reddutchgirl's Journal

continued:

Representative Dan Burton predised over the Government Reform Committee hearing on conflicts of interest in the vaccine approval process on June 15, 2000.  Burton stated that the pharmaceutical industry has too much influence over the FDA and The Center for Disease Control.  The FDA makes recommendations on the approval and licensing of new vaccines and the CDC recommends which vaccines should be added to the childhood schedule.  Burton found that members of the FDA and CDC advisory commmittees own stock in drug companies that make vaccines and indivividuals on both committees own patents for vaccines under consideration of the committee.  (Kirby, 2005)

On May 3, 2003 Rip. Burton presented the report of his three year investigation in Chicago at the annual Autism One Conference.  To the dismay of many this meeting was held on a Saturday afternoon, which guaranteed that the major media would ignore this report, "Mercury in Medicine:  Taking Unnecessary Risks," was eighty-four pages.  The report detailed how Eli Lilly kneew of the dangers of their product, but kept this information concealed from the public.  The authors of this report felt that federal agencies neglected the public interest.  Some charges made in the report were:

1.  Ethyl mercury's toxicity was neglected by manufacturers and regulators.

2.  Thimerosal manufacturers accumulated evidence of toxicity but did not share it.

3.  The FDA's actions to remove mercury from OTC (over the counter) products should have prompted a review of mercury in vaccines.

4.  Vaccine makers never conducted adequate testing of thimerosal, nor did the FDA require it.

5.  The FDA and CDC failed to be vigilant as new vaccines containing thimerosal were added to the immunization schedule.

6.  The CDC is conflicted in its duties to monitor the safety of vaccines while also purchasing vaccines for resale and promoting immunization.

7.  Studies conducted or funded by the CDC that dispute any correlation between autism and vaccines have been of poor design, under-powered, and fatally flawed.

Another prominent figure involved in the vaccine debate is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  Kennedy wrote a disturbing article featured in the June 2005 issue of Rolling Stone.  He discusses the findings of a secret meeting involving top government scientists and health officials at the Simpsonwood Conference Center.  This meeting took place in a secluded, wooded area in Norcross, Georgie.  No one was able to make photocopies, notes or take paters with them when they left.  There was a very important reason for the strict secrecy of this meeting.  They were discussing the alarming new study conducted by epidemiologist, Tom Verstraeten.  This study pointed to thimerosal in the vaccines as being responsible for the staggering increase in autism and other neurological disorders among children.

In 1991 the CDC and FDA recommended three additional vaccines containing thimerosal to young infants and since this time the cases of autis has increased from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.  Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, claimed that the findings of this study were statistically significant.  Kennedy reports that instead of alerting the public to the dangers of thimerosal, the officials at Simpsonwood spent the next two days planning how to cover up the frightening data.

Kennedy also reports of the dangers of thimerosal and its suggested link to autism.  Dr. Boyd Haley, "one of the world's authorities on mercury toxicity," states that a study could not be constructed to show that thimerosal is safe becasue it is too toxic.  "If you inject thimerosal into an inimal, its brain will sicken.  If you apply it to living tissue, the cells will die.  If you put it in a Petri dish, the culture dies.  Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."  And yet, skeptics of the link claim that the rise in autism is due to better diagnosis.

The effort to keep these findings out of the mainstream media was not as successful as the officials hoped for.  David Kirby's book, Evidence of Harm, was placed on the bookshelves in 2005.  This book takes a look at the government's suppression of studies that suggest a link between autism and thimerosal.  Kirby tells the story of parents who have worked tirelessly to find the cause of their children's autism.  Perhaps the most disturbing part of his book is about the rider attached to the Patriot Act that protects pharmaceutical compaies from liability damages due to vaccine related injuries.

The main problem dealing with vaccinations is the fact that parents are not fully informed of the dangers their children face receiving vaccinations.  New mothers are told to bring their infants in for check-ups and to be given their vaccinations to maintain their child's health.  What parents are not told are the side effects of the vaccinations, ingredients contained in the vaccinations, and that they have they option to wait to vaccinate until the infant is older, use single vaccination, requiest thimerosal-free vaccinations, or not vaccinate at all.  We did not vaccinate my child.