Evidence of a Science Bending Rogue Group Within CDC?

[Guest guest]

FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

______________________________________________________

July 25, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Evidence of a Science Bending Rogue Group Within CDC?

Centers for Disease Control and Obfuscation

Commentary by

Binstock

[Yesterday the FEAT Daily Newsletter reproduced a news post from the

Sunday Times in England who reported on an official study used by the CDC to

claim that there is no vaccine-autism connection -- as being significantly

flawed, “New Autism Doubt On Mercury In Vaccines” by Rosie Waterhouse.

http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/07/22/stinwenws01001 . The

report quotes the study’s author admitting error - error serious enough to

discredit the study and embarrass the CDC. The following commentary is by

Binstock, a reputable researcher in the area of Developmental &

Behavioral Neuroanatomy. -LS]

As summarized by Rosie Waterhouse's news item, a transcript of the

CDC's secret meeting about thimerosal effects indicates that a small group

within the CDC acknowledges major flaws within its initial study of the

autism epidemic's link to vaccinal ethylmercury.

Despite this awareness, this small but influential group within the

CDC (ie, the group that enacted the fatally flawed " study " ) has touted and

continues to use the study's " conclusions " -- eg, on the webpages of the

American Academy of Pediatrics (spring, 2000) and at the recent Institute of

Medicine (IOM) hearing (July 16, 2001).

What the CDC's secret meeting transcript conveys is that the study's

data about autism were insufficient.

As a result, conclusions about rates of autism in the pediatric cohort

from several HMOs in the study are fictional.

Yet invalid findings do not stop this CDC group from continuing to

disseminate misleading conclusions.

Importantly, as indicated by reporters' rhetoric in recent Boston

Globe and Lancet articles about the IOM hearing, a tradition of respect for

the CDC enables the phony conclusions to be presented as if valid.

Paragraphs that follow are an attempt to set forth a summary of what

this " rogue group " within the CDC has achieved and continues to achieve.

The seriously flawed CDC " study " -- initially distributed as RL

et al, spring 2000 -- had at least three major flaws:

A) The HMO data had major under-reporting of autism;

Data analysis by et al did not include susceptible subgroups

likely to be more affected by injected ethylmercury;

C) et al relied upon the EPA's " safe " limit for methylmercury,

which had been derived in relation to gradually ingested mercury and which,

therefore, minimized the fact that during the 1990s human infants and

toddlers had been injected with bolus doses of ethylmercury, which persisted

in their bodies during a post-vaccinal, extended pulse of cytokines, which

alter permeability of intestinal tissue and of the blood-brain barrier.

These several factors -- and others identified by analysts, eg,

Kurt, MD -- indicate that the rate of autism " documented " by et al was

an extreme under-representation of the actual rates of autism among children

within the HMOs whose data et al utilized.

Despite these flaws the CDC's rogue team has continued to distribute

and utilize the flawed data and the misleading conclusions derived.

The CDC's rogue team has stated and continues to state that an

association with autism was not found.

Note: this statement is inaccurate and is quite different from what

the CDC ought be stating, namely, that the study design was inadequate for

evaluating a link between thimerosal (TMS; 49.6% ethylmercury by weight) and

the increased incidence of autism.

Yet despite the flawed study, the CDC's team continues to tout the

study's " conclusions " as if valid, which they are not!

At the IOM hearing (7.16.01), the CDC presented summaries of its

" Phase 1 and Phase 2 " studies (ie, several versions of what had been called

RL et al, spring of 2000) as if the Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies had

had valid methodologies and had thereby derived valid conclusions about

autism and thimerosal.

In fact, during the hearing, the CDC appeared content to convey the

impression that conclusions from the Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies were

legitimate. (See The Lancet for medical-reporter's rhetoric indicating how

well the CDC succeeded in obfuscating the significance of vaccinal

thimerosal).

Furthermore, the CDC's rogue team and a U of Washington research group

are designing a Phase 3 study wherein a link between autism and thimerosal

will not be explored.

At the IOM hearing, the impression conveyed by the U Washington

presenter was that there was no need to study what had already been found to

be non-existent.

In my opinion, this requires a severe leap of faith.

Even Alice in Wonderland might pause incredulously.

The CDC acknowledges (off the record and in secret meetings) that the

Phase 1 and Phase 2 et al studies were seriously flawed in regard to

autism, yet the CDC is happy to proceed with a Phase 3 study that omits

autism -- because, so we were told, there was no finding of an

autism/thimerosal study in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies.

In other words, despite the fact that the CDC's et al

methodology was fatally flawed in regard to autism and thimerosal, the CDC's

rogue team and their U of Washington allies seem quite willing to continue

diverting attention away from the substantial likelihood that

physician-injected ethylmercury has been an etiologic factor in many cases

of autism and related disorders.

If ADHD, Tourette's, PDD, and PDD/NOS are added, then the number of

children adversely affected by physician-injected thimerosal is potentially

huge.

At the IOM hearing, presenter Mark Blaxill summarized epidemiological

similarities between autism's increase and the increased use of vaccines

containing TMS.

He also expressed dismay that the CDC group most responsible for

developing and encouraging TMS-injections into neonates (via the HepB

vaccine) is the group that also has been conducting and superintending

studies intended to evaluate the relationship between autism and

injected-ethylmercury.

Given the 1990s history of injecting thimerosal and the recent history

of CDC-led " studies " about thimerosal, the CDC's conflict of interest is

clear.

The actions by the CDC's rogue team appear to be masking and diverting

attention away from thimerosal's adverse effects in hundreds of thousands of

children.

Excerpts from the CDC's secret meeting -- obtain via the Freedom of

Information act -- were presented to IOM by representatives of SafeMinds

(http://www.SafeMinds.com).

As an official submission to the hearing, the SafeMinds letter to IOM

is to be posted on the IOM website -- as will other materials that implicate

thimerosal injections as having damaged many of America's children (and

those in other countries too).

Having the CDC team that developed and encouraged early infant

injections with TMS also be running studies about TMS is akin to having Al

Capone investigate the liquour business in 1930s Chicago.

That the CDC's confict of interest is having a real effect is seen in

five factors:

i) The CDC continues to trumpet the Phase 1 and Phase 2 conclusions

as if valid, which they are not;

ii) The CDC continues to utilize the EPA's so-called " safe " limit for

ingested organic mercury despite the fact that vaccinal ethylmercury was

injected;

iii) The CDC continues to perform data analysis while ignoring the

fact that some children are more susceptible to adverse sequelae from bolus

exposures to toxic metals;

iv) The CDC is allowing a major " Phase 3 " study to proceed without

autism as a focus;

v) The CDC's rogue team uses its organization's prestige as a lever

whereby the flawed conclusions autism/thimerosal conclusions of et al

are presented as if acceptable and useful -- eg, in allowing Phase 3 to omit

autism.

At the IOM hearing, an autism-parent suggested that the HMO data

utilized by the CDC ought be analyzed by professionals selected by trusted

autism organizations.

Not surprisingly, the CDC's Dr. Chen -- apparently a leading actor in

the development and use of the HepB for neonates and infants -- took the

microphone and offered reasons why independent analysis ought not occur.

After the meeting, Beth Clay -- assistant to Congressman Dan Burton --

commented that the CDC seems quite ready to allow new " outsiders " to view

the HMO data so long as the CDC selects who those outside experts are.

In my opinion, outside analysis of the CDC's primary data for et

al ought occur; and the analysts ought be persons not within and not

hand-picked by the CDC.

Furthermore, the CDC's conflict of interest already has a track record

of diverting attention away from the link between injected ethylmercury and

autism.

A solution is needed to the CDC's conflict of interest.

By continuing to misuse et al conclusions -- the CDC's rogue

team continues to shape public opinion and near-future research regarding

the link between thimerosal and autism.

>> DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW <<

Subscribe, Read, then Forward the FEAT Daily Newsletter.

To Subscribe go to www.feat.org/FEATnews No Cost!

_______________________________________________________

Lenny Schafer, Editor PhD Ron Sleith Kay Stammers

Editor@... Decelie CALENDAR: Guppy events@...

Unsubscribe: FEATNews-signoff-request@...

To unsubscribe send an email to 1autvax-unsubscribe