Continue the Protest of Federal Autism Committee’s Deceitful Reversal on Vaccine-Autism Research

Managing Editor's Note: The easiest way to participate is to click HERE and read the info on the Autism Action Coalition site.  We've copied the info below, but please, go to their site for details and to particpate in this action alert!

Autism Telephone Call Action Alert! Your Response to Our Email Message Alert Was Overwhelming – tens of thousands of Messages Were Sent. Now it's Time to Call Congress!

“The bureaucrats responsible for this scandal are on the wrong side of history…”
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Kirby, Huffington Post 1/27/09

Last week The Autism Action Coalition asked the autism community to send letters to key government decision-makers objecting to the inexcusable actions of the Federal members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) in retracting vaccine-autism studies. Your response was overwhelming and thousands of letters were sent!

We’re asking for your help again before the next IACC meeting takes place – less than a week away! We are asking you to call 3 key legislators who are critical in making sure that autism research addresses the mounting health crisis of people with ASD.

Call Senator Edward Kennedy at (202) 224-4543

Call Senator Mike Enzi at (202) 224-3424

Call Representative Chris Smith at (202) 225-3765

Senators Kennedy and Enzi lead the Senate HELP Committee overseeing HHS activities and Rep. Smith leads the Congressional Autism Caucus. Please call them now. Let them know –

• Sound science on vaccines and autism must move forward and not be thwarted by Federal agencies with vested interests in on-going vaccine-autism injury litigation.

• Studies on vaccines and autism must be reinstated in the IACC’s Autism Research Strategic Plan, with their budgets intact.

• Vaccine-autism research must be conducted by unbiased scientists and overseen by those without conflicts of interest.

Click HERE to go to The Autism Action Coalition web site.  Once on our web site or, if you are reading this on our site, scroll down the web site page for step-by-step instructions with telephone numbers and suggested talking points for your telephone calls to our Federal officials responsible for autism research.
 
Remember: ALWAYS BE POLITE AND RESPECTFUL –The Representatives You Call or their Staff Are Likely to Be Sympathetic to our Points.
 
Click here to access the original protest alert to send letters to protest about the IACC’s disgraceful actions. If you haven’t sent your letter yet, there is still time. Click HERE or here http://tinyurl.com/cxskhb (if link does not work paste the url into your browser address pane) to send your letter.
 
For More Background on the IACC and actions being taken by organizations supporting this alert go to these links:

Here is what happened. Click here (Go to the SafeMinds Pressroom, Age of Autism article) for more details on what happened at IACC and here to see what one of organizations supporting this alert is doing about it "Generation Rescue acts."

Here is what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and journalist David Kirby had to say about the IACC’s action: (Click here to read entire article - http://tinyurl.com/d2zt4m)

On January 12, a cadre of mid-level health bureaucrats left over from the Bush administration ignored Federal requirements for advance notice in order to vote to quietly strip vaccine research studies from funding allocated by Congress in the Combating Autism Act (CAA) of 2006. Members of Congress had said that this money should be used to study the vaccine-autism connection.
 
These rogue bureaucrats — members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee — held an unannounced vote to remove previously approved vaccine studies from funding under the CAA. Nearly all of the “Federal” members of the panel voted to remove the two studies, whose estimated cost was $16 million - or 1.6% of the billion dollars authorized by Congress for autism. The panel’s civilian members, in contrast, voted nearly unanimously to retain the funding.

                                                           ***

We also urge parents to attend the February 4th IACC meeting in Washington DC if they are able to. Click here for the notice from the government on how to register, or visit the IACC website http://iacc.hhs.gov/events to register.  We encourage you to sign up to make a public comment at the meeting.

Supporting Organizations

Autism Action Network (AAN)
Autism One
Autism Research Institute
Generation Rescue
National Autism Association (NAA)
SafeMinds
Schafer Report
Talk About Curing Autism (TACA)
US Autism & Asperger Association
Unlocking Autism

Comments

[Kelli Ann Davis -- To Pamela]

Pamela,

I've got calls in and haven't had time to follow up because of today's IOM meeting. I'm going to follow up either tomorrow or Thursday. Remember, Wednesday is the pivotal IACC meeting!!! And Friday is the NVAC meeting (http://www.hhs.gov/nvpo/nvac/agenda20090206.html).

Lots of meetings this week. I can barely keep up. Definitely plan on pushing hard next week on all of it. Also, getting ready to respond publicly to Durbin's bill.

Can you spell DOES-IT-EVER-END??

[Pamela]

Do we know at this point if the HELP committee has formulated a response to our campaign?

[Kent Heckenlively]

I made all three calls today. It was easy and the staff was very friendly. They told me they'd been getting a lot of calls today, in favor of our position.

Kent

[ObjectiveAutismDad]

Sent me e-mail the other day... And just made calls to Congressman Smith and Senator Enzi and Kennedy's offices. All of them were very good listeners.

I love the e-mail system. This is going to be a very useful tool going forward.

[Twyla]

They really did make this very easy!

[Natasa]

Eileen,

apart from toxicological aspects of vaccine injury, we must reasearch possible (auto)immune triggers of various types of vaccine on specific genetic subtypes - one good example are genetic polymorphisms known to be behind vaccine-triggered autoimmune arthritis. This same polymorphism has been found prevalent in autism:

…We report now that the third hypervariable region (HVR-3) of certain DR beta 1 alleles have very strong association with autism. The HVR-3 of DR beta 1* 0401 or the shared HVR-3 alleles DR beta 1* 0404 and DR beta 1* 0404 and DR *0101, was expressed on extended haplotypes in 23 of 50 (46%) autistic subjects as compared to only 6 of 79 (7.5%) normal subjects. …

while:
….The hepatitis B vaccine has been implicated in a few dozen cases of extraarticular, systemic, or inflammatory joint disorders. We report two cases in which hepatitis A vaccination (Havrix, Smith Kline Beecham) was followed by a connective tissue disorder or a spondylarthropathy in two healthy males aged 50 and 24 years, respectively. Both patients were HLA B27-negative but carried the HLA DR1 and/or DR4 antigen. The outcome was favorable after treatment with a corticosteroid or a nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agent. The pathophysiology of immunization-related rheumatic disorders may involve circulating immune complexes and/or a mechanism similar to that seen in reactive arthritis, i.e., a genetically-determined susceptibility to the bacterial or viral antigens contained in vaccines. PMID: 9178394

… Hepatitis B vaccination has been associated with reactive arthritis and rarely rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We defined the clinical, serologic, and immunogenetic background of patients developing RA, soon after recombinant hepatitis B vaccination. METHODS: The clinical, serologic, and HLA antigens of a cluster of firefighters who developed arthritis after prophylactic recombinant hepatitis B vaccination (5 subjects), as well as a second group of sporadic cases of arthritis (6 patients) after hepatitis B vaccination are described. …. CONCLUSION: These polymorphic residues in the binding site of the MHC class II molecules of the affected patients appear capable of binding some peptide sequences of the recombinant vaccine peptides they received and may be responsible for hepatitis B vaccine triggering development of RA in these cases. Recombinant hepatitis B vaccine may trigger the development of RA in MHC class II genetically susceptible individuals. PMID: 9733447

….Logistic regression modelling of DR, treatment, age, time postpartum, and arthropathy revealed that the odds of developing arthropathy was 1.9 times greater (95% CI, 1.07-3.44) after rubella vaccine than placebo. Risk for arthropathy (regardless of rubella vaccination) was also influenced by DR interactions: odds were 8 times greater in individuals with both DR1 and DR4 (95% CI, 1.45-44.02) and 7.1 times greater with both DR4 and DR6 present (95% CI, 1.85-27.52), suggesting that coexpression of these specificities may predispose to postpartum arthropathy. PMID: 9419163

….This study revealed that adult rubella and adult hepatitis B vaccines were statistically associated with chronic arthritis which persisted for at least one year. The etiology for these adverse reactions may involve autoimmune mechanisms. … PMID: 12508767

….A 13-year-old girl developed bilateral chronic anterior uveitis following bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination. HLA testing was negative for B27 but positive for DRB1 *0404, a variant of DR4 often associated with rheumatoid arthritis. The authors propose her HLA repertoire allowed for a BCG-induced abnormal autoimmune response by the mechanism of molecular mimicry… PMID: 18705627

We also must research links between inflammation and oxidative stress-related MIF gene polymorphisms found in autism and succeptibility to serious vaccine reactions:
… There were genetic associations between known functional polymorphisms in the promoter for MIF and autism spectrum disorder-related behaviors. Also, probands with autism spectrum disorder exhibited higher circulating MIF levels than did their unaffected siblings, and plasma MIF concentrations correlated with the severity of multiple autism spectrum disorder symptoms…. PMID: 18676531

On a slightly different note, but no less interesting:

Can unresolved infection precipitate autoimmune disease?

Marks DJ et al Centre for Molecular Medicine, University College London, UK

Autoimmune diseases are frequently postulated to arise as post-infectious phenomena. Here we survey the evidence supporting these theories, with particular emphasis on Crohn's disease and ankylosing spondylitis. Direct proof that infection establishes persistent autoimmunity remains lacking, although it may provoke a prolonged inflammatory response when occurring on a susceptible immunological background. The argument of infective causality is by no means trivial, since it carries important consequences for the safety of vaccine development. PMID: 16724803

And since autism has long be linked to prenatal viral infections and maternal immune activation, we must research the possiblity (and circumstances) of vaccine-reactivation of latent viruses. This mechanism of an induced immune challenge having a trigger-like effect on latent viruses has been suggested to underlie development of CNS autoimmune diseases

…..Based on three cases reported to the Swiss Drug Monitoring Centre SANZ, we postulated previously that vaccinations may trigger reactivation of herpes virus infections due to vaccine-induced immunomodulation. .. PMID: 11103441

In addition, some interesting findings from from HIV-related vaccine research that merits looking into (note that, in over a third of infected chilren, HIV causes neurological symptoms that are completely indistinguishable from ‘common’ autism) : …Although humans are usually exposed to pathogenic viruses, recombinants between a host-adapted vaccine strain and a pathogenic virus might lead to more rapid progression to disease. In addition, the emergence of new variants might be favored…… Therefore, the emergence of more-virulent recombinants of live, attenuated immunodeficiency viruses and less-aggressive wild-type viruses seems to be an additional risk of live, attenuated immunodeficiency virus vaccines…. PMID: 10729127

[Lisa Hunter Ryden]

Phone calls went well, emails sent. Thank you to everyone who made this so easy for us!

[Stagmom]

I just made six telephone calls. Enzi, Kennedy, Smith, Dodd, Lieberman and Himes. That system is SO easy to use! Thanks, Autism Action Alert!

[Eileen Nicole Simon]

I have just sent emails to Senators Kennedy and Enzi. Rep Chris Smith only accepts emails from people in NJ, so I called, and spoke with someone in person! Then I called Sen Enzi, and again spoke with someone in person - I had expected to have to leave messages. I am getting a busy signal trying to call Sen Kennedy, but will keep trying.

Meanwhile, I think the IACC needs to put out an RFP for research that goes beyond epidemiology. I submitted comments for the Feb 4 meeting, a research strategy, which I have also posted at: http://www.conradsimon.org/files/IACC4feb2009strategy.pdf

I would be interested in any comments on what I have suggested.

[Bob Moffitt]

Yesterday, I called all three representatives...and...I must admit I was pleasantly surprised at the attention given my calls. All promised to bring my comments to the attention of the Senators and Congressman.

One mentioned they received over 1800 emails recently..and...I warned him he is likely to receive an additional 1800 phone calls in the near future.

The response to my calls was very encouraging to me.

[Gale P.]

Your supporting organizations list does not include the Autism Society of America. They also made a public statement against the IACC's turn around on vaccine research that can be viewed on their website. The efforts of their Board, membership and associated professionals were also instrumental in getting the Combating Autism Act passed.

[KarenAtlanta]

The customized letter on line was a piece of cake to do. It sent copies out to my local reps. Kudos to those who made the process easy for busy Moms!