Parents Say California Study is Flawed

[Guest guest]

Parents Say California autism Study is Flawed

By Jane Akre. http://tinyurl.com/2vqdgr

Critics say the premise of a newly published study that

discounts thimerosal's link to autism is flawed. The study,

published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, finds that the number

of autism cases among California children continued to increase from

January 1995 to March 2007 despite the discontinuance of the mercury

containing preservative in vaccines.

Therefore the California Department of Developmental Services

(DDS) concludes that, " The DDS data do not show any recent decrease in

autism in California despite the exclusion of more than trace levels

of thimerosal from nearly all childhood vaccines. The DDS data do not

support the hypothesis that exposure to thimerosal during childhood is

a primary cause of autism. " Critics say the premise of the study is

wrong.

Rick Rollens tells IB News, " The conclusions in the study are

flawed and premature, and does nothing to exonerate vaccines,

particularly mercury containing vaccines, as a cause of California's

autism epidemic, " he said.

Rollens is the father of a 17-year-old son with autism.

He is also the co-founder of the University of California

M.I.N.D. Institute and a member of the California Legislative Blue

Ribbon Commission on Autism, which helped craft a 2006 law in the

state mandating that all of the mercury-based preservative be removed

from childhood vaccines. Not until Governor Schwarzenegger of

California mandated the preservative be removed from childhood

vaccines in December 2006 under penalty of law did the real recall

begin, says Rollens.

Prior to that, a " formal request " was made by the American

Academy of Pediatrics in 1999 to vaccine manufacturers " for a clear

commitment and a plan to eliminate or reduce as expeditiously as

possible the mercury content of their vaccines. "

And because no one can know for sure whether vaccine makers

followed the " formal request, " Rollens says it's too early to see any

changes in autism rates.

IB News posed the question to the California Department of

Developmental Services about the premise of the study-that thimerosal

was removed from vaccines by 2001.

Lea , a department spokesperson emailed IB News that

" Exposure to mercury in vaccines was minimal at the time the law came

into effect. " Amy Carson of Moms Against Mercury says thimerosal

stayed in vaccines because no one was checking.

" The story is so flawed for so many reasons " she tells IB News.

Carson's son started spiraling downhill after his 12 month shots

she says.

" When the law went into effect in California in December 2006,

women and children under three were still receiving mercury containing

vaccines. They still had vaccines up until the year of 2005 with

expiration dates but the law didn't come into effect until 2006. "

Records show that fearing an influenza vaccine shortfall,

California as late as 2006, allowed that traditional

thimerosal-preserved vaccines would be continued for all pregnant

women and children under the age of three. Rollens says no one knows

how even " traces " of mercury found in thimerosal may impact a child's

developing nervous system. According to Carson, " There is zero

tolerance for lead, why not thimerosal? "

When asked to verify the premise of the study that the children

in the data of his study were not exposed to thimerosal, Dr.

Schecter, who conducted the study provided a link to the CDC Web site.

The majority of children with autism enter California's developmental

services system between the ages of 3 + and 9 years old. Rollens

says do the math.

" Today, those children born after the ban took effect are

between 4 months old and one year of age. California's developmental

services reporting system DOES NOT include children under the age of

three years old, " Rollens tells IB News

" It will not be clear what impact California's law banning

mercury in vaccines has had on the rate of new cases of autism until

at least 2009-2010 and later. "

" If by 2009-2010 there has not been ANY change in the rate of

increase of new cases of autism entering California's developmental

services system, then we can scratch mercury in vaccines off our list

of agents contained in vaccines as a cause, and; then begin

concentrating on the numerous other poisons and toxic agents in

vaccines such as aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG, live viruses,etc., and

most importantly, the interaction of these and other toxic agents

contained in the 34 doses of vaccines children receive from birth to

two years old today " he says.

Thimerosal is a neurotoxin that alters learning and social

development. Autism is a chemical imbalance in the brain that affects

more boys than girls. The cause remains a mystery. Today estimates

are 1 in 150 children suffer from autism in the U.S.

The good news according to Rollens is that California's

reporting system is the " gold standard " for tracking autism, Asberger

syndrome, cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders.

At a 2000 meeting of top government science and health

officials, Kennedy Jr. uncovered through a FOIA request some of

the following comments about CDC research into the thimerosal-autism

link: " We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any

lawsuits, " says one participant.

" " The research results will have to be handled " says another and

another says the research is, " statistically significant. "

[Guest guest]

In an email note, Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm, made these

observations about the autism rates in California:

I also think that early intervention is driving up the 3-5 year old

numbers too

Years back, there were very few three year olds entering the system.

Today, there are many more. Does that mean there are more three year

olds with autism, or are we just counting them earlier than ever before?

It's not a " better diagnosis " argument, but rather an " earlier

diagnosis " one.

Is it possible that, as these kids " age out, " we will see that there

are actually somewhat fewer of them?

So, as I see it, there are several confounding factors, making

California nowhere near the " Gold Standard " experiment I thought it was:

1) Immigration - Foreign AND domestic (families moving to CA for

services - And by the way, did anyone check to see if the military was

tending to transfer service members with autistic kids to Calif bases?

Not for nefarious reasons, necessarily)

2) Early intervention

3) Flu shot (and remember that 2004 was a panic year with lines around

the block, which would be the three year old cohort in 2007-2008)

4) Mercury was still in vaccines and Rhogam through 2003 and perhaps

beyond.

The 2001-2002 " convenience sample " was of CDC stock only. CDC always

had a preference for buying Hg free brands, even before 1999. The US

DOJ says convenience samples are completely unreliable and " usually

hazardous "

But this one little quick spot-check on about 400 CDC supplied clinics

-- perhaps none of which were in California -- is the entire basis of

" proof " that mercury " was removed from all vaccines in 2001 "

By the way, more than HALF of all Californians are in HMOs -- by far

the highest in the country (Florida is next with about 30%, the

national average is about 20%, and in poor states like Alabama, where

autism is only 3.3 per 10,000, it is just 3%). It's possible that all

those Hg containing vaccines that were never recalled or traded in

were sold to HMOs at a bulk discount, and most of them ended up in

California. A lot of vaccines can have more than a million doses, I

believe.

5) Environmental factors have changed in the last 5-10 years,

especially the amount of mercury from coal coming from China, and the

number, severity and huge number of homes destroyed (due to recent

development in fire zones) by wildfires. Also keep in mind that the

house THEMSELVES are toxic when they go up in flames en masse like

that. The ash alone from a burned down modern house, with all the

computers and appliances etc, is so toxic and full of lead, arsenic,

mercury and more, it has to be treated as a HazMat.

DK