SAFE MINDS
 Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders.

Safe Minds is a nonprofit organization concerned about the role of mercury in medicines and its role in contributing to human disease.
E-mail: info@safeminds.org
Web site: http://www.safeminds.org

This statement was presented at the October 17, 2001 meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP)

CDC-thimerosal

OCTOBER 17, 2001

SAFE MINDs has actively pursued an aggressive advocacy and legal approach to the elimination of mercury from all biologics administered to children and pregnant mothers for the past thirteen months. Part of this strategy has been to repeatedly request from the CDC and FDA all documents analyzed and generated as part of the evaluation process of these agencies into the safety of thimerosal.

We are hear (HERE) today to read into the public records findings from documents provided by the CDC and to formally notify ACIP members present of the following:

1. As early as December 1999 senior CDC personnel knew of a signal from the VSD database relating to neurodevelopmental disorders and the administration of thimerosal containing vaccines.

2. In January of 2000 this signal was again reconfirmed by Thomas Verstraeten to senior officers of CDC.

3. In February of 2000 Phase I of the CDC VSD analysis of thimerosal was prepared by Thomas Verstraeten and circulated to CDC officials including Frank DeStefano. In the Phase I analysis Dr. Verstraeten reported a relative risk of autism and thimerosal exposures greater than 62.5 mcgs at three months of age equal to 2.48.

4. In June of 2000 Dr. Verstraeten reported a relative risk of autism and thimerosal exposures greater than 62.5 mcgs at three months of age equal to 1.69.

5. There are major discrepancies between the datasets analyzed by Dr. Verstraeten in February 2000 compared to June 2000. An additional 34,334 children were added to the database. The majority of these children were added by altering the inclusion criteria especially the category "continuously enrolled for one year". In addition, additional children were added to the population by updating the HMO data cycle from 6 to 7. These additional children would not have had an autism diagnosis since they were born in 1997 and were just turning two at the time the analysis was performed.

6. SAFE MINDS is calling for a Congressional and United States Attorney investigation into the generation and alteration of these reports including but not limited to subsequent oral testimony by Roger Bernier of CDC reporting an "inconclusive relationship" between the administration of thimerosal containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders.

7. SAFEMINDS has obtained an email from former CDC employee Thomas Verstraeten to Dr. Phillip Grandjean dated July 14, 2000 in which Dr. Verstraeten states: " I know that much of this is very hypothetical and personally I would rather not drag the Faroe and Seychelles studies into this entire thimerosal debate, as I think they are as comparable to our issue as apples and pears at the best. Unfortunately, I have witnessed how may experts, looking at this thimerosal issue, do not seem bothered to compare apples to pears and insist that if nothing is happening in these studies then nothing should be feared of thimerosal. I do not wish to be the advocate of the anti-vaccine lobby and sound like being convinced that thimerosal is or was harmful, but at least I feel we should use sound scientific argumentation and not let our standards be dictated by our desire to disprove an unpleasant theory."

8. SAFEMINDS has obtained a transcript from a CDC sponsored consultant meeting at the Simpsonwood Retreat Center in early June of 2000 at which the following comments were made: "This association leads me to favor a recommendation that infants up to two years old not be immunized with Thimerosal containing vaccines if suitable alternative preparations are available….Forgive this personal comment, but I got called out a eight o’clock for an emergency phone call and my daughter-in-law delivered a son by C-Section. Our first male in the line of the next generation, and I do not want that grandson to get a thimerosal containing vaccine until we know better what is going on…."

 

SAFEMINDs believes that everyone’s child and not just the grandchild of Simpsonwood attendees should have had this option in June of 2000 especially since the vaccine manufacturers had assured CDC personnel that every child in America could be vaccinated with a thimerosal free product. SAFE MINDs is calling on ACIP to vote immediately to state a preference for thimerosal free vaccines for pediatric use and to support a recall petition to the Commissioner of the FDA to remove all pediatric vaccines on the shelves containing thimerosal immediately. In addition, we are asking for ACIP’s support in a petition to the FDA to direct all manufacturers of biologics used by pregnant women and children including but not limited to Rhogam, influenza vaccine, infant nose and ear drops to remove thimerosal from their products and when feasible from a supply standpoint to recall all product containing thimerosal from the market.

SAFEMINDs reminds those individuals present representing governmental agencies that due to their irresponsible conduct public trust has not only eroded but has been broken. Parents will no longer blindly trust the health of their children into the hands of individuals who are indifferent to their fate and make calculations based upon an undefined "greater good" hypothesis. This will be judged as one of the greatest public health tragedies of our nation. It may be too late for those children who have already suffered irreversible harm from thimerosal containing vaccines but the individuals here today can take steps to perhaps save even one child and that child’s family from the nightmare diagnosis of a developmental disability.