Federal Health Agencies Continue to Deceive Americans

Federal Health Agencies Continue to Deceive Americans

Congressional Report on a Vaccine Mercury-Autism Link Ignored for Six Years



Richard Gale and Gary Null, Ph.D

Progressive Radio Network, November 12, 2009



I have no doubt whatever that vaccination is an unscientific abomination and
should be made a criminal practice. G. Bernard Shaw



Under normal circumstances, when a public health measure is advocated or
mandated, and it is accepted without question by all Federal health
agencies, state and local health departments, and promoted by the mainstream
media with unquestioning support from the orthodox medical community, then
it is assumed that such measures at the very least meet basic scientifically
proven criteria. Foremost should be public health safety and that the proven
efficacy of a health program be implemented according to rigorous scientific
gold standards. When this standard is ignored and denied, as is now being
done by our health officials, then the wellbeing of the nation is placed at
risk. Consequently, we see the concerns regarding the swine flu vaccine
focusing upon supply rather than health. For our government health officials
at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS), vaccines have been baptized safe and, therefore, there
is no reason for further debate. In fact, so certain are those in charge of
the nation's vaccination programs, even democratic discourse about
vaccination controversies has been marginalized and smothered. There is no
dissenting opinion published in any major industrial medical journal or
magazine, nor found on any of government health websites.



When put to the test, a meticulous review of the scientific literature finds
that virtually all of the Federal health agencies assumptions are held in
error. Furthermore, we are shocked that the CDC, FDA and HHS, with all of
their resources, refuse to take into consideration the large body of
clinical evidence that contradicts their biased vaccine policies. Our review
of the scientific literature is at two levels. First, there is a direct
relationship between vaccination and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This
evidence, as we shall see, was taken under oath during a three year
Congressional investigation, which clearly shows that Federal health
officials were complicit in covering up the associations between vaccines
and neurological damage.



The second level shows irrefutable evidence, from peered reviewed journals
in immunology, neurology, toxicology, etc., that the very same mercury used
at high toxic levels in the flu vaccines, as well as in trace amounts in
other vaccines, is toxic in all circumstances. The pronouncements by the CDC
and HHS, promulgated by tabloid medical writers at the New York Times, Wall
Street Journal and other media outlets, are deceptions based upon medical
denialism. We believe it is a crime to inject mercury into the bodies of any
pregnant woman and child, while knowing that thimerosal is extremely toxic.



During a televised interview to prepare the American public for a massive
campaign to inoculate the population for the H1N1 flu virus, President Obama's
HHS Secretary, Dr. Kathleen Sebelius, told the nation, "study after study,
scientist after scientist, has determined that there really is no safety
risk with thimerosal."[1] Glancing at the foot-high stack of published
clinical studies on the desk, years of independent research identifying
certain neurological impairments, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD),
and cellular organ damage resulting from vaccines containing the toxic
ethylmercury preservative commonly known as thimerosal, it is
incomprehensible to fathom the depth of scientific denial in Sebelius'
statement. Was the Secretary blatantly lying to Americans, especially
parents of small children six months and older and pregnant mothers, to
convince us to line up for flu shots? If we unpack Sebelius' misleading
propaganda and properly rephrase her pronouncement, we can uncover a
semblance of truth in her words. Instead it would have been proper for her
to inform the nation that "study after study of spurious and flawed research
that would likely never pass a graduate school examination, scientist after
scientist affiliated or with financial ties to the vaccine industry now
dominating our academies and health agencies, have determined that there
really is no safety risk with thimerosal."



This should have been the Secretary's response if she were honest in
addressing many people's concerns about vaccine safety. Yet, this is not
just our interpretive spin about the lack of scientific integrity within the
CDC's and FDA's pharmaceutical-friendly stance regarding the vaccine-autism
controversy; rather it accurately reflects the conclusions from a three year
investigation conducted by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness in
the House's Committee on Government Reform, spearheaded by Rep. Dan Burton
(R-Indiana). Published in May 2003, the Committee's 80-page report,
"Mercury in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks," is a clear indictment
charging the CDC, FDA and HHS with scientific bias, prejudiced financial
interests with vaccine makers, and administrative incompetence and
indecision that puts Americans' health at risk.[2]



It is a sorry state of affairs when a Congressional committee is forced to
undertake a more thorough, concise review of the scientific literature
related to a national health crisis, i.e., thimerosal as a causative factor
behind the epidemic scourge of neurological and developmental disorders in
America's children, because our Federal health agencies prefer to not upset
their clients (or masters) in the pharmaceutical industrial complex. But
what is even more disturbing is that after six years since the Committee's
report, nothing has fundamentally changed. Instead, the CDC, FDA and HHS
continue their rogue campaigns to spread unfounded medical propaganda and
have done next to nothing, aside from issuing promises and marginalizing
opposing medical views, to fund and launch the independent research
necessary to determine once and for all vaccine safety in young children,
developing fetuses and pregnant mothers. And as we wait for medical sanity
to descend upon our government agencies, more and more children are injured
from the increasing number of scheduled vaccinations, while the burden of
health costs continue to mount on the shoulders of parents with
neurologically and physically damaged children.



Therefore reviewing some of the Committee's major findings is warranted to
bring them up to date with recent information showing the thimerosal-autism
link and to provide evidence for the CDC's, FDA's and HHS's ongoing medical
denialism about vaccine safety and their laxity in preserving and addressing
public health.



Committee Finding 1: "Mercury is hazardous to humans. Its use in medicinal
products is undesirable, unnecessary and should be minimized or eliminated
entirely."



Mercury, in its two most common forms that threaten human
health--methylmercury and ethylmercury (thimerosal used in vaccines)--is the
second most toxic substance perhaps after uranium. It is over one hundred
times more toxic than lead. Therefore ask yourself the question, would you
submit your child, or even yourself, to having lead injected directly into
his or her bloodstream, permitting it to pass through your child's
neurological system? If you answer in the negative, then know that the
mercury in that flu shot being offered at Costco is far more toxic than the
lead you just refused.



Although more research has been conducted showing methylmercury's severe
health risks, the Committee, basing its decision on sound scientific
evidence, concluded that thimerosal's toxicity is the same as methylmercury.
Among the more serious adverse effects are multiple organ system disorders
over the course of a lifetime, neurological and behavioral defects, renal
damage, cardiovascular effects even at very low dosages, increased
susceptibility to infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and injury to
the immune system, and adverse effects on the reproductive system. Contrary
to Sebelius'denialism, a pregnant mother's exposure to thimerosal due to
vaccination runs the risk of mercury crossing the placenta and affecting the
developing fetus. The CDC's current stance that it makes no difference
whether vaccines with thimerosal are given to pregnant mothers flies in the
face of biomolecular reason and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)
own warnings. Medical evidence for methylmercury disturbing the
neuro-development of an infant in utero has been conclusive for many
years.[3] The EPA's website states that for women in reproductive ages,
there is the risk of 300,000 newborns each year incurring learning
disabilities due to in utero exposure to mercury. Even the FDA acknowledged
mercury's toxic risks to infants back in 1994. According to a National
Institutes of Health document, "For fetuses, infants and children, the
primary health effects of mercury are on neurological development. Even low
levels of mercury exposure, such as result from a mother's consumption of
methylmercury in dietary sources, can adversely affect the brain and nervous
system. Impact on memory, attention, language and other skills have been
found in children exposed to moderate levels in the womb." Do any of these
symptoms sound like ASD? And if eating a can of tuna fish poses a potential
risk, how much greater are the potential neurological injuries when vaccine
mercury is injected intramuscularly?



The EPA, unlike the FDA, has conducted research into mercury's toxicity and
health risks. While the EPA sets a limit exposure of mercury at 0.1
micrograms/kg, the FDA in its favoritism towards mercury's use in vaccines
raises the stakes to 0.4 micrograms. The FDA's figure has no valid
supporting scientific data and is arbitrary in order to continue sanctioning
the use of in vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the limit
higher; this may account for the WHO's aggressive campaigns to inoculate the
world's poorer populations with heavily laced-mercury and stockpiled
vaccines from the drug makers. The Committee, however, found the EPA
evaluation to be "scientifically validated." Consequently, a person
receiving a single flu shot, with 25 mcg/kg of thimerosal would need to
weigh approximately 550 pounds for it to be considered a safe quantity.
Therefore it is no surprise that the series of four thimerosal-laced flu
shots, or 100 mcg/kg, can lead to long-term cumulative damage for any age
group, including the later onset of dementia conditions such as Alzheimer's.[4]



Dr. David Baskin, Professor of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine,
told the Committee that brain tissue absorbs mercury five times more than
other body tissues. And infants and small children are furthermore five
times more sensitive to mercury's toxicological effects compared to adults.
Dr. Baskin reported on his own studies at Baylor:



"We have the opportunity to actually grow human frontal cortex cells in cell
culture. So these are cells from the front part of the brain.. We incubate
these cells with thimerosal at various doses. [then] detect cell death and
cell damage.. [showing a slide] These are the cells committing the suicide
program and breaking themselves into tiny little pieces with a very low dose
of mercury.. Don't forget, we did this in adult brain cells. Remember that
infant brain cells are much more sensitive, so there's a real cause for
concern."



Similar studies conducted at Columbia University have confirmed the Baylor
findings.



So why can't the CDC and other government agencies reproduce these clinical
studies to confirm whether or not there is a clear thimerosal-autism link?
Well, the CDC, and other research agencies such as the National Institute of
Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), simply don't perform gold standard
clinical science. Instead, the CDC relies upon statistical analyses and
mathematical algorithms to arrive at their conclusions about vaccines' and
thimerosal's safety. Preferring to cower in the back of Plato's cave,
concise scientific protocol and biomolecular studies in a laboratory is
almost anathema to them. In addition, the kind of studies the vaccine
orthodoxy hail as proof to deny a correlation between thimerosal and autism
rely upon dreadful research design and ridiculously low numbers of
participants. For example, a University of Rochester study comparing
children injected with mercury-vaccines versus vaccines without mercury only
enrolled 40 subjects; yet, this single study remains in the pro-vaccine
orthodoxy's arsenal against vaccine skeptics. If autism at the time of the
study affected 1 in 150 children, then enrolling 40 children is baseless for
achieving any valid data. For this reason, another finding by the Committee
states:



Committee Finding 2: "To date, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that
purportedly dispute any correlation between autism and vaccine injury have
been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed. The CDC's rush to
support and promote such research is reflective of a philosophical conflict
in looking fairly at emerging theories and clinical data related to adverse
reactions from vaccinations."



The Committee also reports, "Upon thorough review of the scientific
literature and internal documents from government and industry, the
Committee did in fact find evidence that thimerosal posed a risk. The
possible risk for harm from either low dose chronic or one time high level
(bolus dose) exposure to thimerosal is not 'theoretical,' but very real and
documented in the medical literature."



Furthermore, the report continues,



"Of additional concern has been the CDC's bias against theories regarding
vaccine-induced autism. Rather than aggressively working to replicate
clinical findings with laboratory data that showed a relationship between
vaccines and autism. the CDC funded researchers who also worked for vaccine
manufacturers to conduct population-based epidemiological studies to look at
the possible correlation between vaccine injury and a subset of the
population that might be injured. The CDC to date has relied too heavily on
epidemiological findings. While epidemiological studies are important, they
are not a substitute for focused, clinical research."



And independent clinical research exists. There is lots of it from
prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the Cleveland
Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of California at
Irvine, Baylor Medical School, Prof. Boyd Haley at the University of
Kentucky, and the dozens of studies by Dr. Mark Geier at the Institute of
Chronic Illnesses, all providing evidence for thimerosal's adverse effects
in adults and in the developing brain of a child.



Committee Finding 3: "Manufacturers of vaccines and thimerosal have never
conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal. The FDA has never
required manufacturers to conduct adequate safety testing on thimerosal and
ethylmercury compounds."



For many decades, the FDA has known about the neurotoxic effects of
thimersosal. A review of internal documents from Eli Lilly, the original
inventor of ethylmercury in the 1920s, reveals that only one study has ever
been performed to investigate thimerosal's safety in humans and it was
"woefully inadequate." During the actual Committee hearings, Rep. Burton
remarked, "You mean to tell me since 1929 we've been using thimerosal and
the only test you know of is the one that was done in 1929, and every one of
those people got meningitis and died?"[5]



In the 1940's, thimerosal was used in teething powders for infants and
resulted in fatal outbreaks of Pink's Disease (severe mercury poisoning)
before being removed in the 50's. Since many children today receive vaccines
with trace amounts of thimerosal, in addition to vaccines containing
adjuvant aluminum compounds, an important 1972 study published in the
British Medical Journal noted that mercury increases aluminum's oxidation
and produces abnormal heat. In recent years, there is growing evidence of
mitochondrial oxidation and cellular damage that may be due to this
interaction between mercury and aluminum in vaccines. With a child now
receiving 31 and more vaccinations during its first 18 months of life, it
would seem that this barbaric practice would have been fully investigated by
our health officials to account for the epidemic rise in neurological and
behavioral disorders, adult diabetes and asthmatic conditions in American
children. Instead, our health officials continue to pump out junk science,
for example the recent, seriously flawed NIAID study on H1N1 vaccine safety
in pregnant women reported over the major media, to deceive Americans and
enroll them in their national vaccination campaigns. The protocol in that
study listed any pregnant woman who had a history of alcohol or drug abuse
during a 6 year period, diabetes, compromised immune systems, asthmatic and
allergic conditions, history of cancer-treatment drugs for 3 years,
prescription to psychiatric drugs, and many other conditions as unqualified
for the study. These conditions alone would disqualify the large majority of
the nation's pregnant women. Furthermore, any pregnant woman who enrolled in
the trial, who spiked a temperature of 100 degrees or greater during the
first 72 hours following vaccination, were excluded from the trial.
Nevertheless, the CDC and its cronies in the media, particularly the
pharmaceutical shills at The New York Times, touted this deranged trial as
conclusive evidence that the swine flu vaccine was safe for all pregnant
women. These are the kinds of medical distortions we have come to expect
from the Federal health agencies.



The Committee's report states,



"It appears that our Federal regulatory framework (the FDA and its
predecessor organizations) failed to require manufacturers to prove
thimerosal was safe. They failed to require industry to conduct adequate
testing to determine how thimerosal is metabolized. The FDA failed to
require that industry conduct studies to determine the maximum safe exposure
level of thimerosal. These basic issues should have been proven prior to the
introduction of thimerosal into the marketplace, but more than 70 years
after its introduction, these issues have still not been adequately
addressed... It is clear that the guiding principal for FDA policymakers has
been to avoid shaking the public's confidence in the safety of vaccines. For
this reason, many FDA officials have stubbornly denied that thimerosal may
cause adverse reactions.. given the serious concerns about the safety of
thimerosal, the FDA should have acted years earlier to remove this
preservative from vaccines and other medications."



Nevertheless, even during this so-called flu season, the Federal agencies
continue to remain entranced in a stupor of scientific denial, perhaps
acting in a criminally negligent manner, as thimerosal remains at highly
toxic levels in the flu vaccines, and remains in trace amounts in the DTaP,
some Hib, and Hepatitis B vaccines.



Although the FDA has repeatedly agreed that mercury is unsafe for
over-the-counter medications, one would think that the government could
arrive at the simple deduction of an elementary school pupil in agreeing
that intramuscular injection of thimerosal would be far more dangerous.
During the Committee's proceedings, Dr. Bernard Schwetz, former Director of
the FDA's National Center for Toxicological Research, has stated, ". the
fact that we know that ethylmercury is a skin sensitizer when its put on the
skin, and now we're injecting this IM (intramuscularly) at a time when the
immune system is just developing, the functionality of the immune system is
just being set at this age [infancy].. What is the effect on the functional
development of the immune system when you give a chemical of that kind
repeatedly IM?"



Committee Finding 4: "At the same time that the incidence of autism was
growing, the number of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal was growing,
increasing the amount of ethylmercury to which infants were exposed
threefold... The FDA and CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new
vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the immunization
schedule."



The Commission report states, "There was tremendous reluctance on the part
of some officials that a mistake had been made in allowing ethylmercury to
be used in vaccines." The FDA damns itself in a 1999 email by a former FDA
official, Dr. Peter Patriarca, then Director of the FDA's Division of Viral
Products, who opines that hastening the removal of thimerosal from vaccines
would "raise questions about the FDA being 'asleep at the switch' for
decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many
childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new
products."



While the Federal health agencies and the professional medical organizations
serving the vaccine industrial complex, such as the American Pediatric
Association, repeatedly tell us there is no causal relationship between ASD
and vaccine mercury, there is a growing body of prestigious scientists,
researchers and physicians who feel otherwise. Last October 2009, a Harvard
survey reported in the journal Pediatrics the US's ASD rate needs to be
upgraded to 1 in 91, a greater than 30% increase from the previous 1 in 150
ratio several years back.[6] Consequently, the thimerasol-autism debate is
far from over and should be pursued with aggressive due diligence and
urgency. Moreover, the past history of CDC negligence and its reliance upon
poorly designed and flawed science indicates there is no reason why any
rational citizen should believe any statistical declaration or medical claim
about vaccine safety from government health officials. These are people with
severe allergic reactions to real science.



The Autism Society of America (ASA), the world's largest autism organization
and heavily funded by private industry and CDC support, continues to rely on
archaic treatments not too dissimilar to BF Skinner's behavioral work with
pigeons. The ASA and the National Alliance for Autism, another advocacy
organization supporting research to discredit vaccine-autism links, have
been accused of conflict of interests and biased studies. In early 2009,
Alison Singer, the senior executive of ASA and an advocate of the fanatical
vaccine multi-millionaire and former advisor to the CDC's Advisory Committee
on Immunization Practice, Dr. Paul Offit-who believes in a fantasy vaccine
heaven where children can survive 10,000 vaccinations unscathed-resigned in
protest over her organization's recent leanings to reconsider a
vaccination-autism connection. Each organization's platform fundamentally
ignores a possible vaccine-caused autism and instead favors genetic etiology
that has yet to be conclusively discovered-instead, blame the parents' DNA,
not the drug makers and their government collaborators. Yet while the search
for a mysterious autism gene persists, more and more children are being
neurologically and developmentally damaged. Furthermore, even if such a gene
is found, it would be many years before anything medically practical could
be done with it.



Committee Finding 5: "A growing number of scientists and researchers believe
that a relationship between the increase in neurodevelopmental disorders of
autism. and the increased use of thimerosal in vaccines is plausible and
deserves more scrutiny."



In fact, the CDC in June 2000 discovered "a statistically significant
positive correlation between the cumulative exposure" of thimerosal and ASD
symptoms. The CDC's analysis of approximately 110,000 records of children
with adverse reactions to vaccines, flying in the face of federal health
officials' previous claims about vaccine safety, led to a secretive meeting
between top government health officials and vaccine industry representatives
at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center near Atlanta. The transcripts of that
meeting were later obtained by Robert Kennedy Jr through a Freedom of
Information Act. During the meeting, the CDC study's chief scientist, Dr.
Thomas Verstraeten, stated, "This analysis suggests that in our study
population, the risks of tics, ADD, language and speech delays, and
developmental delays in general may be increased by exposures to mercury
from thimerosal-containing vaccines during the first six months of life."
The Congressional review of the Simpsonwood conversations concluded that "It
appears that many who participated in the thimerosal debates allowed their
standards to be dictated by their desire to disprove an unpleasant theory."
Indeed, this is what eventually occurred after the meeting.



The clandestine Simpsonwood gathering decided to withhold its findings from
the public and, instead, proceeded with a new investigation to doctor the
same data by employing confounders (subjective, unscientific criteria used
to bias a study to prove a desired result). Consequently the CDC's
subsequent study released several years later denied any relationship
between thimerosal and ASD. At the end of 2009, this remains the policy
position and mindset of the CDC, FDA and HHS while a large body of
independent research, with no conflict of interests with government or the
vaccine industry, continues to mount against our policy makers reliance upon
tabloid science and futile efforts to find causes unrelated to vaccines. And
Dr. Thomas Verstaeten? Last heard he joined the vaccine maker
GlaxoSmithKline and continued to deny the truth of the CDC's original
Simpsonwood findings.



Since then, Dr. Mark Geier at the Institutes of Chronic Illnesses, through a
Freedom of Information Act, obtained all the CDC's vaccine injury data in
its database. After conducting an independent epidemiological study, based
on tens of millions of vaccine doses administered in the US, he confirmed
the Simpsonwood findings and significant other data to show thimerosal and
the DTaP vaccine as contributing causes behind the country's autism
epidemic.[7]



Today, our tax dollars are being spent by our health agencies to sidestep
the entire question of vaccine safety and efficacy, and are trying to
project autism's causes on genetic factors. This was the case in 2003, as it
is now, when the Committee raised concerns over the NIH's $27 billion
budget, investing only $56 million into autism research, and the majority of
that towards genetic causes. Compare that with the $2.2 billion spent on
HIV/AIDS research that affects only a tiny percent of the population
compared to the hundreds of thousands of children across the nation
suffering autism spectrum disorder and neurological damage that they will
live with for the remainder of their lives.



In 1975, the FDA undertook a five year review of mercury's dangers in
over-the-counter drugs and topical medicines and ointments. The advisory
panel's report to the FDA concluded that not only "mercury compounds as a
class are of dubious value for anti-microbial use" but also "thimerosal was
35-times more toxic to the heart tissue it was meant to protect than the
bacteria it was meant to kill." So why is thimerosal still used in vaccines?
Rather than manufacturing single dose vials, which would not require
mercury, vaccine makers have found it more cost effective to manufacture
multi-dose vials and simply add mercury as a preservative for longer
shelf-life. A story in the Columbus Dispatch unveiled that Ohio's decision
to purchase larger quantities of thimerosal-laced flu vaccine rather than
the alternative thimerosal-free version was purely based on a financial
decision.[8]



Committee Finding 6: "The CDC's failure to state a preference for
thimerosal-free vaccines in 2000 and again 2001 was an abdication of their
responsibility."



After reviewing the CDC's long-standing habit for promoting illness and
staging a war on health, there is a case of one vaccine manufacturer
offering to remove thimerosal from its vaccine but being denied permission
to do so from the CDC. This incident led the Committee to state, "The CDC's
decision not to endorse thimerosal-free vaccines in 2001 is particularly
troubling.. Just as disappointing, and even more difficult to understand, is
the fact that the CDC, on two separate occasions, refused to publicly state
a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines."



Testimony by Federal health officials before the Committee included a litany
of excuses based on financial rationales for not concerning itself with the
health of American children. The statements by Dr. Roger Bernier from the
CDC exemplifies the dangerous level of denial and Federal officials' refusal
to accept preventative health measures, a dire negligence that continues to
plague government health agencies in general, and the unproven and
potentially unsafe H1N1 vaccine in particular:



"It [removing thimerosal from vaccines] could entail financial losses of
inventory if current vaccine inventory is wasted. It could harm one or more
manufacturers and may then decrease the number of suppliers"



"The evidence justifying this kind of abrupt policy change [immediate
removal of mercury from all vaccines] does not appear to exist, and it could
entail financial losses for all existing stocks of vaccines that contain
thimerosal."



The Committee's interpretation of the CDC's vaccine policy includes, "The
financial health of the industry should never have been a factor in this
decision [thimerosal removal]. The financial health of vaccine manufacturers
certainly should never have been more important to the Federal health
officials than the health and well being of the nation's children. The CDC
has a responsibility to protect the health of the American public. If there
were any doubts about the neurological effects of ethylmercury in vaccines
on children-and there were substantial doubts-the prevailing consideration
should have been how best to protect children from potential harm. However,
it appears that protecting the industry's profits took precedent over
protecting children from mercury damage."



Committee Finding 7: "Thimerosal should be removed from these vaccines. No
amount of mercury is appropriate in any childhood vaccine."



Although thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines, mercury remains in
trace amounts in some vaccines, as noted above, and remains at high toxic
levels in the flu shots. Studies show that in the presence of aluminum
compounds mercury's toxicity increases dramatically. Vaccines that contain
aluminum compounds include the DTaP, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, pneumococcal,
anthrax, and the HPV vaccine. Unfortunately, no studies have been funded by
government agencies nor have the vaccine makers undertaken efforts to
determine adverse neurological effects when multiple vaccines are given
together, as is so often the case when small children visit their
pediatricians.



A comparison of the FDA, CDC and HHS claims on thimerosal and multiple
vaccination safety with documents from the Department of Defense (DoD)
leaves one with the feeling that our national health service is a madhouse,
a leper colony of welfare scientists and indecisive medical bureaucrats torn
between their allegiance to pharmaceutical firms and the health of the
nation. Medical journalist David Kirby has reported on DoD documents he
received showing the military raising legitimate concerns about vaccines
(thimerosal and the DTaP vaccine) as causative factors for the critical
epidemic of ASD among military children.[9] In her article "Autism in the
Military, " Angela Warren calculates the military autism rate at 1 in 67,
substantially higher than the recent Harvard study for the civilian
population.[10] In addition to thimerosal's dangers, the military claims its
ongoing studies suggest that "a relationship between adverse events and
multiple vaccinations exist." The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology also
acknowledges that "exposure to mercury in utero and children may cause mild
to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination
impairment."[11]



Why would the military health officials take a completely different stand on
thimerosal and vaccine safety from that of the CDC and HHS? During a recent
conversation with a retired Colonel and former Command Surgeon of the US
Army Special Operations Command in Africa, Dr. Frank Anders explained why
the military health policies and recognition of scientific facts are more
accurate and medically humane than that of our Federal health officials.
According to Col. Anders, the "power and money these pharmaceutical
companies wield [on the FDA and CDC] is awesome." When he was asked whether
or not there is any conformity or agreement between the Department of
Defense's health divisions and the Federal health agencies, including
President Obama's appointments, he stated there was nothing that could
affect preventative and therapeutic health policy. There are far more
financial incentives, including funds from Congress at the behest of
pharmaceutical lobbyists, for FDA and CDC personnel to forge relationships
with the drug and vaccine makers. On the other hand, since military health
personnel are solely employees of the DoD removed from the vaccine industry
and Big Pharma lobbyists, there is less bias and greater scientific
integrity towards medical facts and sound science.[12]



Curiously, David Kirby reports that the military health clinics are adopting
alternative treatments for ASD--methyl B12, chelation and glutathione--which
are not actively promoted by the FDA in their preference for pharmaceutical
and psychiatric drugs and behavioral modality treatment. When we asked Col.
Anders why this was the case, he responded that it is simply because these
alternative treatments work. For example, independent studies show
convincingly that thimerosal depletes glutathione in vaccinated children
with autism. Glutathione provides cells with the primary defense against
heavy metal oxidation, a condition that has been observed extensively in
children with ASD. Without glutathione, heavy metal oxidation inflicts
severe neurological damage. Alternative treatment for autism includes
glutathione replacement; however, this form of treatment is not recognized
by the CDC and the orthodox autism organizations in bed with the
pharmaceutical industrial complex.[13]



Committee Recommendations: There were two important recommendations made by
Rep. Dan Burton's Committee that Americans should demand from our government
and Federal health agencies. First is the recommendation that "studies be
conducted that pool the results of independent research that has been done
thus far, and a comprehensive approach should be developed to rid humans,
animals and the environment from this dangerous toxin [ethyl- and
methylmercury]."



The second urgent recommendation is that Congress "enact legislation that
prohibits federal funds from being used to provide products or
pharmaceuticals that contain mercury, methylmercury or ethylmercury unless
no reasonable alternative is available."



Today, neither of these recommendations have been acted upon. Instead the
Obama administration has continued the previous Bush act to provide
sanctuary to vaccine makers from lawsuits due to vaccine injury. Our health
officials have sunk themselves deeper into dangerously reductive and
determinist views about infectious diseases, such as the swine flu, and have
strengthened their denial that their entire vaccination program might be
leading America's health to further ruin.



It is unusual for our government and Congress to get anything correct these
days and to make sincere, thoughtful decisions that truly benefit American
citizens. However, there are those rare occasions when a spark of wisdom
actually flares briefly somewhere in Washington. The Rep. Burton's Committee
report's final statement is as relevant today as it was in mid 2003. Perhaps
even more so as we witness the CDC's public relations campaign threatening
citizens with misleading statistics, distorted science ('science' being a
term that can barely be applied to the kind of tabloid research that Federal
officials rely upon today), and unproven fears to shepherd us towards the
H1N1 and seasonal flu lines.



"Thimserosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the
autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or
curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of
safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant
exposure to his known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies' failure to act
is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced
protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."



As we have witnessed during the recent CDC's public relations campaign
behind the H1N1 vaccine, and the uproar of dissent that questions the safety
and national need for mass inoculation, medical discourse has been shut
down. This raises the serious concern whether America's health sciences and
democracy can co-exist any longer in the United States. The words of H.H.
the Dalai Lama are apropos for understanding the fish tank Federal officials
and their sponsored cohorts settled into, "To deny authority of empirical
evidence is to disqualify oneself as someone worthy of critical engagement
in a dialogue." Nothing has changed within the US government's vaccine
policy programs, six years after Congress indicted our health leaders with
medical denialism.



Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and
a former Senior Research Analyst in the genomic industry. Dr. Gary Null is
the host of the nation's longest running public radio program on nutrition
and natural health and a multi-award-winning director of progressive
documentary films, including Vaccine Nation (2008) and Autism: Made in the
USA (2009)



[1] Kathleen Sebelius interviewed by Katie Couric on CBS, July 30, 2009.

[2] All statements in quotations, unless noted, are from the House of
Representatives' Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness report, "Mercury
in Medicine: Taking Unnecessary Risks," published May 2003.

[3] Magos L, Brown AW, Sparrow S, Bailey E, Snowden RT, Skipp WR. "The
comparative toxicology of ethyl- and methylmercury." Archives of Toxicology.
(1985) 57: 260-267.

[4] Haley, Boyd (Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of
Kentucky). "The relationship of the toxic effects of mercury to exacerbation
of the medical condition classified as Alzheimer's disease." Presented at
Autism One Conference. May 26-29, 2005.

[5] Kirby, David. Evidence of Harm. St. Martin's Press, New York, 2005.

[6] Kogan MD, Blumberg J, Schieve LA, Boyle CA, Perrin JM, Ghandour RM,
Singh GK, Strickland BB, Trevathan E, van Dyck PC. "Prevalence of
Parent-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children in the
US, 2007" Pediatrics. Published online October 5, 2009.

[7] Geier M, Geier D. "Neurodevelopmental disorders after
thimerosal-containing vaccines: A brief communication." Experimental Biology
and Medicine. (2003) Vol. 228, n 6, 660-664.

[8] McCoy, Roger. "Some See Threat in Ohio's Flu Shot." The Columbus
Dispatch. February 17, 2004.

[9] Kirby, David. "The Pentagon: A Voice of Reason on Vaccines and Autism?"
Wellsphere.com December 4, 2008.

[10] Warner, Angela. "Autism in the Military" Age of Autism. July 8, 2008.

[11] Kirby. Op cit.

[12] Private conversation with Col. Frank Anders, November 2009.

[13] James SJ, Slikker W, Melnyk S, New E, Jernigan S. "Thimerosal
neurotoxicity is associated with glutathione depletion: protection with
glutathione precursors." Neurotoxicity. (2005) Vol. 26, 1-8.

http://www.whale.to/vaccine/gale11.html