CNN Coverage-disgusting!

[Guest guest]

Yesterday I followed CNN Newsroom for Hearing coverage. Aside from

the specific coverage of the hearings, there were approximately 5

pharmaceutical advertisements each hour, so I didn't have high

hopes...

Most offensive in their coverage was the statement; " parent's want a

piece of " the billion dollar comnpensation fund. Grrr.

here's the e-mail I shot off to them at 10:00 am PST:

I find your coverage of the NVIC Vaccine hearings offensive in both

tone and content. As the representative of a petitioner (my child who

is severely affected by autism), I am not, as you so flippantly

say " trying to get a piece of " the vaccine injury fund. I am quite

concerned about the safety of the vaccine program and as such I

believe that the burden of watching out for the health of our most

vulnerable citizens will only be protected in a system which offers

transparency accountability and which is willing to adhere to both

the spirit and the letter of the law when mistakes have been made.

The failure of the CDC, NIH and the FDA to notice the increasing

amounts of mercury based preservative Thimerosal in the mandated

vaccine schedule in the 1990's might have been yesterdays news had

the agencies accepted responsibility, immediately remedied the

oversight and provided appropriate compensation to the victims. Their

failure to follow these commonly accepted practices suggests

duplicity based upon their closely held (if not incestuous)

relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.

The legal case for the claimants (vaccine injured children-

represented by parents) is actually quite strong in terms of

published peer-reviewed laboratory-based based medical research. The

respondents offer a handful of warmed-over epidemiological studies

which by the government's (NIEH) own reviews are weak at best.

If you are unable to report on these hearings without apparent bias,

you might consider saving the paid advertising for pharmaceutical

products for a different time slot, as it will be difficult to claim

bias-free coverage.

Please consider coverage of the issues from the perspective of the

claimants-as I'm sure you will be inundated by comments such as this

and will have no difficulty finding appropriate spokespersons

anywhere in the country. I will be expecting on-air acknowledgement

of the valid concerns shared by hundreds of thousands of viewers who

have been affected in some way by the 1 in 150 children born in

the '90s who have been diagnosed with autism.

C. Cary, PsyD

San Diego, CA