Kirby on Meet the Press Sunday August 7th

[Guest guest]

NAA ACTION ALERT

Evidence of Harm author Kirby will appear this Sunday morning,

August 7, on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert. Please check your

local listings for broadcast time in your area. IOM director Dr.

Harvey Fineberg is scheduled to appear along with Mr. Kirby to debate

the controversy presented in Evidence of Harm regarding the link

between mercury-containing vaccines and neurological disorders such

as autism and ADHD.

NAA has sent the following letter to Mr. Russert to thank him for

airing this critical topic. We encourage you to take a moment to

thank him as well and tell him a little about your family's

situation. Any information you can share regarding the amount of

mercury received through vaccines, regressions occurring after

mercury-containing vaccines were given, chelation results, etc. would

be helpful. Here is the link for your letters to Meet the Press:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/

As we all know, the story of what happened to our children has yet to

attain the type of mainstream media attention it deserves. When a

program with the visibility and acclaim of Meet the Press decides to

devote time to it, we know we're making progress. We need to let Mr.

Russert and his producers know they're onto something big and

encourage them to fully investigate the thimerosal issue.

Sincerely,

The NAA Team

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August 3, 2005

Mr. Tim Russert

NBC News

Meet the Press

Washington, DC

Dear Mr. Russert,

All of us at the National Autism Association extend our gratitude for

your willingness to address a subject few media outlets have been

brave enough to honestly take on: the relationship between increased

mercury exposure through vaccines and the neurological disorders

currently running rampant among the children of this country.

As a 501©3 organization created to provide information and support

to families of children with an autism diagnosis, we hear

increasingly from parents who believe their children were injured by

the mercury they received through vaccines, and mounting scientific

data from respected research facilities backs them up.

One of our primary interests is the development of meaningful

treatments for the one in 166 American children now diagnosed with

autism, and the one in six now suffering with a learning or behavior

disorder. Therefore, it is particularly troublesome that the full

story of what happened to the children of the " thimerosal generation "

has yet to achieve public acknowledgment. Without widespread public

awareness, research will continue to be directed into genetics and

other areas that are of minimal benefit to our injured children.

Asking the tough questions of your guests next Sunday may be the best

thing that has happened to these children in a very long time. We

hope you will take into account the following areas of concern as you

plan your broadcast:

There is evidence that the CDC paid for the IOM's 2004 conclusion

recommending that further study into a link between thimerosal

exposure and neurological disorders be abandoned. Furthermore, there

are indications of conflict of interest among some of the IOM

Immunization Safety Review Committee members including financial ties

to vaccine makers.

Transcripts from closed-door sessions among the IOM's Immunization

Safety Review Committee reveal that the members decided they would

not find that vaccine mercury caused injury before the Committee had

seen or reviewed the relevant studies. Also, these transcripts

obtained by FOIA contain ample evidence of two forms of blatant bias,

and direct departures from their stated charters: (1) repeated

acknowledgements that CDC doesn't want " us " to find causation, and

more important (2) a constant obsession not with the science but with

the overriding " policy " issue of what a finding of causation would do

to public confidence in vaccines.

The five epidemiological studies the IOM based its conclusion upon

are fatally flawed, have never been replicated, and have ties to the

CDC (or foreign equivalent mandating vaccines in other countries)

and/or the pharmaceutical industry. However, the IOM chose to

completely ignore the biological and clinical data supporting the

link between thimerosal exposure and injuries to children conducted

by independent appropriately-credentialed researchers.

The CDC has rendered the taxpayer-funded Vaccine Safety Datalink

nearly inaccessible to independent, outside researchers. The one time

brief outside access that was allowed literally required an act of

Congress to proceed, was severely restricted, and, when the

researchers found further evidence of a link between thimerosal

exposure and injuries to children, they were maligned by trumped-up

charges of privacy violations. The lack of transparency in the CDC's

handling of this data is unacceptable.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this mercury poisoning is that it

could have been so easily avoided. Thimerosal is NOT NEEDED in

vaccines, which could have been sold either as single doses or with a

different preservative. Many European countries began eliminating

thimerosal in the early 1990's. A 1991 internal memo obtained from a

Merck whistleblower noted that total mercury exposure exceeded toxic

limits, that there were at least six safer preservatives, recommended

that Merck consider removal, but that FDA would likely not require a

change. Our licensing authority, FDA, finally conceded in 1998 emails

that they never added up the total mercury, so despite the law that

requires that they only license " safe " vaccines, their negligence led

to even more toxic levels of mercury in vaccines. Similarly, CDC, the

agency that mandates vaccines for children, never even bothered to

add up the mercury.

Again, we thank you sincerely for making this topic available to your

viewers and would be happy to provide further information should you

need it. There can be no topic more deserving of in-depth

investigation and open public debate than the unnecessary poisoning

of nearly an entire generation of this nation's children.

Sincerely,

National Autism Association Officers and Board Members:

Jo Pike, Executive Director

Fournier, President

Rita Shreffler, Secretary

Rosemarie Dubrowsky, Treasurer

Bono, Board Chair

Lori McIlwain

Bothwell

Lyn Redwood

Bono

son

Ann Brasher

Steve Stoddard

Krakow

Jim Moody

Liz Birt