Mercury, Autism and the Coming Storm - Kirby

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Mercury, Autism and the Coming Storm – Kirby

Finally, the mercury-autism controversy is burning up the airwaves

and keeping the bloggers busy. We have just witnessed the biggest

week ever in the history of reporting on this high-stakes debate

and, naturally, I could not be happier. A nationwide discussion

about thimerosal and autism was my primary goal in writing " Evidence

of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic, " and at long

last the conversation has begun.

Many people dismiss this theory as pure bunk – as alarmist,

fabricated and foolhardy as, say, insisting that Saddam had WMD's.

These naysayers desperately want the issue to just go away, and they

want people like me to shut up.

But this conflict, folks, is just getting started.

In the past week, we have watched Kennedy, Jr. ignite a mass-

media bonfire that will smolder for a considerable time, as

witnessed in the passionate contentions emerging from both sides,

many of them posted on this site.

Don Imus, meanwhile, continued to move the story forward each

morning, challenging " wimpy " newscasters to finally cover the damn

subject, and bludgeoning top politicos for their hitherto deafening

silence.

Imus got NBC's and Tim Russert both to concede that

this is, indeed, a topic worthy of valuable airtime. He extracted an

announcement from Senator Dodd that the Connecticut Democrat

and his Republican counterpart, Lamar of Tennessee, were

looking into hearings on the issue in the sub-committee they head.

And he earned a surprising revelation from Senator Rick Santorum (R-

PA) that a full-scale investigation of the matter was already

underway by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the powerful

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (H.E.L.P.) Committee.

Imus also issued a challenge to any and all opponents of the mercury-

autism theory to come forward and debate the subject, live on his

show, with RFK Jr and/or myself. People from the CDC, FDA, IOM and

the American Academy of Pediatrics all said " no thanks. " But on

Thursday, Imus got a taker: A leading executive from the

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA)

accepted the Imus challenge, and details are being arranged now.

Imus also interviewed Mr. Kennedy, who in turn appeared on

Scarborough Country in a historical segment in which the

conservative host told the liberal guest that his own son has

Asperger's Syndrome (a milder form of autism). And, of course,

Kennedy was interviewed – some would say ambushed -- on ABC News.

But the network, in its haste to dismiss the thimerosal theory as

the dangerous lunacy of mercury moms and trial lawyers, may one day

live to regret its unyielding certainty, in a Dewey-Defeats-Truman

sort of way.

As for myself, I went on Imus last Friday, talking about why no one

was talking about this story (expect for Imus). On Tuesday, I

appeared on the Montel Show with Lyn Redwood, the main

character in " Evidence of Harm, " along with theory proponent Rep.

Dave Weldon (R-FL), and others. And on Thursday, Ron Reagan and

Crowley invited me onto MSNBC's " Connected, " along with Dr.

Louis , former head of the AAP. Dr. Offit, a leading

pediatrician who dismisses the thimerosal theory, refused to appear

live with me. Instead, at his request, he was interviewed separately.

Recently, I posted an essay on this site called " Bring it On, " in

which I offered to discuss the evidence of harm from thimerosal with

anyone, anywhere, at any time. Dr. graciously accepted the

offer, and soon there will be that " debate " with the PhRMA rep on

Imus in the Morning.

Also this week, I spent two days in Washington briefing powerful

people on the many unanswered questions of this spiraling

contretemps. I was there at the request of parents of autistic

children who, more than Kennedy, Kirby or Imus, are responsible for

keeping this story alive.

It was not my first visit to DC. In the past few weeks, several

parents, researchers and I have met with Chairman Enzi and his

staff, with the staff of Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Joe

Lieberman (D-CT), who pledged his own support to look into this

issue on (where else?) Imus in the Morning. We met Senators Obama

and Durbin (D-IL) and briefed their staffs, who are likewise

committed to examining these complicated and disturbing questions.

We met for hours with top investigative attorneys of a leading

Senate committee, and with a very high ranking and respectful

official at HHS, who clearly recognizes that this story is about to

explode.

All over Capitol Hill, we encountered thoughtful, intelligent,

compassionate people – Republicans and Democrats – who seem truly

committed to getting the difficult answers that the American people

deserve. Call me naïve, but I have great confidence in their

integrity and resolve.

Of course, it's possible that this army of congressional

investigators will determine that injecting organic mercury directly

into newborn babies was a perfectly harmless thing to do, and did

not trigger adverse reactions in a subset of children with a genetic

predisposition to mercury sensitivity. They may declare that the

synchronization of the autism epidemic and rising thimerosal

exposures in the 1990s was merely an uncanny coincidence. They may

find that a thorough review of a federal vaccine database, currently

under lock-and-key, reveals zero evidence of an association. They

may discover that removing mercury from autistic children yields

absolutely no clinical benefits whatsoever. And, contrary to Mr.

Kennedy's assertions, they may conclude that everyone in the

government and drug industry acted with nothing but the utmost

forthrightness, untainted by malfeasance and conflicts of interest,

openly sharing all that they knew about thimerosal's toxicity with

the American public.

If that happens, then maybe we can put this whole sordid tale behind

us forever. But I don't think that will happen. What will certainly

happen is a much-needed airing of our nation's public health laundry.

To the detractors who are incensed that these questions are even

being asked, to those who decline to answer the questions in a face-

to-face forum, and especially to all those unlucky people

potentially implicated in this brewing summertime scandal, I have

the following advice: Don't complain to me, complain to the United

States Senate -- preferably under oath.