FEBRERO 2.004
FEBRUARY 2.004
THE DARK SIDE OF
THE VACCINES AND THIMEROSAL IN THE AUTISM
Don't try to cover with a
finger the light of the sun!!!
1.) Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS
autoimmunity in children with autism.
2.) Unintended events following immunization with MMR: a systematic review.
3.) Serological association of measles
virus and human herpesvirus-6 with brain autoantibodies in autism.
4.) Elevated levels of measles antibodies in children with autism.
5.) Media misled the public over the MMR vaccine, study says.
6.) Prevalence of
autism and parentally reported triggers in a north east London population.
7.) Does the MMR vaccine and secretin or its receptor
share an antigenic epitope?.
8.) A population-based study of measles, mumps, and
rubella vaccination and autism.
9.) Vaccines, viruses, and voodoo.
10.) The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory / looking for a links beween autism and
thimerosal.
1.) Abnormal measles-mumps-rubella antibodies and CNS
autoimmunity in children with autism.
Source:J Biomed Sci. 2002 Jul-Aug;9(4):359-64.
Singh VK, Lin SX, Newell E, Nelson C.
Department of Biology and Biotechnology Center, Utah State University, Logan,
Utah 84322, USA. [email protected]
Autoimmunity to the central nervous system (CNS), especially to myelin basic
protein (MBP), may play a causal role in autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder.
Because many autistic children harbor elevated levels of measles antibodies, we
conducted a serological study of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and MBP
autoantibodies. Using serum samples of 125 autistic children and 92 control
children, antibodies were assayed by ELISA or immunoblotting methods. ELISA
analysis showed a significant increase in the level of MMR antibodies in
autistic children. Immunoblotting analysis revealed the presence of an unusual
MMR antibody in 75 of 125 (60%) autistic sera but not in control sera. This
antibody specifically detected a protein of 73-75 kD of MMR. This protein band,
as analyzed with monoclonal antibodies, was immunopositive for measles
hemagglutinin (HA) protein but not for measles nucleoprotein and rubella or
mumps viral proteins. Thus the MMR antibody in autistic sera detected measles HA
protein, which is unique to the measles subunit of the vaccine. Furthermore,
over 90% of MMR antibody-positive autistic sera were also positive for MBP
autoantibodies, suggesting a strong association between MMR and CNS autoimmunity
in autism. Stemming from this evidence, we suggest that an inappropriate
antibody response to MMR, specifically the measles component thereof, might be
related to pathogenesis of autism. Copyright 2002 National Science Council, ROC
and S. Karger AG, Basel
2.) Unintended events following immunization with MMR: a
systematic review.
Vaccine. 2003 Sep 8;21(25-26):3954-60.
Jefferson T, Price D, Demicheli V, Bianco E; European Research Program for
Improved Vaccine Safety Surveillance (EUSAFEVAC) Project.
Reparto Epidemiologia Clinica, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Viale Regina Elena,
299-00161 Rome, Italy. [email protected]
Public debate over the safety of the trivalent measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
vaccine and the drop in vaccination rates in several countries persists despite
its almost universal use and accepted effectiveness. We carried out a systematic
review to assess the evidence of unintended effects (beneficial or harmful)
associated with MMR and the applicability of systematic reviewing methods to the
field of safety evaluation. Eligible studies were comparative prospective or
retrospective on healthy individuals up to 15 years of age, carried out or
published by 2003. We identified 120 articles satisfying our inclusion criteria
and included 22. MMR is associated with a lower incidence of upper respiratory
tract infections, a higher incidence of irritability, similar incidence of other
adverse effects compared to placebo and is likely to be associated with benign
thrombocytopenic purpura (TP), parotitis, joint and limb complaints and aseptic
meningitis (mumps Urabe strain-containing MMR). Exposure to MMR is unlikely to
be associated with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, autism or aseptic
meningitis (mumps Jeryl-Lynn strain-containing MMR). The design and reporting of
safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are
largely inadequate. The evidence of adverse events following immunization with
MMR cannot be separated from its role in preventing the target diseases
3.) Serological association of measles virus and human
herpesvirus-6 with brain autoantibodies in autism.
Clin Immunol Immunopathol. 1998 Oct;89(1):105-8.
Singh VK, Lin SX, Yang VC.
College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1065,
USA.
Considering an autoimmunity and autism connection, brain autoantibodies to
myelin basic protein (anti-MBP) and neuron-axon filament protein (anti-NAFP)
have been found in autistic children. In this current study, we examined
associations between virus serology and autoantibody by simultaneous analysis of
measles virus antibody (measles-IgG), human herpesvirus-6 antibody (HHV-6-IgG),
anti-MBP, and anti-NAFP. We found that measles-IgG and HHV-6-IgG titers were
moderately higher in autistic children but they did not significantly differ
from normal controls. Moreover, we found that a vast majority of virus serology-positive
autistic sera was also positive for brain autoantibody: (i) 90% of measles-IgG-positive
autistic sera was also positive for anti-MBP; (ii) 73% of measles-IgG-positive
autistic sera was also positive for anti-NAFP; (iii) 84% of HHV-6-IgG-positive
autistic sera was also positive for anti-MBP; and (iv) 72% of HHV-6-IgG-positive
autistic sera was also positive for anti-NAFP. This study is the first to report
an association between virus serology and brain autoantibody in autism; it
supports the hypothesis that a virus-induced autoimmune response may play a
causal role in autism. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.
4.) Elevated levels of measles
antibodies in children with autism.
Pediatr Neurol. 2003 Apr;28(4):292-4.
Singh VK, Jensen RL.
Department of Biology and Biotechnology Center, Utah State University, Logan,
Utah, USA.
Virus-induced autoimmunity may play a causal role in autism. To examine the
etiologic link of viruses in this brain disorder, we conducted a serologic study
of measles virus, mumps virus, and rubella virus. Viral antibodies were measured
by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serum of autistic children, normal
children, and siblings of autistic children. The level of measles antibody, but
not mumps or rubella antibodies, was significantly higher in autistic children
as compared with normal children (P = 0.003) or siblings of autistic children (P
<or= 0.0001). Furthermore, immunoblotting of measles vaccine virus revealed that
the antibody was directed against a protein of approximately 74 kd molecular
weight. The antibody to this antigen was found in 83% of autistic children but
not in normal children or siblings of autistic children. Thus autistic children
have a hyperimmune response to measles virus, which in the absence of a wild
type of measles infection might be a sign of an abnormal immune reaction to the
vaccine strain or virus reactivation.
5.) Media misled the public over the MMR vaccine, study says.
News roundup
BMJ 2003;326:1107 (24 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7399.1107-a
Abergavenny Roger Dobson
Most people wrongly believed that doctors and scientists are equally divided
over the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to
new research carried out during the high profile public debate over the vaccine
last year.
At the height of the media coverage the impression was created that medical
scientists were split down the middle over the vaccine’s safety, including
reports of links with autism, say the study’s authors, from Cardiff University.
Less than one in four people were aware that the bulk of the evidence favoured
the vaccine, say the authors of the study. "Although almost all scientific
experts rejected the claim of a link between MMR and autism, 53% of those [the
people] surveyed at the height of the media coverage of the issues assumed that
because both sides of the debate received equal media coverage, there must be
equal evidence for each. Only 23% of the population were aware that the bulk of
evidence favoured supporters of the vaccine," says the study.
The researchers looked at how three subjects—the MMR vaccine, genetics, and
climate change—were reported by the media and at the public’s knowledge of the
issues.
The research was carried out between January and September 2002 and involved two
national surveys of more than 1000 people and an analysis of 2214 newspaper,
radio, and television stories. The study included 561 media reports on MMR over
a seven month period. More than half these stories were concentrated in one
month between 28 January and 28 February 2002.
The focus of the media reporting was the possible link between the MMR vaccine
and autism, a link mentioned in more than two thirds of the articles, say the
authors, Professor Ian Hargreaves, Professor Justin Lewis, and Ms Tammy Spears,
who carried out the study with funding from the Economic and Social Research
Council.
Almost half (48%) of the people surveyed believed that on public health issues
the media should wait for confirmatory studies before reporting "alarming
research," say the authors. But 34% believed that concerns about the MMR vaccine
such as those of Dr Andrew Wakefield vaccine should be reported.
"The survey confirms that the news media play a key role in informing the way
people understand issues such as the controversy around MMR. While [Dr]
Wakefield’s claims are of legitimate public interest, our report shows that
research questioning the safety of something that is widely used should be
approached with caution, both by scientists and journalists," said Professor
Lewis.
"This is especially the case where any decline in confidence can have serious
consequences for public health. The research also has implications for the
debate about fairness in journalism, suggesting that legal definitions of
impartiality in broadcast journalism should not be interpreted in a simplistic
fashion."
6.) Prevalence of autism and parentally reported triggers in a
north east London population.
Arch Dis Child.
2003 Aug;88(8):666-70.
Lingam R, Simmons A, Andrews N, Miller E, Stowe J, Taylor B.
Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Free and University College Medical
School, Royal Free Campus, University College London, London NW3 2PF.
BACKGROUND: The recorded prevalence of autistic spectrum disorders has risen
over recent decades. Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been blamed,
by causing a "new variant" form of "regressive autism" associated with "autistic
enterocolitis". AIMS: To estimate the prevalence of autism and to assess any
changes in parental perception regarding the onset or causes of autism. METHODS
AND RESULTS: A total of 567 children with autistic spectrum disorder in five
districts in north east London were identified, born 1979-98. Reported autism,
excluding the 94 cases of Asperger's syndrome, increased by year of birth until
1992, since when prevalence has plateaued. This flattening off persisted after
allowing for expected delay in diagnosis in more recent birth cohorts. The age
at diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder was estimated to have decreased per
five year period since 1983, by 8.7% for childhood autism and by 11.0% for
atypical autism. There was some evidence that MMR was more likely to be
mentioned as a trigger after August 1997 than before. CONCLUSIONS: The
prevalence of autism, which was apparently rising from 1979 to 1992, reached a
plateau from 1992 to 1996 at a rate of some 2.6 per 1000 live births. This
levelling off, together with the reducing age at diagnosis, suggests that the
earlier recorded rise in prevalence was not a real increase but was likely due
to factors such as increased recognition, a greater willingness on the part of
educationalists and families to accept the diagnostic label, and better
recording systems. The proportion of parents attributing their child's autism to
MMR appears to have increased since August 1997.
7.) Does the MMR vaccine and secretin or its receptor share
an antigenic epitope?
Med Hypotheses. 2003 May;60(5):650-3.
Mehta BK, Munir KM.
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Newfoundland, Canada.
In a subgroup of children with autism-spectrum like conditions symptoms seem to
appear as a 'regression' (in normal development). It has been postulated that
the onset of such autistic symptoms may involve an autoimmune response against
the central nervous system and that the antigenic determinant could possibly be
gastrointestinal in origin. It has been suggested that the presence of the
measles virus and 'autistic enterocolitis' demonstrates the possibility that the
MMR triple vaccine may be mediating the inflammation with possible production of
antibodies against the virus containing vaccine. Such an antibody may share
antigenic determinant to molecules found in the gut. We propose that this may be
secretin or its receptor, found in the gut as well as in the central nervous
system. The antibody response to the gut may also conceivably occur in the brain
at a critical time in development. The modulation of development by secretin may
be a static event possibly occurring at a specific time in early childhood
development and if it involves an autoimmune response then a disruption in
development may result. These hypothesized events can only occur if the MMR
vaccine shares antigenic determinants that resemble secretin or any of its
receptor types and remains to be studied.
8.) A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella
vaccination and autism.
N Engl J Med. 2002 Nov 7;347(19):1477-82.
Comment in:
Evid Based Ment Health. 2003 May;6(2):62.
Evid Based Nurs. 2003 Jul;6(3):89.
N Engl J Med. 2002 Nov 7;347(19):1474-5.
N Engl J Med. 2003 Mar 6;348(10):951-4; author reply 951-4.
N Engl J Med. 2003 Mar 6;348(10):951-4; author reply 951-4.
N Engl J Med. 2003 Mar 6;348(10):951-4; author reply 951-4.
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Olsen J,
Melbye M.
Danish Epidemiology Science Center, Department of Epidemiology and Social
Medicine, Arhus, Denmark. [email protected]
BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that vaccination against measles, mumps, and
rubella (MMR) is a cause of autism. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort
study of all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998.
The cohort was selected on the basis of data from the Danish Civil Registration
System, which assigns a unique identification number to every live-born infant
and new resident in Denmark. MMR-vaccination status was obtained from the Danish
National Board of Health. Information on the children's autism status was
obtained from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register, which contains
information on all diagnoses received by patients in psychiatric hospitals and
outpatient clinics in Denmark. We obtained information on potential confounders
from the Danish Medical Birth Registry, the National Hospital Registry, and
Statistics Denmark. RESULTS: Of the 537,303 children in the cohort (representing
2,129,864 person-years), 440,655 (82.0 percent) had received the MMR vaccine. We
identified 316 children with a diagnosis of autistic disorder and 422 with a
diagnosis of other autistic-spectrum disorders. After adjustment for potential
confounders, the relative risk of autistic disorder in the group of vaccinated
children, as compared with the unvaccinated group, was 0.92 (95 percent
confidence interval, 0.68 to 1.24), and the relative risk of another autistic-spectrum
disorder was 0.83 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.65 to 1.07). There was no
association between the age at the time of vaccination, the time since
vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of autistic disorder.
CONCLUSIONS: This study provides strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR
vaccination causes autism. Copyright 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society
9.)
Vaccines, viruses, and voodoo.
J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol. 2002;12(3):155-68.
Borchers AT, Keen CL, Shoenfeld Y, Silva J Jr, Gershwin ME.
Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology, University of
California at Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Vaccinations are invaluable in protection from a wide variety of diseases that
can cause substantial morbidity and mortality. Although a rare complication of
vaccination, autoimmune disorders represent one of these morbidities. Recently,
widespread public concern has arisen from case reports suggesting that--similar
to what has been observed after natural viral infections--there might be an
association between specific immunizations and autoimmune diseases. Herein we
address the biological plausibility of such a connection, focusing particularly
on the examples of hepatitis B, rubella, and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR)
vaccinations, and the autoimmune diseases they are potentially associated with.
Our review of the available data suggests that, for the general population, the
risk: benefit ratio is overwhelmingly in favor of vaccinations. However, the
possibility cannot be ruled out that, in genetically susceptible individuals,
vaccination can result in the unmasking of an autoimmune disease triggered by
the immunization. We also critically examine the existing data suggesting a link
between immunization against MMR and autism, and briefly discuss the
controversial evidence pointing to a possible relationship between mercury
exposure from vaccines and autistic disorders. There is a continued urgent need
for rigorously designed and executed studies addressing these potential
associations, although the use of vaccinations remains a critical public health
tool for protection against infectious disease.
10.) The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory / looking
for a links beween autism and thimerosal.
.
source:
Http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/
New York Times Magazine
10 November 2002
By ARTHUR ALLEN
Danish study on MMR published during same week
Comments by Neal Halsey about this story
Neal Halsey's life was dedicated to promoting vaccination. In June 1999, the
Johns Hopkins pediatrician and scholar had completed a decade of service on the
influential committees that decide which inoculations will be jabbed into the
arms and thighs and buttocks of eight million American children each year. At
the urging of Halsey and others, the number of vaccines mandated for children
under 2 in the 90's soared to 20, from 8. Kids were healthier for it, according
to him. These simple, safe injections against hepatitis B and germs like
haemophilus bacteria would help thousands grow up free of diseases like
meningitis and liver cancer.
Halsey's view, however, was not shared by a small but vocal faction of parents
who questioned whether all these shots did more harm than good. While many of
the childhood infections that vaccines were designed to prevent -- among them
diphtheria, mumps, chickenpox and polio -- seemed to be either antique or
innocuous, serious chronic diseases like asthma, juvenile diabetes and autism
were on the rise. And on the Internet, especially, a growing number of self-styled
health activists blamed vaccines for these increases.
Like all medical interventions, vaccines sometimes cause adverse reactions. But
unlike pills, vaccines come packaged with high expectations, which make them
particularly vulnerable to public criticism. Vaccines don't cure people, and
they are administered to healthy children, which gives them few opportunities
for good press. When they work, nothing happens. When vaccinated children become
ill, their parents are grief-stricken and often enraged, even if vaccines aren't
proved to be at fault. All of this puts public-health advocates like Halsey on
the defensive. Most attacks on vaccines, they say, are based on hysteria, bad
science and dubious politics.
Halsey, 57, has green eyes, a white beard that makes him look like a ship's
captain and an air of careful authority. As chairman of the American Academy of
Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases from 1995 through June 1999, he
often appeared in the media administering calm reassurance. ''Many of the
allegations against vaccines,'' Halsey said in one interview, ''are based on
unproven hypotheses and causal associations with little evidence.''
And then suddenly in June 1999, during a visit to the Food and Drug
Administration, a squall appeared on the horizon of Halsey's confidence. Halsey
attended a meeting to discuss thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative that
at the time was being used in several vaccines -- including the hepatitis B shot
that Halsey had fought so hard to have administered to American babies. By the
time the dust kicked up in that meeting had settled, Halsey would be forced to
reckon with the hypothesis that thimerosal had damaged the brains of immunized
infants and may have contributed to the unexplained explosion in the number of
cases of autism being diagnosed in children.
That Halsey was willing even to entertain this possibility enraged some of his
fellow vaccinologists, who couldn't fathom how a doctor who had spent so much
energy dismantling the arguments of people who attacked vaccines could now be
changing sides. But to Halsey's mind, his actions were perfectly consistent: he
was simply working from the data. And the numbers deeply troubled him. ''From
the beginning, I saw thimerosal as something different,'' he says. ''It was the
first strong evidence of a causal association with neurological impairment. I
was very concerned.''
The investigation into mercury vaccines was instigated in 1997 by Representative
Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat whose district includes a string of
shore towns where mercury in fish is one of many environmental concerns. Pallone,
who had been pressing the government to re-evaluate its overall guidelines on
mercury toxicity, attached an amendment to an F.D.A. bill requiring the agency
to inventory all mercury contained in licensed drugs and vaccines.
The job of adding up the amount of mercury in vaccines and assessing its risk
fell to Robert Ball, an F.D.A. scientist, and two F.D.A. pediatricians, Leslie
Ball, Robert's wife, and R. Douglas Pratt. Thimerosal, which is 50 percent ethyl
mercury by weight, had been used as a vaccine preservative since the 1930's in
the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis shot, known as D.T.P., and it was later added
to some vaccines for hepatitis B and haemophilus bacteria, which by the early
1990's had become routine immunizations for infants.
The F.D.A. team's conclusions were frightening. Vaccines added under Halsey's
watch had tripled the dose of mercury that infants got in their first few months
of life. As many as 30 million American children may have been exposed to
mercury in excess of Environmental Protection Agency guidelines -- levels of
mercury that, in theory, could have killed enough brain cells to scramble
thinking or hex behavior.
''My first reaction was simply disbelief, which was the reaction of almost
everybody involved in vaccines,'' Halsey says. ''In most vaccine containers,
thimerosal is listed as a mercury derivative, a hundredth of a percent. And what
I believed, and what everybody else believed, was that it was truly a trace, a
biologically insignificant amount. My honest belief is that if the labels had
had the mercury content in micrograms, this would have been uncovered years ago.
But the fact is, no one did the calculation.''
Making matters worse, the latest science on mercury damage suggested that even
small amounts of organic mercury could do harm to the fetal brain. Some of the
federal safety guidelines on mercury were relaxed in the 90's, even as the
amount of mercury that children received in vaccines increased. The more Halsey
learned about these mercury studies, the more he worried.
''My first concern was that it would harm the credibility of the immunization
program,'' he says. ''But gradually it came home to me that maybe there was some
real risk to the children.'' Mercury was turning out to be like lead, which had
been studied extensively in the homes of the Baltimore poor during Halsey's
tenure at Hopkins. ''As they got more sophisticated at testing for lead, the
safe level marched down and down, and they continued to find subtle neurological
impairment,'' Halsey says. ''And that's almost exactly what happened with
mercury.''
Halsey was beginning to think that it would be prudent to limit thimerosal-containing
vaccines and urge pediatricians to use thimerosal-free shots when possible. But
his decision inflamed some of his peers. After all, although the thimerosal data
was worrisome to Halsey, the available science offered no clear proof that the
preservative posed a genuine danger to children when given in parts per million.
Moreover, it wasn't clear that there were enough thimerosal-free vaccines
available for diseases like pertussis and hepatitis B. Should an unproven fear
justify the cessation of a procedure that protected children from proven dangers?
Halsey looked into the matter further and found only complexity. In the medical
literature, most cases of acute mercury poisoning result from doses hundreds or
thousands of times higher than what infants received with thimerosal-laden
vaccines. And although the thimerosal levels in vaccines exceeded the E.P.A.'s
guidelines for methyl mercury, thimerosal contained ethyl mercury, a compound
that behaves somewhat differently in the body. The E.P.A. based its guidelines
on a series of studies of 917 children born in 1987 in the Faeroe Islands, a
windswept North Atlantic archipelago, to women who ate methyl-mercury-tainted
whale meat. The Faeroes children, whose umbilical cord blood averaged four times
the E.P.A.'s daily ''safe'' dose -- which was 0.1 micrograms per kilo --
exhibited small but measurable neurological deficits seven years later. They had
slower reaction times and diminished attention spans and their word choice and
memorization were less keen than those of their classmates who had been exposed
to less mercury, according to Philippe Grandjean, a Danish researcher who leads
the continuing Faeroes study and teaches at Boston University.
During most of the 90's, many American 6-month-olds received a total of 187.5
micrograms of ethyl mercury through vaccination. While the Faeroes children were
exposed to mercury as developing fetuses, and therefore were more vulnerable
than the vaccinated American infants, the American babies included about 60,000
each year who had already been exposed to high mercury levels because their
mothers had eaten a lot of contaminated fish. What's more, hundreds of thousands
of Rh-negative pregnant women and their unborn Rh-positive babies received
additional thimerosal each year through injections designed to keep the mothers'
immune systems from attacking the fetuses.
The Faeroes studies, though they dealt with methyl mercury, unnerved Halsey.
Other researchers were troubled, too. George Lucier, a toxicologist who led a
1998 White House review of mercury's dangers, went so far as to say it was ''very
likely'' that thimerosal had damaged some children. There was precious little
data to back up that precise suspicion -- and little to dismiss it -- because of
the lack of toxicology research on ethyl mercury.
On July 7, 1999, at Halsey's urging, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the
Public Health Service released a statement urging vaccine manufacturers to
remove thimerosal as quickly as possible and advising pediatricians to postpone
giving most newborns the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. The decision,
which helped to create vaccine shortages and led some babies to become infected
with hepatitis B, outraged some senior vaccine experts. Walter Orenstein,
director of the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, would charge that the rush to remove thimerosal-containing
vaccines was ''precipitous.'' Stanley Plotkin, a renowned vaccine developer,
said that it was fruitless to try to soothe vaccination critics. ''If
antivaccinationists did not have mercury, they would have another issue,'' he
said at one meeting. ''One cannot prevent them from making hay regardless of
whether the sun is shining or not.''
In Halsey's view, however, thimerosal wasn't simply a bone for rabid vaccine
opponents to gnaw on. In the middle of that hectic summer he took a vacation in
Maine. Canoeing on a lake, he came across posters that advised fishermen to ''protect
your children -- release your catch.'' Halsey took that message to heart. If the
government was warning people against eating fish with mercury, he asked his
colleagues, ''does it make sense to allow it to be injected into infants?''
Although other vaccinologists criticized Halsey, many of his colleagues rallied
around him. ''Neal put kids ahead of the vaccination program, which was gutsy,''
says Lynn Goldman, a former E.P.A. official who has been on the Hopkins faculty
since 1999 and worked with Halsey on thimerosal. ''It would have been easier for
him to line up on the other side.''
Few scientists believe that the spike in autism could have been caused solely by
the thimerosal in vaccines, but in October 2001, a vaccine-safety committee at
the starchy Institute of Medicine confirmed that it was ''biologically
plausible'' -- though by no means proved -- that thimerosal could be related to
neurodevelopmental delays in some children. The committee recommended that
thimerosal be removed from vaccines and called for extensive research to
determine any damage it had caused.
Halsey's fellow researchers were right about one thing. Antivaccine advocates
immediately seized upon the thimerosal theory, and Halsey became something of an
unwilling hero to the vaccine-safety advocates with whom he had so often sparred.
In fact, thousands of parents with autistic children have responded to the
Institute of Medicine report by filing lawsuits. Michael Williams, who has won
millions in toxic tort settlements from pharmaceutical companies, was among the
first lawyers to sue vaccine manufacturers, on behalf of William Mead, a 4-year-old
Portland, Ore., boy with autism. Williams also filed a separate class-action
lawsuit with William's healthy older sister, Eleanor, as lead plaintiff,
demanding that vaccine makers also pay for studies to determine thimerosal's
effects on millions of children who might have lower I.Q.'s or other less
obvious signs of mercury poisoning. Past studies have shown that mercury's
effects vary tremendously from person to person, presumably because of genetic
differences in the body's capacity to protect delicate organs from it.
''In order to win the Eleanor lawsuit you need to establish liability, but I
don't think that is going to be that hard,'' Williams said in a recent chat in
his Portland office. ''Organic mercury is a very serious neurotoxin.''
Williams embodies the vaccine establishment's worst fear about Halsey's course
of action -- which is that taking the precautionary step of eliminating
thimerosal would be read as an admission of fault. ''The agenda was set by the
lawyers and the antivaccine activists,'' a source close to a number of
manufacturers complained to me. ''The scientists responded to it scientifically,
and that put them behind the eight ball right away. You had Neal Halsey running
around saying: 'We've got to do something! We've got to show we're concerned!'''
Paul Offit, a vaccinologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, takes it
a step further. ''In some instances I think full disclosure can be harmful,'' he
says. ''Is it safe to say there is zero risk with thimerosal, when it is
remotely possible that one child would get sick? Well, since we say that mercury
is a neurotoxin, we have to do everything we can to get rid of it. But I would
argue that removing thimerosal didn't make vaccines safer -- it only made them
perceptibly safer.''
For Halsey, thimerosal injury is a possibility that must be addressed -- but by
science, not by the courts. The scientific agenda, however, is already deeply
politicized. From the start, the C.D.C.'s efforts to examine the possibility of
thimerosal damage became snarled in acrimony. Critics of the vaccination system
don't trust the C.D.C., which monitors evidence of adverse reactions to vaccines
through the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a computerized set of 7.5 million medical
records. Safe Minds, an advocacy group of parents who believe that their
autistic children were damaged by thimerosal, has used the Freedom of
Information Act to obtain documents showing that as early as December 1999 the
C.D.C. had reason to believe that thimerosal caused developmental delays in some
children. It was far from conclusive evidence, but vaccine critics charged that
the C.D.C. tried to play it down. One of those critics was Dan Burton, a
Republican congressman from Indiana, who says he firmly believes that his
grandson's autism is a result of vaccines. ''I'm so ticked off about my grandson,
and to think that the public-health people have been circling the wagons to
cover up the facts!'' Burton fumed at a June hearing. ''Why, it just makes me
want to vomit!''
What comes through in an examination of the documents uncovered by Safe Minds is
less a coverup than an impression of scientists anxiously watching over their
shoulders as they work. One document, for example, records comments made by
Robert Brent, a Philadelphia pediatrician who served as a consultant for the
thimerosal study. ''The medical-legal findings in this study, causal or not, are
horrendous,'' Brent said. ''If an allegation was made that a child's
neurobehavioral findings were caused by thimerosal-containing vaccines, you
could readily find a junk scientist who would support the claim with a
reasonable degree of certainty. But you will not find a scientist with any
integrity who would say the reverse with the data that is available. . . . So we
are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits if they were
initiated.''
More research is in the works. The C.D.C. is setting up a study of
neurodevelopmental effects based in part on the Faeroe Islands model. The N.I.H.
is financing studies of thimerosal metabolism in animals and children. (An early
University of Rochester study was reassuring: it indicated that children
eliminate thimerosal much more quickly than expected.)
Clearly, a lot is riding on this research, and pressure is being brought to bear
on both sides. Can the vaccine authorities accept a positive answer? Can the
vaccine opponents accept a negative one? ''No one wants to think that harm might
have been done,'' Halsey says. ''I don't want to think harm might have been
done.''
American children still receive up to 20 vaccines in the first two years of life.
The first symptoms of autism often appear between the ages of 12 and 24 months.
Most autism experts say that the two facts are coincidental, but as a major
California study recently confirmed, autism is being diagnosed in numbers far
higher than ever before, suggesting that a nongenetic cause may be partly to
blame. In some children, the behavioral traits of autism present themselves
along with physical problems like sensory dysfunction and motor disorders that
have rough correlates in the mercury-poisoning literature. For some parents,
thimerosal provides a grand unifying theory that squarely points the finger at
the government and vaccine makers.
During much of the 20th-century, children suffered from an ailment called pink
disease, which caused peeling skin on the extremities as well as regressive
behavior. In 1948, a keen-eyed Cincinnati pediatrician named Josef Warkany
noticed a common risk factor in these children: they had all been given teething
powders containing calomel, a mercury derivative. Only about 1 in 500 children
whose parents gave them calomel got pink disease -- suggesting that a
constitutional vulnerability to mercury was part of the clinical picture. Soon
after the powders were taken off the market, pink disease disappeared.
Autism is a global phenomenon that was first reported in America in 1943, long
before the potential dangers of thimerosal vaccines were raised. Removing the
preservative won't -- even in the best case -- eliminate the illness. But
scientists estimate that the current rate of autism in its various forms might
be as high as 1 in 500. If the autism trend begins to recede now that thimerosal
has been removed, it could certainly suggest a cause. If it does decline, we
might have Neal Halsey to thank. If it doesn't, his colleagues in the vaccine
establishment may blame him for stoking an irrational protest from the public.
Halsey, who still heads the Hopkins Institute for Vaccine Safety, which he was a
founder of in 1997, is on the fence. ''I don't believe the evidence is
convincing now that there has definitely been harm done by thimerosal,'' he says,
absently stroking his balding head. But to keep the vaccine program on a steady
keel, Halsey says, the public-health authorities simply must follow through with
the studies and face the consequences without flinching. If there is damage, he
says, ''there should be some kind of compensation, though I don't know how.'' He
pauses, and sighs. ''I empathize with families of children with these disorders.
How are you going to put dollar values on that?''
=======================================================================
DATA-MEDICOS/DERMAGIC-EXPRESS /FEBRUARY JOURNAL 2.004/ DR. JOSE
LAPENTA R.
=======================================================================
|