SchaferAutismReport: Rogue Virus In The Vaccine

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SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT " Healing Autism:

No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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Friday, December 9, 2005 Vol. 9 No. 196

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PUBLIC HEALTH

* Rogue Virus In The Vaccine

* HealthWrap: 'Serious Risks' in 12 Rx's

* Medical Journal Criticizes Merck Over Vioxx Data

* Parents Want to Know About Every Pediatrician Error

CARE

* Woman Accused in 2003 Stabbing Is Acquitted

RESEARCH

* New Clinical Trial in Children with Autism Begins Enrollment

* Study: Nerve Regeneration Is Possible In Spinal Cord Injuries

MEDIA

* Autism One Radio Schedule Dec 12 - 16 Influenza Vaccine &

Bird Flu Dec 13

COMMENTARY

* Tort Shield Is Wrong Defense Against Flu: Editorial

LETTERS

* On The Fragile State Of Boyhood

PUBLIC HEALTH

Rogue Virus In The Vaccine

Early Polio Vaccine Harbored Virus Now Feared To Cause Cancer In Humans

Carlsen for the San Francisco Chronicle

http://tinyurl.com/3d5cv

A growing number of medical researchers fear that a monkey virus that

contaminated polio vaccine given to tens of millions of Americans in the

1950s and '60s may be causing rare human cancers.

For four decades, government officials have insisted that there is no

evidence the simian virus called SV40 is harmful to humans. But in recent

years, dozens of scientific studies have found the virus in a steadily

increasing number of rare brain, bone and lung-related tumors - the same

malignant cancer SV40 causes in lab animals.

Even more troubling, the virus has been detected in tumors removed

from people never inoculated with the contaminated vaccine, leading some to

worry that those infected by the vaccine might be spreading SV40.

The discovery of SV40 in human tumors has generated intense debate

within the scientific community, pitting a handful of government health

officials, who believe that the virus is harmless, against researchers from

Boston to China who now suspect SV40 may be a human carcinogen. At stake are

millions of research dollars and potential medical treatments for those

afflicted with the cancers SV40 may be causing.

In April, more than 60 scientists met in Chicago to discuss the

controversial virus and how it works to defeat certain cells' natural

defenses against cancer.

" I believe that SV40 is carcinogenic (in humans), " said Dr. Michele

Carbone of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill. " We need to be

creating therapies for people who have these cancers, and now we may be able

to because we have a target - SV40. "

But scientists at the National Cancer Institute say their studies show

almost no SV40 in human tumors and no cancer increase in people who received

the contaminated vaccine.

" No one would dispute there's been a widespread, very scary exposure

to the population of potentially cancer-causing virus, " said Dr.

Strickler, NCI's chief investigator. " But none of our studies and other

major analyses have shown an inkling of an effect on the population. "

Critics charge, however, that the few studies done by the government

are scientifically flawed and that health officials have downplayed the

potential risks posed by SV40 ever since they learned in 1961 that the virus

contaminated the polio vaccine and caused tumors in rodents.

" How long can the government ignore this? " asked Dr. Adi Gazdar, a

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center cancer researcher. " The

government has not sponsored any real research. Here's something possibly

affecting millions of Americans, and they're indifferent.

" Maybe they don't want to find out. "

The recent SV40 discoveries come at a time of growing concern over the

dangers posed by a range of animal viruses that have crossed the species

barrier to humans, including HIV, which scientists now believe came from

chimpanzees and ultimately caused the AIDS epidemic.

Based on dozens of interviews and a review of the medical research,

this is the story of how the campaign to eradicate polio may have

inadvertently permitted another potentially deadly monkey virus to infect

millions of people - and why the government for years discounted the

accumulating evidence suggesting that SV40 may be a health risk for humans.

Polio epidemic, 1955

During the first half of the 20th century, polio struck down hundreds

of thousands of people, leaving many paralyzed - some in iron lung machines

- and killing others. The worst year was 1952, when more than 57,000 polio

cases were reported in the United States. Three thousand died.

Then on April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk, a slightly built, soft-spoken

researcher from Pittsburgh, mounted the podium at the University of Michigan

and announced that he had developed a vaccine. That afternoon, the

government licensed the vaccine for distribution.

Salk's vaccine was made by growing live polio virus on kidney tissue

from Asian rhesus monkeys. The virus was then killed with formaldehyde. When

the vaccine was injected in humans, the dead virus generated antibodies

capable of fending off live polio.

Dr. Dwight Murray, then chairman of the American Medical Association,

called Salk's announcement " one of the greatest events in the history of

medicine. "

Within weeks, the stockpiled vaccine was being injected into the arms

of millions of people worldwide.

Virus and the tumors, 1959

Four years later, Bernice Eddy, a researcher at the National

Institutes of Health, noticed something strange while looking through her

microscope. Monkey kidney cells - the same kind used to make the vaccine -

were dying without apparent cause.

So she tried an experiment. She prepared kidney extracts from eight to

10 rhesus monkeys and injected tiny amounts under the skin of 23 newborn

hamsters. Within nine months, " large, malignant, subcutaneous tumors "

appeared on 20 of the animals.

On July 6, 1960, concerned that a monkey virus might be contaminating

the polio vaccine, Eddy took her findings to Dr. ph Smadel, chief of the

NIH's biologics division. Smadel dismissed the tumors as harmless " lumps. "

The same year, however, at a Merck laboratory in Pennsylvania, Dr.

Maurice Hilleman and Dr. Ben Sweet isolated the virus. They called it simian

virus 40, or SV40, because it was the 40th virus found in rhesus kidney

tissue.

Immunization campaign, 1961

By then, the nation was winning the war against polio. Nearly 98

million Americans - more than 60 percent of the population - had received at

least one injection of the Salk vaccine, and the number of cases was

plummeting.

At the same time, an oral polio vaccine developed by virologist Albert

Sabin was in final trials in Russia and Eastern Europe, where tens of

millions had been inoculated, and it was about to be licensed in the United

States. Unlike the Salk vaccine, the oral version contained a live but

weakened form of polio virus and promised lifelong immunity.

But U.S. Public Health Service officials were worried. Tests had found

SV40 in both the Sabin and Salk vaccines - it was later estimated that as

much as a third of the Salk vaccine was tainted - and that SV40 was causing

cancer in lab animals.

In early 1961, they quietly met with the agency's top vaccine

advisers. The agency found no evidence that the virus had been harmful to

humans, but in March, the officials ordered manufacturers to eliminate SV40

from all future vaccine.

New procedures were adopted to neutralize the tainted polio virus seed

stock and SV40-free African green monkeys were used to produce the bulk

vaccine instead of rhesus monkeys.

But officials did not recall contaminated Salk vaccine - more than a

year's supply - still in the hands of the nation's doctors.

And they did not notify the public of the contamination and SV40's

carcinogenic effect on newborn hamsters.

Hilleman would later explain that government officials were worried

that any potentially negative information could ignite a panic and

jeopardize the vaccination campaign.

The first public disclosure that the Salk vaccine was contaminated

came in the New York Times on July 26, 1961. A story on Page 33 reported

that Merck and other manufacturers had halted production until they could

get a " monkey virus " out of the vaccine.

When asked to comment, the U.S. Public Health Service stressed there

was no evidence the virus was dangerous.

No cause for alarm, 1962

The next year, a young Harvard-trained epidemiologist named Dr. ph

Fraumeni joined the National Cancer Institute and was assigned one of the

agency's most important projects: to determine if there was any cancer

increase among those injected with the Salk vaccine.

His research would form the basis of the government's position for

decades.

Working with two colleagues, Fraumeni tested stored vaccine samples

from May and June of 1955, the first months of the national immunization

campaign, then ranked the samples according to how much SV40 they contained

- no, low or high amounts.

It would be the only time U.S. health officials measured the level of

SV40 in the 1955-1962 vaccine. Stored samples from that period were later

discarded.

Fraumeni identified the states where the SV40-contaminated vaccines

had been distributed during those two months. California, for example,

received vaccine with a low level of the virus.

The study looked at cancer mortality rates for 6- to 8-year-old

children vaccinated during that narrow time frame, tracking the group for

four years.

The findings, which were published in the Journal of the American

Medical Association, showed no significant difference in cancer deaths in

states with high or low levels of SV40 in the vaccine when compared with

cancer deaths in states with no SV40 in the vaccine.

Cleveland children, 1976

Fourteen years later, after isolated reports linking the virus and

human cancers, Fraumeni decided to look at another group that had received

contaminated vaccine.

The group had been the subject of experiments conducted in the early

1960s at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. To determine the effect of

different amounts of the vaccines, researchers at the hospital inoculated

newborns from mostly lower-income black families with doses ranging up to

more than 100 times the dose recommended for adults.

The experiments took place over three years and involved 1,073

infants. Most were given Sabin oral vaccine later determined to contain

SV40.

From 1976 to 1979, Fraumeni and his associates sent letters to the

children - now age 17 to 19 - but fewer than half responded. The researchers

found no SV40-related health problems from exposure to contaminated vaccine.

However, their 1982 report published in the New England Journal of

Medicine acknowledged the study's limitations: A majority of the children

had not responded; SV40-related cancers might take longer than 17 to 19

years to develop, and SV40 appears less likely to infect humans through the

oral vaccine.

Nevertheless, they called their findings " reassuring and consistent

with the prevailing view that SV40 is not carcinogenic in human beings. "

Then they decided to end the study, citing " the mounting complexities

and obstacles in tracing this particular group and the negative results to

date. "

The study's closure appeared to end the government's research into the

virus. But a few years later there would be a tectonic shift in SV40

research.

First discovery, 1988

In Boston, two researchers stumbled onto something disturbing.

Dr. Garcea and his assistant, Dr. Bergsagel, were using a

powerful new tool called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, to look for a

pair of common human viruses in children's brain tumors.

But a different DNA footprint kept popping up in more than half the

tumors. They finally realized they were seeing SV40.

For more than a decade, scientists had reported sporadic findings of

SV40- like proteins in human tumors. But the earlier tests were primitive

and the results suspect. PCR, however, is capable of amplifying

infinitesimal fragments of DNA, which makes detections far more credible.

The findings were troubling. The researchers noted in their published

report that the children were too young to have received the contaminated

vaccine. But somehow the virus had infected them and embedded itself in

their tumors.

Mesothelioma, 1988

That same year, Dr. Michele Carbone was surprised to find a milky,

rindlike tumor in a laboratory hamster at the National Institutes of Health

in Bethesda, Md.

The animal was one of a group given an SV40 injection directly into

their hearts. Sixty percent of those hamsters developed the fatal cancer

called mesothelioma.

Carbone, a postdoctoral fellow at the institute, knew that SV40 caused

tumors in hamsters but only in specific locations where large doses of virus

were injected. Here the mesothelial membrane lining the lungs apparently

became cancerous from minuscule amounts of SV40 shed by the tip of the

needle on the way to the hamsters' hearts.

So he tried another experiment, this time injecting SV40 directly into

the thin mesothelial walls of another group of hamsters. Within six months,

every animal developed mesothelioma.

Carbone was puzzled. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer. Few human cases

were reported before the 1950s, but its incidence had been increasing

steadily, reaching several thousand cases a year in the United States by

1988.

Studies had linked mesothelioma to asbestos exposure - with tumors

usually appearing many decades later. Yet 20 percent of victims had no

asbestos exposure.

Carbone decided to use PCR to test 48 human mesotheliomas stored at

the NIH.

He was stunned: 28 of them contained SV40.

More cancers, 1996

PCR unleashed a wave of SV40 discoveries.

By the end of 1996, dozens of scientists reported finding SV40 in a

variety of bone cancers and a wide range of brain cancers, which had risen

30 percent over the previous 20 years.

Then, Italian researchers reported finding SV40 in 45 percent of the

seminal fluid samples and 23 percent of the blood samples they had taken

from healthy donors.

That meant SV40 could have been spreading through sexual activity,

from mother to child, or by other means, which could explain how those never

inoculated with the contaminated vaccine, such as the Boston children, were

being infected.

Government assurances, 1996

+ Full, continued story here: http://tinyurl.com/3d5cv

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.. . .

HealthWrap: 'Serious Risks' in 12 Rx's

By Dan Olmsted for UPI

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20051208-112920-1644r.htm

Consumer Reports, the independent ratings-and-recommendations

publication, is just out with a list of 12 drugs it says have " known or

suspected serious risks " patients weren't warned about.

" A Consumer Reports investigation has now found that tens of millions

of people may unknowingly have been exposed to the rare but serious side

effects of a dozen relatively common prescription-drug types, " the magazine

said.

Among those drugs: the painkiller Celebrex, which the magazine said

might cause heart attacks and strokes; estrogen (in Premarin and other

prescriptions) for menopausal symptoms, which could trigger breast cancer,

heart disease, stroke and blood clots; and the anti-acne drug Accutane,

which has been linked to birth defects, depression, psychosis and suicidal

tendencies.

Consumer Reports said that the serious risks were " undetected or

underestimated when the FDA approved them. " The report takes a hard look at

whether the Food and Drug Administration has changed " from watchdog to

lapdog " of the pharmaceutical industry and notes it " is now being

scrutinized by congressional committees and the Government Accountability

Office for possible regulatory lapses. "

+ Full report here:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20051208-112920-1644r.htm

.. . .

Medical Journal Criticizes Merck Over Vioxx Data

By Berenson.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/business/09vioxx.html

An influential medical journal accused Merck yesterday of

misrepresenting the results of a crucial clinical trial of the painkiller

Vioxx to play down its heart risks.

In a statement last evening, Merck denied that it had acted

improperly.

The New England Journal of Medicine's allegation could play a critical

role in the thousands of lawsuits that Merck faces over Vioxx, an arthritis

and pain drug.

Vioxx was taken by an estimated 20 million Americans before the

company withdrew it last year after a study linked it to heart attacks and

strokes. In the three lawsuits that have reached trial so far, Merck has

said that it promptly disclosed information about Vioxx's heart risks.

But in an interview yesterday, Dr. D. Curfman, the journal's

executive editor, sharply criticized Merck for the way it presented data

from the clinical trial. The study, called Vigor, covered more than 8,000

patients and was published in the journal in November 2000, almost four

years before Merck stopped selling the drug.

" They did not disclose all they knew, " Dr. Curfman said. " There were

serious negative consequences for the public health as a result of that. "

+ Full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/business/09vioxx.html

.. . .

Parents Want to Know About Every Pediatrician Error

Same survey found they would be less likely to sue if told first.

By Gardner for HealthDay

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthology/story?id=1375347

HealthDay News - American parents want to know about medical errors

involving their children, no matter how harmless or severe the mistake, new

research suggests.

Parents also claim to be less likely to sue if they are told openly

and honestly about an error, according to a study appearing in the December

issue of Pediatrics.

" This is a very important study. Things aren't necessarily as

well-studied in children as in adults, and our natural tendency is to assume

that everything from adults applies to children, and that's not always

true, " said Dr. R. , director of Quality and Safety

Initiatives and an associate professor of pediatrics at s Hopkins

Children's Center. " Among adults, we want more disclosure with more severe

things. But parents of a small, vulnerable child want to know everything,

regardless of the severity. That's a very key difference. "

Medical errors have been a focus of attention lately, with a recent

Institute of Medicine report estimating they are responsible for 100,000

deaths a year in the United States. According to the authors of this study,

42 percent of Americans say they have been affected by a medical error

either personally or through a friend or relative.

+ Full report here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthology/story?id=1375347

EVIDENCE OF HARM DISCUSSION LIST HEATS UP

AS MERCURY LINK TO AUTISM QUESTION SPREADS

An Evidence of Harm email discussion list has

been created in response to the growing interest

in the book and the issues it chronicles. Now

1,200 subscribers. Here is how to subscribe

(no cost): EOHarm-subscribe

.. . .

CARE

Woman Accused in 2003 Stabbing Is Acquitted

By Wajda for the Southwest News-Herald.

www.swnewsherald.com/news_frontpage/2005/12/120705olbv_acquitted.php

Chicago resident , 33, who was charged with attempted

first-degree murder and aggravated battery for an incident that took place

at DOTS clothing store, 8720 S. Cicero Ave., Oak Lawn, in 2003, was

acquitted by a jury on Thursday.

was shopping at the store on Sept. 27, 2003 with her autistic

son, who was 8 years old at the time.

The State's Attorney's Office defended the view of DOTS employee

Chadale Cathery, 27, who claimed that attacked her and stabbed her

multiple times after Cathery approached ' son when the rack he was

playing on began to topple over.

The jury, however, made a verdict in favor of , who argued that

she defended herself and her son against Cathery, who said struck the

boy and then came at her.

" I don't go to trial for people that I think are losers, " said '

defense attorney Fred Mark Dry. " () is a very remarkable person. She

was innocent, and it's great that the jury saw that, too. "

During his defense, neither Dry nor denied that stabbed

Cathery with a knife that she owned, or that the women fought. He did,

however, say that ' acts were not malicious, but were done in self

defense.

" She was defending herself and her child, " Dry said. " The woman who

was a clerk at the store essentially attacked them. If you're motherly at

all, you're super motherly when your child has (autism). "

Cathery served four years in prison on a 1994 drug dealing charge.

.. . .

SEASON GIVING

Do Something About Autism This Season!

It started c. 1988 and the autism epidemic continues to spread. But

there is something you can do right away for any family with autism to help

them find answers, treatments and yes, even a cure. Give them a

subscription to the Schafer Autism Report. As the answers appear, they are

reported here usually first, and always responsibly. Subscriptions are free,

but the knowledge can be priceless for an injured child near you.

http://www.sarnet.org/giftsub.htm

.. . .

RESEARCH

New Clinical Trial in Children with Autism Begins Enrollment

Gulf Coast Research, LLC Opens Clinical Trial Site in Baton Rouge to

Research an Investigational Medicine for Gastrointestinal Problems in

Autistic Children

From a company announcement.

http://www.medadnews.com/News/Index.cfm?articleid=297386

PRNewswire - Gulf Coast Research, LLC has begun accepting candidates

for a research study to evaluate an investigational medication for

persistent gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction in autistic children. Gulf

Coast Research, LLC is one of only 12 sites in the nation to be selected to

participate in this medical study.

The study aims to determine the impact on GI function through

treatment as well as assess the effect of GI symptoms on physical or

emotional behavior.

To be considered for participation in the study, a child must be

between 2 and 17 years of age; be diagnosed with autism, and experience some

of the following symptoms:

* Chronic diarrhea or constipation * Bloating * Gas *

Abdominal pain Research volunteers will receive study medication and medical

care at no cost to the family.

" With as many as 50 percent of children with autistic disorder

experiencing regular GI problems, we recognize the significant impact these

issues have on the autism community, which currently has limited information

on the cause and appropriate treatments, " says Amy Holmes, MD, Principal

Investigator.

.. . .

UCSF Study Finds Nerve Regeneration Is Possible In Spinal Cord Injuries

Source: Eurekalert.org http://tinyurl.com/b7yvr

A team of scientists at UCSF has made a critical discovery that may

help in the development of techniques to promote functional recovery after

Allan Basbaum, PhD a spinal cord injury.

By stimulating nerve cells in laboratory rats at the time of the

injury and then again one week later, the scientists were able to increase

the growth capacity of nerve cells and to sustain that capacity. Both

factors are critical for nerve regeneration.

The study, reported in the November 15 issue of the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences, builds on earlier findings in which the

researchers were able to induce cell growth by manipulating the nervous

system before a spinal cord injury, but not after.

Key to the research is an important difference in the properties of

the nerve fibers of the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of the

brain and spinal cord, and those of the peripheral nervous system (PNS),

which is the network of nerve fibers that extends throughout the body.

+ Complete article here: http://tinyurl.com/b7yvr

.. . .

MEDIA

Autism One Radio Schedule Dec 12 - 16 Influenza Vaccine & Bird Flu Dec 13

A Worldwide, Web-Based Radio Station for the Care, Treatment, and Recovery

of Children with Autism

http://www.autismone.org/radio

Monday, December 12th:

11:00 am - 11:30 ET Cellini: Parent Activist

Tuesday, December 13th:

10:30 am - 11:30 ET Teri Small: Autism: Help, Hope, and Healing Guest:

Owens, a member of the Defeat Autism Now! Think-Tank will discuss how

the sulfur system works, as well as the low oxalate diet.

Special: Part 1 of 2

12:00 pm - 1:00 ET Betsy Hicks: Path to Wellness Topic: Influenza

vaccine and Bird Flu issues. Guests: Dr. Ayoub, Blakey,

Anne Dachel, and Dr. Stoller.

1:30 pm - 2:00 ET Chantal Sicile-Kira: The Real World of Autism with

Chantal Topic: " Growing up to be a successful adult with autism " Guest:

Judith H. Cohen, PhD, author of Succeeding with Autism: Hear my Voice.

Judith, a Professor of Education and attorney, tells the story of one of her

students, , in the teacher education program she coordinated at

Adelphi University. has autism, and Judith describes how he got to

the point of taking part in the teacher ed program, the strategies that

helped him, and where he is now. On Dec 20, will be Chantal's

guest.

Wednesday, December 14th:

9:55 am - 10:25 ET Peta Cohen, MS, RD: Nutritional Approaches to

Treating Autism

11:30 am - 12:00 ET Seth D. Pearl, DC, CCN, CNS: The Health and

Wellness Hour with Dr. Seth Pearl Guest: Rebbecca Laber, OTR/L from Optimal

Kids. Topic: Eclectic approaches in occupational therapy for children with

special needs.

Thursday, December 15th:

1:00 pm - 1:45 ET Coyle, D.I. Hom: Discussions on Bioenergetic

Therapies - A New Revolution in Healing. Topic: Discussions on the

Importance of Bioenergetic Protocol. Guest Anne on and discuss

many different bioenergetic therapies and the order to prioritize those,

especially prior to bio-chemical interventions.

Friday, December 16th:

1:00 pm - 1:30 ET Ackerman: Coffee Talk with Ackerman

2:00 pm - 2:30 ET Amy Lansky: There's Hope with Homeopathy

8:00 pm - 8:30 ET Herskowitz, MA CCC-SLP: Embracing the

Journey. Guest: , founder of Autism TodayC. is the author

of four books, including Little Rainman: Autism Through the Eyes of a Child

and Surrounded by Miracles, and is a co-author of an upcoming Chicken Soup

for Special Needs Community book. www.AutismToday.com.

Announcement From the Autism Calendar of Events

NAA-VA support group meetings Emphasis on biomedical

treatments. childcare provided.

Dec 11 Charlottesville, Virginia

For more information on this autism event and hundreds

of others, see: http://www.sarnet.org/events

- No registering, no password, no fee.

.. . .

COMMENTARY

Tort Shield Is Wrong Defense Against Flu: Editorial

http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/mobile_story.php?story=5767489

With a scary new strain of bird flu hopscotching across Asia, it's

encouraging that Congress and President Bush spent much of this fall working

up strategies to protect Americans from what could be a deadly influenza

pandemic.

One strategy on their list, however, should be dumped: Giving vaccine

manufacturers sweeping protection against lawsuits filed by injured

patients.

Public-health experts say offering such liability protection would

actually decrease the number of Americans who seek flu shots in a crisis

without doing much to increase the number of vaccine manufacturers.

We trust that members of the Minnesota delegation won't get hoodwinked

into supporting this wrongheaded idea as the year's congressional session

draws to a close.

The premise behind the liability shield is familiar, even plausible:

American drugmakers have been pulling out of the vaccine business for the

last 20 years, and fear of lawsuits must be one reason. But that argument

falls apart on close examination. A recent study in the Journal of the

American Medical Association found only 10 lawsuits in the last 20 years

over flu vaccines; the authors have concluded that drug companies withdrew

from the vaccine business mainly because of low-profit margins and

unpredictable demand.

In fact, shielding drug manufacturers from lawsuits could actually

reduce the number of Americans who get flu shots in an emergency.

That's not the trial lawyers talking; it's the American Nurses

Association, Consumers Union and the American Public Health Association,

groups that oppose the liability shield.

Why? Every vaccine, no matter how effective, will cause side effects

or adverse reactions in a small number of patients. Public-health experts

know this, and they say there must be some way to reassure or compensate

those who might be injured.

When the Bush administration encouraged first-responders to get

smallpox shots in 2003, for example, there was a huge backlash because there

was no compensation program for the small number of recipients who might

suffer adverse reactions.

All this is no secret to public-health officials, which is why

Congress established the Vaccine Injury Compensation (VIC) Program in 1986.

It shields drug manufacturers from most lawsuits, but establishes a special

fund and a speedy no-fault court to compensate patients injured by a

vaccine.

Sen. Dodd, D-Conn., has been arguing for months that the

VIC, or something like it, should be extended to any new federal pandemic

vaccine campaign. Instead, a handful of senators are clinging to the broad

liability shield and planning to attach it to a defense spending bill that

Congress must pass this month. That would be a shameless favor to the drug

industry and a dangerous sellout of public health.

Brief Commentary: The vaccine injury compensation concept should be

dumped, not expanded. There is little scientific proof that vaccines harm

only a small number of those injected as everyone seems to accept. How can

they know the extent of damage when the safety studies only go out six weeks

and under-reporting of injuries are encouraged, or covered up (like they

have been with anthrax, polio shots, for starters)? Where are the studies

establishing safety? They ain't there. If anything, vaccines should be

held to higher, not lower standards than anything else we take into our

bodies because they are mandated.

Time for me to sing my favorite safety mantra:

C# Bb C#

If vaccines are so dirty they require protection from lawsuits

Bb C# Bb

They are too dirty to go into anyone's body. Duh!

OK, so the meter could use some work.

I am not convinced that truly safe vaccines are so impossible, as does

the Republican leadership. But why should anyone bust their butts, and cut

into quarterly profits to make safe vaccines, when they don't have to?

Vaccine safety first, not compensation first. -L.S.

.. . .

LETTERS

On The Fragile State Of Boyhood

I believe that one contributing factor is that men and boys are

ridiculed in movies and t.v., while we increasingly see girls and women as

the heroes. I, as a mother of two boys (one ADHD/dyslexic and the other

PDD/NOS) had not thought much about this until I read Dr. Dobson's

(yes, the founder of Focus on the Family - gasp!) book on raising boys. I am

all for women achieving whatever their hearts' desire is, however, not at

the expense of the male figures looking like buffoons.

For example, in the movie " Titanic " , many of the male characters were

shown as idiots or self-serving, saving themselves. In actuality, the

numbers of men who went down with the ship were much higher, as they saved

the women and children. I just don't think we allow boys to be boys in our

politically-correct culture.

- Deanne Vizurraga

Public Service Announcement to the Reader:

AUTISM IS TREATABLE. Consult these sources:

. Autism Research Institute

http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/index.htm

. Generation Rescue http://www.generationrescue.org

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