Scarborough and RFK Jr. discuss Thimerosal in Vaccines

[Guest guest]

A coverup for a cause of Autism?

Scarborough and RFK Jr. discuss how an ingredient in vaccines may

have contributed to thousands of cases

TRANSCRIPT

Updated: 11:32 a.m. ET June 22, 2005

 

Joe Scarborough

Host, `Scarborough Country'

 

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Six out of every 1,000 kids has autism, and nobody knows exactly

why. But guest Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said in an interview on

the 'Scarborough Country' program on Tuesday that part of the blame

needs to fall on the government. It has to do with a drug called

Thimerosal.

 

Kennedy Jr., a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense

Counsel, and author of " Deadly Immunity, " an article about the

investigation into a possible connection between Thimerosal and

Autism in the current issue of " Rolling Stone, " talked with Joe

about his findings.

 

To read an excerpt of their interview, continue to the text below.

To watch the interview, click on the video link above.

 

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SCARBOROUGH: Let's talk about Thimerosal. ... There are a lot of

people, a lot of Americans very concerned about the impact of this

drug, which is found in vaccines, and how it causes autism. Talk

about that.

 

KENNEDY: That's right. Thimerosal is a preservative that was put in

vaccines back in the 1930s. Almost immediately after it was put in,

autism cases began to appear. Autism had never been known before.

It was unknown to science. Then the vaccines were increased in 1989

by the CDC and by a couple of other government agencies.

 

SCARBOROUGH: OK, let me stop you there. That's an important date.

And I will tell you why.

 

My son, born in 1991, has a slight form of autism called

Asperger`s. And it seems -- but, again, when I was practicing law

and also when I was in Congress, parents would constantly come to me

and they would bring me videotapes of their children, and they were

all around the age of my son or younger. So, something happened in

1989.

 

KENNEDY: Exactly. What happened was the vaccine schedule was

increased. We went up from receiving about 10 vaccines in our

generation to these kids receive 24 vaccines. And they all had this

Thimerosal in them, this mercury. And nobody bothered to do an

analysis of what the cumulative impact of all that mercury was doing

to kids.

 

As it turns out, we are injecting our children with 400 times the

amount of mercury that FDA or EPA considers safe. A child on his

first day that he is born is injected with a Hepatitis B shot.

Under EPA guidelines, he would have to be 275 pounds to safely

absorb that shot.

 

SCARBOROUGH: And yet, we are just constantly pumping our kids with

these vaccines. Where is the federal government in all of this?

 

KENNEDY: What happened was that, in 1988, one in every 2,500

American children had autism. Today, one in every 166 children has

autism. And, plus, one in six have other kinds of learning

disorders, other kinds of neurological disorders, speech delay,

language disorders, ADD, hyperactivity, that all seem to be

connected, that are all connected, the science shows are all

connected to autism -- to Thimerosal.

 

SCARBOROUGH: You know, Bobby, what we've always found, you and

could debate 1,000 different issues, whether it's Terri Schiavo or

the environment. I think we would agree on the environment. But,

in this case, you have got the federal government coming in saying,

well, there's no really -- there's no good science. And, of course,

in politics, science always gets diluted. Why hasn't the federal

government stepped up and worked more, because listen, Bobby, I

can't prove it tonight. You can't prove it, but, intuitively, you

look at the spike. You look at what happened with Thimerosal.

There's no doubt in my mind -- maybe it's two years from now. Maybe

it's five years from now. Maybe it's 10 years from now. We are

going to find out Thimerosal causes, in my opinion, autism.

 

Click for a related story

Scarborough Country homepage

External site: RobertFKennedyJr.com

 

 

 

 

KENNEDY: You know what? The science is out there today for anybody

who bothers to read it. And I have read it. Actually, on my Web

site this week, RobertFKennedyJr.com, I am publishing an article

that goes through all of the science.

 

But the science is clear. And what happens is, I read the science

at first. And there's literally hundreds and hundreds of studies

that connect Thimerosal to these disastrous neurological disorders.

Then I went, I talked to the scientists. Then I went and I talked

to the federal bureaucrats who are defending Thimerosal. And I said,

what are you relying on? And I looked at the science they are

relying on. And I can tell you, Joe, it is so weak. And you and I

have seen, in the legal practice, junk science. And we know what

these phony scientists are who create this stuff.

 

SCARBOROUGH: It happened in big tobacco.

 

KENNEDY: Right. Tobacco.

 

SCARBOROUGH: It happens in big oil. It's happening in global

warming. And now it's happening in a way that is impacting our

kids` lives.

 

KENNEDY: This is classic tobacco science. It is junk science. And

I was looking at these reports and saying, this is the best? This

is what you are relying on? They know it's fraudulent. And now we

have the transcripts.

 

SCARBOROUGH: Explain. Explain it to me, Bobby, OK? Explain it to

me. If that's the case -- I mean, you and I both know about

politics, obviously.

 

Politicians like to get reelected. Why are they sitting back and --

if our children are being poisoned, if the science is there, why are

they sitting back and letting our children be poisoned?

 

KENNEDY: Because the same regulatory bureaucrats that green-lighted

Thimerosal originally are now trying to cover their tracks.

 

SCARBOROUGH: It's a CYA operation.

 

KENNEDY: Right. Are they are working with the pharmaceutical

industry. And we now have the transcripts of the secret meeting

that they did in Simpsonwood, Georgia, in the year 2000.

 

And it's the most horrifying thing that you can read, Joe. There

are scientists there from the government who are saying -- who are

reading the reports and saying, this is undeniable. There's no way

we can ever deny this. I am not going to give this to my children,

but now let's hide this from the American people. And it's that

clear.

 

And this is what I write about. It's this language that I write

about in the " Rolling Stone " and the " Salon " piece that is so

shocking, where we have the guys who are supposed to be protecting

Americans` health who are actually conspiring to keep this stuff in

the vaccines.

 

SCARBOROUGH: You know, and I can't say what lawsuit we were both

involved in. I don't want to say it. But it reminds me of a

lawsuit we were involved in a couple years ago regarding water

quality, where you know the people that polluted in our community

and then left our community would have never drank the water that

our children grew up drinking. And it's a disaster. It's a

disgrace.

 

So, hey, Bobby, thanks for being here tonight. If you can come

back, we need to talk more about this. And I also want to talk

about -- and I am going to hold up the book now. We actually lured

Bobby in to say that we were going to talk to him about this book.

But, actually, he said he wanted to talk about this instead. I

appreciate you being here, Bobby, as always. And let's get you

back.

 

KENNEDY: Thanks a lot, Joe.

 

SCARBOROUGH: And let's get you running for a public office. I will

defend your honor whenever any Republican says anything nasty.

 

(LAUGHTER)

 

KENNEDY: Well, that counts for a lot. Thanks a lot, Joe.

 

(LAUGHTER)

 

SCARBOROUGH: Yes, that and a quarter, right, will get you a cup of

coffee.

 

 

 

 

 

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