The CDC’s Caldera

By J.B. Handley

Yellowstone National Park’s beauty has been enjoyed by millions. Up until the 1960s, scientists knew the park’s hot springs, geysers, mud pots, and frequent earthquakes were all signs of volcanic activity. However, it wasn’t until a single government scientist took a step back to re-think the park that an extraordinary discovery was made: most of Yellowstone was one massive volcano -- a conical, inverted “super volcano” known as a caldera.

Some context: Mount St. Helens’ crater-top is about 2 square miles. Yellowstone’s caldera? 1,500 square miles. Yellowstone’s most recent eruption, roughly a half million years ago, was about 8,000 times as powerful as the Mount St. Helens’ eruption of 1980. When it erupts again (not “if”, but “when”), you can count on a good part of the West and Midwest being wiped out.

I think of the CDC scientists looking at the connection between vaccines and autism as similar to the early Yellowstone scientists documenting each hot spring and earthquake, while never realizing they were standing on a single, massive Caldera.

As the recent press releases issued to coincide with Jenny McCarthy’s appearances on Oprah and Larry King Live both emphasize, the CDC’s sole focus in disputing the vaccine-autism link is on the mercury-based vaccine preservative known as Thimerosal. This makes sense, because it’s the only data the CDC actually has. Here’s an excerpt from their Oprah statement:

“The vast majority of science to date does not support an association between Thimerosal in vaccines and autism. But we are currently conducting additional studies to further determine what role, if any, Thimerosal in vaccines may play in the development of autism. It is important to remember, vaccines protect and save lives.”

Some history: when the 1999 announcement was made that the vaccine schedule had a potentially unsafe total level of mercury, CDC scientists began to analyze the potential relationship between exposure to Thimerosal and autism. But, the short-sighted approach they took in looking at the hot springs but not the Caldera is mind-numbing.

In the CDC’s own analysis, published in 2003 in Pediatrics, they only compared children who had been exposed to SOME Thimerosal versus children who had been exposed to MORE Thimerosal, not zero Thimerosal and certainly not zero vaccines. Also, they eliminated low birth weight children, odd since you would think they would be more “at risk.” As a side note, it remains astonishing that this study, viewed as the “bible” by most people looking to exonerate vaccines in the autism epidemic, was a neutral outcome study, meaning they could neither prove nor deny an association between Thimerosal and autism. And, the CDC FOUND an association between Thimerosal exposure and both “language delay” and “tics.” Yet, the myth persists.

But, the worst sin, and the sin that CDC continues to try to avoid confessing to, is that they have never considered anything BEYOND Thimerosal in looking at vaccines. Just for fun, I re-wrote CDC’s statement to more honestly reflect the current debate:

“The vast majority of science that we have funded, sponsored, and run ourselves does not support an association between Thimerosal in vaccines and autism. The many published studies that do support a link won’t be mentioned here, because that would be self-defeating. Further, we haven’t actually looked at any vaccine components beyond Thimerosal, which we hope you don’t notice. We are currently conducting additional studies with our money and our people to further determine what role, if any, Thimerosal in vaccines may play in the development of autism – which we wouldn’t mention to you if we didn’t already know what those unpublished studies have concluded.

We should remind you that we will remain committed to only looking at Thimerosal, because we have no interest highlighting that we have more than tripled the national immunization schedule in the last twenty years. The idea that something about thirty-six vaccines and all of their potentially toxic components beyond Thimerosal pushing a subset of children into autism is too much for us to bear, despite thousands of parental reports noting their children changed immediately after vaccine administration. Those parents are just confused, much as we remain about the actual cause of autism.

The idea that between the 1983 immunization schedule and the Thimerosal panic of 1999 twenty-six ADDITIONAL vaccines had been added to the immunization schedule never seems to have been contemplated by any CDC employee anywhere in any document I have ever seen. The impact of this growing Caldera of vaccines, administered indiscriminately to all children without ever testing the collective safety of the schedule, remains a scientific unknown – with the exception of our recent survey of unvaccinated children that found a meaningfully higher level of ADHD and autism in vaccinated boys.

As Dan Olmsted has pointed out many times, until scientists take a thorough and honest look at unvaccinated children, the vaccine-autism debate will remain lava-hot.

J.B. Handley is Co-founder of Generation Rescue.

Comments

[Angela Warner]

Ahhh... JB,

I so love how you never fail to bring the white elephant out of the corner! And the comparison is spectacular! While I was a child in the midwest during the "big" Mt St. Helens eruption; since moving here in '99, I have felt the associated earth quakes and witnessed the 2004/2005 "eruptions".

My husband put it well the other night and said, "It is all going to snowball now". Not only is it a caldera; it is also an avalanche. An avalanche so big, that the CDC's life saving transmitter's will not save them.

White elephants should not stay in the corner and although a bit rough... shame on those who know and enable them to remain there!

Thanks JB!
Always With Kindred Spirit,
Ang

[Jeffrey Dach MD]

The Most Bitter Debate

There is no greater rancor in medicine than the autism-vaccine debate, and this debate has reached the federal vaccine court where 5000 autistic kids and their families are requesting compensation for vaccine injury.

In California it is a illegal to inject newborns with the mercury containing vaccines (such as the Hep-B Shot, and it should be crime in your state as well.

Hepatitis B is transmitted with IV drug abuse, or via sexual transmission, both of which are somewhat impossible for newborns. It is much safer to wait until the child is 3 years old to give the shot.

Hopefully, the injection of mercury into newborns will soon become a relic of the ancient past, taking its rightful place in the museum along with bloodletting and leeches. Until then, there is much work to be done to remove mercury from our vaccinations. As a nation, we can’t afford not to.

Read more at:
Autism and Mercury Vaccines by Jeffrey Dach MD
http://jeffreydach.com/2007/10/11/autism-vaccines-and-robert-f-kennedy-jr-by-jeffrey-dach-md.aspx

Jeffrey Dach MD
4700 Sheridan Suite T
Hollywood Fl 33021
954-983-1443
my web site
http://www.drdach.com

[Kent Heckenlively]

J.B.:

What a fabulous post! I always love how you go straight to the unasked questions of those who deny any possible link between vaccines and the explosion of neurological disorders. What is the problem with simply comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children? Wouldn't that put an end to the controversy? It would, but not in the way the officials at the CDC would want.

I also really like your example of how it took one scientist taking a step back to realize that the Yellowstone area was actually a super-volcano. I don't think the vaccine-autism explosion is too far off, especially with Montel Williams getting ready to do a special on children who have recovered from autism with bio-medical approaches!

All the best,
Kent Heckenlively