Kirby on Huffington Post: Obama and Vaccines

[Guest guest]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/obama-climbs-on-the-vacci_b_97969.html

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/obama-climbs-on-the-vacci_b_97969.html

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Kirby

Obama Climbs on the Vaccine Bandwagon

Posted April 22, 2008 | 11:29 AM (EST)

No matter who wins in Pennsylvania today, the next President of the United

States will support research into the growing evidence of some link between

vaccines and autism.

Senator McCain has already expressed his belief that vaccines and the

mercury containing preservative thimerosal could be implicated in what he

has rightly termed an " autism epidemic. "

Senator Hillary Clinton, in response to a questionaire from the autism

activist group A-CHAMP, wrote that she was " Committed to make investments to

find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like

vaccines. " And when asked if she would support a study of vaccinated vs.

unvaccinated children, she said: " Yes. We don't know what, if any, kind of

link there is between vaccines and autism - but we should find out. "

And now, yesterday, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Barack

Obama<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/barack-obama>had this rather

surprising thing to say:

" We've seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that

it's connected to the vaccines. This person included. The science right now

is inconclusive, but we have to research it. "

So there you have it, our next President will share the views of such

radical fringe crazies as, well, me, Democrat Kennedy, Jr.,

Republican Joe Scarborough, former NIH and Red Cross chief Bernadine Healy,

and several researchers at Harvard, s Hopkins, the Universities of

California and Washington and elsewhere.

All of us agree: Current evidence suggests that vaccines could be a

contributing factor in some cases of autism, and more research is

immediately required.

And yes, now the comments to this piece will come flying in, repeating the

tired mantra that " this case is closed, " that vaccines and thimerosal have

been " completely vindicated, " and that people like me are just trying to

scare the public and drive them away from vaccines, leaving their children

vulnerable and sick.

Of course, none of the above is true. So stay tuned.

To begin with, government researchers are currently looking into a number of

factors that may trigger autism, including vaccines, their ingredients and

the crowded vaccine schedule itself.

Secondly, on April 11th, I attended a top-level meeting in Washington where

vaccine safety officials discussed all of the above issues, and more. Now,

included on the CDC's recommended Federal Research Agenda for vaccine

safety, are questions such as:

Can vaccines cause neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism?

Can vaccines in children with mitochondrial dysfunction cause significant

" neurological deterioration? "

Can the combination live-virus measles, mumps and rubella vaccine cause

seizures and long term damage in children?

Can vaccines cause autoimmune disease?

Can thimerosal cause tics or Tourette syndrome?

Can attenuated viruses in vaccines cause asthma in children?

So, no matter who is President next year, top government researchers will be

examining the role of vaccines in autism and other childhood illnesses.

Thus, the declarations of McCain, Clinton and now

Obama<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/barack-obama>,

make good scientific sense.

But there is more.

Dozens of autism cases (and perhaps more) currently filed in so-called

Vaccine Court will almost certainly be compensated this year. Why? Because a

little girl named Hannah Poling with a supposedly rare mitochondrial

condition was recently compensated for her own vaccine injuries, including

autism and epilepsy.

But I have personally identified at least a dozen (and there are reports of

many more) children with cases in the court who meet the exact same medical

criteria as Hannah, and whose cases will almost surely be compensated as

well -- each time with the attendant media fanfare.

My prediction is that, by Election Day, few Americans will still believe

there is absolutely no evidence to link vaccines to at least some cases of

regressive autism.

So the remarks by all three candidates not only reflect good science, they

reflect good politics as well.