Scandals: The Shots Heard 'Round the World

Published at Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation

Note: This column and all future Scandals columns will be dedicated in loving memory to Nicholas Regush, my mentor, my adviser, my inspiration, but most of all, my friend.

Scandals - 03/11/08

The Shots Heard ‘Round the World

Note: I submitted a shorter version of this to the Anchorage Daily News, but this is what I was told - "Best I could to (Sic) on this subject is a letter to the editor, 225 words or less. Too much other competition for Compass space." If you believe this subject deserves more attention and would have liked to have seen my Op-Ed piece published at the newspaper, please email Matt Zencey at MZencey@adn.com.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware of the epidemic rise in autism. The “experts” have long insisted that vaccines are not involved. They swear that there is no credible evidence that thimerosal, MMR, or any other vaccine(s) might be responsible. Some “experts” have even say there is no increase, that it is merely a matter of improved diagnosis.

But they are the ones who have been living under a rock.

The government under the auspices of the Vaccine Court, set up to protect vaccine manufacturers from liability, just conceded what is being hailed as the first case implicating vaccines in a case of autism. (As it turns out there have been other cases, but the Polings were the first to come forward.) The family will be compensated in order to care for their severely vaccine-injured daughter, Hannah.

In the same way it has happened to thousands, a once completely healthy, even precocious child, regressed into autism. The court found that an underlying mitochondrial disorder was “worsened” by vaccines, resulting in “autistic-like” symptoms. (In case you are wondering, there is no difference between autism and autistic-like symptoms since autism is defined by those symptoms.) The clear-cut connection ended the case early.

The government and the medical profession would like us to believe that the condition is rare, and that the vaccines Hannah received were among many environmental factors that theoretically could have pushed her over the edge, although they concede in this case that it was the vaccines. What the government and the medical profession do not want us to consider, however, is that the vaccines might have caused the mitochondrial condition in the first place. Yet there is evidence (e.g. 1) that vaccines can do exactly that.

The government and the medical profession have tried to convince us that all those many parents who watched their once perfect children “disappear” after vaccination are seeking a scapegoat when there is none. Clearly, as a result of the Poling case, we now know vaccination can result in autism, although the “experts” would have us believe it is an isolated one.

But what else do we know?

Aside from David Kirby’s outstanding, award-winning book “Evidence of Harm”, here is a small sampling of the evidence ignored or dismissed by those in charge:

Considerably more autistic children are thought to have mitochondrial issues than those who do not have autism, thus the claim that it is a rare condition does not appear to apply to them.

Autistic children appear unable to rid their bodies of mercury. (Deth et al, Holmes et al)
Some populations that have not been exposed to vaccines experience little, if any, autism. (Olmsted, Generation Rescue)

Thimerosal has been shown to be toxic to brain cells. (Haley)

Mice injected with thimerosal develop autism-like symptoms. (Hornig)

Some children who have mercury chelated (chemically bound and removed) from their bodies show a reduction in autism symptoms. (Rimland)

“Children with autism excrete more mercury than controls.” (Bradstreet via Congressman Dave Weldon)

While ethylmercury may break down faster than methylmercury (found in fish), it results in more "inorganic" mercury in the brain, which stays longer. (Burbacher et al)

The reason boys are more affected than girls appears to be because "estrogen decreases thimerosal toxicity whereas testosterone increases the toxicity." (Haley)

Porphyrinuria implicates "environmental toxicity in childhood autistic disorder". (Nataf et al)
It may not be proof, but it sure as heck is evidence.

And regardless of what you might have heard, thimerosal never was completely removed from vaccines. The full amount is still found in flu vaccines, while trace amounts remain in many others. Although claims are made that "trace" amounts cause no harm, we simply do not know how much mercury is necessary to create autism in susceptible children.

All this is just a fraction of what has been uncovered. But don’t just take my word for it. As Mike Wagnitz, senior chemist at the University of Wisconsin once wrote in response to the widely promulgated myth that huge numbers of studies vindicate thimerosal:

"...this statement is the exact opposite of the truth. The only studies which suggest it is safe to inject humans with thimerosal are epidemiological studies done by the producers, distributors and administrators of vaccines. The vast majority of this propaganda is published in Pediatrics which is owned by the American Academy of Pediatrics. These epidemiological studies are the same type of studies used by the tobacco industry to show that smoking did not cause lung cancer. If one wants to find the truth about thimerosal they should start by reading the Material Safety Data Sheet. You can then go to the medical search engine "Pubmed" and type in thimerosal. You will get references to 1087 (there are now 1228 - author's note) published papers. Except for the papers published in Pediatrics, all the other papers focus on the extreme toxicity of thimerosal."

Einstein once said, "A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of the truth". It is time to stop believing everything we are told by the medical establishment and the government about what is best for our children. They deserve better from us.

by Sandy Gottstein (aka Mintz)

To read the AAP "reasoning" on why we have to continue using vaccines with thimerosal, go to "Scandals: Introducing the American Academy of Pediatrics’ new “Two Wrongs Make a Right” policy!"

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." - Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), paraphrasing John Philpot Curran (1808)

Sandy Gottstein (aka Mintz) is the publisher of the website "Vaccination News, A Non-Profit Corporation", and writer of the columns "Scandals" and "Out of Control".

Past Scandals and Out of Control.

©Copyright 2008 by Sandy Gottstein. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full ONLY with copyright, contact, creation, authorship, and information intact (including all links), without specific permission, and ONLY when used in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Sandy Gottstein is required.