Hearings are scheduled to begin in the U.S Federal Claims Court where over 4,800 parents have filed for compensation for their children who developed autism after exposure to infant vaccines. A majority of those claims revolve around the use of thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative.
Parents claim that the science is on their side and agree with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?s opinion that the science against them amounts to ?cigarette science? similar to the flimsy claims of the cigarette manufacturers from years ago.
The wealth of science backing a vaccine/autism link will go head-to-head with federal agencies that mandated the administration of mercury-containing vaccines to children and with the drug companies that produced them. Parents have been especially wary of pharmaceutical/government ties ever since the mysterious insertion of a rider to the Homeland Security Act in 2002 which would have protected Eli Lilly from any liability resulting from their product, thimerosal.
For parents like Lyn Redwood, RN, whose son received 125 times the Environmental Protection Agency?s allowable exposure to mercury at 2 months of age, the science is overwhelmingly supportive of a thimerosal-autism link. After routine childhood vaccines, Mrs. Redwood?s son slowly regressed and was found to have toxic levels of mercury in his body. According to Mrs. Redwood, ?The only data supporting no evidence of harm are a handful of epidemiology studies conducted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and vaccine manufacturers.?
One such study performed by the CDC?s National Immunization Program was recently reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services which concluded that the CDC?s Vaccine Safety Datalink utilized in the investigation had several serious problems, ?judged to reduce the usefulness of an ecologic study design using the VSD to address the potential association between thimerosal and the risk of autism spectrum disorders.?
Published peer-reviewed clinical studies supporting parents? claims include:
the development of blood levels of mercury in children after vaccination that meet the diagnostic criteria for mercury poisoning by the CDC?s own definition
vaccine levels of mercury result in significant mercury accumulation in the brain
elevated levels of mercury in children diagnosed with autism who are unable to effectively eliminate the neurotoxin following exposure
A three-year investigation by the Government Reform Committee concluded in May of 2003: ?Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.?