Pneumonia, flu vaccines lie at center of storm

Vaccine opponents, a scattered though potent force, have been gearing up in recent weeks to fight state health officials who are pushing for new immunization rules for babies and young children.

This latest vaccine skirmish centers on proposals to require that young children in child care centers or preschool get vaccinated against both the flu and pneumonia. The shots would be for children over 6 months old and would include the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), and the influenza vaccine.

Health officials said the mandates, not yet final, would prevent as many as 300 hospitalizations each year -- and possibly several deaths -- among New Jersey children. The mandates also would reduce spread of disease to adults and the elderly.

Plans for the mandates were outlined in June. Since then, organizers at anti-vaccine groups in the state have been preparing to fight. Some object to all vaccines. Others believe parents should make vaccine choices for their children. Others, in particular, object to the influenza vaccine.

"Our major concern about the flu vaccine is that it contains thimerisol," said Ellen Sweeney of Brick, who is president of The Autism Autoimmunity Project of New Jersey.

Thimerisol, used as a preservative, contains mercury, a neurotoxin. In 1999, federal officials recommended removing thimerisol from vaccines. Some are now made without it.

"I do not agree that there is a relationship between (autism and) thimerisol, but for those who are concerned there are formulations available that are thimerisol free," said Eddy Bresnitz, the state epidemiologist who outlined the plans for the state Department of Health and Senior Services.

Opponents, though, fear there will not be enough of the preservative-free vaccine to go around.

"Given the number of doses you need to immunize children under 3, the number of thimerisol-free vaccine is not even close,"

Autism Rates Drop After Mercury Removed From Childhood Vaccines
This Article
Also Appears In
Neurology / Neuroscience
Psychology / Psychiatry
Pediatrics

Main Category: Autism News
Article Date: 03 Mar 2006 - 0:00am (PDT)

An article in the March 10, 2006 issue of the Journal of American
Physicians and Surgeons shows that since mercury was removed from
childhood vaccines, the alarming increase in reported rates of autism
and other neurological disorders (NDs) in children not only stopped,
but actually dropped sharply - by as much as 35%.

Using the government's own databases, independent researchers
analyzed reports of childhood NDs, including autism, before and after
removal of mercury-based preservatives. Authors David A. Geier, B.A.
and Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D. analyze data from the CDC's Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the California Department
of Developmental Services (CDDS) in "Early Downward Trends in
Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-
Containing Vaccines."

The numbers from California show that reported autism rates hit a
high of 800 in May 2003. If that trend had continued, the reports
would have skyrocketed to more than 1000 by the beginning of 2006.
But in fact, the Geiers report that the number actually went down to
only 620, a real decrease of 22%, and a decrease from the projections
of 35%.

This analysis directly contradicts 2004 recommendations of the
Institute of Medicine which examined vaccine safety data from the
National Immunization Program (NIP) of the CDC. While not willing to
either rule out or to corroborate a relationship between mercury and
autism, the IOM soft-pedaled its findings, and decided no more
studies were needed. The authors write: "The IOM stated that the
evidence favored rejection of a causal relationship between
thimerosal and autism, that such a relationship was not biologically
plausible, and that no further studies should be conducted to
evaluate it."

As more and more vaccines were added to the mandatory schedule of
vaccines for children, the dose of the mercury-based preservative
thimerosal rose, so that the cumulative dose injected into babies
exceeded the toxic threshold set by many government agencies. Mercury
is known to damage nerve cells in very low concentrations.

The concern about vaccines may actually be underrated, as it is
generally acknowledged that the voluntary reporting of such disorders
has resulted in vast underreporting of new cases. For example, the
Iowa state legislature banned thimerosal from all vaccines
administered there after it documented a 700-fold increase in that
state alone. California followed suit, and 32 states are considering
doing so.

Up until about 1989 pre-school children got only 3 vaccines (polio,
DPT, MMR). By 1999 the CDC recommended a total of 22 vaccines to be
given before children reach the 1st grade, including Hepatitis B,
which is given to newborns within the first 24 hours of birth. Many
of these vaccines contained mercury. In the 1990s approximately 40
million children were injected with mercury-containing vaccines.

The cumulative amount of mercury being given to children in this
number of vaccines would be an amount 187 times the EPA daily
exposure limit.

Between 1989 and 2003, there has been an explosion of autism. The
incidence of autism (and other related disorders) went from about 1
in 2,500 children to 1 in every 166. Currently there are more than a
half million children in the U.S. that have autism. This disorder has
devastated families.

In 1999, on the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics
and U.S. Public Health Service, thimerosal was removed from most
childhood vaccines as a "precautionary" measure - i.e. without
admitting to any causal link between thimerosal and autism.

The Geiers conclude that mercury continues to be a concern, as it is
still added to some of the most commonly-used vaccines, such as those
for flu:

"Despite its removal from many childhood vaccines, thimerosal is
still routinely added to some formulations of influenza vaccine
administered to U.S. infants, as well as to several other vaccines
(e.g. tetanus-diphtheria and monovalent tetanus) administered to
older children and adults. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) retreated from the
stated 1999 goal of the AAP and the PHS to remove thimerosal from
U.S. vaccines as soon as possible.As a result, assessing the safety
of TCVs [thimerosal-containing vaccines] is a matter of significant
importance."

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The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is the peer-reviewed
quarterly journal of the Association of American Physicians and
Surgeons (AAPS), a non-partisan professional association founded in
1943.

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