The Politics of Autism: Lawsuits and emotion vs. science and childhood vaccines.

[Guest guest]

Some of you got this and some didn't

Sorry for the repeat if you did and info to follow on how to respond

Sheri

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004487

The Politics of Autism

Lawsuits and emotion vs. science and childhood vaccines.

Monday, December 29, 2003 12:01 a.m. EST

For any parent, there are few more traumatic diagnoses than that a child

suffers from autism. But the increasing political attention to that

affliction is having the unintended and dangerous consequence of limiting

vaccines for all children.

This is a story of politics and lawyers trumping science and medicine. It

concerns thimerosal, a preservative that was used in vaccines for 60 years

and has never been credibly linked to any health problems. Nonetheless, a

small but vocal group of parents have taken to claiming that thimerosal

causes autism, a brain disorder that impairs normal social interaction. The

result has been an ugly legal and political spat that has spilled into

Congress and is frightening some parents from vaccinating their children

against such deadly diseases as tetanus and whooping cough.

Like night follows day, the dispute has also brought in the trial lawyers.

Vaccine makers are supposed to be protected from lawsuits by 1986

legislation, but the lawyers are exploiting loopholes to file

billion-dollar suits that threaten to punish the few companies that still

make vaccines.

Congress tried to fix this by including a liability provision in homeland

security legislation a year ago. But three Northeast Republican

Senators--Olympia Snowe, and Lincoln Chafee--demanded it be

taken out until Congress could have a full airing of the thimerosal-autism

issue. The Senators haven't yet honored their side of that deal.

Perhaps that's because if they did their position would be exposed as

scientifically untenable. The claim is that thimerosal, an organic mercury

compound, can cause neurodevelopmental disorders. But study after study has

shown that there is simply no such link.

A 2002 University of Rochester study compared the blood mercury levels of

infants who'd received vaccines with and without thimerosal. All had levels

well below the super-cautious EPA safety standard. This was followed last

March by a study published in Pediatrics magazine, in which researchers

compared the physical manifestations of autism and mercury poisoning. They

found that the symptoms weren't the same, nor were the brain tissues similar.

Perhaps the best evidence comes from Denmark, one of those European nations

that likes to monitor most everything about its citizens. Researchers

recently examined the health records of all children born in Denmark from

1971 to 2000 for autism diagnoses. Though Denmark eliminated thimerosal

from its vaccines in 1992, the researchers found that the incidence of

autism continued to increase. A second research team reviewed the records

of nearly 500,000 Danes vaccinated for pertussis. They also found that the

risk of autism and related disorders didn't differ between those vaccinated

with thimerosal and those without.

None of this is to deny that the incidence of autism may be rising, though

there is a dispute about why. The definition of the disease has broadened

in recent years, encompassing even mild learning disabilities, and doctors

have become better at diagnosing it. Some statistics show that as autism

diagnoses rise, those for mental retardation fall--suggesting children were

previously misdiagnosed. Parents are also more keen to have a proper

diagnosis, because many schools now offer more extensive educational

services for autism than they do for other disorders.

The good news is that research is beginning to reveal autism's causes and

signs, in particular evidence of a genetic link. Studies have found that if

one identical twin has autism the other has a very high chance of having

severe social impairment. Scientists are already focusing on a handful of

genes that may play a role.

In a important study this year, researchers found that a small head

circumference at birth, followed by a sudden growth spurt of the head

before the end of the first year, is a reliable early warning sign. (Brain

growth that early can't be triggered by vaccines.)

Autism is a terrible disease and it's understandable that some parents

would want to look for scapegoats. One lobby group, Safe Minds, has been

especially active in blaming vaccines and has found a powerful ally in

Indiana Republican Dan Burton, who runs the House Wellness and Human Rights

Subcommittee. His family has had its own painful experience with autism.

But their understandable passion shouldn't be allowed to trump undeniable

evidence and damage childhood immunizations that are essential to public

health. Vaccine makers stopped using thimerosal a few years ago, but the

autism lawsuits threaten those companies with enough damage that their

ability to supply vaccines is in jeopardy.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has a proposal to offer liability

protection against thimerosal claims and modernize the federal Vaccine

Injury Compensation Program--which pays out to the rare family whose child

is truly harmed by a vaccine. Congress could both redeem itself and improve

public health by making this bill a priority when it reconvenes in January.

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

vaccineinfo@... voicemail US 530-740-0561

(go to http://www.paypal.com) or by mail

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

Homeopathy On-Line course - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm

ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL

OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE

DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

******

" Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy

knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information

and religions destroy spirituality " .... Ellner