A Poisonous Move for Kids by CDC

[Guest guest]

I love RFK. He's got another great post today:

http://tinyurl.com/zwbbw

A Poisonous Move for Kids by CDC

by F. Kennedy Jr.

On February 22, CDC announced that it is dramatically expanding

America's flu vaccination program to include all children between six

months and 5 years and their siblings and caretakers. But, guess what

CDC forgot to mention? There is not nearly enough thimerosal-free flu

vaccine to go around. Vaccine makers produced fewer than 8 million

thimerosal-free flu doses this season, which doesn't bode well for the

more than 17 million children designated to receive flu shots under

CDC's new protocol.

Thimerosal is the mercury-based preservative that has been linked to

the epidemic of neurological disorders including speech delays,

language delays, hyperactivity, attention-deficit disorder, and autism

in American children born after 1989. CDC recommended the removal of

thimerosal from children's vaccines by 2001, but most flu vaccinations

still contain 25 micrograms of thimerosal in every 0.5ml dose. Under

CDC's new recommendations, every American child under five will be

injected once each year, with a double dose for first-timers. By his

fifth birthday, a child whose parents cannot obtain the child-safe

vaccine will have received up to 100 micrograms of thimerosal, which

is half ethyl mercury. A recent scientific study indicates that many

children will retain the tissue-destroying toxin in their brain and

organs for years. CDC has moved aggressively to cut funding and derail

follow-up studies that examine the impacts of retained mercury in

children's brains.

In its announcement, CDC admitted that the health risks from flu to

children do not justify the dramatic expansion of the vaccination

program. For the first time in history, CDC rationalized the new

protocols by arguing that the inoculations will spare parents and the

health care industry significant lost work time now spent taking care

of sick children. Although framed as a recommendation, CDC's new

protocols function as mandates, since they establish the standards of

care for the medical profession. Doctors who fall short of that

standard are liable if a patient were to die from flu.

Since CDC is not requiring production of thimerosal-free children's

flu vaccines, its expanded recommendations are bound to provoke a

scramble among parents, pediatricians and HMOs to get their hands on

the limited stashes of thimerosal-free flu vaccines.

CDC's new protocols contemplate inoculating 185 million Americans with

influenza vaccines. The industry shipped only 81 million doses this

year, so even before CDC announced its new requirements, the battle to

secure flu vaccines was ferocious. When vaccine manufacturer Sanofi

Pasteur opened its phone lines to accept pre-orders on January 31, it

was flooded with calls from physicians, hospitals and HMOs desperate

to reserve vaccines. During the first 30 minutes Sanofi got 40,000

phone calls and over 200,000 calls within eight hours, collapsing its

communications system. By week's end it had received 400,000 calls --

more than the company customarily receives in a year.

Mercury-free flu shots are in particularly short supply. Sanofi, the

only commercial supplier of thimerosal-free pediatric influenza

vaccines, produced only eight million children's doses this year.

CDC's announcement increases the pool of targeted children by over 11

million kids, ages 2 to 5 years old. Only about one-third of America's

children under age five will be lucky enough to get the child-safe

vaccines. While CDC's Director of Immunizations Dr. Lance Rodewald

assured me he expects no shortage of thimerosal-free vaccine, doctors

and medical groups are telling a different story. Those who

customarily give their patients only thimerosal-free flu shots are

already finding that the industry cannot fill their orders for the

2006-2007 season.

Pediatrician Lawrence Rosen, Director of Pediatrics at Pascack Valley

Hospital in Westwood, New Jersey, told us that his eight-doctor family

medical practice had been informed by Sanofi that the company was

unable to fill his order for next season. " It was like trying to get

tickets to a Rolling Stones concert, " he said. Sanofi will give him

only 300 of the 900 thimerosal-free doses he needs. " The only other

shots I can get contain thimerosal, and I'm not going to do that. "

According to Rosen, the problem is widespread across the country, with

very few practices able to fill their orders for flu shots. " The gist

is there's not enough safe vaccine. The government wants us to give

more shots, but there's no supply. They are leaving millions of kids

between the ages of 3 and 5 with no option -- millions of kids. "

Sanofi has said that the company was prepared to double production of

thimerosal-free children's flu vaccine, but that there were no

requests from CDC or the State Health Departments that it do so.

Indeed CDC has ordered 3.5 million doses from Sanofi for its Vaccines

for Children Program, which provides vaccines to economically

disadvantaged children mainly in minority communities. Only a fraction

of these will be thimerosal-free, according to Rodewald. He refused to

disclose the precise number.

Why will CDC inject millions of minority kids in America's poorest

neighborhoods with poison proven to kill brain tissue and cause

learning disorders when child-safe vaccines are available? CDC's

spokesperson Glen Nowak explained to me the agency " doesn't have a

preference for thimerosal-free vaccines " despite its repeated

statements to the contrary since 1999. CDC also admitted it has no

efforts underway to further educate the public about thimerosal, or to

encourage manufacturers to move more quickly toward 100 percent

mercury-free vaccines.

CDC's recommendation to vaccinate millions of additional children

without assuring any additional capacity of thimerosal-free vaccines

is a bad one. It will almost certainly encounter stiff resistance as

skeptical parents and pediatricians balk at injecting young children

with a known brain poison by order of bureaucrats that they

increasingly don't trust.