Response to Chicago Tribune on Measles

By Louis Conte

On August 29, 2008 the Chicago Tribune printed a story about a “measles outbreak” and declining rates of vaccination. As of July 30, this “outbreak” affected 131 people. In a nation of more than 240 million people, do 131 cases really constitute an “outbreak?”  The article, noted that doctors are reporting that vaccination rates are declining due to parents unfounded beliefs that vaccines are linked to autism. The tone of the article implied that medical science had ended the debate about whether vaccines trigger autism and that parents who continue to believe this are doing so for emotional reasons rather than scientific reasons.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The article states that autism/vaccine link is a misperception because “Over and over, careful scientific research has found no link between vaccination and autism.”  It has?  Claims like this are usually based on the Center for Disease Control’s famous “Verstratan study.”  The Institute of Medicine used this study to rule that there is no association between the mercury based vaccine preservative, thimerosal and autism. 

However, not mentioned in the article is that Dr. Julie Gerbeding, the Director of the CDC admitted earlier this year, in a report to the House Appropriations Committee, that the Verstratan study was essentially useless and should not be relied on to decide whether or not vaccines or thimerosal are linked to autism. The study was flawed because the researchers continually brought in populations of children who were too young to have an autism diagnosis and excluded populations that would be at risk for the diagnosis. Additionally, a study from April 2008 by Dr. Heather Young and others called Thimerosal exposure in infants and neurodevelopmental disorders: An assessment of computerized medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink strongly connects thimerosal with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders using the CDC’s own vaccine safety data. Interestingly, Dr. Gerbeding commented that the Vaccine Safety Datalink should not be relied on to assess vaccine safety!

As usual, the article repeated the mantra that mercury has been removed from all vaccines. However, there is still a lot of mercury being injected into pregnant women, infants and toddlers. It may be fair to say that the mercury levels have been lessened to some degree but we do not know how much as vaccine manufacturers are not required to reveal how much mercury is still used and the FDA does not test vaccines for mercury content. We do know that 94% of flu shot still contains a full dose of mercury – 25 micro-milligrams – well above any government safety limit.

The article also failed to mention that:

The Department of Health and Human Services conceded in March that Hannah Polling’s autism was caused by the nine vaccines she received during one “Well Baby Visit.” How can the federal government concede the Polling case before it even went to a hearing in the Vaccine Court and still maintain that vaccines don’t trigger autism?

CBS News has found 13 other cases settled by HHS in the Vaccine Court in which autism – usually described as “vaccine induced encephalopathy” (brain swelling) – has been triggered by vaccines. There are 1322 such “vaccine induced encephalopathy” cases that have been settled by the federal government. It is likely that many of these cases involved autism. Investigators continue to look and more cases are likely to emerge.

In April of this year, CDC Director Gerbeding admitted on CNN that vaccines trigger “autism like symptoms” in certain children.

It is clear that vaccines are strongly implicated as being one of the triggers for autism. Are they the only trigger?  Besides mercury, other heavy metals such as aluminum, lead, arsenic and antimony are also potential candidates.  Many of these toxins are ubiquitous due to industrial pollution. Aluminum is also found in vaccines in high amounts.

Dr. Paul Offit, described in the article as the Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital – but who is also a patent holder on a vaccine for Rota virus – seemed concerned that these “unfounded” parental fears are undermining public faith in the nation’s vaccine program.  Even worse, he is sounding the alarm that some communities have reached a “tipping point” but offered no proof to support this claim.

Indeed, a “tipping point” has been reached.  It is the threshold at which reasonable people begin to sense that they are not getting all the facts that they deserve to get. In America today, many people have begun to sense that something has gone horribly wrong with the health of our nation’s children. And it is not the measles that they are worrying about. By now most people in America know a family with children suffering with autism. Parents hear about a friend’s or neighbor’s child who received their vaccines at a “Well Baby Visit”; the child ran a fever, perhaps had a seizure, became listless and was eventually diagnosed with autism.

Instead of worrying about how much time pediatricians are spending dealing with questions about vaccine safety, the AAP should be focusing on the epidemic that parents are focusing on – autism.  Instead of dismissing parental reports that vaccines triggered autistic regression, the medical establishment should be listening to parents and studying the children this happened to.

The article gave a one-sided view of this debate by painting parents concerned about vaccine induced autistic regression as being emotional and unwilling to consider scientific reality. The reality is that there is a significant scientific basis to believe that vaccines can induce encepelopathy and, eventually, autism.

Sincerely,

Louis Conte

Pleasantville, New York

Disclosure: The Writer is the father of two boys with autism and a founding member of the Westchester County chapter of Autism United

Comments

[Cherry Misra]

When the AAP tries these tricks, why dont we hit back at them, raising community consciousness of the problem- How about T shirts telling about mercury in flu shots or parades of autistic kids, done in a manner that the kids can enjoy the parade if possible and people who dont understand about autism can become aware.
There are still plenty of people out there who have no idea what autism really is- as in "Maybe its caused by too much tv?" And then certain articles or documentaries give them the idea that therapy is going to solve it all. And whenever I visit the US I find that so many people just dont know about avoiding fish or that flu shots have mercury in them. Why dont we do a survey and find out if the doctors realize that the flu shots have mercury in them. I believe that in clever ways they are also kept in the dark. For example their hospital could tell them that "We wont be using any more mercury vaccines", and then when the non mercury vaccine is unavailable they will not tell the doctors that they have accepted mercury laden vaccines. I believe that when the US completely stops all mercury vaccines, the rest of the world will finally follow suit and autism will be prevented in millions and millions of children. Are there any activist groups that are coordinating this kind of action?I would like to know about them.

[Janet Keith]

I totally agree with you. How can 131 cases of measles in the first 7 months of this year even begin to compare with the thousands of children who have been diagnosed with autism in that same amount of time? It seems to me that the CDC is continually telling us vaccines are safe - trust us - don't question - pay no attention to the rise in autism, ADHD, asthma, and allergies...there is no connection between the rise in all of these childhood conditions and the increase in the vaccination schedule. Fear and scare tactics are used to push people into the "sheep" line-up for vaccinations. Let me ask you which is scarier, having the measles for 7 to 10 days or getting autism for a lifetime? I can answer that - I have had the measles and I am living with a child with autism...no comparison!

[Mary]

Thank you for your response to the article written in the Chicago Tribune. A coworker presented the article to me at work. I have seen other articles similar to this in recent weeks in our area. You definitely feel the pressure to conform to the CDC in this part of the country.

[Chris]

You know, whenever I read these articles about the "measles outbreaks" in different parts of this country, I see the same words "largest measles outbreak in ten years".

Okay, so are they saying there was ANOTHER outbreak like this ten years ago, where measles popped up in different parts of the U.S.?

If so, what was the cause of THAT? None of the vaccine/autism controversy was in the media ten years ago. Jenny McCarthy was not on TV talking about her son's autism; he wasn't even born yet. So what caused the outbreaks ten short years ago, if it wasn't an increase in vaccine exemptions? The MMR *was* in widespread usage ten years ago.

I also don't even remember the measles outbreaks being in the news ten years ago.

Hmm, could it be that all the reporting on these "outbreaks" is being done deliberately because autism and vaccines is in the news so much? Hmm, gee, I wonder...

[Dawn]

Well, from what I am reading, numerous outbreaks throughout history were among the fully vaccinated. During these recent so-called epidemics, was the particular strain identified? Was it the same strain used in the vaccine? According to the vaccine literature, anyone vaccinated with a live-virus vaccine can be "contagious" for up to 6 weeks. So, who's to say that it isn't the vaccinated causing the outbreaks?

[AutisticLiving.com]

1.5 million plus people with autism in the US alone, and nobody wants to use terms like "outbreak" or "epidemic".

131 people with measles and the Chicago Trib wants the CDC to show up in bio-suits.

hmmmm. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?