Can someone send the minutes to the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune please

[Guest guest]

This is her E:mail dshelton@... Can someone send the minutes of the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune she the reporter is accusing me of making up what I told her about the CDC Ordering the IOM Not to find causation When it plainly states in the minutes Walt wants you to declare these things are pretty safe on a population basis and later she states what Walt wants Walt generally gets she was speaking of Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., Director of the National Immunization Program (NIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ... Just where is the science ? in ordering someone to declare a preservative

safe.Note: forwarded message attached.

Mr. ,

I have read through your e-mail and it is not something I will be able to follow up in a story. These are not the transcripts you said you were sending, nor is it the kind of documentation that is useful in reporting a story.

Also, I have given you a great deal of my time today, as have a number of other people here. Calling to scream at me at the top of your lungs, as you did a short time ago, is not an effective or professional way of communicating.

If you come across better information, you can feel free to send it via e-mail only.

Thank you.

Deborah L. Shelton Specialty Reporter, Health Chicago Tribune

From: JOE HARRIS` Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 11:16 AMTo: Shelton, DeborahSubject: as per our conversation on your article / Kids' vaccinations face risky resistance

Mrs. Shelton

This was also written a while back, when you get to the bottom of what I wrote, the article from Byron child magazine is included it's very interesting.

If you are ever told the IOM looked at this

and found no link. like Harvey says

now for the rest of the story

Read my excerpts from the leaked

minutes of the IOM meeting then read the

Byron child world exclusive following the

excerpts

JOE -------------------------- ft worth

This is the proof the CDC bought the

IOM but as of recently we have learned that the IOM advised the CDC to seek counsel. This should

not be happening in the US.

DOES THIS 1ST EXCERPT SOUND LIKE THEY FOUND NO LINK?

IN EXCERPT 2 THEY THE CDC IS ORDERING THE IOM NOT TO FIND

CAUSATION IGNORE THE FIVE GOOD BIOLOGICAL STUDIES

AND PUT ALL THERE CONFIDENCE IN POPULATION BASED

STUDIES THAT WE NOW KNOW HAVE BEEN FAKED AND

ACCORDING TO CONGRESS AND NIEHS WAS FATE-ALLY

FLAWED

and recently Dir. of CDC Gerberdine concurred that the CDC main studies are worthless and the population based studies done over seas are worse

IN EXCERPT # 3 THEIR MINDS WERE MADE UP BEFORE THEY SAW

ANY STUDIES NOT TO MENTION THEY WERE ORDERED NOT TO FIND CAUSATION. TO THESE PEOPLE OUR AMERICAN CHILDREN AND THE CHLIDREN OF THE WORLD MEAN NOTHING ABSOLUTLY NOTHING.

ALL THOUGH IN PRIVATE THEY MAKE STATEMENTS LIKE IT'S A HARD DECISION WE MAKE KNOWING THAT THEIR WILL HAVE TO BE LAMBS SACRIFICED FOR THE GOOD OF THE WHOLE. I WONDER IF THAT HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GUY THAT MADE THAT STATEMENT KNEW THAT THEY WERE SACRIFICED SO PEOPLE COULD SAVE FIFTY CENTS TO TWO DOLLARS A CHILD

AND COST TO THIS NATION IS 3.2 TO 5 MILLION $$$FOR THE MAYBE 1 IN 200 to 1 in 50 WITH A MITOCHONDRIA.

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THIS WAS TAKEN FROM THE ACTUAL IOM MEETING MINUTES.

EXCERPT # 1

"We've got a dragon by the tail here," states a committee member in thetranscript. "At the end of the line, what we know is - and I agree - thatthe more negative that presentation [the report] is, the less likely peopleare to use vaccination, immunization, and we know what the results of thatwill be. We are kind of caught in a trap. How we work our way out of thetrap, I think, is the charge."

My thoughts are you are not caught in a trap unless you find something. And then you have the IOM trying to justify their lie to the American public by reminding themselves the alternative is people not vaccinating, and how dire that would be. What about not stopping the mass poisoning of children?

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EXCERPT # 2

-When byronchild asked CDC spokesperson Curtis for a copy of thecontract that would detail the agreement between the IOM and the CDC, stated that the contract would be available only in a heavily "redacted" orblacked-out format. My thoughts are you only black out things

when you are trying hide something. And notice that the IOM is not

denieing that the minutes are real there just saying no comment . notice the word leaked, we the puplic have no right to the minutes of a non governmental agency by the FOIA act some one there leaked the minutes. I assume because they may have felt our children were in danger. and by what is written here he had a good reason to think thatThe IOM stated "no comment" to byronchild about the leaked transcript or itsuse in the pending civil court case.

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EXCERPT # 3

Specifically sited are statements by the IOM's study director KathleenStratton, PhD, and committee chair Marie McCormick, MD. These statements,the law firm says, strongly suggest Stratton and McCormick deliberatelyrailroaded their committee into specific outcomes (all in italics directlyfrom court document):Dr. McCormick, for example, in speaking of the CDC, noted that the agency"wants us to declare, well, these things are pretty safe on a populationbasis." (See Exhibit 1 at page 33).

It is later stated in the minutes that what walt wants walts generally gets she was speaking of Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., Director of the National Immunization Program (NIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ... Just where is the science in ordering someone to declare a preservitive safe.

"The committee's bias and predetermination of the causality issues presentedare found at page 74 in a comment from Dr. Stratton:

It was recently stated by the CDC the vaccine schedule has always been flexible this was stated after the question was asked could we be damaging our children with to many vaccines at one time.

Seems here they are caught in another lie, read down below

in yellow highlight just how flexible they really were Dr. Stratton: "We said this before you got here, and I think we said thisyesterday, the point of no return, the line we will not cross in publicpolicy is to pull the vaccine, change the schedule. We could say it is timeto revisit this but we will never recommend that level. Even recommendingresearch is recommendations for policy. We wouldn't say compensate, wewouldn't say pull the vaccine, we wouldn't say stop the program."

Next we find Dr. McCormic saying they will never admit their mistake

Similarly, Dr. McCormick, at page 97 in discussing whether autism could beassociated with vaccines, stated that "we are not ever going to come downthat it is a true side effect," despite the fact that the committee had notyet considered any evidence on this issue.

Byronchild Magazine, AustraliaA Byronchild world exclusive report Release: March 7, 2005Contact: Naomi Radunski,Marketing and Strategy Byron Publications P/L7 Palm AvenueMullumbimby,Australia 61 02 6684 4353"This article may be freely posted, reproduced and distributed withacknowledgement to both Reagan (author) and byronchild magazine (alsolist http://www.byronchild.com). If you do so, please notify byronchildmagazine through Naomi Radunski and forward all copies (electronic andprinted) to vaccine@... or the above postal address.Click here to download this article in .pdf format:http://www.byronchild.com"A Dragon By The Tail"On the eve of an historic, billion-dollar world vaccination campaign, aleaked transcript ignites questions of vaccine safety and researchcorruption. Meanwhile, US senators fast-track a bill to protect vaccinemanufacturers from litigation. With millions of lives at stake, and billionsof dollars to loose, will a merger of philanthropy, big business andcompromised science win an epic race between corporate agendas and medicalethics? In this world exclusive report, byronchild exposes how the mostpowerful medical research bodies in the United States compromise theirvaccine safety research for vested interests, as they assist in a globalvaccine policy, while a bill looms in the background to protect it all.By ReaganOn January 24, 2005 -- the same day the Global Alliance for Vaccines andImmunization (GAVI) announced the receipt of $750 million for its historicworld vaccination campaign -- seven US Senators introduced Senate Bill 3 .The bill is an unprecedented act giving comprehensive liability protectionsto vaccine manufacturers , restricting Freedom of Information Acts ondrug/vaccine safety, and pre-empting states' rights to ban mercury fromchildren's vaccines, all under the bill's official title: ''ProtectingAmerica in the War on Terror Act of 2005''.Meanwhile in Texas, after receiving an internal transcript that allegedlyproves the Institutes of Medicine's report denying a link between childhoodvaccines and autism last year was "predetermined", a US District Court judgehas ordered the worlds' "big five" vaccine manufacturers to "produce any andall documents relating to payments made to, or stock ownership" by theseventeen members of the IOM's Immunization and Safety Review Committee.A court document submitting the IOM's leaked transcript as an exhibit in thefirst civil juried lawsuit against the vaccine manufacturers states thetranscript proves the IOM committee, "predetermined the necessity of notfinding causality between vaccines and autism and/or neurological injury" inits official reports on the issue.Judge T. Ward also ordered the vaccine manufacturers to produce allcommunications with "members of the World Health Organization, the Centerfor Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute ofMedicine, the Brighton Collaboration, or the Global Alliance for Vaccinesand Immunization relating to the issue whether the thimerosal contained inpediatric vaccines causes autism or other neurological disorders."When the defendant's legal counsel balked at the amount of expense involvedin producing such extensive documentation for the court, Judge Wardreassured the defense that the useful for both defendants and plaintiffs ofthe more than 300 pending lawsuits " involving claims related to the use ofthimerosal in pediatric vaccines" waiting to be tried in the US.Vaccine manufacturers Aventis Pasteur, Merck, GlaxoKline, Wyeth and EliLilly and Co. are cited as defendants in the lawsuit brought by the parentsof a child who developed autism after receiving mandatory routine childhoodimmunizations.The same IOM reports denying a link between vaccines and the country'sautism epidemic have been used:. to endorse standardized case definitions for Adverse Events FollowingImmunizations for "global dissemination";. as justification for Senate Bill 3's sweeping provisions and protections;. as a cause for no further federal monies to be spent on research of thepotential vaccine/autism link;. as a reason to silence media inquiries into vaccine safety issues;. and as a defense for dismissing over 4,500 petitions for vaccine injuriesin a federal court.Is it possible that a closed meeting transcript alleged as proof of a ployto ignore vaccine risks, a near billion dollar grant for a globalvaccination campaign, emerging lawsuits for vaccine injuries and a sweepingfederal bill to protect vaccine manufacturers are unrelated?Is it possible that in spite of US Congressional hearings and reports citingwidespread conflicts of interest between federal policy makers and thevaccine industry that Senate Bill 3 will defy the US Constitution'sprovisions for state and civil rights in order to shield vaccinemanufacturers from liability?And finally, how will a world vaccine policy influenced by allegedly"predetermined" safety reports implemented through a global alliance ofinternational governments and vaccine manufacturers with a fund of billionsheadquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, support or protect the health andhuman rights of targeted Third-World country peoples?History of the IOM's Immunization and Safety Review CommitteeInsight to these questions may lie in the pivotal year of 1999, a yearpreceded by a decade of declining vaccine sales, major breakups within themanufacturing industry, increased requirements for routine childhoodvaccines, a growing autism epidemic, and researchers and media reportsquestioning the safety of vaccines and their possible link to autism.In 1999, as a US Congressional Government Reform Committee initiated aninvestigation into the rampant conflicts of interest between federal vaccinepolicy makers and manufacturers, a global rescue effort of the sinkingvaccine industry began with the formation of GAVI.Originally funded by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates through hisSeattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI's partnership ofinternational governments and vaccine manufacturers salvaged lagging salesthrough an overhauled world vaccination campaign that placed GAVI,headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, at the center of the reorganizedalliance.Also formed in 1999 were the international Brighton Collaboration and theWHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety.Brighton's sole purpose was to create standardized case definitions forAdverse Events Following Immunizations for "global dissemination".Brighton's steering committee members currently hail from the US FDA, CDC,and Aventis Pasteur, a vaccine manufacturer and federal lawsuit defendant.Brighton's website does not include autism among its listed adverse events.The WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has " concluded thatthere is currently no evidence of mercury toxicity in infants, children, oradults exposed to thimerosal in vaccines" and "that current WHO immunizationpolicy with respect to thimerosal containing vaccines should not bechanged."The Brighton Collaboration has been cited as being "fraught with pitfallsand merges regulators and the regulated into an indistinguishable group."" I am very concerned about the development of the Brighton Collaboration,"stated US Congressional Representative Dave Weldon, MD, (R-FL) at an AutismOne Conference in May 2004. "Particularly troubling is the fact that servingon the panels defining what constitutes an adverse reaction to a vaccine,are vaccine manufacturers. What is even worse is the fact that some of thesecommittees are chaired by vaccine manufacturers. It is totally inappropriatefor a manufacturer of vaccines to be put in the position of determining whatis and is not an adverse reaction to their product. Do we allow GM, Ford andChrysler to define the safety of their automobiles?"In 1999, w with GAVI's international partnership and Bill Gates' billions onthe way to rescue the industry, the CDC hired the IOM's Immunizations andSafety Review Committee to examine multiple "vaccine safety challenges".In its public report, the CDC specifically sited a 1998 British Lancet studyrecommending more research into a potential link between the Measles, Mumps,Rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, negative press, public information vaccineconferences, the Rotavirus vaccine recall and seven congressional hearingsquestioning vaccine safety as impetus to employ the IOM.However, the CDC's ability to objectively and fairly evaluate vaccine riskshas been denounced by a three year long US congressional investigation: "Todate, studies conducted or funded by the CDC that purportedly dispute anycorrelation between autism and vaccine injury have been of poor design,under-powered, and fatally flawed. The CDC's rush to support and promotesuch research is reflective of a philosophical conflict in looking fairly atemerging theories and clinical data related to adverse reactions fromvaccinations."The CDC in general and the National Immunization Program in particular areconflicted in their duties to monitor the safety of vaccines, while alsocharged with the responsibility of purchasing vaccines for resale as well aspromoting increased immunization rates," states the congressional report.(View the report athttp://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/GRC_6-15-00.pdf )"They serve as their own watchdog -- neither common nor desirable whenseeking unbiased research," Weldon has stated in describing the CDC. "Anassociation between vaccines and autism would force CDC officials to admitthat their policies irreparably damaged thousands of children. Who among uswould easily accept such a conclusion about ourselves? Yet, this is what theCDC is asked to do," Weldon said.When byronchild asked CDC spokesperson Curtis for a copy of thecontract that would detail the agreement between the IOM and the CDC, stated that the contract would be available only in a heavily "redacted" orblacked-out format.The IOM stated "no comment" to byronchild about the leaked transcript or itsuse in the pending civil court case.The Transcript of the First Organizational Meeting of the IOM CommitteeOn January 11, 2001, the IOM's Immunization and Safety Review committeemembers gathered for its first organizational meeting in Washington, DC. Itis this meeting's transcript that has been submitted as an exhibit by Watersand Kraus, a Dallas, Texas law firm.During the IOM's open meeting, Walter Orenstein, MD, the Director of theNational Immunization Program at the CDC, charged the committee tospecifically address: "the causal relationship between the vaccine andadverse effect; the biologic mechanisms that could account for the adverseeffect; and the significance of the safety concern in the context of societyat large." ( Orenstein presided over another leaked CDC transcript from June2000, see sidebar 1. )However, according to Gordon , MD, Director of Strategic Planning forthe Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) theIOM committee was hired by the CDC to "rule out the proposed links". The NIHserves as America's medical research agency. stated in a Princeton University lecture summary that, "Four currentstudies are taking place at the CDC in collaboration with the NIH to ruleout the proposed links between immunizations and autism, immunizations andpossible developmental regression, inflammatory bowel disease and the MMRvaccine, and thimerosal and the risk of autism. In order to undo the harmfuleffects of research claiming to link the MMR vaccine to an elevated risk ofautism, we need to conduct and publicize additional studies, strengthen theprogram to assure parents of MMR's safety, and further educate pediatriciansand primary care physicians."Formerly served as the president of vaccine manufacturer and federallawsuit defendant Merck Vaccines from 1991 to 1999. According to an LA Timesstory on February 8, 2005, while serving as president of Merck, received a memo from Maurice R. Hilleman, MD, an internationally renownedvaccinologist, who told that six-month-old babies who received theirvaccines on schedule would receive a mercury dose 87 times higher than theEnvironmental Protection Agency deemed safe. (The NIH announced a "sweepingethics reform" on February 1, 2005, see side bar 2. To view the Merck memo:http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/LATimes-Merck_Memo_2-8-05.pdf )From the beginning of the IOM committee's meeting behind the closed doors ofthe National Academies of Science building on January 12, 2001, committeemembers repeatedly expressed their "need for reassurance" and concern overtheir charge, evidence, methodology, and public communication goals,especially to parents."We've got a dragon by the tail here," states a committee member in thetranscript. "At the end of the line, what we know is - and I agree - thatthe more negative that presentation [the report] is, the less likely peopleare to use vaccination, immunization, and we know what the results of thatwill be. We are kind of caught in a trap. How we work our way out of thetrap, I think, is the charge."Instead of focusing on scientific data which could possibly tarnish thecurrent routine childhood vaccine policy, "The transcript sets forth insignificant detail stated biases, preferences and/or predetermination ofvarious committee members in January, 2001, i.e. before any medical orscientific evidence had been presented to the committee (emphasis added),"states t he court document.Specifically sited are statements by the IOM's study director KathleenStratton, PhD, and committee chair Marie McCormick, MD. These statements,the law firm says, strongly suggest Stratton and McCormick deliberatelyrailroaded their committee into specific outcomes (all in italics directlyfrom court document):Dr. McCormick, for example, in speaking of the CDC, noted that the agency"wants us to declare, well, these things are pretty safe on a populationbasis." (See Exhibit 1 at page 33)."The committee's bias and predetermination of the causality issues presentedare found at page 74 in a comment from Dr. Stratton:Dr. Stratton: "We said this before you got here, and I think we said thisyesterday, the point of no return, the line we will not cross in publicpolicy is to pull the vaccine, change the schedule. We could say it is timeto revisit this but we will never recommend that level. Even recommendingresearch is recommendations for policy. We wouldn't say compensate, wewouldn't say pull the vaccine, we wouldn't say stop the program."Similarly, Dr. McCormick, at page 97 in discussing whether autism could beassociated with vaccines, stated that "we are not ever going to come downthat it is a true side effect," despite the fact that the committee had notyet considered any evidence on this issue.At page 123, Dr. Stratton indicated that, despite not having heard any ofthe evidence, the probable conclusion was going to be that the evidence was"inadequate to accept or reject a causal relation." "Chances are, when allis said and done, we are still going to be in this category. It is just ageneral feeling that we probably still are not going to be able to make astatement."Stratton joined the IOM in 1990 and was later awarded the IOM's CecilResearch Award for her contributions to vaccine safety. McCormick is theSumner and Esther Feldberg Professor of Maternal and Child Health at theHarvard School of Public Health.Congressmen, researchers and parents petitioned the IOM Committee to delaytheir final meeting and report last year until an animal study demonstratinga link between mercury and autism by Mady Hornig, MD, an associate professorat Columbia University, could be completed.The IOM refused to delay their final meeting and issued their "no link"report on May 2004. The Columbia University study confirming the linkbetween mercury and autism was completed and presented to the public in June2004."This is a perfect example of the scientific findings that the IOM ignoredwhen creating their recent report on the potential of the vaccine-autismlink," stated Lyn Redwood, RN, MSN, NP, president of Safeminds, anindependent nonprofit organization. "The IOM was well aware that studieslike these were due for release, but chose to ignore them.The findings inthis study make clear that the IOM was more interested in regurgitating CDCspin than incorporating hard science like Dr. Hornig's report. Suchinformation would force the government to face the reality of the mercurythreat and take definitive action to protect countless children frompotential neurological damage."The US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) - an independent investigative andprosecutorial agency that serves as a channel for whistleblowers --forwarded hundreds of disclosures "alleging public health and safetyconcerns about childhood vaccines that include a mercury-based preservativeknown as thimerosal, and its possible link to neurological disorders,including autism" to the US Congress on May 20, 2004, the day after the IOMissued its "no link" report.The OSC letter requesting congressional action was addressed to US SenatorJudd Gregg (R-NH) - who introduced Senate Bill 3 and its provisions forliability protection for vaccine manufacturers on January 24, 2005.The OSC's letter to Gregg stated, "it appears there may be sufficientevidence to find a substantial likelihood of a substantial and specificdanger to public health caused by the use of thimerosal/mercury in vaccinesbecause of its inherent toxicity.""Due to the gravity of the allegations, I am forwarding a copy of theinformation disclosed to you in your capacity as Chairmen of the SenateCommittee and House Committee with oversight authority for HHS. I hope thatyou will review these important issues and press HHS for a response to thisvery serious public health danger," states the OSC letter to Gregg. (To viewthe OSC letter:http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/OSC_Press_Release_5-20-04.pdf )Conflict of Interest in IOM Governing CouncilCurrently, members of the IOM's governing Council include, among 19 others ,Gail H. Cassell, PhD, of Eli Lilly and Company and Helene D. Gayle, MD, fromthe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - the same foundation that donated theworld's sixth largest charitable gift of $1.5 billion to create and sustainGAVI.Lilly is the original manufacturer of thimerosal, a mercury derivative usedin childhood vaccines as a preservative. The result of a discovery processby law firm Waters and Kraus showed that Lilly knew of mercury's toxicity asearly as 1930 but nonetheless "secretly sponsored a human toxicity study onpatients already known to be dying of meningococcal meningitis.""Lilly then cited this study repeatedly for decades as proof that thimerosalwas of low toxicity and harmless to humans," states a press release from thelaw firm.While Lilly ceased the sale of thimerosal in 1991, their licensingagreements demonstrate continued profits from the product until at least2010.Lilly is the single biggest contributor to the Republican Party from thepharmaceutical industry donating $1.6 million in the last US election.Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), co-sponsor of Senate Bill 3, wasthe author of a controversial bill that contained a provision that wouldprotect Eli Lilly and other vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits over mercuryin the 2002 Homeland Security Act.Frist's other notable tie to Lilly is the fact that the vaccine manufacturerbought 5,000 copies of the senator's book on bioterrorism and distributedthem to physicians after September 11, 2001.The basis of the Frist family fortune is the Hospital Corporation of America(HCA), the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country, which wasfounded by Frist's father and brother. (For more on Senator Frist seesidebar 3).GAVI - Using Corrupt Research to Vaccinate the World?GAVI's public and private sector partners include governments inindustrialized and developing countries, UNICEF, the World HealthOrganization, WHO, the World Bank, non-governmental organizations,foundations, vaccine manufacturers, and public health and researchinstitutions. WHO and GAVI's headquarters are both in Geneva, Switzerland.To date a total of almost $1.3 billion, in addition to the Gates endowment,has been raised from international governments and private sources as wellas an additional $1.19 billion in pledges toward GAVI's goal of a 90%routine immunization rate by 2010 for all of its 70 underdevelopedcountries/grantees.For vaccine manufacturers, the Gates' billions for GAVI represent aguaranteed pipeline of money. For governments of undeveloped countries, thefunds may be used for any aspect of health as long as their country'svaccine rate increases. If the rates drop, so do the funds.According to GAVI figures, 4 million children have been vaccinated fordiphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough; 42 million more children have beenvaccinated with hepatitis B; and 991 million single-use disposable syringeshave been produced for the program." GAVI relies on technical and scientific information and advice from theGlobal Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. Based on the committee'sfindings, GAVI and its partners will continue to support the use of vaccinesthat contain thimerosal," responded Gates Foundation spokesperson Sorensen to byronchild's inquiry.If the accusation that the IOM "predetermined" the outcome of their reportsis true, what does this bode for a worldwide vaccine policy that is nowbeing routinely employed through GAVI's partners and the governments ofundeveloped countries who rely on the IOM's vaccine safety information to beaccurate?World Economic Forum questions GAVI's Global Vaccine CampaignIs the solution for creating a healthy world a global vaccine campaign?During the World Economic Forum's 2003 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland,GAVI's global vaccine campaign was intensely debated by panelists.WEF panelists were not convinced that GAVI's goals were realistic or apanacea for the complex needs of underdeveloped countries."There is a strong tendency to see vaccines as a cure-all that can work inisolation," said Geoffrey , Founder and Consultant, InternationalChild Welfare and Health, Family AIDS Caring Trust, FACT, Zimbabwe, andSocial Entrepreneur. "Instead, vaccines must be set firmly within arealistic and holistic context. In the past, in Europe, death and diseasedropped because of nutrition and education. Vaccines must accompany povertyalleviation or children will be stunted both physically and intellectually."The World Economic Forum is a global community of business, political,intellectual and other leaders of society. The forum is an independentinternational organization incorporated as a Swiss not-for-profit foundationand has NGO consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of theUnited Nations.Autism - An Epidemic Too Big To IgnoreDuring the years that the IOM reports were drafted, 2001 to 2004, more than4,500 petitions for "vaccine injuries resulting in autism spectrum disorder", piled up in an Omnibus Autism Proceeding with the US Court of FederalClaims.Currently, autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in theUnited States, with one in 166 US children diagnosed with Autism SpectrumDisorder, up from 1 in 2500 a decade ago, and over 1.77 million affected.In the last four years alone, the number of cases of autism has nearlydoubled in California. "It is growing much faster than the growth of thepopulation and other forms of childhood disabilities," states Cliff by,director of the State Department of Development Services.A report by the independent Environmental Working Group issued in December2004 found that autistic children had less glutathione, an antioxidant thathelps rid the body of toxic metals, when compared to a sample of healthychildren. The study, led by Jill , PhD, a professor of biochemistry andpediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, found that aglutathione deficit "may contribute to the development and clinicalmanifestation of autism."Autism is not a disease but a 'condition' often characterized by a failureto bond, lack of social interaction, avoidance of eye-to-eye contact,difficulties in language development, and repetitive behaviors known asstimming (self-stimulation). Milder forms of autism are Asperger's Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder and Attention Deficit/HyperactivityDisorder . Collectively they are known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD.States Take Matters Into Their Own HandsAfter multiple congressional hearings on conflicts of interest within thevaccine industry and government, repeated IOM reports stating no linkbetween vaccines and autism, and with no official FDA recall for mercurycontaining vaccines, US citizens and state legislators took matters intotheir own hands and in May 2004, Iowa became the first state to ban mercuryin vaccines.During the same three-year period the IOM committee reviewed its data on thevaccines and autism link, the Iowa Human Resources Committee reviewedscientific and biological data from independent researchers.'After three years of review, I became convinced there was sufficientcredible research to show a link between mercury and the increased incidentsin autism,' said Iowa Senator Ken Veenstra. 'The fact that Iowa's 700percent increase in autism began in the 90s, right after more and morevaccines were added to the children's vaccine schedules, is solid evidencealone.The IOM has not convinced me this action is not needed. I feelstrongly we need to pursue a use of alternative vaccines."US Congressional Representative Dave Weldon, MD, (R-FL), called the IOMreports "heavily biased and unrepresentative of all the available scientificand medical research." Weldon said the reports discounted the biologicalevidence presented by US Congressional investigative reports and universitystudies. It also discounted thousands of parent activists who pointed to theparallel increase in vaccination requirements and the rise in autism ratesstarting in the early 1990s.California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed his state's mercury banlast year and more than a dozen other states are currently considering theirown bans.Senate Bill 3 would seek to repeal the current states bans and to prohibitmore states from enacting their own bans on mercury, a violation of the USConstitution's Tenth Amendment . (See side bar 4 for a complete list of thebill's proposals.)Senate Bill 3 - Dissolution of Civil Rights?Sighting the IOM reports' green light to justify the act's proposed sweepingprotections for the vaccine industry, the bill states that, " Afterconsidering recent changes in the litigation environment with respect tovaccines as well as recent scientific evidence and reports by the Instituteof Medicine (italics added) and others with respect to the safety ofvaccines and their components and ingredients, the Secretary of Health andHuman Services and the Attorney General shall, not later than 6 months afterthe date of enactment of this Act, jointly submit recommendations to theappropriate committees of Congress concerning necessary modifications to theVaccine Injury Compensation Program and Federal rules regarding litigationinvolving vaccines.""The war on terror is a different kind of war and requires a different kindof preparedness," US Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) said in a press release aboutthe bill. "Specifically, this bill encourages development of products neededto protect the nation against biological, radiological or nuclear agents aswell as infectious diseases. It expands the availability and accessibilityof vaccines. Finally, it strengthens capacity and coordination, so we canrespond effectively during public health emergencies.""This bill is labeled as an 'anti-terror' bill, but it is power grab by thefederal government and an assault on self-governance and the informedconsent ethic. It takes away the freedom of the people to make their voicesheard through their elected state representatives and protect themselvesfrom unsafe drugs, such as Celebrex and Vioxx, and unsafe vaccines, such asthose that contain high levels of mercury. It gives unprecedented liabilityprotection to the drug industry and broad powers to federal officials tohide the truth from the people about vaccine and prescription drug risks,"said Barbara Loe Fisher, president of America's largest and oldest vaccinesafety and consumer watchdog organization the National Vaccine InformationCenter."Protecting the public health was not delegated to the federal governmentand public health laws, including laws governing use of vaccines, havealways been under the control of citizens residing in each state," saidFisher. "The irony of this bill is that it is using the families of citizenswho have given their lives to defend our nation's freedom in order to takerights and freedoms away from other families. Military veterans should notbe used to protect the drug industry and take away the freedom for allAmericans to have their voices heard through their elected staterepresentatives. This bill does not serve justice or freedom."An internationally renowned bio-ethicist who has previously spoken onvaccine policy issues at the National Vaccine Information Center conference,told byronchild magazine that people should not be surprised by the contentsof the IOM transcript or Senate Bill 3. 'Old paradigms do not die easily,'he said. 'This is just the nature of the beast.'Side Bar 1: Not The First Leaked TranscriptThe 2001 IOM transcript is not the first to be leaked to the public. Anotherclosed meeting transcript from June of 2000 recorded 53 scientists from theCDC, FDA, and the vaccine industry at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center inGeorgia to review the findings of a statistically significant correlationbetween mercury-containing vaccines and neurological conditions.The discovery was made by CDC employee Verstraeten, MD, using theCDC's own data. The meeting was not open to the public or announced in theFederal Register, and the CDC has still not made their findings public.Verstraeten has since left the CDC to work for a vaccine manufacturer inBelgium. He has also not responded to a US Congressional subpoena.However the meeting transcript was included in the "Mercury in Medicine:Taking Unnecessary Risks?" report that was the result of a three yearinvestigation by the US Congress' Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness,Committee on Government Reform's Report published in April 2003.The Simpsonwood meeting was presided over by Walter Orenstein, MD, theDirector of the National Immunization Program at the CDC. Orensteinpresented the public charge to the IOM committee on January 11, 2001, theday before the closed organizational meeting.(To read the Simpsonwood transcript go to:http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/Simpsonwood_Transcript.pdfTo read the Verstraeten study:http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/ThimerosalVSDstudy001.pdf )Side Bar 2: Sweeping Ethics Reform to End Culture of Corruption?Drug industry influence on medical research and practice and on theprescribing of drugs is pervasive. After a yearlong investigation into the"culture" of conflicts of interest between its scientists and manufacturers,on February 1, 2005, the National Institutes of Health, the US leadingagency for medical research, announced a "sweeping ethics reform".Under the new rules which reversed a 1995 decision that allowed"moonlighting" between the scientists and industry, all NIH employees havebeen prohibited from engaging in employment with pharmaceutical andbiotechnology companies, supported research institutions, including NIHgrantees, health care providers and insurers. NIH employees were alsorequired to sell their stock in any of the above.In a "town hall" meeting for employees on February 3, 2005, NIH directorElias A. Zerhouni, MD, announced the need for a summit of government andacademic leaders to address conflicts of interest throughout Americanmedical research as part of the ethics reform.The NIH announcement came after a year-long investigation in to conflicts ofinterest and the "discovery, made by congressional investigators, that morethan 100 NIH employees had not disclosed various relationships they had withpharmaceutical and biotech companies, in violation of government ethicsrules" according to a Washington Post article on February 3, 2005."I came to the conclusion that we have a systemic problem," Zerhouni said inan LA Times interview on February 12, 2005. "They were not just isolatedevents. They reflected the complete set of rules that had been adopted overthe years, which had transformed the culture. I said, if that's the case,let's bring back the culture to where it needs to be: That is, public first."That's the hardest part," he said. "It's easy to come up with regulations.It's not easy to change a culture."To read the NIH report: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2005/od-01.htmSidebar 3: Who is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), co-sponsor ofSenate Bill 3?According to the Center for Justice and Democracy, these are some factsabout Senator Bill Frist, MD:. The basis of the Frist family fortune is the Hospital Corporation ofAmerica (HCA), the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country, whichwas founded by Frist's father and brother.. Frist and his wife have $26 million in HCA stock in a so-called "blindtrust.". HCA has agreed to pay the federal government more than $1.7 billion incivil and criminal penalties, the largest health care settlement in history,for massive Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare billing fraud.. Frist has gotten more than $2.3 million from doctors, health insurers,drug companies and others in the health care industry, roughly 20 percent ofall the contributions to his two Senate races, raising more cash fromhealth-care interests than 98 percent of his colleagues.. Frist has voted against patients' rights to sue their HMOs for failure toprovide adequate treatment while supporting tax subsidies to HMOs andinsurance companies to offer prescription drugs to seniors, rather thanproviding them through Medicare. Frist has received $123,750 in campaigncash from HMOS.. To date, Frist has received $265,023 from the pharmaceutical industry.Thepharmaceutical industry was also the largest single contributor to theNationalRepublican Senatorial Campaign Committee that Frist chaired, giving about $4million - and Lilly was the single biggest contributor to the GOP from thatindustry, having given $1.6 million in the last election cycle.. In 2002, Frist engineered the insertion of a provision into the HomelandSecurity bill that would protect Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical giantsfrom lawsuits over mercury in vaccines. Not long after Frist introduced thelegislation, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, thedrug industry's trade group, gave $10,000 to his political action committee.This report from: http://www.centerjd.org/free/mythbusters-free/Frist.pdfSide Bar 4: Senate Bill 3 - What It Could DoOf major concern to vaccine safety and civil rights advocates are thefollowing provisions in Senate Bill 3:* Eliminates a state's right to more strictly regulate vaccines and drugsand more fully inform their citizens about vaccine and drug risks than doesthe federal government. Laws already passed in California and Iowa limitingmercury content in vaccines would be repealed.* Gives comprehensive liability protections to drug companies. Eliminates acitizen's right to seek justice in state courts for drug and vaccineinjuries and deaths and limits awards in federal courts. Gives tax credits,grants and patent extensions to the drug industry.*Allows the Department of Health and Department of Justice, the defendantsin the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, to write the terms oftheir own defense in order to further limit awards to vaccine injuredchildren.* Creates and funds a mandatory, national electronic tracking systemoperated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to monitor vital recordsof citizens relating to both notifiable and non-notifiable diseases and "newtrends" and "patterns in public health." Creates penalties for states andhealth care providers not reporting in a "timely manner" to the nationaltracking system. There are no provisions for mandatory reporting of serioushealth problems following vaccine and prescription drug use or punishmentsfor not reporting serious side effects.S. 3 is being promoted by sponsors as a military veteran benefit billbecause it raises the death benefits and other financial support for thefamilies of soldiers who lost their lives in the war in Iraq.From the National Vaccine Information Center's website. For a point by pointexamination of the bill, visit the site athttp://www.nvic.org/ActionAlerts/S3Article.htm .For the actual bill: Senate Bill 3:http://www.nomercury.org/science/documents/S_3_War_on_Terror_Act_2005.pd

[Guest guest]

Joe,

I think I found what you were looking for:

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:cJxjaVjHMiYJ:www.nomercury.org/iom.htm+kathleen+stratton+marie+mccormick+walt+cause & hl=en & ct=clnk & cd=1 & gl=ca

The transcript of the closed meeting can be found here:

http://www.nomercury.org/iom/iom.pdf

Aasa

Subject: Can someone send the minutes to the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune pleaseTo: "EOH" <eoharm >Received: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 10:32 PM

This is her E:mail dsheltontribune (DOT) com

Can someone send the minutes of the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune she the reporter is accusing me of making up what I told her about the CDC Ordering the IOM Not to find

causation When it plainly states in the minutes Walt wants you to declare these things are

pretty safe on a population basis and later she states what Walt wants Walt generally gets

she was speaking of Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., Director of the National Immunization Program (NIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ... Just where is the science ? in ordering someone to declare a preservative safe.Note: forwarded message attached.

[Guest guest]

Joe,

I think I found what you were looking for:

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:cJxjaVjHMiYJ:www.nomercury.org/iom.htm+kathleen+stratton+marie+mccormick+walt+cause & hl=en & ct=clnk & cd=1 & gl=ca

The transcript of the closed meeting can be found here:

http://www.nomercury.org/iom/iom.pdf

Aasa

Subject: Can someone send the minutes to the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune pleaseTo: "EOH" <eoharm >Received: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 10:32 PM

This is her E:mail dsheltontribune (DOT) com

Can someone send the minutes of the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune she the reporter is accusing me of making up what I told her about the CDC Ordering the IOM Not to find

causation When it plainly states in the minutes Walt wants you to declare these things are

pretty safe on a population basis and later she states what Walt wants Walt generally gets

she was speaking of Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., Director of the National Immunization Program (NIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ... Just where is the science ? in ordering someone to declare a preservative safe.Note: forwarded message attached.

[Guest guest]

Here's shorter link:

http://www.nomercury.org/iom.htm

Aasa

From: JOE HARRIS` <ccdaddy57yahoo (DOT) com>Subject: Can someone send the minutes to the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune pleaseTo: "EOH" <eoharmyahoogroups (DOT) com>Received: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 10:32 PM

This is her E:mail dsheltontribune (DOT) com

Can someone send the minutes of the IOM meeting to the Chicago tribune she the reporter is accusing me of making up what I told her about the CDC Ordering the IOM Not to find

causation When it plainly states in the minutes Walt wants you to declare these things are

pretty safe on a population basis and later she states what Walt wants Walt generally gets

she was speaking of Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., Director of the National Immunization Program (NIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ... Just where is the science ? in ordering someone to declare a preservative safe.Note: forwarded message attached.