OLMSTED ON AUTISM: ABC SNAPS TO ATTENTION OVER VACCINE CASE

By DAN OLMSTED

Below is an e-mail I've been waiting a long time to see -- someone from the mainstream media trying to get their mind around the fact that the United States government has conceded that vaccines triggered autistic regression. By now you've all read about this case and David Kirby's brilliant reporting and analysis of this watershed development (if not, click HERE for a link to David's A of A and Huffington Post column and HERE for the text of the settlement). What is so great is to see a news outlet scrambling to get the story quickly and get it right. The author of the memo, Dan Childs of ABCNews.com, sent it to various interested parties looking for feedback. So far, so good -- that's the way to solicit as wide a range of input as possible. Now to watch the coverage unfold -- and who's to say whether we'll ultimately be grinding our teeth once again or popping champagne. But for now, it's a complete blast to watch, especially for someone like me who's felt like a resident of Bizarro World for the past three years as Big Media covered its ears, eyes and mouths while the biggest health scandal of our lives has unfolded on their watch. Meantime, pass your thoughts on to Mr. Childs at the e-mail below, won't you? (And copy us by commenting on this post.)

From: ABC MEDICINE <ABC.MEDICINE@abc.com>
Sent: Tue Feb 26 12:56:31 2008
Subject: Federal Government May Have Conceded on Vaccine-Autism Case -- ABC News Interest

Good afternoon,

This is Dan Childs, producer of the Health page of ABCNews.com. I hope this message finds you well.

There has been a buzz lately about the possible concession of a vaccine-related case by the government. Much of this talk has surrounded a column posted on the Huffington Post. ...

ABC News is still assessing the validity of this report, but we would like to be ready to responsibly cover this issue if the report does, in fact, prove to be true.

In short, the column suggests that the federal government has chosen to concede to one case in which the plaintiff claims that her child developed features consistent with an autism spectrum disorder after receiving her vaccinations.  Based on this case, the column further suggests that something about the vaccines may trigger autism-like illness in children who are susceptible to mitochondrial disorders.

Depending on what we find out, various ABC News platforms may be interested in covering this development. I am also interested in writing a story for ABCNews.com on this topic.

With this in mind, I was hoping that you would be willing to lend your expertise to come of the questions that we have about this possible development. Specifically:

1) With regard to the idea that vaccines may trigger mitochondrial disorders, what evidence are you aware of that would point to this possibility?

2) If it turns out that the federal government did concede in this case, what are your thoughts on this move?

Any other comments you have on this are most appreciated.

Please note that your comments will be considered on the record and available for use in a story on ABCNews.com unless you specifically request that your responses be used for background purposes only. Please also be sure to include your full contact information in case we would like to get in touch with you for further information.

If you receive this message after 10AM on Wednesday, Feb. 27, please disregard it as the deadline for this story will have passed.

Thanks, and I look forward to talking with you soon!

Cheers,
Dan (Childs)

--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[Cathy Mealey]

Thank you Mr. Olmstead - there is so much to be said on both sides of this debate. Count me in with the myriad parents who saw their child have a terrible reaction to an immunization (in our case DTAP) and then begin to regress rapidly and without any means of mitigating the descent. I know the media will report on both sides of the issue - I only beg you to report our side of the story as often as you have to report stories recommending more dangerous vaccines so big pharma does not have a costly backload to dump on someone. Eventually the truth will come out and my son's life will not have been without a greater meaning to the good of the world.

[Robin Nemeth]

Nancy Synderman, on NBC this morning, on about why we need to get our flu shots and especially need to have our children and pregnant wives get them, was asked if there would be enough. By way of answer, she had nothing at all to say about the number of vaccines available for this flu season, but instead went on about the expected availability of flu vaccines next season.

I’m sure she didn’t want to tell us that, yes, indeed, not only will there be plenty of vaccines available for all who want them, but that there are, in fact, a slew of vaccines left on the shelves that need to be sold. Even though many people know, now, that they don’t work.

This is pretty much what I saw on the ABC nightly news last night, as well. Efforts to help the CDC hawk their leftover toxic vaccines.

I sent the following to ABC.medicine@ABC.com, this morning. Deadline or no deadline, I figured it wouldn’t hurt if they hear from me.

I watched the ABC evening news this evening, hoping to hear a story about the recent vaccine case in which the US government conceded that a child’s autism was in part a result of the childhood vaccines she received. I guess I should have known better. No matter how many letters you get, no matter how many parents scream at you until they are blue in the face that their child was fine until her or she was destroyed by the vaccines their doctor administered, no matter how much evidence is dumped in your lap, you will continue to ignore the story. You get too much money from the prescription drug ads that comprise most of the ads I see on your channel these days.

You would have had to have been dead or asleep for the last five years not to have heard them, the parents whose children were destroyed. But it’s easy enough to cover your ears and shut your eyes, when it is not your own child who has been destroyed. It is only too bad that some day very soon now you and yours are likely to be touched in some way by this epidemic, or some new iatrogenic horror created by our medical establishment (you don’t really believe that there won’t be more when they’ve gotten away scot free with this one, do you?), and another innocent child, this one the child of someone you are close to, will be affected. It might be a great deal easier for me to believe that everyone responsible for producing the news at ABC was unaware of this controversy, were it not for the presence of Katie Wright on Oprah, or the Eli Stone episode that your network recently aired.

I do not believe for one minute that you didn’t receive emails, many emails besides my own, begging you to look into the topic of autism and vaccines as the truth very much paralleled the story of the Eli Stone pilot episode. I know that there are people who’ve sent you letters begging for your help because their child disappeared into autism after a vaccination, who’ve sent you medical records, who’ve sent you lists of research studies and of well credentialed scientists and doctors who believe that autism is not merely a genetic disorder, but an iatrogenic one. And yet the only snippet of information that your producers have felt that the American citizens are entitled to was the hour that Oprah spent with the mother of Christian Wright.

You’ve gone on year after year helping organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC maintain their ruse that vaccines are perfectly safe. You do so knowing that they have conflicts of interest. But then, you have your own, don’t you? It’s hard to see the truth when your paycheck depends on your not seeing it. And it’s equally hard or harder to speak it, no doubt.

This evening, instead of a story about the child whose autism was found, in a US court, to be a result of the toxins that were in the vaccines she received, you chose to air another story about the wonders of modern medicine. In between commercials for prescription drugs, aimed at people who are apparently too stupid to know that they are sick and should ‘ask their doctor’ before being told by some actor on TV that they should ask their doctor, you chose to show instead—surprise surprise—a story about how important it is for babies and children to get their flu shots.

Never mind that they don’t work against most of the flu strains present this season. There are a lot of vaccines left to be sold, and we can’t have anyone taking a loss on those unsold vaccines now can we? The vast majority of the flu shots that you are convincing people to have their children receive contain the same toxic levels of mercury that the vaccines for childhood diseases have contained. Even the most cursory bit of research on your part would have turned up this information. I’m surprised that you didn’t remember to inform Americans not to worry about mercury in vaccines because after all, the thimerosal has all been removed. The fact that the thimerosal hasn’t been removed from the flu vaccines hasn’t stopped, in the past, those in our government and in our media from saying it has been removed. Why stop lying now? It will only be a few hundred thousand more children who are destroyed in the next decade, if you continue on with this cover up. But what is that to you? The important thing is that some child didn’t get sick for a few days, and some parent didn’t miss a day of work, and some health care bureaucrat didn’t lose their job, and, most importantly, your pharmaceutical company revenues continue to roll in.

If you wanted to come clean, instead of continuing to do the CDC’s and Merck’s and Eli Lilly’s dirty work for them, you would talk to the American people about thimerosal. And the aluminum and formaldehyde and all of the other poisons that doctors have been injecting into our young for the last few decades. You don’t have to explain to them the research that has been done by Burbacher, by Rimland, by Jepson, or by the other hundreds of researchers who’ve found a connection between autism and toxins in vaccines. The science is no doubt complicated, but at least you could point out to them that it exists. At least you could mention the fact that there are thousands of parents who are screaming bloody murder that their child was just fine before he had his vaccinations and autistic immediately afterward, instead of pretending that they don’t exist. You could stop pretending that there are no respected scientists or doctors who support them when you do, once in a blue moon, mention them at all. At least you could question the fairness, the justice, of a system that does not allow the parents of vaccine damaged children to seek redress in the same kind of court of law that other Americans are entitled to seek redress for harms in.

Whether or not you yourselves believe that the truckloads of evidence that are there for the seeing if one only opens up their eyes to look is enough to convince others of a link between vaccines and autism, your silence on this controversial topic has been and is, especially now, in and of itself conspicuous.

The people who initially made this horrendous mistake are guilty, but only in a very minor sense. They are guilty of doing something stupid. Something very stupid that unfortunately cost a great many parents and children a great deal of grief. (I almost wrote ‘an unspeakable amount of grief’ but the irony of using the word ‘unspeakable’ stopped me. You, for instance, could speak of it. You just won’t.) But everyone does stupid things. Most of us are just fortunate enough that our mistakes are usually not so costly.

There are a great many more guilty people involved with this though than the people who initially made the mistake of injecting children with such a poisonous mix of ingredients. The people who cover up this mistake, and the people who profit from the covering up of this mistake even knowing as they do so that it means the destruction of even more lives, they are the truly guilty. I hope and I pray that history is not kind to them, and that it brings to them the justice that they deserve.

But I think that rather than saying ‘them’ I should be saying ‘you’.

Robin Nemeth
http://www.wideopenwest.com/~r_nemeth/timeline.htm

[help us]

well, robin, you were right. we can't trust them. did you see ABC news tonight? altho admittedly, they did give jepson a moment to speak, the story was not about the court case. it was about the cdc's latest distraction tactic. get the flu shot. HHS is told there's a link and the next thing we hear is their baby CDC says get more shots. it is beyond words how this happens. what gives? what will give us the break we need to get the word out? i am so exhausted, not just from the 25 supplements, weekly pediatrician office visits, IEP meetings, and out of state doctor's appointments that are not paid for by anyone but my family, but also to watch us get batted away from truth like 99.9% of j-mac's basketball shots. how will i sleep tonight, but even more pertinent, how will THEY sleep? at least they are in luxurious sheets.

[Robin Nemeth]

Dan,

I was all set to write something to ABC regarding Mr. Childs’ email, when I read further and saw that the story deadline has passed. It’s probably just as well.

Dan Childs writes as though he’s been dead or asleep for the past five years, as though this was all the most amazing shock to him, that such a trial was even taking place.

How can I write to a producer at ABC news and say any of the things I have to say to him without being rude? Not that I’m sure what meaning such a word has, not that I understand how any words for them could be horrible enough, when I think about what they’ve done. What they’ve not done, I should say. For years the producers at ABC have been hearing these stories about autism and vaccines. For years they’ve ignored them. For years if they showed any stories at all about autism they were only, with the exception of Oprah’s show with Katie Wright, the warm fuzzy uplifting kind of stories about autism, as hard as those are to find. There was never any acknowledgement at all that parents existed who were sure that their children were destroyed by vaccines. They chose to do this, in between the ever rising number of prescription drug commercials that they broadcast. If nothing else, they might have done a story on the unfairness of the system that forces the parents of vaccine damaged children to seek redress not from a normal court of law, but from these special ‘vaccine courts’.

As far as I’m concerned, if they do decide that it’s time to let this cat out of this bag, they are way the hell too late for way the hell too many families and children.

The people who initially made this horrendous mistake are guilty, but only in the most minor sense. They are guilty of doing something stupid. Something very stupid that unfortunately cost a great many parents and children a great deal of grief. (I almost wrote ‘an unspeakable amount of grief’ but the irony of using the word ‘unspeakable’ stopped me. You and I and the others here have managed to speak it; they bloody well can manage to do it too they just won’t.) But everyone does stupid things. Most of us are just fortunate enough that our mistakes are usually not so costly.

There are a great many more guilty people involved with this though than the people who initially made the mistake of injecting children with so much crap. The people who tried to cover up this mistake, and the people who tried to profit from the covering up of this mistake even knowing as they did so that it would mean the destruction of even more lives, they are the people who deserve to have a special place in hell reserved for them.

If I don’t see quite a bit of very fair coverage on ABC news, and very soon, I will have to say that Mr. Childs is one of those people.

But I have some questions about this request for information. Don’t they have story deadlines simply because they have to finalize a story before it airs? Does this mean then that it is a sure thing that their story will air, and fairly soon? Wouldn’t they want to take the time to get more information, if they are being this careful to make sure that the report of the government’s concession is actually true? How hard can it be to make sure about something like that? How long does that take?

At any rate, I won’t be holding my breath waiting for the truth to be told on ABC. As much as I would love to wake up from this bad dream.

[safety please]

It's Wednesday afternoon...has Dan been working with this reporter? Any idea if we need to be watching tonight?

[Sandy Gottstein]

"Lost work hours by parents" was precisely the reason given for promoting the chicken pox vaccine as well. For more on this, go to "When is an oops not really an oops? When you get to solve the problems you cause, and make money doing both!" (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/Dec_27_02/Scandal48.htm )

What on earth is it going to take to get to get the public to cry out in horror? When is the media going to get that it is THEIR children who are being harmed as well?

[biomedmama7]

Shouldn't that be.......um, sort of illegal? At best, ill-advised - NOW - to promote something proven and known to cause harm?

Especially ABC? Now? Anyone?

Never mind that the (mercury-free) flu shots are also 60% ineffective this season...

Gosh people, give your kids - and take for yourself - Vitamin D3 (we take 3000 iu per day) and forget about the flu shot. The pharmaceutical companies don't need any more of our money. They've taken too much from us already.

[They *got* you ABC!]

"http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ColdFlu/story?id=4353731&page=1"

Does it not strike anyone as foolish to be having the ABC network run a flu shot recommendation story as the top news story for the day - given the fact that the government *just* conceded that vaccines cause autism. Here we are blaming the mercury in the flu shots for the continuing epidemic, there they are forcing the same flu shot down more unsuspecting folks. Tsk, tsk, tsk. How stupid can you get? You, the CDC for using this tactic, and you - ABC for sucuumbing to them. It didn't take time did it? They got to you too? Are you surprised at all? NOW do you understand ABC what we have been saying all along? They try to muzzle you and they muzzle you good. They are masters at this you see, they have been playing the game for a while now. You ABC have underestimated your enemy, it is very very corrupt and you will have to fight *hard* to beat it at its game. It won't be easy but it can be done. Oh yes, it can certainly be done. Keep watching this column. We shall keep you posted.

[Jack Russell]

I've been obsessiving checking ABCNEWS.com for the story of the century all morning. Instead, as the "top story" I just saw this headline: All Kids Need Flu Shots, CDC Says.

Are they f#(*&%#(*&% kidding?

And the rationale is basically lost work hours by parents. Oh my God!

[Silence is golden]

"The author of the memo, Dan Childs of ABCNews.com, sent it to various interested parties looking for feedback."
[snip]
"Now to watch the coverage unfold -- and who's to say whether we'll ultimately be grinding our teeth once again or popping champagne."

Is it my imagination, or was it not too long ago that we heard the "powers that be" and their controlled media outlets harping on the all too familiar (enough to grate on your ears) rendition of "if only we knew the CAUSE of autism," "nobody knows the cause of autism," "it must be the microwave, or the cell phone, or even the refrigerator," "it must be the mom" - in fact there has been this plethora of excuses for autism *but* the vaccine one much to our chagrin. And now, instead of jumping for joy over the fact that the so called elusive CAUSE has been identified you would *expect* - yes, *expect* - that this "news" would be all over the media and classified with program interruption as "breaking news." Don't see that happening, do we?

Thank you you evil, greedy, manipulative, lying SOBs, you just gave yourselves away. Even a moron who might have thought prior to this that we (the bio-medical autism community) were making up the conspiracy theory and we were talking through our hats, will now understand what this duplicity means and will understand that we were right all along about you mean, conniving rats. Guess you are so busy holed up somewhere trying to make up an effective comeback to this latest disaster that you just inconveniently "happened" to overlook this very significant aspect. It never takes you two days to get the ball rolling, within hours your selected news makes it over the airwaves. Silence is indeed golden, thank you again for digging your own grave. It has been a pleasure to watch that happen and this time, you didn't even have to do anything. THAT ought to be a first.

As an aside, Autism Speaks, are you still mute? How come your wonderful carefully selected geneticists didn't uncover a significant aspect such as a mitochondrial anomaly? Perhaps its because you pay them well to look elsewhere. Gee, what a shame, all that pedigree gone to utter waste. Now *everybody* looks like a fool. Its amazing how fast the tables turn, what did it take, the space of a day? All those years of putting out fires, guess there will be some fast resignations, nobody wants any part of a sinking ship, do they? Guess what, it can happen to you too!

[Jack Russell]

Mr. Childs,

First, I want to applaud your interest in the reported concession by the government in a recent vaccine-autism case. Given all that certain organizations have done in recent months to dispute that a link exist, despite mounting evidence, I think this is a dramatic development and worthy of extensive news coverage. Considering that the issue of vaccination effects nearly every child in the country, I'd say that there might not be a more important news story right now. Period.

Further, I hope you'll consider that while this concession applies to one specific girl, one specific susceptibility and one specific ingredient the issues that this case raise go far far beyond these circumstances. If the government is willing to admit that one type of genetic susceptibility would put a child at risk for vaccine injury, might there be others? A growing body of evidence, and quite frankly just common sense, would say yes. And if that is the case, how does that effect the ethics of an ever growing and mandated vaccine schedule? These are important questions and the American public deserves to have them answered.

I hope that you and ABC will have the courage to ask these questions and look beyond the flat denials of the CDC and AAP. You have the chance to make the world a safer place for future children. Please take it.

Sincerely,

Jack Russell

[Hgmadre]

It is very, very important to run with this story; so that more children will receive proper medical treatment for the underlying medical conditions that have caused their disability. They have been suffering for far too long.

[Jeanne]

Mr. Childs,

Words cannot express the appreciation I, and every other autism parent out there, feels at the thought of ABC rolling up its sleeves and digging into the autism/vaccine debate. The hope you have sparked is such a wonderful thing. I mean, someone might actually look behind the lies and propaganda and discover, and more importantly REPORT, the truth... it's staggering.

I am the mother of a 6 year old boy who was diagnosed at age 4 with autism. Let me clarify, my son was not born with autism, quite the contrary actually. My son was born healthy and happy. He developed normally - he could count to 10 at age one, talk a bit, and read back stories we had read to him (his favorites - he memorized the words - he was learning to read). He would engage anyone standing near him - he loved to interact with people... especially his family.

Between the age of 12 and 18 months, my son started to lose his language, eye contact and desire to socialize. By two years old he was gone. My baby was gone. Do you have any children Dan? Do you have any idea what it feels like to watch your child slip into a dark fog and not be able to do anything to pull him back? I can tell you, and this really does not express the true and deep emotions, it is completely and utterly devastating, and heart wrenching.

The only thing we have now is hope. Hope that the truth will be revealed and the bastards responsible for destroying so many lives will be made to pay for what they did. All we need is someone like you. Someone willing to say, "Hey.....wait a minute....what's this all about?" And then, and here's the clencher, do something about it. Bring light to the situation. Break the story. Help us.

With respect,
Jeanne Cantkier

[Gayatri]

My letter to ABC was as follows.

Dear Mr. Childs:

I would like to say a very big Thank You to you and ABC News to have the gumption to address the vaccine-autism issue that we, the bio-medical autism community, has been shouting from the rooftops of our houses for the last 15 if not 20 years. Finally it seems that this controversy is going to see the light of day thanks to all of you at ABC. A very appreciative thanks for not sucuumbing to the "powers that be" in shedding light on this. A whole future, in fact several, generations of children will be beholden to you for investigating this very weird phenomenon - the one that would not see light of day - for several reasons that are too many to highlight and impossible to comprehend.

As far as autism goes, touching the mitochondrial issue is just taking a sideways glance at one of the many co-occuring problems in the auto-immune dysfunction. You will, in all probability have to do an entire series on this to highlight the many manifestations of this problem. Where does one even begin to elaborate on what all this might encompass?

As a mom who has been treating her 10 year old son with seizures, allergies, asthma and autism - when we did get into seeing a wonderful DAN doctor, Dr. John Green (in Oregon City, Oregon) the first thing he did was put my then 8 year old son on a simple supplement called Creatine (with ribose) from Beyond a Century. Immediately my son switched from being too tired and lacking the stamina to even attend a whole day's school, to being able to attend school all day long. He also used to fall sick after running out of steam every two to three weeks. That too, stopped significantly with the addition of creatine, fish oils and glutathione. He was unable to take CoQ10 until much later in the treatment as he is an over-methylator and cannot tolerate many methyl supplements.

As far as the vaccine connection with mitochondrial disorders, my son was a late regressor who was diagnosed with PDD-NOS only at age 4.5 years after receiving a mercury laden flu shot and booster. With 2 weeks of the first shot the school said he might qualify for speech services. Within another 2 weeks of the booster a month later they said my son would qualify for services under Autism Spectrum Disorder. Prior to this my son had a diagnosis of developmental delay as he was a preemie, and nobody who saw him had ever diagnosed him with either speech problems or autism before. I too, as a mom, saw the brain fog at age 4 with the flu shots. You see, there are tipping points in autism - my son's coincided with the mercury in the flu shot or the viruses in the flu shot itself. Before that happened, my son had no stamina or energy issues even though he used to fall sick a lot. It was as if the flu shot and the ensuing seizures just sucked the life blood out of him sapping him of all his energy.

As far as your second question - its high time the federal agencies responsible for this very public massacre of millions of kids owned up, took responsibility, made appropriate changes to the vaccine schedule, and made amends for their misdeeds.

You may use my story for background purposes only.

I can be reached via email at gayatri_rampal@hotmail.com

Sincerely,

Gayatri Rampal

[Ann Straub]

Please make people aware! My 6 year old autistic son has tested positive for elevated mercury.
We trusted our doctors and government and look what has happened.

[thetruthisout]

Why does he say, "Depending on what we find out...."? Does he mean, if David Kirby's column is factual? We all know it's true. I sure hope ABC won't allow anyone to pressure them into twisting the facts/implications of this case.

[thetruthisout]

Why does he say, "Depending on what we find out...."? Does he mean, if David Kirby's column is factual? We all know it's true. I sure hope ABC won't allow anyone to pressure them into twisting the facts/implications of this case.

[Teresa Conrick]

Hi Dan. Yes, this is a very good thing and I am enjoying it too. Here is my letter-it is long--

Dear Mr. Childs,

I am a parent to a child with autism as well as a special education teacher. I am very pleased to hear that ABC is interested in looking into the vaccine-autism court case in which the US government has conceded that autism developed after a child received vaccinations.

I would like to answer your questions and attempt to convey the importance of this case.

1) With regard to the idea that vaccines may trigger mitochondrial disorders, what evidence are you aware of that would point to this possibility?

Just looking at research and published studies on aluminum, mercury, and more specifically, thimerosal shows quite a connection. Thimerosal and aluminum are major players in vaccines that many children have received.

1: FASEB J. 1994 Jun;8(9):622-9.
Mechanisms of methylmercury-induced neurotoxicity.
Atchison WD, Hare MF.
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824-1317.
Mercury in both organic and inorganic forms is neurotoxic. Methylmercury (MeHg) is a commonly encountered form of mercury in the environment. Early electrophysiological experiments revealed that MeHg potently affects the release of neurotransmitter from presynaptic nerve terminals. Recently, the hypothesis that these alterations may be mediated by changes in the intracellular concentration of Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) has been supported. MeHg alters [Ca2+]i by at least two mechanisms. First, it disrupts regulation of Ca2+ from an intracellular Ca2+ pool and second, it increases the permeability of the plasma membrane to Ca2+. MeHg also blocks plasma membrane voltage-dependent Ca2+ and Na+ channels in addition to activating a nonspecific transmembrane cation conductance. Chronic MeHg exposure results in ultrastructural changes and accumulation of MeHg within mitochondria. In vitro, MeHg inhibits several mitochondrial enzymes and depolarizes the mitochondria membrane subsequently reducing ATP production and Ca2+ buffering capacity. Inhibition of protein synthesis is observed after in vivo or in vitro exposures of MeHg and may be an early effect of MeHg. Thus, the early cellular effects of exposure to MeHg are diverse and cell damage likely occurs by more than one mechanism, the effects of which may be additive or synergistic.
PMID: 7516300 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Braz J Med Biol Res. 2007 Mar;40(3):285-91.
Involvement of glutamate and reactive oxygen species in methylmercury neurotoxicity.
Aschner M, Syversen T, Souza DO, Rocha JB, Farina M.
Departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, B3307 Medical Center North, Nashville, TN 37232, USA. michael.aschner@vanderbilt.edu
This review addresses the mechanisms of methylmercury (MeHg)-induced neurotoxicity, specifically examining the role of oxidative stress in mediating neuronal damage. A number of critical findings point to a central role for astrocytes in mediating MeHg-induced neurotoxicity as evidenced by the following observations: a) MeHg preferentially accumulates in astrocytes; b) MeHg specifically inhibits glutamate uptake in astrocytes; c) neuronal dysfunction is secondary to disturbances in astrocytes. The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by MeHg has been observed in various experimental paradigms. For example, MeHg enhances ROS formation both in vivo (rodent cerebellum) and in vitro (isolated rat brain synaptosomes), as well as in neuronal and mixed reaggregating cell cultures. Antioxidants, including selenocompounds, can rescue astrocytes from MeHg-induced cytotoxicity by reducing ROS formation. We emphasize that oxidative stress plays a significant role in mediating MeHg-induced neurotoxic damage with active involvement of the mitochondria in this process. Furthermore, we provide a mechanistic overview on oxidative stress induced by MeHg that is triggered by a series of molecular events such as activation of various kinases, stress proteins and other immediate early genes culminating in cell damage.
PMID: 17334523 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Int J Mol Med. 2005 Dec;16(6):971-7.
Thimerosal induces neuronal cell apoptosis by causing cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor release from mitochondria.
Yel L, Brown LE, Su K, Gollapudi S, Gupta S.
Department of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. lyel@uci.edu
There is a worldwide increasing concern over the neurological risks of thimerosal (ethylmercury thiosalicylate) which is an organic mercury compound that is commonly used as an antimicrobial preservative. In this study, we show that thimerosal, at nanomolar concentrations, induces neuronal cell death through the mitochondrial pathway. Thimerosal, in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, decreased cell viability as assessed by calcein-ethidium staining and caused apoptosis detected by Hoechst 33258 dye. Thimerosal-induced apoptosis was associated with depolarization of mitochondrial membrane, generation of reactive oxygen species, and release of cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) from mitochondria to cytosol. Although thimerosal did not affect cellular expression of Bax at the protein level, we observed translocation of Bax from cytosol to mitochondria. Finally, caspase-9 and caspase-3 were activated in the absence of caspase-8 activation. Our data suggest that thimerosal causes apoptosis in neuroblastoma cells by changing the mitochondrial microenvironment.
PMID: 16273274 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Neurotoxicology. 2005 Jun;26(3):407-16.
Mitochondrial mediated thimerosal-induced apoptosis in a human neuroblastoma cell line (SK-N-SH).
Humphrey ML, Cole MP, Pendergrass JC, Kiningham KK.
Department of Pharmacology, Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Marshall University, Huntington, WV 25704-9388, USA.
Environmental exposure to mercurials continues to be a public health issue due to their deleterious effects on immune, renal and neurological function. Recently the safety of thimerosal, an ethyl mercury-containing preservative used in vaccines, has been questioned due to exposure of infants during immunization. Mercurials have been reported to cause apoptosis in cultured neurons; however, the signaling pathways resulting in cell death have not been well characterized. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the mode of cell death in an in vitro model of thimerosal-induced neurotoxicity, and more specifically, to elucidate signaling pathways which might serve as pharmacological targets. Within 2 h of thimerosal exposure (5 microM) to the human neuroblastoma cell line, SK-N-SH, morphological changes, including membrane alterations and cell shrinkage, were observed. Cell viability, assessed by measurement of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in the medium, as well as the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, showed a time- and concentration-dependent decrease in cell survival upon thimerosal exposure. In cells treated for 24 h with thimerosal, fluorescence microscopy indicated cells undergoing both apoptosis and oncosis/necrosis. To identify the apoptotic pathway associated with thimerosal-mediated cell death, we first evaluated the mitochondrial cascade, as both inorganic and organic mercurials have been reported to accumulate in the organelle. Cytochrome c was shown to leak from the mitochondria, followed by caspase 9 cleavage within 8 h of treatment. In addition, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) was cleaved to form a 85 kDa fragment following maximal caspase 3 activation at 24 h. Taken together these findings suggest deleterious effects on the cytoarchitecture by thimerosal and initiation of mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis.
PMID: 15869795 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Genes Immun. 2002 Aug;3(5):270-8.
Biochemical and molecular basis of thimerosal-induced apoptosis in T cells: a major role of mitochondrial pathway.
Makani S, Gollapudi S, Yel L, Chiplunkar S, Gupta S.
Cellular and Molecular Immunology Laboratories, Division of Basic and Clinical Immunology, University of California, Irvine 92697, USA.
The major source of thimerosal (ethyl mercury thiosalicylate) exposure is childhood vaccines. It is believed that the children are exposed to significant accumulative dosage of thimerosal during the first 2 years of life via immunization. Because of health-related concerns for exposure to mercury, we examined the effects of thimerosal on the biochemical and molecular steps of mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis in Jurkat T cells. Thimerosal and not thiosalcylic acid (non-mercury component of thimerosal), in a concentration-dependent manner, induced apoptosis in T cells as determined by TUNEL and propidium iodide assays, suggesting a role of mercury in T cell apoptosis. Apoptosis was associated with depolarization of mitochondrial membrane, release of cytochrome c and apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) from the mitochondria, and activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, but not of caspase-8. In addition, thimerosal in a concentration-dependent manner inhibited the expression of XIAP, cIAP-1 but did not influence cIAP-2 expression. Furthermore, thimerosal enhanced intracellular reactive oxygen species and reduced intracellular glutathione (GSH). Finally, exogenous glutathione protected T cells from thimerosal-induced apoptosis by upregulation of XIAP and cIAP1 and by inhibiting activation of both caspase-9 and caspase-3. These data suggest that thimerosal induces apoptosis in T cells via mitochondrial pathway by inducing oxidative stress and depletion of GSH.
PMID: 12140745 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Arch Toxicol. 2004 Oct;78(10):565-74. Epub 2004 May 19.
Mitochondrial viability and apoptosis induced by aluminum, mercuric mercury and methylmercury in cell lines of neural origin.
Toimela T, Tähti H.
Medical School, Cell Research Center, University of Tampere, 33014 University of Tampere, Finland. Tarja.Toimela@uta.fi.
Mercury and aluminum are considered to be neurotoxic metals, and they are often connected with the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, mercuric mercury, methylmercury and aluminum were studied in three different cell lines of neural origin. To evaluate the effects, mitochondrial cytotoxicity and apoptosis induced by the metals were measured after various incubation times. SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma, U 373MG glioblastoma, and RPE D407 retinal pigment epithelial cells were subcultured to appropriate cell culture plates and 0.01-1,000 microM concentrations of methylmercury, mercuric and aluminum chloride were added into the growth medium. In the assay measuring the mitochondrial dehydrogenase activity, WST-1, the cultures were exposed for 15 min, 24 or 48 h before measurement. Cells were allowed to recover from the exposure in part of the study. Apoptosis induced by the metals was measured after 6-, 24- and 48-h exposure times with the determination of activated caspase 3 enzyme. Mitochondrial assays showed a clear dose-response and exposure time-response to the metals. The most toxic was methylmercury (EC50 ~0.8 microM, 48 h), and the most sensitive cell line was the neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y. Furthermore, there was marked mitochondrial activation, especially in connection with aluminum and methylmercury at low concentrations. This activation may be important during the initiation of cellular processes. All the metals tested induced apoptosis, but with a different time-course and cell-line specificity. In microscopic photographs, glioblastoma cells formed fibrillary tangles, and neuroblastoma cells settled along the fibrilles in cocultures of glial and neuronal cell lines during aluminum exposure. The study emphasized the toxicity of methylmercury to neural cells and showed that aluminum alters various cellular activities.
PMID: 15150681 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: Wei Sheng Yan Jiu. 2005 Nov;34(6):674-7.
[Effect of aluminum on neuronal mitochondria of rats]
[Article in Chinese]

Zhang QL, Niu PY, Niu Q, Wang LP.
Department of Occupational Health, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China.
OBJECTIVE: To observe and explore the effect of aluminum on mitochondria in nerve cells of rats. METHODS: Nerve cells of new born rats (1-3 days) were cultured. Ultrastructure of mitochondria, cell death rate (CDR), reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and MTF were performed to investigate the alteration of mitochondrial structure and functions in cultured nerve cells. RESULTS: Aluminum can impair the ultrastructure of cultured nerve cells of rats. Increased CDR, enhanced ROS, decreased MMP, and decreased activity of enzyme in mitochondria were investigated in the group of Al3+ 100 micromol/L and Al3+ 500 micromol/L. CONCLUSION: The present study shows that the alteration of mitochondrial structure and functions have played important roles in neurotoxic mechanism induced by aluminum.
PMID: 16535833 [PubMed - in process]
2) If it turns out that the federal government did concede in this case, what are your thoughts on this move?

Well, since my daughter was able to count, had some speech, did the alphabet song then stopped speaking and regressed into autism, I am biased. Objectively though, she was born in 1993, at the beginning of the increase in autism diagnoses and most of her vaccines contained thimerosal. Today, children may be receiving less thimerosal but aluminum has been increased so synergism should be examined. These vaccines are not a one size fits all so my thought is, "what took so long to figure it out?"

My hope is that more children with autism will receive their day in court. Also, that vaccines will be researched and scrutinized for safety as their history has been secretive. Again, it is with much anticipation that the truth regarding the biology of autism and its roots in toxins and metals will be printed for the world to see.

I hope that ABC will see this importance too.

Sincerely,

Teresa Conrick
Chicago

[Anne Dachel]

Dear Dan,

Speaking for so many parents who have for years been ignored if we dared to suggest that our children were the victims of unsafe vaccines, I'm hoping that ABC will pursue this court decision and the science behind it.

Many of us have looked on in disbelief for years as officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were given the last word on a link between vaccines and autism. The CDC has produced one tobacco science study after another showing that it was safe to inject mercury into children. No one in the press seems to realize that this is the agency that runs the vaccine program and they have everything at stake in covering this up. The press has been content to give them oversight over themselves.

We've endured CDC studies telling us that autism hasn't increased in recent years despite the rate exploding from one in 10,000 in the 1970s to one in every 150 today, including one in every 94 boys. We're to believe that the epidemic numbers are merely due to doctors learning to diagnose better. The fact that most adults today couldn't name one child they grew up with who was called autistic or who displayed autistic behavior is conveniently overlooked.

And if it's all better diagnosing, then where are all those autistic adults at a rate of one in 150 who were previously misdiagnosed? Why isn't there a single study that has been able to find them? Why are we always talking about children when we bring up autism. The rate of one in 150 is based on studies of eight year olds, not eighty year olds.

Officials offer nothing to help the hundreds of thousands of parents struggling with an autistic child. Biomedical treatment is dismissed by most doctors who tell us that autism is incurable, even though many parents testify to improvement and even recovery in their child after chelation, hyberbaric oxygen treatments and diet changes.

Anything affecting one in every 150 children should be considered a national health care crisis. We should be moving mountains to discover the cause and stop more children from being lost to autism. If it isn't the vaccines, then what is it?

Anne Dachel
Media Editor Age of Autism

[Julie]

My letter to ABC, copy of the case text and links to studies elimated here.
Julie

Dear Dan,

Thank you so much for investigating this important story. I am the mother of a child who believes her child's regressive autism was indeed caused by her vaccines, specifically by the mercury in them.

I assure you, as I'm sure other journalists investigating this issue will do, the government has indeed conceded the first of many vaccine/autism cases, stating that essentially the vaccines aggravated an underlying mitochondrial condition resulting in autism spectrum disorder behaviors. They are unable to demonstrate the mitochondrial disorder was indeed present prior to the vaccines, and there is substantial scientific evidence to show thimerosal in vaccines can induce mitochondrial dysfunction.

Below is the text of the vaccine concession, as posted by David Kirby, author Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic. A Medical Controversy.

Also referenced below the case are the following:

Two published studies that demonstrate mercury from vaccines (thimerosal) can induce a mitochondrial disorder or disruption.

A link to the University of Calgary's video of how thimerosal disrupts the production of ATP, essentially creating an underlying mitochondrial disorder.

A final comment:

The amount of relief, pain, and justice that we parents feel right now who have been fighting (on behalf of our children) for YEARS is overwhelming. It is my deepest hope ABC will finally report on this matter in a truthful and thoughtful manner by researching and validating the science to support our claims and not the same old tired epidemiology manufactured (by those who may be held responsible for this catastrophe) to spit out the same reassuring result: that vaccines are great, they don't cause harm, that the mercury is gone from vaccines (It's NOT! It's used in trace amounts not zero amounts and it is STILL in the flu shot recommended for pregnant women and babies), and that we parents who dare to think they did cause our children's autism are desperate fools.

We watched our children disinegrate before our eyes. We watched them react to their vaccines. We watched them develop the symptoms of mercury poisoning after we injected them with mercury, and we have the biological science to show they did.

The time has come for the truth. May justice be served. May no more children be harmed. May those who have been be granted the best research and funding to make them well.

From this day forward, NO ONE can ever report again that vaccines cannot cause autism. The very institution designed to decide that just said they do.

Sincerely,
Julie Obradovic

[biomedmama7]

Yayyyyy! I am one (of many, I am sure) who sent the article to ABC yesterday!! :)