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Autism is Linked to Child's Vaccines
http://www.vaccineclassaction.com/ ^ | Aug.21

Posted on 08/22/2002 4:07:17 AM PDT by Bad~Rodeo

On April 3, 2002 a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of three groups against the manufacturer of Thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury, and against the vaccine manufacturers that use or used Thimerosal in the manufacture and/or distribution of childhood vaccines.

Thimerosal is a preservative that was used in childhood vaccines that is approximately 50 percent mercury by weight. Mercury is one of the most toxic elements on earth and its exposure by humans has been linked to neurological, motor, sensory and autoimmune disorders, as well as behavioral dysfunction. Before the FDA recommended that Thimerosal be removed from all vaccines, American children had received 237 micrograms of mercury through vaccines alone by age two. This far exceeds current EPA ‘safe’ levels for mercury which are (one tenth) 0.1 mcg/kg. per day. On the date of birth children received 12 mcg's of mercury from the Thimerosal content in the hepatitis B vaccine which is over 30 times the safe level. The DTaP and HiB vaccines contained over 50 mcg of mercury, which is 60 times greater than the safe level. At six months the second Hep B and Polio vaccines are given, containing 62.5 mcg of mercury which is 78 times greater than safe level.

The class action is seeking compensation for three groups of plaintiffs. Plaintiffs and Plaintiff Class defined as Sub-Class One have been diagnosed with autism or neurological disorders, as well as other severe and permanent health consequences claimed to be the result of exposure to high levels of mercury contained in Thimerosal; Plaintiffs and the Plaintiff Class defined in Subclass Two claim an increased risk of developing autism, other serious neurological disorders, or other severe and permanent health consequences as a result of exposure to high levels of mercury contained in Thimerosal; Plaintiffs and the Plaintiff Class are defined in Subclass Three have claims based upon the injuries to their children as well as claims for medical monitoring of their children who have not yet developed an injury, but who must be continuously monitored due to their exposure to the high levels of mercury contained in childhood vaccines.


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To: kapn kuek
You are right, I apologize. I didn't mean to be cavalier about the topic, and yes I do know an autistic child.

I am greatly concerned about the use of courtrooms to decide such important things when the actual science of it hasn't been made clear. "Erin Brokovich" comes to mind. Peer-reviewed studies, sustained after several years of other people banging on them, are pretty persuasive. The ability of a lawyer to convince 7 lay people that he is right (after challenging every scientific or medical person out of the jury pool) is not a reliable enough method to make public policy.

All of this is quite serious business. I just don't want to see us end up with ineffective vaccines because an inferior preservative was substituted to avoid lawsuits, all the while enriching a law firm while parents of autistic children get zippo.
21 posted on 08/22/2002 6:39:52 AM PDT by ko_kyi
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To: George W. Bush
And the vaccine companies should at least be required to help meet the costs of caring for affected children at a minimum.

You're then GUARANTEEING every single company making vaccines is either bankrupt or stops making vaccines. Then you've got no vaccines, and tens of thousands of children dying horrible, painful deaths from diseases people have completely forgotten about.

22 posted on 08/22/2002 7:04:43 AM PDT by John H K
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To: Bad~Rodeo
Bump for later.

23 posted on 08/22/2002 7:05:14 AM PDT by Bikers4Bush
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To: sonserae
Well, I'm sure it ended up being controversial in the autism parent community, but I read an interesting long article in "Wired" about Autism.

Turns out the rates of it in children are astronomically high in Silicon Valley. Point of the article is that there isn't a "bright line" between autistic and not autistic; it's a spectrum, and there are a lot of extremely intelligent, introverted people who are completely functional, but a bit odd.....that spectrum then fades into full-blown autism. I attended MIT (for a couple years before I, er, chose another school :-) and I can certainly attest to that.

Silicon Valley has one of the largest concentrations of these borderline people....who also tend to be astronomically well-paid computer designers and programmers....and society has changed to make such people far more likely to meet and marry each other and have children.
24 posted on 08/22/2002 7:09:56 AM PDT by John H K
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To: Apple Pan Dowdy
I hope Neal Boortz was talking about ADD, and not autism. ADD is way over diagnosed. Autism is something completely different. The rates are going up. I work in special education, and some of the families have it so hard. I worked with a kid who had 5 siblings, all autistic. Yet, each was unique. 2 were severely autistic, yet 3 were of the milder, somewhat functioning form. The 2 severe kids had normal intelligence, but were so autistic, that they couldn't function in society. The poor parents of autistic kids have a divorce rate that you would not imagine.

The latest research, from mri and autopsies of autistic children shows that one part of the brain of severely autistic kids is well overgrown, leaving another section undersized, with no space to grow. Theories are that this is what is doing the damage. There is no proof of why this happens though.

25 posted on 08/22/2002 7:19:13 AM PDT by dogbyte12
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To: sonserae; dd5339
Right on target! I know a 3yr old who is uncontrollable for his mom, but minds his dad rather well.
26 posted on 08/22/2002 7:20:11 AM PDT by Vic3O3
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To: Schnucki
No class action suit + individual consumers unable to pay to take on huge multinational billion dollar companies.

turn it over, the coin always has a flip side.

27 posted on 08/22/2002 7:23:57 AM PDT by Iron Eagle
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To: John H K
My ex-husband was one of these odd, engineer types. We had a celebate marriage for 7 years because he was so introverted he stayed in the basement. He's been diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder. If you read the symptoms, they are parallel to that of an autistic child....unemotional, detached from feelings, living in another world, introverted and anti-social, etc...
28 posted on 08/22/2002 7:32:57 AM PDT by sonserae
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To: doc30
Without these vaccinations, how many kids would be dead today, or severely disabled, for each child spared the side effects of a vaccine?

When I was in grade school (about 35 years ago), there was a population of partially deaf children that had this condition because their mother had contracted rubella (German measles?) while pregnant. I haven't heard of this being a problem for decades, but I remember magazine ads about it at the time. That's probably due to the rubella vaccination program. Now, it's arguable which is worse, autism or partial/complete deafness, but the reduction in partially deaf kids is a result of the vaccination program.

Congenital Rubella Syndrome

The Web page above indicates that there were only 77 cases of CRS in 1970, and 2 in 1996. I was in grade school in the mid-60's, so I expect the number of cases was higher then.

This Web page also notes that the partially deaf children were the "lucky" CRS victims. It can be much worse. I think we forget how dangerous a place the world was before the advent of vaccination programs.

This Web page shows the marked reduction of rubella cases in Canada coinciding with the vaccination program. I was right; the vaccination program got going when I was 12, so there has been a marked reduction in the number of children with CRS.

Prevention of congenital rubella syndrome

29 posted on 08/22/2002 7:34:03 AM PDT by cogitator
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To: Bad~Rodeo
You know normally I scoff at the anti-vaccine crowd, but I think they have a case here. Mercury in the developing child leads to problems with brain formation and function.
30 posted on 08/22/2002 7:36:44 AM PDT by realpatriot71
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To: John H K
You're then GUARANTEEING every single company making vaccines is either bankrupt or stops making vaccines. Then you've got no vaccines, and tens of thousands of children dying horrible, painful deaths from diseases people have completely forgotten about.

And your position would amount to no more than forcing vaccinations upon parents with the full knowledge that children will die or be disabled without recourse.

Defenders of the status quo generally are reduced to making the classic moral argument that if torturing and neglecting a single child would result in paradise for all other people, then it would be a moral duty to allow it.

You are unlikely to win that argument here or in U.S. courts.

Public medicine is not expected to be a totalitarian enterprise.

Do you hold pharmaceutical stock or something?
31 posted on 08/22/2002 7:52:14 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: Bad~Rodeo
So, which is the better option: 1) Getting the MMR and putting your kid at risk of autism, or 2) Skipping the MMR and putting your kid at risk of measles, mumps, or rubella. Pick your poison.
32 posted on 08/22/2002 8:06:38 AM PDT by LaBradford22
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To: LaBradford22
Pick your poison.

Isn't the real question here whether something that may poison or kill your child would be forced upon you by the government?
33 posted on 08/22/2002 8:09:39 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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To: dd5339
bump for later info...
34 posted on 08/22/2002 8:13:27 AM PDT by Charlie OK
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To: sonserae
Autistic people may seem to be detached from feelings, but I assure you, they're not. My brother is introverted and may appear to someone who doesn't know him to be detached from feelings.

I see it all the time. Some people are afraid to approach him so they just ignore him. But he really responds to people who include him and treat him like a human being rather than nonexistant.

When my brother was diagnosed as autistic, the doctors advised my parents to institutionalize him because they said that he'd never know them. What utter bull that turned out to be.

One of the reasons that we see autism more often today than we used to is that there was a time, not so long ago, that most of these children were hidden away in institutions and never seen or heard from again. I thank God that my brother didn't suffer such a fate.

Also, I think that autism is probably over diagnosed. I think that it's what doctors refer to as a wastebasket diagnosis, which means that they don't know what the problem is but they have to call it something, so they'll call it autism. That is not to say that autism doesn't exist; it does. I think though that some people who get labeled as autistic may not be. I will admit that that is just my opinion.

35 posted on 08/22/2002 8:46:46 AM PDT by alnick
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To: Bad~Rodeo
HERE IS A STUDY THAT, IMO, CONCLUSIVELY LINKS MERCURY POISONING FROM VACCINES TO AUTISM. A table, starting about halfway down on the first page compares the symptoms of mercury poisoning to autism, and the resemblance is uncanny. The JAMA editorial shows that the opinion is becoming mainstream (I hope).

My niece's son has a had a large number of these symptoms since his first set of vaccines. My younger sister has a daughter the same age and these children are like night and day. I understand when they were vaccinated, my niece recieved only a small number of injections, but my nephew recieved several individual injections -- thus more opportunity for mercury exposure. I ran across the link between thimersol and autism while trying to look up information on autism, and warned them to ask for thimersol-free vaccinations. They are available.

36 posted on 08/22/2002 8:52:34 AM PDT by RedWhiteBlue
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Comment #37 Removed by Moderator

To: realpatriot71
http://www.autism.com/ari/editorials/keynote.html

What I have learned: Four and a half decades as a parent and researcher

Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. Autism Research Institute 4182 Adams Avenue San Diego, CA 92116

Keynote address by Bernard Rimland, founder of the Autism Society of America (ASA), at the 36th annual conference of ASA, San Diego, California, July 19, 2001.

I am a researcher. I have been a full-time professional research scientist my entire adult life.

Let’s do a quick research study right now: If you are the parent of an autistic child 10 years old or younger, please stand up. If your child was normal at birth, had eye contact, was developing speech, and was normal in other ways, for a year or more, then began to regress after a vaccination, and you believe the vaccination probably caused the autism, please raise your hand.

Now look around. I’ve asked that question of a dozen or more audiences in the past few years, and the results are always the same. As you can see, the vast majority of you suspect the vaccines.

My son Mark was born in 1956. It was obvious from birth that this perfectly normal looking infant had something drastically wrong with him. I had earned my Ph.D. in experimental psychology three years earlier, and had never encountered the word autism. Our pediatrician, with 35 years of experience, had never heard of autism either. Autism was extremely rare then-it is extremely common now.

Some supposed experts will tell you that the increase reflects only a greater awareness. That is nonsense. Any experienced pediatrician, teacher, or school official will confirm what the studies tell us: there is a real increase in autism, and the numbers are huge, and growing. The epidemic is serious and worldwide.

In the past 10 years, the number of required vaccines prior to age 2 has risen from 8 to 22. A coincidence? I don’t think so.

Soon after my book Infantile Autism: The syndrome and its implications for a neural theory of behavior was published in 1964, I began to hear from other parents. Many told me their children were normal until getting a triple vaccine-the DPT shot. In 1965, I began systematically collecting data on the symptoms and causes of autism. In 1967-34 years ago-I began querying the parents about the child’s response to the DPT shot. Many reported marked deterioration. Being aware of the problem with mercury, I also asked about dental work during the pregnancy.

During the past few years the Autism Research Institute has been flooded with an upsurge of pleas for help from parents throughout the world, from wherever the World Health Organization Vaccine Guidelines are followed.

Despite the very obvious and extremely severe epidemic of autism, mainstream medicine continues to insist that there really is no epidemic at all, that it’s merely an illusion that we parents have succumbed to because of greater awareness of autism, and if there were an epidemic, it couldn’t possibly be caused by the vaccines, despite the fact that many contain grossly excessive amounts of mercury, one of the most poisonous substances on earth.

Mainstream medicine’s totally inappropriate response to the epidemic of autism we are now experiencing is typical of mainstream medicine’s response to the problem of autism, and is very characteristic of what has been going on for the nearly five decades I have been involved with autism.

Let me make it very clear that I am certainly not condemning all physicians. There are many truly outstanding and well-informed physicians who really care about autistic children and their families. Later today there will be a panel of such physicians, who are also parents of autistic children, speaking on the methods they use to bring about remarkable improvement in the children in their families and in their practices.

Nevertheless, mainstream medicine, by which I mean such groups as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, and similar organizations, have harmed rather than helped autistic children and their families from Day One:

They supported the scientifically invalid psychoanalytically-based theories which held the mother responsible for causing autism through her supposedly hostile attitude toward the child.

They ridiculed the use of behavior modification, the most uniformly beneficial treatment for autism, claiming that it neglected the deep-seated emotional blocks that were supposedly at the root of autism.

They ignored and continue to ignore the long series of studies conducted both in the U.S. and Europe showing that the elimination of foods containing gluten and casein from the diet brings about marked improvement in many autistic children.

They have consistently ignored the series of 18 consecutive studies, conducted by researchers in 6 countries, which show that almost half of all autistic children and adults respond favorably to high doses of vitamin B6 and magnesium, with no adverse effects reported. Eleven of these studies were double-blind, placebo-crossover experiments. (There is no drug which comes close to B6/magnesium in terms of safety, efficacy, and positive research findings.)

They routinely prescribe harmful, sometimes deadly drugs such as fenfluramine and Ritalin, which are far more dangerous, less effective and less rational than the nutritional supplements and special diets that well-informed parents and physicians employ.

They have spent tens of millions of dollars on non-productive lines of research, while virtually no money at all has been for research on the methods of alternative medicine, which are far more promising in terms of both safety and efficacy. (What they call “alternative medicine” I call “intelligent medicine.”) And now they have done it again! In May, 2001 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its guidelines on “Diagnosis and Management of Autism.” The AAP guidelines are a very patronizing document, the publication of which might have made sense if standard, mainstream pediatricians had achieved even a modicum of success in the treatment of autism. Approaches which have been demonstrated to work on thousands of children, and which are very thoroughly documented in the research literature, are dismissed by the AAP in a few pages of distorted and inaccurate condescending prose.

We parents have never been able to count on mainstream medicine to protect our children from autism, nor to employ effective means for diagnosing and treating autistic children. Mainstream medicine in fact promotes the very programs of excessive vaccinations which are in all likelihood the primary cause of the present epidemic of autism.

The Autism Research Institute responded by launching, in 1995, its Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) project, which left the futile efforts of conventional medicine in the dust and pursued a breathtakingly imaginative new concept: “Do what works!” The results have been extremely gratifying. The seven subsequent DAN! Conferences have been attended by thousands of parents and many hundreds of physicians. We hear daily of children who have left autism behind.

This afternoon you will hear a special panel of four DAN! doctors who have achieved remarkable success in treating hundreds of autistic children, including three doctors who have successfully treated their own children. (Copies of the 2-hour, 56-minute videotape of the DAN! Doctors’ Panel are available from ARI at $20; California residents include $1.50 tax.)

38 posted on 08/22/2002 8:58:34 AM PDT by alnick
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To: doc30
It seems to me you have perhaps inadvertantly syayed the problem very nicely - vaccines in a different category.

Vaccines are themselves variable - and the diseases they prevent variable. If we could talk openly about the fact that the pertussis vaccine was changed because it was dangerous, that polio is a whole different kettle of fish from chickenpox in terms of the public health interest in eradicating it, that at-birth hepatitis vaccination seems to be more driven by the need to do it while the parents aren't prepared to object so as to pave the way for more vaccines, that while the FDA said "mercury is bad in vaccines" they took no steps to require elimination, that the anthrax vaccine has an unacceptable rate of side effects, and a whole host of other "that's" we would get a great deal further.

But to do so requires sources, science, and trust which the vaccine debate frequently lacks.

39 posted on 08/22/2002 8:59:04 AM PDT by Nora
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