Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research

Conflicts of Interest in Vaccine Safety Research

Accountability in Research. 19:65-88. 2012

Gayle DeLong, Department of Economics and Finance, Baruch College, New York,
New York, USA

Conflicts of interest (COls) cloud vaccine safety research. Sponsors of research have competing interests that may impede the objective study of vaccine side effects. Vaccine manufacturers, health officials, and medical journals may have financial and bureaucratic reasons for not wanting to acknowledge the risks of vaccines. Conversely, some advocacy groups may have legislative and financial reasons to sponsor research that finds risks in vaccines. Using the vaccine-autism debate as an illustration, this article details the conflicts of interest each of these groups faces, outlines the current state of vaccine safety research, and suggests remedies to address COls. Minimizing COls in vaccine safety research could reduce research bias and restore greater trust in the vaccine program.

Our Foolproof Plan to Become Bunk Bed Billionaires

As I previously mentioned, my dear husband has started a new company called Maine Bunk Beds. Non-Toxic, safer beds for kids. Yesterday we came up with a simple three step plan to become wealthy beyond our imaginations.

1. Get the government excluded Maine Bunk Beds from any product liability.

2. Get the government to not allow kids to attend school if they didn't buy the recommended number of Maine Bunk Beds.

3. Get the government to stage PR campaigns where mock riots were held with people resorting to violence if they couldn't get their hands on a Maine Bunk Bed.

National Guard drill at high school to prepare for possible H1N1 riot

Congressional Briefing by Maloney on Vaxxed v. Unvaxxed Bill

Call your Senators and Representatives offices and ask them to attend:

Rep. Maloney and Rep. Smith To Host A Second Autism Congressional Briefing An Update On Federal Autism Research And Treatment Initiatives

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR US SENATORS (HERE) AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS (HERE) AND URGE THEM TO ATTEND OR SEND A STAFF MEMBER TO THIS IMPORTANT AUTISM-VACCINE BRIEFING ON CAPITOL HILL

Friday, July 17 at 9:30 AM
210 Cannon House Office Building
Independence Avenue, Washington, DC.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) is hosting a special briefing for Members of Congress and their Staff to discuss issues related to autism research and treatment. We hope that you will attend the briefing to learn about the changing dynamics of the autism debate, as you will find many in government and science believe this debate is far from settled.

David Kirby, investigative journalist and author of The New York Times bestseller Evidence of Harm, Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic – A Medical Controversy, will inform Members and their staff about developments regarding environmental factors in autism and the “Seven Studies to Watch” – Plus, changing ASD demographics post-thimerosal reduction. Mr. Kirby will also be joined by Mark Blaxill, Editor-at-Large of Age of Autism, Director of the Coalition for SAFE MINDS and co-author of a forthcoming book on the roots of the autism epidemic, who will address the policy and public health implications of the autism crisis.
Among the issues to be discussed are:

• The unanimous endorsement by the National Vaccine Advisory Committee to look at the feasibility of a large vaccinated-unvaccinated study, with autism as an outcome.
• 
  
• The NVAC endorsement of three other vaccine-autism investigations, including children with mitochondrial dysfunction, children with regressive autism, and vaccine injury as a risk factor for ASD.
• 
  
• Recent Vaccine Court decisions finding the MMR and Hep B vaccines caused injuries that led to autism and MS.
• 
  
• The NIH Early Autism Risk Longitudinal Investigations EARLI study and the HHS/EPA National Children’s Study, both of which are looking at vaccination and mercury exposures, with autism as a possible outcome.
• 
  
• The CDC’s Centers for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Research and Epidemiology (CADDRE) Network, whose five-year goal includes studying "specific mercury exposures, including any vaccine use by the mother during pregnancy and the child's vaccine exposures after birth.”
• 
  
• Cleveland Clinic – A recent article in PLoS Online by authors from the Cleveland Clinic, Harvard and Johns Hopkins University reported that, "Large, population-based studies will be needed to identify a possible relationship of vaccination with autistic regression in persons with mitochondrial dysfunction.”
• 
  
• Recent statements by Federal health officials such as Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), who said it was “legitimate to ask” whether vaccines can trigger autism, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of NIAID, who said in a US News and World report article, “we may want to screen everyone prior to vaccination (for) undetectable diseases like a subclinical mitochondrial disorder."
• 
  
• The U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Institute study which found, that the seven- to eight-fold increase in the number children born in California with autism since 1990 cannot be explained by either changes in how the condition is diagnosed or counted — and the trend shows no sign of abating. This as young adults begin to flood the social services system
• 
  
• Reports of reduced Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) severity among the youngest children, following reduction of thimerosal in childhood vaccines.

Please contact your elected representatives and urge them to attend.
A RUNNING TALLY OF CONGRESSIONAL RSVPS WILL BE KEPT AT WWW.AGEOFAUTISM.COM,
IF YOU RECEIVE ANY REPLY FROM LAWMAKERS IN YOUR STATE, PLEASE FORWARD THAT INFORMATION TO kirbylecture@gmail.com

Maine CDC Autism Conference: How Do We Know What Autism IS NOT if We Do Not Know What Autism IS? by Jon Poling, MD, PhD

Maine CDC Autism Conference 2009
Looking Forward Beyond Vaccines: How Do We Know What Autism IS NOT if We Do Not Know What Autism IS? Followed by Q&A with other conference speakers.
Jon Poling, MD, PhD
Neurologist, Clinical Assistant Professor
Medical College of Georgia
Father of child with autism

New Report Forecasts More Than Doubling of Vaccine Sales by 2013

Market Watch brings you, the health care consumer investor, news that vaccines are booming and expected to boom bigger.

2008 was another stellar year for the world vaccine market. Sales grew 21.5% since 2007 to reach $19.2 billion. Few areas of pharmaceuticals have seen the fast-moving developments in the marketplace that the vaccine market has...

"New products and better-than-expected profits, as well as merger activity, have transformed the vaccine marketplace," says Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information. "Continued sales of influenza and cervical cancer vaccines have provided a foundation for growth in the adult market. Meanwhile, the pediatric market was fueled by several major products including Wyeth's pneumococcal vaccines Prevnar and Merck's new rotavirus vaccine TotaTeq."

Take a minute to read the report, at the low, low cost of $4000, to get a sense of how important your health money is to PHARMA.

Vaccines are a 19.2 Billion dollar a year business. I am sure that with that kind of cash at play that the medical establishment is not at all biased as to vaccine safety.

I don't wanna hear that vaccines are not a money making venture any more.

Gotta run now and go get me some "Tota Teq".

WHO Investigates Chance That Swine Flu is Human Error

Not conclusive, so let's not let this story get a head of itself, but a story we need to keep an eye on.

Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim
By Jason Gale and Simeon Bennett
Bloomberg.com

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” Gibbs said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots of others.”

The World Health Organization received the study last weekend and is reviewing it, Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director-general of health security and environment, said in an interview May 11. Gibbs, who has studied germ evolution for four decades, is one of the first scientists to analyze the genetic makeup of the virus that was identified three weeks ago in Mexico and threatens to touch off the first flu pandemic since 1968.

A virus that resulted from lab experimentation or vaccine production may indicate a greater need for security, Fukuda said. By pinpointing the source of the virus, scientists also may better understand the microbe’s potential for spreading and causing illness, Gibbs said.

Possible Mistake

“The sooner we get to grips with where it’s come from, the safer things might become,” Gibbs said by phone from Canberra yesterday. “It could be a mistake” that occurred at a vaccine production facility or the virus could have jumped from a pig to another mammal or a bird before reaching humans, he said.

Gibbs and two colleagues analyzed the publicly available sequences of hundreds of amino acids coded by each of the flu virus’s eight genes. He said he aims to submit his three-page paper today for publication in a medical journal.

“You really want a very sober assessment” of the science behind the claim, Fukuda said May 11 at the WHO’s Geneva headquarters.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has received the report and has decided there is no evidence to support Gibbs’s conclusion, said Nancy Cox, director of the agency’s influenza division. She said since researchers don’t have samples of swine flu viruses from South America and Africa, where the new strain may have evolved, those regions can’t be ruled out as natural sources for the new flu.

No Evidence

“We are interested in the origins of this new influenza virus,” Cox said. “But contrary to what the author has found, when we do the comparisons that are most relevant, there is no evidence that this virus was derived by passage in eggs.”

The WHO’s collaborative influenza research centers, which includes the CDC, and sites in Memphis, Melbourne, London and Tokyo, were asked by the international health agency to review the study over the weekend, Fukuda said. The request was extended to scientists at the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, as well as the WHO’s influenza network, he said.

“My guess is that the picture should be a lot clearer over the next few days,” Fukuda said. “We have asked a lot of people to look at this.”

Virus Expert

Gibbs wrote or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications on viruses during his 39-year career at the Australian National University in Canberra, according to biographical information on the university’s Web site.

Swine flu has infected 5,251 people in 30 countries so far, killing 61, according to WHO data. Scientists are trying to determine whether the virus will mutate and become more deadly if it spreads to the Southern Hemisphere and back. Flu pandemics occur when a strain of the disease to which few people have immunity evolves and spreads.

Gibbs said his analysis supports research by scientists including Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, who found the new strain is the product of two distinct lineages of influenza that have circulated among swine in North America and Europe for more than a decade.

In addition, Gibbs said his research found the rate of genetic mutation in the new virus was about three times faster than that of the most closely related viruses found in pigs, suggesting it evolved outside of swine.

Gene Evolution

“Whatever speeded up the evolution of these genes happened at least seven or eight years ago, so one wonders, why hasn’t it been found?” Gibbs said today.

Some scientists have speculated that the 1977 Russian flu, the most recent global outbreak, began when a virus escaped from a laboratory.

Identifying the source of new flu viruses is difficult without finding the exact strain in an animal or bird “reservoir,” said Jennifer McKimm-Breschkin, a virologist at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization in Melbourne.

“If you can’t find an exact match, the best you can do is compare sequences,” she said. “Similarities may give an indication of a possible source, but this remains theoretical.”

The World Organization for Animal Health, which represents chief veterinary officers from 174 countries, received the Gibbs paper and is working with the WHO on an assessment, said Maria Zampaglione, a spokeswoman.

Genetic Patterns

The WHO wants to know whether any evidence that the virus may have been developed in a laboratory can be corroborated and whether there are other explanations for its particular genetic patterns, according to Fukuda.

“These things have to be dealt with straight on,” he said. “If someone makes a hypothesis, then you test it and you let scientific process take its course.”

Gibbs said he has no evidence that the swine-derived virus was a deliberate, man-made product.

“I don’t think it could be a malignant thing,” he said. “It’s much more likely that some random thing has put these two viruses together.”

Gibbs, who spent most of his academic career studying plant viruses, said his major contribution to the study of influenza occurred in 1975, while collaborating with scientists Graeme Laver and Robert Webster in research that led to the development of the anti-flu medicines Tamiflu and Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Bird Poo

“We were out on one of the Barrier Reef islands, off Australia, catching birds for the flu in them, and I happened to be the guy who caught the best,” Gibbs said. The bird he got “yielded the poo from which was isolated the influenza isolate strain from which all the work on Tamiflu and Relenza started.”

Gibbs, who says he studies the evolution of flu viruses as a “retirement hobby,” expects his research to be challenged by other scientists.

“This is how science progresses,” he said. “Somebody comes up with a wild idea, and then they all pounce on it and kick you to death, and then you start off on another silly idea.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Jason Gale in Geneva at j.gale@bloomberg.net; Simeon Bennett in Singapore atsbennett9@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: May 13, 2009 01:36 EDT

Jim Carrey on Vaccines: Movie Star Urges Moderation while Mainstream Medicine Preaches Excess

Has anyone noticed this odd phenomenon?

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Over indulgent movie star raving about some extreme position while doctors caution to take one things step at a time until we have good information about what the wisest course is?

But instead, Jim is saying this over at HuffPo:

We have never argued that people shouldn't be immunized for the most serious threats including measles and polio, but surely there's a limit as to how many viruses and toxins can be introduced into the body of a small child. Veterinarians found out years ago that in many cases they were over-immunizing our pets, a syndrome they call Vaccinosis. It overwhelmed the immune system of the animals, causing myriad physical and neurological disorders. Sound familiar? If you can over-immunize a dog, is it so far out to assume that you can over-immunize a child? These forward thinking vets also decided to remove thimerosal from animal vaccines in 1992, and yet this substance, which is 49% mercury, is still in human vaccines. Don't our children deserve as much consideration as our pets?

While the medical establishment's chosen vaccine spokesperson, Dr. Paul Offit is saying this:

“A baby’s body is bombarded with immunologic challenges—from bacteria in food to the dust they breathe. Compared to what they typically encounter and manage during the day, vaccines are literally a drop in the ocean”, and Dr. Offits studies theoretically show an infant could handle up to 100,000 vaccines at one time … safely.

He spoke as if the only thing in a vaccine is the viruses. He makes vaccines, he knows that there is plenty more in there to cause problems.

When he first made this claim in 2005, I was sure it was a misquote, so I wrote to him and asked him for clarification. His response:

"The figure of 100,000 is correct, and probably a little conservative".

He was still repeating that ridiculous assertion as recently as last year.

I did the math. That is about 13 gallons of vaccine solution, several times the mass of actual said baby. Picture your baby sitting in front of 13 gallons of milk. Or picture your baby sitting in front of two and a half of those big 5 gallon bottles they use in your office water cooler.

Now which one of these two men, if you didn't know their professions, would you take vaccine advice from?

If America has a court jester it is Jim Carrey. When the jester takes off his funny hat and starts offering reasoned, middle of the road arguments, and the court doctor is telling us to throw caution to the wind and pushing to give babies five, seven and even nine meds at once (much less making comically criminal statements like suggesting it is safe to give a baby 100,000 doses of a pharmaceutical), it certainly must signal some sort of cosmic shift or polar reversal.

Everyone check their bathtubs and make sure that they are still draining clockwise.

 

Vaccine Registry??!!

How did I miss this?

Horton Hears An "Ow", And Swats It Down Right Quick

Props again to Jim and Jenny for putting the kibosh on New Mexico's plan to vaccinate kids at the movies.

Again... vaccinations=medications, not popcorn. Our lives stand as a living testament that they are not one size fits all. Vaccines should be given only after a full review of a child's medical history and a checkup on the current state of their health.

I don't know any parents who go to the movies with their kids medical records in tow.

$75,000 Offered For MD to Publicly Drink Vaccine Additives

$75,000 Offered For MD to Publicly Drink Vaccine Additives

Jock Doubleday, director of the California non-profit corporation Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc., has offered $75,000 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives.

The additives would be the same as those contained in the vaccines recommended for a 6-year-old according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and the dose would be body-weight calibrated. It would include, but not be limited to:

* Thimerosal (a mercury derivative)
* Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
* Phenol (a disinfectant dye)
* Aluminum
* Benzethonium chloride (a disinfectant)
* Formaldehyde (a preservative and disinfectant)

On August 1, 2007, if no one has taken the challenge, the offer will be increased to $90,000 and will increase at a rate of $5,000 per month until someone accepts.

Vaccination Liberation Press Release

Jock Doubleday’s Vaccination Liberation

April 25, 2007

Ojai, California -- On January 29, 2001, I offered $20,000 to the first U.S.-licensed medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO to publicly drink a mixture of standard vaccine additive ingredients:

http://www.mercola.com/2001/feb/10/vaccine_offer.htm

The offer had no takers.

On August 1, 2006, I increased the offer to $75,000 (see below):

The new offer had no takers.

Therefore . . .



as of June 1, 2007, the $75,000 vaccine offer will increase to $80,000;

as of July 1, 2007, the vaccine offer will increase to $85,000;

as of August 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $90,000;

as of September 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $95,000;

as of October 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $100,000;

as of November 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $105,000;

as of December 1, 2007, the offer will increase to $110,000;

as of January 1, 2008, the offer will increase to $115,000.


The offer will increase $5,000 per month, in perpetuity, until an M.D. or pharmaceutical company CEO, or any of the 14 relevant members of the ACIP (see below), agree to drink a body-weight calibrated dose of the vaccine additives M.D.s routinely inject into children in the name of health.

This offer, dated April 25, 2007, has no expiration date unless and until superceded by a similar offer of higher remuneration.

In health,

Jock Doubleday
Director
Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc.
A California 501(c)3 Nonprofit Corporation

Dr. Mercola's comments:

Not surprisingly, this offer has been on the table since 2001, but no one has been willing to take that toxic chemical cocktail -- except for the children who innocently go in for their routine vaccinations. With the average amount of loans for medical students now well in excess of $100,000 you might have thought some doctor would have tried to cash n on this so they could accelerate the payment of their student loans.

In addition to the vaccine additives listed above, others can include ammonium sulfate, amphotericin B, pig blood, rabbit brain, monkey kidney, betapropiolactone, tri(n)butylphosphate, and a laundry list of other chemicals. The mercury-based preservative thimerosal, in particular, is dangerous. Mercury is a poison and potent neurotoxin. Injecting it into a child, whose nervous system is rapidly developing, can have terrible consequences.

From the evidence I have reviewed and my own clinical experience it is clear that mercury is one of the reasons autism skyrocketed in the last 10 years. Autism has started to decrease now that some the vaccines have eliminated mercury, but be wary; many vaccines still do contain thimerosal, no matter what you may have heard.

And even those vaccines without thimerosal still contain an incredible number of dangerous chemicals. When the mercury is removed, it is typically replaced with another toxic additive that is frequently just as health-harming. The aluminum hydroxide used in many vaccines has been linked to symptoms associated with Parkinson's, ALS, and Alzheimer's. Phenols, methanol, isopropyl, and 2-pheoxyethanol are other ingredients which are corrosive or toxic.

The bottom line is, if you are a parent and are considering vaccinating your child, please read up on the potentially devastating side effects of vaccines before doing so. It could mean the difference between life and death. Avoid the fear mongering and take some time to read ALL sides of the issue, not just the propaganda conventional pediatrician will present to you. Most educated parents that I know that have done a careful analysis of the data invariably chose not to vaccinate their children.

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.”

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

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?

Legislation Aims to Resolve Thimerosal Controversy

Legislation Aims to Resolve Thimerosal Controversy

Maloney Introduces Bill to Require Comprehensive Study to
Resolve the Question of a Possible Link between Mercury and Autism

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced the "Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007" (H.R. 2832), legislation that would require the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct a comprehensive comparative study of vaccinated and unvaccinated populations, which would resolve the controversy about the possible link between autism and mercury or other vaccine components (click here for text of the legislation).

Many parents have raised concerns about the effect that thimerosal, which was widely used as a preservative in vaccines and is made of mercury - a known neurotoxin, may have had on a child's chances of developing autism and other neurological disorders. The study mandated by this new legislation would try to help resolve this controversy once and for all.

"Vaccines have been instrumental in reducing the incidence of many once-common diseases, but we owe it to parents and children to study and resolve the question of the possible link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism," said Maloney. "What is ultimately needed to resolve this issue one way or the other is a comprehensive national study comparing outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated children. As the most scientifically advanced country in the world, we should be jumping at the chance to conduct a comprehensive national study to resolve the questions that have been raised.

Parents deserve answers, and children deserve no less than absolutely certainty and safety."

"The time has come to put the questions about thimerosal behind us and get some concrete answers about possible dangers associated with this vaccine preservative. Vaccines are critical to protecting public health, but we must know for certain that at the same time doctors are providing children with life-saving medicine that they are not also exposing them to a substance that could make them more prone to developing autism. As the world leader in medical research, it is incumbent upon the United States to take the lead on this matter and launch a comprehensive study on thimerosal so we can make smarter decisions about vaccines in the future," said Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), an original co-sponsor of the bill. Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is the bill's other original co-sponsor.

This week, Generation Rescue is releasing a phone survey that offers a preliminary look at vaccinated versus unvaccinated groups. According to Generation Rescue co-founder J.B. Handley, "Our study was meant to highlight the critical importance of the research required by H.R. 2832. A sound study like the one proposed in the bill is needed to help resolve the issue of whether there is a link between vaccines and autism."

In the past, those who claim the preservative thimerosal has no effect on children have also claimed that a comprehensive study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated populations could not be done in the United States because there was not a big enough unvaccinated population with which to compare the general vaccinated population. However, Dan Olmsted of UPI wrote a series of articles about the autism epidemic that identified a number of populations suitable for study, including: the Amish; children whose parents don't vaccinate for religious reasons; patients of Homefirst, an alternative medical practice in Chicago that does not vaccinate; and others. The Maloney legislation proposes comparing vaccinated populations with unvaccinated populations such as these.

A broad spectrum of vaccines containing thimerosal was manufactured for domestic use until 1999, and the nation's inventory of vaccines included some containing thimerosal for several years afterwards. Thimerosal is still used in most flu vaccines, and it remains in most vaccines administered to children in the developing world.

Background:

Maloney introduced similar legislation in the 109th Congress. Click here for more information.

Maloney also co-sponsored a bill with Congressman Dave Weldon, M.D. (R-FL) last year that would give responsibility for the nation's vaccine safety to an independent agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, removing most vaccine safety research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Currently, the CDC has responsibility for both vaccine safety and vaccine promotion, which is an inherent conflict of interest that is increasingly garnering public criticism. Click here for more information.

Hey Kids... Get Vaxed! Its So Kewl!!

This seems to me to have an ethical problem or two:



Brought to you by Paul Offit, M.D.... vaccine patent holder and Big Pharma.

"PKIDs is funded by parents, individuals, corporations and foundations – this includes unrestricted grants from pharmaceutical companies.

As a parent group, our highest priority has always been to seek the best care for our own children and to prevent other children from being harmed by infectious diseases. The policies we set and the paths we take to accomplish our goals have been and will always be determined by the parents we serve and our Board, independent of other organizations, pharmaceutical companies, governments or multi-lateral agencies."

6 injured, 1 dies after US Made MMR

HCMC Suspends US-made Vaccine After Worker’s Death

The Ho Chi Minh City Health Department has or­dered city hospitals and health centers to stop using a batch of US-made vaccines after a worker died and five others fell ill after getting vaccinated.

Six women workers from the Tango Candy Company were hospitalized Tuesday 30 minutes after be­ing getting a shot of MMR, a vaccine to protect people against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles).

One worker, Huynh Thi Kim Hoa, experienced breathing difficulties and a fall in heart rate, and she later fainted and slipped into a coma. Hoa was taken to Gia Dinh Hospital where doctors said she had suffered a brain hemorrhage.

The 20-year-old died Friday morning.

Hospital director Do Hoang Giao said Hoa's condition was not caused by the vaccination but was the result of defective blood vessels around her brain. The bleed­ing could have been trig­gered anytime.

The five others also suffered breathing difficul­ties and were also taken to the hospital. Doctors discharged them that evening.

The batch in question, H1666, was manufactured by American drug company Merck Sharp & Dohme Inc. on October 24, 2004, and expires in November this year.

The city Preventive Health Center said it im­ported 10,000 doses of the vaccine, more than 1,000 of which had already been used.

The idea that the MMR had nothing to do with her death is just a little difficult to swallow.

She fell ill 30 minutes after the following the vaccine. Since she was 20 years old, she had lived through 350,400 (actually more since this was following her birthday) - 30 minute intervals without her "defective blood vessels" in her brain hemorrhaging.

That means that when she collapsed, she less than a 1 in 350,400 chance of this happening to her at that moment.

So we are to swallow that it was just coincided with the vaccination by chance and was completely unrelated?

More importantly, we are to believe that the docs actually believe that themselves?

Katie Wright Speaks for Me!

Note: Anyone wanting to send supportive emails to Katie Wright can do so through the National Autism Association at naa@nationalautism.org

Last week at Autism One I had the good fortune to be present for Katie Wright’s official coming out. FAIR Autism Media debuted the 30 minute version of their two hour piece in which David Kirby interviews Katie Wright, which she gets to tell the full story that she was not able to tell on Oprah (more on the Oprah interview to come).

It was followed by a Q&A in which Katie expressed her affection and respect for her parents for all they were trying to accomplish in ending autism, and vehement frustration with Autism Speaks scientific board. Displaying all the passion that us mom’s are usually able to work up when talking about the state of research and the head in the sand position that the medical community is in, Katie said that it is time for the AS board (who has vastly more control over the direction of research than Bob Wright) to “stop awarding research grants to their friends” and put the money into environmental and biomedical research. I am sure you can imagine the ovation that she garnered from the audience.

During that session, and in a previous one, she stated very empathetically that she understood the position of those on the board who came to AS from NAAR. That they had been working toward the genetic causes of Autism for decades and were very invested in that line of inquiry. She also praised them, saying that they were out there looking for a cause long ago when no one else was. But, she said, that “now that their children have grown, it is time for them to step aside” and allow the research to shift.

Katie also spoke several times about her father. She was asked frank questions about him and she answered them frankly. To the question as to whether or not Mr. Wright would be hesitant to look into the vaccine question because of all the ad money that pharma spends at NBC, she plainly said that it would not be the case. With her hand over her heart, she repeatedly described her father as a man of very high integrity who would not be influenced by such matters. She further said that if anyone tried to bring pressure to bear on him in that respect, “that would be a big mistake for them, it would backfire.” She spoke with conviction and I believed her.

Katie told us that her father has seen Christian’s progress and is open and interested in the biomed approach. She also said that his hands are somewhat tied as he has contractual obligations to the people at NAAR to continue their lines of research, and that the people on the board who are not open to the environmental lines will be in place for another four years.

If it were Bob Wright’s intention to ‘turn the ship’ of AS, in my estimation it will take 5 or 10 years. With the pace of biomed research moving forward at the pace it is, they may miss the party, or arrive just in time to validate the research that DAN, NAA, SafeMinds and their sister organizations are pioneering.

Have I mentioned that finding the gene that causes autism won’t cure autism, just get people who have it aborted, just like those with Downs? Just wanted to remind you.

The Wrights have issued a statement distancing themselves from their daughter:

Statement from Bob and Suzanne Wright, Co-founders of Autism Speaks

Katie Wright is not a spokesperson for Autism Speaks. Our daughter's personal views differ from ours and do not represent or reflect the ongoing mission of Autism Speaks. Her appearance with David Kirby was done without the knowledge or consent of Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks is committed to finding the causes of and a cure for autism. We are proud of our scientifically based research programs, including those established by NAAR and CAN, and will continue to pursue them. The members of our scientific advisory teams have impeccable credentials and we fully support them. There is no question that genetics plays the leading role in autism and that environmental triggers are key issues for many children. These areas, as well as biomedical treatments, need huge research support.

Autism Speaks merged with NAAR because it believes in and supports its scientific mission, methods, and advisory board. We are proud of the accomplishments of NAAR and grateful to the families and volunteers who created it. They are a tremendously valued part of Autism Speaks. We welcome input from volunteers and parents/guardians of children with autism of all ages, including adults with autism. We apologize to our valued volunteers who were led to believe otherwise by our daughter's statement.

Not kind to Katie. I am sure it was to smooth ruffled feathers on the board of AS. However, The Wrights need to understand that the tide has turned. Just like their grandson, our children regressed following vaccination and get better under the DAN protocol.

It is time for Autism Speaks, to Listen.

So I will be respectfully writing to the Wright’s this week to let them know that their daughter speaks for me. I encourage you to join me and write to them, copying your letter to the scientific board. Put in the subject line: “Katie Wright Speaks For Me” and tell them your story, and what specific causes and interventions are relevant in your case and what you want them to research.

Autism Speaks
2 Park Avenue
11th Floor
New York, NY 10016

Bob Wright - Co-founder
Suzanne Wright - Co-founder
Gary W. Goldstein, M.D. - Chair, Scientific Affairs Committee
Mark Roithmayr - President
Peter H. Bell - Executive V.P. - Programs and Services

Let’s let Autism Speaks live up to their commitment to listen to all parents.

Thank You Katie. Again.

UPDATE: The Wright's statement on the AS web site has been since it was first posted:

Old statement:

Katie Wright is not a spokesperson for Autism Speaks. Our daughter's
personal views differ from ours and do not represent or reflect the
ongoing mission of Autism Speaks. Her appearance with David Kirby was
done without the knowledge or consent of Autism Speaks.

New statement:

Katie Wright is not a spokesperson for Autism Speaks. She is our
daughter and we love her very much. Many of Katie's personal views
differ from ours and do not represent or reflect the ongoing mission
of Autism Speaks. Her appearance with David Kirby was done without the
knowledge or consent of Autism Speaks.

UPDATE:

David Kirby comments on the rift caused by the interview:

Katie is an amazing person, and her parents are great people. They're a great family, a terrible thing happened to them [Christian's severe autism], and they're dealing with it as best as possible under a glaring spotlight. My intention is not to create any kind of rift - but I had to ask her some tough questions about the foundation that was created in her child's name. She went out of her way to defend Autism Speaks and her parents. [But she did make the comment] that the older generation of parents who helped create NAAR (the National Association for Autism Research) and focused on genetics should perhaps step aside and let younger parents try something new.

She praised them for starting NAAR - and I don't think she intended anything malicious - but umbrage was taken by parents, volunteers, and donors from NAAR who didn't appreciate Katie's comment. But it was heartfelt and sincere. I feel terrible personally that this came back in a negative way - that a rift was created in the family. People ask if I'm going to blog about this and I say no, I think I've cause enough trouble for this week - kids should not be estranged from their parents or grandparents!

Does that last line mean that Katie is estranged from her parents over this?

UPDATE: Sara at FAIR Autism Media reports that, "Katie didn't betray her parents. Her parents saw the video before it's release and even asked for a few edits... Katie views her parents in the highest regard and would never intentionally try to hurt them or what they are trying to accomplish in the autism community. Listening to Katie's comments, the Wrights sound like a very close family and I'm certain they're working things out."

Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine

Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine
Event Reports Obtained from FDA Detail 1,637 Adverse Reactions to Gardasil

(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician’s assistant reported that a female patient “died of a blood clot three hours after getting the Gardasil vaccine.” Two other reports, on girls 12 and 19, reported deaths relating to heart problems and/or blood clotting.

As of May 11, 2007, the 1,637 adverse vaccination reactions reported to the FDA via the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) included 371 serious reactions. Of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects ranging from spontaneous abortion to fetal abnormities.

Side effects published by Merck & Co. warn the public about potential pain, fever, nausea, dizziness and itching after receiving the vaccine. Indeed, 77% of the adverse reactions reported are typical side effects to vaccinations. But other more serious side effects reported include paralysis, Bells Palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and seizures.

“The FDA adverse event reports on the HPV vaccine read like a catalog of horrors,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Any state or local government now beset by Merck’s lobbying campaigns to mandate this HPV vaccine for young girls ought to take a look at these adverse health reports. It looks as if an unproven vaccine with dangerous side effects is being pushed as a miracle drug.”

Judicial Watch filed its request on May 9, 2007, and received the adverse event reports from the FDA on May 15, 2007. Judicial Watch has posted the adverse event reports.

(A recent study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also questioned the general effectiveness of Gardasil.)

Click here to view the Garadsil Related Deaths Reported to VAERS as of May 11, 2007

Click here to view the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) Reports as of May 11, 2007

Dr. Stoller on His Autism Journey and the CDC

Stoller was a pediatrician that saw only two cases of autism in his first decade and a half of practice, and came to the realization with the problems with the CDC and vaccines around the same time as I did in 2004 when he was testifying before the Senate on another medical matter. He highlights the ridiculous position of the CDC:

If we were talking about children going blind read how obscene this would sound:

“The number of children diagnosed with blindness is rapidly increasing. According to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in every 150 U.S. children is blind. These numbers are startling and this disability is affecting more and more families. Twenty years ago blindness was a very rare case. Today blindness is becoming a frightening statistic in every community. April is Blindness Awareness Month and I encourage everyone to take this opportunity to learn more about this disability…”

It would be absurd to relate this information about blindness without giving any explanation about what was causing it. Everyone would be demanding answers, and I dare say there would be protests in the streets to say the least...

...No other disease in history has been subjected to the spin that has been put on autism....

...It seems the scientific world isn't concerned that more children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and pediatric cancer combined.

It is a long article. Read the whole thing.

Throwing children into oncoming traffic: The truth about Autism
By: Kenneth Stoller, MD, FAAP with Anne McElroy Dachel
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007

I have been a practicing pediatrician for over 20 years. I saw my first child with autism in the early 90’s – before that I had never seen an autistic child, and I never saw an autistic child in all my years at school. The boy was 4 years old and you could see the frustration in his face as he wanted to speak but nothing intelligible would come from his mouth except shrieks of anguish.

As I studied his tortured face, it was as if there was an old time telephone switchboard operator inside his head trying to plug in the correct phone cables but not being able to complete the call. This family had known me from an old practice I worked at in another city, but they had traveled to see me because they trusted me and were looking for answers that no one seemed to have for them, but I too had no answers and I could see the mom was greatly disappointed. After the family left my office I poured over a few dusty textbooks and wondered if I had just seen a very rare disorder, a disorder that affected one child in 10,000 children…autism.

I had been involved in pediatrics for a decade by the time I saw this boy and it wasn’t as if I had no experience working with rare disorders. I had been able to identify a boy with Fragile-X syndrome and his mom ending up starting the Fragile-X support group at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles.

I had noticed there was a strange upswing in children with attention disorders and impulsivity problems. I wasn’t a neurologist, but had studied with one of the finest at UCLA. While I was still a pediatric resident I spent time in his office where he helped me study the parade of unusual maladies that was starting to afflict children. I considered myself a closet neurologist, because that was what I had really wanted to specialize in – not pediatrics, but during my neurology rotation in medical school I learned some discouraging news. The attending neurologist, whom I greatly admired, had taken me on rounds for the first time and I watched him brilliantly explain to the family of a stroke patient how he had figured out where in the brain the blood clot had lodged. Then he stood up and walked out of the room and I asked him what therapy he was going to prescribe for the patient so he could recover from his stroke, “therapy?” he said, “there is no therapy.”

Well, I scratched neurology off my list…diagnosis was only meaningful if you could offer a treatment and it seemed neurology had few treatments to offer.

My second patient with autism came to me in the mid 1990’s, but to my relief the purpose of the visit was only to treat worms. I dutifully prescribed the medicine for pinworms and went on to my next patient. Later that afternoon I received a call from the autistic boy’s mom who wanted to know what was that medicine I had given her son for pinworms….her boy was starting to make eye contact, show affection and communicate with his family. She said it was amazing! I told her I didn’t really didn’t know what was in the pinworm pill but immediately prescribed enough pills for her son to take everyday for a month (normally you only take one or two pills to treat pinworms).

I called up the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the pinworm pill and spoke to one of their technical staff. They told me the pill worked by blocking the transport of molecules of a certain size from crossing cell membranes, so in the case of the hapless pinworms they were unable to absorb the sugars they feed upon in the lower intestines of their victims.

What did that have to do with this boy’s newly found improved behavior? Either one of two things were going on: 1) the drug was either blocking a molecule that shouldn’t be passing across the gut to the blood and then the brain and that molecule was having a drug-like affect on the brain, or; 2) the drug was blocking a molecule that normally crossed from the gut into the blood but in certain children these molecules had a strange drug-like affect.

I made several calls across the country to find a researcher who might be interested in this serendipitous finding which could be an important clue into this disease, because no where had I found anything saying that the guts of these children were involved in their disease. Unfortunately, no one I talked to was interested.

Testifying to Congress...

In May 2004, I had been invited to testify in front of the Government Reform Committee to discuss new developments in treating children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. I had been invited because of the work I was doing with hyperbaric oxygen in treating brain injured children, including fetal alcohol syndrome. Hyperbaric oxygen is where oxygen is given under pressure in chambers that are used to treat scuba divers who get the bends. I and several other physicians had found that hyperbaric oxygen was returning functionality to the brains of affected children.

Sitting next to me was a physician who told the story of his son who had become autistic after receiving vaccine and how he discovered his son was retaining toxic heavy metals, specifically mercury. Over the course of a year this physician had given his son a chemical to pull out the mercury and his son began speaking again and in fact jumped on his dad’s lap and addressed the Committee members having been restored to be a healthy boy without any signs of his autism.

In the 1990’s I had known there was a problem with many of the vaccines because they contained the preservative Thimerosal (50% mercury) and I had discouraged many parents from getting vaccine containing Thimerosal – there is no safe level of mercury, and it didn’t make sense to inject the most toxic non-radioactive element on the planet into children, but I never made the connection between autism and mercury. I knew what Thimerosal was because while I was in college my brother had a very bad reaction to the Thimerosal that used to be used in contact lens solution.

I was taken aback that something so obvious had not registered with me, but I didn’t realize that I and my physician colleagues had been subjected to a disinformation campaign to make us think there was no connection between mercury and autism. It has been known for sometime that mercury was causing autism, but someone was running interference. The question was who was running interference?

In February 2007, the watchdog agency on America's health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), made the official announcement that a breath-taking one in 150 kids is autistic in the U.S. If you go to the CDC website on autism (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism) you’d see lots of pictures of smiling happy children with autism and we’d be told that autism spectrum disorders are “a group of developmental disabilities defined by significant impairments in social interaction and communication and the presence of unusual behaviors and interests.”

You won’t be told that for many parents autism is a nightmare from which they never wake up. “Significant impairments” can mean that a child is violent and self-abusive, non-verbal, and physically sick. You won’t be told that this is a medical disease where most autistic children have significant inflammation in both gut and brain including colitis, super-infections and severe food allergies.

Even though autism affects one in 90 boys (four boys affected for every girl) in the U.S., the CDC can’t seem to tell us exactly why. The CDC states, “We still don’t know a lot about the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Scientists think that both genes and the environment play a role, and there might be many causes that lead to ASDs.”

The site also doesn’t mention that only one in 10,000 children in the 1970s, and one in 2,500 in the 1980s were autistic.

The CDC site also doesn’t tell us about a secret meeting that was held in June of 2000 where over 50 individuals from the CDC, WHO, NIH, American Academy of Pediatrics, and many representatives from pharmaceutical interests discussed data from the CDC Vaccine Data Sets showing that the increase in mercury exposure from the stepped-up vaccine schedule in the 1990’s caused an 11 fold increase in neurobehavioral disorders (www.autismhelpforyou.com/Simpsonwood_And_Puerto%20%20Rico.htm). What you will see on the CDC website is “Several studies have looked at whether there is a relationship between vaccines and autism. The weight of the evidence indicates that vaccines are not associated with autism.”

Evidence? Someone at the CDC was ‘cooking the books’ and what they told the public was not what they knew to be the case. You see, the CDC was put in the untenable position of helping to develop vaccines, mandate the vaccines, promote the vaccines, pay for their administration and be responsible for their safety – Ye olde fox watching the hen house scenario with the inevitable untoward result. There will always be a problem with vaccine safety until this responsibility is moved out of the CDC. Today, the CDC and its vaccine public-relation front group’s answer to any criticism is that the motivations of those that are critical of any part of the vaccine program are because they really want to destroy the vaccine program.

The truth is that the CDC has been very effective in laying the foundation to destroy the vaccine program all by themselves and their double speak is analogous to someone saying you can’t be against war and support the troops at the same time, you’re either for us or against us, etc. It is actually illegal for a federal agency to propagandize the American public, but that is exactly what the vaccine division of the CDC does. It has used the tactic of generating fear and it has earned billions of dollars for this agency.

Once the public loses trust in public health programs it can take many years to regain that trust. I am reminded of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments that are still a cause of distrust of public health programs amongst Black Americans.

Losing the Public Trust...

The cover-up at the CDC surrounding the mercury preservative found in so many vaccines (up until about 2003) has had very serious far-reaching implications. The children whose lives were forever changed by being injected with Thimerosal preservative were giving us a global ‘heads-up.’ They were showing us that the background level of mercury pollution has increased to the point that it is beginning to take its toll on the human species, but the CDC turned its head away from this crisis because it conflicted with what they were promoting in the vaccine program.

As I said before, mercury is the deadliest non-radioactive element on Earth, and 1000s of tons are spewed into the environment every year. With each coal-fire power plant that comes on line we are one step closer to exterminating human life on this planet. However, mercury is politically protected because of its connection with the fossil-fuel industry, dentistry (amalgam dental filings), and vaccine.

Thimerosal is still in the flu vaccine for children above the age of 3 and they are receiving as much as half of the dose of mercury that the child in the ‘90’s received. Thimerosal was not removed from vaccine in 1999. That was when the promise was made, but promises weren’t kept. Thimerosal is also in the meningitis vaccine.

Lower IQ levels linked to mercury exposure in the womb cost the USA $8.7 billion a year in lost-earnings potential according to a study done by the Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment (http://fusion.mssm.edu/media/content.cfm?storynum=252). If it were publicly acknowledged that mercury pollution was the trigger for the autism epidemic this number would be in the trillions of dollars. One in six children is born to mothers with dangerous levels of mercury in their blood – perhaps the same one in six that the CDC admits have a neurobehavioral disorder.

Our regulatory agencies, such as the FDA and the EPA, have been taken over by the very industries they were mandated to regulate and the revolving door between industry and top-level appointees at these regulatory agencies has eliminated many of the normal safeguards we have relied on for our protection.

There is no disputing the numbers. Last month the Tonawanda News in New York reported “cases of autism in the state jumped from fewer than 2,000 in 1992 to 9,500 in 2003.” Even worse was the number of affected children in New York schools in 2005-2006 according to the Dept. of Education. New York’s autism total had increased to 12,257.

Maybe what we really need to be made aware of is what the eventual cost of autism will be to the U.S. The Autism Society of America tells us that autism is growing by 10-17% a year. They also say that it currently costs $90 billion a year and it's projected to increase to $200-400 billion annually in ten more years. A Harvard study out last year put the cost of lifetime support conservatively at $3.2 million per individual.

April was Autism Awareness month, but why are we only asking for awareness and not for answers? This is a glaring omission when we’re talking about so many affected children. Awareness, treatment, and identification are critical but so is preventing autism.

If we were talking about children going blind read how obscene this would sound:

“The number of children diagnosed with blindness is rapidly increasing. According to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in every 150 U.S. children is blind. These numbers are startling and this disability is affecting more and more families. Twenty years ago blindness was a very rare case. Today blindness is becoming a frightening statistic in every community. April is Blindness Awareness Month and I encourage everyone to take this opportunity to learn more about this disability…”

It would be absurd to relate this information about blindness without giving any explanation about what was causing it. Everyone would be demanding answers, and I dare say there would be protests in the streets to say the least.

The CDC and Autism...

CDC director Julie Gerberding announced the new autism rate of one in every 150 children with a flourish. She said that while there were more kids being diagnosed with autism, it doesn't mean the autism was necessarily on the rise. No one in the press seemed concerned that the CDC has been counting kids with autism for years and still can't tell us if there are actually more of them. After all, it’s just "better diagnosing by doctors" and "better statistics by the Centers for Disease Control." And now we learn that the Autism Genome Project (AGP) recently uncovered evidence shows that autism is caused by "genetic flaws.”

Common sense would tell us that pushing children onto a busy street, observing that some of them were injured, and then looking for a genetic reason why some of them were hit defies credulity.

No other disease in history has been subjected to the spin that has been put on autism.

Dr. Ezra Susser, chairman of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York indicated that he believed the new genetic findings would help scientists to understand how "the environment might lead to autism by causing genetic changes."

Susser said, "It shows us that we need to think about many environmental factors that might influence autism."

The new genetic findings on autism got a lot of coverage from major news outlets and reports made it look like we're on the cutting edge of a major autism breakthrough. But let’s do a reality check here, genes don't just spontaneously and randomly mutate all by themselves. There has to be an environmental agent affecting these genes.

Some will have you believe that autism is some medical mystery that's always been around but we just haven't been able to get a handle on. So, show me the 30 year olds with autism, the 40 year olds with autism, and the 50 year olds with autism. Guess what? They aren’t there for the most part. The explosion in the number of children with autism is real but most of the scientific community has ignored this. Let’s face it they have been encouraged to ignore it, and anyone getting close to the truth finds that they get their NIH research grants pulled.

That’s right…science is being manipulated so that a big lie can stay alive and those culpable can remain unaccountable.

It seems the scientific world isn't concerned that more children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and pediatric cancer combined. News stories about autistic kids are now beginning to reveal the duplicity of CDC officials. These reports clearly show that this isn't something we have all the time in the world to theorize and ponder about.

All the experts searching diligently for those elusive genetic mutations seem blissfully unaware of the impact of autism on our schools and the impending disaster, as these autistic children become autistic adults. Anyone looking at the graphs and charts based on Department of Education statistics showing the soaring autism numbers has got to be worried. The dramatic increase in children in our schools disabled with autism is a scary preview of the impact they will have on the Social Security System in the next five to ten years.

Michael Ganz's Harvard study last year conservatively put the lifetime care cost for one autistic individual at $3.2 million dollars.

Robert Krakow from Lifespire gives us estimates that put the lifespan cost at $10.125 million per autistic individual. This figure is based on an annual rate for each person of $225,000 with a life expectancy of 66 years. It doesn't include the cost for the period up to age 21.

One of the many questions we need to ask ourselves is if the very integrity of the biosphere on this planet is in jeopardy unless there is an immediate curtailment of manmade mercury pollution. Coal miners don’t look at a dead canary and blow it off or say they have just “gotten better at diagnosing dead canaries,” or “that dead canary just had a genetic defect so pay no heed.” Yet that is exactly analogous to the situation we find ourselves. We continue to pollute the planet and ourselves (there is no separation), yet the very governmental agency that would normally be taking the lead in sounding this 5 alarm alert has been compromised and remains less than silent. Mercury pollution should be considered a global crime against humanity, against mammalian life on this planet and there should be zero tolerance.

If you want to know why more isn’t being done for autistic children, why there has been a strange cover-up of the facts, then simply follow the mercury and those that benefit from its use.

Kenneth Stoller, MD, FAAP is medical director of the Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico (www.hbotnm.com) and the Hyperbaric Oxygen Clinic of Sacramento (www.hbot.info). He is President of the International Hyperbaric Medical Association. He can be reached at: info@hbotnm.com

Anne McElroy Dachel of Chippewa Falls, WI is a member of A-CHAMP (Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning) and the National Autism Association (NAA). She can be reached at: amdachel@msn.com.

Julie Gerberding: Getting out the BIG shovel

I sit here trying to come up with a post on this that does not contain any offensive synonyms for animal leavings, but I am hard pressed to do it. When I signed onto this debate almost three years ago, we heard the same thing from the CDC yet they have done NOTHING to get us any closer to finding answers to the questions that parents have been screaming at them. It is completely absurd.

The statements Gerberding makes in this "hearing" are laughable.

CDC chief: Autism not overlooked

By JEFF NESMITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/18/07

Washington — Autism is an "urgent" concern of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, told senators Tuesday.

Although the CDC has been criticized by some autism activists and members of Congress, Gerberding said the Atlanta-based agency is best equipped to do the surveillance and research needed to understand and respond to the disorder.

THEN DO IT!!!!!!

GIVE US A VALID, REPLACEABLE, TRANSPARENT VACCINE/AUTISM STUDY!

YOU HAVE THE MONEY, YOU HAVE ALL THE DATA, DO IT!

STOP PRETENDING THAT DENMARK AND VERSTRAETEN ACTUALLY SUPPORT THE CLAIM THAT VACCINES ARE SAFE FOR OUR KIDS!

GIVE US THE AMISH STUDY THAT YOU WERE CHARGED WITH DOING IN 1982!

STUDY THE CHILDREN THAT ARE LOOSING THEIR AUTISM DIAGNOSIS AFTER DAN! TREATMENT!

DO IT ALREADY!!!!

IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DO IT THEN STOP TALKING ABOUT AUTISM!

AND PLEASE... PLEASE... STOP SAYING THAT YOU CARE WHAT IS GOING ON WITH OUR CHILDREN!

YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS!

"The profound lifelong impact of autism spectrum disorders, tremendous costs to the affected individuals and their families, the lack of known causes or cures and concerns about the increased rates of diagnosis all make autism spectrum disorders one of our urgent realities," she told a Senate appropriations subcommittee.

She said "CDC recognizes that parents want answers," adding, "We share their frustration at not having more answers about the causes and possible cure."

This statement is just a lie. No other way to say it. She is lying.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), whose Appropriations subcommittee on the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services held the hearing, said that "millions of families are grappling with the profound difficulties of understanding and coping with this disease."

"We've got to do something about this," Harkin said.

Testifying with Gerberding were the director of the National Institute of Mental Health and a generally supportive group representing families and advocacy organizations.

Not represented at the hearing were autism activist groups that have accused the CDC of concealing evidence of a link between childhood vaccinations and the disorder.

I am sure that our invitation was lost in the mail. Again.

However, while the Senate committee hearing was under way, two members of the House announced that they will reintroduce legislation to end what they called "a conflict of interest whereby CDC is responsible for both vaccine promotion and vaccine safety."

Reps. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), and Carolyn Maloney, (D-N.Y.,) said they will introduce the bill Thursday. Their bill last year that would remove the CDC's responsibility for vaccine safety did not pass.

UPDATE:

My good friend Wade responds to my post with a What What, and like me, far less civility than those who read his blog are used to.

UPDATE:
From John Gilmore of A-CHAMP:

If you were to deliberately design a plan to not find the cause of a disease, or even accurately count how many people are affected with a disorder, you couldn't have done better than the CDC management under Dr. Gerberding. She has not brought us an inch closer to finding the cause of autism or any treatments. She has destroyed confidence in the CDC and much of the federal public health apparatus.

It is time for her to go. And I think all autism organizations should give serious thought to calling for her resignation.

John Gilmore