| Nice Collection of Facts |
| NOTE: The article on Wall Street Journal (WSJ)did not mention that:
1) Dr. Offit shares the patent on the Rotavirus vaccine in development by Merck (Application number 353547 ). He had a $350,000 grant from Merck for Rotavirus vaccine development. 2) Dr. Offit is a consultant to Merck (listed on an attachment to his OGE 450), but does not want to disclose whether or not he received any remuneration for his services. (see http://www.vaccinetruth.org/paul_offit.htm) I already sent an email to the editorial board of WSJ to ask for a correction to the commentary article. Saadedine Tebbal Ph.D. SET Laboratories, Inc. 12873 Capricorn Dr. Stafford, Texas 77477 Tel: 281-565-5777 Email: set@setlaboratories.com *********************************************************** Dear Wall Street Journal Editorial Staff: The timing of your editorial with regard to "Autism and Vaccines," was craftily contrived so that it would come on the heels of the February 9th Institute of Medicine meeting in Washington, DC, while never mentioning the credible and compelling science reported by at least half a dozen researchers (who referenced many more studies) at the IOM meeting that links vaccines and autism. I'd like to explain why a suspicion that thimerosal bears culpability in the rise in autism is rational. Thimerosal contains 49.6% ethyl mercury by weight. It was first added to vaccines in the 1930's; Leo Kanner "discovered" autism in the 1940's among children born in the 1930's. Mercury and thimerosal have been shown in thousands of scientific papers to be potent neurotoxins. There are approximately 5000 articles in the National Library of Medicine contraindicating the use of mercury-containing substances. Thimerosal was placed in many vaccines (e.g. Hepatitis B, DPT, HIB, among others) that are part of the childhood immunization schedule. It is now in the influenza vaccine that is being recommended. The safety of thimerosal has never been adequately tested. In 1930 Eli Lilly "secretly sponsored a 'human toxicity' study on patients already known to be dying of meningococcal meningitis." This was then cited repeatedly for decades as proof that thimerosal was of low toxicity and harmless to humans. The highly questionable nature of the original research was not revealed to the scientific community or the public. The archives of Eli Lilly contained numerous documents dating back to the 1930's demonstrating that thimerosal was dangerous. In 1999 the FDA recommended, but did not mandate, that thimerosal be removed from most vaccines. In 1997, Dr. Gregory V. Stajich and his team at Emory University "began a pilot study to evaluate iatrogenic exposure to mercury in preterm and term infants receiving their initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine." A report of this study appeared in the May 2000 issue of The Journal of Pediatrics: "....To our knowledge, and according to both manufacturers of the vaccine, no study has examined total mercury levels in newborn infants after inoculation with hepatitis B vaccine..... This study demonstrates that elevated mercury levels after a single dose of hepatitis B vaccine were detected in both preterm and term infants. Hepatitis B vaccine was studied because newborns receive this vaccine in the first days of life.... Newborns, especially preterm infants, may have decreased ability to both oxidize and eliminate mercury." In an article in the New York Times of November 10, 2002, entitled The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory, we read, "The F.D.A. team's conclusions were frightening. Vaccines added under Halsey's watch had tripled the dose of mercury that infants got in their first few months of life. As many as 30 million American children may have been exposed to mercury in excess of Environmental Protection Agency guidelines -- levels of mercury that, in theory, could have killed enough brain cells to scramble thinking or hex behavior." Pediatriciaan Neal Halsey, MD, who served on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices for the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases, is quoted as saying, "My first reaction was simply disbelief, which was the reaction of almost everybody involved in vaccines. In most vaccine containers, thimerosal is listed as a mercury derivative, a hundredth of a percent. And what I believed, and what everybody else believed, was t hat it was truly a trace, a biologically insignificant amount. My honest belief is that if the labels had had the mercury content in micrograms, this would have been uncovered years ago. But the fact is, no one did the calculation." In view of a recent study published in the November 2003 issue of Pediatrics (Verstraeten et al.), Congressman Dave Weldon, M.D. wrote a letter to Julie Gerberding, M.D., Director of the CDC. In his letter, Congressman Weldon states, "I have read the upcoming Pediatrics study and several earlier versions of this study dating back to February 2000. I have read various e-mails from Dr. Verstraeten and coauthors. I have reviewed the transcripts of a discussion at Simpsonwood, GA between the author, various CDC employees, and vaccine industry representatives. I found a disturbing pattern which merits a thorough, open, timely, and independent review by researchers outside of the CDC, HHS, the vaccine industry, and others with a conflict of interest in vaccine related issues (including many in University settings who may have conflicts). A review of these documents leaves me very concerned that rather than seeking to understand whether or not some children were exposed to harm ful levels of mercury in childhood vaccines in the 1990's, there may have been a selective use of the data to make the associations in the earliest study disappear...." Of particular note, is that a CDC official who helped write the report that appeared in the November issue of Pediatrics, scientist Frank DeStefano, admitted that the study contained many children too young to be diagnosed as autistic. (Translation: He lied in his own published research.) Dr. Boyd Haley, Ph.D., Chair, Chemistry Dept., University of Kentucky, concludes that biochemical toxicity studies and other evidence show that the only explanation for the increased incidence of autism and related disorders is the release of ethyl mercury from thimerosal injected into children. Recent discoveries made by researchers such as Deth et al. investigating biochemical processes demonstrate that thimerosal has a powerful inhibitory effect on essential metabolic processes that are required for children to develop properly. Additional research by Dr. Haley and others has shown that infants with autism are excreting less mercury from their bodies than normal children even though their exposure to mercury is greater. The implication is clear that some children retain mercury in their bodies and the retained mercury acts as a neurotoxin. The neurotoxicity of methyl mercury in fish has been well documented. Some have argued against the neurotoxicity of thimerosal in vaccines by pointing out that it contains ethyl mercury, which purportedly acts on the body differently from methyl mercury. Dr. Haley explains, however, that thimerosal has a delayed breakdown rate in the human body, the "partitioning" factor, that enables the ethyl mercury component to be more toxic than it would be if not contained in the thimerosal compound. Dr. Haley explains that aluminum in vaccines and other factors such as antibiotics interact with ethyl mercury to enhance its toxicity. Recent research from Baskin et al. shows that thimerosal is highly toxic to human cells in very minute ("micromolar") concentrations and kills human cells at a rapid rate. These findings are consistent with the findings of Doctors Haley and Deth. The findings show that thimerosal, like lead, is toxic to humans in concentrations much lower than originally th ought. The FDA itself, moreover, has discovered that "[t]himerosal ... crosses the blood-brain and placental barriers and results in appreciable mercury content in tissues including brain." Thus, the scientific literature shows that this highly toxic substance can easily poison a child's brain. More than twenty years ago researchers examining thimerosal concluded as follows, Thus thimerosal, commonly used as a preservative, has been found not only to render its primary toxic effect, but also capable of changing the properties of cells. This fact suggests that the use of thimerosal for the preservation of medical biological preparations, especially those intended for children, is inadmissible. More laboratory research is being conducted. An ongoing research study, for example, strongly suggests that inoculation of mice in amounts mimicking the childhood vaccine schedule causes neurological and immune disorders in mice similar to disorders found in children. An epidemiological study by Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier published in 2003, and based on data collected in the Centers for Disease Control's VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) database, concluded that a causal link does exist between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental problems. As far as epidemiology goes, we have learned that the Centers for Disease Control knew in 2000, through an unreleased confidential study, that thimerosal was a problem. At a CDC conference of leading vaccine experts held in Norcross, Georgia on June 7-8, 2000 the author of a CDC epidemiological study, Thomas Verstraeten reported: "...we have found statistically significant relationships between the exposure and outcomes for these different exposures and outcomes. First, for two months of age, an unspecified developmental delay, which has its own specific ICD9 code. Exposure at three months of age, Tics. Exposure at six months of age, an attention deficit disorder. Exposure at one, three and six months of age, language and speech delays which are two separate ICD9 codes. Exposures at one, three and six months of age, the entire category of neurodevelopmental delays, which includes all of these plus a number of other disorders." Another doctor at the conference stated, "One, up until this last discussion we have been talking about chronic exposure. I think it's clear to me anyway that we are talking about a problem that is probably more related to bolus acute exposures, and we also need to know that the migration problems and some of the other developmental problems in the central nervous system go on for quite a period after birth. But from all of the other studies of toxic substances, the earlier you work with the central nervous system, the more likely you are to run into a sensitive period for one of these effects, so that moving from one month or one day of birth to six months of birth changes enormously the potential for toxicity. There are just a host of neurodevelopmental data that would suggest that we've got a serious problem. The earlier we go, the more serious the problem. The second point I could make is that in relationship to aluminum, being a nephrologist for a long time, the potential for aluminum and central nervous system toxicity was established by dialysis data. To think there isn't some possible problem here is unreal." And yet another doctor present said, "This association leads me to favor a recommendation that infants up to two years old not be immunized with Thimerosal containing vaccines if suitable alternative preparations are available....My gut feeling? It worries me enough. Forgive this personal comment, but I got called out at eight o'clock for an emergency call and my daughter-in-law delievered a son by C-Section. Our first male in the line of the next generation, and I do not want that grandson to get a Thimerosal containing vaccine until we know better what is going on. It will probably take a long time. In the meantime, and I know there are probably implications for this internationally, but in the meantime I think I want that grandson to only be given Thimerosal-free vaccines." One wonders why neither the Simpsonwood transcript nor the Verstraeten report that was discussed at the Simpsonwood conference were made public. Both documents were finally obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. These documents raise a host of questions about vaccine safety and government accountability. Some parents have brought thimerosal claims on behalf of their children in State or Federal Court. The government has vigorously contested thimerosal claims under the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act (VICA), going so far as a (failed) attempt to seal the records of these proceedings. There have been efforts in Congress to provide unprecedented liability protection for the pharmaceutical corporations. The number of affected children is staggering. In a March 22, 2003 letter to Senator Hillary Clinton, Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier described the shocking statistics that they have found. The projected cost to our society is staggering - Dr. Geier's calculations show that overall there are more than 2 million cases of autism, speech disorders, and developmental delay in children from 1989 through 2000. The costs to our society of caring for these children will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars or more. Medical treatment for these children's disorders is expensive and frequently is not covered by insurance. The burden on schools to provide special education services is enormous. The affected children can be helped by treatment, but the cost of effective therapy is prohibitive. Families are bankrupting themselves in trying to provide adequate care for their children. Today, there exist waiting lists for group residences, respite care and other services. The Committee on Government Reform's 80-page Mercury in Medicine report concludes as follows: "Thimerosal 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 this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies' failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry." So, that is some history on why parents have a logical reason to hold this rational suspicion that thimerosal played a role in the regression of their formerly normally developing child. Therefore, parents needn't be accused of being scaremongers. The CDC's own database and the CDC's own representatives clandestinely bring to bear the connection and concern of thimerosal's link to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. But independent parents, like the allegedly independent Wall Street Journal, will not shut up - unlike the CDC. Far from wanting to shut down debate, parents supported Congressman Burton's effort to encourage a White House Conference on autism. Unfortunately, one response received expressed that the President was not able to fit this into his schedule. Quoting Dr. Offit will not allay parents' fears about vaccines, due to his involvement with a vaccine that was pulled from the market due to causing internal damage to children and his connection with a vaccine manufacturer. Referencing Sen. Frist will not allay parents' fears, either, due to his connection with receipt of funds from pharmaceutical companies, the healthcare industry, and the rider that was stealthily inserted into the Homeland Security Bill that would have protected Eli Lilly. If vaccine manufacturers are fewer today, people should look to mergers as the cause. Pharmaceutical companies merge just as do any other corporations. Blanket governmental protection is a very dangerous way to ensure quality assurance of a product such as vaccines.... It is no way to ensure safety at all. And it should go without saying that a poison should never be used as a preservative. Your editorial says that vaccine injuries are rare, but this is not the case. Vaccine injuries are underreported. Doctors are trained to believe that vaccines are safe, so when a reaction occurs, the connection with the vaccine is denied and not reported. For example, a 2 1/2 month old baby died in Kansas, having been taken to the hospital the day after a 5-in-1 vaccine; the family asked about the vaccine, but was told it was not related. No parents advocating for vaccine-injured children are trying to get rich off the blood of these kids. You are correct about this: autism is an extraordinarily sorrowful diagnosis. No parent would take any amount of money in advance for autism to happen to their child. But now that these children have autism, parents hope for the resources to rehabilitate their precious children as much as possible so that their children may have as safe and as healthy a life as possible. This is the hope of any parent, and it is a rational hope. There are a staggering number of individuals in some way touched by those with autism and other neurodevelopmental, immunological, and other vaccine-related injuries in this country. This represents a huge voting body. More and more people are aware of the truth behind what has happened with vaccines and how it has affected children with autism and the health of the general population. The scientific body of evidence by independent researchers implicating vaccines has also grown and is credible and compelling. It would behoove the government and media to come out on the correct and just side of this issue - because everything will be revealed. Your editorial is so slanted, that it will surely fall. Sincerely, Mrs. Teri Small |