Letter from Ray Gallup to NY Times re: "A Mysterious
Upsurge in Autism"
Dear Editor:
Regarding your editorial of Sunday, October 20, 2002, "A Mysterious Upsurge
in Autism", to most parents of children with autism in the USA and the UK there
is no mystery. We know that autism is an epidemic. Educators, parents and
independent researchers know it. The US Department of Education has figures that
use the same diagnostic criterion since 1992/1993 to the present and the total
increase is 544% nationwide (see
We could find answers now to prevent this epidemic and help
those children afflicted with this terrible disease if the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) would get serious about finding answers by funding immunology
research. They ignore this important research because of the implications with
vaccines. Independent research has found that there is a high percentage of
children with autism having elevated measles antibody titers and measles in the
gut. Other children are being treated for high mercury levels due to the high
levels of thimerosal in the vaccines.
Pertussis can cause encephalitis in experimental animals and the measles
virus can cause encephalitis as well. If pertussis and measles can do that then
consider what happens when pertussis is combined with diphtheria and tetanus to
form the DPT vaccine; and measles is combined with mumps and rubella to form the
MMR vaccine. The MMR vaccine is a live virus vaccine. Vaccines contain
thimerosal (mercury), aluminum, formaldehyde and antifreeze among other
dangerous toxins. As a friend of mine who is an a pediatrician (whose specialty
is infectious diseases) says, "Too many vaccines at too early an age."
The last sentence of your editorial is most disturbing, "It could take years
of study to unravel the widening mystery of autism." It shouldn't take years
when we are facing an epidemic and we are serious about doing something about
this. There should be a push for immunology research into autism and to look at
various immune therapies that could help these children. I know of some
independent researchers who would make a big difference like Dr. Vijendra K.
Singh of Utah State University, Dr. Andrew Wakefield of the International Autism
Research Center of Florida, Dr. James Oleske/Dr. Harumi Jyonouchi of the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ and Dr. Arthur
Krigsman of the Lenox Hill Hospital/North Shore Hospital, NY. This is a can do
proposition but we have to get off of the horse and buggy and get with the 21st
century science. The NIH and CDC have to realize this is an epidemic and deal
with it and start funding important immunological science and stop throwing
millions of dollars at some mystery gene. They maybe finding things for the
Human Genome Project but they certainly are not helping our children with autism
and stopping this nightmare epidemic.
ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND
MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION
PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS
OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR
LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND
COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH
YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"