from another digest

[Guest guest]

From MAM:

We are asking for everyone's help. We need the letter below to be

faxed/emailed to the media asap (local and national). Please take time to

send this to your media contacts. Also, forward this message to other groups

We would like to thank all the organizations who worked on this letter with

MAM and signed on.

THANK YOU!

, Amy, and

Mr. Steve Capus, President NBC News

30 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, NY 10112

June 13, 2007

Dear Mr. Capus:

The undersigned organizations are writing to you regarding the

concerns among families of vaccine-injured children across the

country over NBC's recent coverage of the Autism Omnibus

proceedings. In particular, we take issue with the comments Dr.

Snyderman made during yesterday's Today show.

While one would hope a " First do no harm " philosophy would have some

bearing on the information Dr. Snyderman provides to viewers, clearly

it does not.

Dr. Snyderman's ties to & , defendants in vaccine

injury litigation, are obviously dictating the agenda in her

appearances on your network at the risk of the safety of our

children. This conflict of interest calls into serious question your

journalistic integrity and credibility.

NBC's viewers were exposed to a blatant falsehood yesterday as Dr.

Snyderman claimed that vaccines no longer contain mercury. This is

not the case, and this misinformation has unfortunately given

America's parents a false sense of security that vaccines are now

mercury-free. This false claim puts all of America's children and

the unborn at risk of great harm.

The mercury-based preservative thimerosal has never been fully

removed from childhood vaccines as Dr. Snyderman vehemently claimed.

A simple check on the FDA's website would have confirmed this:

http://www.fda. <http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1.>

gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm#t1. Mercury is still

in most flu, tetanus, and diphtheria/tetanus vaccines--and an array

of vaccines still contain " trace " amounts. (The term " trace " must be

used loosely as this aspect of vaccine production is not being

regulated and there is some variation on what constitutes a trace

amount. As children often receive multiple " trace " amounts of

mercury in one sitting, cumulative amounts and potential adverse

effects are as yet unknown.)

While no reputable medical practitioner in this country would allow

even " trace " amounts of lead to be injected through vaccines given

its known neurotoxicity, physicians continue to allow mercury, which

exceeds the toxicity of lead by more than 100-fold, to be routinely

injected into humans.

As a physician representing NBC, Dr. Snyderman has failed to tell the

truth about mercury-containing vaccines and the known dangers

associated with them. There is simply no excuse for such careless

and false reporting while this country is in the throes of a

childhood epidemic of neurological disorders.

During Monday's NBC Nightly News Dr. Snyderman stated, " there really

is no science " behind the autism/mercury link. Vaccines and the

mercury-based preservative thimerosal have not been ruled out as a

cause of autism. To the contrary, there are literally thousands of

scientific, peer-reviewed studies supporting the extreme

neurotoxicity of mercury and the relationship between mercury

exposure and neurological injury. The following link provides a

copious amount of research which contradicts what Dr. Snyderman told

the American public: http://www.generati

<http://www.generationrescue.org/studies.html> onrescue.org/studies.html

The CDC's own study conducted in 2000 clearly shows the agency knew

that injuries were occurring to children from mercury-containing

vaccines, yet the data was manipulated to obscure the link. Lead

researcher Dr. Verstraeten had this to say regarding the CDC's

thimerosal findings:

" ...we have found statistically significant relationships between

the exposure and outcomes for these different exposures and outcomes.

First, for two months of age, an unspecified developmental delay,

which has its own specific ICD9 code. Exposure at three months of

age, tics. Exposure at six months of age, an attention deficit

disorder. Exposures at one, three, and six months of age, language

and speech delays which are two separate ICD9 codes. Exposures at

one, three, and six months of age, an entire category of

neurodevelopmental delays, which includes all of these plus a number

of other disorders. " (Dr. Verstraeten, page 40, Simpsonwood

meeting transcript)

The full transcript of this secret, closed-door meeting held by the

CDC at the United Methodist Retreat Center, Simpsonwood, can be read

at NoMercury.org or PutChildrenFirst.org.

Many European countries have banned the use of thimerosal/mercury in

vaccines for many years. Seven states have passed legislation

banning the use of thimerosal/mercury in vaccines and similar

legislation is pending in over 30 additional states. If there was no

science to back up the dangers of using mercury in vaccines, we

wouldn't be seeing such legislative efforts to ban its use.

In her most recent NBC appearance, Dr. Snyderman was asked why

parents were filing claims on behalf of their vaccine-injured

children, to which she answered matter-of-factly, " money. " This

cavalier statement alone goes far beyond contempt and displays an

appalling ignorance of the emotional and financial devastation faced

by families of vaccine-injured children. This must be addressed by

an immediate apology from NBC to all the parents of children

suffering from vaccine-induced illnesses.

We urge you to speak with the growing number of scientists who have

published research supporting a causal link between mercury in

vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, and can provide you

contact information for these researchers.

Reporting false information is a disservice to the American people.

When it comes to the children and the unborn in this country, we

should err on the side of safety, regardless of personal belief,

conviction, or backing from the pharmaceutical industry.

Based on the misinformation presented by Dr. Snyderman, and the

potential for harm this has brought to bear upon children, we ask for

her resignation. We will accept nothing less than a full and public

retraction of her false statements, along with an apology from your

network.

We expect an immediate response to our request. We can be contacted

at 828-776-0082 or amy@....

Respectfully,

Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning (ACHAMP)

Autism Recovery Network of Florida

Autism Recovery Resources of Washington (ARROW)

Autism Society of Oregon - Lane County Chapter

Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD)

A. Geier, Vice-President Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc.

Developmental Delay Resources (DDR)

Dr. Boyd Haley, Bio-Chemist, Chemistry Department University of

Kentucky

Educate Before You Vaccinate

Foundation For Autism Information and Research

Foundation for Mercury Injured Children

Generation Rescue

, MD Great Smokies Medical Center

K Stoller, MD, President, International Hyperbaric Medical

Association

KindTree Productions, Inc

Mark R. Geier, MD, Ph.D., FABMG, President Genetic Centers of America

land Autism Recovery Coalition

Mercury Free land

Moms Against Mercury

Moms of Hope

No Mercury

National Autism Association (NAA)

SOAR! Salem Oregon Autism Resources

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA)

TN4SaferVaccines

Treating Autism in the UK

UnInformed Consent

US Autism and Asperger Association

World Mercury Project