Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism – Is There a Link?

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Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism – Is There a Link?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/regenstein/regenstein12.html

In recent years, there has been an explosion of neurological disorders

among children, the most serious of which is the crippling syndrome

knows as autism.

The dramatic increase in the incidence of autism has accompanied the

more than tripling of the childhood vaccination schedule, and many

parents have described how their perfectly normal, alert, intelligent,

healthy infants suddenly regressed into an autistic state after

receiving vaccination shots.

Pediatricians and health officials have long ridiculed the claims of

parents of thousands of autistic children, that vaccines appear to

have played a role in their children's regression. But these claims

have been corroborated by the recent admission of medical experts at

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who conceded, in a

case before a secretive special court, that childhood vaccinations

contributed to causing Hannah Poling, a child from Athens, Georgia to,

in effect, become autistic (contract a brain disorder " with features

of autism spectrum disorder " ).

What has been largely overlooked in this debate is the well known and

extreme toxicity of mercury, a preservative used in most childhood

vaccines and flu shots, known for hundreds of years to be toxic to

nerve cells, and especially harmful to the minds of developing

children.

The routine flu vaccination now being recommended for almost all

Americans, including kids as young as six months and pregnant women,

contains about 25 micrograms of mercury, perhaps the most toxic

non-radioactive compound on earth. Thimerosal, a preservative, is

about half mercury, and was largely though not completely removed from

children's vaccines several years ago because of fears about its

toxicity.

Federal health authorities routinely tell reporters, falsely, that

mercury was eliminated from childhood vaccines manufactured after

2001, yet autism continued to increase. This misinformation has been

widely reported and repeatedly cited by the medical industry as

evidence that mercury is not linked to the ever-rising rate of autism.

However, some mercury is still present in the vaccines – except for

the MMR shot (measles, mumps, rubella) – at reduced levels that no one

can precisely quantify. Moreover, since the earlier vaccines were

never recalled, they probably remained in use for years after 2001.

Defenders of vaccines also repeatedly claim that scientific studies

have failed to establish a link between vaccines and autism. But

dozens of studies showing a link and going back decades can be found

on such websites as generationrescue.org,

nationalautismassociation.org, and in Kirby's extensively

documented, best-selling book, Evidence of Harm. Two new studies show

that Japanese children developed autism in direct proportion to the

numbers vaccinated; and vaccinated baby monkeys developed autism-like

neurological abnormalities.

It is baffling that mercury is still allowed to be injected into the

bodies of youngsters and women carrying fetuses. The federal

Environmental Protection Agency and most state governments warn

against eating many types of fish contaminated with tiny traces of

this deadly metal, especially pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Indeed, mercury has been known for hundreds of years to be deadly – a

compound that severely damages the brains of humans. The famous Mad

Hatter from Alice in Wonderland was made insane by breathing vapors of

mercury used in making hats, a common occurrence in the 19th century.

In the 1st century A.D., Roman prisoners received death sentences by

being forced to work in cinnabar mines, thus exposing them to fatal

levels of mercury. In Minamata Bay, Japan, over ten thousand people in

the fishing village were poisoned (and some two thousand killed, plus

numerous dogs and cats) by fish and shellfish contaminated with

mercury waste dumped into the bay in the 1950's and '60's. In Iraq in

1971–72, up to 1,000 people were killed and as many as 60,000 gravely

poisoned by imported U.S. grain treated with a mercury-based pesticide

banned for use in America.

Yet today, we inject mercury into millions of infants and pregnant

women while medical officials deny there is a risk of causing such

neurological disorders as autism, and ADD/ADHD.

Interestingly, the current autism epidemic coincides with the dramatic

increase of childhood vaccination shots, from ten in the 1980's to

some 36 today, perhaps overburdening the immune systems of some

children. In the 1970's, the autism rate among kids was one in 10,000.

Today, it averages one in 150, and one in 94 for boys.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), FDA, and

many pediatricians and scientists who defend vaccines are not

disinterested parties, because, for decades, they have been

responsible for permitting, promoting and administering the vaccines

containing thimerosal. The prestigious Institute of Medicine, a

leading defender of vaccines, has even opposed conducting research

into their dangers, concluding that efforts to find a link between

vaccines and autism " must be balanced against the broader benefit of

the current vaccine program for all children. "

Of course, if a link were conclusively established, the medical

community fears it would find itself accused of being responsible (and

perhaps financially liable) for poisoning and crippling the minds of

tens of thousands of children.

Now, the medical community's unrelenting defense of vaccines seems to

be crumbling. Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National

Institutes of Health and later the American Red Cross, writes of the

Hannah Poling case, " … the decision was a vindication for families who

have been battling with the vaccine community, arguing that some

poorly understood reaction to components of vaccines or their

mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, could cause brain injury. "

Even CDC Director Dr. Gerberding, who has led the campaign to

defend vaccines, reassure the public, and belittle parents' concerns,

recently admitted during a CNN interview that vaccines can trigger

autism in a certain vulnerable subset of children.

Vaccines have done much good in preventing many dread diseases, and

most children suffer no apparent ill effects from them. But we cannot

ignore the possibility that vaccines, particularly the mercury

component, may be a factor in the current epidemic among children of

neurological disorders, perhaps exacerbated by a genetic or other

underlying disposition in some youngsters.

So what is to be done? To begin, federal health officials should

conduct the long-called-for comprehensive studies comparing vaccinated

children with unvaccinated ones, such as in the Amish community, where

the incidence of autism is said to be almost non-existent.

At the very least, why not remove mercury and other toxic substances

like aluminum, anti-freeze, and formaldehyde as preservatives from

vaccinations; space out the schedule of shots, instead of giving so

many at once; and delay giving some of the riskiest of them until

infants are somewhat older?

These would be good first steps in maintaining public confidence in

vaccines, and so much less trouble than providing lifetime care for

children with autism.

May 22, 2008

Regenstein [send him mail] is an Atlanta environmental writer

and author of America the Poisoned: How Deadly Chemicals Are Poisoning

our Environment, our Wildlife – and Ourselves.

Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com