The Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Dan Burton, held a "Full Committee Hearing on 'Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: Reviewing the Federal Government's Track Record and Charting a Course For the Future'" on Tuesday, December 10, 2002. 

It was an extraordinary event, with testimony from the following experts: David S. Baskin, MD, Professor of Neurological Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas; Mark Geier, MD, PhD, Genetic Consultants of Maryland, Bethesda, Maryland;  and Walter Spitzer, MD, MPH, FRCPC, Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Karen Midthun, MD, Director, Office of Vaccines Research and Review, Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Maryland; Stephen Foote, PhD, Director, Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science, National Institutes of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland; and Christopher Portier, PhD, Director, Environmental Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland.

Among the evidence brought to bear by the Committee was a video from The University of Calgary which showed how even small amounts of mercury cause neuron degeneration in the brain, and another which illustrated the painfully distressing behavior of an autistic child.  Included in the testimony of the first three experts was convincing evidence that autism might well be caused by vaccines, and why the studies which allege to vindicate the vaccines do no such thing.

Burton closed with a powerfully moving letter he had just received from Ray Gallup, former president of the Autism Autoimmunity Project and father of a now grown autistic child, explaining that he could not attend the hearing because he and his family were "under siege";  that this was their "lot in life for trusting the medical profession that vaccines are safe".

No one with an open mind could have seen that hearing and left believing autism cannot be related to vaccines.  No one.

No one who saw that hearing can honestly believe that there is no evidence that thimerosal could cause autism.  No one.

No one who has a heart can continue to ignore these children, these families.  No one.

If you haven't done so already, run, don't walk to view that hearing (using this link: http://snurl.com/fza http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/kdrive/e121002_vaccine.rm ).  Make or buy a copy if you can and share it with everyone you know.  It is that important.

Sandy Mintz               

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), paraphrasing John Philpot Curran (1808)