Coalition for Vaccine Safety Explains the Autism Omnibus Proceeding
Managing Editor's note: The following information is to assist you in speaking to media, friends, family and colleagues from the Coalition for Vaccine Safety:
Please contact local media to discuss the Omnibus Autism Proceeding decisions. Here are the three main take-away points:
1. The Special Masters protected the vaccine program – and denied justice to vaccine-injured children.
2. Vaccines cause autism – this Court and HHS have previously acknowledged that.
3. These decisions highlight the inadequacy and possible suppression of vaccine safety science.
1. The Special Masters protected the vaccine program – and denied justice to vaccine-injured children.
a. The Special Masters’ denied compensation to the King, Mead and Dwyer families apparently out of the misguided government policy that their role is to protect the vaccine program before doing justice for vaccine-injured children.
b. They apparently believe that if they acknowledge that mercury causes autism, parents will stop vaccinating their children. Based on this policy, the court failed to weigh the evidence in an impartial way.
c. The scientific evidence at the hearing that mercury causes neurological and immune damage to infants leading to autism was credible and strong.
d. The petitioners met their burden of proof to show that the thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) they received more likely than not contributed to their autism. These petitioners will likely appeal.2. Vaccines cause autism – this Court and HHS have previously acknowledged that.
a. HHS conceded in the 2008 Poling case that Hannah Poling’s autism was caused by vaccines affecting her mitochondrial condition.
b. In another Court of Claims decision, Banks v. HHS, the Court held that vaccines caused the child’s acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) which, in turn, caused the autism spectrum disorder PDD-NOS.
3. These decisions highlight the inadequacy and possible suppression of vaccine safety science.
a. There is overwhelming, uncontested scientific evidence that mercury causes neurological damage and immune dysfunction.
b. The health of these children improved dramatically when they were treated for heavy metal toxicity and immune dysfunction. Their condition was treatable, not immutable.
c. The government removed thimerosal from routine childhood vaccines because of safety concerns.
d. The government has failed to do serious research on children with regressive autism.
e. Until December 2009, the Centers for Disease Control denied any real rise in autism prevalence.
f. Petitioners were unable to gain access in this Court to taxpayer-financed data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink, the most important source of data on vaccine safety.
g. HHS’ assertion of no thimerosal-autism link is dubious.
4. These test cases further erode trust in the National Immunization Program, when trust is already at an all-time low.
a. There is a crisis of confidence in the U.S. vaccine program.
b. A recent study of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that half of all parents have serious concerns over vaccine side effects, and one in four believe that some vaccines cause autism.
c. Parents will not participate in a program that is not as safe as possible or that fails to compensate those who are injured.
5. These test cases highlight the failure of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
a. Simply put, vaccine cases in the Court of Federal Claims are fundamentally unfair. Petitioners fight for compensation at a tremendous disadvantage.
b. Government actors defend a government program, using government-financed science, before government judges.
c. In countless ways – a short statute of limitations, an extremely adversarial atmosphere, no jury, inadequate procedural rules, extremely limited discovery – the deck is stacked against petitioners.
d. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program should be radically reformed or abolished.
6. We lost this round, but we will win this war.
a. The truth will win out. This is the beginning, not the end of this issue.
b. These cases will be appealed; the previous Omnibus test cases on MMR and autism are already in the appeals process. The Cedillo appeal will be argued later this spring.
c. The Supreme Court took Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, a vaccine injury case, and will hear it this fall. It will decide whether petitioners in vaccine court can file in civil court to claim that a vaccine design was defective.
d. The Thorsen investigation will continue.
e. Contact your Senators and your Congressional Representatives to support the Coalition for Vaccine Safety’s call for hearings on vaccine safety.
See www.coalitionforvaccinesafety.org
I know for a fact that MMR vaccines, with or without mercury added from simultaneous tetanus-diptheria vaccines, calm down the immune system rather than excite it. Specifically, MMR vaccine tones down autoimmune disease by providing the immune system with alternative targets. This therapeutic strategy (for decreasing autoimmune attack) is particularly effective at decreasing autoimmune activity of eosinophils, lymphcytes, and neutrophils. The calming effect is even more pronounced when MMR vaccine is accompanied by varicella vaccines (e.g. Zostavax or Varivax) and yellow-fever vaccine. I have had dozens and dozens of these vaccines, including daily for weeks at a time, and they have been entirely beneficial to reduce autoimmune disease-- with no adverse side effects. It may be emotionally reassuring to enraged parents, who need a scapegoat, to try to blame vaccines and mercury for their kids' autism problems, but unfortunately they are only haranguing an innocent accused and not searching for the real culprit. And, as long as they try to persecute innocent vaccines and/or mercury, the real culprit will continue doing its damage to innocent children. Randy Crawford, 3701 Second St. #10, Coralville, Iowa 52241 [email protected]
Posted by: Randy Crawford | March 15, 2010 at 09:19 PM
In regards to Friday's ruling, here is something that could destroy their entire case. The respondents, using taxpayer money (ours), hired the top two mercury experts in the world to write reports vouching for the safety of thimerosal. The toxicologists are Dr. Laszlo Magos and Dr. Tom Clarkson. At the last minute, the respondents said they would not be using these completed reports, that the experts would not be testifying and all correspondence related to said reports would be stricken from the record. What did these reports say? I'd like to know. Dr. Clarkson has failed to respond to my many requests for a copy of his taxpayer funded report. Today I asked my Senator to try and get me a copy. My suggestion, all the AoA readers need to contact their congressional representatives and demand that the contents of these reports be made public? Pass this around. Here is some supporting Documentation.
http://mercury-freedrugs.org/docs/080713_PR_GovDefnseOfHgShakenfnl-b.pdf
Posted by: MW | March 15, 2010 at 05:20 PM
the special masters need to have a come to Jesus moment.
Posted by: jen | March 15, 2010 at 11:45 AM
Dear Ms. Cedillo
I appreciate your reply. I was not referring to your set of test cases - I should have clarified my remarks to limit them to the thimerosal test cases only. I have the utmost respect for the firm of Conway, Homer, Chin-Caplan.
You are correct about the Special Masters (the worst of which is Denise Vowells). They chose to put their thumbs on the scales of justice and have blood stained hands.
My apologies for not clarifying my remarks. All my best to you and your family!
Posted by: Mercury Dad | March 15, 2010 at 07:58 AM
Here is a really good 11-18-2008 article by Barbara Loe Fisher called, "The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Failed Experiment in Tort Reform?"
http://www.nvic.org/injury-compensation/vaccineinjury.aspx
Posted by: Twyla | March 15, 2010 at 02:05 AM
You can add this publication to your argument.
Journal of Neuroinflammation
Volume 7
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Kempuraj D
Asadi S
Zhang B
Manola A
Hogan J
Peterson E
Theoharides TC
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Asadi S
Zhang B
Manola A
Hogan J
Peterson E
Theoharides TC
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Research
Mercury induces inflammatory mediator release from human mast cells
Duraisamy Kempuraj , Shahrzad Asadi , Bodi Zhang , Akrivi Manola , Jennifer Hogan , Erika Peterson and Theoharis C Theoharides
Journal of Neuroinflammation 2010, 7:20doi:10.1186/1742-2094-7-20
Published: 11 March 2010
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Mercury is known to be neurotoxic, but its effects on the immune system are less well known. Mast cells are involved in allergic reactions, but also in innate and acquired immunity, as well as in inflammation. Many patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have "allergic" symptoms; moreover, the prevalence of ASD in patients with mastocytosis, characterized by numerous hyperactive mast cells in most tissues, is 10-fold higher than the general population suggesting mast cell involvement. We, therefore, investigated the effect of mercuric chloride (HgCl2) on human mast cell activation.
Methods
Human leukemic cultured LAD2 mast cells and normal human umbilical cord blood-derived cultured mast cells (hCBMCs) were stimulated by HgCl2 (0.1-10 microM) for either 10 min for beta-hexosaminidase release or 24 h for measuring vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and IL-6 release by ELISA.
Results
HgCl2 induced a 2-fold increase in beta-hexosaminidase release, and also significant VEGF release at 0.1 and 1 microM (311+/-32 pg/10*6 cells and 443+/-143 pg/10*6 cells, respectively) from LAD2 mast cells compared to control cells (227+/-17 pg/10*6 cells, n=5, p<0.05). Addition of HgCl2 (0.1 microM) to the proinflammatory neuropeptide substance P (SP, 0.1 microM) had synergestic action in inducing VEGF from LAD2 mast cells. HgCl2 also stimulated significant VEGF release (360 +/- 100 pg/10*6 cells at 1 microM, n=5, p<0.05) from hCBMCs compared to control cells (182 +/-57 pg/10*6 cells), and IL-6 release (466+/-57 pg/10*6 cells at 0.1 microM) compared to untreated cells (13+/-25 pg/10*6 cells, n=5, p<0.05). Addition of HgCl2 (0.1 microM) to SP (5 microM) further increased IL-6 release.
Conclusions
HgCl2 stimulates VEGF and IL-6 release from human mast cells. This phenomenon could disrupt the blood-brain-barrier and permit brain inflammation. As a result, the findings of the present study provide a biological mechanism for how low levels of mercury may contribute to ASD pathogenesis.
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.
http://www.jneuroinflammation.com/content/7/1/20
Posted by: Nora | March 15, 2010 at 12:15 AM
This is A Mom here.
I am wondering if, along with all the other crap that they feel needs to be covered up with the big hungry lie, if we can also add health insurance to this. I mean, really, they can't mandate all to be up to date on their vaccines (something sure be a requirement for health insurance) if they cause autism, can they?
What is this going to mean for all our kids on medicaid, ssi, medicare? Will they be required to be up to date on all their vaccines to continue to receive coverage? Benefits?
Are they trying to kill off the already damaged kids? Never would I have ever typed that if I had not read about Bill Gates population control comments, though it was suggested to me when the first waves of news about H1N1 being mandated came out.
I swear I just cannot get over the fact that a descendant of slaves sold out [to the pharmaceutical industry]. But apparently that is exactly what happened. The writing was on the wall as soon as he had Pharm's support in passing healthcare legislation.
Posted by: vax r'qd 4 health ins? | March 14, 2010 at 08:49 PM
To Mercury Dad-
Losing a decision does not mean our lawyers did a 'shoddy' job. The Special Masters are vehemently protecting the national vaccine program. They have already awarded other children compensation who did not use the autism word in their claim.
I speak from personal experience that our attorneys have worked tirelessely to defend our daughter, and the other children in the OAP. This is unchartered territory. No one knew exactly what to expect. These are all landmark cases. No case for autism and vaccine injury had ever been heard before. The sheer number of medical records, expert reports and journal articles alone is enough to make any one's head spin. Go online to the USCFC website and read the briefs filed on our behalf. Look at the tremendous work in the appellate briefs.
I am confident and proud of the tremendous work they have done on behalf of our case.
Theresa Cedillo
Mom to Michelle Cedillo (test case for MMR/Thimerosal 2007)
Represented by Conway, Homer, Chin-Caplan
Posted by: Theresa Cedillo | March 14, 2010 at 08:17 PM
The attorneys for the families are paid by the DHHS (i.e., the same folks who have a stake in covering up the thimerosal-autism connection). Thus, there is a huge conflict of interest that draws into question the quality of the case put up by the attorneys involved in the thimerosal test cases.
The families that were brave enough to participate as test cases deserved much better than what they got, especially (imho) from the lawyers that did a shoddy job in representing their kids!
Posted by: Mercury Dad | March 14, 2010 at 07:47 PM
As the Vaccine Court procedures are a bit of a mystery... Does the Friday ruling affect all 5,000 cases on file?
Is not each case tried individually?
How many cases go on at one time ?
What is the typical length of time of each case ?
Does each family have to pay for each expert they consult with to come and present the same material time after time??
Is any favorable judgement a secret, where the are restricited as to what they can discuss in public?
Posted by: cmo | March 14, 2010 at 06:04 PM
Twyla the money is not only used to compensate victims, it is used to fund the process, salaries and expert witness fees. Would be interesting to see what is being spent on who and why, see if anyone went on a golfing luau or what might have been spent on some media communications agency for public opinion (propaganda) research.
Posted by: bensmyson | March 14, 2010 at 05:58 PM
Just think how much money the Catholic Church would still have have if the child molestation charges were handled the same way as the VICP is run.
What if the the Pope was judge, Bishops were lawyers, and priests the only witnesses whose testimony was allowed to be considered? After all, what real evidence did these "children" (You can't trust the little brats - everyone knows that) have other than their word?
But no, the "high priests" of the medical world are in control and don't you dare question their authority - EVER.
Posted by: Tim Kasemodel | March 14, 2010 at 05:12 PM
I want to say one more thing.
The judges ruling - needs Karma to happen.
Karma does seem to come around to us all - does it not?
Posted by: Benedetta | March 14, 2010 at 03:18 PM
Yes, but Hannah was different that my family. Sure my family has an acquired mitochondria disease, but Hannah has a father who is a neurologist, worked for the FDA and a mother who was a nurse??? or was she a lawyer????
I am Not saying the Polings did not suffer,I am not saying I am NOT - glad they won the case because I am tickled pink they did. I know they too had a hard fight. I am just saying- my gosh- that bar set; for the rest of us has to jump for is impossible.
Posted by: Benedetta | March 14, 2010 at 03:15 PM
Thanks, this is great. Why tf do consumers pay a surcharge on vaccines to fund the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program if the money is not then used as intended, to help those who suffer collateral damage from vaccines?
Posted by: Twyla | March 14, 2010 at 01:50 PM