FOR THIMEROSAL APOLOGISTS, PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL

By Dan Olmsted

Below is a link to my most recent column for Spectrum Magazine, done before the Poling case hit the news -- remember, that was a test case for thimerosal causing autism, and the government has now thrown in the towel. Comments like Art Caplan's and Paul Offit's below may someday be remembered  as the height of medical arrogance, just before the walls started  tumbling down.

7 reasons not to give up on the mercury/autism link.

January 28th, 2008

The people who believe vaccine mercury has nothing to do with the rise  of autism are really feeling their oats. Check out these comments by  Art Caplan, the noted University of Pennsylvania ethicist: "What must  it be like to spend a huge amount of time every waking day trying to  change public health practice - only to find out that you were wrong? That is precisely what has happened to the proponents of the theory that mercury in vaccines - contained in the preservative thimerosal, which once was used (and is used no longer) in vaccines - is responsible for a nearly 20-year explosion in autism and other neurological disorders among American children."

Now, that is harsh – and meant to be.

It's not just that Caplan believes the theory is wrong – no, he wants his readers to revel in the abject personal defeat of those concerned enough about mercury in childhood medicines to try to do something about it. He wants us to  visualize their sense of futility and failure. Recently another Penn faculty member, Dr. Paul Offit, went even further. He wrote that it was actually a mistake to phase mercury out because it left the impression that there was anything dangerous about mercury in the 
first place.

Read the full article HERE. 

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

Comments

[we will prevail]

We can agree that vaccines have a number of harmful ingredients.
Copy and paste this link into your browser, to view page.

http://www.nvic.org/doctors_corner/lawrence_palevsky_aluminum_and_vaccine_ingred\
ients.htm#ret6

Manufacturers admit this on their package inserts and MSDS.
The government admits this by setting up the National Vaccine Injury Compensation
Program.

Facts - children are increasingly presenting with neurodevelopmental issues.
Parents who live with these children are the experts on what changed and what possibly caused the issues.
Doctors must listen, research and first, do no harm. Not fall back on what they learned 20-30 years ago and what the AAP tells them.

For every 'expert' naysayer to vaccine damage - they need to be asked 3 things before their testimony is even considered relevant...
1) do you have all your vaccinations - what were they and when? if not - why not?
2) do you know anyone who has an autistic child?
3) have you ever spent time with a child labeled autistic - and one hour in an intake meeting doesn't count! If they have seen the child 24/7 for one week, then they might possibly be allowed to have an opinion.

As an aside, isn't it interesting that the mainstream approach for symptoms are more drugs supplied by the same manufacturers? Doesn't that seem like a conflict of interest?

Conflict of Interest:
Mother of a child labeled as autistic.

[Tanners Dad]

Could someone help me respond to some of these comments on the topix blog?
http://www.topix.com/forum/health/T0N27EQ77E334JJI4

I asked the following questions...
Nobody answers the questions I asked...
Why did we go from 10 to 36 mandated shots?
Why has there not been a Vac. Pop. vs. Unvac. Pop. study done?
Why does insurance not cover Autism?
Why is Autism a psychiatric condition not medical?
Who really believes a one size fits all policy works?
Why does Julie Gerberding tell lies?
How come a neuro Doc. could not diagnose the preexisting condition?

This was the response but I do not have all the sources and to respond...

There are no 36 mandated vaccines. That's coming from Generation Rescue for shock value to the public, it's not coming from the CDC. Take a closer look at that 36 vaccine list. The 36 printed in news papers is actually false advertising. Wht does Genration Rescue tell lies?

Insurance offers employers packages. Our private insurance covers related services. Ragardless of autism, private insurances never did cover what's deemed alternative anything.

autism is considered a neurological disorder, but without a known cause.

"Who really believes a one size fits all policy works?" Pertaining to what? The diagnosis or therapies?

I have no problem with Julie Gerberding. She is not the problem. Vaccines have been around for decades. There are enough studies around on either side and while there are children with autism not affected by vaccines, vaccines should not be singled out as the only thing to look at.
Parents could always choose when to vaccinate their children, my 70 yr old mother did it back then, and one of my sister's did it at present day with her child. People often want to blame the CDC. Parents has a choice and it's not the CDC's fault if parents didn't exercise their own parental choices.

How come a neuro Doc. could not diagnose the preexisting condition? My question is how many parents had other tests done than the autism criteria? how many had a chromosome test? MRI and EEG? How many tested for allergies? Our insurance covered all of these tests. plus private O.T and Speech, plus yearly diagnosis and a psych. doc.

Doctors often do not test for things unless there is something evident and clearly apparent to test for. Where I live, other tests were required to rule out other mimicking disorder's prior to the autism eval and diagnosis. A brain tumor can cause autism-like behaviors. A TBI can also do the same thing, but it would be a TBI, not true autism.

Please Help! Thanks!

[doodle]

" Drugs that substantially advance the standards of care will command premium prices from government and other payers, while manufacturers with me-too products will have prices limited to the point where they will have to consider whether it will even be worth launching them. *** A key factor here will be the ability to segment patients according to their genetic likelihood for responding to a medication.**** "

One litle sentence buried in the document. People should not think pharma, the CDC and the rest of them do not know that "one size fits all" for vaccines or drugs is not a good idea. They have been working on personalized care and gene chips for a while and just have not been forced to get them into the market while the margins were so good in the US. Once the market dictates a change, they will report the "news" about improvements due to personalized treatment based on genetic profiling. The market seems to be changing... about damn time.. but since the tech is not ready they are fighting tooth and nail to say that all people react the same way to drugs and vaccines. It is real disheartening to think that kids are being sent into autism by a cynical pharma marketing department, but that is how it looks to me at least.

[Gatogorra]

I loved the article. Caplan's remarks are just hideously funny to me at this point.

I had a tetanus shot less than a year before I conceived our twins. Mercury. While living under the plume of a coal-fired power plant. Mercury. I was sicker after that shot than I'd ever been in my life-- I could barely take stairs for four months and my face and hands were bright red. Mercury?

I'm allergic to nickel now, though I hadn't always been: it sort of crept up on me. When I was little, I remember that one of the very few booster shots we received at the time was followed immediately by stiffness in my legs. I was ten and had to walk up and down stairs like a clothespin for a few days. A short time later, I had the first of a life-long slew of severe knee injuries. Mercury? When I used to study modern dance in college (this is gross), we were taught by the teachers to put Preparation H under our eyes to hide fatigue during recitals and performances. Mercury. I developed such sensitive skin under my eyes that no one could touch my face while wearing nail polish after this or I'd have get cortisone shots to take the swelling down.

I was given a standard, mercury-laced flu shot in my 8th month of pregnancy. And the family doctor handed me a free sample of AYR saline for my pregnancy-induced stuffy nose. Mercury. The pregnancy was such a wonderful chelator that I had few immediate symptoms from these exposures myself. I wonder where that mercury went? The twins got Hep B at birth. Mercury. Then, during the flu shot shortage of '04, the twins qualified for the shots because bronchiolitis had left my son with a bit of a rattle in his chest. Each got two shots, set a month apart, each with 12.5 micrograms of thimerosal. The twins were nursing at this time and I received a flu shot concurrent to my children's. Mercury, mercury, mercury.

On top of this, many of the routine vaccinations our children received were "old stock" and "hot".

But with mercury out of vaccines since 2001 (or was it 1999? I can't keep track), I suppose my children's language delays, GI disorders, immune suppression, soft signs for mitochondrial dysfunction, twenty-seven food allergies and autism are surely just bad genes.

So what's it like to know that everyone was wrong that mercury-- from pharmaceutical products and toxic waste past and present-- could have combined to cause my children's ill health? I have no idea what that would feel like.

[Cap'sized]

"Check out these comments by Art Caplan, the noted University of Pennsylvania ethicist:
“What must it be like to spend a huge amount of time every waking day trying to change public health practice - only to find out that you were wrong?""

Someone should ask Art Caplan this - "What must it be like to spend a huge amount of time every waking day trying to change public health practice - only to find out that you were NOT wrong?" I wonder if Caplan has read this report someone posted on an autism list. It turns out public health practice, as we know it, most certainly needs to be changed also because it looks like its in deep, deep trouble. You see, Big Pharma's big consultant is complaining big time.

http://aileenbonitadfn.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/big-warning-from-big-pharmas-big-consultant/

As if Caplan's syndrome wasn't bad enough, we now must set right the ethics of it as well!

[Jim Witte]

I too would like a 'cheat-sheet' that SPECIFICALLY points out the most glaring errors in the major studies (IOM is the only one I know of off the top of my head, but they always say "many studies). Besides the conflict of interest - which I think is up for debate:

A person *working* for a vaccine company is one thing, but I think an immunologist who has studied this stuff and accepted speaking fees from a vaccine company.. No quite so clear-cut (if I were a top in my field and invited to speak about vaccines I would take a speaking fee - but I'd have qualms about talking if they TOLD me what to say, and the SPECIFICALLY not mention any anti-vax "vax harm" information I had, or talk about changing the schedule.. Of course, if I *did* have studies like that, they probably wouldn't want me talking at all. Taking speaking fees from a vaccine company about something completely unrelated? I don't see any conflict of interest there - I don't know how many of the big Pharma companies make vax's, but they make a heck of a lot of other stuff too.

Anyway, I don't have the memory to have at my fingertips every thimerisol study ever done, along with the confounders, rebuttals, rebuttals to rebuttals, rebuttals to those.. As much as I'd sort of like to.

Also, lots and lots of studies (biased or not) have been done about either mercury or thimerisol. But has anyone done studies on the effect of vaccinations period and autism? I think one of the studies simply looked at autism vs. blood level of mercury, with NO regard to how many vaxes they got, when they got them, did they get them bunched up, etc.

A few counter-arguments by the vax-apologists I've read are

1) MMR doesn't have thimerisol and
2) Japan, which has always (?) split their MMR, has as much autism as the the US
3) Even after we got the mercury out, autism rates kept climbing

Rebuttals are
1) MMR is three live viruses combined. There is the idea out there that the gut problems are related to the measels virus used, but to my knowledge, no one has ever done a *genetic* analysis of the virus, which would (pretty) definitely prove where it came from. The same is said of rubella in DTP.
2) I have no information on what else is going on. Yeah, they may split it, but is it just three jabs on the same visit (almost the same thing as the combined vax)? Are they all given within a month (probably almost the same thing, especially if the kid has a weakend/battered immune system)? What is the vaccine schedule in Japan like? Finally, if regressive autism cases in Japan, are they seemingly correlated to *some other vaccine*? Maybe in USA it's MMR that "pushes the immune system over the edge - maybe in Japan it's some other vaccine. Finally, are the criteria for diagnosing ASD different in Japan? This highly involves culture and what is considered "normal", and American and Japanese culture vary a great deal in some areas here..

My feeling is that if I'm arguing with a vaccine apologist (but you ask, "why?" - good question..), or just an uninformed "follow the doc's advice" person, I can point out that one of the studies *didn't include autistic kids*, that there was a high drop-out rate (only 1000 people out of 3000 actually completed it), and ASD-parents are more likely to drop out because it's just too much work. But my feeling is that the "follow the doc" people are just going to say, "yeah, but.. there are other studies"

I'd like to just scream at them, "IT"S *MERCURY*!! Why the HELL are we injecting it into BABIES!" But getting into a shouting match without references rarely wins arguments, and never makes you into a respected person.. People who know the science and can rebut every single counter-argument get respect, even from those who don't agree with them a lot of the time - because they at least have arguments to back this up.

And then there's the issue I mentioned earlier about "vaccinations vs. 'just mercury'". Are there any independent immunologists out there who have studies on the affect of multiple vaccines on animals immune systems (preferably higher primates closest to us in biochemistry).

And then there's the whole "public health would go to hell" argument, but that's for another comment or a blog entry..

IMO, ARI or someone should have a set of "talking points" about what the major studies are, what the vax-apologists like to trumpet about them, what they leave out, what specifically to rebut in them, studies the apologists never mention, rates in other countries with different schedules (Japan as above, I've read that Sweden which omits the P part of DTP has an autism rate of about 0 - as of 2000 when RFK published Deadly Immunity)

There are also people who say that there *is* no autism epidemic - I don't know HOW they do this, but I'd like hard statistics to back up the "old" number of 1:2000 or 1:20,00 (I forget which). Oft said is "it's just better diagnosis". Well, if so, where are the hoards of autistic adults? Unless ASD can self-correct - which seems unlikely without intervention") What HARD studies show the increase. Of course, the ironic think is that the 1:150 number comes from the CDC's *own website*! And I read one page that said that while doctors estimate it at between 1:166 and 1:150, *educators* estimate it at more like 1 in *67*! That's truly scary if it's true.

[Kelli Ann Davis]

“David Kirby vividly describes in Evidence of Harm how CDC Director Julie Gerberding buried her face in her hands when she watched this video. Maybe it was just the gore.”

Crud. If Mady’s mice caused that reaction, I wonder what she did when the Poling case “hit the fan?”

My own words of wisdom to Julie: “You ain't seen nothin yet. B-, b-, b-, baby, you just ain't seen na-, na-, nothin yet. Here's somethin' that you're never gonna forget. B-, b-, b- baby, you just ain't seen na-, na-, nothin yet.”

[Theresa]

Dan, as always you hit the one-two punch. Thank you for being you and for digging up the facts that will help this and future generations.

In relation to your point number 3 "Mercury and bad science" can anyone here tell us where to access a point-by-point critique of the "studies" the pro-CDC crowd are always throwing in the public's face? I see this kind of misleading statement all over the place "Study after study has shown that there is no link between vaccines and autism." I think we all need a good cheat-sheet to point people to or to draw from -- which studies and what is wrong with them? Maybe such a webpage already exists and I'm just too busy with my daughter to have found it. Is there a place where all those studies are gathered together and deconstructed piece by piece? I'm thinking of something exactly like the outstanding Generation Rescue page that outlines the Good Science and provides the PDFs, but this one dedicated to the Bad Science on this issue. Sort of one-stop shopping with the article to read as well as the key critical talking points.

I think many of us would love to see such a page available and would even put in the work for it. I know I would...

In awe of what you do,
Theresa

[Harry Hofherr]

Great article, Dan. Thanks for staying on target.

Harry Hofherr

[Kevin]

"50,000 ppb Mercury = Current "preservative" level mercury in multi-dose flu (94% of supply), meningococcal and tetanus (7 and older) vaccines. This can be confirmed by simply analyzing the multi- dose vials."

The full letter by MIke Wagnitz is below. 50,000 ppb is the dose of Thimerosal today in 2008, recommended for pregnant women and infants at 6 AND 7 months old.

Letter in Pediatrics in response to, "Fighting for the Reputation of Vaccines: Lessons From American Politics".

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/eletters/121/3/621#36839

Reputation Of Vaccines And The People Who Defend Them: Michael Wagnitz

Parents get angry when they see the following numbers listed on the
internet. These numbers have been out there for everyone to read for
years. They are mathamatical facts backed by references. The way to
quell parental fears would be for someone like Dr. Parikh to address
these numbers. Using propaganda is not going to work and only makes
the situation worse.

0.5 parts per billion (ppb) mercury = Kills human neuroblastoma
cells (Parran et al., Toxicol Sci 2005; 86: 132-140).

2 ppb mercury = U.S. EPA limit for drinking water.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/index.html#mcls

20 ppb mercury = Neurite membrane structure destroyed (Leong et al.,
Neuroreport 2001; 12: 733-37).

200 ppb mercury = level in liquid the EPA classifies as hazardous
waste.
http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/mercury/regs.htm#hazwaste

25,000 ppb mercury = Concentration of mercury in the Hepatitis B
vaccine, administered at birth in the U.S., from 1990-2001.

50,000 ppb Mercury = Concentration of mercury in multi-dose DTaP and
Haemophilus B vaccine vials, administered 4 times each in the 1990's
to children at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months of age.

50,000 ppb Mercury = Current "preservative" level mercury in multi-dose flu (94% of supply), meningococcal and tetanus (7 and older) vaccines. This can be confirmed by simply analyzing the multi- dose vials.

Conflict of Interest:
Father of a child labeled as autistic.

[Colby]

"Mady Hornig at Columbia University bred mice susceptible to autoimmune disorders and gave them proportional amounts of thimerosal, along with a control group. The susceptible mice started acting autistic—and worse, chewing off their tails and boring holes in each others’ scalps. The other mice behaved themselves admirably."

It is worth mentioning that even in the adult population there are a growing number of people who have been afflicted with auto-immune disorders. You never used to hear of chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgia and fibromyalgia prior to the vaccination era, I am betting. Lupus, MS, various types of cancers are others that come to mind. These cases are, I am sure, vaccine injuries only they were never recognized as such since the vaccine rates were much lower than what they are now. People could get by with Big Pharma drugs and life went on. I am sure the vaccines were as "dirty" as they are now, or maybe the generation previous to that one was not vaccinated much at all and so the offsprings did not inherit as much injury.

It was only with the explosion of the vaccination schedule that you started to see autism and associated spectrum disorders. It must be remembered that side effects were seen even with Jenner's cowpox vaccine and I have read reports that he too fudged data for the acceptance of the vaccine. Too much emphasis is placed on pride, the ego is too large to accommodate much else. That said, any family going in today to vaccinate their child needs to figure out if there is a susceptibility in their family to auto-immune disorders. If yes, they should refuse to vaccinate. This further begs the question, does the almighty pediatrician really know how to test for auto-immune susceptibilty? He should know, he knows EVERYTHING doesn't he?