Boyd Haley Comments On Thimerosal and Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Boyd Haley, is the Chairman of the Chemistry Department of the University of Kentucky and has done research into the way mercury behaves in the body. Here he comments on how mercury damages the mitochondria.

I am posting this for those of you who understand advanced biochemistry. I am not one of you.

Mitochondria are exceptionally susceptible to mercury toxicity for two very obvious reasons if you are trained in biochemistry.

First, the mitochondrial located pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH) that receives pyruvate from glycolysis (in the cell cytosol) requires lipoic acid as a cofactor. Lipoic acid has two closely placed thiol groups that reduce-oxidize-reduce in a cyclic manner as the pyruvate is converted acetyl-CoA then used to produce citrate in the mitochondrial located citric acid cycle. Lipoic acid is an excellent chelator of Hg2+, but this totally blocks PDH and prevents activity of the citric acid cycle. This inhibits the production of NADH and FADH2 which feed into the electron transport system that makes the pH gradient that is used to make ATP (the high energy compound that is used to synthesis protein, DNA, RNA, glutathione etc.). You get the picture--inhibiting this initial enzyme, PDH, causes a lot of down stream problems. Lack of ATP prevents many biochemical systems from working, including the synthesis of glutathione (which autistic children are low in) that make them susceptible to many other toxins since glutathione needs to be attached to many to have them excreted by the body.

Second, the electron transport system in the mitochondria is rich with iron-sulfur clusters that aid in the transport of electrons and the production of the pH gradient that is needed to make ATP. Mercury would potently inhibit this system due to its attraction to such sulfur complexes.

Conclusion, the young girl in the latest autism story may or may not have had a mitochondrial disorder before receiving her thimerosal containing shots. This would have to be proven by a genetic testing. However, she, nor anyone else getting high doses of thimerosal at an early age, would necessarily have to have an underlying mitochondrial disorder to have a negative reaction to thimerosal exposure. Thimerosal exposure at a young age could definitely be the cause of the mitochondrial problems she had subsequent to the vaccines.

Boyd Haley

Toxic Levels of Mercury in Chinese Infants Eating Fish Congee

More evidence of the link that does not exist:

"A boy aged 2 years and 10 months presented with delayed speech and some autistic features. Since weaning, he had eaten fish (barramundi, sea perch, salmon and rock cod) up to eight times a week. He had no history of herbal medicine use, and his thyroid function, blood lead level, and a DNA screen for fragile X syndrome were normal. The child’s blood mercury level was 350 nmol/L and urine Hg/Cr ratio was 14 nmol/mmol (NR, < 10 nmol/mmol*)."

Toxic Levels of Mercury in Chinese Infants Eating Fish Congee

Stephen J Corbett and Christopher C S Poon

MJA 2008; 188 (1): 59-60

To the Editor: We report elevated mercury levels in three infants, each the only child of Chinese parents living in Sydney. All three children had eaten fish congee (a rice and fish porridge) as a weaning food and ate fish regularly as toddlers. Their parents had sought medical advice for either developmental delay or neurological symptoms in the children.

A 2-year-old boy had demonstrated increasingly aggressive behaviour for the past 6 months. A general practitioner had diagnosed mercury poisoning in the boy’s father 2 months earlier, following investigation for complaints of allergies, rashes, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. The family ate fish (usually salmon, barramundi or snapper) at least five times a week, and had used unspecified herbal medicines in the past. The child had eaten fish regularly since weaning. The boy’s blood mercury level was 158 nmol/L (normal range [NR], < 50 nmol/L), a random urine mercury/creatinine (Hg/Cr) ratio was 9 nmol/mmol (NR, < 6 nmol/mmol*), and his hair mercury level was 1.42 mg% (NR, < 0.18 mg%). The boy’s father and mother (who was pregnant) also had elevated hair mercury levels, of 4.3 mg% and 6.0 mg%, respectively. The father and child were treated with chelation therapy elsewhere.

* The two laboratories reported different normal ranges for the urine Hg/Cr ratio.

A boy aged 2 years and 10 months presented with delayed speech and some autistic features. Since weaning, he had eaten fish (barramundi, sea perch, salmon and rock cod) up to eight times a week. He had no history of herbal medicine use, and his thyroid function, blood lead level, and a DNA screen for fragile X syndrome were normal. The child’s blood mercury level was 350 nmol/L and urine Hg/Cr ratio was 14 nmol/mmol (NR, < 10 nmol/mmol*). The boy’s father did not eat fish, and his blood mercury level was 19 nmol/L. The child’s mother did eat fish, and had a blood mercury level of 27 nmol/L. Two weeks after removing fish from the diet, the child’s blood mercury level had fallen to 99 nmol/L and his urine Hg/Cr ratio to 7 nmol/mmol. However, his behaviour did not improve, and he was subsequently diagnosed with classical autism.

A 15-month-old boy presented with delayed development since birth. Fish had been introduced to his diet at 8 months of age, and he had since continued to consume fish four to five times a week. He had recently eaten either ling or salmon. The boy’s mother had consumed ling three to four times a week after the fifth month of her pregnancy. The child’s thyroid function, DNA screen for fragile X syndrome, chromosome karyotype, and urinary metabolic screen were normal. His blood mercury level was 143 nmol/L, but fell to 19 nmol/L over a period of 1 year after ceasing fish intake. His longer-term developmental status is unknown.

Fish congee, made with either freshwater species or locally caught fish, is a common weaning food in coastal regions of southern China and South-East Asia.1 Adding fish to the weaning diet has health benefits,1,2 such as reducing anaemia, and is actively promoted. However, fish, particularly the large pelagic (open ocean) species more likely to be bought in Australia, may also contain mercury. Excessive consumption of mercury has been associated with neurological impairment.3-5

The Box shows that the consumption by infants of fish congee made from portions of large fish species may exceed the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI)7 for methylmercury of 1.6 μg/kg bodyweight/week (the limit considered sufficient to protect a developing fetus). Food Standards Australia New Zealand’s most recent risk assessment concluded that median-level consumers of fish are unlikely to exceed the PTWI for methylmercury,6 but frequent consumers might if all their consumption is of predatory or long-lived fish species, which tend to acccumulate higher concentrations of mercury.

It has been previously noted in the Journal that public health policy regarding fish consumption needs to balance the health benefits for cardiovascular disease and anaemia with the possible ill effects of mercury on neurological development in infants.8

We recommend that multilingual information about fish and mercury be made available to pregnant women and mothers, especially targeting groups who are likely to be frequent consumers of fish and who use fish in weaning and infant foods. Regulatory and health promotion activities could also be informed by surveillance of blood or hair mercury levels in infants from ethnic groups at high risk of mercury intoxication, and of the frequency of fish consumption in this age group (by type of fish).

Estimated weekly mercury intake in infants consuming fish congee

Its Not Just The Mercury: Aluminum Hydroxide In Vaccines

When parents began suspecting that their children's autism was triggered by their vaccines, and those parents in the scientific professions began to look at the plausibility of the vaccine/autism connection, one ingredient jumped out at them as the most likely culprit. Mercury. Excessive mercury. So much mercury in one typical shot (25mg)that according to EPA guidelines a person must weigh 550lbs to safely process the amount of mercury that was being injected into a child. And they often got more than one shot at a time.

After all mercury is the most toxic substance on earth that does not set off a geiger counter.

It has taken more than a decade, but the public and scientific community is finally on the same page on the idea that it does not belong in vaccines. And yet is it still in vaccines. We continue to work on the problem.

But now that the mercury message is out there, it is time for the scientific community to begin to turn their attention to the other three well known dangers that are in vaccines. Aluminum, Monosodium Glutamate, and Formaldehyde.

Today we are going to give Aluminum a look.

Aluminum is known to be associated with degenerative, fatal neurological conditions like Parkinson's, ALS (Lou Gehrig's) and Alzheimer's. And yet according to the CDC, it is in the following vaccines:

Anthrax, DTaP (all brands), DT (all brands), Hib/Hep B (Comvax), Hep A (all brands), Hep B (all brands), HPV (Gardasil), Pneumococcal (Prevnar), Rabies (Biorab), Td (all brands), and Tdap (all brands).

That is most of the vaccines on the CDC's list.

The reason that aluminum is in our vaccines is because it is an adjuvant.

Generally speaking, the way vaccines work is that they contain a virus and substances called ‘adjuvants’ (like mercury and aluminum) that kick the immune system into high gear so that they go on the hunt for the viruses, eat ‘um up, and create antibodies against further infection.

In people with typical immune systems, the body then stands down from high alert. But in some people, it doesn’t, and the immune system begins to behave like early 20th century Germany and attacks what ever is in sight. The result, autoimmune disorders.

A few examples of autoimmune disorders: When the immune system attacks the connective tissue, you get arthritis, when it attacks the mylon sheath around the nerves, you get Guillain-Barré Syndrome (a known side effect of the flu shot that causes paralysis), and when it attacks the pancreas you have Type 1 Diabetes. And on and on.

Because autism was first seen as a psychiatric problem caused by bad parenting, it has taken decades for it to be properly medically investigated, and for the autoimmune features of the disorder (i.e. cytokines in the brain causing swelling leading to cognitive dysfunction) to be recognized. (Which is why even mild anti inflammatory agents like fish oil improve communication skills of so many people with autism, and why parents report that children’s autistic symptoms seem to improve when their kids are sick.)

(When Chandler was diagnosed and we had his immune system tested, viola… hyper drive. I just thought he had rough skin… turns out it was mild eczema. When I started him on fish oil and his rough skin turned back into baby skin and his eye contact and verbal skills improved.)

So the reason that aluminum needs as hard a look as a vaccine component as mercury does, is because we are learning that it also causes cell death. A lot of cell death. In the brain.

Canadian neuroscientist Chris Shaw did not set out to shake confidence in vaccination, but what he and his team found when testing Aluminum Hydroxide, the form used most often in vaccines, really upset them.

"No one in my lab wants to get vaccinated," he said. "This totally creeped us out. We weren't out there to poke holes in vaccines. But all of a sudden, oh my God-we've got neuron death!"

Vaccines Show Sinister Side
By Pieta Woolley
Straight.com
March 23, 2006

If two dozen once-jittery mice at UBC are telling the truth postmortem, the world's governments may soon be facing one hell of a lawsuit. New, so-far-unpublished research led by Vancouver neuroscientist Chris Shaw shows a link between the aluminum hydroxide used in vaccines, and symptoms associated with Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease), and Alzheimer's.

Shaw is most surprised that the research for his paper hadn't been done before. For 80 years, doctors have injected patients with aluminum hydroxide, he said, an adjuvant that stimulates immune response.

"This is suspicious," he told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview from his lab near Heather Street and West 12th Avenue. "Either this [link] is known by industry and it was never made public, or industry was never made to do these studies by Health Canada. I'm not sure which is scarier."

Similar adjuvants are used in the following vaccines, according to Shaw's paper: hepatitis A and B, and the Pentacel cocktail, which vaccinates against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and a type of meningitis.

To test the link theory, Shaw and his four-scientist team from UBC and Louisiana State University injected mice with the anthrax vaccine developed for the first Gulf War. Because Gulf War Syndrome looks a lot like ALS, Shaw explained, the neuroscientists had a chance to isolate a possible cause. All deployed troops were vaccinated with an aluminum hydroxide compound. Vaccinated troops who were not deployed to the Gulf developed similar symptoms at a similar rate, according to Shaw.

After 20 weeks studying the mice, the team found statistically significant increases in anxiety (38 percent); memory deficits (41 times the errors as in the sample group); and an allergic skin reaction (20 percent). Tissue samples after the mice were "sacrificed" showed neurological cells were dying. Inside the mice's brains, in a part that controls movement, 35 percent of the cells were destroying themselves.

"No one in my lab wants to get vaccinated," he said. "This totally creeped us out. We weren't out there to poke holes in vaccines. But all of a sudden, oh my God-we've got neuron death!"

At the end of the paper, Shaw warns that "whether the risk of protection from a dreaded disease outweighs the risk of toxicity is a question that demands our urgent attention."

He's not the only one considering that.

The charge that there's a sinister side to magic bullets isn't new. With his pen blazing, celebrity journalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. popularized vaccine scepticism with his article arguing that mercury in vaccines causes autism, which ran in the June 2005 Rolling Stone and on-line at Salon.com. So did last year's vaccines-linked-to- autism bestseller, Evidence of Harm by David Kirby (St. Martin's Press). But there's a potential public-health cost to all the controversy, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

"Vaccines have been a victim of their own success," spokesperson Ian Roe told the Straight in a telephone interview from Ottawa. Diseases such as polio, which killed his father-in-law, are almost eradicated and therefore no longer serve as a warning to parents. But the epidemic threat is still real. "If everyone decided to not get vaccinated, we'd live in a very different world."

Canada's last national immunization conference, in December 2004, heard a report that vaccine coverage is sometimes low. For diphtheria, the Public Health Agency of Canada found that just 75 percent of two-year-olds are immunized; the target is 99 percent. For tetanus, just 66 percent of 17-year-olds are immunized, compared to a target of 97 percent.

Dr. Ronald Gold, the former head of the infectious-disease division at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, told the conference that "we will never be without an anti-vaccine movement," but "in reality, there is no scientific evidence for these myths."

Can I just stop here for a second and point out that in the middle of offering you scientific evidence for the theory that vaccines cause serious and permanent brain damage that I AGAIN have to be faced with someone in medical authority saying, "NO LINK"! How many studies have to find a link before they will stop saying it, "no link"?

There are hundreds of studies, but they don't want to look at them.

I will start writing more about them.

The collective denial is staggering.

Shaw acknowledges that there's a lot of pressure on parents to vaccinate their children. "You're considered to be a really bad parent if you don't vaccinate," he said-and your child can't attend public school. "But I don't think the safety of vaccines is demarcated. How does a parent make a decision based on what's available? You can't make an intelligent decision."

Conservatively, he said, if one percent of vaccinated humans develop ALS from vaccine adjuvants, it would still constitute a health emergency.

It's possible, he said, that there are 10,000 studies that show aluminum hydroxide is safe for injections. But he hasn't been able to find any that look beyond the first few weeks of injection. If anyone has a study that shows something different, he said, please "put it on the table. That's how you do science."

Neuroscience research is difficult, Shaw said, because symptoms can take years to manifest, so it's hard to prove what caused the symptoms.

"To me, that calls for better testing, not blind faith."

He pointed out that George W. Bush passed legislation that opens the door for the USA to order a nationwide anthrax immunization campaign, with the threat of bioterrorism.

Shaw's paper is currently undergoing a peer review.

Despite the fact that Shaw announced his study in March of 2006, only three months ago, Melinda Wharton, Deputy Director of the National Center of Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at CDC, gave an interview to Jaye Watson of WXIA TV in Atlanta and here is what she said about the dangers of aluminum content:

Q. Aluminum is used in vaccines. This is a question I bring with me from attending the conference and seeing a panel of 3 doctors or so talk about aluminum and the amount in vaccines. One said that the aluminum exposures for the vaccine’s recommended of the 2 month visit exceed the suggested safety limits set by the FDA. Has the CDC tested the toxicity of aluminum in vaccines?

A. The vaccines are licensed by the FDA, and the vaccines meet FDA standards, so no, CDC hasn’t looked at that particular issue, but that is handled by the Food and Drug Administration’s part of vaccine licensing.

Q. So, that would almost be counter productive….

A. It wouldn’t be licensed if it was toxic.

Because we all know that the FDA would never license something that was harmful to people. (Thalidomide is currently an FDA approved drug? What the hell?!)

Shaw's study completed peer review, it was published in in 2207 in Neuromolecular Medicine:

Aluminum adjuvant linked to gulf war illness induces motor neuron death in mice.
Neuromolecular Med. 2007;9(1):83-100.
Petrik MS, Wong MC, Tabata RC, Garry RF, Shaw CA.

Department of Ophthalmology and Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Gulf War illness (GWI) affects a significant percentage of veterans of the 1991 conflict, but its origin remains unknown. Associated with some cases of GWI are increased incidences of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and other neurological disorders. Whereas many environmental factors have been linked to GWI, the role of the anthrax vaccine has come under increasing scrutiny. Among the vaccine's potentially toxic components are the adjuvants aluminum hydroxide and squalene. To examine whether these compounds might contribute to neuronal deficits associated with GWI, an animal model for examining the potential neurological impact of aluminum hydroxide, squalene, or aluminum hydroxide combined with squalene was developed. Young, male colony CD-1 mice were injected with the adjuvants at doses equivalent to those given to US military service personnel. All mice were subjected to a battery of motor and cognitive-behavioral tests over a 6-mo period postinjections. Following sacrifice, central nervous system tissues were examined using immunohistochemistry for evidence of inflammation and cell death. Behavioral testing showed motor deficits in the aluminum treatment group that expressed as a progressive decrease in strength measured by the wire-mesh hang test (final deficit at 24 wk; about 50%). Significant cognitive deficits in water-maze learning were observed in the combined aluminum and squalene group (4.3 errors per trial) compared with the controls (0.2 errors per trial) after 20 wk. Apoptotic neurons were identified in aluminum-injected animals that showed significantly increased activated caspase-3 labeling in lumbar spinal cord (255%) and primary motor cortex (192%) compared with the controls. Aluminum-treated groups also showed significant motor neuron loss (35%) and increased numbers of astrocytes (350%) in the lumbar spinal cord. The findings suggest a possible role for the aluminum adjuvant in some neurological features associated with GWI and possibly an additional role for the combination of adjuvants.

(One note on what Apoptosis is. It is basically when a cell self destructs.

Apoptosis is also the process that is taking place, via mitochondrial dysfunction, when Thimerosal is administered, that came to our attention when Dr. Jon Poling discussed the details of his daughter Hannah's case.

Hanna was the first case of an autistic child paid from the US Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund to be made public, although details are coming to light that she is at least the 10th such child. The other families are currently working to make their cases known.)

So here is the questions that parents are currently beginning to ask: as thimerosal has been in the process of removal from vaccines, have manufacturers replaced it with higher doses of aluminum to added to make up for the adjuvant properties lost when mercury was no longer present? How do we know what a safe level of aluminum is for our children? Does the CDC even care?

The Attack on Big Mac

Across the blogesphere this week John McCain has been attacked for making the comment, "It’s indisputable that autism is on the rise among children. The question is, What’s causing it? And we go back and forth, and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines." (David Kirby could not have been more right when he told McCain to watch out for incoming).

Political blogs that have never touched on the vaccine/autism issue have used words like 'lunatic' and 'crackpot' in discussing now Republican Nominee for President John McCain. Even conservative bloggers who support him for president are being critical.

And the truly bizarre thing about these attacks is that they have all sprung from this account by Jake Tapper which includes, right at the top, a mention of the bombshell news that the US Government has just conceded the first vaccine/autism case to come to a conclusion in the Federal Vaccine Court.

These attacks either make no mention of the case, or give it a cursory mention, as Tapper did, and then pretend it was never said. They then move on to make their arguments predicated on the now legally false claim that 'There Is No Link Between Vaccines And Autism'.

Yesterday I submitted some version of the following comment on at least 4 different blog posts that were attacking McCain:

I want to call everyone's attention back to the question that actually elicited this response from John McCain in the first place.

In that meeting in Texas, another autism mom who believes as I do asked him about the revelation last week that The US Government, in the Federal Vaccine Court, had finally come to a decision on the FIRST vaccine/autism case, that that decision was...

...and I am gonna bold the hell out of this because this is very, very important...

THE GOVERNMENT CONCEDED THAT THE PLAINTIFFS AUTISM WAS THE RESULT OF A VACCINE INJURY AND SHE WILL NOW BE PAID DAMAGES FROM THE VACCINE INJURY COMPENSATION FUND!!!!!

There are 4,900 autism/vaccine cases in the pipeline, and in case #1 the verdict has just gone to the family that alleged that vaccines made their child autistic.

In other words, at the current time, 100% of all the vaccine/autism cases tried in the Federal Court finds a causal link between vaccines and autism.

And apparently the family whose burden it was to prove that their child's autism was triggered by her vaccines had such a good case, that the Department of Justice, which is fighting like hell in the two other cases currently under way, decided it was not even worth trying to fight.

...And yet these attacks on John McCain are are reporting the forgone conclusion that there is no link?

Respectfully, could it be that John McCain is actually paying closer attention to the issue than they are?

So that everyone may investigate this for themselves, here is the info to get started (from another piece I wrote):

In November the US Government conceded that a little girl's autism was brought on by her vaccines and she will be paid out of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund. Her case was one of the first three test cases chosen to put the vaccine/autism theory under the microscope at the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings. This is only the first of 4,900 cases before the Federal vaccine court to get a decision.

The case was supposed to go to trial this coming May, but was instead settled and subsequently sealed by the court, who claimed that it was for the protection of the child's privacy. Except that the family has waved their right to privacy and apparently wants the fact of the case and the ruling known.

Journalist David Kirby obtained the court documents and published them last week. The family of the girl is planning a press conference this week in Atlanta some time.

No major US news outlets have run the story on the bombshell court ruling, and in fact in the past week several 'experts' have been in the news repeating the now legally false claim that there is no link between vaccines and autism. ABC News looked at doing a story on the government court concession, it but then didn't.

Despite the fact that the both the blogesphere and the autism community are going crazy with the story... the only mainstream news outlet to report thus far has been the Sunday Herald in Scotland.

So what we have here is the government and the medical community publicly telling parents that vaccines have no relationship to autism while privately admitting the link and paying damages to a family for vaccine induced autism. And apparently hoping that no one will notice.

Which in this case is actually kind of working.. because blogs like this and the ones mentioned above, actually quote that the case went to the vaccine/autism plaintiff, and then ignore it and slap McCain?

It is just bizarre to me!

Why does your blog post say something to the effect of, "WTF!? The government admitted that a vaccine caused autism in one of the test cases to test the theory that vaccines cause autism? And they are voluntarily paying damages? Why do they keep telling us that here is no link then? What the hell is going on?!"

All of the blogs had moderated comments, except for one. None of the blogs with moderated comments posted it.

It is as if I were watching "Cloverfield" and all the news reports that we see interspersed through out the film when the main characters run by a TV were stories about how things were exploding and buildings were falling down and thousands were dead all over town, but made no mention that all this was happening because there was a 20 story monster stomping through Mid-Town. Because everyone knows there is no such thing as monsters, so even when one appears right before our eyes, best just to ignore it really. But do go on to report the impact of the monster, because that is dramatic stuff.

I reiterate... WTF?

It is not just as if they missed the big story here, it as if they are FIGHTING to ignore the big story. Political bloggers across the country are collectively sticking their fingers in their ears and singing the, "La La La... I'm Not Listening" song.

So my next question is this... how many of the Vaccine Court cases have to go in favor of the petitioners until main stream American media and the political blogesphere begins to give the link between autism and vaccines serious consideration? Not even believe that it is conclusive fact, but just merely worthy enough of consideration to stop mocking people who discuss the matter publicly?

One definitive court case, an actual legal precedent, is apparently not enough. If either of other two of the three test cases currently under way in the Vaccine Omnibus Hearings, the ones that were chosen to represent many of the 4,900 cases that are in the pipeline, go to the plaintiffs, is that enough to make everyone sit up and pay attention?

Or will the media actually be able to keep their fingers in there ears if all 4,900 cases end with the verdict that gets these kids paid for their children's regression into autism due to vaccines?

UPDATE: Cudos to The New Scientist for getting to the heart of the matter, and giving the Government Concession the weight it deserved! Although they are wrong in their statement that, "decades of research have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism", they are asking the very important question...

If there is no link, then why pay Hanna?

They seem earnestly confused by the move and one pediatrician interviewed said he was 'stunned'.

Read my thank you/challenge to them and go encourage them to demand that HHS return their call and get the government to explain there contradictory stances.

ABC's Dr. Tim Johnson Tells A Big Mis Truth on TV

Last week on Good Morning America, ABC's medical expert Dr. Tim Johnson said the following when asked about vaccines and autism:

"Well, it's understandable why parents make that connection because their kids get shots and they get Autism at the same ages.

But I have to tell you, Diane, every good study that looks at this has found no increased risk from vaccines. They look at kids who get vaccinated and kids who don't.

THERE'S NO INCREASE IN RISK FOR AUTISM AMONG THOSE WHO GET VACCINES VERSES THOSE WHO DON'T.

The Institute of Medicine, which I think is an impeccably independent body, has looked at all the evidence an said there's no connection. I think that's the truth."

With in 2 minutes autism message boards were running over with, "Wait... did he just lie on national television... any one got TVIO and can back that up and listen to that again?" messages.

Because us parents know good and well, the only vaccinated v. unvaccinated study ever completed was the Generation Rescue survey last year of "over 9,000 boys in California and Oregon and found that vaccinated boys had a 155% greater chance of having a neurological disorder like ADHD or autism than unvaccinated boys".

And the only other vaxed v. unvaxed study that was begun dropped the unvaxxed kids from the study with in weeks because they found to high of a correlation between vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically autism. In one case the risk ran as high as 600%! (You guessed it, the study was done by the CDC who didn't want to publish something that would implicate them in the autism epidemic).

That is the OPPOSITE of what Doc Johnson reported.

Autism mom Monica Bice got the message to ABC news pronto pointing out the misinformation and got back a reply from Audrey Grayson at the ABC News Medical Unit, who clearly has never read the studies that she is quoting.

This was my letter to her today:

Dear Ms. Grayson,

I read your response to Monica Bice's request that Dr. Timothy Johnson's errant comment be retracted by ABC.

I wanted to call your attention to a review I wrote of the Denmark and Verstraten studies two years ago so that you can see that these two studies do nothing to disprove the theory that thimerosal containing vaccines trigger autism. It was originally posted here: http://adventuresinautism.blogspot.com/2005/08/heres-why-disdain.html

Both of these studies are fatally flawed and Verstraeten cannot be replicated, and parents and advocacy groups demands that they be retracted have fallen on deaf ears for years.

It is unbelievable that these two studies are STILL being proffered to support vaccine safety, because they do no such thing.

Attached is my review of the two studies and why I do not, as a mother and as a mental health professional, believe that they can be used to inform either my decisions to vaccinate my children, or to make decisions on vaccine policy in this country.

Please... take the time to read them in their entirety, and then go back and read the studies again, yourself, to see if I am right or not.

This medical misinformation has been allowed to continue, year after year, because journalists are not reading these studies for themselves, and the criticisms of them, and using their critical thinking skills to check the claims of the medical establishment that are rife with conflicts of interest.

Before you use these studies to support vaccine safety claims again... investigate them.

It is time for those in medical journalism to get back to being real investigative journalists, not just mimmics for the CDC.

I reiterate Ms. Bice's request that Dr. Johnson's statement be retracted. The only vaccinated v. unvaccinated study every completed (by Generation Rescue last year) found a dramatic correlation between vaccines and autism, and the early versions of the Verstraeten study, when he was still including unvaccinated populations, show a dramatic correlation as well.

Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor, M.S.

Critical Mass: John McCain, Thimerosal, The Government's Vaccine/Autism Consession and ABC News

critical mass
–noun
1. Physics. The amount of a given fissionable material necessary to sustain a nuclear chain reaction at a constant rate.
2. an amount necessary or sufficient to have a significant effect or to achieve a result: a critical mass of popular support.
[Origin: 1940–45]

What do ABC News, John McCain, Thimerosal and The Government concession that autistic Eve deserved compensation for her vaccine injury have in common?

This Article entitled John McCain Enters The Autism Wars.

It may on be an ABC News Blog, but it has reported that John McCain believes that vaccine additives are related to the autism epidemic.

I have been gearing up to write about John McCain and the fact that he emerged months ago as The Autism Candidate, but was still compiling information.

The quick facts are, that at the beginning of the primaries, of the dozen or so candidates for president that autism parents were talking to, one guy listened.

John McCain.

He met Sam and Sam's mom, and listened to their vaccine injury story and listened to the wonderful stories of autism recovery that were taking place via DAN! methods.

And a few weeks later, when Sam and his mom attended another McCain event, Big Mac recognized Sam and his mom in the crowd and gave him a shout out. Then he listed to Sam and his mom some more and introduced them to his staffers.

... and last night at his town hall meeting in Texas, he said, "It’s indisputable that (autism) is on the rise amongst children, the question is what’s causing it. And we go back and forth and there’s strong evidence that indicates that it’s got to do with a preservative in vaccines."

John McCain takes our concerns seriously. He does not yet seem to have a total picture of what is going on with the relationship between vaccines and autism (we are all still working that out really) but this statement proves that he is listening, thinking critically, not swallowing the medical establishment's pr bullshit and that he is taking parents claims seriously.

David Kirby has already warned him: Senator McCain: Watch Out For Incoming!

I will be endorsing an autism candidate, and right now... John McCain is WAY out in front.

Thank You ABC

Wow.

I just got finished watching Eli Stone, and I can't believe that a show got it so right. I mean not perfect, but damn close.

Even the internal attempted cover up of evidence.

ABC didn't even cave and put in the 'no proven link' BS disclaimer afterward.

Wow. I'm kinda stunned.

And a little speechless. Which is saying a lot for me.

Thank you Greg Berlanti
Thank you Mark Guggenheim
Thank you Ken Olin
Thank you Andrew Ackerman
Thank you Johnny Lee Miller
Thank you Touchstone

And thank you to Laura Benanti for playing a real autism mom.

I mean, she was a real autism mom. Except that her hair and make up was done, of course. She had done all the research, she knew her stuff better than the professionals around her, she was not afraid to speak up, she was more concerned with the safety of rest of the kids that would come behind her son than she was of making money for her own son, and she pushed the people around her to do the right thing no matter what it cost them.

She was not afraid to fight a loosing battle with everything she had, and do it for all the right reasons.

Thank you to everyone involved in this production for telling our story in about as good a way as you could have told in 44 minutes.

I am not used to major networks owned by multinational corporations propped up by bajillions in pharma advertising dollars telling this story so close to right on the nose.

I am not sure what to do with myself.

Must. Lie. Down. Rethink. World. View.

Update: Thanks Hulu

The AAP v. Eli Stone

For those of you who have not heard, the pilot for Eli Stone, which will air on ABC this Thursday night, has a plot line in which Mr. Stone represents a family who sues a pharmaceutical company on the grounds that their mercury containing vaccine caused their sons autism.

And they win.

As you might imagine, the Powers That Be are none to happy, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has sent a letter to ABC asking them to pull the pilot.

I am sure that ABC is gonna get right on that.

As I mentioned in my piece on why you should support the writers strike, lots of writers have autistic children, and are on the spectrum themselves. So these parents will be inspired to write about what they know. And they know that their kids were healthy before vaccination, and very sick afterward. And the people around them know that these parents are reasonable people making a reasonable claim.

That toxins injected into the blood streams of babies are toxic to babies.

I have no idea if Greg Berlanti or Marc Guggenheim who wrote the Eli Stone pilot have autistic children in their lives, but I am curious to know from whence their inspiration came. (UPDATE: I called Mr. Berlanti's office, and his very nice assistant said that their inspiration came from the reading the headlines. To Messers Berlanti and Guggenheim, thank you for listening.)

Why are AAP, CDC, NIH, et. al. surprised when people in prominent positions who are not satisfied with their flimsy responses to the public's legitimate concerns use what bully pulpit they may have to bring the subject to the forefront of society?

If AAP wants people to keep vaccinating their children with out question and with out any kind of screening to see what children are at risk for neurological and autoimmune damage, then the burden of proof is on them to prove that vaccines are safe for every child.

If they could have proven that, they would have done that by now. They can't. That is why the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund exists in the first place.

The FACT is that vaccines cause damage, and even death, in some children.


Dear AAP,

People are not going to stop talking about vaccine damaged children. The longer your turn your head and ignore the problem, the louder the questioning and the protesting will get.

If you want confidence in the vaccine program, deal honestly and earnestly with the very real problem of our damaged children and look at the children that are recovering from autism and start treating your autistic patients for their medical problems.

Figure out how to screen for vulnerability to vaccine damage BEFORE you give a child a shot, not two years after it is given, and stop vaccinating children who can't tolerate vaccines.

My son is not an acceptable loss in your war against TREATABLE viruses.

Stop telling people to shut up about it. They 'aint gonna.

Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor

So while I have encouraged people to support the strike, go ahead and fire up your Tivo for Eli Stone. It apparently combines three of my passions, Faith, service to Autism Families and TV.

David Kirby has a great HuffPo piece on what the AAP should be more worried about.

Pediatricians, ABC and Censorship: Facts Are Scarier Than Fiction

On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics will release the contents of a foreboding letter sent last week to ABC/Disney executives, demanding they cancel the January 31 premiere of a new legal drama series, Eli Stone, because it features a family attorney who successfully argues in court that mercury-containing flu vaccine caused autism in one child.

The letter, signed by AAP President Renee Jenkins, borders on near-hysteria over a fictional television entertainment. It ominously warns that ABC "will bear responsibility for the needless suffering and potential deaths of children from parents' decisions not to immunize based on the content of the episode."

Dr. Jenkins calls on ABC to cancel the episode but, anticipating a refusal, urges executives to run a disclaimer that "no scientific link exists between vaccines and autism," if the offending network "persists" in airing the show.

I share the AAP's concern that parents should not be driven away from protecting their children from dangerous, even deadly diseases. But parents are far too smart to base such an important decision as immunization on the "content of the episode" of a single drama on broadcast television.

In fact, if I were Dr. Jenkins, I would be far more concerned about real news happening in the real world -- events that not only suggest the possibility of some sort of link between mercury, vaccines and autism, but might alarm parents more than any fictional account written for ratings-grabbing mass entertainment.

If I were Dr. Jenkins, instead of fretting over a fake family engaged in a mock trial held in a make-believe court on some LA soundstage, I would be up at night wondering why the Federal Government recently conceded a real vaccine-autism lawsuit in a real court and will soon pay a real (taxpayer-funded) settlement to a real American family and a very real child with autism.

I would want to know why the Department of Justice agreed that mercury-containing vaccines "severely aggravated" the autism symptoms in at least one child, and I would wonder if research into what triggered that severe aggravation might provide at least some clues into the perpetual mysteries of the disorder and its causes.

And, if I were Dr. Jenkins, rather than wringing my hands and trying to censor a TV-show verdict, I would truly worry about what will happen when parents realize that the Federal Government's concession has been sealed -- preventing the public (and future plaintiffs) from viewing what could only be described as "evidence of harm." I would be nervous that this secretive action in an actual court (itself reminiscent of science fiction) might drive parents away from vaccination far more effectively than any scripted drama.

Furthermore, if I were the top pediatrician in America, I would not be asking television networks to make sweeping statements such as, "No scientific link exists" between autism and mercury or vaccines, when highly respected publications continue to publish new (and very real) data that roundly debunk what has now become, frankly, a tired piece of misinformation.

If I were the AAP, or ABC for that matter, I would feel downright silly stating that "no scientific link exists," so soon after the Journal of Child Neurology published a study titled, "Blood Levels of Mercury Are Related to Diagnosis of Autism: A Reanalysis of an Important Data Set." I would also worry about parental reaction to learning that researchers had done due diligence and reanalyzed data from a prior, hugely influential study that (erroneously) found zero connection between mercury levels and autism.

Instead of trying to silence the fictional words of "Eli Stone" co-creators Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, I would pay closer attention to the real words of Journal authors M. Catherine DeSoto and Robert Hitlan, who found a major flaw in the original study that found no link. In fact, they concluded, "a significant relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder," and that "hair sample analysis results offer some support for the idea that persons with autism may be less efficient... at eliminating mercury from the blood," something that proponents of the mercury-autism hypothesis have long contended.

And, I would heed this rather wise warning from the authors: "If there is any link between autism and mercury, it is absolutely crucial that the first reports of the question are not falsely stating that no link occurs."

Another study, freshly out of Harvard, likewise shows a potential link between mercury and the autopsied brains of young people with autism. The American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology reports that a marker for oxidative stress was 68.9% higher in autistic brain issue than controls (a statistically significant result), while mercury levels were 68.2% higher.

And though the mercury results did not quite reach statistical significance (probably due to the small number of autistic brains studied: 9), the authors cautioned that, "However, there was a positive correlation between (oxidative stress and mercury levels)," meaning the two might be associated.

Finally, if part of my AAP job description was to ensure that every American child is vaccinated as early and often as possible, I would be hugely apprehensive, not about a new courtroom drama, but rather about a dramatic new study soon to appear in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

In the article, "Delay in DPT vaccination is associated with a reduced risk of childhood asthma," Anita Kozyrskyj, an asthma researcher at the University of Manitoba, and other scientists combed the medical records of 14,000 children born in Manitoba in 1995 (when many Canadian shots still contained mercury, by the way).

They found that children who received the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccine at two months of age were 2.63 times more likely to develop asthma (at a rate of 13.9%) than children who were not given the shot until after four months of age (5.9%). "We're thinking that maybe if you delay this allergic response until a bit later, the child's immune system is more developed and maybe you're not seeing this effect," Kozyrskyj told the Winnipeg Free Press, which just broke the story.

No one wants infant children to go unprotected from whooping cough (or pertussis, the "P" in DPT). But what if delaying that vaccine could have prevented more than half of the asthma cases in the United States? With millions of children currently suffering from the disease, at the cost of billions of dollars a year, would waiting another two months improve the risk-benefit ratio for society (save for the companies that market those asthma medications)?

Even more importantly, if too-early vaccination causes asthma in some kids, could the practice cause other disorders? There is absolutely nothing to link this vaccine study to autism, of course. But consider the following:

1) Many asthma cases have been linked to autoimmunity. The same with autism.

2) Childhood asthma has been dramatically increasing for two decades. The same with autism.

3) Most of the children with asthma in the vaccine study were boys. The same with autism.

Any way you look at it, this study is hardly reassuring news to parents who are about to vaccinate their kids (though think how comforting it would be to allow them to delay this shot by two months). Medicine and the media constantly tell us that all vaccines are safe for all children. When parents try to jive that information with studies that imply the opposite, their faith and trust in public health and the immunization program begin to take a nosedive, along with vaccination rates.

It's not just the broadcast of fiction out of ABC that might drive parents away from immunization. It is the negation of fact out of the AAP as well. And if unvaccinated children get sick, will the esteemed Academy also "bear responsibility," or just heap it all upon the network?

ABC executives could cave in and cancel the broadcast, but I don't think they will. And even if America's pediatricians manage to successfully censor fiction and crush artistic freedom, they will never be able to stifle the facts.

Head's Up. More CDC CYA/BS Commin' Our Way

The CDC truly has no shame.

They didn't even include autistic children in this study. How much you wanna bet that dispite this fact, we will be reading media headlines that say, "new CDC study proves that vaccines not linked to autism".

[Update: That didn't take long. "New Study Results: Vaccines Not Tied to Autism"]

Exclusion of low birth weight babies, 70% participant drop out rate, focusing on blood mercury levels and ignoring brain mercury, conclusions not backed up by the data, conflicts of interests with all the researchers and on and on...

It is like a greatest hits of all the bad research done in the last decade wrapped up in one convenient package.

This thing looks to be Verstraeten all over again.

Thanks to A-CHAMP for the heads up.

Dear A-CHAMP subscribers:

On September 27, 2007 the New England Journal of Medicine will publish a study entitled, "Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years." For more than two years we at A-CHAMP have been hearing rumors of a new study that "exonerates" thimerosal, despite the fact that the study results were supposed to be kept strictly confidential.

Now the rumors have been turned into hype - another government funded study that tries to spin data and clear thimerosal of any suspicion of causing neurodevelopmental disorders. The study authors claim in their "Conclusions" that "[o]ur study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins and neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years."

The statement is plainly false. The study's conclusions do not reflect the study's data or the limitations of the study,

Unfortunately we have come to expect misleading statements – some might say fraudulent statements – from studies emanating from the CDC and their associates. It is not merely the fact that the authors of the study are burdened by large conflicts of interests - almost all of the 18 study authors have worked for vaccine manufacturers, received money from them, or performed research on their behalf. What is truly shocking about this study is that it does, indeed, find significant associations between thimerosal-containing vaccines and tics, speech, executive functioning and attention, but irresponsibly dismisses the associations. The study did not even look at children with autism – that is the subject of another uncompleted study – and children who might be more vulnerable to mercury, like low birth weight babies and children from families with lower incomes, were excluded or under-represented in the study sample

Fortunately, an advocate from our own community was an external consultant to the study, participated in its development from the outset, and is intimately familiar with the data and methodology. She has dissented from the study's conclusions. In addition, our colleagues and fellow parents at SafeMinds will be issuing a critique of the study in the near future. We are also told that the study data will be made publicly available so that independent researchers may examine it and draw their own conclusions.

Although detailed analysis of the study is beyond the scope of this letter, below are some key points that cause us to distrust this study as another attempt to manipulate the scientific and public debate on thimerosal to the detriment of the health and safety of America's children:

1. The Study's Claim of No Causality is Contrary to the Study's Data

The study authors claim that the data disproves causality when in fact, several findings show a negative effect on neuropsychological functioning warranting more study. At least one such adverse association was also found to be associated with low dose thimerosal exposure in other studies. As with earlier studies hyped by vaccine promoters, the study is unable to prove or disprove causality. The blanket dismissal of the troubling neuropsychological outcomes in this study is disingenuous and misleading.

2. Children with autism were excluded from this study

The early media contacts we have received suggest that this study shows no association between thimerosal and autism. In fact, the study specifically did not look at children with autism as the sample size was too small and the testing is impossible to complete for the typical child with autism. The exclusion of children with autism from the study may have undermined the power of the study to draw any conclusions about thimerosal.

3. The Study's Authors Misrepresent Previous Toxicokinetic Studies of Thimerosal

The study authors falsely claim that research by Burbacher et al. at the University of Washington (distribution of thimerosal as compared with methylmercury in infant monkeys) shows that ethylmercury is safer than methylmercury. But the authors focus only on the blood "half-life", ignoring data, showing twice as much inorganic mercury trapped in the brains of monkeys than from same dose of methylmercury.

4. The Study's Methodology has Serious Limitations Negating Any Conclusions Drawn

Major flaws that that causes a large underestimation of neurological adverse effects burden the study: 70% of the families recruited for the study failed to participate. This kind of bias in epidemiological studies is well known to distort even large studies of health effects. (See , for example, NY Times Magazine, "Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy" by Gary Taubes 9/16/07). It is well established that people who choose to participate in this kind of study are probably very different than those who refuse to participate (the "healthy person" or "complier" effect); especially when the ones who refused to participate said they were too busy.

Simply put: if you have a kid with ADHD or mild ASD or other neurodevelopmental disorders, you are likely to be busier, more stressed, and less available than the mother of a healthy normal child. This phenomenon serves to amplify the effect of the "complier", the "healthy families," - those who do cooperate with the study - confounding or confusing the study's results. The cooperative parents included in the study were more likely to be those with relatively trouble-free kids

5.Major Conflicts of Interest Burden Almost Every One of the 18 Study Authors

Many of the study authors have either worked for or received money from vaccine manufacturers. Others are employed by the CDC, which has been criticized by an IOM committee for its inherent conflict of interest in promoting vaccines while simultaneously monitoring safety. Many of the remaining study authors have conducted studies for vaccine manufacturers. The conflicts of interest cast doubt on the validity of the study, especially of the clearly biased final conclusions.

6. The High & Low Thimerosal Exposure Groups Too Small to Draw Conclusions

In addition to the number of children of the study being too small to draw statistically significant conclusions, the numbers of children in the high exposure group and the low exposure group were far too small to draw conclusions. Yet the study ignored this limitation and drew sweeping conclusions of no causality.

7.Vulnerable Children Were Excluded from the Study; Early Intervention Was Ignored

Children with a birth weight under 5 lbs. 8 oz. were excluded from the study further skewing the results, as these children are likely more vulnerable to thimerosal than larger babies. In addition, the fact that early intervention may have reduced deficits such as speech delay detected by neuropsychological testing of children aged 7-10 was not accounted for in the study results. There also was no analysis of combined prenatal and postnatal mercury exposures. Only 103 mothers who were exposed to mercury from prenatal immune globulins participated in the study, far too small a group for researchers to draw conclusions regarding the safety of thimerosal in these products.

8. The Study Fails to Account for the Subset of Children with "Efflux Disorder"

Only approximately 1000 children participated in the study, out of more than 3000 that were recruited. In addition to the "complier" bias discussed above, the study sample size is too small to accurately estimate the adverse effect of Thimerosal on the subset of the population who have a problem in mobilizing and excreting mercury. While the study's author's focus on the average time it takes for mercury to clear from the blood, itself misrepresented, we know that in 15% of the population this average is greatly exceeded. It is these children who are vulnerable to the effects of mercury from thimerosal. This study fails to account for the effect of mercury from vaccines on this subset of children.

These are but a few of the serious problems with the study and the way the data have been presented. We look forward to the forthcoming SAFEMINDS critique of the study and thank them for their continued close monitoring and analysis of the scientific research that affects our children.

In the meantime, if you see headlines stating that "Vaccines Cleared in New Study" or "New Study Finds Thimerosal Safe" know that we are all again being played, and that those who we should be able to trust are compromising the truth and the health of our children.

Sincerely,
Bob Krakow, for A-CHAMP

NAA: Call The White House

Call The White House

ACTION ALERT

Please call the White House and tell them not to veto the House Labor HHS Bill which contains provisions to protect children from mercury in vaccines. Demand that President Bush uphold his campaign promises!

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

For Immediate Release

Bush Set to Veto HHS-Labor-Education Appropriations Bill Due to Provision to Remove Mercury from Infant Vaccines

SafeMinds and autism community call the White House declaration “irresponsible and dangerous.”

Washington, DC – According to the Congressional Quarterly, the White House stated on Tuesday that President Bush would veto the HHS-Labor-Education Appropriations Bill because of the cost and “objectionable provisions” such as a measure to ban the use of childhood flu vaccines that contain thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative.

Autism advocacy groups are outraged because President Bush stated in a questionnaire during his 2004 campaign: “I support the removal of Thimerosal from vaccines on the childhood national vaccine schedule. During a second term as President, I will continue to support increased funding to support a wide variety of research initiatives aimed at seeking definitive causes and/or triggers of autism. It is important to note that while there are many possible theories about causes or triggers of autism, no one material as been definitely included or excluded.”

But since 2005, President Bush has steadfastly refused to issue an Executive Order banning high amounts of mercury in vaccines that would protect children and pregnant women despite repeated requests from the autism community that he uphold his campaign promise. Under his current administration, mercury has been and will continue to be knowingly injected into the youngest of American citizens. The controversial mercury-containing preservative thimerosal has been linked by thousands of parents as being the cause of their children’s mercury poisoning and autism.

The flu vaccine which continues to be manufactured with mercury is recommended for all pregnant women, infants and children despite the fact that the Institute of Medicine in 2001 recommended against the policy of exposing these same sensitive groups to thimerosal containing vaccines. According to the EPA, one in every six women of childbearing age already has blood levels of mercury high enough to cause neurological damage to their unborn children due to environmental exposures alone. “Injecting even more mercury into the bodies of pregnant women, infants and children when it is not a necessary component of vaccines is just bad medicine,” said Lyn Redwood, president of SafeMinds and parent of a mercury-injured child. “It defies logic that a flu vaccine must be disposed of as a hazardous waste if it is not used, but somehow injecting the same mercury-containing vaccine into a baby is safe.”

Just Say No To Mercury

Say 'No' to Mercury in Flu Shots
Opinion | Editorial
Savannah Morning News
greg powell | Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 12:30 am


Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used in most flu vaccines in our country.

You are filled with thoughts of joy as you sit down and roll up your sleeve. You want the very best for the new life that's growing inside you.

You want to do everything possible to ensure the health and safety of that precious child.

Then you feel a little stick in your arm. Good, now you've done one more thing to protect your baby.

Or have you?

You have no idea that you were just injected with one of the most toxic substances in the world.

This may sound like a cruel joke or just a science-fiction story, but I can assure you that this is a very real nightmare.

Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used in most flu vaccines in our country.

When injected into the human body, it quickly converts to a form of organic mercury, known as ethyl-mercury.

This form of mercury, like all forms of mercury, is extremely dangerous.

Numerous animal studies have proven the extreme toxicity of thimerosal.

Some studies have shown that thimerosal dramatically increases fetal deaths in rabbits and rats.

In pigs, ethyl-mercury was shown to cause neurological, urological, and digestive toxicity.

Other rat studies have shown that ethyl-mercury causes pathological lesions of the ovaries, uterus, testes, seminal vesicles, vas deferens and prostate.

In monkeys, injection of thimerosal was shown to cause mercury to deposit in the brain and stay there indefinitely.

Once in the brain, mercury can set in motion a cascade of events leading to a chronic state of inflammation in the brain and resulting in destruction of neurons.

As a pharmacist, I can tell you with absolute certainty that if we had these kinds of animal studies with any other drug, that drug would be recalled by the government immediately because of public safety.

The amount of mercury in one flu shot is 25 micrograms.

According to federal guidelines, a person would have to weigh about 550 pounds for this amount of mercury to be considered safe.

The heavy use of several thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines in the 1990s has been linked by some researchers to the epidemic levels of autism in our country.

I believe, like many parents of autistic children, that the large amounts of mercury these children received, when they were just tiny infants, caused brain damage leading to autism.

I also believe that there is a good chance that mercury from vaccines and other sources is a factor in many various other neurological disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

This information leads one to ask: Why is thimerosal still being used in flu shots, and why hasn't the government removed it?

I don't know the answer to that question.

What I can say is that, in my opinion, thimerosal is an extremely dangerous substance and has absolutely no place in any vaccine or in any other product that is used in or on the human body.

Contrary to this logic, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, being fully aware of the dangers associated with mercury, aggressively promotes flu shots for pregnant women, children, the elderly and people with chronic health conditions.

Ironically, these are the very people who are most vulnerable to mercury toxicity.

Flu shots without mercury are available.

I encourage all people who are planning to get a flu shot, especially pregnant women, to request a flu shot which is free of mercury.

I also encourage health care providers to provide verbal informed consent to all patients to whom they are giving a thimerosal-containing influenza vaccine.

As health-care providers, we have a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of our patients.

Injecting patients with mercury is not a way to do that. This is not a chance we should take.

We should err on the side of caution.

Greg Powell is a Savannah pharmacist.

Congress Votes on Banning Mercury From Vaccines

[Update: Make sure you check the bottom to see why ECBT's stance is BS. Also my letter to Mrs. Carter calling her attention to the mercury issue]

Every Child by Two is urging their membership to call congress and oppose this amendment that would make vaccines safer. Here is everything you need to know about Every Child By Two:

Officers:

Kirsten Thistle
Treasurer
Senior Vice-President, APCO Worldwide
(APCO is the PR Agency for: Johnson & Johnson, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Associations, Novartis Pharmaceuticals – Glivec, Immunex Corporation - Novantrone, The Vaccine Fund, STERIS Corporation and the list goes on)

Board Members:

Craig Engesser
Senior Director, Professional Affairs
Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Paul Offit, MD
Chief, Section of Immunologic and Infectious Diseases
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Ex-Officio Members:

Anne Schuchat, MD
Director, CDC/National Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases

I called their offices and they said that they receive unrestricted grants from pharmaceutical companies.

It is difficult for me to believe that the former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who founded Every Child By Two, understands the dire conflict of interest here. She is a mental health advocate, and advocates for caretakers like us.

I think I will write her a letter too.

Call your Congressman and support the ban on mercury in vaccines.

From A-CHAMP:

Congressional Vote on Mercury Ban Expected

Contact Your Member of Congress ASAP!!!

Take Action!
This past Wednesday, July 11, the House Committee on Appropriations adopted by voice vote an amendment that prevents federal dollars from being used to provide flu vaccines, that contain mercury as a preservative, to children under three years of age. This amendment, offered by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) was based on legislation that he has introduced with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) to completely ban mercury from all vaccines. This bill will come to the floor of the House of Representatives on July 17.

Action You Must Take Today!
You need to e-mail of fax write your member of Congress today.
You may use our automated system to send an email by Clicking Here.

If you want to call or fax your Congressman and don’t know who your Member of Congress is you can find out by Clicking Here or going to http://capwiz.com/a-champ/directory/congdir.tt Your Congressman's contact information can be found there.

E-mail your Member of the House of Representatives AND CALL their office (Congressional Switchboard 202-224-3121 can also get you to your Congressman by phone).

Here is suggested text for a letter if you wish to send a fax or a manual email. The text is also in our pre-written email if you wish to use our automated system:
I am writing you to urge that you vote against any amendment that removes from the FY 2008 House Labor/HHS Appropriation bill the provision that bans mercury (thimerosal) from childhood flu vaccines. I am very concerned that an amendment may be offered on the House floor when this bill is considered that would strip this important provision from the House bill. As my representative, I urge you to vote against any amendment that would leave babies exposed to mercury-laced flu vaccines.

There is no other way to put this - It is just a stupid practice to be injecting babies at 6, 7, 12 and 24 months with the neurotoxin mercury particularly at such a critical stage of neurodevelopment. The House Appropriations Committee agreed overwhelmingly that injecting children with mercury is a bad idea when they adopted an amendment on July 11 offered by Rep. Dave Weldon - a physician.

The developed world other than the United States has essentially banned mercury from all of their childhood vaccines, including the flu vaccine. But, the USA continues to use mercury as a preservative in millions of doses of the flu vaccine given to children. Seven years ago, in 1999, the following concensus was reached by the US's leading public health agencies: “[The] Public Health Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agree that thimerosal-containing vaccines should be removed as soon as possible. Similar conclusions were reached this year in a meeting attended by European regulatory agencies, the European vaccine manufacturers, and the US FDA which examined the use of thimerosal-containing vaccines produced or sold in European countries.”

That was in 1999. In October 2004 the House Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the need to remove mercury as a preservative from childhood flu vaccines. Now, three years later virtually no action has been taken by the CDC, AAP or vaccine makers to eliminate mercury preservative from childhood flu vaccines. The time to end this madness is long overdue.

I appreciate in advance your vote against any amendment that would weaken the Weldon provision that protects babies from exposure of babies to this dangerous neurotoxin. I will be reviewing the record vote on this issue should an amendment be offered to strip this provision.

Thank you for protecting our babies.

Message Brought To You By A-CHAMP
Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning
See Our Action Alerts. Click the TAKE ACTION! button

Update: So ECBT says they oppose removing the mercury because, "Sanofi (the only company licensed to supply [flu] vaccine to this age group) has reported that they do not have enough capacity to meet this demand".

Except that Sanofi just announced the opening of their new FLU VACCINE FACILITY! (And yes of course Paul Offit is quoted in the article. Silly of you to even ask.)

New Pa. vaccine plant poised for pandemics
By Karl Stark
Philadelphia Inquirer

SWIFTWATER, Pa. - Here in the former honeymoon capital known as the Pocono Mountains sits a near-windowless building that everyone will know about when the next pandemic flu hits.

Just down the road from a Caesars resort with its heart-shaped pools lies the country's only comprehensive flu-vaccine plant. Drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis announced yesterday that it had finished construction of a $150 million building here that would double its production of vaccine for seasonal or pandemic flu, since both are made nearly the same way.

The highly computerized plant now awaiting final government approval won't be pumping out vaccine until late next year. But the drugmaker invited Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and the media for a rare peek yesterday at a critical facility before its life-saving balm begins flowing.

Leavitt called the plant critical to the health of the country and the world. "We do know that pandemics happen, and that we will see a pandemic, and that we need to be prepared," he said.

The plant looks like a high-tech hospital on perpetual security alert. No merely curious visitors can enter when it's working. Its 200 production workers - all vaccinated for the flu - will be gowned, gloved and masked.

A few workers went through the motions yesterday, entering rooms through special air locks that help keep the virus in and the contaminants out, and pantomiming production steps as a special filtration system purified the air.

Yet, amid the warren of stainless-steel tubes and vats, the plant will still make vaccine the old-fashioned way: with chicken eggs.

They have incubated flu vaccine reliably since 1935. And the plant will need 600,000 eggs a day at full capacity. Sanofi buys what it needs and more from dedicated egg suppliers, to assure an ample supply.

Sanofi senior vice president Wayne Pisano, who oversees vaccine sales, described the process as tried-and-true, and said the emerging cell-culture-based method has not been perfected for making the millions of doses needed.

Leavitt said the federal government was trying to change that by spending $1 billion over the next five years to improve cell-based technology and to increase U.S. vaccine production. The United States has amassed pre-pandemic vaccine for six million people, along with 50 million doses of antiviral medicines. "Obviously, that's not enough," Leavitt said.

While media attention on flu has receded, Leavitt noted that the flu virus was continuing to change and threaten people. An especially dangerous form, called H5N1, has infected 318 people worldwide and killed nearly 200 since 2003. The world has averaged three flu pandemics a century, the last striking in 1968 and 1969. Sooner or
later, another one will occur, Leavitt said.

The federal government is continuing to prepare. Last month, Sanofi announced a $77.4 million contract from the government to retrofit a second flu factory at the Swiftwater site. The firm, which will also spend $25 million of its own funds, would be able to make 150 million doses a year by 2010, tripling its current production, when all ongoing upgrades are done.

Sanofi, the world's biggest vaccine-maker, isn't the only company in the game. GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., which has a U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia, is rehabbing a 90-acre former vaccine plant in Marietta, Lancaster County, to make flu and other vaccines. The firm has received a $274 million federal contract to develop the cell-
culture method and to ramp up manufacturing there. Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG is also building a vaccine plant in Holly Springs, N.C. But both projects are years away from production.

Kimberly Elliott, deputy director of Trust for America's Health, a public-health-advocacy group, said the U.S. effort still lags in key aras, such as how to detect the disease quickly and how to handle the large numbers of sick patients in a pandemic. "Most hospitals are already overcrowded," she said. "Hardly any state is doing well on this, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey."

Experts hope that vaccines will provide a lot of protection. And yesterday at the plant, workers were showing how they would be made.

In one room, a mechanical needle will inject virus into the eggs, which will be left to incubate for two or three days.

Workers shine special lights onto the eggs to make sure they are intact. The process is known as "candling" because it was originally done by candlelight.

A mechanical knife then cuts off the top of eggs, and a machine flips 36 at a time, pouring their fluid into a vat. The virus is killed, and then the fluid is run through a centrifuge and purified several times.

"We're still stuck with eggs," noted Paul A. Offit, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and author of Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases.

"I would like to think," he added, that "the fear of the pandemic will enable us to upgrade our flu technology."

My Letter to Mrs. Carter:

Dear Ms. Carter,

I am a Johns Hopkins educated marriage and family therapist and the mother of a 5 year old boy diagnosed with autism and mercury poisoning. At only two weeks of age he was given a Hepatitis B vaccine that contained what is described at "trace" amounts of mercury, after which he developed colic and unexplained fevers that lasted for three months, and bowel problems that persisted for five years. At age two, when he was diagnosed with autism, we tested him and found that he had mercury poisoning. In researching his vaccinations to see if that could be the source, we found that the hep B vaccine that he had just after he was born, the one that is currently on the vaccine schedule, although considered to contain "low dose" or "trace" of mercury, actually exceeded the EPA's safety limits for a person of his weight.

Further research on the EPA's safety limits showed me that they were not based on any research on the safety of injected mercury, and that in fact the only safety study on the mercury containing preservative thimersoal was done in the 1920's on 22 patients who were dieing of meningitis. The study found that there were no long term side effects, because all the participants died with in days of injection. Thimerosal was then put into vaccines, and grandfathered in to the FDA at its inception, with out any further safety testing. That study remains the only safety testing on thimerosal.

For the last three years I have been reading the research on vaccine safety. I was heartbroken to find that the hep B vaccine that my son initially reacted to (eventually loosing speech and eye contact the 4th time he was given the shot at 18 months of age) was given inadequate safety testing as well. Children who got the shot were only followed for three days, a woefully inadequate amount of time to see if the vaccine resulted in immune or neurological changes.

I have also read and analyzed for myself several of the large epidemiological studies that the medical establishment puts forth as proof that thimerosal in vaccines are safe and has no relationship to autism or other developmental disorders. I find that these studies do not measure what they purport to measure and that because of their very narrow inclusion criteria, they cannot be used to determine whether or not thimerosal containing vaccines are safe for my two sons.

Because of our family's experience, I began writing (I maintain a blog at http://adventuresinautism.com) and advocating for adequate research and vaccine safety. This week the bipartisan Mercury Free Vaccines Act of 2007 will be voted on, and your organization, Every Child By Two, is opposing it. I am writing to you to ask you to change your stance and support the complete removal of mercury from vaccines.

Mercury is one of the most potent neurotoxins on the planet and there can be no justification for injecting it into full grown adults much less newborns babies. It is hundreds of times more lethal to humans than lead, yet the medical establishment, who stands firm and united in their assertion that no amount of lead is safe, maintains the nonsensical assertion that there is "no evidence of harm" in injecting a "trace amount" of mercury directly into the blood stream of a developing child, and therefore should be allowed to stay in vaccines.

As I have read the emerging research on the relationship between mercury and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, and seen the dramatic improvements in my own son as we chelate the metal out of his body, I am convinced that there is a link between mercury in vaccines and autism. But if you are not, would it still not be prudent to remove mercury from vaccines as quickly and completely as we can?

The Every Child By Two's stance is that the effort should be struck down because, "Sanofi (the only company licensed to supply [flu] vaccine to this age group) has reported that they do not have enough capacity to meet this demand". This seems a woefully inadequate justification. Mercury should continue to be injected into small children and pregnant women so that fewer people get the flu for one season?

I read on the web site that you began your vaccination efforts after a measles outbreak killed 150 people. According to the CDC, autism now effects 1 in 150 people. The evidence that vaccines and autism are related are growing every day, as are the number of children who are making a full recovery and loosing their autism diagnosis when they are treated with emerging interventions, like chelation and diet, that are based on the vaccine/autism theory.

Because of mainstream medicine's reluctance to see the possibility that autism is an iatrogenic disorder, confidence in the vaccine program as a whole is at risk. I am one of a growing number of parents who has ceased vaccinating their children all together because I can no longer trust the medical establishment to be honest with me about the risks and benefits to my children's health. I believe complete and verifiable removal of all mercury from all vaccines will be the only thing to prevent further erosion in the program.

If I might be so bold, in my eyes, there is an irony in your work. You advocate strongly for those diagnosed with mental disabilities, like my son, and for caregivers, like me; but your stance on mercury in vaccines has unintentionally served to put us in those positions. Your love and your heart for those of us suffering and struggling with illness is so clear. Please use the better part of caution and support the immediate and complete removal of mercury from vaccines.

If I can be of any further assistance to you in examining this issue further, I would be happy to make my self available in any way I can.

Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor
Chandler's Mother

Interesting Story About a Vaccine/Autism Book in 2001

Lisa Blakemore-Brown is a British psychologist who wrote about a vaccine link in 2001 and now maintains the blog Thimerosal Thoughts. Her story about what happened when Eli Lilly bought one of the first copies is fascinating:

MMR, Mercury and the Mystery surrounding my book

Tomorrow at the General Medical Council will start the case against Dr Andrew Wakefield and two other Doctors who raised concerns about children they assessed in the nineties, very worried that the problems they found were linked to adverse reactions to the MMR vaccine.

As there has been an almighty reaction by the Pharmaceutical lobby there has been NO public debate on exactly what has been going on.

In my book, Reweaving the Autistic Tapestry, having seen too many children with what I called 'tapestry impairments' many of which developed following the DTP and in fewer cases, the MMR, I suggested there may be a 'tapestry' causal effect with vaccines as one thread.

I mentioned Thimerosal and included some lawyers details here and in the US.

The launch of the book was at a CHADD conference in Anaheim California in October 2001. Eli Lilly were on the next stand and bought a copy of the book.

On my return to the UK there was no contact from the publisher.

Within weeks of my book being published parents were being told by Amazon that it was a 'rare book' and that it would take a year to get and would cost $79 plus post and packing!!!

There were none in the shops.

There were none in the warehouses of the retailers.

There were none in the Distributors.

The UK National Autistic Society carry all the books on Autism - except mine.

Probably nothing to do with my concerns about the vaccine, a small part of the book incidentally, or about my concern about the use of the label Munchausen Syndrome by proxy when children were genuinely ill - many had suffered reactions to vaccines. The fact that during the time my Editor was working on the book he was invited to change jobs and work on the MSBP/Factitious Illness Guidlelines at the RCPCH - Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, I am sure was total coincidence.

Guess I'm just paranoid when it comes to the things done by the powerful vaccine lobby and the need to protect the vaccine programme more than the public...

Prior to the documentary My Family and Autism being aired on the BBC, over a year after the trip to Anaheim, in which I am seen undertaking an assessment, I was able to at least get the book made more accessible.

If just one person is allowed to speak about their concerns without being leapt on from a great height, I might have confidence that the vaccine programme is safe - but I think they have gone too far and protested too much.

We all now want to know WHY???

Something Has Happened

Two weeks ago I took a break from blogging to spend time with family who came to visit. Last week was a work catch up week, and I have only begun to catch up with all that has happened in the autism world while I was gone.

As I have been reading, I am seeing things that are surprising me. It is freaking me out a little.

Something has changed around the Cedillo Trial.

I have been following autism news for three years and I have never seen the kind of stories/events that are surfacing.

Dave Weldon and Carolyn Maloney have introduced bipartisan legislation, the Mercury Free Vaccines Act of 2007. Autism Speaks has uncharacteristically decided to back it and oppose AB 16 in Sacramento that would mandate that the State of California automatically adopt any vaccine that the CDC puts on the schedule (and pushed the HPV vaccine). They have never taken a stance on vaccines before. AS is also listing mercury research that was funded by CAN before the merger on their web site, but someone who spends a lot of time on the site said they didn't remember every seeing this page there before. (Anyone know if this is new, or remember seeing it in the past?)

AS has also stepped into the insurance coverage legislation in PA and announced legislative efforts on their web site.

The CDC issued a response to Verstraeten/VSD on their web site with lots of references to thimerosal studies. (I haven't had a chance to read it yet), but how long has it been there? It is not dated and David Kirby, who is a guy who keeps track of these things, didn't even know it was there until a few days ago.

The run up to the Wakefield MMR Trial has reignited doubt in the vaccine in the UK and articles like these are coming out:

At Last They Admit It, This Jab CAN Harm Your Child

The Truth About MMR

DANGERS OF MMR JAB 'COVERED UP'

The Autism Research Institute is now being backed by the giant Autism Society of America, which is now teaming up with Easter Seals who will now make Autism their priority.

Over the last three years, my blog has been visited occasionally by CDC and NIH and a few other government agencies. These visits were few and far between, and always interesting to me when they happened. But now, ramping up with increasing frequency since about April, my blog has been regularly visited by The Powers that Be CDC, NIH, FDA, EPA, HHS, the House and the Senate, The Department of Justice (who are the governments "defendants" in the Cedillo Trial), The Department of Veterans Affairs, The US Forestry Service, The Naval Research Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, The US Census Bureau, dozens of foreign, state and local governments, a slew of Canadian government agencies, dozens of medical centers/health organizations/universities/dental schools including CHOP (Paul Offit's hospital), Johns Hopkins, The Cleavland Clinic, our pharma friends at Johnson & Johnson and Glaxo Smith Klein, Immunize.org, media corporations Tribune and Gannett, The World Health Organization and even one visit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Apparently the Department of Justice is curious to know when and if the Evidence of Harm movie will be coming out.



Here is my blog traffic graph for the last three years.



2005 - nice little blog with decent traffic. 2006 - took a break from blogging for most of the year. 2007 - Started to write again. Feb/March stats broke but I didn't notice. April was Autism Awareness Month (Damn that is a lot of awareness). May - residual autism awareness?? June - suddenly I am twice as fascinating as I have ever been on my best month! July - on track to have 8,000 visitors despite the fact that I have been on vacation most of the time.

As much as I would love to believe that it is my brilliance that people are coming for, it is probably a safer bet that more people (and more people in positions of power to do something) are awakening to the reality that autism is preventable and treatable and are taking valuable time out of their day to investigate for themselves.

Last month I said that the tide had turned. I think I might have been righter than I thought I was and that the tide might start moving faster than I had anticipated.

Even if I had 40 hours a week to sort all this stuff out, I don't think I could do a decent job. I am just going to start posting references to stories with out much comment just so I can get as much out as possible.

Bird Flu Vaccine. Now with TWICE the Mercury!

FDA's newly approved Bird Flu vaccine contains 100mgs of Thimerosal which means 50 of Mercury!

http://www.fda.gov/cber/label/h5n1san041707LB.pdf

Whereas you needed to be 550lbs to safely take the mercury laden flu shot with 25 mikes of merc according to the EPA, now you must weigh 1100 lbs to safely take the bird flu shot. Oh... and you need two doses 28 days apart.

How is this making vaccines safer?

If bird flu comes, just don't go outside.

Update: I seem to remember some bad movie from the 70's where people caught a horrible disease from a bird and locked themselves in a clinic and created an vaccine but in the end the vaccine killed them and everyone else ended up being fine. Does anyone remember this movie?