Fw: [NVIC] Vaccine Safety Datalink Investigation Urged

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Tuesday, March 21, 2006 11:35 AM

[NVIC] Vaccine Safety Datalink Investigation Urged

 

 

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> Bolor [bolor]

> Tuesday, March 21, 2006 7:20 AM

> news

> [NVIC] Vaccine Safety Datalink Investigation Urged

>

>

>

>

> http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=124699

> MetroWest Daily News, MA

> Friday, March 17, 2006

>

> Vaccines the subject of new Congressional investigation

> By Jon Brodkin/ Daily News Staff

>

>

> Congress has asked for a new investigation into a potential link between

> mercury-containing vaccines and autism, as some lawmakers claim the

> Centers

> for Disease Control and Prevention has inadequately researched the topic.

>

> " If the federal government is going to have a study whose results will

> be broadly accepted, such a study cannot be led by the CDC, " Sen. Joseph

> Lieberman, D-Conn., and seven other members of Congress wrote in a letter

> to

> the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

>

> A budget appropriation approved by Congress urges the NIEHS to examine

> the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a CDC database that follows 7 million

> immunized

> children from 1990 to the present.

>

> Some lawmakers believe a new review of this database may show a link

> between autism and thimerosal -- a vaccine preservative containing

> mercury.

>

> A local parent who said he believes his two autistic children were

> harmed by vaccines applauded Congress for requesting a new investigation.

> The parent, Jared Hansen of Framingham, said he thinks the CDC is

> reluctant

> to expose dangers of thimerosal because the agency is responsible for

> ensuring public acceptance of its vaccination program.

>

> " They've proven far more willing to overstate the risks of disease and

> understate the danger of vaccination, " Hansen said. " No one in their right

> mind can say that giving mercury intravenously is a smart thing to do. "

>

> Autism rates soared during the 1990s when thimerosal was most heavily

> used in childhood vaccines. Levels of mercury injected into infants were

> 120

> times greater than federal safety limits for oral ingestion of mercury,

> congressmen wrote to the NIEHS.

>

> Government officials asked manufacturers in 1999 to remove the

> mercury-based preservative from vaccines, but it is still used in flu and

> tetanus shots.

>

> CDC's research on the Vaccine Safety Datalink is flawed, Lieberman and

> his colleagues wrote, because it " was based on data collected prior to the

> removal of thimerosal and failed to explicitly compare the outcome of

> children who received thimerosal-containing vaccines with those who did

> not. "

>

> The CDC refused to comment on the criticism of its research.

>

> But Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an Institute

> of

> Medicine committee in 2004, said the group ran several analyses of the CDC

> data and found no link between thimerosal and autism.

>

> " Nothing you could do changed the results, " McCormick said. " The

> results

> of the...study have been replicated in England. They found no association

> between thimerosal and other neurodevelopmental disorders. "

>

> In the letter to NIEHS, members of Congress criticized the IOM for

> relying heavily on European data, even though American children were

> exposed

> to mercury at levels 75 percent greater than in Europe.

>

> The letter was not signed by any Massachusetts congressmen. But U.S.

> Rep. Martin Meehan, D-5th, said he agrees with its content and would have

> signed on had he been aware it was being written.

>

> " Mercury is known as a brain poison and in the 1990s a greater number

> of

> children were being exposed to mercury (in vaccines), " Meehan said. " I

> think

> this is a serious public health concern and we need more research. "

>

> A spokeswoman for the NIEHS could not be reached for comment.

>

> (Jon Brodkin can be reached at 508-626-4424 or jbrodkin.)

>

>

>

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