Great Commentary from Deidre Imus

[Guest guest]

COMMENTARY

" Spins " of Omission

By Deirdre Imus on HuffingtonPost.com? tinyurl.com/2kqw5u

?????

Regan said it best, " There you go again. " Last week, while

all the " experts " were predicting Barack Obama's big win in the New

Hampshire primary, yet another study claiming to disprove an

association between vaccines and autism graced the front pages and

headline news around the country. One problem, the " experts " got it

wrong...both in New Hampshire and

California.

????? The study entitled,

" Continuing increases in autism reported to California's

Developmental Services System " published in the Archives of General

Psychiatry (January 7,2008), used data from the California

Developmental Services System (DSS) and compared autism trends with

decreasing amounts of mercury (thimerosal) exposure. According to

the authors, " the DDS data do not support the hypothesis that

exposure to thimerosal during childhood is a primary cause of

autism. "

????? Never have I witnessed

such a collective chorus of celebratory reporting by the press while

at the same time proclaiming the continuation of a public health

disaster. Sandwiched between back-to-back advertisements for your

favorite pharmaceutical drug, each networks anchors and medical

reporters enthusiastically declared the vaccine autism debate dead.

You could almost hear the applause erupting down at the

CDC.

????? No such enthusiasm or

reporting was evident, however, when another study, " Blood Levels of

Mercury Are Related to Diagnosis of Autism: A Reanalysis of an

Important Data Set " [DeSoto et al.] was published in the November

issue of the Journal of Child Neurology. This unreported study found

" a significant relationship does exist between the blood levels of

mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum

disorder. "

????? The researchers also

write a rarely offered criticism of another study that claimed there

is " no association " between mercury exposure and autism. " Of utmost

importance (which outweighs the discomfort of writing about an error

made by colleagues whom we know are generally competent researchers)

is that potential researchers who are trying to understand what is

and is not behind the rise in autism are not misled by even the

slightest misinformation. It is imperative that researchers, medical

professionals, and the public at large have the full set of

information. "

????? Two studies, two

conflicting conclusions.

?????

Protecting children is the most important issue to me. Toxic

chemicals, drugs, poor nutrition, abusive environments can all be

harmful to our children. But there are other ways children can be

harmed. Equally as dangerous is the dissemination of misleading or

inaccurate information that give parents a false sense of security

on which they base medical

decisions.

????? As a person who follows

the science, I get a little perturbed when I see studies like the

one from California generate erroneous headlines while other

studies, like the blood mercury study, totally

ignored.

????? When industry and the

government make a big mistake involving public health their

instinctive reaction is to deny there is a problem. The Tuskegee

experiment, thalidomide, the1976 swine flu vaccine, Gulf war

syndrome, Vioxx and the latest health disaster, the toxic exposures

affecting the 9/11 first

responders.

????? Since 1999, when the

whole vaccine/autism controversy came to light, the CDC's primary

concern has been protecting the immunization program and denying

there was a problem. Protecting the kids seems to be a secondary

consideration. To this end, the agency has funded and assisted in

numerous epidemiological studies that found " no association " between

mercury-containing vaccines. All of them seriously flawed authored

by researchers with serious conflicts of

interest.

????? When it comes to

vaccinations, the mainstream media and the CDC share the same

agenda. Protect " the program. " You are not going to find critical

analysis from the press on this issue. And you are not going to see

public health officials telling the truth about vaccine safety

studies. Doing so could be a career

killer.

????? Dr. Graham, the FDA

epidemiologist that came forward to be the Vioxx whistleblower,

understands this mentality. He told USA Today, " When you live in a

climate of fear, retaliation and intimidation, no decision that one

makes is entirely voluntary. " In the same article, Dr. Graham also

said those who have vaccine safety concerns, are " reluctant to come

forward. They are absolutely afraid for their

jobs " .

????? This is the climate in

which research is conducted today...a climate of fear. In a way, the

media has become " enablers " of the dissemination of information

aimed at promoting and protecting vaccines. Accuracy, skepticism and

just plain common sense don't quite fit into the overall business

strategy of the press or public health agencies. (Reuters/Glaxo)

When it comes to protecting children's health there are no sacred

cows as far as I am concerned. Kids today are just too sick not to

take seriously concerns about toxins in vaccines or any other

product. Children have been ill served by the media's " cherry

picking " of vaccine studies and their failure to maintain a

skeptical view of the conflicts of interest of the parties

involved.

????? Like the other

epidemiological studies finding " no link " between vaccines and

autism, there are apparent conflicts of interest with the California

study; the authors work for the department of health's immunization

division. Talk about trusting the fox to keep inventory over the hen

house. Aside from the obvious, this study is fundamentally flawed

because it failed to take into account a key aspect in its

methodology. The decreasing amounts of mercury on which the authors

based their conclusion didn't actually decrease. Just a small detail

that might be a factor in the final analysis and one that you would

think any medical reporter with any integrity would point

out.

????? In assessing the removal of

thimerosal from children's vaccines in California, the authors

incorrectly state, " By 2000, new lots of all Hib and hepatitis B

virus vaccines in the United States contained at most trace amounts

of thimerosal. By March 2001, all vaccines in the recommended infant

immunization schedule for the United States became available with at

most trace amounts of thimerosal. "

?????

This is very clever words-man-ship, perhaps clever enough to fool

the average medical reporter but not so clever to fool your average

mom.

????? " Available " does not mean

administered. Existing stocks of mercury-containing vaccines were

not recalled and they remained on clinic shelves. In response to a

letter from congress, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

confirms many mercury-containing vaccines were still available with

late 2002 expiration dates. The letter also states,

" Thimerosal-containing presentations are all still licensed in the

U.S. "

????? In May 2002, the American

Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) began recommending the influenza vaccine for

infants and pregnant woman. This recommendation reintroduced

significant amounts of mercury exposure in utero and again at 6 and

7 months of age.

????? Like lead, there

is no safe level of mercury. It is particularly toxic to the

developing fetus, infants and young children. Numerous studies have

found even very small amounts of mercury to be a potent

developmental neurotoxin. Research has shown that at very low

levels, 0.5 parts per billion (ppb) mercury, far lower than the

amount found in even one mercury-containing vaccine, thimerosal

kills human neuroblastoma cells. (Parran et al. Toxicol Sci 2005;

86: 132-140).

????? One adult influenza

vaccine administered to a pregnant woman contains 25 micrograms of

thimerosal (50,000 ppb mercury). Each of the infant influenza

vaccines contained 12.5 micrograms each. In addition, " trace "

amounts of thimerosal remain in several routine vaccines injected

into children adding to the overall body burden. According to the

FDA, " trace " amounts can be as much as 2,000 ppb mercury, and shown

to be highly toxic. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

considers anything exceeding 200 ppb mercury liquid hazardous

waste.

????? A 2001 study found Neurite

membrane structure destroyed at 20 ppb (Leong et al.,Neuroreport

2001; 12: 733-37).

????? The 2004

California law that would ban the use of mercury-containing vaccines

for pregnant women and children under the age of three did not go

into effect until December of 2006. It is clear that pregnant women

and infants continued to receive mercury-containing vaccines until

this time.

????? Lost in this debate is

the fact that no one knows precisely how much mercury really remains

in children's vaccines today. Neither the FDA nor the CDC performs

any oversight testing to confirm the amount of mercury in vaccines.

We rely on the vaccine manufacturers to report the amount of mercury

in vaccines but there is no independent confirmation of those

amounts. Again, talk about asking the fox to keep watch over the hen

house.

????? In response to the

California study, a man who knows quite a bit about toxicology in

general and mercury specifically, Dr. Boyd Haley, Professor of

Chemistry, University of Kentucky, wrote a critical analysis of the

author's findings. " The alarming concern is that these authors seem

more involved in providing material saying thimerosal is safe than

they are concerned with the obvious facts, openly presented in their

own data on autism rates, which strongly indicate that increased

rates of autism started with the CDC mandated vaccine program...Most

[scientists] agree that a genetic predisposition is likely (like

those that lead to low glutathione levels), but that a toxic

exposure is absolutely needed...that this increased toxic exposure

would have had to occur in all 50 states at about the same time as

all states have reported similar increases in autism rates. Only

something like the government recommended vaccine program fits this

need for a time dependent, uniform exposure of a toxin throughout

all the states. "

????? The mainstream

media are not the only enablers in this debate. Some people have

even created a business out of the autism epidemic but even some

autism advocacy organizations have not been willing to aggressively

pursue the role of environmental factors, including

mercury-containing vaccines, and confront this area of research head

on, even though they pledged to do so. They talk about it, but so

far, no action.

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