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Department of Health and Human Services (Child Protective Services):See You In (Vaccine) Court?



 
 
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Old June 8th 07, 06:54 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
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Default Department of Health and Human Services (Child Protective Services):See You In (Vaccine) Court?

See You In (Vaccine) Court


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-...r_b_51224.html



On Monday, one of the most important legal proceedings in American
medical history will get underway at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in
Washington. There, a special panel of three judges will begin hearing
evidence to support -- and refute -- the hypothesis that mercury in
vaccines and/or the live-virus measles-mumps-rubella shot caused autism
or autism-like symptoms in some American children.

Monday will mark the first time ever that evidence of autistic harm from
childhood vaccines is examined and cross-examined in a court of law.
This is far from a slam dunk case for either side, and the stakes -
professional, financial, emotional - could not be more intense.

These three judges from the federal "Vaccine Court," as it is called,
are about to dip into the raging, contradictory waters of the
vaccine-autism contretemps, knowing they must emerge on the other side,
each with their own acutely anticipated decision about causation.
Ultimately, they must deliver judgment on some 4,800 claims that have
been languishing in the system for years.

I do not envy them their task.

Technically, at least, this is not a trial at all; it is an "Autism
Omnibus Proceeding" in a no-fault, supposedly non-adversarial
adjudication. The judges are not judges, but "Special Masters;"
plaintiff families and their lawyers are called "petitioners," and the
defendant, called the "respondent," is not some drug giant, but the
Department of Health and Human Services, represented by well-funded
attorneys at the US Justice Department.

Any claims awarded in Vaccine Court are paid from a 75-cents-per-vaccine
tax footed by consumers, leaving vaccine makers free from liability.

But if even one case of causation is determined, then private lawsuits
in civil courts - where the drug makers themselves are on trial - would
soon flood the dockets. (Ironically, if families lose in Vaccine Court,
they are free to sue in civil court. Having autistic kids appear before
sympathetic juries is Big Pharma's big nightmare, and it's why a secret
rider was attached to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to bar
thimerosal cases from civil court and force them into Vaccine Court).

Over the next three weeks, evidence on both sides of the first "test
case" will be picked apart to its bare bones, with one gaping exception.
Petitioners were just denied access to the government's vast vaccine
safety database of HMO patients, which was used by CDC officials to
conduct a four-year study that ultimately found no link between
thimerosal and autism. Earlier versions of the study, obtained through
the Freedom of Information Act, however, clearly showed increased risks
for many neurodevelopmental disorders, depending on the dose of
thimerosal administered.

No wonder a special panel convened by the NIH recently issued a harsh
critique of the CDC's data collection and management, saying the study
contained "several serious problems... weaknesses and limitations" that
"reduce its usefulness" in proving or disproving causation.

And so, numbers culled from the government's massive database will be
submitted as Exhibit A for the defense, though the other side will be
forever barred from seeing the actual raw data, in order to replicate
what the CDC researchers found. (Exact replication is impossible because
original datasets, culled at taxpayer expense, somehow "went missing"
and are no longer available for re-analysis - a possible felony
violation of the federal Data Quality Act).

On the other hand, the burden of proof for plaintiffs is lower in
Vaccine Court than other federal courts, which could even things out a
little.

Nearly all of the government's evidence will be "epidemiological" in
nature - based on large population studies of computerized data. These
include the CDC study, plus similar research done in Sweden, Denmark and
the UK which found that, if anything, thimerosal had a
"neuro-protective" effect on children by apparently reducing their risk
of autism.

Petitioning attorneys will counter that Federal Court rules regard
epidemiology alone as being "insufficient" to disprove causation, and
will surely use the NIH panel's critique of the government's own
database as a roadmap toward defanging the CDC's conclusions. To begin
with, the CDC found an autism rate of just 11-per-10,000 children at the
largest participating HMO, where the actual rate is currently
73-per-10,000. Why so many excluded children, they will likely ask, and
how did this affect the rate of outcomes?

As for Denmark, petitioning lawyers will argue that autism case numbers
increased after 1992, when thimerosal was removed from childhood
vaccines, mostly because the Danish government happened to switch from
counting inpatient-diagnosed cases only - about 13% of the total - to
counting all inpatient AND outpatient cases nationwide. By 1999 the
total number had "gone up" to about 200 children a year, in a nation of
6.2 million people - well below the current US rate of 1-in-150 kids,
and not exactly a raging epidemic.

The lawyers might also point out that incidence and prevalence rates of
autism actually declined in Denmark during 2000, and again (we now know,
only through FOIA) in 2001. And they could cite a media quote from Dr.
Irva Hertz-Picciotto, professor of public health at UC-Davis School of
Medicine and chair of the NIH panel that critiqued the CDC study. Flawed
as the CDC analysis was, she called it "an improvement on other studies,
including the two in Denmark, both of which had serious weaknesses in
their designs."

For their side of the argument, family lawyers will present thousands of
pages of published "biological" science, as opposed to epidemiology.
They will examine data from animal models, test tube studies, and
examinations of children with autism; they will try to present a
plausible biological mechanism by which mercury (and to a lesser extent,
MMR) could cause autistic-like symptoms -- at the molecular, cellular,
and clinical level.

Among this evidence is research suggesting that:

1) Many children with autism, probably due to genetics, are deficient in
certain sulfur-based proteins that defend against heavy metal
accumulation in humans. The proteins, which include glutathione, are
called "thiols," and sometimes "mercaptans," from the Latin mercurium
captans, or literally "mercury capturers."

2) Many children with autism show signs of heavy metal accumulation,
including elevated levels of proteins called "prophyrins" a bio-marker
of lead and mercury toxicity. They also present with low levels of
mercury in baby haircuts, (versus control children) suggesting a heavy
metal "efflux disorder" that prevents the proper metabolism and
excretion of heavy metals.

3) Exposure to extremely low doses (micromolars) of thimerosal,
previously thought to be safe, shut down 25% of brain stem cells, in one
lab study.

4) In another, low-level exposures of a few minutes duration killed many
of the immune system's "dendritic" cells, disrupted production of
immune-system messenger chemicals called "cytokines," and caused
inflammation.

5) Meanwhile, many children with autism show signs of immune deficiency
AND hyperactivity, as well as cytokine imbalances and inflammation,
(they also show signs of chronic autoimmunity, where the immune system
attacks the body and brain).

6) Organic ethylmercury from thimerosal crosses the blood-brain barrier
in primates, where it quickly converts to inorganic mercury, which can
remain trapped in the brain for decades.

7) Inorganic mercury trapped in primate brains caused neuro-inflammation
(ie, rapid brain growth) by activating "glial" cells in the brain.

8) Autopsies on autistic human brains found chronic inflammation,
apparently linked to the brain's immune system and produced by
activation of its "glial" cells.

9) Another autopsy study also showed ongoing neuro-inflammation,
possibly from heavy metal exposure, and signs of autoimmunity. (Other
studies have found rapid brain growth in infants with autism.)

10) Thimerosal can disrupt a chemical process called "methylation,"
critical for gene expression, neural function, memory and attention, and
the production of sulfur-based "thiol" proteins like glutathione.

Plaintiff lawyers will also show data from a study of birthday videos
proving that many kids with autism were meeting or exceeding
developmental milestones at age one, only to have tumbled into a
wordless, autistic world by age two. They will also show home videos of
plaintiff children, before and after their own regression, and in many
cases, of the same children a few years after experimental treatments -
including chelation (for heavy metal removal) and methyl B-12 (for
repair of methylation) - that seem to have vastly improved their condition.

At this point, government lawyers will surely try to discredit these
biological studies, one-by-one. They could succeed, though it will be
tough, given the data's provenance. Lead authors come from institutions
such as Harvard, Northeastern, Columbia, UC Davis, Johns Hopkins, and
the Universities of Washington, Arkansas, Kentucky and Rochester, and
their papers were published in peer-reviewed journals such as Molecular
Psychiatry, and the NIH's Environmental Health Perspectives.

The defense also has a few biological studies to support its side,
including one showing no difference in the mercury levels of blood and
hair of typical vs. autistic kids. But the mean age in this study was
four years old, and mercury does not linger around in blood or hair for
that long.

Another study showed the thimerosal containing drug Rho-Gam (given to
pregnant women, and not a vaccine) did not increase the risk of autism
in children, though this study was funded by Johnson & Johnson, the
product's manufacturer and a potential thimerosal litigation defendant.

Likewise, the plaintiffs might offer some epidemiology, including one
study from the University of Texas showing increased rates of autism in
school districts near mercury-emitting coal power plants, and another,
funded by the CDC itself, where children with autism in the SF Bay Area
were 50% more likely to be born in the region's most mercury-polluted
tracts, suggesting "a potential association between autism and estimated
metal concentrations."

Finally, expect to hear hours of testimony about California. Mercury was
phased out of childhood vaccines (except the flu shot) a few years ago,
the argument goes, so there should have been a drop in autism rates by
now, especially in California, which keeps the most reliable autism
statistics. It's a very powerful contention, but it may be too early to
make any final conclusions.

Among the youngest children, 3-to-5-year-olds, the number of cases was
still increasing after the first quarter of 2007. These kids were born
and vaccinated between 2002 and 2004, after thimerosal was removed from
vaccines, right?

It's true, most companies started making preservative-free vaccine in
2001, but they also continued making product with thimerosal, as a
backup during the transition period. Little, if any of those
mercury-containing vaccines were ever recalled: They remained on the
market, until they were finally used up or expired, in 2003.

Government lawyers will likely point to a 2002 survey of vaccine
providers, conducted by the CDC, showing that just 2% of the pediatric
shots contained thimerosal. But this was a survey of providers under CDC
contract only, and CDC had a record of buying mercury-free vaccines for
its clients (ie, state, county and other public health clinics) even
before 1999, when the federal government called for the removal of
thimerosal from the pediatric schedule "as soon as possible."

It's not clear how many of the CDC contract providers surveyed were in
California, where the vast majority of children receive care in private
practices and large HMOs. Moreover, the CDC survey was merely a
"convenience sample," which are so inaccurate in representing the
general population they are virtually never used in published data. In
fact, the US DOJ itself defines them as "rarely useful in evaluation and
usually hazardous."

Meanwhile, the state has quietly been tracking the number of autism
cases by birth year, as well as age group, meaning we can look at the
very youngest children entering the system. In the first quarter of
2003, there were 170 children with autism in the state system born in
2000 (or, roughly, three-year-olds). In the first quarter of 2004, the
number of three-year-olds increased 8.2% to 184. In 2005 the same number
went up 13%, to 208, and in 2006 it jumped nearly 27% to 264. But this
year, among kids born in 2004, it was 251, a 5% drop.

This could be attributable to some quarterly reporting glitch, and the
caseload could easily be made up in the next quarter (that data will be
out in mid-July). But if the deficit continues, the 2004 birth cohort
could finish out as the first in which case numbers actually fell. (A
similar trend might be emerging at Northern California Kaiser, a major HMO).

Of course, it would take tremendous resources to get to the bottom of
this, lawyers might argue. One would need full medical records on each
of those 251 kids born in 2004. Did any receive thimerosal still left in
California vaccines (or prenatally via Rho-Gam)? How many were exposed
to mercury in flu shots during pregnancy and as infants? And in a
population that is now one-quarter foreign born, how many children
immigrated from countries where immunization with thimerosal is now
routine? (Vaccination coverage in Mexico is now 92%).

Is immigration helping keep the California numbers up? We don't have
that data. But we do know that, since 2003, the rate of increase among
white and black children was 48.6% and 51.6%, respectively. Among Asian
children, however, it was 79%, and among Hispanics, 84.2%. Probably
something worth looking into (as well as the effect of aggressive early
intervention campaigns, which have consistently brought down the average
age of diagnosis and would likely drive up the number of three year olds
in the system).

But again, this is epidemiology coming out of California, and the
Special Masters are looking at specific children with specific claims
before their court. Officials from the state have been warning all of us
(and that includes me) not to read too much into these numbers.

At the International Meeting For Autism Research last month, California
health officials presented their data along with this caveat:
"Limitations of the database and lack of individual exposure data
prevent conclusions, based on these data, about thimerosal as a cause or
modifier of autism in a specific subgroup or child."

It is entirely possible that thimerosal itself did not cause the autism
epidemic, but that is not what is on trial here. Even so, for the sake
of argument, let's say that a "specific subgroup" of people with autism,
maybe 1%, was affected by mercury in their vaccines. With an estimated
1.5 million Americans with autism, that would mean 15,000 people
severely impacted by thimerosal.

But, if causation can be shown in even 1% of cases, this would provide
tremendous hope for the other 99%. Yes, some cases may be purely genetic
in nature. But for everyone else, if we can show how thimerosal caused
"autism," we might be able to do the same for, say, pesticides, PCBs,
flame retardants, jet fuel, environmental mercury in air, water and
fish, or any combination thereof.

It's a tough call and, like I said, I don't envy these Special Masters,
though I do thank them for opening the proceedings to the public.

And I will see you in Vaccine Court.

----------------

David Kirby is author of the book "Evidence of Harm." Many of the
studies cited here can be found on his Powerpoint slides at
www.evidenceofharm.com






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.

BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

 




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