Bill would insulate pharmaceutical firms from liability
- From: "georgia" <jwissmille@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 22 Apr 2005 20:21:25 -0700
http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/syndicated/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_
11_autism.f42d.html
The Press-Enterprise (Subscription)
Playing politics at kids' expense
Bill would insulate pharmaceutical firms from liability
06:42 PM PDT on Sunday, April 10, 2005
By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has buried a provision in the
"Protecting
America in the War on Terror Act" to insulate the pharmaceutical
industry
from liability for venal actions that may have poisoned an entire
generation
of Americans.
Mounting evidence suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based
preservative in
children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of
autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays and other childhood
neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.
Prior to 1989, American infants generally received three vaccinations.
In
the early 1990s, public-health officials dramatically increased the
number
of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations without considering the
cumulative
impact of the mercury load on developing brains.
Warning Issued
In a 1991 memo, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's
vaccination programs, warned the president of the company's vaccination
division that 6-month-old children administered the shots on schedule
would
suffer mercury exposures 87 times the government safety standard (400
times
the current U.S. government's safe level). He recommended that
Thimerosal be
discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children."
Merck ignored Hilleman's warning and, for eight years, government
officials
added seven additional shots for children containing Thimerosal.
Mercury is a known brain poison, and autism rates began rising
dramatically
in children who were administered the new vaccine regimens. A decade
ago the
American Academy of Pediatrics estimated the autism rate among American
children to be 1 in 2,500. Today, the CDC places the autism rate at 1
in
166, or one in 80 boys. Additionally, one in every six children is now
diagnosed with a related neurological disorder.
In 1998 the CDC's lead Thimerosal researcher, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten,
complained to his colleagues in a secret memo that, despite rerunning
and
rethinking the research, the links between Thimerosal and autism "just
won't
go away."
Secret Meeting
In 2000, CDC, FDA and pharmaceutical companies called a secret meeting
to
review Verstraeten's findings. According to transcripts, participants
were
alarmed about the undeniable link between the mercury preservative and
autism. Dr. Bill Weil told the group, "You can play with (the results)
all
you want. They are statistically significant."
Dr. Richard Johnston acknowledged he feared his grandchild getting
vaccinated. But the group was most concerned with keeping the findings
secret.
Numerous animal, DNA, epidemiological and other studies point to
Thimerosal
as the culprit in America's epidemic of neurological disorders.
Autistic children have been shown to have higher mercury loads than
nonautistics, and there have been reports of significant improvements
in
some brain-injured children by removing mercury from their bodies.
Most of the symptoms of autism are similar to the symptoms of mercury
poisoning. Recently, scientists have been able to induce autism in
certain
mice by exposing them to Thimerosal.
In a recent study, former FDA scientist Dr. Jill James uncovered a
scientific link that helps explain why Thimerosal injures some children
and
not others. That study found that many autistic children are
genetically
deficient in their capacity to produce glutathione, an antioxidant
generated
in the brain that helps remove mercury from the body, a harmless
difference
until the child is exposed to large quantities of mercury.
Porter Bridges' experience is typical. In 1993, this healthy
4-month-old
slipped into a coma hours after receiving his vaccines.
Today, 11-year-old Porter is autistic, hyperactive and severely brain
damaged. He requires minute-to-minute supervision, is frequently
afflicted
with violent seizures and is not yet toilet-trained.
After a seven-year legal fight, the U.S. government acknowledged that
Porter
was damaged by his vaccines. There are now 520,000 autistics in the
United
States with 40,000 new cases each year.
High Cost of Care
The cost of caring for autistic children is conservatively $40,000
annually.
Families with children with autism and other neurological diseases have
filed more than 4,200 claims in the special federal "Vaccine Court."
Some
plaintiffs have also filed in trial courts.
Some Drug Makers Act
Thimerosal defendants include Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Aventis, Weyeth
and
Eli Lilly. Frist's newly proposed "anti-terror" legislation would
create
insurmountable burdens of proof for plaintiffs in these cases and
forbid
states from banning Thimerosal.
Drug makers wary of liability have reduced Thimerosal in children's
vaccines
in recent years, with the exception of Chiron and Aventis' pediatric
flu
vaccine. Mercury-laced vaccine stocks were given to children until the
end
of 2003.
Thimerosal's inventor, Eli Lilly, donated $226,000 to Frist's national
Republican Senate Campaign Committee in 2002 and bought 5,000 copies of
Frist's book on bioterrorism. Congress will vote on Frist's bill in the
near
future.
Instead of demanding the immediate removal of Thimerosal from all
vaccines,
and making the drug industry help defray the public and private costs
of
caring for injured children, Frist's bill would give the industry a
free
ride at public expense.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper
and
a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
.
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