Preventing autism, according to Dr. Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky Dept. of Chemistry, involves not exposing children to toxic mercury.  Dr. Haley wasn't timid in his comments.  He emphatically charged that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has known for years that exposing children to mercury via their vaccines has caused very real damage.  The CDC, in a chronic state of denial, has long told us that they've looked and looked, but they can't find any evidence that mercury in vaccines has hurt anyone.

Hearing what Ashley Reynolds and Boyd Haley said about the role of the CDC made me think of the recent Age of Autism blog article by Mark Blaxill, What Did CDC Know and When Did They Know It? I absolutely loved that title and the piece was excellent.  I've often said the same thing about the CDC.  With Dr. Haley's article, we could add the phrase "...and what have they done to cover it up?"

It can't be good for the CDC, the agency in charge of health care in the U.S., to have an esteemed scientist like Dr. Boyd Haley charging them with gross malfeasance.  His comments were to say the least, stunning.  His opening remarks on the video was adamant : "The vaccine division of the CDC, I think, should face criminal charges."  When Ashley Reynolds asked him why, he said, "I think they sacrificed the health of the American children for financial gain for pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines." 

I'm sure there'll be some type of damage control to try and counter the report that's already circulating within the autism community.   

Dr. Haley disputed the long-standing claim that no science links vaccinating kids with mercury and autism.  "We wrote a paper suggesting that (autistic) children.. in their infancy could not excrete mercury as well as control children, and since then, MIT and the people at Arizona State University have reproduced that. So it's not a joke...and with the biochemistry that has been done, the cell biology, we have done about everything we can do to show these kids are mercury toxic."

Dr. Haley's remarks will be hard to explain away.  He didn't gloss anything over.  Listening to the news video for a second time, was chilling:

"The Einsteins at the CDC vaccine unit decided it was a good idea to inject that on the day of birth without doing safety testing... without looking at the amount ... it is a comedy of errors, and I don't think the American people appreciate it."

This was in reference to the inclusion of the HepB vaccine at birth, but Dr. Haley didn't stop with that. As far as the tired claim of the CDC that "studies show no link," Dr. Haley stated,   "To be very blunt, they are lying to you. In my opinion, they have never looked. If you don't look, you won't find it, and if you look and find it, you bury it. What do you call that Verstraeten study that found a 7.62% relative risk? That is a huge overwhelming proof that thimerosal is toxic. And you don't call that a proof just because you didn't put it in a newspaper? Because you didn't want it to be that way. I mean there is no other explanation I have than the people at the CDC in charge of vaccines are just flagrant liars."

"Liars" is about as inflammatory as you can get.  The CDC doesn't have a study to disprove that.  Now that this charge has been made, I can't see it just quietly fading away, especially considering that Dr. Haley continued to deride the CDC: 

"Our government agencies just only believe science if it fits into their agenda. At the IOM meeting we talked about (studies showing thimerosal toxicity) and they just totally swept that under the table. And what did they believe? They believe five epidemiological studies, which the CDC funded, which have all kinds of indications there were a lot of shenanigans going on. You don't like accusing people of doing things that are wrong, but sometimes they just stink so bad, that you cannot turn your head away from it."

One comment by Dr. Haley made me especially sad.  He said in the interview, "I know the CDC knew about this thimerosal issue-in 1999, they had it in their fat little hands, their own study showing it was a tremendous risk for autism. They should have done something immediately and instead of doing that, they covered it up."

Instead of sounding a national alarm and recalling all thimerosal-containing vaccines that were sitting in doctors' offices, the CDC did nothing.  They watched as vaccine makers slowly removed the full levels of mercury from new vaccines.  It took years and they continued to allow horrendous doses of mercury in the flu vaccine, recommended for pregnant women at all stages of pregnancy and six month old babies.  It still is in ninety percent of the flu vaccine available.  How many children have been sacrificed because the CDC refused to act immediately?

If the CDC had given any indication that thimerosal was harmful, the entire vaccine program would have immediately come under suspicion.  We would have had to consider that vaccines had already damaged lots of children by exposing them to mercury.  The CDC put their own interests above that of our children.  They continued the lie.  We've seen it over and over in the news, most recently in the stories about New Jersey mandating the flu shot for six month old babies and older children who are in day care.  The press easily passes over the issue by saying that the CDC has found no harm from mercury-laced vaccines. 

No one is ever concerned that the press gives the Centers for Disease Control the last word on vaccine safety.  They run the vaccine program.  Some people at the CDC also work for the vaccine makers and lots of individuals there have gotten waivers because they have some financial tie to the industry.  It's absurd to claim that the CDC doesn't have conflicts when answering vaccines charges.    

Dr. Haley's remarks continue chipping away at the façade of CDC authority.  The press still acts like the decrees of the CDC are somehow sacrosanct but I think that will be changing.  Dr. Haley has made some very serious allegations and they're not going away.  First and foremost it overwhelmingly destroys the CDC claim that only parents link vaccines to autism.

Anne Dachel is media editor for Age of Autism.