Kirby 3/20/2008- further information on Hannah Poling vaccination lawsuit

[Guest guest]

By DAVID KIRBY

Published on: 03/20/08

By now, many parents in America have heard of the Hannah Poling court

case. They know the government has acknowledged that vaccines

contributed to autism in at least one little girl from Georgia.

Understandably, they are worried, and they want answers.

But instead of frank talk from leading health officials, their

concerns are being met with stonewalling, denial and misinformation.

By refusing to address what really happened to Hannah — by commanding

parents to settle down and adhere to the nation's rigid immunization

regime — officials will only drive people away from vaccines in

anxiety-ridden droves.

But what if we could test children for underlying conditions that

might increase their risk of vaccine injury and autism? And what if

we allowed those at risk to slightly delay and spread out their shots?

It's a difficult, but not impossible, proposition. And I believe

doing so would reduce the rate of autism, seizure disorders and even

asthma in some children. And we would boost vaccination rates by

restoring faith in the nation's teetering immunization program.

Why do I say this? New documents have surfaced in the Poling case

that shine more light on how Hannah's vaccine injury led to autism.

A government document filed in the case last November conceded that

Hannah's vaccines had aggravated an underlying disorder of the

mitochondria. Mitochondria are the tiny powerhouses within each cell

that convert food and oxygen into energy. Government officials

acknowledged that Hannah's disorder led to a condition known as low

cellular energy metabolism, which was aggravated by vaccines and

ultimately led to an autism diagnosis.

It was a tantalizing admission but did little to explain just how the

vaccines had aggravated the disorder or caused autism.

But on Feb. 21, the U.S. government made a second, unpublicized

concession in the case. In addition to triggering autism, officials

now admitted, Hannah's vaccines had also led to her " seizure

disorder, " or epilepsy.

And there was more. The November document claimed that Hannah had a

mitochondrial " disorder. " But by February, this was modulated to a

mere mitochondrial " dysfunction. "

That's because Hannah's underlying condition was asymptomatic and

most likely environmentally acquired. It was not some rare, grave,

inherited disease that would have progressed to autism anyway, as

many officials contend.

The November report said Hannah's vaccine reaction had " manifested "

as early-onset brain disease, with " features of autism spectrum

disorder. "

But the February report is more blunt. It says that Hannah's

vaccines " caused " her " autistic " brain disease.

But the real bombshell was this: Hannah's autism was caused by

vaccine-induced fever and overstimulation of her immune system,

according to court documents. Her low cellular energy and reduced

metabolic reserves, due to mitochondrial dysfunction, were

overstressed by the contents of nine vaccines (including mercury) at

once.

The Cleveland Clinic defines low cellular energy metabolism disorder

this way: " The process of converting food and oxygen (fuel) into

energy requires hundreds of chemical reactions, and each chemical

reaction must run almost perfectly in order to have a continuous

supply of energy. When one or more components of these chemical

reactions does not run perfectly, there is an energy crisis, and the

cells cannot function normally. As a result, the incompletely burned

food might accumulate as poison inside the body. "

The cause of Hannah's mitochondrial dysfunction is up for debate,

though ample evidence exists to implicate heavy metals in air, water,

food and vaccines as possible suspects. But the government has

acknowledged that low cellular energy can increase the risk of immune

system overdrive, and regression into autism.

Now, one would think that investigating — and preventing — such

vaccine-induced overstimulation in susceptible children would be a

top priority of health officials. But it is not.

Dr. Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, has vowed to " adamantly " enforce the one-size-fits-all

vaccine schedule, no matter what happened to Hannah and other kids

like her.

Frantic parents, desperate for answers, were admonished by Gerberding

to " set aside this very isolated, unusual situation " in so-called

Vaccine Court, even though " the court apparently made the decision

that it is fair to say that vaccinations may have been one of the

precipitators. "

Gerberding was either grossly misinformed, or lying.

To begin with, this " decision " was not made by the court at all, but

by medical personnel working for the Secretary of Health and Human

Services, Gerberding's boss.

More important, the Poling case is neither isolated nor unusual. At

least 12 other autism-related claims have been paid out in Vaccine

Court to date, and perhaps hundreds more cases like Hannah's are

pending.

Most striking is how typical Hannah's cellular dysfunction may be

among children with autism. While extremely rare in the general

population, at two per 10,000 people, it seems unusually common in

autism — with estimates up to 2,000 per 10,000.

Many opinion leaders are calling on the government to release all

relevant documents leading to the Poling concessions. The family has

waived all claims to privacy, and the public has a right to know.

For now, all we have is the CDC Web site, which says

that " simultaneous vaccination with multiple vaccines has no adverse

effect on the normal childhood immune system. "

But did Hannah have a " normal " immune system? Are other kids out

there also metabolically primed for overstimulation from too many

shots at once? Should their vaccines be spread out?

Instead of answers, we get adamant silence. This is not a matter of

national security. It's a national emergency. Millions of parents are

anxiously waiting for their government to tell them what the hell is

going on.

• Kirby, an investigative journalist, is author of " Evidence of

Harm – Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical

Controversy "