Guest guest Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 ---- RRollens 04/28/04 15:09:25 Autism; TanaPoet; smallmp; TLAutStudy; Beedle; kyazbak; Richard.Barr; singhvk; hbuttram; RobertSawyer; Wakersa; artman; Imgold1; David; heather.mills; jabs; milesant; rees; Williampwelsh; hope.project; hgallup; keirlans; wgallup; esweeney22; dkelly; GEP1968P; JPiker; lorimcilwain; EAB738; sandym; RRollens; schafer; jzsell; jzsell; NJCAN; GDignazio; ldbono; L.Ruede; moisuk1; momanyfac2; mjoesten; NJAICV; nvicl; vaccineinfo; gk-cfic; BarbLoe; kathi; dadelp; vaccinefilm Upping the Autism Ante Upping the Autism Ante [by Neil Munro for the National Journal - Washington, DC. Availableonline only through subscription or fee.]http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/nj/ Record numbers of children have been diagnosed with severe autism overthe past few years, and many parents suspect that mercury-basedpreservatives in vaccines are the cause. Officials at the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, which sets vaccination policies, have justreleased partial details of anew analysis that seems to exonerate thepreservative. But parents and some scientists were quick to criticize the analysis.The details provided by the CDC are too vague, said Mark Blaxill, a boardmember of one parents' advocacy group, Safe Minds. “The thing we need is toget the right answer, not the answer that either side wants.†The stakes in this debate are high. If the parents' claims arecorrect, the CDC's vaccine policies over the past decade have caused autismin tens of thousands of children. Many thousands more may have sufferedless-severe brain damage, the parents say. If their argument isscientifically validated, the careers of many vaccine professionals will bedamaged, as will the financial health of some vaccine makers. If the parentsand their allies are wrong, they are diverting attention from other,potentially better avenues of research. The growth in autism rates is difficult to track, but California’sDepartment of Developmental Services has the most-detailed data. In thefirst quarter of 2004, the state added 795 severely autistic children to itstreatment program; the number of new patients was 173 during the same periodin1994. That kind of growth has boosted the number of severely autisticchildren in the California system from 5,281 in 1994 to 24,297 in 2004. The severely autistic have a normal lifespan but require lifetimesupport costing more than $1 million. According to the parents and somescientists, a mercury preservative, Thimerosal, which is used in manyvaccines, has increased the incidence of autism. Thimerosal is still in use, and many infants received extra doses ofit after 1990, when CDC officials recommended additional vaccinations. In response to growing concerns, CDC officials in June 1999askedcompanies to stop using Thimerosal in vaccines. They also conducted a study,results of which were published in the November 2003 issue of Pediatrics;the article said “no consistent significant associations were found†betweenthe Thimerosal-containing vaccines and disorders such as autism. The studywas based on a huge database maintained by HMOs on the West Coast. But the lead author of the article, Thomas Verstraeten, said recentlythat the article “does not state that we found evidence against anassociation,and he also recommended additional study. Also, Mark Geier, avaccine specialist in private practice who provides expert testimony forplaintiffs suing vaccine makers, conducted a study of the same database atthe request of Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla. Geier's study tested the hypothesisthat children who had received Thimerosal in all four shots of the combineddiphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine were more likely to be autisticthan those who got no Thimerosal in their four shots. Geier said his studyrevealed 10 times as many cases of autism among children given Thimerosal. “That's a very nice hypothesis ... [and the result] was veryconcerning to us,researcher Robert Davis told a February meeting of theNational Academy of Sciences. Davis is aco-author of the CDC's article inPediatrics. He is employed at the Center for Health Studies, a commercialresearch center that has contracted with the CDC to study vaccine safety.The research center also receives funding from vaccine makers. It is ownedby Group Health Cooperative, an HMO that provided part of the database forthe CDC study. Davis is also an untenured research professor at theUniversity of Washington in Seattle. We attempted to replicate [Geier's] analysis using the exact samedata,Davis told the NAS audience, and discovered a rate of autism amongchildren given Thimerosal 18 times greater than among those who receivednone. But because the children in Geier study were of various ages, hesaid, “we reanalyzed the data to compensate for the differing ages. The newanalysis showed “no statistical association between Thimerosal and autism,Davis said. But Blaxill says that Davis's analysis “is dramatically differentfrom the Geier study, partly because it includes many children too young tobe identified as autistic. Children can be diagnosed as autistic beforeturning 3, but most diagnoses aren't made until after age 3. Davis declined to provide National Journal with a detailed descriptionof his analysis, but the CDC e-mailed additional information about itshowing that a high percentage of children in the analysis were underage 2. Geier said his study had already compensated for age differences byexamining children who had gotten all four of their DTP shots. Thisselection ensured that all the children in his study were at least 18 monthsold, he said. All the children were under age 3, he said, because he was notallowed to examine post-2000 data. If the parents' claims are true, Blaxill said, the reduced use ofThimerosal after 2000 will reduce the number of new autism diagnoses withina few years. This month, Rick Rollens, a California autism activist, combedthrough state data and reported that the number of new autism cases over thepast six months, as compared with the same period 12 months ago, dipped 6percent, from 1,560 to 1,471. A few more quarters are needed to confirm thetrend, Blaxill said, but that's the acid test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Deborah, what are all these email addresses for? -----Original Message----- Deborah A Delp [dadelp] RRollens 04/28/04 15:09:25 Autism; TanaPoet; smallmp; TLAutStudy; Beedle; kyazbak; Richard.Barr; singhvk; hbuttram; RobertSawyer; Wakersa; artman; Imgold1; David; heather.mills; jabs; milesant; rees; Williampwelsh; hope.project; hgallup; keirlans; wgallup; esweeney22; dkelly; GEP1968P; JPiker; lorimcilwain; EAB738; sandym; RRollens; schafer; jzsell; jzsell; NJCAN; GDignazio; ldbono; L.Ruede; moisuk1; momanyfac2; mjoesten; NJAICV; nvicl; vaccineinfo; gk-cfic; BarbLoe; kathi; dadelp; vaccinefilm Upping the Autism Ante § Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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