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You deserve to know the facts, so here’s a compilation of recent studies and research clearly showing that thimerosal DOES HAVE a very real, detrimental impact on health, and that mercury toxicity is a reality in those suffering from the type of neurological damage seen in autistic children.
Most of these are from GenerationRescue.org and Fourteenstudies.org’s websites, which are great resources as they provide copies of the full studies so you can review all the evidence for yourself:
Environmental Health Perspectives, August, 2005
Fourteenstudies.org states: “This study demonstrates clearly and unequivocally that ethyl mercury, the kind of mercury found in vaccines, not only ends up in your brain, but leaves double the amount of inorganic mercury as methyl mercury, the kind of mercury found in fish.
This work is groundbreaking because little is known about ethyl mercury, and many health authorities have asserted that the mercury found in vaccines is the "safe kind."
This study also delivers a strong rebuke of the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation in 2004 to no longer pursue the mercury-autism connection. Excerpt:
"A recently published IOM review (IOM 2004) appears to have abandoned the earlier recommendation [of studying mercury and autism] as well as back away from the American Academy of Pediatrics goal [of removing mercury from vaccines].
This approach is difficult to understand, given our current limited knowledge of the toxicokinetics and developmental neurotoxicity of thimerosal, a compound that has been (and will continue to be) injected in millions of newborns and infants."Cell Biology and Toxicology April 9, 2009 [Epub Ahead of Print]
Exerpt: “In conclusion, MT-1 and MT-3 mRNAs but not MT-2 mRNA are easily expressed in the cerebellum rather than in the cerebrum by the injection of low-dose thimerosal. It is thought that the cerebellum is a sensitive organ against thimerosal.
As a result of the present findings, in combination with the brain pathology observed in patients diagnosed with autism, the present study helps to support the possible biological plausibility for how low-dose exposure to mercury from thimerosal-containing vaccines may be associated with autism.”Annals of Epidemiology September 2009: 19(9);659
Male infants who received thimerosal-containing hepatitis-B vaccinations had a three-fold risk of developing autism.Neurotoxicology October 1, 2009
The above findings are confirmed in this study wherein infant primates injected with just ONE dose of thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine manifested significant developmental delays.Brain Research September 9, 2009 [Epub Ahead of Print]
Study concluded that injecting thimerosal into suckling infant rats, and adult rats, impairs sensitivity to pain, apparently due to activation the endogenous opioid system.Toxicology & Environmental Chemistry September-October 2008: 90(5);997-1008
Male infants who received thimerosal-containing hepatitis-B vaccinations were nine times as likely to be receiving special education servicesGeneration Rescue Survey of 9,000 boys, aged 4-17, in California and Oregon, found that vaccinated boys had a 155 percent greater chance of having a neurological disorder than unvaccinated boys. Vaccinated boys were 224 percent more likely to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and 61 percent more likely to have autism.
For boys in the 11-17 age bracket, the results were even more pronounced. Vaccinated boys were 158 percent more likely to have a neurological disorder, 317 percent more likely to have ADHD, and 112 percent more likely to have autism.Report to the Legislature on the Principle Findings from The Epidemiology of Autism in California: A Comprehensive Pilot Study by the MIND Institute, October 2002, concluded that the rise in autism cannot be explained by better diagnosis and expanded diagnostic criteria, but rather is a real event, likely propelled by “environmental exposures to substances such as mercury; viral exposures; autoimmune disorders; and childhood vaccinations."
Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 2006: 214; 99-108
This French study used a new, sophisticated measurement for environmental toxicity by assessing porphyrin levels in autistic children. It provides clear and unequivocal evidence that children with autism spectrum disorders are significantly more toxic than their neurotypical peers.Journal of American Physicians and Surgeon, 2003
Exerpt: "The data from this study, along with emerging epidemiological data showing a link between increasing mercury doses from childhood vaccines and childhood neurodevelopmental disorders, increases the likelihood that mercury is one of the main factors leading to the large increase in the rate of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It is hoped that removing thimerosal from all childhood vaccines will contribute to a decline in the numbers of new cases of autistic spectrum disorders."Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 2007: 70; 837-851
This study reviewed the case histories and medical profiles of nine autistic children and concluded that eight of the nine children were mercury toxic and this toxicity manifested itself in a manner consistent with Autism Spectrum Disorders.Neuropediatrics, August 2006
Exerpt: "There was significant difference in blood mercury levels between cases and controls, which persists after adjustment for age, gender and parental occupational status. The geometric mean blood mercury level was also significantly higher in children with inattentive and combined subtypes of ADHD. CONCLUSION: High blood mercury level was associated with ADHD. Whether the relationship is causal requires further studies."International Journal of Toxicology 2003: 22; 277-285
Fourteenstudies.org states: “This recent study demonstrates that the levels of mercury in the birth hair of autistic children were significantly lower than their control peers. While this may at first appear contradictory, it highlights one of the critical insights to understanding mercury poisoning and autistic children: many autistic children are non-excretors of mercury. This means their capacity to excrete mercury is significantly lower than their neurotypical peers and contributes to their condition.”Journal of Pediatrics, May 2000: 136; 679-681
This study measured mercury levels in infants before and after the administration of a Hepatitis B vaccine containing thimerosal and found that a "comparison of pre and post-vaccination mercury levels showed a significant increase in both preterm and term infants after vaccination."Neurotoxicology January 2005: 26; 1-8
Study demonstrates that thimerosal lowers or inhibits your body’s ability to produce glutathione, an antioxidant and your body’s primary cellular-level defense against mercury.
Excerpt: "Thimerosal-induced cytotoxicity was associated with depletion of intracellular Glutathione in both cell lines…The potential effect of Glutathione or N-acetylcysteine against mercury toxicity warrants further research as possible adjunct therapy to individuals still receiving Thimerosal-containing vaccines."Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2006
Study demonstrates that very low-levels of Thimerosal can contribute to immune system disregulation.Molecular Psychiatry July 2004; 1-13
Study demonstrates how thimerosal inhibits methylation, a central driver of cellular communication and development.
Exerpt: "The potent inhibition of this pathway [methylation] by ethanol, lead, mercury, aluminum, and thimerosal suggests it may be an important target of neurodevelopmental toxins."Molecular Psychiatry September 2004; 1-13
Fouteenstudies.org states: “This work by Columbia University Doctors explores whether genes are important in determining if mercury exposures akin to those in childhood immunizations can disrupt brain development and function.
It is the first known scientific study done specifically on ethlymercury administered in a way similar to the vaccine schedule. Dr. Hornig discussed the study before Congress in September 2004.”
Excerpt: "The premise of our research is that if mercury in vaccines creates risk for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, genetic differences are likely to contribute to that risk. Earlier studies, however, did not use the form of mercury present in vaccines, known as thimerosal, and did not consider whether intramuscular, repetitive administration during early postnatal development, when the brain and immune systems are still maturing, might intensify toxicity.
Our predictions were confirmed. Using thimerosal dosages and timing that approximated the childhood immunization schedule, our model of postnatal thimerosal neurotoxicity demonstrated that the genes in mice that predict mercury-related immunotoxicity also predicted nuerodevelopmental damage. Features reminiscent of those observed in autism occurred in the mice of the genetically sensitive strain."Toxicological Sciences 2003: 74
Study demonstrates the potent toxicity of thimerosal on brain cells.Autoimmunity Reviews June 2005: 4(5):270-275
Study demonstrates the clear link between ethylmercury [from thimerosal] and autoimmune responses.Congressional Record – Extensions of Remarks by Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN), Committee on Government Reform, May 21, 2003
Fouteenstudies.org states: “This extensive report was prepared by the staff of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness and was the result of a three-year investigation. The Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Dan Burton, initiated the investigation and compiled the testimony of hundreds of researchers and physicians, as well as representatives from the FDA and CDC, who presented to the committee.”
Excerpt: "Mercury is hazardous to humans. Its use in medicinal products is undesirable, unnecessary and should be minimized or eliminated entirely. Manufacturers of vaccines and thimerosal, (an ethlymercury compound used in vaccines), have never conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal. The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct adequate safety testing on thimerosal and ethlymercury compounds…
Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 2006; 11(1); 8-13
Upon analysis of the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), researchers reported significantly increased odds ratios for autism, speech disorders, mental retardation and thinking abnormalities following vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines (DTP and Hib), compared to children who received a vaccine containing half the amount of thimerosal (DTPH).
The American Academy of Pediatrics decided that this study was flawed because it relied on VAERS data, which as a “passive surveillance system” is no intended to be used for proving hypotheses.
Links from the article Washington Health Department Suspends Mercury Restrictions for Swine Flu Vaccine by Dr. Mercola
*SNIP* Very interesting article about the effects vaccines have on our brains and body.
Dr. Moulden, we understand that you have made a revolutionary discovery. Can you tell us about it?
I would be happy to.
Through my extensive research and my work throughout the years, I have discovered that vaccinations are causing impaired blood flow (ischemia) to brain and body from clinically silent to death. These are strokes – across the board for all of us. I have reason to believe that all are being affected and all vaccinations ARE causing the overwhelming rise in autism, specific learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, sudden infant death, gulf war syndrome, dementia, seizure disorders, some cancers it would appear, and much much more.
What led you away from the rigid and possibly blinkered views of most of the rest of the medical profession?
The brain and nervous system is wired in a very specific format. Functions are localized to specific areas. Having studied brain and behavior, neurosciences, clinical neuropsychology, child neurodevelopment, functional brain imaging, clinical neurology, clinical neuropsychiatry, clinical medicine, immunology, hematology, tests and measurement, and understanding the tools and assumptions and techniques of mainstream medicine, I fell in the unique position of having being able to see clinical medicine problems, from a multitude of simultaneous areas of expertise and scientific knowledge. Relative to the human brain, I understood “rules and laws” of brain function relative to brain damage and the mechanisms of medical physiology that can uniquely cause unique patterns of brain damage in ways that my clinical skills could detect, that mainstream neuroimaging cannot. The initial “aha” moment was in 2001.
What was it which caught your attention, what tipped you off and incited you to scratch the surface and investigate further?
I was seeing, autistic patients, coming out of medical school – they had a trans-cortical motor aphasia, isolation of speech syndrome, and very specific cranial nerve palsies that could ONLY be accounted for by ischemic stroke. Remarkably, my studies of schizophrenia, dementia, and research exposure to neuroimaging modalities and brain and behavioral assessments before medical school contributed to my ability to “see” what has been in front of our eyes all along – ischemic strokes and brain damages – from vaccinations. The problem has been we neither knew how to measure, when to measure or what to measure, let alone what the limitations were, of the tools we have been using to measure brain integrity, in health, disease and disorder.
It has taken the past several years to decipher how ischemic brain damages were happening in the autism we were seeing and the many other neurodevelopmental disorders. I now believe I have the answers for this, or so it appears and some solutions.
Wild polio caused the exact same brain damages as ALL other vaccines are. Indeed, Guillian Barre syndrome and a host of other neurological disorders is being caused by a common mechanism of injury – albeit from different triggers for different individuals. This is ischemia –from impaired blood flow in microcirculation units. We simply did not appreciate what was right before our eyes.
My first cases included several Autistic and Schizophrenic patients. They were showing the exact same acute onset palsies – paralysis. These brain damages were subtle – but measurable multiple, and were present in the pre-vaccine era for wild viruses like polio and infantile paralysis.
Once I was armed with the knowledge and skills of a medical doctor, a clinical neuropsychologist, a child neurodevelopmentalist, with research experience in neuroimaging, tests and measurement, scientific method design and analysis, functional localization of brain and behavioral disorders, and a broad base across several other scientific disciplines, I was able to see “the whole forest” despite the trees. Quite literally, I believe I have found and discovered a common mechanism towards acquired human disease and disorder – all of it. It is truly humbling.
How have you been able to show this and how have you managed to demonstrate this? What medical imaging underlies it all? What medical imaging is the basis for it all?
I have quantified and expanded standard neurological and clinical neuropsychological tools of brain function and assessment. In essence, I have “digitized” the neurological and neuropsychological physical neurological exams across neurodevelopment using contemporary image enhancement software constrained to functional localization in the brain relative to end vascular, watershed territories – “the end of the road” for varied brain blood vessel areas. All of my tools and techniques are non-invasive.
I am now able to assess in the here and now, or looking back 50 years ago, to answer questions as to cause, in disease, neurodevelopment disorders, and much more. Remarkably, we can now advance diagnose sudden infant death syndrome, and I can answer questions relative to – Was this a shaken baby?, Did vaccines cause this person to have autism? Was this death caused by Gardasil? Did vaccines cause these damages? Since the mechanism to damages is common across all, when vaccines are involved – and sometimes even virulent infectious diseases.
What is the basic information underlying your claims and what is the foundation of your beliefs?
Germs simply are not the only root cause of death, disease, and disorder. I have now conclusively shown that ALL vaccines, from infancy to geriatric, are causing the exact same brain damages irrespective of what disease or disorder comes out. The damages are specific to end vascular “mini strokes” that are beneath the resolution of our neuroimaging, but measurable in a before/after vaccination protocol. They are also directly measurable in real time – however, this involves techniques and technology I have not disclosed to the public as yet.
Remarkably, wild polio, pre-natal German measles, measles, tetanus, “Spanish flu”, etc.. all caused the exact same damages in the pre-vaccine era. We simply did not appreciate that a generic response in the human body was causing the paralysis and respiratory failure and more in from a non-specific immune response and instability of microscopic blood flow hemodynamics.
We have weakened viruses and bacteria, injected them into all of us and caused chronic illness and disease in an attenuated form, this is how these pathogens have always caused harm. It is the bodies response to foreign things entering it, especially under hypersensitivity states, that is causing neurodevelopment disorders and chronic illness and much more.
*SNIP*
Much more Found here
A new study has shown that giving Hepatitis B vaccine to newborn baby boys more than triples their risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder.
The study’s authors used U.S. probability samples obtained from National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) 1997–2002 datasets.
The conclusion states that: “Findings suggest that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with hepatitis B vaccine had a 3-fold greater risk of ASD.”
The authors also noted that an earlier study by them found that hepatitis B vaccination was associated with receipt of early intervention and special education services.
The new study used a different database than their earlier study, and they found same results, suggesting a validation of their findings.
Routine use of the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns began in 1992, despite the fact that there was absolutely NO logical argument for it. It should never have been included in the immunization schedule, and here’s why.
Do Newborns Really NEED the Hepatitis B Vaccine?
Folks, hepatitis B is about as difficult to catch as AIDS. Namely, you nearly always need to have blood or sexual contact of some sort.
That is why the main risk factors are IV drug abusers and those who engage in sex with multiple partners.
In addition, vaccine-derived immunity is thought to be short lived. Up to 60 percent of persons who initially respond will lose detectable antibodies within 12 years. So that means that these vaccines will provide little to no protection to the real risks of acquiring hepatitis B, namely promiscuous sexual behavior and IV drug abuse.
The Vaccine Harms FAR More Children Than it Helps
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) was developed by the government to report vaccine reactions. Many experts believe that only 10 percent of the adverse reactions are reported though, as reporting is not mandated by law. (Some surveys puts this number closer to ONE percent.)
Even with only 10 percent of the problems being reported, there were nearly 25,000 VAERS hepatitis B reports from July 1990 to October 31, 1998 (prior to adding the Hep B vaccine to the immunization schedule), showing 439 deaths and 9,673 serious reactions involving emergency room visits, hospitalization, disablement, or death.
Now, hepatitis B is a rare, mainly blood-transmitted disease. In 1996 only 54 cases of the disease were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 age group. There were 3.9 million births that year, so the observed incidence of hepatitis B in the 0-1 age group was just 0.001 percent.
Meanwhile, in that same year VAERS received 1,080 total reports of adverse reactions from hepatitis B vaccine in the 0-1 age group, including 47 deaths!
Put in simpler terms: for every child that contracted hepatitis B there were 20 immunized babies that were reported to have severe complications. Let us also remember that only 10 percent of the reactions are ever reported, which means traditional medicine is harming about 200 children to protect one from hepatitis B!
It is simply inexcusable…
The Vaccine-Autism Links
Despite the assertion by conventional health experts that no link has ever been found between vaccines and autism, there are plenty of links, if you know how to look. And as the article in The Age of Autism states, you cannot come to a conclusion on the vaccine-autism issue by looking at studies that examine just one type of vaccine, or one type of ingredient.
Children today receive a whopping 48 doses of vaccines before the age of six. For a chart showing the various types of vaccines included in the childhood vaccination schedule, you can download this flyer from NVIC.org.
According to David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy, of the 11 different types of vaccines administered, only the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) shot has actually been studied in association with autism. But where are the studies of all the others in relation to autism?
And where are the rigorous studies demonstrating the cumulative effect of several vaccines administered simultaneously , or within a short time span?
It is illogical, and downright ignorant, to state that the current vaccination schedule is a-okay and vaccines have nothing to do with the rise in autism, based on the studies that have been done so far.
Autism Rates have Risen to New Heights
For a number of years the accepted rate of autism was about 1 in 150, but the most recent statistics suggest that autism rates in the U.S. have now conservatively increased to 1 in 63. And this number is TWO years old.
This is the shocking conclusion from the 2007 survey results from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which reveals a 100 percent increase in parent-reported cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), compared to their 2003 survey.
A similar British study puts the current U.K. rate at 1 in 83.
Clearly, something is going on; something is going wrong! And to simply dismiss the vaccine link with a blanket statement that has not been verified by rigorous scientific study is unconscionable.
If we want a healthier world, we must all become citizens for sanity and logic, and demand a more rational approach, where safety comes before profits.
After all, just like there were links between smoking and lung cancer long before conventional medicine changed their tune, there’s enough proof today to call a complete halt to our excessive vaccine program, and ban any level of mercury in vaccines.
But just like the case of Big Tobacco, Big Pharma refuses to do what’s right and protect you and your children from unnecessary harm, because it would mean a drastic reduction in profits.
Hepatitis B Vaccine and Increased Risk of Neurological Disorders
Using datasets from 1997 to 2002, this latest study found that newborn boys more than tripled their risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder after receiving the Hepatitis B vaccine.
The increased use of the Hepatitis B vaccine also coincides with the original rise in autism. According to the CDC’s National Immunization Survey, 8 percent of infants received the Hep B vaccine in 1992. At the time the ASD rate was 67 in 10,000.
Four years later, at which time 82 percent of infants received the Hep B vaccine, the ASD rate rose to about 100 in 10,000.
At the time, the Hep B vaccine contained 25 micrograms of thimerosal – a mercury-containing ingredient that has long been thought to be a contributing factor to autism due to its potent neurotoxic effects.
According to the FDA, new thimerosal-free pediatric formulations of hepatitis B vaccines were licensed in August 1999, (Recombivax-HB by Merck) and in January 2007 (Engerix-B by Glaxo SmithKline). (For a listing of thimerosal content in current U.S. licensed vaccines, see this link.)
However, despite the fact that the Hep B vaccine no longer contains thimerosal, recent research have shown that the Hepatitis B vaccine can still damage myelin in those with certain genetic factors.
One recent study found that children who received the Hepatitis B vaccine were 50 percent more likely to develop “central nervous system inflammatory demyelination” than children who did not receive the vaccine.
GlaxoSmithKline’s Engerix B brand of the vaccine was shown to be the worst of the bunch, increasing the risk of demyelination by 74 percent. It also nearly tripled the risk of developing multiple sclerosis in genetically susceptible people.
As I mentioned above, Engerix-B was licensed as a thimerosal free version of the vaccine in January 2007. However, all formulations contain approximately 0.5 mg of aluminum per mL of vaccine instead, which may be even worse than mercury…
As you can see, there are likely a wide variety of potential factors involved; not just one vaccine or one ingredient.
We need to know what all of these exposures in combination mean to the health of our children if we ever want to turn this tide of autism around.
Sept. 9, 2009 — An FDA advisory committee voted to recommend approval of the vaccine Gardasil for males ages 9 to 26 to prevent genital warts.
Gardasil targets four strains of human papillomavirus, commonly called HPV. Males can carry HPV and transmit it sexually to their partners.
HPV can cause genital warts and penile and anal cancer in men. Each year, about 200 out of 100,000 males are newly diagnosed with genital warts, according to background information cited by the FDA. Penile cancer and anal cancer are much rarer.
Gardasil already has FDA approval for use in females ages 9 to 26. In females, HPV can cause cervical cancer.
The FDA advisory committee ruled 7 to 0, with one abstaining vote, that Gardasil’s clinical trial data support the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing genital warts in males ages 9 to 26. And in a 7 to 1 vote, the advisory committee ruled that the data show Gardasil to be safe for males in that age range.
The FDA advisory committeereviewed three studies of Gardasil that together included more than 5,000 males ages 9 to 26 in various countries including the U.S.
Participants got a total of three shots of Gardasil or a placebo spread over six months. They also got checkups and tests to check for HPV infection.
Gardasil was 89% effective in preventing genital warts. The vaccine was less effective in participants who had already been exposed to HPV.
No serious side effects were seen, according to information posted on the FDA’s web site.
The most commonly reported adverse events were fever and headache. Injection site reactions were more common with Gardasil than with the placebo. Most of those reactions were mild to moderate in intensity, Gardasil’s maker, the drug company Merck, states in a document posted on the FDA’s web site.
Gardasil is already licensed for use in males in many countries, and there haven’t been any red flags raised about the vaccine’s safety in the limited number of international safety reports that have been done, FDA documents state. But the FDA says that post-marketing surveillance and studies will be “essential” if Gardasil is approved for males.
There weren’t enough data to assess Gardasil for preventing other conditions, since those conditions were so rare, the FDA notes.
It’s now up to the FDA to decide whether to approve Gardasil to prevent genital warts in boys and young men. The FDA often follows the recommendations of its advisory committees, but it isn’t required to do so.
Gardasil is up for FDA consideration only as a way to prevent genital warts in boys — not to prevent cancer in males or to curb transmission of the HPV virus to women.
A pair of studies on autism rates show that somewhere around one percent of all U.S. children currently have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The rate is even higher among 6 to 11 year olds and among boys.
Among all children aged two to 17, one in 100 currently have an ASD, which is considerably higher than the previously estimated rate of one in 150. There was a 100 percent increase in parent-reported ASD rates compared to 2003.
One possible explanation for some of the increase is the expansion of the ASD classification within the public schools to include not only full-blown autism, but also milder forms of ASD such as Pervasive Developmental Disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome. But it is difficult to believe that this accounts for the entire increase.
One possible answer is the Hepatitis B vaccine, which also contained 25 micrograms of mercury containing thimerosal. Only 8 percent of infant children received the Hep B vaccine in 1992, when that birth cohort showed an ASD rate of 60 per 10,000.
By 1994, the number of children receiving Hep B vaccine had reached just 27 percent — and the cohort showed an ASD rate of 66 per 10,000. The Hep B coverage rate rose to 82 percent by 1996, when that cohort’s ASD rate exploded to around 100 per 10,000, or one in 100.
Dr. Mercola’s Comments:
If you’ve been following this issue you will be very aware that autism is on the rise.
For a number of years the accepted rate of autism was about one in 150, but for awhile now I have been stating that the incidence is far higher than that, and now we finally have statistics to support that.
Overall, the 2007 survey results from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) reveals a 100 percent increase in parent-reported cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), compared to their 2003 survey.
According to this latest data, the odds that your infant will develop some form of ASD are now one in 63. And if you have a boy, the chances are a staggering one in 38.
That’s 2.6 percent of all male children in the U.S.!
Among all children aged two to 17, out of the 82,000 respondents, one in 100 reported that their child currently has an ASD. This is far higher than the previous CDC estimate of one in 150.
A similar British study puts the overall U.K. rate at one in 83.
These numbers sadly support the surprising findings earlier this year, when the journal Epidemiology published a study showing a sevenfold increase in autism cases in California, between the years of 1990 to 2006.
In 1990, 6.2 of every 10,000 children born in California were diagnosed with autism by the age of 5. By 2001, that had risen to 42.5 in 10,000.
I still remember that 25 years ago. when I first started practicing, the incidence of autism in the United States was only one in 100,000! This is clearly an epidemic happening in massive proportions right before our very eyes.
What’s Causing These Out of Control Autism Rates?
Many researchers are now advocating for a shift in autism research to focus on environmental factors such as pesticides, viruses and chemicals in household products rather than genetics.
It makes no rational sense that funding for studying the genetic causes of autism is 10 to 20 times higher than funding for environmental causes. Because although genetics play a role in an estimated one percent of cases, the other 99 percent are still a mystery to conventional scientists.
Likewise, to suggest this massive increase could be due to relaxed diagnosis criteria seems to be grasping at straws.
So what is the explanation?
The Common Thread Among Those With Autism
Dr. Klinghardt, one of my primary mentors and a pioneer in natural medicine, discussed the toxic origins of autism in an extensive interview with me late last year. You can watch a snippet of it here, or join my Inner Circle to get access to the entire interview.
One topic discussed is the fact that in most people with autism, their pathways of detoxification have become overwhelmed by both man-made and microbial toxins.
The toxins that are at the top of this list are:
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Mercury and other metals, such as aluminum. The major route of exposure here is from vaccines, and also from eating contaminated seafood.
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Viruses and microbes, such as mold. Children with autism not only have overwhelmed detoxification pathways and often heavy metal toxicity, but, according to Dr. Klinghardt, they also have a silent, daily toxin production in their body caused by toxic microbes.
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Electromagnetic Fields (EMF). These come not only from cell phones and cordless phones, but also from electrical outlets and WI-FI. Dr. Klinghardt considers EMF “synergistically causal,” partly because it potentiates the production of toxic microbes and endotoxins.
We already know that children are now born toxic due to the increasing toxic load of their mothers. We know that the childhood vaccination schedule has gone from requiring 10 vaccinations in 1976, to now including 36 injections before your child reaches 12 months of age.
We also know that the use of cell phones and other WiFi equipment has exploded, and according to some experts, like Dr. Klinghardt, EMF exposure increases the toxicity of many already hazardous substances.
For example, in a small study performed by Dr. Klinghardt, he showed that autism can actually be predicted based on the EMF levels of your sleeping quarters while you are pregnant!
He found that if you sleep in strong electromagnetic fields during pregnancy, your child will likely begin to exhibit neurological abnormalities within the first two years of life, such as:
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Neurological dysfunction
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Hyperactivity
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Learning disorders
What About Vaccines?
Once you’ve reviewed the available data, it’s also virtually impossible to ignore the dangerous impact of our overzealous vaccination schedule.
According to Lee Grossman, President and CEO of Autism Society of America (ASA):
“A person with an autism spectrum disorder has a number of underlying and seemingly unnoticed immunological, inflammatory or mitochondrial issues happening, and there could be any number of factors that trigger this, and it is certainly plausible that vaccines are one of those triggers.”
As discussed in the article above, the increased use of the Hepatitis B vaccine also coincides with a rise in autism, and the Hep B vaccine contained 25 micrograms of thimerosal – a mercury-containing ingredient that has long been thought to be a contributing factor to autism due to its potent neurotoxic effects.
According to the CDC’s National Immunization Survey, 8 percent of infants received the Hep B vaccine in 1992. At the time the ASD rate was 67 in 10,000. Four years later, at which time 82 percent of infants received the Hep B vaccine, the ASD rate rose to about 100 in 10,000.
Recent studies have shown that the Hepatitis B vaccine can damage myelin in those with certain genetic factors. For example, one recent study found that children who received the vaccine were 50 percent more likely to develop “central nervous system inflammatory demyelination” than children who did not receive the vaccine.
GlaxoSmithKline’s Engerix B brand of the vaccine was shown to be the worst of the bunch, increasing the risk of demyelination by 74 percent. It also nearly tripled the risk of developing multiple sclerosis in genetically susceptible people.
As you can see, there are likely a wide variety of potential factors involved, and we need to know what all of these exposures in combination mean to the health of our children if we ever want to turn this tide of autism around.
One Contributing Factor You Can Remedy Right Now
Another major contributor to autism that has recently been appreciated is vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women.
The vitamin D receptor appears in a wide variety of brain tissue early in the fetal development, and activated vitamin D receptors increase nerve growth in your brain. It is my personal belief that this may be the single largest contributing factor to autism and that it is a deficiency of sun exposure to the pregnant mom, and subsequently to the fetus, that puts the child at a massively increased risk of developing autism in the first place.
Fortunately, this is one risk factor you can do something about right now.
I believe one of the most important changes that could radically reduce autism is to make certain that ALL pregnant women normalize their vitamin D levels to 50-60 ng/ml.
More here
Prevention: Is the swine flu jab safe?
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.
It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.
GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.
The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:
- More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
- 500 cases of GBS were detected.
- The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
- The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
- The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
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Wednesday, August 05, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) To most people, vaccines sound medically harmless. "They’re good for you!" say the doctors and drug companies, but they never really talk about what’s in those vaccines. There’s a good reason for that: If people knew what was really in those vaccines, they would never allow themselves to be injected with them.
Aside from the dangerous ingredients many people already know about (like squalene or thimerosal), one of the key ingredients used in flu vaccines (including the vaccines being prepared for the swine flu pandemic) is the diseased flesh of African Green Monkeys. This is revealed in U.S. patent No. 5911998 – Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line. (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5…)
As this patent readily explains, ingredients used in the vaccine are derived from the kidneys of African Green Monkeys who are first infected with the virus, then allowed to fester the disease, and then are killed so that their diseased organs can be used make vaccine ingredients. This is done in a cruel, inhumane "flesh factory" environment where the monkeys are subjected to a process that includes "incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus." Then: "harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and… (ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus."
Aside from the outrageous cruelty taking place with all this ("incubating" the virus in the kidneys of living monkeys, for example), there’s another disturbing fact that has surfaced in all this: The patent for this process is held not just by the National Institutes of Health, but by another private corporation known as DynCorp.
This, of course, brings up the obvious question: Who is Dyncorp? And why do they hold a patent on live attenuated vaccine production using African Green Monkeys?
What you probably didn’t want to know about Dyncorp
DynCorp, it turns out, is a one of the top private military contractors working for the U.S. government. In addition to allegedly trafficking in under-age sex slaves in Bosnia (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.ph…) and poisoning rural farmers in Ecuador with its aerial spraying of Colombian coca crops (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.ph…), Dyncorp just happens to be paid big dollars by the U.S. government to patrol the U.S. / Mexico border, near where the H1N1 first swine flu virus was originally detected.
DynCorp also happens to be in a position to receive tremendous financial rewards from its patents covering attenuated live viral vaccine harvesting methods, as described in four key patents jointly held by DynCorp and the National Institutes of Health:
(6025182) Method for producing a virus from an African green monkey kidney cell line
(6117667) Method for producing an adapted virus population from an African green monkey kidney cell line (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6…)
(5911998) Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line
(5646033) African green monkey kidney cell lines useful for maintaining viruses and for preparation of viral vaccines
Government collusion?
One of the key inventors in these patents now held by DynCorp was Dr. Robert H. Purcell. Who is Dr. Robert Purcell? He’s one of the co-chiefs of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases operating under the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. government. (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/labs/abou…)
That office, located at 50 South Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892, is less than 15 miles away from the headquarters of DynCorp.
It’s not too many more miles to Washington D.C., where U.S. government health authorities awarded over $1 billion in swine flu vaccine contracts to pharmaceutical companies. Can you guess which company received one of the largest vaccine manufacturing contracts? Baxter Pharmaceuticals, the very same company using ingredients derived from African Green Monkeys in precisely the way described in the patents held jointly by DynCorp and the NIH. Remember, Baxter is the company that was caught inserting live viruses into vaccine materials distributed to 18 different countries.
Are you following all this?
So far, we have the U.S. government awarding swine flu vaccine manufacturing contracts to a major U.S. vaccine manufacturer (Baxter) that uses vaccine ingredients from African Green Monkeys (sick!), derived from a process covered in a patent invented by U.S. government NIH researchers (Dr. Purcell and others) and now held jointly by the NIH and a private military contractor named DynCorp — the very same company that’s paid to monitor the U.S. / Mexico border where H1N1 swine flu first appeared.
And just today, there’s yet another development in all this: A Tamiflu-resistant strain of swine flu has just been discovered. Care to guess where? On the U.S.-Mexico border (http://www.google.com/hostednews/af…).
Once you understand all this, some obvious questions come to mind: Could H1N1 swine flu have been intentionally created and released into the wild (in Mexico) in order to create a windfall of vaccine profits that would financially benefit both the drug companies and the vaccine production patent holders? Because it certainly appears that a grand conspiracy between the NIH, the vaccine makers and private military contractors could have pulled this off.
But wait: Would a private military contractor really resort to such tactics just to make money?
Decide for yourself. Dyncorp has already been accused of crimes against humanity and genocide (http://www.corpwatch.org/section.ph…). According to the Wikipedia page on Dyncorp: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynCor…)
Since the late 1990s, the United States has paid private contractors an estimated $1.2 billion, both to eradicate coca crops and to assist the Colombian army put down rebels that use the illegal drug trade to finance their insurgency. DynCorp has been awarded under competitive bid more of this business than any other company. In September 2001, a group of Ecuadorian farmers filed a class-action lawsuit against DynCorp under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), the Torture Victim Protection Act and state law claims in US federal court in the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs claimed that from January to February 2001 DynCorp sprayed the herbicide almost daily, in a reckless manner, causing severe health problems (high fever, vomiting, diarrhea, dermatological problems) and the destruction of food crops and livestock of approximately 10,000 residents of the border region. In addition, the plaintiffs alleged that the toxicity of the fumigant caused the deaths of four infants in this region. The plaintiffs alleged under ATCA that DynCorp’s intensive aerial spraying of a toxic fumigant amounted to torture, a crime against humanity and cultural genocide.
And on the issue of DynCorp’s people engaging in the sex slave trade:
According to whistleblower Ben Johnston, a former aircraft mechanic who worked for [DynCorp] in Bosnia, employees and supervisors of a predecessor company to today’s DynCorp International engaged in sex with 12 to 15 year old children, and sold them to each other as slaves.
On June 2, 2000, members of the 48th Military Police Detachment conducted a sting on the DynCorp hangar at Comanche Base Camp, one of two U.S. bases in Bosnia, and all DynCorp personnel were detained for questioning. CID spent several weeks working the investigation and the results appear to support Johnston’s allegations. For example, according to DynCorp employee Kevin Werner’s sworn statement to CID, "during my last six months I have come to know a man we call ‘Debeli,’ which is Bosnian for fat boy. He is the operator of a nightclub by the name of Harley’s that offers prostitution. Women are sold hourly, nightly or permanently."
Could this same company — which admittedly sprays poison on family farms in Colombia and Ecuador — have engaged in another crime against humanity with the release of swine flu virus in Mexico?
Important questions that need to be asked (and answered)
This apparent conspiracy brings up several important questions that need to be answered:
1) Why are key viral vaccine patents jointly held by the NIH and a large private military contractor?
2) Given the atrocious vaccine material handling safety record of Baxter Pharmaceuticals, why did the U.S. government choose Baxter to manufacture vaccines for public consumption?
3) Why is no one talking about the African Green Monkeys who are infected, incubated and then killed for harvesting vaccine ingredients used in the swine flu vaccine?
4) Is it just coincidence that the swine flu virus (and now the Tamiflu-resistant mutation of the virus) first appeared at the U.S. / Mexico border near where DynCorp has a security presence?
5) Why would the inventors of a key vaccine technology agree to hand over ownership of the patent to a private military contractor like DynCorp?
6) Why has nobody in the mainstream media noticed any of this yet (or not bothered to report on it?)
7) How much money is DynCorp collecting on the vaccine patents due to the sudden large-scale manufacture of swine flu vaccines taking place right now?
Why does the U.S. government continue to do business with criminally-minded organizations and incompetent vaccine manufacturers?
The pieces of the puzzle (opinion)
It’s difficult to consider all the evidence presented here and not come to the rational conclusion that something sinister is afoot in America today. Let me paint a picture for you of a plausible scenario of what I think is happening right now. Note, carefully, that this is merely speculation, but it’s a theory that makes sense:
Back in the late 1990’s, evil leaders of the U.S. government decided they needed to launch a covert population control measure that could reduce the population while deflecting blame for the deaths. The obvious choice for this was a viral pandemic, so using the viral samples and knowledge already attained by U.S. Army virologists, they engineered a combination swine / avian / human influenza virus patterned after the 1918 influenza that devastated the world population nearly a century ago. The plan, of course, would be to release the virus into the wild and let nature do the rest.
But killing off a lot of people isn’t profitable enough all by itself. The plan is a lot smarter if you add a profit center to it… and that’s where the vaccines come into play. First, the patents had to be secured in order to guarantee profitability. DynCorp was offered partial ownership of the patents (together with the National Institutes of Health) in exchange for its responsibility to covertly release the engineered virus in Mexico, assuring the global spread of the next influenza pandemic. It will be paid back in patent royalties from the pharmaceutical companies that are awarded the government-funded vaccine manufacturing contracts.
Baxter was chosen by the U.S. government precisely because of its expertise in inserting live viruses into vaccine materials. And just to make sure the drug companies would play along, the U.S. government (under the Bush administration) granted them all complete immunity against product liability for all vaccines. This removed any financial risk from the drug companies while setting the stage for a massive human die-off following the vaccine injections.
Once the injections begin and people start dying, the deaths will simply be blamed on the virus itself. The drug companies have complete legal immunity, and DynCorp gets its share of the profits as the holder of the patents. Key conspirators are rewarded with bonus stock options and / or the threat of being killed if they talk.
Through this plan, several important things are accomplished:
1) The population gets reduced (with no blame on the national leaders).
2) Billions of dollars get funneled to powerful corporations.
3) The pandemic outbreak itself allows government to declare a State of Emergency where yet more rights and freedoms can be stolen away from the People. (And companies like DynCorp can be hired to run domestic prison camps or "isolation camps.")
4) The government and the pharmaceutical industry both get to position themselves as "heroic" for apparently attempting to stop the pandemic with vaccines. No matter how many people actually die, Big Pharma will claim many more would have died without the vaccine.
5) Those who survive the pandemic (and the vaccine) become immune compromised due to the vaccine, and they later emerge as repeat customers for future medical procedures (cancer, Parkinson’s, etc.).
Of course, this is all just a theory. Some people might even call it a paranoid theory. But I ask them one question: Why does a top U.S. military contractor share ownership of key vaccine patents with the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health?
Merely attempting to explain that will lead you down the path to all kinds of eye-opening information about collusion between government, the pharmaceutical industry and the military-industrial complex. And you know what they all have in common? They’re all promoters of death.
But it’s not enough to just kill you; they want to make money while they’re doing it.
Read your history
Finally, I feel the need to preempt the naive critics who will inevitably post comments to this story like, "Corporations and governments would never knowingly harm people for power or profit."
Such naivete is almost not worth responding to, but I’ll do it in advance just to be sure: Read your world history. Not only is world history full of examples of governments and corporations knowingly harming people for profit, it could be accurately stated that world history is largely a collection of precisely such things!
Read your Noam Chomsky, or Naomi Klein, or Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. His newest book is a real eye-opener about the way governments really work: The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World (http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Histor…).
Although I can’t prove it yet, I believe this current swine flu vaccine push is also part of a grand military-industrial-pharmaceutical conspiracy designed to harm the people while extracting huge profits. Only time will tell if this is an accurate assessment of the current situation.
In the mean time, you may wish to avoid being injected with viral material taken from African Green Monkeys (unless you’re some sort of sicko).
Sources for this story include:
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DynCor…
Corpwatch.org:
http://www.corpwatch.org/section.ph…
Patentstorm.us:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5…
DynCorp:
http://www.dyn-intl.com
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He’s also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. Known on the ‘net as ‘the Health Ranger,’ Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to "Assist" with Pandemic Outbreak
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) Until now, what I’m about to tell you would have been easily dismissed as a conspiracy theory. It’s the kind of story that you might expect from some extreme fringe blogger… the kind of story that never appears in the mainstream media. Only today, it did. And it’s not a conspiracy theory, either.
CNN is reporting this evening that the U.S. military is gearing up to get involved in the H1N1 swine flu outbreak widely expected to strike the U.S. this fall. As CNN reports, "The U.S. military wants to establish regional teams of military personnel to assist civilian authorities in the event of a significant outbreak of the H1N1 virus this fall, according to Defense Department officials." (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/07/2…)
When it comes to the U.S. military, the word "assist," of course, could mean almost anything. Typically, the U.S. military offers assistance at the end of a rifle. This "assistance" could mean assisting with quarantines, assisting with rounding up infected people or assisting with arresting and imprisoning people who resist vaccine shots.
Just to make it even more interesting, this operation will include "personnel from all branches of the military" and it will involve cooperation with FEMA — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is the group of geniuses who handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They’re the ones who confiscated firearms from law-abiding citizens defending their own homes, then thrust people into toxic temporary housing that caused neurological symptoms and breathing problems.
Internationally, FEMA is known as the Federal Emergency Laughing Stock Administration. But now, with H1N1 swine flu, FEMA will be backed by the power of highly-trained, heavily-armed military personnel.
Imagine one possible future in America…
There’s a knock on your door. A peek through the window reveals two young soldiers in urban camo fatigues gripping M16 rifles slung across their chests. In front of them, an official-looking doctor person sports an N95 mask and carries a clipboard thick with ruffled papers.
Knock knock. "Is anyone home?"
One of the soldiers catches a glimpse of you peering through a sliver of curtain covering the living room window. "I’ve got movement." He tightens his grip on his rifle and elbows the soldier next to him. "Someone’s home. Knock again."
Knock KNOCK. "We’re here from the pandemic response team," insists the doc. "We’re here to help. Open up or we’ll be forced to come in."
Reluctantly, you inch towards the door and grip the doorknob with damp, sweaty hands. Your pulse pounds hard as you crack open the door.
But the doctor isn’t in front of your door anymore. It’s one of the soldiers — the larger one — and he wedges his foot between your door and its frame, prying it open and forcing his intimidating self into your doorway. "We’re with FEMA. Please step away from the door."
"Our records show you haven’t received the swine flu vaccine yet," squeaks the doctor from behind the bulk of the domineering soldier now squarely positioned in front of you. "We’re here to administer your vaccine."
"I don’t want a vaccine," you protest. "They’re not safe."
The soldier chuckles, blurts out, "They’re as safe as the U.S. government says they are."
The doctor peers out from behind his military companion and makes eye contact. "Sir, as you well know, vaccines have been required for all U.S. residents since President Obama’s emergency pandemic declaration last month. Please extend your arm and we’ll be on our way."
He produces a syringe and stabs it into a half-filled vaccine cylinder. As he pulls the plunger and liquid races into the syringe, you realize you have mere moments to make a decision. Will you willingly accept the vaccine and avoid being beaten, arrested or shot by the two armed enforcers at your door, or will you resist and pay the consequences?
"Please extend your arm now," the doctor says. The military grunt clenches his jaw, eyeing your hesitation with obvious scorn. He fingers the safety on his rifle and clears his throat…
… what will your choice be?
We’re only here to help
That scenario might seem like fiction now, but it could unfold in America in the next few months. What seems outlandish today could become a police state reality before Christmas.
But this is no joke. These people are serious. Even the words tell too much: The order to approve all this is about to be signed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and it’s called an "execution order."
So what, exactly, would military personnel be doing in your neighborhood in the event of a swine flu outbreak? The CNN story says they could assist with the "…testing of large numbers of viral samples from infected patients." There’s nothing in the story about rounding people up, maintaining quarantine road blocks or cremating the infected bodies of the dead. These realities of a pandemic outbreak are better left unsaid if you’re the U.S. military (or the mainstream media).
That’s why the full story of what the U.S. military is planning for will never be told to the masses. It’s too disturbing. But make no mistake: The military is planning for a worst-case scenario (that’s what the military does), and a worst-case pandemic outbreak scenario would involve gunpoint-enforced isolation, military-enforced quarantine zones and most likely the forced vaccination of nearly everyone. Those who resist the vaccinations would be arrested (or detained) and injected at gunpoint, then set free back into the population.
Hollywood has already imagined some of what might happen in such a scenario. Rent the movie The Siege (Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington) to catch an imaginative glimpse of how the U.S. military might handle things in an "emergency situation." It’s not a documentary, of course, but much of what it presents seems strangely on track with what’s shaping up if a pandemic outbreak occurs.
The very fact that the military is now leaking this story to CNN says something all by itself: The U.S. military is preparing to be stationed on U.S. soil, and whatever freedoms you mistakenly think are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution will be long gone by the time the soldiers arrive at your door.
Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to "Assist" with Pandemic Outbreak
Crusador Staff
http://www.healthtruthrevealed.com
July 24, 2009
HHS Pandemic Influenza Plan
http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/plan/pdf/HHSPandemicInfluenzaPlan.pdf
page 282
6. Legal preparedness
State and local health departments should ensure that appropriate legal authorities are in place to facilitate implementation of plans for distributing pandemic influenza vaccines. Health departments might undertake these legal preparedness steps:
• Ensure that plans for distribution of vaccines are reviewed by appropriate legal authorities.
• Determine whether state and local laws allow non-licensed volunteers or healthcare workers from other jurisdictions to administer influenza vaccines.
• Work with professional organizations and unions to consider options for emergency performance of tasks outside of standard job descriptions.
• Determine whether state and local laws allow mandatory vaccination to the protect public health, if needed.
7. Training
State and local health departments can assist healthcare partners in conducting training exercises to facilitate rapid and effective delivery and use of vaccines (see Supplement 3).
Exercises and drills are essential to ensure that emergency procedures are in place and that roles and responsibilities are well understood. It may be useful, for example, to practice emergency implementation of mass vaccination (e.g., receiving large quantities of vaccine; storing and handling vaccine; setting up and staffing clinics; administering vaccine; testing information management systems; educating the public, media, and medical providers; targeting specific priority groups).
Health Care Bill Will Fund State Vaccine Teams to Conduct ‘Interventions’ in Private Homes
Thursday, July 16, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief
(CNSNews.com) - There is a knock at the front door. Peeking through the window, a mother sees a man and a woman, both in uniform. They are agents of health-care reform.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” says the man. “Our records show that your eleven-year-old daughter has not been immunized for genital warts.”
“And your four-year-old still needs the chicken-pox vaccine,” says the woman.
“He will not be allowed to start kindergarten unless he gets that shot, you know,” says the man—smiling from ear to ear.
“So, can we please come in?” asks the woman. “We have the vaccines right here,” she says, lifting up a black medical bag. “We can give your kids the shots right now.”
“We are from the government,” says the man, “and we’re here to help.”
Is this a scene from the over-heated imagination of an addlepated conspiracy theorist? Or is it something akin to what is actually envisioned by the health-care reform bill approved this week by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.
The committee’s official summary of the bill says: “Authorizes a demonstration program to improve immunization coverage. Under this program, CDC will provide grants to states to improve immunization coverage of children, adolescents, and adults through the use of evidence-based interventions. States may use funds to implement interventions that are recommended by the Community Preventive Services Task Force, such as reminders or recalls for patients or providers, or home visits.”
Home visits? What exactly is the state going to do when it sends people to “implement interventions” in private homes designed “to improve immunization coverage of children”?
The draft of the bill posted on the committee Web site provides more details.
Title III of the bill is entitled, “Improving the Health of the American People.” It includes four subtitles. They are: “Subtitle A: Modernizing Disease Prevention of Public Health Systems,” “Subtitle B: Increasing Access to Clinical Preventive Services,” “Subtitle C: Creating Healthier Communities,” and “Subtitle D: Support for Prevention and Public Health Information.”
The program authorizing home “interventions” to promote immunizations falls under “Subtitle C: Creating Healthier Communities.” This subtitle directs the secretary of health and human services to “establish a demonstration program to award grants to states to improve the provision of recommended immunizations for children, adolescents, and adults through the use of evidence-based, population-based interventions for high-risk populations.”
The bill lists eight specific ways that states may use federal grant money to carry out immunization-promoting “interventions.” Method “E” calls for “home visits” which can include “provision of immunizations.”
Says the draft bill: “Funds received under a grant under this subsection shall be used to implement interventions that are recommended by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (as established by the secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) or other evidence-based interventions, including—“(A) providing immunization reminders or recalls for target populations of clients, patients, and consumers; (B) educating targeted populations and health care providers concerning immunizations in combination with one or more other interventions; (C) reducing out-of-pocket costs for families for vaccines and their administration; (D) carrying out immunization-promoting strategies for participants or clients of public programs, including assessments of immunization status, referrals to health care providers, education, provision of on-site immunizations, or incentives for immunization;(E) providing for home visits that promote immunization through education, assessments of need, referrals, provision of immunizations, or other services; (F) providing reminders or recalls for immunization providers;(G) conducting assessments of, and providing feedback to, immunization providers; or (H) any combination of one or more interventions described in this paragraph.”
Many vaccines routinely administered to children in the United States are utterly uncontroversial. But in recent years there have been controversies about the chicken pox vaccine and the vaccine for HPV, which causes genital warts, which can cause cervical cancer.
On March 15, 2007, Bloomberg news summarized a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which discovered that the chicken pox vaccine does not provide permanent protection against chicken pox, leaving children who have been immunized vulnerable to getting ill with the virus later in life when it can cause a more serious bout of the disease.
“Merck & Co.’s chickenpox vaccine weakens as children age, possibly leaving them vulnerable to a more serious infection as adults, a U.S.-sponsored study in California found,” reported Bloomberg. “The power of the vaccine, Varivax, the only one available in the United States against chickenpox, starts to fade after five years, according to the study in today’s New England Journal of Medicine. The results suggest that children should get a second dose, which advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in June.”
Bloomberg quoted the study as saying, "Waning immunity is of particular public health interest because it may result in increased susceptibility later in life, when the risk of severe complications may be greater than that in childhood.”
In March of this year, the Washington Post reported about the controversy sparked when the Merck pharmaceutical company campaigned to have states mandate that school girls receive Gardasil, its vaccine against HPV.
“Merck also began an ambitious marketing campaign and lobbying push to persuade states to add the vaccine to the list of those required for children to attend school,” reported the Post. “But the company eventually abandoned the strategy in the face of an intense backlash from critics who argued that the decision should be left to parents. Although many states considered such mandates, so far only Virginia and the District have imposed one, and [a Merck official] said the company has no plans to pursue that strategy again."
The Post’s report noted that at least some experts questioned the wisdom of promoting use of the vaccine when its long term impact is still unknown.
“Federal health officials, Merck and others say they are confident that the vaccine is safe," reported the Post. "But some experts said they are concerned that there is insufficient evidence about how long Gardasil’s protection will last, whether serious side effects will emerge and whether the relatively modest benefits for boys are worth even the small risks associated with any vaccine."
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