Re: 2nd son due for mmr help!!!!!

[Guest guest]

Personally speaking, I am NOT in favor of most of the vaccines. The MMR is

one that I am least favorable about. It seems as though the children who *DO*

react to the MMR, will most likely respond in a negative reaction with the

SECOND DOSE. The first tends to be relatively " harmless " according to most

studies I've seen (Although personally I still would debate that fact), but the

SECOND one seems to be where most kids will react negatively.

I could sit and tell you " horror " stories of those I know personally (one

of them with a death involved), but most people will claim that it's not

" factual " since it's not documented as an adverse reaction to the vaccines, or

since it's not part of some sort of Scientific research on vaccines etc. But I

can guarantee that these ARE, in fact, true life stories of real people and

their children.

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

I forgot to add that if you've given your son the first dose of the MMR,

most likely he's acquired the necessary immunities against these things-- so

before doing anything, get a titer test done. It's a very simple blood test

that

will tell you whether or not he has immunities against the viruses.

Also-- if you DO decide to get the vaccines done, again-- on a personal

note, I would suggest that they be given on an INDIVIDUAL basis and allow each

of

the vaccines (really the toxins within the vaccines) time to go through his

system one at a time. If there are less toxins to deal with, the body is

better off (overall).

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 6:40:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

bigcheech91@... writes:

Will do flu mist if forced to

vaccinate by school at some point.

You should check into this, because the flu mist is a live virus and there

are other issues that would come from it.

becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 6:50:59 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

lizlaw@... writes:

thought private school was not subject to the same rules as public?

Is this just your school's rule?

I'm not -- but I'm assuming so. Each private school has the right to

choose what their policy would be for the vaccinations. Some say exemptions are

ok-- some say they are not and go with what the public schools suggest.

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

I just LOOOVE Dr. Jay!!!! I am not in 100% agreement on his vaccine

thoughts, but I am glad to see what he says about giving them if the parents

decide

to. I think he's a great guy!

becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

This is a personal choice. I'm not sure anyone here is going to tell you

what to do. However, I would not give it to him if his immune system is

compromised in any form. So, if he has a cold or any sign of illness...NO

SHOTS..postpone for another day when he is HEALTHY.

" "

<h_hawkinson@yaho

o.com> To

Sent by:

childrensapraxian cc

et@...

m Subject

[ ] 2nd son due

for mmr help!!!!!

02/28/2008 03:32

PM

Please respond to

childrensapraxian

et@...

m

Hi, Bridger my middle child is apraxic. My youngest Brevin 'typical'

was due today for his 18 month MMR. I cancelled the appointment as I

chickened out and in my lack of knowledge I wanted to recruit you guys

for advice. If you were me how would you handle the MMR at this point?

-----------------------------------------

This transmission may contain information that is privileged,

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applicable, for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use.

If you received this transmission in error, please immediately

contact the sender and destroy the material in its entirety,

whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank you.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 8:22:48 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

lizlaw@... writes:

If this is so then I suppose we are all getting the flu shot one way

or the other huh?

I know that there is one flu mist that is definitely a live virus one, and I

believe that there should also be another that is not. I'd have to check on

it-- but since we will NOT be doing flu vaccines EVER, I haven't bothered

with looking into it. LOL

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 9:15:39 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

lizlaw@... writes:

I do know though that stories of sticking to

schedule above all else, with preemies, when a kid is sick, really

bug me.

This is especially a pet peeve of mine as well. I am not sure why the Peds

seem to INSIST that preemies receive their vaccines on the same schedule as

the full-term babies. There are SO many reasons why NOT to give them at the

same rate/pace-- but common sense just screams that it doesn't make sense!

If I'm not mistaken, in some of the manufacturer's own information packets,

some of these are CONTRAINDICATED for preemies, and yet the peds still say to

get them done. ARghhh

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 9:17:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

bigcheech91@... writes:

I can't speak to all Catholic schools, but this is what I have

heard: a family with six kids wanted to skip the chicken pox vaccine

because it purportedly was developed using cells from an aborted

fetus. They objected AS CATHOLICS. The Msgr. declined their

request. He said that the Diocese of Trenton sets the vaccine

schedule and they follow it. Period. I assume they would comply

with a medical exemption -- that wasn't an option for that family.

So, in a ridiculous twist, they pulled their kids from the school to

follow their religious beliefs.

<sigh> I get SO discouraged when I hear stories of this nature!!!! To

have a RELIGIOUS exemption not be accepted in a RELIGIOUS school , of all

places-- is just so, so, sad!

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 9:50:36 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

bigcheech91@... writes:

I'm hoping never to have to do either, but NJ is vaccine crazy these

days.

Ugh-- I know. Call me a big conspiracy theorist-- but I believe that it's

Corzine and the big Pharma -- I would LOVE to find some proof of their being

some back alley deal between them! <sigh>

Becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/28/2008 9:50:36 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

bigcheech91@... writes:

Our pediatricians office infuriatingly has refused to

purchase thimerosal-free flu shots for children over 3

Oh my goodness-- whatever for??? Do they think that kids OVER 3 aren't

going to have the same toxic problems?? :-( This would infuriate me as well

becky

**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.

(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/

2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

[Guest guest]

This is how we've handled it with out four children:

-- fully vaccinated for age, never questioned any of them. Will

not get HPV vaccine until there is more experience with it, and also

not at the young ages they have recommended.

-- fully vaccinated for age, but when it was time for the MMR

booster shot, I had a titer drawn instead. It found that he was immune

to measles and rubella, but not mumps, so he had a single mumps vaccine

intead of the combined shot.

Spencer -- fully vaccinated for age (was sick for two weeks after the

MMR shot -- I thought he was going to regress for sure, but he is

typically developing still.) When it's time for the booster, I will

handle it as I did for . I am praying he is immune to all three.

Tyler -- fully vaccinated until one year old. At the one year

appointment, I told our pediatrician that we will be slowing down (not

stopping) the vaccinations. No more than one shot per visit, no

chicken pox until mandatory for school, no MMR ever, separate shots for

measles, mumps, and rubella when mandatory for school (not all on the

same day).

Additionally, immunity must be 100% or I will not vaccinate that day.

Not even a sniffle. No flu shots. Will do flu mist if forced to

vaccinate by school at some point.

Tyler's DAN doctor gave us a list of websites if we wanted to do

further research. I don't have it handy right now, but I will post

those later.

This is the plan we've cobbled together. I have to vaccinate for the

serous illnesses for two reasons: I would never forgive myself if

something bad happened because they weren't vaccinated, and

vaccinations are required at the Catholic school two of our children

attend. (No religious exemptions at Catholic school. Only medical.)

It works for us, but it is a very personal decision.

in NJ

>

> Hi, Bridger my middle child is apraxic. My youngest Brevin 'typical'

> was due today for his 18 month MMR. I cancelled the appointment as I

> chickened out and in my lack of knowledge I wanted to recruit you

guys

> for advice. If you were me how would you handle the MMR at this

point?

>

[Guest guest]

I remember my DAN did titer of the antibody of MMR for

my older son (he got his first MMR before he was

diagnosed with ASD. the lab showed antibody for

measles so I do not need to give him MMR booster shots

for measles. I think Labcore can do them), so you can

see if by any chance your son have already developed

immunity to any one of the three diseases (though the

chance could be low if you have never given your son

the shots).

what I did for my second son is I delayed this

particular combo, and later asked for single shot one

at a time, ie. the shot for measles only, the shot for

mumps only, etc. it is quite common request and my doc

did it w/o any questions.

since the majority of the population receive the

shots, the chance of getting the diesease is small,

esp. if you are not going aboard or in close contact

with people from other countries. however, I agree

with the previous emailer, it should be solely your

decision.

been there, I know how you feel

yujie

--- myra.bauza@... wrote:

>

> This is a personal choice. I'm not sure anyone here

> is going to tell you

> what to do. However, I would not give it to him if

> his immune system is

> compromised in any form. So, if he has a cold or any

> sign of illness...NO

> SHOTS..postpone for another day when he is HEALTHY.

>

>

>

>

> " "

>

> <h_hawkinson@yaho

>

> o.com>

> To

> Sent by:

>

> childrensapraxian

> cc

> et@...

>

> m

> Subject

>

> [ ] 2nd son due

> for mmr

> help!!!!!

> 02/28/2008 03:32

>

> PM

>

>

>

>

>

> Please respond to

>

> childrensapraxian

>

> et@...

>

> m

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Hi, Bridger my middle child is apraxic. My youngest

> Brevin 'typical'

> was due today for his 18 month MMR. I cancelled the

> appointment as I

> chickened out and in my lack of knowledge I wanted

> to recruit you guys

> for advice. If you were me how would you handle the

> MMR at this point?

>

>

>

>

>

>

> -----------------------------------------

> This transmission may contain information that is

> privileged,

> confidential, legally privileged, and/or exempt from

> disclosure

> under applicable law. If you are not the intended

> recipient, you

> are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying,

> distribution, or

> use of the information contained herein (including

> any reliance

> thereon) is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. Although this

> transmission and

> any attachments are believed to be free of any virus

> or other

> defect that might affect any computer system into

> which it is

> received and opened, it is the responsibility of the

> recipient to

> ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility

> is accepted by

> JP Chase & Co., its subsidiaries and

> affiliates, as

> applicable, for any loss or damage arising in any

> way from its use.

> If you received this transmission in error, please

> immediately

> contact the sender and destroy the material in its

> entirety,

> whether in electronic or hard copy format. Thank

> you.

>

________________________________________________________________________________\

____

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[Guest guest]

I could tell you what I would do. Better, you should research and

decide for yourself.

IF you really want to do these vaccines. The current recommendation is

to split them up - and the Dr. will have to special order the shots -

so plan on a fuss. He may tell you it does't exhist - which is a lie.

How about asking the group for some research resources instead, so you

can decide with confidence.

www.thinktwice.com

www.nvic.org

http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/bio_awakefield.htm

[Guest guest]

I thought private school was not subject to the same rules as public?

Is this just your school's rule?

> >

> > Hi, Bridger my middle child is apraxic. My youngest

Brevin 'typical'

> > was due today for his 18 month MMR. I cancelled the appointment

as I

> > chickened out and in my lack of knowledge I wanted to recruit you

> guys

> > for advice. If you were me how would you handle the MMR at this

> point?

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Oh for goodness sakes. Most states have vaccine exemptions, you need to

find out what your states exemptions are. Anyone who thinks you can

not attend school is beliving the LIES.

[Guest guest]

I use the religious exemption for MMR and varicella and I've never had a

problem with it from doctors or the schools. My NT child reacted mildly

(but still his first fever in his lifetime!) to the MMR at 15 months. I

didn't know the religious/ethical issues I object to at that time. My

apraxic child never has had an MMR (which gives me a chuckle when people

insist he is vaccine damaged from the MMR!) I have never had a problem.

One doctor would bring it up at every appointment because she " had " to

according to the owner of the practice. I had a chance to educate our

newest doctor on why we don't give it when my daughter had her 18 mo well

check as she was unaware of the abortion/cell line issue.

Miche

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 1:32 PM, <h_hawkinson@...> wrote:

> Hi, Bridger my middle child is apraxic. My youngest Brevin 'typical'

> was due today for his 18 month MMR. I cancelled the appointment as I

> chickened out and in my lack of knowledge I wanted to recruit you guys

> for advice. If you were me how would you handle the MMR at this point?

>

[Guest guest]

We are in a holding pattern. What I had wanted to do was research every

single one and then choose what I wanted to get, fresh and separated

and only after tithers were checked for all things because I had two

bad vaccine reactions and we did have a wierd thing with daughter after

MMR and with son after a group of catchup shots. Thing is it is not

looking like, despite my offer to pay for tithers that are " elective "

and to pay for the extra expense associated with fresh I don't think

I''ll be able to get any cooperation. Daughter has had most of what

every other state calls for except maybe hep A and son is not far

behind her so if we stopped now we might just be even with the 6 year

olds in most states. For right now I am sitting on this.

>

> I could tell you what I would do. Better, you should research and

> decide for yourself.

>

> IF you really want to do these vaccines. The current recommendation

is

> to split them up - and the Dr. will have to special order the shots -

> so plan on a fuss. He may tell you it does't exhist - which is a lie.

>

> How about asking the group for some research resources instead, so

you

> can decide with confidence.

>

> www.thinktwice.com

> www.nvic.org

> http://www.thoughtfulhouse.org/bio_awakefield.htm

>

[Guest guest]

Holly's Law in NJ deals with the second MMR reaction and was the

result of a death.

>

>

>

> Personally speaking, I am NOT in favor of most of the vaccines.

The MMR is

> one that I am least favorable about. It seems as though the

children who *DO*

> react to the MMR, will most likely respond in a negative reaction

with the

> SECOND DOSE. The first tends to be relatively " harmless " according

to most

> studies I've seen (Although personally I still would debate that

fact), but the

> SECOND one seems to be where most kids will react negatively.

>

> I could sit and tell you " horror " stories of those I know

personally (one

> of them with a death involved), but most people will claim that

it's not

> " factual " since it's not documented as an adverse reaction to the

vaccines, or

> since it's not part of some sort of Scientific research on vaccines

etc. But I

> can guarantee that these ARE, in fact, true life stories of real

people and

> their children.

>

>

> Becky

>

>

>

> **************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL

Living.

> (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-

campos-duffy/

> 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Becky you brought up a good point in that there may be ways to

vaccinate in a better way -Dr. Gordon (see below) may have a great

alternative -later and slower instead of never.

This topic has always been a hot topic. Very long archive from 2006 -

but don't know if there are various aspects that can help different

people making these decisions today -so pull from what you need!

Re: opting out of vaccinations

and all,

I don't think the world is black and white -all or nothing. I

also learned that following my gut is good -but hindsight

proves to be better in some cases. The best advice is to stay

informed on all sides. If you read something that upsets you

because you disagree with it, try to understand where it came from

and you may learn from it. For example Dr. Gordon may have a great

alternative -later and slower instead of never:

" Vaccinations Today

by Dr. Jay Gordon

In my office, with families I know well, I believe that the main idea

I convey is that we should vaccinate later and slower. One shot at a

visit starting later in the first year and perhaps in the second year

of life. "

http://www.drjaygordon.com/pediatricks/vacctoday.htm

Also as I state below:

" This subject is one that has come up before -and will come up again.

As I posted once before -my sister in law who is a chemist for

and is friends with many medical professionals and

one of them had a child that regressed immediately after his shots

and developed autism. Based on that -as well as from looking into

vaccines further with all the doubts raised here from other concerned

parents -this educated and intelligent caring couple decided not to

vaccinate their second child at all believing their children to be at

risk for some reason. The second son -without any vaccines at all -

developed autism as well ...and has autism much more severe than the

first. If anyone needs the name and number of this family just email

me -they are from NJ so some of you may know them. "

I'm not sure if any of you read the awesome book 'the five people

you meet in heaven' but when Eddie is meeting the second person in

heaven the one quote said to learn from is " I got all those shots

for all those diseases and I died here anyhow, healthy as a horse. "

Vaccinations may not be the only problem, and probably isn't. And

they have

saved lives too. Just stay informed of pros and cons.

The following is long - but if this topic interests you it may be

something you'll want to read..if not just delete:

From: " kiddietalk " <kiddietalk@...>

Date: Thu Nov 14, 2002 8:34 am

Subject: New York Times article for the " Not-So-Crackpots "

Hey! Did Arthur write this article because I said we aren't

nutballs?!!

" In my opinion I do not believe the way to deal with this topic is

to even fall into the joking trap of saying we are " nuts "

or " nutballs " -we are concerned parents and most pediatricians are

parents too. "

/message/14122

(posted below too)

Remember that post from not to long ago about my 11 month son

Tanner's 3rd Hep B shot in 1997, before the thimerosal - a mercury

derivative, was taken out (it's out now)- right before the 2 weeks

of high fevers when Tanner regressed and developed all the parent

friendly signs of neurodevelopmental damage that we and the regular

pediatrician didn't pick up, lost sounds, including " da " and all

that was left was " ma " and " mmmmm " ...

They call it autism in this article -it's more conditions than just

that on the rise. My child is not autistic.

For the new people -I too was like you- and no I didn't spend any

time worrying about what caused Tanner's apraxia for the past three

and a half years at all which you can clearly see in the archives, I

just wanted to know how to help Tanner to talk and be OK again. Now

that Tanner's doing so much better and yet my husband and I wonder

if he will ever be 100% up to speed, and now that I am informed

about all that is written below, I have thought about it.

Thanks (who runs UK support) for sending this to me! And

thanks Sallie Bernard -for forming Safe Minds referred to in this

article -and being a hero to so many children. Because of you and

those that worked with you -you gave children now a chance to

develop without thimerosal in their injections. Mercury is nasty -

now if we can only clean up our world to get it out of all the food

we eat and water we drink.

~

November 10, 2002

The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory

By ARTHUR ALLEN

eal Halsey's life was dedicated to promoting vaccination. In June

1999, the s Hopkins pediatrician and scholar had completed a

decade of service on the influential committees that decide which

inoculations will be jabbed into the arms and thighs and buttocks of

eight million American children each year. At the urging of Halsey

and others, the number of vaccines mandated for children under 2 in

the 90's soared to 20, from 8. Kids were healthier for it, according

to him. These simple, safe injections against hepatitis B and germs

like haemophilus bacteria would help thousands grow up free of

diseases like meningitis and liver cancer.

Halsey's view, however, was not shared by a small but vocal faction

of parents who questioned whether all these shots did more harm than

good. While many of the childhood infections that vaccines were

designed to prevent -- among them diphtheria, mumps, chickenpox and

polio -- seemed to be either antique or innocuous, serious chronic

diseases like asthma, juvenile diabetes and autism were on the rise.

And on the Internet, especially, a growing number of self-styled

health activists blamed vaccines for these increases.

Like all medical interventions, vaccines sometimes cause adverse

reactions. But unlike pills, vaccines come packaged with high

expectations, which make them particularly vulnerable to public

criticism. Vaccines don't cure people, and they are administered to

healthy children, which gives them few opportunities for good press.

When they work, nothing happens. When vaccinated children become

ill, their parents are grief-stricken and often enraged, even if

vaccines aren't proved to be at fault. All of this puts public-

health advocates like Halsey on the defensive. Most attacks on

vaccines, they say, are based on hysteria, bad science and dubious

politics.

Halsey, 57, has green eyes, a white beard that makes him look like a

ship's captain and an air of careful authority. As chairman of the

American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases from

1995 through June 1999, he often appeared in the media administering

calm reassurance. ''Many of the allegations against vaccines,''

Halsey said in one interview, ''are based on unproven hypotheses and

causal associations with little evidence.''

And then suddenly in June 1999, during a visit to the Food and Drug

Administration, a squall appeared on the horizon of Halsey's

confidence. Halsey attended a meeting to discuss thimerosal, a

mercury-containing preservative that at the time was being used in

several vaccines -- including the hepatitis B shot that Halsey had

fought so hard to have administered to American babies. By the time

the dust kicked up in that meeting had settled, Halsey would be

forced to reckon with the hypothesis that thimerosal had damaged the

brains of immunized infants and may have contributed to the

unexplained explosion in the number of cases of autism being

diagnosed in children.

That Halsey was willing even to entertain this possibility enraged

some of his fellow vaccinologists, who couldn't fathom how a doctor

who had spent so much energy dismantling the arguments of people who

attacked vaccines could now be changing sides. But to Halsey's mind,

his actions were perfectly consistent: he was simply working from

the data. And the numbers deeply troubled him. ''From the beginning,

I saw thimerosal as something different,'' he says. ''It was the

first strong evidence of a causal association with neurological

impairment. I was very concerned.''

The investigation into mercury vaccines was instigated in 1997 by

Representative Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat whose

district includes a string of shore towns where mercury in fish is

one of many environmental concerns. Pallone, who had been pressing

the government to re-evaluate its overall guidelines on mercury

toxicity, attached an amendment to an F.D.A. bill requiring the

agency to inventory all mercury contained in licensed drugs and

vaccines.

The job of adding up the amount of mercury in vaccines and assessing

its risk fell to Ball, an F.D.A. scientist, and two F.D.A.

pediatricians, Ball, 's wife, and R. Pratt.

Thimerosal, which is 50 percent ethyl mercury by weight, had been

used as a vaccine preservative since the 1930's in the diphtheria-

tetanus-pertussis shot, known as D.T.P., and it was later added to

some vaccines for hepatitis B and haemophilus bacteria, which by the

early 1990's had become routine immunizations for infants.

The F.D.A. team's conclusions were frightening. Vaccines added under

Halsey's watch had tripled the dose of mercury that infants got in

their first few months of life. As many as 30 million American

children may have been exposed to mercury in excess of Environmental

Protection Agency guidelines -- levels of mercury that, in theory,

could have killed enough brain cells to scramble thinking or hex

behavior.

''My first reaction was simply disbelief, which was the reaction of

almost everybody involved in vaccines,'' Halsey says. ''In most

vaccine containers, thimerosal is listed as a mercury derivative, a

hundredth of a percent. And what I believed, and what everybody else

believed, was that it was truly a trace, a biologically

insignificant amount. My honest belief is that if the labels had had

the mercury content in micrograms, this would have been uncovered

years ago. But the fact is, no one did the calculation.''

Making matters worse, the latest science on mercury damage suggested

that even small amounts of organic mercury could do harm to the

fetal brain. Some of the federal safety guidelines on mercury were

relaxed in the 90's, even as the amount of mercury that children

received in vaccines increased. The more Halsey learned about these

mercury studies, the more he worried.

''My first concern was that it would harm the credibility of the

immunization program,'' he says. ''But gradually it came home to me

that maybe there was some real risk to the children.'' Mercury was

turning out to be like lead, which had been studied extensively in

the homes of the Baltimore poor during Halsey's tenure at

Hopkins. ''As they got more sophisticated at testing for lead, the

safe level marched down and down, and they continued to find subtle

neurological impairment,'' Halsey says. ''And that's almost exactly

what happened with mercury.''

Halsey was beginning to think that it would be prudent to limit

thimerosal-containing vaccines and urge pediatricians to use

thimerosal-free shots when possible. But his decision inflamed some

of his peers. After all, although the thimerosal data was worrisome

to Halsey, the available science offered no clear proof that the

preservative posed a genuine danger to children when given in parts

per million. Moreover, it wasn't clear that there were enough

thimerosal-free vaccines available for diseases like pertussis and

hepatitis B. Should an unproven fear justify the cessation of a

procedure that protected children from proven dangers?

Halsey looked into the matter further and found only complexity. In

the medical literature, most cases of acute mercury poisoning result

from doses hundreds or thousands of times higher than what infants

received with thimerosal-laden vaccines. And although the thimerosal

levels in vaccines exceeded the E.P.A.'s guidelines for methyl

mercury, thimerosal contained ethyl mercury, a compound that behaves

somewhat differently in the body. The E.P.A. based its guidelines on

a series of studies of 917 children born in 1987 in the Faeroe

Islands, a windswept North Atlantic archipelago, to women who ate

methyl-mercury-tainted whale meat. The Faeroes children, whose

umbilical cord blood averaged four times the E.P.A.'s daily ''safe''

dose -- which was 0.1 micrograms per kilo -- exhibited small but

measurable neurological deficits seven years later. They had slower

reaction times and diminished attention spans and their word choice

and memorization were less keen than those of their classmates who

had been exposed to less mercury, according to Philippe Grandjean, a

Danish researcher who leads the continuing Faeroes study and teaches

at Boston University.

During most of the 90's, many American 6-month-olds received a total

of 187.5 micrograms of ethyl mercury through vaccination. While the

Faeroes children were exposed to mercury as developing fetuses, and

therefore were more vulnerable than the vaccinated American infants,

the American babies included about 60,000 each year who had already

been exposed to high mercury levels because their mothers had eaten

a lot of contaminated fish. What's more, hundreds of thousands of Rh-

negative pregnant women and their unborn Rh-positive babies received

additional thimerosal each year through injections designed to keep

the mothers' immune systems from attacking the fetuses.

The Faeroes studies, though they dealt with methyl mercury, unnerved

Halsey. Other researchers were troubled, too. Lucier, a

toxicologist who led a 1998 White House review of mercury's dangers,

went so far as to say it was ''very likely'' that thimerosal had

damaged some children. There was precious little data to back up

that precise suspicion -- and little to dismiss it -- because of the

lack of toxicology research on ethyl mercury.

On July 7, 1999, at Halsey's urging, the American Academy of

Pediatrics and the Public Health Service released a statement urging

vaccine manufacturers to remove thimerosal as quickly as possible

and advising pediatricians to postpone giving most newborns the

birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. The decision, which helped to

create vaccine shortages and led some babies to become infected with

hepatitis B, outraged some senior vaccine experts. Walter Orenstein,

director of the National Immunization Program at the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, would charge that the rush to remove

thimerosal-containing vaccines was ''precipitous.'' Stanley Plotkin,

a renowned vaccine developer, said that it was fruitless to try to

soothe vaccination critics. ''If antivaccinationists did not have

mercury, they would have another issue,'' he said at one

meeting. ''One cannot prevent them from making hay regardless of

whether the sun is shining or not.''

In Halsey's view, however, thimerosal wasn't simply a bone for rabid

vaccine opponents to gnaw on. In the middle of that hectic summer he

took a vacation in Maine. Canoeing on a lake, he came across posters

that advised fishermen to ''protect your children -- release your

catch.'' Halsey took that message to heart. If the government was

warning people against eating fish with mercury, he asked his

colleagues, ''does it make sense to allow it to be injected into

infants?''

Although other vaccinologists criticized Halsey, many of his

colleagues rallied around him. ''Neal put kids ahead of the

vaccination program, which was gutsy,'' says Lynn Goldman, a former

E.P.A. official who has been on the Hopkins faculty since 1999 and

worked with Halsey on thimerosal. ''It would have been easier for

him to line up on the other side.''

Few scientists believe that the spike in autism could have been

caused solely by the thimerosal in vaccines, but in October 2001, a

vaccine-safety committee at the starchy Institute of Medicine

confirmed that it was ''biologically plausible'' -- though by no

means proved -- that thimerosal could be related to

neurodevelopmental delays in some children. The committee

recommended that thimerosal be removed from vaccines and called for

extensive research to determine any damage it had caused.

alsey's fellow researchers were right about one thing. Antivaccine

advocates immediately seized upon the thimerosal theory, and Halsey

became something of an unwilling hero to the vaccine-safety

advocates with whom he had so often sparred. In fact, thousands of

parents with autistic children have responded to the Institute of

Medicine report by filing lawsuits. , who has won

millions in toxic tort settlements from pharmaceutical companies,

was among the first lawyers to sue vaccine manufacturers, on behalf

of Mead, a 4-year-old Portland, Ore., boy with autism.

also filed a separate class-action lawsuit with 's

healthy older sister, Eleanor, as lead plaintiff, demanding that

vaccine makers also pay for studies to determine thimerosal's

effects on millions of children who might have lower I.Q.'s or other

less obvious signs of mercury poisoning. Past studies have shown

that mercury's effects vary tremendously from person to person,

presumably because of genetic differences in the body's capacity to

protect delicate organs from it.

''In order to win the Eleanor lawsuit you need to establish

liability, but I don't think that is going to be that hard,''

said in a recent chat in his Portland office. ''Organic

mercury is a very serious neurotoxin.''

embodies the vaccine establishment's worst fear about

Halsey's course of action -- which is that taking the precautionary

step of eliminating thimerosal would be read as an admission of

fault. ''The agenda was set by the lawyers and the antivaccine

activists,'' a source close to a number of manufacturers complained

to me. ''The scientists responded to it scientifically, and that put

them behind the eight ball right away. You had Neal Halsey running

around saying: 'We've got to do something! We've got to show we're

concerned!'''

Offit, a vaccinologist at the Children's Hospital of

Philadelphia, takes it a step further. ''In some instances I think

full disclosure can be harmful,'' he says. ''Is it safe to say there

is zero risk with thimerosal, when it is remotely possible that one

child would get sick? Well, since we say that mercury is a

neurotoxin, we have to do everything we can to get rid of it. But I

would argue that removing thimerosal didn't make vaccines safer --

it only made them perceptibly safer.''

For Halsey, thimerosal injury is a possibility that must be

addressed -- but by science, not by the courts. The scientific

agenda, however, is already deeply politicized. From the start, the

C.D.C.'s efforts to examine the possibility of thimerosal damage

became snarled in acrimony. Critics of the vaccination system don't

trust the C.D.C., which monitors evidence of adverse reactions to

vaccines through the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a computerized set of

7.5 million medical records. Safe Minds, an advocacy group of

parents who believe that their autistic children were damaged by

thimerosal, has used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain

documents showing that as early as December 1999 the C.D.C. had

reason to believe that thimerosal caused developmental delays in

some children. It was far from conclusive evidence, but vaccine

critics charged that the C.D.C. tried to play it down. One of those

critics was Dan Burton, a Republican congressman from Indiana, who

says he firmly believes that his grandson's autism is a result of

vaccines. ''I'm so ticked off about my grandson, and to think that

the public-health people have been circling the wagons to cover up

the facts!'' Burton fumed at a June hearing. ''Why, it just makes me

want to vomit!''

What comes through in an examination of the documents uncovered by

Safe Minds is less a coverup than an impression of scientists

anxiously watching over their shoulders as they work. One document,

for example, records comments made by Brent, a Philadelphia

pediatrician who served as a consultant for the thimerosal

study. ''The medical-legal findings in this study, causal or not,

are horrendous,'' Brent said. ''If an allegation was made that a

child's neurobehavioral findings were caused by thimerosal-

containing vaccines, you could readily find a junk scientist who

would support the claim with a reasonable degree of certainty. But

you will not find a scientist with any integrity who would say the

reverse with the data that is available. . . . So we are in a bad

position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits if they were

initiated.''

More research is in the works. The C.D.C. is setting up a study of

neurodevelopmental effects based in part on the Faeroe Islands

model. The N.I.H. is financing studies of thimerosal metabolism in

animals and children. (An early University of Rochester study was

reassuring: it indicated that children eliminate thimerosal much

more quickly than expected.)

Clearly, a lot is riding on this research, and pressure is being

brought to bear on both sides. Can the vaccine authorities accept a

positive answer? Can the vaccine opponents accept a negative

one? ''No one wants to think that harm might have been done,''

Halsey says. ''I don't want to think harm might have been done.''

American children still receive up to 20 vaccines in the first two

years of life. The first symptoms of autism often appear between the

ages of 12 and 24 months. Most autism experts say that the two facts

are coincidental, but as a major California study recently

confirmed, autism is being diagnosed in numbers far higher than ever

before, suggesting that a nongenetic cause may be partly to blame.

In some children, the behavioral traits of autism present themselves

along with physical problems like sensory dysfunction and motor

disorders that have rough correlates in the mercury-poisoning

literature. For some parents, thimerosal provides a grand unifying

theory that squarely points the finger at the government and vaccine

makers.

During much of the 20th-century, children suffered from an ailment

called pink disease, which caused peeling skin on the extremities as

well as regressive behavior. In 1948, a keen-eyed Cincinnati

pediatrician named f Warkany noticed a common risk factor in

these children: they had all been given teething powders containing

calomel, a mercury derivative. Only about 1 in 500 children whose

parents gave them calomel got pink disease -- suggesting that a

constitutional vulnerability to mercury was part of the clinical

picture. Soon after the powders were taken off the market, pink

disease disappeared.

Autism is a global phenomenon that was first reported in America in

1943, long before the potential dangers of thimerosal vaccines were

raised. Removing the preservative won't -- even in the best case --

eliminate the illness. But scientists estimate that the current rate

of autism in its various forms might be as high as 1 in 500. If the

autism trend begins to recede now that thimerosal has been removed,

it could certainly suggest a cause. If it does decline, we might

have Neal Halsey to thank. If it doesn't, his colleagues in the

vaccine establishment may blame him for stoking an irrational

protest from the public.

Halsey, who still heads the Hopkins Institute for Vaccine Safety,

which he was a founder of in 1997, is on the fence. ''I don't

believe the evidence is convincing now that there has definitely

been harm done by thimerosal,'' he says, absently stroking his

balding head. But to keep the vaccine program on a steady keel,

Halsey says, the public-health authorities simply must follow

through with the studies and face the consequences without

flinching. If there is damage, he says, ''there should be some kind

of compensation, though I don't know how.'' He pauses, and

sighs. ''I empathize with families of children with these disorders.

How are you going to put dollar values on that?''

Arthur lives in Washington and is working on a history of

vaccination.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health & res=9B03EFD7153EF933A25752\

C1A9649C8B63

=====

[Guest guest]

If you are talking about 's post, she is in NJ and her kids go to

a private school. I think they can make the rules there for medical

exemption only, which would be difficult to get I am imagine. Seemes to

be in our case for simply trying to get a doc sign off on a holding off

period.

>

> Oh for goodness sakes. Most states have vaccine exemptions, you need

to

> find out what your states exemptions are. Anyone who thinks you can

> not attend school is beliving the LIES.

>

[Guest guest]

So in your state you can cherry pick the religious exemption against

particular vccines. Not an all or nothing thing?

>

> > Hi, Bridger my middle child is apraxic. My youngest

Brevin 'typical'

> > was due today for his 18 month MMR. I cancelled the appointment

as I

> > chickened out and in my lack of knowledge I wanted to recruit you

guys

> > for advice. If you were me how would you handle the MMR at this

point?

> >

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

If this is so then I suppose we are all getting the flu shot one way

or the other huh?

>

>

> In a message dated 2/28/2008 6:40:38 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

> bigcheech91@... writes:

>

> Will do flu mist if forced to

> vaccinate by school at some point.

>

>

>

>

>

>

> You should check into this, because the flu mist is a live virus

and there

> are other issues that would come from it.

>

> becky

>

>

>

> **************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL

Living.

> (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-

campos-duffy/

> 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thimerosol unfortunately is not the only concern. Apparently Aluminum

is another nightmare. I think I read they took aluminum out of the

pet vaccines ten years ago. Perhaps if the animal rights folks hooked

up with the safe vaccine for human folks we'd really do well. I am

sorry if there is a connection for Tanner.

>

> Becky you brought up a good point in that there may be ways to

> vaccinate in a better way -Dr. Gordon (see below) may have a great

> alternative -later and slower instead of never.

>

> This topic has always been a hot topic. Very long archive from

2006 -

> but don't know if there are various aspects that can help different

> people making these decisions today -so pull from what you need!

>

> Re: opting out of vaccinations

>

>

> and all,

>

> I don't think the world is black and white -all or nothing. I

> also learned that following my gut is good -but hindsight

> proves to be better in some cases. The best advice is to stay

> informed on all sides. If you read something that upsets you

> because you disagree with it, try to understand where it came from

> and you may learn from it. For example Dr. Gordon may have a great

> alternative -later and slower instead of never:

>

> " Vaccinations Today

> by Dr. Jay Gordon

> In my office, with families I know well, I believe that the main

idea

> I convey is that we should vaccinate later and slower. One shot at a

> visit starting later in the first year and perhaps in the second

year

> of life. "

> http://www.drjaygordon.com/pediatricks/vacctoday.htm

>

> Also as I state below:

>

> " This subject is one that has come up before -and will come up

again.

> As I posted once before -my sister in law who is a chemist for

> and is friends with many medical professionals and

> one of them had a child that regressed immediately after his shots

> and developed autism. Based on that -as well as from looking into

> vaccines further with all the doubts raised here from other

concerned

> parents -this educated and intelligent caring couple decided not to

> vaccinate their second child at all believing their children to be

at

> risk for some reason. The second son -without any vaccines at all -

> developed autism as well ...and has autism much more severe than the

> first. If anyone needs the name and number of this family just email

> me -they are from NJ so some of you may know them. "

>

> I'm not sure if any of you read the awesome book 'the five people

> you meet in heaven' but when Eddie is meeting the second person in

> heaven the one quote said to learn from is " I got all those shots

> for all those diseases and I died here anyhow, healthy as a horse. "

>

> Vaccinations may not be the only problem, and probably isn't. And

> they have

> saved lives too. Just stay informed of pros and cons.

>

> The following is long - but if this topic interests you it may be

> something you'll want to read..if not just delete:

>

> From: " kiddietalk " <kiddietalk@...>

> Date: Thu Nov 14, 2002 8:34 am

> Subject: New York Times article for the " Not-So-Crackpots "

>

> Hey! Did Arthur write this article because I said we aren't

> nutballs?!!

>

> " In my opinion I do not believe the way to deal with this topic is

> to even fall into the joking trap of saying we are " nuts "

> or " nutballs " -we are concerned parents and most pediatricians are

> parents too. "

> /message/14122

> (posted below too)

>

> Remember that post from not to long ago about my 11 month son

> Tanner's 3rd Hep B shot in 1997, before the thimerosal - a mercury

> derivative, was taken out (it's out now)- right before the 2 weeks

> of high fevers when Tanner regressed and developed all the parent

> friendly signs of neurodevelopmental damage that we and the regular

> pediatrician didn't pick up, lost sounds, including " da " and all

> that was left was " ma " and " mmmmm " ...

>

> They call it autism in this article -it's more conditions than just

> that on the rise. My child is not autistic.

>

> For the new people -I too was like you- and no I didn't spend any

> time worrying about what caused Tanner's apraxia for the past three

> and a half years at all which you can clearly see in the archives, I

> just wanted to know how to help Tanner to talk and be OK again. Now

> that Tanner's doing so much better and yet my husband and I wonder

> if he will ever be 100% up to speed, and now that I am informed

> about all that is written below, I have thought about it.

>

> Thanks (who runs UK support) for sending this to me! And

> thanks Sallie Bernard -for forming Safe Minds referred to in this

> article -and being a hero to so many children. Because of you and

> those that worked with you -you gave children now a chance to

> develop without thimerosal in their injections. Mercury is nasty -

> now if we can only clean up our world to get it out of all the food

> we eat and water we drink.

> ~

>

>

> November 10, 2002

> The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory

> By ARTHUR ALLEN

>

>

> eal Halsey's life was dedicated to promoting vaccination. In June

> 1999, the s Hopkins pediatrician and scholar had completed a

> decade of service on the influential committees that decide which

> inoculations will be jabbed into the arms and thighs and buttocks of

> eight million American children each year. At the urging of Halsey

> and others, the number of vaccines mandated for children under 2 in

> the 90's soared to 20, from 8. Kids were healthier for it, according

> to him. These simple, safe injections against hepatitis B and germs

> like haemophilus bacteria would help thousands grow up free of

> diseases like meningitis and liver cancer.

>

> Halsey's view, however, was not shared by a small but vocal faction

> of parents who questioned whether all these shots did more harm than

> good. While many of the childhood infections that vaccines were

> designed to prevent -- among them diphtheria, mumps, chickenpox and

> polio -- seemed to be either antique or innocuous, serious chronic

> diseases like asthma, juvenile diabetes and autism were on the rise.

> And on the Internet, especially, a growing number of self-styled

> health activists blamed vaccines for these increases.

>

> Like all medical interventions, vaccines sometimes cause adverse

> reactions. But unlike pills, vaccines come packaged with high

> expectations, which make them particularly vulnerable to public

> criticism. Vaccines don't cure people, and they are administered to

> healthy children, which gives them few opportunities for good press.

> When they work, nothing happens. When vaccinated children become

> ill, their parents are grief-stricken and often enraged, even if

> vaccines aren't proved to be at fault. All of this puts public-

> health advocates like Halsey on the defensive. Most attacks on

> vaccines, they say, are based on hysteria, bad science and dubious

> politics.

>

> Halsey, 57, has green eyes, a white beard that makes him look like a

> ship's captain and an air of careful authority. As chairman of the

> American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases from

> 1995 through June 1999, he often appeared in the media administering

> calm reassurance. ''Many of the allegations against vaccines,''

> Halsey said in one interview, ''are based on unproven hypotheses and

> causal associations with little evidence.''

>

> And then suddenly in June 1999, during a visit to the Food and Drug

> Administration, a squall appeared on the horizon of Halsey's

> confidence. Halsey attended a meeting to discuss thimerosal, a

> mercury-containing preservative that at the time was being used in

> several vaccines -- including the hepatitis B shot that Halsey had

> fought so hard to have administered to American babies. By the time

> the dust kicked up in that meeting had settled, Halsey would be

> forced to reckon with the hypothesis that thimerosal had damaged the

> brains of immunized infants and may have contributed to the

> unexplained explosion in the number of cases of autism being

> diagnosed in children.

>

> That Halsey was willing even to entertain this possibility enraged

> some of his fellow vaccinologists, who couldn't fathom how a doctor

> who had spent so much energy dismantling the arguments of people who

> attacked vaccines could now be changing sides. But to Halsey's mind,

> his actions were perfectly consistent: he was simply working from

> the data. And the numbers deeply troubled him. ''From the beginning,

> I saw thimerosal as something different,'' he says. ''It was the

> first strong evidence of a causal association with neurological

> impairment. I was very concerned.''

>

>

> The investigation into mercury vaccines was instigated in 1997 by

> Representative Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat whose

> district includes a string of shore towns where mercury in fish is

> one of many environmental concerns. Pallone, who had been pressing

> the government to re-evaluate its overall guidelines on mercury

> toxicity, attached an amendment to an F.D.A. bill requiring the

> agency to inventory all mercury contained in licensed drugs and

> vaccines.

>

> The job of adding up the amount of mercury in vaccines and assessing

> its risk fell to Ball, an F.D.A. scientist, and two F.D.A.

> pediatricians, Ball, 's wife, and R. Pratt.

> Thimerosal, which is 50 percent ethyl mercury by weight, had been

> used as a vaccine preservative since the 1930's in the diphtheria-

> tetanus-pertussis shot, known as D.T.P., and it was later added to

> some vaccines for hepatitis B and haemophilus bacteria, which by the

> early 1990's had become routine immunizations for infants.

>

> The F.D.A. team's conclusions were frightening. Vaccines added under

> Halsey's watch had tripled the dose of mercury that infants got in

> their first few months of life. As many as 30 million American

> children may have been exposed to mercury in excess of Environmental

> Protection Agency guidelines -- levels of mercury that, in theory,

> could have killed enough brain cells to scramble thinking or hex

> behavior.

>

> ''My first reaction was simply disbelief, which was the reaction of

> almost everybody involved in vaccines,'' Halsey says. ''In most

> vaccine containers, thimerosal is listed as a mercury derivative, a

> hundredth of a percent. And what I believed, and what everybody else

> believed, was that it was truly a trace, a biologically

> insignificant amount. My honest belief is that if the labels had had

> the mercury content in micrograms, this would have been uncovered

> years ago. But the fact is, no one did the calculation.''

>

> Making matters worse, the latest science on mercury damage suggested

> that even small amounts of organic mercury could do harm to the

> fetal brain. Some of the federal safety guidelines on mercury were

> relaxed in the 90's, even as the amount of mercury that children

> received in vaccines increased. The more Halsey learned about these

> mercury studies, the more he worried.

>

> ''My first concern was that it would harm the credibility of the

> immunization program,'' he says. ''But gradually it came home to me

> that maybe there was some real risk to the children.'' Mercury was

> turning out to be like lead, which had been studied extensively in

> the homes of the Baltimore poor during Halsey's tenure at

> Hopkins. ''As they got more sophisticated at testing for lead, the

> safe level marched down and down, and they continued to find subtle

> neurological impairment,'' Halsey says. ''And that's almost exactly

> what happened with mercury.''

>

> Halsey was beginning to think that it would be prudent to limit

> thimerosal-containing vaccines and urge pediatricians to use

> thimerosal-free shots when possible. But his decision inflamed some

> of his peers. After all, although the thimerosal data was worrisome

> to Halsey, the available science offered no clear proof that the

> preservative posed a genuine danger to children when given in parts

> per million. Moreover, it wasn't clear that there were enough

> thimerosal-free vaccines available for diseases like pertussis and

> hepatitis B. Should an unproven fear justify the cessation of a

> procedure that protected children from proven dangers?

>

> Halsey looked into the matter further and found only complexity. In

> the medical literature, most cases of acute mercury poisoning result

> from doses hundreds or thousands of times higher than what infants

> received with thimerosal-laden vaccines. And although the thimerosal

> levels in vaccines exceeded the E.P.A.'s guidelines for methyl

> mercury, thimerosal contained ethyl mercury, a compound that behaves

> somewhat differently in the body. The E.P.A. based its guidelines on

> a series of studies of 917 children born in 1987 in the Faeroe

> Islands, a windswept North Atlantic archipelago, to women who ate

> methyl-mercury-tainted whale meat. The Faeroes children, whose

> umbilical cord blood averaged four times the E.P.A.'s daily ''safe''

> dose -- which was 0.1 micrograms per kilo -- exhibited small but

> measurable neurological deficits seven years later. They had slower

> reaction times and diminished attention spans and their word choice

> and memorization were less keen than those of their classmates who

> had been exposed to less mercury, according to Philippe Grandjean, a

> Danish researcher who leads the continuing Faeroes study and teaches

> at Boston University.

>

> During most of the 90's, many American 6-month-olds received a total

> of 187.5 micrograms of ethyl mercury through vaccination. While the

> Faeroes children were exposed to mercury as developing fetuses, and

> therefore were more vulnerable than the vaccinated American infants,

> the American babies included about 60,000 each year who had already

> been exposed to high mercury levels because their mothers had eaten

> a lot of contaminated fish. What's more, hundreds of thousands of

Rh-

> negative pregnant women and their unborn Rh-positive babies received

> additional thimerosal each year through injections designed to keep

> the mothers' immune systems from attacking the fetuses.

>

> The Faeroes studies, though they dealt with methyl mercury, unnerved

> Halsey. Other researchers were troubled, too. Lucier, a

> toxicologist who led a 1998 White House review of mercury's dangers,

> went so far as to say it was ''very likely'' that thimerosal had

> damaged some children. There was precious little data to back up

> that precise suspicion -- and little to dismiss it -- because of the

> lack of toxicology research on ethyl mercury.

>

> On July 7, 1999, at Halsey's urging, the American Academy of

> Pediatrics and the Public Health Service released a statement urging

> vaccine manufacturers to remove thimerosal as quickly as possible

> and advising pediatricians to postpone giving most newborns the

> birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. The decision, which helped to

> create vaccine shortages and led some babies to become infected with

> hepatitis B, outraged some senior vaccine experts. Walter Orenstein,

> director of the National Immunization Program at the Centers for

> Disease Control and Prevention, would charge that the rush to remove

> thimerosal-containing vaccines was ''precipitous.'' Stanley Plotkin,

> a renowned vaccine developer, said that it was fruitless to try to

> soothe vaccination critics. ''If antivaccinationists did not have

> mercury, they would have another issue,'' he said at one

> meeting. ''One cannot prevent them from making hay regardless of

> whether the sun is shining or not.''

>

> In Halsey's view, however, thimerosal wasn't simply a bone for rabid

> vaccine opponents to gnaw on. In the middle of that hectic summer he

> took a vacation in Maine. Canoeing on a lake, he came across posters

> that advised fishermen to ''protect your children -- release your

> catch.'' Halsey took that message to heart. If the government was

> warning people against eating fish with mercury, he asked his

> colleagues, ''does it make sense to allow it to be injected into

> infants?''

>

> Although other vaccinologists criticized Halsey, many of his

> colleagues rallied around him. ''Neal put kids ahead of the

> vaccination program, which was gutsy,'' says Lynn Goldman, a former

> E.P.A. official who has been on the Hopkins faculty since 1999 and

> worked with Halsey on thimerosal. ''It would have been easier for

> him to line up on the other side.''

>

> Few scientists believe that the spike in autism could have been

> caused solely by the thimerosal in vaccines, but in October 2001, a

> vaccine-safety committee at the starchy Institute of Medicine

> confirmed that it was ''biologically plausible'' -- though by no

> means proved -- that thimerosal could be related to

> neurodevelopmental delays in some children. The committee

> recommended that thimerosal be removed from vaccines and called for

> extensive research to determine any damage it had caused.

>

> alsey's fellow researchers were right about one thing. Antivaccine

> advocates immediately seized upon the thimerosal theory, and Halsey

> became something of an unwilling hero to the vaccine-safety

> advocates with whom he had so often sparred. In fact, thousands of

> parents with autistic children have responded to the Institute of

> Medicine report by filing lawsuits. , who has won

> millions in toxic tort settlements from pharmaceutical companies,

> was among the first lawyers to sue vaccine manufacturers, on behalf

> of Mead, a 4-year-old Portland, Ore., boy with autism.

> also filed a separate class-action lawsuit with 's

> healthy older sister, Eleanor, as lead plaintiff, demanding that

> vaccine makers also pay for studies to determine thimerosal's

> effects on millions of children who might have lower I.Q.'s or other

> less obvious signs of mercury poisoning. Past studies have shown

> that mercury's effects vary tremendously from person to person,

> presumably because of genetic differences in the body's capacity to

> protect delicate organs from it.

>

> ''In order to win the Eleanor lawsuit you need to establish

> liability, but I don't think that is going to be that hard,''

> said in a recent chat in his Portland office. ''Organic

> mercury is a very serious neurotoxin.''

>

> embodies the vaccine establishment's worst fear about

> Halsey's course of action -- which is that taking the precautionary

> step of eliminating thimerosal would be read as an admission of

> fault. ''The agenda was set by the lawyers and the antivaccine

> activists,'' a source close to a number of manufacturers complained

> to me. ''The scientists responded to it scientifically, and that put

> them behind the eight ball right away. You had Neal Halsey running

> around saying: 'We've got to do something! We've got to show we're

> concerned!'''

>

> Offit, a vaccinologist at the Children's Hospital of

> Philadelphia, takes it a step further. ''In some instances I think

> full disclosure can be harmful,'' he says. ''Is it safe to say there

> is zero risk with thimerosal, when it is remotely possible that one

> child would get sick? Well, since we say that mercury is a

> neurotoxin, we have to do everything we can to get rid of it. But I

> would argue that removing thimerosal didn't make vaccines safer --

> it only made them perceptibly safer.''

>

> For Halsey, thimerosal injury is a possibility that must be

> addressed -- but by science, not by the courts. The scientific

> agenda, however, is already deeply politicized. From the start, the

> C.D.C.'s efforts to examine the possibility of thimerosal damage

> became snarled in acrimony. Critics of the vaccination system don't

> trust the C.D.C., which monitors evidence of adverse reactions to

> vaccines through the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a computerized set of

> 7.5 million medical records. Safe Minds, an advocacy group of

> parents who believe that their autistic children were damaged by

> thimerosal, has used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain

> documents showing that as early as December 1999 the C.D.C. had

> reason to believe that thimerosal caused developmental delays in

> some children. It was far from conclusive evidence, but vaccine

> critics charged that the C.D.C. tried to play it down. One of those

> critics was Dan Burton, a Republican congressman from Indiana, who

> says he firmly believes that his grandson's autism is a result of

> vaccines. ''I'm so ticked off about my grandson, and to think that

> the public-health people have been circling the wagons to cover up

> the facts!'' Burton fumed at a June hearing. ''Why, it just makes me

> want to vomit!''

>

> What comes through in an examination of the documents uncovered by

> Safe Minds is less a coverup than an impression of scientists

> anxiously watching over their shoulders as they work. One document,

> for example, records comments made by Brent, a Philadelphia

> pediatrician who served as a consultant for the thimerosal

> study. ''The medical-legal findings in this study, causal or not,

> are horrendous,'' Brent said. ''If an allegation was made that a

> child's neurobehavioral findings were caused by thimerosal-

> containing vaccines, you could readily find a junk scientist who

> would support the claim with a reasonable degree of certainty. But

> you will not find a scientist with any integrity who would say the

> reverse with the data that is available. . . . So we are in a bad

> position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits if they were

> initiated.''

>

> More research is in the works. The C.D.C. is setting up a study of

> neurodevelopmental effects based in part on the Faeroe Islands

> model. The N.I.H. is financing studies of thimerosal metabolism in

> animals and children. (An early University of Rochester study was

> reassuring: it indicated that children eliminate thimerosal much

> more quickly than expected.)

>

> Clearly, a lot is riding on this research, and pressure is being

> brought to bear on both sides. Can the vaccine authorities accept a

> positive answer? Can the vaccine opponents accept a negative

> one? ''No one wants to think that harm might have been done,''

> Halsey says. ''I don't want to think harm might have been done.''

>

>

> American children still receive up to 20 vaccines in the first two

> years of life. The first symptoms of autism often appear between the

> ages of 12 and 24 months. Most autism experts say that the two facts

> are coincidental, but as a major California study recently

> confirmed, autism is being diagnosed in numbers far higher than ever

> before, suggesting that a nongenetic cause may be partly to blame.

> In some children, the behavioral traits of autism present themselves

> along with physical problems like sensory dysfunction and motor

> disorders that have rough correlates in the mercury-poisoning

> literature. For some parents, thimerosal provides a grand unifying

> theory that squarely points the finger at the government and vaccine

> makers.

>

> During much of the 20th-century, children suffered from an ailment

> called pink disease, which caused peeling skin on the extremities as

> well as regressive behavior. In 1948, a keen-eyed Cincinnati

> pediatrician named f Warkany noticed a common risk factor in

> these children: they had all been given teething powders containing

> calomel, a mercury derivative. Only about 1 in 500 children whose

> parents gave them calomel got pink disease -- suggesting that a

> constitutional vulnerability to mercury was part of the clinical

> picture. Soon after the powders were taken off the market, pink

> disease disappeared.

>

> Autism is a global phenomenon that was first reported in America in

> 1943, long before the potential dangers of thimerosal vaccines were

> raised. Removing the preservative won't -- even in the best case --

> eliminate the illness. But scientists estimate that the current rate

> of autism in its various forms might be as high as 1 in 500. If the

> autism trend begins to recede now that thimerosal has been removed,

> it could certainly suggest a cause. If it does decline, we might

> have Neal Halsey to thank. If it doesn't, his colleagues in the

> vaccine establishment may blame him for stoking an irrational

> protest from the public.

>

> Halsey, who still heads the Hopkins Institute for Vaccine Safety,

> which he was a founder of in 1997, is on the fence. ''I don't

> believe the evidence is convincing now that there has definitely

> been harm done by thimerosal,'' he says, absently stroking his

> balding head. But to keep the vaccine program on a steady keel,

> Halsey says, the public-health authorities simply must follow

> through with the studies and face the consequences without

> flinching. If there is damage, he says, ''there should be some kind

> of compensation, though I don't know how.'' He pauses, and

> sighs. ''I empathize with families of children with these disorders.

> How are you going to put dollar values on that?''

>

> Arthur lives in Washington and is working on a history of

> vaccination.

>

> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?

sec=health & res=9B03EFD7153EF933A25752C1A9649C8B63

>

> =====

>

[Guest guest]

Yes, in both states I have lived in you can do that. Both states (NM and

CO) also allow for conscientious objection as well so I don't even need to

use the religious exemption, but in our case that is our issue with those

two vaccines (and Hep A which is not required, but recommended.)

Miche

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 6:03 PM, ilizzy03 <lizlaw@...> wrote:

> So in your state you can cherry pick the religious exemption against

> particular vccines. Not an all or nothing thing?

>