David Kirby: New Study: Hepatitis B Vaccine Triples the Risk of Autism in Infant Boys
By David Kirby (Click HERE to read and comment on the HuffPo version of this post.)
“The science is largely complete. Ten epidemiological studies have shown MMR vaccine doesn’t cause autism; six have shown thimerosal doesn’t cause autism.”
-- Dr. Paul Offit, “Autism’s False Prophets”
“16 studies have shown no causal association between vaccines and autism, and these studies carry weight in the scientific industry.”
-- Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC Today Show Medical Editor
Conventional wisdom holds that the autism-vaccine question has been “asked and answered,” and that least 16 large, well-constructed epidemiological studies have thoroughly addressed and debunked any hypothesis that childhood vaccination is in any way associated with an increased risk for autism spectrum disorders.
But there are several critical flaws in such an oversimplified generalization, and they are rarely given close examination by public health experts or members of the media.
To begin with, it is unscientific and perilously misleading for anyone to assert that “vaccines and autism” have been studied and that no link has been found. That’s because the 16 or so studies constantly cited by critics of the hypothesis have examined just one vaccine and one vaccine ingredient. And the studies themselves have critical design flaws and limitations.
The current US childhood immunization schedule calls for 28 injections with 11 different vaccines against 15 different diseases by two years of age. Of those 11 vaccines, only the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) shot has been studied in association with autism, (although a CDC study of an MMR-plus-chickenpox vaccine did show that the risk for febrile seizures in infants was doubled.)
Meanwhile, those 11 vaccines contain scores of ingredients, only one of which, thimerosal, has ever been tested in association with autism.
It is illogical to exonerate all vaccines, all vaccine ingredients, and the total US vaccine program as a whole, based solely on a handful of epidemiological studies of just one vaccine and one vaccine ingredient. It is akin to claiming that every form of animal protein is beneficial to people, when all you have studied is fish.
Now, a new study has shown that giving Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples the associated risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.
An abstract of the study was published in the September, 2009 issue of the respected journal Annals of Epidemiology. In it, Carolyn Gallagher and Melody Goodman of the Graduate Program in Public Health at Stony Brook University Medical Center, NY, wrote that, “Boys who received the hepatitis B vaccine during the first month of life had 2.94 greater odds for ASD compared to later- or unvaccinated boys.” The authors used U.S. probability samples obtained from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 1997–2002 datasets.
The conclusion states that: “Findings suggest that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine had a 3-fold greater risk of ASD; risk was greatest for non-white boys.”
The author’s new study used a different database than their earlier study (NHIS vs. NHANES) and they found same thing, suggesting a validation of their findings.
Critics will point out that this sample was limited to boys born before 1999, so the results are only applicable to that U.S. male birth cohort, and that the study’s cross-sectional design limits inferences on causality. Another weakness is that the autism diagnoses were parent reported.
On the other hand, these results are generalizable to US boys age 3-17 born prior to 1999; vaccination status was confirmed through medical records; and there was controlling for confounders that may be associated with care seeking behaviors. (The P-value equaled 0.032) The full manuscript is currently under review by another journal.
Assuming that the full manuscript is published in a peer-reviewed journal, it will be among the first university-based population studies to suggest an association between a vaccine and an increased risk for autism. And that would be in direct contradiction to all those MMR and thimerosal studies that purportedly found no such link.
Does that mean that Hepatitis B vaccine causes autism? Of course not (though any relative risk above 2.0 is general considered to prove causation in a US court of law).
But there are other studies, both published and greatly anticipated, which might support a hypothesized causal association between HepB vaccine and ASD, at least in boys.
Any day now, data culled from CDC's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring network (ADDM), is expected to be published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, and the numbers are expected to put the rate of autism at around 1 in 100, or higher.
ADDM researchers examine the education and (when possible) medical records of all eight-year-old children in selected US cities and states. They look only at eight-year-old cohorts to allow time for all diagnoses to be made, reported and counted.
So far, ADDM has published data from just two birth cohorts: children born in 1992 (eight-year-olds in 2000) and those born in 1994 (eight-year-olds in 2002). The 1992 cohort revealed an estimated ASD rate of one in 166, or 60-per-10,000. (This has since been revised to 67-per-10,000, or one in 150).
But CDC data for the same six ADDM locations showed an increase in ASD from 6.7 for 1992 births to 7.4 for 1994 births.
And now the total average number expected to exceed 100-per-10,000 for the 1996 birth cohort, born just two years later. The overarching question, of course, will be, "why?"
There are many possible explanations, though a 50% increase in just two years is astonishing, no matter what its cause.
One possible answer is the Hepatitis B vaccine, (which also contained 25 micrograms of mercury containing thimerosal up until 2002). Introduced in 1991, it was the first vaccine ever given on a population basis to newborn babies (within the first three hours after delivery) in human history.
But according to the CDC's National Immunization Survey, only 8% of infant children received the Hep B vaccine in 1992, when that birth cohort showed an ASD rate of 1-in-150.
By 1994, the number of children receiving Hep B vaccine at birth had reached just 27% --and the same cohort showed a 10% ASD increase in locations where both years were measured.
But by 1996, Hep B coverage rate had risen to 82%. And that is the cohort whose ASD rate rose to around 100-per-10,000 or more.
Correlation, obviously, does not equal causation. But the uptake rate of that particular immunization is at least one environmental factor that did demonstrably change during the period in question.
In addition, some recent studies and vaccine court decisions have supported the contention that Hepatitis B vaccine can damage myelin -- the nervous system's main insulating component -- at least in certain genetically susceptible adults and infants.
A study published last October in the journal Neurology found that children who received the Hepatitis B vaccine series were 50% more likely to develop "central nervous system inflammatory demyelination" than children who did not receive the vaccine.
Most of this increase was due to the Engerix B brand of the vaccine, manufactured by the UK's GlaxoSmithKline. That brand increased the risk of demyelination by 74%, and patients with confirmed multiple sclerosis were nearly three times more likely to develop the disorder.
"Hepatitis B vaccination does not generally increase the risk of CNS inflammatory demyelination in childhood," the authors concluded. "However, the Engerix B vaccine appears to increase this risk, particularly for confirmed multiple sclerosis, in the longer term. Our results require confirmation in future studies."
Let’s hope that future studies of neonatal HebB administration, demyelinating disorders, and ASD are completed as quickly as possible.
David Kirby is author of Evidence of Harm, a founding contributor to Huffington Post and a contributor to Age of Autism. His next book, Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment will be released within the year and is available now for pre-order at Amazon.
Don't forget that it every bit - aluminium, mercury, dead viruses, weakened virus are all coated with refined oil - to slow down the metabolism of it all and keep it in the body longer
Posted by: Benedetta | March 30, 2014 at 03:00 PM
Linda,
The risks are many, the benefits few. You can ask for a mercury-free flu vaccine, but the trace amounts still in many vaccines are still ten times over the hazardous waste limit and a hundred times the drinking water limit, and heavy metals injected into the body bypass the body's natural filters, making what is in injections much more lethal. Vaccine encephalitis can be caused by any vaccine, and can cause autism and other kinds of brain damage (seizure disorders, ADHD, learning and behavioral disabilities), and any vaccine can cause allergies from the immune response to the injected vaccine ingredients, the pathogens but also everything else. The Hib vaccine causes peanut allergy in one in fifty, the pertussis vaccine causes pertussis in one in nine, "only" one in twenty if you don't start the series until six months old. Only one in a hundred if you don't give it at all.
Don't give your child any more vaccines, he has already reacted, which shows you that he is one of the huge percentage vulnerable to vaccine damage. Take him to a family practice physician or a GP, or an osteopathic physician, or a naturopath, chiropractor, or homeopath. If pediatrician give you a hard time, walk out. Do not permit your child to be further damage. Go to a lawyer and sue them for vaxing him without permission. Put the fear of God in the bastards.
Look up Kate Tietje's online series (Modern Alternative Mama) on the individual vaccines and read the comments. She has given her children none of the vaccines, having been convinced of their dangers by the experience of others.
The best protection for babies and toddlers is breast feeding until they self-wean. Also keep them out of day care and large groups of children. Leave him with a single caregiver if you can't stay home with him. Get Aviva Jill Romm's Vaccinations for advice on caring for a child with the formerly universal childhood diseases at home. Good luck!
Posted by: cia parker | March 30, 2014 at 02:06 PM
Linda,
In theory thimerosal is out of most infant vaccines at this point, though the FDA does not actively monitor vaccine composition. It is present in a high percentage of flu vaccine (usually 25 micrograms) and is in some others in "trace" amounts.
http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/safetyavailability/vaccinesafety/ucm096228
If you choose to get a vaccine, you want to ask for a copy of the package insert beforehand, maybe well in advance.
Aluminum is another metal in vaccines at high doses the research on aluminum risks is just beginning:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12026-013-8403-1
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22099159
Aluminum and thimerosal act in synergy, i.e. they are more toxic when combined.
Some vaccines like MMR are live attenuated viral vaccines and I don't believe rely on (aluminum) adjuvants nor contain thimerosal (though I have heard of some level of mercury contamination found in the MMR independently tested), but my impression is that the reports of regression following some of these are very high. Perhaps the live viral challenge is more serious when a child has a compromised immune system?
The overall effects of all vaccine components, particularly longterm effects, the vaccine schedule have not been studied.
My personal experience with my child is the only period in years 0-5 that she made any steady progress (slow progress) was a year after her vaccines stopped around age 2. She regressed significantly further with boosters at age four. Thimerosal was probably in some of those at the time and our family is particularly sensitive to thimerosal/metals and have high risk of autoimmune conditions. I also strongly suspect that the levels of aluminum were problematic. And the MMR was part of that...the uncertainty seems boundless...
You may not be aware that your doctor has little to no liability if vaccinations harm your son with the implementation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, and likely little training on the adverse effects of vaccines. You may want to find doctors, if this doctor is adamant, that are aware of vaccine injury/developmental injury and have experience in reversing it if you are able, or whom at least respect your choice:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/08/weekly-wrap-another-medical-practice-with-a-sane-vaccine-schedule-and-no-autism-.html
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop for Linda | March 30, 2014 at 12:56 PM
Linda,
Do not let anyone bully you into doing anything that you do not feel is right. There are doctors who vaccinate but will go with an alternative schedule or will respect a parent's right to decide not to vaccinate. There are also doctors who are against vaccination and won't give vaccines in their practices.
Please be aware that the statute of limitations for vaccine injury is 3 years. After 3 years, you cannot file a claim if your child has a vaccine injury. If you believe that your child suffered a vaccine injury, this should be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting system (VAERS https://vaers.hhs.gov/index). I'm not sure of the procedure to file an actual claim, but there are others here who can give you advice.
You might also want to talk to an attorney since you signed a form refusing the vaccine and it was given anyway. Below are some web sites that list vaccine friendly doctors by state. I looked and did see a couple near you. Best of luck to you.
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/health-concerns/vaccines/find-vaccine-friendly-doctor-near-you
http://www.cafemom.com/group/4388/forums/read/2738581/Anti_Vax_Friendly_Docs_List_Directory
http://vaclib.org/basic/health/novaxdoctors.htm
Posted by: the other Linda | March 30, 2014 at 12:10 PM
My 14 old months baby boy is having developmental and social skills delays. When I had the baby in Tampa General Hospital in FL, I signed to refuse Hepatitis B vaccine for the baby. Later I learned he was given the vaccine the day after he was born without my consent and the hospital never told me about it. He was found to have these delays when he turned 1 year old. Now the pediatrician is pushing to have my child vaccinated. He wants to give him all vaccines he missed in a short period of time. My baby is having developmental delays and traits of possible Autism which places me in a great dilemma. I don't want my child to get worse. What Can I do? Are there Thimerosal or mercury free vaccines available in USA? Are there any other risks for my child if he gets so many vaccines? Please help!
Posted by: Linda | March 30, 2014 at 11:23 AM
I think there are certain illnesses they need to avoid, but as human beings, our bodies should be strong enough to fight off or handle most sicknesses that we contract. I don't think it's worth the risk of autism just to get shots. best premium wordpress themes
Posted by: Mike Opruls | May 08, 2011 at 08:51 AM
FWIW - EngerixB allows up to 5% residual food proteins - in the case of HepB that is genetically modified bread yeast with some key protein sequences from the HepB virus spliced in...the other manufacturers only allow u to 2% residual proteins.
I keep saying - look at the FOOD they get injected with.
Posted by: GrammaKnows | April 27, 2011 at 04:07 AM
I have heard that vaccines are linked to child autism and this article is just better proof. I don't want my kids to have immunizations when they are babies. I think there are certain illnesses they need to avoid, but as human beings, our bodies should be strong enough to fight off or handle most sicknesses that we contract. I don't think it's worth the risk of autism just to get shots.
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Posted by: KimRose27 | June 11, 2010 at 08:53 PM
my friends new born baby got 2 hepatitis B vaccine by mistakly in 2 days interwell. is it serious?
Posted by: jiji | October 05, 2009 at 05:38 AM
Hi, could someone please inform me in case I have missed something here, but where has the abstract been published and where can I read it for myself? I only found out about this today from my doctor and it all seems very interesting, but I would like to read more. If anyone can help me out that would be great. I would also like to say that reading this makes me feel vindicated for making the decision not to vaccinate my child with anything and for putting my foot down when the nurses and midwives tried to bully me into vaccinating my son with Hep B at birth. Thankfully the country I live in works under the system of informed choice, despite the pressure from pharmaceutical companies on the government. Hopefully it will always stay that way.
Posted by: Mel Potter | September 28, 2009 at 11:18 AM
http://www.springerlink.com/content/k5238353p1572631/
VIRAL AUTISM AND EPILEPSY.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | September 23, 2009 at 06:43 PM
In regards to whether or not the MMR is safe:
No one can make a blanket safety statement for any vaccine since the saftey of vaccines depends in part on the health status of the individual receiving the vaccine.
Even the Bureau of Immunization warns that "Virus replication after administration of live, attenuated-virus vaccines can be enhanced in severely immunocompromised persons. In general, these patients should not be administered live vaccines", and this bureau has an entire webpage devoted to assessing the risks of various vaccines in immunocompromised persons. http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/imm/immcomp.shtml
So even the Bureau of Immunization states that the MMR is not safe for everyone.
And it may be necessary to point out that many parents of children with autism have reported that their children had a very long health history of chronic infections and illnesses (which can be indicative of immune dysfunction) prior to receiving the MMR (a live, attenuated-virus vaccine) and then regressed into autism after receiving that live vaccine.
In fact, some parents who have written for Age of Autism have even been told that their children have an immune system akin to a late stage AIDS patient, and the Bureau of Immunization warns that "MMR and other measles-containing vaccines are not recommended for HIV-infected persons with evidence of severe immunosuppression".
So for children whose immune systems were compromised at the time they received the MMR vaccine and then subsequently regressed into autism, I would have to say no, it appears the MMR was not safe for those children. And not only did the vaccine appear to cause them harm, those same children still do not have immunity to the measles virus probably also because of their immune system dysfunction.
So that brings us to another question. Why would these children have immune system deficiencies in the first place?
Some reasons listed by the Bureau are:
"Severe immunosuppression not associated with HIV can be the result of congenital immunodeficiency, leukemia, lymphoma, generalized malignancy or therapy with alkylating agents, antimetabolites, radiation, or large amounts of corticosteroids."
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/imm/immcomp.shtml
However, there may be a more logical explanation for so many children with weakened immune systems. Here's 2 possibilities that also have an association with the Hep B vaccination. Mercury and Aluminum interfere with proper immune function:
1. Mercury has been found to cause immune dysfunction:
"The overall vascular effects of mercury include oxidative stress, inflammation, thrombosis, vascular smooth muscle dysfunction, endothelial dysfunction, dyslipidemia, immune dysfunction, and mitochondrial dysfunction."
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17405690
2. Aluminum is added to vaccines specifically because of how it alters the body's normal immune system response.
"aluminum in the vaccines specifically targets the overactivation of TH2 to encourage the body to produce antibodies, any direct or indirect effect of aluminum on the health or maturation of the TH1 or TH3 system is unknown." http://www.devdelay.org/newsletter/articles/pdf/402-aluminum-new-mercury.pdf
So even though the MMR has been on the vaccine schedule since the 1980s, perhaps more children were immunocompromised in the 1990s as a result of receiving many more mercury and aluminum containing vaccines. And then as a result of the immune dysfunction caused by mercury and aluminum, the replication of attenuated live measles virus could have been enhanced in these immunocompromised children. In other words, could the hep B vaccine (and the other mercury and aluminum containing vaccines) have made some children more susceptibile to the live measles virus in the MMR?
Also, the current view on autism is that it's caused by some combination of toxins and infections. So that means children could develop autism either with or without receiving the MMR. The main unifying factors I've seen reported regarding children with autism are lab reports showing very high levels of mercury and aluminum as well as parental reports of chronic illnesses.
To answer another part of Ben's question from earlier, I think looking at the shots in combination with one another is important. I don't think it's a one shot always equals this exact result type of thing. Rather, I think it's a complex variability in initial susceptibilities compounded by environmental insults including vaccines, that eventually results in autism.
Posted by: CM | September 21, 2009 at 02:13 PM
as MSNBC says, must see TV, this is a MUST SEE video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOnukyFrHuM
Have at it, and realize, that all vaccines are crapshoots, immune destroyers, and one could never know if their child will be the next victim.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | September 21, 2009 at 11:32 AM
David, the conclusions are not the question. The question is where and when will it get published. If they can't get this published in a respectable journal, that does indicate the research was of low quality. The conclusions don't mean anything if the research was not done well. Why are you so confident it was done well? Other commenter's on this site have less confidence in journal articles that have made it past more peer review than this.
Posted by: ben | September 20, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Thanks Amy in Idaho! I try to keep my hope at bay usually, but maybe the Office will actually address vaccine safety concerns again since they threw the issue out from the very moment of Pam's announcement. Yet another reason to love the show.
Posted by: ginnie | September 20, 2009 at 08:12 AM
I wonder what happens to boys when mom gets the Hep B vax series right before pregnancy?
During the months of March, April, September 2001, I got the Hep B vaccination
series. I found these incidents in my medical record during the same period of
time. I recall the first two incidents because there was no reason for them
that I knew. I was not one to go seek medical care unless I felt awful.
25 May 01- complains of neck pain x 1 day. PT states woke up this morning and
pulled her neck. PT also states she has upper back pain X 3 days with no
relation to neck pain. Tender to palpation over R trap(?). DX: R trap strain.
29 May 01- PT complains of middle back pain x 4 days. PT states she noticed in
the morning when she woke up. PT states had a hard time sitting up. PT states
pain is worse when in one position for long period of time. Tender to palpation
along (thorasive? paraspins? can't read) muscles. + NVI.
30 Jul 01- PT presents with complaint of sore throat x 3 days, chills and fever,
nonproductive cough and nasal congestion, denies N/V/D.
Throat + edema + epadate(?) + erythma; Neck + anterior lymphadanpathy(?sp)
2 Aug 01 - follow up for tx of pharyngitis, throat + edema, + erythma.
17 Sep 01- PT complains of nausea/dizziness started at 4:00am.
I got pregnant with my ASD child in the middle of November 2001.
Posted by: Elizabeth | September 20, 2009 at 04:57 AM
Ben
If you are sincere in your lack of knowledge then I will simply tell you this and you can confirm it. The pharmaceutical industry not only buys Journal articles and whole Journals and these gutless clown Pediatricians they buy whole publishing companies, that is correct they influence and or bribe entire publishing companies and get away with it. They buy off politicians and government agencies and committ mail fraud, wire fraud and conspire to do so engage in racketeering, hire ghost writers etc.. This is no joke you are dealing with Drug Dealers plain and simple, Drug Dealers and I can substantiaite every charge I have made. Do not vaccinate your children it is that simple
Posted by: WILLIE | September 20, 2009 at 03:41 AM
I meant Hep B not Hib B, either way my kids did not have either one of them.
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | September 19, 2009 at 09:55 PM
Both my wife and I developed autoimmune diseases several months after our third Hep. B shot. It is funny how we both started seeing symptoms right after. My newborn son regressed after receiving the 2nd round of the Hep. B shot. I have said for years that this shot is a contributor to autism and is a trigger for those vulnerable to autoimmune diseases. I wish I made the connection prior to giving that shot to my son. Fortunately, I stopped vaccinating after that and became more educated on the issue.
Posted by: Cisco Diaz | September 19, 2009 at 09:03 PM
Ben: Yes, the peer review process for publishing a full article is different than for an abstract. But I think the question is whether or not the conclusions of the abstract will change.
There are two possibilities: (1) The conclusions don't change and the full article is published with whatever changes the reviewers suggest. (2) The conclusions must be changed and the study is scrubbed/not published. The second is very, very, very unlikely.
Posted by: David Taylor | September 19, 2009 at 08:08 PM
My kids are old enough not to have had the hib B. The only time I ran into it was my son at age 14 was suppose to take it going into high school and since he was grabbing walls to keep him from falling backwards with myclonic jerks I refused to have any vaccines. I guess I was even obnoxious about it. The state of Michigan let me sign a waiver (and not a religous one either)
Just a year ago my duaghter had one so she could go into nursing. I hoped we would be okay. On the third hib B booster she said she has always stiff but she is really stiff now. This past year we have been back and forth to the rhuematolgist, she has an inflammatory disorder not specified (what ever that means) It is the same old thing, just like the pertussin vaccine causes inflammation response.
I am so sorry for all of you with younger kids, they do not have a prayer. I don't see how we could have messed up so bad, we did not only not stop them, but they even increased their carnage? How did this happen?
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | September 19, 2009 at 07:59 PM
I caught the "don't vaccinate it" comment too!!!! I didn't see who said it though but I rejoiced nonetheless.
Posted by: Amy in Idaho | September 19, 2009 at 07:18 PM
Twyla, that makes no sense. ARe you saying that the pull of pharmacies is just strong enough to prevent a journal from publishing a full article but not quite strong enough to prevent them from publishing an abstract?
It is more likely that they didn't submit the full article to this publication for some reason.
Posted by: ben | September 19, 2009 at 06:30 PM
ben -
Maybe because journals receive a lot of funding from pharma and are afraid to publish anything critical of vaccines? Wasn't there a recent study saying that journals are reluctant to publish studies with results contrary to their sponsors' interests? Can't put my finger on that study right now...
Posted by: Twyla | September 19, 2009 at 05:28 PM
David Taylor
Maybe I am wrong, but typically most journals do not have the same standards for abstracts as they do for full manuscripts. Why would this research be under review at an entirely different journal otherwise if that wasn't the case?
Posted by: ben | September 19, 2009 at 04:08 PM
Ben--
You and Josephius (JoJO) at HuffPost seem not to understand the relationship between a published abstract and a published article (for which the abstract is done) in academic literature.
Will the conclusions in the published abstract differ from the conclusions in the published article? No. That is the point of an abstract. The abstract summarizes and stands for the article's purpose, methods, results and conclusions. Researchers doing a review of the literature often consult only the abstract of an article.
The full article is published so that those wanting more information about how the conclusions were reached can find it. But publication of the article does not change its conclusions.
David Kirby clearly qualifies the conclusions as being from an abstract. Either you didn't read that part of David's article, didn't understand it, or just want to throw dirt as opposed to discussing important David's point based upon a number of article he discusses in this post:
The urgent need for research about the HepB vaccine.
Did you make it that far, or are you here just to throw some polite dirt?
Posted by: David Taylor | September 19, 2009 at 09:46 AM
Did anyone catch the Office premier this Thursday? When Jim & Pam announce their pregnancy to their coworkers, Ryan clearly (we rewound it twice) responds "don't vaccinate it" off camera. There's no real appropriate article to add this to the comment section, but I really wanted to celebrate this huge media moment with this community! And can someone confirm that we're not hearing things (e.g. what we want to hear)?
Posted by: ginnie | September 19, 2009 at 08:41 AM
I know there is no point to argue the safety of vaccines here, my point is really to point out that people (and I am guilty of this too) will defend the studies that seem to agree with their point of view and try to find fault in the studies that don't.
I don't need to review the conclusions of most of the studies in this area, but I want people to ask themselves, why do I trust one study and not another study. for example, a commenter below questioned the Madsen study, yet I have to think that it is at least more trustworthy than the study Kirby mentions here, which has only been presented in abstract form.
Posted by: ben | September 18, 2009 at 11:43 PM
To whomever can answer,
Was the Engerix version of this vaccine the only one produced by GSK in 1991??? I think it would have been SKB at that time; is that true also?
I tried to dig up this information some time ago but was unsuccessful.
Posted by: ObjectiveAutismDad | September 18, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Thank you for another well written piece of real journalism, David. To Ben, I think you are mistaken and misled to believe epidemiological studies of MMR are conclusive in determining the vaccine as "safe". Just because a study fails to show an association does not mean safety is proven. If you manipulate the size of the population, assumptions, and conclusions, epidemiological study results can vary wildly. That's why the tobacco industry used their own epidemiological "research" for years to show cigarettes do not cause cancer (there is data to support this conclusion, again it's all in how the study is designed and executed). To me, the only true way to show vaccines are safe would be to determine, based on analysis and research of affected populations with autism, what events or exposure actually caused autism to occur.
Posted by: mlinn | September 18, 2009 at 09:20 PM
Ben,
Sorry actually I meant it is not logical to me to say the MMR is safe now. It may be logical to you and that is fine. Frame of reference makes a difference here.
Posted by: Doodle | September 18, 2009 at 07:13 PM
from Ben
"I am asking because I think the logical conclusion to make based on the facts that large experiments have shown the MMR to be safe, that the MMR is safe. This data does nothing to show that the MMR is unsafe and implicates an entirely different vaccine. I therefore asked, if in the light of this result, would people be willing to consider that maybe the hep B vaccine is dangerous and the MMR is not?
I think that assumption fits more consistently with the data at hand. Of course as Kirby himself has brought up, this research was only published in abstract form and has not yet passed peer review."
That is not the logical conclusion. For years, all of science has concluded that vaccines have no association with autism. When one vaccine is shown to cause autism, something said to be impossible, why should any of the old results for other vaccines be trusted. Why would anyone who posts here regain faith in any vaccine if these results are true?
If you still think the MMR is safe for all kids, and I mean all, then good for you. Feel free to get the shot if that is why you are asking. Get two, what the heck, and chase it with Gardasil (good for both sexes now!). They're all perfectly safe accoding to the CDC.
Posted by: Doodle | September 18, 2009 at 06:56 PM
Ben...wrote:
"I am asking because I think the logical conclusion to make based on the facts that large experiments have shown the MMR to be safe, that the MMR is safe."
I would like to ask you to name three of the absolutely best "large" studies showing the MMR is "safe"...the studies upon which you have made a logical conclusion the MMR is "safe"?
By the way...there seems to be at least a few parents who have children with autism that were given extra HEP B shots...(fair disclosure-my own grandson)..once in Hospital..followed unnecessarily by another administered by pediatrican.
Do you think a scientific study of all children with autism who received extra, unnecessary HEP B shot, should be an urgent high priority of future research?
By the way....
Do you have any "logical" explanation for a pediatrician to automatically give a HEP B shot to a baby..without making ANY attempt to ascertain if that baby had ALREADY received the HEP B?
I mean, we live in a world of computers..in the interest of the child's "safety"...how difficult would it be for a pediatrician's office staff to hit a few keys BEFORE giving the child an extra HEP B?
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | September 18, 2009 at 02:51 PM
Ben,
Are you talking about the Madsen study that supposedly exhonerates MMR?
Here is what Madsen looked at:
Vaccinated with MMR, then developed autism.
Not vaccinated with MMR, then developed autism
Vaccinated with MMR but may have been autistic prior to the receipt of MMR
Vaccinated with MMR, no autism
Unvaccinated with MMR, no autism.
No where in any of those categories is there any child who is unvaccinated completely, which was the claim that was made by the scientific "journalists" who were reporting on this study.
Now, all of this was from the Danish Registry for Autism, and it is only assumed that the data was correct (nothing has been added subsequently that showed that this data was verified).
So, the prevalance is only split into two categories: vaccinated and unvaccinated with MMR. The children who did receive the MMR and may have been autistic prior to the vaccine were said to be unvaccinated. This significantly skewed the numbers to where they didn't show much of a difference. Lastly, the prevalence of Autism shown in the study was only about 1 in 738.
One of the tenants of science is that it is repeatable. Since Madsen hasn't released his raw data, this study cannot be repeated.
'An investigation of the association of MMR vaccination and autism in Denmark', JAPandS, Vol 9 No 3 p.70-75 2004
MMR is hardly off the hook. Its safety is very much in question.
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | September 18, 2009 at 01:57 PM
To Ben,
Since we now know that smoking causes lung cancer does this mean that there are no other possible sources of lung cancer? Of course not.
Posted by: ObjectiveAutismDad | September 18, 2009 at 01:48 PM
All vaccines are unsafe. PERIOD.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | September 18, 2009 at 01:46 PM
Ben, I would argue that it isn't an either/or situation. Since each child's immune system is different, with different capacities for clearing toxins from the body and different sensitivities to particular ingredients, it is possible that the cumulative effects of the vaccine schedule take time to occur. For some infants, their tipping point might be the initial Hep B dose. Maybe they're low birth weight, or immune compromised, or it's the aluminum, or maybe like Ian Gromowski it turns out that newborn baby is allergic to yeast. For others, it might be the second or third DTaP. Yet others might go down when they get the MMR, or a cocktail of multiple vaccines in one visit. Maybe it's getting all those vaccines while on antibiotics for an ear infection. Still others might be fine until they're in their teens and get the Gardasil shot, or get their vaccines in boot camp in the military, which have extremely high levels of aluminum. It might be that the high levels of aluminum in the vaccines increases permeability of the blood-brain barrier (as has been shown in studies) and thereby allows other substances like mercury, viruses and VLPs to cross into the brain. It might be that those who receive Energix, or other aluminum plus mercury containing vaccines (or vaccines given simultaneously that contain either mercury or aluminum) are at greater risk than those who receive vaccines without, or receive them separately. It may be that giving a live virus vaccine like Varicella, along side an aluminum-containing one like DTaP, in a child with a genetic profile in which their body has trouble clearing toxins, is a really bad idea. It may be that cumulative doeses of aluminum in vaccines given simultaneously create unexpected immune responses, permanent changes to the immune system, inflammation and cytokine storms. Could be that getting three or four mercury containing flu shots this year will do it.
So no, if it turns out that this study is validated, it does not exonerate any other vaccine or vaccine ingredient. It only serves as a starting point for the actual study of the actual vaccine schedule in actual children. Something that has never been done but is long overdue. As they've added shots to the schedule, and changed the formulae, and lowered the antigen amounts but increased the adjuvants, and raised the antigen amounts without mentioning it to anyone, and allowed vaccines to contain substances that aren't supposed to be mixed together, NOBODY has been paying attention to the cumulative effects on the health of those on the receiving end. They. Don't. Want. To. Know. And it's absolutely criminal.
Posted by: Garbo | September 18, 2009 at 01:10 PM
If you decline the hep B in the hospital you have to sign a form of declination so I don't see how the hospitals would be liable if a baby got hep B from mom. I guess they aren't worried about babies with brain swelling or worse from the vaccine. Hepatitis B is no epidemic. It is fairly rare in our country. Autism on the other hand...well, we all know those statistics. It would be nice if the autism epidemic could produce 1% as much fear and call to action as something like hep B or H1N1. Our children are swept under the rug and forgotten...most professionals don't even acknowledge the increase in numbers is real. What an uphill battle. Ugh
Posted by: Vanessa | September 18, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Vanessa,
Thanks you answered my question. It is given in combo with the dreaded whooping cough vaccine!
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | September 18, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Benmyson,
I was angry over mine, I did not think it could get much worse than what happened to my son. It should have been as plain as if it was a fly on the end of the doctor's nose. Then I read about you and your son! I am so sorry, you are going to have to deal not only with grief, but a deep seated anger/hatred/rage too. That is just about worse than grief over what should have been. Be careful with it and not let it make you sick! I did me!
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | September 18, 2009 at 12:30 PM
I have a question?
Is the Hib B given in combination and at the same time as the MMR?
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | September 18, 2009 at 12:19 PM
to doodle ,
I am asking because I think the logical conclusion to make based on the facts that large experiments have shown the MMR to be safe, that the MMR is safe. This data does nothing to show that the MMR is unsafe and implicates an entirely different vaccine. I therefore asked, if in the light of this result, would people be willing to consider that maybe the hep B vaccine is dangerous and the MMR is not?
I think that assumption fits more consistently with the data at hand. Of course as Kirby himself has brought up, this research was only published in abstract form and has not yet passed peer review.
Posted by: Ben | September 18, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Danny I was told that the HepB shot is pushed at birth by the hospital's insurance provider in order to protect them from liability issues "should" an infant become infected while in the nursery.
Posted by: bensmyson | September 18, 2009 at 09:55 AM
My son was born in 1996 with a breathing problem and spent 24 hours in the special care nursery. As soon as he was realeased to me the nurse was right there with the Hep B shot...if I had known then what I know now...Why on earth does an infant with zero risk factors need a vaccine at birth for a virus that comes from unprotected sex and shared needles anyway...do they really think our infants are going to to go home from the hospital and have sex and do drugs!!
Posted by: DannysVoice | September 18, 2009 at 07:48 AM
Because our pediatrician in 1998/9 used separate vaccines and gave our son an additional unnecessary hep B vaccine, my son received 250mcg of neurotoxic mercury. That is simply inexcusable and those who were "Asleep at the Switch" and allowed it to happen should be held accountable.
Posted by: Charlie | September 18, 2009 at 07:30 AM
David,
Yes my son was born in 1999, and was immediately given HepB, even after I protested verbally at the hospital.My son was born with chromosonal abnormal inversion, with additional markers on other chromosones.I fired my first pediatrician when he told me that my son's floppy body was no problem @ 2 weeks old.After he was 15months old I have been questioning everyone, and everything(pharma) that any doctor wants to give my son.But the worst is that my best pediatrican still tells me that vaccines do not cause harm, when I know that they do,especially to those who may have genetic markers present before birth, and immune system dysfunctions still after 10 years of being autistic.I hate the guilt trip by doctors when you tell them that you will not get the recommended shot, unless they can provide without thermisol.It is a shame that the USA cannot protect our children better, as well as we protect our politicans and vaccine companies.
Posted by: KimberlyPaulson | September 18, 2009 at 02:22 AM
John Fryer Chemist:
Do you think the babies could be experiencing a severe form of what is known as Hepatic encephalopathy?
THanks, JB
Posted by: JB Handley | September 18, 2009 at 01:12 AM
Oh what I wish I could take back.... :( I've always suspected it started with the Hep B given at 12 hours old.
Posted by: Kristen | September 18, 2009 at 12:37 AM
Complex living things
Re-engineered to do “good”
Pandora’s Science
Just say "no" to GMO foods, medicines and vaccines...
Posted by: Beth | September 17, 2009 at 11:46 PM
When Ben was born we were all in heaven, laughing, crying, and attending to Mom who had just given a problem-free delivery to a healthy young boy. The nurses took Ben aside to an area in the room equipped to washing him down, suck snot out, weigh, measure and without our knowledge, inject a Hepatitis B vaccine into our perfectly pure newborn child.
I saw this out of the corner of my eye, needle poised ready to jab and I shouted, on camera, to STOP!
The nurse put down the needle, and I went over there and told her what arrangements we had make with the doctor prior to Ben’s birth.
When we discovered that Ben had autism we requested copies of his records from the pediatrician. In Ben’s records we found a note saying that Ben received his HepB vaccine the day he was born.
Hard to believe that we never knew. We said no, I yelled no, and made a big stink about it on the most joyous occasion of my life. And yet according to documented evidence, Ben received the vaccine anyway.
Upon further review of his records we find that he also received another HepB vaccine on June 23, 2006, This according to his official Department of Health and Human Services Lifetime Immunization Record.
http://bensmyson.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/hepb-vaccine/
Posted by: bensmyson | September 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM
Ben,
Nice list. Here is something you should think about. Parents have reported of their kids being injured (badly) or regressing into autism after the HepB vaccine. Parents have also reported the same thing about the MMR vaccine. Now, if one set of parents is reporting the truth, would it not seem logical to investigate, in good faith for once, the reports from the other set of parents?
Anyhow, why do you care? Does it make a difference to you if the MMR is re-examined with data from kids excluded from previous analysis, the only way to actually see a correlation in population subsets? That's what any rational scientist would do now, look to see if there is a correlation in the data they tossed out. Unless those scientists were actively trying not to use that data, or post regularly on the scienceblogs and don't actually do any real work.
Posted by: doodle | September 17, 2009 at 10:29 PM
Hep B...isn't that the one made by yeast genetically engineered to produce the antigens from the virus. I hope that yeast doesn't get out and into the baked good food supply, into the population, or into the beer. (smirk)
Posted by: TexasDad | September 17, 2009 at 09:48 PM
Charlie, note my earlier post that my son got one extra too. Our current pediatrician who is also DAN trained, says that it is COMMON as the day is long that a kid gets the hospital dose of HepB and then the ped starts the 3 shot series over again. ABSOLUTELY COMMON. My ped is the only one in town that in the hosptial the KNOW you do not DARE administer HepB in the hospital to ANY of his kids, and so as i sat with him for 5 minutes the other day he already had 8 new kids in the last hour born. People are catching on. This mess is INSANITY.
What about the story that the justification for HepB at birth was that even if mom had at some point been tested during pregancy, that they found that Dad is most likely to stray during last trimester and could have brought it home and no one would know if mom had it or not. OMGosh I cannot even believe this. Is this in a ACIP transcript somewhere? I would love to know if this is true.
I am STILL SO ANGRY. greed made my baby forever altered. WHATEVER to any ND who say I can accept him, I love him dearly, but his abilities prevent him from being safe, interpret danger or bullying or logic. I will not rest until he has these skills that he should have by now. ARRRRGGGGG!!!!
Posted by: kim | September 17, 2009 at 09:20 PM
Sorry guys,
I'm going to reserve my judgement on this one until I see all of the data. This poster doesn't specify how they adjusted for confounders. How did they get their numbers? And the sample is pretty small.
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | September 17, 2009 at 08:51 PM
This should be fun.
As the studies and legal settlements continue to confirm the relationship between vaccines, ASDs and susceptible children, the usual suspects will be there saying the usual things summed up by Kirby's quotes from Offit and Snyderman.
It's getting to the point that such folks sound like the non-swimmer about to go down for the third time yelling,
"Water does not cause drowning!"
Posted by: David Taylor | September 17, 2009 at 08:29 PM
Of the two stand-alone HepB vaccines, Energix is the only one with both aluminum AND thimerosal. Which as we all know is just plain wrong, since the MSDS for thimerosal explicitly states that it's not to be combined with aluminum due to reactivity. I truly wish someone could explain to me how this has been allowed to happen.
Posted by: Garbo | September 17, 2009 at 07:14 PM
Thanks David. Nice work.
When you know what HEP B is, what causes it, that moms/dads can be tested - it makes you wonder the motive for why it is adminstered to babies less than 48 hours old.
Posted by: Lisa @ TACA | September 17, 2009 at 05:41 PM
John Fryer Chemist, Indeed, it is madness.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | September 17, 2009 at 05:23 PM
as always, dk with the news scoop. hope to see the study stand-up to scrutiny. a positive study is stronger than 10 negative studies, if done properly
Posted by: DadtoAutism | September 17, 2009 at 05:06 PM
Thank you, David. I'm speechless. We all know-- but each confirmation is always a shock.
For someone who asked, here's the abstract:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a905442343~db=all~jumptype=rss
Posted by: Gatogorra | September 17, 2009 at 04:45 PM
I have three comments
1) I hope this study is scrutinized with the same vigor that those MMR studies were by this very site
2) This study would not prove those studies wrong as they looked at a different vaccine. Further examination would be needed to determine why there is s disparity in the results when it comes to the thimerisol.
3) Would this study, if it is valid, vindicate the MMR vaccine in your mind? Do you think that this and all vaccines cause autism, because I have read comments on this site suggesting that an explanation for the MMR studies could be that the damage is done by multiple vaccines and that studies are on different vaccines are needed eve if the MMR is deemed safe.
Posted by: ben | September 17, 2009 at 04:43 PM
Hi Kathy
Jaundice does occur often after vaccines and often the baby is given the all clear of jaundice then after the Hep B vaccine hey presto the child gets jaundice.
WHY?
Posted by: john fryer chemist | September 17, 2009 at 04:30 PM
Hi Sandy
Yes, rubella does cause autism - one of very many already known causes.
So why do we give live rubella vaccine in the vicinity of mothers or mothers to be?
Its MADNESS.
MMR at 12 months. This child will be liable to pass the virus to his or her mom or other friends of the family likely to parents in the near future.
Consider polio jumping to the parents or relatives as a known example of this.
Consider especially cases where the vaccine doesnt work or rather the virus festers in the infant as per the measles idea of Dr Wakefield.
Posted by: john fryer chemist | September 17, 2009 at 04:27 PM
Hi Gabriella
After writing my piece noticed you had this brain swelling for your child immediately after Hep B vaccine.
You must publish your photo evidence and help get this shot nailed for what it does - cause autism and in most cases gets parents put in JAIL.
Posted by: john fryer chemist | September 17, 2009 at 04:18 PM
And then this is what happens to Stoney Brook (from the NY Post):
Feds probe $UNY
By BRENDAN SCOTT
Last Updated: 5:27 AM, September 15, 2009
Posted: 4:30 AM, September 15, 2009
ALBANY -- Tens of millions of dollars in research grants to state universities in the New York City area could be swept into a broad probe on whether the SUNY Research Foundation misspent federal funds.
The US Attorney's Office in Buffalo subpoenaed records from the foundation's Albany headquarters in August as part of an investigation into whether SUNY research institutions directed grants from the National Institutes of Health to projects not covered by the funding.
Stony Brook University, Downstate Medical Center the State College of Optometry, Purchase College and the College at Old Westbury are among the numerous SUNY institutions that receive the more than $500 million in NIH grants the foundation administers each year.
The US Attorney's Office is conducting the probe with the Department of Health and Human Services.
A spokesperson for the SUNY Research Foundation did not return a call for comment.
Posted by: Jack R. | September 17, 2009 at 04:09 PM
Hi
Hep B must rank along with the Flu vaccine as a bad vaccine.
Bad because it is made using thimerosal which we have always known is a poison at any level.
Secondly bad because it is given in the first day of life and now we see by 12 hours.
Mant babies heads blow up from one third to double the size (after Hep B vaccines) and these usually are lucky if they only get autism. They normally become vegetables or eventually die.
Of course no one ever 'KNOWS' because by the time the next head measurement is done the evidence is clouded for most cases.
Any baby that cries should have head measurements checked immediately.
Of course we know from "good science" that fast growing heads means autism except if you put adverse vaccine reaction it will never get published.
I personally know of three cases of the above and in at least one case the parents were stopped from putting a VAERS report in and in all 3 cases the authorities in their lack of wisdom got experts in to put the blame on the family for the harm of the vaccine.
How the four X can anything be found out with this degree of stupidity, arrogance and denial?
Vaccines cannot prevent someone already affected.
Repeat vaccines are liable to lead to anaphylaxis and sensitivity reactions.
And vaccines at this age (barely born) are practically useless anyway.
All told, the best qualification needed to research thimerosal, vaccines for babies at 12 hours is COMMON SENSE and this is in almost ZERO quantity in people of 18 to 25 looking to get qualified or to establish a career.
Pity about the trail of dead and maimed though.
Vaccines are but one part of the larger picture of Calamity Unlimited and rising in the 21st century of pig headed, ignorant scientific advances. Add GMO, pesticides, sugar substitutes et al to the mix for your starters.
And mercury plays one big role in destroying the ozone protective layer hence the one good sign is the international agreement this year to TRY to cut out and reduce mercury and after ten years the success in the vaccine industry is in the negative with more used than ever. Low energy bulbs with mercury actually help to reduce mercury emissions in this Alice in Wonderland, Mad as a Hatter scenario though.
Posted by: john fryer chemist | September 17, 2009 at 04:08 PM
wow, I hope the studies do come out and get looked at in the light of day. Objectively. Charlie-your point about even one extra dose of something is a fair one. I was at a public health "Gardasil" meeting and I saw a man who was clearly struggling with the english language.(he was CHinese, I think). He was horribly confused between hep b, hib and hpv. He would have have got ANY shot for his child that they offered him on the spot. Immigrants are very vulnerable in this area (and I'm talking about Canada where things are a little more relaxed with "madatory" vaccination) Luckily the nurses identified that he definitely shouldn't give another hep b shot to his girl child (I believe they noticed she had already had too many from looking at her record of vacccination) and here he thought this new (hpv) vaccine was hep b and she needed another. Horrible confusion and I bet it happens all the time. "Oh, just one more won't hurt." Bullshit. Just one vaccine period might hurt and right at birth? It makes me furious.
Posted by: jen | September 17, 2009 at 03:10 PM
Kristen
There are many forms of detox that are not as aggressive as chelation and there are also some very slow mild forms of chelation other than IV.
I know a number of people who have done mild detox therapies for their kids. The best way to do this might be through a doctor of naturopathic medicine...a naturopath. If you have a chiropractor, they can often make good referrals to Naturopaths.
Posted by: Pamela | September 17, 2009 at 02:43 PM
Thanks, David, as always great work. I would like to add a couple of points. First, it doesn't matter if it is 16 or 1600 studies exonerating mercury (or whatever), if the studies are poorly designed. And those conducting the studies have ample reason to design them specifically to exonerate the vaccines, not the least of which is enormous liability. Others have examined the studies; here is my take on one of them: "Scandals: Vaccinations - Garbage In/Less Than All The Garbage Out?" http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2003/Jan_17/Scandal51.htm. This is but one small example of how sloppy the "research" is.
Second, there are other possible culprits that have barely been addressed, in spite of official hints of a possible link. For instance, autism is acknowledged as a consequence of rubella (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/July_17_02/Congenital%20Rubella%20Symptoms.pdf), this from the textbook "Vaccines". I wrote about this issue once in 2002, updating it a bit in 2003, wondering if rubella vaccine might also play a role: http://www.vaccinationnews.com/Scandals/2003/Dec_2/Scandal67.htm
Until and unless research is conducted that is honestly concerned with what causes autism, rather than specifically designed to disprove any links with vaccines, we will never know the truth. And it ain't gonna happen until we make it happen.
Posted by: Sandy Gottstein | September 17, 2009 at 01:59 PM
Hep B is a sexually transmitted disease. The only way a newborn baby could get hep B is if the mother had it. Many of us (especially those of us who work in health care) are vaccinated against hep B ourselves, so obviously don't have it.
In addition, hep B is recommended to all newborns and is supposed to be given by 12 hours of life (protocol) to protect babies who may have gotten hep B from their mothers. However, if the mother is known to have hep B, that baby also will need HBIG (hepatitis B immunoglobulin) so apparantly the hep B vaccine alone is not enough protection. Shouldn't we just test the mother for hep B instead? I am a nurse and believe that there is no other rational to give a newborn baby hep B vaccine when the mother has evidence of not having the disease other than to make the drug companies money.
I sat in on a meeting on a postpartum unit where they discussed how to get vaccination rates up b/c many mothers (who were probably immunized or educated) were refusing it. They actually said that if a woman was on the fence you should get one of knowledgable nurses on the unit to try and talk them into it (sounds a little like bullying??). I asked, well what if the mother is tested and is negative. Their response...well she could have acquired hep B after the test. I asked...what if the mom is immunized? Their response...the baby should still get the vaccine. Huh? I don't get it. Does anyone still have the best interest of little innocent newborn at heart or is it really ALL about money? Obviously the latter.
And for those of you saying that your children got 4 hep B vaccines instead of the required 3, this is almost universal.
Babies recieve Hep B #1 at the hospital (supposed to be in first 12 hours of life)
Then they recieve hep B #2, 3 and 4 in a combo shot at their 2, 4 and 6 month well-baby exams. Most offices now use pediarix, which is Dtap, hep B and polio all in one shot. So even if they already had a hep B at birth they get 3 more b/c it is mixed in with others that they need. But most pediatricians will reassure you that the extra one "won't hurt".
What a joke. Immunizing newborn babies for a sexually transmitted disease. So glad this research was done. Maybe it will change this ridiculous protocol...but somehow I doubt it.
Posted by: Vanessa | September 17, 2009 at 01:13 PM
Lisa in texas, more damage could have occured...having a child with jaundice is a BIG SIGN they were immediately cord clamped too soon. See www.cordclamp.com and or www.lotusbirth.com and read through articles. This would set up, if you will, more deep vaccine injury.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | September 17, 2009 at 12:38 PM
The post by Pamela makes me sick to my stomach. Does anyone think it's wise to chelated children who don't show signs of ASD? My two older sons were almost completely vaccinated (we have since stopped that madness) and I worry about the long term damage of all the "added junk" that is in all vaccines. Any advise?
Posted by: Kristen | September 17, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Wonder what the numbers are for premature kids ...
It is truly shameful that this information is not tracked already. One should be able to find the answers with a simple query from an organized repository. Hospitals have all kinds of reporting requirements for infectious disease, but I guess tracking autism is not important.
Posted by: Steve | September 17, 2009 at 12:22 PM
I am amazed that Stony Brook did this study and made their findings public. Kudos to them.
My son with autism was born there in 1999 and was given the HepB at birth. Usually people forget their quest for the truth when there is a conflict of interest.
Posted by: Christine | September 17, 2009 at 11:39 AM
David,
Thanks for posting this. My son received Hep B on his first day of life. The only reason I agreed to it was that I was also a healthcare worker and could have been exposed to Hep B before I delivered. My son was born jaundiced, and after the Hep B shot it became so bad he had to stay in the hospital and be put under the UV lights. I never correlated the vaccines and his regression until he was older and had received several more vaccines. Being in the healthcare field, I believed in vaccines and their effectiveness. However, I do believe that there are children who are genetically predisposed to harm from environmental triggers such as thimersol. My husband and I have allergies, and my son has immune dysfunction. The pharmacogenomics field is very rapidly growing with relation to how a person's genetics cause them to metabolize a drug. I don't understand why we continue to stick with the archaic notion of "One size fits all" for vaccines, when clearly an entire generation of children has suffered reactions.
Posted by: Lisa in Texas | September 17, 2009 at 11:30 AM
David - Ever considered the possibility that there may be numerous cases of babies later diagnosed with ASD who received too many Hep B Vaccines?
After my son regressed into autism, we figured out he had received an extra unnecessary Hep B shot. It was a very novel thing in the 90's for hospitals to administer a vaccine and in our case the documentation that he had received was never communicated to our Pediatrician (or more importantly to the Pediatrician's Nurse). Apparently, the Nurse just administered the full Hep B series because it was just too much trouble to check to see if he had already started and afterall "it's just a vaccine".
I wonder how many others this might of happened to?
Posted by: Charlie | September 17, 2009 at 11:06 AM
I'M SHOCKED BY THE AMOUNT OF ALUMINUM IN ENERGIX, LET ALONE THE THIMEROSAL!
This article prompted me to research the amount of aluminum in Engerix. I'm SHOCKED!
According to NIH on Energix "Each 0.5-mL dose contains 10 mcg of hepatitis B surface antigen adsorbed on 0.25 mg aluminum as aluminum hydroxide." according to NIH http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=10573
The conversion = .25mg equals 250 mcg
So that's a one time injection of 250 mcg aluminum in a new born baby. Now let's see what FDA says about aluminum exposure in hospital IVs.
"...FDA recommends that premature babies, and anyone with impaired kidney function, receive no more than 10 to 25 mcg of injected aluminum at any one time," according to Dr. Sears in his article "Is Aluminum the New Thimerosal?" http://www.mothering.com/health/aluminum-new-thimerosal
UNBELIEVABLE... Again 250mcg on day one of life in Engerix!
Also, according to Dr. Sears, “...The second document discusses aluminum content in IV feeding solutions, or Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) solutions. The FDA requires these solutions to contain no more than 25 mcg of aluminum per liter of solution. A typical adult in the hospital would get around 1 liter of TPN each day, thus about 25 mcg of aluminum.”
Again 250mcg on day one in Engerix vs a limit of 25mcg/liter in an IV solution for an adult! WHAT!!? How the hell does FDA justify this?
I didn’t even quote the study findings from Dr Sears article regarding nervous system damage caused by aluminum toxicity. If you haven’t read this article I highly recommend it.
Also, with regard to thimerosal, let's not forget that the one vaccine (MMR) and one ingredient (thimerosal) studies are epidemiological and many, including Bernadine Healy, say epidemiology will not find subsets of susceptible population.
Hep B contained an excessive amount of thimerosal (according to EPA standards) and is given on the first day of life. Would this study not also potentially implicate thimerosal or the use of thimerosal with aluminum simultaneously?
Posted by: Pamela | September 17, 2009 at 10:41 AM
I hope that David can also post this on Huffington Post, just to reach a larger audience. Not that A of A doesn't reach lots of people, but the more the better!
Posted by: MinorityView | September 17, 2009 at 10:34 AM
my younger son is affected and he received the HepB on day of birth in the hospital, and clearly without my consent. We had submitted a birth plan calling for no shots. We did not even know he had gotten it till many years later when we obtained medical records for VIC. That is SO wrong... I don't see why medical professionals should be insulated from liability in these kinds of circumstances.
Posted by: autiemommy | September 17, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Nooowww what was that odd, off the cuff, comment that Tom Insel (head of a committee within the NIH that directs research money for autsim) made in front of Congress and Senator Tom Harkin? Somthing about the Hib B vaccine that Richard Insel his brother help create and sold for millions!
"Precious, it mustn't ask us!" "Not its business, Our Precious mus'in lost it broth-der Richard!"
Posted by: Benedetta Stilwell | September 17, 2009 at 10:17 AM
My son was born in 2004. He was 7 weeks early with unexplained labor but it was him in distress and it was his sack that broke and not his twins. He was on room air and healthy for being so early where his brother needed lung support. well then he also had a brain bleed. The hep b shot sealed the deal. His brain swelled immediately. I took pictures everyday and it kept getting worse and worse and worse. So the dr - main stream ie his ex doctor- said he was always autistic. well yes, since his 2nd day. grrrrrrrrrrrr
David - You are a hero of mine. thank you
Posted by: Gabriella | September 17, 2009 at 09:59 AM
FULL DOSE MERCURY VACCINE - 25mcg EPA says that safety limits are .1mcg per kg of weight per day, which makes the swine vaccine unsafe for anyone who weights under 550 lbs! All in your swine flu vaccine and regular seasonal vaccine. So, lets shoot up the public, come hell or high water, because we can't have the pesky flu...but it's ok to have a damaged chemically castrated brain? Plueez.
Posted by: Kathy Blanco | September 17, 2009 at 09:46 AM
i can't even read all of this. i've always known HepB did it for my son. He had one in the hospital and the pediatrician started the series over in the office, so he had 4 of them. And they all contained 25 mcg of thimerosal, plus all the other junk. My son was not a regressive child, he was attacked at birth. And with a background of a family with a tree lit UP with autoimmune disease, he had no chance from the beginning. there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY he could contract HepB for YEARS to come. His life is forever altered. I want to cry all over again, and he's doing so much better from treatment for the damage that the HepB had done, that I had stopped crying for him for a while now. I know it, I knew it, I absolutely cannot believe the stupidity of our medical community. And it's still happening. I've got to go back to bed just so I don't have to think about it. Thank you David, for proving to the world we are not crazy.
Posted by: kim | September 17, 2009 at 09:45 AM
This is actually the 2nd study, from the same school. I created a thread on the AS site last night with all the info. I'd put it here but the comment function is limited......
http://autismspeaksnetwork.ning.com/forum/topics/stony-brook-university-study
Posted by: AL | September 17, 2009 at 09:29 AM
David, do you think you could provide us with a link to the abstract? I'd very much like to look it over.
Thanks!
Posted by: Craig Willoughby | September 17, 2009 at 09:28 AM
This makes me so damn mad.
I have one born in '94 - didn't receive HepB until app. 4 months.
Younger child born in '97 - received HepB before leaving hospital. I don't even remember consenting to it. I did not have, and have never had, HepB - would have gladly taken any test offered.
Which child do you think has celiac disease and chronic immune problems? Big mystery, huh?
This is THE reason I don't trust Big Pharma, the peds, or are government. They are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for this travesty and continue to make stealth changes to the vaccine schedule (under the radar so people don't notice). The end result is that parents don't trust vaccines, period - a further blow to "public health."
Shame on them . . . and all who turn their backs on this revolting, patent greed.
Posted by: Angela | September 17, 2009 at 09:03 AM
Confirms what my husband and I have known for years, that Hep B seriously injured our children, followed by a multitude of other environmental insults, most notably, the other shots on the schedule.
Posted by: Dana Read | September 17, 2009 at 08:47 AM