Kirby on Meet the Press

[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:

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www.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F6872152%2F> 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

_____

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