Politics of Autism (This article angers me..more lies!)

[Guest guest]

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20031229-112707-6238r.htm

The article in the Wall Street Journal entitled " Politics of Autism " was

picked up by the Washington Times today.

For everyone who sent all of the incredible responses to the WSJ, could you

also please email or fax them to the Washington Times at:

National News Desk

Tel: 202/636-3161

Fax: 202/529-6658

Inside Politics Columnist

Greg Pierce

E-mail: gpierce@...

We'd also like for you to include two ads which can be printed out from our

Grassroots Center at

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/grassroots.php or you can copy and

paste these links into your emails to the Washington Times.

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/images/frist1.pdf

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/images/frist2.pdf

To see letters for inspiration, visit

http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/grassrootswsj2.php

Thanks so much everyone and Happy New Year!

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20031229-112707-6238r.htm

Three Senators

" 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, " the Wall Street Journal says.

" 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, " the newspaper

said in an editorial.

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

â? " Olympia Snowe, and Lincoln Chafee â? " 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.