Some of the evidence against vaccines

Why are my five children autistic?

Each of Mary Robinson's children was perfect at birth - then they were given the MMR vaccine.

Five of Mary's six children, aged between three and 13, aren't just difficult and demanding - they are autistic.

Mary hears people tutting about their behaviour and saying: "Why did that woman go on having children if they are all handicapped?"

Had those women time to listen to her story - or she to explain it - they would learn that none of Mary's children started off autistic; they were developing perfectly normally until something caused them to regress. Far from being someone to criticise, Mary Robinson deserves infinite sympathy. She allowed her case to be made public last week and now is at the centre of The Great MMR Scare .

"I want to protect the children from too much attention," she says, "but I could not believe it when I read that the Government is spending £3 million on a campaign to make out that MMR is 'safe'.

As for the claims that autism has not increased, they leave her speechless. "I was once a nanny and I used to work in a nursery. I know that there are more autistic children around. When we go to special centres, I meet parents who talk about their children behaving normally and then changing - and some haven't even heard of the concerns over MMR."

Mary hadn't either when she had her children vaccinated. The triple vaccine was introduced in 1988, so her eldest, Donna, who lives with her grandparents, never had it; she is not autistic. The rest were immunised and from that moment, in each case, she charts the onset of their problems. 

170 Cases of Autism Linked to Vaccine in UK: Pub Health Scandal  

The consultant who first raised concerns about MMR vaccinations has disclosed to The Telegraph that he has identified nearly 170 cases of a new syndrome of autism and bowel disease in children who have had the triple-dose injection.

Andrew Wakefield, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, said that in the “majority” of cases parents had documentary evidence that their child’s physical and mental decline had followed the vaccination.

Balancing Risks and Benefits: Primum non nocere Is Too Simplistic by Neal Halsey, M.D. and Lynn Goldman, M.D.  

The commentary by Seal and Daum entitled “What Happened to Primum non nocere?”1 [“First, do no harm”] that appeared in the May 2001 issue of Pediatrics criticized the July 1999 recommendation of the American Academy
of Pediatrics (AAP) and US Public Health Service (USPHS) to delay the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine for infants born to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-negative women to reduce infant exposure to thimerosal.2 The
commentary contains incorrect statements and oversimplifies the complex process of balancing multiple risks and benefits when formulating vaccine policy as summarized in the excellent article by Feudtner and Marcuse3 in the same issue. Some professionals had difficulty understanding the need for the July 1999 recommendations because they didn’t fully understand the risks from organomercury exposure and the amounts of ethylmercury present in vaccines. Several developments in the past 2 years have reinforced the wisdom of the recommendations made in July 1999.    

Seal and Daum stated that methylmercury “might” be harmful to the developing fetal central nervous system. Methylmercury is neurotoxic at all ages, and the developing fetal brain is at least 10-fold more sensitive than the adult brain.4

They also incorrectly stated that “no data existed that implicated ethylmercury” as a cause of neurotoxicity. As reviewed by Ball et al,5 ethylmercury from thimerosal has caused significant neurotoxicity in infants, children, and adults. Such data were available at the time of the 1999 recommendations and several references were included in the more complete AAP statement on this issue.6

Based on the NRC report, on January 12, 2001, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that pregnant women, women of childbearing age, infants, and very young children not consume swordfish, shark, tilefish, and mackerel because of unacceptably high levels of methylmercury.10 Swordfish contains an average of 1 part per million of methylmercury, or 28 µg/oz. If a meal is 3 oz, a 55- to 70-kg woman should not consume 84 µg of methylmercury at any point during pregnancy. How would vaccine advisory groups be perceived today if recommendations had not been made to reduce the potential for administration of up to 75 µg of ethylmercury to infants in the first 6 to 8 weeks of age? Most of the exposures to ethylmercury in vaccines were avoidable. The AAP and the USPHS had a responsibility to inform physicians and the public of new information about risks of exposure to mercury from all sources at levels once thought to be safe, and to provide guidance regarding the reduction of exposures from thimerosal.

Seal and Daum implied that exposures to thimerosal were known to be safe in July 1999; however, ethylmercury had not been studied in animals or humans from the standpoint of toxicity to the developing brain. In particular, there were no epidemiologic studies of intellectual development, learning disabilities, or other adverse effects that might be associated with ethylmercury exposure in utero or early in life. Preliminary studies from West Coast health maintenance organizations revealed dose-related evidence of increased risk of learning disabilities, delayed speech, and other abnormalities, but no such relationship was found in an East Coast population.11 Additional studies are being planned by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine if there were any toxic effects from thimerosal exposure.     

Thimerosal - Harmless Vaccine Preservative Or Just Another Toxic Organic Mercury Compound?

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“Garbage science,” brick walls, crossword puzzles, and mercury by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.

Starting in 1965, I began collecting information from parents on the various factors that might have caused, or exacerbated, autism in their children. In 1967 we began distributing a questionnaire, Form E3, of which we now have in our files about 10,000 completed cases.

One question we began asking in our 1967 questionnaire was about the effect of the DPT shot-like MMR, a triple vaccine-on the child. A number of parents had mentioned to me in conversations and in letters that their children had been adversely affected by the vaccine. In that same questionnaire we also asked whether the mother had dental work done during pregnancy, in which silver fillings were either placed or removed, since mercury would reach the fetus in either case. I was aware then of the extreme toxicity of mercury and the fact that it could cause many of the symptoms of autism.

In the late 1960s, my graduate student assistant, Dale Meyer, became interested in mercury poisoning as a possible cause of autism. She wrote a paper about acrodynia and pink disease, which had puzzled physicians since the late 19th century and were not established as a result of mercury poisoning until the 1950s. Acrodynia and pink disease were caused by teething lotions and baby powders containing mercury.

Ten years ago I read an article by Richard Moskowitz which mentioned that mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde were present in vaccines, but I dismissed the possibility that mercury could be present in amounts large enough to cause harm. Since the medical establishment, and certainly the drug companies, knew of the tremendous potential of even tiny amounts of mercury to do harm, it never occurred to me that toxic levels of mercury could be present in vaccines. How naïve I was!

Not until the parents who presented their work at the NIEHS conference began to look into the matter, about a year ago, did the incredible facts begin to emerge: some children were being given 100 or more times as much mercury in a single day as the Environmental Protection Agency considers the maximum allowable amount for a single day’s exposure to mercury!

Autism: A unique type of mercury poisoning

A review of medical literature indicates that the characteristics of autism and of mercury poisoning (HgP) are strikingly similar. Traits defining or associated with both disorders are summarized in Table A immediately following the Table of Contents and are discussed and cited in the body of this document. The parallels between the two diseases are so thorough as to suggest, based on total Hg injected into U.S. children, that many cases of autism are a form of mercury poisoning.

For these children, the exposure route is childhood vaccines, most of which contain thimerosal, a preservative which is 49.6% ethylmercury by weight. The amount of mercury a typical child under two years receives from vaccinations equates to 237.5 micrograms, or 3.53 x 1017 molecules (353,000,000,000,000,000 molecules). Most such vaccinal Hg may not be excreted and instead migrates to the brain.

The total amount injected into infants and toddlers (i) is known to exceed Federal safety standards, (ii) is officially considered to be a “low” level; whereby (iii) only a small percentage of exposed individuals exhibit symptoms of toxicity. In fact, children who develop Hg-related autism are likely to have had a predisposition derived from genetic and non-genetic factors.

Importantly, the timings of vaccinal Hg-exposure and its latency period coincide with the emergence of autistic-symptoms in specific children. Moreover, excessive mercury has been detected in urine, hair, and blood samples from autistic children; and parental reports, though limited at this date, indicate significant improvement in symptoms subsequent to heavy-metal chelation therapy.

"The ABC's of MMRs and DPTs: Is There an Association Between Vaccination and Autism?" by Eric London: A bibliographic essay

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Andrew J. Wakefield, M.D.

We have now investigated over 150 affected children with autistic spectrum disorders.  A preliminary report of the first 12 children has been published (Lancet 1998;351:637-641). A detailed analysis of the first 60 children is due to be published (American Journal of Gastroenterology).  The clinical findings described in these reports have been reproduced in the extended study of more than 150 children.  The latter group includes 4 children from the U.S.  Independently, other centres investigating children with autism and gastrointestinal symptoms in the UK, Europe and the US, have confirmed the clinical findings that comprise the syndrome of autistic enterocolitis.

Our study was initiated at the request of parents, and was stimulated by the conviction that their children had; 1) developed normally during the first 1-2 years of life; 2) undergone developmental regression to autism, in the majority of cases following measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccination; and 3) developed gastrointestinal symptoms that, in the parents' opinion, were closely associated with the behavioral/developmental pathology.  Almost without exception, the anxieties of the parents, as described above, had been dismissed by the medical professions.  Bowel symptoms had been disregarded without investigation.  Raising the issue of the possible role of MMR vaccine in their child's autistic regression had led to acrimonious breakdown of the doctor-parent relationship in many cases.

On of the fundamental rules of conventional clinical medicine is to listen; to listen to the patient or the patient's aprents, and then to investigate the presenting symptoms, without prejudice, in order to determine whether or not they have an organic origin.  In this context, the Committee should be aware that the parents' story is remarkably consistent whether, for example, they come from the US, Canada, the UK, mainland Europe, Asia or Australia.  The pervasive features include cevelopmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms following MMR vaccination.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by John J. O'Leary, M.D., Ph.D.

Following investigation by scientists and technicians in our department, the subsequent results have been obtained:

Autistic enterocolitis children:  Twenty four of 25 (96%) autistic children were positive for measles virus including two children from the US who were included in this analysis.

Control children:  One of 15 children (6.6%) was positive for measles virus.

Conclusion:  Using different molecular biological technolgies we have been able to identify, localise, quantitate, and sequence measles virus genomes in gut biopsies of children with autistic enterocolities.

The question that now remains to be answered is: - What is measles virus doing in lymphoid germinal centres of children with autistic enterocolitis?

Testimony to the House government Reform Committee by Vijendra K. Singh, Ph.D.

Today, I will be speaking about the autoimmunity aspect of vaccines in autism, a medical condition that has been largely ignored by the medical community and federal government for a very long time and yet the incidence of autism is increasing at an alarming rate.

Autoimmunity is commonly triggered by environmental exposures such as viral infections...This was most probably the first laboratory-based evidence to link measles virus and/or MMR vaccine to autoimmunity in children with autism. Collectively, these observations led me to speculate that autism may be caused by a measles- or MMR vaccine-induced autoimmune response. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding, I have not been able to extend this research and the progress has been hampered.

As I made scientific presentation of my initial findings, a vaccine-autism connection became even more apparent. I compiled a nonscientific, anecdotal survey of vaccine-injured children with “autistic regression” or autistic disorder, as reported by families. Surprisingly, up to 93% of the reported cases had autistic symptoms shortly after vaccinations (52% post-MMR, 33% post-DPT, and 8% post-MMR and/or post-DPT). The remaining 7% of the reported cases were not linked to any vaccination at all. Indeed, if these numbers are reproducible, the data will lead to inescapable conclusion that these vaccines can potentially cause autoimmunity in autism. Quite candidly, this will not be first time that a vaccine has been linked to a disease or disorder. There is quite a bit of literature linking vaccines to autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, an epidemiological study just published in JAMA (March 8^th issue) described “extraimmunization” amongst American children and considered it to be a contributing factor for the adverse effects of the vaccines. And I think the vaccines and autism connection is no exception to these adverse effects.

In summary, the rapidly accumulating evidence strongly implicates autoimmunity in autism, which in many may result from a vaccine injury. There is a possibility of an atypical measles infection in autism, but the evidence also suggests a MMR vaccine infection. Without any reservation, I would strongly recommend that this Congressional Committee reviews all the information in bipartisanship, and explore the possibility that drug companies never properly evaluated the safety of vaccines in the first place. If this indeed were true then it becomes imperative that we as a society must pay an immediate attention to this problem; otherwise, an epidemic of autism is a real good possibility. There should be no mistaking about it because autism is on a sharp rise and vaccinations, especially the extraimmunization, could potentially explain this rise. The onset of autism (or autistic regression) post-immunization should no longer be regarded as merely a coincidence with the timing of the vaccinations, as our federal health officials continue to do. We must find new ways to curve adverse effects of vaccines, including autism.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Mary Megson, M.D.

The segment of children with "regressive autism," the form where children develop normally for a period of time then lose skills and sink into autism most commonly at 18-24 months of age, is increasing at a phenomenal rate. I am seeing multiple children in the same family affected, including in the last week four cases of "autistic regression" developing in four-year-old children after their MMR and DPT vaccination. In the past, this was unheard of. 

I think we are staring a disaster in the face that has affected thousands of Americans. The children with autism or dyslexia/ADHD are lucky. There are many other children not identified, just disconnected. 

We must direct all of our resources and efforts to establish multidisciplinary centers to treat these children. Insurance companies should pay for evaluations, both medical and psychiatric, and treatment. 

These children are physically ill, immuno-suppressed with a chronic autoimmune disorder affecting multiple organ systems. Funding to look at etiology of autism, to identify children at risk prior to "autistic regression," and to prevent this disorder is imperative. Implementing vaccine policies that are safe for all children should become our first priority. 

Mothers from all over the country have brought pictures of their autistic children to Washington this weekend. Most of these children were born normal and lost to "autistic regression." Look into their eyes and you will hear their silence. 

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.

Soon after my textbook on autism was published in 1964, I began to hear from other parents.  Many parents  told me that their children were normal until getting a triple vaccine – the DPT shot.  In 1965 I began systematically collecting data on the symptoms and possible causes of autism:  In 1967—33 years ago—I began querying the parents, specifically about the child’s response to the DPT shot.  Many had reported marked deterioration.

During the past few years the Autism Research Institute has been flooded with an upsurge in pleas for help from parents throughout the world – from wherever the World Health Organization vaccine guidelines are followed.  The majority of these parents say their children were normal until getting the MMR – another triple vaccine.

Let me dispel several myths promoted by those who deny the autism-vaccine connection:

1.      They claim the vaccines are safe, but physicians are indoctrinated to disbelieve claims of harm and are not trained to recognize nor required to report any adverse reactions.  From 90% to 99% of the adverse reactions reported to doctors are never reported by those doctors to the government’s extremely lax Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, known as the VAERS.

2.      They say that the suspected linkage between the MMR vaccination and autism has been disproved by a study conducted by Brent Taylor and his colleagues in London, and published last year in The Lancet.   The Taylor study is seriously flawed in many ways, as had been noted in a number of letters to the editor of The Lancet  and in a number of additional letters on the subject which have been posted on the internet.  It was subject to strong attack at a recent meeting of the British Statistical Society.  I have been a full-time researcher my entire professional life, for almost 50 years, and I respectfully asked Dr. Taylor for a copy of the data so that I could reanalyze them.  He refused this ordinary professional courtesy, and I have subsequently written to the editor of The Lancet  requesting that an impartial committee be asked to reexamine Dr. Taylor’s statistical methods.  If he refuses again, I urged The Lancet  to retract his paper.

3.      They say that autism has a large genetic component, and therefore vaccines must play a minimal, if any, role in the causation of autism.  My book Infantile Autism, published in 1964, was the first systematic attempt to marshal the evidence for genetics as a contributing cause of autism, so I am certainly not hostile to that idea.  However, genes do not begin to account for the huge increase  in the incidence of autism, ranging from 250% to 500% in various places.  I might add that we have just reviewed all of the recent genetic studies for the next issue of the Autism Research Review International,  which I edit.  The results are spectacularly inconsistent.  The best guess is that there are at least 20 different genes involved in the causation of autism.  Gene therapy is decades off, and may be infeasible.

4.      They claim that autism naturally occurs at about 18 months, when the MMR is routinely given, so the association is merely coincidental and not causal.  But the onset of autism at 18 months is a recent  development.  Autism starting at 18 months rose very sharply in the mid-1980s, when the MMR vaccine came into wide use.  A coincidence?  Hardly!  See the graph below.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Lyndelle Horne Redwood, R.N.

I would have never made a correlation between my son’s disability and vaccines until July 1999 when I read that a preservative, thimerosal, utilized in some infant vaccines, actually contained 49.6% mercury.  The report went on to say that the FDA had  determined that “infants who received thimerosal-containing vaccines at several visits may be exposed to more mercury than recommended by Federal Guidelines for total mercury exposure.”  As health care providers my husband and I constantly receive notices that adverse events have been reported with a drug or a product safety sheet has been revised.  Why were no such notices sent out informing us that thimerosal preserved vaccines were exceeding federal guidelines for mercury exposure in infants? 

It was in light of this information that I reviewed my son’s vaccine record and my worse fears were confirmed.  All of his early vaccines had contained thimerosal.  From my research on mercury I have found it to be a potent human toxicant which is especially damaging to the rapidly developing fetal and infant brain.  While acceptable levels for exposure are published by Federal Agencies, mercury is a poison at any level.

The dose thought to be safely allowed on a daily basis by EPA is 0.1mcg per kilogram of body weight per day. At 2 months of age my son had received 62.5 mcg of mercury from 3 infant vaccines.  According to EPA criteria, his allowable dose was only 0.5mcg based on his weight.  He had received 125 times his allowable exposure on that one day.  These large injected bolus exposures continued at 4, 6, 12 and 18 months to a total mercury exposure of 237.5 mcg.  I also discovered that the injections that I received during the first and third trimesters of my pregnancy and hours after the delivery of my son to prevent RH blood incompatibility also contained mercury.  

Knowing that the major effect of mercury compounds was neurotoxicity, I questioned if these exposures could account for my son’s regression and disability.  Since he was now 5 ½ years old, it would be difficult to know what his mercury levels had been at that time.  It was then that I remembered having kept a lock of hair from his first haircut at 20 months of age.  Heavy metal analysis detected 4.8 ppm mercury in his hair. The allowable levels being less than 1 ppm.  The EPA action level in hair is 1 ppm and 5 ppm is considered diagnostic for mercury toxicity.  Since my son has never eaten fish or seafood nor had dental amalgams, I have  no other identifiable source for his mercury levels outside of thimerosal exposure from his vaccines and my RhoGAM injections.

On June 21, 2000 I attended the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices meeting held in Atlanta.  At that meeting a study was presented that looked at Vaccine Safety Datalink information and thimerosal exposure in over 120,000 children.  The key findings of this study were significant associations between thimerosal exposure and ADD, tics, speech and language delay and neuro-developmental delays in general.  A panel of experts who were convened to review the data concluded  “The findings support a statistically significant (albeit weak) association, but that the implications are profound.”

Unfortunately, ACIP chose not to give preference to thimerosal free vaccines, even though vaccine manufacturers assured there was enough supply available to meet vaccine needs the first six months of life. From the comments made by ACIP committee members it was apparent that political and economic concerns for the vaccine program took precedence over the health, safety and welfare of the children it is charged to protect. One committee member even remarked that giving preference to thimerosal free vaccines may result in reduced public confidence in vaccines.  From my own personal perspective, just the opposite has occurred. 

You may hear today from some officials that the mercury exposure from medicinal sources is insignificant. The fact is that neurological damage is documented to occur in infants at these levels of exposure. You may also hear that these levels only exceed EPA guidelines the first six months of life. That is because the data was inaccurately averaged over a six month time period. As any independent toxicologist will tell you, mercury has a long half life and because of its inherent pharmocokinetics, you cannot legitimately calculate the effect of a bolus dose as if it were ingested in small amounts over a longer period of time. To make a simple analogy, what the FDA is trying to assert is that giving someone two tylenol a day for 60 days has the same effect of giving them 120 tylenol all at once in one day! This, of course, defies common sense, much less sound medical practice.

The truth is, vaccines, are often the single largest source of mercury exposure postnatally in infants, but nowhere in the mercury literature of EPA, FDA or ATSDR are these products even identified as being a source of exposure. When I spoke with one official from EPA he commented that my son’s exposure was very high and was rather sympathetic, but since it was not an environmental exposure, his agency could not get involved. So whom do I turn to for help?

Over 1 year ago the FDA, AAP, and the Public Health Service called for the immediate elimination or reduction of thimerosal from vaccines.  But the sad truth is that while some progress has been made, infants continue to be injected with one of the most neurotoxic metals on earth in excess of Federal Safety guidelines as I speak here today, and the responsible agencies are unwilling to address this issue.

We are in the midst of an autism epidemic and children diagnosed with learning disabilities continue to increase daily. The statement that there is “no evidence of harm” does not equate to no harm having occurred. The truth is that we have not adequately looked or we just refuse to see. A recent national news article which addressed these concerns reported that some may say we don’t have a smoking gun, but the truth is there are bullets all over the floor.

Millions of children have been needlessly exposed to toxic agents from Federally sponsored vaccine programs and have suffered neurological damage. This problem has become so pervasive in our society that few are left untouched, as chairman Burton well knows.  It is time for someone to step forward and acknowledge these facts and provide the science to fully investigate what has happened to our children and what can be done to help them. 

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Albert Enayati

The CBER team then compared ethylmercury intake with federal guidelines for "safe" mercury-intake, but again the CBER ran into difficulty: thimerosal is injected in bolus doses and is metabolized in humans to ethylmercury, but all theoretical guidelines for "safe" mercury intake were based on methylmercury.  Left with no choice, the CBER team assumed that the toxicity of thimerosal injected in bolus doses was equivalent to that of methylmercury ingested gradually.

Armed with this assumption, they compared the vaccinal-ethylmercury intake in children six months old (187.5 micrograms) to the suggested safe limits by EPA.  It was then that they mad a remarkable discovery: even without considering infants and toddlers susceptibility to neurotoxic effects, the mercury intake from vaccinations in the first six months of life far exceeded the limit set by EPA.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Sallie Bernard

Anyone familiar with the signs of mercury toxicity in children will recognize language difficulties and ADHD traits as common features. But in fact, research conducted by me and others, and summarized in our paper, "Autism - a Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning" (June 2000), has shown that the symptoms which are diagnostic of or strongly associated with autism itself are found to arise from mercury exposure, as described in available literature on past cases of mercury poisoning. This research strongly suggests that mercury, primarily from thimerosal in vaccines, may be a contributing factor in many cases of autism.

The similarities between features of autism and mercury poisoning, which in both disorders vary considerably by individual, include:

(a)    on the behavior side, social withdrawal; lack of eye contact, facial expression, and desire to share enjoyment with others; perseverative, obsessive, and compulsive behaviors; speech delay; loss of or impairment in language and conversational abilities; repetitive motor mannerisms such as hand or finger flapping; sensory disturbances like over or under sensitivity to sound, light, or touch; movement disorders; attentional deficits, hyperactivity; lower verbal than performance IQ; difficulties understanding abstract ideas; poor short term memory; head banging, sleep difficulties, and staring spells.

(b)  on the physiological side, damage to in selective brain areas including the Purkinje and granule cells, amygdala, hippocampus, and basal ganglia; abnormal brain neuronal organization; altered dopamine levels; decreased brain serotonin; elevated norepinephrine, epinephrine, and glutamate; cortical acetylcholine deficiency and increased muscarinic receptor density in hippocampus; an immune system shifted towards allergy and less effective in fighting viruses and yeast, with loss of ability to recognize the body’s own brain tissue and antibodies made against parts of the central nervous system; altered purine and pyrimidine metabolism; brain mitochondrial dysfunction; and EEG abnormalities from subtle, low amplitude activity to epilepsy; abnormal vestibular nystagmus responses; chronic gastrointestinal difficulties; and autonomic system disturbances such as poor circulation and elevated heart rate.

(c)    on the population side, a higher propensity for males to be affected than females; and the presence of a strong genetic component, with autism being one of the most heritable disorders and mercury sensitivity also being in large part genetically determined.

There are many other similarities which cannot be covered in the interest of time.  

We feel that these similarities are too close to have occurred by chance, and we are not alone in our thinking.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Stephanie Cave, M.D.

I believe that the introduction of the Hepatitis B vaccine in 1991 has sparked this recent epidemic because of the thimerosal.  When added to the mercury imparted through the DTP and HIB, the exposure to mercury exceeds the EPA safe limits for the metal considering a bolus dose on a single day.  The EPA limits are usually related to ingested mercury, which is partially cleared by the liver.  Injecting boluses of ethyl mercury presents another scenario.  The two-month dose of mercury is at least 30 times higher than the recommended maximum exposure as set by the EPA.

During the 1990's infants received 12.5 mcg of mercury at birth followed by 12.5 mcg at one month, 50 mcg at 2 months, 50 mcg at 4 months, 62.5 mcg at 6 months, 50 mcg at 15 to 18 months.  The total of 237.5 mcg for a child, who at best weights 10 kg, far exceeds the safety limits if you consider bolus doses.  In establishing normal safety levels, if there is indeed such a thing for a metal as toxic as mercury, bolus injections were not considered.  If the nurse giving the injection did not shake the vial according to directions before drawing out the vaccine dose, there is a chance that the child receiving the last dose could get as much as 10 times the usual amount in one dose.

Mercury affects precisely those parts of the brain affected in autism.

The injection of mercury appears to affect only certain children, but I fear that we have underestimate the devastation by concentrating on the autistic children.  We are measuring elevated levels of mercury in other children with milder difficulties like learning disabilities, ADHD, and Asperger's Syndrome.   We do not have any idea what the scope of this problem is at this point.  There are no safety standards for infants getting bolus doses of ethyl mercury.  We cannot compare the effects of a bolus dose in an infant to a daily dose in an adult.  There are no parameters for comparison.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Elizabeth Birt

Since late 1998 I have been able to find the following medical facts about Matthew's physical condition: 1) he has tested positive for antibodies to myelin basic protein; 2) he has had abnormal EEGs; 3) he has inflammatory bowel diseae; and 4) he has live measles virus in his terminal ileum...I believe, and so does Matthew's immunolgist that the thimerosol contained in the vaccines Matthew was given contributed to these medical conditions.

The manufacturers, the FDA, the CDC, the NIH, the medical associations such as the AAP and AMA all must share responsibility for allowing a product like thimerosol to remain on the market which has been determined in published federal regulations since 1982 to be unsafe and ineffective.  This is the mandate of the FDA;  the American public relies on this agency with its scientific experts to protect us from dangerous, untested products.  Yet for some unknown reason, the FDA has chosen to ignore this issue.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Shelley Hendrix Reynolds

Could someone please explain to me why it is acceptable to have products on the market that exposed my child to 37.5 micrograms of mercury in one day when at that time he should not have been exposed to more than .59 micrograms of mercury given his body weight? Even a body as big as mine shouldn’t be exposed to more than 5 micrograms of mercury in one day.  That is completely unacceptable.  One size does not fit all when it comes to vaccines.    

Through our organization, Unlocking Autism, we have talked to thousands and thousands of parents from across the country and their story is the same.  Child is normal, child gets a vaccine, child disappears within days or weeks into the abyss of autism.  If you doubt me, I invite you to attend the Hear Their Silence Rally on April 8th on the mall where our Open Your Eyes project will be displayed.  View the thousands of pictures we have collected and realize that 47% of those who participated believe that vaccines contributed to the development of their child's autism.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by by Jeana Smith

Jacob met every developmental milestone that first year right along with Jesse.  They were two peas in a pod and did everything together.

At only 16 months of age  Jacob and Jesse received their first  MMR vaccine, along with their fourth DPT, fourth Hib, and their third  Hepatitis B.  The following 24 hours both twins slept most of the time with 100 degree temperatures, in spite of receiving the recommended dosage of Tylenol every six hours.   Just days later,  Jacob began exhibiting strange behaviors.  He was no longer excited or responsive when Daddy came home from work.  He became preoccupied with certain toys.  He would spend long periods of time studying the way their wheels would spin or whether or not they were lined up just right.  Any attempt to interrupt or distract him was met with great resistance and an eventual fit.  During this time,  Jesse went along with business as usual.   

Jacob is a beautiful child who has abnormal sleep patterns and has lived with continuous physical pain.  His lack of sleep keeps me up all hours of the night, and by the time  I finally fall asleep, it is time to wake the kids up for school and start the day. We are constantly working with Jacob to help him understand the outside world so that we can maybe go to the grocery store, the mall, the gas station or McDonald's without him getting hysterical from sensory overload from all the fluorescent lights and sounds.

 What may sound like water dripping to us may sound like a massive water fall to an autistic child. What may sound like squealing tires to us may sound like the Indy 500 up close to a child like my son.  On days that he is "overloaded" from sound, colors or lights, we can't go anywhere. Autism does not only isolate the child that it affects.  We can't take the family out to dinner or out to have fun. When the other children may be waiting in anticipation to go have a day out with mom and dad, one of us will have to stay home with Jacob because he is so agitated.  If one child has a school program and Jacob is frustrated, then we have to see that crestfallen look on the child's face because both mommy and daddy cannot go, since one has to stay with their brother.  We know if we take him in public,  there will be a scene.   Little things such as this "rob" life's enjoyment from our other children.

Unlike most parents of autistic children, I don't have to wonder what my child would have been like.  I see what he would have been through Jesse every day of my life.  I see Jesse excelling in school, and his social activities.  He will be starting a tee ball team this summer.  I will have to find a babysitter to watch Jacob so that our family can attend Jesse's games.

For us, there is no denying that in Jacob's case of autism, the answer does not lie in genetics but in a catalyst.  The thousands of hours of research that we have spent searching and retracing his regression continue to point to the fact that the road to Jacob's autism began when his immune system was damaged by the Hepatitis B vaccine he received when he was ill. The final blow was the  adverse reaction to the host of vaccines he received by 16 months.  We are certain that for Jacob, the catalyst was his vaccines.

Testimony to the House Government Reform Committee by Rick Rollens

Russell began his life as a normal, healthy, and robust child, meeting all his age appropriate milestones. At seven months old, after receiving his third DPT and first HIB vaccine, Russell began the slow and insidious process of slipping into the world of autism. After seven months in this world, Russell’s life had changed forever, and the lives of all who know and love him were changed forever as well. Within days after his first MMR vaccination Russell began his final journey into the abyss of autism - losing most of his remaining skills, developing severe sleep disruption, chronic gastrointestinal problems, worsening of his already disturbing behaviors, and suffering pain exhibited by those harrowing days of endless crying. Russell was officially diagnosed with autism six months later. After many months of medical investigation of Russell’s condition, including state-of-the-art brain scans, immunological and neurological work-ups, we consulted a noted pediatric neurologist who thoroughly examined Russell and reviewed all of Russell‘s medical history. He advised us that in part, Russell’s brain dysfunction had very likely occurred as a result of some form of encephalitis resulting in bilateral hypometabolism in the temporal lobes of his brain. Based on the years of extensive medical investigation that had been done on my son, along with the strong temporal relationship between the timing of the vaccinations he received and the onset of the symptoms of his condition, as well as the scientifically based knowledge that one of the many serious adverse effects of certain vaccines is brain swelling and encephalitis… I believe that Russell is a victim of vaccine induced autism. My story is not unique. I would challenge each of you to talk to many of your own constituents who are the rapidly growing number of parents of children with autism. I can assure you that you will hear first hand accounts from a disturbing number of these parents of a normally developing child, the introduction and reaction to a vaccine or multiple vaccines, the timing of their children’s regression and vaccination, and the onset of the multitude of other medical conditions and complications that accompany this acquired autistic condition.

Vaccines contain numerous active agents such as live viruses, bacterial agents, preservatives, and toxic chemicals including formaldehyde and mercury, as well as human, animal, and plant RNA. Not a single safety study has ever been done on the short term or long term effects of the interaction of this potent cocktail of numerous multiple active agents on the developing brain and immune systems of our children. I must ask the public health community: where is the science? Even the published so-called safety studies of individual vaccines which range from a few day’s of surveillance to a couple of weeks are woefully inadequate, as well as the ludicrous response of the CDC to reports from parents and inquiries from the press about the relationship of the onset of autism after MMR and other vaccinations that, according to the CDC, can only be explained to be a "rare chance occurrence". CDC: Show me the science. I must ask this committee, is it appropriate to continue to entrust the CDC, the public health community, and the indemnified vaccine manufacturers with the responsibility of guaranteeing the parents of this country that these potent class four poisons we know as vaccines will NOT cause autism ,when these same groups have a vested interest as the most aggressive promoters of vaccines and of the "new vaccine a week" policy ?

MMR / Autism - Jury still out

The link between autism and MMR is yet to be proven, but how else are these children likely to have become infected?

It is easy to knock down each part of the evidence, to claim that it is not one particular cause - but can the supporters of the MMR establish that it is NOT the cause. On balance of evidence, it looks very likely to be a main cause.

In court, it is "innocent until proven guilty", but in medicine is is guilty until proven "safe"; and what evidence have we that MMR is not linked to autism?

As one parent of an affected child commented, if a can of beans on the supermarket shelf had this much evidence against it, all the cans would have been withdrawn.

What it DOES prove

The status quo is being defended "at all odds" while kids continue to be adversely affected by something which no-one is prepared to look into seriously. Most of the responses to Wakefield's work and his potentially alarming findings has been a rather shameful reactive and data-fudging repetitive reassertion of "It is all OK " when it clearly is not.

The statisticians and vaccine advocates always seem to forget that STATISTICS RELATING TO VACCINE SAFETY MEAN ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING when your child is affected FOR LIFE. Until such independant rigourous and exhaustive research has been conducted into this issue along with other vaccine associated concerns I remain supportive of parents rights to decide whether or not to vaccinate their children.

How safe is MMR vaccine?

I find it difficult to be certain that the vaccine is as safe as the authorities say that it is. Somehow, the more strident the experts become, the less believable I seem to find them. The Department of Health website (http://193.32.28.83/mmrvac.htm) gives many references and internet links to the published studies that support its views, but it gives only one reference that raises the issue of a link between MMR vaccine and potential adverse reactions.

The partial use of evidence that is apparent within official pronouncements is echoed by other experts. For example, Elliman and Bedford focus on possible problems with the research methods of people concerned about possible adverse effects of the MMR vaccine.¹ They do not mention potential problems with the research that concludes that the vaccines are safe. In addition, what are we to make of these and other researchers² who declare funding from drug manufacturers involved in manufacturing vaccines?

MMR - Mercury Rising

From reading the plethora of articles and opinions on the internet, it would seem that the Government and many of its advisors have lost the plot. My point is to stop the frenzied debates about the safety of triple or single dose vaccinations; the debate should concentrate on the possibility that the high levels of mercury found in the preservatives (Thiomersol) of pediatric vaccinations is a more likely cause of autism.

Why doesn't anyone on the television, radio or newspaper bring this possible cause to our attention? Why don't parents know about this preservative and be offered mercury-free vaccinations?

The Autism Explosion, the Vaccine Connection, and the Autism Research Institute’s Mercury Detoxification Consensus Conference

While the reality of the increase is beyond reasonable doubt, there is great controversy over the cause.  The most plausible cause relates to changes in the vaccination programs over the past two decades.  These include:

1.   The extraordinary increase in the number of vaccines given to children from birth to age two, which has risen from 8 in 1980 to 22 in 2000.

2.   The amount of extremely toxic mercury (used as a preservative) in many vaccines.  Some infants have received in one day as much as 100 times the amount of mercury the Environmental Protection Agency says is the maximum allowable daily exposure for an adult.  Mercury is not only neurotoxic by itself, it also damages the immune system so the child becomes unable to protect itself against damage from the viruses in vaccines.

3.   The combination of three vaccines, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, previously given singly, into one, the MMR.  The  prevalence increase started in the U.S. in the early 1980s, shortly after the triple-vaccine MMR shot was introduced, while the increase in the U.K. started 10 years later, soon after the triple MMR was introduced there.

Much attention has been focused on the MMR shot itself, whereas in all probability it is a combination of the three factors listed above: the increasing number of vaccines, the large amount of mercury, and the inherent danger of the triple vaccine.  (In a January, 2001 article in the Journal of Adverse Drug Reactions, several British experts who were involved in the safety evaluation of the MMR vaccine stated that the vaccine safety testing had not been adequate and that the vaccine should not have been licensed).

The MMR vaccine is also especially suspect because laboratories in England, Ireland, and Japan have found evidence of MMR vaccine viruses in the intestinal tracts of autistic children, but not in control group, non-autistic children.

The role of mercury has come to light only in the past 18 months, after it was realized that the amount of mercury preservative in many vaccines (although not the MMR vaccine) is grossly in excess of the permissible standards.

Autism, MMR and 60 Minutes: Another Pediatrician’s Perspective

The following crucial facts were unfortunately not discussed in the 60 Minutes piece:

·        The measles virus was isolated from the gut wall of children with autism. It was further identified by very precise PCR techniques by O’Leary, and was confirmed to be of vaccine origin by Kawashima and his group.

·        Sixty new cases with autistic enterocolitis were reported by

Wakefield in the September 2000 issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

·        Children with autism have statistically significant co-existing high titers of MMR and Myelin Basic Protein antibodies (Singh).

Proof That Vaccinations Cause Learning Disabilities & Autism

Children who receive all of the 22 vaccines and 35 vaccinations currently recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) are 14 times more likely to become learning disabled and 8 times more likely to become autistic compared with children who were never vaccinated!!

Expert says three-in-one vaccine may cause autism

A MEMBER of the expert panel used by the government to reassure parents about the three-in-one mumps. measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine is to say in court that it could cause autism.

Dr Ken Aitken, a leading child psychologist, has agreed to act as a key witness for parents seeking millions of pounds in compensation from the vaccine ‘s manufacturers

His decision will anger government ministers and health officials who are trying to allay public fears. Aitken, an internationally respected authority on autism, was one of 37 experts convened by the Medical Research Council in March last year. He claims their conclusions were not revealed in full and says experts found themselves unable to dismiss the possibility of a connection. He believes the vaccine could be causing a new form of autism.

Autism ‘linked to mercury vaccine’

Boyd Haley, chemistry professor at the University of Kentucky, has been asked to submit a paper. “Thiomersal is extremely toxic. The preliminary data is convincing and does indicate that vaccines are the most likely suspect for causing autism,” he said.

In general, the researchers argue, the cumulative effects of mercury impair brain development and damage the child’s immune system and gastrointestinal tract, resulting in hypersensitivity to toxic environmental substances.

This build-up could lead to autism or a form of mercury poisoning - whose symptoms are similar. In addition, researchers believe, the MMR triple vaccine, usually given at 18 months to two years, could trigger autism because the damaged immune system cannot cope with three live viruses at once.

There is growing concern among parents and medical researchers that concurrent exposure of the measles virus with other viruses may be linked to serious developmental disorders in some children.  A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Pathology (Ulmann et al.) found persistent measles virus in the intestinal tissue of 75 of 91 patients with developmental disorders (i.e., autism) who also exhibited severe bowel disease.

Another Independent Scientist Falls Victim over Findings Against MMR Vaccine

What did Wakefield’s team find?

Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his team at the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine in London examined twelve children with intestinal symptoms and autism - pervasive developmental disorder with loss of acquired skills. These children had all been normal before their illnesses developed. All twelve had been vaccinated with MMR.

In 8 of the children, the parents noticed that they started behaving abnormally when given MMR vaccination, one child was infected with measles, another with mumps. All twelve had intestinal abnormalities ranging from enlarged lymph nodes to ulcers. Patchy chronic inflammation was present in the colon in 11 children and reactive overgrowth of the ileum in 7 of them. Nine of the children were diagnosed with autism, one with disintegrative psychosis, and two with possible post-viral or vaccination encephalitis (inflammation of the brain). There were no specific neurological abnormalities, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging and EEG tests were normal.

However, abnormally high levels of methyl-malonic acid were found in the children’s urine compared with age-matched controls. Urinary methylmalonic acid is increased in bowel disorders such as Crohn’s disease in which cobalamin excreted in bile is not reabsorbed.

Wakefield and his colleagues suggested that the intestinal disorders and autism formed one disease entity, and both might be linked to MMR vaccination. Abnormal intestinal permeability was previously identified in 43% of a group of autistic children with no gastrointestinal symptoms by other researchers [5]. The intestinal disorders could, therefore, play a part in the behavioural changes in some children.

One theory of how autism arises blames the incomplete breakdown of proteins from foods such as barley, rye, oats and dairy products, resulting in peptides that affect brain activity being absorbed in excessive amounts. These food-derived peptides then interfere with the body’s own neuro-peptides, thereby disrupting normal neuro-regulation and brain development.