Evidence
of a Science Bending Group Within the CDC?
Commentary by Teresa
Binstock
As summarized by Rosie Waterhouse's news
item, a transcript of the CDC's secret meeting about thimerosal effects
indicates that a small group within the CDC acknowledges major flaws within
its initial study of the autism epidemic's link to vaccinal ethylmercury.
Despite this awareness, this small but
influential group within the CDC (i.e. the group that enacted the fatally
flawed "study") has touted and continues to use the study's
"conclusions" -- e.g. on the webpages of the American Academy of
Pediatrics (spring, 2000) and at the recent Institute of Medicine (IOM)
hearing (July 16, 2001).
What the CDC's secret meeting transcript
conveys is that the study's data about autism were insufficient. As a result, conclusions about rates of autism in
the pediatric cohort from several HMOs in the study are fictional. Yet
invalid findings do not stop this CDC group from continuing to disseminate
misleading conclusions.
Importantly, as indicated by reporters'
rhetoric in recent Boston Globe and Lancet articles about the IOM hearing, a
tradition of respect for the CDC enables the phony conclusions to be
presented as if valid.
Paragraphs that follow are an attempt to
set forth a summary of what this "rogue group" within the CDC has
achieved and continues to achieve. The seriously flawed CDC "study"
-- initially distributed as RL Davis et al, spring 2000 -- had at least three
major flaws:
- The HMO data had major under-reporting of
autism;
- Data analysis by Davis et al did not include
susceptible subgroups likely to be more affected by injected
ethylmercury;
- Davis et al relied upon the EPA's
"safe" limit for methylmercury, which had been derived in
relation to gradually ingested mercury and which, therefore, minimized
the fact that during the 1990s human infants and toddlers had been
injected with bolus doses of ethylmercury, which persisted in their
bodies during a post-vaccinal, extended pulse of cytokines, which alter
permeability of intestinal tissue and of the blood-brain barrier.
These several factors -- and others
identified by analysts, e.g., Thomas Kurt, MD -- indicate that the rate of
autism "documented" by Davis et al was an extreme
under-representation of the actual
rates of autism among children within the HMOs whose data Davis et al
utilized.
Despite these flaws the CDC's rogue team
has continued to distribute and utilize the flawed data and the misleading
conclusions derived.
The CDC's rogue team has stated and continues to state that an association with autism was not found. Note:
this statement is inaccurate and is quite different from what the CDC ought
be stating, namely, that the study design was inadequate for evaluating a
link between thimerosal (TMS; 49.6% ethylmercury by weight) and the increased
incidence of autism.
Yet despite the flawed study, the CDC's
team continues to tout the study's "conclusions" as if valid, which they
are not!
At the IOM hearing (7.16.01), the CDC
presented summaries of its "Phase 1 and Phase 2" studies (i.e.
several versions of what had been called RL Davis et al, spring of 2000) as
if the Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies had had valid methodologies and had
thereby derived valid conclusions about autism and thimerosal.
In fact, during the hearing, the CDC
appeared content to convey the impression that conclusions from the Phase 1
and Phase 2 studies were legitimate. At the IOM hearing, the impression
conveyed by the U Washington presenter was that there was no need to study
what had already been found to be non-existent.
In my opinion, this requires a severe leap
of faith.
Even Alice in Wonderland might pause
incredulously. The CDC acknowledges (off the record and in secret meetings)
that the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Davis et al studies were seriously flawed in
regard to autism, yet the CDC is happy to proceed with a Phase 3 study that
omits autism -- because, so we were told, there was no finding of an
autism/thimerosal study in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies.
In other words, despite the fact that the
CDC's Davis et al methodology was fatally flawed in regard to autism and
thimerosal, the CDC's rogue team and their U of Washington allies seem quite
willing to continue diverting attention away from the substantial likelihood
that physician-injected
ethylmercury has been an etiologic factor in many cases of autism and related disorders.
If ADHD, Tourette's, PDD, and PDD/NOS are
added, then the number of children adversely affected by physician-injected
thimerosal is potentially huge. At the IOM hearing, presenter Mark Blaxill
summarized epidemiological similarities between autism's increase and the
increased use of vaccines containing TMs
He also expressed dismay that the CDC
group most responsible for developing and encouraging TMs-injections into
neonates (via the HepB vaccine) is the group that also has been conducting
and superintending studies intended to evaluate the relationship between
autism and injected-ethylmercury.
Given the 1990s history of injecting
thimerosal and the recent history of CDC-led "studies" about
thimerosal, the CDC's conflict of interest is clear.
The actions by the CDC's rogue team appear
to be masking and diverting attention away from thimerosal's adverse effects
in hundreds of thousands of children.
Excerpts from the CDC's secret meeting --
obtain via the Freedom of Information act -- were presented to IOM by
representatives of SafeMinds. As an
official submission to the hearing, the SafeMinds
letter to IOM is to be posted on the IOM website -- as will other materials
that implicate thimerosal injections as having damaged many of America's
children (and those in other countries too).
Having the CDC team that developed and
encouraged early infant injections with TMs also be running studies about TMs
is akin to having Al Capone investigate the liquor business in 1930s Chicago.
That the CDC's conflict of interest is
having a real effect is seen in five factors:
- The CDC continues to trumpet the Phase 1 and
Phase 2 conclusions as if valid, which they are not;
- The CDC continues to utilize the EPA's
so-called "safe" limit for ingested organic mercury despite
the fact that vaccinal ethylmercury was injected;
- The CDC continues to perform data analysis
while ignoring the fact that some children are more susceptible to
adverse sequelae from bolus exposures to toxic metals;
- The CDC is allowing a major "Phase
3" study to proceed without autism as a focus;
- The CDC's rogue team uses its organization's
prestige as a lever whereby the flawed conclusions autism/thimerosal
conclusions of Davis et al are presented as if acceptable and useful --
e.g. in allowing Phase 3 to omit autism.
At the IOM hearing, an autism-parent
suggested that the HMO data utilized by the CDC ought be analyzed by
professionals selected by trusted autism organizations. Not surprisingly, the
CDC's Dr. Chen -- apparently a leading actor in the development and use of
the HepB for neonates and infants -- took the microphone and offered reasons
why
independent analysis ought not occur.
After the meeting, Beth Clay -- assistant
to Congressman Dan Burton -- commented that the CDC seems quite ready to
allow new "outsiders" to view the HMO data so long as the CDC
selects who those outside experts are. In my opinion, outside analysis of the
CDC's primary data for Davis et al ought occur; and the analysts ought be
persons not within and not hand-picked by the CDC.
Furthermore, the CDC's conflict of
interest already has a track record of diverting attention away from the link
between injected ethylmercury and autism. A solution is needed to the CDC's
conflict of interest. By continuing to misuse Davis et al conclusions -- the
CDC's rogue team continues to shape public opinion and near-future research regarding the link
between thimerosal and autism.
Families
for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT)
Related
Articles:
Learn How Mercury Is
Affecting You and the Ones You Love
Vaccine Scene 2001: Update and Overview
Autism: a Novel
Form of Mercury Poisoning
Adverse Effects of
Adjuvants In Vaccines
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