Below is my written testimony on LD 672 An Act Relating to Exemption from Immunization for Schoolchildren, urging the state of Maine to provide parents with true informed consent in vaccination.
Vaccine information given to parents does not represent true informed consent.
1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (Vaccine Injury Compensation Act or VICA) http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/authorizinglegislation.pdf:
- Declares all FDA approved
vaccines, "Unavoidably Unsafe,"
which means that they cannot be made safe for their intended use.
"The House Energy and Commerce Committee Report accompanying
the Vaccine Act, H. R. Rep. No. 99–908, pt. 1 (1986) (hereinafter 1986
Report), explains in relevant part:
“ Subsection
(b)—Unavoidable Adverse Side Effects; Direct Warnings .—This provision sets forth the
principle contained in Comment K of Section 402A of the Restatement of Torts
(Second) that a vaccine manufacturer should not be liable for injuries or
deaths resulting from unavoidable side effects even though the vaccine was
properly prepared and accompanied by proper directions and warnings.
“The Committee has set forth Comment K in
this bill because it intends that the principle in Comment K regarding ‘unavoidably unsafe’ products, i.e., those
products which in the present state of human skill and knowledge cannot
be made safe, apply to the vaccines covered in the
bill and that such products not be the subject of liability in the tort system.” Id. , at 25–26."
- Justice Sotomayor , with whom Justice Ginsburg joins,
dissenting, RUSSELL BRUESEWITZ, et al ., PETITIONERS v. WYETH LLC,
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/09-152.ZD.html
- Provides blanket liability protection for all involved
in vaccine design, production and distribution when injury or death from
vaccine occurs.
- Provides that CDC Vaccine Information Sheets (VIS sheets) be provided to patients or their parents
before any vaccine is administered so that they have informed consent. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/
- Establishes the HRSA Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, designed
to be a compassionate program with a low burden of proof to provide for vaccine
induce injury and death quickly (with in one year) to maintain confidence in
the vaccine program. http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/index.html
27 years later the consequences of this well intended law have been devastating
untold numbers of families, including mine.
1) The number of vaccines administered has
skyrocketed:
- When Pharmaceutical companies realized that they
had a product line for which the could not be held liable for injury and
death, and that governments would market for them via school mandates,
they poured considerable resources into R&D for vaccines and
aggressively began to market those vaccines to HHS.
- As a result, the Childhood vaccine schedule,
unchanged for nearly 20 years, began to become inflated beginning in 1988,
and is now almost three times what it was when the law was passed.
- If I were to have a child today, that baby would
receive more doses of vaccine by the time it was six months old than I did
by the time I went to college.
- The current vaccine schedule is untested as a
whole, vaccines are recommended in combinations for which there is no
safety testing, and doses are being added every year.
2) The HRSA
Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) has become a farce.
- Claims were supposed to be processed and paid
with in a year, however families
languish in the program for ten years or more with out a ruling,
reducing pay outs when the injured die before a ruling is made (as death can
be capped at $250,000)
- An arbitrary three year statute of limitations prevents many from being
able to take advantage of the program, as most families are never told
that a medical condition for which a child (or adult) is being treated may
be a vaccine injury and must find out on their own.
- The VICP which was supposed to be a
non-adversarial process is extremely aggressive with families. DOJ acts as the government's defense
council and often treat parents
seeking compensation as if they are criminals during hearings.
- Hearings
are secret and petitioners may
not bring anyone other than their lawyer into the proceedings.
- Families council are paid by VICP, so when lawyers are too aggressive in
fighting for families, they are 'punished.' Their billable hours are disputed, the
disputes can go on for months or years, and when the fees are settled,
VICP may take many more years to actually pay them. Attny burnout is high and it is
difficult to find anyone to take these cases any more. I don't know of one in Maine who takes VICP cases.
- Special Masters have openly bragged in front of
families that they are pleased at how quickly and how often they are able
to dispense with cases.
- Families
who "win" their cases do not receive money outright, but it is
placed in an account for them,
and they must apply to use the funds (the program has actually turned down
requests, for example, when one little girl grew out of her wheelchair,
the family requested a new one. VICP
turned the request down, saying they had already purchased her a wheel
chair.)
- There is no
prescient and rulings can contradict each other.
- Most
importantly, when the program rules that a vaccine has caused an illness,
disorder or disability, THAT INFORMATION IS NOT ADDED TO THE VIS SHEETS
GIVEN TO PARENTS AND PATIENTS AT THE TIME OF VACCINATION.
3) Parents and
patients are NOT given informed consent as VICA (and LD 672 An Act Relating to Exemption from Immunization for
Schoolchildren) intends
A) In the case of the
condition that is commonly diagnosed as "Autism":
1. While many public health agencies either give the impression or outright
state that vaccines do not cause autism, research
into the VICP has found 83 autism cases that were paid by the program under the
diagnosis of "Vaccine Encephalopathy," the medical term for brain
damage. (http://www.ebcala.org/unanswered-questions)
This was approximately 40% of the sample of VICP Encephalopathy cases that were
examined. If this percentage holds true
for the entire 1300+ cases paid by the program, VICP may have paid as many as
500 "autism" cases.
2. The VICP Vaccine Injury Table
actually lists the condition commonly known as "autism" as a outcome
of the MMR and DTaP vaccine, but refers to it as "decreased level of consciousness/reduced consciousness."
Refer to Vaccine Injury
Table and compare to the information provide to parents on the DTaP VIS Sheet:
Parents are never told to
look for "decreased or absent eye contact," or told that it is a symptom
of vaccine induced brain damage.
3. HRSA has outright admitted that
vaccines can cause the condition that is diagnosed as "autism."
When this legal maneuvering
came to light after CNN aired a press conference given by The Poling family
about their autistic daughter's VICP ruling, a reporter submitted a question to
HRSA asking if this was an admission that vaccines can cause autism. This is the statement that was issued by the
Obama Administration (emphasis mine):
"From: Bowman, David (HRSA) [mailto:DBowman@hrsa.gov]
Sent: Friday, February 20,
2009 5:22 PM
To: 'dkirby@nyc.rr.com'
Subject: HRSA Statement
David,
In response to your most
recent inquiry, HRSA has the following
statement:
The government has never
compensated, nor has it ever been ordered to
compensate, any case based
on a determination that autism was actually
caused by vaccines. We have
compensated cases in which children
exhibited an encephalopathy,
or general brain disease. Encephalopathy
may be accompanied by a medical progression of an
array of symptoms
including autistic behavior, autism, or seizures.
Some children who have been
compensated for vaccine injuries may have
shown signs of autism before
the decision to compensate, or may
ultimately end up with
autism or autistic symptoms, but we do
not track
cases on this basis.
Regards,
David Bowman
Office of Communications
Health Resources and
Services Administration
301-443-3376"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr-and-david-kirby/vaccine-court-autism-deba_b_169673.html
Subsequently, other families began to share their VICP rulings with the
public. One such case was that of Bailey
Banks, where the wording of the ruling left no question of wavering on the
issue:
"The Court found that Bailey's ADEM was both caused-in-fact and proximately caused by his vaccination. It is
well-understood that the vaccination at issue can cause ADEM, and the Court
found, based upon a full reading and hearing of the pertinent facts in this
case, that it did actually cause the ADEM. Furthermore, Bailey's ADEM was
severe enough to cause lasting, residual damage, and retarded his developmental
progress, which fits under the generalized heading of Pervasive Developmental
Delay, or PDD [an autism spectrum disorder]. The Court found that Bailey would not have suffered this delay but for
the administration of the MMR vaccine, and that this chain of causation was...
a proximate sequence of cause and effect leading inexorably from vaccination to
Pervasive Developmental Delay." http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/BANKS_CASE.pdf
4. The vast majority of research into the
vaccine/autism link DOES find an
association between vaccines and what is known as "autism."
I have attached 60 published papers to that effect in the appendix.
5. Sanofi Pasteur now lists autism as a reported
outcome on the vaccine package insert of their DTaP vaccine "Tripedia," and has since 2005. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM101580.pdf
DESPITE THIS AND MUCH MORE... PARENTS ARE NOT INFORMED THAT AUTISM IS AN
OUTCOME THAT THEIR CHILD MAY HAVE FROM VACCINES
B) Despite the fact that HRSA has ruled that the
Hepatitis B vaccine can cause the
deadly conditions of Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus, parents are not informed of
this on the CDC VIS sheets:
VICP ruled in the case of Tambra Harris, that
the deadly illness "she had suffered as a result of receiving a hepatitis
B vaccination was systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)." (Note that ruling took ten years)
- Louonia Denice Harris, Administratrix
of the Estate of Tambra Harris, V. Secretary of the Department of Health and
Human Services, No. 01-499V, March 23, 2011,
http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/CAMPBELL-SMITH.HARRIS032311.pdf
"Entitlement; Hep B vaccine; two months later, Devic's Disease (a
variant of MS) then death."
- JANE DOE/29, Personal
Representative of the Estate of DECEDENT, V. Secretary of the Department of
Health and Human Services, No. [redacted]V, January 16, 2009,
http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/MILLMAN.DOE012109B_0.pdf
Despite this, CDC's web site claims the following:
"Numerous studies have evaluated a possible relationship between
hepatitis B vaccination and multiple sclerosis (MS). The weight of the
available scientific evidence does not support the suggestion that hepatitis B
vaccine causes or worsens MS."
This leads is to an important
question...
Why would HHS not want to disclose accurate risk information to
parents?
C) HHS does not disclose that it is the patent
holder on the HPV vaccine, and receives
royalty checks on every dose of Merck's Gardasil and GSK's Cervarix.
HHS owns the patent through
NIH, licenses the vaccine through FDA, recommends the vaccine through CDC, and
is its own judge in vaccine injury cases through HRSA.
This gives HHS a powerful reason not to investigate Gardasil injury cases like
Jenny Tetlock's.
In
Conclusion:
The current VIS sheets DO NOT provide informed
consent to parents in making vaccine decisions, and giving them to parents does
not serve the stated intent of LD 672 "An
Act Relating to Exemption from Immunization for Schoolchildren" to
"provide to a parent of the child information about the benefits and risks of immunization..."
The Canary Party urges the State of Maine to engage in a thorough and critical examination
of the CDC recommended vaccine schedule and undertake a dramatic overhaul of
state vaccine policy and recommendations based in the information that has come
to light on true vaccine risks in the last decade.
Vaccine policy should not be based merely on the reduction of communicable
disease levels, but on overall health outcomes for children, including the true
increased risk of autoimmune and neurological disorders that may be caused by
an overaggressive and inappropriate vaccine schedule.
Electronic copies of this presentation and all documents can be found at:
Appendix
Research supporting the argument that
vaccine induced brain injury can cause autism
American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 6, 1611-1617, December 2004
Toxicology and
Applied Pharmacology, 2006
3. Vaccine Safety Study as an Interesting Case
of "Over-Matching"
M. Catherine
DeSoto and Robert T. Hitlan, University
of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, USA
4. Uncoupling of
ATP-mediated Calcium Signaling and Dysregulated IL-6 Secretion in Dendritic
Cells by Nanomolar Thimerosal
Environmental
Health Perspectives, July 2006.
6. Comparison of
Blood and Brain Mercury Levels in Infant Monkeys Exposed to Methylmercury or
Vaccines Containing Thimerosal
Environmental
Health Perspectives, Aug 2005.
7. Increases in
the number of reactive glia in the visual cortex of Macaca fascicularis
following subclinical long-term methyl mercury exposure.
Toxicology and
Applied Pharmacology, 1994
8. Neuroglial
Activation and Neuroinflammation in the Brain of Patients with Autism
Annals of
Neurology, Feb 2005.
Clinical
Neuropsychiatry, 2005
10. Activation of Methionine Synthase by
Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 and Dopamine: a Target for Neurodevelopmental
Toxins and Thimerosal
Molecular
Psychiatry, July 2004.
11. Validation of the Phenomenon of Autistic Regression Using
Home Videotapes
Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005
12. Blood Levels of Mercury Are Related to Diagnosis of
Autism: A Reanalysis of an Important Data Set
Journal of Child Neurology, Vol. 22, No. 11, 1308-1311 (2007)
13. Developmental Regression and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in
a Child With Autism
Journal of Child Neurology / Volume 21, Number 2, February 2006
14. Oxidative Stress in Autism: Elevated Cerebellar
3-nitrotyrosine Levels
American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 4 (2): 73-84, 2008
15. Large
Brains in Autism: The Challenge of Pervasive Abnormality
The Neuroscientist, Volume 11, Number 5, 2005.
16. Evidence of Toxicity, Oxidative Stress, and Neuronal Insult in Autism
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Nov-Dec 2006.
17. Oxidative Stress in Autism
Pathophysiology, 2006.
18. Thimerosal
Neurotoxicity is Associated with Glutathione Depletion: Protection with
Glutathione Precursors
Neurotoxicology, Jan 2005.
19. Aluminum adjuvant linked to gulf war illness induces motor neuron
death in mice
Neuromolecular Medicine, 2007
20. Environmental
mercury release, special education rates, and autism disorder: an ecological
study of Texas
Health & Place, 2006
21. Autism Spectrum Disorders in Relation to Distribution of
Hazardous Air Pollutants in the SF Bay Area
Environmental Health Perspectives – Vol. 114 No. 9, September, 2006
22. A Case Series of Children with Apparent Mercury Toxic
Encephalopathies Manifesting with Clinical Symptoms of Regressive Autistic
Disorder
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, 2007
23. Attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder and blood mercury level: a case-control study in chinese
children
Neuropediatrics, August 2006 - P.R. Kong [Department of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine, The University of Hong Kong].
24. The Changing Prevalence of Autism In California
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, April 2003
25. Mitochondrial Energy-Deficient Endophenotype in Autism
American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 4 (2): 198-207, 2008
26. Bridging from Cells to Cognition in Autism
Pathophysiology: Biological
Pathways to Defective Brain Function and Plasticity
American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 4 (2): 167-176, 2008
27. Heavy-Metal Toxicity—With Emphasis on Mercury
John Neustadt, ND, and Steve Pieczenik, MD, PhD
28. Evidence of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Autism and
Implications for Treatment
American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 4 (2): 208-217, 2008
29. Proximity to point sources of environmental mercury
release as a predictor of autism prevalence
Health & Place, 2008
30. Epidemiology of autism spectrum disorder in Portugal:
prevalence, clinical characterization, and medical conditions
Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 2007
31. Thimerosal induces neuronal cell apoptosis by causing
cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor release from mitochondria.
International Journal of Molecular Medicine, 2006
32. Mitochondrial mediated thimerosal-induced apoptosis in a
human neuroblastoma cell line (SK-N-SH).
Neurotoxicology. 2005
33. Possible
Immunological Disorders in Autism: Concomitant Autoimmunity and Immune
Tolerance
The Egyptian Journal of Immunology, 2006
34. Vaccines
and Autism: What do Epidemiological Studies Really Tell Us
Coalition for
SafeMinds
35. Thimerosal
exposure in infants and neurodevelopmental disorders: An assessment of
computerized medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink.
Young HA, Geier DA, Geier MR.
36. Glutathione,
oxidative stress and neurodegeneration
Eur J Biochem. 2000 Aug;267(16):4904-11.
37. Hepatitis B triple series vaccine and developmental
disability in US children aged 1-9 years
Journal Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry, Volume 90, Issue 5
September 2008 , pages 997 - 1008
38. Induction
of metallothionein in mouse cerebellum and cerebrum with low-dose thimerosal
injection.
Cell Biology and Toxicology. 2009 Apr 9. [Epub ahead of print]
39. Mercury induces inflammatory mediator release from human
mast cells
Journal of Neuroinflammation 2010, 7:20 doi:10.1186/1742-2094-7-20
40. Influence of pediatric vaccines on amygdala growth and
opioid ligand binding in rhesus macaque infants: A pilot study
Acta Neurobiol Exp 2010, 70: 147–164 Polish Neuroscience Society - PTBUN,
Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology
41. Cultured lymphocytes from autistic
children and non-autistic siblings up-regulate heat shock protein RNA in
response to thimerosal challenge.
Neurotoxicology. 2006 Sep;27(5):685-92. Epub 2006 Jun 16.
42. Hepatitis B Vaccination of Male Neonates and Autism
Annals of Epidemiology , Vol. 19, No. 9 ABSTRACTS (ACE), September 2009:
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p. 659
43. Neonatal administration of a vaccine preservative,
thimerosal, produces lasting impairment of nociception and apparent activation
of opioid system in rats.
Brain Res. 2009 Dec 8;1301:143-51. Epub 2009 Sep 9.
44. Sorting out the spinning of autism: heavy metals and the
question of incidence
Acta Neurobiol Exp 2010, 70: 165–176
45. Urinary
Porphyrin Excretion in Neurotypical and Autistic Children
Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Oct;118(10):1450-7. Epub 2010 Jun 24.
46. Mitochondrial dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders: a
systematic review and meta-analysis
Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication 25 January 2011;doi:
10.1038/mp.2010.136
47. Sensitization effect of thimerosal is mediated in vitro
via reactive oxygen species and calcium signaling.
Toxicology. 2010 July - August;274(1-3):1-9. Epub 2010 May 10.
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L, Tailhardat M, Courtellemont P, Haftek M, Serres M.
50. Theoretical aspects of autism: Causes—A review
Journal of Immunotoxicology, January-March 2011, Vol. 8, No. 1 , Pages 68-79
51. A
Positive Association found between Autism Prevalence and Childhood Vaccination
uptake across the U.S. Population
Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A: Current Issues
Volume 74, Issue 14, 2011, Pages 903 - 916
52. Ancestry
of pink disease (infantile acrodynia) identified as a risk factor for autism
spectrum disorders.
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2011 Sep 15;74(18):1185-94.
Shandley K, Austin
DW.
53. Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising
prevalence of autism?
J Inorg Biochem. 2011 Nov;105(11):1489-99. Epub 2011 Aug 23.
Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA.
54. Lasting neuropathological changes
in rat brain after intermittent neonatal administration of thimerosal.
55. Hepatitis B vaccine induces
apoptotic death in Hepa1-6 cells
Apoptosis. 2012 Jan 17. Hamza H, Cao J, Li X, Li C, Zhu M, Zhao S.
56. Risk Factors for Autistic
Regression: Results of an Ambispective Cohort Study.
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57. Adverse events following 12 and 18 month vaccinations: a
population-based, self-controlled case series analysis.
PLoS One. 2011;6(12):e27897. Epub 2011 Dec 12.
58. Administration of thimerosal to
infant rats increases overflow of glutamate and aspartate in the prefrontal
cortex: protective role of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate.
Neurochem Res. 2012 Feb;37(2):436-47. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
59. Neonatal Administration of
Thimerosal Causes Persistent Changes in Mu Opioid Receptors in the Rat Brain
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