IMUS: Well, she thought it was important.  She really didn't give me a good answer.  She now writes for US News and World Report and the Vaccine Court cranked up...and she said she got motivated to get involved in this because of the Poling case, that child down in Atlanta.  So, I guess she did give me an answer.

SHARYL: Well, that's what she told me as well.  When she saw the Poling case, which had been quietly settled by the government but not announced last fall, it piqued her medical curiosity...and she started digging.  When she dug, what she told me was, she was very surprised to find the state of things were not what had been presented for the past decade.  Largely by public health officials.  The more she dug, the more she found out and the more curious she got.  She really had a sense of outrage, when she described for me, what she felt.  What questions were and haven't been answered.....versus what we have been led to believe.

IMUS: As I observed to her, I don't have an autistic child myself, thank God, however, because of David Kirby's book, "Evidence of Harm", which was based upon a statement the CDC or IOM made....they said they found no evidence of harm, no casual link between thimerosal and autism....which as Mr. Kirby pointed out...and seemed to make common sense to me....saying they haven't found any casual link is one hundred and eighty degrees from saying it's safe.  So, the people who think there is a link, and there is a wide body of evidence suggesting there is....they're characterized as being crazy.  So one of the things I asked Dr. Healy was, did she suspect she was going to be lumped in with those folks by all of her colleagues.  She didn't seem to care.

SHARYL: That's why I felt the interview was very important.  There are a lot of medical voices that have been saying the same thing, but, they are not well-known people.  I guess its pretty easy to paint them with a broad brush and call them (unintelligble)...and, they don't know what they're talking about.  I think its pretty important when someone with the stature of Bernadine Healy, the former head of the National Institute of Health, with a whole lot of credentials to her name.  When she says something like this, that agrees with those people who have been labeled somewhat off center, I think you really do pay attention.  And, it is newsworthy.

IMUS: I found it interesting she was also head of, as you obviously know, the Red Cross.  Any resistance from the powers that be over there at CBS to put this story on the air?  Apparently not, I guess.

SHARYL: No.  And Dr. Healy is no longer head of the Red Cross.  CBS News is very interested in pursuing any story that sounds like it has merit and value.  People would be interested in that.  So, that's where we went with this one.  They're familiar with Dr. Healy's credentials as well. When you mentioned how the government will sometimes say there is no casual evidence found...one of the things Dr. Healy pointed out....that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  The point she tried to make in the story we aired last night was....she believes they haven't looked and they intentionally haven't looked because they know what they might find.  They are afraid of the repercussions, people may not vaccinate their children at all.  She takes issue with that "all or nothing" mentality.  That people get all their vaccines on time...or get not vaccines....and diseases will come back.  What she said was "There is something in-between".  If you can identify there are susceptible children, you can handle them a little bit differently.  Then you can still vaccinate the population properly...but a little bit more safely and differently.  That was the point she was making in our piece last night. 

IMUS: That was the point that David Kirby made. When the government says they haven't found any causal link, you're right, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  It also doesn't mean these vaccines are safe.  Not only is thimerosal, a more lethal form of mercury than the mercury found in fish, still remaining in vaccines.  Aluminum, which is a neuro-toxin and formaldehyde....which is not only a neuro-toxin but a carcinogen as well.  The people who support safe vaccines are not against, like for example my wife and others, are not against children getting vaccinated.  They are simply demanding safe vaccines, which seems like a reasonable request.

SHARYL: Dr. Healy expressed herself as very pro-vaccine, over and over again, she's very supportive of vaccinations.  She was surprised about things like, studies that haven't been done that are very simple...and...she says would be obvious to do.  Like study those kids who are selected for vaccine court.....to see if there is a common factor we could find that would make them susceptible, either genetic or biological, or some other way.....to side effects of vaccines.  Also, I told her CBS News has found a number of cases as far back as 1991, that we were tipped off to, where the government has been paying brain damaged cases in vaccine court.  Some of which resulted in autism or autism symptoms.  At the same time, they've been saying publicly there is no reason to be worried about any association.  She said why aren't they tracking those cases.  So, I asked the government: "Are you tracking how many of your brain damaged cases you paid on for vaccines resulted in the specific kind of brain damage of autism?  And they said "No, we're not tracking it".  She said that's really unthinkable, that they're not even looking.