Re: SB49 - campaign contributions

[Guest guest]

>> > In a message dated 7/30/2006 12:11:04 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, > autismjtm@... writes:> > "Saying I am "entitled" to my own opinion just means, "get screwed because > you don't agree with me." "> > If that is how you saw it so be it. The real meaning behind it was:> I don't have time to get into a discussion with you. I know your position > and I am not going to waste precious time when I know there is no changing it.> > > > > No, you don't know my position. That was my point. I didn't give an > opinion for or against. I just noted that the pharm. co. writing a letter > advocating their position is not really that outrageous. That is all I said. You > read a lot more into it. But obviously that doesn't bother you. > > Roxanna ö¿ö> Autism Happens

All right then, here is my explanation for having misgivings about the letter sent to the Department of Health.

The letter was obtained by me from the Department of Health using the "public records request". It was sent to the Department of Health from Merck Pharmaceuticals, vaccine division on February 22nd, 2005.

Here is what the letter says (my comments are in italics):

Dear Dr. Baird:

We are writing to call your attention to important information that may assist you in your consideration of SB 49, legislation regarding thimerosal and other preservatives in vaccines. While Merck does not manufacture thimerosal-containing pediatric vaccines for use domestically (no, they just ship them to third world countries where the kids are more likely to starve to death before they display any neurological signs from mercury poisoning), we recommend a sound public health perspective be used in your assessment of the proposed bill.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluates the safety and efficacy of all vaccines approved for use and distribution in the United States. (The FDA vaccine advisory board leaves much to be desired when it comes to determine whether a vaccine is safe or not. The following is from a congressional investigation into the FDA and CDC's advisory boards:

1. That members, including the Chair, of the FDA and CDC advisory committees who make these decisions own stock in drug companies that make vaccines.

2. That individuals on both advisory committees own patents for vaccines under consideration or affected by the decisions of the committee.

3. That three out of five of the members of the FDA's advisory committee who voted for the rotavirus vaccine had conflicts of interest that were waived.

4. That seven individuals of the 15 member FDA advisory committee were not present at the meeting, two others were excluded from the vote, and the remaining five were joined by five temporary voting members who all voted to license the product.

5. That the CDC grants conflict-of-interest waivers to every member of their advisory committee a year at a time, and allows full participation in the discussions leading up to a vote by every member, whether they have a financial stake in the decision or not.

6. That the CDC's advisory committee has no public members—no parents have a vote in whether or not a vaccine belongs on the childhood immunization schedule. The FDA's committee only has one public member.

In addition, your state Public Health Department has as its mission the promotion of disease prevention in this state (so? SB49 is not anti-vaccine legislation. Rather, it is an attempt to make vaccines safer)

Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has found that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism spectrum disorders. (ah, the infamous IOM report! As always, congressman Dave Weldon said it best: "Not only the timing of the IOM meeting raises suspicions, but also the narrowing of the scope of inquiry, and the emphasis IOM was to assign to epidemiology.

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine concluded that "exposure to thimerosal-containing vaccines could be associated with neurodevelopmental disorders." The IOM also recommended that children not be given mercury-containing vaccines. What was the response of the CDC? For this most recent report they narrowed the IOM's scope to looking just at Autism. Does that sound like an agency interested in understanding whether or not thimerosal might be harmful, to some children? Or, does this response lead one to conclude that they are more interested in designing something to reassure an increasingly skeptical public?

Unlike 2001, this time the IOM was directed by CDC to only consider the possible relationship between thimerosal and Autism, rather than NDDs as a whole. Anyone familiar with theVerstraeten study knows exactly why the IOM's scope was narrowed – because the 2003 Verstraeten study found associations between thimerosal and NDDs and some children with autism may have been misdiagnosed as having speech or language delay.

By narrowing the scope – which largely went unnoticed by the media – the CDC has avoided acknowledging that thimerosal very well may have caused NDDs in some children. This latest IOM report is simply part of a P.R. campaign in my view. Would we not have had a much more productive report if the CDC had updated the research on possible associations between thimerosal and NDDs as a whole.

In evaluating thimerosal's relationship to Autism, the IOM relies almost exclusively on five epidemiology studies. The principal authors of all five studies have serious conflicts of interest.All five studies were published in 2003 leading up to the IOM's February 2004 meeting. All were conducted while the CDC and NIH virtually ignored the IOM's 2001 biological and clinical research recommendations.

It is critical to note the instructions that the IOM was given, primarily by the CDC, which has been funding the IOM. Pages 5 and 6 of the IOM report make it clear that epidemiology was to reign supreme. In the absence of epidemiological evidence to support causality, IOM was instructed to give biological evidence little consideration, and was prohibited from allowing biological evidence to lend evidence toward causality."

The FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reached similar conclusions. (why of course they have. They simply cannot afford to admit to the biggest medical blunder in history)

Therefore, before the legislature takes any action that could have the effect of denying physicians, children and their parents access to important vaccines (The big doom and gloom threat of vaccine shortage! Since Merck obviously has nothing at stake here, let's look at the biggest pediatric flu shot supplier in the US, Aventis Pasteur. Spokesman, Len Lavenda is quoted here: Lavenda said Aventis takes preliminary orders for flu vaccine from December until mid-May, and this year the demand for preservative-free vaccine has been picking up. "We certainly don't anticipate having a problem" meeting the demand, he said. The shortage of injectable flu vaccine last winter was an anomaly (due to the Chiron contamination), he added. "Every other year we end up with millions of doses unsold."

Or casting unfounded doubt on the safety and efficacy of vaccines in general (Unfounded!!!!!!! There are literally hundreds of studies showing just how dangerous thimerosal is – http://www.nomercury.org/science.htm)

(such as the flu vaccine – the only thimerosal containing vaccine marketed for pediatric use in the U.S.) (this is flat out a lie. Some pediatric DT vaccines contains 25 mcg mercury - http://www.vaccineshoppe.com/US_PDF/DT_4663_4864_2_03.pdf)

the legislature should ask for the advice and assessment of these federal and state agencies. (Merck should have added a sentence here that stated "who are assisting us in manipulating the data so that there is no evidence of harm from thimerosal". In 2000 the CDC hosted a meeting in Simpsonwood, Georgia to discuss the scientific data suggesting a relationship between thimerosal and neurological developmental disorders. It is pretty scary when you read some of the comments:

"Forgive this personal comment, but I got called out a eight o'clock for an emergency 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. It will probably take a long time. In the meantime, and I know there are probably implications for this internationally, but in the meantime I think I want that grandson to only be given Thimerosal-free vaccines."

Dr. , member of the ACIP vaccine policy committee

"The number of dose related relationships are linear and statistically significant." "You can play with this all you want. They are linear. They are statistically significant." Bill Weil, M.D., Liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics

Only then will the legislature have the science, medical and health information available to make such an important decision. (after Simpsonwood - I seriously doubt it!)

Decisions made in the absence of, or contrary to, the best available scientific and medical data (they sure have faith in their allies at the government health agencies) could have a detrimental impact on the health of your constituents as well as set a negative precedent for our nation's public health policy. (the "detrimental impact" of poisoning a whole generation of kids far outweighs the "detrimental impact" on the pharmaceutical industry's pocket book – at least in my opinion!)

The letter was signed by Mark Feinberg, vice-president, policy, public health & medical affairs.

So, to sum it up, I am disgusted with the lies and the "doom and gloom" threat of vaccine shortage contained in this letter.

I could go on for a lot longer but it is now 1:30am and I need to go to bed.

>

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 7/31/2006 10:59:20 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, kneeleee@... writes:

No but I saw Tony Atwood in a conference and he was talking about his upcoming books and his ideas were really interesting. Do you like them? A friend has them and I could probably borrow them but if they are worthwhile, I would want my own since we "love" our books here.

I am ordering, "My Book Full of Feelings: How to Control and React to the Size of Your Emotions " It is an "interactive workbook." So I thought that would be interesting as it covers the actual problem. I already have a book for him that is titled, "When my Autism gets too big" so I will probably be reading that with him more than a few times as well.

I won't be reading emails here so if anyone wants to talk about this subject with me, feel free to email me anytime! Thanks!

Roxanna ö¿öAutism Happens

[Guest guest]

>Not just where autism and vaccines are concerned, but all around.

Honestly, I have NO confidence in the health care/pharm industry, NOR do I

believe the FDA can protect the consumer since the drug companies pay the

salaries of so many of their inspectors. And I have worked for a pharm

company for more than 10 years! Does anyone wonder why I might be looking

for another job?

>Unless you doubt that an autism epidemic exists, there has got to be some

>environmental insult. >There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic. In the

>meantime, I can't afford to sit on my hands >while they conduct their

>studies. I, like all of us here am doing my best to help my son. I may be

> >way off the mark by doing diets, enzymes, and supplements. Who knows? I

>guess you could say, >I'm conducting my own study and so far, I'm happy

>with the results.

On another list I am on, the topic of genetics came up, and my position was

genes determine suspectibility and an environmental insult is the cause

(sort of like I have the genes for diabetes, but if I exercise and eat right

I can postpone the onset of the disease - maybe even avoid it altogether.)

>helps to do sing-songy question and answer with him. Maybe b/c it is

>rythmic???

A SLP once said my son has an auditory processing issue - it's hard for him

to process what he hears and we should give him time to process

questions/etc. In other words, don't expect an immediate answer. However,

the of the brain that processes spoken words is different than that which

processes music. When I use sing-songy language, my son uses a different

part of his brain to process it, and apparently, that part of the brain

doesn't have the same issues. Esp. when he was younger, his response time

to sing-song type of language was quicker than regular spoken words.

Chris

[Guest guest]

Roxanne - Is the workbook you are going to order Tony Atwood's cognitive

behavior therapy books, one on Anxiety and the other on Anger? If so, we

bought them. I started one last year, but thought it was just a little

abstract for my son and postponed using it. I think he's ready now (he's 7

y.o.), but I betchya if I had continued with it last year, he would have

understand everything. He surprised me this summer with how much he knows!

Chris

>Nothing I can think of yet for him. He got the award at school for " biggest

>heart. " Trouble is, he has the biggest heart. He takes everything as huge.

>Like his brother blew the paper off his straw yesterday at him and he

>screamed as if he was on fire. And it is NOT sensory related. It is just

>really poor self-regulation. I am going to order a book - kind of a

>workbook, I think, and we can work on it together. But until then, it's

>constant screaming over every little tiny detail. And discussing it with

>him gets me nowhere. I can only think to write some social stories about

>current situations and practice discussing the " size " of his emotions and

>practice that. We did work on other emotions but it's like he has stopped

>using them and everything is on " high " or " loud. " I am thinking anxiety

>plays a part plus lack of a schedule due to summer as well. It is just

>harder because he is 9 and not a little toddler.

[Guest guest]

Also, in relation to the nature vs nuture controversy, the best way I ever found of explaining this to patients is; Genetics loads the gun, Environment pulls the trigger.

In relation to our kids, I do believe there is a genetic predisposition to accumulate mercury or not be efficient in ridding the body of toxins, then the environmental insults are added on i.e. milk/wheat/other allergies or mercury/viral laden vaccines.

----- Original Message -----

From: The Marotta Family

Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 8:33 AM

Subject: [ ] Re: SB49 - campaign contributions

Roxanne - Is the workbook you are going to order Tony Atwood's cognitive behavior therapy books, one on Anxiety and the other on Anger? If so, we bought them. I started one last year, but thought it was just a little abstract for my son and postponed using it. I think he's ready now (he's 7 y.o.), but I betchya if I had continued with it last year, he would have understand everything. He surprised me this summer with how much he knows! Chris>Nothing I can think of yet for him. He got the award at school for "biggest >heart." Trouble is, he has the biggest heart. He takes everything as huge. >Like his brother blew the paper off his straw yesterday at him and he >screamed as if he was on fire. And it is NOT sensory related. It is just >really poor self-regulation. I am going to order a book - kind of a >workbook, I think, and we can work on it together. But until then, it's >constant screaming over every little tiny detail. And discussing it with >him gets me nowhere. I can only think to write some social stories about >current situations and practice discussing the "size" of his emotions and >practice that. We did work on other emotions but it's like he has stopped >using them and everything is on "high" or "loud." I am thinking anxiety >plays a part plus lack of a schedule due to summer as well. It is just >harder because he is 9 and not a little toddler.