Robert Kennedy, Jr: CDC Scientist Still Maintains Agency Forced Researchers To Lie About Safety Of Mercury Based Vaccines
Below is an excerpt from Robert F. Kennedy, Jrs.'s Ring of Fire site titled: CDC Scientist Still Maintains Agency Forced Researchers To Lie About Safety Of Mercury Based Vaccines.
I am, now and have always been fiercely pro vaccine. I had all six of my children vaccinated. I believe that vaccines have saved the lives of hundreds of millions of humans over the past century and that broad vaccine coverage is critical to public health. But I want our vaccines to be as safe as possible. The new revelations in the following article support what I have been saying for eight years: Thimerosal is brain poison. When you vaccinate, always ask for Thimerosal-free vaccine, which are now available for virtually all vaccinations on the CDC schedule.
A senior CDC vaccine safety scientist, Dr. William Thompson, has invoked the protection of the Federal Whistleblower Statute following the release of his taped conversations disclosing pervasive corruption within CDC’s Vaccine Safety Division. Dr. Thompson, a sixteen year veteran and a senior scientist at CDC’s Immunology Safety Office is currently employed at CDC’s National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. Thompson is an author of two of the three epidemiological studies on American population touted by CDC to “prove” the safety of Thimerosal against developmental disabilities. Thimerosal is a controversial mercury based vaccine preservative that research scientists and vaccine safety advocates have connected to the epidemic of brain disorders in children. The vaccine industry’s foremost spokesman and the world’s premier champion for Thimerosal in vaccines, Dr. Paul Offit, stated in 2008 that Dr. Thompson’s “wonderful” 2007 study was the “definitive” study on Thimerosal safety.
But Thompson now says that his bosses at CDC pressured him to alter the results of that study to conceal Thimerosal’s risks. Dr. Thompson says that his superiors at the CDC Developmental Disabilities Branch pressured him to manipulate the study’s findings and to bury the links between Thimerosal and brain damage. In response to this pressure, the published version downplayed data showing that Thimerosal causes “Tics”, a family of grave neurological injuries – including Tourette’s Syndrome – that are associated with Autism. Thompson now says that the data showed a definitive statistically significant association between Thimerosal and tics. “Thimerosal from vaccines cause tics….I can say tics are four times more prevalent in kids with autism. There is biologic plausibility right now to say that Thimerosal causes autism-like features.” After burying these findings, CDC touted Thompson’s study to exculpate Thimerosal for use in current flu vaccine which is administered to pregnant women and young children. Thompson stated recently, in a taped interview with Simpson University biochemist Dr. Brian Hooker, “Do you think a pregnant mother would want to take a vaccine that they know caused tics? Absolutely not!! I would never give my wife a vaccine that I thought caused tics.” http://vimeo.com/104141199
Thompson was also the co-author of a 2004 study in Pediatrics in which he now admits that, under pressure from CDC bosses, his team fraudulently withheld data demonstrating a significant link between the MMR vaccine and autism in African American boys. In a taped conversation, Thompson confessed, “I have great shame now when I meet families with kids with autism because I’ve – I’ve been part of the problem.”
In a written statement issued by Thompson’s attorney, Rick Morgan of Morgan Verkamp of Cincinnati, Ohio – a firm that specializes in Federal whistleblower cases – Thompson said: “I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the Journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.”
Thompson described a pervasive culture of corruption at CDC’s Immunization Safety Office directed toward concealing statistical links between vaccines and brain injuries, particularly autism. “I have a boss who is asking me to lie. The higher ups wanted to do certain things and I went along with it. I was, in terms of chain in command, I was number four out of the five. Colleen [Boyle] was the Division Chief. Marshalyn [Yeargin-Allsopp] was a Branch Chief. Frank [DeStefano] was a Branch Chief at the time.”
Immediately after release of Thompson’s audio taped revelations, Dr. Frank DeStefano, now Chief of the Immunization Safety office, admitted in a September interview to CBS reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, that vaccines may indeed trigger autism in some vulnerable children. http://sharylattkisson.com/cdc-possibility-that-vaccines-rarely-trigger-autism/#audio
Thompson’s attorneys have handed over thousands of damning CDC documents to Congressman Bill Posey of Florida. Last week, Posey’s staff said that the Congressman is working with Committee Chairman, Lamar Smith, to schedule a hearing this spring on Thompson’s revelations before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Posey hopes to subpoena Dr. Thompson, who is still employed by CDC; Thompson has promised that he intends to come clean about CDC. “If forced to testify, I’m not going to lie. I basically have stopped lying.” http://vimeo.com/user5503203/review/106398908/44f9634e1b
Bobby Kennedy Jr. has just released an "Open Letter to the CDC" though a European (of course) publication. It spits fire.
http://www.eurweb.com/2015/06/the-cdcs-latest-tuskegee-experiment-prompts-open-letter-from-bobby-kennedy-jr/
Posted by: David Taylor | June 26, 2015 at 07:36 PM
“Statement of William W. Thompson, Ph.D., Regarding the 2004 Article Examining the Possibility of a Relationship Between MMR Vaccine and Autism”
28
AUG
I will discuss this soon, but here is a press release from the attorney representing William Thompson, a CDC researcher involved who appears to have spoken with vaccine antagonistic activists Andrew Wakefield and Brian Hooker about work he had performed on autism.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-AUGUST 27,2014
STATEMENT OF WILLIAM W. THOMPSON, Ph.D., REGARDING THE 2004 ARTICLE EXAMINING THE POSSIBILITY OF A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM
My name is William Thompson. I am a Senior Scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, where I have worked since 1998.
I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed.
I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits.
My concern has been the decision to omit relevant findings in a particular study for a particular sub group for a particular vaccine. There have always been recognized risks for vaccination and I believe it is the responsibility of the CDC to properly convey the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines.
I have had many discussions with Dr. Brian Hooker over the last 10 months regarding studies the CDC has carried out regarding vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes including autism spectrum disorders. I share his beliefthat CDC decision-making and analyses should be transparent. I was not, however, aware that he was recording any of our conversations, nor was I given any choice regarding whether my name would be made public or my voice would be put on the Internet.
I am grateful for the many supportive e-mails that I have received over the last several days.
I will not be answering further questions at this time. I am providing information to Congressman William Posey, and of course will continue to cooperate with Congress. I have also offered to assist with reanalysis of the study data or development of further studies. For the time being, however, I am focused on my job and my family.
Reasonable scientists can and do differ in their interpretation of information. I will do everything I can to assist any unbiased and objective scientists inside or outside the CDC to analyze data collected by the CDC or other public organizations for the purpose of understanding whether vaccines are associated with an increased risk of autism. There are still more questions than answers, and I appreciate that so many families are looking for answers from the scientific community.
My colleagues and supervisors at the CDC have been entirely professional since this matter became public. In fact, I received a performance-based award after this story came out. I have experienced no pressure or retaliation and certainly was not escorted from the building, as some have stated.
Dr. Thompson is represented by Frederick M. Morgan,Jr., Morgan Verkamp, LLC, Cincinnati, Ohio, http://www.morganverkamp.com.
Mr. Thompson has been called the “CDC Whistleblower” by the groups promoting the idea that vaccines cause autism.
Posted by: Liam | February 24, 2015 at 11:06 AM
Dr. Thompson sent Dr. Hooker a copy of a handwritten note he made January 28, 2004, less than two weeks before the CDC was to present their study results to the Immunization Safety Review Committee. It read:
"IOM Presentation--Unresolved Issues
1. What should we do about race effect??
--Shows large effect for blacks and no effect for whites"
So it seems that the CDC was scrambling at the last minute to figure out how to bury the inconvenient truth they had discovered--that getting MMR before 36 months of age puts black infant boys at greatly increased risk of autism.
Posted by: Carol | February 19, 2015 at 09:48 AM
Check out this excerpt from a recent Newsweak. No mention of William Thompson. The fact that a senior scientist at CDC admitted to results fudging should get a passing mention, no?
"....Claims of a CDC cover-up, [Walter] Orenstein says, are based on a 2014 paper titled 'Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young African American boys: a reanalysis of CDC data,' by Brian Hooker, which was published in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration. That paper reevaluated a data set from a 2004 study undertaken by CDC researchers and published in Pediatrics; Hooker reported that African-American boys who received the MMR vaccine before 24 or 36 months of age were more likely to be diagnosed with autism. However, like Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet study, it was later retracted because of undeclared competing interests as well as 'concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis,' the editors wrote. 'The Editors no longer have confidence in the soundness of the findings.'
Two documents Wakefield sent to Newsweek, recent letters submitted by Wakefield and Hooker to the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, allege that the CDC researchers who wrote the 2004 study reformatted age groups and replaced school records with birth certificates (in order to deceptively exclude some participants) to avoid reporting a statistically significant increase in autism.
In a statement published on its website, the CDC explained it chose to include only children with birth certificates rather than all the children because these documents offered information on additional characteristics that could be risk factors for autism, such as a child’s birth weight, the mother’s age and education, which school records did not.
It also said the findings showed that vaccination between 24 and 36 months was slightly more common among children with autism. 'This finding was most likely a result of immunization requirements for preschool special education program attendance in children with autism,' the CDC says. It did not comment on the alleged reformatting of age categories in its statement and did not respond to Newsweek’s request for comment...."
Posted by: Carol | February 17, 2015 at 01:59 PM
Brad Call, Thanks greatly for vital info that less than 1 microgram of mercury (Thimerosal) in vaccine doses do not have to be listed, though I've seen a "trace" is admitted.
Thence I am guessing a "trace" could be up to 1 microgram. You may have underestimated when saying how many billions of atoms this is. From my 'back-of-the-envelope' calculations a single microgram of mercury comes to about 3 billion times (X) 1 billion atoms.
So it's even worse than we thought
Posted by: autism uncle | February 16, 2015 at 10:34 AM
Carol,
You wrote "The association between thimerosal and tics does get through to some extent in Thompson (2007)." See http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/healthAuthors/DCP/PDFs/grsThimVacc/THOMPSONNEJM073571281.pdf .
Yes, thank you. It is right there in plain sight in Table 2.
Unfortunately, it seems that the authors tried to discount it as evidence of an association by using the following nonscientific conclusion.
"The weight of the evidence in this study does not support a causal association between early exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines and immune globulins administered prenatally or during infancy and neuropsychological functioning at the age of 7 to 10 years. The overall pattern of results suggests that the significant associations may have been chance findings stemming from the large number of statistical tests that we performed.”
Wait a minute! What if all the other data were also discounted for the same reason? Then couldn’t one toss away all the epidemiological studies funded by the CDC and/or Pharmaceutical companies—based on the premise that these are all chance findings? Why single out data that indicates an association of vaccine injury (tics)? Why not throw out all the data?
So, by a 1944 law the CDC is chartered to promote vaccines (as well oversee their safety). See http://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/PHSA_CMD.pdf . Imagine the problems with a Federal Tobacco Agency with a charter to both review the safety as well as promote the use of tobacco?! Wouldn’t that be a bad law both for science and children?
Posted by: Jim Thompson | February 15, 2015 at 11:37 PM
Home of the Brave.
Fear caused us to give up a right.
The right to sue the pants off of a Pharma, doctors, CDC officials that made stupid choices about giving vaccines.
Fear that all would be sued out of existence and then we would not have the vaccines to save lives and we all would die -- after there was a whole lot of suffering and then a whole lot of dying.
So, we gave up the right
And we found ourselves still not safe and certainly not free - and the right is gone
Cause once Congress gets ahold of a right it is gone forever.
And we find ourselves as Ben Franklin told us
Still not safe and not free either.
I wonder how he knew?
Posted by: Benedetta | February 15, 2015 at 11:02 PM
Thank you, Jim, for your very helpful tea pricing statistical methods chart! All is made clear now, for sure. :D Verstraeten needs to man-up, do the right thing, and confirm what he was told by CDC officials behind closed doors. The FULL Kennedy article at Ringoffireradio.com is a neat resource, I think, in that it really is a brief synopsis of the CDC Vax fraud from Verstaeten, Julie G, & Thorsen to the percolating whistleblower, Dr. Thompson. I'm trying to let folks know that this is one of those short concise pieces you can "have in your back pocket" to give to someone who may not know much about the years of miserable conduct by the CDC in relationship to vaccines. I definitely agree with you, Thimerisol, Let the Science Speak by Kennedy is a great comprehensive review of both the good and the bad science regarding Thimerisol :)
Posted by: MarciaJuliet | February 15, 2015 at 08:33 PM
The association between thimerosal and tics does get through to some extent in Thompson (2007). Is that because it was too huge to be entirely hidden? So how about the other forty-odd outcomes? What pre-publication changes were made to them?
"Early Thimerosal Exposure and Neuropsychological Outcomes at 7 to 10 Years," Thompson et al.
http://www.county.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/healthAuthors/DCP/PDFs/grsThimVacc/THOMPSONNEJM073571281.pdf
Posted by: Carol | February 15, 2015 at 02:15 PM
MarciaJuliet, Thank you.
And look at Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s book Thimerosal, Let the Science Speak. He talks about how another CDC scientist, Dr. Verstraeten, discovered statistical evidence of an association between Thimerosal (50% mercury) preserved vaccines and Autism and how that association was disguised and then hidden from the public. It appears that the CDC, which has been charged with the safety of vaccines as well as promoting them, uses fraudulent scientific methodology to help hide these associations from public view. And now another CDC scientists comes out, this time as a whistleblower, and tells us an association between tics and Thimerosal preserved vaccines given to children was discovered.
Here is a chart on statistical manipulation that CDC may have used. See http://supertart.com/priceofteainchina/chart.html .
Posted by: Jim Thompson | February 15, 2015 at 10:34 AM
I highly recommend reading Robert Kennedys article in its ENTIRETY. Thanks AOA for posting a bit of it here, but the full article is really kind of a nice "mini overview" of CDC fraudulence. (And by "nice" I mean "evil, vile, and criminal.") Here's the link to the RingofFireRadio.com article CDC Scientist Maintains Agency Forced Researchers 2 Lie... http://t.co/hfaRJ8cBGi
Posted by: MarciaJuliet | February 15, 2015 at 03:40 AM
Twyla - with the recent disclosure with the congress admission of 70% of the elected representatives skipping vaccines - I think its a fair question .
It easy to say I vaccinated all 6 of my children if all they took was only the varicella vaccine ?
So I'm asking RFK did all 6 of his children take the full vaccine schedule as DICTATED by the cdc ? All 40+ of them for each child ?
Posted by: Sophie Scholl | February 14, 2015 at 02:08 PM
Bendetta....WHY THIS COMMITTEE....I think because Rep. Posey is on the over-sight subcommittee.
Posted by: diane w farr | February 14, 2015 at 01:36 PM
House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. WHY THIS COMMITTEE???
Didn't President Obama strip the guts out of the space program? Does that mean this House committee is so un important that it has to meet in the parking lot somewhere???
Why was it not the House Committee on We are going to throw your ass in jail for treason to the country????
Posted by: Benedetta | February 14, 2015 at 11:03 AM
Mercury is still in most vaccines. In my studies of the subject I have read that below a threshold of 1 microgram it is not required to disclose its presence. Well one microgram is such a tiny amount--one millionth of a gram. It is ONLY 4.3 billion atoms! (sarcasm alert) When vaccines are given in combination and only two months apart for the next blast of neurotoxins that adds up to a lot of persistent mercury. MMR does not have mercury because it would kill the LIVE VIRUSES that tend to shed to others. The preservative task comes into play when the vial is a multi-use vial. It is a larger bottle that is punctured many times and that is where the contamination risk occurs. You hope they shake up the bottle as the mercury settles to the bottom and the last doses may be much higher in an un-agitated bottle. Greed is the operative word here because the cheap bastards do not want to incur the expense of having to supply a vial for each patient. This little strategy makes for more profit for all those in the stream of commerce. Mercury and aluminum are also adjuvants that stimulate the immune system. They are also synergistic. Mercury and aluminum together are much more toxic, ( and stimulating to the immune system) than the sum of the two added up separately. In the presence of testosterone of male children the toxic effect is even much higher. This may be why there are four boys with autism to every girl and eight times more boys than girls with Asperger's. The immune systems of today's children is seriously confused. If the flu shot with its 25 micrograms of ethyl mercury (107.5 billion atoms) given to the pregnant mom, the HepB at birth with its 12.5 mcg mercury (50+ bilion atoms) and don't forget all the aluminum, it still adds up to a major neurotoxic hell for our children. Then consider the poor unsuspecting adults being bombarded with the flu shot mania increasing their chances of the misery of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Please encourage all whom you see to stay away from all this junk. Thanks AofA for such a great site!!
Posted by: Brad Call | February 14, 2015 at 12:37 AM
We all need to keep pushing for a hearing regarding the CDC whistleblower. If they think this is going to just "die down and go away," they are wrong (though I do fear for Dr. Thompson).
Posted by: Anne J | February 13, 2015 at 08:25 PM
Quick link for those interested to see how children of today are still receiving massive amounts of mercury via thimerosal if their parents are following the CDC-recommended schedule (especially if they're accepting whatever influenza vaccine is offered, without checking to see how much thimerosal it contains):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQnTVD4CR8c
Go to the 11:45 min. mark. I can't remember if Dr. David Ayoub's chart includes the prenatal dose of TDaP or not. If not, add that to the tally if it's thimerosal-containing.
Also, once thimerosal was supposedly reduced (do you really think that ANYONE actually monitors this...I certainly don't), the amount of aluminum used in vaccines was greatly increased...up to 3X in some vaccines. Additionally, when an independent study was done to check actual amounts of thimerosal and aluminum in vaccines as compared to what their packaging listed, the majority of vaccine samples exposed the under-reporting of levels of these 2 heavy metals...some were greatly under-reported. This was undertaken by the group HAPI, which is no longer active.
I hope that helps people understand why it is not surprising at all that autism rates have not gone down since the supposed removal of mercury from vaccines. The government and pharmaceutical companies knew very well that they could never let the public see what would happen if heavy metals were removed from vaccines...because the truth would then be crystal clear to all...vaccines have been causing millions of children worldwide to develop "autism."
Heavy metals are but one of the MANY problems with vaccines, but they are certainly a BIGGIE.
Posted by: Laura Hayes | February 13, 2015 at 05:55 PM
All vaccines are poisons, but these with thimerosal, aluminum, live viruses and animal/human RNA/DNA are especially toxic. There is no disease, which is more dangerous than vaccines which they are giving to most children.
Posted by: no-vac | February 13, 2015 at 05:50 PM
Thank God for Robert F. Kennedy Junior, and William Thompson. No matter how loud the media shouts to jail, and label parents who don't want to subject their children to the vaccine schedule, the voices of Kennedy and Thompson are being heard. No matter how hypnotized the population I think the Thompson confession means light at the end of a long dark tunnel.
Posted by: kapoore | February 13, 2015 at 05:42 PM
Thank you, Mr. Kennedy, for this important piece about William Thompson. YES, THERE ARE OTHER INSIDERS, important doctors/scientists in prominent positions in government and medicine, who have admitted that for vulnerable children, vaccines trigger autism.
On Feb 9, 2015, my story, Media Heats Up on Vaccine Debate, was published here on Age of Autism. http://www.ageofautism.com/2015/02/media-heats-up-on-vaccine-debate.html#more
In that piece, I cited FOUR EXPERTS WHO ACKNOWLEDGE A LINK. One was Frank DeStefano of the CDC, also included in this piece.
But there are others.
Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, Director of Medical Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, is one.
Then there's Dr. David Amaral, research director at the M.I.N.D Institute at UC-Davis.
Finally I named Dr. Walter Zahorodny, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark.
FRANK DESTEFANO, ANDREW ZIMMERMAN, DAVID AMARAL, WALTER ZAHORODNY.
What do all these men have in common? They agree there is a link between vaccines and autism.
So where's the media? Why aren't they demonizing them like they love to do with Andrew Wakefield? Why hasn't anyone called for them to be fired and to lose their licenses?
The double standard practiced by those attacking exempting parents makes it clear that there's another agenda here, and it has nothing to do with protecting the health of our children. What are all the deniers going to do when more and more experts say vaccines can cause autism?
Anne Dachel, Media
Posted by: Anne McElroy Dachel | February 13, 2015 at 05:42 PM
Anti vax and proud of it...always outnumbered, never outgunned..up em!!
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | February 13, 2015 at 04:34 PM
@ Diane
"I hear the argument that the thimerosal was removed and if thimerosal causes autism the rates should be declining. Our best response is "there is trace amounts and the some of the flu shots". Why not answer "they are using aluminum which is also a neurotoxin".
The ONLY reason it APPEARS the rate of autism has "increased" so dramatically AFTER thimerosal was supposedly removed .. is because the CDC deliberately began counting with the years BEFORE they increased the numbers of vaccinations .. going BACKWARDS .. towards 1999 .. the SIMPSONWOOD MEETING year .. which is when they KNEW they had screwed up royally .. by failing to calculate the rising levels of thimerosal each time they added another vaccine to the schedule.
My grandson is 12 .. and .. I suspect he is among the largest cohort of autism due to thimerosal .. who are now somewhere between 12 and 18 years of age.
Once they get past these original victims .. hopefully .. the next rate of autism will begin to show some DECREASE .. not end abruptly like it started .. but .. gradually .. because thimerosal is still recommended and approved for pregnant women and other "trace" amount vaccines.
I wish someone with better writing skills then myself could explain how the CDC has craftily managed to pretend autism has INCEASED AFTER THIMEROSAL WAS REMOVED.
That latest figure .. 1 in 49 boys .. applies to the years when thimerosal was in MOST childhood vaccines.
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | February 13, 2015 at 03:21 PM
@dianne @sophie you may not realize this but Kennedy was one of the first to listen. Let's not worry about anyone getting credit etc we are all in this toghether and everyone who speaks out does so at great risk. All should be celebrated and as Dan says while some are pro-safe vaccine others are so disgusted they are anti-vaccine. But we all agree: vaccines are not safe/ and taking away exemptions is criminal. Let's out our focus and criticisms toward the criminals who caused this not try to have loyalty tests for our few prominent friends. Christie, Rfk jr and Rand Paul were in agreement for 10 seconds? That's a miracle to be celebrated even though each of is probably dislikes one of the 3 for their stands on other issues .
Posted by: Words fail me | February 13, 2015 at 01:31 PM
It is always interesting and pertinent to know if someone avoided any vaccines for their child- like the hep b at birth vaccine or if they only gave a few dpt's. Research from Quebec shows that early MMR may be useless. I personally waited until my child was 2 to get that one. Some people skip flu shots.
So you see, you can still claim your children are vaccinated but you may have skipped or spaced out shots. All that informationis useful and it is too bad that the vaccine schedule and cumulative effects have not been studied. BTW, that is probably what the recent Congress survey stirred up- that some people do vaccinate but minimally or selectively. That matters. My children have had no aluminum vaccines- I just didn't see the need for HPV or hepatitis vaccine when I weighed risk/benefit.
Posted by: @Twyla | February 13, 2015 at 12:49 PM
Bob, I believe in what you are saying but it's misleading and only harms our cause. Why isn't anyone talking about the aluminum that is being used as a preservative instead of thimerosal? I hear the argument that the thimerosal was removed and if thimerosal causes autism the rates should be declining. Our best response is "there is trace amounts and the some of the flu shots". Why not answer "they are using aluminum which is also a neurotoxin". It looks like Kennedy wants to get in on the action and if we get a congressional hearing, I'm assuming Brian Hooker will get derailed for Kennedy to be in the spotlight. I'm embarrassed.
Posted by: diane w farr | February 13, 2015 at 12:02 PM
Sophie Scholl why on earth would you ask that question? It's none of our business and wouldn't prove or disprove anything.
Posted by: Twyla | February 13, 2015 at 10:36 AM
I copy and paste this because the site says it will be offline over the weekend.
Ahead of publication:
Mercury Exposure and Antinuclear Antibodies among Females of Reproductive Age in the United States: NHANES
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408751/
Environ Health Perspect; DOI:10.1289/ehp.1408751
Mercury Exposure and Antinuclear Antibodies among Females of Reproductive Age in the United States: NHANES
Emily C. Somers,1,2,3 Martha A. Ganser,1 Jeffrey S. Warren,4 Niladri Basu,2,5 Lu Wang,6 Suzanna M. Zick,7 and Sung Kyun Park2,8
Author Affiliations open
Accessible PDF icon PDF Version (659 KB)
Abstract
About This Article
Supplemental Material
Article-Level Metrics
Background: Immune dysregulation associated with mercury has been suggested, though data in the general population are lacking. Chronic exposure to low levels of methylmercury (organic) and inorganic mercury is common, such as through fish consumption and dental amalgams.
Objective: To examine associations between mercury biomarkers and antinuclear antibody (ANA) positivity and titer strength.
Methods: Among females 16-49 years (n=1352) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004, we examined cross-sectional associations between mercury and ANAs (indirect immunofluorescence; cutoff ≥1:80). Three biomarkers of mercury exposure were utilized: hair (available 1999-2000) and total blood (1999-2004) predominantly represented methylmercury, and urinary (1999-2002) inorganic. Survey statistics were used. Multivariable modeling adjusted for several covariates, including age and omega-3 fatty acids.
Results: 16% of females were ANA-positive; 96% of ANA-positives had a nuclear staining pattern of speckled. Mercury geometric means (standard deviations) were: 0.22 (0.03) ppm hair, 0.92 (0.05) µg/L blood, and 0.62 (0.04) µg/L urinary. Hair and blood, but not urinary, mercury were associated with ANA positivity (sample sizes 452, 1352, and 804, respectively), adjusting for confounders: hair odds ratio (OR)=4.10 (95% CI: 1.66, 10.13); blood OR=2.32 (95% CI: 1.07, 5.03) comparing highest versus lowest quantiles. Magnitudes of association were strongest for high-titer (≥1:1280) ANA: hair OR=11.41 (95% CI: 1.60, 81.23); blood OR=5.93 (95% CI: 1.57, 22.47).
Conclusions: Methylmercury, at low levels generally considered safe, was associated with subclinical autoimmunity among reproductive-age females. Autoantibodies may predate clinical disease by years, thus methylmercury exposure may be relevant to future autoimmune disease risk.
------------------------------
So, if all would-be mothers were tested prior to conception for autoimmune antibodies as a marker of possible mercury levels in the body, those mothers testing high and their children might be the ones at highest risk for vaccine adverse reactions maybe, vaccine compounding problems on top of an existing problem. Were the "refridgerator" moms suffering from autoimmunity problems that medical science only now is beginning to recognize, that medicine is finally able to diagnose? Can it be treated and brought under control prior to conception?
Could the NHANES also produce a survey showing whether the people in THIS study showing low levels of mercury causing problems also have a higher rate of children with autism vrs a group not showing the markers?
Posted by: Jenny | February 13, 2015 at 10:27 AM
@ Diane ..
"Am I missing something? The MMR does not need a preservative (mercury)
I don't blame you for being confused .. I was wondering the very same thing.
I "think" they are talking about two different things ..
#1 .. "THIMMEROSAL (CAPS MINE) causes “Tics”, a family of grave neurological injuries – including Tourette’s Syndrome – that are associated with Autism."
#2 .. "African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism."
In other words .. BOTH .. Thimerosal and MMR can "cause" autism ..
As I understand it .. the MMR is a "live" virus .. and .. introducing Thimerosal into a "live" virus would "kill" the virus .. since it is so deadly .. again .. as I understand it .. Thimerosal kills "everything" it touches .. making it the perfect "cost-effective preservative" to protect the shelf-life of vaccines distributed widely to the most isolated, remote, undeveloped countries of the world.
Most wouldn't believe a child's preposterous claim that a dog ate his homework .. why should anyone believe in the preposterous claim of public health officials .. "they don't know what causes autism .. but .. they know it's not vaccines"?
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | February 13, 2015 at 08:34 AM
re MMR & thimerosal:
There are different studies that have been conducted.
Offit, I think, is referring to this study concerning thimerosol=containing vaccines & neuro issues.
Thompson WW, Price C, Goodson B, et al.; Vaccine Safety Datalink Team. Early thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological outcomes at 7 to 10 years. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(13):1281–1292.
The Destefano et al 2004 paper was in Pediatrics concerned MMR and autism.
Offit wrote fairly definitively about what he thought of both Wakefield's and the CDC studies
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/48/4/456.full
My current sense is there are (at least) two things going on with Thompson's revelations. First, he's trying to show how they buried the significant findings and data in the DeStefano paper. Next, he's illustrating there was a pressure or institutionally driven climate at the CDC dedicated to suppressing all evidence or most of it linking thimerosal-containing vaccines to neurological issues. Those seem to be the major drivers at the moment and I think that the institutionally driven suppression was fairly entrenched.
When and if, the varied smoke from all the attendant current hysteria clears, we may slowly get a sense of where and how this may play out policy-wise, US Administration-wise, Healthcare-wise, race-wise, and potentially reparation-wise. What's occurred has some incredibly damaging and diverse threads not just on the US domestic front but globally as well.
It's one thing to have a bunch of angry parents of vaccine-harmed kids and antivaxxers agitating; it's quite another to have the bulk of the world's disenfranchised population to be made aware of what the US/WHO has been doing and perpetrating regarding vaccination as a disease control strategy, while coupled with some scientifically thin safety/efficacy science, over the previous 50+ years.
Posted by: flahute | February 13, 2015 at 08:32 AM
Am I missing something? The MMR does not need a preservative (mercury)
Posted by: diane w farr | February 13, 2015 at 07:26 AM
RFK - you had all 6 of your children vaccinated ?
Can we get the full details for each child .
I'd like to know the full schedule for each child please ?
Posted by: Sophie Scholl | February 13, 2015 at 06:39 AM