US Government Blocks Access To Vaccines-Autism Data - much data withheld from Young, Geier, Geier

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US Government Blocks Access To Vaccines-Autism Data

A Link Between Thimerosal Vaccines And Autism

May 19th, 2008

Ed Silverman

http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/news.php?start=2140 & end=2160 & view=yes & id=2595#\

newspost

A new epidemiological study suggests that a link exists between vaccines

containing Thimerosal and several neurodevelopmental disorders,

including autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

The researchers examined possible associations between

neurodevelopmental disorders and exposure to mercury from

Thimerosal-containing vaccines using the Vaccine Safety Datalink(VSD),

the administrative database established by several HMOs and the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention Immunization Safety Office.

The study, which is being published in the Journal of Neurological

Sciences, examined birth cohorts between 1990 and 1996 for diagnosed

neurodevelopmental disorders and thimerosal exposure via recorded

vaccines. Funding was provided by the court-appointed Petitioners'

Steering Committee representing children with autism claims pending in

the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

The study also compared large groups of children, from seven different

birth years, with varying mercury exposures. When comparing exposure

differences of 100 micrograms of mercury, the study found the prevalence

rates of autism, autism spectrum disorders, tics, attention deficit

disorder, and emotional disturbances were significantly increased by 1.7

to 4.5 times. These increased prevalence rates were seen in both

exposure periods of birth-7 months and birth-13 months.

" These findings are important because they demonstrate that children in

a birth cohort with higher average mercury exposure than other birth

cohorts had rates of neurodevelopmental disorders that were on average 2

to 4 times higher than the rates in the birth cohorts with lower

exposures, " Young, an assistant professor of epidemiology and

biostatistics at Washington University School of Public Health

and Health Services and study's lead author, say in a statement.

" Because of the strong ecological associations found in this study, it

is extremely important that additional studies be conducted using this

data source, including case-control and cohort studies which, would

allow the linking of individual exposure to disease, " says Young, who

has been a consultant in vaccine cases before the no-fault NVICP.

The steering committee says the federal government, the vaccine makers

and HMO's wouldn't conduct any studies in this database. The

investigators of this study are the only scientists outside the

government and the HMO's who have been given access to the VSD data, but

their access was restricted in three ways that, they say, limited the

data that could be examined.

First, the government refused to produce the automated data in a way

that would have allowed the investigators to link vaccine-mercury

exposure to outcome data in individuals. As a result, Thimerosal

exposure had to be averaged over each birth cohort for the time periods

of birth-7 months and birth-13 months, even though the database was set

up to permit individual risk assessments.

Second, the government and the HMO's refused to permit access to any

data entered after the year 2000, which meant that the maximum follow up

period of the neurodevelopmental disorders for some children was only to

four years of age. Specifically, for children born in 1997 or later,

this restriction to access prevented any examination of true prevalence

rates for those later birth cohorts.

Third, only three of the eight HMO's participating in the taxpayer

funded database permitted even this limited access (Northern California,

Colorado, and Oregon Kaiser plans). Other HMO's blocked access to the

data on hundreds of thousands of additional children.

The steering committee goes on to say that families who have filed

claims for compensation in the NVICP have sought broader access to the

taxpayer-funded data base for four years, but have been blocked by the

government and the courts.

In 2006, a panel appointed by the National Institute of Environmental

Health Sciences recommended that a broad study of the database for links

between TCV's and autism be conducted, but the Bush Administration

refused to provide funding while also refusing to permit outside

investigators to conduct a study.

The other two study authors are: Geier, vp of the Institute of

Chronic Illnesses, who has been a consultant in vaccine/biologic cases

before the no-fault NVICP and in civil litigation; and Mark Geier.

president of The Genetic Centers of America and a board certified

epidemiologist, who has been a consultant and expert witness in

vaccine/biologic cases before the no-fault NVICP and in civil litigation.

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