Study links autism, vaccine

Autism diagnoses have dropped nationwide since mercury was removed from most childhood vaccines, according to a new study that some say lends credence to charges that vaccinations were responsible for a huge increase in autism cases.

About 4,700 families -- including ones from Framingham and Waltham -- have pending claims in a federal vaccine court alleging that mercury in vaccines caused their children to develop autism.

The allegations are controversial and viewed with skepticism by many government officials and medical professionals. But supporters of a vaccine-autism link say a new report in the peer reviewed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons proves that the removal of mercury from vaccines has led to a decrease in autism cases.

"This study is exactly the kind of thing people have been waiting for for three years now," said Richard Deth, a neuropharmacologist at Northeastern University who has testified in front of Congress on this issue. "It was recognized that this type of data would be (necessary) to see whether this theory had validity or not."

The study by two researchers was criticized by a government vaccination official who said it drew conclusions from unreliable data.

"I don’t think this study can really be taken to provide any evidence one way or another," said Dr. Robert Davis, director of the immunization safety group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the study was warmly received by Jared Hansen, a Framingham resident with two autistic children who filed a claim in the federal vaccine court.

"It’s certainly the data we’ve been expecting and waiting for. I’m glad to see it’s been published," Hansen said. "I believe it will swing some people who are sitting on the fence."

Hansen’s claim is pending in front of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a no-fault system that pays financial settlements from a trust fund consisting of vaccine surcharges. The program is considering claims in one omnibus proceeding from Hansen and 4,700 other parents, including Mike Chmura of Waltham.

Between 1988 and 1992, the federal government more than doubled the amount of mercury injected into babies by recommending additional vaccines that contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury.

Since then, estimated autism prevalence soared from one out of 2,500 births to one in every 166. Federal officials say the increase is at least partly explained by changes in diagnostic guidelines, but some researchers believe mercury in vaccines is to blame.

Thimerosal is still used in flu shots, but was eliminated from most other childhood vaccines by 2003.

A father-son research team determined that new diagnoses of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders have dropped since then after analyzing data from the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, the U.S. Department of Education and the California Department of Developmental Services.

Additional doses of mercury-containing vaccines were associated with a 2- to 8-fold increase in risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, they wrote in the latest issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

"Significant decreasing trends in newly diagnosed (disorders) were observed ... from mid-2002 through 2005," wrote Dr. Mark Geier and son, David. Mark Geier is president of the Genetic Centers of America and his son is a graduate student in biochemistry at George Washington University.

Their study was criticized by officials who said the data bases the Geiers analyzed are not reliable. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System can contain reports filed by anyone, including doctors, patients and lawyers, Davis said.

The Department of Education numbers are skewed, another official said, because the DOE did not make autism a separate diagnosis until the 1990s. That led to an artificial increase because children who previously had different diagnoses were then considered autistic, said Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that dismissed any link between vaccines and autism.

I did not allow my fourteen yr. old daughter to have any vaccines. She is very healthy. Of course we kept her immune system strong through good diet and activity.

Until she gets one of those diseases such as polio which will leave her possibly crippled for life.

Me? I keep my vaccines up to date. And I mean all of them. Yellow feaver, DPT, typhoid, etc.

From here:

http://www.drgreene.com/21_570.html

"Diphtheria is a very serious bacterial disease that can make a person unable to breathe, cause paralysis, or even heart failure. About 10% of the people who get diphtheria die from it. Before the DPT shot was introduced, 17,000 children died in a single year in the United States alone in a diphtheria epidemic. Over the last several years, only a very few cases of diphtheria have been reported in the United States. In 1988 there were zero cases. This is primarily because most children have had shots to protect them. Diphtheria isn't gone, but most children are ready for it if they are exposed."

"For babies and those at high risk, pertussis can be severe or even life threatening. It causes repeated spells of coughing that can make it difficult to eat, drink, or breathe. About 1 out of every 200 children who get pertussis will die of it. Another 1 out of every 200 will have lifetime brain damage. As many as 2% will have seizures, 16% will get pneumonia, and 50% (even in this modern era of reduced hospitalization) will be sick enough to be hospitalized."

"Putting these risks into perspective, even if you assume the worst-case scenario (1 in 140,000), compared to all other preventive and natural health measures, DPT is very safe. DPT is safer than exercise. A healthy person is more likely to be injured, disabled, or killed by complications associated with exercise than by those that may be associated with the DPT (again, assuming the worst-case risk numbers for DPT). A presumably healthy adult who jogs two hours a week for a year is 15 times more likely to die from jogging than a child would be from getting a DPT shot."

>"Me? I keep my vaccines up to date. And I mean all of them. Yellow feaver, DPT, typhoid, etc."<

Have you had all of the following vaccines? They are all very dangerous diseases. You could get very sick, or even die from any one of them.
Meningococcal Vaccine?
Lyme Disease?
Anthrax?
small pox?
Pneumococcal?
etc, etc, etc.?
So, hey, load yourself up with vaccines, RadioAstronomer. That's your personal choice. Get em all, and you'll be *impervious* to all disease! It matters not to me, as it's your personal choice. Just don't force your *choice* upon me, and my children.

That's what's known in a free society as INFORMED CONSENT.

Me, I'll choose to not get vaccinated...as long as busybodies leave me that right. A properly taken care of immune system can ward off almost all disease, with proper nutrition, good personal hygiene, healthy diet and excercise, all without vaccines.

A healthy lifestyle can avoid the rest.
Wherever there are pandemics they occur with people with either: poor hygiene practices, in close proximity to animals, unhealthy lifestyles, etc.

It's not from a lack of vaccines.

-BTW, I haven't even had so much as a cold in well over a year, so I'll wager I'm just as healthy as you, without all the toxins to compromise my very healthy immune system.

>"Better yet, shall we say not dangerous at all? Junk science reigns supreme."<

Perhaps. It may well be that it is not an area of concern. Again this is a matter of informed consent.

It depends how toxic elemental mercury is perceived to be. You apparently perceive it to be not very toxic. I perceive otherwise.

The amount of elemental mercury in amalgam fillings is about 50% of the material.

The EPA recognizes that low levels of elemental mercury are in fact released from amalgam fillings:
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/mercury.html#ref3

"Another source of exposure to low levels of elemental mercury in the general population is elemental mercury released in the mouth from dental amalgam fillings." (3,4,5)

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs46.html

"Once the amalgam is hard, the mercury is bound within the amalgam, but very small amounts are slowly released from the surface of the filling due to corrosion or chewing or grinding motions. Part of the mercury at the surface of the filling may enter the air as mercury vapor or be dissolved in the saliva.

The total amount of mercury released from dental amalgam depends upon the total number of fillings and surface areas of each filling, the chewing and eating habits of the person, and other chemical conditions in the mouth.

Estimates of the amount of mercury released from dental amalgams range from 3 to 17 micrograms per day (µg/day). The mercury from dental amalgam may contribute from 0 to more than 75% of your total daily mercury exposure, depending on the number of amalgam fillings you have, the amount of fish consumed, the levels of mercury (mostly as methylmercury) in those fish, and exposure from other less common sources..."

>"Sad, isn't it."<

Yes it's sad that some folks will choose to ignore the following information, as vaccines are a sacred cow to them.

Response to:
“Addressing Parents’ Concerns’ Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm or Weaken the Infant’s Immune System"
by Dr. Paul Offit, et. al.

Pediatrics, Vol. 109 No. 1, Jan. 2002
by Sherri Tenpenny, DO

"...Vaccine-specific antibody protection is considered to be the cornerstone of vaccination success. In all studies published on vaccines, “efficacy” is considered to be the development antibodies. When vaccines are given together, the combination is considered “effective” if both antigens generate an antibody response at least equal to the response seen if a single antigen vaccine is given alone.

However, is this an antibody response a valid presumption of disease protection? Even experts in the field admit that they don’t know. During a discussion regarding the approval of yet another acellular pertussis vaccine, a panel member said, “…A basic question is: Is antibody correlated with protection? In the year 2000, we don’t really know which antibodies protect, let alone exactly what level of an antibody protects.” Another panelist went on to say, “The protective mechanisms [of the immune system] are not understood. Is it antibody or is it cell mediated or some assessment of memory that can occur in response to infection?”

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) discloses this regarding the pertussis vaccine, “The findings of efficacy studies have not demonstrated a direct correlation between antibody response and protection against pertussis disease.”

Antibody studies are only useful to compare immune responses elicited between similar vaccines. Efficacy studies to measure clinical protection conferred by each pertussis vaccine have not been done. Therefore, antibodies apparently mean nothing.

The H. flu vaccine has been found to have high avidity in vitro. This means that there is a high affinity of attachment between the antigen and the antibody. However, “the contribution [of this] to clinical protection is unknown.”

Again, “efficacy” as defined by the development of antibodies apparently means nothing in relation to disease protection. Therefore, using the antigen binding capacity of the immune system and its ability to create an antibody response as a measure of safety, also means nothing.

The concept that 10,000 antigens could theoretically be deposited uneventfully into the blood stream of either an infant or an adult defies logic and is a blatant disregard for mechanisms of human physiology.

By injecting a vaccine into the body, the first four lines of normal immune defense are by-passed: the skin, the mucous membranes, the gut lymphoid tissue and lymphatic neutralization. This abnormal introduction of pathogens and adjuvants into the blood stream does not “trick” the immune system: it contaminates it.

And contaminate it we do. Children now receive 52 vaccines, in the form of 15 shots, buy the time they are 6 months of age if they receive all the recommend shots, including the Prevnar® (the pediatric pneumonia shot.) That is because each viral or bacterial particle contained in the vaccine elicits an immune response. So, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines are three separate vaccines.

The injectable polio vaccine (IPV) contains three strains of polio, thus it is three vaccines. And this overwhelming amount of biological material does not include the adjuvants, which can included MSG, aluminum, formaldehyde, sucrose and phenoxyethanol, which is antifreeze, among many others.

The potential for disaster looms as multiple live and attenuated viruses are combined during multiple vaccinations on the same day. In a study reported in Science Magazine, two avirulent herpes viruses were simultaneously injected in the footpads of mice. Many (62%) of the mice that had received equal doses of each virus died while none died that had received up to 100 times the diluted dose of just one virus. Eleven recominant viruses were isolated from the dead mice. Three of these isolates were lethal when injected into the next set of mice. This study demonstrates that in vivo, two avirulent viruses can recombine with deadly results. If two vaccine antigens can cause a serious outcome when given simultaneously, then what about “only 123-126”? Or 10,000?.

Once again, a “ground breaking” medical study has drawn media attention by posting conclusions that are not supported by facts. Stating that an infant has a large capacity to respond to antigens, i.e. create an antibody response, does nothing to allay reasonable fears and doubts by investigative parents. Any “thinking doctor” should recognize this “study” for what it is: another opportunity to spread the mantra of “safe and effective” vaccines. Perhaps in this way we won’t question the more than 200 vaccines that are currently in development or resist the more than 20 that are anticipated to become part of the childhood vaccination schedule by 2010..."

-Dr Sherri Tenpenny

Scientific American, December 1995; Volume 273; No. 6, Page 76
Hanson, -L-A. Ann.All.Asth Imm.1998 Dec; 81(6):523-33
Pichichero, M.E, et. al. J.Infect.Dis. 1980 Nov; 142(5); 694-8.
Hokama,-T, et. al. Pediatr-Int. 1999 Jun; 41(3): 277-80
Hanson, LA. Acta-Paediatr-Jpn. 1994 Oct; 36(5): 557-61
Transcript of Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting, Friday, November 3, 2000, p. 107, 120.
MMWR March 28, 1997/Vol. 46/No. RR-7, pg. 4
2002 Physician’s Desk Reference, HibTITER, p. 1860.
Javier RT, Searati, F., Stevens, JB. Science 1986 Nov. 7;234(4777):746-8.

>>Truly autistic children do not interact with others,
>>they don't make eye contact, and they don't attend
>>school, basketball games, nor play in them.

Allow me to say you have no idea what you are talking about.

>>With the addition of the learning disabled, the
>>retarded, and other disabilities added to the category
>>of autistic there's no way to know the truth.

My son is intelligent, physically perfect (normal) was diagnosed as autistic when he was three. He started as a nonverbal, non-interacting Autistic. We hired a speech therapist who specializes in Autism. She worked with him for six months before he started school. He has come a long way since he was diagnosed. We have had him in a special school for four years (which cost over a thousand dollars a month 12 months a year). I took extra jobs, got up a 6 AM. For four years to drive him up to the school, my wife stayed home, volunteered at the school so she could learn the techniques and we could apply them at home.

My son now talks up a storm about videos that are coming out, or his game boy. He still has issues, but it takes most people about a half an hour to figure out what is wrong. He will be able to play sports, and he will continue to improve. To say there is not help and no hope is a cruel, and ignorant statement.

Prod dad of an autistic son.

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