Re: We need your help! Wall Street Journal editorial

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone!

The Wall Street Journal published my response to the following (out

of the " overwhelming " responses they told me they received, they only

published two)...the only small problem is there is a bit of a

typo. When CHERAB Outreach - Jeannie Buesser, wrote a letter in

support of what I was saying -they misunderstood that I was the

author since she put my whole letter above her message as she always

does -and put her as the author! It was published in this past

Friday's WSJ and will be online soon. It will also be corrected

soon ...but for those who read this past Friday's response -here is

the original response from me!

From: lisageng

wsj.ltrs@...

Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 12:23 AM

Subject: Silence is not golden

Silence is not golden

The opinion about " lawyers, loopholes and emotional parents " ( " The

Politics of Autism " , 12/29/03) is a slap in the face not only at

all of us, the " emotional parents " , which is distasteful, but to

truth and to science, which is primitive and without consciousness.

There is no push I'm aware of to not vaccinate our children. Most

parents today try to study all sides, discuss issues with their

child's medical doctors, and make informed decisions on " how " to

vaccinate their children.

The article mentions social impairments and learning disabilities.

Autism is only one of the many disorders on the rise in our children

today. There is a significantly higher and dramatic rise in

children afflicted with speech and language disorders. A study by

the Centers for Disease Control conducted 1999-2000 found a

significant link between speech and language impairments and

thimerosal exposure. In addition, according to the analysis of the

US Department of Education 2001 statistics by Mark R Geier, MD.,

PhD, in the past ten years, while there has been a 4 fold increase

in the numbers of children with autism, there has been a 30 fold

increase in the numbers of children with speech and language

disorders. Even though there are more children today then a decade

ago with autism who also have underlying, co existing speech and

language impairments, there is a much larger group of late talker

children that do not have any social impairments or learning

disabilities.

Many of these are children who are highly intelligent, but who

cannot speak at all, or only with difficulty. I know because I am

the mother to one such child who was a happy, babbling and healthy

baby until his third Hepatitis shot at 11 months old in 1997, a date

when thimerosal was still included in the pediatric vaccines. At

the time we didn't associate the vaccine with the fever my son went

through for 2 weeks, nor how he regressed and developed oral and

verbal apraxia, hypotonia, motor planning difficulties in his body

and sensory integration dysfunction.

Even though today we still do not know for sure why, or the reason

why there is a such a dramatic rise in the past decade of

communication impaired children like my son Tanner, the public needs

to be aware of all viewpoints to help them make informed decisions

on behalf of their children.

In the book The Late Talker I just co authored with

neurodevelopmental pediatrician and NYC Medical Director of Early

Intervention Marilyn Agin MD we explore all sides of any point we

raise of " what to do if your child is not speaking yet " because as a

book written by an " emotional parent " and a medical doctor, together

with Malcolm Nicholl, an international journalist, that's what we

want to know. As the Wall Street Journal one would expect you would

want the same.

Why for example would the editorial state " thimerosal.has never been

credibly linked to any health problems " and yet not also mention

that there are hundreds of articles in the scientific literature

that show the toxicity of thimerosal and none that show the safety

of thimerosal?

My son today is 7 years old. Due to years of intensive, daily

therapies, he is a popular and friendly straight A student in first

grade who loves reading Dr. Seuss books like the Cat in the Hat. He

is a cub scout, on a soccer team and in a chess club. My son also

still has trouble speaking -he is verbal disabled. Even though

none of us know why for sure yet, we have learned one thing for

sure. Silence is not golden.

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