SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism:

No Finer a Cause on the Planet"

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Monday, January 13, 2003

PUBLIC HEALTH

* British Medical Journal Reports on Atlanta Study

* Flu What A Stinker

TREATMENT

* US Doctor Warns Of Misuse Of Prescribed Stimulants

Targeting Europe

* LETTER: Stimulants, Use or Abuse

* LETTERS: Should Amalgam Fillings Be Removed?

ADVOCACY

* Doctors, Drug Companies Back Sen. Frist

* Leaders Promise Repeal of Provisions Hidden in Bill

* Transcript: Sen. Bill Frist on Fox News Sunday

* The Autism Autoimmunity Project and Last Week's Rally Photos

EVENTS SPOTLIGHT

* CAN on Sixty Minutes 2

* Rep. Burton at Chicago Conference

* Rep. Isakson at Georgia Conference

SAR Autism Resources

* To List an event in Calendar:

* Free Readers' Posts

* News Archive – Autism Database

PUBLIC HEALTH

British Medical Journal Reports on Atlanta Study

Autism is about 10 times as common in the United States today as it was in the 1980s, concludes the largest epidemiological study of the condition yet to be carried out.

The study, conducted in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996 found that 3.4 in every 1000 children aged 3 to 10 years had mild to severe autism, on the basis of a review of their medical records. Surveys in the before the mid-1980s had found that only 4 to 5 in every 10,000 children were affected. The researchers in the Atlanta study, from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suggested that some of the increase was the result of widened definitions of the disorder, but the explanation for the rest of the increase was unknown (JAMA 2003;289:49-55).

The definition of autism changed in 1994 to include milder forms of the disorder, such as Asperger’s syndrome, in which children lack social skills but are often highly verbal. Heightened awareness of the disease, and therefore, greater propensity to diagnose it, could also have contributed to the increase observed in the Atlanta study. This is "due in large part to efforts of parent and advocacy groups, availability of more medical and educational resources, increased media coverage of affected children and families, and more training and information for physicians, psychologists and other service providers," the research group said. In 1991, the US Department of Education included autism as a category for special education services, which may also have increased diagnoses.

In the latest study, researchers reviewed the medical records of each child and determined whether autism had been diagnosed accurately. They did not examine the children. Of the 289 456 children aged 3 to 10 living in the metropolitan area of Atlanta in 1996, 987 had mild to severe autism. Dr Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsop, an epidemiologist at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, who led the study, said that 18% of the children found to have autism in 1996 had never had an accurate diagnosis. Many had been classified as having general developmental difficulties; the higher functioning children had been missed entirely. The prevalence of autism found in the study would mean that at least 425 000 Americans aged under 18 years have some form of autism.

The increased prevalence of autism in the Atlanta study mirrors increases reported elsewhere. Many teachers, paediatricians, and social workers across the United States have reported soaring numbers of cases of autism in the 1990s. The US Education Department reported a 544% increase in autistic students from 1992 to 2000. In California, the number of autistic children in social services records nearly quadrupled between 1987 and 1998. However, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that these figures might be misleading because they measure the number of children enrolling in services and not the occurrence of autism.

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LETTERS

[To the BMJ in "Rapid Response"]

Increasing Autism Awareness: A Role for MMR?

In 1993 as a paediatric junior doctor I met my first autistic child. I had to get literature from the library to find out what it was. By the late 1990s as a consultant giving diagnoses to parents, I found that they too had to read up about autism to know what it was. Now if I tell a parent "I think your child has autism", the most common reply is "I suspected it myself." The likelihood of diagnosis has increased due to this greater level of recognition. Could the media campaign against MMR itself be responsible for the increased public awareness of autism?

Competing interests: None declared

-M A Tatman, Consultant Community Paediatrician Coventry PCT

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Autism Awareness vs. Autism Prevalence

There has been some speculation, especially by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health agencies, that the increase in population of those diagnosed with the most severe form of autism is the result of increased awareness by the public. The less severe forms of autism are not a factor in the most recent prevalence studies. Parents, as well as the diagnosticians, are now more familiar with the symptoms because of the vaccine controversy and as a result, more children make the roster of disability agencies and public schools. Thus, they have become more visible.

However, severe autism is unlike a tick or a stutter, which might go unnoticed by a parent who might not keep up the lay press or medical journals. Severe autism presents such profound behavioral disorders it is just as unlikely to have gone unnoticed 10 years ago, as it is unlikely now.

The message behind this "spin" is that since there is only the perception of increased autism prevalence because of all the purported awareness, there is no real increase. It would follow then that there is no need to spend additional research resources on the matter. Problem solved. This speculation is so weak; there is not even much anecdotal evidence to support it. This did not restrain the CDC from invoking it as a conclusion to the Atlanta study, however.

Kudos belong to the BMJ for avoiding the complicity of repeating it in their reportage.

Competing interests: Author has a child with autism

-Lenny Schafer

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Increasing Autism Awareness: A Role for MMR?

Increased awareness of autism, whether by doctors or parents, is indeed better, hardly surprising because the condition has dramatically increased at least ten fold as the latest Atlanta study has confirmed.

Mounting cases of acquired or late onset autism have contributed to the increase of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), over classic autism, the latter more often present at birth. Environmental factors such as the effect of synergistic action between the three combined live virus components of MMR vaccine on gut and neurological immune processes, cannot be so confidently dismissed by epidemiological population studies of medical database records, as ASD is a disorder with no single phenotype, rather than a disease with a root cause and outcome.

Age of diagnosis varies enormously, more so in the early to mid nineties, when most GP's, then unfamiliar with autism were first faced with it. This was compounded by uncertainty, when in some cases, a previously normal child patient lost skills, speech and communication.

These puzzling symptoms often led to investigations into "glue ear", hearing tests and grommet insertion, before autism was eventually diagnosed after exhausting alternatives, two or three years later. Boys outnumber girls 4:1 and often have immune dysregulation. An autoimmune component, triggered by environmental factors, in those with perhaps a genetic susceptibility and a family history of autoimmune disease, merits urgent publicly funded investigation.

However the only treatment and clinical studies of these children so far undertaken, rely on private funding alone, and have been boorishly dismissed as bad science and refused government grants, due to the negative polarisation of political, vaccination and economic issues.

Against this background, one thing is for sure, doctors will become more expert in diagnosing autism as numbers continue to increase without government support and funding for clinical investigation and treatment.

Competing interests: None declared

-Richard. C Miles, Coordinator, Autism Research Campaign for Health

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Flu What A Stinker

A row has broken out over reports that four of the seven flu jabs on offer this winter contain thimerosal - a 50 percent mercury-based preservative which is supposedly being phased out of all vaccines in the United States and Europe because of its possible links with autism, Alzheimer's and brain damage.

Though the debate about thimerosal in vaccines is muted in Britain, in the US the preservative is at the centre of a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. Parents there maintain their children's autism and brain damage have been triggered by a build-up of mercury.

Last year a congressional hearing into the tenfold rise in autism in the US heard that a study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC) indicating a possible link between thimerosal and autism was never published. This led to claims of a cover-up.

The US Institute of Medicine has said the link was not proven but "biologically plausible". There was insufficient evidence either way. In the meantime the US decided to phase out all thimerosal and doctors there have been advised to opt for mercury-free vaccines wherever possible.

So why, when presented with a choice of flu jabs, did Britain's health department opt for some with thimerosal? A spokesman said: "In response to your question about why the department doesn't just buy thimerosal-free flu vaccines, flu vaccine is not purchased centrally. It is purchased directly by GPs." This ignores government responsibility for vaccine and medicine safety.

The spokesman added that the decision to phase out the preservative in the US and Europe was "precautionary". "There is no convincing evidence of harm to anyone, including infants and pregnant women, caused by small amounts of thimerosal in flu vaccines and the benefits of flu vaccine outweigh any hypothetical risks."

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TREATMENT

US Doctor Warns Of Misuse Of Prescribed Stimulants Targeting Europe

Europe is being targeted by the drugs industry as the next major market for increasing the use of stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate

(Ritalin) and dexamfetamine, a Californian doctor specialising in behavioural paediatrics warned at a recent meeting of the President's Bioethics Council.

Dr Lawrence Diller has become known in the United States as a critic of the inappropriate use of stimulants such as methylphenidate for the management of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Besides its therapeutic uses methylphenidate has also attracted non-therapeutic uses: pacifying unruly children, enhancing performance, and, as Dr Diller told the Council, "helping parents be better parents and teachers to teach better."

But now, Dr Diller said, the use of these stimulants is beginning to expand outside the United States. In the 1990s the United States led the world in the use of these stimulants, with 90% of global use. In recent years this has fallen to 80% "That's because other countries are catching up," he said.

Canada now uses almost as much methylphenidate per capita as the United States. Doctors in the United Kingdom currently use about a 10th of the amount per capita of methylphenidate used in the United States, and this figure is climbing, he said. Per capita stimulant use in France and Italy is about a 20th of US consumption, although methylphenidate is not yet approved for use in Italy. In Germany the use is "somewhere in between." In Finland "only a few dozen children take stimulants." In Australia and New Zealand stimulant use is increasing, Dr Diller said. Such stimulant use in developing countries is zero.

In the United States methylphenidate and (Adderall) methamfetamine are classified as schedule II drugs because of their addictive potential. Production records of these drugs are kept by the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the drugs must be prescribed by a doctor. Between 1992 and 2000 the production of methylphenidate went up 730% to over l4000 kg a year, while the production of amphetamines (mostly methamfetamine) increased by 2500% Over 10000 kg of legal amphetamines are produced each year in the United States, not to mention an unknown amount of illegal stimulants sold as "speed" or "crack."

Dr Diller estimated that between four and five million children out of a total of about 80 million under 18 years of age in the United States take stimulants.

Dr Diller said that a major factor is a massive advertising campaign by the pharmaceutical industry, promoting methamfetamine to doctors and patients.

"The current boom didn't begin with the pharmaceutical industry, but it has been assisted by it," he told the council. The current legal market for methylphenidate and similar agents is estimated to be worth $1bn (£0.6bn; 1bn) a year.

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LETTER

["Rapid Response" to above article]

Stimulants, Use or Abuse

The BMJ has done a grave disservice to Paediatricians and children with ADHD in it's highly biased "news" item on methylphenidate. The article presents misleading statements as facts, implying, for instance, that methylphenidate is addictive when this has never been demonstrated when it is used to treat ADHD. Dr Diller condems the use of stimulants to treat unruly children with poor school performance but these are symptoms typical of ADHD. Are parents wrong to want their children to be able to conform to society and succeed? Finally the article is accompanied by an unfocused picture of a child with ADHD, what message was that ment to send?

The use of stimulants is controversial and every parent who decides to try that therapy agonizes over the decision. We do not need unbalanced inflamatory articles that are designed specifically to encourage GP's not to prescribe.

Atomoxetine, a new non-stimulant is now licensed in the US and is anticipated in the UK in 18 months. This may make treatment of ADHD less controvertial, or will we have another group protesting the wide spread use of antidepressents in children? Unfortunately a few voicerferous Psychologists and Psychiatrists persist in the belief that medication should not be use to treat a condition that the believe is caused by environment and poor parenting.

The evidece is growing that ADHD symptoms are related to biological differences that are genetic in origen. This needs to be kept in mind when understanding why medications have a role in treatment.

Competing interests: None declared

-Larry Martel, Consultant Paediatrician Warren Childrens Centre

* *

Should Amalgam Fillings Be Removed?

[Letters To the Lancet.]

dence.23681.1

Sir--Marilyn Larkin's news item (Aug 3, p 393)1 on the American Dental Association's campaign to discourage people from having amalgam fillings removed deserves some comment. In her report, she cites Frederick Eichmiller's concerns about the number of patients with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and autism requesting removal of these fillings.

Dental amalgam is a mercury-based filling that contains elemental mercury at about 50% by weight. Amalgam is classified as an intermetallic compound, because it is mixed with silver, tin, copper, and zinc. To the chemist, this intermetallic compound is unstable by definition--and not a "stable alloy", as reported by Eichmiller--and mercury vapour leaks from dental amalgam over time.

Mercury adsorbed daily from dental amalgam ranges from 2 to 17 µg (not "minute" amounts as Eichmiller claims), and people that use chewing gum or are affected by bruxism may have higher intake of mercury from dental amalgams. Moreover, individuals with dental amalgams are exposed to continuous long-term amounts of mercury (in vapour form and in organic form from biotransformation by oral bacteria). Mercury vapour and organic mercury are the two most important forms of mercury in terms of toxic effects, their major target organ being the central nervous system. Furthermore, T Clarkson2 describes individuals with immunological susceptibility to mercury compounds who present with clinical adverse effects.2

F L Lorscheider and co-workers3 found a correlation between the total number of amalgam surfaces and total mercury content in whole blood, plasma, urine, faeces, breastmilk, and placenta. Postmortem examinations by M Nylander and colleagues4 show significant correlations between mercury tissue concentrations and the number of amalgam fillings. Similarly, our necropsy findings show a correlation between number of amalgam fillings and mercury content of tissue in brain, pituitary, thyroid, and kidney (unpublished data). Leistevuo and colleagues5 also report higher concentrations of organic mercury in saliva samples from patients with dental amalgams compared with controls.

We believe that Eichmiller's comments are not supported by the findings of experimental studies. The health effects of amalgam fillings warrants further investigation and should be commented on with caution, from whichever view you approach the issue.

-Gianpaolo Guzzi, Marco Grandi, Cristina Cattaneo

Airmeb-Unit of Metal Biology and Biocompatibility, Milan, Italy; and *Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy

(e-mail:labanof@tin.it)

1 Larkin M. Don't remove amalgam fillings, urges American Dental Association. Lancet 2002; 360: 393.

2 Clarkson TW. The three modern faces of mercury. Environ Health Perspect 2002; 110: (suppl) 1 11-23. [PubMed]

3 Lorscheider FL, Vimy MJ, Summers AO. Mercury exposure from "silver" tooth fillings: emerging evidence questions a traditional dental paradigm. FASEB J 1995; 9: 504-05. [PubMed]

4 Nylander M, Friberg L, Lind B. Mercury concentrations in the human brain and kidneys in relation to exposure from dental amalgam fillings. Swed Dent J 1987; 11: 179-87. [PubMed]

5 Leistevuo J, Leistevuo T, Helenius H, et al. Dental amalgam fillings and the amount of organic mercury in human saliva. Caries Res 2001; 35: 163-65. [PubMed]

* *

Sir--The American Dental Association's recommendation not to remove amalgam restorations solely for the treatment of different systemic diseases,1 is primarily based on the lack of evidence that amalgam fillings have any effect on the clinical course of disorders such as multiple sclerosis, autism, and Alzheimer's disease.

In many cases of removal, the amalgam filling is replaced by composite or gold restorations. Although the composite materials do not contain mercury, F Reichl and colleagues' in-vitro studies2 show significant cytotoxic and even genotoxic activity for some of their components. These restorative materials are partially composed of organic polymerisable monomers. Experimental in-vitro models point to a possible association between certain composite monomers and mutagenic damage within eukaryontic cells.3,4 However, the clinical significance of the mutagenic effects of some of the composite monomers in human beings remains to be investigated. Gold restorations might also have systemic effects. G Drasch and co-workers5 found that in patients with dental gold restorations systemic gold did reach concentrations that may induce side-effects comparable to those seen during disease-modifying antirheumatic therapy with gold.5

Most patients who want amalgam fillings removed are worried about the toxic effects of mercury, even though there is little evidence to substantiate this concern. On the contrary, there is evidence that the restorative materials that are commonly used as an alternative to amalgam might have genotoxic and cytotoxic effects.

-Matthias Folwaczny, Reinhard Hickel

Department of Operative Dentistry and Periodontology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, 80336 Munich, Germany

(e-mail:mfolwa@dent.med.uni-muenchen.de)

1 Larkin M. Don't remove amalgam fillings, urges American Dental Association. Lancet 2002; 360: 393.

2 Reichl FX, Walther U, Durner J, et al. Cytotoxicity of dental materials in lung cells. Dent Mat 2001; 17: 95-101. [PubMed]

3 Heil JG, Reifferscheid P, Waldmann G, et al. Genotoxicity of dental materials. Mutat Res 1996; 368: 181-94. [PubMed]

4 Schweikl H, Schmalz G. Triethylene glycol dimethacrylate induces large deletions in the hprt gene of V79 cells. Mutat Res 1999, 438: 71-78.

5 Drasch G, Muss C, Roider G. Gold and palladium burden from dental restoration materials. J Trace Elem Med Biol 2000; 14: 71-75. [PubMed]

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ADVOCACY

Doctors, Drug Companies Back Sen. Frist

Shortly after Sen. Bill Frist introduced legislation limiting suits against vaccine makers, the drug industry's trade group gave $10,000 to the surgeon-turned-politician's political action committee.

Throughout his political career, the new Senate majority leader has supported the health care industry and the industry has supported him.

Frist, R-Tenn., has raised more than $2 million from doctors, health insurers, drug companies and others in the health care industry. That's roughly 20 percent of all the contributions to his two Senate campaigns.

Spokesman Nick Smith said the senator's votes have nothing to do with his contributions.

"Health care is a priority of Senator Frist," Smith said. "He works on legislation that improves the quality of health care and the affordability of health care for all Americans. Senator Frist votes his conscience. His votes take into account his understanding of the medical field."

Industries often give to lawmakers who sit on the committees overseeing their interests, and Frist is a member of the Senate Health Committee.

But Frist's relationship with the health industry is deeper. Besides being the Senate's only medical doctor, his father founded what is now HCA Inc., the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain.

"It's not at all surprising that the industry is one of the big givers to him," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group that tracks money and campaigns.

"He is one of their people in terms of where he comes from, in terms of the committees he's on. He's from the industry, he supports the industry and he understands their problems and needs."

HCA is Frist's largest lifetime financial patron; the company and its officers and employees have contributed $172,250 to the senator's campaign committee and his leadership political action committee, which raises funds under federal contribution limits as well as unlimited soft money donations.

The company recently agreed to pay the Justice Department $631 million to settle allegations of health care fraud that occurred when the company was headed by Rick Scott.

Frist's next four largest contributors also have Tennessee

connections: FedEx, which gave $140,225; AutoZone, $115,000; Vanderbilt University, $74,950; and the law firm of Bass, Berry and Sims, whose clients include HCA and which gave $59,875. The figures include donations from employees, officials, the companies and PACs.

The president of the American Medical Association said doctors appreciate having one of their own on Capitol Hill.

"You don't have to give a lot of background and explanation," said Dr. Yank D. Coble, an endocrinologist in Jacksonville, Fla. "This is a person you can communicate with and has some experiences you can relate to."

Frist has supported the drug industry and the medical community on several key issues. In March, he introduced legislation to limit suits against companies who used Thimerosal, a mercury-based ingredient in certain childhood vaccines that some parents believe have caused autism in their children. The bill would have required the parents to file claims through a federal vaccine compensation program that caps damages at $250,000.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry trade group, supported the measure. After Frist introduced the bill, the drug trade group gave $10,000 to Frist's political action committee.

House Republicans, who received $1 million in campaign contributions from the drug industry's trade group, eventually added the provision to the homeland security bill. The contributions came in the two months leading up to the measure's passage. House and Senate leaders said Friday they would pass legislation removing the provision.

Smith said the senator's bill was based on recommendations from a federal advisory committee on vaccines and the American Academy of Pediatrics. "He, like many Americans, is very concerned about a stable and affordable vaccine supply," Smith said.

The senator also sided with the drug industry on other votes. In the last session of Congress, Frist was one of 21 senators to vote against legislation to speed generic drugs to market, allow importers to buy U.S.-made drugs in Canada, and allow states to force drug companies to give Medicaid discounts. And he voted against the industry-opposed Democratic plan for a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Frist also joined with his fellow doctors to support an unsuccessful effort to limit punitive damages and curtail lawyers' fees in medical malpractice cases.

Campaign donors

The health industry was the leading

sector to donate money to Sen. Bill

Frist's campaigns and his leadership

political action committee from 1993-

2002.

Contributions by sector

Health $2,381,410

Finance/Real estate 1,522,495

Misc. business 1,060,586

Other 893,353

Transportation 472,997

Lawyers/Lobbyist 470,670

Construction 414,499

Communications/Electronics 410,024

Agriculture 319,468

Energy/Natural resources 256,750

Ten largest single donors

HCA $172,250

FedEx 140,225

Autozone 115,000

Vanlderbilt University 74,950

Bass, Berry and Sims* 59,875

AT&T 55,000

National HealthCare Corp 49,300

Gaylord Entertainment 49,000

J C. Bradford** 48,500

Cracker Barrel 37,500

* Lawfirm that represends HCA

** Investment firm

Sources: Center for Responsive Politics, Political MoneyLine, Internal Revenue Service. AP

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* * *

Leaders Promise Repeal of Provisions Hidden in Bill

Congress will eliminate three special-interest provisions that caused a furor after they were anonymously inserted into the domestic security law last year, Republican leaders of the House and Senate announced today.

The provisions, which included a waiver of liability for vaccine makers, astounded Democrats and many Republicans last year when they were added to the law without notice or debate. Centrist senators from both parties went along with them to create the Department of Homeland Security, but won a promise from Republican leaders to review the provisions in the new Congress.

In an agreement announced last week, that promise was kept, said the new Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee. When the two houses take up a spending bill later this month to keep the government operating, it will include a section to revise or eliminate the special-interest provisions in the domestic security act, Dr. Frist said. Spokesmen for the speaker of the House, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, and the majority leader, Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, said the House would also approve the measure.

"That was a promise that was made in the 107th Congress that we've been able to fulfill in the last few minutes," Dr. Frist said.

The new language, which won the approval of many of the senators who were most angered by last year's maneuver, will remove a section that limited the liability of vaccine manufacturers in lawsuits. The provision, which no one would claim responsibility for, would have prevented lawsuits by families who say a mercury-based vaccine preservative led to their children's autism.

Dr. Frist, who wrote a similar provision in an unrelated vaccine bill, said he still supported the idea as a way to strengthen manufacturers as the first line of defense against biological terror. He said he would bring his bill up again, but it would go through the regular process of committee hearings and amendments.

Today's language will also remove a provision in the domestic security law that allows the new department to contract with American companies that move abroad to avoid federal taxes. The measure will say that such companies can receive domestic security contracts only if they are essential to national security.

The agreement also calls for revision of a provision to create a domestic security research center in a way that gives a preference to Texas A&M University and other Texas institutions. The narrow criteria defining the institution will be broadened to permit many other universities to compete, according to a draft of the agreement, although some last-minute jockeying over the precise language was still taking place.

Some senators, including Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, said they were still concerned that the language would benefit Texas A&M.

When the provisions came to light last year, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic move to strip them from the bill. At the time, many critics said their secretive creation undermined confidence in the legislative process. Many critics were pleased with today's agreement.

"The remedy of the three egregious provisions included in the Homeland Security bill is a victory for fairness," said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who fought them. "These three provisions should never have been slipped into the homeland security bill at the 11th hour without the benefit of debate or committee review."

The vaccine provision caused the most consternation on Capitol Hill, because of the complaints from families who wanted to sue vaccine makers and because no official in the White House, the Senate or the House would acknowledge inserting the provision in what appeared to be the unrelated creation of the Homeland Security Department. Even today, Dr. Frist, the biggest proponent of the provision, said he was not responsible, as did the House leaders, through their spokesmen.

But Dr. Frist said his efforts on behalf of vaccine makers were not over, and today's agreement includes a provision expressing the "sense of the Senate" that legislation will pass in six months granting protection to manufacturers as well as a way for patients who suffer vaccine-related injuries to pursue their grievances.

* * *

Transcript: Sen. Bill Frist on Fox News Sunday

SNOW: The last Homeland Security Bill included an exemption from liability for drug makers, principally Eli Lily for thimerosal. You supported that. Now you're going to pull it back, but you want to vote on it again. Do you think in a few months that same protection will still be law?

FRIST: The issue, we pulled it out of the Homeland Security Bill -- I didn't put it in the Homeland Security Bill.

We need to pass a comprehensive vaccine bill that recognizes today that we are unprepared, from a homeland security standpoint. If we had to develop an ebola vaccine today, which the NIH would like to do, our country is incapable of doing that. We used to have 12 countries making vaccines. Today we have two countries. Nobody is going into the business. They are exiting the business today.

We need a robust manufacturing vaccine industry. At the same time, we need strong patient protections. That's what my bill does.

Unfortunately, the provisions that had to be pulled out only had one component in it, and didn't have the strong patient protections in it. But it did have the robust -- protection of the robust manufacturing...

SNOW: So you will -- that provision will become law, if you have your way? FRIST: It will, as part of a more comprehensive balanced bill.

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The Autism Autoimmunity Project and Last Week's Rally Photos

We were gratified to see that our "Know The Cause, Find The Cure" Rally, which was held on January 8th, 2003 in Washington, DC received national coverage and attracted attention to the plight of children injured by mercury in vaccines.

We hope and pray that our impact has made a difference in eliminating the clause, which protects the manufacturer of Thimerosal and allows justice for our children! Our Charity has been, and is, totally committed to researching the autoimmune causes of autism, by supporting the work of Drs. Oleske, Singh and Wakefield and their investigation into the MMR role and autism. We were happy to step forward this time, to assist families of children injured by mercury and we stand ready to help again anytime and in any way we can.

We would like to thank Mr. Ray Gallup, our Founder and Dr. Edward Yazbak, one of our wonderful scientific advisors for their support. We would also like to thank Jo Pike and Lori McIlwain, our North and South Carolina Chapters for their invaluable assistance and every parent who helped make this possible. God bless!

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EVENTS SPOTLIGHT

Cure Autism Now Foundation's Portia Iversen, Tito and his mother Soma, and Dr. Michael Merzenich will be featured on the television show 60 Minutes 2 this Wednesday, January 15 and on Good Morning America Thursday morning January 16. Check local listings for times.

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Congressman Dan Burton to Deliver Keynote Address - Autism One Chicago Conf.

Congressman Dan Burton will be delivering a keynote address at the Autism One Conference, May 2 - 4, 2003, at Loyola University Chicago. Congressman Burton's work has provided inspiration and guidance for the entire autism community.

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Rep. Johnny Isakson Keynote Speaker "The Power of One"/Georgia Conference

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Lenny Schafer, schafer@sprynet.com Kay Stammers Edward Decelie

CALENDAR EVENTS@doitnow.com Michelle Guppy Ron Sleith

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