Institute of Medicine's Report on Mercury in Vaccines

[Guest guest]

Institute of Medicine's Report on Mercury in Vaccines

 

 

 

 

 

In what was perhaps the best-kept secret of the 20th century

a highly toxic mercury-based preservative thimerosal

has been widely used as a preservative in vaccines.

 

Manufacturers had used thimerosal, which contains ethyl-mercury, as a

preservative in multi-dose vials of vaccine. The vials allow needles to be

inserted repeatedly and the vaccine drawn out. The vials are cheaper than

packaging doses of vaccine separately, without thimerosal. Despite the growing

evidence to a link between mercury and neurological disorders, such as autism,

attention deficit disorder, language delay, and learning difficulties, the

Institute of Medicine is certifying mercury, one of the most toxic chemicals

known to man, as being safe for use in vaccines. The nation turns to the

Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies for supposedly

independent, science-based advice on matters of biomedical science, medicine,

and health. The Institute is supposed to provide a vital service by working

outside the framework of government to ensure scientifically informed analysis

and independent guidance.

 

Mercury is a neurotoxin, and ethylmercury is the active component of

thimerosal, and as a precautionary public health effort to minimize exposure of

mercury to infants and children, a joint statement was issued in July 1999 by

the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service

recommending the removal of thimerosal from vaccines as soon as possible. Today,

most routinely recommended pediatric vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market

still contain thimerosal, though according to the IOM, " only " trace amounts

remain. Back in 1999, Dr Neal Halsey who heads the Hopkins Institute for Vaccine

Safety said, ''my first reaction was simply disbelief, which was the reaction of

almost everybody involved in vaccines. 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. " " From the beginning, I saw thimerosal as

something different. It was the first strong evidence of a causal association

with neurological impairment. I was very concerned. "

 

Assessments made by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists

were particularly painful to Dr. Halsey. They found that the vaccines added to

the standard regimen, during Dr. Halsey's years as chairman of the the American

Academy of Pediatric's (AAP) committee that determines which vaccinations should

be mandated for children, had tripled the dose of mercury administered to

infants in the first months of life. The amount, according to the FDA

scientists, was high enough to cause subtle neurological impairment, and thus,

in 1999, the FDA asked vaccine manufacturers to remove thimerosal, a

preservative that contains mercury, from all the vaccines that are routinely

administered to children.

 

If one examines their recent medical pronouncements it seems that

the IOM is betraying sound medical reasoning and its mission to improve health

in the United States. Dr. Boyd Haley, Chairman of the Chemistry Department at

the University of Kentucky indicated that the IOM is " blatantly out of line, "

and reduces the IOM report to the level of " absurd logic. " He states, " The IOM

report represents an incredibly poor evaluation of the scientific literature and

is symptomatic of a committee that has been compromised in its

scientific/biomedical credibility to favor the wishes of its employer, the CDC. "

" Thimerosal is one of the most toxic compounds I know of, I can't think of

anything that I know of is more lethal, " said Dr. Haley. The National Autism

Association said the report " has parents and researchers shocked at how far the

Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will go to

protect the reputation of the vaccination program. The report proves the IOM has

not been able to divest itself from vaccine policies. And tragically, in doing

so, they have failed society by their blindness to the issue at hand. "

Congressman Dr. Dave Weldon stated in a letter to Dr. Julie Gerberding, the of the CDC, " It appears to me not only as a Member of Congress but also

as a physician that some officials within the CDC's NIP may be more interested

in a public relations campaign than getting to the truth about thimerosal. " 1 In

his letter Dr Weldon confronted deliberate data manipulates in the all important

study of the role of mercury found in vaccines and the development of autism.

 

According to the IOM and the CDC there is no proof that mercury,

one of the most dangerous substances known to mankind, is dangerous. But

" the IOM cannot tell you with any degree of certainty what happens to ethyl

mercury once injected into an infant. Does it go to the brain? Does is cause

developmental problems? "

Dr. Dave Weldon

 

Only weeks after the IOM came out with their report (May 2004)

Columbia University researchers reported, " The mercury preservative used in some

vaccines can cause behavioral abnormalities in newborn mice characteristic of

autism, but only in mice with a specific genetic susceptibility. " These findings

challenge directly the findings of the IOM and the conclusions of the CDC and

the results of several large studies on autism that these organizations depended

on for their conclusions. Dr. Steven Goodman of the Johns Hopkins School of

Medicine, a member of the IOM commission that prepared the report, said those on

the commission were aware of the research. The report is appearing in the

journal Molecular Psychiatry and Dr. Julio Licinio of UCLA, the editor of this

medical journal said, " I believe this has enormous implications for public

health. Showing that genetic background impacts on the outcome of thimerosal

exposure is a major breakthrough. " He added that the study clearly showed that

there was a link between vaccines and autism " for some groups and not for

others. " 2

 

Vaccines added in the last 25 years had tripled the dose of mercury

that infants got in their first few months of life meaning that 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 create problems like autism and other

learning disorders. In June 2003, the World Health Organization changed the

level of mercury consumption considered safe from 3.6 to 1.5 micrograms per

kilogram of body weight per day. In his statement to the House Committee on

Government Reform's hearing on mercury and medicine on June 18, 2000,

Congressman Daniel Burton of Indiana stated, " the truth is that sometimes kids

go to their doctor's office and get four or five vaccines at the same time. My

grandson received vaccines for nine different diseases in one day. He might have

been exposed to 62.5 micrograms of mercury in one day through his vaccines.

According to his weight, the maximum safe level of mercury that he should be

exposed to in one day is 1.51 micrograms. This is 41 times the amount at which

harm can be caused. " Burton's grandson, who was healthy before he received the

shots, now suffers from autism.

 

Mercury poisoning is associated with extreme sensitivity

to touch, a function of peripheral nerve damage.

 

FDA scientists had observed that some infants who received multiple

doses of vaccines containing thimerosal could be exposed to total amounts of

mercury that exceed federal guidelines. Mercury, even at low levels, is a known

hazard to the fetus and Dr. Boyd Haley found that vaccines with thimerosal

present were much more toxic than thimerosal-free vaccines. " Pure thimerosal was

toxic at the low nanomolar level - an extremely low concentration, about 10,000

times less than the thimerosal concentration found in most vaccines. These

results leave little doubt about thimerosal being the toxic agent in the

vaccines. However we found that many vaccines contain aluminum ions that have

neurotoxic properties. " At a research laboratory at the University of Kentucky

Dr. Haley and J. Curtis Pendergrass, Ph.D. did an experiment to determine if

aluminum would increase the toxicity of very low levels of thimerosal. " The

results were unequivocal: The presence of aluminum dramatically increased the

rate of neuronal death caused by thimerosal. Therefore, the aluminum and

thimerosal combination found in vaccines produces a toxic mixture that cannot be

compared to situations where thimerosal alone was the toxic exposure. "

 

 

 

Mercury toxicity is not rocket science. Our medical establishment

simply does not want to admit that a major mistake has been made.

Boyd Haley PH.D

 

 

 

According to Dr. Haley, " The enhanced toxicity of thimerosal created

by the addition of aluminum represents a problem with all forms of mercury

toxicity. Synergism of toxic metals is well known. A slightly toxic solution of

lead, mixed with a slightly toxic solution of mercury, results in a very toxic

mixture. This is similar to the enhanced adverse reactivity to thimerosal found

in optomological solutions, when subjects were prescribed to take the antibiotic

tetracycline. For some reason, tetracycline increased the ocular toxic reaction

to thimerosal. We have done some experiments to determine if certain antibiotics

could also increase thimerosal-induced neuronal death in the neuron culture

system. Our preliminary results indicate that this is the case, especially with

tetracycline and ampicillin. " The potential for interference between the

components in vaccines has never been properly addressed. Vaccine manufacturers

themselves are aware of this interference. Douglas, a spokesperson for Merck,

spoke about the " unpredicted immune interference and incompatibilities on mixing

of different components, demonstrating again the inadequacy of our understanding

of how vaccines work and the empiric nature of the science. "

 

 

Today little has changed in the United States and nothing in the

third world, which because of cost, still use the multi-vials that contain the

highest levels of mercury. According to the World Health Organization " Most

vaccines could be made thimerosal-free quite quickly, but they would not contain

a preservative. It is not safe to use multi-dose vials of certain vaccines

without some form of preservative. One solution would be to use single-dose

vials, but this solution is very expensive and not always technically possible.

If a new preservative were to be used, the product would have to be re-licensed,

taking a long time. Equally if thimerosal was removed from a vaccine, it would

have to be re-licensed as well. " And now the CDC has recommended that infants

starting at age six months are to receive flu shots each year, some of which

also contain thimerosal, adding yet again to the chemical burden imposed on

kids.

 

 

 

Dr. Boyd E. Haley warns of addittional volatile reactions when mercury

and aluminum are exposed to light, even for short periods of time.

Exposure for just 2½ minutes of daylight resulted in dissociation

to ethyl mercury and a 5-fold increase in toxicity.

 

The majority of influenza vaccines distributed in the United States

currently contain thimerosal as a preservative. However, some contain only trace

amounts of thimerosal and are considered by the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) to be preservative-free. Manufacturers of preservative-free flu vaccine

use thimerosal early in the manufacturing process. The thimerosal gets diluted

as the vaccine goes through the steps in processing. By the end of the

manufacturing process there is not enough thimerosal left in the vaccine to act

as a preservative and the vaccine is labeled 'preservative-free'. When medical

authorities speak of trace amounts they should consider that, " Pure thimerosal

is toxic at the low nanomolar level - an extremely low concentration, about

10,000 times less than the thimerosal concentration found in most vaccines. "

 

Approximately 12 out of the 18 vaccine doses the average child receives

before the age of two contain Thimerosal almost everywhere in the world today

except the United States.

Cumulatively, that's more than 200 micrograms of mercury, which would fit

on

the head of a pin. According to the EPA, dropping that pin-head of

mercury

into 23 gallons of water would make it unsafe for human consumption.

 

For more than sixty years the medical community simply trusted the

Eli Lilly Company's assertion that thimerosal/merthiolate had a low potential

toxicity if injected into humans. Based on unscientific and unethical studies

done in the late nineteen twenties, several generations of public health care

officials, doctors and medical educators were duped into injecting the most

toxic and lethal chemical known to man into infants. Documents from the archives

of Eli Lilly & Company, the manufacture of thimerosal, clearly demonstrate that

the mercury-based vaccine preservative implicated in a number of recent law

suits as causing neurological injury to infants, was known as early as April

1930 to be dangerous. In its apparent eagerness to promote and market the

product, in September, 1930, Eli Lilly secretly sponsored a " human toxicity "

study on patients already known to be dying of meningococcal meningitis. Andrew

Waters, of The Dallas-based law firm of Waters & Kraus stated that, " Lilly then

cited this study repeatedly for decades as proof that thimerosal was of low

toxicity and harmless to humans. They never revealed to the scientific

community or the public the highly questionable nature of the original

research. " The tests were conducted in 1929 by a young researcher named K.C.

Smithburn who injected 22 human subjects that were already dying with a

one-percent solution and then pronounced that all the patients were reported

'without ill effect.' That they all died was never mentioned. " It's apparent

that Lilly didn't want to do the study themselves because it's apparent that

there were enormous ethical problems with injecting people - even people dying

of meningitis - with mercury, " Waters said. " What Smithburn did was wrong,

because he agreed to do the study for Lilly, and not only did he agree to do it,

but he agreed to give them results that he knew were flawed. " There simply are

no words that can be used to describe what Eli Lilly and Company, and then other

pharmaceutical companies perpetuated through decades of use of a highly toxic

compound like thimerosal.

 

In 1972, Lilly received an article that confirmed that its product,

used as a preservative in vaccines, caused 6 deaths from mercury poisoning. In

Exhibit ELI-392K of Waters & Kraus, LLP Plaintiffs' response to Eli Lilly it is

stated, " The symptoms and clinical course of the 6 patients suggests sub acute

mercury poisoning. " In 1948 Lilly received the following report, " Merthiolate is

such a commonly used preservative for biologicals, plasma, cartilage, etc., that

it would seem important to determine whether harm would result following its

subcutaneous or intravenous injection in skin sensitive individuals. " And then

in 1950 the New York Academy of Science article, Mercurials as Antiseptics, was

known to have reached Lilly's offices. This stated clearly that, " It

(merthiolate) is toxic when injected parenterally and therefore cannot be used

in chemotherapy. " Eli Lilly and Co., the Indianapolis drug-maker faces at least

45 lawsuits over its role in developing and selling for more than 40 years

thimerosal used in childhood vaccines and now suspected of causing autism. In

1972 the British Medical Journal reports skin burns resulting from the chemical

interaction of thimerosal and aluminum. They informed the Elli Lilly & Company

that, " Mercury is known to act as a catalyst and to cause aluminum to oxidize

rapidly, with the production of heat. Thimerosal is being used in vaccines that

also contain aluminum and no one has even begun to speculate on the complex

chemical interactions that can take place once the vaccine fluid containing a

mix of highly toxic chemicals is injected into young children or adults. Many

vaccines contain aluminum ions that have neurotoxic properties, and aluminum is

considered a factor in Alzheimer's disease etiology.

 

In March of 2001, the law firm of Waters & Kraus, of Dallas, Texas,

filed the first known civil case alleging that the mercury-based preservative

thimerosal has caused mercury poisoning in many children. Thimerosal has been

used as an additive to biologics and vaccines since the end of the 1930's but it

was only in 1999 that the truth emerged that most vaccines are heavily laced

with mercury and other toxic substances. Pharmaceutical companies add drugs,

antibiotics, and toxic disinfectants to vaccines, substances like: neomycin,

streptomycin, sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, sorbitol,

hydrolyzed gelatin, formaldehyde, as well as thimerosal which is fifty percent

mercury by weight. " There are three preservatives used in vaccines licensed in

the United States: phenol, 2-phenoxyethanol, and thimerosal, " according to Dr.

Paul Offit and Dr. Rita Jew.

 

In the early 1990's the combination of the Hepatitis B vaccine and the HiB

vaccine

alone more than doubled the amount of mercury injected into children's

bodies.

 

Mercury has been known to be hazardous for literally hundreds of

years, and its dangers have been well documented. Thousands of parents have

reported biological and neurodevelopment changes in their children directly

following administration of mercury-containing vaccines with a broad range of

symptoms, including sudden onset of shyness, GI distress, loss of motor skill

function, allergies, the inability to speak, tremors and autonomic disturbances,

mimic those associated with mercury poisoning. The danger that thimerosal

presents is that it contains 49.5 percent ethyl mercury by weight. Mercury has

long been the source of many serious health problems and is especially toxic to

the rapidly developing fetal and infant brain. Despite the basic toxic reality

of mercury the American medical establishment sees no problem with its use

though as quietly as possible they have been diminishing the mercury content in

the basic recommended immune schedule for children.

 

The FDA questioned Thimerosal's safety several times and decided in 1982

that it was

" not safe for 'over-the-counter' topical use, because of its potential

for cell damage, "

The FDA never did anything to question its use in childhood vaccines.

 

In their recent statements, the IOM is tearing down the primary

suspected cause of autism and are not offering another hypothesis with even a

remote chance of being causal. Dr. Haley says, " The recommendations of this IOM

report, if followed, will prevent the resolution of the autism causation issue

and will prevent development of an effective treatment protocol for autistic

children. However, it will help the CDC and vaccine manufactures escape any

culpability for any damage they may have done by instituting the mandated

vaccine program in the USA without any testing of its safety. " " Thimerosal

exposure results in toxic biochemical effects that fit very well with the

biochemical observations seen in autistics. These are (1) truncated neurons

(ethylmercury inhibition of tubulin polymerization) in brain tissue and (2)

inability to make methyl-B12 (Dr. Deth's work on thimerosal inhibition of the

enzyme methionine synthetase) and (3) the subsequent decrease in methylation of

cellular constitutents that require methylation to operate properly, " according

to Haley.

 

 

 

Any competent biochemist would look at the structure of thimerosal and

identify it as a potent enzyme inhibitor. What is surprising is that the

appropriate

animal and laboratory testing was not done on the vaccines containing

thimerosal (and aluminum) before the government embarked on a mandated

vaccine program that exposed infants to the levels of thimerosal that

occurred.

Boyd E. Haley, PhD

 

Dr. Brian S. Hooker, a biochemical engineering researcher said, " I

have personally analyzed the results of much of the epidemiology on both sides

of the debate including the studies that the IOM states do not support causation

between thimerosal exposure through vaccinations and autism. Curiously these

studies (in contrast to many of the studies supporting causation) are marked by

the following characteristics: 1) Conflicts of interest. 2) Missing baseline

data - these studies at best show previously stratified and massaged data. 3)

Use of capricious data treatment methods. 4) Faulty conclusions based on

presented data and methods. Dr. Boyd Haley said, " I was amazed that the IOM

would make such ridiculous statements and chose to use such obviously damaged

epidemiological studies to support their conclusions.

 

Until recently if an average 5 kg-infant received all

thimerosal-containing vaccines

at his two-month visit, his exposure that day would be 62.5 mcg ethyl

mercury--125 times

as great as the EPA guideline.The maximum permissible doses for the

 

oral ingestion of methylmercury by the EPA and FDA are 0.1 µg /kg body

weight/day and 0.4 µg /kg body weight/day, respectively.

 

Dr. Harold Buttram said, " Until recently most infants have been

receiving up to 15 doses of mercury-containing vaccines by the time they are 6

months old. It is almost inconceivable that these heavy burdens of foreign

immunologic materials, introduced into the immature systems of children, could

fail to bring about disruptions and adverse reactions in these systems. " The

United States and Europe are moving slowly away from the use of thiemerosal but

third world children are still being subjected to high levels of mercury through

the use of multiple use vaccine vials. The World Health Organization (WHO) took

the position that it was not an option for developing countries, due to

practical constraints and high cost to remove the mercury from third world

vaccines. The WHO said, " The risk from side effects of thimerosal is

theoretical, uncertain and, at most, extremely small. " It should be noted that

since thimerosal is not the only hazardous substance added to vaccines we are

not being assured of anything if that one component is removed, which it has not

yet, even after all the major medical organizations " recommended " its removal in

1999.

 

Thimerosal is not being removed from the vaccines given to

hundreds of millions of children around the world.

 

According to Doctor Hugh Fundenburg one of the most quoted biologist

of our time, with nearly 850 papers in peer review journals, if an individual

receives too many consecutive flu shots his/her chance of developing Alzheimer's

Disease is 10 times greater than if they had one, two or no shots. When asked

why, Dr. Fudenberg stated that it is due to the mercury and aluminum buildup

that are in many flu shots and in many other childhood vaccines. The gradual

mercury and aluminum buildup in the brain causes eventual cognitive dysfunction.

According to Dr. Haley " mercury dramatically reduced the viability of a major

brain protein called tubulin, but had little if any effect on another major

protein, actin. Both tubulin and actin are critically important for the growth

of dendrites or maintenance of axon structures of neurons. Exposing neurons to

mercury rapidly results in the stripping of tubulin from the axon structure,

leaving bare neurofibrils that form the tangles that are the diagnostic hallmark

of Alzheimer's disease. Thimerosal, like mercury, also rapidly reduces the

viability of tubulin; in addition, however, it abolishes the viability of actin.

This likely represents a major difference in the mechanism of mercury versus

organic-mercury (more neurotoxic) toxicity. However, both mercury and

organic-mercury inhibit tubulin viability and would work in concert to damage

neurons of the central nervous system. "

 

Until recently the CDC admitted that the nervous system is very

sensitive to all forms of mercury and that exposure to high levels of metallic,

inorganic, or organic mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and

developing fetus. In 1999, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined

that under the recommended childhood immunization schedule infants might be

exposed to cumulative doses of ethylmercury that exceed some federal safety

guidelines established for the oral ingestion of methylmercury. Effects on brain

functioning may include irritability, tremors, and changes in vision or hearing,

attention, language, and memory problems. They also admit that the effects of

short-term exposure to high levels of metallic mercury vapors may include lung

damage, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increases in blood pressure or heart rate,

skin rashes, and eye irritation.

 

In the late nineteen nineties a Dr. Thomas Verstraten worked at the

CDC on a study of 76,659 children to determine if thimerosal might be causing

neurological problems like autism. A February 2000 draft of Verstraeten's study,

obtained by United Press International, appears to have show that thimerosal

might cause brain problems. That draft cited " increasing risks of neurological

developmental disorders with increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal. We

can state that this analysis does not rule out that receipt of

thimerosal-containing vaccine in children under 3 months of age may be related

to an increased risk of neurologic developmental disorders, " the study said. To

discuss the findings in Dr. Verstraeten's study, the CDC convened a meeting at

the Simpsonwood Retreat Center in Norcross, Ga., on June 7-8, 2000. The agency

invited vaccine experts and representatives of four vaccine manufacturers. After

discussing that study, Dr. David Johnson, a Michigan state public health officer

advising the CDC on vaccines, said that the findings were troubling, according

to a transcript. " My gut feeling? It worries me enough, " said Johnson. " I do not

want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better

what is going on. " Later in the same conversation, CDC officials agreed to keep

the study private. In October 2001, the Institute of Medicine panel that heard

from Verstraeten found that it is " biologically plausible " that thimerosal

causes autism, but that, " current scientific evidence neither proves nor

disproves a link. "

 

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) special council Scott J.

Bloch, in a recent letter to congress said that, " the CDC and the Food and Drug

Administration colluded with pharmaceutical companies at a conference in

Norcross, Georgia, in June 2000, to prevent the release of a study which showed

a statistical correlation between thimerosal/mercury exposure through pediatric

vaccines and neurological disorders, including autism,

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, stuttering, tics and speech and

language delays. Instead of releasing the data presented at the conference, the

author of the study, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, later published a different version

of the study in the November 2003 issue of Pediatrics, which did not show a

statistical correlation. No explanation has been provided for this discrepancy. "

Furthermore, in a January 2004 article Dr. Verstraeten was forced to admit that

many children in the study were too young to have received an autism diagnosis.

He also went on to admit that the study also likely mislabeled young autistic

children as having other disabilities thus masking the number of children with

autism.

 

The bottom line is and has always been the same: an association

between thimerosal and neurological outcomes could neither be

confirmed nor refuted, and therefore, more study is required.

Dr. Thomas Verstraeten

Dr. Welden said that, " The IOM was directed by CDC to only consider

the possible relationship between thimerosal and autism, rather than NDDs as a

whole. Anyone familiar with the Verstraeten study knows exactly why the IOM's

scope was narrowed - because the 2003 Verstraeten study found associations

between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders and some children with

autism may have been misdiagnosed as having speech or language delay. By

narrowing the scope - which largely went unnoticed by the media - the CDC has

avoided acknowledging that thimerosal very well may have caused

neurodevelopmental disorders in some children. Dr. Verstraeten said that an

association between thimerosal containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental

disorders cannot be refuted based on his study, yet the IOM in their assessment

of the same study state that it is a basis for concluding that " there is no

association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. " The IOM study is

severely limited in its " ability to answer whether thimerosal in vaccines causes

autism because the study tests a dose-response gradient, not exposure versus

non-exposure, " said Dr. Welden who continued on saying, " It is also critical to

note that the Verstraeten study cannot be validated. The earlier datasets have

been destroyed and the only datasets the CDC will make available to outside

researchers are the ones that they have already manipulated. The raw, unaltered

data is not available. Additionally, outside researchers are held to a much

more restrictive access to information than are CDC researchers. Only one

independent researcher has been granted access to the CDC's VSD database and the

CDC has kicked those researchers out based on ridiculous reasons. They claimed

their research methods might infringe on privacy. Yet the database contains no

names. The researchers do not even know what HMO the patient is enrolled in. Nor

do they know what state the subjects live in. There is no way for an

individual to be identified through their research. " [ii]

Mercury poisoning and autism have nearly identical symptoms:

self-injurious behavior, social withdrawal, lack of eye contact, lack of facial

expression,

hypersensitivity to noise and touch, and repetitive behaviors.

What we see coming through the parents histories over and over again

in our office is that the developmental delays began after the vaccines.

Stephanie Cave, MD

Though they have no idea of what does cause the suffering that visits

families with autism and other developmentally delayed or destroyed children,

the Institute of Medicine seems confident about what does not cause it.

SafeMinds, America's leading scientific organization investigating the risks

that mercury-containing medical products pose to our children-issued the

following statements in response to the release of the IOM's Vaccine Safety

Committee report on the link between mercury-containing vaccines and autism.

" The IOM has not only compromised their integrity and independence, but also

failed the American public, especially mercury-injured children with autism, by

toeing the CDC, FDA, and vaccine industry line. This committee and its report

clearly chose to ignore groundbreaking scientific research on the mercury-autism

link, and instead the IOM has issued a flawed, incomplete report that continues

to put America's children at risk. "

The IOM report implies that there were not enough biomedical problems

with the autistic children that would correspond to what would be expected from

mercury toxicity. They state, " Autism has also never been documented as a

consequence of exposure to high doses of mercury. " Dr. Haley's response, " this

shows a classic inability to understand the situation. This is an inane

statement. Look at acrodynia, did these children mimic what was

expected from acute mercury toxicity seen in older children or adults? No.

The IOM argument that autistics do not present enough of the clinical signs of

standard mercury toxicity is weak and absurd. " Backing Baley up is Dr Mark Geier

and David Geier, his son, who in 2003 gained access to records in the Vaccine

Adverse Event Reporting System database called VAERS. Though it is widely known

that their research was hindered by uncooperative federal officials, in the data

they found that the conditions analysed closely followed linear distributions

with an increase of about one case of autism per 100,000 children for every

microgram present in childhood vaccines and about one case of speech disorders

per 1,000 children for every 3 µg of mercury present in childhood vaccines.'' We

have concluded in our studies that a causal relationship exists between mercury

from thimerosal in childhood vaccines and neuro-developmental disorders. We have

also had a peer-reviewed paper accepted for publication, which showed that the

MMR live virus vaccine may have also contributed to the ongoing epidemic of

autism. Our best estimates are that the thimerosal contributed to about 75% of

the cases of neuro-developmental disorders while the MMR contributed to about

15%. The remaining 10% of the cases were related to mercury in Rhogam, a shot

given to Rh-negative women, and to other sources of neurotoxicity.'' The rhogam

shot used to have a huge dose of mercury in it, especially

for the fetus in the gestational stages with brain development.

The FDA itself in 1982 specifically found that thimerosal was

significantly

more toxic for living tissue than it was for the bacteria it was supposed

to kill.

According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, " Removal of thimerosal, even if

complete, will not solve the problem of autism. It will help tremendously, but

will not stop the epidemic of autism. Though mercury, even in sub toxic doses

has been shown to strongly activate microglia causing the secretion of two

powerful excitotoxins, glutamate and quinolinic acid, in concentrations that are

neurotoxic. Aluminum has a similar mode of action, though less potent. When

combined with mercury, there is at least additive toxicity if not synergestic

toxicity. " Dr Gregory Ellis agrees with Blaylock stating that " autism is upon us

because it's the outcome of the 50-year experiment of dousing every living being

with an overload of toxic substances, including vaccines. " Speaking of her

autistic patients, Dr Stephanie Cave said, " You would be amazed at the

devastation in their chemistries when you get down to the cellular level. " She

also said, " I think in later years we are going to look back at aluminum the way

we are looking at mercury now. "

The use of mercury in vaccines represents the

greatest medical scandal of the last century.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) special council Scott J.

Bloch communicated last month (May 2004) to congress about hundreds of

disclosures from private citizens alleging a widespread danger to the public

health, specifically to infants and toddlers, caused by childhood vaccines which

include thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative. Bloch said in a letter to

Judd Gregg United States Senate Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, " Based

on the publicly available information it appears there may be sufficient

evidence to find a substantial likelihood of a substantial and specific danger

to public health caused by the use of thimerosal/mercury in vaccines because of

its inherent toxicity. The disclosures allege that thimerosal/mercury is still

present in childhood vaccines, contrary to statements made by HHS agencies, HHS

Office of Investigations and the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to

the information provided, vaccines containing 25 mcg of mercury and carrying

expiration dates of 2005, continue to be produced and administered. The

disclosures allege that there is an increasing body of clinical evidence on the

connection of thimerosal/mercury exposure to neurological disorders, which is

being ignored by government public health agencies. I believe these allegations

raise serious continuing concerns about the administration of the nation's

vaccine program and the government's possibly inadequate response to the growing

body of scientific research on the public health danger of mercury in vaccines. "

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated

60,000 DPT shots annually are reported as having been followed by

convulsions,

shock, collapse, temperatures of 105 degrees, and/or high pitched

screaming.

According to Dr. Mark Geier, " The 2003 Physicians' Desk Reference

[PDR] still shows childhood vaccines in the United States containing thimerosal,

including diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis. DTaP, manufactured by

Aventis Pasteur, contains 25[mu]g [25 micrograms] of mercury, Hemophilus

influenzae b (Hib) vaccine manufactured by Wyeth contains 25[mu]g of mercury and

pediatric Hepatitis B vaccine, manufactured by Merck, contains 12.5[mu]g of

mercury. "

Even Samuel L. Katz, former chairman of the ACIP, was reported to

have admitted that there were no peer reviewed published studies showing that it

was safe to give the hepatitis B vaccines to newborns when the ACIP made its

recommendation in 1991; and the CDC's head of epidemiology, Dr. Robert Chan,

presented data showing that serious reactions to the hepatitis B vaccine were

approximately ten times higher than for other vaccines. There are over 36,000

adverse reactions and more than 440 deaths in the VAERS federal reporting system

associated with this vaccine alone.

Eli Lilly was a major contributor to the GOP campaign. President

Bush's father, after stepping aside as Director of Central Intelligence in 1977,

was made director of the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company by the family of Dan

Quayle, who owned the controlling interest in the company. White House budget

director Mitch Daniels, once an Eli Lilly executive, serves in the current

administration and Eli Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel, was appointed to the president's

homeland security advisory council. It is interesting to note that the Homeland

Security Bill signed into law by President George W. Bush removed pharmaceutical

industry liability for mercury induced vaccine injuries and deaths caused by

thimerosal (ethyl-mercury). It was a provision that was inserted at the 11th

hour and for a while no one would come forward to take credit for the dirty

deed. It was later repealed and the source of the special clauses was traced

back to White House insistence.

Investigative researchers Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher in their

new book The Virus and The Vaccine remind us of the sordid story about federal

health officials having a long established habit of covering up serious problems

with vaccines. " Millions of Americans are unaware that government officials and

leading scientists played Russian roulette with their health in the 1960s after

discovering that the original polio vaccine was contaminated. Although there was

alarm within the scientific circles that the vaccine might cause cancer, federal

health officials made a deliberate decision not to recall contaminated stocks of

vaccine. They feared that withdrawing the vaccine, or alerting the public about

SV40, would cause people to lose confidence in the vaccine. So, for two more

years, millions more Americans were needlessly exposed to the virus, " said

Bookchin and Schumacher. The same organizations involved then are involved in

similar cover-ups for the same reasons and nowhere is this more evident then in

the questions surrounding autism. It does seem like a safe conclusion that

medical authorities today do not care for peoples' suffering nor do they have

much of a commitment to science, medical truth, justice or law.

There is without doubt a 'we-must-vaccinate-at-any-cost cartel' that

has its home in the FDA, CDC, the AMA, in the World Health Organization, in the

American Pediatric Association, the UN, UNICEF, and at the Institute of

Medicine. These organizations, charged with the responsibility of public health

actually make themselves into enemies of public health when they support medical

practices that contribute to the skyrocketing numbers of iatrogenic deaths and

the increasing numbers of people who suffer from chronic disease. In this most

recent 'cartel style communication' the IOM supports suspicions that they are

trying to cover up any possible connection between vaccinations and autism. The

IOM has taken a step that will help the CDC and vaccine manufactures escape any

liability for any damage they have done.

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD

Director, International Medical Veritas Association

http://www.imva.info