FDA Knew Dangers Of Thimerosal-Vaccines For 60 Years
In order to enroll in day care or attend public
schools in this country, children are forced to
participate in a mandatory vaccine program. According
to a report by the General Accounting Office released
in 1999, over the 1990s, an estimated 12 million
vaccinations were given each year and more than 40
million children were vaccinated.
Since the 1930s, mercury-based Thimerosal has been
added to vaccines as a preservative to boost drug
company profits by allowing vaccine makers to package
in bulk instead of individual doses.
According to newly discovered research, which was
supported by a grant from the American Medical
Association, government agencies have known for 60
years ago that Thimerosal was neither safe or
effective, and that it should have been removed as a
preservative in pharmaceutical products.
In 1948, Dr Morton of the Department of Bacteriology,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr
North of the Philadelphia General Hospital, and Mr
Engley of Camp Detrick, published the results of their
study in the Journal of the American Medical
Association evaluating the use of mercurials in
medicine.
The article, "The Bacteriostatic and Bactericidal
Action of Some Mercurial Compounds on Hemolytic
Streptococci: In Vivo and In Vitro Studies" explained
that "Mercurial compounds have been employed as
disinfectants since the beginning of bacteriology."
"Indeed, for a long period mercurial compounds, such
as bichloride of mercury, headed the list of chemical
which were thought to be effective in the killing of
microorganisms," it said.
However, the authors basically state that Thimerosal
as a preservative is useless, "It is not highly
germicidal and especially does not possess high
germicidal value in the presence of serum and other
protein mediums. The loss of antibacterial activity
of mercurials in the presence of serum proves their
incompatibility with serum."
In addition, the researchers warned of the toxicity of
Thimerosal. "The comparative in vitro studies of
mercurochrome, metaphen and merthiolate [Thimerosal]
on embryonic (developing) tissue cells and bacterial
cells by Salle and Lazarus [Proceedings of the Society
of Experimental Biology & Medicine, February 1935]
cannot be ignored," they said.
These investigators found Thimerosal was 262 times
more toxic for embryonic tissue cells than for
Staphylococcus aureus.
More than 10 years before the results of the above
study were published, Nye [Journal of the American
Medical Association, January 1937] and Welch [from the
Food and Drug Administration, Journal of Immunology
1939] also found the same mercurial compound more
toxic. "Not only is there a direct toxic action of the
mercurial compounds on the cellular and humoral
components of the animal body, but there is also the
possibility of sensitization," they said.
In addition, Mr Engley subsequently published an
article in the Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences in 1950, titled, "Evaluation of Mercurials as
Antiseptics" in which he declared, "...mercurials are
ineffective in vivo and may be more toxic for tissue
cells than bacterial cells, as shown in mice
(Nungester and Kempf, 1942) (Sarber, 1942) (Spaulding
and Bondi, 1947) tissue culture (Salle and Catlin,
1947) and embryonic eggs (Witlin, 1942) (Green and
Kirkeland, 1944), and with leucocytes (Welch and
Hunter, 1940)."
Due to the FDA ignoring the scientific findings and
warnings of its own researchers, Thimerosal remained
in vaccines for the second half of the century and has
now been linked to an epidemic in autism, attention
deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, and a wide range of other neurological
problems.
The epidemic began as the number of vaccines added to
the immunization schedule rose dramatically. American
children born in 1948 were only required to show proof
of a smallpox vaccination to enter school. By 1991 the
number of mandated vaccines had increased from 9 to 21
and children born in 1998 were required by most states
to receive 33 or 34 doses of nine or ten different
vaccines to enter school.
Beginning in about 1987, as each new vaccine was added
to the schedule, no one apparently thought to keep
track of the cumulative amount of Thimerosal that
would be injected into children with each new shot. As
a direct result of the increased mercury, cases of
autism began doubling every four years.
People who are still sitting on the fence over whether
to believe that Thimerosal is the cause of the
epidemic need only consider the staggering statistics.
On February 15, 2005, the GAO, released a Report
titled, "Special Education Children With Autism," that
revealed the number of children ages 6 through 21
diagnosed with autism receiving special education
services has increased more than 500% over the past 10
years.
State by state the numbers reveal enormity of this
tragic situation. In Oregon, between 1989 and 1999,
the number of school age kids with autism increased
from 250 to 2,877 cases, according to the state's
Department of Education statistics.
The Pennsylvania public school system is feeling the
pressure. Statewide, over a10 year period, the number
of children enrolled in special education classes for
autism disorders has increased from 634 to 5,145 in
2002-03, the most recent year for which state
statistics are available.
Federal Department of Education numbers reveal that
Ohio only had 22 reported cases of autism in 1992 and
by 2002, the number of cases had increased to 3,057.
In Illinois, over the same decade, there was an
increase from five cases to 3,802. In the same time
frame, every state in the nation had an increase of at
least 500 percent.
In addition, consider these odds. Fifteen years ago,
autism affected only one in 10,000 children. Today,
according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and
the CDC in January of 2004, the incidence of autism is
one in every 166 kids.
Since 1999-2000, the number of Bucks County
Pennsylvania autistic children receiving special
education services has jumped at a rate of more than
22% every year, according to the US Department of
Education.
Unlike normal kids, children with autism do not
instinctively learn from observing other children
around them. They must be taught even the simplest
skills such as making eye contact, following
directions, waiting their turn, or how to hold a
conversation. In addition, behaviors, skills, and
abilities vary from one child to the next and about
50% of autistic kids have few or no language skills.
They often suffer from other problems that impair the
learning process as well, such as hearing loss or
epilepsy.
Therefore educating these children costs much more
than is usually allotted for special education kids.
For example, in Bucks Country, PA, for tuition,
transportation, evaluations, and other services, the
cost can reach $60,000 per child compared to $7,000
that the average special education student receives,
according to David Mandell, co-chairman of the
Pennsylvania Autism Task Force, in the September 12,
2004 Bucks County Courier
The question of why some children develop autism and
others do not, appears to be the luck of the draw.
For various reasons still not completely understood,
the bodies of some kids are incapable of ridding
themselves of mercury. In fact, an August 2003
International Journal of Toxicology study revealed
that healthy normal children excreted eight times more
mercury through their hair than did autistic children.
The suspicion that Thimerosal was causing the epidemic
arose in 1997, when the FDA Modernization Act was
passed which required the FDA to investigate the
adverse effects of all products containing mercury.
Within a year, the FDA ordered Thimerosal removed from
over-the-counter products, which surely indicates that
officials knew that far back that it was dangerous.
Once the amount of Thimerosal in vaccines was finally
measured in 1999, the FDA discovered that children
were receiving more than 100 times the EPA’s safe
limit for mercury by 18 months of age and yet
officials allowed the preservative to remain in
vaccines. To this very day flu vaccines given to
pregnant women and 6 month old babies contain a full
dose of Thimerosal.
There can be no denying that the FDA and CDC have long
known of the damage caused by Thimerosal. A June 29,
1999, email from FDA scientist, Peter Patriarca to the
head of the CDC office on vaccine safety, warned that
the FDA would be criticized for 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."
Patriarca also pointed out the fact that calculating
the cumulative dose of mercury in vaccines was not
"rocket science" and involved only ninth-grade math.
He then cited the questions that could be asked of the
agencies: "What took the FDA so long to do the
calculations? Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies
do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the
childhood immunization schedule?"
A secret report from a meeting attended by officials
from the FDA and CDC in 2000, obtained with a FOIA
request, even contained a graph which specifically
illustrated the findings of a child's increasing risk
of developing symptoms of autism upon receiving the
increased amounts of Thimerosal.
In a transcript of that secret meeting, Pediatrician
Bill Weil, acknowledged the epidemic, "There are just
a host of neurodevelopmental data that would suggest
that we've got a serious problem.… The number of kids
getting help in special education is growing
nationally and state by state at a rate we have not
seen before."
However, notwithstanding this clear recognition of
injury to kids, and although individual states have
passed laws banning Thimerosal, the FDA has never
required drug makers to eliminate the preservative
from any vaccines.
In 2000, the independent father and son research team
of David and Mark Geier, conducted a study using the
same CDC data used by the government in 1999, to
compare children who received vaccines with Thimerosal
to kids who received vaccines without it. In the
relevant time frame, they knew that fully vaccinated
kids received four shots by the age of 18 months, and
so they devised a computer program to separate the
children who received no Thimerosal from those who
received four doses.
The results were astounding. The children who received
no Thimerosal had no autism, which caused the Geiers
to question their own findings and rerun the program
several more times. Each time it came back the same,
kids receiving Thimerosal were over ten times more
likely to have autism than the kids who received no
mercury.
Three years later, on May 21, 2003, the Mercury in
Medicine Report was published by the Subcommittee on
Human Rights and Wellness of the Committee on
Government Reform. Based on an investigation spanning
several years, the report rendered a specific finding
that linked the preservative to autism. Included in
the report was the following conclusion:
"Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is
directly 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 a lack of safety data regarding injected
Thimerosal and the sharper eyes of infant exposure to
this known neurotoxin. The public health agencies'
failure to act is indicative of institutional
malfeasance for self protection and misplaced
protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."
The Reform Report concluded that, "Because the FDA
chose not to recall Thimerosal-containing vaccines in
1999, in addition to all of those already injured,
8,000 children a day continued to be placed at risk
for overdose for at least an additional two years."
Over 2 years have passed since that report was issued,
and FDA and CDC officials are still allowing vaccine
makers to use Thimerosal in the manufacturing process
of vaccines and to add a full doses of the product to
flu vaccines which are injected into pregnant women,
children, and the elderly.
In addition, officials still allow drug companies to
ship mercury-laced vaccines for use on kids all over
the world. As a result, autism rates are exploding in
other countries. In China for instance, autism was
unheard of five years ago. Since Chinese children
began receiving vaccines with Thimerosal, well over
one and a half million cases of autism have been
reported. Autism is also on the rise in Argentina,
India and Nigeria, according to Robert F Kennedy, Jr,
in a June 20, 2005 interview on MSNBC.
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