CT's Shays on Vaccine Safety Legislation. Where's Jim Himes?

I just got back from the event. Rep. Shays is in DC, but I met his lovely wife. Mr. Himes was most cordial and expressed obvious interest in my questions about vaccine safety.  If he's elected, I hope to sit down with him and speak further about the need to support vaccine safety legislation. Either way, it's wonderful to have a democratic process - make sure YOU vote!

Managing Editor's Note: Talk about timing!  I just received this post from a friend and fellow Fairfield County, CT resident.  And today both Rep. Chris Shays (on the right) and his opponent Jim Himes (left) are appearing at my daughter's elementary school.  I'm going to thank Rep. Shays and have a chat with Jim Himes, in case he's elected.  Kim

By Nicole Crosby

I just received the e-mail below from U.S. Congressman (CT) Christopher Shays, which brings his co-sponsorships of vaccine safety legislation to two! This follows a 3-page letter he sent to me in July about co-sponsoring HR 1973, which creates an Agency for Vaccine Safety Evaluation, and supporting HR 881, the Mercury Free Vaccinations Act. Contrast this to his opponent whose office did not comment on the bills, but responded, in part, "Jim has nothing but compassion for parents raising children with autism or other developmental or neurological problems. But he is equally alarmed to read stories of children dying needlessly from influenza or hepatitis, because vaccinations were refused by well-meaning parents whose fear of thimerosal had outstripped the current scientific cause for concern."

The two candidates are neck-and-neck in the polls. If Shays doesn't remain in office to see this legislation through, our kids' health will be in the hands of a former Wall Street investment banker who thinks no shot can be administered without mercury. I encourage readers to write endorsement letters to editors to help re-elect legislators who support vaccine safety.

October 21, 2008

Dear Nicole:                           

Thank you for your e-mails over the past several months reiterating your support for H.R. 2832, the Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act, and H.R. 881, the Mercury-Free Vaccines Act.  I appreciate your taking the time to contact my office.

If I am re-elected to serve in the 111th Congress, I would be happy to cosponsor H.R. 2832.  It seems reasonable to do a comprehensive study of the effects of vaccines and let the chips fall where they may.

Regarding H.R. 881, I want to reiterate I would be inclined to support this legislation if it comes to the House floor for my consideration.  I am not a cosponsor because the science has not been proven yet, but I intuitively believe it is a problem.

Sincerely,

Christopher Shays
Member of Congress

Nicole Crosby is the mother of a college student with Asperger's and a Mother Warrior.

Comments

[Nicole Crosby]

Good-bye to a great Congressman - for Connecticut and for our nation. He'll be missed. I hope our new Congressman will take the time he may not have had during his campaign to learn about important issues related to vaccine safety. Our children's futures are at stake.

[Angela Warner]

Alright Kim it's 4pm your time! :)

Dying to know what happened at school today! Do tell!
Ang

[Kelli Ann Davis]

Way-to-go Kim using the "double-whammy" to make sure our message is heard by both candidates; heck, you didn't even need to gas up your car to "go across the aisle" ;-)

You're absolutely right -- one of these candidates will be in office and since it's a dead-heat race (and I'm guessing your ole' Magic 8 Ball isn't lying around to help you out) it's anyone's guess who will win!

Ahhhh, ain't politics grand??? (wink, wink)

[Nicole Crosby]

I'm about to include Jim's excellent arguments in follow-up e-mails to my congressman and senators. I hope everyone does the same! Thank you Jim...very well stated. I'm also adding that the vaccine industry is now doing what the tobacco industry successfully did for decades -- they claimed "proof" that smoking didn't cause lung cancer by manipulating epidemiological studies.

[jim thompson]

“I am not a cosponsor because the science has not been proven yet.” This is part of the baloney fed to congress by Rep. Waxman in his Dear Colleague letters after Rep. Moloney’s meeting with David Kirby. Here is my letter to Waxman.

Dear Representative Waxman:

I respectfully submit the following in response to your letter to colleagues in Congress regarding the risk of vaccine injuries.

First, regarding the Institute of Medicine 2004 committee that stated “evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism.” Quite to the contrary, Dr. Verstraeten stated “The CDC screening study of thimerosal-containing vaccines was perceived at first as a positive study that found an association between thimerosal and some neurodevelopmental outcomes.” See PEDIATRICS Vol. 113 No. 4 April 2004, pp. 932 at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/113/4/932

He then states that a second study on a different group of children didn’t show the same results. Now since one half of the study for one set of children shows a risk of autism and the other one half of the study for another set of children is unable to find a risk - then half of the children studied still show evidence of a link. Dr. Verstraeten concludes that “more study is required.”

So this is evidence of harm. Certainly it is not evidence of safety. Meanwhile at least one of every 150 children today is at risk of Autism in this current epidemic. And yet mercury is still in vaccines as Thimerosal!

…

There is no justification for injecting trillions of atoms (as part of the Thimerosal molecules at so called "trace levels" as well as higher levels) in human beings - especially children or pregnant women.

According to the USEPA, “mercury compounds to prevent bacterial and fungal growth” for latex paint were discontinued after 1990. See http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/mercury.html .

But still today, after banning it from use in paint 18 years ago, expectant mothers or children receive dangerous levels in flu shots. For instance, after receiving 25 micrograms of mercury in one of these vaccines, each mother and her fetus would receive levels that exceed the USEPA mercury reference dose. The USEPA established the level of “0.0001 mg/kg/d based on developmental neurologic abnormalities in human infants.” That means that a clear and present risk is presented to an expecting mother and her baby as well as all children by the act of receiving these levels of mercury injected into their bloodstreams.

Please look at current data for kids served by IDEA for this school year 2007-2008, updated July 15, 2008. Figures one and two in my attached analysis show an increase of Autism and Speech Impairment as a function of birth year.

It is important to note that this is real time data as of July, 2008. And these kids in the IDEA database all have the same access to the current diagnosis methodology. And still the trends haven’t gone away since Geier and Geier published similar findings five years ago.

They stated then that “one must consider that there is a causal relationship between thimerosal- containing childhood vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders.” See Geier and Geier, Response to Comments by JR Mann, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2003 at http://www.ebmonline.org/cgi/reprint/228/9/993.pdf .

And here we are now, five years later, still looking at increasing cases of children diagnosed with Autism and Speech and Language Impairment in this age group of six to seventeen years of age.

Since mercury is regulated at 2 parts per billion in drinking water by the USEPA and FDA then why do the CDC and FDA allow injections into the bloodstreams of pregnant women and children at 50,000 parts per billion in flu shots and when will our federal agencies take action to stop this atrocity?

[Jeanne]

"It seems reasonable to do a comprehensive study of the effects of vaccines and let the chips fall where they may."

Let the chips fall where they may indeed.