ABC Drama Takes on Science and Parents - autism vaccinations thimerosal

[Guest guest]

excerpt from article:

But the script also takes several liberties that could leave viewers

believing that the debate over thimerosal --- which in the program's

script is given the fictional name mercuritol --- is far from

scientifically settled.

Through a spokeswoman, ABC declined to offer an executive to discuss the

show.

The issue is a potentially delicate one for ABC. Eli Lilly & Company,

which developed thimerosal, and the two companies that now make the bulk

of childhood vaccines used in the United States, GlaxoKline and

Sanofi-Aventis, spent an estimated $138 million for advertising on ABC

last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, though little to none of

it was spent advertising vaccines.

Representatives of all three companies expressed dismay about the

series, of which they said they were unaware until called by a reporter.

- - - -

foto: Jonny Lee , left, as Eli Stone, with Benanti as the

mother of an autistic child, and Topputo in " Eli Stone. " - by

Cartwright/ABC -

- - - -

January 23, 2008

*

ABC Drama Takes on Science and Parents*

By EDWARD WYATT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/arts/television/23ston.html

LOS ANGELES --- A new legal drama making its debut this month on ABC is

stepping into a subject that is the source of heated debate among some

parents --- the relationship between autism and childhood vaccines ---

and seemingly coming down on the side that has been all but dismissed by

prominent scientific organizations.

The drama, " Eli Stone, " scheduled to be broadcast at 10 p.m. on Jan. 31,

centers on a lawyer who begins having visions that cause him to question

his life's work defending large corporations, including a pharmaceutical

company that makes vaccines.

The title character of " Eli Stone, " adopting the message of his visions

to fight for the little guy, takes his first case: suing his former

client on behalf of the mother of an autistic child who believes a

mercury-based preservative in a vaccine caused her son's autism.

For the last decade some parents and advocates for autistic children

have championed the theory that a mercury-based vaccine preservative

called thimerosal, developed in the late 1920s and used in many

childhood vaccines until about seven years ago, is a primary cause of

autism in young children.

Autism often is diagnosed in children between their first and fourth

years, during the time that many children begin receiving regular rounds

of vaccinations.

But reams of scientific studies by the leading American health

authorities have failed to establish a causal link between the

preservative and autism. Since the preservative was largely removed from

childhood vaccines in 2001, autism rates have not declined.

While police and legal dramas often use ripped-from-the-headlines topics

as the basis of episodes, rarely do broadcast networks allow themselves

to stray into the middle of heated debates that contain such emotional

touchstones for large segments of their audience, if only because

another big segment of a network's audience is likely to be on the other

side of the debate.

With " Eli Stone, " however, neither ABC nor its ABC Studios production

unit has expressed any qualms about the story, according to Greg

Berlanti, a co-creator and an executive producer of the series, who said

he believed that the script showed both sides of the argument. " I think

they wanted us to do our homework about all of it, which we did, " he said.

But the script also takes several liberties that could leave viewers

believing that the debate over thimerosal --- which in the program's

script is given the fictional name mercuritol --- is far from

scientifically settled.

Through a spokeswoman, ABC declined to offer an executive to discuss the

show.

The issue is a potentially delicate one for ABC. Eli Lilly & Company,

which developed thimerosal, and the two companies that now make the bulk

of childhood vaccines used in the United States, GlaxoKline and

Sanofi-Aventis, spent an estimated $138 million for advertising on ABC

last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, though little to none of

it was spent advertising vaccines.

Representatives of all three companies expressed dismay about the

series, of which they said they were unaware until called by a reporter.

Pekarek, a spokeswoman for GlaxoKline, said the episode

raised public-health concerns. " If parents watching this fictional

series make that incorrect conclusion about a link " between vaccines and

autism " and as a result choose not to vaccinate their own children, the

consequences could be devastating, " she said.

Doctors have previously expressed fears that the popularity of the

antivaccine movement could have adverse effects. In Britain a widely

publicized --- and since discredited --- research paper published in

1998 started a scare over the safety of the vaccine for measles, mumps

and rubella, drawing a potential link to autism. Though the premise of

the research did not concern thimerosal, vaccination rates plunged in

Britain. Over the next two to six years, outbreaks of measles soared in

Britain and Ireland, causing at least three deaths and hundreds of

children to be hospitalized.

Among the organizations that have studied possible links between autism

and the preservative in vaccines are the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Institute of Medicine,

the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Each of them has largely dismissed the idea that thimerosal causes or

contributes to autism, and five major studies have found no link.

Since 2001, no vaccine routinely administered to children in the United

States had more than half a microgram of mercury, about the amount found

in an infant's daily supply of breast milk.

But plenty of parents, as well as groups like SafeMinds, continue to say

that a link exists. " We feel it is still an open question, " said Theresa

Wrangham, president of SafeMinds, a nonprofit parent organization. Their

position has been supported in recent years by some members of Congress

and by public advocates including F. Kennedy Jr.

The initial episode of " Eli Stone " posits that the child received a flu

vaccine containing the preservative; in recent years vaccine makers have

produced new versions of the flu vaccine for children that do not

contain the mercury-based preservative.

" Is there proof that mercuritol causes autism?, " Eli Stone says to the

jury in summing up his lawsuit against the vaccine maker. " Yes, " he

says. " Is that proof direct or incontrovertible proof? No. But ask

yourself if you've ever believed in anything or anyone without absolute

proof. "

The script also draws a parallel with research linking smoking and

cancer, saying three decades passed between the first lawsuit charging a

connection and the first jury award against a tobacco company. After the

dramatic courtroom revelation that the chief executive of the vaccine

maker did not allow his daughter's pediatrician to give her the

company's vaccine, the jury in " Eli Stone " awards the mother $5.2

million. (In each episode Eli Stone takes on a different cause; in other

episodes sent to television reviewers for preview, he wages court

battles against a pesticide maker and a priest.)

In the last two years Mr. Berlanti, who created " Eli Stone " with Marc

Guggenheim, has become a major contributor to ABC's primetime lineup. He

also is an executive producer of " Brother & Sisters " and " Dirty Sexy

Money. " Mr. Guggenheim is a lawyer who has worked on several law-related

series, including " The Practice " and " Law & Order. "

In interviews both men said they did not have any personal ties to the

subject of autism and childhood vaccines. Mr. Guggenheim, who has two

young children, said he had questioned his pediatrician about the number

of vaccines his children were receiving. " I haven't vaccinated them as

aggressively as I could, " he said.

Both of the producers also said that they wanted " Eli Stone " to provoke

conversation.

" A lot of TV these days is not talking about the same things that the

nightly news is talking about, " Mr. Berlanti said. " As a show, we want

to keep the conversation going after people turn off the television. "

*

The material in this post is distributed without

profit to those who have expressed a prior interest

in receiving the included information for research

and educational purposes.For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this

email for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner*.*