| Vaccination: Federal Health Agencies
Continue to Deceive Americans
I have no doubt whatever that vaccination is an unscientific
abomination and should be made a criminal practice. G.
Bernard Shaw
Under normal circumstances, when a public health measure is advocated
or mandated, and it is accepted without question by all Federal
health agencies, state and local health departments, and promoted
by the mainstream media with unquestioning support from the orthodox
medical community, then it is assumed that such measures at the
very least meet basic scientifically proven criteria. Foremost
should be public health safety and that the proven efficacy of
a health program be implemented according to rigorous scientific
gold standards. When this standard is ignored and denied, as is
now being done by our health officials, then the wellbeing of
the nation is placed at risk. Consequently, we see the concerns
regarding the swine flu vaccine focusing upon supply rather than
health. For our government health officials at the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), vaccines have been baptized safe and, therefore, there
is no reason for further debate. In fact, so certain are those
in charge of the nation’s vaccination programs, even democratic
discourse about vaccination controversies has been marginalized
and smothered. There is no dissenting opinion published in any
major industrial medical journal or magazine, nor found on any
of government health websites.
When put to the test, a meticulous review of the scientific literature
finds that virtually all of the Federal health agencies assumptions
are held in error. Furthermore, we are shocked that the CDC, FDA
and HHS, with all of their resources, refuse to take into consideration
the large body of clinical evidence that contradicts their biased
vaccine policies. Our review of the scientific literature is at
two levels. First, there is a direct relationship between vaccination
and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This evidence, as we shall
see, was taken under oath during a three year Congressional investigation,
which clearly shows that Federal health officials were complicit
in covering up the associations between vaccines and neurological
damage.
The second level shows irrefutable evidence, from peered reviewed
journals in immunology, neurology, toxicology, etc., that the
very same mercury used at high toxic levels in the flu vaccines,
as well as in trace amounts in other vaccines, is toxic in all
circumstances. The pronouncements by the CDC and HHS, promulgated
by tabloid medical writers at the New York Times, Wall Street
Journal and other media outlets, are deceptions based upon medical
denialism. We believe it is a crime to inject mercury into the
bodies of any pregnant woman and child, while knowing that thimerosal
is extremely toxic.
During a televised interview to prepare the American public for
a massive campaign to inoculate the population for the H1N1 flu
virus, President Obama’s HHS Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Sebelius,
told the nation, “study after study, scientist after scientist,
has determined that there really is no safety risk with thimerosal.”[1]
Glancing at the foot-high stack of published clinical studies
on the desk, years of independent research identifying certain
neurological impairments, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD),
and cellular organ damage resulting from vaccines containing the
toxic ethylmercury preservative commonly known as thimerosal,
it is incomprehensible to fathom the depth of scientific denial
in Sebelius’ statement. Was the Secretary blatantly lying
to Americans, especially parents of small children six months
and older and pregnant mothers, to convince us to line up for
flu shots? If we unpack Sebelius’ misleading propaganda and
properly rephrase her pronouncement, we can uncover a semblance
of truth in her words. Instead it would have been proper for her
to inform the nation that “study after study of spurious
and flawed research that would likely never pass a graduate school
examination, scientist after scientist affiliated or with financial
ties to the vaccine industry now dominating our academies and
health agencies, have determined that there really is no safety
risk with thimerosal.”
This should have been the Secretary’s response if she were
honest in addressing many people’s concerns about vaccine
safety. Yet, this is not just our interpretive spin about the
lack of scientific integrity within the CDC’s and FDA’s
pharmaceutical-friendly stance regarding the vaccine-autism controversy;
rather it accurately reflects the conclusions from a three year
investigation conducted by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and
Wellness in the House’s Committee on Government Reform, spearheaded
by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Indiana). Published in May 2003, the Committee’s
80-page report, “Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary
Risks,” is a clear indictment charging the CDC, FDA and HHS
with scientific bias, prejudiced financial interests with vaccine
makers, and administrative incompetence and indecision that puts
Americans’ health at risk.[2]
It is a sorry state of affairs when a Congressional committee
is forced to undertake a more thorough, concise review of the
scientific literature related to a national health crisis, i.e.,
thimerosal as a causative factor behind the epidemic scourge of
neurological and developmental disorders in America’s children,
because our Federal health agencies prefer to not upset their
clients (or masters) in the pharmaceutical industrial complex.
But what is even more disturbing is that after six years since
the Committee’s report, nothing has fundamentally changed.
Instead, the CDC, FDA and HHS continue their rogue campaigns to
spread unfounded medical propaganda and have done next to nothing,
aside from issuing promises and marginalizing opposing medical
views, to fund and launch the independent research necessary to
determine once and for all vaccine safety in young children, developing
fetuses and pregnant mothers. And as we wait for medical sanity
to descend upon our government agencies, more and more children
are injured from the increasing number of scheduled vaccinations,
while the burden of health costs continue to mount on the shoulders
of parents with neurologically and physically damaged children.
Therefore reviewing some of the Committee’s major findings
is warranted to bring them up to date with recent information
showing the thimerosal-autism link and to provide evidence for
the CDC’s, FDA’s and HHS’s ongoing medical denialism
about vaccine safety and their laxity in preserving and addressing
public health.
Committee Finding 1: “Mercury is hazardous to
humans. Its use in medicinal products is undesirable, unnecessary
and should be minimized or eliminated entirely.”
Mercury, in its two most common forms that threaten human health–methylmercury
and ethylmercury (thimerosal used in vaccines)–is the second
most toxic substance perhaps after uranium. It is over one hundred
times more toxic than lead. Therefore ask yourself the question,
would you submit your child, or even yourself, to having lead
injected directly into his or her bloodstream, permitting it to
pass through your child’s neurological system? If you answer
in the negative, then know that the mercury in that flu shot being
offered at Costco is far more toxic than the lead you just refused.
Although more research has been conducted showing methylmercury’s
severe health risks, the Committee, basing its decision on sound
scientific evidence, concluded that thimerosal’s toxicity
is the same as methylmercury. Among the more serious adverse effects
are multiple organ system disorders over the course of a lifetime,
neurological and behavioral defects, renal damage, cardiovascular
effects even at very low dosages, increased susceptibility to
infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and injury to the immune
system, and adverse effects on the reproductive system. Contrary
to Sebelius’denialism, a pregnant mother’s exposure
to thimerosal due to vaccination runs the risk of mercury crossing
the placenta and affecting the developing fetus. The CDC’s
current stance that it makes no difference whether vaccines with
thimerosal are given to pregnant mothers flies in the face of
biomolecular reason and the Environmental Protection Agency’s
(EPA) own warnings. Medical evidence for methylmercury disturbing
the neuro-development of an infant in utero has been conclusive
for many years.[3] The EPA’s website states that for women
in reproductive ages, there is the risk of 300,000 newborns each
year incurring learning disabilities due to in utero exposure
to mercury. Even the FDA acknowledged mercury’s toxic risks
to infants back in 1994. According to a National Institutes of
Health document, “For fetuses, infants and children, the
primary health effects of mercury are on neurological development.
Even low levels of mercury exposure, such as result from a mother’s
consumption of methylmercury in dietary sources, can adversely
affect the brain and nervous system. Impact on memory, attention,
language and other skills have been found in children exposed
to moderate levels in the womb.” Do any of these symptoms
sound like ASD? And if eating a can of tuna fish poses a potential
risk, how much greater are the potential neurological injuries
when vaccine mercury is injected intramuscularly?
The EPA, unlike the FDA, has conducted research into mercury’s
toxicity and health risks. While the EPA sets a limit exposure
of mercury at 0.1 micrograms/kg, the FDA in its favoritism towards
mercury’s use in vaccines raises the stakes to 0.4 micrograms.
The FDA’s figure has no valid supporting scientific data
and is arbitrary in order to continue sanctioning the use of in
vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the limit higher;
this may account for the WHO’s aggressive campaigns to inoculate
the world’s poorer populations with heavily laced-mercury
and stockpiled vaccines from the drug makers. The Committee, however,
found the EPA evaluation to be “scientifically validated.”
Consequently, a person receiving a single flu shot, with 25 mcg/kg
of thimerosal would need to weigh approximately 550 pounds for
it to be considered a safe quantity. Therefore it is no surprise
that the series of four thimerosal-laced flu shots, or 100 mcg/kg,
can lead to long-term cumulative damage for any age group, including
the later onset of dementia conditions such as Alzheimer’s.[4]
Dr. David Baskin, Professor of Neurosurgery at Baylor College
of Medicine, told the Committee that brain tissue absorbs mercury
five times more than other body tissues. And infants and small
children are furthermore five times more sensitive to mercury’s
toxicological effects compared to adults. Dr. Baskin reported
on his own studies at Baylor:
“We have the opportunity to actually grow human frontal
cortex cells in cell culture. So these are cells from the front
part of the brain…. We incubate these cells with thimerosal
at various doses… [then] detect cell death and cell damage….
[showing a slide] These are the cells committing the suicide program
and breaking themselves into tiny little pieces with a very low
dose of mercury…. Don’t forget, we did this in adult
brain cells. Remember that infant brain cells are much more sensitive,
so there’s a real cause for concern.”
Similar studies conducted at Columbia University have confirmed
the Baylor findings.
So why can’t the CDC and other government agencies reproduce
these clinical studies to confirm whether or not there is a clear
thimerosal-autism link? Well, the CDC, and other research agenies
such as the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease
(NIAID), simply don’t perform gold standard clinical science.
Instead, the CDC relies upon statistical analyses and mathematical
algorithms to arrive at their conclusions about vaccines’
and thimerosal’s safety. Preferring to cower in the back
of Plato’s cave, concise scientific protocol and biomolecular
studies in a laboratory is almost anathema to them. In addition,
the kind of studies the vaccine orthodoxy hail as proof to deny
a correlation between thimerosal and autism rely upon dreadful
research design and ridiculously low numbers of participants.
For example, a University of Rochester study comparing children
injected with mercury-vaccines versus vaccines without mercury
only enrolled 40 subjects; yet, this single study remains in the
pro-vaccine orthodoxy’s arsenal against vaccine skeptics.
If autism at the time of the study affected 1 in 150 children,
then enrolling 40 children is baseless for achieving any valid
data. For this reason, another finding by the Committee states:
Committee Finding 2: “To date, studies conducted
or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute any correlation
between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design, under-powered,
and fatally flawed. The CDC’s rush to support and promote
such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking
fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse
reactions from vaccinations.”
The Committee also reports, “Upon thorough review of the
scientific literature and internal documents from government and
industry, the Committee did in fact find evidence that thimerosal
posed a risk. The possible risk for harm from either low dose
chronic or one time high level (bolus dose) exposure to thimerosal
is not ‘theoretical,’ but very real and documented in
the medical literature.”
Furthermore, the report continues,
“Of additional concern has been the CDC’s bias against
theories regarding vaccine-induced autism. Rather than aggressively
working to replicate clinical findings with laboratory data that
showed a relationship between vaccines and autism… the CDC
funded researchers who also worked for vaccine manufacturers to
conduct population-based epidemiological studies to look at the
possible correlation between vaccine injury and a subset of the
population that might be injured. The CDC to date has relied too
heavily on epidemiological findings. While epidemiological studies
are important, they are not a substitute for focused, clinical
research.”
And independent clinical research exists. There is lots of it
from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins,
the Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University
of California at Irvine, Baylor Medical School, Prof. Boyd Haley
at the University of Kentucky, and the dozens of studies by Dr.
Mark Geier at the Institute of Chronic Illnesses, all providing
evidence for thimerosal’s adverse effects in adults and in
the developing brain of a child.
Committee Finding 3: “Manufacturers of vaccines
and thimerosal have never conducted adequate testing on the safety
of thimerosal. The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct
adequate safety testing on thimerosal and ethylmercury compounds.”
For many decades, the FDA has known about the neurotoxic effects
of thimersosal. A review of internal documents from Eli Lilly,
the original inventor of ethylmercury in the 1920s, reveals that
only one study has ever been performed to investigate thimerosal’s
safety in humans and it was “woefully inadequate.” During
the actual Committee hearings, Rep. Burton remarked, “You
mean to tell me since 1929 we’ve been using thimerosal and
the only test you know of is the one that was done in 1929, and
every one of those people got meningitis and died?”[5]
In the 1940’s, thimerosal was used in teething powders for
infants and resulted in fatal outbreaks of Pink’s Disease
(severe mercury poisoning) before being removed in the 50’s.
Since many children today receive vaccines with trace amounts
of thimerosal, in addition to vaccines containing adjuvant aluminum
compounds, an important 1972 study published in the British Medical
Journal noted that mercury increases aluminum’s oxidation
and produces abnormal heat. In recent years, there is growing
evidence of mitochondrial oxidation and cellular damage that may
be due to this interaction between mercury and aluminum in vaccines.
With a child now receiving 31 and more vaccinations during its
first 18 months of life, it would seem that this barbaric practice
would have been fully investigated by our health officials to
account for the epidemic rise in neurological and behavioral disorders,
adult diabetes and asthmatic conditions in American children.
Instead, our health officials continue to pump out junk science,
for example the recent, seriously flawed NIAID study on H1N1 vaccine
safety in pregnant women reported over the major media, to deceive
Americans and enroll them in their national vaccination campaigns.
The protocol in that study listed any pregnant woman who had a
history of alcohol or drug abuse during a 6 year period, diabetes,
compromised immune systems, asthmatic and allergic conditions,
history of cancer-treatment drugs for 3 years, prescription to
psychiatric drugs, and many other conditions as unqualified for
the study. These conditions alone would disqualify the large majority
of the nation’s pregnant women. Furthermore, any pregnant
woman who enrolled in the trial, who spiked a temperature of 100
degrees or greater during the first 72 hours following vaccination,
were excluded from the trial. Nevertheless, the CDC and its cronies
in the media, particularly the pharmaceutical shills at The New
York Times touted this deranged trial as conclusive evidence that
the swine flu vaccine was safe for all pregnant women. These are
the kinds of medical distortions we have come to expect from the
Federal health agencies.
The Committee’s report states,
“It appears that our Federal regulatory framework (the FDA
and its predecessor organizations) failed to require manufacturers
to prove thimerosal was safe. They failed to require industry
to conduct adequate testing to determine how thimerosal is metabolized.
The FDA failed to require that industry conduct studies to determine
the maximum safe exposure level of thimerosal. These basic issues
should have been proven prior to the introduction of thimerosal
into the marketplace, but more than 70 years after its introduction,
these issues have still not been adequately addressed… It
is clear that the guiding principal for FDA policymakers has been
to avoid shaking the public’s confidence in the safety of
vaccines. For this reason, many FDA officials have stubbornly
denied that thimerosal may cause adverse reactions…. given
the serious concerns about the safety of thimerosal, the FDA should
have acted years earlier to remove this preservative from vaccines
and other medications.”
Nevertheless, even during this so-called flu season, the Federal
agencies continue to remain entranced in a stupor of scientific
denial, perhaps acting in a criminally negligent manner, as thimerosal
remains at highly toxic levels in the flu vaccines, and remains
in trace amounts in the DTaP, some Hib, and Hepatitis B vaccines.
Although the FDA has repeatedly agreed that mercury is unsafe
for over-the-counter medications, one would think that the government
could arrive at the simple deduction of an elementary school pupil
in agreeing that intramuscular injection of thimerosal would be
far more dangerous. During the Committee’s proceedings, Dr.
Bernard Schwetz, former Director of the FDA’s National Center
for Toxicological Research, has stated, “… the fact
that we know that ethylmercury is a skin sensitizer when its put
on the skin, and now we’re injecting this IM (intramuscularly)
at a time when the immune system is just developing, the functionality
of the immune system is just being set at this age [infancy]….
What is the effect on the functional development of the immune
system when you give a chemical of that kind repeatedly IM?”
Committee Finding 4: “At the same time that the
incidence of autism was growing, the number of childhood vaccines
containing thimerosal was growing, increasing the amount of ethylmercury
to which infants were exposed threefold… The FDA and CDC
failed in their duty to be vigilant as new vaccines containing
thimerosal were approved and added to the immunization schedule.”
The Commission report states, “There was tremendous reluctance
on the part of some officials that a mistake had been made in
allowing ethylmercury to be used in vaccines.” The FDA damns
itself in a 1999 email by a former FDA official, Dr. Peter Patriarca,
then Director of the FDA’s Division of Viral Products, who
opines that hastening the removal of thimerosal from vaccines
would “raise questions about the FDA being ‘asleep at
the switch’ for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous
compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing
manufacturers to exclude it from new products.”
While the Federal health agencies and the professional medical
organizations serving the vaccine industrial complex, such as
the American Pediatric Association, repeatedly tell us there is
no causal relationship between ASD and vaccine mercury, there
is a growing body of prestigious scientists, researchers and physicians
who feel otherwise. Last October 2009, a Harvard survey reported
in the journal Pediatrics the US’s ASD rate needs to be upgraded
to 1 in 91, a greater than 30% increase from the previous 1 in
150 ratio several years back.[6] Consequently, the thimerasol-autism
debate is far from over and should be pursued with aggressive
due diligence and urgency. Moreover, the past history of CDC negligence
and its reliance upon poorly designed and flawed science indicates
there is no reason why any rational citizen should believe any
statistical declaration or medical claim about vaccine safety
from government health officials. These are people with severe
allergic reactions to real science.
The Autism Society of America (ASA), the world’s largest
autism organization and heavily funded by private industry and
CDC support, continues to rely on archaic treatments not too dissimilar
to BF Skinner’s behavioral work with pigeons. The ASA and
the National Alliance for Autism, another advocacy organization
supporting research to discredit vaccine-autism links, have been
accused of conflict of interests and biased studies. In early
2009, Alison Singer, the senior executive of ASA and an advocate
of the fanatical vaccine multi-millionaire and former advisor
to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice,
Dr. Paul Offit—who believes in a fantasy vaccine heaven where
children can survive 10,000 vaccinations unscathed—resigned
in protest over her organization’s recent leanings to reconsider
a vaccination-autism connection. Each organization’s platform
fundamentally ignores a possible vaccine-caused autism and instead
favors genetic etiology that has yet to be conclusively discovered—instead,
blame the parents’ DNA, not the drug makers and their government
collaborators. Yet while the search for a mysterious autism gene
persists, more and more children are being neurologically and
developmentally damaged. Furthermore, even if such a gene is found,
it would be many years before anything medically practical could
be done with it.
Committee Finding 5: “A growing number of scientists
and researchers believe that a relationship between the increase
in neurodevelopmental disorders of autism… and the increased
use of thimerosal in vaccines is plausible and deserves more scrutiny.”
In fact, the CDC in June 2000 discovered “a statistically
significant positive correlation between the cumulative exposure”
of thimerosal and ASD symptoms. The CDC’s analysis of approximately
110,000 records of children with adverse reactions to vaccines,
flying in the face of federal health officials’ previous
claims about vaccine safety, led to a secretive meeting between
top government health officials and vaccine industry representatives
at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center near Atlanta. The transcripts
of that meeting were later obtained by Robert Kennedy Jr through
a Freedom of Information Act. During the meeting, the CDC study’s
chief scientist, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, stated, “This analysis
suggests that in our study population, the risks of tics, ADD,
language and speech delays, and developmental delays in general
may be increased by exposures to mercury from thimerosal-containing
vaccines during the first six months of life.” The Congressional
review of the Simpsonwood conversations concluded that “It
appears that many who participated in the thimerosal debates allowed
their standards to be dictated by their desire to disprove an
unpleasant theory.” Indeed, this is what eventually occurred
after the meeting.
The clandestine Simpsonwood gathering decided to withhold its
findings from the public and, instead, proceeded with a new investigation
to doctor the same data by employing confounders (subjective,
unscientific criteria used to bias a study to prove a desired
result). Consequently the CDC’s subsequent study released
several years later denied any relationship between thimerosal
and ASD. At the end of 2009, this remains the policy position
and mindset of the CDC, FDA and HHS while a large body of independent
research, with no conflict of interests with government or the
vaccine industry, continues to mount against our policy makers
reliance upon tabloid science and futile efforts to find causes
unrelated to vaccines. And Dr. Thomas Verstaeten? Last heard he
joined the vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline and continued to deny
the truth of the CDC’s original Simpsonwood findings.
Since then, Dr. Mark Geier at the Institutes of Chronic Illnesses,
through a Freedom of Information Act, obtained all the CDC’s
vaccine injury data in its database. After conducting an independent
epidemiological study, based on tens of millions of vaccine doses
administered in the US, he confirmed the Simpsonwood findings
and significant other data to show thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine
as contributing causes behind the country’s autism epidemic.[7]
Today, our tax dollars are being spent by our health agencies
to sidestep the entire question of vaccine safety and efficacy,
and are trying to project autism’s causes on genetic factors.
This was the case in 2003, as it is now, when the Committee raised
concerns over the NIH’s $27 billion budget, investing only
$56 million into autism research, and the majority of that towards
genetic causes. Compare that with the $2.2 billion spent on HIV/AIDS
research that affects only a tiny percent of the population compared
to the hundreds of thousands of children across the nation suffering
autism spectrum disorder and neurological damage that they will
live with for the remainder of their lives.
In 1975, the FDA undertook a five year review of mercury’s
dangers in over-the-counter drugs and topical medicines and ointments.
The advisory panel’s report to the FDA concluded that not
only “mercury compounds as a class are of dubious value for
anti-microbial use” but also “thimerosal was 35-times
more toxic to the heart tissue it was meant to protect than the
bacteria it was meant to kill.” So why is thimerosal still
used in vaccines? Rather than manufacturing single dose vials,
which would not require mercury, vaccine makers have found it
more cost effective to manufacture multi-dose vials and simply
add mercury as a preservative for longer shelf-life. A story in
the Columbus Dispatch unveiled that Ohio’s decision to purchase
larger quantities of thimerosal-laced flu vaccine rather than
the alternative thimerosal-free version was purely based on a
financial decision.[8]
Committee Finding 6: “CDC’s failure to state
a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines in 2000 and again 2001
was an abdication of their responsibility.”
After reviewing the CDC’s long-standing habit for promoting
illness and staging a war on health, there is a case of one vaccine
manufacturer offering to remove thimerosal from its vaccine but
being denied permission to do so from the CDC. This incident led
the Committee to state, “The CDC’s decision not to endorse
thimerosal-free vaccines in 2001 is particularly troubling….
Just as disappointing, and even more difficult to understand,
is the fact that the CDC, on two separate occasions, refused to
publicly state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines.”
Testimony by Federal health officials before the Committee included
a litany of excuses based on financial rationales for not concerning
itself with the health of American children. The statements by
Dr. Roger Bernier from the CDC exemplifies the dangerous level
of denial and Federal officials’ refusal to accept preventative
health measures, a dire negligence that continues to plague government
health agencies in general, and the unproven and potentially unsafe
H1N1 vaccine in particular:
“It [removing thimerosal from vaccines] could entail financial
losses of inventory if current vaccine inventory is wasted. It
could harm one or more manufacturers and may then decrease the
number of suppliers”
“The evidence justifying this kind of abrupt policy change
[immediate removal of mercury from all vaccines] does not appear
to exist, and it could entail financial losses for all existing
stocks of vaccines that contain thimerosal.”
The Committee’s interpretation of the CDC’s vaccine
policy includes, “The financial health of the industry should
never have been a factor in this decision [thimerosal removal].
The financial health of vaccine manufacturers certainly should
never have been more important to the Federal health officials
than the health and well being of the nation’s children.
The CDC has a responsibility to protect the health of the American
public. If there were any doubts about the neurological effects
of ethylmercury in vaccines on children—and there were substantial
doubts—the prevailing consideration should have been how
best to protect children from potential harm. However, it appears
that protecting the industry’s profits took precedent over
protecting children from mercury damage.”
Committee Finding 7: Thimerosal should be removed from
these vaccines. No amount of mercury is appropriate in any childhood
vaccine.”
Although thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines, mercury
remains in trace amounts in some vaccines, as noted above, and
remains at high toxic levels in the flu shots. Studies show that
in the presence of aluminum compounds mercury’s toxicity
increases dramatically. Vaccines that contain aluminum compounds
include the DTaP, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal, anthrax,
and the HPV vaccine. Unfortunately, no studies have been funded
by government agencies nor have the vaccine makers undertaken
efforts to determine adverse neurological effects when multiple
vaccines are given together, as is so often the case when small
children visit their pediatricians.
A comparison of the FDA, CDC and HHS claims on thimerosal and
multiple vaccination safety with documents from the Department
of Defense (DoD) leaves one with the feeling that our national
health service is a madhouse, a leper colony of welfare scientists
and indecisive medical bureaucrats torn between their allegiance
to pharmaceutical firms and the health of the nation. Medical
journalist David Kirby has reported on DoD documents he received
showing the military raising legitimate concerns about vaccines
(thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine) as causative factors for the
critical epidemic of ASD among military children.[9] In her article
“Autism in the Military, “ Angela Warren calculates
the military autism rate at 1 in 67, substantially higher than
the recent Harvard study for the civilian population.[10] In addition
to thimerosal’s dangers, the military claims its ongoing
studies suggest that “a relationship between adverse events
and multiple vaccinations exist.” The Armed Forces Institute
of Pathology also acknowledges that “exposure to mercury
in utero and children may cause mild to severe mental retardation
and mild to severe motor coordination impairment.”[11]
Why would the military health officials take a completely different
stand on thimerosal and vaccine safety from that of the CDC and
HHS? During a recent conversation with a retired Colonel and former
Command Surgeon of the US Army Special Operations Command in Africa,
Dr. Frank Anders explained why the military health policies and
recognition of scientific facts are more accurate and medically
humane than that of our Federal health officials. According to
Col. Anders, the “power and money these pharmaceutical companies
wield [on the FDA and CDC] is awesome.” When he was asked
whether or not there is any conformity or agreement between the
Department of Defense’s health divisions and the Federal
health agencies, including President Obama’s appointments,
he stated there was nothing that could affect preventative and
therapeutic health policy. There are far more financial incentives,
including funds from Congress at the behest of pharmaceutical
lobbyists, for FDA and CDC personnel to forge relationships with
the drug and vaccine makers. On the other hand, since military
health personnel are solely employees of the DoD removed from
the vaccine industry and Big Pharma lobbyists, there is less bias
and greater scientific integrity towards medical facts and sound
science.[12]
Curiously, David Kirby reports that the military health clinics
are adopting alternative treatments for ASD–methyl B12, chelation
and glutathione–which are not actively promoted by the FDA
in their preference for pharmaceutical and psychiatric drugs and
behavioral modality treatment. When we asked Col. Anders why this
was the case, he responded that it is simply because these alternative
treatments work. For example, independent studies show convincingly
that thimerosal depletes glutathione in vaccinated children with
autism. Glutathione provides cells with the primary defense against
heavy metal oxidation, a condition that has been observed extensively
in children with ASD. Without glutathione, heavy metal oxidation
inflicts severe neurological damage. Alternative treatment for
autism includes glutathione replacement; however, this form of
treatment is not recognized by the CDC and the orthodox autism
organizations in bed with the pharmaceutical industrial complex.[13]
Committee Recommendations: There were two important recommendations
made by Rep. Dan Burton’s Committee that Americans should
demand from our government and Federal health agencies. First
is the recommendation that “studies be conducted that pool
the results of independent research that has been done thus far,
and a comprehensive approach should be developed to rid humans,
animals and the environment from this dangerous toxin [ethyl-
and methylmercury].”
The second urgent recommendation is that Congress “enact
legislation that prohibits federal funds from being used to provide
products or pharmaceuticals that contain mercury, methylmercury
or ethylmercury unless no reasonable alternative is available.”
Today, neither of these recommendations have been acted upon.
Instead the Obama administration has continued the previous Bush
act to provide sanctuary to vaccine makers from lawsuits due to
vaccine injury. Our health officials have sunk themselves deeper
into dangerously reductive and determinist views about infectious
diseases, such as the swine flu, and have strengthened their denial
that their entire vaccination program might be leading America’s
health to further ruin.
It is unusual for our government and Congress to get anything
correct these days and to make sincere, thoughtful decisions that
truly benefit American citizens. However, there are those rare
occasions when a spark of wisdom actually flares briefly somewhere
in Washington. The Rep. Burton’s Committee report’s
final statement is as relevant today as it was in mid 2003. Perhaps
even more so as we witness the CDC’s public relations campaign
threatening citizens with misleading statistics, distorted science
(‘science’ being a term that can barely be applied to
the kind of tabloid research that Federal officials rely upon
today), and unproven fears to shepherd us towards the H1N1 and
seasonal flu lines.
“Thimserosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely
related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability
may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep
at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected
thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to his known
neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is
indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and
misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”
As we have witnessed during the recent CDC’s public relations
campaign behind the H1N1 vaccine, and the uproar of dissent that
questions the safety and national need for mass inoculation, medical
discourse has been shut down. This raises the serious concern
whether America’s health sciences and democracy can co-exist
any longer in the United States. The words of H.H. the Dalai Lama
are apropos for understanding the fish tank Federal officials
and their sponsored cohorts settled into, “To deny authority
of empirical evidence is to disqualify oneself as someone worthy
of critical engagement in a dialogue.” Nothing has changed
within the US government’s vaccine policy programs, six years
after Congress indicted our health leaders with medical denialism.
Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive
Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the genomic
industry. Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation’s
longest running public radio program on nutrition and natural
health and a multi-award-winning director of progressive documentary
films, including Vaccine Nation (2008) and Autism: Made in the
USA (2009)
[1] Kathleen Sebelius interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS, July
30, 2009.
[2] All statements in quotations, unless noted, are from the House
of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness
report, “Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks,”
published May 2003.
[3] Magos L, Brown AW, Sparrow S, Bailey E, Snowden RT, Skipp
WR. “The comparative toxicology of ethyl- and methylmercury.”
Archives of Toxicology. (1985) 57: 260-267.
[4] Haley, Boyd (Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry,
University of Kentucky). “The relationship of the toxic effects
of mercury to exacerbation of the medical condition classified
as Alzheimer’s disease.” Presented at Autism One Conference.
May 26-29, 2005.
[5] Kirby, David. Evidence of Harm. St. Martin’s Press, New
York, 2005.
[6] Kogan MD, Blumberg J, Schieve LA, Boyle CA, Perrin JM, Ghandour
RM, Singh GK, Strickland BB, Trevathan E, van Dyck PC. “Prevalence
of Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among
Children in the US, 2007” Pediatrics. Published online October
5, 2009.
[7] Geier M, Geier D. “Neurodevelopmental disorders after
thimerosal-containing vaccines: A brief communication.” Experimental
Biology and Medicine. (2003) Vol. 228, n 6, 660-664.
[8] McCoy, Roger. “Some See Threat in Ohio’s Flu Shot.”
The Columbus Dispatch. February 17, 2004.
[9] Kirby, David. “The Pentagon: A Voice of Reason on Vaccines
and Autism?” Wellsphere.com December 4, 2008.
[10] Warner, Angela. “Autism in the Military” Age of
Autism. July 8, 2008.
[11] Kirby. Op cit.
[12] Private conversation with Col. Frank Anders, November 2009.
[13] James SJ, Slikker W, Melnyk S, New E, Jernigan S. “Thimerosal
neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion: protection
with glutathione precursors.” Neurotoxicity. (2005) Vol.
26, 1-8
*
A full list of h1n1 vaccine ingredients, alerts and warnings.
Reference Source: smirkingchimp.com
November 16, 2009
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