Pharma's Poisoned Generation

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Tue, 28 Feb 2006 13:45:25 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Pharma's Poisoned Generation

 

 

 

 

 

Pharma's Poisoned Generation

Evelyn Pringle

http://www.sierratimes.com/05/11/27/70_224_230_40_51184.htm

 

A growing number of professionals in the health care field are

reporting that a relationship exists between the epidemic in

neurodevelopmental disorders of autism, attention deficit hyperactive

disorder, and speech or language delay all across the country, and the

use of thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative used in childhood

vaccines.

Vaccines are the only medicines that Americans are mandated to

receive as a condition for attendance in school and day care, and for

some types of employment. Parents who receive federal assistance are

also required to show proof that their children have been vaccinated.

 

While the mandate for which vaccines must be included on the

vaccine schedule is a state mandate, it is the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC) and its Advisory Committee that make the

recommendations to which the majority of states adhere when

determining mandates. The current epidemic actually began in the late

1980s when a large number of new vaccines were added to the schedule.

 

The blame is at least partially attributable to the failure of

government officials to keep track of the cumulative amounts of

mercury as they added triple-dose-vaccines to the schedule and the

amount of thimerosal was multiplied by three.

 

Each new vaccine contained 25 micrograms of mercury and

according to Professor Lynn Adams, of Radford University, who

specializes in autism, by 1999, a study determined that the average

child received 33 doses of 10 different vaccines by the age 5.

 

Elected lawmakers first became aware of the problem in 1999,

when the House Committee on Government Reform initiated an

investigation into the dangers of mercury exposure. An alarm rang

early about the exposure of children to thimerosal.

 

By October 25, 2000, Committee Chairman, Dan Burton (R-IN), was

trying to get the substance out of vaccines as quickly as possible and

sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, asking

the director to get the FDA to recall all vaccines with thimerosal.

 

" We all know and accept that mercury is a neurotoxin, and yet

the FDA has failed to recall the 50 vaccines that contain Thimerosal, "

Burton wrote. " Every day that mercury-containing vaccines remain on

the market is another day HHS is putting 8,000 children at risk, " he said.

 

" I implore you to conduct a full recall of these products, " he

wrote. " If the only action ... is a gradual phase out, children will

continue to be put at risk every day, " Burton warned. " These vaccines

will continue to be injected in children for years to come - putting

our nation's most vulnerable population ... at risk for mercury

poisoning, " he added.

 

The Reform Committee soon discovered that regulatory agencies

were still allowing thimerosal to be used decades after the

recognition that it was harmful. The Committee was told that the Food

and Drug Administration, (FDA), uses a subjective barometer in

determining when a product that has known risks can remain on the

market. According to the agency:

 

" at the heart of all FDA's product evaluation decisions is a

judgment about whether a new product's benefits to users will outweigh

its risks. No regulated product is totally risk-free, so these

judgments are important. The FDA will allow a product to present more

of a risk when its potential benefit is great-especially for products

used to treat serious, life-threatening conditions. "

 

The argument that the known risks of infectious diseases

outweighs any potential risk of neurological damage is one that has

continuously been used by officials. The FDA claims that any risk from

thimerosal is theoretical because no proof of harm exists.

 

However, after its review of scientific literature and listening

to the testimony of witnesses, the Committee found plenty of evidence

to support the fact that thimerosal posed a grave risk. " The possible

risk for harm from either low dose chronic or one time high level

(bolus dose) exposure to thimerosal is not " theoretical, " but very

real and documented in the medical literature, " the Committee said.

 

The Committee also discovered that regulatory agencies have

never required drug companies to conduct studies on the use of

thimerosal. During a June 20, 2002, hearing, Burton questioned

officials from the FDA and CDC and said, " You mean to tell me that

since 1929, we've been using Thimerosal and the only test that you

know of is from 1929, and every one of those people had mennigitis,

and they all died? "

 

In his opening statement at a July 18, 2000, hearing, Burton said:

 

" We assume that the FDA would protect our children from exposure

to any level of mercury through drugs. But that hasn't been the case.

Thimerosal was first marketed in 1930 and has become the most widely

used preservative in vaccines. It is present in over 50 licensed

vaccines. "

 

" The FDA recently acknowledged that in the first six months of

life, children get more mercury than is considered safe by the EPA, "

Burton noted. " The truth is that sometimes kids go to their doctor's

office and get four or five vaccines at the same time, " he added.

 

" My grandson received vaccines for nine different diseases in

one day, " Burton said. " He may have been exposed to 62.5 micrograms of

mercury in one day through his vaccines. "

 

" According to his weight, the maximum safe level of mercury he

should be exposed to in one day is 1.51 micrograms, " Burton advised.

" This is forty-one times the amount at which harm can be caused, " he

added.

 

In his opening remarks at a June 19, 2002, hearing, Burton

described the devastation of witnessing the correlation between

vaccines and autism.

 

" My only grandson became autistic right before my eyes - shortly

after receiving his federally recommended and state-mandated vaccines.

Without a full explanation of what was in the shots being given, my

talkative, playful, outgoing, healthy, grandson Christian was

subjected to very high levels of mercury through his vaccines. He also

received the MMR vaccine. Within a few days he was showing signs of

autism. "

 

People often wonder why regulatory officials would protect drug

makers. In large part, because the CDC and FDA policy decisions are

made through advisory panels whose members have financial

relationships with the same companies they are charged to regulate.

 

The decisions of the 300 experts who sit on the FDA's 18

advisory committees affect billions of dollars in sales. The panel

members play a crucial role in determining what drugs will be approved

and participate in just about every major decision related to industry

regulation.

 

When it comes to vaccines, the large population in the USA

transforms into a lucrative customer base when our government makes

vaccines mandatory and keeps adding more and more to the list. Between

2003 and 2006, it was predicted that the annual global market for

vaccines would rise from $6 billion to $10 billion, by Mark Benjamin

for United Press International on July 21, 2003.

 

Investors follow the decisions made by the advisory panels

closely. A favorable vote by a committee can add hundreds of millions

of dollars to a company's stock value which also means the potential

for corruption in the panels is enormous.

 

In a July 18, 2000 hearing, Burton mentioned the problem. " We

have a lot of doctors who serve on Federal advisory committees who

have serious conflicts-of-interest problems. They're allowed to vote

on vaccines made by companies that they get money from. "

 

An analysis conducted by USA Today, of 159 FDA advisory

committee meetings that took place between January 1, 1998, and June

30, 2000, revealed conflicts of interest were wide-spread:

 

At 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a financial

conflict of interest.

 

At least one committee member had a financial stake in the topic

under review at 146 of 159 advisory committee meetings.

 

At 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisers had

conflicts of interest.

 

At the 102 meetings dealing with the fate of a specific drug,

33% of the experts had a financial conflict.

 

Many parents are now refusing to vaccinate their children

because they believe there is an on-going conspiracy by government

officials and the pharmaceutical industry to boost profits by

mandating unnecessary vaccines, while at the same time, denying their

potential for harm. Congressman Burton addressed this issue in a June

19, 2002 hearing:

 

" Parents are increasingly concerned that the Department may be

inherently conflicted in its multiple roles of promoting immunization,

regulating manufacturers, looking for adverse events, managing the

vaccine injury compensation program, and developing new vaccines.

Families share my concern that vaccine manufacturers have too much

influence as well. "

 

Burton also noted the need to get honest about the current

epidemic. " As representatives of the people, we have a responsibility

to ensure that our public health officials are adequately and honestly

addressing this epidemic and its possible links to vaccine injury, " he

said.

 

In May 2003, the Reform Committee, released a report that said

the " FDA and the CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new

vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the

immunization schedule. "

 

As an example the report cited the Hepatitis B vaccine. " When

the Hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenzae Type b vaccines were added

to the recommended schedule of childhood immunizations, the cumulative

amount of ethylmercury to which children were exposed nearly tripled. "

The report identified thimerosal as the cause of the autism and

chastised the FDA:

 

" Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly

related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may

have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the

switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal

and the sharper eyes of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. The

public health agencies failure to act is indicative of institutional

malfeasance for self protection and misplaced protectionism of the

pharmaceutical industry. "

 

Many people have not yet recognized the seriousness of the

epidemic, largely because the majority of people have not seen many

autistic children due to the fact that parents seldom take their

affected children out in public because of the difficulty in trying to

control them in a strange environment.

 

However, the rising numbers in special education classes in the

nation's public school system provides a clear measurement of how

wide-spread the epidemic has become. State by state statistics for

students with autism from the Department of Education for the 12-year

period between 1992-93 and 2003-04, are almost unbelievable. For

instance, in Ohio in 1992-93, there were only 22 cases of autism, by

2003-04 there were 5,146. In Illinois, there were only 5 cases twelve

years ago and 6,005 in 2003-04. Wisconsin had 18 cases of autism in

1992-93 and the numbers rose to 3,259 in 2003-04.

 

The true reality of these statistics will register in the not

too distant future. " With eighty percent of autistic Americans under

the age of 18, the dramatic impact of this crisis will be felt by

taxpayers in the coming years when these autistic children become

adults, " says Anne McElroy Dachel, Media Relations Coordinator for the

National Autism Association.

 

Most vaccines on the immunization schedule now are said to be

thimerosal-free but some still do contain trace amounts. " An exception

is the flu shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

recommends for pregnant women and for infants 6 to 23 months old, "

advises Don Olmsted in United Press International on November 19, 2005.

 

For 6 to 23-month-old infants, the schedule calls for two flu

shots that contain 12.5 micrograms of thimerosal each to be given a

month apart. " That total of is the same amount that was in vaccines

some parents believe triggered their child's autism, " Olmsted advises.

" And some of them believe in utero exposure to mercury via the

pregnant mother might be the most dangerous exposure of all, " he said.

 

When deciding whether mercury-laced flu vaccines are safe for

children, parents had better think long and hard before rolling the dice.

 

Evelyn Pringle epringle05

 

(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an

investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government)