A Poisonous Move for Kids by CDC

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A Poisonous Move for Kids by CDC

by F. Kennedy Jr.

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On February 22, CDC announced that it is dramatically expanding America's

flu vaccination program to include all children between six months and 5

years and their siblings and caretakers. But, guess what CDC forgot to

mention? There is not nearly enough thimerosal-free flu vaccine to go

around. Vaccine makers produced fewer than 8 million thimerosal-free flu

doses this season, which doesn't bode well for the more than 17 million

children designated to receive flu shots under CDC's new protocol.

Thimerosal is the mercury-based preservative that has been linked to the

epidemic of neurological disorders including speech delays, language delays,

hyperactivity, attention-deficit disorder, and autism in American children

born after 1989. CDC recommended the removal of thimerosal from children's

vaccines by 2001, but most flu vaccinations still contain 25 micrograms of

thimerosal in every 0.5ml dose. Under CDC's new recommendations, every

American child under five will be injected once each year, with a double

dose for first-timers. By his fifth birthday, a child whose parents cannot

obtain the child-safe vaccine will have received up to 100 micrograms of

thimerosal, which is half ethyl mercury. A recent scientific study indicates

that many children will retain the tissue-destroying toxin in their brain

and organs for years. CDC has moved aggressively to cut funding and derail

follow-up studies that examine the impacts of retained mercury in children's

brains.

In its announcement, CDC admitted that the health risks from flu to children

do not justify the dramatic expansion of the vaccination program. For the

first time in history, CDC rationalized the new protocols by arguing that

the inoculations will spare parents and the health care industry significant

lost work time now spent taking care of sick children. Although framed as a

recommendation, CDC's new protocols function as mandates, since they

establish the standards of care for the medical profession. Doctors who fall

short of that standard are liable if a patient were to die from flu.

Since CDC is not requiring production of thimerosal-free children's flu

vaccines, its expanded recommendations are bound to provoke a scramble among

parents, pediatricians and HMOs to get their hands on the limited stashes of

thimerosal-free flu vaccines.

CDC's new protocols contemplate inoculating 185 million Americans with

influenza vaccines. The industry shipped only 81 million doses this year, so

even before CDC announced its new requirements, the battle to secure flu

vaccines was ferocious. When vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur opened its

phone lines to accept pre-orders on January 31, it was flooded with calls

from physicians, hospitals and HMOs desperate to reserve vaccines. During

the first 30 minutes Sanofi got 40,000 phone calls and over 200,000 calls

within eight hours, collapsing its communications system. By week's end it

had received 400,000 calls -- more than the company customarily receives in

a year.

Mercury-free flu shots are in particularly short supply. Sanofi, the only

commercial supplier of thimerosal-free pediatric influenza vaccines,

produced only eight million children's doses this year. CDC's announcement

increases the pool of targeted children by over 11 million kids, ages 2 to 5

years old. Only about one-third of America's children under age five will be

lucky enough to get the child-safe vaccines. While CDC's Director of

Immunizations Dr. Lance Rodewald assured me he expects no shortage of

thimerosal-free vaccine, doctors and medical groups are telling a different

story. Those who customarily give their patients only thimerosal-free flu

shots are already finding that the industry cannot fill their orders for the

2006-2007 season.

Pediatrician Lawrence Rosen, Director of Pediatrics at Pascack Valley

Hospital in Westwood, New Jersey, told us that his eight-doctor family

medical practice had been informed by Sanofi that the company was unable to

fill his order for next season. " It was like trying to get tickets to a

Rolling Stones concert, " he said. Sanofi will give him only 300 of the 900

thimerosal-free doses he needs. " The only other shots I can get contain

thimerosal, and I'm not going to do that. " According to Rosen, the problem

is widespread across the country, with very few practices able to fill their

orders for flu shots. " The gist is there's not enough safe vaccine. The

government wants us to give more shots, but there's no supply. They are

leaving millions of kids between the ages of 3 and 5 with no option --

millions of kids. "

Sanofi has said that the company was prepared to double production of

thimerosal-free children's flu vaccine, but that there were no requests from

CDC or the State Health Departments that it do so. Indeed CDC has ordered

3.5 million doses from Sanofi for its Vaccines for Children Program, which

provides vaccines to economically disadvantaged children mainly in minority

communities. Only a fraction of these will be thimerosal-free, according to

Rodewald. He refused to disclose the precise number.

Why will CDC inject millions of minority kids in America's poorest

neighborhoods with poison proven to kill brain tissue and cause learning

disorders when child-safe vaccines are available? CDC's spokesperson Glen

Nowak explained to me the agency " doesn't have a preference for

thimerosal-free vaccines " despite its repeated statements to the contrary

since 1999. CDC also admitted it has no efforts underway to further educate

the public about thimerosal, or to encourage manufacturers to move more

quickly toward 100 percent mercury-free vaccines.

CDC's recommendation to vaccinate millions of additional children without

assuring any additional capacity of thimerosal-free vaccines is a bad one.

It will almost certainly encounter stiff resistance as skeptical parents and

pediatricians balk at injecting young children with a known brain poison by

order of bureaucrats that they increasingly don't trust.

Think Autism. Think Cure.

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