccine, tens of millions of doses are being destroyed. As I said they must be, via hazmat rules. Clean Harbors in Norwell, MA is offering their services. Via Occupational Health and Safety Magazine:
Service Will Incinerate Unused H1N1 Vaccine Jul 23, 2010
Clean Harbors, based in Norwell, Mass., is offering the service to health care providers because multiple doses of the vaccine contain enough mercury-based Thimerosal to be treated as a hazardous waste.
Clean Harbors of Norwell, Mass., now offers H1N1 Vaccination Incineration Services that will profile, collect, and dispose of unused 2009 H1N1 vaccine for health care customers nationwide. Multiple doses of the vaccine contain enough mercury-based Thimerosal to be treated by EPA as a hazardous waste and will be incinerated. Vaccine dated at the end of 2008 and early 2009 is now at the end of its shelf life and must be disposed, according to the company....
Hazardous materials do not belong in children. Period.]
EPA says you must weigh 550 lbs. to safely process the mercury in a flu vaccine
EPA daily limits on mercury intake are .1 mcg per kilogram of weight. 1 kilo = 2.20462262 pounds My 55 pound 7 year old therefore weighs 25 kelograms.
25 x .1 = 2.5
The EPA says that my son should receive no more than 2.5 mcg of mercury in a day. The vaccine he will be offered at school contains ten times that amount.
I weigh 255 lbs or 116 kelos. 116 x .1 = 11.6
The vaccine is still more than twice what a big girl like me should be exposed to.
Further these EPA standards are based on ingested methyl mercury, the kind found in fish, (only about a tenth of which is absorbed through the GI tract into the blood stream). We have already seen from the Burbacher study above, that injected thimerosal becomes trapped in the brain at a much higher rate than ingested mercury. So the EPA standards I am using are probably should be upped by ten fold when being applied to vaccination.
EPA/FDA/CDC will not set safety limits for injected methyl mercury, despite the demand from parents for them to do so for many years.
No one has died from mercury
One of the panelists, a physician, suggested that no one has died from mercury in vaccines. This is a disingenuous statement as vaccine deaths are attributed to the vaccine as a whole, not to the components of the vaccine. And of course Death is a known outcome of vaccination and is covered under the HHS Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
And yes... peoplehavediedfrommercury. Government agencies and states are trying to eliminate mercury in daily life, but it is still in vaccines.
Bills and laws limiting and eliminating mercury are ubiquitous now. It is the height of cognitive dissonance to say that mercury should be eliminated from the environment, but injected into babies as young as 6 months.
And all this is true BEFORE you even begin the discussion on whether or not mercury containing vaccines can cause autism. CDC has done only ONE study of the relationship between vaccines and autism. A HORRIBLE study. It took a very fat bestseller to explain just how many shenanigans went into this study. Julie Gerberding was finally forced to tell congress that the study methods were "useless" in answering the question, 'does mercury in vaccines cause autism', and she did it the cowards way... a quiet report that was leaked to a reporter a few months later. No formal retraction or apology has been issued and the study is still touted as proof that vaccines don't cause autism. Note that this paragraph is the first time the word "autism" is even appears in this piece. And the last.
Now consider the statements like this that CDC are making:
Dr. Anne Schuchat appearing on The Doctors - "Now the other questions people have...and.. .I get this all the time...is about mercury. It's about the Thimerosal preservative. I want to say there have been a lot of studies about that. There's no scientific link between the thimerosal preservative and any kind of long term problem".
CDC is lying about the safety of thimerosal. Don't trust them, don't trust me. Do your own research and fact check everyone. It is your health and the health of your family.
I get many inquiries asking me to read this book, watch that video, try such and such product and do a review on the blog. I almost never do reviews on them because... who has time for that? My standard answer is, 'feel free to send it to me, but I probably won't get around to reviewing it'.
Someone sent me some videos a month ago, claiming that children with autism love them. Today I opened them and it was two Animusic videos. The press kit included a page of feedback from ASD families about how much their child loved it, was soothed by it and even one that used it for a reward. By now you have probably come across this online from their first DVD:
Well they were not kidding. Chandler is enthralled and Webster is too. Also mommy. Also Webster's stuffed cat who is now dancing to it with Web's assistance.
They are so beautifully done. Wow. Herbie Hancock all grown up. Consider them fully endorsed by Adventures in Autism.
On April 17, 2007, Holly Bortfeld attended an autism hearing in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee run by Senator Tom Harkin. At that hearing Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, now current head of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, was there to testify.
Beforehand, Ms. Bortfeld, was waiting with her 11 year old son Max, who has autism, at an elevator on the way up to the hearing. When the doors opened they got on. After they did, Thomas Insel and a female companion approached and entered the elevator just before the doors closed. Ms. Bortfeld reports that once they were on the elevator together...
"...Max stimmed. Insel looked at him, looked at me (yes, he had his little name tag on, so he knew that I knew he was) then he hit the open door button and ushered his coworker off. As the doors were closing, he said "I'm not riding up with them", looking at my son."
The head of the National Institutes of Mental Health refused to ride an elevator with a child with mental health issues.
...again for clarity and perspective on this episode...
The chair of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee will not share an elevator with a child with autism, on the way into an autism hearing.
This odious behavior is not one of a healer committed to the well being of the disadvantaged or disabled, it is the behavior of a bigot.
It is just one more example of the pattern of astonishing contempt that Insel shows towards the autism community, as he routinely leaves IACC meetings early, dismisses the input of the autism community, and chairs an autism committee with some completely inappropriate appointments, like...
Alison Singer, who was asked to resign from Autism Speaks because of her behavior on the IACC, but is still considered qualified by Insel to be on the committee, presumably because she now runs an "autism organization" out of her basement that she subsequently founded with vaccine maker Paul Offit (who admits he has never treated a child for autism), and despite the fact that she is widely disliked by both members of the neurodiversity community and the biomedical community. (Or perhaps because Singer went to college with HHS head Kathleen Sebelius?)
Dr. Yvette Janvier, who is highly offended at the idea that people with autism could possibly have GI dysfunction despite the fact that now even the denialist CDC now tells docs to screen for GI disturbances in children with autism, and who, despite being neither a person with autism nor an autism parent, is holding a seat meant for members of the public
Dr. Storey Landis who resigned this weekend after passing notes during an IACC meeting disparaging another member who is an autism mom
And perhaps the strangest appointment of all to the committee, Insel's neighbor, a reportedly pleasant autism parent that does not represent any group, does not do any public advocacy, does not seem comfortable with discussing autism science and doesn't seem to have any qualifications for being on the IACC. What are the odds that one of the most well qualified autism parents to sit on the most powerful government panel on autism just happens to live in the neighborhood of the chair of the IACC?
Add to that the fact that after the IACC voted to add vaccine/autism research to the government's strategic plan for autism, Insel pulled classic, corrupt smoke filled back room shenanigans, schemed to get people to change their votes, and then surprised public members of the committee with a revote, not on the agenda, but known to Alison Singer who had parted with Autism Speaks the night before because they didn't approve of her upcoming vote change, to ditch the vaccine research.
Insel also canceled research on chelation as a treatment for autism with the justification that DMSA chelation was to dangerous to even study, despite the fact that it has been the standard treatment for metal toxicity since the Navy developed it in the late 1950's, and is the treatment of choice for lead poisoning in children.
And why was Insel, the head of the National Institute of MENTAL Health present to testify with CDC chief Thomas Frieden at the H1N1 hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee? Flu is not a mental health issue, is it? [Update - My bad... it was Anthony Fauci at the hearing... not Thomas Insel.]
Could it be that vaccines are the Insel family business and Insel's participating in this whole IACC political theater is merely to protect the vaccine program? It is surely is not because he has a heart for those with autism, as he won't dane to be in their presence and it cannot be because he is fascinated with autism itself, as he can't be bothered to sit through the meetings themselves.
Insel cares so little for people with autism that he actually ended a meeting early, preventing the testimony to the IACC of a child with autism who had flown in from California to address the committee. The child actually had to give his speech to an empty room.
Thomas Insel is an embarrassment to NIMH and the IACC is an complete farce under his leadership. I join with Dan Olmsted and call for his resignation from his leadership positions of both organizations, and for him to take his bogus committee appointees with him.
Please contact President Obama and demand the dismissal of Thomas Insel from NIMH and IACC, and put an end to the fraud, corruption and CYA in autism causation. Demand that someone who loves and values those with disabilities, who will legitimately pursue autism treatment and causation, WHO HAS A TRACK RECORD OF BOTH, be put in his place, not another elitist bureaucrat.
End the charade of the IACC, its obstruction of advancement in autism research and its complicity in the growing autism epidemic.
So if this injury happened when she was 18 months old, before she had learned to talk or learned social norms, would she not be diagnosed with "autism"?
Woman Disabled by Flu Shot Reaction
Updated: Wednesday, 14 Oct 2009, 1:30 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 13 Oct 2009, 11:27 PM EDT
* Claudia Coffey Claudia Coffey
* Video By CLAUDIA COFFEY/myfoxdc
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A few weeks ago, Desiree Jennings was training for a half marathon. Now, she's struggling to walk, talk and even eat.
According to the Loudoun Times-Mirror , Jennings, who has been working with the Washington Redskins as an ambassador in hopes of becoming a cheerleader since April, developed severe and possibly life-threatening side effects from getting a seasonal flu vaccine seven weeks ago at a Safeway in Reston.
Twenty-five-year-old Jennings says she was healthy and active and was not in a high-risk group at the time of her shot.
She says she received the vaccine to earn points for her work health plan that gives perks for each level of ‘wellness’ that is attained. It was not until ten days after she received the shot that she began to experience flu-like symptoms.
Her physical therapist at Johns Hopkins Hospital say she is suffering from dystonia, a neurological movement disorder where sustained muscle contractions cause body jerks, and abnormal or repetitive movements.
People who suffer from dystonia often are required to re-learn even the most basic routines.
It is a rare disease and is not completely understood.
“You realize your life is never going to come back the way it was,” Desiree told the Times-Mirror. “My goal in life was to one day be a CEO. Now, I don’t know if I can ever return back to work”.
The unexplained death of an 8-year-old Kings Park boy at Stony Brook University Medical Center has sparked a state Department of Health probe, authorities said Wednesday.
The boy - identified as Sean Weisse by a family member - was taken off life support Sunday, three days after being hospitalized with symptoms of fever, nausea and a sore throat, said Claudia Hutton, a health department spokeswoman.
"There is no reason to believe the hospital did anything except provide the best medical care," Hutton said. "Any time a child dies unexpectedly, it is of great interest to us."
The probe is not aimed at Stony Brook's pediatric intensive care unit, the subject of state scrutiny for past quality of care issues, Hutton said. She said a hospital inspection team was investigating it as "an adverse event."
Stony Brook staffers have conducted blood and spinal fluid tests but have not determined the cause of death, Hutton said, adding that doctors believed the fatal illness was viral. More tests are scheduled on the spinal fluid taken at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, where the boy was first taken after becoming ill, Hutton said.
There will be no autopsy at the family's request, Hutton said.
"Mysterious deaths do happen and there are times when you cannot get all the answers that you want," Hutton said. "I don't know how certain, in the end, a cause of death will be."
Sean, a third-grader at Park View Elementary School, is scheduled to be buried Thursday after a funeral Mass at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Kings Park. The boy's parents, Steven and Kelly Weisse, asked that donations be made to the Special Education Parent Teachers Association of the Kings Park Central School District. They declined interview requests.
Health authorities sought to assure the public that Sean did not die from a reaction to a flu vaccine shot last week, a claim posted this week on several Internet message boards and blogs.
connections
* Kevin Allen
* The Falcons The Falcons
* Helen Clark Helen Clark
* James Taylor James Taylor
* Pittsburgh Panthers Pittsburgh Panthers
Hutton said the boy was given a regular seasonal flu shot in a private physician's office, but results from blood and spinal fluid tests show that it is "extremely unlikely" that the vaccination caused his illness later.
"There is always a very remote chance, but it is so remote that it is almost a scientific certainty that it is not vaccine-related," Hutton said. "It is just a very sad family tragedy."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fatal reactions to flu shots are rare.
At a wake in Kings Park Wednesday night, friends and family remembered a smiling boy who loved skateboarding. His skateboard was placed near his coffin amid flowers and photographs.
"Every picture he has a big grin on," said Kerry Leo, a family friend from Kings Park.
Counselors were on hand this week at Park View Elementary to help students and faculty, said Susan Agruso, superintendent of the Kings Park Central School District. "This is a profoundly sad time for our community," she said. "Our sincerest sympathies go out to the student's parents, family and friends."
Caution, Caution, Caution... this is a rumor that I am reporting. Let's not jump to any premature conclusions.
But since it is a rumor that I have now heard from multiple sources so I am putting it out there so that it gets some attention and is either corroborated or debunked.
8 Year Child dies after getting H1N1 Vaccine in NY
8 year old child who just recieved the H1N1 vaccine at STONYBROOK Hospital in New York dies after recieving vaccine. The child who was a 3rd grader at Park View school in Kings Park New York( My sister's sons classmate ) with no undelying conditions, perfect health. I wonder if it will even make the news. Please spread the word you or your children are not Guinea Pigs. Tell everyone before it is too late.
I also got word of private discussion to the same effect by someone else in this community.
I have checked and found no mention of this in the media.
This has begun circulating on Face Book. Before this becomes internet gospel, hyper hysteria, or becomes buried, (or crushes some poor family that has lost a child do to something else) this needs to be vetted and public health officials need to be contacted on this.
Of course today is a holiday.
If you are in this community, please check in and offer any corroborating or debunking so that we can get a better picture of what has happened.
AGAIN.... CAUTION...
Update: Facebook entry by a local mom:
I know the boy, the family. Thats why I posted the other day not to get your kids the flu shot. This was an extreamly rare situation. The boy had a dormant virus that was stimulated by the flu shot. Even then his odds were 99:1 to survive. This was just very tragic case. Either way, I will never get the flu shot for me or my family."
"I happen to know this little boy, as I am from Kings Park. He did not receive the H1N!, it was the reguar shot and he had a reaction to the egg in it. "
Update:
Another post on the initial thread:
The funeral home is Clayton Funeral Home, Kings Park, NY, claytonkingspark.com and the wake is Tuesday and Wednesday.
To clear up some of the misinformation that has been posted on here please know that he received the seasonal flu vaccine not H1N1, and he died from GBS - Guillain-Barre Syndrome- a paralyzing syndrome that can be triggered by a vaccination.
This has been a devastating and horrendous tragedy for this wonderful loving family. All of us who know them are praying for them.
So it is likely that a child has died following the flu shot, either seasonal or H1N1, as people are piping up with confirmable details. But the details of the stories don't match.
Officials need to get ahead of this story. Media.... you got wind of this yet?
Today in a conference call with Kathleen Sebelius and Thomas Insel, HHS told a small circle of autism groups that they would be releasing the new 1 in 100 autism rate on Monday.
They cautioned however, that they didn't know if the increase was a real increase or whether greater awareness... changes in measurement methods... better diagnosis... blah blah blah... because apparently our government doesn't even read their own publications.
The whole thing was so predictable that I could have written it for them yesterday.
AAP will also be releasing autism information on Monday, but we were told that it was embargoed.
Sebelius (before ditching out on the call five minutes in) also announced that Barack Obama was all over Autism, dropping 85 million for research into genetics, services, "evidence based treatment" (which is code for everything but biomedical which we refuse to research so it can't have any "evidence" so we don't have to recommend it) and telehealth (video conferencing for rural families).
No where were the words, "diet", "vaccine", "environmental", "toxic", "neuroinflamation", "autoimmune", "recovery" or any of those other words that I was looking for, ever spoken.
They did however excel in self-congratulations, Insel yelling "ouch!" at one point as he apparently dislocated his shoulder, while patting himself on the back. Pray for his speedy recovery. I am sure his Pharma Bros. can get him some good pain meds.
The conference call was not announced to the press or public, but merely in an email sent out at 9 am inviting around fifty people in the autism community (almost exclusively friendly to the administration) to the 2pm call with a "sorry for the short notice".
After listening to the call, my cynicism is increased, and I continue to encourage my readers NOT to wait for the government to do anything to prevent your child from contracting autism or to treat him. If you are reading this blog you are likely way ahead of Insel and company, and who knows how many years it will be before they catch up with us.
If this is the Obama approach, then I expect it will be at least Summer of 2013 before we hear a conference call from the administration that dares to utter the shocking phrase, "gastrointestinal damage".
They did talk about services, but I can't even give them the benefit of the doubt on that today. So when a child actually benefits from the 85 million being dropped on all this busy work, I will let you know.
And if your child benefits from anything Obama/Sebelius/Insel does, then make sure to drop me a note.
Until then, I just see this as talk because the heat is on and they have to look productive.
UPDATE: I was going to ask a question, bu the Q and A period ended as I was about to do so. Apparently several people asked questions that challenged the administration, but they were screened out by the call administrator. David Kirby's post on the matter.
