Congress Slams NIH, CDC Reps For Evading Vaccine/Autism Evidence
Inept, disjointed agencies waste almost $1 billion, seek more funds
A government health agency director who a decade ago proposed diluting vaccine/autism data was one of two testifiers interrogated at a Congressional hearing yesterday on the federal government’s poor response to the autism epidemic costing the U.S. $137 billion a year.
Dr. Coleen Boyle, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, testified that her goal is “raising awareness of the importance of this as a health problem and one we need to address.” An April 2000 email obtained via FOIA shows that Boyle contacted the CDC’s Frank DeStefano suggesting dilution of vaccine/autism data by adding one- and two-year-olds to his dataset – children too young to have an autism diagnosis then.
“Does autism in history predate vaccines?” asked Rep. Darryl Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the U.S. House of Representatives House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. Yes, according to agencies administering the shots; no, according to legislators, physicians and parents filling in the gallery, who reported that their children regressed after receiving vaccinations.
Dr. Alan Guttmacher, a medical geneticist from the National Institutes of Health, defended his highly-criticized Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. Both Guttmacher and Boyle testified that autism has no known cause or cure, and their only offerings of help were statistical tracking, detection tools, and behavioral therapies.
Outgoing Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) stated that autism has more than one cause, but “the one we’re talking about today is mercury in vaccination and the environment.” He played a video from the University of Calgary showing destruction of brain neurons after low-level mercury exposure (here), and wondered how anybody from the CDC can watch and say that mercury doesn’t have an impact on neurodevelopment. Rep. Burton said that shortly after his grandson got nine vaccines in one day, the boy began banging his head against the wall and lost continence.
When Boyle claimed that since 2001 Thimerosal has been removed from all vaccines given to children, voices erupted from the audience. Boyle added, “With the exception of the multi-dose flu vaccine” but omitted mentioning that the 50,000 parts per billion injected is exceedingly higher than the 4 ppb “safe” limit for drinking water established by the Environmental Protection Agency and that it took until nearly 2004, not 2001.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), a physician, criticized the wasted research opportunities into familial disease processes. Gosar’s physician sister has a son once labeled autistic. “As soon as we took him off wheat, gluten and milk products, this kid sits, reads, does everything appropriately.”
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) brought up the infamous “Lilly Rider,” an industry-protective provision snuck into a Homeland Security conference report and passed before anyone could read it. He mentioned special interests such as coal emission producers, and how companies such as Eli Lilly, once a manufacturer of the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal, give millions of dollars to affect the outcome of elections. “There are reasons why this Congress and this government has not effectively addressed this issue,” said Rep. Kucinich. “You have special interest groups who resist any deeper research on it, because it is going to affect their bottom line. Meanwhile you have children all of the country turning up with autism.”
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) asked about services for adults with autism. Dr. Guttmacher replied with an irrelevant comment about more effective diagnosis, which prompted Del. Norton to repeat her question. After Dr. Guttmacher responded by posing a question, Del. Norton concluded, “In other words, we’re doing nothing for them.” Dr,. Guttmacher then repeated a previous statement about NIH offering “free tools for parents to identify autism, to which Del. Norton announced impatiently, “The mother knows it. The father knows it. The question is what to do…. In other words, it’s up to the family to try to figure it out.”
Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Penn.) asked Boyle if she had ever seen a statistical trend with such an accelerating pace in a 6-year period; she said, “The only one that showed an increase was hyperactivity attention deficit disorder.” Rep. Meehan asked Boyle, “You said, ‘This is a public health concern.’ Would you explain why this is not a public health crisis?” Stumbling over her words she replied that the CDC’s “excellence is tracking epidemiologic research.” Rep. Meehan asked, “What is being done to have a genuine comprehensive plan in which we are looking for accountability year to year on the progress that is being made?” Dr. Guttmacher said the IACC is charged with that duty, but he failed to mention that that committee’s membership is new, meetings erratically attended, and recommendations are not enforceable.
Rep. Mike Kelley (R-Penn.) asked whether the CDC or NIH interview actual families, rather than just reporting statistics gathered through its handful of Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network sites. “We have a second research program… in 6 states to get more information from medical records,” Boyle replied, saying CDC hopes to have data out in 2013. Rep. Kelley asked, if there was “anything on the horizon that could be a cure” for autism. Boyle remarked about differentiating between preventable causes vs. cure, but did not answer the question.
Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) stated that his predecessor, Congressman Weldon was “a well-respected, competent medical doctor,” adding, “I gleaned from him some certainty that Thimerosal from vaccines was a contributing factor to autism.” Rep. Posey noted that African children were autism-free until vaccines were introduced on that continent. He asked whether the CDC has done a study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Boyle dodged the question, instead referring to old CDC studies on Thimerosal, saying that the Institute of Medicine evaluated the vaccine/autism issue in 2004 and 2011. Sounding frustrated, Rep. Posey asked again and Boyle admitted, “We have not studied vaccinated versus…” – to which Rep. Posey replied, “That was my question; you wasted 2 minutes of my time.
Rep. Posey also brought up the curious case of vaccine researcher Dr. Poul Thorsen, co-producer of 21 CDC studies, some used to deny any vaccine/autism link. Rep. Posey noted that Thorsen has been indicted for misallocation of resources; the vaccine researcher tops the Office of Inspector General’s Fugitive Profiles list here. Though Boyle claimed Thorsen was “really just one investigator,” Rep. Posey said the CDC had relied on “a humongous scumbag” and asked whether the CDC had gone back to validate the studies Thorsen worked on; Boyle replied with more prevarication.
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Congressman introduces bill requiring study of autism rate in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated
MB Comment: The CDC has refused to study the autism rate in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated kids, because they are a captive agency of vaccine manufacturers. The former head of the CDC is now the head of Merck vaccines, the largest US vaccine manufacturer. CDC officials have been disrespectful, bumbling fools when required to testify before Congress.
The CDC is reluctant to compare autism rates in unvaxed vs. vaxed because it will likely show the same thing as the following study and survey, a huge increase in autism risk in the vaccinated. Of course such data will indict the CDC and expose their responsibility for creating the biggest epidemic in US history: Vaccine-induced autism.
1) Children who receive the entire 3-shot series of Hepatitis B Vaccine have a 9x higher rate of developmental disabilities than unvaccinated children. Hepatitis B triple series vaccine and developmental disability in US children aged 1-9 years
Toxicological and Environmental Chemistry, September 2008 Carolyn Gallagher* and Melody Goodman
2) Vaccinated children have higher rates of autism and ADHD than unvaccinated children.
Generation Rescue: Unvaccinated children phone survey. All vaccinated boys, compared to unvaccinated boys:
- Vaccinated boys were 155% more likely to have a neurological disorder (RR 2.55)
- Vaccinated boys were 224% more likely to have ADHD (RR 3.24)
- Vaccinated boys were 61% more likely to have autism (RR 1.61)
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HON. Bill Posey
Of Florida
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Friday, April 26, 2013
I rise today to draw the attention of the Congress and the American people to the Autism epidemic that is tragically ravaging too many of America’s children.
April is Autism Awareness Month, and I am pleased to join with parents, siblings, grandparents, special education school teachers, medical care providers, and interventionists to draw attention to the rapidly expanding autism community.
When I was young, autism was virtually unheard of. In the 1980s rarely did you meet someone who knew someone with autism. Yet, in the 1990s there was an explosion of autism. Indeed, in the course of just my lifetime, Autism Spectrum Disorder has grown from a very rare condition to – according to the Centers for Disease Control – a developmental disorder affecting 1-in-50 school aged children. And, tragically, the rate for school aged boys is a disturbing 1-in-33.
On December 19, 2006, the effort to address this epidemic took a major step forward as President Bush signed into law the bipartisan Combating Autism Act. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Autism community to reauthorize this program next year. Though the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee each year produces a strategic plan to address Autism, the billion-dollar allocation of resources to autism has not been evenly invested among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. I must concur with the experts who have been willing to speak out, that the epidemic increase in the rates of autism are not a ‘genetic’ epidemic. Indeed, you don’t have genetic epidemics. While there is likely a genetic component to many who have been diagnosed with Autism, we must seriously consider that there are likely several key factors in autism.
Also, so some who have suggested that the increase in Autism is due to better diagnosis, you don’t go from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 80 in three decades due to better diagnosis alone. And, if that were the case, where are the tens of thousands of autistic adults in their 40s, 50s and 60s. While better diagnosis may be a factor, common sense says there is a real increase and something is causing it.
While some may be borne with Autism, there are many parents who testify to the fact and present cases where their children were progressing normally but something triggered a regression where they lost speech, abilities, and regressed from developmental milestones that they had earlier met. Was that regression due to external factors such as medical injury, exposure to environmental toxins such as lead or mercury, or was it adverse reactions to medications that lead to high fevers, brain inflammation or seizures? We must get answers to these questions.
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