An Epidemic Is Finally Acknowledged

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Autism: An Epidemic Is Finally Acknowledged

Government agency takes first step to protect our children

Ottar Grundvig

Special to The Epoch TimesDec 30, 2005

BEVERLY HILLS: Actor Hoffman speaks at the 2005 Cure Autism

Now's

10th Anniversay Gala last November. Hoffman is known for his convincing

portrayal of a man stricken with autism in the film Rain Man. (

Buckner/Getty Images)

High-res image (3000 x 1954 px, 300 dpi)

The year 2005 will be a year to remember in the autism epidemic: The

debate

came to a head between parents of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)

children

and the federal government, which has long denied an autism epidemic

exists.

The ebb and flow has turned in the favor of these long-neglected

children,

who today number well over one million in the United States alone.

Governmental agencies in charge of children's health and the

pediatric-psychiatry-pharmaceutical axis had erected a wall to protect

their

errant policies regarding baby vaccinations. In 2005 that wall began to

shows signs of cracking.

Turning Points

The turning point came not as a single event, but a timely confluence

of

several streams. In April, New York Times contributing writer,

Kirby,

came out with the book " Evidence of Harm " that tied the increase in

vaccines

to the rise in autism. Others, like F. Kennedy, Jr. and radio

show

host Don Imus drove the vaccines-mercury-autism debate home last

summer. The

efforts of these high-profile individuals combined with those of autism

not-for-profit organizations and parents like myself—who have filed a

deluge

of vaccine-injury cases on behalf of their children in the " vaccine

court "

created in 1986 by Congress—to help remove the shadow of ignorance from

autism. The prevailing hypothesis that autism is a psychological

disease

rooted solely in genetics was debunked.

In 2005 Iowa and California became the first states to ban thimerosal,

the

mercury-based preservative used in many baby vaccines. For a long time,

most

parents of ASD kids have suspected that thimerosal was the major

culprit in

the sharp rise of autism cases, particularly the regressive form of the

disorder. New York State jumped into the act by passing a law that will

ban

thimerosal from vaccines. The only problem: the law won't go into

affect

until 2009. Better late than never. I suspect those states, which will

undoubtedly be followed by others in the coming years, realized that

with

the spike in autism comes a spike in costs for special education and

healthcare that has placed an enormous burden on the tax coffers. Yet

none

of those states' actions against thimerosal would have been necessary

if the

federal government, namely the CDC and FDA, had acted in 1999.

Where Has the Federal Government Been?

Seven years ago, those agencies were warned, informed, and had ample

opportunity to ban the known neurological toxin, but failed to do so.

Because of their inaction, tens of thousands of babies born since 2000,

including my son, won a most unfortunate lottery. America's ASD

children

were given vaccines with just enough thimerosal to shutdown their

ability to

filter out heavy metals, while simultaneously poisoning their brains

and

central nervous systems.

Instead, the CDC suggested to the pharmaceutical companies, like Merck

(maker of the hepatitis B " birth dose " vaccine) and Eli Lilly

(grandfather

of thimerosal, invented in the 1920s), to remove gradually this known

toxin

from vaccines. Of course, Merck & Co.'s suppression of the bad reports

on

the painkiller Vioxx, and subsequent attempts to keep Vioxx out of the

courts and the press, provides an example of how Big Pharma can't be

trusted

And the CDC's actions on thimerosal suggested the government might be

too

close sometimes to that industry.

So it came as a shock this December to learn that ASD children were

receiving an early holiday present, gift wrapped by the National

Institute

of Mental Health (NIMH). Although barely covered in the news, the NIMH

finally admitted that autism is an epidemic. And genetics alone can't

cause

epidemics, since genes only mutate from one generation to the next. The

cause for the epidemic might still be an issue, but such a revelation

in the

wake of all those denials is the jump-start that is needed to make

other

guardians of our healthcare system look at the very least foolish, and

at

the worst promoters of terrible propaganda.

An Opportunity for Change

How should the Pediatric Association of America, which continues to

state

that vaccines are safe, take this news? And what about the legions of

psychiatrists and psychologists who have long sold the mantra that

there

wasn't an epidemic, only people who were not properly trained in the

past to

diagnose autism in children? What do I think? They should be ashamed of

themselves for choosing to protect vaccines over the health of

children.

I grew up in a small town in Westchester County, north of New York

City. In

the 1960s, there were no children on the spectrum there, and that was

for

kindergarten through 12th grade. In the past year I learned that beside

myself, three other students within two grades of my own (the average

grade

size was 120 kids per class) have ASD children. For me, nothing has

been

more powerful than that fact. All the denials, disinformation, and

twisting

of numbers of the amount of thimerosal in a given vaccine couldn't

cloud the

truth. Autism is an epidemic.

For the New Year, there will still be people, companies and agencies

that

deny there is an epidemic, let alone one caused by the over-use of

vaccinations. Some are ignorant; while many will do anything to protect

the

status quo, due to the financial windfall that the twenty-plus vaccines

given to each newborn baby within its first two years brings to the

vaccine-makers.

Now is time for the CDC, FDA, the White House, and our congressmen and

senators to join the NIMH and admit that autism is an epidemic. It is

time

for the news media, which have too often under-reported this plague of

the

twenty-first century, to do the same. Then maybe the frontline

defenders of

children—pediatricians and child psychologist—can come clean and join

in

chorus with the parents. That would be an enormous first step in

defeating

autism.

Until that day, there will be an epidemic. And it's not going away

until

those in charge of the American healthcare system admit they have

crisis on

its hand.

Its name is autism.

Ottar Grundvig lives and works in New York City. He is the father

of

an autistic child.

Copyright 2000 - 2005 Epoch Times International

Autism Research Survey online at:

http://www.inclusioncommunitytrainingcenter.org

Candis Firchau,MA,TLPC

Director

Inclusion Community Training Center

Advocacy, Behavioral Interventions, Counseling

and Training

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