Decision leaves autism activist unbowed

All parents ever asked for were unbiased studies that examined the link between autism and vaccines. It never happened. Placing a known neurotoxin in vaccines as a preservative (thimerosal) and a government agency allowing it, was sure to lead to a negative outcome. More than likely kids that developed regressive autism had a genetic predisposition that made it difficult for their bodies to handle heavy metals efficiently and autism was the result for many. There are still experts in the field that will conduct studies and hopefully find a cure. May God bless you parents who have kids so affected.

Here, here! Finally someone addressing the obvious conflict of interest in this whole charade of "justice."

You put it perfectly when you said :
The Department of Health and Human Services is the defendant in the vaccine injury cases, and at the same time is responsible for carrying out research on vaccine safety.

WHY DO NONE OF THE NEWS ARTICLES EVER MENTION THIS FACT???

The autism activists must keep this problem in the face of parents and future parents. The government and pharmaceutical companies aren't doing parents any favors on this subject.

Unfortunately we are stuck with the devil we do know (the diseases brought on by lack of vaccination) and the one we don't. Hopefully the pharm industry will do some research on a better preservative, but since it wouldn't be profitable (unlike the next ED drug), don't hold your breath. Somehow we can come up with links to disease from second hand smoke ( now even third hand) and ban smoking all over the place but it's still ok to shoot mercury into kids.

I sympathize with those afflicted by autism and want answers too but the scientific method has not yielded promising results as most studies indicate vaccines aren't the culprit (and in fact maybe protective against Alzheimer's, etc). Now Congress investigates because of the politization and they too find no smoking gun. The advantages of vaccines (THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MEDICAL CAMPAIGN IN HISTORY, EXCEPT ANTIBIOTICS) outweigh the risks , but autism apparently isn't one of the risks. Rather than chasing a dead horse don't you think it would be better to search and find the real culprit rather than chasing ghosts?Twin and family studies demonstrate that the etiology of autism has a substantial genetic component. Current estimates of sibling recurrence risk--the likelihood that a younger sibling of an autistic child will also have autism--is greater than 15%. Comparing this to population rates of approximately 1 per 500 children for narrowly defined autism or 1 per 150 children for the more broadly defined autism spectrum disorders indicates a high degree of heritability in families. Few children vaccines contain thimerosal and haven't for years yet autism still rises.

I should add the research on a possible vaccine link still continues, and the genetic studies indicate abnormalities at the synapse (where neurons communicate) but it appears to be multi-genetic and perhaps a gene network phenomena (not a single gene). Other hypotheses are also being pursued and hopefully things will become clearer but science takes time (where fools fear to tread get you nowhere) as it methodically addresses this issue. In any number of countries thimerosal hasn't been used vaccines for decades yet autism is still epidemic. This is probably an evolutionary event of population genetics and environment-evolution created sickle cell anemia because it offers protection against malaria but still it has its disadvantages. We humans are showing changes in Brain genetic alleles linked with intelligence perhaps a negative of this positive increase is autism. But that is a hypothesis.

Don't always believe what your government tells you-
11 childhood and young adult vaccines still carry full doses of thimerosal. This includes the flu vaccine(only 10 per cent are thimerosal free) which has 25 micrograms of thimerosal. They are recommended for pregnant women and babies over the age of 6 months. At 6 months you give one flu shot and 1 month later another. How many mcgs is that?
In addition, all vaccines are manufactured with mercury, and for many it is later removed through a special process, which actually leaves trace amounts of it in ALL vaccines(MMR excluded). NO amount(even trace) have ever been deemed acceptable for injection into anyone.

Okay, msitua, I will answer your question. 50 micrograms.

If you are concerned about mercury look at your diet, don't eat fish. Adult women's blood mercury concentrations vary regionally in the United States: association with patterns of fish consumption (NHANES 1999-2004).Mahaffey KR, Clickner RP, Jeffries RA. The greatest risk of mercury as a teratogen is during pregnancy so don't eat fish while you are pregnant. You will get more mercury from breathing air as most environmental mercury comes from coal-buring plants. Often dietary supplements are rich in mercury, esp herbal one. Sources of mercury to reach the body are numerous. Heavy metals like arsenic, selenium, mercury can be toxic but at high levels-selenium is also essential as is chromium to the body.

There is a difference between breathing it in(altho not healthy) eating it(unhealthy too) and injecting it into body. Injecting it being the most dangerous. In children with some genetic predisposition--they are unable to excrete the injected thimerosal and it crosses over the blood brain barier-and does equal harm to the digestive system and all the orgns.

If you eat it it is already a mercuric compound that can freely enter your blood, breathing it has to be metabolized but still no different than thimerosal. Diet and injection would be equally dangerous as it enters venous return to heart then goes systemic.

Maurine makes excellent points here. As the autism rate exploded from one in 10,000 kids in the 1970s to one in every 150 children/one in every 94 boys today, federal health officials looked on and still refuse to admit that there's been any real increase, just "better diagnosing" by doctors. We continue to give the people who run the vaccine program oversight over themselves.
Anne Dachel
Media editor: Age of Autism

I believe Sweden hasn't had any thimerosal in any vaccine (it is added as a preservative not a by product as some have suggested) in over two decades yet it has one of the highest rates and epidemics of autism. It is no wonder we aren't still living in caves-yes the world is flat.

Here are some facts: 1) thimerosal has been in vaccines since there have been vaccines; 2) children are not being vaccinated today at a higher rate than they were say 50 years ago; 3) more kids are being diagnosed today with autistism today than 50 years ago. If you believe all of that, why is autism being pinned on vaccines? If thimerosal were causing autism, shouldn't there always have been tons of kids with the disorder? To me, it seems like the vaccine haters should be barking up a differnet tree.

I have a child on the spectrum. He is not "vaccine injured". He has always been this way. He was doing things like compulsively lining up M&Ms by color and avoiding eye contact way before he ever had the MMR.

In 1983 there were 8 childhood vaccines. Today a child will receive(according to the CDC) with 60 vaccines by the time they reach the age of 18-more than 36 by the time they start school.
at age 5. Are you joking, Jim?

I'm waiting on the Hollywood celebrities to tell me whether the vaccines are safe or not.

My son is 22. When he went for the 1st round of the mmr/dpt- his leg was swollen to the point of tearing. The dr. waivered him off these shots. He has had oral polio, tetnus and hepititis shot. Thats it. He has had 3 colds in his life. He never even had chicken pox was exposed to it in infancy. The Dr. says he has a strong immune system and is a carrier. meaning that he will indeed "catch" the chicken pox, but he passes it on before he actually has symptoms. The drug companies want $$$$, thats it.

Maurine Meleck writes a strong, succinct letter that speaks well for the autism community and their concerns regarding vaccine injury. The ever-increasing amount of vaccines containing dangerously harmful preservatives that are produced and pushed on the population for profit is unconscionable on the part of the pharmas, the medical community and the government. "Studies" showing "no link between vaccines and autism" are flawed and skewed in that many of the scientists and M.D.s are on pharma boards or highly paid by pharmas,
as they offer only absurd reasons for high autism numbers --
like fathers are old, couples have tried too hard to get pregnant, stress from traumas like hurricane Katrina, autism figures began to rise when cable TV became popular. Actually, 'absurd' is a mild word; there is no word strong enough for this specious attempt to reach a public that is so aware of the prevarications and cover-ups spewed by the vaccine producers and the CDC.
How greatful I am that my children were born at a time when
only seven or eight vaccines were administered. My heart goes out totally to all those families who are suffering because of this heinous situation.

Right Fullofcare all medicine and the scientific method and flawed so you don't need insurance or medical care or any scientific progress for that matter (do live in a cave?). Man you got it made. The same science produced all of medicine so you can't accept any of it if you are going to be picky.

Mrs. Melleck, are you familiar with the "post hoc, propter hoc" logical fallacy?

Mrs. Meleck, are you familiar with the "post hoc, propter hoc" logical fallacy?

I wonder how many of these kids have a father or grandfather who was subjected to Agent Orange? I think we have really covered up what this chemical has done to a bunch of men and their children. It would be interesting to see the Bios of the people included in the study.

legal:Maybe your child was allergic to some compound in the vaccine. I had employee who had her arm swell to over twice it's normal size after receiving her PPD test. It wasn't a postive reaction, she didn't have TB, she had an alergy to the serum.

My son is on the spectrum too, and I knew there was something wrong before he was 6 weeks old. There is increasing evidence that it is a genetic mutation/defect on the 16th chromosome. And no one in my family was exposed to Agent Orange.

Oh, and I would also like to point out that children in other countries- poor, undeveloped countries that do not have vaccine programs- have autism, too. So what causes that? Back in the old days, autistic people were parked in institutions or confined to their homes and not taken places- that's why it seems like there are so many more now. There really aren't, proportionally, it's just that now that very few are institutionalized or kept at home anymore. They were the ones, along with mentally disabled people, that were labeled "idiotic" or "insane" or "imbeciles".

The majority of children nowadays that have autism -have regressive autism which means they had all the appropriate skills for their age levels but lost them all following vaccinations.
This is quite different from what you refer to as insane or idiots.
Obviously you don't have an autistic child or have ever been around one-you would see the differences. No, my dear, this is an epidemic that coincided in numbers with the increase in childhood vaccines beginning in the early 90's...There cannot be a genetic epidemic-it's impossible. These children, also, were not put in institutions like you say---they just weren't any years ago or so few you could count them on one hand. Sorry

I work with children who have Autism, some of their parent's say it's connected to vaccines and other's don't. I have done research and my understanding is that those that believe vaccines are triggers, mean that it's the way the child reacts to them. I think people get caught up on the thought that those parent's are saying this or that vaccination gave my child autism, rather than the fact that it is the way their child reacted to it, that the child's body couldn't handle the volume and the end result is the Autism. Why is it, that in countries without these vaccinations, or even Amish within the US have lower ratios. These parents are simply saying that the combination of their child's immune system and the metal levels of the vaccines affect their child and results in Autism.